Merry Christmas!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Done, done, and done!!!

Yay, we are both officially done with finals, at least for this semester.
:) :) :)



I felt like doing this after I finished... and I thought it was funny!

Scary Santa Scott

Even though I just finished taking a break from studying, I figured I'd take another one just for the heck of it and blog.

Christy and I are big fans of The Office. We were watching the latest episode on Hulu and I just happened to pause the video on this:


If you haven't seen the episode, Michael Scott is supposed to be sober here but you'd never be able to tell from this snapshot. Kind of reminds me of some of my less savory pictures. I guess everyone has their bad picture days. Sorry to give you yours Santa Scott...

Don't "Let it Snow"

Christy loves listening to Christmas music (starting right after Halloween). And I let her enjoy the festive sounds, with a few exceptions. Every time "Let it Snow" comes on the radio, I immediately change the station. And that song just worked its way further into my blacklist.

Ever since our Taurus died a few months back, we have been borrowing my parents 1990 Toyota Corolla (which ironically was mine until Christy and I got married and went down to one car). Here's exhibit A:


Well, as you might imagine, a car that is almost as old as we are has tons of problems and needs a lot of maintenance. The heat just doesn't work. We had to completely rig up the electrical so that the tail lights work (with the down side that the dash light is gone). The list can go on and on. But the latest problem is probably one of the funniest. Last week, our windshield wipers stopped working. It's probably an easy fix (for someone with more car savvy than me), but I'm waiting for finals to be over to even bother with it.

Anyway, yesterday it just had to rain/snow while we were out on the roads. The one thing we were just hoping wouldn't happen. But don't worry, we figured it out. The passenger of the car simply had to reach out the window and move the wipers by hand. Then the driver could look through the tiny visibility hole (since we couldn't get the full range of the wipers) and navigate more or less successfully. We must have looked like idiots hanging out of the car like that, but at least we made it home safely.

So Santa, can we please have a new car for Christmas? And in the meantime, don't "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" Thank you.

Cheesecake anyone?

Tonight was our ward Christmas party. There was a dinner, a program put on by the primary kids, and a dessert contest. We of course (meaning me) decided that we should enter the contest, by making cheesecake bites.


They really were yummy :) AND we won first place. I was very surprised because there were like 15 entries and they all looked good.

(This picture is a little embarrassing. Can you tell that I spent more time on the cheesecake than I did getting ready for the day?)

The prize was a $40 gift card to Target- my favorite place. Yep, it was a pretty exciting night and maybe, just maybe my luck is changing after all...

Changing luck

This past week the Daily Universe, the BYU newspaper, has been doing a daily drawing where you have to fill out a slip and turn it in. It's a super easy process, and therefore tons of people enter it. Everyday 5 people are drawn and win a $50 gift card.
Brandon and I have both faithfully entered everyday, hoping but not expecting to win. On Wednesday morning before my class I grabbed a paper like usual and turned to the page that announced the winners... and guess who won?

(NOT ME!)

Yep, Brandon won. It was very exciting.

Also, earlier in the year he won a drawing from the law school.

I would definitely say that his luck is changing :)

Now, if we could just work on mine...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh wait, this is from Halloween!
So, it's a little late :)

Now, it's beginning to look like Christmas,
expect that there is no snow!

This is our brand new fake tree that we bought for way cheap on black friday.

A few weeks ago Brandon had a huge paper due for one of his law classes. He spent endless hours working on it. I thought these pictures were funny :)

Moving up in the World

Three posts in two days... that's a sure sign that I'm procrastinating. But I could think of a handful of more useless ways to spend my time. Besides, I still have 5 whole days to study for my first final. That's plenty of time, right?

I'm not sure how many people are vain enough to do a Google search on their own name occasionally, but I find it quite amusing. I've been doing it since I was in Jr. High and usually buried in the results I'll find something that is actually about me. If you've never Googled your own name, I highly recommend it. You should at least find your Facebook page somewhere in the results. (And if you want to help your cause, try adding quotes around your name in the search. That will eliminate a bunch of the irrelevant sites that have the parts of your name in two separate places)

Anyway, when we first started this blog, it was nowhere to be found. At one time I went through 10 pages of "Brandon Crowther" results with nothing. But look at me now. This blog is now on page 5! #1 is still a long way off, but I'll save that goal for another day. All you other Brandon Crowthers better watch out. I'm coming for you.


