I'M DONE

I have officially passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam. I've been waiting to hear back on the last part since I took it before Thanksgiving. It's official now though! Best Christmas present I could have ever asked for!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We wanted to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. We feel so blessed. We live in an amazing country. We have the gospel. We have eachother. We love you all.

I passed!

I just found out that I passed the Auditing portion of the CPA exam. That puts me 3 of 4 exams done. I recently sat for the last one that I haven't passed yet so I won't hear back for a few weeks on that one. Everything is business as usual in the Leishman household. Darcy's birthday on the 1st of November was wonderful. We had our family there, Cameron & Rachael and their kids, and John & Kari Sinner with Berkley. Congrats to the Sinners on their handsome new baby boy. I'm going to post a few photos from the birthday party.

Darcy was a little embarrassed to blow out her candles.



Darcy loves to eat the batter from the beater.



Tara made an Annie from Little Einsteins dress for Darcy. She also has her microphone like Annie and pig-tails. Darcy loved to be Annie for Halloween!!





Darcy showed me her tongue after she ate a big blue sucker for Halloween

Another quiet Sunday

This morning we woke up and ate some breakfast while we waited for Darcy to wake up. After she woke up and got un-groggy we decided to go for a drive as a family. We went out past Sisquoc and out Alisos Canyon Rd until it hit Los Alamos. It was very nice. Then we got home and Darcy wanted to get ready for Church. Darcy loves to go to church. She remembers every Sunday that we get to go church. We got her ready in a dress that she got as a gift from her BFF Berkley Sinner. She looks so adorable so I took a few pics. Here is one of them.

A few thoughts

I feel so glad to be on the side that respects others. During the recent election cycle, opponents to Proposition 8 were completely disrespectful to those that did not agree with them, swearing at them on the street, ripping up signs, spitting on them etc. They talk about respecting their decisions and accepting their beliefs, yet when another person stands up for what they believe in they are met with grotesque slander. The recent commercial from the No on Prop 8 campaign focusing on the LDS Church and portraying our missionaries, who give up 2 years of their lives to serve others, as monsters is a disgrace. What has happened to our society? This Saturday Night Live culture that we have allowed to take over has turned us into classless, arrogant, ignorant people. The idea that I won't tell you that what you say or do is wrong so you don't tell me that what I say or do is wrong is insane. That just perpetuates the idiotic.

It makes me sad to think that our society has fallen so far that respect is so one-sided; others have to respect what you say and do.

It is so nice to meet people who are genuinely nice, considerate, and respectful. They have class. They would find it shameful to say or do the things that everyday go on today. I hope someday people realize the mud they have stepped in and spread around.

My grandparents would be ashamed to even think about doing or saying the things that so many people do everyday. That generation is not "old-fashioned," they are just right. We need to try to emulate more their sense of self-control and class. I recently read an article that I will post the link to about this exact type of attitude and disrespectful behavior that has been shown to our current President. It is short, so take a moment and check it out.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122584386627599251.html

We moved in!

Well, we moved in. Finally. There is still no carpet in the master bedroom or the family room, so everything is just sitting in the great room until next week sometime when they come to lay the carpet. Tara and I are camped out in the nursery for now. But, with the carpet basically the only thing left to make it livable, we decided to just go ahead and move in. We love it. It is so cool to come home to the new house. There is still so much to do. Someday there will be the funds available to do bigger projects, ie: cutting down many HUGE trees, etc..but for the time being we are just going to enjoy living in the house and being in our own house. 400sqft to around 3000sqft is a HUGE leap in space. Darcy runs around like crazy! Now she actually can!!! Yeah! Well, I'm supposed to be studying to take the Auditing portion of the CPA exam next Tuesday. I'd better get back to that. Ugh. Now that my computer is set up at the house and internet will be turned on next Thursday I can go ahead and post pictures for the house, before and after.

Just a couple quick photos

Darcy just had some grape juice before this photo, that's why she has a purple mustache!

Almost there!!!

I just thought I would toss out there a quick update on the home-front. We will most likely be finally moving in by next weekend. I'm having the popcorn acoustic ceiling scraped and re-textured so I can then paint. Then all I have to do is finish a couple more rooms of paint, and a little bathroom work and DONE! I'll probably have a few more projects to work on after we move in, but I am finally getting close!

