I have become my [insert parent here]!

Do you ever have those moments when you say "Wow, I've totally become my Dad/Mom!"?

I had another one of those today.  Due to the warmer weather (above freezing, rather than below it like the rest of the week) this weekend we ended up with some nasty, soft, slushy snow all over the place.  And that means BIG OL' PUDDLES everywhere!

In the effort to not drown when pulling in or out of our driveway I began scraping the buildup out of our gutters so the water could run to the drain which happens to be right in front of our house.  As I did so I totally remembered watching my dad do the same kind of thing at our house in Tremonton and there was my "I've become" moment of the day.

When the ice would soften Dad would dig it out so the water could drain and we wouldn't have these big ol' puddles/ruts in the driveway that the car would bounce through, not drive through (otherwise you could get stuck in the middle of the driveway, not to mention how deep they would become).  I guess it stuck with me.

It's so weird catching up to points where you remember seeing your parents fulfilling responsibilities and finding yourself at the same place now.

I'm not sure about this continual maturing thing.

Hustle and Bustle

Boy, has it felt like a busy week. We had something every night of the week which included:

• Family Home Evening (yeah!),
  
• Elders Quorum visits,
  
• There was the "cancelled in the nick of time" youth trip to Temple Square on the COLDEST night of the year! Whew! (Substitute activity in the neighborhood and at the church),
  
• A trip to the MOA at BYU with the cub scouts for pack meeting. (Very cool place. Have to go back.),
  
• The Forgotten Carols in SLC (First time for us, very fun in person),
• Braden went to his first basketball game with his buddy's family and watched the Utah Flash play,
  
• Can't forget cleaning the church on Wednesday and Saturday.
  

Hmm, it seems like there is something else....

Oh yeah! Snow removal duty at the church this month. We only had to clear it three times this week alone (and there are three more weeks to go!). Thank you for good folks with four-wheelers who saved our hides, especially this morning at 6a.m. with the heaviest snow I've seen in ages.

Um..., and then I had EQ Presidency meeting, sang in a quartet at Sacrament meeting, went to choir practice, cleaned up more snow so the street out front would drain from all the slush and played with the kids in the snow (but that part was pretty fun :) ).













The kids are now in bed and Yvonne is at tonight's Youth Choir-side as I write this.

Thank heavens for Sabbath days. I need the break from everything else.

Despite being so busy, it was a fun week and we had lots of fun together as a couple and a family.

Merry Halloween! Ermm, what?

Halloween day and I'm out putting up Christmas lights with one of our friends in lovely 60 degree weather.

"Christmas lights," you say?! Yes, Christmas lights in October. I've never done it this early before. I still feel a bit nutty doing it.

Do I really understand why? Yes, technically. It is all about warm weather and no jackets versus freezing fingers and icicles at the end of November. Did it feel a little strange? Yes. Will I be glad of it when Thanksgiving weekend rolls around and I get to stay inside to decorate for Christmas rather than freezing my keister off out on a ladder in sub-30 degree weather plus wind chill factor? Oh yeah, you better believe it!!!

That's when I'll be thanking our craziness for this nice warm weekend and work already done.

Happy Halloween!

Braden's Birthday!

Braden celebrated his 9th birthday this week. I can hardly believe it.
Congratulations!!!


This is Braden playing it cool while we sing Happy Birthday to him.


Have we mentioned Braden really likes Spiderman? This year it was Halloween themed spider web cupcakes.

Oh yeah, and they were pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The boy knows how to pick them. Mmmm! Yum!

The final harvest of 2009

Before heading to Hurricane last weekend we decided it was time to get the last of our viable vegetables out of the garden after dealing with several days of freezing weather that messed with our tomatoes pretty bad despite our attempts at covering them.

This was it, all she wrote, el fín. Our Golden and Sweet Red peppers that still hadn't reached full ripeness. :(

Project of the Year 2009, Part 2

Tuesday our rock arrived thanks to our neighbor, Matt B. He dropped off a full dump truck load of 3/4" crushed rock. When I came home that evening and saw the pile, I was concerned if it would be enough. It just didn't look like that much. The numbers told me it would be more than enough, but I wasn't sure seeing it sitting there.

