Steve's Genetics

So, lucky for us, Steve inherited Reva's green thumb!


Steve and I have been wanting a garden since last summer but have not had the time or space for one. Finally, this summer Steve got fed up and decided to buy some of those little starter plants at Walmart. They have definitely grown a lot since then!


I wish I could take some credit for the growth, but the plants have been all Steve's project. Honestly, I just think it's nice to have something green and growing in our apartment! Other than our bathroom ceiling that is.... Unfortunately, this is our bathroom ceiling...


Steve is not quite so excited about the largest plant growing... The tomato plant.


However, he is awfully excited about the fact that the peppers are starting to bloom.


We got our first flower today!


So, we're awfully glad that Steve got Reva's green thumb, even if he won't be terribly pleased if we get a lot of tomatoes. Steve says that we shouldn't say anything until we actually have fruit, but regardless they've grown a lot!

It's Official

So I thought I would share with you all the amazing madness which keeps Steve and I entertained in our apartment at random points of the day. We are crazy. And here it is official:

My husband is a basket case.


For those of you who like Meet the Robinson's, you'll appreciate that after this picture Steve ran into the closet door with his head and exclaimed that he had a big head and little arms... And was not sure how well thought out this plan was. Hilarious!

For those of you who do not understand, here is one example of the running joke throughout the movie.

No worries, I still love him. Probably more because he makes me laugh every day.

A blast from my practical joking past

Behold, one of my masterpieces. Let me take you back to early 2002, it was my first year back at U of I after my mission. I was in one of the single student wards grousing at all the drama from "As the Institute turns."

Chief drama queen offender: Jay Jacobson. Jay's a good guy, but way too picky for his own good. Jay is the type of guy that could find fault in a girl, even if he custom designed her himself. Since no girl was good enough for him, naturally every single girl in the Institute wanted to date him.....badly.

Well one of my friends was able to get a picture of Jay and we were talking one night trying to think of something devious we could do with it. I activated my devious thought incubator and a couple of days later this sign was born. (If you click on the picture, you'll be able to see a better quality picture, like one you can actually read.)



We made several copies of this sign and posted them all over the Institute on a Friday. We even made a little decorated box where girls could enter their names in the forthcoming date raffle. Now the Institute building is where the singles wards meet for church. So the next Sunday, EVERY single, Mormon girl in Moscow saw these signs.

When Jay finally made it to Church on Sunday he saw the signs and flipped out. However, my devious thought incubator had done some overtime. I was able to post a sign in the Institute office, behind a locked pane of glass. That sign would stay there for 2 weeks.

Well cut to the end story, Jay finally calmed down, we held the date raffle and he actually ended up going on a date, his first in at least a year. Time for me to brag, one of the Bishops at the time was a advertising professor at U of I. He later told me that my sign was the best ad he had ever seen a student do. He tried for a year to get me to switch to advertising.

Anyway, thus began the legend of Steve Bennett's signs. Over the next few years I would make several signs for several events, the best would be the sign that ended Nicolle and my fake engagement prank. More on that one later.

The New Life of Spring

So, I figure it's been a while since we've put anything about what we're actually up to on here. Spring is here and breathin new life into Steve and I.


I took my last final on Thursday of last week and am officially out of school until late August. Steve and I both feel like a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders as this last semester was especially hard on me, and as a result on poor Steve... He was a real trooper though and an amazing support. Yeah, I think I'll keep him.

In this picture, I think Steve may be immitating how we were on mornings when he had to help me get up to study this last semester.

So today after I got home from work Steve and I enjoyed a full day of make-up dates we've been missing out on. First, we made cupcakes and went to our closing ward social. Thanks to the Barbers for the cupcake carrier which we finally used for the first time since we got it at our reception; it made the trip much easier! I know it's simple, and Betty Crocker did most of the work, but I was proud my first batch of cupcakes turned out well. They were one of the first desserts gone at the social.


Next, we took a walk through the Arboretum which is always beautiful this time of year. Unfortunately, most of the trees and bushes have already bloomed, but spring was evident in everything around us and we enjoyed basking in the sun. We saw rabbits, squirrels, birds, fish, frogs, ducks, and lots of goslings. Here are a few pictures form the Arboretum.


This picture included just for Kerry's enjoyment and the connection to Steve and Squirrels...
Also, on a more sentimental note, this is the bench where Steve officially proposed, despite the fact that I had been wearing my engagement ring for almost a week prior. The bench sits on the very top of this hill.


