September Random

As soon as our children are born, it's a countdown to when they're ready to play Shark Attack.  All four have loved this game that Ben came up with six years ago.  Although now it is much better on hardwoods than it used to be on the carpet.

What I said:  "Oh look!  Thad's climbing the stairs.  I should take a picture."

In Ella's head:  "If I hurry I'll make it to the stairs and photobomb this picture before Mom even gets her camera."

One of the things on our summer bucket list was to get Lily to ride her bike without training wheels.  As soon as Ben had his appendectomy, she started pleading to have her training wheels removed.  So of course when we took them off she got on and freaked out that she was wobbling all over the place.  She still can't do it, but it's cooling down outside and so I think we will finally be able to practice more consistently.

P.S.  Nice tan, Lily.  

I captured this one day when Ben was on the phone with a coworker.  I just want a visual reminder of how wonderful it is to have Ben work from home.

Database analyzing and IBLS'ing at its finest (aka weeding).

(Don't ask me what either of those things mean.  If anyone asks what Ben does all I can really tell them is that he manages Walmart's contract with Cisco and that he is an excel expert.  Other than that I can tell you that he has a black computer and he pushes buttons on it.  So... yeah.)

I don't know if I've ever blogged about this before.  I can't remember.  But something Ben and I have always been grateful for was that Ben went to BYU-Idaho to get his business degree.  2 years after Ben got home from his mission he was discouraged because they changed the business program.  BYU-Idaho had just hired a new college president (Kim Clark) who was formerly the Dean of Harvard Business School.  He wanted to change the program to make it more like the Harvard program.  This meant that Ben basically had to start college over since a good portion of his credits meant nothing anymore.

But while Ben spent more time in college than he would have liked, trying to complete the new program, and then having a difficult time finding a job straight out of college, it all turned out to be fine.  Since we moved all the way across the country where practically no one has even heard of BYU-Idaho, Ben had a unique education.  I won't say that it is better or worse than someone who graduated from a local college, but it is definitely different.  

While a lot of the local business grads here are basically cookie cutters, Ben is different -- not better or worse, just different from his different education.  That has really given him an advantage here with his expertise.  So if you are in college and want a great chance, move across the country!  It worked for us!