Whoever thought Utah was boring...

I'd had a really long day on Saturday. There was a Primary activity early in the morning I'd signed up to go help with and then it took me three hours to get from my house to downtown (due to the major I-80 closure, I had to go all the way down to Lehi!) for a wedding that night that was really long and a little boring - so just a long and mildly frustrating day. But, on my way home, I passed the Great Salt Lake, and I saw this:

How can you still be tired and annoyed once you realize you live in a place like this?! If you still think this lake is ugly and smelly, you ought to try driving past it everyday. This kind of view is pretty typically gorgeous. I love living out by the lake (and it's never smelled at our house)! I just loved this picture and wanted to share.

The seed is planted (sort of)

We have been waiting for almost 2 months for our pre-planned flower garden to come.  Maybe we don't have the greenest thumbs, but we want to have a splendid garden, so we ordered a whole garden of plants out of a catalog.  After a couple of frustrating phone calls with the company's outsourced call center (eh hem) we finally had our plants arrive "on time" today.

Maddie spent a couple hours this evening shoving the things in the dirt.  Sure hope they grow and look beautiful!
While Maddie was cleaning up, she had me go outside and take a picture of it.  We will keep a little photo journal of the progress.  Hopefully in the future there will be more colors than just brown with specks of green......
P.S. (From Maddie)  The "blank" spots really do have plants in them.  I promise!

Jack vs. Technology

For the last two months, Jack has been chasing his nemesis.  After several weeks of battle, he thought he had defeated the foe.  Then tonight, the enemy reappeared.  Fortunately, this time it was caught on tape.

Just so you know, he's still fighting the cardboard...

Mystery Solved!!

After all of the trouble we've gone through, Danny and I finally have an answer as to why I've been sick all this time!
The last three months have been just about the weirdest and, physically, the worst of my life so far. Most people know I had my gall bladder out at the end of November because I was so sick. That worked for a little while, but pretty soon the pain was back and getting worse day by day. When I asked my surgeon why his procedure didn't work, he recommended I go get an upper endoscopy and hope that it showed me something more useful.
So I went in last Tuesday and got it done. Two days later my doctor called to say she'd found something, but she wanted me to come in for a blood test to make sure. Yesterday she called and told me I have celiac!
Celiac is when your small intestine reacts badly to gluten, the protien found in wheat, rye, barley, and a few other things. It hurts the villi on the walls of the intestine, which make it impossible for them to absorb nutrients from the food I eat. Basically, the more gluten I eat, the more malnourished I become. The only way to fix it is to go on a completely gluten-free diet! That sounds kinda sucky (no bread, no cookies, etc.) but it's pretty easy compared to living in pain. In a few months, my insides will have fully healed and I'll feel a lot better!
I don't know how long I've had this problem, but I'll have it for the rest of my life. It's getting pretty easy to live with, though. It's becoming a more common allergy these days, so restaraunts and grocery stores are becoming more knowledgable and starting to carry a lot more gluten-free foods. My older brother has it too, so I've got a lot of family help and support. Danny has been amazing putting up with me over the last few months (I make just about the worst sick person that ever lived - I'm a pain!) and we're both glad to have a solution! I'm relieved this is all that's wrong and that it's so easy to fix!
Man, life is weird, huh?

Meet Migo!

This is Maddie! Danny and I were wandering around  Walgreen's last night and discovered this guy. He's a stuffed dog, roughly Jack's size that we names Migo, short for "amigo". We bought it, thinking we'd use him for a little behavioral experiment. When we went to bed last ngiht, we put Migo on the bed where Jack could see him. We thought the most he'd do was jump up and chuck the intruder off his spot and ignore him. But Jack got defensive! He immediately stopped in his tracks, growling and barking at the usurper! He approached carefully, almost scared - it was funny! Once he figured out it wasn't real, he found himself 

a great new toy to play with.

As a bit of a sad epilogue, Jack took ten minutes earlier today to rip out one of Migo's eyes and all of the stuffing in his head. I did my best to patch him up, so now he has some new, oddly shaped shades! We don't have high hopes for his survival, but at least he won't have to see the horrors he has to feel.

Back in Utah

So it's been a long time since we have posted.  We moved back to Utah from California at the end of June after things didn't work out as we had thought with Prestige.  I started working with Mike and Taylor Proudfit's company, Titan Alarm and have been in charge of the operations for Salt Lake, as well as offices we opened along the way in St. George, Denver (now closed) and Boise.  That has been a much better work experience and I have enjoyed working with those guys again.

We rented an apartment in Taylorsville and immediately started looking for a house.  In September we purchased our first home in Stansbury Park, which is about 20 minutes from downtown Salt Lake.  We love it out here.  It is far enough away from the city to not feel cramped and feel like we have space to spread out, but close enough to be very convenient for Maddie's work and to visit family.  We are right on the banks of the Great Salt Lake and it is very pretty out here.

Poor Jack has now lived in 4 homes in the first six months of his life!  He's quite the little trooper, but it has been a little difficult adapting in each new place.  We finally had him completely housebroken in our apartment in Taylorsville, but adjusting to the new house has been a few steps back for him.  I think he is starting to distrust that this will be out last move.

Shortly after moving back to Utah, Maddie got a job working as a receptionist at Electrical Wholesale Supply (EWS) in Salt Lake. She has enjoyed working there and they have treated her very well.

It was very interesting to see the hand of the Lord bless us when we came back.  The summer in California was the most difficult and stressful summer I have had working in the alarm industry and it just didn't ever feel at home.  Once we made the decision to move home, blessings poured out.  I was able to immediately start working for Titan, which provided much more stability in our lives.  Maddie quickly got her job at EWS, when she had struggled for 4 months to find a job when we were living in Pleasant Grove after we got married.  We found a good apartment without a deposit, which was good since money was getting a little tight after moving to and from California in 2 months.  Then we were able to find an absolutely gorgeous house and find it at a time when the price had been reduced by about $50,000.  Without so many things falling into place, we wouldn't be in the position we are at in life right now.  It has been a real testimony to me of the blessings that come from living the Gospel, particularly paying tithing.  

The one sad part of our lives in the last six months was our baby.  Shortly after coming home from California we went to the doctor for a checkup and the doctors discovered that the pregnancy, for whatever reason, had not been a valid pregnancy.  It was pretty hard on both of us for a few days, but the good thing we got out of it was knowing that we were capable of having children and having the feeling that we will be able to have children in the future.

Happy Father's Day

Maddie got me this awesome Patriot's jersey for our baby for Father's Day.  Since I don't have a human baby to put it on yet, I put it on the puppy!