All about Bugs

I just ordered Kimberly's birthday present online. She is going to be SO excited. Other little girls her age may not be so excited to receive what she is getting, but Kimberly is all about bugs so I just ordered some bug collecting items. She needed a professional grade bug catching net. Last year we went through about 10 cheapies (no kidding). So I got her a good one that will hopefully not break for awhile because I had to pay about 3 times what a cheapie cost.

To go along with the net thingie, I got a specialized board so she can pin the butterflies and moths, which allows them to dry properly...who knew? We learned by trial and error last year when Kimberly caught some really cool looking butterflies and moths. She put them in the freezer like she did all of her other bugs (yummie I'm telling you at the sight of those lovely things every time I opened the freezer!) They became all scrunched up so she couldn't pull the wings out to display on the board. I know now why there is such thing as a drying board! I also got some bug pins so they can be displayed in a case, and a book about catching and displaying bugs.

If these had been my birthday presents at age nine, I would have given them all to my brother and demanded a redo. Thankfully, I received the usual assortment of dolls and books. Much better in my opinion. Not for Kimberly though...she is all about bugs. She loves collecting them and trying to find new critters. She has even recruited her friends and neighbors to be on the lookout for cool creatures. Yes, we got several calls from neighbors. "Hey, there is a really wierd looking bug in our garage - does Kimberly want to come get it?"

Sadly, her bug collecting has been on hold during the winter. Want to know the first think Kimberly asked when we told her about our trip to Hawaii? "Can you bring home a cool Hawaiian bug for me?" Unfortunately for her, I was not going to bring back a bug souvenir.

Is this background better?

After much teasing about how my background just does not match my postings, I gave in...better yet I'm ready for winter to be done anyway, so this is better.

Beaches

I love beaches...in fact, when I need to relax, I imagine myself sitting on a warm beach listening to the lapping and crashing of waves. This does not count John's clock's feeble attempts to imitate wave crashing to help relax someone. For some reason, they only make me more agitated. I have to actually be on a warm beach. I have dreams of retiring on a warm beach - thankfully John is on board with these retirement plans.

Anyway, the wonderful thing about Oahu is not only are the beaches warm, they have a wide variety of beaches. We started out on Waikiki where you can find lots of people strutting their stuff (I did no such strutting) and the waves are perfect for surfers. (See posting below)

We then made our way over to a really rocky side of the island. We were going to hike up to the top of this area and see a lighthouse, but some locals told us to go around the bottom and see the tide pools. What they forgot to mention to us was how rough the water is around here and how quickly the water moves when the tide is coming in. We started hiking along on the cool rocks supposedly looking for whales (yes, the locals said we might be able to see whales), when the water started crashing into the rocks really hard. I could just picture us crazy tourists getting caught with the tide coming in on our first day in Hawaii! We skedaddled our way back as quickly as possible and made it safely, albeit a little wet.

We made our way up to Hanauma Bay, where there are tons of cool fish. We went snorkeling and laid out on the warm sand listening to the waves - though they were a little further back, which gave us the perfect opportunity to see the reefs and cool fish.Then we discovered the beaches on the North Shore where the waves were incredible and the surfers amazing. The beaches were long and sandy and very beautiful. The beaches over on the east side of the island were also amazing, but a little more rocky and we had some incredible views of the mountains.

Visiting so many wonderful beaches has only reaffirmed my retirement desires. No cold beach for me - warm beach here I come! I guess I better start saving up my pennies now.

Another great invention...

I have a confession to make. John and I have disagreements. In fact, one of the biggest disagreements we have had over the years comes at travel time. Here is the problem: I am not a very good driver, and I am not a very good navigator. This is not very conducive to happy traveling. Therefore, much frustration usually occurs on our trips when we are trying to get somewhere. That is until the invention of the gps. (Singing here...) Hallelujah!! Marital bliss now reigns on our traveling adventures as we sweetly listen to the lady's voice say, "turn right in 500 yards." This is of course much more preferable to the, "Oh, you needed to turn right there, oops, sorry I was a little late giving that information to you." Sigh. How I will miss the glares from the driver's side of the car when I give him those lines.

On our trip to Hawaii, we simply plucked the gps from it's prime location in the car and lovingly placed it in our suitcase. It faithfully guided us around the island, including finding a nice secluded beach not listed on any of our maps!

I hope the gps continues giving us pleasant directions because I fear the day it starts reverting back to our old ways and spitting out something like, "You forgot to turn back there ?!*! I have no idea where we are at!" I much prefer our new traveling accomodations and love that we can get through a trip without one ioda of direction disagreements.

