LASIK! at 11:06 PM

Well, I finally realized my forever-old dream of having LASIK.  On the 22nd, after years of having 20/400 vision, and after a couple years of only being able to wear contacts about once a week (my eyes randomly got sensitive on my mission), I went to Hoopes Vision and let them laser my eyes.

The surgery apparently went perfectly.  My left eye cleared up to about 20/20 within a few hours, but my right eye started irritating me after I got home and stayed blurry.  I was pretty worried, but thankfully I found out the next day at the post-op appointment that there was just an abrasion on my right eye, and that it should clear up within a few days.  Until then, I'm trying to survive having different vision in each eye.

In case you're interested, here's a video of the second part of my surgery.  The flap had already been created at this point by a different laser.  It looks like my eye's being cut open, but really the flap is just being lifted up.  I was awake the whole time, but couldn't feel anything.  Enjoy!

Oh...and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The BYU-Utah Embarassment at 2:26 PM

Good news!  Pepperidge Farm has come out with a brand new product just for depressed BYU fans:

I thought it was funny...

Of Weddings and Reunions... at 2:51 PM

Last Friday had to rank among the busiest and best days I've had in a while.  Here's the rundown:

• 9:00 - Two of my best friends from high school, namely Jen and David, decided it would be cool if they got married...to each other.  They were nice enough to invite me to the ceremony, so I made the pilgrimage to the Salt Lake Temple to be there.  It was awesome.  I'm way happy for them.

• 12:30 - Wedding luncheon.  It was great to hang out with old friends and eat freakin' delicious food and hear endless tributes to David and Jen!

• 3:00 - I raced back to Provo only to be late for a meeting with my business mentor.  Since I just got accepted to the business school, I'm required to work with a BYU alumni with business experience in my area of interest.  My mentor started his own company and told me all about it and what made it successful. It was an awesomely worthwhile experience.

• 5:30 - The long-awaited mission reunion.  My German mission president flew all the way over from Berlin just to be here, and it was so cool!  It was great to see so many mission friends and to find out how many kids everyone has (not completely joking).

Me and President Rakow

• 8:30 - I drove back up to Alpine for Jen and David's reception. It was awesome to see them so happy, and it was also a lot of fun seeing old high school friends.  Wedding cake isn't a bad bonus.

• 11:30 - Sleep.
  

Random Updates at 11:21 PM

Oh man...it's been forever so I have a lot to write about.  Get excited.

Summer's been over for a month, yet I'm apparently still in that mode. I started school a few weeks ago--I've finally made it through generals (though at times I thought they would last forever) and into my major, Business Management.  I'm actually loving my classes (which is a little hard to get used to), but I have serious problems forcing myself to sit down and do homework...I would much rather be on a mountain bike or a boat or in the mountains.

Recently, however, I did purchase a wicked awesome road bike (it gets the job done, at least).  I realized it would be hard to keep up on mountain biking living in an apartment south of campus, so I wanted something to keep me riding.  I'm still breaking it in, but it's definitely serving me well.

I figured it deserves it's own picture ;).

I also recently put my MTC teaching job on hold ("quit" seems way too harsh).  Holding two part-time jobs while trying to keep up with school didn't sound very appealing to me, so I put a lot of thought into it and decided to stick with my translating job.  It seemed like the better option during school.  I've definitely been missing the MTC though...it's been an incredible experience, and I would have never guessed how close I would come to my missionaries.

This was the first group that I taught for their whole MTC stay...and it was probably my favorite.  It felt almost like family whenever I spent time with them.  I've gotten letters from several of them and they're doing awesome! (they are all now in either the Swiss mission or the Germany Munich/Austria mission (my mission, a.k.a. world's best mission)).

This is my second full group--also incredible missionaries and fun to be with.  Despite my awkward expression, I really was having a good time.  These missionaries went to the Berlin and Frankfurt missions.

Another awesome occurrence (actually probably the most exciting) is that I am now a double uncle.  That's right--my sister, Brendi, had her second child, Carson, about a month ago.  It's been really good being able to see Carson right from the beginning (I came home from Germany when Michael was 1 1/2 years old, so I missed out on a lot).  About a week after Carson's birth, he developed Meningitis--it was a really scary time for all of us, but it also revealed what great parents Brendi and Brian are.  Carson made a great recovery and is now back to full health.

The whole family soon after Carson's birth.

Stay tuned folks...

Summer at 10:50 AM

A couple weeks ago, my family and I made our semi-annual excursion to Lake Powell. It was loads of fun and with no boat problems or [serious] injuries, it pretty much rocked. The term "vacation" in my family has very little to do with "rest"--we played hard, and by the time we got home we felt like we needed another vacation to recover.

Me wakeboarding

Thinking I'm the coolest

Showing off my incredible tube-riding skills

The next day, a big Van Wagoner crew set off on another excursion--this time up past the top of Fairview canyon. We rode horses for about an hour down Silver Creek and tied off where it connects with the Gooseberry stream, then fished the stream for a couple hours and had a great time.

Part of the expedition

Jennica showed us all up by catching the biggest fish. She even held it! (eventually)

The MTC at 8:47 PM

As you all probably know, I got a job a few months ago as a German teacher at the MTC. It was pretty intimidating at first (let's just say my "coworkers" are awesome), but it's turned out to be a great experience. I absolutely love teaching missionaries and being able to talk about my mission nonstop (and Jen isn't even there to make fun of me...).

