The Cragun's

Yertrucken, I mean Turducken

2011-11-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile.

How are you all doing?

I'm fine, thanks for asking.

In fact, I'm getting ready to eat my second meal of Thanksgiving, dessert.

I'm not sure why I've taken such a long break from blogging, I just couldn't get myself to do it, and I had a blogging-motivated husband who filled in the gaps so that we didn't lose all of our readership.

Being Thanksgiving time, I would like to tell you some of the things that I am extremely grateful for that have (or have not) happened over the past couple of months.

1. As some of you may or may not have known, my sweet mother was in a pretty traumatic car crash a few weeks ago and broke a vertebrae in her back. She was driving on the highway at night near our home and she hit (being the fourth person to hit it) a black cow. She's doing much better now, thankfully, and thanks to a cement-like substance infused into her back she is feeling even better.

I am very thankful for angels who watched over my mom and kept her here with us. I have an amazing mom, I've always known that, but I am especially grateful that she was protected and is so strong. After all, she is the strongest woman I know.

2. I gained one more nephew this month.

Someone at work sweetly asked me last week, "Is this your first niece/nephew?!" I replied, "No, this makes 15..."

My new nephew was born as cute as ever, and to make it even better, I got to go out and stay with him and his family for a week.

In addition to holding a new baby, I got to hang out with my sister, brother-in-law, and her three other children making Thankful turkeys, driving a mini-van, packing lunches, telling princess bed-time stories, making Cafe Rio dinner, and kissing new babies.

I am so so glad I live so close to my wonderful sister, who I now know is super-woman.

3. I got to come to DC this weekend for Thanksgiving with Matt's family. I love love this city. I used to think of this city as if it consisted of the Mall alone, but now I comprehend a little more the culture and expanse of the city.

In addition to the city itself, we did something epic. (That word is highly overused in today's society, but it is completely appropriate in this particular case.)

We made a turducken!....

You know, the chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey?!

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without this massive amount of bird. Matt and his brother took on the feat of deboning and stuffing all three inside of each other, while his mom and I happily stuck to our assortment of side dishes.

I'll save you the goriness of the picture of them stuffing the three birds inside of each other.

I love Thanksgiving and finding new recipes and family and DC.

4. I love my job. I don't know how many of you know this, but I work with students with autism. There are definitely hard days, like any job, but I absolutely love working with such incredible kids. I once heard someone, very innocently, say that they didn't think their son had autism because he was affectionate. I must say that this is one of the hardest misconceptions for me that our society has about people with autism. I work with some of the most loving, affectionate kids that are so quick to laugh, hug, love, and forgive. I wish I were more like that.

So while there are hard days, I love being in a position where I have an opportunity to learn from, help, and love my students.

5. My husband is the most loving man on this earth. To prove this, I will give you a small example.

Every single night between the months of August and May I sleep with a rice bag...(my feet get cold ok?) and every night, even though he hates it, he puts up with it. Well, last night we went to bed and Matt fell asleep instantly, but my feet were cold and I hadn't heated up my rice bag (yes, maybe I brought it in my suitcase) and I didn't want to walk all the way downstairs to heat it up. So my kind husband, after waking up when my cold feet accidentally touched him, let me put my icy feet on his legs to warm up.

Although other proof exists, I think this small case proves my point with striking clarity that he is the most kind and selfless man and that I am a very lucky woman.

6. All of our grateful lists could go on and on and I could undoubtedly name a million things that I am so grateful for on this wonderful holiday (like my faith, my siblings who are my best friends, my youthful and selfless dad, etc.) but these are some of the things that have been happening that I finally felt the motivation to blog about.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Analytical Data Proves my Sister is the Best in the World

2011-10-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Normally I'm not one to brag, but today for my blog post, I would like to take this time to say that I have the best sister in the world. This is a very bold statement, and some may question my authority on the matter. However, in addition to having my own sister (which I have now had for almost 21 years), I know lots of people that are sisters and lots of people that have sisters. Because of my tremendous experience in this area, I feel that I can offer a fair and unbiased judgement on the matter. And as though it needed it, I will prove my point-- and because I am an engineer and I believe in science, I will use quantitative reasoning.

My sister is 10% happier than other average sisters
The standard deviation of my sister's beauty is 6.7 less than any other sample (n>500) taken from the general population of sisters

3. My sister is not crazy (This is just binary)

4. My sister has 2X the cooking ability of standard sisters

5. My sister laughs 8.6 louder at my jokes, than other sisters

6. My sister is in the optimal athletic region-She runs 5k's like they're going out of style. (See plot below)

7. My sister is majoring in Public Health which means she gives a care at a rate of 9.3 cares/min vs. the current sister-industry standard of 4.6 cares/min (that's almost 2.1 times faster)

8. My sister has the shiniest golden blonde hair that is equivalent to the sun in lumens (3.75×10²⁸ lm, ya that's a lot of lumens).

9. My sister is 4.69 more spiritual than regular sisters, but cries -2.6 less (If her ox died, I'm pretty sure she could bring it back just like that girl in Legacy or was it Oregon Trail?).

10. My sister goes to 11.

Anyone who has actually met my sister knows of her sheer awesomeness, but sometimes it's nice to have the numbers to back things up. Anyway, to my lil' Sis---I luv Ya.

Cowboys and Aliens Movie Review/Congrats to the Inlaws/mmmm....Bacon/Hanging out with dudes/Nicole Please Come Home Before I Go Crazy

2011-08-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend Nicole has been out in Utah for her parents 40th wedding anniversary--congrats Roger and Lynne'. I must say it's a major achievement. I, on the other hand, stayed back to watch the homestead and feed the plant. It has been a real throw-back to the day of the single-life surviving off of chips and salsa, things that can be grilled, and bacon. (The salsa has actually been homemade because our tomato plant is making fruits non-stop.) Last night I hung out with two other guys who's wives were also MIA. We first went to a Columbus Crew (MLS) soccer game. We won. At the end of the game Clint said, "who wants to go see a late movie?" My gut reaction was, "whoa, 10:30 is my bedtime pal, I should probably be getting back." But then I thought, if I go back, what am I going to do...nothing. So I went to the movie.

We went to see Cowboys and Aliens. The plot goes something like this...there are some cowboys who want gold. Then some aliens come who want the gold too. The aliens kill the cowboys. Then Harrison Ford comes, and some Indians come, and they kill the aliens together. As shallow as this plot sounds, I think there's a greater metaphor. I think what the movie was really about was a guy who wanted to make a movie with cowboys and aliens in it at the same time...because that would be awesome. Actually, all joking aside, I think it really does teach a valuable lesson: nothing unites two races that hate each other more than hate for a third, even less-desirable race.

Weekends like this are really good for me though. Because as much fun as it is hanging out with other married guys, watching intellectually stimulating movies, and eating bacon, it's not as much fun as hanging out with Nicole. Which makes me really think how glad I am that I'm married and how excited I am to make it to year 40 and beyond with her. Anyone who knows Nicole (if you're reading this blog, chances are you do) will understand what I'm talking about. But just in case you need a refresher, here are my top 10 favorite things about her:

She is the most beautiful woman I know
She has an unlimited supply of love and compassion for others (mine usually runs out much faster)
She's 100% dedicated to the gospel
She loves to meet new people and make friends
She love to cook really great food and try new recipes
She's an extremely hard worker
She's got style
She's very goal oriented and driven
She will be a fantastic mother (NOTE: This is not any sort of an announcement or something--just a general statement about the future I.E. we are not pregnant, or for you hipsters, are not planning on buying a dog.)
She's really the most Christ-like person I know

So, in short, I lucked out big time.

The Mother Land

2011-07-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

So we had a busy June. We spent most of June in Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, NorthCarolina, and Kentucky. During the month of June I also rode my bike 3x

went camping 2x, built a backsplash 1x, Gained +1 sister, got on National TV 1x, and probably also gained some weight.

Here are some pictures to back up my alibi...

The bridge on the way out of Ohio.

A campsite in Virginia.

A Tennessee caterpillar.

A pig ride in North Carolina.

Our garden after being gone for 2 weeks.

My muscles out in the woods.

Grandpa got a 4-wheeler.

Nicole and Niece.

Riding the lift at Sundance.

Again on the lift...

We went hiking in the mountains...

Dressed like twinners...

Decorated a car with...

