A Test of Skill and Patience

After we got married I quickly informed Sterling that date nights are not necessary, saving money is. My wonderful accommodating husband let me have my way while we were in Utah but since our move to Iowa we have agreed to do one date-like activity each week. The dates increase the quality of time we spend together as well as our creativity.

Thinking of dates that fall within our allotted budget can be quite difficult. The following are some of the dates that we have done so far. We have found that watching a movie that we already own and buying or making a small treat is something we enjoy and can afford. Another date was spent walking, talking and discovering what parks, schools, walking paths, libraries, etc. are near our apartment complex. We went to watch the women's volleyball team which was free for Sterling and $1 for my ticket. A good and often chosen option is playing Settlers, Scrabble or a sport together and those keep us both humble, because everyone has to lose sometime.

Where am I going with this story...let me get to the point. One of our first dates in Iowa was a trip to the mall to see what stores were there and to do a bit of window shopping. We happened upon a sporting goods store called Scheely's or something like that and there we found these weird Frisbees for disc golfing. We decided that it might be fun to try that sometime and we left it at that.

Nearly two months later we (or should I say I) gave in and we purchased the discs for a date to the disc golf course. We had been to the course previously as a result of our neighborhood meanderings and from the looks of the first hole I didn't think it would be that difficult. In the middle of a wide open field there is a patch of cement where you tee off and then somewhere in the distance there is the cage type thing that you have to throw the Frisbee into. It couldn't be that hard could it?

Well first of all I have to say that throwing a disc is much different than throwing a Frisbee. Our first throws were a little crazy and both of the discs landed in the rough and when I say rough I mean it. We actually had to spend a couple of minutes looking for them because the grass was knee-deep.

So as you can see from the picture at the first hole Sterling's form is a little questionable but it can't matter too much when the course is nothing but wide open space. Well that is not his real form I just made him pose like that for the picture. But now you kind of get the idea of the cement platform from where you throw the disc and if you look closely you can also see how much smaller the disc is than a Frisbee.

Anyway we both did fairly well on the first hole. I made it with four throws and Sterling made it with five. The map of the course then lead us down a small hill, across a road and finally to the second hole which looked a little something like... A FOREST.

I'm not going to lie, I felt a little deceived by the ease of the first hole and thought that the creator of the course should have at least eased me into the forest scene. This picture is taken from the what I like to call launching pad and if you can't see the thing you are supposed to throw the disc into, neither could we.

So as you can imagine the trees add a little bit of a difficulty factor and test what skill you might have of throwing the disc. I don't know how many times we actually threw the discs straight into a tree. I would usually try to have some sort of strategy and every time I tried to miss a tree I would hit it causing my disc to return to my where I had just thrown it making me upset.

The forest continued to double as a disc golf course until the 11th hole where it was wide open spaces again. I was excited because finally I might be able to make it to the hole in less than six throws. It was my turn to throw first and I put all that I had into that throw. I carefully watched where it landed and then Sterling threw his disc. It of course went much further than mine and though I was a little distraught who was I kidding, it had been that way all day.

We quickly found Sterling's disc but locating mine was a little more difficult. In fact we walked around in the rough for about 45 minutes looking for that stupid disc. I think I would have given up after five minutes if I didn't care so much about leaving $11 lost in the bushes.

As I walked around looking for the disc I kept getting more and more angry. On top of getting angry I was blessed with the opportunity of walking into some poisonous bush which created large red welts all over my arms and hands and the best blessing of all, I pulled my groin. But in my stubborn determination I was going to find that disc if it took all day. I could barely walk through the deep brush but I wasn't leaving without it.

Sterling on the other hand nonchalantly wandered through the rough looking for the disc and without getting upset. In fact he managed to find two other discs that other disc golfers had lost. He stayed positive and even tried to move on to the next hole since we now had three discs but I couldn't, I wanted to find that disc so badly.

After complaining about my groin and not being able to find the disc for the final time, Sterling turned around and patiently starting looking again. He decided to start kicking the deep grass hoping that it would turn up somehow. I was watching him thinking "What is he doing? Does he actually think that is going to work?" when all of a sudden he said, "Here it is." Didn't I feel foolish.

Unfortunately because of my groin condition we were unable to finish the last seven holes so I can't tell you how the game turned out. What I can tell you though is that after nine holes Sterling had 50 throws and I had 51.

The disc golfing incident was a test of our skill but the test of patience was only for me.

DON'T BE JEALOUS OF OUR MAD SKILLS!

Daddy's Little Boy

We haven't posted for a while and for a very good reason I might add. Lately our lives have been quite boring and we assume that none of you want to hear about that. Recently however we had been blessed by a visit from Sterling's dad. He happened to be in business for the weekend and luckily enough we were able to spend some time together.

