Tymon's Time Out

While You Were Celebrating...

2012-01-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve, while you were sleeping or partying, President Obama signed a bill that does away with due process allowing him to detain any person, including American citizens, without trial and for an indefinite amount of time using the guise of security for the country. If you are an Obama supporter keep in mind that the power to do this is given to the President so anybody who is elected from now on will be able to usurp their authority in this manner.

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This bill has passed with relatively little fan fare. Perhaps it is because most people aren't terrorists so they don't think this applies to them. You may be surprised at what puts you on the "suspicion of terrorist" list. Shortly after 9/11 I was contacted by the FBI on suspicion of terrorism. An off duty police officer spotted the driver of a car taking pictures of the Oregon Coast Guard. He was able to get a few numbers off the license plate which happened to match those of my car. Under this new law I could have been detained indefinitely for this. Here are some other things that might get you on the list:

The following article puts into perspective the danger of this bill: http://my.firedoglake.com/davidswanson/2011/12/31/obama-crowned-himself-on-new-years-eve/

Join the FB page "Recall Every Congressman Who Voted for the NDAA" to stay updated on information related to this bill.

Videos of my European "Business" Trip

2011-10-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here is the video from my recent business trip.

Bahrain

2011-10-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

I hadn't planned on taking any pictures during my stay in Bahrain because I've been here before and took plenty of pictures last time. However, my hotel is beautiful and so I thought I'd share a few pics of the views I have here. This is the view outside my room's window:

This is the view on the other side of my room:

And this is my bidet:

Netherlands

2011-10-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

I wasn't exactly in Amsterdam today, but the area I am in is unrecognizable to most people (assuming you don't know where Badhoevedorp is) so I had to change the title of today's blog.

My plan today was to see the windmills that are so famous in this region. Fortunately I told my lovely wife of my idea yesterday because I was going to go into downtown Amsterdam and then pay 34 euros for a tour. However, Bridget sent me a map of where I am staying and where I was planning on going and I saw that the hotel I'm at is only about 1.5 miles away from the windmill. So after getting up and ready I took a walk. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to walk to where I wanted to go because it looked like I would have to cross a freeway and I was warned by Google that the route might "be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths".

It turned out to be extremely easy. I was so busy looking at the neighborhood, that I had to walk through to get to where I was going, that I was at the windmill before I knew it. I was there a bit early actually, so I took a walk around the town of Sloten where the windmill is. It was a very nice town...somewhere I could retire actually...if they spoke English. Here is a church in the town:

After walking through the town I went back to the windmill. There were four Romanians about to take the tour in English so I joined them. The ticket was 6 euros, cheaper than the train ride to Amsterdam. Here is a picture of the windmill I got from online...I don't think my pic e-mailed from my blackberry to my gmail account for some reason:

The tour was pretty interesting. Windmills are used here to pump water out of the cities and surrounding areas as they sit up to six meters below sea level. Here our guide shows where the current water level is and where sea level is at the top of this pole. We had to walk down some steps to get to where we are standing.

The tour included a video diorama of the life of Rembrandt who lived in this area for awhile and learned a lot of his art techniques here.

After the tour I went back to the hotel, but not before stopping by an Italian restaurant for some lunch.

When I got back to the hotel I napped, read, watched T.V., listened to conference, and packed for tomorrow's journey to Bahrain. All in all, a pretty good day.

Amsterdam

2011-10-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

Finally done with my European meetings I had a full day today to explore Amsterdam. I started the morning off with a shuttle to the airport and a train from there to the Central Station in downtown Amsterdam. I didn't really have a plan for when I got there, but across the street from the train station was a place advertising 1 hour canal cruises, so I took one. Amsterdam has a lot of canals so we were able to crisscross through the whole city by boat. It was a good introduction to the city.

When I got off the boat I went to a big map outside the train station to figure out what I wanted to do next. As I was looking a guy came up and asked where I was going. Since I didn't know I hesitated to respond.

"The Red Light District eh?" he assumed.

"No, probably the Rembrandt museum." I replied.

"OK great, follow me."

I followed him, though after a couple blocks when we were still walking I knew what was coming. I've had similar experiences where people become your guide involuntarily and then ask for money at the end. I looked for a place to ditch him, but couldn't find anything that wasn't too obvious. Oh well...he did get me to where I wanted to be pretty quickly (which happened to include a walk through the red light district, lol) so I gave him 1.50 euros. He asked for more. I told him no. He left angry. I should have just told him when I figured out what was going on that I wasn't going to give him anything. Oh well.

The museum was pretty cool. It was where Rembrandt used to live so it was not only a gallery with his work, it was a museum of his life. After I finished with the museum I was pretty hungry so I walked down a street that was packed with people and full of different restaurants. I looked hard for a place that offered dutch food but couldn't find anything so I settled with a place selling Argentine food. Surprisingly there were probably more Argentine restaurants than any other kind. This was my lunch:

This is a place that resembled a typical city center...though I'm not sure it was. There were a lot of people.

After walking around for awhile I went to the other side of the city to visit the Anne Frank house. Today happens to be Yom Kippur, and the museum happens to be closed on Yom Kippur so I wasn't able to go inside but the walk across the city was interesting enough that I didn't feel I had wasted time.

Amsterdam is a pretty neat city. The architecture is incredible. I'm glad I spent the day getting to see it, but I don't feel like I ever need to come back. I was satisfied with walking around it all day and seeing what I did. I will put together the video I took when I get home from the trip.

London Day 2 - Mind the Gap Please

2011-10-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

After eating breakfast at the hotel this morning I took a bus to the London underground. It is a subway/rail system that can get you almost anywhere in London you want to go. I took it to a park just outside of Buckingham Palace. Seeing the Palace in the distance I went check it out. There was a huge crowd gathered outside the gates waiting as though a parade were about to begin. I waited with them but had no idea what was going to happen. After about 15 minutes of waiting music began and soon I saw the source to be a marching band. Those doing the marching were the Queen's Guard. I watched the changing of the Guard for awhile, but didn't have a great view from where I was so I didn't stay for too long. It was cool to see though, since I've heard so much about it.

I then took a bus tour of London. There was a tour guide who pointed out all the important landmarks and told of some of the history regarding them. At one point I got off the bus and went on a short boat tour up the River Thames. After the tour I got back on the bus and finished up the bus tour. It was really fun to see so many historical landmarks. After I got off the bus, I walked around for awhile until I came across Hyde Park. It was huge and it was packed with people. It looked like Gas Works park on the 4th of July. I thought something might be going on, but it seems it was just a lot of people deciding to enjoy the warm weather. I spent a lot of time walking through it, but probably didn't make it even half way through. I was getting tired of walking so I went back to the Green Park, next to Buckingham Palace, and ate lunch.

I then took the train and bus back to my hotel room. I didn't plan to sleep but my bed felt so good when I lied down to read that I couldn't keep my eyes open and I fell asleep for a couple hours. Fortunately I woke up before getting too much sleep that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep tonight. I'm hoping to beat Jet Lag by tomorrow.

London Day 1

2011-10-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

It's 3:41 a.m. here. Perfect time to write a blog post. The flight over was good. From Seattle to Washington D.C. me and the two people next to me spent most of the flight working on crossword puzzles together. It made for a quick flight. That and I was given a free upgrade to my seat and put in an aisle row because there was a couple trying to get seats next to each other. On the way from Washington D.C. to London I tried to sleep but probably only got in one hour or so.

I checked in to my hotel at 11 a.m. London time. Apparently by plane ticket was booked using my corporate credit card, which went against the limit of the account. That meant that when I tried to pay for the hotel room I wasn't able because it only has $300 left on it. I had to use my personal funds...so hopefully that gets taken care of soon.

Though tired I didn't want to sleep when I got in because I knew it would be too hard to get up. So I went out. I took a bus to a train station and then took the train (like a shuttle train) to Windsor. It is famous for the Windsor Castle which I toured. I took video but I think I forgot to bring the cable to connect my video camera to my PC so I'll have to post videos later. Inside the Royal Palace you're not allowed to take pictures so I didn't get much inside...but the entire thing was beautiful. I was especially impressed with Queen Mary's Dolls' House. The level of detail was amazing. All the history, and the armor, and Knight's seals, and paintings were very impressive as well.

I got home very tired. I ate a small dinner, read, and went to bed. I woke up at 3 a.m. I think I'll try to stay up until tonight to get on the right sleeping schedule.

Here are a couple pics from my travels.

This is a picture of some street signs. Bridget always wants me to take pics of street signs.

Here are some classic British phone booths.

Meeting with CPS

2011-09-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

Today was our big meeting. The last time we saw anybody from CPS they were threatening to take our children because we didn't want to have Kira take unnecessary, dangerous tests. Fortunately a family friend was able to get her in for an MRI without having to use anesthesia, so we went in today having no idea where they stood and what the next steps would be.

We were very blessed to have the Supervisor of J. Brady there with us for the meeting. She is the mother of three boys and seemed to completely understand where we were coming from. She apologized for the psychological hell they have been putting us through and assured us, at the end of the meeting, that the investigation was done. They just need a few character witnesses to write letters and then they'll close up the case as soon as possible.

I believe that means we can be at peace once again. Thank you all who have offered support, advice, resources, and prayers. We truly are a blessed family.

Love Your Enemies

2011-09-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

"We have a choice. We can seek for the bad in others. Or we can make peace and work to extend to others the understanding, fairness, and forgiveness we so desperately desire for ourselves. It is our choice; for whatever we seek, that we will certainly find." Dieter Uchtdorf.

I pray that I will have this attitude towards the social worker as we prepare to meet with her tomorrow morning.

Ups and Downs

2011-09-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

Lot's of ups and downs today. Bridget wrote the details on her blog though so I'm not going to rewrite it.

CPS Nightmare continued

2011-09-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today I took the day off of work with the intention of finding a lawyer to represent us and get this thing over with. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Some firms only do court appointed cases, while many of the contacts given to me by friends and family don't practice the kind of law that we need. Here is a quote from a lawyer we know and respect (I've been recording all of my conversations) as to why he won't represent us:

This has a lot of complexity to it, because of what they are trying to do which is they are broadening the search. If they weren't broadening the search then it's clearly within my bailiwick. The aspect having to do with [Evan]...I'm not a criminal lawyer and I would hate to do anything with you that would make things more difficult for you down the road. I'm not for a second suggesting, and you need to understand this really clearly, that I think there was any foul play on...Evan's death. But that doesn't mean that the thing couldn't go sideways and ya get charged with a crime. And I realize that's not currently on the radar....[but] that aspect is outside of my skill set...Because of all of the issues you mentioned I don't think I'm the best person for you. If I was I would jump at the chance to help you.

We want to avoid a court appointed attorney because, as the same lawyer above says,

I think it is true that as a general rule, if you are a court appointed attorney, you're getting paid a pittance to represent a huge number of clients and you would go broke and you wouldn't have enough hours in the day to give them the kind of personalized attention that a paying customer would demand and expect.

I'm grateful that we have access to the resources we do. We still have a couple good leads for lawyers that we hope to follow in the coming days.

Today we also picked up Evan's case file from the police. There was nothing written in it that made it seem like there was any lingering doubt as to what happened. The lady we got the report from said that CPS hasn't requested it yet, but the police in our jurisdiction have (Evan died in a different jurisdiction than where we live now). My feeling is that this road won't go much further. The investigation from CPS has been opened though...they want to meet with us next week about it.

We also talked to the boys' principal from school. He sat in with J.Brady during their interviews yesterday. He said he couldn't tell us everything, but when we pushed a bit he gave us a couple of examples of questions that were asked. She asked how they liked school, if they liked their teacher, and if they get along with others. Unfortunately he didn't document anything so she makes notes that nobody gets to see and then is able to use them however she pleases.

And finally we talked to Children's Hospital to see if we could have an MRI done while Kira is in her natural sleep cycle instead of being put under with anesthesia. We weren't able to talk to the doctor that we have been dealing with, but the message has hopefully been relayed and now we wait to hear back.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. I'm feeling much more positive about our situation today than I was yesterday, so something must be working.

America the Free? Maybe not as free as you think...

2011-09-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

"CPS really can hurt you. CPS really can impose extensive controls over your life. And CPS can take your child using only the most flimsy of accusations against you, and based on virtually no evidence at all, with only the weakest mechanism of due process to protect you - even if you have done nothing wrong."

source: http://www.justicewomen.com/tips_bewarechildprotectiveservices_2.html

On Thursday (Aug 25th) I took my wife to Salish Lodge for our 9th anniversary. Kira, our six week old daughter, came along while the other kids stayed the night at Bridget's cousin's house. On Friday morning (Aug 26th), before we left, Bridget noticed that Kira had a strange bump on her collar bone. It seemed like something was wrong, but we weren't sure what. It was just different than her other collar bone. Kira didn't seem to mind at all. She continued to be her normal, mellow self.

