Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. Katelyn decided to be Ariel. Megan was Minnie Mouse. Adam had a cute Halloween shirt and a monster hat and monster slippers (thanks to Amy for letting us borrow).

Katelyn's school did a costume parade on Friday before Halloween. The Kindergarten through 3rd graders get to be in the parade and the rest of the school gets to watch the parade. Parents and kids get to come and watch the parade too. I was wisely informed by a friend that the younger siblings often dress up for the parade too (to watch, not participate). That made it a lot easier to get ready for school that morning because when Megan knew Katelyn was putting her costume on, Megan did not want to be left out!

Then on Halloween evening, we went again with the Partridge's to their neighborhood party. We enjoyed hot dogs and chili for dinner, games, and of course candy. We then went home to do a little trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood. Chris chose to stay home with Adam and answer our door, while I went with the girls around the neighborhood. We had so much fun seeing friends and the girls had fun getting candy! We then topped our evening off with one final trick-or-treat to Grandma-ma and Grandpa Ed's. The kids were thoroughly spoiled and enjoyed every minute of it. Now if only we could get rid of all the candy without eating all of it....

We've taken a hit, but we keep on going

Chris has survived many (and I mean many) layoffs at Novell. It seems that our time is up and it is now our turn to join the large crowd of those who formerly have worked for Novell. It was hard news to swallow at first. So many unknowns, but we know we will be OK. We have amazing family to support us, a great severance package from the company to keep us afloat, and we will find something bigger and better. We'll keep you posted on the job hunt and please keep us in your prayers!

6 years, 9 months, and 24 days later...

(Cassi and I were going to just put up one post on this, but I read hers and didn't want to change anything, but still add my account.)

On January 6, 2003, I started my internship with Novell, under Neal Beckstrand (who Ryan also worked for during some of his intern days).  After almost a year, he offered me to transition to a full-time employee, and I've been there ever since...until today.

Tuesday morning I got a call from Neal, who emotionally told me that there was a layoff happening today and my last day would be October 30.  Neal has been an amazing manager to work for, and also a good friend, who always looked out for his employees.  During my almost-7 years, I've survived way too many layoffs, and I can't help but wonder if I'd still have a job if we were still up in Utah.  However, I know that we're where we are supposed to be.  I've felt good about every part of moving to/living in Mesa, for me and especially for my kids.  Now we just have to figure out the next step.

At first I was just in shock and didn't really have anything to respond with.  I took a couple minutes to ponder it in my office alone and start a job search before heading downstairs to break the news to Cassi.  That was one of the hardest things to do...not that I could hide it, but when the provider isn't going to be providing anymore, it's very depressing.  Not to mention that timing was possibly as bad as it could be, with things already tight, the job market pretty saggy and Cassi's birthday and Christmas coming up...the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint her or add any stress to our lives.

So, I took a deep breath and told her the news, then started calling my family to let them know, and then went back to work, since I still had about 4 more days.  I spent that time tying up loose ends and transferring stuff to the "lucky" survivors.  Luck is certainly a double-edged sword in that respect.  Thankfully, we have so much family so close and a great severance package that will keep us alive for as short a job search as we can possibly arrange.

Anyway, after the best first job out of college I could have hoped for, I have officially joined the Novell Alumni Group in LinkedIn, and am on to the Great Big Job Hunt of 2009.  Wish me luck (a prayer wouldn't hurt either)!

Two times the fun!

We now have 2 little dancers in our home. Katelyn and Megan love it, they are having so much fun. This weekend, they had their first performances. Our morning started at the Phoenix Zoo where they danced for the Zoowalk for autism. The girls did a good job. It was an early morning for them to get ready and at the zoo. Then we rushed to the Arizona State Fair where they had their next performance. Both girls did better at the fair, so we'll post that performance. It was a whirlwind of a morning (both shows were done by noon), but they survived! On to the next show!

Katelyn's 6th Birthday Weekend Bash

Katelyn is officially 6! She is such a sweet girl. We love having her in our home. She is growing into such a beautiful person inside and out! I can't believe she is already that old. I know you hear this all the time, but really, it just seems like yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.

