Vacation Part II

After escaping from the robots, I managed to go to a Dodgers game,

and then I caught a giant shark!

Chris and I were also able to take a ride down Wisteria Lane (from "Desperate House Wives"). Ok, so we were just at Universal Studios Hollywood. It was a lot of fun. We saw some writers on strike outside the studios. That was pretty neat.

After California, I flew to Utah. I have been hanging out with family and was able to go see my Aunt Linda and Uncle Mel and some cousins. I also went to Bryce Searle's wedding reception. His cute wife Miranda will be coming out to Philly with her husband and is trying to get a job at Tyler's school. Well, now Tyler is here and on Sat. we went to the Muse family Christmas party.

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Church's house to see Grandma and Grandpa, Steve, Bonnie and family, Tiff, Derrick, Casey and Sophie. It was our first time seeing our cute new niece! We were also able to go to see Brian, Traci and family in their new house. It's been fun here so far. Ty and I were able to sleep in today until 10:30! That is so much better than waking up at 4:30 a.m.

Vacation Part I

Yea! Finals are over! Supposedly it's downhill from now on. After finals, Ty and I went with a bunch of friends to Longwood Gardens and saw their amazing Christmas displays.

If only I could hold a dinner party with decorations like this!

The next day I headed off to sunny Pasadena California to visit my grandparents (on my dad's side) and my uncle Brian and aunt Cathy (and cousins) in Santa Clarita.

My brother Chris came down to spend time with his sister and my dad Lorin and his wife Jean came down for a couple days as well. My grandma had fallen the week before we got there so she wasn't doing so well. She was still as funny as ever though.

While Tyler took over his classes for the first time back in Philly, I managed to escape from robots from "The Terminator",

That Time of Year Again

Well, we have officially entered our busy time of year. Ashley starts two weeks of finals tomorrow and I start really teaching. For two weeks, I will be in with the lady that is going on Maternity leave (as long as she doesn't have her baby early) and then I will be taking over for her. That means I actually have to start doing lesson plans. I'm excited to not have to substitute for a while. Ashley is the crazy one, though. She still has Seminary and is working on patients during her two weeks of finals everyday. She could use some prayers. Love you guys.

Two Turkey Bowls and dinner

Ty was able to play in two turkey bowls on Thursday! one with our old ward and one with our ward now. He was a little tired when he was done...

After his football games, we were able to go have some good turkey grub and other yummy things (like pirogies) in New Jersey with aunts and uncles

some cousins

and my cutie grandpa Domino who came to eat with us from a veterans' hospital.

Luckily we have some nice family members out here who will invite us to Thanksgiving dinner. We are really soooo grateful that we have such wonderful family all around the country. We miss everyone so much!

Fun with Rechele and Fun with my mom and Cheryl

One of my very best friends, Rechele, came to visit me last weekend and part of this week from Palo Alto, California. After much begging, she agreed to come and spend time with Alisha and me. Alisha is my really good friend out here. We met through Rechele (at BYU) and I convinced her to come out here for dental school. She's a 2nd year. Since Alisha lives in the the city and it's fun there, we hung out there almost every day and we were able to go to a few awesome restaurants, one of which is called Continental (I highly recommend going there if ever any one comes out to visit). They have a pretty cool website with fun music. You can check it out at www.continentalmidtown.com . We ate there with Jessica and Benny as well (they're also dental students). I wish Ty was there, but he didn't come because we went after school and it was too hard for him to get there. Rechele and I also went to the brand new upscale outlet mall by our condo. I'm still waiting for prices to go down so I can actually buy something there though. Ty and I are hoping the value of our condo will go up with those out here now. It was so fun to be with Rechele and Alisha! Thanks for coming Rechele! I have such good friends!

Also, my mom came out to visit the week before with one of her best friends Cheryl. We did the usual: Shady Maple, Longwood Gardens, New York City, Valley Forge and Philadelphia. We were able to eat at The Bubba Gump restaurant in NYC and go to the Broadway show "The Drowsy Chaperone" staring Bob Saget. It was a blast to be with such amazing women. Unfortunately, we have no pictures. My mom is so sweet to always come out and visit me. Thanks for coming out mom, you're the greatest!

