Little Kathy with Bret

Does Lexi look like Kathy?

New Phone

I had to get a new phone for my new job.  How fun!  Since I have never even purchased a cell phone - let alone a smartphone - before, I was looking forward to it.  I have used a Blackberry for the past few years at my old job.  It worked well and there were many things I used often, especially while traveling.  But I knew I wanted something better than a Blackberry and was going for an Android phone.

As with most larger purchases, I spent a lot of time looking at reviews and trying to make a decision before I even went to the store.  I was convinced I was going to get either the Droid 3 or Thunderbolt (Jake has this phone).  After playing with several of the phones I realized I didn't really like the Droid 3 and the Thunderbolt (besides its horrible battery issue) didn't have the ability to work as a global phone (none of the 4G phones do yet).

In the end I found a phone I really liked.  I left the store to check out reviews and in the end returned to get it.  I absolutely love it so far.  It is very similar to the iPhone - both in size and style.  It is the HTC Droid Incredible 2.  I've had it for several days and have loved everything about it so far.  The battery even appears to last almost the entire day.  I am on Verizon so I can call everyone I basically know for free.  Who knew a little device could bring such fun and excitement?

Lost and Found

When Jacob and I were dating freshman year of college, he gave me a white gold heart-shaped locket on a chain. Before he left on his mission, I put a picture of him and a paper where he'd written "I love you" in it. I wore that locket pretty much every day while he was gone and even after he got back. At some point in the first year or two of our marriage, I couldn't find it. I looked for years. And then we moved and I figured it was gone for good. Then we moved again, this time to a different state. We've lived here for over a year and I would still occasionally think about this necklace and how important it was to me and how sad I was that I had lost it.

This morning I was cleaning out the second bedroom because it's just a mess. I opened a small random jewelry box on the sewing table and it had one of my YW medallions in it. Then I lifted the little paper that it was sitting on and I was in shock...





I told Jacob it was going to be a good weekend. :-)

all the pretty birdies

I felt like Cinderella today.  As I sat on the porch reading, I had small yellow finches come by over and over. They sing so beautifully!  Then my bluebirds came back, and they flew all around, up and down.  So pretty. Then the cardinals came, and they also have a beautiful song.  The hummingbirds came along, humming away...
Then, a big beautiful blue heron flew over.   Wow!  How sweet it was!

Pulling the Trigger

On Friday July 8, 2011 at around 1:00 PM I sat in front of my screen and hesitated.  Was I really going to do this?  Was this the right choice?  My questions were answered with a confident affirmation, but it still felt “odd”.  I decided to let the moment sink in.  I figure there aren’t many moments like this in a person’s life.  Big decisions that can lead to joy or pain – or more of the same.  I sat there and read through the email again.  I wanted to make sure I hadn’t left anything out.  Or said anything stupid.  It was short; to the point.  I took a few deep breaths and savored the feelings.  They were feelings of excitement, fear, and joy.  But mostly excitement and joy.  The time had come.  In fact, it was probably long overdue.  But I am not one to make decisions hastily.  I definitely would consider myself cautious and risk-averse.  But everything comes to an end.  Even if we don’t want them to. 

I placed my hand on the mouse below my hand and clicked.  My computer screen flickered in an instant as it determined what to do.  And then the message was sent.  The subject: Official Resignation.

This moment had been building for a few years.  It was about four years ago that I was at a similar crossroads and had been praying and fasting for inspiration on what to do.  Resigning seemed a likely course, but I was pushing for the opportunity to do an overseas assignment.  And it was late in July of that year that I received a phone call asking if I’d be interested in taking my family to live in Hong Kong for the next 2 – 3 years.  It was all I had dreamed of – and I grasped it with ambition and without fear.  The next year was a blur.  Indeed we moved to Hong Kong.  And our time there was wonderful, but didn’t last more than a few months; certainly not the years we had expected.  I returned to the USA with a somewhat broken heart.  The dream had been so fleeting. 

Years later I was back in the same spot.  Hoping and wishing for something more.  The opportunity to utilize my talents and exercise my mind.  This time the answer was not an exotic relocation to the orient, but rather a new opportunity with a global company that is rapidly expanding.  A place I believe I can contribute and make better.  And with that a new chapter in my life will begin.  The Prudential chapter has ended.  

Hero of the week

I thought it might be uplifting and fun to have everyone write one person they saw either in person, on the news, wherever, that gave them inspiration and showed courage:  and I thought maybe it is time we let Jarek and Malik add their two cents in the blog.  Maybe as we go about our week and are watching, we will notice small or large acts of service, kindness, or courage more.  Then we can share them with each other.
I will be on the lookout!

