Moving up in the World

Sooooo, I've been promoted. Jenni has invited me to write on her Blog with her. This will be great, because I won't feel the need to write different posts than her about the same thing, but I secretly think she might regret letting me write on it, since people actually read hers...

Until then, though, that's where I'll be. Check us out at:

BrandonandJenniOrr.blogspot.com

You need an invitation, so send me your email on this post, or to my email:

Longboardladdie@gmail.com

Do I Make a Difference???

This photo may allude to the fact that I DO make a difference, but I, and now you, were sadly mistaken.

Our stake held a blood drive this week, and since I have only been to the ward twice so far I decided to do a good deed and volunteer to give blood. I was sitting next to my cousin during Priesthood on Sunday (he happens to live just down the street, which is nice), and during our conversations of who was going to get whose home teaching done first (yes, on my second week in the ward I already had an assignment, and for the record, I got it done first ;)..... Okay this sentence is getting pretty fragmented. Anyways, while we were talking we decided we needed a guys-night-out, and what better and more manly thing is there than donating blood together! So we signed up and went at the same time. We got there, donned our "I make a difference" stickers, and started going through paperwork. I got called first and talked to a male nurse who made sure I was healthy enough to donate. He then left me to answer more questions on a laptop, which I passed with flying colors, or so I thought.

After I finished, another male nurse with more piercings in his head than an accupuncturist's patient started asking where I'd been out of the country in the last year. Well, of COURSE Canada, which wasn't a problem. It was my honeymoon destinations that got me in trouble.

During our cruise we stopped at Roatan Island in Honduras. This, unbeknownst to us, is a Malaria risk zone. So, John C. told me that unfortunately I wasn't eligible to donate any blood, and asked me not to come back until next year, but to enjoy a cookie and some juice on my way out. I did, despite my feelings of having not deserved them, and pondered whether to fake having given blood to my cousin or just tell him the truth. Just then, he came out with a similar sheet of paper telling him not to come back for a year for similar reasons. He said he was ready to go, so I told him to grab a cookie on his way out and we left.

We were both slightly miffed at our unfortunate results, but decided to make the best of the rest of our male bonding. Unfortunately it was too cold to do anything too exciting and too dark to go shooting, so we went to the dollar theatre and watched Inception.

Overall, despite the lack of service on our part I think the boys' night out was a success. Free cookies and a good movie! :) What more could you ask for...

Random Thought.

So, apparently my deodorant "transforms ordinary men into legends of confidence." What does it turn legends of confidence like ME into?? ;)

Married Life

Ta-daa!! It finally happened!!! I'm a Married Spud! And it's great.

The ceremony was beautiful, pictures were fun and hectic, and the reception went very well. Of course no wedding ever happens without SOMETHING going wrong. Ours was me accidentally taking my little brother's suit to school with MY clothes (luckily there's a door connecting our upstairs neighbor's level to our basement apartment that my cousin could get into to get it... creepy too. Working on that), and Mom forgot my brother-in-law's matching tie. Luckily he wore a red one that matched enough.

The food was good, the line was somewhat unorganized, but I liked the informality. It was so nice to see people! I was surprised both at who came, and who didn't come. No hard feelings of course. There were lots of people I didn't expect to see that I did.

(We don't have our pictures yet, but I'll post some when we get them.)

The honeymoon was great. We went on a 7-day cruise. It was a bit rainy but still warm. The food was AWESOME! I didn't weigh myself before, but I gained between 10 and 15 pounds. :S

Overall we had a good time, but we were very glad to get home and get back to all the things that need to be done at home.

I LOVE BEING MARRIED!!!! No more late nights driving home without Jenni. It was kind of weird though - the night we got back we were at Jenni's parents' late, and they said we could stay there the night instead of driving home late. For some reason they never invited me to stay over before... ;)

We're in the process of settling down here still. We have lots of things to put away and organize, with little space to put it all, but I'm sure Jenni will manage. ;) I'm happy my life is where it is, and excited for where it's going.

Next challenge, get caught up at school...

6 Days and Counting

It's coming! The day that has seemed will never arrive until now. We've been engaged for

almost 7 months now and honestly, long engagements stink. I want to be MARRIED!

It's kind of interesting being less than a week from the day though. I've had mixed feelings.

Frustration. At not being married yet, STILL having to drive 45 minutes to 2 hours each way to see my Jenni. At starting school and moving away and starting a new chapter in my life without her with me.

Stress. There are LOTS of things to do before you get married! Insurance, a place to live, finances, work, school, planning...

