We Know You Kids Likes 'em Sloppy!

Today I ate school lunch - voluntarily. I know I know, why on earth would anybody DO that? It was for a good cause, I promise. Today was Kalli's very firstest school lunch - and there weren't no way I wuz gona be missn' that. The food was acceptable (fantastic, by school standards) and the company was even better.


Mmmmmm... Pumpkin pie.

Happy Birthday, RyGuy!

OK - I admit - I'm "Dad of the year" on this one. Ryan's actual birthday was a week ago, but I figured he wouldn't be too mad at me for posting this late. (Thanks for not minding too much, Ryan! You're the best!)

When we brought Ryan home, we knew how special he was, and how lucky we were to have him in our family. Two years later he's STILL special, and we're still lucky to have him in our family! We became pregnant with Ryan shortly before my brother Jeff passed away from cancer, back in the Spring of 2007. I think what's special about Ryan in my mind is that I know that he and Jeff are best friends - even though they never met here on earth. In my minds eye I can envision Jeff talking to Ryan about all the cool cousins he's going to have, and the family he's about to join on earth. I can envision Jeff giving Ryan every bit of advice he can think of - including tips on how to avoid the never-allusive "pooncha" - or as I like to call it, the "poooOOOOooooonchaaaaaaaaa!!!" (I like to stretch it out for effect)

Although Ryan has his "moments" when he wishes to remind us that he's two years old... we still feel so blessed to have him in our home. Happy Birthday, Ryan!

He got a little scrape next to his eye - but he was a tough dude. (scared the bajeebers outta dad though)

Showing off his tux that grandma made - my handsome man.

Little toothless smile for the ladies.

Batman never made me laugh so much. This is Ryan right after his "Race!" began. "on your mark, get set.... RACE!!"

We love you, Ryan!

Happy Birthday, Meggie B!

I can't believe it's been 4 years since the nurse placed you in my arms. Wrapped up tight, you were the perfect size - my little burrito.

From the minute you were born, you brought so much sunshine into our lives!

The years have flown by WAY too fast.

But now that you're 4 years old, and all grown up.... I'll still call you my little Meggie B.

Happy Birthday, Megaroo!

I'm In Love

I have a new favorite gun. Too bad it isn't mine.

You see, I went shooting - for the first time in about a decade. I decided that as a reward for graduating I'd get my first rifle; so I bought my friend's .223. It's a "varmint" rifle. People call it that because it's a popular rifle to go bunny smokin' - or coyote smokin'. Me? I use it for target practice, so far. My buddy and I went up to the range here in Bountiful. He's the complete opposite of me, and when I say that, I mean... he actually knows what he's talking about when it comes to guns and hunting.

We put up our targets at 100 yards and headed back for some good old fashion paper smokin. I put 12 or so rounds through my .223 until it was time to go home. The first few shots were nice, and then it kind of went downhill from there. I couldn't get the scope to focus for me - either that or my contacts are junk. Probably the latter. Well, see for yourself:

Before we went home, John let me put 3 rounds through his 7MM-08. I'm in love.

Now I just need to repeat this over, and over, and ov........

Time To Catch Up

What? A new post?! Could it be? Oh yes, my friend. It Be-ith.

Its been a crazy month - Not sure what to write about, but I figured that there'd be an all-out mutiny if I didn't put SOMEthing up. So... here's some tasty pics we've taken in the last couple weeks...


We'll start off this ensemble of visual pleasantries with... Ryan (and what looks half of President Uchdorf's head). Jodie just asked Ryan where his belly button is :-) He's a searchin'


He found it! Oh, the joy of success!


Our little Megaroo is getting bigger and bigger every time I turn around. A couple weeks ago she read her first book. And you know what THAT means.... her own library card! Woot woot! She is SO big. She's our "sounder" - meaning she's a pro at sounding out words and spelling them. Kalli even asks her for help sometimes. For example:

Kalli: "how do you spell grandma?"
Meg: "It starts with g-g-g-g-g-g G"
Kalli: Then?
Meg: "r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r a-a-a-a-a-a A!"

I love it.



One thing I'm NOT looking forward to is the cold weather. I know I know, we can still go outside to play, but it's just not the same. I'm a Spring/Fall kinda guy - Here's why:

The Wave

I don't usually (well, ever) put stuff on my blog that isn't family related, but I saw this video and had to stick it up. This will change the way we collaborate. It's worth the 10 minutes.

