News from Eric and Laurel

Hi all,

Well, things have been busy.

On the second and third I taught my very first sales class to a group of bright-eyed new loan officers. It was actually a lot of fun, and I had a lot of help from Susan, another trainer who wrote the class.

Last week was the pilot class of Underwriter Certification class, a four-day extravaganza of corporate training that very nearly wiped me out. I'm still decompressing, but it's nice to have something to show finally for the last four months or so of work. This was the first full-length class I've developed and delivered in two and a half years, and the biggest class I've done to date.

This weekend, Laurel and I had a fun time. We made a parody of "Antiques Roadshow" with our video camera, and I edited it together on the computer. We'll send the DVD to all interested parties with a bunch of other home movies later this year I think.

Then I ran the new hire orientation class on Monday. I took the day off yesterday for our anniversary. Laurel had a doctor's appointment Monday that scared her into taking it easy. She has high blood pressure and the doctor was very stern with her about slowing down. It's hard for Laurel to do, but doctor's orders. Monday night she got a blessing from me and our hometeacher and I've taken over household chores for a while.

Yesterday was our eighth anniversary, and we celebrated it at home, taking it easy. We actually had a very nice day. We thought about going to Disneyland, but decided against it.

I'm having a fun time learning how to cook without salt, and learning that it's not so bad to do the cooking AND the dishes AND the laundry (oh, and go to work 8 hours a day). The thing is, even with all that I still have it pretty easy. I think it's harder for Laurel NOT to do those things, and not to paint and clean the house and move furniture and all the other things she comes up with.

60 days to go folks!