Stockton Knew First... by Rachel

Kids say the darndest things. The are also really good at "telling it like it is". Well, I love my Stockton, and boy-oh-boy did he make me laugh when I was in Georgia.

Let me elaborate...

So Stockton is an active boy- all over the house-bouncing off of the wall, climbing on Brett, giving excessive hugs. And while I was in Georgia I got in the habit of wearing multiple layers of shirts (like 2-3 layers). Well, Stocky, without explanation kept coming up to me and peeling up the layers of my clothes. I just laughed it off until, about the third time I finally said "Stockton! What are you doing!" And he looks up at me and says- "I wanna see where the baby is!"

Ok don't judge me, but I was a little upset. I'll be the first person to admit I have some extra insulation around my mid-section. Hey- it gets cold in Idaho! I just laughed it off and told him there was no baby.

I was wrong. Little did I know I had a cute little shrimp-looking zygote in me. Hurray! As these last couple weeks went by I began having weird symptoms- including nausia (which I am experiencing right now) and finally whipped out the EPT which didn't let me down (for once in it's life!).

We're Pregnant!

I'm only six weeks along- but I am just very very very excited. This baby is already showing us how smart It is (yes i called It "IT"). Our family Health Insurance doesn't start until January 12th. And my mom advised me to wait 10 weeks to go in to see the doctor, because #1 they can't do anything until then #2 and only at that time can they hear the heart beat. The baby must have known because it's tenth week will be the week of Jan 13th. What a smart baby I have.

Thats right, I'm bragging. My baby is very financially savvy.

Look how cute Brett is with kids...

I feel like its my birthday... so I this picture of me and Malcolm.

Well I wish I had a picture of the baby but oh well. Soon enough I will have way to many.

And we might end up updating the blog more than once a month :)

The Devil Went Down to Georgia by rachel

Ok the devil may not have gone to Georgia, but Brett and I did. Boy howdy was it pretty. Trees, trees, trees. And pretty trees for that matter. Steph's neighborhood looks like it came out of a story book. I love love love everything there. We didnt go to Atlanta, but we had quite a good time. It was especially good for me to spend time with the kids because I've hardly said boo to them before.

And yes, I've fallen for Jorja. I mean, I knew she was cute before- but I didn't really KNOW KNOW. Like the time I was sitting in the van with her while everyone was outside waiting for Mike's homemade rocket to go off. She is sitting there wide eyed in her car seat as the rocket goes off. Suddenly she turns to me and screams "what if the rocket falls on the car!" I assured her we'd be ok, but she continued "oh no! oh no! the cars gonna light on fire- and the Porge is in the car! Oh no- The Porge! The Porge!" For those of you uneducated in Jorja-talk "The Porge" is herself. This girls is too funny, too cute.

Maysen is growing up so fast. For those of you who don't know she's in her Senior year of college and graduating Valedictorian. Maybe not, but it seems like it. Stockton is such a sweet heart... and was way nice to me. Preston is too cute for words, so here is this picture.



Oh and I suppose Brett and I were in Georgia under the guise of helping Steph, but that is a lie. She's one tough cookie. She and Mike hardly had us do anything. Oh well. Steph is happy and healthy. And I am excited to visit them in Feburary before I can join Brett in Alabama. Yee haw!

For your viewing pleasure...

Mike's insane tech skills produce a fun weekend activity...

Porj poses as one of her favorite anphibians...

I thought this was kind of artsy...

Halloween Birds

Halloween was up to its old tricks again. I told Rachel a while back that I thought it would be really funny to be Big Bird for Halloween. She made it happen. Quite the little craftswoman. And I was right, it was funny to be Big Bird. It was a little scary for my 2-year old nephew, Lincoln. He wouldn't come near me. Big Bird is so misunderstood.

Rachel had a cool peacock costume but it didn't show up as well in the pictures. It's probably from being overshadowed by the giant, yellow head. If you look closely you can see her tail feathers.

This is a dog.

May I have your attention, please?

