Halloween Fun

After going to the pumpkin farm, Chad and I carved our big pumpkin for Halloween. It was a lot of fun. I forgot how much gunk is inside pumpkins. It took so long to get it out! We decided to make it a happy pumpkin and I think it turned out well. We also made gourmet caramel apples on Sunday. My family made them and sold them at the farmer's market one year, so I wanted to share them with Chad. We decorated them with white and milk chocolate and nuts. Chad didn't think it was going to work when I started to melt the caramel. He does have too much confidence in my candy making skills due to some earlier mistakes. He was very happily surprised though that they turned out great. They were a lot of fun to make and so yummy! They are so hard to eat though! Chad demonstrates in the video below. We loved them so much we made more the next day.

Primary

I am currently a primary teacher in our ward. I teach the five year olds. There are usually around eight in my class. Today was our primary program. It went pretty well. The kids had a hard time sitting still and didn't always want to sing the songs, but everyone still enjoyed it I think. Today was my second day of teaching my class. It went a lot better this time. Last time they were out of control and it was really hard to get them to listen and participate. I came home pretty discouraged. This time they were better in singing time. They sang almost all the songs and weren't quite as wild. They also walked quietly to class. When we first got to our classroom they were out of control again and were running around screaming. For a second I couldn't get them to stop. They were just completely ignoring me, but then we played Simon Says and that got all of their attention. Then Simon told them to sit down, fold their arms, and listen quietly, so they calmed down. Then before starting the lesson we talked about the rules for the class and why it was important to follow them and be reverent. For the most part, my class was relatively reverent and they listened to the stories, answered the questions, and participated in the activities. I felt much better about teaching after today. I think the big difference is that I relied a lot more on God this week. After the first time teaching I knew that I was really going to need His help and that I needed to do more than just pray for the spirit. I needed to humble myself so that I could be teachable and realize that I could not teach this class on my own. I then continued to pray that the Lord would teach me how to teach these children so that they could understand how much God loves them and how to choose the right. He truly answered my prayers and I am so thankful. I know that if we pray in faith and trust in the Lord that He will help us and lead and guide us in everything we do. Even though it is still a challenge and takes a lot of work, I am really enjoying this calling.

The Pumpkin Patch!

On Saturday after I got back from my retreat Chad and I went to a pumpkin farm to pick pumpkins. It was a little different than I expected because there weren't actually any pumpkins growing. There were just a bunch put out in a field of weeds. It was still cool though. We found the perfect pumpkin! There was also a petting zoo there and a corn maze that we did when it was dark. It was fun. It is always so much fun to be together no matter what we are doing.

Girls Retreat

This past weekend I went on a relief society retreat with my ward. There were 27 women who went, so it was a lot of fun. We left on Friday night and had a testimony meeting and then sat around the fire talking and eating cookies. My testimony was strengthened that Heavenly Father really knows each of us individually by name and that He has a plan for us and always does what is for our good. If we follow him we will be completely happy. Saturday morning we got up early and had breakfast and then learned some Pilates and exercise together. We also had some classes about good communication and inexpensive things to do for fun and we played some fun games. It was nice to get to know the women in our ward better. I had a lot of fun, but I missed Chad and was happy to come home to him.

Finally, an official employee and a trip to Peru!

As of yesterday I am finally a full time employee at my doctor's office - no more staffing agency! It will be so nice to finally be earning time off, getting paid for holidays, getting health benefits...It's really a pretty good job. I am still enjoying it for the most part, minus those occasional days when I feel like I can't stay any longer. They said I had helped to make the office run a lot smoother and a lot more efficiently, so that's always nice to hear. I also got 14 days of time off approved so that Chad and I can go to Peru over spring break (and a little longer). Yep, we have been wanting to go for a long time because that is where Chad served his mission and we randomly decided last week to go over Chad's spring break plus a week. We decided that we aren't going to have too many more opportunities when we both can take two weeks off of work or school and when we don't have any kids. We also found a great deal on tickets and already bought them, so it's official. We are planning on staying in Lima, Peru for a few days and then spending a majority of the time in Cusco up in the mountains where all the ruins are. We are both really excited and can't wait to go!

