Interesting thought?

So nothing too eventful has happened to me yet this week, besides that I'm-packing-stuff-and-now-I-feel-nostalgic-and-I've-really-loved-living-here-for-two-years feeling, but here is one thought I am choosing to share. Last night Jeff commented on my news-hungriness in relation to the Crandall Canyon mine incident. I admit that in the early days after the collapse I was glued to cnn.com and news channels around 5 PM, but I insist that it is because I worked for the Mine Safety and Health Administration as an intern back in 2004. I know what headquarters deals with during such accidents and how proactive they are about making changes in safety after something like this happens. The former Asst. Secretary of Labor for MSHA, David Lauriski, even gave a brown-bag lunch talk about what his personal dealings were following the Quecreek mine accident in 2003 in PA. Jeff said he is more riveted by news stories that deal with entire nations, such as the current Cuban conundrum relating to Fidel Castro's whereabouts/condition/mortality. This is interesting to me also, but it is not something I check for updates on. It made me think - maybe this has to do with differences between me & Jeff, or between men and women in general, that we feel to gain more from certain news pieces depending on the scope of the story or how we can relate to it. I wonder if anyone else has experienced something like this. Let me know if you have, as I am curious. We are moving out on Thursday and moving in to our new place on Saturday, so we have a busy rest of the week ahead of us. I can't wait to "build" a place/corner for the baby boy once we're able to unpack! LABOR day will have new meaning this year...work, work, work!

Days of Dreaming, Done

So, I receive fulfillment in my life in very few ways. One of them is dreaming about how things would be if my dreams came to pass, if what I wished for and what I wanted was. One dream I have, one of my innermost desires, is to own a scooter. Every time I think about it, I get chills down my spine as I can feel the wind blowing in my face, as I feel the pressure of the throttle on my hands as I speed along at 20 MPH, and as I can feel my weight shift as I turn a corner. However, I don't own a scooter. The only way I can live this dream is to walk over to Aaron Wilkinson's scooter in my parking lot, and gaze at it. I touch it a little, giving it tender little pets, and I imagine how life would be if I, too, could own a scooter. These little episodes give me a sense of sanity and a feeling of fulfillment. However, it is all to end. The scooter is to be sold. My days of dreaming are over.

MY Blog

So, to solve the problem of my name not coming up first that I mentioned in my last post, I just created MY OWN blog, where "Jeff" and "Hoopes" are together in the title, not separated by "& Stacey". I wonder how long it takes Google to find these things so they show up on the search. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. So, here is my new blog: http://jeffhoopes.blogspot.com. It does not say anything, but should solve the problem. Last time I checked it, it already had two comments. Wow. Also, on this other blog, I called this one, among other things, an "utterly udderless" blog. So, just to meet Erin's rule about at least one picture per post, here is something that has gone against our past anti-udder policy.

Jeff Hoopes versus Stacey Hoopes

So, I have recently been interested in talking with some of the folks I knew back in high school. A couple of them I looked up online, and it was interesting to see some of the pictures of them I found. So, it made me decide to search for myself. I found very little. The 8th or so link was some wrestling brackets from back in high school, but a google search for "Jeff Hoopes" was not about me. Sad. So, in my saddened stuppor, I decided to search for my wife, "Stacey Hoopes". I thought to myself that I would find nothing, as she has only had that name for two short years. I have been named Jeff Hoopes for 24 years now, and the best I could do was be placed 8th on the list? So, my search for Stacey revealed the following: http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=%22stacey+hoopes%22 THE VERY FIRST LINK IS MY WIFE, INCLUDING HER PICTURE. Not only that, but, the second and third links are all about Stacey as well. So, I dont know what to do about that. I seem to be losing the web popularity battle to my wife. So, I started to get sad about that. But, in the end, I decided to let the ultimate decidor of web popularity decide who wins-- Google Fight. And, the winner is... http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Jeff+Hoopes&word2=Stacey+Hoopes

My real new hearing aids...

...are are coming later this week! As some of you know, I decided to take the other ones back due to some problems with the hearing aids and with the office. So, yesterday I went and had the impressions made for a different brand of hearing aid in the style of my old ones that I got my freshman year of high school. They will look like that picture above when I have them in. My ear is even prettier, though. You may wish to read up on the features of the Rexton Revera here.

