Dangie to the 3rd Power!!!

Wow, we’ve been married 3 years today! It seemed to pass really quickly, but it also seems like we’ve been together for much longer too. I think after 3 years we both have a pretty good idea of what makes the other tick and what makes the other melt, that’s good progress to make, of course there’s always room for improvement (mostly on my part). I have been working at R.R. Donnelley's for the last 2 weeks and it’s really not that bad. The pay is okay for the kind of work I’m doing and I really like the people I work with. We are glad to have an income again and I’m sure Angie is glad to have me out of the house regularly. All things considered, life has been really good to us this last year and we are looking forward to our fourth year together with optimism and smiles!

Got a job, and other happenings of late

Angie and I were boardgame pawns for halloween. Angie made the costumes
Well, those of you who know I was laid off about a month ago know that I've been searching for a job since then. I've been applying all over the western United States to different GIS positions, but haven't seen any luck yet. After talking with some of my colleagues where I had been working and speaking with Jacob and some of my old professors Angie and I decided now was a great time to go back to school. So I've been applying to different programs around. My goal is a career in rural/regional planning. There are some good Masters programs here at USU, and at the University of Idaho for bioregional planning that came highly recommended by those I have spoken to. I had a ball studying for the GRE (not really), and it went pretty well. I've applied to the University of Idaho, the University of Montana, and the University of Utah. Utah and Montana are not exactly what I was looking for, but they are great planning programs and I would consider either of them if accepted. Getting desperate for some kind of income I've been lowering my expectations and applying to janitor positions and the like. We need something to keep us going while we're waiting for school to start (next September). Well, I finally got a job that fits the bill pretty nicely. It's working as a mail-sorter at a private company that's just about 5 blocks away from us. The pay isn't bad for the kind of work it is, plus I'll work about 16 hours of overtime each week (it's 7 days/wk through January). It's swing shift, so I can sleep like a normal person and still have my mornings to keep looking for a job/doing school application stuff. Unfortunately, it means I have to sacrifice all of my regular evening activities (i.e. Scouts, our game group and sunday dinners with the inlaws). So anyways- there's a quick update on what's been happening with us lately. Angie and I have been seeing a lot of each other lately, which is fun, but I think Angie is ready for me to be some where else all day :) All in all, life is pretty good

"Until Next Time, Enjoy Our Wild America!"

As a young boy, I often spent Sunday evenings watching quality PBS programs such as NATURE, NOVA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and of course MARTY STOUFFER'S WILD AMERICA. My brother Jacob and I had such a great time watching and learning all about nature and wildlife. It became a comforting tradition to watch nature shows. Of particular interest to us was WILD AMERICA since it focused on our own turf, usually right in the rockies themselves. We loved Marty Stouffer's soothing narration, placid and homey sweaters, and of course his awesome beard. Dad contributed to PBS pretty regularly and we got as a pledge gift 2 Wild America specials, a 10 year best of, and my favorite- Great Escapes. I had that Great Escapes video completely committed to memory, my favorite part was the snowhare escaping the lynx. If any of you have seen it, you know the one I'm talking about. I wanted to be Marty Stouffer and was dissappointed when my 2 older brothers could grow these massive full bears at 16 and I couldn't even get fuzz until I was 23. For my last birthday, my sweet wife bought me the complete Wild America on DVD!! All 12 seasons! This has re-sparked a new sunday afternoon tradition and I love watching his show again.I recently found out that Marty got into film making as a teenager and he took off alone to Alaska to film wildife. He became trapped by snowfall in a remote valley, but survived by hunting and trapping local wildlife. A modern day Jeremiah Johnson

I remember hearing about some legal troubles with Marty Stouffer, how he had been accused of staging scenes in his documentaries and even claims of animal cruelty. He was hit with some heavy fines for making illegal trails and for poaching Elk near his home in Aspen, Colorado (I wonder if he and John were pals??), and that opened up a flood of accusations and testimony from people who had worked on the set of Wild America. The accusations ranged from staging attacks, to using tamed animals. PBS investigated the show and found fault in 15 of the 110 episodes. It hit me pretty hard and I still get a little upset when I think of that warm friendly face lying to America. But I've dug into it a little deeper, wanting to hear Marty's side of the story. Stouffer denies the charges. "I am not ashamed of anything I have done;' he said, adding, "My conscience is clear. I love animals." PBS even cleared him of any wrongdoin, but due to his damaged reputation he was unable to secure the needed funding to continue the show. Wild America was discontinued in 1996.

