Hamilton Happenings

People often like to hear how others have met their significant other. Probably because the only other things to talk to young married couples about are school, work, or marital relations - 2 of which usually aren't exciting to talk about, and the 3rd isn't usually an open discussion topic [ you decide which is which. ] So people assume it's safe to ask newlyweds about their story of how they first met. Quite often, that story has different versions - the wife's version & the correct version. Melissa and I are no different. And thankfully for us, Pixar recreated a version of when Melissa and I first met: (names have been changed to protect identities though)

I have a wide variety of employment under my belt. And with that a range of things that I hear people talking about. At least for me, the more women that I work with - the worse the subject matter gets.  You'd think it'd primarily be guys that have questionable conversations. But not from my experience. I assume it's because guys talk less in general, so it takes longer to get to those subjects. One could argue that men are harder workers by this statement. But others could say that we just don't have the ability to talk & work at the same time... Whatever the reason, I overheard a fun conversation the other day. Now first keep in perspective where I currently work: IT headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So you'd expect the language to be clean - and it is! It's awesome working in a place like this. I'm not sure I've ever heard a questionable subject matter, or I'm just oblivious. The conversation among 3 middl

When people hear about my internship for the last few months and that Melissa isn't living with me during the week, they almost always ask the same question: What's it like living with single guys again? Disgusting. Was my apartment as gross as this? Were me and past roommates as lame as current roommates? I thought about posting pictures to let others see how gross some of the conditions are - but I figure there's no reason to make others sick (kind of me, eh?)  Now I've done some pretty weird things in the past as well, but usually there was a dare or cash involved.   Most recent things that have amazed me: Going to bed after cleaning the kitchen, and waking up to a filthy kitchen with dried Ramen everywhere. What'd they do, have a Ramen Noodle party? Pop everywhere (that's right, I said pop... not soda). Are they experimenting by replacing their blood with Mtn Dew? One of them told me that he goes through 2-3 12-packs within a half week or so. Seen

As you may know from the previous post (unless you're reading these backwards), Melissa has started taking prescribed anti-nausea pills - Zofran. I Googled Zofran just to find out a bit more about it. Ondansetron is used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. Ondansetron is in a class of medications called serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonists. It works by blocking the action of serotonin, a natural substance that may cause nausea and vomiting. What is that baby doing in there? Conducting surgery or undergoing chemo? Odd. Even more startling are some of the side-effects, all of which are pretty typical ones listed for any medication: diarrhea headache constipation weakness tiredness dizziness  How can you have diarrhea & constipation at the same time? That is an odd sensation that I do not wish to discover! Jeff Foxworthy has a few words about this too! Worth watching!

This last week Melissa was able to nab some Zofran. It's essentially an anti-morning sickness pill. Melissa has been feeling pretty well, but wanted to get a prescription "just in case." I think the nursing program is just turning her into a drug hoarder - sounds like a new reality show ! Or maybe she just gets the pill collector trait from her mom. I tell you, hospital employees have quite the hookups! ;) We've heard how expensive these pills can be. I think Julia & Cameron paid around $4 per pill. So after Melissa got her prescription she called me to play the "guess what I paid" game. (We play that quite a bit, especially at Winco, trying to guess how much we spent on groceries.) So I used the $4 - $4.50 range for my guesses and I was very far off. The entire bottle cost under $4! Thank goodness for the school's required insurance! I told Melissa that while she was in Boise visiting family that she should flaunt it in front of Julia. Use some of

No this isn't about drugs. About a bad ball joint on the Jeep. Women beware : This post contains technical talk about cars Cherokees are infamous for a something affectionately called Death Wobble. It's a condition where the front end of the vehicle shakes at high speeds when going over a bump. It can be pretty scary as it gets worse. Well that has been creeping into highway speeds. I knew I had a bad ball joint and I was hoping that would fix the problem. Shops around Rexburg wanted $140+ just for labor. And then they were drastically over pricing the parts needed as well. It took much longer than the expected 2 hours of labor, but I got the job done, and it only cost about $120. But most of that was buying new tools to help make the job easier. So that's just an investment right there. Maybe I'm just out of shape more than I used to be, but working on cars is exhausting. My body was so sore the following couple of days. The palms of my hand probably hurt the

I bought a 2lb bag of carrots recently. I go through about one of them a week. Last 2 times I bought them from a different store than normal, and I don't like those brands. You'd think a carrot is a carrot - nope. Most recent ones I bought from Walmart taste like there is cleaning product still on them. Now I've eaten a lot of nasty things (sometimes because I'm being paid to). But I could only force down 3 baby carrots. I'd return them, but Walmart recently adopted a policy that they won't take food back of any kind (we've been rejected in the past. Imagine how we felt - being rejected by Walmart...It's a new low.) So now I need some uses for several dozen soapy baby carrots: .22 rifle practice Marksman skeet shooting Slingshot ammo Rabbit hunting Save them for when our future child starts to use foul language  "Don't make us wash your mouth out with carrots!"  "Noooo, not the carrots!"

