Check out the blue widget on the side.  Mrs. Smith and I (together with the youth from our Ward) attended the celebration, “A Brand New Year” at the Conference Center.  It was awesome, and I’m pleased to include it for your perusal.

This morning poor Doodle woke up sick.  Bummer.  Not sure what’s wrong – he doesn’t have a fever, hasn’t vomited, and doesn’t complain about any specific pains.  But he’s assuredly not his usual “chipper,” energetic 3yr-old.  He woke up a couple times during the night and needed assistance (as he stood at the top of the stairs crying/screaming – at least the second time he followed my admonition and came downstairs to get me).  He, Eagle, and Mrs. Smith stayed home from Church today as a result, as well as Mrs. Smith’s grandmother’s house, who was going to watch the kiddies while we attended “Music and the Spoken Word.”

So, I went downtown to attend the musical Christmas broadcast at the Conference Center.  We took the youth of our ward down there.  I’m not sure if they all enjoyed it, but hey – they went… that’s more than I can say I likely wouild’ve done had our roles been reversed!  This was the Choir’s annual Christmas broadcast, so the Conference Center was ‘dolled up’ with festive decorations.  Surprisingly, President Monson attended the broadcast, too, so that was neat for the kids to get to see him (even if from a distance).  Some great music, I thought.  The concluding song was the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah which was, of course, spectacular.  President Monson, et al, stood up for that (which, according to Mrs. Smith, is “the way it’s supposed to be done ever since King so-and-so stood up for it when first played for him back in Handel’s day” – I’d never heard that before… any truth to it, readers?).

I picked up Cinderalla and headed to Church, which was a great outpouring of the Lord’s Spirit on His Saints (lots of capital letters in that sentence, goodness!).

Grrrr, the chilluns just came downstairs.  They’ve been thumping around up there for nearly an hour, which I don’t usually mind so long as they stay upstairs.  However, they haven’t.  Grrrr.  I won’t likely conclude the remainder of the day’s activities now, so suffice it to say it’s been a good day.  Too bad Doodle and Mrs. Smith are sick. 

How sweet it is to see a young man with whom I worked going on a mission in a few weeks.  He’s headed to the Charlotte, North Carolina mission on Dec 31 (what a cool date to enter the MTC, IMO).  I take no credit for his decision.  I’m grateful that he’s a great guy, has concerned and involved parents, is a great example to his siblings, and that he has sought the Lord diligently in his life.  I’m honored to know him.  Best wishes for a safe, successful mission!

It’s funny… when the Game Farm Ward Bishop (Auburn, WA) asked me to be the Young Men’s President, I literally laughed out loud.  “Me, YM President?  I know the scriptures say that ‘Vengeance is [His] and [He] will repay’ and it’s time for payback.”  I was… how can I say this… a difficult youth, at times (most times, perhaps).  I’d served in many callings but none of them interacted with the youth since before my mission.  Naturally I agreed to the calling, but I felt overwhelmingly inadequate and ill-prepared for the responsibility (which feeling other perhaps shared!).

Nonetheless, I learned a lot from the boys and other leaders.  I had great times.  And, hopefully, I fulfilled whatever the Lord had in mind when I was called.  We moved to UT about a year later, so it wasn’t a lot of time to develop super-strong relationships with all the boys, but I’m grateful for the opportunity I had, short as it was.  I remember their individual names, faces, and think of them.  May the Lord continue to bless them.

Today’s been a fun day.  After breakfast this morning, we left (well, when we left it was closer to lunch, but it was after breakfast after all) for the San Diego Temple.  We ate sandwiches on the Temple grounds, took some pictures, and the kids “played” with the various Nativity statues and animals on the Temple grounds.  One of the most exciting things, for us, is that we discovered a Visitor Center is planned – yay!  In my estimation, it’s something that’s been missing from this Temple for some time, given its proximity to the I-5 freeway, etc.

After there we went across the street to a Jamba Juice – the same one Mrs. Smith and I visited immediately after we were married.  When we finished pictures on the Temple grounds, following our marriage, we left immediately for our honeymoon (we did the reception when we returned a couple weeks later), we were hungry.  So we went across the street to Jamba Juice – Mrs. Smith still in her wedding dress and I still in my tuxedo.  Like the lovestruck kids we were, we’d not brought more than $5 cash – enough for one smoothie.  Fortunately, the employee gave us the ‘Just Married’ special and provided a buy-one-get-one-free offer – wahoo!  We waited for our smoothies, danced to whatever music was playing on their speakers, and delighted in our status as husband and wife. 

So, from there we went to the Birch Aquarium which is nice, but which unfortunately doesn’t compare to the Aquarium at Monterray Bay where Mrs. Smith and I vacationed a few years back (also with our WorldMark, The Club, timeshare resort).  From there we went to Mount Solldad, a federal war memorial, where I proposed to Mrs. Smith nearly six years ago now.  And then we stopped (where I am currently writing this, in fact), at my brother’s house.