We've been handed down our assignment. The call came around 4:00 pm on October 8th. The Major asked if I had time for the call. I didn't tell him that I have no job and no responsibilities, I just told him it was a good time. He said we could choose between Travis AFB in Fairfield California, or Whiteman AFB in Missouri. So we chose California.

We're pretty excited about it. We'll about about 50 minutes away from both Sacramento and San Francisco/Oakland. I'm planning on going to as many baseball games as I can. This will be the closest I've ever lived to a baseball team, and now there are two teams within striking distance. So that makes me happy.

The base seems real nice, from what we can tell. It's a large one, and is apparently the best base to do the "space-available travel" from. Apparently the Air Force is always flying places. Makes sense. And they don't like to have empty room on the plans. So they allow military and their families to fly free (outside the continental U.S.). And it seems the Travis AFB is the main base to do this from, if your heading out Pacific way, like Hawaii. Anyway, I don't know a lot about it, but I'll have to find out. Also, I really wanted a base with a golf course. I think most of them have them. And this one does, they let you play 9-holes for 5 buck's and 18 for 11. So that's obviously awesome. Too bad I'll have to work sometimes. And too bad I'm really bad at golf.

Speaking of golfing, I'm going tomorrow with John and my dad. No betting please.

John and I had a 3-point contest and John beat me...repeatedly. We'll get him next time though. At one point John and I had both made 12 in a row. There were other, not-so-good moments as well, but we'll keep those ones quiet.

My Dad and I tried to change John's flat tire yesterday but couldn't do it. We stripped the lug nut and made a mess of the whole rusted process. Dad had to call triple A. My Dad said last time he had to call triple A for a flat tire they sent some girl out and she changed the tire for him. He said it was embarrassing because it was right next to the school he was teaching at, and all of his students would drive by and see this girl changing my dad's tire.

Also, if you are looking for a fantasy football tip this week, play me. My team has pure bye's and injuries. I'm hoping for a defensive battle.

Coming and goings

Last week we went up to Boise for a swearing in ceremony. We didn't put our hands on the bible. But we did have the option of either saying "So help me God" or "I hereby affirm." I said the first one. We stayed with Rachel's family in Emmett and even went to the high school to watch the Powder Puff football game. The seniors won of course, mostly because Rachel's brother Malcom was coaching them. Yeah seniors!!! We also got a milkshake at Roe-Ann's, the local anti-Mormon ice cream place. We tried to eat at Moon's, which is our favorite place in the world but they were closed for the Boise State football game. Doot! So we ate at some trendy Chinese restaurant, with an in-your-face/watch-me-mix-these-oils-together waiter.

I had a class the next day I had to go to so Rachel went for a drive with her parents. This ended up being a drive to Stanley, which is near Sun Valley, which is a long way away. After the class my friend Faren and I went frisbee golfing in the drizzling rain. Of course I threw my frisbee into the huge river. Luckily nobody was around so I could take my pants off and go and get it. Also luckily Faren's camera phone doesn 't take very clear pictures.

Yesterday we had a little dinner at my Dad's house. Friends and family were invited. Rachel baked a mammoth cake, and it was very delicious, and half of it is still in the fridge for me to eat for my meals thoughout the week. Josh brought over his croquet set. I lost because of an "accidental" bonk backwards threw a ring. At one point I had an easy shot through the ring and I missed it, so people laughed at me. As people were laughing I took one step to my right and sprained my ankle on the uneven grass and almost fell down, causing more laughter. Not my finest hour.

Euro Lagoon

Arches is one of Brett's favorite places in the world. He talks about it at least bi-monthly. If I didn't know better I would assume "Arches" was an ex-girlfriend. We spent 3 days in Arches and it was gorgeous. If you haven't gone- GO !!! I suggest late spring or fall, but not July or Aug due to temps of up to 100.
But it was awesome - we camped at a place with a pool so we got our "swim on."