Alternately, if you search for "Christy Crowther" our blog will be right on top. Right above all the information about some dentist in Florida with the same name. Go Christy!


***UPDATE***
This blog is now on the first page when you search for my name. That's what I'm talking about!

Legal Absurdity

Well, while I'm sick and using my time in a very strange way (see previous post), I figure I might as well post again.

Law school is going well for me. I've been very surprised that I can enjoy the nuances and uncertainties of the law. It's fascinating really. And since I haven't had a job to burden my free time, I've had plenty of time to study and actually do the readings (possibly a first in my college experience). But, law school is not all "kicks and giggles." While I really love the subject, I'm not such a fan of the process. Let me explain.

Everything in law school is graded on a curve. Sure, I had plenty of undergraduate classes that claimed to be on a curve, but they weren't really. In almost every case, the professors would only use a curve to inflate grades, never to force an artificial ranking of the students. But that is what law school does. I've heard that Harvard (and perhaps Yale?) have done away with grades and I think that is brilliant. However, BYU argues that if they were to do away with grades the employers would go elsewhere. The big firms apparently like these artificial rankings.

Grades truly aren't my concern. It is being judged on how you do compared to everyone else. The professors/TA's try to comfort students by telling us that we are all brilliant, but then why rank? It seems to be a silly way to extend the adversarial profession into academia. And how accurate can a class rank really be? Let me illustrate.

The only feedback I have so far is in my Property class where we had real midterms that counted towards our grade (every other class is based 100% on the final) and here's how the grades look (I couldn't help but graph it):

Notice that almost everyone in the class has a 90% and above. Now how can you honestly tell me that someone with a 95% is so much better than someone with a 93%? And we're not talking about saying they are marginally better. That 2% drop in grade is a 20% drop in class ranking, where the employer's really look (or so I'm told).

Ironically, in Property we are learning about all of these legal rules that we adopted from the English that are outdated and kept just because of tradition, not because they make sense. And after criticizing the legal system we keep something almost as ridiculous just because it has been around in law schools forever. Let's just cut the stress of intense competition and get to what really matters, learning to practice the law.

Anyway, that's my rant of the day. If you made it this far, thanks for listening.

Oh the things you'll do for Love

Here you go dad. I'm finally going to blog again.

I haven't been feeling so great this week. Fortunately, it is only some sort of physical illness and not the tremendous stress I probably ought to be feeling with finals just around the corner. Even though I probably only have a cold, I have just enough energy to go to classes and then come home and vegetate on the couch watching T.V. Which is exactly what I am doing now.

Christy is up in Salt Lake at some sort of Relief Society thing with her mom and for some reason I felt it was my duty to watch her new favorite show so that she can enjoy it vicariously through me. I wouldn't be embarrassed if I were watching Seinfeld or Jeopardy, but believe it or not, I'm sitting here watching So You Think You Can Dance so that I can fill Christy in later. Oh the things you'll do for Love...

Operation: Fix Lappy

Well, I would say that I haven't blogged for a while because law school has kept me around-the-clock busy. But that's not true. In fact, I don't know that I've ever enjoyed the first month and a half of school so much. And it's not the classes either. It's the free time (which basically means that when I do actually get around to preparing for finals I'm going to be in a heap of trouble, but I'll cross that bridge when I get around to it).

Anyway, I decided I really needed something to do with all this time. Christy, of course, proposed that I get a job (or more specifically, get my old job back). Besides being only a short term option, that would ruin all my fun! So I decided to take up some hobbies instead. And here's what resulted:


Christy's laptop (hereafter referred to as "Lappy"), had been having some issues. Lappy had a hard time realizing he was plugged in - and his condition was deteriorating into full blown dementia. So like any good doctor, I thought I'd have a look inside.

