Update/Near Life and Death Story

We have not posted for a while so here is what we have been up to lately. I finished my second year of law school - I have got a few of my grades back and have not failed any classes so far. Aimee is almost finished with her second full year of teaching - the students have already taken the SOL and the teachers are just counting down the days until summer. The students this year have behaved a lot better than last year but there are still a few problem kids. I don't know any of their names, I only them as know as "the big kid" or other such names.

Aimee is planning on studying for and taking the Math Subject GRE this summer and I am working again at the National Association for Biomedical Research (it is a lobbying firm in DC) - It is amazing how much more time I have on my hands now that I am on summer break and only working full time.

I finished school before the Memorial day break and so we decided to head down to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina (we also went to Kure Beach in North Carolina). The weather was really nice and the water was really warm. Any of you who know me well will remember that I am not a great swimmer. When we went out into the ocean at Kure Beach (the first day) the waves were really big so we didn't go out very far, but on the second day we went to Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is a really commercial beach but it is also a really nice beach. The sand is packed a lot better than at some beaches making it easier to walk on and the slope going into the ocean is really gentle so you can go out quite a distance before the water gets very deep.

We put on sunscreen then decided to go into the ocean - it subsequently washed off and we both got sun burns. We went out to the point where the water was about chest deep - which is the point where the waves will pick you up and push you to the shore. We went out a couple times throughout the afternoon but on the last time out the tides were beginning to come in. We went out to the same spot where we were before and were enjoying ourselves in the water when we suddenly realized the water was a lot deeper than it had been a few minutes ago. We turned around and looked at the shore and it also looked a lot further away than it had earlier. At that moment a strong wave came and crashed on top of us. When my head popped back up above the water my feet were no longer touching the bottom. We both began to swim to get out of the water and back to the shore. Aimee turned on her back started washing in with the waves but I tried to swim forward to get out. As I swam waves kept coming over the top of me, water kept coming into my mouth and I was not making any progress towards the shore. At this point panic struck and I started getting seriously worried that I was not going to be able to reach the shore. Finally after several minutes of struggling and making no progress I heard Aimee yell to me telling me to float on my back and relax. As always, when Aimee tells me to do something I immediately obey, and started making progress. Finally we both made it to the shore and noticed life guards looking intently out into the ocean watching for people who were in similar situations. Once safe on the land I began to feel better all execpt for all the seawater I swallowed - which gave me a sick stomach. Other than that there is not that much to tell but we were both glad we made it out safely!

Here are some pictures of the things we have been doing lately:

Here we are at Kure Beach.

This is Myrtle Beach - there were a ton of people there.

We also went to the Airlie gardens, which were pretty.

We thought these chairs were pretty cool.

Notice the Mad Photoshopping skills!

Aimee built this new headboard from scratch!

We celebrated both of our birthdays.

We found a new favorite frozen yougart place.

We went and saw Wicked - they turned the fountain at the Chrysler Center green!

It has been fun lately!

This is Marianna performing on her French Horn at the State Competition! I tried to get the video of it all in here, but it was taking forever so I decided to just forget about it. Take my word for it, though, she did awesome! In fact she won - well, it's not really winning, but she got the highest score possible. Our drive down was exciting. We left at least a half hour later than we needed to, so dad drove. Pretty fast, too. We were about twenty minutes away when Marianna called and was wondering if we would make it. We drove into the parking lot with about two solid minutes to spare. Not bad.


Here's a few pictures of the crew celebrating after Marianna's victory!


























This is Marianna getting ready for her big date to Junior Prom. It was the same night and wow did she look gorgeous! :)

Hmmm...

Well, I guess it has been too long since I've written on this blog. I just finished a whole year of college (yes, you should all feel old, because I do). All I have left are finals... well, and one lab at 2:30 today. We're making cakes and pies which I'm pretty excited about. :) This picture is kinda an old one, but I thought I needed a good picture for this. :) It's Andrew in all his leather get-up AJ brought home from the DI once. Pretty hilarious! When I get some time I'm going to post a video of me whipping dad at racquetball. Which, by the way, he still doesn't think I'm better than him so we're going to have to do a re-match. I guess that's all for now. Arrivederci!

1st place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple weeks ago, our band went down to Salt Lake to play at U of U. We sent a recording of our band to the judges and recieved 1st place in the Jr. High School Competition out of 12 bands. They also invited us to play in the High School Competition. While we were down there. I got lost at the Gateway and ended up at the Energy Solutions Arena before my friends finally caught up with me. On the way home, all of the guys in our brass section grouped around my seat and sang 99 bottles of lemonade on the wall the whole way home!!! It was a great day!!!

It is kind of sad no one ever posts on here except me

Anyway here is a picture of our new headboard. Last week was Aimee's spring break so she decided to take on a project of making a headboard. It was a lot of work but it turned out looking really nice. Life is going well on this side of the country. I will finish my last final in exactly one month from today and will be very glad for the break!

Looks Like Elisa Will Be Getting An Extra $500 Next Year For Her Pell Grant

According to this story the stimulus bill includes an additional $500 for the pell grant next year.

PELL GRANT According to a summary from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the maximum Pell Grant will increase by $500, to $5,350 in 2009 and $5,550 in 2010. The grants are generally for low-income students.

HIGHER EDUCATION TAX CREDIT This credit covers up to $2,500 of the cost of college tuition and other related expenses in 2009 and 2010. You’ll need to spend at least $4,000 in a single year to get the full credit. The credit begins to phase out for individual taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes over $80,000 or $160,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Forty percent of the credit is refundable, which benefits low-income students paying their way through school (who may owe no federal income taxes).