The Hirams

Christmas

2011-01-04T13:22:00.008-07:00

We took Christmas morning at an extremely leisurely pace. We didn't wake up until Jonathan woke us up. We then didn't run for the tree, but instead ran to the kitchen--we were starving! After our breakfast of waffles and sausage, we dressed Jonathan up and took pictures. He is the most patient child ever. We propped him up and he didn't mind, even when he slid out of position. Then we went ahead and opened our presents.

Mom-and-Baby Chat

2010-12-07T13:52:00.005-07:00

I'm loving this whole mommy thing. I adore this kid! I do miss sleeping for long stretches, but we're down to waking up twice a night, and that's manageable. What makes being a mommy so great? I get to see Jonathan's adorably large smile (sorry, can't get the full-blown one in a picture yet) and getting to have mom-and-baby chats. Is there anything better? I think not.

Our Bundle of Boy Was Born!

2010-12-03T13:26:00.009-07:00

Well, I guess I ought to let those of you who check blogs know that our sweet little boy, Jonathan, was born! :) Yeah, forgot to mention we were pregnant on here but Facebook friends knew and saw my belly expand.

I sort of forgot about/gave up on blogging what with having an hour commute... and then during my pregnant exhaustion and such. But today I was actually my trying to sort pictures by the year they were taken. Josh suggested I check our blog for clues. Oh yeah... that thing. So, I did some quick clicking and realized that I've seriously missed out on major information, like births, for my neglect. So... sorry.

Jonathan got his two month shots today. He was all kinds of happy for the check-up, but obviously didn't so much appreciated the three shots in his legs.

He really is such a calm, sweet kid. I don't think I deserve such a good baby, but I am sure grateful!

Here are his favorite pasttimes:

--waving his arms around
--kicking his legs
--looking at lights (especially when the ceiling fan is - gasp! - moving)
--studying faces
--observing the room with his lips pursed
--eating (well, drinking)
--dirtying diapers (especially if he was juuuust changed)
--napping occasionally
--being burped (Being patted on the back is soooo calming to him. He'll put his head back and enjoy with this sweet look of content on his face.)
--smiling
--"talking" which I love, because he can make his emotion known.. a happy coo or gurgle or a hey-I'm-bored MEH!
--playing patty-cake
--hitting the toys that hang over him
--listening to music
--snuggling with mom and dad
--taking his bath
--being (gently) bounced

Life 2.0

2010-02-16T21:16:00.006-07:00

I can't believe it's been so long since our last post in June! So much has happened! Quick summary:

We bought a house in Clinton, UT!
Josh works at Hill AFB as an electronics engineer for the F-16 program
Shauna is still teaching third grade and commutes everyday to Lehi, UT! That's more than 1 hour each direction! (I owe her SO many backrubs!)
We moved
We unpacked (sort of... we're still unpacking)
We cleaned, patched, painted
We bought some new toys (Huge TV, Kitchen Table, and.... our OWN washer and dryer!)
And we have thus far survived the winter

We could go on and on about each of the aforementioned topics, and we probably will in the future. For now, I'll post a little blurb I wrote a couple months ago.

LIFE 2.0

November 2009 -- Life is finally starting to unpack itself (with a little help from us, of course) from the boxes and piles that have held it captive for so many weeks. When we last posted, we were at the end of our house hunt. To fill you in, we did indeed follow what we felt to be right and we purchased the ranch style house that needed some work. The days that followed were full of last minute packing in Provo, cleaning out our apartment, taking care of some last minute management issues, and moving to Clinton. That brief list does not do justice to what a great ordeal that was!

Upon arriving in Clinton, we found the home pretty much like we expected to find it: in a mess. Nothing too bad, really, but there was a huge pile of junk in the garage that had to moved out so we could put our piles of junk in there. We didn't want to move in any of our stuff until the place was clean and space was how we wanted it (i.e., patched, painted, etc.). Basically, our stuff was in the garage until about a month and a half ago. We were met by a few brethren from the elders quorum who were a huge help. We've gotten to know them well over the past few weeks; the whole ward is wonderful. What took us pretty much all day to pack and load took them about 20 minutes to unload for us.

Throughout our first day and night here, Shauna's family was just wrapping up a trip to Orem that they graciously extended a few days so that they could help us out. I am especially grateful for that. My mother-in-law and Shauna did an incredible job cleaning everything--the fridge, the kitchen, the kitchen floor, the bathrooms--everything was filthy when we got here, but they made it all sparkle like new! I don't think the house had ever been cleaned or vacuumed. Shauna bought a new bagless vacuum with great filters and stuff; well, she vacuumed the carpet multiple times and she filled up an entire little garbage can full of the filth it took off the floor!

Anyways, enough about that for now. So far, here's what we've done: cleaned everything (see above), patched multiple holes in multiple walls, tore out the master bedroom door and jamb (it was destroyed), tore out the baseboard (it was beat up beyond repair), removed all the blinds for cleaning, removed and discarded all door knobs and faceplates, removed pantry and master bedroom closet doors for repair, removed all light fixtures from the ceiling, painted the ceiling (two coats), painted half of the walls one color (two coats), hated that color, discover dishwasher is filthy beyond repair, buy new dishwasher, install new dishwasher, dig out 2 of 6 window wells with flooding problem, contract out to repair split pipe at exterior spigot, order and setup DSL internet, arrange payment of other utilities, order curbside recycling, trim/prune monstrous trees to reveal sidewalk, clean blinds, hang blinds, replace some of the blinds, try to fix leaky jetted tub (no luck), discover leaky jetted tub doesn't work anyway, install water line to fridge, painted all of the walls a good color (two coats), moved stuff in from garage, contract out air duct cleaning, get screwed by air duct contractors, tore out main bathroom floor, contracted friends to retile bathroom floor, try to fix garage door opener, contract out for garage door repair, fix garage door opener (kinda) with remotes, weed landscape to plant gifted plant starts, buy baseboard for master bedroom, paint baseboard, buy door for master bedroom, paint door, install door (three times to get right), cut and install baseboard, patch nail holes in baseboard, caulk seams in baseboard, paint caulk, paint nail holes, install ceiling fan in master bedroom, drop ceiling fan from ceiling (oops), return ceiling fan, install new ceiling fan, officially move in to master bedroom, relax...

And I think that covers it. Next on our list is to finish the other two bedrooms and then finish unpacking for real! Keep in mind that while all of this is going on, both Shauna and I are working full-time, we're also having to do the normal chores like laundry and dishes, and we both recently were called to high-commitment jobs in the our new ward. I am now serving in the Young Mens Presidency over 12 Deacons and Shauna is the Young Womens Camp Director. So, in a word, life has been crazy! In two words, life has been effin' crazy (pardon my Utahn).

Chronicles of the House Hunt

2009-06-20T20:06:00.003-06:00

Well, after about six weeks of house hunting it looks like we're nearing the end of that journey. We found a house that we loved, and we offered, went back and forth with terms and needed repairs, etc., and now we could be closing on it at the end of next week! I thought I'd just take a few minutes to chronicle some of the memorable things that happened throughout the course of this experience.

Drive Time
First of all, perhaps the thing that we'll remember the most about house hunting is the killer commute we had to take to get to the area where we're interested. Since I'm working at Hill AFB and Shauna's probably only going to be working another year, we decided to settle closer to my work rather than hers so that in the future, I'll be able to be home with the family sooner after work. However, we didn't rule out any houses more south than Hill (closer to Shauna's school) to try and cut time off her commute. That meant that we were looking in between Woods Cross and Ogden, or 45 minutes to an hour and a half drive from Provo. I think we took five or six trips total with our realtor (poor guy), and we must have looked at at least 60 houses.

After a couple trips, it became apparent that the houses and price range we started to love put us in Clinton, UT, a small town neither of us had heard of before. And, in fact that's where we found "the one".

"Ye are too superstitious..." (-St. Paul)
Now, I'm not the superstitious type. But after a few trips and so many choices, we started joking about how Shauna and I just needed some sort of sign to tell us which one to buy. After talking about this, we pulled up to a house, and I kid you not, as I got out of the car, I looked down and right where I was stepping was a dollar bill just chilling on the grass! I'm serious! I showed everyone and said, "Hey, here's our sign! This is the one! Where do we sign!" Haha. Fortunately, the house was in pretty bad shape and we walked away and I didn't stake our lives to a house based on a dollar bill superstition. But hey, it would've helped on our down payment!

