Because ….

It's been a while since I posted anything and Kari bribed me by allowing me to purchase the new Lion upgrade of Apple's operating system. I really like the updates to Mail and iCal.

Not so much with Reminders as I had much higher expectations, I'm still using Things and trying to get my task list to sync across 2 macs and my iPhone. Cultured Code, will you let me into your stinking beta for cloud sync?!?! No goodness yet, but I fall apart without my task list to keep me on track.

I have a new job now, one which I really enjoy. I'm back building large websites and am running a development team responsible for keeping Zumiez.com alive and kicking. The current site is not a representation of my work, but I've managed to change a lot of things on the back-end which have improved the performance and stability of the site. At the moment, we're actually adding 8 new servers to the farm until we make the switch to the Amazon AWS cloud in the October timeframe.

I also enjoy working with Linux and OSX. It had been a long time since I'd lived most of my day in a terminal window and Vim, but it feels like coming back home after spending 9 years at Microsoft. I recall back in 2001/2 feeling like I was on top of my game and I could be proud as I'd architected and lead the development of some of the largest web sites at that time.

But then I took a detour into the Marketing and Biz Dev world working with and mentoring mid-size to enterprise ISVs. Looking back, I loved the work, but I lost my technical chops in the process and becoming a manager of a biz dev or marketing team was not on my Christmas wish list.

I am much happier now. Going 9 months without a stable job was tough, but I landed exactly where I want to be and can excel. I see myself as more of a software development manager/director who still cherry picks projects to maintain my technical skillz. I'd put myself at sub-God or maybe newb Guru status, (who am I kidding I am just a re-treaded wannabe). I tried emacs and reverted back to Vim…. I just feel much more at home in Vim.

I have to admit I was going to go python, but setting up virtualenv vs rvm for ruby was a real pain.  I did get code completion working for django in vim, but it is so easy in rails/ruby.  I've reverted back to ruby/rails - I'm not quite ready to join the cool kids on that front.

Just to be uber-geeky, I even threw up my .vim and .vimrc on github And here's a cool screen shot, which I grabbed with (CTRL-Shift-CMD-4) - (gotta love apple for this kind of stuf):

 

Alright, I think that is long enough to put most readers to sleep.  Maybe it will even deter Kari from asking me to post for a while.  Hmmmh, she could bribe me to post regularly if we bought a new camera with a nice zoom lense or two...

cheers,

James

 

Kids say the darnest things....

It is so funny when you hear things out of kids mouths that you never should or want to hear. I also love it when kids say things cute and so innocent.

Tonight on our way from the older boys lacrosse tournaments( we where there from 8 am to 8 pm today AHHH) up in bothell, James and I heard childrens conversations in the back of the car that was ...UHMMMM questionable.

Let me set up the scene in the car...you hear Rae and CJ singing songs about Poop and then you hear AJ singing "I have a Schmeckle" with EJ and TJ laughing hysterically. James and I had to hold in our desire to laugh I have to admit. Especially the "schmeckle" remark by AJ. You know EJ and TJ where coaching him into saying it. The boys come up with new words for boy parts every week. For weeks now they convinced AJ to call it "Peanuts". Those boys!!!!! That what happens when you have older boys teaching the younger ones new words. You don't even want to know other words they call it. HE HE BOYS!!! Is that all they every talk about....

Ok onto a better topic.....

I better update about our Wii Situation because that is important you know. James was able to get it started again, the kids were band from playing it for 1 whole day (ok so I am a softy), and the side compartment is STILL broken. Those kids are lucky let me tell you.

Ok well that is all for tonight.

Ok it's time for girls night out!!!!!

Ok girls....its time... we need to get out without the men and children to have a fun night out with the girls.   NO KIDS.  NO HUSBANDS... Just us.  We deserve it.   We slave away, clean, wake up with kids at night, hear talking back (like me HEHE),  never have a moment to just have fun, get stepped on, pucked on, pee'd on (ok so I have boys).  Its time.   No excuses.   Just pure fun!!!  We deserve it.  I don't want to hear no for an answer.  We can go out to dinner, movie, go to a play, a comedy show, A cruise (ok so I don't know if that is  reality but it sounded good didn't it?  :) )  We can do it all, do a few or whatever we decide.   I am up for doing and going anyplace.   Even you out of stater's can come up and spend some time with us if you would like.   I am going to plan something so post your suggestions and who is in please. 

How Taylor got his name....

I had the hardest time picking a name for him as my all time favorite name was already taken by my first son.    We had name like Brayden, Ashton, Jeran.  James wanted Seth.  Seth was out in my book because I grew up with a Seth that was NASTY...  The name Seth reminded me of that Nasty boy.  So no Seth for me. 

I did not get his name by praying to find it.  Nor did I have that gut feeling in my heart all the way while I was pregnant with him.  His name came to me in an unusual way.

