I Love My Daddy-Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! I love my daddy! He has done so much in his life, but mostly I think about how much he has done for me! I think we can all look back once we get older and realized what our parents have done for us. When my parents had all four of us kids my dad decided to go back to school. I think my mom thought he was crazy when he told her that he was going to leave his construction company behind in Phoenix, AZ and move us all to to College Station, TX so he could get a doctorate in Entrepreneurship. First, we all had to ask what did that long word mean!! Off to Texas we went, and somehow for those four long years that my dad was in school-my parents made it work. My two brothers were in charge (who were just barely teenagers themselves) and my sister and I survived!

When school was over we moved to SC and then on to CA where my dad worked for different universities, but it was my junior year that my dad went to Sweden to work at an International Business School. He was gone quite a bit that year, but that is what jump started his career I guess you could say. The next year we moved to Louisville, where my Dad was hired to start up the PhD program in Entrepreneurship from the ground up. Nine years later it has been a HUGE success, and my parents plan on staying there for long haul. Recently dad has been named the eighth most-prolific researcher in the world and fifth in the United States in a study ranking top entrepreneurship researchers. Congrats! That proves that brains are in my gene pool!!!

Besides all the smarts that my dad has, he has been such a big support to me. I am thankful that my parents have supported me in all that I have done. They have always emphasized education (of course) and helped put me through college to ensure that I only had school to worry about. It was my sophomore year in college that Dad called me up and said, "You need to pick a major-and stop wasting your time, but most importantly our money!" Next thing I knew I was in hygiene school and graduating.

Now days my dad is a phone call away for sound advice. Whether I need advice on real estate, cars, money, or who to pick in my march madness brackets--he is there. I love you daddy!!

Mom's in Town!--Part 2

We did so much with my mom in town that I could have parts 3, 4, 5...and so on. However, I will condense it to this last post. I was fortunate to only have to work 3 days the whole time she was here!! So nice. We played a lot, and of course ate a lot. We went to the Diamondbacks game for memorial day with Grandma's 60 plus club! It was safe to say that Mom, Nick, and I were the youngest there by a good 40 or more years! You won't hear me complain though because we took a chartered bus, got dropped off at the entrance, and had excelled seats next to all the food. Being with old people does have its advantages--you hardly walk anywhere far!!

Also on the agenda was going to the Desert Botanical Gardens. We wanted to go there because it was the final weekend of the Dale Chihuly glass exhibit. It was so hot that day. We went around 4pm so we could see the glass during the day, but then also be there when it was dark because we had heard how neat it was to see how they light up all the glass.

We pretty much had no shame sweating through our shirts as we walked around the desert with the blazing sun beating down on us in the over 100 degree heat. Here are a few pictures of the glass.

Other highlights of Mom's visit included buying Grandma a new flat screen TV, and assembling her entertainment stand (3 hours later--we all sure do LOVE Nick---it looks great). We ate at some of our favorite restaurants, and Nick and I made Mom and Grandma dinner two nights. We ate lots of See's candy and Mom and Grandma even made pecan pie. Needless to say, the diet will now begin! We love you Mom and we are so glad you could come to AZ for a visit.

Mom's In Town! Part 1-Kartchner Caves

Mom came from Kentucky for a ten day visit! It was so fun to have her out here. Last Sunday (May 24th) we went to Tucson, where Carol (my mom's sister) and her husband, Jim live. We ate lunch at a gorgeous garden tea room. The weather couldn't have been better. From there we drove another hour SE and went to Kartchner Caves. They wouldn't let you take any pictures inside unfortanetly! We had a great time, other than the 90% humidity in the cave! I must say I was very impressed with grandma because she was passing all the fat middle-aged men in the cave!

It was pretty funny!

They had a museum and in it they had examples of different passageways that the explorers had to fit it. Hah--this is the only one that I could even budge! Must be the hips.

The classic picture of Nick and I at the entrace to the cave.

