Are You Freaking Kidding Me?

This is the same as an "Are you serious?" blog but I am so struck by how much Oregonians over react when it comes to snow that I had to show my true reaction by a slightly different title.

I wanted to post a news video but I couldn't find one that was good enough. So, I'll have to explain what's going on.

The Oregon weather peeps have been predicting this "Arctic Blast," they call it, for about the last week or so. It was the leading story at every hour no matter what else happened in the news. It was an even bigger story than a bombing at a bank that killed two cops and critically injured another. Are you serious?...the weather is more important than the killing of two officers of the law by a bomb? Something is seriously wrong with that. Then again, it is Oregon and people here think when it snows in the valley all hell has broken loose...and let me tell you, after it snows here, all hell really has broken loose (or frozen over, whichever one you feel fit the situation).

The storm was said to hit sometime Sunday morning. T and I were assigned to give talks in church this particular Sunday and I was tempted, when given the assignment, to ask for a rain check because I knew it was finals week starting the Monday following and I knew preparing a talk would take away from vital studying time. I decided to accept the assignment putting my faith in the good Lord above that I would be blessed by my willingness to serve...maybe blessed with a few A's on exams. So T and I prepared and we showed up to church early ready to speak. The Bishop announced the proceedings of the meeting but strangely only announced up to the first speaker, which was a young lady in the ward. She gave a very fine 5 minute talk and sat down after which the Bishop stood back up and said the snow was picking up and he was going to error on the side of caution and cancel the rest of church. Now, we've lived in Idaho for the last five years and we've had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with a considerable amount of snow. We saw a few inches in Portland while in Idaho we often measure snow fall in feet. Never in my life have I ever seen church canceled. For all our Utah and Idaho readers, can you imagine if church was canceled because of snow? You wouldn't go to church for 6 mouths out of the year or more.

Oh, and as I was walking out of the chapel a fellow stopped me and said, "I don't know how many times I've prayed to have church canceled when I had to give a talk and it happened to you."

It's Tuesday night now. School was canceled yesterday, we had class today, another storm (can I even bring myself to call it a storm), another flurry is said to blow over us early tomorrow and I just received confirmation that school is now canceled for tomorrow. This is absolutely ridiculous. A few inches of snow falls, a little ice forms and mayhem breaks out in the Portland metropolitan area. Tons of snow could have fallen and thick ice could have built on the roadways in Idaho and business as usual.

Though Idaho schools do get out for Potato Harvest...that's another one I don't understand.

Are You Serious?

This is the second post of the "Are You Serious?" series. I have to admit when I stated this series I thought I would have much more blogs to post under this subject...shoot, a lot of people do a lot of stupid things that cause me to say to myself "are you serious?"

Well, have I got one for you. I have a class mate who is about 30 years old and originally from Colorado. I don't want to name names in case he may bump into this blog in the future. So I will call him RC.

RC dresses nice, is not a bad looking fellow, and seems to have an alright personality. He is not the brightest chap but he's not stupid either. All in all, RC is a good guy. However, RC has a serious hygiene problem. He blatantly refuses to apply deodorant or antiperspirant to the under portion of his arm pit. He happens to be in my cadaver dissection group and his B.O. is so horrendous that I would rather smell the formaldehyde of the cadaver than his pits.

I should also explain that RC is not absent minded of the issue. He knows he smells and he doesn't care. When he introduced himself to another friend of mine in the class he straight up told my friend that he didn't use deodorant as if he was proud of it. He also openly bragged to the guys in the lockerroom that he wanted to be "the guy" who doesn't ever wash is scrubs from dissection lab. Note: we have lab for three quarters. With three months to a quarter, that is nine months spending 6 hours a week in lab and never washing his scrubs. I wash mine, as does the majority of the class, every week; and the smell still doesn't completely go away.

I'm not sure if RC ever wants to be married or if he ever wants a girlfriend, but if so I guess he has come to the right place. Portland has plenty of hippies just like him. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get RC to wear deodorant I would greatly appreciate the advice. For crying in the night, I think the cadaver can even smell his B.O.

Ode to the Hair

Well, the days of growing my hair out are over. T finally got her wish and we spent this Saturday cutting my mop. I grew it out for almost a year and I have to admit that I kind of liked it long. I thought I would blog and give one last hurrah by posting some pictures of the many hair styles I tried during the growing process.

