Apologies and a Family Photo

People. We are so. Sorry.

We are vile.

We are plumb useless.

We apologize profusely for failing to update this thing in, like, forever.

But we've been busy (excuse #1). We will try, from here on out, to do better. But we cannot promise once a week, as we have hitherto done. We will do our best, but it might be one in two (gasp).

But here's the lowdown on what's been happening.

Jill has been doing her practicum teaching in Spanish Fork. She absolutely loves the kids she teaches (1st grade), and I've seen her interest in them grow as her time there wore on. She really did love the children from day one, but her care and concern for them grew as the weeks went on. Isn't she just precious!? She's the best. She would always come back with fun stories from her days at school. What fun.

I have also been doing some teaching of my own. I was taking the class that is the precursor to teaching seminary as a full-time job, so I was able to hit the classroom here and there, and then for two weeks straight. It ended the week before last, and it was so much fun. I loved being able to teach and interact with the youth. It's something I would have loved to have done as a profession, but alas, I received an email today from my teachers saying I was not accepted. But they made sure to tell me that I shouldn't feel like a failure because I was able to bless my fellow classmates and those I taught. Nice words for sure. I'm not too terribly bummed out because I kind of knew I wouldn't get it, but it sure would have been nice. But the things I learned in that class and while teaching are some of the most valuable things I could have learned, and I don't think I could have learned them anywhere else. Now it's onward and upward, but at least I'll get to keep those skills I learned and all the knowledge that came with that class.

Also, we took family pictures yesterday. Here's one of them:

So yeah. There's that, too :)

Nature, Harley, and Not Much Else

GUYS I'M SO SORRY! It's been FOREVER since this blog has been updated.

We'll do better. Which I believe we said we would do in a previous post, so you can see how well that ended up.

Anyway, a couple things for this post.

First, we took a trip a wee bit up the canyon last week (actually, last last week) and took some pictures of the fall foliage. Unfortunately the leaves weren't entirely changed yet (or in most cases, at all), but we were still able to get some good shots.

Just...look at some of the pictures and smile at nature. Also, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this should help me meet my quota for today's post.

It's pretty awesome to be able to live in an area with this kind of awesome just a short drive away. Sometimes it's nice just to go and be with nature and forget about the hustle and bustle of busy Provo life. Nature's everywhere. Sometimes it's in your back yard, and sometimes you have to drive a ways to find it. Wherever it is, it's a good reminder of God's love for us. I mean just look at that cool red leaf! That is one good lookin' leaf. God must have known it would be admired for its uniqueness, contrasting its red/orange/yellow with the gray rubble of the ground.

And then there's the double waterfalls, spilling water continuously from some unseen spring. I mean, only water can do that. I sure couldn't. Let's be honest, if I were to cascade down a rock face like that, I'd end up really really dead. But the water doesn't die. It runs on. I'm sure there's a gospel lesson in there if we look hard enough (as in really, really hard).

Anyway, nature is awesome.

THING TWO.

Jill rode a motorcycle.

It's okay! Don't worry! She didn't die!

In fact, she even wore a helmet!

My pops was in town on Friday and after an hour or so of begging and pleading, he agreed to take her for a spin on his Harley. What a guy, right!?

Actually I'm going to turn this over to Jill now so she can describe the experience to you in all its glory.

Enter Jill.

What the new sensation!?! I learned how to ride a motorized scooter over the summer and so I was expecting it to be like that but man it was so much better. It was smooth. And scary! Call me a sissy but I leaned against the sissy bar the whole time. It was a very exciting ride around the block and I think it prepped me for the next time I ride who knows when. But thank you Papa K for the ride!

Pics to prove this happened!

Exit Jill.
Enter Ben.

So there you have it, right out of the horse's mouth (no offense, dear).

But we've been having a good couple of weeks. Things have been busy but that's the way we like it.

Also, general conference was great this weekend. We were able to go up to the Saturday afternoon session and sit in for that. Always nice to get tickets to go (thanks Papa J!).

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope everyone else had a great conference weekend and may this week be the best one of your life!

Cheers.

29-Years-Old and Still Drooling

Dentists are pure evil.

On Monday I (Ben) had to go in to their lair of wickedness to have four (4!) cavities filled.

Stop there.