Concerned, Bridget brought her into the pediatrician the next day (Aug 27th) . It turns out that Kira had a broken clavicle. The bump was a sign that it had happened over a week ago and had already begun healing. Medically there wasn't much to be done. The doctor assured Bridget that babies bones heal quickly and that nothing more was needed.

Later that Saturday afternoon, around 2 p.m.'ish, the doctor called to say that since we didn't know how the bone broke he was obligated by law to let the CPS division of Children's hospital know what happened. Note: the referral to Children's was what the pediatrician felt was legally necessary, not what was medically necessary. As much as we appreciated the recommendation, we weren't too excited about the prospect of bringing Kira to the hospital. We were just told she was fine. Regardless, Children's was expecting us to take Kira in that same day.

Bridget knew a friend that had some previous experience dealing with CPS and hospitals so she gave her a call to get her advice. It went to voice mail so she left a message and then went out to run some errands. I was home when the friend called back. She told me of her nightmarish experience with CPS and being forced to stay overnight at the hospital with their child who had broken her leg.

The friend called Bridget after talking to me and relayed the same information. Bridget then called me so we could decide what to do. Our options at that point were to comply with Children's, take Kira in and subject her to whatever tests/exams they deemed necessary, or to not take her in. We weren't sure what the consequence of not taking her in was so Bridget called Children's and asked. The consequence was that they would have CPS come to our house. We decided that we would rather have CPS come to our house and see that we weren't abusing or neglecting our children and be done with it rather than have Kira subjected to potentially cancer causing tests (Children's told Bridget they would likely do a CT scan on her).

Bridget called Children's back to let them know what our decision was and came home. At around 6 p.m CPS showed up at our door with two deputies (Horton and Whipple). I explained the situation and said they could check our house for abuse or neglect and we could be done with this whole thing. Their response was that they came because we had to take Kira to Children's or they would take her from us and bring her to Children's themselves.

I was very surprised by this. I explained again that nobody was being neglected. We brought her in to the doctor. He diagnosed her and sent us home. He only talked to Children's out of legal obligation. One of the officers had previously broken his collar bone and said it was very painful so he was surprised the doctor didn't make a prescription or wrap her arm or something. He recommended we get a second opinion, which I thought was probably a good idea (we later found out that there are different kinds of clavicle breaks and the kind Kira has isn't the kind that needs bracing and, since she isn't in pain, doesn't need medication). That officer was content with that and ready to leave us in peace.

Unfortunately, the social worker and other officer weren't satisfied. We had to take her in to a hospital that day. They said we had a choice in which hospital but that we were guaranteed to be referred back to Children's anyway, so we might as well go there. They said we didn't need to worry about being forced to have Kira run through a CT scan and we wouldn't be held against our will. We still didn't agree that it was necessary, but on the threat of having our child taken from our home, Bridget took Kira in to Children's that night.

They were brutal with her and probably caused more pain and anguish than the broken bone ever did. They did a full body x-ray where they had to hold her foot down flat, which she didn't like. She cried straight for half an hour (for Kira this is a very long time). The diagnosis matched the original pediatricians. Kira had a broken clavicle but it would heal on its own. There were no other broken bones in her body. They just wanted to run a quick CT Scan to make sure there wasn't anything else going on with her and Bridget could leave.

CT Scans are not good for babies. They lead to an increased risk of cancer later in life. As parents we didn't feel like there was any need for this kind of treatment so Bridget asked if she was being forced to have Kira tested. They strongly urged it but weren't compelling her by law to do it (though they let her know they could if they wanted to). Bridget respectfully declined further testing and came home.

On Tuesday afternoon (Aug 30th) another CPS worker came and talked with Bridget. He went through what happened and left a couple hours later. I wasn't home so really don't know the details of what went on.

On Wednesday (Sep 1st) I came home from work at about 5 p.m. to find that we had two police detectives and another CPS worker in our house. One of the detectives was walking around taking pictures of everything in our house...pictures, cabinets, toys on the floor, etc. They had been there for two hours interviewing Bridget. They were just leaving when I got home, but did get my contact information which they used the next day (Sep 2nd) to make an appointment to interview me later next week.

On September 7th I had my interview with Detective Steve Martin and J. Brady, the CPS worker assigned to our case. They stayed for about 1 1/2 hours asking all kinds of questions. I recorded the conversation to make sure they stayed honest. The detective asked questions all over the spectrum, from where in the room Kira sleeps to which country our foreign exchange student from two years ago came from. He didn't seem too happy that we still don't know what happened to Kira.

The CPS worker has told Bridget that Children's has decided they want to run the same tests they ran last time again and do the CT scan. So now we need to decide whether to comply to a government agency that works in secret with very little oversight and subject our daughter to an increased risk of cancer, or fight them by going to court, getting a lawyer, and running the very real risk of having them take our daughter away from us and have the tests run anyway.

Today (Sept 12th) J.B. went to our children's school and asked to interview each of our children. This was without our knowledge or consent. Graeden told them, "no thanks" and Elliott and Jett accepted the interview. Jett has been five years old for less than one month. Is that really a credible witness? I understand why the law exists for CPS workers to be allowed to interview children without their parents, but in this case it is a blatant abuse of power. She e-mailed Bridget today as well telling us that she has now opened up an investigation on Evan. Wow! They are really digging for something to catch us on. The safety of Kira doesn't even seem to be an issue at this point...just finding some dirt on us seems to be the top priority.

We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Ingredients finder

2011-06-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

I've just finished my MBA and instead of taking a break for a few days I'm working on getting a new web site developed. Initially it will allow you to enter a food product and return the ingredients in that food. Much more to come. Please take this short survey (less than 5 minutes)! Thanks so much!

Ghana day 14

2011-03-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today was our last full day in Ghana. Matt, Brennan, and I decided to take advantage of the day by breaking away from the rest of the group and exploring the city on our own. We were a bit lazy about it though. We started the day at around 9 a.m. with breakfast and then went for a swim in the pool.

After that we went to a shopping mall. It was very similar to an American mall, including the prices of the merchandise, but a bit smaller than a typical mall. We ate there for lunch and then headed off to the same market we went to yesterday.

While we were there Brian broke away from the group and joined us as well. We spent too much time there and by the time we left we had all spent pretty much all the money we brought with us to the market. We actually had to exchange some more money once we got back to the hotel so we could afford to go out for dinner later.

We went to a place called Paloma for dinner. Glen and Soren joined us.

It was a good trip, but I'm looking forward to going home.

Ghana day 13

2011-03-24T13:34:00.001-07:00

We began the day with a visit to a mining company whose name escapes me at the moment. Again, it was in a room where we all sat in uncomfortable chairs while somebody stood at the front of the room and spoke to PowerPoint slides. The content was fairly interesting, but the presentation was a bit dry. Not sure I got too much out of that one.

From there we came back to the hotel, had an early lunch, and set off again. This time we met with the former VP of Ghana.

That was very interesting. He had never been in politics before being invited to be the VP. He was independently successful through a construction company that he owned. He was very cordial and quite interesting. We were pretty privileged to get to meet him.

From his house we went to Cadbury.

The information he shared was pretty good, but I would have liked some kind of plant tour or something. We didn't get that, but they did give us a bag of candy and some energy drink mix, so it was still worth going.

From there we went to the main city market, where we had about 45 minutes or so to do some shopping. I got a bowl and a couple drums. I hope I can find space to bring all this stuff back.

When we got back to the hotel it was time for dinner, which we ate in the hotel restaurant. Later in the evening a few of us went out and met with some of the students that go to Ashesi University. I was hoping to get some contacts of people that can program because that seems to be a difficult skill to find at a good price. I did talk for awhile with one guy that was, but he just seemed very green. I did get his contact info though, so maybe I can use it at some point in the future.

Ghana day 12

2011-03-23T14:49:00.001-07:00

Today was pretty uneventful, but still productive. Sammi, from The Village Net, came to our hotel so that we could work more with him.

The rest of the group went to a bank and an oil company, I believe. We were able to get quite a bit accomplished with Sammi, but it would have been nice to have even more time...which won't happen. Apparently a team from Google will be coming in a few months to follow up where we left off. We will still have some kind of post mortem with the people back in Seattle and give them a report of what we did, what our observations were, and what our recommendations are.

After we had lunch Sammi went back to Ofankor and we went to a company called Vestergaard Frandsen to meet up with the rest of the group.

It was a very interesting company. They are the world's leading producer of mosquito nets. The speaker was quite dynamic, which has been a rarity this trip. They even gave us a lifestraw (one of their products) that filters water from pretty much anywhere so you can drink it.

From there we went back to the hotel where some us took a dip in the pool and then we went out for dinner. Chinese again.

Ghana day 11

2011-03-22T14:09:00.001-07:00

Today was an interesting day. We started out with a visit to the bank of Ghana.

Unfortunately, I got a seat near the back of the room and the speaker couldn't carry his voice past six feet so I didn't really hear anything. Fortunately, he had a meeting an hour after we got there so it was a short visit.

Our next stop was a visit to the Ghana stock exchange.

Again, I was a bit disappointed. I thought it would be similar to the NYSE and we would get to watch the trading floor for a bit. It ended up being more sitting in a room listening to people speaking. What they were talking about was interesting, but I would have liked a more tour-esk type visit.

For lunch we went to a place called, "Pizza Inn". Normally I don't like pizza in foreign countries, but this stuff was really good.

After lunch, Matt & I broke away from the rest of the group and took a taxi to the temple. Our driver asked a lot of questions about our church and we were able to get his contact information for the missionaries to visit him. Hope things work out well for him.

The temple ceremony was very nice. It was neat to see all of the African influence throughout the architecture. Matt and I brought the number of people in the endowment session up to six so it through pretty fast. We talked to some great people before leaving to go back to the hotel.

At the hotel we went for a swim and then out for dinner with the group.

Ghana day 10

2011-03-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

This morning started out with a visit to Ashesi University.

It is a high-tech school founded by an ex-Microsoft employee. There were a few people who presented to us the history and importance of the school. Then we took a tour of the facilities. When that was done we had lunch, which was followed by the founder speaking to us.

It seemed like a really cool business that could easily be replicated in other developing countries. We learned a bit about some of the challenges businesses face and about some of the ideas they have for the future. The school seems like it is really helping out some of the Ghanaians fortunate enough to get in.

From Ashesi University we went to the Ministry of Communications.

One person that spoke was hard to hear and didn't present very well at all. The next person was much more dynamic but it almost felt like she was selling us on the great opportunity we have to invest in Ghana. It wasn't a very fruitful visit.

When we got back to the hotel we went for a swim and then a group of seven of us went out for Thai food. It was very good. I know it seems like we go to foreign country food a lot, but the Ghanaian food gets a bit boring after awhile. It almost always consists of jollof rice, chicken, plantains, and rice. It's good, but not too exciting.

Ghana day 9

2011-03-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

Today was a very nice day. This morning started off with a trip to church; the same one we went to last Sunday. The major difference this week was that five other people from our group joined us. One was Pete Nye, who is the faculty member of the group. He was also my stats professor during the first quarter of the MBA program. Another was Jay, who is a member of the church but hasn’t gone for about a year and a half. The third was Eliza who grew up a Quaker. She enjoyed the simplicity of the service. The fourth was Wei Juan from China. Hsian Hua, who is Taiwanese, seemed to like the service the most. She said she really felt a connection with the sisters. The theme of the sacrament talks was Relief Society; in honor of an anniversary. At one point the sisters were asked to stand up and sing a song to the congregation and Hsian Hua stood up and sang with them. It was great.

After church we went a soccer game. It was Hearts of Oak from Accra vs. Kotoko from Kumasi. I liked the colors of Kumasi better so I was rooting for them. I bought their jersey outside of the stadium for ten cedi so I could wear it during the game.

It was very loud...but very fun.

My team won 2-0 which led to a lot of people giving me high fives and cheering with me as we walked about a mile from the stadium to the bus.

After the game a bunch of us took a quick swim at the hotel and then went for dinner.

Ghana day 8

2011-03-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Today was our trip back to Accra from Kumasi. It seems like it was a bit of a waste for us to come here without really being able to spend any time in the city. The planning of the last three days has been frustrating for what seems to be everybody. We’ve done some pretty cool things, but not that merit the hours of travel that were required for them. I would have liked to have just stayed at the resort in Cape Coast (Coconut Grove) for another day or so and just skipped Kumasi.

Fortunately though, we were able to make a few stops on the way out. The first one was in an area where there are several shops that specialize in the making of wood products. I strayed a bit from the rest of the group so I got accosted quite a bit by the shop owners wanting me to buy their wares. I bought a beaded mask, a symbol that means something like, “One with God”, and five small elephants.

Haggling is a way of life in Ghana so it is really hard to tell if you are getting a good deal or not. My strategy was to think about how much I was willing to pay for something first and then work towards a price a bit lower than that. I felt I bought my stuff for very good prices. Though I may have been able to get a bit lower for some items I was happy to help out the local economy a bit.

