I got tagged...

So I finally have some time to think about another post on our blog. This week has been crazy. Anyway, my sister Jen tagged me to say some interesting things about me. So here goes...

1. I love to go window shopping. Trevor soon realized when we got married that when I saw something in a store and said, "That's really cool!" or "That's really pretty" it doesn't necessarily mean I want to buy it or own it. I think this might have been due to the fact that growing up in Arizona my siblings and I would go shopping a lot (because what else do you do when it's hot outside?) and I didn't really have money to buy anything.

2. Trevor and I like to have random contests such as seeing who can...

• Find the oldest book in a library
• Guess how much a certain article of clothing costs at Neiman Marcus outlet
  
• Express our love to the other person in a mathematical limit approaching infinity the fastest
  

3. I am really bad at taking pictures. I always bring my digital camera places in hopes that I take pictures but I never take very many. This will hopefully change once we have a baby.

4. I like sitting in a parked car with the engine off while it is raining outside.

5. I'm slowly getting over my phobia about drinking spoiled milk. I cannot drink milk if I see it sitting out and I don't know how long it has been unrefrigerated. At least I'm now willing to have milk be outside of the fridge for longer than 5 minutes. I used to think all milk smelled spoiled and I had to have someone else smell it for me to see if it was okay to drink. I also couldn't drink milk straight, but this has improved over the last couple years. I still prefer water to milk, but I don't feel like gagging anymore when drinking a glass of milk.

6. I have a tendency to skim to later parts of a book while I'm reading it to see what is going to happen. For example, if someone is dying I'll look ahead and see if that person is still talking later in the book. I mean, it's not like I know HOW so-and-so made it out of the cave of wonders alive, I just know they did. Trevor doesn't understand my logic in this, but it really does put my mind at ease. I don't like suspense. That's the hard thing about movies... you can't do that.

I think that's enough... Hope everyone has a great week!

One of these semesters is not like the others!

It was confirmed today that I will NOT be having a final this semester for my class! WAHOO!!! This is my first semester EVER without finals! I just have a paper and presentation due on Thursday and then I can continue working on my thesis. My professor said that if we all did well enough on the last exam then we wouldn't have a final. Well, the students know that just means he didn't want to take the time to write a final, but we aren't complaining one bit!

Unfortunately I can't say the same for Trevor, but at least he only has 3 finals instead of the usual 5 or 6. We will definitely be celebrating on Dec. 21st as we drive to Arizona!

Some Internet Information

This post is actually to let you know about a recent post by Trevor on his blog for a class. It's some facts about the Internet. Maybe some or most things you already knew about, but it doesn't hurt to make sure people are aware of these kinds of things.

Also, Trevor showed me this Firefox extension (add-on) that helps block some advertisements shown on websites. I really like having it installed and it makes my Internet experience more pleasant. It only works in Firefox, though, so sorry if you use Explorer, Safari, or another web browser.

Sorry for the lack of postings lately. Trevor has three projects due on Thursday and I have a project due on Thursday as well. Finals are the following week! Then Christmas is almost here!!!

Thanksgiving Extravaganza!

Ah, Thanksgiving! The beginning of the magical season of Christmas. We had a great Thanksgiving week. Trevor's parents drove to Provo from CA and were able to spend the week with the family. All of Trevor's siblings are living in Provo except for his oldest sister. We were able to see them almost every day and visit, play games, and eat good food. I must say it was really nice not to worry about traveling this holiday with it being so short!

Even though this week has been extremely stressful for me preparing a paper for submission to a journal, I was still able to find time to be with family throughout the week. On Thursday morning, we went early to Trevor's grandparents' home so I could "fix up" the gingerbread house I gave his grandparents last Christmas. It wasn't in terrible shape except for broken icicles, some fallen candies, and the back window completed melted off into a big clump of hard candy. At least it was the back window and not the front window! Trevor kept asking if there was anything we could do to fix the window and I told him, "no way jose". Well, I didn't use those exact words, but I told him there was nothing I could do. I couldn't even remove the rock hard candy gloop because it was stuck to the side of the house and cardboard (sorry I didn't take a picture of it). I actually thought it looked kind of comical, though I'm sure Grandma Aurora wouldn't agree with me.

