Our Secret

Posted by Mark:

We're going to have a baby!

Although Kimmi and I did once discuss whether or not we could just wait until we had the baby to tell people, we decided that was a tad unrealistic and instead we planned to wait until we at least knew the sex of the baby. So that day came yesterday and we're having a boy! Kimmi and I are both REALLY excited. The baby is due on 10/10/2010. We hope he comes on his due date because we think that would be the coolest birthday ever. We are incredibly happy to have this spirit joining our little family! And I think our extended family is somehow even more excited then we are!

Look What I Found

Posted by Mark:

So I found this post as a "draft" from way back in October 2009. Not sure why I never posted it. anyway I still think a lot of these comments are funny and true so enjoy:

If you're not someone who likes those "long list" posts then you should just go back to what you were doing before now.....or just go to someone elses blog. But it's 3am and Im bored waiting for my wife to get home from work... therefore I stole this off a friends blog who admits to stealing it from someone else who stole it from someone else... one big ring of theft....I love the circle of kife. Anyway I thought quite a few of these were relevant to myself so I wanted to copy our good friend Megan and bold the ones that I completely agree with as well as maybe add a tid bit of my own commentary which I put in Orange

*More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Mark: "I find I do this when someone is telling me their name as well.... I tend to try and think of something clever to say or a question ask during this time and while I was doing that I completely forgot the name they told me..."

*Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

*Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

*I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

Mark: "I recall as a child walking around the house on Sunday afternoons and saying to myself. "Why is everyone taking a nap?? there are so many more entertaining things to do!" Now of course I couldn't disagree more! I LOVE a good nap and take one as often as occasion permits. In college I would purposely arrange my classes so that I would have an hour or so break in between that I might make my way to the quiet nooks of the library and catch a few ZZZZZ's Now I practically race out of church so I can get home to my bed as quickly as possible and take an extra long nap."

*Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

Mark: "I completely agree with this one. If I want to add someone to my friends I would have done it already. And another thing, if I've rejected someone once, why would I accept the friend request 2 or 3 times later....get a clue "

*Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no Internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

Mark: "If you owned a Nintendo you had your secret formula. I found that pounding on the top of the system helped as well."

*There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Mark: "I've had many a misunderstood instant message / text message conversation due to the lack of a sarcasm font!"

*Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

Mark: "This happened to me the other day when I was watching a great classic 80's movie The Secret to my Success staring Michael J. Fox... I remember how much I liked watching it as a kid and now after seeing It as an adult I realized it really wasn't a movie young kids should be watching...."

*I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

Mark: "Bottle Rocket to name one"

*How are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

Mark: "I struggle with this one... I usually just end up rolling it up and just jamming it into the sheet drawer."

*I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

Mark: "Kimmi points this out to me every time we go shopping. I let her grab as many as she wants and then I do everything in my power to carry every last one of the ones she left behind so that I wont have to come outside again. tell me is that being Lazy? or trying to prove ones manliness??"

*I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

*The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

*Was learning cursive really necessary?

*Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

Mark: "I usually take it to mean "leave me alone I'm busy and don't have time to write anything else." For me I choose to use haha instead"

*I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Mark: "I will often find myself wandering around the kitchen when I'm bored going from cupboard to cupboard looking for something that looks good. This process can repeat itself 4 or 5 times thinking that magically something that wasn't in the cupboard before will present itself to be eaten....."

*Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

Mark: "Ive always been a firm believer in following ones instinct but yeah when a cruel teacher does this you begin to second guess oneself like no other!"

*My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.

*Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart.”

*How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

Mark: "I go for the rule of 2. I ask "what" twice and if I still don't understand, I just pretend that I did and hope that I'll figure it out later or someone else explains it to me."

*I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent an idiot from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

*Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

Mark: "I tend to go explain letters in categories. My favorite category is animals, however this often gets me in trouble because when you get to the weird letters I begin to draw this spoken of 'blank'..... "that's U as in.....unicorn...." Totally makes me look like an idiot. Interestingly enough though one of my pet peeves is when people describe the letters of my last name and use "D as in dog"... as though its' derogatory or something. not sure why it bugs me.

*What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

*While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

*MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Mark: "Also, because of technology, I've started ignoring people when they give me turn by turn directions and I just pretend like I'm writing what you say down. "Yeah I have a pen and paper, so I take a left and then a right at the stop sign? Got it." when in reality I'm just going to type the address into my iPhone and look at my map."

*Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

Mark: It's like watching a movie and cutting off the last 10 minutes....I kind of feel cheated."

*I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Mark: "I still find it hard to believe that this one is true. If you do this I'm sorry, I think your a moron. What I've always wanted is one of those shower turn on valves that digitally displays the temperature in degrees. So cool."

*Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

*I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

*Bad decisions make good stories.

*Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

*Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

*If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

*Why is it that during an ice- breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....and in the meantime I don't hear a single name or hometown because I'm so nervous

*You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

*Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

Mark: This is the reason I don't buy many DVD's. I'm all for improved technology. if you make something better I HOPE they change to it.

*There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

*I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

*"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

*I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

*I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dang it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

*I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

*When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light Internet stalking.

*I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Mark: "I've been experiencing this lately during our remodel. I wanted to conduct an experiment to see how many songs I can get through on shuffle. its also a good gauge as to how many hours I've put into working on the house. I think I'm up to like 500 songs. granted I have skipped a few because of this exact thing spoken of. A crappy song will come on and I'll say to myself "why do I have this song!!" they need to put a 'delete' button on ipods so this problem doesn't happen. If I say to myself that I'll delete it next time I'm attached to itunes it will NEVER happen. sigh... oh well..."

*Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

*As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

*Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

*It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

*I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

Mark: "I still have some numbers from like 6 years ago!! It's really quite stupid because they have yet to call me and I've switched phone numbers 4 times so there is no way they should know my number by now, but I'm still worried the second I delete the number they're going to call and I'll have to talk to them."

*Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

*Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey- but I'd bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

*My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How do I respond to that?

*It really ticks me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

*I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

*The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fatty before dinner.

Distractions......Distractions........

Posted by Mark:

I had a little free time at work today so I thought it was time to give you a little peek into our latest distraction that we’ve acquired in our lives.

Kimmi and I are once again proud home owners! As most of you know we bought a home in Bountiful, Utah. To put it mildly it was kind of a nerve racking experience and because of which we hope we don’t have to buy another house in a long, long time. If it wasn’t the stress of trying to weigh out our likes and dislikes, wants and needs with the ever impending budget, it was the fact that the sellers of the home were acting like children whose favorite toy was about to be taken away. Difficult to work with to say the least. In the end we are happy to own a home again and are excited to start our new lives there.

I say start because we have yet to move in. Believe it or not, we bought another fixer-upper (we’re gluttons for punishment I guess). And before we move in we decided to do a few updates that would be a whole lot easier without us and all our stuff hanging around to get in the way (you’ll understand by the photos).

The Decision Process: At first Kimmi and I were dead set on not buying another older home. In our minds we had decided that we’ve done the whole home remodel thing, and were ready to buy a home that’s already been updated and is move in ready. During our home search, we walked through an older home that was COMPLETELY remodeled, but made us think twice. It was a very nice, very fancy home but Kimmi and I looked at each other and realized that it just wasn’t 'us'. So our search direction changed. We wanted to make another house OUR own.

Unfortunately, for our saintly real estate agent, the only thing we weren’t picky on was location. We would have bought a place anywhere in the SLC valley as long as it was within a 30 minute radius of work. So, the sky was the limit as to where we’d move. Our pickiness finally started kicking in when we started seeing a countless number of homes with dinky little yards. I LOVE a nice big yard. The more yard work the better. I wanted someplace that I could really sink my teeth into and of course a place where Beatrice would have room to run and roam to her hearts content. Thus Salt Lake was striking out. We couldn’t find one that suited our needs.

