Team Pierce

Spencer's Surprise 28th Birthday

2011-07-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

I decided to throw Spencer a surprise birthday party this year and with some help from a dear friend, Cindy Merrill, it was perfect! She graciously offered her backyard for the festivities and many of our good friends were able to join us to celebrate.

It ended up being an elaborate plan to pull off the surprise because Spencer is so observant of everything and is always home when I get back from work and when I leave in the mornings so I don't have many opportunities to sneak things by him. I coordinated with Cindy over the phone and through texts several weeks prior to the party as we made sure the park behind their house would be free and talked through all the details.

It seemed like there was something to get done every day during the week leading up to the party and that was the week at work that I was working til midnight every night so I was pretty exhausted by the time his party actually rolled around. My co-worker and I would tease each day about how that day was operation___ based on what I needed to get done. Tuesday was "Operation Cake", so I stopped by Costco on the way home to order his cake and actually forgot and remembered partway through my drive home and had to turn back. Wednesday was "Operation Bag" because I needed to sneak a separate bag to work to hold the clothes that I was going to bring the next day in my gym bag that I bring for work volleyball on Thursdays. Thursday was "Operation Clothes" where I brought extra clothes with me and then switched them into the bag at work. All of that was necessary because Spencer notices what I leave with and come home with. Then Friday was "Operation Food" where I stopped at Costco and bought enough food for what seemed like an army. I bought 64 hot dogs and 14 brats and we only ended up with 8 left over when the night was done! Luckily I had been working crazy hours for work so spending a couple hours at Costco disguised as "working late" didn't even phase Spencer as out of the ordinary. Probably the only advantage to working long hours :).

Saturday was a busy day. We started with soccer in the morning then came home and showered. Spencer ran to the grocery store quickly while I showered and while he was gone, I commenced "Operation Glove". My parents had sent him a baseball glove for his birthday and I told him he couldn't open the package until that night since my parents wanted to video chat with him while he opened it. Then while he was out, I cut open the bottom of the box, pulled the glove out, snuck our camera bag into the box which weighed about the same amount, then taped it back up and put the glove in my purse for the party.

After Spencer got back from the store, we ran to see X-Men which Spencer had been wanting to see for a while. Then we came home and Spencer took a nap. I told him that we needed to dress up nicely that night because we were going to a Tepanyaki restaurant up north. Then Cindy started texting me as guests started arriving and once there were enough people she called to ask to borrow our sports equipment which happens somewhat regularly in our ward. That was my cue that it was time to head over. I woke Spencer up, got him dressed and we headed out the door. Once we got there, Cindy invited us in and asked if we wanted to see the backyard, not super unusual since Spencer had helped with laying their patio and so they often invite Spencer back to show the progress in the yard. Spencer was so shocked to see so many people there waiting to wish him a happy birthday. I think we ended up with around 70 people there including adults and kids. It was absolutely wonderful and couldn't have been any better. We were so grateful that so many dear friends made it out to come celebrate with us. The weather was perfect and everyone seemed to have a great time chatting. Towards the end of the night we headed over to the softball field with some of the kids and hit it around and had a great time. Spencer had a chance to use his new glove for the first time and is thrilled to have such a nice glove!

Our cute little friend Leah Merrill made this fabulous video from footage she took at the party, isn't she so creative! Thanks Leah :)!

England: London (Day 2)

2011-05-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

Friday was our last day to head into London before we left on Saturday. We started the day off at the British Museum, where our favorite thing to see was the Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian artifacts. Spencer also really liked seeing the Lykian (sp?) exhibit. Then we happened to walk by a Masonic Lodge that was having a free exhibit on Solomon's temple that was open to the public. It was very interesting to go inside of a Masonic lodge and they had lots of interesting Masonic memorabilia and information, I had no idea they ever let anyone in who wasn't a member! After that we walked by St. Paul's cathedral, we were too late in the day so we weren't able to go in, but it was very breath-taking from the outside. After that we walked across the Millennium footbridge and back over the London bridge. We ended with dinner on Brick Lane also known as "Curry Lane" at a Bangladesh restaurant called "Aladin", the food was very good and it was a fun experience to end the night with.

It has been a great trip, the best part was definitely getting a chance to spend some time with my sister, brother-in-law and cute little niece, Hadley. We're sad it's over, but it has been a wonderful vacation that we will always remember. Cheers!

British Museum

Rosetta Stone

Lykians

Masonic Lodge

Hot chocolate while we figure out where to go next.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Millennium Footbridge

England: Kew Botanical Gardens

2011-05-19T13:14:00.002-07:00

Heather, Hadley, Spencer and I headed to Kew Botanical Gardens just outside London today. It was absolutely beautiful, the weather was perfect and we had a very relaxing and tranquil day. We walked through several areas and ended at their treetop canopy walkway which I guess they are pretty well-known for. You can see the London Eye along with some other buildings from the walkway. Little Miss Hadley was a trooper and even walked a decent portion of our day while holding onto Spencer's hand.

On top of the Treetop Walkway.

Way up to the Canopy Treetop Walkway.

England:London

2011-05-18T15:04:00.001-07:00

We headed into London today to see some of the sights. We started at Trafalgar square and went to the National Gallery. We were able to see some famous paintings. I loved being able to see one of my favorite paintings - Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, along with some other classics that I learned about back in school.

We walked past the Household Calvary Museum on our way to Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey.Another door I just had to take a picture of...

Somaliland demonstration looking to be "recognized as a nation by Britain".
Houses of Parliament.
Big Ben.
London Eye.
Saint James Palace.
Buckingham Palace.
Where we got our souvenirs!
Harrods! We had some delicious chocolate from their candy room, so fun!

England: Henley-on-Thames

2011-05-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Heather and Jamie live in a really cute quaint town called Henley-on-Thames. It sits right on the river Thames and you are greeted as you enter the city with this beautiful scene...

A Tribute to Front Doors:
There are so many cute front doors here in England, so I decided to start taking pictures of them. I think I might make a set of cards with photos only of English front doors when I get home.

England: Oxford

2011-05-17T12:05:00.001-07:00

On Monday we headed over to Oxford on the train. We hopped on the train at Henley then to Twyford to Reading to Oxford and were able to spend the day in Oxford. Oxford was a beautiful college town with lots of cute little restaurants and incredible historical buildings. Several of the Harry Potter scenes were filmed at Oxford and we were able to see most of those. We started the morning off with a traditional English breakfast at the Grand Cafe on High Street. Spencer had scones with hot chocolate and I had eggs, sausage, toast and freshly squeezed orange juice, it was delicious! We then went to the Christ Church college which had absolutely beautiful grounds.

Church official saying the Lord's prayer while we were there.

In front of the Science Museum, it was closed on Monday so we weren't able to go in, but they had some pretty interesting faces on the gate...
Bodleian Library: we were able to attend an exhibit for the 400 year anniversary of the first publication of the King James Bible. It was really interesting to see all of the different versions. We were able to see notes made by translators as they attempted to make corrections. We were able to see the "Wicked Bible" which is the name given to the KJV published in 1631. This version was given this name because of a typo in the seventh commandment which resulted in the verse reading: Though shalt commit adultery.
On our way to New College.

Inside New College in the quad from Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire.

Large Oak tree from Harry Potter movie.

This is The University Church Of St Mary The Virgin and is supposedly where John Wesley gave his last sermon on Oxford campus.

Dining Hall in Christ Church College where the Harry Potter movies film dining hall scenes.
Alice in Wonderland references in the stained glass in the dining hall in Christ Church. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, taught Mathematics here.

England: Stonehenge

2011-05-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

We were able to go to Stonehenge on Sunday after church. Jamie drove us over after church. It was very cool to see such an interesting world landmark.

London: Les Miserables

2011-05-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

Jim was in London for a couple days while on his EMBA Europe trip and his group ended up having a couple extra tickets to Les Mis on Friday night. So we were really excited to get a chance to see it while we were here. We sat in row R seat 27 and 28. The play was absolutely beautiful and we were able to grab some ice cream afterward and have a nice chat with Jim.

Shanghai China: Sun Nov 14- Wed Nov 17

2010-11-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

The architecture in China was phenomenal and Shanghai was definitely the most stunning. The hotel I stayed in, JW Marriott Tomorrow Square, was no exception. The tall building in the picture below with the top that looks like a scepter is the hotel. You have to go up to the 38th floor to get to the hotel lobby, the lower floors are for hotel residents who stay there long-term like apartments.

JW Marriott Tomorrow Square (Day)

Shanghai was much different than Beijing and Tianjin. Tianjin/TEDA (Tianjin Economic Development Area) is an industrial area with a lot of power plants and factories, like Motorola's. Beijing is the Country's capital and has a lot of old architecture. Beijing also has a lot of new architecture as well, but they are interlaced with a significant amount of culture like the Forbidden City. Shanghai is the economic center and is very new age and high class. There are stunning buildings in every direction and more going up everywhere. You definitely get a sense being in China of how much power they have. They are able to build pockets of 15 skyscrapers simultaneously all over the cities.

