Over the Brown Couch.

So me and the missus about six or seven months ago got a Netflix membership.  And than my amazing wife got me for my birthday a Xbox 360 and a Xbox live membership which I finally activated today.  Xbox 360 with xbox live membership and along with Netflix allows you to stream HD movies to your TV.  And so lately me and the wifey whenever we've had some free time and no homework. we are like this in our house.

Tonight we watched an amazing movie, Under the Greenwood Tree it is based on the Thomas Hardy novel of the same name.  I must admit that I was a little nervous because he also wrote Tess of the D'ubervilles *(Spoiler Alert)* which was the last movie we watched on Netflix.  I liked it a lot but it is not a movie you watch looking for the happy ending.  Imagine the ending involving ancient pagan site mixed with a hanging I wont give it away who gets hanged but it is someone named Tess.  *(UN Spoiler Alert)* 

But Under the Greenwood Tree has all you want in a movie two young love struck kids set in 19th century Britain with conflict and the of course the resolution you were hoping for from the beginning of the movie.  I really recommend it if you are looking for a feel good romantic movie!!!

New College Major and Other Things I'm Grateful For...

So the wife put up on our blog a list of things that she is grateful for, it has motivated me to one write a blog entry and two to think of things that I’m grateful for. Well of course first on the list of things that I’m grateful for is of course my wife. I really don’t know how I did anything before her; I mean I know I was a functioning human being. But seriously I looked at all I do now and it really amazes me the amount of time and effort Hilary puts in to help with school, work, and life in general. I’m so grateful for her and am so grateful that I was able to trick her into marrying me that was the single greatest decision I ever had in my entire life.

Well a lot of people know this but for those who don’t I recently changed my major from History. Everybody knows at the end of the previous semester I switched from MESA (Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic) to History. Even though I love History the intervening spring summer I was quite contemplative and came to the conclusion that I would be best if I changed my Major to Information Technology. It is definitely going outside of my comfort zone, I have a hard time with change and this was definitely a change to my life. But I’m so grateful for the support of my wife because I really love IT. I feel that IT is definitely a strength of mine and without her gentle nudging and the lords gentle nudging I definitely wouldn’t be in this amazing major and be enjoying school so much!

-Eric Allsop
Author and Proprietor
P.S. there will be more to follow!

Finales and the End of an Era

I recently took my last Arabic final; I know I know, I have been taking Arabic for the last two years. But if all goes according to plan than this will have been my last Arabic class/final ever. It's a little sad and a little glorious one I love Arabic and I love their culture, yes without ever leaving the U.S. I love the Middle East. But I don't think it is too incredible to love another culture without every visiting them. Heck I love Latin culture and I have only been to Mexico for three hours!

But I'm so glad that this will be my last Arabic class because while I love Arabic it doesn't make it any easier for me to learn another language! I will hopefully be keeping up with my studies though because I do not want to forget everything I've learned. I guess I'm just tired of getting terrible grades and it is not going to be helping me out for my future career plans. More on that will be coming!

And on a side note the picture says God.

-Eric Allsop

Author and Proprietor

The Loser of the Biggest

So me and Hilary love to watch the Biggest Loser, and I usually really don't like reality shows. I know it is fun to watch trashy vh1 reality shows, but I'm talking about reality shows like survivor, big brother, or Donald Trumps show for disgraced or crappy celebrities. But I find that it is funny, filled with drama, and inspiring. I know that I haven't watched a lot of seasons but I love that this season everybody is like, "I'm not going to play the game, I'm here to get better." I like how they take all these people from across the country and have all these weight problems and they all are trying to help each other loss weight. it just inspires me to lose weight eat healthier and just try to look after myself more.

And here is some of my favorite quotes from Biggest Loser

(upon hearing a siren) "Where I'm from you hear something like that you grab a mattress and go jump in the tub." -Daris

"Cleavage Cross." -Hilary

"Fat people don't do this." -Sunshine

"I care about you getting skinny not that you can breathe." -Jillian

"Hey look at this (as he shows his biceps to Allison(Host of Biggest Loser)) you should feel theses(She goes to feel his biceps) didn't your mom tell you not to play with guns" -Michael

"She...Sh...Sh...She is Amazing" (O'Neal is having a tough time chocking out how much he loves his daughter after she threw up a big number) -O'neal

And I know this isn't a quote but I love Jillian does her air knife attack on contestants when she wants them to work harder.

Eric Allsop

Author and Proprietor

First Date and Contemplations over the Course of a Year of Dating my Wife a Story in Four Parts

First Date and Contemplations over the Course of a Year of Dating my Wife a Story in Four Parts
Story one, part A

So I realized as I was watching General Conference this morning that it is the anniversary of the first date I had with my wife! And I thought to myself, "I am so lucky to have gone on that date with Hilary, every good thing that is in my life right now is a result of that decision." And so for those who don’t know what has happened I will bring you up to speed.
It was an over cast moderately cool evening I had asked a pretty girl from my ward out on a date, I thought that she was the coolest person I had ever met, she liked cool music and the she liked cool movies and most of all she was just fun to be with! I can’t remember if I had called Hilary or if she had called me but we were on the phone talking meanwhile I was supposed to get candy for the date that night (Yes I sneak candy into the theater, and you know what? I don’t feel bad about it because if they wanted me to

buy their candy according they would have made it affordable; you know what it really is? It is a dance I do with the theater, they try to catch me sneaking food into the movie and I come up with increasingly new ways to sneak in food (Ticket taker, “Sir I don’t believe that, that peg leg is real.” Me, “YARRGGH, and next ye be saying me eye patch, and this parrot be not real.” Parrot, “be not real, be not real.”(And yes I just did a parentheses inside a parentheses.))) So I was talking to this wonderful girl walking up and down the candy aisle of our local smiths trying to pick just the right candy so that she would like me. One of the reasons I had liked her so much was every time I had talked to her, whether on the phone or in person, I was shocked at how easy it was to talk to her and how I could talk with her for long periods of time. I ended up choosing skittles and starbursts, and I had drive home fast, because our first date just happened to be taking place on the 179th semi-annual General Conference April Conference and Priesthood session was starting in ten minutes.
I reluctantly told Hilary that I had to get ready for priesthood session, I ran in and found out that my roommate James (who was going to be my wing man for the nights double date) was still getting ready also for priesthood session we ran to the nearest stake center and got there just in time. (I love that you can find a chapel that is literally a minute away in Utah, (and another fun side note the chapel we had went to is my current stake center.)) Priesthood session was good and we booked it back to our apartment to change and get ready for our date, I went into my room and found out the only clean pair of clothes I had was a pair of shorts it wasn’t like it was super warm nor super cold but that it was a little awkward to wear them but I couldn’t not wear clothes so I went for it.

I than picked up Hilary who might I add was looking so cute in her blue Adidas jacket, we then returned to our apartment were James and his date were waiting for us. We played Whoonu a fun game by the people of Cranium, the premise you try to guess what other people like. After playing a few rounds we went to the movies to watch Fast and Furious the thrilling Cuatrel (is that a word?) to the thrilling Fast and the Furious franchise. I know pretty silly movie but it allowed me and Hilary to have fun joking around and watching the movie. And at the risk of sounding like I’m boasting but, I was on fire that night, I mean nobody had anything on me. I was cracking jokes being funny making insightful comments on the cultural impact of this movie but most of all I was brave I mean I lifted the arm rest so I could sit closer and I would touch her arm and leg it was pretty amazing considering how much girls scared me. I thought it was the best date I had ever been on, so following the advice from my sister, that I shouldn’t go too long on a first date I decided that I should take Hilary home and say good night. I later learned that she really wanted the date to go longer, in retrospect I could’ve improved on the date, well you know what I’m not going to second guess who knows I could’ve really screwed the pooch later on if I had dragged it out.
That was the first our date it was special and fun and I was so glad that it went so well, so tune in because this story has only been part A of story one of First Date and Contemplations over the Course of a Year of Dating my Wife a Story in Four Parts by

Eric Allsop
Author and Proprietor

Creating a Schedule

So I'm trying to fix my work schedule and possibly a school schedule for spring and summer terms. And I'm stuck between a rock and a another rock because the class I don’t want to take but think that I have too, would make my work schedule all screwy by being perfectly in the middle of the day, so as to make it hard to come in before or go in after work. Do I want to take a class that in the end I really don’t want to take, or just work to my heart’s content over the summer. And further more I guess my true problem is that I really want to be done with school, but I like my job and if I leave school I lose my job. So that is me, my arm wedged between a hard place and a even harder hard place. I think I really have two viable options one I move the family to a remote cabin on the side of a mountain in Montana and live off the land and make income selling animal pelts like old timey trappers. Or two I move the family to a remote cabin on the side of a mountain in Montana and live off the land and make income as ol' prospector. Of course with option two I would need to wait at least thirty years till I became ol' enough to be an ol' prospector. So that is my predicament my whole body is jammed in between a hard place and the hardest hard place every created like it could scratch a diamond hard.

Eric
Author and Proprietor

Hello People

I thought i would like to have a blog while my wife does an amazing job with our family blog, http://theadventuresofhilary.blogspot.com/ I thought i would jump in and start one of my own. So that is all not sure exactly what I'm going to write but whatever it is, it is going to be fun.

Eric
Author and Proprietor