Our next stop was at a place where they make dyes for fabric. They ground up bark from a certain kind of tree (I’m not sure what the name of the tree is).

then they boil it until it turns black.

They then dip stamps into the dye and put it on fabric for sale. The place we went only makes black dyes, but they use it on many colors of fabric.

Our third stop out of Kumasi was in a little town where they make colorful fabrics. They had everything ranging from ties, to shirts, to skirts. They gave us a demonstration of how it was made. It looked very complicated. I got a tie.

The rest of the day was pretty much just driving back to Accra. We made it a bit more interesting by taking bets on what time we would get back. Since I don’t gamble they made me the bookie. I took everybody’s money and kept track of the times. I also made a rule that the house keeps 10%, so I made five cedi off the deal =).

Ghana day 7

2011-03-18T17:22:00.001-07:00

Today was spent mostly on the road traveling. We left our beach side resort at about 8:30 a.m. and drove about four hours until we got to a gold mine. There we were given information about the history of the mines and how they find new gold and what they do with the places already mined. We were able to go to the mine, but for some reason we didn't get to go inside. We did get to see how they keep the air cool inside though. Then we went and saw how the gold is separated from the ore. It was neat to see, but it wasn't as satisfying as I would have liked considering the number of hours we had to drive to get there.

From there we drove several hours until we got to a palace in a city called Kumasi. It was really a museum next to where the King of the Ashanti people lives. Again, it was OK, but not great. I did get some art from a street vendor just before I got back on the bus to leave. The bartering was pretty fun and I felt like I got a pretty good deal.

Afterwards we had Chinese food for dinner. It was delicious. Then we went to a hotel to end our day. I'll post pics tomorrow. Internet is slow here and I need to get to bed.

Ghana day 6

2011-03-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

I woke up about five times last night to sit on the toilet with the poops. It wasn't a good night. What's worse is that we spent the morning today traveling to another city called Cape Coast. It took us about three hours to get there and Montezuma continued getting revenge. The first thing we did when we got there was to a tropical rain forest where we crossed the forest canopy via bridges. It was pretty neat to see the forest from that perspective. There were no animals out unfortunately, but apparently there are monkeys (which we could hear) and other wild animals there.

After the jungle we ate lunch (I had beef kabobs and french fries) and for the first time in a few days I felt pretty good. I have been feeling much better since then too. It's nice to be back to feeling healthy again.

After lunch we went to two different slave castles where we learned about the conditions the slaves went through before being sent off to different parts of the world. It was pretty brutal. As interesting as it was the group was ready to be done by the time we went through the second castle.

We went to a beach side resort after the castles, where we are at now. It is a beautiful place so it is unfortunate that we will have to leave tomorrow. It was almost dark when we got here so I had time to walk around on the beach for about 15 minutes before going back to get dinner. It was mostly just hanging out and talking with the other students after that.

Ghana day 5

2011-03-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

Last night after dinner I wasn't feeling to great. I had a bit of a knot in my stomach which got worse and worse during the night. If felt similar to how I felt when I puked on the first day so I thought I was about to puke. I stood up so that it would be over with sooner but I just broke into a cold sweat until the feeling passed. That happened twice during the night. I didn't feel too good all day today either. I never puked but did get pretty bad diarrhea...tmi? Perhaps.

After breakfast this morning the people in our group responsible for the micro-finance part of the trip, including myself, went to a barrio called Ofankur about 20 minutes outside of Accra.

The group has six people in it, so it was just us and the faculty responsible for the group that went. We have been working in Seattle for awhile now with a micro-finance company called The Village Network. Today we went to the business and met with the person in charge here in Ghana. His name is Sammi.

We talked with him extensively about the process of getting a loan, what his financials look like, what his pain points are, and several other aspects of the company. We had brought a copy of Quick Books with us to make the job of relaying information to Seattle easier so while the two in our group most familiar with the software gave Sammi instructions the rest of us went out and talked to some of the people that have gotten loans from TVN.

We were able to get quite a bit of work done but we will need to go back later next week to finish up. We didn't leave until after 3 p.m. so we were there for about five hours or so.

When we got back to the hotel a few of us went and got a quick lunch and then I took a nap until dinner time. I still wasn't feeling to great so I didn't each much for lunch or dinner. Hopefully tomorrow I'm over whatever I have.

Ghana day 4

2011-03-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

We started off early this morning with a trip to an investment bank called Databank.

We were able to listen and ask questions about Ghana's investment culture. We met the CEO of the company, Ken Ofori-Atta, who is well renowned in Ghana. Most of us bought his book afterwards, which he autographed for us.

From there we went back to the hotel, ate lunch, and then set off again. This time we went to Parliament.

At parliament we met several high level politicians including the ranking member of the finance committee, the Vice Chairmen of Public Accounts, the majority and minority Chief Whips, and the previous attempted presidential candidate. They talked about the economy, what Ghana's future plans are, and what some of their challenges include. It was very informative.

When we got back to the hotel a few of us swam at the pool for a bit and then we went to dinner. It was at a resort hotel a few miles away, but the food wasn't anything special.

Ghana day 3

2011-03-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

This morning after breakfast we were supposed to go to the market for the first half of the day. Some people had to exchange their money and others had to cash their traveler's checks so they let the rest of off the bus for an hour or so to browse the "shops" along the side of the street nearby. I used the time to see if there was anything I would want to buy but didn't get anything because I wanted to take advantage of the number of places at the market. Unfortunately, after we got back on the bus there wasn't enough time to go to the market. We just came back to the hotel, cleaned up, ate lunch, and went out to the American consulate.

I can’t show pictures of it because it is illegal to take them, but here is one I pulled from Google Images:

We didn’t get to see much of the inside. After they did a security check they took us into a room and showed us what the U.S. government is spending taxpayer money on (mainly the transportation and agricultural industries) and what their purpose is (everything from helping U.S. businesses from being conned to helping expats from the States find a good dentist). It was neat to talk to the Ambassador about the investments they are making in Ghana’s economy. He was a great person.

After a couple hours at the consulate we made our way to the Institute of Cultural Arts. On the way we passed the airport where there were several bus loads of people that had just been evacuated from Libya and were being dropped off at an area where they were going to receive some money and be sent on to their homes in Ghana.

Shortly after that the radiator on our bus broke and we had to pull over and walk the rest of the way. It was a pretty short walk, maybe half a mile, but a good experience regardless.

Once we got to the institute we were sat in a room where we were taught how to dance a Ghanaian dance called the Adowa. You can probably YouTube it if you want to see an example, but my connection is too slow to find a good example.

Ghana day 2

2011-03-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a great sleep last night. It was off and on so now I'm tired and ready to go down which will hopefully get rid of any remaining jet lag I have.

This morning I got up and ate breakfast in the hotel. From there Matt and I went to church. It was a fun experience. It really reminded me of church as a missionary. There were probably about 50 members there, the windows were all opened, and fans were blasting to cool us down. After church we were approached by a lady that introduced herself as sister Dickson. She is with her husband who is serving as a councilor to the Area Presidency (though he wasn't at church today). I recognized the name and told her that I had met her previously when I lived in Argentina as a missionary. It was pretty weird to think I met somebody that I know here in Ghana.

This is the church we went to. It shares the same ground as the temple.

The temple.

After we got back the entire group was given a tour of Accra via bus. We stopped at a museum, which was actually the house of W.E.B. Du Bois and went to another couple of museums. We finished with lunch and then went back to the hotel.

Lunch (some Labanese food)

Back at the hotel we just hung out for a few hours before it was time for dinner. We went out to a restaurant that was more of an outside patio place. I ate a fish head. Tasted OK, but was pretty bony.

Ghana day 1

2011-03-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

Thursday night Joel Engstrom and I were driven to SEA by his wife. We got there about 12:30 a.m. and spent the next several hours waiting for the Delta guys to show up to check our bags. Joel didn't want to have his wife have to get up at 3 a.m. to drive us so we just went early and waited.

I watched the first couple of episodes of 24 while we waited until about 4 a.m. The leg of the flight from SEA to JFK was pretty uneventful. From JFK to Accra didn't go so well though. As we were about to take off a guy had some medical something happened to him. I didn't see what happened but we had to go back to the terminal where the guy was walked off. Then they had to take every piece of luggage off the aircraft to make sure the guy had his stuff. That delayed us for 2-3 hours. After they served dinner on the flight I watched "Tangled", took a sleeping pill, and went to sleep. I woke up about 1/2 hour before we landed but I felt horrible. I couldn't find a barf bag so I used the bag of the guy next to me.

We took a bus from the airport to our hotel. I couldn't make the walk from the bus to the conference room before having to sit down and barf some more. I sat in the conference room for about 1/2 hour but couldn't pay attention. I was just too tired. I went straight from there to my room and slept for about four hours. Fortunately, I woke up feeling good. It must have been a combination of Delta airline food, turbulence, the sleeping pill, and the anti-malaria drug.

We had a delicious meal next to the pool and were entertained by live music and a lightning storm (no rain or thunder though). After dinner Matt, Brian, and I went for a short walk and then I came back to my room.

Music in Movies

2011-02-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

Often when I listen to music I think about it terms of how it could fit in a movie. The following is a list I have compiled over the years and the scenes that I play in my head when I listen to them:

Song played after a couple breaks up and the guy is walking through the city distraught:

Breaking Benjamin, Forget It

Song played as a montage of video shows a athlete moving up the ranks getting closer to the final bout:

Kanye West, Amazing

This song is played as a grandmother remembers the special moments she had as her daughter was born and began to grow up:

Plumb, Always

This song is played as a group gets ready for a bank heist:

Xique xique

This is a mistake/regret/forgiveness type scene:

Blind Melon, Toes Across the Floor

This is played as the sun breaks through the grey clouds. For example, it would be played during a montage of footage where a girl is getting ready for her wedding after going through a lot of trials to get there:

Elbow, One Day Like This

Similar scene as that above, but at a much faster pace:

Vampire Weekend, A-Punk

Hard to seperate the lyrics from the imagery on this one. Mostly about the building of a relationship:

The Airborne Toxic Event, Sometime Around Midnight

This is the song as a gambling addict loses all his money. He is too ashmed to ask for help but wants it desperately:

Duran Duran, Falling Down

This is a song played during a scene where a high school girl leans against her locker looking at the guy she wants to be with as he is with his friends and has his arm around another girl. She feels like she doesn't belong in his world:

The Shins, Phantom Limb

Similar scene as that above, but with adults instead of HS students:

T.A.T.U, obezyanka nol

Trip to Bahrain

2010-06-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I was given the opportunity to go to Bahrain for a business trip. I got up at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday June 17th and went to the SEA airport. I started off flying to Orange County, California to meet up with a colleague from our offices in Lake Forest.

I thought it was funny they had security driving around on Segways. It would be hilarious watching a cop chase somebody on one of those.

I was picked up from the airport and the two of us went to the CA offices where I was able to meet several people that I have talked to a lot but have never met. After about an hour there, we took a shuttle bus to LAX.

Our only layover was at the AMS airport in Amsterdam.

The urinals were funny.

That's not a fly in the toilet...it's a picture. I guess it helps guys to aim better. Wonder if it works.

We got into Bahrain at around 9 p.m. on Friday evening. It was 100 degrees outside. Going through customs there was a guy from Spain that didn't speak English in front of me, so I ended up translating for him. It's always nice to use my Spanish in situations like that.

The airport.

My hotel room...

Gotta love the bidet.

The view from my room.

On Saturday afternoon a couple guys and I walked around a bit, but we couldn't go too far because of the heat.

World Trade Centers

Moda Mall.

About 4 p.m. we met up with the managers and supervisors from around the region for some team building exercises at Al Jazair beach.

It was nice finally getting to meet many of the people I have worked with over the last couple of years in person. And despite it being 100+ degrees it didn't feel that ridiculously hot like I would have expected. When I finally got back to my hotel room I began working on my presentation for the next day. Because my laptop only had a 10 minute battery life and the hotel didn't have an adapter for their 230 volt outlets I wasn't able to get any work done before hand.

I didn't get to sleep until about 3:30 a.m. but I was able to give my presentation the next day and it seemed to go over pretty well.

That evening, for dinner, we went to the Regional Director's house. It was a beautiful house and the food was delightful...though I don't know what most of it was.

Some drink with Saffron in it.

The next day was meetings until about 5 or 6 p.m. and then we went to a Lebanese restaurant with the group. Again, excellent food.

And it came with a belly dancer.

She made the Americans and a Brit dance with her.

The next day was meetings again. Afterwards the American I came over with and I went to the biggest mall in Bahrain.

The final day I was there I was able to see the Panasonic office located at the airport.

This is a video taken from the office back to the hotel.

In the evening a couple of the guys and I went to the tallest building in Bahrain where we were invited to watch the English play Slovenia in a private room on the 52nd floor of the building.