Wahoo!

Today Jodie and I did something that we don't do - pretty much ever. Organized the closet? Well, yes, we did do that, but we do that all the ti.... um, wait - make that TWO things today that we hardly ever do. The first being the closet (wow, I really don't have any clothes) and the second? Well, we decided to take a trip to Sandy and check out a sale. In all honesty, we were kind of skeptical. When I say 'we' I mean 'I' because I didn't think Jodie would let me buy something. Buuuut she did - AND I didn't even have to get on my knees... for too long.

I love it. Absolutely love it. I think the biggest reason why I love it is because Jodie loves it. I've been wanting to get her a piano ever since we were married. The sound is awesome, but the package isn't complete unless Jodie's playing.

Kalli and Meg are VERY excited to start lessons.


This is Ryan, just after Jodie told him that he couldn't eat his cookie while sitting at the piano. Sorry, dude. Rules are rules.



So, if you ever have a second, come on by and check it out. We maaaay even let you sit at it - but only if you promise to eat your cookie first.

Sweet Crossword Puzzle

I came across an awesome crossword puzzle the other day. Check it out. It isn't hard - I promise.

Park It Up

The other day we decided to pack up dinner and head off to the park. It was awesome. I love this park. I'd tell you which one it is, but then you just might tell others and then it would get crowded and I'd be forced to get a park of my own.

This park has a covered eating area, lighting, plenty of grass, trees (and tables under the trees, if you are so inclined), flushing toilets, running water, soap, and a little device that sprays a welcoming scent of freshness upon opening the restroom door. It's a treat to behold!

All of those amenities are all well and good - but it isn't the best part about the park. The best part about it is..... you ready? The rubber. Oh ya, baby! You see, I'm tired of all the sand that gets in my shoes - and all the wood slivers, er, I mean, wood chips that never seem to fit the bill. This park has one big rubber chip mat to run on. It doesn't chip off, break, get in your shoes or socks, and it's perfect for gripping those tight corners when you're playing "chase daddy around the park." We love it. This is one of daddy's favorite climbing towers that he thought he could use to get away from being tagged. Kalli proved him wrong.

Dear Kiddies,

Dear Kiddies,

Your mom and I wanted to write a few things down to let you know how much we love you. We wanted to let you know that:

We’ll always be there for you – even when you won’t want us around.
Even the smallest promptings will pay huge dividends.

Always listen to those promptings.
Recognizing them will be the hard part – at first.
Every time you get one – act – that will make them easier to recognize in the future.

Preparing yourself is what this life is all about.
Right when you want to give up is the time when you need to ask for help the most.
Every time you need help, we’ll be there.
Gaining your respect might be the hardest thing we’ll ever have to do.
Never give up on that which is most important.
All of the people that came before you have prepared the way for you to succeed.
Never at any time in the history of the world has there been so much opportunity.
This is your time.

We sure do love you,
Mom & Dad

A Lesson In Snow White

Dad: "Look, there's the evil Queen. She hates Snow White"

Kalli: "No, Dad. She doesn't hate Snow White. She loves her. She just wants to kill her."

2 Thumbs Up!

Last night during family home evening we taught the girls about the word of wisdom. Not an easy topic for 5 and 3 year-old kiddies. Jodie and I thought that it was time for them to learn about it from the 'horses mouth' - and since I'm the one that's always horse'n around, it was my turn to teach the lesson. (baaaaad joke. Sorry, everybody) We played games that showed us all the cool things we could do with our bodies, and talked about how Heavenly Father wants us to keep our bodies healthy and strong. We then played "thumbs up." Basically, someone shouts out a food, and if it's good for you then you give it 2 thumbs up - if it's bad, it gets the classic 2 thumbs down. Pretty basic, eh?

The game begins:
"watermelon!" - 2 thumbs WAY up
"vegetables!" - 2 thumbs up (but only after coersion from daddo)
"cigarettes!" - *insert booo, and hisssss* - "ew, gross" - 2 thumbs down

They LOVED it. Family night Suuuuuccesssss!

So, tonight at dinner, Megan decided that it was time to play the game. "Showa" says dad. "How abooooouuuut...," "No, Dad, I'm the boss. I get to say it" - "well, alrighty then"

Watermelon! - Woot Woot! - 2 thumbs up
Daddy cooks dinner! - 2 thumbs way UP. Then Meg pipes up... "no way, that's 2 thumbs down!"

