keep it simple

so i did one of these sweet online tests that my sisters and bro-in law love so much. turns out, its pretty right on.

You Are Strawberries with Cream

Fresh and uncomplicated, you are always enjoyed but often overlooked. You're confident in who you are. You don't need a facade to feel better about yourself.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

goin fishin'

so the search is over kids. for those of you who know me, i have been talkin about gettin a new surfboard since i graduated. erika can attest to my constant jibber-jabbering about types, sizes, colors, shapers, brands, deals.....my incessant trips to surf shops, and complaints about my current board.i even went on craig's list and found a Channel Islands Flyer
(not a fish)that i bought then sold for a profit. well the griping can stop. here it is kids: aint she a beaute? its a Kane Gardens Classic Fish. i have been searching for months and am so stoked to be able to surf in this crappy summer surf. so how did i end up with this pez? i saw a posting on craig's list for a rep who was having a surplus sale down in La Jolla today. so after work, i hopped onto the good ole 5 freeway ready to go check it out, but pretty much camped out in traffic.so i called the KG factory on the way down, and got directions to it. KG headquarters was closer and i couldn't handle any more of the bumper to bumper. i hadn't planned on going to KG but it must have been fate. Shirley, the shaper's wife and office manager helped me out on finding me a shtick. I met Stu and he lined me up with it. the nicest people ever and a easy-going and joyful experience. stu is the man and i will definitely be a life-long customer of his. goin straight to the HQ got me nearly 50% off retail price. can i get an amen?!so to all you who so generously contributed to the mrlokestroke surfboard fund, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

la segunda ronda

(thats round 2 for those of you who don't hablar the español)
so i last left you with a few little thangs that i love about my lil wifey, with a promise to share more. a man of my word, here ya go:
she is a hard-worker.don't let the blonde hair, bright white smile, and beautiful blue eyes fool ya...the etrain works her tail off. as pointed out last week by a certain miss Sarita Tayebi, she could be a spoiled brat and demand everything from daddy, but chooses to earn her keep. she has an amazing work ethic, something that i need to adopt more of. she has worked hard her whole life, and won't settle for anything.(except me i guess) she was a Hinckley scholar at BYU, ran a restraunt in p-town and currently works her butt of at Nufaces Spa, and her own business of esthetics on the side. on top of all that she works hard around the house, making sure our pad is perfectly clean, and smelling good. i really look up to her for being so driven and dedicated.

she is fitness-conscious: i never really have told her how grateful i am for her dedication to fitness. she runs daily, usually with her mom and her faithful pup "Bus-Bus." i don't know how she does it, running is the last thing i wanna do at 7:00am. she has even ran the dreaded, infamous 26.2 miles of a marathon. she got me hooked on yoga...sadly we haven't been able to practice much and harness our chi out here in s.d. she totally dominated the class in provo; bustin out dolphin stands like it was her job. i take great pride in bragging to all my friends about how in shape she is and dedicated to taking care of herself. when we first started dating she would surf with me, and one of our first times hanging out she showed me up hard core wakeboarding. check her out at lake havasu earlier this summer:total domination!









sometimes i call her Lyric. the girl knows every word to every song she has ever heard. she has a knack for memorizing the words to songs after only listening to them once. its pretty amazing actually, and always makes me laugh. she loves to dance in the car while she belts out the high notes, in her own renditions. she usally changes the wording around for fun. as a side note of her knowing the words to every song she hears, she knows how to rock! we have seen several shows together, concerts at dive clubs, and full of tools trying to be cool. she has jumped around in a mosh pit and held her own in a packed house full of sweaty, smelly dudes. wolfmother, the shins, death cab, panic, strung-out, just to name a few...its her dream to see Bad Religion live. Etrain is closet p.f.r.


one of the cutest things about the e-train is how she treats our puppy. he truly is a mama's boy, and she defnitely treats him like her little baby. she has about seven nicknames for him-shocking i know- and is always excited to see him when she gets home. she cuddles up with him, and baby-talks him in her arms.this may seem annoying or rediculous to some, but for me it has opened up a whole new side of the e-train. the mothering nurturing side. i know some of you are rolling your eyes about comparing children to pets...i don't want you to get the wrong idea. i look at the way she acts around buster as potential. she claims that she is not good with kids, or they don't like her...blah, blah, blah.NONSENSE! she has them eating out of the palm of her hand. having a puppy has created new opportunities for those mothering instincts and intuition to emerge. i watch her play with my niece and nephews and know that she will be a great mother.

