Family, Friends, and Christmas Time!

It's Christmas time! Hooray! It has been a fabulous week. Maybe because it was the last week before flying home to see our families for Christmas. I finished up sealants which was a lot of fun. Our sealant group had a big lunch at a Mongolian grill to celebrate. Also, Rachel and I went to several fun Christmas parties this week. We love our Cleveland family and feel grateful to have good friends out here.

Now we are headed back to Utah and Idaho for our long winter break. Rachel will be having a baby shower in Utah to see many of the relatives and friends out there.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. First of all, for the constant reminder of our Lord and Savior. Also, for the love, family, fun and friends. Really, the people make the season. Thank you to everyone who is making our Christmas a happy one. We wish all of you a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Counting down to Christmas

It's official. Rachel is constantly able to maintain a busier lifestyle than I am. I didn't think that was entirely possible, because I am a pretty active guy (at least I like to think so). Also, she has every reason to not be active, being seven months pregnant and all. Nevertheless, she somehow keeps running between work, school, several social events, church meetings, working out at the gym, and home. I don't know how she does it! Every day I am more impressed with the girl I married.

As for me- Well, I stay pretty busy as well. Recently my dental school class has been going into local elementary schools to place sealants on the teeth of second and sixth graders. This is a cool confidence building experience that lets us do some real dental work, even though we've only been in school for a few months. Actually, Case is one of the best schools in the country when it comes to early clinical experience and I feel lucky to be here. I think I'm learning a little too, because it seems to me like I am hurting fewer and fewer children as I get more practice!

On Saturday we were honored to attend the baptism of a friend, Kevin. I first met Kevin while doing splits with the missionaries, and we have since gotten to know him better as we give him rides to church, and have the occasional missionary discussion in our home. We have also met some of his family members who are remarkably nice people. Rachel gave a talk at his baptism, and I was able to confirm him today at church. We were excited to see him get baptised and I think that everyone there felt the spirit.

As for the latest book reviews from the Hazards- I just finished reading "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's about Abraham Lincoln and the civil war, and is very interesting. I wasn't really interested in political civil war history before reading this book, but I am now! Also, Rachel just finished reading "The Twilight Series" by Stephenie Meyer. This is a trilogy- yes, she has outdone me yet again :)- about vampires which is extremely popular. Rachel says that the books are good-- but not as good as all the hype. We both love reading and are open to any recommendations.

Anyway, that was our week. Here are some pictures:

This wasn't taken this week, but I love this picture of Rachel playing my guitar and I just had to post it.

Here I am doing sealants. The other guy is my partner, Kee Kang.

Happy Holidays!!!!!

It has been an amazing Thanksgiving break for us.The original plan was to leave early Monday morning to visit Niagara Falls where would see the falls, do some hiking, and scout the gorge for a possible future run :). We would then head over to Palmyra, New York, and spend the next day and a half visiting church history sites. On the way home we would stop at the Aaronic Priesthood restoration site and then at Kirtland, following (more or less) the trail of the Saints as they made their way west.

As it turned out, Rachel got a horrible toothache and was seeing the Dentist all of Monday morning getting a root canal. Not the greatest start to our vacation, but we were able to make the best of it. The Niagara/Palmyra trip will have to wait for another time, which is great because it gives us something to look forward to! Instead, I was able to play racquetball in the mornings, which was a lot of fun. Rachel was also excited to be also able to workout all week which she has missed because she has had a terrible cold, then an exquisite toothache.

Also, on Tuesday we went on a hike at Cuyahoga National Park. This is a small park just about a half hour south of us, and every time I go I am reminded how pretty it is out here. It is the time of year that the trees don’t have many leaves on them anymore, but the ground is carpeted in an immaculate array of color from those that have fallen. We were there for a few hours, and we did several small hikes to different landmarks and overlooks. It was a beautifully brisk day that was perfect for hiking. We feel lucky to have a place like this so close to where we live.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with friends from the ward and from school. We were able to have our feast in the cultural hall of the ward building. Eight other families showed up and we had a lot of fun eating, talking, playing basketball, and just “hanging out.” The food was great- the company was better; we are happy that there are such cool people around us to share our time with. Also, there were plenty of leftovers, which means that we can have Thanksgiving dinner again and again for a long time!

The day after Thanksgiving I had a new experience- I went shopping. Not just a leisurely stroll through the mall either-no, this was extreme shopping. I’ve kayaked class V+, and I’ve climbed mountains with thousands of feet of exposure, but those pale in comparison with Black Friday Shopping. We got up at 3:30 in the morning. We stood in lines. We watched fights break out all around us. We laughed at the things people say and do- for example, I heard someone at Circuit City ask what a particular electronic device was. “I don’t know,” their friend replied, “But it’s fifty dollars off. I’m buying it!” I think next year instead of shopping I’m just going to bring a lounge chair and watch people squabble over the hot items. Nevertheless, we did get some pretty fantastic deals, so I guess to some people all the madness pays off in the end.

On Saturday we made our annual gingerbread house. This is a tradition we started the first year we were married, and hopefully one that continues through the years as our family grows up. Every Thanksgiving we carefully make our blueprints (finally! A good use for geometry), plan our decorations, then go to the store and buy tons of candy. This is generally a two or three day process because of the gingerbread recipe. The dough must chill overnight, then we roll it to cut our designs, bake them, trim off the edges and wait for them to harden enough for the structural design. Our home building skills improved considerably this year because we figured out some new tricks! First off, the hack saw we used to trim the pieces was a great success, and second we figured out how to put the frosting in a bag and use it to ice the pieces together (it took us way too long to figure that out). I think that this year’s house turned out pretty good, but more importantly, it was a lot of fun to make- and it will be a lot of fun to eat when the time comes.

Also, the day after Thanksgiving is the traditional “decorate for Christmas” day, and it was fun to bring out some the Christmas decorations and music. I love this time of year! Happy holidays to everyone! We are looking forward to seeing many of you in upcoming weeks.

Here are some pictures:

This is a cool tree we found at Cuyahoga National Park. Does anybody know why it looks like that?

Here's a cave we hiked to. It actually goes back pretty deep. We'll have to come back with flashlights to explore.

I'm posting this for Diane because she very stealily sneaked into it. These are the preparations for The Feast.

Fun, Food, and Friends. What a good way to spend a holiday.

Our annual gingerbread house. I think it turned out pretty good.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad and me at the City of Rocks on one of our many fun trips together

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My dad's birthday was on Tuesday- 50 years old! That means that he is exactly twice as old as me. Crazy.

For his birthday my mom put together a book of memories from all of his friends and loved ones. I'll post part of my letter here on the blog- a tribute to the best father anyone could ever hope to have.

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All I Really Need to Know I Learned From My Dad…

How to be happy • How to love life • How to show others that I care • How to light a fire with just one match and a tall cup of white gas • How to make the best of a tough situation • How to laugh • How to win a water fight • How to change a flat tire • How to be nice • How to put my family first • How to always do my best • How to know that my best is good enough • How to do the little things • How to fight off a bear with a handful of pebbles • How to be happy that at least the bear didn’t eat the Spam • How to appreciate beautiful things • How to show my dear wife that I love her • How to ride a bike • How to admit when I need help • How to be confident when I can’t have help • How to scout a rapid • How to swim a rapid • How to have faith • How to make the name Leroy sound scary • How to be patient • How to drop everything when a friend needs help • How to stop a school bus • How to manage my time well • How to dance • How to win • How to lose • How to tie a figure eight • How to try everything at least once • How to skip rocks • How to pray • How to make other people feel special • How to hug • How to enjoy a good book • How to be obnoxious in a racquetball court • How to keep going, even when I don’t think I can • How to set goals • How to listen • How to drive a fifteen passenger van on a road that was only meant for jeeps • How to involve everyone • How to write well • How to make people laugh • How to admit when I’m wrong • How to catch crawdads • How to teach kids not to gamble by taking all of their candy • How to know what’s important • How to make lasting memories • How to be the best dad in the world

"You are not a scrub" -President Hinkley

That quote came up in the church news this week and I thought it was funny to picture president Hinkley using the word "scrub" over the podium. We have the coolest prophet!

Anyway, apparently we forgot to write in our blog last week. That is probably because last week was mostly full of me studying for finals and Rachel working. It was a great week, but not a whole lot of exciting news for the blog.

This week was a little more exciting. It started out fun last Sunday when we had a friend, Kevin, and the missionaries over to our house for dinner and a movie (the movie was "Believing in Christ"). Kevin is investigating the church and will be baptised soon.

