Favorite Things!

I have a number of favorite things in my life but one of them has to be little kids artwork. This piece of art was made during Sacrament meeting last Sunday and it was done by our niece Amanda. It's a picture of Joo Lin, also one of my favorite things. I hope that you enjoy it.

Pregnancy Update #1

So far it seems my pregnancy has been pretty simple and uneventful. I was only queasy for a few weeks about the middle of the 1st trimester. Nothing more than queasy, thank goodness! Smells were terrible - not as bad now. Some of the rest areas while traveling got the best of me. For a few weeks I was tired enough to take naps after work and still go to bed at my normal time (between 10-11 pm). I feel like I'm hitting a phase of being tired again but I'm trying to get to bed closer to 10 than 11 these days to try and prevent that and keep me functioning at work. The worst thing is right now I have food aversions to all food. I gag just thinking about what I need to eat... especially chicken and salad. Huh. Two things I've always loved. Any suggestions on that one? I worry that I'm not getting enough food, but what I eat is relatively healthy. What else? Oh yes, the famous baby bump. Well, I'm only 14 1/2 weeks along so I don't feel like I am quite at the point of having one, but some say that they can see it since I'm not gaining weight anywhere but my tummy area. It is most likely just the clothes I am wearing that make the difference. I have only gained a couple pounds total (on a good day) and the doctor told me I need to eat more - ergh! I do know that I can't button my regular pants anymore and I love the one pair of maternity khakis I have (the kind you can make different sizes to accommodate the growing belly... I'm not jumping the gun! I just want to be comfy!).

Hesitantly I attach pictures for you to judge for yourself. Left is 13 weeks and right is 7 weeks.


Let's see... emotionally I think I'm pretty stable so far. I admit that I feel slightly more stressed at work and less patient with the phone calls at work. Other than that I haven't had any breakdowns or thrown anything at Kelley yet. Lucky guy - ha!

I do have to thank Kelley for being such a great husband through all this. He is always willing to get me anything I want to eat, takes care of the house, rubs my back every night, and compliments me. What a fabulous man I have! [Kelley will add any comments/disagreements to what I wrote...]

KELLEY'S ADDITION:
I love that Joo Lin is pregnant...or as I call it, prego! I love that Joo Lin lets me be quirky and talk to her stomach and the baby every night before we go to bed. It's my payment for giving her a back rub. I also love that she has cravings because I get to benefit from them too. I think most of her cravings results from my cravings though. My little sister is also prego, six weeks ahead of us, so I talk with her and she always tells me when she is extra cranky so I just remember those moments and I am extra nice to Joo Lin when that time rolls around. I also like that our Doctor is a Beaver Alumni too!

Da Vinci Days 2008

This past weekend Joo Lin and I were lucky to have both of our nieces come down to spend the weekend with us. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast swimming till we turned into raisins! The main reason for them coming down was to attend Da Vinci Days. The girls loved the parade and they loved doing all the fun kid stuff that they had. The only problem that we ran into was with the crazy balloon lady that was supposedly working for tips that made us tip her. It was quite awkward. She was even dressed up as a crazy looking clown, CREEPY! Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

New Calling

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to serve as ward bulletin guru. After contemplating whether or not I wanted to accept, I finally accepted. So I decided that I would come up with a Top Ten List of things that I shouldn't put on in the bulletin.

Top Ten Things not to put in your ward bulletin:
#10...OSU Football Recruiting updates
#9....Upcoming OSU Football Schedule
#8....Football betting lines
#7....Sports recaps
#6....Fantasy Baseball scores
#5....Pregnancy pool
#4....Baseball boxscores
#3....Corvallis Police beats
#2....Pictures of Joo Lin's belly

and
#1....Pictures of Kelley's belly

You all have been waiting and now the time has come...

... for a little baby Rice. We went to the doctor today and heard the heartbeat for the first time. It was the COOLEST sound in the world!!! (Kelley says better than any video game - amazing, huh?) We wanted to tell everyone from the moment we found out we are prego, and it's been the hardest secret EVER to keep. But now you know... we are 13 weeks 4 days along and we are expecting mid-January.

Kelley is hoping for twins, but realistically we will just have one little bundle of joy. The names have been picked already, even though we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet. For a boy, James Gresham and for a girl, Seoul Elizabeth.

More to come soon...

Rock Band!!!

Joo Lin and I purchased Rock Band last night. After hours of driving around Corvallis and Albany looking for and contemplating the purchase, we found it at Target in Albany. I used some of my graduation money to purchase it. I wanted to buy something that both Joo Lin and I could have fun with and when I found out that Jooge was excited about it, I knew we had to get it.

