TOP 7

To make up for my long hiatus from blogging I decided to spoil you all with not just some new and events but also to open up a little. Cheri did a favorite things lists a while back so I am going to do the same. Yes I have more than seven, but it will do for now.

7) NUMBERS - I don't know if this really qualifies as a favorite thing but I do have a thing with numbers, hence the top seven list vs a top 10 or top 5, also why I am hoping to get into finance.

6) READING - Two kinds really, and they fall into almost exact opposites. a) I like the fantasy genre, like Lord of the Rings, the stories of kings, wizards, swords and magic. I know, sounds very nerdy but I am able to get completely immersed in those kinds of books and finish a 300 page book in 2-3 days. b) On the other hand I like history, hence the history major at BYU. I like to discover the interesting facts and side stories that accompanied the main history of today's modern civilizations. I say the two are almost exact opposites because one is completely made up and the other is completely factual. However, the made up ones are based on the factual ones in terms of dialogue, society, culture, and warefare.

5) SERVICE - It seems to always be harder to receive it from someone but there are few things more satisfying, that just give you that good feeling ,than when you give service not expecting anything in return.

4) YARD WORK - I love having a house finally because I can do what I want to our yard. It's something I picked up from always helping my dad growing up. If it wasn't so hot and we had a little bit more money I could spend all day in the yard reworking are building something new.

3) COOKING - I'm not like Cheri because I don't like to experiment by creating my own recipes. But I love trying new things and then tweaking the recipes according to what I know I already like. I'm always bringing home a recipe from work written on a scrap of paper that I copied from the newspaper or some magazine. Again it breaks down into two categories. a) Breakfast foods. b) Desserts. I not into the making the main course stuff though I still bring those kind of recipes home for Cheri to figure out.

Puffy Oven Pancake as most people call it, but this one has a brown sugar and apple bottom, which when done right, not like the picture where the apples rose to the top, can make a nice carmalized bottom.

2) SPORTS - Like anyone didn't know this was going to be on the list. To get more specific about it. I like to follow sports and the statistical and historical sense. I don't care as much about watching every game as I like finding out who won and who is leading the league in wins, steals, TDs, blocks, whatever. I like rooting for the team that has been down for several years or hasn't wone the title in forever. That's why I picked up on the Red Sox, though I would have to say I am more of a D-Backs fan in baseball. In football its the BEARS and basketball the SUNS. It's hard to say who I like more between the last two. I've been spoiled living here and being surrounded by SUNS talk so I might say the BEARS are my favorite since I don't get a lot of them and I never been to a game. Whereas when we were in Utah and everything was the JAZZ I missed my SUNS just as much as the BEARS.

1) - read the next post.

My Three Girls

(Even though this one will be posted first, you're supposed to read the one above it first)

As I sit here and watch Keara try to draw an outline of her hand while the marker cap is in her mouth because that is how she gets it off, it is confirmed to me as it is every Sunday. (It's a good thing that's when I do my blogging) What I love and care about the most is My Three Girls, well, two girls, and a wonderful women, okay, one baby girl, one little girl, and an amazing wife.

We aren't thrilled with where we are at in life right now. The store set us back a few years and though we're trying to better our situation it is going slowly. Mostly my fault, but I realized today, we may not be able to afford much of anything right now but we have what's important. The Lord has given Cheri and I two beautiful girls.

Now, I know I have already shown these last two before, but I love these pictures that I have of my three girls.

Catch Up

Our big trip for the summer was towards the end of July. Cheri's family reunion in Duck Creek Village, southern Utah. We spent four days in this lodge right off the 14 between I-10 and the 89. It was great! All eight families got their own room and even with 6 babies under a year it wasn't chaotic or stressful. Amazing. We also went to Zion's park for a day. I had never been there, at least not that I remember. My family traveled a fair amount when I was younger, but unless there was a picture to remind me I was too young to have any real memories of a lot of them. Of course, we found a basketball court at a local chapel. We even picked up some liquid nitrogen to make our ice cream.

After the reunion we went to Provo to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gunn. Mom, Dad, Kerri and Heidi and their families showed up that night. So, we kind of had another mini reunion. It was so good to be in Provo again. We couldn't live there unless I was getting a masters or something but we have a lot of memories. I got to see my friends from where I worked. It seems everytime I show up we have a new baby. We also got to visit with Grant and Kelly which was especially nice. With the economy the way it is and how bad the housing market has turned in Queen Creek, the overall attitude is depressing. So it was 'so refreshing' to get out and be somewhere with people where hope isn't a faint idea hard to hold onto.

Well, if you've made it this far then you deserve to rewared with some pictures to tell the story, unless of course you are one of those that just skims over stuff until the pictures show up.

Here is a picture of Keara and Victoria (Grant and Kelly's) dancing to the piano music at the Gunn's in Provo.

Then check the slideshow below. Keara and Carter had a lot of fun together this trip. They are still content playing next to each other rather than with each other but they definitely enjoyed the other being close by.

Cousins Collide

August Rush

No, this doesn't have anything to do with the movie, though it was a good movie, besides the ending. The title simply refers to how quickly August came and went and after doing so well for a while, I didn't even get a blog entry in for the whole month. In truth when Cheri told me she started a blog it deflated my motivation to blog. I figured she would steal all my material and in contrast my blog would be very boring. Well, she doesn't use all of my material and my blog isn't always boring (see following video). Of course I just realized Cheri has already used the video, oh well, it's worth waching again. Besides we have different writing styles and this is still my way of letting my family know what I'm thinking since I still cary the label as the 'one who does not speak'. I guess I could also throw in a little more stuff about me now and then as well.
Random change of direction: Have you ever tried to write a paper where in the middle you literally just put in random words to take up space, all because you here the teacher only reads the first and last paragraphs to grade it? I heard stories about it in highschool but I don't think I ever was willing to risk the bad grade. Well, that's kind of what I'm going to do here. Hopefully I can come up with enough posts to quickly fill up the blog and people will skipp over parts like this one and just catch the tail end.
So, if you're really curious enough, you'll have to read japanese style(up to down) in order to keep up with what's happened and what is currently going on.