Smooth Shifting!

I'm trying to be better about updating the blog, even when there's nothing much going on. The highlight of our week was babysitting Nora and James' kids while they were in California. Well actually, it was mostly Bevan, until I got there with Paige Friday night. By that point, Bevan was SO happy to see me. I didn't see what the big deal was. I guess he never did a lot of babysitting growing up.

On Saturday, we worked on our cars with dad. I made sure to pitch in with organizing the tools and lending a hand when needed. Not just because I was getting a deal for the labor, but because I really thought it was interesting! Maybe there's a little mechanical streak in all of us? How often do you get to look underneath your car and see how things work? This comes in handy when you need some real work done with a mechanic and you actually know what he's talking about. All I care about now is how nice it is to have a smooth clutch in the little Civic.

I've been going down to Salt Lake Monday nights for a study group for my Landscape Architectural Registration Exam. For those of you who knew that I took it once before, but never heard how it turned out… I didn't pass. It's not like I "fail" at many things, but knowing that there was only a 33% passing rate made me feel a little better about failing. It's kind of sketchy because they don't tell you HOW you failed. 4 months later (when the scores are reported), they probably figure that nobody cares. You can pay more money and be able to see your old test. But you can't take notes or bring anything in with you. You can just stare at it for up to one hour and hurry and run outside to some paper and jot it down. Nothing quite like paying a fortune for the test AND the review, but if you actually learn something, you're lucky. The folks who write and grade the test are supposed "volunteers" so who knows why they charge so much in the first place. Probably the recycled paper.

So getting back to my Monday evenings… I'm re-taking the test in December and decided to hook up with a quality study group: people from my old class. Productivity went way down the first session because we just reminisced the whole time and caught up with each other's lives. I was happy to find out that most of the 25 people in my class went on to grad school at prestigious universities or got really good jobs. That was right at the peak of the bubble. Can't say so much for the class after us. That's what happens when your major revolves around the development of land.

So that's what 's been happening in my life. Bevan works hard with the saw crew and spends his free time playing chess online (thanks mom for getting him hooked) and fantasy football. There's only 65 days left until the start of ski season and both of us can't wait! If anybody's itching for a day pass to come up and ski... let us know!

A Bowling "Playdate"

Living out in the middle of nowhere has it's perks: fresh mountain air, lonely dirt roads, the neighborhood fox harassing the chickens next door, etc. A downside is that you really don't socialize or "hang out". Not that there aren't friendly folks out here... it's just not what you do. Try to find a young, 20-something year-old, newly-wed couple to play "games" with on a weekend night. Very rare. We've gotten so used to it, we go through culture shock when we go down to the valley, especially when we go to Provo.

Last weekend, we went down to Utah Valley to see our friend, Mary, who wanted us to go as the second couple on a double date. We drove past a grassy field on campus and noticed a large group of guys playing flag football. Something so ordinary as that really caught Bevan's eye. We talked how nice it would be to play sports with "the guys". I seriously thought, "Aw, Bevan needs a playdate with some boys his age." We really didn't realize how isolated we were. We went bowling with Mary and her date and noticed how we were completely surrounded by 20-something-year-old couples! Whether they were married or not married made no difference. It felt awkward, but it also felt good! They were our age! It was a real phenomenon! True, Provo is on the extreme end of supporting that kind of crowd, but it opened our eyes to what life would be like if we lived in a college town. Anti-social is not always a choice. It comes with real life, real jobs, and too many dirt-road miles between you and your friends.