Halloween...PROVO STYLE

First off, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  What a great holiday.  Pictures to come.

SO, as I have so quickly found out, EVERYONE has their own opinion on Provo, regardless of whether or not they have actually been here, let alone LIVED here.  HOWEVER, I am here to tell you that you don't know Provo until you have seen its DARK SIDE!

Let me introduce you to the POLICE BEAT of the daily BYU newspaper, THE DAILY UNIVERSE.  This will introduce you to PROVO's DARK SIDE!  No better to meet it than on HALLOWEEN!

The POLICE BEAT is a listing of the police reports from campus.  Read at your OWN DISCRETION! (This in ONLY a taste of what is out there EVERYDAY!)

Disorderly Conduct

Oct. 11: A 27-year-old former BYU student was causing a disturbance at the football game by spitting on people. He was arrested and escorted from the stadium after refusing to comply with police orders, detained and released, but banned from the university for 72 hours. No charges were found.

Oct. 11: A University of New Mexico football player, unhappy with the outcome of the game, had to be restrained by his coach and fellow players and helped onto the bus after kicking a door.

Trespassing

Oct. 8: Police discovered a woman on the third floor of the Jesse Knight Building at 4 a.m. She had fallen asleep on the couch and was asked to leave.

Suspicious Activity

Oct. 8: Police received a call reporting a masked female near the Harris Fine Arts Center who was scaring individuals.

Sept. 30: Female students in Helaman Halls complained about a man in a gorilla suit attempting to scare students near the Cannon Center. When police arrived, there was no sign of either the complainant or the gorilla. Students complained again early Oct. 3 about a man in a gorilla mask. The gorilla has not yet been identified.

Missing Person

Sept. 30: A male student was reported missing by his wife after he did not return from checking his mail. He returned roughly an hour and a half later and said that he had decided to go for a walk while he was out. (The part they are NOT posting is the FIGHT that ensued BEFORE "checking the mail")

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE!  I don't know who would EVER have the audacity...

Welfare Check

Oct. 12: Police received a call reporting a woman walking near the Bell Tower in shorts and no shoes at 9:45 p.m. The woman was gone when police arrived.

SHE IS STILL OUT THERE!  Keep your children INDOORS!

Now you know JUST A SAMPLE of what we deal with EVERYDAY . . . BE YE WARNED!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

OH Unisom, your' re the ONE. You make bedtime lots of FUN!

Okay, so here's the skinny.  For the past five days I have had some kind of WICKED flu.  It started Saturday and has been in full swing ever since. (OH with the exception of Monday and Tuesday night when it thought it would play this CRUEL trick by saying, "Oh, you feel better.  Go and do and be excited that you feel better."  THEN WHAM!, those nights I was humbled,  humbled HARD.  BUT I did take advantage of a great Monday night with our cousins, Drew and Mary Martha (isn't that a fantastic Southern Belle name?  She is from Louisiana and is the perfect Southern Belle and I love it!). Thanks Drew and Mary Martha!)

ANYWHO, I have been in some intense pain.  Most of the time my brains feels as if gnomes (picturing high pitched evil cackle laughs) are attempting to DRILL OUT from the inside.  To my amazing benefit I have had an outstanding pregnant nurse.  Megs has been great!: making my Theraflu (which I LOVE), lifting up my head to eat/drink, nabbing anything I need, telling me she is going to wash EVERYTHING I have touched, washing her hands and popping Vitamin C on a regular schedule, and cheering me on.  Once again, I LOVE YOU MEGS!

The worst part of the ordeal has been how this flu has invaded my most precious commodity: my ability to sleep through ANYTHING!  I have really never had problems with my sleep and, being said, I am quite selfish about it (I know, I know, When the baby comes.....) I like my sleep and it has been interrupted and I am ornery. 

Last night was the final straw, I was going to fight back.  AND I DID!  UNISOM! When Megs and I laid in bed we talked, laughed, philosophized like we normally do for about ten minutes....then I was OUT!  The next memory I had was at NINE O'CLOCK this morning.  I didn't want to get up.  If there was an award for marathon sleeping, I would have attempted it. I feel FANTASTIC this morning, SO I sing:

"OH, UNISOM you're the ONE!  You make bedtime lots of FUN!  OH UNISOM I'm awfully fond of YOU!

Woo woo be doo

OH UNISOM, joys of JOYS. When I take you, I don't make NOISE.  OH UNISOM, you're my best friend, it's true!

Doo doo doo doo, doo doo

P.S. BOTH Megs and I got JOBS!  Megs starts TODAY as a substitute teacher!  She is going to do an amazing job!  I got the job in accounts receivable for a great company in Provo.  HOLLA!

