Blackham Updates (April 2006)

Blackham Update April 3, 2006

Hello Westras! I’m not copying the Blackham side on this update because we all got together on Friday last week. Kolby was out of town, so Jami and the girls came to Utah for a visit. As a surprise, Kolby made a detour on the way home from his trip to join them, so we had the whole clan. So anyway, they’ve already heard any new news.

As many of you may know, Grayson hasn’t been happy at his job for a while now. While the first five years or so were really good, the last few have been really rough. Long hours, differences of opinions with the big bosses...he has contemplated leaving but there was always a change or promotion that made him want to try and give it another chance. This last little bit however, Grayson has known it has been time to move on, but was waiting for his annual bonus to post to our account before making any moves. With that money in the bank, Grayson has given his notice at Hamlet.

Unlike many companies who want to sever the tie immediately, Hamlet wants Grayson to stay on as long as possible while they find a replacement (they’ve lost a number of people lately...similar reasons as Gray). They asked for 120 days, Grayson said he would do 60 days, but he would really like it to be sooner. He says it’s going to be hard to continue working there when it isn’t for the long haul.

Grayson was ready to quit no matter what, but he has been meeting with another builder (Symphony Homes) off and on for some time now, and they made him and offer on Friday. He will be “Operations Manager” responsible for all construction, purchasing, estimating, pre-construction and design departments. It’s about the same as what he was (vice-president of construction) at Hamlet, maybe a tad more responsibility. The salary will be slightly higher, with a nice allowance for a truck and a bonus based on company profitability. He gets three weeks vacation right off the bat (hopefully he will actually be able to take some) and the company will pay our Cobra medical costs until the insurance kicks in (after 90 days).

The company itself is smaller than Hamlet (maybe 100 employees), and while their volume is less, their profit is actually higher. They are a good company, so Grayson is happy he’s not coming in to “fix” anything broken. Symphony has been doing higher end homes, and would like to expand more into less expensive, starter homes.

There are three owners, and Grayson had met with two of them I think over a year ago and really liked them. At that time, they weren’t quite ready to commit and Grayson got a promotion at Hamlet so nothing happened then. He met the third owner for the first time a couple weeks ago...he came hobbling in with a walking book....recovering from a ruptured Achilles Tendon. Gray said it created an instant connection.

Symphony is ok with waiting a couple months for Grayson to come on board while he finishes up his obligation with Hamlet. Grayson would actually like to take a month or so off completely, but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to pull it off.

So anyway, I hope everything goes well and that Grayson will be happier with his work. These next couple months finishing up with Hamlet will probably be a little uncomfortable, and then there is always the break in time with a new company, but we both feel good about the move.

Jen and da boys

Blackham Update April 8, 2006

The district science fair was last night. We had to go in on Thursday to set up and leave the project overnight. On Friday, Landon went in for the "Interview" portion at 5:30. At 6:00, you could walk around and look at all the projects, but there were so many people in so little space, it didn't really work. We had looked at the projects on Thursday after setting up, but not all were in place at that time. There were about 100 entries for the 4th grade from the various elementary schools in the Jordan School District. The awarded 15 first, 10 second and 10 third place ribbons. Landon's took second place, and was the only one from Columbia Elementary to place at all. He was happy. 

Nice having a nice day today. We've worked outside a little, cleaning out the old from last year and putting in some new flowers. Cooper wants to live outside, I keep trying to bribe the older boys to go out with him and watch him after I've had my fill, or need to stay in with the baby (although I had Colton out for a while this morning too). 

I'm not sure how much I'm trusting Landon to babysit though. Today I put him in charge while I quickly ran to the store for milk. As I was leaving Cooper followed me into the garage. I waited a bit to see if Landon would come out for him, but he didn't. I ended up taking him with me, calling Landon when I got to the store to see if he had missed his baby brother yet (he hadn't even realized Cooper wasn't around.) Maybe I'll still have to get babysitters for a while! Last night the older boys asked if I could take Colton next time I went somewhere, because they wanted the sitter to play with them rather than take care of the baby. 

Grayson is out buying a new truck today. An Avalance, like he had before. Originally his work had asked for 120 days, and Grayson had agreed to work for 60. Then, the date was moved to May 12. But, his leaving is creating some chaos, so it is actually moved up to next Friday. He should still get paid for work through the May 12th date. Gray is estatic. He had originally wanted to take some time off but didn't think it would work out. He just wants to sleep for a week (which he deserves) and then we'll do some fun stuff as a family, and of course I'm working up a big "honey'do" list. Gray might even grab a boy or two and take a flight up to Portland with some frequent flier miles. 

Blackham Update April 24, 2006

Time for another Blackham Update! There has been a lot going on, lots of changes lately.

As I wrote last, Grayson finished up his employment last Friday,  April 14. So as of today, he’s had a full week “off” and has enjoyed it. The boys are also off-track for a couple of weeks, so we’ve had an abnormally full house. Here’s a little of what has been going on...

