Baby Names

So... Ashley and I recently watched the movie "Freakonomics" based on the book by the same name by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J Dubner.  One of the sections talks about bizarre baby names and that got us talking about some of the "interesting" (to put it nicely) names these days, especially common in Utah.  Oftentimes it seems like some of the unique names are just a combination of two names, maybe even using the names of the parents. 

That being said, we've come up with our own list of the top 30 baby names of 2011 for your enjoyment (or use, if you like)!

In no particular order:

1. Brandtly
2. Jashley
3. Nabert
4. Nizley
5. Alleshelle
6. Bryster
7. Bragret
8. Daike
9. Ashon or Ashawn
10. Roncy
11. Breegan
12. Kaitelbeth
13. Breeven
14. Janaquinne
15. Jawrynne
16. Jenncer
17. Mattlyn
18. Brandelle
19. Bodieve
20. Jaykliff
21. Brickster
22. Daveg
23. Jallen
24. Jo-Bert
25. Rallen
26. Davenn
27. Jacrob
28. Shanleigh
29. Taylem
30. Normand

The great thing about a lot of these names is that they could be for either a boy or a girl!  And remember, you saw them here first!

--John

Which would you rather, be hit by a TORNADO or be hit by HEPATITIS?

In the process of documenting our adventures at the Roller Derby, something momentous happened that must precede that post...  We experienced our first TORNADO WARNING!  There were tornadoes close to our place!  Okay, not that close, but we were pretty nervous there for a second.  Well, correction, I was nervous.  

Starting off the day we knew that it was supposed to be windy with thunderstorms later in the afternoon (thanks to John's weather.com app on his iPod).  I had a lab meeting on campus in the afternoon, and as I was getting ready to leave, we both received calls and texts from the university warning us to be "weather aware" and to be prepared for the storms.  Oh boy.  So I left hoping that nothing serious would hit while I was there.  I was mostly hoping I wouldn't get hit with softball size hail that would give Little Buddy (our Jeep) a pounding.  While on campus I heard people talking in the halls about the storm coming and it started to sound pretty serious.  

Shortly after the lab meeting ended my professor came in telling us to check our emails, and saying that the provost had just sent out an email encouraging all non-key personnel to go home and prepare for the storm to hit.  Yikes!  I hurried out, thinking that I was going to be racing a tornado home, only to find out that the storm was quite west of us, and not due to hit until 4:30 or 5:00 pm.  When I got home we turned on the news to witness what my uncle Adam had been telling us about, the INTENSE reporting of the weather.  This is the stuff that these meteorologists live for, chasing and tracking tornadoes.  I didn't understand half the stuff they were talking about and we had to look up some of the terms on Wikipedia.  The storm was getting closer though, and it sure was nasty looking!  Lucky for us, it was looking like it was going to head to the north of us, but I was still worried (as John would put it, I was being a bit of a "Nervous Nellie").  We saw that some of our neighbors were going outside, so we decided to chat with them to see what they were planning to do (wait it out, go to a shelter, stay in their houses, etc.).  John was talking to one of our neighbors who just happens to be the guy in charge of unlocking the basement of one of the churches just down the street from our house as a shelter during tornadoes.  He said that if the sirens went off he would have to go unlock it, and that we were more than welcome to come over.  This made me feel a lot better.  Now at least if things took a turn for the worse we would have somewhere to go to be safe.  We started gathering our make-shift 72-hour kits so that they would be ready should we need to take off in a hurry.  Then this:

The sirens started going off!  According to the news the storm was still a ways away and still was heading to the north of us, so we went out to see what people were doing.  Remember, this was our first real experience with a tornado, mind you I was in the Salt Lake valley when that legendary tornado hit downtown in 1999, but I was about 15 miles away in the opposite direction that the tornado was moving, not quite the same.  Our neighbor started getting ready to head to the church to unlock the basement, but we decided to stay a bit longer to see if it was really going to hit us.  I'm glad we did because it did head to the north and missed us entirely.  The only storm we experienced was some crazy rain/wind and a tiny bit of hail.  

