Still in My Mid-20's!

05.04: Well today is my 26th birthday. Birthday day! The first thing Cristy did was wake-up randomly in the morning and wish me a happy birthday (5:50 AM). After work (which did not go over so well but we'll skip that part) Cristy made me sit down and watch basketball. She said I couldn't do anything but relax. Shortly thereafter my Moms and sister came over (my Dad as roughing it in Hawaii over business) and we all had homemade pizzas. Cristy made sure to make lots of pizzas so there will be leftovers for days. Yes! Afterwards, I opened presents: a cool camera tripod (the one that can wrap around tree branches), three books, a crank radio and first aid kit (for our emergency preparedness kit), some candy, and a giftcard for Cheesecake Factory (I think some of you remember the desserts there...ummmmmm...)

Blowing out the candles.

Cristy's homemade dessert was a GIANT cookie with red icing ;)

My sister LOVES the camera these days.

05.06: Family Home Evening--Photoshoot! Oh how Cristy and I love photoshoots. And with our tripod, we can take photos with less camera shake and with both of us in them! Yay!

Cristy putting on the glamorous smile.

The CUTEST couple in the apartment!

Are we dating or married? Sheesh!

Oh wait...they must be married :)

You can't beat the upside down shot. Joke: Whose got the best wife in the world and has two thumbs? This guy!

Kisses for the best wife :*

It's like staring into a pond or something, right?

Cristy caught me off guard on this one...mmm...

Nathaniel Glamour Shot #1: Exercise Shot (Cristy's Choice)

Cristy Glamour Shot #1: Pregnant Shot (Nathaniel's Choice)

Cristy Glamour Shot #1.5: Kentucky Fan (Nathaniel's Choice)

Nathaniel Glamour Shot #2: Embarrassing Shot (Cristy's Choice)

Cristy Glamour Shot #2: Not-A-Dietitian Shot (Nathaniel's Choice)

05.09: Cristy did a really amazing job keeping me surprised throughout the day (I have been trying all week to figure out what the plans were. Cristy is a good secret-keeper!) Cristy allowed me to run a few errands in the morning, but required me to be home by 1 PM. Once home, we left in the car to an undisclosed location. Cristy told me to bring the GPS--I figured out halfway through that the address we input was bogus. Tricky! I had no idea where we were going, so when we arrived at the RecCenter I was very surprised! Although I have no pictures, we played croquet (twelve people takes a long time!) then volleyball. Volleyball was pretty fun because "our team" played some other people in the park that belonged to an actual league and we crushed them. I felt kind of bad, but not really.

05.10: Mother's Day was really fun. We went to early church (8 AM) and left a bit early to go to Cristy work. Cristy organized a special Mother's Day Lunch for all of the old ladies. Cristy's idea is that we (and a few others) could serve them and make them feel a little special. Not all of them have visitors, so she though this would be a nice change of pace. Despite a few snags, everything went pretty well. Cristy introduced me to her boss and I think I made a pretty good impression. An older woman who was very talkative (and loud) told me that I looked like President Obama (I guess because I as wearing a suit?) The same lady also told Cristy that if I lot my job that I should go and work with Cristy at the long-term care home. Hmmm...

Later, Cristy and I met my Parents and ventured out for a nice hike at Great Falls National Park (Moms request). Unfortunately, thousands of other people had the same idea, so instead we hiked around a local lake and got the same effect: motherly happiness!

A Busy Week For People Who Aren't Pregnant

Well hello family. What a busy week we had (last week)!  

Tuesday, Bulls vs. Celtics, Game 5: That's all I did all day. Watch this game. I don't know what Cristy did...sorry ;)

Wednesday, FHE: We planned a gaming night at our home with our neighbors and some friends from church, but almost every cancelled at the last minute! We tried to fill the house with last minute (literally) phone calls, but in the end we only had one apartmantmate come over :( Fortunately, that neighbor needed to talk to someone and we spent a few hours getting to know each other better. We also found out that Henry would soon need some furniture as his girlfriend was moving out of the house and was going to take all of his stuff (she already took the car.) We offered to take him to Habitat for Humanity that Saturday and he thought that would be a good idea (24 year-old bachelors don't think about furniture all the time I guess?)

Thursday: I have been talking with this guy in our housing community who runs the flag football team. He originally told me that the team was "stacked" at every position and I probably wouldn't be able to play until next season. Well Thursday was the day to try-out and I was a little nervous, not having run a lot or thrown the football around. Cristy and I played catch for five minutes and then I was off. 

