March 28th through 30th, 2011 - 108th through 110 Days

Monday was work in the yard day.  My wife finished spreading the new grass seed, and I was in charge of cleaning out the fountain and replacing the rocks.  Have you ever tried to clean out a fountain that has had water sitting in it for 5 months!  Yuck!  It was green (really green, like Oscar the Grouch green) and it smelled like the sewer had spilled all over me.  After I finally got all the water out, and cleaned out the algae, Logan and I cleaned all the rocks off and, Whalla, it looks great now.   Amber and Nicole also planted new plants, and Logan and Hunter were in charge of pulling up the crab grass.  Crab grass has an appropriate name, that stuff is nasty!  You pull up one clump, and two more take it's place.  Crab grass is the Zombie of the grass world.   After 2 1/2 hours, our yard looked nice, and we had to stop for some well needed Costco pizza.  As you can tell, I spend too much time at Costco.  If Costco and Walmart went out of business, I'd have no where to hang out.  I could always start hanging out at Home Depot, but I hear their pizza isn't the best. 

On Tuesday my father-in-law, Wesley Burr, went all the way to Murray to check out a Lincoln Navigator I had found on Cars.com.  Is that a good father-in-law or what?  It sounds like it may be a good deal, so Kerry and I are going up on Thursday to look at that Lincoln, and one other one I found.   Wes definitely wins the nice guy award for the week.  We then went to Logan and Hunters soccer game.  Hunter's JV team is quite good, and beat Canyon View 4-0.  Logan is the starting goalie on the varsity and they shut down the CV varsity 3-0, so it was a good night.  We then came home and stuffed Amber's wedding invitations for 2 hours.  All-in-all, it was a very productive day.  Work is really going awesome, my brother must be doing something right, because we sure have a lot of people interested in our software programs.   On Wednesday morning, Brian Bowling dropped by two new tubes for my bike.  He gets the other nice guy award for the week.  I have great friends, who are really genuine.  I truly feel like my friends would do anything for me.   Things I learned so far this week, 1st, Stagnant water reeks, really reeks.  And if you're going to eat pizza next to a fountain with stagnant water, bring nose plugs.  2nd, Girls get to plant shrubs and flowers, boys get to clean out stinky fountains and pull crab grass.  Is it just me, or does there seem to be something wrong with this picture!  3rd, If you cut off a zombie's head, it just grows back.  If you cut the head off a piece of crab grass, it just grows back.  Therefore, crab grass = zombie, it's pretty simple.  4th, Costco pizza is better than Home Depot pizza.  5th, I've got the best father-in-law, and greatest friends on the planet--seriously!

The Zombie of the plant world!

March 25th through 27th, 2011 - 105th through 107th Days

Do you ever find something that you really love, but you hate at the same time?  Well, my love/hate relationship is with cinnamon rolls.  Tha'ts right, those gooey, tasty, absolutely sinful confections.  Mitch came down this week and made cinnamon rolls for Amber.  This presented a dilema for me.  I love cinnamon rolls, but unfortunately cinnamon rolls love me as well.   Therein lies the problem.  I eat one, and then another, and pretty soon I've gained 4 pounds--even after going to the gym and on a long bike ride.   So, it was very difficult to stay nice to Mitch after he made the cinnamon rolls.  I wanted to scream, "Get thee hence Satan!"    Friday and Saturday were both rainy days, so I not only ate cinnamon rolls, I had to turn on my electric hot chocolate maker and drink hot chocolate all day!  (Yes, I have an electric hot chocolate maker that keeps hot chocolate at a perfect temperate and allows you to make it frothy) Ugh! 

I did do a few nice things, however.  Logan was helping Brian with the timing of the marathon on Saturday and it was rainy and cold.  Nicole and I took him out a jacket and some hot chocolate, which made his day, and ours.  Unfortunately, we should have taken Brian some hot chocolate as well.  Sorry Brian, next time I will not forget you. 

Sunday was a great day, and Steve Dorman gave an excellent talk.  He talked about how sometimes in life you're faced with hardships and you need to do what Dori did in "Finding Nemo".  You have to "Keep Swimming, swimming, swimming; just keep swimming, swimming."  He then related that to facing our trials.   I think if more people just tried to keep swimming, rather than complaining about how cold the water is, or how their arms are tired, we'd probably all be a little better off!  I have a friend, Rick Skousen, he's one of those guys who is always happy.   I think he could get his arm cut off and he would say, "Awesome! I still have one good arm and two great legs.  Am I lucky or what?!"  I've learned through the years that happy people tend to make others happy.  I was interviewing a 16 year old yesterday and I said, "How are you doing?"  She said, "Awesome!  I'm doing awesome!"  I said, "Why, what are you so happy about?"  She said, "Oh, I'm just happy.  I have good friends, a great family, I'm just doing awesome!"   That made me smile the rest of the day. 

