Cabin

Thursday at work was a rough day. The first thing I found out was that there were some things that I needed that was missing (it would be nice to know all things that are needed at one time). I hurried to get these in. Even after that, we found another problem. I finally got everything taken care of, but was about an hour and a half overtime to do so. The nice part was that I would be able to take Friday off.

Friday morning we made a few preparations to go up to the cabin. We didn't need to worry about too much with food as we were going up mostly for cleaning. We were concerned that the cabin would be a huge mess and there would be an overwhelming amount of labor involved to get it all fixed up and ready for habitation. In this we were pleasantly surprised.

Getting up to the cabin was a terrible mess. For some unknown reason the freeway was jammed up getting up and over Parleys Summit. Also, on the exit to get onto Highway 40 there was a bit of a jam up. We got through it all OK though.

We arrived at the cabin before my in-laws and started to vacuum up the mess on the floors of the cabin. By the time that we were mostly done with that, Rod and Margaret came up. They were grateful that things were looking as good as it was. One of the things that still needs working on is the bathroom. It still needs a sink put into it. At least the rest of the plumbing in there was working. We rigged up a sheet so people could go to the restroom with at least a little bit of privacy. Later, we put a door on (it was the old door that really does need to be replaced). There was some more cleaning up that we did, but we also went shopping for a few things that the cabin needed. We had some dinner while we were out there too.

We got back to the cabin before Pam came up with Zachary. We knew they were thinking about coming up and then got an estimate of what time they would be there, but they came before we thought they would be there. Still, later, Anne and Kiki came up. Kiki was surprised that there were people there (I guess she thought it would be Pam, Anne, Zach, herself, and possibly Travis). She was very disappointed and upset when she found out that she would have to share a mattress with my daughter.

Friday evening, I had some conversation with Zach about the LDS church. He asked a few questions and I answered as best I could. He thinks that 19 is too early for people to go out to minister to anybody. He felt they would be better if they had a stronger knowledge. I told him that when I went out I had to have a good enough knowledge in order to go out and that the growth is tremendous when these young men are out there. We also talked a bit about the new movie out (an anti Mormon one) called "September Dawn". I told him that I probably wouldn't see it because it is rated "R". I also told him that it is because I avoid seeing "R" rated movies.

We had brought up a little bit of food and my in-laws had a little bit of food. We put all of that together to make a meal. Each person was supposed to only have one piece of bacon because that was all we had for the whole group of us. Kiki thought that was unfair, and in the long run ended up having five pieces (there were some that didn't want theirs, but she wouldn't share it around). The next thing she was upset at was that there were going to be more than her and her mom going out shopping. She went for school shopping. I wasn't planning on going, but they finally worked it out so I was going. This made my wife a bit upset, but there was really no turning it back. Only her and her parents were left in the cabin to clean the walls of the cabin. Part of the reason they wanted me out of there was because my allergies get so bad. But, there really should've been some help coming from somebody other than my in-laws and my family. Zach did have to get some bedsheets and other things for living up at the UofU, so it was justified, just not the best timing in the world. Plus, it took myself and our two kids with them who could've helped clean up.

We went to eat some lunch and then came back to the cabin. By the time we came back the walls were cleaned and the drapes were off the windows. Pam took Zach and her mother (Travis also) to the laundromat to clean Zach's clothes and the drapes. They had some KFC when they came back to the cabin and we had some fresh vegetables cooked up to go with it. It was a pretty good meal.

Well, Anne and Kiki had headed back to their home because of some family reunion stuff going on, and we stayed. It was decided that we would watch the "R" rated movie "300". Zach promised that it was a good movie and I had told him that I could make some exceptions to this. This kind of upset my wife that I didn't stand up for myself at that point. Anyway, I expected it to be a better movie than it was, and I didn't expect as much sexual stuff as was in it. Particularly since my children were watching it I was more prone to notice all of this stuff and it was a disturbing movie to me. It might have been a better movie if they would've cut out the sexual stuff that was in it. Anyway, during the course of this movie, our dog got hold of Zach's toothbrush (an electric one) and chewed it up. It is a pretty expensive one so that will cost us something to replace. My wife is guessing that the reason our dog was so restless was because the spirit of the Lord wasn't with us. She also thinks that I really should've stood up and said that this was too much and gotten the kids out of there. Of course there is also the self blame. I am sure that we made a mistake in what our choice was, but I am not going to beat myself up for it. Rather than that, I will repent and move on. We did what we did. Anyway, we'll move on. One problem is that my son watches us (as parents) really closely to see what we do in situations. I don't quite know how to overcome that one.

