Rain of October 6th, 2006

A few months ago, there was a large rainstorm across much of the state.  The rain was particularly heavy in Layton.  Much to our dismay, we all found that the capacity of the Layton City storm drain system is not entirely adequate.  In spite of our dismay, we took some very interesting photos, a few of which are contained herein. 

This is the intersection of 1100 West and Gordon Ave.  The water reached over the curb a few inches!  This was pretty scary for the people that hit this over 30 mph!  Yikes!

One of our neighbors drives a really cool assault wagon that he usually parks on Gordon Ave.  I'm not sure why one would need to move such a formidable vehicle?

I tried to get several photos of the vehicles that drove by but I was using an older camera (because it was still raining quite hard) which made the timing difficult to get right and this is probably the best one!  Pretty cool huh!

This is the last photo I will post and it actually shows the water coming up our street.  As you can imagine we were sure happy not to have a basement that night! 

That was a pretty fun night and I hope you enjoy these pictures!

Nate's Big Day at Church

So we don't remember the last time we were able to keep Nate in sacrament meeting the whole time.  He just likes to walk, run, and play like a typical boy.  If we are lucky we might make it about halfway through the meeting. 

Today, Julie thought that we should get there a little early so we can get a side bench.  Now we can keep him in a confined area but we don't have to hold him the entire time which gives him a little freedom to walk and climb without disturbing other people. 

I'm pleased to say that it worked!  He made it through the whole meeting!  I tried the same approach in Sunday School and it worked there too!!!!!  Needless to say we are very happy!

Now were are trying to figure out how to prepare him for an upcoming plane ride.  He has flown a few times before but typically slept the whole time.  We don't think there is much of a chance of that anymore.  Oy!

LOL

The (Red) Nano

So I just have to say that I am so pleased that I got the 8GB solid-state memory Nano instead of the 30GB hard drive version of the IPod Video.  Why might you ask...isn't bigger always better?  I will unfold my reasoning for you!  I was pretty much certain that apple was going to announce a new IPod video at the MacWorld Conference in January - instead they announced the iphone and I'm not really looking for something like that.  So I needed to decide between the 30GB video and 8GB Nano. 

Initially I was all for the black IPod video since it was so much larger capacity!  I figured that I could do so much with it.  I argued that I would continue to use my shuffle at the gym etc - where the bouncing and running might damage the hard drive! - and use the video the rest of the time.  I also thought that the video capability would be nice for plane trips.  Well, Julie kept mentioning that she thought the video was just too big and she believed that it would start to annoy me.  Also, battery life was important and it is so much better for the Nano. 

So I went with the Red Nano and got the invisible shield to go on it to protect it from scratches and everything has gone flawlessly.  I also got the Nike armband for the gym and I am satisfied with that as well. 

So after a few months of daily use the Nano wins due to its compact design (I can take it anywhere in my pocket without annoyance), solid state (works great at the gym and doing other active stuff), battery life (24 hours play time), and it looks way better (newer design).  I'm very happy with it and would make the same decision again. 

Wander

I really think that "wander" is a really good word to describe what Nate does.  He doesn't aimlessly wander because he is always intent upon something but that thing changes every 5 seconds!  Here is a picture of Nate as he goes about wandering to and fro all day long.

So what seems like wandering to me I now believe is actually work.  It is very interesting to me that he shows patterns of doing work at such a young age.  He systematically moves things around and it is clear that whatever he is doing is very important to him.  Those times are funny because he can work at them for up to 10 minutes.  He is so fascinating to me and I love to watch him wander around and work on his little projects.  This morning Julie and I were just chilling out and Nate took it upon himself to move all our paint samples to the other side of the bedroom.  It took him about 10 minutes!  Fascinating, Fascinating, Fascinating! 

Nate's Finger

Early on Saturday afternoon we remarked that Nathan was acting a little strange.  He is generally a very resilient little boy and it takes quite a fall for him to cry.  Nate was crying after seemingly typical falls or bumps so Julie and I started to investigate.  We found that the index finger on his left hand was sore and red.  We tried to remember if he had pinched it or something like that but couldn't really remember anything like that happening lately.  So we decided that we would keep an eye on it.

We needed to go to the mall and while we were there he began acting quite lethargic and we saw increased swelling of his finger.  By this point both Julie and I were thinking that his finger must have somehow become infected and we decided that we should get him some medical attention. 

So the only "After-Hours" medical place that we could find in Layton was booked up until after 9:30pm.  This was a real shock because that was like 5 hours away!  So we put 411 to the test and finally made our way to a nice place in Ogden. 

It turns out that he did have an infection and we are in the process of treating it with antibiotics now.  The poor little guy still has a swollen finger that is very painful.  It has been waking him up at night and we feel so bad for him, but we think he may be beginning to feel a little better.

Strange Book Collection?

So I looked at my desk the other day and I noticed somthing strange about the collection of books that I am currently reading.  Just take a moment and think about what books you are reading at the moment and what thay say about you.  I did the same thing and I have to say that I'm either really cool or a complete weirdo!  What do you think these books say about me?  What books are you reading right now?

Long Time Coming

It has been quite some time since I last updated the site!  Oops!  We are all doing very well here.  I am happy to report that Nate is finally starting to grow.  We are pretty sure that he'll be small for a while but hopefully he'll at least be as tall as I am when he grows up! 

It is so fun to see his personality develop and how he reacts to the world around him.  He loves to look at his books and we can tell which pages are his favorite!  What a sweetheart!  He loves to go on walks outside with Julie.  We are pretty sure that Julie will get a lot of sun this spring and summer!  We are still waiting for him to talk but we anticipate that once he starts he will not stop.  He is already so expressive and energetic!