Things I learned today, 1st, Cinnamon rolls are bad, even though they're good.  2nd, Hot chocolate on a rainy day is like a pillow after you haven't slept for 4 days--YUM! 3rd, Keep swimming, even if sometimes if feels like an octopus has your legs and is pulling you under the water.   4th, I like to be around awesome people who think life is awesome! 

Kaylee will be home in just over 2 weeks!

March 23rd and 24, 2011 - 103rd and 104th days

OK, Wed and Thursday were good days.    I tried to be nice to all customers, rather than just trying to not be mean.  One of my customers called in and said, "Hey, it sounds like you're getting over your cold".  I said, "I don't have a cold, this is the way I talk".  She said, "No way?!"  I said, "Yes way,  I'm kind of like a cross between Mikey Mouse and a Rock Star!"  She laughed hysterically and told me I had totally made her day.  I was happy that my self deprecation could amuse someone so.   She called back later in the day and really didn't have anything to talk about.  She said she just wanted to hear me, so I could make her happy.    I think maybe I have created a "Happy Stalker".  A Happy Stalker is someone who stalks you and feeds off your enthusiasm so they can be happy too.  So, I guess I'll except my role like a true Mouseketeer.

Thursday started off great!  I went into Dr. Anderson's office and he gave me a Kenalog shot.  I have such bad allergies that nothing helps.  He told me the shot should help immediately.  And WOW, it did!  It's never fun to get a shot in the butt, and have to wear a butt band-aid,  but anybody who has bad allergies will attest, the only thing worse than bad allergies is having your head chopped off with a dull blade.  No, I take that back, sometimes I would prefer to have my head chopped off with a dull blade!

Then, it was soccer time!  Remember, my proclivity to yell inwardly at soccer refs?   Well, I was really tested last night!  The score was 0-0, and the opposing team had a corner kick.   Right when the ball was kicked, the ref blew the whistle and called our guy for a foul.  No one knew what it was for.  Apparently it was because we were jocking for position!  Anyway, that gave them a free kick 5 yards away and they ended up winning 1-0!  I started to say, "Ref, you're a ..."  Then I stopped myself and said, "You're a, you're a...bad ref!"  I guess that's the Mormon way of cussing at the ref.  I'm sure he was quaking in his boots! 

Things I learned the last 2 days, 1st, If you sound like a Mickey Mouse rockstar, you may as well use it to make other's happy!  2nd, Kenalog shots are better than...Well, better than anything I can mention in a blog, let's just say that!   3rd, Soccer refs can be more nerve racking then trying to thread a sewing needle when you have 20/200 vision!

March 18th - 22nd - 98th through 102 Days

It's been a great week.  I've realized I've spent so much time trying not to be mad at anyone that I forgot my ultimate goal.  The goal is not that I won't get mad at anyone, the goad is to be nice to everyone.  There is a big difference between the two.  I've decided that being nice to everyone is a much better goal.  This last 5 days I've tried to change my focus.  It's been fun to go do the laundry, or do the dishes, or clean my room, just because it makes me feel good, and it makes my wife feel good. 

I've missed Logan and Kaylee this week.  I wonder how it will be when everyone is gone off to college or missions.  Logan is one of my best friends, so it was more difficult to have him gone then I thought.  He's a very good kid, and he really is extreemley positive.  I think I'm very lucky to have the kids I do.  Maybe the Lord realized I needed the best he could give because maybe I couldn't have handled the rough cases. 

Friday night Rhys and Pam took Nicole and I out to dinner at Cafe Rio, and then Nicole, and Amber and Hunter and I went to the movie Rango.  It was quite the weird movie, but we laughed nonetheless.   Saturday was just a throughly enjoyable day.  I went for a 35 mile bike ride with my brother, and it was windy, but that just puts hair on your chest (which unfortunately, I don't need any more of!)  Then, I went shopping for clothes with my wife, and then we watched BYU dismantle Gonzaga to reach the sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament.  It just doesn't get much better than that.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were pretty uneventful.  We did get to watch Hunter play soccer against Deseret Hills and they tied 2-2.  Pineview was up 2-0 at half, then we kind of fell apart.  Hunter had a great first half, but his second half was not as good.  He's a fun player to watch though.  Logan is still in Italy, so they had a freshman playing Varsity goalie, and that was scarey, but he did pretty well.

So, some things I learned this week, 1st, Not getting mad at people is not the same as being nice to everyone you meet, I am changing my focus back to being nice to everyone.  2nd.  We've adopted the saying in our house now, "Your name is safe in our house".   It's a little difficult to never say anything negative about anyone, but we're doing much better.  3rd, Amber is about to pop a blood vessel she's so excited about the fact she's getting married.  4th, Jimmer Fredette rocks the basketball world.  I hope they can beat Florida on Thursday!  

March 14-17th, 2011 - 94th through 97th Days

I've almost hit 100 days!  I'm sure something will happen in the next few days to make me not be nice to people, but this has been fun so far.  Monday and Tuesday were great!  Well, at least Tuesday was.  On Monday the client that was trying to rip us off called in and wanted to argue that users that were using our software remotely shouldn't be having to pay for it, since the software was only loaded on 3 workstations.  I said, "So if you bought 3 users, and had 2,000 people logging in from another location to use our software, does that seem right?"  He didn't have much comeback for that one, but Monday night they locked us out of being able to log in to check their user counts!  Oh well, not sure what to do there.  Can you divorce customers?

Wednesday I went shopping for my wife's birthday.  I bought her three or four outfits at JCPenny's.  I think I was the only man in the store that wasn't an employee, or with a spouse.  It's kind of funny the looks people give you when you're in the women's clothing section and you're holding up various outfits.  I'm sure some of the women thought I was of another persuasion.  Hey, at least I wasn't shopping in the lingerie section!  I then went to Kohl's and bought another outfit, but there were no funny looks there.   It was a lot of fun, however.   The ladies that are working at the department store are always very friendly and helpful.

On Thursday it was Nicole's birthday so I took her and Hunter to dinner at IHOP (OK, no teasing, she wanted breakfast food!)  We had a great meal, and our waitress was nice, so I left a good tip.  We then went home to open presents, and hang out watching NCIS re-runs.  Is that a fun birthday, or what.  I was also able to go the entire four days without getting angry at one single person, and I was nice to everyone I came in contact with. Things I learned over the last few days, 1st, if you shop without your wife, don't hold up outfits in front of you and say, "This is devine!", especially if it's a pink shirt!  2nd, I like to shop, is that weird?  3rd, If you buy your wife 5 outfits and she doesn't have shoes to match one of those outfits, you are obliged to buy her matching shoes and earrings, at least that is what 99% of women will tell you.  4th.  IHOP blueberry pancakes are the bomb! 

March 11 - 13th, 2011- 91st through 93rd Days

Friday I woke up to news of a massive 8.8 earthquake in Japan.  It created such a Tsunami that it caused massive problems for the people of Japan, and it looks like over 1,000 people were killed.  That makes for a solemn start to the day.  The day got better, however, as Kerry and I decided to take off on a bike ride at about 11:30 in the morning.  Hey, it was Friday, not much happens on Friday, so I didn't feel too bad.  It's also much easier to stay nice when you're on a bike, unless you have a cowboy in a pickup truck try to see how close he can get to you.  For some reason, I don't think cowboys like cyclists!  Maybe it's because we look like wild animals on our bikes and they instinctively want to run us over, I don't know.  However, this much I've established as a fact--cowboys in pickup trucks older than 1980 (the pickup truck, not the cowboy), don't like cyclists!  Well, I made it through the entire ride without even seeing a speeding pickup truck, then I went to my son's soccer games.  Hunter's J.V. team beat Park City 1-0 and then Logan's varsity team beat the Park City Varsity 1-0.  Logan got a shutout, and it was way intense.  You'll be happy to know, I didn't yell at the ref--well, not very much anyway.  I was very polite for a Kimzey at a soccer match I thought.   Putting a Kimzey at an athletic event and telling him to be quiet is kind of like trying to put a muzzle on a barracuda while underwater --it just doesn't seem to be natural!  Anyway, after the intense game we came home and Amber waited up for Mitchell, who got here at about 11:30.  I waited up with her and we talked, it was nice. 