Another "sign" that I noticed, and perhaps it was even on the same day, was the house number of one we looked at. The house I grew up in had the number 2090. I loved that house. It was home. This house we were looking at that day was on a street called 2090 West! And it was a sweet house! I just kept thinking, How ironic would it be to be in a 2090 house again! But, again probably fortunately, this house was a short sale and Shauna didn't like the view out the backyard. (The house backed up to a new medical clinic.)

Drumroll, Please
Now, I arrive at the ONE. What was really interesting about this experience was that there were actually two houses we loved that we saw on the same day. This one house was new, in a great neighborhood, and backed up to a brand new city park; it was just a beautiful area and the house itself was very nice. It was a multilevel house, so the garage entry was in the basement part, meaning we would have to bring the groceries or laundry up stairs, and it had some negative aspects, like all houses, but overall it was great. It was also priced like it was great, meaning that it was on the very high end of our price range.

This other house we looked at was a ranch style home, which Shauna and I both love. It has three bedrooms and two baths up stairs and a partially unfinished basement downstairs that we could do whatever we wanted to. The kitchen is very nice, the yard is huge, the house itself is newer, and overall we just really, really like it. It did have some things wrong with it too, but still, we loved it.

The Tiebreaker
So, Shauna and I went home that night and just didn't know what to do. We talked for hours about the pros and cons of each. We went back and forth about each house. Okay, let's take the parkside house. Well, I think I would like the ranch house better. And on and on. Before we knew it, it was after midnight, and we were no closer to a decision than we were when we started. Finally, Shauna said, You know, we haven't really said a prayer about this yet. We said a quick yet fervent prayer and then just sat quiet. It seemed simultaneous when we both took a deep breath, looked at each other, and said, It's the ranch house. And that's the one we decided on, and that's where we could be living a week from today!

The very next morning, we met with our realtor and did all the paperwork for our offer. We offered slightly under their asking price but felt comfortable with it. Six hours later, the realtor called us and told us that they had accepted our offer! From this point on--actually from the time we said our prayer and made our decision--everything has just seemed to work out, like the six hour response time on our offer! That was on a Friday! We didn't even expect to hear back until at least the following Monday.

Inspector Gadget
Something we knew we wanted to do was order a house inspection. Shauna and I both agree that it should just be mandatory, so we highly recommend it. We did order one on this house and we're very glad we did. He found some things that would have never noticed, such as a leak in the plumbing that only manifest when the master bathroom tub was draining! Who notices those things?? Well, I mean you'd notice eventually when there's a big mess in your basement, but remember, this basement isn't even finished yet, so perfect timing... Anyways, with our realtor, we went back to the seller and asked them to make that and other repairs that the inspector had found, and after they conducted their own investigation, they agreed! As we speak, they're making the repairs, and we're getting ready to close the deal next week. Incredible!

There will surely be more to post soon.

Curse of the Sunglasses

2009-05-31T16:46:00.002-06:00

I cannot explain how frustrated I am with sunglasses! I love sunglasses. I wear them everywhere pretty much any time it is not dark. They cut down on glare and headaches and they just look cool. Well, shortly after I returned home from my mission, I was cursed with a horrible curse.

Something I'd always wanted was a nice pair of sunglasses. When I got home from my mission and started working, I finally decided it was time to splurge. Now, I do appreciate a pair of Oakleys or Rayban sunglasses, but there's no way I'm going to pay $200 for sunglasses--especially not with my curse! Anyways, I went down to the mall and stopped by a bunch of shops looking for the perfect glasses. I decided on the Dragon brand Cage stye. They were sweet! So I bought them and couldn't have been happier.

Around this time, I'd met my sweetheart Shauna. Come to think of it, she must've fallen for me because of those glasses! Haha. Well, I took Shauna to the movies in Vegas on one of our weekends together. Obviously you can't watch a movie with sunglasses on. Well, I guess you could, but... ya. So, I had taken off my sunglasses and put them on her purse which she then put next to her on the arm rest (still attached to her arm for security). After the movie, we got up to leave and I went to retrieve my glasses--and they weren't there! We searched everywhere. A nice theater worker even came with his flashlight and helped us search, but to no avail. It finally occurred to us that the guys behind us must have swiped them through the gap in the chairs right off Shauna's purse! And that, I believe, is when my curse started.

I haven't been able to keep a pair of sunglasses more than a few weeks since! The next pair I had got taken after I forgot them in a lecture hall at BYU. Countless pairs since have broken, both on their own prematurely or by my doing (sitting on them in my car, crunching them in my pocket helping people move large things, sending them to their early deaths in the hands of a curious baby, etc). Why is this on my mind, you ask? Well, four weeks ago, I went to Ross and bought two pairs of sunglasses. I have at least learned to not buy the expensive ones since they're just going to be destroyed or otherwise rended useless to me. On Friday, while house hunting, I reached up to take the glasses off and one of the blasted arms broke off right in the middle! Grrrr... That's when it donned it me: I'm cursed!

The Telephone Gambit

2009-05-22T17:42:00.002-06:00

Well, I just finished my second leisure book since graduating (one on a list of many; the first was The Thief--thanks, Pyles!). It's called The Telephone Gambit, by Seth Shulman (2008). I picked it up on a run to the Provo Library where I stumbled across it in the electronics non-fiction section. It's a quick read and very interesting, more of a detective's journal than a research paper, so I highly recommend it, especially if you are like me and watch shows like Modern Marvel on History channel or How It's Made on Discovery. The history and controversy about the telephone, a device we all take for granted, is very interesting and well-presented in this book.

I'll spare you the review and just cut to the chase--Shulman shows evidence that it is highly likely and probable that Alexander Graham Bell infringed on Elisha Gray's claim to inventing the telephone! I never knew this, but apparently Bell was suspected of stealing the idea pretty much from the time he "invented" it and there are hundreds of legal cases about it; however, no one could prove it, and thus, Bell is remembered as the inventor of the telephone. That could also be due to the capitalist society we live in and certain "financial" steps that were taken to keep Bell in the textbooks, all by a small company you may have heard of, American Telephone & Telegraph, which is the direct descendant of Bell Telepone Company. Anyways, the key piece of evidence is Bell's lab notebook and a little, benign sketch. His notebook was kept secret in the Bell family until 1976, when it was donated to the Library of Congress, yet it has still remained largely unused and uncited. It is also all available on the Library's website. Shulman stumbles across the sketch in question almost by accident, but he is able to make the subtle yet alarming connection immediately.

That's all I'm going to say. I hope I intrigued you enough to at least read into it.

Facebook

2009-05-17T00:59:00.001-06:00

Hey, just wanted to let you all know that we are on Facebook now! It was bound to happen... Hope to see you all there!

Finish Line

2009-05-13T14:57:00.004-06:00

*NOTE: I can't get blogger to upload my photos, so I'll try again later.

Well, I guess it's official. Last week, I received my final grades at BYU and I passed all of my classes. In fact, out of all my classes, my lowest grade was one 'C'. The rest were A's and B's. Definitely not bad (especially for me!). Now I know that I'm done.

During and after graduation, I was actually pretty anxious about my grades. I kept worrying about my finals and all the "what ifs" that went through my head. What if I don't pass a class? What if I somehow missed a GE credit? What if.... I've even been having dreams the last few nights about suddenly remembering a final I hadn't taken yet that was due by 5pm. Haha. I just couldn't believe it was real, that I was actually graduating.

Family
I think the best part about graduation weekend was having my family all stay at our apartment. My brother, Jared, Lanita, his girlfriend, my sister, Kim, and my mom all fit in our little living room (slash dining room slash kitchen) for one night. It was so fun! Plus, Shauna's dad got to come from California and he and her grandparents and brother all came to the commencement and then joined us and my family after for Hawaiian haystacks at our place! We had a great time with all the stories and the laughs, we played some games... It was just great. It didn't even matter to me that I was graduating, I just loved having all of the family here with us.

Commencement
The commencement was just surreal. I got dropped off at the ASB and quickly disappeared into the sea of blue caps and gowns in the parking lot. As I got to my line, I noticed Stephen and Alicia were there! That was a great surprise! So I got to chill with them. Soon after I got there, the color guard marched by with the dignitaries closely behind, and the processional started. As we were walking, I kept struggling with my white stole because of the wind. Just as we got to the top of the pedestrian walkway, I glanced up to see the BYU TV video camera coming right at me and right at that moment, a gust of wind blew my stole off, and as I was messing with that my cap blew off just as the camera crew was walking right by me! Haha. I really hope that I was on live TV at that moment. I should've been recording it at home...

