Mid way through Summer term and back to blogging

Sorry about the month plus absence from the blogging world, Allison and I both have been equal parts busy, forgetful, and lazy.... when it comes to our blog.  But this will be the restart and hopefully we can get some interesting things down and out to you, our loyal followers... or something.

The end of finals week was killer.  I was able to learn a lot in the class, but there is much that I still want to accomplish in the digital media.  I love digital illustration and being able to work on the computer creating art is a really interesting feeling. (I wrote this back at the end of June)

Now, I have just finished my mid-term for my new summer class, which I have been uploading my progress on my art blog more frequently.

4th of July happened and Allison and I ran a 5k, my first race and probably not my last.

Allison's parents came into town for a few days

and this is a start....

sorry we have just been really busy and not that interesting as of late

Breathing Room?

Well, I am now done with my portfolio submission to Nickelodeon Animation Studios' Nick Artist Program.  It is a summer internship that I am excited about.  I don't think that I will get it this year, but I loved the challenge of getting a portfolio ready.  I also have entered finals and have been busy with those, but I am not stressing out about them this time around I just have one more on Friday.

We have been up to Salt Lake 3 weeks in a row now and may end up there sooner than later. The Grandparents came into town on a trip through Utah, sightseeing, and on through to California.  It was unexpected, but welcomed.  I enjoyed seeing them since I usually only see them on holidays maybe twice a year.

Allison is still doing amazing in her classes and we are both super excited about a new app we have started using, MyFitnessPal, you can enter in what you are eating and it shows how many calories you are eating, plus other nutritional facts as well as your workouts and how many (presumably) you are burning. We'll keep you posted on how well it works. 

We were sorry to hear about the tragedy that occurred at the Boston Marathon on Monday.  Our prayers go out to those effected in the aftermath of this sad event.  We have some friends that run marathons and they were our first thought, luckily they are training for another event that they are going to next week in Virginia.  Hopefully they will figure out the exact reason and who did this soon.

Conference Weekend

It’s been a pretty great week! Why? General Conference!

For those who don’t know what General Conference is (if you do, you can skip this paragraph), it’s something that happens in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints twice a year, the first full weekend in April, and the first full weekend in October. It’s a conference where church leaders provide inspiring words, guidance, and counsel to everyone in the church. You’ll often find LDS families watching General Conference (which is broadcast worldwide) in their homes, or in their local church building. General Conference is broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, which happens to be totally within driving distance of us.

I love going up to Salt Lake for Conference, even if we’re not in the Conference Center. So on Sunday, since the Provo Library is closed, Ezra and I drove up to Salt Lake and hung out on Temple Square. We watched the Sunday morning session of Conference in one of the Visitor Centers, and then went to Ezra’s Mom’s place for lunch. She had some pretty great pizza, and we decided we didn’t want to face the traffic for the second session at 2pm, so we just stayed put and watched it on TV.

Had to visit the Christus.

Too shy to ask a stranger to take our picture, so we did it ourselves. Not the best lighting, but we were happy to be there!

I love daffodils.

And Ezra decided to take a picture of me taking a picture of the daffodils.

After Conference was over we watched a new show BYU TV is producing called Granite Flats. The show was filmed entirely in Utah, and in some locations around Salt Lake. We drove around for a while with Ezra’s sister and her family trying to find some of the filming locations.

In one of the school sets we thought we saw that the name of the school was Granger. So we went to Granger Elementary School. This was definitely NOT the school it was filmed at.

While on the road I was researching it on my phone and saw that they were trying to purchase Granite High School for filming (the article was a little aged). So we went to Granite High School... which was completely closed off and had asbestos signs in all the windows and doors. Definitely not filmed there. We found out later that the school was about a ten minute drive from their house, so perhaps another day we will find the filming location.

After that we wanted some fresh air and stopped by Liberty Park and peeked in at the Tracy Aviary. We had a lot of fun getting out and sharing stories. It was a great conference weekend.

Some of the birds. Just chilling.

