Andersonica Acta

Tom and Becca's Best & Worst of 2011

2012-01-04T13:44:00.008-06:00

It's the time of year when you see a lot of Best and Worst lists. So here are our two lists for 2011!

Tom & Becca's Worsts from 2011

After searching long and hard for Becca's passport at Christmas 2010, the clutter has yet to get under control!

Tom had 3 grandparents pass away this year.

Our yard is the bane of our existence!

Becca quit her job in June. She desperately misses the schedule, the intellectual stimulation, and the people!

Tom has still not finished his PhD.

We saw a lot of friends move on this summer. We were sad to see them go and maybe a just a little sad that we were not going with them!

Becca no longer fits in her bright red dress!

Tom's Renal Physiology Exam

Becca ended the year without health insurance.

The Glorified Birdhouse (otherwise known as our garage) is still standing!

And since we would like to end on a high note:

Tom & Becca's Bests from 2011

We completed a 5K in April.

Tom and Becca both lost 20 lbs!!!

Becca quit her job! She does not desperately miss the commute, the grading, the guilt, the extreme tiredness, and the excuses!

We celebrated 5 years of marital bliss!

Seeing Niagara Falls (it was Becca's 1st time, as well as her 1st time in Canada)

Cedar Point!

Tom received his white coat.

Studying pathology together.

Tom's Cardiovascular/Pulmonary Pathology Exam.

Becca donated 14 inches of hair to Locks of Love!

Becca and Tom both had small solos in the ward Christmas program and Tom liked Becca's singing!

We were able to save over $100 on parking because of friends in the Chicago suburbs who let us park at their house for 2 weeks and who gave us Metra tickets! It was a long day of travel, but it was awesome to see them and to save so much money!

"Goodbye Grandpa"

2011-09-06T11:15:00.002-05:00

In the last two weeks we have taken two trips to Georgia. A couple weeks ago, Tom's Grandpa Anderson had a fall and went into a coma. There were signs that his grandfather would not come out of the coma and so Tom decided to skip classes so we could go down to say goodbye. The whole trip down to Georgia I was thinking how blessed I am that I am not working anymore so I could just pick up and leave with my husband.

We spent a day and a half there with family and at the hospital and it was a touching experience to see Tom say goodbye to his grandfather. It was touching also to see the care that each of Grandpa Anderson's children gave him in his last moments.

We spent this last weekend back there again for the funeral.

The whole weekend was a very touching experience for me. While it wasn't a happy reason to go and visit family, we were able to enjoy the company of almost all of Tom's siblings and families as well as all his dad's siblings and families.

The first experience I found incredibly touching was in the viewing before we went to the chapel, Tom's 3-year-old cousin was being a little noisy as they were closing the casket. Someone told him that he needed to be quieter because they were closing the casket and he said, somewhat loudly, "Goodbye Grandpa" in his adorable 3-year-old voice. It was perfect.

During the eulogy, Grandpa Anderson's brother-in-law told how the Andersons didn't know the word "in-law" and as I thought back on the few times that I had actually spent with Tom's grandparents I could see how that statement is true. From day one I have always been treated like a granddaughter, daughter, sister, cousin, niece and aunt as if I had always been part of the family. I am so grateful for this. I know many people do not have this blessing and I know how lucky I am.

Tom and I were talking with his Grandma and she was saying, (as she did many times this weekend) how she was always supposed to go first. And she was worried that Grandpa would be given some big calling in heaven and he wouldn't have time to watch over her because he would full-heartedly fulfill his calling. Tom and I thought over this and we came to the conclusion that we don't think we ever get released from the calling of husband and father (or wife and mother for the women) and that will be one of the responsibilities we will have to fulfill even though we are in heaven. It will be like being a bishop, you have stewardship over so many people, but you still can't neglect your family. I think Grandpa will definitely be taking care of his family, even though he is not with us here on earth.

Tom and I have joked a little about what would happen if one of us passes away first. I always tell him I want to live until I'm 100 and then he can come get me the next day, after my big party. I like to think that I would be this tough woman if Tom went first, but I don't know how true that statement is. As I've been reflecting on this weekend's events, I can't help but think how incredibly I would miss Tom if he were not here with me. And I like to think Tom would be incredibly lost without me, although he would probably be ok. But I don't think he could ever find another person who would get as much joy out of a 10 hour car ride full of pathology questions and reading as I do! I am so grateful for the testimony I have of eternal families. I am so grateful that I can be with Tom, joking around with him and going on road trips and talking for long periods of time with him and testing each other on science and making plans for our future, that I can do all this with him FOREVER! Wow, I LOVE THIS MAN!

So while it wasn't the best of reasons to spend with the family, I am grateful for this weekend. I am grateful for my family relationships and I am grateful for how my testimony was strengthened.

Why do these silly mnemonics work?

2010-09-24T19:12:00.005-05:00

One month into my first official year of medical school, I find myself wondering: Why do all these silly medical mnemonics work? I suppose some relate to the subject at hand:

"So long to pinky, here comes the thumb."

But others have nothing to do with the subject, and you'd think it would take just as much effort to remember what it's supposed to be helping you remember:

"Never let my empire burn"

"Suzy Taylor loves sex and pot"

"Cadavers are dead people"

"Randy Travis drinks cold beer"

And yet, I doubt I'll ever forget what these stupid little phrases helped me remember.

If you can think of any more to add, post them in a comment - I am on the lookout for the most ridiculous mnemonic ever (bonus points if you know what any of mine mean without using Google, and double bonus points if you caught and laughed at my stupid pun. I'm not sure what bonus points from me are worth - probably less than a Schrute buck).

Overheard in the Ward

2010-09-12T20:09:00.003-05:00

You may be familiar with the blog "Overheard in the Ward." Here's the Anderson version. The following conversation occurred during our service today:

Becca: I'm cold.
Tom (putting his arm around Becca): Wow, you are cold. You're stealing all my heat! You're a joule thief!!
[uncontrollable laughter]

We really should set a better example for the kids...

30 Presents for my 30th Birthday!

2010-03-21T22:45:00.003-05:00

My 30th birthday began with Becca getting up very early on a Saturday morning. I could tell she was cooking something while I slept in, but the real surprise was that she had invited tons of friends over for a birthday breakfast buffet! How exciting! We were able to pack ~30 people into our little house for the brithday breakfast bash. The twist was that people had to deliver a singing telegram for their breakfast.

The awards for the singing telegrams are:

1st Place: Tanner and Carli Warnick. Title: "Tom, Tom you are the bomb!" Tune: "Praise to the Man" I wish I could remember all the words, but the best part was the chorus, where they alternated saying my name over and over for the ENTIRE CHORUS!! I laughed. A lot. I particulalry liked this one because my students at BYU used to call me "Tom the Bomb." :)

2nd Place. The Nyes. I will give this one in its entirety. "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you look like Napoleon Dynamite, and you act like him too."¹

3rd Place. The Hills. This one was to the tune of "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." And it was awesome. I would love to have the words (hint, hint). On a different note, I found this awesome video while searchign youtube. Mormons are so silly sometimes....

Thanks to everyone who came and sang and ate. I thoroughly enjoyed all the singing telegrams. Starting the day with good friends and good food was the perfect way to start the day! I missed all who couldn't make it. You're welcome at our house for breakfast anytime, though, so come on over, and I won't even make you sing!

