Now and then

With school in full swing, Erika and I are creeping ever closer to graduation. I've heard after this magical point, school no longer exists. I can't imagine that, but I sure try.

I'm toying with the idea of finishing a semester early (Fall, 2011), if only to get school over with and have an extra semester to find a writing gig while Erika finishes up her master's degree. Erika likes the idea, but I have to see if I like the load I'd have to take to get it done. Being able to is one thing, "wanting to" quite another.

Erika is also planning for the near future, lining up several interviews for winter/summer internships with members of the notorious accounting "Big Four." She's got three interviews in the bag already, with several more still pending. I have no doubt she'll land one. Luckily they're all local, with the farthest one from us being in Salt Lake.

As for the present, we're fully invested in school and work. Erika's part-time job now allows her to work on her own computer, which means more convenience and less travel for her. Combine her now-mobile job with her studies, and she spends quite a bit of time at the library.

I say the library because Erika's transportation has been limited to her bike lately. It's my fault. I drop her off at BYU at 8am, head to UVU for class, go to work at the credit union, then cover a local game. It makes for less together time than we got accustomed to over the summer, so a slight, but necessary bummer there.

Latest big thing to happen was a phone interview I had with Phoenix Suns' forward Grant Hill. He could only give me ten minutes of his time, but the interview itself and subsequent article were well worth it.

Back pains and work gains

It's a little weird writing something without worrying about an editor's opinion. Check that, my wife is right here making sure I write an approving piece. Sigh...

It's been an exciting few weeks, with a little bad and lots of good in the mix. The bad was Erika's back -- for some reason unbeknowest to us, sudden back spasms hit her a week-and-a-half ago. She was bed-ridden for two days. Thanks to the advice of our parents and a med student buddy of ours (Dr. Dave), her back kept improving and now is pretty much healed. Only a slight amount of stiffness remains.

One nugget of advice from my mom that Erika loved was the purchase of a Wii Fit (probably the only purchase Erika loved in her life...she hates spending money). Apart from the regular exercises, we can actually set up specific routines that string our favorite exercises together. It's a much more friendly workout option than the classic visit to the gym. Honestly, Erika's a lot more consistent with it than I am (the Wii Fit even tells Erika's character that my character hasn't been in for a while. The game tattles on me!)

Still, my lack of exercise isn't an indication of lack of work. The opposite, actually. With fall sports starting up, I've been getting a lot more story assignments from the Herald (and the college paper as well). The most exciting story happened just yesterday: covering the BYU Cougars' football season opener. It was amazing.


For obvious reasons, Erika was very proud of me, and took a picture of me leaving for the game, complete with press pass and laptop backpack (her backpack -- she let me borrow it).




It sounds a little silly to talk about a sports game as personally meaningful, but this one was. I walked into the huge press room at LaVell Edwards Stadium and felt the atmosphere of both crazy sports and professional media people. I saw my place-holder tag at my station, the view on the field and thought, "Yes. I was meant to do this."



At about the 5:00 mark of the fourth quarter, all the reporters went down to the field to be ready for post-game interviews. With the Cougars making a last (and ultimately successful) defensive stand for the win, the atmosphere was electric. Being in the middle of all that was mind-blowing. I probably looked like the big-time rookie I was -- constantly swiveling my head and taking it all in.




The interview room had 12 arena-like chairs for reporters. Since there were plenty more than that and I was a rookie, I stood/squatted on the side aisles. I guess I could have taken a photo when actual coaches/players were at the table, but I was too worried about missing anything important.

There were five reporters from the Herald there -- four full-timers and myself. It was really great of my editor to ask me to come along. I wrote the notebook story on the game, which consisted of a small lead story followed by random facts and tidbits. Some of those facts were obvious, others I dug for before finding a correlation (like the "Fifty's the magic number" point).

In short, it was a great experience that made me feel even better about my career path -- and my ability to do well in it.

Congratulations!

After about 3 weeks of extremely early mornings, and then class, and then covering a game, Matt decided he couldn't wake up at 3:15 anymore. He gave 2 weeks notice, and has continued his job search. I was a little nervous giving up one source of income when we didn't have another, but I also knew there was no way Matt could have that schedule long term.

A few days ago he had an interview with the Utah Community Credit Union. The interview went great, and they seemed really excited about his experience. They said they'd call the next day with their decision. So we waited, all day on Friday for their call. They close at 5:30 and it was now 4:00, so our hopes were getting smaller and smaller.

And then as he was talking to the Employment Specialist for our ward, he gets a phone call. And yes! He got the job. We are both extremely excited about it. No more early mornings, he can do this job long term during school, and Matt is comfortable with this job. He'll be extremely busy when Fall starts. He has class, the credit union, games for the Daily Herald, and starting in October he'll be covering home Jazz games. Well at least that makes two of us!

Summer Stories

A few tidbits from our summer:

• With Lechuga needing food, we've recently experimented buying feeder fish. This has proved highly diverting. Fish #1 had zero survival instincts, just swimming in place next to Lechuga, who needed a couple seconds to realize that yes, the thing next to her was edible. As soon as she did, the fish was no more. Fish #2 was much more intent on staying alive, making Lechuga do several laps around the tank before finally snagging her quarry. Erika loves watching until the fish is actually caught, killed and eaten.

