Paul's First Business Trip

I can now check off one of my lifelong goals: Go to Alaska.

This past week I went on my very first business trip. I have been to work meetings within the state of Washington a number of times, but always returned home that evening. But this time I traveled in an airplane and stayed a night in a hotel. Yep, watch out I've hit the big leagues now.

I traveled to Juneau, AK for a couple days to get acquainted with the project I'll be working on this summer. Thankfully Volcano Redoubt and the falling ash were roughly 650 miles to the Northwest, therefore not affecting travel into Alaska's Southeast area.

Juneau is only accessible via plane or boat, but it is not on an island, just locked in by large mountains and glaciers. For a small city though I was surprised to see all that was there, i.e. Home Depot, Costco, Fred Meyer, Safeway, and others. (Walmart was there too, but since I am VERY anti-Walmart and refuse to spend any money there, I will not mention it other than this noting.)

Below is a picture of Glacier Valley Elementary School. This is where I will be all summer. Dawson Construction is completing the second phase of renovations to the school this summer. Most of my time on this trip was spent at the elementary school taking measurements and visiting with other construction professionals.
It was snowing and raining when I arrived. A little surprising to me, for some reason, there was a lot of snow in Juneau. I understand it is ALASKA, but almost the entire city sits at roughly 50 feet, +/- 30 feet above sea level. The locals told me there had been twice as much snow sitting on the ground earlier in the winter.

Juneau is home to a very large glacier, Mendenhall Glacier. My pictures below do not even come close to doing this large mass of ice justice. I am still in awe over how ginormous this thing was, and is. Maybe I should pay better respect to the glacier and rephase the first sentence of this paragraph to say: Mendenhall Glacier is home to Alaska's Capitol City, Juneau.

I am told there are a lot of bears in Juneau, AK. I guess this is probably true when I didn't see any deer crossing signs because the bears ate them, and the bear crossing signs had to be put up instead. (Or maybe there are just lots of bears.)


While at the elementary school I couldn't help but notice the children's art work. They were very creative and I most enjoyed the local Native Amercian/Regional spirit which shown through.

Totem Poles.

Alaskan Animals: Killer Whales, Grizzley Bears, Salmon, King Crab, Bald Eagles,...

A picture I took from inside the airplane as I was leaving. Notice Mendenhall Glacier in the center background. That thing is MASSIVE!

The trip was very enjoyable and I am excited to have Vicky and the boys with me in Juneau this summer. One of the major perks to working away from home is Dawson Construction will be paying all our living expenses. And although I will be pretty busy, any of you are more than welcome to come visit us and we'll even let you stay with us.


While waiting for my flight back to Bellingham, at the SeaTac Airport, I took this picture for Benjamin. And as expected, he loved it, and wants to fly on it. Kids are so great! I think I want to fly on it too!

Benjamin in the kitchen, part two

Thanks for your responses to my baby food-making question. I'd still love to hear more if anyone would like to add! Those who have the Kidco grinder, where did you get it? I'm thinking of buying it on Amazon, but are there stores that sell it? I'd like to steer clear of websites with bright flashing buttons. Any tips on good places to buy?

A baby food question

I'm hoping that someone of you who read this will be able to give me some input on this. I'm tired of feeding Rhett jarred baby food. He goes through it so quickly, and it's getting to be quite expensive. I've been wanting to buy a baby food grinder instead. Have any of you tried this? When I have searched for one on Google there is basically just one that stands out, and that's the Kidco baby food mill. It has received some pretty good reviews, but others that say it's no good, which makes me hesitant to buy it. I wonder what other options are out there. Have any of you opted to make your own baby food instead of going the Gerber route? Any tips? I know we could get a little food processor, and I'm not ruling it out, but I like the portability of the food grinder. Anything anybody can tell me about what they've done or heard of would be so welcome!

If they didn't have holes before, they do now

St. Patrick's Day

Did you get visitors at your house, too?

Ours turned our oatmeal green.


Sneaky leprechauns!





In addition....

We had our ward St. Patrick's Day party a couple of weeks ago. We were supposed to bring green desserts, but I decided (possibly against my better judgement) to get a little more creative and do something fun, but not totally green.

I've been admiring the work on several creative blogs lately. One thing I'd been wanting to try was Bakerella's cake balls/pops after seeing the idea on my friend Lori's blog. This seemed like a good opportunity to try.


They weren't as fantastic as they've been hyped up to be, or maybe after all my work I was expecting something more than cake and icing encased in candy. Probably the latter. But they were still a tasty, fun treat.