Thanks, Megan. Don't ever change, sweetie.

Freeee-beeee Bots - A Survival Story

So today - amidst my cranial exercises of sorts - we decided to head out to the grocery store and pick up some sundry items, er, I mean, some ingredients for an AWEsome dessert that Jodie wanted to make. WalMart or Smiths? Hmmm... Smiths. Why not. It's closer and all we're getting is groceries - Plus I hate WalMart (I'm supposed to say that, right? Because they drive away all the mom & pop stores trying to peddle Sure deoderant and Suave shampoo. WalMart's become even more worthless after they discontinued White Cloud diapers - but that's a WHOLE nother blog)

So, off to Smiths we go!

We walked in the door, being the unsuspecting tourists of all things edible that we were - having no preminitions of wonderous free-dom to come, and were suddenly bombarded by a crowd of mindless freebee-bots. You could almost read their minds: "Freeee-bee Freeeee-bee! Free..."It was horrific. The employees were giving everything away as fast as it could be put on a plate or garnished with a napkin; glasses of orange juice, cake (both on the same table; gross), fruit, ice cream, shrimp (I steer clear of warm shrimp that's been manhandled by every snot-nosed kid that happens to pass by thinking "mommy, what's this thing?"), muffins, and... some other stuff, I'm sure. Oh ya, Cheese. They had cheese as well - in little cute cubes, no less; complete with toothpicks! It was an experience never to be forgotten. Well, at least not until my next trip to the store. We made our way past the 'drones' and started doing whatever it is we came there to do - what DID we come there to do? Oh ya! We came to buy stuff. So, off to buy things we went, when suddenly... "alrighty shoppers, it's time again for another drawing where one lucky customer will win a chance to spin the wheeeel... of.... grooooceriiiies!" "It's NEVER me" I thought, as I tugged on the half-bent tickets in my linty pocket. "Well, just to make sure, let me memorize my numbers - just in case. OK, 424. Got it." "Alrighty shoppers, let's here it for number.... 424! That's number 424. Present your ticket for a spin of the wheel, at the east entrance" "Is that us?!" Jodie perked up. "um, I think so!" *insert winners dance here*

I'd explain it all - but I figured that a story book with pictures would be much more effective.

"Huh?! Did they just say 424?"


"Jeepers!! I think they just said 4...2....4!"

"They did! They did! That's US! We get to spin The Wheeeeeelll!"



*Then we walked down to the winners circle - i.e. the East Entrance, and took our spot as future heirs and heirises of something free*

*Amidst mild trepidation, Mike takes hold of the wheel, and with a flick of his hand sets forth a destiny that can only be guided by Lady Luck herself.*

"huh, they only have colors on this wheel. No pictures? I need pictures. I wonder what color is good. Sure hope I don't win something stupid"



"Yellow! I got Yellow! Hmm... what does Yellow get me? Ice Cream! 48 oz. of Ice Cream! YEEEEEEsssss! I didn't spin for something lame like bunion cream!"



"Now - What to choose? What toooo choooose"



Good choice, young Padawon. Your queen would be proud.


That's right. "Private" AND "Premium" ice cream - all in the same container. I think they made it just for me, but I'm not too sure on that one. I figured it was worthy of a crown.

Mmmm..... Cheesy

So, we had spaghetti for lunch today. Mmmmmm.... spaghetti. Right? Right.

Well, Megan is a fan of the cheese. And when I say that Megan is a fan of the cheese, I mean she's a FAN. While Jodie and I were over at the sink I caught Meg with the entire block of cheese - eating it like, well.... here's what she got down in 4 seconds:




Did you notice the teeth marks? Mmmmmm... teethmarks.

Me So Old

Ever since I've been told that now is the time I'm supposed to have my mid-life-crisis, I've been feeling like I need to buy a new car. Well, I always feel like that. Does that mean I'm in a perpetual state of crisiseseses? (Pronounced Criseeeeeeseses)

Then I read this article:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/100-things-your-kids-may-never-know-about?npu=1&mbid=yhp

It didn't help my perpetual state of crisiseseses.

Basically, however many 'bring you back,' the older you are :-O

I hope you all enjoy feeling as old as I did while reading this! I especially loved "Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time." Good Times. Gooooood times.

