Jim and Emily Harmer's Family Blog

This is a very intersting situation...

2011-03-12T18:48:00.001-08:00

...this kind of thing doesn't happen every day, not in Bedford Falls anyway.

The boys are doing great. Ruger has really grown up a lot lately. He almost talks in full sentences now. He gets plenty of practice in each day since he is ALWAYS chattering. :) He also shows genuine concern for each member in the family including Cole. For some reason he got it in his head that when people are sleeping, they are dead. While he was watching Whinnie the Pooh the other day, Pooh got sad in the video. Jim and I heard sniffling from Ruger and noticed his eyes were welling up with tears. We asked what was wrong. Ruger responded, "Pooh sleeping? Sad (sniff sniff) sad." We thought it was strange and that is was a fluke, but then this morning, Cole was sleeping on the couch when Ruger walked over to Cole and gently touched him. He turned back to Jim with tears and said, "Sleeping? Cole? (sniff sniff)" Jim tried to console him by saying to Ruger that Cole was just tired and was taking a nap just like how Ruger sometimes take a nap when he's tired. All Ruger could say with his teary eyes and puckered out bottom lip was, "sad. sad." We really think Ruger thought Cole was dead and was genuinely crying that he had lost his little friend. Kinda funny. :)

Cole is also growing big, strong, and smart. He weighs about 9 pounds, can hold himself up on his own little legs for quite a while, and is smiling!! We are sure proud of our little ones.

2011-02-13T10:05:00.001-08:00

Upon request this is a little of what we have been up to these days:

Jim took Ruger fishing. It was pretty amazing that Jim caught a big fish in the first five minutes of being at the pond. It was a good thing, though, because Ruger sure had little patience for the fish to come out.

Ruger had his SECOND birthday! This is him waiting patiently for his cupcake.

We love our little Cole, but we sure lose a lot of sleep these days. We take a nap whenever we get a chance even if it's not intentionally. :)

Jim and Cole in the hospital.

Here is our lovely Grandma Phelps. She was trying to talk to Hailey on the phone, but was being bonbarded with two little ones just begging for her attention. She handled it quite well. I guess I should take a lesson from the experienced.

I asked Jim to help give Ruger a bath. This was his idea of helping. I walked in to see what all the laughter was all about when Jim explained, "I was getting so wet from all the splashing, I thought I might as well hop in with him." You can imagine how much fun that was for Rueg. We love our Jimmy. He certainly brings a good happy spirit into the home when he is here.

Last, we are very grateful for Mom coming to help prepare for and take care of the baby for SO long! We were very sad Dad couldn't make it down, but are hoping he can come sometime soon. We very much appreciated all Mom did for us--cooking, cleaning, babysitting, putting furniture together, and being my company for a week before Cole was born. That was honestly the best week of the year so far. :) It was heavenly just having someone with me during the day doing all the things I wanted to do. :) We love you, Grandma and everyone else in this enormous family!

Christmas, New Years, and Visitors continued

2011-01-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

We went to the zoo! Did you know sloths only have muscles that pull. They can't push on anything. That's why they are most comfortable hanging upside down from trees!

Kaleb and Ruger on the boat to see the monkeys.

Ruger taking a rest while waiting to board the boat.

We were spoiled on Christmas with everyone's gifts. We are very grateful for ALL of them! :) Ruger sure was content that day playing with his new toys. He hardly made peep all day.

Isn't it great how excited the little ones get over simple things such as a blanket? He ripped it out of the package and immediately laid on it to give it a try.

Jim has been working hard on writing more books and making YouTube videos to advertise those books. This a before and after shot of the picture he used on his latest video. Pretty impressive, I thought. Although, you get the "after and before" version. Ooops.

This is more of our Christmas Eve beach day. Ruger really loved playing with Kaleb. Kaleb would throw the frisbee into the shallow waves and Ruger would run to go get it. Ruger followed him everywhere, just watching to see what Kaleb would do next. And let's be serious....can I really get any bigger? Isn't it time for the baby to come out now? Please?

Christmas, New Years, and Visitors!

2011-01-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

We have a lot of catching up to do. Here are some of the things we have been doing:

We went to the beach for Christmas Eve. We tried to recreate last year's Christmas card, but this is what we got from Ruger. O-well. :)

This is Ruger showing Grandma something neat.

We watched fireworks over the Naples pier for New Year's Eve. Very fun.

Jim has loved having someone to play tennis with. Kaleb and he have played several games.

Ruger got a little tired at one of our trips to the beach. Not many kids would admit being tired when they could be playing in sand, shells, and water. I'm not sure what to think of that...

Kaleb took us out to eat while we waited for the paper work his new car.

We took a walk through the Picayune Strand. It was probably the most rustic/woodsy place Jim and I have been since we've been in Florida. The swamp just isn't a place that I am comfortable trudging through without knowing what's ahead. Who knows what we might run into--aligators, over grown pythons, wild hogs, etc.

The first day Kaleb got here, we went to the pier. Unfortunately, it was as cold here as it was in Blackfoot that day. Ruger sure was in for a surprise.

Thanksgiving Vacation

2010-12-04T18:51:00.001-08:00

Here's the rest of our vacation...

We went to the outback for FREE! What a nice place! We really liked it.

We went Christmas shopping on Black Friday! What a cute little guy we found for sale!

We tuckered the little one out several times on the trip...:)

This is more of our Fort Myers excursion.

And this is our package from Grandma!!

Happy Thanksgiving Vacation!

2010-11-27T19:32:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We are having a wonderful week just relaxing, taking naps, sight seeing, and enjoying Naples. We have been saving our pennies to have a semi-vacation while Jim is off from school for a couple days. Here are some of the things we have done:

We drove up to Fort Myers to do some sight seeing.

This is Ruger trying to feed the birds a piece of apple.

We put up our little Christmas tree that I found at a Goodwill store for $7 including all the decorations. It's perfect! I even made a star for it with popsicle sticks, fingernail polish, paper, hot glue, and tiny garland from the tree. It looks pretty great, I think. :)

I'll have to make another post for the rest of the pictures...

At least it was good for a laugh.

2010-11-22T10:10:00.001-08:00

On our way home from the store, I rolled down the window to entertain Ruger. He could reach just far enough up from his seat to have his fingers a centimeter over the edge of the window. Then while we were driving along, Ruger begins, "Shoe? Shoe? Shoe?" I turned around to see what was the matter. We now have one less pair of shoes for the little man.

I certainly didn't want anything else to go out that window, so I quickly rolled it back up. When we got back home and out of the car, Ruger walked around the entire car calling, "Shoooe? Shooooe?" He has no idea what just happened.

Just some new recipes to try

2010-11-15T18:16:00.001-08:00

I bought a new 3-in-1 crock pot a little while ago so these are some of the recipes I've tried out. I love the crock pot! It makes dinner SO easy!

