swim. bike. run.

Yesterday Mike participated in the long-awaited and much anticipated Spudman Triathlon in Burley, Idaho. We headed up to Idaho Friday afternoon and spent the night setting up Mike's transitions, eating the customary "carb dinner", and enjoying the cool night on the river front. We had fun camping on the golf course (where the triathlon was being held) Friday night along lots of other triathlon participants.

Mike's heat started at 7:20 so we got up early and had a small breakfast together before he suited up and waited his turn to take a swim in the nice cold Snake River. Kristi watched him take off and then walked down to see his swim to bike transition. After that she went to see his bike to run transition, and then a short while later the crowning moment, the crossing of the finish line! Mike finished in about 20 minutes less than he had been expecting, with a final time of 2 hours 40 minutes, so it was a big success for him. In total Mike traveled 31 miles: he swam 1 mile, biked 24 miles, and ran 6 miles. I (Kristi) am so proud of Mike for achieving his goal of doing a triathlon - he is amazing!

Here are some of the highlights from the event...

before the swim...

during the swim...
(I don't know which one is Mike - they all had the same caps)


crossing the finish line...
(despite much yelling at the guy in the orange he wouldn't move, so you can't see Mike very well, but he is the guy with white shoes crossing the finish line...)


Mike, Canny (the bike), and his Spudman Medal...


the happy couple...

Wait, Wait...

There is a great radio program on NPR called Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. It is on every Saturday at 11 a.m. on KUER 90.1 (in Utah), or you can do it the easy way and subscribe to their podcast on iTunes. Anyway, we love this show because it makes fun of all politicians and world figures, has hilarious unheard news stories, and is always very educational and funny. So if you get a chance, listen to a show!

A day in Park City and Gotham City...

Last Saturday we did our annual Park City trip with Bob and Cassandra, and it was perfect! Mike and Bob mountain biked at Deer Valley while the girls hit the outlets, lunched, and strolled the amazing bookstores and shops on Main Street. After the mountain biking and shopping we did an early dinner at Cafe Sabor in Park City . It was delicious, despite the fact that we were asked to sit on the patio (in 90 degree weather) because the boys were covered in dirt. After dinner we got cleaned up and took Maggie and Sammi, Bob and Cassandra's dogs, to the dog park, which was way fun, and made us want a dog even more.

After the dog park Mike and I went to see The Dark Night at Jordan Commons (we love Jordon Commons because you can reserve your seats, so we showed up 10 min. early and still had great seats!). Seeing The Dark Night was definitely the highlight of the day - it is the best Batman movie by far! Christian Bale is phenomenal (even better than in Batman Begins), and Heath Ledger just blows you away as the Joker. I don't think there was anything that Mike and I didn't like. If you haven't seen it, it is a must see.

Mikes

I know this is a day late, but I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday, so it will have to do.

Happy Father's Day!

I thought I would take this opportunity to share my appreciation for the two most important Mikes in my life. Mike Spuhler, my amazing Dad, and Mike Perley, my amazing husband.

I feel so grateful to have such a wonderful Dad. He has taught me so much and has given me a great example to model my life after. I have always wanted to marry someone just like my dad, and I am so grateful that I was able to.

I also feel incredibly grateful to be married to Mike. He is my best friend, my study buddy, my motivator, my favorite entertainment, but most importantly he is my eternal companion. I look forward to becoming a parent with Mike, and I know he will be an excellent Dad.

I love you Mikes!

Our new pet?

This morning as we left our apartment to go to church we found a quite unusual situation on the landing outside our apartment. A hurt, little pigeon (we suspect it hit a window) was perched on the railing, looking sad and downtrodden. Not wanting to be late for church (and Kristi being scared of the little thing...) Mike tried to scare it away, but it was too hurt to really fly, so it just scurried away. We were so surprised to come home from church and find it perched back up on our railing. This time as we passed it and made noise it didn't even move - apparently we no longer frighten it.

Anyway, since we both really want a pet, maybe little Abe (Kristi named it) can be a temporary pet - even if he is frightening and carrying tons of diseases.

Our big debut...

Ok, so last year we were involved in the taping of a Wifeswap episode that our mcom professor was doing (yes, a BYU professor did Wifeswap), and now the episode is making its tv debut. Anyway, it isn't for sure that we will make it on the show, but it should be pretty good entertainment even without us. The episode is on TONIGHT at 8/7 c. on ABC, so check it out!

P Squared

The pictures above are of Mike and Bob posing in their matching Prodigy Promos shirts. Ever since Mike started working with Prodigy over a year ago, he has taken to only wearing his Prodigy shirts so that on any given day he is a walking advertisement for them. Now that Mike is all Prodigy, he has started giving the shirts out to his friends and "prodigizing" them, as I like to call it, hence the pictures. Oh, and they are making funny faces because Mike put his arm around Bob's waist, like he would with me, instead of the more manly around-the-shoulder side hug.

