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Many of you have asked about the route we’ll be driving to North Carolina. Well, here it is: map. My brother, Greg, and I plan on leaving early Monday morning (Aug 14) and we hope to get there by Thursday, August 17. Kerrie and Allie will meet us there on Friday and Greg will fly back that day. It’s going to be such a sweet trip!

Hey all,

We’re just having a good time this summer. I’ve been fishing and golfing already and I plan to do some more of it. I am also on an intramural kickball team. Yep, that’s right–kickball–just like you played in fourth grade! Kerrie is playing on our ward softball team. Neither of us is the star of the team, but we love it regardless.

I am working at a local CPA firm. It’s an enjoyable job that gives me the time off and flexibility that I am want this summer. It’s also good experience, though the type of research that I want to conduct as a professor will have little to do with small business accounting. I like the corporate stuff and the stock market reactions to it. Nonetheless, it pays well and I like my boss.

We have some fun plans for the summer. We’re planning to visit Idaho twice (though neither we nor our Idaho fam know when that will be We’re also headed to Cali in June for a week or so. The driving is going to really stink with a one year old baby, so we’ll probably pull some late nighters. Hopefully, we’ll get some camping and fishing trips in, but unfortunately Allie may slow us down on that goal.

Anyways, we have time to hang out—so come visit before we move!

First, we’d like to thank everyone who came last weekend to Jake’s graduation and Allie’s birthday party. For those of you who couldn’t make it, no worries, we’ll fill you in on what happened.

Jake finally graduated from BYU with his Masters degree in Accounting (MAcc). We had a picnic in the park next to our house before graduation. Graduation convocation for the Marriott Business School began at 5pm. Lucky for us, they handed out the diplomas to the MAcc students first. Jake snuck out after he received his. We were all so grateful that he did that because there were 900 students receiving their diplomas that day and we did not want to sit through that. So, we all snuck out and took pictures and then we went to the Bombay House (Indian food) with Jake’s family. If you ever go there, you’ll have to try the Chicken Tika Masala (however you spell it). It was delicious.

The next day we celebrated Allie’s birthday. (Her birthday isn’t until May 8th, but we wanted the whole family to be there). We did a double birthday party and celebrated with Allie’s cousin, Sienna, who turned 1 on April 19th. We had a Pink Poodle party. The kids made dog collars and played pin the tail on the poodle. We had sugar cookies shaped as dog bones and a Pink Poodle cake. Allie and Sienna had their own cakes to devour…which they did. We opened presents and Allie got everything she wanted . I forgot to mention that Allie has been sick for the past week with an ear infection and cold. She wasn’t as charming as she usually is but she cheered up after lots of sugar. She’s much better now.

Jake started his summer job today. He is working for a CPA firm in American Fork. He will only be working part time so he’ll have a lot of time to do some fishing, golfing, traveling and xboxing this summer before we head to NC. We feel so blessed that everything has worked out so well for us.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Jake’s graduation
Allie’s Poodle Birthday Party

We’ll be forever grateful to whoever sent us (it was either a friend from work or my dad) the Numa Numa video because Allie loves it. She is watching it now, for the thousandth time, as I type these words. Every time Gary starts singing, Allie starts bouncing and smiling. It’s really nice to be able to hold her, work on the computer, and have her mesmerized by the techno-beat. Anyways, I thought I would share this video with anyone who has kids. They’ll go nuts to the beat and the dorky dancer.

Well, my bracket is officially busted. I knew that Texas and UCLA would be sweet, but I underestimated them. Only UConn remains in my final four. So after last nights busts, I went from 90th percentile on ESPN.com to 30th percentile. That just shows how much this March Madness is a crapshoot.

Anyways, we went to dinner with Shane and Katie last night and enjoyed their company. It will be nice to have them back in Utah for the summer (and then we leave . We also went to a ward activity at Classic Skating, which was very fun, but man, have I lost the skating touch. I felt really old out there. Even the hokey pokey was a challenge for me. Kerrie, on the other hand, kicked butt on the skating floor. We both woke up a little sore…I guess we need to skate more often. We didn’t get pictures though, so luckily you can’t have a visual of me falling.

Last night, I guess you could say that I fell alot: in my March Madness brackets and onto my knees at Classic Skating.

As many of you know, I read alot. I love it. But, for the billions of books that have been written, I often find myself wondering if good fiction really exists, because there is a lot of crap out there. So, to quote Regis, I am polling the audience: Do you have any suggestions for a good clean fiction novel? I am pretty open to all genres, but what I don’t want to read is a book laced with profanity and sensuality. I can handle a little blood because I own an Xbox and I watch 24, so I am completely immune to it.

Let me know what you think. If possible, list a few books…I have all summer.

I love this time of year: March Madness is a legitimate excuse to be inefficient and procrastinate. Right now, I am as trunky as I have ever been to be done here at BYU, so a little college basketball is just the venue I need to express my lack of desire. I spent almost an hour today at my desk, watching the Tenn-Winthrop game on ncaasports.com. It was an hour of sheer sloth gluttony. Oh well, I’ll still graduate.

