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Back by popular demand!

Okay, so I'm not sure I can say popular demand, but alas an update to the blog. Much has happened since I last posted, just haven't gotten to time to put anything up. I'll start with the oldest event and post some pictures and lead up to the most recent event. In the beginning of March, Brittney was officially inducted into the nursing honors society, Sigma Theta Tau. Basically that means she's a genius and is in the top of her nursing class. I was very proud of her.



Next, during March we participated in a Hindu festival at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. Not sure how large the Indian population is in Spanish Fork, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Basically, they hold this "color festival" every year to celebrate the onset of spring. They burn a huge effigy of a witch and then the throwing of the powder begins. Here is the result with before and after pictures.

All clean...

Oh the insanity!

It felt as if we were in the middle of a war zone

James, Josh, Tim, Creighton

As you can tell, we had a blast. Those same colors you see in the pictures were coming out of our noses for a week, but we enjoyed it immensely. Next, at the end of March we celebrated Brittney's birthday and then we celebrated mine at the beginning of April. Here are some pictures.

One of Brittney's new favorite movies...Dan in Real Life

Josh getting a new shirt (hmm...looks similar to the one Brittney got her Dad)

Next, on April 24th and 25th, BYU held its Graduation ceremonies and believe it or not, I have finally graduated. Just for the record, I did NOT graduate in English, but rather English Language (or Linguistics for that matter). If you don't know the difference, I will be glad to explain. I also got a minor in Business Management. I loved my time at BYU and wouldn't trade it in for anything. However, with that said, I have decided to forgo law school for a year and apply next year. In the meantime, I am looking to start up a business (more details to be disclosed later) and work for a year. Brittney, meanwhile, has another year left and is attending school during Spring term. She will be going to the Utah state prison and doing clinicals there - not because she has broken the law. By the way, thank you to all who have sent cards and other mementos. Here are some pics from graduation.







Finally, May 2nd was our 2 year anniversary. We celebrated by going to a restaurant in Bountiful called The Mandarin, which I would highly recommend, watched an improv comedy show, and stayed at the Little America (complements of Nana and Forrest - thank you). We have loved being married the past two years and can't wait to see what the future may hold.

Take the test, if you dare

Go to http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ to take an interesting test. Let me know how you did!

Not much happening

Since not a lot has been going on this week, I don't have much to write about. We did have a good time this past Saturday night with our friends Matt and Stacy Serafine. Ever since I met Brittney, she has been asking to go to a Cougarettes concert. Since they perform at lots of the sporting events she comes to me with, she always says that we need to balance the sporting events with the Cougarettes. Well, I was actually paying attention and decided to surprise her on Saturday night (forgoing a basketball game even) and took her to the show. The Cougarettes have won the national championship the past 3 years in a row and several more during the past decade. The show was entertaining and we even tried a different restaurant out. It is called La Dolce Vita and is a small Italian restaurant on 100 E. and about 60 N. in Provo. The restaurant was cozy and the food was pretty good.
In other news, Brittney and I have been reading the biography of Gordon B. Hinckley, called Go Forward with Faith. Let me just say that we have both been deeply impressed with the service and dedication that Pres. Hinckley showed during the years. He worked his hardest throughout his life and is a great example. We were sad at his passing a little while ago, but thankful that our lives were blessed by him. I recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn more about his life.

Additionally, I am taking an Economics course this semester and have been assigned to read New Ideas From Dead Economists. The book has provided me with some invaluable insight into economic theory and how the economy runs. Todd Buchholz is a professor of economics at Harvard and has served as director of economic policy for President Bush (considering the economic troubles we seem to be in right now that might not be such a great thing). Nevertheless, though economics may not sound like the most interesting topic in the world, Buchholz does an excellent job of keeping the book humorous and insightful at the same time and so I highly recommend the reading.

Our Travels

Brittney and I have been keeping pretty busy with school and work. As typical college students, our lives are pretty mundane. We have, however, been able to get out a little bit the past couple weeks and have a little bit of fun. Last weekend we headed to Drigss, ID (in between Rexburg and Jackson Hole) with my family. It was great because we were able to meet up with Nicole and even see her symphony. They did an excellent job and we were highly impressed. The family also decided to go on a little snowmobiling trip. I think it is safe to say that the snowmobile trip was more of a learning experience that anything else. If you want details on why that is the case, I will feel free to provide those. However, for the sake of my Mom, I must say that we did have an enjoyable time and it is always great to be with family. I guess the downfall of the trip is that Brittney seemed to catch the flu that has been going around and she still has not fully recovered (she is coughing as I type). Not only did she get the respiratory virus, but she also got the stomach flu at the same time. She got so bad during the week that she even missed her clinical on Wednesday and barely made it to her clinical on Thursday. By Friday she was starting to feel better and now she just has a lingering cough. Luckily for me, I have managed to remain healthy thus far.
This past Friday I flew out to Minneapolis to check out the law school. I was happy to go see the school for myself and meet some new people. Overall I would say the trip was a success and I thoroughly enjoyed my time out there. The insane part is that everyone was talking about 34 degree weather as if it were a heat wave. I guess, it's all according to your perspective, especially when it has been negative temperatures there for a while. I thought that everyone would get a kick out of a building I saw near my hotel. It had caught on fire and the water they used to put out the fire turned to ice. It was really cool.



While there I was also able to go to check out downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America, the largest mall in the world. Downtown Minneapolis was really neat because of the sky bridges that have been constructed, connecting practically every high rise downtown. Because so many "pedestrians" walk through these bridges, the first two or three floors of every building are completely commercial space. They all form quite a complex maze and I'm surprised I didn't get lost while walking around. Unfortunately Brittney wasn't able to come out with me, but she had a great time staying home studying and babysitting!

(This picture was actually taken at the Minneapolis airport during Christmas when we had a three hour layover there)

Minneapolis sky bridges

These two pictures were taken at the Mall of America. It has an amusement park in the middle and retail stores going all around the park. Oh yea, it is also three stories high.

We're Back!

I know, you're all probably so sick of coming here and not seeing any updates that you have already given up. Good news! We're still alive and Thanksgiving is now over. Anyway, school has started up again. I will be my last semester at BYU. In April, I will graduate with a BA in English Language (NOT English) and a minor is Business Management. Brittney still has another year after this semester to finish up her nursing degree. We enjoyed our Christmas break in Atlanta. The day before we left it was a nice 64 degrees. We left some of the wintery weather behind us in GA, with snow falling this past week there. As far as law schools go, I have heard back from both of the schools that I applied to. I first heard from the University of Minnesota where I have been accepted. It is an excellent school in a great location and we are looking at the possibility of Brittney transferring to their nursing school. Yes, we are aware that it is very cold there, but have been impressed with the opportunities we would have there. The only other school I ended up applying to was BYU. I got an email from them this week that I could check my application status online by logging onto a web page. I logged on and the page had a part that said "Decision Rendered" with a "Congratulations" next to it. I assumed from that that I had been accepted, but just to make sure I sent them an email to verify. I got an email back verifying that I had been accepted and they resent an email that I apparently should have received on January 10. What was really interesting about the email is that it said I should expect to get a formal acceptance letter in the mail, along with my scholarship offer! I'm hoping that they didn't send me the wrong email and that I will actually be getting a scholarship offer, we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, I've gone on for a long time now. I will try to get some pictures up and make things a little more interesting. I would also encourage you to check out http://whoaremormons.blogspot.com, a web page that my good friend Jonathan Beutler has created.