Little things...

just wanted to make a quick comment on some little things that make life great.

1. 9:00 church... one more week to go. we have been counting down. 1:00 is the worst.
2. Hard wood floors... I have put awesome hard wook floors in our last two houses but we decided to wait on this one. with the kids being sick this week we have missed the hard wood floors.

Fishing Lunch Breaks

I dont know if i have mentioned it before but one of the greatest things about my job is that it is 3 blocks from the Provo River. When the weather was above freezing i would go on my lunch breaks about three times a week. At first i was just catching some white bass but then i figured out how to catch the trout. here are some pictures of what i have done. Most were taken on my cell phone so the pictures are not that great.

Posting Again...

I have lots of things that i want to write about and i think this is probably the best place to do it. Right now my daughter is just getting over the bad flu and my Son is in the middle of it. we are all short on sleep and have cleaned the carpets too many times in the last 5 days. I hope they get over it before Christmas.

Today was perfect...

Today was a great day. We started off by running some erronds and the kids were awesome and we got everything done. We went to the store and picked out some veggies to plant in our garden. Then we worked out side all morning, moving flowers and dirt to where we really want it all. Then the kids took a great nap. Once they woke up we ate icecream on the front steps together and then i finally took down the Christmas lights. After that we played outside as the weather was perfect. Played in the dirt some more and then went and got dinner at sonic with a gift card that i am sure is a year old. then we went over to Amanda and Noah's and the kids had a blast at the creek throwing rocks into the very high river and getting really muddy. We then brought them home and threw them in the bath. They went to bed like champs and then some of our neighbor boys door bell ditched us. They do it all the time and tonight i decided that i was going to scare them to death. So the second time the came i had my shoes on and i chased them down. Before the night was over they brought me a candy bar and they had screamed like girls. I hid in my neighbors bushes for the last time they came, they wernt expecting that. It was a lof of fun. Then i got back in and Isabelle called for me. I went in there and asked her what she needed and she told me that her feet had escaped. I asked her what she ment and then she pointed to her feet not being under the covers. I really think she was still asleep at the point. So i covered them back up and she went right back to bed.

Micah is talking a lot more lately but refuses to say dad. He will say mom and look and ball and all kinds of things just not dad. He is int he dog house for that.

All in all it was a great day.

Dont give up on me

I know that it has been long time since i have posted anything here and i have decided to get back to writing. I tried out facebook for a bit and decided that i didn't really like that but it did help me find a lot of friends that i haven't heard from in a long time. I will try to post some new things in here every couple of days until i get caught up on all the important things that are going on in my live. So don't give up on me yet.

Family Pictures

Here are some pictures from a recent family photo shoot that we got to do. The photographer needed some more demo pictures so she offered to take our pictures for free if we would let her use them for her website. So of coarse we said yes. I think they turned out amazing. I will try to get copies to the grandparents and then if anyone else would like some i can email you some. Just let me know which ones. Also if you want the girls name and number that did the pictures i would love to help her out and she did an amazing job... our kids are not the easiest to work with!!!

Georgia here I come...

Well after a few postponements we have gotten the official word that the business trip to Georgia is a go. I am excited as this is what my new job is all about. It is kind of a bad time to go as Koren is sick so taking care of the kids is 100 times harder. They say that the first few days we will be working 18+ hour days so not much time to call and check in on her. Hopefully there will be some breaks during the day. I will let you know how it all goes.

Milking a Cow

So sometime in middle school or there abouts i made a list of things that i wanted to do before i died, a bucket list you could say. And on that list was to milk a cow. I don't know why but it was on there so i wanted to do it. One of the people i work with at my new job happens to have an aunt that own a dairy farm in Springville. So a few weeks ago we all went and milked some cows. Isabelle loved to play with the baby cows that would suck on her hands (and Micah's feet) and she really wanted to play with the big cows but she scared them. We had a lot of fun and i got to check one of my easy goals off the list. I think the great wall of china is next, or maybe scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.

California Work Trip

Well i know i havnt posted in a long time so i will try to make up for that. I did get to go to Orange County for two weeks for work training. It was really good. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun too. I got to go fishing, Surfing, see the mission at San Juan Capistrano, and of coarse eat tons of really good food.

