The Philippines Mcgynci Mission

Hey. It's Zach again. Crazy I know, but I think I might really like this whole blogging thing.

Last night I had one of those dreams that feels completely real. I had been called to serve a mission, even though I was married and had already served one mission. And this wasn't a couples mission, it was just me and a bunch of 19-year-olds. Anyway I was called to serve in the Philippines Mcgynci Mission (don't worry I checked this morning, this mission doesn't even exist) and I was speaking some really strange asian language (I'm sure something that doesn't exist either). It was one of those asian languages where they have to change your last name to an animal or something descriptive because they don't have the english sounds or words. My name was Elder (something along the lines of) I Little Little. Our teacher was teaching us how to contact people in the mission language, and how to introduce ourselves.

It's obvious that my work life is invading my dreams. I taught my new MTC district of 13 missionaries how to do those two things yesterday. But where on earth did this call to go to the Philippines come from?!

Later this morning I started thinking about the early members of the church, and especially the men who were called to leave their farms, wives, children, and everything else to serve the Lord in the mission field. How much faith did they need in order to trust that the Lord would take care of their families while they were away? I was shaken up by just the thought of leaving my precious wife, and it was just a dream!

Anyway, I am so grateful for missionary work, and the chance I have to work at the MTC. My new district is great. They are really funny and have a great desire to learn. It's fun.

And while I'm sure the Philippines is great, I am so grateful that I served in Brasil (terra adorada)!

Jerry Sloan

Zach here. I'm new to this whole blogging thing. In fact, this is my very first blog post ever. But I feel it is needed.

Yesterday, Jerry Sloan, 23-year head coach of the Utah Jazz, resigned. For those who don't know, I am a huge Jazz fan. Although I was raised in Arizona, I was born in Utah. My dad was born and raised in Utah, so he was a big Jazz fan, and I guess I was somewhat of a daddy's boy. My childhood was filled with Utah Jazz bedspreads, wallpaper, Stockton and Malone jerseys for my birthdays, a lot of ridicule from my friends at school (especially when the Jazz lost), and a lot of heartbreak (especially when the Jazz lost in the Finals two years in a row). Although the players have changed, one thing had always been the same: Jerry Sloan was on the sidelines every game. Drawing up plays, cursing at the refs, getting technical fouls just to pump some life into the team. And then yesterday, out of the blue, he stepped down.
Honestly, I didn't think something like this would really affect me this much, but it is just so sad the way that it happened. Kind of complicated, but it's just really sad. Maybe if it had been at the end of a good season where we went deep into the playoffs, or anything else really it would have been different. But the season just hasn't been going that great. More than anything, this news comes the day after a big loss to, of all teams, the Bulls. The same team that has caused so much other heartbreak and, yes, tears in my life.

Anyway, thanks Jerry Sloan, for 23 good years of basketball. Let's hope the Jazz can still win without him (tonight versus the Suns didn't look too good).

He Did it!!

After many years of school, then a mission, then more schooling, and transferring schools, and more school, we finally made it!

Zach was accepted into the Mechanical Engineering program at BYU!! YAY!

We're so excited about this because this program is not easy to get in to. Plus with all of the classes you have to take prior to applying and stuff and trying to transfer all of his math and science over from ASU he could have easily had to retake classes. So anyway, he got in!! And we are to excited to have something finally set so that we can start to make plans for our future here in Provo.

Love this boy. He works so hard and loves me so much. I can't wait to see where he goes in life and how I get to be a part of it.

Have a great weekend! Happy Jazz vs. Suns Game!

My Big Valentine's Day Project

I was checking out my favorite blogs when this little cutie caught my eye.

Thank goodness it came along with a tutorial on how to make it (http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/2010/02/heart-cake-tutorial.html). I've been doing A LOT of baking and cooking these past couple of weeks. Well, I guess you could say I've been learning how to use my cool appliances that do the baking for me. I made some bread and some pizza dough in my bread maker. And I made some chocolate chip cookies and the yummiest cinnamon roles using my Bosch on Sunday. Even ask Zach, they were so good. So I'm gonna try this guy out this Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes.

Story of the Night

The night was cold with snow flakes falling

Our Book of Mormon test was calling

I baked a pizza to fill our tummies

And let me tell you it was yummies

With pencil in hand we headed out

When something peculiar came about

It was quite a surprise but with nothing to fear

From out of the bushes appeared four big deer.