JW Marriott Tomorrow Square (Night)

I arrived in Shanghai by myself on Sunday night and went to the first supplier: Molex on Monday and the second supplier: Amphenol on Tuesday. Then flew back to the US on Wednesday.

After spending the day at Amphenol on Tuesday the supplier took my out for dinner. When the Amphenol rep and I first made it to the restaurant for dinner, he thought we had reservations at this seafood restaurant that had all of the fish and crab out for show as you walked in. Lucky for me he had the restaurant wrong and we ended up going to the Italian restaurant that was just next door. When I had dinner at the Szechwan restaurant in TEDA they brought the fish out in a bucket still flopping to get our approval before cooking it up for us. From what I hear, that is pretty common practice at the nicer restaurants in China. Shanghai is famous for their "Hairy Crab". I'm not sure what is special about it taste-wise, but it has hairs all over it's legs. Again, I was very grateful we had Italian instead :). The Italian restaurant was called Da Marco. Dinner was an interesting conversation because I was there with two people from Shanghai, the sales rep from Florida, a guy from France with an awesome accent and a guy from Italy. I had to pay close attention to the conversation in order to keep up with all of the accents.

There is an area of Shanghai called the "Bund". It is a series of buildings that were built by the British and later occupied by the French, US, Italy, Russia, Germany, etc. Their architecture stands out amidst the rest of the buildings since it is very British. It is a strip of buildings next to a small river that separates the "older" part of Shanghai from the "new". The area across the river didn't exist 5 years ago, but now is a densely populated group of skyscrapers. Most of the buildings on the new side of the river have gigantic displays that cover the entire face of the building that play commercials to the rest of Shanghai. I drove by the Bund and saw the buildings on the other side of the river after going to dinner with the supplier on Tuesday night.

The Bund Layout

We drove by the Bund in the evening so this picture is what it looked like.

I wanted to get some last-minute shopping in before I left Shanghai for the US. I asked the supplier that I was visiting if they knew of a good place to buy souvenir type stuff. He recommended the Yu Garden. I checked out from my hotel at noon and had one hour before I needed to leave for the airport. I left my bags behind the desk at the hotel and caught a cab over to the Yu Garden. I ran around for that hour trying to see as much as I could and bought some good stuff: Christmas gifts and an awesome Great Wall souvenir (hand cut stone picture of Great Wall inlaid in glass). After I was done I had to find a cab to take me back to the hotel, which I was a little worried about at first because the Yu garden is a maze of alleys and streets lined with stores and kiosks and I had gotten turned around and pretty deep into it so it took me a few minutes to get far enough out to find a cab. It all worked out though. I caught a cab back to the hotel and then the supplier had lined up a driver to take me from the hotel to the airport.

Entrance to the Yu Garden (or at least where the taxi dropped me off)

Weddings

2010-11-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

This is really just a placeholder until I get some pictures to add here.

We had Ashleigh and Marc's wedding followed by Jared and Jenn's wedding at the end of October. We left Chicago on Tuesday October 19 in the evening and got to Salt Lake late. Wednesday evening was A/M's reception. Thursday morning was their sealing in the Timpanogas Temple. We left Friday morning for Austin. Arrived in Austin Friday afternoon. Jared and Jenn had their rehearsal dinner at Maggiano's on Friday night. J/J got sealed on Saturday morning at the San Antonio temple. Then luncheon at our house in the afternoon, followed by the reception in Jenn's backyard on Saturday night. Carroll, Bill Jr. and Bob Incerti came to the wedding. Jared also had Spencer Nugent and his wife, Derek Jones and his wife, Jake and his wife and Mark Rane fly in as groomsmen. Spencer and I stayed a week after the wedding to spend time with Heather, Jamie, Hadley and my parents.

We had the chance to meet up with Spencer's cousin from his dad's side in downtown Austin when we went to see the bats on Congress bridge.

Attempting to Decorate the "I Don't Know What To Call This Room" Room

2010-09-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

Puerto Vallarta- 4th Anniversary

2010-08-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Our Anniversary Dinner

Views From Our Balcony

Snorkeling Trip to Los Arcos

Filming Location of Night of the Iguana

Our Hotel: Barcelo Resort

Los Arcos

They Call This One "The Turtle"

Lots of fishes. There were 5 main fish types that we saw while snorkeling. It was really pretty and colorful.

After snorkeling, check out the goggle lines. A nice shot of our guide in the background too...it was just the three of us on our trip.

Our resort from the water. Set against the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Snorkeling Trip Complete!

Trip Out to Night of the Iguana Peninsula

Crabs All Over the Rocks

They Call This "Elizabeth Taylor's Butt"

Handsome Husband Next to Iguana Statue

Actual Iguanas at the Night of the Iguana Filming Peninsula

Puerto Vallarta- 4th Anniversary Continued

2010-08-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Zoo
We were surprised how close they let us get to the animals. There's probably a reason why they have barricades between us and the animals in the States. But at least Spencer had a lot of fun feeding the exotic animals. He was like a kid in the candy store the whole time. There was also an area where you could hold baby tigers and leopards, we didn't end up doing it, but we did watch another couple. It was pretty crazy!

This peacock started attacking me while I was taking pictures. We are pretty sure it had broken out of it's cage since we saw all of it's siblings in a cage a little further into the zoo. At least I got a nice close up!

Puerto Vallarta- 4th Anniversary cont'd

2010-08-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

Our Room
Front Sitting Room

Bathroom

Bedroom

Balcony

Amber Got Two Awards at Work!

2009-11-05T20:04:00.001-08:00

Amber was awarded two different awards at work this summer. She received a "Bravo" award from her manager for an antenna design best practices document that she created for the entire Motorola Mobile Device design community. She also received a bonus for a patent idea (IP award) that she helped submit that Motorola decided to pursue. Amber is really enjoying her time at Motorola and is doing a great job there. Keep your eyes out for her phone that will hit the markets at the beginning of the coming year!

It's Official... Spencer is a CPA!

2009-11-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

Certified in the state of.... Colorado!

My Birthday!

2009-05-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

Spencer got me a new camera for my birthday! Here are some pictures I took with it when my parents were here. Thanks Spencer!!

Mom and Dad Visit!

2009-05-23T19:36:00.001-07:00

Field Museum

Northwestern Beach

Downtown Chicago

(^snagged this while going 40 mph!^)

Flashback!

2009-05-18T20:36:00.001-07:00

I was looking through pictures on my old laptop and stumbled across these...

Zion's Trip 2006

-dating days :)-

Dancing with Grandpa Tiffany

Attempting to Teach Spencer How to Dance...

-...And Not Succeeding-

Our First Valentine's Day 2006

-At Cassy's Apt-

Parasailing with Jared in the Keys

-2005?-

Recap

2009-05-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

We haven't posted in several months... so here's a couple pictures to recap.

Jared came to visit in October

-cute pic of the boys-

German Fest in Downtown Chicago
-Freaking Freezing Rain-

We Spent Christmas in Austin
-Annual Gingerbread House Explosion-

Northwestern vs Missouri: Alamo Bowl '09

-Thank You Hahn's for the Tickets-

Jeff Came to Visit in May
-Bahai'i Temple, Wilmette IL-

Downtown Chicago
-Jeffrey Gothic-

Millenium Park
-The Bean!-

We've enjoyed lots of visitors the past several months, Heather and Jessica visited as well. We didn't get any pictures of them, guess they'll just have to come back :)!

Chicago Botanic Gardens

2008-10-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Competitor Phone

2008-10-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

So I was doing some research at work for ideas and concepts for the phone that I'm working on. I came across something I thought was interesting and showed it to my manager. I can't give any detail about why it was interesting, but my manager thought it showed some promise as well and told me to submit a request to purchase 2 of these competitor phones. Now he's letting me use one of them to get a feel for it and see what I like and don't like about it. He is also getting me a data plan, which only managers at Motorola get that lets me access the internet. I'm pretty excited to have this opportunity to give feedback on a concept and use a $700 phone for "work".

A Visit From David Beckham

2008-10-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

David Beckham came and visited Motorola a couple of weeks ago. He is one of Motorola's famous celebrities who pushes our merchandise. It was pretty neat to be so close to someone famous, I was sitting about 15-20 feet away. It was a very intimate atmosphere, he was being interviewed by somebody important at Motorola (no idea who he is, but from Britain also). It kind of felt like being on Oprah, they were sitting in two comfy leather sofa chairs and just talking and watching videos of David Beckham playing soccer. He was there to talk about being successful on a team and how that can relate to our work "teams". David seemed like a really nice guy and down to earth. I felt bad that I was the one who got to go because Spencer would have enjoyed it way more than me. But I was glad that I got to go and tell him all about it, because I don't think I would have gone if Spencer didn't think he was so cool.

2 Year Anniversary

2008-09-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

We had our 2 year anniversary a couple weeks ago, but never got around to blogging about it. Spencer got me a foot massager that I can use after long days at work to relax. But with Spencer's sore feet, I think he might use it even more than me :). I got Spencer 2 books: "Millionaire Mind" and "The Richest Man in Babylon". I also got us tickets to see the Chicago Fire (Major League Soccer) game. We had a lot of fun and had great seats. Soccer is so much better to watch when you are close enough to see what's going on.

The Fire play at a new stadium built specifically for soccer called Toyota Park.
When the Fire scored they let out confetti.
It was a good game because the Fire won and the crowd was a lot of fun.

Math "Review"

2008-09-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

Right now I am in the middle of math review. It is called math review, but for me it is not a review. It is the first time that I am seeing 90% of the material that we are covering. It was kind of sad that the professor was able to cover almost all of the math I knew in the first lecture. The math we are going over is very abstract and a lot of it is related to optimization and real analysis. This class has made me feel really dumb. For the first few days I had the hardest time paying attention for the entire three hours of class. It reminded me a lot of the beginning of my mission when I was trying to learn Portuguese. I could only focus so hard for so long until my brain would get so tired that it would just turn off. Gratefully every day it became less of a struggle. I hope that this will be the case with my math review. It has gotten better, but I still feel like I am behind a lot of the other students. I laughed when I found out that upper level math classes at BYU counted for foreign language credit, but now I understand why. I comfort myself with the fact that most of the other students are Econ PhD students so most of them have already taken graduate level math classes. The few math classes that I have taken in the last seven years are nothing compared to the amount of math that most of the other students have taken. All of the Econ students have to take a preliminary exam at the end of the year covering all of the micro Econ classes that we take this year. If they don’t pass after a couple of attempts then they are kicked out of the program. Luckily I am not required to take this exam. My goal for this year is to pass my Econ classes and then do well in my Accounting seminars. I hear from everybody that it doesn’t matter how well you do in the Econ classes as long as you pass. So that is my goal and my strategy is to become friends with some of the smart econ students so that they will study with me. Maybe I can bribe them with a good dinner from Amber. Most of the other students are single so I am sure they would appreciate a home cooked meal.

Motozine

2008-09-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

These are some images of my work cell phone (Motozine). It's biggest draw is the 5 mega pixel camera that Motorola partnered with Kodak to develop. Some of the previous pictures on our blog were taken on my cell phone, such as the ones from the "Our First Northwestern Football Game" and "Our Ocean". It's been very convenient for those random moments when you want to take a picture. I've enjoyed working at Motorola so far and really like all of my co-workers. Our team is driving 2 different programs right now which is very unusual, but also extremely exciting. I've learned a lot and feel like I'm finally beginning to contribute.

For those of you who are tech nerds here is a quote from 2dayblog.com.... "Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 finally here, a 5.0-megapixel camera phone from Motorola. Thanks to Kodak for its 5.0-megapixel sensor, it is equipped with autofocus, a xenon flash, image stitching, and on-device integration with Kodak Gallery. ZN5 employs the Motorola’s “ModeShift” technology for morphing the keypad depending on device mode, and includes quadband GSM radio with EDGE. Other features include WiFi, 4GB of optional external memory, CrystalTalk technology, and support for SMS, MMS, IM and personal e- mail. The Motorola ZN5 will arrive first in China in July 2008 and expected to ship out globally throughout the remainder of the year."

Our First Northwestern Football Game

2008-09-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

We went to our first Northwestern football game last Saturday. One of Spencer's professors gave us his tickets since he was going to be out of town. It was a fun game and a nice atmosphere. The field is really pretty and the stadium is pretty small. I really enjoyed the family friendly atmosphere, it was kind of like going to a baseball game. Although I think Spencer missed the wild and crazy BYU football games. The stands were pretty empty because school doesn't start for a couple more weeks so most of the students weren't there, so maybe it will get a little more wild and crazy for Spencer :).

Even though Spencer was glad he got to go to the Northwestern football game, he was sad that he would be missing the BYU football game that evening (since we don't get the channel that the games are on out here). But Saturday was Spencer's lucky day... After the Northwestern football game we had a ward ice cream social ( a mere 2 hours before the BYU game started). At the social Spencer found out that a family in the ward actually got the channel that the BYU game was broadcasted on (very rare out here). Brother King (BYU channel guy) invited Spencer along with a few other die-hard BYU fans over to watch the game immediately after the ice cream social.

We had a good time (especially Spencer) and they have invited us back for the rest of the games this season so needless to say - Spencer is very excited. I can handle a little football, but a full days worth is quite a stretch for me. Luckily Spencer knows he owes me, so now all I have to do is come up with something really good that I want (suggestions are welcome :) ).

