the Arizona heat'll kill ya

You all knew it was hot here, but did you know it was this hot? Not too long ago, these poor melted pumpkins looked like this:

Matt meets Bill Simmons

White Coat Ceremony

Medical schools hold white coat ceremonies to officially 'coat' the first-year students. I guess it's the ceremony to welcome the medical students to the medical profession.

Here's Matt getting his coat. It isn't a very good picture, I know, because it was in an auditorium that was too dark to take any good pictures.

Matt and one of our new medical school friends, Sam Ashby. His wife Heather and I went to support these great students. : )

CSI: Our House

Last Sunday morning, Matt comes to me and says, "I don't know if you want to know this, but the cops are outside our house because someone got stabbed." Now, you may be thinking, 'Where in the world did these people move to?' Here's how the story unraveled: About 8:30 Sunday morning, Matt went outside to get the paper. When he steps outside, he notices that there is police line caution tape tied to our front stoop and is strung across the street and tied to our neighbor's tree. There are police cars outside, a few detectives, and cops putting down cones, talking to people, and so forth. Matt asks one of the cops in our driveway what was going on and finds out that someone was stabbed and is at the hospital. Unable to get a whole lot of information from the police officer, we were left wondering who in the world was stabbed and hoping that the stabber wasn't our next door neighbor. A few days later, while Matt was outside, our neighbor comes outside too. Matt talked to our neighbor, and it turns out that his nephew, who lived with our neighbor a long time ago, was visiting and was hanging out on the busy street outside our neighborhood. He and his buddies were out at 5 am, and someone drove by, and the boys yelled at the car. The people in the car went and got their buddies, came back to the street outside our neighborhood, and proceeded to beat up and stab our neighbor's nephew. After being stabbed 8 times (yes, 8) the nephew ran back to our neighbor's house, bleeding all over the street. Our neighbor promptly drove the nephew to the hospital. So, stabbing = cops. It's never a dull moment here.

Trip to Idaho, but hold the fair

This last weekend, Matt and I had the opportunity to take a quick trip home. We flew to Salt Lake on Friday night and flew home on Sunday night. Thanks to Matt's mom and dad, we got to use their car to take to Idaho Falls. My grandma Shick passed away on September 3rd, and my life isn't going to be the same without her. I guess I always thought that grandmas were always grandmas, and they would always be there. My grandma Shick was the best lady I knew, and made the best cinnamon rolls. I know everyone says that about their grandma's Cinnamon rolls, but my grandma's were the best. Her funeral was beautiful, and the speakers were perfect. My cousin Eric gave a talk on the best gifts from my grandma--her french bread recipe and hand-made pajama bottoms for Christmas--and tied it into the best gifts from our Heavenly Father--the Plan of Salvation and the atonement. It was also good to see so much of my extended family that I don't see on a regular basis. This picture of my grandma was taken at our wedding reception in the summer of '06. Going to the funeral was much harder than I thought it would be. I cried a lot that day, but it was so good to see her looking quite beautiful. Everyone kept saying that the great people at Coltrin Mortuary made my grandma look 20 years younger. My grandma was a very simple lady, worked very hard to raise her 7 children on her own, and lived a life full of service. Although I am sad that she is gone, I know that she is so happy now, with her husband, her daughter, and her two grandchildren that passed away before she did. We're going to miss her a lot.

The weekend we were there was also the weekend of the Idaho State Fair, which I love. We weren't able to make it to the fair, but spent the time with my cousins and aunts and uncles I don't always see, instead. To make up for me not being able to go to the fair, or to rub in the fact that I couldn't go, my mom sent me this picture of my dad and my sister eating Tiger Ears, the reason to go the fair. Not fair. Maybe next year.

Which are worse? Scorpions or Mice

I believe one of mine and Brad's biggest fears of owning a home is what we will do when faced with infestation. Whether it is a large insect, mouse, or some other frightening creature, its only goal in life is to terrorize little children living in the basement (and getting great joy out of this for many years). My biggest nightmare came true, when I received a phone call from Stacy who frantically tells me that there a scorpion in our house. My initial response was to not return home, but later I conjured up enough courage to go home and face it. Stacy had bravely trapped the varmint underneath a glass bowl and left it there for the patriarch of the home to take care of it. I had little indication of what I was to expect upon arrival, but was terrified to see the size of this deadly insect. Below is a picture and it does not do justice for the utter terror that the scorpion inculcates into anyone that looks at it. Scorpions are creatures that kids take to school for show-and-tell-day and impresses all of his friends because he has a scorpion. Well, I left it there for a couple of hours and refused to have anything to do with it. Stacy and I finally decided to tag team it and we slipped cardboard under the glass bowl so that we could transport it to the toilet to flush it down. I don't remember what happened after that but next thing I knew Stacy grabbed the bowl and shook it over the toilet and I flushed it down several times. I don't know what drives me to take such chances. It was exciting and scary at the same time. I do need to admit that Stacy was the stronger of the two in our house, but she did not have the traumatic experiences that I had as a young boy with mice.

Baseball with the Bushmans

Before I start, I'd like to thank Brooke for letting me use these pictures. Our camera died, so if you visit Brooke and Troy's blog, you will see the very same pictures. And now to my story...

Since we live fairly close to all of the sports stadiums in Phoenix, we like to take advantage of any of the good teams that come to town (well, all 2 of them so far...). You can see the Cardinal Stadium from our house, and the baseball field isn't too far away either. Last Friday, we went with the Bushmans to see the Dodgers play, and to see Manny get booed. For a split second I felt bad that he was getting booed so much, but then I remembered why the people were booing and I didn't feel bad anymore.

After the game, they opened the top of the stadium and there was a fireworks show. This isn't our picture...I "borrowed" it from online, but this is what it looked like.

Dishwasher

For the first time since we've been married, we now have a dishwasher. It's the most amazing thing in the world. Despite it's wonderfulness, it was white. Note how I stress the word was. I was talking to Laurel one day and she was telling me about how on Design to Sell, they put stainless-steel contact paper on a dishwasher. Brilliant. She then told me about the wonderful world of spray paints and all the things they are made for now. Glorious. So, after a trip to home depot, and $17, we have a better dishwasher. You be the judge.

Before: (well, after I started dismantling it...)



During:


After: