Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Summer is over! School has started!

So I finally finished New Moon over the weekend! I even went onto to finish the first chapter of the 3rd book. Brian and I were both sick over the weekend so it was nice to just sit around and read.

Brian started classes on Monday back at the U. He only has 1 more semester left after this one and he is done!

There is really not a lot going on right now. Will write more later!

Rachel

Friday, August 15, 2008

What a great Anniversary!

We had a great 4 year anniversary. Brian came home with some beautiful roses and also the 3rd and 4th book in the Twilight series. I am was so excited to see what he had gotten me. Then he took me out to dinner to Ruby River one of the best steak houses in town well actually in our opinion the best steak house in town. I still can't believe it has been 4 years though. What a wonderful 4 years it has been and I am definitely looking forward to the anniversaries to come!

Night

Rachel and Brian Maxwell

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Happy 4 year Anniversary!



Wow I can't believe it has been 4 years. Time has just flown by. I just thought I would put part of our wedding video since we didn't have a blog when we got married :) So enjoy the video and have a great day! I know we will!

Brian and Rachel Maxwell

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Finally Done!

I have finally finished Twilight. It has taken me awhile to read it but I am finally done! Yipee! I have now started a New Moon and hopefully it won't take me as long to finish this one. I am now anxious for the movie to come out since I finally watched the trailer. It will actually be kind of different since this is the first book I have read before actually seeing a movie about it.

Well nothing much is really going on except that Brian is now on a 4 10s work week. So I am a little envious of him. Well I better go. Time to read some more!

Night
Rachel

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The Boring Side of Blogging

Brian here, throwing in my 2 bits for the day.

Rachel is great to get this going as a way to update friends and family on what's going on in the Maxwell home.

Every blog has a personality, and I think that's good. Our blog is just going to be a bit schyzophrenic, with Rachel's updates usually on "wazzup", and my updates probably consisting of a heavy dose of politics and random observations. You can just skip my posts.

Or, if they are more your style, check out my political blog: http://livefromtheninthcircle.blogspot.com/. That's what I consider a sly reference to Dante's Divine Comedy, which says that the ninth circle of hell has a portion set out specifically for political traitors. But more generally, Live From the Ninth Circle is a reference to the idea that, in modern culture, for some reason, discussions about politics are viewed by some as akin to the worst kind of hell. By all means, come visit...

Watch out...Political wall of text coming...

I noticed this http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10099732 in the Trib this morning. Basically, Hogle Zoo is attempting to convince the County Council to reconsider their actions on the Zoo Bond. You can read the article, but basically, the County Council, Republican controlled 5-4, told Hogle Zoo that in order to get their $65 Million bond on the ballot, they would have to raise the $20 Million they promised the County Council they would eventually raise to fund the project before taxpayer funds are used. This has Democrats and Zoo supporters up in arms, saying that the standard being set is too high. In fact, the Zoo folks are wondering whether they'll put the bond issue on the ballot at all.

Since I actually pay property taxes now, I've earned my opinion. And I'm with the Republicans on this one.

Reason: I know it's a small tax hike to my newly purchased town home (10 bucks a year or so, if I recall), but if Hogle Zoo says they can raise $20 Million in private money to fund this project, I think, as a taxpayer, it is my right to ask them to "show me the money". Because I would hate to think that, call me a pessimist if you like, Hogle Zoo gets the cash infusion, then falls short on fundraising, and either A) comes back to the taxpayers for more, either via ballot initiative or the County Council, or B) just scales back their projects, and simply use the taxpayer money to create an exhibit that doesn't meet the standards being sold to the taxpayers in order to pass the ballot initiative. To put it in poker terms, this may be the County Council Republicans doing a fantastic job of not only calling Hogle Zoo's bluff, but raising them as well. And Hogle's response says to me that they aren't holding the cards to back the chips on the table.

Even if it gets on the ballot, I may still vote "no". But I'm glad Republicans like Mark Crocket, David Wilde, Marv Hendrickson, Michael Jensen, and Jeff Allen are watching out for my money, and are making sure that, if I do get a property tax hike, Hogle Zoo can't play games with that money.

Now, about that soccer stadium...

Friday, August 1, 2008

Our Trip To West Yellowstone!

Back in July we had our Maxwell extended Family Vacation. It was so much fun. We drove up on Thursday with Peter who is Brian's older brother. It was really fun talking and hanging out with him in the car. The next day we went and took a tour of Yellowstone so I thought I would add some pics from there.










This was right when we first got into the park. this bison was just walking down the street and stopping traffic. He also looked like he had been attacked because the top of his back had a huge chunk taken out of him.


These are some pictures of old faithful. It was pretty nice but as I have been told it is not as good as it used to be. Still shoots high but I wanted to see more.





These are pictures of some waterfalls in Yellowstone. They were so pretty. I loved being there a lot all the fresh air and of course being with the family. It was a great Vacation. I can't wait til the next one.

Well I better go for now.

Rachel

Our Blog

We Blog

Yup. Brian and I are starting a blog. Cuz it's cool to do, er something. At least this way, you can keep track of us.

A brief catch up: Brian and I are about to celebrate our 4th anniversary. We just bought a townhouse in Holladay. It's not huge, but it's in a great neighborhood, and it's just right for us.
I'm working for Zion's Bank doing customer service, and Brian is (finally) finishing that pesky Political Science degree at the U while he works for the Utah State Tax Commissioner as the Administrative Aide to the Commission. We're both pretty excited about how things are going for us now