The Weech Family

Ward Christmas Party

2011-12-17T15:11:00.013-07:00

Savannah and I were called to be on the Ward Christmas Party Committee. As part of that committe, we were in charge of the food along with a few other couples. The party was a family event and had a very nice program. Savannah and my sister, Aly, sang a duet together! It sounded very nice. The comments that we heard from many people made us both very happy to perform this type of service.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-19T21:53:00.006-07:00

It is always such a great time of year to get together with family and remember everything that we are grateful for. This past year has been quite interesting. Both Savannah and I completed our 1st year anniversary with our respective companies, we had a major flood, we bought our 1st house (and all the stuff that goes along with that joy), and we could list many other exciting adventures. We certainly our grateful for everything that the Lord has and will continue to bless us with.
For all the fun pictures and a more detailed description of what we did this day, click here!

Ward Halloween Party

2011-10-31T21:53:00.001-07:00

We attended our first ward activity. It was a tri-ward activity with all the wards from the building. Our good friends, Dan & Cindy Harris, were also have an indian fry bread fund-rasier so of course we had to attend! We invited my parents, Grampy & Grammy, and anyone else that we could think of. The activity was a lot of fun and we had great food!

Aaron's Birthday

2011-10-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, another year older....Savannah says definitely wiser as well! For my birthday this year, we went to Boston and spent a wonderful few days with our friends, Greg & Andrea. Also, we went over to my parents house for a dinner once we got back into town. Savannah surprised me once again with a different lego set for my collection. She is the best wife a lego collector could have!

Boston Trip

2011-10-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

At the end of September, Savannah and I took a trip to Boston. Thursday morning, we got up really early and left for Boston.

We landed at 3pm, the same time that our good friends (Greg & Andrea Benson) arrived into town as well. It was a race to the hotel. We had a shuttle driver and won (only by 5 minutes)! After checking into the hotel we relaxed for about an hour before setting out in search of food. We ended up at the most delectable Nepali cuisine place- it was so unbelievably delicious!!! Since we both had traveled that day we just went back to the hotel and relaxed again to the sound of rain. The weather was great!

Friday we got up early and (after being called a hobo because I went to breakfast in my pj's)....

we headed to Salem. I was so excited for this, because I've wanted to go there FOREVER!!!! There is just way too much to post about that, so here's just a few photos.

They had the best cordial cherries I've ever had!

I did get a psychic reading. It was a very entertaining waste of money!

Aaron's trip wasn't complete without chasing after this cop car on foot so he could get a picture of it...

Saturday we did a segway tour in Boston. Segways ROCK!!!! Seriously, it was way too much fun!

We also did the Fenway park tour...

We went to the famous Mike's Pastries (not worth it, btw.)

We went to Feneil Hall and shopped for souveniers, and finally found a bathroom. With as many buildings as there are in Boston, you'd think it would be easy to find a bathroom, but not so!

Apparently by this time we were done taking photos, so here's a clocktower with Quincy Marketplace on the right.

Sunday we woke up early and everyone decided that we loved Salem so much we just had to go back, so we hopped in the car and went!

The Bensons had to leave after that. Sad face. We took naps (what? it's Sunday!) and then went to 99 for dinner, where I ate an entire rack of ribs by myself. Don't judge, they were so good!!

Monday we had to head back to reality, another sad face. All in all, it was a great trip and we can't wait for the next one!

The house

2011-09-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

We finally put our photos on our computer, so now you can see the house! We got our keys August 24th, and Aaron was super excited, as you can see below!

This is the kitchen

What they refer to as the dining room

What they refer to as the family room

The Guest Bathroom

The dark hallway

The other side of the guest bathrom

The living room looking outside toward the street

The Master Bedroom!

The Master Bathroom

The start of the renovotions!

Yeah for a larger kitchen!

New paint

Lost in translation?

2011-08-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

The other day while I was at work, I exchanged a series of emails with a lady from another company. I asked her a specific question, and she wouldn't give me a straight answer. Maybe she thought she was, or maybe I am a little more dense than I thought I was. Here's the emails (without any personal info on them), without any modification to her punctuation either, so you can decide who's dumber- me, or her.

Her: I still need your insurance information. We are still waiting for final approval on underwriting so we can request docs.

Me: Do you need proof of insurance before you can get underwriting approval, or just before we close?

Her: We have to have it in order to draw docs

Me: Sorry, I don't understand. Will it be necessary to provide insurance before you send everything to the title company, or can we provide that before signing?

Her: before

Me: Before what?

Her: Before we can draw docs for you to sign

Me: Ok, I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but I really don't understand what you mean when you say "before we can draw docs". Does that mean that you will be able to get underwriting approval before you have the policy, or not?

Her: We need the policy to move forward

At this point in time, I'm really frustrated, so I email her boss.

Me: I don't understand what she is trying to convey. Do you need an insurance policy before you will get approval from the underwriters today?

Him: Yes we do. :-)

FINALLY! A straight answer!!! Ugh, I was so frustrated!

Hey, that's not a footprint!

2011-08-09T14:26:00.001-07:00

My boss read this in our staff meeting today, and I really liked it!

One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.

But then some strange prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?"
Those prints are large and round and neat,
"But Lord, they are too big for feet."

"My child," He said in somber tones,
"For miles I carried you along.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait."

"You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk of faith, you would not know,
So I got tired, I got fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt."

"Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."

-- author unknown

Summer Happenings

2011-08-06T13:06:00.002-07:00

Wow! It has been a long time since we have posted anything to our blog. Let's do a summer recap:
June - we continued to search for houses and even put a couple of offers on some, but obviously the offers were not as good because we didn't get a single hit. Both Savannah and I have been extremely busy working. For 3 weeks, I was on-call for a forensic imaging job. I wasn't always able to pack a lunch, but the little cafeteria sure had good food!

Savannah got called for jury duty, but she was able to get it postponed for 90 days.

July - we traveled to Henrieville for the 4th of July and had a lot of fun with Savannah's family.

We made some plans to visit Boston for a couple of days and use up our vacation time for the end of September. We are going to see our good friends, the Bensons as well! Once again, work has consumed our lives (or at least Aaron's). We did finally get an offer accepted on a house and just have to wait for all the closing fun. Savannah enjoys picking out colors for the new house and all that jazz. Oh wait....we did have some fun in July....we had a major flood! You will have to view this post to see the excitement of that.

Savannah has also been spoiling my office and sending delicious goodies such as this!

Country

2011-05-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes (ok, most of the time) I fancy myself a country girl, but in all actuality, I'm a wannabe. I've never milked a cow, killed a chicken, driven a tractor, mucked a stall... I think you get the picture. But someday I VOW to have one of these-

One of these....

I WILL drive one of these...

Only it will probably be blue. And have bigger tires.

And live in one of these....

Which will be furnished with a chicken coop and stalls for cows, goats, and horses.

Mark my words. I WILL!
(Aaron will be there too, don't worry!)

Talkative

2011-05-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

The last week or so I've been in a really talkative mood, but unfortunately, this never translates to posts on the blog! It's really lame being talkative when I'm at work, because I just have my bosses to talk to, and they're nice and all, but I don't think they get my humor. Anyways, here's a photo of me that I took when I was alone at the office during lunch....

I don't remember how it came about, but when we lived in Vermont, Aaron started calling me a walrus...I guess he was right about it!

The Weech's were in charge of dessert today at family dinner, so Dena and I created this masterpiece. It was a red velvet & french vanilla strawberry shortcake. I say was, because it was devoured in about 5 minutes! It was super easy, and really yummy!

Finally, Aaron, being the babe that he is, took me to the mall yesterday! We went to the Arizona Mills mall, which is a little on the ghetto side, but they have outlets, so its worth it sometimes! Last night was one of the times it was worth it- I got 4 shirts, 2 skirts, a pair of pants, and a swim suit for $100! SWEET! The shirt above was $6, and the skirt was $12. They are both a little big, but for that price, it's worth spending 10 minutes at a sewing machine!!!

Trip to Pima

2011-05-07T08:25:00.002-07:00

Savannah and I decided a week ago to travel to Pima to surprise Grandma for Mother's Day. Savannah really thought that she was going to surprise Grandma, but neglected to tell me to keep my mouth shut....so being the kind person I am, I called Grandma and told her that we may or may not show up this weekend. On the way up to Pima, Savannah was so excited....I hated to bust her excitement, but once again I couldn't keep my mouth shut. This is how it started...

We brought the Mothers Day gifts from all her children in the Valley...

Then we made a quick trip to Walmart to get stuff to surprise her with breakfast!!!

Getting ready to start the homemade waffles and bacon.

Savannah is the best bacon maker!

This was my contribution!

Happy Mothers Day Grandma! We Love You!

2011-04-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

Aaron always says how he loves blogging, so I told him it was his turn to blog- just look how far that got us! There is nothing new in our lives, aside from Aarons company being bought out. He no longer works for Encore Discovery, he now works for EPIQ Systems! Apparently they're even nicer to work for than Encore, so I'd say it worked out pretty great!

We are trying to buy a house. I say "trying" as in we put in an offer 5.5 months ago and still haven't heard anything back, so I guess we're not trying too hard!

Finally, here's a random picture!

We went to Henrieville for Thanksgiving, and this was taken at the Glen Canyon Dam on the way home. Don't mind the fact that we're both in pajama pants, or the fact that we both look frozen- it was blinkin cold!

Hey hey good lookin, what you got cookin?

2011-03-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have a really clever post in mind, but it requires me to take a bunch of pictures, and alas, our camera battery has died. : ( so, you'll have to put up with old pictures! Because, ya know, who WOULDN'T want to look at old pictures of us!!!

This was on Aaron's birthday in 2008. I thought it would be funny to hide his present in a huge box of pink packing peanuts!!

This is a cake that I made in October (obviously!), but it was before I had any idea how to decorate. It tasted good though!

This is me and one of our friends, Greg, from Vermont, throwing gang signs. We're scary, huh!

And there you have it, folks! A real live post! I think that makes 3 this month!

All is not lost

2011-03-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at work, one of my bosses and I decided that we NEEDED Filbertos for lunch, and since he's been sick, I volunteered to go get it. I turned onto the main road and went about 200 yards when I saw a guy in the far right lane pushing his truck. Well, he was trying to push it, anyway, but he wasn't getting very far. I thought "oh, I should help him", but there were cars behind me, so I had to drive through the light. As soon as I could turn around though, I did, and headed back his direction. He had only progressed about 5 feet at that point.

I turned into the nearest neighborhood and hopped out of my car. Two burly guys were walking by me, heading the same direction. I asked if they were going to help the guy, and they said yes. Just then, another van stopped in the street and a man jumped out and ran over to help as well. I didn't get to help, but my eyes *might* have gotten a little misty at the sight of 3 men all pitching in to help a stranger. Sometimes people are cranky, and sometimes I become convinced that there aren't nice people in the world. It really made my day knowing that people are willing to help others. All is not lost.

"are they coming this way?" "no, they'll stay in the water"...

