Happy New Years Eve

Deni and Kati went to SLC today. They left in the morning . They toured Temple Square and the Conference center.

While they were gone, I cleaned the house and watched the kids. Ryan wanted to go play with a friend, but before we got done with the chores, a neighboor called and said his son wanted to play with Ryan. I said that was great as Ryan was wanting to play with someone. The neighboor said, Ok, well I'll send my son right over then."

Hmm that wasn't what I had planned on. I didn't want to babysit someone elses child. I had just gotten Sydney down for her nap and was hoping Ryan would go play at someone elses house while Sydney slept. I now know how to answer that question from now on. Don't assume anything and make sure I'm the first to say, sure I'll send Ryan over right away.

I survived, but would have been a much better day if I didn't have to go down and stop the problems like the neighboor kid writing on the walls or hitting Ryan in the face. Oh well.

Deni got home around dinnertime. We didn't really do anything for New Year's.

We sat in our nice warm home and watched the evening news of people outside in the cold rainy weather here in Utah and decided we had made the right decision to be lame and stay home.

We did play a few card games with Kati and her friend, Chad.

Perfect day - fishing and playin in the snow

Woke up at 4:45am this morning and got ready for the day. I got a few things together then woke Ryan up at 5:00am. We headed to Dad's house and got there just after 5:30am. I loaded all my stuff in his truck and we were off to Strawberry Reservoir to fish. We drove up Provo Canyon, which is under construction. They are building a new bridge up there which looks like it is going to bypass the dam. We got to Strawberry (Mud Creek) about 7am. The roads were extremely icy. Just before we made our turn off to Mud Creek we stopped to put the truck in 4 wheel Drive. I didn't have my shoes on yet, so my dad said he would do it. He opened the door, took a step out, then I didn't see him anymore. I leaned over to see him laying face down in the ice. He slowly got up and locked the hubs in so we could make it down the snow packed road to the parking lot. There were a few other cars there when we got there, but not too many.

Now that Dad has his little trailer that he made for ice fishing, we can get on the road pretty quickly. We pulled the snowmobiles off, got the trailer attached and we were off. Our ice fishing place is only 3-4 minutes by snowmobile.

We drilled a few holes and within about 15 minutes we had our first fish. Although it was not my pole, I was the closest to the pole when it fish hit the lure and the pole jumped. I picked up the pole, set the hook and began reeling it in. It was the biggest fish of the day. Around 20-21 inches. It was a nice fish.



We continued to have success for most of the morning. I ended up catching 4 total fish, one of which I let Ryan reel in. Dad also caught 3 fish. So our total was 7 fish for the day, but we had to let them all go. At Strawberry Reservoir, Cutthroat trout, which is all you catch at Strawberry, must be thrown back if they are between 15 to 22 inches. For some reason, even though we were catching fish, Ryan didn't want to be out fishing. To his defense, it was very cold. It snowed off and on very lightly today and with the wind, it was hard to keep everything warm. I had a great morning of fishing and enjoyed pulling in the big fish we caught.

On the way home it began snowing. By the time I got to my house in Spanish Fork, there was about an inch of snow on the ground. Deni's sister Kati and friend were at the house (they came up for New Year's). Shortly after I got home, Deni and Kati left to go shopping. Since it was snowing, I decided it would be fun to go to the park to let the kids play with their new slides that they got for Christmas. On the way to the park, I realized that the snow was perfect for making a snowman, so we stopped and made this snowman in our front lawn.



After making the snow man, we went to the park. I don't think Sydney has even made a snowman or ridden a slide. Sydney would come up to the top of the little incline at the park, sit down on her slide and I would push her down. She would giggle the whole way down till she stopped. Then stand up, carry her sled back up to me and do it again.

At the park, I also made a huge snowman. So big in fact that I had to get Deni and Kati's friend to help me lift the middle section and the head.

I sure had a fun time with the kids in the snow.

I'd rather be fishing....

I worked today till about 1:30pm then decided it was time to come home. (Since it was very slow - however I did get to read some of the Da Vinci code today) I stopped at Dad's for a bit, hoping the Eye Dr in Springville would call me back, so I didn't have to make a trip back out.

While I was at Dad's we decided that we would go fishing tomorrow up at Strawberry. Dad has been ice fishing almost everyday this week and has yet to catch any fish.

Since we were leaving so early in the morning (5:30am) I thought about going and spending the night at my parents, but decided against it and will set my alarm about 15 minutes earlier so I can get over there.

I started working on my taxes. The first day that you can submit your taxes e-file is Jan 13, 2006. It hink I might switch and use taxcut this year.

It finally happened.. our lives will never be the same

This morning Deni and Ryan had a dentist appointment so I met them at the Dentist office and brought Sydney to work with me while they were getting their teeth cleaned. At Novell, it is shutdown week, which means that 95% of the company is not here, mainly a skeleton support crew, which I'm apart of this year. So bringing Sydney into the office for an hour wasn't a big deal. We took a walk to get Sydney a drink. We got her some hot chocolate (choco). We sat in the breezeway for about 15 minutes while she drank her choco. Sydney is a funny little girl. She would hear people going up and down the stairs. She said "Oh - Mommy!" I would say, "No mommy is at the dentist" Her next response was "Oh - Santa!" Ha.

Sadly enough, at the ripe old age of 29 months, tonight Sydney finally figured out she could get out of her crib. When we were putting the kids down for bed, Deni put Sydney in her crib then went upstairs to get something. When Deni came down, to her surprise, Sydney was no where to be found. Deni came and asked me if I had gotten Sydney out of her crib and when I said no, we both realized our lives have changed forever. We no longer have a way to contain Sydney at night.

After we got the kids down for bed, Deni and I went on a date. Ok we just watched a movie in the basement, but we told Ryan we were going on a date. It was fun to watch a movie together without the kids and laugh.

Favorite pictures 2005

While getting a few pictures together for our Christmas letter, I decided that these were my current favorite pictures. Of course, I used all 4 of them in my Christmas letter. Makes sense- right?

Thanks for the money...

Techincally today and tomorrow are paid holidays for me, but I decided that I would work them to make some extra money. I went into work about 8am and stayed till about 1:30pm at which time I went home for lunch. Since my job is to answer the phone when it rings, I can have all my work transfered to my cell phone, which I did for the remainder of the day. I didn't get a single call all day, but did get caught up on a few personal things while I was waiting.

We dropped the kids off at my parents about 3pm and when shopping trying to find good after Christmas deals. Deni got a few things at Old Navy. I went to Gart's Sports and finally bought the jacket I have been wanting for some time. The North Face Denali fleece jacket. I got the black on black jacket. It is the inner liner that can be zipped into most of North Face Jackets. I bought it with my Christmas money. Unfortunalty, the Denali was the ONLY North Face Jacket that wasn't 25% off. I have never seen that jacket on sale.

It is a very nice jacket.

the other side of the camera

Well Santa did find us.

Ryan woke up about 7:45 and we had to wake Sydney about 8am.

I tried to be like my dad and make the kids run from my bedroom to the front room, while I captured it on film. Growing up, we always had to wait for dad to wake up and get his contacts in. It seemed like an eternity most of the time. Then dad would go downstairs and get his camera. Since he could see what "Santa" brought us, he would tease us and say "oh - I'm not sure Santa has been here yet" or "You must have been naughty this year because Santa didn't leave you anything" Once dad was set with his camera equipment and we were all standing at the top of the stairs, he would say, "Alright come on down" and we would run down the stairs towards the front room.



It's a lot different being on the other side of the camera. It's also fun to see my kids running to see what Santa brought them. I'm sure my Dad enjoyed this as well when we were growing up, which is why he teased us every Christmas and captured it each year on film.

Ryan got legos and a batman. Along with a leappad to help him increase his writing of letters and numbers.

Sydney got everything princess this year. She got a Cinderella dress, shoes, wand, etc. Along with a newborn Cabbage Patch Doll and a full size Cabbage Patch Doll. She is a cute little girl. I'm a little concerned she is 2 going on 16.



Deni surprised me with a Better Than Ezra DVD I have wanted for some time, along with a BTE CD. Deni and I agreed that we would surprise each other with a gift, but we would mainly have money to spend after Christmas. Deni did a good job, but I bombed as usual on Deni's surprise gift. At least she has some cash to make it better. I told Deni that she is good at this surprise stuff, so next year she can buy me a surprise and her a surprise so I don't mess it up.

We had church at 1pm. When we pulled up at 12:45, there were 3 cars in the WHOLE parking lot. It concerned me that no one was coming to church. But went in and helped get the sacrament ready. People came in slowly and there was about 75% attendance from normal. We basically sang songs the whole hour, which was nice. It was like a song fast and testimony meeting, people would walk up and explain what song we were going to sing and why they liked it. A good way to spend church on Christmas day.

