Suzuki GZ250

So most people that I have spoken with have not believed that I bought a motorbike. As weird as it is, yes I have a bike. It is considered an entry level bike by retailers and enthusiast. Most people buy this bike to learn how to ride a bike, and then quickly move up on the size once they feel comfortable. To give you a better idea of what kind of power and size I am riding on, here are a few specs and comparisons.


Your typical (stock) Honda Civic EX usually has a about 115 HP from a 1.8 Liter engine. If my math is right then that is about 1800cc. My bike is a Suzuki GZ250 and it is 250cc. Or 0.25 Liters. It pumps out about 18 HP. Not even enough to lift my front tire off the ground (which is what both Maren and I prefer). My bike weights roughly 350 lbs. A Honda Civic weights about 2000 lbs.

Maren and I decided to go this route because I have to drive 2.5 miles every day to go to work. My previous commuter is a wonderful car, but it only gets 17 mpg in the city. My bike will do 65mpg in the city. I fill it's 3 gallon tank every 3 to 4 weeks versus my car's 1 to 2 weeks between fill ups.


One more factor went into getting a bike. We went car shopping several times and while we found things we liked we still would have been locked into payments of 200 dollars a month for something that is not as efficient as this bike. So I bought it outright. I own it and now I only have to pay for gas... and insurance, Which is a whopping $108 dollars a year for full coverage.

Yes I like riding my bike, but if I had the money then I would be in a car. I have seen too many accidents here at BYU involving scooters or motorbikes.

Look What I Can DO!!

Many new and exciting things happen when Duane comes home on his lunch breaks. Yesterday, Evan started clapping for the first time. He is now starting to recognize what we mean when we say the word clap. He does it more when he's happy. So I think that this may be one of his ways to show that he's happy. It's so cute!! FYI, The Halloween Post is coming very soon! It will include Evan's first really good standing caught on tape.

Halloween (sorry it's late)

Evan has now officially experienced his first Halloween! Unfortunately for him, he is still too young to enjoy the candy aspect of the holiday. Darn...no sugar high for mom to deal with yet. That will come in time I guess. For Halloween this year, our family decided to go with "The Wizard of Oz" as our theme. Duane was the Scarecrow; Maren was Dorothy; and Evan was the Cowardly Lion. Evan looked SO CUTE!!! We must gives props to Aunt Teya for picking the lion costume out and Grandma Miner for buying it. Nice work ladies! It was a hit! We even won a prize at our ward Halloween party for our family's costumes. There were a lot of awesome costumes and costume combos at the ward party! Some included the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood; a Ghostbuster and the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow (wo)man; Captain America and mini Captain America; a family of Newsies; and many more. There was lots of creativity this year. Although, last year's Chef and "Bun in the Oven" duo was pretty great too!

Halloween and Christmas are Maren's favorite holidays and so she goes all out for them. She spent a lot of time making and decorating some cakes for the ward party. The pictures need to be lightened a bit but you get the idea. She made a mummy, werewolf, Frankenstein, and eyeball and a couple of random monsters. The Werewolf seemed to be the most popular. It has lots of frosting, made to look like hair. It was a red-velvet cake with raspberry filling. Yum! She would love to make cakes more often, but she likes to make and decorate them more than she likes eating them. (Still trying to get back to the pre-baby body) Those who ate tried them at the party said they were yummy! YEA!!

Duane carved a pretty cool pumpkin this year. It was a big pumpkin eating a little one. He's definitely the pumpkin carver in the family. So much more creative and skilled at it than Maren. With our powers combined...we make a pretty good Halloween team! (bet you thought I was going to say "I am Captain Planet!") All-in-all, Halloween was pretty great this year! We had lots of fun.

In other news;

Evan is getting really good at standing on his own. We finally caught him on video. He started standing by himself on November 1st. He is growing up so fast! Before we know it, he'll be walking on his own.

We finally found a family dentist. Maren Has already had her appointment and despite going 4 years without a check-up, she has no cavities!!! We got fluoride/vitamin drops for Evan, so that his teeth will be nice and healthy. We also got his first toothbrush from the dentist... not that we're able to do too much with it yet. Duane will have his appointment next. We're keeping our fingers crossed that all will go well.

Duane has been working super-hard at work and school. Evan and Maren have been so proud of him! There is only about another month and a half left in the semester.
The spiders are showing up in force lately. We killed a Black Widow spider outside our front door. That got Maren really nervous and she went around the apartment spraying windows. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep those coming into the house, under control.