When we left Wyoming we thought that the next time we saw either of our families would be when we traveled home for the holidays or for the summer. So far we have seen my brother and his family and now we have been fortunate to have dad come and visit us. Who will we see next? Let us know if you want or have to visit the Midwest and we will make it a point to see you!

Anyway our time together was short but extremely enjoyable...at least for us. Being new to the area and having limited monetary resources we weren't able to show dad a good time but the time we spent together good. We started the evening with a homemade meal and followed it up with a field trip to the clinic at the school. Sterling showed his dad around the clinic and then explained to him the different equipment he uses to test hearing and some of the things he will be doing in the future.

It was both exciting and satisfying to see Sterling explaining to his dad the things he would be doing in just a couple of years when he finishes school. It was also touching to see how proud his dad was of him. I could see it in his dad's eyes and almost feel it as he watched Sterling and paid attention to all that Sterling had to say. I realized then, like I have never realized before, that no matter how old Sterling gets he will always be his daddy's little boy. I finally got a glimpse of what it means or how it feels for a parent to see their children progress and succeed.

The best part about the weekend was the trip to the airport. In a small town about 15 minutes away there is an international airport. Sterling and I had never been there before and instead of taking the risk of not finding the airport in time I decided to Mapquest the airport. It took me a while to find the address to the airport but with my determination I found the address and got directions to the airport.

I didn't read the over the directions before printing them I just trusted that Mapquest wouldn't lead us astray. We went to church that morning and right after sacrament meeting we were on our way. I sat in the back seat and would randomly shout out exits that Sterling should take or mileage before he should turn right or left and this is how we progress for most of the way. Then we came to a portion of the directions that seemed a little shady but we couldn't turn back, could we? The directions indicated that we should take Exit 10 toward Shueyville and CR F-12. No where on the exit sign did it show an airplane indicating that we were headed in the right direction. I tried to remain calm and sound confident that we were going the right way but I had my questions. I frantically read to the end of the directions and noticed that the airport I had mapquested was not the name of the airport that we needed to be headed to. I continued giving directions and the final direction I gave put us onto a dirt road. At this point I was sure that we were going to end up in the middle of Farmer Joe's cornfield and that Sterling's dad was never going to catch his flight in time. My only hope was that I could see a windsock in the distance and though that doesn't necessarily mean an airport is near, I could only hope.

Sterling seemed to slow down a little bit as we continued on the dirt road. I could feel the hesitation in the way that he maneuvered the car but I couldn't let him think I had gotten directions to the wrong airport when finally he said, "I noticed that you got directions to the Iowa Municipal Airport and we are supposed to be going to the Eastern Iowa Airport." I remained silent hoping that my silence would make them believe I hadn't done such a thing but in reality I think it did the opposite. Both of them started this nervous laughter that made me realize they were on to me when all of a sudden out of nowhere we spotted a UPS plane.

However the comment about the directions to the wrong airport that Sterling had made minutes earlier remained. We still didn't actually know if we were at the right airport but it was in fact an airport and for now that was good enough (for me at least). In the end we did actually arrive at the Eastern Iowa Airport we just happened to arrive in a way that not many, if any, people take.

We are assuming that he got on an airplane and made it back to Utah for we haven't heard from him since. If you know of his whereabouts please inform us.

From Tree to Pie

This my friends is determination! Sadly however, the picture is staged and we didn't even keep the apple he grabbed.

So the question is, why are we picking apples? Don't worry it was not some sort of service project, I would have never agreed to that. It is still a little too hot for me and after this past summer I have realized that manual labor is not for me.
The reason that we found ourselves in this apple orchard is because Sterling wanted to make an apple pie and I wanted to eat one. Actually Sterling heard about it twice at school and I heard about it at church thus we figured it must be a place to visit. So last week Saturday right before our weekly grocery shopping trip we went to the orchard to get some apples.

So this is how it works. You grab a bucket, look at the map of what type of apple you want and then you start walking. Easy enough, or so you would think. Now come the complications.

When it comes to types of apples I like, there is one and it is Gala. Sterling on the other hand likes certain varieties more than others but is at least willing to try others. As you can see then, our picking agendas were different. I was "only" interested in going to the rows of Gala apples while Sterling was open to roaming the orchard looking for any apple that looked edible. It is not that easy though, apples have certain periods of time when they are ripe for the pickin'. For apple novices like ourselves how were we supposed to know?

Well the apple experts were thinking ahead and labeled each of the rows with the name of the apple and when that type of apple is ripe. So think of how I felt when we read the first sign which said that Gala apples are best in the beginning of September. Did the word devastated come to mind because it should have. I didn't want to act like a two year old and throw a fit but that is exactly what was going on inside my head. The fact that I don't really like apples to begin with caused me to be a little more upset when the only kind I do like was out of season. Don't worry though, the fact that I was devastated was unnoticed by Sterling and he simply proceeded to the next type of apple that was ripe.