Rudolf the red nosed......

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents this year. Everyone was there except for Shane. We had lunch and spent time as a family. When we were leaving, Ryan was so excited about Christmas he found my headlight and decided to be Rudolf. Ryan has quite an imagination, as you can see.



As I put Ryan to bed tonight, he said "Santa is going to be here in 10 seconds". I said "well you better get in bed then." Ryan then said "Dad, I"m going to dream about sugar plums dancing in my head."

It looks like Santa will find us tonight. Matter of fact, I think he has already come and is done putting out all the presents.

Here is the note Ryan left Santa. Thought it was cute.

Ice fishing Scofield

We all slept at my parents house last night so we could wake up early and go ice fishing. My mom agreed to watch Sydney, so Deni, Ryan and I went ice fishing. We left around 6am and headed towards Scofield, which is about an hour away from Spanish Fork up Highway 6. As we were driving up highway 6 we hit quite a bit of black ice not even 5 minutes later we saw a small truck that had slid off the road. Others had stopped to help them, so we continued on. We missed the turn off to Scofield. Actually the truck would not stop, so we slid past it. Made a U turn and we were on our way. When we got to the Scofield Dam, a punk kid had lost control of his car and ran into the barrier by the dam. We stopped and pulled him off, as his car was stuck on the barrier. He had quite the fowl mouth. We offered our cell phone for him to call someone. I told him he would have to dial 801, as it was long distance. I had forgotten that down here the area code was 435. So he dialed a few times and couldn't get through. He mention 435 being the area code, then he asked me if he had to dial 801 then 435. I thought that was odd, but told him to then dial 435 then the phone number. Afterwards dad told me he smelt alcohol on his breathe, which make more sense now. He finally got through to his Grandmother. The first thing he said was "Grandma, I didn't wreck the car, ok well I did wreck the car but it isn't that bad" I've never heard so many 4 letter words in a single sentence (and he was talking to his Grandma).

After about 30-45 minutes helping him, we finally got on the road to fish. We got to the place and headed out on the ice. Dad had purchased a new power ice auger, which makes a huge difference. We went about 50 yards off bank and drilled a few holes. Within a few minutes, Deni had caught the first fish. It was a little 6 inch trout. We stayed there for a few more minutes and since nothing was biting, Dad and I ran off with the ice auger and his fish finder to find a better place. We all moved over towards the island in Scofield lake, but still had no luck there.




Deni had to go to the bathroom, so she took the snowmobile. Before she left, I made sure she could start it on her own, which she did. She was gone for about 30 minutes, so Ryan and I took the other snowmobile and went looking for her. We drove over to the truck, but didn't see her, so came back. Another 30 minutes went by, still no Deni. Just when I was going to go look for her, I looked back towards the truck and saw her about 50 feet away, she couldn't get the snowmobile started and decided to walk. We clocked it when we went back, to see how far she had walked. It was a mile, which in snowboots and walking on ice with 2 inches of snow on top, isn't easy and probably felt like 5 miles.

Since the fish weren't biting, I decided to play in the ice. I fist pushed the snow away from the hole we had drilled and notice the ice was very clear and it looked like a black hole. I laid down and put my face in the ice hole and noticed the water was very clear as well and I could actually see the bottom of the lake. We were about 12 feet of water.

Since the ice was so clear, I decided to put my hand in the water and touch the bottom of the ice. The ice was about 8 inches thick and the water was a chilly 42 degrees. For the time it took me to get a picture of my hand in the water, my hand and arm were numb.



At about 1pm we decided to call it a day and head back. Despite not catching any fish, it was fun to be out on the ice with Deni and Ryan and try. I tried to get Ryan to tell everyone that I caught the only fish and everyone else got skunked, but he wanted to be honest and tell everyone that Deni was the only one to catch a fish.

By authority invested in me

Tonight I attended my nephew, Devin Ellis', Eagle Court of Honor and got to participate. Here is what I got to say. The bold stuff is what I liked to say.

Being duly authorized by the Boy Scouts of America, I challenge you to accept the following charge. Raise your right hand to the square and make the scout sign. Repeat the charge after me:

As an Eagle Scout I pledge throughout my life to follow the Scout Oath, the Scout law, to constantly look for ways to serve others and to honor my Priesthood covenants.

I reaffirm my allegiance to the God-given Constitution that has made America great.

On my honor I will do my best to assist other Scouts who are climbing the trail to Eagle, and to make my training, my example, my rank, and my influence count strongly in my family, my troop and team, my quorum, my community, and my country. To this I pledge my sacred honor.

”Two”

Scout Devin Ellis, by authority invested in me by the Utah National Parks Council, Boy Scouts of America, I pronounce you an Eagle Scout, with all the honor, privilege, and responsibility you have accepted, that goes with this prestigious recognition.

Devin, Please be seated in the Eagle’s Nest"

My eyes are dark

This morning I was laying in bed and Sydney came running into the room saying "hide, hide" meaning she wanted to hide under the covers with me. So she jumped up in bed and we pulled the covers over our heads. She immediately said, "Oh my eyes are dark" I thought it was funny so I mentioned it to Deni. Deni says she started saying that a few days ago when things got dark.

On a side note, one of the neighbor girls was trying to make some money to buy Christmas gifts and put a flyer on our door that she was going to do babysitting on Saturday from 11 to 1, feed the kids and have crafts for them to do. All for $1.50 a child. Usually a babysitter charges $1.50 an hr per kid. It was a deal. So even though we are really done with our shopping for the kids, we took the kids over and had a couple of hours alone. We ended up going looking for some useful stocking stuffers. After about 2.5 hrs we finally got some flashlight/headlamps for the kids (and Deni, since she didn't have one).

After dinner, we drove out to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork. Basically they turn the Spanish Fork Golf course into a money making display of lights. At $5 a car, they are doing quite well. While we were driving through, I counted at least 100 cars and we were only there for about 20 minutes. I figured they can get about 200 cars a hour. It is open for 4 hrs, so that is about $4,000 a night. Not bad for a few lights at a gold course that can't be used during the winter.

Once a year...

Deni asked me to help out at the Nursery while she was at Enrichment tonight. The lady that asked if I could help out said that you are only asked to do it once a year and if they call you before it has been a year, tell them to call someone else (so others get their fair share.)

So I went. Armed with a few christmas movies. There were 18 kids and no treats, For 2+ hrs. Luckily I had one other man there to help out but it was a learning experience.

I now know why they only ask you once a year. If it was any sooner, you would probably remember and tell them NO.

I am thankful for my kids. For the most part, they are very well behaved kids. They were angels compared 90% of the kids I was watching.

I love minimum wage workers

I got home tonight and Deni mentioned she wanted to go shopping for some clothes for the kids. Mervyns had a 50% off sale and we had four $10 cards from black friday, which could be used for every $20 spent. (spend $20 and get $10 off)

We got to Mervyns, picked out 2 pair of Levi's for Ryan. Our total was $30.00. Since our cards were "spend $20 bucks get $10 off", it made sence to get to at least get to $40.00, so that we could use two of our $10 cards to get $20 bucks off. We got some more things and ended up close to $60 bucks, so we could now use 3 of our $10 cards and get $30. Deni checked out and the total came to $65.00. I said, oh, we should spend $15 dollars more, so we can get an additional $10.00. The lady had already charged Deni's card, so she said, well I could return it all and do it again. I said, ok well I'll go get another $15 worth of clothes, so we could get $10 off. Then the lady said, you don't have to do that. I'll just return it and then use all four of your $10 off cards. Both Deni and I scratched our heads and mentioned it didn't sound right, however she continued to take another $10 off without us buying anything more. So our $65 bill went down to $23 dollars.

You have to love minimum wage workers.

Happy Thanksgiving (take 2)

We celebrated (for the second time this month) Thanksgiving. We had Deni's parents, Donna and Keith, along with Jessica/Nick, Ben, and Deni's cousin, Terri, with her husband and eight kids. With Ryan, Sydney, Deni and I, that makes 20 people at our house. It was a crazy day.

Thanksgiving is an interesting day. You spend hours and hours cooking for a 20 minute feast. I'm sure it is the tradition and all, but it seems like it would be so much easier if you ordered a pizza and call it good. I'm not saying I don't enjoy eating all the food that comes with Thanksgiving, because I do enjoy it, matter of fact, Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Lemon Meringue pie. Maybe next year we will order Pizza and make Lemon Meringue pie.

Ben cooked 2 Lemon Meringue pies. I probably at a whole pie by myself.

Thanksgiving Break

I volenteered to work over the Thanksgiving Holidays (Thursday and Friday). Nothing exciting at work, matter of fact, I had time to catch up on things I had wanted/needed to do. It was quiet.