Water Babies

We it is that fun time of year again when my water babies come out. Isabelle has always loved the water and we are excited to see if Micah shares that love. This year we were able to take Isabelle to swimming lessons for 2-3 years olds. She loved it so much and did so good that the teacher said that she could come to the 4 year old class later this year if she wanted. She was the only one that wasn't afraid at all to go under water or put her face in the water. The instructor did say that with a child that small with no fear at all we really need to get her learning to swim fast so she doesn't jump in a pool and not know what to do. She she is getting better and getting on her back when she is in the water. We also made one trip to 7 peaks and that was a lot of fun. We stayed for about 2 hours and that was enough with 2 little kids. I am glad that is all we stayed because as i got home i realized that i forgot my sunscreen and so my shoulders are fried. Micah seemed to love the water too. Both the kids and i played in the water while Koren sat on dry ground the whole time because she said it was way to cold to get in. It was a lot of fun and i can't wait for Lake Powell this year.

Fishing in the Snow

So on monday i went fishing early in the morning to Scofield. It started raining before we left but i had planned for that. I had my rain gear and some warm clothes so i didnt get wet at all and almost stayed warm... That is until it started snowing really hard. I had caught the only two fish of the day and everyone decided that they couldnt feel thier fingers so it was time to go. It was a good chance for me to test out my rain gear and i got to catch some fish as well. I was actually a lot of fun. I even cleaned and cooked the fish before Koren could really complain about the fact that i had fish at our house.

General News

Well i haven't posted anything for a little while so i thought i would comment on some of the general stuff that is going on. First i had a second interview with a company that i applied with in Provo. This time i met with the CEO and they told me that they would be sending over an offer today. So depending on the offer i will probably be changing jobs. If that does happen i will talk more about that later.

It is a long weekend this week and i am really excited as we have a lot of plans. First on Saturday i am going to be working on the garage. I have it completely cleaned out and i am going to paint the whole thing Saturday morning. Then hopefully start building the shelves and storage areas. I will take a lot of pictures as the progression of that project will be really cool to see. Then on Monday BJ and i are going fishing. He just got a new boat so that will be fun to try out.

My ten year high school reunion is coming up and that should be fun. i never know what to expect will things like that as they could be really fun or really dumb.

Well i think that is all for now.

Latest Photos

Here are some of the latest photos of our two chitlins. I will get all of them and post it on here soon but i wanted to get some up now.

Video Test

This is Isabelle eating dinner last night. I recorded it on my phone and i want to see if this works to post the video.

Micah is rolling over

Koren called me to day to tell me that Micah rolled over for the first time on his own today. He has been sitting up on his own for a few days now and those are two very exciting steps in his life. pretty soon he will be running around the house chasing Isabelle. But for now no more couches or beds for him alone.

This is my cookie...

Another Isabelle story that i forgot to put on my last post. The other day Isabelle, Koren and I were eating lunch and Isabelle ate all of her food really well. So after we said she could have a cookie. So we each got one cookie and we sat down at the table to eat them. Isabelle was sitting on my lap but then i needed to go outside for two seconds. So i sat her in my chair and set the half of my cookie that was left on the table. When i came back i saw Koren laughing her head off and Isabelle's mouth full of cookie. So i thought she must have shove what was left of hers in her mouth all at once. But then Koren said "Isabelle where is daddy's cookie?" and Isabelle smiled her huge smile and opened her mouth to show me a big glob of chewed up chocolate cookie. So i said well who's cookie is that on the table then. Isabelle picked up that cookie and said "this my cookie, daddy's is all gone". Koren explained to me that right after i left Isabelle got a huge smile on her face and told Koren that she was going to eat daddy's cookie before i got back. So when i got back all that was left was her cookie and she obviously gets to eat her own cookie.

The best part is that she shoved my whole cookie in her mouth because she knew i wouldn't be gone for very long. But then when that one was gone she SLOWLY took small bites of her and enjoyed it as if she were taunting me or showing me her dominance.

She is doing more and more of these funny things.

I'm getting worried...

I am really starting to worry about my ability to out think my children. I will give you a couple short stories of why i am getting worried.

1. Isabelle was eating lunch with Koren and she wanted to be done and have desert. She only had three pieces of chicken nuggets left on her plate so Koren told her that as soon as there were no more chicken nuggets on her plate they could have desert. So Isabelle picked up the three remaining pieces and put them in her lap, gave Koren a "i am smarter then you" look, pointed at her empty plate and said "desert now please".

