5-Aug

“Tropical Storm Edouard made landfall Tuesday morning in a wildlife refuge on the upper Texas coast. The National Hurricane Center said the storm's center reached land in the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge about halfway between High Island and Sabine Pass on the border with Louisiana. In its 8 a.m. ET advisory, the center said Edouard's maximum sustained winds were 65 mph, with higher gusts.” – CNN

Kelli spoke with Mom and Dad last night and they were advised that they did not need to evacuate from the storm as it was not expected to remain a huricane and would weaken throughout the day. They were still expected to get a lot of rain.

Mom and Dad’s appartment is in Oange texas, shown in this picture - 7:15am Mountain Time

4-Aug

This past weekend was very nice. Friday I left work a few hours early and came home to start working on the school room. We have been doing things with the room for a while and had wanted to put more shelves up for books and things. It turned out that any shelving unit we could find was expensive. We decided to build a desk/bookshelf that spanned the entire outside wall of the room. Building the shelf for the entire wall (spans 10 feet) was about as expensive as buying one 3x7 shelf. Thus Friday and Saturday I spent most of my time working on that unit. Kelli has been reading the Twilight searing of books by Stephanie Myer. The latest book, Breaking Dawn, was released Friday night at midnight. Kelli and I ran over to the local Wal-Mart at t 12:15am and picked up 2 copies for our family (there are 4 of us that have been reading them and there were some lengthy debates over who go to read the book first (Kelli and Isaac won the debates)). Kelli finished the book early Sunday morning. Saturday evening the Bach family came over and we had an outdoor movie. Sunday after church we went over to the Bach’s for dinner and family home evening. We had a very nice time. We are looking forward to talking with Mentor Graphics more this week and hope to be able to have an onsite interview with them soon. Mom and Dad Kendall came over Thursday and we talked about work and our recent interviews. I had suggested that Dad apply for that job at Harmon. He was able to talk with them Friday. We all hope that he gets that job as it will allow him to work for the rest of the time he wants to work and it’s local. We truly hope that it works out for them. Mom and Dad Olsen called yesterday and said that they had received a call that they might get an evacuation notice today. There is another hurricane (named Edouard) barreling down on Texas where they are serving their missions. We pray for their safety and success.

1-Aug

Just a quick update; yesterday I had a technical interview with Mentor Graphics which went really well. The day before that, I had an interview with a team lead which went fairly well as well. They are a bit concerned that I don’t have experience with some of the tools that interact with the PCB tools. I tried to assure them that I can learn tool quickly and that I at least understand the principals behind the tools. I also called Harmon Music and declined pursuing the interview process. While the offer would have been really good, I was still concerned about the tools, and at the end of the day, it just did not feel right. They were very understanding. I gave them Dad Kendall’s name as a reference. I hope that they can come to an agreement. It may work into something great for them.

Isaac came home from his high adventure camp near the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. He said that he had a great time on the rope course and running the rapids in the raft. We are glad that he had fun and are very grateful that he made it home safe. Last night, he and I worked on putting a cabinet together for the school room. It was relay nice to work with him on that.

30-Wednesday

Monday was my meeting with Harmon Music. I left L-3 a bit early and traveled to Harmon for the interview. When I arrived, I was taken to a conference room and basically they tried to sell me on the company. There are some great benefits to switching to Harmon, they are only a 15 minute drive away from home, They will allow me to work from home a few days a week after I get used to the culture, I would be put in change of integrating the Valor verification tool into their work environment, their medical plan and other benefits are very good (401K matching, dental etc.) , and in the end, they would offer me at least a 10% raise over what I am making at L-3. Things that I don’t like, 1) the tool set they uses is Pads which is a giant step backwards from a PCB skills perspective. I’ve been using world class PCB tools for a long time and it would be very hard to move backwards. 2) They only have 2 weeks vacation instead of 3 and 3) They don’t have any employee stock purchase plans in place. After the interview, I agreed that I’d get back with them by Wednesday.

Tuesday morning, Kelli and I went fasting to the 5:00am session at the Jordan River temple. The purpose for going was to receive some revelation on Harmon vs. Mentor vs. L-3 and what the Lord wants us to do. While in the temple and throughout the rest of the day, I felt that Harmon was just not the right fit. I liked the people and the job sounds very interesting and challenging but there was something about the environment and using 2nd class tools that really bothers me. I interviewed with Harmon last year at this same time and felt the same way.

