And the Winner is...

Its pinewood derby time yet again. I remember my own experiences with this fabled Cub Scout tradition... I have good memories of Dad helping me cut out the shape, sand it down, get the weights added in, then turn the wheels and get the axles all coated with graphite. My car won a few races my first year, but after that - I don't remember many victories from my corner...

Fast forward now to Jason: we made 3 cars for him and I think he won a total of 1 race. Now fast forward more to Tyler: we made 3 cars for him and he won zero (yes, that's right none).

Conner had his first race last week. I am pleased to report that I am not favoring my youngest son - he won zero races, so he is off to our typical start. Each of these boys was the best sportsman. Most of the time, they really didn't care if the car didn't win, they just had fun with the electricity of the derby event. They were happy to race and participate. I on the other hand am pretty upset that I can't seem to get this pinewood derby thing down. I don't expect to create the car that wins the whole enchilada - I would be satisfied with just one win... Two years ago as we were making Tyler's second car, we were talking with Kristin's brother Travis who had just had both of his boys use a neat design. His cars ended up taking first and second at the derby. Tyler had high hopes. We crashed miserably with the same design that Travis took home the trophies with! I am convinced it is the Mackay Pinewood Derby Curse. It seems that nothing I do or try with respect to these little wood cars makes any difference, I still make a cellar-dweller. Don't get me wrong - the cars look really cool and the boys are so excited to see them match up against the other cars. They just don't go down the track for beans. I have done some research into the concept of designing the car. From all I have read, there is little impact to the shape of the car, the whole thing is that it needs to weigh in at the limit. I have really put forth the effort I thought these cars needed, but obviously I need to take some remedial coursework. If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, I would be happy to hear about it. Here is Conner at the derby last week. He is so happy and excited to be participating. And here is his car. He got the "Golden Speed" award for his car. It looks neat and we had a good time building it, but when the races came down, he got to run it twice and lost both times. They weren't even close races. We got toasted.

Well now we come to the reason why we stay around the TV all weekend in mid-March every year: it's NCAA tournament time!! We all had our brackets set (except Erin - she says she doesn't see the appeal). Then Thursday comes and the games begin. Kristin is so funny with her bracket. Some years she really obsesses and tries to scrutinize every game. Lately she has tried to go with her "gut" but she still ends up making multiple brackets. This year she has two entries, the official and the gut. After the first weekend, the gut bracket has two more correct picks on it than the other one... I keep telling her to just go with her gut. Jason usually makes out his bracket based on the mascots or school colors - it is all about if a spartan or musketeer is more ferocious than a buckeye or hoosier. I'm not sure how Tyler picks his teams, and Conner just takes the prompts from Kristin for right now. My method is pretty unscientific. I just try to figure out which one I think will win, but I admit that I am biased towards teams that I am a little familiar with. That means that west coast teams usually get the nod if I don't really know much about either one.

We give one point for each game picked correctly. After the first weekend, our ratings are: Tyler: 34 points, Scott: 34 points, Kristin: 32 points, Jason: 30 points. Some of the upsets have taken their toll on our brackets. Already Jason and Tyler have two of their final 4 teams out. Krisin and I both have 1 of the final four gone. It is so maddening and yet so exciting all at the same time. These games are by far the best in sports. Professional players in the NBA are all just a bunch of well paid loafers compared with the college players. The hustle, the passion, the excecution are all so much better, nothing compares!

Spring is in the Air!

The old saying that "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" is especially true this year. We seem to have had more rain/snow mix precipitation than I can remember in recent years. We even had one event called "thundersnow" by the local weatherman. It was a snow storm, but had the temperature been above freezing, it would have been a thunderstorm. I was quite astonished to see lightning and hear thunder while the snow was falling. The weather does not seem to have dampered our spring bulbs, however. The crocuses are blooming and the daffodils and tulips are sending up their green shoots - poking sprouting foliage through the earth. Kristin says she always knows it is springtime when she sees little newborn lambs frolicking in a field. There is a rancher down the street from us that raises sheep, and this year the crop of lambs has been bountiful. I do agree wholeheartedly that they sure are cute as they run up and down the fields. Since I don't have a picture, you will have to take my word for it! Kristin also says that spring is here because it's March Madness time! We are eagerly awaiting the tournament selections to see which teams will compete in the NCAA tournament. Most everyone around here knows that March Madness is a holiday in the Mackay home! We'll see who's bracket turns out the best this year!