so thats the tip of the iceberg of my love for mrs. lokestroke. I hope i shed a lil light on who i get to share my days with...lucky me!

pitter patter

not all the strength of the ocean
not all the heat from the sun
though others have tried
i just can't deny
for me YOU are the one
for true love is priceless
for true love you pay a price
theres nothing that can keep me from loving you
not fire, no not ice

for reasons unknown to me, i have this crazy little gene cruising around through me that keeps me from being able to have an adult bone in my body which denies me the ability to have an intelligent, developed and legitimately mature conversation. i used to pride myself on being a "great communicator" or listener. as a teenager i often played the role of the couples therapist- providing advice, an attentive ear, or shoulder to lean on. now i realize that was a load of crap that i told myself because i never had a girlfriend and the rest of my friends did. oddly enough, i find writing a form of personal therapy, and find my deepest and most thought provoking insights can be spelled out so much clearer when my mouth doesn't get in the way. that being said, i have come to the realization that i like to give shot-outs, "what-whats" and hollas at a lot of people out there, but am lacking in giving the recognition to my dream girl, my bride, my pahtnuh, my sweetheart and blue-eyed bombshell of a wife!

the etrain, as she is sometimes referred to, is my world. i consider myself lucky to have landed such a keeper of a woman. there is a mormon myth that says that the harder you work on your mission, the hotter the wife you get. i worked my butt off out in the motherland of España, but there is no way i could have worked hard enough to score the etrain by my own efforts. definitley some divine intervention was workin in as we were dating for her to be convinced to stick it out for the long haul with yours truly! why do i love this girl so much? thats not even a question- the real question is how does she put up with me?

ever since i met erika, i have noticed her love for life. she has this sunny countenance about her that glows and heats up a room. there is a song by ben harper called "she's only happy in the sun," and i used to call it her song, because she is truly a california girl...but then i realized that she brings out the brightness of the sun and radiates energy and spunk everyday. she loves life, the little things in life, and knows how to make them big.

those magic paws...yes the paws. i joke about how small of hands she has, especially when we first started dating. i felt like a great big grizzly when first started holding hands...her tiny, dainty hands next to mine always made me laugh. but, those lil paws harness the strength of 10 bears! those "money makers" are perfect for any sore shoulder, back or neck. having a message therapist for a wife is what sealed the deal for me. whether at Nufaces, at her parent's or on a church pew, she does have the magic touch!

nigs, tone-tone, two tone designs, bucket, grunge, mims, dady-o, yeen, lis,mama, fugs n' jugz....the girl has a knack for nicknames, and each one is more funny. she keeps me on my toes, with random names for random things and i laugh every time. g.b. hinx has to be my favorite, as sacreligious as it may be...her witty, goofy charm is what cheers me up in any situation. if you are ever one of those kids who never had a nickname growing up and felt like you missed out, give erika a call!

my own personal Giada DeLaurentis:homegirl has skillz! erika is obsessed with Giada, and i reap all the benefits of her wanting to be just like her. she is an amazing cook, something that developed while we were dating that i happily indulged in. she took a cooking class and would test our her recipes on me, which i greatly appreciated and gladly accepted. each week i get to sink my teeth into something "delish" and usually very healthy. its adorable to watch her cook, and its even better to watch her enjoy her own food just like Mrs. DeLaurentis. i am so lucky that she knows how to and enjoys cooking...life would suck if we were livin on top-ramen and mac & cheese.

round 2 of why i love the easy-E will have to continue tomorrow. in the words of mrs. lokestroke- "me's pooped!"

livin up to the blog queen

so i have officially created a monster folks. a while back i decided to do this whole blog thing, cuz..well, why not? my two sisters jumped on the blog train, and I guess I hopped off somewhere and have been periodically been hitch hiking for about a year. Miq, my biggest sis, is now a machine. her blog is pretty sweet, man. i supposed if i had as cool of kids as her, i would be just as proud and anxious to show them off to the world. not only does she have great kids, she has pretty amazing insights too. growing up with Miq, i just remember drama and often wondered why she was so annoying. she is 5 yrs older, so we were never really close and i never really understood her. looking back now, i went through the same crap, and gave my parents the same attitude. its been said that i can get away with a lot more, and give a lot more sass cuz i am the baby. this may seem like a full on Mique-bash...but just wait folks.

Mr lokestroke is a sensitive, calm and laid back kinda guy. what i am REALLY tryin to say is that over the years, as i have matured (much to my sisters disbelief and doubts) i have seen what kind of an amazing person the infamous Miq-a-Liq has become. an amazing mother of three adorable kids, a fighter and advocate for her special needs child with autism, a creative and talented photographer and scrapbooker. who knows how she does it all, how she has time to juggle all that stuff and still come out on top. i know she has her days, as she says, but who doesn't? and if anyone can have her days, its her. not only is she a fabulous mother, but she is also a die-hard and loyal friend that anyone and everyone would love to have. her personal creativity and thought that she puts into everything she does leaves us all amazed and surprised and speechless; or if you are my mom, she makes you cry. she is person who will do anything for family, and definitely knows how to treat me and jess and our spouses. as a brother i feel lucky to have her as an example and i am glad that we have grown closer over the years. one thing about Miq is that she rarely gets the credit she deserves. a guess that goes with the territory of motherhood- so many unseen and unmentioned acts of service and selfless sacrifice. well Muq, in my small way i thank you and applaud you for being who you are. i thank you as a brother and a friend and am proud of how you handle your daily adventures with the Provosts.

if you wanna see what i am talking about, just click to see her blog on my links!

the apt

so for a lil while there we were living with the folks when we first moved back. first of all, let me just say how much we appreciated the hospitality of my parents. they made life really easy for us, and were so generous and cool about everything. as much as we appreciated the nice digs and constant hook up, there comes a time when a man has to get a place to call his very own.
So we got this lil place in Carlsbad-well, i suppose its San Elijo Hills. regardless of what zip code we have, we love our lil place and feel lucky to be living in a new-brand spankin new crib. check it out:






of course the pics don't do it justice, you have to come out and see it for yourself. for those of you who haven't seen and experienced casa lokestroke, consider this an invitation! mi casa es su casa

one month in the ENC

Over the past month a lot of crap has gone down.i pretty much suck at keeping this blog updated...sorry to loke stroke fans out there. i could throw out yet again another list of this and that, highlight shot-outs, etc...but alas, i don't have the energy nor the memory to put it all down. i suppose i will let my brain spill a bit, and my thoughts fly out freely and uninterrupted.

I have now been working at Aquatic Design Group for a month now, and learning a ton about the business, design, architecture and life working 40 hours a week. Before working full time me and the mrs. were able to enjoy the good life, vacationing and jet setting around the country. We went up to Lake Havasu for a weekend, where we basked in the the hot AZ sun, and dominated wakeboarding.Thanks Jon and Mary for hooking us up!!













Something that also happened was my nephew Drew turned one. Like the amazing mother that she is, Miq threw a birthday bash for the little tyke. its been said that Drewl is a spittin image of yours truly when I was his age. Quite freaky it is, because its true. For loke stroke fans out there, here ya go- me 24 years ago:


Another trip I got to take was out to Washington DC for G-rides wedding. I had never been out to DC and to be perfectly honest, never really wanted or thought to go out there. our nation's capital, the land of politics and political people--if anyone knows me, they know that politics are not my forte or my cup o tea. However, I loved goin out back east! I met up with friends till the end Chris and Sarita and we definitely bonded since we only knew each other during the festivities. The DC temple was beautiful and so was the Maryland countryside. I felt like I was in a movie most of the time. Its so quaint, green and the people in MD are so nice. Here are a couple shots of the bride and groom, Mr and Mrs. Garrett Giles-












More updates of life back in the ENC is in the works. hasta la proxima