Well, it was plenty! I had invited a few neighbors and friends over to help me move it that night. (They did a great job!) We carried quite a few loads out back to the shed foundation. I lost track how many it was, but it was a lot.


This is the finished foundation after preparation and a day of rain.


Next we spread the rock down the side of the house. That's when I really understood how much extra rock I had. Hehehe.

Because it is kind of narrow down the side of the house we had some overflow onto the driveway so we moved about a dozen wheelbarrow loads over to one of our neighbor's house who is also doing some external renovating. That cleared the drive way but still left me with the pile of rock kind of visible in the picture above. More of that will be going down to the aforementioned neighbor. He just needs to put up some of his fence so he is ready for the rest of the rock. We're in no hurry thankfully. I hope to help him out this week, anyhow, since he has loaned me several tools and taken some of my excavated dirt. :)

Friday I took the day off work to enjoy with the kids(UEA weekend) and to supervise the delivery and building of the shed. In typical construction fashion the crew didn't show up until after lunch, but they did a good job, put up with me and it was still done in about three hours. We even salvaged the tree limb that sits about 1-2" off the finished roof. (Going to have to keep an eye on it, but we want to keep the shade it provides.)

So, here it is in all it's primer glory:

The funny thing is it will probably be a similar shade once we paint it, just with white trim.

Now to flush out the inside with shelves and hangers and such so I can start moving stuff inside. Getting closer to use and more exciting!

Project of the Year 2009

Our project of the year is putting in a garden shed and some crushed rock. We decided to put a shed out in the back corner of our yard so we could move some of the hardware out of our garage for more important things like toys, bikes, etc. ;)

On the side of our house we have this nasty black lava rock (or crushed slag from Geneva, not really sure which) and it is the worst. It tears your shoes up, tries to roll your ankles when you walk on it and is a pain to move anything across.

Since we need good rock for the shed foundation I decided to rip out the black rock at the same time and put in some nice normal rock that we can actually walk on and pull things across.

Here are some pictures from the beginning and the middle of our work the past few weeks. We'll follow up after next week when we get the rock and shed in.


Foundation hole in back yard.


Black rock gathered up.


Relocated Rhubarb plants. The only plants kept from the corner.


Borrowed wheelbarrows that moved lots of dirt.


Black rock gone, dirt cleaned up and leveled out waiting for weed block.


The rest of the black rock gone, dirt cleaned up and leveled out waiting for weed block.


Foundation borders in place, leveled and staked down waiting for weed block and rock!

And by the way, I haven't moved so much dirt in ages and will try to remember not to do that anymore.

Uh, as soon as the rock is in place. (See previous picture of wheelbarrows which will be moving all the rock to the shed foundation next week.)

Ugh.

Ow, I hurt...

Salsa!

Not the dance, The FOOD!

I love fresh, home made salsa. I usually try to fit in a batch or two each summer. This year has been a bit frustrating as our tomatoes and peppers have been rather behind in coming on.

With a little help from our neighbors I finally gathered enough peppers to go along with my first collection of tomatoes large enough to make some salsa with today.

I used a red pepper, several banana peppers and a jalapeno pepper. Then threw in a garden fresh onion and a bunch of Roma tomatoes. Added a good squirt of lime, some salt and bit of taco seasoning until it tasted just right. (I could stand a touch more heat, but I wanted to share it and no one around here can take it.)

Mmmmm! Good stuff. My brother-in-law Chad and I couldn't stop munching for quite a while tonight.

PS: Yvonne will try her salt free portion after she makes some salt free tortilla chips. We'll see how the salt free seasonings handle it. Another new foray into the no sodium world.

Braden's first glasses

My boy is just awesome. He has such a positive attitude about life. Here he is in his 'camo' glasses. They have camouflage print on the earpieces. He is so excited about them!

Picture fun and Picasa

I was messing around with pictures and web albums and stuff tonight when I discovered how fun and simple Picasa made some basic editing.

Here are a few collages I made from some pictures of Yvonne from last year. This was way too fun. I've never done photo collages before. And Yvonne looks wonderful!


First Collage.