It would really shock you to hear how many nature shows are guilty of "setups" and other falsifications. Even Walt Disney himself apparently dumped a whole pack of lemmings off a cliff into a river to film their "mass suicide" as part of his nature show. Also, 15 of 110 episodes means there are still 95 quality honest episodes of Wild America. So in the end, Marty made some good TV and I love watching his show!

Just a couple things

So first off - The first picture is a warning of what can happen if you forget you have a bottle of carmex in your pocket and try to roll around playing with kids. ouch




The next picture is of Grand Teton National Park early this morning. It was really pretty, and if you look really closely you just might see some elk.



Lastly, on the way home from GTNP, I stopped at the DI and found a great game that's really old and pretty hard to find, and it was still in the shrink wrap! score dan! That is all, have a good day!

This is a random post with a few random updates/happenings

Well, We had scout camp which was fun, but soooo hot. Thanks mom and dad for the canopy! I've been back and forth to Grand Teton National Park the last few weeks for work, which has been lots of fun, but lots of work and no leisure time whatsoever. I had been originally hired as an intern for a 3 month period and as that period is winding down I've been talking with my boss and he seems anxious to keep me around, so that's great news! I just need to find enough to do that i can keep myself busy (our business really slows down during the winter months as one might imagine). Angie and i proved to the world that Ping Pong knows no economic or spacial limits when we bought a net and some paddles at the DI and converted her sewing table into a hobbit-sized ping pong table. It actually works really well and is lots of fun. As for the Mike Leavitt picture, well our story isn't quite jake's Mit Romney story, but Angie and i spoke in sacrament meeting today and who should be in attendance but the very governor and his wife (he must have heard who was speaking). Anyways, we both did great and it was fun to see him in person. The last picture is of my geeky Boardgame convention i went to in salt lake. It's called A Gathering Of Strangers, it's an annual event and usually draws around 300 die-hard boardgame geeks. I was one of them. It was awesome! I won the Dominion tournament (that's a game) and got a lot of sweet games in trades and as prizes and stuff. It was a ball. Well, that's enough for now, until next time

-Dangie

Re: Re: Beard Pics

Okay, the bottom one's not me :). Looking at these pictures I'm amazed that angie let my beard get that long. Anytime I shave it's purely because she's complained enough. I hope everyone enjoys the "hairy mole" picture in the middle, you may have to enlarge the image to find the prize.

what we've been up to

A picture is worth a thousand words, so in leau of several thousand words, please enjoy this pictoral representation of the last month or so in our lives.

Ya Come Far, Pilgrim

Happy Birthday Jacob! May your 30s be as eventful as your 20s... good events, I mean. 

In honor of my brother, I'd like to share a story:

Jacob once took me along with him, Trent Johnson, and some other friends of his swimming at the spa. I was probably 8 or 9 and was having a hard time keeping up with the 12 or 13 year olds. We had ventured to the deep end and we all were swimming across to the other side. It’s a pretty long distance for just a little guy and I remember everyone being at the far side already while I was still smack in the middle with 30 feet or so left to go. I was so tired I couldn’t get my arms to move. Fearing I might not make it, I called for Jacob. He heard and I vividly remember his instant response to launch from the side of the pool. Before long he reached me and helped me to the edge of the pool. After that he was very careful to keep a close eye on me. He was a good brother. 

Thanks for the good times, jake and for being a great example and an awesome guy! 

For everyone who's not jake- I made a collage of some of jacob's favorite and most inspiring artists. See how many of them you can identify. If you get them all, I'm sure jacob will appreciate you more :)

Employed!!

The search is over (at least for the summer). I finally landed a job working for a Richmond, UT company called PROVIDIA. They "assist land owners in the management of land health, from monitoring land use to weed management and reclamation." From what I could gather during my interview, they do a lot of GPS work plotting points in fields and rangelands using these really nifty $3,000 units - my job is to "make the maps", and manage and organize existing and future data. It's an internship that will give me some awesome experience and hopefully make me more hirable for future positions. They mentioned that after September there is a possibility of being hired full time. Angie and I are way excited to have something finally and we're glad we get to stay in Logan for at least a little while longer. 

Here's a link to their webpage if anyone's interested in checking them out:

http://providiaprecision.com/index.asp

Our Mother

I have been scanning mom's photo albums and have been really enjoying the process. I get to relive a lot of moments and see some pictures I either haven't seen in a long time, or at all. It makes me step back and wonder at the awesome parents I have. We did so dang much growing up and we have had so many great times and its because of our awesome parents. I thought I would put together a loving picture tribute to my mother. I want you to notice how her smile for baby josh is the same smile for baby deborah. No matter what heck we raised, we couldn't wear down her maternal love :) I love you Mom and I'm so happy that you're the person you are. Thanks for all that you've done for me and all you continue to do for my small family. You're the BEST!!!

WE LOVE YOU MOM!!!

Graduação!

Woohoo! Graduation!! As of may 2^nd I’m an official college grad! It’s pretty nice to feel done with that. I titled this post "Graduação!" (guess what it means) in honor of my often overlooked and practically worthless Portuguese minor. 

My last final was Friday and Angie and I celebrated by going to Golden corral. Angie said I could choose anywhere and she wouldn’t complain, so I took full advantage. The next day mom, dad, Deborah and Rachel with her kids all came up from salt lake to go to the commencement ceremony with us. Rachel was just coincidentally in town so it was special having her and tayson and mia there. Janet and Gregg came as well and the commencement was really quick and nice. There were only 25 or so of us walking in the College of Natural Resources and only 1 other Geography major. It was Spencer Waite, he and I have had classes together and been on group projects together so it was fun to talk with him. The ceremony was quick, consisting of a couple discourses on how we won’t find jobs and how NR majors don’t make any money. After wards we were taking pictures in the lobby of the morgan theater and the Bryans showed up! They had just come from josh’s soccer game and were wet and afraid they’d miss us. It was really fun to see them. The Bryans had to go, but the rest of us headed to the NR building for a free catered lunch which was really good, but really crowded in the NR lobby due to the rain. The family hung out for a couple hours at our apartment before heading back to salt lake. We watched return of the jedi and talked and played with the kids, it was the funnest part of the day, I thought. 

P.S. If anyone reading this wants to hire a Geographer, I'm way qualified.

Vernal '92ish

A few weeks ago I decided to undertake a project I'd been considering for a year or two now. I wanted to start writing some memories I have of people in my life so I don't forget them. I originally limited it to my siblings and parents, but I've been adding random friends as good stories pop back into my mind. This is a story from my "Jacob File" that I thought was worth sharing:

Dad took me and jake on a work trip to Vernal once. I was probably 10 or so which would have made Jacob about 14. Dad had dropped us off at the dinosaur museum while he ran to a meeting or something and was going to come back to pick us up afterwards. We quickly saw all the museum had to offer and before long found ourselves sitting on a bench by the sidewalk in front of the museum singing “War, huh! … what is it good for?!” clapping our hands and singing in our best most shameless  black guy voices while we danced around the bench infront of passing traffic. I think a procession of kindergarten kids even passed us on the sidewalk with their teacher. I’m sure they were very afraid and upset by the spectacle, but we had a lot of fun before dad picked us up. 

Wait... where??

These pictures are up Ogden canyon. My neighbor Adam took me last Saturday up a trail he knew about. The weather was awful! it was raining the whole time with patches of light snow. But man, was it beautiful! I hope you all appreciate the photos as much as I appreciated seeing it in person.

Growing up, Josh liked reminding everyone that he was the oldest and that put him in charge – as if his massive size suggested doubt. He spent hours tumbling around with me (never hurting me on purpose) and even though I sometimes hated it, I always loved the attention my brother showed me. Watching WWF, American Gladiators or just going for a drive in the VW bus, Josh was a really fun brother and he was really good to his dorky 7yrs-younger brother. To him I was “Chubba-lubba” and Jacob came to learn that if he was rough with me all I had to do was yell for josh and that usually settled things pretty quick. We always had a special bond since I was young, and that bond has continued to the present - going to concerts, sharing music, jokes, video games and just hanging out. I like watching Josh interact with his kids, he's a fun dad and you can tell how much he loves his family. Thanks Josh for being a great bro'

the lowdown on my eyes...

just wanted to update everyone with the latest on my eyes.  i saw the eye doctor again today and was given a field of vision test.  the results showed us that not only do i have problems in my left eye but also in my right eye.  exactly half of my right eye tested poorly and my left eye tested poorly through the center of all four quadrants and also most of one side. that pattern is not consistent with anything the doctor was familiar with.  i'm pretty sure he doesn't think it's optic neuritis anymore, he said the pattern was similar to that of a pituitary tumor but still a little different.  also, when reading the eye chart this time my left eye was not able to read as well as it did last time so it's getting a little worse apparently. so, he's not sure what is wrong...nothing to be too alarmed about yet i think.  i am scheduled for an MRI on tuesday afternoon.   this whole thing is kinda scary for me (of course my mind is going to the worst places) but dan is doing his best to keep me positive and not freaking out. what a great guy, i love him.  i'm really grateful for all of your love and support.   i would really appreciate your continued prayers.  so i guess that's it, i'll try to keep you updated as we learn what's going on.

