Sunday August 28, 2011 7:07pm

So it has been since April's Hawaii trip since I updated the blog. We have been on lots of little weekend adventures and a big Utah trip. In addition to fun trips, there are also a lot of changes going on with our jobs and living arrangements. I will get to those shortly.

There was a time that we went surfing every weekend for three or four weeks. We found a new surf spot at the very tip of Washington State called Cape Flattery, Neah Bay, or "Hobuck." This place has a nice clean beach void of huge driftwood (compared to La Push). The waves are typically more clean and predictable than other places on the WA coast. I can't wait till the Winter, hopefully the surf will be a lot bigger. The only downside to surfing there is that it is about four hours away from home. It is a beautiful drive along windy roads on the coastline. A couple weeks ago, we camped out of the back of our car and had a fun trip. Other than that, we haven't busted out the tent to do any other camping. We may go camping with some friends the weekend after Labor day.

In July, we headed down to Utah. I was able to take a couple days and spend it with the folks. We went to the cabin for a couple days and were accompanied by my sisters family including my two cute nephews. It was awesome to be at the cabin without any worries in the world. It was fun relaxing and playing games. I also enjoyed playing with my parent's dogs.







The second half of the trip was spent at Lake Powell with Lesley's family. The weather was beautiful (hot and sunny). There was a lot of driftwood in the water because of all the runoff from the melting snow. The water was higher than usual and rising at about a foot per day. The funnest part of the trip was wakeboarding and tubing. My wakeboarding was not as good as previous years.





On the flight home to Seattle, it made me realize how blessed they are in Utah to have so much sun. Immediately upon flying into Western Washington, there was nothing but clouds. We had to fly through thousands of feet of dark rain clouds until you pop out of the clouds with just enough time to touch down on the runway. If I had my choice, I would have turned around and gone back to Utah for another couple weeks.

As far as work goes, three months ago Lesley got a full time job working in Tacoma as a radiation therapist (what she went to school for). She has made some good friends and is able to work with a lot of the girls she went to RT school with. I have recently changed jobs as well. I was working at UoP as an enrollment advisor. I now work as a sales rep for medical implants (not boobs). I was given the opportunity because of a close friend from my mission. His brother runs a distribution company specializing in lower extremity implants such as plates and screws. I will be mostly working with podiatrists as they use our product and I sit in on their surgeries. It is something completely opposite of what I was doing previously. I never thought I could stand there and watch a surgeon cut somebody open and watch them drill and saw through bone. Believe it or not, I have not passed out and consider myself very comfortable with being able to be a short distance from the action. My first day on the job was a conference in which doctors lectured each other and practiced procedures on cadaver feet and ankles. One of the LDS docs who I met previously literally handed me this foot and told me to do the procedure while he instructed. It is a wild job and will be a good experience for me to practice the principles I learned in business school. I am now self-employed and am loving the fact that I no longer have to sit behind a desk from 8-5.

Other than the new jobs, we are set to close on a new house mid-September. We have been waiting for the right time to buy and now it's here. I was up late one night searching the internet for houses close to where Les and I will be doing most of our work. I found a killer deal in a place called Gig Harbor. It is a beautiful area and the house is in a new neighborhood. It has been a learning experience as we have worked through all the loan details. If everything goes according to plan, we will close on September 14th. Once we close, I'll send out the address so you can all come visit.

Other than that, I will be finishing my degree on October 11th. Hallelujah!!!!!! I can't wait to be done with school. The timing couldn't be more perfect because my brother will get home from his mission in Argentina almost a week later. We will head to Utah to hang out with him. He has done an awesome job and impacted many lives, including his own. He is training a greenie right now and enjoying the responsibility.

On another note, Lesley and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary Sept 12th and General Conference is just around the corner!!!

Hawaii 2011

4/3/11 9:18 PM

Hello again family and friends. I wanted to quickly update you on what’s been happening with us over the last few months. Nothing much has changed with me. Still working at UoP in Tacoma by day. I’m still a student by night. I’m half way through my masters. I finish in November! I’m so excited to be done with school. I can’t even begin to explain what a great day graduation will be.

