Graduation

Steve graduated on Saturday. He is done with school F-O-R-E-V-E-R!! It is kind of weird because now we will be like real adults with a house and job and not students. Kind of strange to think about but I think I'll have no problem getting used to a real paycheck that comes along with all this growing up:)Chandler watching the graduates march in. We were able to spot Steve and he saw us and waved. Chandler didn't understand where I was pointing though since there were so many people.
Friday was a yucky cold day and today has been pouring rain all day. We were lucky to have a beautiful day on Saturday. It wasn't hot or cold. Just right.
Steve's parents came for his graduation. Thankfully Steve's mom had a whole bunch of stickers in her purse that kept Chandler entertained during the ceremony.

Good-Bye Boilermaker. We loved the ride you gave us last fall. Maybe we'll come back and visit someday.
Chandler entertaining his self while we were taking pictures.

And now in honor of Steve's graduation, he would like to share a few thoughts on the past 2 years. Enjoy!

So this might be wordy so feel free to skim.

I have really enjoyed the past two years. There were a number of things that I wanted to do while getting my MBA and I feel that I accomplished all of them. Here are a few lists to sum up my Boilermaker experience:

Top-5 Classes:
1) Fixed Income Securities - Exciting class, especially given the markets at the time.
2) Finance I - Watching unprepared students get cold-called by McConnell was always enjoyable (as long as it wasn't me who was unprepared)
3) Data Mining - I got to play with lots of data, I was pretty much in heaven (now if only we had SAS in the MBA computer lab so I didn't have to mix with lowly undergrads)
4) Quant I - Listening to the professor pronounce Beta (Beet-a) always brought laughs. Plus it was with my first module group who I really liked. Best memory was when a teammate did an enormous decision tree by hand not realizing that we could do it much quicker on Excel using a program the teacher provided.
5) Portfolio Management - if only we had shorted Bear Stearns (we shorted Citi instead). Great teacher, fun class.

Bottom-5 Classes:
1) Options and Futures - Liked the professor but half the class was PhD level stuff that I am sure I will never ever see again in my life
2) Business Law - How can law be exciting? Our cynical ex-lawyer professor did manage to make it humorous with his rants about Google and Jimmy John's
3) Leadership & Ethics - Friday morning class, need I say more
4) Strategy II - repeat of Strategy I, luckily it was baseball season and I had a laptop in class to watch the games (thank goodness for 1 PM starts)
5) Risk Management - First day of class 50 students, second day 20. Why didn't I follow the other 30 and drop it?

Top-5 things about Purdue:
1) The opportunity to meet so many people from different cultures. I can now say that I have friends from all over the world. I am going to rant against BYU for a moment (this might be the only time I ever do it). They advertise that they have students who speak so many different languages as if it make the school multi-cultural, but it is different having someone from the US who lived in Japan for two years and someone who is actually Japanese in your group. Many thanks to my Thai, Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Pakistani, Venezuelan, Mexican, Costa Rican, French, Italian, German, Russian, Peruvian, Colombian, Kuwaiti, Brazilian, ...., Trinidad and Tobagoean?? friends who made my experience so great.
1a. Funny Story, one of my Japanese friends (who has the cutest twin girls) was telling us about his family business back home. They make explosives for use in Construction. We asked him what they biggest explosion was that he ever saw. He thought about it for a second then with a serious face said, "Our Factory".

2) The Mormon Mafia- It was a welcome surprise to find out on the first day of class that there are about twenty Mormons in your class. We had a lot of fun together and I hope to keep in touch over the years. Maybe we will have a reunion at LaVell Edwards Stadium some year. Whether watching BYU games, BoilerMarket Wednesday, Golfing, Video Games, group meetings, or just lounging in Rawls talking it was a lot of fun.

3) Extracurricular activities - This is what I missed out on most as an undergrad. It was so much fun serving as a Vice-President for two clubs, participating in multiple case competitions, and doing so many other things outside of the classroom that made my education so much more well-rounded.

4) The job - I had a great internship last summer and a job that I am really looking forward to (right after all of the vacations we are going to take).

5) My wife and Chandler. When we moved here it was just Katrina and I, we didn't know what to expect but we were excited. Then Chandler came along and he has been so much fun. I am so thankful for her and all that she did to help me with school. She made me so much more successful than I would have been otherwise and both reminded me to keep my life in focus. It is sad to realize my classmate are all going our separate ways to go start new exciting paths but I am so thankful that my travels will include my best friend and my little boy. Happy Mother's Day Katrina, I love you.

Boiler Up!!

We've been busy........come see why........

First reason: We have this dude who runs around our house naked and likes the cold metal of a car on his little bum. Crazy kid.
Second reason: Same dude, sneaking a little snacky-snack and trying to be a big boy. He can barely see over the table.....I love it!
Third Reason: Again, same cutie pie getting very dirty and wet splashing in the puddles outside. Good thing Gramma L. found him some camo rain boots. Now he can do all the splashing he wants. Thanks!
Fourth reason: Gosh, this dude keeps showing up everywhere. He has some magnetic force with water. He can't leave it alone and it makes him really happy. So, in order for me to get pizza made the other night, I had to keep Chandler happy. He played forever in the sink full of water. And the aftermath wasn't pretty.
Fifth reason: Look at these rascals. Don't they just look like trouble. We had to go to one of our last playgroups:( We went to a little local zoo and Chandler had tons of fun. I'm not sure how much fun the other kids had because they were scared of the two exhibits that were open. They had goats and Chandler LOVED them. It was probably one of the cutest things ever. He just chased them and reached for them and tried picking the babies up. The other fun exhibit was these tunnels that you could crawl in and pop up in a bubble. Supposedly there were groundhogs there but we didn't see any because they were all under ground. Chandler was the first kid to go in and then we convinced two others to go in with Steve after they saw Chandler doing it. The one thing all the kids loved was the water. This globe was turning in water and they all loved getting wet.

Sixth reason: We bought a house and have lots of paperwork and things to sign.

Seventh reason: We're moving in 2 weeks. (and between now and then, we are going to Reno for a week.)

Eighth reason: STEVE GRADUATED!!! (Pictures and details to come tomorrow)

Ninth reason: We had company for 2 days. (Steve's parents came for his graduation.)

Tenth reason: Our 4-year anniversary. Oh yeah, that didn't make us busy.....we didn't do anything for it!!! Go figure- that's how we roll. We have about 4 years of IOUs to each other. If anyone needs romance advice you're asking the wrong people. (Steve says we bought a house which is a very expensive gift....so that's the answer he got when I didn't get him anything for graduation or anniversary.)

Anyway, you get the point. We have a lot going on right now. I'll try to keep on top of the blog in all this chaos. I know it would be horrible if you missed seeing new pictures of Chandler (since I know he just changes so much ...j/k). For now I have to go work on my post for my other blog. Check it out soon and you can learn how to make the cutest bows ever.

P.S. I saw your tag Becky and I'm working on it.

House Hunting

I'm finally getting around to writing about our trip. Steve drove our red car while Chandler and I flew. Chandler was relatively well behaved. The first flight he fell asleep and the second one he was pretty bad. So I guess that evens out to being okay. We were both worried Steve was going to break down in the middle of nowhere. He made it just fine though and picked me up at the airport. We got our hotel and tried to settled down for the night. Chandler screamed a lot and stayed up until 10:00!

On Friday we met our Realtor and went and looked at houses. She is really nice and it was fun. Chandler was a good sport. We saw some homes we really loved but they didn't have any yard so we were iffy about them. (Chandler had a rough time. He fell into the nightstand and got a bloody nose and cut above his lip. It was really sad. He also got a big scrape on the bridge of his nose from running out from under the desk and almost taking his head off. Hotel rooms are not good play rooms.)

