We are grateful for:

November is the month of gratitude. Allison and I both get to be grateful for presents on our birthdays, the season begins to transform the earth into beautiful hues of orange and red, and we get to celebrate thanksgiving. At the beginning of this month Allison and I made a gratitude chart for Family Home Evening. We each were given a pencil and a piece of paper and we set the timer for three minutes. Our goal was to find 50 things that we were thankful for in three minutes. Here's what we came up with. (I wonder if you can guess who said what)

1. Jacob

2. Allison

3. BYU-Idaho

4. Family

5. ______(This one is private, sorry)

6. Home

7. Allison's job

8. Food

9. Warmth

10. Shelter

11. Candies

12. Health

13. bikes

14. Educational opportunities

15. Money

16. The Gospel of Jesus Christ

17. Church

18. Blankies

19. Warm water

20. Camping

21. Sturd (A reliable car)

22. halloween

23. Rikki

24. A nice bed

25. Funnies

26. Cozies

27. America

28. Puppies

29. Freedom

30. Grass

31. Nature

32. Olive garden

33. Steak

34. Days off

35. Spicy Cheetos

36. safety

37. Bread

38. A clear face

39. Skinniness

40. Past

41. Present

42. Furture

43. Music

44. Painted Walls

45. Safety

46. Modern conveniences

47. Furniture

48. Good experiences

49. non-sickness days

50. The Snake Bite

BIRFDAY BUDS!

Jacob's birthday is.... TODAY and mine is not far behind. We are getting very old. We received awesome gifts and cards in the mail and have had a fun time opening them. Yesterday at work I had a great activity planned for Jacob and me. For the first time in 2 weeks I got off of work on time, but found out Jacob had a group meeting to attend so that was a bit of a bummer, but we sure made up for it. I told Jacob to head in the general direction of walmart and to stop in a shopping mall. We entered none other than The Dollar General and each had a budget of 5 dolla to spend on one another. We then returned home, wrapped each of the presents, and then waited until we could no longer wait and opened them all. Here is our splurge.

Once the presents were wrapped, we noticed that two of ours looked very similar. Turns out, out of hundreds of thousands of items, we picked the exact same one for each other. We either think a like or there wasn't much good to choose from. Jacob got me black licorice which was a surprise considering I told him the day before the only two kinds I didn't like were black and twizlers. BUT, he was excited to find the expensive aussie brand at the $ store. He also got me nik l nips which I told him was a childhood memory of mine. Now I think of it as drinking pixie sticks, boy will our primary class like those.

I, on the other hand, got Jacob caramel chocolate popcorn which he has also recently told me he doesn't appreciate much, but I did that on purpose and have been enjoying them ever since.

Here are the splendor of cards we have received thus far in celebration of our oldness.

Here is the day of birth boy getting ready to go teach school

We have many more plans, we will post later with details.

Bike Trip!

Because I'm lazy and because Dani did such a good summary on her blog, I am recycling her blog post of our wonderful jaunt down the Oregon coast. Click here to see our ride!

As for our reactions to the trip: Allison is planning a ride down to Utah in the near future with a trip down the entire Pacific coast (she says Alaska to Mexican border...I think canadian border to Mexican border will be more likely) next year, and I am looking at buying a new bike (cannondale six carbon 5) with the hopes of entering a few bike races next year. So to say the least, this trip has invigorated our love for cycling!

Why I love cycling...

Ever since Alli and I got married, we have noticed that we are not like other couples. We like to spend all of our time together. We don't have any friends. I do the cooking and cleaning while Alli brings in the big bucks. Basically, people have a hard time understanding us and why we couldn't go play racquetball without the other or run a quick errand without the other. I am proud to say that I have spent as much time as possible with my wife in the past 16 months.

Although other couples have thought us strange for our inseparability, the thing that makes us the strangest, apparently, is our bicycling obsession. When Allison excitedly tells her co-workers about our new Vittoria Rubino Pros with blue sidewalls and a kevlar belt, her co-workers stare at her like she just tried to explain how electricity works. When I tell people in my class that I would like to take 3 months off and ride my bike across America with my wife, they act like I just told them my plans for suicide, asking why, how, and are you crazy?

It's not that we're crazy, it's that we're freaks. We enjoy pushing ourselves to new speeds. We enjoy struggling up hills. We enjoy the exhilaration of feeling slightly out of control when our speedometer reaches 45 MPH. We enjoy the smells that can only be smelt from a bike. We enjoy lusting after Cannondale SuperSixs and Cervelo R3s. We enjoy comparing our new tan lines. We enjoy dreaming of our next trip. We just enjoy the time alone together that cycling provides.

It's true that I can gain 4.8 miles on Allison on a 5 mile climb, but it's also true that she can go 5 MPH faster than me when we're facing just a 10 MPH headwind. Maybe we enjoy cycling together because it helps us to understand each other.

While the rest of the world cries about carbon emissions and obesity, Allison and I will be quietly riding our bikes, eating homemade granola, and leaving our stresses behind.

Maybe we're not that crazy after all...

HELP US, PLEASE, EVERYONE HELP

We NEED your help RIGHT NOW. Ok, so Clif bars are giving away a year supply of free clif bars to whoever can come up with the most creative thing they would do with the clif bars and I'm hungry for Clif Bars right now so I really want them bad. So we must come up with the most creative thing to do with the Clif Bars. PLEASE, send us your ideas to help us, we get two chances to enter. ALong with your ideas, tell me what you think about my initial idea.

