Happy Birthday Janette

Happy Birthday Janette!

I think it’s pretty much impossible for me to make this birthday better than the last one… Hopefully this is still a good one. It was one year ago today that we decided to get married.

That was the best decision I’ve ever made!

I’ll try not to get too sappy for our readers’ sakes, but you really are the coolest person I’ve ever met. Thanks for making this last year so wonderful. I’m glad you’re here with me as we enter the next stage of our lives.

ps. Thanks also for putting up with the times that I've taken

pictures of you when you weren't prepared

Happy Birthday Amanda!

One of the best parts of having a twin is always having someone to celebrate your birthday with.

Even if your twin is currently in Mexico.

Since she's there she won't be able to eat the chocolate cake she has every year for her birthday (I have Funfetti) so I'll post a picture for her to remember how much she enjoys it.

Mmmm.

I'm pretty sure she is going to hate me for choosing the pictures I did for this blog. Mwahaha!

Reasons why Amanda is awesome.

1. She laughs at my jokes.

(When I found this picture I laughed until I cried and then I tried to explain to Seth why it was so funny and although he did laugh, I think it was more at me than about the picture. So I'm just not even going to bother explaining what's going on here.)

2. She appreciates nature.

3. She's good with children.

4. She's an angel.

(Literally!)

5. She married a man full of culture and refinement.

6. She is very, very good-looking.
(Have I mentioned we're identical twins?)

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Trip Across America: Highlights

These are a few fun moments from our 6-day trip across America.

At the Mormon Trail Center. Seth tripped backwards after not looking where he was putting his feet and the picture was taken at the same exact moment.

Perfect timing.

The Nauvoo Temple. Stunning. And much larger in person than I thought it was.

We put all our trust in our GPS during this trip...which sometimes meant traveling on some very back-country roads. We drove for a mile or two through Iowa on this gravel road on the way out of Nauvoo (which has no major highways close by).

Carthage Jail. Shortest stop on our route.

It looks like I edited us into this picture, but I promise we really did go to the Lincoln home in Springfield, Ill. This is about as close as we got to touring it thanks to many many schoolchildren on a field trip taking all the tickets.

The Winsors and the Lincolns. In the Lincoln museum.

The St. Louis Arch. 630 feet high.

The pod car we rode up to the top. It has windows so you can see all the architecture inside. It's a little bit freaky.

Looking out over the city. It was particularly windy that day and the Arch is designed to move with the wind. We came down feeling slightly seasick.

Seth: "I wonder what would happen if we fell from this height....."

2 minutes later. 

"I wonder what would happen if the Arch just fell over right now....."

2 minutes later.

"I wonder what would happen if these windows were bigger and people could fall out of them....."

Me: SHUT IT!

Graceland, home of Elvis Presley.

Carpet in the kitchen. Yikes.

The Jungle Room. That is a water fountain on the wall.

Fabric covering the walls and ceiling.

Truly Elvis, you were a man with great decorating taste.

In Kentucky.

This is actually as we were heading out of the cave, but it was a cool entrance.

Yes, this is actually what one part of the cave is called. 

Good thing I am neither.

Hello, my name is T.C. Lewis and I'm from Farmington, KY and I'm so awesome I'm going to write my name and location in huge letters and then draw two hands pointing at it. 

Then I'll draw a big circle around it.

(see that weird drawing on the right? that's one of the hands. The other one is at the bottom of the picture. I didn't realize what they were until the tour guide told us.)

Arrogance all the way from the early 1800's! (written with candle smoke. impressive.)

Seth and I took 195 pictures during our trip.

This post doesn't seem so long after I tell you that, huh?

The Final Event

The day we packed up our house in Provo, my mother and Jim unloaded all of my sister Michelle's stuff into our house, where it would have to be stored while we waited two days for the moving truck to arrive.

When her hope chest was brought in, it just barely tapped the edge of the door frame between the kitchen and the mudroom, with the following results.

Apparently our house was only standing because of the mutiple layers of paint supporting the walls. It definitely wasn't the wood supporting it, because that has all been chewed into dust by hundreds of termites.

They came toppling out of the hole, and I am sure they were just as surprised as we were at what just happened.

We vacuumed up the mess and left the hole.

I really hope the house doesn't cave in on the next renter.

He seemed like a nice guy.

Moving

So far, moving has been a lot of work. 

Seth and I have decided we are never going to move again. 

Sorry, future children. Your bedroom can be the patio.

This is packing day back in Provo.

The reason we have such a massive amount of stuff is that my mother decided now would be the perfect time to unload all of the junk my older sisters and I had accumulated throughout our childhood out to the East Coast (since we all live out here now). 

This also included absolutely everything my older sister Michelle owns that she does not have with her in England.

And Michelle doesn't like to throw things away.