Crockpot Macaroni and Cheese
2 cups elbow macaroni, cooked, drained, rinsed with hot water (about 3 cups cooked macaroni)
2 tablespoons real bacon bits
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded mild Cheddar cheese
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup or cream of celery

DIRECTIONS
In a slow cooker, combine macaroni, bacon bits, onion, undrained diced tomatoes, and Cheddar cheese. Pour mushroom soup over top. Mix well to combine. Cover and cook on high 2 hours or less. Doesn't need to be in there long since noodles are already cooked. Just cook it long enough to blend flavors and so the soup sinks into the noodles. Mix well before serving.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches
INGREDIENTS
4 lbs. beef round steak
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 cup chicken broth
6 oz. can tomato paste
20 Kaiser rolls or hamburger buns

DIRECTIONS
Trim excess fat off round steak and cut into 1" pieces. Combine with remaining ingredients except rolls in 4-6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours, until beef is very tender. Remove cooked beef from mixture in crock pot. Coarsely shred beef using two forks and place in large sauce pan. Add 2 cups of sauce from crock pot to meat and stir to blend well. Keep warm over low heat while serving into sandwich buns. Makes 20 sandwiches.

Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore
INGREDIENTS
3 lbs. Boneless skinless chicken
14 oz. can diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning
6 oz. can tomato paste
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1/8 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Place all ingredients in 3-4 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours until chicken is thoroughly cooked and tender. Serve with hot cooked pasta, if desired. Makes 6 servings. Or cook on high for 3-4 hours.

Pork Chop Suey
INGREDIENTS
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons molasses, preferably blackstrap
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
5 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch-thick pieces
1 medium onion, slivered
1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 cups mung bean sprouts (see Note)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

PREPARATION
Combine broth, soy sauce, molasses and pepper in a medium bowl. Transfer 2 tablespoons of the mixture to a small bowl; stir in cornstarch until combined. Set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add pork and cook, stirring frequently, until most of the pink is gone, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Increase heat to medium-high. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, onion, bell pepper, sprouts and ginger and cook for 3 minutes. Pour in the broth mixture and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; add the reserved cornstarch mixture and pork (and any accumulated juice) and cook, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
TIPS & NOTES
Note: Mung bean sprouts (germinated mung beans), often simply labeled “bean sprouts,” are white with a light yellow tip and are thicker than more common alfalfa sprouts.
NUTRITION
Per serving: 280 calories; 10 g fat (1 g sat, 5 g mono); 74 mg cholesterol; 21 g carbohydrates; 7 g added sugars; 28 g protein; 3 g fiber; 504 mg sodium; 957 mg potassium.

Tostadas
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef, browned
2 cans refried beans
1 envelope dry taco seasoning mix
8-oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
10 tostada shells
1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 lb. shredded cheddar cheese
1 can sliced black olives
1 pint sour cream
guacamole
salsa

Directions:
1. combine ground beef, refried beans, taco seasoning mix, tomato sauce, and water in slow cooker.
2. Cover. Cook on low 6 hours or high 3 hours.
3. spread hot mixture on tostada shells. Top with remaining ingredients. (It's like an open-face taco.)

Pumpkin Pie Pudding
15-oz. can solid pack pumpkin
12-oz. can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk baking mix
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbs. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. vanilla
whipped cream

1. Mix together all ingredients except whipped cream. Pour into gresed slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours, or high 3-3 1/2 hours. Serve in bowls topped with whipped cream.
Note: I used the pumpkin pie mix you buy in the store since I didn't have the spice. Could have probably omitted the sugar that way and it would have tasted great. Works either way.

San Antonio Taco Salad
Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup salsa
1 (15.25 ounce) can kidney beans
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Optional garnish: sour cream, chopped tomato, sliced black olives and additional salsa

Directions

Brown ground meat and onion in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat; drain.
Add salsa, beans, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Divide lettuce equally between tortilla bowls. Top with meat mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with desired garnishes; serve.
Note: We just ate it like dry taco salad instead of in a taco shell. Was VERY good.

Pumpkin Cookies

2010-10-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

We attempted pre-made cookie dough. Hmmm. Maybe we'll rethink that one.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-27T17:39:00.001-07:00

We are looking pretty goofy these days...

Our complex is so great. They hold a lot of parties and fun get togethers for the residents. This is Ruger painting a pumpkin at the Halloween party last night. They also had cupcakes, cookies, and juice for everyone. Ruger tried to eat the cupcake, but only got a mouthful of frosting that was piled about an inch thick. They looked great, but kinda a lot of frosting...Sorry no pic of that.

These are our new chairs! Kinda a crazy, but I totally love it!

They are a perfect size for Ruger. He has been pretty pleased with them.

This is our family pumpkin we carved for the holiday. Ruger wasn't so sure about the gunk inside. It was a little iffy.

What a nut. We are at the beach here waiting for the tram to pick us up.

And this is my handsome husband. He was trying to teach me how to use our little point and shoot camera and threw in a free pose for me to practice on.

Ruger outside the library. We go every Thursday for story time and them eat out lunch outside by the fountain.

The first video of Ruger playing at the beach, the second is of Ruger and a friend laughing at the missionaries' puppet skills, and the third is just of Ruger saying a lot of the words he knows.

A night at the park

2010-10-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Ruger LOVES park toys!

Frost or......the BEACH!

2010-10-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach!! The weather has been PERFECT lately and the ocean water is crystal clear. We are moving into winter, People!! Does anyone want to come visit?

Lion, Tigers and devious little boys

2010-10-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

You might be getting tired of all the pics of Ruger, but we think he's just so especially cute, that we can't resist putting them up to share. :)

The pictures are in backwards order. The first happened last, and the last happened first.

Yesterday I took Ruger to the mall. He loves playing the toy cars and especially getting to ride in one of those car-like strollers. He just spins and spins the steering wheel!He's even getting pretty good at actually saying, "car" now.

This is Ruger's devious face after climbing up into...

This all by himself. I was looking on the computer with my back turned to him, ignoring all the grunts and whines I heard coming from his direction. When I turned around, low and behold, my little man had climbed in to the high chair and was standing in it so he could reach the light switches.

We went to the zoo this week for free! Ruger was a little nervous of the tigers, but who wouldn't be considering how CLOSE he got to them!

Then we saw the LIONS! They were really neat this time! They were running, playing, and ROARING at us for a long time! Usually they are asleep when we see them, so it was pretty exciting to see. This one we took a picture of came right up next to the fence so we could see his face. His eyes were bright yellow. I always thought that was something they did in photographs to make them look cooler, but no, it's real. Even more real than in pictures. I mean they were REALLY yellow!

This is Ruger with a friend, Nathaniel Gardner. They were watching Toy Story all snuggled up together, so I thought it made for a good picture.