Unfortunately, I haven't been to medical school, so Lappy was taking quite a risk asking for my services. My assistant, Christy, helped me dismantle Lappy and we found the part that was likely the problem. But was it really?

Poor Lappy didn't realize that my surgical record wasn't exactly top-notch. In fact, the last laptop that I worked on ended up with severe sound issues (although the display issue was fixed!). However, after the double bypass surgery, Lappy booted up and much to my surprise he was completely whole (and somehow his sound quality actually improved). Mission accomplished.


And you'd never guess it, but this stupid little part cost $50 to replace. However, it was well worth bringing Lappy back to life.

And I'd love to do it again, so if anyone has a laptop that needs repair, let me know. But make sure that it is terrible enough first that if there were... complications during surgery, it wouldn't be any worse off than it already was. Catch my drift?

What's new...

So, I guess it's time to update.
With school and everything I have been pretty busy, and when I am not busy, blogging is pretty far down on the list of things I want to do. However, I do have a little motivation and some free time at work, so here goes.

It's fall!! The leaves are turning pretty colors. I love this time of year with the sometimes nice weather, and all the big holidays coming up.

We have been pretty busy with school. I really like my classes, and I feel like they are really valuable, at least most of the time. I am really getting excited to go into a classroom and put all this knowlege to use. My pracitcum (where I am assigned to a classroom to help out and experience some of the things that I am being taught to teach) starts at the end of October.

Brandon is liking law school, and so far he has been able to stay on top of things and not get too stressed out. I fear the day that that happens. Sometimes I think he spends less time and energy on his school work then I do, he probably disagrees though :)

We like our new, well not so new anymore, apartment. It has a lot more room, which is really nice. Our ward is nice, we've only gone a couple of Sundays because of vacations, etc. I think we will like it once we meet more people and receive callings.

A couple of weekends ago we went on a quick trip to Mesquite, Nevada for the Crowther family reunion. It was fast, simple, and lots of fun. We didn't really get any pictures because we didn't know where our camera was.

Also, within the last month we decided to try out the tv show, "The Office", and we found that we actually really like it, in fact I am pretty much addicted to watching it. We are almost caught up to the current episodes, yay! I strongly recommend it.

Just for the fun of it I thought I would throw this in here as a special treat. Ok but seriously, it's a project I had to do for my using technology in the classroom class. Yes, it is kind of stupid, so beware.

Scruffleupagus

Yeah, it's a lame rip off of the famous Sesame Street character with a similar name.

I don't know how unusual it is for BYU students to wonder what they would look like without the clean-shaven requirements. All I know is that I had often wondered what I would look like if I let my facial hair grow out a bit. The only problem is that the in-between stage of growing facial hair looks awful!

Anyway, a few weeks back I accidentally got my chance to find out. Through a small series of events, my razor got left at Christy's family's house. No big deal right? Just go buy another razor. It is that simple, but my desire to save $7.00 won out. I almost gave in so many times (in fact I almost used Christy's razor to shave), but I held out for a whole week until I was able to get my razor back.

What do you think? (Ignoring my lopsided eyes, of course)


And here's a good point of reference:


I'm really curious. Bring back the scruff or nix it forever?

Our wonderful sunday experience :)

Driving home Sunday evening, we had an unforgettable experience. We had noticed earlier that the car was unbalanced which caused the steering wheel to shake. We were a little worried and decided we should probably have it looked at this week.
So, we had just passed one of the Lehi exits, when suddenly we hear a pop bang, and realized that our tire blew out!! A super scary experience when driving over 70 on the freeway with tonz of other cars. We happened to be in the carpool lane so Brandon, with his quick video game reflexes, pulled the car over into the tiny bit of road on the left side of the lanes. Scary!!!!! And it all happened so fast!! Sitting there we realized we couldn't do much until we got to the other side of all the lanes, where there was actually room to open a car door, with out asking for trouble. After a quick prayer and some tears on my part, a clearing opened and we got the car over.
Now what? We hopped out of the car, and got to work, oh and I of course had to take some pictures to document this lovely experience.

The Flat!

Good thing Brandon knew how to change a tire.
I didn't even know that we had a spare tire or tools to change it!

