January 2009 archive

What makes the Acura car jack so awesome?

While driving home tonight from visiting Melinda the birthday girl, we were given the privilege to change a flat tire. On an incline. First off, they put lug nuts on with machines. That makes them hard to get off by hand. Shucks.

Let me just say, having flares in your car, or at least the really awesome Snap-light glow stick in red, is really helpful in keeping people from running you down while changing a tire on the side of a road with no shoulder. Also, thank you Benj and Melinda for that cool plug into your cigarette lighter emergency light and air pump. It came in handy tonight. Glow sticks aren’t very helpful shedding light on lug nuts, but that thing was.

The jack we first used belonged to the Buick who had the flat tire. That jack couldn’t hack it. Or rather, it got hacked, well really just bent, in half by a falling car.

Next we tried our jack, in fact it was used for the first time ever and it was really tough to turn. Really tough. Like, too bad, but we never want to use that jack again tough. I have decided to never get a flat tire in our van. Not unless Bryan is there or a passing Acura stops to help us. Now let me tell you, the Acura jack though, it is nice. You almost don’t need a lever to turn it. It was like butter. Amazing. Wonderful. What makes it better? How can I get one? Why does Toyota give out wimpy jacks with every new vehicle? Should we have tried out the jack too before we bought the car? I am thinking maybe we should for the next car. Or maybe just skip to the part where we buy a pretty Acura… Ok, so that would be a bit out of our price range. But it would be nice to dream!

Posted by Ily on January 31, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Brotherly Love

Micah had been begging for his own room for quite some time. He even started camping out on the floor in the living room so he wouldn’t have to sleep in the same room as Isaac. We decided we would try to switch the boys sleeping arrangements around on New Year’s Day to give him his own room. It never happened due to other constraints, but we were able to give him his own room for his birthday on the 16th of January.

We found this really cool loft bed to put in his new room and he was super excited. The arrangement was nice for everyone. Reece refused to sleep on the second bed in the new room with Isaac saying it was Micah’s still, but he was fine with sleeping on the little couch that he had been sleeping on in his old room. Overall Reece and Isaac have never been such good friends as they have been since they became roommates and Micah enjoyed his space. But after a week and a half, Micah now refuses to sleep in his new bed anymore. He is adamant in wanting to sleep with the other two boys. He misses them. So now they all sleep in the same room.

The brotherly love is kinda cute. The hard to swallow part for me is that I spent a lot of time and energy making the new room work and now he wants nothing to do with it. I wanted Micah to have a great space for himself so he could feel happy, not just like a squished in middle child who gets the bum end of the stick all the time. I moved furniture. I searched all over Portland for the right bed. I cleaned out a room. I gave up my lazy boy in there. I worked hard. And now they all just want to sleep in the same room. I guess we don’t need 4 bedrooms in our next house!

Posted by Ily on January 29, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Come Commiserate With Me

Today was one of those days. I woke up, looking forward to teaching preschool, not thinking it was gonna be a bad day. I was thinking, oh Bryan is taking the car, make sure I get everything out I need before he goes. Oh, and the floor really needs vacuuming. And I sure hope my little talk with Micah last night helps him choose to be a better behaved kid this morning in preschool.

Central to my preschool lesson this morning was a CD full of songs. It was in the van. I physically went out to the car to go get the CD, I picked it up, I started to take it inside… after that I don’t remember what I did with it. When it came time to start my preschool lesson, I went to find that CD. I asked the kids to help me (make it a treasure hunt) and we literally searched the house. Sweet Sam, bless his heart, I almost strangled him when he said, “Maybe you should clean up your house so that you can find it Sister Murdock, it is kinda messy. We always find what we are missing when we clean up. Maybe you should give away some of yours toys too. You might have too much…” Thanks Sam. Knowing that his mother has been purging their house of extra clutter and giving away toys, I know that this was him repeating stuff his mother had recently lectured him on, but for some reason it just didn’t quite tweak me right this morning. I have been kinda going nuts about our clutter lately, but not had time to deal with it.

