It’s been nine days since I posted anything, and what a busy nine days it has been. I guess it’s easiest to just give a bullet list of what’s been going on:
- My mom came to visit for a few days. She and my dad both came up the last weekend in June, because they bought my brother’s condo from him and needed to take care of the business side of things. The school where Mama Snider works is off-track right now (year-round school gets several short breaks throughout the year, rather than one long summer vacation), so I talked her into buying a plane ticket and letting Dad drive back alone. She stayed three days longer than he did, and we had a lot of fun. Since Beth and I both work until the afternoon, Mom definitely turned it into a vacation. She slept in every morning, something she rarely gets to do, and watched “Return of the King” on DVD. We didn’t really do anything extra special, but we had a blast having her around.
- Of course, we had the 4th of July, which, in Beth’s family, is somewhere right near Christmas on the list of most important holidays. (Also, in Utah, the 4th of July was on the 3rd of July, since the 4th was a Sunday.) Last year, when Beth and I were engaged, my brother Lane flew up to visit us over the 4th weekend, and the three of us went and watched the fireworks together on the MTC field. This year, it was just the two of us; Sherri went home to Vegas last year and this year, but we informed her that if she continues to place family over friends, we are going to have a problem. We got a couple picnic baskets for our wedding last year, complete with sturdy, picnicky plastic plates, cups, and silverware, and we finally got to use them. We made some taco salad, corn, and cornbread, and we headed over to the MTC field at about 6:30 p.m. We had a wonderful time, just sitting and eating and talking and watching people. The only unenjoyable time was during the actual fireworks, when some jackhole behind us refused to shut up. I honestly believe that I deserve a medal for not breaking his nose. His two highlights were making the same joke four times (“I feel like such a proud American, sitting here watching things explode”) and making up new words to “I’m Proud to be an American” (the new words just listed all the countries that are not as good as America). I don’t hate many people, and I make a special effort to not hate strangers, but this guy … wow.
- On the actual 4th of July, Beth and I went with some friends down to Mount Pleasant, Utah. My friend Sam was in town from California, and his grandma has a farm down there. When Sam was living here, we all used to go down to the farm fairly often, just to get away from Provo for a while. So when we found out that Sam and his old roommate BJ would both be in town, we slapped together a trip to the farm. We weren’t there for long–we went down Sunday afternoon and came back early Monday morning–but it was very fun. Beth got to hang out with some of my friends, we played some cards, and we watched about half of Pride & Prejudice.
- Monday morning, our friends the Popes invited us over for their big family breakfast. Between them, their children, their children’s spouses/fiances, and their grandchildren, there are 62 people in the family. That’s 11 kids, 10 spouses, one fiance, and 38 grandchildren. Two of the children weren’t there, and I think they have eight kids between them. So that means there were only 50 family members; obviously, they needed more, so they invited us. Breakfast was delicious, and we had a good time, because the Popes are our favorite people. They embody a lot of the qualities that Beth and I would like to cultivate in ourselves and our marriage.
- Work stuff has been interesting. My actual job: piece of cake as always. But I have been spending a lot of time working on the new design for Eric’s site, which I consider work since my main motivation is my resume. Actually, I have been spending a lot of time on the code; the design is pretty much done, and the little parts left are more in the hands of my trusted partner Jerilyn than in mine. So I have been spending most of my spare time at work working on that site. It is actually coming along pretty well, too, and it should be ready to go sometime in the near future. Also with regards to work, I have been interviewing for new jobs lately. I interviewed with a company in South Jordan on Wednesday, and the interview went really well. Then I interviewed yesterday with a company here in Orem; that interview went fine, but I won’t get the job. This morning, I interviewed with a company down in Temecula, just a few miles from where my parents live. I think this interview went really well, and I am very hopeful about this job. It would pay a decent amount (enough for Beth to be able to stay home), and it is something I would really enjoy.
- And of course, Beth is pregnant. She is getting pretty big, and little Lindsay is getting pretty antsy in there. I think she is as impatient as her mom, but hopefully she can wait until sometime near her due date. We are pretty impatient, too, and we can’t wait to have her in our family.
So that is pretty much my life right now. Definitely a lot going on (enough that it has taken me nearly five hours to get this written, what with all the interruptions and distractions), but we are loving it.