Then we started searching in Bountiful and found a great older home with a huge back yard. It’s only draw-back was that it was an estate sale. At first I didn’t see it as a draw-back. I saw it as a bonus! In my mind I thought the kids would want to off load that house ASAP!! I was dead wrong. They had this attachment to the place that reminded me of bickering children. None of the siblings could agree on anything. After placing an offer on the house, we didn’t hear back from them officially for a WEEK!!! I have never had a more stressful, sleepless week in my life. I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. Ridiculously, we found out that they were disputing over the littlest stuff! For example they were unhappy about the fact that I had asked for them to leave one of the TWO lawn mowers that were just chilling in the shed (since mine died in Twin Falls I needed another one). They rudely said no and to be honest I didn’t care at all! As long as I got the freaking house. In the end they came to their senses and left me one...the non working one that I have yet to figure out how to fix. Anyway to wrap up this little home search saga, we FINALLY got the home and ever since the keys were placed in my anxious little hands, I’ve been driving up every day after work to put a few hours of manual labor into the rejuvenation process. Also every Saturday since that day has been entirely devoted to my projects. Thanks to all of you that have also selflessly offered your services to assist me in the process. You’ve been very helpful!

The Remodel Process: So, there's the story. Now let’s get on to a few photos. You’ll probably see some of these pictures again in some later posts, labeled as the “Before” and "during" photos, but at least you can see what we are working with at the moment.

Weirdly, I haven't taken a picture of the front of the house yet so you get a screen shot of googlemaps. This is our pretty house.



This is the front room (before). Yes, that is a pink marble fireplace. As for what we've done and plan to do to this room: I've taken the popcorn off the ceilings and plan on painting the sheetrock underneath (this was also done to the 3 bedrooms upstairs), taken down the horrible curtains, and pulled up all carpet on main floor (there's nice hardwood underneath that we're getting refinished next week). We also plan to cover up that fireplace with a stone face.



(During) Pretty hard wood floors!


This is the Master bedroom (Before). As I mentioned the carpet is out and the lovely wall paper boarder is off the wall now.



(During)


This is the family room downstairs. eventually we'll take all the wood paneling down and change the color of the carpet, but as of now it will stay the same. We're trying to just focus on the upstairs.



This was the kitchen (Before). I say "was" because its all gone now. We ripped it out last Saturday. A new kitchen is in store.... We just need to decide who's going to build it for us. That should be decided this week



(During)


This is my garage packed with all the cabinets and carpet ready for the dump.


This is the awesome upstairs bathroom. we're pretty much keeping it the same. Just tiling the floor instead of carpet, replacing the pink toilet, and getting the pink sink and tub painted white.



The last three pictures are of the back yard. It's pretty overgrown but it will be a nice project when we get to it.

Right outside the back door.



Looking down towards the property line fence



This is looking back at the house after just turning around 180 degrees from the last picture. Someday down the line with a little blood, sweat, and tears it will be a nice little oasis.

Getting up to date

It’s been quite a long while since we've updated, so it’s time to write a few things about what we’ve been up to over the past few months.

I guess the biggest news as of late is that our house is under contract up in Twin Falls. YEAHHH! Of course I’m not trying to be too excited until we have the papers signed and I no longer have house keys on my key chain. But things seem to be going well. Last Saturday Kimmi and I went up to Twin to get the rest of our furniture out. My father was gracious enough to allow us to park our stuff in his storage unit until we find our next place. I really hope he wasn’t planning on trying to get anything out of there because it’s now pretty much packed to the gills. Cleaning the house out was a big moment for us. Even though we haven’t lived in Twin for a few months, Kimmi and I felt quite depressed knowing that Saturday was probably the last time we would see the house we so lovingly created. We locked the front door and drove away with a little hole in our heart left by the loss of our first home together.