During the week Rachel worked a lot, and I studied a lot. I have finals this week, so I have been pretty preoccupied with that. On Thursday, Rachel had a doctor's appointment to check on WB, and everything seems to be going fine. Our baby girl is now the size of a half gallon of milk, and supposedly Rachel's uterus is the size of a soccer ball. Every once in a while I'll be talking to Rachel and all of a sudden her stomach will do this weird lurching thing as the baby shifts around. It is a little bit eerie, but exciting also because it means that we will be parents soon. We've been doing a lot of babysitting for friends and the prospect of parenthood, as frightening as it sounds, is starting to seem doable. I guess that's easy to say when you can just walk out on a screaming baby after mom and dad come home!

On Saturday we finally decided we needed to get out of the house, so we got in the car and started driving out into the country with no particular destination. First we went to the Aurora outlet Mall where we walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. Then we drove to Cuyahoga Falls, which is a charming little town just South of here. There is a series of beautiful waterfalls which gives the town its name, and we were fortunate enough to make friends with a local Social Studies teacher who gave us a brief historical tour of the downtown area. It will definitely be a place to go back to.

Here are the pictures for the week. We love hearing from everybody, and we hope you are all doing well. Congratulations to Tyson and Cambria on their wedding!

Here's the pie we made for dessert with Kevin and the missionaries. It was soooo good!

Here we are in beautiful Cuyahoga Falls

Here's a picture of the waterfalls. For those who are interested, they are all runnable (class V). The river then continues for a few miles of class III.

"Heaven has a lot to live up to"

This has been an awesome week for us here in the Hazard household. The weather is still very “Autumny” but is quickly cooling off and Winter appears to be just around the corner. We have heard several warnings about Cleveland Winters and we are a little nervous to see what we’re in for. Apparently, the sun takes a 3 month vacation, but we’ll see. In the meantime we are just loving the sweatshirt weather and we go on a lot of walks to look at the changing leaves.

At the beginning of the week, Rachel finished sewing the curtains she is making for the baby’s room. They are very cute. We have decided to do a “Winnie the Pooh” theme; it’s not so original, but that’s okay because we like Pooh Bear. It is fun to imagine what our lives will be like with a baby girl to keep us busy.

On Saturday I played in a racquetball tournament, which was a lot of fun. I ended up winning first place after playing a sponsored player for the championship. I’m having a hard time walking now- after going for almost a year without much real competition, my body has to get used to the game again. I also made some friends at the tournament and hopefully I’ll be playing more regularly now.

On Sunday night, Rachel and I carved our pumpkins for Halloween. I think they turned out pretty good! Also, we finished reading another book together. This one, Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross, is definitely a book we would recommend to anyone. We have read some good books lately.

Rachel seemed to sum our lives up pretty well the other day when she remarked that “Heaven has a lot to live up too.” Truly, we are very blessed.

Here are the curtins that Rachel made. She came up with the pattern and design all on her own!

This is Rachel's pumpkin. For some reason, I couldn't get a picture that did justice to the lighting.

Here's my pumpkin. Happy Halloween!

This week has been another one of those weeks that is so full of fun that I just don't know where to start. Seriously. On Wednesday we saw an ultrasound of our baby and found out that little Wiggle Bean is a...(see the post below this one for details). This was very exciting news for us and we couldn't be any happier.

Rachel has been busy in different groups she is involved with. We hosted the cooking club at our house with the theme of "breakfast for dinner," and that turned out some very yummy treats. Actually, Rachel hosted it while I went to the library to study, but I still got to eat the leftovers! Apparently there was a good turnout with a lot of fun conversation to go along with the food. Also, Rachel has taken up knitting, which brings out her perfectionistic tendencies.

As for me, I am pretty predictable. I go to school every day and learn about teeth. Of course I learn other things as well, but they seem to be putting quite a lot of emphasis on the mouth, and specifically, teeth. I continue to love every minute of school and am doing well in all of my classes.

During the weekend we went to an apple orchard and picked a bunch of apples. It was a beautiful day and the trees were all sorts of brilliant colors. I love it out here! It is so pretty and it makes you feel all giddy inside. Anyway, we picked a big ol' bag of apples then brought them home and cooked with them. Yum. Nothing says Autumn time like caramel apples, apple dumplings, and hot apple cider.

Here are some pictures of our week, for those who care to look. Don't forget to check the post below this for an update on WB! Also, Rachel put up a new post on her baby-belly page.

This was the drive to the apple orchard. Beautiful Ohio is full of Autumn color and fresh air. We love it here!

Here us us at the orchard picking the apples

And of course, we had to bake all sorts of fun stuff with all of our fresh fruit.

Exciting News!

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! We had our ultrasound this week and we found out that the baby is growing well and is very healthy! We were given two pictures of our new little baby and we will post them tomorrow. A funny thing happened when I was looking at the pictures. I was looking at the baby's profile and the immediate thought came to my mind. Hey! That looks like a profile if my forehead and nose. It was then that I realized that this was our baby and there was probably a very good explaination for that! I think some curious minds want to know... Logan and I are having a beautiful baby girl! We are both extrememly excited and ready to envite this sweet baby into our home. Tomorrow we will post an update about our week

"Hey, Hey, La, La- We're gonna' build our dreams together"

This week has been full of Sign Language and interpreting. Rachel has been a busy girl running to her various jobs around the city. Also, she spent the weekend at the RID conference in Cincinnati where she took classes on preparing for the NIC test (a crazy hard test for interpreters to be nationally certified).

A surgery she interpreted for confirmed to her that she is a squeamish person. I say "confirmed" because she actually learned of her squeamishness when I asked her to watch an oral surgery I thought was cool. She started watching it, and before long she was crying, shaking, and rocking back and forth in her chair. We turned the video off before it got to the bad part. The next day she had to interpret the surgery, and she knew from the previous night's experience that she best not watch too much of it.

Rachel was not the only person doing Sign Language though. I am actually trying to learn a little bit of it now. I have never really put forth much effort to learn, as I sort of considered it to be "her thing," but I actually became interested for myself this week and she is now tutoring me. I'll never be as good as she is. I'll probably never really be fluent either, but I will have a basic vocabulary and understanding of grammar. So far, I can do pretty well at introducing myself. If anyone tries to talk back to me, I'm in trouble though! I'm excited to learn.

Autumn time is in full swing here in Cleveland. The ground is littered with leaves and the air is cool (bordering on cold). One day, Rachel picked me up from school and announced that she had planned an Autumn date for us. We went out and collected different leaves and stuff, then brought them home to make Autumn wreaths. She also bought apple cider and stuff to make pumpkin pie. It was a fun night.

Speaking of pie, we have made four pies in the last week. We love baking, but we were getting tired of cookies and brownies. At the beginning of the week, we made a strawberry pie that turned out to be delicious. It got eaten so fast that we made two pumpkin pies later in the week. Tonight, we made a "dump pie" where we threw a bunch of random ingredients (chili, fresh veggies, hamburger, etc.) into a pie crust and baked them. It also turned out really good. I don't think that Autumn time is the healthiest season at the Hazard home, but it is certainly one of the yummiest ones!

Here are some pictures of our week. Enjoy!

These first two pictures are when we went leaf collecting for our Autumn Date

Here are the wreaths we made with the leaves. Mine is on the left, and Rachel's is on the right. We've noticed that all of our friend's blogs center around their children. We don't have any children yet, so we'll fill that role for the time being (but I doubt that we'll stop playing once the kids come).

Crazy Week of Recovery

This week has been very eventful, even though I slept through half of it. In the last blog I mentioned that I had begun to have pretty bad back pains. Well, over the weekend they only got worse. By Sunday night I was having extreme back pain that did not ease with medication. I also noticed that my stomach was extremely tender, and it only took a soft brush of my hand to aggravate it. In the beginning I thought the pain in my back was normal due to pregnancy and my stomach sensitivity was round ligament pain, but on Monday morning I called our insurance advice nurse and she told me she thought I was in pre-term labor.

An appointment was set up immediately with my doctor and upon arrival I was admitted in the adjoining hospital. Pre-term labor was ruled out, but the doctors were not sure if I was having a severe kidney infection, kidney stones, or appendicitis. The normal way to diagnose these is through an x-ray, but my pregnancy complicated things. Instead, we had an ultrasound to see if a problem could be found. Nothing conclusive. I was moved into another part of the hospital and put on an IV drip to administer medication, antibiotics, and a fluid drip (all of this amounted in a six pound weight gain overnight!).

The sonographer for the ultrasounds gave us two more pictures of Wiggle bean. This time the baby looked completely different because the bones have begun to harden. I think these are fabulous pictures of Wiggle bean for the Halloween season. Logan will be posting these pictures as soon as they are downloaded. He is also threatening to post pictures he took of me at the hospital.

Throughout the night I had many blood tests and another ultrasound (both times the baby was uncooperative and we still don't know pink or blue). I began to feel better the next day and the doctors were able to rule out appendicitis. I went home on Tuesday night with treatments for both a kidney infection or a kidney stone. Every day this week I have felt progressively better and on Friday the results came back from the lab to show it was indeed an infection.