"If I won a year supply of Clif Bars, I PROMISE I will commit myself to the following. I PROMISE that I will go on a three month bike ride across America wearing a series of three customized Clif Bar jerseys and shorts each displaying one of my favorite flavors Cool Mint, Blueberry Crisp, and Black Cherry Almond. I PROMISE to keep a photo blog of my daily experiences on my ride of the people I've met, the places I've seen, and the Clif Bars I've consumed. I lastly PROMISE that after my first shipment of Clif Bars I will (try my best to) not eat them all in one day."

Also, tell Jacob what you think of his initial idea, and just know that we are open to any criticism and additions. You kind of have to imagine Jacobs,

In video format. Setting: Dream Montage. Jacob is in a bathtub filled with clif bars as he washes himself (no nudity shown) after he gets out, he brushes his teeth with clif bars, uses a clif bar for deodarant, combs his hair and then puts on a giant clif bar t-shirt. Then he wakes up to me eating the last clif bar and screams in terror, pushing me over, and stealing the last bite. But I am not settling and I tackle Jacob.

OK, tell us what you think and give us more ideas, we have until the last day of july to come up with our final entries. Thank you one and all and happy Clif bars to you.

p.s. If we win this, I really will go on a 3 month bike ride.

Read This Now!

First, I must apologize for two things: 1) I haven't posted on this blog for a looong time, 2) this posting isn't going to be very interesting to most of you.

Now, my concessions. 1) I've been in school for the past month and a half, 2) I'm an English major, which means that for the past month and a half I have been reading, studying, analyzing, and discussing books.

Today I would like to share the top 5 books that I have read in the past six months. I do this because of the many people who ask me for book recommendations (people assume that, because I am an English major, I have read every book in the world...I have not).

So here's my list:
1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Road is the only book that I read and the next day re-read and a few months later, re-re-read. No book has affected me as much as this book. The images that McCarthy creates have never left my mind. If there is one book that I would recommend for everyone to read at least once, it would be The Road.

WHY? The Road is full of violence and disturbing images, yet throughout this horror, a young boy and his father find peace and love and goodness. If you want a good story, none is better than The Road. If you want to read the best prose author of the 20th century, none is better than McCarthy. This Pulitzer-Prize winner is not only the best book I've read in the past six months, it is the best book I have ever read, and it may be the best book I ever will read.

2. The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway

I must tell you that six months ago I had a strong dislike for Ernest Hemingway. And although I still don't love much of his work, he does have one gem of a book, The Old Man and the Sea.
Although to the casual reader this may look like a story about a man and a fish and the sea, a deeper look at the text shows rich Christian symbolism and teachings on determination, faith, and devotion. As I read this book, I saw a parallel between the old man and my father-in-law, Dave. This was Hemingway's final work, and the only one he was truly proud of.

3. Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
Amy Tan is known for her stories of the relationship between Chinese mothers and daughters (boring), but in Saving Fish from Drowning, she takes a new approach: humor. From the very first chapter I was already laughing.

I have come to recognize that Tan is a remarkable story-teller with very tight control of the English language. This story is both funny and though-provoking and it is all done through the point-of-view of a dead narrator. I found this book very entertaining.

4. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Does anyone know how many author's have won a Pulitzer prize with their first book? I don't, b

ut I do know that Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the few. After reading one of her short stories in my Literary Analysis class, I had to read more.

This is a book of short stories, all of which deal with

immigrants from India and their arrival in America. Many of the stories are funny, and each one makes you want to read the next.

5. What is the What by Dave Eggers

After reading this book it will be hard for you to complain. This story about Valentino Achak Deng and the lost boys of Sudan teaches us how to find the good in every situation.

This is the second book of Eggers' that I have read, and I continue to be impressed with the maturity of his writing. Although written by Eggers, we never hear his voice; he allows Achak to tell his own story.

Well, that's my top 5. I had a difficult time narrowing this list down, but I feel that these are the 5 best books that I could currently recommend to anyone. Now I wonder what other books you can suggest that I read.

New Eyes for Alli.

Allison was so excited about her new glasses she even wanted to sleep with them.
About six months ago Allison's trusty glasses broke. I told her it was about time; most people don't wear the same pair of glasses for seven and a half years. She claims that she got them from Walmart for only $9 when she was in ninth grade. I think she got her money's worth.

We were on our way home from grocery shopping, playing our usual game of "who-can-carry- the-most-bags-up-three-flights-of-icy-stairs-in-one-trip-without-dropping-anything" when Allison dropped her glasses. It was unfortunate because she was on the third story and $9 Walmart frames can only handle dropping two stories. I found one half dangling from the stairs on the second floor, I would have to go to the bottom floor to find the next half.

Yes, that's right, they were broken right down the middle: two even pieces. At first we tried to tape them together; tape wouldn't hold. Next we tried super glue; still no hold. Allison wasn't discouraged. She knew that although the glasses were in two pieces, she had two hands: she could always hold the two pieces to her face if she became desperate. After sitting through the 2 hour Peking Acrobat show, watching my wife struggle to keep her glasses held up to her face, I decided that it was time to treat my wife to new glasses. She wasn't convinced. I explained to her that we would only need to pay a small co-pay due to her wonderful insurance, still she was convinced that it wasn't a "need." I decided that I would need to be smarter. I waited until her next day off and told her I wanted to take her on a special date. Although she was excited about the date, she was not happy that I seemed to be rushing her out the door at the same time that she wanted to nap. I told her that the bank was going to close soon and that we needed to go to the bank before it closed. She finally figured out my scheme when we parked at the eye doctor's office and I told her that I had scheduled her an appointment in 5 minutes. Although she refused for so long, she was very excited to hear that I had made a covert appointment!
She was allowed to pick any frames that she wanted, she really liked that the blue on the inside of this frame softened her face. I think they are perfect Allison glasses: mostly stylish and funky with a tinge of sophistication!