Deni's siblings (Jessica, Ben and Kati) came up on Wed night (didn't get here till Thursday around 8am or so. Nick, Jessica's fiance, also came up. It was good to have them all here at the house and get to spend time with them.

Two for Tuesday

I went to work this morning and mentioned to Deni that there are 2 new movies that came out today that I would like to see. I talked to Deni around 1pm, she said she didn't feel good, matter of fact, she had been in bed for most of the day and wanted me to come home early to cook dinner.

I headed home about 3:45pm, stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. I thought it would be nice to stop and pick up the 2 movies (one of the kids and one for Deni and I to watch) that I mentioned to Deni this morning when I left. So I stopped, picked up the 2 movies and came home. Well when I got home, Deni had already gone out and gotten the exact 2 movies I brought home. Two for Tuesday, I guess.

Our Christmas tree

We put up our Christmas tree tonight. The kids seemed to have fun watching it get put up. We put our lights on, but haven't put any ordaments yet. This might be the earliest I have ever put it up. But it is up and it looks good.

Men Are From Mars

I was reading through some other blogs this last week and came across this. Thought it was funny but true.

Thanks to the infamous John Gray, author of “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” men are chastised for wanting to “fix” everything. “Relax!!!” we are told, “You don’t have to be responsible for fixing everything that needs fixing.” Mostly women just need someone that will listen to them and, if they tell you something, it doesn’t mean that the woman wants it “fixed.”

So if my wife says something to me, how am I to interpret whether she wants me to be a listener or a fixer? For example, if Deni says to me, “I had problems with the dishwasher today,” does she want me to empathize with the difficulties that she had or is this a request for me to get my tool belt? I’m so confused.

Since I listen to other peoples technical problems all day long and am paid to fix them, it is hard to switch hats when I get home. I'm always in "fix it" mode, which isn't bad, because it means I'm in listening mode by default. However, wouldn't it be easier if women told us when they wanted us to listen or when they wanted to fix things, life would be so much easier.

Happy Thanksgiving

Since my brother Shane is here for the weekend, we decided to have Thanksgiving Dinner two weeks early. It was nice to have the family all together again, but it sure it loud and busy.

Finally Done

I started this project this fall. As you can see from the before picture below, we had two wind-blown trees and a kidney shaped flowerbed in the middle of our front lawn. Because of watering issues in this area and I needed something to keep me busy, I decided to remove the trees and the dirt and put grass in.

Before:



I was amazed how much dirt was in this flowerbed. I took alot of it to the back to fill in around my garden spots, but also took a very full truckload out to my sister Teresa for her new flowerbeds/garden spots.

Almost Done:


With many wheelbarrows of dirt removal, it was finally flat and ready for grass. I had borrowed a grass cutter a few weeks back. I didn't roll up the grass as I didn't want it to die, but didn't expect it would take me this long to get the dirt removed and ready for grass. The grass I had previously cut started growing roots again, so I had to use a flat shovel to cut the roots again (a big pain) but I finally got it done.

Finally Done:


On to my other projects.

Almost done

I took off work today (and tomorrow) Shane, my brother, flew in today for a few days visit. We haven't seen him yet, as he is spending some time with some friends in SLC, but we will see him tomorrow. I spent all day working in the yard. I have a few misc projects I wanted to finish up before it got cold. Usually, it is cold and snowing at this time of year, but today it was in the 60's. Great day to be outside.

I got the front yard prepped to put grass down, where we had taken the trees and flower bed out. I should be able to get the grass down tomorrow in an hour so so. I also moved a tree from the back yard to the front. I also finally finished the garden grow boxes, with dad's help and moved 2.5 yards of dirt into them. I can feel it in my back.

Deni stayed quite busy today while I was working in the yard. She decided to paint the upstairs bathroom.

Voting day

After I got home from work, I took Ryan with me and went to vote. While I drove over to vote, I explained to Ryan why I was going to vote and how it happens. When we got there, there wasn't a line, so I took time to show Ryan the ballot and explained to him how I needed to fill it out. After voting, I showed him the ballot (where I had put my marks)then gave him the ballot and let him put it in the box for me. The lady taking the ballots was giving out a "I voted" sticker, which I gave to Ryan. He was pretty excited about it.

The election in Spanish Fork for Mayor will be really close. I hope that the canidate I voted for wins, as we really need a change.

Another Monday

I'm glad Spanish Fork has their own cable channel. Most of the stuff is low budget, but the city council meetings, etc are pretty informative.

The city rebroadcast the "Meet the Canidates" last night because the election is tomorrow. We recorded it and watched it together (Deni and I). It was good to know a little bit more about the canidates, so I could make an informed decision.

We let Ryan stay up while we were watching Meet the Canidates. He went in and played in the playroom. It got very quiet, so I went in to check on Ryan and he was in the playroom playing with Sydney's Barbies. When I walked in, he immediately hid the barbies. It was funny. I told him he could play with them if he wanted to.

Layoffs are over

I hate layoffs. I've known about them for the last 3 weeks, thinking it was going to happen the next day and when it didn't, well I thought it was the next.

My team is safe. However there were many let go today. Over 600 people lost their jobs from Novell today. It makes me sick to my stomach.

I have my job for another year. This is my 5th layoff in 5 years at Novell. Here's to next year.

If a picture is worth a thousand words.....

You would never be able to tell from looking at this picture, but Sydney is actually having fun trick-or-treating. Today is Halloween. Deni brought the kids up to Novell for some indooor trick-or-treating. Usually Halloween is bitterly cold, raining, or even snowing, but not this year. It was in the 50's and a nice day. Within about 30 minutes of walking around offices at Novell, the kids were set with candy to last them the rest of the year. (We filled Sydney's backpack.) After Novell trick-or-treating we stopped by Springville to see my parents and to show them the kids Halloween costumes. Ryan was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Sydney was a little Devil (thanks to Deni's mom -Donna - she can make anything.)

When we got home, the kids and Deni went around the neighborhood while I cooked dinner. We got interrupted about 10 times during dinner with trick-or-treaters. After dinner, we put the bowl of candy on the porch, turned off the inside lights, locked the door and went downstairs to watch a movie as a family.

The Project Part 2

I took the day off today to get a little further with the lawn than I did on Saturday.

I accomplished quite a bit today. First, I got the grass transplanted from the back of the yard to the front. Dad showed up around 11:30am to help me out. We moved most of the dead grass from the parking strip and went back to his house to put it on his empty lot. It worked out great, except, it is a long drive each time to drop it off.

On the way back home, we stopped Kevin's house. Kevin just sold his house this month. Last Saturday I helped him move a some things to his apartment. He has a cool wooden swing set that Ryan loved to play on when we were over at his house. I asked Kevin what he was doing with it. He said they were leaving it there. I then asked him if it was in their contract, and if it wasn't, then I would like to have it. They looked and it was not. So he said if we took it away, we could have it. So we stopped by his house, it broke down easily into 3 pieces we put on dad's snowmobile trailer. Took it home and put it up in the back yard. Dad and I got it put together without the kids knowing. When Ryan came home, I asked him to look in the backyard. He was really excited and squealed even. Both kids played in the backyard for a while.

Dad and I finished up some sprinklers in the frontyard, then called it a day.

After Dad left, Sydney and I went in the backyard and I pushed her on the swing. She would say "higher, higher" It was fun to push her on the swing. Then she would go to the top of the slide, turn around backwards and slide down on her belly. When her belly touched the slide, she would say, "Slide warm..." then slide down. She did this at least 4 of 5 times in a row. It was funny.

Dad left his trailer here, so after dinner, I went out with Deni and we got quite a bit of the remaining dead grass on to it. We still have alot of work ahead of us. Getting 3 trees out of the ground and lot of dirt moved around.

After finishing up in the yard (because it got dark and the kids were really tired) we came in, cleaned up then had Family Home Evening. We read a book of mine that I got when I was 8 and was baptized. The book was on Baptism. After doing that we played soccer in the dark downstairs. Ryan recently got a glow in the dark soccer ball and he wanted to play for FHE. We played for a few minutes then put the kids to bed.

I'm going to be very sore tomorrow.

The Project

I always do projects but never seem to capture before pictures. Well I did the same on this project but decided at least to start halfway through. This is my current project. As I explained yesterday, I'm moving a few things around in the yard, as well as trying to fix a few trouble spots at the same time.

This first picture is where Grubs got the lawn. So we dug it all up and will be replacing it with some sod from the backyard. (That will happen on Monday)



This is really next years project but since I had a machine that cut sod, I figured I would get a head start on it. I'm removing all the grass from the park strip. All the way down to the end of the white fence. Next year I will replace it with rocks (about the size of my fist.) A neighboor has it about 3 houses down and it looks really nice.