The best news of the week was that the baby was not affected at all. As my doctor put it "The baby has no idea what mom is going through, he or she is just patiently waiting for the next feeding." Wiggle bean was happily kicking throughout the whole ordeal. This definitely improved my mood! Wiggle bean has become increasingly active over the last week and a half and I am loving every minute of it! Logan felt the baby kick for the first time on Friday! That was a very sweet experience.

I would like to take a minute and thank everyone in our ward and at the dental school that have called, brought over goodies, and inquired about me to Logan. I don't really recall telling anyone what happened, but it seems the grapevine here in Cleveland is very active! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel very loved!

Needless to say, we have had a very non active week. Yesterday in-between conference sessions we decided to try and walk to the lake. We made it about three blocks before turning around and driving instead. I feel much better, but my entire stomach and the left side of my back feel like one gigantic bruise.

A few months ago we visited the zoo and noticed the vendors selling funnel cake. We decided that we could do that on our own, and this week we did! We made fabulous funnel cakes on Thursday and we decided to try a recipe for chocolate waffles on Friday morning. This week new recipes were not the healthiest, but they tasted really good!

Logan and I enjoyed watching conference this weekend from the comfort of our home. We didn't go to the church because I can not sit for that long. Ironically the only video version available was the ASL interpreted version. I enjoyed watching the interpreters and was pleasantly surprised to see some of my interpreting friends from BYU.

Life is wonderful in Cleveland!

Hey guys- This is Logan. As promised, here are the pictures of Wiggle Bean making scary faces. Also, as promised, I've included a picture of Beautiful Rachel as she models the local hospital attire. Please take a second to look at our next post as well to hear more about our adventures this week. Rachel has also updated her baby-belly pictures, for those of you who are tracking her "progress."

In this first picture, WB reminds me of Venom (The bad guy on Spider Man 3) with the giant teeth and big eyes. All you can really see here is the face.

In this one, WB is doing the "sad clown" routine. Look at that frown! You can also see both hands curled under the chin- sort of like a hamster.

Here's Rachel eating hospital macaroni and cheese with pudding. Yum. You can't see it, but she has all sorts of tubes and stuff going into her right arm.

This is the funnel cake we made. It actually turned out really, really good!

Here are the chocolate waffles we made. They sort of fell apart when we took them out of the waffle iron, but they tasted good!

That's all for this weeks edition of "The Hazard's Exploits."

So here's the story...

Last week Rachel volunteered to make refreshments for a fireside we were going to have about missionary work. She spent a lot of time making delicious lemon bars and we carefully put them on a plate to bring to the church. We made it as far as the end of our street before a squirrel darted out in front of us (suicidal squirrels are common 'round these parts). Rachel literally slammed on the breaks, causing much psychological trauma and managing to spread the lemon bars EVERYWHERE. Our entire front seat, dashboard, and my suit were covered in lemony goodness. We pulled over to clean up the car a little bit before going home to change, and as luck would have it, the missionaries just happened to be passing by.

They had a good laugh, I'm sure.

This week seems to have been a very busy week filled with exciting news and good fortune. That, at least, is how it seems. Reality is that this week hasn't been that much different from the normal routine. This can mean either one of two things: Either we are just imagining that our lives are great in a last-ditch psychological effort to cope with our tired lives, or our lives really are wonderful and every week is full of unforgetable experiences with each upcoming week bringing forth untold amounts of happiness.

The second of these options seems to discribe us perfectly! We love living out here with the changing Fall colors and the nice people, the fun experiences we each have at school or work, and the countless hours we spend just "hanging out" together wondering how things could get any better.

The highlight of the week was the Psi-Omega campout on Friday and Saturday. Psi-Omega (or Psi-O) is a dental school fraternity that I am in and it consists almost entirely of young families (over half of them are LDS) who enjoy having good, clean fun together. We all went to West Branch state park after school on Friday and it was a good way to meet people outside of their "dental student" roles. Rachel had fun holding all the babies that were there and daydreaming of the day that Wiggle Bean will be cooing in her arms. We had cornhole tournaments, which is a strangly popular and competitive version of the bean-bag toss. We took walks by the lake and enjoyed the fresh Autumn air. Overall, it was a very enjoyable weekend.

Also, we finished reading another book. This one, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" was by the same author of "The Kite Runner." We really liked both books, but we both agree that this one was better. Both are heartwrenching stories of Afghanis who go through unimaginable circumstances and somehow find happiness in the end.

Besides that, we have both been busy with school and Rachel has been working. This week she received several complements from her boss and her various teams regarding her mad interpreting skills. She also got a raise-Hooray!