We had just arrived, and I received the tour, when the doorbell rang — a Kirby vacuum salesman.  He offered to ‘quickly’ shampoo the carpet to provide a demonstration of its amazing abilities (he hasn’t gotten to it yet, but I’m sure that soon he’ll reveal it also makes Julian fries, doubles as a mini-Cooper, and solves so-called global warming).  Well, ~90 minutes later he’s still sitting downstairs doing the demonstration and started into the ‘pushy’ sales tactics we all know and love so much from in-home salesmen when my brother and his wife have rebuffed his sales efforts.  Oooh, overhearing the conversation, it just went into the emotional manipulative mode “Well, I obviously haven’t done a good job of convincing you about this vacuum if you’re not going to buy it…”  Nice.  To my sister-in-law’s credit, she and her husband have remained civil.  All the while dinner is now, for sure, quite cold on the stovetop.  Were it I, I’d likely have already agreed to it, signed the papers, kicked the guy out the door, and then relied on the 72hr right of recission (i.e. “cool down”) that’s federally guaranteed for in-home purchased products because of pushy salesmenship.

I’m sure anyone over 18yrs of age has experienced the salesman that’s quite good at what they do but which inevitably falls into what I categorize as distasteful, lengthy sales attempts.  Personally, I’d be much more likely to purchase something if they came in, skipped the presentation, told me the bottom line, and then left my family alone.  We’re now going on ~120min.  Take a hint, please – how many ways does someone need to say no?  Clearly many more times than once. 

So, Master Doodle ran into the bedroom (a sure sign he intends to poop in his underwear, as he’s in the midst of potty training), and when Mrs. Smith went to open the door, it was locked.  Uh-oh.  Doodle must have heard the handle jingle because he yelled out “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!”  Mrs. Smith then played along with the Three Little Pigs child who refused to open the door to the Wolf…  in other words, he refused to allow Mrs. Smith into the room until he’d done his nefarious deed.  Ick.

At least there was some humor in the situation to diffuse the otherwise unpleasant and messy experience.

My wife.  Yes, she is the “ubergeek” of books.  In preparation for our upcoming road trip to San Diego, we stopped by the library tonight to retrieve some held items.  I waited in the car with the kids while she went inside to get the goods.  A few minutes later she comes walking out carrying a mountain of books and CDs (audio books).  The clothes matched what she’d been wearing when she went in but everything from her torso upwards, her face included, was obscured.

“Wow, that’s a lot of books, dear.”  Her reply?

“I know – isn’t it great?”  This is said as she literally embraces the stack of books now safely esconced on her lap.  Yes folks, she’s actually snuggling with the books (I’m getting jealous while driving home!).  I’m surprised she didn’t strap them under the seat belt with her.  Cinderalla, sitting in the back, asks Mommy what she’s doing.

“Oh, nothing.  Mommy just loves books.”

Yes.  She does love books.  She is the book “ubergeek.”

Wahoo, let me tell you how excited I am that tonight is the last session of my Chemistry 1215 lab! Now if only my other classes would hurry and finish (Chem 1210 and two Calculus courses).

So we had an offer on our property in Auburn, WA about a month ago (we’ve had two offers now).  As part of their inspection results, they requested several items which simply didn’t, and still don’t, make sense.  Specifically, the buyers required that the foundation and electrical wiring be updated to 2008 code requirements.  It’s a 1941 home, not 2008; code changes don’t apply retroactively (for single-family homes, anyway).  There’s no problem with the existing foundation (i.e. slippage, cracks, etc) or wiring, so why (sh)(w)ould someone demand that a 1941 home be updated to 2008 code requirements?

We agreed to the buyers’ others requests but said no on these two items –  “No, we’re not going to rip walls out [which are lathe and plaster - not nearly as quick, painless, or 'clean' to demolish and replace as drywall] to replace wiring nor make foundation structural changes.”  Seems logical to me.  Surprisingly, though, the buyers walked.  Their agent’s message was that it “wasn’t good enough.”

Now, I understand this is a buyer’s market, I’m not an idiot (sometimes, anyway).  I understand that when you’re in a buyer’s market, and you want to sell, you sometimes need to play the dumb game of acquiescing to what are sometimes frivolous requests.  So we did that for all the other requests, we acquiesced.  But wiring and foundation?  No.

Maybe I’m just too dang proud, and 1yr from now when the property remains vacant and unsold I’ll wish I’d acted differently, but at this point, anyway, it still doesn’t make sense.

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. BEEP.

If you see this message, then I’ve successfully configured the blog to receive incoming email messages and categorize and post them.  Yippee!

I’ve added some additional photos to the picture frame header.  I’ll add more as I find the time.  I like the random photo display of the fam.