The truth is often painful. Our house is messy right now. We have paper airplanes coming out of our ears (A Christmas present for Isaac was a book on how to make the best paper airplanes). We have too many little happy meal toys that are in every corner of the house. Isaac laments loudly if he finds out I recycled any of his homework so it has to sit in a pile, or two or ten, for a while until he forgets about it and I can then recycle it. The shoes are never on the shoe shelf. Our two year old gets out every toy I just put away… those toys must be more interesting once I have touched them or something because he won’t touch them when they are on the floor. Reece also seems to like toys on the floor. He loves to sprinkle the whole place with them… I have actually caught him very carefully doing this, with him, it isn’t random dumping. The coats are too often in the middle of the floor rather than on the coat hooks in the closet that I carefully placed at kid height. And because I was running late today, my bed was not made. Ok, so the awful truth is that I hardly ever make the bed… but I am trying to make it a habit again since we might be selling our house in the near future and it will need to be presentable all the time. So that was the state of our house today.

So did I ever find that CD? No. It was very annoying. After that my focus was gone. I had wasted 30 minutes searching for it. And then Sam suggested we clean up the toy corner. So we did. Sam Really got into it. He kept accidentally knocking into Lauren in his excitement. Lauren it turns out wasn’t feeling very well, and cried. Poor girl. In fact anytime she got touched today, she cried. I almost called her mom to send her home, she was really not her usual self and felt kinda warm, but I never quite got around to it. Anyhow, I didn’t get anything right with preschool today, and had to deal with Reece hitting too often, and Micah misbehaving so much, and Lauren being so sensitive, and Sam preaching about clean houses some more, and Ethan just being an extra body… I finally sent Reece upstairs to watch tv (no one to bother up there) and Micah to his room. By the end I wanted to cry. I was crabby.

Then I made lunch for the little boys. After it was all made, Micah cried with big fat sobs that he wanted macaroni, not bean burritos. Ouch. That stung. He did not even tell me he had a preference for lunch and he surely got mad at me that I didn’t know what he wanted.

After lunch my friend called for a recipe and I decided I would make that recipe for dinner. She wanted my yummy Red Beans and Rice recipe which really was a mix of three recipes and used whatever I had in the house. I figured that sounded good and I would make it for dinner today too. So I made it. And it was yummy. Except Isaac refused to try it and balled his little heart out because I would serve him something so terrible. Micah did say it was yummy though after quickly being willing to try it. He may have been the thorn in my side this morning, but he sure made my heart feel a tad bit better at dinner.

Isaac also had a homework block (similar to writer’s block- actually that was his problem) and was quite often found being quite distracted rather than getting his work done tonight. He got to miss basketball practice as a consequence. Imagine more and more tears and you can get the main gist of my evening.

Fast forward through the day. I found that preschool CD back in the van this evening. I must have set it back down in there in the exact spot it had been before without thinking. Argh.

So here I am am downing Cheetos, the comfort food of the night, blogging about my woes. I wish I had some biscotti and hot chocolate instead. The cheetos are helping me cheer up a little. It must be the MSG or something.

Posted by Ily on January 29, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

My Lab in the News

Wow, our blogging frequency has really dropped off. I think there are two big reasons for this. One, is Facebook. Ily has been finding old friends from Oklahoma right and left and that really fuels the addiction. I can’t help but be dragged along too. She even found out that one of her old friends has been living here in Vancouver for the last 6 months. We went over and had a nice dinner at her house. It was great, we hadn’t seen her in years. It’s hard to say Facebook is a total waste of time when things like that happen. Facebook is kind of cool.

The other reason is now publicly in the news. Work isn’t going very well and blogging hasn’t been top on my mind. I am part of the Edgeline printer team mentioned in the article as having been scrapped. Managers are scrambling to find us jobs within HP but they aren’t expecting to find very many. We will be notified officially whether we will be laid off in mid February. Those notified will have 9 weeks left as HP employees. If I end up in that situation, I will also have a couple weeks severance pay after that, which would take me into mid May. I’m not waiting until mid February to find out out whether or not I have a job, though. I am looking hard both inside and out of HP for a good new place to work. If you hear of any firmware or embedded software job openings, please let me know! And yes, my managers at work have told us all to do this, so I won’t get in trouble for posting this on my blog. You can read my resume online (and I’m open to feedback for improving it).

I dodged two rounds of lay-offs in the past year, but this one isn’t going to be so easy to avoid. At least I’m going to be in some very good company. I work with some great people and I’m not ashamed to be grouped with them in this. We met and exceeded our engineering goals and this “scrapping” is due to management and economic issues issues beyond our control. If you are looking for a few (or a lot more than a few) excellent engineers, come to Vancouver.

Posted by Bryan on January 26, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments

Yeah for Birthday Number 5!

Today my little Micah turns five. He has been as big as many a 6 year old for quite some time now, but never mind that, I still call him little.

