Merry Christmas CHARLIE BROWN!

Okay, so this post is kinda late since Christmas is over. :) Justin and I, unfortunately, have been sick ever since we got home from Christmas in Logan, so we haven't really felt like doing much. I want to thank everyone for a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time, and we were very blessed. Thanks for all our great gifts! We got some really fun baby things. I will try to post pictures of what we got sometime. Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Wednesday

It now appears that we will be in Logan around ten o clock wednesday night. So if you want us to bring any movies or anything, just let us know in the comments section.

Thank You!

Thank you to everybody that wished me a happy birthday yesterday. Now, to the rest of you....shunned! And yes, jason, jesse does want some maternity clothes, but only if you have some to spare. And if you do, Heather should write her name on the tag so we can get them back to you when it's all over. And as of right now, we will be arriving christmas eve day, so if you want to be there when the party starts, that's when it will happen. And sorry if you called me and I missed your call. I had a final and all kinds of work to go to. It was lame. But my birthday rocked. Like it always does.

In case you haven't heard...

Justin has resurrected his movie blog, and he has invited me to join him in writing on it. That way, you'll get another opinion on movies. Justin and I agree on a lot of movies, and we greatly disagree on a lot of movies. It should be interesting, and I can promise you, we are both determined to be completely honest in our opinions. Please join us at justinatthemovies.ibetts.net for tons of movie talk.

What happened?

Has anyone else noticed the complete whoring out of Beatles songs lately? Every single day I hear a Beatles song in a commercial, covered by the most crappy musicians ever. It seems like whoever has control of these songs has recently decided to pimp them out to whoever wants them. It's a travesty. I just heard a remake of "Revolution" on a freaking Wii Fit commercial. How does that even make sense?! It must stop!!

School=Stinky

Final's Week is upon us...ugh.

I have chosen to focus on what will happen AFTER finals as opposed to focusing ON finals. It's a survival technique. I'm choosing to take to heart some advice I heard on "The Ultimate Fighter" last night. One of the trainers said, "Don't get beat up. Do NOT get beat up. Survive."

I think that's a pretty good life lesson. So, I'm thinking about Justin's birthday. I'm thinking about Christmas. I'm thinking about New Years.

So far, Justin and I have conquered...
...a 25-page analysis of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"
...a 7-page paper on the Communication Theory of our choice (Muted Group Theory for Jesse and Expectancy Violation Theory for Justin...and no, it's not as interesting as it sounds)
...a group presentation where we had to teach Verbal and Nonverbal Communication chapters to the class for 50 minutes, AND
...a comprehensive exam on Mass Communication

Justin and I still have to come...
...a post test on Interpersonal Communication, showing what we've learned
...an oral exam on our analysis of "Krapp's Last Tape," AND
...a final exam on six chapters about Communication Theory

Then, and only then, will we be able to breathe again. Wish us luck.

Bowls? Anyone?

How annoyed do these bowl games make me? And could they have been more predictable?! I totally knew what was going to happen. How did I know? Because I know the BCS is afraid of the small schools crashing their party and causing complete chaos. This is how I see it.

Really? Putting TCU and Boise St. against each other? Talk about taking the coward's way out. They knew that they couldn't leave Boise St. out, being that they are the sixth ranked team in the country. They knew that would cause a complete uproar. The other problem they had was that then they had two "mid majors" that were going to be in bowl games that can and probably would beat any of the teams from the big six conferences. How bad would that make their system look? Not only that, but then imagine the chaos. They would have two "mid majors" go in and butt slap two big six conference teams. And if that's not bad enough, then they would still have two "mid major" schools that were undefeated and screaming that they deserved a chance to play for the national title. There would only be three undefeated teams, and two of them would be mid majors. Yeah, that would cause some problems.

So how do they solve this whole dilemma? "Hey, let's make them play each other!" What a crock of garbage! What an insult to TCU. TCU now gets absolutely no reward for making it to a BCS game. Now they get no chance to prove that they belong in the national championship conversation. "Yeah, you won your BCS bowl game, but it was against another mid major." What a bunch of crap!!!! So instead of two mid majors being allowed to go into the BCS system, and embarrass their system, they just get to beat each other. And this might be the ultimate no win situation for TCU and Boise St.

See, TCU can't win here because if they win, people will say "so what? They beat a Boise St. team that just beats up on patti-cakes all year." And if they lose people will say, "See, they were overrated. They play a decent Boise st. team and get beat." Boise St. also can't win, because if they do people will just say that TCU was overrated and this just proves that, and if they lose people will say, "see, the first good team they played all year and they got beat." This is such a freaking joke. Although I believe TCU is the better team (the best team in the nation, actually) and the more complete team, I think Boise St. is going to win. I think TCU is incredibly disappointed that they didn't get a chance to beat up a big school and that they have to play another mid major, one that they just beat in a bowl game last year. I think Boise st. will get way more pumped for this game.

And of course they put cincinnatti in the bowl game against Florida. Why, you ask? Because they want Tebow to go out on top. They want him to win another bowl game, so they can solidify him as one of the greatest ever, and they knew their best chance to do that was against a Cincinnatti team that plays absolutely no defense. Florida is going to destroy them, and the BCS knew that both TCU and Boise St. not only have the offense to put up a bunch of points on Florida, but that they also have the defenses to shut down their mediocre at best offense. It's such a joke. And I believe Alabama is going to beat Texas.

Doing it this way solved all of the BCS' problems. This way at the end of the bowls, there will only be two undefeated teams; Alabama and Boise St. And who really thinks Boise St. deserves a shot at the national championship? (That's sarcasm by the way.) However, if TCU wins, which they should, we are just going to have another whole what-if scenario playing out. Lame. I want a playoff, so TCU could prove they are the best.

I really don't want to discuss BYU playing Oregon St. in the las vegas bowl either. I think oregon st. will win this fairly easily. They are way too fast, the rodgers brothers are incredibly quick, and they qb is ridiculously efficient. I think they win by two touchdowns. Also, yes, I have no faith in my cougars when it comes to big games. I hope for the best but always expect the worst. It is my own little way to self protect. That may make me a crappy fan, but oh well.

The most insane drum solo I've ever seen!

I was watching VH1 classic the other day and there was this live concert of Led Zeppelin on. I am not a very big Led Zeppelin fan but the drummer started wailing on the drums so I stuck around to watch it. I am so glad I did. This is the craziest drumming I have ever seen. I don't even know how this is physically possible. Watch this whole thing, it is nuts. If you don't want to, you can just skip ahead to 1:30 and watch it from there, because that's where it starts to get absolutely insane. I love this video! I love how it goes into the song. Oh........i love it.

Ahh....college football

I haven't written anything about college football all season. I thought that was very unusual, so I decided now was as good as time as ever (just after BYU beat Utah.) That makes my entire season good. Even if BYU won one game all season, I would be fine with it as long as it was against Utah. Happy day.

I also believe that TCU is the best team in the nation. Period. Over. Done. I think they can beat any of the top 3 teams, and will beat one of them in the sugar bowl, which will most likely be Alabama. Haha, stupid alabama. But I think in order to convince the BCS and the rest of the nation, the Mountain West conference should add some credibility to their conference. I mean, they aren't even going to fill all of their bowl spots. That's pretty bad. But when you only have nine teams, it makes it pretty difficult to have six of them bowl eligible. This is what I would propose:

I think that the Mtn. West should add Boise St., Fresno St., and Houston. And no, I don't think they should drop any teams. That way they have twelve teams. Then you split the conference into two divisions that look like this:

Mtn. West (East division)
TCU
Houston
Air Force
Colorado St.
Wyoming
Boise St.

Mtn. West (West division)
BYU
Utah
New Mexico
San Diego St.
Fresno St.
UNLV

The only reason I would put Boise St. in the east division is because if you put them in the west division you would have BYU, Utah, Fresno St., and Boise St., and the east division would only have TCU and Houston. So to make it more competitive I would do it that way. And then you can have a conference championship game held in Phoenix. I think this is all a good idea. Then the WAC could figure out how to replace two of their teams, but who cares about them. I think this would add a whole lot of credibility to the Mtn. West and it would make it so much more fun. I would love to see this happen even though it never will.

Ultrasound

Everyone ready to see some ultrasound pictures of Baby Boy Betts? Here is my favorite one, a profile of his face with his hand up by his mouth:

Here's a more three-dimensional picture of his face:

If you look at the right side of this picture, you'll see his long leg and huge foot!

The ultrasound experience was pretty great for us. The doctor could see right away that he's a boy. Seriously, within seconds. The doctor measured everything to make sure it's all on track and it turns out, our little fetus is ahead of schedule. Especially his legs. :) I wonder why he would have freaking long legs?? Baby Boy Betts is a fiesty little guy. He was moving all over the place through the whole ultrasound. The doctor was having a hard time taking pictures of everything because he just wouldn't hold still! Anyway, as the doctor said, "he's a keeper!"

If you haven't heard...

We're having a BOY!!!

Here are the people that guessed right:

Justin
Michael
Chris
Keshia
Bryan
Amelia
Mom Laws
Dad Laws

Good job, you! I will post ultrasound pics soon. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Birthday Jesse!!!

