Dejong Design Associates

This week was my first week back to work since I left Encana. I'm now employed as a summer student at Dejong Design Associates. They're an architectural office located on the barracks just off Crowchild Trail. So far it's going fairly smoothly, I spend most of my time using a program called "Sketchup" to build 3D models on the computer. Unlike most of the jobs I've had (and I've had not a few), I didn't win this one with my good-looks and charm. My good friend Dave Walker happens to work there too and he's pretty much responsible for setting the whole thing up. I'd like to thank him publicly for getting me this job, but I wont. No, I think he's the type who would appreciate a personal thank-you, in the form of a lifetime of friendship, and by friendship I mean casual greetings in the hallway and a yearly Christmas card.

Lucy Jane Williamson

Last Tuesday, May 3rd, Heather and Tyler had a beautiful baby girl! Her name is Lucy and she was 7 pounds and 4 ounces. Both mother and baby are doing great and everything went pretty smoothly. It's their first child, my parent's third grandchild, and Tyler's parent's first grandchild. Tammy and I now have 2 nephews and 5 nieces between both our families and our baby is next on deck. We're excited that our baby will be so close in age to a bunch of its cousins and that they'll all be living so close. Congratulations Heather and Tyler you're going to make great parents!

Stake Conferance Broadcast

Today was the Stake Conferance broadcast featuring President Monson, Elder Bednar, and Elder Jensen of the Seventy. I really enjoyed the talks given by all the bretheren and their wives. I love hearing President Monson talk about his time as a Mission President in Canada as I served in some of the places he talks about. My first Mission President was an AP under President Monson and my second one was an AP under Elder Ballard when he served as Mission President there. I also served as a District Leader for seven months in a town called Branford Ontario (known to most as the home of Wayne Gretzky) and our area included the town of Mount Pleasant where Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon came and baptized a congregation of people which I beleive included John Taylor. Everytime I hear talk of that area it makes me want to go back and visit. I loved it out there. Maybe sometime in the future we'll have to take the kids down to the Hill Cumorah Pageant, tour all the church history sites, and make some stops in Ontario on the way back.

Blood Dungeon and The Ramblin' Ambassadors

Last night I went down to the Night Gallery with some friends from school to celebrate the end of the school year and to see a couple bands play. I've never been to the Night Gallery before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a pretty decent spot. I felt like I was in the Mos Eisley Cantina with the hodge-podge of characters roaming around inside. There were some fifties biker-greasers in one corner, some goth-punk kids in another, a few cowboys, and a lone rastafarian just to name a few. It wasn't crowded at all either. We went there because we know a couple of the guys in the second band that played.

The first band was called "Blood Dungeon" which is awesome because they play folk music. They had a couple guitars, a fiddler, and a drummer playing a stand-up snare with an old suitcase for a kick drum. The music was not really my thing but I was impressed with the four-part harmony.

The second band was an instrumental band called "The Ramblin' Ambassadors". They play a type of music that reminded me a lot of "Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet". The great thing was they had a guy playing the tambourine like I've never seen one played before and a lightning fast upright bass player. They were super good and I'd like to see them again sometime. The third band turned out to be those fifties greasers but we didn't stay for them because we were all zombified from working all night on our final projects the night before. It was a good time and I'm going to miss hanging with the dudes from class over the next few months.

Retired

This past Friday (April 29) was my last day working at Simo Corporation. I've been working on and off there as a receptionist for the past 5 years and I can't believe that I won't be working there anymore! They're a smaller company that manufactures office furniture and I had really enjoyed working with the people there. My original plan was to start my maternity leave a few weeks from now - on May 13th - but I discovered that transportation to and from work would be a little complicated considering Mike starts a new job way across town this Monday and my sister Kelly, who will be replacing me at Simo, won't be starting full-time until after I leave, so I wouldn't even be able to catch a ride with her. Anyways, it all works out because there is about a thousand things that I still need to do before our baby arrives, so this will give me a chance to get them done (like prepare the baby's room for one!)

I am so grateful to my brother-in-law, Iain, for getting me the job in the first place (he is Simo's Marketing Manager) and to everyone there for liking me enough to let me return after I no longer wanted to work as a massage therapist full-time. This was a job where I didn't dread Sunday nights when a work-week was about to start because I enjoyed working with the people there and dealing with certain customers on the phone - the weeks just flew by for me. Kelly is already looking forward to working there more often because she loves the environment and the people there. I'm just glad that I will always be able to go back and visit, and I'm hoping to crash a few of their upcoming parties - like their Stampede BBQ this summer.

Out for Summer

Today was my last day of school for this semester. Actually last Friday was my last day of classes and this week was all exams and all final projects. Everything is done and I'm pretty sure my exams went really well. It feels good. Now I have a 4 month summer until we start up again at the end of August. No big vacation plans though, I'll be starting work on monday and the baby should arrive within the next 6 weeks. We're hoping to get a fence up and a deck/patio built this summer too. Sounds like we'll be busy and broke.

Farewell Party

This past Thursday night we spent over at the Gilchrist's house at a farewell party for Jeff and Jen Whitehead who are moving to Lethbridge next month. Jeff is going to school down there to get his psychology degree. It's sad to see them go but we joked about how we never really see each other anyways so it's no big deal. It was good to see their new son Griffin for the first time and also to see the Walker's newest edition, Saydee, who was born just two days before. Curtis Wood and his Wife were there too, as well as some of the younger Gilchrist boys and a bevy of 17th ward youth alumni. We wish the Whiteheads well and hope to see them back in Calgary soon.

CRHBA Design Competition 2005

This past Thursday was the deadline for the CRHBA house design competition. It's a competition for all the first year AT students at SAIT (there's about 100) in which we were to design a house and a site plan for a predetermined site out in the Springbank area. Our presentation had to include floor plans, 4 elevations, and a site plan, all at specified scales. We could also include a perspective view if space permitted. Our boards went up on Thursday and the judging took place that afternoon. I found out today that I tied for first place in the presentation category! It's exciting because there is scholarship money that is part of the reward. I have to thank Dave Walker and his boss Marvin DeJong for letting me use there office computers and printers to complete the project. Dave was a huge help as he taught me how to use a 3D rendering program called Sketch-up that we used for most of the project, and he probably put just as many hours into it as I did. I'm really happy with the finished product and I'm grateful for all the training I received in the process.

Here is a picture of the Cardston Temple that I drew for a project earlier in the year. I finally have the ability to scan images into the computer so I thought I would add it here.

Jarett Leighton Bourne

Congratulations to the Utah Bournes who are celebrating the arrival of their newest edition! Jarrett is Christopher and Krista's sixth child and second son. He was born on March 30th at 7:44am and weighed 7 pounds and 9.6 ounces at birth. We are all excited for them and hope everybody is happy and healthy down there!

175th Annual General Conference

This past weekend was General Conference. It's a special year for conference this year as it was the 175th annual session and it is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith. I always enjoy a good conference or any time we get to hear President Hinckley and the General Authorities speak. The guys in my family have a tradition every conference of going to Priesthood session together and then going out for dinner afterwards. This year, not as many of us could get together, so instead we went back to my parents place and ate pizza. Sunday, Tammy and I watched the morning session at home and then the afternoon session at my parents house while eating cinnamon buns, also a tradition.