So Mindy and I went in for the first official ultrasound today. We were quite surprised to see our little spec turn into an active little iddy-bitty baby. It was moving around a lot, and at one point we even saw it waving at us!

We found out that Mindy is pregnant around the 5th of December, and we waited to let people know until after Christmas, when we officially broke the news to the family. We still haven't told very many people, but now that we have some pictures to show off we think it's about time.

With all of the movement we saw during the ultrasound, we decided to nickname our baby "Weebl" after the genius Weebl and Bob.

This summer semester, I took a single class--managerial accounting. It was a good class, and I learned a lot, but it took a lot of time. When I began reviewing everything for the final exam, I was surprised at how much I had _forgotten_ over the course of the semester. The more I studied, the more nervous I became.

Anyway, at some point this morning I decided I was comfortable with my understanding of the course material and decided to stop studying. Not too long after that I found myself in the testing center staring blankly at the exam questions. Most of the questions were relatively familiar, but all of the recent studying just confused me so I wasn't sure if I was doing anything right.

It took me just over an hour to finish less than 50 questions, but by that time I had had enough and just wanted to get out. Usually I will spend a few minutes reviewing my answers to the questions, but not this time. I just stood up, stuffed my pencil into my pocket, cleared my desk, and turned in the exam.

I looked at the monitor just outside the testing center, both excited and dreadful of learning how I had performed. I have to say that I'm quite satisfied with my score--89%. I can't ask for much more than that!!

After I finished that, Mindy and I drove straight over to the "black market" of university bookstores--you know, the little car at the end of the parking lots with big signs that say, "WE BUY TEXTBOOKS" in big print. Yeah, those guys. Anyway, Mindy and I decided that we wouldn't be using any of our textbooks from this semester (and several from previous semesters) ever again, so we decided to get some money back. We brought in $81 off of 9 textbooks! Not too bad considering that we probably wouldn't get that much from the university bookstore if they would accept our books back in the first place.

And now I'm free. Relatively.

So I woke up yesterday morning with what I thought was plenty of time before I had to get ready for church. I woke up, looking at the alarm clock, thinking that I had at least 4 hours to spare. Mindy was sound asleep, so I just pulled out my laptop and checked my email and surfed the web for a bit.

Before I knew it, my alarm clock said "10:22" and I figured it was about time to get ready for the day. That same moment, I looked at the clock on my laptop. It said "11:24". I had an appointment at noon. I was very confused... I looked at my alarm clock. I looked at the clock on my laptop. I looked at my alarm clock. I looked at the clock on my laptop. I looked outside. I looked at Mindy. I looked at the alarm clock and scratched my head. Then I checked my cell phone. It agreed with my laptop. What the... Did Mindy intentionally set the clock to be an hour behind so she could get more sleep? I was soooo confused.

I called the bloke I had an appointment with. He enlightened me by telling me that daylight savings time had taken effect. What the heck. Isn't that normally in April?

I have a big problem with daylight savings time. Those folks in Arizona have it right. There's absolutely no logical reason in my mind for jumping ahead of falling back an hour. If people are so concerned about having more daylight, why not just jump ahead 30 minutes or fall back 30 minutes and call it good for the rest of eternity??? That way we wouldn't be losing or gaining (as much as I do like that part) an hour just when we get used to the schedule. We'd always have a balance, because we'd be right in the middle. Bunch of crackheads.

Give me back my hour (or at least half hour) of sleep!!!

I'm not one to celebrate very many of the "lesser" holidays. These include things like St. Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, and Valentine's Day. I've always just found these holidays to be an excuse for people to be weird and get drunk. I am weird just about every day of the year, so I don't require holidays to provide an excuse for me. Valentines always seemed like one of the most cheesy holidays to me. Today I decided to have a different opinion of it.

I woke up this morning, and my beautiful wife had gotten out of bed early to strategically place all sorts of little goodies all around the apartment. I'll spare you the juicy details, but suffice it to say that it really helped me appreciate what others see in this holiday. My wife took the time and effort to do something just to make me feel special and loved (which is by no means a new thing). If only I could make her as happy as she makes me....

Perhaps I just had too many bitter experiences as a kid growing up. Maybe I didn't get as many Valentine's Day cards. I don't know what it was that prompted me to dislike Valentine's Day. Whatever it was, my perfect wife just changed my perspective forever.

I love you Mindy!!!

Yeah... this is what usually happens when I start a new blog. I just get into a certain routine after having the blog for a while. Things don't seem interesting enough to write about them after a while.

Anyway, this past weekend I took Mindy with me down to Provo, UT to see my sister and her little guy friend. We left Rexburg around 11AM and headed down the roads in my non-air-conditioned Civic. Mindy wanted to stop by one of her friends' pad in Ogden for a bit, so we did. After we left there, the traffic down to Provo was horrible. I think we rolled up to my sister's apartment around 5:30 or 6. As we were waiting for Paul, my sister's guy friend, to get home from work, we watched Nanny McPhee or something like that. Interesting movie, I must say.

