Daily Tender Mercies

Today Rachel took Gracie and Gehrig to the movies. They went with Nani, Leslie & Brigham. The kids loved it I’m sure. They got to watch it in 3D. Nolan stayed home with me. He played for a while and did well entertaining himself while I continued to work. After about 30-45 minutes I put him down for a nap and we went right to sleep without a fuss. Later Rachel drove to Springville to pick up some discounted bathroom cabinets. Gracie stayed home. She also did well entertaining herself. She read a few books to keep herself busy.

After I got off work today we went Grocery shopping at Costco and Smiths. Last month I planned a meal (dinner only) for every day of the month. I think it really helped us save money buy buying only what we needed for the meals and using what we bought. It wasn’t perfect of course, but I think a plan executed at 70% is better than no plan at all!

I went for a hike this afternoon during my lunch hour. I was having some internet connectivity problems so I decided to go farther than I have been before. It was much hotter than I was used to. I hiked to a really cool waterfall I heard about. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately about halfway down I rolled my ankle so it was slow going after that. I’m glad I went though. It was good exercise and beautiful views.

Nolan is seems to surprise us all the time with his vocabulary and stringing words into sentences now. Unfortunately though he seems to have entered his terrible twos stage! He hits and screams a lot to get what he wants, or just to get attentions. Despite all that he still enjoys giving hugs. We were watching Star Wars tonight and since he finds no interest in TV he was wrestling with me and hugging me for attention all night. It was pretty cute.

We had the Brighton family reunion in Roosevelt over the weekend. We drove out Friday afternoon and arrived around 5:00 pm at the campground. The campground is basically a place back in the middle of some alfalfa fields that my grandma and grandpa Brighton cleared out and turned into a place where we have had the reunion for probably 12 years or more now. They put in a small bathroom, a pavilion, and a cement pad for basketball. The past 5 or 6 years it seems the game we play most is 4 square believe it or not. We play that game for hours in the hot sun.

It rained Friday night but it wasn’t too bad. We had our tent up to protect us. That was actually the first time we brought a tent. We generally go back to my parents’ house to sleep, but since we got a nice new tent and some sleeping bags for the kids, it has been fun to sleep in it more.

The whole family had a great time. Gehrig was so shy when we got there, but after a couple of hours he got comfortable and I didn’t see him much because he was playing with cousins the whole time. I had a hard time coaxing him into the car so we could leave.

I would have written in my journal last night, but I was so tired I could barely stay awake.

This morning I got a phone call from a stake clerk or secretary asking if I could be at our chapel at 8:45 for an interview. I was called to be the ward clerk. I was a little bit surprised at the calling but I’m excited to work with our bishopric. They are great men and I hope some of that greatness will wear off as I rub shoulders with them. I was set apart after church and received a great blessing from a member of the stake presidency. At 4:00 Rachel and I went to the stake offices to get our recommends renewed and I happened to get the same counselor that set me apart the did my interview. Interestingly he gave me some good advice as far as business goes and something to consider as far as my new business goes.

At 7:30 I went to the chapel and met with the former ward clerk (now the new elders quorum president). He went over a number of things with me to help get me started in my new calling. It was nice having the six month break in meetings, but I’m excited about the new calling and look forward to getting more involved and getting to know more of the ward members. I think that was the hardest part about moving to Alpine was just getting to know people and having some social interaction, especially since I work from home.

I got the following email today:

Hi, I LOVE your site and i would like to volunteer to help with it. I have a CS degree and an Electrical Engineering degree and I’m currently working on my master’s in EE. I am a full time software developer currently but I like to work on other projects in my spare time. I am also a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. I am going to be leading FPU at my church this fall.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself briefly and see if you had any interest in having someone help with the site.

It was cool to have someone contact me and say the LOVE the software! That’s really a huge boost of moral. It tend to start a lot of projects and get "almost done" and then convince myself for whatever reason that the site won’t work, there is too much competition, or whatever – basically self-sabotaging myself. I’m to the point where I just need to set up a merchant account so I can start accepting money and determining how much I want to sell the service for. This will be a good push to get it done.

I did respond to see what he had in mind as far as helping and where his expertise was. I would really love to integrate and iPhone application with Inzolo.

Today I called Comcast ready to cancel cable. Secretly I just wanted to get a reduced bill. It worked great. After just 4 minutes on the phone I was able to save $46 per month on my cable/internet bill! It was well worth the 4 minutes.

This morning I started the process of registering Inzolo as its own business in the state of Utah. So far I have over 50 registered users. That’s not bad considering I have only used free methods to get the word out so far. It’s still in Beta mode though so none of those are paying customers. Once I decide for sure on a price and set up a method for payment I will start advertising and focusing on marketing more. I’m excited and optimistic. I’m also thankful to live in a land where it is relatively easy to start and run your own business.

I woke up at 3:00 this morning because I couldn’t breath very well. My throat was so swollen. I decided to just get up and go to work. I took some medicine and started working. I was fortunate to have it go away and I was even able to play Ultimate Frisbee this afternoon. I’m feeling much better now thankfully.

Today in sacrament meeting the primary sang for Father’s day. I was surprised that Gehrig went up without a struggle. I was even more surprised that he actually sang the song! Last week he wouldn’t even go practice with them. I was so proud of him!