"Come on, come off already!!"

Yep, I did help. Surprised?

Yeah and not exactly the best apparel for such a job :)

The 'lovely' spare all ready to go half an hour later!

Oh, don't you worry, this was not even the end!! After we got going again we realized that the spare tire had low pressure- a little flat, and we were almost out of gas!! And so, with another 15 minute delay we finally were headed home again!
I am so grateful that we were able to make it home safely.

Legal Misgivings

So I'm getting used to the question: "Are you excited for law school?" And the answer is that I am. I truly am. I had my first day of orientation today and as part of it, we had a sample class where we dissected a case involving a refrigerator salesman in the 60's. And it was fascinating. The discussion, the teaching method, the differing opinions on such a simple matter...it was all so intellectually stimulating. I loved it.

But what about the other side of the legal world? I don't relish the thought of being in a profession that is full of crooks. A profession that is the brunt end of countless jokes about its corruption.
Or even in the "honest" part of the legal world: what about the 50-70 hour work weeks (and it sounds like 50 could be a lucky week)? Or the vast amount of writing involved? That I could definitely live without. And what's so unique about the legal profession? I always thought it would be neat to do something where I was virtually irreplaceable. Well unless I go into water rights law, that won't be the case. And from my economics background, I can't help but realize that an efficient society wouldn't even need lawyers!

The post-graduate stuff makes law school seem easy. I mean, I'm only supposed to be so busy that I can't handle a part-time job. In fact, let's just throw out money altogether since I'm supposed to do an unpaid externship after my first year. Oh, and I only have to compete with my fellow classmates for everything. No biggie.

So when you ask me if I'm excited about law school and I tell you "yes", now you have the rest of the story. I'm glad I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be because otherwise, the left side of my brain would be screaming at me to get out while I still can. As it is, I'll see you again in 3 years!

Back to School

Well here we are with school right around the corner. Brandon started law school orientation today. And his classes start next Monday. Thankfully, I have an extra week before my classes starts. I can't believe how quickly the summer has gone. Good Luck Brandon!

One year!!

First off I must say, isn't Brandon so cute to have paid tribute to me each day this week!! He is so sweet, especially because I don't completely agree with every thing he has said, he makes me sound like a perfect angel :) (soo not true!) This goes to show that I am the lucky one to be married to him!!!!!

Anyway I thought that it would be fun to highlight some things about our first year together!

* We got married at 10 am August 14, 2009 in the Salt Lake Temple
* For our honeymoon we flew down to Florida, went to Disney world, and then went on a cruise to the Bahamas
* We moved into our first apartment
* We got called as an extraction couple in our ward and I was also the assist. RS secretary- whatever that means :) jk
* We started another year of school
* We got a Wii with extra wedding money
* I got accepted to the BYU Elementary Education program
* We both started new jobs. I work at the Marriott Center ticket office as a student clerk, and Brandon was a research assistant for one of his statistics professors.
* Brandon took the LSAT and did excellent (and with only a few hours of studying)
* We spent our first Thanksgiving together and with all our family and then did early morning black friday shopping
* We recreated our first date
* We finished fall semester. Brandon with a 4.0 and me with a better gpa than when we were dating :)
* We spent our first Christmas together with both our families
* We started another semester- Brandon's last as an undergrad and my first semester in the Eled program- i had art, dance, drama, and music classes
* We celebrated our 6 month anniversary on Valentines day :)
* Brandon turned the big 23!
* After a long couple of months we finished the semster. I got the highest gpa ever in my college years and Brandon got his first B :( but who cares because he also graduated in Actuarial Science Magna Cum Laude !!!
* Brandon also got accepted to the BYU Law school with a full-tuition scholarship!!! and will be starting in a week!
* After some stress and worry he found a job in South Jordan as a Data Analyst
* I took spring classes- dumb idea
* Brandon got a new calling as the Sunday School President.
* We went on three trips during the summer :camping at Cherry Hills with Brandon's extended fam;
we went on a roadtrip to California and went to a taping of The Price i$ Right; and then a week up in Park City with my family.
* I turned 21 and became legal- finally
* We recently signed on a new apartment and will be moving shortly

* and now Here we are, 1 year later!!

