Habanero Hausers

Collage of the last few months!! Enjoy!!

2010-01-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

It's been incredibly TOO long

2009-11-19T12:09:00.006-05:00

I'm not even sure if anyone checks our blog anymore since I've taken way too long to post anything but here is my solemn vow that now that I've gotten the hang of being a mom a little bit better, I will post with more frequency and consistency. You can also check my Facebook page for more pictures.

Here's a little recap of the past few months...

WE HAD OUR BABY:

Penelope Aline Hauser was born on August 2, 2009 at 2:49 pm. I have to say I am very lucky how everything went (I don't anticipate labor and delivery will ever be that good again.) I started having contractions (ones that I noticed) about 1:00 am and did the whole timing them for an hour and half before calling the doctor. By the time I called her (which I hate doing in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT) I was having contractions every 3 or 4 minutes. She sent me to the hospital and then ensued a very boring and slightly (a relative term) painful 5 hours.

Since I was supposed to be induced that night anyway and my labor was pretty slow, my doctor broke my water and started pitocin at 8:30am and 10:00am respectively. I HATE PITOCIN. After PAIN, I got my epidural (sweet, sweet epidural) and slept for a couple of hours. Around 2:00 pm, I started pushing and she was born just a short time later. She was a HEALTHY 9 pounds, 10 ounces...something the doctors and I was not expecting. It was a happy day for us both and couldn't wait to welcome Penny's 3 other baby girl cousins into the world!! Lilah Capri Haymore came on August 10th, Annie-Mae Lois Swenson came September 21st, and Eliza Jeannette Neal came on October 31st.

WE MOVED:

A couple of weeks before I had Penny, we found out Josh got into medical school at University at Buffalo. We started packing immediately because I knew I would be no help later on. Five days after I had Penny we had to move across the state to Buffalo. Thank you to my mother and Josh's mother for being a huge help with Penny during that time. Thank you to Bryan, Dad, Jessy and Kelly for helping with moving ALL of our stuff in and getting it unpacked in a timely manner. There is NO way I would have been able to do it without them.

JOSH STARTED SCHOOL...AGAIN:

Josh had his white coat ceremony on August 10th (I think) and started school two days later. And yes, being a brand new mom and having your husband start an incredibly hard and time consuming program is hard. But Josh is really happy with this school and with his choice to become a doctor and you can't really ask for more as a wife. He's gone a lot his first semester because he has to take anatomy and it's a beast of a class. Memorization has never been my strong point, hence becoming an English teacher:) Josh seems to have a pretty good class, although he's one of about 3 people married and is the ONLY one with a child.

PENNY HAD HER BABY BLESSING:

There's not much to be said about this other than Josh is an awesome dad and a worthy priesthood holder and he gave Penny a wonderful blessing. It was a great day because afterward our house was FULL of family...just the way we like it.

PENNY IS GETTING BIGGER:

Penny has started grabbing things with her hand and is a talker (go figure when she spends all day with me). She's trying to roll over and gets up on her side, but that will be a little while. It's also fun to watch her try to sit up when she's laying down. This is the equivalent of a baby crunch. She's also just learning to laugh. It takes A LOT of effort to get her to do it, but it's worth it. She is an incredibly smilely baby, too. Some things to look for in the near future: trying baby food, getting her first pair of earrings, teething, crawling (or "scooting" rather), etc. I'll keep you updated...I promise.

Some of you may be wondering what's going on with me. Not much:) I'm just learning a lot as I go along. We make trips to my parents' house often and try to see Josh's whenever he has a long weekend. I'm enjoying being a mom and staying home. I need to reconnect with my social network, but all in good time! I may work one or two nights a week next semester when Josh has a more regular schedule. It'll be nice to tutor again and use my brain!

Here are some pictures:

Check out all the boxes in the background...

Josh and the moving truck

White Coat

Baby Blessing

Walking

2009-07-20T00:17:00.005-04:00

Here are the pics from the BBQ Fest that Fran and I went to. I thought maybe the walking combined with a little BBQ heat might have sent Fran into labor...no joy!! Love you all.

p.s. I forgot the camera so I had to use the blackberry to get these. Not bad, but not great.

No Baby Yet

2009-07-18T09:30:00.002-04:00

Just an update for everyone...there is nothing to update. No baby yet! We are hoping she comes soon!! Enjoy the clip I found. This kid is crazy!

This one is sweet too...it's when he is four.

Pics from our vacation in NC

2009-06-30T20:01:00.001-04:00

As promised, here are the pics from our awesome vacation in NC.

Some good news!

2009-06-26T10:30:00.002-04:00

Hello All!

Just a quick update on a fast-approaching due date...it's even sooner than we thought! My doctor moved my date back up to July 25th. This is great news for several reasons:

I'm to that "I'm sick of being pregnant" stage
Josh and I need to move to Buffalo somewhere in the first week of August so the chances of her coming late and it becoming a problem with moving are slimmer (not gone, though - eek!)
Josh will definitely still be working which means I don't have to worry about insurance...I know this seems like an odd thing to worry about or mention but these days it's a big deal...

We were really excited to hear the heartbeat again (it's always tons of fun). She clocked in at about 156 I think:) The last time we went to the doctor's she was sitting incredibly low and so it took the doctor a little longer to find the heartbeat - we were both quietly freaking out for about 15 seconds. This time the heartbeat was a little higher and easier to find.

According to the nurse at the office, I am 36 weeks tomorrow - almost full term! It's actually really interesting because there are about 3 or 4 other women who are all due late July early August in my ward. I go walking with one twice a week and I feel so bad for her. She's due the 14th and is so TINY and has two kids already so I'm SURE she's more sick of being pregnant than I am!

Last piece of good news - I finally gained NO weight between visits. This is a MILESTONE! My appetite has returned to normal (which I'm told won't last long once the baby is born) so I'm happy! What's more is that it's normal to stop gaining weight about this time so no need to be worried:)

One last thing...obviously we went on vacation with my family and still there are no pictures or posts about it - I apologize. It will happen soon! I'm done working full weeks after this week. With Josh and my work schedule combined we see each other from about 7:30 until 10 at night (when I can no longer keep my eyes open) so blogging in that 2 1/2 hours isn't top on my list:) Now that it won't just be 2 1/2 hours at night I promise we'll post something good soon! And by good I mean awesome since I'm pretty sure the facial hair and photo shoots from this vacation will beat all other pictures on this blog!

News

2009-06-18T13:52:00.002-04:00

I am sure that Fran will be posting an entry soon about our escapades in NC a few weeks back. It was a ton of fun and we were so happy that Fran was doing well enough to travel in the car for 11 hours there and 11 back...it was easier going down than it was coming home.

So...three years, a lot of money, a ton of prayers, and an enormous amount of time spent waiting and wondering resulted in the following...

I got in to SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine!!!! I know a lot of you have kept us in your thoughts and prayers and I wish I had words to describe what that means to me. Much of my struggles in getting an acceptance were my own fault, (poor GPA), and it is humbling to realize that role that the Lord's hand played in our lives. I was privileged to get my MPH here at Albany, had a lot of good experiences, and met people like my boss/mentor Dr. ST who will be lifelong friends and allies of mine. So, in short, thank you. I'll keep you all posted as things progress, but it looks like we are going to be in Buffalo for a few years!!

Go Bulls!

Memorial Day!

