the hafens

The Guest Bathroom

2011-11-28T08:03:00.001-06:00

I have recently embarked on the journey that is redoing one of our guest bathrooms. Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures (sad, I know) but for those of you who have seen it before, it was really bad. Picture in your mind's eye an art deco mish mash wallpaper of black and white zig zags and gray and red lilies, not unwholly like this:

Pretty bad, right?

Add to this a bright red counter top with black (dirty) sinks:

Now throw in gray floor tiles, glass bricks, and a black toilet and bathtub and you get one hot mess of an ugly bathroom.
The first step to rehabilitation was to remove the wallpaper, which wasn't too hard considering the 20+ years the shower has been steaming it off. Next, texture and paint: we watered down joint compound and slathered it on the wall, then made circular motions with a texture brush (<$15 at Home Depot).

The big job though, was the counter tops. I played around with a few ideas and finally came up with my solution. First, remove any caulking and sand the counter to give it some tooth. Next, I painted mine black with a craft acrylic because I didn't want any chance of red showing through (I taped off around the counter first, but not around the sinks because I wanted to get right up next to them with the black).

Here it is after two coats.

Much better, but not quite done yet!

Next, I taped off the sinks and sprayed on a textured, stone-like spray paint.

Here's the counter after one coat.

One more coat takes care of most of the splotchy-ness.

A couple of touch ups and 3 coats of Spar-Urethane later, and this is what we got:

The whole counter project cost about $20. What do you think?

Lochlan's Room

2011-11-22T12:55:00.000-06:00

This post has been a LOOONG time in the making. I started redoing Lochlan's room many months ago, but haven't had the time or bandwidth to upload the photos of the befores, durings, and afters until now...ok, maybe I had the time, but I was just lazy.

Ok, I wanted Lochlan's room to be cute enough for a nursery, but be neutral enough to either grow up with him, or become a guest room or office later. I still don't have any curtains or some of the furniture I want to put in there (like a kid-sized table and chairs and a rocking or gliding chair for me), but I think you can get the gist of the idea.

The first pic is the before. Notice the super ugly wallpaper. You can't tell from this, but that border has pictures of stamps, and maps, and weird foliage.

So, I didn't want to remove the wallpaper if I didn't have to, so I mudded and sanded the seams with joint compound. Next time, I'll probably skip the mudding and just sand the paper down at the seams.

Lochlan snuck in to play in his new room.

After I prepped the seams, it was time to prime (hey, I made a rhyme! There I go again!). I went with an oil-based primer for a couple of reasons 1)The smell. The room had this sort of musty smell that I"m pretty sure was IN the wallpaper and since I didn't want to remove it, I wanted the primer to be able to really seal that scent so it wouldn't escape back into the room. 2) Because it's oil-based it didn't soak into the wallpaper and loosen it like latex would have so there weren't any bubbles or peeling going on as we were painting or after, so it really "glued" the paper to the wall. And, lucky for me, you can paint over oil-based with latex, but not the other way around.

Then we painted the upper area of the wall a darker than average, but not too dark brown.

Between this and the next picture, we painted the bottom section of the wall Antique White and I cut some strips of 1/8 inch tempered hardboard (one sheet is less than $10 at Home Depot). I painted those the Antique White color and spaced them out every 2 feet. I was going for a board and batten look. Jaren nailed those on and added a chair rail to finish it off.

I also got these wooden letters to line up around the chair rail to help Lochlan learn his ABCs!

Thanksgiving already?

2011-11-21T13:10:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving is this week and I'm in charge of the turkey this year. Since the main event of the meal is on my shoulders, I decided that I should probably be able to see inside my oven without opening it so I can check on the turkey without letting out all of the heat. Enter my dirty oven:

The oven door that I need to see through:

Gross, right? Don't judge.

So I heard about a quick and easy way to clean your oven involving a baking soda and water paste and about 20 minutes. I decided to give it a shot.

Pour baking soda into a dish and add enough water to make a thin paste.

Spread your paste all over the inside of your oven and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. When the time was up, I lightly scrubbed everything with an old dish brush just to loosen things up and then I wiped it down with a wet rag (it was helpful to have a container of hot water nearby to rinse the rag in). Then I got a new rag and new water and gave it a final "rinse" to get any baking soda residue off.

Nice, huh? And look, I can even see through the window!

Talmage's Morning

2011-08-24T11:45:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning, ate, and then went back to sleep. Then, big brother came in yelling, "Baby!" Rude. So, I got up and ate. Then I watched Happy Gilmore with Daddy. I like him. Here's where it gets bad. I love my Mom, but sometimes she's just really mean, you know? I'm sitting there, sucking on my hands, when I decide I want my pacifier. Mom can't find it. She takes me into the bedroom and sets me on the bed while she looks for it. Instead of bringing me my paci, she finds my medicine (I have thrush) and gives me that instead. I HATE that stuff! She finally finds my paci and it calms me down a little when she comes at me with a big blue snot sucker and ATTACKS my nostrils. What was she thinking? I guess I can breathe better though, so to show her my appreciation, I cry louder. She snuggles me and I calm down a little and start to fall asleep. I am exhausted! After all, I've been awake for almost an hour. Then she tried to put me down. Really? She thinks she'll get away with that? Don't worry. I showed her. But, somewhere in my quest to set mom straight, I fell asleep. Oh well.

Pictures

2011-08-21T16:12:00.000-05:00

The boys got their pictures taken this week. It takes forever to upload them onto blogger, so you can click on this link to view them for yourselves for about 60 days:

http://myonlineportraits.com/ViewSession.aspx?id=07d23c67e4294fea8ac8803738fd903a

Maybe when this expires, I will upload some of the better photos. Just a note, there are some duplicates.

Andy's Confession

2011-04-13T10:15:00.003-05:00

During the Sunday morning session of General Conference, someone mentioned Easter. Jaren felt compelled to quote Nacho Libre with, "Do you not know I have had diarrhea since Easters?" Andy, our four year old nephew who was sitting on Jaren's lap, exclaimed, "I have diarrhea sometimes!"

Why We Have November

2010-11-14T18:43:00.002-06:00

1. Day-after-Halloween candy scores

2. Thanksgiving

3. Day-after-Thanksgiving everything scores

4. The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I

Posting Goals and Big News

2010-11-14T18:10:00.005-06:00

Okay, posting has been ridiculous for us, so I'm making a new goal to post at least once a month. We'll see. We don't have internet at our house because we live in Missouri. J/k. We don't have internet at our house because we live in rural Missouri (which is a very hard word to say and still sound educated), and we're too poor to pay $70+ a month for butt-licking dial up speed. So, in order to accomplish my goal, I will have to come to G&G Sorhus' house once a month or head to Kirksville (or, as we country folk refer to it, "town") with our lap-top where they have a fancy-dancy McDonald's with wi-fi access. Hold me to it.

Alright, now for the big news half.

1. Jaren has been accepted to Truman State University where he can finish his undergrad and hopefully get good grades and experience for Medical school.

2. Lochlan is a super cute kid

3. I think I figured out how to teach Lochlan to stop hitting. Here's my strategy. I have a theory about parenting and natural consequences. Mainly, parent with natural consequences, not "parent" consequences (i.e. grounding, curfews, etc.) Because if parents are the consequence, then as soon as parents are gone (kid moves out or turns 18) there are no consequences. That's one reason young adults make so many mistakes, I think. So, if you parent with natural consequences, kids understand that choices always come with a consequence. So, with this in mind, I was trying to figure out what we could do to stop Lochlan from hitting. We had tried finger-flicking, and it just really wasn't working. But getting your fingers flicked when you hit someone in the face isn't really a natural follow-up. Then I thought, why isn't ok to hit someone? Well, because it hurts them right? Bingo! So what do we do now when he hits? Milk it. We sob and screw up our faces, and really let him know that it hurts. Then he feels bad and rubs your face softly, and snuggles you, and one time, he felt so bad he started to cry. Anyway, it seems to be working.

4. I'm pregnant. This one seems to be going a bit better than the last, or at least not escalating as quickly. We are due May 20. I think it's gonna be a girl. We'll see!

Milestones

2009-11-21T12:10:00.002-06:00

Baby rolled over for the first time today. Great job, Lochlan! We're so proud of you! I can bet the first rollover was the result of his hatred of tummy time. Well, at least we think it's the first time. When we check up on him at night, mysterious things have happened. For instance, there have been a few times when he has turned a good 90 degrees. that was the beginning. Soon, we saw that he had done a full 360. He will scoot to the other end of the crib until his head is mashed up against the head of the crib, but he's been doing that for a while--it's old news. Now he'll be rolling around in there. Our little boy is growing up!

Dinner

2009-11-09T01:16:00.003-06:00

I am posting this last week's dinner menu for our family. Not all the items were made, but for the ones that were, I will include brief descriptions of the recipe (if you want it, you can make a comment or email me and I will get it to you), and a report on how good it tasted and ease of creation. Here it goes:

Monday: not planned :(

Tuesday: not planned :(

Wednesday: chicken fricassee (didn't actually make--discovered about a half hour before eating time that it takes a couple hours)

Thursday: usually Fend-For-Yourself night because Jaren has class until 9, but this week, he called and asked if I would make him something, so we had breakfast for dinner (eggs, turkey bacon, oatmeal, and toast).

Friday: it was Jaren's birthday, so we had a couple of friends over. We had Salmon (broiled with lemon juice and dill weed), roasted red potatoes (olive oil, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme), and a light cucumber salad (peeled and sliced cucumbers, olive oil, and dried or fresh tarragon). It was served with aloe vera drink and milkis (carbonated milk) from Korea. Very easy to make and quite delicious.

Saturday: Dinner at the Gala fundraiser in a mansion that cost $23 million to build. 28,000 square feet and 18 bathrooms. Nice.