• While waiting for an employee to get out Fish #2, a boy around seven or eight years old noticed we were getting a fish. He excitedly imparted his own experience/knowledge, telling us how "fish can get really big" and his friend's fish got too big "and it died." Eager to one-up the kid with morbid fish stories, I ignored my wife's pleading glances/nudges and told the kid, "Don't worry. This fish won't get big, 'cause we're feeding it to our turtle." Wide-eyed and shocked, the little boy looked at me and said in a disturbingly level voice, "That's a joke, right?" Having had my fun, I appeased both the kid and Erika. "Yeah, it's a joke."

• I experimented with a 4-8am custodial job at the university to give us some extra cash. Didn't last long. My eyes are constantly in exhausted pain, while my body always seems sluggish and behind on its normal schedule. Luckily school sports are picking up, which means assignments from the Daily Herald are as well. In the mean-time, I've got an interview this week to work at Utah Community Credit Union. Can't get away from those credit unions, it seems.

• Speaking of writing, I'm really excited to start a sports writing internship with hoopsaddict.com. They're getting me media credentials to cover the Utah Jazz courtside for the entire 2010-2011 season. Can't believe my luck. Livin' the dream.
  

• Erika takes extreme pleasure in not only coming up with good home-made meals, but in perfecting them. The most recent example of this is her awesome home-made pizza, which rivals any pizza joint in town. She even uses a round pizza tray. So good.

• More proof of Erika's creativity - she's been making these headbands for her sister's upcoming wedding. I've gotta admit, they look better than the ones you'd pay 10 bucks for at the local fair or accessories store.

Culinary Experiments Cont.

My sister's bridal shower is tomorrow and I decided to make chocolate covered strawberries. I've never done it before and I had a lot of fun with the mini Crockpot.

Matt was sitting at the counter watching me. He had a hard time not eating some of his favorite items. At least he got to taste test a few. He approved, so I count the experiment a success. Not to mention, they're rather pretty.

It's a girl...TURTLE!!!!

As Erika teasingly alluded earlier, there is a new member of the Petersen household - Lechuga, the painted turtle. Lechuga is a Spanish word that means, "lettuce." We chose it for several reasons: 1) it sounds cool 2) it was the first Spanish word I ever learned thanks to my food-serving mother and 3) it rhymes with the Spanish word for turtle (tortuga). So yes, we have Lechuga la tortuga (Lettuce the turtle).

She is a Western painted turtle. A turtle of the aquatic variety, Lechuga spends most of her time swimming in her new (and bigger) aquarium home. Occasionally she will climb up on her artificial dock or natural rock to bask under the lamp, as reptiles need provided warmth to maintain their energy. She will only do it when a) we don't move for a long time or b) we're not home. She's a shy turtle and feels safe in the water. To make sure she gets enough heat, we take her outside every few days or so to get some natural sunlight and wander around in the grass.

She has improved immensely, though. She no longer hides in her little cave if we approach the tank, because she knows odds are we're feeding her. Knowing this, she's comfortable keeping her head above water.

Erika loves watching Lechuga swim and is always on the lookout for random cute things she does (basking, getting startled by the filter's waterfall, etc). She talks and feeds Lechuga, and not surprisingly our turtle seems more comfortable around Erika than me. I'm fully confident this isnot a foreshadowing of how things will go our actual future children.

An aerial shot of Lechuga the Tortuga.

A painted turtle, Lechuga is quite colorful, especially on her underside.

"Please, no pictures."

She's never boring, always swimming, and quite cute to look at.

Catch-up

My little sister Emily graduated from high school at the end of May. Matt and I went down to Arizona to see her walk and give her speech. The Senior Class President did fabulous in front of thousands of people. She gave an amazing speech and looked beautiful.

Along with that trip, Emily went skydiving as a graduation present and it was one of the coolest things to watch. Watching the parachutes float through the sky was beautiful. She had a blast with it.

And all of this was going on at the same time as the Phoenix vs. Lakers finals, my Dad and Sue were amazing and decided to take my die-hard husband and I to game 6. The atmosphere of that game was absolutely incredible! Every single person in the stadium was given a free Suns shirt to wear for an Orange-Out. Matt was ecstatic and then heartbroken when his Suns lost.

At the end of May, my older sister Crystalee got engaged. So know we're excited for an August Utah wedding.

In June we celebrated my birthday with a fun date night and ice cream. Matt gave me a copy of Peter Pan which I absolutely love.

Matt started summer classes and I started babysitting part-time. So, we've been busy--Matt with three summer classes and me chasing around a 2 year-old while holding a 9 month-old in my arms. It's been kinda tiring.

The Fourth of July was extremely fun. Both my Mom and Dad were in town and it was good to spend some time with them. We did fireworks with my cousins, and Matt and I turned into the unofficial fire-marshals, making sure fireworks weren't thrown in the vicinity of people...which surprisingly happened a lot. But lots of barbecues and delicious food.

We went to the little Provo fair on Monday. I loved it. I always love walking around and seeing all the random things people are selling. Not to mention I found some really cute headbands I'm excited about.

And then we also have some exciting news about an addition to the family, but Matt will write more about that later.