2011-03-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

What? Huh? Have you lost your mind(s)? Well...yes. But that's beside the point!! The title is an exerpt of the conversation Aaron and I had this morning. Let me set the stage:

I was whining the other day about not being in school and learning stuff right now. Aaron decided to "fix" the situtation by creating little "lessons" for me. Monday was supposed to be his first "lesson"- he was going to start teaching me spanish, but we slept in, so that didn't work too well.

This morning he popped out of bed when the alarm went off and dragged me out too. He threw some sweats, a tshirt, and some shoes at me and told me we were going somewhere. We dashed out the door, and he told me we were going for a morning stroll at the animal sanctuary thing across the street. We started categorizing birds in to small, medium and large and it was all fine and dandy, until we get to a little lake. In the lake were a bunch of ducks and geese. We decided to stop and watch them for a few minutes, and the ducks swam away. The geese got together and started swimming with very determined looks. Aaron asked if they were coming our way, to which I replied "no, they'll stay in the water". Uhh..I was totally wrong! They all swam to the edge where we were, and instead of stopping or turning around they hopped out of the water and waddled up to us - within about 6 inches of pecking us- and followed us until we got back on the path and left the area!

Aaron definitely accomplished his "lesson"- don't underestimate the geese!

A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet

2011-01-26T20:48:00.002-07:00

I need some help, oh creative readers!

I got hired to make cupcakes for someone's wedding, and would like to create business cards to sit by the cupcake stands for people to take when they realize how amazingly tasty the cupcakes are. The only problem is this:

I don't have a clue of what to name my "company".

I first thought of Weech's Wonders, but I don't know if thats tacky or not. I don't want anything chintzy like "a really yummy cupcake place", but I can't think of anything not lame! So, I propose a challenge. Leave a comment, or email me, or text me what you think the name should be, and I'll create a survey to go on my blog. Whoever submitted the winning name gets their very own order of cupcakes!~ (yes, I'll ship)

Ready, GO!

Say what?

2011-01-17T10:17:00.001-07:00

We went to bed last night, and Aaron fell asleep before I did. Maybe the nap that lasted until 5:30 pm had something to do with it! Anyways, just as I was dozing off, Aaron starts wiggling around and I hear

"I'm Aaron. I'm Aaron Weech, and I am the Commander of this Ship!"

It was said in a very authoritative tone, and he kept mumbling other stuff that I swore I would remember, but I fell asleep and forgot them. In any case, I went to sleep laughing!

Weekend in Burlington

2011-01-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Savannah and I flew to Burlington, Vermont for a few days to visit a very nice friend who had her wedding reception. We left on Thursday and then came back on Monday (just a couple of days before the major storm). When Savannah and I arrived on Thursday, we had a lot of fun with the hotel and car upgrades we received. Also the hotel room was very nice (thanks to all the traveling I did over the summer and accumulated a few travel points). The only sad part was that the "hot tub" had been removed from the hotel (which Savannah had been looking forward to very much). On Friday, Savannah went to visit some of her friends while I just hung out and read a new book that she had brought. Later that night we went out to eat at a favorite restaurant with our friends. On Saturday, we ate breakfast with another good friend and the helped prepare for the reception later that night. This involved me making many trips to Costco and the grocery store. I almost forgot some important items, but I grabbed them at the last minute. Sunday, we went to the Burlington Ward and got to see many friends. Later that day we went to the Benson's and had dinner with them. It was a lot of fun. Monday we woke up to snow and 19 degree weather. When we got to Phoenix, it was 70 degrees and sunny. What a difference! Yes, we do have pictures, but no we have not had time to upload them. Hopefully soon! Everyone have a great day!

What? Parent One, Parent Two??

2011-01-08T09:21:00.001-07:00

Every morning it is a ritual for me to read all the news from ALL of the country's news organizations. This morning I am really really irritated! I just learned that the US State Department is removing the words "father" and "mother" from the passport application. Instead they want to make it "parent one" and "parent two". That is absolutely ridiculous! We might as well go by "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" (it's a Dr. Suess analogy). I told Savannah that my next letter is going to be to my state Senator (and everyone else I can find) about this whole absurd change. Next thing we know, people are going to try and change other laws as well just because it doesn't fit with what they "think" should be the norm. I'm going to be very irritated if other things start to change that caters to those who don't want to conform and play nice with others.

Here is the article:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/07/passport-applications-soon-gender-neutral/

Why he is taking so long!

2010-12-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Anybody who knows me surely knows that I enjoy going to Costco on Saturdays and exploring every single event that is going on. Of course, this exploration is usually accompanied by my wonderful wife and lasts at least an hour, maybe more. This last Saturday was an exception. My mom needed some help doing a few things including running to Costco and also cleaning the house. Since Savannah is such a wonderful cleaner and I am such a wonderful Costco shopper we knew who was going to tackle each item. The only problem is we didn't want my mom to find out...so we convinced her that she needed to go with me to Costco (and yes we neglected to tell her why). On the way to Costco, the fantastic Department of Public Safety had closed a three mile portion of the freeway for a crime scene investigation and in fact even started to direct traffic on the westbound portion the eastbound way! My mom told me to remind her not to go that way on the way home. Once we got to Costco (and remember, my mom she had a list of about 5 items to get) I started to walk all around the store. I zigzagged to one corner then went to the other with my mom in tow. She couldn't figure out why I was pointing at random items or making a big deal about others. I knew in my head that I had to stall for an hour. About half an hour into this shopping event, I could tell that my mom was getting a little annoyed with my frantic zigzagging and weaving around so I headed for the tasting tables...I mean who doesn't enjoy tasting that stuff! I made sure that I took (maybe dragged?) my mom to each table and was pleased to point out every item which was good. At this time, my mom was getting a bit more antsy and really just wanted to go home. I still had to stall. I started to walk up and down the aisles with my mom right behind me. Finally we found the checkout line. I decided that we needed lunch and went to get some hot dogs. Now there was no one in line, but I really had to decide which one to get...(there are only two choices)...after waiting a few more minutes I knew what to get. I ordered for my mom, Savannah and me and then told my mom we should eat there. After that we headed home. It was pretty funny. Mom walked in the door and Savannah was just finishing the vacuuming. Mom told Savannah not to put away the vacuum because she needed to use it on her room and promptly started in that direction. Savannah and I just waited with baited breath to see what happened next.....Mom said "SAVANNAH!! You vacuumed my room", Savannah said yes....then we wait for her to go into her bathroom..........sure enough we heard "SAVANNAH....MY BATHROOM IS CLEAN". We both smiled and kinda chuckled. My mom came out and said thanks. Then we told her our devious plan. She laughed (I think we laughed harder) especially when I told her I was to distract her at Costco. She said "I wondered why you were taking so long. You went all over the store and I wanted to leave". All in all, I say the plan was a success!

La Dee Da!

2010-11-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

So this last week was full of excitement. Savannah got to participate in her first boutique and made lots of food. Unfortunately, she didn't get the idea that she was supposed to sell the food and ended up giving it away! We made a wonderful $4 from the whole thing. Maybe next time I will be in charge of the selling. We are both still working away and have nothing new to report on that front other than Savannah says I work too late and need to stop answering my phone as soon as it goes off....but hey I can always improve, right? We are still both in the nursery and love the little kids. They are so funny. Savannah is searching and searching for a new house, but we are both so picky that it is not going as well as has been planned. In fact, last Saturday we were going to look at one that she actually approved of, but it got sold late Friday night. She was so disappointed as all week long she had been telling me how she was going to do this and that to make the house hers. Oh well....there are many more houses still left to view!

Come One! Come All!!

2010-11-04T12:06:00.003-07:00

That's right ladies (and gents, if you want to come for the food), it's time for the worlds best boutique! Ok, maybe not the worlds best, but definitely Gilbert's best!

We're going to have tons of crafty things that other people have made so you can look good when giving them for Christmas!

Homemade cards!

Jewelry!

Other things that I can't spell!!

Holiday tea towel sets! and best of all,

GOOD FOOD!!! Provided by yours truly, you'll have your pick of 2 different soups, homemade bread, oreos, and *maybe* sweet rolls. And for your gift giving convenience, if you don't have time to make your own goodie plates for Christmas, or even Thanksgiving, I'm taking order forms!!!

Note: the address is actually 2669 E. Pegasus, Gilbert, AZ 85234.

Chili Cook-Off Contest

2010-11-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

This last week Savannah has been cooking different pots of chili for me and everyone to try for the chili cook-off that was held on Saturday. All that cooking paid off because she won 2nd place! Yeah for her!

Our halloween was spent with Grampy and Grammy this year. They only had about 300 kids come through and we helped pass out candy. Of course, we were also treated to a dinner of southern fried chicken and baked pototes! It turned out really great and we appreciate Grampy and Grammy inviting us over to share their time.

Nothing else exciting has happened to either of us. We are still alive and working hard every day with new challenges in our jobs. Hope everyone is staying safe.

Happy Birthday Aaron!!

2010-10-04T07:50:00.003-07:00

Today is the big day that Aaron turns the same age as me!! He's now a whopping 27 years old and is getting wiser as we speak! :) Not to sound too mushy, but I never thought that someone could make me so insanely happy, but he's managed to do it with style. I love you babe! Here's to you!

Another week has gone

2010-09-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have been home now for one whole week. I probably will get to stay home for quite a while as well and will not have to travel. Savannah is happy about that! You see, the company was able to hire someone in New Jersey and so I don't have to travel as much out there as I have been. One of the Saturdays that I was in NJ, I was able to cross a bridge and head into NYC. I didn't last very long! They can't drive worth beans and I quickly turned the rental car around to head back to NJ. It was very very scary! I didn't realize how close I was to seeing Manhattan, but I still don't know if that would have persuaded me to continue onward. I was able to see a few sites in NJ such as Thomas Edison's laboratory, some old buildings, and downtown Newark. I was going to go to the museum's in Newark, but they opened at noon and I didn't want to wait 3 hours for them to open, so I just drove around instead. On the last Friday before I left, Hurricane Earl was coming and so I went to the beach to watch the waves. They were pretty big and no one was allowed on the beach. Luckily, the storm passed and I didn't get washed away. Savannah figured it out and for the whole 10 weeks of summer, I was gone for 7 of them. I am happy that I didn't have to deal with the heat, but sure am glad to be back home as well.

Savannah has just been working away and says that she doesn't get to have any of the fun that I have! Maybe one day she can travel with me!

Mi Amigos!

2010-08-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

Last night we ended up taking Grampy and Grammy out to eat to Mi Amigos. Savannah had never been before and thought it tasted pretty good. We all got different items and ended up sharing between all of us. One of the funny moments was when I had a big bite of salsa and instead of swallowing, I sniffed....this caused the hot pepper to immediately enter my nasal cavity. My face started to turn bright red and my eyes were watering. Then the waitress came by and asked if we were ready to order. I couldn't even talk because it burned so much. Tears were rolling down my cheeks and she said "don't cry honey, we will get you your food". It was really fun! Savannah even ordered the fried ice cream with three different sauce toppings. She liked it a lot and even shared!

Then after dinner on the way home I turned left and ALL OF A SUDDEN another car zipped out of a parking lot and came careening after us. Luckily it missed us somehow (must be those prayers we say on daily basis), but I think I shaved a few more years of life off of Grampy. I don't know if they will ever ride with us again!