Whistle while you work

Welcome to the Apollo Apartments

No, no, turn around. Those are the nice apartments that we live ACROSS THE STREET from.

When we first pulled up to the apartments, Megs said, "it looks just like West Side Story." Book....cover....NO! Once we got inside and took a look around, it was love at first sight.

We live on the far end, bottom unit. If we had lived on the other two floors, we would have sold half of our furniture. We love it!

Meet Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis is our landlord.

Mr. Davis served as a Mission President in New Jersey and Temple President in San Diego. He pretty much lives for his family and fixing apartments. He is such a good man.

Thanks to CameraPhoneSpyCam, I got these great pictures of Mr. Davis at work fixing our kitchen sink. The best part of Mr. Davis is his CONTINUAL whistling. When I say CONTINUAL, I mean CONTINUAL. He could be a professional whistler. The decibel level at which he whistles is truly outstanding. We can hear him coming from LITERALLY 30 feet away WITH OUR DOOR CLOSED. That's not all. What does he whistle? CHURCH HYMNS! WE LOVE IT! How much more "Happy Valley" can you get? His hymn of choice while fixing the sink was ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS. What a man, what a man. He motivates me to be a more positive and happy worker. Life is too crazy to do things ornery. (You read it here first, Megs. I am setting another personal goal.)

Now....(drum roll.....) our newest addition!

OUR NEW DESK!

We happen to live only three blocks away from the R.C. Willey Outlet store in Provo. We have had our eye on this little beauty for a while now and have been staking the price out for weeks. In my few years I have learned a few things about salesPEOPLE and how to get the best price.

• DON'T settle for the regular price. They can ALWAYS bring it down. If they couldn't, they would not have salesPEOPLE.
• Walk out at least once on a salesperson. It shows them that you are HARDCORE!
• Shop at the END of the month. Even if they say they don't, they have quotas they have to meet. They will bend over backward to move merchandise at the end of the month.
• Ask to buy the floor model. You can always get a reduced price and won't have to assemble it yourself if it requires that.

Knowing this will make you HARDCORE like us.

My newest goal

FIRST THINGS FIRST: SHE MOVES! Our little lady finally decided to let herself be know by kickin' her mamma the other day. THEN she kicked me (or my hand) last night! WOW! That is AMAZING!

Now onto the post

I really do enjoy setting goals. They make me feel like I am making the life progression that I aspire to. Although, my FOLLOW THROUGH leaves much to be desired. Maybe I need to make THAT my next goal...

This weeks goal is to begin the process of EFFECTIVELY and digitally cataloging all of our pictures. I have always been overwhelmed by this activity. Megs and I both have laptops and I have wanted to wait until we get a PC before I move forward, BUT I am waiting NO LONGER! (if any of you have come up with a great, fool-proof way of doing this, PLEASE SHARE)

Anywho, here are a few pictures of Megs and my happenings over the past few weeks. Enjoy.

Four and half months! HALFWAY! OHHHH!

Brooke and her kids came to visit up last week. We introduced them to our new "partment", walked down memory lane with Brooke and her BYU years, and met up with Grandma Shelley and Krista for the Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point.

With pictures of Megs and her family, I like to sing the song "One of these things is not like the other. One of these things is not the same." Where did she get her beautiful "black" (as Nate calls it) hair?

This past weekend we celebrated Shelley's birthday, as well as Joshua's 2nd birthday. Shelley loves french rolling pins and Joshua loves balls. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Now for my FINALE. Our REFRIGERATOR!

I believe that a refrigerator says a lot about a person....if it is not in our favor. I now tag those brave enough to do the same. Disobey to your own humiliation.

I like randomness on the exterior. We have our ultra-sound pictures, family/friend pictures (if you send it, they will be posted), Verse-a-tiles (our Book of Mormon based fridge sentence magnets) and calendar.

First, APPLES. Remember? We got apples.

Yogurt. We LOVE yogurt.

Our water filter! AHHH! All hail the filter!

Staples: ham, cheese (preferably block and shredded), APPLESAUCE, Gatorade, cottage cheese, leftovers, and milk (this gallon is old. For some reason it tastes like the cow got into the onion patch. Yuck) OH, and our BULK SOY SAUCE (this was purchased during our early marriage Costco craze. What were we thinking?)

The regulars: condiments, homemade jam, salsa, RANCH (that ones for you sweetie), aloe vera, and LIME JUICE. I be lovin' the lime juice!

Freezer: strawberry fruit bars, tater tots (Megs LOVES the tater tots), Mickey Mouse ice cubes, frozen chicken and beef and vegetables, PIZZA ROLLS (give me a break), and bread.

So there you have it. I have laid it ALL out. Judge me, dear reader.... I dare you!

