Chubby Bunny

Ceri and Mark were visiting us during Christmas, and brought with them some games that were fun to play. Chubby Bunny was not one of the funner ones. Basically, you shove as many large marshmallows in your mouth as you can without gagging, and you have to attempt to say "Chubby Bunny" after each one. Usually, after the 4th or 5th marshmallow, it starts to get muffled and unintelligible, but everyone assumes you're saying Chubby Bunny if it comes out with 4 syllables, but whatever.

I don't even like marshmallows, man.

Final Score:
Chase -10
Ceri -8
Jenn -4
Bailey -4
Addie -3
Cam -3

Sledding

We spent an hour sledding today at a park in American Fork.

Here's a few pictures and a video.

Snow Time!

It's been snowing A LOT here the past few days. The roads were awful yesterday, and our street filled up with snow after being plowed. Luckily, the kids are on vacation from school, and they're all healthy and able to play outside. It's a miracle.

Jenn took some pictures while they were all out playing.

It's also really cool because we bought the kids a toboggan for Christmas. We might take them out today while the cousins are still here.

The Job, and what else is new

I've been at US Synthetic for about a month and a half now. It's been quite a bit more difficult to learn than any other job I've had previously, because there is so much to learn.

I've learned a lot though, and I've enjoyed being kept busy replacing buttons and switches on control panels, replacing and wiring up motors, fixing leaks in the hydraulic systems. I've also figured out that a lot of this stuff is very applicable to things at home, like our stupid swamp cooler, that I should now be able to fix before next summer. I work with very good people, which I appreciate so much more than I would have 2 years ago.

I am very grateful for the chance I've had to start over at a good employer. The temp to permanent thing will continue to not be fun, but we at least got qualified for Utah State health care for the kids. I look forward to a permanent position, not only for the improved benefits, but for the laundry service they provide (I come home VERY dirty some days).

Last week, Jenn cooked some red snapper that stunk up the house. That night, Emery puked all over herself in bed, and her room smelled of rancid fishy vomit. No one else was showing any signs of being sick, and Emery was in a pretty good mood, so we didn't really think much of it except to try to rid the house of the strong fish odor.

2 days later, I got home from work, and Bailey wasn't feeling too well. She felt queasy, and Jenn gave her a bucket just in case. She was laying down in bed with the bucket in her hands, and started to cry that she was going to throw up. She proceeded to spew all over her bed and the floor, sparing the bucket of a horrible fate by holding it to her side. I got in there just as she started to throw up, and couldn't believe that she chose not to puke in the bucket she was holding. Jenn got up and started to clean things up, and I started to prepare the guest bed for her so she could sleep. Cleaning the puke was too much for Jenn, and she ran to the bathroom where she toiled for about an hour trying to barf. I got Bailey out of the bathtub, and into a warm bed downstairs with a gentle reminder that the bucket is for puke, not the carpet. I went and laid down in bed, and was serenaded by Jenn hoarking up whatever she happened to have eaten the day before. I started to feel not so good, and struggled for about a half hour to stay composed. Finally I succumbed to the urge to run to the bathroom where I unloaded about 2 pounds of potatos.

We were all sick for about 36-48 hours, and then Cam started throwing up. He at least had the wherewithal to use the bucket we gave him. Cam also was in a fairly good mood for most of the ordeal, not like Bailey, Jenn and I, who all wanted to die. Addie, who is normally the queen of the wayward illnesses, has been spared up to this point.

Anyways, had this happened a year ago, I probably would have been really depressed and wo is me. This time, I'm counting my blessings that Addie didn't come down with it. Sure, I guess you could say that maybe I'm just maturing or something, but I think it's because I'm finally not getting my will to live sucked out of me by my job and the crappy people who work there.

We're looking forward to hosting Ceri and Mark this week. Drive safe guys.

Emery the Musician

Before I got the camera, Emery was singing along with her playing. After I put the camera away, she started to turn the pages to the sheet music. I just got a bunch of insane leg kicking, and some tempo changes that appear to be more than just coincidental.

Thanksgiving Play

Bailey decided to entertain us on Thanksgiving with a play written and directed and directed herself. Addie and Cam played supporting roles. Not their best effort if you ask me.

I'm going to post a few more funny face pictures that I took on the train to Salt Lake.

Temple Square

We decided to take the kids up to Temple Square on the day after Thanksgiving, the first day they do the Christmas lights. It sure was crowded.

We told the kids that we were taking them for a surprise about a week ago, but we didn't tell them where. We all piled into the van wearing wintery clothing, and headed to the Sandy Trax station. I pointed out the prison just past point of the mountain, and told them that was the surprise and that we were turning around. Cam yelled angrily "That was the dumbest surprise ever!"

We got to the train, and that made up for the teasing. We rode it all the way from Sandy to Temple Square, got off, and walked a block to the temple grounds. There were lots of pretty lights and statues. While we were walking through, some high school students doing a project asked if our kids would like to be on camera telling what they think Christmas is. Bailey was the only once brave enough to talk, but wouldn't speak up past a whisper. I was standing right next to her and couldn't hear her. If you see her around our house, you'd think she only had one volume, but apparently she can also be quiet when she needs to be loud.

We had a fun time, no one got lost, the trip was a success.

Back home a few days ago...

Sorry Mom.


I got back on Monday.

I won my first round match, and then lost the second to the eventual champion. They did random seedings, and all of the better players were in my half of the bracket.

I'll get around to posting more pictures someday, but for now, I'm not going to. I had a fun time, but by the time it was over, I was really ready to go home and see Jenn and the kids.

Palace Tour

We took a very small tour of Seoul today. It appears to be a very clean city for how large it is. It is actually quite pretty. It was really gloomy outside today, and it drizzled on us quite a few times today.

These pictures are from the Kyung-Bok Palace in Seoul. It is at the very edge of town, with mountains surrounding one side, and skyscrapers on the other. It was built centuries ago, but burned down during the Korean civil war. What is in it's place now is a replica.

There was also a museum very close by which we went inside. There wasn't as much to see there, but I did get to take a picture of myself under the sign.

Anyways, it's been a long day, and I am ready for bed.

I'm a Seoul Man

It's kind of early in the morning here, and I'm wide awake.

There is a continental breakfast or something downstairs, but between the language barrier and not liking to be alone in public places, I'm waiting until later.

I tried to go up on the roof of my hotel to take some pictures, but the roof exit was classified as emergency use only. I did take some dark shots of the view from my room, but you can still see some reflections from the window.

The other picture is Lake Tahoe, which I flew over on my way to San Fransisco from Salt Lake. I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane to get a good picture of the Golden Gate bridge as we flew over it.

Today, the gaming people have set up some sort of tour for us. The competition is tomorrow. Maybe I'll stick on a few more pictures later tonight.

Call me Diamond Chase...

So, I just got through with my first day at the new job. It looks like it's going to be pretty interesting and rewarding.

I met a friend there who I worked with at Micron about 7-8 years ago. He's been working at US Synthetic for about 2 years now, and he says its a great place to work. They've got good benefits (I'll find out in about 6 months I guess) and they pay well, both in wages and in bonuses. They've got a lot more control over how much they can sell their product for, unlike the commodity memory market.

So I'm trying to learn everything I can and be a good employee. I should be able to learn lots of valuable skills that will get me a good paycheck from them or somewhere else if it comes down to it, but after 1 day, I kind of hope it doesn't.

They subsidize the lunches for everyone there, I ate 2 big steak fajita tacos with fresh guacamole yesterday. It cost me 3 bucks. The plant is right across the street from the BlendTec factory. My employer bought one of their commercial smoothie makers, and set it up in the employee lounge. You put a cup in the machine, press a button for what flavor you want, and it spits out a freshly blended smoothie for free. The best way to get my loyalty is usually thought cheap or free food, so I think I'll be staying as long as I can :)

New Blog Title

So....


Yes, it's a little stupid, but I had to outdo the last name.

I decided that since I just got tested with 23% bodyfat, I didn't want to be the sandwich eater. I want to get that number down to about 12-15%.

Since I'm in the diamond making business now, I figured that this was an appropriate, and chintzy name to use.

Snow, New Job, and Korea

I got off work last night and was welcomed by a low grade blizzard. I was caught wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, and it was pretty cold while I scraped 2 inches of snow off my car and then waited for the heater to kick in. Cameron complained all morning that he wanted to go out and play in it, even though it was freezing outside at 7:30 am. Addie has been sick for about a week, she missed wearing her costume to school on Halloween, and the first major snowfall of the year. She is not doing a good job being sick, she's always running around the house, making her asthma worse. I don't know if anyone has seen the halloween picture this year. Jenn went all out on the costumes. If anyone asks, I was an occupied bed for halloween.

I will be starting a new job shortly, at US Synthetic in Orem. They compress stuff into diamond crystals, and then bond those crystals with drill bits and such. I'll be learning a lot more about industrial electricity, and making diamonds sounds like a much cooler job than making flash memory. My current employer decided to promote the worst and most hated technician supervisors to engineering positions within the department. Now they're complaining that no one gets along with them or respects what they are trying to do. We were recently told at a team member meeting by upper management that the company was seriously considering whether or not they should even be in business anymore given the current economic environment. So, crappy work environment working for morally bankrupt people + low pay + possible layoff in 1 year = Chase finds a better job. I'm really looking forward to expanding my job skills. There's not really that many things to do on semiconductor tools anymore besides swapping out stuff that doesn't work for stuff that does.

One last newsflash. I am being flown to Korea next week to play some video game golf. I will be playing against 11 other people for a chance at $5,000 , $3,000 , or $1,000. The airfare and accomodations are paid for. It should be pretty fun. I hadn't originally qualified to go, but was given a chance to go after those who did were unable to get passports in time.

So, you can see we've got quite a bit going on. I'm sure I'll have something to post about once I get home.

Nature pics from AF Canyon

They only let me upload 5 pictures to the last post.

There are some pretty nifty places up AF Canyon.

AF Canyon

Ever since we got home from California last weekend, I've been sick. It hasn't been too bad, but I've been pretty much out of it. We got home on Monday, and I worked Tuesday-Saturday nights. For those of you who don't know, I work 6:30 pm to 6:30 am. Every morning when I got home, I'd drug myself up with Nyquil so I could sleep, I'd wake up 7 or 8 hours later, and get ready to go to work again. I haven't been able to spend much time with anyone this week.

I slept through church today (I want to get healthy, and I don't think it's right to go to church and get other people sick). I'm not quite 100% yet, but I'm getting there. It was a nice day out, so we decided to go for a drive up AF Canyon. I don't remember too much about it except for that Timp Cave is up there. I think that's as far as we've ever gotten.

Anyways, there's some cool stuff up there. We're thinking about driving up there again next Sunday after conference, when there is a little more daylight. Here's some pictures.

Trip to California

We just got back from a very short trip to California. As some of you may know, I play (am addicted) to a (stupid) computer golf game. This game is normally played on the internet, but Saturday, there was a live tournament in Los Angeles, that led to a World Final in Korea in November. I had to place at least 3rd in this tournament to get the free plane tickets to Korea for a chance at winning $5,000.

I was pretty certain that my chances of advancing were pretty much non-existant, but with a few lucky breaks, I could have made it. I just happened to get put into a first round matchup with the guy who eventually won the whole thing. I only lost to him in the first round by a stroke, which was his stiffest competition all day.

Last year, I got a nice little digital camera as a consolation prize for not getting the trip to Korea. It takes nice pictures (you'll see some in this post when I get around to it). This year, the consolation prize was a new mouse..... a little bit of a dropoff in prizes if you ask me. It's a nice mouse, probably worth about 30 dollars brand new, and therefore, probably the best mouse I'll ever own. I stuck around for the prize auction and won another mouse, hooray! So, the total value of my prizes ended up being about 60-70 dollars, which I wouldn't have spent myself. I did however spend about 200 bucks on gas getting there from Utah.