No major plans for this coming week. Ezra is getting his portfolio together for the Nick Artist Program so he’s been busy being artsy. We’re not really getting our hopes up about it. He said he wants to apply so he can frame Nickelodeon’s rejection letter. I think it’s brave to try something when you’re 95% sure you’re going to be rejected. So no matter what happens, I’m proud of him for applying.

Easter

This past week has kept us busy.

School and work were as usual, Allison and I both continued to get good grades on our class assignments.  I also am still pressing forward on my portfolio to apply to the Nickelodeon Artist Program that is due the 15th of April.  2 weeks, I can do it.

Thursday we also had a bit of a scare with a visitor to our office.  A Scutigera coleoptrata, a house centipede. It is this freaky 30 legged spider-mutant.  obviously not a spider, but before we knew what it was it was just creepy. I intentionally kept this picture smaller in case you get freaked out, if you are intrigued, you may search for it on your own.

Friday we went and donated blood, Allison was very happy that her iron was high enough to donate this time. 

Saturday night after work we watched the Doctor Who premiere at a friends house. It looks like these episodes will be a nice finish to the season and a great build-up to the 50th anniversary.

We had Easter yesterday on Sunday at my moms house and were able to visit with a few of my family members there.  Afterwards we went to the park and tossed bread to the ducks.  we also found out that it is entertaining to throw a whole roll out to the seagulls and they all flock to it.

late late incredibly late

Sorry about that...

It has been a busy week (or two) with much drawing taken place.

I am posting for both weeks as penance for not having posted on time last week.

We went to the final taping of the second season of Studio C at BYU's TV studio on campus, hilarious by the way.

 Here is a picture of the line waiting to get in, we get there over 2 hours before it starts to be able to get good seats.  And yes, the line does indeed go up the stairs and twisting all over the place. Each time we go we arrive earlier and earlier and yet we are almost always in the same spot in line.

We received this cheesecake key lime pie for Pi Day/St. Patrick's Day from Bob and Cindy Anne, it was delicious!!  It was so good that we ate it rather quickly, but we enjoyed in immensely.

 Allison and I both have been doing great in our classes by getting As.  It will be nice when summer comes and I can focus more on my art.  I still feel like I need to improve so much, but at the same time I feel like I am learning twice as much as the previous day, everyday.

Even though spring is here, we still get snow... but it was mostly gone by the end of the day even though it was still snowing into the afternoon.  That is Utah weather for you, we will probably still be getting snow here and there until May. 

A lot seems to happen each day, but everything is so minor that it isn't that memorable, to put in a weekly blog, but on campus a couple days ago I did overhear a girl talking on the phone and she said "...and... is it still looking like it's edible"  I can only imagine the other side of the conversation.  For things like that I miss being on campus more often.

Birthday Week

I just had my 26th birthday on Friday.  It was a big one, full of... stuff, and things....

Free food is always good and a couple years ago I signed up for birthday clubs with a ton of restaurants and now each year I get freebies.  We had a few meals out and went up to Salt Lake to visit family.  2005 was the last time my mom saw me on my birthday.  We also went and visited with one of my mission companions and good friends. His daughter just had a birthday, and it was fun picking out princess toys and accessories for her.

I got Doctor Who Yahtzee from my mom, Allison and I have played that quite a few times now. And she gave me a coupon book...  Hehe, best present ever...ish... and we're not talking last minute, quickly hand written coupon book because you forgot.  This was done on the computer with pictures and well thought out gifts... she also used the sewing machine to make the pages perforated for easy tearing and redeemability.

The car was also finally fixed, again.  The parking break has had issues and once it was "fixed" it didn't actually hold us if we were on a hill. Now it is all good and our car likes us again for taking care of it.

We again went to Studio C on Saturday night.  It is a lot of fun to go to a live taping of a TV show. The atmosphere is great and you get to see them set up the sets and what goes on between shooting the scenes.  Over all fun experience and a perk for still living in Utah.

The week of continual sick, ugh

This week has been mostly about rest and relaxation.  We have remained sick and possibly got each other sick again. Allison is on the mend which hopefully means that I shortly will be too.

On the plus side Allison finished her first sewing project, an apron. Se is very excited about it and can't wait to use it.  I think she did a really great job on it. She is enjoying sewing, there were a few cases of frustration that arose but it was the sewing machines fault, mostly.

Ezra modeling the almost finished apron.

All done!

My mom spoke in Church today and that took us up to Salt Lake.  We had a great dinner and I got some of my birthday presents early since I might not see them again before my birthday. Doctor Who Yahtzee.  Hehe, the cup IS the TARDIS.  We have yet to play it, but I am sure we will enjoy it.

I'm also working on a personal project, An animation based on the Russian fairy tale the Snow Maiden. Not to be confused with Disney's upcoming adaptation of the Snow Queen, Frozen. I'll start posting images and progress on my art blog.

I'm still not very good at knowing what to say in these blog posts.

First Car Problem Ever

As boring as last week was, this week made up for it, so it’s a long post, sorry. First, I have never, EVER had a major issue with my car. I got it in November 2005 and it was already about two years old. It’s always run great and aside from regular maintenance I’ve never had to take it in to get it looked at. That changed this week.

Tuesday: When we left the house everything was great with the car. I dropped Ezra off on campus and I drove over to the library. When I parked at the library I pulled my parking break, as I do every time I park, and it wouldn’t lock into place. So I texted Matt, (my brother and the best mechanic I know) and Ezra to let them know what was up.

Wednesday: I called the dealership where I take my car for routine maintenance and made an appointment to get it looked at. They told me it would probably take half a day so I made the appointment for 9am the following day.

Thursday: Hello freezing rain! Thankfully I have a covered parking spot so the doors weren’t frozen shut. Ezra and I headed into town about 2.5 hours earlier than usual so that I could take my car to the dealership. We didn’t have any issues with the freezing rain until we made it to the dealership parking lot and I lost traction for a second. No damage done. They took my car into the shop and we sat down and started doing homework. Fifteen minutes later the guy comes out and says I need a new parking assembly. The nearest one is in Michigan. It would cost $450 not including tax or labor to install it. Great.

I texted Matt a lot more and asked him what he thought. At his suggestion, I didn’t order the part through the dealership and am looking into independent mechanics this week. I have an appointment to get my car seen again tomorrow (Jan 29th) so hopefully this guy (who had great ratings on Google and was recommended to me by a friend) will have something a bit more positive to say. I’m hoping for something like, “oh it’s just this small part and I can have that fixed right away.” I’d like the grand total to be under $200, but I think that might be wishful thinking. We’ll see.

Friday: First thing in the morning we went to donate blood. I love giving blood! Ezra didn’t have any problems but my iron was too low. Oh well, maybe next time. After that we went up to Salt Lake to meet a guy that bought something of Ezra’s on eBay. We met at the Salt Lake Public Library (first time I’d ever been there, it’s so huge!) and then once that was taken care of we visited Ezra’s mom and sister’s family who also live up there. We left around 5:30-6pm before the fog got really bad. I heard that by around 9pm it became so thick you couldn’t see the car in front of you.

The smog and light fog really darkened the sun in Salt Lake by 5:10pm.

Saturday: Work as usual. After work we went to a taping of the first episode of season 2 for Studio C! It was so much fun! I even got a t-shirt (which I’m wearing right now)! Definitely something we’ll try to sign up for again.

Sunday: A pretty normal Sunday. One exciting thing happened: I finally got my sewing machine out and started playing with it! I had some major frustrations for a little while with thread getting stuck in my bobbin case but Ezra fixed it for me. He’s amazing like that. :-) Maybe this week I’ll find some time to start working on my first sewing project, an apron.
 

My wonderful sewing machine!

The pattern I'm using for my first project. I'm doing the apron on the left.

So that was our week! Next week will hopefully be back to boring. The only major appointment we have is for me to get my car looked at.

After such a crazy and stressful week, here's some cuteness.

And some more cuteness. I feel better already.

The Great Purge

This week seemed to go by in a blur.  Not much excitement happened around here that we can remember.  We are on the 6th season of Boy Meets World now waiting for the new series to start.

