Parry Family

A December to Remember

2012-01-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Last month we closed on our new house and I totaled my car. In the same day! I left work early, excited to meet Jacob at the closing. I was looking up directions on my phone while on the freeway and next thing I know my car is looking like this:

I am an idiot, of course, for looking at my phone while on the freeway. Amazingly, no one got hurt. So, friends, please don't use your phones while you drive. I work at a place where everyday I see people with serious injuries as the result of accidents, so I of all people should have no excuse for this.

In this picture you can see the white truck in the background that I drifted into. I'm lucky I didn't end up completely under the truck. He ended up facing the wrong way in traffic after I hit him. No real harm to the truck, and we were the only two vehicles involved.

Eventually I made it to the signing, and this little beauty became ours:

She needs some work, but we are really happy with her!

Having a house is awesome. I know it's going to be a headache at times, but we are so ready to be done with renting. More pictures of the house to come. Thanks to Pinterest for helping me spend hours and hours deciding how to decorate.

After all the above mentioned excitement, we enjoyed a quiet Christmas with my family in Provo.

Here's to a very memorable, and very expensive, December.

The Angels May Quote From It

2011-12-03T13:46:00.001-08:00

I just read an article by President Spencer W. Kimball from 1975. It is called "The Angels May Quote From it." President Kimball emphasized the importance of keeping a personal record, or a journal. Here are some of his thoughts:

"No one is commonplace, and I doubt if you can ever read a biography from which you cannot learn something from the difficulties overcome and the struggles made to succeed. These are the measuring rods for the progress of humanity."

"Your own journal, like most others, will tell of problems as old as the world and how you dealt with them."

"What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?

Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.

Get a notebook, a journal that will last through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity. Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised those who failed to record important events."

I love keeping journals. I am almost done with my 7th one. There are some pages in my journals that I love to read and reread. I spent some time today looking through my journals and thought it would be cool to share some entries with you.

First, you don't have to read all of them.
Second, I tried to pick one entry from the beginning of each year (I stayed away from the ones I thought would be too embarrassing for me...which was surprisingly often) since I started writing in a journal.
Third, don't judge...
Fourth, you can judge if you want.
Fifth, I did a little redacting.
Sixth, some of the entries took up more than one page, but I only put one page per year so some of the entries just end abruptly...sorry.
Seventh, the last three pages shown are a letter that I wrote to my future self a few months ago.
Eighth, NERD ALERT!!!

Enjoy:

1st page of Journal #1
This is as far back as I could take my family tree when I was 12.

I actually got my journal in October 1997
Also, I don't hate Adam anymore...
I'm still not sure about Scott...j/k

I survived Y2K
A little update on each family member

I evolved to all caps

First new year in Nicaragua

Second New Year in Nicaragua

What happened on Valentine's weekend?...
The world may never now!

2008 was the worst year ever...until August when I met Laura

This was after Laura dumped me...
It was also before I dumped Laura.

I thought it would be my last semester...I'm still in school :(
But, I am done for real in less than 2 weeks.

If you don't want to read them all...this letter is the one to read.
Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3

Finally, just to make things a little awkward. This last picture is of a piece of my skin that I peeled off my calf when I was about 16 years old. It is about the size of my palm.
I keep it in a ziplock back as an insert.
Yummy!

Anyway, keep a journal okay!

Jacob

D.C.

2011-11-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to Washington D.C.!! We had so much fun. After having been to the capitals of several other countries, I finally made it to the capital of the USA! Some highlights:

The Holocaust Museum. We also went to the National Gallery of Art, Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, the Museum of American History
We got Library of Congress library cards and went in parts of the library the tour doesn't take you
On Sunday we found the most amazing farmer's market
Seeing my friend Ashley and meeting her baby!
And, of couse, taking pictures with my wonderful camera

MLK Jr. Memorial

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Arlington National Cemetery

Washington Monument from the Cemetery

Vietnam Memorial

Unfortunately, the reflection pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial looked like this on our trip...under construction.

WWII Memorial

Inside the Capitol

Brigham Young at the Capitol Building

We also happened upon the Nicaragua Embassy

And then on purpose found the Uruguay Embassy

Fun bookstore we found

Pretty temple

At the Museum of Natural History they had a live butterfly exhibit. It was so fun!

Korean War Monument

Jefferson Memorial

White House-we went on the tour, which was kind of disappointing. Long line for not very much tour. I guess the line was because President Obama needed to leave. Rumor has it he was going to his girls' soccer game :)

The Washington Monument is so striking and pretty. I couldn't help but take a lot of pictures of it.

Legoland

2011-11-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

We had a reputation to live up to after last year. Having sworn off paper mache for life, my costume this year only involved a box, oatmeal canisters and a little paint. Here I am with my coworkers.

We are debating how to get lunch with our costumes on.

It was tricky but we managed in the end.

I hope everyone had a lovely Halloween!

Weird Al

2011-09-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

Monday night we went to the Utah State Fair and saw Weird Al in concert. I tried to fight it at first, but I have embraced Weird Al. I love his polkas the most. It's made our music listening in the car on road trips a lot easier. Audrey came with us! This concert was fun, but the best part was seeing Jacob's face full of pure joy and giddiness as he enjoyed the performance.

Nerd alert!!

I was also slightly obsessed with taking pictures of the Ferris Wheel and trying new things on my camera.

Portland Trip

2011-08-31T22:15:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend in Portland with Becca! It was indescribably awesome to have a sister trip. I will, however, do my best to try and describe it to you. I had never been to Portland before, and was excited to see a new part of the U.S., and see where Becca served her mission.

Friday morning we hiked Multnomah (Mult-NO-ma) Falls. Becca had to correct my non-Oregonian pronunciation a few times on this trip. The falls were gorgeous.

There were several artists there painting the falls.

For lunch we went to the Grilled Cheese Grill, a bus converted to gourmet grilled cheese shop. It was too hot to eat inside the bus, we ate outside, but it made for some cool pics.

After that we headed to the mall. We went to H&M, one of my favorite stores. It did not disappoint. We also got pedicures, because a sister trip is not complete without them.

For dinner we went to Burgerville, a popular Oregon-only burger chain, which Becca told me rivaled In-N-Out Burger. Sorry, Becca, I will remain true to my In-N-Out, it is still my favorite burger. Below is a picture at The Grotto, a famous Catholic church. It was very peaceful and pretty. They had an interesting path with several of these monuments. We saw the sister missionaries street contacting someone right outside, which made Becca very happy.

Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market, which is right on the waterfront downtown, along the Willamette (wil-LAMM-met) River. Also very cool. I had the best pupusa and bought a cool ring made from a spoon. We also saw some interesting folks. Becca told me some peeps in Portland tried to pass an ordinance that within certain city limits, one could not wear any product that was scented- no lotion, deodorant, even shampoo! We saw (and smelled, unfortunately), some people who seem to be practicing this ordinance, even though it didn't pass.

I look like I'm ready to sock Becca in the stomach in this picture. Probably because she just bought the cutest little blue clutch and I'm jealous!

Then we went to Powell's City of Books....a bookstore spanning a whole city block and several stories high...it was mind-blowing. After about an hour in the store I found my favorite section, and about an hour after that we managed to escape without too much damage to our bank accounts.

We also went to the International Rose Gardens, where they have every kind of rose you can imagine. After this, we were beat. We drove to the temple, and then Becca showed me some places she served and we went to a lookout point for Mt. Hood.

Sunday I played the piano and Becca sang a solo in church and then I came home. I really liked Oregon. I was amazed at all the greenery, considering I still think of Utah as such a green place, when many consider it the desert. Portland reminded me of Salt Lake in some ways; parts of Salt Lake have that hipster/granola/have-dreadlocks-even-though-you're-white kind of feel. It was such a good trip. And my good husband cleaned the house and my car while I was gone, making it even more fantastic!

It's Moabites, not Moabees

2011-07-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

I am interning for a company called the Wayne Brown Institute. They are the oldest non-profit venture capital accelerator in the country. I have been there for about 3 months. The internship ends in about 3 weeks.

Anyway, because of all the awesome things that the interns have done for the institute, they decided to take us all on a weekend retreat to Moab, Utah.

For those of you who are not familiar with that area, let me take a couple of paragraphs to fill you in.

There are two stories explaining how Moab got its name. One of those stories claims that its first post master, William Pierce, named it after the city of Moab that is found on the East side of the Jordan River, believing that the biblical Moab and this part of Utah were both "the far country." The other story claims that the word "Moab" comes from the Piutes word "moapa" meaning mosquito.

Now, through the years, starting in the late 1800's, some of the residents of Moab wanted to have the name changed due to the fact that in the bible, the Moabites were idolatrous and incestuous. On different occasions they tried to change the name to Vina, and then Uvadalia. Weird, huh?

So now you have a little background info on Moab. That is where Laura and I spent our weekend, with the Moabites.

We left around noon on Friday and drove the 4 hours to Moab. The Institute paid for a couple of condos that we stayed in. Laura and I snagged the master bedroom in one of the condos which ended up being one of the best things we could have done. We got the master bathroom all to ourselves. It was nice.

The first night there we just settled in and had some dinner. We played some ping pong and darts and went to bed.

Saturday was a full day of Jeeping. We got up at 8 AM and went over to the Jeep rental place to pick up the 5 Jeeps that we were going to be using all day. We went to some pretty cool places. Instead of telling you all about it, here are some pictures:

There were a lot more pictures taken...some of you will get the opportunity of seeing those.

We got out of the Jeeps a few times for some site seeing and for lunch. We also got out to take a little hike to Gemini Bridges, which is a pretty cool spot. Here are a few pictures from that hike:

I think we were Jeeping for close to 9 hours yesterday. It was literally (said like Rob Lowe on Parks and Recreation) one of the coolest things I have ever done.

Saturday night we had a nice Mexican style dinner and then went to bed.

We slept in on Sunday and left for Salt Lake City around noon. Here is a part of the story that is funny to everyone but Laura and I...

While we were driving home, Laura and I were playing the game were you trying to link movie stars by the movies they are in. For example: link Meryl Streep to Jack Lemmon...

This was my first chain:

-Meryl Streep to Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia

-Pierce Brosnan to Halle Berry in Die Another Day

-Halle Berry to John Travolta in Swordfish

-John Travolta to Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction

-Samuel L Jackson to Ewan McGregor in Star Wars

-Ewan McGregor to Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris

-Jim Carrey to Jennifer Aniston in Bruce Almighty

-Jennifer Aniston to Jason Bateman in The Switch

-Jason Bateman to Will Smith in Hancock

-Will Smith to Jack Lemmon in The Legend of Bagger Vance.

I later came up with a chain that was about half that long.

Anyway, Laura and I were so engrossed in this game that we didn't bother to pay attention to where we were going. We just kept driving and driving. It wasn't until we got to the point where we were so hungry we started looking for nearby eateries. Laura saw a sign and said "In 20 miles we can stop and eat in Beaver." I was like, "Beaver!?!?!?!?!? We shouldn't be anywhere near Beaver!!!!!!!"

It turns out that we were 20 miles north of Beaver when we should have been close to Spanish Fork. We added 2 hours on to our trip because of the never-ending degrees of Meryl Streep.

1. This is where Moab is.

2. This is where were were when we realized we were going the wrong way.

3. This is where we should have been

4. This is home.

It was pretty sucky!

So, that was our weekend.

See how many people it takes for you to link Meryl Streep and Jack Lemmon. Post it in a comment.

A Little Bit of Plywood and a Little Bit of Paint

2011-07-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

As I write this post there are pellets of sweat beading under my knees. I am only telling you this so that you know that I am extremely uncomfortable. Why do I want you to know how uncomfortable I am? I don't know, but it is relevant to the post.

This is Jacob, by the way...Did you picture Laura's sweaty knees? Gross!

We live in a little one bedroom apartment with no central air conditioning. In the summertime we use a couple of a/c units that help keep us just cool enough to not want to kill ourselves. Am I complaining enough?...No? I can keep going.

Anyway, the a/c unit in our bedroom prevents us from being able to shut our window. Having the window open makes it very hard for the cool air to stay inside. Well, Laura's dad came up with the idea of cutting out a piece of plywood to cover the portion of the window that is left open. Less than 24 hours after making that suggestion, her dad was back up here installing the piece of plywood.

Now, some of you might be thinking "A piece of plywood? What an eye sore!"

What a coincidence, I was thinking the same thing.

I almost immediately got out some paint and started slapping in on the wood. This is what ended up forming on the plywood:

The painting is about 2 ft. wide and 17 in. tall.

I call it...

"Blind Sailor"

May

2011-05-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Jacob walked at graduation!

He is one step closer to being done with school! Hooray. We had fun seeing his family that weekend. (If you are ever looking for a good time with the Parrys, just throw a hula hoop into the mix. Very entertaining.)

Jacob also started a great internship this month at the Wayne Brown Institute, where he is the associate director of public relations.