Safe

Last night on our way home, Jimmy and I stopped at the grocery store. I was still in my bathing suit so I opted not to go in. So we parked and Jimmy got out and like always before he closed his door, he told me to lock the doors. I always think this is silly because I am a grown woman =). Then he came back two seconds later to get his wallet and scolded me because I hadn't locked the doors yet. So this time I did. After a couple of minutes I put down the front mirror and started to brush my hair as it was a mess from being in the pool earlier. And after only a few seconds a strange man appeared outside my window. He was fairly close to the car and was staring at me. Then he started to imitate me brushing my hair. So I stopped and put up the mirror. I obviously wanted him to go away. Well this brought him closer. He was now only inches away from my door and would not stop staring at me. Now I was a little freaked out. After a couple more minutes of him just staring at me and no sign of Jimmy, I hopped into the driver's seat and moved the car. He put his hands up like "oh come on".

I parked right in front of the store hoping he would not come back. Not even 2 minutes later he was back. Now he was actually bending over and looking into the driver's side window. Literally, just staring at me. He did not look nice either. I actually became somewhat afraid. I knew that nothing could actually happen since I was right in front of the store but I was still very uncomfortable. I didn't roll down the window because I am too much of a chicken and like I said, he did not look nice or friendly.

Finally, after I continued to look away, he walked away. Staggering off. I think he was on drugs or might have been drunk. A tear trickled down my cheek and I was so glad he was gone. Jimmy came back pretty soon after he left and saw that I was obviously distraught. He asked what happened and so I told him the story. He was pretty upset and asked where this guy had went. I didn't know so we backed out and started to go home. But right then, I spotted him at another car. Surprised Jimmy actually got out of the car. I wasn't sure what he was going to do but turns out he didn't do anything. He just listened to this man ask this other man for money. He got back in the car, grabbed my hand, told me he was sorry that had happened to me, and we went home.

Point of this story is that I am so grateful to my husband. It was amazing to feel such peace and security when I saw him walking out of the store towards me. As soon as I saw his face I felt safe. And I am just so grateful that he had asked me to lock the doors. I do not know if this man would have tried to open the door. He was only inches away and definitely noticed that it was locked. Maybe he wouldn't of done anything but once again, I am so glad for having such a loving and protective husband.

Fishing the Delaware river

We tried really hard...
Dad looked up places to fly-fish, and after some map-reading and finding sites on line, and trying to get a license for him, and looking up restrictions, we decided we were ready to go.
My friends told us that a place called Rosco is a very good fly-fishing area, and it also has regular fishing.  Dad looked up the current ratings, and Rosco said good, and Delaware River said Excellent.
and so we headed out toward the great Delaware, and dad didn't bring a map because he thought he knew about a road that drove all along side of it, and we did find the road, but- the road was up  on the mountain side, and the river below.  We found a few places to stop, but the river was raging and high and deep, even along the edges.  We drove for 2 hours,  and found a small town with a bait and tackle shop.  He was happy because he did find a good fishing net like he wanted for a good price.
The lady there said the river was too swollen and all muddied up from the torrential rain storms we had on Sunday to fly fish.  She claimed the fish would not even see a fly unless you added sound or smell to it. (I had no idea they did that but the evidently do)
  We saw a bridge going over the river to Pennsylvania, and some people fishing from the rocky shore there. We drove on over there, and he gave it his best for about 3 hours.  He caught one tiny  4" fish.
No one else was catching anything.
I thought it was too early, as we arrived at 4.  There was no shade, and I couldn't sit and read in the car or in the camp chair, so I was pretty uncomfortable.  (I had sat on the camp chair the night before watching fire works, and it isn't so great for bad backs).
I patiently watched him and enjoyed just the beauty of the area.
As we started leaving about 7pm, sure enough, bugs came out and some fish started jumping.  (should I insert here that I told him to come at 7 cause my dad told me fish don't bit in the hot, sunny hours)?

So he tried a bit again and finally gave up.  Poor dad.  But I think he liked the actual sport of throwing his line out there over and over again.  I like the sit and relax kind of fishing.  Next time I will bring my pole.  7 hours and no fish, but a beautiful ride.

Isn't she a little young...

Last night, we put the kids to bed early, because they were still a little sick, very tired from being up so late the night before to see fireworks, and because I wanted a little alone time with Jacob before he took off for the Scout's High Adventure for the rest of this week. So we put them to bed around 7:45ish. At about 8 pm, we went out to swim and enjoy our hot tub for a little while. When we came back in around 8:30 pm so Jacob could get ready to go (yeah, they leave for the High Adventure at 9 pm - I know it's weird). And guess who had snuck out of bed and was playing her computer games?!? I figured we'd have until she was at least 9 or so before she start pulling that trick.

May and June

I've been pretty neglectful of blogging lately. Not sure why - probably all of the fun video games that have been sucking up my free time (Spiral Knights!). But since I'm up early today thanks to this heat wave that makes me go running before 7 am or I die, here's some of the happenings of the last two months:
May 1: Hazel turned 3! Most of the day was a pretty normal Sunday but we had family over for cake and presents in the evening. My only goal with birthday cakes is that the birthday girl or boy can recognize what I was trying to do. So the fact that she could name every character was good enough for me, even though Rabbit turned out a bit weird looking. For the record, I had been asking her for several weeks what she wanted for her birthday cake and every time, she'd say a different Winnie the Pooh character, so I went for a regular cake with all of them that she named. She got lots fun presents from people but as usual, her mom and dad won favorite present with Candyland. She probably plays it 3 times a week now, but we were doing about 3 times a day when she first got it.
mid-May: Jacob took a trip to Las Vegas with Bret. Bret had to go for a business thing, so Jacob went along to keep him company. I was not at all bothered (even though we had never been to Vegas together) until....he told me he was going to eat at Bobby Flay's restaurant. So unfair. But he made up for it later (keep reading).




