Going Private

I am in the midst spending my precious free time calling credit card companies to explain that the card recently opened in my name was not opened by me, needs to be closed, and could they please remove it from my credit report. Turns out my identity was stolen just after I legitimately opened a credit card a few months ago.

Result: deserved paranoia.

I'm not a fan of private blogs because they don't show up on my Google Reader account and so I forget to check in as often as I'd like. Also, I enjoy hearing that a friend or relative I didn't know was reading found us from another friend's or family member's blog. That said, due to the above explanation, I'm joining those who have chosen to go private.

So, those of you out there who are interested in keeping up on the lives of our kids (since that's basically the substance of all of my posts), please leave a comment or send me an email at this temporary address (goingprivate888@gmail.com) so I can send you an invite. We love you all and want to stay in touch!

Hi Dad!

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday morning was spent at Liberty Park, mostly at the Tracy Aviary, but we took some time to ride on a couple of the very old fair park rides they have there too. The morning was followed by some home improvement work in the bathroom. We are replacing an old, unattractive light fixture with two small ones that will look better. Then, a special treat, Grandma and Grandpa Judd took Kate and James for the evening while mom and day went on a date -- dinner and a movie. Thanks!

Sunday was spent with the usual church and family time, but then, the normal routine went out the window. Ben decided to risk the slightly cool weather and small chance of rain and decided to give the kids a preview of camping by sleeping in a tent in the backyard. We have a short camping trip planned for June with the McAdams. I think the kids will be fine in June. It rained all night long and my campers slept through the whole thing. I'm glad I was in the house.

We met with some of the Judd family for breakfast on Monday morning and then spent a little bit of time remembering Grandma and Grandpa Wilson at the cemetery. They are my mom's parents. I never knew my grandfather, but have heard many stories about what a loving father he was and how he got mom's lunch money gambling and liked ketchup with everything. We spent the evening with Grandma McAdams and our Williams cousins. Happy Birthday Tammy!

Associate General Counsel

A little more than three months after ending my clerkship, I'm again permanently employed. I spent the three months doing a couple of freelance projects and having a some down time. The break was nice, but I'm very excited about my new job. I'm now an Associate General Counsel at the University of Utah. I'm anticipating interesting work, great colleagues, predictable hours and adequate flexibility (i.e. not a law firm), and a very short commute! I started on Monday. So far so good!

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

After a super productive day organizing all kinds of things into our new garage on Saturday, we picked up our kids that had been watched in shifts by three family members. We drove into the driveway, unpacked the various bags and other gear that were cluttering my van and left them on the driveway by the side door to take into the house a little later. We put our tired kids to bed and then returned to the garage to work until we were too tired to do another thing. We drove our cars into the garage to make sure we'd left enough space to open doors without banging shelves, etc. Things fit great!

I backed the van out of the garage to make some space for one or two more tasks. I backed the van over a small bag holding our nice, expensive MacBook Pro!

The screen looks like shattered glass. The computer makes some noise when we try to turn it on, but without a visual, we don't know if any of our data is retrievable. We'll know the true extent of my stupidity within a couple of days. We'll learn whether the laptop is a covered item under our homeowners policy in the morning and I'm taking the broken laptop to a "Mac Genius" at the Apple Store to see if a data transfer to a new laptop is possible. This idiotic move makes James and Kate's little experiment with Leather Lube seem incredibly trivial.

One more thing: Thanks to my wonderful husband for not saying a million things that have surely been on the tip of his tongue since Saturday night. I love you!

The Hogle Zoo and the lion drinking fountain

I took James and Kate to the Hogle Zoo this afternoon. How many of you out there that grew up in Utah (or visited) have a picture of you drinking from this fountain as a kid? I do.(They actually have two of them now. And, I think I recall seeing one at the Bronx Zoo, so maybe several zoos have one or two of these.)

Bryce Canyon

Ben had a conference in Bryce Canyon the last few days of this week. Since I'm not yet working full-time, I thought it would be fun for me and the kids to join him. We didn't see much of Ben, but we had a great time looking at the hoodoos during our two hikes and playing near the lake by our hotel. James and Kate were great little hikers and seemed to enjoy the adventure.
Taking a short break during our Queen's Garden hike.
James never grew tired of throwing rocks into the lake. I sure wish I knew of an activity at home that could keep him entertained for so long.