Let it be known: I don't like blogging or the people who do it! I find them repulsingly self-absorbed and ultimately devoid of that accountability for expression that should accompany all human-to-human communication (what ever happened to actual interaction??). And who really cares, anyway--clearly you since here you are reading away. Ha! "I pity the fool!"
Yet here I am, writing away. Indeed I have fallen down Pope's precipitous slippery slope, "we first endure, then pity, then embrace." But alas, I digress. This is not about me--wait, it is about me! Or at least my family. In all likelihood, blog entries (or "posts" in your vernacular) will be few and far between so this will be more or less a random highlight reel rather than an actual journal or travelogue per se. (Unless I can convince my wife that she is really the one who should be responsible for this! Don't they teach blogging at Enrichment or something?). So let's get on with it.
2008 Year in Review
2008 Year in Review
This year brought tremendous change to our family, both good and bad.
Zach and M.E.--we've been married since 2002, so this was year six for us. Marriage has taught me one great truth--a happy wife is a happy life! I try to do things that make her happy. Clearly, easier said than done. If her high-school self would have encountered my high-school self, there would have been no way--under heaven and earth--that we would have been attracted to each other (think oil and water, or liquid hydrogen and oxygen). But we've each gotten a bit better with age; wearing off the rough edges and meeting somewhere in the 
middle most of the time. Thankfully, what we started building our relationship on is the one thing most important to us: the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Spiritually, we are on the same plane--a level of connectivity that transcends the vast penumbra of modern life. Indeed, we have a "sure foundation." See 2 Tim. 2:19, Hel. 5:12.
Zach and M.E.--we've been married since 2002, so this was year six for us. Marriage has taught me one great truth--a happy wife is a happy life! I try to do things that make her happy. Clearly, easier said than done. If her high-school self would have encountered my high-school self, there would have been no way--under heaven and earth--that we would have been attracted to each other (think oil and water, or liquid hydrogen and oxygen). But we've each gotten a bit better with age; wearing off the rough edges and meeting somewhere in the 
middle most of the time. Thankfully, what we started building our relationship on is the one thing most important to us: the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Spiritually, we are on the same plane--a level of connectivity that transcends the vast penumbra of modern life. Indeed, we have a "sure foundation." See 2 Tim. 2:19, Hel. 5:12. 
2008 brought great transition for us. In May, I graduated from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. I must admit, it was an end I thought might never come! Following graduation, we packed up and moved to Phoenix, AZ, living with M.E.'s brother while I began studying for the Arizona Bar Exam and construction on our home was completed. Moving was great as it got our family out of our two-bedroom condo and me out of the 
Bishopric. Win-win, I say. But, moving to Arizona in June is not optimum (but if you can survive summer it's really all downhill after that!). Also, we shared living quarters with M.E.'s brother Cary (and his chaotic, on-again/off-again family) which proved much more difficult that I ever anticipated! In August (4 days after the Bar), I started work at Perkins Coie LLP, an in
ternational law firm headquartered in Seattle, WA. Finally, after all these years, a real paycheck. It's nice getting used to that. In the beginning of September our house was finally ready. Not that I don't miss having downstairs neighbors but it's great having our own space. Life is good and we are tremendously blessed. When not working, I relax by playing/writing music on the guitar, teaching my little ladies the finer arts of living: playing tag on the playground, Go Fish, hide-and-seek, Candyland, Uno, baseball (thankfully they both throw right, bat left!), etc. M.E. and I like European cars, good books (list definitely does not include Twilight series!), long hikes (preferably involving slot canyons or waterfalls), and touring model homes we'll never afford (do you really need a flat-screen TV right in front of the commode--in the guest bathroom? I say if you can't take care of business during the commercial break, you're not regular). We don't like painting our new house, old people driving in the left lanes, over-zealous and irrational BYU fans and having to wait 3-plus years for construction of our new temple!
Layla, 4 (yes, named after the great Eric Clapton song): she is a one-woman wrecking ball. She has my attention span and energy level which means she is going going going. Mess after mess ("projects" as she would call them). She loves movies (especially C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean)! Also, Layla loves to write her name on everything--walls, doors (see photos), my important work papers. You name it, there's likely a scrawled L-A-Y-L-A on it (I 
guess that's what M.E. deserves for writing her name on the side of her dad's sport's car!). She is M.E.'s big helper too, making dinner, folding laundry and going visiting teaching are her favorites (in that order). Layla also loves to go to church and attending our enormous primary with her best friends.
ternational law firm headquartered in Seattle, WA. Finally, after all these years, a real paycheck. It's nice getting used to that. In the beginning of September our house was finally ready. Not that I don't miss having downstairs neighbors but it's great having our own space. Life is good and we are tremendously blessed. When not working, I relax by playing/writing music on the guitar, teaching my little ladies the finer arts of living: playing tag on the playground, Go Fish, hide-and-seek, Candyland, Uno, baseball (thankfully they both throw right, bat left!), etc. M.E. and I like European cars, good books (list definitely does not include Twilight series!), long hikes (preferably involving slot canyons or waterfalls), and touring model homes we'll never afford (do you really need a flat-screen TV right in front of the commode--in the guest bathroom? I say if you can't take care of business during the commercial break, you're not regular). We don't like painting our new house, old people driving in the left lanes, over-zealous and irrational BYU fans and having to wait 3-plus years for construction of our new temple!Layla, 4 (yes, named after the great Eric Clapton song): she is a one-woman wrecking ball. She has my attention span and energy level which means she is going going going. Mess after mess ("projects" as she would call them). She loves movies (especially C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean)! Also, Layla loves to write her name on everything--walls, doors (see photos), my important work papers. You name it, there's likely a scrawled L-A-Y-L-A on it (I 
guess that's what M.E. deserves for writing her name on the side of her dad's sport's car!). She is M.E.'s big helper too, making dinner, folding laundry and going visiting teaching are her favorites (in that order). Layla also loves to go to church and attending our enormous primary with her best friends. Alix, 2: she loves one thing above all else--her ephalent (little pink elephant that goes everywhere she goes). She also loves movies (Sleeping "Booty" and Finding Nemo most), reading books ("the Book'M" (Book of Mormon)) and playing at the playground. Alix loves to talk and talk and talk and talk. She also loves M.E.'s make-up (as the photos at right attest). If there is an open door, she'll find it. If there is a way to get lost or disappear, she'll do it. Someone upstairs must really love her because she made
it through 2008 largely unscathed (and she still lives with us in spite of all our bad parenting). Good times...So, you read until the end...that shows amazing persistence! Well, hope you enjoyed it. And happy 2009, may God bless you in all that you do.
--Zach
--Zach
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