A New Tradition?

Last week Tyler came to Kristin and asked if he could make cupcakes. She was surprised, but agreed to let him do it. I'm sure she was dreading it because usually these things are more of "I want cupcakes, but you will have to make them for me" type of situation. I know she was quite surprised when Tyler was able to do most of the work himself. Tyler needed some help to separate the egg white from the yolk, but other than that he was able to read the recipe and follow the instructions. This week Tyler wanted to make more cupcakes and I told him to go for it. He asked me if he could add chocolate chips to the batter in order to have chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes. I told him we would do it. This time he only needed me to help stir up the lumpy batter. He did everything else by himself. He had to cook them a little longer than the recipe called for, but that didn't even faze him much. He stuck the toothpicks in to check on them and when they came out with uncooked batter, he just asked how much more time we should cook them. I am very amazed that he is so comfortable doing all these things by himself. He is becoming so independent that I have mixed feelings about seeing him grow up. He seems so confident in trying these new things. I know he has had the example of seeing Jason and Erin do most of these things before, but I am glad to see him trying them for himself. The picture is after we have snacked on most of the cupcakes, but he is sure proud of his accomplishment!

Friday last week, my new company sponsored a PPW (Preferred Place to Work) event in which they invited all the employees and their families to attend a hockey game. The Idaho Steelheads are the local semi-pro hockey club. The kids had never been to a hockey game before, so they were a little hesitant about it, I think mostly because they didn't think it would be "cool' enough. I am happy to report that they had a great time! Even Conner was getting into it at the end. He is one that doesn't much care for the loud noises and unexpected sounds. But towards the end of the game, he was dancing in his seat and smiling and having a great experience. The office rented three suites in order to accomodate all the people who were in attendance. I think it was a great time and hope that these events continue to be in the future of our family.

New and Exciting!

This week we started to attend our meetings in a brand new building. This is the second ward meetinghouse in Star. I am rather fond of it because while I was working for my previous employer, I designed the plumbing and HVAC (heating, ventilating and air-conditioning) systems. I am the engineer of record for this design and I got to take several tours of the building while it was under construction. I have always wanted to know what goes on inside the guts of a church building, and now I have a little more understanding than I did before. I think the construction went very smoothly; I had very few questions to answer from the contractors. That means either one of two things - my design was exceptionally clear and easy to interpret from the design documents; or the contractor didn't really care what I showed on the drawings and did it the way he wanted to. I tend to think it is the latter, since I observed the construction progress and the contractor pretty much installed it the way it was drawn.

It is neat to have a brand new building where you can be the first one to crack open the hymnbook and enjoy that new book smell. When we first moved to Star way back in 2000, our first Sunday was also the first Sunday that the "old" Star building was used too, so I guess we have a track record now with new buildings in Star, Idaho.

In preparation for the new building, one Sunday Kristin showed me an announcement in the bulletin. It said there would be training for the new organ on a certain day and that all who were interested were invited to attend. I have played the piano since I was 8 years old. I have never really played on the organ before, but it is one of my favorite instruments to listen to. I thought that I would go to the training and see what it was all about. I don't really want to be called as the ward organist right now as I am having waaay too much fun with my 11-year old scouts, but I wanted to know more about the organ.

At the training, one of the 3 organists from our ward was there. She said "I didn't know you played the organ!" and I had to tell her that I never had, but was interested to know what they were all about. We sat through the training in which one of the local music shop owners gave the pointers on how to set up and play the organ. I was soaking it up like a sponge! Everything was so exciting - I have always been amazed at all the sounds the organ can produce, so it was very enlightening for me to now see how to make them. If there is one gripe I have with the "standard" ward organist, it is that it seems to me that they like to play it safe - all the hymns are rendered with pretty much the same registration settings. It reminded me of a time late on my mission where the wife of the Bishop in the Pittsfield Ward was converted as an adult and she was the organist. She played all sorts of different ways and with different sounds - it was quite refreshing, added to my enjoyment of the music and helped me feel the Spirit more as I sang.

So when all was said and done for the evening, Sister Wood asked me if I wanted to learn how to play. I said "ABSOLUTELY!" She told me that she thought it would be a good idea for me to practice and then play prelude and postlude music for Sacrament meeting on a Sunday when I was ready. I agreed and she let me borrow one of her prelude music books.

Since Kristin is in the Relief Society presidency, she was issued keys for the new building in advance of our Sunday meeting time. I asked her if I could borrow the key to get in and practice on the organ. Kristin hates the organ, so I know she thought I was knocked in the head when I wanted to go play it. Well, I love it! It is so fun to play the organ. I do not know how to play the foot pedals yet, but I know that will come in time. I have been looking up anything I can find on the Internet to feed my desire to know more about how to play it. My first time at the organ during church will be on March 6th. I am practicing hard. Hopefully I will do a good job.

I made it the whole week!

Well, I made it through the entire week at my new job. I wouldn't say I am proud of it or anything, I am just thrilled to have a job! I keep telling my new co-workers that I am stoked to be at work. They kind of look at me sideways and get a funny look on their face, like they are not sure what to think. I tell them that I really am excited to be there and they just kind of smirk and walk away, shaking their heads as they go. I can't help it if it's the truth - I am totally jazzed about being at work. I am helping the team by working on an energy simulation model that we have going on for a school district in central Idaho (confidentiality requires that I say no more about the client).

I think I am making a good impression on my new co-workers. I hope that as they get to know me a little better, they can use my talents. I think this process has been hard for Joel. He was promoted and I took his job, but he still has some of the same responsibilities until he can hand them off to me. I have been asking him for tasks and he says something like "Do you want to do this for me?" and I say to him, "If that is what you need me to do, I will do it." Sometimes I think he is afraid I will tell him no. I don't know why he would think that, especially since this is what they hired me to do. Oh well, I will just keep on trying to exceed their expectations and do the best I can all the time.

Here is a picture of Erin on our trip to Stanley last year. When we got to the hill for sledding, there were no tracks in the snow at all, so we ran the snowmobiles down the hill a few times to try to get the snow packed down a little bit and make a trail. When Erin got on the sled to go down the hill, she followed the path for a little bit, then jumped off the trail and almost ran into the rock that is mostly snow-covered in this picture. I don't think she would admit it, but from my vantage point it sure looked like she was having fun.

This one is from the Blue and Gold Banquet last February. Tyler earned his Webelos Rank. As part of the ceremony, all the boys who earned their rank advancements had to get them out of a cupcake without using their hands. The rank badge had been baked in the cupcake and then frosted, so it fun to see that some boys just got after it to get their badge and didn't care how messy they got. Other boys tried not to get any frosting on themselves. Since these were my Webleos boys, I walked around the table behind all of them as they were finding their badges in the middle of the cupcakes. I accidentally bumped a few boys which had the unfortunate result of them getting more frosting on their face than they had hoped. The two boys in the background of this picture just got their Bobcat ranks and had had their faces painted with bobcat whiskers by their moms. It was a great time!

The Adventure Begins

Tomorrow is the big day for me! I feel a lot like a schoolboy going to the first day of classes. I am a little nervous and yet really excited as I begin my next chapter of life tomorrow by starting work for McKinstry Company. I am eagerly looking forward to joining the team and settling in to get things done. Being out of work for the past 7 weeks has for sure been a trying experience for me. I know it is sad to admit, but I have missed being in a routine and schedule. I know that helps to give me some direction and purpose to life. I was telling Kristin last night as I was doing the ironing that it would be the last day of only 6 things to iron. Now all my work shirts and pants will be added in again and I will not be able to finish so quickly.

As I look back on the last 7 weeks, I may begin to consider this unemployment experience as my mid-life crisis, but I haven't been able to get a new sportscar out of it.... Perhaps that will still be in the future, who knows? But whatever happens for the next little while, I know that the Lord is blessing me with what I need.