I loved the talks at commencement. Pres. Uchtdorf's especially made an impact on me with his three things to do after graduating: Use your time wisely, continue to learn, and always seek the Spirit of the Lord.

Convocation and Reflection
Friday, April 24, was the day of my college's convocation. I would say that during this time, getting to see some familiar faces and listening to the speakers addressing their talks directly to us, the engineers--that is when it all became real to me. I knew I was graduating, I knew it wasn't fake. I knew as I looked on the stand and saw some of my professors that I would probably never see them again, I knew that soon I would be walking away from BYU. And I was sad! Somehow, inspite of the testing center, the homework and exams, the frivalous GE's, and the long walks up hundreds of stairs every day, somehow I was sad. I am going to miss it. I'll miss the opportunity to begin secular classes about science and engineering with a prayer. I'll miss the clean (more or less) atmosphere. I'll miss the enlightening classes about my religion, about the Bible and about the Book of Mormon and the book of Doctrine and Covenants, etc. In short, I'll miss BYU. How could four years go by so fast!

That's enough for now.

The Last Stretch

2009-04-17T22:19:00.002-06:00

Well, I can't believe I made it. Three weeks ago, I finished my online American Heritage class (definitely not recommended) which brought me down to 18 credits (definitely definitely not recommended). This week, my Capstone finished up and there's no final associated with that. So far, I've taken two of five finals, so three left. They're tough ones, but I know no matter what that I'll pass all my classes. I have definitely been blessed, and I am very humbled and happy to be where I am today.

The Plan
What a change in pace the last few days have been! Shauna's been on Spring Break, so that has made any chance of me studying very slim. We've just been chillin and it feels...odd. It's great, just very odd. From 21 credits to pretty much nothing in less than two weeks is crazy! I don't know how I'm going to take summer with no classes and no job. Let's just say I clean when I'm bored, so our apartment will be in pristine shape, as will our complex, my car, Shauna's car, and I'm certain that I'm going to burn through a few DVD drives catching up on movies and playing video games. If anyone sees me just chillaxin in front of our complex on a beach chair sipping some Mt. Dew for a few hours, don't be alarmed! I'm just 'taking it in'.

The Hunt
Another crazy aspect to the last few weeks has been the job hunt. Up until about a month ago, I hadn't heard a single word about jobs. I applied all over the place (which wasn't alot, considering the lack of postings right now). Then, out of the blue, I found a posting for a defense contractor at Hill AFB looking for software engineers, so I applied. Within a couple days I had an interview set up in Clearfield, UT. Then, around that same time I found out about a career fair for engineers for the actual U.S. Air Force itself. And what day was it to be held? The same day as my interview with the contractor, and in Clearfield, UT, and only two hours after my interview with the contractor. This was fantastic, especially because to drive from Provo to Clearfield is more than one hour on I-15. So I went to both. And then I waited. Didn't hear a thing from either place for weeks. Then, the Air Force called and wanted me up for an interview with them. The same day I got their phone call, I got a phone call from a huge defense contractor regarding an application I'd put in months ago. They wanted a phone interview with me--on the same day and one hour after my interview at Hill AFB. So, another trip to Clearfield.

Round One
Both interviews went extremely well. I was stoked about both jobs. The Hill AFB job would be a software engineering position supporting the F-16 fighter jet. How sweet is that! While there, I met with numerous people, four teams total. Everything from the F-16's mapping software to the weapons systems controls. I even got to see the new F-16 simulator for pilots to test the software that's developed, I tried on a brand new helmet with a brand new, color heads-up display, and I got to stand next to a bunch of live missiles in their test cells! Man, what a day! Afterwards, I went and bought some lunch and just tried to relax. That round of interviews took three hours straight. Then I had the teleconference, which lasted about another hour and was for another sweet job. But, I knew the huge contractor job wasn't to be because, one, it would require us to move down to Edwards AFB in Southern California, and two, it was highly classified and could require me to travel "anywhere in the world" to install and support my software. Hey, in my defense, I was all for it! With images of Josh the next Jason Bourne-Jack Bauer-Hawaiian hybrid running through my head, I was like, "Where do I sign?" But, the thought of me army-crawling it across Afghanistan to bug Bin Laden's blackberry didn't appeal to Shauna at all. And, well, I haven't heard anything more about it anyway.

Round Two
Then the waiting game started again. Nothing heard on from either job for a couple weeks. Then, out of the blue, one of the managers from Hill calls me and asks if he could bring me on board with his team, supporting the F-16 main computer software. Of course I said yes. It will take a couple of months to complete the process, which is fine with me. But, this story doesn't end there.

I kid you not that within 24 hours of the call from Hill I got an email from a company called Wavetronix, based locally in Lindon, UT. I applied and interviewed with them a few months ago but I hadn't heard anything from them since. They're a small, relatively young company that does some cool stuff with radar and makes devices useful to departments of transportation around the world for things like monitoring traffic flow and signalling stop lights. Well, they wanted to know if I was still interested in a full-time position with them. Based on my interview experience with them previously and how well they treated me and talked about their line of work, I had to say yes. So, a couple of days ago, I went up to Lindon and spent another three hours in a round of interviews, and I wasn't disappointed. They treated me very well and I am very impressed with and excited about what they do. They even took me to lunch. They should be making a decision in a couple of weeks.

Conclusion
Now, all that talk about jobs and not concluding with a job offer may seem like a let down. But after that onslaught of opportunities that just sprung from nowhere in a matter of weeks all at once, who wouldn't feel extremely blessed? And not only do I feel extremely blessed, I feel calm. I know the Lord is watching out for us and that He has plans for us all.

I'll keep you posted.

Easter

2009-04-15T11:21:00.006-06:00

Easter is great, but it is unfortunately always at the end of the semester, which irritated me as a student and then as wife-of-student because it's right as projects are due and studying for finals starts, which makes it hard to really appreciate it and enjoy all the things you'd like to do--like decorate eggs.

Well, this year, being the last that either of us are undergrads (yay!) I though I would prove that there was still time to celebrate. So, on Easter Eve, baskets were put together. And eggs were decorated, albeit 2 days after Easter.

Twenty-one

2009-02-27T22:32:00.002-07:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I've had time to peruse the 'blogosphere'. In thinking about what I could write about quickly, all that comes to mind (and frankly all that I am) right now is the number 21.

If anyone has ever wondered what it would be like to load yourself up with 21 credits in one semester, lemme tell ya! I'm two months into winter semester and I have 18 credits at school (two GE's, one 400-level engineering class, one 300-level computer science class, and my senior project) and 3 credits online (American Heritage). My online class is due by the end of March if I want it to count for graduation (which I do, of course) and I need to pass all 18 credits if I want them to count for graduation (which, of course, I do). No pressure, no problem. Unfortunately, it's starting to get real.

I would say that the past two months have been pretty good to me. I've been able to keep up with my projects and homework, take the midterms as they came, and stay relatively current with everything that is being taught in all of my classes. All of this is starting to change. For the past two weeks, to stay caught up I've had to stay on campus till late, a couple nights till around 9pm. When I leave for my first (and daily) class at 8am, leaving campus at 9pm is something only choice swear words could near-accurately describe. And eight- to twelve- to thirteen-hour days are becoming more and more common, including almost every Saturday for the last month, including Valentine's Day. That was when I realized my twenty-one credits were finally catching up with me.

I had a project due for my Operating Systems Design class that day. I thought that I could easily finish it during the week, and then when that didn't happen, I was sure I could finish well before the 11:59pm Saturday deadline. As I pressed forward Saturday, more and more bugs in my program were uncovering themselves, and it wasn't long before I knew that 'heart string day' was going to be a heartache day for both Shauna and me. I was up until after 12am Sunday morning, and still hadn't quite finished the project--not well enough to submit, anyway. The next day, Sunday, after returning from church and my quorum responsibilities, I quickly came down with a horrible stomach flu and was knocked out for three days straight, and just like that, I fell behind, I missed a couple of assignments I just literally did not have time to do, and my 'calm' 21 credits became the nerve-racking thorn in my side and the bane of my existence.

But, I don't mean to be all gloom and doom. I just want to whine a little. I'm doing fine, Shauna's doing fine (I bought her a huge block of BYU Bookstore cheesecake fudge to make up for Valentine's Day and for taking care of me while I was sick; she quickly forgave me). I have been blessed greatly this semester to do well at school, even better than I have ever done. And I'm even having fun doing it--making new friends, finding new places to chill, appreciating little things (like sunshine) more, and overall, I'm just trying to make the best out of my last semester at BYU (it's still unreal). I guess I should also mention in case you were wondering that I did have the foresight to quit my job at BYU at the end of December. That has helped greatly, although I miss it and my coworkers.