First with warming.


Second Collage.


Third Collage.


Third with Highlighting added.

True Colors and True Grit

Our awesome son Braden, has succumbed to the inevitability of his genes. Just before our camping trip at the end of July he went in for a consultation on his teeth and an eye exam.

A short time later he came out with braces on to straighten his teeth before his bite is messed up. And glasses were picked and ordered and on their way a few minutes later. Ugh, all in the same day. Poor guy.

Here's our trooper the first day of braces. I don't have a picture with glasses in it yet as we just got those last weekend and haven't snapped any shots of him yet.


He did well dealing with the pain of tight teeth and pokey wires. And then silly us forgot his wax while camping that weekend so a trip to town was required to find some. After scouring Spanish Fork for nearly an hour, visiting three dental offices which were all closed, Albertsons, K-mart and finally Macey's, we found the only package of dental wax in the whole town on a Friday afternoon, apparently.

So $.70 and 60 minutes later we had some relief for the poor guy to get him through the rest of the weekend. Then we had to drive back up to the campsite.

He is now a Pro at putting on the wax and is happily chowing down sandwiches, pizza and all things requiring front teeth to bite through. He is also loving his cool camouflage glasses. What a great kid!

You rock Braden!

Symantec Dutch Oven lunch

A few weeks ago we had a Dutch Oven event at work. We had a number of people making various dishes. It was a lot of fun and turned out so well that our site executives asked to make it an annual event. Heh, figures! It was a blast though, good times!

Here are a few pics from the event.


My potatoes.


My two ovens, apple cobbler in the open oven.


My team lead Tina and her chicken enchiladas.


Our only first timer. She did awesome!


Bobby, checking on the tastiest roast I've ever tried! Wow!


Geoff summing up the event, finger licking good!

Fathers and Sons - 2009

Friday night we (Me, Braden and our friend John, who we dragged out there with us.) headed off to this year's Fathers and Sons campout which was hosted by our stake. We went to a nice little local place called Willow Park just off the Jordan River. It was pretty cool to see the sea of tents as everyone settled in for the evening. I'd post pictures, but that is once again a sore spot as our camera decided it had dead batteries and even thought our second set was dead.

The worst part was trying to get out there. Traffic on Main Street was absolutely horrible. We creeped down the road for almost half an hour before we got to our turn off. Ugh! I'm glad I don't have to fight that every night after work.

Braden had a blast running around terrorizing folks with frisbees and footballs with the other kids from our ward and his school. Then we had a nice little fireside late in the evening about the Restoration (Small oops, they played the First Vision instead of the Restoration.). They put on Finding Nemo afterward at about 9:30p.m., but Braden was so tired and cold he decided to go to bed and after walking him back to the tent I figured I would just join him. So about two-thirds through the blaring movie I finally drifted off into Slumberland.

Saturday morning brought us awake with a pleasant rising of the sun, so we dragged ourselves out of the tent and over to the chow lines. Of course, Braden wanted pancakes so we waited in the longest line to get him setup. Then I stepped over and grabbed a breakfast burrito. Ahh! Good stuff.

After breakfast was all cleaned up the kids were then entertained with some relay games, kickball and some tug-o-war. Those who were still around for them were having a great time. (I'm always amazed how many folks pack right up and take off first thing in the morning.)

So between the grassy field, the creek and the big sandhill they found, the kids were running around having a blast while the fathers hung out and talked about hobbies and activities and whatnot.

All in all, another great time at Fathers and Sons! First campout of the year!!

P.S.: The girls (Yvonne, Brynley and our friend Stacy) had a fun girls night also. See Yvonne's blog when she posts info on that.

What have you done to my car?

Just kidding!

This is when I was doing my brakes a couple of weeks ago at my brother-in-law's shop down in St. George. I've been dealing with squealing brakes for the last couple of years and it's been driving me nuts, but I can't stand to waste an investment.

This time I put on high quality pads and replaced my front rotors. Yes, no more noise!

New rotors. Aahhh!

I like knowing people with expensive tools! It makes the job so much easier.

Thanks Cheyne!!

Happy Birthday Brynley!