Well, we spent another night in the cabin. We slept in this morning from that. After breakfast, Pam and Zach left. We stayed longer and helped to put the curtains back up that had been taken down. We also had to fix a couple of the rods that held them. We got them mostly figured out. After having some lunch, we headed out. We got home around 4:00 PM.

At 7:00 tonight, we had a fireside for our son to get too. We had a struggle to get him to go to the fireside. It was the same fireside that we had taken my daughter to last Sunday, but it was for the Young Men instead. Of course they were talking really heavily on pornography which didn't help my already guilty conscience about what had happened the previous night. It's hard to put it completely out of your head. Anyway, we spent about an hour and half there and came on home.

After family prayers I offered to my kids to have a fathers blessing previous to them going to school tomorrow. My daughter, like always, gladly accepted it, and my son, as usual, declined. He still will not tell us why he won't have a priesthood blessing. He really has no reason that he is giving us. I will not force it on him, but I certainly wish he would accept it.

Jordan School District

Once again, it's been a little bit since I last wrote anything. One of these days I'm going to have all the time in the world to write here (yeah, right).

I have been extremely busy at work trying to get some files loaded to the Pinnacle server in Oregon. It's on a different database, and I have had my struggles with that. Finally, in the last couple of days there have been some breakthroughs. I thought I was there, but there is one final obstacle. I still don't know how I am going to get over that obstacle. I'm going to have to just work on it and see what happens. Hopefully, I'll get there by tomorrow. If I do, I can take Friday off.

There really isn't too much to talk about from what I have done this whole week. Friday, I went with my work (after working part of the day) to play golf. It was 18 holes, and I enjoyed my time. It's a good thing they don't expect us to be very good. I was tired by the end of the day on that one. At the end, we had drawings. I took home candles, a shirt, and a movie (Wild Hogs) that I traded a gift certificate to the golf shop for. Thank goodness he was willing to trade, it made it more worthwhile for me.

Saturday was just a day that we stayed home. My wife wanted to go somewhere, but by the time I got around to an idea, she was upset with me for not coming up with it sooner. We didn't go anywhere.

Sunday was the normal church meetings, but then we had to take our daughter to a fireside that was for Young Women. They mostly discussed purity with them. They will be talking to the Young Men next week about the same thing, presumably.

Tuesday, my kids got to go water skiing with the Young Men/Young Women. They had quite a bit of fun. I went to a Jordan District council hearing. It was about the raise they have decided to give themselves. The state had previously limited them to making $3000 a year. In July the state made it possible for them to come up with a different salary. They immediately did and gave themselves a $9000 raise, so they would pull in $12,000. Along with that, they wanted to have an opt out option for this part time job of insurance (which is 100% paid for) which would give them almost $17,500. Then, they wanted to get the Consumer Price Index each year and get an automatic increase each year based on that. For this year the total with the opt out option would give them just under $30,000. This of course is outrageous, and people (particular teachers in the district) were furious. In this meeting they were going to decide whether or not to drop the opt-out and the CPI. Two different motions were made, one to drop both, and the other to drop just the opt-out option.

The public was invited to speak, and during that, one of the members of the council (Cowdell) made a few comments that I found to be inappropriate. He had talked before the public was invited too and during both of those times I found him to be a cocky, arrogant person. He is one that I believe needs to be voted out. His whole demeanor was awful.

Anyway, the anger of teachers was apparent at this meeting. It was just in the last little while that the teachers lost a good retirement package, and so much has been asked of them as far as benefits. Plus, the teachers have tried for years to get the CPI to give them raises to keep up with the cost of living. They also would like to have a free package to give them insurance, and have asked to be able to opt out of insurance for those that wanted too. Of course the council has consistently denied them these things.

