Justin & Katie

Our New Blog

2010-05-06T17:42:00.000-06:00

Everyone - for the time being you can find new posts at: http://blog.hopeforababy.org

All posts on the new site are guaranteed to be just as good as these ones were... and we're giving away even more prizes.

No workey.

2009-09-08T16:25:00.002-06:00

For those of you who are unaware, we unfortunately caught the short end of the stick on our IVF cycle. No pregnancy and no babies - just a bunch of doctor visits, daily shots, and good ol' fashioned American cash down the tubes (no pun intended).

The truth is it's absolutely devastating. It's exhausting - physically and emotionally for both husband and wife. It consumes you - day in and day out - it's all you think about - both work schedules and intimate lives are governed by alarm clock reminders for shots and doctor visits. Money is no object - you shell it out daily like you own the US Mint, being a crack or meth addict would be far cheaper I'm sure.

I wish I could somehow describe it. Those of you who have been through it can understand. The good news is that we can temporarily take a break and lift our heads out of the drowning sea of infertility to briefly catch a breath of air. We'll likely begin our next IVF cycle in a few months, depending on how Kate's body recovers from the recent overload of medications and hormones.

Here's a quick rundown of how the whole thing played out: We started out with a 60%+ chance of getting pregnant (based on my sperm being awesome and Katie being a young skinny white girl). By the time the embryos were transferred we were looking at a 45% take home baby rate (due to the poor quality of the embryos). Wow. 45%. Seriously? That's not even good enough for an "F" in high school. I could flip a coin or blindly throw a dart at a wall full of balloons at the county fair and have better odds. I swear you should be able to buy a higher percentage than that - unfortunately, infertility is one thing that money cannot buy or fix. Anyway, we transferred two embryos then went on 4 days of bed rest and prayed for the best. Even though I looked at and talked to the embryos daily (through Kate's belly button) they didn't stick. And that's pretty much it.

Here are a couple of highlights from our first IVF cycle:

1. I got to draw awesome tatoos on Kate's behind a couple of times a week as a reminder of where to give her the shots.
2. Katie drew tattoos on my behind so we could match.
3. We got pictures of our embryos.
4. I fertilized 15 hamster eggs.
5. Kate got to take some Valium.
6. We got to eat at Cafe Rio after the bed rest.
7. I got to talk to our babies every day through Kate's belly button - apparently they weren't listening most of the time.
8. Katie was pregnant with twins for at least 15 minutes.
9. Kate got to experience hot flashes every night because of the meds - our house was like an igloo and she thought we were in the Sahara desert.
10. Our sharps container is nearly full.
11. We shared with the doctors a great view of Kate's uterus and other reproductive organs on a regular basis.

Thanks to all of our family and friends - we appreciate your prayers on our behalf. So, we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for better results next time!

PS - If you comment and guess the exact answer to the poll on the right you will get an awesome prize. Jen Cheney - you are responsible to send the prize.

How would you like your eggs? Spermbled please.

2009-08-10T22:06:00.006-06:00

Most of you are probably wondering where the heck we've been. Well, to be completely honest with you we've been mostly at the doctor. What would we be doing at the doctor you ask? We've been learning all about sperm, eggs, ovaries, follicles, tubes, and the reproductive system in general.

In fact, we have pretty much become experts on the subject. If any of you would like a free lesson on infertility feel free to come over to our house and I'll teach you all about it. In fact, I'll even fire up the grill, cook you up a steak, pour you a glass of lemonade, and we'll make an evening out of it.

You see, after trying to get pregnant for over 3 years we have started the process of invitro fertilization. For those of you who are wondering what the heck that means I'll briefly explain - you see, the doctors are going to take some eggs out of Kate, then they'll take my sperm (well, I'll give it to them), then they'll scramble the sperm and eggs in a lab (resulting in Spermbled Eggs*) then put the embryos inside of Kate and hope for the best.

A lot of you are probably thinking to yourselves "Wow. Isn't there something else they can do besides IVF**?" Well, over the past couple of years we've done all sorts of examinations, medications, inseminations***, shots, pokeys, prodees, testees (no pun intended), and everything else. So, here we are, riding the emotional roller coaster of IVF. We're excited and nervous - learning the true meaning of faith, hope and especially patience.