Special Conference with Elder Oaks

2008-08-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

Normal church meetings were canceled today because we had a special conference with our stake. Elder Oaks had some other church meetings this weekend and the first presidency asked him to stay one more day to do a conference with our stake. It was a good conference. We were also able to hear from our stake president and Elder Hicken (a seventy who lives in our ward). Luckily we were able to sit up front (third row) so we had a good view. We had to get there early and since there were only two of us we could squish on the end of the bench. We were both able to shake Elder Oaks' hand on his way out of the meeting. It was a great experience. One thing that I have always liked about Elder Oaks is that he is a very practical person, yet a person of great faith. I was happy to see these characteristics stand out even more in person. It was a great Sunday except that we missed not having nursery time.

In the picture above Elder Oaks is shaking hands with people as he leaves. The older guy in a suit behind him to the right also shaking hands is Elder Hicken. The couple leaning over at the front of the picture is our bishop and his wife.

Amber's New Watch

2008-08-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

I've been needing a watch lately, since I always seem to be in a meeting and wanting to know what time it is. But I'm not entirely sure what kind of watch I want. I don't want a nice metal one, but need one that doesn't look out of place at work. I've been thinking I might want a black sporty watch, but haven't found one that I'm in love with. So after looking at several stores Spencer and I decided just to go to Target and get a cheapie one until I can make up my mind about what kind of watch I want. So here it is ... my $10 cheapie watch that I wear to work :).

We're Officially Illinois Residents

2008-08-10T20:52:00.001-07:00

Sad Spencer :(

Before...

During...

After...

Our Ocean

2008-08-10T20:43:00.001-07:00

Spencer and I went on a walk today and we decided that Lake Michigan isn't actually a lake, it's the ocean. This is our evidence...

We're not in Utah anymore

2008-07-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

So life is definitely a lot different here in Evanston than it is in Utah. Here are just a few examples of how different it is.

Evanston's 4th of July Parade: I didn't realize how much more liberal it was here until the 4th of July Parade. There were democrats everywhere. The funniest/saddest part of the whole parade was when the pro life float went by. The people on the float were waiving to the crowd. The 10 year old boy in front of us started to wave at them, but then his mom yelled at him "don't wave at them." I doubt the boy knew why his mom was so mad at him. A few seconds later the traffic manager was telling the float to turn left into the parking lot. When the dad of this boy heard that he yelled, "No matter how hard you try, you won't get them go left." The whole crowd thought this was really funny.

Smokers: I knew that there would be a lot more people that smoked here than in Utah. I am not surprised at all by the number of older people that smoke. What surprises me the most is the number of young people in their early twenties who smoke. There are a lot of them. I thought that smoking had kind of gone out of style with people my age or younger, but I guess that it hasn't. It doesn't bother me at all that older people smoke, but I think that young people that smoke are dumb because it means that when they started smoking they knew how harmful and addictive it was. Maybe this just bothers me so much because we listened to Runaway Jury on the road trip out here.

Thefts: I already mentioned that my bike got stolen from behind our apartment a couple of weeks ago. What I haven't mentioned yet is that Amber and I almost caught a guy stealing another bike from behind our building. Amber thought she saw somebody stealing a bike from the rack so I went outside to check it out. The guy rode of just as I got there so I followed him from the other side of the building. I wasn't sure that he had stolen a bike so I didn't do anything besides follow him around. I pretended that I was on a jog, but I think he got suspicious. After getting a good look at him, I ran home and called the cops. I rode around with an undercover cop for a while, but the guy was gone. The officer reassured me that the neighborhood was safe, but that there was a problem with bike thefts. There are bikes everywhere because of all of the students. When I got back to the apartment we figure out what the guy had done. He ripped off the tires from silver bike (see picture) and attached them to the frame of another bike (see leftover tires). If you compare the picture above to the one posted a couple weeks ago you can see the two bikes were in working condition the week before.

Green: It is a lot more green here than in Utah. We love the large trees that hang over the roads. It gives the neighborhood a cool feel. The buildings are also a lot older. This took us a little while to get used to, but I think it definitely creates a different mood.

These are just a few of the differences. We are having a great adventure out here so far.