I started to make the purge of my childhood. It has been a long time coming and I am now at a point in my life where I can arise from the dust (of my childhood), and be men (man, I'm only one after all .  My mom moved over Christmas time and it gave me a chance to go home and get the remainder of my stuff, now I am slowly working at selling it on eBay and through other sources.  It is nice to have it all under one roof for the time being, but a bit in the way....  Ok, lets face it, a huge burden to our living space.  As I sort through it, it tends to get strewn across the floor and tables, and couch... But on the plus side we were able to get the lovesac situated in a manner most befitting for the face of Boe.

I was able to finally take my bike out this past week too.  It was cold and I couldn't feel my toes for most of Friday, but it was worth it to feel the freedom of personal transportation again.

Allison sat at a desk really really board for upwards of 6 hours on Saturday helping with the Family Literacy Symposium at the Provo Library.  Shannon Hale was the guest speaker.

Allison pointed out last week that I'm not one to curl up with a book, that is mostly true, I don't do it very often, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it.  I just feel that when I'm in a long book that takes many hours to read, I could be using my time differently, like drawing or building something.  But I do get lost in art books frequently.

Allison starts up her real classes later this week and I am still working on mine. I will be stating to post more of my art on my art blog soon so go check that out too... http://ezrads.blogspot.com/

Crazy week, but back home

We got back home to Utah to a ton of snow.  Our car was half frozen shut in the airport parking lot.  It was a good thing that we didn't need to fill up the gas tank since that was on the side that froze over.  We went back up to Salt Lake two more times throughout the week.  Once to help my (Ezra's) mom move into her new place, the next for Edward's (Ezra's nephew) birthday party.  It was fun and it is good to be back in the swing of things.

School starts back up for both Allison and myself.  It is an exciting time and stressful too.  We live farther away from BYU and the Provo Library now. I feel sometimes trapt with all the snow and distance.  It takes longer and is more difficult biking in these conditions (not to mention the deadening cold morning wind on your face as you ride a bike hurrying into work before the sun comes up.... eek, yeah, we've been driving lately).  This is just the beginning of snow though, maybe I should get some studded bike tires...  and a face mask.

We are, on the plus side, halfway out of the dark.

Icicles hanging from our house.

The poor plants have become encased in ice.

2012 Christmas Letter

We've been meaning to write a blog post, but things have been a little crazy since we made it home from the Northwest. So, to make up for it, here is a copy of our Christmas letter. Enjoy!

2012 has been a rather productive year for the Smith family. Here are a few of the highlights.

Allison became a reference librarian at the Provo Library in January and is absolutely in love with her new position. She rarely asks for time off but on Saturday, June 9th she took a day off to run the Utah Valley Marathon. She trained hard throughout the year and it was tough, but she finished in less than six hours and received her finisher’s medal. She can finally mark “run a marathon” off her bucket list. In August Allison decided she wanted to further her education and become the best librarian she could by receiving her Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS). She applied to San Jose State University and was accepted. She will begin classes in January 2013. Finally, in November, Allison decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. She did it! Allison can now claim to be a novelist, even though it’s unpublished and may never see the light of day. That’s just one more thing she can mark off her bucket list.

Ezra went to California for a week in March with the Illustration department from BYU. They visited animation studios, video game studios, some fine artist personal studios, grad schools, and museums. He has a stronger drive to work in the animation industry but also continues dabbling in electronics and mobile app development. Having always been a little ADD when it comes to hobbies, he has had difficulties in choosing a major and sticking with it while in college.

We took our anniversary trip in August to visit Allison’s family, then toured various places in Oregon such as McDowell Creek Park, Enchanted Forest, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Then we traveled up to Washington, went zip lining, and saw Ezra’s family. It was a fun vacation and we look forward to planning next year’s.

To end the year, WE’VE MOVED! It was sudden but necessary because of some unfortunate circumstances with our home at [Address not available online]. Our new address is:

[Address not available online.].

We call it our best Black Friday deal because that’s the day we found it. We were finally able to start moving in on December 8th and are actually still in the process. We’ll officially be out of our old place on the 19th. This was definitely a move we needed to make and our new home is wonderful in all the ways our old place was lacking. Though the actual process of moving hasn’t been very fun, we really like our new home and it fits our needs well. Hopefully we’ll be staying here for quite a while.

