A bed to call my own.

Yeah, so I've set a goal to blog once a month. No, I'm not off to a great start for November but meant to do so in October (although I didn't really make the goal until about the 20th). I know, once a month sounds really bad but considering that I'm currently doing much less than that it is an improvement. Work is going well, although with the current economic situation things are getting tighter at the firm. Overtime is restricted unless approved by a partner. I'm not worried about losing my job yet, but things are getting different. I'm on the Christmas Party planning committee and we haven't panned the party or had to cut back too much so that's good. I'm still really enjoying my job.
This week was a pretty good one although I had a dentist appointment Wednesday morning and completely forgot about it until I got to the office - such an idiot! The rest of that day was kind of more of the same. Friday Kristen brought the kids to my office for our office Halloween activity and then they got to go trick-or-treating.
This morning I had an interview with a member of the Stake Presidency and . . . I'm now the assistant ward clerk (financial). I think it will be a good fit for me - pretty much only Sundays, doesn't require a whole lot of time, or being extremely outgoing. Looks like it might interfere with us going down to my parents' place on Sundays. Hopefully, we'll still be able to going some. Our meeting time will change in January and I think that we should be able to go down then.
Sports - Most of you know that I love to watch sports but I rarely blog about it. I've got to say that the Texas-Texas Tech game yesterday was one heck of a game!
I almost forgot to mention one of the greatest things about the week. Trea has slept in her own bed in her room for the past two nights (tonight will be the third)!!! The most surprising thing is that when Trea has woken up in the middle of the night and come into our room instead of asking to crawl into bed with us, she asks one of us to come in and lay by her. -- Awesome! So, so far it's been going well and I am loving having my bedroom back and being able to sleep next to my wife again. Hopefully, she'll get used to it and we won't have a big fight.

You want to give me more money too?

He lives!!!

Well, I obviously suck at at blogging. Honestly I've thought about it many times but don't ever sit down to do it. I've realized one of my main problems - I'm a perfectionist. I don't want to sit down and write unless I can come up with something coherant, have something interesting and it all fits together. Anyway, I'm going to attempt to just forget about all that and just write whether things are exciting or boring.

Also, for those of you out there with blogs - I do read them. I don't often comment but I do get on and read.

Well, life carries on. I'm still enjoying my job. It continues to be a wonderful and rewarding experience. Today, I was informed that I got a raise!!! When I signed on with E&Y my offer letter stated that I wouldn't be eligible for a raise until October of 2009. So this raise was a fantastic surprise. It wasn't huge -- 2.6%. I guess that normal merit raises can be as high as 25%!!! I assume that 25% is rare but still, possibilities are pretty nice. It's nice to be appreciated and shown such. As I'm still learning and continue to make mistakes, it's nice to know that I'm doing well and not at risk of being fired.

Trea and Adia continue to be wonderful. Adia loves to communicate and smile and laugh. Her vocabulary is huge - between the signing and speaking. Yesterday I was just joking around and tried to talk Trea in Thai. She's forgotten everything. It's kind of sad. :-( I have so much fun with them - they love to laugh and daddy can usually make them laugh. I love to come home from work and they both get so excited when I walk through the door. - Daddy!!!

Seems like I had more to write but it's now midnight and I need to get to bed so that I can make it on time to work.

So, hopefully I can just sit down and write even short posts. It's funny, because I almost (without thinking) signed off on this post with

Regards,
John

because I'm so used to writing it at the end of emails. Anyway, that's it for now. Don't leave me for dead - just yet.

So this is what it's like to be an adult

Okay, I get it I'm a slacker and need to get on and post every once in a while. Seriously though, things were really crazy for a while there. We had moved into our new apartment I was at a new job and it was tax season. In my department at E&Y from about the middle of January until April 15 things are insane! Most weeks for me were 60-65 hours while most of the other employees were working more like 70-75. Needless to say, when I got home at 9 or 10 most nights, getting on and blogging was the last thing on my mind.

