count down till breaking dawn

I can't believe the fourth AND FINAL book in the twilight series comes out so soon! I can not wait till Friday night! The more I think about it the more excited I get! Kathryn and I are planning on going at 9:30 to check out the festivities and I think Karen and jamie might join us later. Now the question is dress up or not! :) LOL! Is it sad that a book is the highlight of my week? I feel like I am in high school again waiting for the good concert tickets!

The Philippines, et al

I finally just learned how to type the name of the blasted country. Not that I have anything against the country; I don't. But I could not, for the life of me, spell that country. I just have to remember Philip lives in the pines.

I am being spammed by someone here at eBay about information for my trip. "Here are the restaurants that are open 24-hours-a-day."

"Here are the shots you need. Or don't need. Your choice." My choice?

"Here's your hotel room. We know it's not much." By the way, here is my room.

"Here is your travel itinerary."

"Never mind."

I am getting really antsy. I am definitely going to take my Max Hall jersey and wear it proudly around Manila on August 30th. And then on the plane ride home. I am extremely jealous that the rest of my family (mom, dad, Greg, Brian, etc.) might be riding motorcycles up to Washington for the game up in Seattle. But, then I just send them a link to my hotel room. :)

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The kids finished their swimming lessons today and start soccer tomorrow. Talk about busy - and they aren't even in their teens yet when it really gets busy. We had to get Hunter some new cleats and he thinks he's pretty fast now (doesn't every kid when they get new shoes?). Cassia has a new-found interest in soccer now. I am not sure what changed. Last year it was trying to find the best flowers to pick for mom (all during the game) to actually showing a desire to play, albeit after one practice. I'll take the improvement though.

And Redick's favorite word is now "Diet Coke." It's pretty cute though, because he has a southern accent.

My Overseas Business Trip

It's now official, I am going to the Philippines for eBay. They are opening up a new outsourcing venue and need some people to go out and train the new people in billing. I have missed out on the last couple of trainings in India, but I was chosen for this one. I am really excited and really nervous. I have decided that I really do have a fear of flying. I think most of the fear is something happening with the plane, even though I know that is extremely rare.

I leave August 15th and I am gone until September 6th. That is 3 weeks away from my family, which is going to be very hard. Definitely the longest I have ever been away from Joy and the kids. I am really going to miss them, but both Joy and I agreed that this is a great opportunity to get a free trip, so why not take advantage?

This also means that I am going to miss the first two weeks of college football. Which is tougher, being away form the family for 3 weeks or missing the first 2 weeks of football? :)

Mine and Ours

So Saturday was a fun day. It started with the usual long day of being customer support for the newspaper and resolving complaints. Then, I took a short nap and took Joy and Cassia up to a bridal shower for a good family friend, Jarrod Parry's wife. They had fun. I then took Hunter and Redick up to the Gateway to start "the journey." I got in line for the new iPhone. What a mistake that was. I got in line and they told me the wait would be two hours. I thought, "Perfect, the kids can last two hours and then I'll go pick up Joy and Cassia when I'm done." Sha...right.

Joy's mom took the kids at about 5:00 and took them up to Ogden so that Joy and I could have a night to ourselves to celebrate our 9th Anniversary. I feel bad because we finally walked out of the store at 8:00. I was in line for 5 and 1/2 hours. All this for a phone?! I stood in line so long I decided to get Joy a phone too. They are pretty amazing phones and they actually help a ton at both of my jobs. The phone has GPS now, so I really use that a lot at the paper. It also now has push email so I get my eBay email immediately to the phone.

So after that, we did have a nice, relaxing dinner without the kids. Then we went home and went to sleep because it was about 11:00 by the time we were done eating and drove home. Joy was nice enough to come with me on the paper route the next day too, which was nice to spend some more time with her without the kids and she helped get it done quicker too.