The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

So, I'm sure the only people who read this besides us (Summer and Bravid) are wondering why we are titling our entry "this" a day after we got home from Cleveland... well, the "Good" part was totally Cleveland. Bravid ;) and Summer and their kids are the coolest kids East of the Mississippi! Seriously, we enjoyed our stay their sooo much. They were so generous and let us stay with them and eat thier food. It was so nice of them. Thanks Guys!
So we got there late at night. Landing as the snow is piling up over Cleveland. The plane was struggling to stop, hydroplaning a bit. It was really nerve-wrecking but we survived (the first of future blessings). Once there (a half hour or more late) the kind Summer called and the poor girl had been sitting with three kids in the car forever. We're so sorry and so grateful for you Summer. Thanks for being the best.
So we got home barely... snow was making us slide all over and poor Summer was worried about hitting the house as we drove in. So Chris, in her sweet perfection, said to me "in secret"... "lets shovel the driveway before she has to pick up David in the morning..." So we got up early and shoveled it clean. I love my wife. I love helping other people but I don't always see thier needs. She is always on top of that. Thanks babes.
SO next day was really nice and laid back. WE got to go on a drive around Cleveland and see all the cool old fashioned houses. Its something you just can't see here in Utah. Then we played a ton of Smash Brothers with Logan and Andrew. And yes, they can beat us both.
Then Sunday we slept in and woke up for the Super Easter festivities. I love that the Easter bunny hides the baskets. I loved that growing up. And he didn't forget us in Cleveland! He found us there! After eating candy, we went to Church were I heard a lesson about Dirt and Grains that was so profound I'm still pondering it... and then home for a nice relaxing day. And I got to play Bop It!
Then the next day we ditched our hosts (actually they are way too nice... we reluctantly left them for a time) and took a ride on the "Trax/Subway" of Cleveland. I think everytime I go somewhere new I'm gonna have to ride thier train... you get to see what the place is really like. Then we went to a huge Mall- Tower City- and bought stuff at the All a Dollar. Cool tops that light up for the kids. And then we took off to see the cool Sea Science Center on Lake Erie. Right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Who knew that Rock and Roll was "Born" in Cleveland Ohio? We actually just had our pictures taken there so we could say we've been there. It was like $45 to get in!!! Well the Science Center was super Cool! Everything was hands on! We got to fly a Blimp, play with funny sound equipment, ride in a Hang Gliding machine that was turned off, and Chris loved the Medical stuff with its MRI Machine and Brain stuff. I was actually kinda grossed out.
Then we took the Andersons out to dinner to the best spot in town... Olive Garden. Which was actually the best spot in town.. even better than the best place in town... Flemings, which we got up and left once we saw that kids don't have a menu there. Olive Garden was great... even though there was no frozen strawberry lemonade like they have here... the lady was so funny. She kept saying, "Where are you guys from? "Utah". You're just such nice people."
Tuesday was great too. Kirtland, Ohio. Chris and I agree, it's very spiritually strengthening to be in the places where amazing Church history has happened and to hear it while you're in the same spots... like being in the room where Christ came down and visited Joseph and Sidney Rigdon... the temple, with all that its lost being out of the hands of the Prophets... is still so nice to be in. Chris told me she got such a testimony from being there and I did too. We both loved seeing the way the Saints lived and the things they did to pass this wonderful Gospel and Church on to us. It's pretty amazing.
Then we played some Star Wars Legos for the last time and slept a bit. Then we got up at 4 and flew over here to Salt Lake. The flight was a lot smoother than the first. But I couldn't sleep. Which was really frustrating because I was really tired.. and I had to work that same day... Enter: the Bad Day Phase...
We got to the Airport and waited awhile for our luggage to come around the carousel... it didn't come... another flight comes it... nope, still not there... fianlly I trun around as a joke to see if its on a didfferent carousel... and yep. There they were... so I ran home... well my Mom came and got us... Thanks sooo much Mom. And we got home... as I'm hurrying to ready myself to leave to work in 5 minutes time... Chris started to smell something... "Umm, do you smell gas?" Sure enough... we had a gas leak. I had to leave.. so I left my wonderful lovely wife to take care of Business... I love her. She got a guy over to fix it for free and then he said... is it okay if I can run some other tests? So he ran a test on Carbon Monoxide... and yea... we had some... a lot of some... Our Furnace apparently is not just broken.. it's trying to kill us... Good thing we have the power switch. Now we have to get a new one. Lemme just say... It sucks to have to replace that... but thats a lot easier than reversing death... well, after surving a long tired day, I woke up to Event: Ugly
So I got to work today, after teaching little kids all about eating Healthy... which makes me feel guilty becasue I had a pizza in my car waiting for me to scrounge it down... Well, at work I had to kick some reluctant leaving but troublesome teenagers out... and then a lady came in cause her car had been broken into and some one else had to.. I went outside to see what was up... and the other victim was me. I have no idea why they would break the window on my old broken Saturn that has nothing of value inside.. but it's kinda frustrating to say the least. The cop came and did what little he could... and left me with my broken window... Luckily... we have a great agent who was so nice he made me forget any reason to be upset and I'm getting my car taken care of tommorow... So even though its an Ugly situation... really, as my wise Chris said, "At least we're not dead..."