Audio-Visual Entertainment
Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.
Super-8 movies and cine film of all kinds.
Playing music on an audio tape using a personal stereo. See what happens when you give a Walkman to todays teenager.
The number of TV channels being a single digit. I remember it being a massive event when Britain got its fourth channel.
Standard-definition, CRT TVs filling up half your living room.
Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
High-speed dubbing.
8-track cartridges.
Vinyl records. Even today’s DJs are going laptop or CD.
Betamax tapes.
MiniDisc.
Laserdisc: the LP of DVD.
Scanning the radio dial and hearing static between stations. (Digital tuners + HD radio bork this concept.)
Shortwave radio.
3-D movies meaning red-and-green glasses.
Watching TV when the networks say you should. Tivo and Sky+ are slowing killing this one.
That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’

Computers and Videogaming
Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long
The scream of a modem connecting.
The buzz of a dot-matrix printer
5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
Using jumpers to set IRQs.
DOS.
Terminals accessing the mainframe.
Screens being just green (or orange) on black.
Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.
Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.
Counting in kilobytes.
Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.
Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.
Turning a PlayStation on its end to try and get a game to load.
Joysticks.
Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
Recording a song in a studio.

The Internet
NCSA Mosaic.
Finding out information from an encyclopedia.
Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
Doing bank business only when the bank is open.
Shopping only during the day, Monday to Saturday.
Phone books and Yellow Pages.
Newspapers and magazines made from dead trees.
Actually being able to get a domain name consisting of real words.
Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and posting it.
Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
Carrying on a correspondence with real letters, especially the handwritten kind.
Archie searches.
Gopher searches.
Concatenating and UUDecoding binaries from Usenet.
Privacy.
The fact that words generally don’t have num8er5 in them.
Correct spelling of phrases, rather than TLAs.
Waiting several minutes (or even hours!) to download something.
The time before botnets/security vulnerabilities due to always-on and always-connected PCs
The time before PC networks.
When Spam was just a meat product — or even a Monty Python sketch.

Gadgets
Typewriters.
Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?
Sending that film away to be processed.
Having physical prints of photographs come back to you.
CB radios.
Getting lost. With GPS coming to more and more phones, your location is only a click away.
Rotary-dial telephones.
Answering machines.
Using a stick to point at information on a wallchart
Pay phones.
Phones with actual bells in them.
Fax machines.
Vacuum cleaners with bags in them.

Everything Else
Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive.
Remembering someone’s phone number.
Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
Actually going down to a Blockbuster store to rent a movie.
Toys actually being suitable for the under-3s.
LEGO just being square blocks of various sizes, with the odd wheel, window or door.
Waiting for the television-network premiere to watch a movie after its run at the theater.
Relying on the 5-minute sport segment on the nightly news for baseball highlights.
Neat handwriting.
The days before the nanny state.
Starbuck being a man.
Han shoots first.
“Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.” But they’ve already seen episode III, so it’s no big surprise.
Kentucky Fried Chicken, as opposed to KFC.
Trig tables and log tables.
“Don’t know what a slide rule is for …”
Finding books in a card catalog at the library.
Swimming pools with diving boards.
Hershey bars in silver wrappers.
Sliding the paper outer wrapper off a Kit-Kat, placing it on the palm of your hand and clapping to make it bang loudly. Then sliding your finger down the silver foil of break off the first finger
A Marathon bar (what a Snickers used to be called in Britain).
Having to manually unlock a car door.
Writing a check.
Looking out the window during a long drive.
Roller skates, as opposed to blades.
Cash.
Libraries as a place to get books rather than a place to use the internet.
Spending your entire allowance at the arcade in the mall.
Omni Magazine
A physical dictionary — either for spelling or definitions.
When a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’ were one and the same.

Happy Birthday, to ME!

Well, I swear I wasn't going to blog about my own birthday - besides, who blogs about themselves? I mean, what do you take me for anyway?

Last night Jodie put on a nice dinner and had my family come over - it rocked. I'm a sucker for social gatherings, especially when they involve lasagna, my house, good conversation, and people I like. Thanks, Jo! You rock. I'll post a picture of my birthday cake. It was the best ever. Jodie covered it in green coconut - and fashioned a lawnmower out of TWO snickers bars. It was a sight to see - in all of its mowery gooey deliciousness.

