Elijah's always smiling!

Something about Phil...

Well, a very very long time ago Melissa (Mary's sister) tagged me... It took me who knows how many months to actually get the stuff written down, but I had fun thinking about it. Here are a few! Sorry if some of them are kind of wordy--My "interesting" half isn't exactly on the tip of my tongue. :)

By the way, the only thing this picture has to do with "me" is the fact that it's the mountains (love that) and it's a picture (I want to learn how to take better ones).

First, I am a good power napper: I can lay down anywhere (usually the hard floor of a classroom where I study), fall asleep, have a dream or two, and wake up in about 15 minutes. That’s wonderful when it’s on purpose, and frustrating when it’s not!

I have a dream of learning how to play the drums, the piano a LOT better, and the bagpipes. If you know of anyone offering a soundproof room and cheap lessons, let me know!

Two of my favorite dishes are brazilian – one is black beans (feijoada) and other is vatapa (a chicken sauce on rice that is slightly orange from a delicious ingredient called “azeide."

I hope to have a West Virginian Utah backyard complete with rolling green hills, a barn, cows (in the neighbor’s yard), a river, etc. and a huge flat area for a 0.25 acre garden and lots of area to play in. Lots of grass, and no shrubs that can get overgrown. I’ll spare you the rest of the detailed plan.

I raced the bus home from the University of Utah with my school stuff and everything (on my bike) and WON! Basically, there were already two bikes on the bike rack once when the bus came to take me home. I rode my bike ahead of the bus, hoping someone would get off sometime and then I could hop right on. No such luck--for 58 blocks!!! Then I was home. :)

I love to do things outside, whether it be camping, hiking, or just working in someone’s yard or garden. In our last apartment I kept up a 0.2 acre garden and had fun creating a make-shift watering system that would take care of the whole thing (with specific water levels for each vegetable type) by just turning on fully one valve. Now I just have a few planters (3 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, and some beans) to take care of and a little flower garden, but that’s enough to keep me smiling.

I have a dream (it's good to dream, right?) of having a home with a small “library” in it that has two walls of bookshelves full of books and the outside two walls be large windows. It will have comfortable couches for reading as well as a big table in the middle.

Well, that's about it! Ate logo.

Our Little Genius!

Check this out! Elijah's newest favorite thing when we're outside is to find "the ABCs" on things like the make of a car on the car's trunk or a big sign somewhere... He then yells out "I want to do my ABCs" and he just keeps getting better! One day he saw this "remember" block on our bookshelf, did that, and here's how he did. He just blew us away!

Elijah Goes to the Zoo!

We have quite a bit to update here, but I couldn't resist putting this picture up really quick. Mary and Elijah, along with many other moms and kids from the area here all caravaned up to Pittsburgh to go to the zoo. You can tell here that although there may have been some less exciting moments, there definitely were exciting things to take in! Our little man is adorable, isn't he?!