Google Can't Find My "Y" Chromosome

Most of you know that I have been staying home with Megan since I graduated in May. I have been applying for a lot of jobs, but it has been slow going. We've been very blessed that Kim has such a good job.

Many of you probably also know that Gmail provides targeted ads to the left and top of your emails, based on words found in your email (and I think also based on web searches from your IP address).

Well, today I opened my email and the targeted ad for me read: "What kind of a MOM are you?" It was from www.areyouaslackermom.com. It was pretty sad. Based on my emails and searches, not only does google think that I am a mom, it also thinks that I am a slacker mom.

I feel I may need to give up blogging and pursue something a little more masculine, like wolverine hunting or trench digging.

I also may never shave again.

If I do keep blogging, my next entry will have to be on demolition, or taking apart the engine block of a '67 Mustang.



Muhammad Ali is the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, and watching old footage of the "Rumble in the Jungle" almost puts a man-tear in my eye (but it doesn't because I'm too tough).

And the problem with Monday Night Football is that it isn't on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too.

Lots of things about Kimmie

Here I am without a job, so you'd think that I'd be updating more regularly, but I am also without the battery charger for our camera that I left in Istanbul. Supposedly they sent it to me 4 weeks ago. I think they must have strapped it to a sea turtle and hoped that it would find its way across the Atlantic, around the tip of Florida and up to Corpus Christi. Maybe I'll have to drive down there and look for it on the beach.

Anyway, since I am the only Mormon male that blogs, I feel weird about doing a post about myself like everyone else is doing. Instead I thought I would tell you a bunch of things about Kimmie (I may or may not get to 101. Maybe the suspense will keep you reading.)

