I’m the twelfth of thirteen children in a “yours, mine and ours” type family. My dad’s side of the family is LDS pioneer stock and my mom converted near the end of her first marriage. I grew up in the Church, but wasn’t really all that converted until the year between high school graduation and my mission. Ever since then, my faith and conviction have waxed and waned, but I believe and I find the life that Mormonism offers to be very satisfying, so here I am.

Up until grad school I lived all my life in Orem, Utah, with the exception of my time in the Brazil, Belo Horizonte East mission from 1998 to 2000. I graduated from BYU with a BS in microbiology in 2002. Since then I’ve been (slowly) working toward a PhD in biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. I study cell cycle control in baker’s yeast, which is strikingly similar to cell cycle control in mammals. I don’t quite know what I’ll do once I finish up here. My main desire is to have a house with a yard.

In August of 2000, while on a singles ward pioneer trek at Martin’s Cove, Wyoming, I fell in love with the girl that worked behind the deli counter of the grocery store where I also worked. Summer and I got married in December of that year and now we have two boys (Ethan, 5, and Caleb, 3.5) and a girl on the way (due April 23, 2007). My family fills my life with love.

For fun I like to listen to music (classic and indie/alternative pop/rock, mostly), watch movies (old and new), play guitar and pretend I’m a rock star, read stuff on the internet, write stuff on the internet, and play golf. I would like to take up fly fishing and fly tying again. And someday I want to make an album and a movie.