Our Trip to Canada

Michelle and I went to Canada over the weekend. It was a pretty crazy trip. We didn't leave until around 5:45 on Friday afternoon and we were with another couple from our ward who had accidentally got the directions to a different Sheraton in Toronto. So it took a while to figure out how to get to the right hotel. Once we got to our hotel though, there were two other couples from our ward also already there and we had a great time. We went to the hot tub (for some reason there are no hot tubs to be found in Syracuse anywhere) that night and again in the morning. We also got a free VIP breakfast from the hotel because someone in our group was upset that we had to pay for parking. So after that we basically went out to downtown Toronto and just walked around the city and saw some of the cool buildings there like the CN Tower (see pictures...its neat). We walked along Queen Street for a long time. It was a very interesting area with lots of people and shops and tourist attraction stuff along the way. By that I mean all the people trying to get you to give them money for the things they are doing on the sidewalk like drawing with chalk on the sidewalk or giving a puppet show or balancing rocks on top of each other, stuff like that. We came back on Saturday night pretty late, so we were in Toronto for really just one day but I think we all feel like we had enough time there. Since we were walking around downtown and the city for so long everyone was really tired and felt like they had seen it all. Obviously you could spend a lot more time in Toronto if you wanted to but we all felt like it was a nice good one day one night trip. We had a great time!

Twlight

It's been a really long time since I've written on here. It's a good thing I have Chad to keep up with it. Chad got me the book Twilight for my birthday by Stephanie Meyer. I loved it! I think I read it in two days. I have also finished the second and third books (within the last 5 days). They were good too, but the first was my favorite. I don't know if anyone reading this has read the books, but Jacob drives me crazy (since the second book anyway). Does anyone else feel the same way or is it just me? I don't even like reading the parts of the book that are just about him and Bella and not Edward. And I don't like that she loves Jacob. lol. Anyway, I'm excited to read the fourth one. They really are fun to read!

VERY Interesting Article from RealClearPolitics.com

Nebraska and Maine?

I noted with interest stories today discussing McCain and Obama opening up campaign offices in some far-flung places: McCain in Bangor, Maine and Obama in Omaha, Nebraska. Maine and Nebraska do not have reputations as swing states, so what the heck are these guys up to?

Part of it is to head off the possibility of something like this occuring:

What you see here is a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College. So also is this:

What happens when there is such a tie? We go to Amendment 12, which states:

The person having the greatest Number of [Electoral College] votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.

That's right, the House of Representatives - which acquitted itself so beautifully over the last week! - gets to make the choice, but with a twist. Each state gets one vote. That makes things a little dicey, for both campaigns.

For McCain, the problem is obvious: the Democrats control the Congress. Not only that, but they currently control 27 of the 50 state caucuses. The GOP controls 21 and 2 are split.

But Obama has a problem here, too. In this scenario, McCain will have won more states, which means that to win, Obama will have to convince some Democrats to vote against their states. A few unfortunate souls would probably have to vote against their own districts. In 2004 George W. Bush won 255 congressional districts to Kerry's 180. A 269-269 tie like this implies that McCain will probably have won more districts than Obama, which would complicate matters for the Democrat.

Why is it that Maine and Nebraska are relevant to this scenario? Most states allocate electors on a winner-take-all basis. Maine and Nebraska do, too - but they also dole out electors depending upon who won which congressional districts. If McCain were to win Maine's second district, he'd get an elector. If Obama were to win Nebraska's third, he'd get an elector. That could make the difference.

That would be especially helpful because here's how the Vice-President is selected.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.

Again, the same tension would exist. Biden would have more Democrats. Palin would have more states.

Note that the House picks the President, the Senate picks the Veep. That means it's possible to see a split in the executive branch - one party wins the top job, another wins the second job!

So, a spare elector from Maine or Nebraska could be quite useful.

What we would have looked like in the past

So there is a funny website where you can put a picture of yourself in and it puts your face on hairdos from the 50s to 2000. Some look funny like these and some just don't quite work out right. The website is printed on the pictures (yearbookyourself.com). You all should try it out for fun!

Another ESPN Article including BYU in the Conversation for a National Championship

The first official BCS standings won't be released until Oct. 19, but both polls and four of the six computer ratings that make up the formula are already being published.

So what are we waiting for?

Mock BCS standings

Team	Record
1. Oklahoma	4-0
2. Alabama	5-0
3. LSU	4-0
4. Texas	4-0
5. Missouri	4-0
6. Penn State	5-0
7. Georgia	4-1
8. South Florida	5-0
9. USC	2-1
10. BYU	4-0
11. Utah	5-0
12. Texas Tech	4-0

If the BCS standings were out this week, this is what you would see: Oklahoma, on the strength of its commanding lead atop both polls (coaches' and Harris; AP doesn't count in the BCS) would be ranked No. 1. Alabama, although it isn't ranked second in either of those polls, would be No. 2 because it's the clear-cut top team in the computers. The most significant deviation from the top 10 of the polls involves Texas Tech, which currently ranks very low in the computers thanks to two early games against FCS opposition.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when looking at these standings is … last season. It's been almost 12 months to the day since USC lost at home to Stanford as a 40-point favorite, and many people believed -- logic even dictated -- that the Trojans' national title hopes were gone. In retrospect, if they hadn't taken a second loss (at Oregon), they would've played for the BCS title in spite of that upset. That loss no more eliminated USC than a late home loss to Illinois did Ohio State or an even later home loss to Arkansas did LSU.