Some old pics

2010-10-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ruger loves his grandparents...

These are all from the extended Phelps Family Reunion and some from the our short get-together with the Gregerson's and Grandma Hunsaker during the summer. What a fun family we have!

2010-09-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

Some pretty sad events have happened recently in both Jim and Emily's families, so here is something to cheer us all up... The more I watch it, the funnier it gets, but maybe that's because he's mine...:)

What a goof ball...

We had a friend over yesterday. Ruger always gets giggly when friends are over. It's pretty fun to see.

A week full of FUN!

2010-09-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

We've had a week full of fun and had out camera to boot!! These events are in no particular order. Here is a glimpse of our week:
Ruger helped me make some rolls. He was VERY good at kneading. And they turned out great, surprisingly.

We went for a walk at Freedom Park. It is a long boardwalk that goes through some forest in the middle of the city. It's a great place to go for the little one since he can just run wild there. No worries with falling off because it's all fenced in. We also discovered a super cool play room for kids to go for free in the office there. It is usually closed when we go, but this time it was open. What a nice thing for people to do to donate a whole bunch of toys for kids of all ages to play with for free. They had every toy imaginable--puppet show curtain with tpuppets, talking microscopes, bug glasses, cars, puzzles, balls, musical instrument, etc. Great find!

We go to the pool A LOT! Ruger LOVES it and so do I! I am always hot when I am pregnant so it is a nice relief from the summer weather. The place we moved to has an excellent pool for kids. There at a ton of ledges and steps for them to play on. Ruger is addicted to water. He goes around the house VERY often with a measuring cup repeating, "Wa wa? Wa wa?", just begging me to fill his cup full of water so he can dump it in the tub. :) Then when I don't fill up the cup, he asks, "Pool? Pool?" What are we going to do when we move back to Idaho?

When Ruger asks for an apple, he doesn't just want a piece, he wants the WHOLE THING! ...Pears and apples are the same thing right now.

One afternoon after waking from his nap, Rueg crawled up into the big daddy chair began eating some fruit snacks and read to himself for about ten minutes. Pretty cute, I thought.

We played with a friend, Nathaniel. They are about the same age. They played this game for about twenty minutes or longer. They laughed and giggled and laughed and giggled. They also played with their light sabors that we bought at the dollar store. What a great noise maker. We intended to go to the park for the splash pad, but they were having so much fun playing in the dirt on the way that we only made it about a quarter of the way instead. I just sat in the shade and watched 'em play. Good thing I got a book this week. Ruger has been entertaining himself so much lately that I get bored. :) I count it a blessing. I enjoy every moment.

And now for the videos... I don't know what each video is so you'll just have to watch and guess what they are. :)

Ruger Started Walking

2010-05-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Recent Pics

2010-05-09T16:49:00.001-07:00

We re-designed our blog, so if any of you are reading this on your email, then check it out!

We've sure had a busy few weeks. After my appellate brief was due, the oral argument competition took up every second of my time, and now that I've finished that...it's time for finals. I already took two finals and they went fairly well, but there's just no telling how the professors will grade me.

We're headed to Idaho on May 18th. We're sure looking forward to being near family and taking a few months off school. I'll be getting externship credit for working with the judge, so that will be fantastic to lighten up my course load later on. We're excited to go up to the mountains and go camping since there isn't much of that in Florida.

Ruger is really growing fast. We've spotted him several times this week standing without holding on to anything, but as soon as he's noticed what happened, he flops onto the ground in fear. He's destined to be a professional basketball player.

Happy Days are Here Again!!

2010-03-21T14:31:00.001-07:00

Jim has worked VERY HARD this week. He has gone on less sleep than he did when Rueg was first born--going to bed at midnight or so every night and getting up at 4, sometimes 3:00 in the morning. He wanted to get his 40 page brief all complete. He came very close, but says he still needs some time to work out the minor errors.

Ruger has been very happy the last couple days. Maybe because he has food that he can eat. :) He is getting closer and closer to walking, but still hasn't even tried to stand up in place by himself. We're hoping when we go to Idaho, he'll see all the little babes walking around and want to try it. That's how he started crawling.

This week we had quite a bit of company. We invited a few friends and the missionaries over for dinner a couple of times. We had hoped to bring some investigators to the missionaries, but only one of the people seemed interested. Her name is Nelin. We will have to invite over again sometime. So along with making meals and cleaning house, I have been hard at work making another website for Glenn Rawson. Thanks to Jim we got it up and running last night. I've really enjoyed all that computer stuff, as strange as it is. I never would have guess that to be something I would get into. You can see it if you go to historyofthesaints.org Next up I'll be working on a site for Jim's e-book that he is writing and Kaleb's business. Looking forward to it. These two should be a lot more relaxed and fun to make since they have both given me pretty much free reigns when it comes to the design.

We are WAY excited for family to be here in a WEEK! I keep thinking about it! The weather has been very nice lately, so we hope it stays that way for your visit. And Congratulations to the new baby! She is very cute, Jess and Brian. I really liked all the pictures you sent. She has Chase's nose. :) I wish I could hold her.

Anyway, here are some pics. Rueg likes playing in those glasses. He'll bring them up to you to put them on his head and then he'll bounce around in them for a while. I just wanted you to see what our cupboards and fridge look like. :) FOOD! FOOD! FOOD! The ducks are from a community event. It was a fundraiser for a new facility coming to town, I think for children's cancer stuff. People got to buy a duck to be released into the bay for a race. Whoever won got a prize. I guess they had numbers on the bottom of each duck so they could tell whose was whose. And then there are some pics of beautiful Naples.

I guess Ruger thinks I'm a pretty funny juggler...

2010-02-23T16:42:00.001-08:00

A Perfect Day

2010-02-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

Our little man sure is cute. For some reason Jim wanted to give me the perfect day, so we did everything I wanted to do on Saturday! WAHOO! So I got to play the piano at the church for nearly 3 HOURS while Jim took care of Rueg! That was fabulous. I don't think I have done that for about 3 years. Then we went to this really neat park in down town Naples. They had ALL the cool toys!! They even had official Bocci Ball courts and clay tennis courts! We felt pretty cool. :) We toured a 3 million dollar home. Very cool. We ate out at Subway. and got to watch "Beethoven" when Rueg went to sleep. We got a free trial membership to Netflix, so we are trying out all the movies.... At least the clean ones anyway. :) That's why we picked Beethoven. But even though it is an old kids show, it made us laugh. :) It was a perfect day!

Just resting in between activities.

We drove next to a Ferrari. Jim wanted me to take a picture.

Ruger got pretty stoked about it too.

I liked these grass huts. Very tropical. :)

Lots of new things!

