Ummm ... is this happening?

Hard to believe that this whole school thing is right around the corner. I'm excited and all that, but at the same time, it doesn't seem real. At all. See this picture? This is the picture from BYU's MBA Program Web site. Can't you just see me being the guy in the middle chatting it up about some abstract business terms? Me neither. But I'll try to fit in and fake it until I make it. Don't tell my professors. I got my schedule today and it sounds pretty intense, but I have to admit I'm more excited about it than I normally let on. I want the challenge and I want to step up to it. Hopefully it'll all work out. Ethan and Grace's nourishment is sort of counting on it. Bread and water only go so far.

I just finished a great book, The Kite Runner. It's one of the books that Jessica recommended. I have a list of books that I'd like to read before this whole school thing starts, but I doubt I'll get to read too many of them. This one was really good though, makes you think and what not. Disturbing in parts, but really well written. I guess this is the author's first book too, which is amazing to me. Next on the docket is finishing off this book called Better Off. Sort of an interesting concept for a book. This guy and his new bride decide to live like Amish people (technically not Amish, but you get the point). Just glad I get to read about it and don't have to live like that myself. I don't know how people like that can do it. More power to them. The author makes some interesting points about technology and the pros and cons, even some stuff that is applicable to people like you and me that use technology.

In sports news, the Tigers haven't woken up yet and realized they are the Tigers. The longer that's the case, the better off they'll be. I have a hard time thinking this whole 32 games over .500 thing is going to last, but they've shown no signs of slowing down. They have been getting phenomenal pitching on an almost nightly basis, and when they don't get pitching they get enough hits to pull out the win. The lineup is solid, nothing spectacular, but enough to get the job done. But win or lose, I'll always stick by my Tigers. If you don't believe I'm a longtime fan, check out this. I've been loyal for years. I'll stay loyal for years.

And other than that, life is good. One more month until orientation and until then, I'm chilling at home with the kids with family in town. It'll be nice to hang out with the kids since I won't be seeing much of them once school starts. But they're hilarious and they're doing something funny every single day. See below for Ethan and Grace's current nourishment. Grace put all the chips out "just so" and freaked if you touched them. Nice.

Long Time, No Post

So, it's been a while since I've posted. Frankly, I've wanted to post, but I've been a bit on the tired side on a daily basis. Jessica has been doing a heck of a job keeping most people apprised of the daily stuff of our family on her blog, but I figure it's time for me to chime in.

I've got lots to comment on, but I probably won't last that long.

First things first, I'm typing this new post on our brand new laptop. I did it. I can't believe it. I'm not good at spending money, at least not when it comes to spending a lot of money. Jessica and I had been researching for a few months now on which computer to get. Most of you know that we have a Mac as a desktop already, so we both sort of wanted to stick to the Mac family (sounds incestual), so we ended up getting a MacBook. The MacBook is the latest laptop from Apple and it's just fantastic. I love it. Jessica loves it. I'm so dang excited about it, it's not even funny. I bought it mainly for business school, but we'll use it for other stuff too. I know that most business students at BYU will have PCs, but I'm used to Macs and I don't think it will be much of a disadvantage to stick with a Mac. The MacBook comes with all kinds of software with it and so Jessica will be loving the little iLife suite that comes with it. Anyway, we're excited. Can you tell?

The Pistons picked a fine time to play their worst basketball of the season. Solid work all around there. Coaching, shooting, defense, etc. They had it all. The Detroit News' beat writer summed it up pretty well, although I think he defended the Pistons players and coaches a few times too many. Check it out here.

The Tigers are playing well, but who knows how long that'll last. They are the Tigers. They're beating the bad teams, losing to the good teams. But hey, they used to lose to the bad teams. Things are getting better for those pesky Tigers. I'll always be a fan.

Jessica wrote a recent blog about books she likes and has read recently. I haven't read a ton of books lately, but I thought I'd chime in anyway with some books that I've liked. It seems that I'm reading more non-fiction, I guess I'm turning into my dad or something. I haven't gotten into biographies like him or anything, but I'm sure that'll start in a few years. Anyway, The Devil in the White City was a pretty interesting read about the World Fair back in the late 1800s. I really liked Moneyball on the sports side and Into Thin Air on the mountaineering side, not that I'm a mountaineer or anything. The Professor and the Madman was an interesting read too about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary. Thrilling subject, eh?

I'll write more later. Kids have been hilarious lately. More to come ...

Our day at the beach ...
We spent the day after the wedding relaxing in the hotel for most of the day. In the afternoon, we decided to head out to the beach. We're not really sure which beach it was, but there was sand and there was water. We think it was somewhere near Huntington Beach. It was really nice, but sort of chilly too.
Grace and Ethan marked their territory. Ethan found a stick on the beach and became abnormally attached to it. It's sort of a kid thing. It's amazing how attached kids can become to inanimate objects, especially ones as random as a stick on the beach. Anyway, here's the proof they were there.
Grace was obsessed with the water. She has absolutely no fear. She would run towards the water and would have kept on running if we didn't keep chasing her down. She loved standing on the beach as the water came in. Ethan was quite the opposite. Anytime the water got anywhere near him, he'd turn and run. So if you're scoring at home, sticks = good, ocean water = bad.

There were a bunch of surfers out a few hundred yards, and I managed to catch a picture of one of the few guys that actually caught a wave. Jessica cropped and zoomed the heck out of this after the fact, but it's still impressive that I snapped the picture right when the guy was making his big move. Right? Right? Work with me people.
Ethan found a seashell. Notice the safe distance from the water.

The Rental Car

I drive a Dodge Magnum. Respect me! OK, so here's our rental car in all its beauty. Actually, you need the other view in order to appreciate the magnitude of this car's beauty.
There we go. Now that's a beauty of a car. Actually, I wasn't a big fan of it. It was my first driving since the accident and this car drove almost too smooth, if that makes sense. It sort of felt like I was hovering while driving it, and when I had just been fishtailing a day or so earlier because of slick conditions, it wasn't the greatest feeling in the world.

Here's the proof that we made it to the wedding. The photographer asked Grace to get her thumb out of her mouth. Easier said then done. The thumb stayed. Ethan kept his shirt tucked in roughly 37% of the time.
Here's our little family. I'm supposed to be wearing a blazer with khakis, but the blazer didn't make it through the car crash. Technically, it made it through, but the blood didn't match the theme for the wedding.

The Crash
I thought we'd start out our blog with a bang, or at least a car crash. As many of you know by now, we were driving to Jessica's sister's wedding in California this past Thursday. We got into a major car accident and this was what the car looked like after it came to a stop. Officially, it rolled over one and a quarter times. This picture was taken by one of the nice men that stopped to help us.

After the van was towed, my dad and I went to check out the damage. Here's the view through the passenger side window. The nearside seat is where my sister-in-law Sarah was sitting during the accident. Ethan and Grace were sitting in the last row of seats and didn't even move out of their carseats at all.
This picture doesn't really do the body damage justice, but if you look closely you can see the dents all along the side of the car.

Here's a picture of Sarah after the stitching. We have a picture of the arm prior to getting bandaged up, but it's not really pretty.