Nov 29, 2004	Lauren's Birthday Party by K
	This year Lauren got to have a friend party, so she invited the kids in her Primary class and her cousin Caleb. She was very upset that all her cousins couldn't come; she has a hard time understanding that traveling from Texas and California is too far for a birthday party.
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Nov 25, 2004	Thanksgiving Double-Whammy by J
	Most years we have to choose whether to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my family or Karen's. Not this year. Your inner glutton will be jealous. My mother hosted a dinner the night before Thanksgiving and Karen's mother hosted one Thanksgiving Day. Just think of the usual, excellent food that one would expect at such a function, then double it. As is tradition, I made enough mashed potatoes to kill an army, but this time I did it twice. Both dinners were superb from turkey to pie. I'm aware that this isn't really newsworthy, I just wanted to rub it in.
Nov 24, 2004	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by J
	I found a new game to play when I'm in the mood to waste some time on the Xbox. It's the fifth installment of the Prince of Persia franchise. The game is pretty much the same as the original: you have to save the princess by going through puzzle-like levels by making amazing jumps, stepping on the right platforms to open the right doors, and winning sword fights with the bad guys all throughout the game. Read on to see what I thought of it.
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Nov 23, 2004	NetFlix and DVD Roundup by J
	We decided to give NetFlix a try. If you aren't familiar with NetFlix, it's a service where they mail you 3 movies which you can keep as long as you like, then after you've had them as long as you want, you mail them back and they send you other movies. You pay a monthly membership fee of $18. If you watch a lot of movies and you return them quickly, it ends up being much cheaper than a local store. Read on for our review of the NetFlix service and a few of the movies that we have seen recently.
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Nov 22, 2004	Dinosaur Museum by K
	For Lauren's 4th birthday we took our family to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. Lauren has been fascinated with dinosaurs for a few months and wanted to go dig up fossils to give to a museum (an idea she got from an episode of Arthur). So we took her to dig up fossils. Lauren and Melanie had a great time! We have some photos in the album.
Nov 21, 2004	Joel Takes a Spill by J
	Yesterday I started a project to hang a pulley system from the garage ceiling to hoist my bike and our bike trailer up out of the way. As I was installing the first set, I leaned too far laterally and the ladder began to tip and bend; down I went. On the way down, I managed to bang my head on a concrete ledge which made me see a bright flash. Laying in a crumpled heap on the garage floor, I yelled to Karen for help. When she got to me, I asked if the ladder was broken, to which she only laughed. Maybe you can answer for me. She pulled what was left of the ladder out from under my legs, then helped me up. I have a huge goose-egg on my head, a few gashes and scrapes on my legs and arms, and a few bruises all over. Worst of all, I managed to strain my neck and upper back which makes it very difficult to be comfortable in any position.
Oct 21, 2004	Goodbye, Altima! by J
	Just so we don't leave you hanging after the story about our Altima getting crunched, I figured I'd better tell the happy ending. Before the car got crunched, we were planning on selling it to help pay for the minivan. The dent kind of complicated things in that regard. Well, as it turns out, the insurance company decided the car was a total loss, and paid us more than we thought we'd have probably gotten for it had we sold it. When they came to tow it away the other day, Lauren said "I'm going to miss that little car." So, it's off to the bank I go to cash the check. How many hours to Wendover from here?
Oct 4, 2004	Bringing the Van Home: That Crazy Drive by J
	To save a few bucks on the new van, I decided to fly to New Jersey and drive it back home. Yes, I know that you think I'm nuts. Yes, I know that I only saved around $350 over having it shipped, and that doesn't include wear on the vehicle. No, I didn't know that Pennsylvania charges you $21.50 to drive across their state. Are they insane? Have they never heard of a gasoline tax? Read on for the epic tale of my lunatic 51-hour trip.
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Oct 4, 2004	JK1.van by J
	The faithful readers of JK1.net both know that ever since we found out Noah was on the way, we started looking at minivans. Since Noah came, we've been cramming all three kids' car seats into the back of our Nissan Altima sedan. Well finally Karen couldn't take it any longer, so we bought a new van. We got a used 2004 Toyota Sienna LE in the 8-passenger configuration. We decided we wanted this particular van quite awhile ago, but weren't excited about buying a new one, so we've been watching the used market likes hawks. We finally found one that we thought was a good deal on eBay, and bought it from a guy named Honest Bob in New Jersey. If you think that's a recipe for disaster, just wait until you read about me flying out to drive it back. So that's the news. You can stop reading if you don't want a sales pitch for our van.
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Aug 24, 2004	Munch, Crunch, Munch by K
	On the way home from work today Joel was rear-ended. Here is a photo of our poor car. We're hoping to sell it soon, so now we can sell it with a fresh coat of paint! Amazingly we can still open and close the trunk (if we push hard) and the lights all still work, they just point the wrong way. Lauren looked at the damage and said, "Mommy you need to buy a new car quick!"