Landscaping Love

Many of you may be familiar with our seemingly endless landscaping saga. Without rehashing the travails, we've kicked into get-it-done mode, and we're actually making some good progress. We're going to finish this bad boy if it's the last thing we do.

We've wanted to be able to use the yard for things like hosting friends, having BBQ's, and just generally hanging out/playing outside. The big side yard has already been the site of numerous neighborhood baseball games, so that's great. It's the back that's been the headache.

Well now, thanks to an awesome assist by my brother-in-law, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. We're very close to wrapping up the sprinkling system, after which we'll get the rest of the sod laid, and then we are substantially complete. Can't wait! Not only will it make the yard more usable and functional, it will also greatly reduce the amount of dust tracked into the house anytime someone comes in.

Highlights of the work completed so far are the trampoline getting buried in the ground - and the guy who did it for us did a masterful job. We also got the fire pit finished, and that's been a definite plus as we've enjoyed sitting out late at night and talking by the fire, as well as having friends over for roasted marshmallows and fireside chats. To make that easier, we also got a good deal on some of those benches where you can fold the back over to create a picnic table - great to have nice, usable, comfortable sitting and eating places.

Finally, I have to mention the satisfaction I've felt as I work hard out in the yard. Sure I can't completely do all the work out there because it's not really my expertise, but I now feel a ton of equity in the work that I have done.

#hashtag @tweet Post Share Pin Check-in ...

Things have changed in the world over the last few years. I looked at my daughters and their friends hanging out the other day and almost all of them were simultaneously on their phones. Some would complain that technology is making people less social, and ruining our interpersonal skills. Maybe. But I will tell you this: social media is allowing us to vastly broaden our reach at the same time.

When I first joined Facebook, it was at the urging of a good friend, Amy Baugh, who I wouldn't consider ultra tech savvy. She was talking about how it had helped her reconnect with lots of high school and mission friends - that sounded appealing to me, so I took the leap. At the time, Facebook was battling My Space for supremacy (yeah, if you haven't heard of My Space, you can tell who won... also, Facebook's multi, multi billion $ IPO is today...), and I was afraid the notion of joining a social network was a bit "high school". Whatever, I can play in all different spaces ;-). So I did it, and my experience has been exactly like Amy's -- reconnect with lots of high school friends, mission buddies, and many more. I don't spend tons of time there, but I usually enjoy catching up with people's lives using that network.

I also still remember the first time I heard of Twitter. We lived in the heart of the Bay Area, which helps for hearing about new stuff, and which is also prone to earthquakes. We had a particularly noticeable earthquake one evening, which means we actually felt it, and another close friend, Michael Tanne, told me later he immediately jumped on Twitter to check if all his friends had felt it and were ok. What is this Twitter of which you speak? I thought it was weird that his first thought was to jump onto his social network - like I said, things have changed. So I joined up, and evolved from blogging pretty frequently to banging out 140 character quick hitters. I kinda liked the change.

And there's so much more. Now everything links together. Facebook and Twitter feed each other, while Instagram (photo sharing), Pinterest (idea sharing), Foursquare (location sharing), Flipboard (news sharing), not to mention fitness apps (Strava, MapMyRide, Nike+, etc.), note taking apps (Evernote, etc.), and much more all feed directly into both Facebook and Twitter. It's an amazing world where we can share as much of our lives as we want to.

Word to the wise though - don't take a questionable picture of your wife and post it against her will. Just sayin'...

So bad, and yet so good

Every other Friday or so the team from work goes out to lunch together to get out of the office and get some good grub. We're spoiled because work brings in quite a few lunches and dinners throughout the week, so if we're only going out every once in a while it seems ok to go big or go home.

The undisputed favorite:

The somewhat disputed other favorite, although you may need a pick-me-up in the afternoon:

Where we went today:

...which is why I feel so dirty.

The latest

Now that I've most likely lost all my loyal followers and readers due to inactivity and laziness (or lack of blogging time), I thought I'd resurrect the blogging effort and at least periodically add a few notes about things our family is doing, thoughts that rattle through this head of mine, happenings at work, play and school, and updates in general.

The last four months has been a bit crazy. Crazy means different things to each member in our family, but collectively we've had a fun little ride the last few months. For me, the big thing has been training for, and competing in, Ironman St. George. The last four months have included swimming 67 miles, biking 1,132 miles, and running 381 miles -- almost always very early in the morning, and almost always in the cold. And then to top it off, race day on May 5 consisted of a freak windstorm of 40 mph winds that made it a long, challenging, but ultimately very rewarding day. So all that, added to an already very busy work schedule, plus YM commitments - not to mention all the family stuff going on - have made for a faster pace than we usually have.

Things at Domo have been awesome. It seems like there are never any dull moments. I really enjoy the people I work with, and there's such a cool energy about the company and where we're going that it continues to be a killer place to work. And I think it's just going to get better as we launch our products and grow like we think we can.

So now to the important stuff - what's the family been up to? Micah and Kennan have dance four nights a week, not to mention tumbling and cheer for Micah as she made the JV team for next year, and Kennan made the Jr High cheer team for next year as well. Morgan has been in a local Scera Theater play about Pinocchio, and that's been really fun but like other plays the kids have been in, seems to take up a lot of time and energy. She loves it and has already auditioned and gotten a part in the next one, which I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. She also swims 3-4 times a week. Brig is constantly playing with his neighborhood buddies or his cousin, Spencer, and he's making full use of the new trampoline we just sunk into the ground in our slowly-progressing back yard. He also played soccer this year and he and Spencer were by far the best players on the best team (city league, so that's not saying much...). He's looking forward to baseball starting this weekend, and was particularly excited when he and I went down and bought him a new mitt that feels like a real glove and not a kid's toy. He's a sweet kid who still loves his mom to death. Ang hurt her foot a while back so has put her running/training on hold for a while. I know this grates on her, but it's the right thing to do. Beyond that, she's constantly shuttling kids around, and rarely gets much time to herself - which is why I'm always happy when she gets a girls night or something fun. I think everyone's looking forward to the fast-approaching summer vacation!

Mom and Dad, who have been serving for the Church in Chile this past year, got reassigned to be in the Europe Area Presidency based in Frankfurt, Germany. They're VERY excited for the change, and we're also really happy for them, and hoping we can make it out to visit while they're there. It'll also be fun to have them home in July.