(Here's how I did it and my thoughts on the outcome, if you'd like to know.)
For the leprechauns I used vanilla- and peanut butter-flavored candy melts over chocolate cake/cream cheese frosting cake balls. The peanut butter flavor really overwhelmed the flavor of the cake, rather than complementing it as I had hoped (the candy in general made the whole thing really sweet). Their hats were made with vanilla wafers and Rolos (frozen so they wouldn't melt) dipped in green vanilla candy. Not hard to assemble, but I'm sure Bakerella's would have looked much, much cuter. I used black Wilton decorating gel for the faces, as seen on the Pioneer Woman's cake pops.

The leprechaun pops were more work than I wanted to do again, so the second batch become pots of gold. This time I used chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, and I liked the flavor a little better than the others. These I dipped in dark mint cocoa candy melts, and topped with a squeeze of yellow vanilla candy melts for the gold. Now, these I thought tasted so much better than the overly-sweet peanut-butter-chocolate leprechaun heads. I really liked the dark chocolate mint flavor because it made the whole thing seem less sweet.

I learned from this experience that Fred Meyer only sells Almond Bark at the holidays, as does Albertson's. Wilton candy melts are cheaper at Michael's than JoAnn, but I'll try to wait to do these again until I can get Almond Bark, since I think it will coat better.

Mascot Tournament Challenge

Vicky, Benjamin, Rhett, and I filled out our 2009 NCAA Tournament Brackets tonight for Family Home Evening. Rhett had some help from me. Vicky did her own. And Benjamin completed his Mascot Tournament Challenge. For each game I told him the two mascots and he would pick one. Below are his picks. (I thought this was pretty humorous, and we should have taken a video of it.) As you can see Benjamin really has the March Madness! I have never seen nor heard of so many predicted upsets. His final four mascots are: Badgers, Utes (I tried to help him NOT make this choice,) Tar Heels, and Terps. He said the Terps (Turtles from Maryland) would beat the Utes, and the Badgers (from Wisconsin) would beat the Tar Heels (of North Carolina.) And for all the marbles Benjamin chose the #12 seeded Badgers over the #10 seeded Terps. For Benjamin's sake, Go Badgers!


By request, note that I have included the unfilled mascot bracket below.

Green Eggs and Ham and Milky Carrot Sticks

I must confess, today was not my finest day as a mother. I won't elaborate because this post is not about my failings today. It's about the fact that I still feel like claiming some shred of my identity as a decent parent because of two things.

First, we had green eggs and ham for lunch.

This is not Benjamin thinking it's gross. This is him saying, "These eggs are hot."

Then he proceeded to put a whole slice of ham in his mouth.

In addition to the first point, and maybe more a credit to Benjamin than to me, this lunch of green eggs and ham was consumed after he ate half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bite of my lunch, and some milk. Some days are good because of a couple of bites of pb&j and a swig of milk, so today was excellent in the lunch department.

Our whimsical lunch was prompted by his interest in the book of the same name this morning.

Second, after a long day of tending napless children (and everything that comes with them), I didn't lose it when I found Benjamin doing this just as we were getting ready to sit down for dinner.


He must have thought our carrots and celery needed a pre-dinner dip in a milk bath. After rinsing and wiping, there was some sort of order reestablished at our house. Or at least our dinner table.

And to make another point in my favor, I think the presence of carrot and celery sticks on our dinner table at all should count for something.

The Perils of Mobility

Rhett has barely been crawling for a month and a half, but he's already quite the speed demon as he moves himself around the house. Fortunately he's used to taking hits (thanks to his big brother), so the bruises he acquires along the road to walking are pretty well tolerated.

This one we think he got from running into/falling onto the raised brick hearth of our fireplace. Like I said, he's pretty quick. So we don't always see exactly what happens before we hear the cries.


This goose egg was acquired today while playing in the boys' room. You wouldn't think I was just four feet away from him when it happened. He was pulling himself up on our wooden rocking horse, but I suppose it starting rocking away from him and he came away with this:




The swelling has gone down quite a bit, but it's obviously still tender. Good thing he takes hits well. Not that we promote such things in our house. This is just how it goes.

Twinkle Star Rock!

No words needed for this one. Enjoy!

What joy these little ones bring us. It is because of the many daily moments like these that I feel so thankful to be a part of their lives. Amidst the temper-tantrums and the two-year-old independence, are these moments. Twinkle, twinkle my little Star!

