Baby Pictures

These are the pictures from our first placement. He was with us for his first 6 weeks, and they were an amazing 6 weeks. Pictures of our new placements to follow.

Let's Move

Karissa says she can feel the baby moving inside her now. I'm loving every minute of this.

Big Day

Does anyone else see the similarity? Do you think I should be worried? Is it possible that Strong Bad is actually my mail man and I didn't know it all this time?!?







Now to quote I Can Has Cheezburger?:

"I can has spine!"

Can I get a what what?!? *while raising the roof*



And Finally...

Just wanted to say "Hello."

I'm Back!

It was brought to my attention that I hadn't updated in a while. I'd be lying to say that I hadn't notice. I got to thinking about my quirks and then I never got around to actually writing them out. So to say true to my word, here are my 5 quirks that I promised would be my next entry.

1) I tend to like to take my time to do things. Not that I can't go fast. I actually do a number of things quickly. Like taking a shower (something I picked up on the mission, the amount of time you had to exercise (which wasn't an option) make breakfast, eat, take a shower, get dress and ready, was somewhat short and a 30 min shower was no luxury we could afford), driving home from work, and falling asleep. But most other things I'll go slower, enjoying it more, or putting it off more, which ever be the case.

2) Drinking Root Beer on "special" occasions. Special is in quotes because I'm the one who determines if a meal gets the root beer to wash it down or not. To be "special" I just have to either: a) really want root beer and have to justify lowering our amount in stock (since we never know when it might go on sell again and we can afford to buy it) or b) need a pick-me-up to change how the day has gone thus far.

3) Yelling out "Fazoili's!" whenever we pass by it. If you haven't eaten there, it is a fast food Italian place known for it's good food and awesome bread sticks. But to me, it is simple known as The Garlic Party On My Tongue Lounge. Yes, it is that amazing, I invite you to the party. The only rule is to yell out "Fazoli's!!!!!" whenever you are driving by it in your car. This quirk has its genesis to my Wichita Falls days when I would ride along with Jessica Stout and we would yell out random things to be cool... because turrets was cool back then... and it has carried over to my current life status. Go ahead, say it... you're jealous.

4) I know grammar and never have issues with it on spell check... just I can't spell for the life of me. So if you are ever in a position where you need to spell something correct or you'll die horrible with a noxious disease, don't call me. Call my wife.

5) I always say "Ideal" when I mean "Idea" and never do I say "Idea" when I mean "Ideal". To me, they are the same word, they do mean the same exact thing, and I can't tell a difference between them. My wife has gotten into the habit of always saying "Huh?!" when I use it wrong, she thinks that will undo 20 years of improper use... she is a little naive. But I can say this about her, she is consistent.

So, things have been up and down here. This last week at work my hours got "cut". They don't want up filling in on the other shift as much as we have. Karissa and I have opted to wait until after Christmas to do presents for each other so we can stay in budget. But we just love this time of year, it's our favorite, and I have to say, we have been taken care of so far, which is a great blessing.

On the Foster Care front, I call every Monday to check in on the status of our background check. Because mine had to be sent to Texas it is taking a lot longer. It's freaking annoying. Once that gets back we are good to go. They say we should be licensed by January. It can't get here soon enough.

Worth repeating

I am so often amazed at how much some of the boys I work with change, and it's usually the ones I least expect it from.

One in particular has made a complete turn around. He went from always fighting, arguing, cussing, etc, to now being funny, respectful (most of the time), and a scholar of the Bible. Yeah, that's what I said. He always says to me: "Hey, Luke 2:11, do you know it?! I do!" "Matthew 6:14-16, that's my favorite!" He actually wants to study and then share what he learns. Know why? One night, after having a lot of problems with him I took a different approach with him, and he completely opened up to me, telling me everything he wanted to do in life (become a chef and open his own restaurant), and then he wanted me to answer his questions about God and religion. After that he got interested in what the Bible said, so I told him to read some parts. He did. He liked it. He felt like what I said was what he wanted to believe. So off he went. He said that night was the first time he had ever prayed, and that the very next day his pray was answered. Now tell me, how many of troubled teenagers do you think actually have the maturity to not only pray sincerely, but also recognize when they get an answer? I'm telling you, I'm proud of that kid, and it really makes my work worth it, and gives me what I need to do more.