I'm creating a new flowerbed in the front of the house. I'm removing the existing one with 2 trees. I have it roughed out right now. I will end up having a tree in the middle of it, as well as some native plants to Utah.



The flower bed and 2 trees I'm removing. My sister, Teresa, is going to take the trees. Now I have to figure out how to get them out of the ground in one piece. And where to put all that dirt.



A closer picture of the new flowerbed, at the edge of the lawn, and the old one with the trees.




Finally, when we bought the house, there has always been a low spot in the frontlawn where the sewer line comes from our house to the street. We pulled the grass back, filled it with some extra dirt and have placed the grass back on top.




I didn't get done what I thought I would today, so I'm going to take work off on Monday and finish up as much as I can. Dad called to tell me he would come over and Monday and help me. He has already helped me quite a bit with getting it cut.

What was I thinking.....

Started on a project today. It is five fold. My brother-in-law brought by a grass cutter by for us to borrow today. The machine has a big blade on the bottom and just shakes you to death. Here's what I'm doing in the yard

First, we have some parts of our lawn that are dead because of grubs eating the roots. So we used the grass cutter to get the dead grass up.

Second, we have a huge park strip on the side of our house, which I don't care to water, espically when our water bill for just the lawn is over $50 bucks. So we are taking the grass out and putting rocks on the side. This won't happen till next spring, but I have the grass cut up now, and need to get rid of it before next sping.

Third, I'm moving the kidney shaped flowerbed with 2 trees to the very front of my lawn. The front of our lawn didn't get watered very well, mainly becaue of the angle of the lawn and the shape of the area. I took out the grass in this area and I'm moving the flowerbed from the middle of our lawn, to the front corner. There is alot of dirt to move, I'm not sure where it is going to go quite yet.

Fourth, We took a out the back west section of grass. I'll use most of this grass to fill in the blanks where the existing flower bed is and where we had to take the dead grass out because of grubs. We are taking this grass out, so we can put a trampoline in the back yard.

Fifth, There has been a low section of grass in the front of our house where the sewer line runs out to the street. I cut four strips out of the lawn, then I'm going to fill it with dirt and compact it, then put the grass back.

I going to have to take a day off work to get this done before the grass dies. But will work on it tomorrow for most of the day, then probably take off Monday and work on it.

I'm going to be a little sore tomorrow.

Cool quote I found today

George S. Patton Jr., "If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking.

Kindly do the needful

Over the last few years Novell has built up quite a group of developers over in India. With as many developers over there, during my daily duties, I am starting to work with them more and more (get emails, have them in meetings, etc.) Anyway, today I was going through a bug, reading the comments. I came across a note that said "Kindly do the needful" It made me laugh. I'm not quite sure what language that is, but it is now my new quote. When I want someone to do something, I will just say "Kindly do the needful."

Work has been extremely busy. Stayed busy all day. I got to work at 7am this morning, its a miracle. I tried something new last night. I set the alarm on my cell phone then set it far enough away from the bed so that I had to get out of bed to turn it off. Once I was out, I actually got dressed and went to work, and actually got to work on time.

When I got home, Sydney was still down for her nap, Ryan and Deni were playing on the computer. Deni is addicted to Super Tux. She started playing the game on Ryans comptuer (which I installed Suse Linux 9.3) SuperTux is a Super Mario Bros-like game, but you are a penguin. She beat all 26+ levels, only to find out that the game hasn't been finished. At the end, it told her to wait for the next release to finish the game, or something like that. I think it is funny. For Ryan, I found some cheats for the game. He loves it, he can have as many guys as he wants, which allows him to play and play and play.

Deni bought Robots DVD today. I watched it with the kids. It is a funny movie. In the movie, one of the robots makes Farting noises with his hand under his armpit. Ryan thought it was funny but couldn't do it. So I did what any good father would do, I helped him till he come make a farting noise with his hand under his armpit. Now he's cool. (grin)

My mom and Sourceforge

I was telling a co-worker about how my mom is now looking out on Sourceforge.net for applications. The more I thought about it, I thought it was funny.

A while back, my mom needed to take documents and PDF them. I told her about a free program that could do just that that was out on a site called http://sourceforge.net/ I downloaded it from Sourceforge and installed it for her. My mom also does alot with digital pictures, so I told her of another application that resized the pictures for you. Again I went to Sourceforge and downloaded and installed the application.

A few months went by and my mom had downloaded a song from Wal-Mart and unfortunately it was in Windows Media Format. Before she talked to me, she went out on Sourceforge and searched for a utility to convert it to an MP3.

Pictures, Pictures

I have finally decided that my digital pictures are getting out of hand. I used to have a good procedure in place, but my laptop has been acting up (vpn isn't working) so I can't sync my pictures up to my server at work (through iFolder)

So things have gotten a little bit messy. I brought home about 6 to 7 DVD's of "backups" at different times over the last year or two. Now comes the fun job. I'm actually comparing file for file, on each DVD with what I have stored on my hard drive. Fun, isn't it. Well so far I've gotten through 2 DVD's tonight. Guess I'm going to have to pace myself. However once I get things cleaned up, it will be alot nicer. I'm going to burn a DVD at the end of the year, each year. Make a few copies, one I will give to my parents to put it in their safe, I will keep one in my filing cabinet, then store a 3rd copy somewhere else (friend, or maybe at my work).

With my new camera I'm going to fill more than a DVD per year. At 30 cents a DVD, no biggie.

In other news, we went to Shop-ko tonight and spent $75 dollars on picture frames. Can't go wrong with 60% off frames. With all these great pictures we have taken, we aren't showing them off in our house. We will need alot more picture frames than we bought, but it is a start. Now I need to find my favorite pictures. I bought 3 frames for my office. One is a 16 X 20 frame with 4 - 4X6 matted pictures. The 2nd is a 8 X 16 frame with 3- 4X4 and the last one is a 8 X 10 frame with a 4X6 picture. All three of these have shadow mattes. I will have to take a picture of them once I get photos in them. Since they are black frames with white mattes, I think I may go black and white photos. 4X6's are really cheap to print at Sam's. Only 15 cents a print.

Tonight Ryan put Sydney to bed. We seem to always fight who gets to put who to bed. Tonight Sydney said no to me and Deni, so we asked if she wanted Ryan to put her to bed. She said yes. Deni put her in her crib, then Ryan came in and sang two songs to her. It was really cute. Even better, she went to sleep. Not sure it it was just a fluke or not, but was fun to watch and listen from the door, while Ryan sang church songs to her. Ryan's a good kid.

Current Favorite Things

Deni - she's amazing, need I say more.
Ryan - giggling and playing with his sister.
Sydney - putting Sydney down at night for bed and laying on the floor singing songs to her, while she holds on to my finger

Favorite Band: Better than Ezra (BTE)
Favorite Song: Trees by Marty Casey (Rock Star INXS)

Favorite TV shows (in order of preference):
-Lost
-Survivor
-Alias

Currently reading:
- Square Foot Gardening
- Leadership/Rudolph Giuliani

Warm corn bags

Daddy's home

Worked all day on a training for work that I have to give tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll be ready, but it is to my team, so no biggie.

I didn't see Deni online today, like I usually do. I called her around 5pm and she told me she had not been feeling well all day. She stayed in bed most of the day. When I got home, she was just finishing up some homemade chicken soup. I yelled "daddy's home", like I usually do when I come in the door, however Sydney was in timeout for going to the park by herself and for hitting Deni when she brought her home, so I had to wait for 4 minutes to see Syd. She was so sad, calling my name - "daddy". But you do the crime, you pay the time.

After dinner, I took the kids out to rent a movie. We went to McDonalds, where they have a service called Redbox. You rent a DVD by swiping your credit card. They charge a dollar a night +tax. Not bad for a new release. After renting "Robots" cartoon, we went to Macey's to get an ice cream. Then home to watch Robots.

Ryan and Sydney promised me that if I let them stay up to watch the movie, they would go to bed right after. Both kids went to bed, just as they said they would.

I sew

Last year Deni made a bunch of corn bags. You heat them in the microwave then put them at the foot of your bed, or on your feet while you are watching TV. Now that it is getting cold again, it is time to get them back out. We only had 2, as we had given all of the others away, so Deni got her sewing stuff out to work on it this morning.

First I serged 3 sides of 2 pieces of faberic together, next I sewed some on the bag, added corn, then serged the top close. Throw it in the microwave for 2 minute and your feet are toasty. It was fun to learn the (VERY) basics of serging and sewing.

We also kinda potty trained Sydney all morning. We put her "Dora Panties" on. She was cut running arond in them. We set the alarm and took her to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so. That worked for almost 3 hours, then she had an accident. We aren't pushing her to be potty trained, but thought we would try and see how she reacts to it.