A New Company

Cliff-notes Version.
I have a new job at Dawson Construction. I left Ebenal General because of strong ethical differences. The Lord has greatly blessed our family, again. This summer (May-Sept.) I will be in Juneau, AK.

Full Version.
As many of you may already know, I now work for a different company. About a year ago while still at BYU, when I was seeking employment in Bellingham,WA there were four companies that I was interested in. The four companies that seemed to fit this description in the Bellingham area were (from largest to smallest): Dawson Construction, Ebenal General, Faber Brother's, and Credo Construction. These companies appeared to be strong, good quality, possibly had a need for new guys like myself, had plenty of work to stay busy and ride out the economic struggle, and had a central office where I would work out of (instead of moving with each job). One other thing that was very important to me was a piece of advice given to me from Brett, "In your line of work there really isn't a need for graduate school. Rather, your first job should be more like graduate school. Find a good job that someone will be willing to mentor you and really teach you construction management."

Of the four mentioned companies, Dawson Construction not only seemed to be the best of the group, but they were the company that got me interested in living in Bellingham in the first place. After applying and later following up with each company, only one had a position available, Ebenal General. After visiting with the company, I liked what I saw and heard. Vicky and I felt good about moving to Bellingham, and that the Lord was happy with having us here. And many things fell easily into place to get us to Bellingham.

My time at Ebenal General lasted about seven months. After starting work there last July, I learned early on that this was a company I would not be staying at for very long. There were many strong business and ethical differences between the owner and key managers in the company and myself that I knew this was not a place I should be. Never in my life have I gotten in trouble because I was not willing to be dishonest, and then looked down upon by many others because of the honest stand that I took. I knew I was not getting from my first job what I needed and wanted and could feel an emotional toll being taken on me and my family. Thus I began quitely and quickly looking into other options.

Last November I was blessed to start the interview process with Dawson Construction. After a couple interviews, a lengthy online personimetrics exam, and a couple of months, Dawson had an opening for me and made me an offer. The offer came on February 13. What a great Valentine's gift (if you will). I returned to Ebenal General Monday morning and shared with them that I had accepted an offer to work for another company and this was my two week notice. Ebenal General was very suprised. I spent a few hours working there that morning when from behind me my manager walked up, pressed the shut off button to my computer, and said, "You're done." I was so happy when that happened. Tuesday was spent at home with Vicky and the boys, and then Wednesday I started up with Dawson Construction. I am very happy at Dawson and feel there is a strong future there for me.

Dawson Construction is the largest construction company in Bellingham, WA. They are very, very well respected in this community. (And in as small of a community this is, that is a BIG thing.) They do almost all their work in Bellingham, WA and the Southeast area of Alaska. (The Southeast area of Alaska is all the islands at the 'southeast' portion of Alaska, sandwiched between Canada and the ocean. Many of these islands and cities are only accessed by boat or air, including, Juneau, Ketchikan, Haines, Skagway, and Sitka. (Haines and Skagway can be accessed by car, but it is much harder and longer to do so.)) The company has asked me to spend this summer in Juneau, and hopefully Vicky and the boys get to come. There is an elementary school renovation that we will be finishing and it will be on an intense schedule. Therefore the need to have an office person on site is essential. What an adventure and opportunity this summer in Juneau will be. After this summer I will return back in Bellingham to stay. I double checked with the owner of the company that I will be a Bellingham guy, before I signed on with Dawson. The project estimator/manager I am under has for Dawson roughly 35 years. His name is Gary and he is very careful and organized with his work. A couple days after I started at Dawson he shared with me some of his thoughts about having me around. He said for many years he chose not to have an assistant. But late last year he felt that he would like to have an assistant again. He wanted to pass on the things he had learned, and help me achieve mt goals. For me, Gary's comments were another direct answer to prayer. It was late last year, October/November when I really started praying hard that another opportunity would open up for me, in a much better environment and company.

I do not feel near as ignorant or naive as I previously was. I will always be grateful for my days at Ebenal General. What an incredible learning experience for me, one which I feel I would not have easily gotten elsewhere. It was not a waste to work there, but rather an expericene which will never be forgotten and will be used as teaching memories and moments the rest of my days. I know that the Lord knew I needed to have these experiences and opportunities. He also heard and answered my many prayers and fasts with the opportunity to work for Dawson Contsruction.

Below is a picture Gary took in Juneau, Alaska last September at the elementary school.

(Bears are not uncommon in the city. Notice the September snow in the background.)