Just when I thought that all the birthday festivities were over... I came into work. I was a little confused because THIS was on the door:



"That's CRAZY. Who would put this on the do... wait! wha?! is that MY face? What the..." Then I proceed to my desk and realize that the entire office is plastered with Mike Memorabilia from days gone past- I'm having a hard time remembering all of these events, but they have the photographic PROOF. How DID they get these pictures of me?







And then the birthday wishing monkey...

Mmmm... Sanity

One roll of clear stickie tape: $1


30 Gallon Trash Bag: $0.10

One Genius Wife: Priceless



Having your kiddies sleep in until 7:45 A.M. : Well, it's worth WAY more than $1.10.





Who would have thought that this picture was taken at 8:30 in the morning. BooYA! Me so excited to try it again!

I feel so sneaky - so parentalish

44 cents

The nicest thing happened to me yesterday. A lady gave me 44 cents. I know, I know - I can hear it now "wow, Mike - 44 cents. Perhaps it's time you increased your expectations juuuuust a little bit." Believe me, my expectations are high (abnormally high). I don't need any help in that department.

Lemme splain:
Yesterday after work I headed off to the post office to mail a letter. Just one letter. Nothing huge. After going back and forth - and back and forth - trying to decide whether or not it was worth it to wait for 15 people in line (at the 'Reno 911' of post offices) I gave in and took my place. After standing there for about 3 minutes I had a thought come over me "hmm, I bet I can buy a whole BOOK of stamps at that machine around the corner - see ya later, chumps!" Juuust as I was getting out of line, one of the nicest ladies in the world stopped me and said "are you just mailing that ONE letter?! All you want is ONE stamp?!" - "uh, ya" - "Well, here ya go." Then she proceeds to fish through her purse, pull out a book of Simpson stamps, and peel off a Homer. WOW! I know it might sound lame, but that totally made my day.

Even if I had the stamps, and was in her position, I don't think I'd have the guts to approach a scary lookin guy and offer him a stamp. Not sure why though. Just cuz. I'm heartless I guess - either that or just scared. So, the next time you see old Homer's face - don't picture him choking his son (all in good humor, of course) picture a nice lady making my day.

Mmmmm.... Bread

Last week a good friend of ours asked Jodie if making our own bread really saves us any money. I've always thought so - but I think that could be due to the fact that I would never want to admit that we've been wasting our hard-earned money instead of saving it AND letting someone else do all the work! (as if I do any of the work... but I digress)

SO, when Jodie said "do you think we're really saving any money?" I said "let's find out!"

It wasn't hard really - all we had to do was figure out the cost of each of the ingredients, divide out the part we used to make a batch of bread, and voila! And because I'm picky, I had to figure out how much it cost us to power our oven for 30 minutes (I love Google). All in all, we estimated that it costs us a shmidgen over $3 to mix and bake 6 loaves of bread. Not too shabby! I will admit that they aren't the biggest loaves of bread - I call em half-loaves, baby-bakes, snack cakes...etc. Yummy!

Soooo, I guess that means we'll be making a lot more of these:




Oh ya - THIS is what happens when you don't cut your children a slice fast enough.



Never leave a freshly-baked loaf of bread unattended.

The Numbers Guy

For a while now, I've wanted to start a blog. Not just ANY blog - but a blog where people could go and LEeeearn stuff. Useful stuff. Stuff that could actually help them in their lives. I don't have many of "those" skills - so I decided to write about the skills I DO have, and see how it goes. I decided to try the impossible: make Finances INTERESTING. Yea Baby! I just started it today - so don't expect anything huge. Pretty much everything about it will change in the coming months. I just thought I'd get the word out - cuz nobody likes to post posts for nobody!

The Numbers Guy
http://www.thenumbersguy.blogspot.com

Which One Are You?

Last night as Jodie and I were talking, I could only sum up my feelings in one phrase: I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. Then it occurred to me - spinning wheels isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on the circumstance. So, then I thought to myself, which one am I?


You see, both of these cars are spinning their wheels - but both will have completely different outcomes.

(Now, don't take this analogy too far. Cuz then you'd say "I don't want to be the Funny Car that's going to go 100 mph in .8 seconds and then crash in a fire ball of death. I'd rather be the person receiving loving assistance from kind bystanders" Bla ba Bla ba BLA....

Life is short - It'll be over before we know it - you might as well live in the fast lane. Besides, I like to think that we all have 7,000 horsepower under the hood.