I have a website

2008-07-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

So I have a website now. It isn't anything special and is really easy to make. I also have to admit that I copied the idea from my friend Jeff. That is kind of ambiguous because there are at least six Jeff's that talk to on a fairly regular basis. To be specific it was Jeff Hoopes. The website isn't anything special, but I thought it would be good to have a place to have my picture up and some contact info. When I do get some research going I will put that up along with a resume. I hope that this will be a good way to just get my name out there. Name recognition is going to be important for me in the next few years as I start doing research, trying to get published and trying to eventually get a job. I will keep trying to update it and make it look nice. I guess I should say that Amber will help me try to make it look nicer because she is much better at that than I am.

Here is the link:

http://spencerrpierce.googlepages.com/home

Just Right

2008-07-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

This is my exciting news of the day. I passed my first CPA exam (Financial). I feel really lucky to have passed it. As you can see I got a 75 which is the bare minimum for passing a CPA exam. I could not be more happy with my score because it shows that I studied just the right amount. Any more would have been a waste of time and any less and I would have failed. There isn't any benefit of getting a higher score. All you need to do is pass. I was planning on studying more, but it didn't really work out with moving and other things. I also wasn't fully committed to studying because I heard from a couple of professors that the CPA won't make a difference. So I didn't feel too good about the test when I was done. I am trying to get all of the tests done this summer before I fully start classes in the fall. I have two more to take in the next month. Wish my luck.

Inside Our Apartment

2008-07-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry our apartment isn't super clean, but we thought it might be nice to take a walk around video to help you get a feel of the layout. Enjoy!

The Front of Our Apartment

2008-07-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

It's Official... I'm a Working Woman!

2008-07-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

One Wall Down

2008-07-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

So we've finally decided to start hanging stuff. Here's what we've done so far (only one wall, I know).

Amber's 1st Week at Motorola

2008-07-12T17:43:00.001-07:00

So I survived my first week at Motorola. It was an exhausting week and pretty slow doing all of the paperwork and getting set up on all of the systems, but luckily I got some cool stuff. As far as my commute it is pretty rough, but will hopefully get better. The morning drive is ok (50 minutes) but the drive home is quite a bit longer, it took me 1 hr and 40 min to get home on Wednesday!! Spencer went with me to work on Friday because I was so tired. He drove me up and then found a library to study at while I was at work. It was really nice becuase we were able to have lunch together and then we found a better way for me to come home (only 55 or so minutes). Spencer has been great helping me adjust to working by making dinners and doing just about everything around the house. Our schedules don't match up very well right now. Spencer has evening classes from 630-9 on Monday and Wednesday so I don't really get to see him at all those days which is sad (luckily that is only for the summer quarter). So it's nice that he can go up with me on Fridays since he has no class. I found out today that Motorola has what they call "summer hours" which means you can work four 9 hr days Monday through Thursday and then only come in for the morning on Friday (if your manager is ok with his team doing summer hours). My manager was out of town this week, but will be back on Monday so hopefully he'll let our team do summer hours because that would be nice. Anyway here are some pictures of my badge, laptop bag, laptop and cell phone for work. My mom took some pictures of the Motorola campus that I'll put up once she emails them to me.

Stolen Bike

2008-07-04T09:07:00.001-07:00

Behind our apartment there is an alley with back doors from all of the apartments. It is used mostly to take out the trash and store bikes. There are at least twenty bikes back there. The picture below shows only one rack of bikes. There are bikes everywhere in the alley. So you would think that it is a pretty safe place to store a bike.

The alley behind our apartment. It's kind of ghetto.

Turns out that it isn't as safe as I thought. I went down the other day to ride my bike to campus and found only my lock snapped in half and no bike. I was really sad because I really liked my bike and used it all the time to ride to campus or to go on bike rides with Amber.

My broken lock.

I was also confused though. Why was my bike stolen of the almost thirty bikes in the alley? It isn't like my bike was super nice. I got it from Walmart four years ago for just over $100. Who would want to steal a four year old Walmart Bike? There are definitely a lot more expensive bikes in the alley than mine. This is the second time in my life that I have had a bike stolen. The first time was much more traumatic than this one. I had gotten a brand new bike for Christmas when I was about ten. I thought my bike was awesome. Apparently so did somebody else because it disappeared after I had had it for only a couple of months.

Luckily I saw this poster on campus this week so I can go get a cheap used bike on campus next week. I will try to get an old junky one so nobody will want to steal it.

Apartment Update

2008-07-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

So I was hoping to get our apartment all set up before I start work on Monday and so I was waiting until it was all done before I posted pictures. But because it's taking so long (a.k.a. I have no decorations or frames up yet due to a little indecisiveness) we figured we'd show our progress. Here are some pictures of our apartment so far. Sorry again if it's hard to figure out the layout.

Inside The Security Door

This picture is taken just inside the security door (crazy paint job) and the far mailbox is ours.