Balloons
Streamers
Confetti
Saran Wrap
Chocolate Sauce
Tin Foil
Hot Dogs
Soda Cans (full)
More Confetti
Dolls
Markers
Ladies' Dainties
Nerf Guns
A few other things

Actually I'm going to take another minute on this one because I am particularly proud of it. My younger brother, of course, knew ahead of time that we were going to decorate his car, but we were only "allowed" to do the outside (as if one's permission matters in such circumstances, like asking "Can I pull your unconscious body from this burning car?"--It doesn't matter what the answer is, there are just certain unwritten rules in life that transcend personal preference--Nathan gets confetti in his AC vents, end of story.) Anyway, Nathan was less than willing to give us his keys at the reception. Foreseeing that he would be an unwilling accomplice in his own demise, we decided to take preventive action. While in the shower, we took his keys to Walmart to make a copy. Unfortunately, because Nathan's car posses slightly more advanced anti-theft technology than Super-Beast (the car requires a special chipped key to start instead of just a screwdriver), we could not get a copy made. So plan-B was even better. Eric also drives a Mazda, so using some voodoo off the internet (very similar to left-right-left-right-up-down-a-b-select-start, but with car doors and the vehicle ignition), we reprogrammed Nathan's car to accept Eric's key fob. The best part of the whole experience was when Nathan realized that we had not just decorated his car, but that we had somehow decorated the inside of his car as well.

...Then we cleaned up....

We went karting also...

Anyway, it was a very successful month. But we're really happy to be home, although we're really sad to be out of vacation days.

Look Mom--I'm on TV

2011-06-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

If anyone is interested, this spot was a filler segment during one of the last Indy Car races talking about race car aerodynamics. I did the computer simulations at work (TotalSim) that they used. I was pretty excited...

P.S. - it's better when it's not in a tiny window.

Food, Farmers Market, Drive, Build Something---repeat...

2011-05-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

For anyone who isn't aware, it's May---but it's pretty much already over. May was a busy month--we got to spend a lot of time seeing family, eating good food and building things. So I would call it a success. Here is what we have been up to:

Removed a our old flower bed/thistle hatchery/public eyesore and planted grass...

Built a much more environmentally friendly* "square-foot garden" complete with $50 dollar dirt and a trap for the rabbits (*Actually in regards to the rabbits the garden is not a friendly place, in fact a hope they feel a sense of foreboding and hostility when they come and eat the sweet potatoes). But we have peas, squash, rhubarb, strawberries, tomatoes, white onions, green onions, hot peppers, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, and something else...

Then in honor of our future guests (that's foreshadowing) we built a bed (we're talking the whole shebang here).

Then we went to Ill for James' graduation. He's now a lawyer. I'm still figuring out who I'm going to sue first to take advantage of my 'friends and family' discount.

-We were fortunate to find a hotel room. It had a nice resort-y yet quaint lock-the-door-so-a-man-who- thinks-he's-his-own-mother-doesn't-come-in-and-stab-you-in-the-(cold) shower type feel.

Those who are truly design conscious will notice that this room takes design queues from the clearance racks of each decade since 1965. Now before any of you say, Matt you're a cheap jerk. I want to point out two things: 1. Because it was graduation, we were lucky to even have a room...Motel 6 was charging $183/night that weekend. 2. I did splurge and go for the extra space and get the room with two beds and a tv with a remote.

While in Champaign, we played hide and seek...a lot. I know most of you are thinking "Why did you post a picture of a bare floor?" Well if you look closely, you can see the faint outline of a person that resembles a small boy...I know...tough to see, but he is there. Needless to say, our games of hide and seek were epic and quite challenging.

Then, the weekend after that we spent the weekend with Nicole's brother and sister and her parents at our house. We took a day trip up to Cleavland and went to their giant farmers market. We had some good food including but not limited to bratwurst, cupcakes, falafel, strawberries, blackberries, pizza, and apple fritters the size of your head.

After that we went to Kirtland, OH to the temple there. I mentioned to a few people we know here that aren't associated with our church that Ohio was once a Mormon hotbed and they were all pretty surprised. But just for proof...we went to go see the sights.

Then this weekend my parents came into town. So to celebrate we wen to the farmers market and ate chicken, brisket, pizza rolls, and these things---Omega Cakes....dark chocolate balls filled with cake and some sort of cream that is made from fat.
We went to our favorite antique store in the Short North...
We bought some flowers at the farmers market...

Then we took the old wood from our flower beds that we removed this week and built a plantar box out of them.

Then on Sunday we grilled an entire chicken. It was really good. The secret is to shove a can of soda up its cavity.

I'd like to note that Nicole and I now have a butcher. That's right, a shop dedicated to just meat. I've stopped by a number of times now and picked up steaks, burgers, brats and now a chicken and have not been disappointed yet. The prices are surprisingly competitive and the meat is much fresher.
This is what my mom looks like as a raw chicken.

As Washington as it Gets

2011-03-13T07:22:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since we've posted anything. Maybe I feel like I've got to have something good to post about. Maybe I feel like my writing doesn't cut it, so without some fun event to post about it's not worth posting.

We've been good here in Ohio though- beautiful sunshine this weekend. Matt and I even ate outside yesterday at the North Market. Yesterday morning we went with our ward (the people on this link all describe what a ward is) to do Meals on Wheels. We delivered hot and cold meals to a lot of people in Columbus. I was expecting a different demographic, I think, but they were all elderly men and women who needed some extra help with meals. They were all so grateful and appreciative. Many wished us to drive safely and thanked us for our time. It was a lot of fun to do together; I think we'll try to do it again in the future.

Over President's Day weekend we drove to Eric's, Matt's brother, in D.C. We had one of the best weekends we've had there, shopping, cooking, eating out, going to Mount Vernon (for free, I might add. Happy President's Day.) and hanging out. I have to say, at Mount Vernon I felt something more profound for George Washington than I have before. I really felt grateful for his life and his mission, and I felt that he truly was a righteous man, doing what he knew he was supposed to do.

We did miss, however, George's surprise birthday party. I bet he was really surprised.

Eating the biggest burgers ever.

My burger was that big.

The wreathlaying ceremony at Washington's tomb.

Real marching band from the 18th century.

The view George had of the Potomac River from his spacious veranda.

Can you picture the President peacefully lounging in his backyard?

The Departure of Super-Beast

2011-02-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember when that loveable joke-ster, friend, and loyal companion Super-Beast entered our family unit last year. Well, it pains me to say it, but on Saturday, Super-Beast left our family to go take care of an 18 year-old community college student. I will miss the old radio that only got one channel, the toy gorilla that was somehow magically affixed to the dash board that won't come off no matter what, and the sound it made in the morning since the muffler rusted off.

Super-Beast the Day he came to our family

However, this is not meant to be some sort of mopey, dreary, mourn-fest for what was and what might have been. No, this is a great day, because today I introduce to you, Son of Super-Beast. Son of Super-Beast is a 1995 Nissan pickup with 4wd and fuel-injection with almost no rust herpes. We've already been driving SSB around in the snow and been having a great time. SSB still isn't pretty, but follows his father's motto of 'git er done'.

Son of Super-Beast together with Super-Beast on sale day

A Late Christmas Story

2011-01-31T17:15:00.000-08:00

I haven't told our Christmas story yet.

It was a wonderful wonderful time with both our families. My family got together for Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Matt and I spent Christmas morning at my sister Carolyn's, and since our family has a tradition of getting up at what some people consider a ridiculously early time, we were able to have Christmas with them and then make it up to Logan to experience Christmas morning all over again with Matt's family.

We spent most of our Christmas vacation with my sister and her cute family in Salt Lake.

What more could you want from Santa?

While Santa knows some things I like, ultimately it was Matt who knew the best gift.

We drove up to Logan in time to have Christmas morning all over again.

It was so much fun to spend it at Matt's grandma's home. We had a huge breakfast, lots of games, and nerf darts.

Did we mention that after 2 1/2 years of marriage we finally got a TV. Thanks in part to Matt's parents (thank you!). It's been a nice addition and hasn't taken over our life. It's perfect.

Snowshoeing at Donut Falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City

Matt crawling out of the entrance to a cave that opens up into a large room. There's a hole in the top that water flows down through, hence Donut Falls.

This is one of the reasons why I miss Utah! For you Ohioans, although you may not be able to tell, we are at almost 11,000 feet in elevation up Brighton.

