Where's Ma-ba?

Don't tell Daddy and Mommy I got out of bed. They usually don't let me to the computer unsupervised (whatever that means) but I had to tell you about my day.

I went to nursery today. I didn't go last week because I was sick. But today I got to go. I cried when Mommy and Daddy left me, but quickly calmed down and played.

This nursery is okay, I guess. I don't know any of the children, except Ainsley, who lives across the street. The room is smaller. We did get to play with this stuff called Play Doh, though. That was fun and I got to trace my hands.

There's one thing no one could explain to me. I thought nursery meant playtime with Ma-Ba. Have you seen my Ma-ba?

Boxing Day

As Clara went down for her nap today I turned to Kristin and said, "Let's tackle the book boxes in our bedroom. I'm ready to have our bedroom 100% unpacked."

Book boxes in the bedroom? You heard me. Since this house is a little smaller than our old house, we had to find space for our bookcases. With a sizable master bedroom, they ended up next to my side of the bed. For the past week and a half we've had book boxes stacked all about the room. With Clara soundly sleeping, we moved in.

We were able to unload the boxes in fairly short order, so I left Kristin to organize. We don't have space for the small bookcase that used to sit in the guest room, so Kristin had to do some crazy maneuvering. I tackled the mountain of dishes that had started to pile up. When Clara woke up, she and I headed to the store to pick up some groceries. (And to Redbox to return 27 Dresses - enjoyed - and to pick up No Reservations.)

ASIDE RANT: Whoever said the cost of living is cheaper in Utah is smoking something serious and needs to share so I can feel the bliss. One can of Goya black beans at Macey's costs $1.09. I paid $0.80 for that same can at Wegmans. The house brands are also more expensive here: $0.70 at Macey's vs. $0.50 at Wegmans. All food, and gas, is more expensive in Utah than in Virginia. Sure, rent is cheaper, but you quickly make up for it in the cost of food! END ASIDE RANT

When Clara and I returned, Kristin told me to go upstairs. I walked into this:

The first picture is from the door into our bedroom. To the right is the closet; the left, the bathroom. The closed door in the second picture is the bathroom door.

One of the benefits of living up on a hillside is the view. It's fun to look out our bedroom window and see the valley below. From the deck off the front of our house, you can see campus and the windmills at the mouth of Price Canyon. You can even see the lake in the distance.

Helena, like my room with a view?

My Olympic Dream

Orientation continued today, with a full day's worth of seminars about teamwork. Drs. Thompson and LeBaron spoke, sharing items from their research about successful teams and how to manage team dynamics. We had a few team exercises, but none that were as fun as the paper airplane building contest.

Each team was given a plastic bag containing identical elements. Each team had 30 minutes to build an airplane, focusing on distance and duration. Duration as we flew in multiple heats. We decided to go with something atypical. After deciding against a ball of paper, we decided to leverage alien technology and built a UFO. We taped multiple layers of card stock together, with the three pennies they gave us spaced around the outside to give even weight. By curving as we taped the edges, it had a good shape. We were ready to rumble.

Thirty teams went in heats of five. We won our first heat. The six semi-finalists went in two heats. Three of the six semi-finalists had used the balled-up paper design. We won our semi heat and went up against a ball of paper in the finals. "The shot put vs. the discus," I cried. Dave, our designated thrower, tossed the disc to victory. Our little disc won! It was a good feeling.

Clara and Kristin picked me up after the seminar finished, and we decided to get pizza to celebrate my first grad-school weekend. To save on a tip and delivery fee (Papa John's ... $2 delivery fee is a bit much) we called in our order. We then spent the twenty minutes burning the tip and delivery fee savings by driving around Provo. We picked up 27 Dresses from Redbox, then headed up to the streets above the temple. Check out the view:


Back at home with pizza consumed by Kristin and I, Kristin snapped a couple of cute shots. Enjoy!

Will you be my high quality connection?

I lied in yesterday's post. What I miss most is not the time with my family. I miss the sleep.

I pulled myself out of bed at 6am this morning to make it up to campus for a day at a nearby National Guard training facility. We did a course with different obstacles that were designed to test our leadership and team skills. Being out in the sun from 8:30a to 11:30a added a nice new layer of burn to my skin. And when you're a few thousand feet closer to the sun you REALLY start to feel the effects quickly. The course was a lot of fun, and three of my teammates ended up in the water. One spectacularly so. Watching him fall was almost like watching something in slow motion. I've yet to fully analyze the experience, but did learn a lot from the ROTC officers who ran it.