Or USC's loss last week to Oregon State, or Florida's loss last week to Ole Miss, or Georgia's … You get the point.

Highest Avg. Poll Ranking
By Non-BCS Team Entering Oct.

Year	Team	Avg. Ranking (Avg. of 2 polls used by BCS)
2008	BYU	8
2001	Fresno State	10.5
2004	Utah	14
2000	TCU	14
2007	Hawaii	15.5
1999	Marshall	17
2006	Boise State	21.5

If last year should've taught us anything, it's that one loss doesn't necessarily end championship dreams. And if you're really fortunate, two losses might not do it, either.

• BYU is entering October with a BCS standing that would be good enough for automatic inclusion in a major bowl game. So the question isn't whether the Cougars will make the BCS if they go undefeated. It's whether they could actually work their way into the BCS Championship Game. Obviously, that's impossible to answer right now, but by having a coaches' poll ranking of 7 and a Harris poll ranking of 9 entering October, BYU has made such a discussion far from ridiculous.

It's the highest a non-BCS team has been ranked at this stage of the season in the BCS era, and it's pretty close to where the Cougars were ranked (6th by the coaches, 7th by the AP on Oct. 1) when they won their national title in 1984.

Brad Edwards is a college football researcher at ESPN. His Road to the BCS appears weekly during the season.

BYU in top 10

There is not too much I need to say about this, except that it is amazing! BYU, even though they had a bye week greatly benefitted from several losses in the top 10. I am not going to get ahead of myself and talk about possible situations at the end of the season for bowl games, but in my opinion if BYU wins out the rest of the year (stays undefeated), beats Utah also as an undefeated team (they would be probably around 10th by then if they stay undefeated including beating Oregon State this Thursday that beat USC last weekend), and a few more teams ranked better than BYU get upset, i don't think anything is out of the question for BYU's bowl game potential. Here are the rankings:

USA Today Poll

1. Oklahoma (57) 4-0 1,520

2. LSU (1) 4-0 1,399

3. Missouri 4-0 1,398

4. Alabama (2) 5-0 1,350

5. Texas (1) 4-0 1,310

6. Penn State 5-0 1,146

7. Brigham Young 4-0 1,054

8. Texas Tech 4-0 1,047

9. USC 2-1 990

10. Georgia 4-1 888

10. South Florida 5-0 888

12. Ohio State 4-1 854

13. Florida 3-1 832

14. Auburn 4-1 776

15. Utah 5-0 684

16. Kansas 3-1 555

17. Wisconsin 3-1 521

18. Boise State 3-0 446

19. Vanderbilt 4-0 351

20. Oregon 4-1 286

21. Fresno State 3-1 280

22. Oklahoma State 4-0 229

23. Connecticut 5-0 180

24. Virginia Tech 4-1 161

25. Wake Forest 3-1 148

price of gas chart below

I made the chart too big when I inserted the graph in the post below. My apologies. All you have to do is click on the chart though to see the whole thing and it become much clearer as well.

The Price of Gas

Over the past few, I have driven probably around 1,000 miles. That driving included traveling to Richmond, VA and then back here to Syracuse again. Luckily my car gets excellent gas mileage (usually around 35 mpg if it is on the highway the whole time). All this driving and filling up the gas tank several times got me thinking about gas prices. I have heard at least once or twice that the price of gas, as disgustingly expensive as it is, is actually low if you you factor in where it has been historically and then scale up the price for things like inflation. So I had heard that and always wondered if it was true. Since gas is something that everybody needs and uses on a regular basis I would be glad to learn that gas has not risen as much as inflation would normally cause something to rise, but I have never known for sure whether or not that is actually true. Coincidentally I am also working on a group project in school for a class about US foreign policy and national security. I was assigned to work on doing research on our country's energy policy. So I have been doing a little research on a few things and have found some interesting figures. This graph that I have posted shows the actual nominal price of gas since 1919 and then shows what that would be after adjustment for inflation. Interestingly, gas in 1919 was like3 dollars a gallon or something like that. Since 1919, with lots of ups and downs, the price of gas was actually decreasing until around 1999 or so. It spiked up and went down a little until around 2003 it looks like and has been going up through the roof ever since. I will continue to post things I have found in my research that I think are interesting. I will also try to figure out why the gas prices have been rising through the roof since around '03. If anyone know let me know.