We hope this letter finds you well and wish you a wonderful holiday season.

Best wishes,
Ezra and Allison Smith

I'll be home for Christmas

We have officially left our old place and now only have one home rather than two! On Wednesday after work we worked on cleaning our old apartment. We finished at eight o’clock which is when we had our manager scheduled to be over to check it out. She thought the place looked great and gave us our full deposit back. We were sooo happy to be done.

Our little Christmas tree, in our new place.

We slept in a bit on Thursday to recover from all the late nights and hard work we went through to get everything done. After I got Ezra to work I made sure to get laundry done so we had clean clothes to pack. After work we packed and got everything ready for our trip.

Well, I’ve never had any major problems with holiday travel before. This year changed that. Everything was fine getting to the airport. Our plane was a little late but not much and it didn’t cause any problems. We flew into Portland, OR and took TriMet over to the train station. Our train was running about two hours late. Apparently all the snow in California had slowed it down. So we made it to Lacey around 8 o’clock.

While in Washington we did a lot of packing. Ezra’s mom is moving down to Salt Lake City so our days in Washington were filled with packing and sorting through things. We made a lot of progress and hopefully everything will be done and ready when they take off this weekend. We also had a wonderful get together with Ezra’s family on Saturday the 22nd. I got to meet family members that I hadn’t met yet and I think I’ve finally met most of Ezra’s family.

We found some of our wedding cake in the freezer. We decided we should eat a bit.

Monday, the 24th was the really crazy day. We got up early and worked on packing things. I got a voicemail that there was an issue with our train. Great. I called Amtrak and they told me that the train that we were supposed to catch at 11:20 was running late, two hours late. They said to call back again at 12:45 to check on it. Okay. Well, there were a few things we still had to shop for and some bank stuff Ezra had to take care of, so we took our time getting that done. On our first stop Ezra asked about the trains again (it was about 10:20am) and he suggested I call Amtrak and check on it again. So I did. They told me there was a train we could catch that was supposed to arrive at 11:20 (our original time) but was running about ten minutes late, so it would be there at 11:30am. That train would take us to Portland, then we could take a greyhound bus down to Albany. Cool! We rushed through our last stop, which was Target. One of the items we got was a gift card, a normal, typical, every day gift card. It had some issues and took a while. We had a train to catch and I knew we would be pushing it so I sent Ezra out to the car and he and his sister, Casey, went back to the house to get our things. Then they would come back, pick me up and we would go straight to the train station. It was a great plan! The only thing was, we were slightly short on time.

We were pulling up to the train station and we could see the train sitting there. I knew this was a short stop and that we’d have to hurry. Then we pulled into the parking lot as the train pulled out. We missed it. I walked into the train station and asked about it. He said that was part of the train, but that our original train was running late and they didn’t know when it would arrive. We'd just have to wait. I had about an hour of frustration and then was fine. I just don’t like being let down. I felt like we were so close to being back to our normal schedule but then had that ripped away, and literally seeing that missed opportunity chug away. So we sat and waited. The train arrived around 3:40pm and we finally made it to the Albany train station at 7:45, about 3.5 hours late. I was really just relieved to be back in Oregon and so close to home.

Then we were pleasantly surprised by our welcoming party! Who pulls up? None other than my mom, sister-in-law, and my adorable new nephew Oliver! I’m ashamed to admit that Oliver was a little more exciting than anything else and when we walked in the house and I had Oliver in my arms I may have forgotten to greet my dad… Oops! The rest of the family was just starting on desert when we arrived so Ezra and I ate dinner and then didn’t have to wait for desert. It was great to see my family. And play with Oliver. Oliver trumps all.

Auntie Allison and Oliver!

On Tuesday we had a great big family breakfast, opened presents, hung out and relaxed, then in the afternoon we had more family show up and did some more presents. In the evening we got to watch the new episode of Doctor Who. Awesome! Oh, and throughout the day there was a lot of Oliver. Did I mention that Oliver is the best? I love being an Auntie!

The Christmas tree! All ready with Santa's gifts.