We played last night for about an hour. Lets just say that Joo Lin is a rockstar at the drums. I struggled with the guitar but I am getting better. I had to cut us off last night so that we could get to bed, as it was nearing 11 PM when we stopped.

Hopefully our anal upstairs lady will enjoy our performances and not boo us off the stage! For those of you who don't know what Rock Band is, it is a video game for the PS3 that lets you play the guitar (bass/lead), drums, and even sing while following steps on the screen. It's super addicting.

We finally did it!!!

On Sunday, July 15th, I was able to receive my College diploma! It was an exciting experience and I am so glad that I decided to go through the ceremony. It will rank up their as on of the most special moments in my (our) life(s). It was such a journey and I get teary eyed about all the hard work and lack of work that I did during my time at Oregon State. I also get teary eyed thinking about my grandparents (Grandpa and Grandma Rice) and how happy they must be that I finished. I know that they were high fivin' each other in heaven as I got it.

I want to thank Joo Lin for giving me that extra push to go back and finish up. WE DID IT!!!






I also want to thank my family for coming to support me during this special moment. It meant a lot to Joo Lin and I that you attended.








If you would like to see some more photos from this special day, please click on the this link.

Here are some silly photos from my graduation. I love silly photos!



Was it really that boring???


One of the ways that my family was able to spot me was because of my orange flip flops.


Here I am making sweet love to my diploma!


It was so hot that I had to cool off after the ceremony.


My mother ordered a cake from Albertson's and they accidentally screwd it up. It was suppose to be orange and black frosting with a Beaver on it. By the way, that is a Bulldog on the front of it, my high school mascot.

Graduation Pre Funk

I was curious what I would look like in my cap and gown yesterday so I surprised Joo Lin when she got home for lunch yesterday. She had the cutest grin on her face when she arrived home to this surprise. I didn't take a picture of her expression but I wish I would have. Instead she took a picture of me and I thought that we would share it with everyone. Please note that I will not be wearing sweat pants underneath my gown come Sunday and the gown will be ironed.

Is that an animal?

Last week while Joo Lin was getting ready to come home from work, a lady that works below her office came over to her and asked her if that was her car. She was pointing to Jasmine and Joo Lin said "yes, that's my car."

When Joo Lin first started telling me this story I thought to myself that someone had hit and ran our Jasmine. There has been quite a few incidents in that parking lot lately so I was relieved when let Joo Lin finished her story. I guess the lady thought that we had left our pet in our car. It was a scorcher that day so she was concerned when she looked over and she saw this in our car (the brown thing between the orange jacket).

Joo Lin chuckled and politely informed the lady that it was a stuffed Beaver in the car and not a "real" animal. I guess the car was a bit messy and we had some blankets and hiking gear in the back seat. The lady was relieved!

The moral of this story is don't store your stuffed animals in your car because someone might actually think it is a real one.

Graduation!!!

The final step in my journey that I called "college" will take place this Sunday at 1 PM at Reser's Stadium. This final step is the Commencement Ceremony. I am super duper excited! I started college a long long long time ago. Lets just say that the price of tuition has tripled since the time that I started to the time that I finished. At first I wasn't going to participate in the walking ceremony but as time got closer I thought that it would be worth it since it was a journey to finish.

If you are going to be attending the ceremony, keep a look out for the bald man with rosy cheeks. That will be me!

PS...We are having a BBQ afterwards if anyone would like to attend. It will be at our apartment's clubhouse.

So You Think You Can Dance!

Joo Lin loves this show and while we were watching it last night she paused to tell me that "So You Think You Can Dance" (SYTYCD) is her all time favorite show. She said that she loves it more than "Little House on the Prairie" and I even asked her if she loved it more than "Quantum Leap"...she just looked at me funny and said yes.



So far we love Twitch and the Mormon Girl (Hightower is her last name, well, I love her, not sure if Jooge does) and we hate the skanky school teacher.

Here are some of our all time favorite performers from last season.




