An example of his wonderfulness (it’s a word now!) is that he remembers for us that our first date was on Bastille Day in the year 2000.  He took me to dinner, then to the toy store for a preparatory explanation of the movie we were about to see, then to see the first X-Men movie.  We had a great time on that date and got married two years later.  In the nine years since, Colin has made a point of taking me to each of the X-Men movies in the theater in honor of our first date.  Isn’t that awesome?  I like to think romantic stuff like that doesn’t matter to me, but I get really excited when he makes a point of celebrating “us” together.

Good Kimberly offered last-minute to babysit ALL THREE KIDS so we could go out that night, and Colin planned the whole date.  I love planned dates!  Even when they cost zero dollars, or when I don’t even like the plans, I love it just that he plans ahead.  After a very, very long day wrestling with the little ones, re-showering and putting some makeup on and going out alone together was impressively refreshing.  Colin had looked up the new X-Men: Wolverine movie and made phone calls to find out which theaters had it on the largest, digital screens and at what time, then decided on a restaurant nearby for dinner.  We picked up our tickets, then took a little walk around the downtown area, and headed to dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant.  After dinner, we discovered that we’d locked the keys in the car, but we have roadside assistance coverage with our car insurance so it wasn’t too much of a stress and we decided to just watch the movie and then call the insurance to have the car unlocked.  The movie was neat (not flawless, and I recommend watching it on Clearplay at home for those of you who, like me, prefer to skip the violence), and afterward the tow truck/locksmith guy came very quickly. We got home to sleeping children and a lovely babysitter who didn’t even imply a desire to strangle us for being gone so long.  She even giggled with us over the fairy band-aids we got her that we made with “real fairy wings.”  Thank you Kim!

We spent much of the evening patting ourselves on the back for our marriage accomplishments.  We’ve made it through three relatively unpleasant pregnancies, had three relatively pleasant children, bought a house, moved several times, changed jobs, dealt with unemployment and financial stress, done grad school, supported each other in various callings at church, and managed to enjoy each other in the process.  It’s good to remember some things you’ve done right once in a while.  Here’s to forever, Colin!

This week I also worked on doing taxes.  Yes, I know I mentioned that I already did our 2007 taxes.  But we got a letter from the IRS saying that because we hadn’t done our taxes in 2005 or 2006 (we figured we didn’t make enough money to owe them, and were too emotionally drained by the idea of filing at the time that we just skipped the exercise), they wouldn’t send us our 2007 return.  Yuck.  So, I filled out our tax docs for 2006 and 2005 this week.  Turns out they owe us THOUSANDS of dollars.  Yay!  Now I’ve got to get them in the mail.  I think I may be over my tax-phobia.  Maybe.

We did our little pre-school thing this week and Degen keeps asking to do more, which tells me I’m on the right track.  We talked about things we do to keep our bodies strong and healthy, played baloon volleyball, and ran through a mini-obstacle course in the living room, kitchen, and dining room.  My favorite long-term result of this is that when he protests the idea of going to bed, I remind him that we have to sleep in order to be healthy and strong.  He grins and says “I’m strong!”  Then he (usually) goes right to sleep.

Maggie and I, and maybe Colin, have colds.  Degen seems to be avoiding the yuckiness so far.  Runny nose, sore throat, sleepy, grumpy…you name a symptom, we’ve probably got it.  I got my 64 oz bottle of water ready, took a gulp, and Maggie wanted some.  Maggie insisted on holding it herself, and when she took a gulp I noticed that her nose was running into my water bottle! Gross!!  That bottle is going into the dishwasher.  Amen.

Even with all the stress and craziness of the week, I’ve managed to keep up with my excersizing and other goals, so I’m pleased about that.  Thanks for the help from the family this week with everything.  Love ya!