Of course, through out the year we went on our weekly dates, spent alot of time with our family, locked ourself our of the apartment, had to jumpstart our car a few times, and experience some new things. We've laughed, cried, stressed, played, worked, etc. We experienced snow, rain, thunderstorms, sunsets, sledding, swimming, and much more. It's been a great year!

Happy anniversary!! Love You!

Tribute to Christy (Part V)

Happy Anniversary to Christy and me! And it will be happy indeed. As my final tribute, I saved the best for last. These are the two qualities that I brainstormed that would be at the top of my list (although I'm sure I left some important qualities out of my brainstorm). Ready for this?

Anyone who really knows Christy knows how easy-going she is. She has ideas and opinions, but is always quick to compromise and/or to change plans entirely. It's so easy to live with her because she can just go with the flow of life and enjoy it. As a running joke in our family of two, Christy will often ask me, "What's the plan, Bran?" And while I may get irritated occasionally because I'm terrible at planning, the truth is that I like that she is so willing to roll with the punches and be spontaneous.

Related to that, I love Christy's attitude towards life. Life is fun with her around. She is quick to laugh and to just enjoy life. Even when stress is all around her, I can still make her laugh. It's in her nature and it lifts the spirits of those around her - especially me. Not a day goes by that we don't share a laugh or ten. I inherited my dad's sense of humor (meaning that I often tell jokes that I find funnier than anyone else does) and yet Christy always brings a smile to my face by laughing with me (or at least at me) when I tell a lame joke.

It's been a great year and I couldn't be happier to have the opportunity to spend so many more with the sweetest girl I've ever met. I love you Christy! Happy first anniversary.

Tribute to Christy (Part IV)

So I made a list earlier this week of things about Christy that I really love and needless to say, I have far more things on the list than I have days left to write about them (at least as part of this 5 day tribute). So, I'm going to quickly cover two things today (quickly because work is a bit busier today than usual).

The first is a bit silly and is not one of those qualities that everyone looks for in a spouse (you know the ones), but I love that Christy likes to play games: card games, board games, stupid internet games, etc. We've had a lot of fun playing games over the last year with friends and family - but mostly just between us. We both enjoy finding new (good) games, so if you know of any be sure to pass them on!

The second thing is something that you would find on the "ideal spouse" list. Christy is level-headed and very slow to anger. I had always thought of myself as being pretty calm and level-headed, but Christy has me beat by a landslide. I can't think of a single time that Christy has gotten truly angry (and if it has happened, it obviously wasn't very memorable). That's quite a feat when you are living with someone as quirky as I can be. And level-headed doesn't just apply to being angry. I love that even in crazy stressful situations, Christy can be reasonable and handle whatever comes her way. She truly is remarkable!

Tribute to Christy (Part III)

Last night, Christy was feeling "sick" (that's the best I can come up to describe the pains she was having). I tried my best to help and comfort, but I felt pretty useless (other than to giver her a Priesthood blessing). Anyway, the only other good thing that came from my concern was my idea for today's post.

I don't get sick very often (and when I do, I bring it on myself usually). But since I've known Christy, I've been "sick" twice and Christy (my personal CNA) has been there blessing me with her compassion.

Almost a year and a half ago, I got pretty sick from eating a frozen pizza that had expired 4 months previously (yeah, I'm an idiot). Christy and I hadn't been together a terribly long time, but she went out of her way to be there for me even though I had been stupid and brought it on myself. In fact, she was more concerned about me than I was (in particular trying to get me to not be stubborn and see a doctor). I got better after a few days and will always be grateful for her kind text messages and personal attention in my time of need.

Just a month or so ago, Christy and I were spending the night at my parents' house. We had recently become addicted to Mushroom Farm Revolution (a tower defense game we found on addictinggames.com). We stayed up late playing the game and by the time we went to sleep, I had a headache from staring at the computer screen too long (once again, I brought it upon myself). I woke up at 3:00 A.M. with one of the worst headaches I've ever had. My attempts to get rid of it with sleep, pills, and an ice pack proved futile. I tried not to wake Christy up, but even that didn't work. I'm sure she was exhausted, but she took such good care of me. I got a blessing from my dad and eventually fell asleep. But what touched me the most was when I found out that Christy had stayed up worrying about me for a whole hour after I had fallen back asleep.