Anyways, it was a fun night. Thanks Grampy and Grammy for letting us tag along and not killing you!

Pre-pay tithing?

2010-08-10T20:04:00.001-07:00

Savannah is such a great wife. Tonight she wanted to pay our tithing and I said that's great honey. When she was done, I took the check and looked at it. It was not the amount of the tithing that we were going to pay, but instead she had written the check for the entire amount of our checking account! We figured it out and we would have pre-paid tithing for three years! Can you do that? Needless to say, we shredded that check and wrote out a new one.

Dreams and Nightmares

2010-07-30T12:10:00.002-07:00

Oh man, if only some dreams could come true! It all started out at Aaron’s company party. Every year they pick someone as a “researcher”, and this year, Aaron won. With his new “researcher” position he got to take the year off work, he got 500 free flights, and $100,000 to spend however he wanted during the year. The only requirement was that he study how different countries felt about transformers. As in Bumblebee transformers. So, I quit my job (hello! Wouldn’t you?!) and our first “assignment” was Germany. We went to Germany and met up with our good friends, the Bensons, and hung out with them for a month or two, then went to Italy. Then I woke up, and realized, sadly, that I still had to go to work. Sigh.

In other news, I almost died yesterday. I got off work after watching a gnarly rainstorm, and walk to my car. I get in and look through the windshield. There’s a spider there. On the inside. CRAP! I (amazingly) remained calm, grabbed a tissue, and reached to squish the sucker when it JUMPED.

It was A JUMPING FREAKING SPIDER IN MY CAR.

I screamed like a little girl at that point. It was jumping around on the dashboard and then went down the air vent. I was picturing it jumping out at me from the air vent aimed at my face, so I turned on the defroster full blast. It came jumping back out but this time it had 2 of its million legs reared up in the air like it was angry. I lost my remaining nerve then and decided I would just drive to pick up my sister in law and let it burn in the heat. It’s amazing I didn’t get into a wreck on the way though, because I spent more time looking at the air vent than the road! When Jacque got in the car I told her about it and we both got tissues and cornered it. Jacque’s tissue got it and we screamed like little girls again and threw it out the window. It’s amazing we made it out alive!

Home at last...or so it seemed

2010-07-19T21:24:00.001-07:00

Yes, I finally arrived back home in Gilbert. Savannah and I had all day to ourselves on Saturday and then spent a relaxing Sunday as well. When I got to work this morning I found new plane and hotel reservations waiting for me. Yeah! Just what I really wanted to do...leave my wife again for a long long time. New Jersey is not that bad, but it would be better if Savannah was with me. Maybe I should ask to be transferred?

On another fun note, Savannah woke up this morning and stepped on the scale. She didn't know I was behind her and carefully watching what she was doing. As the scale turned on and she got on it, I quietly put my toe on the edge. Savannah looked at the scale and watched as the numbers got higher and higher really fast (all the while I was continuing to put more and more pressure on the edge). Finally I couldn't hold it in and started to laugh. She quickly turned around and you should have seen her face. It was priceless!

3,000 miles apart and still 2 weeks away

2010-07-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I was told at work that it might be possible I would need to go to our New Jersey office for a "couple of days" to help them get organized. I thought that it would be fine and said I was okay to travel. Then last month, it was finalized that I would be going the last week in June for a week. I told Savannah and her first response was "fine, I am going with you"....after looking at airfare tickets...her response was "I am going to Henrieville". Flash forward to the current day (today, July 3)....I have been in New Jersey for 1 week and have been told that I will be here for two more weeks, but that I was authorized to stay until the job was completed. Savannah is not happy that she cannot come out, but all she would do is sit in the hotel room as I have been working 12+ hour days and she can't drive the company car. The Atlantic Ocean is beautiful and I can't wait until I can go onto the beach...which may not be until next week! Until then, hopefully everyone is doing well. Stay safe this holiday weekend.

What's being Going on?

2010-07-03T19:39:00.000-07:00

It has been about a month since we have not updated our about little life. Some of the events that have occured include: Savannah has driven across the country once again, I have been to California and a couple other places for business, and Savannah has had lots of fun staying at home. I was involved in a traffic crash where some guy rear ended me at 40+ mph and totaled our new car (at least we had it fully insured). That morning was really fun, so let me elaborate....I have to be at work by 6AM to support our New Jersey and other offices that come online throughout the day. As I was about 10 minutes from the office the traffic started to slow down...since I was paying attention I started to brake. Then I looked in the mirror and noticed a big SUV coming really fast towards me. I knew that I was going to be hit and turned the car to the right to try and avoid the car(s) in front of me. The SUV ended up rear ending me and I ended up visting the hospital. Our car that we have had for barely 3 months was totaled. Now, Savannah and I are 3,000 miles apart (but that's another post).

That's about it. Hope everyone is well.

My little graduate!

2010-06-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

Yay! Finally something worthy of blogging about! I know, I'm late on it, but I've been traveling for a while. In any case, better late than never, right?

May 8th was a great day for our family! Aaron graduated with honors from Champlain College. He now has a Bachelors of Science degree, focusing on Computer and Digital Forensics!

Since Aaron already has a job, we couldn't take a lot of time off for the trip, so we took a red-eye flight on Wednesday night. I don't sleep well when I fly, but I decided to take 2 tylenol pm's for the flight. Well, that was a little bit, no, a lot bit dumb of me! Drugs in general make me tired, and normally 1/2 a tylenol pm will make me sleep for at least 6-7 hours. 2 tylenols? I was out of it the whole trip! I had brought my own pillow, because I figured if I was going to be traveling for 3 weeks I at least wanted something familiar. Anyways, since it was a night flight, all the seats had little pillows and blankets on them, so it was a comfy flight to Detroit. After getting to Detroit and walking across 3 terminals, we get to our gate with an hour+ to spare, so I take the blanket from the flight and fall asleep behind the chairs. Yes, I'm classy! The flight to Burlington was nice and peaceful, nothing too exciting.

Once we got the car and the luggage we headed straight for the hotel. It was only 9:30 am, but they said we could check in early, so we did and promptly fell asleep until 2! Aaron had graduation practice, and after that we headed over to our friends house for dinner, which was tasty as always. Friday we went with my parents to Montpelier to look around, and we met Aaron's parents there.

My parents in front of the round church in Richmond.

Us and my parents in front of the capital building in Montpelier.

My mom and I at lunch. And yes, the wrap was really tasty!

Us and my parents at the reception Friday night. I promise, I'm not being partial to my parents, but all the pictures with us and Aaron's parents are on their camera!

Saturday was graduation, and it was cold and rainy. We got seated around 8:40 and it didn't start until 10:00, so we had a lot of time to spare! The ceremony was nice, but I couldn't get a good picture of Aaron actually getting his diploma, because the announcer mispronounced his name and none of us realized it was him until he was almost across the stage!

This is him after he got his diploma and was headed out of the auditorium. Isn't he so cute?

WHAT??!!??

2010-05-29T22:59:00.003-07:00

I was reviewing the bank statement for this last month and this is what I saw and thought:
Delta Airlines - okay, not reasonable, but necessary for graduation
Hotel - yea, that was okay
Car Rental - yep, didn't want to walk around town (I have already done that, thank you)
IOS - hmmm...charge is for $33.17....what the heck is this?

I ask Savannah if she recognizes the charge and she replies nope. Since she looks at the statement more often than me, I ask her why she didn't tell me sooner. Her reply "well it looked weird, but I thought it was something you did". I immediately start thinking about all the charges around that time. It dawns on me that Savannah couldn't find her phone when I was at the airport so I look up the company and sure enough it is a telephone operator service. There are also a good number of people who posted about this company and said they are a scam. I look at my phone records and yep there it is, a whopping two minute phone call. Boy am I hopping mad right now! I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, sent an email to the bank detailing everything and disputing the charge, and cancelled the credit cards for good measure (just in case it is a scam)! I am just getting started! Monday, I will call the hotel and tell them about their operator service and then I am going to call the operator service and tell them as well. I plan on calling the Attorney General's office of Vermont and Arizona too. GRRRRRR!

Might as well write something

2010-04-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

It has been another week with quite the fun times at work. I have been very busy at work, but continue to enjoy it. The group of individuals that I get to work with are all good people. It is quite hiliarious to talk to them and for them to share their thoughts with me. This last week, I learned that I was the only one with a soul and that I was the moral compass because everyone else had lost it. Oh if I only had the time to write down everything, you all would be laughing as well.

On another note, I have gone three days without Savannah and have not starved. Tonight, I had take out and was able to talk to a hispanic lady who was curious how I spoke spanish. Before I could even get out how, she said the church? and then followed up with where did you serve your mission. I told her and soon found out that she wasn't going to church. I told her that she should go and then had to leave. I am sure everyone around us thought we were crazy, but it just goes to show that you never know what will happen as you go about your day. Savannah comes home Wednesday, so hopefully I survive until then.

Love to all.

What a Great Friday

2010-04-11T13:55:00.001-07:00

On Friday, Savannah had made over 2 dozen homemade oreo cookies for me to take to work. They were a hit! Everyone really enjoyed them. Someone asked if I would even trade wives. I think I may have gotten out of trouble a couple of times as well. We even traded some cookies for a few favors. Then for lunch, I was packed stuffed pork chops that Jacque had me the night before. It was really good. Somebody wanted to know what delicious morsel of food I had today and then asked why they didn't get food like that. I just responded, well get married. Yeah, they didn't go for that. I have the greatest wife! It's too bad she is going to visit family next week because I think I might just starve!

Sleepover Time

2010-04-04T14:34:00.002-07:00

Savannah and I had the pleasure of sleeping over at my grandparents house the other night because there was over 25 teenage girls who were at my parents house. Do you think that I was going to sleep with all those girls? Yeah right! So we spent the night at Grampy and Grammy's. It was a lot of fun. In the morning, Savannah made me breakfast....toast with peanut butter and jelly. This is one of my favorites because I don't like eating too heavy in the mornings. As I took my first bite, I noticed that my eyes were burning and that my nose was itching. I took a couple more bites and then realized that this was not normal. I asked Savannah what kind of jelly she had used. She responded "raspberry". I asked her to show me the container. Sure enough, it said "raspberry"....but also had the word "habanero" after it. I didn't really want that spicy of a breakfast, but oh well! I took some of the jelly off and then finished the toast.

Poor Savannah, she felt so bad that breakfast was not good. She did make up for it by packing me a nice lunch! Speaking about packed lunches, it has become quite a game at my office to see if I have the better lunch or not than some of the people I work with. For example, today some of them went out for sandwhiches and asked if I wanted one. I told them "no thanks, my wife packed me chicken cordon blu for lunch"...the response back was along the lines of "oh must be nice to have fancy lunches". I do have to say that the chicken cordon blu was made by my Grampy and it is the best! On Wednesday we both woke up late and Savannah didn't have time to make me anything so I took a frozen dinner, and all my coworkers were bummed that I didn't have something homemade!

Sniff

2010-03-31T11:01:00.001-07:00

Oh where, oh where could my blogger friends be? Oh where, oh where could they be?

Sweet!