A week before he was born I was still having trouble picking out a name for him.  That night I had a dream and in it I had suffered a ailment causing me to go  unconscious for 10 days and my mother in law took it upon herself to name him while I was unconscious.   I woke up out of it and she said to me " Guess what I named him?".  I named him Eggbert .  In my dream I screamed saying "NO WAY in hell are you naming him Eggbert, his name is Taylor."  I woke up and immediately knew he was going to be my Taylor.  Funny dream AHHH.   This is a true story! He was named from a dream.   HEHE.  :) 

Studying and AJ is so sick

Poor Aidan he has been sick all day. He woke up this morning saying his stomach hurt and he has been asleep every since. It is 2 pm in the afternoon and he is STILL asleep. I have been sitting her studying this dang Microbiology class while Aidan lays next to me. Need to do a reality check, I am not really studying, I have been to busy chatting it up with old friends, reading blogs etc. :) Ok so I am addicted. I told James this morning I need to find a way to make money by reading and posting on blogs. HE HE He told me I would really need to be talented to find a way to do that. I was like "WHAT!, IS THAT A CHALLENGE", nice encouragement from the other half huh. Well James said that to the wrong person. I am up for the challenge. Anyone have any ideas? Then I can rub it in....

Changing the subject....I just love little Aidan so much. I sometimes get teary eyed because I almost lost him 2 year ago w/ the car accident and also Ethan back when he was 4 when his appendix broke. I just want to squeeze and hug them all. Call me a big teddy bear. Love hugging the kids! Ethan doesn't like me hugging him anymore. WINK WINK. Looking back over the years, I often wonder why Heavenly Father has blessed me so much with saving my boys lives. In both instances they should not have been alive.

Ethan went 10 days with a burst appendix and abscesses all over his abdomen and in and out of hospitals all summer long. He was so sick by the time he went into the hospital he had lost 10 lbs. He could of suffered a perforated bowel because he had a HUGE grapefruit size abscess in his bowels, and 2 other in his cavity. He could have died.

I still have residual anxiety over Aidan's accident. I have to check the cars to make sure their is no kids behind it. I get nervous when I don't see the kids and especially Aidan. My kids make fun of me now because I actually start getting Anxious when Aidan is somewhere I can't see him. And to always know that it was ME that accidentally backed up into him, just kills me.

The one thing I do know is that the power of the priesthood does work! All those ward members that where there when it happened and was their to administer to him, you all saved him!!! He came out of it with only some scars and no internal injuries. It ended up being a 70k medical bill, that how extensive it was. Luckily we have good insurance!

Why do I still beat myself up over it. I know it was just an accident but it still haunts me. I just can't see a life without these wonderful kids I have. Yes mother hood is very Hard!! Especially with the active boys I have been blessed with. It takes a certain personality to handle very active boys! It does helpe I was raised with 5 brothers myself! I have been extremely blessed, and someone is watching over me and my kids! There is no other explanation. :)

Ok enough with the sappy stuff. I get to sappy sometimes. My next post will be controversial post, hey I need to compete with Ms. Tami's blog posts. :)

Hurray!! It's about time!

I have been in my ward for 6 months now and I finally got a calling( for those that are not LDS, A calling is a job that we are asked to do at church to help out the congregation, it can be working in the nursery to being the leader over the Women of the church, etc). I usually would have been ecstatic not to have a calling but it's been a little to long of time w/out one.

I am the new Stake Newsletter bulletin editor for the MV stake. I definitely did not expect that calling :) I thought for sure they where going to stick me in Nursery or Primary again. :) That usually seems to be where I end up. But hey a stake easy calling will due!

I love my phone

So back in November James and I both bought and Iphone. Our new home was not getting good reception w/ Verizon so we decided to go with AT&T. I absolutely love my iphone and would recommend it to anyone. I had a treo 700 which I did like but I love the iphone so much more. I still have the treo 700 so if anyone using Verizon wants it I will give it to you. (I actually have 2 of them free to anyone that wants one)

The iphone is all touch bases and has itunes, Youtube, calendars, games (very important featur to my kids you know), Google maps, weather icon and much more.

Just love it! I have to say that this phone has overall been the best phone out of all the phone I have had. If anyone is looking for a new phone buy the iphone for sure!!!!!

Just a tidbit for today.

True Faith by New Order

You got to watch this weird video....love the song but the video is weird... my kids thought it was funny... here is the link in case it is a real slow connection on blogger...

htp://youtube.com/watch?v=og1HAkjOuL0

I was never a heavy metal listener growing up, I was more of a alternative girl. Probably love alternative mostly because of my older brother, as he left me 100's of cassette tapes of these groups when he went on his mission. I was big into New Order, cure, erasure, Depeche Mode and all those other bands.