How do you like THEM apples?

We got apples! For the past few weeks we have purchased apples faithfully at the store.  We DON'T run out.  Now, we have always enjoyed apples, but Megs has INSISTED lately that we keep our inventory up.  We run a clean cut FIFO method around these parts.

Specifically, we enjoy:

CAMEO APPLES

HONEY CRISP APPLES

and

GRANNY SMITH APPLES

Now I am QUICKLY learning that you DO NOT question a pregnant woman's motives when it comes to her and her food.  So, Megs wants apples; I get apples.

HOWEVER, this past week Meg's apple obsession seemed to be triggered by a "whiff of apple."  It would hit in the car, in the front room, and even in bed.  I couldn't smell anything, BUT when the scent hit (refer to the previous paragraph) I got myself up and cut an apple.

Yesterday . . . I discovered THE SOURCE.  Megs came and sat on my lap, wrapped her arms around my neck, and talked to me for a minute.  In the middle of our conversation she stopped and said, "I just got a whiff of apple...  Do you want one?"  Now I HAD to get the bottom of "the whiff."  JOKINGLY, I said, "Is it your armpits?"  Megs paused, took herself a curious sniff, paused again, smiled, and said (quite heartily), "YES, IT'S MY ARMPITS!

Reason #273 of why we LOVE pregnancy: Sweet smelling armpits.  My guess is Cameo.

Out of touch....THANKFULLY!

You see, I have been married to my best friend and most beautiful person I know, inside and out, for a year and a half now. Not only this, but we dated (with a "minor" break) since the month after I got home from my mission. In all, we have been dedicated to each other (I will just ignore the past elephant in the room named Megan's old boyfriend) for almost FOUR YEARS! I LOVE my wife and I would not change my devotion and love to her for the world. She is so much of my joy.

That being said, we can conclude that my ability to flirt with strangers of the opposite sex has, respectfully, SUBSTANTIALLY DIMINISHED. HOLLA!

This was apparent today. As I walked into my Doctrine and Covenants class I sat myself next to a guy (I shall name him "Chuck"). Two seats away was another student, a nice young lady (I shall name her "Nancy"). After a couple minutes of silences, Chuck leaned over and asked Nancy, "When is the test for the class scheduled?" Nancy replied, "I don't know?" This is when I, being as friendly and as informative as usually, stepped in and said, "Friday." Chuck thanked me.

Chuck then leaned over in Nancy's direction and asked, "What are you going to do to prepare for the test?" Nancy really didn't know what she was going to do to prepare. "HELPFUL I" stepped in and informed them both that there was a convenient study guide posted online that would answer all their questions. Chuck and Nancy thanked me.

Chuck now turned his body toward Nancy and asked, "So, do you think we need to study up on maps and such for the test?" Nancy didn't know. I KNEW! "You need to know dates AND locations for the test. Review of the maps in your scriptures should be sufficient." Nancy thanked me. Chuck, initially did not. Chuck just stared at me with heavy eyes. Chuck THEN softly thanked me.

I asked myself, "why is Chuck being so nasty? I am just being helpful.......OH, I GET IT!" Sorry Chuck. How I have lost touch with things of flirting. Chuck was just trying to get his groove on and I thwarted that effort. Chuck just wants some affection; what's wrong with that?

I took hint and allowed Chuck to work his mojo. Chuck asked Nancy, "So what are you doing this weekend?" Nancy replied, "Going to a corn maze with my fiance."

LADIES, wear your ring. It will save Chuck time.

Odds and Ends

Today, NO COHESIVE POST!  Deal with it!

Megs and I celebrated FHE with a walk to the grocery store, but more importantly the REDBOX!  On Monday I get a free code and tonight's (or Megan's) pick was The Other Boleyn Girl.  It was pretty good, yet depressing.  Now Megs and I are plastered to Google, reading up on Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, and Queen Elizabeth I.  They were NOT as pretty as they were depicted in the movie.  DON'T LET HOLLYWOOD FOOL YOU!  Anne Boleyn had SIX FINGERS on one hand and a large mole/goiter on her neck....

Another interview today.... Not half bad.

More interviews tomorrow...

JnK+8, new episode.

Have you seen the TLC show, 17 and Counting?  It is OUT OF CONTROL!  It's like driving past a car wreck; you know you are going to be grossed out, but you watch anyway.  We have bets on what religion they are.  I think Mennonite.  Hey, they make great bread!

Please enjoy some random pictures from our computer:

 

Well that's probably enough for now.  I am going to bed.

P.S.  Megs just explained why she doesn't blog: She contributes by editing my posts.  Hey, I just write it as I think it and think it just a little more simple than the rest.  Works for me.