Happy Birthday Jesse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thought

Thought of the day: No matter what the world says, I will never stop saying the word 'retarded.' It's funny. And not saying it would be retarded.

Right? Right?? Right???

I know everyone just loves to hear about our schooling adventures, and I hate to say it but Dixie seems to be one of the more interesting places to go to school. (And I should know, since this is the fourth college I've attended in Utah...yikes) There are definitely some quirky characters running around, and most of them are the professors.

Justin's favorite professor is our Mass Communications professor. He's very laid-back and casual. He's interesting to listen to, and he's relatively young. My favorite thing about him is that at the beginning of the semester, we were scheduled to write two papers, both 7-10 pages long. We turned one in more than a month ago and he still hasn't graded all of them. The other paper was supposed to be due the other day, but he decided to cancel the assignment because he didn't want to grade them. Apparently, he had all he could take from us.

He's a new professor, so maybe that explains it. My other favorite thing about him is something I've just noticed over the past few class meetings. Our professor says "right?" a lot. And it seems to be growing in strength. On Friday, I was surprised to notice that he was saying "right?" almost constantly. It's like he was asking us to agree with him, or asking us if he IS "right" in what he just said...After almost every sentence he said was followed by "right?"

"Performers right in front of an audience get feedback, right? They get to know what's working or not working, right?"

"Music of descent, right? Bucking the establishment, right?"

We were already into the class by about 20 minutes when I started keeping track. I gotta say, it was difficult. Pretty soon, all the "rights" just start to sound normal. I would be sitting there, drooling a little, pen posed above my tally sheet, when all of the sudden, 3 "rights" had flown by and I hadn't even heard them! Thank goodness Justin was there, for the integrity of the experiment. It took great concentration, on both our parts, to make that record. And the grand total?

In 25 minutes, our professor said "right" 93 times.

We will continue to keep a record over the next few weeks, and will keep you abreast of our findings. Thank you.

Widget

Hey all of yous guys that guessed as to what the sex (he he) of the babay would be, and all of yous that di'n't, need to go guess on the widget on the sidebar thingy. It's fun. Do it. Or i'll kill you.

Thought

Thought of the day: Global warming is the biggest world wide scam of all time.

Monologuing

Justin and I are taking Script Analysis, which is less of analyzing scripts and more of writing monologues... I don't know.

Fortunately for me, this is within my comfort zone. I would rather write original stuff than get into technical analyzing. Here is my latest (and I think greatest) monologue yet. There were no perimeters, really, and it was fun to have the freedom. Enjoy.


Why are you looking at me? I'm just sitting here. Just sitting here...here...Okay, okay, it was my fault. That's what you're saying, huh. Huh? Yeah, okay, okay. I did it! I did it! Stop staring.

My hands are cracked. Almost bleeding. I can't stop wringing...Oh! Oh! Oh! Eyes...cat eyes itching at my hands! tearing at my hands! ripping at my hands! They're...They're...They're... siamese blue.

Like my veins. Glowering, gawing, gaping at me.

Well! I guess we see now how it's going to be! Me, sunk into this chair, in this room, in this space, and you...oh god! You! With your eyes! WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT, CAT??

Oh! Ha ha ha! You're made of glass! Ha ha! Glass! That's nice. There's a nice kitty.


I hope you enjoyed it! That's all it's really for. Oh, and hopefully an "A" in Script Analysis.

Baby Beanie

Look at the cute baby beanie I crocheted today! We probably won't put it on our baby because the yarn isn't really baby soft, but I wanted to learn how to do it, and I did!! If you want to learn too, use this video. It's very easy!

A Strange Ritual

For those of you who participated in reading "You Don't Know Me" by David Klass in my book club, I don't think it's hard to remember a certain chapter: "Chapter 7: Torture Island." In this chapter, John passes a note to the prettiest girl in school. In the note, he is asking her out on a date. And here is what happens:

"She folds my note back up. Without looking at me--without even an eye blink or a nose wrinkle--she raises it to her lips. For one wild instant I think she is going to kiss it. But then her lovely lips, like twin rosebud petals in spring sunlight, spread themselves open. Her pearly teeth part. She eats my note" (pg.72).

The other day, Justin and I were sitting in our Script Analysis class, and I was very bored. This particular day in class, something caught my eye. A girl in the row in front of us was tearing a plain, white peice of paper into strips. Nothing freaky or funny, just a little unusual. Not something most people do. I decided to watch, just for the fact that it was something different to stare at.

Well, what happened next? She folded one of the strips into a small square, put in in the palm of her hand, put her hand up to her mouth, and slipped the paper into her mouth. She then proceeded to chew the paper and swallow it. I was in shock. I grabbed Justin's arm and couldn't find the words to describe what I had just witnessed. Justin and I then both watched as she downed the entire sheet of paper, strip by strip. We've watched her eat up to a sheet of paper a day for weeks.

Justin and I have our own ideas into this girl's activity, but we'll never know for sure. Anybody have any theories?

What Will It Be?

I thought it would be fun for everyone to try and guess the sex of our baby. We will not find out until November 23rd, so everyone should think long and hard and get their guesses into the comments before then. yay fun.

Thought

Random thought for the day: Lyoto Machida is completely unbeatable.

*I am saying this as he prepares for his first title defense on saturday, he better not lose now because I said that.*

Plagiarism?

So, as you all know, Justin and I don't take very many things seriously. School is one of those things. Sure, we're working hard to complete our degrees, but... uh, wait, that's not really true either. We do what we need to do to get by. Sometimes we like to have a little fun while we're at it. It keeps it more interesting.

One of the fascinating classes Justin and I are attending together is called "Communication Theory." To be honest, I'm still not sure what it's really all about. Basically, we talk about how people communicate and why. We just turned in our first paper a little while back. The topic was on plagiarism. Justin and I have gotten the distinct feeling that DSC has had some issues with mass plagiarism among students in the past. Here is the paper explanation from the syllabus:

Mzik (2009) writes, "Any time we talk about research or theories we have to explore the idea of plagiarism. For this paper, I want you to do just that, really explore what it means to plagiarize. So, start with our policy here at Dixie, and in your own words, tell me what it says and what it means to you. Then, I want you to go some research on plagiarism (yes, that means you have to have citations!). I want you to find two sources that talk about plagiarism. This paper needs to be at least 3 pages (900 words) or longer, typed, double spaced, proofread, and handed in on time with two references cited APA style. There is no right answer here, but this is to help you understand what it is and what the consequences of academic honesty are when writing" (pg. 6).

I know! It sounds like such an interesting assignment! I can just imagine our professor reading paper after paper about naughty plagiarizers, such fun! Thirty students spewing the regurgitated evils of stealing and cheating and citing inappropriately. Gag me.

The next class after we turned in our papers, our professor had read through the papers. She didn't hand them back but she informed us that everyone but two people had plagiarized their plagiarism papers. I assumed that she meant citing errors. No one would blatantly plagiarize in a paper like that. I also assumed that Justin and I probably made some citing errors, too. I mean, it took me a long time to try and figure out APA style, and I wasn't 100% sure about it. Our professor promised she would go easy because it was the first paper. A couple class periods later, our professor handed our papers back. Everyone perused their mistakes, and that's when Justin and I realized that we were the two that hadn't plagiarized. All our citing was completely correct. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Justin and I decided to argue FOR plagiarism. Here are our papers if you want to read them:

Jesse's Paper
Justin's Paper

So, the two people who were arguing that plagiarism is a-ok are the only two people who didn't plagiarize on our papers. The irony is delicious, isn't it? So, we get our papers back and in way of discussion, our professor says this: "There are people in this class who think it's perfectly okay to plagiarize off of your work. What do you think about that?" Basically, for the entire class, we sat back, listening to everyone say how horrifying this thought was. One guy said he believes that "Plagiarizing on a paper is one step away from cheating on a test, which is one step away from cheating on your taxes, which is one step away from cheating on your spouse." In that case, I guess we better watch each other closely. Our professor prodded the conversation on, trying in vain to get us to jump to plagiarism's defense. I have never been in a college classroom and had such an obvious one-sided debate happening for such a long time. These people were feeding off of each other, bolstering each other up in their amazing points. And the teacher kept egging it on, hoping to stifle any dissension in the ranks.

Justin and I could tell that our approach to this paper had greatly offended and angered our professor, and we knew she wanted to eat us alive with debate. It was fantastic, hilarious, mindboggling. We felt pretty powerful, to be honest. We didn't participate in the discussion, we didn't really feel it was necessary.

We took a test in that class a few days later. The last question on the test was, "True or False. Sometimes it is okay to plagiarize." Passive-aggressive much?

References
Mzik, Kellie. (2009). "COMM 1050 Introduction to Communication Theory Fall 2009 MWF 11 AM; Hazy 204."

Fun Fact

There are 23 gun related homicides in Great Britain PER YEAR! There are 32 gun related homicides in the U.S. PER DAY! Great Britain has some of the most strict gun laws in the world. Hmm...

I Love Sitting Back While Other People Work

Right now, there is a nice gentleman named Jeff scurrying in and out of here, with wires and papers and tools, and I'm sitting on the couch watching "Judge Alex." It's a nice moment. It reminds me of just the other day when Justin and Jake were tirelessly putting all my nice furniture together and I was playing solitaire on my laptop.

And the reason for Jeff? Well, a picture is worth 1000 words, so unlike my last post, I think I will use a picture, instead of carrying on for 1000 words. This is the reason for Jeff:

First, note the really nice looking TV stand, courtesy of Justin and Jake. Nice, right? Moving on. As you can see, this is how I'm currently watching "Judge Joe Brown." On top of the TV are our rabbit ears: one ear bent, while the other is perched precariously on top of some shelves, which are on top of a crock pot, which is on top of a box filled with DVDs. This is the only way to get sound, along with the wonderful picture that you see here.

Right now, Jeff is in the attic that I didn't even know I had. If you haven't already guessed, Jeff is here to bring us the wonderful gift of SATELLITE TV. This is what it must have felt like when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind. (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/prometheus.htm). I'm very excited, because Justin and I have never had real TV together. There are even less channels at this place than at our last place. And soon we will have 100+ perfectly clear channels to choose from! Thank you, Jeff, thank you.

Sometimes Missing School Pays Off

Is there anyone out there who enjoys/enjoyed doing group projects and presentations in school? I'm actually very curious because I have never met anyone that liked them, or even saw the point of them. I think I can speak for Justin (as we have talked about it many times) and myself, that doing group projects and presentations are one of the WORST things EVER. We HATE them. (I would also like to point out that presentations, even solo ones, are also one of the worst things ever.)

One of the things that teachers/professors claim is that group projects are to better socialize their students...that group projects help everyone to get to know everyone else, and isn't that nice? They say that group projects teach students what it's going to be like in the "real" world, where everyone has to interact with other people in the workplace. If pressed, I might say this is true for young kids, in elementary school and middle school, you know, the kids that never say a word to anyone else...who never have any friends...who end up bringing a gun to school and shooting up the place...Maybe if that kid's teachers had forced him to do a group project with other kids, he would have met other kids and learned to love them, not want to kill them. Hmm...something to think about.

However, I am an adult. I am raised. I am socialized. This is college, people! We are at a university for higher learning! HIGHER learning! So, when Justin and I looked at the syllabus for our Script Analysis class, and it said "Historical Presentations" on it, we decided if it was a group thing, we would bail on the way to research in the library. If you're going to treat us like children, we are going to act like children. It comes very naturally for us. Well, it WAS a group thing.

Okay, okay, the situation can still be salvaged! Come on, Teach, you know the one thing that will make this better! Come on, let us pick our own groups! Ugh

(please imagine, if you can, the most annoying and exaggerated voice you possibly can) "Now I'm going to count you off, starting in the back, to put you into groups! 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. etc. Okay, okay, now I want all the "ones" up here, the "twos" there, the "threes" there, and the "fours" back there! yea!" Then he handed out the "topics" and we were stuck. No way we could bail on the way to research in the library. Our groups had seen us, it was too late.

dun
Dun
DUN.

Hm...so, I don't know if you've noticed but, I can get pretty dramatic in my story-telling. I probably could have told you all this in about 3 sentences, but where's the fun in that? It is getting pretty long, though. Maybe I can speed up the rest of the story. Here we go!

so, justinandi were in differentgroupsBLEH and there wasnoescaping. Wedidn'tbail, weplannedand researchedwithour groups. Therewasone moreresearchday beforepresentationsstarted. But,ohhowilovemyhusband,JustinwasSick the nextclassperiod!! Darn! don'tyouhatewhenthathappens? wemissedclass,missedthepresentations,missedthestupid stupidgroupassignment! Yea! imeandarn!

Now, this is a very tricky business, as you all probably know. Missing a big assignment like that can have huge consequences that you might never be able to make up. But, from the title of this post, you can probably surmise that this wasn't the case for us. We went up to our teacher after class on the day we returned and he gave us a new assignment to make up for it. And the assignment was to write a 3-page paper on how Shakespeare's "Hamlet" has been translated into movies. And best of all, NO presentation at all! It was all we could do not to skip out of there in glee! So, the lesson learned is that sometimes missing school pays off.

Update

Hello all! The last thing I posted was pretty vague, mostly because I was exhausted when I was writing it. I thought I should write a more in-depth update on what's going on with us, especially since our phone charger is one of the few things that is still at the other apartment. Our phone is dead and so I can't call anyone to tell them what's going on. We're going to the old place tomorrow when we don't have school or work to get the rest of our stuff and finish cleaning it all up.

Justin and I feel like we have been "moving" for a long time, and just about a week ago, we realized that we've both been so stressed out that we've been floating through life like zombies. The relief in finally finding a place to live and getting moved has been huge. As you all know, we were planning on moving down to St. George until about a week ago. We were trying to find a place down there that we could afford and it just wasn't happening. When we decided to stay in Cedar City, we found our new place almost immediately after we started looking. We fell in love with this little duplex pretty fast. It's in a newer part of Cedar that is way off Main Street, which is one of the perks for us.

Part of moving for me was trying to purge absolutely everything that we don't like or need out of our lives. We have acumulated so much junk furniture in the two and a half years we've been married, most of which we absolutely hate. It was all bulky, huge, and heavy. We've been very grateful for everything we've had, but it was time for a change. We used some of our student loan money to buy a new couch that we love and that will last a long time, a new TV stand that is much smaller than our entertainment center, and new bedding. We really wanted to simplify things, and you should have seen all the stuff we dropped at D.I. We're not even done yet, either. The only big things we kept were our bed, 2 bedside tables, one chair, our TV, and our treadmill. In the future, we hope to be able to buy a kitchen table and chairs, a new case for our DVDs, and far in the future, a new TV. Of course, we may have to invest in some baby furniture first :)

I want to thank Jake for coming down and helping us move a LOT of stuff, and for helping us put together our new furniture. It wasn't easy, and we really really appreciate it.

Other than moving, Justin is still working at Hollywood Video, which is better now since he got a raise. And we're both going to school three times a week in St. George. Commuting isn't so bad, and our classes aren't too demanding. We are taking Mass Communication, Communication Theory, Interpersonal Communication, and Script Analysis. It sounds daunting, but it hasn't been too bad yet.

What else? Well, I'm 10 weeks along today. The morning sickness is almost nonexistent now, thank goodness! and I have my next doctor's appointment in a week from tomorrow. The more I read about how our baby is growing, the more it strikes me as a complete miracle, and I can't imagine how anyone could throw this miracle away. Justin and I are so excited, maybe too excited, since we have quite a long wait ahead of us.

One more update to go, and then we're done! I just want to say that The Book Club is on hold for now. I want to say sorry to Nic for it all kind of falling apart in the middle of his month, and we will get back to Macbeth, I promise. Like I said, we've been pretty overwhelmed, and we're still recovering. Hopefully once we get completely moved, unpacked, and settled, The Book Club will be reinstated. I'll let everyone know when that happens.

We love you all, and we'll try to get everyone better updated on what's going on with us down here in southern Utah!

Thank you!

Thank you "InfoWest Customer" for not securing your network! I am sitting in our new place, on our new couch, on the internet! Yay!

We got mostly moved, but not totally, which is okay for now because I could care less about anything right now. I am so excited about all the new things we're experiencing.

Justin and Jake are sitting on the floor, watching football, putting together a very complicated TV stand, and I'm playing online...mmm, life is good.

So, even though Justin said that you would be rid of us, I guess not!

Farewell World Wide Web

We are moving and are no longer going to have the internet. So long internet. Moving sucks, I am pretty sure it's the worst thing in the world. But we can do it all today, so I guess it could be worse. I am going to leave this blog with one of the final songs ever performed by the Beatles, in what would be their final concert ever. This is one of the greatest songs ever. I love it very much. There is no hidden reason why I chose this song, It's just one of my all time favorites. Enjoy, and so long. Play me out John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

You-Haul-It

I don't know how many people I told but we were planning on moving to St. George. The day we got approved for a place and two days before we were going to move in, Lizzy (my current store manager) decides that she will theoretically be able to get me a raise, oh, and she decided to manipulate our district manager into not giving me a raise if I transferred down south despite the higher cost of living. So, I thought to myself, "self, what should I do?" Then I thought of something smarter, "ask somebody smarter." So I turned to Jesse who was sitting next to me, and we decided that we would stay if I demanded an immediate raise and they obliged. I told Lizzy that they would have to give me an immediate raise. No promises, only actions. They obliged. They gave me a dollar fifty raise, plus they are going to give me a promotion and another dollar raise when that happens. I am sweet!