We are looking to buy a house. Buying a house is kind of like finding someone to date. There are a lot of options out there in the housing and dating markets. Some you look at and immediately think, no way. You really like some on the outside, but on the inside, they may be moldy and creepy. Some are really intriguing, but in the end don't win you over. The whole process is really exciting at first, but a little bit into it, you'd rather just be done with the whole thing. We haven't found "the one" yet, but we'll keep looking.

Ragnar

2011-04-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

I survived! Last Friday and Saturday I ran the Ragnar Relay from Huntington Beach to Coronado Island. Me and my 11 teammates that is. Below is my half of the team, outside the lovely Howard Johnson where we spent Thursday night. I only knew Eliza, my sister-in-law, but I couldn't have asked for better teammates. They were so nice and fun. And fast runners to make up for me and my slowness!

I had three legs of this 200 mile journey:

Leg 1: 5.4 miles. It started at 11 a.m. It was miserable and by far my worst leg. I was not prepared for the sunny and HOT race, which was in a wash and concrete pretty much the whole way. I didn't bring water, because I know I can run for that long without water. Big mistake. There was one water station half way through, but it wasn't enough. About 3/4 of the way through, I saw another jogger. I wasn't sure she was with our race, but I saw she was carrying a water bottle. I was desperate enough to ask her if I could have a sip of her water. She said, sure, and as she handed it to me, she said, it's not water, though, it's cooler. Cooler, I thought? Like Kool-aid? No, came the answer as it hit the back of my throat, like wine cooler. That is the second time I accidentally drank alcohol. The first time was on my mission, but that is a story for another time. This is me finishing the brutal first leg:

Leg 2: 2.7 miles. Started about 10:30 p.m. This leg was a-MAZE-ing. It was cool outside, and I had a short run. I was pleased with my mile time for this leg.

Leg 3: 5.7 miles. I started running about 9:30 a.m. This was such a pretty run, through a little town and along the coast. We were running through the town on the sidewalk next to these cafes with people eating breakfast. In front of me was a shirtless male playboy bunny, a Baywatch girl wearing only a red racing swimsuit, and then I followed dressed like a ninja turtle. We got quite a few comments from the people we passed. This leg was much better than the first, but I was still slower than I would have liked. The finish line:

Eliza and I at the end with our cool medals:

Jacob and his mom came to the finish line and drove us home, which was fun. I was lucky all my legs were at decent times of the day. Overall, it was pretty cool, and I think I would even do it again...if I keep running. A lot.

the toothbrush and the toilet paper

2011-03-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today I had a meeting at a special education school where some of the kids I work with are students. The teacher I met with had the cartoon above on her wall, and I thought it was funny. It was a good reminder that we may not have the perfect job, or house, or whatever, but it's definitely not the worst!

Probably the most exciting thing that's happened to us in the last 2 months is...we got a new vacuum. I'm being totally serious. After months of vacuuming with a handheld dust buster (because it worked better than our wimpy Dirt Devil) we were lucky enough to get a Dyson ball, which we fondly call "the animal" because it's made for animal hair. Wow. It has changed our lives and now are not walking on filthy carpet!!

I also turned 27, which made me feel kind of old. Jacob got me the Nike+, a running tool that has a chip that goes in your shoe, and an attachment for my iPod to tell me how far I've run and what my pace is. It is pretty cool, and Jacob was happy that he could buy me something technologically advanced that I would appreciate. Speaking of running, this 5k business somehow turned into a Ragnar relay, which I will be running next month. Double yikes! I'm still a little freaked out about it. For those who don't know, it's a 200 mile relay race with 12 team members. I have 3 legs. Which I hope I survive. I have been trying to run 4 times a week to train. I think I'm pretty prepared, but sometimes it's just hard to keep going. Usually if I'm doing a longer run for me, like 5 miles, I feel anxious at the beginning, and I think about how long it is and worry that I won't be able to run the whole time. Once I get past that though I settle in and just keep running. Do you runners have any tips for me?

2011 So Far...

2011-01-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

We rang in the new year by going to eat at Noodles and Company, then going to see Red at the dollar theatre, then watching the ball drop at Times Square on t.v. It was fun.

Likewise, my New Year's resolutions are pretty humdrum and predictable, but I feel good about them.

1. Exercise more. To accomplish this, I actually got a membership to Gold's Gym. I have been talking about getting one for months, so I'm glad I finally did it. I am also going to run the Rex Lee Run with my sister, Becca. (Now it is in writing Becca so we have to do it.) I have run this particular 5k 3 times before. My goal is just to jog the whole way and not have to stop and walk. I have started going to the gym before work!

2. Read my scriptures better. Not more, just better. I have a couple topics I am focusing on. I am also trying to study more out of Preach my Gospel.

3. Jacob and I made a goal to go to the temple once a month. (This was Jacob's idea. He is pretty awesome.)

This semester, Jacob has class Monday night, I work Tuesday night, Jacob has class Wednesday night, and I work Thursday night. It stinks. But after this semester, Jacob will be mostly done with school and will walk at graduation, but won't be officially done yet. In November, I took on a different responsibility at work and I now work on the pediatric floor of South Davis. I really like it, but it can be stressful at times.

Jacob's resolutions are to:

1. Expand his talents. Already, he has completed 3 super cool drawings.

2. Explore the depths of new technology. (AKA be more nerdy.) Jacob got a new app on his phone that records video.

3. Jacob's other recurring resolution is to be nicer. 2011 is his year!!

Do you have any interesting or exciting resolutions you want to share?

Prime Real Estate

2011-01-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

I got a lot of tools for Christmas this past month. I have been having a nagging feeling lately that I haven't been very manly, so I decided to put my mind and my tools to work and built something awesome with all the new (manly) toys that I recently aquired.

I'm not sure what sparked the idea, but I decided to build a cat condo for our two cats Link and Fish.

Here is the plan that I drew up:

Sorry about the quality, I took the picture from the camera on my phone.

And here are a few other pictures taken throughout the building process:

The cats wont go into the condo part without being bribed or coerced, but maybe one day they will retire there.

Link is an OG! (Original Gangsta)
It was a lot of fun putting it together. The cats love it too.

Pics

2010-11-27T17:45:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago we went to Vegas and I got to take my nephews and niece to the park. When we got on the slide one of the ladies there said, "Let me take a picture of you and your kids on the slide, you look so cute." I handed her my phone and didn't correct her, because these kids are definitely cute enough to claim as my own:

Cadence took this picture of the boys:

And Jack took this one:

Link the gangsta

Fish hanging out

Family picture for Thanksgiving

My dad made this awesome car! He has skills.