As many of you know, Becca also planned 30 presents for my 30th birthday. And here is the full list:

1. Big homemade breakfast
2. Birthday breakfast buffet bash
3. Raspberry Almond M&M's. Yum.
4. Toenail clippers (don't ask, it's a "long" story)
5. Eclipse gum
6. Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (AMAZING!)
7. A pint of Ben and Jerry's "Half Baked." Best. Ice cream. EVER.
8. Two Pilot G2 05 pens (my favorite!)
9. BYU Choirs Eric Whitacre CD
10. Rachmaninov's Complete Preludes (Alexis Weissenberg)
11. Reeses' no bake dessert bar mix
12. "SparkCharts" Anatomy Review Sheet
13. Swedish Fish
14. Florida St. Univ. fitted cap! Don't worry, I got a BYU hoodie and cap for Christmas.
15. Rick Steve's Germany travel guide (we're hoping to celebrate Christmas in Germany with my brother's family)
16. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
17. Symphony bar with toffee and almonds
18. Twix
19. Bath sheet
20. Oven mitt
21. A button down shirt
22. A long sleeved maroon shirt
23. Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys
24. Cinnamon Squares (similar to Cinnamon Toast Crunch!)
25. Reese's chapstick
26. A coupon for cessation of a particular annoying habit that shall remain unamed...
27. Shaved legs (hers, not mine)
28. Dinner at Bayern Stube german restaurant in Gibson City. Sooooo good!
29. A forthcoming trip to see "Beauty and the Beast" the broadway musical
30. A night to remember ;)

It was pretty much the best birthday ever! I wish I had some videos of the awesome singing telegrams, but people wouldn't let us record them! I must say that I'm impressed with Becca's list of presents. I quite enjoyed all of them, and I'm particularly impressed by #26, which I am pleased to report has been quite a successful endeavor on Becca's part. I know all you curious minds out there want to know about this mysterious habit, but, seriously, do you really want that much insight into our relationship? Instead, it will be much more fun if you all guess what it is in the comments. Go.

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¹ A week later Julie Nye wrote the following on my facebook: "Today Zach told me that I shouldn't call you a Lamanite. After some questioning I figured out that he was talking about the Napolean Dynamite song. He said, "Yeah, he's not a dynamite either." He also said that you're not an old man (apparently someone at your party said that-one of my mom friends he said) because old men don't have very much hair."

Zach even sang his own song to me. Apparently I look like a cat and I act like one too. But I like cats, so it's all good. Zach, you are one of the funniest kids I have ever met!

My 31st Birthday!

2010-03-13T18:37:00.002-06:00

Tom planned my birthday this year! What a treat that was. No coming up with a theme, or sending out invitations, or wondering if I have enough friends who will actually show up to my party! No, it was all on Tom. And I think it was a relief. I have been taking on way too much lately and I got to tell everyone that I couldn't do stuff that weekend because of Tom! I think that was the best present of all.

But there were other presents that would rank almost as high as that! Tom planned a surprise weekend trip to Chicago. He didn't have his usual Friday night group meeting and so we left Friday night and stayed at a motel close to the temple. And then we got to sleep in before we went to the temple. After the temple we checked out of our motel and then drove downtown to the Omni All-Suite Hotel on Michigan Ave. Yes, a four star hotel! I've never stayed in such a fancy place. So fancy the gum in the mini bar cost $1.50, even though right on the package it says to charge $0.35. And then we went to lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe. And then we went window shopping because we are too poor to buy anything on Michigan Ave ($200 for a necktie?). After that we got dressed up and went to the Chicago Symphony. Quite Enjoyable! It was fun to walk down Michigan Ave looking as fancy as I could come up with! After the symphony we stopped in the Ghirardelli Chocolate store and ice cream shop. I had a fantastic dark chocolate sundae for my birthday. Then we stopped at a drugstore and bought a big bag of chips that was the same price as the small bag of chips in the mini-bar so I could have something from the mini bar, but not for the price. And then we fell asleep in the wonderful pillows that I loved sinking my head into! We then got to sleep in again. Once we got ready for the day we drove to Ed Debevics and had a good burger that I had been craving all week. They are supposed to be rude, but I didn't let them be that way. It was my birthday gosh darnit! Then we ended up at the Art Institute of Chicago which was having Free February. I'm not that big of a fan of Art Museums, but I did get to see that big painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which I do like. After the art museum we went to Gino's East and had deep dish pizza which I like much better than thin crust! And then we had an enjoyable drive home, stopping to get blizzards for my birthday treat. Tom almost took me to Fogo de Chao, because I love meat so much! But we were not wanting to spend so much on a meal we were really too full to eat. So we will save that for another time. When Tom told me how much that restaurant costs I actually gasped! I was quite flattered though that Tom would want to spend so much on me!

So for presents this year I got Taylor Swift's new Platinum Album, "Fearless", The Office-season five, my favorite Silk 'n Shine Blistex lip balm, Till we have Faces by C.S. Lewis, and an old map of Europe. I love that one! We are going to frame it and put it in a framed collage with my other pictures from Europe.

Tom knows me so well. I had such a wonderful, relaxing time and it was really hard to come back to my real life.

The Circle of Life...Interrupted

2009-09-20T20:07:00.011-05:00

Recently I've been keeping track of our own little "Joanny Saggy" hanging outside our window. Today it came out of its chrysalis and was a beautiful monarch butterfly. Yesterday I noticed there was a praying mantis also and I thought, "How wonderful, I don't see those very often." But then it went away. Today I saw it again hanging around the butterfly and I started to wonder if it was planning on eating my butterfly that I've been waiting to see. So I did some research and sure enough, praying mantises eat butterflies! I made Tom get a cup and take away the praying mantis! I know you are not supposed to help a butterfly out of its chrysalis because that is how it gets strength and if you help it, then it will die because it will not be strong enough to fight off predators or fly away. I hope I didn't make it weaker by taking away its first predator! But I just couldn't see all my hard work waiting around for it being wasted on that praying mantis!

The praying mantis "preying" on my wonderful butterfly!

It had to happen "Sooner" or later...

2009-09-05T21:47:00.017-05:00

The first big upset of the season: No. 20 BYU over No. 3 Oklahoma. Need I say more?

Just in case you missed it, check out the highlights here. And for all you Cougar fans out there, I embedded the Cougar Fight Song below, so you can rise and shout one more time and salute the Cougars for the amazing game they played tonight!

Helmet stickers go to Max Hall for playing like the veteran quarterback he is, the young offensive line for handling a fierce OU D-line, and the BYU defense for their aggressive play against a brutal running game and a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, keeping both in check most of the night.

**UPDATE**
BYU is ranked number 9 in the week 1 AP rankings and number 12 in the USA Today rankings!!

GIRL'S CAMP!!

2009-08-22T12:03:00.040-05:00

The thing I love most about my job is I can do whatever I want during the summer! One of the highlights of my summer is getting to go to Girl's Camp. Part of my Stake YW Presidency responsibilities is being the Girl's Camp Liaison which means I get to help plan girls camp! This year I got to plan it with 3 women who I completely love and admire! They are amazing in every way, shape and form and each brings specific talents that really help Girl's Camp be the success it is each year.
So this post is going to be really long. But, if you are a camp director or ever will become one, there are a lot of good ideas here so I highly recommend reading all about our adventures. (Those of you in the Champaign stake, we are looking for a new stake camp director so pay attention!)

