USU vs U of U

It's basketball season! Joe and I love to go to the Spectrum and attend the Aggie basketball games. It is so loud, insane, and intense! I admit, we can be a little mean. I think all athletes, no matter what team they are on, deserve respect for their talent and hard work. The "air ball", and other common chants are fine, but I don't like the chants "stupid", "you suck", and the "you're still ugly" chant that was aimed at Neville. That's my opinion. I don't blame teams for not liking to play in spectrum.

Yesterday the Aggies played Utah in an intense, nail-biting game. The Utah coach was pretty into it. The crowd chanted "anger management" when he was yelling at the referees, and when he get into a 'discussion' with Stew, chanted "Stew is better". It's a pretty creative crowd we have up here. For those of you who didn't watch the game, the end was hectic. With 2.4 seconds left, Utah State passed the ball into play, missed a shot, and Tai Wesley tapped it in. But....somebody forgot to start the time clock! Chaos broke out, because no one knew if we made the shot in time. Coaches were everywhere, refs were reviewing the play, and then after what seemed like hours, they counted the basket and put 0.1 second on the clock. Utah hurled the ball down, but we intercepted it. What a dramatic finish! I have a love/hate relationship with basketball games that are close. I'm like the girl on Remember the Titans, watching through my fingers. Here are a few pictures from the game:

The coaches having a 'discussion'. Things got very heated up.

The review. Referees timing to see how much time had passed.

Tai Wesley after making the winning shot!

Photos from Deseret News.

Graduation!

This past weekend Joe graduated!!! I am very proud of him for finishing his Bachelors, and next step ... Masters. Here are a few pictures from our graduation days:
Joe in the car looking awfully excited! It snowed about six inches that day, and was a blizzard when we headed up to campus. They had two of the main roads closed and cars were getting stuck! The day was, as President Albrecht said, memorable and miserable!

The spectrum full of students. (enlarge picture to see where Joe is)

Joe walking up to meet me, and I snapped a picture at the perfect moment!

This is the group that I survived my undergraduate experience with. Our department is very small; most of us had every single class together. We shared good times together, blew up things (mostly me), and laughed a lot.

The weather was perfect for my graduation day! Here is me in front of Old Main.

This is one of my favorite professors, Dr. Hubbard, who liked to perform cool demonstrations and was a really entertaining professor. He calls Joe "the accountant".

Blue & Red

So before the big BYU vs U of U game, Joe got to enjoy a nice Turkey Bowl. He had a lot of fun, and received a nice 'trophy' on the side of his face. Fingernails really can do a lot of damage!


As soon as we moved into our new place, Joe had this idea of outlining a football field in our nice green shag carpet. We tried to vacuum our carpet so it would have the dark/light lines but it you couldn't see it very well.



I'm really glad Joe remembered to take pictures, because I was very into the game and forgot about everything except football. Food wasn't even a temptation!

We are very grateful to everyone who came over! We all had pre-game predictions and I was one of two who had BYU winning. So sad, but I guess they were right. The game was really fun, and the U of U just played fantastic. Max Hall...well, I won't go any farther.

Confession of a college graduate

Last week Joe was mentioning how stressed he was with all the homework and studying he had to do over the next couple of weeks, so I volunteered to help. I assumed this would be turning off the TV, or quizzing him. Nope. He asked if I could help him write his paper. I said sure. So I come home on Friday from work, look at the syllabus so I know what the paper is about, and next thing I know I started writing his paper! It's true! I had to call my sister because I could remember MLA citation rules. It's only been a few months, but I feel like I can't remember much of what I was taught. Anyway, back to the paper, Joe comes home and I had to show him what I did. He was really grateful. We talked about the paper, and we wrote some of it together. It was stressful, but I actually enjoyed it. I have to admit that I miss homework! I miss learning. I miss seeing people. I don't miss the cold wind blowing, and I won't miss finals, but I have to confess that I miss school.

So, who is excited for the big game this weekend? I am!! Go Cougars!

Need a Hero?

For our ward Halloween party, the bishopric always dresses up. Secretly, they look like ordinary nerds, but....

... then they become heroes!

Joe got to be Flash. His boots are womens rain boots with yellow duct tape. Everyone made their costume from scratch. The Bishop even sewed his own muscles in!

Doesn't he look like he can run really fast?

I got to accompany the Phantom and Christine. It was fun!

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but I consider myself to be a superhero for making my first pizza from scratch, and using my stone. I put the pizza on parchment paper which makes cleaning a lot easier. YUMMY!!

