25
Aug 2009
Well, summer has unofficially ended which means that it’s time once again to go back to school. Emma and Alex are both going to the charter school near our home this year which is new for them. Because it’s a charter school, they get to wear uniforms. Surprisingly, this hasn’t really caused any issues. Neither one of them seems to mind looking like everybody else. I expected Emma to make a stink about not being able to wear what she wants but it’s been OK so far. I think the fact that everyone has to wear a uniform makes it a bit easier for her to accept.
When we first received word that Emma had been accepted into the school and would be transferring from Buffalo Point Elementary, Holly and I were excited. Emma, not so much. In fact, she complained every time it was brought up. She was convinced that her new school would be horrible and that she’d have no friends. I’m happy to say that she appears to have changed her tune. She loved her first day and even made some new friends!
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Category: Alex, Emma, Jeremiah, School
Tags: Alex, discipline, Emma, Friends, Holly, Jeremiah, kindergarten, School, Syracuse, uniforms
23
Jan 2009
This is a post that I’ve been wanting to write for quite a while but have not been sufficiently motivated to do so. Now I have a video clip to accompany my words so I’m glad that I waited. Videos make everything so much better.
Everyone is familiar with MySpace. I don’t like it. With all of the half naked ugly chicks, angsty pre-teens, and frat boys, it’s bad enough. When you add poorly designed pages that should come with seizure warnings into the mix, it becomes completly unbearable. However, millions of users would probably disagree with me. For years, it was the leader in social networking sites but that doesn’t change the fact that it makes my eyes want to bleed.
About a year ago, my sister Chelsea, started bugging me and Holly about setting up profiles on Facebook. After Holly finally capitulated, I decided that I better give in as well. (I feel shame over caving to peer pressure.)
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Category: Friends, Holly, Jeremiah, Technology
Tags: blog, blogging, Chelsea, digg, facebook, Family, FriendFace, Friends, Holly, Jeremiah, LinkedIn, social networking sites, technorati, television, The IT Crowd, youtube
07
Dec 2008
A few months ago, I mentioned how one of our friends, Mike Phipps, is a successful artist. By successful, I mean he gets paid for his skills with a paintbrush. Up until now, if you wanted to buy his stuff, a shirt with his work on it was the best way to go. Being the successful artist that he is, he has now expanded his body of work to include high quality giclee prints on canvas.
Last week I received an email with a link to this picture.
After seeing the amazing quality, Holly and decided that we needed to purchase a print but the prices and sizing information was not available. I emailed Mike and told him that we were interested and was told that purchase information would be available soon. Well, soon finally arrived and you can now purchase a copy of this amazing rendition of Christ and the woman at the well.
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21
Aug 2008
Last Friday we loaded up the van and headed back up into the mountains to do some more camping. We liked where we camped a few weeks ago so much that we decided to go a few miles up the road. Actually, the campgrounds were all reserved months ago. We just happened to get lucky in the fact that they were great places to pitch a tent. But I digress…
Camping with friends is always more fun so we went with our friends, John and Dana Rimington and their three daughters. For additional fun points, we also brought along Chelsea and her soon to be husband, Nick. We tried to get my brother, Ryan, to come too but he had to work. Maybe next time… It was really nice spending time with everybody. The kids enjoyed playing with John and Dana’s girls and they loved having Nick and Chelsea along. I know though that if Ryan had been able to make it, he would have been the star of the weekend. The kids love playing with him so much.
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Category: Emma, Family, Jeremiah, Vacation
Tags: Alex, axe, beaver, Camping, Chelsea, Dana, Duschene River, dutch oven cooking, Emma, fishing, Friends, hatchet, John, Kids, Nick, Rimington, Ryan, trout fishing, Work
04
Jul 2008
As a kid, whenever anybody would ask me what my favorite holiday was, the answer was obviously Christmas. After all, what kid doesn’t like Christmas? Free toys, lots of candy stuffed into clothing designed for feet, and did I mention free toys?
Now that I’m a bit older, I still love Christmas (I think it’s the free toys thing), but I’ve developed a deep appreciation for other holidays. Thanksgiving is awesome but the Fourth of July holds a special place in my heart. There’s something about seeing an American flag flying as a wing of F-16s fly overhead that makes me extremely grateful to live in this wonderful country. Add to the the fact that we’ve developed some really fun family traditions, and you have a day that we all look forward to each year.
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Category: Alex, Emma, Family, Friends, Hannah, Holidays, Holly, Jeremiah
Tags: Alex, candy, Family, family traditions, fourth of july, Friends, Fruit Heights, holiday, Holly, Jeremiah, Kaysville, parades
09
Jun 2008
A lot has happened in the past week that I’ve wanted to blog about but work has kept me too busy. I’ve been working long hours and then, when I get home, there’s so much to do that I don’t usually get a break until around 8:00.
This weekend, we decided to take a break from our busy lives and take the family camping with some of our friends. Like last year, we headed up Logan Canyon with hopes of catching some big fish and, like last year, we came back empty handed. I’m getting a bit ahead of myself though. Let me start at the beginning.
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18
May 2008
Last night we had a get together with some of our friends. One of these friends, Lisa, is four months pregnant and was wearing a very cool, yet somewhat disturbing shirt. It had a picture of a fetus on it. Yeah, a fetus. It’s a very realistic rendition of and eight-month-old fetus that her husband, Mike, drew. I gotta say that the reason that I found it so disturbing is because it was so well done. It looked just like a fetus!
I was discussing the shirt with Mike and he mentioned that he has started taking his amazing artistic ability and using it to develop a line of clothing. His business is starting to do fairly well and seems to be keeping him busy. Personally, I never envisioned that he would become a fashion mogul but it appears that he’s heading down that road. In a few years, when people say the name “Calvin Klein”, the response will be something along the line of “Oh yeah, he was that guy that people liked before Mike Phipps came along.” Mark my words, it’ll happen.
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21
Apr 2008
After a few weeks off due to an extremely busy schedule, I was finally able to resume construction on the basement this weekend. Since I have two tons of drywall sitting in my garage, and hanging it is the next step, that’s what I did.
I know nothing about hanging drywall other than it’s heavy and takes a lot of screws. I bought a 25lb. box of drywall screws so I’m good there but because of the “it’s heavy” thing, I opted to rent a drywall lift to assist with the ceiling. I also enlisted the help of some friends, including Chelsea’s love interest, Nick. After 12 hours, we were able to get the entire ceiling and part of the walls in the family room finished.
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17
Apr 2008
Yeah, I know that I should have posted this maybe on Saturday. Or on Sunday or Monday but I have been too busy dealing with other aspects of the site to write anything.
I wanted to let everybody know about our weekend. It was very eventful. On Friday night Emma had her eighth birthday party. While we were able to pull it off without any major problems, Pizza Hut did their best to ruin the night for Emma and her friends. I’m a good dad though so I was able to thwart their efforts.
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Category: Church, Emma, Family
Tags: Baseball, birthday, birthday party, Emma, Friends, Holly, horrible experience, Mets, pizza hut
18
Jan 2008
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m finishing our basement. I have the building permit and construction has started.
Last Saturday, my friends, Garth and John came over to help. We were able to get quite a bit of the framing done. Holly assumed that I just sat around watching everybody else work since I’m not known for my hammer-smith skills but I actually did a lot. Nearly every stud that was put in place was cut by me. I also helped place and measure the walls. I was working and having fun doing so. It was an accident-free evening full of sawdust and loud noises.
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Well, summer has unofficially ended which means that it’s time once again to go back to school. Emma and Alex are both going to the charter school near our home this year which is new for them. Because it’s a charter school, they get to wear uniforms. Surprisingly, this hasn’t really caused any issues. Neither one of them seems to mind looking like everybody else. I expected Emma to make a stink about not being able to wear what she wants but it’s been OK so far. I think the fact that everyone has to wear a uniform makes it a bit easier for her to accept.