If all goes as planned, the embryos (or spermbled eggs) will be placed in Kate's uterus during the last week of August. Until then it's 3 shots a day for Kate and a few pills a day for me. I'll admit, it's not the most romantic way to make a baby, but at this point we've got no other choice.

Well, we know that we haven't really told anyone about this stuff, so a lot of you probably have questions for us. We also know that sometimes it seems awkward to ask questions for fear of becoming too personal. At this point nothing is too personal anymore, so if any of you have questions feel free to post them in the comments and we'll answer them. If you don't have questions and you want to comment on something else that's awesome, that's ok too (just make sure it's good - no stupid comments please). Or, if you just want to come over for some steak and a glass of lemonade, that's fine too.

Also, we will give you a prize if you answer the question on our poll correctly.****

*Spermbled Eggs is a completely fake term that I made up. If you actually thought it was a real term from the doctors then you really should take me up on that offer to come over and have a glass of lemonade and that free lesson on infertility.

**IVF stands for Invitro Fertilization for those of you who might not be very good at acronyms.

***Inseminations are awesome. For any of you guys out there who might be embarrassed about it I can tell you that after you do it a bunch of times it becomes second nature. I'm totally a pro at it - if you want details you're going to have to take me up on the offer for the steak and lemonade.

****We may or may not actually give you a prize, participate at your own risk.

The Best Summer Ever

2008-06-22T18:00:00.008-06:00

After a nice long vacation from our blogging activities, we have decided to return and change our image for summer - one of our four favorite seasons.

So far this summer, we have made the most of our free time. We visited Moab with Brett and Whittney where we went on some awesome hikes, saw some really cool waterfalls, and ate some dang good food. Then we went to Logan Canyon with the Crockett parents. We hiked to the wind caves, had a few campfires, and ate dutch oven meals. Yesterday Justin and his band played at South Jordan's Country Fest and opened for Darryl Worley-who, in case you are wondering, is a great guy and he deserves your money. So go out and buy some of his compact discs - or download his music from itunes, or however the heck you purchase your music. It was a fun concert and we even got to see a fireworks show afterward. We have a ton of pictures and are going to post some for you to enjoy.

Also, here are a few things that we are going to do this summer. If you want to participate in any of the activities below you are welcome to do so...

1. Buy beach cruiser bicycles (with baskets on the front) and take them on picnics.
2. Buy peanuts at Wal-Mart and go to Salt Lake Bees games on Monday nights (admission: 3 bucks).
3. Hike Zion National Park.
4. Fix "Pearl Harbor" (our boat) and take it out on the lake every single weekend.
5. Go camping and/or hiking a bunch of times.

Finally, everyone is invited to attend the concerts this summer and hang out with Katie because she gets bored being the only girl that hangs out with the band. If you want to see when and where we will be playing you can check it out here: http://joshevertsen.com/events.php

Check the website often because it will get updated when new gigs are booked.

Volunteers Needed.

2008-04-23T21:44:00.001-06:00

On Saturday, May 10 we are going to need a total of 21 volunteers. If you don’t volunteer we will pick you and you won’t have a choice (just like the prayers at church) so it’s in your best interest to volunteer. We will need a photographer, 2 bandagers, 10 water-bottle-hander-outers, 4 personal trainers, 2 massage therapists, and 2 people who can dump a big thing of Gatorade on us. Why all of the hoop-a-lah? Because we’re running the 5k Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure.” That’s right, we’re racing for the cure. Not the English rock band “The Cure,” but the pink-bracelet-breast-cancer “The Cure.”

As some of you may already know, the 5k is the third longest race in the world (the first longest is the marathon, the second longest is the 10k)… so needless to say this is a big deal. However, we’ve already started training so you don’t need to worry.

Now, listen up you who are going to volunteer - here are your assignments:

Bandagers – you need to properly wrap us to prevent chaffing (refer to the ‘Fun Run’ episode of The Office).

