Happy Birthday to Brent! I hope you had fun at your birthday parties. Enjoy pictures from both family parties.
























Yay for birthday cake!

It Stands?

Well, I decided to build a shed. Why a shed? Well, it is quite simple...I have too much...uh...stuff. Since Becca and I live in a small condo, it appears that over our great many years we have collected too much of it and apparently we simply cannot live without any of it. So, to that end, we're building our own little house to store it all. We're putting this life-boat on our 4plex property in Layton, which will be used to hold all my tools...which alone should allow us to walk through our house without tripping on everything.

This is my first time building a free-standing structure. Yes, i found out about permits and such, and we're building it right at that limit that code requires. Any larger and we get to deal with the bureaucracy that comes with larger buildings. It has been fun so far, and i'm getting quite excited to see the final product. Yes, there are things i would do differently next time, but for the most part, i'm pleased so far.

And by that i mean there is a lot of room for things to go badly as we only have 2 walls up and one built, but laying on the ground. But soon everything will be better....and only this winter will tell if we've built it strongly enough. Studs are 36" on center right?

And yes...those are safety glasses....

The aftermath...

Well, For any interested in what has become of my hand..i have NEW pictures! Yes, my hand looks strangely fat and maybe i'm gaining a little weight..who knows? But i'm just going to go with the idea that perhaps it is just the odd camera angle, and me trying to get enough light for the picture to turn out. You should see the scar when i'm cold...that sucker turns bright purple!

This picture should make Becca happier...at lest not nauseated.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Just so you know, I haven't posted recently because every time I opened up our blog, that gory picture of Brent's hand made me ill and I had to look away. I was hoping that Brent would post something else, but it's gotten to the point where I just NEED to not have to see that any more. :)

As for me, I've been going through a little patch recently where I am very aware of my weaknesses. I have been thinking about how I should respond to this general feeling of ineptitude. I keep telling myself that everyone has challenges, and it's only how we deal with them that defines us.

I think I should prioritize things better than I am currently achieving. For example, I go directly to the rental after work on most days (when I'm not busy doing something else!) and I throw myself into the work. Then I'm exhausted when I get home and I don't do anything. So my house is not as clean as it should be, and we generally have little to no food in the refrigerator. Ah, well.

So I'm pondering the things of life today as I prepare to go up the hill to the University of Utah. Today my family will sing the national anthem at the College of Engineering for their convocation. There's nothing like graduation day to put you in mind of the things that you have accomplished and the things that you still want to accomplish, right? It’s a momentous step for people, but some people just falter afterwards.

Building a stronger character--that's something I will have to think about. I'll let you know my game plan when I figure it out. :)