Just wishing everyone a happy Easter!

The last month in a nutshell - A big nutshell

This last month has been an interesting month. Angie has been having problems with her left eye. About a month ago it started getting blurry. She said that it sometimes happens when she gets migrains so she didn’t think much of it, but those usually only last a few hours and after a couple days she thought she should talk to someone about it. So we went to the doctor and he told her to go see an eye doctor. We did (it was the same eye doctor who wasted an hour and a half of his day trying to get contacts into my eyes years earlier. He was really smiley and nice. He told her that her eyes checked out 20/20 and that what it could be is optical neuritis, which is a swelling of the optical nerve. He said it usually last around 4 weeks. We could have her head scanned to be certain, but since we’re not insured the doctor said we were probably fine waiting it out and seeing if it gets better. So it’s been 5 weeks now and angie hasn’t noticed any improvement. She tried to call the eye doctor again this week but he’s out of town until next week. Its really been slowing her down. She can’t watch movies or read very long or even look at the computer for extended periods of time. She says the brightness outside gives her headaches etc. Which is a shame because its been so nice out the last couple of days. We go for walks about every day and we like to play Frisbee a little, but can’t do it for too long. Everyone is keeping her in their prayers and she’s been given two blessings. The rest is just up to her I guess.

We had an awesome trip to southern Utah with Josh, his kids, jake, annie and two of annie's sisters. It was lots of fun. we went to goblin valley and little wildhorse canyon. we camped under a moonless sky and even had dutchoven dinner! we had some late night coyote problems, but besides that it was all fun and games! It sure was nice to get out and adventurize a little bit.

I’ve been getting pretty anxious about graduation. I have only 3 weeks left and I have been searching desperately for employment. I’ve applied to about 6 places, most of which are only seasonal summer jobs or internships. I’ve applied to positions in Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Flaming Gorge, Cedar City, and am just finishing up an application for an internship in Washington state. I’ve really had to jump out of my comfort zone and talk with all my GIS instructors to try to get some letters of recommendation or permission to use them as references. It’s been good for me. I only hope I can get something arranged for this summer. It’s a really hard economy to be graduating in. I heard from someone in one of my classes that students graduating this year will make less in their lifetime than any other graduates from the last X amount of years. Bummer. I guess money can’t buy you everything anyways, right? I’m really hoping I am considered for the Grand Junction or Puyallup, WA jobs. They’re both GIS internships that would be really great for me and give me some excellent experience. Some of the other jobs were just field tech jobs where I wouldn’t be using GIS hardly at all. The cody WY position is a full time assistant planner salary job with their planning and zoning division. That would be awesome!

For angie’s 30^th birthday I bought her Lost Cities the board game. She wanted Dominion but its been out of stock everywhere (even online) since Christmas and if you want to buy a used one online it costs $150!! So that will have to wait, but Lost cities is really fun. We’ve played it a few times with family and with our neighbors the Rodgers and had a good time. 

I got to teach my first Hunter Education class this last weekend. It was fun. I taught it with 2 other students from my Living With Wildlife class and we taught 7 other students from the same class. Angie's cousin Jackson was one of the students. It went well and was really a breeze. I wasn’t planning on teaching any more than the required one, but I may since it was so easy and a pretty good time.

Conference was last weekend and we drove to Kaysville for priesthood session. Mom and dad come along with Deborah and Steven. They had all just come home from Italy just 2 days earlier. It was fun to see them all and to talk about their trip. 2 days after priesthood there was a 6.3 earthquake in central italy that toppled a bunch of old buildings and killed 90 people or so. We were glad they were out of their. Becky and david said they felt it in the middle of the night, but that it wasn’t big where they were and they went back to bed. Sunday after dinner Janet had her traditional conference quiz. I scored the lowest of anyone besides grandma, but I still got a consolation prize of raspberry jam J

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

To celebrate Saint Patrick's Day and to honor my Manx heritage, I sacrificed half of my beard last night to make way for some nice 19th century Caledonian chops. What do you think?

...don't ask

Fun with the Scouts at the Cabin

This weekend we had a scout outing at the cabin. It was lots of fun, dad met us there and helped out with everything, that was really nice of him. We played capture the flag, went sledding had some good food and slept cozy. It was a great little trip and the scouts all had a blast. Thanks again dad for your help!