Britney, Oliver, and Matt getting ready to open Oliver's stocking.

Sleepy Oliver.

Such a happy baby! He loves watching the village scenes around the living room.

Auntie, why are you taking pictures of me?

Today has been a pretty relaxing day so far. Britney and Oliver showed up this afternoon and I got to see my adorable nephew some more. I have to get my Oliver fix because I won’t see him again until sometime this summer.

So, that’s the news from this past week! It’s been a busy one, and we won’t leave Oregon until the 31st. So hopefully the rest of this vacation is just as fun as the first half has been!

Thanksgiving and a new home

This week, as opposed to others as of late has been rather eventful.  We found out that one of the other apartments in out building has black mold and a mushroom growing off of the wall... yes a MUSHROOM!!  needles to say, we want to move.  We spent a few days looking for a new place and finally found one.  We call it our greatest Black Friday deal.  2 bedrooms, washer and dryer, covered parking, a landlord that has chickens which means we get eggs, she also owns a horse, oh and it comes with a microwave... Allison is happy.  the only downside is the distance, but I think I'm going to love being able to ride my bike more and more often.  I just need to fix it up a bit.  Oh and did we mention 2 (two) bedrooms?

We were also able to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her family up in Salt Lake. It was great, but my nephew was sick , and now Allison isn't feeling great at all. I am okay-ish. We didn't really get much shopping in, but maybe we'll try our hand at Cyber Monday this year.

Hooray for Black Friday!

We had a really fun Thanksgiving with Ezra’s sister, Casey, and her family in Salt Lake City. We had dinner with them on Thanksgiving and stayed the night so we could go Black Friday shopping in Salt Lake. We hit up Target (Vacuume! Kindle!), RC Willey (Blu-ray player!), Best Buy (DVDs!), Kohl’s (Clothes!) and Old Navy (More clothes!).

I ran another 10 miler last Monday, and tomorrow I have to do 13 miles. I might die.

I’ve been having fun playing with my new kindle as I learn about and use eBooks. I used to be firmly against eBooks but after learning about them at the library I’ve really wanted to use them more, and now I am. I feel like I’m doing research for work, as well as reading for pleasure. I still love my physical books, but really, eBooks are awesome.

We’ve begun pulling out Christmas decorations. I pulled my tree out and decorated it with my many ornaments. The poor tree is loaded, but I feel like the tree represents my life… and now our life. At the very top of the tree is the “Our first Christmas” ornament my mom bought us. Our stockings are hung over the fireplace, and other random decorations are out. We also had a bit of snow today… ‘tis the season!

Friday evening the library had an Author Link event with Christopher Paolini. He gave a 45ish minute presentation about himself and writing, then signed books. I was able to get his newest book personalized and signed, as well as Eragon signed. I've never met such a major author so that was kind of cool.

Ezra officially has his application for the illustration program in and now we play the waiting game. He pulled an all nighter to get his portfolio done and ready, yet he seemed conscious when I saw him the next morning and throughout the day, which I thought was weird. He completely crashed the following night though and he's pretty much caught up on sleep now.We should hear back about the program before the end of the year. We've got our fingers crossed.

Saturday evening after work Ezra and I went to a BYU ballet performance. It was a really fun date (especially since we haven’t been on one for a while), and we got Costa Vida afterwards. Overall, a successful evening I think.

I drafted our first family Christmas letter today. I’m going to let it sit for a bit so I can make any other modifications with fresh eyes. It was kind of fun, thinking back over the past year and all the things that have happened. It’s strange to think that so many major events happened in the space of just one year. I can’t wait to get Christmas cards out and start that tradition. It’s one that daunts my mom every year, and I’m ready to go through the same stress, making sure the major events have been included so that people know what we’re up to.

I can’t wait to get started on and see what I’ll accomplish this coming week. It’s going to be a good one!

Afterthought: If you use facebook at all, Ezra and I have a really good friend who is in a contest. If she wins, she will get her children's book story idea published. Please support her and her story. It's a really fun read. Follow this link, and all you have to do to vote is "like" her story. Please vote and help her out, this is an amazing opportunity.