Water-bottle-hander-outers – there are 10 of you, that’s 2 per k in the 5k… so do the math and figure out where you need to be to get us the water we will need. Also, you can fill some of the water bottles with coca-cola classic and we won’t get mad at you.

Personal Trainers – your job is to make sure we properly stretch our major muscle groups before the race… with that in mind, we’ll need you to show up a few hours early.

Massagers – self explanatory. We’re going to need massages after the race, so bring your portable massage tables and oils to the finish line.

Gatorade Dumpers – we need you to dump a big thing of Gatorade on us when we cross the finish line.

Photographer – we want pictures of everything, so whoever ends up volunteering for this better be experienced.

Finally, we have a race website… http://www.active.com/donate/komenslc2008/kslcJGOUGH so if you don’t volunteer to help us you are required to donate cold hard cash to the cure (via the website). Have a great week everyone, we’ll keep you posted as we continue our training and prepare for the race.

BAM! right in the face

2008-04-02T21:46:00.011-06:00

Just when you all though we would never write in this blog again – SHAZAAAMMMM!!!! We knock you right in the face with another awesome entry. Now, let’s get down to business – first of all we would like to thank all of you for your heart-felt requests for us to update our blog. Since our last entry we’ve had 6,784,902 requests for a blog update (2 of those requests came from our dear friend Atom). For those of you who don’t know Atom you are missing out – Atom is president of the “Cool People Who Have Cool Cousins Club” (aka CPWHCCC).* Not only is he freaking awesome but he also won a sweet flat panel TV from a sweepstakes. Anyone who wins a sweepstakes automatically gets spotlighted on our blog.**

Ok now for our second item of business – a lot of you still owe us money. Several weeks ago we started charging people to read our blog and we only got payment from about half of you (you non-payers know who you are, so stop being wimps and pay up – everyone else is paying their fair share and so should you).

And now we will gracefully whop each and every one of you upside the head with this week’s mandatory blog-tivity:

Which one of these people did Katie have a crush on when she was in 2nd grade?

1. Neil Patrick Harris
2. Richard Dean Anderson
3. Dave Coulier
4. Jaleel White

We have a prize for anyone who gets the answer right (this is a medium-good prize).

For those of you who have been half-heartedly reading this entry and not really paying attention (in the same manner you read your scriptures when it’s late at night) now is the time to start paying attention. SUMMER IS STARTING AND WE ARE HAVING A SUMMERTIME-KICKOFF-ROCK-CONCERT-BBQ-SNOWCONE-OTTERPOP-SLIPNSLIDE PARTY TO KICK IT OFF. We will have a fire pit, marshmallow roasting, rotisserie pork, rock-n-roll music, and other cool stuff at the party. Everyone who is not a total dork will be there – so you better get ready. And you better pay attention because we might have it at your house.

Finally, we would like to comment on your comments. In our last blog entry, we thanked you for the comments you were about to leave (see the second-to-last sentence) – well, my peeps, 11 is not going to cut it. We demand more. So, with that in mind we are offering a special prize for everyone who leaves a comment if we get more than 20 comments. And the prizes are good – they’re not stupid waffle irons and other wedding junk like we’ve given out to past prize-winners. These prizes are dang awesome so you better get to commenting.***

* This club is fake – it doesn’t even exist. If it ever becomes a real club and you want to be a part of it then you have to ask Atom because he automatically gets to be President of it if he wants.

**You may or may not actually get spotlighted. If you win the Ed McMahon Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes you have a better chance of being spotlighted than if you win something dumb.

*** You’re probably only going to get one prize at a time, so don’t waste a bunch of time trying to win every single thing on our blog – you should focus on one prize and try your hardest until you win it. Then if you have time to try for another prize you can go ahead and try to get more than one prize.

Pesos and Vacations

2008-02-18T20:14:00.004-07:00

For those of you who left comments on our last post and are still waiting for your five bucks, we have news for you. First of all, the processing time for your payment is 6 to 8 weeks - second, after returning from Mexico we have decided to pay each of you five pesos instead of five dollars. Because we realize most of you probably don't know what the heck you can do with five pesos, you can choose one of the options below:

1. You can team up with two other people (who also left comments and earned five pesos each) and you can split a double cheeseburger from McDonalds between the three of you.
2. If you don't like sharing, you can purchase approximately 8 Swedish Fish (and eat them up all by yourself).

