Flashback

A few weeks ago I was in Wal-Mart among Evanston's finest residents. I was getting some racquet balls to throw against the wall in order to build hand speed in my quest to become Wyoming's greatest ninja. Sarah had gone to the other side of the store to grab something and I was on my way to go and meet her. I was cutting through the women's clothing section to get back to where Sarah was when my kung fu grip on reality was forever shaken. I looked up to see a group of people that I decided was a family consisting of a husband, wife, a few kids and a grandma (grandma to the kids - mother to the adults) It took me a couple of seconds and a few more steps before I realized what was happening. The young mother (who you can see a picture of in an earlier post...you may have thought it was a buffalo before) was holding up a negligee for her husband and mother (or mother in law) to check out and give their stamp of approval on. It was like slow motion. I gazed across the group of them taking in the kids...all in tank tops and otherwise awkwardly fitting clothes with at least one mullet among them, the dad with a couple of prize winning jailhouse tats and the token nascar ball cap, the grandma with the perma "bitter beer" face and before I realized it I was nearly standing in the midst of them. I felt like Mia Hamm had just kicked me in the gut as I tried to hold back my dry heave. The words of a Gretchen Wilson song popped in to my head "...Victoria's Secret, that stuff's real nice, but I can buy the same damn thing on a Wal-Mart shelf half price..." I always just thought of that song as a whimsical anecdote but here I was watching the dream come true right before my plastic shopping cart. To this day I have a hard time expunging the memory from my brain. The family that picks out lingerie together stays together.

Aquarium

Saturday, we had big plans to go to the Aquarium with Carrie and Amy's families. I was so excited. I really thought Jack was just gonna love it. On our drive down, we passed by lots of cows. Jack would point and laugh and make all the noises he makes when he gets excited. I thought to myself, "Wow, if he thinks seeing animals as we pass them by at 70 miles an hour is cool, he'll love to get to see things close up." My first problem was thinking that meeting at 11am was a good idea. Jack usually takes a nap around then. I thought he'd be fine because he'd be so excited to see the other kids and all the fish. He doesn't seem to want to nap when something new is around, so why would Saturday be any different? I don't know why, but it was. He looked at some of the fish and thought it was okay, but very quickly we realized how tired he really was. All he wanted to do was push his stroller around, and if you did anything to help guide it away from other kids he was about to run into he threw a fit. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience, but I will never be so naive as to think that anything is worth missing nap time.

Speaking of Addicts

A couple of days ago, Eric posted a blog about how he was addicted to DP, maybe. I'm not sure why he added the maybe. As his wife, I've witnessed the absolute addiction. Anyway, over the past 4 1/2 years of marriage, Eric has come to realize that I too have an addictive personality. These seem to come and go for me. For a while it was handheld tetris and then Friends episodes, but most recently I've found blogging. This may come as a surprise since this is only my second post, but its not the posting my inner most thoughts that I'm addicted to, its reading everyone else's innermost thoughts and getting caught up on everything we miss by being out here in WY. Earlier this week we learned that Amber and Danielle (Eric's sisters) had both started blogs. After we looked at both of those, we rechecked everyone else's blogs, and a couple of people had posted new info! It was a great night for my kind of blogging. That night, we went to bed all blogged out...or so I thought. I couldn't sleep at all. I tossed and turned all night. The real reason I had a restless night was because of the morning sickness that hits at night, but since I was up, my brain wouldn't slow down. I just kept thinking about stuff, and all of it was about blogging. Thoughts just kept running through my head about a post or comment on some one's blog. I thought about Taryn and Brady's mystery cruise animal, Amy's race for the cure story, Kristi's comment about blog hopping, and on and on. Then I thought to myself, "how do I make this stop?!" Needless to say, there was no rest for the weary that night. Instead of working on an answer to that question, my brain started constructing this post.



