Hereby Called to Serve:

I got my mission call! It seems sort of silly to write this as an announcement, since by now everyone who reads my blog probably already knows, but nonetheless, it's pretty exciting. I've been called to the Portugal Lisbon mission. I'll speak Portuguese and be generally awesome. I don't have to report until september 24th, so i think i'll try to find a job and maybe be productive for parts of this summer.

I'm pretty happy about going to Portugal, i'd be happy about anywhere, but last night, in lieu of the impending mission call, i spent a bit of time thinking about my ideal mission. I decided that i would prefer to learn one of the romance languages, minus romanian, and decided I'd rather go to europe than south or central america. Happily, Portugal fulfills these criteria with ease. It also fulfills the desire to go somewhere they play soccer, and somewhere that i can gain loyalty to a soccer team. (an aside: I already feel silly and ignorantly american calling it soccer, i figure a solid couple of years saying futebol will be enough to work it out of my lexicon. It's a shame throwball somehow ganked that word over here.) I imagine it also covers the 'challenging mission' requirement suggested by my stake president, as i imagine, given that Europeans and catholics are both notoriously difficult to convert, a nation of catholic europeans speaking a foreign language will probably be tricky. But i like challenges, they make life engaging.

eeny-way, fun stuff. Other News:
I can never remember the last time i make these, and by extension, how much i've already talked about. Wow, it would appear it's been a while.

So, wrapping up the trip in jackson was good, i managed to see everyone i wanted to, and then some. I even managed to see hunter and melissa, who i completely missed last time i was in town. Both of these were at restaurants (Bravo and Cups, respectively), and it made me feel so posh. Oh, by the way, i've been watching rather absurd amounts of doctor who and a bit of topgear lately, so i may tend to british wordage from time to time, things like daft, farce, brilliant, some unnecessary u's, that sort of thing. I should really just annotate these blogs, it would make them much easier to read with all the asides and digressions. Back on track: I managed to say goodbye to caitlin this time around (something i apparently didn't do last time. I don't remember, but it does sound like the sort of thing I would neglect), and even gave spencer rabies, along with a clever assassination attempt in the form of pop rocks and coke. Given the fact that he hasn't updated his blog since i gave him them, i'm assuming they worked.

Driving home from jackson was an adventure, or rather, it was so far from an adventure that i had to pull off to clean the car for 40 minutes to keep myself from passing out from boredom. It was a pretty uneventful drive, but that's ok. I got to the airport with time to spare, and managed to get Cami back to biloxi in spite of traffic and shoddy windshield wipers. The Wangsgard gang (i wish i had a group name that started with W, i'll work on that) was all asleep, but eventually we talked to them, and the Wade's and grandparents came a bit later. I was surprised by how well our house held that many people. So lets see, we went to dauphin island, which was nice. At the time it seemed the drive was longer than necessary but when we went to the closer beeches later we were attacked by a fleet of jellyfish, which made the hour drive seem more reasonably. We went to the naturito...naturitum...arboretum, yeah, and saw lots of trees and turtles and many things not starting with t. It's safe to assume we played some games, video and otherwise, and had generally fun times.

Sunday (the 15th) I gave a talk in church which was nice. I felt like i sort of lacked focus in the talk. In my defense, i wasn't given a topic, and, although it was father's day, my father asked me not to give a talk entirely on fathers, so i didn't. In addition i was somewhat unprepared, but i think it went over ok, except that part where i made it seem like i had to postpone my mission because of serious transgressions, instead of serious lack of coordination. Monday was Isaac's baptism, which i was able to do, which was cool. After that we went and got food at this little pizza place, which was good.

Tuesday i went through the temple, which was awesome, (perhaps even brimming with awe, any more awe and it would have been aweful) and it was cool to have my whole family there (unfortunately minus those stuck with baby-sitting, although katie and cami still drove all the way to baton rouge just to watch kids in a hotel) We got burger king on the way home. I got a chicken sandwich, which i will say, without qualification, was the worst chicken sandwich i've had in my life. The drive back was pretty chill and Logan and I talked about mission type things and such, which is especially pertinent now that I'm serving in the same place he did...hm, i hadn't mentioned that yet. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Now we'll will be able to have secret Portuguese conversations, it will be glorious.

The next day people started leaving, so where were lots of goodbye's. Amy and Dylan stayed longer, so we went to a water park and that was fairly fun. I think Water Parks would be about the funnest thing ever if there were no people and no rules. rules and people ruin everything, but it was still a good time. It was no Rapids on the Reservoir, but what can you do?

So that pretty much brings me to to now. Yesterday I had to talk a bit in Stake Conference, but that was nothing major. Today i went to see the Incredible Hulk, which was really good, and then came home to find my mission call and my security deposit waiting for me. I was planning to watch Iron Monkey (my netflix) before going to bed, but i've spent about an hour on this post due to various distractions and such.

Fyi, Pork and Beans by Weezer is one of my favorite songs and without a doubt the most magnificent music video i've ever seen. It just makes me feel good.

~Short on Money but Long on Time

Genealogy and other adventures in real and cyber-space

Yesterday my dad's brother Brent visited, which was cool. My dad gave him the tour of biloxi, and i went too since i hadn't gone yet. There were a lot of really cool houses, and there was a map that showed all the houses that my dad's program had built or are building or helped rebuild and it was a pretty shocking amount, maybe over 100. It's cool that biloxi is going to have this mark left on it by my dad with all these really good houses on stilts. One of the houses was amazing, it was built right around the branches of a tree so as you walked up to it it felt very much like a tree house. Live oak trees, by the way, are amazing. I think they might be some of the coolest trees i've seen, and i've seen lots and lots of trees.

We also ate at The Shed, probably the most southern place i've ever eaten at. It's definitely a place that needs to get featured on that food network show where they go to all those little restaurants...i can't remember what it's called, something, drive in's and dives maybe. Something like that, anyway, it was good stuff. After that we went down to the beach and me and isaac swam. It wasn't really swimming, since after walking out about a hundred yards it was still only 3 feet deep, and i started scaring isaac by talking about sharks so he didn't want to go farther, but it did feel good.

Today, we said goodbye to Brent (the tour was actually today too, somehow it seems like it was a long time ago) and then i've just been meandering about the rest of the day. At some point i posted mission pools on facebook and my family.com, so go one of those places and guess where you think i'm going on my mission. At some point today i googled 'perkes' and found all sorts of cool things. For instance:
According to this site Perkes descend from the Norman noble Perahgoz "lands in Kent by Duke William of Normandy, their liege Lord, for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D." I'm very skeptical of this, since it's a website trying to sell you medieval-esc pictures (they charge you 17 dollars for a digital image) of family crests and the like, but i dunno. According to them our motto is Semper Paratus, making us the boy scouts of the turn of the millenia. I have trouble trusting that would charge anything, let alone 17 dollars, for something with no inherent value or even existance (in this case, a digital image), it also conflicts with the known genealogy of Perkes, which i discovered after that.

I found a website wholly devoted to the name Perkes, specifically the descendants of James Perkes (of which i am part) who left England and Established Hyde Park in Utah and had lots of kids. He was the son of John Perkes, and seems to be the only son who carried the name on (there were lots of daughters, and one guy who's name seems to die off. This could, however, be because that Perkes doesn't have a small army of Mormon Perkes' trying to learn about their genealogy). It is cool though to look at stuff about people you're descended from. Apparently the Perkes heralded from Worcester (which is tricky to say, and can make you appear really stupid to those who know how to say it right), which still has a decent little LDS population. It also has some pretty impressive population density (90,000 people across 12 square miles), but i guess that's somewhat typical of england. So yeah, cool beans. I'd still like to know where the name Perkes actually comes from (i don't buy into that purchase crap) but i'll survive i'm sure.

"Oh, all that i know, there's nothing here to run from...

It's going to be warmer in Utah than in mississippi tomorrow (by one degree). Madness.

In other maddening news, I found out today that my Dad has to have an operation tomorrow for Colon cancer. From what i've heard, it seems that after the operation it should be fine, but still, it's scary and weird. That's twice this year that someone i've cared about has had to deal with cancer, i still don't know what to do with it.

This is also weird because i have a very hard time imagining my dad sick. He's never sick, i honestly can't think of a single time in my life that he's been sick, i'm sure they've happened, but i can't remember them. I think i have this image of my dad being above things like disease and age, which is sort of how i feel about myself as well, which adds to the weirdness of all this because if he's not immune to things like that, i don't suppose i am either. Without a doubt one of my greatest fears is becoming old, or more specifically, incapable. But yeah, if you're the type to pray, it'd definitely be appreciated.

Despite this, and to my surprise, life continues. This weekend looks to be enjoyable, although i expect tomorrow will be difficult, 4 straight hours of class, that on what looks to be very little sleep, but once that's done i can relax and enjoy my weekend. If i can convince Kelly to take me to donate plasma i'll go snowboarding on Saturday. I've realized that this friend i've made is a whole lot like Logan, it's sort of weird, but Logan (and therefore jake, said friend) being a righteous dude, it makes for some fun times.

I don't know...little things seem so pointless at the moment, i need to sleep.

...and there, everybody's got somebody to lean on"

Happy Birthday Katie!

It is now officially Katie's birthday, even on her side of the country. Generally Katie does awesome little exposés on people's birthday (maybe exposés isn't the right word, but i just spent a solid couple minutes trying to figure out how to make an é, so it stays) but since it won't be the same with her doing it for herself and with me still a ways from feeling tired, i thing i might as well.

Katie for me has always been extremely thoughtful about how i turn out, which is always pretty awesome. She's bought me presents solely for the purpose of making me cooler (boxers, weights, a secret passageway, which i still think is awesome, even if it was a little thrown together), and i must admit that a good percentage of my wardrobe has been purchased only after receiving her ok. I remember Katie doing my artsy projects for me when i was in the earlier years, and for some reason, random bits of advice she's given me have stuck; my chucks are completely writing free, and i still remember that now that i'm in college i'm suppose to buy a bunch of dress shirts, especially pink ones, which i wasn't supposed to buy pre-college because it'd be weird, i only wear that brown tie with Khakis, which sadly meant that i couldn't wear it for about three years on account of not owning a pair of khakis, and the blue striped tie with dark pants. Actually come to think of it about half my ties came directly from katie. I think i terribly underrated Katie when we were still living together, which is probably true of most siblings. I think Katie might know me better than anyone else in my family, from treasure troves of blow pops to rearranging our rooms to make libraries to playing spies and making bombs, to hiking down to the local grocery store to load up on gum because we were going on a road trip and that was the only time we were allowed to chew gum. About 2/3's of my music comes directly from Katie; all things considered, Katie's had a pretty profound influence on my life, which i think has probably made me a much better person generally, or at least a much less socially awkward one.

It's been great to see Katie go from a somewhat struggling, shy to the point of sickness, skinny college student to a really very successful, healthy woman, wife, and soon to be mother, especially because it gives me a bit of hope for my life (minus the woman, wife and mother part o' course).

So Happy Birthday Katie. I have no doubt you'll be an amazing mother, and have by far most trendy kid(s) on the block.

Happy Thanksmas!

thankoween doesn't roll of the tongue in nearly the same way. Tongue is an oddly spelled word.

Thanksgiving was a pretty decent day for me, i slept in until 10ish, which isn't that much later than usual, but it felt nice. I went up to grandma's with cami and colin and hung out with the extended fam. I like my extended family a lot, but it's really not the same. I definitely miss having thanksgiving with my family. The food was good, but i'd say my parents are better. Also there were no oyster crackers...sad.

Anyway, after thanksgiving we hung around for a while and talked, then we drove back to salt lake and i hung out with cami for a while and played games. I won jambo and we tied trivial pursuit, then she went out to park city and i hung out in my dorm and watched the first disc of scrubs. I was tempted to watch the rest of it, but i have a long weekend, and i'm not sure if there's anyone around to hang out with.