2010-03-29T08:44:00.002-07:00

" The LDS cult has always promoted a lottery. Join us and you're betting you'll get your own planet and numerous other benefits, forever!"

Sweet! Now people finally get the picture!

Another Week Has Gone By

2010-03-21T15:37:00.002-07:00

Well another week has gone by. I finished my first week at my new job and have enjoyed it so far. The company is very nice and I have enjoyed learning all about the different operations. It is a very busy company and once I get done with all my training, I hope to get into the thick of it all. In this company, each month they do an acitivity. This month they cooked green eggs and ham for St. Patrick's Day. It was a nice time to get to know everyone. Then the COO had all the new people (which numbered about 8) get up and sing a song. Since there were so many we got to sing together! I was feeling pretty happy about that because I can't carry a note if my life depended on it. As I mentioned before, the rest of the week was just spent in training. I did find out that my work schedule is set for way early in the morning, but that I will be done by the afternoon. It had to be this way because the company runs 24/7 and they needed more people on the morning shift.

Savannah has been at home doing who knows what....

The End of the Great Journey!!

2010-03-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Yes our cross country trip has ended. We arrived home about 8:30 pm tonight. I have decided that we had better not make anothe cross country trip for quite some time. 3 trips in less than 9 months is not as fun as it seems. We had a good time traveling across the country and got some good pictures as well. We will post some at a later time (yea I know...we always are saying that). We had the opportunity to stay with Savannah's sister and her family for a couple of days as well. It is always fun to spend time with the family. Savannah and I are very grateful to be home in Gilbert and that we can be with family here as well. It should prove to be very fun times. One bad thing about driving west is that the sun is in your eyes for a long period of time. One good thing about this is we saw some cool images of the sun through trees, clouds, and even by itself. When we were in Texas, we saw a tumbleweed fly across the highway but the camera was not quick enough to capture it. It would have been a great shot. The weather was good up until the last portion of our trip. Once we got past Gallup, New Mexico, it started to snow. It continued to snow until we got to the other side of Payson, Arizona where it rained. Here is what we had to drive through...

We will end up posting more once we get some sleep!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-03-07T19:48:00.001-07:00

My mom is the greatest. Even though we can't celebrate this special day with her, we wanted to post a few pictures (that we totally stole from her blog...haha!) and tell a few special things about her. First, she is very smart! Whenever I had any papers to write, I would always send them to her so that she could proofread them. She always has good advice and insight to any situation.

My mom sets a very good example for everyone in the family. She goes to the temple on a weekly basis and is always reading her scriptures or other words of the prophets.

My mom loves all of her kids (sorry Tyler, I didn't have a picture of you and me, so only Jacque and Aly got posted). Even when we do the dumbest of things, she still loves us. She is also very stylish! Everyone has benefitted from her generosity and shopping prowess!

She is a great wife to my Dad. She always makes the time to listen about his day, make him terrific food, and spend time with him.

We love you Mom and hope that you have a wonderful day!

The Great Journey...

2010-03-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

Yea...we left about 12:00 pm from Burlington and arrived a little after 11:00pm in Cleveland, Ohio. We had planned on leaving 3 hours before we did but the cleaning, packing, and everything else we had to do got in the way. Then the wonderful GPS device took us to the bridge that had been blown up to get to New York, so we had a half an hour ferry ride / wait. We took some pictures of the bridge and will post those later. The trip was uneventful and we are now heading to bed. Will detail some more of the trip later.

24 hours to go!

2010-03-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

We made it back to Burlington on Monday and have been non-stop packing up our house since then. All in all, I think we will have shipped 30 boxes to Arizona, plus whatever else we can fit into our Honda CRV. We stopped at the post office this morning to ship 9 boxes of books, dvd's, and other media, for some odd reason everyone was quite grumpy when we left....maybe cause it took 20 minutes to haul the boxes in, post them, and ship them out? This is a small post office....oh well! And no, we have not taken pictures and probably will not take any because we are so tired at the end of the day all we do is crawl into bed. We have sold a few items and hope to sell a few more before we leave. Any takers? Now we are on the 24 hour countdown. I believe that we are leaving early Friday morning and hoping to make it to Cleveland. We are going to drive for 10-12 hours a day until we get home. We do plan on making a stop in Des Moines to visit Savannah's sister and her family, but we should be home before next Thursday. The weather has been nice (in the mid 30's) so I can't complain too much. I definitely am not looking forward to the hot summers again in Arizona, but hey at least we will be close to family and I have a job!

Exciting News!!!

2010-02-26T09:42:00.001-07:00

We are moving to Arizona! I interviewed with a company in Phoenix and they offered me the position. So now all we have to do is fly back to Vermont, pack up our stuff and drive across the country one more time. I don't really like that drive because it is so long but hey, at least I have lots of good books to listen too! Of course, in order for us to fly back to Vermont, we would have to have a plane that didn't cancel it's flights (like ours did this morning) because of the weather. So after Savannah spent quite awhile on the phone last night trying to arrange different flights, we found that we are flying out Monday morning (if the weather has gotten better). We had a couple extra days to spare, but now when we get back, we will be very busy. We still have a few more items to post but will do that in the next couple of days.

Home in Arizona

2010-02-08T20:44:00.001-07:00

Yes, we flew home to Arizona last Friday right before the huge snowstorm hit the Mid Atlantic. We had a connecting flight in Philly that we made before the airport was shut down. Actually we had quite a fun time at the Burlington Airport in which Savannah tried to sneak a pocket knife in her carry-on thru security. Fortunately, TSA stopped her (and me for wearing baggy pants) and after I got the "pat down" along with the biohazard scan, I had to put the knife back into our checked luggage which was already loaded on the plane. As I went thru security for the second time (and the second pat down), an alarm went off. TSA started yelling "Breach, Breach, Breach" and shut down the lanes. Also, the doors to the airport were closing as well. After 15 or so minutes, someone figured out that it was only the fire alarm and the lanes were opened up. It was then that TSA asked me if my stuff was left unattended. Because I am sure that I told Savannah to "watch my stuff", I told them no. That's when I saw them move this "stuff" and it was my backpack (which contained my laptop and other precious goods). I said "uh hum....that's my stuff". The TSA supervisor went over to Savannah and royally chewed her out for not watching my bags. We did make it on the plane and had some awesome sandwiches and salads in Philly (I don't get too excited over airport food, but for this price and the quality it was really good). We made it to Phoenix a half hour ahead of schedule and now we are having lots of fun in the sun.

Are you doing anything fun?

2010-01-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

This question is always asked of both Savannah and I. Everyone wants to know if we are doing anything fun. Our normal response is no, Aaron is working full time (boy am I) and Savannah is hanging out at the house (cleaning, cooking, etc). We thought that we should expound on our answer. Since I have "graduated", we have gone to Montreal with our Ward's Youth (which we will post in a bit), sent out a whole lot of resumes (and I mean a whole lot), have talked in Church (yea, probably not so much fun, but that's another post to come...), and we have had lots of good times together eating lots of good yummy food (I always enjoy that), going to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie (which was fantastic!), and just getting to decide what our future holds. It may not seem like fun to anyone else, but we sure have been enjoying our time together while it lasts. We continue to find jobs that seem to fit my experience and are just waiting (with baited breath) for someone to hire me.

Again? Really?

2009-12-29T19:17:00.017-07:00

So, it's our anniversary! Woohoo!! Not really though, because I'm sick AGAIN. I was sick last year, and Aaron watched me loll around on the couch dying. This year I had to go to work and stuff 700 envelopes (don't knock it, it's a job and I only got 1 paper cut!) and then when I got home I was still feeling ill from Sunday and Monday, so we ate some split pea soup and watched "the 3 little pigs". Yes, we're weird.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to do a year review in photos. Don't worry, there aren't too many...I'm not going to do every month, I'm just going to highlight my favorite pictures.

Montreal temple. It was fun!

We had an awesome time with my sister in Rochester. This was taken at the Lilac Festival.

This was taken at the Sacred Grove.

Palmyra Temple.

Next on the list was the Nauvoo area. This is at Carthage Jail.

This is an old school ice house in Nauvoo. Isn't he cheesy?

While we were in Utah we got to spend a lot of time with my family. This is him on July 4th, with a sparkler.

Aaron got to work on his baby holding skills. Now we can't wait to see our new niece!

At the Salt Lake Temple.

I got burnt to a crisp when we went to 7 peaks with my sister and family.

We saw more freeway than I ever want to see again! Over the summer we put almost 15,000 miles on our car. Yeah, that's more than most people put on their car in a year. Ask me how excited I am at the prospect of driving across the country again? NOT AT ALL!!!

On the way back to Vermont, we stopped in Des Moines and Aaron thought it would be fun to eat school lunch with my nephew. He fits right in, aye?

We stopped at Niagra Falls on the way to VT, it was fun!

Once we got back here, we didn't really do anything interesting, so we'll skip to Halloween. You know, because mexicans and catholics go together like peas and carrots!

Aaron presented his senior thesis, doesn't he look handsome? Of course he aced the class, got straight A's for the semester, and now holds the coveted B.S!

What would Christmas be without the matching sweater and tie?

I LOVE being married to Aaron. Yeah, he's weird and yeah, I'm weird, but we have so much fun together! We've had a great 2 years and can't wait for another million!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T17:56:00.003-07:00

We hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas this year! We did! We spent time with friends, talked to our family, and had a great time all around. Much love to all!

Smarty Pants

2009-12-21T18:26:00.004-07:00

Aaron has officially graduated! Woohoo!!! He got a 4.0 this semester, now he will be graduating with honors! After waiting up until 1 am and grades still not being posted, I made him go to bed and we found out Monday morning. He was so excited! I made a lovely celebration breakfast of oatmeal with peach chunks in it. We're so fancy here!

Finishing the rest of the week

2009-12-11T08:03:00.002-07:00

You know something is not going right when you have one (yes just one) research paper left and all the printers at school are not working. Yep, that is how this week has just been going. None of the printers are working. It is kind of hard to print a paper when nothing works. One person actualy said to me "I don't know why all the printers are being used so much this time of year"....I just looked at them and said "really...I thought maybe it had to do with 2,000 students all of a sudden doing their homework and printing out their papers, gee, guess I was wrong". So I have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! I hope to get everything all done and then I can be done! YEAH!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2009-12-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Someone told me that they wanted to see snow. I took a little video of the snow falling outside our window. I have been waiting for two months for the snow. It finally started falling the other day. This has been the longest time since 1937 that the snow has taken so long to come. Enjoy (cause I know I will)!

Are you hungry yet?

2009-12-09T19:57:00.002-07:00

MMMM.....bacon wrapped pork medallions with a mustard garlic butter sauce, green peas, and fresh baked bread. Yep, I love my wife. This is what we had for dinner. It was really really good. It was so good, it has just gone on the top 10 favorite meals list. I do have to admit, I did make the bread using our breadmaker and I think I did it wrong (once again) because the crust was kind of hard. The bread part was great tho!

What a week!