the graph I posted along with some other graphs can be found here: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/fsheets/real_prices.html


Just to give a quick explanation of the rising gas prices since 2003, i looked it up on Wikipedia (obviously not the best source of information and some say not even a good source of informaiton, but it has almost everything and is really easy to find) and here is a few paragrpahs directly from Wikipedia:

"From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. Then during 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and rose above $146 in June 2008. Commentators have attributed the price increases of this period to a confluence of factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves,^[1] worries over peak oil,^[2] Middle East tension, and oil price speculation.^[3] Some events have had short term effects on oil prices, such as North Korean missile launches,^[4] the crisis between Israel and Lebanon,^[5] tension between Iran and U.S.,^[6] and "a hundred factors."^[7]

At the start of September 2008, with prices having fallen back to $110, analyst Jan Rudolph said that "weakened economies" and record high prices had reduced demand worldwide. He pointed out that the oil market had changed fundamentally in 2008, and was not sensitive to price spikes from events such as Hurricane Gustav and the Russo-Georgian war.^[8] In response to falling prices, OPEC declared it was prepared to take action (such as coordinated reductions in supply) to maintain prices near $100.^[9]

Prices near $95–105 per barrel (2007 U.S. dollars) are equal to the previous all time inflation adjusted record of 1980.^[10] This had been clearly exceeded by the first quarter of 2008. In terms of the crude price, U.S. records suggest that equivalent prices were last seen in the 1860s.^[11] In terms of refined petroleum products, similar prices in real terms have not been seen since the 1920s.^[12] Outside the U.S., the history of both inflation and oil prices will be different, but after being adjusted for inflation, prices over $120/barrel are unprecedented since the very earliest days of commercial oil production. Sustained high prices contribute to fears of an economic recession similar to that of the early 1980s.^[13] In the United States, gasoline consumption dropped by 0.5% in the first two months of 2008 in response to higher prices,^[14] compared to a drop of 0.4% total in 2007.^[15]"

How about the Cougars?

As I am sure most of you are aware, BYU is now ranked 11 in the AP and and the USA Today polls. That is where I feel like they deserve to be. Until some of the top 10 teams start to play each other and lose or someone just messes a game up, BYU will stay where they are at. A link is provided at the bottom to take you to where the current ranking are at. Even more interesting though than BYU's excellent ranking is that I found an article on ESPN's webpage talking about BYU having a shot at a national championship. The author by no means said that they are a top contender for a national title or anything even close to that. He simply said that at this rate, as he things going, they are in the conversation (as long as they beat the University of Utah on their last game). I will just copy and paste the entire paragraph into this post, it can also be found though here: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/others/0-1-164/What-we-learned-from-the-Independents-and-non-BCS--Week-4.html

Here is the part of the article that talks about BYU:

What we learned from the Independents and non-BCS, Week 4

September 21, 2008 4:40 PM

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

1. BYU is the non-BCS' best hope: No, not for a BCS bid, there are a still five other teams with undefeated records, but the Cougars might be the non-BCS' best hope for a national championship bid. I know, I know, it's only the fifth weekend of the season. Trust me, I've said the same thing a gazillion times to BYU fans. But you can't deny that there's something special in this team. After its controversial win against Washington, the Cougars have gone on to outscore their opponents 103-0. That's dominant no matter whom the Cougars are playing. The Cougars have their highest national ranking since 2001, and if things continue to go the way they're going, they'll be in the Top 8 by the time they meet Utah in November.

current rankings: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex

Girl's Night

Chad left town this afternoon for the ICMA conference. His friend Dan went too, so Dan's wife, Jenny, and I had a party with some of the girls in our ward our age. We had chocolate fondu and just talked and got to know each other better. Five other girls came, so it was a lot of fun. It is nice to finally be getting to know more people in our ward. There are a lot of fun couples to do things with.

Thanks Chad!

Chad made my birthday such a fun day and he really made me feel special. He woke up at 6:45 a.m. so that we could go to breakfast together even though he didn't have to wake up early at all. He didn't have school and could have slept until noon, so I really appreciated it! It was fun starting the day together. Like chad already said, we went to Dunkin Donuts. Then when we had dinner at Chili's Chad ran all around the restaurant to find our waitress to tell her that it was my birthday so that they could sing to me and so I could get free dessert. Then he bought me yummy cheesecake and some cool presents. I got the 7 C.S. Lewis Classics in one book and the book Twilight. He also got me a curling iron and a huge cookbook full of desserts. It will be fun to start trying new recipes. Don't worry Chad, I'll make sure they turn out better than the fudge, and the truffle...It was a really fun day. Thanks Chad!

