It's been 10 years!!!

Well I'm approaching my ten year Mission reunion... Well in 6 months. Regardless as you all have seen I've been a little nestalgic lateley so I thought we might just continue the theme. I was digging though some old pictures. The kind that you have to have developed. I thought that some people might be interested is some good old missionary silliness.


Now as a general rule I try not to post pictures of other people on my blog... I'd hate to be liable but I know most of these people really well and.... they know where to reach me if they don't like it...

This picture is from the MTC. James, Michael and I all ended up in the MTC at the same time! Go figure. A bunch of goofy junior high school friends back together again...

This is by far my favorite picture from the mission. This was probably my most challenging time on my mission but at the same time it was the most rewarding too. This picture and the following are in front of Prague Castle. Prague is in the top 3 most amazing places that I have lived.

Pictures and thoughts of the summer

So summer is officially over now... it's kind of sad but at the same time we have some great pictures and memories of the summer!

These pictures are some of my favorites from Family Reunion at Bear Lake. What a great adventure!

Reflections

So I've been thinking a lot lately about high school. I've reconnected with some of my best friends from those great years. Yes I said that they were great! I truly can't remember many really bad times in high school. There was this time when I took out my best friends secret crush to the big freshman dance. That didn't go over very well on just about every account imaginable... I was late, she had a horrible time and... well I think that's enough of that story.

Everything else was really fun! I don't remember worrying about anything. If we could dream it we could do it. Mike Jensen and I made up some of the best group dates ever and I believe that we really were on the leading edge of the popular creative dating trend in LDS society. One of my favorites was the Plan of Salvation Date. It was so awesome!

I don't remember sitting around very much and it seems like I was always doing some kind of activity with friends, hanging out in the TImimos' man cave (garage), tooling around the Vancouver back roads with Jared only breaking a few traffic laws. I spent a little time at the Ogden household which was the safest and most uplifting place any high school kid could be. Though I think that Emily and Sarah got a little fed up with me at times and i don't think that Brian really liked the idea much. They introduced me to bean soup and tuna on toast! What great times!!!

I don't think that I was best friends with everyone in High School. I can think of a few fellow priests who didn't care for me much but I don't remember that ever bothering me. What I remember most from High School was a that I had friends who excepted me for who I was, with all of my weaknesses and faults. I had friends who helped me set rules to stay pure. I had friends who were great examples!

I feel that I had one of the best High School experiences possible and I hope that those that were there with me felt the same way. It may be true that I only remember the good times and none of the tough times but hey I'm okay with that.

So a special thanks from my wife and I to all those who took part in molding a goofy boy into a semi decent adult. My parents are at the top of my list as they are the most Christlike people I know and at the same time the hardest working... not to infer that the Savior wasn't hard working.... Then in no specific order; Mike, Angel, Tim, Eric, Stacie, Womack, Draper, Lori, Dan and Bev, Jared, Reed, Michael, Ben, and Livvy. I know that there are more people that I missed... always a worry with such a list... I'm sorry if you were missed. Just pretend that you weren't and send me an email so I can add you!

I'm overfilled with joy that I reconnected with some of these people in the past week. A few years have passed since high school but the memories are still very precious to me.

Hard Times

So everyone has been giving me a hard time about my blog and the frequency of my posts.... Needless to say I've never been much of a journal writer and that translates directly to poor blogging performance.

So we've had a lot of family updates lately and though my title "hard times" may be a little misleading our life is still interesting.

So a couple of months ago my company told me that I was to be effected by some corporate downsizing, they're going in another direction and wanted to help me "find a job somewhere else" Lay offs are an adventure in and of themselves and this one turned out to be a good thing. Most people who know me know how much I despise the bank and working for one wasn't a very good fit for my personality. It was still tough to be compelled to make an adjustment on their timeline rather then mine.

I started one month ago with a new much smaller private firm in the same HR job I had at the bank only with national responsibility. It's a great job and a fun company. Most importantly is that they need me whereas I don't thing that a Fortune 20 company really needs anyone. Best of all is that I work out of a home office. I can't believe how much I am able to accomplish in the same workday with out all the office distractions. Being home more has effected my girls in a very positive way too.

So we broke down and bought a mini van... I can only find 3 cool things about the van. 1. the power doors are awesome. 2. the engine is awesome, I love blowing the doors off of sports cars at stop lights in a mini van it's sooooo awesome. 3. I really like the gages, they look like the ones in a Lexus. And that's about it... The space is a plus but no very cool. So with the van I had to sell my car.

I think that summer is finally coming to a close... oh, wait. I just looked at the forecast and it's above 110 all week. Never mind about the summer coming to an end comment that was a "false and shocking statement". But the pool season is still in full swing now the trick is to keep the pool clean! (no rodents allowed)

Alana is on the verge of waling she is growing so fast and gets so excited that the is standing on her own that she falls down. It's an amazing process to watch your kids grow and develop.

Natalie is potty training with is an adventure as she really likes the stickers and treats so she's always asking to go potty.

Finally for those who don't already know we're expecting number 3!!! And it's another GIRL!!! I'm really excited for the lame reason that we don't have to buy a bunch of new stuff. But even though we would love to have a boy someday I guess I have to make up for my parrents 6 boys so I'll take it like a man and be happy. I have told my wife that one of these girls had better be into cars because I'm putting someone into go-cart racing at the age of 8. It's my retirement plan. In fact Natalie has take to reading car magazines upside down. I think that it's a sign... or she just thinks that dad is cool and want's to do the same thing he does.

Well on that bombshell it's time to close another quarterly post. Please leave a comment so that I can subscribe back to your blogs!

Phil