2. Isabelle has a new awesome book with the Disney princesses and each page is a two sided puzzle of the princess. So loves to do puzzles and so that is one of her favorite books right now. She does have a hard time keeping track of all the pieces. We have not lost any so far and for have about 100 uses out of it already i am really proud of her for keeping track. Yesterday morning though we were missing a couple pieces and so Koren asked Isabelle where they were. (we ask her because 99.9% of the time if we ask her where something is she knows. It doesn't matter if it was a week since she had seen it she remembers.) She looked around for a second and then told Koren that the neighbors dog ate them. Now the dog ate the homework if very common in older kids but i would almost guarantee that Isabelle has never heard that before. That was all her idea.

Her favorite things to play with are puzzles and books and i know that is not making her any dumber. I love that she loves books. Now that i am writing this... She loves books, has dark skin, almost too smart for her own good. I think she is DAMON!!! if he had died i would believe in reincarnation. As long as she is Damon and not Bret!!

A Common Mortgage Mistake

As i hear common mistakes from borrowers i will try to post them on here so that you don't have to make the same mistake. Today i was talking to someone and they were asking about refinancing. They said that they were told and thought that it is not worth it to refinance your house unless you lower your interest rate by 1% or more. If it were only that simply... I know of times that i could have lowered someones interest rate 3% and it wasn't the right thing to do, and other times that we lowered their interest rate .125% and it WAS the right thing to do.

So how do you know????

there is one major issue that you are not considering in just looking at the interest rate. That is the fees that you have to pay to do the loan. If we can lower your interest rate 3% saving you $200 a month, but it cost you $20,000 in fees to do that. It probably isn't a good idea. But say we can save you .125% or $15 a month but we can do it on a no cost loan. Then you save money from the very first month.

There are a few other small things to consider after looking into the two big ones (rate and fees) and those are how long are you planning on keeping that mortgage? If you are going to pay fees to lower your interest rate, do you think rates are going to go down even more? And do you care about the lost time of payments that you have already made? These are minor compared to the rates and fees but are something that you should consider.

Fed Funds Rate Droped .25%

The fed lowered the Fed Funds Rate yesterday. (the fed actually only manipulates the FFR as i explained before) to 2%. They are getting close to the post 9/11 numbers that we saw and if the mortgage companies ever figure out what loans they want to do rates should come down a lot. We can only hope.

Oh and if any of you have a HELOC that is tied to prime, prime lowered .25% as well. It almost is always 3% over the FFR.

Women

I know this one is going to get me into trouble but i really don't understand some things and i would like to vent about my ignorance more then anything. I know there is no explanation that a man can comprehend.



No body appreciates a clean house more then i do but i think there is a point when something can be too clean. I don't understand why we need to clean Sooo much. I mean dishes and clothes i see the point. But i don't see the point of having the 2 inches behind the toilet sanitized every week, or all the hard surface floors (tile and wood) scrubbed every week or more. Especially because you wont let me eat off the floor!!!



I have never seen the point to spending hours a day on something that by design we will undo in a short period of time. Making the bed is ok if that means making sure the sheets are not on the floor. If that mean tucking in the corners and making sure there are no wrinkles and that one pillow is under the sheet and the decorative pillow is on top of the sheet... That is a waste of time. Making sure the floors are not sticky or acting as a petri dish for my kids to watch is important, but our floors and toilets are cleaner then the surgical instruments in the hospitals of Mexico.

My two year olds room is always cleaner then most houses i go into. I expect my two year olds room to be a tornado, if i can walk to her bed and closet without stubbing my toe or breaking a doll i think we are good. Then organize it maybe once a week.

I does get a little frustrating when i clean something and then i am told that what i did was not even close to an acceptable level of clean. Why?? is the earth going to change it's rotation? Are the walls going to fall down faster if the house is a little unorganized?? maybe and we just don't know about it.

I just think if, other then dishes and laundry, we spent a max of 2 hours cleaning a week (I even think that is too much) and spent all that extra time doing things that lasted more then 15 minutes we would all be a lot happier. We could spend more time with our kids, we could get a lot more of the big projects done, we would not be so stressed out all the time. Vacuum the carpet again or go plant a garden?? Kill 99.99% of the germs in our bathroom that could grow in 6 days or go to the park, or plant some flowers, or paint the bathroom. Again maybe i am wrong.

Well that is my rant that i am sure will get me a free ticket to the couch for a while... But if anyone would like to explain it to me that would be great.