We hope everyone is doing well and we enjoy staying in touch with each of you. Have a great week!

Hey everyone! I (Rachel) thought I would add a few comments about the changes that are happening with Wiggle Bean. On the way to the Psi-O campground I felt Wiggle bean actually kick for the first time (maybe second, but I am not quite sure :). It felt like a tiny finger softly poking me from the inside. Later that night as I was falling asleep, I felt Wiggle Bean actually become active for the first time. I felt little movements all over and this lasted for about three minutes. Since that time I have felt our baby become very active at times when I am very relaxed. I am absolutely loving it! My belly is beginning to expand more rapidly, but is still not noticeable to other people. From the last few days I am beginning to wonder if Wiggle Bean is trying to grow toward my back because I have been having awful backaches. Whatever the case, I am still happy and excited to be pregnant!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Here are some pictures of the state park where we went camping. We forgot to bring the camera, so we aren't in any of them. Sorry.

Monkeying around!

Logan always keeps me on my toes, and our home is never boring! While I was making dinner tonight I noticed that Logan was moving the flower (He brought me flowers yesterday!) centerpiece off of our table. I walked in to see what he was doing and he climbed on the table and bent his head over the end and proceeded to maneouver his body underneath the table and back up on the other side without touching the ground. I had the camera close by and was able to get a few good pictures that I just had to share. Logan is so much fun and I love being married to him!

After he was finished he told me about a game he plays with himself when I am not home and he is bored. He starts at one end of the house and navigates himself through the entire house without touching the ground. He also sets limits for himself such as making kitchen chairs off limits.

I am not sure if his monkey tendencies are from climbing, or if he loves climbing because of it! Many of you may have not seen this side of Logan, but he is great fun to live with!

Logan later told me that he set a limit for himself to not use his hands and instead use different parts of his body for balance (in this case it was his forearms).

I hope this made you smile! Have a wonderful day.

Loving every minute!

Hey! I hope everyone is doing great with whatever they are doing. I know we are! This week was a fun week for Rachel and me. There are two "highlights" that need to be mentioned about the week.

First of all, we had a visit to the doctor for our baby. Everything is going perfectly- Rachel is healthy, and the baby is healthy, and it doesn't even look like Rachel is pregnant yet even though she is already at the half-way mark for the pregnancy. We still don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl, but we a scheduling an ultrasound soon (sometime in the next couple of weeks) and we'll be sure to let everyone know what "shows up".

The second highlight is that we were able to go rock climbing at a place known as the Logtown Quarry. It's an old sandstone quarry that has close to a hundred established routes. The rock was a little different than we were used to and made for some interesting climbs and moves. We met a cool lady there, who was probably in her late 50s or early 60s. She had started climbing when she was 47, and had established a lot of the first ascents in the area, some of them up to 5.12 in difficulty. She came over and watched us climb for a while, and even coached me through a difficult move on a 5.11 I was leading. That was pretty awesome!

Besides that, life has been pretty great to us! We made a friend with a chipmunk that lives under our front porch. We named it "Ace" because of its fearless nature, and we enjoy watching it. Also, I had a fun experience on Friday when my class went into the public schools around Cleveland to teach the kids about teeth. I know that teeth aren't the most interesting things to learn about when you're in 3rd grade, but I think the kids had fun, and I know I did! I was nervous at first to be left alone with a group of little 2nd-3rd graders, but they put me at ease pretty quickly.

Logan was actually doing a dyno move upwards, but this picture gives the illusion that he is falling.

Fall is here!

A chill is in the air

The leaves are changing colors

School bells ring

And the air smells of...Apple Cider

(And the Hazards are Happy)

Autumn is officially here in Cleveland, and we love it! The leaves are starting to change their colors and evening walks are perfect in the crisp air. We have been taking full advantage of this wonderful changing season. This Saturday we spent the afternoon at the annual Johnny Appleseed Festival enjoying the sights, smells, tastes, and sounds of the fall season. The festival took place in a quaint town (everything around here seems quaint) on a small hill overlooking acres and acres of apple trees. There was a small pond near the bottom of the hill next to a corn maze and people standing in line for hay-rides and pony rides. Near the top of the hill were several booths selling everything from hand-made crafts to delicious home-made foods. Rachel and I tried our first apple dumpling with fresh hot spiced cider as we sat and took it all in.

Also, on Friday night we had a Mexican Fiesta at our house! We made mexican dishes, sang La Cucaracha, and watched the first few episodes of 24-season 2 (we were going to get a movie to match our theme, but we've wanted to see 24 for a while now).