Disclosures about work, my place there, and my Dad

My Dad, Kirk Leishman is the hardest working person I have ever met. No one works harder than he does. My comments in an earlier blog about how he would like me to take over and how I already do most of his work was a huge JOKE. Those statements were completely meant as an exaggeration in a joking manner. I'm sure he would like me to continue working for the company, but in no way have I even remotely taken over even 10% of what he does. He has over 20 years experience in the finance world. He was a controller and CFO for many years before doing what he does now. My Dad is also the smartest person I know. Professionally, he knows more about taxes, investments, estates, economics, and business than anyone I know. He is happy to work many more hours past the normal 5PM. I hope to someday, somehow, absorb even half of what he knows. He also knows so much about all kinds of other things. He can fix just about anything you can imagine, plumbing, electrical, building, etc. He has spent many hundreds of hours working on my new house. I will forever feel indebted to him for his love and never exhausting enthusiasm to get the job done. There is no way I could have bought this house and fixed it up on such a small budget without his help and knowledge. We re-finished the hardwood floors for $650 dollars. 1000 square feet of wood flooring for $650 dollars. The lowest bid I got to do the same thing was $3,200. I had never worked those machines or re-finished any wood of any kind, but since my Dad had he encouraged me to give it a try ourselves. Sure, it isn't perfect. But it doesn't really matter. I'm going to raise my family in that house and I'm sure I will have to re-do those floors many more times just from the wear and tear of living life. I hope to someday become even half the man, father, businessman, church leader, and grandfather my Dad is. I hope to someday be as generous with my time, money, advice, and knowledge as my Dad is. He works so hard without ever saying a word. I can't count the nights he has come home from work at 6,7 or 8PM to eat dinner with the family, get us ready for bed and then go back to the office to work until the middle of the night. My Dad is truly the best man I have ever known and ever will know. I am so grateful to have him as my father, Dad, mentor, boss, and grandpa to my children. For those of you who know my Dad, I'm sure you can agree that he is a incredible person. He is the most unselfish human being I can think of.

I hope those of you that read this will understand how much I love my Dad. I hope you know and understand that I could in no way replace him in the work we do at his office. Many years from now, maybe he can consider retiring, but I'm sure I will continue to call him often to help with questions and advice.

My Dad is my hero

I passed!

I just logged on to website to check my scores on the two parts of the CPA exam that I recently took. I took Auditing in July and Regulation (which is Business Law, Contracts, and all Tax) in August. Auditing still hasn't posted, but I found out today that I passed the Regulation exam. Ya!!! I'm at least 1/2 way through passing the CPA exam!

Update on the house:

We are living with my parents. I'm done with re-finishing the wood floors, painting the wood ceiling, and a bunch of other painting and baseboard. We are scheduled to be moving in the the next 2 weeks!

Another one bites the dust

Well, I took another part of the CPA exam this morning. Finally. It has been so crazy trying to juggle work, church calling (ward clerk), buying and remodeling the house, and studying for the hardest exam ever! But, now one of those is off the list. And after this Sunday the ward clerk will be off too, since we will be officially moved to Orcutt. We actually have to move in with my parents, a whopping 8 houses down from ours, until I can finish the remodel work. I only need another week or so to get things wrapped up. We already have two coats of the clear polyurethane on the floors, with another couple to go. Then a couple days worth of painting, a couple broken pipes to fix, new carpet and we can move in officially. Thank goodness for the 6 car garage to store all of our stuff while the inside of the house is a mess. I am so excited to kill that commute. Plus Darcy gets to grow up around the corner from one set of grandparents and also around the corner from Cameron and Rachael's kids, her cousins. Rachael is Tara's sister. Well, gotta get going to start loading the truck and trailor. I'll post more info and progress pics later.

Progress!

Well, after starting the painting of the pine covered ceiling in the great room and kitchen last Monday, today it will finally be finished! It took from Monday to Thursday last week just to get 1 coat of primer up there. On Saturday I went down to Frazee and bought some Shellac based primer, real toxic stuff, but highly effective. It will keep the naughts from eventually showing through the paint. An entire coat of that went on in about 3 hours. We got an entire coat of finish paint on in about 2.5 hours too. We ended the day by getting about half way through cutting in the joints. Today we can finish that and paint one more coat of paint. Then comes picking baseboard so we can finish putting together the kids bathroom. Hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday we can start the sanding process for the 1000 square feet of hardwood floors. We are still hopeful of being able to move in at the end of the month. I also found out that we have to replace the septic tank as well before we can move in. But we are making progress. Things are beginning to come together. I painted the two kids bedrooms last week as well, and they look great. I'll get some photos and post them later this week.

