Bat Craaaazy

...Hopefully Sarah got a chance to hear her birthday music by now because I decided to update the tunes to the top songs of 1999 - the year most of us met :) Enjoy!

Here is a picture of the Doug and I from last week. We went with Derek & Emily (the in-laws) to see one of the biggest tourist attactions in Austin, the bats. They live under the the dowtown bridge during spring and summer and each night at dusk the cloud of them goes south to get food in the night. It is really quite the incredible sight. Unfortunately because of the weird weather we've been having, they didn't all come out at once the night we went, so the sight wasn't as spectacular. We were all disappointed.

Check out their sight: http://www.batcon.org/home/index.asp?idPage=122

P.S. If you enlarge the pic, you can see my psycho red bat eyes! Ha!

This is for Brooke...

Well here's another Six Flags pic for you...


So I'm still working at the University of Texas and going on my 4th year...wait maybe 5th - o no I'm losing track of time! Yikes! The job is a job but I do enjoy working on campus, I love the campus feeling even though it's nothing like our old beloved campus, believe me. I'm also enrolled in a Master's Program - Master of Public Administration (MPA) to be exact. Now I know you are all wondering what that means and what I'm going to do with it. These are all very good questions to which I don't really have an answer. The MPA is basically the public sector version of the MBA so I'll be prepared to boss people around in federal and state agencies - something I'm sure I'll be excellent at - ha! Anyway my first session just finished up a few weeks ago and I got myself a big fat 'A'! I was pretty excited about that considering I honestly had no idea what I'd get - freaky feeling. While going back to school has been really exciting I had forgotten how hard and annoying school can be sometimes. Staying up all night to write a paper is really not my favorite thing to do!

Anyway, other than that things are pretty much the same. My lil twin brothers are about to get their driver's license which freaks me out every time I think about it. My mom is still dating a Jew (which is weird for a whole lot of reasons) and I'm still single in the singles ward...but there are a lot of fun people to hang out with down here so it's be good times.

O and on the funnier side...I totally write the advice column for our ward newsletter. It's anonymous and called 'Ask Red'. When we gave it that name I thought for sure people would know it was me right away but they don't - it cracks me up all the time. Anyway people submit questions about anything and once a week I answer one in the newsletter. I must say I'm pretty dang funny sometimes - ha - but seriously it's been a lot of fun. I'll try to remember to send you some of the better samples.

Later,
Steph

One year older

Thank you Lizzy for the birthday song and thank you everyone for the nice b-day messages. This has been a great summer off and I am sad to go back to work. I return on Aug. 22. On Aug 5th Brad blessed Mason, and the Friday before that we took the boys to Lagoon. Wyatt was unsure about the rides and freaked out when we would put him on the ride by himself, but Noah had fun. We have gone to our cabin a few times this summer and will go more in the fall when there are not as many bugs. I took the boys to get their pictures taken this week which is a major accomplishment for me. Little boys getting pictures taken in a lot of work and very exhausting. Well a lot of work and very exhausting sums up my summer. We have had a good time playing in sandboxes and swimming pools.

Okay I wrote what you just read a few weeks ago. I am now back to work and I am sad, but we are looking into the possability of my quiting in October and hopefully being able to get a part time job. Everyone pray for me that it will really work out.

Weekend in KC

Well, we just had a nice time with the Kent family in Missouri this past weekend. Brett played several hours of tennis with all the guys while the girls went shopping for bridesmaid dresses on Friday, and had a nice baby shower for Kristen on Saturday. We also enjoyed some good Kansas City bbq and saw the newest addition to the "city of fountains". Now it's back to Lincoln and work for the both of us. Brett is keeping busy working at UNL now, preparing to teach several classes in the fall, and we're trying to stay out of the 100 degree heat!

Sarah is 26!!

Sarah - Hope you have a great day. Wish we could be there for the celebration :)

...just call me Iron Chef Lizzy

Heeeey ladies! Hope everyone is having a fabulous summer. Stephanie and I took off work last Thursday and went to Six Flags in San Antonio, where we had this charicature done. I've always loved these things. We had a fun time...


Last week Doug and I had our own Iron Chef America competition. I'm so mad that I didn't get pictures. It was freaking hilarious!! We each had to make a 3-course meal... in 80 minutes. His brother, Derek, chose the 'secret ingredient' which he unveiled just moments before our timers were set. It turned out to be pineapple, which I was pretty excited about. Derek and his wife, Emily... along with our 2 missionaries were the judges. They said they'd never had a dinner like that before. Of course, I won. It was so cute how Doug thought he even had a chance.


Last week I also found out that I got into this leadership program at the VA. It starts next month and runs until June 2008. I'm most excited about the trips we get to take. My first trip is to St. Louis at the end of Sept. I'll be managing my current work load, plus working on all the projects for this program... so it might be a little crazy - but it should be fun. At least it'll keep me busy, busy while Doug finishes this Masters program. (I'm so ready for this to be done - I miss my Douglas!)


Anyway, I have been meaning to post these pictures of my doggies for Brooke. She asked for them like a month ago... Here are my babies, Seua and Frankie :)

San Diego or BUST

Hello ALL!!! It's the Smiths again. Ryan and had the pleasure of taking a mini vacation down to San Diego last weekend for Carla Kopotic's (my first roommate here in St. G) wedding to David S? I can't spell his last name...it's polish or something?!? Any who, while we were there we got to spend the afternoon together with the Aird family...little Easton is adorable! I think he really liked hanging out with his Aunt Brooke:-) It was so nice to catch up with Katie and Rob too!!! After Carla's reception Saturday night we drove back to LV and then the next morning we drove all the way up to SLC to see Ryan's family for a couple days. Ryan just turned 30 last Monday on the 23rd. It was long trip but it was nice to have some vacation time together. We are doing great, working hard but having fun at the same time. It seems like we have been either very lucky or very un-lucky lately...here are some of the things we have faced...

Bad Luck- Ryan's truck broke down

Good Luck - It cost $5000.00 to fix, which was covered under some weird warrant, we didn't even have to pay the deductable

Bad Luck - My Jeep quick working

Good Luck - Ryan got the battery re-placed for free and did the labor him self

Bad Luck - Ryan and Huggy have been fishing the AVA bass fishing tournament and the boat caught on fire...

Good Luck - no one got hurt, and the damage was minimal, it took a couple days to do some of the electrical work and once again Ry did it all...after all he thinks it was his fault the boat started on fire....oops! :-)

Bad Luck - Our washing machine quit working

Good Luck - Ryan's mom happened to have a spare washing and drying machine in their garage (another reason we went up to salt lake city over the last weekend)

(Bad Luck - I now have to start doing laundry again!!!)

Bad Luck - My credit card number was stolen and I bought $500 dollars worth of Prescription drugs in NYC

Good Luck - My c/c company froze the account and I don't have to pay for the prescriptions

Bad Luck - Ryan's nice big screen TV stopped working...

Good luck - (for me anyway) the TV is in our bed room so now Ry doesn't keep me up late while he is watching TV...maybe I should tell him to plug it back in?!? Just kidding

Now, I understand that bad things happen to good people, and typically one would be able to handle anyone of these things that have been mentioned...the problem I have is that this all happened in about a 48 hour time period (except for Ry truck, we have been dealing with that for a couple weeks).

Other then that we have been doing pretty good. My sister Calli, Matt and baby Dixon just moved to Philly to go to Dental School. I miss them tremendously!!! I added the last picture I had with Dixon as they were getting ready to pack up their apartment!

I miss you guys and LOVE you all! Love, Brooke and Ryan Smith