Fun on the Fourth

My family got together at my parents house for a bit of fireworks on the fourth. Crystal brought the camera so I decided to play a bit. I'm pretty impressed with how some of them turned out.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

So this weekend was my birthday. Not just any birthday but this was the first one of the the dreaded birthday milestones. The big 30! In light of that situation, Crystal has been planning what was officially dubbed as "Chad's Birthday Celebration" for the last year or so. She wouldn't let me in on the secret and despite having told several people what she had up her sleeve, it never got back to me.

So on Friday I left work early as instructed and we started to drive. We ended up driving for a few hours and the final destination was Moab. She then told me what my present was, and here it is....


The catch was that I only got to keep it for one day, but oh what a day we had!



The pictures just don't do justice to what it feels like to be in the jeep going up and down some of these rocks.



This was one of the trails that we went on. If you look carefully you can see it follow the sandstone fins into the distance.


Some of us weren't so happy about being in the Jeep all day, but 3 out of 4 ain't too bad.











We had an awesome day and way too much fun. We even did some hiking and enjoyed the warm weather. I'll post more later, but I was so excited about the best birthday present ever, that I had to post something now. Thanks Crystal!

Young at Heart....

Created by Train Horn

So apparently only teenagers are supposed to be able to hear this noise, but I heard it. I guess that means I'm still young. I tend to think that this is more of a test to tell who takes care of their hearing, but I did my fair share of loud music and shooting guns without hearing protection that I probably shouldn't be able to hear it. So let me know your results.

WORK < REWARD

One of the benefits of being a software engineer (a.k.a code monkey) is that I can do my job from pretty much any location. My new employer is fairly flexible and has told me that on occasion working from home is allowed. Sometime Friday night I injured my lower back and have been in pain since. This morning when I woke up I decided that it would be a good day to try out the work from home bit. Despite my initial reservations about not being able to get anything done, it went rather well. Let me tell you, writing code while sitting in a lazy boy, it’s not half bad. Crystal was even nice enough to bring me some crepes while I was working and they were eating their breakfast.

The best part happened in the late afternoon. Ben had just returned home from his cousin’s house and stormed down the stairs to where I was. He walked over to me and pointed to the mouse that I was using on the arm of the chair, and asked me to move it. Curious to see what he was plotting I moved it to the other side of the chair. Ben then proceeded to climb onto the chair, give me a hug and said, “I really love you Dad.” I love the fact that Ben is a loving child and expresses it often. Even though I think that I am just “faking it”, it’s times like this where I think I might be doing something right.

So all in all, I like having the option to work from home, but I don’t think that I would want to do it every day. Just on special days, which hopefully will be even more special with more hugs and kisses.

Work...Work..Work

I’ve been at my new job for a month now and things seem to be going pretty well. They haven’t fired me yet! I work with really nice people and I get along with all of them really well. About half of my team has been there six months or less, so I’m not the only new guy.

As for the job itself, I like it so far. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the company sells software solutions for retail businesses. (Customer List) While our main software suite is pretty flexible some of our customers wish to use a more customized interface. That is what my team does. We add functionality to the existing software to make it all fit together really nicely. For example, a auto lube chain, may get all of the functionality they want from out software for sales, inventory and employee scheduling, but they also want something that can track vehicle service history and provide a list of recommended services for a specific vehicle with specific mileage. So my team will take those requirements and create a system that will do what they want and tie it into the retail.net side of things.

We use java, which I used at Teltronics, so the language isn’t really too new, at least the basics of it. I used to have my own office with windows that overlooked Sugarhouse Park, now I’m in the basement of an old building. I went from covered parking to having to park in a lot a block away and walking to the building. Those are the big drawbacks, the positive side far outweighs the negative. The people I work with are great, I have good equipment to work on, we have quality procedures and QA people to help test, and I’m having fun sometimes.

In summary I have better benefits, better pay and a better environment. Teltronics taught me some good things, and it was a great stepping stone, but this job already seems to be better place and better for me. Plus I have done some good work already and feel like I am contributing to the project aka. I'm useful.

I would like to thank all of the little people...

I decided that I was going to write down a few things for which I am thankful. Maybe it’s the time of year that inspired me and maybe it’s just because I am feeling loved and glad for the happy things in my life, so here goes:

• I am very thankful for a wife who cares about me and sacrifices all of her time, energy and dreams to care for our family. I couldn’t do it and sometimes she makes it look easy.
• I am thankful for a family who brought me breakfast in bed.
• I am thankful for being able to enjoy a good football game, once in a while.
• I am thankful for two loving children who continue to love me in spite of all the mistakes that I make while trying to raise them.
• I am thankful for cooler weather, warm blankets, and children to snuggle with.
• I am thankful for all of my family (both sides) and their love and support of me.
• I am thankful for being healthy.
• I am thankful for good entertainment and friends to share it with.
• I am thankful for all of my friends who forgive me for not contacting them all of the time, but who know that I still love them.
• I am thankful for hugs and grandma’s who give them.
• I am thankful for love, and those who give and those who allow me to give it to them.