2010-01-25T06:14:00.001-08:00

This week we made a fort for Rueg. He loved it even though it was burning hot under the blankets. :) Rueg also got his first real hair cut this week. I thought he looked so cute in his new shoes and new hair. We got a new computer, too. It wasn't totally a happy purchase because it really cut into the budget, but it was necessary. So we've been having fun setting it up and using it. Skype was much more enjoyable on it. The spider picture is from a long time ago, but I think it's funny. Edith put a costume on Rueg before Halloween just to see how it fit. Ruger sure does provide quite a bit of entertainment! :) These are some of the pictures we took when we were in Blackfoot over Christmas. It was a lot of fun taking them, and I liked how they turned out. I'm glad to have them. It would be fun for my girls, if I have any, to see their mom in her wedding dress. We had a great week and are looking forward to an even better one this week!

New Year Goal

2010-01-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

We are finally home again! It was a GREAT vacation, but we are very glad to be back to regular life.

My new goal is to be a blogger this year! I am planning on buying a huge package of batteries for the camera so I can post more pictures.

Art

2009-11-15T05:28:00.000-08:00

This is Emily's FANTASTIC drawing of Christ washing Judas's feet. She's done a GREAT job with it. Emily started taking oil painting lessons a few weeks ago and has really enjoyed learning the painting as well. I'll keep posting her most recent creations!

I woke up at 5AM yesterday to do a little photography before the fam woke up. It was really fun. I haven't been able to do much photography lately since the time change made it get dark so early here (5:42 sunset).

I spent almost an hour chasing this flock of seagulls. I wanted it to look just psycho with birds filling the frame, but the seagulls at the bottom of the picture didn't cooperate. There were HUNDREDS of gulls all together on the beach. People must have thought I was nuts running after the seagulls all morning.

Just seeing scenes like this one makes me glad to live in Florida. It is SO NICE HERE!

For Emily's birthday last week we went to an art show. It was really fun. There was a lady who would put large photo prints on a matte and then she would paint the rest of the photo on the matte. It was REALLY cool. You couldn't even tell the difference between the painting part and the photograph.

Ruger has been loving just scooting all around the house and getting into messes. He's sure fun to watch.

School is going well but is very busy with finals coming up soon. The cases are really interesting to me for the most part--property is the exception.

We really enjoyed having Dad and Mom here for a day last week!

Jim caught Lady fish and snook!

2009-10-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Ruger's first banana! It's everywhere! I know you can't see so well in the picture, but it was a mess! Very fun!

I don't know how to flip the picture, but this one of the snook Jim caught last Saturday.

Ruger learning to play "freeze"

2009-10-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ruger is learning how to play "freeze." He's pretty funny :-)

2009-09-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

Napolian Update

2009-09-21T06:31:00.001-07:00

This is Ruger playing happiliy on a Sunday afternoon. We think he sure is cute! This week we did a lot of the same things. I went shopping practically every day. There are TONS of shopping centers close by. I love it! Jim studied lots and is studying some more! We are enjoying our time to be in school and play we Ruger. Last night we had a crazy thunderstorm with lightning left and right. Jim saw a bolt strike right next to our neighbors house and a firetruck came up in arms ready for damage control. Our GPS was stolen out of our car this week during the night, unfortunatley. Our first experience without it was driving to stake conference in Fort Myers. Even with google maps, we are hopeless without the help of Lola. We were an hour late to stake conference because we couldn't find the remote street the church is on. It was some what of a blessing for us to be so late because it was perfect for Ruger. He really gets upset and wrestless at church but he handled one hour VERY well. :) We did get to drive over a really long bridge in the middle of the ocean while we were lost and that was pretty cool. We have a really funny neigbor who loves to gossip. When we got home from church, she said, "Did you hear what happened this morning?" We said, "No, what happened?" Mary replied, "You know where Whipporwill is? ( a couple streets up from us) Well, a man murdered his wife and five children this morning and he's on his way to Hati now. I called Ruth (another neighbor) and told her, 'Don't open your door to anyone!!!' So be careful." Then she got into her car. Crazy things. And that's about all we have for the week. We love everyone!

Pics of Rueg

2009-09-14T11:04:00.001-07:00

Disney World!

2009-09-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Disney World with Corban and Rachel was AWESOME! We really had a fun day and liked seeing all of the cool stuff. My favorite was the 3d movie with smells and splashes of water. Emily liked Splash Mountain. Did you know that the Pirates of Carribean movie was patterned after the ride?

This week we were hired to photograph a wedding. It went really well, but WOW it was hot on the beach at 5 in the afternoon.

A heron was kind enough to pose for me this week for a little while and let me take pictures of him.

School is going really well. I've been reading like crazy, but really enjoying it. You wouldn't believe some of the crazy things that happen in those cases. I read one this last week about a lady who was paralyzed but someone hugging her and accidentally torquing her head to the side.

We watched the BSU game this week. Very entertaining... especially after the game.

Emily here. I've been busy this week decorating Ruger's room. Here's a pic of the sign I made for his wall.

Ruger is getting more fun every day. He prefers rolling around to sitting now. When he's playing on the floor and I leave the room, I often find him on the opposite side of the floor when I return.

Hiking in the White Clouds

2009-08-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

I had a great trip hiking in the Whiteclouds for a few days this week with Emily's family. The hike in to the lake was only 8 miles, but it seemed like we were hiking up a wall. VERY steep with a 35 pound pack.

The fishing was really funny. We caught TONS of fish, but the largest one was about 8 inches long. They weren't even big enough to eat. The fish were so easy to catch that we got tired of catching 'em.

Ruger Waking Up

2009-07-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

Em and I took some pics of Rueg. Just thought I'd share!

New Phone Number

2009-07-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our new phone number is 239.206.3303

A little cookin'

2009-07-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

For our date last night, we made miniature hamburgers. It was pretty fun! The bun is made out of vanilla wafers with sesame seeds attached to the top with a drop of water, the hamburger is made of a junior mint, the ketchup is dyed frosting, the mustard is dyed frosting, and the lettuce is dyed coconut. We're going to take them over to a few friends today.

2009-06-27T07:38:00.001-07:00

2009-06-27T07:37:00.003-07:00

2009-06-27T07:37:00.001-07:00

I went shopping with Edith for clothes for her new job. Four year old Aniseth LOVES getting her picture taken. She a totally girly. :) We have a lot of fun with her. I know you all wanted to see a picture of the mysterious Edith. She really isn't imaginary, despite what you all have been thinking.

A week in paradise

2009-06-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

This week hasn't been too eventful, but we did a few fun things. Ruger has been really upset with teeth comming in, but we found a miracle pill that makes him a little angel...well at least a happier baby... except for right now...

Anyway, here are some things we did this week:

We all went fishing in the holy grail of fish! Big ones were flying out of the water!! Florida is wicked COOL!

