My sadness over Steve Jobs’ death surprised me as it affected me more than I thought. Although I never met him or communicated with him, his ideologies and uncompromising direction in design has greatly influenced my work. I admit to being enamored by Apple’s products, but I equally admired Steve Jobs’ salesmanship and learned two game-changing perspectives.
We are having an easier time coming up with a list of what not to name our baby than actual candidates. Some of them are tempting, but then some of them are just out of our late-night-we-should-just-go-to-bed talks. Here’s a few from the “nah” list:
I’m pretty addicted to gadgets. It’s partly because I’m a male geek. I read blogs about gadgets. I obsess over gadget deals daily. I tend to wander toward kitchen gadgets at Ikea. I enjoy playing matchmaker with gadgets and people who may not need one.
However, I don’t like junk and clutter. So, though I get drawn to the new and shiny things, I think through how a particular gadget will augment my life before I consider buying it. I believe that’s helped Jenni not get worried when I go on and on about gadgets in our conversations at the dinner table.
After missing BridgeTown Swing last year when I attended WordCamp Portland, Jenni and I looked forward to reuniting with friends and getting back on the dance floor this year. Jenni’s parents were generous enough to babysit our girls for four days, and the BridgeTown Swing (BTS) staff were also generous by gifting us event passes for my work on the event website.
BridgeTown Swing is one of our favorite west coast swing events. We’ve won competitions, worked behind the scenes, and shared spectacular social dances with each other at BridgeTown. I went in this year with some hopes and expectations that were unreasonable and surpassed.
One couple Jennilyn and I admire, and I have the honor of working for, is Dave and Chris Vernier. While their official titles are CEO and CFO, they are so much more to their company and employees. I’ve once heard someone describe that they love everyone as a friend, and they truly do.
The flexible schedule, generous health benefits, and care for employees has made it possible for Jennilyn to stay at home when we first married because her health was fragile. I’m extremely thankful that we are able to continue as a single-income family so that Jennilyn can be at home with our lovely daughters.
If I were to become a leader of a company, I would want to be like Dave Vernier and obviously have Jennilyn as my co-founder like Christine. Dave and Chris never had any children—but, each of their employees is loved like family by them.
We have been re-reading 20 Rules and Tools for a Great Marriage and were reminded of the rule to go to bed together. This is a difficult one because I need less sleep to function than Jenni, so I like to stay up late and get up early.
Making the compromise has been very beneficial to our marriage so that we remain close. We are able to end the day together, occasionally plan the next day while I brush my teeth for five minutes, and share a precious (more precious now with kids) moment just for ourselves.
We were privileged to photograph a three-month-old baby girl of our friends Mark and Kendra. She is adorable and her parents are blessed and proud.
From the beginning of our relationship, we’ve both enjoyed learning from others what makes a marriage great. It is important to both of us that, not only do we avoid the alarming statistic of divorces, but cultivate a relationship that grows stronger with time.
There have been many books we’ve harvested wisdom, ideas, and laughter from. Some of our favorites are:
By no means are we experts or perfect in our marriage (every aspect is a work in progress), but these books have saved us from unnecessary heartaches and arguments as well as giving us tools to overcome obstacles and challenges together.