Not one of my finest hairstyles (but T looks cute)

Hiking hair with bandanna

Cowboy hat hair (looks pretty sweet, I'd say)

Shaggy, messy hair

Slicked back and parted hair (one of my favs.)

Straight hair, aka lead singer of a hit band hair

And here is the conclusion. That's a years worth of hard work. Compare the pile to the clippers and also realize it's a good solid 2-3 inches thick on the floor.

The result! I'm pretending to cry, but if you look hard enough you might be able to see a real tear squeezing out of my eye. I'm not to happy to have a cold head again.

Moving, Cruising, and Schooling

I know you're all thinking to yourselves that it's about time T and I update our blog. I would apologize but life has been a roller coaster for about the last month. We have been here and there and everywhere...literally. A lot has gone on since we last posted. I hope after this post we'll have more time to post more often.

Moving
We moved from Rexburg late in September. We finished up our jobs, packed our stuff and loaded it in a truck in a matter of two days. I don't think I ever realized how horrible moving is. I've moved myself around but that consisted of only my stuff. Add in another persons things and a whole heap of other pointless crap and we had a mess of our hands. T and I really don't have much, for crying out loud, we only lived in a 600 sq. foot apartment. You can't cram that much in that space, plus if you've read our previous post we sold our couch. However, while packing it seemed the CRAP never ended and the packing never ceased.

We were finally off on September 18 and we were a bit sad to leave a wonderful place and many of our closest friends. To add to our moving woes we were not able to move into our apartment right away so we had to store our things at my parents house for over a week (by the way, we would like to thank my parents for storing our stuff in their house. It was not very convenient for them but very much appreciated by us). Finally, after over a week we loaded a moving truck for the second time and unloaded it for a second time at our new apartment in NE Portland. Our new joint is older than our previous place and still a one bedroom but it is 135 sq. feet bigger which is easily noticed...we are able to fit a couch, love seat, and recliner chair in the living room. In our old place we only had a couch and that barely squeezed in. All in all we are happy here so far and we feel it will be a good neighborhood to live in for now. It is quiet and surrounded by residential houses so it keeps the foot traffic away and gives the area a safer feel to it. Hopefully we'll enjoy our time here as much as we did in Rexburg.

Cruising
OK, enough of the boring stuff, let's talk about our cruise we went on. While my folks were watching our crap T and I went on a cruise to the Caribbean. We left from Florida and spent 7 days cruising to the Bahamas, St Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, and to St. Maarten. In general it was all beautiful, it was mostly relaxing and the food was delicious--at least the food that didn't make me sick--(I'll explain in a few). Cruises are definitely ALL that they are cracked up to be. And Carnival was awesome too.

The only downside was getting food poisoning. I'm not really sure why I couldn't win money through Bingo or win the drawing for a free watch but I could be the one person on the ship to get food poisoning. I let me tell you, did I ever get sick.

I'll begin to describe the situation by explaining that I have always wanted to try ahi tuna. So many people have told me it's good and cruises are the perfect time to try new foods because it's all free. So I have waited many months for this cruise and passed up many ahi tuna at restaurants so I could try it on the cruise. So, I did...and it was NASTY! It was served with a cube of watermelon and it did not satisfy any of the craving I had build up over the months. I didn't think anything of it considering I had never had ahi tuna and just figured I wasn't too partial to it. Well, after a nap and a small bowel of strawberry ice cream I was not feeling so good. Again I didn't think anything of it due to the fact that I had gorged myself the previous night at dinner by eating a New York strip steak, a full rack of baby-back ribs, some shrimp concoction, and a dessert or two. I just figured I had a bit of a case of indigestion...go figure. At this point all I was concerned about was feeling better before dinner so I could gorge myself again. Well, the uneasy feeling became a really sour gassy feeling and shortly after became painful. Dinner was rapidly approaching and I knew I had no chance of getting over whatever I had before dinner so I settled in for the night. T finally got hungry herself and went to get a bite to eat. Soon after she left all hell broke lose inside my digestive system. I had diarrhea every 20 minutes. Though it was horrible I can handle diarrhea every once in awhile. But of course that couldn't be it. About an hour after the squirts began I started to throw up. Remember, I had gorged myself the previous night, and in fact, the whole time we had been on the boat so I had a lot of food to barf up. Throwing up was so horrible that I would like to describe it as follows (if you are the least bit easily grossed out I would skip the rest of this discussion). As, anatomically accurate as I can explain it, it is a good thing my digestive system is attached to the outside of my body via the anus to the rectum or else I might have thrown up my whole GI tract. I was heaving so hard I was literally asking Heavenly Father to take me from the earth right then. I have thrown up many times in my life but no other time was even remarkably close to as bad as this. Anyway, enough of that. The rest of the cruise was good once I cleaned my system out and I recovered a bit.