2009-05-26T10:41:00.005-04:00

Josh and I decided to drive over to Seneca Falls on Sunday to spend Monday with my family. It was a small gathering but tons of fun nonetheless. We got to hack the crab apple tree out of the middle of a lilac bush (I swear it starting growing last year and the trunk was about 3 1/2 inches in diameter already), help dad open the pool, eat some yummy food, hit a couple of balls (tennis, base and soft) and go out for some ice cream. Josh and I were even able to do a little shopping in the morning for some baby clothes (much more fun than buying for ourselves:) We'll be on vacation in the Outer Banks starting this Saturday (May 30th) so we should have more fun photos to post in about 2 weeks! Just a quick update for those of you who want to know: Baby Hauser is doing great and is growing "perfectly" (my doctor's words, not mine:) She is VERY active only settling down every 3 or 4 days. I feel her all day long, although now I can tell she's getting a little cramped in there. The count down is 2 months! Here's a look at our day in Seneca Falls:

Dad doing some pool work

The Spread

Dad right after the "angry" red raspberry soda literally exploded on him and his plate and surrounding food...

Livy showing us the skillz that pay the billz...

Dad is usually a great switch-hitter but it just wasn't working today.

Josh and one of his stunts...yes, I love my husband.

Josh at bat...he was very impressive. Although, the most impressive thing he did that day was catch a ball in his Dodger's hat...and it wasn't a pop fly either!

Mom in right field getting ready to catch a great hit.

Dad and his expert pitching skills.

Bryan and his great hitting stance...he likes to do it the one-legged way:) He actually was one of the best hitters that day despite his leggedy ways.

Graduation Pictures

2009-05-19T09:12:00.008-04:00

This past weekend Josh graduated with his Master's in Public Health from SUNY Albany. Here are some pictures of the days events. Josh was a flag bearer for the ceremony so it was nice to be able to easily pick him out of the crowd...he also got to receive his diploma in the first group of Master's students. Congrats Josh! (PS - I'm not really sure why these pictures don't look very clear but if you click on them you'll get a better image.)

Flag Bearing

He's done...with this degree!

The boys

The Hauser Family

Josh and his parents

The Masino Family

So it's been a while...

2009-05-15T14:20:00.003-04:00

I know I am probably the worst person when it comes to posting pictures and writing on our blog...I guess I still prefer paper and pencil:( Anyway...a quick little update on our lives. This weekend Josh is officially graduating from UAlbany even though he's been done with classes since December. I think it's going to be interesting going to a masters and doctorate ceremony for a lot of reasons, if not size alone! I'm really excited to see him get his diploma and we're lucky enough to have his parents and two brothers and my parents and little sister Livy come to Albany to be there for it. We haven't had any family to our house in almost two years so we're really pysched (translation: I spent the last two days cleaning like I was getting my dorm room checked for checkout). We're going to have our first watermelon of the year for our BBQ (yum) and hopefully have some fun if the weather holds. Having a BBQ this weekend made me have a nostalgic moment a couple of days ago - missing the days at BYU when all of our good friends were still there and we could BBQ on the weekend and play games and laugh.

Anyway - for me, it's also official...after spending a little more than $450 and taking three tests, I am now a certified high school English teacher in the state of New York. It just feels nice to finally have my paper license after being snubbed because I was certified "out of state". Sorry to break it to all of those who snubbed me but I still rocked the tests and I felt as if they showed nothing more about me than the fact that I could take a test.

Other than that it's been work work work for the both of us. Josh loves his job and his boss, which I think is pretty cool:) He also helps coach a traveling baseball team on Friday nights. I tutor at Sylvan a couple of nights a week and on Saturday so that gives me a reason to look my best each day even though that's getting harder and harder!

Little Hauser-yet-to-come is crazy active and still growing. I'm just shy of my 7th month (I'll put pictures up when I'm on our home computer) and I think I've hit that time when the baby has a "growth spurt". My stomach went from cute to pretty huge in a matter of about a week and now things are getting a little awkward - like driving and getting out of bed (or off the couch, for that matter). We're going on vacation to the beach with my family in about two weeks so even though we're both excited to meet her we're also glad she's not here yet:) My first baby shower is this weekend in Fayetteville so Josh and I are both excited about that as well. It's crazy how everything seems so calm and normal for the first 5 or so months and then you hit 6 months and on and things start to speed up and come a lot faster!

One last thing - isn't spring WONDERFUL?! I haven't seen this much green in way too long:)

Private

2009-04-29T17:51:00.004-04:00

Welcome back everyone...I decided that I should be a little safer with my personal information and pictures of my family. Thus you are now only allowed to read the blog if you are an invited reader. Feel special? Don't. I have plenty of invites left and if any of our friends/relatives want to read it, but I neglected to add them, please send me an email or post a comment and I will add them as a reader.

Well...I guess I should update everyone as to our goings on the last month. April has really flown by. Things at work are good for me, and Fran is tutoring/subbing to help us make but more scrilla. She is at the end of her 28th week! Wow...her belly is getting bigger and I like this part because I get to feel baby a lot now. She loves to punch and kick mommy!!
We don't have too many recent pictures to add even though we drove to Ohio last week and saw my parents (I had an interview in Toledo as well) and we were in Seneca Falls for Easter with Fran's family. My birthday has come and gone..27, I know, don't rub it in, we celebrated with my family while we were in Cleveland and then it was just me yesterday with Fran on the actual day.

Things are going well for us, there really isn't anything to complain about. We miss all of our friends and family and wish that we lived closer to more of you so that we could see each other once in a while.

Oh yeah, before I go...after three attempts at applying to medical school I was finally accepted to one! Michigan State's DO program accepted me this morning and even though there is a good chance I'll defer until next year (tuition reasons, and other waitlists that I feel good about) it is a huge relief to be officially in somewhere. My other options are as follows:
--The Ohio State University (MD/PhD)--waitlist
--SUNY Buffalo (MD)--waitlist
--University of Toledo (MD, MD/PhD)--just interviewed 4/23
--Albany Medical College (MD, MD/PhD)--under consideration (sort of like a waitlist, but not official yet and it is pretty dynamic.)

So yeah, that is kind of where we are and what we are doing right now. I did find a few pictures from Easter, so enjoy!!

Easter Dinner

Isabel and Jane

Michael and Jon beating each other with sticks and an "Indiana Jones Whip"

Going Private

2009-04-17T12:12:00.002-04:00

My Sister-in-law has scared me into taking my blog private. I never meant for this to become anything more than a fun place to post pics and visit with family and friends. If you want to be part of my "private community", please comment with your email address, or send me an email. Thanks guys. I'll be back with a real post soon.

Josh

Some more Basketball

2009-03-28T14:27:00.008-04:00

Last weekend my brother-in-law (Jon) and I drove down to Philly to catch the second round games. We had high hopes that BYU would make it to Saturday, but it was not to be...typical BYU basketball. We did get to see UConn and Villanova destroy Texas A&M and UCLA though. Here are some pics.

This guy was probably the biggest dork I have met in a while. He came by himself, wore chinos, collared shirt, loafers and a sweathsirt over it all, cheered and high-fived random people, spouted off random stats to no one in particular and kept trying to lure us into conversations. At one point I swear he was bumping my leg so that I would ask him to stop.

Arena with people. This is the view from our seats.

Bilas and Ensberg before the game. We got there early enough to hang out down by the court before the ushers kicked us out.

Me and Jon.

Arena without people.

