Our Previously Untitled Post

A post from us is long overdue, considering all the many things we've done this last week or two. We've been more free (in theory) due to Lisa being done with the semester, but have found plenty of things to fill it; so many, in fact, that we haven't even had a chance to redeem our $9.99 Pass of All Passes yet, but hopefully we'll have a chance to do that as well soon!

We've been lucky to have a lot of Thomas' family in town. On Monday we had a barbecue with some of the family and friends. We mentioned cousin Anna last time. Her sister also was in town prior to entering the MTC, and coupled with some others, it was a fun get-together, complete with complementary ice-blocking, thanks to some previous patrons.

Sarah & Anna at Rock Canyon

Various Hoffmans, Bradshaws, and Petersons :o)

Anna-- she is a quite talented photographer!

Burgers, Mushroom-Swiss burgers, and chicken

Our new twin nephews

Thomas on ice

Thomas was asked to snap some photos as a backup photographer at a reception for some extended family, so we once again spent time with family.

The reception was at Le Jardin

Thomas took guests' photos at this cute "photo booth"

The Mr. & Mrs., with her family

Camille made this cake (and ours as well) -- methinks we need a Bradshaw Bakery to go along with our Bistro :o)

Another day, we made it up to Salt Lake, and enjoyed the serenity of the Temple Square grounds contrasted with the bustle of the new City Creek Center that advertises its high-end wares with less-than-enthusiastic-looking models.

Bridge that spans the street, connecting the mall (on two blocks)

Lights we liked above the escalators

The best part of the mall... that it is so near the (extremely peaceful) temple grounds!

As far as individual projects, Lisa's been doing quite a bit of genealogy/family history work, as well as sewing Thomas' old T-shirts into more useful things. Thomas sharpened his Linux skills by compiling his own operating system from scratch.

Despite being busy, we do try to find time for each other, too. We've been on several walks, visited the temple, and watched a bit of Everybody Loves Raymond and I Love Lucy. We also watched My Fair Lady to further our linguistic understanding...gotta keep learning even if school is out!

The Busy Beginning of April

On March 31st, my sister and her friends came into town. They spent a couple nights with us before heading to Idaho for their spring break. They were lots of fun. We watched General Conference together on Sunday:

I'll have you know, girls, that I used this picture because you were all looking at the camera, even though the other picture was better of me ;o)

They played silly games together. We just watched.

That weekend, Thomas' dad, cousin, and a few friends were in town as well. We all went out to Tucano's for dinner before the friends had to fly home:

In addition to all of those visitors, Thomas' brother Robert and his family were in town later in the week, for various events for Camille's family:

I even got to hold Abe for a little while :o) I actually held Ian, too, but we didn't get any photographic proof...

On Easter Sunday, we went up to Camille's family's ward for the twin boys' blessing day:

Bradshaw & James guys

Thomas' cousin, Anna, is a brilliant photographer.

Last week I had my last classes for the semester. I got a chance to really clean our apartment and on Saturday I took 3 of my 4 finals (and turned in a take-home final). Hello freedom!

oxox

The end of March in pictures

I'm embarrassed to say that this post has basically been ready to go for more than a week. School is out now, though (except for finals), so I feel like I can actually do something other than homework :o)

Here are some pictures from the last part of March. As I'm finishing, I'm realizing how much of this post is about food. Guess we had lots of good food in March :o)

Provo Library

My birthday:

The Poppletons joined us for homemade Chinese food!

After dinner we walked to the Provo Tabernacle site together

Our 2-year anniversary:

We used my Tucano's birthday card for a nice anniversary lunch together

One of our servers. The shrimp costs extra but they had a special deal on it so we tried it. TOTALLY worth it.

Paris France Mission Reunion:

Thomas made me drive :o) It was a lot more stressful going than coming back, just gonna put that out there...

Burrito Fête!

Baguettes (from the French Bakery) with cheese (chèvre, bleu, brie,...)

Pain au chocolat; éclair (délicieux!)

The Bradshaws with Soeur and Président Pond

Springtime in Provo:

These pretty blossoms bloom on these hideous spiky plants/weeds right outside our apartment.

Daffodil outside our apartment

Pretty bulbs planted in the flower bed in front of our neighbors' apartment. They smell heavenly.

These grow in the back.

Did lots of cooking in anticipation of our full house (more on that later):

2-9x11 and 2-9x9 pans of stuffed shells, 2 loaves of homemade bread (1 pictured, made into garlic bread) and some cinnamon rolls.

On Two Years

Thomas,
 The last two years have been the fastest in my life! I'm glad eternity is such a long time, because anything less would not be enough.
Love,
Lisa

Because you love this song:


8 Essential Ingredients of Long-term Marriages (from my Adult Development & Aging class taught by Jeremy Yorgason):

1. Good problem-solving skills
2. Trust in each other (fidelity, integrity, feeling "safe")
3. Permanent commitment to the marriage
4. Open, honest, good communication
5. Enjoy spending time together and have fun together
6. Shared value system, interests, and activities
7. Consideration, mutual appreciation, reciprocity
8. Deep & abiding love for each other, enriched by being dear friends and lovers; continue to find one another attractive, appealing, desirable and interesting

Because I think of you when I hear this song:

Might as well blog again...

...since the weather is back to cold and wet.

The past week or so has been so nice. We've gotten several walks in, without jackets, even.

Urban Deer

Provo Tabernacle, and in the foreground, the foundation of the original Provo Tabernacle

BYU Archaeologists are excavating the site and finding pioneer-era artifacts like buttons and stuff

Downtown is really changing

our friends, Beth & Cody, on a walk!

Construction on BYU campus

But today it's been snowing.

What we've been up to lately:

Thomas
growing out a beard again
updating his dad's website

Lisa
school
sewing (for school)
reading (for school)
scanning & transcribing old letters (sort of for school)
family history research (for school)
indexing

Both of us
planning summer activities
going to the temple
working 

This weekend we got to go to a Vineyard activity that Thomas' brother invited us to.

We were only there for the last hour or so, but I got some indexing done and Thomas worked on translating.

We also went to a ward "Green Dessert Party" for St. Patrick's Day.

We brought green milk... It's funny to think we've been in this ward for 2 years now.

oxox

More new nephews! And the fun we have been having in Utah lately...

The last couple weeks have actually been sort of eventful.

For instance, Thomas' brother's wife brought their second set of twins into the world on the 23rd. They were big — each weighing in at over 6 lbs! Welcome, little Abe & Ian!

Last Saturday, after grocery shopping, Thomas went with his friend Sterling and Sterling's sister to a BYU basketball game.

Jimmer

Later that evening, Thomas and I went to a high school production of The Crucible, directed by Thomas' cousin, who teaches drama. It was an awesome performance, with the high school actors acting at well beyond a high school level. Great job, Jordan!

Amy, John, Curtis, Judy

McDonald's dinner before the play... :o)

And this represents the play...

The best picture we had of Brittany and Jordan from that evening... sorry :o(

We've been getting some snow lately... but this morning we awoke to birdsong outside our window.

Lisa is still plugging away at school. She completed a skirt for her sewing class - including sewing darts, a zipper, and hand-hemming. And, as a personal project/final project for her genealogy class, she has been scanning and transcribing some manuscript letters found in the treasure box from Thanksgiving. She's even found a few spare minutes to add to her crocheted doily project... but as she is on round 5 of 22... it will likely still be a while before it is finished...

Lisa has really been enjoying the BYU forums (devotionals are ok, too) this year. Favorites were speakers Joseph Lieberman (last October), Mark Demoss (in January), and Benjamin Carson (last week). The links in the last sentence will take you to the videos, which are absolutely worth watching. Dr. Carson's talk will probably not show online, as it was not even broadcast across campus. So, here are some of Lisa's notes on his talk, America the Beautiful:

• Our focus should not be on unanimity of opinion; rather, it should be on respecting those with differing opinions.
• Political correctness is an insidious erosion of values. 
• The U.S. founders were adamantly in favor of a free and educated populous. We are the pinnacle nation right now, even if we do not act like it, and we need to focus more on intellectual pursuits rather than celebrities, sports, entertainment.
• How do we fix our course? Courage — being willing to stand up and be ridiculed for what is right, and to re-exert the power of the people. We need to get a grasp on what is important and emphasize it; we have been a supremely successful nation because our wealthy give back.
• There is something inherently fair about proportions. God expects a 10% (proportional!) tithe. Why should we be upset if a wealthy person pays proportional taxes?

Carson's closing ideas were about his "Think Big" philosophy. The following is as quoted in this BYU news release:

T is for talent which God gave to every person, not just the ability to sing and dance but intellectual talent. Let’s not be hypercritical about it.

H is for honesty, don’t put skeletons in the closet, because if you put them there they will come back to haunt you. If you always tell the truth you don’t have to remember what you said three months ago.

The I is for insight into other people; learn from their triumphs, learn from their mistakes. As a nation we must learn from our triumphs and learn from our mistakes.

The N is for nice. Be nice to people. Because once they get over the suspicion of why you’re being nice to them they’ll be nice to you, and you get so much more done when you’re being nice and they’re being nice.

The K is for knowledge which is the thing that makes you a more valuable person. . . . With knowledge, wisdom, and understanding you can get all the gold and silver you ever wanted but you will also come to realize that those things don’t amount to a hill of beans. The most important thing is to develop your God-given talents to the point where you become valuable to the people around you.

B is for books which are a mechanism for obtaining that knowledge. You know it’s never too late. A lot of people say, ‘I don’t need to read. I can learn everything I need to by watching videos.’ That’s like saying you can develop your muscles by watching somebody else lift weights, it doesn’t work that way.

The second I is for in-depth learning. Learning for the sake of knowledge and understanding.

The last letter, G, is for God. We live in a country that is trying to make God politically incorrect. . . . We need to make it perfectly clear that it’s okay to live by godly principles of loving your fellow man, of caring about your neighbor, of developing your God-given talents so that you become valuable to the people around you, of having values and principles that govern your life. If we do that, not only will we remain a pinnacle nation but we will truly have one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

 And now, for a couple pictures from our temple trip with Samuel yesterday:

oxox