Sunday: Meatloaf (1lb ground beef, one box of StoveTop stuffing chicken flavor, and two eggs; ketchup, honey and Worcestershire sauce for top. Bake @ 350 for an hour), instant mashed potatoes (Honest Earth brand--delicious!!!), and canned green beans (removed from can of course). Very easy and very good. Best meatloaf I've ever had!

I thought this might give you ideas for planning your meals. I know that the hardest part of making dinner is deciding what to eat. After that, it's a piece of cake, speaking of, I made some Crazy Cake this week too. Wonderful!

MOM IS HERE!!!

2009-07-18T21:24:00.006-05:00

Here we are. One week and two days away from Kristin and baby's big day. At least, she's due in a week and two days. It would surprise me greatly if baby were to come on the day he's due. Being on time just isn't our family style. It's not up to us, though. If he doesn't come on July 27th like he's supposed to, the doctor says he wants to induce a week later. August 3rd is our last possible day for not being parents. All in all, we hope that Kristin will start labor without having to be induced since it can be hard on the body and possibly bring along some complications. So if he's not here by next week, we'll be pulling out all the stops: jumping jacks, eating spaghetti while standing on your head, jogging, scuba diving, etc. I honestly don't know very many, but we'll discover some if we have to.

Mom came! Woot! Woot! She came all the way from Missouri to be with us and help us adjust to this crazy new thing known as having a baby. I think it will be so great for Kristin to have the support of her mother. This is a big deal. It will be a great lift to have with us the wisdom of someone who has done this many times before. I know I'm useless here, but Kristin really wants me there for some reason; so I'm glad since I'd kind of like to see him come, too.

We're grateful to Dad for letting us steal Mom from him for a while. You know it can't be fun to have to cook for yourself when options are pathetically limited. For me the options are: 1) sandwich, 2) macaroni and cheese, or 3) some sort of canned soup. I can heat stuff up, or throw some simple ingredients together, it's the combining of several ingredients over several steps that is just asking for trouble. I'm not sure what the options are for Colin, but I imagine they are similarly small. So thank you Dad, for your great sacrifice. My advice: hit up the Lion's Club dinners :)

Sadly, we aren't taking very good care of mom. She's only been here three days and she's already got an injury. We had a ward softball game this morning, but we didn't have quite enough people show so we had to forfeit. There was another team that forfeited so we went and played with them for fun. We asked Mom if she wanted to take some swings, so she did. She was swinging okay until she took a swing at a really bad pitch and sort of tripped/ stumbled forward. Sprained right ankle, darn it. What a bummer. So she's keeping off of it and hopefully she'll be better in no time.

Also, Jill came down with some of the kids to visit us and it was loads of fun. I posted a picture of me and Lacie with one of her favorite dinners, the banana. Jill brought McKinley and her friend Saydie down for BYU Cheer Camp and they stayed with us a little bit. We had a lot of fun together and it's just too bad we're all so far apart.

Life's good. Full time working for me and full time getting ready for baby for all of us. He's a welcome little miracle that will fill our lives with so much joy (and other stuff not so joyous, but that's not as fun to talk about).

Yay for mommies!

The Last Voyage

2009-04-30T23:07:00.004-05:00

When the end of finals finally arrived we wanted outta here! Tuesday afternoon I darted home and we hustled to get our things together and finish those chores that must be done before a trip. You know the sort: dishes, garbage, etc. And by 2:30pm we were on our way. It was a feeling of relief to leave behind the cares of school and final examinations. *Sigh. The beginning of a long needed break.

The weather was agreeable all the way to Helena and we stayed with Pook and John. It was on our way to Great Falls from Helena midday Thursday that it precipitated a bit and the H20, in whatever form it was in or changing to, stuck to our truck in a very curious manner. So we took some pictures of it. Also somewhat curious and sad is that we didn’t take pictures of anything else. Dang it!

In Helena on Wednesday we watched the kids. It was fun, though very much a “growing experience” to go from zero to four kids in just one day! We played Tracball, Frisbee, and ran around on the playground at the park. We visited Pook at Costco since she was working at the pumps for a while. Back home we proceeded to accomplish the impossible: wash the van with the kids’ help. It was cute to see them going at it at first. I rushed to get a camera for the cuteness occasion, but by the time Kristin got there the attention span had expired and there wasn’t much going on. Maybe Maddy got a quick snapshot, but we were unsuccessful. So pretty much I finished washing the van myself. It’s nice to get that feeling of accomplishment by doing something effective, constructive, or manly even while vacationing. I don’t always get that chance in school since I try so hard and my chemistry test always concludes that I’m just not good enough.

Thursday and Friday we spent some time with Jeremy, Jill, and family. More manly things ensued with lifting heavy things, moving furniture and miscellaneous objects, and burning some unwanted junk. All with a great feeling of triumph and achievement.