Here are some pictures

T and I on the outside deck of the ship

When we arrived on the Bahamas

Breathtaking picture of a Coci beach

Hundreds of fish seen while snorkeling at St. Thomas

(Taken above the water because we don't a waterproof camera)

After we debarked in St. Maarten

T and I with our evening servers. Orlando (L) Antonio (R)

T about to dive in at a St. Maarten beach

Schooling

I started Chiropractic school at the beginning of October. It's crazy but awesome. I love that I am learning things that will pertain to me as a Doctor of Chiropractic. I also get to do a full dissection of a cadaver and I love it. I'm starting to think I would have been a pretty good surgeon. I am excited to meet new people and so far they all are fun and interested in studying and learning. I'll leave it at that right now and give a more in depth overview next time I post. This blog is long enough as is.

Update

I have to apologize to all our readers for not posting in awhile. With all the work T and I have been doing to earn extra cash and with all the tasks to accomplish in preparation for our move to Oregon life has been busy. However, I wanted to sympathize with our readers because I know what it's like to check someones blog and never see an update. So here is an update on our happenings since we graduated.

Metcalf Family Reunion
T's family had a family reunion in Malad, Idaho the week after graduation. It was nice to see her family and especially her Grandpa. He came out from Virginia so see the family and it was nice to have him around. We played a lot of games including a lot of volleyball. The best day was when we went to Lava Hot Springs and played in the big pool they have with a three level high dive and water slides. Below are a few pictures of T and I jumping off the high dive.

J jumping off the highest platform

T jumping off the middle platform (she has much better form than I do)

Moving Prep.

In Preparation for our move we sold our couch to make the move easier. It was a bit sad to see it go. After we posted it to be sold on the BYU-Idaho website we debated whether we should actually sell it. The first person we invited over to see it took one look at it and said he'd buy it. T and I said to the fellow, "Are you sure, you haven't even sat on it yet." So, he sat down and said, "Yep, I'll buy it." He then left and came back 10 minutes later with a truck and away went the couch. It's a little sad to see something you bought when you first got married being sold away. Oh well, we can get a new couch and start new memories.

Good-bye couch, we probably won't miss you when we have a nicer one

Table Rock Mountain

Just this last Monday we went on another hike to try to get our Eastern Idaho fix before we move. We hiked Table Rock which is one of the tougher hikes in this area. After the experience I'm wondering if the spelling of the name should be Tab-hell Rock. It was a beast!

The hike started out fairly easy; we walked on pretty flat ground through some meadows and wild flowers (just a teaser compared to the 50% uphill grade we would eventually get to). After awhile I started to form a blister on the back of my heel and had to change my walk a little to relieve the pain. (I knew I should have not put on the socks that have a hole in them...what was I thinking). The changing of my walk was a serious mistake because it caused my hips to really hurt later in the hike when we were about a mile from the top and walking straight up hill. T practically bounded up the mountain with no trouble whatsoever which just added to my fury. I should take a minute, in my defense, to remind all our readers to go back a few post to when T ran her marathon. She is in much better shape because of that training than her pathetic husband. Though, during the whole hike I never had trouble breathing it was my darn legs that were causing the problem. I the last few years I have noticed a growing pain in my knees and have told T that I will probably need to get my knees scoped before I am 30. I blame it on being a catcher in baseball for 10 plus years of my life. Anyway, the knee situation only got worst.

Once we reached the top we rested, ate, took in the amazing view, and shot some photos of the breathtaking picture before us. Then it was time to make the decent and for the real hell to begin. If T thought I complained a lot about my legs and knees going up she got an earful coming down. We found out on the way up from a few people that there is another way up or down (depending on how yo look at it). It was called the face trail and everyone said it cut about two miles off the distance but was straight up or down. I'd like to add that every person we talked to recommended coming up that trail and going down the one T and I came up. T was not interested in taking that recommendation so we went down the trail every encouraged us not to.

Let's just say once we started down the mountain the hike got a whole lot worse for me. It was straight down with a ton of loose rock for the next two hours. If my knees were hurting on the way up I don't even remember...I thought I was going to loose every ligament in my both my knees on the way down. And do you know what T was doing on the way down, singing and whistling to herself as she practically skipped down the face.

After it was over you can imagine how I felt...I wanted to DIE! T on the other hand, when she was finished she said to me, "Ready to go to Jackson Hole and walk around."

Here are some pictures

The little nob on the right of the photo is Table (Tab-hell) Rock. The tall peak in the middle in called The Grand, the tallest peak in the Tetons.

T in front of The Grand and at the top of Table Rock

J thinking, "If I pose like this maybe no one will know how hard this hike actually was for me." This is about as close as you can get to The Grand without actually hiking it.

In my defense, T took this picture to show that the trail she chose to come down was not recommended, not only by the people we talked to on the trail but also by the state of Wyoming. I think I might go back to that site and post my own sign saying, "Dido!"

Graduation

T and I finally did it...well I graduated a semester ago but because T and I were in the same College of Agriculture and Life Science I decided to wait and march with her. It was neat to have all the teachers there applauding us as we walked in to Commencement. It was nice to have so many call us by name and it reminded us what great teachers we had while attending Brigham Young University-Idaho. We are excited (and a little scared) to move on but we feel privileged and blessed to attend BYU-Idaho and to have gained so many close friends while here.

Hiking, Camping, and Updating

T and I have been pretty busy lately and have not had a chance to update everyone on our happenings. So here's what's been going on.

Hiking

A few Sundays ago T and I went out to Driggs, Idaho and went on a sweet hike. It was up in Darby Canyon and the trail headed up to a big cave called Wind Cave. I read a little pamphlet that said the hike was best done in the beginning of the Summer while the snow run-off was still running so that there would be waterfalls along the way. What the pamphlet didn't say was to wait until all the snow was melted or you wouldn't be able to make it up to the cave.

That didn't deter T and I. We hiked up regardless of the snow and made it to about a hundred yards from the cave. At that point we thought it too steep and slippery to go all the way to the cave. Plus, the water run-off was pouring out of the cave so hard and so fast we decided to keep our distance. We plan on going up again later in the summer once the run-off subsides so we can hike into the cave.

Here are a few photos.

Us at the trail head

J at a small waterfall

T on the trail

Wind cave with water pouring out

Camping

This last week I went on a high adventure camp out with the young men in my ward. We went to Salmon River High Adventure Base Camp in Riggins, ID. We had a seven hour drive ahead of us so we left on Sunday after church. We camped for the night just outside of McCall, ID and woke early to be at the base camp by check in.

The whole camp out was a three day white water rafting trip down the Salmon river. The first day was pretty low key; just a few small rapids to prepare us for the next two days. The second day was a little more eventful. On on of the big rapids two of our boys decided it would be fun to jump in before the rapid and take the rapid in their life jackets. With the missing weight on one side of the boat it hit a hole and twisted in such a way that water washed out the rest of the boys and the river guide. I was in the leader boat just ahead of the boys raft and witnessed the whole thing. Let's just say I was a bit worried. Luckily all the boys made it out OK and thought it was the greatest thing to ever happen to them.

The third day was the shortest day on the river but the most exciting. The rapids were coming every couple of hundred yards and they were all big and fun. Too bad for our boys, because of the stunt they pulled they had to go around most of the big holes. Most of the boys still thought it was a great day on the river when we ended with an all out war on the river between the boys from our troop and the boys from another troop. Even the leaders pitched in a few splashes and tackles into the water...how could I resist.

Overall, it was an awesome trip, one I'd like to do again if I had the chance.

Here are some pictures. (My camera is not waterproof so all pictures are taken from dry ground. I'll post other pictures when I get them from the other leader).

Chillin' out at our first campsite

Our second campsite on the beach

A gorgeous view of part of the river and the canyon

Me with the rafts...trying to get my tan on!

Funny Story

I just wanted to add this funny story that happened at church today. We had just got done eating the bread during sacrament and this seven year old boy in front of T and I said to his parents in a really loud voice, "I wish we could eat a whole piece of white bread...that would be awesome."

I don't think his parent realized how loud he said it until they saw that all ten rows behind them were laughing hysterically, T and I included. To tell you the truth I think all of us during the sacrament have had that same thought one time in our lives, it just took a seven year old to announce it. Kids say the darnedest things!