We walked around gathering apples (now I say gathering because we didn't actually pick a single apple from a tree, all of our apples were gathered from the ground) for about 45 minutes before we were satisfied with our pickings. Out of the 15 apples that we bought I believe that only one of them was a Gala which is fine because even though I can't remember what type of apples we ended up picking I do remember that Sterling made a dang good apple pie.

What's in Nebraska?

So you might ask what is in Nebraska and we would respond...nothing, absolutely nothing. In fact it is quite similar to Iowa there is corn, corn, and oh did we mention corn. However this past weekend we were in Nebraska visiting my brother and his family.

While we were in town Sterling became both a Cornhuskers fan and a gangster as you will see in the following pictures.

The main reason that we went to Nebraska is because we aren't sure how often we will see our families and therefore anytime is a good time. For any of you who know my brother you also know that he loves sports and he loves ESPN. Since Nebraska was playing USC, ESPN was there for the morning show and of course he wanted to be there. It was then convenient that one of his friends lives there and that we were able to visit for the weekend.

Generally for us weekends consist of sleeping in, cleaning house, doing the grocery shopping and then whatever else we can think of to fill up the rest of our day. This weekend was a little different. We arrived in Lincoln late Friday night and early Saturday morning Sterling, Waleryan and Judd were on there way to the stadium for the live ESPN game day show. Judd and Waleryan claimed that one couldn't actually go to the stadium without wearing the school colors and so they supplied Sterling with a nice red shirt just so he could fit in.

Well Waleryan and Judd weren't the only ones that wanted to dress up Sterling. Kaili and Keona love Uncle Sterling and generally want his attention whenever he is around. Kaili's new thing is to play pretend. Picture Sterling sitting on a coffee table with Kaili as she sings "Row Row Row Your Boat" and pretends to row. And only seconds later they were pretending they were "Daddy" and both Kaili and Sterling took turns putting on Waleryan's vest and hat. Here is what I was able to capture. Kaili evidently thinks her dad to be normal, while Sterling seems to think Waleryan is a gangster.

It was freezing in Nebraska and luckily I was able to stay at the house with the mothers and the children while the dads went out to play. Kaili discovered the fun of the camera and I was thus forced to pose for a picture with every toy in the toy box. I was not alone in the photo shoot; she also recruited Deena and Kellianne but both have asked for their pictures to be kept in a confidential file called "the garbage." In fact I believe that I can quote Deena as saying, "If you put me on your blog I will kill you."

Kaili turned out to be quite the photographer after about five pictures. It took some time for her to realize that she couldn't put her hand over the lens but as soon as she learned that, there was no turning back. The best picture in her portfolio at this time happens to be this picture of me and the rabbit. Many of the other pictures, though artistic in nature, did not compare.

Updates

Up to this point Sterling has had four different clients and unfortunately I cannot remember the details for every client but the few that I can remember I will relate. One of his first clients was an elderly lady that was having some problems with her hearing aids, they just weren't working as well as they used to. Upon further inspection Sterling found that the ear wax that was once in her ear was now lodged in the hearing aid causing a decrease in proper hearing aid function. He said he had to remove which sounds absolutely disgusting to me. I hate removing my own ear wax and I definitely don't want to be dealing with somebody else's. Apparently the appointment was fine and both the clinician and client were satisfied.

The only other client I can remember was a man that had a significant hearing loss in one of his ears and had to wear an outside the ear hearing aid. He prefers to not wear the hearing aid in social settings and would like to get an in the ear hearing aid for that reason. Due to the extent of hearing loss in that ear an in the ear hearing aid is not the best option but as Sterling said, "you kind of have to give the client what he/she wants." So to make a long story short, the hearing evaluation lasted about two hours after which the man was frustrated because all he really wanted was to go to the clinic and be fit for new hearing aids. However he was not so frustrated that he denied a return appoint to be fit for the type of hearing aids that he wants.

As for me, the first two weeks of work have come and gone. The first week of work was mostly paperwork and training while the second week was actually work. So for all of you that are interested in what I actually do, let me explain. First picture a bunch of geeks in lab coats playing with chemistry and DNA bases and you will have a fine picture of my work environment. I work four days a week, ten hours a day in a lab creating and testing synthetic strands of DNA which are used for research. Some common uses for oligos (short strands of DNA) include diagnostic tests for genetic diseases, like breast cancer or cystic fibrosis, diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, like Hepatitis or AIDS, research to discover new drugs or treatments for a variety of diseases and producing safer and more plentiful agricultural products.

That's all of the excitement in our lives, it's not that exciting but it is our life.