We finally bought a house!

We closed escrow on July 31st! After a ton of effort and offers on other houses that fell through, we finally found a great house and were able to get it. It is located in Lake Marie, in Orcutt, about 8 houses down the street from my parents. It needs quite a bit of work, but that is ok. I've already started by ripping down almost all the landscaping that was covering the front of the house in the picture. Behind the pine tree/bush thing on the left hand side of the picture is the front door. I ripped out that tree. It has a newly remodeled kitchen with amazing cabinets, countertops, and Dacor appliances. The house is 3007 square feet, a huge difference from our 400 square feet apartment now. I am finishing remodeling one of the bathrooms and I'm re-finishing the hardwood floors as well. We will try to paint everything, inside and outside too, but that may be after we move in. Luckily we aren't moving out of our apartment until the end of this month, so I have a few weeks to get things done. We are so excited to finally be able to buy our first home. It has been nerve racking and crazy. Many many many headaches, but well worth it now that we have it!!!! We will be posting many more pictures as I get things done. I will take some photos today for some before/after postings for later. Our new address is 2211 Crystal Drive Santa Maria CA 93455. I will keep you posted!! This picture of the house isn't very good, so I will try to take some more later today. I've already started a bunch of demolition, so you may see that in the next pictures.

Triumph Hurts!!

I made it to the top and back!!!!! We went up to Mt Whitney on Wednesday, played around on Thursday to try and get acclimated. Friday morning, well middle of the night, at 1:45AM the alarm went off and that meant go time! We got up and ate some food and then hit the trail. We made our first steps at 2:52AM. With headlamps hiking in the dark is actually very fun. My body was not used to functioning, let alone hiking at such early hours of the morning, but after about an hour I was really beginning to get into the groove. We set up a timeline for goals to reach certain areas. We were ahead of schedule by about 15-20 minutes each time, which was great considering what were attempting to accomplish. At 4AM we were hiking up some switchbacks toward Mirror Lake when we came across a group of people on their way down. They had not made into the top, and were trying to get down. They still had 4 more miles to go though. We heard later on that there had been massive snow fall from 10,000 feet on up to the summit on Thursday. Lucky for us we had great weather all day. We made it up to Trail Camp, which is at about 12,000 feet, where most people who can get a camping pass camp the first night before going for the summit. People were just getting up and around to getting some breakfast when we cruised on through. Directly in front of Trail Camp are the 96 switchbacks. These switchbacks take you from 12,000 feet to 13,600 in around 2 miles. They are actually not too terribly steep, just never never never never ending! We made it to the top, Trail Crest, at 13,600 feet. Just 2.3 miles to go and we will have made it to the top. First you drop around 500 feet though, which is completely demoralizing as you have worked so hard climbing, just to drop 500 feet. The trail between the summit and trail camp is not very maintained. It is full of rocks and boulders. Pretty tough going. I learned that the key to keep it slow and steady. We only stopped a couple of times between Trail Camp and the summit since we didn't try and overdo it. We summited at 10:45AM. A couple had just gotten married right before we walked up to the building that is on the top of the summit. The views go on forever. Making sure that I was fully hydrated helped keep the altitude sickness at bay. The summit is 14,497.61 feet above sea level, the highest mountain point in the 48 states. We left to head down about an hour later. The way down hurt much more than going up. Knees are screaming at you to please stop the pounding. Your toes begin to hurt as you try to soften the blows by landing on the balls of your feet. It is pretty tough to breath up that high, but maintaining a steady pace helps keep you from over exerting yourself. We made it down at 5:25PM, 14.5 hours after we started. The Whitney Portal Store serves food until 7:30PM, so we ordered up some killer cheese burgers and fries to relish in our accomplishment. My body hurt so bad it was truly tough just to walk. Lifting my legs to get into the car really seemed impossible. The Portal Store also has 1 shower available. It costs $3 dollars and is only open until 7:15PM. I was the last one to take a shower that day, staying for 20 minutes. Best $3 dollars I spent on the whole trip. All in all it was a great trip. We spent the night in the Whitney Portal campground again, took lots of ibuprofin, and woke up the next morning and cleaned up camp. It takes around 5-6 hours to drive back, so trying to drive back right off the mountain is something that I'm really glad we didn't attempt. We were all so incredibly exhausted. I'm really glad I made the trek and pushed my body to it's max. It was a blast. I read that only about 33% of people who try to hike Whitney actually make it to the summit. I'm really happy that I was able to make it up and back safely. My wife would have killed me if I had died up on that mountain.