The view from the urinal.

I left for home that night at 1 a.m.

After a layover in Paris at the CDG airport I was off for home.

It was a good trip. Hopefully they let me go again next year.

First Saturday of Spring

2010-03-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've had a Saturday with little planned before hand. Generally I use Saturdays for homework and studying, but with finals last week I had a rare, freed up Saturday yesterday. Fortunately the weather was perfect to get some things done. Here's a list of what I did:

- Read a book,

- built a garden box in the back yard,
- mowed the lawn,
- went to a wedding/reception,

- played soccer with Graeden and Jett,
- went for a jog,
- did a load of dishes,
- did two loads of laundry,
- watched some March Madness,
- cleaned the house,
- watched a movie with the boys,

- helped Bridget with her church lesson.

It was a nice, productive day. Now I'm sore. I'm thankful we have Sundays as a day of rest.

Accounting for Six Year Olds

2010-01-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Graeden and I were driving to go pick up some pizza for dinner and I asked him what he had done in school that day. He was pretty excited about an art project he had been working on so we talked about that for awhile. Then I told him that I don't get to do art at my school. He asked what I do there. I'm taking an accounting class and an economics class right now so I told him I work with numbers. When he asked more about it I tried to explain accounting to him which turned out to be harder than I expected. It went something along the lines of, "when a business wants to grow and they need money for it they ask other people to give them money. Those people then get something saying they own part of that company. Companies that do this have to follow special rules so that all the owners can make sure they are making enough money to want to still be owners. Does that make sense?"

With that he replied, "Maybe it will when I'm older. Right now all I hear is, 'blah blah blah'" Pretty funny kid.

Voyeurism

2010-01-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

Somebody at work sent me this pic...

Tragedy in Haiti

2010-01-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

The recent tragedy in Haiti has been heart breaking to watch. This picture in particular makes it very real for me:

She's such a beautiful girl and the pain of her father carrying her is almost unbearable to see. It's hard to separate the pain on this father's face from the feelings I have felt towards my son dying.

Death is such an interesting phase of this existence. Most of us have experience with a loved one dying, but none of us have experienced it ourselves. President Obama said, "For a country and a people who are no strangers to hardship and suffering, this tragedy seems especially cruel and incomprehensible."

It is certainly incomprehensible. I'm not sure how I feel about the word cruel though. I believe there is a purpose for everything that happens and I believe God loves us all and wants the best for us. I pray that this experience will lead us to be more loving and compassionate. I also hope that the spotlight on Haiti leads to a better future for those living there.

If you're interested in donating to an organization that offers 100% to the relief effort follow this link.

Lessons I Learned as a Boy

2009-10-25T23:42:00.001-07:00

This is a good story for the kids before bedtime when no books are immediately available...

Happy Halloween

2009-10-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Jocelyn Photocopying Herself

2009-09-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is why I don't bring my kids to the office.

Jett the Lady's Man

2009-09-07T19:56:00.001-07:00

Jocelyn's Baby Crawl Contest

2009-07-18T23:34:00.001-07:00

Today was Kla Ha Ya Days in Snohomish, and they had their annual Baby Crawl Contest. This year it was Jocelyn's turn to race. I realize the most boring thing in the world is watching somebody else's kid compete in a crawling contest so don't feel obligated to click below, but for those of you with OCD and you just have to watch every video on every person's blog you know, I hope you enjoy =)

Budget Cuts

2009-06-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

In April, 2009 Obama told his cabinet members to cut a combined $100 million dollars from their budgets. This sounds like a lot of money, but when compared to the rest of federal spending it isn't quite as much as it might seem. Here is a video that illustrates this point very well:

Obama's policy has been one of deceit from the beginning. He has continually masked over his irresponsible actions by releasing a positive story to the press right away. Remember the Airforce "photo-op" incident? The next day the news coverage was of Obama's First Hundred Days in office and how great he's been doing.

And now people are considering his policy of government run healthcare as a good idea? Has nobody been to the DMV? Hello people! The government can't run businesses efficiently in any country. Study history to see how bad of an idea this is.

OK, I'm done my rant for now...but I'm sure something will come in the news again tomorrow that will be just as equally disturbing.

Lemonade

2009-06-13T16:51:00.001-07:00

This morning Bridget and Jovana left for Alabama for a week so I am home alone with all of the kids. I wanted to get some yard work done today so I tried to think of something that would keep the kids occupied, and since today there is a neighborhood-wide yard sale and the weather was beautiful we went with a lemonade stand. Elliott and Jett were more interested in eating the chips and drinking the lemonade so after they finished with that they took off to play. Graeden, however, was very into it. He stayed out there for four hours. He made $10 (Not bad for a five year old's first business venture), of which he spent $2 on a hot dog from the neighbor who was selling BBQ'd food and $.50 on another neighbor's lemonade stand. According to Graeden that kid's lemonade was better.

A Day at the Races

2009-05-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day. For the first time in awhile (or at least I think...I've been pretty busy at work) it didn't rain. Because of the good weather we were able to fulfill our plans of taking Graeden to the race track near our house for some racing fun. The kids have to be at least 4 1/2 to race the Quarter Midgets so only Graeden got to drive, but the other boys had fun at the track anyway.

Before the race started they played at the park nearby and did the bean bag toss game.

Elliott went around collecting all the balls, but he was more than willing to share with the other kids.

Waiting in line for Graeden to get suited up.

They even let Elliott try on some gear with Graeden.

Here's Elliott doing his Marvin the Martian impersonation.

Graeden getting prepped for the drive.

And he's off...

Good job Graeden! He kept his turns very smooth and responded perfectly to the flagger the entire time. He did excellent.

Everett Tea Party

2009-04-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a day off work to go to the Everett Tea Party with the family to protest wasteful government spending and the rediculously large tax rates that we pay. Here's a short video I made of what we saw.

What surprised me the most is how extremely biased the media was about the whole thing. I mean, I know they are biased, but I don't remember it ever being just so obvious. And I just couldn't understand why anybody would have an issue with the protests. I mean, are there really that many people out there that think the government is doing a good job with our money? And that we're just fine paying the amount of taxes that we do? I really have a tough time understanding that logic.

Anyway, to go along with the video, I thought I'd add in some words from Tim Eyman who testified against the Washington tax increase proposals on April 17th:

"You're fooling no one.

It's become the oldest trick in the book - fund non-essential programs with existing taxes, then hold essential programs hostage, demanding a voter-approved ransom to get them back. You regularly put emergency medical services on the ballot and tell voters "approve this tax increase or you're all gonna die."

It is pure manipulation - it is transparent, obvious, and despicable.

You are fooling no one.

You say these are 'temporary' taxes. No taxes are ever temporary - you always find a way to keep 'em going. You say these are 'dedicated' taxes. There's no such thing - taxes can't be dedicated - once you get the money, you can spend them on anything you want.

In 2002, the voters approved a tobacco tax increase dedicated for one thing, but then the Legislature took the money and spent it on something else.

In 2005, the voters dedicated a revenue stream for performance audits, and right now the Legislature is taking half its money and spending it someplace else.

Saying these taxes will be temporary doesn't pass the straight face test - saying they are dedicated is simply untrue.

Even the newspapers are fed up. Last week the News Tribune wrote: "This . reeks. Voters will see right through (this) ploy to make the state's neediest the poster children for new taxes. Failure of the ballot measure . will be lawmakers' fault, not the electorate's."

Representative DeBolt hit the nail on the head: "This whole thing is gamesmanship - you cut the most vulnerable, you cut the most atrocious things you can, you send it to the voters, you show them pictures of people in basic states of panic, you tell them they have to give you more money . and then you take that money and give it to the Arts Commission."

You are fooling no one.

Democrats claim they're on the side of the poor and middle class - and now you turn around and jack up sales taxes that disproportionately hurts them. Democrats say they don't like to raise taxes on the poor and middle class - but then you jack up cigarette taxes, utility taxes, and liquor taxes that disproportionately hammers them.

The best thing you can do for the poor and middle class is to stop taxing and fee'ing them to death.

Dante's Inferno describes the seven circles of hell. There needs to be an 8th circle added and reserved for politicians who are willing to throw the elderly and the disabled under the bus, defund their programs, and then exploit them, using them as props and pawns in their never-ending pursuit of higher taxes. Have you no shame?

You are fooling no one."

How Big is the Earth?

2009-03-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

So the other day Graeden and I got on the topic of how big the Earth is. Generally he thinks in terms of feet so I asked him to guess how many feet the world is all the way around. His first guess was 100 feet. I told him that is the size of our hose in the back yard. This helped him put things into a bit better perspective for his next guess. Before I tell you what that was...what do you think? What's the circumference of the Earth in feet (at the equator)?

His next guess was 1 million feet. I really had no idea so I guessed 500,000 feet. He was closer. The Earth is 24,901.55 miles around at the equator, and there are 5,280 feet in a mile, for a total of 131,480,184 feet. Now the next time you're on Jeopardy, and you get that question, you'll have no trouble spouting out the answer.

Videos

2009-03-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in awhile so I thought I'd share some videos that I've been sent or have seen today.

Dog Having a Bad Dream

Different Presidents, A Different Corps

The Husband Song - This one's for you hunny bunches...

Rocio Update

2009-02-15T23:08:00.000-08:00

Recently I wrote about coming into contact with a girl I baptized while I was a missionary in Argentina. Since then I've had several conversations with her by e-mail. I've tried to call but unbeknownst to her their phone company blocks international calls by default so I haven't been able to talk to her and her family yet. But here are some of the updates that she's told me about.

Her family has changed a lot.

Before:

The mom and dad, Maria and Omar, are on the left. Ayelen is the five year old on the bottom left. Rocio is standing next to her. I'm in the middle holding Ayelen's twin, Sabrina. On the right hand side from top to bottom is Marcelo, Gisel, and Lucas.

Now:

Top row from the left: Sabrina, Rocio, Ayelen, Gisel
Bottom row from left: Maria, Lucas

The oldest brother, Marcelo, was a really cool guy and stuck around for most of the discussions, but was never baptized. He died about seven years ago from a heart condition. Shortly after his death the father, Omar, was baptized hoping to find comfort in his son's death but didn't find it and went inactive shortly afterwards. Gisel got married to a member when she was 16. They have three daughters (Ornella (7), Bianca (5), and Malena (2)) and have gone inactive. Rocio is still very strong in the church. She is the young women's president and the stake single adult activities director. She's preparing to go to the temple. Lucas has been baptized (he was only 7 when we taught the family) and gone inactive, though he still talks about wanting to serve a mission. The twins, Sabrina and Ayelen, are both active and love that their older sister is their young women's president. Maria, the mom, is still strong in the church. She was inactive when we met her and was the only member of the family. She is now a counselor in the Relief Society and has been to the temple. She suffers from the same heart condition as Marcelo and so Rocio doesn't want to leave on a mission for fear something will happen to her mom while she is gone.

Through my conversations with Rocio I've also discovered that another lady we baptized, Feliza, died about three years ago. She stayed active until she died, and had even gone to the temple. Here's a picture of her just before she was baptized:

Evan's Gravestone

2009-02-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't follow my wife's blog, you probably should because she writes much more often and in much more detail than I do. But in case you haven't seen them already I've decided to post the pictures of Evan's Gravestone that were set last month.

It's been over four months since he died, but it feels like it has been so much longer. I'm not sure why that is, maybe because so much has happened since then. I miss him a lot and think about him every day. It's usually when I spend a lot of time with Jocelyn that I think about and miss him the most. I've found that I've bonded with Jocelyn more than any other of our children at her age. I'm not sure if it's because of Evan or because she's my first daughter.

US Airways Emergency Landing

2009-01-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

I'm sure many of you heard about the US Airways plane that landed in the Hudson river a couple weeks ago. There are a few important lessons that should be learned from this:

1. Always upgrade

2. Prepare for everything

On a more serious note though, the passengers of Flight 1549 were all given $5,000 and Chairman's Preferred status until March 2010...and of course, their lives. Today I read in USA Today that some of the passengers were complaining about not getting enough. One said, "the temporary tease of first-class perks is for the birds." That leads to the third lesson learned:

3. When you're a pilot in an emergency on a plane, crash as hard as possible ensuring there are no survivors to avoid years of litigation and lawsuits.

Flash Back

2009-01-26T22:23:00.001-08:00

So Saturday morning I decided to pull out my old missionary journals and go through some of the names of people I met in Argentina, where I served from 1996 to 1998, to see if I could find them on facebook. Most of the names were so common that there were over 500 people on the search, so I had to look for the more obscure names. I also only looked for people that would be around 20 or 30 years old now. I sent messages to a few people asking them if they were from Argentina. The only response I got back was "no", but then today when I checked facebook a girl I baptized when she was 11 responded and asked if I was a missionary from 10 or 11 years ago. I was so excited to reconnect with somebody from one of my favorite families from my mission.

I baptized Rocio when she was just 11 years old. She's the one on the left. Her sister, Gisel (on the right) was also baptized on the same day as Rocio.

You can tell by the picture that they're awesome. What's really amazing is what she looks like now:

My cute little 11 year old has grown into a beautiful young lady! (I hope she doesn't get mad that I stole her profile pic and posted it here). It's so strange to go so long without contact with somebody and then to reconnect and see how much they've changed. I really look forward to getting to know Rocio again and find out what her and her family have been up to since last time I saw them.

There are so many blessings that come from technology and this is one of them. This last week I reconnected with five or six friends that I haven't talked to for years. One of them I haven't talked to in over 17 years! I didn't even realize I was old enough to have had friends from that long ago.

I also feel really blessed for the rule we had as missionaries of writing in our journals every day. Because I was thinking a lot about Rocio and her family today I read through my journal, when I got home from work, of when I was teaching her and was able to relive those wonderful times.

Graeden's Award

2009-01-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

On Monday I took the morning off of work to go to Graeden's school, because, unbeknownst to him, he was up for an award. Since he only goes to P.M. kindergarten, and the assembly was at 10:30 a.m., I drove him to school. I think we got the wrong time though because all the kids were already sitting down and names of award recipients were already being read when we walked in. I got the camera out just in time to capture this:

The award was for, "Great progress blending words & remembering his glasses!" I'm not sure what blending words involves, but it sounds impressive. Good job Graeden!

Happy Holidays

2009-01-03T17:44:00.000-08:00

As much as I enjoy the holidays I'm always glad when they're over. Decorations up for a month is just about the right amount of time before I start getting tired of them. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to a wonderful 2009.

We had a very nice Christmas with lots of family. We weren't able to go to my sister and brother's house because it snowed too much in Granite Falls where they live so Bridget's family ended up staying with us the entire day, which was still fun. Here are some highlights of our Christmas.

The only thing Elliott had asked for was a juice box. I'm not sure where he got the idea that a juice box would be a good gift, but we...er, Santa Clause obliged. He brought Elliott an entire pack of juice boxes. When Elliott opened up the pack the first thing he did was to hand one out to everybody in the house. He's such a sweet little boy.

New Years was fun too. Jovana had several friends over and we had some family and friends over as well (the Granite Falls' siblings were still stuck at their homes from snow). We played games and lit fire crackers when the new year came.

Here is a beautiful rendition of auld lang syne:

And for those of you who'd like to know a bit more about this song I stole this from a friend's blog ~ Thanks Kerstan:

The song is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. Written by Robert Burns in the 1700's (some claim only partially written by him), it was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scotish tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days."

TRADITIONAL LYRICS

Should old acquaintances be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

Chorus

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld Lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

Verse Two

And there's a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o thine
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang sine

Chorus (repeat)

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld Lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

-----

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

(Should old acquaintances be forgotten)
(and never remembered)
(Should old acquaintance be forgotten)
(For old long ago)

Chorus

(For old long ago, my dear)
( For old long ago)
(We will take a cup of kindness yet)
(For old long ago)

(And there is a hand my trust friend)
(And give me a hand of yours)
(And we will take of a good drink/toast)
(For old long ago)

(For old long ago, my dear)
( For old long ago)
(We will take a cup of kindness yet)
(For old long ago)

Snow Day

2008-12-18T22:14:00.000-08:00

Today I got up for work and decided I'd better stay home because of all the snow. We live up a pretty steep hill and I was concerned I wouldn't be able to make it back up once I got down. After telling my wife I was going to stay home, she said she was going to go to the dentist. Turns out I'm just a wuss. Here is a video of Bridget leaving and some other events of the day:

Story Time

2008-12-16T00:08:00.000-08:00

Ah, the blessings of repetition...

Catch Up

2008-12-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since my last post so I'll try to do a little catch up. We moved into our house on the 15th of November and have been loving every minute of it. We enjoy roller blading and excercising in the basement, relaxing in the jet tub, and playing with toys in the play room. We especially like parties. For Thanksgiving we had 28 people in our house with room to spare.

Breanna, Arriah, and Aidan performed for us after dinner with these skits:

The First Thanksgiving

Virginia

The day after Thanksgiving Lyndon, Jovana, and I went go-karting at this place in Redmond. It was really really fun, but way too expensive.

This week was full of a lot of emotions. A friend of mine (Eric Marchant) lost his wife to a tragic car accident, leaving behind five children. We went to the funeral yesterday. Though I didn't know his wife very well the combination of feelings for what Eric and his family must be going through and the sharp memories of Evan's funeral that hers brought to me left me crying my eyes out pretty much the entire time.

Our spirits were lifted later that evening though, because I took Bridget out for her birthday dinner. Unbeknownst to her I had been planning a surprise party for her with Jovana for the last couple weeks. Besides getting back from dinner a bit later than planned, everything went better than I could have hoped for. She had no idea until she walked in the house and turned on the lights and everybody yelled, "Surprise!"

Progress on Our New House

2008-11-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

It has become a bit of a tradition for our family, every Sunday after church, to go and look at the progress made on our new house. A lot has been done since last week, mainly because the close date is November 10th and the builder is working overtime to make the deadline.

Last week we had an appraiser come to give the value of the house. It came in quite a bit lower than what we had contractually agreed to, so we showed the appraisal to the bank (they own the house because the original builders went into foreclosure and the bank took back possesion of the home) and asked what they could do for us. They dropped the price down to the amount of the appraisal which we were very excited about. Just to make sure that everything was ok, we hired a real estate lawyer to check over everything. She said she thought we were still paying too much so we had her work with the bank to get the price even lower. We paid her about $1,000 for her work and she got the bank to drop their price by an extra $20,000. We had previously locked in an excellent rate for our home loan which expires on November 10th so we added into the contract with the bank that if the house isn't done by the 10th they will have to pay points on the interest rate to get it down to the level we have now, which they agreed to do.

I believe the blessings we received pertaining to the house this week (i.e. deciding to have the house appraised early, having the appraisal come in much lower than we had agreed to pay, serendipitously coming across a lawyer that could competently work our case, having the bank drop their price, etc.) is a direct result of paying our tithing. We have truly been blessed.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the progress:

The kitchen is looking great with the new cabinets and appliances. We're really happy the colors turned out so well.

The new fire place is in!

It's nice to have the fence done, but it sure makes the yard look a lot smaller...though it's still really big.

I'm really excited to move in! You can tell 'cause I use lots of exclamation marks :o) Hopefully everything will go as planned and we'll finish moving in the weekend after the deal closes. Just two weeks away!

The Split Decision

2008-10-26T23:19:00.000-07:00

The idea for this movie came to me a couple months ago in the shower. I had finished with the shower and then stepped out to grab a towel. I then got back in and dried myself off. When I opened the shower door for the second time, I looked down and saw a wet foot print on the floor mat. My initial thought, upon seeing the foot print, was, "Whose is that?" Of course it didn't take more than a split second to realize it was my own, but the concept got me thinking and eventually led to the creation of this movie. We started filming last week, and we premiered it at the ward talent show Saturday night.

Jocelyn Magoo

2008-10-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

I have been getting the question, "How is Jocelyn doing?" a lot lately so I thought I'd post a blog to answer. She's doing great! Though sometimes she does look a lot like Mr. Magoo.

In general though, she is a very beautiful, healthy baby.

Baby Jocelyn

2008-09-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

Jocelyn was born today at 6:16 p.m. after about three hours and 20 minutes of labor. She has ten fingers and ten toes, weighes 7 lbs. 12 oz., and is 21 3/4 inches long. I delivered her, with the guidance and extra hand of Bridget's midwife, in our bathroom. Her head was sideways and her hand was up by her ear so it was a pretty tight squeeze, but she finally came out. Bridget is doing well considering all she's been through. Neither of us have gotten a lot of sleep this last week so she was already starting off on a deficit, but she is sleeping now and will hopefully be able to recoup quickly. It is really weird having a new born baby in the house again, but I'm very excited to finally have a daughter.

Evan's Eulogy

2008-09-27T23:31:00.001-07:00

Evan's funeral was today. As hard as it was to hold a funeral for my son, it was really a special experience. There were just so many people there offering love and support. I was getting hugs from people I've never met. We were so blessed with friends and family who made so many tremendous sacrifices in our behalf from traveling great distances to helping clean up after the services. I couldn't possibly list all the help and service people have given us this past week. The love I felt today was almost overwhelming. There were so many flowers that they covered our kitchen table when we brought them home (that's after we brought many to the cemetery). The day was as good as it could have possibly been considering what was happening. There were a few moments that were very difficult for me. The hardest thing was putting the sealant on the coffin and putting the lid on. Another toughy was the eulogy. I've posted my notes below.

This week I’ve been told the hardest thing that can possibly happen in somebody’s life is to lose a child. I believe writing the eulogy may beat that one by a wee bit. This speech is, I believe, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to prepare.

Though Evan’s life was short, too short, I am so thankful for having had the honor of being the father of such a wonderful boy. He was always so happy and curious. Though our cabinets were “baby-proofed” with locks, Evan quickly discovered how to open them and loved pulling everything he saw out of the cupboards and onto the floor. And then tearing everything he could up into as small of pieces as possible. He wasn’t so into cleaning up afterwards though. He loved watching our reaction as he turned off the T.V. in the middle of a show we were watching. One of his favorite things to do was beat up on his older brother Jett. Jett never tried to fight back and would generally just let Evan pull his ears or hit him on the head with his toy hammer, while calling for us to come and help. Evan also had a little language all his own. When he was hungry he would move his tongue side to side until we gave him some food or drink. When he just wanted to say “hi” or “I love you” he would coo like an owl. One of his favorite things to do was to climb. He just loved being part of the action, and getting up on the table or on our bed made it that much easier to see what was going on and participate. He loved his brothers and they loved him. Graeden shared a special bond with Evan as he always asked if Evan could sleep in his bed with him, or play with him if we stepped out of the car and left them alone for a minute. Evan’s brothers just loved having him around for everything they would do, and were surprisingly careful with him.

The night before his passing, as many of you read on my blog, I shared a special moment with Evan as he stretched his little arm up around my neck and sat there with me on the couch. Though I didn’t know it then, I know it now to have been a little blessing from my Heavenly Father and it could have just as easily been my Savior’s arm around me in comfort. I will always cherish that special moment with him.

As Evan lay on the hospital bed with many doctors around him and signs of hope were dissipating, Bridget and I found a secluded room where we could be alone for a moment. We knelt down in prayer and as I spoke the words, “Thy will be done,” a great peace came over us. Though we love Evan dearly I am satisfied in my heart in knowing that it was his time to go.

In times of tragedy the question comes to our minds, “Why?” Do I know why Evan was taken early in his life? I cannot answer that question with any kind of authority. Could God have stopped this from happening? The answer is “Yes”, he is omnipotent. He could stop any sadness; heal all sick, save us from labor, and even from death. But he will not. We should be able to understand this, because we can realize how unwise it would be for us to shield our children from all effort, from disappointments, temptations, sorrows, and suffering. Without the bad there can be no good, without sorrow there is no rejoicing.

Prophet Spencer W. Kimball once said,”If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective.

Is there not wisdom in his giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?”

The support from friends and family has been tremendous. People from all over the world have sent us their condolences. Yet as the world mourns and in the midst of my own personal mourning, I rejoice in my knowledge that Evan is in the bosom of our loving Father in Heaven. As Joseph F. Smith said, speaking of those who die before accountability, “They will inherit their glory and their exaltation, and they will not be deprived of the blessings that belong to them.”

I know that, though Evan’s spirit has left his body, he will be whole again someday. And as my family and I live the laws of the Lord and mold our wills to His, we will live together again, forever, in the eternities.

Many of you have been praying fervently this week for our family to be comforted in our time of need. I can assure you those prayers have been answered. It is my prayer that Evan’s life will be a reminder for us all to put the things of this world into perspective. To work a little bit harder to choose the right. To be slower to anger and quicker to understanding and love. To let go of our vices and to hold onto those things that will bring us closer to the Comforter, our Savior. Even, Jesus Christ. And in His name, I say these words. Amen.

Evan's Funeral

2008-09-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

Words cannot express how appreciative I am for all your thoughts, prayers, and tears. I apologize for not responding to all of your comments, but just know they are helping us through this difficult time. For those of you that are interested (all are welcome) there will be a viewing this Saturday at 10 a.m. and the funeral will begin at 11 a.m. The address is:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
8522 131st Ave SE
Snohomish WA 98290

Evan's Passing

2008-09-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know Evan passed away this morning. He was 15 months old and the youngest of our four boys. I'm sure many have questions as to what happened and I am so thankful for all of your offers of help and condolences. We have felt very loved in this difficult time. For those of you that don't know what happened I'll relay the story chronologically here.

Last night Bridget, Jovana, Graeden, and Evan went out to dinner with some friends. They got home around 9:45 p.m. Graeden went up to bed, but Evan came and sat down next to me on the couch while I was watching T.V. He put his little arm around my neck and just sat there for about five minutes. It was such a beautiful moment to have had with him as he is usually very wiggly and won't stay in one spot for more than a few seconds. At about 10 p.m. I put him to bed. I was a bit sad because he was just so happy and putting him down on our bed to go to sleep just wasn't in his agenda. Nevertheless, just after 11 p.m., when I was ready to go to sleep, I moved him from my bed into his room to sleep on his bed.

This morning, after I had gotten ready for work, I went to make sure all the kids were ok, and couldn't find Evan. I went down stairs where Elliott was and asked if he had seen him. He said Evan was in mommy's room. Nope, not there. After searching the whole house I finally looked under our 60 lbs. plus love sack bean bag. There he was in the middle of the floor. He had been completely covered by the bean bag. He was unresponsive when I picked him up, so I gave him a blessing and we took him to the hospital. When we got there he wasn't breathing and his heart was stopped. The doctors gave him CPR and worked on him for about 40 minutes with no success. He was pronounced dead at about 9 a.m.

Many family members were quick to arrive and offer support at the hospital. Our phone hasn't stopped ringing with people offering their love and our e-mail boxes have been full of messages from people expressing their sympathy. Graeden (our 4, almost 5, year old) was sad and once he understood what happened he sat on my lap and wept. It was very touching. Elliott (3) has mentioned that he wants to see Evan again, but doesn't fully comprehend what's happened yet. Jett (2) has provided us with some comic relief.

Evan, we love you and will miss you so much. Rest in peace little buddy...till we meet again.

The Board Room

2008-09-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

This is a video I made yesterday with the help of our exchange student Jovana. The concept was hers and she helped get everybody in their places. She tried to help Graeden with his lines, but as much as he seemed to want to be in the movie he just wouldn't say his lines. Finally we got frustrated with him and called it a wrap. Since Graeden was obviously frustrated too I talked to him alone and found out that he was embarrassed saying his lines with Jovana in the room, so the two of us went back to work and he did a great job repeating back all the lines he had to say.

Enjoy!

Things I've Learned from My Children

2008-09-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I entered a humorous speech contest in the ToastMaster's club I attend weekly. I decided I would post my speech here...though I came in last (out of three people). I'm pretty sure the judges were paid off by the other contestants though. Most of this stuff has been written about by either me or my wife previously on our blogs, but it's a good recap for the faithful follower(s) of our blogs.

Things I’ve Learned from My Children

Shortly after I learned that I was going to have my first child, I was talking to a lady at work about what was in store for my future. She, having two of her own children, told me my life was about to change. I didn’t believe her. The fact that I thought life would go on as usual after having a child, by itself is probably funny enough to win a humorous speech contest, but if I stopped now I’d get disqualified for not fulfilling the time limit…so I’ll go on.

As much as my wife and I tried to fight it, life DID change after we had our first child. And then it changed a bit more when we had our next one. And a bit more every child after that. I think we have about 16 kids now…I lost count. Needless to say, life has changed a lot since I first got married.

One thing that I have learned about change is that just because something is different, doesn’t mean it is bad. And despite the endless diaper changes, the living off of short naps during the night rather than a good night’s rest, and the constant bombardment of toys being launched down the stairs by my legion of knee high protector’s of the universe, I find my children to be quite delightful and stimulating. In fact, I have learned a lot from them…hence the title of my speech, “Things I’ve Learned from My Kids.” What are those “things” you say? I thought you’d never ask. Let me tell you…

They are, in no particular order:

#1: Think outside of the box – or better yet…don’t even have a box...but if you have to have one, make it your own box.

This is a picture of my oldest son, Graeden. Here he is doing a little dance. A very unique dance. This is the dance he did when he went out school shopping this year in the changing room each time he would try on a new shirt. When he finished the dance he was able to tell whether or not he liked it. After a bit of prodding my wife was able to get out of him that the dance was to make sure the shirt didn’t slide off of one of his shoulders. If it could withstand the dance test, it was a good shirt, he wanted it. That was his “box”.

B: Don’t beat around the bush, say things how you see them. Here is a card one of my kids made for Mother’s day.

I let them draw what they wanted on the outside. My second child, Elliott, wrote simply, “Poo”. I guess that’s what was on his mind. Children have a way of being extremely blunt in what they say. The great thing about that is you never wonder how they “really” feel about something. The other day, I was taking a shower with this same child and I’m singing a beautiful song at nearly perfect pitch…I think it was ABC’s. My son looks up at me and says, “Dad, could you be nice?” “Sure” I reply. “Then stop singing!”…and now I know how he “really” feels about my singing.

Third: Get an education

ok, I didn’t learn that from my children, but that’s important. And this is a cute picture.

IV: Don’t let your inhibitions stop you from doing what you want to do:

Have you ever wondered why it’s only kids that run through public sprinklers? My theory is that adults would do it more often if they didn’t feel like they were being watched.
Little kids usually don’t care if they are being watched or not. They want to have a good time. They’re not worried if they are a little overweight, or if they aren’t as muscular as they wish they were. Even when they forget their swimsuit, they are perfectly fine with going in what they’ve got. Fortunately for me, I have a perfect body and don’t have to worry much about this one, but it may come in handy some day.

16: Delegate

My oldest child is four years old. And even though he is limited in his abilities and understanding of the world, he, like my other children, are generally very willing to help when they are given the opportunity. It sometimes takes a little bit of patience…and by “a little bit” I mean “a great deal” of patience, but if you teach a child to do something the payoff can often be great. Here my two year old, Jett, decided he wanted to learn to push his little brother in the stroller.

After a few walks and a few corrections of direction, he had it down pretty well. Though it wasn’t extremely easy getting to the point that we could trust him to do it just like we want (and he’s still not at that point, by the way), we can now go on walks and have an extra set of hands. Jett is empowered by the whole thing. Everybody is happy. This principle can be applied in any relationship you have with another person, from a spouse to a coworker. What’s that old saying? Teach a boy to fish and he’s busy for hours, give him a fish and he gets slime all over everything? Or something like that…which leads to the next lesson learned…

10: Cleaning Out the Fridge Doesn’t Need to be so Time Consuming

My boys did this in just a few short minutes. Oh well, according to John Tesh, “playing with food fosters creativity.” Whatever.

31: Safety First

10: Appreciate Sleep

Sometimes it can be hard to find an open bed in our house, so you just take what you can get. What I’ve really learned about sleep is how true the old adage, “early to bed, early to rise” really is. When my kids don’t go to bed early I get grumpy, and when I don’t get up early, my kids get grumpy.

Oh I could go on with many more things that I’ve learned from my kids like:

- How my ears make great handlebars, or
- How to respond to the comment, “wow, you must have your hands full,” or,
- How the best way to clean up blood stains is using cold water…

But let me tell you about what I believe to be the most important lesson I’ve learned…

10: Unconditional Love

Though my family life is far from perfect, and each of us have our bad days, at the end of the day I forgive their hair pulling, bed wetting, snotty nosed ways, and they are quick to hug me and tell me they love me.
Later this month my wife will birth another child and I can’t wait to see what changes my new daughter will bring to my life!

Disappearing Kids

2008-09-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a video I made of my kids walking through the wall. I probably could have made it a bit better if I worked with the kids more on the speed they approach the wall, but you know what they say in Hollywood, "Never work with children or animals." There is also a little bonus feature of Jovana at the end. Graeden is pronouncing her name correctly for one of the first times ever.

Get Your Album on iTunes

2008-08-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't posted in awhile I thought I'd copy out a little blurb from Wired magazine on how to get an album on iTunes...just to get the fingers moving again.

1. Choose a distribution service. Compact-disc middlemen like CD Baby take a cut of every sale, but digital aggregators such as Nimbit and TuneCore charge a flat fee. TuneCore charges $19.98 a year for storage plus a one time delivery fee of $0.99 per song and $0.99 for each store you want your album sent to (iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, etc.).

2. Submit Tracks. Send your distributor uncompressed WAV files. Services like TuneCore will compress them for you and upload better-quality formats as online stores support them.

3. Band together. If you and some friends can commit to releasing 15 albums, you'll get volume pricing.

4. Keep tabs on your sales. For $2.98 a week, you can get an iTunes report on who bought what and where.

Post Mortem

2008-07-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

In a recent blog entry I talked about Graeden and I serendipitously coming up the alley where Brett (my brother-in-law) and his friends were making a movie. Well the movie is finished and posted to Youtube. If you're interested, here it is:

Post Mortem - 2008 48 hour film festival

Evan Almighty

2008-07-20T19:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Kla Ha Ya Days in Snohomish. It's the town's annual celebration. Evan entered the baby crawl contest. He's our third child that has been able to enter (Elliott was walking by the time it came around for him). Here's a video of what happened:

See Bridget's blog for more pics.

I also got around to editing this video of Evan packing his (and by "his" I mean "my") suitcase while we were getting ready to go on our cruise a couple weeks ago.

Home Alone

2008-07-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

Since Bridget is out of town with Jett for a few days, I have gotten to stay home with Graeden, Elliott, and Evan. It has been really fun so far. Yesterday was my company's annual picnic. It started at 11 a.m. and we got there right on time. Apparently that isn't a very common thing to do because there were only two or three other families there at that time. It was ok though because we got to do all kinds of stuff as soon as we wanted, as opposed to waiting in lines like we would have had to do if we came later. Some of the things we did were; hay ride, paddle boats, big bouncy slide thing, bouncy house, eat hotdogs and hamburgers and corn and cotton candy and ice cream and watermelon, climb a climbing wall, have a clown make a plane and a sword for us, pet a baby goat, knock down pins with a ball for a yoyo, and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't think of. Unfortunately Bridget took the camera with her so I didn't get any pics but I might be able to gleen some from Panasonic's web site when I get back to work.

In the evening I took Elliott and Evan over to Nana's house and Graeden and I went to a "Sleeping Beauty" play where my niece Breanna played a fairie and my other niece Arriah played a troll. It was neat to watch them perform...even Graeden liked it, though he did ask if we could go home about half way through the play.

As Graeden and I walked back to our car we ran into Bridget's brother Brett who was in the middle of making a movie for a 48 hour movie contest with some of his friends. Graeden really wanted to watch so we hung out for about an hour or so. Graeden ended up coloring on the street with chalk most of the time and I ended up holding a filter thing over one of the lights so that the shadows from the light were dampened. I've always wanted to work on the set of a movie so for me it was a great experience. Graeden even got to keep the chalk which he was very excited about.

2008-06-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend was very packed. Here's the run down on what I did.

Friday, after work, I went straight to the cannery where I got 16 boxes (six cans per box) of food storage. This time we got beans, sugar, rice, flour, carrots, onions, and probably some other stuff I can't remember. Hopefully that is enough to keep us stalked for awhile. I didn't get home until after 10 p.m.

On Saturday I got up at 4:15 a.m. to go to the 6:30 a.m. temple session. When I got home I mowed and trimmed the lawn while the rest of the family washed the cars. When that was done we went to Bellevue for our niece's birthday party at Chucky Cheese. After the party we brought the kids home and Bridget and I went back to Bellevue (for my third time that day) for an art auction. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun going...mostly because of the free steak dinner they gave us.

Today I went to church, came home and immediately went out home teaching. After coming home, eating lunch, and taking a nap, I went back to the church to work on membership record stuff. It should be nice going back to work tomorrow so I can get a rest.

I'll post pics later when Bridget can tell me where the camara is :o)

Evan's Birthday

2008-06-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a two minute video of Evan's first birthday.

The cool thing is I really wanted Evan to walk by the time he turned one. Of course he's not exactly walking, but it's cool that I was able to capture his first steps on camera. The day before he kind of shuffled one foot half way in front of the other, so that may have been his "first" step, but the ones on this video are much better :)

Runaway Child

2008-06-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

Every night after we put the kids in their room for bed they play with each other for an hour or two before falling asleep. Usually, during that time, I am in the room next to them on the computer. Last night, at about 9:15 p.m., Elliott knocks on the office door and when I answer it he says, "Graeden went outside."

So I get my shoes on and go outside to find him. I walk around the entire house and he's not there so I assume Elliott just thought he went out but he was really hiding or something. So I go back in the house and do a thorough search for him with no success. Now I start to worry a bit. I get my jacket on and go to the front of the house to look down the street both ways. Not there.

I walk a block down the street and look down the crossing street. There he is about three blocks away! He has crossed one of the busiest streets in the town of Snohomish and is about two blocks from getting to his good friends house (his destination). So I ran to him and picked him up and started carrying him back to the house. I wasn't really sure how to react but I'm glad I wasn't screaming like a crazy man because, as I got close to home, a cop showed up and said that somebody saw him walking across the street by himself and called the police.