Besides our fabulous weekend, we had a busy week. Rachel was all over the city with her interpreting job, and she was also at the school on a couple of days selling Indian's tickets for a CADA fundraiser. School is starting to get busier for me and we are starting to have tests. So far it hasn't been terribly overwhelming though and most days I still get done with everything by 3:00.

We are anxiously looking forward to our doctor's visit next week where we will finally schedule an ultrasound to determine if Wiggle Bean will be wearing pink or blue PJs.

Yet another good week

With only four real "work-days," this week seemed to fly by without us even knowing it. My classes are starting to actually require some work now (but not too much) and that makes the time go by fast as well.

Rachel has been sort-of busy with her classes and her walking group. Also, she has started to design the baby's room. She spends a lot of time over at a friend's house sewing curtins. She also continues to find great deals on Craigslist for things we need/want (this week she got a couple of $3 maternity shirts, and 9 Disney movies for $15).

In our free time we have been reading "The Kite Runner," which is an excellent book that makes Rachel cry a lot. We finnished it this week and we would reccomend it to all (except for small children, and those who want to think that no problems exist in the world).

Other than that, it has been a pretty normal week. There were some other random events, like the missionaries comming over for dinner or a CADA dinner party for Rachel, but overall it's been pretty relaxing.

Labor Day Madness!

Hello Everybody. I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend. I know Rachel and I did. On Friday afternoon after I was done with school we packed up the car and headed South to Kentucky and the Red River Gorge. Wow! What a wonderful place that is!

We camped the whole time in the gorge where, for only $5 you can pick up a permit to camp anywhere in the canyon for three days. The campsites were actually fairly well developed, and some even had bathrooms. Not bad.

Early on Saturday morning we went to a local gas station and asked about where we might buy a climbing guide. The gas station attendant looked at us like we were a little bit crazy and said that they didn't even know you could climb 'round these parts. Another guy in the gas station told us to check up the road at Miguel's Pizza, "where 'bout five hundred cars are parked." We went up there, and to our utmost joy found a camp-four-like setting with literally hundreds of climbers meandering around through the camp behind the pizza parlor. We gathered what information we could about the area and drove off to the cliffs.


The climbing there was nothing short of wonderful. The rock was sandstone with a lot of good iron ledges and pockets. Also a lot of good, near-perfect cracks splitting the walls of the gorge. We climbed all day on Saturday, taking only a little time to eat lunch in between climbs.


Sunday was our day off and we decided to relax, read, and do a little bit of hiking in the mountains. The hiking turned out to be beautiful, and we got to see many natural arches and expansive vistas. It is so green here that the mountains look like giant broccoli sticking their heads up out of the ground.

On Monday we hit the crags again and climbed until early afternoon. The drive home was uneventful other than a crazy lady accusing us of running into her car (we didn't) and then driving off. Also, it should be mentioned that there are a few Taco Bell's around here that serve Chili Cheese Burritos, and we have learned to plan our trips accordingly (for those of you who don't know already, Rachel has a not-so-mild infatuation with Chili Cheese Burritos).



Here are some pictures of our great weekend:

This is me in front of "Blue Runner," a beautiful 9+ trad line that I did.

Rachel, getting ready to do some serious climbing.




Us at Natural Arch. This was a pretty cool hike. The rock behind us is actually a big arch.




This was a very busy climbing area we went to on Monday. We actually had to stand in line for the climbs! Rachel is in the bottom right of the picture.



Here is where we camped the first night. Rachel is eating breakfast in our makeshift kitchen.

What lucky folks we are!

These two pictures pretty much sum up our week. The first is of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where we went hiking on Saturday. Although the hike was somewhat soggy (it poured on us) it was still a lot of fun, and very beautiful.

The second picture, as you may have guessed, is the newest to-be member of the Hazard family. This ultrasound was actually taken in Utah (see the last post for details), and it shows that Rachel does, in fact, have a baby inside of her. This week we went to the doctor again, and although we didn't get to see an ultrasound, we did hear the baby's heart- yet another sign that this baby is real. Really, it's pretty crazy!

We also are beginning to collect stuff for baby. Rachel has become quite the expert on craigslist (online classified ads) and she has found some great deals for us. This week we were able to get a stroller/car-seat "travel system," a Winnie the Pooh bassinet, a matching high-chair, and a baby carrier pouch thing that you wear in your chest like a kangaroo (also Winnie the Pooh). The Winnie the Pooh items are all light green plaid and will be perfect for a boy or a girl. All this stuff is in perfect condition, and Rachel was able to ruthlessly bargain the price down to be pretty dang low.

