HUGE UPDATE!

so, it's been awhile. here's what we've been up to:

• we've been working like CRAZY. we like to get on insane save/make-money kicks. or maybe our whole marriage we've been on just one really big kick? probably.
• amanda picked up tutoring on the side. she currently tutors trig and genetics.
• dan has been working a lot of overtime AND manages to keep the apartment looking nice. and feeds amanda well.
  
• after being married for over a year we finally got our wedding video. it is perfect. i wanted to post it here, but it's too big.
  
  here's a link:
  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150089481135144&ref=nf
  
  
• amanda applied to graduates schools.
• amanda got interviews at the University of Utah and Arizona State University
• amanda got offers from both schools.
• team damanda searched, pondered, prayed, and made a whole lot of pro/con lists, and decided to go to arizona.
• dan found out he will be able to work from home no matter where we end up!
  
• dan has a potential raise coming as well.
• we went to arizona last weekend. friday we drove straight to pheonix after work, arrived at about 5am. saturday we spent the day looking at houses. saturday night we stayed at the nicest hotel dan has ever been to (but not the nicest hotel amanda's ever been to, because she's a spoiled little girl). we hot-tubbed. sunday we spent the day driving back to midvale.
• mon-wed: moving from our apartment to amanda's parents (to save money and avoid double house/rent payments) and getting approved for loans.
• today: made an offer on a house
• a couple of hours ago: got our offer ACCEPTED!

we'll be in arizona in august :)


more updates to come!!!

moustache.

you know what?

blogging is silly when you have a facebook and hardly enough life to fill even THAT up.
goodbye blog, i'll return when my life becomes eventful. or when i'm bored... like right now.

SCIENCE!

working full time is... full time. who would've thought?! i love my job though. right now i'm working on a gene mapping project. i did a suppressor screen last summer and found a cool mutation. it looked like it might be something we already know about - but it isn't! (yet, anyways). so i'm mapping it. it's super exciting :) hmmm... am i allowed to talk genetics here? jk. i won't bore you with silly details. but if you come over, don't be surprised if i force you to sit through a power point presentation of my work.

graduation, vegas, san rafael, more graduation

I graduated! yay!



B.S. in Biology, Minor in Music.
the ceremonies were ridiculously boring (and the talks were very cliche), but it was nice to walk around in my cap and gown and feel like i did something special :)

me and dan and jeni went to paris afterwards.



i mean, vegas. whatever.









it was a fantastic trip. we stayed at my aunt's house in henderson and hung out in her backyard pool. then we went to jeni's friend's wedding in boulder.
it was in the 90's the whole weekend. soooo nice!


the next weekend we went on a crazy camping trip at san rafael.
i almost died.

the hike:







it was super fun - but next time i'm going to need to work out before hand. i was definitely not prepared strength-wise.


the night we got back my mom threw me a graduation party!









the end.

regarding slacks.

does anyone understand how hard it is to find perfection twice in a lifetime?

fall 2003: i was shopping for slacks to wear on my lds proselyting mission. i didn't know exactly what i was looking for at the time, although i had been a fan of slacks for some time. i was going by feel--what felt nice, what felt strong, what felt easily wrinkleable (yes, you can feel that in a fabric). i was looking at style--cuffs on the legs, change pocket within the front right pocket, buttons on the back pockets, single button flag under a zipper fly (yes, i'm very particular). finally, i found what felt "right". it's hard to explain, but i knew that these were the pants i wanted. they were originally $75, but on sale for $35. i bought two.

december 2005: i had spent the last two years wearing these two pairs of slacks almost EVERY day and they still looked as good as new. the only damage to the pants at all came from getting my pants leg stuck in a bike chain and getting a horrible large sliver through the upper thigh. these pants were indestructable, and i wanted more. i set to work right away searching for the same slacks. i searched out the manufacturer--out of business. i found out the company that had taken over--they no longer made that style. i searched for pants made out of the same fabric (polyester/cotton blend)--nobody uses that. i gave up.

december 2008: after 5 years of wearing these slacks almost daily, there were definite signs of wear. although the pants themselves looked great, the cuffs were showing quite a bit of wear. Hundreds of washes had worn the fabric thin in some areas, although you wouldn't notice unless you looked closely. amanda had been searching online for polyester/cotton slacks and actually found some! on sale!! we ordered 3 pairs in my size. when the pants arrived i found out that i had probably put on some weight, while my old slacks had stretched out with me. 30X30 just didn't cover it anymore. we tried to take these pants back to jcpenney to get the next size up, but they didn't have the right size. we called this battle a loss.

april 2009: "i'll take three! i don't even need to try these on!! i'll buy them right now!!!"

happy pants

we went shopping last night... after years and years of searching, dan finally found his pants.