Rappelling

So, for a while now myself and Aaron Wilkinson have been talking about doing some rappelling. Aaron is an avid and excellent rock climber (as well as a gentleman and a scholar), and he agreed to take me rappelling on Friday morning. It was really fun. We started by hiking/scrambling up to where we were to rappel from, a cliff up Rock Canyon. The scramble was exciting, exciting enough I opted to rope up for some of it. It was interesting, because we faced a cliff in front of us, and Aaron said we were going up it. He said I could rope up if I wanted. I wanted, so after some training, he grabbed the end of a rope and scurried up the rock, rope-less. Then, he threw an end down to me, and said to climb up, and that he had the other end of the rope under control if I fell. The problem was, was that I could not see Aaron. But, by faith, I scurried up the rock, and I didn't even die. Here is a short video of that first little rock we went up, as Aaron climbed up with the rope. I think you can hear Aaron humming in the background. Then, we went up to the top. After some more training and when we were ready to climb, I got to throw the rope of the edge of the cliff, which was exciting. Here is me doing that: And finally, here is me going down the cliff, in a video, and one picture. Of course, we owe this whole thing to Aaron, clothed in Capris and powered by GoYin.

Happy Birthday Stacey

So exactly one week ago, Stacey had her birthday. As previously posted, she had a lovly birthday cake. Here she is getting sung to, and then attempting to blow out at the candles.

Barry Bonds and my love of baseball

So, today I was reading a news story, and it was talking about the scandle with Barry Bonds beating the recordIt made some argument about how he has been mistreated because he is black. It asked: "If Bonds was white, what would be your reaction toward him?" I, thinking to myself, answered the question. "The same. I didnt even know he was black." I realized then how much I know about and love baseball. Amen.

(for the story, see http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/08/bonds.reader.feedback/index.html?eref=rss_topstories).

I was tagged a while ago...

Well, Michelle tagged me ages ago and I never got around to writing my answers. So here they are, enjoy if you'd like. :) 4 jobs I've had: - Instructor at BYU - Research assistant for BYU Museum of Art - Research associate for Fetzer-Kraus, Inc., in D.C. for 3 summers - Chik-fil-A worker :) aahh high school 4 movies I can always watch: - Little Women - Life is Beautiful - Our wedding and anniversary videos - Anything from the "Here we are" series by me and Jeff 4 places I have lived: -Provo, UT -Herndon, VA -Reston, VA - Forest Park, GA (I have no idea what it was like there...I was itty bitty!) TV shows I enjoy: They are all on food network, and I don't watch them much really, - 30 minute meals -Everyday Italian -Semi-homemade cooking Favorite Foods: -chicken noodle soup :) -shrimp cooked in pretty much any fashion - chocolate twizzlers - honey mustard or cheddar pretzels Websites I visit daily: -gmail to check my e-mail -hotmail to check my less often-used email -craigslist for baby stuff and apartments - msn.com for the news Places I'd rather be right now: - With Jeff...anywhere - traveling somewhere, maybe in Europe?? - Moved into a new house already 4 Buddies to tag: - Megan - Dana - Jeff Hoopes - Britt

This week

So, this was a pretty exciting week. Below, you will find a brief summary of some of the activities we have been engaged in: Monday, David, Joe and I hiked up The Pfeifferhorn, a peak up little Cottonwood canyon outside of Sandy UT. We were supposed to go hiking with some llamas up Mt Timanogous, but, that was not to be. The hike took about 6 hours, was 9 miles round trip, rising 3622 feet, and finishing it around 11,326 feet. It was a good time, and there was a lot of fun scrambling. Here is a little show of some of the picture. There are more exciting pictures that were taken, but I did not take them, so do not have them just yet. That was fun. Tuesday was fairly uneventful. I was not feeling too good from the hike, and so the da was not all that pleasant. As a result, the practice GMAT verbal test I took was the worst I had ever done, and I got what would end up probably being around a 550. This might be a good enough school to get me into a program at Orem Community College, but not much else. SO, that was discouraging. Wednesday, we picked Kevin up from his mission. The previous Friday, I had wanted to have a 6 foot banner printed up, but because of some lack of techincal skill at the printing place I went, I ended up getting a 24 foot banner. Here is a picture of that sweet banner.

So, we also went up and picked up Kevin. It was the first time Ihad ever been involved in the picking up of a missionaries. All 3 of my other siblings that have come home came home at some time or in some manner that prohibited me from going to pick them up. Anyways, it was fun. It was funny to watch Kevin. It is a very, very awkward position to be in. You have been writting letters your family for two years, and before than you were very familiar with them. However, when you get home, it seems like these people that you thought you knew, and that you love, are strangers. It is a very odd feeling.

Thursday, like Tuesday, was fairly uneventful. I went and played my first round of golf for my golf class. I played 9 holes on the executive course at Eastbay, and hit a 51. Par for the 9 holes was 30, so, I need to work a little bit more on my game. However, it was fun.

We also bought a tamale from a lady that was going door to door selling them. I told her that Stacey had tried tamales before, and had not liked them because she had not had a good tamale. I told her that if Stacey tried a third bad tamale, her tamale days may be over. The lady assured me that the tamales were good. In the end, they were not.