Looking Up The Stairwell

(luckily we're on the first floor)

Spencer At The Front Door

Looking In The Front Door

The Entry Way

Our Intercom/Buzzer

I've always wanted one of these!!

Bathroom

The bathroom is much nicer now, thank goodness!

Living Room

Dining/Utility Room

Kitchen

The Beach

2008-06-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Spencer and I went for a bike ride today, here are some pictures we took on our ride.

Lighthouse Beach

There are several beaches just a couple of blocks away from our apartment. This beach is right next to a famous lighthouse shown below.

The lighthouse is right next to the Evanston art museum and a pretty garden trail.

Coastal View
This is a picture taken just northeast of campus shooting south towards Chicago. You can see downtown Chicago in the middle and the little inlet on the right is Northwestern's running/biking trail where the below pictures are taken from.

Pictures from Northwestern's Running/Biking Trail
of Downtown Chicago

Downtown Chicago

2008-06-21T09:27:00.001-07:00

We took a trip on the train to downtown Chicago yesterday. Here are some pictures we took!

Millennium ParkThis was really weird to see. Apparently they had people from the city volunteer to get videos of their faces taken and then the city puts the images onto this big building and there is a second one across the way from it. They'll just sit there and look at you and blink, and then they start spitting watter out of their mouths. After they are done "spewing" their mouth closes and then tons of water falls down the sides from the top. Tons of little kids and adults run around in the middle getting all wet and cooling down. It was quite the spectacle!
There was this big kidney shaped bean that reflects you in all sorts of weird ways. The two pictures below show it from underneath. It does a weird reflect you forever kind of thing.

Grant Park

Navy Pier

Our Apartment: Moving In

2008-06-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dixie mentioned it might be fun to take before and after pictures of our apartment to feel better about the progress we are making while unpacking. Here are some pictures of our box-filled apartment. Pictures of a pristine and organized apartment still to come :).

Floor Plan

Here is the floor plan for our apartment, maybe this will help you make sense of the rest of the pictures.

Entry Hall

This is what you see when you first walk into the apartment (if you turn a little bit to the right). The room that you can see through the doorway is the living room. If you were to turn to your left you would see a small wall closet and then the bedroom and bathroom (shown below).

Our Lovely Bathroom

All of the pipes exploded in our building right before we moved in so they had to tear out the walls in the bathroom and have been in the process of adding the tile back right above the tub. The tile man was at our apartment all day today and we're not sure if he's coming back tomorrow. The pictures below show how in shambles our bathroom has been. Having limited access to our bathroom has made moving in quite the adventure.

Bathroom minus sink, tile and shower faucets.

The Bedroom

This is a picture of our bedroom from the entry hall. The one below is taken from the top left corner of the picture above.

The Living Room

This is a picture of the living room as you walk in from the entry hall. The picture below is taken from where the fan is in this picture.

You can see the door way into the kitchen on the right and the doorway back into the entry hall on the left.

The Dining/Utility Room

This is our dining room taken from the entry way of the living room. You can see the door leading into the kitchen on the far wall. The picture below is taken from the top left corner of this picture.

The Kitchen

This is the kitchen coming from the dining room. Below is a picture taken from the other side of the kitchen, which you can't see in this picture because it is shaped like an L and is on the left. Sorry the picture below isn't the best for being able to tell whats going on (there were too many boxes in the way to get a good shot). Basically along the left there is a dishwasher, a sink, and then the gas stove that you can see. Behind me is a door out to an alleyway.

My Birthday Flowers!

My mom sent me flowers for my birthday that were a great housewarming present and a pleasant surprise!

We've Made It!

2008-06-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

Our Road Trip

We haven't had a chance to take any pictures of our apartment , and we don't have internet yet. So I'm throwing a few pictures from our road trip on here at an internet cafe.

Happy Husband

Spencer drove the whole way and was in a surprisingly good mood!

Gigantic Truck

The Rental truck was huge with our car attached, luckily we didn't run into anything.

Life Saver

My cousin Jessica gave us a GPS for graduation. It was our best friend on this trip, we didn't even have a map! We used it for food, hotels, directions and anything else we needed!

Trip Adventures: Floods

During our trip there were massive floods and tornadoes occurring just ahead of us. This is a picture from the freeway we were driving on. The flood waters were a little too close for comfort. If you look closely you can tell that this is an entire baseball complex several feet underwater!

Road Trip Scenery

Our trip had lots of farms and livestock. Here is a picture of a nice red tractor.

2008-05-06T14:40:00.000-07:00