Ron Paul Rally

On Saturday, November 10th, Ashley and I went with some of our friends down to the Ron Paul Rally in Philadelphia. The rally was on the lawn right by the Liberty Bell and in between Independence Hall and the Constitution Center. Not a bad place for a rally to support the only candidate in this election who still believes in the constitution, right? There were so many people there (reports are saying there were over 5,000). It was awesome. It was the first time either one of us had ever done anything like it and it was so cool. Although it was freezing cold, we had a great time listening to and cheering for Dr. Ron Paul, our choice to be the next President of the United States. Afterwards, we went around and got to shake his hand! He was really nice. Check out these pics. The one with the white paper-looking graves was a memorial that the Veteran's did in honor of every American that has died fighting in Iraq. For more on Ron Paul and why we like him, check out my blog or ronpaul2008.com.

Ashley's Pinewood Derby Car

A week ago, our ward had an activity that was a chili cookoff/pinewood derby car race for adults (not a boy scout one). When Ashley was little, all of her brothers were in boy scouts and were getting ready for the pinewood derby and she was jealous. Her stepdad Steve helped her make her own car and she would get to race it after the boy scouts were finished. Ashley has always held on to the car and so she decided a couple days before the race to enter it into the ward race. After not being used for all those years, it still did really well. She got third place. Unfortunately, the only races I got on video were of her losing. The only person she lost to was the first place champion. The entire ward was amazed that Ashley had time to make such a sweet car that was so fast. It was a fun night and the Chili was really good too. Check out the video of her car racing.

New Blog

Well, I decided that I wanted to start another blog for myself to put all of my thoughts out there. Don't worry, Ashley and I will keep this blog for our family events and pictures. My new blog is just me talking about things that I am thinking about. I just wanted to write my story down and I thought that a blog would be a good way to do it. I think that you will like it. It will let you understand what is going on in my head as I have been searching for truth in this crazy world. The first post is long, but it is just an explanation of where I am coming from. The other posts will not be so long, I promise. Also, the blog is not all the way developed, and will definitely be a work in progress. I hope you will check it out and leave some comments/thoughts/opinion/etc. The new blog's website is:

tystruthsearch.blogspot.com

Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University

Alright, my midterms are almost over and so I thought I'd finally write a blog about the most upscale party Tyler and I went to last Wed. night. It was a posh party to dedicate our new school name. The daughter of Dr. Kornberg, Mrs. Abramson, and her husband (who was the founder and CEO of U.S. Healthcare Inc.) donated 10 million dollars to the school, supposedly mostly to scholarships (too bad I probably won't be able to apply for any of them). Anyways, we changed our school name to honor him (and there was more money involved if we did). So there was a party to celebrate this whole thing and I was able to sing with my group at the party. Only full time faculty, students in leadership positions and rich people were invited. It was pretty neat how they transformed the outside of our school and main lobby into this huge tent with chandeliers and black carpet and things.
Our two songs went well and I was able to eat caviar, duck, lamb, chicken with a little syringe in it with mango sauce in which you squirted into your chicken as you take a bite. There was all sorts of drinks at the bar (Tyler tried everything of course-wink,wink). They even had a seafood bar made out of ice. The desserts were divine! I almost had a shake with vodka in it. Luckily my friend stopped me and I was able to get a non-alcoholic one. As you can tell, I really liked the food and think I could go to more parties like this if there is food like this there. I talked with Mrs. Abramson and the president of Temple University (not knowing who she was). I heard a rumor she's mormon because she's from Utah and some of her kids are in my friend's ward??? I don't know. But Tyler accidentally spilled some rich lady's drink all over her and he said she looked like she wanted to kill him...poor Ty. Oh, and there was valet parking (yes, at my ghetto school) and everybody looked at us when Tyler's dented beater car pulled up. We had lots of fun at the party and were able to get two crystal boxes as take home gifts. I don't know what we'll use them for but they are nice.
And of course, I stayed up all night to study for a midterm the next day and when I decided to get an hour of sleep, I laid down and Tyler got up and threw up all over the bathtub! He had food poisoning (I think it was from the oysters). So now we've been lucky enough to have a baby Madi nasty accident in the tub and Tyler's throw-up. It's pretty funny. I don't know if I'll take a bath for a while though. :)

Grandma and Grandpa

For some reason, I can't find any pictures of us with Grandma and Grandpa during their visit to Philly a few weeks ago. Maybe Ashley has some that I can't find. Anyways, Grandma and Grandpa Church came to the East Coast and stayed with us for a few nights on their tour. The first night they came in and I unfortunately had to work the next day, but Ashley took the day off from school and took them to Amish country and downtown Philly. She said it was a lot of fun and she loved spending the day with them. On their way back from Philly, I met up with them at Valley Forge and gave them my famous car tour of the park. I think they especially liked seeing George Washington's quarters, where we were able to get out and walk around a little. After that, we went to dinner and had a great time. I had to leave again and go to scouts but Ashley took them to Ice Cream. I realize that Ashley was the one who spent the whole day with them so she should probably be writing this, but she is in the middle of her midterms and is still teaching seminary so it will be difficult for her to have much time to do anything.