After Sydney's nap, we went into Spanish Fork, to the Library, where they had a city party. We ate dinner there, chili and scones, then went to play games with the kids, but the lines were so long and they had way more people than expected, so they had run out of candy and prizes for the kids. It was kinda raining anyways, so we decided to go home.

Watched the BYU game on TV. BYU barely one. I let Ryan stay up to watch it, but I think he just wanted to stay up, he didn't seem too interested in the game.

My kids

Daddy's Little Angel and Dad's big helper


We got the kids pictures taken recently. They came out really cute. The kids are growing up. They have little personalities, however I think I may have tainted them a little bit with their musical tastes. Both Sydney and Ryan love the song "Juicy" by Better Than Ezra" I need to get it on video of them both dancing and singing to the song. It is pretty funny.

Work has been busy as ever. And is only going to get worse the next few weeks. We not only have layoffs, but we also have a new product shipping, which always means I'm busy filing bugs and duplicating customer issues.

Tonight Deni left at 4pm to go to an Enrichment thing. It's been a while since I've had the 2 kids alone for such a long time. I cooked (don't worry, it was only Spagetti) then the kids played in the backyard while I worked on the flowerbed in the front. I'm moving the "kidney" shaped flowerbed, getting rid of the 2 trees in the flowerbed and hopefully making my yard better looking for next spring. Deni's still gone, she came home about 10:15pm, then wanted to go back out for a Zuka juice with a friend.

Sat GC

Today was General Conference. We watched it at home. After the second session completed, we all headed out to Wal-mart to do some shopping. Being the first of the month, both cars gas lights were on, so we looked up on gasbuddy.com to see the cheapest gas around. It was actually in Springville, so we drove and filled the car and truck up. Both were over $42 each, so I spent about $90 ($2.72 a gallon) bucks to fill up just for gas. Ouch. We then went to walmart. I took the kids over to the toy/garden/animal area while Deni got the things on her list.

I ran into an friend, Chris Snow, from our last ward and talked to him for a few minutes. Then dashed to find Deni and get home before the Priesthood conference started at 6pm. Well, I was a few minutes late. However, I took Ryan with me. He seemed to enjoy it for about 30-45 minutes, then wanted to come home. We stayed but left during the closing song.

Most likely to throw my golf clubs

Worked half a day today, then our team went to the Golf Course in Payson to play 9 holes of golf. This was the first time I had ever played Golf. On the first hole, I swung and missed the ball 2 times before hitting it on my third.

We were in teams of 3 and played some scramble game. Basically, each of you hit the ball, then you take the best ball, then each of you hit again, and continue this till you get the ball in the hole. It was something new and fun, but I'm NOT putting Golf clubs on my Christmas list, if that tells you anything.

I probably had more fun driving the cart around, but it was nice to get out of work. I've decided that I'm better at putting, probably because I've played put-put golf.

After playing 9 holes, they gave out awards. I got the "Most likely to throw my golf clubs" award. I got a little cooler, a 1/2 pound of Hersheys Chocolate and an old golf club that I could throw around all day long. It was fun.

On a sad note, a little baby at CHLA with SCIDS died today. It makes us thankful for Ryan. It also makes us wonder why Ryan came through with flying color and doesn't have any side effects. I know we have been blessed, but what is in Ryan's future that is so important that he is here and healthy. Guess time will tell.

Trip to SLC

Tonight I drove to SLC to the Young Mens Leadership meeting. I'm the secratary in the YM's in our ward. I've heard really good things about these meetings, but haven't ever been able to go.

The meeting was really good. I always feel guilty when I don't want to go, but end up really enjoying the meeting. I took 4 pages of notes, so hope to make some changes for the better.

I missed Alias and Survivor tonight and didn't record them. Thanks to Bit torrent, I'll have them tomorrow morning.

Deni's Birthday

Deni is 28 today.

Tonight we went out for Deni's birthday. I had asked my mom to watch the kids while we ran out to eat, but Deni wanted to take the kids. So we got the kids ready, told them we were going out to eat and got in the car. They weren't excited about going to Red Lobster, so we took them to Carl's Jr and called my mom. She was on her way back from Teresa's, so she just stopped in Spanish Fork and watched the kids.

Red Lobster had all you can eat shrimp. We both ordered that. I ordered the only good shrimp (fried shrimp). At 40 of them.

Don't be late

It's always nice to get an email appointment from you boss about an impromptu meeting in 15 minutes that says, "Don't be late".

In that meeting, I found out that my team and another team are merging together. Good news is I keep the same boss, and I have some expertice that others don't that will now be on my team. Bad news is, it means that I will be more busy than I have. I guess I will have to reserve my judgement to see how things shake out.

Tonight the family went on a bike ride. I'm amazed at how well Ryan can ride his bike after a month. We were riding and I look over and he is riding with one hand. Then he stands up and peddles. At times, he peddles so fast, I have a hard time catching him. He loves "dirt biking". We go to the undeveloped roads next to our house and we ride around. He thinks it is pretty cool. It is fun to see him growing and learning so fast.

Talking in Church

Got/had/ to talk in Church today on faith. There was a youth speaker, and then Deni. At 1:30pm, 30 minutes into a 70 minute meeting, Deni says: "....and finally...." I froze, but she went on for another 7 minutes or so. Then we had the Primary sing a VERY SHORT SONG. I got done about 2pm, closed and sat down. Amazingly enough, we got out 10 minutes early.

I was pretty funny (at least, I thought I was) When I started my talk, I said something like this.

I have to apologize for my wife, although she had an excellent talk, she must not be feeling well, as I know she can talk longer than she did today.

The thing I hate most about speaking in church, everyone feels like they have to come up afterwards and tell you how much they "enjoyed" your talk. Here's my theory. Everyone "enjoyed" it so much, because they were sitting in the congregation, not having to speak.

a date, a date

Today we watched the BYU football game on TV. It was such a close game, but BYU lost. They were so far ahead at one point, it was too bad.

Deni had the kids pictures taken this last week, I'm excited to see how they come out.

Deni's favorite Grandma (did I just say that), Grandma Bowers, showed up in Utah on Friday morning. She just stayed with us for 1 night, but it was fun to have her here.

Deni and I went on a date tonight. This last week was pretty stressful for me at work, as I carried the after hours cell phone. It's always nice to get woken up at midnight for no reason. I hate sleeping with a cell phone, but it helps with a little extra money here and there, so I continue to do it.

Anyway, we got a babysitter for 3 hours (cost $12 bucks) for both kids. We just went and walked around, talked and spent time together. Much needed. It had been a while since we had been out without the kids.

Busy Busy

When I logged into IM this morning, within 3 minutes, I had 2 different people requesting help from me. And the day didn't slow down. Deni called me to tell me we have a flat tire on the Camry. She had never changed a tire by herself, but somehow got through it. I'm glad she knows how to change her own tire now.

Got my haircut today on the way home from work. It is always nice to have a short, freshly cut haircut.

Deni "got me a job" mowing the neighbors lawn. I think it is a one time thing, but I have been thinking about starting a little lawn business after work to make a little extra money. Guess we will see how it goes.

etrade doesn't suck quite so bad

Well, I got my call from etrade. It was the Supervisor that told me "no one in the company would take the fee's off my account." He called to tell me that the fees were taken off and I should call back to get my account moved over to my Corporate account to keep from having any more fees.

Wow. So I went from getting $40 off my fees, to $80, to $260 bucks, or all of them taken off my account. Interesting. It took me about 2 hrs total at work to get this cleaned up, but 2 hrs for getting $260 bucks back is a deal.

Tonight I went with the Young Men to play Frisbee Golf. I hadn't done that in some time. It was alot of fun. I do have to say that this Young Men's group is way different than the one I am used to working with. Maybe that is why I'm there, so I can help with direction and organization.

etrade sucks

Back in 2000, I had some Phillips Stock worth just over $1,000 and decided that it was better invested in Novell. So I sold the Phillips Stock and bought 110 shares of Novell through an etrade account I opened. Well I bought the Novell stock at just over $9.00 a share. Not soon after that, Novell stock plummeted down into the the 2 dollar range. No biggie. I'll just sit on it. Well I have been doing that. I hadn't forgotten about my stock, just knew it was worthless, so I never checked my account. Well I guess in the fine print of opening the etrade account, it said, the first year is free, then since you can't read the fine print, we will charge you at least $25 a quarter. Apparently, etrade wasn't sucking my money fast enough, so recently changed the fee from $25 to $40 a quarter. I had just under $300 dollars in "fees" for them doing absolutely nothing. When I saw this, I was shocked and immediately called, only to be told the info above. Well I didn't stop there. The guy I was working with was really nice, but couldn't take the fees off my account. The kicker came when the guy I was talking to told me that there were alot of ways I could get the fees taken off. One of which was work for a company that used etrade for corporate stuff. It just so happens Novell is one of these companies. However the supervisor said there is "no one in the company that would take all the fees off my account, maybe $80 but not $260." I told him I wanted to talk to whomever could clear this up for me and I wasn't taking no for an answer. He promised me a call back within 24 hrs.

I can't belive it. Right now my 110 shares of Novell stock are worth about $800, then with about $300 in fees, that means I only have about $500 dollars. Some investment. I would have been better off to put the money under my matress.

I'm not too happy with etrade right now.

Fishing and football

Woke up at 5:45am this morning to get ready to go fishing. I got all the fishing things, along with the canoe, in the truck and was ready to go by 7:00am. Dad showed up at the house a little after 7am and we went to Spanish Oaks Reservior. When dad and I pulled into the parking lot, we were the only car up there. One man pulled in right after us, but we had the whole reservior to ourselves. The wind was blowing, as it always does in Spanish Fork, but it was fun to get out on the canoe with dad and fish. We fished till about 8:30 when Deni and the kids showed up. Our ward had fishing party at the same place from 8 till noon. I caught 2 fish while I was up there, not my best, but it was fun to fish. Some dad was up there from our ward with 2 kids. It was pretty obvious that all 3 of them hadn't fished much. The dad even told his kids he would give them $50 if they caught a fish. He later raised it to $100, knowing there was not way that they would catch a fish. All the while I was getting hits but I couldn't hook any of them. Finally I got one on the my line and I called one of the kids over to reel it in. He didn't seem to be that excited that he was reeling in a fish.

After fishing, we came home, got cleaned up, ate lunch, then headed to the BYU Football game. Dad gave us 2 tickets and I got another ticket from my friend Kevin. Sydney went to Dad's house while Ryan, Deni and I went to the football game. BYU won and scored alot, so it was alot of fun to watch.

A cold front moved in today, so by evening, it was chilly outside. I noticed the trees up on the mountains are starting to change. Fall isn't too far away.

Tailgait party

After work, Deni and the kids met me at Macey's in Spanish Fork for a BYU Tailgate party. They had games for the kids, etc. Ryan and Deni won T-shirts by throwing a football through a hoop. I tried 3 times, but missed each time.

Deni won a bubble blowing contest. I did a rootbeer drinking contest, where you had to drink a whole 12 oz can of Rootbeer. A little kid beat me by a second, but I got a price anyway.

The kids jumped one of those blow-up jumpy things. Kids didn't want to leave because they were having so much fun.

Layoffs

Well it was true about layoffs. A few layoffs happened in Support today. So far my job is safe. I feel fairly safe, but you never know.

Rumors Rumors

Well it has been a few days.

Went and got my teeth cleaned today. I'm not sure why they call it a teeth cleaning, they should call it a mouth scraping. I always seem to walk out of the dentist with a return appointment, usually to replace a filling, but not this time.

While I was getting my "cleaning" I got 2 phone calls to my cell. Both from the same person at Novell wanting to know if my job was safe, as he had heard about layoffs in my department. I made a few calls to some co-workers and they hadn't heard anything, so at this point, it is just a rumor. As always, there will be the yearly layoffs. Novell wouldn't be Novell, without layoffs. I've been through 4, or 5 or 6, I can't remember. Quite a few. I'm not that concerned for my job. I work hard, contribute as much as I can and that is about all I can do. But in my mind, my job is secure.

Tonight I trimmed my bushes. I never had bushes to trim, so it was fun. Yard is starting to green up in a few dead places. I think I'm finally getting the sprinklers where they need to be.

Ryan has been "practicing" riding his bike. We let him ride in the street now, as well as around the "block" as he calls it. He loves to ride that dang bike. I've never seen a kid so excited about his bike. Took some video of the kids tonight riding their bikes. Ryan has been practicing riding his bike, so that he can ride his bike to school (with Deni riding next to him, of course.)

Please pass the salt....

We had corn for lunch today. After lunch, we left some of the corn on the table. Some time later, Sydney figured she was still hungry and that she would get some corn.

If you can't tell by these 2 pictures. The white stuff is salt. She actually took a huge bite out of the corn after getting all the salt she wanted on it. Deni and I came into the kitchen about that time she was gagging and trying to throw-up.


We went out to see our new niece, Kennedy Simkins this morning. You forget how small they are, till you hold them. I'm used to packing a 30 lb little girl around, not a small 7lb baby. She was cute and had her eyes open while we were there. Stefanie and family, as well as Mom and Dad, were there when we got to the Payson Hospital. I'm not sure she looks like the others, but who knows.



You can see all the pictures I took of her by clicking here.

As you can see, both Mom and baby are doing fine.


Finally, to top the night off, we went fishing. I had 4 fish on my line but only got 2 to of them to the shore. One of these, I even had Sydney reel it in. So today was Sydney's first fish.


I'm not sure what happened here. All I asked was for both kids to look at me so I could take a picture. My kids......

Welcome Kennedy

Funny Ryan Story

Deni was in the kitchen with Ryan making jello jigglers and he blew a bubble with gum. Deni told him he was getting too big and that she wanted him to stay little. He said - "Why?" Deni said, "Well, because I don't want you to grow up and leave me." Ryan said, "Well - You know Azure? She stayed at home for a really long time when she was big I'm going to do the same thing. I'll stay home when I'm big and be your baby boy."

Dad called us around 9pm to tell us that Teresa was heading to the hospital to have her baby.

Teresa called around 11pm to tell us that she has had her baby. Perfect Baby girl 21 inches, 7 lbs 5 oz. Her name will be Kennedy. We are going to go see her tomorrow.

Happy September!

The work week is almost over. One more day, or maybe I will take half a day off. Guess we will see how things go tomorrow.

Today after work, I went with Deni to Sam's to do some grocery shopping. The Camry was out of gas, so we decided it was time to fill the gas tank. Since gas prices have been going up and up, with no end in sight, we decided that now is just as good of time as any. I have never seen a line of cars waiting to get gas. At Sam's, there are 8 pumps (and 4 lines). Each line had at least 2 cars filling up and about 3 to 4 waiting in line. We paid $2.67, which is better than most places, but it cost $40 to fill the Camry. Ouch.

Tonight we went on a family bike ride. The sub-division next to us has the streets poured but no houses in yet, so it makes it a perferct place to ride bikes, espically since Ryan is still learning to ride. Ryan crashed a few times, but he is getting the hang of things, like brakes and steering.

So far so good with Ryan's school. I'm not quite sure what he does in a day, but he appears to have fun. Hopefully he is learning things too.

Crazy gas prices

Heard on the radio this morning that because of the Hurricane Katrina, that gas prices were supposed to jump from between 10 to 20 cents today. On the way in to work, I looked at Maverick across from Novell, it was already $2.51. I went to Sam's and it was only $2.38. Of course, I stopped and filled up the tank in my Tacoma.

I called Deni to let her know about the gas prices. Later that day, I went by Sam's and it had gone up to $2.61 - 43 cents!!!! Amazing.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was a deadly and devastating tropical cyclone that was the cause of catastrophic damage in the southeastern United States and will likely become the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States with major global economic consequences caused by the severe disruption of oil supplies, exports, and imports.

Disaster relief plans are in operation in the affected communities. Some experts predict one million people could become homeless as a result of the storm. Currently five million people are without power in the Gulf Coast region, and it may be two months before all power is restored.

The aftermath of the storm compounded problems. In particular, the breaching of some the levees protecting New Orleans caused water to flow unabated into the city. There was also widespread looting, many people stranded due to flooding, and an ever present threat of contagious disease in affected areas.

Katrina may be the deadliest hurricane in the United States of America since the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed around 8,000 (possibly up to 12,000) people. The death toll of Katrina so far is "in the thousands", stated by the New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin on August 31, but it will take weeks before accurate numbers are known. Katrina is also expected to be the costliest natural disaster in United States history, exceeding the 1992 Hurricane Andrew.

"My shoe fits"

At the dinner table tonight, Deni looked at Sydney and told her to "Tell dad - "My shoe fits"

Sydney looked at me and said "Daddy, my shoe shits"

We laughed and laughed and laughed. Sydney likes to pronounce her "F's" like "sh's"

Naughty Deni.

Family Gathering at Mom and Dad's

Went fishing as a family today up at Spanish Oaks Reservoir. We went in the middle of the day, so we didn't catch anything. However it was a fun time. Sydney fell in the water. I was only 3 feet away from her, and she had her life jacket on, so I wasn't that concerned. But the water was so cold, it scared her, as it took her breathe away. Both kids liked to play in the freezing cold water. Ryan held on to the outside of canoe, while I paddled over to the sandy beach from one of the sides.

We came home and put Sydney to bed for a nap. I worked on the garage a little bit. We can get both cars in the garage now, however, there is still work to do, as it is a very tight fit.

Stefanie and family came to see the house around 5:00pm. It was the first time that they had seen the house. We gave them the grand tour, then headed to Mom and Dad's for a BBQ with the whole family.

Our whole family was there, except Shane. Uncle Ken and two of his girls, Kara and Shannon were also there. It was fun to have almost the whole family together to visit. As always it gets crazy when all of us are there. With Teresa's 5, Stefanie's 4 and our 2, it makes for a crazy, noisy night. However the time flew by. It was 10pm before I knew it.

Boring Friday

Not much happened today. At work, I finished up reinstalling my laptop but work was slow.

When I got home, we work on getting the computer room cleaned up. It is at least workable now. Still lots to do, but is usable.

We took Ryan and Sydney to the park for a bit tonight. With the park so close, it is hard to say no to the kids. Ryan loves the monkey bars and is getting better and better each time.

It was Deni's turn to help put Linda to bed. Linda lives in our old neighborhood and is paralyzed from the neck down.

Tonight was our ward campout. However I'm on call this week, so we decided to not go as I wouldn't be able to get cell coverage, while up Spanish Fork Canyon.

Two words.... Two Wheeler

Today was a frustrating day at work. I didn't really accomplish anything other than invalidating what I had done the last 2 days, as I had to start all over. Very frustrating.

Deni met me for lunch and we went to Sam's and walked around.

We ate the fish we caught yeseterday and the day before. Fresh trout. Hmmm. After dinner, dad came over to watch the kids for a second while Deni and I ran to the parents night at Ryan's school. We were a few minutes late, and it only lasted 12 minutes. Wasn't that informative, but oh well. I hope Ryan has a good year and enjoys his class.

Two words.... Two Wheeler. Ryan learned to ride his bike tonight.
We went to the park by our house. There is a basketball court, where I taught him to ride. When I first let go, he road in a circle, almost twice. Then we had to run back to the house to tell Deni (Ryan couldn't wait for Deni to show up.) Then we went back as a family. Other than starting by himself, he can ride pretty darn good. He favors turning to his left for some reason, but we can work on turning later. He rode home from the park, the street way. I ran behind him. Stopped him once from going straight into a parked truck. Ryan told Sydney, "Sydney, when you get big like me, I need to ride a 2 wheeler, like me."

Click here to see all pics taken of Ryan learning to ride his bike.

Deni caught fish too....

Deni went fishing with Ryan and caught 2 fish tonight. I stayed home with Sydney as she had a high fever. Hopefully Sydney will get better and the whole family can go fishing.

Fishing and mowing

There are 2 things that I enjoy immensely. Fishing (and catching fish) and mowing my own lawn. Weird eh? Tonight I got to do them both.

I told Ryan I would take him fishing last night, but couldn't because the back of the truck was full of things. So I told him it I would take him today. We took the canoe and went up to Spanish Oak Reservoir. Within about 15 minutes of getting on the water, I had hooked the first fish. I made sure it was on the hook good and then handed my pole to Ryan to let him reel it in. It was a smaller fish, about 10-11 inches, but we kept it. Before I left, I told Deni were were coming home with 4 fish, so I wasn't about to come home with nothing.

A few minutes later I had caught the second fish that was a little bit bigger and fatter. About that time, it started getting darker and darker with rain clouds. I was getting a little worried about lightening sitting out on the Reservoir by ourselves, so I decided it was time to get off the water. Ryan played on the sandy beach, while I cast a few times. It started sprinkling so we packed up and came home. There is a fish cleaning place at the reservoir, so we cleaned the fish and came home.

The bishop came over to meet us tonight. I was downstair, according to Deni, "singing at the top of my lungs" while she let them in, so they heard me. Embarrassing.

Finally, I mowed the lawn. There is something about seeing the angled stipes in a freshly mowed lawn. This is the first time I have mowed my new lawn. We have a big yard. Wow. I mowed till dark. After mowing the lawn, Deni and I watched the reality tv show - Rock Star INXS

Meet Miss Matthews

I spent the majority of the day today, backing up my work laptop to DVD and then fdisking. I had it dual booted with Windows XP and Novell Linux Desktop 9 (NLD9). I decided it was finally time to ditch Micrsoft and single boot with NLD9. I'm still in the process of getting everything configured, but am making progress. Since I still support products on Windows, I will probably create a Windows XP VMware image.

I left work around 2:15pm today to go with Deni, Sydney and Ryan to meet Ryan's first grade teacher. Her name is Miss Matthews. She really didn't talk to us much, but she showed Ryan around the room and where his name was, where he would put his backpack,etc. I guess the meet the parents night is later on. It looks like there are 20 kids in Ryan's Kindergarten class. I figured there would be more kids, so it is good that there are only 20. However twenty 5 yr olds can be very overwhelming, I'm sure. As we walked through the school, the teachers had their pictures on the doors. Most of them looked like High Schoolers, but I guess they are at least 21, to have a 4 yr degree. Kinda odd that the teachers are quite a bit younger than Deni and I.

After meeting Ryan's teacher, Ryan and I went to drop off some boxes at a friends, to my parents to pick up a few things, then to the dump to take some large trash. We werer going to go fishing, till I remember the back of the truck was loaded with trash. After going to the dump, Ryan and I drove up to Spanish Oaks reservoir. That is a nice place. We are planning on going swimming and fishing up there tomorrow. It is only 10 minutes from the house.

Tonight for FHE, we talked to Ryan about our fire alarms. I pushed the button on one, so he knew what they sounded like. Apparently, all our fire alarms are connected, as when I set one off, the rest of them went off too. It was good. We showed him how to feel the door to see if it was hot, and if it was, to go to his window, open it, climb out and then start yelling for help. Obviously we hope we never have to have a fire, but thought it would be smart to walk through what we would do if it happened.

Finally tonight, I downloaded DVD Shrink, which is a free utility that allows you to back up your own DVD's. I'm going to back up all my DVD's, and keep the orginals out of the kids hands. That way if they get scratched or cracked, then we will burn another one. It takes about an hour a DVD, so I will do it slowly, since we have lots of DVD's.

Found my book...

Before we moved, I had bought a book called "Leadership" by Rudolph W. Giuliani and started reading it. Well it got lost in the move in April. But I'm glad to say that I just found it. Since it has been so long, I decided to start at the beginning again. It is a good book. In the Preface, there is a pretty cool quote. Giuliani is talking about the principles he uses.

Surround yourself with great people. Have beliefs and communicate them. See things for yourself. Set an example. Stand up to bullies. Deal with first things first. Loyality is the vital virtue. Prepare relentlessly. Underpromise and overdeliever. Don't assume a damn thing.

The book covers the events of 911. Having lived in NYC and been on top of the World Trade Center towers in 1995, the book is very interesting to me.

Ryan's Birthday Party

We were a little late planning Ryan's birthday party, so we decided to postpone his party till today. Ryan was so excited writing his name on the invatations that were sent out last week. He invited 2 old friends and 2 new friends (from our new neighborhood). Only one of his old friends could come, which was Nick. Nick spent the night as his family is also in the process of moving and they were at our house last night for games.

This year, Ryan wanted a "The Incredibles" birthday party. Deni went to town making that dream come true. Deni sewed them capes as well as bought them "identity masks". The kids really seemed to love it. Deni even made gift bags for all the kids that came. Ryan has been so excited about the gift bags that Deni made to give to his attendees. He even made me promise not to tell any of his friends what was in them. Since they have been given out, I think it is ok to say now. The had candy, a slinky, a ball, and a toy bug. This picture is of Austin, Ryan, Braden and Nick.



Deni made an Incredibles birthday cake too. Not a bad looking cake if you ask me. Can't wait to see what they look like when Ryan is 14, we might have to start a bakery.

Over all, Ryan had a great birthday party. The kids had fun and I think Deni did too.

Click here, to see the rest of Ryan's Birthday Pics.

Ever feel like this?

Today was a hard day to be at work. At noon, I wanted to leave and go fishing. But ended up staying at work till 3:30pm. Tonight we had some friends from our old neighborhood come over. We played games while the kids played in the playroom. It was fun.

"Smell my armpit"

Read an interesting article about Start on your first $1 million at age 16 - Well worth the read at MSN Money web site , espically those that have kids.

So our new house was wired for Surround Sound. Guess the guy didn't want to take his speakers, so he left the 5 speakers and a subwoofer. Problem is, I need a receiver. So I borrowed one from a co-worker. It is fun to make the floor shake. Up till today, I had just listened to some old music of mine with the new surround sound speakers. However today I decided to watch Star Wars IV with the kids, since Deni was gone to Enrichment this evening. Kids seemed to like it. I had to call Chewbaca a monkey to keep Sydney in the room a few times.