A zillion pix

2009-06-21T13:09:00.001-07:00

Emily and I have been playing tennis for the last several nights. She's getting really good! It's been fun to play each night after Ruger goes to sleep in the stroller.

Ruger and I were attacked by a rogue crab a few nights ago. I've been having nightmares ever since.

Ruger LOVES hanging out on the beach. We haven't had very much rain lately, so he's gotten to go quite a few times. The old ladies on the beach go nuts over him.

Ruger has been learning some incredible tricks. On Wednesday he learned to balance himself on the volleyball. Pretty cool.

Something tells me he wasn't expecting the sudden wave...

The weekly Neapolitan

2009-05-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

We've loved having so many visitors these last two weeks. It's been non-stop sight-seeing.

Working at the Dollar Tree has been quite the experience. It hasn't been so bad though. I just listen to photography, technology, and church podcasts for 5 hours while mindlessly slaving away. I'm glad to have a job.

We sold our car today! We were VERY happy to have finally sold it, but unfortunately we had to take a loss on it. This is the first car we've sold where we didn't profit at least $800. Nuts.

My camera died last week for some reason. Fortunately, it's still under warranty, so Canon is fixing it for me.

Oh, and I redesigned our blog to fit Naples more. The pier took me forever to draw on the computer, but it's the same pier that is on the Naples Beach, so I thought it would be more authentic that way :-) Oh, and I had to make Ruger look older (walking) because his silhouette just looked like a big black blob in my arms as a baby.

I've really been enjoying reading everyone's facebooks. Now we have Mike, Noel, Jake, Paul, Tyler, Sam, Dan, Danily, Jim, Jimily, Mom and Dad, and tons of extended family. Some of you are missing... I laughed really hard at Mike's post about the banana peel.

Prestige

2009-05-10T15:07:00.001-07:00

We're excited to have Ben and Laura here. They'll be here for a few days and then Janis, Hailey, and their foreign exchange student, Arina will get here on the 20th in the afternoon. We're really excited to have family here! Be warned, though. It's starting to get really hot. Bring on the SPF 9000.

The job hunt continues. I've applied all over the place, but this week I only had two interviews. One was stocking the dollar store until 2AM for minimum wage and the other interview was to work at a women's shoe store for minimum wage. Both only offered 20 hours per week. I haven't heard back from either one since the interview. Hmmm... I thought education was supposed to HELP you get a job. My bachelor's degree seems to have had the opposite effect.

Other than looking for jobs, we've just been hanging out like beach bums. We really got bad sun burns this week. I even got blisters. We went and had dinner with a couple who will be going to the law school here. It was nice to finally see some people our age since everyone in town is so old.

We're liking the ward. Last week the EQP came up to me and gave me my home teaching route of 4 families before introducing himself or welcoming me to the ward. It felt like something from Single's Ward. Very nice ward, though.

A little night photography

2009-05-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a job like crazy, but nobody seems to be real interested in hiring me. I've sent out at least 5 thousand applications... nothin' so far.

We took Ruger out for a walk tonight and I did some night photography downtown (as evidenced above). Turned out kinda cool.

Ruger laughing

2009-05-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

Ruger is pretty funny...

Fishing and dolphins

2009-05-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

We went fishing (no license required!) this morning at 5AM. Emily loves it when I wake her up at the crack of dawn to go fishing. I got so tired of catching fish that we eventually just watched the dolphins. The dolphins were EVERYWHERE! I doubt I waited more than 30 seconds to get a bite. There were fish everywhere. Most of them were just a foot long, but we also saw some big ones. We also saw a few schools of stingrays.

A few day trips

2009-04-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

Em and Ruger under a little hut in an indian village we stopped at. I'm DYING to buy one of their stuffed alligator heads.

We've made it a nightly ritual to take Ruger out each night at sunset for a little walk around the beach. He usually sleeps through it, but I think he secretly loves it.

There have been some MAJOR fires around Naples this last week. I was driving to the library and saw the police evacuating a residential street as the fire was getting close. It was really sad. I saw a mom ushering her kids into the van and just carrying everything she could fit in her arms before her house burned down. Here's a pic I took of the firefighting effort.

Cool white bird in Big Cypress National Park.

Em took this pic of Ruger lounging on the beach. It POURED rain all the sudden shortly after this picture. We all huddled under the umbrella and ran back to the car. Our condo is PERFECT because it has all of the beach chairs/umbrellas that we need for the beach. We haven't had to buy anything except food.

Emily thinks she's the boss of everything. She even tried pulling the sun up so we could stay on the beach later :-)

This is a group of alligators we saw today. We saw DOZENS of them just roaming out in the wild. There are SO MANY OF 'EM!

We went to see the Everglades today after my job interview and we didn't even make it to the park. We kept stopping beside the road because we saw so many alligators, birds, snakes, deer, fish, etc that we didn't even have time to see the Everglades! It was really fun. There's so much wildlife!

Here's a little baby alligator. We really liked watching this little guy swim around in the swamp about 5 feet from us.

We're loving Florida! I've been searching around for a job, but not too many places are real excited about hiring me only for 4 months before law school starts. I'm sure I'll find something, though.

NAPLES!

2009-04-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a few pics of Naples and our place. We took Dan and Emily and Dad and Mom on a video tour last night using the web cams. We're really liking Naples now, but the first week was CRAZY!

I searched and searched for a house and couldn't find ANYTHING for a few days, so we had to stay in a hotel for 10 days. I bought a car for $1500--the transmission died on it TWO DAYS after buying it. The guy had LOADED it up with transmission fluid to run smooth for the test drive. What a jerk. Emily got strep throat and we had to go to the doctor, where we waited 2 hours to get in at ER "Quick" Care (no kidding, that's what it's called). We went out one night to buy a bouncer for Ruger. We got home all excited to set it up for him, but when we opened the fabric to put on the frame, there was POOP on it! I guess it had already been returned to Walmart. Yuck. Anyway, it's been an eventful few weeks.

We're really glad to be here now, though. We got a decent car and an INCREDIBLE condo for a great price. We've just been playing on the beach, eating all the fresh fruit, swimming in the pool, and enjoying the warmth.

Eagles and Babies

2009-03-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

Emily and I have been out and about this last week. The spring has brought out TONS of bald eagles. We keep seeing them. The pics above are from the one we saw yesterday.

The blessing went well on Sunday. Thanks for all calling, but we definitely understand how tough it is to come to everything.

As soon as Mom and Dad left Rexburg, it started snowing and continued for several hours. The freeway was closed. Almost all of the snow had just melted and there was a glimmer of spring outside, and now there's snow on all of the lawns again. Can't wait for Florida sunshine.

We finally moved out of our house. It took a long time, but we've now sold everything except our car. I'm not in too much of a hurry to sell it, because I still need to drive up to school for the next two weeks.

