Ah, United

I come to you today from Gate 7 in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota airport. With a population of 150,000 people (for comparison, Provo/Orem has about 200,000 residents), Sioux Falls is not a huge city. The airport is likewise of diminutive stature. Knowing this, this morning I woke up at 5:45 a.m., showered, grabbed my things, and headed to the airport for my 6:57 a.m. flight. I was a little concerned about cutting it close, but I had no checked bags, so I wasn't worried.

When I got up to the ticket counter, the ticket agents asked if I was flying to Denver. I said yes (as I tried to use the self-service check-in machine). They then informed me that I couldn't check in, because I didn't do it at least 30 minutes before the flight. I got there at 6:30 a.m. I said, are you serious? I can make it to the gate. They said the reason for this is that at 30 minutes before the flight, the gate agent can give away your seat to standby ticket holders. Okay, but then she informs me that this WASN'T THE CASE THIS TIME! And then says I STILL COULDN'T CHECK IN FOR THE FLIGHT!!!

She then made me pay a $75 fee to change my flight to 1:30 p.m. So now, instead of arriving in Salt Lake City at 10 a.m., I will get home at 6 p.m. I walked (slowly) through security (I was the only one there), then to gate 7 (they only have eight gates), and then watched as my plane (that I wasn't on) sat at the gate for a good 25 minutes (it was late leaving).

Thanks United for being so courteous to your customers. Normally I would say the moral of this story is to leave a little earlier for your flight (which is still true). But in this situation, I'd say the moral of the story is NEVER FLY UNITED.

Do you find it hard to do your duty?

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Several people from work have been out of the office, leaving the rest of us to take care of their work. I also have a new client who is a bit more demanding than...well, any other client I've ever had (especially for the amount of revenue they bring in).

But basically, I've been exhausted for the last two weeks. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep, I haven't exercised at all, I sometimes don't have time to eat lunch - it's just been rough. Even at home, I constantly check my phone for any emergencies that could have cropped up in the last fifteen minutes. That makes me feel bad for my wife, whose husband seems to always be on call.

So, after feeling frustrated and overwhelmed, I spoke with my dad on the phone the other day for a while. He helped me to see things that I hadn't seen before, and helped me feel a lot better. One of the things he told me was a quote from Gladiator.

Maximus: "Cicero."

Cicero: "Sir?"

Maximus: "Do you find it hard to do your duty?"

Cicero: "Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to do."

Those are my feelings on the current situation. I can't control how someone treats me - I can only control my reaction. Sometimes I will get to do what I want to do, but I have a family to provide for, so for the most part, I will do my duty. I will do what I have to do to provide support for me and my family. I will persevere.

Elder Zach

I'm very proud of my "little" brother. Right now he is serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Charlotte, North Carolina. I call him my "little" brother because he's actually bigger than me. I remember the days when I was the tallest member of my family. Those were good times. All two of them. I've gotten used to the fact that the only sibling I'll be taller than is my sister, but I remember when Zachary passed me up. It was a little disheartening. Then Jacob passed me too. It's only a matter of time before Lucas shoots past all of us. Oh well - that's life.

It's so funny to see the physical differences of Zach then and Zach now. We dubbed him "Stick Boy" when he was younger, because of how skinny he was. Now he could take any of us in a fight (except me, because I have the older brother psychological advantage...and because I've been working out).

Zach is a about seven years younger than me, so when he was younger, he was the pesky little brother. You know, the one who followed you around, wanted to be just like you, got into your toys, etc. The one who, although you didn't know it at the time, could be your best friend if you'd let him. I still have regrets for not being as kind to him as I wish I was, because I love him so much. As I've gotten older, I've realized how similar our personalities and senses of humor are. I think in all my family, aside from my Dad, he and I are the most alike.

When he was at BYU for his freshman year, we would hang out just about every week. We would usually do some kind of activity (movies or racquetball), then go get dinner. I let him pay once, cuz he wanted to. :) Towards the end of the school year, we didn't do it every week, because of all the wedding plans and whatnot, so I'm excited for him to be back, so we can resume the fun times.

I'm not the best letter writer. For the first few weeks I wrote every week, but I've slacked off a bit. I hope he knows that doesn't mean I've forgotten about him, or that I don't miss him. Because I think about him a lot and miss him a ton. Come home soon Elder!

Living With Women...

After nearly a year of wedded bliss, I think I know a thing or two about living with a woman. :) It's a lot different than living with guys, that's for sure. For one, it's more crowded. I don't think it's just my wife - I think all women just have a ton of stuff. I don't know where they get it, or why they keep so much of it around, but they do. Especially clothes. Girls tend to still have clothes they wore in middle school and they usually still wear them now. There's no way I could fit into anything from middle school. I was 4'9" and probably weighed about 85 pounds.

On occasion while my wife is getting ready in the bathroom, I'll wander into the bedroom and see about 50 outfits on the bed, or in a pile on the floor (50 may be a slight exaggeration). This was strange and confusing to me, until my wife explained it (then it was just strange). Apparently, even though they own the clothes and have worn them dozens of times before, they can't decide what to wear just by looking at the clothes hanging up in the closet. They have to take them out and see how they look with other clothing combinations. Then, after she decides it looks good and gets dressed, she could change her mind while getting ready looking in the mirror, and have to start all over again. Hence all the clothes on the bed.