It went great! The QB likes to throw to me so I will likely play Wide Receiver immediately. I am pretty excited because since leaving my last company (in January) I haven't been able to play any. That was kind of nice to feel needed by a team. 

Friday: Cristy and I got off work early and went to the Washington D.C. Temple to do Baptisms.  We had a lot of family file names (13 male and 12 female) and had a lot of fun. Earl E. Tingey (previously of the 70) is our Temple President and he came down and gave us (the group) an encouraging speech.

We hurried home and Cristy, who had been awake since 4 AM, went to bed while I grabbed the Nintendo 64 and enjoyed some time with a few friends in the area. (Nothing beats MarioKart 64.)

Saturday: After helping Henry pick up a table at Habitat (seven dollars!!!), we quickly left town for Washington D.C. in an attempt to make the opening day of the National Cathedral’s Annual Flower/Gardening Show. It was awesome! I love the architecture! You don’t see this in the United States (except here, obviously). 

That was our week! Enjoy the pics: 

Cristy stopping to smell the Hydrangea :) This is actually National Cathedral High School, which shares the grounds with the Cathedral. 

Looking up...

The archway to a side entrance...

The front of the building with young performers...kind of gives you some perspective doesn't it?

The entire building has SO much detail...it was hard for me to stop taking pictures because I just wanted to capture everything!

Us!

One of the many placks adorning the Cathedral walls...

A rather old statue of the Virgin Mary. 

Most chairs in this simple room are dedicated to donors. 

A simple room...and yet HUGE supporting columns. 

A beautiful mosaic. 

In the main hall of the Cathedral (man I should NOT have slept through Art History) there are probably three dozen stained-glass windows in alcoves. This was a particularly bright one. 

One of the many small chapels that shoot off of the main hall. I do not recall the name of this one but it is connected to the Children's Chapel, which was everything kid-sized. 

The picture doesn't do it justice. This is one end of the main hall (there are actually two rooms on on this end, this is just one of them). 

Wow. Ya know?

The big big organ. 

A close-up of the outside mural above the main doors. 

A CRAZY black squirrel in the Bishop's Garden. Look at those scars on its back!

And last but not least, the crazy Nathaniel picture of the blog. You didn't think there were GLOW-IN-The-DARK Caterpillars did you?!? HA!!

Next Week: Birthday pics!

Four score and seven year ago...

04.20: ...is the last time Cristy and I went on a run :( We're starting to feel as nonathletic as Damon always complains about ;) (Damon: we all know it's a facade Mr. Basketball.)

Well my Sciatica is completely gone (but now I have a cold and a cold sore) and Cristy has some great news about hers as well. She visited a Chiropractor today and he told her that her hip is out of place (the same thing she heard from her Physical Therapist) but he was very hopeful about her recovery. It is a very standard and routine injury and he knows exactly how to fix her! Yay! Now it will only take 30 visits to the Chiropractor :( But it's worth it to avoid osteoarthritis right?


04.22: For FHE tonight (remember that Cristy and I prefer Wednesday over Monday) Cristy and I watched some Yoga Videos we recorded off of BYU TV. We love our DVR. Here's why: 1.) it records shows for later, meaning I can go shopping with Cristy and watch the game whenever, so long as my mother-in-law doesn't spoil the result like over Christmas ;) 2.) we fast-forward through commercials, which gives us back precious hours to our day (minimum 15 minutes for a one hour show), and 3.) we can store hours and hours worth of shows for later viewing. Hence the 11 combined hours of Yoga shows we now have :) Unfortunately, I am still sick and only watched Cristy, and Cristy stopped 15 minutes in because the Yoga aggravated her Sciatica :(


04.27: This weekend Cristy and I got to go to a themed-potluck at church. Cristy and Jen Jensen (a friend from church) hosted our table of 11; our theme was Puerto Rico. I know I am biased, but Cristy's meal was THE BEST. It smelled like my grandmother's cooking but tasted even better, which is quite the feat. Jen's neighbors came, as did my mother, sister, and old college friend Barry.

My Mom bought me this plant for Easter but it got too top-heavy and started to lean :( We had to rig it to keep it from snapping! (Note: Eventually we had to cut it at the root)

The themed-potluck--Mexican Table

Camp Out Table!! My Favorite!
Tropical Table

Puerto Rican Table--that's us baby!

