New Blog Direction...
Since I wont be posting much specifics about the family anymore, I thought it would be good to return to posting on other activities. I will include movie reviews, game reviews, activities, etc. I'll start later today with a review of a movie and maybe some XBOX360 games. Hopefully I will be able to maintain it for a while and make it worth the read...
What's New?
I have avoided the blog line at the request of the boss. No more mention of the family, just my interests and ideas.
Last week I passed a memorable milestone (40), and ended having one of the best weekends ever, culminating in a visit to
Amazing Jakes. One of the other cool things I received was an
XBOX 360, and I will shortly get a
Garmin 76CSx gps. Besides spending a lot of family fun time. I certainly have no room to complain.
I plan to use this forum to keep tabs on some of my hobbies and activities. I will start by trying to add my GamerCard from XBOX LIVE to the blog site. Either way, I plan to include some reviews of games, activities and the like. Look for more soon.
Books on CD
Oops, I have let the time slip by again. Time for an update.
Life continues to cruise by, but I have been able to change a dreary part of my day into something to look forward to. I am listening to books on CD during my commute. So far it has been great. I listened to the last two books of the Harry Potter series, and now can't wait for the last one to come out. Currently I am listening to 'The Da Vinci Code' and enjoying the suspense. (Not so sure about all the stretches Dan Brown takes, but interesting none the less). It sure makes the drive a lot more bearable.
I spent a week in Las Vegas at a training class on Microsoft SharePoint software and enjoyed the time. I was able to get a video transfer project done in the evenings, along with a visit with Dwight Harris, the one guy I went to Grade 1-12 with. I'm hoping his family will come visit us for the Mesa Temple Easter pageant.
Because I was gone from work for a week, I had a few things back up at work, and then the past few days, including Saturday, I have put in extra time, but working on phone problems. Hence I am even further behind. Makes for some good job security! This evening we got the issues resolved, so I am happy and can start moving forward on other items. :-)
The kids are all doing well with school and activities. It is hard to keep up and work out all the different commitments, but at least we can't get ourselves in trouble. Mostly we just have a good time together and the kids get along.
Saturday night JoLynn and I enjoyed a very good adult session of Stake Conference, then Sunday we enjoyed the Arizona-wide regional conference at the Stake Centers from Salt Lake. President Monson, Elder Bednar, and Elder Didier spoke. All were very good. President Monson said the best Stakes for attendance have always been in Arizona and Southern Alberta. It must be our family influence! (just kidding).
I watched the Superbowl with Thomas. It was fun to spend some time together, and I wont bother commenting on the game, since it doesn't really matter. Good for the Steelers! Now we look forward to Spring Football where we can start to think the Cougars will be unbeatable [only if we outscore them...]
Another update??
Yes, it is true. I am doing more than one update this week!
I'll admit I was much more into it last year, especially last Fall. That could have something to do with the amount of extra time I had available at work... Now I am trying to get more organized, so I can take five minutes during my lunch break to give a quick update.
At work I have been trying to crank out several PC's in conjunction with a site move. It has allowed me to reload about 10 PC's from scratch in the past week. I enjoy it, but it is a bit time consuming (I do the full reload instead of doing copies; I'm a bit anal that way...) I now have the routine down and can easily do 2 at a time on the workbench. I also got my office all cleaned up and put away, so it actually looks like I have nothing to do (not sure how wise that is). Part of that stems from the need to have a clean appearance, since I have a window that goes to the front entrance. When I first moved in, they had the window covered (probably because I just had to drop all my 'stuff' in to the office. Last week they had the agency logo put onto the window, so I took down my cover. It is nice to be able to see out, of course others can see in. It is a good motivator to keep everything tidy.
Last night for Scouts, we met with all the young men/young women, and played a couple of games of capture the flag. It turned out pretty well. We play in the park near the Church. It has a large running path around the outside and we use part of the field inside. Anyway, at the start of the second game, I had this great idea to run around the track and come in from the back to get the flag. I took off and headed out. It took a few minutes to get around to the back. It was set up perfectly for me to come in, grab the flag and take off right in front of the 'guards'. They were all looking the other way. Just as I was ready to make my break, one of the boys (who had played on my side the previous game), noticed me on the track and put a quick end to my wonderful plans!! Next time I'm going to solicit some help to create a diversion. I had to wait out the game in jail. It was bogus.
The last few weeks I have been working on pulling some video from the camcorder. I'm trying to get it all pulled off to the computer so I can then make some DVDs. It has been fun to see the video. It has also inspired me to do more recording. It is always interesting to see the fun things the kids do, a year or two down the road.
Try it again...
This is my second try at a post in the new year. For some reason, every time I write a long post, it always gets deleted before it can post. Anyway....
Christmas and New Year were really good, other than a little stomach flu (everyone took a turn, but Reece only seemed to have the effects for about an hour). We spent a lot of time doing things as a family and had a very fun time. The weather was ideal and we had a nice break from work and school.
With the start of the new year, we are continuing some good habits, and trying to start a few more. I have begun an exercise program and can already feel some of the positive effects after just a couple of weeks. Maybe now I can lose the last five pounds to reach my goal. We are also continuing our scripture study. Having finished the Book of Mormon on December 31st, we are now reading the Pearl of Great Price, then we will read some highlights from the Old Testament. It has been great to read with the kids and teach them the great stories from the scriptures.
One of my favorite things at Christmas is to get the many cards and letters from all of our family and friends. We have our fridge covered in pictures. It is great to see how everyone is doing. Since we can't see everyone very often, this is certainly the next best thing.
Now I'm trying to get all the yard and outside house projects lined up so I can complete them in the next few weeks while the temperatures are still really nice. JoLynn added painting the trim on the house, so I'm really excited about that!! :-(
Christmas Prep
We started early this year and it has paid off in our Christmas prep. We pretty much had everything done with a week to go before Christmas. About the only item left to finish is the annual Christmas letter. JoLynn should be working on that today, and then we will be all set! Our ward does an annual Christmas in Bethlehem, so JoLynn made up some costumes this year. We used that to take a picture of the kids to send out with the Christmas letter. Reece wasn't too excited until I told him he was dressing up like a Jedi! That did the trick, until he needed his 'star wars' (what he calls the light saber). We did get a good shot without it, but a lot more with. This picture should give you an idea of what we were up against. Have I mentioned how much Reece talks about Star Wars? Not really sure where it all comes from, but he is a real fan. I think he will have a good Christmas!
Tonight is the BYU Bowl game against Cal. I really hope we can play well and have a good showing. Our past bowl record is pretty lousy, but I don't have a lot of hope with the young coaching staff. I am encouraged that they have made some positive changes, and I think we are clearly headed in the right direction. I'm planning to watch with Harry, while JoLynn take her Mom out for dinner to celebrate her birthday. It's kind of a win-win evening for the guys and gals.
Christmas is coming!
OK, no excuses for the drought of posts. Life is always busy, I just haven't taken the time to post. So here is a little update.
I'm really enjoying the cooler weather, while being glad it isn't cold! I like to wear a coat and need a blanket to sleep. But no one likes being cold. Our weather has been just right for enjoying change in seasons.
Of course, this is the best time of any year! I have felt especially sentimental this Christmas season. Perhaps it is the regular reading we have done in the Book of Mormon. It does hurt that we just recently finished the savior's visit to the people in America. That is such a great part of the scripture.
I have been concerned about my Dad's health. He hasn't been very good since getting really sick in July. We thought he was on the mend, but last weeks visit to the doctor seems to indicate otherwise. He is still having problems with his kidneys, but it doesn't seem like he is getting much quality care. All they want to do is run tests. Anyway, I was trying to think of something I could do to help cheer him up this Christmas. The best idea I could come up with was to give him a DVD of things we have videod. We have quite a bit and I have never taken the time to get it put to disc. I started yesterday. The first thing I thought I would do is last Christmas at Steve Young's "cabin" in Park City. It was fun to watch it. The kids heard me watching it and had a great time reliving the memories. Hopefully I will be able to get it to turn out like I envision. Either way, I'm sure they will still enjoy it. I just need to get it done and in the mail.
I am looking forward to Christmas with the kids. We aren't doing too much, but it should still be fun spending time together. We have a good time doing games and activities, as long as we can keep the snipping between siblings down. I also have a couple of movies I want to watch with the kids.
Speaking of movies, we went to see "Chronicles of Narnia" on Saturday. Excellent movie with some outstanding special effects. I really enjoyed it. It sure is nice to see some quality shows make it to the theatre. I hope this trend will continue for religiously based stories to be featured. And I have always thought C.S. Lewis's other famous story "The Screwtape Letters" would make a good movie as well.
