English Lesson

A funny thing happened while Ben and I were in the car today that I knew had to be shared. We were talking about finding Ben's missing jacket and he said, "My clothes were thrown halfhazardly." I thought he was joking and just laughed and said, "You mean haphazardly?" His response was, "Haphazardly? Halfhazardly. Halfhazardly." You could see the panic in his face as he kept repeating the word and realizing his mistake. "You mean you don't pronounce the ph together?" I had to promise him about three or four times that I was not just pulling his leg. I love moments like these, because the thing about living with Ben is that he is always right. That's great for him, but sometimes it's nice to have change. However, when we got home, we looked up the word "haphazardly" on the internet. We found a site with audio clips of the word correctly pronounced. This particular site had one in American English and one in British English. Lo and behold, we listened to the British one and the woman said, "halfhazardly." Ben's response? "I'm British!"

1/2

Today marks the day that Ben is 25 1/2. We (meaning I) realized this at church when we (meaning I) saw the date printed on the program. As a complete coincidence, we had beef stroganoff, Ben's traditional birthday meal, for dinner. I've always been one to get excited about half birthdays. Partially because my birthday is in the summer and I never got to have a party at school (though I still maintain that summer birthdays are the best). So far, Ben's 25th year has been a good one. He's almost done with school--he's now planning on graduating in August. He still isn't sure what he'll do right after school, but we're still leaning more towards work than grad school. His favorite past times include baking, playing Sporcle, painting watercolors, riding his bike and reading about sports. His favorite colors are blue and orange, which explains the vibrant, slightly painful colors of this post. He's still as energetic as ever and never stops being happy, fun and exhausting.

Creative Corner

Once again, more time has passed since our last post than is desirable. I have a hard time finding mentionable events when we're not riding elephants or touring ancient ruins.

I have recently been struck with the desire to start drawing. I took some art classes in high school and really enjoyed it, but since then I just haven't even tried. My goal is to draw a picture of the Nauvoo temple in charcoal for our wall. To warm up my rusty skills, I did this picture of the hut we stayed in on the beach in Koh Chang, Thailand.

Our Sunday activity turned into art--while I drew, Ben pulled out his watercolors. His creations were much more abstract... no, insightful. They were definitely fridge-worthy.

Mundane; adj: ordinary, commonplace, routine

Okay, so we've (I've) been bad about updating our posts. And apparently I'm getting some flack for it. I keep waiting for something news-worthy to happen, but alas that time still hasn't come. I was hoping the foreign service results would be that thing, but the funny thing about bad news is it's not that exciting to share. So to keep the masses happy, I will provide a mundane summary of our lives at the moment.

Ben's in his last real semester of being an undergrad (though he'll take a capstone class in the spring and end in June). He's still working at the MTC and starting to apply for full-time jobs. We've decided not to go the grad school route right away. Considering our situation and chosen field, it just seems to make more sense for him to get some work experience first. So we'll probably end up staying in Provo (hopefully Orem actually) for another little while. Hopefully this means we'll be in the position to travel more (I haven't been to Warrensburg in so long and I'm starting to feel it). New York City and The Grand Canyon are also on our list, not to mention the MacPherson family cruise in November.

I'm just working two jobs--at the Tahitian Noni call center during the day and transcribing at Utah Valley University in the evenings. Ben and I also work at the temple Saturday nights, which has been a great opportunity for both of us. I'm still in the market for another job (shhh) and I'm hoping to hear some responses soon. I know we're incredibly blessed that I can work so much, but it would be nice to work one job and be done at 5 every day instead of 8. It's amazing how something that is possible when you're single becomes exhausting when you're married. Maybe Ben just requires a lot of energy....

We were able to attend a sealing yesterday in Salt Lake. It was a great experience to see a live sealing (the first time for me since our own). It's amazing how much easier it is to pay attention when you're just sitting on the sidelines. We were also able to spend the weekend with Russell and Kim (and David and Kenneth) and see Sherrie and her kids. Family is another one of those added bonuses that has us wanting to stick around for a little while longer.

So there you have it. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to post some more exciting (job) news. Feel free to pray, cross your fingers, wish on a star, or whatever else might make a difference.

Not all news is good news

So we received a bit of discouraging news today. Ben didn't pass the latest stage of the Foreign Service Officer process. This stage is the secretive Q.E.P. stage where they review essays, your resume, and your test scores. To quote the letter from the State department, "A comprehensive review of your file does not allow us to continue your candidacy to the next step of the Foreign Service selection process, the Oral Assessment."

Oh well, I guess better luck next time. The entire process starts over now, and we'll take the written test again in September. At least we'll likely be living in the United States for the next two years now.

O Christmas Tree

A couple of weeks ago we made a very exciting purchase--our first Christmas tree. We set it up last week (yes, it is a fake tree, must to our dismay). Sherrie gave us some of their old lights and decorations, so we had a good time decorating our tree tonight. The most exciting part was probably throwing the tinsel on the tree. As Ben says, that makes it so much more gaudy (which is a good thing when it comes to Christmas trees). For the grand viewing, Ben made me wait outside until the lights were off and the proper background music was playing (O Tannenbaum). This was the final result:

The San Francisco Treat

We had quite an extended Thanksgiving vacation this year. It included hours upon hours of driving, fish and chips, Walt Disney, and being a couch potato. Have I piqued your interest? These are just the highlights.

Our route, which according to Google Maps takes a total of 1 day, 7 hours:

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Ben ran across a busy street to reach this gem that we came across somewhere in the middle of Nevada.

We forgot our camera on the first day, so you will just have to rely on my words to spin a picture. We drove to California with our friends Ian and Lauren, and we stayed with Ian's grandparents, Grammy and Papa. They were extremely hospitable and Grammy did a good job of feeding us. Our first stop in San Francisco was the Walt Disney Museum. We learned about Disney's life and his early cartoons and movies. 

Our other main event that day was a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. The last time Ben was in San Francisco he found a fish and chips place and had been missing them ever since. We drove around in the rain and asked for directions, but eventually we were so hungry that we gave up and ate mexican food. I was happy (not being a seafood fan myself), but Ben was quite sad. After we ate, we drove about a block down the street and lo and behold, there was the fish and chips restaurant. So of course we stopped.

On Monday we hit a lot of the touristy sites. I made a special request for Lombard Street, which lived up to its reputation.

We ate lunch at the most amazing sandwich shop, Ike's. Ben and Ian split a sandwich which included Roast Beef, Corned Beef, Pastrami, Salami, Turkey, Bacon, Ham, Mozzarella Sticks, Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers, Beer Battered Onion Rings, Avocado and Pesto. Tasty.

Just a side story, when Ben was last in San Francisco, he and his four male friends stumbled into this 24-hour diner in the middle of the night only to discover that it was the self-appointed "gayest diner in the world." It happened to be down the street from Ike's, and upon seeing it, I wondered how they didn't realize that Little Orphan Andy's, adorned with rainbow flags, was what it claims to be.

The rest of our trip was just as touristy. We took a bunch of pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. I wasn't even posing for this one.

We visited Chinatown briefly and spent the rest of the evening walking around the pier. Ben particularly enjoyed Ghirardelli Square.

We ate dinner at Boudin's, which is famous for its sourdough bread. We had some amazing views of the city from the pier. 

The rest of our trip was spent in Los Angeles. Our friends have family there and we stayed with my grandparents who live outside of LA. It was the most wonderful visit, during which we spent a good deal of time just relaxing on the couch in front of the fireplace. Thanksgiving itself was just as laid back, with more of my family coming over. And now... our wonderful week of being taken care of by grandmothers is over.