Dam Marathon

I think the title to this post is what T was saying to herself when she was at mile 16 in her recent endeavor. T ran the Teton Dam Marathon this last Saturday and it was an accomplishment to say the least. I asked her if she wanted to report on her experience but she would rather have me write in her behalf. So it is from my perspective that I write about T's marathon.

I dropped T and her friend off at the dam at 5:15 am for the 5:30 start. After the race started, I drove home and watched Sports.center for four hours. Than I drove to the finish line and picked T up. That was my view of the race.

OK, now for T's. She had a few goals before the race started. The first was to finish in under 4 hours and 30 minutes. The second was to not walk the entire 26.3 miles. She was able to accomplish one of the two. At about mile 16 or so T started to feel sick to her stomach. We are still not sure what brought it on but nonetheless it slowed her down a bit. She thought it was the energy goo they were giving out so she stopped eating and drinking anything but water for the rest of the race. I feel that may have added to her problem. After a mile or so she started to feel better and was able to finish the race in 4 hours and 20 minutes. She did have to walk a little when she felt sick but she was able to persevere and still finish in under four-thirty.

After finishing and after she caught her breath she told me that at one point while she was running she saw a cliff out away from the road and tempted to jump off. She said, "I saw the cliff and thought to myself I can jump off that cliff and end this misery now." She also explained to me moments after the race that she was an idiot to have ever wanted to run a marathon.

Now we are a few day since the marathon and T has finally got over an extreme case of leg and body soreness. She has taken her daily workouts lightly (though I wish she would take the whole week off entirely, but it's T I'm talking about). She now feels running another marathon is definitely something to do again in the future but right now she wants to possibly participate in a triathlon.

Since I got to write this post I also want to take a moment to tell T that I am very very impressed and proud of her for her accomplishment. She truly is amazing and inspiring and I hope she knows how much I love her. Shoot, all I did for those four hours is watch Sports.center, not very impressive.

Here are a few pictures for you all to enjoy.

T getting ready for the start

T running the last stretch before the finish line

Finishing her first ever marathon...way to go!

You Know You're a Poor College Student When...

I think I've got a new series of blogs coming with this one.

This last Saturday T and I went on a little bike ride. First to Ta.co Be.ll to purchase 89 cent double beef burritos (best deal around by the way; they are so good), then to Snow.asis (a shack selling delicious shaved ice), and finally to the park to enjoy the goods. There, at the park, is where the inspiration for this post unfolded.

After partaking in the cheap meal we decided to take a stroll around the park. The night air was welcoming and the park was bustling with people. Before we started our walk, we needed a place to lock up our bikes lest another poor college student tried to take them. We found a covered eating area and locked our bikes up to a post. On one of the tables I noticed a bag of chips and made a joke to T to try one a see if they were good. I should inform you this was a bag of already opened chips that was obviously left there after a big party of some sort. T refused and told me to eat one. Normally I would have said no, but these were BBQ--one of my favorites--and I wanted to see what T's reaction would be if I ate one. So, I opened the bag, grabbed a chip, examined it to see if there were any ants on it, then put it in my mouth. It was good; not stale or anything. We determined they were fine and decided to eat the rest of them as we took our walk around the park. It's a bit embarrassing to admit but we figure they had only been sitting there since that day. No harm no foul, right?

Three 89 cent burritos, $2.67. Two snow cones, $4.50. Finding a half eaten bag of chips at the park and finishing them off...priceless.

Going Green!

T and I are going green in preparation for our move to Oregon. In doing so we purchased a set of bikes for the two of us in hopes to do our little part in saving the environment. Most people know that many Oregonians are labeled as tree huggers, as granolas, or as hippies. We would like to publicly announce that we are all of the above.

JUST KIDDING, I hope you could read right thought all that rubbish. We aren't interested in saving the environment...well I am a little bit, but not to the extent of some Oregon dwellers. Anyway, the real reason we purchased the bikes is to save the green...money that is. With the astronomical gas prices, driving is becoming a serious burden. Filling the car with gas is honestly depressing. So, T and I brain stormed one night and determined we could save a ton of money if we rode bikes around Rexburg. So far it's been good, except for T likes to use every excuse in the book to not to ride her bike and to use the car. I, on the other hand, have enjoyed the exercise and the fresh air.



Hopefully we'll keep up the riding and save some green, as well as pick up a new hobby.