2009-12-09T07:51:00.002-07:00

It's only Wednesday and this is how it is going:

My final senior thesis was due this morning at 9am and I still have two more finals to complete. Here is how everything is playing out. One of the finals is a two part take home final. Piece of cake, right? Yeah....well....in order to get the first part of the take home we had to due a "practice test" first and sign an affidavit stating we wouldn't cheat. Anyways, I turned in this 3 page written practice test on Monday morning and got the real first part of the take home. I have also been working on my thesis for the last couple of months. I finished writing my thesis, sent it to my dear sister to proof read and spent until 1AM this morning....yes...Wednesday morning, checking the citations, revising the citations, and reading my paper one last time. I was very tired when I went to bed, but I think it will be a good paper (at least I hope so!). I then submitted my paper and went to bed.

Savannah woke up and I asked if there was lots of snow outside. I guess I didn't hear her say yes. Anyways she let me sleep just until she was ready to leave. Then she kindly woke me up and said it was snowing outside. I dutifully got up and went outside to warm up the car and brush off the snow. Then I told her I was going back to bed for another hour. Hahaha!!! Instead, I checked my school email (just to make sure the professor had my paper) and found another email from another professor saying that our "practice test" had been graded and could be picked up before 9:30 this morning. She also commented that "they were not good". Great....I put on my snow boots and started to walk to school. Walking in snow is really fun when it is just snow. But this morning, it was windy, snowing ice, and blowing right into my face. I had a couple inches of snow on my backpack when I walked into the professor's office. She told me that I actually got the second highest grade in the class. I said oh that is good.....until she told me that I got a "C". So if I got the second highest grade in the class and it was a "C'....does that reflect on the professor or the student? Oh and there are 27 students in this class. Then I got to walk home in the snow, but this time the wind was not blowing in my face! Anywho, I have some work to get done and I am counting down the days until I am done!

The Day After Thanksgiving and then some

2009-12-08T11:29:00.011-07:00

On Friday we went to the Burlington Christmas tree lighting. I went last year by myself and thought it was a lot of fun. This year it was raining and very very cold. The only good thing was that there were not a lot of people and we got a good parking spot. Here is a video of the countdown before the lights were turned on.

On Saturday we drove to the JSM (Joseph Smith Memorial for those of you outside of Vermont) and watched the Nativity and the lighting as well. This is what Savannah thought of my idea (remember it was cold and raining the night before):

Luckily for us it didn't rain, but it was kind of cold. This is the front entrance to the JSM.

This is part of the nativity.

More actors in the nativity. I know...I know... the picture is not great quality, but hey my hands were cold. Think of those poor actors...

This is on the way out (I thought it was kind of neat):

So that concludes our Thanksgiving weekend. I have uploaded a few more pictures on Flickr of our recent snow fall and the Festival of Choirs that Savannah sang in. I didn't get any video (are you allowed to video in the Chapel?), but did take some pictures.

Thanksgiving Noodles

2009-12-08T11:16:00.006-07:00

Every year my Grampy makes noodles for the gravy for Thanksgiving. Since we couldn't go home this year, I decided to try my hand at making the noodles. Here I am all prepared (I even look so excited!):

This is where we have already whipped the eggs and now they are starting to become doughy.

I even had a very cute helper! Normally people like to taste test, but for some reason, we didn't dare!

Here we are cutting the noodles. We wanted to make the noodles all even and straight, so she had the knife!

The end result! It tasted so good and I even had leftovers!

PS - I know that this post is late, but I finally had some time to update!

The joy of making people laugh

2009-12-03T07:15:00.003-07:00

What fun I get to have with lots of different people. This time it was the sister missionaries. They called me on Tuesday night asking if Sister Weech and I could go with them to an appointment on Wednesday. Now I am in the midst of finals and Savannah was just getting off of work and had RS enrichment later that night, but the poor sister sounded like she needed help. So I told her yes. Wednesday comes and about 10 minutes before the appointed time, I get a phone call from the sister missionaries. This is how it all played out:

Me: Hello?

Sisters: Hi Brother Weech, this is the sister missionaries just calling to see if you are at the parking lot where we are supposed to meet for our appointment.

Me: Appointment? What are you talking about? I thought that the appointment was for tomorrow (all the while sitting at the designated location). Where are you right now?

Sisters: Oh (said in a panic stricken voice)....um.....well actually the appointment was for today at 5pm. Are you close by and maybe you could still come? We were just leaving our apartment.

Me: (Now driving to their apartment, because it's about 1 minute away) Well sisters, I am not sure, I thought that the appointment was set for tomorrow. I am really sorry (and now sitting in front of their apartment), let me talk to my wife and see what we can do.

Sisters: (cuts in)...well this investigator seems really nice, maybe we can reschedule for tomorrow? (a hint of hopefullness in her voice)

Me: Well actually sister, my wife and I are sitting in front of your apartment, so if you and your companion would like a ride, come on out.

Sisters: WHAT??!!?? Are you kidding? You mean......oh man....okay we are coming out.

Once they came out, they told us that we were pretty good and that a member has never done that to them. They said we couldn't even tell in your voice that you were kidding. Savannah just said that I have had lots of practice (although she said it wasn't on her). The sisters said that they would get us back, but I don't think so. Oh...did I mention that it was the new sister in the ward who I played this joke on? Hahahaha........

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T18:15:00.002-07:00

We hope this holiday season is great for everyone! This year we're thankful to be here in Vermont, with good friends that we can call on at a moments notice, and who cook AMAZING turkeys. Mmmm. We're also thankful that Aaron has exactly 15 (FIFTEEN!) days of school left! We love you all!

I've been wondering...

2009-11-22T20:18:00.004-07:00

If you do something with a bad attitude, but still do it, do you get the blessings of doing it? Like, if you were asked to take someone to church every week, and you really couldn't stand this person and totally complained in your head the whole time, but you did it anyway- do you get the blessings? Part of them? Maybe a watered down blessing? Or if you have a calling and you REALLY don't want that calling, but you fulfill it; are the blessing there?

p.s.- These are not real scenarios for us, I just made them up.

Laundromat etiquette and other random stuff

2009-11-08T14:15:00.006-07:00

I don't know how many of you out there in bloggerland have had the chance to go to a laundromat to wash your clothes. I actually quite like it- I mean, 3 weeks worth of clothes, sheets, towels, rugs, etc. gets washed, dried and folded in 2 hours. Ummm...pretty sure that rocks! But in case you haven't ever been to a laundromat and find yourself needing to go, here's a few rules I've put together that should be followed for your sanity, and the sanity of others.

1. A laundromat is for doing laundry. If you have clothes to wash, great, but you dont need to bring your 12 group members and have a study session because this is the only place on the block that has free wifi. Last time I checked coffee shops, pizza places, bookstores and LIBRARIES have wifi too. Just a thought.

2. If you have enough clothes to fill 2 washers with the same thing (like jeans) upgrade to the larger washer, and don't make us people with a small batch use a 5 load washer when a 2 load washer will work.

3. Cussing in a loud voice and kicking a chair around because you cant get your laundry basket to fit doesn't make you cool. It makes you look really uneducated.

4. Don't bring your small children to the laundromat, let them run around screaming and chasing each other so you can go outside and chain smoke your 16 cigarettes. And then when they get hurt, don't get mad at me for not stopping them. I'm not their parent, you are.

5. Speaking of small children- If the rolling baskets they provide at the laundromat have a sign welded to the bottom of the basket that says "Children are not allowed to play in this basket", what makes you think your dumb 14 girls should be allowed to sit in the baskets and get wheeled around? Ummm..no.

6. A laundromat is for washing clothes, not for sleeping on 2 of the 5 folding tables, and painting your nails. And you don't need to bring your boyfriend and 2 roommates with you for moral support.

7. Try not to use all of the same type of washers. I.E. if you can use a 2 load, 3 load, and 5 load washer, use those instead of every single 3 load washer. And if someone is waiting for you to empty said 3 load washer, for heavens sake, dont take one article of clothing out of the washer at a time, pull them out and sort them from the basket!

This isn't a comprehensive list of rules, but you get the general idea. And now, for the other random news:

If we end up leaving on December 18 when Aaron is done with school, we only have 5 Sundays left. Whoa. Weird.

I'm in a choir for a Christmas presentation, and it's surprisingly good as far as ward choirs go. And I have confession- there are these 2 little boys in the choir, probably 15 and 17 years old, and they are so cute! Part of me totally wishes I was single, 16, and able to flirt with them without being called a predator!

I still totally love my job. Who knew working with 5 rough and tough guys could be so much fun! They do their thing, I do my thing, and there's NO drama!

We're reading a book right now called "A train to Potevka". It's AWESOME! I definately recommend this book to anyone! You can find it at Deseret Book or the library.

It was discovered the other day that I sound like a Canadian when I say the word "go". Who knew?!

Aaron's becoming a world class traveler. He got his first taste of the "Big Apple" (NYC) last Thursday when he flew there for an interview. Fancy, eh?

To brag a little for/about Aaron- he got his midterms back and on one of them he got 101%! Woohoo!! Thank heavens for extra credit (and extra prayers)! ;)

We're going to Boston this weekend to go to the temple, and we are super dooper excited! Some of our good friends from the ward are going through for the first time!

What would you do?

2009-11-02T18:31:00.002-07:00

You're stranded with 5 other people. You have water, but no food, and don't know when help is on the way. One of the people in your party dies of natural causes, and someone else suggests voting if you should eat the meat of the dead person to save everyone else, or not?

What would you vote?

Conference Thoughts

2009-10-25T09:55:00.004-07:00

'Twas a sheep not a lamb that strayed away
In the parable Jesus told,
A grown up sheep that had gone astray
From the ninety and nine in the fold.

Out on the hillside, out in the cold,
'Twas a sheep the Good Shepherd sought
And back to the flock, safe into the fold
'Twas a sheep the Good Shepherd brought.

And why for the sheep should we earnestly long
And as earnestly hope and pray?
Because there is danger if they go wrong
They will lead the lambs astray.

For the lambs will follow the sheep, you know,
Wherever the sheep may stray
When the sheep go wrong it will not be long
Til the lambs are as wrong as they.

And so with the sheep we earnestly plead
For the sake of the lambs today
If a sheep is lost, what a terrible cost
Some lamb will have to pay.

Author Unknown

This is the poem that Elder Maynes read to us at stake conference today, likening the sheep to parents, and the lambs to children, and the importance of having a strong family unit. We thought it was really good!

Senioritis?

2009-10-21T04:47:00.002-07:00

Last night as I was telling Savannah about my day, she told me I had to blog this, so here ya go!

I love mid-terms! Especially when we have 75 minutes to answer a 5 question essay. This essay was required by the College for some study they are conducting and I had to sign consent forms to release all sorts of personal information for them to collect. The best part of this was it replaced an essay for the class (so that is one less paper I have to write). Anyways, my subject was this study that had been conducted on whether or not a certain dam should be removed or left alone. I've learned two things from this essay. 1.) I absolutely love meetings and 2.) Page 3 was my favorite response.

On page 3, I had to construct my arguments why the dam should be left alone. Besides the fact that the hospital only could be accessed via the dam, I put that I couldn't make any decisions without several meetings which included meetings with the Dam committee, meetings with the Dam representatives, meetings with the Dam environmental groups, and meetings with the people that lived in the area.