Last night I got a call from Mentor Graphics and I had my first technical interview with the group manager. I think that the interview went well and he was going to set me up with some of his people for further interviews. I am a lot more excited about this job. The Mentor job looks like a great job. I’d be working in the sales organization, doing technical presentations, writing papers, visiting customers and going to conferences and seminars. The guys on the team travel 2-3 days, 2-3 weeks out of the month and work out of their homes the rest of the time. They would increase my salary by almost 20%. I would be given a car allowance and be able to take my family members with me once in a while on trips. I still get all the same benefits I have at L3 (401k matching, health life insurance etc., 3 weeks vacation and stock purchase plan. During lunch time today, I spoke with their lead sales team member and had a good talk. He said that they do a lot of technical paper writing and presentations, they are able to use their air/hotel miles for personal use, they are in complete control of their schedules, they average 45 hours of work time a week, and that they are looking for a team member that is a mover and a shaker. I’m still not completely convinced yet that the Mentor Job is the right thing but I am getting closer.

The thing that I am struggling with the most is leaving L-3. They have been really great to me, offered me a great position, and have treated me well. I fell like I’d be slamming the door in the their face – I suppose I’ll have to get over that feeling and try to work things out with them the best I can. If moving to Mentor is the right thing, the Lord will help me in making the announcement to my L-3 manager and to the team. Leaving L-3 has some challenges as well. The thing that I’d loose from L-3 is having every Friday off and only working 40 hours a week. I have really enjoyed having every other Friday off and have been looking forward to every Friday off. I also like that L-3 will only allow us to work 40 hours – no overtime allowed. Of course, traveling with he Mentor job will be a challenge to me and our family but the benefits/trade off’s help compensate for that. With both Mentor and Harmon, I’d be getting a 10-20% raise. That’s very significant in today’s environment. Receiving a car allowance would help us cut our gas prices significantly because Kelli could take the car instead of the suburban on all her day trips etc. and be able to leave the Suburban at home. I’ll keep you posted in the next couple of days as I continue to talk with Mentor. I have another interview with the technical people this afternoon which should go just fine.

By the way, Kelli’s mom had her heart procedure yesterday afternoon and seems to be doing fine. The doctors all said the procedure went well. Kelli and the kids went down to visit her today.

Isaac will be returning from the Varsity BIG EVENT tomorrow this evening. He has been gone since 4:00am Monday morning. We hope that he had a great time.

27-Sunday

Hello I am back - While I was away (I was only gone 3 days) Kelli and the kids discovered this Blog thing. At first I was skeptical and wondered "what did you do with my wife". Now however, I like the idea and am excited to use this space to share our lives experience with our family and friends.

As far as scout camp goes, I really enjoyed being with Isaac and Zach. I had a fun time with them and all the rest of our troop. We went to Maple Dell Scout Camp up Payson Canyon. during the day, I walked around with the boys attending different merit badge classes, shooting shotguns (I missed 25 of 25 shots (need to work on that a bit)) and working on scout skills. One of the highlights of the camp is the traditional parade of flags. Every troop has a troop flag and a USA flag. We were sitting in an amphitheater that looked out across the lake. On the other side was an embankment and as they played an awesome piece of music (someone said it was the Olympic theme for the 2002 Olympics. However when I looked it up, it did not sound the same), the scouts walked up that embankment and appeared all at once in a line across the lake. It looked awesome. They did some skits as well. My favorite skit is one called “Bulbous Bouffant”. It was great. If you want to read and listen to it, go to http://ferin.com/words.mp3/. If the audio does not start right away, select the option to play it. After the skits, they played a tribute to America. It was great.

Today we had some friends over after church (the ones that introduced Kelli and the kids to Blogging). In church, The teacher was making a point about treating our bodies like a temple and compared our bodies to our favorite car. In the lesson he pointed out that if we had a really nice car, we would spent a lot of effort trying to keep it niece and save. The same thing applies to our bodies. When asked, I said that my favorite car is a Bugatti - here is a pic (Isaac agreed several years ago that he would buy me one when he got really rich)

25-Friday

I am currently at scout camp with two of my sons, Isaac and Zachary. My wife is going to let me do my own page when I get home. I might have to think twice before I take off again. Don't know what other crazy ideas she may get or how big my honey do list will be when I get home. At least this honey do may be lots of fun. (written by Kelli as her first introduction to the Blog).