Good news everyone!  Amie is 3 weeks away from the baby deadline today!  She is experiencing all the aches and pains that come with late pregnancy, but she and her cute belly are so darn good-lookin'.

It is going to be strange having a newborn in the house again.  Spencer (3) has gotten to an age where he has some serious personality and can communicate his needs pretty well.  A newborn will take us back to the days of goo-goo gah-gah, cave drawings and futile attempts at telepathy to try and decipher her needs.  I am looking forward to it!

Black Friday! 
These words that describe the after Thanksgiving Day sales can cause instant joy or dread for the budget-conscious person.  Joy because the discounts at the retailers can be plentiful.  Dread because living in Utah County almost guarantees you a 3am wake-up call to wait in the unsheltered darkness to withstand arctic temperatures and hundreds of other thrifty Mormon-folk.
 
For many it is about the experience and for others it is just the potential of saving money that drives them.  There is a certain rush that accompanies the hype and build-up that comes with waiting for a store to open; knowing that you may have to fight off the friends you just made in line minutes earlier, just so that you can save $10 on the Polly Pocket Polly-tastic Adventure Jumbo Jet Playset.  All of this to ensure that there is happiness on Christmas morning for the little ones.
So yesterday as we looked at the retail ads, it was a good feeling to know that our Christmas shopping was done for our children.  No lines and no sleepless nights. Until we realized that we were still buying gifts for other people -- parents, siblings and the like.  Should we brave the crowds and the dark night?

We decided after some debate that Amie would tackle the brick and mortar stores and I would see what we could discover online.  We quickly discovered that many of the retailers were offering the same doorbuster deals online, and if they weren't then Amazon.com was!   Too bad that Amie had already left to campout.  Do you see her in the orange jacket below?



Next year we will know that we can probably avoid all the chaos that comes with Black Friday by just going online.

Today is Thanksgiving and we hope it has been terrific for you.  We decided to get a jumpstart on the Christmas holiday.  Here is a little something from our little elves Jacob, Natalie and Spencer....click on the link below.

Holiday Greetings from the Jackson Kids

Today marks the 11th anniversary of my return from an LDS mission to Mexico.  I remember feeling very cold returning to Utah.  Perhaps it was the almost 40 degree temperature change from Mexico.  Anyway, time flies. 

I am brought perspective everyday by knowing each one of you.  I appreciate you in my life and I am thankful for our association. My family and I wish you the best.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Love,
Eric, Amie and the Kids

Do you remember the first time that you faked sick? I remember that I was in 6th grade, and to convince my mom that I had a fever I held the thermometer underneath some hot running water.  I was naive enough to think that I could raise the temperature of the thermometer high enough to fool my mom into letting me stay home from school.  Instead, the hot water burst the thermometer and mercury went everywhere!

Jake and Natalie woke up this morning saying that they were sick.  They both had a runny nose and a bit of a cough, so to avoid a school outbreak Amie believed them and kept the home.  Hours later they were running around and playing.  Faking or only mildly sick?  I guess we will never really know.

We have felt strongly about selling our home for some time now.  The housing and mortgage markets are in disarray but logic does not always go hand in hand with promptings.  So we are pulling the trigger and putting it on the market.  We have spent a lot of time getting it ready in the past couple weeks.  Here is the virtual tour and photos that we had taken on Saturday:

Pictures of our home

On another note, Spencer demonstrated his excitement of the pending arrival of his little sister Olivia in an interesting way this weekend.  We were in the car listening to hymns and a song with the word Hallelujah came on.  It was a catchy hymn and soon all of the kids were singing "Hallelujah!".  Except Spencer who was singing, "Ol-i-via!"  We have enjoyed it all weekend!

Friends,
I am now 32 years of age, although I must admit that in my mind I often feel like I have not aged since I was 18.  I am still extremely immature, selfish, and I use very poor judgment at times.  This weekend I experienced one of those lapses in judgment when for many reasons/justifications I decided to conduct some work on Sunday. (our religious beliefs ask us to refrain from these activities on Sundays) Even worse, I decided to bring my oldest son with me.

We arrived at the office about 8am this morning with approximately 3 hours of work ahead of us.  Jacob was very helpful and we made good time.  After about an hour, I stepped out of the office to retrieve something from my car. I realized quickly that my keys were in the building and as I turned back I saw that Jacob had followed me outside.  As the building door swung shut, my world went into slow-motion.   I was a second late and the door clicked shut, locking us out in the cold.

Jacob and I frantically looked for a way in...we realized quickly that we were stuck.  No keys, no cell phone and absolutely no one around for at least two miles.  We spent about an hour and a half checking out the neighboring businesses, in hopes that someone would be there on a Sunday morning.  We ended up flagging down a motorist and asking if we could use their cell phone.  We called Amie and she came a rescued us from our predicament.

As we drove home, Jacob uttered the words that had I been thinking since the building door closed.  He said, "Dad, we never should have come to work on Sunday.  This was a bad idea.  We should say a prayer and tell Heavenly Father we are sorry."

Fully humbled by my 6 year old, I agreed with him and explained to him how we should learn from this.  I am sure that should I ever experience a lapse in judgment again, my son will be there to remind me of the bad decision we made to work on Sunday.

Have any of you received the email where it says that Bill Gates will share his fortune with you if you forward the email to as many people as possible?

Forgive me if any of you have fallen prey to this enticement, but this is one of the biggest hoaxes of our time.  This email has been floating around since the 90's with the same empty promises of wealth sharing. What this email really is, is an invitation to clog the inboxes of as many acquaintances as you can think of.  I received this email from a mission buddy last night that I have not heard from in at least five years....I can only assume that he saw dollar signs and looked up everyone that he has ever been in contact with.

Now some of you may point to the fact that in recent years Bill Gates has become quite the philanthropist; so why wouldn't he share his fortune?  My answer is that Bill is nothing but a puppet for his wife and her generous heart.  She offsets him quite nicely.  He wishes to take over the world and she wishes to save it.

Stop the madness friends.  There is no easy money in this world.  However, if you feel that your ship is about to come in, I have a terrific multi-level marketing opportunity for you.

Here is the background on the email if you have never had the chance to receive it.

Well, my favorite season is being laid to rest soon.  Here is an interesting article I found on it.

So Amie discovered IKEA this weekend. 

Since the big blue box opened in May up in Draper I have done my best to discourage her from paying them a visit.  My reasoning for Amie to avoid this global cult brand is not because they sell sub-standard furniture, in fact my parents still have some they bought there back in the 80's.  No, it is because IKEA has the uncanny ability of making you think that nothing is expensive.  You set out to buy a $40 coffee table but end up dropping $500 on everything from storage units to glassware.  Then there is the restaurant with its inexpensive entrees that provides you just enough of a breather to stay in the store longer to continue feeding your budding addiction.

I guess that is my concern with IKEA, the possibility of a real addiction to 'inexpensive' purchases that really end up depleting all discretionary income from the budget.  I suppose, however, that this can happen with any addiction and Amie has historically been really good about avoiding such things.

Amie loved IKEA.  Now I will just have to convince her to let me stay home when she goes there.

I am 32 today.  My birthdays have become more of a time to contemplate rather than celebrate.  Don't mis-understand me, I still enjoy them, they are just a lot different than when I was younger.  Anyway, in the midst of my contemplation this morning I remembered this sketch from SNL when I was a kid.  Have a great day, figure out what you want to do with your life and enjoy some Matt Foley.