After the Arboretum we headed over to Pullman to visit the grizzly bears they have there. Here is the one bear who seemed interested in activity. I swear, Steve is so stinking social he can make friend anywhere! And yes, I am jealous...


Then we visited the bighorn sheep babies, because Steve and I are those sick kind of people who can't get enough of animals or babies.


Lastly we went to the movies and saw Angels and Demons. Steve says it is like 24 Vatican City style. I guess. Anyway, we both liked it and it was a great day!

In other news:

I am officially supervising swimming lessons at UI this summer and working at a second pool in Pullman, hoping to start getting hours soon. I also got hired to do another sign project after the 100 Years project went so well (sort of... or at least turned out well enough).

Steve is still subbing in Potlatch and we have applied to half a dozen jobs. We'll keep praying for guidance and know the Lord will send us where we need to be. We're just also hoping that place has an opening for a biology teacher for next year. I'm also very proud as Steve has come swimming at the UI while I guard the last few weeks and has improved a lot.

Other random news includes the purchase of new tires for the Prism after the old ones finally died. It's funny, but it seemed like a very adult purchase to me. I guess I will never stop having moments where it hits me that I'm an adult (somedays), and married, and will do those types of things now.

The family is doing well despite the fact that we had another jail-break and are now down to 3 newts instead of our original 5. No idea where they go or how they get out, but Steve and I have decided they went on Walk-About.

This blog is too long.
The end.

More from San Diego: Sea World

As long as it has been since our last San Diego related post, we really should have left you with a cliffhanger on the last one. "Tune in next time to see if Steve and Nicolle successfully fought through traffic to make it to Sea World."

One of the reasons its taken so long to make this post is that we took alot of video at Sea World. We took alot of video because the name "Sea World" had to have been taken from some ancient Greek word for "photographers nightmare." Here's an example:



This is a video of the Leopard Shark tank at Sea World, pretty cool looking. Have to love the music in the background, I'm not sure but I think if you play it backwards is says: "buy a hybrid car, buy a hybrid car." Now look what happens when you try to take a picture of the Leopard Shark tank:


I am sure there are several photographers in our family who could have taken pics that came out, I'm not one of them. After several bad pictures I finally decided that SD cards are cheap, I'll just take alot of video.

Probably the highlight of our whole trip came at Sea World. They have a large outdoor tank filled with Manta and Bat rays. You could sit and watch the Rays, or for $6 you could buy some fish and feed them. Up to this point we had done really good at avoiding overpriced tourist traps, we gave in on this one and we are really glad we did. The video says it all:



That is one of my all time favorite videos of Nicolle. Yeah feeding the rays was fun, it was fun enough that we bought an overpriced stuffed toy ray at the gift shop for memories sake.

Gift shops, yeah thats one downside of Sea World. Sea World isn't a zoo so much as its a giant gift store that happens to have a few animals. Some of the shameless ways they try to peddle you stuff would make Billie Mays or the Shamwow guy blush


Another important stop in Sea World was the Penguin display. Penguins have kind of always been our thing going back to when were dating. While were dating we watched the movie "Happy Feet" and "March of the Penguins" one night, so predictably that was one of our first stops.



One of our next stops was something I had been looking forward to since we decided we were going to Sea World: the underwater shark tube. The shark tube is a 83 foot long clear plastic tube that goes right through the main shark tank.



They should really build a surgery center at the end of this tube, one trip through would make a few people I know pass out, they could then save on anethesia!

Here's a quick video for Kathy, I remember when she had to do a report on manatees. Well here are some manatees up close.



Of course you can't mention Sea World without Shamu. I was able to record the entire Shamu show and the dolphin show, the files are way too big to upload though. Here's a quick video of Shamu up close.



Hope this post was worth the wait. Unfortunately it will probably take us even longer to make a post about the San Diego Zoo, lots and lots of pics from the San Diego Zoo. We have many more pics and vids from Sea World, I uploaded them to my SkyDrive for your viewing pleasure:

Link to Sea World Videos I was too lazy to rename all the files, if you click on each of the files I do have a description so you know what the video is about. The videos on my SkyDrive are bigger than the ones I've uploaded here, maybe even big enough you won't need reading classes.

Link to Sea World Pics

Tune in next time to see if Steve and Nicolle made it through traffic to the San Diego Zoo.