But we move on, and with our house on the way to being sold comes the great fun we now have to go find a new house of our own somewhere in and around SLC. Sadly we haven’t had a great deal of luck as of yet. It’s odd to see but our taste in homes seems to be evolving. We’ve been perusing real estate listings on a daily basis and going on walk through’s every few days. At first we were pretty set on not having to do much of any renovations on our next house seeing that we did all that on our last place. But as we walked through a home last week that was completely renovated we said to each other “actually I don’t like this. I want a house that we have to do work to, it makes it that much more of our home.” So yeah for now the search continues. We’ve found a few that we “like” but nothing as of yet that has sung out to us “buy me, buy me!!!” We shall keep you posted. We have enlisted my best friend’s mother Susan to help us in the search. She’s a realtor and has been very helpful as we knew she would be. We know there’s a house that fits our style out there somewhere it’s just a matter of finding it!

One of the many great parts of moving back to Salt Lake is that we knew we’d be able to attend a few more cultured events then we were used to and last week was just such an event. Kimmi and a few of her friends from work got tickets for the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour at the UofU. For over 3 days at Kingsberry Hall they show a small collection of the hundreds of short outdoor adventure films submitted to the film festival. We went to two of the three nights and really enjoyed it! some of our favorites were: 1) a film about a British guy who decided to bike from the tip top of Alaska all the way down to the bottom of Argentina, all on a tandem bicycle and picked up random strangers to help him on the way. He did all the filming on his own and it took him over TWO YEARS to do it!! Pretty crazy stuff. 2) A normal looking 20 year old kid who is the world premiere free solo climber who climes these crazy high cliffs like Half Dome in the Yosemite without any ropes or gear! 3) A family of three and the dog traveling across Canada's rivers in a canoe, all to find an author and talk about his adventures in the same places. Overall, these films were about crazy people doing crazy stuff outdoors. It was quite entertaining to say the least. It was fun to see the demographic of the people in attendance as well. I swear the Monday that we went was Puffy Coat Day and the Wednesday that we went was Beanie day. I was just glad that I decided to wear my North Face jacket both nights so I in some way fit in. My older brother Alan would have LOVED it. Anyway like I said we had fun and we for sure plan on going again next year.

On the drive home one of the nights we got stopped at a light next to an outdoor store. I kept asking Kimmi if I could pick up rock-climbing or Kayaking or ice-climbing or extreme unicycling but weirdly enough she said no to all of them!! I don’t know why...

This is a picture of the normal looking kid who turned out to be a CRAZY!

NO ROPES!!!!

I’m not quite sure what else to write about so I’ll just go ahead and call it good for now. I will have to find my camera to see if there are any good pictures I can post later on about any other odds and ends going on in our little world.

Holidays in rewind

Posted by: Kimmi

Wow it has been an extremely long time since we have written, so its time to catch up! As the title states, this post is completely about the holidays. And since our last post was in Nov, I am starting with Thanksgiving. Warning this could get long!

Thanksgiving was spent with my family. I think Thanksgiving is truly a favorite holiday of mine, and I was very grateful that we are now in SLC and able to attend all family functions. We got together that afternoon, ate everything in site, then settled down with carrot cake and a rousing game of pictionary. Its just to bad it was pictionary jr, and much to easy to be a competitive game. Still fun none the less. Here is the one and only picture from Thanksgiving. Me, my sister and my aunt Kathie. Great times!


On to December...Another family tradition of mine is a pajama party, complete with a taco bar! My family always wears there best pajamas(my uncle is always in long johns). We should really start up a contest or something. And to finish off the night we have a white elephant exchange. I made off with the scrabble slam card game and wash cloths, and Mark got a disk shooter and a book called "The ape in the corner office." Strangely fitting. My stepbrother got some grannie panties which were the big hit of the night. Check out the photos!

Ahhh Christmas, what a great holiday. And again, I can't say how grateful I am to not have to work and be away from the family. New jobs with great hours are wonderful! So Christmas Eve was spent with my dads side of the family. The night was filled with more food and friendly conversation. Christmas morning was spent with my family. We got some great gifts and a great breakfast. Its just too bad a woke up sick. I guess it was my turn this year. Luckily it turned out to be just a cold. Here are the pictures!

