October

Hmm. What to say?.... October. Hmmm.
I worked a lot. Got sick again and Gidian is a ray of sunshine.
Pretty much the same ol' crappola.

I finally got sick of getting sick, so I went to an internal medical doctor who took about 9 pints of blood. Actually, just 9 vials, but it seemed like a lot.
The results were that my thyroid was grossly insufficient for the task. So I take some synthetic version of whatever hormone the thyroid makes. I really put it to the test this week. I didn't get much more than 6 hours of sleep every night and I'm not sick yet. If I can lick this, I will feel like I have my life back. I've been as weak as a half-drown kitten and as ache and sick as a 80 year old man.

Our CPA firm is going crazy. We are hiring 12 people out of school this year, which is about 4 or 5 times the normal rate and that doesn't include the 3-4 we have hired with experience. And we turn down a full blown audit every week. I was just assigned to two new ones. One is a big company called Q Comm International. You can find it on the SEC website. Also Orbit irrigation, the plant in Bountiful. I have an inventory observation on Monday. Happy flippin' Halloween. The noob (i.e. Newbie, New guy) I've been working with named Steve has been great. Funny, nice, smart guy and we've been a good team. The problem is he is so smart (scores of over 90 on the 2 cpa sections he has taken so far) that he is going to strike out on his own and get his own greeny and I'll get one too. So they are splitting us up to double our work potential.

My firm has also decided to hire B'Andra to work the tax season. She will work a measly 40 hours a week from Feb to April 15 and then be available for the other tax deadlines and there are many. Hopefully she can do some work at home. She is also picking up some bookkeeping work that she will be able to do at home.

Gidian has been enrolled into a Lutheran daycare a block from our house. It is a really good school and is $10 cheaper and 10 miles closer than his old one. We are hoping that he will be able to go full time in February, but for now he is only going Wednesday and Friday. He is getting old enough that he needs a little structure and training. He is thirsty for information, knowledge, art and most of all music. He LOVES to sing. Loves music. He obsesses on songs.

He loves when B'Andra sings to him. She has a pretty decent repertoire of nursery songs, primary songs and Disney songs. I usually just make ones up on the spot. He also gives me a funny look when I use words he knows in a song. Almost like he saying, "I'm used to songs not really making sense, but I can parrot them, but I UNDERSTOOD that about Jecca eating food."

He's halfway potty trained. He's been wearing pull-ups, but it is hard when he is out with mom on errands because he won't report his status, you just have to catch him. But he is good at home and we try to make it fun. For the first several times, I would put the biggest smile on my face when he successfully went that now, he opens his mouth wide in an O and thinks it is pretty cool when he goes.

Halloween should be fun. We are all going to be pirates. I'll get some pictures. We carved some pumpkins that look pretty good. B'Andra bought a book with some patterns and utensils. The little knives are the best. You can really do some intricate stuff in a MUCH safer way than the big, dull butcher knives from yore.

I'll go try and get a picture.

B'Andra recently went to LA with me on an audit again. She spent 6 days in a row at Disneyland. I was able to go 3 days, Fri night, Sat, Sun. I frankly have no idea how she doesn't get sick of it, but she assures me that during the week, it is slow and a lot more fun, but it is better with additional adult companionship.

We are heading down in two more weeks. There happens to be a large gaming convention across the street from Disneyland that I will be attending and B'Andra will be across the street at Disneyland. B' convinced her sister and family to go, so she will have someone to play with and all of my friends are bringing their families, so it should be pretty fun with the guys geeking out at the D&D and miniature games while the wives and kids do Disney.

B' is scheduled to go down early with her sister and will spend like 9 consecutive days at Disneyland. Her annual pass has paid off. By the time it expires next year, I'm sure she will have gone around 30 days, making her daily Disneyland bill around $8. Not too bad. :)

Here is a picture of B'Andra. Her and a friend dressed up like 'white trash' to go the Utah State Fair. Some dude actually stopped her and chatted about Rush for a while.

She got this tattoo at my insistence. I'm thinking we should make it permanent.

Late Update

Hi all.
Haven't posted in a while.
I turned 35. I'm freeking OLD!!!!

I've been working a lot, two weeks in Wyoming and tons of deadlines and other dreadfully boring, stressful crap.

Gidian is getting cuter and cooler every single day. He is learning to talk and sing. The problem is, the only songs he knows are the Spiderman Theme song and the Pirates of the Caribbean theme-song. He will modulate them, change the tempo and slow things down when he is really contemplative or substitute other words in for the regular words.

