Hilarious!

We were over at our friend Leslie's house last night and we had a little fun with her new MacBook. Turns out there's a wonderful little program called PhotoBooth that can take some really funny pictures! Here they are:

Squirt

Our new pet bird, a Parakeet named "Squirt."

Squirt was found one evening, sitting on Janice's Dad's truck outside the Brown house. It flew onto Dale's shoulder, and he said it wouldn't survive out in the heat. The Browns took in the parakeet, placed him into a doggie kennel, and gave him food and water.

After no one responded to a found-ad on Craigslist, I (Janice) brought it home for us, and we bought a cage (from Craigslist, of course) and named him (his yellow and green colors resembling the soda can). We researched online and even went to the library so we could become more informed pet owners. We discovered that the blue part of his beak meant that he was a boy, and that he was already hand-trained. After spending a few weeks with him, we're still learning more about bird behaviors, but we hope his singing and pecking mean that he is happy and healthy.

Now we just have to figure out how to catch the white female parakeet that has been wandering around our backyard to make sure she survives.......But that's a whole other story.

Presedential Election

I have been very skeptical of John McCain since first seeing him. I'm not sure why, but I've never really felt that positive about him. Barack Obama is interesting to me, but I'm not really sure that I would want to vote for him either. But as I was surfing the net this morning I found a link to a page on John McCain's website that delightfully surprised me. Pretty much everything on this page directly addresses concerns of mine and it turns out that John McCain is on the same side of things as I am (Pro-life, protect marriage, ...etc.) I like that Barack Obama is all about "change" and improving the economy and such, but I can't ignore the fact that he wants women to be able to kill their unborn babies or allow the sacred unity of marriage to somehow be able to be applied to same-sex couples. I still haven't completely made up my mind with who I will vote for as our new president, but this webpage certainly has influenced me more than anything else. Here is the page so that you can read it yourselves:
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm

(Janice adds- If Romney becomes his running mate, my vote is set!)

Camping!

We're both so excited to go camping this weekend. This will be our second time this year at "Family Camp" and the first was an extraordinary experience, so we can't wait for this one! Last time we went up with the awesome Ward family. This time we are going up with the Ward family as well, but this time it's the Peachwood Ward, not our cousins with the actual last name of Ward. It should be an amazing time.

Part of the reason I am so excited is because I have learned that Janice LOVES camping! Of course there are certain requirements for that love (running water, bathrooms, etc...) But it is really neat that we both love being outdoors. We've slowly been purchasing and acquiring camping gear-- so far we have a tent, sleeping bags and a tarp. We are yet to purchase camp chairs, an air mattress, and a few other odds and ends.
We're so excited for this weekend!


Update: we're back!

The Opening Ceremonies -- Our Favorite Highlights

Some pictures to depict our favorites from last night:

1. The amazing light-drummers counting down the start of the ceremony.


2. The footprint fireworks leading to the stadium.


3. The huge LCD screens on the floor "scroll" and the top of the Birds Nest stadium.


4. 15,000 different non-repeating performers


5. The non-computerized, perfectly synchronized boxes


6. All of the beautiful and unique costumes


7. The glow-in-the-dark suits

8. The commentators explaining the "clear" yet confusing symbolism.


9. The runners on the paper-lantern globe.


10. Trying to figure out where the heck these countries are that I've never heard of.
(Mauritius vs. Mauritania?)

11. The stamped colored footprints of the athletes.


12. The torch



13. The OLYMPICS!!!!


Links to more awesome pictures:
1
2
3
4
5

The Olympics

We're so excited for the Olympics!

And what a cool date to be on -- 8/8/08

(But did you know that some sports have already started competing? 'Tis True! Check it out here!)
We're thinking of getting Chinese food and doing silly made-up gymnastic routines to celebrate the occasion!


Thank goodness we got satellite TV w/ a DVR just in time!
Go team USA!

UPDATE: If you're a little lost with over 3600+ hours of olympics and not sure what to watch, here is a link with the Top 10 things you want to be watching this year at the olympics. I'm (Jeremy) especially enthusiastic about the men's basketball "Redeem-Team" and Shawn Johnson winning all-around Gymnastics gold!