After he asked a few questions; relationship to child, name, address, etc. he let us go. So Graeden is grounded today. He didn't get to go out while we pressure washed the house. And he doesn't get to go out with Elliott, Jett, and me later tonight. If this was the first time he'd ever run away I would think that was sufficient punishment, but it's the third time and the second time a police officer was called. Any tips for helping him understand the danger of running away and crossing busy streets on his own would be appreciated. By the way...he's only four.

Time for Vacation

2008-05-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

We just dropped off all our kids at various places for the week. Let the vacation begin! For my birthday Bridget surprised me with a California/Mexican cruise. She even corresponded with my boss at work to schedule my vacation days without me knowing. I should probably get packing now. Cheers!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day Jett, Elliott, and Graeden all made Mother's Day cards. As I was transposing what Graeden wanted to say on his (which were the lyrics to the "Mother I Love You, Mother I do..." song) I noticed that Elliott, who turned three in March, was writing his favorite word on his card. I'm sure he meant it as a term of endearment :o)

Bridget didn't seem to be offended at all so that was good.

This morning the boys helped me make French toast by watching T.V. (i.e. staying out from under my legs while I did the cooking). During sacrament the primary went up and sang a few songs (one of which was "Mother I Love You"). Elliott, still in nursery, saw his brother go up so he decided he should too. During the singing Elliott and Graeden went to the back, behind the primary kids, and played on the big chairs that automatically fold up when nobody is sitting on them (like at movie theaters). It was pretty cute.

Bridget's favorite presents were being able to sleep in and the nap she got after church. I enjoyed trying my hand at cooking all three meals of the day, which is about three times more cooking than I normally do in a year...or does making popcorn count?

Argh!

2008-05-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

Some things really infuriate me...ok, lots of things do. One of them is the lack of common sense people exhibit when they have a job to do. I think people feel compelled to obey orders no matter what the principle behind the orders are, rather than look at the specific situation and deal with it appropriately, or at least with a little common sense. Child Protection Services is a classic example of an agency that plays an important role, but have become so beaurocratic that they just don't seem to "get it" and have become much more of a burden on society than the help they are supposed to be. This video is a case in point...

The Truth Shall Make You Free

2008-04-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to a lot of talk radio lately and, of course, the 2008 elections are always being talked about. The thought occured to me that if everybody knew the truth that there wouldn't be nearly as much contention. For example, if people knew that using corn for ethanol would drive the price of food up or that it was an inefficient use of land then they would be less likely to advocate its use. If everybody knew all the pros and cons of government actions then I think the public opinion would be much less divisive. This thought process got me to thinking that that is probably why people outside of the church often think of the members as not being free thinkers or not having our own opinions. Of course we do have our own opinions, it's just that we also have the truth, which leads most of us to want the same things and behave in similar ways. And what a blessing it is that we can trust our leaders to want the same things as us and not have to worry about poor decisions being made.

On another note, I went to the cannery yesterday to stock up on wheat for our food storage. There is a world shortage of wheat and the church is keeping the prices down (much less than market value) for awhile. It is expected that the price will probably raise in August, or thereabouts. The church buys a large portion of its wheat from an LDS farmer so either that farmer is selling below market or the church is eating part of the cost. Either way, it is cheap...for now. Brigham Young once said, "The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a
bushel of wheat." (Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p.
250, 1943 ed., p. 298.) It seems like more and more lately I have been hearing about the urgency to gather up food storage and to be prepared. Hopefully we are doing enough as a family and as members of the church to fulfill this obligation.

Cheese Makes You Fat

2008-04-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

It is pretty difficult getting anything out of conference with four little kids running around that are too young to sit and listen, so Bridget and I decided to tag team the different sessions. I would go to the chapel for the morning session, and Bridget would go for the afternoon. So when I was just about to leave this morning Elliott comes up to me and asks if he can have a piece of cheese. He hadn't eaten breakfast yet so I told him to ask his mother,as I wasn't sure what she had planned for breakfast. Graeden piped in, "You are always asking for cheese. How about no?"
"Why" responds Elliott.
"Because it's going to make you fat!"
I'm not sure where Graeden learned that as I don't see either of them EVER getting fat, no matter how much they eat, and Bridget and I certainly don't worry about that kind of thing, but it was pretty funny.

Mar 23, 2008

2008-03-23T22:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everybody. I was listening to Glenn Beck Friday on the radio (for those of you who don't know, he is an LDS political talk show guy http://www.glennbeck.com/) and he was telling the story of the cruxifiction of Jesus overlayed with a Pink Floyd song (don't worry, it was tastefully done). Glenn made a comment about how hard it must have been to describe the scene of His crucifixtion as noted in the four gospels of the New Testament that write only, "and they crucified him." The thought of trying to write about that event brought a sudden, and unexpected, burst of tears to my eyes. I can't imagine being responsible for the task of recording such a terrible event. Anyway, I just wanted to copy some of Glenn's transcript that day since it's Easter and I think it was a powerful message.

"I can't get into detail because it's personal in my family, but this has been one of the hardest years for me. This has been a very difficult year for me and my family and many nights in the last two months have not ended until 2:00 in the morning with my family around the kitchen table. And just this week one of my children said something, as all teenagers do, that was hurtful and I said, you know what, this stops, this stops and this stops right here until you figure out what to do with what just happened.

Well, it took her a few days but she came to me and in about 20 minutes she hemmed and hawed and I didn't say a word. I just let her talk. And she did everything but say 'I'm sorry,' but I knew she wanted to and I knew if I just shut up long enough, she would say it, and she did. Took 20 minutes. She finally stopped and she said, 'I'm really sorry, Dad.' I got up and hugged her and she immediately burst out into tears. And what was so shocking to me was her response. As she was crying, she said, 'It can't be this easy.' I said, 'Honey, you've made it so hard. It hasn't been easy, but it is this easy.' In all of life, all it requires is recognizing the problem, recognizing the pain, recognizing the frustration, working through it. And as you make mistakes along the way just stopping and honestly saying, 'I'm sorry.' And that's really what Easter is all about, much more important than Christmas. That's about the birth. But if it didn't happen, what happened this weekend, if that didn't happen, the birth would just be another baby. It's about the death and about the resurrection and about what that means, and what that means is, oh, my gosh, it's so easy. We make it so tough. We make it so hard. We wallow in our pain or we ignore our pain when all we have to really do is just sincerely say, 'I'm sorry,' really mean it and it all goes away."

Here is an interview where Glenn tells his conversion story:

Mar 15, 2008

2008-03-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

So two weeks ago my grandfather, who lives in Canada, passed away. I make reservations on-line with Alaska, for my one year old son and I to fly up for the services. Since I was flying outside of the US I needed to get an emergency passport for my son. One of the requirements that I thought I needed to have (which turns out not to be the case) is the person needing the emergency passport has to have a plane ticket. Alaska doesn't put "infant in arms" on their tickets. So I call them up and ask for a new ticket indicating that I will be traveling with a child. They won't do it. Why? Because their system doesn't do that. I ask for them to just send me an e-mail. They won't do that either. The best they can do is sell me a separate seat for $900 so that he can get a ticket. My ticket was only $300.

Fortunately I was able to make it to the services and everything was fine...until I came home. When I hand my ticket to the agent at the airport she looks at my son and asks if I have a ticket for him. I say no, you guys wouldn't give me one. So she charges me an extra $10, though babies are supposedly free. I'm at the airport and it is only $10 so I don't make a big fuss, but isn't that called, "Bait and Switch"? I went with Alaska because they were the cheapest, but then they want extra money as you go, and when you're trying to catch a flight it's not like there is a whole lot of time to deal with problems.

Mar 1, 2008

2008-03-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

Today was the funeral of my grandfather, Stan Johns. It is the first funeral I have ever been to for somebody that I knew. I went to the funeral home with Lyndon, his girl friend Karen, and Jett. We got there about 15 minutes before it started. I expected the mood to be extremely somber but it really wasn't. We talked with several relatives before the ceremony and everybody just seemed happy to see each other. The pastor said that everybody expresses their feelings for loss differently. I guess with the Johns family our way of dealing with most things is through humor.

During the ceremony Jett behaved relatively well. He spent most of the time tearing up the pack of kleenex on our seat into little bits and dropping them on the floor and banging the hymn book into its holder and pulling it back out again. Near the end I had to take him out because he started making a lot of noise, but overall I was happy with his behavior.

After the funeral we went with most of the family to a nearby restaurant to eat and socialize. It was fun being able to catch up with Matthew and Mark and their mom, Karen.

Later in the evening we went to a concert thing where Richard Harrow was performing and doing the sound for an excellent musician named Steve Pineo (Lynn got me his CD). There were a couple of finale songs done by four musicians. During the second to last song the emotion of the song hit me in such a way that I began to cry very hard for the loss of grandpa. It was the first time I had cried for his loss. I am really going to miss him. Rest in peace gramps.

Feb 13, 2008

2008-02-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Today Josh, from work, gave me a pair of Sonics tickets. I don't think I've been to an NBA game since 6th grade so it has been a long time. I picked Bridget up after work and we headed over there. The Sonics don't have much of a team this year and they played the Jazz, who have a very good team, so I wasn't expecting much. We kept close for the first three quarters but didn't do much the fourth quarter. Sonics lost 93 - 112. Since I don't really care about the Sonics it was no big deal, but it's always fun going to games.

Feb 10, 2008

2008-02-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

I got set apart as an assistant ward clerk today. My calling as a ward missionary only lasted for a year. It was a fun calling, but I look forward to this new one. It sounds like I'll be doing a lot of the same stuff that I do at work. It will be nice to be able to put my talents for spreadsheets and data analysis to work for the gospel.

Jan 21, 2008

2008-01-21T00:02:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to teach Graeden how to play chess (see Bridget's blog for details and pics). While we were playing Graeden says to me, "I like chest daddy." I replied, "Me too, Graeden...but we're playing chess."

Jan 6, 2008

2008-01-06T18:44:00.001-08:00

Today was the first Sunday, and thus our first time at church, this year. Elliott is still in nursery, though I think he is ready for primary. After sacrament today he ran to nursery before we could even stand up. I was walking Graeden to primary and poked my head into nursery to make sure Elliott was OK. There he was all by himself with no teacher. He had a big smile on his face and told me that he had turned on the lights. He was happy to be there so I left him there by himself. I took Graeden to where he was supposed to wait for primary and found out who his teachers are. One of them is Joslyne, who has babysat on several occasions. After church I asked Graeden how he liked his new class. He said, using his angry voice, "Good! I was a little shy!" It was pretty cute.

Jan 2, 2008

2008-01-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest drawbacks of having a job in an office where you spend most of the day sitting behind a computer is that you don't get much excercise and you are generally surrounded by snacks that coworkers have brought in because they need them to be eaten...cause they don't want to get fat(ter). So everybody sits around eating junk food all day. Though I'm far from fat, I am feeling the effects of eating garbage and doing nothing to get it out of my system (I quit jogging awhile ago because it was so cold). So I've decided to stop eating candy and pop and sweets in general for the rest of the year. I've done it before, so I know I can do it, but candy is a major vice for me so it will still be a challenge. I have a few other things I'd like to improve on as well but I'll just start out with the candy thing for now.

December 16, 2007

2007-12-16T22:48:00.000-08:00

My new job is probably the biggest "event" going on in my life right now. I'm a bit hesitant to talk too much about it here though just because you never know what could happen if the information I write were to get into the wrong hands. At this point though I really enjoy the job. I like the people I work with in general and I think I will stay interested for a long time. On Monday I flew down to the Lake Forest, CA headquarters with the rest of my department and several other people from all around the world. We discussed the different roles that the departments have and talked about where the company is going from here (as far as Maintenance Services is concerned). We were also given a tour of the facilities. It was a really fun and insightful trip. It was nice to get to know some of my coworkers better too.

Yesterday Bridget and I went to the company Christmas party. I only knew about ten people there, but it was still fun. Nothing like getting up on the dance floor in front of hundreds of people you have never met. Panasonic really does a good job of taking care of their employees.

November 25, 2007

2007-11-25T23:12:00.000-08:00

This was my final week as a free man. Tomorrow I start my new job. I am really looking forward to it, but am also a bit sad that I will lose all of the free time that I've enjoyed over the last couple of years.

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. We had dinner/lunch at Bridget's parent's house and then went to Tamara & Robert's house to visit. It is always fun to see the family. The next day, Friday, Cheryl Sulzen came down with her family so we went to Tamara's house again and had dinner with all of them. It was a lot of family. Yesterday, Saturday, Bridget & I went to the temple with Cheryl and Dan. It's been a couple months so it was good to get back.

Saturday morning, while Bridget & I were still in bed sleeping, Jett walked into our room crying/whining. Then, when he got close to Bridget's side of the bed, he said "George" as clear as day. It was really funny because he has never said anything besides sounds like mamamama or nananana. I'm pretty sure he was referring to the Curious George cartoon that he watches with his brothers most weekday mornings. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to watch it because it was Saturday, and therefore, not on.

