Dear Family and Friends,
As I ponder this week, I am filled with a deep gratitude for a multitude of things.
THING 1:
This might be the most important thing. BYU beat Utah by the skin of their teeth (though we're praying the football players have decent oral hygiene). I'm sure you all know the gory details. BYU went up 20 to 6 and life was great. We thought the game was in the bag, when in typical BYU fashion we collapsed and let them come back 20 to 17 with mere minutes left. At that point I thought Annette would collect on our brand new life insurance policy (which we'll talk about later) when I died of an aneurysm. They tied it, the game went into overtime, Utah kicked a field goal and went up 23 to 20. BYU got a turn to overthrow the wicked Utes and had an amazing play, but it was called back for a penalty. Just when we thought they'd choke, Hall found Andrew George up the middle for a huge touchdown. The moral of the story...storming the field after a victory ROCKS! Annette and I lost all emotional rationale and went screaming down the stands, hurled our bodies over the fences, and went sprinting across the field to embrace our heroes. My sister Angela came, too, but almost got trampled to death when the football players muscled their way through the crowd and came right past us. Annette and I got to beat them soundly on their pads and boy did they smell like they had rolled around in the swine mire. The pictures below are as follows:
Picture 1) Everyone at the football game except Annette who was taking the picture (I look like a dufus)
Picture 2) Max Hall getting sacked
Picture 3) The scoreboard while we were rushing the field. Annette had a devil of a time taking this shot since her body was thrown around because she was in a mosh pit.
THING 2:
This thing is almost as large a blessing as BYU beating Utah (though nothing really compares). I got laid off. It was a dying company and my boss laid me off because he knew his head was on the chopping block and he had to get rid of me before he got it himself. My coworkers were horrified, but I had a sweet assurance from the Spirit as he and the secretary were telling me about it that this was a good thing that was supposed to happen.
I learned a lot working there, but I got to a point where I stopped learning because they were demanding busy work from me. I've always been interested in entrepreneurship and now I definitely know how NOT to run a business. I got to a point where I was stuck in a rut; it was awkward for me to quit or get fired for telling off my boss to his superiors for his indiscretions. I am incredibly proud of how well I performed on the job and for my advancing in continous improvement intiatives with NO INCENTIVE WHATSOEVER from management. I don't doubt that new employment is right around the corner.
How big is that corner? I don't know. Some of my friends have been laid off recently and got new jobs. The fastest turnaround I've seen was five months. The longest turnaround...well, over a year and they still don't have a job. I really think I'll find something good. I've seen some great offers for which I'm not only qualified but perhaps OVERqualified.
Unemployment isn't all bad. An aquaintence calls it Funemployment. It's nice to spend so much time with my wife and make more than two college students make combined. Also, we're SO excited to go see David return from his mission and not have a worry in the world about getting time off. Annette's school schedule is now our constraint. But speaking of school...
THING 3:
Another blessing of getting laid off is that it forces me to get my MBA which I've been dying to get since before graduating from diapers. Some of the big questions now:
Which school do I go to?
Does school reputation REALLY matter?
How much do we want to spend?
How fast do I want to accomplish this goal?
We DON'T want to go into debt (since we currently have none), so how do we accomplish this?
There are all kinds of questions, but we're working through them. I've started studying with a friend for the GMAT and we'll probably take it early December.
THING 4:
We're looking to get a new car. Since we refuse to go into debt, we're looking at trading the BMW straight across. It's now worth $4,000 less than when I bought it a year and a half ago. That's depressing. We're hoping that we can get a car that has more room inside, towing capacity perhaps, and most importantly can drive in the snow. We also would like an automatic since Annette hates driving a manual and downright refuses because it scares the fool out of her.
THING 5:
Speaking of Annette, I LOVE HER SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THING 6:
We finally got a life insurance policy on me. I'm now worth much more dead than alive. There's a self-esteem booster for ya. Annette said she still wants me alive though. I can't imagine why. We'll probably take out a small policy on her, too, once we have kids which brings me to...
THING 7:
ANNETTE'S not PREGNANT!!!! Ha. Fooled ya.
THING 8:
Thanksgiving Day was neat. We went bounding through the woods. My family usually takes a hike and this one was a typical one. It was 6 miles through the freezing cold snow. Annette thought hiking in California was bad. It's better in Utah because your body goes so numb as it enters hypothermia that you don't even realize that you're about to die. Annette made a snow angel as pictured below. I did some interesting things in the snow, but we won't talk about them. She got some other great pictures which we hope you'll enjoy.
Thus it is. The End.
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