On another note, I am about ready to KILL the dogs...I just had to yell at them to get out of our garbage fire pit. Mind you there is a HUGE fire burning in it right now. The dogs are going around the edges of the fire and taking garbage out to throw around the yard. Sometimes I wonder why I got dogs again after Sadie died.  Honestly, I don't really even like dogs all that much.   Ok will stop complaining.  :)

My obsession of shows on my DVR

I have my DVR set up for all my shows that I love to watch. I hate it when the sessions end and I have to wait a whole year sometimes to watch a show. My current shows include:

Cold case, Law & Order (SVU and original), CSI, Medium, Supernatural, Battle Star Galactica, Oprah (depends on the show), Lost, ER, and Kyle XY. I will be watching "So you think you can dance" when it airs.

The cartoon shows I love to watch with the kids (Ok this does not include Dora and Diego that AJ loves to watch :) ) are:

Ben 10, Avatar, Spongebob squarepants (I think the show is hilarious),

I am waiting for Eureka, Invasion, 4400, and the Dresden Files to come back on. I have been watching for them to set them up in my DVR. :)

I like dancing with the stars but I usually just end up fast forwarding most of the it. I also do this with Biggest Loser, if I watch it....Don't want the boring details, just want the results.

I never really got into Survivor, Soap operas (Althought, I did watch these when I was younger especially General Hospital), Bachelor, Beauty and the geek etc. They are boring to me. :)

I love having the DVR. It saves so much time with watching these shows and to be honest I HATE watching the commercials!

Very Proud

Well I was not going to post again for a few days but I am so very proud of the director of the MV Lacrosse Club. I will back up a little and tell you what's the scoop and why I am so proud. There is emails being passed back and forth about trying to find refs for the game on Saturday. One of the ref wrote back and said why don't we as a club just have Sunday games because ref are always available, fields are more readily availably . The director stood up for the countless LDS players on the Lacrosse team and said we would NOT have games on Sundays because of "religious rights of players". I am so proud of the club. Mind you that 8 out of the 20 players on the varsity team are LDS, plus a whole plethora more on the other MV teams. Mormon boys must just love Lacrosse. :)

Way to go MV club...we need clubs like that. :) Just a FYI, if anyone is interested, they start kids playing in 3rd grade and I have to say my boys do loved the sport more then any other sports out their.

My New Blogger Template

I spend all morning long redesigning my blog to a more hip design. The only problem is I did not figure out how to upload a new template without having to redo all my sidebar stuff. So I spend the last hour redoing that also. :) Does anyone know how to do this so it is easier the next time around?

I am not sure I like the continuous backgroud with a translucent section for the post and side bar but we will see if I get annoyed with it or not in the near future.

Ok nothing new in my life...studying, cleaning, kids, games. The normal stuff. I will try to post my powerpoint later today. Need to spend time with AJ. He is hanging on my arm right now as I type. :)

Oh on another note, if you use statcounter.com for you hit counter, DO NOT go looking at the link of who is visiting if you don't know who it is. I got hit with some adware that would not let me go to any Google site meaning I could not get to any of the blogger sites, do any searches on google and so forth. It even affect our whole network. I had to add a Adware scanner from LavaSoft to get it off. So just a warning to you statcounter users.

Check out my Power Point....

Even though James is a Microsofty, I still had no clue how to do a powerpoint presentation. It took me all night but I finally did it.

I have a Case Study on Cancer due on Tuesday and I need to have my part done with it by tonight. Yes, I did send it over to the person who is putting it all together right before midnight tonight. I am so proud of myself. :)

Check out what I did.....

Ok I have to figure out how to add it. I am to tired tonight to do it. :)

Little Wonders

Ok I am going posting mad....3 post in 24 hours.... A record for me. I know some People, Uhummm Tami :)(we love you Tami!) hate it when music is blasting on a blog. Thanks goodness for Feeds. Don't worry Tami, you are not the only one that hates it, my own husbands James, hates music on a blog:) Most my songs I have up have some sort of meaning to me(not all of them, some I like for the beat). They are part of my personality on this blog. Either I am in a Rocker chick mood or a contemplative mood, or just in between. You can tell my mood just by the songs I have up. :)

Having said that. I absolutely love the song Little Wonders. If you listen to it, it talks about hope,and not giving up. It talks about clarity defining who you are. WOW!

