an adventurous and awesome august (so far)

whew. what a month we've had! and it's only the 15th. we've had a lot going on with peter graduating from his AEGD residency in mississippi, the road trip out west, hiking in moab, will turning 10 months old, fixing up our house, and nick, peter's brother, getting engaged!

so then, let's catch ya'll up. peter made will and me proud as he saluted and received his diploma for completing his 1 year residency. we had a good year down in ole miss . . . however, we're glad it's over and that we're once again in the lovely deseret!

after his graduation ceremony, we loaded up our car--with 800 pounds. yep, that's right. we went to a trucker's weigh station and weighed our yukon. (the air force required a moving weight.) so peter, will, 800 pounds of our belongings, and i began our 30 hour drive out west. it was LONG. fyi, lousiana and texas are super boring to drive through. to help you understand, here's a little analogy:

LA : trees :: TX : dirt

needless to say, will had a rough time. about half of every day he did all right. he slept and was generally happy. the second half of every day he yelled baby profanities at us for hours on end. and this pattern lasted the entire 4 days of our journey. we tried many different things to entertain him, including (but not limited to) playing mickey mouse clubhouse and go diego go on our iphone and strapping it in a baggy to the back of the driver's seat, stacking piles of toys on his lap so he'd readily have a new one available once he got sick of what was in his hand and threw it on the floor, and playing peek-a-boo with an awesome fluorescent tie-dye sweatshirt.

eventually we arrived in moab (my first time, ever! can you believe that?!) for a fun afternoon and morning of exploring. the scenery was really incredible and we had a super fun time hiking up to delicate arch and driving through arches national park. we also drove out to dead horse point. okay. do you guys know how that place got its name???? sad story. back in the day, cowboys would round up wild horses in the canyon and then they'd make a make-shift corral on the point overlooking the canyon where they'd put the horses. then they chose the ones they wanted to keep and left the others there to die without any food or water. SAD. why on earth wouldn't they just let the other horses go? i'm so mad at those cowboys.

after moab, we stopped for a quick and delicious bite to eat at grandma and grandpa frandsen's house down in gunnison. it was fun to see them and will especially had fun giggling with grandma. once we got back to salt lake, we joined nick in some very important planning. we went up to snowbird to scout out the location where he would propose. we took the tram up and gave william his first birds-eye view of beautiful utah.

then, on august 10th, william turned 10 months old! right now will is crawling everywhere, climbing up on everything, and walking along furniture. he has recently begun waving to people and he still prefers baby food over any table food, although he does have his two bottom center teeth, and is just cutting two on top. here are some shots of my cute baby boy:

last night nick got engaged to the beautiful kelli craven!!!! yay nick and kelli! peter, jill, steven, kelli's sisters, brother-in-law, parents, and i all went up the tram at snowbird before nick and kelli got there and we hid out so that we could capture the moment on film. it was beautiful and we are so happy for them!

and lastly, as a nice welcome to utah, we've had some visitors. here they are in our front and back yards, just saying hello. how nice.

Taming the Beast!

we may not have won the war, but we definitely won the first battle. it's amazing what man power and 10 hours can do. emily really impressed my parents with her tenacious attack skills beating down the weeds...

our house has been under attack since before we bought it, and the vines and ivy take no prisoners. so when we showed up this week, we knew the battle with the beast would be long and ugly.

Battle of the Beast: Day 1.

here's the proof:

before and after: porch.

before and after: driveway.
before and after: front door.



final before and after

and we filled 13 body bags of mass jungle casaulties...

plus, we are officially extending an open invitation to one and all who want to become battle hardened to fight the weeds there so they can't fight us where we are.

now, if we could just get all our stuff off the floors of our house and into their appropriate places...

here we come...!

well. I'm signing out tomorrow morning and then we are on our way to the lovely Deseret.

nothing stands in our way except 30 hours of incredibly scenic Teh-has!