Wonder what I will get for my grade?

It's really dumb, but you're gonna laugh at it!

2009-10-20T16:08:00.003-07:00

Q: What did one mountain range say to another mountain range after an earthquake?
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A: It's not my fault!

Tee hee, hahahaha!

Airplanes, time zone changes, and my own bed!

2009-10-14T10:21:00.002-07:00

I have decided that taking four airplane rides in a 24 hour period (according to Savannah it was more like 31) is really not fun. Monday afternoon (around 4:30) I took off for Salt Lake City for an interview with American Express Global Security. After an incident with security (who has yet to hear my complaints, but they surely will) I got onto the last plane for the day that was headed to JFK. At JFK, I had an hour wait and then made it onto the plane for SLC. I arrived in SLC at 11:30pm (local time). Luckily I had a few hours of sleep on the plane. The hotel that American Express had for me was really nice (once I download my pictures from my phone, I will post them here) and the bed was great! The hotel had a great breakfast buffet (sorry no pictures) and then I got all ready to leave. I was only 40 minutes early. I had the directions and had looked at map beforehand, but I guess the cab driver got there quicker than was expected. So I sat around downstairs until the Lab Director came and brought me upstairs. The security around this building was pretty cool. They had two-level authentication with biometrics. The interview was quite interesting and I got to tell them all about myself. Then I took a 25 question technical test and was only given 10 minutes. I got all but two right. Afterwards they gave me a tour of the building and then dropped me off at the airport. The plane from SLC to Detroit was only 45 minutes behind schedule so that meant I had to literally run from the A terminal to the C terminal (with a shuttle ride too) to catch my connection to Burlington. Luckily I made it with minutes to spare. Then I couldn't fall asleep when I got home (which is all I wanted to do) until a couple hours later. Now, I'm awake and headed to class. What a fun trip!

I believe that I would really like working for American Express (otherwise I probably wouldn't have applied) and the job seems right up my speciality. They told me that I needed to give them a couple of weeks to decide but they would let me know either way. I really liked the people I met and SLC is quite close to home (at least closer than Vermont)!

Bummer

2009-10-08T13:39:00.003-07:00

So our first snow shower is supposed to be on its way for deposit next Tuesday. Where am I going to be? Oh yea....Salt Lake....I don't think it will snow there! I'm hoping that the weatherman is wrong and that I can see the first snow of the year. It sure has gotten chilly fast.

Over the hill....

2009-10-04T09:32:00.003-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!! If you want to see a sweet post about him, look at Dena's blog. We love you Aaron!

To Utah I Will Go!

2009-09-30T18:49:00.001-07:00

So I got a telephone call today from an employer who I submitted my resume to back in July. I already had one telephonic interview with this company and now they want to do another interview with me in October in person! So I will be flying to Utah for a few days and doing an interview. I really like this company (and no it is not the company I interned for) and I think it will be a great job if they hire me! Sure hope they do because that means we will be closer to family who can come and visit us more often!

Fun Way to Start the Morning

2009-09-23T07:02:00.005-07:00

I couldn't think of any better way than to start a morning than to have a firefighter tell you to "GET OUT NOW" of your house. Yes, that is how I started my morning. Let's start at the top....I started to make eggs, bacon, and toast for Savannah when I heard this HUGE and LOUD gushing sound. I told Savannah that it must be pouring outside and I was going to look....nope no rain at all. Then we both thought it could have been a fire hydrant or a street sweeper. Savannah heads off to work and then all these fire trucks start to roll onto our street and by our house. I then thought to myself....oh crud....it's a gas leak. That's when the firefighters were going door to door telling people to "GET OUT". I didn't even have time to grab anything but my phone and keys. Then I waited and waited and waited. More fire trucks and police cars showed up along with electric vans and gas vans. I did manage to sneak back into the house one time to grab the camera (cause that's important!) and then they blocked the street for good. I counted 10 firetrucks, 2 ambulances, a few police cars, and lots of gas and electric people. I talked to some neighbors who also were still in shock (and their pjs) because they had no idea what was going on. After about one hour they started to let people back into their houses. What a fun way to start the day!

Do you see the metal black post? That is where our apartment is....kind of close if you ask me. Here's a few other pictures I got as well.

Bleh!

2009-09-20T16:32:00.003-07:00

This last week has been so much fun....yeah right. Savannah started off this week not feeling too hot and I finished the week feeling what she had. We both were quite the miserable sorts. On Monday night, Savannah wanted a hamburger (she says it is the only thing that makes her feel better), so I hopped into the car and got her one. Then I drugged her and she drugged me. We both were out by 9pm. That was great....until I woke up at 7:45 am and goggily tried to realize I had class in 15 minutes and Savannah had to work in that time as well. I don't think we both got ready so fast in such long time. I made it to class by 8:01. On Thursday and Friday, I was feeling so icky that I didn't even try to go to class. Luckily for me, my professors were understanding about being sick and said I would be okay. On Saturday Savannah and I got to actually babysit for some friends. It was really fun and we were glad that we could give them a night out. We got to watch a 007 movie as well on an actual tv screen and not my laptop monitor! Can't beat that! Sunday I was called to be the YM secretary (because supposedly both Savannah and I were released from Primary back in May). We asked Bishop who told us that yes both of us had been released from Primary back in May (must have happened after we left) and he apologized for not telling us. So I guess the Primary is out two people....(at least until the Primary Program is finished, that's next Sunday by the way)! I get to attend Mutual on Tuesdays and all the other fun activities that are planned. It should be quite fun. When Bishop was setting me apart, he told Savannah thanks for letting us have him. Her response "take him, take him!" And all this time I thought she wanted to spend with me! I can't think of much else to report on. We hope everyone is doing well and being good! No more speeding Aly!

The trip out East

2009-09-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

There are so many pictures that I took that I can't post every single one but here are some fun ones. This way our first place to stop, Evanston. We looked at the old train yard and the old train depot. It was pretty cool.

We also saw this old English telephone booth. It was just in the middle of the depot yard. There was a sign that said it had been transferred from England to Evanston...pretty neat.

This was the start of our trip on Wednesday morning. Savannah got the first turn at sleeping so I did the driving. On the way, I saw this sign that said State Prison. I thought it would be fun to look around. Savannah woke up as I was pulling off the freeway and asked where we were going. I told her it was a surprise. As we pulled up in front of this building (which was in use from 1870 until 1980) I told her that she had been bad and that I was going to take her to jail and leave her there. Her response....it looks cool!

This is me (as if you couldn't tell) in one of their cell blocks. Yes, they actually locked it and I couldn't get out. It was very small and cramped. Amazing that they put two people in each cell.

Hmmm....what is this? It's the gas chamber! Doesn't she look like a criminal who committed a crime that deserves capital punishment? I actually asked if we could shut the door but was told no. They had an incident where a Boy Scout troop was actually locked into the death penalty jail cells and couldn't get out. The fire department had to come out and rescue them. Since that time they are not allowed to shut they doors!

9 3/4 equals 10

2009-09-10T12:59:00.002-07:00

So I turned in my homework on my forensic accounting class the other day and got it back last class. It said 9 3/4 points. I asked the professor today about the "supposed" wrong answer and was told that it could go either way but that I received full credit. Puzzled I said how could I have received full credit if I only got 9 3/4 points? She said that 9 3/4 points equals 10..........I sat there for the longest time trying to figure that one out and finally just left class....still can't see how 9 3/4 equals 10....anyone else?

Hmmm...Yummy Picnic

2009-09-08T17:10:00.003-07:00

Since Savannah works all day I get the responsibility to do more "household" chores. Well today, I wanted to surprise her so I made a bunch of sandwiches and other picnic type food (even I had corn on the cob). When Savannah got home, I made her get back into the car and then I packed the cooler. I drove until we found a picnic bench and then I started to bring out all this food. Needless to say we both were not hungry after this!

What a Morning

2009-09-03T07:01:00.002-07:00

This has been my morning so far....I woke up, took a shower, had a full breakfast of eggs, hash browns, and toast and then went to class. I learned in class different punishments for financial fraud including the death penalty in China (maybe the USA should take a hint) and then came home. It's now about 10 in the morning and I have the rest of the day to do what? Take a nap, work, and do some homework. Yep...sure do love my morning classes!

More about our trip out East

2009-09-02T07:29:00.006-07:00

When we passed into Iowa, we looked for landmarks that might fun to visit. One of them was a Mormon historic landmark. After we went and looked at it, we turned onto this road....hmmm..I wonder if the blvd was actually part of the trail.

This is me and my nephew Zach eating lunch at his school. I was very excited to eat a "school" lunch and even more excited to share it with Zach. We stayed in West Des Moines for a night to catch up on our sleep and relax for a day. It was lots of fun.

The next two pictures are at Fort Kearny. We stopped here to take a quick peek. Savannah is actually standing on top of one of the four guard posts.

And this is the rest of Nebraska....you can send me thank-you cards later for taking you through Nebraska because it is mostly flat and boring.

The best steak ever

2009-09-02T03:20:00.003-07:00

When Savannah and I stayed in Buffalo, the hotel gave us meal coupons for the restaurant next door. I ordered the pasta with chicken, but Savannah got the steak and eggs. She had me try a bite and it was probably the best steak that either of us had ever had. Glad we had coupons or else we would have gone to McDonalds! (By the way, the picture quality is not too good because it was taken with my phone...I didn't want to look like a tourist and grab my camera from the car to take a picture).

What's this?

2009-09-02T03:19:00.002-07:00

So as we were shopping at Costco last night, I rounded the corner to pick up the bread and Savannah goes the other direction. Then she said "Aaron, look". I turned around and found this:

Yes, they now have tortillas! I tried to convince Savannah we needed 5 bags (I mean that's only 150 tortillas), but she said no and I ended up with two bags. Yeah...lots of tortillas for me!

Wahoo!

2009-08-31T05:39:00.003-07:00

We made it! After a couple of really long driving days, lots of sleeping (for Aaron, anyways) in the car, and a couple of fun stops on the way, we're back in Vermont!

Aaron's at class, he's got a piece of cake schedule! Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday he has 1 class at 8 am. He's done with school at 9:15 am! He has 1 class on Wednesday, but that's not until 3 or something like that, so he's all sorts of happy! I'm getting the house unpacked and de-spidered, and will hopefully start working soon. I'm going into the temp agency today, so here's hoping they have some work for me!

We'll update pics later (by we, I mean Aaron will probably do it, I'm still anti-blogger for some reason...I'll get over it eventually!)

Less than 48 hours away...

2009-08-23T18:03:00.002-07:00

In less than 48 hours, Savannah and I will be all packed and starting a fun trip back to Vermont. This time we will not be sightseeing, staying in fun hotels, eating at cool places, or doing anything but driving back to Vermont as fast as we can so I can start school. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Blah

2009-08-19T12:37:00.002-07:00

Ever have those days where you don't want to do anything, especially post on your blog? That's how I've felt this summer. I spent most of the time in Henrieville, and got no cell service at all, and getting internet service was something of a miracle on most days. The funny thing is, it didn't bother me, at all. This last trip was supposed to be 4 days, but it turned into 3 weeks, and I didn't even think about my cell phone, or texting, or anything! Oh well. Anyways, Aaron and I are going to be leaving Provo next Tuesday and heading back to Vermont. We're hoping to make it by Friday night (if all goes as planned) so once we get settled back into our apartment there I'll post pictures and stuff. Hope everyone is having fun!