We watched them in awe, not moving a muscle

Then with a small squeal we started to hustle

We followed in secret till we were discovered

Then in a split second they all ran for cover.

Then with a small sigh we went on our way

We really wanted those cute deer to stay

But when we arrived at the test center door

They told us they couldn't admit anymore

So homeward we went as we held each other near

The adventure was worth it. Our best one this year.

p.s. This really happened. But don't worry we can

take our test tomorrow, even though we have to pay for it now:(

1954 Hotpoint Dishwasher Commercial

Just a funny old commercial. I thought it was cute.

The Dishwasher

First things first, I LOVE having a dishwasher. Living with 3 female roommates in a tiny Boston apartment with no dishwasher did that for me. But the first time we used our dishwasher in our apartment I had to ask myself a few things. How the heck does a dishwasher work? And WWWHHHHYYYYY is it so flippin loud! Seriously we have strict rules that we only turn it on at night or when I'm not around because I can't be nice and have that thing on at the same time (except for right now, I turned it on when I left for work then didn't stay at work so here I am writing this post about it). The big question is, what is going on in that big box of noise. Well, I'm not going to explain it all on here but you can visit this link ( http://home.howstuffworks.com/dishwasher.htm ) to read more about it. It's awesome.

It is just wonderful what people are coming up with these days. From dishwashers to skyscrapers, to angry birds ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Birds ). Despite global warming and rap, sometimes people actually come up with some neat stuff.

For example!

This is a gift card to Macaroni Grill. It has magic powers so that people like your in-laws can give it to you for your birthday so that when they can't be here to take you to dinner themselves you can take yourself without spending any of your own money.

And this is us at Macaroni Grill doing exactly that (thank you Broughs). We have really come to understand the beauty of gift cards.

p.s. We didn't actually eat out for my birthday but for our 8 month wedding anniversary! woo hoo!

Fall Semester and my BIRTHDAY!

I'm

And it feels great. Here are a few photos of me being 21, plus some from the past few months. Don't worry I totally forgot to take my camera home for Christmas and Zach's brother Jordan's wedding so I've got nothing from those fun breaks. But we had a blast. Let's catch up a bit.

Mom had cupcakes brought to me at work. How cute is she?! Zach and I ate them all. No sharing! They were delicious. I'm also going to enjoy a lot of birthday shopping thanks to my parents, Zach's parents, and Grandma and Grandpa Brough. Thanks guys!!!
Zach woke me up with the music to Sara Bareilles' new album Kaleidoscope Heart (We have been obsessed with the album and the music for weeks), some awesome makeup from Mac that I've been wanting, and he shrunk and laminated my patriarchal blessing for me! He's so cute.
And, even though you can't see them in these pictures, we had a bunch of friends over Sunday night for games and cake. Super fun. (kind of smoky in this picture)

I totally forgot to make a wish... lame. p.s. see the ziplock bag by the toaster behind my right elbow? Inside that bag contains my first loaf of bread maker bread which I got for Christmas from Nancy (the bread maker, not the bread). And it turned out awesome!!! Thanks Nancy and Don!!

OK. So let's start near the beginning of the semester.

This is Zach playing intramural football with some guys from our ward. He had some awesome plays and he's hot. It was the first time I'd really seen him play sports. It was way fun.

This is a super fun date that Zach totally planned out for us one Friday night. Tandem biking to Sonic. Good ole Provo fun:)
First Halloween together! We had one trick-or-treater... Sadly he was all by himself, but it's good that he was because all we had to give him was Zach's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that we just bought for our movie night... it was pretty funny.

Here are our pumpkins!!

Here we are at Zach's mission reunion with Pres. Oppe. Really wish I spoke Portuguese at times like these.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows midnight showing!
This is what you see when you open our door after a night of snowing. So pretty!

Our latest fun thing was going to see one of my best friends Rachel Kiene open her mission call to the Honk Kong China mission, Cantonese speaking!!!!!!! SO excited for her. She leaves sometime in May I think... Woo Hoo!

So that's about all of the pictures I took last semester and we are as busy, if not busier this semester so I'm not making any promises to be better.

Have a great weekend!