We sure do love visiting family. John & Erin and Jeremy &Jill have been so kind and so welcoming. Our trip this time just wasn’t long enough, but we tried to make the most of it. Unfortunately our “wild child” days of picking up and going, may soon be over. The foreseeable future seems to hold no trips for us. The baby boy we’re expecting in July (who I’m thinking will come in August if he’s truly to be a member of this family since we’re always late J) may well act as a tie down. Perhaps we’ll never be able to leave Provo again. No!!! Okay so maybe I’m going over the top. It will be exciting and new in its own way while being a great challenge in our life. Yet we can’t help but think of the joy that will come of it! The first grand baby for my parents. Numero nineteen para los abuelos Sorhus. A cute little chunker of our own to smile and giggle and snuggle with. I mean . . . to be manly and chop wood and pour cement with. AND he’ll be half me and half Kristin! Yay for baby!!!

So we’ve got some growing up to do as we approach the end of the days we knew as “free.” We lived it up. Now that party is over, and a new and more responsible party begins.

Margaret

2009-03-11T00:19:00.002-05:00

In this family, we have a lot of Margarets. My grandmother's name was Margaret, my sister's middle name is Margaret, I have a couple nieces with the middle name Margaret, and my brother married a wonderful girl named Margaret.

I remember my grandmother remarking one time that she didn't particularly like her name, but her friends called her Peggy and she thought that was ok (she really hated her middle name which was Viola). I have wondered since that time how people got "Peggy" from "Margaret." They don't sound at all alike, and there isn't even a "P" in "Margaret." I recently found a little poem by an anonymous author that explains:

In search from A to Z they passed,
And "Marguerita" chose at last;
But thought it sounded far more sweet
To call the baby "Marguerite."
When grandma saw the little pet,
She called her "darling Margaret."
Next uncle Jack and cousin Aggie
Sent cup and spoon to "little Maggie."
And grandpapa the right must beg
To call the lassie "bonnie Meg."
From "Marguerita" down to "Meg,"
And now she's simply "little Peg."

Some more of the interesting nicknames for "Margaret" are Margot, Marguerite, Marguerita, Rita, Greta, Gretel, Gretchen, Marjorie, Margie, Maggie, May, Madge, Maisy, Daisy, Maidie, Meg, Mog, Poggy, and of course Peg and Peggy (how did they come up with all these nicknames from just one name?).

Kristin's Got A Brand New Hair Do (it rhymes if you say it right)

2009-02-24T13:03:00.006-06:00

On Feb. 18th, I decided to get my hair chopped off. So, I went to the Paul Mitchell hair school, found a picture in one of their books that I liked, and had them cut my hair. I had previously decided that I wanted an A-line bob short enough that I could give my hair to Locks of Love. You know when they put your hair in the ponytail and then cut it off for Locks of Love? Well, I was actually pretty disappointed when this part came because it was very unceremonious. I always expected to have this big hoopla like they do on TV shows when someone gives their hair to charity, but in reality, they just cut off the hair and put it in a box. I didn't even get to hold it. Oh well, I still feel good about giving it to charity.

Back to the hair style. I wanted it to look like a mixture of these two:

So here are the before and afters.

Before:

After:

On a side note, one of the symptoms of Graves Disease is protruding of the eyes and a "prominent stare" of the eyes. The picture above this one really shows it. Here's an old picture of me before I was pregnant to compare:

Forsaken Blog

2009-02-11T13:52:00.002-06:00

Why has our blog been forsaken?

To answer this question we must first answer another question: Why is Kristin so sick?

This is indeed a mystery. Some might try to place blame upon the innocent, bystanding husband. This may be true in part, but the truth's true truth would point to the dubious thyroid. Once lurking in the shadows waiting for its moment to arrive until now, when it can be a hyperthyroid and cause all kinds of discomfort.

Kristin has been, as of late, the victim of this terrible nausea. She can't even stand the thought of making her own food most of the time. So how can she stand the thought of blogging? Perhaps this post will invite a retort of a sort, and we shall see what saith the poor wayfairing woman.

Now let's make it clear that I'm just having fun with this. It's mostly to update y'all on our situation and give an excuse for our non-blogging. Kristin has been trying to manage her sickness. I've been working and going to school. And that just about takes up all the time we've got. We are fortunate enough to have support from all angles. Colin and Marianne stayed with us for a week or two and REALLY helped out a lot. Seriously. Our house is quite the spectacle anymore; organization is its new middle name. So that was great and we know we have family to turn to and our ward is very supportive (though there are at least a dozen other sisters in the ward that are preggers).

One more question before we close. How come Pook gets to be so healthy and strong when she's pregnant, but Kristin and the other sisters AND mom got the short end of the stick (each end varying in shortness)? Is it just the luck of the draw? Who knows. My hope is that this will at least calm itself with the subsequent pregnancies. Otherwise we're going to have to make friends with the adoption agency.

So that's our life. Chemistry and Physics for me, Zofran and PTU for Kristin. One stage of life I hope we can look back on without nausea.

