Tag: Miller

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life pictures

Welcome Enoch

Almost 3 years to the day after his older brother arrived we got a new arrival today. Stats and story follow.
Name: Enoch Andrew Miller
Arrived: 11:15 am 11/2/2009
Weight: 7 lbs. 5 oz.
Length: 20 1/2 inches

Enoch Miller
Enoch Miller

We had been expecting him for weeks since his two older siblings each came three weeks early – never again. My new motto is “be ready a month early and don’t plan on anything before the due date.” Enoch was not very late as he was due the last week of October, but he held on long enough to make it into November – boy month in our house since Dad, Isaac, and now Enoch all have November birthdays. Unfortunately siblings (under 14) can’t come to the hospital to visit so we can’t get a great little family picture like we had when Isaac was born. We’ll post the best we can get after Enoch gets home.

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life

New Calling

The vast majority of those reading this probably already knew this, but I was recently called to be the Elder’s Quorum President in my ward. I’ve known for a couple of weeks as I had to have time to identify the rest of the presidency and get them called but I did not want to announce it here before it was official (which happened yesterday but I was slow to sit down to write about it) despite the fact that the chances of anyone within the ward reading this before it became public were extremely slim.

The day I was called was exceptionally exciting for me because I have so much respect for my stake president, President Taylor. To have the opportunity to sit with him and answer questions of worthiness and talk about spiritual things from the ward conference we had just had was thrilling. In the few minutes that we had before Laura joined the interview he learned that Laura had missed the stake conference where he was called as Stake President and President Eyring taught about the principle of gathering as well as missing the ward conference two weeks before our interview where President Taylor told of his experience when he was called and felt impressed that gathering was the message for our stake. When President Taylor learned that he volunteered to come to our house and teach our family personally that afternoon. We had been praying for President Taylor, Bishop Tueller, and the First Presidency and Apostles as a family ever since the ward conference (due to an impression I had felt at that meeting) and the children knew each of the people they were praying for except for President Taylor either because they had met them (Bishop) or through their pictures. They enjoyed meeting him so that they knew who they were praying for and Laura and I felt so much love as he taught us about gathering and actually gave us a copy of the talk he had been giving at ward conferences on the subject. What a great way to start our relationship with him as I will have more dealings with him through this calling than I could expect to have without it.

Anyway, I’m very excited to have this opportunity to serve. I have a great presidency with Wes Austin, Jon Nieman, and Alex Monson. Best of all I have an amazing quorum and get to work with a Bishop and Stake President that I really admire. Ever since I was first called I have begun to have greater feelings of respect and concern for the men in the quorum and I’m happy to be in a position where I will have the information which will enable me to reach out and help them in any way that they need it.

Categories
life

Personal Challenges

We had a neighborhood party last Saturday and as we were driving home we got talking with the kids about one of our neighbors and his son who is autistic. As we explained some basics about autism we did so in the context of the fact that everybody has different challenges in life, that the challenges we face may change at different periods of our lives, and that autism is one of those challenges that some people have to deal with.

This got the kids talking about their individual challenges and then they started asking Laura and I what our challenges were right now. When they asked me what my life challenge was right now I told them that my challenge right now is that my life is not always perfect, that sometimes things do not go as smoothly as I might wish.

As I thought about it, that’s a pretty good challenge to have (and I’m sure it can’t last forever). Everything in my life is going pretty well right now. It’s not that I’m in total control and the world bends to my will, but when things do not go as planned there are no devastating consequences. I do not get distraught when something I want remains out of reach because nothing that I need has been denied me, and nothing that I want right now is time sensitive so I can afford to wait when necessary.

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life technology

HAM – KF7DQE

For the last couple of decades I have wanted to get a HAM radio license. I never got really serious about it, but it was always there in the back of my head waiting for “someday.”

Someday finally arrived. The stars aligned a couple of weeks ago and I decided to just go out and do it soon. I discovered that there was a test scheduled monthly in Salt Lake and I decided to study and take the exam during one of the tests this summer. I started studying from a library book – Now Your Talking – on Monday. I already knew that much of the knowledge was common sense rules about being considerate and so yesterday when I looked to see what dates the test was to be administered I discovered that the first one was that evening. Having taken some practice exams and seeing that I almost always got passing scores with the little study I had done, I decided to take the leap and take my test yesterday rather than agonizing over the material for another month. I took the test at 7:00 last night and passed on the first try (you can have three tries in one sitting). They encouraged me to take the test for the General class and I got closer to passing that than I would have expected.

Today my callsign got assigned and published in the FCC database so I am now KF7DQE – a HAM without a radio. (Of course I’ll be on the lookout for an appropriate rig.)

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life pictures

A Sneak Preview

We went to have an ultrasound today to find out whether our next child was going to be a boy or a girl. We got some really good images of a very healthy and active baby. They were easily the most detailed ultrasound images we had ever seen except for the one time we got to have a 3-D ultrasound with Isaac (because the clinic wanted to test their new machine).

Enoch's arm

Aside from very clear images we got a good look at a very active little boy, turning his head, moving his hands and feet – he was almost constantly in motion. Hopefully that means that Enoch will be a very well-matched playmate for Isaac (once he is more than half Isaac’s size that is).

Categories
life pictures

Finding Our Lost Sheep

Three days ago, on Wednesday evening, our hamster, Moonlight, got away from us. Normally when this happens we know where she is and/or she comes back where we can get her, but this time we could not locate her and she did not show up within a few minutes. We soon came to the conclusion that she must have made her way into the vents so we set out some food and water in a couple of places where she might get to them (such as the cool air return in the top of the downstairs hallway). Unfortunately after 24 hours none of the food or water stores had been touched and we were beginning to get worried. Our only consolation was that we were still occasionally hearing scratching noises from time to time suggesting that she was still alive.

Last night after Laura and I got home from our date Laura called me down as she heard Moonlight at close range in one of the basement walls near another cold air return. I took off the cover but there was no Moonlight. We decided that she must not be in the vents but in the walls themselves. We went into the spare bedroom and cut a hole into the wall where we heard her. She was not in the place where we cut, but we continued to hear her. She would begin climbing the walls every time we called her name. When we were confident about where she was located we finally performed the rescue operation (at 11:00 pm):

After two days of being trapped in the walls we had our Moonlight back. She was happy to see us and very happy to start drinking some water.

Categories
life

Getting Carried Away

Kids do the darndest things – especially if you blink. Today, while we were out learning about the options for a swingset we stopped at IKEA for some food. After we were done I took the kids toward the car while Laura just had to walk through the toy area of IKEA. I loitered with the kids near the entrance while waiting for Laura and as I was trying to get all the kids to go engage themselves in the drawing easels to pass the time (as Savannah was already doing) Alyssa suddenly tried to get my attention regarding Isaac. Not really hearing her I glanced at Isaac to find him going up the escalator ON THE OUTSIDE. He was hanging by his hands being carried up the outside of the escalator over a concrete floor.

I ran towards him to grab him off before he got out of reach but as I got to where he was and tried to stop myself and grab him the laws of physics reminded me that the shoes I was wearing had absolutely no traction. I went down in a heap next to the escaltor. Thankfully a woman who had seen this little boy rising in the air grabbed Isaac as I went down and set him next to me. Thus we could get a good laugh out of the whole thing (after we got the other kids to quit grabbing the escalator rail and left the building).

So while the whole thing could have been disasterous I am left wishing there was some video footage that I could play back so I could see what it looked like from an objective view.

Categories
life pictures

Four Wheel Drive

It’s a good thing I bought a vehicle with 4WD – I got stuck driving into my driveway this afternoon coming home from work. I should have got a picture of the Explorer sideways in the driveway or at least a picture of the sideways sliding tire tracks in the driveway. Better yet I should have had Laura take a video of me driving in after clearing away the snow around the tires (I was still sliding).

I had cleared the driveway before I left for the breakfast with Senator Bennett but by the time I got home there was another 8 inches of snow on the driveway. I did think to get  this picture (taken by Savannah) after I had cleared the driveway.

snowpack

It doesn’t show in the picture but that pile of snow is over my head in height. The line in the snow near the height of my knees is the level of the snow from today.

Categories
life pictures

My New Car

My team will be moving to a new office in the coming weeks to a location that would add another hour or more each way to my commute if I kept taking the bus. I’ve known this for months so I have been thinking about the need to buy a car.

I hate the idea of a car payment and have been lucky in my previous two cars that I have been able to pay for them without a loan. This time I really worried that I would not be able to find a reasonable car for the amount of cash I figured I could afford to pay. Late last week I noticed a little truck at the side of the road along my bus route that was for sale in the right price range. That got me serious about shopping, especially when combined with the news that we would probably be moving a month earlier than I had previously expected.

After driving a couple of other cars (including the truck I had seen along the bus route) I finally found my new car:

my new explorer

It’s amazing that I could get everything I wanted at the right price. It drives well, has low miles, can hold carseats (the little truck couldn’t do that) or haul larger items, and it even has 4 wheel drive in case we ever need that on our hills. I feel very fortunate today.

Categories
life

Today’s Adventure

Laura called at 9:42 this morning and told me that she needed to take Alyssa to the emergency room at Primary Children’s Hospital with a cut on her face. I told a couple of people at work so they could cover for me as necessary while I helped Laura. Thankfully it turned out that Alyssa only needed three stitches and was very brave about the whole affair. We even ran into our cousin who has been there with RSV for a few days.

After the whole thing was over I just had to think that we have been very much blessed that this is only the second time that we have ever had a child in the hospital (Isaac’s bout with RSV two years ago being the other time).