A second tropical table

The winner--the Spring Fling Table! (The Fieldings, the hosts, told us they cheated because half of this stuff is their wedding leftovers :)

Cristy's amazing dish, which I can't pronounce (Chicken Fricassee?) It smelled just like my Grandma's but tasted way better. I highly recommend it.

My buddy Barry and I sipping on some Virgin Coladas. Please notice my name tag, which Cristy cleverly designed.

Our group!Mostly Puerto Rican (minus Jen and Barry--Cristy counts as Honorary).

04.28: A new keyboard came in for me at work, which is especially important to me because the "N" character didn't work very well. As some of you may have noticed, I am not exactly the best speller (Spell Check saves my butt) and my progression kind of requires me to spell words correctly. So Yay for me! (I know...no one cares, but its cool for me OK!?!) Plus people expect Technical Writers to write/edit/spell correctly, but after reading other people junk--I am writing all week, I don't want to re-read my own e-mails (except professional correspondence). Is that bad?

Well Cristy and I have a really busy week coming up, so hopefully we will have another blog post soon! Thanks everyone for blogging! We read your stuff! You're interesting people :)

Cristy's quote of the blog: "Sometimes I lie to do missionary work."

Technical Editing Comment: Did you know that..."In standard English you just 'get hold' of something or somebody (there is no such word as 'ahold')."

Nathaniel's Lesson to Himself for the Blog: "Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left."

So...

For some reason, our latest post "March showers bring April flowers" posted below our second-to-last post, "Priesthood Ban."

Anyway, just so you know, we blogged recently so check it out!

Priesthood Ban

Hey everyone. Cristy and I are working on two different drafts for blog entries right now (so don't worry, this isn't it!) but I found this entry today on a blog I follow and I want to share it with you. It concerns the previous ban on the Priesthood for all worthy males in the LDS church.

Cristy and I have spent some time talking about this and I am glad to have found this wonderful explanation (or series of explanations) may from General Authorities and Apostles. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Enjoy.

http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2009/04/repudiating-racist-justifications-once.html

March showers bring April flowers?

So I don't know about you all, but I realized that Cristy and I haven't been doing too many things of interest recently. Not much to blog about? Why? Well, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, Cristy hurt her lower back (later diagnosed as a pinched Sciatic Nerve, or Sciatica) sometime back in December. For most people, this goes away within a few months (with treatment or without) but for some it lingers longer. Anyway, if you have ever had Sciatica, or worse, a ruptured or herniated disc, you know what ordinary tasks can be tedious and tiresome (i.e., you don't feel like moving around too much). In the case of Cristy, she likes to spend her leisure time walking or laying on the ground, asking for back rubs (understandable!). Add her new job, where she has been pulling 10 hour days, and you get not a lot to blog about.

So what have you bee doing Nathaniel? Surely something of note? Well not really. You see, a few weeks ago, the same day I was helping someone move, a group of us had some free time and decided to play an improvised game of tennis (long store actually). Well I ended up pinching MY sciatic nerve that day, though symptoms didn't show up until a few days later.

So, long story short, we have been one big hobbley mess. I am fairly close to full recovery but because Cristy just switched jobs she is between Insurances and can't go to the Physical Therapist again yet :(

On a happier note, our Easter was amazing! We really enjoyed our Easter program at Church and had a wonderful diner with my Mom, my Moms friend, Step mom, Dad, and sister. Not many fun pictures, unfortunately, but lots of good candy :) I went on an Easter egg hunt in the apartment and found lots of Cadberry eggs! Yum! Cristy woke up to chocolate covered strawberries, oranges, and bananas (I don't recommend the bananas...but the oranges are a must!)

Here are our relatively few pics!

A flowering tree that has just started to bud leaves. The Washington D.C. Vacationers missed these by ONE week!!!

A variation of the cherry blossom at a church we drove by one day

The whole batch of them in front of the church

Most people snack on snack food--chips, oatmeal cookies, spare fruit--but not Cristy. RD Cristy Moreira snacks on a salad when she gets a food craving.

HOWEVER, when RDs marry sweet-toothed husbands, they gets Easters like this! Chocolate-covered fruit garnished with jelly beans!

Cristy's beautiful Easter dinner linen design.

Google "Food Art" and you will find quite a few of Artists who are tired with their day jobs.

I thought this was funny.