In the afternoon we had an interesting course on leadership. When I first joined my old company, the majority of the people had a certain work style. Over time this style changed, and I remember discussing it with a few of my coworkers and Kristin. It was fascinating today when the leader of the seminar was talking about building connections (what he called "high quality connections" ... now if that isn't MBA-speak I don't know what is) and mentioned that there are four ways to do this. The two ways I had witnessed at my old company were two of the ways listed. It was fascinating to learn about something I'd experienced in my professional career. I really enjoyed the seminar. It caused me to think about how I can better recognize such situations and act accordingly.

During the seminar I took notes on my new laptop. It was my first time using Microsoft Word 2007. I turned to one of my learning teammates and said, "I feel like I'm in England: I speak the language but everything is on the wrong side of the road." I'm dubious about Office 2007, and have resisted well into 2008, something of which I'm proud. At least all my keyboard shortcuts still work in Excel. (Holler to my Excel peeps.) Hopefully the learning curve will not be too steep. I hear once you get used to the ribbon it's not that bad.

But I'm drained. Up too late last night blogging. Not enough sleep the last two nights. I feel asleep on the couch at 6:30 this evening, only to be awoken when Clara spilled a class of cold water on me. Not a nice way to wake up.

I'm heading to bed to get some rest.

Welcome To: Randolpha

There are few people on the planet who can routinely leave me speechless. Randi is one. Met during college and kept up with over the years, Randi is best described with two words: brilliance and passion. She is currently the head pastry chef for the popular Seattle restaurateur Tom Douglas.

My two favorite memories of Randi are when I told her I hate the Beatles (read here) and when she and I would recite "po-etry" à-la-snooty-English-professor. Her insights into life are unique. I'm excited to be able to follow her blog.

So welcome, Dear Randi.
Readers of the blog: Go! Give pageviews! Read her blog.

Rugs And Oliver Are Oriental

I woke up early this morning. To the sound of an alarm clock, even. I pulled myself out of bed before Clara was awake. It was before 7:00am. Looks like my short vacation is over.

Today I attended the first day of orientation. We have seven - count 'em - seven days of orientation. Today required a suit. Tomorrow we wear shorts. We looked so lovely in our dark suits, sitting in the Hinckley Center. Guess what color my shirt wasn't, David.

It was great to finally start to meet the people with whom I will be studying for the next two years. I met the four other members of my study group ... excuse me, learning team. With a diversity of backgrounds, I'm excited to see how we'll work together. During the day we listened to talks from the people who run the program, had time to get acquainted with our teammates, learned about the computer systems the professors use, took pictures, and had small-group and large-group discussions. I'm definitely one of the older ones. And I have significantly more work experience than most.

I caught a ride home with one of the guys in my study group. Guess what he and his wife have been dealing with for the past three years? When I told Kristin she asked me, "Is this our lot in life? Wherever we go are we going to find people in the Church who deal with infertility?" It's looking so.

Having three weeks free from work and school has been a great blessing. I've had the chance to witness first-hand the madness Kristin endures on a daily basis. I've been able to play with Clara: wrestling, playing the "I'm about to lick your nose" game, tickling her, and witnessing her vocabulary expand. I've been able to walk over to my wonderful wife at any time and give her a hug, exasperate her with some comment, or just reach out and hold her hand. I have such appreciation for the love and care she gives Clara. And the love and care she gives me.

School is going to be good. And I know this is my lot in life to miss these daily things. But sometimes I wish for a windfall, so that I could see every moment of the next eighteen years rather than just these eighteen short days.

Evening Pursuits

This evening we trekked up to SLC to pick up my new suit from Mr. Mac. Every suit that I've ever owned has come from Mr. Mac, and the vast majority of them have been picked out by Spence. He is amazing and never disappoints. If you're ever at the downtown Mr. Mac ask for Spence. (And, yes, David, all three of the new shirts I purchased are non-white.)

Afterward we went to Hires Big H for dinner before heading back down to Provo. I really enjoy their hamburgers and the root beer in a frosty mug. Clara's meal came with a hamburger, french fries, a Sprite and a Dum Dum. Due to her allergies, she generally eats very little processed food. And to this point she has not been a fan of any sort of potato product. The one thing we do know is that she is a carbonated beverage junkie.