Midnight Attack of Link the Sink

2010-11-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

It all began innocently enough. I went to sleep Thursday night, happy the next day was Friday and pay day. During the night I simply rolled over in bed, only to be swiped in the face with a fast and furious cat paw. Straight to the eyeball. It was 2:30 in the morning. It was quite painful. I shot up in bed, holding my eye, and was crying. Jacob woke up to the commotion saying, "Mom.....Mom....what's going on...." Haha.

I eventually went to bed holding Kleenex to my eye, which after a while wasn't painful if it was closed. I woke up this morning and discovered that it was really hard to open my eye for more than 5 seconds. Realizing I wouldn't be that useful at work, and unable to get there since I was practically blind in one eye, I called in and said I was going to wait to see if I recovered in a couple hours.

Around 9 I thought it might be a good idea to go to the doctor, just to see what kind of damage the little monster had done. Jacob was kind enough to take me. The doctor put some yellow drops in my eye and stuck a strip of paper on my eye because it was supposed to tell him what was up. He reported there was a small scratch on my eyeball, and that I should be feeling better by tomorrow. He prescribed me some antibiotic eye drops just in case. Before sending me off, he said he was going to put a patch on my eye. Jacob's eyes lit up at this prospect; he was picturing me wearing something akin to a black pirate patch all day, and for some reason this made him happy. The doc did put some white gauze over my eye, which I removed soon after because Jacob dropped me off at work.

I looked awful at work. My eyes were puffy, swollen and squinty. After work we went to pick up the eye drops prescribed to me, but ended up not buying them, due to the $50 copay my insurance thought I should pay for them. My eye is doing a lot better now, and hopefully will be back to normal by the morning.

Don't Forget about Turkey Day

2010-11-08T18:04:00.001-08:00

I don't like when Christmas goes up so soon, I think it makes us forget about Thanksgiving. For FHE we studied President Monson's talk "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." My favorite part: "Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love." Who wouldn't want those blessings? Hence our Top Ten Things We Are Grateful For, in no particular order:

Jacob:
1. I am grateful for the one week forecast, I love knowing what the weather is going to be like before it happens, even though the weather man is usually wrong.
2. I am grateful for easy classes. I hate classes that are hard, especially now that I am getting to the end of my college career.
3. I am grateful for Oreos®. I kid you not, I ate an entire package by myself within 3 days. yummy!
4. I am grateful for shows like The Mentalist, Bones, Fringe, House, Lie to Me, Castle, The Office, Burn Notice, Community, and Leverage that keep me sane. They also distract me from my school work, which is something else that I am grateful for.
5. I am grateful for my two kitties Link the Sink, and Fish, who like to cuddle with me even when Laura doesn't.
6. I am grateful for the makers of Tootsie Rolls®.
7. I am grateful for Tootsie Rolls® too.
8. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to vote, even though it doesn't really matter who I vote for, this country is spiraling down to it's inevitable demise.
9. I am grateful for The Book of Mormon, on tape. By "on tape," I mean on my iPhone. I love listening to it while I am working. I just started in 3 Nephi.
10. I am most grateful for a wonderful wife who not only puts up with all of my crizzap, but she makes me feel like a real man. She is so kind, and patient with me...I couldn't have asked for more...She is da' bomb, she is also a democrat!

Laura:
1. My husband, who often knows what I need before I do and always makes me laugh.
2. My jobs. I love that I have a fulfilling career and that I was able to go to college to be where and what I want to be. I’m so blessed to work where I do.
3. My family. My parents who are so selfless and kind, and my sister who is my BFF.
4. My cats. I never thought I would be that person- but I totally am. I show my co-workers pictures of my cats, and worry about them when I’m not home.
5. My mission. It was amazing and has shaped me in ways I’m so grateful for.
6. Being healthy.
7. Bargain shopping. I love finding good deals, it makes me really happy.
8. The Office.
9. The talents that I have and things I enjoy, like music, writing, and crafty stuff.
10. Friends who have been in my life at times when I really needed them.

(P.S. I remember doing this as a freshman at BYU and at the top of my list was chicken cordon bleu from the Cannon Center...we lived for that stuff every Sunday. yum!)

What are you grateful for?

The End is Near: Fires, Floods, and the Creation of a New Earth...

2010-10-31T18:50:00.000-07:00

Fires: Early Saturday morning, someone set fire to our chapel. Luckily the youth were meeting there early, so the firemen got to it before major damage happened, but there is severe smoke and heat damage, so we will be meeting at another building for about 6 months they think. Yikes! Another chaple close to ours was burned a lot worse, and a vacant house nearby was also set on fire.

Floods: This morning we awoke to our neighbor's toilet water leaking down through the ceiling into our bathroom. Fun! This has happened before. And our fridge stopped working for the third time so all our food went bad. And when it rains a lot the plaster on top of our window falls down and makes a big mess. We are excited to one day move from our cute little apartment.

Earth: At my work there is a costume contest each year for group costumes. The social workers decided to be planets! Several hours and lots of paper mache later I made Earth:

Mars was also with us,

Along with Neptune (why make a costume when you don't need to?)

And the sun.

Jacob did an excellent job drawing the land on my earth. Yes, we really are that dorky in my office, but we have so much fun!

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat as a scary lumberjack, and...a lumberjack's wife.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Staycation

2010-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

For our anniversary celebration, we had a staycation. I was surprised as I mentioned this to people and they did not know what it was. Here's a little info from Wikipedia if you're also not sure: "A staycation (also spelled stay-cation, stacation, or staykation) is a neologism for a period of time in which an individual or family stays and relaxes at home or a nearby hotel, possibly taking day trips to area attractions. Staycations achieved popularity in the US during the financial crisis of 2007–2010." On our staycation, we started the day off with a lovely brunch at Village Inn, and then headed to the zoo. Neither of us had been to the Hogle Zoo before, and we were excited to check it out. My favorite part were the little monkeys. So cute! We watched a big gorilla eat its poo. Gross. Then we saw the zoo's most famous resident right now, Zuri, the baby elephant. She was very cute as well.

Here we are, riding the zoo train with all the kiddies. If you go to the Hogle Zoo, don't take the train. It's like 30 seconds long and you don't really see anything cool on it.

Isn't Jacob's face so cute in this picture? He had fun with the big water ball that you move around.

That evening we went to a play at the Off Broadway Theatre called Y-Light. It is was a spoof on Twilight featuring vampires from BYU and werewolves, or "beer wolves," from the U. It was pretty funny and had a lot of Mormon jokes and rivalry jokes, both of which we enjoyed.