Last week, the New Mission Presidents' Seminar was held at the MTC. Every single apostle and the whole First Presidency there, so things were a bit out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, I never "ran in" to any of them. However, 6 of my 9 missionaries and 1 missionary from a different district were able to meet Elder Holland and Elder Perry (a special perk they received when meeting their new mission president) and have their picture taken for the Church News. When I saw the Church News, I was shocked to see my missionaries right on the front cover. It was pretty sweet.

I haven't yet taken pictures with my current district, but the one below is my last district. I actually only taught them for their last week at the MTC, but they were awesome.

I'm back at 11:14 AM

Welcome one and all. It's true: after my two-month break to experience life (hike Everest, go on an African safari, get my pilot's license, and eat Cafe Rio), I am back and ready to resume my bloggerish activities. I wish I could report on all of my crazy adventures of late, but it just wouldn't do them justice. Alas, life is beautiful.

Let's see, where do I start... For one thing, my dad and brother and I have become official mountain bike racing junkies. Actually, my dad and I are only half junkies; my brother Danny is an all-out granola. Ok, ok, maybe I'm just jealous that my 15-year-old brother totally shows me up every time. In reality, it's quite impressive. Danny competed yesterday in a NORBA race (a national mountain bike racing series). He was going up against kids from all across the country who traveled to good-ol' Utah just for this event. 7th out of 17 isn't all too shappy, considering...

Danny at a different Deer Valley race

My dad is pretty much awesome.

Awkward picture, but it was an insanely steep hill...

More to come folks.

An AWESOME weekend! at 8:42 PM

When I was on my mission in Germany, I had an awesome experience seeing a wonderful lady named Frau Libera develop a testimony and get baptized. She is now a great member and a strength to her ward, where she serves in the Primary Presidency. She and a member of her ward flew out to Utah this week to go to Conference and see Temple Square, so we decided to all meet up and do a session in the Salt Lake Temple together. Frau Libera had me do the work for her father. It was such an amazing experience.

Me and Frau Libera in front of the Salt Lake Temple

This also marked the two-year anniversary of her baptism, and it was incredible to sit in the Temple with this convert and think that just two years earlier she was showering my companion and me with questions and doubts and concerns.

Afterwards, we all went back to my parents' house and had dinner together. Frau Libera and Esther (the member who was with her) presented us with loads of German chocolate and other German must-haves, which pretty much made the day as perfect as it can get.

Frau Libera and Esther at the Christus statue

Happy post-Easter Monday! at 9:21 PM

First, I apologize to all law-inclined people...I must admit, for a long time I was planning on going into law myself, and only recently decided on business. But hey, who passes up a good lawyer joke when it comes along? Oh and Shelly--I tried to visit your blog and was rudely informed that I wasn't invited. Thanks, gosh. We're through.

Second, I hope you all enjoyed the previous post, because I can't claim credit for it...my good friend and roommate Sir David William Paul did the honors. In other words, no, I'm not way awesome.

Third, happy Easter everyone! My Easter weekend was perfect--in other words, it included snowboarding and mountain biking. Oh, and Easter Sunday was awesome too. It was so refreshing to find out that the Easter bunny really does exist (I've been really worried for the past two years). And I had forgotten how much fun Easter egg hunts can be. My family rocks!

These are some fun pictures from Christmas Break with my two good friends, Terry and David. We went snowshoeing up American Fork Canyon. Terry was wearing sneakers. I am way awesome.

Death by school... at 5:25 PM

Please excuse the delay...I forgot I had a blog.

Well, the only thing noteworthy of reporting as of yet is that the week is over! (believe me, that's a huge relief). For the last few weeks, I've been enjoying the life of a very-few-credits-taker, with hardly any homework and tests. Then last week, all of my professors collaborated and decided to form a secret combination to bring about my ultimate demise. I must admit, they're pretty good. For reasons that aren't yet apparent, I'm still alive and have multiple papers and tests behind me.


The real news is much more exciting: I got free Brick Oven pizza today. Come on, you know you're excited for me...at least anybody who's survived college. To qualify for this indulgence, I attended a lecture entitled "The Mormon Lawyer: Pillar to Society or Menace to Society?" (I guess that's why they had to bring pizza). The most entertaining part for me was the array of lawyer jokes that were given (before they started bashing on business people). The best one went something like this: A man driving on the freeway gets in a bad accident, and when the paramedics come they find him staring at the smoking heap of metal and whimpering, "my BMW...my poor, poor BMW." The Paramedics ask him if he's a lawyer. He asks them how they knew. They said only a lawyer would care so much for the loss of his BMW that he wouldn't notice that his left arm was missing. The lawyer replies, "Oh no! Where's my Rolex?!"

Wow. I'm a blogger. at 8:40 PM

Well folks, I never thought it would come to this. Blogging has never been my forte. However, due to the overwhelming number of requests, I decided to grant you all a snippet of my life through enormously exciting and up-to-date posts and breathtakingly beautiful pictures of, well, myself. That said, I will proceed to press "Publish Post" so as to complete this test of my blog. Enjoy.