So I replaced a thermostat in my house a while back.  Honestly I can’t believe it was still attached and functional when I bought the house in 2004.  This thermostat had to be the original, horribly inaccurate and wasteful model that was installed when the house was built in 1979.  You know the kind.
After I had replaced it I noticed a cool glass bubble with a bit of mercury metal inside(Please see attached image).  Awed by the magical mystery that is liquid metal, I put the glass bubble down in my computer room for further investigation.

Days go by, days turn in to weeks, weeks turn in to months…so on and so forth until a few years pass.  Having successfully sired two strapping young lads I was triumphantly playing a computer game while said strapping young lads went about their business in my computer room.  I see the youngest one, we will call him Aidyn for anonymity sake, start to put something towards his mouth.  With the ninja-like reflexes I have honed over the years I reached out and stopped him from putting the object in his mouth.  I look down at my prize and to my horror I realize it’s the broken glass bubble that once contained mercury, which was now empty AND had a piece of chewed up grape in side of it.  This meant only one thing; he had already put this in his mouth!

It’s panic time!  Ninja-like calm is out the window.  My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach thinking I just killed my youngest child.  I search the area for any liquid metal hoping that it just spilled out.  I don’t see anything!  Gathering my wits as best as possible I gather him up and head up stairs with my oldest boy in tow.  I calm myself down so I don’t startle Mary too bad.  In my best “I am calm” voice I tell Mary that it looks like we need to take a trip to E.R. because I am pretty sure Aidyn swallowed some mercury.
I can see the worry and fear spread on her face as what I just said processes in her brain(all of this happened within .0001 microsecond because she is super smart and my ninja-like skills were coming back).  I pack up Aidyn and tell Mary that it would be better if she stayed home with our oldest boy.  I hurry and check our insurance website trying to find the closest E.R. that is covered by my insurance…it’s in Orem.  Panic sets in again.  There’s no way I am going drive 10 minutes so I can save money whilst my child is potentially digesting mercury!  I set off for American Fork hospital, which is only 2 miles away from us.

We arrive and I rush in to the Triage center.  The on-call nurse could probably see the panic in my face as I walked up to her with Aidyn in my arms.  I tell her what happened and she calmly tells me to wait while she consults a doctor.  She comes back and another nurse comes out and asks me what happened.  After I tell her my story she attempts to assuage my fears by telling me mercury metal isn’t that bad if swallowed, it’s the mercury salts we have to look out for.  Luckily there are no mercury salts in the liquid metal form.
They take us back put us in a room and tell me to wait.  They give Aidyn a cool ‘Cars’ blanket and this creepy home-made teddy bear.  Fifteen minutes go by(which seems like FOREVER) and they come back in and tell me they need to x-ray Aidyn to see if he swallowed anything.  On the way to the x-ray room I immediately get grilled by 3 of the E.R. staff.  They were asking how it was possible a 1 year old got a hold of mercury.  I tell them the story and they ‘release’ me so I can proceed to the x-ray.

Let me say that x-raying(sp?) a small child is quite the task.  We had to do it twice because he was squirming so much.  Now, with my vast knowledge of x-ray technology and how metal looks when x-rayed(see “When Brian was 9 and swallowed a quarter” for more details), I immediately hurried over to the monitor to see Aidyn’s x-ray.  To my relief I don’t see anything shiny or glaring.  But doubt quickly creeps back in as I wonder if mercury looks any different in x-ray.

We go back to the waiting room and are told to wait.  Another fifteen minutes go by and they finally come back with the results.  He didn’t have any mercury in his system!  Joy floods in and I whisk the doctor(female) up in my arms twirling her around while singing “The hills are alive with the sound of music!”.  Ok, I didn’t do that but I was overjoyed.  I can feel myself shaking, probably from the adrenaline leaving my system, more likely from my ninja-like awesomeness.  I immediately text Mary with the good news and I proceed to pack up Aidyn and leave the E.R.

On the drive home I realized that I just paid for a really expensive blanket and teddy bear!

Moral of the story: DO NOT leave mercury laying around, forget about it for years, and then let a small child find it.

More details about post-mercury apocalypse are as follows:

1. It was very awkward getting grilled by the E.R. staff.  All of whom seem to think you intentionally poisoned your child.
2. Yes, I did find most of the mercury that was spilled.  Apparently when one is panicking it’s really difficult for your mind to focus on finding small silver objects in the carpet.
3. Yes, we now have to replace the carpet in my computer room.  Add $350 to the mounting E.R. bill.
4. Very big YES to feeling like a complete failure as a father for leaving mercury laying around.
5. Aidyn was actually having a great time while at the hospital.  He was totally digging on watching the E.R. staff go about their business.
6. Interesting tidbit: Mercury metal is the least dangerous form of mercury if swallowed.  In fact they used to give it to people to help with upset stomachs back in the day.  Mercury vapor on the other hand is bad for you.

Top 20 List (in no particular order)

1. Labyrinth
2. The Goonies
3. Mr. Mom
4. Legend
5. UHF
6. Star Trek:
   • The Next Generation
   • Deep Space Nine
   • Enterprise
   • Voyager( a little bit )
7. MacGyver
8. Quantum Leap
9. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
10. Enemy Mine
11. Big Trouble in Little China
12. E.T.
13. Army of Darkness
14. Harry Potter series
15. Lost Boys
16. Supernatural
17. Princess Bride
18. Space Above and Beyond
19. Stargate:
    • Movie
    • SG-1
    • Atlantis
    • but NOT Universe(horrible show)
20. Willow

My list could probably run well into 100′s but for reader attention I kept is short.  I was going to write next to each one describing why it influenced me, but I didn’t want to type all night long!

What are some influential movies/shows in your life?  Briefly describe why they influenced you.  I really want to read what people have to say about this subject.

Elias is doing great.  He is climbing and exploring like mad.  He took a tumble off our night stand the other day.  He was so intent on flicking the light switch on and off that he took a header off the side!  Luckily it wasn’t too far of a drop.  Bonked his head a little.  He got over it quickly once he discovered that he could climb on something else!

He is saying and signing quite a few words now.  It’s really exciting to see his vocabulary grow.  I was putting on my shoes the other day when he started saying “shoo” and making the sign for shoes.  I was excited!  He picks up so much from the Signing Time videos it’s crazy.

Mary and I have been trying to teach him to kiss off and on for a while.  Just today he started giving us kisses!  It’s the coolest thing in the world.

Mary and I have also been discussing when we are going to start on our second kid.  I have to say I am nervous and scared.  I have no idea how I am going to support the growing family.  But, I have to do it.  I know things will work out.  It’s still scary!
We are thinking of starting for kid #2 in December.

Work

It’s been a rough week and a half.  All of last week I spent my work days moving and clearing out the warehouse and offices of our 1145 S. 1680 W. location.  Man my back is sore!  You never realize how much CRAP you accumulate until you have to move.  There was a load of junk, useless items and other filth that just piled up.  I think there was some stuff that someone had the good intention of repairing, but they must have forgotten about it.

I moved 4 different loads of pallet racking.  Pallet racks aren’t too heavy at the start of the day.  As the day progresses they seem to increase in weight!  Those stupid things are awkward and a pain to take down.  Luckily I had help on the last couple of runs to the new warehouse.

The new location is now 1273 N. State St., Orem.  I think once we get settled and unpacked we will start increasing business.  Having a State St. location is going to be very good for brand exposure.  It will be nice to start getting more sales for Natural Edge.

Life

I will start with my birthday.  I am now 32 years old!  It’s pretty strange to think about.  I know it’s not much different than 31 or 30, but it still makes me think how fast time has gone.  My body is sure starting to feel age creep up.  I can remember when I was 16-24, I could never seem to gain weight.  I was as healthy as ever and could run FOREVER!  Now I try to go out and run and it’s like I lit a fire in my calf muscles AND my lungs.  I guess that’s my fault.  It’s no longer difficult to gain weight…in fact it’s rather easy!  The difficult part now is trying to lose the stupid weight that I have gained(205 pounds).

Mary is still putting up with my guff…thankfully!  She has been busy lately with designing cakes, which adds to my weight problem!  She has some pretty awesome cake skillz.  Yeah they are so great they deserve the ‘z’ plural ending!!!
Elias is starting to get some attitude and a funny personality.  He is walking and talking(still mostly gibberish).  Mary and I have been teaching him sign language, ok ok, Mary has been teaching him sign language.  He is getting too cute and too smart, which makes it difficult to reprimand him when he does something wrong.  So far he is a great little kid!  I love him to death.

Bees

We are now into the bees 3 months now and everything is going great!  Both the hives still have their queens and I just put on the first Honey Supers!  So hopefully by the end of July I can start harvesting some honey.
We have been really blessed by Mary’s brother John.  He has become really interested in beekeeping.  He has offered to purchase, and store,  a honey extractor for our honey.  He is even going to buy a hive next year.  We are going to put the hive next to our existing two and plan on  sharing duties on that hive.   Over the next couple years we should have an ever increasing honey harvest!  I hope everyone loves honey.

Work

Work has been pretty busy lately.  For the past year or so I have been working for Patientdocs.com full time as well as working Natural Edge.  I just got news last week that I am going to be reduced to part-time hours until further notice.  At first this was a big blow, as I have quite a bit of money that needs to go out each month;  Mortgage, insurances, food, bills, utilities and other money black holes.  But as I thought about the reduced hours a little more I realized that it’s really going to be a benefit.  It will give me the time I need to finish up side projects so I can focus on Natural Edge.  I will also need the time to work on some upcoming side projects that John(Mary’s brother) has offered me.  It’s just going to be very tight for the next month and a half until I get things rolling.