Friday, I took another practice GMAT test. I felt like it was going very poorly, but in the end, I got a 720 on it. That is 10 points higher than the average for most of the best MBA programs. While I dont want an MBA, this would be sufficient to get me into a program of my chosing. So, while it would not be amazing, it would be great.

Friday, we also came up to Soda Springs. It was fun. On the way up, we went to the Martin Harris pageant in Clarkston, UT. It was alright, but, out of all the pageants I ahve been to (Mesa, Palmyra, Manti, and now this one), I would put it second to last right ahead of Manti. But, it was interesting. Here is a picture of the landscape right around the pageant.

Saturday, we went to Bear Lake. It was fun. Here is a little album, and a few pictures.

Saturday was also Stacey's birthday. She got lots of presents, had a nice cake, and had a good day. Her favorite present was Rocky IV, and her favorite quote is "In the warriors code, there's no surrender. When his body says stop, his spirit cries, NEVER" Well, actually, maybe her husband just likes it. That is all I have to say.

Panoramas

So, this summer I have taken a lot of panoramas. Here they are. In the lower left hand corner there is a little quote looking icon, and if you click on it, you get the descriptions of where the places are.

Pictures

So, we still have not done much with the trip we took the to Grand Canyon. However, I just learned about a new little Google tool, and to try it out, I used some of those pictures. Yipeeeeeeeeeeee.

The 24th of July

So, yesterday was the 24th of July. Excitement. I got a call in the morning from the Red Cross asking me to donate blood that day at a blood drive. Interestingly, that very morning I had thought that it was probably about time to drive to the Red Cross building in Orem and donate. So, I decided to go do it.

For the past 3 years, every single time I have donated blood, about 10 times, I have had to answer yes to the question, "Have you traveled outside the United States in the last three years." Well, yesterday, I saw the question, and got to thinking. I got back from my mission to Argentina the 24th of July, 2004, exactly 3 years before. So, the answer was no.

It was an interesting thought. I have been home three years. Wow. That seems like a looooong time.

Last week!

My mom was here this past week; she had a class reunion Saturday night in Idaho but spent the very first part of the week at my sister's house and then stayed with us on Wed/Thurs. It was a fun visit. We even took her up to the Timpanogos Cave national monument in American Fork canyon on Thursday. If you haven't been there, it is not a long hike but it is pretty steep so my mom and my pregnant self were taking it pretty easy. She got a little lightheaded but was fine and Jeff made it back in time for class and all was well. Those caves are really fun and they haven't commercialized them near as much as Luray Caverns in VA, which we saw on our honeymoon.

On Wednesday I went up to Sandy to check out the new aquarium with my sister, her kids and my mom. It was kind of fun, a lot smaller than Baltimore's aquarium which I went to several times when I was younger (before it cost $20 a person or something outrageous), but it was so so fun to go with the kids. There was even story time in this "sunken ship" room and we went to Rainforest Rendezvous which goes on every Wednesday. I got to pet a common boa constrictor, I thought Jeff would be proud of me. But my niece and mom showed me up by petting the snake AND a Madagascar hissing cockroach. The other two kids were sleepy and so my sister had to take them out when they were getting a bit fussy, so they'll have to go back again sometime with the passes my mom got for them. There were some pretty, colorful macaws that did all sorts of tricks. I was impressed! I worked a few hours this week doing coding/data entry for the literacy project I've been working on since November so that was nice. Income in general is nice, I've decided, so I need to work some more this week to get this done in the next couple of weeks for my boss. Saturday I spent the day in Logan with my older sister. We went up for my cousin's baby shower (she's due a month before me!) but ended up staying until about 8:15. It was fun to see our cousins and chat and my aunt took us all out to dinner. These three cousins (two are married) are the ones I did the most with growing up in VA since they were never more than about 40 minutes away. So it was fun to hang out and see all their houses. My cousins are good little decorators! My uncle just had both his knees replaced 2 weeks ago so we got to see him for a bit. He was reading Harry Potter to pass the time in bed but we actually saw him walk around a bit with his walker so he seemed to be doing alright. In other news, Jeff's sister has made the move from Arlington, VA to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

We hope to go visit her at some point, and do some snorkeling and other fun activities that the desert doesn't afford us like the tropics would. Jeff is getting psyched for his llama adventure a week from today...so look forward to a post about that!

How do they find us? :)

Congratulations to the web user in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who happened upon our site! This is only significant because it is the first person from Argentina who has found us, and that is where Jeff served his mission, only pretty far from Buenos Aires but the same country nonetheless. I suppose it is also significant that this individual was visitor #384 to the site but they only chose to stay on our blog for a GRAND total of 0 seconds. Clearly we have some work to do so we can make our international visitors feel more welcome.