On Saturday we looked at apartments because we wanted to make sure we would have someplace to live. Man, they make apartments really nice! I guess we have never looked at ones that nice before. It was dying hot the whole time we were there; and to make it worse, the A/C doesn't work in the car. It wasn't fun and I was questioning whether I wanted to move there or not. I don't know how I survived last summer! In the evening we visited some friends who just had a baby. She was so cute and tiny. I want another baby!

(There's only so much you can do in a hotel room. I was a genius and made a slide out of the ironing board for Chandler. He loved it.)

On Sunday we we went for a walk in the morning. Then we went to church. Then that evening we went to another friend's house for dinner.

(Chandler got lots of treats on this trip. We had to reward him for being so good. There's no wrong way to eat an Oreo!)

On Monday we met with our Realtor again and went to look at some more houses. We ended up finding a house and we bought it! Well, it isn't totally final yet but we should close on it by the end of the month. It is actually in the same subdivision as the friend's we visited the night before. We are excited to be living down the road from them. The community has a pool, tennis courts, and playground. It will be a great neighborhood for going jogging with Chandler.

Chandler was so well behaved and patient during all this. After the bad first night, he was so well behaved the rest of the nights. This isn't normal for him. He went right to sleep every night without even crying and he slept all night until 8:00 am! That is unheard of when we are in hotels. He took a nap every day in the car. He would fall right asleep around 11:30/noon each day. Then the Realtor would stay in the car with him while we looked at houses. His naps were only about an hour though so definitely not long enough but better than no nap.

We had to get up at 4:00 in the morning Tuesday to fly home. We got to the airport and we're waiting for our flight when all of a sudden I noticed on the board that our flight was canceled. Stupid airlines. They didn't even make an announcement or anything. Luckily though, Steve got on the phone and we got booked on another flight that was direct and we got in earlier than we would have. Finally, something went our way while flying! The one really stupid thing is they only allow one checked bag now. We had our playpen which we had to check so we had to pay $25 to check it. We would have left it in Charlotte with our car but our hotel didn't have any cribs!

should we?

I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts. We have been busy looking at houses......... like this one:

I will be back very soon with new and exciting blog posts. So hold your horses and be patient.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my mom!! I won't say how old she is because she probably doesn't want me to and honestly, I can never remember:) (sorry mom) I hope you have a wonderful birthday and KayAnna and Dad don't forget about you! We love you!A friend let Chandler borrow this little car and Chandler has been in love. I'm thinking I might have to get him one. Not till we move though. I thought I would take a minute and do a little photo shoot. I only got a few pictures though because Chandler would not look at me. Chandler took a big fall yesterday. His head crashed onto the pavement. He has a big red mark on the side of his head now. I can't take a picture though because Steve has the camera. These picture were before the fall.
I learned how to make really cute bows the other day. I am so excited to make a whole bunch of them now. I haven't had a chance yet because we are going to Charlotte this weekend but when I get back you better believe I will be making a ton of these. I will get directions up on my other site as soon as I have some examples to show. Hopefully that is soon but I'm not promising anything since the next month is kind of crazy. This picture is from when we were learning how to make the bows. The kiddos played outside and someone snapped this cute picture of Chandler and 2 friends having a ride in the wagon.

I forgot to comment about American Idol last week. All I had to say was, "boy was my prediction wrong!". I wasn't sad to see Carly go though. This week was very sad. I really liked Brooke and this is totally lame but I almost cried when she was singing her last song. Probably because I was watching it all by myself.....yeah, that is why:) I guess now I will root for David Cook. I think the final 2 should be both Davids. That would be cool. Okay, I just decided that is what I am rooting for now. I'm glad that is settled.