In the end, I feel that blogs are like cell phones. I went as long as I could with out one, and now that I have it, I can't seem to live with out it.

mmm...whatever

You know it seems to me that my parents and my in-laws have always dressed like respectable human beings. They wear clothes that are fitting for their age bracket and they manage to look decent doing it. There seems to be growing confusion among people who should know better about what age to dress. My thinking is this, don't dress like your kids! I don't go around wearing onesies and footed pj's, but even if I did I wouldn't look half as ridiculous as these 60 year old guys I see walking around with highlights in their hair, earings, soul patches, chops, abusing the words "dude" and "bro" sporting skater clothes and wearing sunglasses even though they're inside.

CNG for me!

After a conversation I overheard my cousin Brad involved in about high gas prices and natural gas alternatives, I started looking in to it pretty seriously. Here's what I know:

You can buy a natural gas conversion kit for your vehicle. All gasoline vehicles can be converted but not all are certifiable conversions. In other words you can do it, but if you live in a state where they do tail pipe emission testing you may not be able to re-register the car.

They are pretty expensive. If you do a certifiable conversion it is about $12,000 - $15,000 for the kit. The certifiable conversion does give you tax credits in states where they do such things. I live in Wyoming where they don't do tail pipe emissions or tax credits. Also my '06 F-150 does not have a certifiable conversion kit so since it will not technically pass epa tests (it doesn't need to where I live) the conversion kit is about $8,000. I found a guy in Ogden who will finance the conversion. (up to 125% of the value of the vehicle)

The first thing you should know is that natural gas costs in Wyoming and Utah and I also think in Texas (because of the vasts reserves and proximity to them) are about $.70 - $.90 per gallon. For me that means that my 26 gallon tank will cost about $19.50 (in Evanston cng is $.75)instead of the usual $93.00. So far this month I have already spent about $600 on gasoline so for my current costs (and assuming gasoline stays the same price, which it won't) I could pay for the conversion in about a year.

Nothing changes with the vehicle mechanically, with the exception that you are likely to lose some power because cng (compressed natural gas) is much higher octane. (they say 10% of power loss is pretty common) Keep in mind though that the conversion kit keeps your vehicle as a hybrid, so if you need more power you push a button and your back to gasoline.

You get the same fuel economy with cng, you don't need to go to a special mechanic for routine maintenance, or any maintenance that is not directly related to the fuel system.

They add cng tanks to empty space in the vehicle. You can add tanks as small as 2 gallons or as big as 39 gallons (that's actually multiple tanks, but you get the point). You will lose trunk space in a car or bed space in a truck. The gentleman I spoke to recommends a 12.5 gallon tank for someone like me who is needs the truck's bed space, which takes up about the same space as a tool box. ( I think he said is was about 5' long x 18" round...they kind of look like propane tanks)

Long story short, I am on the guy's schedule for the conversion in about a month. He said it takes 3 days to a week to do the conversion.

For me, I can't afford not to do it.

some thoughts

I bet if Canada had it to do over again they would name it Canadia.

We as a society have severly under-rated Aaron Neville's greatness.

I wish Hank Hill was president.

Oprah Winfrey is the devil.

The geico gecko is a million times cooler than the caveman.

If you have a mullet, a handlebar mustache and own a bolo tie, I bet you also have tinted glasses.

It used to be that all the funny black guys were fat but now they are all skinny.

In a three way fight to the death between spiderman, batman and superman I bet batman wins.

The best reality show ever created is DEA. Thank you Al Roeker.

Does anyone watch baseball on tv?

One time I told my uncle greg that Jethro Tull was named after a high school janitor, he disagreed and he was wrong.

I wonder who builds better barns...Amish or polygamists?

All in a days work

Five years ago if someone would have told me that one day someone would come in to my house, pee on my bed, run around naked, kick me in the crotch, throw perfectly good food on the floor, laugh at my wife while she vomits in to a trash can, break my favorite things, spit in my face, get their pooh on me, hide my unbroken favorite things, head butt me, pee on my couch, pee on my carpet, pee on me, constantly mess up our tidy house, scream every time I'm on the phone, bite me, grind food in to the carpet and pull my hair, and at the end of the day I would hug them, kiss them and tell them I love them, I would have thought you were bonkers. With Jack, it's another day in paradise. We can't wait to double and triple the fun. Don't worry we acknowledge the fact that most of your kids are at least as nuts if not more so. Thank goodness they sleep!

Tiny Dancer

Jack has been working really hard on his dancing skills. He started out pretty slow and steady but over the past year he's been adding new steps to his dance. He tries really hard, but sometimes you can tell the poor little guy takes after his mom and dad. We both like music, but aren't the best dancers. Jack gets to a point where you can tell he wants to move to the beat but can't figure out what to do and that ends up looking like this.

It's my road...

Imagine my disappointment after driving down this street and there was no chili, cheese, corn tortilla style chips, re-fried beans or impending heartburn.

Speedy McSpeederton

I got pulled over yesterday for the second time this month. It's not cool. The first was a blatant "quota" ticket (11 miles over, baron highway, last day of the month). Luckily the second time I got away with a written warning but still there's few things that stink as much as that feeling when you see the cop whip around and flip on the lights. With the number of meth labs in this state I find it curious that I keep getting pulled over. Am I really the biggest threat to society?

DP addict?...maybe

Some people say that I have a Dr Pepper addiction. Here's the thing, Dr Pepper is a superior beverage. I'm not exactly opposed to drinking other drinks in the rare event that I find myself without Dr Pepper. (I usually carry a small supply) But it doesn't make sense to force myself to drink something useless like water or something I just don't like the taste of when the satisfaction provided by Dr Pepper is unsurpassed. Plus, In order to find out if you are addicted to something don't you have to try and quit? Unless I get a raging ulcer or lose control of my bowels as a direct result of downing ounce after carbonated, caffeinated, blissful ounce of Dr Pepper I don't plan on abstaining from it. After all the name of the drink is Dr Pepper. I don't think a doctor, especially a doctor of beverages, would encourage me to drink anything that could potentially cause harm. Unless the good doctor has an even better remedy for any detrimental causes incurred by the constant use of the product. In that instance I'm not sure I would care. If there is something out there better than Dr Pepper I want it. Even if that means I have no teeth, weak bones and a colostomy bag I want to taste it. But until that fateful day I shall continue drinking, nay savoring every drop that spills on to my tongue from those wonderful little aluminum packages of joy.

The Wild Frontier

It's finally getting to the point where we can go outside for a little bit and not worry about freezing to death. I think, I might have just jinxed us. Crap.

One of the fun things about living in Evanston is the wildlife all over the place. Especially when you get to see things close up and alive, not close up and dead on the side of the road. Yesterday we took the snack pack (Jack) to a park. Evanston actually owns and maintains a buffalo herd and a couple of elk.

This actually looks like Jack is giant and is about to eat the elk like a skittle.

This is a better picture of the elk.

This is a moose. It's kind of hard to tell. This picture was taken in our neighbors front yard. We took this and left cause we were heading to see Curt off at the MTC but the moose visited our yard. I know that because after the snow melted he left 2 massive piles of evidence.

Eventually the city had to tranquilize him and take him back to the mountains. He was getting pretty comfortable. I drove past him one day and little kids were throwing snow balls at him...so it was probably a good idea to remove him. We are pretty sure he's only a yearling so I bet he finds his way back to town if we get another bad winter.

I don't think either of us had ever seen an antelope before we moved here. But now we see them all of the time all over the place. It's still pretty fun though.

This was actually in Coalville, Utah but still its pretty fun to know that there are places where you can see this kind of stuff.

It's really fun to see Jack get excited seeing something that he's never seen before. We are sooo excited to continue to spend time outdoors with him.

Jack

He's in a mood like this T minus 12 minutes to meltdown. But this part of it is pretty fun.



There is nothing that will stop Jack in his tracks like Moose A. Moose breaking off some wisdom in a cleverly disguised song. Bad versions of this song can be heard throughout any given day in our house. They tend to say something more like "Jack is the cutyiest, dad is the tootyiest...everywhere I go." Listen and you'll see how joyfully hypnotizing it is.








He's figuring out that you're supposed to talk in to the phone. Not just breathe heavily or mess his pants when it gets taken away.














When Jack thinks he is in trouble or when he's confused he does what we call the slow blink. We don't really know what to think about it other than its really funny looking.

and the award goes to...

When I work in the Park City office there is kind of an ongoing competition to see what ridiculous songs we can get stuck in each others heads. This is focused primarily between Randy, Luis and myself. One day I started singing a Steve Winwood (guilty pleasure) song. I think it was "higher love" or "back in the high life". It was one of those you can hear early on a Saturday morning on Jack fm and if you're all alone (or if you're me anywhere) you will sing the crap out of it. After realizing that he was singing the Steve Winwood song I was singing Randy mentioned that he loved, as do I, those guys that are white as can be but sound black when they sing. This grew in to a rabid search for the blackest sounding white singer any of us could find. There were several names tossed around however after a heated debate and conclusive youtube.com evidence the top 4 emerged. Before you start listening to any of the links below it is imperative that you close your eyes and think to yourself "mmm, yeah this could totally be billy ocean".

4. Randy Newman(one of the greatest movie soundtrack artists ever)

3. Steve Winwood (guilty pleasure)
man i really love steve winwood songs


2. Michael McDonald - for a white guy he's packing the soul -


1. The runaway, landslide winner was and is Rick Astley

even though he really sucks at dancing (he's better than me) and he kind of looks like matthew broderick from ferris buellers day off

What's going on?

Hey!! We have a blog! I figured we do like Mike and Caroline did, and start with an update. We are still here in Evanston, WY. We've been here for about a year, and we'll be here for a while still.

Eric is working here as a Real Estate Appraiser. The busy months have just started, so he is sitting at his desk the majority of everyday. Except for Saturdays. Saturdays he can be found working on the 8th street house from sun up to sun down. Sometimes I think he feels like the house is never gonna be done, but its looking really good.

I'm at home most of the time. Jack and I try to entertain ourselves, but there's only so much you can do in the house before losing your mind. Its trying really hard to get warm here, so every now and then we are able to play outside or take a walk, but the second we get excited about it being Spring, it snows again. When we really have to get out of the house, but its too cold to play outside, we take a trip to Walmart. Exciting, I know! We don't have a whole lot of options here, and Walmart works for us.

Jack is getting so big. He is 16 months. He runs everywhere, and loves to throw tantrums. Even though he can often be found kicking and screaming, we still think he's the cutest boy ever! We can't believe how fast he's grown up though. I miss getting to cuddle with my little guy.

I won't have to miss having a little baby around for long. We're expecting little Aanerud #2 in October! We're so excited! We think Jack is ready for a little friend too. I'm trying to enjoy this pregnancy as much as I enjoyed the first one, but so far, I just feel sick. Its gotten better, but lots of things make me throw up. Much to Eric's chagrin, one of those things is the smell of Jack's poopy diapers. Needless to say, Eric has changed countless numbers of poopy diapers over the last few weeks, and thank goodness he's willing. He never complains about it.

That's what's going on with us. When something interesting happens, we'll update ya, but don't hold your breath!

Project House

Cute Boy!

Me and Dad

flossy flossy

Thought we'd get with the times

After much thought, some stubbornness and a mexican standoff (much like our battle with getting cell phones) we decided to bite the bullet and get this thing rolling. Seems like the best way to let anyone (who cares) know about what's happening with us. And...we can't lie, we were really jealous of your blogs.