The results are in...

Mike and I were accepted into BYU's MAcc (Master of Accountancy) program! Wahoo! We are both very excited, even though this means we now have two more years of school, two more years of life in Provo, and two more years of living in 550 square feet. All of that considered, we are extremely excited to be in this great program and even more excited to be doing it together.

Our new family member...

So today Mike and I adopted Canny. He is 58 cm long and he weighs about 17 lbs. He is a mix of red and black, and we figure he is about a month old. We found him at Al's in Logan and we just couldn't leave without him. We have both been surprised at how he is already fitting in with Papa Spech and Baby Yellow Spech so well. Here are some pictures of the proud new daddy and Canny:

Ok, so Canny is a road bike, but with all of my siblings currently being pregnant we were feeling a little left out of the whole "having a family" thing. Hence our lovely bike family (and why I felt compelled to name them all...).

Mike is doing a triathlon in July, so he has slowly been acquiring all of the necessities and the road bike was the last thing on his list. He took Canny out for a little ride today and loved it so that is definitely good news.

p.s.

I tag Amber, Darylynn, and anyone else who hasn't done it yet!

Tag

I was tagged by Lisa to share stuff all about my husband and I...

What is his name? Michael Justin Perley

How long have you been together? We have been married for about a year and a half.

How long did you date? Much like Lisa, we dated for 3 months before we were engaged and we were engaged for about 3 months. This may seem quick, but in our defense we knew after 2 weeks that we were going to get married, so we really waited a rather long time...

Who eats more? Usually Mike, but the night we got engaged I matched him bite for bite at Rodizio's. We were both too full after dinner to go on the romantic walk around Salt Lake that he had planned, but it was well worth it.

Who said I love you first? Mike did. He was too chicken to say it in English so the first few times he said it in Finnish, knowing that I had no idea what he was saying.

Who is taller? Mike - 6'1"

Who is smarter? That is a tough question. If you go by performance on tests, then I am. If you go by who says the least amount of stupid stuff, he definitely is.

Who does the laundry? We usually do the laundry together, so both of us.

Who does the dishes? Mike does the dishes with me on Saturday, but during the week I do them by myself.

Who sleeps on the right? He does, but he claims that I try to infringe upon his side almost nightly. I don't believe it.

Who pays the bills? Most of them just come out of our account automatically (an amazing modern convenience), but he usually takes care of the rest of them.

Who mows the lawn? If we were privileged enough to have one, he would mow it.

Who cooks dinner? I do, but with school and work it is pretty rare.

Who drives? Mike does because I apparently drive too slowly.

Who is more stubborn? That would be me.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me. On the first date. I ran away (according to him).

Who asked out who first? I guess technically I asked him out first. We had been talking/flirting in our class for a while and talking online a ton, but he wasn't asking me out and I was getting frustrated. So, I invited him over for a study group (a legitimate one) and things just went from there.

Who proposed? He did. He took me to the Bunny Hop (a carnival thing in Bountiful), then to Rodizio's for dinner. When we got back to his apartment he put a movie in that he had made. It was modeled after the Mastercard commercials, so it went through our first date and special things we had done together and listed how much they had cost (remember, we are accountants and we like numbers...) and then at the end it said "spending an eternity with you... priceless." When I looked over at him he was on one knee holding the ring. It was perfect!

Who has more siblings? Mike does by far. He has 2 brothers and 6 sisters. I have a brother and 2 sisters.

Who wears the pants? We both do in our own ways. But if I had my choice I would live in skirts - they are way more comfortable.

Red Robin

Last night we went to Red Robin to grab a quick dinner before we had some fellow Coloradans over for games and dessert. This normally wouldn't be anything to write about, but we had a very unusual experience. Just as we were finishing up our dinner our waitress came over to inform us that someone had paid our check for us. We were both quite surprised since we hadn't seen anyone we knew at the restaurant. On our way out we looked around trying to find the culprit so we could thank them, but our attempt was unsuccessful. So, to whomever the mysterious culprit may be - thank you for a wonderful act of kindness and a great dinner!

Good News!

Kristi finally heard back from Squire, with really good news. Although Squire is currently over-staffed and not in need of anyone, they want her to start working for them this summer. Meanwhile, her contact at Squire set her up with one of Squire's clients that is in need of some part-time accounting help. Kristi interviewed with them today and got the job on the spot - hooray! She is way excited because she will finally get stable hours and she won't have to drive to Lindon, so it is good news all around. The only sad thing will be to leave behind the company that has provided us (and many others) with so many hilarious office stories...