Let me be clear on something first: I was 23-years-old (or older) when I got my first cavity. That means I survived a 2-year mission in the Philippines without a problem. And let's be real, that place can be nasty. Especially for a missionary living like the locals (albeit a little bit more well-off). The food, the water (the filthy, nasty waters), and everything else there just lives to rot your teeth. And I got out scot-free.

And then, two years after I got home, I had one (count 'em, one!) cavity. After that, nothing! Not until now, at least.

Which brings us back to the topic at hand: Evil dentists.

So I had four cavities: three on the left side (top and bottom) and one on my bottom right. The dentist numbed the bottom right and top left portions of my face. He didn't numb the bottom left because, according to him, "It's pretty small so we'll see if we can do it without numbing it." Apparently he didn't want to freeze my entire face. What a nice guy. But my favorite bit was when he said, "Let me know if it hurts."

And then he proceeded to drill into my un-numbed tooth.

I just lay there, bracing for that moment when the drill would shoot through the tooth and into my jaw. Fortunately that never happened, but I did flinch a number of times because, well, it did hurt.

"Does that hurt?" the dentist would ask.

"Mhafegm," I would respond (keep in mind, half my face was numb, and my mouth was propped open with some new-fangled, sci-fi jaw propper-opener thingy).

He gave his condolences, said he was almost done, and to let him know if it kept hurting.

"Mghshjksbm."

So again he began excavating my tooth and again I began flinching (but not saying anything, because I'm a tough rugby player who eats pain for breakfast. Or is it my middle name? I can never remember). Anyway, to make a short story long (too late for that, I'm afraid), he stopped, realized the hole was bigger than he first thought (n00b), and decided to numb that part of my face after all.

So there I was, 3/4 of my face numb, drool quite possible leaking out of my gaping maw, unable to recognize the steady flow of drool because my face was so numbed up. Fortunately though the rest of the procedure went as planned and I was quickly shuffled out of the operating room and into the front to pay.

I think people at the dentist office have a sick sense of humor. They love talking to you when it's blatantly obvious that you cannot answer back with even a single clear syllable.

"How would you like to pay for that?"

"Chfjoke."

"I'll assume you said your soul. Have a nice day!"

But yeah, I paid and got the heck out of there. The numbness lasted at least four hours, during which time I had dinner (or rather, dinner had me. I could not for the life of me find my mouth to insert food), gave the FHE lesson (which who knows if Jill understood a word of it), and biked across town to tour a pioneer museum. Right when I thought my face would be frozen that way forever (just like Mom used to threaten me with if I ever made rude faces), the numbness melted away. I'm saved!

The moral of this story, folks, is this: Don't get cavities. And if you do, don't tell anyone.

Dumpster Diving

Do you know what newly weds do when they're bored?

Dumpster dive.

Ok we weren't bored but we really did go for a swim in the deep blue trash bin. It all started with a mail in rebate card we got from the wedding. I was filling out the rebate receipt to get $30 bucks (that's a lot of money for a young couple) when we realized we needed the UPC off the box. Then it dawned on us that we through the box out the day before.

So being as poor as we are we ran down to the dumpster praying that the box would be just on top. We poked our heads over the edge and saw a few boxes of ours and figured it must be close to the top. So Ben, being the nice husband that he is, jumped right in that smelly thing and started to dig.

We didn't really think before we went down to the dumpster but it was 2:00 in the afternoon on a summer day in Utah, and before you knew it Ben was sweating like crazy. I mean he sweats in our apartment with the AC on, so just imagine him in a big metal box digging through trash in the middle of summer. Wow, what a guy. I watched helplessly from the side as giant beads of sweat rolled from his forehead, to nose, and onto a bag of trash.

He went at it for 45 minutes and STILL didn't find it. He literally moved every piece of trash in that dumpster and it wasn't there! We are convinced that someone stole it because everyone needs a Kitchen Aid box just for fun. Even though we didn't find the box I still sent in the mail-in-rebate with a note explaining that we had thrown away the UPC and even went dumpster diving to find it. Maybe the Kitchen Aid company will have compassion on us. :)

But we didn't let this ruin our new toy. Oh no! We enjoyed a nice batch of cookies instead. I also came to realize from this experience how hard working my husband is. What a catch! The good life we have goes on in the Kocher family. :)

The Honeymoon's Over

So we decided to keep a blog so that y'all can keep up with our comings and goings and whatnots. So this is it, the life of the newly weds (barf).

