Meanderings Schmeanderings...

I have been duly chastised. Apparently my significant other has informed me that just because I now "have a job", and "am slightly more active than a koala bear on sudafed", I can't neglect at least a cursory update to our family blog. So I'm on for a quickie update of our activities over the past ten days.

I've just finished my first two weeks on the new job--its been mainly classroom work in Provo, cramming info into my brain about high-speed drill-bit telemetry, wave theory, and how oil rigs are not only big and expensive, but can go boom-boom if we aren't careful with electricity. AWESOME! Seriously, I've learned more about underground oil formations and the delicate processes involved with sucking it out of the ground. I'm still doing cartwheels over how cool this company is--we had a business presentation Thursday afternoon that underlined again how cutting edge our tech is. No joke--our process is to oil drilling what a Ferrari is to the handcart. The most up-to-date technology currently in use, the process that oil companies and drillbit-tool producers have invested BILLIONS in over the last 50 years, can only send information to the surface at the screaming rate of 10 BITS PER SECOND. Yes, 10 BITS. It actually travels up to the surface on a wave of mud. Our tech sends up info info at speeds up to 100 MB per second. Mwahaha. And we own the patent for the next 17 years.

SO yes. I am still very much excited about my new job. The crew I was hired with is composed of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, avionics professors, and some IT supergeeks. Which had me questioning, albeit briefly, why the hell I was hired :-) .

Outside of work, we've been busy with other pursuits. I coached my first soccer game yesterday. The boys (Andrew and Aidan) are playing in the city league, and their coach decided his anniversary weekend getaway was more important than leading seven 12-14 year-olds to victory on the field. Has this guy not seen 300 or what??? In any case, I stepped in. Granted, my coaching technique consisted mainly of screaming "good job, ladies!" and "keep those guys out of our kitchen!" , and "lemme see blood! You are all wearing shin guards FOR A REASON!". Yeah, after 5 years in Hungary, I sadly know just as little about soccer as before I left. In any case, we did win our first game of the season 10-6. SO naturally I am going to take all of the credit.

Here's some pics of my awesome results:



This is Andrew, #9.




...and here's Aidan, eye on the goal...



Andrew, taking a breather...



..and team captain Aidan, debuting his "hey ref! I got yer yella caaahd right here!" face. Ah, the little Beckham...


In other news, Ashton threw a tantrum the other day because he was assigned "Beauty and the Beast" as a reading project, and -as a big second grader- I WILL NOT READ A GIRLIE BOOK!!!" and WHY DOESN'T MY TEACHER GET THIS??? DUUUHHH!!". Sigh. This is going to be fun. In other Ashton news, he is pretty excited to get baptized next month. Last of the bunch.

Ali is Ali. Cute as always. Having fun with her new girlfriends. I'm happy she has been making friends with not just the predominate LDS kids, but all the other girls in the small "non-LDS" group as well. After picking her up from a playdate at one these girl's home, I was chatting with said girl's mother, and she indicated how grateful she was for Ali to be so nice and accepting and friendly with her daughter, even though they aren't LDS. This family has been in Nephi for a few years now, and apparently once it was known they weren't LDS and weren't exactly interested in joining our fair community, all the invitations dried up and the non LDS kids (in frigging FOURTH GRADE, mind you!) end up having mostly only each other to play with. Show me a parent that doesn't encourage their 10 year old to invite the non-LDS kid to the birthday party, and I'll show you a parent I want to KICK.IN.THE.TEETH. OK. Now that is off my chest.

Lastly--we just got back tonight from the boys' first ever Court of Honor. Agi's first a well. She was pretty proud to go up and have the boys punch the mother's pins in to her blouse :-). Andrew received his Second Class and FIrst Class advancements, and Aidan received his Tenderfoot and Second Class. After no scouting at all in Hungary for the last 5 years, the boys are making up for lost time. I told the boys that if they want to even sniff at a driver's license, they better be Eagle Scouts first. They are making up for lost time :-)




That's it for me. Agi is off across town putting old people to bed, and I have just put a bunch of young people to bed. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to nightcap my evening by settling onto the couch & rewinding and watching over and over, each of Max Hall's seven touchdown passes from yesterday. BOOOOYAAH! 59-0.