An Eventful Week

Annette:

I am so sorry for those of you who actually went to our blog to see the photo that I had posted and there were words across the faces of Nathan and David. It did not show up on my Mac even when I logged out of our blog, but once I looked at it on Charles PC I saw what people were complaining about. I guess the "Transparent" feature does not work on PC (I only got complaints from PC users). Macs are taking over the world and Google understands that. Make the world a better, safer place and buy a Mac.

I really don't mind if you have a PC, that is perfectly fine with me, I am married to a man with a PC, I have to be fine with them. If these to men (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) pictured here can get along, I guess I can get along with PC users.

This week my Mom and Larry came through Utah Valley and decided to drop in. It was a fun evening with them. They still act like they are newlyweds. I don't think they are ever going to leave that honeymoon phase of their life until they get called on a mission... (hint, hint)

It has been a nice relaxing week away from school for me, unfortunately it was filled with lots of work. But this next week my work hours will be back to normal and Spring Semester at BYU will start up this Tuesday. I will be taking a Math 110 class (my ACT score covered the class, but my major requires that I still take it no matter what) and ASL 201. I am very excited for my ASL class!

Charles:

Sister Martin Jr. (Annette) kept having to call Sister Martin Sr. (Janelle) for rides everywhere since I've got our only car from before dawn (05:00) until almost dusk (17:30 to 18:30). So, in an effort to free up my mother and to give my cute perfect dear sweet wife the freedom we all enjoy having, we bought a new old car for her to use. We had a budget of below $5,000 which was still WAY pushing it for us, but oh well. We (mostly Charles) love our German cars so we had to get another one. It's nice because it gives us some versatility. It has a towing package and it's really roomy. It's a Mercedes Benz ML430. We don't have pictures of it yet so we'll provide a stock photo.

The differences between ours and the pictures above have to do mostly with cosmetics. Our car is white with minor blemishes for being 11 years old and the interior of ours was supposed to be tan but really it's puke orange with WAY old-school leather seats. It's got all of the little toys that the BMW has. Annette will enjoy the sunroof and the ability to heat her cold little seat. It has a Bose sound system which she probably won't fully appreciate like I would, but oh well.

My first week at my new job at Merit Medical was super. They're a great company and I really think I can grow quickly and contribute a lot. I just hope I can endure four 10-hour days plus overtime. So far it works. When you all go the hospital for any reason, you should insist that they only use Merit Medical products on you so I can benefit from your hard times. There's always a bright side to your surgery :)

I got a calling today. Say "Hello" to the BYU 248th Ward's first and best-ever ward choir director. The bishop asked if I was musical. I told him I could hold my own. I told him I would accept the calling as long as he would reign hellfire and damnation upon all those not in the choir. Sure, a couple of people have legitimate reasons to not be the choir, but MOST can and should be. I also proceeded to lecture the bishop about how the song of the righteous is a prayer unto God and that it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. I think a lot of people miss out on a lot of prayers and worship by not going to choir. I also imagine that there might just be tryouts in the hereafter for the angelic choirs praising God which are directly correlated to our efforts in this life and not our talent. Anyway, I'm going to also have the funnest choir ever. We'll have cookouts, field trips, and maybe even a shooting range.

Our Life...

I decided that it would be fun to put up this photo from my mom's wedding as our blog title photo (For those of you who only read the email and do not look at the blog, you will have to actually go there to see the photo that I am referring to). I think this is Nathan's best photo :)

Finals have been going .... and leaving me behind. I will probably end up with some average grades this semester. I was quite excited that I got a B on my Articulation test because my teacher told us last minute that the test would only be offered this Friday and Saturday which threw off my entire schedule. I was planning to take it next Wednesday because it would be my hardest.

Charles is very excited about his new job that starts TOMORROW! It will be sad not to have him around all the time and now means that I either have to ride the bus everywhere or learn to drive our car (its a manual). I am not sure which is worse, I guess we will find out because I will probably end up doing both :(

Charles has been spending his last few days of freedom planting the garden. He planted the carrots, broccoli, potatoes, beets, honeydew, cilantro, tomatoes, and onions. We are hoping that things will do well outside and that all of the little seeds will grow. Charles is now so tan. It is ridiculous how fast he tans. Oh well, it just means that I will look ghostly white next to him.

An Early Morning

In the wee hours of the morning, around 3 o'clock we got the call that Charles' sister, Allison was going into labor.  We had gone through the drill of what was to happen.  Charles got dressed and went to Allison's house to sleep on the couch and tend the kids (who apparently wake up VERY early).  I got dressed and waited for Jan, Charles' mom, to pick me up.  Allison had invited anyone who wanted to come watch the baby be born, so I decided that it would be a very educational, interesting experience, which it was.

As the three little boys were waking up Charles on the couch, Tanner stated/asked concernedly, "Did Mom remember to take clothes...? 'cause I am pretty sure the baby is going to come out naked!"

