Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

Just a quick post to share some pictures of the girls in their 2011 Easter dresses and new shoes. This is Alyssa's first set of heels (1.5") and she's doing quite well with them.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. I had a book signing at Moon's LDS Bookstore in Dallas yesterday. This is my setup, with chocolate macadamia nuts, bookmarks, and paper airplanes that I fold for the kids. It was a great signing, although I didn't sell as many books as last time. Maybe it's because I wore the blue shirt instead of the red one. Coming up next month, there will be a piece about me in the BYU-Hawaii eNewsletter, and they asked if we had a family picture. It's been a long, long time since we've had our picture made (that's how they say it here in Texas) so this was a good excuse for us to take some.

One of our favorite books when the girls were young was Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, about a little bug who ate and ate and grew and grew until he became a beautiful butterfly. Oops--did I just give away the ending? Anyway, we've had our own very hungry caterpillar at the house this year--Alyssa. Take a look at this back-to-school photo of her with Anna, from just this past August. Now compare that to this photo, taken one week ago. Hmm. Maybe it's not so obvious, since Anna's wearing heels. Pardon me for one moment while I make the girls take another picture. She's grown at least two inches; maybe even three. In fact, she's grown so much she's taken over a bunch of Anna's clothes. Yes, our girls are growing up.

In case you hadn't noticed based on the bloggy silence, these last few months have been incredibly busy around here, and unfortunately this blog has taken a big hit. I really want to continue posting here, as it's a great way to keep in touch and share with everyone. No promises, but I'm going to give it my best shot. There are two big changes in my life that have provided a major scarcity in free time. The first is a change in my work responsibilities. I'm still a software engineer for Onyx Graphics in Utah, working from home. However, rather than just working on whatever the product manager gives me to do, I am the product manager in a way. Each of us driver developers now have a handful of device manufacturers that we are responsible for, both developing the code and managing the relationship. One of the things this means is more work related travel. I took four work trips in all of 2010. I've already been on three this year, and will likely have some 20 or so b...

Last weekend, our oldest child became a teenager. The transition came without a lot of fanfare. There was, however, soup. Only the birthday girl could get a way with asking for soup when it's 100 degrees outside. There was cake, too. Lemon cake with lemon icing. Not quite the candle inferno her parents' birthdays cause, but she's getting there. And, of course, presents. Happy Birthday, Anna. We love you.

My blogging friend Crash is collecting fabric for a wonderful Magic Quilt project. The idea is to collect fabric that has a story attached, and make those magical swatches into a quilt. ( Click here to find out what the quilts are for and why they are magic. ) This is the shirt and the story I decided to send in: Given the circumstances, a trip to Hawaii seemed like a very selfish move. My wife was living half a continent away so she could get medical treatment, and my two young girls were finishing their last year of school in Utah before we were to sell the house and move away from our vital support network of family and friends. Yet given the circumstances, a touch of selfishness was just what I needed. And twentieth high school reunions only come once in a lifetime. So with assurances from both heaven and earth that my loved ones would be well taken care of in my absence, I boarded a plane for Honolulu. Near the top of my list was the task to find an Aloha shirt or two – a classy o...

We survived summer vacation. Woo! Actually, Anna had a pretty good summer. Alyssa, on the other hand, contracted a serious case of boredom. She also had the munchies like crazy, and grew over an inch since April. Woah! The girls both had end-of-summer swim parties for church, but I was only able to make it to the primary activity. I purposefully did not wear my swimsuit so as to encourage Alyssa to have some fun on her own, which she did - kind of. Actually, she just sweet talked other adults into helping her swim around. But I guess that's okay. In honor of Back To School, we bought Anna an early birthday present - a desk for her to do her homework on. She was almost happy-tears excited. This morning we had a pretty easy time of things. I've been getting up at 6:15 all summer so I can get in some outside chores and do some writing before I buckle down at the day job. Since the girls are both at schools that start on the same, later schedule, that was plenty early for Anna and ...