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Ashton Picture

The best 4 years of my life . . .

Here's where we stayed last night to celebrate 4 years together:
http://www.hinesmansion.com/rooms/whispering_willow.html

I'm so in love with Nicolle, she's amazing in every way. Here's to 40 more years!

My Band in the News

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=55595

Season's Greetings

Eighties ladies

I've had a crappy day so I thought I would post the following silliness:
You Know You Grew Up In the 80's if:

1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word SIKE.


2. You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and can do the Carlton


3. You know that 'WOAH' comes from Joey on Blossom


4. If you ever watched 'Fraggle Rock'


5. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.


6. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.



7. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.


8. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.

9. You played the game 'MASH'(Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House)


10. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.

11. You know the profound meaning of ' WAX ON , WAX OFF'


12. You wanted to be a Goonie.


13. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us...head-to-toe)


14. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.


15. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.


16. You took lunch boxes to school...and traded Garbage Pailkids in the schoolyard.


17. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.


18. You still get the urge to say 'NOT' after every sentence.

19. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.

21. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes.

22. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying 'I know you are, but what am I?'


23. You remember 'I've fallen and I can't get up'


24. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.


25. You have ever played with a Skip-It.


26. You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.


27. You remember watching both Gremlins movies.



28. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.


29. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.


30. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool...and don't even flinch when people refer to them as 'NKOTB'


31. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on 'Saved By The Bell,' The ORIGINAL class.


32. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.


33. You just sang those words to yourself.

34. You still sing 'We are the World'


35. You tight rolled your jeans.


36. You owned a bannana clip.


37. You remember 'Where's the Beef?'


38. You used to (and probably still do)
say 'What you talkin' 'bout Willis?'

39. You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you!

my class had sushi

This week we are doing presentations in class about different cultures, and my class wanted me to give an example, so I talked about Japan. Wemade sushi, watched Totoro, and had a great time. Nicolle and the kids came and we showed off a kimono from Japan.

more pics

all dressed up and nowhere to go

my bands are fun

Here's a link to see and hear all the bands I play in, if anyone's interested. . .
http://www.robbennion.com/bands.html

Copa Cabana

We went to the cabin last weekend, it was loads of fun. We had yakiniku too.

Nicolle painted a bunch of our apartment before we left for the cabin, and we made a trip to Ikea, so we have quite the nice little apartment now. Our drive to buy a house is somewhat weakened by finding out what it actually entails. For now it seems we're content at our place, but if the perfect magic house/situation appears we'll be open to that too.

I'm trying to learn how to balance my obsessive behavior and work and family, anybody who knows me knows how obsessed I get about things and how much trouble I have balancing. I'm very excited about the opportunities I have with music, but need to learn to balance better. Thanks to my practicing in the mornings at 7am at the school before starting work, I feel really great about my progress and it's a great solution to the practice/wake up the kids /make Nicolle miserable problem.

We've fallen in love with the RedBox dvd rental machines all over town. For $1 you can rent a dvd for one night, and so we've seen some interesting movies lately. Yesterday I watched "Letters From Iwo Jima". It was cool to see some of the Japanese actors I recognized from movies in Japan. I'm sure everyone's already seen it or heard about it, it was told from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers. Brutality and kindness are shown on both sides during the conflict, and some soldiers (both american and japanese) came to see that the enemy isn't so different from them. It's by no means a warm fuzzy movie however, there's needless killing, boredom, insanity, etc. It made me think of friends I have fighting in wars. Kendall from Hawaii wrote me on Thanksgiving from Afghanistan. He said that after a morning of drills etc the commanding officer told them to get lost, and they were allowed the rest of the day off. They later had pizza for the soldiers, but Kendall said he was more excited just to not have to work. He didn't remember it was Thanksgiving until the officer let them go for the day. My life is so different from his life and many people's around the world, people I have contact with every day at my job who are desperate to get out of their present situation. I feel incredibly blessed and am amazed at my situation, I'm very lucky.
We also watched "Disturbia" a fun thriller rear-window-esque. The kids were actullay both asleep for a rare moment so we watched it together and Nicolle held me while I jumped at every scary part, as usual. I'm kind of a chicken with horror movies.