Ogallala!

Say it with me now--O-gallala! You know you like it. I know I do. Christopher's home this week is the town of Ogallala, Nebraska.

Doesn't it have a nice homey feel? In case you were wondering (I know you were) Ogallala is home to the Ogallala Aquifer--one of the largest shallow ground aquifers in the world and responsible for 30% of the nation's irrigation water. Not bad.

Other interesting facts about Ogallala and Nebraska:

In Ogallala the Average Cost of Houses Sold (last 2 years)..... $85,000.  I would like to see some pictures of these houses. Chelsea, we might be able to find you one there that is not up against a busy road. :)

Nebraska is the home of Kool-Aid. Also, Spam in produced in Nebraska. Nothing like a nice slice of Spam washed down with a cold glass of Kool-Aid. Now, that's living.

The state insect is the honeybee.

In Blue Hill, Nebraska, no female wearing a 'hat that would scare a timid person' can be seen eating onions in public. I am not sure what this one means, but it sounds legit.

The largest porch swing in the world is located in Hebron, Nebraska and it can sit 25 adults. If we end up moving there (please pray we don't) I would personally like to invite you all to this porch swing which I definitely plan to visit, or steal.

Until next week....

Jersey, Baby!

Chris is back in New Jersey this week. This time he finds himself in the city of Edison, New Jersey. According to Chris, Jersey City was a hole. The kind of place where you think you might be shot walking down the street. No offense to anyone who may be from there.

However, apparantly Edison, New Jersey is very nice. Last year it was ranked as one of the 10 best places to grow up by U.S. News and World Report. And who wouldn't want to grow up in the place where Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb? Other notable people that live(d) in Edison are Susan Sarandon and the late Brittany Murphey. Not bad.

Roll the pictures:

Monument to Thomas Edison.

Random park.

Hopefully we will have a more interesting post next week. :)

LOST post

Disclaimer: I run the risk of sounding completely foolish by posting this, but I really want to post my take on the Lost finale. I know it might be silly to care so much about a TV show, but I do. So there.

Now I am sure that all who read this blog know that I am a fan of the TV show Lost. I always knew I really liked the show, but I didn't realize how much I loved the show until the final credit rolled across the screen rounding out the final minute of the final episode. In short, the finale was beautiful. It was moving. It brought me to tears on more than one occassion (although that is not really a difficult feat.)

After the episode ended I felt that I knew that this was always how Lost was supposed to end. Yes, it was sad. I would say it was tragically beautiful. I have forever been a Sawyer-Kate fan, but in the moment that Kate finally chose Jack, I knew that it was right. That, in a nutshell, was how I felt about the entire ending, and about the entire series really.

Although the finale did not answer all of our questions, I didn't care one bit. In my opinion, Lost has always been at its finest when it focused on the characters and the themes of life--love, death, destiny, revenge, faith, forgiveness, etc. And this is exactly what the writers focused on for the end. Part of the beauty of Lost is the mystery and some of the integirty of the show would have been forfeit if all of our questions had been answered. I personally thought it was profoundly brave of the writers to choose the after-life as the setting for their final scene, something that is such a mystery to so many people.

Sure there are things I might have changed or that I didn't fully understand, but all in all, it was a masterpiece. Six years of my life very well spent.

Now for the less serious part of the post:

The Lost cake prepared by the famous Brittany. You will notice the smoke, monster, submarine, well, and the sparkly cave. Nicely done and delicious.

And of course any big Lost event calls for Lostapalooza at my parents house. Here we are waiting in anticipation.

Farewell Lost, we will truly miss you!

Dweeb-o-la

Check out me in my cool new glasses. Yes, they are the cheapest frames Wal-Mart carried and they are from the little kids section.

They are only needed for looking at the computer screen (story of my life) and driving at night (for years I have been convinced that I will someday run down a BYU co-ed who decides to dart out in the street wearing all black at night...seriously folks?)

Anyways, you may never have the once in a lifetime opportunity of seeing me in them, so I thought I would post a picture. People don't seem to think it is too revulsive, in fact, my boss didn't even notice. Apparently, I have not made a very strong impression in my occupation.

P.S. If any of you were ever wondering what my mother loks like. Voila, see above.

Getting close to the End

I got goosebumps watching LOST last night. It was bomb.

Chris and I will have to find some real friends to replace our imaginary ones once it ends this Sunday. Sad day.

Where's Waldo this week?

I will give you some hints.

Of the thirteen original colonies, this one was the first to declare its independence from Mother England -- a full six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed. A very advanced colony.

The first potato planted on American soil was in this state. Gracias.

It has the second oldest constitution in the country.

The first alarm clock was invented here by Levi Hutchins. Curse you, Levi Hutchins!!

And last, the city where Chris is this week was originally settled by fisherman and traders. Although, that pretty much describes every early settlement.

And the answer is.....

New Hampshire!! Dover, NH to be exact.

Lovely. I could so move there if I were judging just from this photo.

Have a great week, and if any of you get the urge to feed me or hang out with me, act on it. It is probably the Spirit.

Since the weather decided to clear up...

I thought I would post about one of my favorite things about our little house in the Spring.

We have this tree right outside our front room window that blooms bright purple every Spring. It frames the window perfectly. I can't help smiling every time I look at it; it is just one of those little things I am grateful for.

This week on the Herman Show...

Jersey City, New Jersey!

Home of 23 White Castle restaurants, awesome accents, Zack Oates, and my hubs for this week.

Kind of makes you want to go boating, doesn't it?

Now for some fun facts about the 3rd state in our fine Union, christened on December 18th, 1987. (I am a History teacher after all).

New Jersey is the 9th most populous state in the Union, but the 47th in terms of size.

The 1st frozen food was produced in New Jersey....my single wife status this week thanks Jersey for that.

Napolean Bonapatre's brother lived in New Jersey. Go figure.

New Jersey has the most diners in the world. Not an exaggeration...

Atlantic City is where the street names in Monopoly come from. Easily the worst Board Game on the planet.

I think that is all I will bore you with today.

Unitl next time, on the Herman Show....

I should post about secret stuff more often....

I usually never get comments. Ha!

Graduation

Here is a slew of pictures from the blessed event. Although we did not take very many of the typical "BYU" pictures because of the nasty weather, we did better at my graduation where I don't think Chris and I even took one picture of just us. (I was kind of over the whole college thing by that point....regret it).

Anyway, Chris decided that it was over-rated to dress up in your cap and gown for the first day when they pile all of the graduates into the Marriott Center and don't read any names. So, he wore his regular clothes and sat with us. It was kind of nice...definitely made the convocation go by quicker for me. Plus, he felt the need to stand everytime they recognized the graduates which earned a lot of confused looks from our neighbors.

On Friday Chris decided he wanted to forgo the madness that is the McKay School of Education. My graduation took FOREVER last year. So, he walked with his lifetime bestie, Scott. The best was that the graduation went something like this: "Amanda Jones, walking with her husband Bob Jones. Matt Brown walking with his wife and twin brother....Scott Linn walking with his *pronounced pause* friend"?" Chris Herman."

It was hilarious, and very obvious that everyone around us thought that they were possibly life partners or somethng. We failed at taking pictures afterward because of the rain, so we went home and stuffed ourselves full of brunch with family and frineds.

A great excuse to take a day off of work. Now on to the next chapter of our lives which I am hesitant to write about on this blog....no, not a baby. Call me if you are interested.....the suspense is killing you, I know.