Keeping our fingers crossed...

Just a quick update! We are planning on moving up to the Salt Lake area in Dec/Jan since I'm student teaching up there and Dean is working at the Zoo. In fact we already gave our landlord notice and he has sold our contract. The only thing left to do was find someplace to live...haha but we don't let details like that worry us! Actually that's a lie. I was worried and growing more worried each day that we didn't have housing! Places in Salt Lake are WAY more expensive than our little apartment right now, and we were pretty concerned about finding something feasible. BUT...today we might have succeeded in finding a "house" (basement apartment but hey...) We still have to wait and hear back from the land lady tomorrow after she checks our references...although we don't forsee any problems there. Like I said...keep your fingers crossed. We feel very blessed because we really found this place on a total fluke, but I think the Lord was really watching out for us. Still, we'll try not to jinx anything by celebrating early...so until tomorrow, this is Taylor signing off.

4th of July

Well, I guess it's about that time again. By which I mean, time for our annual 4th of July fiesta, as well as time to update this blog. Turns out I'm not any better at writing in an online journal than a regular old notebook. Rats. Anyhow, summer is finally here and life is pretty bueno. For the 4th Dean and I hosted a bbq and it was very fun if I do say so myself. Rod and Di and Dave and Kate came as well as some friends and neighbors from our ward. On the whole, all the food turned out fairly well although the ice cream was a bit runny. Oh well, better luck next time! We went up to campus afterwards where we had a great view of the fireworks. We still have lots of sparklers and other goodies at our house, so we'll likely be using those for awhile! :)
Dean is still working at the Zoo a lot, which he loves but I'm less keen on because it means I get to see him less! I know he really loves it though so we are grateful for this opportunity he's had. I've included a picture of him at the Zoo (from a recent excursion I took). Take care to avoid confusing him with Indiana Jones which a small child at the Zoo recently did. I'm taking classes right now (Golf and my capstone Eng. class) and also helping one of my teachers with her research for her dissertation, so that has been neat. Actually right now it's just data entry so it's not too thrilling but it is interesting, and a good chance to get to know my professors better! Dean and I have also recently invested in tennis rackets so we've been trying to play at least once a week. Let me tell you- we are really good. ;) Well it's fun anyway so that's enough for us. That's all the news for now; I'll consider keeping this thing a bit more up to date, but no promises. :)

Huzzah for Easter!

Well, after a long bout with ongoing sickness, coupled with general midterm crazyness, the blog is back, and better than ever. Since we last posted, Taylor's family (Joe and co.) came up to Utah to spend a luxuriously warm spring break in the eternal sunshine of Utah County. They were also up here to visit UVSC, Carolyne's future alma mater. I have also begun training up at Utah's Hogle Zoo, including exciting animal handling adventures (I have thus far worked with an armadillo, a tenrec, a possum, and a Kookaburra). We then had our first annual Easter spectacular (Ham included!) with the Hardys and Wrights. We spent the Saturday night before dying eggs and came to realize that extra large eggs do not allow the use of those little plastic things that shrink onto the egg (Taylor was quite sad). The most recent occurrence in our lives was the Ward pinewood derby. Despite spending less than an hour on our car, we were able to actually advance to the second round, where we were then handily defeated. However, we still felt great knowing our car looked like a Twix.

Our First Adventure in Babysitting

Some friends of ours (the Richmans) were looking for someone to watch their uber-adorable little girl Gabby (my 1 year old girlfriend) while they went to Salt Lake to see the Jazz defeat the Pistons. We have been scheming for some time to be able to get on the "cool enough to babysit Gabby" list, and at last our time has come. We basically just played with her and commented every few minutes about how she was the cutest baby in the world. She had a filling, formulaic dinner and a quick PJ change. Then, after a brief bit of sadness due to extreme tiredness (which was quickly resolved by holding a teddy bear) the little lady was off to bed at the stroke of 8:30. In summary, we have now successfully watched a baby for 5 hours as a couple. Watanabes rule!

Fhe=Blogging

In an effort to better document the endless roller coaster that is our life in Provo, we have decided that blogging will be our new thing. So...now we are blogging. As far as updates go, I am now in the zoo business, as I've landed a paid internship at Utah's Hogle Zoo. I will be introducing people to animals (and vice versa) from May to September while enjoying the nice warm Utah sun. I have also been fastidiously preparing for the upcoming mountain biking season by making minor mods and major tweaks to both mine and Taylor's bikes. She is very, very excited. She even has her first mountain biking outfit (which her husband, who loves her, purchased)! We also watched "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" for the first time, and I came away with a greater appreciation for the fact that Elizabeth Taylor was indeed at one time quite attractive. Taylor continues to work with her little after school children. They continue to marvel at the fact that a white person speaks/understands Spanish. She also had a SALAS (Student Association for Latin American Studies) party on Friday night which pretty much always equals delicious food (and it did), and this time had the added bonus of a silly Mexican movie. It was loads of fun and we spent the rest of the weekend eating leftovers...mmm.

Trying Things Out

Well I've decided to give this whole family web page thing a whirl. I'll admit when i first heard about this I thought it was pretty dorky, but since we are starting to spread out more and more I thought it might be a good idea. Plus Alando told me today he has a blog so I figured it was time to step up to the plate...

Here's some quick info about the last nine months or so for us! We got married on May 19, 2007 and had a beautiful, delightful reception thanks to our wonderful families on May 28, 2007. Thanks to everyone for making that day possible, it has been the happiest of our lives!

We headed back up to Utah in June and tried to settle in (read fit) into our new little house. Okay well it's not exactly new...circa 1930's stove and a spot for the milkman to drop off the milk...but it was new to us! We both worked over the summer and took classes at BYU. Some highlights of the season included a smashing Fourth-of-July party, a camping trip with our ward, some epic bike rides (25 miles) for Dean and plenty of trips to the nearest park!

The beginning of Fall brought more school
for us and we both started different jobs. I quit the bakery to work at an elementary school in the after-school program and Dean TA's for classes at BYU and teaches the BYU hockey class. Last semester kept us pretty busy but we did enjoy a quick getaway to San Diego for Thanksgiving and a trip back to Tucson for Christmas. (We still managed to find a little Christmas tree for our own house though as you can see!)

I had a birthday in January and we are both back in school and working. It is very snowy up here but we are having a good time between all that pesky studying! :) Recently we has a fondue party with some of our friends and it was really fun so we are planning another soirée sometime soon! We've been following the Obama campaign closely and Taylor has been making phone calls to remind people to get out and vote! She and Diana also went up to Salt Lake to canvas for Barack and that was a fun (but cold) opportunity. We are keeping our fingers crossed and doing what we can to spread the good word! :)

That's all the news for now, but we hope everyone else is doing well and staying warm!