Anyway, so now we are staying. Even though we decided to stay we still wanted to move out of our basement apartment because we are tired of not having a place that feels like our own. We very much appreciate what Kleston and Judy have done for us, in letting us live here for so cheap, but we just feel like it's time to have our own place. This is my really long-winded way of saying that we need help moving. Jesse isn't supposed to lift anything heavy, and we have some really heavy stuff. We found this really small, cute place across town. We love it, and need help moving. I know this is such short notice but we are moving on saturday, and we need help! We have a couch sitting at Big Lots! that we have to pick up on saturday because we have to. And I definitely can't lift that by myself. Plus the other stuff. We will have everything ready to move, we just need help moving half of our stuff to our place, and the other half to D.I. Somebody please come help us on this really short notice. We will even stop and go to Applebee's to watch the BYU game so no excuses there. Except for Chris, you are excused because you are going to the game. No worries there. Please let us know if you can help us. It will be pretty quick.

Funniest List Ever!

Today was really slow at work, so to pass the time I gave my store manager the challenge of writing down all fifty states in five minutes. She only got thirty two in the five minutes but she wanted to see if she could finish the list just for fun. She did, with help from others, but this has to be some of the worst spelling I have ever seen. She threw the list away and I dug it out of the trash to share with you people. By the way, this is the same person that has asked me how to spell 'aren't' and 'orange.' This is no joke. If nobody believes me, I will scan the actual copy and post it on here. Read them carefully. Here are her spellings:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkinsa
Califorina
Colorado
Cuneticut
Deliware
Floridirida *this is my favorite*
Georgia
Hiwii
Idiaho
Illino
Indiana
Iawa
Kinsas
Kuntuky
Louisiana
Main
Maryland
Masachusets
Mishigan
Minisota
Mississippi
Msouri
Montana
Nabrasca
Navada
New Hampsire
New Mexico
New Jersey
New York
North Carolania
North Dacond
Oklahoma
Ohio
Origan
Pensilvania
Roah Island
South Carolina
South Dikoda
Texas
Tennassey
Utah
Vermont
Vergina
West Vergina
Washington
Wisconson
Wyoming

**She is not dyslexic by the way**

College Football Article

Here is an article I thoroughly enjoyed reading on college football and the bcs. I liked it so much because it was written by somebody in big-10 country, not by somebody out west. I agree with this dude.

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2009/09/college_football_insider_nonbc.html

New Phone Number

I cancelled my phone this morning, so now Jesse and I share the same phone. Maybe Jesse will post on why we had to cancel it because I am just too mad about it. But anyway, now my phone number is different. If you have Jesse's phone number than that is what mine is now too. If you don't have it let me know and I will get it to you. AND HOW ABOUT THOSE COUGARS!!!!!!!!

**Note: I am so ashamed that I didn't believe they could win that game. I hang my head in disappointment of myself.**

My Doctor Appointment Update

As Justin says, the Doctor's appointment was all good news. Everything's normal and healthy, thank goodness. She also gave me some tips on how to help my morning sickness...but then she said the prenatal vitamins she prescribed can be very hard on the stomach, so maybe they will cancel each other out and I'll be right where I started. :) I try to be a little more optimistic than that, though. And my exam wasn't so bad. I figure I probably should get used to being prodded and examined asap since it's going to be pretty standard for me over the next few months. :) Like Justin said, our next appointment is in about 4 weeks, and hopefully we'll actually be living in St. George or Hurricane by then. That would be nice.

I would also like to say that I'm very sorry things have slowed down with my Book Club. I haven't felt like doing anything lately except lay in bed, watch Gilmore Girls, and eat. (The morning sickness isn't as bad if I keep something in my stomach at all times.) It takes most of my motivation to just go to school 3 times a week and that doesn't include homework. Driving 45 minutes to school and back has been pretty hard. So, I'm sorry if people are disappointed with the lack of activity on the Book Club. I'm very excited to get past the morning sickness phase of this pregnancy...and I'm sure Justin whole-heartedly agrees with me! He's had to stress about finding a place to live and paying for things and work stuff all by himself for the past few weeks, and I know he's very exhausted. I think we'll find a nice rhythm once we get moved.

So, there's the latest update. Oh, one more thing. School sucks.

Dr. My Eyes...or Belly

Since I am terrible at calling people, and I hate talking on the phone, this is where people on my side of the family can get the prego updates. We had our first doctor's appointment on Tuesday. It all went well for me, Jesse, however, may feel a little differently. She had to get all felt up and I am sure it wasn't that pleasant. But everything seems to be fine and healthy. The due date is April 18th, which is the exact day that we calculated. We are so smart. She also said that Jesse is seven weeks pregnant, so on our next visit on September 29th we should be able to hear the heartbeat! Yeah! It's all very exciting. I want it to be a girl so badly, I think if it's a boy I am going to tell them to put it back...

100% Natural Prego: It's In There

So, I assume everyone knows by now, but just in case you don't, I'm pregnant! Yay for making people! There, now everyone knows for sure. I have already decided that the fastest way to keep everyone up to date on all the fascinating details of my pregnant time, is to pass all the info onto Mom Laws and Mom Betts and sit back and relax as it trickles on down the chain. The second fastest way is to blog about it, therefore, I have settled on a mixture of the two. Therefore, here I am.

For the past week, I have been experiencing incredibly uncomfortable morning sickness all day long. Ugh. And it's especially hard because no one I've talked to really went through bad morning sickness when they were pregnant, so I'm feeling very picked on. Up until the day before yesterday, I'd only been able to eat saltines, very bland cereals, and soup. Finally, I found my cure for morning sickness, which Justin will buy for me on demand. It always sounds good, it always smells good, and it's nice to my tummy. This glorious invention is "Lay's Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips." (many tiny angels singing praises)

Thank goodness it wasn't hot dogs. Ew, just the thought of hot dogs...gag me...

In other news, I have my first doctor's appointment on Tuesday at 3:30, so there will be another update soon to come, whether you like it or not! ha ha! No, that wasn't evil laughter, what are you saying?

Lie To Me

I don't know if you all have heard of this show "Lie to Me" or not, staring Tim Roth. I do know that you're probably all sick of me telling you about all these T.V. shows that I watch and love and think are the best thing ever. Yes, I do get unusually enthusiastic about fictional shows on T.V. and yes, maybe it's wrong. But if it is, I don't want to be right!

If you all are going to listen to any of my T.V. recommendations, I would recommend listening to this one. The first season of "Lie to Me" was just released on DVD so you can get it on Netflix or at Hollywood Video if you're interested. Tim Roth plays a scientist who has spent years discovering and studying what he calls "microexpressions." These are tiny facial expressions that are universal in all human beings regardless of race, upbringing, culture, etc. He claims that when any person is about to commit an act of violence, they will all have the same expression on their faces. It's pretty interesting. He has a company called The Lightman Group and they are hired by the police, the Mayor, the FBI, etc. to help solve cases by interviewing the people involved and determining whether they are lying or not, only by studying their faces. It is fascinating.

He points out how he knows that someone is lying, and what's really fun is then it shows pictures of well-known people in the media (celebrities, politicians, etc.) doing the exact same behavior. There have been pictures of Pres. Obama, Michele Obama, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Pres. Clinton, Pres. Nixon, and Condoleezza Rice. That's only to name a few. I think we all know that politicains lie a lot, but it's kind of empowering to actually see the proof. Anyway, if this sounds interesting, please watch this show and let me know what you think.

Something that really bothers me

Do you know what just absolutely drives me insane? The word "hero." I am so tired of this word, that if I hear it again, I just might do something that could result in somebody else having to become a hero to save somebody else. Everybody is a hero. Do people know what a hero is? A plain will crash into the hudson river and people that survived will be called hero's. What?! Are you freaking kidding me?! Those people are victims, not hero's. They didn't do anything heroic. They crashed in their plane! Give me a break. And don't even get me started on fire fighters. It's a highly unpopular opinion, but these dudes are not hero's either. They get paid to do a job they signed themselves up to do. Brave, Yes. Courageous, Yes. Hero, butt freaking no. How? They are getting paid to their job! Now if somebody is just walking down the street and there is a house on fire and there is somebody inside, and this person runs into the burning building and saves everybody inside, and they had no formal training or equipment. Stupid, yeah probably. But hero? Yes. That person is a hero. Not somebody who crashed or somebody getting paid or somebody whose child won the spelling bee. Give me a break.

Great News

My sister, Amelia, and her husband, Brent, had their first little baby girl! Tylie Ann Duke was born August 20th at 12:21 a.m. She was 7 pounds 13.5 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Everyone's healthy. Congratulations Duke family, we're so excited for you!

Fun News

I thought this would be the fastest way to tell everyone that my best friend, Crystalle, had her first baby yesterday. They didn't know what it was going to be, they wanted it to be a surprise. They did a home birth, with a midwife, and Crystalle said she's tired and sore, but good. They had a girl and they named her Toryn Chenoa Ankiewicz. She was 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and 21 inches long. Congratulations Crystalle and husband Joe!

The Answers

A week ago, I asked all of you to name the shows that all my favorite T.V. characters come from. Good job, by the way! Here are all the answers: (The ones in red are the ones that nobody could name.)

1. Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother
2. Bill Haverchuck from Freaks and Geeks
3. Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords
4. Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Burton Guster from Psych
6. Caroline "Echo" Farrell from Dollhouse
7. Chandler Bing from Friends
8. Charlie Pace from Lost
9. Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld
10. Dexter Morgan from Dexter
11. Gir from Invader Zim
12. Gob from Arrested Development
13. Grace Hanadarko from Saving Grace
14. Hiro Nakamura from Heroes
15. Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords
16. Jim Halpert from The Office
17. Kim Day from Kath and Kim
18. Leonard Hofstadter from The Big Bang Theory
19. Lex Luthor from Smallville
20. Lily Aldrin from How I Met Your Mother
21. Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls
22. Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls
23. Malcom Reynolds from Firefly
24. Marshall Erikson from How I Met Your Mother
25. Michael Scott from The Office
26. Michael Westen from Burn Notice
27. Nancy Botwin from Weeds
28. Pam Beesley from The Office
29. Peter Petrelli from Heroes
30. Seeley Booth from Bones
31. Shaun Spencer from Psych
32. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory
33. Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender
34. Temperance Brennan from Bones
35. Veronica Mars from Veronica Mars

There you go! Soon to come: My Least Favorite T.V. Characters, The Best T.V. Villains, and T.V. Characters You Love To Hate. (Maybe.)

Sharky Shark Shark

I am not one to get all excited by the majority of the crap that's on primetime television, because the majority of it is absolute crap. How all that junk even stays on tv is beyond my realm of comprehension. However, last night was the start of this new show called 'Shark Tank.' The premise is that there are five self made millionaires/billionaires that sit behind this desk and listen to pitches and investment opportunities from people. The pitch people come in with an offer already on the table. For example they are starting up a pie business and they offer these five people 10% equity in their company in exchange for $250,000. Make sense? Anyway, this show is awesome. I love the business talk, and the numbers. I love watching them talk about equity, and investments, and offers and counteroffers.....I love it. It's fantastic.

There was this guy last night that has built a successful pie shop all on his own. He has two locations, netted 20% of his $800,000 revenue (personally), and is on the verge of signing a contract to put his pies into McDonald's. He owns 100% of his company. Anyway, last night he walked in wanting to be able to build a factory so he can more efficiently send out pies. He wanted more ovens and better equipment and all of this other stuff. He was asking for 250,000 and in return would give one of them 10% share in his company. I watched this guy take an offer from the greedy retard judge. He got his 250,000, but he had to give him 50% of his company in return. And he did it!!! I almost hit the ceiling. I was thinking the dude should just walk, but now this greedy horrible man owns half of his company. Ugh. I love this show.

So You Think You Can Ride The Bus

(I think it's laughing at me.)

I don't know if everyone has heard, but our car finally won the war. We have been fighting it for months and months. Constant battle. I was benched quite awhile ago, unable to withstand the physical and mental damage caused by going up against this 2000 Oldsmobile Alero. Justin was bravely hanging in there for the both of us, but alas, it wore him down until the will to continue fighting wained under the pressure. We can no longer...go on this way.

Are we defeated? Yes! Are we beat? Yes! Are we bloody, pulpy versions of our former glorious selves? Yes, I cry, yes!

So, we had a dilemma today. Payday was yesterday, and we had no way to deposit the necessary money into our bank account. Bills are calling. Public transportation isn't anyone's first choice to get around but, desperate times! We have a bus stop very near our apartment, so we headed out this afternoon. So...you think maybe you can ride the bus? Let me just advise against it in Cedar City, especially if you get motion sick like I do. Here is why:

Cedar City is spread out.
Cedar City is bumpy.
Cedar City is boring.
Cedar City bus drivers are maniacs.

On our ride through spread-out Cedar City, we visited areas that we have never even heard of. We rode that bus for an hour, and that was including getting off earlier than our stop. Combine a long ride, with the bumpiness of Cedar City, and the bus driver driving very aggressively, and you have the perfect witch's brew for a motion sickness carnival in my stomach. ugh. I don't really need to elaborate on Cedar City being boring, right? I guess this is my very long-winded way of saying that I will never ride the Cedar City bus again. Our car is going down at Bradshaw Chevrolet on Monday. We will take no prisoners.

My Guiltiest Pleasure Ever

I have recently decided that "Big Brother" is my guiltiest pleasure ever. I'm a little embarrassed even writing this, to be honest. I take comfort in the fact that "Big Brother" is also Justin's guiltiest pleasure. Hmm...I hope he's okay with me blurting that out.

For those of you who don't know, "Big Brother" is on CBS 3 times a week. Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I predict that one day it will be on every single day of the week. I have become so addicted to this show, in such a short period of time, that last night I missed the first hour of the "So You Think You Can Dance" finale because "Big Brother" was on, too. So I guess I shouldn't be complaining about how they drag "So You Think You Can Dance" out to 2 hours.

"Big Brother" is my guiltiest pleasure because I have this feeling deep down that I shouldn't enjoy it, but I do, and I can't exactly explain why. I don't like any of the people in the Big Brother house. Most of them are scumbags. You have the cocky people who think they are so much smarter than everyone else that they can control the entire game, manipulate everyone to do what they want, and lie to everyone and no one will know. You have the wussy people who connect themselves to strong players, who never have to exhert any energy or win any competitions. Sometimes there are nice, honest people. They usually get voted out within the first couple weeks.

I just found out what it is! The reason I like "Big Brother" is because you really dislike all the people in the house, and then you get to watch them do all these ridiculous things. They are forced to eat "Slop" and they are forced to wear these pink spandex jumpsuits and swing on ropes into a huge pile of mud... it's like watching everyone you hated in high school being submitted to weeks and weeks of extreme embarrassment. It's glorious.

Can You Guess?

As you all know, I love watching TV shows from beginning to end. I think it's because if there are characters that I love, or a story that's very intriguing, I like investing more time and I like seeing it play out in more detail. Sometimes, movies are too limiting for me. I know, I'm a nerd!

So, I was going to write a post called "My Top 5 Favorite TV Characters" but I couldn't narrow down my list! So, instead, I'm going to put up a HUGE list of my favorite TV characters (because there are a LOT) and I think it would be fun for everyone to try and guess what show they come from! So, if you know any of them, be the first one to put the answer in the comments! Some are pretty popular, and therefore easy, while others are slightly obscure and a bit harder. Oh! And, PLEASE PLEASE don't cheat by googling these characters, that ruins the fun! I think there is at least one person who reads this blog that knows all these characters.

If you think someone guessed wrong, you can correct them.
There can be multiple characters from one show.
Make sure to include what you're answering with your answer in your comment.

Without further ado, in alphabetical order:

1. Barney Stinson
2. Bill Haverchuck
3. Bret McKenzie
4. Buffy Summers
5. Burton Guster
6. Caroline "Echo" Farrell
7. Chandler Bing
8. Charlie Pace
9. Cosmo Kramer
10. Dexter Morgan
11. Gir
12. Gob
13. Grace Hanadarko
14. Hiro Nakamura
15. Jemaine Clement
16. Jim Halpert
17. Kim Day
18. Leonard Hofstadter
19. Lex Luthor
20. Lily Aldrin
21. Lorelai Gilmore
22. Luke Danes
23. Malcom Reynolds
24. Marshall Erikson
25. Michael Scott
26. Michael Westen
27. Nancy Botwin
28. Pam Beesley
29. Peter Petrelli
30. Seeley Booth
31. Shaun Spencer
32. Sheldon Cooper
33. Sokka
34. Temperance Brennan
35. Veronica Mars

There are probably more that I'm not thinking of, but I think this list is long enough. Guess away!

So You Think You Can Dance

So, as you've already heard, I love So You Think You Can Dance. I'm addicted, and will continue to watch it as long as it's on TV, probably. But, here are a couple things that just bug the crap out of me.

1. As already stated once before, Mary Murphey. This lady is annoying, I think most people would agree. Fellow judge Nigel Lithgoe would even agree with me, I think. But, there are two things that are especially bugging me lately. First, her Paula Abdul-esque judging style. Almost every single performance is just the best thing ever for her. She doesn't often have constructive criticism. Mostly, it's just which volume of screeching you get with her. (Loud=good, Louder=awesome, Loudest=freaking incredible). This brings me to the second thing. The screeching...I swear, sometimes, only dogs can hear her. It's like I'm watching her wide-open mouth, and I know something bad is happening to my eardrums, but I just can't hear what.

2. The editing team. The way this show is cut together is erratic at best, dizzying in the middle, and completely frustrating at worst. They show the routines in such a way that I KNOW they were not meant to be seen. There are so many camera angles. They're zooming in super close one minute, they're a mile away the next. Suddenly we're behind the stage, and then we're to the side of it. It's nuts! And I swear, tonight every single time a new routine started, we were seeing it from the middle of the audience. I watch it on TV so that I don't have to be squinting from the nosebleed seats.

3. The fact that they drag out every show for way longer than it should be. Like tonight, for example, dragging it out to 2 hours. They had one dance routine in between commercials. Ridiculous!

Now, originally, when I started watching this show, I would have included host Cat Deeley on this list. But, surprisingly enough, I've found that she's kinda grown on me. She seems pretty genuine, as far as hosts go. And, sometimes she says random, embarassing, funny things. It keeps it lively.