I really enjoy my job. I've been doing a lot of learning and growing and the perks are awesome. Let me give you some examples:

During busy season we work a lot of nights and Saturdays - Saturday mileage can be expensed, we get reimbursed for meals on night we work past 7:30, Saturday lunches are reimbursible. After 4/15 we had an afternoon where we had lunch and got to go to a movie on the firm and we got paid for the time. On Friday 5/2 we had an afternoon dodgeball game - paid time. Another time we had lunch paid by the firm followed by golf (we had to pay for the golf) on company time. Donuts and bagels every other Friday morning. I got paid to go to the doctor the other day. We've gone out for ice cream or other treats on at least three different occasions. These are just some of the perks of my job.

The people that I work with are great and there are lots of opportunities for growth. I was recently put on a new client in the Pacific Northwest Area. I don't know if I should mention the names of clients or not so I won't. Needless to say, it's a large company that you have doubtless heard of. I figure that I must not be screwing up too badly or they wouldn't have put me on this account. I got to fly out to San Jose for a couple of days to meet the engagement team there and for some training. It was all business but it's still kind of fun to travel. I wouldn't want to do it all the time but occasionally is nice.

For those of you who haven't heard, Kristen is working part time again. She is preparing ESL lessons for adults. She doesn't actually teach but just puts together the lessons for volunteers to teach. It's really kind of a dream job for her. Right now she works Tue. and Thur. nights with some other time that she hasn't really nailed down. It's a good opportunity for her and she is really enjoying the challenge.

For the first time since we've been married, I'm actually going to do something for my wife on mother's day. I've been a really crappy husband in past years. This year (tonight in fact) we are going out to dinner, to the opera, and I got her a jewelry box. It's a surprise! Well, she knows we're going out and that I got her something but that's it. I'm so excited.

Just the other day our car had some troubles so we took it in and had a huge bill with all the things that needed to be repaired. I hate shelling out money to get the car fixed!! I know it's necessary but I still hate it.

The kids are doing good. Trea is still being a good older sister to Adia. I'm always amuzed by what kids pick up from their parents. The other day, I was going out to get the mail and Trea wanted to come. I walked out and said, "Come on, hurry up." She yelled out the door, "Be patient!"

We're looking forward to our next adventure - buying a house. It's still a bit off (as we're in a lease until February at the earliest) but we're thinking and dreaming ahead. It's exciting to think that it's even a possibility.

PS - Joel, I'm happy for you that your Jayhawks won but had they lost I could have won $75, so I was kind of bummed.

Life has been really great for us lately.


Some recent pics.:

Make your move.

So far the job is going really well. The trip for firmwide orientation was fun. The actual orientation was pretty boring -- just a lot of sitting around but at least it was in a different city (one I'd never been to before). The hotel was in downtown San Francisco and was super-nice. It was only about four blocks from the Ernst & Young SF office. Unfortunately we didn't get to get out much and see anything but I still had a good time.

So, here I am at the end of my second week and I'm still alive. Actually I'm really enjoying the job so far. The company seems like a great place to work and the environment is great. I know it's not the most convenient time to start because it's US tax season and things are already pretty hectic. My trainer is trying to train me but also stay on top of her things and it's kind of difficult for her. Today is Saturday and I think that a good portion of my co-workers are working today. In fact, I'm kind of thinking that this could be my last Saturday off for a while. They say that this time of year I'll probably be putting in 60-70 hrs. a week. As I mentioned in my last past -- at least I'll get paid overtime. I actually got my first paycheck in the mail yesterday -- that was exciting!!! I put in 48 hrs. this week and I'm not even working Saturdays. I don't enjoy not seeing my kids though. There were two entire days where I didn't see Adia because I left before she was up and was home after she was asleep. I realize I'm not the only one who has to do this but I still don't like it.

I don't even know if I can explain what exactly it is that I do. Even if I could it would bore you all to tears. Let's just say that so far, I manage an inbox and get assignments to the right people so they can do their stuff. Most of my work has to do with employees of clients that are on assignments abroad and have taxes in multiple countries. I get the name of the individual and the countries they've worked in for the particular year and get it to other members of my team (who are all over the US). I do have some different assignments forthcoming but I don't really know yet.