I've lived in ignorance on so many subjects for so much of my life. But this new information is probably the most shocking when compared to all others. Apparently there is a US Holiday that I had never even heard about - National Ice Cream Day . President Reagan declared it a holiday in 1984. If I grew up in Idaho, sure it may be socially acceptable that I didn't know about a holiday for dairy delights. But I'm from the dairy state (Wisconsin for those that don't know state nicknames.) There are 2 reasons cited within the article ( link above ) why Ice Cream is for sinners: "More Ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week" "... he set aside the third Sunday in July to enjoy a scoop..." Now certainly neither of these reasons alone are enough to draw my conclusion. But in response to #1: Get to church people! Honor the Sabbath. Saturday is a special day, a day to get ready for Sunday. And also having the holiday on Sunday i

Whooo, what a performance tonight! Melissa and I attended BYU-Idaho's concert Patriot and Pioneers . The orchestra and campus choirs get together and share inspirational, patriotic music. The guest singer was  Alex Boye . Yep, that's right. One of the 2 black guys in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Turns out he does a lot more than gospel hymns though. He used to be in a Boy Band called Awesome in England. And he has legs like spaghetti! They look like rubber when he starts dancing. When he sings he uses jazzy, soulful, spiritual vocals. And he's quite the colorful performer (and that's not just a reference to his skin .) From the 4th row, we had the perfect position to see him gyrating across the stage and to hear the handicap person a few rows behind us adding commentary: "Oh good, we're all done" (said after the opening  prayer haha.) He shared with us his patriotic song " Calling America " which he began writing after 9/11. The song took

So now that I'm home with Melissa for the weekend, we wanted to share with our parents and family the good news. Wow... what an ordeal this has turned out to be. We didn't want to make it obvious to either of our parents, so we were thinking of some nonchalant ways of suggesting that we skype. For Melissa's parents it's a bit easier, they're used to skyping with her/us on weekends, we'd just have to work around the 4 hour time difference and their work schedules. But I don't do it as often with my parents so I knew I'd have to be pretty casual about it. But how could I convince them to skype when I knew they'd both be home? Well the texts started out well. But as the evening progressed, and my parents went out for their weekly date night I knew it'd get tougher. Around 9pm my time (10 their time) I sent:  "So you guys going to a movie? or can we skype in a few?" His response: "Why? Is Melissa pregnant?" DANGIT! I kne

I think Melissa is liking this stick-peeing thing. Guess there are worse habits... but there are certainly less expensive ones too! But at least now we have the 2-stick-guarantee of being pregnant. To help figure out the due date - we turned to an app (turns out there are a ton of pregnancy apps out there - makes sense with how often people have coitus). According to the app, Melissa's greatest fear came true: She has to share her birthday with this future rugrat! Guess that means double the cakes! Mmmmm

We arrived back from Jackson after almost a week of fun. The fun continued as we got home with unpacking..... And then Melissa sent me to the store to get milk, etc. With all the food we had been eating that week, by the time I got home I REALLY had to use the bathroom. But Melissa had other ideas for me. I walk into the bathroom and there it was - the Mirror. Now we've lived here for a year and half, I'm used to seeing the mirror. I'm even used to seeing messages written by either of us on the mirror with dry erase markers, but this one was a bit different. Something was attached to this one - a thermometer. Oh wait, that's not a thermometer, there are just lines on it . "No Way! You're..." Oh wait, what does 2 lines mean? "Really? You're pregnant? That's awesome." My little tricky wife. She definitely surprised me. I don't know if she was more excited about her pee stick result or the fact that she was able to hide somethi

We spent the week living it up as cowboys in Jackson, Wyoming with David, Cindy, Jeff, & Cortney. Well not quite as cowboys, but definitely as tourists. David & Cindy rented a place in Teton Village for us to all stay at. Activities included: Porch climbing, breaking & entering, mountain biking, wipeouts, eating, whitewater rafting, unintentional swimming, cowboy concert (Bar J Wranglers), eating, gondola rides, hiking, ferry ride, feeding desert chipmunks (and freaking Melissa out making her think we were putting food on her back), wildlife viewing, staring at HUGE horses, watching hot air balloons & para-gliders from our balcony, church, corn-cob-catching, 4th of July parade, failed attempt @ attending the rodeo, watching The Amazing Spiderman, and sightseeing. Melissa's quick hands scored her a cob thrown from a float during the parade