March Sadness

2009-03-24T10:29:00.002-04:00

I'm not really sad, but I thought that I would include the snapshot of my family's annual March Madness contest to emphasize the fact that the number of college basketball games watched, amount of sportscenter seen, and the reams of bracketology articles read are not, in any way, directly correlated to performing well...at least for me. Dad and greg seem to be doing okay this year though. How is my wife up at the top? The world may never know.

Overall Standings

Group Standings
Rank	Team Name	Score	Correct	Best Score	Best Correct	Champion
1	Fran Hauser	39	31	179	52	North Carolina (167)
1	gregsgarrulousgroupers	39	31	169	51	North Carolina (158)
1	Michael Hauser	39	31	173	50	North Carolina (166)
4	Ben Hauser	38	31	178	52	Memphis (129)
5	caitlin hauser	37	30	179	52	Louisville (149)
5	Christiane Swenson	37	29	177	50	Louisville (156)
7	Jessica Hauser	36	29	178	51	Louisville (155)
7	Taylor Hauser	36	28	170	47	Louisville (152)
9	Josh Hauser	35	28	169	47	North Carolina (136)
10	Alice Hauser	31	25	171	46	Pittsburgh (130)

FRAN HATES BYU????!!!!!!! Hmmm, very interesting.

2009-03-19T14:57:00.001-04:00

Casey: so what's up w/ Fran cheering against BYU?

i evicted my own sister for 3 years for that offense

her and Tiffany

tisk tisk tisk

me: i warned her multiple times

i wish she had been wrong though, I have tickets for saturday's games in philadelphia

Live Blogging while watching the Tourney

2009-03-19T14:30:00.001-04:00

JD and I were chatting about how terrible BYU played and other tourney stuff...when it says "me" that is my post, "Josh" is Josh Dalton.

me: my chances to see BYU on sat are not looking good

Sent at 1:34 PM on Thursday

Josh: man, how were we down 26-7? thats pathetic

Sent at 1:36 PM on Thursday

me: frickin BYU

they better close gap a little bit

Sent at 1:57 PM on Thursday

Josh: cs-northridge is giving memphis fits, it seems

me: yeah that could kill a lot of people

Sent at 1:59 PM on Thursday

Josh: i have memphis in the final

those chumps better not choke like they did against kansas last year

Sent at 2:01 PM on Thursday

me: seriously...i would be dead in the water

Sent at 2:08 PM on Thursday

me: BYU looks the softest I have ever seen them

Sent at 2:12 PM on Thursday

me: A&M is shooting almost 60% from the field. 30 points in the paint...this sucks

Sent at 2:17 PM on Thursday

Josh: i never thought i'd say this..but the glory days of shawn bradley....

Sent at 2:18 PM on Thursday

me: haha, yeah when we didn't make marginal teams look like all-stars. at least memphis is opening it up a skosh

Sent at 2:20 PM on Thursday

Josh: we should live blog

i just posted one

me: haha, definitely

maybe I'll just cut and paste this

Sent at 2:29 PM on Thursday

It's Official...our baby is going to be awesome!

2009-03-13T09:54:00.006-04:00

...Not that there was any doubt in the first place that our little girl was going to be awesome, but this morning before I left for work I was in bed, talking to Fran's belly (our bebe) and I decided I would play her some of my musical ringtones...you know, Airwolf, Hawaii 5-0, Foo Fighters, and a few others. Fran told me one day that when she was listening to Foo Fighters that the baby started kicking like crazy...I thought to myself, well, lets try the ultimate test of coolness...The BEASTIE BOYS!

So I quickly downloaded my favorite song onto my phone...can you guess what one it is? JD would know for sure! Sabotage of course . I played it for her, pressing it to Fran's belly...and lo and behold, she starts kicking!! I am telling you, my baby is going to be awesome!

It also made me wonder what the music would sound like underwater...does it sound like whale songs?

Fran hit 20 weeks yesterday so we are around the half-way mark...well, more appropriately, SHE is halfway done. I really don't have much to do with all the hard work. How easy do we have it? The hardest thing I have on my list is to keep the house stocked with cereal and pop-tarts, and satisfy the occasional Slurpee craving. We men really do have it much easier.

Some Recent Trips...

2009-03-05T20:44:00.012-05:00

...and our baby is still a girl...as far as we can tell!!! Anyway, before I start posting some pictures of two recent trips we took, lemme just say that I am SO happy that we are having a little baby girl. It really is super-exciting and makes this whole trip so much more real. Fran is starting to really show for real, and every morning before I leave for work, I tell my little baby girl goodbye and I love her. Our next appointment is on the 20th of March and we are scheduled for a more detailed ultrasound. Hopefully we snag some good pictures and I'll scan one or two so you all can see our little one!

Just as a quick update I now work at a different place. Our group moved from the Ge*NY*sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics, to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering as part of their budding Nanobioscience Constellation (same university, different college). It is a great move for our group, (the college is rated as the #1 Nanotech School in the world. Pretty neat. Anyway, med school apps are still going, I am on waitlists at Ohio State, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany Med, Chicago COM and MSU with a guaranteed spot in 2010. We are still hoping to hear good news from some of these schools, but we are staying as positive as we can...well, Fran is very positive and I have my good days and bad days.

OK...back to the trips.

We just returned from a quick weekend in Washington DC to see our buddy Josh and also Jen and Amanda who are working in DC as well. We had a great time...it was too quick--all of 48 hours...but we saw two Smithsonians (air and space, and American History), took a lot of pictures at the different sites, ate at some really good restaurants, went to church, watched scrubs, lost my camera at the airport (got it back today, thank goodness), and now we are back in Albany.

Before our DC trip though we went down to Cleveland in February to see my family and celebrate my dad's birthday. We had a lot of fun and stopped on the way down and spent the night with Fran's family and then on the way back, stopped again to hang with Veronica and Jon for a few hours and let Fran go shopping for maternity clothes with someone who has been around the block a few (3...now 4) times.

I have always wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial...one of my Historical Heroes

Fran was goosing Josh in the butt...just kidding...no really...just kidding

We REALLY missed hanging out with Jen-Jen and it was good to see her again.

This picture makes Josh look like he has those nerdy tinted glasses...no offense Dan, and thanks for letting us use your bed, but they are kinda nerdy.

The Vietnam War Memorial. One of the more interestingly designed memorials I have ever seen. We also saw the memorial for the Korean Conflict.

The WWII Memorial. These places have such a sacred feel to them.

JD pondering why they removed the water and left the duck poo.

JD, Amanda Stanfill, and Fran.

I never realized space shuttles were so big.

wow

JD and Fran in the aerospace museum.

Me and JD under a German WWII fighter.

It blows my mind that this airplane dropped the Atomic Bomb.

Me and my co-pilot entering the simulator.

These planes (SR-71) are AWESOME.

CLEVELAND PICS

Dad and Mom (Ben and Taylor also) at Beni-hana for dad's birthday.

Dad HATES it when people make a big deal about his bday in public...mom took an extra-long bathroom break and tipped the waitress off...hence dad blowing out candles. I should also say that this came after a direct threat of pain if we had them sing.

And here is the singing...fa-ra-ra-ra-ra

Ben and Taylor are pretty cool guys...smelly, but cool.

I let Taylor drive me around...my body armour is not in the picture.

I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy, baby. haha.

Ben gettin up at his basketball game.

Taylor warming up...they have some seriously cool warm-ups and other team gear.

JD and Josh heading into the simulator...ala Goose and Maverick...only goose (JD) didn't die. Instead we sent 4 MiGs to fiery deaths. If you listen really closely you might be able to hear us yell...Fran said that all sorts of people were looking at us and they guy that was running the simulator came over and thought something was wrong...that's what happens when you enter the DANGER ZONE.