Our Weekend

We had a pretty decent weekend. On Friday we went to a Purdue baseball game. It was 80 degrees and wonderful weather.....besides the 100 mph winds (j/k they weren't that strong). Friday night I drove around with my friend trying to put up yard sale signs for the next morning. Boy does that take a long time! I would have never thought it was so difficult.
On Saturday morning I had to get up bright and early to go set up our yard sale. It was well worth it though. We had great success and I was so happy to get rid of some things and make some money on the side. I forget how good it feels to make money. Sometimes I'm sad that I don't financially contribute to our family:( Besides the fact that the temperature dropped a lot from the day before (it was freezing!!), I had a lot of fun doing the yard sale. Thanks to Kayli for doing it at her house. I've now learned a lot about yard sales and I can't wait to do another one in a few years once we have a house. It really is funny to see what people will actually buy. For example, one of the first items we sold was this cooler we got for free that had some NFL thing on it. It just makes me laugh.
Since the yard sale went until 3:00, we didn't really do much the rest of the day. Just lazed around the house and cleaned a little. I can't remember what we did Saturday night. Oh, I did go to the grocery store at about 9:00 and that is always an adventure. I love the people you encounter once it gets dark out. The night shift workers are gems too. I always seem to get an overly friendly teenage boy. There is one in particular that I seem to get a lot and he always asks me what kind of car I drive when I give him my keys to scan my pay less card. He always tries to have a conversation with me and it is so strange. I'm not one to strike up conversations with strangers.
On Sunday we went to church. The end. okay, okay, we did more than that. We had home teachers come over and we had some yummy corn on the cob for dinner. And we took a little walk outside and Chandler chased the bunnies. He loves chasing birds and bunnies.

Chandler and Averie got to drive the train at the baseball game. Chandler was in heaven. That boy will just sit and turn a steering wheel for hours. He loves to sit in the car and turn the wheel. I had a friend watch him one night and she said that he just sat in their toy jeep and turned the wheel. He doesn't care if it moves or not.
Two little rascals. Averie gets frustrated with Chandler because he doesn't talk and she is a pro at talking. She always tells him to say please and thank-you. It is pretty funny. We'll miss Averie and her mom and dad when we all move.

MIRACLE

I just have to tell you that Wednesday afternoon, I had one of the best moments of my life. Well, you know, besides getting married and pushing a baby out of my sacred orifice (I read this on Chrissy's sisters blog and it has been forever in my vocabulary) without any drugs. Sorry, you didn't want to hear that. Moving on. I read Pioneer Women along with half the world and she put something on there that I think has changed my life.......forever! She told about a hard water product called LemiShine. She said it works and she has sparkly cups. Ever since we have lived here, my biggest complaint has been how disgusting our cups look and the inside of our dishwasher is totally brown and nasty. I have hated it but didn't know what to do so I just deal with it. Now as we are 5 weeks away from moving, I have discovered a product that makes me the happiest person in the world. I went out and bought it right away and came home and started the dishwasher with it. Can I just say a miracle happened inside that dishwasher? My cups came out clear and smooth feeling. I have been admiring them ever since and I can't stop telling Steve how happy I am. He thinks I'm silly. But this is what makes a house wife happy. Come one folks, tell me that doesn't make you smile? I can't believe I have been drinking out of that filth for 2 years. Let me take a moment to apologize to all those who have come to our house and been served a beverage in one of these nastified cups. I sincerely regret it and promise it will never happen again. Amen.

P.S. I think I just might have to go post a testimonial on LemiShine's website. Seriously, that is how ecstatic I am.

All about Chandler.........and me

Last night Chandler was up for 2 1/2 hours!!! We were so annoyed with him. I'm not sure what was wrong, he was just moaning and whining and then it would turn into crying. I would get him calmed back down and put him back to bed and he would be quiet for about 30 minutes and then start up again. So I never really fell back asleep and I don't think Chandler really did either. If there was one thing that drove me nuts about Chandler it would probably be his sleeping (or lack there of). I am not looking forward to the next month with all our traveling. Hotels are horrible and Chandler screams a lot. He is never good in new places or playpens so I am not excited to travel at all. I was not looking forward to this morning, since I knew Chandler would be super tired from being up in the night. I decided I wouldn't try to do any errands or story time and instead just go to the park and let him play. It passed the time nicely and Chandler was so happy and loved it. The park we went to wasn't that great for kids his age though. I brought the camera and could have gotten some really cute pictures but I left it in the car. So when we were almost ready to leave we went to the car to get Chandler a drink and I grabbed the camera. This was the only good picture I got. He didn't even scream when we left (which I thought he would probably do). When we got home though, it was a whole different story. He started in with his whining and pulling at my legs and biting . I got him lunch really fast and put him right to bed. I hope he takes a long nap today but I'm not counting on anything. Yesterday I got my haircut. I just went to someone from church who does it from her home. She only charges $10 so it is awesome. Chandler loves going because he gets to play in a new place. They have a huge fenced in yard so Chandler just played out there the whole time. There was a sandbox and he loved it so much. He was just digging and playing and I had to go pull him out when it was time to leave. At the park today there was a sandbox and again Chandler loved it. There weren't any toys though so he was a little bored. He loves picking the sand up in both hands and holding it in the air and then letting it fall out of his hands. It is really cute and he got sand all over his head. I think we will have to make lots of trips to the beach this summer.