The Big Hike Begins!

Tomorrow I head out with my buddy John Sinner for Mt. Whitney. Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states at 14,497 ft above sea level. We are actually hiking the mountain on Friday, but we are heading up tomorrow to have a couple of days to get acclimated to the elevation. We start at around 8,500 ft, hike 11 miles up to the summit at 14,497 and back the 11 miles down. We are starting at 3AM on Friday and tentatively getting back around 8-9PM that night. It is going to be crazy, but fun. Plus we don't have to camp way up at 12,000 ft with a ton of other campers if we just do the whole thing in 1 day. I'll post some pictures when I get back. Wish me luck!!

Peaceful Sabbath Day

Sundays happen to be my earliest day of the entire week. Bishopric meeting starts at 6:30AM, a full 1.5 hours earlier than I even attempt to get out of bed Mon-Sat. This particular Sabbath Day has been very peaceful and restful. Though I still woke up at 5:45AM, the day has been filled with just hanging out with family, napping, and of course playing with Darcy. Darcy and Daddy went for a quick walk while Mommy prepared some food for dinner. Darcy loves to play outside on the porch, and has especially taken a liking to a bench at the end of the porch. We were playing on the bench so I asked her to wait there while I grabbed my camera. To my shock and amazement I got back and she was still there. I was able to snap a few quick pictures of her peacefully sitting on the bench. I love Sundays!!

I said I would post a few picture, and I came through!

I keep putting this off!

I've been putting off updating this blog as I am so lazy and haven't uploaded pictures to my computer in sooooo long. I have the typical and decent excuses like: crazy at work, Darcy is 19 months and more than a handful, CPA exam 2 weeks ago, Kelly's wedding, etc etc etc. But, I figured that since Darcy is in her high chair and won't be allowed down until she uses her words "down please" and Tara is taking a quick nap, I would go ahead and throw something on here. I've already checked out craigslist, autotrader, banana republic, nordstrom, overstock, realtor, and various other websites that I frequent; this was the last of the bunch.

We are currently searching for a house. We've looked at 3 houses so far and put offers in on all 3. 1 offer was a low-ball and was not accepted. 1 was accepted, but only after they tried to counter my above-asking price offer with an even higher offer, so we let that one go on principle. The last was an incredible home in Foxenwoods, all of them have been so far, move-in ready and gorgeous. We were the high bid, but they gave the 2nd place person a second chance, somebody tipped him off and he outbid me. They wouldn't let me put in another offer, so that one is gone. Now we are waiting on a house out in Lake Marie that is a major fixer-upper to come on the market. It is owned by Countrywide, but they haven't put a price on it yet since they finished the foreclosure process. We really love the potential this house has, plus my parents live in Lake Marie, and now Tara's sister Rachael and her family live in Lake Marie too. We would totally take over the place. Our little 400 square foot apartment is really feeling cramped. I'm starting to get tired of having to tip toe in our room to go to bed because Darcy is already asleep in her crib, right next to our bed. The rent is cheap though, that's why we are sticking it out until we find the right place to buy.

It's taken me about 10 minutes to get this much down, and Darcy is still stubbornly refusing to use her words. I keep reminding her that Daddy is not going anywhere, at least until tomorrow morning for meetings before church. So she can fight it all she wants. At least she is the silent stubborn type right now. I took another part of the CPA exam 3 days after Kelly's wedding. I had to drive up to Fresno. I think it went ok. Won't know for around 4 weeks if I passed.

I'll get around to posting some recent pictures soon. Which of course really means that I'll probably post some next month!!!