Brynley had her fourth birthday a week ago. Here's a few pictures of the princess girl.

Here she is dressing the part.

Brynley in the new dress Grandma Hakey gave her. What a princess!

Yvonne made this awesome "princess castle" cake for her.

Spring and Swings

Back at the first of April when we thought Spring might have sprung, the kids were enjoying a nice day out on the swings in the backyard.

I remember being small enough to do this. Those were good days!

What in the world?

I have no idea what my kids are doing here while watching TV, but it looks funny.

Learning experience

It is hard to humble yourself when being taught a lesson by/through your kids. I had one of those experiences this week.

I came home from work one day this week and Braden looked like he had been upset about something. I later found out from Yvonne that she had been talking with him about the way he was playing the PS3 with his friend that afternoon. He had been rather forceful and loud in trying to tell him what to do and where to go and how to play. As she tried to council him on being nice to his friends if he wants to keep them, he broke down and declared, "But its not my fault, its Dad's. That's how he teaches me." And then they heard the garage door open and he shutdown the conversation before I came in the house.

Ow. Big knife in the heart. Ow, again.
So I had to suck it up and talk to him the next morning and ask what Dad could do to be better. He recommended being calmer and using a nicer tone.

So, we've both been working on that this week and you know, it has really made a difference for us. Sigh..., that whole "out of the mouth of babes" thing just kills me sometimes.

Kids say...

"Jinger bells, jinger bells, jinger all the way..., Old McDonald had a farm, and BINGO was his name-o!"

-A medley by Brynley.
Yesterday, while I was getting ready for the day, Brynley was hanging out with me and she started singing as only a three year old can. This was my serenade of the morning. It was too funny!

Kids say...

"Lookin' good!"

That's what people say when you put on your sunglasses.

-The world according to Brynley.

Daylight Savings Time

I was going to include something about "the good, the bad and the ugly", but then I realized I had nothing good to say about DST. The only way I would possibly enjoy DST is if we were on it all year long. I think I could work with that.

Like most folks, I suspect, the transition to DST is a horrible time for me. Despite my best efforts to get to bed on time (per the clock, not my body) I still take at least two weeks (often more) to get close to acclimatizing.

This year added a new facet to this. It is called an almost four year old child. I have never seen someone get so cranky! I cannot wait until she is used to the change. It gives a whole new meaning to "bang your head", as I find myself trying to avoid putting holes in our recently painted walls by doing exactly that. (Which, of course, I'm doing to avoid physical violence against my dear sweet princess girl who can be so blasted cute.)

If I can find my graphical instructions for this particular stress relief technique, I'll post them later.
Update: Here's a copy. Stress Relief Kit.

But for now, I think I feel another headache coming on...

Groundhog Day

We were driving down the road this weekend and our conversation led to Monday being Groundhog Day. I haven't really given it much thought for years, (other than the occasional chuckle over the movie) but this was all new to Braden and his usually curious self asked us what in the world is Groundhog Day.

That was a fun little discussion into human idiosyncrasies and what it means and why we "believe" in it.

So, in honor of the furry groundhog, I present this post.

And BTW, he did see his shadow this morning. Six more weeks of Winter are on their way. (Not that we weren't expecting them around here anyway...)

http://www.groundhog.org/

Go Phil!

Brusha, brusha, brusha

Aaaarrrghhh...

I had to visit the dentist this morning. I don't think I could tell you the last time I went to the dentist, but it has been yeeaaarrs. Good thing I have really good teeth.

Still no cavities! Woot!!!

Plaque is not my friend today. The dental assistant scraped and scraped... and then scraped some more. My mouth is aching. I haven't felt like this since I had braces.

Maybe if I go every six months like I'm supposed to it won't hurt as much....

New look!

I have finished my background and adjusted my template colors. Now I'll let things settle and see how I like it. You can see the full background here.

I decided I wanted to style it after the PS3 game Little Big Planet (for those who have no idea what it is). It is one of the funnest games I have ever played and the whole family can play it.
www.littlebigplanet.com

Winds of change

I started redesigning my blog this week.  This is my intermediate design.  I'm still working on my own background and then I'll work out the details to match it.