Everything was really beautiful and we got our fill of wildlife. Here is our wildlife count:


Ringtails: 3
Foxes: 1
Bears: 0

Squirrels: 7
Birds: alot
Snakes: 1
Lions: 0
Weirdo Europeans: 278+

There are plenty of Europeans. Most of them nice, alot of them weird (no offense Chad and Elisa :) ) This particular picture was taken after a notably funny incident. We made it to Delicate Arch and brett broke out the video camera. He started filming people at the base of the arch who were trying to take pictures. There was this one guy in a red shirt, however, that kept trying to shew people away from the base of the arch so he could get a picture. Brett pointed him out to me and we both laughed, as did the German speaking people next to us. We continued to let this man be the brunt of our jokes until he ran back up to near where we were standing and joined the group of Germans that were standing next to us. They laughed so hard at us when they saw our embarressed reaction. ... jerks.

We Live in Draper Now! Yay!

It was solid good times at the BubsAnge house, but we have moved to Draper. Also, I work at a really cool Rehab/Prep school. If you move to Utah and want an easy job I will hook you up.

and Last, but not least...

BRETT PASSED THE BAR!!! Not that it was a shock. But I figured he should get one exclamation for each year of law school.

Brett you earned it! (!!)

What Fun Ain't

I need to make a public apology.

This blog is pretty boring.

However, you are reading this so I can only say I'm sorry, but you brought this on your self.

Anywhosers, so Brett and I went to Lagoon a few weeks back and I found out how old I am. After one ride I got sick. Blah. And so commenced the ride/sitting 1:1 ratio, which eventually evolved into a 1:2 ratio, which then evolved to a 3 hour nap on the lawn at Lagoon. That is what fun is. I do find it a little bit scary that we were able to sleep in public for that long.

In conclusion, the bumper cars are the best ride at lagoon.

Sky Harbor: Friend or Foe?

Dear Sky Harbor Apartments,
When we met online I was really impressed. You seem to have everything I needed in an apartment. And when I came to see you in person, you really blew me away. Your large weight room, your plasma tv in your club house, and your gorgeous pool had me captivated for so long. And not to mention the affordable yet state of the art lodgings.
But every time I consider pursuing you again I am taken back to the last night we met. I was there with my husband, debit card in hand. We were so excited filling out the paper work. So care free as we brushed aside the $50 application fee, and confident in our $300 deposit.
But it hurts, even still. I keep playing the scene over in my mind: The sparkly toothed teller assuring us of all the paperwork, swiping our debit card with a quick whoosh- and then- and ONLY then did he subtly remind us of the "assurance of payment" forms. I know you're just trying to cover your back. You want to make sure we have a job so we'll be able to pay. But i have a job! I just hadn't started yet! So you offered that we had two other options: having $16,553 in our checking account or co-signing. We'll co-sign as easy as that! URRRRR wrong. You have to have bad credit to co-sign. So all those years of paying off my debts came back to bite me.
So I'm sure... its not you -it's me. I should have read the fine print. But never in my renting career (which I assure you is long) have i ever had such a problem. It hurts to think of you and the $50 dollars you ate. I am very glad you didn't take my $300. I would have had to had to spread dirty rumors about you behind your back.
But I will respect your space, as I am assured you will respect mine. Please spend my $50 on a sign that says "don't give us your debit card if you aren't foolish enough to ask if you will get ripped off."
I hope the sign is made of gold.
Sincerely,

An ex-applicant

Bragging Bubs

So since I am sitting here using bubs computer while he obviously and naturally would rather be sending reminder emails to Mike that he is on the clock (kidding) - I feel the need to make a public posting of the charitable things happening in our place residence.
I got back from a trip with my friends and Brett had moved us into to Angela's and Spencers. Holy crap. I just have to state - what a happy family. Brady Bunch, watch your backs.
Seriously though, Lincoln is so stinkin happy -all of the time. My top favorite Lincoln moments are: 1. waking up Brett to play fooseball. 2. playing fooseball 3. kissing Ella 4. kissing me 5. getting wet everytime he walks outside 6. changing his clothes six times a day from getting wet everytime he walks outside 7. being smarter than me- i.e. signing what he wants and I have no clue what he is saying 8. putting himself to bed by picking up his sleepytime bear and announcing to everyone its time for bed by saying "mamama maaa mmama" and then waving goodbye and then going to bed.
I have currently adopted several Lincoln habits. First, taking repeated naps during the day and Second changing my clothes several times a day. I am considering learning sign language.