The theme for Girl's Camp this year was "Partakers of the Gift". I thought it was such a wonderful theme that really helped bring everyone together.

We camp at Camp Drake, which is a boy scout camp, so we have a dining hall, a pool, archery and shooting and toilets. There are cabins there, but our girls sleep in tents and they do have to cook some of their meals in the campsites. But thank goodness they do not have to dig their own latrines!

Monday: Arrived and quickly set up camp. Then off to a service project. The Young Women were clearing trails and cutting down trees and hauling wood. It was a wonderful sight to see them all working so hard. Then we had fire building with a little competition thrown in there. Each campsite had to build, start, and sustain a fire long enough to burn through some rope. One of the young women in my ward was so intense about getting her fire roaring she almost suffered burned hair and shoulders as she knelt down to blow air into the fire. After dinner, taco salad, we had this awesome activity called the Amazing Race where each campsite had to go to seven different stations and choose between a mental or a physical challenge. Then they had to work together as a group to get through that challenge. At the station I manned they had to choose between collecting enough kindling to build a 1 foot high pile or they could create a monthly budget. It was awesome to see the groups that chose the budget really start thinking about all the things they will have to spend their money on once they graduate high school. Then we had our traditional Monday night party. This year we decided on a birthday party theme to go along with gifts. We had a pinata and a pin-the-nose-on-the-clown. There was also music and dancing and a wonderful birthday cake for dessert. There was also a limbo contest. Good, clean fun!

Forging the trail!

Me doing service

The fire building competition!

Our leader skit involved us searching for and finding our hidden talents. I found I was smart! ("S-M-R-T")

Pinata at our party!

Tuesday: The goal was to cook all day in the campsites. After I gave a devotional about the gift of repentance everyone went back to their campsites and made omelets in a bag and bacon for breakfast, but a mighty rain storm came in and made it pretty impossible for them to cook lunch in their sites. So all the young women came to the dining hall and we had a great scripture study and then we had first aid certification. After lunch, sub sandwiches, they had their stake craft, which is my anti-gift, so I did not do. But they made cute gift boxes reminding them of things they have received as gifts in their lives. After the craft we saw sun and everyone had free time. I had an awesome nap! The girls were able to cook in their sites for dinner and made foil dinners. The food at camp is so good! After dinner we joined together at the arena for our opening ceremonies. For certification this year we had an Olympic theme with some competitions. Each campsite had to come up with a flag and cheer/jingle. So we had the parade of flags and presentation of the campsites. Then for the Opening Ceremonies entertainment we had an awesome girl band called "Out of Sync" comprised of the stake camp directors and myself. We lip-synced and danced to three songs. The best: "Dancing Queen"; our prop: shovels. We completely lived up to our name and the girls had a fantastic time. Then off to the dining hall for bedtime snacks and secret sisters. I got an awesome bag full of goodies such as glow sticks, a relaxing CD and lip gloss. The bag was an awesome green and my secret sister somehow knew that I love lip stuff! Even though we don't really know who our secret sisters are until we get to camp, it was amazing just how much this sister had me pegged.

OUT OF SYNC!
(Living up to our name)

Wednesday: Woke up to a beautiful morning and ready for a hike. We split up into years. I joined my friend Aubrey and Bro. Springer and we led a small group of young women on a hike around Camp Drake. Bro. Springer showed the girls edible and poisonous plants. For the first time in my life I feel confident in pointing out poison ivy! It was so awesome though because a lot of the girls would excitedly ask Bro. Springer about everything. We constantly heard, "Bro. Springer, what is this?", "Bro. Springer, look at this!", and "Bro. Springer, what about this?" It was so cool! At one point in the hike the trail was about 8-inches wide and right on a drop off to the creek about 10 feet below. At another point the trail looked like it just stopped with a huge tree with lots of fat branches blocking the way and completely overgrown past it. But that was the trail so we had these girls climbing in and out of the tree and trudging through knee-high brush. And another point the girls approached a spider building its web right across the trail and were very respectful of the spider and made it a rule that everyone had to duck under it and let it be. Even Bro. Springer played along and bless his heart ducked down pretty low to make it under. My fat back pack barely made it, but we let that spider be. I think the hike was my favorite part of camp this year! Afterward we had another great scripture reading time about gifts of the restoration at the chapel they have there . Then they made pizzas at their campsites, so good! And then we had the first-aid relay-not my favorite part of camp. By this time the girls were not in the mood to follow the rules and have to carry pretend hurt girls all over camp drake and there was only me left to carry one of them! I was not excited about that and was mad that the girls would not play along. I thought it was such a good idea but the girls were not that excited about it. Our team came in dead last, with me being very frustrated. But Brittney did a wonderful job in planning it and the leaders were very good at being picky with the girls and their abilities of bandaging and wrapping fake injuries. After that free time then dutch oven dinners in the campsites with potatoes and pork chops, so good! And the campsite I ate at didn't make their cobblers the day before so we had apple cobbler for dessert. After dinner was skit night. This year we randomly split up the groups and gave each group an 80's song title that was to be the theme of their skit. It wasn't supposed to be a music video. The girls came up with some really great skits and I think skits are a lot easier if given a theme, not necessarily a bunch of props. So I think we will do that again. My favorite was "Footloose". The girls had a hospital clinic. The first girl came in with her hand shaking all over and the doctors pronounced, "Hand Loose" as her ailment. Then a couple more and then one of the leaders came in saying all kinds of gibberish and the doctors pronounced, "a few screws loose!" And then another leader came out shaking her bottom all over the place and the doctors pronounced, "A Loose Caboose!" The final one came out with "Foot Loose." Pretty funny stuff. And then there was an encore presentation from Out of Sync. This time we turned all the lights out at the arena and put glow sticks all over our body and danced to "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys. I love the Backstreet Boys. Anyway, that was a hit and then we did our much rehearsed Emmy award winning Shovel Dance to Dancing Queen. We were a hit! Then back to the dining hall for cookies and ice cream and secret sisters. This time I got a cute bright colors knitted looking bag with some foot scrub and body wash. How did she know I still have all my mission callouses?

On the overgrown trail

Scripture reading at the chapel

Thursday: Breakfast: french toast, my favorite. Then we had our scripture reading about the gift of the Atonement. Wonderful. Then we went canoeing. The girls got to play for a while and then we had a canoe race. Our team came in third. Crossing the bridge is always a little scary, but everyone makes it safe. Then we had cheeseburgers for lunch. Afterward we had a little certification left and then off to water games. Aubrey and I were in charge of water baseball with a huge slip 'n' slide. I kind of did a slip 'n' slide but really just scooted myself a long a little. The girls had great fun with that. They also had water relays. Everyone got wet. Then it was off to free time. Thursday is always Priesthood night so the ward Priesthood leaders came out and gave short messages to their girls. And then we had Hawaiian haystacks, love them, for our Priesthood feast. After dinner is testimony meeting. I was really impressed with one young woman's testimony about how she has been praying for the last few years for help in becoming less shy and while she knows she isn't perfect at that gift, she recognizes she is getting help in improving. I was so touched! It was awesome to hear several of the young women say their favorite part of camp was the scripture reading. That has been our camp director's goal and it sure was a payoff to hear that many comment on it! After the wonderful testimony meeting we headed to the dining hall for our night time snack and secret sisters. This time I received a brown and pink bag with some post-its, note cards, and pens in it. How did my secret sister know I use post-it notes and pens as a teacher?
Crossing the bridge to Poncho Pond. Quite a scary experience!

The Canoe race at Poncho Pond

This spider was huge! You can compare it to the doorstop to get the idea. I didn't use that bathroom ever again after seeing this!

Friday: Camp clean-up. After cleaning up we gave out certification awards. We also found out who our secret sisters were. I found out that mine was a good friend of mine and she had been trying so hard all week not to tell me she was my secret sister! She said the best joy of the week was seeing my reaction to the gifts she gave me! And she also told me that while she was shopping for secret sister gifts she felt very inspired to buy certain things. She had never spent that much time looking for gifts and these were not gifts that she would normally buy. But she followed promptings she received and had a lot of fun seeing how following those promptings paid off. She was just about as excited to give me those gifts as I was to receive them!

My Secret Sister Susan (on left) and my good friend Patty! They make camp truly fun!

One thing that Denise, our fearless leader, started this year was a giving tree. We set up a Christmas tree and then laid out paper ornaments that the young women could write on telling the kind things or wonderful gifts they observed in other young women. By the end of the second day the tree was full and it was a wonderful sight to see.
What a wonderful week I got to spend with our stake young women. And my best lady friends of the stake! It was such a rewarding experience. I hope that I will continue to be able to return every year!

If you made it to the end of this post you deserve a cookie. You should go find one right now! Oh and leave a comment letting me know you made it through!

Does Tom like my singing?

2009-07-18T12:55:00.004-05:00

A lot of you are wondering whatever happened with my audition. Well, he called one night and said that he would allow me to sing even though he hadn't heard me still and he scheduled me for July 12. Last Sunday I sang "Guide Me to Thee" from the Sabbath Song II book. I was so nervous. I don't have a natural vibrato, but I'm sure some people thought I might because I was shaking so much. I definitely thought I could do better, but it was a lot better than it would have been if I hadn't had voice lessons this last year. Anyway, people said I did well, so I guess I did ok. I always wonder though if they are just being nice. I mean, I didn't hear anything from the ward music chairman!

Bryson (my voice teacher) left this last week to move to Provo and get married. I am really sad. I was really liking taking voice lessons. At our last lesson we sang through a lot of the songs that I have sung this last year. It was awesome to end the lesson on the song I first learned and realize just how much I have improved. I really didn't notice how much my singing has improved, I mean, I definitely feel more confident in singing, especially some of the higher notes, but when I sang that song, it was so easy! I remember how much I struggled with getting all the notes and now I just belted them all out. Of course there was still room for improvement, oh but it was so fun to feel so confident in it! I will definitely miss my lessons. I am really glad I did this for me and I hope I am at least a little closer to Tom liking my singing!

Update: The music chairman came up to me this Sunday and thanked me for my musical number.

Savings win!

2009-07-03T16:21:00.013-05:00

This post is the conclusion to the Anderson Washer and Dryer Saga of 2009. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted previously if you haven't read them already.

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After being told by the salesman at Lowe's that the best they could do was essentially to match Home Depot's price I noticed that US Appliance had renewed their $100 off coupon code for GE Appliances, which was convenient since we had our eye on a GE washer/dryer pair.

We had pretty much decided to go with US Appliance, but I figured I had come this far in asking for good deals, so why stop now? I called Home Depot, without much hope, and explained that I had found a MUCH lower price online and asked if they would they be willing to match it. The "Appliances" manager didn't even hesitate to say "Yes." With the caveat that Home Depot would charge tax where US Appliance does not. But Home Depot has free installation, unlike US Appliance. The 2 pretty much offset, and we ended up getting the washer and dryer we wanted for $113 less than the Home Depot sale price which was already 10% off their regular price! I definitely smiled because I was saving even more!

When I went to Home Depot I was preparing for them to look at me like I was some sort of criminal for ripping them off so badly, but both the Appliances manager and the employee who completed my purchase were very friendly and did not make me feel awkward at all! Home Depot customer service WIN! The washer and dryer were delivered today. Needless to say, we are very excited about our new acquisitions, even if it means we don't ~~have to~~ get to go to the "Launderette" anymore!

Meet "Launderette" and "Gus!"

Our laundry room doesn't look like much, but we're pretty excited to actually be able to do laundry again! (this might be the only time in my life I'm excited to do laundry!) As I mentioned earlier they are made by GE. "Launderette" is a 4.0 cubic foot capacity washer and "Gus" is a 7.0 cubic foot capacity gas dryer.¹ They were rated very highly by Consumer Reports for washing efficiency, energy efficiency and water efficiency. The only downside is the washer shakes the floor pretty badly during the spin cycle (which was the one mark against the washer at Consumer Reports). I think we can live with that. Hopefully they'll save us $$ on our energy bills!

¹ Sometimes when we stay up way too late we end up watching "According to Jim" on Fox, not really because we like it, but because it is on. Last night on the episode Jim created a doll that flatulates that he called "Gassy Gus". How timely!

Savings fail?

2009-07-01T13:45:00.017-05:00

We are big fans of Dave Ramsey and the Total Money Makeover approach to financial management. During our first year of marriage we started our "makeover" and we are now out of debt (except the house and my small student loan) and we use cash/debit for our purchases.

Dave Ramsey is really big on paying cash for things, and he often talks about getting a better deal on things when paying cash since the store gets the cash up front, doesn't pay overhead to credit card companies, etc.

So we are shopping for a new washer and dryer and I thought it would be a good time to try Dave's approach. We have shopped very carefully using Consumer Reports, comparing store prices to those online, etc.

Yesterday we withdrew a substantial amount of cash from the ATM (no Bank of America branch here) and went into Lowe's to get our selected washer and dryer. We informed the salesman of our intent and showed him a price we had found online at US Appliance and asked whether they could match it. The answer was no. The manager quoted us the bottom line price, which was still $123 more than US Appliance. So we left. (Don't get me wrong, the Lowe's price was still a decent deal.)

This morning I awoke to discover that the US Appliance deal had expired, so I went to Lowe's and approached the manager. I told him I had the cash to buy our selected washer and dryer (patting the fat envelope on the counter) and asked if he could knock a little more off the price quoted the night before. He replied, "I'm not going to give you a discount just because you're paying cash." He seemed amused/annoyed that I was even asking. I said, "Even though you will have to pay 3%-5% if I pay with my credit card?" He said, "I don't care about that." I said, "OK" and walked out of the store while he apologized. He can let the money walk out the door - it's not my problem (turns out the US Appliance deal is back on again anyway, so we'll likely do that).

In essence, this is what I heard from the manager, "I know that you are going to save me money by paying with cash, but I am not willing to pass any of those savings on to you." OK, well that's fine but I'm still going to buy the appliances at the cheaper place. I definitely wasn't expecting him to say, "Oh, sure I'll cut 10% off the price." But even a small discount for me would be awesome and would go a long way toward me being a repeat customer, and I would tell everyone how awesome Lowe's is. But now I'm instead telling you how much I dislike them. Oh well.

As I've thought about it, I've come to see it two ways.