Thanksgiving dinner was really nice. We had about 25 adults and lots of kids at Trevor's grandparents' home. Trevor and I made pineapple cheese salad and everyone really liked it. I was so proud of myself for not having any dessert! To be honest I didn't even crave it. I guess it helps to go "cold turkey" on sweets and never cheat. After dinner and dishes were done, we gathered together around the grand piano and some people got up and sang solos or duets. Everyone did incredible and it was so fun to listen to them. I love being part of a musical family!

On Black Friday, Trevor and I went shopping for maternity clothes and an area rug. I bought a lot of nice clothes on clearance that hopefully I can wear for a while! We also bought a rug we both really like and got it for 55% off. I've been wanting to get one for a while but couldn't justify spending the money on it. I have been waiting for Black Friday so we could find one that was a lot cheaper and still pretty good quality.

I'm looking forward to the next month or so! We are really excited to go to Arizona for Christmas and see more family! There aren't many weeks left of school!

Oh yeah, and GO BYU Cougars for winning against the Utah Utes today!!! :0)

Internet Radio

So this might not be new to anyone else, but if it wasn't for Trevor I would have never heard about it. There is this internet radio website called Pandora that Trevor and I really like. Basically you enter in a song or artist that you want to listen to and then it creates your own radio station choosing music similar to the one you entered. You can let them know whether you like the song or not and it caters the music to that as well. If you don't give a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on the song, then it just continues to explore new areas of music. If you leave it alone for too long, then it can really get off track (although the website has really improved this feature lately). It's kind of fun because you hear new songs that you may have never heard before. You can also add more artists or songs to a certain station if you like. You can also have lots of different stations like "Abba", "Celine Dion", "George Strait", "Jack Johnson", "Enya", "Yo Yo Ma", and "Jackson 5 Christmas" and you can change the station depending on what you feel like listening to. If you create an account, it remembers all your stations and preferences you have previously created.

Note: If you give too many "Thumbs down", then it will eventually just play the song you are on. You can only skip a certain number of songs (although I found a way around this if you click on a different station you created and then go back to the original station it gives you a new song).

Anyway, maybe give it a try if you like listening to music while you are on the computer or near the Internet. I have found that some artists give better mixes of music than others, so you may have to do some trial and error before you get a mix of songs you like.

Oh! And there aren't any commercials interrupting the music!!! They show ads on their website, but I don't even keep the window on the main screen so I don't notice them.

Californ-I-A here we come!

So after giving it a lot of prayer and thought, Trevor and I decided to accept the internship offer from Microsoft! He will start June 3, 2008 and it is a three-month internship. I don't know how we are going to handle moving with a brand new baby, but we will do it nonetheless. It will definitely be a whole new adventure for the both of us!

Surfin' Safari!

So what a whirlwind this weekend has been! Trevor kept asking his recruiter at Microsoft about when he is going to get a second interview. They finally put his request on rush and he heard back last Thursday. He gave them four potential dates when he could fly out for an interview-- Monday, Nov. 12, as his first pick. Turns out they were able to schedule an interview for him on Monday and he flew to Mountain View, CA Sunday afternoon. Here is a map of where Mountain View is located (it's right near San Jose), because quite frankly I would have no idea if I didn't look on a map! (Hint: Click on the minus sign to zoom out)


View Larger Map

He had four one-hour grueling interviews on Monday and then flew back Monday night to Salt Lake City. Of course, he impressed the interviewers so much his recruiter called him back today and extended him an offer to intern there this summer! It pays a little bit more than what Amazon.com was offering with practically the same benefits and it is SO much closer to both our families, which was one thing we realized last summer was important to us. Mountain View is about 5 1/2 hours driving from Trevor's parents and 11 hours to my parents.

So what would Trevor be doing this summer you ask? Well, he would be working with the PowerPoint team (about 26 programmers total) and they said he would be working on real projects (things people actually see). He also said the Microsoft campus there is really nice. While I can only imagine how incredibly expensive it would be to live there, I think this summer will give us a good indication of whether or not it might be a place we want to end up. With Apple, Google, AOL, Firefox, VeriSign, and Yahoo being right in the neighborhood, there are lots of possibilities for work.

So now we just have to pray about it and make the decision before Friday. I just think this is so awesome and I am so proud of him!