We couldn't have done it without help from my family, as well as our friends who came to help us load up the truck (which didn't arrive until the day after my parents had left.)

These people must really like us.

Our moving truck arrived in Raleigh one week ago, and we enlisted the help of all of Seth's family living in the area. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since the camera was missing at the time.

But here's some of the aftermath.

And this is actually after I'd spent a whole morning unpacking stuff. 

Our apartment is still pretty messy. This is because both Seth's parents and my Dad also decided now was the perfect time to unload all of the stuff they had been keeping for Seth and I.

If I'd just had to go through the stuff I brought from Utah I'd be done by now.

Who knew I used to be such a packrat?

Seth, unfortunately, still is. 

Actually, pretty much all of the boxes left out are his, and I have been cracking the whip to get him to stop looking at Homestarrunner and start unpacking his boxes.

We'll see how long it takes...

Dollar Bill

We're in North Carolina.

We finally got internet today. 

And instead of giving you a real update on our lives here, I will instead tell you that I have been idly going through the boxes of stuff my mother saved for me from my childhood. 

And I found a dollar bill inside a card sent to me from my Aunt and Uncle for my 2nd birthday.

2nd. Birthday. As in 1989.

I am now diligently searching all cards in my boxes in case any more turn up. 

Off to do more unpacking...

Anonymous

Hello.

My name is Janette.

(Audience: Hello Janette.)

And I am a backseat driver.

Admittance is the first step.

Trip Across America: Keokuk

While in Nauvoo we ran into the problem of needing to eat and having all the local restaurants close at 6pm.

Our solution was to drive 15 minutes south to the dirty little town of Keokuk. It appeared as if there were more bars than stoplights in the town. (One of them even named Patches McFatty's, much to our delight.)

Although Keokuk has all the regular fast-food chains, we opted to try for a local restaurant. 

Why we decided this, I have no idea, considering most of the local restaurants looked like they would be hazardous to my health. Nevertheless, we selected one to try, figuring if we didn't like the looks of it we could just as easily walk back out. (This would later turn out to be a huge mistake on our parts.)

The low-rider out in the gravel parking lot sitting so low that it was resting on the ground when parked should have been my first clue. (We suspect the car had an impressive hydraulic system.) It was a buffet-style restaurant, and I took one look at the food sitting out and decided that we would be doing fast food that night. We turned around to leave.

And then the most infuriating and humiliating thing ever happened to Seth and I. The owner ran over to us and started to pepper us with questions and pleadings. "Wait, wait! What can I do for you? Don't leave! Can I help you? Stay!"

It was at this point that every single person in the place looked up at us and the blood began rushing to my face.

"What do you like? Do you like chicken? Can I seat you?

Enthusiastically he questioned us, and all the while he was maneuvering himself between us and the door. This escape would be trickier than I thought.

But finally, amidst the unabated stares of the customers, we made it out the door and away from the owner's last, desperate attempts to get us to stay and eat.

Walking out to our car I remarked, "That was weird." Seth agreed.

But our interactions with the restaurant owner were far from over.

As we buckled into our seats, he came rushing back out the front door with a to-go menu in his hand. "Please don't" is what I started chanting out loud to Seth.

Oh, but he did. 

He gestured to me to roll down the window, and instead of shaking my head no and driving off, I ROLLED DOWN THE WINDOW. It was like he was using The Force. I can't even begin to describe the eager, overbearing questions he peppered us with, the agony of those long two minutes, and all the personal space issues I thought I had resolved while he leaned his head in the car window.

And then, as the grand finale, the owner shoved his menu into our car and said these words:

"I'll chase you down if you don't come back!"

Then he laughed a creepy laugh. And headed back inside.

A moment I am not likely to forget for a long, long time. 

Trip Across America, Day 1

Stats for the Day.

14: Hours on the road. 

900: Miles covered.

3: Stops for gas.

7: Podcasts listened to.

3: Taco Bell burritos consumed.

2: Subway sandwiches consumed.
70+: MPH of wind gusts in Wyoming
200+: Number of new pits in our windshield from flying sand/rocks.

75: Speed limit for I-80.

80-85: Speed we actually drove.

We are currently in a fancy fancy hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

We're taking off at 8am tomorrow for Day 2. 

Wish us luck.

I graduated!

Check it Out.

It is nice to know that I am done with college forever.
Except lately I keep having dreams that I have forgotten to do an assignment and I have to finish it even though the semester is already over.
They're more like nightmares than dreams. . . .

Anyway. Seth and I are done!

And we are excited to move on to the next phase in life.

My parents came out for the glorious event.

And finally, I insisted on taking a picture with Willy the Wolverine.

This sculpture has fascinated/terrified me for the past three years.

I'm going to miss you, UVU.