Bear Creek Dehydrated Potato Soup

2009-02-02T13:26:00.001-06:00

Just before our first date, Jaren had some Bear Creek dehydrated potato soup for dinner. Later on in the night, we were sitting next to each other on the couch watching a movie (Nacho Libre). He had nasty burps the whole night, and apparently had the toots too, but kept them in so I wouldn't be grossed out. Ever since, we have been wary of Bear Creek.

Halloween

2008-11-22T18:30:00.005-06:00

This year for Halloween, we dressed up as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo from the best show ever, "I Love Lucy." I don't know how this happened, but apparently we only have one picture. . . and it wasn't even a very good one. Anyways, here's one of my favorite "I Love Lucy" videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie4qmEUHjMA. And here's our lone photo (sorry that it's sideways):

I Wanna Love You Tender

2008-10-30T13:44:00.003-05:00

I would like to share with you a passion that is near and dear to my heart: awesome dance moves. I found a video on YouTube that portrays pretty much every cool dance move, all together, in like three and a half minutes. It's pretty dang awsome. The song is called "I Wanna Love You Tender," or "Love You Tender." It is sung by Danny and Armi who were both finnish. Sometimes their lyrics don't quite make sense, ("Your lips are taste like wine"), but they're still cool and the dancers are still awesome. Here is the link to the coolest music video you will ever see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA5GkLM5C7M. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Good intentions are like noisy children at a concert . . . And smart people are like . . . awkward.

2008-09-20T21:59:00.002-05:00

Since we're doing similes (memories are like doves) I thought I'd throw in my favorite:

Good intentions are like noisy children at a concert; they should be carried out promptly.

It seems like I am the worst at carrying out good intentions. I intend to call one of my old friends, or I intend to get some work done around the house (I'm too busy at school most of the time). But they're not nearly prompt enough.

On a similar note I'd like to ask the opinions of the blessed people that read this. In my recent and ongoing battle with Physics 105 this semester, I have developed a theory. It is a theory that is also perhaps an excuse for my lack of intelligence in certain advanced areas. Yet it is a plausible theory. The theorem is this: How smart you are in the sciences is inversely proportional to how smart you are in the social scene . . . okay that's a joke. So in English, IF YOU'RE A SCIENCE WHIZ, YOU'RE AWKWARD. I say this because my Chemistry professors were weird guys. Good guys, but weird. I really thought highly of this one professor, and I spoke with him often (because my grade was suffering often). And when I see him around campus and say "Hi Dr. so and so," it's like I told him he had a booger hanging out of his nose with the "Oh, hi . . ." response. Bless his heart he just doesn't know how to deal with people. Phases of matter he's fine with, but talking to me is a tough deal. One might think that he just doesn't like me, but my other professor was the same way. Maybe they're smart too because chatting is a waste of time when you could be splitting atoms. It's weird too because the kids that ace the class are usually the strange kids too.

Oh well. It's just an interesting thing to me. I know that tough subjects can be mastered by anyone that applies themselves. Unfortunately, I'm too distracted and confused by these phenomena that I can't always focus. I'll get over it.

And to conclude, that's one of my good intentions. I intend to study physics for hours on end. Okay I'm being sarcastic there. I really do intend to study physics for 2 hours every day, but somehow my time is needed in other places at any given moment. So I hope I can do as Kristin's dad, Colin, says to do and write my textbook. Copy my notes from class into a notebook and translate the heavy readings from the course textbook. That way, I'll master the material.

I intend to ace all of my classes . . .

Buns In The Oven (Take Two)

2008-09-19T10:44:00.003-05:00

You know how I said that people keep asking if I'm pregnant. Well if they asked now, they'd be right. Jaren and I have a little bun in the oven and we're very excited. I am due Friday, May 8th, so wish me luck! To keep track of my baby's development, check out this site: http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_calendar/pregnancy_calendar_intro.html. Currently, I am on week 4. If you want to know which week I'm on in the future, I'll probably know, so you can call or email me.

Memories Are Like Doves

2008-09-16T08:57:00.004-05:00

Ever since his mission, Jaren has been searching for Dove body wash in Calming Night. A couple weeks ago, he finally found it at Big Lots. I opened the lid and took in a whiff. I didn't recognize anything. However, when I used it later that day, an overwhelming feeling washed over me: I know I have smelled this scent often in my childhood, but I can't remember where or why ( I know mom wouldn't have bought the body wash since this was $3 for a smallish bottle). If any of you (my family, or anyone else I guess) could help me, I would greatly appreciate it. The only catch is that you have to buy and use the body wash to be able to properly smell it. Thanks!

P.S. I know the bottle says, "calming scent of sandalwood" on it, but I hate the scent of sandalwood, so it must be something else.

Do You Smell Like Rainbows?

2008-08-12T12:53:00.003-05:00

The other day, Jaren and I were discussing body odor. He said that sometimes when I get sweaty, I do stink. I replied,"No! I smell like rainbows!"

Sometimes in life, things come out of our mouths that we didn't mean to say. I know we all do this, so fess up, what are some dumb things that you have said? I'll give you some examples:

> While packing a man's groceries at Costco, my sister, Pook, exclaimed, "Here's your nuts and berries!"