1. She is the oldest child in the family, and if you ever spend any time with her planning an event you will easily be able to tell.
2. She tried out for cheerleader in junior high and did not make it.
3. She ran for office instead and was secretary (or something).
4. She did make the nationally recognized drill team in high school (which was way cooler than the cheerleaders in our high school, I know that isn't always the case.)
5. We started dating when I was a junior and she was a senior.
6. She asked me out first.
7. She turned 18 while we were dating and I was still 16.
8. She denied me the first time I tried to kiss her.
9. I wanted to die when that happened.
10. Kim waited for me while I served a mission.
11. I'm the only guy she ever kissed (although she made up for it by kissing me A LOT in high school -- not so much anymore)
12. My cousin did try to move in on her when I was on my mission. She thought they were just friends (at least that's the story she is sticking to.)
13. Kim is 5'1 and a half, although she'll tell you she is 5'2''.
14. Kim broke her arm skating on fisher-price skates when she was little.
15. Kim sleeps with her mouth open and her head tilted back
15. We got caught making out by the police on at least three occasions. They always let us go without a hassle when they found out she was older than I am.
16. Kim slept on the same bed her entire life until we got one together. She refers to it as her "taco bed."
17. Like a gas in a beaker, Kim expands to fill any size bed. I get to sleep on 1/2 of a foot on the left side of the bed.
18. She pretty much planned her sister's wedding single handedly.
19. She did plan our wedding single handedly, and it was THE BEST WEDDING EVER!
20. We had crepes and hot apple cider for our fall wedding. They were awesome.
21. I took Kim skiing for the first time when she was a senior in high school. She then took it upon herself to learn, and quickly got to where she could ski down anything.
22. Kim is the most determined person I have ever met.
23. In the same way that Kim expands to fit any size bed, the time it takes her to get ready expands to fit any alloted time. No matter how long she has to get ready, she will be ready 5 minutes after I wanted to leave.
24. Kim is a terrible speller.
25. Kim hates to write.
26. Kim still wrote me (nearly) every week of my mission.
27. Every companion and everyone I ever lived with got to hear all about Kim, how we met, and how much I needed her letters every week.
28. I can't talk Kim into dying her hair dark (5 years and counting)
29. Kim is an incredible mother. I fear that Megan's progress is being impeded by my staying home with her.
30. Kim likes to read, but sometimes it takes her 200 pages before she starts to actually like a book.
31. She is excited to read the new Harry Potter book.
32. Kim is like my own personal travel guide - every time we vacation she buys a book about the place we are going and fills every second of our time with something to do. She is always worried she will miss something.
33. She has been to Hawaii (a million times)
34. Paris
35. London
36. Mexico
37. Peru (as a nurse for 3 weeks in the jungle)
38. The Caribbean
39. The Bahamas
40. Costa Rica
41. Turkey
42. At ZCMI in the eighth grade Kim and her friend were accused of trying to steal bathing suits they had tried on -- and they were forced to strip down and show that they didn't still have them on. When they invent a time machine I will use it to go back and beat the hell out of those security guards.
43. Kim is always working on some craft, sewing, or other project, usually multiple at a time. But I still can't get her to sew a button hole on the shirt I got 6 months ago.
44. She would rather clean than cook.
45. Kim has hypoglycemia and can get pretty scary if she misses a meal.
46. I caught hypoglycemia from her.
47. Kim finished nursing school when I was on my mission and has been supporting me ever since (thanks dear).
48. When we clean together it takes just as long as when I clean alone since Kim always does the things that I would never think to do.
49. She's pretty OCD about cleaning, she often disinfects random objects throughout the house.
50. Sometimes it's nice to have company because it's a guarantee that the house will be made spotless.
51. Our first date was Dec 5, 1997, which means that this December we will have been together for 10 years.
52. On Oct 17th we'll have been married 5 years.
53. Kim is the only person I know who writes everything in cursive. It also looks nothing like most female's handwriting (which usually all looks the same to me).
54. Kim writes lists and inspirational things to herself on random pieces of paper and on random pages of notebooks.
55. Kim has the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.
56. Kim is incapable of buying a pair of jeans.
57. For a decade Kim bought jeans that were too big for her. It's still a struggle to get her to buy the right size.
58. She will often move my things to a spot where I will never find them again. Some things just disappear altogether. Her things remain in the same place.
59. Kim had a c-section with Megan, since Megan wouldn't turn around. Her head was visible poking out of Kim's side in the same place for the entire pregnancy.
60. Kim was never sick with her pregnancy, and worked right up until the week before she had Megan.
61. Kim likes to take baths, especially when she comes home from work.
62. She always feels like she needs two alarms to get up, but she always wakes up with the first one and I have to turn off the other.
63. Her hairdryer sounds like a jet fighter in our bathroom at 5:00 am.
64. Kim kept her purple and white crocheted baby blanket until after we got married.
65. She told me if I threw it out while she was at work that she would leave me.
66. Kim changed her mind about the first wedding ring we picked out, but was too afraid to tell the guy we ordered it from and made her sister call and pretend to be her.
67. She then went back and bought the first ring we looked at.
68. Her maiden name is McFadden and we had a bagpiper at our wedding reception.
69. Kim makes the best yellow cake chocolate frosting cupcakes of all time.
70. Kim read the entire Work and the Glory series.
71. Kim always thinks she will like chick flicks, but she rarely does.
72. Kim thinks Brad Pitt is real good looking. But she thinks I'm better.
73. She likes back massages, but hates tickling. She will pinch me or do some other big-sisterly thing if I tickle her.
74. Kim had her ears pierced multiple times but took them out after the prophet said she only needed one pair.
75. She won't get a tattoo with me.
76. Kim is very competitive and is always against me when we play board games.
77. She always beats me at bloody knuckles and the hand slapping game.
78. Kim doesn't shop a lot, but when does she will buy something without comparing it to other things just because it costs more. [yes, I formulated this sentence correctly. It doesn't make any more sense when she does it in real life.]
79. She loves her cherry wood bedroom furniture set.
80. That damn bedroom set is the bane of my existence every time we move. It is about as soft as butter and Kim watches it like a hawk.
81. Kim is the nicest friend anyone can have
82. People always like her more than me -- I stand in the way of many possible friendships.
83. Kim got mixed up in the wrong crowd in 6th grade and said the f-word once. She also stayed too late at a quinceañera she went to that year.
84. That's pretty much the only thing that Kim has ever done wrong.
85. Kim's first job was at the snow cone shack in a parking lot of a grocery store.
86. She worked at a silver jewelry store in the mall for a few years.
87. She loves strawberries, and also lemon pepper.
88. Her favorite breakfasts have fried potatoes.
89. Kim wore the prettiest wedding dress ever made.
90. When I went to pick her up for prom she was fighting in the bathroom with her sister and didn't know I was waiting in the living room. She walked down the stairs with no pants on. (Didn't I tell you she was never ready in time?) She just kept on going past me and down into her bedroom. She acted like nothing had happened. It was awesome.
91. Kim motivates me to do everything, without her I would probably be a homeless mendicant.
92. She refuses to clean the lint screen on the dryer -- sometimes when I haven't done laundry in a while there is enough lint on there to make a sweater.
93. Kim can fall asleep anywhere under any conditions if she lays down.
94. Kim misplaces her phone every day.
95. She looks gorgeous in blue. And brown. And pink. and white. And green.
96. Kim doesn't own a scale.
97. No matter how long she has had an article of clothing, she will still look at herself in the mirror and ask me, "Does this look good?" My response will always be, "Yes, it still looks good" unless it gets a hole or a stain or something.
98. Kim will often have conversations with me in her head and then say something totally random to me that only would make sense if I could read her mind.
99. Kim is so beautiful that she still distracts me at stoplights and people honk at me when it turns green.
100. She doesn't know the lyrics to any song ever written. Not even hymns.
101. Kim lets me be whatever I want.

