So Bernd and I have the pleasure of being the Ward Activity Chair People. What a joke. When we moved into our house we were hoping to kind of lay low. Maybe get callings to be home and visiting teachers maybe substitute primary once in awhile. But no, we get a calling that is totally out of our comfort zone. Apparently if you are active in this ward you get a major calling or maybe two or three.

So yesterday was our Ward Halloween Party. Another thing we quickly learned in this Ward is that tradition will never die. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective. The good part is we don’t really have to try and think up activities because they just want to do the same things every year. The bad part is we don’t know the traditions so sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong.

Yesterday we thought all was going well. We got the Trunk-or-Treat going and everyone seemed to enjoy that. Then we got dinner going, also very enjoyable. But as the ward started lining up to get their dinner someone asked where Brother Huber was (the Ward Magician). Hmm, good question the magic show was supposed to start at 6:30 and it was about 6:15 and no sign of him. So my visiting teacher made a phone call and talked to his daughter. She confirmed that her Dad remembered and was planning on being there. A few minutes later another ward member came over and handed Bernd his phone apparently Brother Huber thought we told him 7:45. Panic time.

So he finally shows up around 6:50 but he also neglected to tell us that he needed part of the room blocked off so he could set up. So in the middle of dinner we had to pick everyone up and move them. What a mess. About 120 people crammed into 2/3 of the gym. The kids got pretty antsy. They started beating on the partition and running around in the halls. Hello, Bernd and I don’t know what to do with kids. Why do you think we haven’t made any attempts to have any? Thanks to a good friend (also known as the Ward Primary President) the kids didn’t beat down the door. The show finally started at 7:20 and it was smooth sailing from there.

One more activity for the year and we are done for a couple of months!

Bernd starts a new job tomorrow. I’m so proud of him (yes Dad I said proud). He’s been at Zonder for almost two years. He started working there right before he graduated. During that time he has had a couple of job offers and several recruiters after him. He always tries to keep his options open which is smart. But he decided a month or so ago that he was ready to move on and started looking for a new opportunity.

He had several interviews, most of which turned out to be jobs he was over qualified for. During the process Google contacted him. They found him on LinkedIn and thought he would be a good match with the company. He didn’t get offered a job there but they want to keep his resume active in their system because they think they will find a match for him. This means they were impressed by him. He was kind of bummed. But I’m really proud of him. He works a full time job, runs a successful business on the side supported solely on referrals, and his goes to school. He will finish his MBA in December!

Anyway, I just want him to know how proud I am of him. He’s a hard worker, he goes after what he wants, he continues to try and better himself and increase his skill set, and he’s not afraid to make changes to further his career. I love you babe! Good Luck at your new job.

A few weeks ago I had an interview with Google for a Site Reliability Engineer position. A recruiter at Google contacted me through LinkedIn and set up an interview. From what I hear it is pretty impressive to be able to get Google’s attention like this so even though I didn’t make it past the first interview I feel pretty good about getting that far, especially since I didn’t even try and apply there. While I waited to hear back from my interview I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to work for Google, I hear they are a very good company to work for.

I have decided to leave my current job at Zonder, it is sad to be leaving Zonder but I felt like I had been stagnant there for awhile. I hope things go well for them and that their business will start to take off soon. I plan to stay in contact with people there and do side work for them as long as they need it. I worked there for almost two years and learned a lot while I was there. I am very glad for the friendships and connections I gained from the experience as well.

About a week and a half ago I started the process of getting our wall ready to mount our new TV on it. We decided to run power and a conduit for audio/video cables in the wall so that all the wiring would not have to run along the outside of the wall. I started off by determining exactly where the mount would go on the wall and then took some sheetrock off and exposed the studs and insulation. I wasn’t sure about doing everything so we hired an electrican to come out and run the receptical. I had hoped he would run the conduit also but that would have cost us a lot of extra money. I asked the electrician what he suggested for us to use as a conduit but he didn’t have any advice there. On her way to work on the day the electrician came over, Jodi noticed a vehicle for an audio/video copmany in Draper called AVI. I went to their showroom to see what they had to offer and they suggested that I use a flexible conduit project called Smartduct Data-Flex. I picked up a few feet of this and drilled the holes in the studs to run the conduit and it slid right in. This conduit worked out very well and I am very happy with it, it was also quite affordable! Now the wall is ready to be put back together and repaited, it should be all completed in the next couple of days.

Jodi and I did the Viking Tri in Pleasant Grove on Saturday. Jodi did the whole thing by herself and her brother Josh did it as well. Jodi’s dad and I did it as a team, I ran and biked and he swam. The triathlon was at the Pleasant Grove Pool and it was a fundraiser for the Pleasant Grove High School Swim Team. It was a small triathlon, only 100 people registered and we are use to having about 800-1,000 triathletes at each triathlon that we’ve have been to before. It was also different than others that we have done because it was run, bike, swim instead of swim, bike run. It was also very cold that morning, and raining off and on. The run course was in a small park and the ground was muddy and mushy. This was the last tri of the year and Jodi and I are planning to train over the winter so that we can actually compete in triathlons next year instead of just finish them!