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Long Overdue Update
Sunday, May 9th, 2010Well, it has been way too long of a break, so I am going to try and sum up what we’ve been up to for the past months.
Sharon and I were enrolled in Dixie State College since last Fall. Sharon completed her Certificate of Visual Technologies, and I worked on my Bachelors of Computer Science, with an Emphasis on Visual Technologies. This resulted in us being in many of the same classes. That was a lot of fun because we got to help each other out with homework and remembering when things were due. Believe it or not, she helped me a lot! I am so proud of Sharon and all of the things she has learned and done this past year. She also started a photography business this year and has made amazing progress putting her portfolio together. You can see her site here: http://www.enchantedwindowphotography.com
I was reflecting just the other day about how much Sharon has changed since we were married last April. She had no interest in photography or computer things, and now she is a Photographer and has a Certificate in Visual Technologies! She even knows how to make Flash movies, Web Sites, and write programs in code! It boggles me how fast of a learner she is.
I would be remiss to not make mention of our 1 year anniversary. It is mind-boggling how fast time has been flying. It really doesn’t feel like a year has already passed. We are getting ready to move up to Provo at the end of this month, and we are both SOOOO excited to finally get our own place and start school up there. Sharon will be going to BYU to get her Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I will be going to Utah Valley University to try and finish my Bachelor’s in Computer Science. We are both very excited about this.
We are planning to go traveling in December to Australia to see Sharon’s sister, Ivy, graduate from her University in Adelaide. So we’ll be saving our pennies and dimes for that.
I was accepted to take part in Google’s Summer of Code 2010, and will be developing a module for Drupal 7’s new Commerce platform. I am really excited to be an ‘employee’ of Google, since it’s long been a dream of mine to work for them.
My business endeavors have been flourishing, and I am keeping busy every day with some new project. There really never is a dull moment (unless you consider programming dull, haha).
Kendall will be graduating from Hurricane High School this month. This means that all of the ‘kids’ will be done with High School! Amazing again how fast time flies. We will all be in Provo this Fall, because Tyler will be back from Mexico and attending BYU, along with Kendall and Chantelle and Sharon. So that should be fun.
Anyways, I will try and update this blog more often since I will be a bit more free this summer!
Still Alive and Kicking
Sunday, September 6th, 2009Well, another week has come and gone, and we are still alive. It seems like time is just moving faster and faster. Last week on Friday I was able to test out of my IT 1100 class with an A-, and I decided to take it since I have a lot of classes and also my job to do this semester. It will be a lot less stressful now. I was able to get my assignment done for CS 1410, programming the logic behind an Animal Game, which is due on the 18th, so that is a big relief as well. Now I just need to concentrate on my VT 1300, IT 2400, and HIST 1700. Tomorrow is a holiday so I don’t need to worry about HIST 1700 for another week, although we will be having our first exam (on our 3rd class day of the semester). I already read the chapters so I feel ready for the exam, but I need to write a paper as well which is due next week.
My VT 1300 class is really starting to get old. The teacher seems to go off on tangents WAY too much, and then on tangents of tangents, so in the end, we end up listening to a lot of stories and history, but don’t really learn much. In the first 2 weeks of the class, we haven’t learned a single thing it seems like. We haven’t even had any assignments. I took this class because I was really interested in learning some Design Techniques and skills that I can use in my work and on my personal projects, but up until now have been disappointed.
I have been keeping really busy with my work, working every day of last week even between classes at school. I have two big deadlines on Tuesday so I am really trying to squeeze them in, and I have also been working on my personal site, MoneyScripts.net, as well as brainstorming and coding a new PrestaShop module which I plan to release this week. So it’s a lot of things, but it is good to be busy, and I hope that I will continue to be blessed with lots of work in the future. I also hope that I will be able to find new ways to create recurring income streams by launching new personal web sites. I have a number of ideas, just need to find the time to do them.
This week I hired someone to do some of my work for the first time. Nikki Yoder, a talented Web Designer and the wife of one of my best friends, Paul, did some work for me. She did a perfect job, and I hope to continue using her in the future when I get too much work. She is really good, if anyone is interested, feel free to check out her portfolio: Artistic Element. She is just starting out as a Freelancer, so she needs to find some good clients.