We can't find an apartment yet. We've looked and looked and they all seem nice, so it's tough to differentiate. We're working with a realtor in Naples, which is helping.

Ruger's Blessing

2009-03-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, I totally forgot last week to invite all of you to attend/participate in Ruger's blessing on March 29 at 9AM in Blackfoot. We'd love to have anyone who could come, but understand that it's tough to make the trip. Also, we're moving out of our house the day before (the 28th). We're going to move down to Blackfoot and stay with Emily's family for two weeks so we can save paying a month's rent. I'll just commute to school here in Rexburg for those two weeks and then I'll fly out to Florida the day after graduation on the 10th.

Chewie Woes

2009-03-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

We have a problem. We have had DOZENS of people wanting to buy Chewie, but everyone we've sold him to returns him within 2 hours.

Chewie is NEVER aggressive, nor does he EVER pee in the house. He's an angel at our house. We gave him to two families this last week and he peed, pooed, and bit at both houses within the first hour.

Now he's figured it out. He knows that if he pees and bites, he gets to return home to our house. This last time someone came to buy him, he POOED on the lady the second she picked him up. She then handed him to her husband, on whom he urinated. They still bought him (since we PROMISED he is totally potty trained and it was a fluke). They took him home and he went on a peeing and biting rampage. He was returned immediately (which is exactly what Chewie wanted).

Now what? He's SUCH a nice dog, but he can't stand to go to a new home.

NAPLES OR BUST!

2009-03-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

I bought our tickets. I'm leaving Sunday, April 12 at 1AM and Emily is going to leave on Wednesday April 15. FLORIDA OR BUST!

I'm going to buy a car and narrow down our apartment choices for two days and then Emily will come and we can choose our apartment together. It's gonna be crazy!

Our house is a war zone right now. There's stuff everywhere. It's been a Craigslist RAMPAGE! We posted Chewie online and had a couple people BEGGING (multiple calls and emails from them) to buy him for $130. He's been a great little dog.

Random jokes

2009-02-24T17:54:00.001-08:00

What's the number one crime committed by transvestites?
Male fraud.

Why does OJ Simpson want to move to Tennessee?
Everyone has the same DNA.

What do hurricanes, tornadoes, and redneck weddings have in common?
Someone's gonna lose a single-wide.

Florida

2009-02-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is a photo by Greg Martin of the beach right next to the law school.

The big news for the week is that we're 95% sure we're moving to Naples, Florida. We've been thinking about it and planning and making budgets and we just can't turn down such a good offer. We're thrilled with the idea of living on the beach, but it's kind of scary to pick up and move 2,573 miles.

We've looked and looked at moving/shipping companies and we can't find anything for less than $3,000. We itemized everything we own and found out that it is cheapest for us to sell EVERYTHING, fly to Florida, and then buy the stuff again when we get there. The trick is that we can't sell everything yet because we still need our stuff until we get on the plane. It's gonna be rough.

Naples is a rich resort town with very low crime, voted the best beach in America by the Travel Channel, most of the apartments are less than 2 miles from the beach, it's 20 minutes from the Everglades, terrific tarpon fishing, and a free law school with a 96% bar passage rate.

Rexburg has DIED (some might argue that it has been dead for a while now) with the economy. There is not one job to be found (even fast food). The church has a hiring freeze, 2 of the 3 call centers have closed down (and the one that's open isn't hiring), and no one else is hiring. I need to earn some money this summer, so we have to leave Rexburg as soon as school ends so we can get a job down in Florida. We're thinking of leaving April 23.

We went down to Blackfoot this weekend and I got out to take some pictures. I took this one of a little foot bridge.

GOOD NEWS!

2009-02-18T06:04:00.000-08:00

WOW! I just got a three-year full-tuition offer from Ave Maria (Catholic) Law School in Naples, Florida. LAW SCHOOL FOR FREE!!! It's normally a really expensive school with tuition at $32,000. Housing prices are surprisingly low (just a little more than Rexburg) in Naples. We were actually quite interested in this school because of the influence they put on ethics and morals. VERY happy.

Oh, and University of Kentucky REJECTED me.

Oh, and mom said Ben and Sam have tried to call. The screen on our cell phone broke last week so we can't tell when we have messages. Sorry.

Oh, and I've been following "Mike Farmer" on Twitter for the last while. I read all of his tweets with interest. Today I learned that "Mike Farmer" was NOT an alias for Mike Harmer. It's some totally random guy. I thought Mike Harmer was taken, so he took Mike Farmer. Duh.

Law school applications

2009-02-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

We just got accepted to the University of Idaho law school! That's the first one we've heard from. I think most of the other schools will take a couple weeks.

U of I is the 7th cheapest school in the NATION and it would be THE cheapest school for us because we'd have in-state tuition starting the first year. Also, the admissions guy told me the Boise campus will be open to third-year students by my third year there.

We're VERY glad to have this option, but we are still totally open. We still haven't decided where we want to go. If we get a good offer from another school, we very well might take it.

Pics of Ruger

2009-02-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a few more pics of our little boy!

The Weekly Harmer

2009-02-08T06:53:00.000-08:00

It's been a great week.

Emily's mom came up this week to help us with Ruger. She was a BIG help and having her here allowed Emily to rest up and me to keep up with school. The ward is bringing us dinners this week. We've had lots of help. He's been pretty good and sleeps a lot. The only trouble is that Ruger thinks 10PM is time to wake up and yell at the top of his lungs. Fortunately, he tires of this game by about 1AM.

I've been taking pictures for the school newspaper this semester. It's been really fun because it gets me out doing things. This week I photographed the annual pond skimming event. It was HILARIOUS! They built a huge pool at the bottom of a steep hill and students would ski down and skim across (some just splashed into) the pool. The colored lights they had out for the event made the pictures really look cool.

Both people who were supposed to write my letters of recommendation for law school forgot to send in the LSAC form with their letters, so they were returned. I paid $17.50 per letter to overnight the letters when I found out. WHY IS IT SO MUCH TO OVERNIGHT MAIL SOMETHING!?!? I thought it would be like $3. Because of the delay, we probably won't start hearing back from schools for a while, but we're getting quite anxious.

Emily and I went out for a date on Friday night to a little sandwich shop. Everyone in my English class raved about it, so we decided to give it a try. It was TERRIBLE! The girl who served us was OBVIOUSLY on drugs. She was totally stoned. She asked us our order, forgot, asked again, forgot, and then asked a third time. Then she went and mopped the floor, forgot she had mopped it, so she came back 30 seconds later and mopped it again. Then, Emily went up to order another drink and the girl kept saying, "OH. Why does my head hurt so much? Ouch." Wow. It was an experience. I don't think we'll be returning. The place is called The Sandwich Tree in Idaho Falls.

On all of the podcasts I listen to, everyone was predicting some kind of technological disaster. With Google going down for an hour last week, many of them were talking about the risk of relying on one search engine alone. Kind of scary, but I still love Google. When they roll out the G-Drive, I'm buying a net book.

My 22 credits is being a little crazy, but I'm surviving. Only 8 weeks until I graduate.

I'm reading a book called Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. It's really interesting. Have any of you read it?

Woops, forgot some of the pics

2009-02-04T07:41:00.001-08:00

This picture shows the little notch in his ear.

More baby pictures

2009-02-04T07:15:00.001-08:00

Thanks so much for everyone calling/emailing when we were in the hospital. We really appreciate all of the support.

We named him Ruger James Harmer. We decided between contractions.

He was born 6 pounds, but lost a little over night and now weights 5.75 pounds. He's only in the 5th percentile for weight, but doc says he's doing fine.

Yesterday we took some pictures of the little sprout. It might look all cute in the picture, but seconds after this picture, he pooped all over Emily's hands--GROSS!

Baby!

2009-02-01T15:22:00.001-08:00

6 pounds, 18 inches. Emily and the baby are doing great!

Snow Fest

2009-01-31T18:15:00.000-08:00

Emily and I went to the Rexburg Snowfest. It was really fun. They had snow bowling, horse sleigh rides, tubing, people jumping into an icy pool of water, and an ENORMOUS bonfire of everyone's old Christmas trees. Very cool.

On the way to the Snowfest, we saw a bald Eagle and I got some pictures of it. Very cool.

Still no baby...

News

2009-01-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

Emily went to the doctor today and the doctor said he'd be very surprised if she made it to Monday before having the baby. The doc did some "thing" to her to make the baby come sooner (not induced, something else).

Jackson Hole

2009-01-19T18:48:00.000-08:00

Emily and I went to Jackson Hole for the day. It was really fun. The pictures below are from our trip. We drove past the elk refuge and saw HUNDREDS of elk. It was really cool. Just wanted to share some pics from our trip.

The BurgLet

2009-01-18T18:16:00.001-08:00

We've had a great week. Yesterday Emily and I went out for a drive around Heise. It was really fun. We saw (no kidding) at least 60 deer (the above picture is proof). They were EVERYWHERE. We also saw a bald eagle today. Living in Rexburg does have a FEW perks, I guess. We're sure looking forward to somewhere new, though.

Emily substitute taught in the middle school this week. She said it went really well. She's a fantastic teacher.

We've applied to 13 law schools already and there are 3 or 4 others we're sending in applications to tomorrow. Law school is WAY expensive. Each application costs an arm and a leg! Most of the schools charge $70 per application. YIKES! Hopefully it all pays off in 3 years. We've applied to Arizona State, Ave Maria (Florida), BYU, UC-Davis (California), Case Western (Cleveland), Cleveland State, University of Connecticut, Drexel University (Philedelphia), University of Idaho, Phoenix University (Not the university of Phoenix), Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Connecticut), University of Utah, and Washburn (Kansas). Quite a few of those schools are totally random. We applied to a lot of them because they offered fee waivers for the application or we think we could get a scholarship. We just can't decide where to go. Every time we get set on a school we find out something that turns us off. No perfect fits yet.

AHHHH!

2009-01-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's been an exciting week. I didn't anticipate 22 credits being quite so time-consuming. My classes are pretty fun this semester, though. I'm taking two photography classes.

Emily is getting excited for the baby. We're almost totally set. We just have to put the crib together and other little things.

We were sitting around on a lazy Sunday this afternoon and Emily randomly said, "I wonder if God can do tricks with his toes." She was serious, and it was weird.

Emily is going to start substitute teaching high school this week. Pretty cool.

New Years

2009-01-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

Emily and I have been working non-stop on law school applications and the personal statement. We just can't get the personal statement to sound well. Right now our top choice is UNLV, but we read in a newspaper article that they are planning to double their tuition cost over the next three years.

We're glad to be home after being gone for so long. Our house was FREEZING when we got back since nobody was here. It's been a strange winter. There's only a little bit of snow, but it's bitter cold outside. When we open the door there's steam.

I've been snapping pictures like crazy with our new camera. We've been having fun with it. I've already taken 2,000 pics!

School starts this Wednesday, and I'm DREADING it. I'm working twenty hours per week, I'm the managing director for student safety council, I'm taking 21 credits, we're applying to law schools (and would like to visit some of them), we're having a baby, and I need to go fishing more :-)

LSAT

2008-12-29T18:59:00.000-08:00

I just got my LSAT score--a 158. We're really happy about it. I've had higher scores on practice tests, but I've had lots of lower ones as well. That's good enough to get us into about 153 of the 186 schools, so we're quite happy. It's really a blessing for us. I've been studying like a Chinese kid for the last year.

Now we have to decide where to go to school... the tough part.

Christmas!

2008-12-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas week. Emily got a sewing machine from her parents that she's dying to try out and lots of crafty stuff from my parents. She's been sewing, quilling, card-making, looming, etc. There's no stopping the craftiness! I got a tripod from Emily's parents and D&C study books from my parents. I've been reading the D&C books quite a bit. I'm really excited for SS this next year.

We ordered a really cool picture of Christ for Christmas and they sent us the wrong one, so we should be getting the one we ordered this week (which we're really excited for).

On Christmas, we built 12 enormous snowmen in front of Emily's parent's house. The snow was perfect for it. The picture really doesn't do it justice. They were HUGE!

Playin' around with my camera

2008-12-24T18:26:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show some pictures I got from my new camera today! The first one is of Chewwy just playin' in the snow and the second is of the Rexburg temple.

Oh, and we got a dog!

2008-12-21T18:36:00.001-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2008-12-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

It's been a great week. We went to Boise this week and visited my family and then we went to Blackfoot to Emily's grandpa's funeral.

Boise was really fun. We enjoyed relaxing, doing the puzzle, XBOX night at Sam's, and everything else.

While we were in Boise I hunted and hunted and finally found the camera I've been wanting at the right price. The camera was VERY expensive, so I sold one of my old guns, two pairs of skis, etc to afford it. Our house was a major Craigslist liquidation site for a week. I got a professional DSLR camera (Canon Rebel XS), and I LOVE it. I'm excited to get to some picture taking with it. The squirrel picture is one of the first pictures I took with it.

The funeral was really nice. It was obviously a lot of work by everyone in Emily's family, but it turned out very nice.

I got called today to be the Sunday School President in our ward. I think it'll be a great calling for me.

We're sure getting excited for the baby. My good friend Clegg asked me to help him give a name and blessing to his baby today. Emily could hardly keep from snatching the little black baby for herself. She said she thinks that black babies are the cutest and that she wants one. Sorry Em... I don't think you'll get her wish.

Winter

2008-11-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

Winter has definitely come to Rexburg. The leaves are almost all gone from the trees and we have to scrape our windows each morning. The picture is looking out from our back porch.

