Pics from my mom's camera

An Excellent Experience

This past weekend was an absolute treat. A good friend of mine and my family was baptized and confirmed a member of the church. Tom is very close to my two sisters Caitlin and Jessica and ran track and cross-country during high school with Jessica. He now runs for Stanford and is doing quite well. Just Google Tom Gruenewald and you will see some his accolades.

Tom is not just a runner. He is a kind, honest, and straightforward person. He was a regular visitor in our home, and we always hoped that he would join the church. As he was at Stanford he began attending meetings and began meeting with the missionaries. On Saturday, June 21 2008 he was baptized by my dad and confirmed a member of the church the next day by me.

Congratulations Tom.

It is on like Donkey Kong

That is one of my favorite sayings of all time. This time I use it reference to the fact that I am applying to Med School for a third and, probably, final time. We could use your encouragement and prayers.

This is quick, but I'll have more to post after this weekend.

Gotta get the Candy!!

For those of you who haven't seen or heard Jerry Seinfeld doing the Halloween candy routine, go listen to or watch it. Anyway, I rarely eat candy, especially now that I am trying to be a little more serious about my weight loss, but I found a new favorite candy bar.
Wow, crunchy peanut butter covered with coconut. It's awesome! Kinda like a Butterfinger sans the chocolate...

Anyway, I know this was a lame post, but it is a heck of a candy bar...go buy one...right now!

Exposure to the Son

I emailed a few of my friends about this yesterday, but on the way to work there is a church that generally has some pretty ingenious slogans on its sign. The latest one reads, "Exposure to the Son may prevent burning." I had a good laugh and am planning on stopping by later to snap a picture of it. It got me thinking though. Do any of you remember the article from Elder Ballard encouraging the members of the Church to use all forms of media, (electronic forms as well), to teach about the church? I have struggled to figure out how to use a blog to do so, as it is so informal and available for anyone to read. I would appreciate any comments on the subject, but I feel like I want to take an opportunity to share my thoughts on something that has been troubling me as of late, and I wanted to take a public stand for what I believe.

Governor Paterson has indicated in an executive memo to all state agencies in NY that all marriages legal in any state of the union are to be recognized, regardless of the fact that in NY, it is still against the law for gay couples to marry. California has now legalized gay marriage and has joined ranks with Massachusetts. CT, VT, NJ, and NH have civil unions, that while not technically a marriage, afford the same rights to those couples as those enjoyed, or endured, by legally wed couples. ME, HI, DC, WA, and OR also have varying applications of the same idea, that they can be a legal union, and enjoy many if not all of the rights of a legally married couple.

I have struggled for weeks to determine where exactly I stand on this. I struggled with the idea of the state controlling who can and cannot be legally joined--call me cynical, but the government needs some serious help and I felt for a while that their efforts should be directed at more pressing matters. I have come to realize that it is not at all a trivial matter. I have gay friends and acquaintances here at school and work and I hesitated to take a perceived anti-gay stance. I am not anti-gay. They are people, just like you and me. They are my friends and colleagues and my beliefs on the issue don't make me value them any less. That being said, my stance is not anti-gay, but it is pro-family and I define a family, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does, as a legal, binding union between a man and a woman. I firmly believe that the family as was, and is, ordained by God is a basic building block of society. Does that mean that all families are perfect? No. There are single parent homes, and single people in the world who abide by and stand for the beliefs engendered by this document, "A Proclamation to the World."

As unpopular as a belief may be, and as unpopular is this one currently is becoming, that does not mean that it is not right. I want my friends and family to know where I stand and what side of the line I am on. The upcoming election will certainly define a generation and propel us forward on an ever-quickening journey. Become informed, exercise your right as citizens on both the national and the local levels. Don't allow others to steal your voice because you chose not to act.

Wow, I stink at blogging (I had another word to describe my blogging...think negative pressure and vacuums...but mom doesn't like that word!!)

It's been what, almost 6 months since our last post? Wow. For those of you that care, I am sorry. Things have been busy, crazy, insane, whatever for the last few months, but that is no excuse for not emailing my friends in this country and others. I apologize and commit to be better at keeping people posted.

The end of June is right around the corner and that means that Fran will be back under the same roof as me. For those who don't know, she has been teaching at her old High School since January while I have stayed out here in Albany because of school. If any of you are fans of long distance relationships, you need to get your head checked. They are not fun. I have however come to appreciate all of the little things that Fran does. Take vacuuming for instance. I don't like to do it. It's boring, monotonous and doesn't it always seem like the carpet doesn't really need it? Well, try telling that to Fran. Your Highness of Hooverville, the Dutchess of Dirt-Devil, the Empress of Eureka, and the Oracle of Oreck will soon be back and my carpet will get a much needed vacuum...and since she is a little OCD about it, the carpet will be vacuumed every 1-2 days after that.

Since the last posting we celebrated a lot of birthdays. My parents both had theirs in the late winter/early spring and Fran's was in March and mine in April. I think all of our pictures from these days are on my parents camera, so I will have to get them up later.

Valentines day came and went and let me tell you, it was one for the record books. Fran and I both had winter break, so she came home to spend the week with me. She got there on a friday and saturday we celebrated Valentines Day. We spent the day shopping, hanging out, goofing off, came home, got all dolled up and went out to eat. It was nothing fancy, but we went to the Olive Garden because Fran loves their salad. After we come home, Fran says that she is starting to feel a little ill. I put her to bed and she gets really sick that night...the next day I am feeling fine, but then I start getting sick. I have never had the flu like this before. Fran was sick for a few days, but I think I got it the worst and missed over a week of school and work, went to the doctor and got a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, and also got put on an inhaler to try and control some of my respiratory symptoms. It was an interesting valentines day.

We have had the chance to make it out to the temple a few times. That is always fun and we love to go to the boston temple...we just hate driving in boston.

There have been a lot of other things happening, but I don't want to bore you all...plus I need to get back to work. I am working in a Cancer Research lab this summer and applying to medical school again, and Fran is finishing up teaching and applying for jobs in the albany area for next school year.

To all of you we haven't seen in a while, we miss you and to those that we see regularly, we don't really miss you! haha

Enjoy the clips, they are some of my favorites.