Lesley is getting bored at home all day. She is getting a little stir crazy. Her Friday per diem job has been very slow and have not even needed her on some of the Fridays. She needed a vacation very bad. So I got a text on a Thursday telling me that we were going to Hawaii in a week and a half. She left the coming Tuesday and I left on Saturday. I love her spontaneousness. Lesley set up all the flights and accommodations. We stayed a majority of the trip at her old roommate Michelle’s house in Laie, about 5 minutes from the Temple and PCC. I got to fly out to Hawaii first class!

Here are some of the things we did:
Surfing at Waikiki, Castles, and Turtle Bay (where I caught the biggest wave of my life to date)
Ate at local places like Hukilau Café, Surfing Tacos, Rainbow drive in, Ted’s Bakery, Haleiwa Eats
Attended the Laie 3rd ward and the newly renovated Laie Temple.
Snorkeled Wimea
Hiked S@cred Falls which is against the law due to all the rock slides that killed lots of people.
Hiked Diamond Head
Punchbowl Cemetery
Pali Highway
Did lots of homework ☹
Went swimming in a shark cage
Watched big wave surfers at Pipeline

Overall, it was an awesome trip. We hope to return soon!
















Also, while there, my mom called with the bad news of Tammy Ballard’s passing. Tammy was like a second mom to me growing up. Her and her family were very close family friends ever since before I was born. She was always fun to be around. I blame her for my love for Coke. She would let me take sips from her mug before I could even walk. She told people like it was and didn’t hold back, which always made me laugh. She has a wonderful husband and kids who are the most sincere and serving people you will ever meet. She will be greatly missed.

General Conference was amazing! I loved the messages from our Prophet and Apostles. I am energized by their messages!

Parker

To see more pics, click here!

Christmas in Utah 2010

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Hello family and friends. Life is good in the Sadler world. We had a lot happen in the last few months. The holidays went well. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Thanksgiving was an adventure for us. A couple days before the holiday we got a really bad storm, according to Washingtonians. It snowed a few inches and completely shut down everything. I was commuting by bus and ferry then. It took me 6 hours to get home. Me and a couple co-workers waited for a bus for 2 hours and realized it wasn’t coming. So we walked a couple miles in the snow to the airport and caught the light rail to Seattle. While on light rail, the interstate was a frozen parking lot. There was an inch or two of ice on the roads and it was fun to watch all the near miss accidents. Luckily I was able to catch the ferry and was picked up by my father-in-law who has a 4-wheel drive Tahoe. We got home and the power was out. It was out for about 24 hours. On Thanksgiving day, the water pump to the city lost power. We spent another 24 hours without water. We chipped holes in my in-laws pond and bucketed water to the house to flush the toilets. The day after Thanksgiving warmed up a little and the pond started thawing. Lola, our intelligent and fearless dog, decided to walk on the frozen pond. The next thing I hear is Lesley screaming that Lola had fallen in. What a horrible sight to see Lola trying to pull herself out of the frozen pond. I ran out the door and grabbed the canoe sitting on the bank of the pond. I dragged it around the pond and jumped in. I started paddling over with my hands and within a few seconds she had pulled herself out. We gave her a warm bath and she’s fine. During this whole fiasco, Ollie had got scared and ran off. We figured he ran down the driveway and would be back as had happened a couple days earlier. Nope. I was wrong. A day went by, then two. No Ollie. We put delivered “Lost” signs to the nearby neighbors. Luckily they called us every day with Ollie sightings. He was too scared to come up to people. So he just wandered in the woods for many days. We put food out for him every day at the neighbor’s house because we couldn’t lure him back across the street to our house. Finally we built a ghetto trap and baited it with steaks and tuna. We would sit a ways off in the bushes and pull a rope when he entered the trap. Finally after 10 days of him running off, Lesley caught him. He was very skinny. He has since fattened up to normal and is now not let out in the yard without a leash.

We were able to spend Christmas in Utah with my family. We road tripped it with Lesley’s parents and our doggies. It was so nice to be home for the holidays. It was great seeing all my grandparents and my new nephew. Between Christmas and New Years, Lesley and I went snowboarding at Brighton for 3 days. The knee-deep powder on the second day was amazing. New Years was fun even though I fell asleep at 10 o’clock. Lesley woke me up for the ball drop. We had to leave on New Years because the weather wasn’t supposed to be good and didn’t want to travel on bad roads. We made it home just fine and didn’t have to stop overnight and wait out any storms.