Mom and I outside the cave at the desert gardens.

Kyle and Becky's Wedding

Congrats to Kyle and Becky!! They were married On May 16th, 2009 in the Raleigh, North Carolina temple. They have been together for what---4 years--I've lost count! I am so excited to see my brother so happy and to have Becky in our family.

The family at the temple

Kyle and BeckyThe siblings on Kyle's Big Day!

Grandma Goodrich and Me

Bennett, Rachel, Mom, Me, and Katherine

Nick and I outside the Raleigh templeThe Rigmor house where the reception was held
Cutting the Cake

Katherine, Becky and I
Mr. and Mrs. Fiet making their exit.

The weekend was so much fun. The highlight of the reception had to be our family of course getting all sweaty dancing to Nick's wonderful DJ'ing. Even Grandma was out dancing, Bennett of course is always entertaining, and the night couldn't have been complete without Nick doing the splits in the soul train line! So funny!! The night before the wedding they had a BBQ, and Becky (being 1/4 mexican) had a true UNC fan pinata. Check out the pictures of this thing!

Kyle and Becky will leave in Washington DC where Kyle works for a law firm and Becky will be attending Georgetown to getting here Masters Degree in Nurse Anesthesia. We love you and Congrats!!

The Utah Trip--and one BUSY social agenda!

Busy doesn't begin to describe the how May 2009 is ending up. However with all this busyness comes fun! May 7-May 10th we went to Provo, Utah to see Nick's brother, Jake and his family. Jake is married to Jamie and they have three kids (Penny-6, Liam-3, Henry-6months). Jake was graduating from the Police Academy and Nick of course wouldn't miss it for the world so a road trip was in order. Provo is about 9-10 hours from Phoenix (depending on how crazy we drive). We couldn't leave until about 6:30 Thursday night so we decided to stay in Kanab, UT. After hitting up priceline.com we stayed at the Shilo Inn and Suites. I must say that it was pretty nice and very clean. Nick was a huge fan of the breakfast in the morning of course! So, if you ever need a place to stay on the drive-up to Utah we would recommend staying there.
Friday morning we finished the drive to Provo, hung out with family for a few hours before leaving to Jake's graduation. While waiting for everyone to get ready I decided to practice our funny face picture taking skills with Penny and Liam. I must say they did pretty well.

That night at Jake's police academy graduation he was honored as with several awards (top of class, shooting skills, most professional and highest moral standard), and even gave the speech at the ceremony! It was so great to be there to support him. At the end of the night when we were walking back to the car Penny said, "Aunt Jen, today was the best day of my life so far." So precious!! I am sure she is so ready for dad to be home more now. Jake was hired on full-time by a department and we are so excited for him to start this new adventure.

The Styer Boys!

We returned home for cake that night (so funny--see pictures below) and of course Jake's brother in law (who is also a cop) brought Jake his first box of donuts!

Saturday proved to only get busier. We had committed ourselves to 4 parties--so we somehow were going to make this happen! First thing was the BBQ that Jamie had planned for Jake at a park near their house. With hotdogs from Jake's favorite place, and tons of the above cake leftover, we had to burn off all the calories on the playground with the kids. Pictures of Party #1:

Party #2---A short visit with my sister at a BBQ she had for a friend who graduated. Here are a few pictures of us on the 'oh so famous' porch swing (thank you Paul).

Party #3--Russ Stout's graduation party! Russ is the husband of our friend Sheryll, who took our wedding pictures. Russ is 30 and just graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Utah. I think the cake said it all!!!

Party #4--Cory Bendixen's 30th Surprise Birthday party! Cory and Nick have been good friends for several years now. They started out as roommates and still share a love of softball and hunting that keeps them friends. Cory and his family live down the street from us, so when his wife told me that they were going to be in Utah when we were going to be there we were excited to hear that we would be able to go to the Hawaiian themed party!

