Yesterday was a special day! Yesterday was February 27th.
Which, in case that date does not ring any bells or strike any chords for you.....
MARKS ONE MONTH UNTIL OUR WEDDING!! Yay!
In two weeks, we'll be able to begin moving things into our 4-plex apartment. In under four weeks, we'll be sealed for time and eternity in the Sacramento California temple.
In terms of news, there's not much to tell. This week we've both been busy with work and Thomas has been spending lots of time on various projects for school. We attended a dance lab (basically a huge party made up of all the social dance students) on Thursday night, fulfilling a requirement for our class. On Friday, of course, we attended our dance class. The past few weeks we've had substitute teachers, as our regular teacher has been involved in some dance competitions. Our waltz is coming along pretty well.
Yesterday we made it to the temple. Saturdays seem to be ridiculously busy at the Provo temple. We also attended a performance by BYU’s Philharmonic Orchestra. We were tired, but it was beautiful.
And now a word about cell phones.
At some times and places, it is inappropriate to have in your possession (and especially to use) a cell phone. Etiquette says you probably oughtn't use your cell phone in the restroom or at the table. Common sense says your phone should be turned off (at least silenced) in the library, in the theater, or in a class. Yesterday, I was unsettled to find that some folks think it's ok to have a cell phone turned ON and even to TALK on it while in the temple!
I sincerely hope that none of my dearest LDS friends, family, or associates would ever consider using their cell phones in the temple.... especially since it is acceptable to use cell phones outside on temple grounds. It was disconcerting to overhear that a young lady was speaking to friends on her cell phone from inside the temple, and deeply saddening and distracting when another's cell phone rang in the Lord's Holy House.
I believe that the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are sacred places. In them, worthy members can escape the worries and cares of the world and focus on important things of an eternal nature. When cell phones - which have their use and importance in other venues - are imagined to be permitted there, the sacredness of the place is diminished.
Please, please, learn when and where it is rude or distracting or inappropriate to have or use your cell phones, and refrain from keeping them turned on or at your fingers at those times and places! Encourage others to do the same! It is tragic to be the one who disregards common courtesy and social expectations in such a way, and it is deeply frustrating for those who have to suffer the consequences of others' addictions to cell phone usage.
That's about all I have to say, but I feel I'm ending on a harsh note...
...to lighten things up a bit, here's a joke: What do you do when you're being attacked by a circus troupe? (see comments for the answer and feel free to leave your own jokes or two cents there)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
新年快樂!
Happy Belated New Year (for those that are curious)! The fourteenth of February ushered in the year of the tiger (thanks, Marina!)
But first, we should rewind a bit. Earlier last week Lisa cooked a lot, with the main dish featured being a improvised "bacon pizza" (link). On Saturday we set up many an appointment to look at potential apartments, and found one that was particularly appealing. After some deliberation and time, we penned our names to paper and we're excited to soon have a fourplex to call home (and we enjoyed the 5+ mile walk that day too)!
We suppose we should mention the coincidental holiday of St. Valentine. As 14 February was on a Sunday, we decided to have a dinner at P.F. Changs (link, thanks to Saki and Liz). Lisa also received some Peruvian lilies from a not-so-secret admirer. Then on Sunday we went to church together then spent an enjoyable few hours with Thomas' grandmother, where Lisa received a corsage.
In other news, Lisa's new job began and she is quickly learning the threads that make the ropes that run the place. Hope all is going well for our readers. Feel free to mention your three cents or more (we could always use the change) in the comments!
But first, we should rewind a bit. Earlier last week Lisa cooked a lot, with the main dish featured being a improvised "bacon pizza" (link). On Saturday we set up many an appointment to look at potential apartments, and found one that was particularly appealing. After some deliberation and time, we penned our names to paper and we're excited to soon have a fourplex to call home (and we enjoyed the 5+ mile walk that day too)!
(a contract of sorts)
We suppose we should mention the coincidental holiday of St. Valentine. As 14 February was on a Sunday, we decided to have a dinner at P.F. Changs (link, thanks to Saki and Liz). Lisa also received some Peruvian lilies from a not-so-secret admirer. Then on Sunday we went to church together then spent an enjoyable few hours with Thomas' grandmother, where Lisa received a corsage.
(an interesting couple (why else would you read this blog?))
(Peruvian lilies)
(corsage)
In other news, Lisa's new job began and she is quickly learning the threads that make the ropes that run the place. Hope all is going well for our readers. Feel free to mention your three cents or more (we could always use the change) in the comments!
(a satisfied blogger)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Free Oreos and Other Great Things
Today, for the first time, Thomas and I decided to use some coupons when we went grocery shopping. SUCCESS! It felt so very good to watch the dollars come off the total! We've decided this should become a habit.