Since being home, I was able to transfer my job to the Tacoma campus and I no longer have a ridiculous commute every day. I can now sleep in till 6am and it only takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to work. It has cleared up so much time that I can now be home with the family every night and have really good workouts with my new weight set.

Other than that, Lesley is doing great. She is getting stir crazy being home so much. Her work is really slow and she really only works on Fridays unless they call her in during the week. She would like to work more but their patient count isn’t high enough that they need her every day. She works per-diem as a radiation therapist (treating cancer patients with radiation). She is hoping to pick up more work at her current clinic or another hospital in the area.

Speaking of Lesley, I better go hang out with her because she has been sick with flu-like symptoms today.

Here’s a link to more of our Christmas pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=597343&id=720885537&l=b8eb420e04

Parker

2 year anniversary

10/3/10 5:48 PM

As usual, I need to apologize for not writing in many months. I’m hoping to blog more when school is done. So there is a ton to update you on so I’ll get started.

Last time I wrote, we were possibly getting another dog. It happened. We adopted Yo Yo (now Ollie) from a place out of California who rescued him from an elementary school in Taiwan. He is such a good dog. He and Lola were instant BFF’s. Ollie loves other doggies and is really timid around me for some reason. He loves Lesley and will only listen to her. I’m assuming he had a bad experience with men over in his homeland. He has adjusted well and is now starting to understand commands in English. He and Lola run each other till they are exhausted. It has been good having two dogs.

I started my MBA the same month as I graduated my bachelors. I will graduate in November of 2011. So far the classes have been intense. I am learning a lot and liking school. I will also like to be done!

Lesley has finished her school and clinic requirements. She is a licensed Radiation Therapist. She worked really hard and spent a ton of time. She was offered a position before she even graduated. She got a job at a clinic in Poulsbo, WA. It is located about an hour and a half from Renton where we used to live. Yes, we moved again—for the 2nd time in two years. It is located across the Puget Sound from Seattle. We moved to Poulsbo, which is a really cool old Scandinavian town. This also happens to be where Lesley grew up. I will be commuting and going to school at the same place—University of Phoenix. It is an hour and 15-minute drive or a couple hours if I take the ferry. We plan to live here for a year and then hopefully buy a house somewhere. Lesley really likes her work. Since moving, we have obviously been released from our callings in the EQ and YW’s. We await new callings here.

During the summer we were able to go to Utah and stay with my family. It was so fun to see them and my friends. We drove down there and took our dogs. They loved being around my parent’s dogs. It was a bit of a mad house with the gang of dogs running around. I’m sorry to report that my parent’s dog Cooper got really sick and passed away a week after we were there. It came quickly and unexpectedly. He was only one to two years old. He was buried where he was most happy, at the cabin.

Lesley and I played on a co-ed softball team with one of Lesley’s friends at school. We played double headers every Thursday night. We had a good season. We went on to win the championship. It was awesome.

We went surfing a few times. We went camping twice.

We just celebrated our two-year anniversary on Sept 12th. We went on a western Caribbean cruise for a week. We stopped in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize. We did excursions at each of the stops. We went to Stingray City in Grand Cayman, Mayan ruins and beach in Cozumel, Beach in Roatan, and cave tubing in Belize. It was a beautiful trip and we had so much fun. I’m still peeling from my sunburns. When I rub my hand along my shoulders, it literally looks like it’s snowing from all my dead skin.

Rather than copy all our pics into the blog, I’m including the link to my facebook page that you can go see them.

Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=528153&id=720885537&l=b85b57f93b

Love,

Parker

Hot off the press!

5/4/10 6:16 AM

Hawaii seemed so long ago. It was a great trip! We were there for a week. We spent a lot of time on the beach and eating great food. We were able to do some surfing and stand up paddle surfing. We went whale watching, drove the road to Hana, and watched the sunrise from the highest mountain on Maui. It was really hard to come home. I’m ready for another vacation.

Lesley and I have barely seen each other over the last one and a half months. We have been so busy with our church callings and school. Lesley is the Young Women’s President and I am the 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum. Our callings involve lots of meetings and activities. School has also been crazy for us. Lesley continues to do well in class and is commuting to Olympia three days per week. Olympia is past Tacoma. It works out to an hour of driving each way. I’ll be glad when she’s a little closer to home. We don’t know yet where she’ll be assigned for her summer clinical.