Last night I got approved for my 9 month bonus. Good, good day. So very excited about that one.

I got tagged to do the 6 Quirks, so I will be thinking about those and posting it soon.

frozen toes...

The title on her car came in, so I could finally take the temporary car plate off and put the real ones on. We are pretty well settled in now. And feeling pretty comfortable too. It's a nice feeling to know you are doing everything on your own.

Work has been great lately. I'm enjoying it more everyday.

Finally, my postal exam scores came back. I passed. 84.70 rating. Sounds good huh? I dont know how high in comparison to everyone else I did. They put everyone on a list, starting with the best and going down to the worst, and when they have an opening they call up the first person on the list for an interveiw and everything. So now, I guess I just wait for the phone call. I'm happy waiting.

It's gotten cold. Not so cold you can see your breath every exhale, but cold enough you stand there huddled up wishing you were inside.

Where were you when it happened?

I was going through some cds I have with pictures and films from my mission when I came across this favorite. I had forgotten it even happened. Good times huh?





This weekend was fun. We finished our classes, then we headed up north to Draper and visited a little place called IKEA... way cool, and way fun. We got a lot of cool little things to put in the kids room. I'm sure my old lady will get that up and show everyone soon, if she hasn't already.

Work is going good. I'm doing good. Everything is good. And I'm going to beat the socks off of JM in chess tonight or thursday night.

So stressed out it's soothing

So we are heading out of town again for the weekend... again. This will be the last marathon of training before we are done with it and then all we'll need is a Home Study, and for our Background Checks to pass to be licensed Foster Parents. Cool huh?

Work has gone so great lately. There is the one kid who I've been having some problems getting along with. He has serious anger issuses. These last few nights I had his family, and somehow he got me on the topic of Christianity and what it is about, and then he was asking me all sorts of questions, he was saying that he didn't know what he believed in and wanted to understand a few things. He really enjoyed the conversation. The next morning he woke up and told me the night before he had prayed for the first time in his life, and that he liked it. Then last night he came back and said that his prayed had been answered that very same day and he wanted to talk with me again on the same things. Of course, being the 15 year old he is, he wanted to know this time about the end of the world and such... I just gave him a bible, pointed at Revelations, and said get what you can from it. Kept him entertained all night, and the best part is... he didn't try to fight with everyone in the room like he normally does. It's so cool, and such a great feeling when you start to make progress with these kids, start to see them act differently and realize what they have been doing wrong. It has happened to me a few times now, and it's probably the number one reason why I stay.

My best mission companion asked me to send him some pictures from when we were together, and it is taking soooooooo long for it to load. Annoying.

Recently Me

I hope this works as a good look at what my current apperance is.


I've let my facial hair grown out a bit more since then, so it looks a bit darker, but the truth is that it is not at all as thick as it shows on the comic me... just didn't have the option of thinning it out.

Here's the picture off the back of my Costco Card



This week is going great. I'm getting really antsy about getting my test results back.

I see no one has taken me up on that chess game yet. Are you scared or just dont have the time?

Timeless tales of the woes from someone who knows

I am getting a lot of good pratice in at work on my chess game. I recently talk my old lady into letting me buy a cheap board from wal-mart so I could take it to work everyday. I have ever since used it to distract students, and also beat up on them in the game. Both have worked out pretty good. So, do I have any challengers on the board? Let me know and I will take you to Yahoo and put the beat down on you. Or very humbly take it.

This keyboard is having trouble with the "v" key. I have to hit it twice every time to get it to work. Times like this I wish there was no letter "v".

Comic Me

This is what I figure I look like right now. What do you think?

And when I see you, I really see you upside down

So, I'm not as good at this as I once was. But that is okay, I feel confident that this isn't the source of most peoples entertainment.

So to update, the postal battery exam went great. I feel like I really nailed it, every answer I answered I feel like I got it correct, now I just have to wait and see if i answered enough in the time that I was give to answer questions. They said it would be about 4-6 weeks... which is funny because of the fact that it is the postal system that is handling it... is there really no other way to grade and send out the results sooner?

My old lady and I are going up to Manti this weekend and next for Foster Care Training. It is going to be very intense, but a lot of fun. We are so excited. We have gotten so much done recently. We have resgistered our cars here in Utah, gotten our own insurance for cars and renters insurance for our house. We are getting closer and closer to something we really want to be doing, and it is a great feeling.

Work is going on like normal. I'm trying to get put on a 2nd position that would granitee me more hours, thus more money, thus less worry about trying to get extra hours... even though up until now I havn't even had to worry, it has always just been there for me, people call me up and ask me to work for them, so it has been pretty good for me.

Up, down, in, out, high, low

We have been very busy as of late. We have taken big steps forward in our plans and goals of becoming Foster Parents. We had a lady come to our house and talk to us for an hour, at the end she said that she saw no reason why we shouldn't be able to, gave us all the applications and information of training that we will need. The next training in St George wasn't until Nov. and we didn't want to wait that long, so we got signed up for the next one in September which will be up in Manti over the course of two weekends. I'm swinging it with work to be able to have the needed days off. So far so good.

*Girl has been awesome, working ever so diligently getting everything ready. She has researched everything so we know what to expect, what the process is going to be like, what to do to help move things along, and so forth. She has taken on some huge projects inside the house preparing each room making it child friendly and a place that any kid would enjoy to be in and could have safe happy feelings there. She has done a perfect job.

So that is all very exciting, we are devoting everything we have to this, and it's great.

On Thursday I'm going to take the Postal Battery Exam, if I do well I could get an entry level position in the Postal Service, which would be amazing. So best of luck there.

And that's about it, we've been keeping busy with all of that.

Thats my life story

I was going to do a play by play of what it's like at my job. But then I realized it was just too much for me to want to do right now. So here goes for the low fat version.

I get there. Pick up my family, take them to their dorm where for 30 mins they work at assignments, and I usuallay talk to them about their day, things that happen, and pass on some of my "wisdom"... or call them names.

Next is recreation. We take them out side, have them strech, and do calisthinics for about 15 mins. They complain just about the entire time. So we have them do extra until they stop whinning. By now it is 6pm.

They play a sport of some kind. Usually basketball, or football. Every now and then it is soccer. Someone usually gets mad at someone else at this points and throws a little baby fit. Which others make fun of, and soon nothing turns into a problem. Thats when I yell out "all of you just grown up! You, play basketball and dont talk to him. You, quit crying, he didn't mean to do that on purpose.... No, no, I promise you he didn't.... I'm telling you, he didn't!... Quit arguing with me, he didn't and that's final.... go bother someone else!"

By now it's time to go back to the dorm, get them changed and over for dinner. This happens without much problem. When we get over to the dinning hall, the old boys campus is usually still in there, 10 mins over on their time, so we have to sit outside waiting. We kill the time by going over rules, what's expected of them, what the schedule for the night is, etc.

Dinner. Everyone eats, then complains that their parents are paying some much money and they get so little food. I hear the word "shafted" about a billion times. "He shafted me!" "This is a shaft" "You little shafter" "It's like all this place does is shaft us" etc. I then pull my ears off to make it stop.

After dinner is chores. Depending on the chore it takes anywhere from 20 mins to 1 1/2 hours. Also depends on their laziness and complainingness.

Get back to the dorm, there is a short time to do more assignments, write a journal, and then at 8:15 starts their free time/shower time. Each student gets 7 mins to get in and get out of the shower. They push it to the last second.

At nine everyone is on their bed, going to sleep. At 9:30 the lights go off. At 10:30 I go to bed. At 6 am I wake up. At 6:30 am I wake them up. They start to do hyigene and morning dorm chores. By 7:15 chores are to be done. More time to do assignments. At 7:40 we go to breakfast, and at 8 am I get off work. I'm usually home by 9 am, and then at 2:50 I leave to go back.

Now, there are a lot more little things going on in there, and a lot of cites for the kids. But thats just the basics of it all.

Returning to my roots

140 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm confused.

La-de-da-de-da La-de-da-de-o-day

July has gone by fast. Seems like it was just the 4th a few days ago.

I got into another argument at work with a student. This time it was over Krispy Kream donuts vs. Dunkin' Donuts. The kid would not agree that K.K. is way better then D.D. What are our young people coming to? Is this really the future? Sometimes I... I just dont know.