I know William's pretty excited about the trip. he's been super hyper all week.

a day in the life of will.

here are some things that will has been up to lately.

kickin' back on a walk with mom and dad. (and yes, that is a lint roller that he is playing with. it's his new favorite toy--it goes wherever he goes. what can we say? we have a child who abhors lint.)

being a skeleton when he goes to bed. these pajamas help out in his bedtime routine, which is to recite to us the names of all of his bones. yeah, he's advanced for his age.

going shopping with dad. it's about time will started carrying his weight around here, so we make him carry the grocery bags.

sucking on his toes. beats having to wait to eat until we get where we're going.

Who is David Foster Wallace?

According to the Los Angeles Times book editor, DFW is "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years."

So why I do care about that? Until this evening, I had never heard of such a man. Either I am totally clueless to influence and innovation, which is the most plausible answer, or the LAT book editor was using some hyperbole. Let me ask this. Have you ever heard of him?

I'm kinda curious to read his writing. His wikipedia page speaks pretty highly of him.

Again, so why do I care all of a sudden about David Foster Wallace? Well, according to I Write Like, my writing mimics Mr. DFW.

I read about this writing analyzing machine on the HuffPo and decided to try it out. I used some of my old writing from my original blog when I thought I might aspire to become a serious up-and-coming writer and took myself seriously, maybe too seriously, yes, too seriously. Then I put in multiple articles from my column in the Pacific Citizen, and to my dismay, most, if not all, of my writings popped up with I Write Like David Foster Wallace. When I put lighter, simpler stuff, a la this blog, I got a couple more DFW, a few Stephen Kings, and even a Dan Brown... (embarrassing, I know). But when I read that Obama's inauguration speech got him a DFW write-alike, no more was I so disappointed that I write like some obscure "genius"... (I was really hoping to get assigned with a Leo Tolstoy, my literary hero.)

So I guess my dreams of being the next great American writer will have to wait until another day. But in the mean time, go to I Write Like, and check out whose words yours resemble... Let me know, I'm curious.

Or if you'd rather, just enjoy some pictures of my son being whatever he wants to be... Which is usually straight-faced when the camera comes out...

TAR BALLS!

as we all know, this week as tar balls hit texas, it meant that every gulf state now has oil washing up on the shores. sad. i know. they even found oil in crab embryos in the Back Bay (not technically the gulf, but connected), which means that the oil has officially ruined sea life at every level of development now.

anyway, in light of the oil washing ashore. we thought we might go hunting for some tar balls today, A.K.A. liquid gold, black gold, etc.

instead, we found this little rascal. he thought it would be cool to walk around out at the beach and make dead serious faces at us. i think he succeeded.

he hasn't spent many of his days with sand between his toes, and i think he sorta hated it. i just hope he gets over it with time, because we will be spending plenty of time at the beach over the course of his lifetime.

as you can see. no tar balls at biloxi beach... just two parents and a son who aren't quite sure when the camera is going to take their picture.

so after our black gold/tar ball hunt turned up short. we decided to resurrect our new yorker spirits. and since their aren't many good brunching establishments, we opted to go antiquing...

and i must say. we definitely struck gold! check out these original F.W. Dixon Hardy Boys books...

so amazing. i used to read these with my dad as a kid. by that i mean, we would read the same books he read when he was a kid. however, his collection of Hardy Boys books have been split amongst my dad's brothers and presumably their sons too.

way back when, my dad and i looked all over to find more originals. i think we even went to a couple D.I.'s to look. and knowing my mom, maybe even Sam Weller's in Salt Lake, but my memories aren't that sharp. but i do remember, they are impossible to find. especially in large quantities. long story short, i know a gold mine when i see one when it comes to original HB collections. and speaking of collections, if anyone has a spare $895 for the COMPLETE set of F.W. Dixon's Hardy Boys with the original dust jackets, let me know, because it was also for sale where i picked up my newest six...

i also picked up these rad wide camera straps for $5 a pop. classically awesome. but i'm not sure which one is better:

option A?

or option B:? what do you vote for?

i almost wish i could put them both on at the same time. but i have to decide, because i'm pretty sure emily wants to put the other one on her point and shoot.... and i'm not sure if she's kidding. ;)

let freedom ring.