Switching gears a little bit now and for this new year, I have committed to updating the blog at least once a week, so I also have some pictures to share too. This one is of Conner making snow angels during our trip to Stanley, Idaho in January of 2010. One of my former co-workers, Mick Grefenson, has a cabin that his family owns there in Stanley. Mick and his family took me and my family on a trip to do some sledding and snowmobile riding. It was a great trip and the whole family had fun.

This one is of the Sawtooth Mountains - essentially it is the view out of the picture windows of Mick's cabin. Imagine waking up to this vista every morning! To me that would be worth enduring the -11 degree temperatures that dominate the winter there in Stanley. This picture still reminds me of how COLD it was up there, but I did not mind just cuddling up with Kristin near the fireplace and enjoying it.

Updates! Sort of...

Hey everyone, it has really been too long since I spent any time to update the blog. When I realized that over a year had gone by, I asked Kristin to get me some photos of what we did last year so that I could do the updating. We did, and I was about to update the blog with nice pictures of our family trip to Stanley, Idaho in the Sawtooths for a snowmobile trip; Conner getting his Bobcat award in Cub Scouts; Tyler getting his Webelos and Arrow of Light awards in Cub Scouts; Erin doing volleyball, basketball and getting her Young Woman's Regcognition award; and Jason doing cross country and getting his Eagle Scout award. We had some great photos of all our events and I was committed to spending some of my Christmas break reflecting back on this wonderful year and all the neat things we did as a family, and also looking ahead to 2011 and what interesting things we are planning for the new year...

Then came December 14, 2010... That is another "date that will live in infamy" with me. I was let go from my employment at Engineering Incorporated due to lack of work. It is an understatement to say that it was a big bombshell event in my life. I had never been in the place where I was ready, able and willing to work but didn't have someone to work for.

So I have spent the last few weeks trying to find a new job to support me and the family and do what the Lord wants me to do all at the same time. It has been a very humbling experience for me and I will admit that I was a little afraid of the unknown. But from the moment my former boss told me that "I have to let you go" I have been comforted by the Spirit. I knew that the Lord was in charge and that he would provide for my family. I was concerned, but not worried about what was in store for the family.

One of my former co-workers gave me a lead from a recruiter that called him a few days before I was downsized. I started following up on this lead right away. Then I also had a lead from attending one of my professional societies. The past president stood up in the meeting and told everyone that his company had some openings. I took these two leads and pursued them. It was the normal phone tag sometimes because it was during the holidays, so between Christmas and New Year's, I didn't see much movement in the job search. Soon after the New Year began, I had good phone interviews regarding both these leads, which ultimately ended up in face-to-face interviews at both places; McKinstry Company in Boise and MKK Consulting Engineers in Billings, Montana.

The McKinstry job opportunity was for an Energy Engineer. This person would be doing energy audits, calculations, modeling and reports for the clients. I had done all these things intermittently for my projects as a design consultant, but this would be working for the contractors on the other side from what I was used to. I felt comfortable that I could do this work, it was different, but not unfamiliar to me.

The MKK opening was for a Senior Mechanical Engineer; very, very much similar to the position I had been occupying at EI. The biggest challenge for me would be moving and the logistics of selling the house. With the current market conditions, we are quite underwater in our house (I imagine like most all homeowners out there are), but I knew if this is what the Lord wanted for me, that things would work out.

Well that brings me pretty much up to the present time. I have been offered a position with McKinstry (the Boise job) that is better than what I had with EI before. I came to the realization that MKK would have to make an offer that was out of this world in order for me to accept it. There were so many things that would have needed to be figured out to make it work. I am relieved that I don't have to figure them out, but I know if that is what the Lord wanted me to do, He would have made it possible for me to accomplish it.

In any case, we will be staying in Boise because the Lord still needs us here. I start work on February 7th. I am so grateful to everyone who has done anything to help out me and the family during our trial. We had such an outpouring of love and concern and prayer and food storage and just thoughtful advice during the past 6 weeks. We know that we have been supported in our cause by the Lord and take our job offer in Boise as evidence of all the tender mercies that He gives to us as His children.

I still have the pictures and I will be working them in to future updates. If you want more details on anything, just drop me a line. Hope to hear from you all soon!