Much Needed Break

Over the past couple weeks I have been pretty busy with school. It seemed as though all my big projects fell upon me at the same time. I ended up putting in about 65 - 70 each week trying to finish everything. Luckily, I have a couple weeks before things really pick up again. Kristin was more than patient with me. She even forgave me when I had to spend Valentine's Day night at school while I helped with a school competition. To make it up to her I took her out to dinner at a local restaurant that has a very nice spot on the banks of the Willamette River. Then we went out for ice cream at Prince Puckler's. It was really good, but I think that Farr Better Ice Cream in Ogden is a better choice. (Even if President Obama had ice cream there last year). Thanks again to the Richards for watching Owen.

I can't take credit for being busy all the time because Kristin is putting a lot of time into the young women's program. She has been planning a lot of activities and lessons lately. She has been a real busy body. Hopefully we can spend some time together over the next couple of weeks. She deserves it.

One of my friends at school took some pictures as evidence that I was really working hard over Valentines day weekend.

This is during the first night of competition. Yes, that is an Alta Ski Resort sticker on that Mac, but it's not mine.

Here I am giving instruction to some of our witnesses before the first night. We organized over 150 volunteer witnesses and close to 100 attorney judges to help out over the course of 3 days. In the end we held 36 mini trials each lasting 3 hours long. It was a huge undertaking.

Our final rounds were held here at the Eugene Federal Courthouse. It sticks out like a sore thumb because of its artsy fartsy look.

NOTE: I would like to formally object to this sissy color scheme. Pink on black? Come on, I don't deserve any of the blame for how "cute" our blog is right now.

NOTE 2: I have noticed that almost every undergrad girl wears those crazy Ugg boots. They are so common that one might think they are issued to undergrads as part of their tuition. First of all, boots are okay. Kristin has a very nice pair of leathery fuzzy boots that look really good. Unfortunately most Ugg boots actually look like this. They look like you're walking around with two dead Nutria on your feet. Now, I don't mean to offend anyone, but I just think this Aussie fashion statement needs to disappear like Crocodile Dundee. Just because some celebrity decides to wear them does not make them okay. That is, unless you ladies would like guys to start looking to our own favorite celebrities for fashion advice.

Owen doesn't want me to blog

Sorry about being so terrible at blogging. But I have an excuse. Owen has taken my cordless mouse and has either thrown in away while I wasn't looking or has stashed it somewhere. I have looked everywhere, which leads me to believe it was thrown away. So that leaves me with Blake's laptop, which is gone with Blake from about 8 am to midnight. He has been putting in some serious overtime at school. He has a lot of different things going right now. If only one of those things were a job....just jokin' Blake.
Anywho, when life gets back to normal and I give up looking and go buy a new mouse, I'll post more often. Thanks for being patient.

A small announcement

I can't believe it has been 14 months already since our little Owen was born. Time has gone by so fast, and will probably continue to go even faster when our second little one gets here in August!

Merry Christmas

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas break. We'll update more when we get home. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

Great Deal at RiteAid

I was so happy to find this little deal last week:



Oral B Professional Care 7400 Rechargable Toothbrush
(retails for $89.99)

Total price: $0.00 FREE!

Here's how:
On sale $60.00
RiteAid December rebate -$20.00
Oral B mail in rebate -$15.00
RiteAid $5 off a $25 purchase coupon -$5.00 (Got for signing up for their emails)
RiteAid Gift of Savings rebate -$20.00 (I get $20 back because I spent $100 during December, almost 100% of which was a rebate, so really, I didn't "buy" anything.)

I also bought a pack of 3 replacement brush heads which were on sale for $20 with a $7 rebate and a $1 manufacturers coupon, making them $12. Which is almost what 3 regular toothbrushes would cost anyway. So I think it was one of the best deals I've ever gotten.

So this was our Christmas present to each other, a rechargeable toothbrush...that was free...how romantic. I guess it's nice in the sense that we'll both have clean teeth and fresh breath which means more kissing under the mistletoe. So it is romantic after all.

Welcome Home Friend!

I got a call on Thanksgiving night from a very nice police officer that told me that they had recovered my bike earlier that day and arrested the man who was in possession of it. I started jumping around yelling things like, "SUCKAS! That's what you get for stealing my bike!" It was quite embarrassing for Blake, but I couldn't help myself, I was so excited. It was a great Thanksgiving Day surprise.
So the next day, I went to the Springfield police station to pick up my bike, they brought it in, and instantly I knew it's not my bike. It looked like my bike frame, but this bike was much nicer than my bike. It's tires were actually pumped up, the spokes were trued and straight. There was a water bottle holder, a new seat, different pedals, different handlebars, front and back lights and a new speedometer. But after I looked at it closer, I saw some unique scratches on the frame that were put there by my various crashes. So it turns out that it was my bike and whoever had it last, probably someone who bought it off of some bike thief, put about $150 into it to fix it up. Funny huh? Now I'm hoping someone will come steal Blake's bike, because it needs a tune up and some new brakes.

Attenton Target Shoppers

I waited for 2 hours outside of Target today to get Guitar Hero III World Tour, and it really wasn't that bad. But I was only 20th out of 2,000 people, so I was in and out before even half of the line was in the store. Luckily, I got my game, but I'm still not sure if I'd ever do it again.