Who watched American Idol last night? American Idol (Tuesday&Wednesday) is the highlight of my week, along with Jon and Kate Plus 8 (Monday), The Office (Thursday), and What Not to Wear (Friday). I guess I am covered for the whole week! I watch too much t.v. at night while I knit away. Hey, at least I'm doing something semi productive while sitting on the couch. I just wish knitting burned calories:) I could do sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks while watching t.v. but lets face it.........who wants to get all tired and sweaty before bed? I digress- back to American Idol. I love that show. I was really rooting for Brooke but she hasn't done so great the past couple weeks. I don't know what is up but I'm afraid she might go home tonight. (Dang, I should have voted last night. If she goes home it will all be because I didn't vote. I just know it!(In case your wondering, I've never voted.)) I really like David Cook and he seems to just be getting better. David Archuleta is okay but too young and too shy. I don't like Carly. Syesha is okay and I'm starting to like her more. Jason will be in the bottom with Brooke tonight. It is a toss up between those two. I like Jason but don't think he should win. He is too shy also. So there is my opinion of the American Idol contestants. I can't wait for tonight and I hope Brooke doesn't go home and gets another chance to have a good performance. Who am I to judge though?? I have no clue about music or singing or anything! I do usually agree with Simon though. I love that guy and wish I could speak my mind like him.

EARTHQUAKE

I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet but on Friday WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE!!!! It was so weird. It happened at 5:30 in the morning. I woke up and was wondering why Steve was moving so much and thought he was shaking the bed or something. Then I realized that it wasn't him and thought it was just really windy. It was only for a few seconds but when it stopped I realized that must have been an earthquake. So when Steve got up later that morning, I mumbled something to him about an earthquake and he told me to go back to sleep and said I was crazy. He thought I was still sleeping and not fully awake. I was awake though and he looked on the computer and sure enough I was right:) I believe that was the first earthquake that I've ever felt, or at least remember.

Now on to much cuter and more interesting things:
Chandler of course!! Digging in the dirt, as always.
"MOM, do you think I should eat some more dirt??"
"Yeah, I think I just might try it one more time to make sure it really doesn't taste good."
"MMMMM.....I think it is good."
"Never mind, this is disgusting and gritty and YUCKY!!! Get it out of my mouth!"

There you have it- an afternoon in Chandler's life. He eats dirt and then whines so I give him some water, then he eats more dirt and we start the whole cycle over again. Silly kid has a very short term memory!

I have lots of cute things that Chandler has been doing lately but I always forget them. I'm such a horrible mom, I should have them all written down and dated in his baby book.....but I don't:( One thing I remember is Steve was reading Chandler his story before bed. He told him to say hi to the animals on the page so Chandler waved at them. Then Steve told him to kiss them and Chandler would lean forward and kiss the page (read: lick the page). He did it for every page of the book. Super cute. I tried to sneak the camera in to get him doing it but of course the kid is too smart and noticed right away and wouldn't do it again.So we have to be really careful around here now because Chandler knows how to open the sliding screen door. I hate it because we always like to have it open to get fresh air in the house but I can't because it is too dangerous. He has gotten out and taken off and the kid disappears so fast. It is kind of scary. Anyway, this picture is when Chandler escaped yesterday. He got up from his nap and wanted to go outside. So I made him put shoes on and then gave him some books to read in the chair so he wouldn't take off. He read for a while and it was really cute. He even brought his blankie with him. Then all of a sudden I see him getting down and I told Steve to go out with him (I was making dinner). Steve goes out and Chandler starts chasing the birds and takes off. He probably got 5 apartments down before Steve caught him.