Ok, here is this week's blog-tivity.

While we were on our cruise, we purchased a Breitling 'Bently Motors Special Edition' watch chuck full of bling that retails for approximately $6,500. Whoever leaves a comment and guesses the actual amount we spent on the watch (in pesos) will get a special prize.

If you didn't like that blog-tivity, you can choose to participate in this one:

When we went to Sea World, we purchased the following items:
1. a cab ride from the ship dock to Sea World (approximately 6 miles).
2. a Shamu souvenir cup full of watered down lemonade.
3. one bag of pink and blue cotton candy.
4. a small bottle of sunscreen.
5. a turkey sandwich, a mountain dew, and a gross pretzel from the Anheuser-Busch company for lunch.
6. one more cab ride back to the ship dock.

Whoever can guess the total cost of all of these items (in pesos) will win a prize.

We were going to bring you all back souvenirs from our cruise but we didn't.

It was a great trip-seven days of carefree (not cost-free) living. We flew to LA, boarded a ship, ate, walked, ate, slept, ate, spent money, ate, saw some animals, ate, went on a glass bottom boat tour, ate, got off the ship, drove, shopped, slept, and ate a little bit more. As you can tell, we are both in much need of a diet. Or two.

Now it's back to the grind-we've got to hurry to plan our next trip so we'll end this now. Thank you in advance for the wonderful comments you are about to leave.

See you later, Amigos!

5 Bucks if You Leave a Comment

2008-01-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

First of all, thanks to everyone for paying up after reading our last post - we raked in a total of 220 smackers. Unfortunately only 3 people made comments - BORING. For the three of you who left comments we have prizes for you - and they're dang good - so come over and pick them up at your leisure.

Ok - now we are required by Katie to write about something cool that has happened in our life. So here it is - we went to the car show this week and we purchased "the world's most absorbent chamois." These babies are sweet - they can hold up to 3 gallons of liquid and they are guaranteed for life.*

Since our last post we also purchased an additional dance pad for Dance Dance Revolution and we have dance-offs (more commonly known as "Dance Offs Pants Offs") every Wednesday night at our house.**

Now for the good stuff - we've decided to start paying people to leave comments on our blog. So, with that in mind we are going to pay everyone who leaves a comment on this post $5. No catches, no gimmicks, no kidding - we'll pay you $5 if you leave a comment.***

Finally, if you leave a comment that is really cool we will bring you back a souvenir from our cruise that we're going on in a few weeks.****

So there you have it - comment about whatever you'd like - but make it good. God speed.

* Does not actually hold 3 gallons of anything and is not guaranteed for life.
** Actual dates and times for Dance Offs Pants Offs may change without notice.
*** Your comment has to be good or it doesn't count.
**** We reserve the right to not bring you back anything at all if we don't feel like it.

blogging for extra cash

2008-01-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to both of our families for the great Christmas this year. We had an awesome time having sleepovers, taking family pictures, eating, going to concerts, and just spending time together. It was a lot of fun and we are already excited for next year! We got an very nice freezer (which we've since filled with frozen goods from Costco), an amazing Blendtec (which really does blend anything - in fact, we even blended our old blender), and a dang cool firepit for our out of doors BBQs.

We also just celebrated our second anniversary-time flies when you're having fun like we are!

Now, down to business - basically we didn't make any money off our blog last year so we're going to start charging people to read this. If you've read this much you owe us five bucks. If you continue to read this and get to the end you will owe us even more dough. So you decide what you want to do - but you better be ready to fork it over.

Here's a list of what we gave each other for Christmas:

1. A 10 night Asian cruise (Kate gave to Justin)
2. A new 2008 Range Rover (Justin gave to Kate)
3. 40 acres of land near Brian Head for our new cabin (Justin gave to Kate)
4. A new parking slip in Nassau for our boat (Kate gave to Justin)
5. New wakeboards (we gave to each other)
6. New skis (we gave to each other)
7. New snowboards (we gave to each other)
8. New drums (Kate gave to Justin)
9. A new piano (Justin gave to Kate)
10. New slippers (Justin gave to Kate)

If you read that list you owe us fifteen bucks.