Excitement!!! It's almost here finally! I get to be with Jenni ALL the time! We've learned a lot about each other the last several months, and I truly feel like I'm marrying "up." She's so good to me and always tries to make me happy. She laughs at my stupid jokes. She overlooks my weaknesses and shortcomings and is always complimentary and loving. She makes me feel like I'm bringing sexy back. ;) Our personalities get along really well, and I love being with her. She's my best friend. We've known each other for close to 8 years now, and have always gotten along well and always had interesting things to talk about, and my love for her has grown deeper. I love her with all my heart.

That makes everything worth it.

YoseMIGHTY!!!

Well, apparently people ARE reading this, because there have been comments about my lack of dedication to posts, so here's another one.
For years my cousin Spencer and I have talked about climbing Half Dome in Yosemite, but although we have been on lots of adventures over the years, we haven't seemed to ever make it there.
Finally, with my marriage fast approaching, we decided that this summer was the best time to do it, so we made it happen. We left Monday July 19th. It took us FOREVER to get out the door, and after a stop at Wal-Mart to buy a new digital camera (YAY!!!) and a stop at the grocery store to RECHARGE said digital camera and to spend WAY too much money on food, we headed out. We didn't end up getting out until that evening.

Several hours of desert driving, singing at the top of our lungs with the windows rolled down, running over 1 mouse, 4 rabbits and narrowly missing 16 others, stopping in the middle of nowhere to admire the AWESOME view of the stars, stopping to hang out and jam with the border guard for a while, and 6 cans of carbonated beverages later, we made it. And that was only the first night of the trip.

IT WAS THE BEST TRIP EVER!!!!!

I'll try to stick some photos in and tell some of the highlights.

The Nevada Stop...

We made good time. I'm still not sure it was worth the $272 speeding ticket I got though...

This is our new friend. By night he's a California border guard. But during the day... That's right. He writes music and plays in a band. He played us one of his songs and it was actually really good. We jammed a bit with him and showed him our Youtube videos and went on our way.

As soon as we got there we had to sit in line for a few hours to get a campsite. Apparently most people book them 5 months in advance... The 2 guys in the back were nice to let us sit on their pad.

After we got there we slept for an hour or two then went rock hopping below the Yosemite Falls. Tallest falls in north America!

Spence decided he wanted a walking stick to take home. He spent most of the trip carving it...

We climbed up to the top of the lower Yosemite falls. Oohhhhh yeah.

HALF DOME!!!! This is us taking the bus to the trailhead. The guy in the back is a new friend of ours from New Zealand. He hiked up with us.

AWESOME views!!

He we go!!!

Climbing up the cables. Scary...

We made it!!! GORGEOUS views!

The next day we celebrated with steak. Unfortunately somebody forgot to pack the utensils.

And what's a road trip without a little longboarding...

Yep. There you have it. I have more photos, but since this has already taken me 2 days, I'm going to leave it like it is. Yosemite was an awesome trip.

One of the things I liked about the trip was how many friends we made. Not necessarily the kind you keep in contact with, but we all got along and helped each other out. I'm convinced nature is a kind of heaven on earth that helps bring out the better in people.

MONTH One?!?!

Jenni got after me a few days ago for writing on my blog. Kind of silly, considering anything I put on here probably isn't something new for her... ;) It's good to put it in writing though.

I was pretty surprised that I hadn't written in about a month, until I read the last post. Oh yeah... Marathon training... *sigh*

I didn't EXACTLY reach my goals for marathon training, but the last week or so my running has started to get back to regular intervals. This morning I ran then spent some time in the steam room and hot tub at the gym. Ahhhh....

Despite the lack of Marathon Trainage, the month of June wasn't a complete bust:

1. Church Music - I completed the month listening to only church music and talks. It was really good for me, and I've continued listening to talks in the mornings. It's nice to be able to run to something with a beat again, but I think I appreciate the spirit that I get from listening to "the good stuff" more.

2. Fathers Day - For Father's day I gave my Dad his old childhood .22 rifle that he hadn't seen for years (which is a fun story I'll have to write about later). I somehow managed to keep it a secret until Father's day. He was SO excited to see it! I thought I had a photo of his face, but I don't. :(

3. Never ending Father's Day Project - Dad has had 2 big HAM Radio towers on the side of the house for years, and decided he wanted help putting them in for his Father's day gift. I didn't want to tell him I'd already gotten him a present, so I went along with it. And I'm still going with it... It's taken a lot longer than we thought, due to the dangers of the high-altitude antenna installation. We almost died trying to get it up the first day when the wind started blowing (especially me, since I got to wear the SWEET climbing gear and do the high stuff). Now we're putting it up piece-by-piece.

So apparently making these photos line up like I want them to is tougher than I thought...

I had more than just these 3 things to write about, but it's going to have to do for now.

:D

Cheers!