At dinner she made a good dent in her fries, didn't touch the hamburger, and wouldn't let the Sprite out of her sight. On the way home we gave her the Dum Dum. We were shocked to see that, with no formal lollipop-eating training, she quickly mastered Lollipop 101. We let her eat 85.6% before taking it away.

Back in Provo we wanted to walk around a while so we went to University Mall. Kristin worked at the mall as an undergraduate student and was curious to see how the renovations turned out. We caught a few things that should elicit a reaction.

Exhibit A - Kiosk in the middle of the mall

The pink t-shirt says: "My heart belongs to a werewolf." Need I say more?

Exhibit B - nothing noteworthy; just the store that took over the space where Kristin's old Prints Plus was.


Exhibit C - a sign in the mall. Randi, do I hear "Editor! Editor!"?


Exhibit D - happy day; the following was procured


Special thanks to Kristin's iPhone for taking the pictures

Welcome To: R1 & K1

I've been lame about adding links to the right rail. And chatting with a friend reminded me that I hadn't added his. So today we welcome R1, K1, W1 and L1 (not pictured below). Aside from having the coolest name on the planet for their second child, R1 and K1 (don't want their full names posted online) are people of amazing intellect and wit, the level of which is rarely seen. We met when they came to our Ward for the summer. He is working on a PhD in imaging science and explained to me how DLP works. I was enthralled.

We only got to hang out with them for a few short months, but in that time we introduced them to Killer Bunnies, they made amazing ice cream, R1 introduced me to a black cherry juice that you get a Trader Joe's (and can't get in Utah, blast!), and helped us get ready to move. We'll miss them, but look forward to keeping up with them via their blog.

So welcome, R1 & K1.
Readers of the blog: Go! Give pageviews! Read their blog.

Reading The Blogs

Am off reading the blogs in the blogOWebs and came across an idea that Amy posted. Of course, I tweaked it a little...

MEMORY TAG:
As a comment on my blog, leave you most memorable memory of me. It can be of something we did together, of something crazy I did, of something crazy you did when I was around. It doesn't matter if you know me a lot or a little. Anything is game.

Hmmm ... anything is game is a dangerous proposition with this crowd. This should be good...

At The Park

While Kristin was getting ready this morning Clara and I went down to the park in our neighborhood. The park has a great play structure, wood mulch that Clara loves to throw, and outdoor deck chairs for the adults. On our way out, Clara fell down two steps, landing on her face. More shaken than injured, I picked her up crying and only wanting Mama. When it's bad, she always wants Mama.

After drying the tears, we left the house. I offered Clara a drink. She took a drink then tucked the cup under her arm. I offered to hold it for her, but she kept tight hold of it. I realized that she needed a security object. The cup was helping to calm her down after her fall.

It caused me to ponder the things I hold on to after a fall. Sometimes it is a grudge against the person who I perceive as culpable for my pain. Many times it is Kristin, who knows my "chill out" buttons. I have also used food, sleep, and music. And at times I turn to God. I think that part of overcoming the natural man involves relying less on the physical comforts and looking to God to provide that lasting source of comfort through His Spirit.

Clara eventually put down her cup and went over to a chain link ladder, attempting to climb it for the first time. I left my seat to show her how to get to the top, guiding her steps while letting her push and pull herself up. After going up once she made a noise and pointed to the chair in which I was previously sitting. I obliged and left her to tackle the ladder on her own, wishing she would hold on to me just a minute longer.

Making Faces

Tonight Clara and I were cuddling on the couch when she started giving me dirty looks. Clara definitely inherited "The Look" gene from Jeff, Kristin's father. In Kristin's family, Jeff's Look has a lore of its own. You can sit down with any of his three daughters and ask about The Look and they will pull stories from their childhood, including "do you remember the first time you got the look?" stories.

As I said, Clara has inherited this gene. Her first trick was rolling her eyes. She started this when she was about nine months old. Lacking the control to do a proper eye-roll, she would look at you, look up at the ceiling, then look back. I'm chuckling just thinking about it. We were never able to capture this on video, but would collapse into fits of laughter each time she "rolled" her eyes at us. The fact that this was one of her first complex expressions gives terrifying insight into her psyche and personality.

So, when she started making faces tonight I yelled to Kristin to bring the camera and we were able to capture it on film. The first picture below is from when I was tickling her with a Koosh ball. The second picture is the traditional Look featuring the knitted eyebrows. The third is a modified version, featuring the appalled mouth. Enjoy!



Who said anything about a strong will?