Yesterday Sharon and I went to the local celebration, Peach Days. She took some pictures and I suspect she is writing a blog post about it, so keep your eyes open for that one. Sharon has really made me proud this last week, she has been keeping up with her school work and also doing home chores like laundry and cooking and making the bed. It really is nice to live with her. She is learning how to code HTML in one of her classes, and she is such a fast learner. She was scared at first that she would never get it, but I think she is a natural. She has a lot of talent, and I can’t wait until I can get her to make some designs for my future web sites! Haha.
Today we both went to Nursery, and it was a lot of fun and a lot of work at the same time. Those kids have so much energy, it is hard to keep up. Kendall and Mom both bore their testimonies during Sacrament Meeting, and I was really impressed with both of them. It especially hit me how mature Kendall is, an how grown up he has become. I am really proud of him, along with my other two siblings and my mom.
In summary, I am loving school, it is a lot of fun and I LOVE to learn new things. I am looking forward to doing more things with Chris & June, Paul & Nikki, Ben and some other friends in the coming weeks.
Back from KK trip
Saturday, March 21st, 2009Well, I am home sweet home again here in Miri. In KK I was able to get an extension to my Visa. It was actually somewhat of a nightmare. Sharon’s Dad took me to the immigration office in KK. I waited in line and then we were told that we needed to go to this place across town to get a signature and stamp, so we drove across town and waited in line there, and filled out some forms, then we took Sharon to her Doctor’s appointment and then drove back to the Immigration office, where I submitted the papers and waited in line some more. Lines lines lines. Anyways, when it was my turn, the officer said I needed to go pay RM 100 before I could get the extension, so I had to – you guessed it – wait in another line. After I paid, I brought back my papers and everything to the officer. He put them in his basket and told me to go wait. So I went and sat down. The officer literally sat at his desk doing nothing for like 20 minutes, (all the while trying to avoid my gaze of impatience which was directed at him), then finally he took it and signed it and then called me back up. He said that I need to leave Malaysia since my passport is now full, and that he would give me 30 days to stay here. I thought, well that’s fine since I only need to be here til the start of April anyways, so I took it and we left. Once I got in the car, I was reading the papers in my passport and realized it said I could stay in SABAH ONLY for 30 days. This basically sucks since I am currently living in Sarawak, and I need to go to West Malaysia as well before I go back to the US. So we had to go back and speak with another (nicer) officer, who told us to wait while she took care of it. While we were waiting, I said a silent prayer to myself (the first time I’d prayed about my Visa) and asked Heavenly Father to let it work out in a way so that I wouldn’t have to pay any money and I’d get the Visa for the places I needed to go. I was thinking ‘pay any extra money’ but I said ‘pay any money’ in the prayer. Anyways, when the officer got back she handed me my RM 100 and said that no payment was necessary, that the system the other officer used was old and out of date. Then she said they would give me a new extension and that it would be free! Really cool, I feel like my prayer was answered. Anyways, after waiting (another 30 minutes) I was able to get my shiny new Visa sticker they put in my Passport (in the back since there was no more space left on the pages). This one was nice since it let me stay till May 2009 and was valid for SABAH and WEST MALAYSIA. The only problem was that SARAWAK was still not listed. I asked the officer and she said that it wouldn’t be a problem, since when I flew back to SARAWAK they could just stamp me another tourist visa. Anyways, that ended that fiasco.
Sharon also had a bit of a fiasco with the doctor, but I’m sure she will tell us how that went on her blog.
The rest of the time in KK we spent going to get Sharon’s hair done, seeing her friends, going to Tanjung Aru Beach Resort, and lazing around at home (well, I tried to work when I could). It was a nice mini-vacation before things get hectic again. We are planning to go for our Visa Interview in KL this week, so if you guys could pray for us that we will get the Visa, it would be a big help.
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any pictures, so if you guys want to see some pics, go check out Sharon’s blog, I believe she will be posting some.