Saturday, June 20, 2009

Did we move to Portland

Tina and I have talked about places we would like to live someday. One place is Portland. As it turns out, instead of us moving to Portland, Portland has moved to Provo. It has rain just about every day for the past two weeks. And I thought we lived in the desert.

Together Again

Well, Tina and I are back together again. She was up in Park City for a conference and I was here in Provo working at the mental hospital. It is good to be back together and sleeping in the same bed!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

The final wedding pictures!

The wedding pictures are finally here. There are WAY TOO MANY to decide which ones are the favorites, so here are a few. They are pretty fun! Thanks to our wonderful photographer!
I love this picture with us and our cute parents kissing!
This is a pretty fun one of my brothers and I.
With our whole family

Monday, June 15, 2009

Good news!

My good news of the day . . . I got my grade back for the class that I was taking while we were engaged. Despite the fact that I was MAJORLY distracted during the class, I got an A!!! I am very excited about that. I was really expecting a C, but I passed with flying colors. I am now completely sure that the teacher did not read my papers that I turned in, because they were pretty much a load of crap!
But the bad news is that Tina is in Park City at a conference while Chris is working in Provo. It is our first time apart in the two months that we have been married . . . and we have to do it for three nights! I am sure we will survive, but it will be close. My conference is about Literacy and I am learning a lot of good information for next year, but I just wish Chris could be here too. I would really like to clone one of us so that we could still be together!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

These are few of my favorite things

I have a confession to make.  I love the movie The Sound of  Music.  Not only is it a good movie, but it was one of the few things my mom and dad would let me watch on Sunday afternoons when t.v. was verboten.  

This has nothing to do with what follows except that reading is one of my favorite things.  I have what could be described as a lifelong love of reading.  It began when I was in the fourth grade when Mrs. Stone read the Magician's Nephew and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to our class.  I loved those books so much I went to read Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle.  Why I have not read the other books in the Chronicles of Narnia still remains a mystery.

From fourth grade onwards, I read fiction, mostly fantasy and science fiction.  Once I got into high school, my reading dropped off.  It was not until my senior year I read a book all the way through for pleasure and liked it.  In fact, I read two books.  They were The Gunslinger by Stephen King and The Rainmaker by John Grisham.  I respectively read both of them over the course of a couple of days, totally engrossed in the tapestry both these master storytellers wove in their books.

The summer between my junior and senior years of college I discovered my love for non-fiction.  I discovered that the books Ghost Wars and Plan of Attack were just as good, if not better than, the science fiction and fantasy books I had read since coming home from my mission.

Here is a list of some books I have read recently, and think you might enjoy too:

N.T. Wright
  • Romans For Everyone (Volumes one and two)
  • Surprised by Hope
  • Simply Christian
Leonard Arrington
  • Adventures of a Church Historian
Daniel C. Peterson
  • Muhammad Prophet of God
I started reading Jaroslav Pelikan's first book in his series on the history of Christian Doctrine but gave up.  It was interesting and informative, but altogether dry and technical.  Pelikan was a great author and scholar, however this book was just too dry for me.  

I put his book aside and began Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness and am loving it so far.  The book is about his experience working with South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Committee following the end of Apartheid in the 1990's.  I am going through it at breakneck speed and will probably finish it sometime this weekend.

After this one, I will probably read a large book by N.T. Wright I checked out from the BYU library and then some other things I have checked out since then.

Reading is something I deeply love.  I am better person because of the books I read.  When I pick out a book I try to figure out if this book is going to be uplifting and edifying.  Or, will this book make me a better person having read it, or will it be merely entertaining.

So after finish reading this, step away from the computer and pick up a book and read.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Memorial Day weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, we went home to Idaho. We met my family at Chiz's in St. Anthony and then we went to the cabin in Island Park. It was a ton of fun because we were able to be with family, and to NOT MAKE WEDDING PLANS for the first time that we have been home!
On Sunday, after church, we took a drive to Yellowstone National Park. Between the West Entrance and Madison Junction, WE SAW A BEAR! We actually got so close (probably 30 yards away or so) that Chris and Carter and Casey decided that we needed to turn back. The Park is always a lot of fun. We saw lots of wildlife: A BEAR, an eagle, bison, elk, and deer. We also saw some great scenery. It was especially fun to visit it with Chris, because he hasn't been in years, and he was fascinated by it all. It was a fantastic weekend.