Proud and stuff

UPDATE: We just found out that Landon received first place from his session in the conference! Congratulations bud, you worked so hard for this!

Just in case anyone out there was doubting the genius of my husband, I thought I'd share a little of what he has been working on lately. He works as a research assistant for the Geology Department Chair, and on Saturday he presented their preliminary findings to a conference of fellow students, faculty members, and some mean looking men called "judges." Above, he is presenting. Excuse the terrible picture - I took it with my cell phone so no one would notice. Doesn't he look handsome and sharp? Below is his abstract, or the summary of their research. Every word he said went right over my head, but I was totally proud of him!

Add that to the fact that he designed the new sign for his other employer - the BYU Museum of Paleontology, and I was practically bursting! You'd never know it - he's so shy and humble about it, but he is a man of many talents.

Here he is showing off for his family - thanks for coming to support him, Burgeners!

Sorry if this sounds cheesy to anyone out there, but I sure love my husband. Sometimes I cannot wait to see where life takes him and all of that potential!

One Man's Trash.

Living in 500 square feet is one of the greatest of our adventures. Everyday we have to come up with new ways to store our infinite junk - not least of which includes our massive book collection. Our bedroom closet has been a madhouse since Christmas, when we were generously given a large quantity of food storage. We love the food, but the storage part has somewhat eluded us. Well, we made a little trip out to the D.I. about a month ago and Landon found this lovely morsel:







The pictures don't really do its uglyness justice - it's not even wood, it's like a recycled particle board substitute masquerading as wood. And the color doesn't go with our house at all. But it was a storage space, and it fit in the one nook/cranny of our living room that hadn't been conquered yet. So, for the mere price of $15, we had our first D.I.Y. project (if you can't tell, this excited Landon immensely).

We started out by sanding it down to make the laminate "rougher" and then applying some really thick primer. This worked out pretty well since the weather was good and we could work outside (as you may have guessed, there is no garage involved in our 500 square ft. kingdom).

We painted some of the pieces green, since our living room is green but we thought black paint would cover up the particle board better than a lighter color (we were right). A couple weeks later, we decided to work on the painting portion - unfortunately, the weather was no longer cooperative. So we got inventive and laid out a large tarp in the living room. Hilarious, and probably not the best idea. But we had a lot of fun watching LOST and painting together.

This Saturday, we finally finished! We sanded down the edges so that the green would show through just a little bit, Landon put the whole thing together and we stocked it full of blankets to be used in our living room - where people sleep when they come to visit. :) In this manner, we cleaned out an entire shelf on the top of our closet where we are now storing our legos, snow clothes, and a large box of rocks from Landon's wanderings - that made room for the food storage on the floor of the closet without blocking the entrance! You can walk all the way inside the closet now without tripping! Happy, happy day!
Here's the finished product:

It makes that corner of our living room look so much more finished, it gives us quite a bit more space, and we love it! Not bad for a $15 investment, eh?

Lucky, or Stupid? You Decide.

Up until yesterday, we hadn't been shopping in almost two weeks. We were desperate to go to the grocery store - and it was too late to go to the Smith's across the street from our house. We'd been wanting to try grocery shopping at Wal-Mart to see if it saved us any money, so we decided to head there. We wandered around for awhile, finding what we needed and calculating the savings (it turns out it was a little bit cheaper, but not necessarily worth the drive on a regular basis).
So we got our cart full of goods and headed to the checkout - only to be stopped by a young man (25?). He was kind of dressed like someone who thinks he's pretty awesome in his ganster duds. Super politely, he asked us if we would allow him to pay for our groceries with a gift card he had received but did not want, and we would pay him cash. He said he would give us a discount for our trouble. We looked at each other, not really sure what to do in this situation, but decided it sounded ok (we tend to avoid conflict if possible - also, Landon really likes to help people). He followed us through the line, payed for our groceries, and we gave him cash (we always pay for our groceries with cash, so that part was fine). We saved $15 off our total bill, kept our receipt, and said our goodbyes. We never exchanged names or any type of personal information. Once we got in the car, we both started laughing - we felt like we'd just been on candid camera or something. Anyway, we were either very blessed, or we aided and abeted a crminal last night! Here's hoping it was the former!

My name is Inigo Montoya...

Last night we finished our latest read-aloud book, "The Princess Bride." You might not think it's possible - neither did we, we when began the book - but it was even better than the movie! The dialogue was almost word-for-word the same, which is fabulous because then you can do all the accents from the movie and make yourself laugh even harder! The entire premise of the book is that it's an old "historical satire" about the Florinese people - and the author, William Goldman, is taking that old text and "abridging" it, inserting in his own comments along the way. His comments are the best part of the book! We highly recommend this for any couple looking for something to read together.
Disclaimer: It may not be appropriate to read to your children - there are some swear words and innuendos. They are pretty tame, but probably not for little kids.
We will now be starting the third "Fable Haven" book by Brandon Mull. Kylie got it for her birthday - we're pretty excited, the first book in this series is the first book we ever read together. Precious. :)

Copper, you're my very best friend.

Saturday night, we were able to meet up with my best friend from high school and his girlfriend, Cami. It was so fun and amazing to see them! Preston and I have been best friends since 9th grade. We got all of the standard lines from the doubters - "yeah right, you're 'just friends,' etc. etc. Against all odds, we stayed best friends for all of high school, college, Preston's mission and my wedding -- and possibly a wedding in the near future, Pres? *wink*. I dearly love Preston with all of my heart. He single-handedly saw me through many of life's amazing and terrible experiences. Just to name a few: my first boyfriend/kiss (and all subsequent relationships), high school graduation, the death of my Grandma Sanders, Landon leaving on his mission, my trip to Europe, and my decision to get married.

We still talk often, but hadn't seen each other in about a year, so it meant a lot to me for him to make the effort. Lifelong friends are such a blessing in my life, and I'm blessed with so many of them! Thanks Preston and Cami, for making the effort to come downtown to meet us right after the Jazz game got out - I'm glad there were no casualties. It was great to meet Cami, I whole-heartedly provide my stamp of approval. Here's hoping we can see you more than once a year in the future!

The rest of our weekend was also fabulous. We initiated our first "do it yourself" project with an old piece of furniture from DI. I will post pictures if it turns out. We also saw the wienermobile at Wal-Mart! For those of you who don't know what that is:

Oh yeah, it was an experience to remember. :)