>While again packing a man's groceries at Costco, Pook said, "I cushioned your eggs right here between your nuts!"

Jaren's mom happens to be the queen of saying things that don't make sense. Here are some of her classics:

>While talking on the phone to her daughter, Jennica, she inquired,"Are you wearing what you were wearing?"

>After her husband stated that a video was not where she had said it was, she replied, "Well if it was there, that's where it'd be."

>"Sometimes stores are open if they're 24 hours."

Summer Adventures

2008-08-05T12:51:00.004-05:00

Ahh life! In what other stages of life are there so few responsibilities that one can just "shoot from the hip" and leave on a whim? What freedom we have enjoyed meandering the nation on a mission to visit every possible family member within our limits! With support from said family Kristin and I (Jaren) have experienced the summer of a lifetime. Not without its difficulties of course. It has been a great challenge to be away so much because, let's face it, it's hard to get paid while your on the road (don't worry I'm working on that). So a big offering of gratitude goes out to my dad for letting me work for him and dealing with my Summer Adventures.

The Summer started out with a big trip to Montana to spend time with Jeremy, Jill, and their family; plus we needed Jer to fix our pearly whites. He was also nice enough to take me golfing with him quite a few times. I even got to play in his golf league before I left. We spent our next chunk of time in STG! St. George is my hometown, born and raised. It may be hotter than Haiti as far as summer goes, but it's home. I worked with dad a lot going to various Southern Utah cemeteries and pouring those glorious cement boxes that people are dying to get into. Kristin got started with Cutco selling the world's finest knives. Seriously, they're pretty cool knives. Kristin and I also got started with Primerica Financial Services. It will be nice to have a job schedule that works around my school schedule and not vice versa. It will have its challenges, but what field of work doesn't?

After another trip to Montana we got to see Alli and her kids: Sophia, Brooke, Janelle, and Claire. And when we got back from Missouri we found Shanna there with her kids: Jake, Keira, and Tommy (who thinks I'm as boring as dried paint). And of course Brandon, McKinley, Colton, Austin and baby Lacie were there. And here in Helena we have Maddy, Johnny, Ellie,and Andy. They're all so much fun and we'll miss them and hope to see them soon.

So here we are in Montana again after a refreshing trip to the Midwest. Colin and Marianne (Kristin's padres) live in Green Castle, Missouri. While there we went to the Nauvoo pageant which is about 2 hours Northeast of where they live. I also did some sweet largemouth bass fishing and caught about 20 over the space of 3 days; I had at least 3 times that many hit and miss. We also spent time with Meg and Steve watching "Batman Begins" and sugar overdosing with Italian sodas, Mmmmm. And we can't forget all the different kisses Michael gave us. But yeah, we're back on the road and back to settle in little Provo for what looks to be like a long time. We'll probably have some little ones sooner than later and our "Summer Adventures" will poop and slobber and make messes so we'll be at home. But you never know, I've made plans/predictions before and I've been wrong.

P.S. Forgive me because I'm sure to have spelled a name or something incorrectly.

Mortal Existence

2008-06-29T15:47:00.007-05:00

As you all have probably noticed, we haven't updated our blog in quite a while. One of my friends suggested that we update our blog "sometime again in [our] mortal existence." I think she was right and I apologize for not doing it sooner. This suggestion led me to think about other things that you should do sometime again in your mortal existence... and some things that you probably shouldn't.

Things to Do Again:

1. Ride a bike--when we were little, this was one of our favorite pastimes and now, it gives us needed exercise and saves gas money. And besides, when was the last time we bragged about being able to ride a two-wheeler?

2. Go to Disneyland--this is very exciting as a child, but I think it would be even better as an adult because you can go anywhere you want (your parents can't tell you no), and you will be able to remember it better. Plus, you're tall enough to go on all the rides.

3. Go to a candy store--it's better now because you can afford the cool candy and instead of just the Broch's butterscotch hard candies like before.

Things Not to Do Again:

1. Get married--a wedding is a beautiful thing, but I think keeping the same spouse is better than mixed nuts and pastel dinner mints.

2. Cut your own hair--why do we get haircuts? Because we want to look good which will in turn bring us popularity, and maybe even friendship or love. Well, I don't think anyone wants to be seen with the guy whose bangs look like a mountain range.

3. Tan an excessive amount--many women (and men) are obsessed with beauty, and dark, tan skin is a facet of that beauty. Many girls in my high school tanned during the winter and especially for Prom. One girl I knew tanned so much that I started calling her LaFred because she was darker than the one black kid at my school. Also, it can't be that great for you. Just look at this lady:

Back-Blogging

2008-04-11T17:31:00.003-05:00

Here is a picture from when we were in A Christmas Carol.

