NEWS FLASH

It has been a few years since I last watched the space shuttle launch on TV. I knew the launch had been postponed on Monday and was rescheduled for this evening. I remembered at 4:55 pm Central Daylight Time to look online to see if a live feed was available (we don't have a digital converter box yet). I saw that the launch was scheduled for 3:03 PDT, wondered why it was listed in Pacific time when the shuttle was launching from the East Coast, quickly did the conversion to Eastern time and excitedly found a live feed on NASA's website. We started watching at t-minus five minutes - just in the nick of time.

As the kids and I watched, we marvelled and wondered aloud if Jesse made it to see the launch. He has been in Orlando this week for a training class. He had called us Monday from Cape Canaveral disappointed that the launch, originally scheduled for that evening, had been postponed until Wednesday due to lightning storms. He was not sure if he would be able to come back, but the group he is with, all nerdy engineers (oops, don't tell Jesse I said that) who, like Jesse and I, grew up watching the space shuttle launches on TV- even in school - decided for a second try.

Jesse called five munutes after launch and told us he had seen it!!! He was on the eastern side of the island watching in person as the Space Shuttle Endeavor launched!!! His main comments about the sight were that first, he was amazed that the sound of the rockets was slow to travel to where he was and second, that the shuttle quickly disappeared into the clouds, while we here at home kept watching via NASA cameras for the rocket separations. I asked him if the ground shook, but he said he wasn't close enough to actually feel it. (I thought that that the power of the booster rockets was so great that you could feel it for miles - obviously, I was naive.)

We are very excited for Jesse! He said proudly he could cross "watching the space shuttle launch in person" off his Bucket List.

Happy-For-Jesse Day

Jesse turned 31 yesterday! (I can spill the beans on his age because I have more grey hairs than he does.) I decided to dedicate a blog post to him.

Why I Love My Engineer Husband
1. I have someone to keep organized. As an engineer, he loses all track of time. If he says one hour, I bargain on two. When he gives me an estimate of work on a project, I double it. When he loses his keys, I retrace his steps to help him find them. I calendar our activities, and let him know what days are open for things he needs to do. I am his Palm Pilot - this adds great meaning to my life. ;-)

2. He can fix things, and they work better afterwards! (For you to completely understand my joy for this special talent he has, I need to give you some background. My brothers liked to take things apart, but they never got them back together again. For the first several years we were married, I would hover around Jesse while he was fixing something and worry if he was doing it right. I finally learned to relax, that everything would be perfect when he finished. Jesse adds, "Sometimes.") Our dryer has stopped drying twice since we moved to Texas (it is over fifteen years old, after all) - he has saved us loads of money by fixing it himself. (We are also blessed to live within three miles of a Sears parts store.) One day a friend at playgroup said her dryer wasn't working, and she was going to have a handyman come look at it for her. I told her to cancel the handyman and sent Jesse to her home. He saved her money by discovering the problem, something very minor that would have cost tons of money in labor. He is amazing!

3. He keeps a cool head about him when all around is chaos. A few weeks ago, we woke up at 3:00 am to the smoke detector. Jesse disabled the loud offender while I thought I should at least look around for the problem. (Diane noticed that when the smoke detectors went off in the cabin at reunion, our first thought was to stop the noise that might wake the children, not to discover why they were sounding.) As I approached the stairs, I noticed that the AC unit was far too noisy. I shouted for Jesse and started running upstairs to the closet in which it is housed. The smell of burning started me in a panic, and I half expected flames to be shooting out of the metal box - like something you would see in a cartoon. Jesse stayed calm, shut everything off, including the circuit breakers to the unit, and we opened the windows to air out the house. We figured that the unit had been running to long (my fault - I tried to change the temperature and did it wrong), and the belts and drums were starting to smoke. The smoky air was being blown from a vent right onto a smoke detector downstairs, waking us up to a potentially dangerous situation. Gratefully, our AC unit can reset itself, so after a day of cooling down it was running properly again (which Jesse had found out last year by calling the AC guys about a similar problem - yes, my fault again).

4. He has to leave work at work. He might have to work an extra hour or three during a week, but I know our family is very blessed that he is home at the same time every night and has every other Friday off.

Jesse is amazing for other reasons, which many of you know and can add to, but I will keep it to his engineering side today. Love ya, babe!

$20 Bunk Bed

Jesse found some scrap wood in a field near our home. There was enough lumber that he thought he could make a bunk bed for James. We bought a choo-choo train mattress a few months ago, and taught James to sleep on it on the floor in the playroom. He loved his big boy bed and thoroughly enjoyed jumping on it. Finally, this weekend, Jesse finished the long-awaited bunk bed.

TAH DAH!!!

Sadly, James wasn't too enchanted with the experience. He can climb up, but won't get down without help. He also wanted to go back to "his" room, the playroom, in which he has slept for the last (almost) two years. We settled on a compromise: David gets the bunk bed, and James is sleeping on the twin under Josh's bunk bed. He seemed more comfortable with this solution; maybe someday he will try the bunk bed again.

Happy Couple

We haven't had a good "couple" picture since David was little (i.e. before Josh was born). My mom was kind enough to take several shots of us so that we could choose the best. These are our top choices. (The slideshow has the others.) Luckily, our gray hairs aren't showing (okay, mine). :-P

Let me just take a second to express my gratitude for Jesse, the best husband I could have ever desired. I noticed his "glow" the first time I met him. He is long-suffering: I am not a patient person; he helps me retain perspective when I lose my cool. He is kind: he still thinks I am beautiful despite the extra thirty pounds rounding out my body. He seeketh not his own: I have to do all his bragging when he wins an award or gets a promotion. He is not easily provoked: when he does get mad, I know it is serious. He rejoiceth not in iniquity: before we started dating, we went to a movie together with our Family Home Evening group; he looked away from suggestive scenes during the previews. He rejoiceth in the truth: I know he loves his Heavenly Father and his Savior every time I see him kneel to pray before bedtime.

My Man

Julie was looking at my bridal photos while I was playing the piano today. She asked if there were any pictures with Daddy. I got our photo album for her to look at. Jesse decided to scan them. Here are some of my favorites of "my man."

The GQ pose.

We are the only couple (of which I am aware) that jumped on the trampoline on our wedding day.

Jesse was very sweet - no mess!

Bragging Rights 2

Jesse has been working for the last two years on a redesign project at work (Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control). In October he traveled to New Mexico, where he watched a test of the missile, which was successful. In other words, the redesign worked, and his team was able to gather some other necessary data from the test. Lockheed Martin awarded the members of his team a cash award for their hard work and successful test. Three cheers for Jesse, the Engineer King!!!

Happy Weekend

We listened to the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this weekend. Julie was inspired to draw a picture of President Gordon B. Hinckley. She gave the spelling her best shot without asking for help. Jesse says that she asked him if she had written her d's correctly, then laughed that she had written "presibent." The talks were, as always, exactly what I needed to hear. I have committed myself to acheiving four goals by the next conference in April 2008. I have already started by typing up a list of things to do daily to help me accomplish two of the goals. I know that by doing the daily things -- praying, reading scriptures, singing uplifting music -- I will be a better mother, teacher of my children and Young Women leader to accomplish the other two goals.

Jesse substituted for early morning seminary, a religion class held at the church building for LDS high school students. He taught the chapters about Abraham from the book of Genesis. I enjoyed talking to Jesse about the potential applications of Abraham's experiences. Jesse really enjoyed the opportunity to teach, although getting up at 5:00am was quite challenging.

All in all the week was a reminder to be a little better this week than I was last week. I have decided to become addicted to exercise. I have put on around thirty pounds since David was born. That doesn't sound like much, but when I consider the history of adult-onset diabetes in my family, I realize that I must do something to take control of my health before it takes control of me.

Rat 3, Engineer 0

On a lighter note, we have acquired a pet mouse or whatever it is that is hiding in our garage walls. Jesse, the resident engineer, has designed a trap, but there are some kinks that have allowed the rodent to steal the bait. Essentially, we are feeding the darn thing premium cheddar cheese instead of trapping it! Jesse says he knows the problem, though, so hopefully we'll catch it in the next few days.

The kids loved the idea of hunting the rodent. They dressed in long sleeves and long pants and wore gloves so that it wouldn't bite them if they found it. Suddenly, there were "rats" all over the house and outside in the yard. They said that the rat had yellow eyes with a black middle. I had to show Julie the Wikipedia entry on rats to convince her that only cartoon rats have yellow eyes. Ironically, we saw Ratatoullie this weekend. Jesse jokes that after we trap it, we should put it in the kitchen so we can have our own "Little Chef." Yeah, right!!!

The Love of My Life

This is Jesse, the love of my life. On September 2 we celebrated our seventh anniversary. Although the picture above is almost three years old, Jesse hasn't changed much . . . except for the addition of a few white hairs. This picture epitomizes Jesse: he is an inventive, handy kind of guy who likes his manly tools (insert Tim the Tool Man grunts here). In the picture he fixed a water heater at the Cannon family ranch in Utah. Since we moved to Texas, he has fixed my dryer and my vacuum and my van's radiator system, saving us tons of money in labor costs. I do have to admit -- it took me a while to back off and let him work. My brothers would take things apart when I was growing up but they could never put anything back together to work again (love you, Tim). For a long time I would fret when Jesse started a project, worrying that I would never use whatever again. But I have finally relaxed and let him go at it, grateful that he is so handy.

My favorite thing about Jesse is his soft-spoken nature. He can calm our home when my fiery temper gets out of control. He is more quick to show compassion to the children when they are in need, especially at the end of the day when my patience is worn thin. Needless to say, he is my better half. There are many times that I wonder why he married me with all my weaknesses and bad habits, but I am truly grateful he turns a blind eye to those things to love me and to lift me. What a guy!!!