Missing Lunchable Awesomeness

What has happened to lunchables? Don't get me wrong, they are still incredibly awesome, but not nearly as great as they used to be. You used to get two kinds of crackers, two kinds of cheese, two kinds of meat, and andes mint and a sweet capri sun. Now you get only one of all of those things, and you still get a capri sun, but a lot of them now have little cups of jell-o. Who the heck wants that? Not me. And I feel like I am getting completely ripped off. I want two of everything back. You owe it to me lunchable people. I don't know why, but you do.

Idaho Falls

It's been quite awhile since I've blogged, I just realized that yesterday. So, even though these pictures are probably only interesting to me, I'm sharing them. As Justin said, I was visiting my parents in Idaho Falls for a week. Here are some pictures I took at the river, some of my favorites. Enjoy.

"SHADOWman"

"EVIL MUTANT muskrat"

"LAZY AMERICANS in a row"

"it POPS"

Offended Much?

Jesse and I were having this very interesting discussion today about being offended. I personally believe that you choose to be offended, while Jesse believes that there are initial gut reactions that people have to certain things that can't be controlled. But she believes that what you do with those reactions and whether you choose to let it slide or choose to blow it up is where the choice comes into play. I can definitely see it both ways because there are people in this world that are very in touch with their emotions and can be made to feel a certain way. I know that psychologist douche's will tell you that you can't be made to feel a certain way, that it's always your choice, but I say BS to that. Psychologists have this double standard of saying that your emotions are you choice and nobody can make you feel any way. However, at the same time they say that if you tell somebody something long enough they will come to believe it, and you can condition somebody to feel and respond in a certain way. It sounds to me like they are trying to have it both ways. I believe that somebody can make somebody feel a certain way. Example, Jesse makes me feel happy. She just does. I don't have to make a choice to be happy, I just am when she is around. I know this all sounds hypocritical but it's not in my head. Anyway, let's go to a new paragraph shall we?
I am saying you choose to be offended because I feel like I do. If a customer came in and call me a retard and a butt face, I could very well choose to be offended by that or not. Well, I wouldn't be offended by that because I don't care about their opinion. But I also feel that I could be offended because somebody called me names.....does any of this make any sense? I am trying to work it out in my brain and maybe it's not translating well because maybe it's not a black and white issue. So what do you all think? I would like to know people's thoughts on this. Do we choose to be offended or do we have gut reactions and then based on those we can choose to do whatever with it. That sentence was horrible, but leave me alone. This isn't a take sides kind of debate, I just want to know what people think.

My Brain and I

I had this thought the other day: sex is just like christmas. Seriously. You anticipate and look forward to both. There is all this build up and excitement. The excitement is almost too much and it keeps you wanting that feeling to last forever, but at the same time you just want christmas morning to arrive already. Then when it gets there, it is the greatest day ever. Every christmas is better than the one before. Then it's always over too quickly, and just doesn't last long enough. I don't think it ever could. Then it leaves you feeling happy and smiley the rest of the day, and you can't wait for next Christmas.

Random Thoughts For The Day

Hmm....what do you do when your wife is away? Well, yesterday I laid upside down on the couch for about half an hour. I ran up and down the hallway to see how fast I could do it (not very, by the way.) And I have been playing tons of online tournaments on the wii for Tiger Woods 10. And by playing in these online tournaments I mean taking last place in these online tournaments. Oh yeah, and I laid on my bed and made designs on the ceilings with the splatter stuff....I miss my wife.

Recently I have become a huge fan of the UFC. I didn't really get the appeal at first, but then when my friend Austin gave me a dvd of the best fights of last year, I got the appeal pretty quickly. When you are just watching random dudes beat the crap out of each other, it's not so fun. But when you get to know who is who, it becomes very exciting. I have watched a couple of events that Austin has given to me, my favorite fight every was between Clay Guida and Diego Sanchez. That fight was freakin crazy. They both just came out and threw as many wild and crazy punches as they could. It was fantastic. I wanted Guida to win because I think he is a nutjob, and I like it. But he didn't. Dang. And Brock Lesnar is a retard.

I hate our judicial system. People want to argue prisoner's rights and blah blah blah, well poo on you and your argument. Not only do they get their rights, but they get things that I can't even get. They get better health care than I do. They get freakin free cable. Why don't I get free cable? What's up with that? Yes, offering education in prisons is a good thing, but why don't they have to pay what I do? They should have to pay tuition and fee's and all that other crap that I have to pay. Yes, their job doesn't pay them enough in prison blah blah blah.....THEY'RE IN PRISON!!!! They forfeited their right to have a decent paying job when they decided to kill their girlfriend for cooking their tots for too long. Give me a break. I like how the government charges me up the butt for all this stuff, and these criminals get it for nothing. Pisses me off. Once again America is rewarding the wrong people.

I saw Michael Phelps on Conan O' Brien last night. Oh how I love that Mr. O' Brien. But as for Michael Phelps, can you say douche bag? He acted completely arrogant, put out, annoyed, and too cool for school. I have never seen somebody with less of a sense of humor. You could tell Conan wasn't a fan either. He got pretty annoyed with his spoiled brat attitude. Between that and the pot photo, I don't know if I could like him any less.

I love lunchables!

Reminder

Hey everyone, just wanted to remind you that I've been continually posting my photos on my Flickr account. There is a link on the sidebar if you want to check it out. I just posted a fun series called "Pics Within Pics." It is just as it sounds, pictures of things that look like other things. Enjoy!

Jousting

Is anyone going to be in the Cedar City area on Monday and want to go with me to a jousting competition? I really want to go and, of course, Justin has to work.

4th of July

We just got back from the Cedar City 4th of July parade, and let me just say, I have never seen anything like it. First off, the amount of people lining main street was astounding. We had no idea there were that many people living in Cedar City. I don't know where they've been hiding. And the amount of little kids was crazy. I have never seen these kids anywhere.

Then, the parade started. Oh my. Every single vehicle Cedar City possesses was in this parade. There were 9 fire trucks, 20 four-wheelers, 8 classic cars, and 4 different dance squads. They had a tank, an airplane, a house, a boat, remote-control cars, and a horse-drawn buggy. They had every single all-star baseball/softball age group represented, all armed with water guns, balloons, or buckets. They had 3 Veterans floats and 1 Special Olympics float. I counted 5 horses. I can't even tell you the amount of candy that was thrown. Little kids were equipped with Wal-Mart sacks and by the end of the parade, they had decent amounts of candy weighing down their bags. It was like Halloween, the sequel. And balloons!! At one point, Justin and I looked up and saw probably like 7 balloons (6 orange, 1 white) floating up at once. What happens to balloons after that, by the way? I've always wondered.

The parade was one hour and six minutes long.

Les Triplettes de Belleville

Justin and I just watched this animated French movie "Les Triplettes de Belleville" the other night, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I know that it's not really a movie for everyone, but I would still recommend everyone give it a chance, you may be surprised how much you like it. There is almost no dialogue at all. This didn't hinder our enjoyment of it, in fact it was more enjoyable for it, but it might put some people off. I was going to write the summary of the movie here, but I don't think I will. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that might decide to watch it. Just know that I think it is wonderful. It is so uplifting to watch, besides being incredibly entertaining and enjoyable.

Two Months And Counting

College Football season is about two months away and I am already super excited! I am excited to watch a real BYU team that I believe in. It pains me to say that I hated last years team. I hated their cockiness, I hated their work ethic (or lack thereof), I hated their sense of entitlement, and I hated their deameanor overall. I seriously harbor very ill will toward last years team, and thankfully they got their butts kicked into gear and now they will hopefully be the classy program we all want them to be. I have never seen a bigger bunch of quitters than I saw last year on that field. They got destroyed by TCU and then completely half-assed the rest of the season. They all played like they didn't even care anymore. I love that team so much that it makes me angry when they act like spoiled 12 year olds. I love my cougars and I hope to see a much better performance from them this year. And why hasn't Robert Anae been fired yet?! The program really needs a new offensive coordinator. Also, I am glad Collie is gone. It will allow Hall to go through his progressions and spread the ball around, making the offense much more unpredictable and deadly. Look for Pitta and Unga to have big seasons. This is my solid prediction for the upcoming season.

Sep.5 - Oklahoma- This is going to be a butt kicking. Oklahoma is returning a very good team and Sam Bradford has had one more offseason to polish his already impressive skills. Plus they have had the entire summer to prepare for a weak BYU secondary. Bradford will light us up and this will be over by the end of the first quarter. Plus, BYU always plays terribly in the first game of the season. Oklahoma will win by 28.

Sep. 12- Tulane- I am really torn on this one. On one hand, we are the better team and should win, but on the other hand it is in New Orleans and we all know how terribly BYU plays OOC on the road. I pick BYU to win by a small margin.

Sep. 19- Florida St.- Don't get me wrong, I really think BYU CAN win this game, I just doubt that they will. We have proved in the past that we can't compete with really fast teams (TCU and Utah last year) and Florida St. is definitely a team with speed. We may be the better team overall but I just don't feel we match up well with the Seminoles. They are too big and too fast. Plus they have the good black guys, we get all the fake ones. Florida st wins....barely.