It would have been a really stupid trip to take if it hadn't been for being able to take Jenn and the kids down for a visit. 4 months ago, we went on a vacation to St. George, and went to Bryce and Zions. Jennifer was bent on getting some family pictures taken next to some spiffy red rocks. It never happened. At one time, she mulled the idea of driving down there one afternoon for the specific purpose of taking a unique family picture. When I was invited to the golf thingy in LA, it represented a great opportunity to go take those pictures, and also visit with my mom and dad. So we all piled into the van wearing nice clothes, and drove 4 hours to St. George with a bunch of starving kids (can't have them messing up their clothes, right?) We took some ok pictures, but a lot of them have some very visible shadows. The idea was cool though. Some of the pictures turned out pretty decent, you wouldn't even be able to tell that the kids in the pictures were grumpy and whiny. (The kids were all excellent on the trip actually, and were sometimes able to go more than 15 minutes without asking for treats. On the trip home, we only had one potty break, which for an 8.5 hour trip is amazing)

We also had to make the trip, because apparently, Jenn has pictures of all our kids taking bath's in my parent's kitchen sink. Emery will soon be too large to do this, so we had to act fast.

All in all, I'm very glad we made the trip, even though I totally sucked at golf. I got some good tips from Dad about how to act and not to act during my fire interview, and some good information on passing the Agility test. I'm looking forward to getting it under my belt in October.

Emery Laughs!

We got Emery to laugh for us on camera. I only had to act slightly like an idiot to get it recorded.

Regional Conference

Today, we had a multi stake conference which involved all the stakes of Utah and Wasatch Counties. President Uchtdorf, President Packer, Elder Jensen of the Seventy, and President Monson's daughter, Sister Dibb spoke to us. The main conference was held at the Marriot Center, and was broadcast to stake centers throughout the region. There were 135 stakes and 400,000 members invited from what I could remember. I usually pride myself on my memory, especially with numbers, but I have a hard time remembering anything beyond who spoke.

It's true that I just switched to working night shifts, and even without sleep deprivation, I have a hard time staying awake at church. It was so noisy at our stake center that I couldn't even sleep. I've heard quieter crowds at sporting events. No one would bother taking their noisy kids or crying babies out of the chapel. It wasn't just kids though, there weren't just frequent bursts of noise, there was a steady hum of conversation. I wish all the people that treat conferences like social gatherings would just stay at home.

I am proud of our kids though, they stayed pretty quiet throughout the 2 hour meeting, and only occasionally contributed to the steady stream of noise that overwhelmed the speaker system. Sometimes I think we have horrible little monsters, but they are generally very good kids. I'm glad they proved themselves today. They stayed quiet with the ruckus that was going on directly in front of and behind them. They didn't complain about wanting to go home until the final speaker.

One funny thing. Sister Dibb has the same speaking style as President Monson. It's almost like she was doing an impression, her camera presence was a spot on knock off if that's what she was going for. I don't really remember much about her talk except for hot rolls and peach jam because of the aforementioned noise in the chapel.

Since speakers usually tell their jokes a little louder than their actual talks, we did share a few chuckles with the speakers. Sadly, that's about all we got out of it.

The start of something really really small...

So, I've never been told to my face that my mom wants me to start a blog. I just sort of heard that through the grapevine (thanks Brie... I think)

HomestarJr is my nickname on numerous online forums and games. It's also a not so obscure reference from homestarrunner.com (just in case anyone outside my family ever reads this, I'm not really hoping to reach a broad audience). Somebody eat that sandwich is a line uttered by Homestar Runner at the end of "Where's the Cheat" after Marzipan becomes attached to and refuses to eat the veggie burger that was made for her. I thought that would be a good name for my blog, because if anyone ever asked me to eat a sandwich, I would oblige. I think everyone who knows me knows that.

We'll see how this works out. I don't really plan on updating this thing religiously, but you never know. I like to write, and if enough people laugh at the stuff I write that is supposed to be funny, I might just keep going.