Our New (old) Addition

So it has almost been a year since I last got on this thing. And we have had a new addition to our family. Well, semi new. This little one came to us in August. Christen couldn't figure out why she kept following us to our apartment. She said it was meant to be. I told her that it was because she kept calling for her.We debated for a while but decided we couldn't handle the responsibility. But when our little friend came back a month later full blown pregers we couldn't turn her away. Plus, kittens are cheaters and they can melt the coldest of hearts. Her name is Emma.

She is totally insane. She will play with anything. Literally anything. I caught her batting around a pair of nail clippers. She will race after us anywhere we go, back and forth, room to room. She tries to figure things out. Christen found her experimenting with out door handle. She enjoys perching on legs, backs, shoulders, anything really. She makes us laugh all the time and she knows when we need a friend.

One day she decided that she would make my backpack her home and crawled inside. Like I said, she'll play with anything.

We were able to find homes for all the kittens but no one was in the market for the momma so she became our little house guest. She has since found a place in our home (usually wherever we want to sit).

She keeps us on our toes, but she is a wonderful pet.

We're not dead...

Just really lazy. So it may seem (with the lack of anything posted at all on our blog) that we have ceased to exist and have fallen into the furthest reaches of some sort of elevator-music filled limbo. Fear not. I am here to tell you that Christen and Mike still breathe and walk among you. Amongst you? Never could remember that one. Anyway. This who ramble was to say that some interesting posts are soon coming. We have been doing some fun things this summer. I have just been too lazy to walk down to the car to get my camera to upload pictures of said events each time I think about writing on the blog.

It goes a little something like this...

Wow. I should really write on our blog. It has been at least a month and a half. We have done some fun things. I know many people are just dying to read about our exploits and they are probably losing sleep with this hiatus of information. Oh wait. The camera is still in the car. I don;t want to write about some of these things if I don't the pictures. It would be like reading a book with no pictures (boring). But I don't want to go out to the car....... Oh well, everyone can just wait.

Seriously. That has happened like six times in the last few weeks. It may even be as many as seven times.

But, as I said. Never fear mortals. Some actually interesting posts with pictures (the camera is still in the car) are forthcoming.

In the meantime, let this post serve as a trailer. The lights have just dimmed. You've already eaten three-fourths of your popcorn. You get excited about the movie and the green light comes on to say that this preview has been approved for children of all ages.

We went to Monterey not long ago. We also got to go to an authentic Swedish midsummer celebration. I was literally giddy. We had a Danielson family reunion. Christen is working hard at school. I've been teaching summer school. But the big news (they always save the coolest explosions for the end of the trailer) is that I just got offered a job teaching middle school language arts. I have been teaching fifth grade at Challenger for two and a half years and have always wanted to get into middle school so I can specialize my subjects (I am no good at math or science). So starting in the fall I will be a middle school teacher. Totally excited. It did come with some drawbacks though. I will be at a different campus so I have to say good-bye to my friends and students. That was really hard to swallow. It is fun seeing the kids you taught as they grow up and still think you're an okay dude. But this is what I wanted and I didn't see it happening at the campus I am at now. So even though I am sad to leave, I am happy to do what I want to do. Boom! Boom! Screech! Ka-Pow! Then all the people in the theater look at the person next to them and say, "I want to see that." Only it is our blog. so you have to read it.

So be cool. Enjoy the summer weather. And stay tuned for actual posts with actual events. And full color pictures in eye-popping 3D.

(3D not available on all computers. In fact it isn't available on any computer but if you squint your eyes it will look like a 3D movie if you take off your glasses to see what it would look like.)

Coming Soon!!!

Happy Memorial Day

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend this year. Friday night after school, I came home to my wife and we spent a relaxing night eating the best sandwiches in the entire world (no joke, I've tried every sandwich in the world and these were the best) and watching a movie at home. Saturday we got to go to Oakland to the temple and spend time with some friends. Sunday after church we went to my parents house for a fun night filled with good laughs and better food. My dad can bar-b-q. Good times.

And then, the grand finale, today we spent the afternoon at Sea Cliff beach in Santa Cruz. We walked up and down the beach and played in the water. Nothing intense because it is the Pacific and it was FREEZING!!!! I don't get how the water can be that cold. It doesn't make any sense. We actually stayed in for quite some time because it took so long to get used to the temperature, and when I say get used to the temperature I mean go numb from the waist down. Plus we knew that we wouldn't get back in again if we got out. Not worth it to freeze all over again.

But while we weren't losing circulation to our legs we just sat and relaxed in the sun. It was great fun and very relaxing.

I think it was what both of us needed to recharge our batteries for the coming week. So, even though we didn't spend our day mermorializing our brave soldiers, we did have a memorialistic weekend that we will look back on in fondness. Hope everyone else had just as much fun.

The End of May???

When did this happen? How are we already on the last week of May. I can't believe it. Time is just racing by and we are trying to not get winded. In the next few weeks we will see some fun things coming to an end. Christen will wrap up another semester of school, looking forward to her CNA classes starting soon. I'm finishing up another year of fifth grade (as a teacher not a student). We are both looking forward to what summer will bring. As for now it is uncertainty. Christen is deciding whether or not to take a few classes and I am waiting to hear whether or not he will be teaching summer school. Either way we are both looking forward to summer. We are eagerly anticipating the Danielson Family reunion in July. You never know what will happen when you get all of us together.

The other crazy thing to think about is on Tuesday we will remember that a year ago we got engaged. I'm not sure if you celebrate an engagement. If we are supposed to, someone tell me so I don't get in trouble. It was a pretty crazy experience a year ago. Christen found THE RING she wanted and I had to play it cool. When she went to work, I bought it and didn't tell her. In the meantime, I had it fitted and she calls me up to tell me that she wants to bring her friend to show her THE ONE AND ONLY RING. Well, I knew it wouldn't be there. She didn't know. I had to quickly call up the store and tell them she was coming in. They knew us because we had been in and out a few times recently. I had to tell the store employees to lie to her and just tell her it was purchased. I got a phone call not long after telling me that someone had boughten HER ring. She was devastated. Boy I was in the dog house.

I had to do some damage control. I called her dad and told him that he was going to have a very depressed daughter coming home soon. I told him why and he promised to smooth things over. It was still pretty rough. But I promised her we would "find another ring" that she liked.

On Memorial Day, May 25th, we went to have a picnic at Sveadal, not far from Gilroy. I made lunch and we ate before going on a hike up a (what seemed like a mountain to my out of shape body) hill that had a river running down with tiny waterfalls all around. It was very beautiful.We got to a stopping point and sat down by one of these waterfalls to rest.

This was going to be my moment to ask her. I wanted to surprise her but I was too nervous. She was sitting on a rock asking me to join her but I kept on standing and pacing back and forth even though I was tired form the hike. We were there forever because I was so scared. I kept telling myself to ask but then a huge group of hikers would pass by and I wanted it to be private. Christen was done relaxing and said we should go a few times and I told her no. we needed to just relax. I wasn't relaxing.

Finally I got my courage. I pointed to the waterfall and said that it was too bad it wasn't big enough because it would be fun to go swimming. When she turned to look I got down on one knee. She turned back and saw me kneeling and smiling at her and said, "Yeah that would be fun." When I didn't get up she looked at me and asked, "What are you doing?"

I began to propose to her and she kept asking what I was doing. When I took HER RING from my pocket she began to cry and as if I was serious. That would be a really expensive practical joke if I wasn't. She really started to cry and I was grateful that the other hikers didn't call the cops to report a kidnapping and murder in the woods.

I asked her to marry me and she said yes. The rest is, as they say, history. When we got home, her family was waiting and my family was waiting for the phone call. (Everyone knew but her).

So with all the excitement of the end of May, this is what I remember. On May 25th, 2009, Christen said yes and made me the happiest man alive. Here's to a wonderful year, and many more to come.

It's mine turn!!

It's my turn to take a whack at this Blogster stuff. You would think as a Mormon woman I would be amazing in the kitchen and have the brilliant idea to blog about my life. Sadly this isn't so.....but what I lack in skills my wonderful husband Mike has my back. Yes that's I right ladies my husband cook like a CHAMP!!! As for I... just a pewney contender in the corner of the ring.But I working on my sweets skills so don't you worry about me. Back to the point.....Mike randomly woke me up 10:00 a.m. ( if my parents are reading this I really woke up at 6 am did my all my household duties and was actually taking a quick mid morning nap) to tell me that he started a blog. I was SO surprised that I fell asleep again and woke up an hour later thinking it was a dream. Maybe Mike wants to flex his creative writing muscles maybe he just want to flaunt his hot wife either way I am pretty impressed.

Some really good news

Christen recently found out that she was accepted into the CNA (certified nurse's assistant) program at Gavilan College and she can start taking classes soon. In no time at all she will be looking hot in her scrubs helping make people feel better. Anyone who knows Christen knows this is the job for her. I'm really excited for her and am so proud of her. Plus now I need to go and buy a video recorder so I can follow her around and make my own episodes of Scrubs. Not sure if I'll have a budget for any daydream sequences but thats okay. But be sure to send your congratulations over to Christen, my hot-scrub-wearing-life-saving-stethoscope-listening wife.

Just getting started

Hey all,

So odds are you only found this because one of us told you about it with giddy emotions and bright hopes for some fun stuff to post. Odds are that we still haven't figured out exactly how to really use this thing so it may be a little boring for the time being. Don't give up hope on us just yet. We promise that soon this will be so state of the art you'll have to drop whatever it is that you are doing because you are eagerly anticipating the next chapter in the saga that is Christen and Mike.

So our faithful blog readers and others, stay tuned as we attempt to fascinate you with descriptions of our adventures. And if we don't do anything fun we will certainly make something up to impress you.

Have a wonderful future and see you here again soon.