A Week Long Anniversary? We Made It This Far, That Calls for Celebration

So this has been an interesting Anniversary. Kinda really laid back so far. I had a concert Saturday, and Chris was sick so she couldn't go and see my band get whacked in the face a ton (one guy actually got 4 stiches from a wandering trumpet). I think maybe it's best she didn't cause we all got hurt (but the drummer) and a crazy drunk girl gave me and the drummer hugs as I said, "YOU'RE REALLY DRUNK AREN'T YA?" She knocked over some of the drums as she stumbled away.
Well, the next day was our Super Anniversary, in the which we steplt in. I gave her some flowers and chocolate (two of her favorite things) and she made a stupendous cake (of which made me laugh (see pictures on prevous blog)and tasted wonderfully sweet. Thanks babes) And those are two things that I love! We totally understand each other. It was actually really nice. Kinda different because we usually do something huge for celebrations (Chris' B-Day for example), but I just had to sit and look at my wife over the special dinner she made for us and I had that warm goosebumpy feeling go all over as I realized again how much I love that girl to pieces. Thats all I needed for our Anniversary -Her.
Well, the next few days have been nice as well, kinda a strung out relaxing few days. Which is really nice. WE watched Heroes (which we are both unquenchingly addicted to) till late last night and then slept in till 11. It was perfect. I love waking up slowly with Chris by my side. Totally beats the single life.
Well, our week long Extravaganza hasn't ended yet. WE are getting all ready and super excited as we prepare for the Cleveland Trip Supreme (wow, thats sounds super COOL!) WE are really excited to get out of town and hang out with Chris' favorite brother.... "who-lives-in-Ohio" (nice save on my part right?) Chris really just wants to hold the baby girl. I hope thats cool with David (Or Brian... I don't know what to call him... I'm family, but not till after he "changed" his name... what'll I call him?) and of course Summer will need to be okay with that. Chris is known for putting babies to sleep for hours... letting her hold them forever. I'm excited about this because I know our babies'll sleep alot... giving me more time for Guitar Hero. (I am kidding if you couldn't tell, I'd rather spend that quite time watching Heroes ;).... So David/Brian and Summer and Andrew and Logan and Ms. Hannah Montana, here we come!! I hope that doesn't scare you. We're about to become best buddies.... i hope.

"Where can I find a book on 'How to be Awesome my first year of Marrage?' "

Davie and I both work the day before our BIG ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY,so made this cake to take to his work. Because he works at a library I thought it would be approprate to make him a cake that looks like a book. It's kidna sloppy but i am an amatuer (davie says thats how you spell it and i'll believe him cuz he works at a library) cake maker. Looks good to me :)

Birds just wan to have FU-UN!

SO...this is the 3rd blog I have written since Davie and I got this blog. It was quite an awesome weekend!
It started Friday night when Davie got off work. I had the bag packed and everything was ready to go, then we set off for one heck of a weekend. When we got to Delta we stayed up and watched an awesome movie about a man and his horse. It was set in the Deserts of Iraq about 30 years ago. They were having a race to see if horses who are bred are better than a horse who has the will to win. I dont know the name but if you ever hear about a movie that sounds like this, RENT IT! (Hidalgo.. just remembered)
The next morning we slept in till 10 and had a wonderful breakfast made by my mom the chief! Then we relaxed some more until noon hit. My dad then announced it was time to get read to go to our Country music concert and bull riding contest. I don't know if many people out there 'you internet people' know of a man named Charley Jenkins. I believe he is the next big thing to pop up in country music. **on a side note: Know that Davie is not a major fan of country music. He was quite a trooper to put up with the Country music... and the "hollarin'" and "boot-scooting". He even was the first one to go down in front of everyone, when no one else would even though they are the Country fans and he's far from "country"... more like punktry. He even got out and danced (he says he only danced because it was Johnny B. Good, not country, but then he line danced to Boot Scootin' Boogie and got it in his head the whole rest of the night). The Bull Riding was cool... and the concert was fun. My parents are so awesome to take us out on a double date...
Then we slept, lost an hour that we didn't have... cause of day light savings... fell asleep right after Church, and then the rest of the day was wonderful hiking out in Delta and the pillars on the mountain... I got so scared on the ride up the mountainside... my hands were turning white I was griping the car seat so hard. WE saw some cool rock formations and I tried to climb on really cool part, but everyone was so scared and the sandstone was breaking as I was holdinh onto it so I got down.
The trip was really fun... especially watching the TV show Heroes until 1 at night. That show is so cool. Davie and I are addicted. We stayed up (Mom and Dad are addicted too) till 1 and then we drove all the way home so Davie could go to work at 8 that same morning. It was sooo fun.