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa left really early and drove into Ashley's school in our really nice traffic. Ash dropped them off at a scary subway station in the middle of ghetto Philly and left them to fend for themselves. Somehow, they managed to get all their connections alright and take the trains from Philadelphia to New York via Trenton. They then spent a couple days on Manhatten and made the same adventure train trip back to our house on Saturday. By the time we got home, Ashley had already left for the General Relief Society broadcast so it was my turn to spend some fun time with my grandparents. We decided to go eat dinner and check out the King of Prussia Mall (2nd largest in U.S.). When we got there, we realized that Grandpa had never had a real Philly Cheesesteak so he and Grandma got one at the food court. (I'm not sure if the food court cheesesteak was as good as the real deal, but they were more authentic looking than any cheesesteak you can get out west). We walked around some of the mall for a while and had a great time. On Sunday, they came to Sacrament meeting with us and left for Washington D.C. You'll have to talk to them to see how the rest of their trip went.

Ashley and I loved having them here and being around them again. We realized how much we miss them. We were spoiled in Utah to be able to live with them and see them so often. We loved being able to talk to them so much and really had a great time. We love you Grandma and Grandpa so much. Can't wait to see you at Christmas time.

East Coast Visit

One of the best things about living out here in Philly is that we have had just about everyone come and visit us and take a tour of the East Coast. This time it was Mom and Dad for a couple days and Trev, Summer, and Madi for 8 days. We had so much fun. I know Summer already mentioned a few things, but I thought I'd summarize the trips as best I could:

-Amish Smorgasboard
-Driving around Amish country and buying the nastiest Root Beer in History
-Playing Mao Master with everyone and having mom get mad at me for always giving her cards
-Reading Terminal Market/Liberty Bell/Independence Hall in Philadelphia
-Trip to New York for the Yankees game
-2 hours to get through the Lincoln tunnel
-Missing the Parking Garage, flipping a U-turn onto a one-way street going the wrong way, flipping another U-Turn in front of cops and oncoming traffic. Then, turning at next light to find that we were headed the wrong way through the Lincoln tunnel where we just came from, and flipping another U-turn to avoid it (scariest driving I've ever done).
-Yankees Game (My fav. part was the crowd letting that Red Sox fan have it as he walked by)
-Valley Forge and King of Prussia Mall
-Taking Friday off, sleeping in and playing Alhambra all day long
-Second trip to New York on Saturday- taking 3 laps around the parking garage before finding the entrance, Trev zooming in on the naked cowboy, walking down the open-air market and buying kabobs on gyros, getting soaking wet on our way to FAO Schwartz, seeing the South tip, Statue of Liberty, etc., Wall Street, Chinatown, walking up 15 flights of stairs to look at purses, seeing the Chinese ladies sewing clothes in a sweat shop, pizza at Patsy's in the Village, that old guy laughing at me when I asked him where the Lincoln tunnel was.
-Funnest of all, Playing with Madi (Seriously, she was the best kid I've ever seen. We dragged her all over and she didn't cry at all. We miss her!)

Thanks to you guys for the trip out to see us. I will try to catch up and tell you about Grandma and Grandpa's visit next time.

It is about time!

After postponing my student teaching for a year and a half to follow my wife to dental school and sending out over 75 applications to different school districts in southeast PA, I have officially been hired as a teacher with a real salary for the first time in my life. That's right, at just 27 years old, I have officially been hired to do something with my life. This afternoon, I accepted a full-time job to be a building substitute at Collegium Charter School, a small school that is about 20 minutes from our house. That's right, I said "substitute." I am being hired on a full-time teacher's salary to be a substitute for the rest of the 07-08 school year. Actually, they have a Social Studies teacher that is pregnant and is due around Christmas. They hired me to take over for her for the three months that she is on maternity leave. After that, I will go back to being a full-time sub in the building.

I was also told that this is not just a one year hiring. Apparently they are expecting to be adding a new Social Studies teacher for next year and would like me to stay on for the following year. Can you believe it? They're gonna pay me about twice as much with benefits and a salary to do the exact same job I have been doing for two years now. Plus, I get to have about 3 months of actual teaching experience to get me ready for a job next year. Its like student teaching without the other teacher in there watching you and I'm getting paid a real salary to do it. Alright, you can all probably tell that I am pretty pumped up about this new job. Best thing is, I asked if I could start after Trevor, Summer, and Madi leave on Sept. 25th so next week is gonna be fun!