Vacations are always a little questionable here, it's great to have time off from school and all this free time, but so many people here live so close that it's pretty easy to feel like the only person on campus around breaks, and that tends to lead to boredom. I can't imagine staying here over christmas break, i'd die. I'm looking forward to christmas a lot, it'll be nice to spend time with my family and friends.

In the spirit of thanksgiving, i'm going to sketch out my christmas list. What better way to give thanks than compiling all the things i want:

A nice suit (including shoes, mine are dead)
A Camera
Keychain oil container thing
Winter clothes
Guitar Hero III

hm, that's all that i want that i can think of. Clothes and music are usually a safe bet too. I felt like i had a lot more to say when i started this blog, but apparently not, that seems to happen a lot as of late.

~No Superman

i think i've ended with that before...

Oh, P.S.-It mortifies me that at this very moment, a mere two timezones away, people are going shopping for christmas deals. How did we come to this?

Family Newsletter October

i have a massive midterm i need to study for, and all our talks in church today were about not procrastinating, but this is something i need to do sometime today anyway, so i may as well get it out of my system now. Days of late have been pretty awesome, i had a minor emotional breakdown from failing a physics test and getting a c on a paper, but as it turns out, i was above average on the test, and that's my drop grade, and i'm going to re-write the paper. more importantly, i got a hammock that day which gave me something to occupy my thoughts other than, "oh crap, i'm going to fail college, lose my scholarship and have to go to UVSU." (not that there's anything wrong with going to Utah Valley State...)

Otherwise life's good. The red sox are in position to go to the world series, and it's possible that i am as well, since a friend of mine's family loves the rockies, and are going to try to get as many tickets as possible, and i might be able to sit in for a game. (how awesome would that be, Red Sox vs Rockies). I went to a utah soccer game on thursday and that was really exciting, and it reminded me how much i love and miss playing soccer a lot, so now i'm thinking i need to set up a indoor soccer team for intermurals. It snowed yesterday, and me and my friends went sledding on my clothes hamper, which worked really well. I also played racquetball yesterday. On friday i watched transformers in the dollar theater (awesome), and on tuesday i saw Ratattoulli in the dollar theater. I guess that's the gist of what's been going on. I had a midterm in IT on thursday, and i think that went pretty well. I think that about most of my midterms though, so we'll see how that turns out.

Alright i guess i'll type out the real family newsletter now. I always find typing them a little awkward, because here, where i write like it's a journal, there, i have to write like it's a letter. And i'm not a big fan of writing letters, but whatevs:


Salutations!

The talks in sacrament meeting today were about not procrastinating, so it's somewhat awful that i'm writing this as my calculus midterm ticks ominously closer, but in priesthood we talked a little about the importance of family, so i'll take care of this first. So far i'm loving life in salt lake. Friday me and my friends made the obligatory hike up to the giant U on the mountain, which was actually a pretty nice hike. I wanted to trek off into the brush, but my friends weren't in the mood for getting lost in the mountains, so we ended up taking the fairly tame path up the mountain. Yesterday it snowed quite a bit, so we went sledding in clothes hampers and had snow ball fights. I feel like i have to make up for the last 14 years of my life with no snow, and so far i'm doing pretty well.

In other news, college is going alright. Me and Cami made it up to Cache valley a few weeks ago to visit Grandma and Grandpa. It's great, and a little surreal, to be so close to family i usually only see during the summer. In a few hours there's a fireside at the Institute by Elder Uchtdorf. Last month we had Elder Holland, and the institute was skirting the edges of the fire code, so this time it's a little more organized, and you really have to get there early in order to get seats in the same room. We also have a temple trip this week, up to the Bountiful Temple. Last month we went to the Salt Lake Temple, but i didn't have a recommend yet, so i'm excited to actually be able to go this time around. So between family, the mountain hiking, the snow, the General Authorities, and the bounteous temples, Utah is treating me very well. I'm looking forward to winter and some more significant snow fall (we only got a couple inches yesterday, enough to sled, but i find myself craving a snow fort). But until then, i should go ahead and study. So long.

~Ammon

So yeah, that about covers my life, now i need to study. blech.