Daily Tender Mercies

We moved back into our home today… Well sort of. We have to wait to put out fridge, table, and island back in the kitchen. We need to let the varnish dry a bit more. Unfortunately Rachel was really upset when she saw it. It is not the right coor of stain. It is much lighter this time. I think if it were just that, we could probably live with it, but what irritated me the most was all the sand particles that were in the varnish. it was like they tracked a bunch of dirt in and didn’t bother to sweep before putting down the varnish. So now, as you walk on it, it feels like sand paper. Plus, they used a water based varnish instead of a oil based varnish. It looks much more dull and is not as smooth as it was before. It is very frustrating. Rachel was especially frustrated all night. It was the same people who we paid to do it the first time so we just don’t understand why the quality was so much worse this time. We’ve thought about having them re-do the whole thing, but I’m not sure if our insurance would cover it, or if we would have to pay extra, but the biggest problem is that we just want to get out house back to normal and stop living out of suitcases and hotel rooms.

It’s time’s like this that I just have to count my blessings and try to let the frustrations slide. I have to remember Elder Wirthlins last talk (and the topic of Rachel’s talk) “Come what may, and love it!”

Our floor got stained and its first coat of varnish today. It is great it is almost back to normal and we can move back into our home soon. The hotel has been fun and exciting for the kids, but stressful and cramped for Rachel. We did go swimming tonight which the kids really enjoyed. This is a nice place though. I like the layout of the room. We have two twin beds and a couch hide-a-bed. Tonight Gracie and Gehrig are on the hide-a-bed which gives us a little more room in case Nolan is up again all night.

I just got back from playing some ward basketball. It was great to get out and get some good exercise and get to know some ward members a little better. We are going to be staying in a hotel the next two nights while our floors are getting done. It should be fun – if not too hectic!

My grandma & grandpa Brighton gave us a gift card to Applebee’s for Christmas. Rachel had a long day today and didn’t feel like making dinner and cleaning up, so we utilized our gift card. It’s always fun to go out to eat. I must say though that I don’t think I’ll ever order a hamburger there again… blah! Red Robin is so much better in that arena.

More progress was made on our house today. Some contractors came and finished the ceiling in the basement. They did a great job. Now it just needs to be painted and you would certainly have a hard time noticing there was ever a problem.

Today was the first day of my 2 weeks of crash programming… I first had to get some stuff out of the way to get a client’s issues resolved. They imported a bunch of data into our product. The import took 3 days – that is how much there was. They had over a million documents to import. There were 20 million document values records. When they would try to do a search, the system would time out. It was my job to figure out a way to make it faster. It had to do with document level security. At first I thought there was nothing I could do, but that really wasn’t an option. I had to come up with something. In my talk yesterday I expressed my testimony of the power of prayer. I said that God is the greatest programmer. He knows all programming languages and the most advanced algorithms. I told of times he has guided me to find solutions. So I put that to the test again today. I really needed to get it done and I had already spent over a week trying to figure out ways to make it happen. I basically rewrote how document security worked and got a search that was taking 30 minutes down to 11 seconds! Now I understand if this were the internet, that would be terrible, but considering the improvement, 11 seconds was more than acceptable. I’m sure that with better hardward it could run even faster, but that is out of my control. I was so happy all night that I got this off of my plate! I asked for the Lord’s help this morning and he provided a miracle.

Rachel and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting today. Rachel’s mom came to help sit with the kids. That was sure appreciated! I was surprised at the number of people that came and told us how much they enjoyed our talks. I don’t really think it is so much that we are awesome speakers, but rather I think it shows the kindness of the ward to acknowledge us in such a gracious manner. I even had a young girl – probably about 14 or 15 years old that came up to me right after sacrament meeting and said she enjoyed my talk. Not only are the members kind, but they are teaching their children to be kind as well

Today was pretty uneventful. We basically cleaned all day – at least it felt that way. It feels great though to have such a clean house. I feel the Spirit stronger in a clean home. It’s not that our house was a disaster or anything, it just got a good thorough cleaning.

I am feeling so much better today! I’m sure Rachel enjoys being around me more as I am not nearly and dull and ornery. I had lunch today with Scott (our company president), Erik (new investor that bought into our company), and Ab (a salesman in our company). We discussed the new product I am working on. I’ve had to put it on hold a bit to work on an issue a new client is having. Erik offered me a $2000 bonus and a weekend stay at his his lodge in Cedar City if I would be willing to work overtime to get it done it two weeks. I accepted the offer so now I will be working my butt off trying to get it done. We could really use the extra money to pay for the deductible on our home owners insurance claim to fix all the water damage. If I get that bonus I can pay the deductible and finish paying off the rest of our debt, plus have a nice vacation!

Today I felt worse much of the day. I had a cold chills all day. Finally around 3:00 I decided to go get in bed. Rachel kept the kids quiet so I could sleep. I woke up feeling much better – not 100%, but the fever was gone at least. I think I’m on the way up now at least.