Reasons he should offer a slight discount to me:

1. He's saving 3%-5%
2. The company immediately gets the cash assets, as opposed to a monthly payment
3. Better for me to spend my money there than elsewhere

However, there are some good reasons why he didn't give me the deal

1. He's the manager, and my purchase doesn't affect his paycheck.
2. Most people who shop for washers and dryers NEED them - it's not often a whimsical purchase. So he knows there's a good chance I'll be back to pay his reasonable price.
3. "The establishment" makes it difficult for them to make "exceptions" for individual customers.
4. In the case of a washer and dryer, he knew that no one else in town had a lower price on those models (Home Depot was the same price). If it were a custom job, like counter tops or carpet, he isn't as confident that he's the lowest in town and may be more likely to give me a better price.

So what do you think? Is it crazy to think I might get a discount on a large purchase just for paying cash? Is the Lowe's manager dumb to turn me away? Or is this a case of "Dave Ramsey fail?" Or is it just not the right situation to apply Dave's cash tactic? Should the system reward financing purchases while offering no advantage to those willing to pay cash?

-------------------------------------------

Side note: The large ATM withdrawal prompted a freeze on our debit card, email notification of suspicious activity, and multiple phone calls from Bank of America (within hours of the withdrawal). Score one for them for customer protection!! The irony is, I went and deposited the money back in our local bank account. Too funny.

Why doesn't my hair look as voluminous in pictures as I think it does in the mirror?

2009-06-28T21:55:00.004-05:00

I just finished my last two weeks of ICLCS! It was a frustrating but very rewarding program. I came out of it feeling confident in my teaching skills. It was a wonderful experience because I got a lot of free tools, made a ton of new friends, gained a better understanding of chemistry and left feeling like I have so much more to learn! So I signed up for an organic chemistry class being taught to us teachers for this next year! I'm very excited for that because now I might actually be able to understand what Tom is talking about!

"Have we told you how much we don't like you Dave?" Of course we are only joking. Me with Dave and my ICLCS BFF Garilyn at our poster session!

I made a poster! And it was good!

Saturday is a special day...

2009-06-21T22:09:00.018-05:00

They say Saturday is a special day, the day you get ready for Sunday, which is all well and good until your washer breaks, thus ruining your Sabbath preparations. Yes, that's right, our washing machine broke DURING a rinse cycle, so our washer was full of water and wet clothes with no way to drain it. We had 5 more loads to do, it's Saturday night, and we're totally exhausted from ICLCS, youth conference, being in the lab all night, etc. To top it all off, we had no clean clothes for Sunday. Here's the play by play of our adventure:

10:00 PM. We pack all the laundry in the car (including the sopping wet ones!) and drive all over Champaign-Urbana looking for a laundromat that was actually open. We find several (thanks, Jenna and Rob for the tip!), but they wouldn't let us start laundry that late

11:15 PM. We end up in campustown, on Green Street, searching for "Skylight Launderette." No really, that's what it's called. (FYI, Green St. is pretty much the center of all undergrad partying. You could literally smell the ethanol in the air, and the attire of those around us left much to be desired - particularly the women's)

11:16 PM. Becca suggests we name our daughter "Launderette."

11:17 PM. Bad idea. Side note - Don't read too much into this - there is no imminent "biological" reason for this conversation.

11:20 PM. Sadly, Skylight Launderette has been renamed "Skylight Laundry." How boring. The hours of Skylight Laundry are posted as 8 AM to midnight. We ask the attendant if we can do laundry. She replies, "No! Can't you see I'm mopping?" How rude.

11:30 PM. We haven't had dinner, so we drive around looking for a place to get quarters and food. We go to County Market to get a roll of quarters but they don't have one to give us. Becca buys a box of eclairs for the Father's Day smorgasbord to be held during Priesthood. We get a $10 bill to use for laundry on Sunday morning (church isn't until 1 PM).

12:00 AM. Before getting back in the car, I realize that our wet laundry is beginning to drip all over the car. So I stand in the street outside County Market, wringing out a basket of wet laundry!! We felt like bums who live out of our car! And of course we didn't have the camera with us.

12:15 AM. We go to the IHOP on Green Street. While in the IHOP, 4 police cars show up outside IHOP and officers begin questioning people in 3 different vehicles. And of course we have a front row view from our booth. The IHOP employees are all standing outside watching the whole thing go down. But they aren't that impressed. They say it's a pretty tame night by their standards.

1:00 AM. We finish dinner and pay with our IHOP gift card (thanks Mom and Dad Adams!). The manager brings us the receipt and we head home.

1:03 AM. We return to the IHOP hoping they can give us a roll of quarters. The manager asks if I had just eaten dinner there (I'm thinking, "Did you honestly forget me - ME OF ALL PEOPLE, A 6'3" ALBINO - in the 3 minutes since we left your restaurant?"). He gives me the quarters.

1:04 AM. Lots of yelling by undergrads from the balconies of the high rise apartment across the street from IHOP. I think they were surprised to see a 6'3" albino. Call me crazy, but alcohol and balconies don't seem like a good combination.

1:05 AM. We get in the car to head home. There are still 2 cop cars with lights flashing in the IHOP parking lot.

1:30 AM. Snuggle into bed, exhausted as usual.

7:30 AM. Alarm goes off.

7:38 AM. Snooze.

7:46 AM. Snooze.

7:54 AM. Get up and dress in our last remaining clean outfits. Head to the laundromat. (Judge us! But don't be too harsh - Becca wore a skirt, and I wore a BYU shirt)

8:20 AM. Laundromat is now open, and we load the clothes in 3 double capacity washers. We decide that when we have our big house, we need 3 washers and 3 dryers.

8:30 AM. Becca overhears the following.

Man #1: Don't look too excited about being here.
Man #2: I hate doing laundry.
Man #1: I tried to get married so I didn't have to do this anymore.
Then I decided it wasn't worth the trouble.
Man #2: (laughs)

This conversation was, needless to say, highly offensive.

8:35 AM. Man #1 might actually be a bum who lives out of his car. Either that or his wife was being too much trouble. I overhear him talking on the phone about how he slept in his truck, and it was too humid to sleep.

9:30 AM. Laundry is finished. I am moving the laundry to the car, per Becca's instruction. Man #1 looks at me and says, "Boy, she's got you trained, doesn't she?" I laugh. Heartily.

9:35 AM. I realize that what I SHOULD have said to Man #1 was, "Yeah, but she makes it worth my while." ☺

10:10 AM. Back at home, laundry all over the living room. Time to get ready for Church. Thankfully, my presidency meeting was canceled for Father's Day. Honestly, I'm not feeling as bad as I thought I might about being a Sabbath-breaker.

11:00 PM. Blog the whole experience. Laugh out loud with Becca all over again. Wish we had had a camera at the laundromat to surreptitiously take a picture of Man #1. I love that our marriage is full of these little moments of laughter!

A little present

2009-06-21T20:40:00.002-05:00

This last week I've been attending the Institute for Chemical Literacy through Computational Science (ICLCS). It's a pretty intensive program which goes for two weeks and lasts from 8 am to 8 pm everyday. I also was in charge of the food for our Stake Youth Conference which happened this last weekend as well. So on Thursday night I went to ICLCS and then I went straight to chaperon the youth dance. You can imagine that I was getting home pretty late that night and that I was extremely tired. I had to make several trips to unload the car of all the leftover food we had and as I stepped out of my house I stepped on something that was plump and soft, but also crunched under my foot. When I looked back to see what that weird thing was I had stepped on I realized I stepped on A DEAD BIRD! That was gross!