The other day my old lady and I watched a film called "Soylent Green". Had Charleston Heston in it. Very good movie. Apparently it's some sort of classic that everyone, but me, knew about. So HA to all of you people out there making S.G. references around me thinking that I wouldn't understand, because I DO NOW! Yeah, lets try to see you crazy cult fans pull a fast one on me. I know what it's made of.

I finally convinced *Girl to let me have a pair of shorts to wear. She was for the idea, just gave me one rule. I can't wear them when we go out. Fair enough I thought. I just wanted them for work. So Sunday was my first day to wear them to work. And of course I get sent out to help with Homeless all day long. And of course too much sun on extra white legs tuns them red. Because you know... I'm boycotting the sunblock companies? Yes, they have gotten to be too powerful... I mean, can they honestly grantee 75 SPF??? Thats just too much.

That will do it then. I have to research more ways to win at Battle Ship. Games with strategy I can do... but the ones based off of luck and "skill" I fail hard core.

Garden Woes

The summer is having a blast killing off my garden. My attempts to water the dying weeds are even failing. Who knew life in the desert could be so brutal? Well... everyone I suppose.


Okay okay, so my garden isn't that dead yet. And watering two times a day does seem to keep them green. So I really shouldn't worry.

In other news, I came home saturday from work, after being there since thursday afternoon. I was talking to my lovely sister when this man came out of no where from what looked like my back yard with a dog, I hanged up the phone while talking to him (sorry about that Al) and quickly remembered him as my next door neighbor. Who had a dog and didn't know whos it was. And was asking if it was mine. We then chatted. And I ended up taking a bunch of carrots, squash, the promise of tomatoes from his garden. Nice people live next door to us. The dog was not mine... if you were wondering.

I had a great weekend, no work, relaxing and having fun.

Vegas and Varzea and Valley... all the same

I find that between work and spending time with my wife, nothing else really sounds entertaining. Actually, to tell you the truth, work doesn't sound all that entertaining as well, but it is what we call a must evil that some people say is good for your health. Some people dont work with trouble teens.

The kids at work have a sort of running joke that I live out there with them. One, who we'll call him "My Biggest Fan" says all of the time that I should get a raise just so I wouldn't have to be there so much. Last night as my supervisior was making his last rounds of the night "My Biggest Fan" said "Oh course everything is alright in here, we got Daniel Holloway here... he should be the employee of the month by the way". It's nice to know that some people there like me.

My best friend and companion from my mission went home on Tuesday. I tried to call him, but the number I had didn't work. I'm stuck to hoping his email works.

This weekend is going to be fun. I'm working tonight until saturday morning, then saturday we are taking off for Vegas and not coming back until Sunday. I get two days off in a row! I'm excited.

That is all from Dixie.

The rules:

Using fd’s Flickr Toys,

A. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

B. Using only the first page, pick an image.

C. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

(Note: I cheated and used my wife's Flickr account. And yet, I prosper.)

What/who is your:

1. first name? Daniel

2. favorite food? Ice Cream

3. hs alma mater? Gunter

4. favorite color? Green

5. celebrity crush? Taylor Swift

6. favorite drink? Root Beer

7. dream vacation? Skywalker Ranch

8. favorite dessert? Cheesecake

9. dream job? Couch Potato

10. greatest love in life? YouTube

11. one word self-description? Slow

12. Flickr name? Nothing

Now you try!

To the juke box bars we freqent, it's the safest place to hide

Tomorrow I'm going in to get a new drivers licence. Apparently you have to do that when you move to a different state. I might have gone on a bit longer without it, but you know, insurance and everything kind of requires it. I'm not worried, I feel confidant that I know the driving laws enough to pass a test on them. Just wish somebody at the stupid DPS would answer the phone!

My old lady and I put together some Harry Potter Legos the other day, and if that wasn't the most fun we had since prom night! Not that we went to prom together. It's just a saying.

Just about my entire mission I had this dream about I was in this play, and I had a huge part, but I never studied my lines and I didn't know anything about what I was supposed to do and it was like a hour from showtime. I shared this with my wife the other day (who is quite the interpreter of dreams) and she nonchalantly said "oh you were probably just worried about not knowing something at the time" which I guess you could say was exactly my feelings the entire two years. I was constantly worried about not knowing what my investigators needed, or thought, or not knowing what to do next to help out and make changes in my area, or what the crap my psychotic companion was mad about now. And surprisingly, I only made the connection now.