Great Big Sea Hove in Park City

This weekend Hallie, Mike, and Hallie’s brother Riley had the opportunity to see our favorite band, Great Big Sea, in concert in Park City. With many prayers we braved the weather to and from Park City, heading down Provo Canyon afterwards through a snowstorm and very low visibility. We love our big beautiful boxy Buick. The best part of the concert happened after it ended. We were invited to attend a reception following the concert, and we each got to talk with the members of the band and get our pictures taken. Let’s just say Hallie was in heaven. Hallie's favorite picture is of her and Bob.

Exams are over!

I (Mike) took my qualifying exams last Thursday and Friday. Glad they're over. Thanks to all who have been so supportive! Hallie took me out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, we bought a couple of Coldstone Valentine's-themed ice cream cakes, then we took advantage of Little America Hotel's romance package and spent a night away from the whole school thing. Next thing to do between taking the exams and waiting for the results is get my proposal in order.

Avoidance Behavior

I (Mike) am in the midst of studying for my qualifying exams, and I know only one thing for sure (barring unforeseen disasters that reveal the relatively trivial nature of accomplishments like graduate degrees for what they are): February 2nd and 3rd will come and go, and I will continue breathing. The exams require me to remember a lot of material I have learned both in classes and on my own over the past two years, and I am only now beginning to realize how little I remember. So after each day's mini panic attack, I get back into slogging through the material. In addition to studying, I am also practicing a few avoidance behaviors. First, we ordered USD-TV (cable TV with an indoor antenna), even though I had committed a number of years ago that I would never pay for TV when I could get it for free. However, this last time when we went home American Chopper kept calling to us, reminding us of Paul Sr. and Paulie's heartwarming interactions, and HG-TV kept showing all those home shows we had been missing since our move to Salt Lake (cable was free in Provo, so it was fair game then). USD-TV cost us $18 a month, so I caved. Now, you can't buy something without using it, so I study by day and we watch by night. The second avoidance behavior I have practiced is preparing our second bedroom to be a nursery. This involved long hours of going through boxes and throwing out items that had not seen the light of day in at least two years as well as rearranging the bedroom furniture and building a new dresser (courtesy of IKEA--we love that place. This is really sad, but we want the next place we move to to be within an hour of both an IKEA and a Costco. Talk about your priorities). Finally, I sit here writing when I should be reading. That said, I will sign off now, but not before relating three bits of news. First, a case worker has our adoption file, so hopefully we will receive a call for an appointment soon. We have an orientation meeting on January 26th. Second, Hallie and I are now both back at Weight Watchers (too much TV and indulging in tasty treats results in clothes not fitting--surprise!), and last week I lost 2 lbs, and she lost .8 lbs. We go again on Saturday. Finally, we celebrate seven years of marriage on Sunday the 23rd. It has been one fast ride, and Hallie makes the best travelling companion a boy could have. Thanks, Hallie! I love you!

Merry (Twisted) Christmas 2005

Merry Christmas to you and yours! We wanted to update you on our activities over the year and tell you of our adventures. You may already know about how at McClelland St we were simultaneously frozen and kept awake until all hours by our neighbors. Well, we are happy to say that the gas leak in the furnace and the house fire solved both problems quite well (Hallie will miss Mitch, though). We then moved into a new house with Vola, a wonderful lady. Hallie’s brother came to live with us while laying low after running into that fire truck (driving and pesticides don’t mix). We especially loved having immediate family so close for the first time in four years. We had many laughs with him. A “Family Guy” fan, he set up a small idol to Peter Griffin in his new place.

Speaking of mind altering experiences, Hallie, now manager at Curves (local health club), is now fully into the Curves lifestyle. She rarely leaves the house anymore without wearing some bit of Curves advertising. Mike did an ethnographic paper on the culture of Curves. The ladies all love him (and he them).

In April we visited Montreal, Canada. Mike attended an education conference, & Hallie thought it would be fun to tag along. She was right. We stayed at a B&B and got to know Montreal quite well. Unfortunately, this will be our last visit to Canada for some time (if the customs authorities have their way). Once again, Mike went into one of his political tirades with a Mounty, only this time Sgt. Preston spoke back more eloquently with his baton. Montreal reminds Mike of Buenos Aires. He could live there (assuming we cross under cover of darkness).

On May 18, Hallie turned 30. What better way to celebrate your birthday then to take a trip to Disneyland? It was great fun especially to surprise all of Hallie’s family. What a great look Hallie’s mom had on her face when she walked in to say hi to her at work. Mike will never forget how she slammed through two lines of tardy students requesting readmit slips just to get to her daughter. Reminiscent of that Schwartzeneggar classic “Total Recall;” truly touching.
September was a busy month. A new semester brought new trials, & as the end approaches we wonder what were those trials all about? Mike suspects it had something to do with his recurring dreams about a red faced man with horns, the promise of finishing his PhD, and a blood pact, but Hallie scoffs. After all, dreams are rarely based on reality. Hallie interned at Anton Boxrud B&B downtown. She has really enjoyed it and has made good friends with the owner. Now she needs to make nice with the local chamber of commerce & Vola so we can start our own at home.

November brought a first for us. M&H celebrate seven years of marriage in January, & not once had we spent a night apart. Yet on November 10, we both had to go separate ways. Mike went to Nashville for another education conference, stayed at the Opryland Hotel, & really enjoyed it. Hallie went to the Curves Convention in Las Vegas. Both have remained closed-lipped about our trips. After all, you know what they say: “What happens in Nashville. . . .”

