Happy Hauntings...

We sure have had a blast this Halloween season. Last year at this time, atec was still at USU, so we didn't get much time together for spooky stuff. I've decided that Holloween is kind of fun, and I think atec feels the same. We went up to This is the Place State Park for "The Haunted Village". It was a little more expensive than we wanted ($15 each) but since we were with friends, we sacrificed a little. It's so nice to have friends like we do - both old friends of pmc's, old friends of atec's, and new friends of ours together. Lately we've discovered a little bit more about the difficulties of blending together two lives. It can be hard, but it's also fun and rewarding to share everything you have and know with somebody you love.

ATEC HERE.....WE'VE BEEN HAVING A BIT OF A HARD TIME FIGURING OUT TIMING ON SUNDAYS ESPECIALLY....WHEN TO SPEND WHAT TIME WITH WHO'S FAMILY WHERE. MAKE SENSE? USUALLY THIS MEANS WE SPEND ALL OUR TIME VISITING OTHERS AND LESS TIME GETTING TO JUST SPEND SOME QUIET TIME AT HOME....DOING THE BLOG! BUT TODAY AFTER GOING TO ATEC'S COUSINS HOMECOMING WE OPTED FOR DOING THE BLOG TOGETHER! WE'VE GOTTEN SOME GREAT QUALITY TIME TALKING ABOUT LIFE THIS AFTERNOON. WE'VE HAD LIFE THROWN INTO SOME EXTRA FOCUS THIS WEEK, AFTER ATEC'S SISTER CHELSIA ANNOUNCED SHE'S PREGNANT, AND THEN PMC'S SISTER-IN-LAW SHAUNA WENT INTO PRE-TERM LABOR AND HAD HER BABY GIRL, SMC, AT 27 WEEKS. (NOT THAT CHELSI ISN'T PMC'S SISTER-IN-LAW, AND SHAUNA ATEC'S SISTER-IN-LAW.) ANYWAY, IT'S HELPED US LEARN LOTS ABOUT HANDLING NEW SITUATIONS IN LIFE.

Really, it's amazing that we've done as much as we have this week, and I would like to publicly (is this blog really public?) thank my wife, atec, for dealing with my passion for sports, especially watching sports with my siblings/parents. The Red Sox have been in the World Series this week (of course last week's ALCS was just as important to me), and I've been excited to witness this thrill as I was righteously detained last time around in '04. But atec has really been willing to let me watch the games, and although she isn't always motivated to sit at my side and watch with me, she does it often enough. And I've made some breakthroughs of my own too! Thursday night (Game 2), I CHOSE to go and listen to my sisters-in-law playing a Halloween Concert with the U of U Philharmonia. And thankfully, I was rewarded with a win for the Sox, and a good night with family.

HE WAS ALSO REWARDED BY FINDING OUT THAT MY SISTER WAS PREGNANT, AS HE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO KNOW IF HE HADN'T SHOWN UP......I'M NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHETHER MY LITTLE SISTER KNOWS YET, AS SHE DIDN'T SHOW UP!

ANYWAY, WE ALSO HAVE DECIDED TO HAVE A MONTHLY DINNER DATE NIGHT WITH SOME FRIENDS......THE MATHESONS, NAYLORS AND SEVERINSENS. THIS MONTH WE CARVED PUMPKINS AND WATCHED "THE VILLAGE" (SINCE SOME OF US WERE ON OUR MISSIONS WHEN IT CAME OUT AND HADN'T SEEN IT YET).

WEEK WAS ALSO THE "SUZUKI CELEBRATION VII CONCERT" WHERE ATEC GOT TO BE AMONG THE MANY TEACHERS HELPING THE SHOW RUN SMOOTHLY, AS WELL AS HER VIOLA STUDENT PARTICIPATING.

WE HAD AN INSTITUTE LESSON THIS WEEK ON THE STORY OF THE CRICKETS GETTING ATTACKED BY SEAGULLS HERE IN THE SALT LAKE VALLEY. ON HER WAY HOME FROM WORK THIS WEEK, ATEC SAW A SWARM OF AT LEAST 200 SEAGULLS IN THE AIR. IF YOU LOOK AT THIS PICTURE, IT JUST LOOKS LIKE BLUE SKY, BUT CLICK ON IT AND YOU WILL SEE THE SEAGULLS ENLARGED. AND NOW, WE ARE ON OUR WAY OVER TO GRAMMIE AND BOBA'S......I THINK IT'S PIE MONTH! YAHOOOOOO!

Romantic Ramblings?

Honestly, I don't know what to say for us.......I wish I had anything exciting to tell, but alas, we are boring, poor, college student/working newlyweds. I will be posting the pictures from our trip to St. George here, but other than that, really everything is pretty much the same.

So, if you don't mind I will share some ramblings on my husband. Yeah, pmc. He's fantastic. In a way I really can't see why I married him......BECAUSE it's only over the past 9 months that I've really discovered how fantastic he is. When we were engaged, and people asked me what I liked about him, my usual answer was that he is so charitable. Well, I had no idea how true that was and is! The number one thing that impresses me is that when I'm moody (which I usually am.....) he just tells me it's okay and does anything and everything for me. He'll make dinner, wash the dishes, do the laundry, clean, listen to me even while he can hardly stay awake. But the cool thing is that, he doesn't only do it when I'm moody.

Now I'm not saying we don't have differences, one of the biggest things being our views on what to do with free time and extra money........generally he wants to use it on sports, and I want some big adventure.....aka traveling. We've discovered it was the way we were raised.....my family took trips to Hawaii, Cayman Islands, we started saving (including the girls) for our missions at age 9, and we participated in a series of orchestras that culminated in a trip to Europe during high school. Pmc's family spent time together watching sports, going to sports, playing sports, playing games at home. Now we've both discovered there are benefits to both! Pmc's family definitely spends more time together just talking, and tends to have more logical thinking abilities due to the strategies of games. My family got the extra learning opportunities that new places affords: history, biology, culture, people skills.

But even where we differ on this scale, I'm usually the one who finds something to keep myself busy while we watch or attend sporting events. Pmc on the other hand always tries to make the best of, and enjoy something he generally isn't interested in.

So anyway, there are three reasons I went off on this......1. I love my husband. 2. I wanted something more than nothing to post this week. 3. I had a song I was going to post on here, but I can't make it work.......but if you'd like to hear it, check into a local band called Lokalgrown, and listen to the song "White Knights."

Here we've got some of atec's first golfing adventure, fun at the hot-tub, a bat we saw on a trek up snow canyon, our efforts to look like we're rock climbing, and the overlook from the cave with atec and her sister.

Weekend in Dixie

Greetings from St. George, UT! We decided to spend Conference Weekend and the first couple days of Fall Break down south. It's been great... but lets start with late last week.
I'm in quite a good mood with the Red Sox getting a few good play-off wins already. (Sorry, I know most of you don't care, but this way everyone knows that I do.) Wins on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday gave them the series win and a trip to the ALCS. And then on top of that, the Utes went down and shocked Louisville (and most of the fans back in SLC) with a win. I couldn't ask for anything more, since the Team Down South had a bye week and therefore couldn't lose!
Thursday night we went on a surprise date courtesy of atec. We had dinner at
Noodles and Co. -one of our favorites- and then headed to Home Depot to peruse the merchandise. atec got me something I've been needing for a while now... precision screwdrivers. I'm excited now to get a battery into atec's new watch.
Friday night we enjoyed our mission reunion. It was great to see so many of the friends we love from that period in our lives. Many were missed as well though, so we'll have to do a better job of keeping in touch. After the reunion, we got packed up and headed down here, not making it until 3 AM. Thanks to atec and her sister, pmc stayed awake and got us all here safely.
Yesterday, we enjoyed going on a walk to the edge of the neighborhood we're staying in. There we found some sweet caves for climbing in. I love the unique beauty of Southern Utah. We're definitely looking forward to round of golf in the desert today! Pictures coming soon (when we get back to our own computer!)

Photos?

On Wednesday atec got to bring the twins into pmc's child development class, it was really entertaining to see how they reacted to so many adults staring at them. But the good news is that they seem to right on track for twins their age.

And for pictures, well we made some silly mistakes as far as the camera is concerned!

This is the second time we've headed up to the cabin with our friends, without a camera. On Friday night we had the pleasure of enjoying a sleepover at the cabin with our friends the Naylors and the Mathesons. We played games, watched a movie and fell asleep. In the morning, we went on a nice walk through the mud, which was fine for everyone except PJ who was wearing slippers! On the way down the canyon it started snowing......again no camera.

Pmc got involved in the U game, and headed to work, while atec headed straight to a quartet gig. She played for an outdoor "lesbian wedding ceremony." Interesting, except for the kiss, which she closed her eyes for! But hey, when you get paid good money who cares? Luckily they had a tent and heaters, so our instruments and fingers didn't freeze! They did have to care the "bride" in to the tent so her dress didn't get dirty, but she walked up the aisle to her "betrothed" just fine..........again no camera.

Then she (atec) and her sister Serenity headed off for the General Relief Society Meeting at the Conference Center......again no camera.

Although we were supposed to head up to Logan on Sunday, our battery died Sunday morning when we were trying to get to church.......nothing exciting to take pictures of.

So that leaves us with pretty much nothing for pictures! Therefore out of desperate measures, we thought we would share our prized idea for scrapbooking. We have decided to use our blog as a journal and scrapbook combined. So we print out the text from each post on our blog, get the pictures printed, cut and paste......wah lah!

p.s. remember to look at the wedding picture slideshows over on the left! We still haven't gotten any of our own prints.....it seems photos are just not that important to us? jk