We spent lots of wonderful time on Christmas Eve and Christmas night with my family.

How can you say no to them? Look at their cheeks.

Matt used his ingenious engineering skills to promote my brother-in-law's ornaments from scary to truly horrific, thanks to the snowman's jimmy-rigged glowing eyes.

Matt always makes me so proud.

I think my favorite present this season was this.

My new niece Olivia was worth every penny of the trip.

Take a Blog Reader to Work Day

2011-01-30T17:32:00.000-08:00

At one time or another most of you, my loyal readership, have had questions about what the life of others is like, such as: "What would it be like to be Spiderman?" "What would it be like to be an astronaut and repair the Hubble telescope?" "What would it be like to be that guy who operates the wrecking ball?" (Ok, so maybe not everyone fantasizes about being an astronaut.) But many have probably wondered, What is the life of a Computational Fluid Dynamacist like? Well you're in luck because recently at work I've a had a little spare time to work on some promotional things that will soon be on our new website. And since they will be on our website, I can share them (unlike most of the stuff we do which can't be shared with anyone.) The cool stuff is at the end.

So here it is. Most of my day is spent staring at this:

If you aren't familiar with this, it's probably a good thing because it means you also don't think math jokes are funny and also have good social skills/personal hygiene. This is a Linux command prompt. Just imagine there were no pictures or buttons on your computer and you had to type everything you want your computer to do. As bad as it sounds, it actually makes life much easier.

First we get 3D models all tidied up and ready for simulation. Then, we setup programs that simulate air blowing over or through stuff. Could be a building, could be a person, but usually it's a car of some sort. Then we look at the results and tell people what they mean. After that we make graphs of things and look at pictures of the air to see what is going on. Usually we tweak their designs somehow to make them better and run them again. Then we start the process over again and keep going in this loop until someone says stop.

Most of our simulations are run on our big computing boxes at the office which are essentially 24 really fast computers all running together which is 1 tera-flop of power. 1 tera flop is 1 trillion calculations per second. Most of our simulations take about 10 hours to solve. The numbers get pretty incomprehensible pretty fast. To give an idea of where all this power is going, essentially what is happening is the computer is solving a system of equations. If anyone remembers their algebra, that is like solving:

x + 2 = y

y+1 = x

You have to solve both equations at the same time to get an answer. Each simulation has about 50 million data points and each data point has six equations. These are usually solved about 3000 times. Anyway, it's lots of really crazy math that the computers do for us.

Anyway, since that part is usually not very exciting for most people, here are some shots that are mostly just eye-candy, but still cool. This particular simulation took a week to run.

This shot is slices through the air of the air pressure around the car. (Usually we don't color it to look like fire, but it makes a cool picture)

This is a picture of the car's wake. It's the layer of air that separates negative pressure air from positive pressure. Negative pressure is usually bad because it's suction and slows the car down. The wing on top is colored by air speed moving over its surface.

This is a picture of the air as it hits the wing of the car with what are called streamlines. It basically shows where the air goes. The streamlines are colored by their speed. The big circles are what's called a vortex.

This is a video that's pretty cool in hi-def. It shows the wake of the car changing over time. There's lots of turbulence.

Favorite Things, cue music

2010-12-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

Spooky

and Spraining

and Amish

and Biking.

Eating

and Family

and Pies to our Liking.

Fake Sledding,

Pine Trees

we sawed with our hands,

These are a few of the things that are grand.

When the wreath's up,

And the tree's cut,

And the garland's fine,

I make loads of brownies

with frosting on top

with oreos stuffed

inside.

Before and After

2010-10-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

I'm finally posting the before and after pictures of the main level of our house. I don't know why it's taken me so long to just do it. I guess I felt like it wasn't done enough to post. We still have some doors missing, some furniture to buy, and some decorating to do, but most of it's done.

Enjoy.

Before

Don't be fooled by the okay looking floor. There were probably 30 screws holding it down where it had bulged from expansion. The trim was also pretty hacked in places where they'd tried to fit the flooring underneath it. We thought it was termites at first.

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

The tile floor was cracked in places because it wasn't installed with cement backer board, so it was either replace a few and have the same problem later or redo the whole floor. We chose the latter.

After

Before

After

Before

After

I wish we would have taken real pictures of the half bathroom- I think it was one of the rooms that had the biggest change.

Our Love is Fueled by Humidity, Warming Ocean Currents, and an Appetite for Destruction

2010-10-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

Every once and a while when the conditions are just right, and the stars are properly aligned a true love is allowed to form...somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This year just happened to be that year.

Down in the Gulf of Mexico, over the last few weeks of hurricane season, the area was rocked by the one-two punch of hurricane Matthew followed by tropical storm Nicole. Yes...we make a good team. There is no one in this world that I would rather destroy the Caribbean and Mexico with than my sweet, tender wife.

Two

2010-08-27T15:39:00.001-07:00

It's true.

Matt and I have hit two years together.

I'm madly in love with this one.

There's been so much in two years- fun things, trying things, trips to England, trips to Sandusky, hard jobs, wonderful jobs, missing family, family visits, F1 races, dance performances, learning to mountain bike, learning to dance, sleeping in a resort in Cabo, trying to sleep in our car driving across the country, chocolate, and flowers, and tools.

Happy Two.

It's like this,

2010-08-10T17:28:00.002-07:00

I have a million excuses why I haven't blogged in a long time, you know work and house and stuff, and I feel like I have been aloof lately on our blog- so I will show you a few of the wonderful people we saw this summer.

We finally made it out to Utah in July and even made it down to Cedar City after a year and a half of being away. We love Ohio but I missed my family so much.

One of the main reasons for making the trip was to meet my two new nieces!

I didn't ever think we'd get two at once, but here is heaven on earth.

We met up with some of my long lost cousins who now have kids of their own and had a bbq at Carolyn's house.

Matt and I have the most amazing grandparents. We got to go down to Delta to see my dad's parents (it's been since our wedding) and it was so good to see them.

Did you know my grandpa is the handiest man alive? He built a barn a few years ago the size of a football field... almost.

Did you know my dad plays the banjo? He does, and he's really good, even after taking a break for a while.

We also went to see Matt's grandparents in Logan and Lehi. It was so good to see them and we had a great time visiting after such a long time of being away.

This is one of the strongest, happiest girls I have ever met in my life. And I love her and miss her. We're best friends, can you tell?

Matt and I both got to visit good friends from home that we haven't seen in a long time which was so nice. (See post below for Matt's venture with Arthur)

While we were down in Cedar City my family all went camping.

Can you believe this red rock? I can't believe that I took it for granted for so long. I miss the look of Southern Utah. Can you believe how big my nieces and nephews are?! I miss them so much.

We also had a birthday party for Ryan and Rosa.

I want to kiss them all! I worked really hard to maintain the favorite aunt status,

but I think Matt is winning on favorite.

3 weeks - 3 Rides

2010-07-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

The last three weeks have been especially good for Nicole and I. The last weekend in June, we took a break from all the house stuff and went camping. We decided to go out near Rio Grande, Oh to the Bob Evan's homestead. They have some camping and even more important, some mountain biking trails. The weather was nice and sunny, however, in the morning, everything was foggy.

On Saturday we got up early to ride before breakfast, and before we had even made it 50 feet, I broke my chain. Luckily I had another chain to use. We went for a short ride for about 35 min just to get warmed up. Then we took a break and went to breakfast at the origianl Bob Evans restaurant. It sounds charming, but it was about as exciting as all of the other Bob Evans' in the world. But it was still a good hearty breakfast.

After we got done, we went for another ride. There is some nice single track up there.

The following weekend, we left for UT. We were out in the mother land for about 10 days. While there, my brother-in-law and I decided to rent bikes up at Brian Head. This was a pretty exciting venture because Brian Head is significantly steeper than just about anything I have ridden before. Thankfully we rented some burly bikes. The picture below is me with my bike and then James with his bike.

Below, is a steep section that James was supposed to photograph my awesomeness on.

Here's a better close-up of all that awesomeness:
That's about as graceful as I get unfortunately. We rode for about 5 hours. Which doesn't sound like a lot when you get to take the lift to the top and gravity does the rest. But we were both beat by the end, and decided to call it a day while neither of us had yet required an ER trip. I was surprised the next day how sore my upper body was. That downhill stuff is a lot of work.