When Rachel is not perusing craigslist for more deals, she spends her time at her job interpreting, being the secretary for CADA (an organization for dental student's wives), and coordinating a walking group she has started up in our ward. I don't think she knows how to just sit back and relax!

As for me, school has been surprisingly laid-back up until now. I routinely get done by noon and am able to come home and hang out with Rach. This next week we are supposed to start some pretty intense stuff though, so I don't want to jinx myself by saying it is easy.

Overall, our lives continue to be charmed and we are loving our stay here in Cleveland.

Oh Baby!

This past week has been fun and busy. I (Rachel) spent the beginning of the week in Sandy having a good time with my family. We went to the zoo, hiking, shopping for maternity clothes, and had a lot of time to catch up. Because of some pregnancy complications we had a crazy night on Wednesday. I had to go to the hospital with my sisters and my mom, but thankfully everything seems to be ok. It actually turned into a really cool experiance because I was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time and my sisters and mom heard it too. We also had the first ultrasound to make sure the baby was doing ok. My mom came in with me and we saw the baby for the first time together. The baby looked so perfectly formed. I was expecting to see a little alien like image, but it looked very well proportioned and perfect! The doctor told us that according to the measurements the baby was actually 14 weeks and three days. If my doctor agrees this means my due date will be changed from Feb. 21st to Feb 10th! Logan was in Ohio because of school and I really missed him, but this was the only chance my family would get to see and hear the baby. The ultrasound technician did not allow cameras or video into the room, but before she left she snuck me a picture of the ultrasound. I will post pictures of the ultrasound as soon as we get our card reader to transfer pictures from our camera to our computer.

I have a belly! Last week I noticed that I was a little bit "thicker" in the middle and my stomach was starting to poke out a little bit (probably only noticeable to me!). In the last three days I have started to have noticeable little belly. Logan and I are very excited about this new development. I also started taking pictures to document my growth. I started at 12 weeks and will take one every two weeks. As soon as our camera is working I will post them for anyone that is interested.

Logan and I have had a lot of time together since I returned from Sandy. We have been reading the final Harry Potter together and we have read a lot this week. We also went to the temple in Columbus for the first time. It was an all day event because the temple is two and a half hours away.

Our week has been full of home made pies (maybe that is why I am beginning to show :). Logan made me a delicious coconut cream merangue pie for the day I arrived from the airport. Our electric mixer broke and he ended up putting our whisk in his electric drill to stir the egg whites! We had a delicious chocolate cream pie with oreo topping for our celebration of Logan's birthday last night. He turned twenty-five on Tuesday, but I was in Utah at that time.

Life is pretty wonderful for us here in Ohio. We would love to hear from you! Our e-mail addresses are rachelhazard@yahoo.com and loganhazard@yahoo.com if you want to say hi and/or give us an update. We love you guys!

Here are some pictures of Haley's Wedding:

Fun, Fun, Fun!

It's been a while since we wrote here. Rachel and I have be very busy these last few weeks. Soon after Rachel's parents left, we got on a plane headed for California for the Hazard family reunion!

We had a great time with everybody on the beach. There was a lot of swimming, surfing, and walks on the beach. Also, we had fun at Six Flags- Magic Mountain. Some of the guys got together and built some pretty awesome forts on the beach, which by now are probably inhabited by hobos. We also had a great family dance, lots of food, lots of kite-flying, and lots of fun just talking around the campfire. We couldn't have asked for a better week before going back to start school.

That's right...school has officially begun and I love it! The first few days were spent buying all the new toys I need (ouch), and then I started learning how to use them. I've always loved school and learning for learning's sake, but it is extra cool to be learning things that I will get to use on a day-to-day basis.

A week after school started we were on the plane again; this time to Utah for Haley's wedding. Matt is the new guy from Texas, and him and Haley will be very happy. The reception was a lot of fun with a lot of dancing. As one of the guests commented, "Only at a Hazard reception would they have the song 'Play that Funky Music White Boy'!"

Right now I am back in school, and Rachel is still in Utah hanging out with her family. Today she went to the zoo, and later she is planning on going to a Colln Raye concert with her sister, Shannon. We are as happy as ever, especially since we have so recently seen most of the friends and family that we love.


Here is a picture of my white coat ceremony. I'm standing next to a bunch of bald guys. Pics of the reunion and wedding will come next week.