On Saturday I took a big 2 hour long Praxis test, another hoop I have to jump through in order to get licenced. Well, they give me a answer sheet that has 180 places where you can fill in your bubble with your number 2 pencil. At any rate, I figured 180 questions in two hours (120 minutes), well, that less than one question a minute. I'm freaking out because I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up. Half way through the test I was just a little behind, I'm flying through this, probably too quick, cause I'm afraid that I'll have like 30 questions left when they tell us to stop. To my surprise after I have finished 120 questions the bottom of the page says "stop, close your book". Apparently, the answer book was a generic sheet. I was flying through the stupid test, when I didn't need to. Well, I didn't skim through or anything, but I was unduly stressed out.

At any rate, I am done with anything involved with school, except the graduation bit. Now I can spend my full attention on trying to find an income. Hopefully sooner than later.

So, having two kids is so different than one. I'm sure anyone who have more than one will being thinking "duh!". It's nice to be able to tag team the kids. But keeping our house clean has been a joke, not that we were ever really good at that to begin with.

Sydney is starting to show signs of jealousy of her sister (just a little bit). When one of us are holding Savannah, Sydney will want to be held at the same time. However, Sydney is starting to say "hold her" because we'll always ask her if she wants to "hold her". We'll let Sydney hold little Savannah for a few moments before they both start crying. It's better than before though. Sydney calls Savannah, "Nana". We weren't sure if we wanted to encourage that because of the dog in Peter Pan. Anyway, this is enough rambling about our two daughters. Next time I'll try to be a little more cohesive with my postings.

So, I haven't been very good about leaving regular posts on here. I know a few of you read this, mostly because I've read the comments. I'm sure you're annoyed with the fact that most of the time the blog hasn't been updated, and there haven't been new pictures in a long while (which is the main reason to come to the blog - not pictures of me, but of my cute daughters).

So, are any of you excited about the new Harry Potter book coming in July? Who do you think will die in this book. She's been pretty consistent with killing at least one good guy per book for the last 3 books. I'm afraid its going to be someone as important as the last one ( I won't say who in case you haven't read book 6 - I don't want to give away any spoilers here). My sister-in-law, Kelsey, said she hopes they don't kill off Harry himself at the end of the book. Some kind of Matrix messianic thing. (But then I never thought they would have done what they did in the last book - again, I'm really teasing those who haven't read book 6). I assume that they can't kill off Ron or Herminie (they have to get together or everybody will be mad). But it could be a Weasley, like maybe the dad or one of the twins or something. Maybe Neville will save the day. What do you guys think?

SALVATION!!!!!!!!!
Today I completed my master's defense and I passed! It was a success. Later on in the day I had my first job interview (which was equally scary). I don't know how well that went. We'll see in the near future. All I have left is my praxis test which I take on April 28, then I'll be done with my masters degree in speech-language pathology. It has been a very long two years.

Now comes the next scary part, finding work and doing what I went to class for. I really do love the field because I love working with people, but I feel inadequate. I still feel like I need a lot more training. Hopefully, I won't feel like a charlatan 5 years from now. Only time will tell.

To those downhearted folks still in school. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it really isn't a train! Keep it up, it will eventually end.

Well, we blessed Savannah, as mom and dad probably already told you. It's an awesome and humbling experience blessing your own children. I blessing our baby got our new ward’s attention. Like a neon light saying “HEY! WE’RE HERE! GIVE US A CALLING! MAKE US TALK IN CHURCH! ETC ETC!” So, we got a calling a week later, today, (teaching the 12 year olds) and we got asked to speak in church next week. Oh and we got hometeachers today too. Considering we’ve been in the ward for 3 months, that was a lot of attention for one Sunday. Apparently it took the membership clerk a little while to get our recorders.

Baby Blessing and More

By the way, it has been a joy taking our children to church. Sydney has been a lot of fun. Sydney wants to run around and make noise, Savannah is hungry and crying, we have lots of extra stuff to drag around like books, snacks, diapers, etc etc, fun. The other day Sydney decided to crow like a rooster as loud as she could during sacrament meeting. That was a joy. And another day in church Sydney was trying to say "eyes" but the first vowel come out as an /a/ as in back instead of /ah-i/. So, she was yelling out an expletive, but in an innocent manner. The people in sitting in front of me probably thought that we’ve been teaching Sydney how to swear.

I’m almost done with school. Just 2 more weeks of my externship, my defense in 3 weeks, and the SLP praxis test in 7 weeks. Then I get to start to work for the rest of my life. But it will be nice to be able to have a real income for once in my life (and before 30 at that – but not much before 30).

R2-D2 and Chewie's real role in the movies.


If you are not a Star Wars fan then ignore this message and wait for more cute pictures of Sydney and/or Savannah. Apparently, with the prequels we have to re-evaluate the original movies. My sister-in-law Heidi sent me an email that explores these issues (an acknowledgement of my geekiness, I'm sure). So, here it is, a discussion of why Chewie almost killed Luke.

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III

Cereal and Memories

For as long as I can remember, I've been hearing stories about the time I emptied several boxes of cereal on the floor and danced on them. I don't ever remember doing this, but its my parents favorite story to tell. I began to believe that nothing else happened in my whole childhood. My one and only defining moment was spent stomping on cereal.

Even as I have children of my own, I continue to hear about the infamous day. Then today, something happened that will bring a smile to my parents face and a cringe to my own. My daughter, Sydney, took off with a box of Cheerios and decided to empty it onto her bedroom floor. Instead of getting upset, I grabbed the camera. I'm not sure if that was a good idea cause my parents will enjoy rubbing it in. However, when I tell stories to my daughter I'll at least have evidence instead of hearsay.

Life with two children has been interesting. Sydney if starting to get use to the ide a of her baby sister being around. Instead of Savannah, she calls her Nana or just baby. Sydney's vocabulary is explouding, she has become a little parot recently. She is coming up with new words all the time (and new signs cause we've been teaching her sign language).

Savannah, still only a week old, is a little cutie. She likes to sleep all the time, even when we're trying to feed her. Her weight dropped a little and we're still waiting to hear about her bilirubin count. Hopefully it will go down so we don't have to have her under a bili-light. Sydney had to do that and she hated it. We'll hear about it tomorrow, but I'm sure things are going to be okay.

We'll try to be better about leaving stories about our daughters on here in the future(that and pictures).

It's a Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Announcing the birth of Savannah Marie born on January 17, 2007 at 6:11am. She was 7 lbs 7 oz 19 1/2 in.

Good bye Logan, Its been fun.

We're now completely (we're still working on it) into our new home in Layton. We were really sad to leave Logan, we've spent our whole married lives up there. Its bitter sweet to leave (finishing school and all). Here are some parting pictures.

We do plan on posting some pics and stories of christmas, soon.

We are completely moved into our new home in Layton, UT. We're close enough to Hill Air Force Base that we get to hear F-16s land and take off on a regular basis. We have a little more room in our bedrooms and the living room, but we have a smaller kitchen now. Trying to find space for all of our pots, pans, dishes, and food will be a challenge.

We're excited to be closer to a lot of our family and friends that were forsaken because of school. Hopefully y'all will still want to hang out with us after 4 years.

Oh, and we've figured out the first name for our child in the oven. We're going to call her Savannah. That name has been on our list for a while. One morning a week or so ago, I was thinking maybe we should just use the name Savannah because we keep coming back to that name. Well, a few minutes later Lindy pipes in and says out loud, We should name our child Savannah. Well, that did it for me. I don't believe in coincidences. We're still working on her middle name.

We're in the process of moving down closer. We're at the packing stage. Then on Saturday, December 16th. We're actually moving. We're moving to Layton for now. It was difficult to find an apartment in our price range that was large enough for us and had a washer and dryer hook up. The place looks slightly ghetto, but I've been told there is not such thing as a ghetto neighboorhood in Layton. We'll have to live there for at least a year (1 year lease), but I'll be able to get a real job in May so we'll be able to afford a better place. I guess you could say that we'll be "saving money" from May till December (without a dishwasher).

Sydney is walking now (although she still prefers to crawl -- apparently its faster). We've been having her walk all over the place while holding our hands. We really want her to walk outside so she won't get her clothes dirty whenever we go outside. Her language is ever getting better. We've learned that we have to spell out words around her if we aren't willing to give her the thing at the time (words such as milk and cookie). Our daughter has become a sugar addict (something we've been avoiding at all cost), we don't give her straight sugar items often, but when we do she becomes fanatical. She went through a kissy stage where she would give everybody a kiss and then say "Ooooh". She would pick up all over her toys and give them a kiss. She would even walk up to you (or crawl) and then kiss your knee. She decided that with cold and flu season that maybe she should stop her kissing marathon. Now she's back to her good old self, difficult to get a kiss from. We generally have to "steal our kiss" from Sydney, but every once in a while she'll give us a kiss.

She has grown into quite the tantrum thrower. All that she wants is for us to give her anything and everything to play with and never put her down and let her have full reign over the apartment. We of course don't, and she gets a little upset. We are the meanest of parents not letting her play with the pots and pans or eat pens, throw food, and cause general mahem and destruction. But she forgives easily.

Sydney has decided that Gammy (Grandma Alice) is preferrable over mom and dad. She loves her gammy, and her aunt Elise. Most of the time, when she sees Elise's picture she will say "Lesie", she says it with a lisp, but its still really cute and Elise eats it up.

My brother, Nate, brought something up in his blog that I share as a pet peeve in his post, We Don't Worship X:

I won’t share any examples here except the one that drives me crazy this time of year, Xmas. We don’t worship X, we worship Christ. I don’t think I need to say anything more. I know some of you are not religious like I am and don’t agree with this, and for you Xmas is ok, but for me it is Christmas.

Either in an attempt to shorten the word Christmas or as an attempt to secularize the holiday, Christ has often been replaced by X. Our society has attempted to remove Christ from Christmas with much success. Some feel that X = Santa Clause or receiving gifts, etc, etc. As the holidays get rolling and shopping starts to take its toll. Remember what the this season is all about. It's not about X. It is about Christ. Christ came here to Earth to die for our sins. Isaiah puts it so well in chapter 53:

"Surely he hath ^aborne our ^bgriefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted...He is ^adespised and rejected of men; a man of ^bsorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we ^cesteemed him not. "

Merry Christmas, and remember what it is all about.

I took a color personality test at http://www.thecolorcode.com/index.html. If you want to take the test, be warned that you'll have to give your e-mail address. I have a "junk mail" e-mail address, so I wasn't too worried about this.

This was my results:

Congratulations. You are WHITE.

WHITES are motivated by PEACE.
They seek independence and require kindness. They resist confrontation at all
costs. To them, feeling good is more important than being good. They are
typically quiet by nature, process things very deeply and objectively with great
clarity. Of all the colors, WHITES are the best listeners. They respect people
who are direct but recoil from perceived hostility or verbal battle.

WHITES need their "alone time" and refuse to be controlled by
others. WHITES want to do things their own way and in their own time. They ask
little of others and resent others demanding much of them. WHITES are much
stronger than people think, but are not often seen for their strength because
they don't easily reveal their feelings. WHITES are even-tempered, diplomatic,
and the voice of reason; but can also be indecisive, unexpressive, and silently
stubborn. When others interact with you, as a WHITE you respond to them best if
they are kind, accepting and supporting of your individuality, and if they look
for non-verbal clues to understand your feelings.

Understand that no two WHITES are exactly alike. Although you share the same
core motivation as many others, your personality is still unique to you alone.

Does this sound like me? Let me know.

 

Here's a little info about our cute daughter Sydney. Sydney is learning new words everyday. She imitates anything you say. She heard "Wombat" on her baby einstein video and repeated it. She can now say bye and blow kisses with a "muh". When we put her down for naps she'll talk to her self forever. She'll wake up talking to herself in the morning. She use to crawl up the stairs and cry because she wanted down, but was unwilling to crawl down, She's a very cautious girl. She still refuses to walk, she prefers crawling or walking along the edge of the couch (for support). She loves stuffed animals and has many of them. She also loves going outside. If the door is open she'll crawl outside and off the steps. Sometimes she prefers boxes and other assorted trash items to the toys that she has. I'm thinking that our family could have saved a lot of money by going to the back of stores and just getting the boxes for her, at this point she would have been just as happy. She's a funny kid, and I'm not sure what she's going to do when she's no longer the center of attention in February when her sister comes. She's going to have to learn how to share in a quick hurry. Overall, Sydney keeps us very busy, and we love her to pieces.

I've noticed that unlike many other blogs that I read, I really don't talk about my feelings any where here. My wife would probably point out that I don't talk about my feelings at all, except on the rare occasion. I'm sure my readership is significantly high, so it might not be a big deal every so often write a blog post like this.

I've noticed that I'm always dreading to do one thing or another. I'm dreading to go to class or to see a clinic or this or that. I'm not really "enjoying the day", and because of that I'm often not a happy person. Last week I had a test to dread, studying to dread, clinic to dread, etc, etc... When I had a job I seriously dreaded going (mind you it was a call center). I don't like living that way, that is always looking to the future negatively, but I've created myself a bad habit. When I get thinking about what Christ would do, I get the feeling that he would "enjoy the journey". How do I get to that point? Does anyone else struggle with this?

I'll get back to my regular posts next time.

Extreme Home Makeover down my street!
Well, extreme home makeover has taken camp just down my street. There was a Tongan family, the Pauni family, that has light 9 people, whose father died two years ago who are getting a brand new house this week. There were millions (well, maybe not millions) of volunteers out working on the house. They started tearing down the old house on Tuesday and their almost finished with the new house already. There are so many people coming to see the work as spectators. The family is on a cruise in Virgin islands right now while they do it. Here's an article on it at that I found on google. Well, we these guys are going to have the nicest house on the block, and no one deserves it more.

Sydney continues to point out what we need to do in regards to childproofing our home. 

Sydney discovered that the shredder is full of fun paper. Her are a few pics of her fun discover. It's amazing watching her grow. Everyday she discovers a new way to make a mess.