But, don't even get me started on jobs right now. That's a whole other blog-worthy topic. I mean, seriously, who wants to graduate in the middle of a recession?

Sleeves, a Tongue, and 911

2009-01-10T16:26:00.003-07:00

This week has been eventful as far as stories go. My third graders and I learned two lessons about how not to get hurt (also a spelling word this week). Then I learned something on my own.

Sleeves
Two of my third grade students were pulling their arms inside their sweatshirts to be silly. One must have bumped the other, because I looked up to see one boy taking a nose dive, writhing all the way down because he couldn't reach out to catch himself. He split his lip and started bleeding. After he was on his way to the office, I turned to the class and said something like, "There's a life lesson: keep your arms in your sleeves."

A Tongue
One of the other boys in my class stuck his tongue to a frozen pole at recess ...on his birthday. He didn't wait for water--he ripped his tongue right off the pole. I later heard one of my other boys solemnly declare, "I will never stick my tongue to a pole." However, now the boy's famous as far as third-graders go and is writing a story about his experience.

911
On the way home after this week of life lessons, I notice that a car in front of me was weaving in its lane. Then the car starts veering into other lanes at random without a blinker. This person must be drunk, I thought as the car almost veered into a passing semi. Following him, I called 911 on my cell phone, knowing this guy was an accident waiting to happen. I stayed behind him, hoping he wouldn't crash before someone pulled him over. I wondered how long it would take to reach the correct authority on a cell phone.
I was actually surprised how quickly I was transferred to an Orem dispatcher and then UHP (and grateful). Being behind the California driver, I was able to tell them the license plate very easily. Someone else had already called him in, too, in fact. They were sending someone to pull him over.
I'm not sure what happened to this guy (or gal). Around University exit, the guy veered sharply to the right and hit the rumble strip. Quickly overcorrecting, he shot left and... I, in a different lane, had no choice but to keep driving past. I wish I knew what happened afterward.

Happy Birthday, Josh!

2008-12-29T22:52:00.004-07:00

This past Saturday was Josh's birthday. My mom made a de-licious chocolate cake and I got to put some heartwarming words on it. :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2008-12-20T21:43:00.003-07:00

On Friday, we had a school assembly where every grade sings a Christmas song for the rest of the school to enjoy and we sing other songs all together. Mr. and Mrs. Claus also drop by with a few elves. It was so much fun! There is little that will get you in a jolly mood faster than over 1,000 children singing Christmas songs.

Wallaby's

2008-11-24T17:36:00.002-07:00

So, last Saturday night, after the horrible football game, Shauna and I decided to go out to dinner. She had a luncheon at school catered by Wallaby's barbecue restaurant in Lindon, UT, and has ever since sworn up and down that they had the best BBQ she'd ever had. So, willing to take the challenge (and hoping to prove her correct), we drove out to Wallaby's.

When we arrived, we noticed that it was also next door to China Lilly's chinese gourmet, which we'd both heard about. So, now you know where our next culinary adventure will be at. Anyways, as we walked through the door of Wallaby's, we were greeted by a happy, middle-aged guy named Bob who happened to be the owner. He was very nice, albeit talkative. He bragged, with reason, about the extent to which they prepare their meat--I'm talking ribs and briskets that are smoked on site then cured and aged for days before they make it onto your plate; the seasoning and sauce is caramelized on the outside of the meat during the process... By the time he was done explaining, I was sold and salivating!

We ordered a meal that came with three meat choices, one of which I insisted on being 1/4 rack of ribs. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. We didn't wait long before our food was brought out to us piping hot. Their three homebrewed sauces are extremely good, as well. The meat from the ribs just fell off the bone like I had never before experienced! When we go back, I'm going for the full rack. That stuff was amazing and worth the trip by themselves. Shauna would also have me say to get the cinnamon roll for $1.99. It was delicious, too! In all, Shauna and I both split that plate with two sides and two drinks for about $25.

So, in short, if you're into BBQ, you have to go to Wallaby's on State St. in Lindon, UT. I did my best to explain it, but it is truly something you have to experience for yourself.

Is anyone really surprised when prophecies come to pass?

2008-11-16T16:56:00.003-07:00

We received this article from Shauna's aunt the other day. Shauna's mom also mentioned that this article has been circulated around California. It is so powerful, especially when read in the context of what has been going on in California and among the Church recently, with Prop 8 and all that. The words of the Old Testament prophet Joshua resonate today just as clear, urgent, and challenging as they were when he first spoke them, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve!"

If you would like the whole article, it can be found at LDS.org.

"A More Determined Discipleship"
by Neal A Maxwell
Neal A. Maxwell, "A More Determined Discipleship," Ensign, Feb 1979, 69–73
An address delivered at Brigham Young University, 10 October 1978

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not they will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions.

President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'

"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat." (Emphasis added)

Day at the Shooting Range

2008-10-19T11:09:00.006-06:00

Saturday, Shauna, Thomas (her brother), and I all went out to Range Masters in Springville, UT, to rent some handguns and use their indoor range. While the prices went up since I was last there (three years ago), it was still well worth it and a lot of fun. Our goal for this trip was to find what kind of gun Shauna is comfortable shooting and also to give us all more experience shooting handguns. Experience is important when it comes to gun safety, and, like in all other aspects of life, knowledge is power.

We started off with a Glock 9mm and a brick of 50 rounds. The Glock was nice, but it was a little big and uncomfortable for all three of us. I'd forgotten how powerful a 9mm was because the last time I was at the range, I shot a Glock .40 first, then a 9mm, so the 9mm seemed really small. Haha. So, we shot about a clip each and then switched out the Glock for a Sig Sauer 9mm. The Sig in comparison was a lot nicer and more comfortable. But, it was still a little too big.

I have to throw in here that it was really cute watching Shauna's routine: She'd step up to the range, load and cock the gun like a pro, get into her stance, carefully take aim, fire one shot into the ceiling, one shot somewhere down range, place the gun calmly back onto the table, and walk away. I think her cowgirl name would be Ol' Two Shot Shauna. =)

Anyways, after talking with the clerk, he set us up with a Sig .380. The gun itself is a lot smaller than the others and the bullet is slightly shorter than a 9mm, though they're about the same diameter. The one big con is that because the barrel is shorter, it produces more of a 'bang' and therefore a little more kick. But, Shauna liked this one much better. In fact, by the time we were done with our .380 rounds, Shauna was able to plant quite a few rounds onto the target and at a good distance down range. (Way to go, honey!)

After the Sig, we switched out for a Colt .380, and that was slightly smaller than the Sig. It felt a little better and the clip was easier to load. But, we learned that the Colt was way more expensive than the other guns.

So, as I mentioned previously, one of main purposes of this outing was to gain experience (and to have some fun). Although Shauna and I differ on some political issues, one issue we are both adamant about is our right to bear arms and the importance of being able to protect yourself and those you love from harm (i.e., from crazy bad guys that think rampaging through a small-town, neighborhood shopping mall is the end to a perfect night out, etc.). The world is getting to be a scarier place, and it's just good to be prepared. I'll leave it at that.

Bottom line: Date to the shooting range--highly recommended!

'South for the Summer'

2008-10-13T20:06:00.005-06:00

Here is a link to my brother's band, South for the Summer. They have a new Myspace and a couple of new songs on there. Please, stop by and listen. They're really good, and I'm not just saying that. Spread the word. (P.S., Jared has the vocals and the bass guitar).

I also wanted to post some pics I took of the American Idol auditions. They'll help you get a feel for everything you missed by not going. =)

Ryan Seacrest, ladies and gentlemen!
(No, you can't see him. I was feet away from him and I couldn't see him... All those tall, 5'3" Utah girls... But doesn't the bright, white light make him appear angelic?)

Jared, waiting for the big moment (hours into the day).

Jared auditioning (post yawn)
He's the big guy in the black shirt, second table from the left.

Our 'American Idol' Experience: Part III

2008-09-30T15:01:00.000-06:00

When I say my brother is a great singer and has great talents in music, I understand why you might think that I'm just biased and that he's not any better than the average Joe. But, as unbiased as I possibly can be, I really do think he has great talent. He is the lead singer of his band, South for the Summer, which he and some friends put together a couple years ago. He also plays some bass guitar. They all have remarkable talent for music. They write all of their own music, though they also cover songs too. And I love his music! I think that the songs are well-written (again, all original material) and that they're catchy. Plus, Jared has been a DJ and singer at Roxy's 50's diner at the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas for the last few years. Keep in mind that he started that gig when he was still in high school. So, please, don't take my opinion for granted just because I am his brother.

TUESDAY: HYPE

So, there we sat with our $9 bottles of water and pretzel. Even before we had first gotten to our assigned seats, the sound of singing beckoned us down. The producers had the arena singing this year's 'crowd songs', or the songs they have everyone sing in every city for their little video they'll play at the beginning of the TV season to make it look like we were all having a wonderful time. And, in all honesty, it was kind of fun. At the very least, the singing and the sight of all the banners and stuff helped us forget about the disastrous morning. But, even that was too good to last.

After we sang the songs about a dozen times, they told us to go crazy for the cameras. We had to be on our feet screaming and jumping around every time the camera was approaching our section. And we did that like a dozen times, at least, while the camera people tried this angle and that angle. They later started pulling people out of the audience and replacing them with 'prettier' people. You know, the stereotypical 'Utah girls'. And then they did the same shots all over again. This went on for at least 2 hours, no kidding. Then, as people began getting tired of that business and leaving their seats for food and restrooms, etc., the producers yelled at us over the PA system, saying that anyone not back in their seats in 5 minutes was going to be permanently replaced and sent to the end of the audition line. They "had a job to do" and we couldn't audition until they got what they needed. That's when it all became real to me--this was all just hype. They didn't care about us. They were using us! And I don't know about you, but that just rubs me the wrong way. I felt like the only thing missing from the picture was a bull whip in the producers' hands. So, I was done 'having fun' for the cameras, and I think Jared felt the same way. It will be extremely funny watching for us on TV.

Later on, they finally set up half of the tables to conduct auditions. We were in the 4th section away from the front of the line, so, roughly 1,800 people away from auditioning. At the rate they were moving, it was going at least 3 hours before our section even got looked at by the producers.

About 45 minutes later, very well-timed and probably planned that way because the whole arena was getting restless and fed up with things, they announced that auditions would be suspended for about an hour while they did some more camera shots. But this time, there would be a special guest: host, Ryan Seacrest. And, oh, you should've heard the girls go crazy! You could've just ax-murdered their families, but, man, if you sent Seacrest out to them afterward, they would've forgotten everything. That's what it felt like. So Seacrest comes out and does some of his little promo takes--purposely surrounded by cute blondes who were hand-selected by the producers, mind you--and leaves. Whoo hoo! Glad that's done... Seacrest probably went back to his presidential suite while we were left to sit for hours--no food, little water, and little to no motivation.

TUESDAY: GAME TIME

For those of you who are fortunate enough to not know the audition process, I'll try to explain it to you. There are many levels of auditions in the whole process before you can even make it on to Hollywood, and there are at least two stages before you can even audition in front of the real judges (the famous trio). The first stage is where we and the other 7,000 hopefuls were at that point. This stage involves you being randomly assigned to one of eleven stations in groups of four where you would either audition in front of a low-level producer, an associate producer, or a bunch of random temps (as far as I could tell). Each singer got approximately 10 seconds. Then, the 'judge' would either keep you behind to advance you to stage two, while dismissing the others, or he or she would dismiss all four of you at once. And that's it. After putting up with all the hours of crap that morning, which started at 3am for us, you got 10 seconds to sing in front of someone who probably couldn't carry a tune in a bucket themselves. Ten seconds.

As we sat there for hours waiting for our section's chance to audition, we watched the judges closest to us. We began to notice a funny pattern. The two tables closest to us were manned by two official looking adults, so obviously not the temps that I mentioned previously, but most likely the lower-level producers. The tables farthest from us were staffed by the temp-looking people, kids or interns, basically. We noticed that the farther tables were letting alot more people through than the closer tables. In fact, the producers' tables let nobody through at all for a long time.

If you're acquainted at with all with probability theory or statistics, this should seem especially odd. Doesn't it make sense that if you take a random distribution of talent and divide it up randomly that you'll end up with a bunch of little random distributions of talent? In other words, every table should have been allowing people through at approximately the same rate. Such wasn't the case, so I became suspicious. This wasn't a talent search at all...

I started pay close attention to one of the close tables. The producer was a middle-aged woman who couldn't have appeared less excited to be there. Her eyes were constantly half-shut and glazed over, her head was cocked to one side and rested heavily on one hand which was propped securely on the table. She seemed to sigh at every new song she had to endure. Often, she would hold her hand up after only a few seconds of a song and impatiently wave the performer back and away from her table. I think I could count the number of people she let through on one hand, and that's out of all the hours I sat and watched. Then, suddenly, as a new group of four approached the table and started to sing, she came alive! The first guy was a good looking, young black guy, dressed up to the nines. I couldn't hear at all what he sang. The next guy was his friend, equally good looking and dressed up. Again, I couldn't hear his song. But, you should've seen this lady. She sat straight up in her chair, paid close attention to them both, then asked them both to sing another song. She then dismissed the other two singers, and again, had the two guys sing again--for a long time. Then, she gets up from her table, gets her friend producer, and has the guys sing for him. They both talk behind their clipboards for a long time, nod some sort of approval, then she has them come up to the table, she fills out some paperwork, changes their wristbands, and sends them on their way to the next stage. And when I say that went on for a long time, that took like fifteen minutes! When everyone else had 10 seconds, fifteen minutes is an eternity! The lady then left her station, returned after a few minutes, and slumped back into her chair, back to her old routine. I remember thinking that she filled her quota. That's what that was. Too many things just didn't make sense. I'll bet the producers are given a specific goal for their auditions that day. They'll let the temps and interns find the semi-good filler talent or whatever, but the big time producers are the ones that are scouting for the ratings boost or 'the scoop', whatever that may be. I don't want to speculate what that is, it could be a number of things or it could be nothing. That's just what my gut says about the whole situation. So, I looked over at Jared and said, "Dude, whatever you do, don't get table 11!" Guess what table he got...

As Jared marched off with the rest of the section, he got coralled into the huge line which was four deep, and made his way to the front where he'd be assigned a table number to go to with his group. Seriously, the line was a thousand people strong, there were 11 possible tables to get assigned to. What are the freakin odds? As Jared's group did an about face and started walking back toward me, I remember thinking, "No freakin way!" And sure enough: table 11. I just couldn't believe it.

Jared approached the table. He told us that he chose to sing Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it through the Grapevine", a classic song, which Jared had practiced on and sounded amazing singing. His backups were a Bon Jovi song (always a good choice) and another song I can't remember now. I wasn't sure which one he was going to choose, but he later told me he sang Grapevine.

Just as Jared started to sing, I'll be damned if the lady didn't yawn right in Jared's face! She didn't even try to hide it, she didn't look sorry, nothing. Just a big, fat yawn. Jared told me afterwards that at that moment, he just didn't even care anymore. He sang as best he could, but his reasons to care all went away with her stupid yawn. After the last of them sang, she told them, in as mono-toned a voice as possible, lacking any semblance of emotion, "I know you all have sacrificed alot to be here and that you have amazing talent. Thank you for coming, but this just isn't your year. Please come back in the future. Have a nice day."

To say the least, I was a little disappointed--disappointed and angry--disappointed, angry, and offended. Yet, I was semi-relieved, too. And Jared felt the same way. It's just not worth it. After 9 or more hours of hell, we limped back to my car, and headed home.

Overall, it was a good experience. Now we know, right? And now we have a story to tell. In the end, it all boils down to the fundamental difference between a talent show and a reality show. I would go as far to say that it's also the difference between a reality show and a business, because that's what it is: a business. As a side note, this experience has permanently altered how I look at reality TV shows. I can't stand them anymore. 'Disenchantment' doesn't really do my experience justice...

Thank you all for reading. Give my brother's band a shout-out and if you're ever at Roxy's in Vegas, tell him Josh sent you.

Back at School

2008-08-23T13:26:00.005-06:00

I feel so much more prepared this second year teaching as far as everyday routines, behavior management, and when I should teach what goes. (I actually spent quite a bit of time this summer planning out my year which I am so grateful I was smart enough to do.) It is very exciting to have a little experience under my belt.

BUT this year will still be far from easy. There are always things that come up to try a teacher's patience, flexibility, and smarts. My class this year is much different than last year's--which is good and bad. I'm in a bit of shock, actually, at the differences. I always knew it would be different, but I didn't realize how drastic a change it could be. The academic abilities of this year's group is much more spread out (K to 3rd or 4th grade in reading and math), which really will be a challenge that I'm excited to rise to but nervous about anyway. :) Two students try to get away without doing any work--something I honestly didn't really see last year. I was taken aback when that started on the first day of school, when most students are on their very best behavior. That's okay, because I don't expect that will last long (hopefully), because I won't make it easy for them not to do anything.

I just have to say, I never appreciated my teachers as much as I do now. I am constantly thinking about my students and spend a lot of time preparing lessons and praying. It is really such a rollercoaster ride--some days I loooove teaching, and sometimes I wonder why I chose such a difficult profession. Teaching is so hard but also so rewarding! I love seeing last year's students, and the students I student-taught the year before and see the smile on their face when they see me.

I just have to share one cute little experience. On Fridays we have Fun Friday where each third grade class matches with another class for a half hour of fun for those who are caught up in class and were well-behaved. (A few students may have to sit out due to problems during the week or missing work.) We alternate who's in charge. This week, I was in charge, so we did a little color-cut-and-glue project. So after school, I'm on my way to the office and the kids are streaming down the hallway to the buses. This little girl I don't know comes and gives me this big hug and says something like, "Bye, Mrs. Hiram!" Not knowing who she was, I took the safe route and told her with a big smile, "Have a great weekend!" The only thing I can figure is that she's in the other class that did Fun Friday with us and that she therefore likes me after having spent a half hour in my classroom. :) Cute.

Our 'American Idol' Experience: Part II

2008-08-23T09:14:00.005-06:00

If anyone has ever tried to find a place to eat in the heart of Salt Lake City after hours (or before hours in our situation) or even a place in general--anything that's open--you might relate to our situation. Around Temple Square at 5am, there is absolutely nothing going on! It's really quite an odd feeling. Fortunately, I knew where a couple gas stations were that I thought might be open, and after being rejected by McDonald's and let down by Denny's, those gas stations were our only hope. And, what do you know, but the first one we tried, a Maverick station, was open for business. So, we parked, ran in, and hoped that they had anything resembling food. I may have even eaten the week-old taquitos or hot dogs gas stations are known for had we not seen the egg and sausage biscuits under the heat lamps. We grabbed a couple of those, two Krispy-Kreme donuts, and drinks, and we were off!

On our way into town, we took note of some of the pay-parking lots we passed as we approached the arena. One thing we noticed right away was everyone was fighting to get into the lots right across the street from the arena--and paying for it! After the gas station, we jetted off to a parking lot that was relatively close and nearly empty. That lot charged $5 for 12 hours and was about two blocks away. After living in Provo and attending BYU for the last couple years, one thing I have learned is to not be afraid of walking. While the other people were waiting in line for a long time just for the possibility of paying $10-12 for a parking spot, we paid $5 and walked 5 minutes. And here's where we get to the line.

TUESDAY: THE LINE

Once we made it to the arena, we were surprised at how long the line actually was. When we first passed by at 4:30am, it was fairly short and close to the entrance. At 5am, the line extended the length of a city block--there were literally a couple thousand people in front of us. And, what's more, after waiting for maybe 10 minutes, we turned around and looked back and the line had doubled in length behind us. And this wasn't a single-file line either: it was probably a good 20 people wide.

And we waited. In the pages of rules they give you, among the list of prohibited items not to bring were chairs and chairs that fold. So where were to sit? The sidewalk. But we weren't about to sit on the city sidewalk, especially since Jared was all spiffed out in black. And that ended up being wise because a girl behind us decided to spill her Starbucks all over. It still got on my backpack.

And we waited. After we were there awhile, this guy with the smallest megaphone I have ever seen came out and tried to tell us that it would be about another hour before the line started moving so we should "get comfortable". He had to repeat this message every ten feet or so up the line. I kept joking that I could see a Fisher-Price logo on the side of his loudspeaker. He would've been louder had he cupped his hands and talked loudly.

As our hour of waiting turned into two, we just stood there and talked with people around us. This one guy in particular just wouldn't shut up though. He was acting like we were best friends. Plus, I don't know what it is with Mormon kids that wannabe jack like it's cool or something, but he kept going out of his way to drop 'hell' and 'damn' in his sentences, and in places that don't even make sense, you know what I mean? Like he's trying way too hard. I wanted to laugh at first, and later I just wanted to punch him. Maybe he had to try extra hard after he found out I go to BYU, like he wanted to make sure I knew he wasn't as good as me or something. But, c'mon man, I'm from Las Vegas! Like your little scripture swears are going to impress or intimidate me. Get a clue!

Anyways, another thing that started off fun but quickly turned annoying was the media coverage that was there walking the line. We saw the American Idol camera crews pass by us a few times, the local Fox news team did spots right in front of us (which nobody at home was awake to see), the local NBC and CBS channels, the local CBS helicopter, the local NBC news-radio, and the TV Guide channel hosted by none other than American Idol Season 1 runner-up: Justin Guarini. We were like, "Holy crap! Is that--the TV Guide channel?" Haha.

Two hours or so after the dude with the Hot Wheels megaphone from Toys R' Us announced that it would only be an hour, we arrive at the turning point to this story. The line started to move. That was exciting, if just for the chance to move our legs. Slowly, we made our way forward half a block when suddenly, and this always happens to me, the line monitors put their arms right in front of us to stop the line and put up the yellow tape. And we had to wait some more! Not only did we have to wait, the same guy comes out 20 minutes later with his miniphone to tell us that all of the people in front of us are going to be doing photo and video ops for about another hour and therefore, they were going to take us through a different entrance--behind us. He told us all to do an about-face and walk the other way to the doors. Somebody asked him, "Does that mean we're now the end of the line?" And he responded, "Yes, it does." After waking up at 2:30am, driving up to Salt Lake, making it through our whole breakfast fiasco, and then waiting for hours standing in line, it was now as if we hadn't even shown up until 8:30am. We were at the back of the line and we had missed the "front" of the line by two steps.

While that sucked, to put it mildly, Jared and I quickly reconciled ourselves with the situation thinking that at least we didn't have to stand for another couple hours in the sun doing photo ops. We were already sick of the media and the hype. We just wanted to audition and get on with our lives. Little did we know...

TUESDAY: SECURITY

I think the worst out of all these disappointments was when we finally made it to the entrance to the arena. When we were close, the same quietspeaker dude comes out and announces that, by the way, no outside food or beverage is allowed inside the arena. See, this was irritating to me, to say the least, because knowing that we would more than likely be all day at the arena waiting, I had packed Jared and myself enough snacks and drinks to survive. I didn't know what to do. I asked the people around me if anyone wanted a drink and I started to pass stuff out. A few minutes later we hear, by the way, you can take unopened beverages inside. You've got to be kidding me! Fortunately, I had one left. So we get to "security" where they look in our bags, and all they were looking for was food. They didn't even check my cargo shorts pockets (where I didn't even think to stash our snacks, dang it!). I could've had alQaeda in its entirety inside my backpack and nobody would've cared unless Osama had a Snickers bar!

After we finally made it inside and to our assigned, ticketed seats, they announced that for our convenience the arena has kindly opened one of their concession stands where food and beverages can be purchased. I think it was at this point that my eye started twitching. That was so maddening! I had plenty to say to the managers of that place and let me tell you, it wasn't anything you could find in any holy book. But I knew, just like they knew, that we needed food. So, long story short, after awhile, I went and stood in line for 30 minutes to pay $9 for a pretzel (with no cheese) and two Dasani bottles of water. It was absolutely disgusting, and I'm not talking about the food.

To be continued...

Our 'American Idol' Experience: Part I

2008-08-21T23:59:00.000-06:00

The week of July 29, 2008, Fox's American Idol reality show came to Salt Lake City to hold auditions. My younger brother, Jared, decided he wanted to audition this year, so he and his girlfriend, Lanita, came up from Las Vegas to stay with us in Provo for a few days. Jared was allowed to take one person with him to the auditions, so he asked me if I would go, and, being the supportive older brother that I am, I said yes. And of course, I was thrilled both to go and that he would ask me.

DAY ONE

Our experience began in the early hours of Sunday morning, July 27. Before you audition, you and your guest have to go "register", which entails a staffer looking at your ID for a split second and giving you a wristband and two assigned seat tickets. The earlier you get your tickets, the better your chances of getting to audition. This process officially began at 8am in Salt Lake, with the line starting to form at 5am. We wanted to get there at least by 8am, which we did, but when we arrived, although we didn't have to wait long, we were not even close to the front of the line. We found out that there were like a thousand people ahead of us and that they had opened up the line at 7am, not 8am. It wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't a very impressive introduction to the American Idol process. Had we only known what awaited us on Tuesday...

TUESDAY: WAKE UP CALL

Tuesday began much like Sunday did, just with less sleep. It was a lot of fun having Jared and Lanita here, so we got carried away playing games and stuff. It wasn't until late Monday night that I did the math and realized we probably wanted to wake up at 3am or sooner because the line started forming at 5am (the paperwork said to be in line by 5am, so we took that to mean mandatory). So, we woke up at 2:30am and planned to just get ready and leave, then eat breakfast somewhere up in Salt Lake. I even googled the Denny's and McDonalds nearest to the arena, I was sure one of them could accommodate us.

We got up there around 4:15am, drove around a little to scout out the area, figured we had enough time for McDonalds, so off we went. We get to McDonalds and the big sign is off, though the sign with the words on it was on and it said "Drive-Thru 24h" and the restaurant kitchen lights were on. We pull over to the drive-thru (which was lit) and waited. And waited... I drove to the second drive-thru, and waited. No response. Finally, I pulled forward to the window. We could see two workers in there maybe 15 feet from us, but they paid us no attention. So I honked. Nothing. I leaned out of my car and tapped the window. Nothing. Frustrated, we rushed off. It was now 4:30ish.

We parked at Denny's and ran inside, "Can we order something to-go?" The server replied, "Oh, I'm sorry we're out of to-go boxes." So I asked how long it would take to order a quick meal. "Oh, I'm sorry, but our grills are being cleaned. It will be about 20 minutes." Jared and glanced at each other in amazement and made our way back to the car.

I couldn't believe this was happening. At 4:45am, more and more people were walking up the streets toward the arena, and we hadn't even eaten breakfast yet, let alone found a parking lot and claimed our place in the rapidly growing line.

To be continued...

Celebrating Two Years!

2008-08-20T09:37:00.001-06:00

Yesterday (8/19), Shauna and I celebrated our second anniversary! Two years... we both remarked that it didn't seem anything like two years. It has already felt like an eternity! (LOL. Just kidding, sweetheart...) But, seriously, time has flown by! Two years is the length of a full-time LDS mission (for guys), and I don't remember it going that fast. It's pretty crazy.

This summer has been a lot of fun. We got to go to DC, we got to go to Vegas, and all the fun stuff in between. But, all the fun took all our time. As soon as we got home from DC, Shauna had to jump right back into planning for her quickly approaching new school year. I had to start an online class that I hoped to finish before my new semester starts (if wishes were fishes...), and so, we left ourselves with very little steam and even less time. Thus, we didn't plan any extraordinary trip or anything like that for our anniversary. Of course, Shauna's second day of school was yesterday too, so that further complicated any hope we had of running away for a couple days. But, nevertheless, nothing stopped us from going out to dinner to what has apparently become our restaurant tradition: TGI Friday's.

The pic I added above is of a little display I threw together to welcome Shauna home from work. The photo pictured there is from our very first date/meeting-in-person ever taken outside St. George, UT, in the spring of 2005. Meeting Shauna that weekend was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

Our Garden is Officially Cool

2008-07-22T19:36:00.008-06:00

Our garden is officially cool because the first vegetables were ripe for the pickin'! 4 zucchinis today. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to walk out there and literally pick the fruits (well, vegetables) of our labor! I was just jumping inside with glee! I admit, I do talk to the plants, and I told them how proud I am of them! With such encouragement, I expect to be picking veggies all summer long. :)

Let me just share a few more pictures... with captions because I like writing them... not because I think you can't see.

[Left]Our garden which will be producing beans, tomatoes, onions, crookneck squash, and, of course, zucchini. [Right] Crookneck that will be ready soon!
[Left] A tomato that needs to turn red so I can eat it. [Right] One of the zucchinis I picked today before I actually did with one growing to the left of it.

Vegetable Garden

2008-07-19T14:15:00.003-06:00

I have got to say that I love our garden! There are 4 tomatoes growing and 4 crookneck squash growing, and 4 or 5 zucchinis! I am so excited!!! Hopefully in a few more days we can pick our first zucchini. Mmmm...

Random DC Highlights

2008-07-15T22:06:00.021-06:00

RANDOM DC HIGHLIGHTS:

Chilling with the presidential candidates.

Here I am reflecting at the Reflecting Pool (haha!)... Spelling that made me laugh, offically. :)

Josh with a million dollars... Josh and the Korean War Memorial...

Hanging out with the Edwards... At the metro's steep escalator that used to scare me as a child...

At a dinner theater where we saw West Side Story... At the DC temple.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

Seeing the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I felt so strongly looking at them that they were inspired of God.
Being at the Capitol and hearing The 1812 Overture with live cannons! Need I say more? It was so COOL!
Being able to hang out with my husband!
Hearing the organ at the National Cathedral.
Eating out!
Going to the Wright brothers exhibit room at the Air and Space Museum. It was really interesting. It sounds a little sappy, but I really gained an appreciation for what good men they were.
Seeing the dinosaur bones and the Natural History Museum. I can't believe those bones were actually parts of living creatures on our earth even though I know they were!
The monuments. It was a good reminder of great men who helped found this county and those who have fought to keep this country.

NOT HIGHLIGHTS:

Heat and humidity.
Massive reaction to a bug bite. [See picture.] I wore a bandaid to try to cover it. After the day shown, I wore a bigger one.

Alas, the Glabes Have Left Us in Mourning

2008-07-01T15:30:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, the Glabes left us. They moved out of Twin Pines, leaving us the only couple on our floor that moved in during the summer of 2006. Yes, we are the "old" couple on our floor now. Of course, though we've been hanging out for almost two years, we hadn't actually taken a picture together--we're not as good as the Christensens about that. (The Christensens are another summer '06 couple that has also left us, right after having little Kelsey.) So literally minutes before they drove away, we snapped a picture. We wish the Glabes luck--they'll be missed. We hope they, too, will be peer-pressured into posting on their blog. :)

Pancakes the Size of Pizzas... and a Sofa the Size of a Swimming Pool

2008-06-29T22:23:00.012-06:00

While we were in Vegas, we got to celebrate Kim's birthday (Josh's sister). We went to Hash House a Go Go to eat her birthday dinner. Everyone ordered the pancake but me. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw what looked to be a pancake approximately 16 inches in diameter. (The fork in the picture is for scale). I ordered corn beef hash and also had a sizable meal (in background). No one came even close to finishing.

Now, the next memorable moment we couldn't take a picture of because all hands were full of this sofa Kim had. She just moved into an apartment, and this couch wouldn't fit up the stairs into her apartment--it can seat 4 quite comfortably, by the way, so a little big... So Kim, Josh, Jared, Lanita, and I set to work to get it up over the balcony. Yes, over the balcony. Josh tied a rope around it, then he and Jared pushed it up while us gals pulled from above. After the couch was pretty high, Josh ran up and helped us continue to pull it higher. Once we had enough above the railing to tip it, I grabbed the arm and hung on it, making it angle toward us instead of Jared (we were afraid we'd squish him). After that, it was cake. In case any of the naysayers from the apartment community read this, just know this: We did it! You may have laughed, but we did it! It's really too bad someone didn't stick around to record our amazing feat.

Our tires were made out of sand!

2008-06-18T07:46:00.006-06:00

     Yesterday, to get ready for a trip to Vegas this weekend, we took Shauna's car in to Costco to get the tires rotated and balanced and checked out. After wandering around the warehouse for about 45 minutes, we got a call from the tech and he told us that he couldn't do the tires because they were bald! This immediately frustrated Shauna (for lack of more colorful words) because she had personally purchased the tires herself just 2 years ago, almost to the day! Furthermore, the tires had a 45,000 mile warranty on them and we had only put about 24,000 on them. We went to talk with the tech and he showed us that, sure enough, the front tires were worn down to the wear bars. His first comment to us was, "Well, you gotta rotate and balance your tires every 6-8 thousand miles, and you haven't been doing that, blah blah blah, so now you have no warranty. Sucks to be you." (More or less, I may be paraphrasing. But he seriously had the 'get out of my face stupid customer' air about him.) So, we started arguing with him because Shauna was told at a different Costco last year when she had the tires done (at about 12,000 miles, only 4,000 miles over their recommended mileage) that she only needed to have that done "oh, ya know, every so often" and was told nothing about the warranty depending on it. Then, the guy turned to the paperwork we had (we always keep the paperwork/invoices for stuff like this), and he realizes that we didn't even 'purchase' the tires because Shauna's name wasn't on the invoice.