I absolutely love the movie this song was sung for: Meet the Robinson's. Although I have to admit my favorite animated movie is Titan AE . As I mentions before I'm a Sci-fi/fantasy/adventure chick! Forget the Chick flicks for me (ok I still do like them), if I am going to sit in front of the tube I would rather watch a Scifi show anyday, hands down! So Enjoy (your going to have to mute my playlist on the side:

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

I was sitting studying with the TV on and just happen to see The fresh prince of Bel-Air. I think the show is hilarious. Here is a clip from one of the episodes I found on youtube (have to mute my playlist on side to listen):

Ok my second post of the day

I had to post again as EJ brought me upstairs a minute ago and had me watch a youtube clip. The kids are talking about Weird Al Yankavic at school I guess. Do you remember him? Don't really like that he was on youtube, so did have a talk with him about it. AHH preteens. :) EJ showed it to me as he thought I would get a kick out of a Yankavic song about Ebay, he knows I like Ebay and Craiglist. Go figure.
Here it is, your going to have to mute my playlist on the side to hear it:

I'm Orange, James is Red

I took the color test Jamie took and I am a Orange. :) Thanks Jamie!

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Orange

You're a bold, confident orange. A warm, powerful color that indicates a strong, welcoming personality, orange is the mark of people who are social and extroverted by nature. Vibrant, with an upbeat attitude, you have a bright, inviting demeanor. Energetic and fun-loving, you're a real friend-magnet. Your easy charm and unassuming manner make you the sort of person people want to meet and get to know better. Well-rounded and fun to be around, you enjoy helping others, so it's no surprise that orange also symbolizes attraction. Orange is an extraordinary color — for an extraordinary person.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

James is Red!

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Red

Your color is red, the color of racy sportscars, blushing cheeks, and luscious roses. Red symbolizes passion, romance, and love. So, since you're ruled by red, you probably trust your feelings more than your brain and tend to act spontaneously. If you see something you want, you go for it without thinking twice — impulsive is your middle name. You don't wait around for people to make decisions, either; you dive right in. Quite the romantic, you pay close attention to your emotions. In fact, if your heart isn't in what you're doing, you won't be satisfied. Of course, even when you do pour all your energy into the projects you tackle, your impetuous nature means your passions can shift as frequently as the wind. That's why some reds have trouble with commitment. Our advice? Next time you're feeling fickle, think before you act, if possible. You might be surprised at the results. Overall, though, it's great to be red. No one lives life more completely than you do.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

My favorite things are....

Dang it all. I don't know what my favorite things are. I gotta think about this for a day or 2. I have been so busy being mom that I forgot what I like to do. Ok I will take a stab at it and see what I can come up with....

let see..what I love....

1. sunsets
2. the color green
3. the internet
4. listening to music
5. going to school
6. having a clean house (even thought I know I am not the best at it)
7. watching my kids do something cute
8. watching the kids play their sport games.
9. going out on dates with James
10. going out with friends to lunch or just hanging out
11. cruising
12. snuggling in a blanket and watching a movie
13. reading a good book (ok everyone is talking about these twilight book, I need to get one once my class is done that is)
14. watching AJ learn something new during the day
15. being outside in nature
16. Taking family hikes
17. Dancing
18. Rebating (ok so I like getting things for free, made 150 bucks in rebating this month, it does help if I have 2 addresses I can send rebates too :) )

Ok well that is all I can think of now. I am going to have to think of more things I love. Never thought it could be so hard to think of things. I am so hyper focused on the kids that I hardly think of what I like to do. I am sure you all feel that way sometimes.

I will post more tomorrow. Gotta think of something more to post. :)

Am I Journaling?

I was thinking today on how awful I am at journaling, the writing in a book kind of journaling. I have never been good at scrapebooking, not good at taking notes, and definitely not good at remembering things, but one thing I have done is blogged. So does this count as a journal? This was the question I asked myself today. Ok so I am a deep thinker. HE. What constitutes Journaling? Its writing down the story of your life and the thoughts and feelings of oneself. So yes, I realized that the story of my life has been typed out on the 3 blogs that I have had over the years. So I have indeed been journaling, not the traditional way, but the new hip way- on the internet. It fits my style and the way I do things. I really don't have tons of time to sit down and do a scrapebook (even though I would love to do them) so this has been the next best thing for me. I think what I have decided to do is print out my blog for the year and put it in a book and have it bound so I have a yearly story of our life that can be passed down to the kids. This is another tidbit from me for today.

How about this for Visiting Teaching: A guide to Visiting Teaching

Ok So James sent me these Video clips about Visiting Teaching. It's a little corny but it kinda funny and cute too. Click on the link and Check it out:

http://blip.tv/file/255494

Carribean Blue

Ok I heard this song in the car today on my way home from school. This is my all time favorite song. I couldn't help but think back to my college years back at BYU Idaho where I first heard this song. I remember going to a Ballroom dance team performance on campus with my roommates. The BYU Provo Ballroom dance team had performed at Ricks to this song. This is when I fell in love with the song and also fell in love with Ballroom dancing. This is one of my passions that I would love to pursue one day when the kids are older and I can spend time going to learn how to ballroom and Latin dance. Forget singing for me (although I wish my voice did not suck, because I would love to be able to sing), it's dancing that really interests me.

To Listen to this you have to mute my playlist on the side. The video is really cool :)