Gratitude

I am sitting here this evening very grateful for the myriad of blessings that have been showered upon me. First and foremost for my family. I have a loving and caring wife who loves me for who I am and sees the potential in me for the future. She believes in me. I have five children who also love me and who excel, each in their own way. I have just accepted a new job that will allow me to continue attending school to effect the career change I desire. I have supportive parents, siblings, in-laws, and church family. I have a Savior who loves me and paid the price to allow me to repent and improve myself each day. I have the knowledge of the truth which has been restored to the earth. What more could I ask. I am so rich in blessings. I am extremely grateful to my Father in Heaven!

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SWAMPED!!!

Wow! I really feel swamped with homework! I don't think I've ever been kept as busy as I have within the last few months after starting back to school. Of course, things are different now, what with being a father of five children, spouse, trying to provide for the family, serving in a church calling, etc. Anyway, now add on top of that the fact that I recently got laid off from my job. Job searching is a lot more demanding than actually working on a job. Holy cow! How can I fit all this stuff in? I am falling behind, not finding many opportunities for work, and just feeling frustrated right now! But, something will happen! The Lord is mindful of us. We'll just keep plugging away.

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Excited and Scared

Here I am, both excited and scared at the same time. Why? Because I am going to start going back to school next week at Utah Valley University in Computer Science, emphasis in Network Engineering. With transferred credits it will take me three years to complete the program. It has been a long time since I have attended school full-time, and the thought both excites me and scares me.

I will continue to work for my current employer, but on a part-time basis, working around my school schedule. I am very glad they are willing to work with me. With this, attending school full-time, serving as Elders Quorum 2nd Counselor, and being a good father (of five) and spouse, I will certainly have my hands full! This is another aspect that is kind of scary. I want to be able to properly fulfill each role that I play, especially that of spouse and father. Balancing everything is going to be pretty hard, but I can do it--with the Lord's help.

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En Casa Para El Cuatro De Julio

Aqui estamos nosotros en casa de mis padres para el cuatro de julio. Llegamos ayer por la tarde, un poco mas tarde que queriamos llegar porque tuvimos unos problemas con el carro, pero con una oracion y la fe de la familia pudimos llegar.

Katie, John, Harrison, Jack y Becca vinieron a la casa esta manana, con Kendall, Aaron y Juje llegando despues. Asi que ha estado toda la familia con excepcion de Shauna, Ty y sus hijos. Ojala que pudieran haber estado aqui! No he visto a la familia de Shauna porque han vivido tan lejos de nosotros por tanto tiempo.

Durante el dia visitamos, miramos peliculas, escuchamos a Hunter tocar el piano, cocinamos hamburguesas, y esta noche vamos a comer torta con helados, ademas, vamos a mirar los fuegos artificiales (un show pirotecnico). Ha sido tan bueno tener a la mayoria de la familia aqui con nosotros.

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What a concert! WOW!!!!!!!!!

Our family went to a concert tonight in place of having our usual Friday "movie night." Jill found us a steal of a deal--$15 for tickets for the whole family to go see the final season concert of the Utah Premiere Brass (see www.upb.org), along with the Utah Pipe Band (a Scottish bagpipe band--see www.UtahPipeBand.org) and The Rhythm of Ireland (see www.RhythmofIrelandDance.com) at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah. All I can say is WOW!

Actually, the reason I wanted to write about it is that I was truly touched by quite a few of the numbers, and even brought to tears. They played a rendition of Amazing Grace with the combined brass band and the bagpipe band, and it was so moving that my eyes watered up. Several other numbers did the same, including renditions of Scotland The Brave, Highland Cathedral, and an arrangement of the old Irish tune "O Danny Boy." These were all done as original arrangements by members of the band. The combination of bagpipes and brass was so beautifully done that these pieces just spoke to my soul. I feel extremely grateful to my Father in Heaven for GOOD music!!!! How wonderful to be able to bring my children to enjoy such an amazing concert. I wish they had a recording of this available for purchase--I would snatch it up in a heartbeat.

The bands and the Irish dancers also held the children captivated--even Tate. The dancers were every bit as good as those in the Riverdance or Lord of the Dance companies. They were very good. They even danced to some Irish songs played by the brass band. The whole program was unbelievably coordinated, rehearsed, and prepared. WOW!!!! TRIPLE WOW!!!

Thank you Heavenly Father for good music!!! It is so nice to have a reprieve from the rotten noise that most people at my place of employment constantly have blaring (hard rock), with the vocalists not actually singing, but screaming. YUCK! I AM TIRED OF HEARING IT! This concert was such a needed thing for my soul!

Good night!

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All is going well here in Springville right now. I am still working at Rocky Mountain Composites, though I'd like to find another job with better hours, better pay, and something I enjoy much more. The job isn't that bad though, and it's close enough that I ride my bike in to work, as long as the weather is good enough. This gives me exercise as well as saving gas on getting me to work.

The rest of the family is getting along well too. The children (all except Tate, of course) have about six more weeks of school left (they've been on Spring Break this past week). Tate is about to turn 5 (this coming Thursday--April 24th), and I still cannot believe it. He'll be starting school (Kindergarten) this fall, and at the school where the kids go, it is all-day kindergarten. This fall all of our children will be in school during the day--WIERD!!!!! I feel like I'm getting old.

We are also keeping busy with Church. I was just called as the second counselor in the elders quorum presidency and I've been an instructor in the class. Jill is surviving as a nursery leader in the primary. Hunter has been enjoying Young Men's, and has been the piano player in Priesthood opening exercises for the past few months. Blythe has been progressing on her Faith In God award, always looking to pass off another requirement, and so has Gavin. Seth will turn 8 this summer, and will be baptized. And, lastly, Tate is enjoying his Sunbeam class--he loves his teachers.

On Juje's birthday, Hunter, Dan McNeece (Jill's sister's husband), and I will be flying to Georgia. We will travel to Cedartown and stay the night. Then on Monday, May 5th, we will rent a moving truck and load up all our stuff that is in storage. Then we will drive it out to our home in Springville, arriving in the evening on Wednesday, May 7th. I will be off work on Thursday, May 8th, and will unload the truck that day. We plan to take the I-80 route so that we can make a stop in Carthage, Illinois and Nauvoo, Illinois. I've never been there before. I am excited and so is Hunter. It will be nice to finally get our things out here too. We haven't had our things for about a year now--it'll be kind of like Christmas all over again.

Mom or Dad emailed me a link to a slide show with pictures of actors from a pageant in Arizona and the paintings on exhibit there all put to music. I opened it and let it load--with dial-up it takes forever to load, but it was soooooooooo worth it. Mom, that was indeed AWESOME!!! It brought tears to my eyes, and it did to Jill's too. You ALL need to watch it. Here's the link:

http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

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March 31, 2008

Here I sit at the Springville, Utah public library on my day off work looking at this screen and wondering what to write on my first BLOG entry.

I was going to work overtime today to help save up some extra money for moving our things out here to Utah from where we used to live in Cedartown, Georgia. Then, with all the snow, ice, and wind Jill asked me to stay home so she wouldn't have to drive me in to work. She did not feel comfortable driving on the roads early in the morning in this weather.

Also, our son is ill today and I had to take him in to the doctor with possible strep throat. I also went in to the doctor because I've felt fairly ill over the last month myself. I was diagnosed with a sinus infection--YUCK! No wonder I've been feeling so terrible! We've had lots of sickness in the family over the past month or two. I really want to have everyone be healthy again!!!!!

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