We were really blessed this week. Neither of us are working this semester so that Emily can take it easy with the baby on the way and so that I can focus on the LSAT. It's been great, but we were worried about money for next semester. This week I applied for a position with the safety council at the school as their Advertising Director and I got a call from the Dean the next morning asking me to be the president of the organization (which I hadn't applied for). So, it will give me a full tuition scholarship. We were sure relieved. We really didn't want to take out a student loan.

Emily and I have been looking like crazy for baby stuff. We spent the whole day yesterday shopping around. Emily has entered the highly uncomfortable stage of her pregnancy.

We've been looking at law schools a lot. It's sure a big decision.

Do me a favor?

2008-10-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have to do a Media Management project for school. We are graded on how many people we can get to watch the video I made. Do me a favor and watch this a couple times?

What Should We Name Our Kid?

2008-10-19T11:44:00.001-07:00

We want to pick something cool and different, but not something strange. Take our quick survey and vote for what you like the best. Click Here to Take the Survey Now!

It's a.... (drum roll)

2008-10-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had the ultrasound today. You can probably tell by the picture at the top what the gender is. We're VERY excited and working hard on names. So far we like Ruger James Harmer and Hyrum Porter Harmer.

My crazy mission companions

2008-10-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

I went to a mission reunion this weekend. It was GREAT to see everyone again and especially President and Sister Bertasso, who just got home two months ago. I wanted to share this video of a guy from my MTC district, Elder Bodine, who always did really funny impressions for us. I asked him to do the Book of Mormon one and Emily videoed it. Hilarious. The reunion was great, but it was A LOT of driving.

Pumpkin Madness

2008-10-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

Emily and I carved pumpkins while listening to this last session of General Conference. Emily's is a lot cuter than mine, but mine is way more scary and disgusting.

Laundry, popsicles, and frisbees

2008-09-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

I included two pictures. The first is a picture our our laundry party on Tuesday. I made a deal with Emily that I would wash all of the laundry if she would fold and hang it all. The picture is of the pile of clean laundry, but the sad thing is that there were STILL FIVE LOADS TO DO! We have WAY too much laundry. Wow. We're making another massive trip to DI this week.

The next picture is of our ultimate frisbee game from this week. We DESTROYED the other team (11-3) and we only had 5 players and they had 10. They switched out fresh players the whole time and had 2 more people on the field than us, but we killed 'em. It was awesome. Too bad pride goes before destruction...

Emily here. I teach a 15 minute lesson in school this week. I'm teaching about tooth care. I'm going to have the class make an origami tooth to take notes on and have them smell their breath by scraping a popsicle stick on the back of their tongues. It's gonna be cool. That's it. Oh, and I saw a really big spider tonight and Jim wasn't here to smash it (he was at stake priesthooooood). I think it was a hobo.

2008-09-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from last week. The whole family came over for Landon's name and blessing. Emily wants to know why BJ and Rachel's baby is bulimic? Come on...

SO MUCH JUNK!

2008-09-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

We had a garage sale yesterday to try and get rid of some of the clutter in the garage. We filled our car and part of Jacob's truck and sold $250 worth of stuff in one morning. The trouble was that it was a ward garage sale, so there were several other people there selling stuff. Unfortunately they had some cool stuff, so we ended up shopping as much as we did selling :-) There goes the idea of getting rid of stuff! Just kidding. We only bought a couple things that we "had" to have.

One of the items that I had to have was a really nice Simmons gun scope. We went shooting last night and I got sighted in. Hailee was here visiting, so she tried it out. Apparently the M-44 was a little larger than she had anticipated, so it really knocked her around.

I think we're gonna try and have another garage sale in a few weeks so that we can actually park in the garage during the winter.

Don't try this at home...

2008-09-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

DANGER! I wouldn't recommend that any of you try this at home:

Jim is taking 21 credits of 300 level classes this semester. That means 21 hours per week are spent in class and 63 hours a week are expected to be spent studying per week. YIKES! Also, I have to test out of 12 credits of Portuguese this semester. Also, I have to take the LSAT this semester (which I study 1 hour for each day). It's gonna be WILD, but it will be worth it.

Emily is very pregnant and frequently gets very sick. Despite this condition, she is taking a full semester load and taking care of the house and her husband.

So like I said, I wouldn't recommend that any of you try these stunts at home--DANGER!

Bear Hunting

2008-09-06T10:19:00.001-07:00

I had a wild week hunting in McCall, Idaho with my brothers and dad. We left on Monday at 3 AM for the opening week of bowhunting season. Thanks to Emily, I had tags for deer, bear, elk, and mountain lion.

On Monday I was sneaking around on a trail and suddenly saw a flash of bear fur on a little ridge about 20 feet from me. I stepped off the dirt road (illegal to shoot from a road) next to the steep embankment so that I could shoot as soon as the bear showed himself. That was stupid. All of the sudden, the bear came out of the bush and I was FACE TO FACE with a bear. AAAHH! I drew back my bow and put the pin on its vitals when I suddenly realized that it was a cub. I came down on my bow and stepped away from it just as 250 lb momma bear burst out of the bushes behind the cub. I scrambled for my bear spray that I was wearing on my belt and pulled the safety pin. I sprayed out a little pepper spray and the bears sprinted away. WOAH!!! My heart was pounding for an hour.

Later in the week I shot a deer from 45 yards away. The unsuspecting deer immediately bolted and it made the arrow hit a little far back behind the heart and lungs. My dad, Ben, Sam, and I followed the blood trail for FOUR hours. There was a lot of blood, but it ended in a large grassy field and we couldn't find any more blood. Despite our best possible efforts to recover the deer, it ended up being bear bait.

Immediately after shooting the deer, I sneaked down to where I shot it and grabbed my arrow. I stepped back about 20 feet from where I'd shot, and suddenly another bear appeared. I drew my bow and waited for it to come out from a bush. My arm started trembling because I was nervous and the weight of the bow. When it stepped out from the bush, I let the arrow fly... right over the back of the bear. NUTS! I was too nervous.

On Thursday I got my last chance at taking a bear. I saw two bears fighting, so I drew back and shot at one of them. I was sure my arrow hit him, so I started snapping pictures of the bear--thinking that the one I shot would soon die. After waiting 30 minutes and the bears having walked off, I went down to get my arrow and then skin my bear. SURPRISE! My arrow was clean, there was no blood trail, and there was no dead bear. I had missed! All that time snapping pictures, I could have taken another shot, but I thought it had been hit! NUTS! I guess that's one goal I'll never knock of my list of 50 things to do in life.

First Post

2008-08-17T22:53:00.001-07:00

I'm just trying to decide on a design for this thing, so I'm writing this post to see what it looks like. Hopefully it's not too ugly, but I think it's a bit special. I'll have to keep working on it.