Summer Lovin'

2008-04-09T10:05:00.003-05:00

As many of you know, Jaren and I have been planning to go to St. George for the summer to be tutor-counselors for Upward Bound. However, our plans have recently changed. Jeremy offered me a job for the summer as his office manager and Jaren and I have decided to take it! So, we will now be traveling up to Montana at the end of April and stay there pretty much the whole summer. We're really excited about it and are looking forward to spending time with family. Also, I think everyone should try and plan a trip to Montana because Jer, Pook and I will be there and Alli's planning to get some dental work done as well. Mom is also coming out for the baby, I think, so all we have to get now is Steve and Shan and it will just be a great big party! Anyways, I just wanted to let all of you know our plans and wish everyone the best summer ever. You rock, don't ever change.

xoxo, kristin and jaren

Buns in the Oven

2008-04-08T14:13:00.004-05:00

On Sunday after conference, we went up to Salt Lake to see some people from Jaren's mission that had come for conference. The two ladies spoke Spanish, but I'm almost positive that one asked me when I am due (due for a day at the gym I suppose). That was a somewhat confidence-shattering experience, but I'll be ok. I promise more posts soon with pictures and everything, but I just have to wait until the end of the week probably when I have more time. Have a good day, everyone!

Type fast

2008-03-12T12:22:00.000-05:00

http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/

See how many words you can type per minute. I stink so don't make fun of me.

I don't want to work, I just wanna bang on the drum all day

2008-03-07T11:30:00.005-06:00

Thank you Todd Rundgren for your fine song describing how we feel about work.

Well, Kristin and I work instead of playing the drums. It brings in a little bit more money and it seems like we're helping more people. We've been working at BYU Campus Mail now since the beginning of the year since our return from the holiday season. Kristin works as a sorter and I am a driver. So basically I go out with the other driver guys and deliver the mail to the buildings, and then Kristin and the sorter girls come by and sort it into each person's box. We enjoy for the most part. The toughest thing for us having to wake up and be to work by 7:00 a.m. Some mornings our little bodies just aren't ready to be up yet. But we go and the bills get paid somehow.

Alli recently wrote in her blog about how crazy life with kids can be. Plus I am just aware in general how crazy it can be with lots of little destruction specialists running around the house. So my point is that I've been trying to look at life with some perspective. It helps to look at life being happy with where we are right now. If we're always looking forward to some big dream or being like Uncle Rico and living in 1982 then we're missing the joy of the here and now. It can be a good thing to look forward to big events or goals that we have, but if life goes like this then we're in trouble:

Boy when I'm a deacon life will sure be great. Man when I get my driver's license I'll be unstoppable, I'll be able to do whatever I want (yeah right). High school is too dramatic, as soon as I go on a mission life will be great. When I get off my mission I'll be able to date and go to movies and hang out, etc. Man I wish I were a missionary again. When I'm married life will be care free; my wife will cook and clean without any help and I'll be able to relax. Kids will be nice. They are so cute. I can't wait until the kids move away so that we can have some alone time. I wish the kids would come back and visit.

Just a thought I'm almost positive we've all heard at least five times in Sunday school. So, sorry if it's too repetitive. I guess I'm just jotting down some thoughts in the few spare minutes we have here at work (I should be doing some homework, but it can wait right?) before we have to clock out. So let this be the lesson: Live life to the fullest! Enjoy the here and now by having a grander perspective and looking on the bright side. It can be tough, but it's worth a try.

ESPAÑOL

2008-03-06T16:00:00.005-06:00

Yo quiería ver si habría algunos comentos en este documento si pongo un relato en español.

Un hombre de sueños, ideales, y ambiciones es el hombre que se llama Simón Bolívar. Este hombre fue "el gran libertador" en Venezuela cuando luchaban por la libertad. También este hombre sufrió dolores cuando su esposa murió, dejándole triste y solo.

Si quieres aprender algo más de Simón Bolívar, puedes buscar en wikipedia o en una biblioteca cercana. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_Bol%C3%ADvar

Let's Get Physical!

2008-02-27T08:51:00.003-06:00

I love the show What Not to Wear on TLC. I asked Jaren if he would nominate me and my friend Ashlie to be on it. He said no. Then I got an idea. Jaren has been wanting me to exercise with him, so we made a deal: if I lose a bunch of weight and none of my clothes fit me any more, he will nominate me for What Not to Wear!
Lately I've noticed that I've put on a few pounds (I only have one pair of pants that fit and all my shirts make me look like I'm pregnant...someone actually asked the other day). Jaren suggested again that we go running. Well, for anyone who doesn't know, I don't run. So, he suggested riding the bike while he ran. That would be fine except that he runs at 5:30 in the morning with his mission friends and I, a. don't want to wake up that early, and b. don't want to be the retard on the bike. I have this fear that originated in middle school, of exercising in front of boys. I realized that I'm even afraid to do it in front of Jaren. My solutions was to call my friend Ashlie, who I feel I don't get enough time with and who also wants to lose some poundage. We set up a time to exercise three times a week and I bought an old VHS tape that has a lady with an extremely high cut leotard on the front (the title is something like "Get the Guts to Flex Your Butt on Camera" or at least that's what it should be). Anyway, our first workout is today and I'm excited. Any tips on better videos? ( I also have a winsor pilates tape, but last time I used that, I lost what little butt I had and had to sit around for a month just to get it back).

Disclaimer

2008-02-20T17:34:00.002-06:00

Just in case Colin reads the post entitled "The Weekend" (which might ignite a spark of anger in him to begin with) and soon after discovers that apparently I have been skipping classes, I would like all to know that I do no such thing . . . not exactly.
I am taking Chemistry 105 and I never ditch that class, unless it's for a very good reason like being in St. George. And seriously, it was 70º most of the time. Wonderful. On top of the Chem 105 class I'm auditing Chem 106 so I can get a look at what I'm getting myself into next semester. To audit means that you just go to class and do basically whatever the heck you want because you don't get a grade. So I'm not really sure what the purpose is. I just wanted to see what kind of curve-balls they would be throwing at me. So yes, it's true, the Chem 106 class that I'm auditing does get neglected and I don't feel pressured to go, so I sometimes skip out. There are just higher priorities! I'd put Kristin above Chemistry any day:) Now that's a compliment!

The Weekend

2008-02-20T16:29:00.004-06:00

I know dad will probably get mad that I used the term "the weekend," but I decided it was appropriate because ours lasted from saturday to wednesday morning. You see, we had monday off thanks to President's day and tuesday was monday's classes. Since I only have one class on monday and Jaren only has classes that he regularly skips, we decided to stretch out the weekend. So, we went down to St. George to visit Jaren's family. I had a paper that was due on friday, but there was no way I could get it done before class, so I decided to finish it on Saturday and send it to the teacher that day. When I got to St. George, I discovered that Jaren's parents don't have Word, so I ended up having to wait until tuesday when the public library opened. The policy on late work for this class is 10% off every day it's late. I was screwed. I finished it tuesday (actually rewriting it and forming a completely new thesis) and emailed it to my teacher and then today, wednesday, I took a hard copy to her and explained my plight as to why it was so incredibly late. She ended up only taking of 10% (which is what she would have taken off if I had handed it in to her on friday after class, since after class is late). I was SO relieved. However, she did tell me that my paper had to be really good. I'm glad I didn't stick to the first one about how I didn't watch TV for an entire month (except Home Improvement because that was family time) just to earn a box of Berry Berry Kix which dad promptly ate claiming he was "saving" me. Anyways, back to our weekend. Jaren did 4 burials and I watched 5 movies. We also honed our skills on the song "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson on Guitar Hero III playing it at least 12 times in a row around midnight last night. It was a great weekend.

P.S. Jaren's mom had a little bit of an old bag of Berry Berry Kix in the pantry which I finished up tuesday morning for breakfast. It was stale and wasn't nearly as good as Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries, but I felt I needed to have that bowl I missed out on in my childhood.

Comments

2008-02-14T16:18:00.002-06:00

Just to let everyone know, we would really appreciate it if you left your name in your comment if you leave one so we know who's looking at our blog, and stuff. Thanks!

Kristin is pretty

2008-02-14T10:44:00.001-06:00

She's strikingly beautiful and she's got smarts on top of that! Well who could ask for a better wife? And seriously, Kristin is really really pretty in this Nauvoo picture.

Our House

2008-02-13T18:20:00.002-06:00

Hello, my name is Jaren and I would like to introduce you to our house, which is more like a home, which is a humble basement apartment. I just barely hit my head on the door frame again so I felt (really felt) inspired (and pained) to introduce you to OUR HOUSE, in the middle of our street.
We've lived here since September 1st. We moved in right before school started and right after we got married. It's really quite nice, the only problem is whoever built it wasn't thinking about future generations and taller people that would need more head room to walk through a door frame. Bless their hearts. So I guess that's about it. I feel much better now and I think I'll take off my shoes to give me a little bit more room vertically. It's about all I can do.

So,...

2008-02-13T16:35:00.001-06:00

I just realized that, apparently, I begin all of my posts with "So,..." That's all.

Last Names and Formatting

2008-02-13T16:21:00.003-06:00

So, I just finished meticulously (although randomly) choosing the colors for the various aspects of the blog and while I was doing this, I discovered that I can also alter the size of the text in one part of the blog without affecting the other parts (hence the gi-normous title "The Hafens"). It's interesting how the bigger a word gets, the weirder it looks, or the more times you see it in a row, the weirder it looks. For instance, have you ever written your name in Word and then previewed it in all the fonts in the formatting window? I have, and by around "haettenschweiler" you're starting to question the accuracy of your knowledge of how your name is spelled. And so it is with giant blog titles. I was seriously sounding out the name just to make sure it was right.

Our blog

2008-02-13T09:19:00.000-06:00

So, I finally decided to start a blog because we have so much to tell everyone and pictures to show, plus, I have a lot of free time at work so, hopefully, I can keep it updated regularly. I really hope I can figure out how to link stuff and do all that cool stuff. Maybe I'll ask for Alli's help. Anyway, here's our first post!