The rest of the day was spent with Marks family (I made sure to keep me distance from his grandparents). We helped make dinner (and Marks moms dinner is seriously one of the best!) It was fun catching up with family, especially Alan and Lindsay who were in town from North Carolina. This is a horrible picture, but its the only one from Christmas day. Check out my tribute to Rudolf!

And last but not least, New Years! Tim and Ashley decided to open up there home for a small get together. We played some great games, and had a great time counting down the clock. Welcome to the New Year!!

My love of moshing

Posted by Mark:

You know how you go through phases in life? Like on my mission I went through a grilled cheese sandwich phase where I ate two grilled cheese sandwiches with a bowl of top ramen every day for lunch. That lasted a few months but I soon grew tired of it and moved onto my next food phase. Well, when I got home from my mission I went through a concert phase (I know the concert and grilled cheese sandwich phase don’t exactly relate well but food phases are the only thing I can think of right now). Anyway, I got home and was trying to get back into the whole “music scene.” Mostly trying to figure out who I liked and who I didn’t.

So after a bit of research and suggestions from my good friend Chris Leppert, I started listening to a few bands to which I soon quite enjoyed. Shortly thereafter I found out that these bands would be coming to town and playing in extremely small venues. This was unusual and new for me because before this time I had only been to two concerts in my life. Dave Mathews Band and Depeshe Mode. Both these concerts were held in the E-center where you were restricted to the seat your ticket told you to sit (not that fun). However, after going to these smaller venues, I fell in love with the entire concert experience that these relatively obscure bands brought.

I loved how close you could get to the stage by just muscling your way forward through the throngs of people. I loved being surrounded by fellow fans that would yell out the lyrics to the songs just as loud as I would. I loved the loud music that resonated throughout my body. But most of all I loved the mosh pits. Now most of you might think this is stupid and extremely violent, but anyone that participates regularly in mosh pits will agree that there are several different levels of mosh pitting. These different levels ranged from the simple group of people just jumping up and down in unison all the way to the better known and violent kinds that consisted of people throwing powerful fists and elbows causing serious pain and discomfort. I tended to stick to the mid level mosh pits. There was just something fun about jumping around pushing others about and the occasional crowd surfing that made the evening extremely rewarding.

I really couldn’t tell you how many concerts I went to during this little phase in life but it was a lot! If I had to pick a favorite concert it would have to be the Dashboard Confessional concert back in 2005. This concert was at a private party hosted by Le-Tigre clothing up in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. Not only is Dashboard my absolute favorite band ever, I think I enjoyed this specific concert so much because I randomly stumbled upon it while reading the newspaper. At first I was disheartened to learn that it was a private party and there was no amount of money that one could pay to get tickets (believe me I know because I tried bribing anyone I talked to). I wasn’t about to let this bit of bad news stop me. To make a long story short, I went up to Park City anyway and hung around outside the venue for almost 3 hours in the freezing cold of January. Then just before throwing in the towel and return home defeated, almost commando like, I masterfully devised a plan in which I jumped a wall, hid behind a sign, and ran out of sight behind at least a dozen 300 pound bouncers (who also wouldn’t be bribed) until I emerged victorious inside the venue free to enjoy the concert to my liking. Looking back I think I was on an adrenalin high from the sneaking into the concert, but couple that with the fact that this was the first time I had seen my favorite band live... you get the best concert ever!

Like most phases in life I matured and grew out of it. I got tired of finding a few dozen bruises all over my body the next day, I got tired of being squished and surrounded by 1000 sweaty adolescent kids. But most of all I think what changed me was having a serious girlfriend/wife. Kimmi wasn’t exactly blessed with the height gene so when she got into those kinds of crowds she would be swallowed by the people around her (Side note by Kimmi: I used to like mosh pits until the horrible day that a 300 lb sweaty man was dropped on me while he was trying to crowd surf. I vowed never again!) So yeah I cared greatly for my wife's safety. We still went to a few concerts here and there, but tried to stay away from the large hoards of people. Lastly, moving to Twin Falls didn’t help much. If you can imagine, south eastern Idaho isn’t exactly a hot bed for band tours.

Now upon moving back to Salt Lake we will once again have the chance to start attending a few select concerts here and there and last week Kimmi was gracious enough to alert me of an impromptu Dashboard Confessional concert at our favorite Venue “In the Venue” (not really a clever name for a venue). When Kimmi called to tell me of the event, I nearly fell off my chair in the excitement of trying to hang up from the voice message that she left and getting online to buy tickets! I quickly had two tickets and looked forward to the next day’s concert. The reason we love this specific venue so much is because we can avoid the herd of people congregating around the stage and head straight up to their over 21 balcony level that wraps around the entire building. Up here we have a great view and we were able to get a great seat perched high in the rafters to just enjoy the music without being surrounded by psycho teenagers.

The concert was fantastic. It was an acoustic set in which he played songs predominantly from his first few albums (the albums I love the most). Even the opening band was a group that Kimmi and I strongly enjoy so the entire evening was a huge success. I walked away, as usual, without a voice and extremely satisfied with my return to the SLC concert scene.

Conclusion: Hands down the 2nd best concert I’ve ever been to!

P.S. If you recall from my last post our camera is out of juice so we were unable to personally take photos of the event. Luckily, we sat next to a nice couple who upon asking us if we’d take a photo of them, agreed in return to take a photo of us and email it to me after the show. Personally, I think we got the better end of the deal.Here are the photos! Enjoy.

Here we are in our great seats. As you can see we were literally in the rafters. The bench we sat on was at least six feet above the balcony I spoke of in the post.

This is the opening band New Found Glory. They said that this was the first acoustic tour they've ever done and found it different not to see the entire crowd mosh pitting to their songs. They were a very funny band live. PLease notice the formal wear they decided on just for us.

And this is the ah-inspiring Dashboard Confessional. I think this is now the fourth time I've seen him live. Great, great, band. Love it.

REALLY long update about the Dibb family. Grab a chair and a glass of eggnog cause you have a lot to read today!

Posted by Mark:

As a great deal of you most likely know, Kimmi and I are officially back living and working in SLC. I’d like to declare that my slackness in updating my blog is entirely due to the fact that we’ve been quite busy re-acclimating to some sort of normalcy in our day to day life. I can’t say that we are fully back to that point, but when the day comes that you start getting people coming up to you and asking why we haven’t updated our blog in so long, you know it’s time to take a few minutes and give a bit of an update.

I’ll warn you in advance that if you were looking forward to some lovely photos that you are so used to seeing on our blog then you will most likely be sorely disappointed. I anticipate this post to be entirely words. Truly one of the worst parts about moving is that you lose all competency as to where your stuff is or what box you packed which item. Such is the story with our camera charger. The battery on the camera is dead and we are 50% sure as to which box the charger is packed in but we are 0% sure as to where the box is placed inside Ken and Linda’s garage. In the next few days we should be relocating all the boxes currently residing in the garage to our newly built shed(see below), so we should be able to find the cord at that point (or at least we’ll know for sure if it’s in the box we think it is in).

Upon leaving the lovely town of Twin Falls we have placed our beloved home for sale and until the house sells we will not be able to purchase a new home (because who wants to pay two mortgage payments!! Not me). So until that bitter sweet day arrives we have planted our roots in the basement of Kimmi’s parents house in Murray. Our living arrangements may be tight, but I can’t complain to its freeness and the fact that on most nights Kimmi’s mom makes a fantastic home cooked meal for dinner. Due to our lack of storage space almost all of our known possessions are stored in the garage. Not wanting to plug up Ken and Linda’s garage for a few months Kimmi came up with a brilliant idea. Instead of throwing perfectly good money away to the monthly fee of a storage unit we would purchase a relatively inexpensive shed to erect on the side of the house and store all the stuff in there. Then after we find a new place to live we can either take the shed with us, sell the shed to Ken and Linda to use at their own personal convenience, OR sell it to Joe Schmo on craigslist. Thus saving the all mighty $$.