So yes, we are safe.  We were among the lucky ones.  We were pretty excited to experience our first tornado, but definitely sad for those who were injured and/or lost their homes.  There were multiple tornadoes in Oklahoma today and as the news reporters showed footage of the homes that were completely leveled, our hearts went out to those people affected by the storms.

After everything settled down and the skies were clear our neighbor came over to make sure we were okay (such a nice guy!).   He said that the basement of the church ended up being packed full and they had to start turning people away.  He said they had 800+ people (he said he stopped counting at 800) in a basement that was meant to only hold 600.  Crazy!  We told him that we were okay and that we were glad that the storm headed away from us.  He told us that that is what usually happens.  Since we're right next to the lake the storms usually go around us.  What he said next made me feel good about where we live, he said that since his family has lived on this street there has only been 1 tornado in the neighborhood and that it was back in the 60's.  

We're really grateful for all the calls and texts of concern from family and friends back in Utah.  John, Hep, and I are safe and sound!   

"Glee"ful Beginnings

John and I started watching Glee a while ago on Netflix, mostly because I loved hearing the music on Pandora...  But it also took John back to his days of show choir in high school.  

One of the lines in the Pilot episode is part of what sparked our idea for this blog.  I'll let Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) speak for herself...

 

Colored Eggs, Bottled Soda, & Fighting Cancer!

Better late than never, right?  I feel like I have been neglecting my documentation of life with Hep.  In my defense though, the past few week have been a little crazy, what with holidays, family in town, finals, etc...  We've been surviving though.  John is on his last test block before he's done for the summer and I just finished my last final last Thursday.  

So... let the updating begin!

It's been fun to celebrate holidays in Oklahoma.  Granted we miss our families and the fun traditions that each holiday brings, it's been fun to start some of our own traditions and celebrate together.  For Easter we dyed eggs on Saturday night and then put together surprise baskets for each other.  It was a lot of fun!  

  

We especially had fun coming up with fun ideas for the eggs...

 

Since John and I are both Aggies and Sooners I made an egg with a USU "A" on one side and the OU logo on the other.  It was pretty legit. 

 John wanted Hep to feel included too.

(You can see my new haircut in that last one...)  We had a really good time dying eggs together and letting out some creativity.

When I woke up Easter morning there was a special present for me from the Easter Bunny...

That afternoon we went down to Adam and Stephanee's to have Easter dinner with their family.  I made some DELICIOUS scalloped potatoes to contribute to the meal.


Last weekend John's parents came into town for a few days.  His dad (Robert) also went to medical school at OU and had his 40-year class reunion.  We took them to Pops on Route 66.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a really cool gas station turned burger place that has 500+ different kinds of bottled sodas!  It's also the only place we've found in OK that has Henry Weinhard's (amazing gourmet soda, if you haven't had it, you haven't lived!).  Hep is a bit of a lush, so we bought some to take home.  The hardest part is deciding which ones to try, there's just too many to choose from!

We got to spend mother's day with John's mom, so that was special!  And then we sent them off on Tuesday.  But not before a picture with our virus-ie friend!

This last weekend we participated in Relay for Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  Hep stayed home because we thought it would be a little weird for Hepatitis to fight Cancer.  Maybe not? 

It was a really cool experience.  But man were we tired afterward!  We got home at about 6:45 am and went right to sleep.  We got in a good 7 hours, but it was weird to start the day at 2:00 pm...     

All in all, it's been a pretty great few weeks!  This weekend we're going to our first Roller Derby!  We'll let you know how it is!

Going on a Bug Hunt!

For those of you who don't know out there, John and I are Sunbeams teachers at church, so we teach the 3-4 year old kids.  The kids in our class are really cute (one of which we babysat when we were parents for a weekend), and we have a lot of fun teaching them.  Lately most of our lessons have been about things that Jesus created for us and how thankful we are for them (i.e. "I am Thankful for the Day and Night," "I am Thankful for Animals," etc...).  Well this last week happened to be "I am Thankful for Birds and Insects."  Whew, a whole 50 minutes talking about that with kids that have the attention spans of goldfish?  We came up with some fun things to keep them entertained though...  One of which involved John and I going on a bug hunt!  

We had heard a cricket in our garage earlier that night and decided it would be fun if we could catch the cricket to show the kids.  So we geared up...