What a Week!

2009-08-15T11:55:00.003-07:00

This last week has been quite busy. I have been working with this software that is definitely interesting to work with. I get to attend meetings which everyone goes around and tells what the latest development / status is on the software. When they get to me, I always have the same answer "testing". I've found some good issues as well. It is quite funny. Unfortunately, I can't go into any detail....violates the agreements I signed. Oh well. Anyways in one of these meetings this last week, the head development guy had some very hot peppers. He passed them out to everyone (I said no...I knew what they were) and the reactions were pretty funny. The number of faces that turned a very bright red color and actually started to spit out the pepper was quite a show. Then on Friday afternoon right before 5pm I caused another problem with the software but really wanted to get going so asked my boss if I could just work on it first thing Monday morning. He said yes and I took off for Henrieville. I arrived just before 9pm. This is the last weekened that Savannah and I will be spending down here and then we only have 9 days left before we head back to Vermont and I start school. It should be a very interesting trip back because we will not have any time for sightseeing.

Joint Custody Battle

2009-08-09T22:24:00.004-07:00

I now know what "weekend" joint custody feels like. You see for the past few weeks Savannah has spent time with her parents aka the "In-Laws" working and playing with her nephews/nieces. I have been granted permission to visit "on the weekends" with Savannah at the "In-Laws" house. Normally I come down on Fridays and leave on Sundays. Once the weekend is over, I go back up to Provo while Savannah stays with her parents. Luckily for me, this "joint custody" battle is over next Sunday and I get to take Savannah with me not only back to Provo, but back to Vermont as well!

"Don't let him touch anything....it breaks"

2009-08-05T20:06:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was very productive....no, not really. I spent quite a bit of time getting up to speed on this new software and learning how it works. This morning I get to work and am pretty ready to go. Two hours later (and one meeting as well) I still can't get the software to even execute on my remote computer. Finally I got it figured out with the help of 3 other people. Then my supervisor (who has loaned me to this other department in the company) comes over while one of the developers is telling me what they want and says "I forgot to tell you that anything he touches, he breaks!".....the developer kind of laughs and says well isn't that what he want him for? My boss just said I guess, but it would be better if he couldn't find anything to break.

So today I only wrote up 3 bugs and 6 screen shots of fixes. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Mind Boggling Experience

2009-08-04T07:46:00.003-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I got moved to a different department within the company. The people in charge were worried I wasn't getting enough experience. Also they told me that I had tested the "crap" out of the product I was testing and that there was not much more I could test and find problems with. They told me that this was going to be a "mind boggling experience" to say the least. So this morning I start with a new product and have 3 weeks to get everything done. No pressure!

My dear mother...

2009-08-02T21:47:00.008-07:00

I got a telephone call from my mom the other day and this is how it goes....

Mom: "How do you spell Savannah's last name....Thompson....Thomson...."

Me: (kind of caught off guard) "Um...I spell it W E E C H last time I checked, her last name is Weech, mom"

Mom: "Oh yea (laughs)...how do you spell her maiden name?"

We both laughed. It was pretty funny. I'm so glad I have a wonderful mom who can always make us laugh! Hope everyone is doing great. I just got back from Henrieville (where I left Savannah again) and will spend another week in Provo until I head back. Savannah is having lots of fun working and helping her family. On Saturday, Savannah and I took a little jaunt in the back roads of Tropic. Here is the area we drove in:

Yeah, I know not the best picture (and half of it is shaded due to national security issues because it is Bryce Canyon), but it sure was a fun little trip. Then we headed to the hotel and cleaned a couple of rooms. Then Savannah's dad had me help him fix some lights on the outside of the hotel. What exactly did he want me to do? Run the cherry picker and get him up in the air to fix the burned out lights. What does Savannah say? Don't kill my dad! Don't worry....I did just a fine job and didn't even dump him out!

Well we have three more weeks left in Utah and then head back to Vermont very quickly. It should be a great drive!

Two Days Off

2009-07-31T10:56:00.003-07:00

So I walked into the office this morning and all the lights were off. I thought that somebody had forgot to tell me that the office was closed. I was secretly hoping that my security card didn't open the door. Unfortunately it did. Then I saw my boss and he said that since I was doing such a great job and working hard that I could have the next two days off. Wasn't that nice of him! I told him thanks because I wanted to go and visit my in-laws and now I could.

Oh wait.....the next two days are Saturday and Sunday!

All by my lonely self....

2009-07-29T21:14:00.005-07:00

I know it has been such a long time since we have posted anything. Don't worry. We will get everyone all updated soon. In the meantime, you have to put up with me and my boring posts.

First off, Savannah headed back down to Henrieville on Tuesday morning. She was supposed to leave at 5:45 AM. I got up and helped her pack and then went promptly back to bed. Only.....10 minutes later I hear Savannah coming down the stairs. It seems that her car won't start. No problem. We have a battery jumper.....we use the battery jumper.....and nothing happens. I think that someone forgot to charge the jumper the last time it was used....oops. So the car is dead. Luckily our neighbor is up and has cables. So Savannah is only half an hour off schedule. I head back to bed only to get up and go to work at 8AM. Work is going very well. I have been testing the same computer images for a few weeks now. Just still trying to work out the bugs (I found out today that it's not going to happen....okay, new project!). Anyways Savannah was kind enough to leave me some food and so for dinner on Tuesday night I was definitely a bachelor....I had frozen pizza and soda!

Now onto Wednesday morning....does anyone know how long it takes for my sisters to drive 4 miles....(yes I said FOUR)? Well according to this story......An hour and a half. You see, my sisters are on their way down to Arizona (probably have made it by now) but were going to stop by and see Savannah. Anyways, they spent the night Tuesday in Savannah's parents hotel and then Wednesday were supposed to drive 4....yes 4 miles to meet Savannah at her parent's house. I guess my sisters didn't have a GPS because they drove my sister's car (poor little honda) all around in the mud and dirt (probably almost got stuck somewhere) for who knows how long. Then they drive back to the hotel because obviously they can't find Savannah. They get directions one more time and take off. Savannah at this time was standing in the middle of the road waiting for them. Now according to Savannah, my sisters were so close but decided to turn around for some odd reason (maybe they were scared of Savannah??!?). So Savannah takes off on her mom's four wheeler chasing my sisters. She just wasn't fast enough. So my sisters go down this dirt road and drive and drive and drive. Finally (now it has been an hour and a half) they found Savannah's parents house and Savannah.

It's official!

2009-06-29T15:36:00.011-07:00

We're staying in Utah until the end of August! We were originally going to stay until the end of July, and then head to AZ for a few weeks to see the family, but the company that Aaron's interning with offered him a 60 day paid temporary position. We're very excited!

I've definately been a slacker at blogging, but I've been having so much fun! I spent 10 days in Henrieville without Aaron, it was kind of lonely. I worked at the hotel and played a lot with my nephews! Here are some random pics...

Isabella LOVES to play in the mud! This was one of the few times we caught her fully clothed!

Ian lost his first tooth while we were there!

Isaac, just goofing around.

Aaron with the newest addition to Heathers family- Hanna Marie.

Ethan, playing in the mud. Are we seeing a theme here?! I took 6 of the boys and 1 niece to the wash after the floods, there was so much mud! You couldn't even tell that the boys had clothes on, they were swimming around in it! I tried to get a pic, but you know how that goes. I made all the boys stay outside and strip, and then I hosed them off before they went inside to shower.

Last weekend we went to Price with some of our friends, to visit another set of friends there. As soon as we got there, 2 of the kids decided that they really liked Aaron, so they claimed him for themselves!

We did some hiking, and a lot of playing! Aaron has Thursday and Friday off work, so we'll head to Henrieville on Wednesday for the weekend. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

p.s.- If you click on the link to the left labeled "Weech Family Photos", it has a bunch of other pics from our trip so far.

Extra...Extra...Read All About It!

2009-06-16T22:55:00.003-07:00

Actually, there is not much to read about since Savannah is working down at her parent's store and I working hard at the software company. On Monday, I did finish the first 450 page manual and received two more (only about 330 pages) to review. I am working with new software developments on a daily basis along with reviewing the manuals. I can't keep straight what exactly I should do at any given time because I have so many different projects that need to be done but also need to be done at the same time. I have to test the new software with the steps that they give me and make sure that the tests match what the book says which has a totally different setup. It is a time management experience to say the least.

I did spend Saturday and Sunday with the Roberts and the Olivers who are up in Utah for a couple of weeks on vacation. We had lots of fun on Sunday getting to see everyone. Savannah said I couldn't go unless I brought something since the Roberts were making Sunday dinner. So I went and bought 3 lbs of strawberries and angel food cake. I think that 3 lbs was a bit too much because I am still eating strawberries!

I will go down this Saturday and Sunday to spend the weekend with Savannah and bring her home on Sunday night. Every night we talk on the phone for half an hour and sometimes during the day as well. Boy you would think that we hadn't talked to each other for years. How did we make it thru the 4 month long distance engagement???? I guess we didn't know what we were missing!

Near death experience.....

2009-06-13T10:53:00.002-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like spiders. In fact, I'm pretty afraid of them. It's irrational, I know, but that's the way it is. Anyways, I'm down here in Henrieville, staying at my parents and working at the hotel. Yesterday I looked up and saw a spider in the hallway and I told my mom that we need to kill it. By we, I mean her...but she said no. I tried to convince her, but to no avail. I was going to be late for work, so I left, and got back home around 10:30. My parents had gone to vegas, so I had the place to myself. Aaron called to say goodnight, and I was walking into my room and looked down. The stupid spider from earlier was sitting in front of my room, staring at me with all its hundreds of eyes. Grrr. It must be the mind reading kind, because when I was trying to talk my mom into killing it, I was thinking "it's probably going to come into my room". Great. Since I was home alone, I had to pluck up enough courage to kill it. I grabbed my flip flop and hit it, but since it's a mind reading spider it dodged it, ran under the door crack into my room. Double great. I opened the door, but couldn't find it anywhere. Crap. I had pictures of it waiting until I fall asleep and crawling up the bed to bite me, so I promptly shut the door and slept in my parents bed!

What an Interesting Experience at the Temple!

2009-06-10T14:46:00.004-07:00

Savannah and I went to the Draper Temple last night to do sealings. There were 3 other couples and a single lady as well. Everything was going great, except one lady had to stop because she was feeling faint. No problem, another lady took over. Then everyone traded places and an older couple were doing the sealings. After a bit of time, the older lady said she was getting dizzy and needed to sit. Not a problem says the sealer. So Savannah and I take a turn. We are doing great and have now been kneeling for 15 or so minutes. I remember looking at Savannah and using my eyes asking if she was okay. She said she was getting warm. The sealer was almost finished so I thought after this, we can sit down.....the next thing I remember is all these people around me and someone saying that the medical personnel are on the way. After a few minutes of laying on the ground, I see Savannah and she is telling me that I had blacked out. The temple engineer arrives and I get taken to the basement in a wheelchair to get checked out. The engineer says it is the special tour of the temple. After half an hour, I get changed and am wheeled out front to meet Savannah. My head hurts, my neck hurts, and I feel like I am going to throw up. The engineer gave me a great big trash bag for the last symptom. As I am sitting in the front lobby, the Temple President comes out to talk to me. He asks how my night has been. I said quite interesting. He asks me when I got endowed, I told him in 2002. He asks if I served a mission, I told him Fort Worth Texas. Next he asks how long I have been in the wheelchair. I can't properly think and say tonight. He looks puzzled and says tonight?? I said yes, I passed out in the temple. At this time, his eyes get big and says WHAT?? The kind engineer explains what happened and the poor Temple President says I hope that everything is alright. Then Savannah had the car outside and we drove to the ER. After some wonderful meds, X-rays, CAT scan, and more meds, I am permitted to go home. It was quite the experience!

Books and Boredom

2009-06-03T10:52:00.002-07:00

The title pretty much explains my week so far! Last weekend my niece got done with EFY, and we took her back down to Henrieville. Apparently word didn't get to my dad that we were coming, because just after we got to the store, he walked in, saw us, did a double take and said "what are you doing here?"! It was quite hilarious! He kidnapped Aaron while I went to see the new baby and my other nephews, and they ended up working for almost 5 hours at the hotel! I felt kind of bad, because I didn't know they were going to work so much, or I would have stayed to help. Oh well, Aaron got a piece of jerky as payment so he was a happy boy! Saturday night was spent riding the 4-wheeler that my momma just got, and playing baseball with my family. It was fun! Sunday we went to church, but we played hooky from R.S. and Priesthood, and went home to talk to my sister in law and mom. Oh well! 2 of my nephews had birthdays, so we had a birthday party for them (I made the cake Saturday night but got impatient and took it out of the pan too soon, so it broke in half. I tried to glue it back together, which worked on all but 1 piece that was entirely frosting!) and Aaron and I left in the early afternoon. Monday Aaron started work, and I went to a friends house for a couple of hours. Tuesday I met up with a couple of friends from highschool that live up here, and we went to the mall and had lunch. I bought 10 baby outfits for my new niece for only $23! Pretty dang amazing if you ask me! I'll have to post pics of her in one of them, she is so adorable! I have a friend coming down from Logan tomorrow night, she'll stay until Friday afternoon when Aaron and I head back down to Henrieville. One of my nephews is recieving the priesthood, I can't believe he's gotten so old! I remember when he was born! I promise, I'll get better at posting pics, but you'll have to deal with Aarons updates next week, he's leaving me in Henrieville for the week so I can work while the kids have swimming lessons. Woohoo!!!

The First Day of....Interning

2009-06-01T20:36:00.002-07:00

I bet you thought I was going to say school....well in a way it kind of is. I am learning. Today was the first day of my internship at AccessData. I have a sweet security badge and a very cool desk. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed. There is a very tight security agreement and all I basically can say is that I work for the company. My boss has an office right across from me and is very nice as well. Today I reviewed a 450+ page training manual. I started at noon and got to page 79 by the end of the day (at 5pm). I was reviewing the manual for errors / corrections. I had three pages of corrections by the time I was done. Tomorrow and until Thursday I have a training camp to attend from 8:30 until 5pm so I will be very very busy. I think that I will really enjoy my time here and that it will be over before I know it.

Kidnapping Insurance??

2009-05-28T20:59:00.003-07:00

Champlain offers a service that sends students different job offers. One of the job offers is in Afghanistan and dealt specifically computer and cell phone forensics. It pays very well and has many different good benefits. One of those benefits included kidnapping insurance. Hmmm....sounds very interesting to me!

Savannah has a different opinion though!

The bubble

2009-05-28T10:49:00.003-07:00

Well, we made it to Utah! We were on the road 19 hours on Tuesday, of which 16 were driving hours. I drove about 12 of those since Aaron was working. We drove from Des Moines, Iowa to Evanston, Wyoming. Evanston is only 2 hours from Provo, but we were too tired to keep going so we stayed there Tuesday night. The apartment is cute, and we drove by Aaron's internship place. It's on Technology Road, so he'll fit in with all the other geeks! Pictures will be posted soon, but it'll have to wait until I get everything unpacked!

Carthage

2009-05-24T12:04:00.013-07:00

Next our on way out of town was to stop at Carthage, Illinois. This is where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered.

The door which was fired through and still contains the bullet marks.

This is the room where the murders took place. Hyrum was shot in the face and killed. John Taylor and Willard Richards were also shot at in this room. Joseph jumped onto the window sill to draw attention away from these two men, was struck twice from inside, once from outside, and then fell dead outside the window.

The second story window is where the Prophet Joseph Smith was struck from. He landed outside after he had been shot dead.

Us!

Nauvoo

2009-05-24T11:57:00.007-07:00

Finally, we reached Nauvoo! Our hotel room was in the Hotel Nauvoo and decorated from the 1850's!

This was our room. It was very lovely.

While in Nauvoo, we were able to do a temple session together. We were also able to be the witness couple for the temple session as well. On our way out, we got to see the Baptismal font and learned that it was the largest out of all the Temples built!

We watched a production that was put on by the senior missionaries Tuesday night in Nauvoo. It was really cute. One of the lines went something like this "We are moving out West" and the other person said "its a desert, God's doing a great job of keeping trespassers out"....it was very funny. As part of the site seeing, we went to a lot of the different historic sites and also viewed the Historic Joseph Smith sites that are maintained by the Community of Christ Church. The tour guide was very nice and knowledgeable. In the Mansion house, we were able to see one of the hiding spots of Joseph! Of course, no pictures were allowed.

At the end of the tour, we were at the Smith Family Gravesite.

As we were leaving the gravesites, we met a man who was studying the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum and was going to do a presentation within the next few days at a nearby symposium. We talked for over 40 minutes and he showed us some interesting photographs of when Joseph and Hyrum were re-buried during the late 1920's. We really enjoyed our time in Nauvoo and were sad to leave, but we had to continue on with our travels!

More about our Trip....

2009-05-22T18:32:00.003-07:00

We traveled from Rochester to Kirthland to Nauvoo to West Des Moines all this last week. Both Savannah and I obviously took turns driving. Since there are toll roads across these wonderful states we try to stay on them for as long as we can. Unfortunately on one particular stretch of road, I needed a break and so took a road off of the toll road. We therefore ended up paying the toll twice. I don't like toll roads. Oh well.

It has been determined that Savannah is definitely not the picture taker in the family. She was in charge of the camera on Sunday and only took 24 pictures. Granted we didn't do anything but travel but hey you can still take pictures from the car window. Savannah had a little cold when we got to Kirtland so I went to the only open gas station at 9pm and bought all the cold medicine that they had. She now feels a lot better. We toured Kirtland for a day and then traveled to Nauvoo where we stayed for two days as well. We will post pictures later this weekend of all our travels and more stories. We have to sort through all the ones I took (over 700) this past week before I am allowed to post them. The picture czar wants to make sure that only approved pictures are posted.

On Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to do a temple session in Nauvoo and performed sealings afterwards. It was very neat. Then we traveled to Carthage and saw the jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother were shot and killed at. Afterwards, we traveled to Des Moines were we are staying with Savannah's sister for a couple of days. Then we will travel onward to Utah.

It has been a very exciting trip driving with Savannah....you see we have been listening to this book on CD that her mom sent us and Savannah is very into it. While driving, Savannah pays more attention to the CD than the road and I have to make sure that we don't get into any wrecks!

We are doing well and hope that everyone is having lots of fun too!

New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio

2009-05-18T17:48:00.010-07:00

Those were all states we drove through on Sunday! We stayed with my sister again on Saturday night, and played hooky from church on Sunday, opting to stay home and clean my sisters place. Yeah yeah, I know, I'm a sinner. Whatever. We packed our things and headed to Kirtland around 3:30 pm, and we made really good time. We got to our hotel at 7 pm, and just relaxed for a while. We went to Arby's for dinner, and dang it was good! We haven't been in a year, since last summer in AZ, and we definately missed it! I've had a cold this trip, and Aaron went to the gas station to get me cold medicine, but he didn't know what kind to get me, so he came home with all of them!

Today we did the Kirtland experience. We started out at the visitors center and toured the N.K. Whitney store, the ashery, the Inn, etc. for a couple of hours.

After that, we went to the Isaac Morely farm, for about 10 minutes, there isn't a lot to see there! The Kirtland Temple was next on our list, so we headed over and took a tour with a very talkative couple from Georgia. We weren't allowed to take pics of the inside of the building, or the museum, so the pics I took outside will have to suffice.

There was a cemetary next to the temple, and Aaron has a strange fascination with them, so we went over to the gate. It was locked, but Aaron got it open, and here he is looking around to see if we got caught!
The gate on the opposite end was open, so we weren't trespassing, I promise! The 20th president of the U.S., Mr. Garfield, lived in Mentor, which is in the area, so we went to his old house that they have turned into a monument. We missed the last tour of the house, but got to walk around the grounds and see some of the artifacts in the barn. Again, no pictures were allowed, (lame, I know) sorry. By this time we were starving, since we skipped lunch. Dingo (our gps) sent us to a mexican restaurant that didn't exist any longer, but on the way we passed this fabulous local place called "Panini's bar and grill". They had ultra tasty food! After dinner we went to the Boulvard of 500 Flags. It was pretty impressive! On each of the flag poles was a name, and what war the person served in. Apparently it's a favorite for the local wildlife too!
Here are a couple of the shots that I got that I really like.

On our way back to the hotel we saw this great local place for ice cream and stopped in for a really yummy parfait!

Tomorrow we head to Nauvoo, it's a 12 hour trip from here, so we're headed to bed so we can be on the road early!

Palmyra

2009-05-17T07:38:00.011-07:00

Saturday was a very busy day. We went to Palmyra and did a lot of touring. We went to the Book of Mormon Publication Site, the Joseph Smith Farm, the Sacred Grove, the Palmyra Temple, and the Hill Cumorah.

The sign pointing the way. When we were in the Book of Mormon publication site, it started to pour down rain. When we got to the Sacred Grove, they had closed it down due to the rain and thunder and lightening. We did the tour of the buildings and by that time the rain had slowed down. The sister missionary said it would be okay for us to go into the Grove, but if the rain started again, to leave immediately. Since Savannah and Heidi had already been to the Grove (and were getting very hungry), we all spent a few minutes then they took off to find food while I stayed and looked around.

Here we are in the middle of the Sacred Grove.

Here is the front of the Palmyra Temple.

Savannah and I were able to do a session at the temple. It is built just like the Montreal temple and is very beautiful. In the celestial room is a stained glass window of the Sacred Grove that faces the Grove. It is quite marvelous.

This is the Hill Cumorah. Savannah says she knows now why the plates were not found for hundreds of years. Nobody wanted to climb up this hill. It was a bit of a hike (in our Sunday clothes), but we did make it to the top.

At the top of the hill is a statute of Moroni.