Well, thanks for reading and looking at all our pics. I didn't realize how many I had posted. There are more...if you're interested.

2009-02-25T17:30:00.001-05:00

It's a girl! (Well the tech said she was 90% sure it was AND that she was rarely ever wrong, so...)

I guess we felt the need to carry on the Masino family tradition. (For those of you who don't know, I come from a family of 5 girls and 1 boy...in that order.)

YAY!

A simple experiment

2009-02-11T13:44:00.006-05:00

I found this on youtube and thought that it was an interesting social experiment. Tell me what you think after watching it.

I just thought it was a cool video.

A few pics

2009-02-10T20:11:00.009-05:00

We have been pretty slow uploading new pictures, and we really aren't very good at documenting our lives with photos...we'll get better! Enjoy!

Family Picture...minus mom, she was taking the pic.

Is this the same family? Wait...yes...they are all wearing
nasty sweaters...and Caitlin is wearing a do-rag. wow
This was an ice storm that came through Albany this year
and totally paralyzed the city for a few days. This is my
windshield wiper.
My Thanksgiving plate...Italian and American Thanksgiving...
...BOO-YAH
V and her Thanksgiving schmorgasbord.
Thanksgiving Dinner
Story time with Michael and Jane
Game night with the Masino Clan.

Taylor and Ben had a silly string fight...
Taylor looks like he has that pole in an uncomfortable spot.
Fran outside Mynderse Academy. She taught from
January 2008-January 2009 at her old high school!

Happy New Year!
The Brotherhood of the Hiked-up Pants.

Fran doing a puzzle with Michael.

Puzzles are SO boring.

Jane got a hold of Grandma's glasses.

Some things I never thought I'd think...

2009-02-10T11:11:00.002-05:00

Well, I suppose that since I'll be the beached whale in a little less than 5 months, I should give blogging about being pregnant a whirl. Here are some facts about the situation and some thoughts I've had over the last 16 weeks... (Sort of akin to that "25 things" for you facebookers)

1) A friend of mine made a good point on the phone the other day - everyone who isn't currently pregnant thinks that pregnant women and their hugeness is cute and nothing to try and hide. I myself have been guilty of this...My sister was 7 months pregnant at my wedding and was a little concerned on her positioning in pictures. I thought it was silly to be concerned with such things, she was pregnant for goodness sakes - I'm beginning to understand that feeling as pants begin to get tighter and more uncomfortable and I see visions of myself in North Carolina in a bathing suit in June...eek.

2) I don't know why (and I didn't think that I would be this way) but I was really hesitant to tell people that I was pregnant at first. Like I wasn't supposed to be (even though I had every intention of being) or that because I didn't have the stomach to prove it no one would believe me. Actually, my mom thought I was kidding when I told her but that has more to do with how I told her than her. It's just weird. My sum up thought on this is that I think we always have an idea of how we think we're going to be as a pregnant woman and then when we're not that way, it feels funny. I don't know. Does anyone know what I mean??

3) I thought I would like an excuse to eat every two hours without fear of "What does she think she's DOING?" comments but really, it's become more of a pain than anything else! I get bothered by it and sometimes if I'm being my stubborn self and want to finish something before I eat, I end up getting really sick because of low sugar and it takes me 30 minutes to recover...I should know better than to try and finish something when my body is speaking to me. Let's just say I peed my pants once or twice as a young child determined to finish coloring a picture...

4) Even though I'm close to halfway through, I still don't feel like it's real. I'm just barely starting to show a little and we've heard the heartbeat twice but it's still unreal. I hoping that just means I've been given less time to freak out about a lot of things.

5) I no longer own my own body. Someone else is calling the shots.

6) I never knew how lucky I was to be able to sleep through the night every night. Being able to sleep 3 hours without having to get up is now a blessing. I used to consider myself a champion "holder" (not being one of those people who has to go to the bathroom immediately upon entering a mall or beginning an activity) and I can no longer say that - it's a hit to my personal pride. I, without shame, will now go to the bathroom anywhere no matter how recently I just went. Josh, thank you for putting up with my frequent stops.

7) I can no longer leave the house without food in my purse.

8) I can no longer come up with any good excuse not to go to the gym.

9) I'm always uncomfortable. That would be a good form of torture. Make sure that someone is always uncomfortable and I'm sure, sooner or later they will crack (or just go to bed, like me).

10) I feel like my joints are aging 1 year for every week I'm pregnant. I know it's hormones loosening everything up, but it still makes me feel old and decrepit.

11) I'm lucky to have not encountered any weird "pregnancy ailments" like bleeding gums, hot hands, rashes and the such. Again, I realize that I still have quite a ways to go - so more on that as time goes on:)

12) Josh gives me way too much credit, no matter how hard I try to convince him I'm a big baby. So moral of the story - I got a keeper:)

13) July seems both so close and so far away.

14) I have no idea where Josh and I will be living when I actually deliver.

15) As much as I try to deny it, I am slightly more forgetful than before. That's not saying much since I've inherited the need to write everything down on sticky notes from my father.

16) I'm still waiting for that "feel good" feeling in the second trimester...

17) I sleep with a fortress of pillows on both sides propping me up in just the right position. Yes I know there are body pillows for that, and yes I am getting one. It's like my own little nest (the cute birdie kind, not the nasty rat kind).

18) I miss my job, my co-workers and my students terribly. Working hard at something I love (and that takes a lot of work) took my mind off of all the aches and pains I feel during the day. It also made me feel productive even though I would still forget things all the time (like a simple vocabulary word...in front of my students...as an English teacher...not cool).

19) I LOVE being in water. It's the only sure fire thing that ALWAYS makes my body feel better (thank you YMCA).

20) As much as I will soon need to, I'm not looking forward to buying maternity clothes. And to go along with that - this "in between" stage of I-still-look-like-my-normal-self-and-actually-lost-weight-at-first-but-now-I-just-look-chubby is not fun at all. Why can't it just be all or nothing?

21) I am trying to be vigilant about good food and not gaining too much weight at a time for several reasons. First and most importantly, because it's GOOD, but also because I'm in a wedding 2 months after I'm due (YAY Meggie!) and I know myself and I won't be one of those crazy people that can start a crazy workout 6 weeks after having a baby:) What can I say, I'm honest with myself.

22) I'm glad I have two sisters who have already had babies. Between them and my mom I feel like I'm getting the best advice I could:)

23) I no longer have those "Super Woman" moments where I have a really good work-out or go for an extra long run, or move furniture, or whatever. Those have been and will be put on hold for at least another 6 months. I miss them...

24) I am much more sensitive to "annoying" kids or crying babies or overly stressed mothers who seem to be ignoring the tugging child at their side now - partly because I hope that someone will feel the same way when they see me (or my kids) that way.

25) We want to find out if it's a girl or a boy and hopefully by the end of the month we'll be able to let you all know.

26) Being pregnant and living with your husband is much better than being pregnant and living away from your husband. (Those of you who don't know, I've been teaching at my old high school since Jan '08 - my high school is 3 hours away from Albany...)

27) Amidst it all, I'm happy. I know Josh and I made the right decision and for all the aches and pains, I know it's just for a season and that the coming benefit FAR outweighs anything that could discourage me!

Josh and I will both try to be more vigilant about updating you on our lives since we now have something worth reporting on! And can anyone say...bring on SPRING! I'm tired of this snow and dreary weather!