In the long run, they voted to drop both of those but kept the $9000 raise. With the seven council members, I guess that comes to an extra $63,000 for them to be paid. I guess that is not too terribly bad. With the almost $30,000 that would be more than full time teachers (at the starting level) would be paid, and theirs is only a part time job. In my opinion the public won more than they lost, but there is the loss.

After I got home that night, my wife told me that a girl was door to door selling some educational stuff. She told her to come back when I was home. She did come finally around 9:00 that evening. I bought some software from her that should hopefully help my kids. We bought the SkillBuilder set which included Algebra 1 and 2, Ten languages, Science, a student writing center and printshop (however printshop wasn't in the package and instead was replaced with clipart (I am going to write and ask about that). It cost us $50. I didn't think that was too bad.

Well, that is the end of that day.

Today after both a great day at work and a frustrating day (because of what was found out) we went to the wedding reception of Cosi and Tobias. It was a wedding that we went to last month and this if their reception after coming back to Utah from Italy. We had a good time there, and then helped them clean up afterward.

Another Week

Another week has come and gone, so I need to write something. I really don't have a lot to write about though. Nothing much has happened during this past week. I have stayed busy at work trying to implement a new process for taking care of data on a server in Oregon. Most of what I have tried has been a failure or has taken too long in the running. Today, finally, we had a break through and I think we will be able to get through. I am still going to be testing it on a database on our system, but it looks like once I get it there it will be easily transferred to the other system. At least that was good news.

There hasn't been much going on at home though. We have tried to push our son to start working on his Eagle. We at least had a committee member look over his Eagle project to make sure it is all in order and we have gotten some counselor names for those last three merit badges that my son needs. Now, we just need to have him call them.

Our son has started some more intense training for the marching band and doing formations on the football fields. This is mandatory training that goes on this whole week (Monday through Friday) from 8:00 AM till 4:00 PM. He still seems to have the energy required to do this.

Tonight, we had the deacons and teachers from the ward into our home to play on a flight simulator for their aviation merit badge. We got the flight simulator from the library and my son really enjoys playing on that thing. Anyway, there were only four boys that came over and one parent. We talked to him for quite awhile (I forget his name - but they just recently moved into the ward). It was good conversation that went on though, and my wife and I enjoyed that.

We also found what we are going to be responsible for the ward party coming up on September 14th. The primary is doing a talent show. The primary president told us that she would take care of the fliers (creating and getting them out), setting up the cultural hall, and the talent program itself. We are responsible for the pies and clean up. Of course we will need to get volunteers to bring the pies, cut them up and serve on plates. This one doesn't seem like it will be too difficult. Once again, I just don't know how many will be there. I guess we had better over do it again rather than not have enough.

That's really all that has gone on. Oh wait, I guess my daughter came home from camp also. She really had a good time at Oakcrest girls camp. With her home, there is once again fighting between my son and her that we didn't miss when she was gone. At least they care about each other when the chips are down.

Aubree

Well, it's been a week since I wrote here. I knew that would happen because my daughter was in town and I was taking the time to be with her. Sure, I could've written something here, but I still didn't.

Anyway, on the 31st of July, I worked my butt off at work to try and get some things done before I left work for the week. I didn't get anything accomplished that I wanted too and ran into frustration after frustration. I even stayed at work a half hour late in order to get some of that stuff done. This was pretty discouraging to me to not get where I wanted to be.

On the 1st of August, my daughter was coming in from Florida. We waited at home and took care of a few odds and ends. Her flight was coming in at 12:40. It was on time. My other daughter came in from girls camp around 11:00 AM. This made it so there was time for her to shower and we could all go to the airport together. We were watching her flight on http://flightaware.com/. Around 11:30 my mother called me to see if she was in yet. I told her no, but would be in about half an hour. She, of course wants to spend a little bit of time with her too. Anyway, I received some other calls just when we were getting ready to leave and my little sister was working to get us all together. She worked with Shelly and Glen to have a barbecue over at their house. We were answering calls all the way to the airport, causing Aubree to not be able to get through to me because I was on the phone when she landed.

We picked up Aubree and then went to Johnny Carinos restaurant. We didn't get a good waiter, but enjoyed the food. We had enough left over for some dinner that night as well. Aubree was pretty tired so we just hung out at home and watched a video.