For the record, I have UConn winning it all, but I think that Texas has a really good shot at it. The fact is, however, brackets are an utter crapshoot. And, we all watch SportsCenter, so the informational edge that we all think we have is just regurgitated info that we got from a massively watched news program. There is no edge, and every year, some goofball wins the pot of cash that awaits the lucky guessor. I have no idea what the odds are of picking all of the games correctly (I should know, I took a probability class, but let’s face it, most of our education doesn’t stick), but I am sure that even the experts don’t even come close. Still, I wouldn’t mind being that goofball that gets the pot…

Just for your information, I have UNC making it to the Elite 8, but then falling to, who else, UConn. I am the last to admit that BYU sucks, but since pretty much every other fan has done it, I’ll hop on the bandwagon out of Provo: BYU sports bite. I’ll be a cougar fan for life, but I won’t torture myself with numerous losses to the little Red up north. Honestly, BYU has had better teams this year in every sport, but we just can’t seem win against them. I don’t know why, but I guess it’s (Ute fans, relish this…), they know how to win the big game, and we don’t. Either way it gets me moody just thinking about it, so I’ll focus on the procrastination of the upcoming weeks watching TV on my laptop and hoping UNC will redeem my spirits. Go heels!

It’s just too late to be studying on a Saturday (4:30pm), so I thought I’d invest some time talking about one of my favorite addictions—food. Food used to not matter at all to me. As a teenager, I don’t remember eating out often (aside from the triple quarter pounders I would make for myself at McD’s). I always ate something quick at home and then headed for the next fun activity with friends. I do remember eating a ton at my friends’ houses, so here’s a belated thank you for feeding my growing face. But food, especially the quality of the food, didn’t matter to me.

Now, things are different. I must eat at least one satisfying meal a day, either a high quality platter, or a bulk binge of junk food. Something in my head makes this a daily requirement. Anyone know why? Cuz I don’t. Maybe it’s because, after five years of being DINKs, Kerrie and I got used to eating out alot. We usually ate at Beto’s or Jerry’s, but eat out, we did and frequently. Now that the budget is a little more tight, we are having serious difficulties laying off the chalupas. Ok, so maybe it’s just me who wants a breakfast burrito for lunch and IHOP pancakes for dinner…either way, I am hungry… right now.

The problem resides with two parties – economics and health. It’s economically stupid to eat out, because it’s so much cheaper to make your own pancakes. And it’s not healthy at all to eat an 1100 calorie six-dollar burger from CJ at 8:30 in the evening. I know…you know…it’s me with the problem. So what am I going to do about it? Probly nothing. I am hungry and tired. Besides, I am waiting for Pfizer to come up with a miracle fat pill that shrinks fat cells and reduces the risk of myocardial infarction by 99%. Given the rate of technological improvement these days, it will happen before all of my arteries are clogged…I am banking on it.

This semester is definitely a strain for time. I am constantly running from class to class and finishing assignments just before class starts. What’s tough is prioritization: there are several classes that I don’t care about that seem to suck up all my time leaving me with little time to learn what I want to from the classes that I will use in my career. Oh well, I am sure that correlates with real life…balancing the important things with the others that just eat up time. What do I do about it? Right now, I just cope and hope that I am not neglecting the important things. So please forgive me for the lack of posts…it’s just a result of poor time management combined with no time to manage.

There are a couple classes that I really enjoy, though they are stretching. My econometrics class is off-the-hook hard, but it is so useful for academic business research, so I cope. I am also taking a SAS programming class that will help me use SAS to create statistical models. I am NOT enjoying a couple other classes, including my communications class. I am just so tired of taking classes that teach me how to create a resume and how to interview. In the business school, I’ve taken three of said classes and everyone has their own format and style. Plus, I am already into UNC, so who cares

My calling is going well. I spend alot of time on Sundays working on administration of the ward, but it is a very rewarding calling. I love working with the other members of the Bishopric and high council–they are great mentors. I am also conducting all of the interviews for ecclesiatical endorsements at BYU. I enjoy getting to know all of the students in the ward better.

At home, life is good. I love playing games with my wifey and Maran and Scott. Allie is growing up too fast for my taste. She crawled all the way across the room yesterday, which is a scary prospect. My form of babysitting usually consists of sitting her in front of a Baby Einstein DVD while I work on homework. Now, she moves!! NOOOOO!!! She’s really growing up…much to my chagrin. Life’s is good, folks. I’ll try to stay in touch while I try to keep my head above water.

Well, the search is over…much earlier than expected. I received a call from Wayne Landsman about three hours ago offering me a spot at the University of North Carolina’s doctoral program. I accepted that offer with absolute glee!

UNC was/is my first choice to receive my doctoral training in Accounting and I am ecstatic about studying there for the next few years. They have a stellar program with excellent placements over the past ten years and a faculty loaded with talent and, more importantly, who are very good people. I look forward to working with them. We like everything about it, including the beautiful location, the campus facilities, and the sports (2005 National Champs!) . The business school is very well respected, even ranked Number Two in the world in accounting research and sixth in overall business research.

Early in the game, I am not sure exactly when we’ll be moving out there, but it will probably be sometime in August of this year. We’ll probably live on campus in “professional” student housing because it is literally two minutes from the Kenan-Flagler Business School. If you can’t tell, I am absolutely peachy about going to UNC! Go Tarheels!!!