I have been doubling up on classes at school. Typically at the University of Phoenix students take only one class at a time. Students will go to class one night a week. Instructors will give enough homework to keep them busy throughout the week. I, however, just got done completing two classes at the same time. It nearly killed me and was a huge source of stress. Long assignments and fast approaching deadlines plagued my life over the past five weeks. I’m glad it is over. These were the last classes required for my Bachelors in Business Management. I am trying to start my MBA with an emphasis in Healthcare Management later this month.

Lesley and I celebrated our birthdays in April. She got me a really cool HD Flip video camera. I can now take video and upload it to the blog so you can watch all of our fun weekend trips and see how beautiful it is up here in Seattle. You will most likely see more videos of Lola because she is so fun and crazy to watch.

Speaking of Lola, we could possibly be adopting another doggy. My mom had sent me an email with a cute little dog in California that needed to be adopted. The dog’s name is Yo Yo and he is 7 months old. He is a Yellow Lab Whippet mix. He is the cutest little dog. We have filled out the application to get him. Our application has been accepted. We are now waiting to hear from the “foster” owner and I guess somebody needs to come check out our apartment to make sure it is suitable for dogs. The people at the shelter said that it is necessary to have another dog in the house if they are going to let us have him. Lola will love to have a playmate and somebody to cuddle with when she’s not cuddling with me. Hopefully the adoption works out and we can get the dog soon. We will have the dog flown here from Los Angeles.

Other than that, we had a great surf trip last weekend. The weather and the waves were perfect. It was the best day of surfing I have ever had. Lola got to run around on the beach and swim in the cold ocean. I think she accidentally ran into the waves and got tumbled a little bit.

The days are getting long with light and the weather is getting warm. Camping season is upon us. We plan on taking as many weekend trips as possible. If anybody wants to go camping with us, let us know and we’ll make some plans.

Well, that’s all for now! It is now time for me to go home and get ready for work. I have been here at the church since 5am this morning doing “seminary security.” For those of you who live in Utah, early morning seminary is when high school students take seminary at 5:30 and 6:00am throughout the week. I’m very grateful to have been able to live in Utah and go to seminary during the day. The challenge with Utah seminary was not sleeping in, but taking an extra long lunch.

To see our pictures from our recent surf trip, visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=416316&id=720885537&l=1f6c51a6d8

Much love,

Parker

Sorry no new pictures

2/17/10 7:05 PM

I’m sorry for not posting anything to the blog in recent months. I have been in transition for the past month. Not only have I got a new job, but today I started class up again. Lesley is also back in school and working hard at that and in the clinic. Lola has been her energetic self as always. We gave Lola a haircut. Besides looking really cute, she gets cold at night. She will burrow under the bed covers and sprawl out between Lesley and I. I’m so glad she does not shed! In the next couple of weeks we are going to invest in a king size bed. A king size will help Lesley avoid my flailing elbows and I can avoid Lesley’s crazy kicking legs.

As I had said earlier, I have changed jobs. It has been a great change in my life. Working at Paychex was terrible since I transferred to the Seattle branch. I really couldn’t stand the management. My direct supervisor was x-military and treated us like his little soldiers. He was direct, abrupt, rude, and crude. He lacked compassion and people skills. He is not a leader. He is a drill instructor. I moved desks and got another supervisor. She spoke to everybody as if they were 4 years old and it was their first day on the job. The branch manager was invisible to the branch and made everybody uncomfortable when he did interact with them. He is the manager that nobody dared joke with. The problem with the branch was the personnel crisis. The management was so concerned with client satisfaction that they completely forgot about employee satisfaction. There was a huge amount of employee turnover because most employees 1. Can’t stand management style. 2. Are 25 to 40 clients over budget. 3. Are covering terminated employees clients while management refused to fill vacancies.

I knew I had to change jobs when I noticed that I was consistently coming home from work in a bad mood. I would have a short temper with Lesley and the dog. It is hard for me to have a bad day because I try to maintain a happy and optimistic view of everything. I always try to create a healthy work environment. I had to get out of the company before I went bald from stress or it negatively impacted my personal life.