Sep. 26- Colorado St.- This could go either of two ways. 1- We could be fresh off some real good and stiff competition, so we will just destroy those stupid rams. OR we will just be fresh off real good stiff competition so we will have a huge let down. Either way, there is no way we don't win this game. It could just be with ease or with some trouble. I say......with ease. BYU wins big.

Oct. 2- Utah State- This is going to be a destruction. I am talking 2012 doomsday, armageddon destruction. Utah State has no shot. Just don't show up. BYU wins big again.

Oct. 10- UNLV- This game could be a little troublesome but since Vegas is our home away from home, we will feel perfectly comfortable. Plus with all the Vegas bowls lately I am sure that we have played more games there than they have in the past five years. BYU wins by a touchdown.

Oct. 17- San Diego St.- Nothing to be said here. We are playing the worst team in all of college football, and we will destroy them. I will be surprised if this team is even trying at this point in the season. Man, I really wish we could get them out of our conference.

Oct. 24- TCU- Here comes the real question of the season for me. This is going to be a really tough game. BYU will not be embarrassed like they were last year, and TCU will not have the same motivation. TCU is still really fast and athletic and are returning some really good players. But, I have to go with the cougars on this one, simply for the fact that it's in provo. I think the cougars get some sweet homecoming revenge. *On another note, TCU will beat Utah this year. Write down now. I am calling it.

Nov. 7- Wyoming- It doesn't matter how good or bad Wyoming is, travelling to Laramie is never an ideal thing for us. It is crappy conditions all the time, especially in November. This game will be a battle but look for us to pull it out. We win by 10.

Nov. 14- New Mexico- This is the other conference game that worries me. Riding a winning streak and starting to look forward to the Utah game, we could definitely be vulnerable. We could very well lose this game...well, let's just say that I won't be surprised if we do, but I am officially picking us to win it. We win again.

Nov. 21- Air Force- They are returning a lot of players and aren't as young and inexperienced as they were last year....and they were a good team last year. This will also be a tough battle, because of the option and our ridiculously slow defense. We will come out on top though, pulling away after halftime adjustments. We win by 17.

Nov. 28- Utah- I know there is never predicting this game. It doesn't matter the records or the stars, this will always be a toss up. Utah lost Brian Johnson and Sakoda and their really good defensive back who's name I forget. They are trying to downplay all of this, but really, a young and inexperienced qb is always a liability. Granted they beat us with an inexperienced qb before (hello 2005) it won't happen this time. Ah, the homely confines of LaVell Edwards stadium. Being in Provo and the inexperience under center for Utah gives us the edge. We squeak out a four point victory.

Dec. ???- Las Vegas Bowl again- Cal- Cal has a really good and fast defense, and by really good and fast, I mean really good and fast....on paper that is. We will have to see how it pans out for them, but I have us winning this game as well. That's right, after our loss to Florida St. we run the table and finish the season ranked in the top 15. Hooray.

Final Record: 11-2
Conference Champs
Las Vegas Bowl Champs
*All of this is based on my awesomeness, and the belief that Max Hall will be much improved.*

Hobbies

I have lots of free time on my hands and I decided that I want to explore some new hobbies. I want to give a lot of different things a try and see if I can find anything new that I really really enjoy. So, I was wondering if anyone would like to suggest any hobbies to me? Mostly, I need things that are accessible to me, and that limits it quite a bit. Because I don't have a car most of the time, I can't exactly run off rock climbing every day, for example. The first new hobby I'm experimenting with is Scrapbooking. This mostly came about because I've been going through all of my old boxes of stuff from my parents' garage, and I found a lot of stuff that I wanted to be organized and remembered. It's been pretty interesting, I don't have a lot of scrapbooking stuff so I have to be very creative if I want the pages to be interesting at all. Over the past few days I've used drier sheets and candy wrappers to decorate my pages. :l I tried the digital scrapbooking and I wasn't a huge fan, I felt very limited. Anyway, I've really enjoyed the book club (sorry I'm a little behind this month in finishing the book, but I'm close!) so I want to try other new things. Help.

Book Club Fun

Just a reminder, this month that is almost over we have been reading "Persuasion" by Jane Austen and discussions will begin soon on forum.ibetts.net so if you haven't signed up to participate in the discussions, you should definately do so. Also, for next month Jake has picked "Phantoms" by Dean Koontz to read, so please try to get a copy and read it by the end of July. I guess that's all!

Billie Jean

In light of today's tragedy, I decided to post my weekly music video of the one and only Michael Jackson. I absolutely love this song. Always have and always will. Regardless of what you think of him, he has some amazing stuff. I have to try really hard to ignore the crotch grabbing when I watch this. But the dancing is amazing. It's too bad really.

JAKE!!!

Jake you have the book for July! What the 'H' 'E' double 'L's' is it going to be?! We need know now. Leave the book you are choosing in the comments. Or darkon say you don't want to choose one you jiggaboo. If you don't want to flarking choose one that's popcorn, but let us know, now!

Us-1, Cable/Satellite Companies-0

I believe everybody is fully aware of the digital switch that took place on June 12th so I won't go into explaining what that is. I do, however, totally believe that it is a conspiracy between the FCC and the cable and satellite companies, or whoever was in charge of this crap. This was there way of forcing almost everybody into paying for tv instead of getting it free. Well, we can still watch our analog tv, so suck on that! They said all we should see is a blue screen or fuzz or something. Sorry but all I see is a picture. Maybe I am totally selling us out to the tv Gods but we still watch our tv. When we do turn our stupid box on we do get a couple more channels but who wants 3 pbs' and 3 kbyu's. Not me. And no, our tv does not have a digital tuner built into it. I looked it up online on their stupid website and it said that it doesn't and that we would need a box. True, our channels are still a little fuzzy, but those pricks in their stupid call centers will never make us pay for tv. That will solely be on our terms. Yes! We win!

Do You Like Lists? Yesh.....

We have been watching 'The Office' all the way through again and I can't express how much I love that show. The first three seasons are some of the greatest comedy ever on tv. So I decided to make a list of my favorite Office characters. They go in this order. Not counting Jan or the warehouse workers, because they aren't people.

1- Michael/Jim/Pam (Yes, they all count as 1)
2- Dwight
3- Creed (How much do I love this guy!)
4- Angela
5- Kevin
6- Andy
7- Stanley
8- Phyllis
9- Oscar
10- Ryan
11- Toby
12- Meredith
13- Kelly
14- *Season 4* Ryan

I Got My Nose Pierced, Again. Yay!

Julia Nunes cover

Again, here is my favorite youtube person. All you "Office" lovers out there will enjoy this one.

bOOK CLUB

Just a reminder: this month we are reading "Persuasion" by Jane Austen, and next month is Jake's pic so, Jake, if you still want to pick a book, let me know what it is asap.

Yes, you love it

It's time for more music, Yay!!!!!!!!!! I seem to pick some random stuff when I do this, so here is some more random stuff. You may or may not have heard this song before, either way, I love it. It's by Newton Faulkner and it's called 'Dream Catch Me.' I love him for many reasons. First, he has red hair. Secondly, he is an awesome guitar player. And third, this song just makes me feel really good and completely fills me with joy. Enjoy it. And fourth, he is british, and that is always good. And I put a really short video of him below this first video, because he does awesome guitar stuff. This first video is pretty low quality, but it is still awesome. And he always plays it acoustic live, which makes me believe it was the dang record company that made him add the rest of the band. Stupid record labels. Even old folks can enjoy this song. Listen to it you oldies!

Ok, Ok

You know, I get really tired of being so awesome and admired. Everybody at work just thinks I am the greatest thing ever. In fact, I think all people do. It gets a little exhausting. I think in the pre-existence God created me and then said, "Shoot. Justin, I created you and you are going to be awesome, but I forgot to give you any flaws. So I am going to have to make you almost too awesome. That will be your burden." And he was right. It's tiring having everybody want to be me, and to hang out with me. Being awesome is, well, awesome, but sometimes that cross gets a little heavy.

H O R R O R MOVIE MARATHON

Yes, I'm writing this in red to signify gushing rivers of blood.

Yesterday, Justin and I watched 3 horror movies just, you know, for kicks. We watched them during the day so we wouldn't get too scared, so the good news is that I actually saw parts of these movies. My face wasn't buried anywhere, my eyes weren't squeezed shut, and my hands weren't clamped over my ears...well, for the most part they weren't, anyway.

First we watched the 2009 version of "Friday the 13th" that's coming out soon. Apparently, (Justin looked this up on imdb.com) this movie is a "retelling" of the original "Friday the 13th" movie with bits of 2 and 3 thrown in. Well, besides the violent and disgusting deaths, this movie was laughable. The acting was completely pathetic, the writing was...bad. At one point, one of the mindless flat characters was running in the woods, when he lost his gun in a surprise stream that popped out of nowhere. As he frantically tried to retrieve it, he yelled, (minus the bad words) "Where are you, gun?" Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall any weapons of any kind being able to reply to a question, even if it's one as intelligent as that.

Then we watched Rob Zombie's "Halloween" that came out in 2007. I don't know what we were expecting, but we were not expecting a movie almost the exact same as the original "Halloween." The most major difference was the quality of acting. It went way way down. We didn't watch all of this movie because we knew what was going to happen.