The other thing that I am hating is Chandler knows how to open EVERYTHING now. Even things with screw lids. It is so annoying because he is always finding things to open and make a mess with. Somehow he manages to get into everything he isn't supposed to. He knows how to climb also and has impeccable balance. My baby is growing up too fast!

Private: yes? or no?

So it appears that there is a big trend going around to make your blog private. For the past 2 days we have had many conversations about this. (And just yesterday, I looked at 6 different blogs that just announced they were going private) Here is our opinion (and we don't want to offend anyone, I'm sure you have your reasons for being private):

• At this time we don't plan on making our blog private.
• It has been fun connecting with friends, who we would never keep in touch with in any other way (Crystal, Casie, Chris and Heather, Nathan and Megan, etc...).
• We think that there are precautions that you can take to make your blog safer without going private. We do feel that there is a line between the public internet and our private lives.
• We find it ironic that some people will say that they are taking their blogs private and then post their email for everyone to see (although some have posted a special email address for just this purpose) and others post their email for all to see.
  
• It will be a lot easier to be more anonymous once we move to a larger city.
• We enjoy blog stalking (Katrina has found a lot of really good recipes and ideas this way).
• If someone wants to find us, there are a lot of ways that are easier than blog stalking.
  

Here are some things that we think are good alternatives to going private (we would love to hear opinions on both sides...so all of you blog stalkers it is time to come out of your hiding places)

• Take your blog off Google's search engine. When we search our names, our blog doesn't come up but we can be found through other blogs whose results are not excluded.
• Here is how: Go to the your blog page, click on the settings tab, and then select No to both of these questions: Let search engines find your blog?Add your blog to our listings?
• This will hopefully solve the problem of the random spam comment and make it much harder to find online.
• This goes for Facebook accounts as well.
  
• Try to keep your last name off of the blog (and as a courtesy keep the last names off of your linked blogs). We don't follow this 100% but we try and again it adds a layer of protection and anonymity to those who don't know you except on the blogosphere.
• Try to avoid mentioning particulars about things that can be used to track you (subdivision names, school names, where you work, etc...). The people who know you know this information so we don't have to mention it. Or including pictures that give away this information.
  
• Track your blog on Google Analytics. It's free and easy and you can see who exactly is looking at your blog, where they are from, and how they got to it. We can figure out most of the hits we get. In fact for kicks, here are the top 5 ways that people found our blog in the last month:
• #1 Greg and Sariah, #2 Todd and Meagan, #3 Kim, #4 Melissa, #5 Chrissy
• We can find out much more than this, but we will keep this our secret
• We are trying to find a way to limit what archives appear (or if there is a way to limit this). One thought would be to keep a copy of your blog on your hard drive and every 6-mo or so start over.
• Google (or Yahoo I should say) yourselves to see what comes up. Luckily my name is pretty common and there are a lot of people more interesting than me who are burying me in the search.
  

We would love to here your ideas (on both sides), they can even be anonymous (even though that is another pet peeve of ours). We think that if everyone is a little bit more thoughtful, then we don't have to rush and go back behind the wall of private blogs and closed circles. For those that have gone private (or are going private) what was a specific reason for doing so?

Was there something that just happened to cause the sudden shift that we missed out on? We know there are some blogs that should be private (or not kept at all) due to a number of factors like the nature on one's employment but we haven't really heard of a reason. Most just say that after a lot of thinking they made the decision to go private. What were you thinking about? This might allow us to have a good discussion about the pros and cons of both sides.

Well, we appreciate your letting us vent and look forward to the comments.