During the fall of 2009, I had been interviewing for sales positions at a few different companies but nothing felt right. My goal was to work for University of Phoenix. So I got on their website and searched for local jobs on a weekly basis. I submitted my resume like crazy. One day I finally got contacted them and got going on the interview process. The interview process went throughout December. I finally accepted a job offer to start on January 19th. I wrote a nice letter to Paychex management giving my two weeks notice. I thanked them for giving me many growth opportunities, etc. When I informed my direct supervisor, she didn’t even look at the letter. She criticized my job performance and then asked me if there was anything they could do to keep me. Hmmmm.

The next day, the branch manager finally made time to meet with me. He also didn’t read my letter. He just started by insulting my character calling me dishonest for going behind his back to look for another job. He told me I wasn’t a leader because I was leaving the company during the busiest time of the year. He also said that I was making a huge mistake in my career.

Once he had burned the bridge, I told him what I think about him and his management team. I confronted him when he insulted my character. I defended myself honestly and bluntly. I told him this would probably be the best career decision that I will make. I was surprised how I was treated especially when I had given 4 years of quality work to the company. I took nothing he said personally or seriously.

Working at the University of Phoenix has been great so far. I’m an enrollment advisor. I work with potential students and help them get financial aid and started in their desired degree program. It is more or less a sales job. I love the competition and results driven environment. Some days can be hard when you don’t have people progressing towards activity. (the same as it was in missionary work.) I am really excited to work at U of P because it includes great benefits. I get my tuition waived. This is a huge blessing, especially as I’m starting my masters program in 5 to 6 months.

To change subjects, Lesley and I are going to Maui for a week. We fly out this Saturday the 20th and will be returning the following Saturday the 27th. We are going with Lesley’s parents and siblings and their spouses. It is going to be an awesome trip. Lesley and I deserve a nice vacation. We have been working hard at work and school and are ready to relax. I’ll take lots of pictures.

Well, I just took a break and forgot what else I was going to write about. So I’ll end it by saying happy birthday to my pops on the 24th of February. Also, I need to congratulate Lesley for accepting a call to serve as the Young Women President in our ward! You go girl! I got your back. I’ll support you all the way. I gotta get working on homework so I don’t have to do any while I’m in Hawaii.

Much love,

Parker

Happy Thanksgiving!


(Awkward smile....get me out of here!)


(My nephew Carson being a Pilgrim)

11/29/09 10:03 AM

I think this is a record! I have never updated the blog this quickly. It’s going to be a short one because not too much has happened. I’m happy to announce that I have CLEP’d (tested) out of 6 credits worth of Spanish. I was only six correct answers away from getting the full 12 credits. I was so mad at myself. I had taken hours worth of practice tests (which were supposed to mirror the actual test), but the actual test question structure was completely different. The practice test did not prepare me for the level of difficulty that I was about to experience. I need 12.33 general ed credits to complete my degree. All of my upper division classes are done. Once my degree is done, then I will get ready for the GMAT and hopefully get into a good school to get my Masters.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! The night before Thanksgiving, Lesley and I drove around the water to her parent’s house. Steve and I went and saw “Old Dogs,” while Lesley and Debbie went to “New Moon.” There were many laughs in the show I saw, but it isn’t a movie I would buy. My movie got out before Lesley’s, so Steve and I went in and watched the last 20 minutes of New Moon. We were probably the only two guys in the theater. As for the movie, it looked good from what I saw—really dramatic. Lesley made the comment as we were driving away from the theater, “You should work out more so you can look like Jacob.” Then she smiled and batted her pretty little eyes. It made me laugh. She’s lucky she’s a girl and she can get away with that.

For Thanksgiving, we went to the Payne’s for dinner. The Payne family is a really close family friend with the Miles’. After a yummy and filling dinner, we watched a movie called “The Family Stone.” I slept through a lot of it. After that movie was over, the men watched “The Magnificent 7.” It is a classic Western with Steve McQueen and others. Lesley slept through this movie. The next day neither Lesley nor I went shopping on black Friday.

Well, I gotta go get some breakfast, prepare my lesson, and go to church. Bye.

Here's some pics...





(Lola's new bed!)