P.S. Our cats are still adorable, in case you were wondering:

25 Starts Off With A Bang

2010-10-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

Jacob is 25. He had an amazing birthday. He wanted the new apple t.v., but the apple store kept selling out before I could get there to buy one. I called Friday after work, and they had sold out again! I called Jacob and said I was sorry but he'd have to take a rain check. Fortunately, Jacob took matters into his own hands and went to buy one Friday morning when there were only 3 left at the store. The apple t.v. couldn't connect with our t.v., so Jacob decided he needed a new flat screen. Now we have a 42" t.v. that pretty much takes up our whole living room. If you've been here, you know. We watched conference in HD! We also had some friends over Friday for Jacob's birthday favorite, German chocolate cake.

Me, Audrey, Elder Parry, and Jacob.

Last week we surprised Elder Parry at the airport on his way to Honduras. We used our detective skills to deduce what time and what airline he would be on so we could see him. Pretty cool.

Nearly a Year Later...

2010-09-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

I finally got the pictures from our honeymoon on the computer. Having forgotten my camera, all our pictures were taken on a disposable camera purchased at Catalina:

Pretty, huh? But let's back up a little bit. The day after we got married we stayed in Vegas and planned to drive to California to catch our cruise. When we were about to hit the road, we realized we were taking off from San Diego, not Santa Ana, which is an hour further away. So we had an extra hour to drive we had not planned on. I was so worried we were not going to make it! I figured if we didn't, at least we would have a funny honeymoon story to tell our kids. That car ride was kind of a tense way to start off our celebration. Fortunately we made it on the ship with time to spare. Our first stop was Catalina, which was really pretty. We rented these cool bikes and rode around. Jacob was impressed with the fact that everyone drives golf carts and you have to be a resident for about 12 years before you can bring a car to the island.

After Catalina, we landed in Ensenada, Mexico. It was fun for us to speak Spanish and haggle with the salespeople. We bought some cool souvenirs. I had been dying for a massage, but it was too expensive to get one on the ship, so when we found a little massage place, I decided to get one. Jacob said he was going to go get some ice cream. My massage lady was slapping her hands together, rubbing them really fast and then massaging my back. I'm not sure why she was doing that, but Jacob was in the lobby and all he heard was slapping. He was wondering if his new bride was being slapped around in the back of the store. He decided to eat his ice cream first and then check it out. By that time I'd come out and we went on our merry way.

Weird gold heads.

Weird monkey.

Weird sculpture on the beach.

Yeah, even on our honeymoon it was that painful for Jacob when I kissed him. Now he either fights back:

Or accepts awkwardly when he sees there is no way out of it.

After nearly a year of marriage, that's one lesson we've learned: Know when to fight back (pick your battles) and when to awkwardly accept what your spouse says/does/thinks (or when they try to kiss you on the cheek).

Meet Fish

2010-09-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

This is Fish.

We decided that Link was too lonely at home alone all day, so we went back to the shelter and adopted Link's brother. We named him Fish to continue with the Prison Break theme.

Link and Fish love each other.

Link and Fish love yarn.

We love Link and Fish!

Link "The Sink" Parry

2010-08-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

When I was about 11 years old my sister Eliza did something crazy, she brought home a cat without the permission from our parents. I talked to her last night about it and we both thought it was really weird that our parents allowed this

to happen. Anyway, the cat was a long-haired orange tabby named Elvis.

I don't remember a lot about the cat but I do remember that we had it for several years before it started to, as my mom puts it, "go cookoo." Elvis was an outdoor cat, he would run into random people's homes and attack their grandmas. I remember really liking him.

I don't remember at what point Elvis went cookoo, but it was a long time ago. My parents decided it was time to say bye bye to Elvis and they took him away. I don't even know where they took him, but hopefully he is in kitty heaven right now.

Now, some of you might be wondering why I am sharing memories of a dead cat. Some of you already know...

A week ago today Laura and I adopted a 7 month old cat from the local shelter. Because of the fond memories that I have of Elvis, I wanted to get an orange haired tabby. Laura didn't share the same fondness for that type of cat but after some lobbying, I finally convinced her that we should get the one that I wanted. We named him Link "The Sink" after the character in prison break named Lincoln Burrows, whose prison name was Link "The Sink." We figured that because we broke him out of cat prison (the shelter) it was appropriate.

We really like Link. He is one of the most cuddly kitties that I have ever known. He really likes to push his little head against our cheeks and for some odd reason he has a weird obsession with feet.

He went in to get neutered this past Monday and has been in recovery mode ever since we brought him home. We think that he has come down with an upper respiratory infection

(a cold in cat terms), he hasn't been eating very much and doesn't seem to like keeping his food in his tummy. Hopefully he will get better soon.

This last picture is a nice glamour shot taken by Laura:

Validation

2010-08-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

Jacob rocked his analysis of argument class. For his final paper, a persuasive essay, he had to do a presentation as well. He chose to write about gay marriage and to persuade his classmates to vote against it. Jacob did an excellent job. Here is what his teacher said:

"Jacob, some great comments here. I want to pass on the kudos of the class that I have been reading about your presentation. As I have been reading the critical responses I read time and again that our colleagues in the class were very impressed with your speech. Several students have commented on how impressive it is that you took on topic of gay marriage. Additionally, many have stated that although they feel differently than your proposition, your tone, delivery, and excellent support helped them to listen. That, sir, is a huge accomplishment. It is amazing what would get done if we just listened!! Good work!"

He is going to be such a good public relate-er!

I submitted a little something to the BYU Alumni Magazine, the part in the back where they ask for anecdotes from when you were a student at BYU. Here it is. *Warning: this is extremely cheesy* Also the easiest $50 I've ever made. :)

Last, but not least...the evolution of Jacob's facial hair.

I'm so excited. I forgot what his chin looked like!

a few pictures

2010-07-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hiking Stewart Falls

Vegas

Camping and geocaching in Box Elder

My husband the Mennonite chopping wood. That

evening we discovered beards and s'mores aren't really

a good combination. Too bad I didn't get a picture!

Summer

2010-07-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Summer is here in full swing. Dripping, sweaty, scorching summer. I'm not talking about outside- I'm talking about inside. Our apartment. We can't cool it down. I take a lot of cold showers. And eat a lot of cold cereal. And we've even resorted to...sleeping in our living room? Yep, that's where our air conditioning unit is, so that's the only place we can fall asleep. We do have a fan, but we (I) don't want to throw down the money for another air conditioner for a place we might not be in for much longer.

Jacob has devoted himself to his studies this summer and I am proud of him. He's taking math. Gross. I am lucky that I never had to take math in college! While he's doing algebraic equations, I can be found at water aerobics or crafting. I went a couple of weeks there where I was obsessed with knitting. Obsessed. I think the phase has passed and I am more rational about it now, but I managed to make this in the meantime:

A baby sweater! It was fun to make.

I also made an apron for Jacob. My dad asked if I was trying to send a message with this gift, because an apron can imply certain things. I wasn't trying to send a message, but if Jacob would like to infer that I wouldn't mind if he tried out a few recipes now and then, that would be okay.

My new project will be something mysterious-

- with this brown fabric!

It seems like we need a trip to Vegas to escape the heat!

I Love My Mac

2010-06-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

Late last week I decided that I wanted to upgrade my computer with some new software. I had used up my 30 day trial of Microsoft office and thought to myself, "I like that...I'm going to go buy it." So, with permission from Laura I drove to the local Apple store and grabbed what I came for and headed for checkout. As I got to the back of the store one of the very nice and outgoing apple employees whose name was Max asked me if I needed help with anything. I just told him that I had found what I came for and needed to pay for it. He looked down at what I was holding and with some disappointment in his voice he said, "So, you decided to go with Microsoft Office?" I was a little confused as I replied, "Umm...yeah, what's the alternative?" This seemed to excite Max. He took me over to one of the iMacs and began giving me a short tutorial on iWork, which is the Apple version of Microsoft Office. After a couple of minutes with Max I decided that he had showed me enough to change my mind, so I bought iWork. It also cost about half as much.

As I walked out of the store I felt good about my latest purchase and couldn't wait to get home to give it a test drive. I spent the next 3 days exploring the depths of my new software and decided that iWork is AWESOME!!

There are two other things that I wanted to share. First, when I got to school yesterday I found out that the bookstore was selling Apple software for a discounted price. I could have saved another 30 dollars if I had just waited a few more days to buy iWork. So, if you are ever looking to buy stuff for your computer, you should always look at the local University bookstore before going anywhere else. And second, if you want to buy Microsoft Office, which I still believe is pretty cool, you should use the trial version and then wait about a week after it expires. I got an email from Microsoft yesterday telling me that I had 24 hours to buy Microsoft Office for a discounted price of 99 dollars, which is 50 dollars less than its normal price.

Anyway, here are a couple of samples of things that I have put together using Keynote (Powerpoints equivalent).

Isn't that cool? You can't do that kind of stuff with Powerpoint!

If you are having a hard time deciding what software you want to buy you can always get a 30 day trial for both Microsoft Office and iWork.

Here are the links to the two most recent versions:

Microsoft Office

iWork

CA, Scouts & Booties

2010-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to California with these lovely people:

It was really fun to get away for a few days. We played tennis, went to the beach, and saw Iron Man 2. The girls got pedicures and the boys played Xbox. It was great!

Jacob just got called to be the boy scout troop committee chair in our ward. He is proud to display his newly acquired shirt and patches, which he sewed on.

I just started knitting again. I learned how to knit a couple years ago, but recently picked it up again. I knit these baby booties, which I think might fit a five year old.

That's all for now...stayed tuned for our exciting summer adventures!

Being a Social Worker Rocks

2010-05-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you about it.
Job #1: There is a lady at the hospital who had a stroke a few months ago. She was able to answer yes or no questions only. Her sons were worried she was really depressed, so I started visiting her more often. This week as I was visiting her, she talked to me for the first time!! It was really exciting! Things were not looking very good for a while, and we still don't know how much she'll recover, but this is a big step and it was cool that I was there to see it.

Job #2: I have started doing some play therapy at my other job. I'm not very experienced in play therapy, and not sure sometimes what I'm doing...but the kids and I have a good time playing with Play-doh anyway. One particular little girl I've seen a few times completely opened up to me this week and told me all about how she felt and what was going on in her life. It was pretty cool. We were painting...must have been the paints. She also gave me the heart sticker.

I have to keep these in mind when I have not-so-good days...but overall, my jobs are awesome.

Six Months

2010-04-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Friday night Jacob and I treated ourselves to a little mini-golf. The last time we played was in Vegas in November 2008. I decided it was time I show Jacob my true golf skills and cream him. (I let him beat me by 1 point last time.) We had a good time, even though it was a little too cold for comfort. Jacob made an amazing hole in one shot. I made a hole in one later, after the sun had almost set. Because of the twilight, we were unsure if I made it in or not. Afterward, I said, "Too bad it wasn't sunny so I could see my great shot go in." Jacob said, "The suspense of it being in the dark was the best part!" This brings me to my first point: I love that Jacob is an optimist. In the end I decided to be kind, and let him beat me again. I wouldn't want him feeling bad because he lost to his wife at mini-golf.

Jacob is also an inventor, did you know? We were having a slight problem in the bathroom here at our lovely apartment. We have a sliding glass door instead of a shower curtain. But this door wasn't cutting it, because water escaped out of the top whenever we showered, leaving the bathroom soaked. Jacob bought a plastic shower curtain and rigged it above the door in a fashionable and effective manner, making our bathroom floor water free!

Though he has his more sensitive side, (painting, music, and yes, cross stitching...) Jacob is a manly man. He changed his break pads all by himself. I am impressed. See how manly he looks in this picture with his dirty hands?

I can't believe it's been six months already! It seems like just yesterday we were here:

Happy Six Months!

We're Pregnant!

2010-04-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

April Fool's. Did we get you? I like April Fool's. You get to be sneaky and it's ok. I come from a long line of April Fool's lovers. My grandma, who lived with us when I was growing up, loved playing pranks. One year she told me there was a mouse in her room. She was screaming and looking around frantically. It's just behind the dresser, she said, look! I believed her, didn't see anything, and turned around to see her smiling slyly. I would never have suspected Grandma.

I have a friend from high school who I called for I think three years in row on April Fool's to tell her I was engaged. I'm pretty sure she believed me every time. (Jessi, if you're reading, thank you for participating in my longest running and most memorable April Fool's joke.)

This year I didn't do anything spectacular. I told my mom I was really sick. After listing my symptoms I said, "Yeah, I was reading about this online. I think I have a condition called...APRIL FOOL'S!" She called me by my full name (which has more effect now that I have three names) and told me I get her every year. Which is true. I got her good one year when I told her I broke my ankle in aerobics class.

I got Jacob after work. I was dropping off our rent a few blocks from our house and told him my car wouldn't start. He came to rescue me (he passed the test) and when he got there I asked him to try starting it. When he did I giggled and yelled "APRIL FOOL'S!" It was a pretty successful April Fool's for me.

Change is Inevitable... Except From a Vending Machine.

2010-03-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Today I finished my last mid-term exam. Spring break has officially started. I like to think that while I am in school I never have time to write on the blog because of how busy I am with homework and other very important school work, but the truth is that I have so much time I sometimes wonder how I never get things done.

Now that I don't have anymore excuses I can't keep putting off my blogging. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who are counting on me for an interesting update on my very uninteresting life. Well, fret not...here we go.

A few weeks ago the Y chromosomal half of my family came up from Vegas for a baby blessing. They came up here late Friday night and spent the night at Audrey's house. Laura and I stayed at my in-law's house with the idea of hanging out with my fam the next day. My in-laws live a couple miles down the road from Audrey, you see, so it was very convenient.

On Saturday Laura and I met up with my father, my two brothers, my nephew, and Audrey (my sister). We sat around for a while. Then, we sat around for another little while. Finally, a little while later we got out the Wii and everyone watched me play a Cabellas hunting game. The picture that is included shows me with the rifle used to shoot the many deer that seemed to always be brave enough to run within 2 feet of me before I blew their brains out. I even nailed a little baby doe from like a billion yards away with a crossbow. You can tell that the people watching are enthralled by the unending amazement that I am providing. I am wearing camouflage, did you see that?

We had a lot of fun that day. For lunch we went to Tucanos, the very expensive Brazilian restaurant that leaves you feeling ripped off because you just ate $5 dollars worth of meat you wait 20 minutes to get and then pay more that 3 times that much...not including the dessert nobody ever gets.

Actually, that isn't true, most people eat way more than that, and it tastes pretty dang good. But it does make your burps taste nasty, and that is way uncool.

Now, on Saturday night we spent some time at my Uncle Kent's place. My grandma was in town and we wanted to see her before we went back up to Salt Lake.

While we were there we got to talking about brachymetatarsia, which is a disorder that, as it turns out, I have. Other names for this disorder are Morton's syndrome, Morton's toe, princess toe, freak'n weird, etc. It is when your second toe is longer than your first.

After a few minutes of chatting I made an comment that left my audience in a deep wonderment. "My second toe is longer than Laura's pinky finger." WHAT!!! NO WAY!!

Well, here is the proof:

Don't ever say I didn't do anything for you. Is that not the nastiest foot you have ever seen? Is Laura's hand really that red, or is my foot just really that white?

After my little demonstration the conversation slowly died because nobody could top that freaky phenomenon. I don't blame them, it is still hard for me to wrap my mind around it.

Just don't stare for too long...

lets move on.

It was St. Patrick's Day yesterday. I shaved off my beard and now I am sporting the molestache, yet again. Here is a picture of my St. Patty's day outfit:

And a couple other pictures that I just took for all the creepy people who, for whatever reason, like looking at pictures of me:

A little creepy

And a little less creepy

Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Bye bye bye

Domesticity

2010-02-21T11:55:00.001-08:00

We haven't always had the best relationship. I mean, we've had our ups and downs, that's for sure. I've been so frustrated at times I've stormed out and said I was not going to deal with it anymore. But inevitably, we make up and things go back to normal. No, I'm not talking about this guy:

I'm talking about me and my kitchen. Cooking/baking has never really been my thing. Why spend time in the kitchen, when you could spend it...pretty much anywhere else? Now that I'm married, I feel a little bit more responsibility to learn how to cook so I can feed my family one day. Meanwhile, Jacob must suffer through my experimentation. But things are looking up for me and my kitchen. After the great crock pot potato disaster of 2010, I've made a few steps in the right direction. Like, these delicious red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting!

And this orange chicken:

And a dish called Johnny Marzetti:

Wow! I know my mom feels proud that she must have instilled some good sense in me. (Despite my many years in college of eating quesadillas, mac & cheese, and frozen dinners.) My mom did try and teach me some things about cooking...but I didn't necessarily like being told what to do (I am still a little bit stubborn on occasion) and leaning to cook was a few too many rules to follow I think. Lately, I've also found that I really like...grocery shopping. Yeah, it's pretty fun when you use coupons. For example, this trip:

All these items were going to cost around $76.00, but after coupons and store discounts, it came to $35.00, which is 54% savings on this trip! Yeah, it's dorky that I posted my shopping trip. But so fun! This is the site where I get my inspiration. Cooking and grocery shoppping...who knew.

P.S. I have tried for weeks to get Jacob to write on our blog about Grandpa Parry's funeral to no avail. Future posterity, if you would like to read about his funeral, please go here. I guess I'm not the only stubborn one...

Dear Jacob,

2010-02-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

I'm really happy you got to go to your grandpa's funeral and be with your family. I wish I could have gone too. I didn't really have a chance to get to know him, but I am so glad he could marry us. What a great memory to have.

Since you've been gone, I've eaten macaroni and cheese twice for dinner and watched the movie '17 Again'...several times. Please come home soon and restore my sanity! I miss you.

Love,
Laura

The Parable of the Orange Julius

2010-01-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

During dinner last week:

Laura: I bought some frozen orange juice concentrate. I'm going to make Orange Julius.
Jacob: No way! I was going to use that for making Orange Julius.
Laura: Yeah, but I have a recipe and it's really good.
Jacob: I'm pretty sure I make it better.
Laura: No, I'm pretty sure I make it better.

Or something like that. Anyway, this conversation of course resulted in an Orange Julius Taste Off. We invited our friends Kiya and Michael over to participate as judges. We had Orange Julius A samples, and Orange Julius B samples. Our friends tried both and then wrote down their votes. And the winner was...neither. Kiya voted for A, Michael voted for B. Unfortunately we could only get two people to come over and be judges. So our contest was a flop.

But, Kiya mixed part of sample A with part of sample B and decided that both recipes mixed together was better than either separately. Thus, the Parable of the Orange Julius: my best + Jacob's best = awesome. (Thanks, Jacob for bringing out the best in me.) :)

P.S. Here are the recipes if you are curious-

Laura's recipe:
1 1/4 C orange juice
1 C water
3 TB egg white
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 C ice
blend, add ice last

Jacob's recipe:
put a lot of ice cream, some milk, a little vanilla, just enough orange juice concentrate, and several ice cubes in the blender. blend.

Mistakes

2010-01-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

Mistake #1 was made by Geico:

Laura and Jacob Riddle...heheh. So far, I've done pretty well adjusting to my new last name. I've only written Riddle a couple times when signing my name. I'm glad Parry is a pretty normal name. And I think it looks good with my first name. But it has been misspelled on something at work - Laura Perry. Gross!