Saturday we woke up early, cleaned our church, then went to the next soccer game against Uintah.  We shot about 4,000 times to their 2 times (literally, I think Logan touched the ball twice), and we still only won 1-0.  It could have just as easily been 8-0.  Hunter's JV team then put on a clinic, winning 7-0!  The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, until Sunday!  My alarm went off at 5:10, and I got up, showered, and noticed that my phone said 6:30, instead of 5:30!  My meeting started at 6:00!  I had forgotten it was daylight savings time.  I then set the clocks forward and set Nicole's alarm, so she wouldn't miss her meetings.  Yes, I deserved to get harassed by my fellow meeting members!  It's now Sunday night, and the boys and I and Amber watched "How to Train Your Dragon", which is perhaps the coolest animated show on the planet.  I'm not ready to go to bed, and unless I get in a fight with someone after 10:30, I think I'm safe on the be nice to people front.  Things I learned this weekend, 1st, It's better to bike ride and try to avoid cowboys, then to not bike ride and not worry about cowboys.  2nd, My sons rock at soccer!  3rd, I need to make an invention that will slap my face and wake me up in the spring when it's daylight savings time, either that, or I can just remember to set my clock forward.  4th, Logan goes to Italy this week, Kaylee is in London, I'm already missing Kaylee, but I'm going to miss Logan too!

March 7th - 10th, 2011 - 87th through 90th Days

Writing my experiences every day was too hard, and my life is not exciting enough to fill up a paragraph a day!  This week has been fantastic, except for the fact my brother is trying to kill me!  After going on a 50 mile bike ride on Saturday, we went for a 30 mile one on Tuesday, a 30 mile one on Wednesday and a 20 mile one on Thursday, and plan on going on a 30 mile one today.  That's 160 miles in one week!  My legs hurt, my back hurts, and I feel like I'm 80 years old!  Why do I mention this?  Because it's harder to be nice to people when your sore, it really is.  However, I've done good so far, as least if you don't count getting frustrated at emails.  I had a customer send me a nasty email and I wanted to shoot back an even nastier one (believe me, he deserves it, he's grouchy!)  Anyway, I didn't send back a nasty one, but I wanted too!  So, even though my actions are still pretty nice, sometimes my heart is not, so I need to work on that.   So far, this has been a good experience.  Every time I start to get frustrated I think, "No, you need to be nice".  Of course, it makes it much easier when I have such a great wife and kids.  I got home from riding my bike last night and my wife and kids were working on the front yard.  Logan had just stepped in dog poop and you'd think he'd freak out, but he just said, "Oh man!  I just stepped in dog poop!"  He wiped it off and kept working.  My kids are really good little workers, it was fun to change my clothes and work for a few hours with them.  Then we went to In-n-Out and got a burger, so it was a good night, and everyone was nice.  How does life get much better than that! 

March 3 through 6th - 84th through 86th days

It took four more days to write because it was easy to be nice to people for the last four days.  So, if you're reading this blog instead of climbing Mount Everest, I would think twice about your decision.  In fact, I'd probably read my daughter, Kaylee's, blog instead.  She visited Italy last week and her posts are hilarious.  Now, if you're still reading my blog, you must be really hard up for entertainment, so I'll describe my last four days.  We had a blast on Wednesday night.  Amber was having a really hard day because she had spent too much money on the flight to Cancun for her honeymoon.  She went to work that night, obviously a bit melancholy.  So, we decided to cheer her up and go to Brick Oven and ask for her to be our waitress.  We were going to order two cookie monster deserts and then leave her a huge tip.  When we got to the restaurant, they said she had just left.  We were bummed!  So, we called her on her cell phone and she was very sad, because she'd had her worst day ever as a waitress.  She had only made $14 in tips.  So, we weren't going to let that stand, no siree!  We bought four chocolate chip cookies from the Brick Oven take-out, then we went to the store and bought some ice cream and some hot fudge, whip cream, and caramel.   We then called Amber and told her she had to put back on her apron and she was going to make us some cookie monsters, and if she treated us right, we would give her a big tip.   When we got home, she was all dressed in her uniform, and she made us some very tasty cookie monsters.  I asked for the bill and she wrote one up on a piece of paper that read: 2 cookie monsters, .01 cent each, tax .01 cent, for a total of .03 cents.  I then signed the bill and left her a $60 tip.  So, she made a 200,000% tip!  I'm pretty sure that will be her biggest tip ever, at least in terms of %!