SKREET DANCING???

sewing machine

My birthday was in March but somehow I neglected to write about it... oops! We celebrated at the same time as Easter since it was just days apart. It was so fun having family and friends around. My family and friends are so generous with their love and gifts! Many things made me SMILE... dinner out, gift cards which bought me clothes, shoes, books, and my first flower pot for our porch, a BYU sweatshirt, hand-knitted pot holders, hand scrubs/lotions, cash which provided cool rubber stamps for scrapbooking, a cool CSI scene cake, and the most used....
my sewing machine! I asked Kelley for one when I got the whim and he got one for me. The coolest thing is that it is RED!! We picked it up at Symantec (where he had it shipped to surprise me) and I held it in my lap on the way home looking at the cool features.
The point of this was that I was all into the thought of sewing for whatever reason. I bought fabric and a simple pattern to make work out / lounging pants (we will see what they will be used for - ha!). Red fabric and off I went! I cut them out and did the inner and outer seam. I then tried them on and realized they were ridiculously LARGE on me. I was positive I measured correctly (and my mom even double checked, probably thinking I didn't know how to measure :). Fortunately they're just pants so I sewed the outer seam much farther in on each leg. Still no luck. Although I took a looong break from sewing then (why? not sure... maybe lazy...?) , the story doesn't end, thank goodness!
I FINISHED my pants yesterday - YAY!! I cut off the sides and did a bigger "seam allowance" (HA!). I finished off the directions with the elastic and ribbon. Hemmed up the bottom and realized.... I CAN'T sew a straight line! Either I get too excited and sew super fast or I have no hand-eye coordination. Votes for either? But they're done and huge in the waist but I rationalize that they can expand with me so they'll last forever.... or not. I'm excited and they're pretty comfy. I was on a roll and even fixed Kelley's pj pants and my pj pants. I'm a regular little seamstress! (my mom wishes!!)

Couch-to-5K running plan

I've gotten a couple questions about the running plan. Here is the link:

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

It's a good schedule and very do-able. Good luck!

BEACH TRIP!!

I loved my wife's 5k run but I had to tell about our fun trip to the beach that we had a couple of weeks ago. We decided to grab our kite and we hopped into the car and headed off. It was soooooooo windy and we lots of trouble getting the kite in the air (well, I had trouble, Joo Lin was able to get the kite off into the air without any issues) but when we finally did it was a blast.



Afterwards we went to Mo's and had some tasty clam chowder! We love that place. Not sure what my hands were doing but don't worry they are not gang symbols.

slow and steady finishes the race!

I did it! Saturday morning I was so nervous I woke up WITHOUT AN ALARM CLOCK at 6:50 AM. Can I just say ridiculous?? That was WAY too early. I couldn't sleep so I walked around the apartment and read a book. I have no idea why I was so antsy and nervous but my behavior was completely silly as I was trying to get ready. Kelley finally said he was going to drive me because he didn't trust me to get there on my own (he was planning on coming when the race started, not the early registration time). Off we went!

It's all for a good cause!

I was so full of nervous energy it was ridiculous... just bouncing around! Good thing I didn't run out of juice when the running was supposed to happen!Stretching... and thinking "Really? Can I do this?"

Kiss for luck!

Group photo when we're fresh and ready to go! Joo Lin, Amy, Rebecca, Ron (L-R)

Don't mind my form... I'm the girl in the back... both pictures... but dang my hair looks cute :)
Go Amy Go!Finished!!
Amy & I were successful and met our goal! We rock!

Results for the 5K (3.1 mi):
Joo Lin - 30:28
Amy - 30:51

So, this was a great experience and it feels super good to meet a goal! My goal was to jog the entire thing without walking or stopping. Amy and I did the Couch-to-5K Running Plan and it works really well. Please don't get confused that I love running, far from it... I do it to keep in shape and meet my goal of running a 5K one day. Sure, I'll run more of them but nope, never a marathon :) I think I'll max out at 5 miles...

Shout out to my mom for coming down to Corvallis to support me! Then we all went to breakfast at Elmer's. Yum!

5k Run

I am so excited for tomorrow (Saturday). My wife has been training for a 5k run and all of her hard work will come together tomorrow as she participates in this years CARDV 5K run. For people that don't understand the metric system, that is 3.1 miles. I am so proud of her and I know that she will do great! Plus, I can't wait for her to get her tshirt, I think she is more excited about getting a shirt than she is about running.

Happy Easter

This is obviously long overdue... Kelley assigned it to me and I slacked... so here it is!

Easter was fabulous! We invited our families down to our place to host our first holiday. Although we were a bit nervous, I think it turned out splendid thanks to Kelley. He attempted to do dinner all by himself but gave in when it came to the deviled eggs - silly him! Fortunately we were able to get the clubhouse so we had plenty of room for all. The spread was delicious... loads of ham, au gratin potatoes, funeral potatoes, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, asparagus, stuffing, veggie tray, deviled eggs, and sparkling cider... yum!

Here is Kelley hard at work slicing up the yummy ham so we can get started eating!

What a lovely table we had... complete with a pink hyacinth and golden bunny rabbits for the centerpiece, compliments of my dad.

My mom added to the festivities with her traditional easter egg bread - braided bread with actual colored eggs baked in. Delish!