Updates, Big News?

2009-02-09T12:43:00.002-05:00

Life is a funny. Once again it has been a few weeks since I have updated the blog. No excuses, just lazy. Fran has finished up her tenure at Mynderse Academy and is now back in Albany with me. It has been wonderful. I missed her terribly during the last year when she has been working in Seneca Falls, and I was only able to see her on the weekends. Being married and living apart from one another just doesn’t make sense. It is lonely, stressful, difficult and just not the way things were meant to be. That being said, I love having her home with me.

I finished all of my coursework for my master’s degree and am now working full-time in the lab I have been in since May. There will be some updates as to this job soon, but I’m not at liberty to talk about them on a public forum just yet! I am still waiting to hear back from a handful of medical schools and that will determine what happens in the next few months. I really like my job and that makes life pretty nice for us. We are getting back into the Albany Ward and will no longer be LDS-Nomads. That will be nice as well.

I have been thinking a lot the last few days about how blessed our lives our. Amidst a severe economic downturn, I have a job, and we have enough for our needs. There are many good, hard-working people in the United States who cannot say the same thing. I find myself, very selfishly at times, wishing that everything I wanted would happen right at this instant…that I would get into the medical school that I want right away, that I would receive answers to my prayers with minimal effort, that my friends and family would not have to suffer some of the trials and disappointment that they face. I took a few minutes this morning while I was at work to read a few passages of the Doctrine and Covenants. (For those of you who are not members of the LDS faith, it is another book of scripture containing revelations that were given and recorded during the early days of the Mormon Church.) I looked through my missionary journal yesterday (Fran and I were both sick and had to stay home from church) and was reminded of the fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Verse 4 reads, “For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;” We always associate this scripture with missionary work, but its meaning is applicable to all of us at all times. The field IS white. The Lord desires to bless us with what we desire and need, but it comes at a price. The price of the harvest is none other than our own will that we lay at the feet of the Master. When our will is swallowed up in His, and when we work hard, do all that we can, pray with real intent and a pure heart, then can the Lord bless us. Then and only then can we truly be comforted, see His hand in our lives, understand that His plan for us may lie along a different path than that which we had envisioned. For all of you that will read this little blog entry, know that Fran and I care deeply about our friends and family, and that you are never far from our thoughts and prayers. Remember the lessons that have been so painfully imprinted on my own soul…that nothing worth getting, is easy to obtain. Whether it is answers to prayers, forgiveness, or relief for a troubled soul, you must be willing to do what it takes to receive those blessings.

Well, that turned into a little more than I though it would, but I knew if I put this next sentence at the beginning of the blog that no one would care about the rest of the entry! FRAN is PREGNANT!!!!!!! We are super excited!! She is due on July 24 and so far everything has been progressing beautifully. We have known since a few days before Thanksgiving, but wanted to wait awhile before we told everybody. Feel free to shower advice on us and if you have hints for Fran in dealing with some of the fun effects of pregnancy that would be great too! (Fun was sarcastic)

Well, thanks for reading. We’ll keep everybody updated about how things are going, and get some new pictures up soon.

FYI...my kid is going to be as cool as these babies in this commercial...and yes, he'll have golden pipes.

December 8, 2008

2008-12-09T00:00:00.004-05:00

When I started writing this it was still the 8th of December. Now it's not. It is now the 9th of December. I should actually be in bed right now, getting ready for a full day of studying tomorrow, but I can't sleep. Today was a rough day med-school app wise. I got two rejections in one day...tough day. Oh well, hopefully giving everyone an update on our lives at the moment will bore me enough to help put me to sleep.

I hope you like the little playlist feature at the bottom of the blog and if it got you in trouble at work because your computer volume was on, SERVES YOU RIGHT for looking at blogs at work!! Just kidding. I saw it on my uncle Jim's blog and I thought it was pretty cool.

Fran and I are still living separate lives to a degree, but it looks like the teacher that Fran has been filling in for will be back in February. It will be super-nice to have Fran home again. She really likes her students this year and the ratio of morons to non-morons is actually very favorable this year.

Thanksgiving was awesome at the Masino household. Once I figure out where I put the camera I will upload some of the pictures that we took. For those of you that have never experienced and, sadly, never will experience a Masino thanksgiving think about 2 huge meals simultaneously occurring...one very large Italian feast and a thanksgiving smorgasbord that would put Golden Corral or Chuck-O-Rama to shame. Yeah...there is that much food on the table.

As for me? I am trying my absolute hardest not to become a huge cynic and hold on to my beliefs that people on admissions committees are not the spawn of Satan...too harsh? OK, that they aren't Autobots. What is an Autobot you ask? For the love...go watch Transformers and then come back and finish reading my post. Anyway, I am nearly done with my Masters of Public Health. I have two more finals and a final draft of an NIH grant to turn in and that will be it. I have a few extraneous internship credits that I need to register for, but other than that I will be done. I plan to work until med school, earn some scrilla, and depending on where we go, we may have to try and pull off a quick move to get in-state residency. I wish I had awesome news for everyone about med school, but I only have some marginally cool news, and a lot of bad news. If you really want to know what is going on, you'll have to email me, because I hesitate to post important material like that on public forums on the off-chance that a rogue admissions officer googles me, somehow finds the blog, and makes some rash decision based on what is posted here!!!!!!

I guess since I already got denied by the University of Utah I can post this...

I hope Alabama rolls you like a...JD, you know what I'm talkin about.

Well, I think that it is working. I am boring myself to sleep. I am NOT going to promise to increase the frequency of my blogging, because that basically means that I am going to end up making a liar of myself, because I invariably forget for a few weeks, feel bad about it for a second, and then forget about it again until nights like this come around.

I hope everyone is doing well and that when you look in the mirror, you can honestly say that Chuck Norris would be proud of you.

Resurrection from the Dead

2008-11-17T19:07:00.003-05:00

This may be short-lived (no pun intended) but if any of you are still reading this, I figured it was time to let you know how our boring (and separate) lives are going. Be prepared to be completely unimpressed. Josh and I are living apart again as I'm teaching in my hometown and he's finishing up school in Albany. We see each other on the weekends...sometimes twice a week if one of us has a break.

I'm teaching English to four 10th grade classes and one 11th grade class. I love teaching this year - it's wonderful when you make it past your first year and those seemingly distant voices of encouragement ("Don't worry, it gets better after your first year") are much more apparent and true! I don't have too much to say about my classes (this is a good thing for me) but I have had the (dis)pleasure of doing a few things so far - playing The Simpson's episode of "The Raven" for Halloween, watching a student recover from a spill, actually writing again, sitting through a completely useless staff improvement day (well only half of it was lame), and reading two of my favorite pieces of literature - Of Mice and Men and Macbeth.

Josh is still working as hard as ever putting in way too much time at work while carrying a full class load at UAlbany. He's excited to grow a mohawk (since I have banned the mullet) for our white trash family vacation in June. I can barely keep him from cutting off all of his jeans so that the pockets stick out the bottom (oh yeh, you know what I'm talking about)! That vacation will yield many pictures to post on here. I promise we won't disappoint come June.

Other than that, life is pretty normal - Bond, Christmas shopping, Twilight, Fringe, Grey's (for me only, Josh makes fun of it every chance he can), and LOTS of driving. Enjoy Thanksgiving if we don't get to talk to you before then!