Then to top it off, on Mon, I got to ride with my best friend from high school up in Corner Canyon in Draper. This was more of a traditional cross country ride. It had a long climb at the beginning...a really long climb. It was especially difficult since I've been living almost at sea level for the last year. But the downhill was worth it. I didn't get to take any pictures of us riding because I left the camera in the truck, but here's a good one out of the archives from the glory days for your imaginations.

2010-07-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

2010-06-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the updates on our house.

We pulled out the hideous bush weeds in front of our house that were overtaking our sidewalk.

First we tried tying it up to our truck, which worked fairly well.

But that almost ripped off our rusty bumper so our neighbor brought over his huge van and did this.

This was our bush that Matt's mom helped us prune down to a little stick bush. It's growing back quite nicely.

Our flowers are blooming and our lawn is doing better (thanks to bi-monthly treatments and lots of watering).

My sister and her family came to visit us a couple weeks ago so I worked like crazy to clean up our house so that her kids didn't hurt themselves with sharp objects, uncovered floor vents, uncovered outlets, or fall down our basement stairs due to no doors in our house. I unpacked and sorted and organized everything we own. It looked much like a real house when I was finished.

So we are completely unpacked.

And we got a couch.

But no counter-tops yet.

While my sister was here we had a party,

went to a Columbus Clippers game,

and became famous.

(Look closely.)

Oh, it's Master Matt, if you don't mind

2010-06-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's true.

He is no longer a student.

He's all grown up and fully assimilated into the business world.

(And I can host your next birthday party.)

I'm so proud!

And he only makes me call him Master sometimes.

The move

2010-05-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well today is officially our first full day in the new house. We moved all of our stuff yesterday. We had people from church show up to help us move in which was a great help. It took about 1 hour to get it out of the truck and into our living room. It should now only take us three weeks to get it out of our living room to a more permanent location.

In general though, we've been moving along. We put the appliances in and had the cabinets and carpet installed this week.

We put in some new lighting fixtures in various locations in the house. Yesterday we also had some friends come through town that have been planning to stay with us for some time. That really added to our urgency to make the house livable. Livable included things like put some doors on the bedrooms and bathrooms, get a shower curtain up, get a light in the bathroom, put blinds on windows, etc. We got a lot of it done but not quite as much as we had been planning. One example is the doors. We were planning on putting up white doors. Unfortunately there just wasn't time to paint the doors, so for now, they just had to go back up. Because we're lucky, we got the the laundry room door on our room-complete with a hole for the cat door.

Turns out, somewhere in the home renovation, we lost a 30 in X 80 in door. How do you lose a 30x80 door? I'm still not entirely sure but I am sure that we have no idea where it is and that our room is not private to cats, children or small burglars.

Latest News

2010-05-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Well things have been pretty crazy around here. What have we been doing? Well, what haven't we been doing? Well we haven't been sleeping, eating properly, showering, brushing our teeth, doing our homework, traveling, playing frisbee at the park, going on walks, and most tragically, riding our bikes. Pretty much all we have been doing is working on the house.

Thankfully, it's almost over. This week we have some new cabinets coming Tuesday, then we have new carpet coming on Weds. Then we have a few more finishing touches to put on before moving on Fri. It's none too soon either. Besides the fact that we would go crazy and probably light the place on fire if it dragged on much longer, we have good friends from Virginia that are coming into town on Sat and are staying with us. (Bryant and Kristy, if you're reading this, we'll at least have a door on the bathroom by the time you get here.)

Anyway, the last two days have been much better because we've started finishing things. Yesterday we finished the half bath downstairs...with the exception of the toilet and the sink. We also have all of the trim painted and back up except for in the kitchen. We still have a nice long list of things to get done, but it's nice to finally start finishing things.

The trim is now all up except in the kitchen. That was a big task and required a lot of leg work; it would go something like this. 1. Go upstairs. 2. Measure new trim piece. 3. Go downstairs to garage and cut trim piece on saw. 3. Go back upstairs and fit trim piece and realize it it still too long. 4. Go back downstairs to garage and cut piece again on miter saw. 5. Go back upstairs to re-fit trim piece. 6. Realize you cut too much off trim piece and it is now too short. 7. Try not to curse. 8. Start over.

We also have all of the walls painted except for the bathroom upstairs and the touch-up work that needs to be done. Note: the walls are not as green as they look. In fact oddly enough, even though both rooms were painted from the same can, they constantly look different shades from one another.

Anyway, Friday's the big move and we're exited. I can't wait to unload the truck, lay down on our new soft carpet and take a nap.

Well don't you clean up nicely

2010-04-26T14:10:00.001-07:00

This is our bathroom. He's vivacious.

This is my Matt's father, to whom we are forever grateful for lending his experienced hand. He was our personal slave and he worked hard (well into 3:30 AM on Saturday night, along with my diligent husband and brother-in-law).

This is Matt's talented mother, who worked and weeded and painted and with whom I ran many trips to Home Depot and Wal-Mart with.

This flower bed (as well as the others lining our entire house) was filled with weeds. (Example below.)

We gave it a nice face lift. I even have a pretty little flower planter now, THANK YOU LEANNE!

She also taught me how to obtain my own green thumb

We worked hard and I am very happy that hard work often brings such grand rewards. (I even learned how to prune. Dustin, you'd be so proud.)

So this is the before of our kitchen, if you have forgotten.

And after screwing over a billion screws,

and taping,

and sawing (This is Eric, who drove long hours and stayed up late and drove home all in a weekend just to help us. We love Eric.)

and laying tiles, you get something like this. Only cleaner.

"Honey, it's like one of those shows"

2010-04-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

is what our neighbor said to his girlfriend upon entering our home. Even though from the pictures things don't look half bad, up close this house needs some care.

We accomplished a lot in the past week (thanks to help from some very generous parents, and a good sister who brought three lovely children and made us popular with the neighbors).

We've grilled (in our own yard).

We've demoed:

The nasty cat smelling carpet is gone, as well as the baseboards.

The poorly installed flooring (including the screws holding the bulges down) is/are gone.

We've vacuumed up all of the staples and items liable to puncture.

We've thrown some paint around.

And it's all been very gratifying.

Do you like it? You can visit.

2010-04-11T17:44:00.001-07:00

This is a house.

We liked it.

So we bought it.

Do you like it?

It's getting made pretty right now.

There's even a room for you to stay in when you come.

Birthday Bash

2010-03-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well I'm officially 27. It was a good birthday. Nicole threw me a bit of a preemptive on Thurs. night. We went out to dinner and then had cake and a really nice evening at home. For my birthday Nicole made me a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting that was really good.

The reason we didn't spend as much time celebrating on Friday was because we had a concert to get to. It was for a band called the Temper Trap. They actually put on a really good show. It's been a while since I've been to a concert. As good as the Temper Trap was, I would say my favorite part was the opening band. Not because they were musically inclined, but because of one person in particular. The opening band was a six-piece--pretty rare for the entry level indy market. So what do you get with six pieces that you don't get with four or five? A full-time tamborinist -- that's what.

Most of you are probably skeptical of this setup and are asking questions such as: doesn't he get tired playing that tamborine? How entertaining can a tamborine guy really be? Well the answers are: no, not when he's double fisting tambos like Animal from the Muppets, and: it depends on if it's the beginning or end of the show and how many beers he's had while he's been on stage.

(When he's not fist shakin' he plays a mean air guitar.) Anyway, the concert was good and all in all a successful birthday. Thanks for all the kind wishes from everyone out there.

Geburtstag

2010-02-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

Birthdays are wonderful.

My friend bought me a yummy brownie with ice cream at our work party.

Another friend made me some of these.

Banana Cupcakes

1 1/2 C sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk
1 1/4 C ripe banana, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy
3. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until batter is smooth.
4. Combine all dry ingredients and mix into batter in 3 parts,
alternating with buttermilk. Reduce speed to low and mix for 2 more minutes
5. Line cupcake pan with wrappers. Using a spatula gently fold mashed
bananas into batter. Scoop into cups until 2/3 full.
6.Bake for 25 minutes and let cool.

7. FOR FROSTING

2 C powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1tsp vanilla
1 cup chunky peanut butter
3 tbsp milk.

Combine powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Then add 1 cup peanut
butter and milk. Mix until spreadable.

Makes 18.

And they're AMAZING.

And my parents, unbeknownst to them, helped me get some sweet boots.

Thanks mom and dad.

Just in time for

My husband gave me my very first ice cream cake, because I've always wanted one.

(He also gave me my first ever real adult perfume)

We had fun friends to enjoy it with us.

And I got to spend all day with my favorite person.

I believe it's time

2010-02-05T19:48:00.001-08:00

to tell of things past. In November we had Thanksgiving, the first one that we hosted at our house. We had wonderful company, family from both sides. Matt's parents made it out, along with his brother, and my sister and her family.

It helped to have an experienced mother-in-law to help cook all the food.

The other turkey

It was a lot of fun to host. Maybe next time we host it will be in a real live house.

Then it became Christmas time, and I got to go see my family in Utah! I hadn't seen my sisters (or their families) in a year. Too long to not see my best friends.

(This sister is not pictured because I'm lucky to have her live nearer to me in the midwest.)

I got to meet this one for the first time.

I stayed with each of my sisters that live in Utah and my parents came up north to see me. One of my best friends from college got married in the Salt Lake Temple, and that was an experience I'll never forget.

I loved every minute I got to spend with my family. I have the cutest nieces and nephews and I miss them a lot.

My niece asked me if I could eat lunch with her at school; she's in first grade.

I also got to go see this cute one sing with her preschool class.

My friends from work told me to take pictures of the mountains and I was happy to oblige. I can't believe how refreshing it was to see those mountains.

I was sad to leave Utah, but I flew to Chicago to meet Matt and we drove up to Minnesota to spend Christmas with his family. We had a great time being fed and taken care of by his mom. She made us so much good food.

Don't miss the colony of little snowmen fleeing for their lives,

and the one in his hand who wasn't so fortunate.

We rang bells on Christmas Eve.

We also made bank for the Salvation Army as we skillfully played our chimes.

Matt's younger brother is an awesome photographer, and he took some family pictures while we were in Minnesota.

Most of them came out like these... I'm getting used to having many brothers.

Awkwardfamilyphoto worthy?

Whose hands?

Christmas morning! It actually took a long time getting to this point, where we could go see the tree. If anyone knows me, it took a lot of patience to get ready, eat breakfast, open stockings, and then open presents. It was a blast though.

Thanks Matthew

I have a crafty little sister who whipped this up for my brother-in-law.

Notice the crayon and A-1 pockets.

I happen to have a crafty little husband as well who built this quilt frame for his mother with lighting and everything.

I had the best two and a half weeks. We have the best families. I miss them all a lot. I love Christmas. I'm tired. Good night.

Sometimes the Drill isn't the Worst Part

2010-01-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

So last week I went into the Dentist to have a temporary crown put on until my diamond studded one comes back from the lab. (It'll give me more street cred.--see Lil' Wayne below)

Anyway, that day it was a very snowy and it was quite nasty on the way to the dentist. After I got there I spent a decent amount of time with the assistant while we waited for the dentist. Here is the first of our confidence-inspiring conversations.

Assistant: I'm glad you made it in today, most of our appointments are cancelling (because of the weather).

Me: No problem.

Assistant: Maybe if I'm lucky the last one will cancel and we can go home early.

Me: That's always nice

Assistant: Maybe if you're lucky, you'll be in so much pain when we get done you won't have to go back to work today.

Me: . . .

Then not to outdo herself, as we were still waiting, she said this:

Assistant: So did you go anywhere for Christmas?

Me: Ya, I'm from Minnesota, so my wife and I went there to see my family.

Assistant: Oh you're from Minnesota?

Me: Ya, that's where I was born.

Assistant: I have a brother that lives in Rhode Island--is that close?

Me: It's actually completely the opposite direction.

Assistant: Oh, I guess I'm not very familiar with the west coast.

Me: . . .

I had no idea how to respond without sarcasm, so I decided to say nothing (thanks Mom). After a few more awkward minutes, the dentist finally arrived and our conversation ended.

If you'd like to know

2009-12-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

Matt got a free chest-cabinet thing while helping some people move in our ward, and we thought that with a little love and, perhaps even inexperienced, care it could look nice in our house.

So we got our first dip into "refinishing" furniture. I say "refinishing" because we didn't end up refinishing it after stripping it down. It just wasn't nice enough wood, but with a little paint it looks nice enough for us.

We stripped off the children's stickers and old thick layers of ugly paint (it took a few coats and two different types of stripper to get it off). The spray on stripper wasn't near as effective as the paint on stripper. (How old am I that I keep smiling the more times I write stripper?) (Matt says 12.) We also had to scrub and scrape and sand like crazy to get it smooth. As most first time projects end up being, it cost a lot more than free; but at least we have the pleasure of knowing we did it ourselves.

And Matt got a new sander out of the deal.

So this is the finished product, minus the hinges, but who needs those? It's the perfect spot--covering our carpet stains from our rotten pumpkins. Merry Christmas.

The Worth of Tree Souls--feel free to quote in church talks

2009-11-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

Well Thanksgiving came and went. Overall is was a great holiday. In the Cragun tradition, we went out and got our tree on Saturday. (When I say in the Cragun tradition, it was pretty much in the Cragun tradition. Ususally we get our tree on Fri.) However, most important, we cut it ourselves. We found a small Christmas tree farm about 30 minutes out of town and drove out with my parents. The weather was excellent.

We saw a lot of trees. We walked past many very nice ones; some large and some small. But there in the midst of all of the strong, healthy, well-shaped trees was the one that was destined to be ours--a Christmas tree named Mohanna.

As you may or may not be able to tell that tree is only $5. Because I am my father's son, it was a deal not to be passed up. Why only $5?

The bottom two feet of the tree was in really rough shape. When we took it up to the man at the front, we told him we had cut one of the $5 trees. He said "good I'm glad to see it go." But even though the tree looked coarse and rough on the outside we knew better. We got the tree bailed and on the roof of the car to ride home.

Even though many walked by our tree and dismissed it every time because it had the equivalent of a large rash covering 20% of its body, I'd say we got a screaming deal. And once we cut the hump off of Quasimoto, it became a very nice tree that takes up most of our living room imposing cheer and good tidings on all that bask in it's glow.

In 60 years...

2009-11-08T16:31:00.001-08:00

we'll look like this.

But until then, we look like this.

This is Hocking Hills. We went on a very pretty little hike on probably

one of the last weekends there was this year.

Dear Matt: Come home and beat up my fever.

2009-10-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Swiney has hit our home. It is not fun. I'm sorry to say I was one of those people who downplayed the whole virus. Oh it's just like any other flu, just more people get it, oh stop worrying about it, if you get you get it.

Well, I have been humbled. I laid on my couch Sunday after church not to rise again (only somewhat figuratively speaking) until... hopefully tonight, and it's Friday. I missed an entire week of work. I went through multiple medicines. I am just now getting my appetite back. And I now wish you all the best of luck in staying healthy and say, if you feel the desire to get the swine flu vaccination, by all means, Fight the Flu!

Best of luck,

Veteran

Conan would have gotten the helicopter too

2009-10-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Besides just a website, I thought I'd post an interesting story.

I'm taking a few classes this year at The Ohio State University (just so everyone knows, it is called 'The' Ohio State University). I'm trying to finish off my masters that I started last year. Lucky for me Nicole is working full-time and therefore I qualify for resident tuition rates.

Of course, as the astute will point out, qualifying for resident tuition is not the same thing as being charged resident tuition--which being not-so-astute is what I found out last week. I got a bit of a sticker shock when my tuition bill was a tidy $2,000 more than what I was planning. This was because I was still considered a non-resident and was being assessed a non-resident fee.

When I called the registrar I was told that checking the boxes was not enough and that I actually had to submit paper work to prove that Nicole was employed full-time and could be considered my sugar-mama. Without taking a breath, she went on to tell me that the deadline to submit the paperwork was the Friday before.

This was all quite a surprise. I registered for my classes after the residency deadline, and I didn't know I wasn't actually considered a resident until after I registered. So I decided that I was going to have to go down to campus and speak to someone in person.

So I spent the next two hours finding the necessary paper work and psyching myself up for battle with the registrars office. My plan was to go down the registrar, kick down the door, state my case, take a few hostages, and not leave until I had been given instate tuition and a helicopter.

