Addendum

Building on my last post...yesterday while taking a deliciously sunny afternoon bike ride to pick up the Neon, I thought about why it was that this week hadn't lived up to everything I thought it would.  Like, why is it that when I ate an entire dish of easy peanut butter treats that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would?  Why is it that going to bed early/on time  was didn't feel as rewarding?  What about the Rise of the Planet of the Apes--why wasn't going to the movies by myself as thrilling as I had anticipated?

I've never thought that having a family limited my happiness, but occasionally I would wonder what life would be like without them--when I do wonder, the imagined life is never better, just different.  After this past week, however, I realize that having a family--being a husband and a father--exposes to me an added measure of happiness.  When I am away from my family, that added measure disappears.  

I appreciate the time I had this week to work on projects and have some free time, but I am ready for my hottie-of-a-wife and fantastic kids to get back.  Texas, give them back to me!!

Bachelor Week

I'll let Traci recap her and the kid's adventures in Texas this week when they get back on November 1st.  As for me and my week of bachelorhood?  I know what you're thinking..crazy parties, movies every night, junk food, no showers, no shaving???  The life, right???  Well, here's how to best sum up my week:

[insert quiet, blank stare here]

Pretty blank, huh?  I had some fun watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes the night they left, but other than that, it has been pretty BORING.

I have, however, just completed half of the jcp training program!  As part of the midterm mark, this week I had to give a presentation on the work flow of the Retail Logistics Center.  Click here to see the Prezi presentation I made!  It might not make much sense/flow well without me explaining it, but you can at least see how I tried to make this presentation interesting--keep in mind that every trainee has to give, basically, the exact same presentation, so it's one that the core senior management I presented to has seen multiple times.  Overall, I think I did pretty good--they liked the Prezi, and had zero questions afterwards, saying that I had been very thorough.  That's good, right?

In other news, we had more work done on the Neon this week.  It's really frustrating to know that I am paying a mechanic for a job that I could do myself, had I had the tools and the time.  Engine mounts?  Seriously...child's play.  To finangle the movement of cars to the mechanic, however, I had to attach my bike to the Neon, drive a few miles to drop off the car, unhook my bike, and ride home.  Today, I get to ride my back back to the mechanic, hook it up, then drive home.  I'm not complaining though--It's been good exercise and fun to ride around.

Chew on this nibblette of classic happenings - I rode my bike to Disneyland/California Adventure last night.  Just as I pull up to park my bike, my back tire went completely flat.  CLASSIC!  I decided to shrug it off and have some fun anyway--chalking the issue up to the Lord knowing that I need all the exercise I can get.  I rode four rides in about 3 1/2 hours, which I think is pretty good for a Friday night!  Then I walked the 2.5 miles home (no biggey!), made a mountain-man-sized plate of potatoes, eggs, bacon, and sausage, and topped the night off resting my dogs, fillin' my belly, and watching Psych.

Five years already?

First, Happy Birthdays go out to Pa Hoke and Wade-o!  We hope you guys had/have a great day!!!

Second, BIG congrats go out to Brant, Chris, and Greyson!

Third, we celebrate 5 years of marriage this week.  Two kids, two college degrees, two colleges, five jobs, six apartment moves, three states, a few fights (which have totaled much, much fewer than the count of make-out sessions), and three cars and a scooter later, we are still extremely happily married.

To celebrate, we got a sitter and went to the show where you slap these on your shirt:

You know, the place where you stand in front of a blue screen to take pictures like these (which then had to be kifed from the internet to avoid the tremendous price of getting them printed):

It was poorly executed on my part, however, so we left after three hours of contestant processing and didn't quite get to step foot in the studio.  I failed to understand or find out that, in addition to 4-5 hours of taping, there were three hours of contestant prep (a.k.a. waiting in line) before the show really gets started.  Instead of squeezing an extra three hours out of a very gracious sister from the ward who was watching our kids, we decided to head home early.  Next time, right?

My wife is awesome.  She is my best bud, a smokin' hottie, and the best mom my kids have ever had.

Update

Other than it being CRAZY expensive to live here, we are enjoying our stay in California so far.  In the past month Derrick started work, we visited the Cushings, we've been to Disneyland a few times, Max had his 4th birthday, and Max started soccer!  Enjoy the photos and videos at Derrick's Picasa page.  Below is a samples of the goodness found at the link above.

Happy baby!