     That's a whole other story that Shauna can fill you in on later. Short version is that while traveling back to California from Utah a couple years ago, Shauna's car broke down. She was carpooling with her friend whose dad happened to be a couple hours' drive away, so he came and swapped them cars so Shauna could make a flight. While he was driving her car home, it blew a tire (it wasn't a good summer for her car), so he took it to Costco and bought a new tire under his membership. Shauna, after returning from her trip a couple weeks later, took the car back to Costco and purchased three more tires herself but under his membership so they could get the 'buy 4' discount. And yet, that wasn't good enough for this tech. It was pretty much game over at that point.

     Not even once did he concede that, hey, that sucks the tires we sold you were made out of sand, let's see what we can do for you. Not once did he apologize or sympathize or feel anything. And I guess we really didn't feel anything either as we drove half a mile up the street to Discount Tire Co. and dropped $50 more than Costco would've charged for 4 brand spankin' new tires. Eat that, Costco!

     And that reminds me: the dude at Costco told us we needed to replace only the two front tires and that the two back tires "were fine, and that tells me there's something wrong with your car that you'll want to get fixed blah blah blah". We got to Discount Tire and the guy looked at our tires for 10 seconds and showed me how all four tires were worn down to the wear bars. I asked him about the front tires because it did appear to me as if we had an alignment problem (the tires were very worn only on the outside edge), and he told me it was actually fairly normal for tires to wear like that and if we weren't having any problems with the car pulling to one direction or the other (which we weren't) that we didn't have an alignment problem.

     The moral of the story:

If you buy new tires, be aware of the terms of the warranty, i.e., be aware of when they need to be rotated and balanced, and DO IT, no matter what the tech says. Like the guy at Discount told us, some people, at every company, are pretty chill about the rules like that and some people are pretty strict, so it's best just to get it done the strict way to avoid our situation (meeting the strict guy after we met the chill guy). And, remember routine tire maintenance is (or should be) free.
If you want some awesome sand-based evaporative-rubber dissolves-on-asphalt won't-last-past-half-their-life tires, then we highly recommend Michelin tires.

And, just to make certain we didn't have any money left at the end of the day, we stopped by Jiffy Lube on the way home for an oil change.

La-Z-Boy Reclining Loveseat is Welcomed into the Hiram Home

2008-06-14T09:59:00.003-06:00

June 13th marked a momentous occasion for the Hiram Family: Josh and Shauna purchased their first couch! [Celebratory music, please!] Josh found it on craigslist and immediately called for an appointment. We went to the ATM, borrowed Papa Ned's truck, and off we went! Once we returned the truck, we came home and played Wii--in the reclined position, of course. Another plus, as if we need another plus, is that our living room looks bigger now, having gotten rid of the apartment complex's massive (and uncomfortable) couch and replaced it with our smaller loveseat. An all-in-all good day for the Hiram family. : )

Craziness

2008-06-05T16:00:00.011-06:00

It has been a crazy last couple weeks! So crazy, in fact, I will just bullet-list some of the highlights (yes, I do love bullet-lists):

We got to go celebrate the careers of some of Shauna's mentors and good friends who were retiring from teaching third grade. The four teachers retiring are leaving Shauna and two other first-year teachers to reign over the third grade. It was a great dinner party, for which, Shauna and her friends were in charge of providing the salad; long story short: there are still Costco-sized boxes of salad stuff in our fridge from the party 3 weeks ago.
I'm taking a Genealogy and Family History class at BYU, and one of the assignments is to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and do some original research. We got to go last weekend and spent a good four hours there. Shauna spent the time working on her own family line, and I did my assignment. I was supposed to find an original document (on microfilm) about one of my ancestors. After searching all day, all I came up with for that individual was this poorly written record of his marriage in 1854. But, that's better than nothing!
And, the best for last, we want to wish our good friends Kyle and Megan congratulations on the birth of a beautiful and healthy baby girl. We've had a lot of fun being able to visit them in the hospital the last few nights and play some games with them there, and of course, we got to hold the baby. I think my favorite part from their blog leading up to the delivery was Kyle's menu updates--nachos and double cheeseburger, footlong hot dog... Haha. We've enjoyed being good friends with them and are sad that they're moving soon. Fortunately, they're not going to be too far away. One thing's for sure: they may be better pirates than we are, but they'll never catch us at Phase 10! Fwahahaha!

The rest will have to wait till later. I've gotta get some homework done! =*(

-Josh

Spice Girl's Simple Pleasures

2008-05-22T18:20:00.008-06:00

A few weeks ago, I put up two shelves for my spices above the oven! YAY! I can read them and reach them without knocking a couple out of the cupboard or pulling them up one at a time from a drawer! Simple pleasures are often the best, especially when you put the work in. I've noticed this with my third graders, too. They can play the simplest game, dance a simple dance, etc... and be completely happy. It's refreshing in a world where people seem to need so much to be happy. (Not that I'll give up my Wii, mind you.)

:) Shauna

One month later...

2008-05-21T22:53:00.007-06:00

Well, it's been exactly 30 days since our previous (and first) blog post, so I guess it's officially okay for us to post again. We don't want to subject our blog to overposting, you know... Haha.

So, here are some highlights about what we've been up to:

FIRST, mainly because it is the only picture I have readily available (and also because she looks so cute!), Shauna got her hair cut! Although she's going to kill me when she finds out I posted the one of her with straightened hair, it's my favorite! When she wears her sunglasses, I think she looks like a movie star! (Just know I loved you all! Remember me for the good things! LOL)
Next, I signed up to be on our ward's intramural kickball team at BYU and ended up being asked to be the captain! It has been SO much fun! Our team is solid! We've played our four regular season games so far and our record is 2-2. Granted, one of the wins was by default since the other team had to forfeit, but, we've had a lot of fun and I think we've even learned a lot about the sport and improved our skills. Now, we're just waiting for our tournament ranking and we'll be off to the championship! I think Shauna got some pics of me, maybe even some video, so check back for those later (or tune into ESPN; I'm sure one of their million stations picked up our game...)
About two weekends ago, we splurged on a garden! Our landlord gave us permission to cultivate a nice garden plot that hadn't been used for years at another complex of his right across the street from us. We spent an entire Saturday ripping weeds out and getting it ready (and anhialating Jiminy Cricket's family... you should've seen them! There were at least 20, and we couldn't afford any Seagulls, so...) and then we spent an entire evening shopping at Home Depot and planting the seeds. We may, I say 'may', have gone a little overboard on the planting, but it's our first time! So, we have to experiment with what grows. And, speaking of growing, we checked today (it's been about 9 days since we planted) and we're starting to get some sprouts! The zucchini is growing the best so far.

Other than the above, not much else going on. Shauna's got six teaching days left of this, her first school year. I just wrapped up my first round of Spring midterms (one went well, one didn't). And we're both excited for summer!

-Josh

Welcome to our blog!

2008-04-22T20:36:00.013-06:00

I remember sitting at home in Las Vegas and watching the news on TV shortly after I'd returned home from my mission and listening to a reporter talk about 'blogs'. I'd served for two years in Washington State, as in, inside of the United States, and yet, I had never in my life heard the word 'blog' (I'd never heard of an iPod before, either. I remember asking my friend, "What's an ipid?"). Anyways, this reporter was talking about blogging like it was common-place (which it was) and I was lost and intrigued! I began researching it and I think I asked Shauna about it. She pointed me toward Blogspot, back in the day when it was Blogspot. It seemed like a cool idea at the time. For some reason, what I really grabbed hold of during my research were RSS feeds, and my very first blog was just a whole bunch of RSS feeds. I guess it made me feel like a secret agent or spy or something, like in the movies--the dude that sits down at his computer in the morning and receives the latest updates from headquarters. I'd always intended on taking clips from some and writing my two cents worth about them, like I was an important news journalist or CIA analyst--I'm really in to Tom Clancy's 'Jack Ryan' books, by the way--but the idea of publishing it on the scary world wide web was too intimidating for me. I was a hardcore secret agent at heart, albeit a shy one. So, longer story less long, my first blog died out. I'd forgotten all about it until recently when we started thinking about starting our family blog. By the time I thought to check it again, Google had acquired blogspot (now Blogger) and my old blog was no more.

And so, our friends, welcome to our family blog. I hope it goes better than my first one, and with fewer RSS feeds. I think our current subtitle says it best, we'll post whatever we have time for. Please leave us comments and keep in touch. We look forward to checking out your blogs too, so please send us your links.

-Josh