Is it time? ... I think so

Quite a while ago when the stock markets were close to the beginning of their recessionary free fall, I decided I wanted to protect my 401K assets and I pulled everything out of stocks and put it into very conservative bonds and money market instruments. Well, I've been watching the markets and it feels like things have turned since this summer and appear to generally be headed back up. So I decided it was time to shift the 401K allocations back into stock funds, while leaving some in bonds for some diversification.

Believe me, I'm no expert. BY NO MEANS AM I RECOMMENDING YOU DO THE SAME!!! I just felt like it was time, especially given the longterm view I have on that savings mechanism and am willing to ride out the "normal" short term market fluctuations. Again, I'm not an expert, and I don't want anyone to construe this as something you should do too. But if the market is indeed headed back up, then I wanted to take part in that growth.

That's all.

Anatomically Correct

Before I explain the title, I first have to say what a great time I had this weekend with my dad and brothers (including bros-in-law). We all convened in Utah for a couple days of great food, a lot of laughs, and some fun activities. You couldn't even begin (nor would you want to, frankly) to count the calories for what we ate this weekend ... chocolate donuts, Cafe Rio burritos, poor man cupcakes (the best cupcakes known to mankind), all-you-can-eat french toast with buttermilk syrup, huge home-grilled steaks, twice-baked potatoes, BBQ pork sandwiches, hotdogs, candy, sourcream-lemon pie, rhubarb pie, and more. Of course that wasn't all in the same meal, but it might as well have been - we went from being full from the previous meal to getting even more full again in the next feast. It was awesome!

The golf was great too although we missed Dave and MattMax, and then of course the main reason for the weekend - the BYU-CSU game - was really fun as well. Probably the best was just being together and talking, giving updates on our families, laughing, and joking.

So now to the unrelated title...

Brig was drawing a picture of himself yesterday and I watched him draw a big head, with two legs coming out. He then proceeded to draw an anatomically correct little, uh, man-part, and informed me that he was going to the bathroom (yep, he drew the stream too). I was surprised by that, and found it hard not to laugh. I'm pretty sure none of the girls' drawings ever looked remotely like that before...

Upcoming trips and stuff

I'm off tomorrow evening to Utah again for the second installment of "BYU Football Trips". Hopefully this one will turn out better for the Cougs. It will definitely be great for me either way as it's a weekend man-cation with my Dad and brothers - our Christmas present from last year finally coming to pass.

I have to admit to also thinking ahead a little bit to our upcoming Hawaii trip starting next weekend. I'm so excited to do all the fun things - beach, pool, snorkeling, eating, tennis, and just relaxing - as well as volunteering in the medical tent of the Ironman World Championships in Kona. Should be a great time, made even better by our traveling companions, Spencer & Molly!

Work is going well, as I seem to be getting the rhythm of my new boss, and I feel like his style is making my life a lot easier because he's of the mindset that less is more (presentations, reports, etc.). I haven't found myself mimicking his British accent yet - I think that will have to wait for a particularly brave day ... :)

Huge congratulations to Cameron and Christine who just announced the surprise of the year for all of us - they're expecting baby #5 and boy #2. They're very good at keeping secrets, they must get that from Grandma LeBras... oh wait....

The heatwave that had everyone dreading the near-100 degree temps this week never really materialized. I'm definitely not complaining. It doesn't exactly feel like Fall yet, but just an extension of late summer - very nice.

My bad

I take all the blame for BYU's frustrating loss to FSU on Saturday. Yes, I should realize that any time I make an effort to get to a game, BYU's chances of winning plummet to near zero, but I put that aside this week and went with some buddies to the game. It was never even close... so sorry, BYU fans, I'll take the blame for that one.

Kennan scored another goal in this weekend's soccer game - she's a freaking goal-scoring machine now! I really think something's clicked in her head that's making her a much better player. She's very happy with her decision to keep playing, and is having a blast.