So, are you convinced yet that I have the best wife ever? I know I am!

Tribute to Christy (Part II)

One of the things I love so much about Christy is her dedication to family.

When I was first dating Christy, one of the things that stood out most to me at the time was how connected she was to her family. I used to tease her for how often she made it home to Salt Lake - especially because it wasn't homesickness that drove her to do it. And at the time, I wasn't sure how I felt about it because it seemed so foreign to me (not that I didn't love my family... I just had other things I could be doing).

I'm not quite sure what changed my perspective, but as I started to spend more time with both of our families I realized I was seeing things more as she must have seen them. And I now truly love being with family - just as Christy always has. Give both of us an open weekend and that's probably where we'll be. Sappy or not, that's just the way it is.

I guess you could consider this a dual tribute: to Christy's dedication to what really matters in life and to how she opened my eyes to it. And the best part about Christy's dedication to her family is that I'm now a part of it :)

Tribute to Christy (Part I)

As of this Friday, Christy and I will have been married for a whole year. It's been a great year too with Christy getting into the El Ed program at BYU, me getting into law school, and both of us being happy in our new life together. And so to commemorate our anniversary, I thought I'd start a tribute series through Friday: a daily post highlighting some of the qualities that I love most about Christy.

The first thing that comes to mind is how amazingly supportive Christy is. I can be a bit odd in my habits, interests, desires, etc. (and odd is probably putting it nicely), but I can't think of one time I haven't felt like Christy was behind me all the way. And what surprises me more is that sometimes she even enjoys whatever it is I put her through. Let me illustrate:

Exhibit A: I have always had a small passion for personal finance and my desire to explore the system had created a complex, but effective (at least I think) system - that I brought into the marriage. I can't say Christy hasn't made fun of me for it, but she has never nagged me to clean it up and simplify. She accepts it because she knows it's part of who I am and that it makes me happy. And I don't know many people who would be willing to deal with having 2 checking accounts, 7 savings accounts, and 3 credit cards spread across 5 institutions. What a girl!

Exhibit B: I don't have to look farther back than last Thursday to get a perfect example of this. Christy had willingly accompanied me to a going away party for one of my friends, Dave Pruitt. We had been there for a while when I got a phone call from my best friend, Robert Bucker, letting me know he was going to the Nickelcade with some of his family members. I had dismissed the idea, not wanting to subject Christy to hours of boys and their video games. But Christy saw the light in my eyes when I first got the phone call and she encouraged the idea. We went and the crowning part of the evening was that Christy played Ninja Turtles (the whole game, mind you) with Robert, Rich, and I. And she liked it (somehow).

Exhibit C: Law school. Enough said.

And the list could go on and on. Not only is Christy incredibly supportive, but look at what she has to put up with. I love you Christy!

Stress Free!

After a month of diligent searching we signed an application for a new apartment. Yay!! We can move in anytime. AND it is closer to the law school, the big reason we wanted to move. AND it is bigger AND I don't have to stress and worry anymore :) ok well maybe stress a little about the actual moving process, but it is so worth it, I am just super excited!!!

Wish me luck...

So today is the day that I have to give my two weeks' notice for my job and I'm dreading it. Not only are they expecting me to be here long-term, but I'm the only data analyst they have. I've never had to quit a job where I'm not purely expendable (which is a nice place to be).

And I can only imagine how bizarre it will sound that I'm quitting to go to law school.

Anyway, wish me luck...

***Update***
Well, the deed is done. And I didn't do it in person. I chickened out and sent an e-mail. Oh well, at least it's done.

Summer project

Yay, I finally finished my summer project!

Brandon and I went to a ward activity in June where they taught us how to refinish furniture. It was a very inspiring activity and provided me the tools to refinish my hope chest that was once my grandmother's.