May 21: Jacob and Speed went on their first Father and Son camp out with the ward. Speed was born during the camp out last year, so they just missed it by that much. :) I was told that Speed was really good and they had a good time. (Apparently it was a little chilly in the morning.) Also on this day, Speed turned 1! I can't believe he's that old already. We had the whole family over again and had pizza and cake and opened presents. The video footage from his presents is actually pretty sad because Hazel's crying most of the time and Jacob and I are trying to remind her that these are Speed's presents, so no, she can't open them. I'm sure she'll do better with that as she gets older.

Beginning June: We went camping in central Arizona for Bret's birthday. It was a fun, albeit short trip in a place we had never been to before. It was pretty cool, because it was this valley with a decent sized stream running through it (not terribly common here), so it was this big pocket of green surrounded by a huge chunk of desert. It was pretty fun scenery on the drive in and out. We had fun fishing (well, I tried - Jacob actually caught something), playing in the water and in the dirt, and just relaxing. (I wasn't kidding about the dirt.)



















Unfortunately, there are fire restrictions in place right now because of all the wildfires down here, so we didn't get to have a camp fire, which was a pretty big bummer. At least on our way out of the camp site, we did some fun off-roading with Pink 5.

mid-June: Jacob and I took a very short trip to Utah. Of the whole day we were in Utah, I spent it at the office (business trip for me) and Jacob spent it at the condo replacing a toilet and doing other repairs (business trip for him). He did get some time after his toilet job (apparently it takes more time to have meetings and set up a computer than to replace a toilet - who knew) to play tennis with Tommy and Holly and her friend and soccer with Webb, who we were staying with. (Jacob's the one in the orange shirt.) Then we were off first thing the next morning to Las Vegas.
As previously mentioned, we'd never been to Las Vegas together (unless you count the 6 hours crashing at the Marriott New Year's Eve of 2009 - which I don't) so I was actually pretty excited. We stayed at the Venetian, which was nice but not worth it for the price. There are nicer hotels that are cheaper, but I'm glad we tried it. And we ate at Bobby Flay's restaurant....twice. :-D It was SOOOO good. Best thing I ate: the roasted corn soup. It was just delicious. I could live off that stuff. Everything was seriously yummy, which is why we ate there twice! (I didn't take any pictures of the food there because Jacob thought that was a little too touristy.) We also went shopping, ate gelato with strawberry sauce somewhere else that looked like spaghetti and meatballs (I thought it was a cute presentation and it was a more average restaurant, so I didn't feel weird taking pictures there), saw Super 8 (meh - J. J. Abrams has made better movies), went swimming, went to Fremont Street (it was much more fun last time I went), and just walked around the strip being tourists. It was a fun trip and a very nice, extra long date. This was another one night stay, but it was good to get away. (Hey - there's a picture of me AND Jacob on this post - that's rare!)

In the meantime, our kids were left with Bret and Tevia. They got to stay here in Arizona and go swimming and go for a short trip to visit Tevia's parents. The report was they were very good and had a fun time. I know Hazel was glad to see me when they got back but Speed took a little more convincing. It was the first time we had left him for that long so I think he was a little confused.

End-of-June: Since then, we have just been relaxing! There's been a lot of swimming and gaming and general playing with whatever the favorite toy of the day is. Some of the winners have been: that pink doll stroller from the earlier post, tennis balls, the cars Speed got for his birthday, my alarm clock, and the kids' bottle of shampoo. Yes, my children are pretty silly.
The other big piece of news from recent times is that Speed's hair was just getting too long....so he had his first ever hair cut. I think he looks so much older now. He was very good and sat very still for Jacob. Hazel was (again) more of the problem because she wanted to see exactly what was happening and then when Speed was done, she wanted her hair cut! Thankfully she got over it quickly when I told her no way.

That's about all from us for now - we're just having fun and relaxing since July is a pretty laid back month for us. Jacob has one Scout trip but other than that, we just get to play and swim and have fun. Oh, and did I forget to mention that we bought a hot tub? Hehe....

Counting blessings

Who did you pay for sunshine today?
How much did your body cost?
Who did you pay for the rain last week?Who owns the planet?
How much did your vision cost?
Who did you pay for the air your breath?

Maybe you are more blessed than you know!
(from Peaceful Daily)


I am happy today for the beautiful weather we have had, my first raspberries, the book Heidi, and we may go fishing on Tuesday!  I have all day to catch up on little things, and looking forward to swimming later and playing some games.