Independence Day in Middle America

On July 4th, 1776 the Continental Congress voted to approve a document penned by Thomas Jefferson which declared independence from the British. To honor this historic moment this year we drove to the middle of the country that they formed -- and ate a lot.









Colby, Shauni, Ammon and Carter live in Des Moines (which is French for "The Monks" -- it was part of the Louisiana Purchase and apparently a lot of monks lived there) while Colby attends podiatry school. They were nice enough to take us around and show us a good time for a few days. We loaded the kids up in their van and drove all over the place.


We went to the science museum, where the kids saw a snake that "is nice to people and eats rats" -- Ammon.



Megan ran off when we weren't looking and snuck under the ropes to play in this car that she wasn't supposed to touch


We took the kids to a couple of lakes, once to swim, and once just to throw rocks



Megan pretty much spent the whole trip trying to keep up with Carter, who was trying to keep up with Ammon.


Sometimes Carter slowed down for long enough to hold hands with his "best friend," making sure that it wasn't the hand that was currently holding his Buzz Lightyear


Getting the kids to ever sleep was a chore, and we all pitched in


At the fireworks the kids all got glow sticks, sparklers and suckers. They were pretty much in heaven.





We had a great time, and it was worth the 29 hours we ended up spending in the car with a rambunctious two year old and wife that grew up spoiled with flight benefits.

Here's one last cute picture of Megan and that new haircut that looks so good.

Shhhh......

Don't call Kim about this post until Friday the 29th, because she doesn't know about it yet. The other day we finally decided to get Megan's hair cut. We were thinking of doing it kind of short, but when we got to the dollar cuts the first thing that the girl said was, "Really, you want to cut it short? I like it so much better long." Some of you may be familiar with Kim's timidity when it comes to hair cuts. That little comment was all it took to take the wind right out of her sails. We ended up cutting off about a quarter inch, for which we payed ten dollars (plus tip). I wasn't happy with the cut (what cut?) and I know that the more courageous side of Kim wanted it shorter too, so when she went to work tonight I decided to take it upon myself to surprise her with a cute new Megan for when she wakes up tomorrow. I put on some kid's music, whipped out the kitchen scissors, and turned our bathroom into a hair salon.



Megan kept stopping me to look in the mirror and say "I look pretty" and "I look like Princess Fiona" (from Shrek, although arguably she looked more like Princess Fiona before the haircut.)


Here's the finished product (I'm not sure what the red shiner is under her eye, but it contributes to the waif look she's got going on).




I did have to promise her some ice cream in order to keep her still (it didn't really work, but she got ice cream anyway.)


Here's some reference shots from a few days ago so you can see how much I cut.



She looked beautiful before, but it's a nice change. Plus, it will always grow back.

P.S. As a side note, Megan has named the door knobs that hang above her changing table. The white one is Mom, the one on the left is Dad, and the one on the right is Megan. That's what she's explaining in these pictures. I'm not really sure what that means, but it sure is cute.

But he is going to find a job soon...

Sorry about the lack of posts, Mike left our camera charger at the hotel in Istanbul. They are in the process of mailing it to us (we hope). In the mean time click here to see what Mike has been doing 12 hours a day for the last 4 or 5 days. You can also click on the link in the sidebar that says "James and Lonna."

(If you just can't stand the suspense, I'll tell you -- he's been working on a short film with James and his brother. The link will take you to photos of the shoot. There are also some recent pictures of Megan on there if you scroll down.)

Interfaith Dialogue

We cannot possibly do justice to our trip to Turkey in this one post. We spent 10 days in Turkey, boarded 14 planes on 7 different flights, traveled over 20,000 miles, visited 5 cities, 4 seas, 2 continents, took over 500 pictures and ate A LOT of food. There was very little sleeping, and no "down time." This was not a relaxation vacation.

Last semester we were lucky enough to get to know a group of Turkish Muslims here in Austin through my World Religions course at the LDS institute. My institute instructor had visited Turkey with them the year before, and last semester our class was invited to attend a Ramadan dinner that the group was hosting downtown. We let it be known that we would love to be invited on one of their trips to Turkey, even though the organization does its best to bring influential people from the community (for example, they have taken the mayor of Austin, and our trip included the Sheriff). The group pays for everything except the plane ticket to Turkey through donations from ordinary Turks who believe in the idea that the East and the West, Christianity, Judaism and Islam all need to come together and talk in order to understand each other better. We were very lucky and blessed to be invited.

