The Adventures of "Funny Guy" and His Wife

I know! We haven't written in forever. It's my fault, it was my turn to write the blog. Sorry!

Well, so the biggest news is that we found a new apartment to move into on July 27th (yes, that's next week). It's in south Provo, so we'll be closer to school than we were in the townhouse. It's a cute little homey place that a cute old couple built out of their basement (originally for their son and his new bride to live in, and since they moved out they are renting it out to BYU students). And we signed the papers for 3 years, meaning we don't ever have to move again until Christian graduates! It's a nice balance between the two places we've lived- not too small like our first apartment (300 square feet, 1 bedroom), but not so big that we can't fill it up with stuff like the townhouse (1500 square feet, 3 bedrooms). It's two bedrooms and we're not sure of the square footage, but it's quite comfy for two people plus a possible baby if we end up pregnant within the next 3 years. We will take pictures once we move in and get everything settled. We like it and I think we will be quite comfortable there.

A couple weeks ago Christian and I volunteered to be in the "race crew" for the annual Provo Freedom Run, a race for... freedom, I guess. There's a 1k, a 5k, and a 10k track that runners can choose from. Four thousand runners participated, so it was a big event and they needed a lot of volunteers. Christian and I both ended up being assigned to Water Station #3. Our duties included filling up 4,000 plastic cups with some nice lukewarm hose water that we sort of borrowed without asking from a nearby apartment complex, and holding out the cups to the runners as they passed so that they could grab some and rehydrate as they ran. It was actually kind of fun although it was a little bit cold that morning (yes, I know, it was in July, Utah weather is very unpredictable) and the runners kept grabbing the water cups with too much force so that it kept spilling all over me and making it colder. A bunch of the runners were in costume - we saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a batch of Vikings, Uncle Sam (walking the race on stilts!!!), and even a puppy riding in a stroller dressed up in a costume as well, so that was fun. And we got pretty cool t-shirts out of it as well, made out of some kind of moisture-wicking material, and they have a little zipper pocket in the side of the t-shirt for your iPod. Admittedly, they are bright blue and construction orange, but Christian and I gave up on trying to be stylish a long time ago, and we think the cool zipper pocket trumps the questionable colors.

My mom and my brother Danny also came up and stayed with us for about two weeks, and that was really fun. They came up primarily for the family reunion happening in Fremont, UT. Where's Fremont, you ask? To answer that question, I will tell you that Christian and I drove down to it and completely missed the entire "city" of Fremont at least four times. My mom's GPS didn't even have the place registered into its database. We think the population of Fremont must be somewhere around 10. Anyway, after finally finding the place and cursing whoever it was that decided to have the reunion in Fremont, we actually ended up having a good time. We all wore nametags so that everyone would know who everyone else was. Someone brought a Carrom board, so Christian and I learned how to play. We also tinkered around on the piano, sang pioneer hymns, and told stories about ancestors. I got my face painted by my sister Sarah, and the boys all played with water bottle launchers outside. At the end of the reunion when everything was winding down, the entirety of the fun was centered on writing things like "Kiss me, you fool!", "I pick my nose!", "Kick me! No really, do it!", or"Team Edward!" on the leftover blank nametags and sticking them to unsuspecting people's backs when they weren't looking.

We also visited Seven Peaks, the local water park. Christian wasn't able to go since he was working, but I, my mom, and my brother and sister went, and so did our friend Chris, as well as my aunt and a few cousins. We had lots of fun going on the different rides. I had to leave early because I had school that evening, but apparently after I left, Chris, my mom, and my aunt Laura were riding in a tube together down a tube slide, and they flipped over and hit their heads on the bottom of the tube slide. Everyone was okay besides a few bruises and water lodged temporarily in ears, but they decided to leave after that.

A couple days later it was my cousin Marty's birthday (he was turning 10) and he had a party up in a park in the canyon. It was quite fun, and we discovered Christian's enormous popularity with little girls. My four-year-old cousin Danielle (who glared at him and yelled "NO!" at him when she first met him two years ago) now adores him, follows him around, calls him "Funny Guy", and is very sad when he has to leave. And when he's not around, she will say "Where's Funny Guy?" or "I miss Funny Guy". Her six-year-old sister Nicole also adores Christian and follows him around. At one point at the park during the party, he was trudging playfully around the park with Nicole sitting on one of his shoes clinging to his leg, and Danielle on the other, both of them squealing with delight. My other cousin Brooke (8 years old) also joined in by jumping onto his back. It was wonderfully cute to see him play with them and, upon seeing all this, my grandma commented to me that he would be a great daddy and that we should have lots of little girls.

Anyway, that's how we've been for the last few weeks. I believe we had a recipe for you at one point, but at the moment I am unsure of what it was. So, if I remember, I will update this post. We love you all!

Summer Summer Everywhere!

Howdy all,

Not a whole lot has been going on around here. We've just been very busy with school and work. We let you know how finals went last post, and then the summer term started up the very next week. Brittany and I have both been loving our classes. I have especially loved my programming class. I've already made about 5 programs. Only a couple of them were really worth anything though. Most of the programs and labs we've been doing are just a reinforcer on the things we've discussed in class.

I felt very proud of myself today because I had a lab due, and was having an extremely difficult time putting together all the programming for it. I went to get some help from the TAs, and they explained one or two things, and then I realized the bigger problem I was having. The TA left me to figure it out, and I puzzled for a bit fiddling with things to see if it worked, and then all the sudden I just got it. It was like an epiphany! It was so awesome. I felt very accomplished for finishing up the last of my problems on my own. I'm sure it would be very easy for others, but I just felt so great :).

Brittany has been preparing constantly for new speeches that she keeps giving. She is actually really enjoying her public speaking class, and has been delighted that it's really not as hard as she thought it would be. She's been practicing giving impromptu speeches lately. I'll think of a random word, and she has 60 seconds to come up with a 2-3 minute speech applying that word/phrase to general life. She's gotten pretty good at it. For her abnormal psych class, one of her assignments is to volunteer at a mental health hospital a couple miles from campus. She went to an orientation last night (Wednesday), and starts either this, or next week. I hope she likes it.

I swear I thought that three or four weeks had gone by in this term already. It has been very full so far, but lots of fun. I just keep dreading the fact that I'll be doing this for the next 3 years solid. Such is life, and with hard work comes the blessings, right? :)

The townhouse we've been living in has been shown quite a few times. That has been quite bitter-sweet. It would be awesome to live here for the whole summer and not have to move yet, but I want Brittany's aunt/uncle to be able to get rid of it. We just keep it looking nice, and hope for the best, whatever that may be.

We tried a delicious recipe last week. It is a very simple recipe for honey dijon chicken, but turned out VERY good. The only thing we thought of to change it was to add a little more of the dressing on top after you coated everything.
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/honey-dijon-chicken-2/Detail.aspx

Anyway, we love you all.
Keep it real.......yo
Christian and Brittany