Michelle's 22nd Birthday

Yesterday Michelle turned 22 years old. Michelle and I celebrated it with our closest friends here in Syracuse. In the morning Michelle and I went out to breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts and at night we went out to eat at Chilli's with some friends and had cake afterwards. At the doctor's office where she works they also celebrated her birthday by having a special lunch for her with pizza and cupcakes. It worked out well going to chili's because Michelle got a gift card for Chili's (coincidentally) yesterday in the mail from her family. That was a very pleasant surprise. We bought a delicious cheesecake from Wal Mart for everyone to share. It was a fun day!

UPDATE: BYU's new ranking

The new rankings were recently released for college football. After BYU's victory over UCLA, they jumped up to 11 according to the USA Today poll and 14 according to the AP poll. Not too shabby. You can check it out at the following link: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex

Final Score: BYU- 59 UCLA- 0

WOW! That is what i must say first: wow! I am a BYU fan and wanted BYU to beat UCLA yesterday, and i beleived they would. I did not expect an absolute blow out like this though. A blowout does not even really do justice actually to how bad BYU beat UCLA. A blowout would be how Penn State beat Syracuse (by like 35 or 40 points or something ridiculuos). To not only win by 59 points but to also shut out your opponent while doing it is something else entirely. I don't know what to call it. I am afraid that the coaches and AP polls will say we won so easilly that it didn't mean anything and not move us up in the rankings. Of course that is not really the case, UCLA is of course a good time (or at least most people would have agreed to that statement before yesterday). I only got to actually watch the first half, but that was all i really needed to see. After the first half BYU went on to score 17 more points but UCLA still never did score. I am curious to read some more articles and blogs about what other fans of both teams have to say about it, because honestly a score like that is just kind of weird. A score of 59 to zip is something you would expect if a college team played a high school team or something...ok maybe that example is a little too extreme...but i think a score like that is more than just a blow out it is weird. I can't wait to see what their new ranking will be.

Congratulations Chad!

Last week Chad was picked as one of the five SU MPA students chosen to go to an ICMA (International City Manager's Associate) Conference in Richmond, VA Sept. 21-24. He is getting a $500 stipend to be able to go. City management is one of the career paths he is interested in, so this will be a great opportunity for him to learn more about the career and do some networking. I don't know too much about the conference, but from what Chad tells me it is a four day conference of speakers, workshops, etc. He is really excited to have this opportunity and I am really excited for him. It will be weird to be without him for four days though. We haven't been away from each other for that long since we've been engaged. I'll miss him, but I'm proud of him for being chosen. Congrats Chad!

While I Was Sleeping...

Last night our toilet started running water in the tank behind the toilet seat and wouldn't stop. The apartment complex made it clear to us that if maintenance problems related to do leaks ever occur, call them no matter what hour of the day or night it is. So we did. I didn't actually expect a maintenance worker to come over (as it was getting close to midnight), but somebody did. He came with his plunger thinking we had a clogged toilet, i guess the answering service we call at our apt. complex miscommunicated the message. At any rate, he was able to fix it, the chain had gotten all tangled up. He said he was just going to do a quick fix though but that someone between the hours of 9 and 3 would come back tom morrow and replace the part entirely. I said i should be home (i have no class on Thursdays) but that if i wasn't that they could just come in. So I woke up at around 11 this morning and went to go to the bathroom. There was a not on a small piece of paper there on the toilet saying the handle and chain had been replaced. So in other words, while I was asleep, someone from maintenance knocked on the door, opened the door themselves (presumably with some type of master key), did all the maintenance work in the bathroom right next to me asleep on the bed in our bedroom, wrote the note, left, relocked the door (because the door was still locked when i left the house today), all without me waking up. Michelle leaves early to go to work so she was already at work during all this. Isn't that an odd and slightly disturbing story? When i talked to Michelle i told her this and she said, "so someone could steal everything from our house while you are sleeping and get away?" (or it was something like that). I guess the answer to Michelle's question is yes.

ROAD TRIP TO PENNSYLVANIA!!!

