42 Years Young

Not much to say tonight...I am in MN on my birthday, and Michelle took a picture of the girls singing happy birthday to me (today is my birthday). I shed a tear when I saw the picture.

I am also adding Emilie's team soccer picture. They finished undefeated this year. She is all business in her photo (click on photos to see a bigger version).

Justine had her 1st piano recital yesterday. She did a great job! She is progressing quickly with her piano, and she enjoys playing. It is fun to watch her learn.

"If you lead, we will follow..."

Had a great day at church today. It was fast and testimony meeting and some great testimonies were born. Mike Stauffer bore his testimony for the 1st time ever. It was very cool!

The other day I was expressing some frustrations to Michelle about some of the things we haven't been doing very well lately in our family...things like family prayer, FHE, scripture study. She made the comment "If you lead, we will follow." It hit me like a ton of bricks. It was not a new principle to me, but certainly one I needed to be reminded of.

So, I will do my best start leading by examples in these areas.

Today Emilie learned in church that Jesus loves everybody, Justine learned about the Pentecost, and didn't catch what Maddie learned.

Developing Talents...

With a pay raise comes the opportunity to get the kids into more stuff!

As mentioned earlier, Justine has taken up piano lessons again. She is progressing rapidly. She takes lessons from Sister Williams who lives up the street. She is doing great! We don't have a great piano (very out of tune) as it is a loaner from Michelle's mom and has seen better days, but she still sounds good. I wouldn't recognize a good tune if...well, I don't know, but I am not very musically gifted. Justine is also on an elite dance team, and is loving it. She is actually dancing with the 12-13 year olds (she is 10). It is a little pricey, but it is what she loves to do.

Emilie has started preschool 3 days a week. She is such a social individual, and it is a great release for her to be with other kids. Emilie is a also a star player on her soccer team. The Yellow Dragons are 6-0-1, and Emilie is averaging around 4 goals per game. She has a real nose for the ball and is relentless and extremely focused for a 4 year old. She will be a great athlete at something down the line. Look for her name in 13 years on a BYU athletic team! It's funny to watch the parents of the opposing teams get frustrated as she outworks the other team. I am way too competitive. I will make it a point to coach her T-ball team next year as she will be old enough to play in the spring. She is also in dance class (somewhere, I am not sure where...mom handles that). I just show up for recitals with the video camera.

Michelle and I are doing well. Busy as ever with work, homemaking, and church. Michelle attended the general Relief Society meeting tonight and had a great time. She has met a few new friends in the ward and is having a great time. She has gotten to know Amy Stauffer very well, whose husband serves as my 1st Counselor in the Young Mens organization. What a great family! They started coming back to church around 9 months ago after 15 years of inactivity. We love them and their family.

The photo above is a little showboating while on the Varsity/Venturer weeklong camp that we went on this summer. All the boys think I am uber cool because I can out-wakeboard them. It's about all I can do...I can hardly get up on a ski anymore!

Tomorrow we will start praying as a family for a missionary opportunity. Not long ago while in MN I met a great brother from St. Louis named Shannon Mahaffey. We were attending orientation for our company and we had the opportunity to team teach one of the fellas in our orientation group. What a great experience it was! As we taught him in the hallway of our hotel, he had many questions about the gospel, in particular the challenges that our youth face today. We did not have a Book of Mormon to give him so I gave him my "For the Strength of Youth" book. Anyway, Shannon mentioned to me that his family prays for 60 days specifically for missionary opportunities. It was such a wonderful thing that I wanted my family to feel that spirit. It turns out that Shannon was a counselor in the St. Louis Mission presidency. Stay tuned! A couple years ago, we sent some Books of Mormon to President Craig over in Spain as he presided there. That was a neat experience for our family.

Work is going well. We are working hard to build our opportunity funnel and we are having fun and closing some deals along the way.

San Francisco - VMWorld!

I have been in San Francisco all week for the VMworld conference. I spend time in our booth at the conference talking to attendees and educating them about our product. Long days, sore feet and back! I go home tonight.

Greg Page (one of my former Priests in the Young Men's) received his mission call to Mesa AZ. Very exciting! He leaves in November.

Emilie scored a few more goals in her soccer game this week!

This is an older picture of the girls that I found. It looks a year and a half old.

The Blog Begins...

The Rupprecht Blog is officially underway!

Lots has been going on with our family. Emilie (age 4) has learned to ride her bike this week. She is very proud! She really scoots around on that thing! She is a very active child. She started her 2nd season of soccer this week. She scored 5 goals in her first game. She loves to play. She is very aggressive and has a nose for the ball. Em also started pre-school this week over at Kathryn Morganegg's. She LOVES school!

Justine (age 10) went over the handlebars on her scooter and had to get 9 stitches in her chin. It was a pretty nasty gash. I was in MN at the time, but all reports were that she did great at the hospital. Justine also resumed her piano lessons this week. She has a natural talent for the piano, and I can't wait to have some piano music floating through the house.

Maddie (age 3) is growing up fast. She is a sweet little girl; she is not a morning person, however (like her dad).

I am doing good. I started a new job at a co. called Compellent Technologies. I am what's called a Storage Architect. I essentially do pre-sales with a counterpart here in town. So far I really enjoy it and we are ramping up the business. I cover Utah and Idaho.

Today Bro. Stauffer and I were invited to teach the Elder's Quorum. It was different being out of Young Men's for a week. We taught about becoming "Truly Converted". I really enjoy teaching with Bro. Stauffer; he is a great guy!

This week I will be heading out to San Francisco to attend VMworld, which is a technical conference. It should be fun to go out and see a little bit of SF. I spent quite a bit of time back there in 1999 when I worked for First Security Bank.