Finally a trip to Utah wouldn't be complete with seeing some old BYU friends of mine. I was so excited to get in touch with Kristin!! She got engaged this last summer and is getting married in October. So it was so fun to get to hear all the details. Nick and I went to breakfast with her on the way back to Az. Love ya girl!

We had a great trip to Utah! I can't believe all the stuff that we did in just two full days. Whew! Congrats again to Jake!!!

And then the long car ride home took place.....ugh.

I need to contribute something to this blog.

Where do I even start? Jen wants me to write on this blog so bad, so I am. We are watching American Idol and I am hating this singer, Adam Lambert. He is too flamboyant for his own good and we have to put up with it. Finally Kris Allen sings Heartless and I have to say that song sounds better slowed down with a good vocal track.
Tonight I had my wife practically yelling at me to watch t.v., who would have thought? She wanted me to witness the nasty that is Adam Lambert. Now we are on to the show Biggest Loser. This show makes me depressed that I have given up lifting weights for working out my brain at school. I think this summer I will get back in there and get pumped up. I really need to because of the recent heart attack my dad suffered three weeks ago. Jen and I have pledged ourselves to healthy living. That's why we went to KFC for our free chicken that Oprah gave us. We wanted some healthy grilled chicken and ended up with regular and extra crispy thighs and legs. On top of that the local KFC threw in some pieces of grilled chicken for good measure. Just so you know the new grilled chicken is a wanna be rotisserie. Same grate taste and same level of greasiness.
Earlier in the day I met with a counselor at A.S.U for my new major in construction management. I have another 2 semesters to go before my upper level classes. The question is, should I just go ahead and transfer now to A.S.U or do I stay at M.C.C? The price difference is $2200 a semester. On the other hand I will be with other students of the program that I can work with throughout the program. I will be taking a pole.
I am being told that blogs are supposed to be short and sweet so I will end it with the saying "I'll be back". (Jen you have created a monster)

24-Hour Mullet

I will be the first to admit that I do feel bad for Nick when it comes to his hair. Don't get me wrong-I LOVE his hair. It is fun to play with, and it seems to be his signature trademark besides his southern accent. However, when it comes to getting his hair cut---all the things he and I hate about it come out. Nick's #1 complaint is that no one knows how to cut his hair because it is similar in texture (very coarse) to an African Americans. So when he goes into a Supercuts type place he says that the young girls with the bleach blonde hair attempting to cut his curly locks always butcher his head. So he knows that for two weeks after his hair is cut it is going to always look BAD.

So this last week I tell Nick, "Okay, two weeks before my brothers wedding you need to get your hair cut now so it will look presentable for pictures." He agrees and says he is going to try a new place. So, he goes to an actual barbershop thinking that they will know how to better cut curly hair. So $26 later (which I think is a lot for a mens haircut) Nick calls me at work to tell me he LOVES his new hair. He is so excited because finally he found a guy to cut his hair who has the same hair as him, and knew exactly what to do with it. I am all excited to get home from work so I can see this 'great' haircut.

I opened the door to find this.....a MULLET! And the saddest part is here I am all upset that he paid money for this haircut, and NO way is he having this party in the back haircut---and Nick was dead serious about loving it. He thought it was something fun and different to have for summer. I continued to reassure him that it looked redneck all the way. I was surprised at how mad I actually got. Lol. Thankfully, I can laugh about it now.

So, needless to say the next day Nick went and got another haircut ($20 bucks) and a total of $46 dollars later we have his hair back to the usual- way too short on the sides, but give it two weeks and it will look good- haircut. Uhh--and too think I somehow agreed that after the wedding he can do whatever he wants with it. Sigh. Sidenote---the pictures above don't do justice to how short it was on the sides and how long the back and front were.

Yes, the pictures were taken after the $26 haircut! A curly mullet--only 24 hours long thankfully. No after pictures, sorry---but a week later we are almost back to looking normal.