 

We used the red lights on our headlamps so as to retain our night vision and not scare off the bugs.  Then we got our cups ready and had a few practice runs to make sure we were swift enough to catch them.

Once we were sure we were ready we went in.  Mind you, I've never really been on any kind of a bug hunt before.  We found that cricket pretty quick, he was right by the door.  John went for him and just as the cup hit the ground I squealed!  Anyone who knows me knows that I can be jumpy at times.  Yeah, this was one of those times... We then started looking for any other bugs that we could catch to show the kids.  I lifted up our broom to find a NASTY COCKROACH!  I was super grossed out, but I managed to pull myself together and catch it.  I had to think of the children!  Again, I squealed when my cup hit the ground.  And I'm pretty sure there was another squeal in there somewhere...

We took them inside and put plastic over the cups.  Here are the bugs we caught:

DISGUSTING!

All in all it was a pretty eventful night.  We had a lot of fun, and the kids loved looking at the bugs last Sunday.  We just told them that the cockroach was a beetle, so as not to gross them (or their parents) out.  I told John we need to make sure there aren't any more left in our garage and kill them if there are.  So we'll be setting up some nice cockroach hotels in the garage, that's for sure.  Luckily they're not in our house, so that's a blessing.  That being said though, we do have another bug in our house....

CSA

Thanks to our friend John H., the three of us get to enjoy DELICIOUS fresh produce from a local garden.  We are participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and have been LOVING it so far!  We really wanted to put some garden boxes in our backyard and grow our own produce, but with us planning a trip back to Utah this summer we didn't want to have to worry about finding someone to take care of our garden whilst we're away.  Thus the CSA!  We've been getting a lot of greens the past few weeks and have been eating lots of yummy salads!  Hep really enjoyed the rainbow chard.  This is last week's haul, and it keeps getting better every week!  This week we even have some asparagus.  

I just can't wait until we start getting lots of tomatoes!  Nothing beats a fresh-from-the-garden tomato. Mmmm!  Per John's request, you may want to enjoy this classic John Denver song...

For more information about CSA's and links to find one close to where you live, CLICK HERE!

Parenting: What we learned...

As some of you may know, Hep made a few more friends last weekend.  John and I babysat for a family in our ward from Friday afternoon to Saturday night.  We became instant parents of 4 kids ages 1 (M), 4 (T), 6 (B), and 8 (K).  Lucky for us, they were really good kids.  

Here are 10 things that we learned or realized from this experience.

1.  Everything takes 5X longer than it should.  I.e. getting to bed, getting ready to leave somewhere, etc.   We can now appreciate why some people with kids are late.  And now I'm even more impressed with those people that are always on time!

2.  Kids use a lot of cups!   Pretty sure when I ran the dishwasher Saturday night the whole top rack was full of cups.


3.  If we have girls, John may to need to learn how to play princesses... (T loved princesses and was especially in love with Rapunzel from Tangled.)

4.  We're not as young as we used to be.  My arm was sore Sunday from carrying M around on Saturday, and my back is all sorts of stiff and sore from jumping on the trampoline with them.

5.  Still not a fan of mini-vans.  Whilst babysitting we were cruisin' in a "swagger wagon" ... Okay, not the "real" swagger wagon (aka Toyota Sienna - watch the music video HERE), we were driving a Honda Odyssey, but we decided that since we were the ones driving, we totally gave it swagger.  

John asked me if I would rather have a Ford Flex or a van.  I said Ford Flex.  Which is saying a lot because I'm not a huge fan of the way Flexes look...


6.  Watching 4-year-old kids play soccer can make anyone's day better.

 
7.  We realized the importance of a good coach.  T and B both had soccer games.  T had pictures after the game, but she didn't want to wear her soccer jersey.  We tried everything to get her to wear it (bribes, peer pressure--"the rest of your team is wearing theirs"-- everything), but her coach was the one that was able to do it.  


8.  Despite my worries, I do have maternal instincts and heard M wake up in the night.  I was also the one to get up with her (a sign of things to come?)...

9.  Nap-time is the BEST!  M slept for 3 hours! 

10.  Lastly, through this experience we learned some of the joys of parenthood and are really looking forward to it, but Hep is not quite ready to be an uncle...