I used to dislike shaving my legs.  I cut myself pretty badly the first couple of times I shaved my legs and the experience tainted my shaving habits for a long time.  Plus, it takes so long to do thoroughly and I’d always notice that I’d missed a spot sometime during the day and it would drive me crazy.  I would shave about once a week for church, sometimes not even then if I was wearing a long skirt, and that’s it.  I’ve very rarely worn shorts since seventh grade and it just didn’t seem necessary.  Oh, and I’d shave when I went swimming at a pool that wasn’t in my own backyard. I tried waxing and chemically dissolving the hair on my legs, but waxing was painful and hard to do and the nair I used burned the skin on my legs the second time I used it and I gave up on that idea.

When I got married I shaved a little more often for the sake of feeling pretty, but after a few months of that I went back to my old habits.  One day out of sincere curiosity, I asked my husband if he’d prefer me to shave more often.  In the kindest, most sensitive way possible, he told that he would prefer it if I shaved.  Surprised, but knowing why he wouldn’t have mentioned it to me before, I committed to shaving my legs more often.  Colin never asks me to change anything about myself, and this was something I could easily volunteer to do.

I decided then that I would try to shave every day.  Habits come most easily to me if I do things daily.   I don’t do it thoroughly–I probably spend about 20 seconds on it–but I shave most days of any given week.  That way, what I missed yesterday or the day before I’ll probably catch today and my legs are always pretty smooth.  I’ve been at this for a couple of years now and it’s just part of the routine and no big deal at all.  I hardly think about it anymore.  I love having shaved legs every day.  I feel prettier and I feel ready to go.  It’s like having my hair done or having makeup on.  So, what started as something I did for my husband turned out to be something I also do for myself, but still with the satisfaction of knowing I did something that pleases him.  Thanks Colin!

He’s keeping track of all his efforts on his blog, www.businessaweek.com.  By keeping the businesses web-based, he minimizes overhead costs and maximizes his ability to keep 52 projects going at once.  So far, he’s focused on businesses that he has some significant past experience with and subjects that he really likes: like karate, latin tutoring, and wedding invitations.  It’s kind of a numbers game–if he starts 52 businesses, it’s pretty likely that most of them won’t take off (at least in a big way), but it’s also pretty likely that one or more of them will take off (hopefully in a big way).  Fun idea, no?

Today he put up business #12, UnionStatesman.com, a site where he discusses the most popular news of the day and makes money by placing ads on the side and by driving traffic to his other business sites.  I’ve found that he always has a lot of unusual and insightful things to say about about the news on any given day, so I’m guessing that this one will be entertaining and interesting. 

If I had to pick a favorite of all his businesses right now I’d have a tough time choosing, but I think I’d go with business #5, ENFPConsulting.com.  It’s a relatively pretty site, and I think it’s the perfect job for Colin–helping other businesses grow and improve using his unique insights and abilities.  His education and interests line up perfectly with the “product” and I’ve seen him provide significant ROI for people and companies who have hired him for projects in the past.  A close second would probably be #6, TheInvitationsExpert.com, just because I think it’s fun to talk about wedding invitations.  But really, all of his business ideas so far are quite well thought out and definitely creative. 

Nice work, Colin!   

We went to the Runner's Corner yesterday to look at new sneakers for me. I love the Runner's Corner because they know about their shoes, know about running, and spend the time with you to help you figure out what you need. I didn't end up chosing any shoes because I was getting a weird pain in my ankle and they sent me home to see if my regular shoes made it go away, or if I just hadn't noticed it until I was paying attention. How many sales people do you know who would send you home if you really wanted to buy something from them, just to make sure you got the right thing? Pretty impressive.

Last night for our weekly date, Colin and I went to the Orem Nickelcade. I'd been there before with a couple of our young male relatives and enjoyed it, but I really had no idea how exciting it would be for Colin. For those of you who haven't been there, it's a big ol' room with a couple hundred arcade games, which you can play for the low entrance fee of $2.25 plus one to threeish nickles each. We walked in and spent at least half an hour walking around touring while Colin repeatedly said "Wow, they have ___!" (Ninja Gaiden, Sunset Riders, Spy Hunter.) We ended up playing a motorcycle game and a few of those side-scrolling arcade games that he lamented were going the way of the world in another post. We even played skee ball and those hit-the-aligator-on-the-head-for-points games. The air hockey table was broken, or I probably would have been subjected to air hockey humiliations galore. The grand finale was on Tekken 4, one of those karate character fight games, where Colin beat the entire game on a nickel (actually that one cost three nickels, but he had never played it before and he beat it on one set of three nickles). We then had the machine count up the tickets we had, gave the receipt to some little girls at the prize counter, and walked away quite pleased with ourselves and the world.

After that, we went to Magelby's at the Riverwoods for some dessert. We had water, Zucchini Sticks, banana cream pie, and creme brulee. They were setting up for a huge party and the hostess secretly (obviously she's not good at keeping such secrets) didn't want to seat us because they were trying to clear all the customers out in the next 45 minutes before the party. I don't know what the party was about, but there were a bunch of big polynesian guys in tuxedos and high-top sneakers setting up audio equipment and moving chairs and tables, and a bunch of (several nationalities) women in crazy white or black evening dresses directing the placement of chairs and plants. We thought it might be a reunion of some sort or an MLM party, but the waitress didn't know either so we may never be enlightened. But because it was noisy and cold (they kept opening the door next to us to take chairs and tables outside) while we were eating the manager kindly gave us a $20 gift certificate to come back and experience a normal Magelby's. We're excited to go back because the food is great and we noticed that they serve breakfast, so we think we'll use it some morning soon.

I rediscovered BYU's 100 Hour Board today. It's a student volunteer organization where you can write in and ask any question at all, and they guarantee to give you an answer in 100 hours or less. They post archives of the questions and answers on their site (see link above), so it's a pretty good reference. In my quick perusal, I saw cheap date ideas, what debt collectors do, and where to find a specific king of MP3 sorter program for free.

On Thursday night book club was successful, if measured by number of attendees and those who read the book and liked it. We decided as a group that Jane Eyre is mostly about how women can be and should be independent, and that integrity gets you the results you want…eventually. I think it's also about people's feelings and passions and how/if they should/can control them.

Colin has an interview on Monday to be the Sr. Broadcast Operations Manager for Evenstar or something in Gilbert, AZ. He just had one that was really fun for him to be a Trainer for eBay here in Utah. He got a request for a second-round application to be International Director for a college in New Zealand. We're waiting to hear from a consulting firm in Provo and in the meantime he's doing projects for RAM Print and for a friend who is starting a business and wants Colin to help him with a marketing plan. On top of that, he's trying to finish up his Accounting and Economics classes! Busy, busy, busy!

So, his last day was on Thursday and we’re now looking for a new job for him. His current resume is on his site, www.colinjensen.com, and we’d love to hear about any suggestions or job leads you know about. Colin is a born leader (when he walks into a room everyone automatically thinks he’s the one in charge), an idea generator (he can think of 100 ideas on any topic in five minutes), friendly, optimistic, and a great writer and teacher. He’s great with numbers and computers and he’s good at designing web pages, fliers and advertisements. We’re willing to move for a good job, so feel free to send us ideas near you!

I am grateful for the time Colin spent working at Pinnacle. It not only provided an income, Colin enjoyed working there and we both learned a lot. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a good experience for us!

Of course, they had to spend some time sorting through Delos’ things and distributing them and cleaning his house. I heard that there were some feelings hurt in the process, even though Delos and Lorraine had taken some pains to be organized and careful about having their things in order and prepared for a time like this. The last funeral I was involved in was the same–although the deceased person had been very careful and specific about their wishes, and the executor had followed instructions closely, there were stll some hurt feelings (even despite everyone’s initial good attitude that “it’s just stuff”).

All this got me to thinking about how we should deal with things in case we were to die. So, Colin and I didn’t do the best thing and write a will, but we did have a discussion and make a phone call. We decided that we’d like my sister, Phoebe, to take care of Degen and Maggie if we were to die. Or, if she’s not able to for some reason (like if she gets married and her husband doesn’t like our kids or something), she gets to have a discussion with the rest of our two families and she has the final say on who takes care of them of those who are willing to help out. We called her and she’s willing to take on the responsibility, so that’s that. And now you know what to do with our sweet little ones in case we die.