Speaking of getting ready in the bathroom, girls multiply the amount of stuff you have in the bathroom by a factor of about 10 (or so). Luckily (for me), we have a small bathroom that doesn't really have a counter, so she can't leave her blow dryer, hair straightener, hair curler (yes, sometimes she uses both the straightener and curler on the same day), hair spray, spray gel, makeup, etc. on it. But when we did have a counter, she would leave it out (although to be fair, she's pretty good about putting stuff away). Oh yeah, and then there's hair everywhere, and the floor is usually a little sticky from hair spray. Sometimes Kristen jokes that she's going bald with all the hair she seems to lose.

Living with a woman is definitely an adventure, but it's also awesome. There's no cleaning off the toilet seat because someone missed and didn't wipe it off. There are no beard hairs all around the sink (except when I'm the one who doesn't clean up). The house doesn't stink because someone has been playing WoW for 3 days straight without showering, and won't open a window. And then there's the best part of all - she's my wife!

Reflections on Utah

I've lived in Utah more or less since August 2004. I had a couple partial summers away, but that's close to six years, which is really longer than I've lived anywhere else in my life. I miss the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, but Utah is beautiful in its own way too. The mountains are gorgeous (especially in the winter), and I love being able to look out over the valley from our front porch. Last night, Kristen and I went on a walk around our neighborhood, and it truly is beautiful up here.

Utah definitely has its quirks. First of all, there's all the stinkin' Mormons! :) But honestly, it's a different experience to be able to discuss church things at work, with neighbors, landlords, etc. To not be able to go into a restaurant after 8 p.m. on the Saturday evening after General Conference, because there are millions of guys in shirts and ties everywhere.

And the weather is ridiculous. It snowed this week. And yet, yesterday evening it was sunny and warm, and we went for a walk in short sleeves, without jackets. Crazy "spring" weather.

My aunt mentioned in her blog recently that their church was "only 9 miles away." And in Oregon, my parents drive about 15 minutes to get to church. When we moved to Orem, we complained a little that church was "so far away." It's only one mile from our house, but that's far if you consider we walked one and a half minutes to church in Springville (literally right around the corner).

In Utah (or at least in Utah Valley), it's a strange site to see someone smoking in public, or to have someone put alcohol or coffee up on the grocery store conveyor belt behind you. It's just that you don't see those things very often (at least I don't). I've been acclimated so much to the way the majority of people act here, that it can be weird when you see things out of the ordinary.

I'm glad that I still live on a street with a name. Most everywhere, the streets are just numbers (i.e. 600 S. 200 W.), which is great for giving directions. But I've almost always lived somewhere with a street that has a name: Mountain Oaks Dr., Swenson Ave., University Ave., Chenin Blanc Dr., Heartwood Dr., Noble Ct., etc. For me, it makes where you live more like it's home. I don't know why - it's a psychological thing. Ironically, my parents now live on SE 199th Dr.

All in all, Utah's not bad. It's grown on me. :)

Date Night

In Elder's Quorum the other week, we had a lesson that talked about strengthening the bond between fathers and children. A great topic, to be sure. The teacher asked the question, "How do you as fathers strengthen that bond with your children, or how have you observed your own father do that?"

One of the most common remarks was something along these lines. "I have an individual 'date night' with each of my children on a regular basis, where we spend time together, go out to eat, etc." At work, my boss mentioned that his wife does this with each of their boys too. I think that's a great idea. Spending some one-on-one time with each of your kids in a structured, scheduled way like this can be a great way to show them how much they mean to you. It's that "quality time" we always hear so much about. It's like how you make sure to take time out for a date night with your wife at least once a week - some time to remind her that she's your number one priority. My parents never really did this with me, but to be honest, I don't feel bad about that. I don't feel like I missed out on something that "could've been."

I did spend time with my parents. My dad always has a project he's working on. If it's not remodeling something in the house, it's working in the yard. Saturday mornings, he'd regularly say, "Wanna come with me?" on his way to run an errand to the store (usually the hardware store - I think it was through this that I developed a love of hardware stores). Often, we'd stop by the gas station for a soda and a candy bar on our way back.

And he'd talk to me. I wasn't much of a talker then, but he'd talk to me. He'd tell me stories about his childhood, about his life, about what was going on with work. And I loved listening to his stories. I'm sure sometimes he probably wondered if any of it was getting through, because I don't think I responded much. But it did - it always did. I just wish I'd taken the opportunity to take those drives with him more often.

I knew he cared about me and what was going on with me, because he spent time with me. He wasn't so tired at the end of the day that he didn't want to spend time with his family. Sometimes it was quality time, but sometimes it was just "quantity time." I think it's so important to just be there for your family.

Often I hear so much about how important it is to really work hard to get ahead in your career. And I would never criticize someone else for their choices, but my career is not so important to me that I want to sacrifice family time in order to get ahead. Don't get me wrong - I believe in hard work, and think it's important to give 100% when you're on the job. I learned that from my dad. But I don't think you have to regularly put in 80-hour weeks to give it your all. And if that means that my family is never going to have the big house and lots of fun toys, and I have to continue to work and save all my life, I'm okay with that.

But you know what? I think you can work hard and get ahead, and still not sacrifice that coveted time with your family to do it. It requires good organization, careful planning and hard work, but it can happen. I'm grateful for parents who worked hard, but still managed to find time to spend with me, and that's what I'm aiming for too.

Christmas Letter

I know it's late, but I finally found a way to share our Christmas letter on the blog-o-sphere, for those of you who didn't get it via e-mail. Happy reading!