My Beautiful Domestic Wife

Emily doesn't just do all that house cleaning stuff, she does it in style! (Don't worry, I'm required to help :-)

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we headed out to my Grandparent's cabin near Joshua Tree National Park. Everyone from my Dad's side came, except those who live outside the United States, including their dogs.

Zach hasn't been up close and personal with a dog for a very long time. He didn't seem to mind them though. In fact he was a bit too friendly. He wanted to see inside their ears, check out their paws, and be in their faces almost all the time. The dogs on the other hand didn't care for this too much, nor could I blame them. Though after a few days both dogs and Zach began to understand each other a little better.

"Almost Yet"

We are "almost yet" done with school! The thesis is in for final revisions, graduation announcements are addressed, and the project is done. After a few more days, we will be done. Now we can learn what life is like when you are not in school. I am excited for that!

Halloween vs. Swine Flu

We had these big plans to take our thing 1 and thing 2 out to the local trunk or treat. Since Halloween fell on a Saturday, we were even going to go to the downtown trick or treat event with dad. Oh, well! Wednesday afternoon, Mom decided to come down with a horrible headache, upset stomach and fever. This lead to a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday filled with delightful fevers, migraines and other enjoyable activities. We took Mom to the doctor on Saturday, since her fever didn't show signs of going anywhere, and the Doctor said, it might as well be Swine Flu. They didn't test for it, but she has all the symptoms. The best part is on Saturday night, Zach came down with a fever, as well as Liz. How did I luck out? Well, I figure I'll squeak by till Thursday after my Masters Defense, then it will hit me nice and hard.

So what would I recommend to fight against "Swine Flu?"

A nice set of masks:


A good battery of Tylenol and Ibuprofen, for both kids and adults: (It doesn't help that Liz is fighting an ear infection right now, so she has her own set of goodies) Unless you're at some abnormal risk, all the Doctor can do for you is recommend fever treatment:



And an invincible/immune grandma that is willing to come rescue some kids who's parents were dis-functional due to migraines and fevers (THANKS GRANDMA!!!!):



Add these things together, and passing the swine flu across the whole family isn't to bad. :-)

Oh, don't read this blog to long, it might reach through the computer and get ya!

Helicopters?

While at Grandma's today we got to enjoy our own airshow! Apparently someone decided to do touch and goes at the local school, just a few blocks away. Here we are watching all of the fun. (Please note: Peter's laptop is only participating because he has a thesis project with a deadline coming up fast.)

Just in time to move!

After about 5 years of overgrowth and neglect, mom's fountain again looks wonderful!! Here's a little before and after (You'll have click on the before picture to get the full effect). It took all summer to do, but it was well worth it. The only lame part is I have to move away for my last semester of school, so I've only had about a week to enjoy it. :-( We'll just have to wait till next year. We can get mom's fountain going and maybe get one of our own! (P.S. - Me, the nerd, is de-commandeering the blog back to my wife now that I am back in school. I highly doubt I will have time to do any updates for the next 4 months. So if you want updates, bug my wife :-)

Look Babe, I fixed it!!

Yes, we bought a new(to us) car. That's a saga all in itself, you'll have to ask about that one in person. However, it came with a nifty media package, but the audio of the DVD player didn't come through the car speakers, it only went to the wireless headphones. But the previous owners said it used to work and they aren't sure why it stopped. So now that we officially own the thing, I dove in to see what was the matter. The hardest part, of course, was getting the blasted factory radio out of the dash. I even googled how to remove it but the explanation I found didn't warn of the fact that if you push the hidden tabs the wrong way you'll actually engage an anti-theft feature that makes it even harder to get out. RRRR!!!!

Once I got past that issue, the cause of the problem literally fell on the floor. It ended up being the plastic fuse holder that goes to the inline FM transmitter. It was cracked and not connecting the two ends together. So the DVD audio never got transmitted into the radio because the FM transmitter never got power.

So we are now a new fuse holder away from melting our kids brains while driving in the car!!! Now we can play the "Name the movies playing in the cars on the freeway" game in both directions. Oh, and I think the radio looks better this way. This look is IN!

Super Awesome Boat Outing!!

We had a great day out on the water with our friends! :-) I was a little concerned on how Zach would take it, but he loved every moment of it! He even got to drive the boat for a bit.

I won't mention how I did out on the water, but lets just say it's been over 10 years since I've done anything more than tubing, and I'm not in the best shape. But it was still a blast!!

P.S. - We didn't bring a camera...or that boat.

4 Reasons Why the 4th Was So Much Fun!!

Our small friend had a wonderful weekend! And he has the marks to prove it!

Number 1: We were playing on a trampoline and we think, we don't know for sure, that he face planted on the tramp, but also slid his face across the tramp at the same time. His forehead and nose display these results quite well. However, at no time did he cry or stop playing on the tramp. He's tough!

Number 2: There are 2 more bumps on his head, on each eyebrow that can be blamed on the rings on mom's swing set. Apparently he got knocked in the head a few times with the metal rings. You can look closely at his eyebrows, and you might see the leftover buisis.



Number 3: We only have his word on this one, but he says he got this one while playing on the swings with all of his cousins. We didn't notice it till it was time to change into our swimming suits.



Number 4: We think his toe lost half its nail on the tramp as well, but no one knows how this one occurred.



The best part is that at no time did he complain or want to quit. He was laughing and just loving being with all of his cousins from Thursday night on. It's been a great holiday weekend!

Nice Sunny Day...

For a good part of the morning, we were outside weeding in the garden. It was nice and sunny, and everyone was having fun. We went inside for some lunch and we noticed some dark clouds rolling in. Not five minutes later, we were experiencing this! It was crazy enough that I decided to go have some fun on the swings. Another five minutes later and it was all over.

'This Shouldn't Take to Long'

The first week that Em and I moved back into Grandmas house, we were in the back yard playing, and we noticed the sad state that the swing set deck was in. The wood hadn't been cared for in a long time. It was getting to the point that no one wanted to play on it due to the high probability of getting slivers. Zach would almost always get slivers because he would climb up there and want to run cars around on the deck, etc... So we debated replacing the wood, due to the fact that the wood was so rotted out, sanding and refinishing were out of the question. Then we thought, what about that new composite decking material? After some price shopping, we decided it might be an affordable adventure. And how long could it take to replace a 6' x 8' deck? .... :-)

Here are some photos of Devin and I ripping down the old deck, and working till midnight installing the new deck. With dinner, it took us about 9 hours to get the deck replaced. That's about 5 hours longer than what I was expecting. Was it worth it? Of course! I'm so excited to play with the kids up on the deck now. It looks great, and is going to be tons of fun!!

Our house is gone...and Zach is glad.

This week we closed on our home. It is a good thing too because Zach would cry every time we'd pull up to the place. He would rather be at Grandma's house. Who knows what it will be like when we move back for the last semester of school. We are grateful that everything went as well as it did. We definitely saw the Lord's hand during this transition. Thanks to all of you who have helped us in this moving process.

Update:

Well we have moved into Grandma's house, have our house under-contract, and are now starting to look for a new place to live (for next semester). Peter has been keeping busy with both jobs and little sleep, while I watch the days fly by not knowing where the time has gone.

This weekend I got the camera out and had Peter take some pictures of me with the kids. I know this picture does not have Zach or I in it, but I love the way Elizabeth is falling out of the Bumbo. I love that little girl. She would rather stand or roll over; anything but sit.

Nerdhood Strikes Again!

I have hopes of patenting some day what you're about to see, so don't tell the whole world about it. But I want to share the prototype result with you guys. A special thanks to Devin for all of the web support. (You should update your mobile dose)

Moving on to Moving Day

Moving is a wonderful adventure…and even more of an adventure when you are a kid. It is perhaps more like a new discovery every day. For example, I am packing up closets now and whenever Zach notices what I am doing he’ll ask “whatcha got?” It is fun to see what he can’t wait to get his hands on. The other day it was my collection of jewelry boxes. A few days before that it was the umbrella. With moving, everyday is a definite adventure.

What We Do At Night

I just came home from auditing a ward and stepped into this scene. The funny thing is that it's pretty common for us. Either Em or I will have some project we're working on, and the other gets to play with the kids. It just so happened tonight that we were all in the same room.

Trains Are Still Awesome!

Here is some more train fun!

Bitter Sweet Farewell

Over the past few years, I have heard quite a bit about L-3 Communication Systems and the really cool things they do. They are primarily a government contractor and they deal with any and all types of communication systems.
This past career fair I gave my resume to a few people at L-3 Communication Systems.

Spring break was the following week and while we were on vacation, I got a phone call from L-3 wanting me to come for an interview. Apparently things went well cause a week or so later I received an offer for a summer internship with a open door for part time employment during my last semester of school.

So what does that mean for us?! I'm definitely not going to commute from here to there every day. If I was to drive, it would take about an hour and a half one way, and if I was to do public transportation, it would be +3 hours one way. So we are going to move closer to make the commute a bit easier.

We still have to come up school once a week for me to continue work on my masters project, but Em and I have a pretty good plan to help spread that commute out a bit.

So if anyone is looking for a house, we have one for sale!

I have to say that as Em and I were running through the Pros and Cons of this internship offer, we couldn't come up with very many Cons. The only valid one was the fact that we've made lots of friends up here that we will miss. Some of the not-so-valid cons were the fact that we have 6 weeks to get our house in order to sell and Emily has lots of return address stickers that she got for free that she won't be able to use anymore. :-)

The pros outweighed the cons quite a lot. Its a very prestigious company, they'll be doubling our current income, we'll be moving next to lots of family, TARGET, and our thirst for big cities and freeways will be quenched.

Anyhoo, I think this is the wordiest blog I've ever written. THE END.

Bank Error In Our Favor - Kinda

So as Emily and I were wondering what to do tonight, we turned to good old Red Box to see what movies were available. When we logged on, the first movie on the list was Bolt. This was slightly confusing because just the night before, I saw the advertisement for the movie to come out on video at Walmart next Tuesday. When I saw it, I commented to Emily, in excitement, that we'll have to rent it from Red Box next Tuesday. Well, since we can't pass up an exciting Friday night without going to Walmart, we decided to see if the Red Box machines really had Bolt. Luckily for us, it did! The best part is even on the machine itself, it said Bolt was coming out on Tuesday.

I'm not surprised that the movie was already in the machine, but some little bit somewhere must have flipped early and allowed the movie to be rented before the release date.

Oh well!

No Two-Year-Olds Were Harmed in the Making of This Movie :-)

Zach and I were having fun rough housing, and it turned into one of those late night, laugh at anything, moments.

Hit it with a hammer!!

My wife is always coming up with something interesting. [Though this one kind of came from something I read.] A few days ago, she told me that Zach and her put a sheet of water outside. They wanted it to freze it so they could have their own minature hockey rink. It took overnight for it to freeze, but as you can tell, Zach loved it. After they were done playing hockey, they decided to play "Don't Break the Ice" the real way. Em gave Zach the meat tenderizing hammer and he went to town on the ice. Honestly, how many kids can say their mom gave them a hammer, inside the house, and told them to destoy something. [Only the COOLEST moms do that ;)] I'm glad Zach was able to have so much fun in this artic land we live in.
*The [] text comes from Em.

Bored

Every Success Counts

Today has been a great day! Mainly because Zach has had many successes. This means that I have had less laundry, less carpet scrubbing, and more celebrating with my cute little boy. If you haven't heard we have been potty training. And today has been flawless. I know that doesn't mean tomorrow will be perfect, but right now I am celebrating his amazing success.

We are so excited!

On Monday we decided that it would be a fun idea to take our family to the Draper Temple Open House. I have only been to one other open house in my life and that was for the San Diego Temple. Even though I was only in the the third or fourth grade at the time, it was such a memorable and peaceful experience. I want Zach to experience that as well.

He is pretty jazzed about the idea. We went online together to reserve our tickets and then made a paper chain to help us count down the days until we go to the temple.

You can go too. To reserve your tickets click here.

Elizabeth's Blessing Day

Our sweet little girl was blessed at the beginning of this month. All of our immediate family was able to attend, plus some extended. We were so glad the weather was good enough for travel. Thanks for all of your support. (Pictures are of Elizabeth and Emily's family. We didn't get a picture with Peter's family--though we should...hint, hint.)

Did I Mention I Like Trains?

Here are some videos of the latest train fun.

What I Did Over Christmas Break

What did I do? I wasted my time!! Ok, maybe not, but I sure had a lot of other plans for this three week break with no work or school.

So here is the progression of my ginger bread model construction.

First I designed all the electrical stuff, here is a schematic of what I built.



Then I took Zach's ball and used it as a paper mashe frame.



Then once the ball had hardened, I drained the air out of the ball(yes Zach's ball made it out safely), cut the paper in half and wired in all of the lights.









Once that was done, I duct taped the two halves back together and began making gingerbread. In efforts match as closely as possible the pentakis dodecahedron pattern that spaceship earth is...



we decided to make three isosceles triangles that when put together would make the equilateral triangle. So after some fun math and trig, I figured out how to cut a block of ginger bread in order to get the maximum number of triangles without wasting any space.



After cooking the gingerbread, and letting it harden. I needed to combine the three isosceles triangles together, this was a bit challenging because they also needed to be slightly pyramidal in shape, so we used some play dough molds to hold them in this shape while we hot glued them together.



Once I had made a bunch of these, I began attaching them to the ball, (I also made some legs during the cooking process. It was important to have six legs, in pairs, because the real one is supported by six pylons driven 120 feet into the ground.)






Then, once the triangles were on, and the ball was covered, with some fudging. I began to fill in the cracks with frosting



By this time, it was New Years Eve and we ran out of eggs, so we couldn't finish the frosting portion. So on New Years, we took it to the family party and finished it up there. There, Em built Mickey's hand and wand.

Here is the final product, yes the lights do not exist on the real thing, but I had to make it nerdy somehow :-)



Here are some videos of some of the different blinking light combinations that I programed onto it, and yes, it's still programmable, there is a jack in one of the legs that I can connect my computer to access the micro controller that does all of the light blinking. :-)