Heat wave coming to NoCal this week, and I can't say I'm happy about it. we're looking at high 90s, low 100s for the next three days. Uggghh, welcome Autumn.

A couple of things happened this weekend in the neighborhood that just served to remind me what my priorities in life are, and always should be: 1) my family; 1a) obeying the commandments and teaching my family to do so as well; 7) work.

Problem solved

Thanks to everyone for your concern about our car. I was able to get it started after cleaning off the battery lead (quite a bit of corrosion that accumulated mostly while it sat in our garage while on vacation for two weeks). Then I charged the battery for a few hours with our handy dandy 3 in 1 charger, and it's been golden ever since.

I was really pleased that it seems to have just been a battery problem - usually it's something much more expensive like the alternator or starter. And the good thing is, now that the node is cleaned off, the battery seems to be holding a charge well. Problem solved (hopefully!).

So this has been a very busy week. At work we're in the process of setting sales quotas for the next quarter, and it's intense. It hasn't helped that I've been looking forward to the weekend since, oh, last weekend... I'm headed to Provo for the BYU-Florida State game on Saturday with a couple of buddies - should be awesome!!!!

Family's all good.

The worst feeling in the world

Is there anything worse than getting into your car, turning the key, and nothing happening? We get so reliant on our cars, and our entire schedule revolves around being able to get where we need to go, when we need to go there, and not have to worry about only having one car. Tonight, it happened to me. I was all set to go to bishopric meeting and the car was completely dead. Angela had just driven it (on a side note, all the bad things that happen to our cars seem to happen either when she's driving them, or just did...hmmm), so I'm not sure it's the battery, although I'm really, really, really hoping that's all it is.

The problem as I see it now is that I can't get the car out of park, even if I turn the key, and the car is nose first in the garage. We have an old portable jumper that's charging tonight, but I'm expecting in the morning to have that not work, and truthfully I'm not sure where that leaves us. Not sure how to get the car out of the garage even if it does need to be towed...

This is when I start to really wish for a new car! Grrrrrrr....

GOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLL(s)!!!

Kennan loves soccer. She has played now for I believe 3 years, this being her fourth. She has always enjoyed playing with her friends on the team, and over the years has evolved into something of a defender - happy to let the ball and opponents come to her, and then decent at kicking the ball out of there. She has at times showed an interest in playing forward, but never really showed the aggressiveness of going after the ball and following up on kicks.

This year I have noticed in seeing a couple of her soccer practices that she seems more aggressive and interested in going after the ball. I'm happy to see that because we've been encouraging her to get aggressive and go for the ball rather than wait for it.

So this Saturday Angela dropped her off at her game and then we were both running around doing different things for other kids, etc. We both got to the actual game a little late and received the amazing news that Kennan scored not one, but two goals within the first five minutes of the game. Of course we were sorry to miss them, as they were her first goals - not of the year, but EVER. We were very proud, and Ang took her out to the Sweet Shop to celebrate afterwards. It's very fun to see your kids succeed at something they love to do!

Also, our bishopric got reorganized this week and I have been asked to stay on 1st Counselor. The new bishop is awesome, and I'm very happy that he kept me on. In fact, nothing changed except for just the bishop, so there will be quite a bit of good continuity. So I am now serving under my third bishop, which is somewhat unique, but they've all been outstanding.

A good picture

On the heels of BYU's big win, and in honor of one of my favorite movies of all time, I thought you might get a kick out of this. Whoever did this is pretty good...

Lots to Report

We have had a very eventful long weekend. So sit back, grab yourself a cool beverage and your favorite snack, and settle in...

Our great friend who has been patiently waiting for a lung transplant (and who also faithfully reads this blog when she's able), received the call last week and underwent a double lung transplant. There's still a long way to go for her, but we're so happy that she's been able to have this blessing, and in following her husband's blog updates, it sounds like things are progressing pretty well. Our prayers are with you Cammi.

Micah recently auditioned for the play, Annie, at the local theater company. She has been in a few of their productions before - Peter Pan, The Sound of Music, Aladdin - and those who have seen the plays can attest to the quality and professionalism. She did well in her audition and received a few callbacks for different parts, which happened throughout the week. Saturday was the big day for the cast list to come out, and as you can imagine, there was constant checking of the website. When it finally happened, we were all super excited to see that Micah got the part of Annie! She's going to be amazing, and we're very happy to support her in this, although it's going to be very tough with nightly rehearsals until mid November.

And speaking of Saturday, I watched one of the greatest victories in BYU football history with three of my buddies. You should have seen us, a bunch of grown men, jumping around hysterically and screaming ourselves hoarse as BYU defeated 3rd ranked Oklahoma on national TV. It was an amazing game, and has vaulted the program back into the national spotlight. I could go on and on about this, so I'll actually cut it short to spare you ... (but can't wait for this Saturday's game to see them again!)

Micah had a few new Jr. High friends over for a movie night on Saturday. We set up the projector and screen in the back yard and they had a fun time watching the new Hannah Montana movie. It's nice for her to start branching out with new friends as she meets lots of people at her new school.

We had two swim parties and BBQs yesterday - both very fun. One of them included a huge inflatable slide (like you see in those jumpy places) pointed into the pool, which made for hours of uninterrupted fun (for adults and children alike). It was great to hang out with lots of friends. I also went on three good bike rides this weekend - one mountain climb on Friday afternoon as everyone left work early, one Saturday afternoon to just get a quick blast of exercise, and a long one Monday morning with some buddies.

I took Brig and his little friend over to the tennis court on Saturday and we hit some balls. I was pleased that Brig is actually pretty coordinated and can hit the ball fairly consistently. He loves to do stuff like that, so I need to make sure we find the time to go when we can.

Kennan and I have been reading the Charlie Bone series of books - we're still on the first but just about done and already looking forward to the second. They're good, and different, from other things we've read, which is nice. I'm also reading Harry Potter 2 to Morgan, which she loves, and Micah and I are reading Lord of the Rings when we get a chance (not too much free time...). Micah and I rode our bikes to her school this morning and then I went on to work. I'm hoping we can do that a lot because it's fun to ride together, and it's a good habit to get into.

No bishopric changes to report - I'm thinking two or three weeks, which could be interesting since since on the 27th I fly back from Utah Sunday morning and land about 9:40 - 20 minutes before church starts. If that's the week of the change, I'm almost for sure going to walk into the meeting late. Hopefully it will happen before then!

Midweek Update

Kennan and Morgan started piano yesterday with a new teacher, and believe it or not, they're actually excited about piano again. They couldn't wait to practice... strange. They're both enjoying school so far this year. A lot of the focus seems to have been on Micah because she started 7th grade and it's all new and exciting, but the other girls are really doing well. Kennan's playing soccer again with her friends, they're looking forward to the school plays, they like their teachers and classes, and it all seems good.

I had a great exercise week last week but I think maybe in the end I was either coming down with something or my body just got overly tired, because I've been not quite right this week. Hopefully I'll be able to snap out of it because with only four weeks left to Hawaii (!!!!!!!!!!!!) I need to get "beach ready". I'm trying a new experiment and starting to calorie count for the first time - I find it very hard for things like a big salad with lots of stuff in it - am I seriously supposed to look up the calories for each individual topping and estimate the ounces? ... not so sure this is going to last long ...

No news on the bishopric changes yet, but things at work are stabilizing nicely. My new British boss has finally moved over and we've had some excellent work sessions and discussions this week already. He's going to be good to work for I think, although there's a good chance he's going to look at a lot of things we've typically done with a high degree of "what?!" Should be a fun transition, and I think in the long run my job will be much better as we get settled. It's a bit humbling at times trying to answer questions as to why we do certain things...