Last week Bridget & I put a bid on the house in Monroe. The seller didn't budge on his price at all. He wasn't willing to come down in price even though the market is extremely slow right now. We still want the house and are going to try to make another bid closer to what he is asking within the next week or so.

November 10, 2007

2007-11-10T23:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I was offered a position at Panasonic Avionics as a Business Analyst II. I, of course, accepted and am very excited to start working there on the Monday following Thanksgiving. It should be really fun, though I don't know a whole lot about what the job entails. My brother Shad also works there (which is probably a major reason I got the interview for the job at all) so that will be a lot of fun.

Today we looked at houses in Monroe. I'm not a huge fan of Monroe, but one of the six or so houses that we looked at was amazing. Maybe a little bit more expensive than I'd like, but it's the first house I've been excited about for a very long time. Plus, if we sell the house we're in and another house that Bridget has we could pay a deposit of over 45%. I'd like to get established a little bit at work before making such a permanent decision, but I also don't want to lose out on the opportunity to own a house this great. Hopefully the market is slow enough right now that it won't be sold anytime soon.

This evening we went to a talent show and Naiah was breaking boards for her talent. To show how hard it is she picked me from the audience to demonstrate...assuming that I wouldn't be able to break it. She gave me one after another, each one getting harder, and I broke them all, spoiling her show. I kinda felt bad that she wasn't able to show off her new skills, but she took it well I think.

Since I didn't post anything on the day we celebrated Graeden's birthday I'll post a video I made of his party here:

October 28, 2007

2007-10-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Graeden's birthday, but we're celebrating on Tuesday so we didn't make too big of a deal about it today. He spent most of the day at NanaBoppa's house (that's Nana and Boppa which, for some reason, comes out as one word).

Today in Priesthood meeting Duncan asked who felt inspired to say the closing prayer. Jett, who was sitting in my lap, raised his hand so Duncan asked if I could help him say the prayer. It was pretty cute.

October 15, 2007

2007-10-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

General conference was on the 6th and 7th of this month. Elder Eyring was confirmed as the second councellor to the prophet which was pretty exciting since I really like him a lot. He gave a talk during one of the sessions about how the spiritual experiences he had throughout his life were not just for him, but also for his posterity. When he was inspired by this notion he began to write in his journal everyday thereafter. He talked about how writing the things that happened during the day brought to his mind ways in which he was being blessed by the Lord. Since then I thought, instead of writing my blog in the morning, I should write it before I go to bed so that I can better reflect on my daily experiences. As you can see, it has taken me a week to pick up on that idea. Hopefully I'll get a bit more accustomed to it and start writing more regularly.

October 5, 2007

2007-10-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday (Oct. 3rd) Bridget and I went to a Chris Cornell concert at the Paramount Theatre. It was awesome! I love that guy's voice and he has so many good songs. It was a pretty late concert so we left at about 10:15 p.m. even though it didn't end until 11:30 p.m. It was still sweet.

Yesterday, Barb from HR in Panasonic Avionics called me to make an appointment for an interview on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited. I would love to work for them, mostly because that's where Shad works, but also because the avionics industry is a good industry to be in around this area.

October 3, 2007

2007-10-03T07:36:00.001-07:00

Now, you might think I've been getting lazy in my blog writing. That's not exactly true. I usually just can't think of anything of any real value to write about. I'm not sure that it's worth anybody's time for me to make a post when I don't have anything to say.

Anyway, for the last few weeks Graeden, Elliott, and their friends Bobbie and Andrew have been going to preschool. Bridget and the mothers of the other boys are the teachers and classes switch between the houses. Yesterday school was at our house and Bridget told the boys the story of The Little Red Hen. After doing several activities with them she had them do a play. Here it is edited down from about six and a half minutes:

Notice how they all volunteered (at the beginnning anyway)? That's because they had already learned that if they didn't help they wouldn't get the bread at the end. I guess that was more important than them saying their lines correctly.

September 27, 2007

2007-09-27T07:35:00.001-07:00

I haven't written for a little while because my mom and Gary came to town last week and so we blessed Evan on Sunday. I wanted to write down what was in his blessing but I can't find the paper that Jaquie Betts wrote for us, granted I haven't really looked for it either. Anyway, I'll write that as soon as I find the paper.

Meanwhile, Fall is upon us and that can mean only one thing. The new season of T.V. shows is upon us. I try to watch as many first episodes as I can so that I can narrow what I watch to the best two or three shows. So here's my review of this season's shows;

Biggest Loser: This is a reality show where fat people try to lose more weight, as a percentage of their total body weight, than everybody else. I watched it last season and it was pretty good but by the end I just felt lazy as I ate cheetos and watched other people getting excercise and improving themselves. The real turn off this year is that it just doesn't look like it's going to be any different than last year.

Chuck: This is about a guy that gets top secret government information implanted into his head by accident. He is a nerd (though he's actually pretty cool...he just isn't very good with girls) and the agent that comes to find out about the stored gov't info is a sexy girl. The acting is great, as well as the cinematograpy. It's a keeper.

Bionic woman: A girl gets in a car accident and instead of being taken to a hospital is taken to a top-secret lair where they repair her legs, an arm, and an eye with special powers...all this to ensure she lives as she would have died otherwise. It had potential to be good. The only real problem is that the bionic woman is just so angry. Why wouldn't she be happy that her life was saved? Oh well...one more show I never have to watch again.

Heroes: This was my favorite show last season so it would have taken a lot for me not to get into it this season. I wasn't disappointed with the season opener. A group of people discovering they have supernatural powers have to figure out what their purpose is and how they are going to use their powers. Pretty cliche plot outline, but very well done.

Journeyman: This show, besides having much better actors, was better when it was called "Quantum Leap." It may deserve another try, but I wasn't too impressed with the first episode.

Kid Nation: Who wouldn't love a show where a bunch of kids are dropped off in a ghost town and told to figure out how to run the place with no adult supervision? It is a great concept and I'm sure a great experience for the kids on the show...I'm just not too sure it has staying power. Though I've only seen one episode I'm already tired of watching whining, and generally immature kids make fools of themselves on national television. I think this will be one that I'll watch if I flip through channels and see it on, but I'm not going to go out of my way to watch it.

September 21, 2007

2007-09-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

This morning was the hardest I've had getting up. I think it's because it is starting to get dark earlier and so it doesn't really feel like I should be up that early. I can tell though, that this is going to be a challenge to continue with day after day. My jog this morning was good though. I feel like I have way more energy than I did a few days ago when I first went jogging.

I read an article in Reader's Digest the other day about the power of gratitude. It said that people that find things to be thankful for every day are happier, get better sleep, and are more friendly. With that in mind I decided to use my jogging time to come up with things that I am truly thankful for, like living in a town that I feel safe going anywhere, anytime in. I have already begun using the jogging time as a time for personal prayer so I'm glad I am gaining stamina so that I can jog long enough to pray and be grateful.

September 20, 2007

2007-09-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Graeden is a funny kid. Why you ask? Well I can think of two things he did yesterday that qualify him as funny.
1. Instead of saying "forgot" he always says "got for"
2. He cried yesterday when Bridget was leaving for work because he wanted to go to work. I told him he didn't have a job and he said, "yes I do." "What is it?" I asked. "To hug mommy."

September 17, 2007

2007-09-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Today I went jogging as soon as I got up. It's been a long time since I've done any real excercise, unless you can count carrying 20+ lb. kids in each arm from my car into the church building. Needless to say, but my legs felt like lead had been injected into them after the first block. I had no real place to go, but I kept finding myself crossing streets at angles just to be more efficient. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland when she meets the cheshire cat and asks what path she should take. When the cat asks where she is going, Alice says, "I don't know."

"Then it doesn't matter what path you take," replies the cat.

I came home after jogging for about nine minutes. I am way too out of shape. Maybe after a week or two of jogging I'll start doing some weight lifting.

September 15, 2007

2007-09-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Why is it that it's hard to go to bed early and it's hard to get up early? Even with the same amount of sleep it seems to be easier to go to bed late and to sleep in than early to bed and early to rise. I believe it is a test of our will power. We are commanded in the scriptures to not oversleep.

D&C 88: 124
Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.

I once heard that if you were in a mine or someplace where you had no concept of what time it was that you would run on a 25 hour cycle instead of 24. I can certainly believe that. It's interesting to think of sleep as such a vital aspect to our personal progression. Now I just have to conquer my other vices...

September 14, 2007

2007-09-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of days I have had that genealogy bug that seems to hit me every couple of years. The reason it hit me this time is directly related to the book "Spiritual Roots of Human Relations" by Steven R. Covey...which I have still only read the first couple chapters of. Having accomplished my goal of getting up at 6:30 a.m. every morning (today was the second day) I have had time to study scriptures in a quiet setting. There are a couple chapters near the beginning of Genesis that outline the genealogy from Adam down to Noah. As I was reading this I began writing the connections in a Word document so that I could visually see how they were connected (which is a good thing because I had no idea before this that there were two Enochs pre-Noah...one in Cain's line and the other in Seth's). As I finished the chart for my scripture study my drive to continue doing genealogy work didn't cease and I was hooked. My cousin Carmell sent me all of her genealogical work so I was able to combine what I had with what she had and now I am going to go through what my mom gave me a few years ago and add any missing information as well. So much fun.

September 12, 2007

2007-09-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've made a goal for myself to start going to bed earlier and waking up earlier. I'd like to get to the point where I'm waking up at 6:30 am (today I got up at 7 am). The reasons I'm doing this are to gain better self control by disciplining myself and to have some "alone" time before the house wakes up. The problem I'm having is that the earlier I get up, the earlier everybody else seems to be getting up too. So much for alone time. I guess I'll just have to be pleased that I'm gaining more self control.

September 11, 2007

2007-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend my best friend from high school Mark, or Zlim Zlax as my kids like to call him, came down to Seattle with his buddy Aaron.

They used the Seahawks game on Sunday as an excuse to come down but it was really to see me...and for Aaron to come to Seattle. I spent all day with them on Saturday and yesterday (Monday), but they were on their own on Sunday. We spent most of Saturday in downtown Seattle. We, including all of my family, went to the aquarium (it wasn't that great, but there were some pretty cool fish, like the flashlight fish) and hung out along the pier. Then Bridget took the family home and the rest of us went to meet up with Dave and Tom (Dave is the CEO for the company Mark works for and Tom is his son) to watch some UFC fights. Dave is a very interesting person to talk to. He always asks what people's opinions are of things which I found was a feature that was very appealing. I think people are drawn to others that seem to take an interest in their thoughts and views. He's a very good people person.

Yesterday Mark, Aaron, and I took a ferry ride from Edmonds to Kingston. It was a beautiful day so the view of Mt. Rainer and Seattle were great. We had a relaxing lunch on the deck of a restaurant where we had chowder, fish, and sandwiches. It really felt like being in the carribean or something because of the perfect weather. When we got back to Edmonds we walked along the beach for awhile, had an ice cream, and then went on a hike through a trail surrounded by extremely tall trees. It was a great day to appreciate all of the natural beauty that we are able to enjoy in the Puget Sound.

2007-09-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

The other day I read the first couple chapters of a book by Stephen R. Covey called "Spiritual Roots of Human Relations" and it talks about personal development. Everybody is at different levels of growth in different aspects of their lives. Using a rating system, somebody might be a two emotionally and a six physically. To go from a two to a six one has to go through steps three to five first. In developing spirituality one has to begin by learning to control his/her own appetites. He talks about over eating or gluttony and oversleeping as some of the first things to work on. So, in response to this, I have decided to begin going to bed at around 10 - 11 pm and getting up at around 6:30 am. Though I really don't need to be up until around 8 or 9 when my kids get up I figure I can be more productive in the first hours of the day than I can in the last hours. I have decided to begin reading the old testament every morning since I've only read it once and that was in Spanish. I also created a list of different areas of my life that I'd like to develop spiritually, but I plan on going step by step, precept upon precept until that perfect day.

September 6, 2007

2007-09-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

My first blog post! I've heard that there are more blogs than there are people that read them so it's probably pretty safe to say that nobody outside my family will ever see this, unless of course I invite others to read it...and, for lack of anything better to do, they actually come to read it. I guess I just want to get things down as I think of them and to keep a bit of a journal of my personal and family life. Since having kids I have been pretty bad at keeping any kind of journal. Every now and then I type something or save an e-mail. Occasionally I'll make a video of one or two of the four kids (see http://youtube.com/profile?user=Zalekin) but I figure they will soon want to know a bit more about their lives growing up. And, as everybody keeps telling me, they'll grow up so fast, so I guess this is my little way of perserving some of our lives and memories. I'm sure most of my entries will be a bit boring, but I'll try to add pics and tell stories to spice things up a bit. If you do find yourself reading this feel free to leave comments. Enjoy!