With no time to delay, we went to Lowe's to pick up the needed supplies.

I wish I had taken a before picture, but unfortunately I didn't think to. So, just imagine this chest with black paint peeling off, and very dirty.

Step 1: Use paint remover to remove unwanted paint- basically strip it!

Step 2: Sand the rest of the paint off and make it smooth.


Brandon had to help me with this one :)

Step 3: Put on the primer and then paint it light purple!

This is just after I finished painting it!

Wow, who knew the inside was so beautiful. Before, you didn't even notice because the outside was so ugly :)

The final product!!!!!

I love it!

Pioneer Day!!

I love Pioneer Day!! We started off the day by waking up in a tent (because we had slept over for my sister's birthday:) and then going to the downtown Salt Lake Parade- a tradition :)

Later we went boating/rafting in the Jordan River with Brandon's fam and had a family dinner get together


Following which we went to watch fireworks and play with cool glow sticks with my family

Here are some of the cool fireworks we watched. I thought it would be cool to make it a video, so that I can enjoy watching fireworks all year long :)

We had a wonderful full day and are very grateful to have been able to spend it with all our family. We are also very thankful for the Pioneers and all that they suffered and endured to make Utah great!!

Pioneer Day...almost

Haha..funny story. S0 here I am at work being bored. I pulled out my camera and camera cord, so that I could put up pictures of pioneer day. Unfortunately, I brought the wrong cord! I guess you'll just have to wait for my fantastic photos.

The "Art" of a Statistician

If you were to describe statisticians in three words you might come up with dull, analytical, crazy, etc. but I'm sure one of the last words on your list would be "artistic". And for good reason too. But no more! Behold the art of a statistician. Let's just say I have too much time on my hands at work...


Sure you've seen the 7 color rainbow, but check out this 657 color rainbow (perfect parabola I might add). Oooh...Ahhh.


He may have a disconnected scalp, but that's what makes this guy true "art".


And lest you get the idea that all I do at my job is produce worthless graphs, here is an example of the true "art" of a statistician. Next stop...the Louvre.

Surprise-ish Birthday Party :)

Yay, I am now 21 and legal!!

As I stated in the previous post, Brandon recently taught me how to play texas hold-em and poker, etc. Along with this I have always had the desire to put a nickel in a slot machine (I know not a very righteous desire, but what can I say, I am not perfect).
So anyway, back to the surprise. For a couple of weeks before my birthday, Brandon and my mom decided to plan a surprise 'Night in Vegas' party. Although by the time it actually happened I had kind of figured out some of the details, but that doesn't matter, it was still a fun party.

*We started off by going to a buffet, because that is what you do in Vegas. We went to Golden Corral, and had a delicious, very filling meal.

*Next, we learned how to play Craps! - supposedly the game with the most chance of winning, that is for anyone but me :)
Brandon was the dealer, and had a very cool hat on.



* We then attended Circus Circus and won prizes (sorry I don't have a good picture)

* We watched an amazing water show at the 'Belagio' thanks to Amanda :)


* Then we played Black Jack or 21- because I turned 21!



* To top the night off I also got to open a few birthday presents...


and blow out candles on my sweet birthday cupcakes.



Thanks to everyone who made my birthday great!!!
(oh and notice my new haircut in the pictures :)

"Oh what do you do in the Summer time?"

Okay here are a couple of things that I should have posted before now :)

PARK CITY VACATION
My whole extended family goes up to Park City every year for one week over the 4th of July. My Grandparents have a timeshare at the Marriott, so not only is it a get-away, it is a vacation with super nice living conditions. This year was a blast, so much fun and relaxing that a week just doesn't quite do it. I wish we could have stayed for a month (or so). We did lots of fun activities, went swimming, played games, and learned how to gamble :) (thanks to Brandon) and enjoyed the moments of having not a care in the world!

Sadly, we only took a very few pictures.

The drive up through Provo Canyon

The Park City 4th of July Parade
We of course had front row seats.

All the kids got to be on the Marriott float
(Sorry, this is the best shot I got. They really are on there.)

