Birth of a Blog

So... The Edvalson's have officially become bloggers. I hope this provides a useful place for all of my estranged and strange friends to keep up on what is going on with us. Becky keeps resisting and tells me that if I want a blog that I can do one myself. Well here I go. Most of the blogs that I read belong to either family or friends and I am generally entertained by them and have found that reading my friends' blogs provide valuable hours of procrastination. This skill is important in grad school, and I would imagine for anyone who has to do some sort of unpleasant task that they would rather avoid. So I dedicate this first entry to the art of procrastination.
Now, I'll get to the part everyone wants to hear. What the heck have we been up to for the last few years? Well I could probably best sum it up in one sentence. I have been writing papers while my wife has been making babies.
But I will add a few more details if you like. Becky and I got married in June of 2005. (Notice the smug expression yep I was pretty lucky.) This was probably the same time I stopped hanging out with most of you so this is a good place to fill in the details.

After 2 months in Provo we lived in Mexico for three months in a rural Mexican Village teaching reading courses to adults who wanted to receive the Mexican version of a GED. That was a great place to start out our marriage. Then we went back to Provo where Becky finished her degree in International Studies and I thought hard about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I decided that getting a PH.D. in Anthropology was one of the things I thought I could do, so I applied to grad schools and the State University of New York at Albany was willing to take me one plus give me a job so that is where we ended up. Albany has been a cool place to live. It's the capital of New York, has nice tree color in the Fall. Fall is pretty much the best time to live here. Summers are humid and Spring gives me allergies, so for my money fall is where it's at. We have lived in the inner city for the most part and have enjoyed a more diverse environment than what I was used to in Benton City. For all those who wonder what the heck I am doing in grad school, the short answer is that I study anthropology which is perhaps the broadest discipline in the social sciences. It specializes in understanding the human condition. Specifically I am interested in understanding the human condition of Indigenous Maya people in Guatemala. My dissertation will look at Community Politics and schooling in the community. I could go on and on about this, but if you really want to know more about it you cans ask me personally. Through all of this Becky has been really supportive and encouraging, besides being the mother of my children, she edits papers, corrects Spanish tests online, and has worked as a reading teacher during the summer. My wife is pretty cool in case you didn't know that already. During my first year in grad school we had a baby girl.

Our first child, Lucy is a delightful energetic little girl. But don't be fooled by that cute expression, she likes to cause all kinds of problems. Currently she enjoys apples, dancing, eating rocks, splashing in the toilet, chasing cats and climbing on anything she can. For the first 9 months or so she didn't like sleeping very well, so Becky and I were Zombies a lot of the time. Finally she decided she would start sleeping and Becky and I started being less grumpy and for some reason we got pregnant again! Go figure. Our son Levi is set to be born any day now. Outside of changing diapers and taking naps, we enjoy participating with our church on Sundays which also gives us lots of opportunities to do community service and provides a very nice social network here in Albany. We have made a lot of friends there with young couples in pretty much similar situations as we are. Life is good if at times stressful. Luckily being poor suits Becky fine and we have learned many penny pinching skills. I hope this all finds you well and enjoying the journey. If you have any cool blog advice or suggestions let me know. Keep in touch!