Katelyn started her day out with breakfast in bed, which Katelyn has now decided everyone in the family should get on their birthday. Katelyn's birthday this year fell on a Thursday, which made things a little busy for us. Megan has dancing on Thursdays, so Megan and I are usually gone all evening. Looking at everyone's schedules we realized we wouldn't be able to have a family birthday party on Thursday. So, we partied all weekend! On her actual birthday, Chris, Megan, and I took her to Red Robin for dinner (Adam was playing with Grandma). She loved getting sung to by the waiters and was excited to get her birthday ice cream.

Friday, Katelyn got her first friend birthday party. She chose a princess theme, so everyone was dressed up as their favorite princess. When each princess arrived, we took their picture in front of our castle then the first activity was to decorate foam picture frames (which they took home with their picture in it). Then we played Cinderella's missing shoe. I had one pair inside and one pair outside hiding. They had to go outside and find the missing pair to receive their prize. Then we played one more game where we tried to figure out which princess item was missing. Then the hit of the party was a freeze dance game. They all had a blast dancing, then they had to freeze when the music stopped. Finally the party ended with presents and cupcakes and ice cream. I think everyone had a good time.

Sunday, we finally got to have Katelyn's family birthday party, which she wanted to be themed Harry Potter. I didn't go all out, but I made it feel a little bit like Harry Potter. We had licorice wands in a cauldron and Bertie Bots every flavor beans. Katelyn chose the family favorite Texas Sheet Cake for her birthday cake and then we opened presents. I think Katelyn thoroughly enjoyed her weekend bash. Here's my video montage of the events.

Mayhem mixed in with a little bowling

Chris and I had a coupon for free bowling that we wanted to use. We thought it would be fun to share with our cousins, so we invited them to come. Bradley was sick, so we decided to go ahead and take Bryson and Blake even though neither Amy nor Scott could come with us. Looking back, this was a little bit of craziness, but the kids all had fun and no one was hurt. That's about all we could ask for. We even ended the night taking them all the McDonald's for dinner. Here are some fun pics of the evening.

Blake and Megan were constantly at the "controls."  Ahh, the excitement of many buttons.

Megan up to bat with Blake standing by.

Katelyn fancying the granny style throw.

Bryson getting the hang of it.

Adam, who was sadly stuck in the stroller the whole time, looking cute as always.

Go Devils!

Ok, so I'm BYU Cougar blue and white through and through, but I've got ASU Sun Devil maroon and gold in my blood. And thanks to Grandpa Ed, I got to go to the ASU vs. University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM). Grandpa usually offers my Dad and I to pick a couple games to go to and use his season tickets. This year, he went even another step further - my schedule looked good for this game, so my name got put on a list sent to ASU by Frank Kush (former ASU coach - the field is named after him) for a pair of tickets. Dad was going to go with me, but his call schedule got scrambled at the last minute and he couldn't come with.

Going to the game with Grandpa is always fun, but definitely has some perks too. First you usually meet one of Grandpa's friends (today was Tom, who played with Grandpa at ASU back when they were the Cougars). Since Dad wasn't there, I volunteered to drive. Here is the second perk. It's been a while since the Devils became the Devils, so Grandpa has a parking pass for the structure adjacent to the stadium, so that was a piece of cake.

ASU vs. ULM wasn't a wildly popular game, but that wasn't why I went. I had great tickets - 26th row at about the 20 yard line. The weather was perfect, it was all awesome. Next perk, for about the first half, I had almost the whole 26th (and some of the 25th and 27th) rows to myself. I was showered and clean so I don't think that was the reason. :) My seat was particularly good for the kickoff touchdown return by ASU! Kaley and Chase had some magic tickets too and made it there after the game was underway. They found me, and then at halftime we found Grandpa and Tom and sat with them for the rest of the game, which ASU won 38-14. One kinda interesting thing that happened during the game was that from one of the eaves around the stadium, a few hundred bats flew out and around for a while. I didn't hear that they caused any problems, but it was kinda cool to see them flying around, and so many of them.

The only complaint I could make of the night was that the AT&T 3G coverage inside the stadium (which the inside cover of the game program was a full-page, full color add of AT&T 3G and ASU Stadium) was horrible. That minor inconvenience aside, I'm grateful to Grandpa Ed for always thinking of me when there's and ASU game going on.

My view from the field: