almost there

Its been a rainy three weeks straight here, with no sign of stopping. I feel like we live in Seattle with all of the moisture. This is highly unusual for this part of the country this time of year, but I enjoy it. Maybe now people won't grumble so much about having drought problems. It's interesting to live in a place where tornado watches and flash floods are common occurances too. Maybe Dallas is just sad we are leaving...nah. Speaking of leaving, once you have dates to look forward to, time goes by SO SLOWLY. I don't want to sound negative, but when I get to work and look up at the neon sign beaming "Lowes" at five o'clock in the morning, I just have to take a deep breath and realize it will all be over soon. I actually went shopping at Home Depot yesterday, mainly just to check things out, but it always amazes me how similar the two places are, right down to the same product from the same vendors. Which makes me think about rivalries, and why people need to identify with certain things in life. They teach us at Lowes that we are so much better, as I am sure Home Depot does as well with thier employees, but we're basically the same. Think about sports, the players are not always good role models, and they are always changing teams, and yet we identify ourselves with a team to the point we get mad if they lose, or we feel they were cheated. Religion, politics, social class, where you are from...whatever it is people are always trying to find an identity, and find an enemy. I think the rain is messing me up, I don't even know why I started going off on this tangent. No wonder Joni always laughs when she asks me what I am thinking, and my reply ends up taking 5 minutes as I end up talking about gummy bears and satelite dishes. I think I think way too much, maybe that's why I have to be organized when it comes to daily activities and apponitments.

Tomorrow is Joni's last day, I can't believe it. I can't wait for her graduation on Wednesday, she has been working really hard on a fun little slide show, and the interns have planned everything from what we are eating, to what kind of spoons we will be eating with. It will be held on the 17th floor of the hospital, overlooking downtown Dallas. Plus her mom, sister, and aunt are coming. It is always nice to have family, even if we are crammed in our one bedroom apt. We love having visitors and showing family what our life is like here.

I am amazed to see how all of the interns have been "Jonified". She has such a magnetic personality, when I look at pictures of the things they do together, I can see the influence she has left on everyone, and the craziness she brings out in the most introverted people. I see her as the biggest piece of the puzzle when it comes to bringing people together. The interns are from India, all the way to China, and all over the U.S, from big cities to little towns, but they have become inseperable. It makes me wonder how different things might have been if she was never there. Its really cool to think that what you do can have such a huge influence on people, and it has been really cool for me to see everyone change from an outsiders perspective. Kind of makes you want to change the world one person at a time.

We are moving June 22nd, I hired outside help this time, I'm kind of tired of asking people I hardly know to help, and I think we take advantage too often of members of the church and thier help, so we are hiring one guy to help me for a couple of hours, it'll only end up costing 60 bucks, and I 'll feel better about not taking advantage of friends...then again, we have some friends helping us move in, so never mind. This will be our fifth move in three years of marraige, and it doesn't appear that will change anytime soon.

I thought this picture from the local newspaper was really funny. It made me laugh out loud when I was all alone at work, but I guess you have to understand it first. The Mavericks just suffered the most embarrassing defeat in nba playoff history, and people around here aren't too happy about it. Never has a team with a better record lost to the worst seed in the playoffs. Normally there is a fierce looking horse but someone put a pony from "my little ponies" in as the mascot and wrote about how badly the Mavs choked. I want to see the Suns do well now because I like Steve Nash a lot, and of course I actually cheer for the Jazz now that Stockton and Malone are gone, I think they should have gone with a young team like they have now a long time ago. Some of my friends would be pretty steamed if they read this, but it is what it is folks.

Harry Connick Jr. was awesome last night. I always wish I could see how performers are in different cities, like when they say "I love Dallas, you guys really get it here." I kept thinking if there were cities they hate to go to and they lie about how much they love the place to get a rise out of the crowd. The concert was all about New Orleans and music from that part of the country, it really made me want to pay a visit to New Orleans while we are so close. The whole Katrina aftermath has really hit me because most of the people I meet and that I work with were bussed straight here from New Orleans. Everyone has an amazing story. One of my good friends at work lost his brother, and didn't know if his mom was alive for months. He was stranded on a rooftop for almost 2 weeks, then dropped off at the Super dome. When the busses came, everyone just got on without knowing ahead of time where they were going. Most of the busses came to Houston and Dallas, and many traveled all the way to DC and beyond. He was dropped off at the American Airlines Center where the Mavericks play, and he had a couple of days to find a job and an apartment.

Isaac was absolutely crazy today, for the first time I had to take him to his parents for the remainder of primary. He was kicking and yelling nonsense words and jumping and spitting and hitting everyone. I took him outside 3 or 4 times and got right in his face to tell him to be quiet and sit down, and he would settle down and pout for a couple of seconds, then he just went crazy again. Everyone was looking at me like I needed to do something about it, the second I dropped him off I felt a huge weight was off my shoulders, then we had the best Sunday school class yet. We have a new kid named Ricardo in our class who was just baptized, it reminds me a lot of teaching young kids on my mission. I don't really know what to do with Isaac and I don't know how to react to autism. I have tried to hold him down, but that seems to make him worse. I was shocked last Sunday when I found out that with all the craziness, he had managed to memorize the first 2 articles of faith that we taught in class. It is a very hard disorder to understand. We have grown close to these kids and we feel like we want to hand pick thier next teachers so they will be good to them and care about them. We haven't told them we are leaving yet and we are still unsure what to say when we do leave. That seems to be a common occurrance in the church. You get used to your Bishop or teacher, or feel close to the missionary who baptized you, then you are cut off suddenly and start over somewhere else. I guess that is a good lesson in life on how to adjust and be strong on your own, and it brings you closer to your own family and to gospel truths because they are the only things that seem to be rock solid in an ever changing world. We'll post some pictures of the kids next week because we have to take pictures for the primary bulletin board.

I want to wish the best to Joni, my mom, my mother in law, my step mother, my step mother in law, my sisters, my nieces, my aunts, my grandma's and all of the women who have been such a strong and positive influence and support throughout my life. I hope you all have a wonderful mother's day! Now make me some cake...just kiddin.

Since our computer won't recognize our camera "chip" right now, I'll have to be more descriptive in my writing of our latest happenings. Have you ever driven through a town that had an overwelming odor of leather and steak? I hadn't either until our most recent trip to Fort Worth. That place has to be one of the most unique cities I have ever seen. Downtown Fort Worth reminds me a lot of Boise with the yellow lights outlining the buildings and several trees alongside the streets, with a main strip of bars, clubs and eateries that are alive late into the night. Once you are out of the city, the crowded feel stops as abrubtly as it began. The city looks like a castle sitting on a hill, literally surrounded by a river and empty space that makes it seem not real. There is no continuous run of neighborhoods or buildings, everything just stops, then you feel like you are in a different country when you come across the hispanic area. Most of the signs were in Spanish, and Joni and I played the game of who could spot the next white person. We ended up getting lost trying to find the rodeo because I guess there are multiple rodeos every single weekend there all over town. When we finally did find the Fort Worth Stockyards it was worth the ride. We entered a time warp into the old west, except for the really good Elvis impersonater who reminded us of what time period we were in. They actually move an entire herd of Texas Longhorns through the streets downtown twice a day, maybe that explains the leather and steak smell. The rodeo arena was very cool, we sat on the front row on some metal folding chairs that were probably made at the turn of the century.

Last night we saw "Wicked", it was AWESOME! I have to admit I had low expectations but it was really funny and really, really well written. We had to hurry to get there because there were torndado warnings expected at the exact time we were supposed to get there. The second we pulled into the parking lot, a monsoon of rain hit us. We ran inside soaked from head to toe. During the play the power went out three times, and the actors had to redo the scenes, but it was really cool how everything turned out. I laughed that we were watching a story about the Wizard of Oz while our own tornado was outside. Since we bought the tickets about 9 months ago we were willing to stick it out and I was glad we did.

I can't believe how time seems to have flown by here in Dallas, we will be leaving in a couple of months and we actually feel like we will miss it, at least certain aspects. Joni made an interesting comment that downtown Dallas is comparable to the mountains in Utah in that you use it to get your bearings when traveling, but you don't always notice it is there. Nothing compares to the mountains really, but people here view it in a similar way. This has been a really good experience for us, and we feel like we have grown a lot, and learned more about people and respecting differences than we ever could have learned otheriwise. We realize how unique things were where we came from, with everyone having so much in common physically and culturally, to a place where you can feel like your own person, and develop different charateristics that make you strong and individual.

Congratulations again to Joel on finding a job, I guess we can add a little to that feeling of releif as well. Joni has been offered a couple of jobs, and she has decided to accept the one in Waco. The offer was too good to pass up even though a lot of driving will be invloved. We will be moving in the end of June. As to where we don't know yet. When we have a weekend off together we will drive down to Waco, and then to College Station and basically rely on how we feel about little towns in between the two, or if we will just end up in one or the other. As you can tell there is a lot on our minds, and in times like these it is best to make a decision and roll with it.