Surf's Up!

John and I have returned from our whirlwind vacation to Hawaii last week and had the time of our lives. Yes, it really did happen. We had several friends email us asking if we were just kidding about the trip to Hawaii! John got his job offer on Wednesday morning (1/21), and by that night, we had arrangements for the kids and the hotel and air booked. By Thursday I was getting our house in order, Friday we were doing laundry and packing, and Saturday we flew the coup!

This was sooo incredibly uncharacteristic for us as I usually have our trips planned way in advance (I'm already planning the Bear Lake Meldrum family reunion trip for summer of 2010...that's how prepared I am). I was such a basket case on Wednesday night wondering how everything was going to turn out, but I shouldn't have worried because it was so much fun to just be with John and wing it. I forgot what it was like to travel with my best friend and not have to worry about the constant fusses of 3 young children.

The highlight of our trip was learning how to surf. On the first day in Waikiki, we were walking along the beach enjoying the warm weather and noticed several surf schools who had set up shop on the beach. John turned to me and said he had always wanted to learn how to surf, and would I mind if we signed up for some lessons. I have absolutely no coordination, so I wasn't sure about the idea, but since we were just winging it, I agreed to the adventure.

I was literally scared spit less, but we were told that the waves in Waikiki are perfect for beginners because the waves are so mild. This was encouraging - perhaps there would be no bodily harm. Now I only needed to worry about getting up on my board and looking like a cool surfer girl (hard to look cool without the hawaiin bod and cute bikini...my Utahn skirt swimsuit was just going to have to do the trick).

Our instructor was very nice and seemed very encouraging. He gave us a land lesson, then we swam out on our boards to the waves. There was no turning back now! The instructor had me go first. He told me to start paddling fast, then said it was time to get up...I painstakingly got up on my knees, moved up onto my feet, creaked my 30 something body up to a somewhat standing position and looked ahead to the beach, and thought...I really am doing this...I am the cool surfer girl - oops - crud - I'm going down - plunging into the water - not so cool surfer girl anymore...okay, I was just going to have to try again...and try I did and we had the time of our lives!! Surf's Up! (Here are some pictures to actually prove we did it!!)

You're hired!

Wow, what a whirlwind! The economy is down, and technology jobs are slower than 6 months ago, but I was optimistic. The recruiters that I have worked with were equally optimistic. Scott at Ampian Staffing had a client that received an offer from a company in SLC, Orbit Medical. But Scott's client's company countered and he stayed put. This left the position open to me. Two days later, I met with the development managers; this was the 15th. The interview went well, I liked the people and the office, and felt good about the company. Scott called me Tuesday (the 20th) and asked if I was available today for a second interview with Orbit's CEO and the two development managers I had previously met. My last day was Monday, so I had nothing better to do! Well, I could play Guitar Hero all day. ;) We met for about 30 min this morning and an hour later I had an offer; a good offer especially in this economy. So, I am now a Senior Software Developer at Orbit Medical (www.orbitmedical.com)! This is a really exciting opportunity, and I can still ride FrontRunner into SLC.

To celebrate, Dana and I have decided to go to Hawaii next week. Now to make arragements for the kids while we are gone...

Kimberly Tickling the Ivory

I think it is safe to say that piano lessons seem to be working!! Kimberly asked me last summer if she could start learning how to play the piano, so I gave her a simple book she could tinker around with over the summer break, and tinker away she did! She would often plop herself at the piano and learn the simple songs. By September, I was convinced that she was interested in learning how to play the piano. The real question then was, would she respond to piano lessons taught by her mother, or would I have to outsource the instruction?

She was excited about her first lessons, even reminding me about them when I forgot, and here is the absolutely amazing, mind-boggling thing I discovered...she actually enjoys practicing!! I hardly have to remind her to practice. I know this is a miracle, so I'm soaking it up for all it's worth while it lasts.

What's funny is we've even argued over who got to play the piano...hehe. There have been a couple times where we both wanted to play at the exact same time! I do have to say, one thing about having a piano player in the house is getting to listen to the same songs over, and over, and over again - especially her favorite ones. We've had to start limiting how many times she plays the William Tell Overture, because she was starting to get real creative with it - how loud can she play it, how many different octaves can she play the song, how many different keys can it be played in...you get the idea. I think she has definitely found one of her talents. Piano and horse riding. Hmm...what an interesting combination.