Summary

So I realized that life can sure kick you in the boys if you arent’ expecting it.  Luckily I feel there is a lot of help being directed my way, which makes me very grateful.  Without it I would be floundering in the tumultuous river that is called life.

Side note:  I am getting excited for Halloween already!  I know many of you think me a geek for that…but I say “NUTS” to you!  It’s fun to do something that isn’t typing on a keyboard!  And it’s awesome to see and hear the reactions from people.

Here are some pictures of the family and the faire:

I just purchased a couple of hives on Friday as well. Sue is going to start her first bee hive this year so I am excited for her! Mary and I just purchased our second hive, so this year is going to ‘bee’ a very busy year!

Elias’ official first word is ‘Yay!’ He does this while clapping his hands together. He does it best when you ask him ‘Nose?’ and he points at your nose and exclaims ‘yay!’ while clapping. It’s the coolest thing ever!!!!

For the past few months I have been seeing the above banner on many of the sites I visit.  I kept saying to myself that I need to watch the show but I never got around to it.  I am a big fan of Joss Whedon(Firefly, Serenity) and Nathan Fillion so this has to be a good movie right?
Well, I was wrong…it was a GREAT movie.  Technically it’s a short TV series that was only aired on the web!  It is a musical but it’s written so well that the singing works perfectly.
I liked it so much that I bought the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog DVD
and the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack! 

I can’t wait until(hope) they make a sequel to this show.  I was very impressed.

For those of you who can’t afford the DVD, here is the Hulu.com link to the whole show:
Hulu.com Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

After a 8 months of a pregnancy Mary gave birth to our first child, a baby boy named Elias Kirk Christmas!  The next 2-3 months after the birth are a blur due to lack of sleep and exhaustion.  Getting used to Eli was a TON of work.  I have to say I was ill-prepared for that situation.

When everything settled down and we(Mary and I) got back on track, we took in a family of about 2000.  They were VERY hardworking and industrious.  Oh did I mention they were bees!?  Our first year of beekeeping started out great…or so we thought.  The bees did a lot of work building up their hive but it was all for naught.  It turns out when I put the queen in the hive, I didn’t do it correctly.  So the worker bees immediately kicked out the queen and started laying their own eggs.  Worker bees laying eggs is not good.  As they only hatch to become drones, which are male bees who don’t do anything!  They mate with the queen, but having no queen to mate with they just took up room and ate the sugar/honey/food.  When I was first getting into beekeeping I was told to purchase 2 hives.  That way if one hive was doing bad you could stock it up with eggs and workers from the good hive.  I didn’t heed the advice and paid for it.  So in 2009 we are going to start with 2 hives. 

This year I continued talks(from 2007) with an Army National Guard recruiter.  I had expectations of joining the National Guard.  I was going to be put into the Army’s version of the Audio/Visual Club.  Which would have been pretty fun, as I have always wanted to be involved with video/movie production.
I decided not to leave Mary and Elias for BASIC.  I still want to join but it’s such a difficult process.  Plus I don’t know if I will have to sell my house if I join.  I DO NOT want to sell my house.  Right now I am considering Warrant Officer recruiting.  That way I can apply and interview to become a Warrant Officer.  If they don’t accept me then I don’t have to join.  I will probably end up working Natural Edge and my other part time job(Patient Docs).

Speaking of Natural Edge; The 2008 year was pretty good, we were just shy of meeting our goal set for that year.  We are continuing to work it as debt free as possible.  Right now Susan and I are working Natural Edge and trying to juggle a full/part time job.  It’s difficult but worth it.  It is a great learning experience.  Plus there are a lot of people who love our product, which is exciting.

There are some other exciting opportunities that are in the works that are pretty exciting.  I can’t talk about any of them yet, but if/when they pan out it will be very nice for us financially.

As of this post(Jan. 2009) Elias is walking around like crazy!  It’s insane how fast they pick things up.  He has 4 teeth and 1 more on the way. 
We had a little scare in early 2008 with Elias.  He had a heart murmur and had to get a complete workup/scan.  After the doctors checked him out thoroughly they came back and said everything is ok, it was just a small murmur that will repair itself as he gets older…phew!

Mary continues to rock!  She has been so awesome with taking care of Elias.  She is a great mom.  Plus she puts up with all my guff, so there’s ALOT to be said for that!  She cut her hair off in mid-November(I don’t remember the date).  She was beautiful with long hair and she is beautiful with short hair, she is one of those people that just always look good! 

More to come as I remember it…

I think not being able to get the gifts I want to get for people is depressing me.  In the past I have always had the money or resources to get the gifts, but this year is different. 

This all sounds like I am grinched out and moody.  But I am not.  There is feelings of sadness because I can’t do what I want, but I am excited to see other people and their reactions.

*NOTE: Sorry for the lack of updates.  I think I am going to post select chapters from my personal journal…just to fill in the blank gaps.