The next prompt for me, Bryce, of things that my kids should know about me, is to “Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and how they became fears.”

This is an interesting one. We don’t usually like entertaining, let alone describing, our fears. We like to tuck them tightly away where we can safely ignore them. Our fears make us uncomfortable. They cause us stress and anxiety. But it’s good to know what they are in any case, so that we might deal with them, and eventually overcome them.

Ok, enough with the platitutdes.  Here are three of mine: Continue reading →

Ok, so she’s convinced me to start writing about these prompts, 30 Things My Kids Should Know About Me. I must admit, Raven’s are pretty good. So we’ll see how we do here. The first is “List 20 random facts about yourself.”

1. I love the temple. Since my first visit I have had a fascination with the temple, with everything that is taught there, with what is experienced there, and what we can become in the temple. I blog about those great things at TempleStudy.com.
2. Friday nights are the best. Aren’t they? I mean, you’re at the end of a long week, you have the entire weekend ahead of you to relax and do other things, and you’re at least 48 hours away from the dreaded Sunday night.
3. I once capsized a sailboat in the middle of a lake, had to be rescued, and felt immense embarrassment. It was Camp Steiner, and no, it wasn’t my fault. My friend said he had taken the class, but, of course, he had not. And so it wasn’t more than a minute or two before we had flipped the thing. Nothing like hopping into a freezing cold lake with all your clothes on.
4. I’m a technophile. I love everything to do with technology, and improving our lives through innovations in technology. Things are going to amaze you in the next ten years.
5. Trivial things bother me. I think too many people get caught up in the things that don’t really matter in life. Life is too short for that. Do what matters!
6. Hugh Nibley changed my life. One of my favorite books of all time, Approaching Zion, completely changed me and my outlook on life. Nibley gets down to business. What are we here for? What should we be doing? How do we build Zion? What really matters!
7. I don’t care for fashion. Not at all. Could care less what I wear, or what others think of what I wear. One of those trivial things. I go clothes shopping about once every 5 years when its absolutely necessary.
8. The old chocolate encrusted New York style cheesecake at Olive Garden was heaven. Too bad it’s been replaced by the raspberry cheesecake. It’s just not the same.
9. I was financial secretary for eight months on my mission in El Salvador. I experienced things on my mission that most missionaries never do. It gave me a great perspective on things, and gave me leadership skills.
10. I was a Utah state winner in the 1999 KSL/Deseret News Sterling Scholar competition in the Computer Technology category. I still hold this as my claim to fame. There are only about thirteen students in the state that get this award every year, and somehow I was one of them. Gave me a scholarship to BYU.
11. I almost drowned when I was little. The story goes, I’m told, that we were swimming or boating someplace, and my mom turned around to do something, and when she turned back, I was face down in the water. They say that’s why I had a phobia of the deep end of the pool, but I’ve gotten over that now.
12. I can remember an event when I was about three years old. At least I think I do. We were on the beach in California, playing in the surf, building sand castles, and we found a live crab and put it inside the sand castle. Oh, and the hand shovel was green.
13. I almost got my degree in Animation. It was a toss up between Industrial Design and Animation. Both had the qualities of a degree I was interested in, and there was a lot of overlap in those days. I finally decided that I didn’t like drawing/sketching all that much, and preferred the solid 3D modelling rather than the animation.
14. I have a Ballroom Dance minor, and have toured all over the world with the BYU Ballroom Dance team. Some of the funnest experiences I had growing up were in the ballroom dance world – the friends I made, the places I went, the competitions I was in, and the skills I developed. It is probably the reason I met Raven, since she asked some ward friends if they knew a guy who could dance that she could take to Preference. That started it all.
15. I’m a member of the Executive Board of one of the premiere Mormon scholarship organizations, The Interpreter Foundation. I hobnob with some of the greatest scholars in Mormondom including Daniel C. Peterson, William J. Hamblin, and, well, take a look. That interest in Hugh Nibley led me to this point.
16. I’m very much an introvert, proud of it, and I like quiet alone time. Thank you Susan Cain and Bose. Her book Quiet taught me that I don’t need to be ashamed of my introvertedness, and that it can actually be a great blessing in many ways. And those noise cancellation headphones are amazing.
17. Someday I would like to build a kit car. Yea, like one of these beauties. Not necessarily for the fashion (see #7 above), but for the sake of actually building a car.  A car! Yea, that incredible and most complex machine we take for granted every day. It’s not bad that it also looks great.
18. I conceptualize, design, develop and manufacture dozens of products in China for sale in the USA. I make a lot of cool stuff, which makes my employer loads of money. See here. Trying to see if I can work daily on more things that really matter.
19. I’m a runner. Going on 4 years now, one of my favorite physical activities is going for a run, long or short. It takes you places, gets you out in the fresh air, pumps the blood, strengthens the legs, keeps me slim, releases endorphins, makes me just a tiny bit social, and gives me races to look forward to and train for. See my log here.
20. I have never been water skiing. It’s just never happened. I’ve been snow skiing plenty of times, but I never hit the water. Seems too hard to “get” and “stay up.” Never knew anyone with a boat, really.

The last post that went out by email did not include Easton’s birth video because it was embedded in the blog, but did not show the link in the email.  Also, Amelie’s birth video had to be reuploaded to YouTube.  Here’s those links again:

• Easton’s Birth Video
• Amelie’s Birth Video

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the day.

Thank you for Heavenly Father and Heavenly God.

Please bless Bishop Wernli.

Please bless I can have a good sleep.

Please bless Calder he can have a good sleep, too.

Please bless I can not make pee-peep in my underwear

and have a fun day tomorrow.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Amelie, age 3

We had our ultrasound today, and we’re having a baby boy! We’re so excited! Now we’ll have one of each. Everything looks perfectly normal and healthy. He was moving around a lot and it was a little hard to get all the measurements because he was rolled up in a ball most of the time. So, here are some pictures! (We’ll also put up the ultrasound video later if you are interested.)

This is his profile, and clear shot of his spine.

It’s a little hard to tell in this picture, but here’s the proof we’re having a boy. If you click on any of these pictures you can see a higher resolution version.

He’s waving hello!

His little legs are crossed at the ankles.

One of Bryce’s first thoughts was, “Great! A dance partner for Amelie!”