We spent a great deal of our Thanksgiving weekend building this shed and after hundreds and hundreds of screws and bolts we were almost completely done! It took about two more after work evenings to complete the entire project. I must point out that Kimmi is a fantastic site supervisor. She kept me from the frustration of trying to decipher the gibberish (a.k.a. Instructions) as well as keeping me from the many times that I felt that I knew best and wanted to jimmy rig a solution to a problem that could easily be solved by referring to the above gibberish. Granted, my ideas would have worked, but in the long run I probably would have made it worse. I think we spent a good 10 hours building this thing not including the time I spent building a lovely wooden foundation for it to rest on. When it is done we will be ready to free the garage from the clutter that is our stuff and of course replace it with the items that are our cars. I think Kimmi and I could both do without having to go start our frigid cars each morning so we don’t die of frostbite on the way to the Trax station.

Yes you did read correctly, we are taking Trax to work every day! This is especially new and unusual for me due to the fact that I used to have a dead set resolve to never in my life ride Utah’s light rail system. Not that I don’t think Trax is a wonderful thing for Salt Lake, I just liked the look on peoples face when I told them of my quest (since for so long Trax had no convenience for me). It was easy to go these 10 years without riding the thing. Oh well, 10 years is a pretty good run. Anyway on to what we’re doing in life. Kimmi has a great job at the University of Utah Hospital in their H&I Lab. Don’t ask me to spell out what the letters “H” and “I” mean because I can barely say them as words let alone put them on paper. All I know is that she works in the lab that deals with organ transplants where she gets to test their compatibilities to potential patients. She loves it. Not only is it something new and exciting for her to learn but she doesn’t have to work ridiculous hours. We are starting to live what a great majority of the world calls a normal life. 8 to 5 Monday through Friday with weekends and holidays off! It’s great.

As for me, after deciding to give up the car business, I applied myself to much pondering and research as to what I wanted to do with my future professional career. It was quite odd to be 26 and not have an answer to the question so commonly asked throughout childhood “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Anyway, among my searching, I found myself continually drawn wherever I looked to the Procurement & Purchasing profession. Upon deciding that this was my new calling in life I began applying to a bunch of jobs here, there, and everywhere. I soon had the frightful realization that I wasn’t exactly looking for a new career during the best time of US history. Thankfully my grandfather caught word that I was looking for a job and it just so happened he is currently heading up a ginormous worldwide organization. Like the fantastic grandfather that he is, he lined me up a few interviews in a few of the departmental areas I was interested in and Voila! I’m now working for the Church in their Materials Management Department! Specifically I work on a team called the Global Supply Chain Management Team who at the moment are spearheading the effort to create an e-store for the Distribution Center in order to replace the old one and make it more user-friendly and more widely used. I would tell you more about what I do but I doubt you’d find it as fascinating as Kimmi’s organ transplant stuff. Regardless I must say that I am extremely pleased with the job and I lavish in the plethora of knowledge I get to work around on a daily basis. Truly it’s like being in college again, without the nasty amount of tests and homework that I so hated.

Anyway, life is good and what an incredibly interesting year it’s been at the Mark & Kimmi Dibb home! It’s not every day you flip your world upside down but we’ve come out on the other side alive and happy. We are excited to back in Utah among friends and family. Of course we are sad to leave our house behind in Idaho and the close friends we made there but in the long run we feel it’s the best move for ourselves and our one-day down the road family. I hope I did a good enough job authoring our update. If you have any questions don’t be shy to ask. I probably forgot something! Sorry again that it’s all just words. Maybe I’ll try to find some photo that we took on our camera before it gave up the ghost.

Here you go! I felt bad that I didn't post any photos so I found this one that we took at Ken and Linda's house before the camera died....this is Beatrice's new favorite place to sleep.