As soon as I found out Grayson was going to be home for a few weeks, I called and made  some doctor appointments (I’ve been putting them off as normally I can’t find a sitter during the day.) I took Callahan into the dermatologist for a rash on his neck that he’s had for quite a while. The doctor said it was a bacterial infection and prescribed an antibiotic. He’s been on it for almost a week and it hasn’t really gotten any better yet though. I also took Keaton and Colton into the doctor for their “well” child checkups. Keaton had to get three shots (he tried to be brave but he did cry) and Colton got three too. The baby (4 months to the day) weighed in at 17 pounds 4 ounces and was 26 inches long. I think the doctor said both height and weight were in the 90%.  Grayson will be going back in to the doctor that performed his Achilles surgery for a checkup next week as well, as recently he’s started jogging and exercising again.

Both Keaton and Callahan have just started T-ball for spring season. We debated doing soccer (they both wanted to) but there is a fall season of that, and spring is the only time T-ball is going on. They are both having a lot of fun with it and it’s giving them a good intro to the sport. They have games each Wednesday and Saturday, with practices on Tuesday (Keaton) and Thursday (Callahan). It keeps us busy, but we do have neighbor kids on both teams, and so far she has been taking the kids to the practices, which is a help. The kids look so cute out on the little fields, running and (not) catching.  Grayson said Callahan has shown marked improvement since he played catch with him last.

The other morning we all went out to breakfast at IHOP, which was fun. Then, we went up to the zoo. We thought a cool Thursday would be a good day, and apparently everyone else did too, as it was packed! We even ran into our next-door neighbors there.  Colton slept in the stroller the whole time and wasn’t any trouble.

Gray and I have been trying to get some things done around the house, but haven’t gotten a whole lot done yet. We’ve ordered a shed for the backyard (Grayson has wanted one for quite a while) and that will help us store some of our “stuff”. We need to get the basement cleaned out so that it can be framed and finished up. We need to get a room finished down there and move a couple boys down, and create a space for Cooper (as he is currently sleeping with us in our bed and it needs to STOP). I SO want the basement finished, having a bathroom and more closet space.

Grayson’s been a little busy this week with the Bountiful house (now that he has some time to help out), finishing it up and ready for the buyers. It actually closed last Monday and he and his partner will make a nice profit. He’s making more in one blow that if you doubled my annual salary when I was working last year. Now, he’d like to find a way to save on taxes.  This year we still owed quite a bit, just getting our returns off on Monday as well. Grayson would have actually liked to move into this house, especially as it is really close to the Symphony offices. He took an afternoon and went in to let them know he had left Hamlet early (he didn’t want them hearing it second hand) but that he’d still like to wait until June 1 to start if that was ok (they said that was fine). He got to see his office, and he said it is huge and really nice. He’s a little nervous coming in at the top of a company, at Hamlet he started small and worked his way up getting to know everyone along the way.

We’ve been having some “technical difficulties” at our home. The large plasma television in our room got a little line through it a while back. The one line was joined by another, then another, then another. It was still watchable, but quite annoying. Grayson had purchased an extended warranty on the tv (it is just over a year old) so he looked into a repair/replacement. They actually sent out a totally new television. We don’t have any info about what to do with the old one. The kids want Grayson to set it up downstairs for them to play video games on. I told them it had lines running through the screen to which they replied “kids don’t care about things like that!”.

The other equipment that has been giving us problems is my computer. We’d had some problems with it over a year ago, just before its warranty was to expire. It wasn’t so much the computer, but the monitor (it blacks out) but unfortunately, the monitor and computer are all one thing. So it was covered, but we would have to send the whole thing in, which is always scary (there is just too much stuff to backup completely). We had the box and everything and were trying to get up the courage to disconnect and send it in, when the company called trying to sign us up for an extended warranty (3 years for $300). The interesting thing was that this extended warranty included “in house” service. I signed us up, and we decided to wait until it kicked in rather than sending the computer in. Ironically, almost to the moment I hung up the phone accepting the extended warranty the monitor stopped flickering. Anyway, the computer kept working and we never had to get a repair. Recently, it has started flickering again, even going completely out for a couple of days. Grayson called Gateway and they sent out a box to have it shipped in (he forgot to ask them about the in home service) but ... again, right as he got off the phone...it stopped blacking out. Weird!

The weather has been weird too.  One day the kids are out in their swimsuits, playing in the sprinkler, then next morning it snows. There has been enough warm weather that I’ve been able to get outside and weed the flower beds and plant some pansies and such. It’s nice to have the yard a little more under control. Colton enjoys being outside for a little bit - I put him in the swing in the backyard and he was content for quite a while. We’ve gone for a couple walks too. Last Saturday, when it was so warm, all the big kids went swimming at the neighbors, Cooper wanted to be a part of it, but I made him stay in our yard. He looked so cute in his little swim suit. We haven’t picked up a pool yet, so I filled up a little toboggan (it’s good it’s getting some use, we never used it for sledding) and he didn’t want to come in. He did get a pretty bad sunburn on his little shoulders though.

I hope the weather continues to be nice, looks like it’s rainy again today.

Jen and da boys