Valentine's Day and a Birthday

Despite having class, homework, and work on Valentine's day, we managed to have a somewhat-romantic day. Mike surprised me with a gorgeous bouquet of roses, and I tried (unsuccessfully) to surprise Mike with his favorite pizza while at work. Unfortunately the whole surprise didn't go as planned and I had to explain to Mike what I had done so he would accept the pizza.

Another exciting thing happened on Valentine's day - I prepared my first return as a VITA Volunteer and I didn't mess anything up! I just hope I can continue with that same record.

Yesterday Mike and I went to Logan for our nephew Jonathon's first birthday party. We had a lot of fun playing crazy "builder" themed games, eating yummy food, and talking with everyone.

Rescuing Sprite

Ok, so I have decided that in order to keep me reading things besides accounting text books I will start posting reviews of the books I read. I am hoping to do 1 or 2 a month. This month I am going to review Rescuing Sprite by Mark Levin. Rescuing Sprite is a sweet story about the Levin family's experience with Sprite, a dog with an abusive past that they adopted from a shelter. Having experienced the joys of having a dog and the companionship that it provides, I found this book to be especially touching. Mr. Levin does a wonderful job of capturing the happiness that pets can provide, along with the sorrow that comes from seeing their health fade. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you aren't a dog-person. It is an easy and quick read, and well worth the time.

Our Baby!

Ok, so she isn't a baby... and she isn't even ours, but we love her none-the-less! Plus the pictures are just cute. These are of us with Bob and Cassandra's newest "puppy" Sammi. She is a Weimaraner and the most relaxed dog - she will just lay in your lap for hours.

Instead of Studying...

I made the great decision to update our blog instead of studying, which isn't like me at all, but I saw how awesome Jessica's blog is and I just had to try to make mine as cool. Even with the updates mine isn't as cool, but it is getting closer. Speaking of cool, Mike and I played laser tag with some friends last weekend - it was a spur-of-the-moment decision when we passed LaserQuest on the way to dinner. We competed against party of annoying 10 year old boys who were surprisingly good- it must be all of the video games.

I interviewed with Squire last week for a job in their Quickbooks division, so hopefully that works out. I would be consulting companies on how to set up their accounting records, how to maintain them, and how to handle different accounting issues. I know, it sounds really exciting, but I'm trying not to get too excited.

Back to School

Today we started the second half of our grueling Jr. year. We met our new managerial professor, and she is alright, despite her awkward attempts at humor. We also got to meet our new groups and so far everyone seems normal, so that is a relief. Even though our break was pathetically short, we had a lot of fun with family and friends and we were able to catch up on some much needed work/sleep/play time. Last week Mike's brother David came to stay with us for a couple of days and that was fun. For the first time in a long time we played the Xbox. Mike and David enjoyed picking on me (Kristi) in Halo because I am terrible at it (somehow I always get stuck in a corner), but it was still a lot of fun. Oh, and Mike and I watched some of the new American Gladiators last night and it's pathetic, but at the same time it totally sucks you in. So if you are looking for some great entertainment, it's a must!

Trip to Colorado

For our Thanksgiving break this year we went to Colorado to visit Mike's family. We had a blast playing monopoly (I even beat Mike once), seeing some of Mike's old buddies, and spending time with Mike's family. Mike got up early Thanksgiving morning to participate in his old ward's Turkey Bowl, and I even braved the below freezing temperatures to watch him play. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner, topped off with a high-stakes monopoly game between the three Perley boys (after about 2 hours of playing and lots of heated discussions Mike won). On Friday, instead of shopping, I indulged in a pedicure and facial with Mike's sister. It was wonderful!

Now that the break is over, we will have to get back to studying hard, but we are looking forward to the somewhat longer break for Christmas.

2/3

Mike and I are officially done with 2/3 of the semester - Hooray! Hopefully it is all down hill from here. Last week we had our second round of midterms, so we have spent this weekend relaxing and recuperating from all of the studying and lack of sleep. Part of the recuperation involved a night hike with Mike's mission friend Bob, and his wife Cassandra. I have never night hiked before and it was an interesting experience. I could live happily without ever doing it again. Mike's close friend is getting married this coming weekend up in Idaho so we are excited to get to go to that. In other news, Salt Lake finally got a Cheesecake Factory, so Mike and I are just waiting for the incredibly long wait to die down so we can go and enjoy some amazing food and delightful cheesecake.

That is pretty much it. Oh, and BYU beat TCU, which was wonderful, so as long as they can beat Utah they will have not lost a home game for the past two seasons. Go BYU!