Of Life, Cat Food, and Other Things

So the latest news, which I'm sure everyone already knows, is that we (Amy and I) are having a baby girl in a few months. This may come as a shock to those of you whose only connection to me is this blog, since the last time I posted anything was in 2009. So I am married now. And my wife is pregnant. I consider those to be among the best things to ever happen to me. We're living in the Sacramento area, in Amy's parents house. It's quite a house. Room for a family of 11, but only 2 current residents. Unless you count the cats. And the fish. Oh yeah, we just bought 2 new fish, Guppies, and one of them is supposedly pregnant. There is a small story behind why we bought fish. Here it goes. . .
We have cats. We inherited them from the previous residents(yes my inlawas). Most of the time they are very pleasant(the cats, not the inlaws. The inlaws are always pleasant.) We take it upon ourselves to make sure the cats are fed. This requires that we occasionally buy cat food. I normally go for the cheapest stuff walmart or winco have. The cats haven't complained yet. Lest you get ahead of yourselves, we did not buy guppies to feed the cats. Amy, being the smart shopper that she is, found some coupons for cat food at petsmart. So, we stopped by while we were out on the town. We found the cat food that the coupons worked for, but there was a problem. The coupons would have brought our total purchase price below zero. That is a little awkward, and it made us feel really stingy, so we thought we owed it to petsmart to at least buy something. Believe it or not, some fish are really inexpensive. The guppies were only $1. Even the pregnant ones. I heard on the radio recently that pregnant goats cost a lot more than goats that aren't pregnant. Not the case for guppies. We felt that one pregnant guppy wouldn't be enough, so we got her a male companion. I really have no idea what the chances are of the pregnant guppy having a bunch of baby fish now or in the future, it just seemed like the sensible thing to do. So we took them home and now we have 4 fish: 1 giant algea eating monster, 1 little fish, and 2 tiny guppies. The guppies don't seem like they like our aquarium very much though. The only time they move is when the other little fish chases them. And that is the story of why we now have 2 guppies.
We are enjoying life. There is always a lot to complain about, but there is usually more to be happy about. We are surrounded by family who love and support us. We have friends who we can't seem to spend enough time with. We have an understanding of life that I think most people would envy if they knew how much joy it brought us. I guess we should try and do a better job of letting them know. Until next time.

Hello Family! I frequently remember to update my blog, but never actually go through with it. Time is flying by, this week marks half way through the semester. My classes are all going well. I happen to like some more than others. The semester has not been too killer, which is nice. I'm still looking for a job. A job in accounting would be ideal, but those are difficult for someone with my level of experience to find. I'll settle for pretty much anything at this point. We'll see what happens. Hopefully I find something good soon. Other than school I spend time with this crazy girl I met. At first I didn't think I was going to be able to date a girl who works for the state of California. But it has its perks, such as tickets to various sporting events. Recently we went to two preseason Kings games which were both fun. 1 win, and 1 lose. She is my hero. After several months (probably close to 2 years) of driving with my power steering going in and out of commission, I got it fixed. I also have two working headlights and a new left-rear blinker in my car now so I'm driving safe again. Life is good.

The past two weeks have been kind of a blur. I'm surprised that I have the time, let alone the energy to spend time updating my blog. But, when time is going by fast, that is usually a sign that things are good, or at least that you are enjoying yourself, which I most certainly am.

The last Saturday of August was very eventful. The single adults(NOT YOUNG single adults), had a rafting activity. I comitted to help guide one of the boats down a stretch of the river and had quite a time doing it. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, and took a lot more time, but I'm glad I did it. I learned a lot from it I hope I was able to help them have a fun day.

School started on the 1st of the month, and it is actually going pretty well up to this point. I'm not completely frustrated with any of my teachers, which might be a first, and I'm actually learning a lot in a couple of my classes. Some of my classes are off to a really slow start, but my accounting classes jumped right into things and they are keeping me busy. Tim and I are taking turns driving down to school; we also give a friend of ours a ride. My 1st class is at 7:30 a.m. and my last ends at 5:45 p.m. But I have some breaks in between classes that allow me time to actually do most of the homework/studying I need to do. Only 14 weeks left this semester.

Overall I'm having a blast. I hope it continues to do so.