Another great thing is that we get food all the time. Every other Friday is pastries / bagels / fruit day. Any time we have a meeting we get food. I really enjoy it but I have a feeling it's going to take it's toll on the waistline. I've only done my own lunch twice in the past two weeks.

We are moving to Salt Lake this coming Friday. Although actually I won't be doing a whole lot of the moving because I'll be at work. My mom, dad, and Kristen will be doing the majority of it. We are actually moving back to the apartment complex that we lived in before we left for Maryland and then Thailand. We've come full circle. We were originally going to move in on the 8th of March but the tenents moved out in mid-February so the manager said that we could move in. It's been a real blessing to live with my parents since we got back but we're really excited about having our own place again.

Thanks for reading.

Work?

Well, here we go -- it's already nearing the end of January and I'm just getting to my first post of the new year. I am off to such a great start. Despite the bad start in the blogosphere I'm off to a fantastic start in the careerosphere. That's right folks, Johnny's finally going to start a real job!!! Wednesday I was offered a position with Ernst & Young. If you don't know who they are shame on you. They are one of the "big four" accounting firms in the US. Yes, I'm beginning a career in a field that has nothing to do with my major but I think a lot of people do that. Being a global company they offer competetive salaries and great benefits. I start on Feb. 4. My first three days are orientation. Day one in the SLC office and then they are flying me out to California for days two and three. I don't know why but I think that is so cool. The job will require some crazy hours for about six weeks around tax season (like 60-70 hrs.) but they'll reimburse me for the overtime. You would not believe how excited I am about this. I feel like I won the lottery. I got my offer letter via FedEx yesterday and signed it and sent it back (FedEx). I'll be working at The Gateway in SLC. It's pretty much downtown. So now Kristen and I have the exciting task of finding a place. It's really fun and exciting but at the same time really overwhelming. We're going to rent (probably an apartment or condo) for a year or two and save up for a down payment on a house and hopefully (fingers crossed) then we can get into a home.

You know, it might be kind of long but I'd like to share the story of how I actually got this job. Things just really fell into place and I firmly believe that the Lord had a hand in this one. At Kristen's request I signed up with a temp. company just before Thanksgiving. It's a good thing I did because they had an assignment the following week for me to start. At that assignment there were two other temps working with me. We got to talking about the job search and one of them mentioned that I ought to look into going through a recruiting company (he gave me the name of the one he had used before). This is something that I had no knowledge about and would never have come up with on my own. Anyway, I scheduled an appointment and met with one of the recruiters at this company. I think she was really impressed with me and liked me. I told her, "You know, I don't look that good on paper but if I could just get my foot in the door somewhere I would make a great employee, and whoever hired me would be impressed by my work." A few weeks later (two days after New Years day) she called up and said that Ernst & Young was hiring and would like to interview me on the 16th. Waiting those few weeks for the interview was torture but I did my research and practiced interviewing with Kristen and my mom. My mom was really nervous for me but I just had a really good feeling about this job from the beginning (despite being very underqualified). The interviews went really well and then they actually had me meet with someone about a different position that they were hiring for (a good sign). The next day I had a phone interview with another person in California. When I interviewed they had told me that they hoped to come to a decision by the end of the week. So, the next week was torture as I didn't know but finally on Wednesday I got the call. They actually offered me the job that I hadn't applied for (better pay but more work). Everything just came together in a way that I know had nothing to do with me.

So, my position is Client Support Services and as far as I understand it I will be in contact with corporations that send their employees abroad and the employees themselves so that if they paid taxes in the country in which they were working they don't have to pay US taxes all over again. It will be cool to be working with international offices and such. I don't really know all the details as I haven't started yet.

Now, for those of you who haven't fallen asleep by this point I realize that I have been tagged and intend to follow up with that shortly but just give me a moment to bask in this!