Welcome the Newest Member of the Family

We have a new member of the family, at least for the next five months. Anyone that knows me knows I love turtles; I have for a long time now. My mom used to buy me little ceramic turtles when I was younger and I had always hoped to have a real one someday. The turtle we have is actually one of my old roommate's. He and his wife were living in the same apartment complex as T and I, but now they are heading to D.C. for summer work. They asked if we would take care of it, and of course I excitedly agreed. This is my first--and hopefully not the last--pet since I've been married. T has never had a pet and never, ever wants one; but I am slowly breaking down her reservations. I have had plenty of pets growing up and would love to have plenty of more in the future. This turtle will be the first of others to come...if T will allow it. I've decide to name him Murtle. Here's a few pictures so you can see him.

I just fed him in this picture and he is at the surface looking for more food.

In this picture he's looking out one side of his tank, probably trying to watch TV.

I'm not sure what he's doing here...I think he's working on his dance moves.

March Moustache Dubbed a Success

I know it's nasty! Remember, that was the point. Anyway it's April 1st so this morning the beloved moustache was shaved off. Before I did so, I took a few pics to show the world. I'm a little disappointed that only a few joined me on this endeavor, but nonetheless, there were those who took the challenge. Because a moustache really doesn't belong on my face, people took notice where ever I went. I had random people say to me, "Nice 'stache." I would reply, "Nice face!" No, not really. I mean, come on, I know the moustache at BYU-Idaho is a little out there, but who in the right mind feels it's OK to comment on someones choice to grow a moustache especially if they don't know the person. I find that strange. Today many were saddened by the loss of my moustache, many believed it was a good luck charm and that I should have kept it until school was out. I was starting to believe the same. T welcomed the shaving, though on Sunday she said I was handsome and it was growing on her. I replied, "No, it's actually growing on me." Personally, I'm sad to see it go; I've been enjoying the warmth it has added to my top lip in these frigid Rexburg mornings. Say goodbye, until next March.

Are You Serious?

My bother-in-law often posts a blog titled Life Lessons, at least that's what I think he calls it. Anyway, in it he tells of interesting encounters or stories of idiot people doing idiot things. I always love to read them and now I am going to start my own called Are You Serious? I chose this title because that's the first question I ask myself when I observe something that I think is idiotic.

My first post in this series of blogs is about cell phone ring tones. Now, I will be first to jump on sweet ring tones and I don't rag on others about theirs, that's not what this is about. What I can't stand is the volume at which we feel we must keep our ringers.

I was sitting in a quite building on campus the other day trying to get some things done before I moved on to my next class. Everyone around me was doing to same, enjoying peace and quiet and the ability to focus, and some even use the silence to catch up on a few Z's. Then, as if the fire alarm had been pulled, this girls phone starts blaring, so loud in fact, the poor fellow napping next to me sat up like he'd awoken from a horrid nightmare. Even while to phone sounded away the owner decided to finish the paragraph she was reading before answering it. Are you serious?

This is not the first encounter I have had with loud cell phone ringers, this is just the frosting on the cake. Why do we have to have our ringers so loud? The darn thing should be in your pocket, in your purse, strapped to your belt, or in some other bag. It's like people want to announce to the world that someone is actually calling them. "Hey everyone, I'm getting a phone call on my cell phone, I am so popular!" What would it be like if every time I got an email I shouted at the top of my lungs, "I got mail!" or "I got an email, I must be popular!" I don't think that would fly so well, in fact I'd probably have less friends than I have right now. No one gives a flying crap when you get a phone call. Let's make a resolve and try to keep our cell phone ringers on low, please.

Starvin' Marvin

So, T and I tried to go 5 weeks instead of our normal four on our monthly grocery supply this last month. It was all going well in the fourth week but when we got to the fifth we quickly ran out of food. We were both determined to make it through the week though. Saturday finally came and we made our trip to Win.Co. We practically bought the store out because we were so hungry and everything look sooo good. If you want to save money when grocery shopping, DON"T GO HUNGRY!

One of the items we bought was a simple frozen pizza and we decided we would eat that right when we got home. So in the oven it went and after 10 or so minutes out it came. Again, remember we were still very hungry. When the pizza came out of the over our brains must have turned off because the pizza spent a few seconds on the cutting board before we were shoving the blistering hot pizza in our mouths. Though it was hot we didn't care we just wanted some sustenance.

We'll to conclude the story, it is now Monday night and T and I are still complaining about the roof of our mouths being burned. That's two whole days later. And when I say I'm complaining it's because even when my tongue barely brushes the roof it hurts. So, the moral of the story is, when your supper hungry eat something cold.

March Madness Moustache Mayhem

It is march first, which kicks off March Madness Moustache Mayhem. This is an ever growing event at BYU-Idaho that started three years ago with myself and my roommates and has spread to a large following on campus. It started because BYU-Idaho grooming standards do not allow the growing of facial hair except for moustaches. Most agree that moustaches on a 20-28 years old white male is not attractive. Such adjectives as "mollestache" and "mexistache" have been introduced into the English language because of the hideousness of some moustaches. This is of course why I started this event. I love to do things that other people feel are a little off the wall. In my efforts to grow a moustache every March, students have started growing them as well. Some teachers have even said they would join but usually failed to do so because of the refusal of their wives. My wife refuses and that doesn't stop me though.

I would encourage any readers to grow a moustache during March and spread the mayhem outside of BYU-Idaho. I will also post a picture at the end of the month to show everyone the progress of my sweet stache. I would encourage you to do it as well. By the way, this is a male event only...sorry ladies.

Happy growing season!

Rexburg, Idaho Temple Dedication

T and I attended the Rexburg Temple dedication yesterday morning. It was a simple but very nice event. It was awesome seeing President Monson in his new calling as President and Prophet of the Church. He made the comment that he was thankful that his first official assignment as President was to dedicate the Rexburg Temple. During the Sealing of the Cornerstone ceremony President Monson was hilarious. He had a heck of a time trying to get the putty into the tiny crack and kept dropping it all over the place. Later, while another leader was placing some putty in the crack President Monson asked the man to scrape up what he had dropped then said, "That's what you call repentance." Everyone was rolling!

It is interesting how much the temple has changed this area. It has change not only the landscape of Rexburg but the feeling of Rexburg as well. People seem to have change as the temple sprung out of the hill. Even for myself, seeing the temple watch over the city has increase my love and appreciation for this small town. During the last summer, when I would walk to where I would catch the van for work in the very early hours of the morning, I would stare up at the construction site. It would be difficult to see in the fog and darkness, however, it really brought an extended peace in the already quiet morning.

I heard someone say about the Rexburg Temple that it is unique in the fact that it can be seen for miles in any direction, 360 degrees around it, without any interference. It truly is a "light and a beacon" unto this area.

So, So Cold!

I don't know if people outside of Rexburg, Idaho really know how cold it gets here. I woke up this morning, ate my breakfast, took my shower, then decided to go warm up the car...and it's a darn good thing I did. As soon as I stepped outside I felt the air get sucked out of my lungs. This is what occurs when it is so cold and dry it's hard to inhale enough oxygen to sustain yourself. After 10 seconds of being outside I could tell this was a temperature I had not experienced before.

After finally prying the frozen car door open, I got in and made a horrible attempt to start the car. It took 10 minutes just to get the darn thing started and another five or so, holding down the gas pedal, to keep it alive. If I let completely off the pedal then the car would die and I would be back to square one. By this time, I swore I had been outside for 15 to 20 minutes and I could barely feel my hands and feet. I decided to head in without scrapping the windows for worry of losing a finger or toe.

Once safely inside and beginning to feel the blood warm up in my extremities I got on my computer and saw the temperature was 20 below zero. I was shocked! I found out later that all the surrounding area schools had been canceled because it was too cold, of course BUY-Idaho was still in session. I guess they realize we have already reached our educational pinnacle so if one of our student body wasted away to hypothermia or blood freezing within the vessels it wouldn't be that big of a loss.

I'm pretty sure when it's that cold even the icicles are screaming for a warm coat.

Next Chapter of Life

When T and I returned form our Christmas break in San Antonio we were greeted with a packet of information from Western States Chiropractic College in Portland, Oregon. I had sent in my essays and application fee the Tuesday before we left. The first page was a letter dated Dec. 21, the Friday of the same week I sent in my essays. It also stated that I had been reviewed and accepted into their Doctor of Chiropractic program. So, T and I have our next chapter of life planned out in Portland. We are super excited to know where we are going and what we will be doing for the next three years. Friends of ours keep telling us how lucky we are because many of them are still waiting for responses from school they have applied to. Some of them have even received rejection letters from some schools. T and I have felt very blessed the last few days to know we will be moving on to our next destination without any hiccups.