Ashley and I feel like this is a great blessing for me to be able to get this job. It couldn't be any more perfect for what we need. Heavenly Father really does know us and wants us to be happy and to have success. We wanted to thank everyone so much for all of your prayers. We have felt them as we have prayed and we know that I am getting this job because of the prayers of so many of you guys. We love you and thank you for always thinking about us. I promise we will get a blog on here soon about Ashley's crazy life as an early morning seminary teacher while she goes to Dental school!

Tyler's Birthday

We decided to invite some of our friends over for cake and ice cream on my birthday this year. I think it was the first birthday party I've had since I was like 12 years old. Check out the VIDEO.

Niagara!

Finger Lakes, New York

Waterfall by one of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York (obviously, I can't remember its name). It was actually taller than Niagara, but not nearly as cool.

Here's me jumping off a diving board at the base of another Finger Lakes waterfall. The water was freezing!


This was one of the coolest hikes I've ever been on. It was at Watkins Glen State Park (again on the finger lakes) and had like 20 waterfalls. It was amazing.

Palmyra

After the Hall of Fame, we stayed one night in a hotel in Syracuse and then drove to Palmyra. We had an awesome day. We went to the Joseph Smith home where the Sacred Grove is, the Hill Cummorah, the Book of Mormon printing press, and we did a session at the Palmyra temple that night. It was such a spiritual day. Here are some of the pics.

I passed!

Our internet has been down this week so we haven't been able to post more of our fun adventure and let everyone know that I passed my boards part I! It was an eight hour test (I take forever taking tests so it took me almost 7 hours) full of Anatomy, Neuroanatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Dental Anatomy, Microbiology, Pathology and clinical case questions. It was the toughest and most exhausting test I've taken. Thanks for all of your prayers. I couldn't have passed and done as well as I did without them. Now I'm not only going to class, but seeing patients as well. I think some of them might know that they are one of my first patients though. If they ask, I just tell them that I've done the procedure many times before, but I just don't tell them that it was on a mannequin head. It's just a small detail I don't think they need to know :). I've been having so much fun in clinic! There are some very interesting people who live out here in Philly and some very crazy mouths.
The pictures I posted are from the Ichiro section of the Hall of Fame. Ted can tell you what the Japanese sign says. We were looking for Ted, but I guess the Hall of Fame couldn't afford his price.

HALL OF FAME

I've never spent so much time at a Museum, but the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown was an exception. The day started out with Ash and I driving from Sharon Springs down a beautiful lake that reminded me of Lake Cushman. We arrived in Cooperstown, parked and took a trolley down into the city. It was a nice little town and the Hall of Fame was amazing. We took a million pictures and so I'll show you a few. We ended up staying for like 6 hours. Ashley was awesome and loved it almost as much as I did. I even caught her sneaking a kiss with Ted Williams. I'm so glad I married her. We had the best day ever and stayed last night in a nice little hotel in Syracuse. Also check out a video we took of the main Hall of Fame room. CLICK HERE for the video. We spent a long time in this room. Its a little long, but you'll get to see some Hall of Famers on the wall. I'll post more later about the day but I don't have time right now.

Trip to New York (Not the City)

Yesterday we started our adventure to upstate New York. We left around lunchtime and started the drive North. We had a fun little drive through PA and even hit our new favorite city: Scranton, PA. Unfortunately, we hit Scranton right when the biggest Thunderstorm of all time hit and so we didn't decide to stick around too long to explore and find Michael Scott, Dwight, Jim, Pam, or the rest of the Office gang. We did take a picture of where they probably went to High School (If you look closely at the picture you will see the sideways rain we were driving in), and we thought this might be the church that they show in the opening with the music, but you guys will have to tell us. Ash and I even jumped out of our car in the pouring rain to film a short clip of me doing my best Dwight Schrute impression, but something happened and our camera didn't work too well. So, we got soaked for nothing.

Eventually, we got back on the road and made our way up towards Cooperstown. The drive was awesome. Little rolling hills and lots of trees and rivers. Reminded me a little of the Northwest. Eventually, we pulled up that night to our hotel and were shocked to see how terrible it was (See the Budget Inn Pictures). I knew it wasn't going to be great because I bought it online and it was a lot cheaper than most of the hotels around Cooperstown, but it was pretty brutal. We killed about 20 bugs in our room during our time there and the bed was not too comfortable. But we enjoyed it and chalked it up as a "Daventure." There was one bonus to where we stayed; right down the street was a little sports bar that we went to and ate the best New York-style pizza ever while we watched the All-Star game. It was definitely worth the bad hotel.