Twirling, Twirling, Twirling towards Freedom

Jen alluded to some things in her previous post, so it seemed like a good time for me to once again contribute to the blog.

Recruiting season has been pretty competitive this year, what with the state of the economy, but my major is still pretty high on the employability scale. (Information Systems Management, for those who need a reminder. It's a business/computers mix) I'm finishing up my Master's in April, so it was time to get into action. I handed out a lot of resumes, interviewed with several companies, and ended up with a couple of solid offers.

We decided to go with an IT consulting firm based in Texas, Pariveda Solutions. I'll be working in the Houston office, and we'll probably live 15-30 minutes away from my brother and his wife.

Here's why we picked Pariveda:

• As IT consulting it is a pretty perfect match for my major, and what I like to do. They do both business/strategy consulting as well as software development for clients, and I like having the mix.
• They are a small/new company (140 employees, 6 years old) but growing fast. I feel like there is more opportunity for me to be involved in the company and to grow with it, and that I'll have more ownership over the projects I'll be working on.
• The company's strategy is to have a strong presence in the regions they are in, and to help the consultants build up their network. As a result, the average employee travels less than with other consulting firms.
• They pay well, and have good benefits.
• They are structured as an ESOP corporation, and as a result are very open and transparent with employees.
• I felt like I got along well with everyone I met from the company, that I had an easy time talking and connecting with them, and in general that I will fit in there.

We'll be starting in June sometime (most likely, depending on scheduling for orientation and training), and so moving out in mid-Mayish. They flew Jen, Zach and me out to Houston last weekend to visit the office and to look at apartments. It was fun to be able to spend some time there and to start to visualize how things could turn out. We're happy with our decision and excited to get started on the next phase of our lives.

Halloween Until Now

We've had so many things going on and projects to work on this last month that blogging has been put on the back burner. Maybe one of these days my posts won't be catch up ones.

To start things off, one Oct 27th, my little sister Melissa had her first baby. His name is Andrew and he's such a cute little guy. We've spent lots of time visiting with her and her little family.


Also near the end of October all 3 of us got sick. Luckily for us it was with colds and such rather than swine flu.

For Halloween this year we dressed Zach up as a dragon. To pull all our costumes together I dressed as a princess/damsel in distress and Derrick kept switching between telling people he was a dragon rider or a dragon slayer. We'd considered having him be a knight who would rescue the princess but we got too lazy and both just put our costumes together out of things we had lying around. We went to a ward Halloween party the night before Halloween and on Halloween we just trick-or-treated to the houses/apartments of different family members in the area. Next year Zach may be ready for regular trick-or-treating.



Due to hospital policies because of the swine flu, no one under 14 was allowed to visit Melissa in the hospital. Zach got to be a dragon the first time he met his new cousin Andrew.


While my mom was in town to help with the new little baby, she offered to watch Zach and give us our first night away from Zach. We went to California Pizza kitchen and then to a hotel in Lehi. It was so nice to get away.


During the first weekend of November Derrick flew to Dallas for a few days to see the headquarters of Pariveda Solutions (one of the companies he had a job offer from). He came back from the trip very excited about the company. On one of the nights Derrick was gone my mom, Jason (brother), and his wife Cassie came over. They're going to have a little girl in February and happened to have some girl clothes in their car. As a result Zach got dressed up like a girl.


In other news, after Derrick got home from Dallas, we gave Zach his first full haircut. He did pretty good as long as he was strapped into his booster chair, watching Blue's Clues, and had one of us helping hold him steady.

Before the haircut. Notice the big curls on the side of his head.

During. Derrick did most of the cutting but I wanted to try a little bit.

End result. This picture also shows how excited Zach gets about "Boo!" (Blue's Clues)

Another happening within the last week was that Derrick accepted a job offer. I'll let him be the one to post about that.

To end with a few more pictures:

We were given a 3-piece suit for Zach. Just looking at him in it made me really happy. What a stud!


With it getting colder we've been having to find more inside play options. The mall nearby has this great treehouse park inside it. The benches there look like big logs and one of them is hollow (which I think is pretty cool).



My mom, sister, her baby, Zach and I took a trip up to Sandy to visit my Jones grandparents. Here are the boys with Great Grandpa Jones.


Ever since Zach caught Derrick using headphones for schoolwork the other day he always wants to use them.


With a new baby around, some of Zach's old toys have been brought out again. It's crazy to see how much he's grown.

at 16 months old

at 3 Months old

Zach really loves being lifted up high and touching the ceiling. This is great until he decides to start stomping on your face. The game ends quickly after that.


Posts yet to come: (1) Derrick's job for after graduation (2) Trip to Houston

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Teasing, Dancing, and Splashing

Zach is at such a fun age right now. Here are a few more videos. The first one is one that Zach loves to watch. I showed it to him and he kept saying "more more". (Basically Zach says more repeatedly until we either give him what he wants or distract him).

Teasing/Eating Grandma Jones

Dancing (I love his abrupt start a few seconds in).

Splish splash I was taking a bath...Zach's favorite nighttime activity. Once he hears the water going it's often a wrestling match to get him undressed before he climbs into the tub.



We love our Zachary!

A Full-time Job

Zach's pretty much awesome.