Sometimes he just sings to sing.
Dad- "Hey Bubba, put this in the sink."
Gidan- (singing) In the SINK, IN the sink... to the tune of spiderman or maybe his own little melody.

He loves music. He sings along with Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. He will watch concerts on tv with me. We watched a cool acapella BYU show the other night. He watched and listened for 15 minutes before getting bored. Crazy for a twitchy 2 year old.

I cut down a large tree in my back yard. There was a fence, shed and powerlines next to it, so I couldn't just cut it down. I had to climp up 20 feet and cut the branches so when they fell, they would bend about the same height as the lines and then fall and not pull them down. It didn't work that way. The first big branch fell on the power line and got caught. I can't believe it held it was VERY heavy. I leaned out as far as I could to lift it off and didn't even come close to making it. I finally reached under the branch and grabbed the cable so the branch was on the top of my hand and then I lifted it up and it slid off. Apparently that was really stupid according some guys at work. A lot of electricity going through those.

B'Andra has torn the bathroom apart and is rebuilding it. It is looking good, but still has work to go. We still can't shower, but I like baths, so I'm not inconvenienced. Gidian HATES showers, so he's happy with the way things have turned out so far.

Remember the silly pirate game from Cousin Week? Well, I had some of them with my on my audit in Wyoming and showed them to the two guys I work with. They got interested and before you knew it, we were in a hotel room battling it out every night. They got so excited, they went out and bought some of their own. One of the guys has been playing with his kids and they love it. My nephew, Cole, on B's side, loves the game as well and we play on occasion. Funny stuff.

I'll include some pictures of current activities.

Mayor Mook

Results from our third annual Lagoon trip & Old Timey Picture with Chevy, my former neighbor, and the rest of the fam.

Gidian steals the show on this one. His serious face and long hair make him look like a 17th century son of Mayor Mook.

B'Andra, try though she might, can not look anything but happy, vibrant and beautiful. Her smile sort of ruins the picture, but she's worth it!

The Farchings Family hit the beach

Gidian freeking LOVED the beach. He took one look at the sand, squealed and belly-flopped and started rubbing his hands back and forth. I had to drag him off kicking and screaming.

He loved running away from the waves and letting his legs get wet. I was holding him in the water and wasn't watching and a big wave came in and went over his head. He was ok except that dad nearly lost his grip and it was then that I realized if Bubba were to go under, I wouldn't be able to see him from the foam and sandy water.

I counted myself lucky and ran, not walked, back to dry land never to return without a lifevest for the most precious thing in my life. Ug. It made me sick to think about. Sea water can be a bit slippery, for those of you who don't know.

Anywho, we had a blast. If Gidian didnt' have tubes, he would be a regular fish.

Speaking of fish, Gidian has long known about fish, (he pronounces it Bish). He sees them on FINDING NEMO, story books, acquariums, Sea World, etc.

Well, we were at a restaurant the other night and B'Andra had halibut and asked Gidian if he "wanted some fish?". He screwed his face up and said, "Eat the bish?????".

We started chuckling and he asked again with one eye squinted and his mouth drawn to one side, "Eat the BISH????"

By the third and loudest time, "Eat the BISH????!!!!!) we were crying tears of laughter. He's a funny kid. He was baffled by the concept of eating fish. But B'Andra drove it home for him, "Bubba, do you want to eat Nemo?"

He mysteriously never ate a bite.

TV: Father, Mother, secret lover.

This might be a little rude, but it made me think of dad.
:)

In case you can't read it:

Just so you know.

I never want to live in a vegatative state, dependent upon some machine.

If that ever happens, just unplug me.

Ok.

BB&G do Vegas

I had some training Las Vegas, so I cashed in my plane ticket and drove the family down. We didn't do much, as I was in class for 9 hours and then had an hour of reading and we didn't have much money to spend.

I wish I'd known Mark Taylor lived there, I would have given him a call.

Bubba and B'Andra mostly hung out at the pool. I then joined them when I got out. They had a network of slides that were fun and which Gidian loved.

You can see B'Andra looked like she going to the Academy Awards in her swim suit. She is so damn photogenic. She makes me look like an ogre.

Andrew Taylor's Wedding

There is not much to say about the wedding, as I didn't attend the ceremony. But it was good to see Andrew get hitched and see some family. I will now share some of the moments. As you will have noticed there are a lot of offspring and even more baldness. The only one who doesn't look any worse for the wear is Uncle Dale. I think he is immortal.

