Ed, that happy-go-lucky crazy mutt from our old Lions Park housing complex, has made the news after getting sick from ingesting a chicken bone laced with pentothal by the AS Government . Whatever happened to good old-fashioned dog catching?
http://samoanews.com/friday.08312007/story4.html
I made a very significant purchase yesterday. Three large packages of . . . socks. White ones and black ones. Now the real question is, after a year of barefootedness, what do I do with the socks?
Any recommendations for how I should use my new socks would be well appreciated.
August 4, 2007, in the Keyser's backyard. Yep, don't you wish you had a backyard like this.
Not two weeks home and I have been initiated into the world of Pergo. Or, as some would call it, hardwood floor installation. It's the massive wooden puzzle from 'Pergo'tory. My in-law's home has been completely 'Pergo'tized. And my body is completely 'Pergo'-pooped!
IBM...
???
2-Dollar...
Of course, my pics of the ray didn't come out. Boy do these photos make me want to get back in the water!
Yesterday was Jaydn's first day in Rimrock Elementary's first grade. Some pics from the momentous occasion:
Three different schools in three years. Yikes. I promised myself I wouldn't do this to my kids, and now I've done it! Well, at least it's not high school.
You know readers of this blog are bright when they want to know what happened when we went out into the quicksand lake on Aunu'u.
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Tonight Jessi, Jaydn and I went to the Idaho Falls Chukars ballgame, courtesy of my new employer. Jaydn had a blast calling strikes and balls.
Yes, organized baseball. Sitting and watching the game in perfect weather made me so glad to be back in the states!
By the way, I guess a Chukar is a bird. And I guess they use the mascot because it sounds like you are "chucking" a baseball. Which I really don't get, since you don't really want to "chuck" a baseball, you want to throw it hard. Whatever. Go Chukars!
My mom pinned me with "surprise" duty for my dad's birthday party following the successful surprise party for Jessi in AS. I guess I am good at diverting people or something.
I took my dad to a movie yesterday while some friends gathered at our house. When he got home, he had no idea people had thrown a party for him. Another successful surprise party.
Melissa and Logan are back from their honeymoon in Mexico. They wore biodegradable sunblock and didn't wear water shoes in the ocean. So, you can guess what happened, but after peeling off two full layers of their skin they seemed to be doing just fine.
Here's Melissa with hubby, mom-in-law and bro-in-law.
Mom with Smoot sisters.
I was unable to bring the multi-candled cake all the way outside for my dad to blow out the candles.
Of course, the biggest surprise of the night was that Matt and Rachel came, all the way from Chicago (on their way to Reno). No one expected them to make it!
So, we all just ate and had a good time in my parents' huge backyard.
Happy 45th birthday, dad! ;)
Nothing like the obvious to bring you back to reality. Well, here we are, back in what some may call the "real" world, wondering whether life is easier here (because of the abundance of "stuff") or there (because of the abundance of "time"). It is nice to be close to family, but we miss our AS friends quite a lot.
Sleeping Grandpa with sleeping Hannah.
We went swimming this weekend. Fresh water. Chlorinated. Yep, at the city pool. We had a mini-family reunion with the Grigg side; Jessi's brothers and sister and their children were all together for the first time in many years. We had a family picture taken, and the next day we all headed down to the kiddie pool at Veterans Memorial Park in Provo, Utah (go Cougs!).
Our pre-swimming picnic in the park was interrupted momentarily by other families who decided to have their family reunions on the same day at the same park. Hence, we were unable to land a canopy and had to eat on the park bench overlooking the playground.
Some of us were worried about rain. But after a year of swimming on numerous occasions in the rain, I was thinking, "what's the big deal?"
So we checked in to the water park, got dressed, came out to the pool and were corralled back into the building. Someone saw a drop of rain (oh, and lightning). So we waited for about 20 minutes, all the while thinking we were going to have to just go home and, sorry, there are no refunds (even if you didn't even stick your pinky-toe in the pool).
I guess swimming around lightning was not such a good idea. I could handle the rain (even though it was bitter cold--who would've thought that rain could be cold?), but didn't want to be cooked by lightning.
Luckily it cleared up and we swam with the kids in the kiddie pool. Now, this is nothing like the open ocean, of course, but it was fun. And I knew that you wanted to see more pictures of us in our beach attire.
However, I think I'd rather taste ocean water in my mouth than chlorine-sweat-salt-gross from the city pool. Gross!
We stayed at Jessi's brother Jared's house in Orem. Nothing beats the mountain views from his front yard.
On the way home, I was reminded that Idaho also has beautiful sunsets.
So, aside from the fact that I have to pick our health insurance, figure out how and where to buy a house, and learn how to actually be an attorney, I think I'll be all right back in the states?!
On Sunday, we got on our flight back to Idaho after many farewells from friends and a sobby "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again" goodbye at church. At the airport, we met a multitude of friends.
Missing AS already.
On Saturday we made it out to IBM for our last beach day in AS. I saw my first flat fish (swims flat against the ocean floor). I don't know what they're really called. Everyone else just looked for shells.
After IBM we got our last Samu ice cream and went to the blowholes by Maliu Mai one last time for some good-ol' palagi entertainment.
And Jaydn and Oliver showed us their blue Icee tongues.
Thanks to a link from the Hardys (new law clerk) for this informative report on American Samoa by Stephen Colbert.
On Friday we put on a goodbye party for our friends. We were going to host it, but it was raining, and Ali has a bigger house, and, well, you get the picture.
Lots of our friends came. Jessi danced her yellow dress dance. It was a nice reprieve after running around town shutting off our utilities and dealing with AS-Soviet Bureaucracy.
Some pics from the night:
Jessi and Maima
Sue, Jane and Hailey
Moi, Me, John, Mark and Phil (Mark and Phil flashing their Dum Squad signs)
Me and Tony
Fred and Moi
Ed and Jessi
Mike, John, Aaron and I
Elliott, John, Juanita, Christine
Phil and Jason
Doug, Mele and Mark