First of all, thanks to all you wonderful people who helped us get hitched (it took some doing) and making our honeymoon a reality.

To start off our über cute blog, here's our honeymoon!

The first day consisted of driving. Not much to tell there. Except we nearly got run off the road by the He**'s Angels biker gang. Don't believe us? Here's proof!

It's a Hell's Angel

What, you can't tell? Here, try this one...

Any better?

You still can't see the back of their jackets? Well, you're just going to have to trust us on this.

By the time we got through all the dadgummed traffic jams and whatnot, it was fairly late when we got to Palm Springs. So of course we ate out. Jill was so excited!

While we were at the super posh resort (really though, talk about feeling out of place. No, sorry, we're not owners. Oh, and what's that? We can't get a $75 gift card because we make less than 50 grand a year? Yup, let's just not fit in), we swam and got sunburned and stuff. And we were that awkward newly wed couple playing Small World (board game) by the swimming pool. We're so stinkin' cute, huh? Oh, and the pool people decided to have a little party with lots o' music. They blasted Cotten Eye Joe and, since nobody else was getting their dance on, we decided to show them all how it's done.

So basically it was us, two pasty white (or sunburned to a crisp) kids jumping around in front of, well, everyone else. And some lady videod us with her phone. Bonus points if you can find her video on YouTube. And since there was nothing else to do at the pool, all eyes were on us. We got a nice loud round of applause following our performance. You can get our autographs later.

We also spent a good long day at San Diego. First we went to the San Diego temple to do sealings. The temple was gorgeous (see below, but try to focus on the building, not the cute couple).

Wow, what a cute couple!

It was there, outside of the temple, that we met our new friends. We never really learned their names, but they are most certainly our best friends in San Diego. They were a family visiting from Utah. They asked us to take their picture. They took ours in return (see above). They asked if we were on vacation or what the heck we were doing there, and before we even told them, they guessed we were on our honeymoon. Good for them. They should try their luck at Family Feud.

Then we went to the Mormon Battalion historic site and got a fun tour!

That's us in/on a covered wagon. So pioneer of us!

We won't bore you with the details (although it was fascinating), but let it be known that, while watching the documentary before the tour, our new friends from the temple came in! So we went through the tour with them. The father said that they were just going to spend the rest of our honeymoon with us. Hey, why not. The more the merrier, right?

Following the tour we wandered the ol' fashioned streets nearby. We went into a 5-and-Dime store to avoid our new friends (because the more is apparently not the merrier), and then after a while of hiding out, proceeded to wander the streets. In no time at all, we had caught up with our friends at a corner. They were eating tortillas. They offered to buy us some, as a treat. Being the mooches we are, we took them up on their offer, stayed a while, ate, and chatted. Now we really are best friends.

But enough about them. You just want to hear about the beach, don't you? Of course you do.

Enter BEACH.

We got rocked around by the waves, got sand everywhere, and got another sunburn (on top of the other sunburns we already had).

Not much else to say about the beach, but look at these pretty pictures and be jealous.

Oh gosh put some clothes on...

Nothing beats sand. Except lightning. Lightning beats sand.

Just be grateful it didn't poop on us

Wet water (as opposed to the dry kind)

And then there was the pier. Holy wow was it nice. Yowzah. I mean, just look for yourself!

USS Midway, in all her majesty

Sail boats!

The breeze, the salt water smell, the everything was just...yup. Words can't describe.

On our last night there we took the Palm Springs Tram up the mountainside, up and away from civilization. It was beautiful. A whole lot of rocks and trees and nature.

And us.

We hiked around a bit before coming back to the top where we got dropped off to eat at their nice, fancy restaurant. The view looked out over, well, everything. We didn't get pictures because we were too busy mooning over each other and being that cute newly wed couple (barf).

And then we drove home.

Anyway, like we said, this is just a way for us to keep you that care (hi Mom[s]!) up to date on what's happening with us. And since our honeymoon happened, well, you get to hear (read?) about it. Love you all and have a very merry Christmas.

Cheers.