While we were watching Star Wars. Ryan looks at me and says "Smell my armpit", so without hesitation, I smelled his armpit. I said, "Hmmm, smells good." Ryan said, "I put on Deodorant." Must have found mine today and put it on.

Joys of having kids

This is a conversation I had with Deni today during work:

Deni says:
It's my lucky day - I can get a $1500 gift card for K Mart
Brett says:
sweet
Deni says:
All I have to do is give all of my information, plus a small fee and it's mine
Brett says:
do it, awesome, do they want a 2 yr old too....
Deni says:
Ahh, if they would've wanted her a little earlier before her nap - she would have been THEIRS!
Brett says:
ha
Deni says:
I lost her today. Couldn't find her anywhere. Finally decided to look in the cold storage and what do ya know, she was there - biting open unfrozen popsicles. Ahh, the juices were all over the carpet and everything
Deni says:
She has also learned that she can get eggs out of the refrigerator and one small - OOPS and they crack all over the floor
Deni says:
oh, and what else, she managed to take all of the spools of thread off of my serger and tangle them, then put them back on their holders
Deni says:
I need a tether and chain
Deni says:
I will be grey before my time with Sydney
Brett says:
the joys of having kids... right?

Tonight we went to the Park. Ryan met a little girl there and she asked where his dad was. Ryan's reply was - "He's right there and he's 50." I immediately corrected him and told him I was 21.

Severe Weather in Spanish Fork

Tonight about 6:30PM a terrible rain/hail/wind storm hit Spanish Fork. The hail was almost dime size. The streets immediately filled, even though it only rained/hailed for about 15 minutes. It was gone as fast as it came.

First day back at work after 7 days off

Learned a new word/phrase today. Mea culpa

The expression "mea culpa" has acquired a more direct meaning, in which, by doing or performing a "mea culpa", someone admits to have made a mistake by one's own fault (meaning that it could have been avoided if that person had been more diligent). It may be used even in trivial situations: if a football player, for instance, admits that his team lost a match because he missed a penalty kick, this may be called a "mea culpa", meaning that he admited his mistake, which he could have avoided (at least in theory), and that resulted in a subsequent evil.

Work was work. Had about 130 emails to catch up on for being gone for the last 7 business days, with moving and going on the Uinta trip, it has been a while since I have seen my office.

I returned Ryan's birthday gift (the fishing pole) as the tip was broken. Wal-wart returned it and I got a different pole. It was a little bigger than I had wanted but I wanted to have it so we could go fishing this week.

Ryan and I did the dishes tonight after dinner. It was the first time that he stood by me and helped me wash dishes. Maybe it is because he is tall enough now.

I brought another load of things from Mom and Dad's house to our house. We almost have all our stuff xfered to our house. I got Ryan's sandbox turtle, his digger toy, his computer and other misc stuff.

I guess we are having friends from our old ward over on Friday evening for games.

We found out who will be Ryan's Kindergarten teacher will be. He will have morning Kindergarten too. He offically starts on Aug 31st, but has testing before that.

Happy 5th Birthday Ryan

It is amazing that I have a 5 yr old. Lots of things have happened in Ryan's five years, lots more than most have in a lifetime. Ryan is a very special child to me. He has overcome much more than a 5 yr old should have to. Here are a few thoughts about Ryan.

I can remember when Ryan was born wondering if I would be a good father and if I could provide everything that he needed. I remember changing his diaper and being so scared that I would hurt him. They are so tiny when they come out. Luckily, he has a great mom and she filled in where I fell short.

Ryan appeared to be a cranky baby, however being new parents, we didn't know any different. Knowing what we know now, he was trying to tell us something. At 3 months of age, Ryan developed very large sores in his mouth and throat. Deni took him to the Dr, the Dr gave some medicine and when the medicine didn't work, Deni took him back the next week. This went on for about 6 weeks and finally the Dr decided to do a blood test, as he was stumped. Despite Ryan's sores/etc he was thriving and gaining weight. When the results were in, the Dr called to have us come in again, as the results were not normal. We eventually were referred to a specialist in SLC, UT. This Dr. did the same tests and told us that Ryan had a disease called SCIDS, or Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. To be honest, we didn't care what it was called, we just wanted the medicine that fixed it so we could be on our way. We didn't quite understand. The Dr. told us that Ryan needed a Bone Marrow Transplant, again, we thought "Great, we will get him a transplant and then take him home." Little did we know, what it took to find a donor and then get a transplant. Once we knew what he had, we isolated Ryan and didn't allow anyone to be around him, other than Deni and my parents (for babysitting).

After waiting for the Dr's to find a donor (we waited about 2 months) we got a call one day stating that Deni was going to be the donor and that we could travel to Los Angeles, CA or Durham, NC. We choose LA, since it was closer. As we drove to the Hospital, we were quite uneasy. The route we took to the hospital was quite scary, even during the middle of the day.

Once in LA, we put Ryan in his room, where he stayed for 3 months straight. Night and day. Of course, we had to wear complete protective gear, including gloves, gowns, and masks when we entered his room, and we were unable to sleep in his room. For 3 months, we never were able to feel the touch of his skin. It is amazing how different it is to wear gloves, gowns and masks and touch your child vs touching with out those on. During this time, Ryan endured about 2 weeks of Chemo and finally a bone marrow transplant from his loving mother.

Deni gave about 36 oz of Bone Marrow. After giving the marrow, late that night, I remember the Dr's coming in and telling us that it appeared that her marrow was not going to be enough and that most likely I would have to go through the same procedure to donate my marrow the following day. Since Ryan had been given chemo, he had a very small window of opportunity to receive a BMT. That night, with Deni laying in her bed in pain, I knelt beside her bed and she offered a prayer that a miracle might happen and that our son would be cured and that the marrow would be sufficient. A few hours later, the Dr came back in to tell us that there would be plenty of marrow to give Ryan.

Deni was in so much pain from giving her marrow, she was only able to be wheeled into the front of Ryan's room for a few minutes while he was actually being infused with the mighty bone marrow cells that would cure him. A few months of recovery in the hospital and we were able to bring Ryan home.

Ryan was still in isolation for about a year to a year and a half. During this time, Ryan received monthly IV's to boost his immune system (b-cells). Going to SLC was probably the only time he left the house. My poor little child had to be poked each month, however we knew it was to help him, however it was still hard when we held him while the nurses and Dr's poked his little arm each month. During this isolation time, his only interaction with others, outside of Deni and I and my parents was through a sliding glass window. Friends and family would come and see him through the window. He was always happy to see someone on the otherside of the glass.



After Ryan's 2nd Birthday, he was given a clean bill of health and could be around others, including kids his age. He wasn't sure what to do. For the first 2 years of his life, he always had a glass window between him and any one else his size.

Ryan has a tender heart. He is a also a very loving child. He loves his Mom and sister (and Dad when Mom's not around). Ryan has grown from a small baby without an immune system, to an great 5 yr old that has no fears. Ryan also loves the word "actually" and uses it quite frequently in conversation.

Last year Ryan attended Pre-school and loved it. He learned his letters and how to count to 100 and in just a few weeks, he will be starting kindergarten.

I am truly blessed to have Ryan as my son. Over the years he has become my lawn mowing buddy, bike riding buddy, and even my canoe and fishing buddy now. I hope that I can continue to be a good father to Ryan and that we will remain close throughout his life. He is a wonderful child and I love him.

Happy 5th Birthday Ryan.

Home at last....

It is nice to be at home with my family, as well as take a bath and sleep in a real bed. It had been 5 nights of sleeping in a tent without a single shower. I am so glad I am home. I think the kids missed me a little bit too.

We celebrated Ryan's birthday today, even though it is tomorrow. It was easier to celebrate it on a Saturday than a Sunday.Ryan wanted his presents, so we wrapped them and gave them to him. He got a new shirt and a car transformer.

He appeared to love both of them.

Grandma and Grandpa Berger gave him some money, which we bought Ryan his "very own tackle box (Spongebob) and fishing pole." Ryan went with me to run some errands, one of which was to buy him the fishing pole. Anyway, we were at the mall and I gave him a penny to throw into the wishing pond. I told him to make a wish, then throw the penny into the pond and he might have his wish come true. He thought about it for a second and said, "hmmm, A bannana?" I looked at him and said "You want to wish for a bananna?, no why don't you wish for something else." Of course, his next wish was for an apple. He must have been hungry. I told him an apple wasn't a good choice either, but he should wish for something he really wanted. Finally he said, "Ohhhh, a fishing pole." then threw in his penny. Funny kid.

Grandma and Grandpa Bigler came last week and gave Ryan his birthday present - 2 teenage mutant ninja turtles. It is funny that I played with both Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.