Mistake #2. Buying 10 pounds of potatoes. This was my mistake. I was seduced by the very low price of potatoes at the store. I thought, potatoes are cheap and Jacob and I both like them. We can eat these for a long time! But, they are starting to go bad and I am pretty sick of potatoes...In the last while, I've made twice-baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, and cheesy crock pot potatoes. (The crock pot potatoes were a disaster...my first real bomb since we've been married. I'm still trying to recover.) Do you have any good potato recipes? Help!

Mistake #3. Taking Jacob to Petsmart. I wanted to go window shopping for a dog. We can't get one yet, but I thought it would be fun to look. Jacob fell in love with a cat named Georgie and really wanted to take him home. I was, fortunately, able to drag him away. After we got home we did some research and this is the dog Jacob wants-

Maybe one day maybe when we have a bigger place.

12 Days of Christmas Parry Family Style

2009-12-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

12 hours of Lost. Jacob is starting from the beginning and catching up on all 5 seasons. We like Lost.
11 days of having a Toyota Highlander. Our insurance gave us a rental…Jacob’s car needed a little work after sliding into another car in the snow.
10 dollars for the best Wii gave ever…Dr. Mario. My mom, sister and I are champions at this game.
9 hours of sleep every night. That’s what I should be getting…I am feeling better, but still kinda tired.
8 hours of work today. I love my job at the hospital. Jacob is still at the admissions office, and is less thrilled about his job.
7 degrees in Logan. We went to the temple for my friend Ashley’s wedding. Brr!

6 presents under our sad, sad little Christmas tree.

5 golden rings? Nah, but we did get 2 stylish pairs of pajama pants + 1 food storage starter kit + 1 desk chair + 1 handmade nativity set. Christmas was good to us.
4 semesters until Jacob finishes school. Yay for one semester down this month!
3 nights at home for Christmas! We had fun hanging out with my parents and keeping Becca company. We also went to Jacob’s cousin Stephen’s missionary farewell while we were down there.

2 iPhones in the family. Yeah, I had to get one. It’s pretty awesome.
…and a partridge in a pear tree.

We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and has a happy New Year :)

I'm a Fraud

2009-12-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

In the last post I made a false claim. I do not type 97 words per minute. I doctored the html so that it would say that I typed 97 when the truth is that I only type 71 WPM. I put 97 to make my brother, who types 96 WPM, sweat a little bit. He told me that he laughed out loud. He also told me that he would have went back and typed until he got at least 100 WPM. I came clean and we are still friends. Good friends.

That is my confession

Jacob's WPM

2009-12-14T15:56:00.001-08:00

97 words

Typingtest

Thankful for Ladders

2009-12-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago when Laura told me that we should start a family blog, I thought it would be a good idea. That way I could have a blog and also someone to update it for me. So, Laura started a blog. Everything was going fine until she got sick being the only one to write on it (which, I knew at some point would happen, but I didn't think it was going to be after only two posts). So, after a week of prodding, I have decided two things. One, it wasn't a good idea to start another blog, and two, I will write when asked.

So, here it goes:

Last weekend, as you all know, was Thanksgiving. Laura and I spent the entire weekend with my family down in Las Vegas. Laura wasn't feeling well for over a week before we left and then got diagnosed with Mononucleosis the day we were to leave for Vegas. She came anyway. I am going to show several pictures that she wont be in because she either was taking the picture or she was in bed sleeping.

Thanksgiving weekend, in my mind, is famous for two things other than the normal Thanksgiving type stuff like turkey and yams. Those two things are Black Friday and putting up your Christmas lights. I only took part in the ladder of the two (I wrote "putting up Christmas lights" second so I could say that it was the ladder, which will be funny as soon as you see the pictures) (It probably wont be that funny).

Here are some of the pictures that were taken while putting up my brother Zach's Christmas lights. I don't have pictures of putting up my Dad's lights, even though I did help with that as well.

We hung the lights up with paper clips, I imagine we used about 50 or so, but it turned out looking pretty good.

This second picture is of me bending the paper clips to create the hooks needed to hang the lights.

And here is a picture of the whole house with my dad holding the ladder for me.

Also, in recent news...I bought a new game for my Wii. Super Mario Bros.Wii, it is pretty much da bomb! Thanksgiving weekend was also "beat Super Mario Brothers for the second time" weekend. Michael, Zach, and me played pretty much every night until it was beat. If I told you how late we stayed up playing our parents might punish us. Actually, we kept them up the whole time, so they already know...and they already punished us with their raised voices...and by "their" I just mean Mom's.

Michael is probably laughing because he just sabotaged our gameplay.

Now, on to the big news. The day before Thanksgiving was a special day in the Zach Parry family. I guess it was a special day for all the Parry families, but Zach's especially. Grayson Beckett Parry entered the world at a whopping 7 lbs, which is kinda wimpy considering how big each one in our family was. But, he is really cute...as you can see in the pictures.

That is all I've got, until next time Laura gets on me for not writing. :)

Job

2009-11-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

I have a job!! Jacob and I won't have to go live in my parent's basement after all. I was lucky enough to get on at South Davis Community Hospital in Bountiful.
It's more like a nursing home than a hospital. All the patients there need a lot of care and I will be working with many people who are paralyzed from spinal cord injuries. The job is only three days a week but has benefits, so I'm still looking for something else. Meanwhile, I have been moonlighting at Seagull Book a few days a week. I'm so grateful I found this job!!

Halloween

2009-10-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! And happy first anniversary to me and Jacob. Today is the anniversary of our fist date. We carved pumpkins for our date and then later went to a party with some people in our ward. Last year we dressed up as a cowgirl and a newsie. While carving pumpkins Jacob and I discussed what we were going to dress up as. I said I was going to be a cowgirl but needed a hat. I asked him if he had a cowboy hat I could use. He said he thought he had some at his house. I thought that was nice. He came back later with two hats, both of which were girly cowboy hats. I thought it was slightly suspicious that he had two cowgirl hats at his house, but I didn’t say anything about it. Here is our picture from last year:

This year we decided to do something unique and totally different for our costumes:

We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat party, where we ate the world’s spiciest chili and then tried to sneak out of the parking lot without running over any trunk or treaters.

P.S. I was right to be suspicious about the hats. Jacob went to D.I. and bought two cowgirl hats after I asked him, knowing he didn't have any at his house. He was trying to impress me...I guess it worked :)