Happy Birthday Lizzy

On August 21 my niece Lizzy celebrated her second birthday. I was the only one who brought a camera, so this is for my family--

Lizzy fell asleep in her high chair. It was pretty funny.

Ross also fell asleep. What a party!

Lizzy's first gift was a princess dish set from uncle Brian. She loved it! We had a hard time getting her to open any more presents.




She loves watching a YouTube video of Elmo on my brother's iphone, but wasn't sure what to think of this.

Camping trip

So it's all past stuff...but here goes! In August we got to go camping for the first time this year, with some friends. It was a blast! And true camping--meaning, there was no "bathroom".

Within a couple minutes of getting out of the car, Savannah was covered with dirt and just enjoying life. She loved everything!

Joe pondering the meaning of life! Or just trying to be funny.

The Ashby clan: Isaac, Stephanie, and Savannah

The view from our car. These moose are huge! We're just glad we were in the car or else Isaac would have chased them.

A very happy, dirty Savannah!

Bear Lake, Mythbusters, Vampires and more

Sorry it's taken so long to update our blog! Our camera has been with Joe's parents so I haven't been able to update with pictures. First, here are some pictures our friends took of us up at Bear Lake with the boys building a sandcastle: The beautiful sandcastle was destroy from volleys of Bocce balls! We were fortunate enough to make a few trips up to Bear Lake this summer! Seems so long ago now...

Mythbusters has to be one of the greatest shows on Discovery. Joe is especially a fan. I've been trying to upload their video, but I haven't been able to. We watched one last week entitled "Phone Book Friction" where the interlace two phonebooks (alternating pages) and try to tear them apart. Amazingly enough, it is really hard. In the episode, Adam figures out how to rip a phone book in half. Joe got this really excited look on his face, grabbed an old phonebook, and attempted to rip it apart. He was so funny! Unfortunately, the phonebook got the bettter of him. Here is a link to the video where the finally got the phonebooks apart by using two tanks! Go Mythbusters!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOt-D_ee-JE

And lastly, vampires. A friend of mine asked me what I thought about the Twilight series, so I thought I'd share my opinion on the vampire books I've been reading.

First, Dracula. The true vampire book. I really enjoyed this book. It's written in the form of diaries kept by people who have encountered/have something to do with Count Dracula. Here is where you find all the garlic & cross lore. I would recommend it to everyone.

Second, the Twilight series. I think that these books are very entertaining, at least worth reading once. I do like them, although I sometimes think that there is too much romance and not enough story. Some people have compared them to Harry Potter, but for me there really is no comparison. Harry Potter has a lot of depth to it, in story and in character.

Third, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This book is very good as well. It follows the Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) route, but in a modern time. The story is told through letters; the narrator following her father's letters. It is set in modern times, but through the letters you go back in time. It is a large novel, but goes into a lot of depth about Dracula, and about the characters.

Oh ... I also got a new job. I am now employed by Symbiotics as their receptionist/water lab supervisor/whatever else they need! Hopefully the blog wasn't too long!

Thanksgiving Point

Joe & I took a mini vacation to Lehi to visit my sister and her three children. We asked my nephew, Ross Pope, what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to go to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.


Joe helping Lizzy feed the goats. She did not like feeding them herself; just watching Joe.

Ross finally getting the courage to feed the goat. He was surprised! "It didn't hurt, Mommy!"

The very angry donkey. It didn't like it when we ignored it & fed the cow instead. It started hee-hawing and its nostrils flared pretty big.



Lizzy loved riding on the horse and saying "Giddy-up horsie!" Thanks Megan, for the pictures.

St. George

Well, there's not too much excitement going on at the Chambers, so I thought I'd post our trip to St. George over Memorial weekend. We stayed at a family house, which is about forty minutes away from Zion National Park!

Melissa Anderson accidentally dropped a jelly filled donut, and this chipmunk just attacked it! It would eat Doritos out of Joe's hand! It was only later we realized there's a $100 fee for feeding the wildlife!At the top of Observation Point. It was a pretty good hike, took about four hours but the view was incredible! The weather was perfect--cloudy with a little bit of rain! People who went with us: Preston & Melissa Anderson.

Europe

Joe went to Europe the first part of June for business, and of course had fun. He went to London, France, Belgium and Amsterdam. Here are some of his pictures!!



This statue called Mannequin Pis (Dutch for little man pee) is in Brussels and apparently people pay big money to dress him up and take pictures.

A yummy Belgium waffle!