A night out with Marlene and the baby to see Eclipse and this is what I got. Lovely. Not my favorite side effect (leak)!

Some friends and I are considering starting a small private practice therapy office. Our intent is to be able to see clients in the evenings and then have therapists working with our office space during the hours we are not there. We hope to start talking about details of how it would look and run.

I think that it could be a lot of fun putting together a viable counseling center.

This is a pretty amazing story of young man that has faced adversity from his birth and has found his voice to be able to share with others how to cope with the difficulty of his life. He talks about 3 important issues when dealing with adversity 1) perspective 2) vision 3) choices.

The main focus of this for me isn’t the religious meaning he found in his life but that found meaning and has pursued this relentlessly so that he could find happiness and joy. I also love the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

To read more about Nick Vujici, see his website at Life Without Limbs.

We had a great weekend at Lake Powell. Here is the first rendition of our trip. Thanks to Zac Coplan, my brother-in-law, for putting his Flip to good use and then editing the footage to make this video of the water-skiing and wake-boarding. It was tons of fun. I want to thank our wives and children for letting us leave for a few days to spend some quality time together. We also had a couple of good games of Settlers of Catan at night. The weather was fantastic. The nights were gorgeous. A little more info. I’m in the red and white shorts, Spencer is in the red shorts, Zac is in the black and white shorts, and JP in the blue shorts. Let’s keep a good tradition going. We need these fun weekends to keep us going.

Beware Graphic Images.



Here is a link to the TAC – Victoria Channel for more if you’d like.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TACVictoria

I know I’m part of this conversation but this was a real wake up call to me about how scary drunk driving, texting while driving, or doing anything but driving when driving creates such intense risk for ourselves, families, and friends. Be safe. This was an ad from Australia over 20 years ago.

Buckle Up . . . here we go!

! < /B>

Seen Enough???

Oh, No . . . Your Trip Isn’t Over Yet!

Check that your seat belt is fastened one more time . . ..

No Traffic at all today!!

Spoke Too Soon..

Get Right Down into Low For This Hairpin

Ok… Back into Top Gear and Accelerate

That’s Great.. Doing Over 80 Now and Making Up Time..

It’s So Wide Here.. and Easy To Make The Pass

Hang On.. Wish I Had The Inside Lane

You Just Honk and The Guy Coming Will Move Over Huh?

I Don’t Think He Heard Your Horn???

Sorry?. We Just Lost The Curb This Morning.

Not Much Further Now..

Oh… Father..

Thanks For Coming ? You Made It This Time!

After That Ride, Tell Me Honestly?. Are You Going To Complain About Your Lousy, Traffic – Congested

Super Highways Ever Again???

Henry went classic skating with Oscar and Lily for the Vineyard Elementary School Night of Skating. He wanted to skate all by himself. It was so fun to watch.

Some of you may know that recently i was deciding about whether to stay at Provo Canyon School or change over to Discovery Academy. I have made a decision after thinking about both opportunities and what my future may hold. I have decided to head over to Discovery Academy in Provo. It is in our old neighborhood. The old Ivy Tower Dance Club or before that an LDS chapel on 5th West near Albertson’s. I am attracted to the style of the program itself and the method of working with families prior to treatment, during treatment, and the follow-thru to help the families move on after treatment.

To make this decision I went to the Provo Temple which is a beautiful building and one that I have found much peace in my life going to when I am in need of spiritual guidance and calming.

It is the middle of the night and I can’t sleep. There are a few things going on in my mind. In good news I passed my MFT licensing exam with flying colors. Now I just need a couple more signatures and I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Also on good news I finished revisions on my prospectus and them off to my dissertation chair yesterday; I’m proud of myself for that. I was extended an invitation to apply for another job and I’m possibly considering it; I need to find more details before I say more.

I’m feeling a couple of things. Tired because I got up yesterday at   4 am to work on my dissertation and now it is 3 am. Happy because I passed the MFT exam and will soon be licensed. Annoyed at myself for missing a couple signatures on my MFT license application and that it is taking so long to finish my PhD, specifically my dissertation. I’m not the fastest, nor the most eloquent in speaking or writing, and honestly I feel pretty satisfied to be completing a PhD. I enjoy working with adolescent boys; they often remind me  of myself or one of my friends growing up; if they would just listen as much as I would like them too.

As I experience, these adolescent boys and their difficulty in accepting different aspects of their lives, I wonder what it will be like in a few years with Oscar, Lily, Henry, and the as yet unknown and unnamed child, when they want to participate in activities that I don’t approve of. Right now they listen to the most serious concerns I have for them and they listen. Maybe Oscar doesn’t want to come right now or Lily wants to play at friends this minute or Henry wants his whatever right now and I don’t understand what he’s asking for. But the time will come when I yell at them when a car is coming and they may choose to ignore me or using this as a metaphor; the car I see might be something else and they choose to listen to their peers or someone else and not listen to me. I feel a bit as though Lehi felt when he witnessed in his Dream of the Tree of Life that some of his children may choose to follow the Rod of Iron and others may choose to let go. I hope that I can choose to remain on holding firm to the Rod of Iron and not be swayed by the many voices that are speaking in today’s world, but calm myself so that I can listen to the one voice that does matter. I’m grateful for the peace that comes from reading the scriptures and feeling the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost as I seek to repent versus hiding myself from the myself.

At work, I had a group where we were watching the movie, The Mission (1986) and as we watched the movie, the themes once again of repentance and forgiveness were profoundly evident. When we make mistakes what do we do with ourselves and those mistakes. My greatest hope is that I can be an example to my kids; not of perfection, but of steady, consistent influence that listens and cares about them. I hope they can begin to choose to listen to me and not feel forced to listen so when they get older; they’ve already made decisions on their own to live, be, and act a certain way in their lives and most importantly listen to the Holy Ghost who will lead them to the one true source of peace and happiness, Our Savior.

The kids and Marlene went to Pumpkinland and had great time. Here are some pictures.

See Marlene’s post about Pumpkinland.

Then we also took some pictures of the kids before they went trick-or-treating. Marlene did an amazing job making Henry’s Frog Prince costume. She always makes one costume at least per year. Oscar wanted to be a Knight and Lily was Cinderella. You can’t see it in all of the pictures but Lily was devasted when I said she needed to wear her coat. It was going to ruin her outfit; it didn’t matter how cold it got. She was hysterical and stubborn. She may have been tired before we even went. Oscar was a good sport and was only able to trick-or-treat the closest houses in our block because he had cough so we didn’t want to keep him out long. Henry as well was upset that he had to wear the costume; especially the hat, however, when we put him in front of the mirror, he got a huge smile on his face. Enough talk and here are some of the pictures.

For more pictures of the family please see our Flickr photostream.