NEVSEHIR (Cappadocia)


Cappadocia is located in central Turkey and was originally the land of the Hittites. Later it was occupied by the Assyrians and then the early Christians. The geography and climate were very similar to parts of southern Utah, and the rock formations were astounding -- straight out of Dr. Seuss. The people who lived in Cappadocia built their homes in the rocks themselves, which were soft and easy to carve.




The entire region is covered in these kinds of dwellings, and peppered throughout the caves are churches and frescoes that bear witness to the hundreds of years that Christians spent here hiding from the Roman empire.


While here we also visited an underground pottery facility that has been run by a family in the traditional manner for generations.



IZMIR (Ephesus)

Next stop was Izmir, a city on the Aegean sea that boasts the home where Mary spent her final days under the care of John, and the great city of Ephesus where Paul came to preach. Our host sponsors for this portion of the trip met us at the airport with flowers for all of the women who went with us. This set the pattern for how gracious, generous and kind all of the Turks were with us.

Here is Mary's house, a pilgrimage site for Christians all over the world


The ampitheater at Ephesus where Paul preached.


The ruins at Ephesus were astounding, and we were able to wander all throughout blocks and blocks of city streets. Here is a photo of the library of Ephesus, the second largest library of the ancient world.


ANTALYA


Next we flew to the Mediterranean coast to the city of Antalya. Antalya is a very popular tourist destination, especially for Russians, and sits atop imposing cliffs that drop to the sea surrounded by the Touros mountain range. We ate lunch next to this waterfall.


The Mediterranean was kind of cold.


In Antalya we also visited a "religious garden" where a Christian church, Jewish synagogue, and Muslim mosque all operate on the same grounds. If you look closely at this picture you'll see a cross to the top right, a crescent moon at the top left, and of course a star of David down front.


The Imam of the mosque showed us around, explained some Muslim beliefs to us, and recited from the Koran in the traditional style.



URFA (Uz)

Back on the plane, and down to the Syrian border to a town known as Urfa. Those familar with the story of Abraham will recognize it as Ur, and those who know the story of Job will call it Uz. Urfa is much more of what one would expect from a Middle Eastern town. Here is our group in front of the cave where Job lived when he lost everything and was covered in boils.


Inside the cave


This tower was in Harran outside of Urfa, and dates to the time of Abraham. Our guide told us it was used to study astronomy.


While there we stopped to have tea with a family and their daughter sang for us.


This is the mosque built over Abraham's birthplace.



I really like the colors in this picture I took of a hookah at a copper store



ISTANBUL

Istanbul straddles two continents -- Europe and Asia -- with one leg on each side of the Bosphorus Strait, a body of water that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. It has a population of twelve million people, making it the largest city in Europe, and has been known in the past as Byzantium and Constantinople. I was fascinated by the architecture of this amazing city, and we were lucky enough to spend three days here.

We went for a ferry ride on the Bosphorus and passed under the two bridges that connect East and West Istanbul.


This is the Hagia Sophia, a monumental building which has been alternately a church and a mosque. Ataturk, the founder of the modern republic of Turkey, made it into a museum and opened it to the public.


The Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, and they highly esteem Mary and some of the other saints, and so left many of the frescoes inside when it became a mosque, despite the fact that the depiction of people is taboo in Islam. Here you can see a giant disc with Allah written in Arabic on the right, Muhammud on the left, and a fresco with Mary and Jesus in between.


Here's a huge underground cistern where the city stored water.


Some muslim women chatting it up in the courtyard of the Topkapi palace where the Sultan lived.



Kim and I in front of the Blue Mosque.


A shaky video of the interior to give you a better idea of what it was like.



Shopping in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul.



The sun setting over Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara.



FOOD AND FAMILIES

Because the object of the trip was to inspire interfaith dialogue, we had the privilege to eat almost a meal a day with a host family, and to visit schools in the different regions. It was very touching to meet with people and eat in their homes. They were very kind to us, and this was one of the best aspects of the trip.

















This was an incredible experience for us, and hopefully these pictures conveyed at least some of what was so special about it. The people were very friendly, the history was amazing, the food was excellent, the cities were incredibly clean, there was no graffiti or garbage, and the faith of those we came in contact with was so refreshing. We truly came to appreciate the similarities of our faiths and the sincerity of their beliefs, and were able to rid ourselves of the stereotypes and one dimensional portrayals that we had picked up here in the U.S. If you ever have the chance to visit this wonderful country, do not pass it up.