The _______ Life of Brent and Erika

Okay, it hasn't been that bad. For lack of a better blog post, here are some of the recent happenings here: Last night I tried to make tinfoil dinners with hamburger for the first time, only to discover that I had no tin foil. However, as my friend Jared noted, tin foil is the least flavorful part of the recipe anyway. We made them inside a pyrex lidded dish, and Brent loved them. I think I have a hard time eating hamburger without any frills (I don't consider carrots and potatoes frilly) like buns, noodles, or saucy casserole goodness. At any rate, it wasn't terrible, and since I don't generally follow recipes for this sort of thing, I guess we can chalk it up as a win. We're gearing up for a family reunion tomorrow and our vacation to Washington next week. Maybe that's not a good thing to mention on a public blog. Oh well. I'm playing the piano at a baptism on Saturday. I'm nervous. Chloe is now fully licensed, which means that her tags clink even loud...

I find it slightly (only slightly) hilarious that I can post TONS about a mediated event, and yet when it comes to my own life, I'm surprisingly closed-mouthed...so, in case you care, here's what's been keeping me from posting: - My brother and his family have moved to New York City (which is so exciting for them!), and I helped them with a sort of epic yard sale on Saturday. - I'm working as a copy editor for the Journal of Media Literacy Education , and our first issue is scheduled to come out next week. It's been a lot of reading. - We're getting ready for our Washington vacation in a week and a half, but there are a lot of things that have to happen first. - We cleaned out our guest room so that it actually functions as a guest room. Any takers? - I've started round one of infertility testing. The ultrasound shows that everything looks normal, and we're waiting for the first bit of blood work to come back. If the blood work is normal as well, then we...

On Tuesday night we went to American Idols Live!, and it was the rockin' awesomest show I've ever been to. I guess it should go without saying that Brent and I love the show, and we talk about it almost incessantly when it's on. This year had some particularly outstanding talent and some particularly terrible judging, so we thought we'd go and see the people we loved without the interference of the people we didn't. Here, for your pleasure (or maybe just for mine), is a recap of the concert with my own special awards for each Idol just because I love them. First, you should know that Ticketmaster never sent our tickets, so there was a bit of a customer service fiasco that mostly involves me being on hold for a very long time. When we got there and picked up our tickets, we went through the line to discover that they were upgrading tickets since the show didn't sell out. We were supposed to be in the nosebleed section, and were instead about 30 feet away from the...

My brother Nicholas and his fiance Lisa were married yesterday! It was a beautiful ceremony, and we are so happy for them! Yay for weddings!

I've grown tired of the green background. Here's to a clean slate.

We survived girls camp! The girls are great. They make me laugh and cry, sometimes simultaneously. I have 11 bug bites on my back, and a few in other bug spray forgotten places (my scalp, my knee pit, right above my belly button...). Thanks to many prayers, it generally only rained at night. I think Brent slept through a full third of girls camp. Another third of the time he was reading. Another third he spent hoping that we never have teenage daughters. I spent two thirds of the time making a fool of myself. The remaining third is difficult to account for. I painfully recall that I also never slept as a teenager. This caught up with me after college, as it will catch up with all of our young women. Brent took a four mile hike around a lake alone with only a note written on the back of a receipt placed under our windshield wiper to let me know. This troubled me, but all is well. Chloe spent the week with her friend Benny and Brent's parents. I think she had a great time, but she se...

A few weeks ago in Stake Conference, our stake president referenced this talk by President Monson and issued us a homework assignment to answer the following: If you only had 25 words to leave your family and friends--if this was the only thing that was left of you--what would you say? Last night for FHE ( which is remarkably hard for us to do since it's just the two of us...it should be easier, right? The problem is that EVERY night feels like FHE, so it's hard to remember to do something special...am I the only one with this problem? ) we decided to do it. Here's what we came up with: I love: scripture study, prayer, serving others, kindness, taking pictures, stories, temple worship, Jesus Christ, family. Trust the Lord. Forgive. Love. Be honest. Be happy. There you have it. The legacy we hope to leave, in 25 words. So, what are your 25 words?