Last, we watched "30 Days of Night" which isn't a redo, retelling, remake of anything. Again, this movie had incredibly violent bloody moments but in all, I really liked it. It is about this little town in Alaska that experiences 30 days of night (hm, I know what you're thinking and you're right, that IS where they got the title for the movie) each year. This particular time it happens, a gang of very screachy, very creepy vampires come for an all-you-can-eat buffet. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George are among a tiny group of people that are trying to survive the month without the sun. Don't get me wrong, this is a horror movie, it's not the best movie ever, there are some plot problems, but as far as horror movies go, this one is good. It's intense and BLOODY. If anyone's planning a scary movie night (or day) you could give this movie a try.

Now I thought it'd be fun if I told you the scariest movies for me that I've attempted to watch. These are the top four, starting with the least scary first. Fourth scariest: "The Ring." The first time I saw this, it was in the theater with some of my friends, including Jessica and Crystalle. Anyway, us three girls were freaking out pretty bad when suddenly, this guy sitting in front of us reached back in between the seats and grabbed Crystalle's leg as a joke. It scared all of us half to death, of course, but I actually watched most of this movie with my eyes open, and I've seen it a couple times since. Of course, I've never actually seen the part where the little girl climbs out the the T.V. and kills the guy.

Third scariest: "The Grudge." Oh man, I hate this movie. I spent the entire movie with my head buried in my friend's shoulder and then I had nightmares that night involving the little ghost boy. Ech. Second scariest: "The Shining." When the little boy started the thing with the finger and the "redrum" and the voice, I lost it, I freaked, and I made Justin turn it off.

Most scariest: "Inland Empire." There is the scariest stuff in this movie that I have ever seen in my life. And I know that's not really saying a lot because, obviously, I get scared by movies very easily, but JUSTIN also thought this movie was the scariest thing ever. We started out watching it at night and had to stop it. So then we tried to watch it again the next afternoon but couldn't. We had to turn it off. Seriously. The scariest movies are the psychological thrillers, the ones that mess with your head, and "Inland Empire" messes with your head like no other. I dare anyone to watch this whole movie and not feel even just a little creeped out.

Another Weird Day At Work

You know, I think maybe I'm a lot more sheltered than I thought I was...or maybe I just convince myself that the world is one way. Or maybe I just hope it's one way, but deep down I know it's not. I think it's probably that last one.

Today at work there was a man who called Obama the "N" word, twice, right in front of me, no shame whatsoever. I really didn't want to believe that people like this still exist. I don't care if you think Obama is the worst president ever in history...I don't care if you think Obama is the most evil man in the entire world, you don't use that word. Not only is it derogatory and disgusting, it makes you the most ignorant, hate-filled sack of crap on the planet.

I really wanted to kick him.

what am I watching lately?

Not that anyone's really interested, but I thought I could share the TV shows I'm watching and what I think of them, just for fun. As you all already know, I really enjoy watching TV shows, possibly even more than I enjoy watching movies. I know I'm watching quite a few shows at once, it's just because I get them from all different sources so I watch them when I get them. (Oh and this list doesn't include all the shows that I'm waiting for a new season to come out or start.) So here we go!

"Tru Calling"
plot: Tru Davies is a med student who gets a job at the morgue. Soon she finds out that dead people can ask her for help and her day rewinds so she can do it over again, except this time saving the person who asked for help.
where am I? Season 2
where do I get it? Netflix
what do I think? one thumb up for an interesting concept and premise for the show, and for interesting stories in every episode. one thumb down for sub par acting, including Eliza Dushku who plays Tru.

"Jericho"
plot: A little outside of Denver, Colorado sits the small town of Jericho. When a mushroom cloud appears over Denver, and all communication in and out of the town collapses, the people in the town have to figure out a way to survive, including overcoming the fallout from the bomb, info that many other major cities in the U.S. were also hit, a shortage of medical supplies and food, and all the problems that arise from people in a panic.
where am I? Season 1
where do I get it? Netflix Online
what do I think? two thumbs up for everything. The acting (by mostly unknowns) is superb, the stories are complex and interesting, and it's so relevant to the world we live in, where there's always a threat of terrorism.

"Angel"
plot: "The vampire with a soul" Angel, as well as many others from the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series appear in this show. Angel and friends try to rid L.A. of all evil including beasties, vampires, demons, evil lawyers, you name it.
where am I? Season 5 (last season)
where do I get it? Hollywood Video
what do I think? two thumbs down. It's very disappointing, but I have to be honest. "Angel" is a huge disappointment. The writing has no clear focus, the stories and plots are all over the place, and the characters are compromised, meaning that anyone who watched "Buffy" knows most of the characters in "Angel" really well, and they do not behave in a way that's true to their character. I'm hoping that my beloved Joss Whedon's involvement was limited.

"Burn Notice"
plot: Michael Weston was a spy until someone burned him. "Spies don't get fired, they get burned," meaning all his assets are frozen and he's dumped in Miami to stay. While trying to find out who burned him and get reinstated, he helps regular people solve hard problems, with the assistance of his mother, brother, best friend, and ex-girlfriend.
where am I? Just finished Season 2
where do I get it? Hollywood Video
what do I think? two thumbs way up. This show is great, and I recommend it to everyone. The premise is intriguing and different. It's light and fun. The only downside is the actress who plays Fi, Michael's ex-girlfriend, is very scary...if you see her, you'll know what I mean.

"So You Think You Can Dance"
plot: Reality show about finding America's favorite dancer.
where am I? whatever season's on T.V.
where do I get it? on the tube (tho maybe not for long, thanks to the switch to digital).
what do I think? one thumb up because it's fun to see the incredibly talented dancers on this show, and the creative choreography. one thumb down for annoying Mary (one of the judges) and the way the show is edited. They could show a lot more dancing and less talking/interviewing/judging than they do.

"Bones"
plot: F.B.I. agent Seeley Booth teams up with anthropologist/author Temperance Brennen to solve murders.
where am I? Season 3
where do I get it? Netflix
what do I think? two thumbs up. Fantastic show. Perfect mix of serious drama and comedy, original and intriguing characters, complex plots and subplots that are balanced by a steady theme (usually they solve one murder per episode). I would definitely recommend this one.

So there are the shows I'm watching now. Since many of these shows are running out ("Tru Calling" got canceled halfway through season 2, there isn't any more of "Burn Notice" on DVD, "Angel" only has 5 seasons, "Jericho"only has 2 seasons, etc.) I have some more shows lined up that I'm going to watch, including: Roswell, Veronica Mars, The Closer, Ghost Whisperer, and Medium. I'll let you know what I think of them later. :)

Bedtime Tasties

Just now as I was getting ready for bed, I ate a bowl of vanilla ice cream with some chocolate on top. When I brushed my teeth, I used colgate mint. As I was brushing my teeth, my mouth tasted exactly like mint chocolate chip. It was great.

Nostra-dumb-ass

All those doom and gloom people are always talking about Nostradamus and how smart he is and how all of his predictions come true. I decided to play on the internet and find these so-called predictions, to see exactly what they say. And now that I have read them may I say out loud, what a bunch of garbage! These "predictions" mean nothing. They aren't even predictions, they are nonsense. I decided maybe I should write a bunch of vague garbage down in a notebook and leave it for future generations to find and read, then they will call me an ancient prophet. Apparently this is all it takes. For proof, here is a prediction from the almighty Nostradamus:

Mabus then will soon die, there will come
Of people and beasts a horrible rout;
Then suddenly one will see vengeance
Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger
When the comet will run.

What the hell is that?! So do you know what this is a prediction of? I mean it's pretty obvious so I am sure that you guessed already, but if you haven't this is the prediction of the assassination of President Bush. Yep. Mabus is Bush....how do you figure? What the random words on a page?! How does Mabus equal Bush? And how do you get an assassination of a president out of that? What a bunch of hippo poo. To me it sounds like some dude named Mabus (not Bush, because his name is Mabus) will die, and then there will be terrible beasts like wolves that will be tired and hungry. And then a comet will go by in the sky. That's what it sounds like to me. Just sayin. What a retarded thing. I hate Nostradamus and the people that just make stuff up.

Cotton head layers, the ravaging discs
The heavens light of cores
Wires, tapestries asunder
Pins and needles of the walk
Will sound on the last thunder

That is a prediction that I just made. It means that I am going to have a cheese sandwich now.

Blogs From My Toilet 4

Every day, right when I get up for work at 5:20 a.m., Justin (100% asleep) rolls over onto my side of the bed, as if he has been waiting for me to get out of his way all night. :) I don't think he has any recollection of this whatsoever, but I've never asked.

"Accidentally In Love" Julia Nunes Cover

As requested, here is another video by my favorite youtube person, Julia Nunes. Oh, and I figured out that the weird instrument is called a "Melodica" ...who knew?? Oh and this video is also a primo example of the household items she plays.

Justin scolded me for using her best video as the first one I shared because now everyone won't be as impressed with the rest of them. Well, I still think she's awesome, hopefully y'all agree. Enjoy her cover of this famous Counting Crows song...