Michelle and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. She doesn't get a lot of time off from her work and we have been wanting to visit some of the cool stuff the east coast has to offer so we decided to pack our bags and start heading to PA. We literally had no plans set in stone, and no hotel reservations, but we just made the decision on Saturday when we woke up that we wanted to go...so we did! We had so much fun! It was a blast and we got to spend so much great quality time together. It was nice to not have any plans because we could just do whatever we wanted that way. We drove to Scranton on Saturday and visited as many of The Office sites as possible. The first place we went to was The Anthracite museum that Michael sings about. It was about as nice as a coal museum could be. Then we went to the Steam Town Mall where the gang goes somewhat regularly. We saw Victoria's Secret where Michael tries to buy all the girls lingerie, and we also saw the famous "Scranton Welcomes You" sign. We also went to Poor Richard's Pub, the Scranton Police Department, the Electric City sign, and many other cool places. We were thinking the whole time how funny it was that we were excited about seeing real places that are talked about on a TV show but that aren't even really on the show. We felt kind of like nerds but we were having so much fun we didn't care. At this point we hadn't even decided what we would do: go home or keep going further into PA. We decided to take advantage of the long weekend and go to Philadelphia. We drove about half way their, found a hotel (it took us like 2 hours because there just happen to be a popular fair in that city last weekend) and then drove th Philly in the morning on Sunday. We went to Church at some random ward in Allentown first though...its nice that the Church is the same everywhere and you can just show up no worries. So on Saturday we saw Congressional Hall (where the first Congress met), the Liberty Bell, some really old drafts of the Declaration of Independence and other documents, and we waited at least an hour to eat Philly Cheese Steaks at the world famous Jim's Steaks. It was worth waiting for those sandwiches....but of course i went overboard in how much i ate. Again, we had no reservations at a hotel but we found one quite easily (apparently a fair in Allentown fills up that city more than Labor Day does in Philadelphia). On Monday we went to Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was signed), the cemetery where Ben Franklin is buried, and the Constitution Center which is an interactive museum of sorts where we learned a lot about the Constitution. I took a lot out of it. It is quite an incredible feat what our Founding Fathers accomplished. OH YEAH! How could i forget....right before we left to come home yesterday at around three, we went to the Philadelphia Museum of art and ran up the same steps that Rocky did while training for his first big fight in the movie Rocky. They even have a statue of him there. It was all in all a fantastic weekend. Not just because of what we got to do and see but because Michelle and I got to spend the whole weekend together!

The New York State Fair

Michelle and I went to the famous New York State Fair last night. It was fun! We even got free parking because we didn't have any cash and the parking attendant, in frustration, said "Just go! Just go over there [to park]!" Even though he got mad that we didn't have any cash, we weren't complaining. We saw the famous exhibits that had been in the news, like the huge butter sculpture. They don't tell you on the news what it is of, you have to come see it for yourself. So i guess im going to ruin the surprise for anyone who is still going to go: it is of a cow jumping over the moon with a fork and a spoon or something standing next to it (its all from that old nursery rhyme. I don't even know what its called...Michelle recited the whole thing at the fair though). There was a funny German guy juggling fire and making off-colored jokes. He was actually really funny. I was surprised to find myself actually laughing out loud. He was rude and insulting to the spectators about things like race and ethnicity and stuff. I usually don't think that stuff is funny at all but he just cared so little about the people around him that it was for some reason funny. I don't know. We got milks for 25 cents each at the dairy exhibit. We bought grilled corn, fresh taffy, and saw all kinds of award winning chickens, pigeons, pigs, llamas, horses, goats, cows, bunnies, and many other animals. Some of them looked like they were sick and miserable in their little cages. If they have been in their since the fair started its been a week and a half for those little guys. You could buy a lot of those animals too if you wanted. The horses were beautiful. I don't think i had ever seen the real award-winning huge beautiful horses before. Michelle and I were awestruck at how massive some were. We were thinking they could easily crush our car if they wanted to. There were the ones with poofy white fur on their feet and little tiny ones that pulled around a little cart inside the barn on a track. That one was somehow trained to kick its feet up with real flare every time it stepped. It seemed to be a real proud horse. Oh yeah, and i met a guy from Peru at a Peruvian arts and crafts store. He told me i should go back to Cuzco (a city in Peru) and get me a Cuzquena. That would be a girl from Cuzco. I told him i was already married and put my arm around Michelle and he said, "no not a Cuzquena girl, a Cuzquena beer." And then i remembered that Cuzquena is also a beer from Cuzco, so that was kind of funny. All in all, i will be honest and say that it was about the same as most fairs i have been to in my life, like the Orange County fair and other ones. The nice thing about this one is all the animals that were there. If you don't care about seeing those...it might be just the same as any other fair. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, and the free parking made it less expensive, but i think it may have gotten a little too hyped up from people we know at church and at michelle's work. But that's just one man's opinion...the other 400,000 people who have gone this year so far may disagree with me. Im not even saying it's bad though, it just wasn't a life-changing experience perhaps like it had been hyped up to be. We had a great time though and it was perfect for a weeknight and we would definitely reccomend it to anyone looking to get outside and have a good time. There is enough stuff to see and look at to keep you busy all day if you wanted to stay that long. Oh yes, one more thing, we paid one dollar for Michelle to see Tina, the world's smallest woman at 29 inches tall. She was real, but unfortunately we couldn't take a picture because our camera battery died. I looked her up on the internet and found pictures of her on someone else's blog. The pictures i found are of the exact same guy selling the tickets to see her, the exact same booth, the exact same sign, it made me laugh. I guess Tina tours the world pretty much. OK, that is all for now everyone.