A New Job...?

After a hard five month long search and applying for 127 jobs...

Yesterday, Monday, Charles got a phone call from the company with which he interviewed two Wednesdays ago in Salt Lake.  The HR person on the other end of the phone offered him a job!  Charles will be starting this next Monday.  It is very exciting that Charles has a job which is in the medical industry which he has been wanting to enter!

Now we have a week to figure out how all transportation will work.  We are open for suggestions...

A New Ward

Annette:
Saturday night Charles and I attended the BYU Traditions Ball at the Hinckley Alumni Center. I had never been inside the building, but it is so gorgeous! The Ball was fun; there was a lot more than just dancing there. They had free photos, delicious hors d'oeuvres, comedians, a live band and other such things. It was a good, fun evening with our friends the Coombs who joined us.

As some of you have heard, our BYU Married Student Ward was getting too large, so they split the ward in half. We, of course, are part of the new ward which is the highest numbered BYU ward (until they split another ward), the BYU 248th ward! Because of this new change, we were automatically released from our prior callings. We have lost our Nursery Leader calling. It was a fun calling, but on to new things. I was sustained today as the Compassionate Service Coordinator. I am not really sure what I am supposed to do, but I do know that I am supposed to call a few people and make sure the people that have babies get meals. I am excited and absolutely thrilled! Charles is now waiting to see if he is called to anything. He has a daunting feeling that since he was the only person that showed up to choir practice regularly that he will be called as the Choir Director. Although our choir was extremely small as a LARGE ward, ALL members of the choir are in our ward. Our old ward will now be choirless until some people step up to the plate.

So the other day I got an email from "Blogger in Draft" which is a blog about new things you can do with your blog. I was able totally revamp our blog with all the neat features. To get to it, go to http://draft.blogger.com/ to log in to your blog with all of the new features and make sure you check the little box on your dashboard that you always want to use Blogger in Draft.


Charles:
My friend Deanna joked that it's time to have kids when you're blogging about your garden plants as though they're your children. And then she joked about how devastating it would be to have those plants die when they're transplanted. Well, she was right. Just about all of them have died. We don't know why; we have many theories, but we don't know why. We took them out for a day into the real sun just to get used to being outside before we really transplant them and it just about killed them. We would show photos, but they're just too gruesome.

REASONS CHARLES HATES LOOKING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS:
Have you ever heard people say that billions of dollars in scholarships go unclaimed each year? I had heard that from several credible sources and it used to blow my mind. Now I know why. I'm trying to fill the $47,000 deficit that we'll incur in the next two years.

REASON #1) Most scholarships are VERY particular as to who can get them. Example: The Charlie T. Thudpucker Scholarship Foundation is giving a $4 scholarship to someone who has 40 years of military combat experience, whose mother died in the September 11th attacks, who is a member of the Qxitzyw Tribe, and has 57,012,593,962 atoms in their right pinky fingernail. If you fit that description, please submit a dissertation on world peace and an invention that will soon cure all STDs and this $4 is all yours.

REASON #2) There are a couple of scholarships out there that everyone can apply for. Problem: 900,000 students are all jockeying for the SAME scholarship.

REASON #3) I alluded to this already, but most of the scholarships that everyone can apply for are worth $500 to $1,000. Don't get me wrong, I'd be grateful for any help, but that's 1% to 2% of my need. So to make a real difference I would have to get TONS of scholarships.

REASON #4) It takes a nice chunk of time to find and apply for scholarships. I could almost just go mow people's lawns in my spare time and make the same or more dollars per hour.

REASON #5) There's a fine line between what feels like a scholarship and what feels like a sweepstakes or a lottery. Some sites give scholarships, but there's an application fee which is turned into the scholarship. That doesn't feel like gambling! And some just give away the scholarship to the lucky person whose name gets drawn.

REASON #6) In order to apply for any scholarship, they need ALL of your personal information. This means that I get spammed like crazy and I get calls asking me if I've picked a school yet and if I have, would I consider transferring. GHAAAAAA!

Annette and I have enjoyed bike rides and walks lately. Annette uses our nice new bike and I use my rollerblades. We went a total of 11.9 miles last week. Fun!

Exciting Week!

Charles job hunt seems at though it is coming to an end! Charles has one company that he is simply waiting for the official offer. One job he is waiting for the second interview. And three jobs that recruiters have sent his resume to. Hopefully something will be happening soon!

Charles and I had my family over for a big dinner where we had homemade pizza (meat-lovers and alfredo) and homemade strawberry lemonade. Charles did an amazing job making all the food. We then played "Gotcha" which is my new favorite game and I think everyone should learn.

General Conference was amazing! It is always great to hear from the Prophet and the Apostles.

For Easter we really didn't do too much besides dying eggs with Charles' nephews. I of course happened to be put in charge of the one child that kept trying to drink the dye. It was fun though to see them all so excited over such a simple thing.