Wow! it was great. we all got to touch the manatee

A6 - The Christmas Manatee

One of my greatest dreams in life has always been to touch a manatee with "A6" etched into its head, and on Christmas day I went with Debbie and two of her sisters, Kim and Wendy, to Blue Springs to visit the Majestic Cows of the Great Sea Kingdom. We saw a healthy number of the whiskered mermaids and we found this last one when everyone else had left the park, so we were the only ones left. He seemed to adore us and kept coming close so we could touch him. It truly was a Christmas miracle.

Jordan River Temple and Volleyball

So this morning we ran over to the Jordan River Temple to start our temple tour. We hope to someday have gone to all the temples in Utah.It turned out that afterwards I had a volleyball game and we had no time to go back to my apartment and get my tennis shoes and clothes. Luckily I had my sweats and Eric had his basketball shoes in the back of the trunk so I was able to borrow those.



The size of the shoes didn't hardly hinder my playing because I'm already not the best volleyball player.

I figured we should have our first couple movies that we made together on the blog. This one was made right after we got engaged.

Happy Hunchbacked Halloween

Halloween is a kid's holiday. Our bodies may no longer suggest that we are children, but in our hearts we are just as immature as we were all those years ago.
On Oct. 30 we went to a party with Debbie's/Esmerelda's co-workers at a home in Lehi. Everyone was assigned to a specific theme for the costumes and ours was Disney. Our first choice was naturally Ed the hyena from "Lion King" and Flit the hummingbird from "Pocahontas" but the costumes were too hard to come by. We settled for Quasimodo and Esmerelda and won a single vote for "Best Costume". I suppose had their been a category for "Best Hunchback and Female Dancer" we would have won that as well.
On Halloween I wore my costume to work and people commented on it all day. I gave an older woman a good scare when she asked: "How did you make the hump?" and I looked at her with wide eyes and said, "I was born with it. Thanks for asking." She looked pretty terrified.
We went trick-or-treating with my brothers Gavin and Hayden on Halloween night in Layton and were rewarded handsomely for being some of the last trick-or-treaters of the night: everyone was ready to call it a night and so they gave us as much candy as we wanted. Lovely.

Troll 2 Party

The best worst movie.
A true legend to behold.
The other night we watched "Troll 2" which was filmed in a small town in Utah in the early '90s and is now known as the best worst movie ever made.
The plot, the acting, the dialogue... absolutely nothing makes sense. One note of achievement for the film, however: the teenage daughter in the film, Holly, is played by actor Connie Young who later starred in the LDS-hit "Singles Ward" as Cami. You may argue that "Singles Ward" is the second best worst movie ever made. Not a very successful career, Connie.
"Troll 2" is priceless. We didn't stop laughing the whole length of the film. My eyes were watering within minutes and my tummy ached. Maybe my favorite line of the movie was:
JOSHUA (the boy, this is when he realized what the name of the city was backwards): Nilbog! It's goblin spelled backward! It's their kingdom!
I recommend this movie to everyone on the earth.

Desk job or mascot?

There is something to be said about a real man's profession. If you were to think of a manly job, the following might pop into your mind: a firefighter, a heart surgeon or a bank robber. Take special notice that none of these careers are even closely related to my past two jobs: 1) Stan Bird.
As the 7 foot tall mascot for the Standard-Examiner newspaper I entertained people all across the Wasatch Front at parades, baseball games and such events. One of my favorite parts of this job was being able to meet the most influential leaders of our day, such as: Chewbacca, the mayor of Clearfield City and the pig from Famous Dave's BBQ.
2) Pumpkinhead
I don't know if this is the real name of the mascot, but that's what people yell at me from their car windows as they zoom by, some of them communicating with their hands as well, putting special emphasis on the use of their longest finger, suggesting that I am No. 1! The reason that I bring up the fact that I have had these jobs is because they are both unusual, somewhat immature positions, whereas that of my fiancee, Deborah M Thompson, is a position that scientists generally agree as being the most important in world history. Her picture shows her in her normal work garb as she dissects and examines the most important aspect of any culture: soil. Without soil, how could anything grow? How could there be mud when it rains?

Exactly my point.
Debbie and I are at different levels of maturity. My level is low and includes dancing for money (not to be taken in a wrong sense) while hers is much higher and includes saving the world.

We're Good at Being Engaged

Being engaged, we decided it's time to take that next big step in our lives: to get a dog. But we don't have the money, time or resources right now for one, so instead we got the next best thing that rhymes with dog: a blog. On this hallowed website we will share our deepest secrets, our most horrid fears and our tastiest recipes. We are excited to be married in the Orlando temple and also excited to receive presents at not one, but TWO wedding receptions! We hope you enjoy watching how our lives unfold.

P.S. It may appear that I am more into Debbie than she is into me, but it isn't true. Our love is equal and makes us happy.