Jordan's at BYU

No more community college for Jordan. We took some pictures around BYU so when he's done with school we can do a before/after scrapbook page.
Jordan's first day of school!!! Sporting his cool new lap-top backpack.

So lately, when I try to put jonah to bed he rolls over to his tummy and plays with the pictures on his sheet. On this occasion he somehow managed to get under the blanket and I couldn't resist taking a picture even though I didn't want to encourage the behavior. I love that kid.

09.01.06

1. Our son woke up last night screaming. It wasn't really screaming until he knew we were close, but none the less making enough noise that we couldn't ignore him. Amelia sent me downstairs to find the Tylenol. I start looking around and she's asking me from upstairs, "Have you found it yet?" "No. I can't find any pricelist I mean, tylenol." A few moments later she asks me again, "Have you found the Tylenol?" "No, I can't see any pricelists?!" Apparently, I was half awake and dreaming about work...

2. One time, shortly after Amelia and I had been married, we went to target and bought some goodies for a friday night. I bought soda, Jones Soda. I opened the first can and Amelia said, "Is there caffinee in that?" I perused the label, and to my disappointment there was. I downed the can anyway just so I could be satisfied. Later, I took the 12 pack of soda, and put it outside next to the car with a piece of paper that said, "FREE".

We're In

We completed another move yesterday. And as successful and painless as it was, I would say it was almost as efficient as our last move. We woke up early and had the ball rollin by 8am. Then, we were pretty much done by 3pm. In between it all, we used the UHAUL to help a friend move out of his apartment. That added a little bit of stress for me but it was a good deed and that seemed to remove any cares.

All of that is pretty amazing when you consider that 2 weeks ago, we had no idea we were moving. Early this year when were making plans we said, "we'll move into Wymount, then look for cheaper housing." Well, when we got up here all of a sudden it seemed as if we were content being where we were. We liked the ward, our neighbors, and the location. The only concerns we had were that rent was increasing, our income would decrease when school would start, and we didn't know if we would break even on our moneys by the end of the year.

Amelia had been looking for cheaper and better housing, and when we got a call that something was available through Provo City Housing, it was as if we had this flood of good luck. All of a sudden money started coming out of the wood work, we found an apartment (the one we're in) that was just dazzling. So we acted on it all. It wasn't until a few days ago when I remembered how carefully we had planned out the year and felt good about it all. It's amazing when you make a plan with the Lord, forget about it, and then it still comes to pass 6 to 8 months later...

VOIP

We are now Vonage users. I'm sure you've seen the horrible commercials on TV about Vonage, and how there's already a million users. "Wooo hooo woo hoo hooo."

Vonage is a phone service, but it's used over your internet connection. They are sending us a unique router that has phone jacks on it. We plug our phone into the router, and our router into the internet, then we get phone service. Some of the perks are:

1. Unlimited local and long distance calling
2. All the features you could ever ask for with a phone. ie: Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Voice Mail.
   
3. Access to your voicemail on-line.
4. Change your area code or phone number.

Those are pretty good perks considering it's only 24.99 a month.

There is a downside. Some of the potential problems include, but are not limited to:

1. If the power goes out, no phone.
2. If the internet goes out, no phone.
3. If the power goes out, no 911 access.
4. If you have a slow internet connection, not much bandwidth left for you.

With #4 in mind, we decided that we had to get the best connection possbile that was also available at a reasonable price. Qwest offered DSL (without phone) for 36.99, which was only $3 short of getting fiber optic internet. So we're doing that.

Enough!

We're Moving

We found super cheap housing and we're moving. I love moving. I get so excited about rearranging and starting over. Even if it is in the same town. Hopefully we can get out of our current contract in 30 days instead of 60 so we don't double up on rent. Oh yeah, the place is huge. It feels like it is twice the size of the place we're in now.

Film Review: Everything is Illuminated (2005)

1. This movie starts out really funny.
2. Then it gets serious.
3. Then it ends serious.
4. There were some underlying themes that I gave up trying to think about.

That pretty much sums up how I feel about this movie. Now, that's a really shallow overview, but I don't know that this film did a good job of explaining the themes associated with each of the characters.

(SPOILER WARNING, DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU THINK YOU'LL WATCH THIs ANY TIME SOON)

For instance, I really don't get the point in the collecting habits, or should I say disorder, that 'Jonafen' has. I know that it comes up a few times, and it's thoroughly spoken of that he just does it for something to do. But that simply can't be the only reason.

Another thing I didn't understand was everything that had to do with this "Augustine" character. How the heck did she save Jonafen's grandfather during the holocaust?
Probably my biggest beef with it all was the change of heart in the grandpa. I didn't get how he went from being a super grouch to happy to dead.

On the positive side, there were some lines from this that were so memorable they just might top what everyone thought was funny in Napolean Dyanmite. The film is well worth seeing simply to hear Aleksander use off the wall english synonyms.

Meatballs

I have been craving a meat ball sandwich. I even wrote on the dry-erase board "JORDY WANTS MEATBALLS!"

I didn't get my mid morning nap today. Well, I tried, but I was interrupted twice by Jonah, and once or twice by Amelia. When the alarm went off and I had to get in the shower, I was feeling pretty grumpy. I got dressed, ate lunch and headed out the door. I was exhausted.

I talked to Amelia twice from work, and both times she seemed like the day wasn't going very well for her. On the 2nd call 15 minutes before I left work, she said, "So are we going to eat left-overs tonight?" "Yea, sure" was my response. I didn't really care what we ate, and I didn't expect anything nice.

It was quite a surprise when I got home to find out that there were some meatballs in sauce simmering on the stove, and the "red plate" on the table. Amelia had managed to call her sister and get her to drop off a pound of beef, just so she could make me a meal I had been craving and one that she didn't want to eat!

There is nothing better than marriage... and meatballs.

My Baby

Jonah has started to stick his toosh up in the air. I think he is trying to propel himself forward but it doesn't work all that well.



This was a difficult change. I think I went through 3 diapers and he managed to not only pee all over but poop all over too. Notice the pretty stains.

08.08.06

1. I wore a shirt to work that has paint stains on it. (I work in an office witha business casual dress code). It is possibly my favorite shirt for the past 3 1/2 years.

Scouting the Library

If the manager that works at the library ever reads this, I would probably lose my job. He's pretty anal, and nothing like my supervisor. To demonstate what I mean, last week I heard a story that the manager, D, goes outside and scrapes away at gum on the sidewalk. Have you ever seen anyone do that before?

I mentioned that what I'm writing here is potentially hazardous, really it's not. But here's how it goes.

I've seen from the basement to the 6th floor of the library, but I haven't seen the roof. It's the one thing that would really make me feel like I've seen it all, even if I haven't. So today, I decided to find my way to it.

Everyone on my crew has access to a book of floor maps for the HBLL. Around 8:00 when I finished my usual chores, I headed up to see the maps. After examining the book and figuring out what room I needed to find, I took the elevators up to the 6th floor and started walking around. I kept a brisk pace to keep myself from looking like I was trying to find the roof. (Nobody stops people who look like they know where they're going)

The stairwell to the roof is next to a staff elevator on the 6th floor. I used my maintenane key and opened the door. There was hardly any light in the room but I could see stairs. I started up the stairs, and as I went the light kept getting dimmer and dimmer, until the only light I could see was coming from the cracks around the door. I was literally feeling my way around. I tried both of the keys I had to see if they could open the door, but nothing worked. It was frustrating to hear the wind blowing over the top of the building, and not being able to out on it.

So tomorrow I'm bringing a hanger.