Once Paul returned home, we had a nice little barbeque and then went inside to watch a movie. I only slept 4 hours the night before, so I was pretty tired (especially after driving for that long in that heat and in that traffic). I was trying to stay awake, but Mindy gave me permission to go to sleep. About 10 seconds later I was out for the count. I woke up when the movie finished. Brandi and Paul left to go on a walk (it was about midnight at this time) whilst Mindy and I just cuddled.

Eventually, Paul and Brandi came back and we all walked over to my sister's pad to drop off Mindy and my sister. I went back to Paul's place and crashed on his couch...this was about 2AM. Around 8 o'clock, I woke up, took a shower, and headed on over to my car. I cleaned it out a bit, listened to a little music, and played some guitar. I think it was about 9:30 or so when my sister came outside. I called her over and she said that Mindy was awake. My sister told Mindy that I was in the car, so she came out. We drove around for a while, trying to find some place that sounded appetizing to get some grub. In the end, we settled on Denny's. We had a fabulous breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns. mmmmmm....

When we hopped back into the car, Mindy called her mom to chat for a bit. Apparently the folks we visited in Ogden called Mindy's mom right after we left. It appears that they like me. hehe.. Then Mindy's mom asked if Mindy had met my sister yet. That's when things got interesting. Mindy said something like, "Actually, no (I didn't meet her). You love me, right mom? You're not going to get mad at me, are you?" "Mindy... What did you do?" "We went down to Vegas instead." "Mindy! Did you elope?!" hehe.. Mindy played around a bit more, but eventually gave in. It was absolutely hilarious. Keep in mind that all of this happened AFTER Mindy's mom had just talked about how much the folks in Ogden raved about me. hah... fantastic. Later on, Mindy told me that her mom played the same trick on her grandpa. I think he was prepared to come out after me and kick my trash. At least before Mindy's mom told him that it was just a joke, that is.

After breakfast we all went to a little river thingy and dinked around a bit. I thought it was fun. We also went to the mall before coming back. I was looking into getting some sandals because I am sick and tired of wearing shoes all the time. I left my most favorite sandals in Romania. I had been using them for like 7 or 8 years, it seems. Maybe even longer. Anyway, we headed back up to Rexburg after hitting up the mall. The drive back up was much more pleasant--it only took 4 hours to get back.

And life as usual resumed.

Yesterday Mindy and I went to check out the Teton dam since it began to rain. We had previously planned on playing a game called trackball, but I don't think it would have been any fun at all if it were raining the whole time. Mindy had never been to the Teton dam before, so I figured it might be a good activity.

I was surprised to find out that my little Honda Civic could make it all the way down to the bottom and then back up the steep road that goes down to the bottom of the valley. Mindy and I just played around near the water for a while, skipping stones and talking... Eventually we decided that it was time to go back to Rexburg.

We stopped by Jamba Juice to get some tasty beverages, after which we went up to Mindy's place to get the trackball game. The rain had cleared out pretty well, and the sun started to shine again. We finally got to play trackball. heh... so yeah, we walked on down to the park where we wanted to play.

Right as we entered the park, we saw a couple laying on a blanket having what seemed to be a very enjoyable time together. Both Mindy and I just thought, "GET A ROOM!!!" Anyhow, we sat under a tree not too far away from them to enjoy the company and the beverages. At a certain point in time, we both looked over at the couple on the blanket. Come to find out that we're both quite familiar with the two individuals. We just laughed at them for a while and then took off to the other side of the park to play. I found it to be a rather humorous situation, personally.

Trackball is actually pretty fun, if you have the wind going the direction you have to throw anyway. Each player has a little whatchamacallit that looks like a lacrosse, only it has a much shorter handle. One player will lob a plastic ball towards another player, and they are to catch the ball in the whatchamacallit. The process continues indefinitely. It's great fun. I found that I'm not very good at the lobbing part, no matter which direction the wind is blowing. Mindy is pretty dang good at trackball, and I kinda feel bad that my nerdiness overpowers my physical activity now. hah

After playing trackball for a while, we found another pleasant tree to chill under. We talked about a lot of things. Life is absolutely beautiful with Mindy in my arms. Ahh..

Yesterday I was once again privileged to enjoy Mindy's company for a few hours. First, we met up for a religious meeting that is held each Tuesday on our campus. Afterwards, I walked her to her apartment so that she could change into more appropriate clothes for the following activity. I went to my place and changed as well and picked her up again. We stopped by the store to get some supplies and made our way out to "R" mountain.

"R" mountain is actually a butte (or something along those lines) with a huge white "R" painted on it (signifying "Rexburg" I suppose). It was quite a hike up there in the blistering heat, but we made it to the top. I feel bad, though, because Mindy isn't exactly the world's biggest fan of heights. That didn't even occur to me when I invited her to hike it with me. Blast.

Anyway, once we made it to the top, we had a nice little "picnic" of sorts. Then we just sat there for a while, enjoying the wonders of nature and each others' company. I feel like we had some pretty good conversations again. I really enjoyed spending the time with her.

The hike down was pretty interesting because it was rocky and slippery most of the way. Thankfully, we both made it down alive and we came back into Rexburg. I have been a bad influence on her the past few nights--I kept her out too late. She had some homework to take care of, and we both figured it would be a wise decision for her to do that instead of being a rebel with me. Pretty satisfying day in my opinion.

Ok, I have to say that I had suspicions of what I last posted about being a dream. Honestly! I was not quite sure that it had actually happened, since it's not exactly an everyday occurrence. Somehow it just seemed like one of those dreams that are so pleasant when you experience them but that are also just temporary. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a dream now, but there are still suspicions lingering (it all just seems too good to be true!)...

So last night, I had the opportunity to see Mindy again. At first, it appeared as though it was all my imagination driving me crazy. Nothing seemed to really be different than before the previous night's dream. Then we started talking a bit and we talked about a few things we had discussed the night before (or in the previous dream). That's what comforted me--that she was conscious of the evening before (perhaps it wasn't just in my head after all).

We went for a nice stroll again, and we ended up at the campus stadium. We hiked up to the very top and just chilled for a while. It was nice to be able to just chat as we did. She started to get shivers, so I started thinking of things that we could do to warm up a bit. Mindy loves to dance. It is her most favorite thing to do, according to another conversation that we had. With that in mind, I asked if she wanted to dance a bit. Heh...you should have seen the confused look on her face. It was classic! Anyway, when she saw that I was serious, she agreed to dance a bit. Now, you all have to understand that I do not know how to dance worth beans. Lucky for me, Mindy knows how and actually likes to teach people how to dance. I'm afraid I may be a lost cause though. Mindy tried to teach me how to do a simple waltz on top of the stadium...aahh brotha. Let me tell you... As simple as it may seem, it sure did confuse me. Perhaps I just need a little more practice (I hope).

Eventually the chilliness of the evening breeze became a bit too much, so we walked back to Mindy's place. Once there, we happened upon our good buddies Matt and Kara. They seemed to be having a jolly time together, but Mindy and I thought it more appropriate not to interrupt their bliss for too long, so we took off again. This time we went to a nice park thinger away from all of the city lights and looked at the stars until the cold became too much again. We got to see a fabulous shooting star or possibly even a meteor. That was Mindy's first time to see a shooting star, and it was probably the most amazing one I've ever seen. It was rather large and not exactly fast-moving. There wasn't a tail on it until after we both saw it. Then the tail grew to be pretty long until it all disappeared. It was fantastic!

That is about the time that we walked back to Mindy's pad and said good night. I also seem to remember setting up a time and place for us to meet a bit later today. I suppose that if Mindy is actually there then all of my suspicions of these experiences will be put to rest. I will then accept the idea that it's not just my whacky imagination playing sick and drawn-out tricks on my mind. For all I know I'm actually just dozing off at work right now and dreaming that I am writing all of this. Weird.

It appears that the dates that Matt and I went on with Kara and Mindy have good effects! Mindy was gone most of this past weekend at a wedding. She returned home last night and said that we (Matt and I) could come over and hang out if we wanted to. I figured that it would be good to give her a little bit of time to unwind after all the travelling she had been through, but she didn't seem to need it.

So we went over to their pad and right as the door opened and we stepped inside, Mindy comes up to me and hugs me! I was like, "Wow...that's cool. I can deal with that." It was a little unexpected but definitely welcomed. Anyway, we had some good times playing card games and making cookies and whatnot. They even let me use their 'scrumptious'-smelling soap that they bought from Bath and Body Works on our first date. Amazing.

The card games were getting a bit involved, so we decided to move it outdoors. Mindy's knees were bothering her from sitting down as long as she had been that day, so we went for a nice stroll around campus. I quite enjoyed it. Eventually, the others (Matt, Kara, Cyndra, and Athena) decided to join us in a pleasant walk, but we were devious and decided to go our own way.

Mindy and I took a nice walk in the gardens on campus and we found a nice spot to chill. We talked about a lot of things, but eventually we started talking about more serious matters. All I have to say about that to the world is, "Yes, I am a happy man." As we walked back to Mindy's place we had a nice, cosy chat. I repeat, "Yes, I am a happy man."

When I got home, I came across Matt at his computer. He seemed to be having a blast! He was chatting with Kara online and things seemed to be going well with them. Matt was a little confused when he decided to go back to our apartment, but his little conversation with Kara afterwards cleared things up quite a bit. I guess the actual condition of their relationship is still pending, but it's looking pretty good. I'm sure Matt would join me in proclaiming, "Yes, I am a happy man."

And this is what becomes of a surprise date for all but one involved. Grand, isn't it?

So, today we did a follow-up date. We hiked around up in the mountains around Kelly Canyon. It was super fun, I thought. I took a few more pictures while we were out there. It was fabulous!!