Of course its fitting that I spent all this time talking about Lincoln and haven't gotten to Ella yet. For a 9 week old she is pretty stinking patient. Not implying that she is neglected, she just can get layed down somewhere and sometimes I forget she's even in the room. She is so quiet. She is forgiving though and smiles at me when i talk to her.

And lastly of course, I would like to testify of charity shown by the this fam. I could talk to Ange all day. I think I should petition that she writes her own blog. And she compliments whatever i cook, so naturally I worship her. And kudos for Bubs for the sweet stories and good laughs. Bubs should have his own blog.

They should call it a Brag instead of a Blog... cause its all I do

Alright my public- you've waited long enough.
Here are the titles of my up coming blogs just to peak your interest.

Bragging Bubs
Sky Harbor Apartments: Friend or Foe?
Mission: Wedding Cake
Arches National Park aka Euro Lagoon
Notes on The Real Lagoon

Movin' On Home

THE WORD IS OUT! We are moving back to Utah. Brett got his Airforce position which may start in January- so we have 5 months to kill! And we reckon' we will do so in the Beehive State.

(Ya know, my senior year of high school I told a woman I was going to college "somewhere in Utah" and a non-mormon lady responded "HOW INDUSTRIOUS OF YOU!"
That was cool.)

Anyways I (RACHEL) will be in town next week to look for Apartments. Bretts goal is to live close to Sandy, and my goal is to find a place with a pool. If you know of a place that can satisfy us both let us know.

In Other News - We went to Palouse Falls last Sunday with some good friends.

Apparently if you drive 2 hours into the middle of nowhere you come to a giant canyon with a sweet waterfall. On the way, however, we stopped in a little town called Starbucks because they had a notably noticable bathroom next to the road that enters their town. Also, they have a large bell that our friends kids got up on and were able to ring. We rang if for a while before I noticed the enscription on the bell which said "RING OUT THE INVITATION." Moments later a couple of large Starbuckian men came to see "wha wa goin' on?" We assured them nothin wa goin on, however I was slightly dissapointed they did not greet us with some Starbucks coffee, of which I would have gotten to turn down.

Liars and Cake Bakers, One in the Same

So how was your summer? You? Yes you. I'm not talking to anybody but you right now. Well I can't hear you so I will just tell you about mine. According to the last entry I am climbing trees for our bread and butter. I have to admit that's a lie. I might as well tell you I am a brain surgeon or a professional baseball player (btw-Tigers dominated on 7/06/07)- because thats just about as true as Brett telling people I am a tree pruner. Anyways I have been babysitting most of the summer, givin' a little plasma, and mowing lawns. For the most part 14 year olds around here are all out of work because of me. They fear me and my mad awesome skills I went to college for.
In other news I am making a wedding cake. Just to eat? No,but yes, but no. A friend in Utah is a wedding planner and had a little falling out with the caterer for a August wedding when she ask him to refund a couple who he made a lopsided cake for. So she says "you've been talking about making wedding cakes." And then there was silence. Long silence for a IM conversation. The kind of IM silience where you know the other person isn't saying something because they are busy or because they are talking to someone else- the silience was a question in itself. And then I finally said it "what would you think if I made the cake?" And here I am today will this sweet picture of the demo cake I made to give to the bride to be.
She's all for it. Of course I have to change a few things.. like get proper sized cake plates, a chocolate curler, and maybe I will wash my hands before I make the real one....