Darcy and Berkley are Best Friends

Darcy has a best friend named Berkley. I guess you could say that Darcy's parents are good friends with Berkley's parents, which makes Darcy and Berkley best friends. At Thanksgiving we went out to Avila Barn to take some fun photos together with the two girls. Darcy and Berkley are so much fun. They love playing together at church and anywhere else they are together. Berkley's Dad John and I are planning our "mancation" which is a "man vacation", to hike up Mount Whitney and back in one day. It sounds crazy, 22 miles in one day, up to a peak of 14,500ft above sea level. But, we hear that if you can do the miles, the altitude is actually better to do in one day instead of trying to spread it out over 2 days. Unless you are up that high for a few days, one day up and back is the best way to avoid altitude sickness. I keep telling myself, Seth you are crazy. Ya, I know. But hey, it's worth a shot. Berkley and Darcy are so cute together. I love these shots of them on the hay bail and in the wooden boxes.

Our First Bloody Experience

We had our first major blood incident on Friday. We were house-sitting at my parents house enjoying the additional square feet of space for everyone to roam. I was at work when it all happened. There is a round table in the tile floored entryway that has a few framed pictures. Darcy proceeded to climb into her stroller that was parked right next to the table. Upon climbing in, she even stood up and leaned over the grab at some of the pictures. The stroller rolled backwards away from the table causing Darcy to fall head first into the tile floor. She took a big chunk of skin from her upper lip that just kept bleeding. Being a baby, she refused to let anyone touch it with anything, even to simply soak up the massive blood. I got the call and came rushing home. Luckily the office is only 2 miles from the house. At this time Tara and my sister Kelly had laid Darcy on her back on some towels on the bathroom floor. I had Tara change her clothes and cover her shoulder with a towel and then pick Darcy up to help calm her down as she was screaming so loud. Within a minute Darcy had calmed down almost completely, but the bleeding hadn't stopped. We decided to take her down to Urgent Care to get examined. The doctors said she isn't showing any signs of concussion, fractures, or anything like that. He told us just to keep her calm and watch the bleeding. Darcy fell asleep by the time we got home and took a good long nap. It stopped bleeding by the time she woke, only breaking open a couple of times after that while she was eating. Today she is going great. A nice big scab on her upper lip and that's almost the only sign of the fall. I am so grateful that she is such a trooper and that nothing serious happened. I'm sure it isn't the last time we will experience blood with kids, but I feel a little better prepared now having dealt with the first one.

We love being parents!

There are so many moments, often many a day, that causes you to think, "Man I love being a parent." When your child does something that you notice for the first time it makes you all tingly and excited to have been able to see it. We bought Darcy a little pink camoflauge backpack. We helped her put a sippy cup, book, and baby inside and put the straps over her shoulders. Today at lunch I helped her put her backpack on and she took off walking and even grabbed the shoulder straps with her hands like adults do. It was just so cute. Since I'm at work all day, Tara has the chance to see so many new and cute things. I love technology because it allows me to get video messages and picture messages of some of the new and exciting things happening in Darcy's daytime life. I am basically done with this chapter of the blog, but I never quite know how to end these things. Goodnight?!?!

When you become a parent and begin to lose the amount of sleep most parents experience, you begin to wonder, "Was this really a good idea?" Then you look down at your sweet daughter or son and they look up at you and hold their arms up just wanting you to hold them. Of course you do just that, because in a short time they will be too big and too independent to be held by Dad and Mom. For a moment at 2AM you think, "Ya, its worth it!", but a moment later you remember that it is 2AM and you have to be up at 6:00AM to get ready for meetings! At that moment you think, "I think 1 child is just perfect!" I don't know how many other parents have felt or thought that, but I don't believe I'm in the boat all by myself. Luckily, all the good, sweet, and wonderful times more than over power that bad feeling and you really just want to have more babies! Well, I guess that is my thought right now. Man, I'm tired.....

Our trip to Brianhead Utah

We made our trek out to Brianhead Resort outside of Cedar City, Utah. The whole Leishman clan traveled the 9 hours by car on New Year's Eve, arriving in St. George around 6 in the evening. We spent the night there, driving the remaining 2 hours the next morning. We packed up and headed for Cedar City and Super Wal-Mart. Super Wal-Mart is great. They have everything you could possibly need. While shopping in the store, Justin Rivera proposed to Kelly in the cereal aisle. Of course Kelly said Yes! We are very excited to welcome Justin to the family. He is a great guy and will make Kelly very happy. While in Brianhead we spent 2 days snowboarding and 1 day snowmobiling. It was a lot of fun. Most of us had not been to the snow in years. We had a ton of fun and got to spend some time in the car chatting. By the way, Darcy did great in the car there and back. We were so blessed!!!