New Friends!!

We are so blessed to have good friends wherever we go. Here in Arizona, we love hanging out with the Bateses (that's the plural of Bates, right?) and the Bogels.

The Gang @ Diamondbacks Spring Training (from left): me, Kate, Kathrin & Ryan Bates, Shanda & Ty Bogel.

The Bateses are coming with us to NH for a summer getaway. I can't wait!!

Blessings

Well, it has been a long time since we posted on our blog. We need to get blogging again. Today Gavin and I taught Sunday School. We were talk ing about Moses and his caution to the children of Israel; he wanted them to remember God and always remember him. We talked about how easy it is to come to him in times of trial, but in times of goodness we tend to remember him less. I think I am guilty of that from time to time.

So I wanted to post about some of our great blessings. Gavin and I have such wonderful family surrounding us. Although we only see his family a couple times a year they are so supportive and kind. We enjoy their support even we are not together. My family here is wonderful. We also have great friends here, friends that are wonderful at church and work. We are blessed with jobs, sunshine (ALOT!!!), cell phones, computers, books in libraries, and vehicles that keep working.

I am also grateful because we have opportunities to travel and see our family. We get to go to Utah in July and we are going to NH in August! Yeah for cheap airplane tickets. I am blessed.

Most importantly, I am blessed with a sweet husband who puts up me all the time, in every condition and I love him. I am grateful I had this opportunity to even write these thoughts.

Hope all is well

Kate

School So Far...

Well, it's been a while and I am sure some of you are wondering what is going on. Well, I have been in school for a month now. My Master's program is in Educational Technology, which I have a better definition of now. Educational Technology is the designing of instruction ("lesson planning") and then using whatever tools ("technology") would help you reach that goal in the most effective way.

My classes so far are just beginner core classes and so some of the chapters are a little tedious (e.g. a five-page comparison on how e-mail differs from traditional mail) but some of the projects are interesting and some of the technology here at ASU is pretty mind-blowing.

So, all in all, it is pretty cool so far but I'm excited to get my hands dirty.

Pretty Awesome

I love mashed up trailers and this shows why. Sometimes it's not the irony but the similarity that makes them interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TuRbk-00Sw

Check it out.

We have so many things to be Thankful for . . .

We haven't really "caught up" yet but . . . Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was really fum this year. I haven't been home for Thanksgiving for several years and this year we got to be home. We got up, Gavin played dome football with guys in the ward, and then Gavin and I did the Stake Turkey Trot. Fun. Hard. I did it and Gavin rocked. The point was to guess your time. Whoever got closest won, but you didn't know how long the course was going to be. My dad makes a really good turkey, my sister and I got to make some pies, and cranberry sauce was a new thing at the table for Gavin. We had dinner a bit late - 3:00 which was nice. A bit later we had some thankful thoughts.

I am thankful for family - in NH and AZ, and temples, and Gavin, and a body that is healthy. I am so blessed.

And then we went to the Grand Canyon with my family on friday. I t was fun. Here is Gavin and I:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Playing Ketchup:Goodbye Old Friend

Well, as any guy will tell you, among the minor annoyances that come with being male shaving every day ranks pretty high up there (I realize that it in no way compares to menstrual cycles, pregnancy, menopause etc. but I still find it irritating daily.)Shaving every other day works and with my fair hair I can get away with it. Any longer than that and I only shave once a week.

Well, a couple weeks went by and I hadn't shaved and Kate hadn't said anything about it. It turned into a full-on beard. I thought that there should be some functionality to this otherwise useless growth and I told my brother-in-law, John, that I wouldn't shave until he went on a date....with a girl...who speaks English. This is one of the harder tasks I could have assigned him but on Halloween it happened and it was "Goodbye, Old Friend," just like on Harry and the Hendersons.

Here's the final hurrah pic before it all went away.

Playing Ketchup: Talesin West

Well, we never wanted our poor blog to become so neglected but with sharing a computer, getting time to do it has been difficult. So, we are going to blog in groups to catch up on what's gone on.

As a preface, not sure if we've mentioned this but the Mesa Public Library has passes that can be checked out for admission to lots of great cultural places e.g. museums, zoos, gardens etc. FOR FREE!! We love it so...

Kate and I went to Talesin West. It was the winter camp of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is now the winter campus for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. If you don't know who Frank Lloyd Wright is he is the father of modern architecture and a genius. As a genius, he was sort of full of himself in a way that makes him a bit like Kanye West.

Here are some pics in a Picasa album for all to enjoy.