Now, we're going to spotlight someone in our blog. This is a new year's revolution for us and we are going to spotlight someone new in each blog entry. If we spotlight you, you owe us fifty bucks.

This week's spotlight is: Mom and Dad (Crockett and Gough). Pay up.

Finally, we will be having a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) praty (that's right - praty, not party) at our house. Everyone is invited - except for some of you - and you know who you are. If you come to the DDR praty you better be prepared to dance against Kate in the final round because she is dang good. She can dance on expert on every single song and get A's. And if you read that you owe us ten more bucks.

For those of you who are still reading, you each owe us a total of thirty dollars -- unless you are Mom and Dad - then you owe us eighty bucks (each). That new Range Rover didn't pay for itself, so cough it up.

Waffle Irons and M & M's for Prizes

2007-12-14T21:06:00.001-07:00

Bob-B-Q Recap

For those of you who weren't allowed into the Bob-B-Q because you don't know Uncle Bob we are providing a quick re-cap of the evenings events. For those of you who do know Uncle Bob and didn't come there is no excuse so you're not allowed to read the rest of this post.

Doubles Tennis:

First Place: Justin and Tyler
Second Place: Tanner and Hannah
Third Place: Gary and Leslie
Last Place: Todd and Aubree

Highlights and Prizes: Justin and Tyler pretty much dominated the entire event and nobody else even stood a chance against them. The grand prize was a bag of delicious smelling potpourri, which went to Tyler. The losers got complimentary blue and white M & M's that read "Katie and Justin January 4, 2006." For those of you who came to our wedding you probably know what we're talking about.

Boxing:

First Place: Kevin*
Second Place: Drew
Third Place: Tyler
Fourth Place: Kristin
Fifth Place: Uncle Bob
Sixth Place: Hannah
Seventh Place: Todd
Last Place: Tanner

*via proxy

Highlights and Prizes: Kevin took Uncle Bob out in Round 1. After handing the K.O. to Uncle Bob, Kevin was too pooped to continue so he had to chose Proxy Boxers to fight for him in rounds 2 and 3. Justin boxed for Kevin in round 2 and Tanner was chosen to be the Proxy in round 3. This means that Tanner (acting as a proxy for Kevin) beat Drew for first place - but if you look closely you will see that Tanner got knocked out in Round 1 and he actually got last place. This here is boxing history folks, Tanner somehow managed to get first and last place at the same time. Kevin's prize for winning the event was a brand spankin' new waffle iron. The losers of boxing also got complimentary "Katie and Justin January 4, 2006" M & M's.

Other Prizes

1. Our friend Joe is the ultimate champion of Super Mario Bros. He knows where every single secret box is and he can beat the entire game. We even watched him jump over the flag pole. Just so everyone knows he got a waffle iron for a prize for being the champion of Super Mario Bros.

2. We are going to choose a random commentor on this week's post to give a dang awesome prize - and we're all out of waffle irons so it won't be one of those.

Be There Or Be Bob.

2007-12-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

First of all for those of you who may have forgotten, this weekend - December 7th - is the long awaited Bob-B-Q. We just wanted to give everyone a small taste of what they can expect to find at the event.

1. Shish-ka-Bobs
2. Bob Saget
3. Bobbing for Apples
4. Bob-wire (1996, Starring Pamela Anderson)
5. Bob-Sledding (Seriously, bring your snow clothes - we made a course in our backyard just for the event)
6. Bob Barker
7. Rhu-Bob Pie
8. Bob Marley
9. What about Bob? (1991, Starring Bill Murray)
10. Bob Cahoon

Dress Attire:
All of the girls are required to wear Bobbie pins. Boys should wear a t-shirt featuring their favorite Bob (Bob Dylan, etc.).

