Eventful Weekend

This past weekend was one for the journal, or at least it would be if I were at all consistent in my journal writing. On Thursday the 19th we drove down to Vegas, stopping in Cedar City to meet our new Midwife (who was wonderful). Friday morning I had my interview at UNLV and loved it. The faculty was wonderful and the first year students were helpful. That night I got on a plane and flew to Spokane Washington. In the morning I had another interview at Eastern Washington University. Their facility was very nice, but I didn't even get the chance to meet a faculty member. Following the interview I flew back to Salt Lake and by the time I got home and checked my email, there was a letter from UNLV that said Congratulations in the title. I was accepted to UNLV! Anyway, pretty happy about that. So here's the basic outline of our life right now: Graduation in April, Baby in May, PT school in June.

Merry Christmas!

Its a baby girl! The Chinese were right.

A Few Minor Adjustments

I sometimes feel like I have to have something witty or unusual to merit a blog and given my blogging frequency, you can probably deduce the number of times something witty comes to mind. Even in the absence of these circumstances I figured I would just write a few lines to say, "Yes I am still here and there is more to come."
Firstly, Jen will be 21 weeks along this Friday and we will go in to have the sex determining ultrasound only to have them write it down and put it in an envelope which we can wrap up and open up on Christmas morning. We thought it would be a fun first Christmas present as a married couple.
Secondly, I have applied to 4 different Physical Therapy programs and am now just waiting for interview invitations. This will decide if for the next three years we will be living in Las Vegas, Omaha, Spokan, or Mesa.
So really, just a couple of minor adjustments coming up. All of which we are genuinely excited for.

God Bless America

For the Fourth of July we left the big city and went to a little farming town in southern Utah. As we watched the antique tractors, taxadermy trailors, and random people on atvs throwing candy to the people crowded along Delta's main street I realized how much I have missed the 4th in Delta. Its been 5 or 6 years for me. Later on that afternoon we watched the demolition derby and I find it hard to decribe in words the swelling of American pride in my heart. ha! I told a friend after the fact that I was pretty sure that the founding fathers had demolition derbies in mind when they framed the constitution. He corrected me by saying that it was WHY they framed the constitution. My niece, however, would disagree with us. When my mom asked her how she liked it she said, "It was horrible. I would never take my children to that!" She's eight. She cracks me up!

Fun days are Saturdays and Mondays

I love being married! We have been having all sorts of fun. Jen bought these awesome kites from costco a while back and we have been wanting to try them out for some time. Saturday was wonderfully windy. In fact it was almost too windy! The Dragon was awesome, but the little bi-plane is more of a breeze rider than a torrential wind flyer. The plane spent a lot time landing rather roughly. I learned an important lesson that day. One too many nose dives can break your propeller.

Mondays are fun days because those are the days that I have surgery. Or at least this Monday was. I got a gingival graft on the facial of my mandibular anteriors...I live with a dentist. She told me that. I don't know what it means, but I have pictures of it! Anybody want to see? Just kidding. I'm not going to post those. Long story short. My mouth hurts.

Married Man

Well, I'm sure everyone would love to hear all sorts of stuff about how I like being married, I love it! but I don't really know how to express it all, so instead I'm going to post a bunch of pictures and hope that that will suffice.

October 13th will be Friday the 13th in 10yrs.

Jennifer really likes Friday the 13th. She considers it a sort of holiday. She even got a black cat just so that on friday the 13th she could but it on a leash and walk it around crossing peoples paths. okay...I maybe made that up about the cat, but the rest is true. So i thought it fitting that the 13th of October should be a special day too. I drove to Las Vegas on Friday morning and went straight to the jewelers and picked up the ring. It took everything I had to not let on that I had it when i saw her that night. I had convinced her to go on a sunrise hike with me out at redrock. I woke up at 4 am and got everything ready. I grabbed some water and a few little snacks along with one beautiful ring, a piece of garbage I purchased off a street vendor in Uruguay, and five of my baby teeth. ....what do you mean you don't see the connection? =) I had those other things as a distraction and it worked perfectly. We reached a little pond and just beyond that you could see the sun coming up over the entire valley. It was already past the vibrant colors, but beautiful just the same. We sat there and refreshed with some water etc. Acting as though I had just remembered something, I said, "oh yeah! I brought some things I just found last night that I thought you would like." I then pulled out my baby teeth. Only a dentist would have found that cute, and she ate it up. She told me which numbers they were and everything. I then told her I had a special present for her and presented her an old beat up volkswagen symbol. I explained the significance that the symbol has in the Van Wagoner family and she light heartedly held it close to her and said it was the most wonderful present she had ever received. "best present so far!"i thought to myslef as i held the ring box in my hand and was already in a kneeling position. I was right. She liked the ring more than the symbol. =) I asked her if she would marry me and she said, "I do! I do! I do! I do. I do. yes. yes. yes." That is a direct quote by the way.
It was wonderfully perfect. As was the rest of the day with her. I got to be her Dental Assistant, we went to the temple and shared a session, got something to eat, went to the UNLV vs BYU football game and then went home dead tired and very happy. SO there you have it! in 10 years on October Friday the 13th it will be a holiday and in 15 years it will be another very special holiday.