Tucker Barn

It's been a couple days since my last entry. Anybody visiting the site recently has been treated to a nice shot of the toilet. Well, two weeks ago Rachel and I both put on the robes of an apostate priesthood and graduated. Rachel was able to graduated at the law school graduation ceremonies. So it was nice that we didn't have to sit through two ceremonies. Although, they replay the undergrad graduation on the local channel and I couldn't turn away. Something about wondering if the person would wave to the camera, or just smile, or show no signs, combined with me waiting to see somebody I knew, combined with the confusion that it was on TV, combined with the confusion that I was watching it.

Now my job has been to study for the bar. I've been taking a bar review course. It's 4 hours of lecture in the morning, and then assignments and practice questions for us to go over. It's hard to keep up with the pace of the assignments. Especially since we have tons of work assigned to do on Sunday. I'm going to not do any on Sunday, and just try to play catchup the rest of the week.

I've put Rachel into a state of no-man's land. It's hard for her to know what she is supposed to be doing right now, since she graduated. We don't know where we'll go after I take the bar, so it makes it hard for her to know what to do. I tell her to relax and take advantage of the time. But she always likes to be doing stuff. I guess she's one of those crazy people who needs a purpose to their life. She's been doing tons of odd jobs for everybody. She is a jack of all trades. She's mostly been doing some tree trimming with this crazy guy who likes to make up stories about mormons.

That's about all we're up to for now. I'll attach a picture of "tucker Barn". It is the site of one of our first dates. It's pretty romantic. We were chased off by this giant crow that lived in there. Usually its all green around it, instead of ugly brown. Rachel's mom is really artistic and whatnot and she's going to paint us a picture of it, but with inserted green...and a better river....and she'll take out that ugly bush....and she'll move the structures around...and make it more hilly...and make the barn look nice...or maybe she'll take the barn out of it altogether.

The fish died

Our lame fish died. I think he costs us about a dollar a day. I think we murdered it by feeding it too much. But that is just a guess. He will best be known for eating really loudly and sitting underneath the toy bridge. I've attached a picture of his tombstone.

In other news we had a real funeral to attend. It was for Rachel's cousin Jeff. You may remember that Rachel wrote about him on this blog a long time ago. When somebody has lived a good life, funerals are such spiritual experiences. Jeff's family was so strong and amazing.

Today Rachel and I went to the park and played catch with a baseball. Rachel did take two off the leg, possibly leaving bruises, but she caught most of them. The hard part is she tells me to throw her pop flies, but I know she's going to get smashed in the face with it. But I do as I'm told and more often than not it works out. The most impressive is how she would throw the ball a quarter mile. She almost threw it over them mountains. She's got a cannon on her.

Our New Baby

Coming up on our one year anniversary, we decided to add a new member to the family. His name is Mr. Sprinkles. He is an Oranda Goldfish. For you non-fish people that means he was not as expensive as the $14.95 fish but more durable than the $.23 cent fish.

He is the perfect addition. He is not grumpy, and doesn't seem to have any expectations that his life will get better.

I wanted to name him "Puppy" or "The Dog" but Brett wasn't to keen on that. So Mr. Sprinkles suits him well enough.

Welcome home Mr. Sprinkles.

broken streak

I hate to write an entry and lose my streak of pretending like I don't have a blog, but alas, time moves on & I need to make changes. And as graduation approaches - I come to a realization. I need a job. So since we are not planted anywhere so I might get a regular teaching job (and the fact I secretly hate teaching- no offense to Bubs who I will eternally respect and admire for being good at it/liking it) I have been looking for a job.

That was probably the worst idea I've ever had. Over spring break I contacted someone who I thought would be a pleasing retired old fella to help "spring clean" at $8/hour. It seemed like a good rate, that is, until I got into the 4th hour of pine needle raking. You see, that was after I was prancing on top of his roof with a rope tied around me, sweeping the pine needles off. As dangerous as it was, I thought it was fun. I didn't know at that point I would be raking the needles up after I pushed them off. Oh my nieve ways are always my downfall.

Anyways, I don't mean to complain... however I do want to clear up one crucial item. Cleaning chimneys IS NOTHING like they show on Mary Poppins. Unless of course if by using brushes they really meant using a 20 foot rope with 40-50lbs of chains at the end, and by dancing and singing they mean crowched into the top of the chimney and choking on carcinogenic dust - THEN YES- its just like on Mary Poppins.