Finally a Candidate Worth Voting For

http://www.thelopezfamilyonline.com/play.php?first=Chad&last=Wallace

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

Here are some pictures of where I go to school. This is the Maxwell Building at Syracuse University. I haven't even really gone in to any other buildings or ventured very far from the Maxwell Building (other than to get my ID card or little things like that). It just feels kind of weird to go to SU but not really have any idea what the campus looks like or anything. It is much different than doing my undergrad at BYU where i walked all over campus almost on a daily basis. I hope to see and get to know the entire campus, but honestly, I have almost no need to go anywhere else (all my classes and lectures are right here). Another big difference from BYU is that people smoke here (that is why there is a picture of an ash tray).

pictures of swollen tongue and arm

The picture of my tongue here shows the contrast quite nicely of how much bigger my right half is than my left half. The picture still does not do complete justice to how big it really was and felt. i think the picture of my arm shows kind of well how swollen it was...but like my tongue it doesn't quite do justice.

Missionary Work

Chad and I have really enjoyed the missionary work we have been able to do in Syracuse. There are so many more opportunities now that we actually live around people that aren't members. Chad has been able to teach with the missionaries several times and has had quite a few discussions with people at school about what we believe. He is a great missionary. I am always so proud of him when I here him explain the gospel to someone and bear his testimony. I'm so lucky I married such a great guy! Anyway, I have also been able to share the gospel at work. There is a girl there who is interested in finding a church to go to and she asked me what we believe. Before she even asked I had felt like I should try to share the gospel with her. After she asked I told her a little about it and she seemed interested so I brought her a Joseph Smith Pamphlet, the Restoration DVD, and a couple more things. She was excited to watch the DVD, but hasn't watched it yet because her husband wants to watch it with her. I have been praying that she will feel the spirit and have the desire to know more. I invited her to church and she couldn't come this Sunday, but she is going to talk to her husband about next. I love this gospel so much and it has been such a blessing in my life. I would love to be able to share it with her so that she can be as happy as I am.

Life in Syracuse

As Chad mentioned earlier, life has been a little crazy around here. I'm afraid to come home from work each day and find a new part of Chad swollen. lol. He is getting better though thank goodness. We are still enjoying living in Syracuse. The weather is still really nice, but its starting to get a little bit colder. I'm scared for winter to come. It's going to be freezing! Lately a few more people have been saying that it isn't really that bad. That's a little comforting, but I'm sure it's going to be a lot worse than Utah. Work is going great. I really love my job (most of the time). I have a new position now. Instead of just doing whatever anyone needed help with I am "the check in person." I'm in charge of checking patients in when they arrive, verifying insurance, helping with medical records and dictation, answering phones, filing, paperwork...just basic medical reception. It is such a busy office! Often we have 15 patients that will come in one 15 minute period because some days we have two doctors in the office, a nurse practitioner, a breathing technician, and an x-ray technician and they all see patients at the same time. The front desk can get a little crazy! I really enjoy the business though. It makes the day go by really fast. It is also nice to have some responsibility now instead of just helping with little tasks. I feel more productive and useful. If only medical receptionists were paid like nurses...

swollen

lastnight while watching Iron Man at the local dollar theatre here in Syracuse, i was eating a chocolate covered pretzel, and i realized my tongue was very sensitive. It kind of felt like a bee stung it. The sensitivity was kind of right on a particular spot, it wasn't the whole thing. After a few minutes i started getting annoyed that it was bugging me while I was eating. After about a half hour i realized it was actually numb and getting quite large. I finally told michelle (i hadn't menitioned it before because i knew she would worry in spite of some recent medical conditions). She could see h0w swollen it was even in the dark movie theatre. I made a few phone calls (to my mom who is a nurse and to the wal mart pharmacist) and it was obvious i was having an allergic reaction to something. About an hour later the entire right side of my tongue was frigin huge. It took up my whole mouth. I took some benadryl at home and waited to see if it got better. Luckily it did, or it would have been the second trip to urgent care this week. Right before i went to bed the left side started to feel sensitive like the right side had in the movie theatre, but i was too groggy from the benadryl to care. I just fell asleep and in the morning thank heavens i was ok. My mouth was sore is all in the morning, no real swelling i don't think. My left bicep yesterday also started to get swollen. It at first just itched like a bug bite during the day. By night time it looked there was gauze stuffed in my arm or something. It looked like there was literally something in there poking out, that's how defined the swelling was and how distinctly it was elevated above the normal skin. Do you remember how the joker put the cell phone in the bad guy's stomach and it was protruding in a very distinct and noticeable shape? that is what the swelling in my arm reminded me of (except for not a cell phone shape). Luckily that has mostly gone away too. My right arm did the same thing about a week ago, and I still have chigger bites on my feet from like 3 weeks ago or something . I'm a mess. (pictures to come shortly of the swollen tongue and arm).

This is a picture of when Chad and I went to the Sky Chief's baseball game. The Sky Chiefs are Syracuse's Triple A baseball team. They lost the game, but it was fun to watch anyway. The weather was great and we enjoyed the atmosphere and just being able to spend time together doing something a little different than the normal. We even ended up getting free tickets from someone when we were standing in the ticket line.

Camping

Pictures from camping at and visiting Niagara Falls.

This was called the Horseshoe falls. The water fall right behind us one side of the "horseshoe" that wraps all the way around to the other side of the waterfall you can see way in the background.

Niagara Falls

Michelle and I had a great time visiting Niagara Falls this last weekend. We went with our friends from the ward Dan and Jenny (and Dan is my MPA program as well). We left on Friday and camped at a place called Daisy Barn, which was basically like 20 minutes from Niagara Falls. It was fun to eat smores and roast weeners, etc. We also threw the frisbee around. Michelle and I have been trying to get a good frisbee since we got here so were happy to finally get one. I had a brilliant idea to play frisbee across the pond at Daisy Barn camping grounds. I threw the frisbee across the pond just fine...but eventually someone who threw it was not able to clear the pond. I will not say who...it was just someone i was playing frsibee with. So it took like 45 minutes to get it out, it was pretty funny. Its all good, we got the frisbee out as good as new. It was like the frisbee got a bath. Michelle and I decided to sleep outside on an air mattress. It was great weather: warm, clear skies. But at around five in the morning probably Michelle woke me up because it was starting to drizzle a little. I basically just ignored her or worse (in my half asleep state i may have actually just told her "no...lets just stay out here"). Anyways, after another half hour the rain woke me up and i told her we should go in the tent where Dan and Jenny were. The drizzle had turned to rain so we went in the tent, and it is good that we did because I could hear it really coming down on the tent. At any rate, it was fun to sleep outside. It was very calm and peaceful, and you could see stars and the trees. I could do it every night i think. The only downside is that when we got back to our house in Syracuse I noticed something was very wrong with my feet. Michelle counted somehting like 30 or 40 bug bites on the tops and bottoms of my feet. Yes, the bottoms of my feet, Weird huh? We beleive the diagnosis is Chiggers. A bug out in the south and east. Chiggers suck...they itch like crazy and burn like they're on fire if you start to scratch them. They appear to be srpeading, i think they may still be alive in my skin and eating me. I took an oatmeal bath to help, but i don't know how much it did. Anyways, back to Niagara Falls. It was cool to see this historic and cultural icon of our country. It is another place i can say i have been. There are basically three huge waterfalls that fall down into a river. On one side of the river is the US and on the other side is Canada. So i can say i have seen Canada, but i have not yet been there. We will need to go back with our birth certificates to be able to get into Canada and come back without problems. The picture at the top is at the bottom of the actual falls. We paid extra to be able to go down there. It was insanely windy and powerful. They make you wear sandals that they give you. We both got pretty wet. The picture above is not even that close to the actual spot where the waterfalls land in the river. We did go up there, but there is no way you could take out a camera and take a picture without ruining your camera. It would have been like throwing your camera in the ocean. So it is tuesday and i still have all kinds of Chigger bites...and they are either spreading or I am just noticing new ones. We will see what happens. Maybe i will post pictures of the Chigger bites.