Here are 5 things I love about Micah:

• 1) When he is happy, he is HAPPY. He sure can brighten a room with his exuberance. We love his smiles and his laughter.

• 2) He tries new things without fear. We took him skiing for the first time during Christmas break and we didn’t know what to expect. The likely reactions are either a kid determined to do it, or a kid in shambles full of tears because it is scary to not be in control and sliding in ways you aren’t used to. We expected the second reaction. We got the first. Amazing! Sometimes he even tries new foods without lots of fuss, though sometimes not.

• 3) He likes to cook with us. He is a great bread maker and I love how it is something we can do together that we both enjoy.

• 4) He is so smart and was doing bigger puzzles (60 + pieces) at age 3. Most kids lose focus on puzzles like that and just throw them in frustration. He just goes to town doing them. The only bad experience we have had with him and puzzles is when we tried to do a triazzle… those things give me a headache and I can see why he didn’t like it either.

• 5) We like his creativity and all the things he comes up with to make, like the dragon scroll from Kung Fu Panda or his Lego spaceships. He is always creating something. He adds details to the things he makes, like making sure the dragon scroll had the secret ingredient on it 8) ... or that one Lego ship that could store “material” had the hidden compartment for robot arms.

We love you Micah!

Posted by Ily on January 16, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Sweet Poetry

My mother emailed this to me today and it made me laugh.

The Girl in a Whirl by ‘Dr. Sue’ (a.k.a. Vickie Gunther)

Look at me, look at me, look at me now! You could do what I do If you only knew how. I study the scriptures one hour each day; I bake, I upholster, I scrub, and I pray. I always keep all the commandments completely; I speak to my little ones gently and sweetly. I help in their classrooms! I sew all they wear! I drive them to practice! I cut all their hair! I memorize names of the General Authorities; I focus on things to be done by priorities. I play the piano! I bless with my talents! My toilets all sparkle! My checkbooks all balance! Each week every child gets a one-on-one date; I attend all my meetings (on time! Never late!) I’m taking a class on the teachings of Paul, But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all . I track my bad habits ’til each is abolished; Our t-shirts are ironed! My toenails are polished! Our family home evenings are always delightful; The lessons I give are both fun and insightful. I do genealogy faithfully, too. It’s easy to do all the things that I do! I rise each day early, refreshed and awake; I know all the names of each youth in my stake! I read to my children! I help all my neighbors! I bless the community, too, with my labors. I exercise and I cook menus gourmet; My visiting teaching is done the first day! (I also go do it for someone who missed hers. It’s the least I can do for my cherished ward sisters.) I chart resolutions and check off each goal; I seek each “lost lamb” on my Primary roll. I can home-grown produce each summer and fall. But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all . I write in my journal! I sing in the choir! Each day, I write “thank you’s” to those I admire. My sons were all Eagles when they were fourteen! My kids get straight A’s! And their bedrooms are clean! I have a home business to help make some money; I always look beautifully groomed for my honey. I go to the temple at least once a week; I change the car’s tires! I fix the sink’s leak! I grind my own wheat and I bake all our bread; I have all our meals planned out six months ahead. I make sure I rotate our two-years’ supply; My shopping for Christmas is done by July! These things are not hard; ’tis good if you do them; You can if you try! Just set goals and pursue them! It’s easy to do all the things that I do! If you plan and work smart, you can do them all, too! It’s easy!” she said and then she dropped dead.

I have to admit I do a lot of those things, and now I am waiting to drop dead. My nails are not polished… that must be what is saving me!

Posted by Ily on January 16, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Ahhh...

The hot water is back! My headache may go away now.

Posted by Ily on January 7, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Decemeber '08 in review

Isaac started basketball for the 3rd year. He is on the team with Oliver, his best bud, and some other classmates. He loves it. He also helped with his first official walk and knock as a cub scout. Our pack’s area to canvas was a retirement mobile home park that does not allow soliciting. Instead they collect all goods in the club house in big huge bins and it was the easiest walk-n-knock we have ever participated in. It took about half an hour to find out from some angry residents that they don’t want us knocking on their doors, then get directed to the clubhouse, and then load everything into the vans. The boys didn’t even get cold this year unlike last year where we all got snowed on.

Bryan spent a lot of time at the church doing tithing settlement again this year. One of the little known facts of being a financial clerk in the church is that they dissappear from the real world for almost the whole month of December because of the ward end of the year finances and tithing settlement. We are glad to have him back again. We were able to sneak in some home improvement amidst all his work at HP and the church and he put in a new floor in the boys bathroom. It looks good! We are going to continue putting new floors in the other bathrooms once Reece no longer feels the need to be helpful and run off with the tools.