But on the bright side I think I got a job with a man who prunes trees. He doesn't believe in bucket trucks or machinery so he repels in the tree. All I do for now is watch him from the ground, pass up tools to him, and read propoganda he wrote about being a vegetarian and a hippie. Just kidding, but not really.

The picture at the top is what I will look like at my new job.

Windy City

I spent a few days with some of my friends in Chicago. We did a pretty good job of packing in the sights and sounds. One of the most impressive things is that despite not being any sort of video game player, I ended up the champ in both Tiger Woods Golf, and whatever the NBA basketball game is called.

I also was able to go on the world's fastest elevator to the top of the Hancock building. The poor man's Sears tower. I looked across Lake Michigan and saw Michigan City, my former mission area. We then looked down upon a helicopter hovering over traffic.
We got caught in some wind and some snow, but were still able to pretty much own the city. We bought a city pass, it had 5 activities for $50, so we had those activities going for us. Second City comedy club didn't disappoint, neither did the deep dish pizza, or the art museum. I saw that painting that is on the cover of the old Masterpiece board game, turns out is was painted by Rembrandt. Who knew?

Last night Rachel and I really treated ourselves. We drove about 40 minutes west, out to Helmer, and enjoyed a famous Helmerburger. It is in a town without even a stop light, and it is the best hamburger in the world. If you are lucky you will have one.

Battleship luck?

Rachel made s'mores the other day. They were off the hizzle. I was eating them constantly for 4 days.
I don't know how Rachel beats me in Battleship so often. I don't get it. She says she reads me like a book. I find it completely lucky, but I can't explain the 7-game winning streak.
The amount of basketball I play has picked up over the last few weeks. I'm headed out the door right now. We like to play at the Staples Center. It's the perfect place. It's the new stake center behind Staples, hence Staples Center (also the name of the place the Lakers and Clippers play).
I'm headed to Chicago with some friends in a couple of weeks. It's with the Federalist Society, which I am not apart of, but I hurried and joined when I saw that we could go on a trip for cheap. It'll be me and 3 of my other friends from here. It'll be a 5 day adventure.

Dirty Street Slush

Matt - you need to official change the link on your blog from "Rachel's blog" to "Rachel never writes, but sometimes Brett will blog".
The weather has finally stopped spazzing out. I do not die instantly anymore everytime I go outside.
Rachel is stuck in the other room with the visiting teachers...They are officially wrapping up because I heard the famous phrase, "Is there anything we can do for you?" Don't think I don't say that everytime I go (which by the way is 100% for this whole school year).
Since I don't have anything interesting to report, I tried to post a file that Fox News did on my friend Charles' crew. But I couldn't figure it out. If anybody knows how I can put that on this blog let me know.
The only other thing that I can think of is how I beat Rachel at Hokey Golf by like 80 stokes.

All dressed up, no place to go

I came to school today sporting a tie. I attracted many whistles from my male classmates. But it turns out all the dressing up I did was for not. I was going to be meeting with two clinic clients, but one canceled and the other was assigned to somebody else. Therefore, I am left all dressed up, but no place to go.
I'm stoked because Rachel and I planned our meals for this week and tonight we are lucky enough to have hamburgers and hashbrowns, I've been thinking about this all day long.
We have our intramural basketball team all set. Several different teams were formed amongst our group, and as far as I know, no feelings were hurt. This is a first in intramural sports history.
That's all I got for today....

Not quite ready for prime time

We now have a digital camera. The only problem is we have nothing to take pictures of. Here, I took a picture of my computer. It is beautiful, I'll write it a note.

Dear computer,

Please don't break.

Love,

Brett

I was hoping this semester would be really easy...doesn't look like that will happen. I'm having a hard time consentrating on this entry because Rachel is cooking some potent stuff. She even bought cumin for it, so at $4.50 a bottle it better be good. What is it, flakes of gold?

And in conclusion, let's see if this works.