Cousin Week 2005

Gidian missed most of Cousin Week 2005, mostly due to the fact that his mastery of the English language precludes proper enjoyment of Shakespears fine works and limits him from delving into the aliteration, allusions and iambic pentameter that permiates the pernicious pennings of the oft-published Poet. At least that is what Gidian lead me to believe. "I don't care much for the works of the Bard and besides, I still poop my pants" (his words, not mine).

The girls were cute, but full-on teenagers. Even little Becca is growing up, but as you can see they are all very cute.

The Cousin Week 2005 Production was funnier than ever. The girls worked on the script, Boo did a little make-up and prop work. You should all see it.

Gidian loved seeing everyone and his new favorite thing to say is, "Hi Boo". Either it is the ease with which it rolls of the tongue, or his infatuation with the boy, or possibly, as I suspect, both.

I brought one of my less nerdy games with me: Pirates of the Spanish Main. You punch out little ships from cards and assemble them and then fight. Eric, Marty, Boo and I played. The girls, for some weird reason, didn't think it sounded fun. Apparently they aren't male, adolescent geeks.

Eric and Marty lasted one game, but their coolness took over and they bailed out. That left Boo and I to fight a majestic battle, the likes of which have ne'r been seen by man nor beast. I made the mistake of having Boo create the armadas as I was taking care of Gidian and he left me quite weak and beat me badly.

Altogether it was a success and Grandma's goal was met in that, "Good times were had by all."

Bubba at Dizzyland

Here is Gidian kickin' it in Disneyland. If you can tell me what ride this is, I'll give you a shiny quarter... and a kick in the pants for knowing Disneyland too well.

It was Disneyland's 50th Anniversary, so there was some cool decorations and an out-of-this-world firework show: Julie Andrews narrated, Walt added some thoughts. They went through several movies and Disneyland rides, complete with a pirate battle over the castle and Tinkerbell cruising in on a guide wire and zapping the castle with her wand and finally a shooting star.

Since I was stuck in Southern California on 3 audits for two weeks, including weekends, B'Andra just bought an annual pass to Disneyland and went 7 days out of 9. I think Gidian got a little tired of it, but learned to love some of the rides: Whinney the Pooh, Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean.

I went twice and really took things easy and really curtailed B'Andra's death-march style amusement park routine. But she was OK with it, knowing she had a full week to keep coming back.

I enjoyed Tom Sawyer's island. First time going there. Gidian loved it, which is what made it fun. Ditto for Tarzan's Tree-house, which apparently used to be Swiss Family Robinson's Tree-house.

The great thing about Disneyland is most of the rides are for children. This can be a boring downer when you are an adrenaline junkie, but if you are a middle aged, car-sick-plagued wimp like me, it is just right. Well Gidian makes it fun. B'Andra makes it fun too. She knows the park better than anyone I know.

Here is Bubba at Sea World.

I had an audit in San Diego and B'Andra, upon hearing that I would be within 100 miles of Disneyland, insisted on coming.... which in our current state of single income meant driving.

Yeah, I know.

"Bubba?", you may be asking yourself. Well, yes that is his nickname, but it was an accident.

When he was still in the womb, I started a little childrens's story about a monkey named Booga and when he was born, I called him that. But it didn't really fit so it started to transmutate and become Bubbie then Boober and finally Bubba. I never wanted to give him a red-neck name, but living in the middle of Salt Lake, the name will help him remember his small town roots.

The cutest thing is when he sees a picture of the family and he names everyone, he says "Mommie, Daddie, Bubba!".

He's been calling me Ben for about 2 months now, which I love. B'Andra doesn't like it, but I tell her it is her fault for always reprimanding me. When I talk to her, I call her 'Honey'. When she talks to me its BEN !!!!! :)

But he has lately figured out that Mommie has a real name too. A really difficult name to say. So he just calls her Ja-Ja. I tried to get him to say it by doing on syllable at a time:
Bee (bee),
On, (on),
Drah (ja).
Be-On-Drah (Ja-Ja).

For Your Eyes Only

Thought I would try out this 'blogging' thing.

Seems a bit like wetting yourself in a dark suit: it gives you a warm feeling, but nobody really notices.

Stay tuned for exciting updates of my life including my lack of a church calling (YES!!!!), working all the time and sleeping.

Of course, I will throw in the occasional Adventures of Gidian updates. Everyday is a new adventure for that kid and a different experience in joy.
I will take requests:
benjamin@hbmcpas.com