From the lakes of Minnesota,

to the hills of Tennessee.

Across the plains of Texas,

From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,

and from New York to L.A.

Well there's pride in every American heart,

and it's time we stand and say.

That I'm proud to be an American,

where at least I know I'm free.

And I won't forget the men who died,

who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up, next to you and defend her still today.

'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,

God bless the U.S.A.

on this beautiful 4th of July, i'd like to announce our family's gratitude for an amazing country and keep in line with the Keesler AFB trends (remember the video from this night at the mardi gras ball?) by quoting a few special and meaningful lines from "I'm Proud to be an American." from the majestic hilltops of salt lake, to the oil-filled air of biloxi, to the buzzing new york city streets, to the sandy beaches of los angeles, we frandsens are proud to be americans!

in celebratory manner, our good friends, the olsens came to visit for the weekend. together we basked in the luxuries of living in a free country. this will be the olsens' last 4th of July in our great country before they head to the schnitzel and lederhosen land of Germany. we feel privileged that they would spend such an important weekend with us here in biloxi, ms. to express our brimming emotions of patriotism and friendship, we dedicate this movie to you, Olsens, and to you, USA.

total eclipse of my heart

A.MA.ZING.

last night, to celebrate the arrival of our friends mark and ashley, we got some babysitters and went to eclipse. emily and i were worried we may not get tickets, so we bought our 8:30 tickets at 1:15 pm. then, we were worried we may not get seats, so mark and i went 45 mins early to get it done.

much has been said on the world wide web about this movie saga. i will say this. best one yet. (although, that's not saying much either).

oh yeah. and we're totally team jacob. or at least i am...

when jacob said, "plus i'm way hotter," mark pulled a perfect george costanza and yelled "Amen!" to much applause and laughter. classic moment...

anyway. i can't wait to break the dawn.

yum yum: mum mums

ok. i realize that chewing food really isn't a monumental, developmental achievement by any means. and it's probably not all that blog-worthy either. that being said, William has been eating baby food for quite some time now, but only the smooth kind.

we tried giving him those baby puffs that dissolve basically in an instant way back in florida several months ago, but then and since then, he would fake choke himself, gag, and spit out the puffs as quickly as he could move it to the front of his mouth. same story with anything, dry, non-smooth, or not baby-food-ish.

that was until yesterday. we tried once again as we do periodically to get him to eat some drier food, that he actually has to chew. mum mums and puffs. to our great excitement, he chomped on them both. granted, it's not like he enjoyed the experience, and there were more than just of couple gag sessions, but at least he has begun to master the general mechanics of working that lower jaw towards proper masticatory skills... we're so proud.

so if you have a minute or so to spare, indulge us and enjoy Will's triumph.

oak alley plantation

antebellum home tour is about to happen right about now. when we first found out that we were coming to mississippi, the first thing my dad said was, "oh you have to go see some of those antebellum homes..." i was like, right, i'll get right on that.

actually, i did think it would be pretty fun. however, it took us almost a full year of living here to finally get to some. today was the day. emily's mom is in town this week, so we decided to make the drive out to baton rouge and back and hit plantation row along the route from baton rouge to new orleans.

we saw plenty of sweet homes along the mis'sipp, but we took a tour of the best one. the oak alley plantation. the oaks above are around 400 years old. and the oaks below are only 150 years old. pretty awesome.

we weren't allow to take any pictures of the mansion's insides. but this picture is from the balcony out towards the mississippi river.

and once we got out in the alley, we sorta went crazy with the photoshoot. but who wouldn't when you think your kid looks so cute posing on the brick path.

even emily's mom, jenny, got in on the posing fun. i think Will loves being with his grandma. the two of them giggled and babbled at each other for most of the car ride (when Will wasn't sleeping).

all in all it was a really fun day. and a super sweaty day at that. i don't know how those people lived in this heat without proper AC, let alone work in the fields...