2008-09-17T09:55:00.000-04:00

"Awe"some video

2008-09-17T09:51:00.001-04:00

Our bodies never cease to amaze me. I am continually filled with awe at the beauty of the creative process of our Father in Heaven. This video was made by a group at Harvard and details a few of the inner-processes of our cells. The actual creators also have a version with a narrative.

The videos are terrible quality, but we had to try!

2008-08-05T20:30:00.005-04:00

Coldplay

2008-08-05T19:41:00.004-04:00

Some of you know that Josh and I were able to fulfill a life goal (and a really lofty one at that:) yesterday. We went to a Coldplay concert in Boston, MA last night and it...was...Awwwwesome. Instead of writing a witty and much more interesting narrative, I'm just going to list off some of the things we noticed (and when I say we, I mean me...Josh can enjoy things better). Let me first start by describing the people around us:

Couple #1 - located to our left. When we stood up, they were right behind me (think slanting in on the chorus risers). Well there are two things I have to say about them. 1) The dude stunk like he hadn't showered in 3 days. The worst part about it was that he didn't even look like a stinker, but WAS! Oh, wait, I lied...the worst part about it was that he was also ripping the entire night. 2) Stinky man thought he was Chris Martin. I listened to two front men last night - the amazing Chris Martin and Stinky McStink-pants.

Couple #2 - located directly in front of us. Picture crazy is an understatement. Wild-eyed is also an understatement. And mousy - you guessed it - huge understatement. Unfortunately, they had no rhythm either.

Couple #3 - located in front and to the right. They were the worst couple of them all. Picture Matt Muir's height and red hair blocking the entire show in front of you. If it were Matt we could excuse it, but the dude also had no rhythm and he stood up from the beginning to the end of the concert. He and his girlfriend had several "moments" throughout the night as well. And listen...all of you who know me know that I was an avid concert goer in my younger years and I'm totally for standing during a concert. In fact, my favorite place to be was on the floor in a mass of people. However, when you're on the balcony and everyone else around you is sitting...take a hint. I still had to give it to him for standing and enjoying himself, but next time it better not be at my viewing expense. Josh just reminded me...it wasn't just that he had no rhythm...picture a tall and lanky Elaine Benice. Oh yes, you read correctly...jerking and all.

Now that we have the company established...let's get on to the good stuff...

1) I know this happened before tonight, but cell phones have officially taken over the lighter. I did not see one lighter being waved during the entire concert.

2) Whilst I did not see any lighters, there must have been some because I smelled the inevitable aroma of cannabis setiva. Oh yes...it wouldn't be a concert if some kid (or maybe adult, who knows these days) snuck in some pot.

3) We paid a painful $28 to park...that's not right.

4) Tom Brady was definitely in the audience and Chris Martin dedicated the last song (Death and All His Friends) to him.

5) While Martin was honored to have Tom Brady there, he was surprised that there were so many people there on a Monday night missing out on Seinfeld and Home Improvement re-runs. Needless to say, they were very gracious musicians. And it was hard to miss Home Improvement...

6) Their drummer, Will Champion (awesome name), is one of THE most talented people I have ever seen. At one point he was drumming with one hand (working the pedal with a foot), shaking maracas with the other hand, AND singing all at the same time. Later he sang an entire song.

7)The lighting was pretty awesome - think lasers and white spotlights during "Fix You."

8) He let the audience sing a lot. My favorite times were when we sang the "Whoa-oh-oh" during "Viva la Vida", singing "Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones and I will try to fix you" during "Fix you" and the first line in "Yellow". It rocked.

9) So there was a big globe hanging from the ceiling that projected different things throughout the concert...it started off as just blue...draw your own conclusions. We had a good laugh.

10) They played two songs in the audience...freakin' awesome!

11) I could've gone with a longer set -list. I also could've gone without their little political blitz sideshow that flashed "OBAMA" four or five times before they came out and played an encore song - "Polotik"...surprise. Now, I loved the idea and the song but I'm not a fan of entertainers using their clout and ability to persuade when it comes to politics...especially when they're NOT FROM THE USA. It made a 10 concert a 9.

12) I say DOWN WITH TWO OPENING BANDS! Or maybe down with the opening band. If you say the concert begins at 7:30 please, please don't make me wait until 9:30 to see who I came to see. If you want to have two opening shows, start them at 6:00 or so. Especially if they're not great. So my conclusion...one opener.

13) Lastly...you know you're at a great concert when you feel like you can hear your heartbeat in every song that's played. The playing was inspiring and Chris Martin sounds as good as he does on CD, if not better.

I know this was incredibly long but if you're still reading...thanks for sticking with me!

Cleveland, HO!!!

2008-07-29T08:37:00.002-04:00

Did you all catch the joke in the title? Instead of Cleveland, (abbreviation for state of Ohio), I put Cleveland, HO...as in westward HO, Thundercats, HO, etc. I didn't want anyone to think that I made a mistake!

Anyway, as the title states, my parents are leaving the Syracuse, NY for greener pastures in Cleveland, OH. (see, this time I did it right!) Mom is leaving tomorrow with Taylor and Ben, and Dad will follow two weeks later after he is done working at Upstate. Dad has accepted a postion with the Cleveland Clinic in the Department of Cardiothoracic Anesthesia.

At times I have struggled to come to grips with the fact that my parents are leaving. Fran and I have been lucky to be within a few hours of both of our families this year and the last few weeks have been sad for me. My parents moved to Tully, NY in the summer of 1990. In 1994 they began construction of our home in Jamesville/Manlius and the family has lived in that house ever since. 18 years is a long time, and I know that my parents did not think that they would have stayed that long when we made the move from California.

I know that my parents are anxious and at times concerned that the decision will end well for them. So, please keep my parents and two brothers in your thoughts and prayers as they make this transition.

Thanks,

Josh

VACATION

2008-07-16T14:13:00.002-04:00

Yes, the pictures are finally up even though we've been home for almost a week. I apologize the delay in getting them up and in keeping up with our blog. The last little while was really crazy with graduation, a wedding, finishing teaching, vacation, moving back home, and more vacation...not to mention birthdays and more birthdays:)

Josh and I went to California right after I was done grading at school. We left on Tuesday from Philadelphia (spending a few hours in the city) and flew to San Francisco where the fun began. While in San Francisco we saw Fisherman's Wharf, I bought a cheesy San Francisco fleece because I underestimated how cold it would be, we listened to a Time Share pitch just to get over-priced tickets (tours and the such) for free, and saw the city from a double-decker bus. It was a whirlwind day and a half but it was a lot of fun. We'd like to go back sometime with more time.

From San Francisco we drove through Muir Woods and on to Lodi to see Great-grandma Hauser. It was an enlightening experience as she is quite the honest person...in every way possible. From Lodi we drove down CA through Yosemite National Park (the long way through) and it was some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen in my life. I actually wrote for the first time in a long time while driving through the park. Once we got through Yosemite we drove down to Big Bear Lake and visited with Grandma and Grandpa Beal. We watched the best fireworks we've seen in a long time.

From there it was on to LA and the beaches and good food. We found the best beach called La Piedra beach near Malibu. It was fun because there wasn't a lot of people there (it was a little difficult to get to). We visited Josh's old house in Pasadena, went to little Tokyo and had good (real) Japanese food, went to the LA Science Center, and finished it off with a Dodger's game.

Once in Anaheim, we went to Disneyland all day. It was a lot of fun considering the last time I went I was three and I got lost in line at Space Mountain. After spending the day at the happiest place on earth, I was able to have dinner with a friend from college I haven't seen in years. All in all, it was a BUSY but wonderful trip. We needed it and hopefully it will last us for a long time.