On December 11th, we took a business trip to Waco, Texas where Hallie will learn more about what Curves expects of her. Mike will visit the freezing war protesters at Pres. Bush’s Crawford ranch. Nothing warms the blood like a good debate! At the end of December Hallie will graduate with honors from LDSBC. She is excited and has enjoyed her time at school. She made many friends and learned a lot about how to bend the honor code without breaking it. Mike is done with course work and will start writing his dissertation soon. We are excited for this transition in his program.

And our big news of the season: we have decided to start the adoption process, so hopefully by this time next year there will be another little Owens with news of his or her own to share! We hope that as we reflect on the birth of our Savior during this Christmas season, that you will feel His love in your lives. We hope for you and yours all the happiness you can reasonably bear, and you are in our thoughts and prayers!
Love, Us

Still Attemptin

Well I did not post last week. Mostly because I gained back all the weight that I lost. This week unfortunately does not look a whole lot better. It is 10:42 pm and way past my bed time. I could not sleep I am all worked up. I saw Cory ( the therapist) today. She was quite encouraging and it was a good hour. I also Patty (the medication lady) and we are going to try some new meds. The question is when will I have time to even fill my prescription. For the last several days I have been working on some homework for a school class. All of the work has to do with Excel right now and regarding most of it I have no idea what it is about. I think the reason I am having a hard time falling asleep is because I will be tested on it tomorrow and I don't look forward to it at all. I was laying in bed crying. Why? Probably because by the end of the day or week I feel everything catching up with me. School, work, internship, life, love, and therapy. I pray that when December 9, rolls around I will have less anxiety. I know it won't all go away, but I hope some does because I don't know if I can handle this anymore. One stress is gone a bit. At work they hired a new girl for the mornings. She will more than likely start full time next week. I am excited. One monkey off of my back for 5 minutes. If I can ever get to bed I asked Mike if we can wake up and do Walk Away The Pounds in the morning. I need to do at least 30 minutes 2 times a day with the amount of food I eat. He did say yes, but he mentioned that when we were successful 4 years ago we did it every day and some how found time when he had to commute to work. I guess just like reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and other things we do every day we need to make exercise a priority. I wish I did not feel so down and discouraged and most of all tired. I wish that when I woke up I was rested and after I exercise I feel invigorated. No such luck, but that has never been the case. Well time to weigh in is just about 48 hours away. I am glad I go with someone because I don't know if I can handle the let down. All the people I go with or who I know are going are quite successful. I really need to use them as a motivator. I stepped on the scale right before bed and it did not tell me happy news. All I can say is tomorrow is a new day and all I need to do is keep trying. It won't get better unless I make an attempt to change. Lets cross our fingers.
Good Night Everyone!

My First Accountability

Well I went to Weight Watchers on Thursday night. I actually lost a little bit. I know I should take more credit then I want to give myself. I had been quite sick before weighing in. Throwing up several times during the week so I try to brush off the weight loss. So here it goes. On September 29 I weighed 205.6. Since starting Weight Watchers over four years ago this is just about the most I have weighed. Gaining back just a bit more than half of my weight back. On October 6 I weighed in at 202.4 with a total loss of -3.2 from last week. When I started this round of Weight Watchers back in July of this year I weighed 204.6. So from then to now I have lost -2.2 pounds. They talked about Storyboarding with us this last week. Storyboarding is a Weight Watchers Tools for Living. Mike had the opportunity to come with me this last week and we both took a sheet and wrote a small goal we wanted. Then we wrote the steps we were going to do to get there. After filling it out we posted it on a door where we can see it all the time. I have completed my first step every day this week. I am very happy about this progress. I need to have faith and hope that I will be able to continue. Not counting today just about 4 more days till I weigh again. I will be able to succeed.

I Need A New Start

I am sitting here on the couch. It is cold outside today, and I feel miserable still. As of this date, I have been sick for nearly three weeks. I finally have one day where I can sit and relax for a couple of hours. I have the movie The Hours on, but honestly I am not really watching it. I am trying to get a small paper started for my Persuasive Selling class due Friday. I am also reading a website (dwlz.com). Dotti is a woman who has struggled with her weight loss, but with creating this website she has helped hundreds--maybe even thousands--of other women with their daily battle. My battle is still here and ever present as well. After losing 40 pounds, I have gained about half of it back. The weight gain is devastating to me. While looking at Dotti's site today, I saw that she is doing weekly check-ins. I think I am going to try that. I know it should be enough to be accountable to myself, but right now I guess it is not satisfactory. So I think from now on every Thursday or Friday after I go to Weight Watchers on Thursday nights, I am going to update here on the blog. I am going to put all of the nitty gritty details. Maybe I will find support from others and hopefully even from myself. I will use tomorrow evening as my starting off point. Mike has a goal to get us to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. I know that is a reasonable goal. In all honesty, I have not found the ultimate desire/focus that I need or that I had 4 years ago. It doesn't help that being sick doesn't motivate me to do a dang thing. Sometimes it is hard to even be at Curves and teach women how to workout when I can't do it myself on a daily basis. Granted, I did move around a lot more than I have been, but I did puke at work last night. So maybe it was not a good idea. We will see. I will try it again today. Look forward to the next three months. Send me emails with your support. Love, Hallie