After some good feasting we sat around and enjoyed one another's company. Guests: Dale, Ruth, Sherril, David & Ashley, Mindee, Tanner & Michelle & their kids Wyatt and Maya.

We missed Evan & Dana & their kids Trevin, Amanda & Ella, Kendy & Ken, and Klorissa & AJ! Next time!










Mindee and Wyatt became coloring buddies while the rest of us cleaned up. Mindee provided the colors for Wyatt to do his masterpiece... which is...? I never saw the finished product :)












Look how adorable little Maya is! She had the cutest little easter dress, but of course got down to the basics for the feasting :) I love babies!











So, it was a wonderful day! I have to give thanks to everyone who came and helped. We love all of you and appreciate all you do for us! We have fabulous family and friends!

This is also a day especially to remember Jesus Christ - his sacrifice for us and his life for us. Without Him we wouldn't have eternal friends and family. Happy Easter!!

The Myth behind Four Twenty (420)

I was trying to do some research about 420 (the stoner holiday) but I could never find the real reason behind it. I found lots of evidence on how to celebrate this day but I wanted to find out the truth behind this day because my mother was born on April 20th (420) and I wanted to make sure that she wasn't the real reason behind this day. Lets just say that I didn't find any evidence that tied her into this holiday.

Joo Lin and I were able to visit her on her birthday. It was a fun trip and we got to eat at my mother's favorite restaurant. I don't really like her favorite restaurant though so it was a lot of sacrifice on my part. Her birthday was a bit sad though, her daughter Klorissa (my sister) was not able to attend because she lives in another state now. Besides that it was a fun time. Happy Birthday MOM!! We love you!

Here is a link to the photos for our little adventure.

My favorite photo is this one:

Flowers on I5

On Monday Joo Lin and I took a trip to Eugene to eat at the Olive Garden. On our way down I got a little adventurous and pulled off the highway to go grab some lily's for my wife. She had no clue why I had randomly pulled off the road. I told her that I wanted to grab some flowers for her and then she lit up. As we were walking down the highway looking for safe passage to the patch of flowers a random car pulled off to see if we need assistance. I went to talk to him and told him that we had just pulled off to get flowers. I was quite surprised to see that someone would pull off and ask. He thought that we had ran out of gas and he just laughed at us when he found out what we were doing. Here are some photos of the event. If you want to go grab your own flowers you can find them located near milepost marker 226.

Happy Birthday Maya

Our friend Maya had her first birthday yesterday. We decided to make her a cake and here it is. We ran out of frosting so we were able to cover the whole cake though.

First Photo!

Here is the first photo from our new camera. It's a picture of me!!

New Camera

We finally decided to buy a new camera. I had won some money from playing Fantasy Baseball last year so we had some extra money burning in our pockets. We had numerous ideas of what we could get but I finally decided to get a camera when I went to Costco and I saw it. It was RED and I realized that this was a sign to get it. Plus they didn't have Rock Band for the PS3. I was going to take a photo of the camera but I thought that it would be easier to grab one of the net.

March Madness = Kelley Madness

The other day I tried to convince my wife to fill out a NCAA 2008 March Madness bracket. At first she didn't want to do it but then I told her that it was a tradition and that she had to do it. She looked at me funny and said "What tradition?" I then informed her that I was being silly like my mother because she always says that things are traditions when I think they otherwise not traditions. Finally Joo Lin laughed and she broke down and filled out a bracket yesterday. I thought that it would be fun to post the results on our blog.

Link to March Madness Bracket

P.S. The overall loser has to make dinner for a week!

March Madness is gone. The games were fun to watch and the wife and I had a nail biter with our bracket challenge. I thought that I had won for a couple of weeks. The funny thing is that I scored my bracket one way and the wife scored hers another way so that added some confusion. I thought that I had our challenge won, the wife only had one Final Four team and she only had one win in the last three days of the tournament. I had the wife make dinner the last two nights in a row. They were great meals too! Then I was cleaning up my office last night and I tried to give her bracket back to her and she said "Can you please find out what my final score was?" I told her I could but that it would be a pain because of the way that she scored it. We fought, no punches were thrown though. I rescored our brackets and the final score was 71-69. The wife had won!!!! :(

I contemplated whether or not I should tell her or if I should add a few points to mine. She had already made two meals and I thought that she would be hysterical at me. I decided that I had to tell her the truth. I went to tell her and she was mad, she started yelling at me...ok...can anyone picture Joo Lin yelling at cute little me? She just laughed...and now I have to make dinner for a week. I wonder what she will have me make?

BABY!!!

This title is a little misleading...Joo Lin and I are not having a baby but my little sister, Klorissa is pregnant!!! How exciting is that??