After we got home from California, we went on a quick trip to Boston with Josh's family to watch a Red Sox game, eat delicious Gelato, walk around Quincy Market, go to the Boston Aquarium, see an IMAX film, and eat cannoli from Mike's Pastry Shop...yum yum! We hope all of our friends and family are well and will forgive us for being bad bloggers:) We'll try to do better:) Enjoy the slideshow of vacation pictures!

VACATION!!

2008-07-16T14:12:00.001-04:00

Everything else...

2008-07-14T12:12:00.017-04:00

Josh and I have been doing a lot lately (contrary to our normal schedule) and this is the blog to catch you all up. It starts off with my sister Olivia's graduation and graduation weekend. This also involved my AP English class' year-end presentation and a gathering of the Masino clan. Below is an array of pictures from this time period (June 20-28-ish)...

Above is my AP English class the day before the presentation...they did a wonderful job

My classroom workspace after I rearranged the room...it was usually much messier than this :)

The whole clan (minus our better halves) after Livy's graduation.
In order - Bry, Jessy, Jeannette, Livy, me, Veronica

Livy and the boys - LR - Josh, Livy, Dad, Kelly, Bry

Livy and Me - Sisters and Student/Teacher

Graduation weekend - Michael and Josh painting a train together

The cutest little 14 1/2 month old boy in the world, Isaac...with food on his forehead (strategically placed there by Josh)

Four of my grandfather's brother (missing is his brother Mike and sister Luiselle)
LR - Uncle Tony, Uncle Armando, Uncle Mario, and Uncle Fiore

The above picture and the following pictures were taken at my cousin's wedding. Weddings are a great thing in my family because they're like a family reunion. Since my grandfather died (the oldest of all the Scialdone children) family gatherings have been minimal. He was the glue that held everyone together. This wedding, though, was the first time we've seen this many brothers together in one room. It was great because each brother reminds me of my grandfather in some way or another. They all have the same thick hands that have worked years in delicious backyard gardens (only the kind Italian men can grow), the same storytelling eyes and hands, and the same smirk. It was a gift to be able to see all that again.

Wives and cousins included:)

Top Row (LR): Dad, Veronica, Josh, me, Kelly, Jessy, Sean
Bottom Row (LR): Mom, Uncle Paul, Aunt Marylou, Jeannette

Josh and me

After a little storytelling

Pics from my mom's camera

2008-06-24T09:48:00.005-04:00

An Excellent Experience

2008-06-24T09:34:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-18T09:46:00.003-04:00

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!!

2008-06-12T21:50:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-11T09:17:00.008-04:00

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!!)

2008-06-06T08:53:00.008-04:00

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.

Some good BYU Memories

2008-01-30T19:47:00.000-05:00

Average Joe's won an Intramural championship during the winter semester of 2006, but coming back in the fall we fell a little short. That's not to say we didn't have some good highlights to remember. Here is a good one that some of you might enjoy.

Updates

2008-01-29T18:25:00.001-05:00

School finally started back up for me. I was done around the 13th of December and just barely had to go back last Wednesday (Jan. 23). I am taking some pretty hard-core science classes and am also doing an internship at one of the NYSDOH labs working with West Nile Virus. It is a BSL-3 pathogen...if you are interested, read here and here.

Fran is teaching in Seneca Falls this semester, so we only get to see each other on the weekends when we meet up at my parent's house. It is definitely not very fun and when I am not at school, at the gym, or studying, it gets pretty lonely.

Other than that, not much has really been happening. Christmas and New Years were wonderful--It was good to be with family. I think Fran has some pictures that she wants to post, but I'll let her do that. Hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to put some more regular posts up.

Finally, a new entry!

2007-11-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since Josh and I have been able to post something new, but finally it's here. The last month has been quite a whirlwind with lots of wonderful trips home and fun happenings. I've been substituting pretty much everyday and Josh has been working on three papers and a big presentation for the end of this semester--I'm not a fan of universities that make it easy all semester and then bomb you with tons of assignments. Luckily, I'll be in Utah for a week again next week. Cafe Rio and Mama Chu's here I come. I miss Mexican food, never thought I'd say that. We spent Thanksgiving with Josh's family this year-it was tons of fun especially because everyone was home. The turkey (and everything else!) was delicious-DElicious. Josh's mom and dad brined the turkey this year and it was absolutely succulent. Before Turkey, though, there was some football fun. What's Thanksgiving without football? Josh, Greg, Taylor, Ben, and Josh's dad all went to the local middle school to play some football with other men from the ward. It was really foggy and wet but luckily they were finished by the time it started raining again. Thanksgiving night was spent jamming at the Masino's house. I don't think I'll ever be as stunned as I was that night. We walked in to my Uncle Paul jamming out to Rolling Stones on the mike and the other guys playing guitar, bass, and the drums to Rock Band. Needless to say we ended up getting hooked and Josh actually got really good. He ended up being the resident front man. My personal favorite was the drums, but Netti and Bry were the best.
Earlier this month Josh and I went to the New York State Museum. It was free and we hadn't been in the city that much so we decided to make a day of it. There were a lot of cool things there but my favorite was the 9/11 exhibit. Here are some pictures we took there:

Here is a "bombed out" fire engine that responded to scene

This is some of the steel that that was bent from being so hot after the plane crashed into the twin towers.

Above is a tribute to Seneca Falls--who knew?!
This is a really neat WWII memorial outside the museum and they had all the locations of the major battles listed and we took one by Leipzig, Germany, Josh's mission.

Hopefully you all had a wonderful holiday-we hope you all have a great Christmas, too! Christmas is in 27 days!

More good dreams

2007-11-09T00:34:00.000-05:00

So I have good dreams tonight.

2007-11-09T00:31:00.000-05:00

BOO-YEAH

2007-11-09T00:24:00.000-05:00

Andy Dalton just fell down...better not be related to JD. 1st and 10, BYU ball, all we need is a first down. 1:50 in the game. 2nd and 3 on the TCU 17. 1:20. Harvey Unga first down. Did TCU's coach give up? No timeout? wierd. Looks like the game is in the bag. Tonga to the 4? WE WIN. Yeah. What the heck? Patterson calls a timeout with 11 seconds to go? Casey you are going to have to update me, i know you are at the game. I think we should put it in right now. Enough with this victory formation. WE HATE TCU...finally it's over.

Heart-attack anyone??

2007-11-09T00:21:00.000-05:00

Holy cow. I have been listening to the game online and my heart is about to pop out of my chest! Nixon just made that sack, big loss, YYYEAAAAAHHHHHH. come on guys. Anyway, it really seems like we should have been winning this game by more...seems like that is a common theme throughout this season. Max Hall is good...I'm glad that he is playing better than Beck did his first year or two, but he has got to get rid of those interceptions. 2:03 to play, TCU ball 4th and 8.

Funny too

2007-11-01T12:27:00.000-04:00

Been a while

2007-11-01T12:06:00.000-04:00

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Now playing: Priestess - Lay Down
via FoxyTunes

Wow almost a month has gone by! Nothing too exciting has happened here. Halloween was SUPER lame. Well, I mean, we went and picked our own pumpkins, then carved them and even dressed up for trick-or-treaters. Fran was a witch and I was Dr. Acula...hopefully all you Scrubs fans remember that from JD's screenplay or I just look like a wierd clown-nurse. So we had the apartment all decorated, scary music playing and we got...one trick-or-treater. LAME. So all we ended up with is a whole bucket of candy that neither Fran nor I need!! hahaha.