On my way down to campus, I said a prayer asking that everything would work out. When I got to campus I told the secretary that I needed to submit my paperwork for residency and she proceeded to laugh at me and then say 'good luck'. It turned out that the residency specialist was on lunch and so another lady came out and said that she would take my paper work and give it to the specialist. I was hesitant because I had to find out that day if I could get residency because my tuition was due the day after. I explained my circumstances and she said that they were not taking any more applications, but that she would pass on the information and it was possible, but not likely, that the specialist would call me.

So I handed over my paperwork without much else to do. As I walked back to my car, I was disappointed in myself. That is definitely not how any of the character's Arnold Schwarzenager played would have handled the situation. Rambo would have shot them with an exploding arrow. Conan would have used his crazy sword. The Terminator would have blown the place up with a bazooka but all three would have gotten instate rates. I just walked out with a 'please call me'. Halfway to my car I decided that I should go back (this part was inspiration).

When I got back, the residency specialist was there. I was now in line behind 5 people. With each person I could see that my chances of a happy ending were rapidly disappearing. The specialist was quite ornery and was quite happy telling people the deadline was a week ago. I decided to wait it out though because I had faith something would happen and it would work out. The last people to go before me was a couple. He was a grad student and had filled out all of his paper work on time but there was an issue or two, so the specialist helped them. He was a full-time student and so their tuition bill include about $8000 in out of state fees. However, with the specialist, things got worked out. The wife at that point was so happy at having the money back that she asked if she could give the specialist a hug. The specialist's face lit up and the two hugged.

Then it was my turn. Now smiling, the specialist invited me back to her office. I explained my case. And she told me that she normally would tell me 'no' but since she was having a good day and I brought all of my paper work with me she would put it through. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. I'm sure that there was some divine intervention when that girl hugged the specialist. Anyway, I'm glad for when prayers are answered in such simple ways; even if it means I didn't get a helicopter.

Website

2009-10-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering why I haven't posted recently, it's because I've been very involved making a new website.

The site is:

www.ridelocale.com

It's a mountain bike trail finder. If you mountain bike, you should take a look. If you don't mountain bike, you should consider getting one, but still got take a look anyway.

Giant Sized

2009-09-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend we drove to Barnesville, Ohio for the amazing Pumpkin Festival to see...

King Pumpkin!!

But mostly to see my aunt and uncle that were visiting from Wyoming.
We've always been closest to the Athey's in our family because they lived a few streets away from us growing up, and Pam babysat me when I was little every day. They have 5 boys, we have 5 girls (and 1 boy:). And I've missed my family a lot lately so it was so nice to see close family.

And they bought me a King sandwich. How nice of them.

Ohioans

2009-09-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

I thought I would give a little update. We are still in Ohio and I love my job!! I cannot believe the difference it makes in your life whether you like your job or not. I work with students with autism and it is the best job in the world. Matt also loves what he does and sometimes can't get enough of it so we feel extremely blessed.

Other things.
I played with these for a few days this summer while my sister and brother-in-law got tan.

Matt and I also hit 1 year of marital bliss... First year is paper.

We went mountain biking a few times this summer, and now I have a giant bruise on my leg to prove it.

We spent an awesome vacation with Matt's family in the Duluth-ish area in Minnesota by Lake Superior.This is Eric and Catherine.
My little sister finally went off to college. She's getting so big.

We became OSU fans. Purely for two reasons. We don't like being egged or called names or having our tires slashed. And, now I can wear jeans on Friday while wearing a sports shirt... Go Buckeyes!

My wonderful sister Monica and her husband James and family came to visit this weekend! I love being closer to someone in my family, even if the rest of them are so far away.
We spent Saturday at the Delaware (Ohio) County Fair.

This is something the hillbillies call bus racing. Long buses from the dregs of dump yards drive around in figure 8's until they hit into each other.

This is what I call a fat baby.

... It's funny

I think that's a good enough ending right there.

The Value of Money

2009-08-23T13:00:00.001-07:00

Now that we're back, we've been required to get back to the hustle and bustle of normal life. Unfortunately, that usually means spending money. In todays current economic climate and as the US economy recovers, many are worried about hyper-inflation because of the recent increases in government deficit spending. Some of my faithful blog readers are Economists and know exactly what is going on with the US economy and how a Public Option for health care will fix our budget problems (sorry to get politcal, it just slipped). For the rest of my reading audience I have put together this post in hopes of helping you, the reader, understand what your money will really buy. Because I like cars, and we've made several recent automotive related purchases, I'm going to use cars.

1. A mid-grade Michelin windshield wiper will cost you $7.

2. A recent oil and filter change will run you $18 (with coupon).

3. Replacing a cracked engine mount will cost $72. You'll pay an additional $23 for overnight shipping because some autoparts store workers don't read numbers so well and already went ahead and pulled the engine our of your car and put the new mount in only to discover that it doesn't fit and no one in town can get the real one in for at least 4 business days...I've heard of it happening.

4. It will cost you $180 to drive to Lake Superior in MN from our house in Ohio.

5. It will cost you $550 to replace your old sketchy set of low profile tires that hydroplanes as soon as it looks like it's going to rain with some sweet Yoko's. (They were only $40 more than the cheapest set and have a much better warranty.)

6. And finally, for the cost of only two sets of tires, you can get this beauty:

It's a 1987 Nissan Frontier with 114K miles. It's ugly, but it's a truck, so it doens't need to be pretty. It runs like a champ. All of the other cars we looked at in this price range were in serious need of repair, this one didn't need anything. So, anyway, for the cost of 1,666 Snickers bars or two sets of tires, you can get a truck--not your dream truck, but one that will still move a couch or some dirt.

We're back

2009-08-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

So this is my first of two back-to-back posts. We're officially in the States again (as of a month ago). I'm now working full-time and Nicole starts tomorrow. I love my job, and Nicole is excited for hers.

As we got towards the end of our time in England, I was glad to come home. And while I loved England, I have decided that I won't miss...

...streets that are too small and narrow and raise your heart rate like you were runnning wind sprints because whenever you drive you are worried about plowing into another car, a building built literally right next to the road, a kid on a bike, or possibly all three depending on fate's sense of humor.

...street signs that are hard to find and make no sense when you do.

...British sinks. Besides an overuse of plumbing hardware, it really leaves you with two options, be miserable with an ice-cold handwashing, or be miserable in the ER waiting room with second-degree burns on your hands.

...beaches in July that are 'just for looking' because it is still only 65 degrees and colder in the water. (They are still pretty though.)

...our rental car. May the next Avis customer enjoy it as much as I did...and may they also get the insurance.

I'm really glad we could go. It was a great time! I'm really glad we're back though too. Life is great.

Free money!

2009-08-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

I'm doing it. I'm posting more about our trip to England; I was a slacker, and a procrastinator, but no more. (And if you didn't know already, we are now residents of OHIO.)

So, London was incredible, but Matt had to go back to work so I went back to touring. This is the new cottage we moved into in Brackley.

One night Matthew and I went into a small little town where I had my first English fish n' chips experience, although I hear pub style is a little different than the wrap-it-up-in-newspaper style. Notice the random combination of food.

On the way back we stopped to see an enormous manor, but it was closed to visitors, so we conveniently missed the sign that said no visitors on the path that walked through the African pride lands. Or it felt like it. There were different types of deer grazing all across this huge field, which was actually the property of this manor. It was incredible. You could walk right through them.

The next day my wonderful friend Kris took me to a couple of towns in the Cotswolds. I was told before I left that I had to go to the Cotswolds and I had to eat scones and clotted cream there. The Cotswolds are as English as it gets.

Burford

Isn't she wonderful?

Scones and clotted cream, my favorite English treat.
That, and Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Bibury

Bibury is the most famous of the Cotswold villages and it's incredible!

I went to the Stowe Landscape Gardens later in the week, which was a few miles from our cottage, by walking the whole way. It was kind of like a park that had monuments scattered all over and it was beautiful!

I spent another day in Oxford, because I love it, and went to Christ's Church.

Harry Potter anyone?

My final stop for this post is Waddesdon Manor, on top of a large hill, that I walked up with an English lady and learned about Queen Elizabeth; it's crazy to think that one person could own something this incredible. They say he didn't even live there, he just built it to host parties at. I was invited.

This was near the aviary.

Watching kids steal the English pennies from the fountain.

More of Britain

2009-08-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

After we stayed with Miles and Kris (thank you again and again and again), we moved into a cute little cottage of our own.

English right?

One of the days I took a bus into the city of Banbury for the morning and watched the little boats go up and down the canal.

Then I took a train up to a little place of heavenly shopping at Stratford-Upon-Avon. I also visited a friend of mine.

This is his home. Do you know him?

Paddington Station

My friend Kris took me in to London that Friday and we went saw this

I didn't know what to expect but it is huge. It's also attached to Parliament, didn't know that either, and it's enormous!

Westminster Abbey

The biggest mall ever, complete with a memorial for Princess Diana.

Then Matt and I went back to London on Saturday.

This is the back of Parliament, it just keeps going.

This was pretty much what we saw of the changing of the guard. It was more frustrating than anything else. I still don't know what the heck changing of the guards looks like. Everyone just shoves and pushes and I was quite done with it so we just left.

Tower of London, which is really the London Castle

View from the ride on our river cruise

How many castles can you finagle on to one page?

2009-07-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

To start.

Eating non British food with our friends (we

heard ethnic food was the best in England)

British candy

(British food actually hasn't been bad for us, if you avoid the weird meat pies.)

I'm two weeks behind now but here is another glimpse of our trip. It's been an incredible experience and I have a feeling a once in a lifetime. Most vacations are so rushed that you just get glimpses of what a country is like, but I feel like I've had so much time, touring everyday, to see England in a different way than just seeing London and few other major things. I've had a time to spend a whole day in different towns, cities, or villages, to explore and read and shop and meet people. It's been a lot of fun. So...

the second day of Scotland we decided to drive around the little towns and hills and go castle hunting. There are castles everywhere that just dot the maps. We found a few, but the best were the Castle Cambell and the Stirling Castle.

The ward my dad served in long ago.

Lochleven Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was held as prisoner.

You can take little boats out to the island.

Castle Campbell. This was my favorite that we found.

We actually got in free to this one. But that's a story for Matt to tell.

We found it on the map and didn't realize it was at the top of a very steep mountain.

The walk up was incredible though, as was the view from the top!

The view down the mountain

I think Matt's in the dining hall

Can you believe the this place?!

Stirling

Stirling Castle

When we got back to England I went to see Warwick Castle. I'm bolding the important parts so you don't get lost.

This one was really fun. It's more like a theme park. I took a tour into the dungeons, which was really gory and had great nasty actors, and I got picked every time they made an example of someone. Every time we switched rooms the new guide would pick me out. I had to sit in the cage while torture tools were demonstrated, then I was condemned before the court as a traitor, and finally I had my head chopped off.

I wish I would have had my camera inside the rooms. They had wax figures dressed up and in poses. It felt real, I could imagine living in those times.

Windsor Castle

This castle is still being used. If the blue flag is up the queen is in residence. No luck.

Mmmm. Belgium waffles. Since I didn't get to go to Belgium for real.

Joe + Helen waz ere

2009-07-15T02:53:00.000-07:00

My dad served his mission for our church in Scotland so I grew up hearing all about it. He would speak "Scottish", show us his creepy Scottish dolls, tell us about the Heeland Coos, haggis, the Scotland countryside, I even did a report on Scotland in 5th grade. Because of this I've always wanted to go to Scotland. I know my dad has always wanted to go back as well, and he plans on it, but until then, here's what it's like today Dad.

The Scottish countryside, like I'd been told, is gorgeous! It's so green, with cows and sheep everywhere. But I don't feel the need to roll up my windows and turn off the air when I drive past these farm animals like I do in Utah; it all looks so mesmorizing in the setting of the bright green and the blue sky.

The first day we went to Edinburgh. We got there in the afternoon after some stress driving in a huge city on the left side, then walked into the city, and it was huge! I don't know what my little mind had always conjured up when I pictured Scotland as my dad described it, but I think I was expecting a little Scotish village with people walking around in kilts (although there were some of those) and speaking with their fun Scotish accents (which they did, for our entertainment).

The Edinburgh Palace

A lad.

We tried haggis to say we did.

Tasted very sausagy. To quote from So I Married an Axe Murderer--"I'm convinced that the entire Scottish diet is based on a dare."

Inside the Edinburgh Castle gates.

The Edinburgh Castle is set up on the hill lining the city.

Very large potato, or "jacket".

We had a lot of fun walking around, watching awkward street performers eat balloons, shopping, climbing a huge monument that overlooked the city, and visiting the castle. Edinburgh was great.

Oxford and Bath

2009-07-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

This week has been a dream. England has been my focus to help me get through the last few months of teaching. Thank you Matt for letting me do this. You know your husband loves you a lot when he has to work all day but says, Go have fun, in England, for three weeks.

When Matt and I first got to London we hadn't slept much during what would have been our night, and then it was already morning in England so we were headed towards another full day. We rented our car, and both of us being sleep deprived and hungry for real food we got in on opposite sides and drove the two hours to the little village where Miles and Kris live, and then on to Brackley where Matt works. I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack on the way there because I couldn't think straight and I could not focus enough to figure out where we supposed to be driving half the time. And I know Matt was just as tired, but somehow, with his ambidexterity we made it, but not after driving in the opposite direction for a while on the way home. We miss our GPS.

The little town that we're in is so quaint. There are cottages scattered all throughout the countryside out here.

The first full day here Matt went to work and I went in to Oxford. Oxford is such a beautiful city. I've spent two full days there already and I plan on going back now and again because it's so nice. The history is incredible over here. I'm not used to several hundred year old buildings. And everything looks English. All of the buildings and the homes have that old English look and I love it. Everyone told me the food would be the worst, but so far what I've eaten hasn't been bad. I've been pretty selective though. They eat what they call pasties like mad here, pasties and baguette sandwiches. That's what every shop sells. They also eat a lot of weird looking sausages and lots of tea.

Kris gave me a guided tour through Oxford on her map, so I followed that around the city, and having endless amounts of time I explore to my hearts content.

Part of Christ's Church (where the Dining Hall was filmed for Harry Potter)

St. Mary's Church

The view from the tower in St. Mary's church

Yesterday I went to the amazing city of Bath. I'd never heard of it until, like many other Jane Austen fans know, I heard it in many of her works. I saw some of the places mentioned in her books or that are in the movies, like the Royal Crescent, and I even went in the Jane Austen gift shop. Matt was glad he wasn't there for that I'm sure.

The thing that everyone told us we have to try is their scones and clotted cream. They are so good! It's thick like butter and I'm sure just as healthy too.

The view from my clotted cream tea shop on the bridge

I believe that's Jane herself

The Royal Crescent. Gorgeous!
(Watch the new Persuasion)

I walked around all day, finding new streets to take, standing in awe most of the time as I turned a corner. Bath was built up and became poplular during Jane Austen's time, I love that time period, but the buildings are pretty much all the same color. I think it gives it a very unique and breath-taking look though.

Bath Abby

The Mother Land

2009-07-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Lots of changes have happened recently. We moved to Ohio. We like our home so far. We've bumped up in square footage and are trying to decided what do do with the extra space. I was going to put pictures up on the internet for everyone to see, but I don't have them because we're in ENGLAND!!!

It's interesting over here but a little crazy. I've finally mastered roundabouts and driving on the left hand side of the road. Nicole has been spending time touring the country side. She's been enjoying it. I've been working and getting trained which has been great. We have been staying with Miles and Kris who are friends from BYU days and are great hosts. The Englis countryside is gorgeous. Everything is definitely tighter though. There's lots of little villages and small windy roads.

So far it's been a blast. We only have two weeks left.

Oxford

A bridge in Bath

Another bridge in Bath

A cool old building in Oxford

Also Oxford

Boating on a canal in Oxford with Miles and Kris

Me punting the boat

A walk in the countryside

Miles and Kris' cottage where we are staying

Sorry, it's the best we could do

2009-05-25T16:29:00.001-07:00

So for Memorial Day, because we lack creativity, we drove to the beach with and Eric and some other friends and just hung out all day again. I know most reading this are saying, "once you've seen one beach, you've seen them all. And all that sand makes me itch." Our time was comprised of just swimming, sleeping, and sand-castle building. Lame huh?

Next year we'll plan something crazy awesome and personally enriching like protesting animal research until we are arrested or sewing our own underpants and shorts out of old flannel shirts and hiking the Appalachian trail barefoot.

Until then, it's just some more lame beach pictures.

