Sunday Dinner

We just had some friends and family over for Sunday dinner. My sister and her husband came down with our friends Dane and Bailey from Salt Lake City. I can't believe it took us two and a half months to finally get Bailey down here. We promised to have her over when we were down in Lake Powell, but it's hard when she doesn't have her own car. The food was great and the company too.

I'll be headed up to Seattle for a business trip in less than two weeks. That will be my first time back up that way since my mission farewell. I can't believe it's been more than 13 years. I'll have to take some pictures while up up there.

BYU was thumped in football this week by TCU. There's no other way to put it. We were outplayed in every facet of the game. Oh well, there's always next week.

Helping out friends

We have some good friends that bought a house up the canyon from us. It's at a beautiful scenic spot, but they had to completely gut the house. Adrienne and I have been up there a couple of times to help tear things down and redo some of the wiring. Yesterday was particularly interesting because we found some dead animals under one of the floors that we tore out. It actually looked like a cat had killed a bird and then had died somehow while eating it.

BYU has kept up their winning ways in football. First we blew out UNLV, then we had a bit of a close game with San Diego State. They don't seem quite as consistent as I could wish, but hopefully they get it together for next week's game. We play TCU at home on Saturday night.

BYU wins again

Hi everyone! I need to get more consistent with my posts. Another busy week and another BYU football victory. It's a shame that the team didn't play well against FSU, but they seem to be coming together pretty well the last couple of weeks.

Ade and I bought our plane tickets for Australia. We'll be gone from November 19th through November 29th. It's partly for our 10 year wedding anniversary and partly so that we can go to a friends wedding. We can't wait to go.

Most of the weekend was spent watching General Conference for our church. It's always inspiring to listen to the words of our church leaders. My favorites were Elder Bednar on Saturday and Elder Holland on Sunday. Maybe I can put some links in from those talks later.

Keeping our word

So BYU lost that football game against FSU a week ago and Adrienne and I had to make good on our bets. As such, here is a photo of Adrienne wearing FSU gear to work and one of me wearing an FSU tie to church.

New Job and BYU Football

So I'm all set with the new job. We are so blessed in our lives. I can't believe how well this all worked out. I'll be a PR Specialist with this new company and work directly with our good friend Henry (who is the CEO). The benefits are great and this company really seems to care for the employees. I am grateful for the many good friends I have in my life that really try to look after my family.

Saturday, BYU was beaten rather badly by FSU in football. It's unfortunate for many reasons, but the one that comes to mind currently is the bet I made this summer. Now I am required (as a matter of personal integrity) to wear an FSU tie to church. I will even document the event with photographic evidence and post it on this blog. Everyone knows I am a big BYU fan so it will take some explaining for everyone to understand why I have traded colors for a day.

Adoption Update and New Job

Yesterday we met with our new adoption case worker. She stopped by our house to renew our Home Study for another year. It was great to put a face to the name and get to know her a little bit. We are all approved again for another year and just hope that things work out for us to adopt sooner rather than later.

I am starting work at a new job this Friday at Millenniatta, Inc. My new boss is in Japan most of this week, so I am just studying up at home about the new company. On Friday we'll meet at the office so that I can fill out all the employment paperwork. I'll be working on their PR with two others.

UVU Volleyball on Labor Day

I teamed up with one of our friend's sons for the tournament. He's 17 and really just picked up volleyball about a year ago. Of course his dad played for BYU Hawaii years ago so he has a bit of an advantage. I like this shot because not only am I hitting, but Caleb has his hands on his hips. It's like he's thinking to himself, "well I've done all I can do, now it's up to him". Next time we play, I'm sure his dad will work on him with covering the block. We didn't have any breaks at all so I didn't have the opportunity to go take pictures of Adrienne this time. I really only got to see her play for about 60 seconds the whole day.

BYU vs Oklahoma

Labor day weekend we had an amazing opportunity. Through the generosity of dear friends we were able to go to the BYU vs. Oklahoma Football game at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. It was 15,000 BYU fans vs. 60,000 Sooner faithful (it's only about a 3 hour drive from their campus). The odds in Vegas were that we would lose by 22 or more, but we pulled it out in the end. 14-13 winning on a 4th quarter touchdown drive. Probably the funnest football game Adrienne and I have ever been to.

This first picture is the outside of the stadium. It is unbelievably large. That said, 1/3 of it is below ground. You can't even see the field from the outside windows because it is so far below ground level.

There is a 60 yard wide HD monitor inside to watch game action and replays (actually there are two...one facing each sideline). This was a great shot of the BYU logo.

We flew out on Southwest Airlines. In a strange twist of chance, we were on the flight with the entire BYU cheer squad. They were practicing lifts during the layover in Albuquerque. They even sang the BYU fight song over the loudspeaker on the plane.

Here's a shot of most of those in our group right after the game ended. The Sooner fans took off immediately but most of the BYU fans stuck around to cheer the team and enjoy the moment. From left to right we have Diana, Trent, Dave, Carol, Adrienne and Jason (me).

On Labor Day itself, we played in a 2-2 volleyball tournament at UVU. I'll have to share a picture or two from that later. I took 2nd on the men's side and Adrienne took 3rd on the women's side. It was a lot of fun, but I was cramping up in my right calf the last 3 games of the tournament. I think Caleb and I would have had a good chance of winning it all if I had been in better condition (we lost by two in the championship).

Football Cometh

For those who don't know, my Uncle Larry passed away last Friday night. His funeral was last night and my parents were able to stay in Wisconsin long enough to attend. I wish that I would have had the chance to see him more in recent years. We should all take the time to be with those we care about whenever we can.

I can't believe we find ourselves in the month of September. Adrienne are flying down to Dallas to watch the BYU/Oklahoma game. Football season is here and we will probably be in the box for each of the home games. I hope that it's a good season and the team plays well.

I'll try to keep up with this better in the weeks to come. It's just been crazy busy since we got back from Lake Powell.

Catching up part 3 - Depeche Mode

Last night we went with some friends to the Depeche Mode concert at the E-Center. They really are a great band to see live because their sound quality in person is just like their CD's (but much louder). Anyways, it was a big treat for Adrienne because she is a huge fan.

Here they are rocking away.

And here we are enjoying the show.