Friday we went to Logan and Hunter's soccer game.  They lost, but played really quite well.  The most entertaining part of the game was when the goalie from Wasatch (the opposing team), was about to get scored on, so what did he do?  He full on tackled our striker!  He got a yellow card (should have been a red card) and the ball was placed about 10 feet in front of him for the penalty kick.  Guess what?  Our guy missed, and we lost the game by 1 point!  How do you miss a kick from 10 feet away?  I think even I could have made the kick, and I kick a soccer ball like a grandma on crutches!  Our player felt terrible, however.  At first I thought the goalie had made a stupid mistake by tackling our player.  I guess it wasn't so stupid after all!  I've also realized that it's going to be hard to keep my goal of being nice to everyone when it's soccer season.  How is it possible to be nice to a referee when he makes a bone head call?  I had to bite my tongue like 48 times, and even then I think I said, "Ref, you're a bonehead!"  at least 47 times under my breath.   However, if it doesn't actually come out of your mouth, I don't think it counts, does it?  Stay tune--soccer season may ruin me--and my goal.

On Saturday we took the Varsity scouts (14 through 16 year olds) on a 50 mile bike ride.  This was not any ordinary 50 miler, it had almost 3,000 feet of climbing.  I thought some of the boys were going to die.  There is one hill the local bikers call "The Beast".  It has an 11% grade, and we told the boys they were going to have to climb the beast about 20 miles into the ride.  Every hill that was bigger than a speed bump would inevitably provoke the question, "Is this the beast!"  I'd just laugh and say, "No, that's more like the Beast's big toe".  When we got to the actual "Beast", I said, pointing to Beast, "That's the Beast," at which point I think my son said, "I want my mommy!"   It was rewarding though, to watch them all make it up all the hills and finish the 50 mile ride.  I thought it was quite the accomplishment for a bunch of 15 year olds.

Saturday night we went out to dinner with the Andersons and the Weavers, and had a great time.  Our waiter must have thought we were crazy, because Mike stacked the ketchup and the mustard bottles on top of each other, then Rhys stacked the salt on top of the ketchup and mustard bottles.  The waiter must have thought we were 4 year olds, but we gave him a pretty big tip for all of his trouble--not a 200,000% tip, mind you,  but hey, he wasn't near as cute as my daughter!

Feb 25th - March 2, 2011 - 78th through 83rd Day

So I haven't written in here for a few days.  There's a reason.  I got mad on the 79th day.  I actually got upset at one of my kids, actually quite upset.  No, I didn't throw anything or have steam come out of my head, by I raised my voice a lot.  I tried to remain calm at first, but one of my children was not being nice to my wife so I was not happy.   Anyway, I shouldn't have yelled, so I had to repent and start my quest for kindness all over again.  It seems like I make it 30 days or so, then I have an episode.  I think I must be like an angerleptic.  That's kind of like an epileptic who has seizures, I just have anger seizures.  It made for a hard day, because then I felt bad the rest of the day.  However, BYU beat SDSU by 13 points, and so now they are ranked 3rd in the country, so that made me feel a little better. Oh, I forgot to mention, a few weeks ago, one of the companies on our software wrote me an email and told me that they originally bought 7 users, and so we were billing them for maintenance for 7 users, however, they said they are now only using 3, so they only wanted to pay maintenance for three users.  I had my tech guy log in over a two week period and they were never using less than 9 users!  So, I sent them an email and said, "What's going on?"  They immediately sent me the check for maintenance for the 7 users.  My brother was so mad that they tried to rip us off, that he billed them for the additional 2 users they were using, plus maintenance.  So, dishonesty didn't work out too well for them!  I'll keep you posted, it should get juicy!

Then Sunday came, and it was nice, because I had a great day and I made up with my child.   Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful, but it was nice to hang out with my kids and wife and watch "Megamind" and a little TV.  It's funny, my kids always want me to watch TV with them now because we installed a thing called "BOB" on our TV set.  They have to put in their password, and they only get a certain amount of TV a day.  So, they always want me to come down and watch TV with them, because then they have me put in my password, and it doesn't take up any of their TV time.  So, BOB is my friend, but my kids hate BOB.  Wednesday I was finally able to go for a bike ride with Kerry, it's been 3 weeks because I've been sick.  I think it's now time to watch American Idol and relax!