Us playing bocce ball; that's Eric's back on the left

The ocean was pretty cold

Awww Snap...It's the Beach

2009-05-10T17:32:00.001-07:00

Things have been quite busy around here. Nicole and I have been having a great time exploring the area. We've been for a few bike rides together up near Williamsburg. Nicole has been getting the hang of it very quickly and is going to be riding with all the other she-beasts in the pro womens circuit very soon.

In addition we also went to the air show. We saw, amongst other things, a B-2 stealth bomber. It was incredible how quiet it was when it was flying towards us; the car engine was louder than the plane. When it was past us it was extremely loud. The F-22's are the same way. I guess it's only important to be quiet when before you destroy your target. We also saw this C-130--I have never seen a plane so big in my life.

But our best trip, which has lots of photos with it, was our long week end we took to the Outer Banks. This was particularly fun because we didn't have any particular plans or reservations--we just decided to drive there and decide what we wanted to do when we got there.

The drive was only about two hours. Because we love all things Richard Gere, we decided to stay the first night in Rodanthe. Here's a picture of our campsite:

I'm standing on the dune to take this picture. 200 feet behind me is the Atlantic Ocean. Because it is early in the season, we had the beach almost to ourselves. I decided to go surfing, so we rented a surf board from a shop across the street from our camp site. Because it was only my second time, I got a 9 footer. The water was really warm and on Friday night, the waves were just my size...not too big and not too small. I've now officially surfed in the Atlantic and the Pacific.

On Friday night, we sat out and watched the crabs come out. As the tide comes in, they start coming out and looking for food. We discovered that crabs do not eat chips. This little guy below came out of his hole, and while he was out, the water caved it in. So we chased him around the beach for a while.

After that, we got a little dinner and then came back and watched the moon rise. It came out big and full on Fri. Then we got to be out for the sun coming up on Saturday morning.

On Saturday, I went surfing some more and Nicole read A Tale of Two Cities until we were both completely exhausted.

On Saturday, while Nicole was walking to the bathrooms at our campsite, she came across a turtle that was along ways away from the beach. When we looked at him, he looked all dried and leathery, but he was definitely still alive because he had crawled all the way there. We decided that since he was a sea turtle, he would be happier in the sea. So I tried to pick him up so we could carry him the 400 ft or so back to the water. It turns out we made three bad assumptions:

It was not a sea turtle
It did not like the sea
It did not like to be picked up

In fact, it was a snapping turtle, and as if the hissing noise he was making as I started touching him wasn't enough, when he snapped, he really go my attention. Even though most people describe me as 'a nice guy and also very nimble,' he almost took my finger clean off. When we came out of the bathroom, he had made it somewhere off into the brush--probably to be eaten by something bigger.

Then we packed up our campsite and headed out. First we drove south along the beach to Cape Hatteras to the light house. Cape Hatteras is the largest lighthouse in the world at 207 feet tall.

At that point we did do a little back tracking and decided to head back up the shore to the Nags Head area. We ended up staying in a little motel off the beach in a town called Kill Devil Hills. We spent a little more time at the beach on Saturday, but we decided against swimming, because even though it was 10 degrees warmer, the water was much colder. For fun, we went and got some good ice cream. They had Key Lime Pie flavor that was incredible. Nicole really liked the Pineapple Upside Down Cake flavor. Then we went and got some really good seafood at a little grill. To finish the night off right, we went and played mini-golf.

Sunday morning was great. We had a lazy Mother's Day morning with some breakfast on the beach. We saw pelicans diving for fish and even some dolphins swimming just a little ways out.

After breakfast, we went for a walk and found a starfish.

When we found the starfish we decided that, unlike our turtle friend, he would probably really prefer to be in the water. We couldn't actually tell if he was alive or dead, or even if it was a 'he' for that matter. So we picked up the starfish and threw it back into the water. The starfish then climbed on the back of dolphin and stuck one of his little arms out of the water and waved at us while a rainbow appeared, so I know we did a good thing.

Feeling good about ourselves, we went to church in Nag's Head and then went home. It was a great weekend.

On the twelve days of April...

2009-04-15T10:59:00.001-07:00

There are many fun things to share. First of all, I have reached mature aunthood; two new nephews were born the same day, April 11th, 3 hours apart, 1,400 miles away from each other. They were both over 8 lbs., both have dark hair, they both had large heads and had to come by way of C-section, and they both look just like me. We like to call Monica's baby Liam, and Carolyn's baby Grant, and I wish I could be there to hold them. I have very tough sisters, who I admire, a lot.

Liam

Grant

And just like Matt said, a few weeks ago my good friend from college came to visit me after she got home from her mission. It was just like before. I love Aubry.

De-veining the shrimp

We also had Easter! It comes in Virginia too. To prepare we did some of this:

Bananas do not soak up egg dye.

We spent the first part of Easter weekend up in DC with Matt's brother Eric. We drove up to go to the temple and to see the Cherry Blossoms during the festival time, which I hear are amazing to see in person.

I say, "I hear", because these are not our photos. The night before we were to go see them it poured, and what we saw was this (arrow up), minus the pretty blossoms.

It's okay though, we still had a fun day in the rain in DC. We had famous Blueberry pancakes at the farmer's market in the city, then we went and drove around the famous park without the famous blossoms, and finally we toured the Kennedy Center, which was very cool.

My favorite chandeleir in the Kennedy Center.

It was a gift from Austria.

I'll remember to invite them to my next birthday party.

April is fun when you have four calling birds, three weeks off, two new babies, and a husband who likes doing fun things.

Hidden Talents

2009-04-10T20:09:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to up the quality of reporting on this blog to give it the sort of edgy, raw material it needs to be top notch (and compete with two sister in laws who are having babies tomorrow (congratulations by the way)), I decided to do a little undercover bit on the life of a mute. Yesterday night, just like in the Little Mermaid, I gave up my voice. Today has been quite an experience and I can already tell you--I want my voice back. It has been a difficult day of being ignored and not being able to talk on the phone. In addition it makes it hard to communicate even simple everday things such as "good morning," "What are you doing this weekend?" "Watch out for that bus!", or "That was good food." Instead I've mostly just had to keep to myself.

According to the internet, losing your voice is caused either by vocal chord inflamation from a cold and the like, or one of these more serious issues:

1. your vocal cords are bowed
2. one vocal cord is thicker than the other
3. one vocal cord is partially paralized

4 you have spasmodic dysphonia (basically, laryngeal stuttering)

I don't know if I have inflamed or paralyzed vocal chords, all I know is that they don't work. I still had the ability to whisper slightly. If Nicole would get really quiet, she could hear me; however, I lacked projection and any sort of intonation. In fact, particularly frustrating yesterday was when our neighber who is somewhere between 93 and 142 and is hard of hearing came over to talk to me while I was putting things in the car. Every time I spoke, she would lean in further. Finally it became aparant she had no idea what I was saying.

Luckily though, later on, I was also able to find another way to communicate vocally. As young child, to the admiration of my other young friends and to the shame of my mother, I developed quite an ability to burp on demand. Not just little baby burps, but nice loud bass-y belches. Do to the urging of my mother, I have kept this talent hidden from the majority of the world; very few beyond my own family have actually heard me burp. But today I decided to let loose as I found that although I couldn't use my vocal chords, I could still talk with my burps. Mostly Nicole has just found it humorous. So if you have some thing important you need me to tell you like, "hey, your car is on fire," give me a call before my voice comes back.

Behold the Hotness

2009-04-05T07:14:00.001-07:00

As a budding aerodynamicist, I pay quite a lot of attention to the vehicles around me for inspiration and ideas. Sometimes the inspiration comes in the elegance of a Porsche, or the complexity of a Formula 1 car. Sometimes it's the actual history of a particular innovation such as the gurney flap.

But sometimes, inspiration will hit you when you don't expect it. Such as while you're driving around lost in your very own town. This was just the case last week. We were trying to visit an older lady we go to church with when we unexpectedly saw inspiration in its purest form...behold the hotness.

I'd like to point out the use of ground effects and a sweet aftermarket rear wing as well as a hood scoop which isn't visible. So for all of you middle-aged mammas out there or humble pappas that are still dreamin', this shows that it is possible to have the best of both worlds. It will still haul stuff like a mini-van, but if the kids are going to be tipping their drinks over on the back seat anyway, it might as well be because you're pushing it up the off-ramp. So if class is not import in the vehicle you drive, and you still don't mind having a center of gravity 3 feet off the ground with 160 hp at the front wheels mated to a 4 speed automatic transmission, this is a stroke of pure genius.