I am blessed with many things in my life, some large and some small, but I hope that I can try to be thankful for them all.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat....

Some of you may have heard that I was quite lucky in my new job search and I will be starting the new job tomorrow. I'm a little (or a lot) nervous but I think that I will be able to do the job. I think change always makes me a little nervous. It sounds like a good company, but I am sure that I will find out more in the days to come. The company name is Tomax and they do software for retail businesses. The location is pretty good, close to downtown and about six miles closer to home than the last job. (I am always in favor of shortening the commute.)

I can't help feeling that this is a process that I will need to get used to. I think that in the field of Software Engineering it is quite common to get a new job every few years. That seems weird to me but at the same time, perhaps a little exhilarating. Change is hard, but most hard things turn out to be good things in the end. So we'll just wait it out, raise our glasses and make a toast to the future. Hopefully it won't be happening again for at least a couple of more years.

Oh sNOw!

I can't believe how much snow we got last night. It's too early for this kind of stuff. I even had to break out the shovel. BAH!

After the Flood Part I

So I took some pictures of the basement after it's all dried out. The damage is pretty extensive and will take some time to fix. Hopefully the repair work will start later this week. It's been fairly interesting to live in the guest room once again, but this time with two little children. It's hard not having our stuff accessible or having our own space, but we have to recognize how blessed we are that we have a place to live and friendly people to live with.

Thanks

As some of you know, on Friday, Crystal and I came home to find about three feet of water in the cold storage room and then water damage throughout other parts of the house. I can't express the gratitude that I feel for all of those who showed up (and there were a lot) to help us in our time of need. Many ward members and family and friends were there in an instant and worked all night beside us. To all of them I say THANK YOU! We couldn't have done it without you.

The "No Thank You" Bite

We have a little rule in our household (I believe that we picked up this particular rule from Crystal's sister) that in order for someone to leave the dinner table they must take at least one bite of all of the items on the plate and then if they do not wish to eat further they can say, "No thank you". Beepers was being his normal self tonight and didn't want to eat any of his cheesy potatoes. After a verbal struggle, two stints in the dreaded "corner" and he finally took a small bite of potatoes.

Crystal and I were basking in our small victory when suddenly Beepers in the middle of chewing his potatoes, suddenly and without warning vomited on the floor by the table. All of us kind of stood there in shock for a minute and then we couldn't help but laugh. I don't think we will ever know if Beepers had a sick stomach or if he just convinced himself that the potatoes were not going down, but either way they didn't make it.

Being a parent is interesting difficult work and this will probably turn out to be one of those "you had to be there" moments, but sometimes you just have to laugh at life, even at gross as something as this, or it will literally drive you insane.

It's all French to me.

This morning I wanted to make Crystal a special breakfast, but I had no idea what to make. Last night I searched the web and finally found this quiche recipe that sounded really good. So I got up a little early this morning, grabbed bright eyed Jack, and headed to the store to get the necessary items.

To make a long story short, we came home and cooked it. It was scrumptious. I am not a master cook, but luckily enough it's an easy recipe. So go ahead and try it, I think that you will like it.

It has ham, sun dried tomatoes, potatoes and various spices. mmmmmmmmm!

Sweet Reminders

Today is a special day, because as some of you already know, it was six years ago today that I made the best decision of my life. Six years ago Crystal and I were married and it is absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me. It's awesome because we were already friends and we had been for a long time, but now we have an excuse to spend almost every minute of every day together. I never get tired of her and I love everything that she does. Being a mom and wife is hard, thankless work, but she does an excellent job at both. I am so thankful that she decided to marry me and that she brings this joy and excitement into my life everyday.

Thank you Crystal for everything and here is to looking into eternity with you!

Milestones

Hey look, I'm actually not dead and I can still type. I am not quite sure why I haven't written a post in such a long time, other than the fact that I didn't think that I had anything interesting to write about.

So for the past year, Crystal and I have had a membership to the South Davis Recreation Center aka the Gym. We have had a ton of fun taking Beepers swimming and he loves it. I decided that I wasn't going to let all that money go to waste so I started to go to the gym in the morning before work. I usually spend some time on the treadmill and I have surprised myself at how anyone can do well if they just keep doing it.

Seeing as how I am a freak and I love to keep track of numbers, today marked the 200th mile that I have run or walked on the treadmills at the gym in the last year. I know I toot my own horn a lot on this blog, but I figured that it was a good accomplishment. Here's to the next 200!

Mind Boggling

Today I solved a Rubik's Cube for the very first time! Granted I had to use the instructions to do it, but I still felt like it was somewhat of an accomplishment. I decided to go and get a cube because last weekend my sister was playing with one and was telling me that she has now solved it about three times. Being the official "Geek" of the family, I just couldn't let that slide. (Yes, I know that I am pathetic.) So even though it was something that I always thought would be fun to do, I owe it all to my sister.

Merry Christmas

We just want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Conversational Wizard

This was part of a Saturday morning breakfast dialogue between Beepers and myself.

Beepers(B): sniff… sniff. I smell something..

Me: What do you smell?

B: I don’t know, but I smell something.

Me: Do you need me to change your diaper?

B: No.

Me: Are you sure you don’t need your diaper changed?

B: I don’t need my diaper changed!

B: I smell something. (Wrinkles nose).

Me: What does it smell like?

B: It smells like poop!

Me: What is it then?

B: I think it’s you.

What do you say to that!

The slippery slope

The other day when as I was preparing to leave for work, I noticed that it had been pretty stormy and nasty outside. I looked out to check for snow, because the forecast had suggested that it was possible. Luckily it was not snowing, so I took a little extra time to get ready. Twenty minutes later when I made my appearance outside, much to my surprise I discovered that there was a half an inch of hail and sleet on the ground. Normally this is no big deal, but for those of you that don’t know where I live, on one end of my street is a big hill to go up to a main road and on the other end of my street is a steeper hill down. Normally I always go up the hill because it is faster, but on days when it is really slippery, that is not an option. Well, I watched another car try and fight its way up the hill and fail, so I decided to go the other way. Keep it slow and make the first turn and the worst of it is over. I carefully drove down the street, turned on to the hill and then tapped the brakes to slow down a little. When I tapped the brakes it didn’t slow me down but caused the car to start sliding, now not only was I not able to slow down, but steering wasn’t an option either. There are a few feelings in this world that I didn’t ever need to experience and this was one of them. Realizing that I couldn’t do anything and just watching myself, approach the curb where the road turns. It seemed to take forever, but it probably didn’t. BLAM! Contact with the curb, my car was spun slightly to the side and now both wheels on the passenger side were against the curb, and yes I was still sliding. Down the hill I went scraping against the curb, until the steepness of the hill started to level out. At this point I was able to narrowly steer around a garbage can and bring the car to a stop. It would have been funnier to have hit the garbage can and strewn garbage everywhere, but I am glad that I didn’t.

I jumped out into the storm to check the damage. It was still mostly dark and I couldn’t see very much but I knew that the wheel was somewhat bent up. I went back up the hill, to get the pieces of my hubcap and then climbed back into the car. My cell phone then rang, and slightly dazed I answered. It was my boss, who doesn’t live too far away from me. He was asking me if I was crazy enough to be driving to work and that if I hadn’t left I should stay home and wait for a couple of hours before leaving. Sadly I told him part of the story and that I would probably just try and make my way to work, I certainly wasn’t going to try and go back up the hill.

To sum up the rest of the story, I drove the car to work, vibrating very badly the whole way, did a quick inspection of the damage and went in to work. (Where the servers had died from the storm and everyone was waiting for me to fix it.) At lunch I went down and looked at the bent wheel, and decided to put the spare on. It drove much better and later in the day I drove it to the tire place to have them look at it. As it turns out, I got pretty lucky and only had to buy one new wheel and get an alignment. I’m still mad that it happened, but am very happy that it didn’t cost me a thousand dollars to fix. What a day!

The 1,000,000 dollar question

When I posted the last blog with the pictures I had just run home from the hospital to take a shower, publish a quick post and then go back. When I returned to the hospital Crystal asked me what I had put in the post. Then she asked, did you put if it was a boy or girl? Ummmmmmmmmm, whoops! So when I returned home the next day I was not too surprised to find several eager comments to find out the answer to said question. Apparently some think that it is a very important question. (Pull my head out indeed!)

So today being my dubious self I toyed with the idea of making you all take an online quiz, to see what the popular vote on the issue was. Then I realized that I don't have that many readers and most of them expressed their guess in the comments on the last post. So after much babble, and idle talk, I will get down the the answer that you have all been waiting for.............. Let's just say that we are now 2 and 0. That's right another boy, Beepers has a brother. We'll post more later.

Are pictures really worth a thousand words....You tell me?

Welcome baby binkers! 8lbs 7oz, 20 1/2 inches long. Born at 5:20 pm mountain time 8/24/07