Second, we are proud to annouce the arrival of our new tree. Chris P (or Krispy). The Chris is for Christmas and the P is for Pokey. He's a great tree and anyone who comes over to see him will get a dang nice prize.

Third, we made a sweet bob-sledding track in our backyard with all of the fresh snow that fell yesterday. Anyone who goes down it (we will provide the sled) will get a cool prize.

PS. If you guys dont start leaving more comments on our blog we're going to stop giving out prizes. Only five people left comments on our last post - we've seen blogs that are way stupider than ours get more comments than that - so step it up if you want us to keep giving out awesome prizes. If we get 20 comments before the Bob-B-Q (from different people) we will post a video of Katie sledding down the Bob-sled track in our backyard on the internet for everyone to enjoy.

The First Annual Bob-B-Q

2007-11-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, here are this week's prizes:

1. We have a prize for anyone who can tell us what the heck a zamboni does and how it works.

2. We also have a prize for anyone who can tell us why anyone in their right mind would wait in line for over two and a half hours to eat at at the cheesecake factory.

3. Finally, the grand prize goes to anyone who will come pick it up. We have offered prizes for the past 3 blog entries and nobody has come to pick them up. Our house is quickly filling up with unclaimed prizes and we won't have space for any more prizes until people start picking up their stuff. Besides, our house is cool and we do awesome stuff all the time so you should come visit us anyway.

Second of all, the much anticipated Bob-B-Q will be held at our house on Friday, December 7, 2007. The Bob-B-Q is for Uncle Bob (Cahoon). If you don't know Bob you aren't allowed to come so just stop reading this blog post. If you do know Bob, you are required to come to our house on the 7th and have some dang good BBQ. We will probably play Guitar Hero and do lots of other cool stuff too. As a side note, Uncle Bob has not RSVP'd for the Bob-B-Q so if any of you see or talk to him tell him he better be there - if he can't make it for some reason, the event will be re-scheduled.

The PT Deer Killer

2007-11-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Due to the large number of miles that we have been (and will be) traveling we have decided to rent a car. Circumstances beyond our control lead the car rental company (who shall not remain nameless - enterprise rent-a-car), provided us with the stupidest car ever invented - a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Because we will be traveling through Wyoming where the wildlife run rampant and because our chances of encountering a deer while traveling are pretty darn good, we have nicknamed the car "The PT Deer Killer."

The following is a list of the top 5 experiences we have had with the vehicle thus far:

1. While traveling on I-90 westbound somewhere between Billings and Butte Montana, we gracefully plowed over a huge deer. Just kidding. We actually hit a wild hubcap lost by some poor soul traveling on I-90 eastbound. So, the car will now be called "The PT Hubcap Demolisher."
2. We smashed a Keystone Light beer can somewhere in Idaho Falls and it didn't even hurt the car.
3. After riding in the car for upwards of 18 hours, it was discovered that the hump between the two rear seats is actually the softest seat in the entire car.
4. We found a 100 oz. beverage holder available for 799 cents at the Maverick store. We bought the mug and there is a cup holder in the PT Deer Killer that is actually big enough to hold the mug. Just kidding again (about the cup holder in the Deer Killer, not about the 100 oz beverage holder).
5. We attempted to sneak out of the regional center parking lot after stake conference without being seen in the Deer Killer, only to come face to face with our friend Cody who was directing traffic. He definitely doesn't think we are as cool as we were when we sat next to him during the meeting. We managed to save ourselves by sending a text message to his wife with an explanation. Needless to say, now Cody and Linzy think we are the coolest people ever.

Finally, we will name our 5 favorite features of the PT Deer Killer.

1. The blasted window roller-uppers and -downers are nowhere near the windows.
2. It is scientifically proven to be the loudest car that money can buy.
3. In this day of advanced technology, somehow Chrysler managed to forget to put cruise control in the PT Deer Killer.
4. When riding in the PT Deer Killer, you are guaranteed to feel like you are going through a midlife crisis.
5. It's stupid.

Blog bonus question: If anyone can tell us what the PT stands for in "PT Cruiser" we will give you a special prize.