We experienced the biggest snow storm since the big Ice storm in January ’04 that closed down the whole Portland area the week before Micah was born. We only got two days of school canceled right before Christmas break, but they were big days to miss. Isaac was so sad to miss his class holiday party and the school sing along. The good news for him is that he will get to have those functions this next week in school. During the first half of Christmas break we were pretty much snowed in since Vancouver does not have enough snow plows to keep the roads free during any snowy weather. The cool thing is that we could pull the kids in sleds all the way to the neighborhood park and sled on the hills there without the inconvenience of having to drive up the Columbia Gorge to find snow. Most of the neighborhood kids on the street got together to build a giant snow fort in the Williams’ front yard (across the street from us) and Isaac was obsessed with being out there working on it. He was out there with a shovel every minute that he could be. Micah was mainly interested in making huge snowballs and he was a super muscle man pushing his snowball around the yard just to make it bigger and bigger. Those big snowballs eventually became a good looking snow man. It was great fun for the kids to be out playing in the snow for so many days.

Because of the snow storm our stake Christmas Music Devotional was postponed until after Christmas also. Ily was scheduled to sing in a trio and didn’t plan to make it back from Kennewick for the postponed show because of the weather, but the roads cleared and we made it back just in time. It was a beautiful musical presentation, the choir was amazing, the other special numbers were wonderful, and to make it even better, we invited some non-member neighbors to come listen and they were very touched by it. The whole reason Ily wanted to do it was for missionary work (so she could have an excuse to invite the neighbors) and it really turned out to be a special moment for her.

This is the second year we decided to do the 12 days of Christmas Secret Santa for a family in need and we had a lot of fun doing it. Isaac really loved being sneaky and doing the reconnasance work to get the gifts to the doorstep without being seen. Because of the snow, we missed a few days and had to make it up on other clearer days, but in the end, we still consider this one of our best traditions that we have embraced in our little family. It sure has helped us teach our kids about giving. We knitted together six extra hats to give to this family and did all sorts of other things to really make this thing a labor of love. I think it will be a tradition we carry on every year.

On the Sunday December the 21st we found out that our water heater was acting up and for some reason the pilot light wouldn’t stay lit. Since we just got this water heater in April, we knew it was a warranty issue and have had all sorts of run around with GE, the company who made it. We have mad some headway and gooten plans to fix it in motion, but we are still waiting for a plumber to come and fix it… two weeks later. Since boiling water proved an ineffective way to heat water for baths, we have resorted to borrowing some wisdom from our old friends Mike and Nikki Trionfo and just bathing at the fitness club every day instead. When they first moved into their new home in Riverton Utah they didn’t not have a functioning water heater and did that for a few months… I sure hope it doens’t take that long for us to get hot water again! This week we have exercised just about every day since we had to go for showers anyhow. Yeah us, we are getting fit AND clean. What a way to start out the fitness goals for the New Year. Just a few more weeks of no hot water and we will have a new habit ingrained in our souls.

This year we drove to Kennewick on Christmas Eve during some yucky weather but made it safely. The trip normally takes us 3.5 hours but this time it was just about 6 hours. We enjoyed our time with family and friends celebrating Christmas. Thanks to all of you family who worked hard to make it a good holiday. There were some special gifts that were given in lots of love and we appreciate them!

For New Years Eve we took the boys over to the home of our frends Butch and Heidi Parker. There were several other families from our ward there too and it was a lot of fun. There were at least 50 people there that included little people, youth, and their parents. The Parkers have 4 boys right around our boys ages and so they had lots of toys that our kids loved. It was great to eat all the yummy snacks everyone brought, play rock band for the Wii, play card games, chat, watch movies and play to bring in the New Year. We were shocked that the boys stayed up so late with us, they did so well and had so much fun that we were amazed we didn’t have to take them home in heaps of tears… It was very weird in fact. Micah still keeps talking about going back and having fun at that party again.

December was busy like it is every year. This year our gratitude for the basics like warm houses, hot water, family, and friends have been increased 10 fold!

We forgot to take many pictures, forgive us and know that we did do this stuff even though we have no visual record of it. Happy New Year!

Ily, Bryan, Isaac, Micah, and Reece

Posted by Ily on January 4, 2009 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments