Young Men's President

Last sunday I was called to be the Young Men's President in our ward. I'm excited about it and it seems like a lot of the parents and their youth are excited about it too. I am a bit overwhelmed though, and a few people have told me that it's one of the busiest callings in the Church, but with my secret powers and my magic medallion, I'm sure I'll do alright. I kid. We have a great group of young men and they called me some great councilors, so despite my efforts I'm sure it will be a successful program.

Mother's Day 2006

This Mother's day was a special one as it was Tammy's first as a Mother. The plan was for me to get up with Emma that morning and let Tammy sleep in and Emma and I were going to make her breakfast and a nice card. It didn't work out that well because unless you have hearing problems you don't sleep in while Emma is awake. Tammy wasn't feeling great that morning either so she didn't feel like much of a breakfast. She did get her card though, and some gifts from Dad. We went out for dinner with the Olsen side on Saturday night for Tammy's mom and then had a BBQ at my parents on Sunday for my mom. We had a picture taken at a studio of all the grandchildren on the Bourne side for my mom and she loved it of course. We took about 20 pictures at the studio but only 2 turned out reasonably well enough to print and that's largely due to Emma. I think she takes after her Dad and doesn't want to have any normal pictures taken of her. Here is a picture of Emma making her Mother's day cards. I eventually had to put a soother in her mouth because she kept eating the crayons.

Lucy's First Birthday

Yesterday we went out to Heather and Tyler's place in Cochrane to celebrate Lucy's 1st birthday. It was a pirate theme complete with pirate names, jolly roger tattoo's, and a treasure hunt. There were a lot of people there and everyone had a good time. Tammy and I went in on a gift with the Ganchars, Trevor, and Sam. We got her a wagon that she can be pulled around in and in a couple years be filled with fliers and pulled by her. We stayed a little too late to watch "The Island" which Tammy and I hadn't seen. It was a pretty good show but man were we tired this morning. Happy Birthday Lucy!!

Easter 2006

I'm catching up on some old news here and even though the dates of these events suggest they're expired, the freshness is still guaranteed. We celebrated an Easter/Alisons birthday combo at my parents house a couple weekends ago with some turkish dinner and an egg hunt for the kids. The kids followed a series of clues, each one more lethal in its cunning than the last, until they found the last clue which read "Congratulations, your baskets of goodies are in the living room being eaten by your Uncles!", but it was just a joke, unfortunately. I had a few days off school at the time too, which was nice except everyone was sick. We actually had to cancel the Olsen Easter Feaster due to illnesses but word is that Jodie and Aaron will host it in there new house once they're settled in. I beleive General Conferance took place the weekend before and it was a good one despite most of the family Conferance traditions not taking place. My parents, My Grandma, and Sam went down to Utah for conferance this year so the family didn't really get together. I went to the Priesthood session with Tammy's Dad and we went out for blizzards with the young men from our ward afterward. Tammy and I caught the rest of the sessions at home and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at home with Emma.

Modus Structures Inc.

School officially ended yesterday, I have a day off today but I'm back to full-time work on Monday for the rest of my life. I'm starting a new job out in Crossfield which is about 15 minutes north of Airdrie. The place is called Modus Structures Inc. and they design and manufacture portable structures for schools and such. I got the job through Paul from school who's been working there part-time for the past semester. Paul lives just around the corner from us so we'll be able to carpool out there together. Tammy and I are really excited about this opportunity. We've always wanted to move to a small town someday and if things work out at Modus we could potentially find ourselves out Crossfield way. The housing costs in Calgary are insane right now, and we're going to be outgrowing our house soon, so the hope is to be able to sell it and buy something a bit bigger but for less money. Gas prices are getting crazy now too so maybe we can cut the comute down to a walking distance as well. We feel very blessed and very grateful and look forward the opportunities the future may hold for our family.

Out Forever

I wrote my final final yesterday so i'm officially done school! I have to go back today to pick up my final projects and then there's grad next month but other than that it's over. Although I'm pumped about finally being done with homework, assignments, and tests, I'll miss the people....ah the people. This is the final sentance in this entry, and I say that because I noticed I've used the word "final" at least once in every sentance in this entry. Except this one.

Car Show 2006

Went to the car show today with my brother, Joe, Tyler, Graham, and Mike Cutler. It was good but I wish more of the makers would bring out the concept cars instead of the usual suspects you can find in the dealerships. Ford did pretty good with the Cobra concept, the GT, and all the Mustangs they brought but it was pretty rare to find anything conceptual or customized from the rest of the lot. I can't afford anything I saw on the floor anyways so what's the diff? The pic is the Cobra concept which is a super cool car but I think I still like the origional better.

Ice Fishing

This morning got started early as Devon Maucieri and I took some of the young men out near Church Ranches to go ice fishing. It was pretty cold but we managed to brave the winds for long enough to catch 6 rainbow trout. We set most of them free but each of the young men got to take one home. This is a pic of our first catch of the day. From left to right is Jared Velasquez, Isaiah Emtage, Jonathan Shaw, and Devon is holding the fish. Devon is Clint Maucieri's younger brother for those who know Clint.

The Perfect Age

Yesterday I turned 28 years old. Thanks to everyone who called to wish me a happy one. 28 is an interesting age because it is a perfect number. That means it is the sum of all its divisors. 28 can be divided by 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14, and 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28. The last age I reached that was a perfect number was 6 and the next one will be 496. I don't know if perfect numbers are lucky or not but you can probably tell I received my birthday call from Dale Shoultz.

Work Week

I just finished "work week" which is a part of my course requirements. Everyone in the program drew names of architectural firms from a hat and then we got to go work for them for a week. I drew Randall R. Gibson and Associates who happen to work down the hall from Dejong Design Associates. It was good to try something new as The Gibson associates do mainly landscape architecture for community developments and parks and such. I was a bit worried my first day when the computer they sat me down at had the word "slave" rotating around on the screen as the screen saver, but I later found out that it was just the name of the computer. I spent most of the week drafting but on Thursday Jeff and I went out to Randy's place in Bragg Creek to do some measurements on the gigantic log house he's building out there. It's a ways out of town but it sure is beautiful out there. I'd move out to a place like that in a second if I could ever afford it. Anyways, I'll be back to Dejong part-time again next week and back to full-time school as well. I have to say it was definitely nice having evenings again. I'll miss certain aspects of school life but I'm really looking forward to full-time work again. My thanks to the Gibson team for a fun an educational week.