I was looking at the other blogs in my family today and I realized that I am at a huge disadvantage. I am the only that doesn't have a digital camera. There is absolutely no chance that my words alone can compete with the adorable photographs of my niephews(we should all use this word to save time). Why then do I bother writing this? That is a very good question. Because I have nothing else to do right now and I think its fun to put my thoughts into writing. And since there are only 8 people who follow this blog, and they pretty much know what is going on in my life without reading this, I feel pretty comfortable writing about nothing.
What started off as a dull summer has turned into a pretty eventful season. I haven't been rafting a whole lot, but I did go a few times. Each time was, of course, AWESOME. I still hope to go a couple more times before school starts.
My career as a window washer is pretty much over. My boss moved out to Utah, and took with him the sales dept of the company. He left some equipment though, so if I meet anyone that needs their windows cleaned, and I have the time, I'll still do it. It has been a fun job. When I had work, it kept me busy. In the past few weeks I got to house-sit for a couple families, both of which had dogs that(in any Mavy's opinion) were too spoiled. But I had fun with them all. Now I'm scraping paint for Dad, helping to get the house out in Grass Valley ready to sell.
Lots of YSA activities have also been keeping me busy. There was the big CA statewide conference, all of the trips to the temple that it involved, the dances(some of which I've actually enjoyed), the firesides, and of course Church and FHE every week. Its fun.
I've also had a date or two or three or maybe even a few more than that, which have been a lot of fun. We went to the beach in San Francisco on one occasion, which was pretty awesome. But like I said earlier, everyone who reads this blog probably already knows about everything that I've written so far.
School starts soon, in less than a month. Right now the plan is to stay at home, and carpool with Tim down to school, seeing as how we are there at the same time. I'm looking for a job that will fit with the school schedule. Pretty much anything will do. I apologize for the lack of photos. If you are that interested you can look at all of the photos on facebook that other people have taken.

I just noticed something that I found pretty funny. The only way I ever go to my own blog is by going to Jason and Ruth's blog first, and then clicking on the link to mine. I guess I have just been to lazy to add it to my favorites. This last week was awesome, although it started out kind of scary. My car has been leaking coolant for a couple months now. Me being the procrastinator that I am I waited to fix it. So when my friend removed the hose that had the hole in it and we realized that putting a new one on was going to be a lot harder than taking the old one off I got scared that I might not be driving for awhile. But he was able to fix it monday night which was a huge relief. Tuesday morning Wyatt and I left for Leavitt meadows to go backpacking. It was a long drive up and we weren't too excited to start the hike in(He wasn't feeling too well.) It rained on us a little on the hike in, enough to keep us cool but not to get us soaked. We hiked up past roosevelt and lane and stopped right around where the trail comes back to the river. I'm guessing about 3 miles in. The mosquitos were everywhere. Wyatt caught a couple of fish that night in the river which we fried up. They were great. The next day we took a day hike up to Freemont. No fish, which was really dissapointing to Wyatt, but we hiked the peak on the other side of the lake that made the trip totally worth it. It was beautiful. It was also the only place we found refuge from the mosquitos We hiked out the next day and were blessed with some clouds which kept us cool. We drove back over monitor pass through markleville, Then went down 50 to palcerville and got on 49. We made to auburn in 3 1/2 hours which I thought was impressive given the drivers we had to follow. All in all it was a great week.

Why the heck hasn't summer started yet? We've maybe had two or three days where it reached 90 degrees. I'm sure most people are thankful for that, but those of us who want to go rafting aren't quite so happy. Another downer about rafting this year is the end of that stinking drout. Folsom Lake is as full as it has ever been, and that means that the river ends a lot sooner. So we'll either have to fork over $10 to get towed to the bridge or paddle for a couple of hours after hospital bar.
Semi good news on the job front. My friend started his own window cleaning business and he needed a worker. We aren't super busy yet but it is better than nothing and I get some sun. So if any of you know anyone who needs their windows cleaned let 'em know.

The semester finished for me today. I'm actually not nearly excited as I have been in the past to be out of school. I think that is because I really want to be done with school in the long run, and I'd rather just keep going to school than take a break. But, now I rembember all of the activities I have waiting for me this summer. Rafting, Camping, Backpacking, Swimming, Maybe even a date or two. My classes went well. I might end up with all A's but it'll be close. I have my schedule for the fall semester all set up too. I have really enjoyed staying with Ed and Sheila for the last couple of months. The girls are awesome and I'll miss their enthusiasm. Now I've really got to find a job. So I should probably stop typing here and get on craigslist.