We're Here

I'm sitting on my couch, typing on my new laptop for school, watching Olympics on my TV, wondering how we made it here. We've had a crazy trip from VA to DC -- starting back when we first had the idea to leave DC -- and we'll blog all about it all. But I wanted to drop a note to get back in the blogging frame of mind and let you know how we're doing.

Today we went to church in our new ward for the first time. We are in the Slate Canyon 13th Ward in the Provo Utah Stake. Our building is a Stake center about two minutes from our house. The ward is predominantly late-20s, early-30s families with a mix of people older and younger. It looks like most people are working professionals with a hand full of students. The talks and lessons were good. This ward may work.

The big news of the day came in Gospel Doctrine. Two things, actually. First, Clara is quite uncontainable and, my, do we rely on nursery. Clara has had a cold for the past week or so. She still has a runny nose, so we didn't want to take her to nursery for fear of infecting the other children. We did a drive-by to let her see the room and meet the nursery leaders. She was so cute, checking out the room and they toys. She seemed very comfortable and should do well next Sunday. We took her to Gospel Doctrine with us, and learned how uncontainable she has become. We ended up splitting the class, one in the hall and the other in class, so she wouldn't disrupt the room. Kristin and Clara went home after the second hour so Clara could take a nap. Did I mention that we have 1pm church again? There is no worse time when you have a toddler. I hope we get 9am church next year.

The second thing happened just before class got started. I was looking around the room and was shocked to see someone I knew: Allyson. Allyson grew up in Northern Virginia, went to TJ with Matthew and Jared, and is the younger sister of Heather F. (Matt - didn't you and Heather go to a dance?) Allyson ended up giving me a ride home from church then coming over for dinner. It was an odd experience to sit down and talk with someone that you hadn't talked to or seen in 14 years. The conversation would flow from typical getting acquainted questions (family, hobbies, work, relationships) to reminiscing about people we used to know. I even pulled out an old photo album and we played "can you name the person in the picture?"

After dinner and putting Clara to bed, we chatted while watching the Olympics. Allyson called it a night after the gymnastics as she is a teacher and the first day of school is tomorrow. Who woulda thunk that dinner tonight would have been with an old friend from Virginia.

This is my fate in life. I love people. I love talking to people. One might say I collect people. I love hearing their stories, learning about their passions, their happenings. And everywhere I go, I run into someone I know. Kristin and I had many conversations about how we would pitch ourselves to our new ward --- you know, which callings do you fess up to (Seminary Teacher, Gospel Doctrine Teacher, Sunbeam Teacher, Ward Organist), do you really let them know you enjoy talking in church, when is too soon for a dose of Oliver crazy --- and finally decided that we needed to ease ourselves in slowly. Better put, that I need to temper the Ward before I give them a full dose.

At one point tonight, as I obsessed over the order of DVDs in plastic containers, Kristin counseled me to go easy on the crazy until Allyson had spent some more time around me. I guess it's best that I unleashed the crazy on someone who already knows me, albeit the teenage version. At least now I'm warmed up for the next time around, when I'll really need to hold it in.

I probably should have held it in during Elders Quorum when I introduced myself. How I managed to get out that the cold I have is making me sound like a freak, that my little brother's wife usurped the title of tallest in-law, and that Utah drivers are maddening is beyond me. Call it my special little talent.

I hope these people here are ready.

Far Away in the West

We're here, we made it, we're settling in. Once we manage to sort through this welter of boxes and furniture we'll be able to post full details, but I just wanted to hop on and let you all know we survived a 2,000+ mile car trip with a toddler. No mean feat, let me tell you.

Updates to come...

Missing Michael

Clara already misses her "Muh-buh" (that's "Michael for those unfamiliar with Clara-speak). He and his parents left to visit family this week and won't be back until after we've headed west. About a week ago Oliver and I watched Michael while Bonnie and David had their last "kid-swap" date and we took some video of the kiddos at play. Enjoy.

Peekaboo
Clara has developed the habit of running around to see the back of the camera as we take pictures or videos, which has resulted in many a shot of her ear...sometimes we manage to get an eye in there as well. Michael saw her do this and came running over to play peekaboo around the camera. This video makes Clara laugh and laugh, and she'll even try to kiss the monitor.



Spinning Monkeys
They both love to spin. I mean, they LOVE to spin. Michael can keep it up for 20 minutes or more.



Somersault Madness
Michael has actually mastered the somersault (although you can't quite tell from this video) and Clara is trying, with variable results.