Best Day Ever

My girls had been begging me to take them to the Circus Circus Adventure Dome and of course I was always too busy. Well Hayley got me to sign a contract, I think it was under duress, but I signed it none-the-less. The contract obligated me to take them on a pre determined Saturday and I couldn't break the deal. Man am I glad I didn't. We had a blast!

I really let my hair down, well if I had hair I would have let it down. My hat blew off. Does that count?

Hayley is a maniac, Mady, not so much. Me, I'm not scared of any of the rides, but if I spin I throw up. So with all that in mind we hit the rides. Mady did not want to ride the roller coaster, but as you can see from the photo she made the right choice. I think she rode it 4 times. Another ride was this contraption that you set in and all-of-a-sudden you shoot up 50 feet, hang there and then free fall back to the ground. Fun for little kids with rubber bones, not so good for old guys. I think I peed a little when it shot up (weak bladder, see kidney stone post) and my neck cracked so loud when it dropped that I thought I broke something. The girls rode on a lot of other rides, but all-in-all we had lots of fun. I ran around like a kid, we hid from each other and we had junk food and slurpees, but mostly we laughed (a lot).

My girls said to me that night as I kissed them good night that it was the best day ever. A half of day on a Saturday and it was the best day ever. You would think a guy could find more time when it is that easy to create a "best day ever".

Turning 46

This is how I spent my 46th Birthday, playing cards with my wife, my 13 year old daughter and my mother-in-law until the wee hours of the morning. In fact we played until the power went out, as you can see from the one photo. Then to add to it I take dead last in shanghai, dead last by a long ways.

I'm 46 years old, my dad was 48 when he past away. My mother was 48 when my first child was born. When I was in the third grade we were ask what age did we think you became "old", I said 42. Yikes!

All that being said though, I have no problem growing older. I love all the different stages of life that come along. Each has it's challenges and each has it's rewards. I liked getting married, I love being a dad and I can't wait to be a grandpa.

I had a great birthday. I got to spend it up in the mountains with my family and I got a great email from Tyler who, by-the-way, only as 3 weeks left on his mission. Holy Cow! That went fast.

So while I was reflecting on my 46 years on  this Earth, I reminisced about some of my high points and some of my low points. The low points are much funnier. The little girls begged me to tell a few "low point" stories and I balked at first because Hayley had taken a friend who wasn't privy to some of my miss deeds and I worried that she might tell her parents and never be allowed to come to the cabin again. So we explained to her that though I might have done these things, I in no way condone that sort of behavior and these things should never be attempted.

So my birthday tale of a low point in my life went something like this.

My father was a man of little patience. Why God would send him four boys only confirms that God truly has a sense of humor and explains why my dad did not make it past 48.

It was a bright Saturday morning and I had just taken up the wonderful sport of tennis. I had the tennis racket, the tennis ball, but no tennis court. There was not a tennis court for 5 miles, what was an 11 year old boy to do. Bounce it off the front porch of course. My dad walks out of the house to go to work and a miss hit tennis ball flies past his head. Remember the little patience part. He grabs the ball and points at my older brother's bedroom window. "Mooch! You are going to hit that right through that window!""Go do this somewhere else!" My dad was huge so my standard reply was "Yes Father, anything you say" 

He hands me back my tennis ball and climbs into his truck. He leans out the window for one more "DO NOT hit that ball on the porch. Do you understand me?" 

Rapid nods of the head follow with one more"Yes Father"

He backs out of the driveway and heads down the street. He is not even out of sight and I turn to hit the ball on the porch. Now as God as my witness I swear and my mother will attest to the fact. The first strike of that tennis ball went right through my brothers window. The feeling in my legs went and I collapsed. My mother comes running out and my two older brothers stare through the shattered glass at my prone body. My first words that I can make sense of are "You are so dead" no it was not my brothers, it was my mom.

I am dumb founded. I had hit that ball all morning and never once came close to that window. How, how could that have happened. I go to the window and try to put pieces back. My brothers add words to my thoughts. "Dad is going to kill you!""I heard dad say don't it the ball on the porch" My legs went out again.

Now here came the hard part. My mom says you need to go in and call you father and tell him what you did. I beg her no, please no, "you call him" It is not to be, she hands me the phone and dials his work number. It took forever for him to get to the phone and then he answers with      "What's up buddy? Dad's busy can I help you with something?" I can't remember exactly what I said, but I'm sure it had a bunch of UH, UH I Love you and I am so stupid. Why can't I mind, kind of things in it. Of course he yells and I have to hold the receiver away from my ear. I get a 'wait 'til I get home' speech. Now that is the longest day I have ever spent. I did not need to watch the clock because my brothers came by on the hour like human cuckoo clocks to announce how many hours I had 'til my execution.

4:30 finally rolled around and I met my dad at the scene-of-the-crime. He begins with the "What was the last thing I said?" speech and then proceeds to throw me into his truck. I swear I thought he was taking me to the dessert so that nobody would hear my screams, but we headed to the hardware store instead to purchase a piece of glass.

Upon returning home we proceeded to install the new window. It's the middle of summer and my brother's window faces west and it is late afternoon, it's hot. My dad is on the inside and I am on the outside. In these older homes the windows are those kind that have the putty holding them in, so my dad has removed the old putty and I am holding the new glass in place while he gets ready to put in new putty. He's sweating like crazy, he's still very mad and I am trying to be invisible.

Then the problem starts. He wants to open the window to let in some air. The window I broke is the fixed side of the window, it doesn't move so he is going to open the other side. The first thing he notices is that the latch that unhooks the windows is missing, yikes! After opening it with a pair of pliers he reaches down to turn the crank that opens the window and, no, it's not missing, but all it does is spin. It does not open the window, YIKES! He stares at me through the glass, are noses are only inches apart, I thought he couldn't see me because I was trying to be invisible, but he could see me good. 

He pushes the glass open with his hand and this part is burned into my brain. It happened in slow motion. A breeze catches the window and jerks it from my dad's hand, it shatters against the wall into a million pieces.

Are noses are still inches apart, I am losing the feeling in my legs, but the last thing I remember is my dad's face went exactly like the cartoons. It went real red and then steam came out his ears, I swear, real steam!

I don't remember much after that.

Now is there any wonder that my dad is not with us anymore?

Talk to you later 

It's All About Perspective

You ever have those stretches in your life when it seems like everything is going against you? You know the famous Hee Haw song "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" Well I'm in one of those stretches.

Work has been incredibly difficult lately and I've had the bad case of kidney stones and infection. Hayley has been very sick and a few other things that just keep piling on. I get to the point that I couldn't take one more piece of straw on my camel back and some one puts a whole hand full on.

Well for those of you who have had times like that in your life, or are in one of those stretches right now, let me tell you something. 

It's All About Perspective.

Perspective is defined as: the evaluation of a situation or event, based upon that person's point of view

So that means that any given set of events could be felt differently depending on your view point.

I didn't quite get this until I read a story on the Internet from the church website about a General Authority, I think one of the Seventies, who had been a prisoner of war during the Korean War. The title was something along the lines of "It's only as bad as you believe it to be".

He goes on to tell how when he was first captured and had been tortured and starved he was in the lowest state of depression and wanted to just die. All of his prayers were to be freed from his prison and to return home to his family. All to no avail. He felt that he had been abandoned by his Father in Heaven. This period of depression went on for months. It wasn't until one of the english speaking guards, after a particularly bad beating, laughingly said " You're not going anywhere soon, so you better just get used to it " that he realized he was praying for the wrong thing. He instantly remembered the Book of Mormon story in Mosiah about Alma and his people being in bondage and praying to be released from the wicked Lamanites. The Lord does not release them, it was not time, but he did lighten their burdens and make it so they could withstand the captivity until the appointed time. The light bulb went on and this young soldier changed his prayers to ones of helping him to endure until the appointed time. He wasn't going anywhere soon, so he better make the best of the time that he was here. Heavenly Father had not abandoned him, he was with him even if he was a prisoner of war.

 He began to notice things in his cell that he had never noticed, like a little mouse that would come visit, another prisoner on the other side of the wall that would communicate through a hole in the wall. He befriended a guard and converted a fellow prisoner. What had changed? Not his environment or situation. Only his perspective of the environment and situation had changed.

Now if a person can make the best of that situation than anything is possible. Surely my life was not as bad as being a prisoner of war.

I have tried very hard to choose my point of view of a situation more carefully. You know, is the glass half empty or half full, that kind of thing.

I'm not saying that I don't still have an occasional "pity party" every now and then, but it truly is your point of view. That old adage that it could always be worse is very true, because it truly could ALWAYS be worse.

OK, so the story of my sign in the picture.

I'm on an early morning walk in Santa Fe with a friend of mine and I'm complaining about my lot-in-life and how hard I have it, when he stops me and says "Look we are just about ready to turn on to Faithway, so it's an omen for you to just have Faith" I stare at the sign and we both start to laugh. The rest of the sign says "DEAD END"

So take a minute to really look at your life. How blessed are you really? How many great things do you already have? Remember It's All About Perspective

See ya

My Boy Is Turning 21

Where the heck does time go? I swear it just seems like yesterday that he was on my shoulders and we were at the state fair.

I miss him so bad. He turned 21 years old on Wednesday. That will be the last B-Day away from us. He comes home from Australia on the 12th of October and we are counting down the days. Kelli and I are going to go down there and pick him up.

There is no way a dad could ever be more proud of their son than I am of Tyler. He has been such a great young man. He was easy as a baby and Lord knows I needed that. I had him by myself when he was just 9 months old. I was working construction and oh so tired when we would come home.

 We would drive right by a Little Caesars Pizza place on the way home. Tyler's first words were "PIZZA, PIZZA".

 When we got home he would sit in the middle of the floor and play for hours and when it was time for bed he would go straight to bed and sleep the whole night until I would get him up at 4:00 am to go to the babysitters.

 We would drive in the orange jeep with him still in his pajamas and he would never fuss. The babysitters loved him and he had many. 

He was easy as a toddler and took right to school when he got old enough. He has been a great big brother to his sisters even if him and Amy have had there moments. 

As he prepared for his mission he was such a great example of how a young man should be as he worked towards that goal.

 And now as he gets ready to come home after serving for 2 years, it is amazing to see the further growth in him as a man. He as grown right before our eyes as we have read his emails and spoke to him on the phone.

 The young boy with great potential has grown into a man with the world at his feet. The maturity that he has gained along with the experiences of living on the other side of the world, will serve him forever.

 I  cant wait for him to bring his love and testimony back into our home. His sisters are out of their minds with missing him.

50 days and counting

One of my favorite "me and Tyler stories"

This one is from "Astro Camp".  Tyler was 9 years old. If Cory Peterson is reading my 'blog', and he should be, he will definitely remember this one.

I was asked to go as a chaperon by the G.A.T.E. teacher, I thought it was because I was good example for the kids, but Kelli says it was because the teacher had a crush on me. I will go with that one, how could she help herself ?

 Anyway so up to Big Bear mountain in California we go for a five day camp. The second day was called "face your fear" day. The kids had to climb a 30' tall pole that had handles on both sides like a telephone pole. They had to put a harness on for safety and when they got to the top there was a round plate that they needed to stand up on and then scream something encouraging to the crowd below and then jump off. There was no way that Tyler was going to do this, he could not even stand on a chair to change a light bulb, he was so afraid of heights.

 So you can imagine my surprise when he comes to me to say " Dad, I am going to face my fears and climb the pole." "What!" I exclaim, as the feeling of pride is replaced by my worry of his humiliation. He insist though and off he goes to strap on the harness. I'm nervous, but a little bit of the pride is coming back as he marches right to the tree and starts up. Higher and higher he goes, he is going to do this, he is going to face his fears. 

I am truly swelling with pride now as Tyler reaches about 25' off the ground and then......... Tyler does what every person who has ever been high in the air and scared of heights does, he looks down! Big mistake! He stops climbing and grabs the tree in a bear hug. He begins searching for me on the ground, I decide to hide so that the professionals can deal with this. They begin coaxing him to continue climbing to no avail. He wants to climb down, but you can't climb down, he is in a harness that has tension on it and he is not strong enough to push himself down, so they tell him to just let go and jump. "NO WAY!" He tells them and then proceeds to try and unhook his harness."NO!NO! Tyler!" the guy screams. "You can't unhook that!" 

My pride is gone and is replaced with fear for Tyler, both for his safety and for the humiliation of freezing up on that tree in front of all those other kids. It takes them a good 10 minutes to get him down. He left claw marks on the tree. The 'face your fear day' did not go so well.

Tyler is still scared of heights, but so what, he is scared of all most everything . Not a week goes by that we don't get a letter retelling a terrifying moment of bugs, bees, snakes, birds, lightning, wind, darkness, butterflies, puppies, kittens..........OK maybe he's not scared of all those things, but he is scared of most of those things.

But we still love him and miss him and can't wait for him to be home.

My boy is 21 years old. Man! That makes me old.

See ya

One sick "Bug"

For those of you who come to my blog with out visiting Kelli's, you might not know how sick of a little girl we had.

Hayley started having fevers that we could not get rid of and it landed her in the ER.

I believe there is nothing in life harder than watching your children when they are sick, let alone when they are real sick. And Haley was "real" sick. 

She's better now and home, we never found out what was causing the fevers, only the things that it wasn't. We will take that and be happy she's home in her bed.

Well the last time I posted I was home being a bachelor. My family came home and the next night Hayley got sick. Her and Kelli spent four nights in the hospital. We got Hayley home and had a few nights with everyone home and yet the night I am writing this I am home alone, well Amy is here, but she comes and goes like a ghost, so it's like I'm by myself. Kelli took the girls to St. George to see a play. Oh well, I'll be fine, no need to send the compassionate service ladies over. Unless any of them are reading this and if so I really like cheese enchiladas.

So being home by myself, again, I had some time to reflect on a few things while watching the Olympics. You know, those things that make you go huh! Here's my top 10 tonight.

1. Why do the swimmers have to wear those suits? Michael Phelps is setting a world record with every win. Could he not do that in board shorts?

2. I watched a 1/2 hour of synchronized diving (loser). How do they practice that stuff ? They both do a super spinney dive and someone says hey So and So you need to spin just a hair faster next time. What?

3. What's up with the gymnastic scoring? What happened to the perfect "10" thing?

4. I think one of the girl gymnasts from the USA is hot. Is that bad?

5. There is a girl on the Chinese gymnastic team that I think is 7 years old. Is that legal?

6. Beach Volley Ball is an Olympic event? Huh?

7. Since writing number one it was explained to me on TV why the swimmers wear those tiny bathing suits. Less drag. OK? Then why do the lady volley ball players where those little things to play volley ball? Less drag? I'm not complaining though. Go USA!

8. Man there is alot of Chinese people.

9. I'm watching someone from ABC, I think Mary Carillo, go through Beijing trying different foods. I am going in to hurl now.

10. Lastly, I was just watching the men's Basketball and there is a black guy on the Russian team. Not right! Remember the good 'ole days when the boys from the USSR all looked like Draggo off Rocky 4 and we hated them. I think their point guard is from San Diego. I don't get it?

Oh well that's my top 10 things tonight that make you go huh?

See Ya

I hate Bachin' it

Some, or maybe even most, men enjoy the chance they get when the wife goes out of town and they are left to experience moments of bachelorhood.

I DO NOT!!!!!!

I love being married and I love my wife around. Call me weird or call me a hopeless romantic, but I kind a like her.

This summer I am bachelored out. No wife, no little girls, heck not even any dogs.

Don't get me wrong.

 I love to watch Sports Center without the chance of it finding it's way to the Disney Channel.

I love to only have to stop at one place to grab something to eat.

I love to decide on a whim to go play tennis.

I love to go to bed at night and know that the lights I shut off will stay off.

I love to drink milk right from the jug.

I love to fall asleep knowing that nobody is going to punch me for snoring.

And most of all I love to run around the house in my underwear (there's a visual)

But for all of those things nothing even comes close to that rush I get when I come through the door after work and hear Daddy You're Home!!!!!!!!!

So call me a wuss or a sissy, I don't care, I like being married and it really makes it easy when your wife is your best friend and your kids are so stinkin' cool.

I can't wait for summer to be over or to maybe catch up with my family somewhere.

 But until then I will just be home drinking milk from the jug in my underwear.

I hate Bachin' it

I AM THE MAN!

There is not a man alive who does not live for those ever-so-rare moments when you remove an item from that never shrinking "Honey Do List". Let alone when you have the opportunity to remove numerous large items.

Kelli and I passed each other last Sunday when she came up on to Cedar Mountain with Madysen just as Amy and I were headed down the hill back to Vegas. 

We kissed each other, slapped a "high five", exchanged some parenting notes and parted ways for the week.

 At that moment the plan begin to take shape in my mind. If she was going to be gone for a week, I ought to dive into some things on my list. I did not plan on diving so deep.

Every since I did the metal door for Keith and Janae, Kelli has wanted one of my doors for her very own. The problem with that is when you are trying to work stuff in for yourself at work, the paying customers tend to take precedence. So her door has kind of set for a while, well a long while.

The door was almost complete so I pushed the guys into finishing it and planned on having it in before Kelli got home on Sunday.

Well the first extra item that I tried to tackle was the overgrown hedge next to the front entry. It had to go. After I tore them out I decided to carve a little stone to add some flare to the entry. Well that turned into a lot of carved stone. I couldn't find a good place to stop. Then I need to add lights, but I had no power to the pilaster, so I took on that task. Then she always wanted the marble on the floor in the house to come through the front door out to the entry, but if I added new tile then I would have to strip and re-seal the existing tile to match the new tile. Needless to say by Wednesday I had everyone who worked for me and a few others at my house. More than 12 guys were there. 

A little advice to you new husbands with your new cute "Honey Do" list. It is better to not start something than to start it and not have it finished in time. There is nothing a wife hates worse than a whole bunch of half finished projects scattered round the home. Trust me, I know.

So back to my projects.

Kelli was coming home on Saturday night and let's just say it looked like a "Chinese Fire Drill" at 6:00pm. We had guys on guys, people in wet paint, the landscaper trying to mow the grass in the courtyard without getting it in the paint. Trying to clean up the mess. It was not looking good to be finished. A reprieve!  I get a call from Kelli at 6:30 and she says that they ran into a delay coming down the mountain due to a wreck and they were running late. There is a God! With the extra time we really gave the place a "spit shine" and I got everyone out of there by 8:00pm and waited.

Have you ever noticed how proud a guy gets when he has completed items around the house?It's like he has found a cure for cancer or something. I was walking around like a peacock. I could not wait for Kelli to get home. She was going to be so happy.

She did not let me down, she was very happy.

I am SO in-the-money, even my two youngest daughters were proud of me.

So for a few days anyway,

 I AM THE MAN!

A funny little story-

Last week I decided to fix the dead grass in my courtyard so I got up very early on Saturday to get to Star Nursery in time to get some of the sod that sells out by 8:00am. I needed about 150 square feet. I purchase the sod and head home to unload it, well after I spread it out I could tell I was a little short so I went back to get 5 more pieces. 

For those of you who frequent Home Depot or Star Nursery you know what it is to dodge the day-laborers who wait out front. You can't even make eye contact or they think you want them. Well I make it through the bodies and head back with my 5 extra pieces of sod. I load up the wheel barrow and push it into my courtyard and I stop. There on his knees with his back to me is the littlest Mexican I have ever seen. He could not be 5' tall and maybe a 100lbs, he is laying the sod in my courtyard. 

My mind is spinning trying to figure out where he came from. I thought maybe he came with the sod, you know, order more than 150 square feet and get a "helper". I thought maybe I went to slow in the Star Nursery parking lot and he jumped on my Tahoe. Maybe he was rolled up in the sod from the sod farm. Whatever the case he was in my yard laying sod. I go over to himto find out where he's from and he speaks no English, so me being fluent in Spanish, (NOT!) I try to converse with him by talking with an accent and putting "O" on the end of every word. I find out that he had been dropped off at a neighbors house and was finished mowing their grass and his ride had not come to pick him up yet so he was helping me lay sod. How cool is that. He laid the sod, I gave him 30 bucks and now I can't get rid of him. It's kind of like feeding a cat, it just hangs around. I came out the other morning at 6:00am and he was in my back yard watering the bushes. 

So I guess I have a little Mexican Elf. I will take advantage of it while it last.