Worst Day, Best Attitude

So I've had my bad days. Haven't we all? But this day was the worst in awhile... well, it could have been...
So First of all, I woke up and was totally still tired... bad start to a bad day. Then I got to work and there was a mother load of stuff trucked in for us to checkin all morning. Now, that is pretty normal... onward we go.
On my lunch break I got a call from my beloved and was very excited to go to lunch with her. Cafe Rio baby! Well, I asked her to preorder it for it to be ready when I got there to pick it up. She did, but what we hadn't expected was a billion other people in Utah ordering at the same time (You didn't know there were a billion people in Utah did you? Neither did I). I got there, and these guys were taking 7 salads a person and walking out. I got my salad paid for and expected to wait maybe 10 inutes max for it. I watched some fire fighters come in after me and laughed to myself because the room was filling up with smoke from a burnt tortilla. Good thing the fireman were there. But do they put out fires on thier lunch break? I don't shelve books on my break so I doubt they do....
Well, I watched the firemen go through the whole line and get thier food while I stood in the pick up line waiting. Once they went through I picked a person at the end of the line and watched as she went all the way through the line... yea. I was pretty frustrated, especially since I only have one hour on my lunch break and now I had exactly enough time to run the food over to Chris and leave. Literally. Well, I got my food and ran out the door. Drove as fast as I could over to Chris... while talking to her on the phone. I felt awful. Mad that I wouldn't have time to eat the wonderful salad. And Mad that I had stood in line my whole lunch hour doing nothing but fume with frustration. And more than anything... mad that I wouldn't get to spend the little break I had looked forward to with my wonderful wife. I had all of this running through my mind and I had a billion angry things I wanted to say on the phone and to the world... but what I found pop into my head was.... you can either have a good attitude or a bad one. Is everything really all that bad? Well, I told my conscience... not really. I suddenly found myself feeling sorry for Chris and her feeling guilty eating without me... and for those poor ladies working there.... they were sooo frustrated and working like super servers. I decided to just understand that is was going to be an awful day and that I should just accept that and enjoy it. ???? Enjoy a bad day? Sure!!
Well, sure enough, I got to Chris' work did a quick kiss and drop off move and drove like mad back to work. When I got there, I found that I had just enough time to slip a chocolate into my mouth and get back on the desk... Wow! A chocolate! My day was getting better.
I got out on the desk and found ou that for the next hour or two I would be manning it all by myself. the other two ladies were on thier way to a benefits training. Well.. I told myself... even though its the worst time of the day to be all alone on the desk... its an awful day... lets have fun with it. So bade them farewell and smiled.
Sure enough. The teenagers were horrible. I had at least three people I was helping at once the whole time. And They were generally not happy to see me... well, with the occasional twitterpated teenage girl... (just kidding Chris, they all were actually really mean that day). Oh well, when the posse came back. I was pretty much ready to go home... but I had another two hours to go...
It went by perfectly slow and relentlessly awful... but I still had a stupid smile on my face. I drove home, and everyone on the street annoyed me... but you know what? I had a beautiful wife to go home to and she had Cafe Rio to share with me! I was happy.
Editors Note: Not really the worst day ever... Hiroshima would be a worst day ever scenario... or a day in Aushwitz would also win that competion... but it was a bad day for me.

Other Note: The main reason I didn't blow up from frustration was because my wife was sooo sweet to me... Seriously. I'm not even trying to be a mushy... that really was it. Thanks babes.

Can I introduce you to my New Family?

Aren't they just so cute?