School is going well for me. I just got through mid-terms. Public Health is definitely an interesting field, but I am glad that my plans are to go on to medical school and not to go work in a county health department or something. I think I would be really bored.

Fran finally jumped through enough hoops and is substituting as well as still doing her research work with BYU. She landed a long-term sub job in her hometown from the end of January through April, so that will be lots of fun for her. Now we can work on all those tests that she has to take in order to get NYS certification. It is really stupid that we have to do that, but we can thank Utah's education system for that. If it wasn't so horrible, then maybe NY would accept their licensing program.

I guess that this is enough for now. I'll make sure fran gets on here and gives some updates as well.

Oh yeah...I thought that this video was really funny. Fran always used to talk about the "guy" language that Casey, Rye, JD and I would resort to when we were around each other.

VOTE FOR COSMO

2007-10-02T22:12:00.001-04:00

So far this week, Cosmo is losing. Go to http://votecosmo.com/, follow the link to vote at capitalonebowl.com and help Cosmo win his weekly battle.

Halloween is approaching...

2007-10-01T21:48:00.000-04:00

October 1st is the day I am officially allowed to begin celebrating Halloween. While the actual holiday is not much to celebrate everything that comes with it is! Decorating, trick-or-treaters, candy, and so on is too much for me to resist. Josh participated in the festivities with the first decoration of the season...our table centerpiece. I'm not much of a crafty girl, but I tried to copy something cute that was in a magazine instead of buying all my decorations.

This is Josh now. As you can see fran twisted my arm into doing a pumpkin as well. Just kidding. It was actually kinda fun to be crafty with my wife. Anyway, it turned out pretty well and we have a nice little fall centerpiece.

Numb...

2007-09-16T01:06:00.001-04:00

It's now approaching 130 sunday morning

If we made a MasterCard commercial for this game it might go something like this

2 missed PATs and a missed FG
.........5 points

5 turnovers
...........spotting Tulsa 21 points, not counting the touchdown after the missed FG

13 penalties
............. 138 yards. lost momentum, missed opportunities

Losing a game we could have won 52-34............priceless

It's amazing how mistakes will come back to haunt you. At the end we had 694 yards of offense(157 rushing, 537 passing), and 36 first downs. We controlled the clock for 35 of 60 minutes, converted almost 50% of our third downs, 67% of our fourth downs, averaged almost 26 yards per kickoff return, overall averaging 7.4 yards per play.

Mindblowing.

I'm removing the poll I had up earlier this week because it just doesn't seem funny to me anymore.

Go Cougars. We're still cheering.

As an aside, how does a school in a landlocked state pick the name "Golden Hurricanes"

Patience wearing thin...

2007-09-16T00:22:00.000-04:00

It is 1222 sunday morning. BYU just got flagged for it's eleventh penalty and proceeded to give the ball back to Tulsa. As big a BYU fan as I am, I cannot stand to watch so many mental mistakes. Take back the penalties and we are in the lead. Give me a secondary sans Quinn Gooch and we are soundly beating the Golden Hurricane. I just don't have the heart to keep watching this tonight. This is not BYU football, this is Crowton-ball. This is high school, junior varsity, we went out and got plastered last night, football. Give me a break. I can understand one week of mistakes, but to play like this for the second week in a row while knowing that our archrival has thumped UCLA is unthinkable. I'm glad I haven't had to feel like I wasted my money buying tickets to these games.

Be advised...if for some reason we pull off a win, the sting comes out of the preceding text, but the fact remains that we don't deserve to win this game.

2007-09-13T16:26:00.000-04:00

We are fiddling around with this foxytunes stuff. Sorry for the meaningless post.

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Now playing: Coldplay - Crests of Waves
via FoxyTunes

Quote of the Day

2007-09-07T02:00:00.000-04:00

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

-George Santayana

A statement that is not only to be understood in terms of socio-economic, historic and political matters, but one that begs to be implemented in our daily routines. Why are we, as humans, doomed to pick ourselves up from falling flat on our faces, only to stumble in kind the next day.

XC at the Y

2007-09-05T22:06:00.000-04:00

I don't mean to brag or anything(.....riiiiight), but my sister is on the cross country team at BYU. Her first race is this weekend and if any of my friends at BYU feel like cheering her on, the race is at 10am sep. 8 at East Bay Golf Course in Provo. My parents will be there and so just look for the big guy that looks a lot like me yelling either the name Jessica or Hauser at the top of his lungs.

Here is a link to her profile at byucougars. com

http://www.byucougars.com/Profile.jsp?ID=5313

Another BYU v UA Highlight vid

2007-09-04T12:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.justanotherdumb.com/byu/

Labor Day

2007-09-03T21:20:00.001-04:00

Happy Labor Day, Everyone!

Josh and I decided to make the most of the day off so we went hiking in Pittsfield, MA. It was gorgeous and green, something we've missed for a while. Unfortunately with the green comes the absence of mountains...but the hills weren't that bad. The trails were really pretty and we're excited to go camping there sometime.

By the way - don't mind the fact that I look like an elf in this picture. Anyway, we saw a lot of interesting things on our ride to Pittsfield. Some of them include a Spanish style pink Catholic Church that looked like it belonged in Mexico (or California), a Mug (as in the root beer) Bug (as in the car), and exotic piercing shop, a high school that was bigger than the town hall (and I mean way bigger, with a dome and everything) and this sign outside a church, shown below:
I asked Josh why our church doesn't subscribe to this kind of advertising...

After hanging around, we watched a little bit of football and then went mini-golfing. It was a lot of fun even though Josh beat me by 6 strokes. Now we're sitting down to watch a couple of episodes of Scrubs:) Let the good times roll...

Back in NY

2007-09-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

We moved back to New York a few weeks ago! It's good to be back, but it has taken a little while to get used to humidity again. We got too used to the dry Utah summers.

I started my masters in public health program on Tuesday at the University at Albany and Fran is still doing research for her office at BYU while she continues to look for a full-time teaching job.

The drive across country was rather uneventful. We stopped at Cedar Point Amusement Park to celebrate our one-year anniversary. It's hard to believe that it has been a whole year since we got married. It seems like so much has happened. We feel really good about this move and know that it was for the best. We are a lot closer to family and even to some of our friends still. Boston, Providence and DC aren't that far away. It's too bad we had to miss Rye and Kerstin's bundle of poop and joy come into the world. We were hoping that we could have been there to say hi.

I have to say that yesterday was kind of a sad day for me. I really miss going to the BYU football games and with the durn .mtn network, it makes it really hard to watch them here on the east coast. At least we avenged the loss to Arizona last year and I could listen to it on the radio via ksl.com.

Our new apartment is on the outskirts of greater Albany in a town called East Greenbush. Most of my classes are held at SUNY Albany's East Campus which is only a few miles down the road and I'll be in labs at the Wadsworth Center in the State Capitol Plaza as well as Albany Med and some other institutes. It's not medical school, but it will be good preparation for it. Hopefully I get in this time around.

Anyway, we miss our friends in utah and especially my sisters Caitlin and Jessica who are both out there now. Cheer hard for the Cougars.
Fully Invested.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, to Illyr...Habanero Hausers

2007-06-15T14:07:00.000-04:00

If any of you can tell us the movie that our title comes from, we'll buy you dinner...well, maybe.