Thursday, we got up and decided that since it was a cooler day we would head out to Cascade Springs. It was a beautiful day for this and we were grateful for the coolness of the day. On the way up there, we stopped into my wifes parents cabin. It still isn't finished and this discouraged my wife because her brother will be moving to Wendover soon. We had lunch at a park in Midway. Whenever I put the SUV in park I was having trouble getting it out of park. I was holding the brake down, but it just wasn't going. This was troubling to me and I was hoping that we would make it home from this trip. My daughter took a bunch of pictures while she was up there, and then we went to American Fork canyon. We dropped in on my sister-in-law in Cedar Hills.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, it started to pour. We waited for a bit for the rain to calm down and then left. We got into a real downpour on the way home. There was a patch where it went from raining hard to bone dry. We then ended up in the downpour again and the roads were filled with water. It was hard driving. We got home safe and sound though, and after awhile were able to go out and see the rainbow. Poor Aubree, she was hoping to have a rain free time and it rained about every day she was here.

On Friday, I woke up early enough that I could get the SUV into the Honda dealer. I had called my boss to get the name of his friend again, and he was able to get a brake switch replaced on warranty. I didn't have to pay the $85 to get this fixed and I was grateful for that brake (pun intended). When I finally arrived home, my family was up and Aubree was in the Den taking care of her registering for her classes online. She told me about a website that she was using to get the teachers that she wants. It is called at http://ratemyprofessors.com/index.jsp. This is a site that I have grabbed for future use.

Natalie and Tia both came over to our house to visit with Aubree. This was nice to have two of her cousins come over and be with her. They went out to watch the movie hairspray along with my other daughter. They did invite my son but he wasn't about to go out with a bunch of girls. Of course, it rained hard again on this day.

Saturday we decided that we would go over to my wifes parents home. We spent a little bit of time with them and got some things ready for Sundays barbecue. We also had to get some shoes for my daughters camp, so we went to the shoe store. Aubree also got her a pair of shoes. My wife cut Aubrees hair on this day and she ended up in tears. I don't think it was the hair cut but rather it was all the stress that is on her with work, school and having to move as soon as she gets home. I gave Aubree a fathers blessing to help her in her troubled times.

Sunday, we all went to church. I bore my testimony but got so emotional that I don't even know what I said. I was completely lost. Aubree had talked to her grandmother earlier in the day and told her that she was leaving Salt Lake Monday afternoon. I could tell her grandma wanted to see her (even though she lives in Florida) so I had Aubree call her back and invite her to come out to my brothers house for the barbecue. My brother had lived with them for a few months so I was sure he wouldn't mind.

We headed out for my brothers house as soon as we had changed our clothes. Almost everybody was there. It was nice for my daughter to get to meet up with most of the family for this short stay that she was here. I was also glad that Bill and Helen (her other grandparents) were able to make it on out to this event. We stayed up till around 1:00 AM just chatting once we got home.

Monday was a melancholy day for me. I always get this way when I know she is leaving. I had to get up early to take my daughter to a meeting place for girls camp at Oakcrest. Then I just kind of played around the house a bit. We visited for awhile and then decided to go out to Jamba Juice. Then we headed to the airport. Check in was easy and we sat around the airport for a little while. We finally had to put her through security and she left. She called me when she arrived home to let me know she had made it back OK.

Today I had to go into work. That was difficult for me. It took me all morning to catch up with all that I had missed with taking this time off. I still wasn't able to get things going that I need to get going. There are some things that I simply don't know how to do and I am struggling through it all.

Tonight, we got a call from the bishop. We have been thinking about canceling the next event for the ward activity. We don't have the help we need to get things to work right. He called and told us that the primary had scheduled an event on the same day that we had scheduled ours. They wanted a talent show. We could help out with that and have a dinner or simply desserts. We chose desserts. We will have some people bring pies or something and go from there. That will make an easy activity for us. We were grateful for this respite.

I also talked to Brother Russel about my sons Eagle project. He still hasn't turned it in. We have had it since December when he did it. I now just have to have my son get with him to turn it in, and then we can get moving on these last three merit badges. The three he needs are Personal Management, Personal Fitness, and Communications. I just hope we can get him on those soon. The sooner the better.