Also, due to Thomas' faithful following of blogs like Hey, It's Free! we were blessed with coupons for free Oreos! Yes, folks, we each got a free package of Golden Double Stuf Oreos. Hey, I'm not complainin'!
In other news, we toured 2 apartments today. Up till now we've only been looking online for housing. It was nice to actually get to see some places we could call "home" in the not-so-distant future. If anyone knows of cheap married housing in the Provo area, let us know! We're still shopping at this point.
We're keeping up pretty well with our temple attendance. Thomas and his roommate haven't missed a Thursday since the beginning of the semester, and I've been taking the opportunity to go on Friday mornings.
I've been thinking about random things outsiders wouldn't know about Provo:
oxox
Also, due to Thomas' faithful following of blogs like Hey, It's Free! we were blessed with coupons for free Oreos! Yes, folks, we each got a free package of Golden Double Stuf Oreos. Hey, I'm not complainin'!
In other news, we toured 2 apartments today. Up till now we've only been looking online for housing. It was nice to actually get to see some places we could call "home" in the not-so-distant future. If anyone knows of cheap married housing in the Provo area, let us know! We're still shopping at this point.
We're keeping up pretty well with our temple attendance. Thomas and his roommate haven't missed a Thursday since the beginning of the semester, and I've been taking the opportunity to go on Friday mornings.
I've been thinking about random things outsiders wouldn't know about Provo:
- Just about everyone jogs. Seriously, even in crummy, cold weather, you see crazies out there in shorts jogging on just about every sidewalk. At all hours, too, it seems.
- Unicycling is a pastime enjoyed by more people than you'd think, and the percentage is probably near what you'd find amongst circus performers. No joke. This past week, I saw a kid unicycling his way off campus while reading a newspaper.
- At least 90% of drivers are really bad at driving. If you drive much, expect that for every 3 red lights you are stopped at, you will see one car run a red light. Pathetic!
- Parking - especially south of campus - is horrible. If you get home after about 10:30 PM, you might need to circle the side streets for a while to find a spot.
oxox
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Farewell, Book Blitz Month
This week was full of events. In other words, it was eventful. A limited summary of our activities are as follows:
- We finished up invitations and will be sending them out shortly (international invitations have already been sent out)
- We went to a play entitled Farewell to Eden, produced by Zion Theatre Company. We also saw I Love Lysistrata, a BYU production
- Thomas worked on a few research projects based on COHA (the Corpus of Historical American English (link)), which will eventually be accessible from the homepage...
- We passed (we think) our Foxtrot test (unrelated to this)
- Lisa gave a lesson on emergency preparedness for Relief Society and assembled a 72-hour kit. For more information on this, go here
- We saw Lisa's old roommate and family and several other friends
- We took a walk around Provo and snuck into the Provo Tabernacle for a bit
- We went to a Peruvian party for one of Thomas' coworkers' birthdays and ate Peruvian food
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Marriage license? Check. Dress? Check. Rings? CHECK!
I know I'm up late, but it's been a while since we've posted and it's my turn to write... so here goes!
We've been getting into the swing of this new semester, with new schedules and everything the past couple of weeks. Thomas stays very busy with work and school - he's even keeping up with his homework! He and his roommate, Sterling, are doing very well with their Thursday temple trips so far. They've been able to attend two weeks in a row and will hopefully continue this trend!
Social Dance is becoming a much-anticipated Friday activity. It's so nice to have a set block of time that we'll not only get to spend together, but for the majority of the class, get to interact and work together as a couple!
As the title of this post suggests, we've been making a lot of progress when it comes to making all of the arrangements for our wedding. The majority of our invitation envelopes are stuffed and await postage. I bought a ring for Thomas on Friday and it came in the mail today. I think I like it, and I hope he does too!
In unfortunate news, Thomas and I have both been under the weather for the second time in this new year. We're both shaking the last of the symptoms of a cold we both had over the weekend. After a lot of orange juice, Airborne, and Dristan cold medicine, I think those nasty germs have surrendered!
I formally apologize for the lack of visual stimulation in our recent posts. There just haven't been many photo-ops lately. I guess I could post pictures we took of a book Thomas needed information from, but that might infringe on some copyright laws and I don't really feel like getting in trouble. The photos weren't that interesting anyway.
Well, that's about it for tonight. Before I go, though, I will share a funny recollection I brought up to my mother tonight..... When I was around 7, 8, maybe 9 years old, I spent a lot of time after school playing outside. I had a dog to play with - my beloved Maty - and our yard had plenty of interesting things to entertain my imagination. I was quite enchanted by a manzanita bush we had in our front yard, about 4 feet away from the fence. This particular manzanita had grown more up than out, and looked more like a young tree than a bush. For some reason unknown to me at this time, our family had attained about a dozen 8-foot or so stalks of bamboo, which were available to me in the yard (I think we may have built a tee-pee with some of it, I really don't know). Anyway, I recall, one afternoon, using some of this bamboo - which is very sturdy, mind you - and balancing it on the fence and between the branches of the manzanita.....
And then, holding onto the bamboo with my hands, swinging my feet up and hanging there like a sloth!
Mom came out and told me to get down because it was dangerous.
Hehe :o)
Alright. I'm off to bed.
oxox
We've been getting into the swing of this new semester, with new schedules and everything the past couple of weeks. Thomas stays very busy with work and school - he's even keeping up with his homework! He and his roommate, Sterling, are doing very well with their Thursday temple trips so far. They've been able to attend two weeks in a row and will hopefully continue this trend!
Social Dance is becoming a much-anticipated Friday activity. It's so nice to have a set block of time that we'll not only get to spend together, but for the majority of the class, get to interact and work together as a couple!
As the title of this post suggests, we've been making a lot of progress when it comes to making all of the arrangements for our wedding. The majority of our invitation envelopes are stuffed and await postage. I bought a ring for Thomas on Friday and it came in the mail today. I think I like it, and I hope he does too!
In unfortunate news, Thomas and I have both been under the weather for the second time in this new year. We're both shaking the last of the symptoms of a cold we both had over the weekend. After a lot of orange juice, Airborne, and Dristan cold medicine, I think those nasty germs have surrendered!
I formally apologize for the lack of visual stimulation in our recent posts. There just haven't been many photo-ops lately. I guess I could post pictures we took of a book Thomas needed information from, but that might infringe on some copyright laws and I don't really feel like getting in trouble. The photos weren't that interesting anyway.
Well, that's about it for tonight. Before I go, though, I will share a funny recollection I brought up to my mother tonight..... When I was around 7, 8, maybe 9 years old, I spent a lot of time after school playing outside. I had a dog to play with - my beloved Maty - and our yard had plenty of interesting things to entertain my imagination. I was quite enchanted by a manzanita bush we had in our front yard, about 4 feet away from the fence. This particular manzanita had grown more up than out, and looked more like a young tree than a bush. For some reason unknown to me at this time, our family had attained about a dozen 8-foot or so stalks of bamboo, which were available to me in the yard (I think we may have built a tee-pee with some of it, I really don't know). Anyway, I recall, one afternoon, using some of this bamboo - which is very sturdy, mind you - and balancing it on the fence and between the branches of the manzanita.....
And then, holding onto the bamboo with my hands, swinging my feet up and hanging there like a sloth!
Mom came out and told me to get down because it was dangerous.
Hehe :o)
Alright. I'm off to bed.
oxox
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Another Brick in the Wall
I've been thinking about education a lot lately, and came to a few conclusions primarily regarding K-12:
1. Despite what people say throughout the world, schools in America WORK. They could be better, but in the end who cares about test scores across the world when in the real world (post-school) we produce more patents, more jobs, more everything? There's a reason why, regardless of the "low" scores (which don't take into account technological training, group collaboration, or any number of arguably more important things that one can't test), people come HERE to study, and we shouldn't be trying to copy what other schools around the world do when ours are obviously outputting as good or better end results. The traditional philosophy in the United States on schools is to inspire productivity, adaptability, and creativity (albeit a recent push away from this); elsewhere, they often cram facts and numbers. The keyword there is inspire. I argue it's more important to have the former attitude, as with it you can come up with anything the latter does, along with unique paradigms.
2. The second shortcoming is the seeming decrease of responsibility of parents to their children. There is so much emphasis on putting kids into school for more hours, but would it not help more to have the kids around their parents to learn directly from them? These days, so many parents push off the responsibility of education to schools, whereas I argue schools are simply there to maintain a basic minimum standard as well as provide creative and adaptive interaction, and little more. We don't need more money for schools (although perhaps the money could be better allocated), more time in schools, or more facts and work in school, and rarely do we need the school to bend over backwards to cater to the individual students. The flaw often lies in the parents themselves, who fail to educate in the home and thus fail to ignite the spark of loving to learn for learning's sake.
3. Never let school get in the way of your education, to paraphrase Mark Twain. Formal schooling is helpful to the extent it should be (that is, enforcing a minimum standard of knowledge and understanding as well as providing an environment for students to grow as a group and learn to adapt to others), but once again, education is far above schooling. An inward motivation is all it takes to excel and progress your education.
Anyway, these are solely my own opinions and don't even necessarily reflect those of my marvelous fiancée.
This week school began. As if that's not enough, I have classes. But Lisa and I share a class, Dance 180, in which we will learn the foxtrot, the cha-cha, the waltz, and some swing. 'Twill be a great Friday night date :^)
My roommate and I began a weekly tradition of going to the temple on Thursdays. How many times must an event occur to be considered a tradition?
On the invitation front, Lisa cut up all the invitations (no comment) and they're ready to stuff as soon as we get the photos, which we eagerly await.
1. Despite what people say throughout the world, schools in America WORK. They could be better, but in the end who cares about test scores across the world when in the real world (post-school) we produce more patents, more jobs, more everything? There's a reason why, regardless of the "low" scores (which don't take into account technological training, group collaboration, or any number of arguably more important things that one can't test), people come HERE to study, and we shouldn't be trying to copy what other schools around the world do when ours are obviously outputting as good or better end results. The traditional philosophy in the United States on schools is to inspire productivity, adaptability, and creativity (albeit a recent push away from this); elsewhere, they often cram facts and numbers. The keyword there is inspire. I argue it's more important to have the former attitude, as with it you can come up with anything the latter does, along with unique paradigms.
2. The second shortcoming is the seeming decrease of responsibility of parents to their children. There is so much emphasis on putting kids into school for more hours, but would it not help more to have the kids around their parents to learn directly from them? These days, so many parents push off the responsibility of education to schools, whereas I argue schools are simply there to maintain a basic minimum standard as well as provide creative and adaptive interaction, and little more. We don't need more money for schools (although perhaps the money could be better allocated), more time in schools, or more facts and work in school, and rarely do we need the school to bend over backwards to cater to the individual students. The flaw often lies in the parents themselves, who fail to educate in the home and thus fail to ignite the spark of loving to learn for learning's sake.
3. Never let school get in the way of your education, to paraphrase Mark Twain. Formal schooling is helpful to the extent it should be (that is, enforcing a minimum standard of knowledge and understanding as well as providing an environment for students to grow as a group and learn to adapt to others), but once again, education is far above schooling. An inward motivation is all it takes to excel and progress your education.
Anyway, these are solely my own opinions and don't even necessarily reflect those of my marvelous fiancée.
This week school began. As if that's not enough, I have classes. But Lisa and I share a class, Dance 180, in which we will learn the foxtrot, the cha-cha, the waltz, and some swing. 'Twill be a great Friday night date :^)
My roommate and I began a weekly tradition of going to the temple on Thursdays. How many times must an event occur to be considered a tradition?
On the invitation front, Lisa cut up all the invitations (no comment) and they're ready to stuff as soon as we get the photos, which we eagerly await.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The Best Is Yet to Come
A new year has come, and the biggest day of our life is at last in the present year: our wedding! The events of our vacation spent in California include but are not limited to:
-The continuation of Thomas and Rosie's friendship
-A trip to Sacramento to visit some of Lisa's family, including Aunt Lucy, Grandma Lee, Uncle Carl, and Aunt Sandy
-The continuation of Thomas and Rosie's friendship
-A trip to Sacramento to visit some of Lisa's family, including Aunt Lucy, Grandma Lee, Uncle Carl, and Aunt Sandy
-A visit from former neighbors, the Kings, and gifts of beautiful handmade quilts! (and homemade jam, fudge, cheesecake...)
-Christmas Eve gifts of matching pajama pants for us, made by Morgan
-A relaxing Christmas day and dinner with the Souzas and Mr. Ball
-A day-after-Christmas dinner with the Spencers
-A relaxing Christmas day and dinner with the Souzas and Mr. Ball
-A day-after-Christmas dinner with the Spencers
-An overnight visit from Lanessa
(Lisa is not actually this GIGANTIC... just sitting on some blankets)
-A LOT of flower-making
-Church on Sunday at the Pleasant Valley Ward
(Lisa is not actually this GIGANTIC... just sitting on some blankets)
-Church on Sunday at the Pleasant Valley Ward
-An online audio chat with the Bradshaw clan
And then,
*A long, 12-hour drive back to Utah on New Year's Eve
(driving through South Lake Tahoe)
-Obtaining a marriage license in Sacramento county
(indeed, the office is in a strip mall...)
-Making burritos for the family (link)
-A trip to Lisa's cousin's home (the Fabre family), and dinner with them, Aunt Ruth, and the Shofstall family
(Dad and Ulises playing on the Fabre's new Wii)
(indeed, the office is in a strip mall...)
-A trip to Lisa's cousin's home (the Fabre family), and dinner with them, Aunt Ruth, and the Shofstall family
(Dad and Ulises playing on the Fabre's new Wii)*A long, 12-hour drive back to Utah on New Year's Eve
(driving through South Lake Tahoe)*Dinner with Thomas' brother's in-laws upon our return to Utah
*New Year's illness (way to start 2010...), leaving both of us sick in our beds for 2 days
oxen from Lisa and Thomas this time!!
oxen from Lisa and Thomas this time!!
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