Happy Halloweeeeen

2007-10-28T14:40:00.000-06:00

Hi again everyone. Let's cut to the chase - not everyone who has been reading our blog has been leaving comments. For those of you (bless your hearts) who have been leaving comments, we have a special prize for you that you can pick up at our house. For those of you who have not been leaving comments, we encourage you to repent and start commenting so you too can pick up your special prize. So if you read this and don't leave a comment we might call the internet police on you. Also, Kate's older brother Jacob is a lawyer and he knows how to sue - so you better start posting comments.

We had our Halloween party here on Friday. As promised last week, we dressed up as the best suggestion from the comments you posted. The winner was Kristin - she recommended that Justin be Pamela Anderson and that Katie be Kid Rock.

The picture is a bit frightening, but you get the idea. You can't see it well, but Justin is wearing a super-short miniskirt and some leggings - needless to say, it was pretty hot!?! At the party we watched the Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side of the Moon, had a donuts on a string contest, bobbed for apples, and ate some good pizza. The house was decked out in black plastic, spider webs, black lights, and a smoke machine but it was too dark to take pictures so you'll have to imagine how cool it looked.

Finally, we would like to comment on the results of last week's poll. When we asked 'which is cooler' there was a two-way tie between mechanical pencils and jet planes. The tie goes to whichever is more portable - so mechanical pencils are the winner. Don't forget to participate in this week's poll.

Our Loudest Post Yet

2007-10-21T12:50:00.000-06:00

Today is our brother (and brother-in-law) Jacob's birthday. Katie's brother Jake, not Justin's. So Happy Birthday!

We decided that we have now left you in enough suspense in the week since our last (and first) post. We just got home from our weekly religious meeting and we were noticing how extremely, unbelievably, ridiculously loud it was. Just imagine a jet engine, a speeding locomotive, a cruise ship horn, and the 1997 Blink 182 concert at 'Bricks' in Salt Lake City all jammed together in a room the size of a coat closet. That's only 1/100th of how loud it was in our sacrament meeting today - and it was only slightly quieter in the other two meetings. We don't think the other people in the meeting (the owners of the noise makers) realize how loud their children really are. There was a kid today crying at the top of his lungs in a high, window-shattering scream that didn't get taken out. They just let him cry while the rest of us tried to read the lips of the person speaking. Luckily the speaker was familiar with ASL so we just watched as he signed the rest of his sermon. We might just have to have a kid so we can pay attention to something besides everybody else's screaming babies.

We just finished a busy but fun week. It included going to Brettney's house where we had some delightful pizza and the best dessert this side of the Mississippi - pizookies! If you don't know what a pizookie is you should ask Whittney because she is really good at making them. While we were there we also watched Planet Earth (the BBC version) which is definitely worth your while if you have never seen it. The next night we were lucky enough to go to dinner with Kristin and Tanner. The best part of the night was watching them box each other on the Wii - we almost had to carry Tanner out on a stretcher.

The "Blog-tivity" (required for all readers of this blog) is to tell Justin and Katie what their costumes should be at the Halloween party that is this Friday at our house. We will both dress up as the best idea. Anybody that wants to attend is welcome - it will be all of Justin's friends and their wives and kids, so if that sounds fun we would love to have you. There will be food, decorations, and scary music to set the mood for the holiday.

First Things First

2007-10-13T17:37:00.000-06:00

The purpose of the first post in our blog is two-fold.

First, we would like to let everyone know how to say our last name. It sounds like goff -not go (as in Van Gogh) or gew or gouge, or any other crazy combination of consonants and vowels.

Second, we are requiring everyone to read this before they read any additional posts in our blog. We are doing this as a public service because it is estimated that up to 99.8% of 'bloggers' out there don't even know what the heck the term blog stands for, where blogs came from, or how they got started. With that in mind, click here to find a definition of and a brief (not as in underwear) history of blogging. You'll be tested afterwards and only people who pass the test can read our blog -- if you don't pass the test and you try to read our blog, we'll call the internet police on you.

The questions are:

1. The term 'blog' is short for what?
2. In what year did 'blogging' start and why?
3. When did 'blogging' become popular?
4. True or False: Justin and Katie are AWESOME.