Brandon's favorite part of the Parade :)
'Just like a kid'

The infamous Alpine Slide

It was of course tonz of fun :)

I can't wait to go again next year!!!

Oh and I will catch up the other thing (my Birthday) tomorrow because this post ended up taking forever.

Birthday Shoutout

Today is Christy's 21st birthday. She is now old enough to be a sister missionary (and to gamble and all that good stuff). Huzzah! Anyway, be sure to give her a shout-out!

Facebook is...Random

Christy and I were just hanging out the other day (a typical evening for a young married couple I hear) when Christy insisted that I take a certain quiz on Facebook. And this certain quiz just happened to be called "When will you get pregnant?". And since I instinctively knew that the correct answer ("Never") surely wasn't built into the quiz, I put up a fight. Well sure enough, I ended up taking the quiz...and for your information, the result was Jan 2011 (check the tabloids then for the full story).

Even though the quiz was odd and irrelevant, I got a kick out of an ad banner on the results page. (You'll like this Rich)
Well, my opinion of Apple's screenshot tool just went way down, but anyway, the banner informed me that 4 of my friends are idiots and that I should take their IQ quiz. And if you can't see the pictures at the top, it suggests Christy is awesome, Rich is a genius, Pablo is stupid, and Conor is an idiot. And where do you suppose the kid wearing the Wii pajamas is going to end up? Oh Facebook, you amuse me.

Can you say road trip? Cali to the max!

I'm still a bit in vacation mode (hence the absence from the blogging mode), but our trip was just too cool not to talk about. I think I'll try a guided tour approach:

Aside from these pictures, Christy and I decided to play the photo license plate game. We did pretty good. Check it out here.

Yep, we're really going on a road trip! We left early Saturday(6/27) morning around noon :)









Our first rest stop- Yuba Lake.

Umm...Rob? Do you really think you're a car? (he was asking if we could check out Yuba Lake without paying)

It really was a beautiful place.




Cove Fort... perhaps the most boring Church site ever (according to Brandon, Rich, and Pablo). I (christy) thought that it was pretty cool.








Our final destination, well for the night: St. George. We stayed in this fabulously cheap motel. No complaints here!





Somehow this is supposed to be appealing. Haha...











Christy in Las Vegas. She fits right in :)






Taking advertising to the next level.








Enough said... and all this adventure is before we even made it to California.
(if you can't read it, the sign says 'Last chance 2 P'. We thought it was pretty funny, and took advantage of it)






The world's largest thermometer in Baker, CA. It read 115 when we were there. Utah never seemed so pleasant.









Obviously we weren't in a hurry. The gift shop was pitiful, but it was a much needed break from the infinitely long car ride.








I'm still amazed they made a McDonald's out of a train station. What were they thinking?!








Sporting my new look: Price is Right style on top and Wii pajama party on bottom. And they match - nerd style.






The whole reason we went on this trip- to go to The Price is Right! This is half us our group, and unfortunately nobody from our group got picked. It was still a really cool experience. One more item checked off our bucket list :)






Our first time on a subway. Basically we paid $5 to ride for 30 min and end up right where we started :)
It was a fun adventure!






Christy decided to go eco-friendly. This train station was so cool.







Me at the beach. The light is from the theme park on the nearby pier.




The view from the pier somewhere in California. Rob was our chauffeur so we never really knew where we were. Meh.






Again on the pier. It really was a beatiful view!




Knott's Berry Farm-our last day in Cali
Pablo and Rob got selected for a pie eating contest at Knott's Berry Farm and Pablo won. Rob got his pie though and it was a good companion for him for the next few hours.





Christy got me to go on this monstrosity. And it was the best ride in the park! What a rush. Rob took this picture and a little zoom confirms we are in that coaster car.





I loved this ride! Christy wasn't such a fan. Something about getting wet at 7:30 P.M. Good times.




Another highlight, which we unfortuately don't have a picture of is going to In-n-Out Burger 3 times!! The most delicious fast food ever :)

We headed home early Wednesday morning and drove straight through. It was a long drive!

Anyway, the trip was relaxing, cheap, and for lack of a better word: awesome! Vacations rock!