The next morning I hurried out of the house to go to my institute and I just barely missed THE DEAD BIRD! This time it was covered in flies and I probably would have smelled bad if I actually had stepped on it! Thank goodness Tom took care of it before I got home that day! It's kind of amusing that we got such a present even though we don't have a pet to bring us one.

Just another thought. I always think that the word "chaperon" needs to have an "e" at the end. I hate that I always misspell it.

I'm Auditioning!

2009-06-11T12:01:00.002-05:00

Some of you may know that I have been taking voice lessons for the last year. My ultimate goal was to learn how to sing so Tom would like my singing, but Bryson, my teacher, has convinced me that I'm doing it for me as well! Anyway, I decided to use it for one of my Personal Progress projects. Bryson really wants me to sing in church so I figured that would be a good culminating end for my project. Well, we just got moved to the Champaign Ward and we have a new ward music chairman. I asked him if I could sign up for a musical number and he sat me down in the foyer and proceeded to ask me about my musical background, whether I had sung in choirs, how many solos I have sung, and so forth. And then he said that he was hesitant to let me sing in sacrament meeting without hearing me first. Not really knowing how I sing, he wanted to make sure that I didn't "need a few more weeks of practice!" So now I have to audition for a musical number in church! That's fantastic. As if I wasn't nervous enough as it was. Now I'm more nervous because what will I do if he says I need some more practice?

I'm training for a 5K!!!

2008-05-01T20:43:00.003-05:00

I have never been a runner! But I thought it would be a great Young Women's project to get in shape enough to run a 5K...by the end of the summer.

So I started this week. I found online the Couch-to-5K program, being the major couch potato I am. The first day I was dying after the first minute. But I made it my goal and I am going to stick to it! So this Monday I set out again to go running. Those in Champaign may remember that Monday was a little cold, but I was determined to go. So I bundled up in Tom's big old fatty sweatshirt, tied up the hood, and set off. Immediately it started to rain, but I was not going to let that stop me. Then it started to rain harder. The wind was blowing at my face so strong but I told myself I was going to keep going! I was cold and wet but I was going to make my goal! And then it started to hail! I really wanted to give up then but I couldn't, I was actually prideful now. I was going to be the dumb girl running in the hail, and proud of it! So I kept running. I was going to be tough. Nothing was going to stop me. I was not going to die no matter how much I felt my heart was going to explode. But then a bird pooped on me! I want everyone out there to know that I finished my run that day, with bird doodoo on my shoulder! I am so proud!

KEN LEE!!!!

2008-04-15T19:16:00.001-05:00

Don't you just LOVE Bulgarians?

Prague...Probably the most beautiful city in Europe

2008-04-06T18:14:00.006-05:00

Well, we are FINALLY posting all our pictures from our Europe trip!! We went to Vienna and Prague over New Year's. It was amazing (even if it was a little cold)! We've posted our favorite pictures here, but all of them are posted in our Web album later (look for the link in our forthcoming Vienna post).

Standing at the entrance to the Karlov Most (Charles Bridge) looking across the Vltava River to Prague Castle. The bridge is in Mission Impossible, so you might recognize it.

Probably?

Trdelnik, also known as Trdlo. Probably the best treat you'll find in Prague! They roll the dough into a long thin rope then wrap it around these big metal cylinders and roll it in sugar then cook it over the coals until the outside is crispy and the inside is warm and then they roll it in the sugar again and then give you a piece of it - it is warm and delicious! It was especially nice on those cold December days!

Mmmmm.....Trdelnik!

Prague by night..a view of Prague Castle across the river, with the Charles Bridge also visible. Prague Castle is the largest castle in Europe. We know you are thinking that Versailles is larger, but as our tour guide was SO adamant in pointing out, Versailles is a palace, not a castle. Seriously, though, Prague Castle once had a moat and they have towers for guards. Click on the picture for a much larger and better view of this beautiful picture.

This is the entrance to Karlov Most. The legend goes that King Charles himself laid the first stone for the bridge in 1357 on the 9th of July at 5:31 AM, so it's a huge palindrome (135797531). He is definitely the most popular monarch they have - our tour guide talked about him A LOT.

On the bridge is a spot where it is rumored one of the kings threw a priest off to his death for not telling the king whether the king's wife had confessed infidelity. Nowadays it is popular among tourists to touch a spot on the bridge (see Tom below!) where the priest was thrown off, supposedly granting one's wish. The only problem is, it's not the actual spot where the priest was thrown off! Our tour guide showed us the actual spot, but it is much less popular.

This is the other side of the bridge which opens on to a beautiful little street. Prague seemed to have a lot of these, but they are common in most European cities.

This is a view from the bridge of a cute side street with Christmas lights.

We found Becca's FAVORITE European grocery store, Billa! We got bread, cheese, and juice for dinner and ate in our hotel. We had a hard time paying because they overcharged for the bread because they didn't understand us (we don't really speak Czech, just in case you hadn't noticed!).

Probably the best fried cheese Becca will ever eat! Fried cheese is a popular meal for college students because it's so cheap! And it's safe for Becca because she's picky! Mmmmmm.....cheese.

Prague has a Jewish quarter and we got a picture of this clock tower that has both a normal clock and a Hebrew clock. Seeing the two right next to each other is pretty cool. We wanted to go back to the Jewish quarter but didn't get a chance. They have a cemetery adjoining a synagogue where all the names of the Czech Holocaust victims are engraved on the wall. The cemetery is very small but it is 12 (?) layers deep because they didn't have space to spread out. I guess we'll have to see that on our next trip to Prague...dare to dream!

This is the cathedral inside the walls of Prague Castle. It was started in the middle ages but wasn't actually finished until Bohemia (the old name for the Czech/Slovak region) gained independence in the early 20th century. We just missed the last tour of the day, so we didn't get to go inside. Again, next time....

This is Wenceslas Square which occupies a central location and has been the scene of many political protests and other major events in Prague's history. Shown here is a statue of "Good King Wenceslas" who was actually a Duke and not a king (ironically, they don't have that song in the Czech Republic). The building in the background is the Czech National Museum. In the 1970s (?) when Czechoslovakia was attempting to free themselves from Communism, the Soviet Army rolled into Wenceslas Square and started firing on this building because they thought it was the Parliament building, but, no, it's just a museum. Incidentally, Prague has also been the scene of several famous defenestrations which typically arose due to political disagreements and we all know the best way to handle such a situation is to throw the other guy out of a window (?!). Anyway, moving on....

This is the Opera House where Mozart's Don Giovanni was premiered. "Amadeus" was also filmed here.

This is the Old Town Square which is one of the most popular tourist destinations. This time of year they had Christmas markets out with crafts and yummy food. We had lots of Klobasa and Trdelnik. So good! The building shown with the two towers represents Adam and Eve - the right hand tower is slightly larger than the other.

This is the astronomical clock. Probably the most famous attraction in Prague. It chimes every hour and it has lots of moving parts and figures. You can read all about the different parts and see lots of close up pictures here. This is Becca's favorite thing about Prague. At first, Tom was not that impressed because he was expecting more. But it is really cool once you learn about what all the pieces mean. So go read about it! It's not a great picture because the thing is so huge!

A view of Prague by night, taken from the wall of Prague Castle. It is such a beautiful city, and we recommend that you visit!

Good times!

2008-02-17T17:52:00.008-06:00

We visited Tom's parents and extended family in Georgia for Christmas. It was a very fun, relaxing visit, highlighted by all our cute nieces and nephews. Tom's sister Allyson has 2 girls, Savannah and Lizzie, and 1 boy, Joseph, while Tom's other sister has two, Elanor and Johnny. Here are a few snapshots of our fun times:

Becca with Elanor, while Elanor opens her dinosaur DVD. Elanor calls herself "a girl scientist" because she likes dinosaurs and rocks more than just about anything.

Elanor thanking Tom for the DVD

All the nieces and nephews (and we even got them all to look at the camera!)

Johnny doing what he does best - posing for the camera!

This is the ULTIMATE game of Settlers of Catan! We used 3 boxes of Settlers, 2 Cities and Knights, 1 Seafarers, and a German expansion that came with lots of extras. We had 10 people playing with 5 teams of 2 players each. As you can see it filled our entire kitchen table! It was awesome!

This is Savannah playing with Becky's dog. Sooooo cute!

That cat sure was getting old

2007-11-16T11:01:00.003-06:00

Are you happy, Julie? No more cat!

Badonkadonk

2007-11-09T13:53:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday everyone! I just saw this Amazon page linked on a friend's blog. Be sure to check out the customer reviews . Enjoy!

The light at the end of the Ph.D. tunnel....

2007-11-05T17:55:00.003-06:00

Most of you know that I (Tom) am an MD/PhD student in the Department of Chemistry and Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I passed some major milestones in my PhD. career the last few weeks. On Oct. 23 - Mole Day - our paper was finally published (web version) in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. You can see the abstract here. Here's our nifty abstract image:

The white discs have chemicals that we are testing for anti-fungal activity (see below)

I'm not allowed to post the pdf, otherwise I would. But if you are on campus of an educational or research institution, you can probably view the pdf here. Basically, we we work with an antifungal drug called amphotericin B that is used clinically for severe fungal infections. However, it is quite toxic to the kidneys. We chemically "amputated" part of the molecule that is supposed to be critical for the drug to work. Surprisingly, it was still able to kill fungus cells. This result has potential implications for designing a less toxic drug and also suggests that the drug doesn't necessarily work the way everyone thought it did for the last 40 years. So, it's pretty exciting for us! (even if you find it painfully boring....) Here's a picture of me with my advisor, Marty Burke, and my colleague Dan Palacios (an older, more entertaining picture of Dan can be found here - keep hitting refresh until he comes up!):

Dan has some killer hair.

In other news, I had my "prelim" exam which is basically the equivalent of defending a master's thesis, although I don't formally get a master's in my program. I defended my research in front of 4 faculty members and they asked me all sorts of questions for an hour and a half and I passed. Which means that I now have grad school "tenure" for the rest of the PhD process (i.e. they can't kick me out!). So I'm officially a Ph.D. candidate. It's definitely a load off, but it was kind of anticlimactic. Dan also recently passed his prelim, and another group member, Eric Gillis, also just published a paper. My advisor was so happy about all of this that he took us all out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then we went back to his house for drinks (I had sparkling cider...everyone else did not).

It's a great day at the Round Barn Farm!!

2007-11-04T21:29:00.000-06:00

For our first anniversary Tom surprised Becca with a trip to two places neither of us had ever been - Wisconsin and Minnesota! Our first night, we drove from Champaign up to Madison, Wisconsin, where we tried to check into our reserved hotel but they had overbooked because of a motorcycling convention - there were bikes everywhere! It was 11 pm and raining, and they had to send us to another hotel! We eventually found our new hotel and checked into our room which had VERY comfortable pillows!! Tom had barely slept in 48 hours because he had been working on a proposal to try and get funding from the National Institutes of Health, so it was very nice to have a restful night together! Unfortunately, due to our late arrival, we didn't get to see any of Madison as we had originally planned. But we got totally free accommodations, so we weren't complaining too much!

The next day it was off to Red Wing, Minnesota where we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast called the Round Barn Farm. Here's a picture of the outside:

It's a great day at the round barn farm! (that was there official greeting!!)

This house was built in 2002 using a house plan from the 1800s. It was very cozy - it felt old but looked new. Our room was called the Hearts and Flowers Suite and it had an absolutely amazingly luxurious bed - one of those feather ones that you sink right into but still has enough support. It was a very comfortable place to stay!! There were hearts and flowers all over the walls and the tub was huge heart-shaped, two person whirlpool tub!! It was amazing. Becca is now in love with bubble baths.

The sitting room had comfy chairs, a piano, and a puzzle that we spent a lot of time on. The barn is historic because there are very few original round barns still standing. Robin and Elaine Kleffman, the innkeepers, have refurbished this one and they have wedding receptions and other celebrations inside. It was pretty neat! Robin and Elaine are good Christian folk and it was a delight getting to know them and staying in their Bed and Breakfast.

The breakfasts at this place are decadent! First off, the dining room itself is very impressive. Our first morning we had homebaked sourdough bread and a fruit cup with the fruit doused in vanilla mint syrup made with the mint they grow in their garden. They make all their bread in an outdoor brick oven. The main course was french toast (also homebaked bread) covered in strawberries with a homemade custard syrup. And for dessert (yes, we said dessert!) we had cheescake with a homemade chocolate ganache!!!! Who has dessert for breakfast? Um, that would be us (and everybody else that stays there)!

The second day's breakfast was just as fantastic - they had an oatmeal bread that was amazing and the main course was eggs benedict on their homemade english muffin toast with a, you guessed it, homemade citrus hollandaise sauce!! For dessert they had homemade cherry vanilla ice cream. Wow. We pretty much only had to eat two meals a day while we were there.

This was a Bavarian antique piece that they had in their dining room. I don't even want to know how much it cost....

This is the view from the bluff behind the round barn farm.

While in Minnesota we toured the historic downtown Red Wing area and went to lots of antique shops, ceramic shops, and bakeries. We discovered that the stacker shelves that we had just inherited from University of Illinois were worth upwards of $500.. We also went to Minneapolis where we went on a roller coaster at the Mall of America and then we went to this crazy Asian/Mexican fusion restaurant called Chino Latino. It was loud with crazy lighting and we saw a siamese twin (?) - it was like seeing one person with two heads.

Overall, the trip was very fun and relaxing. On the way home we drove along the banks of the Mississippi River (along the Wisconsin side), an area that William Cullen Bryant said "ought to be visited in the summer by every poet and painter in the land." We also saw the schoolhouse where Laura Ingalls Wilder went to school in Pepin, Wisconsin (she was born in what is now called "Little House Wayside" near Pepin).

We didn't get any better pictures than this, unfortunately.

We got some Wisconsin cheese and bratwurst on the way as well. The cheese was fabulous. While in Wisconsin, we discovered that they still have Piggly Wiggly grocery stores!!!! Here's a picture to prove it:

Sparta, Wisconsin (incidentally, Wisconsin has over 90 Piggly Wiggly stores!)

All in all it was a fantastic little trip!!

Rendezvous in old Nauvoo

2007-10-21T22:48:00.001-05:00

We went to Nauvoo this summer to see sites, go to the temple, and see the Nauvoo pageant. It was a fun day! It was Becca's first time visiting Nauvoo. This is a picture of the view of the temple from Parley Street, which was the street the Saints used as they left Nauvoo. We got to go to the temple and had lots of fun seeing the Church sites. We saw the grave of Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma Smith (picture below - sorry it's not a good one).

This is the Mississippi River. It doesn't look like much from this picture, but we were glad to see it after driving down a dirt road for miles (thanks to Mapquest - but hey it got us there!). And below is a picture of us smooching on the banks fo the Mississippi.

Also down there is a picture of Becca with our friends Drew and Aubrey Dokos who were there with us that day. We had fun with them! They got married a month before us and were in the single's ward with us and are in our ward now. The picture is in front of a statue of Joesph and Hyrum at the end of Parley Street where they also have a memorial with all the names of the people who died while crossing the plains.

We saw the Nauvoo pageant which was amazing and very touching. Before the pageant starts they have this big pioneer festival thing with log sawing, square dancing, stick pulling and all sorts of other activities. The cast of the pageant are all walking around in period dress talking to people. It was quite fun (even if Tom and Drew didn't get to saw a log because the line was too long!!) We got home at like 3 AM before 11 AM church, but it was well worth it!

Drew, Aubrey, and Becca

Tom's Beard

2007-10-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

Fun pictures of Tom with his beard!! Enjoy!

As promised - a picture of Tom's beard. He grew it out for a month while Becca was (mostly) out of town. Becca didn't like it, and Tom wasn't too crazy about it either. But it was a fun experiment!

We had this big ugly bush right by our front door, and one day when Tom's advisor was out of town he came home early and cut it down to size and dug around it and ripped it out. It's kinda hard to tell, but there's a big hole in front of him in the picture. We filled it in and our yard looks much better now.

When we took the beard off, we took pictures at various stages....

Yeah, I look pretty creepy.....

News from Illinois

2007-06-25T23:21:00.000-05:00

Tom is still busy with research and will soon be publishing his first paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Everyone look out for that one because I know you read that journal all the time!! Get your subscriptions now. Or, I can just send everyone a pdf in a month or so and you can open it and look at the pretty pictures. That's about all I understand of it, too, so don't worry. OK, that's not true, but pretty much all my work for the last 8 months has gone into experiments to allow us to make one picture for this paper. Crazy.

Becca is participating in a 3 year program for High School Chemistry teachers here at the University. It is focused on using technology in the chemistry classroom in rural high schools. Right now she is in a 2 week intensive program, and is enjoying learning new programs to use in her lesson plans. She also enjoys meeting all the other teachers (60 of them!) and getting ideas and networking. She gets graduate credit and a $2,000 stipend, so Europe, here we come!!!

We are going to Vienna and Prague over New Years, and we are so excited!!! Becca brought all her German books back so we can learn situational German. And Czech. But we won't be learning Czech from the German books, just in case you were wondering (she also has some Czech books, not to be confused with checkbooks).

We also have new callings in addition to being ward missionaries. Tom is now one of 2 gospel doctrine teachers, which is good because he has been wanting to study the epistles for quite some time. Becca is jealous, but it's OK because she will teach when Tom can't.

Becca is now the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency which means she works with the Beehives which is quite exciting, even if there are only 3 of them. But she is excited to work with the youth because teenagers are funny! And not as scary as primary children, who just cry all the time. But she did her time in primary, don't you worry!

That's all our news!!! Life is busy but really great! We'd love to hear from anyone reading this blog. So write us a stinkin' email!!

Our June travel adventures

2007-06-24T20:52:00.001-05:00

We went to Idaho during the first part of June to go to Alex Parent's and Katie Gammon's wedding. They got married in Idaho Falls, so we flew to Boise and then drove over to I.F. the next day for the wedding. It was really neat to see one of our best friends get married. The ceremony was nice, and the sealer was a trip!! He told this huge long story about how one of the sealer's in the I.F. temple once had a bride say "No" at the altar. Everyone in the room was like, "Why is he telling this story?" It was hilarious and everyone was hoping that Katie would not say, "No" also. Of course, she didn't and they are now married.

The Chemistry Couples (Tom and Becca met in Chem 351, Alex and Katie met in Chem 455 when Alex was her TA!!)

Becca's brother Jared and his wife Natalie live in Idaho Falls, so we stayed with them that night. It was Jared's birthday, so we had a lot of food that day between the wedding luncheon, going to dinner with Jared and Natalie, and the reception and the birthday cake!! We had fun celebrating with Jared and Natalie, and the next day we drove over to Yellowstone. It was tons of fun, and we got a lot of good pictures and videos of buffalo, or bison, or whatever.....I can't tell the difference. Well, we got pictures of other stuff, too, but we have a lot of pictures of buffalo. And Old Faithful. And a video of Old Faithful blowing his top. We didn't get any pictures of Old Faithful, just video. Here's the Old Faithful Video:

Here's my best bison photo.

Tom,Becca, Jared, and Natalie at the Continental Divide. Tom set the camera to take the picture automatically and we didn't know how much time we had, so Tom was running and at the last second just grabbed Becca!

This is the Excelsior Geyser. It is huge and up until 1890 would go off in 300 foot high eruptions at fairly regular intervals. The last time it went off was in 1985, but it was only 30 feet. It's thought that the big eruptions damaged the waterways so it won't go off like that again. It's basically a big crater with a bubbling hot spring now.

Also of import on this trip was that Tom added another state to list of states he has visited, Montana -- making in total 39 states that he has visited! Admittedly, we were only in Montana for like 10 minutes, but we got a picture of Tom by the sign anyway.

Tom in front of the Montana sign.

After driving through Yellowstone we also drove through the Teton National Park, and got some good pictures. The Tetons are probably the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. The great thing about the entire day was that you could see spectacular views just by driving through the parks.

The Tetons

Another Teton shot

At one of the scenic turnouts.

Tom came back to Champaign the following day, but Becca stayed in ID for two more weeks, which was hard because we're newlyweds and we've never been apart (yeah, that was cheesy!). However, it gave Tom a chance to grow out his beard (picture forthcoming....). Oh, yeah, and he also got a lot of stuff done around the house and yard, which made Becca ecstatic, because Tom is usually really lazy. OK, not really. We're both usually really lazy!

Becca went to her 10 year high school reunion (Yeah, she robbed the cradle, cuz Tom's 10 year isn't until NEXT summer!!). Becca got to see all her best friends from High School, which was really fun, and they had lots of girl time together. She had to drive to Utah to see Jennifer because Jennifer couldn't come to ID for the reunion, so she had a fun little jaunt down I-15 to Spanish Fork. On the way she got to see two of our FAVORITE professors from BYU, Dr. Wood and Dr. Fleming (aka Doc). Of which Tom was really jealous. Becca also got to play a lot with our nephew Sean who is adorable and hilarious and has a laugh that Becca adores. He even does it on demand because he knows Becca loves it so much!

Becca had a great time with her family in Boise, and she's really sad to be back in Illinois with Tom. OK, not sad to be with Tom, but the beard kind of scares her!!

Here's a few more pictures of Yellowstone for your perusal:

A river near Excelsior geyser

A river shot taken along the side of the road

Another pool near Exelsior geyser

Another river photo taken from the side of the road.