Jake's Family

Later Saturday night Jake's family hung out at our house and visited. The first day we had 17 people attend the feud, and on Sunday we lost 3 and added 4, which means that 26 people from Jake's family (including the brothers) were able to visit this weekend. It was like a family reunion.

Getting Ready for Family Feud

This weekend was very interesting. I spent most of the time at the family feud or hanging out with Jake's family since everyone staying at our place Friday and Saturday night.

Unfortunately, they didn't win the $20,000, but we all had a fun time. They each ended up with $179.

Below are the brothers getting ready and then ready to go the first day.

Chuck, Jeremiah, Josh, Andy, and Jake

This a video of McKenna and Hugh (my nice and nephew) that I thought was really cute. They love each other and walk around everywhere together playing. McKenna is 19 months and Hugh is 22 months.

Dinner With Mom and Jim

Last night I went out to dinner with Mom and Jim. We went to Islands and I tried to pick out something healthy to eat. Mom let me try her pineapple soft taco (can't remember the name) and it was fantastic. I think I'll have that next time.

We talked about our Thanksgivings and I got to bore them with stories about my new bicycle. They were very jealous that I had just got back from visiting with Micah. Oh, and Wendy and Jeff... ;)

I've noticed that people don't tend to take pictures unless it's a special event, so I wanted to make sure I got a picture of us at dinner even though I see them somewhat often.

A few years ago I noticed that everyone has pictures of Wendy and Jeff, but not very many of me. I realized that it's because when Wendy comes to town, everyone gets out the cameras. So I'm going to try to start taking pictures more often so that I have lots of good memories, of everyone all the time :).

Fun With Karen and Cameron

Besides staying in playing video games, we also went out bike riding on Friday and Sunday. We brought our new bikes with us to San Jose (we bought them the Tuesday before we left). At first, I wasn't so sure that buying new bikes was a great idea, but after riding for awhile, I've decided that I absolutely love my new bike and that the money was worth it. :)

Because we got new bikes, we now have two extra bikes, and we also got another set of roof racks, so no one has an excuse for not riding with us (and we can all go in the same car). All that will be needed is a helmet.

Visiting San Jose

I had lots of fun visiting with Wendy, Jeff, and Micah. Micah is getting much more animated and showing personality. I also got to see the entire Budd family although I didn't get many pictures. I was definitely slacking, but it's hard to remember to take pictures when I'm staring at the baby the whole time. :)

No Pictures Just Yet

Jake borrowed my SD card reader so I don't have any of my pictures to post from this weekend. I'll try to post something tomorrow.

The Rat Dilemma

The decision on the rat was made for me. I came home and the gardener had come by to mow the yard and had dumped the grass in that trash can. It made me feel a little better, since I suppose that would have finished him off if he wasn't dead already.

Veteran's Day

On Friday, Alex asked Jake to come to his school for a Veteran's Day event. The kids sang a song and basically thanked the veterans for everything they did/do for our country. It was actually very cute and touching.

They gave every verteran (I think there were about 60) a chance to introduce themselves and to say what they did or currently do in the US Armed Forces. It was really interesting to hear everyone talk. There were lots of different areas represented: Marines, Air Force, Army, Navy... and also many different jobs: Missle Defense, Pilot, Scout, Cook... and many different wars: Desert Storm, Iraq, Vietnam, World War II (yes, that person was very old)...

Some of the verterans said they had never before been thanked in an event like that and that they appreciated what the school was doing. Some even got a little emotional. It was kind of a cathartic type of experience and I was glad I got to attend.


This is a picture of the stands where people were sitting.


This is a picture of one guy talking (I remember that he was a cook and everyone kind of laughed. Later, a guy who had been a Baker picked on him about people liking the baked goods much better than the regular food served by the cooks. :) You can see Jake behind him.


And this is a picture of some of the Veteran's on stage.

Seven's Presents - Rats

Two days ago, Seven left me a nice present - a very dead rat by my car. Yesterday, she left me another present, a live rat by my car. The poor thing had been punctured and I'm sure played with, and couldn't walk away, but was still alive. So I put them both in a trash can and left.

Now here's the problem, I couldn't stop thinking about this live animal stuck in a trash can with it's dead friend. It's probably in pain, but I'm not sure how long it will continue to live. I thought about trying to kill it, but I don't think I could. It gives me a sick feeling. In fact, I thick the rat gave me a pleading "help me" look when I picked it up to throw it away.

So here I am today, assigning the animal human feelings, thinking of it suffering while lying next to his buddy, although I admit to placing them as far apart as possible in the trashcan just so he wouldn't be too freaked out.

So should I check on him tonight and try to kill him if it's still alive, or should I let nature run it's course and wait for him to die naturally? This whole thing really bothered me.

Out Dancing

Emilio let me download the pictures he took when we went out dancing a few weeks ago. We had a great time. I hope we continue to go out every once in awhile. I'm starting to feel a little bit old. :)

I Love Ebay

I forgot to mention that only a week or two after bleach ruined my pants on the fishing trip last month, I found the exact same pair in the same size on ebay for only about $20 total. I love ebay!

Seven

Just for fun, here's Seven, basking in the sun. It's kind of funny how you can see me taking a picture with my phone in the shadow.

Friends, A Day Off, and Too Much Internet

It turns out that Alan's new apartment is only a couple blocks from a lighted disc golf course. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of us out throwing discs around an eerily foggy course at 2:00am last Saturday, but I do remember having a lot of fun. We even went on the playground. :)

But here are some pictures of the day after. We ended up at a really good mexican restaurant that morning.


This coming weekend should have been a three day weekend for me, but it turns out that we have a special event on Saturday. But I'm very excited to have tomorrow off. I hope to have time to sleep in, hem two pairs of pants that have been waiting (probably won't happen), and try to relax a bit.

This week has been especially stressful with student registration taking place, but today is the last day. Thank goodness! I haven't felt like I've had time to do anything - like blogging. Of course, I suppose I shouldn't be using work time to write on my blog. :)

One problem that I've had lately is that I get caught up reading internet articles any time I need to look something up on line. I can easily spend 30 or more minutes clicking on link after link reading interesting stories, but it's a total waste of time. I'm trying to catch myself and not read too much. I've developed about 5 stacks of stuff around my office that need to be sorted, and I'm contributing to my stress by not getting more important things done. That's defintely an area that has room for improvement, but I'll continue to work on it.

Seven's New House

When I came out of the house this morning, I found Seven sleeping in her bed which is inside of her new house that we bought her. I was excited because now she has her bed and her food in an area protected from the weather.

My Weekend

Last Thursday I woke up and one of my eyes was stuck shut. Just as I was starting to feel better, that happens. So I went to the doctor that morning and found out that I had given myself pink eye. So I worked only half a day and stayed home on Friday also. I'm still just slightly sick and continuing to get better. I'm hoping that I'll be back at the gym by the end of the week. It would be nice if that was my main sickness for this year. Yuck.

We had fun this weekend, but it was WAY too busy. We had Cameron and Karen stay over on Friday night then went to Knott's Berry Farm on Saturday with JR and Kim. I have a few pictures from the trip. They don't look that great since I used my phone, but they're still funny.


Afterward, we went to a BBQ with Xavier and Ted who were down south this weekend. It's been ages since I saw them. I even met Xavier's sister for the first time ever. I was disappointed that I couldn't hold her new daughter since I'm still a bit sick. :(

After that we went back to Pasadena and hung out downtown with Cameron, Karen, and Emelio. We actually ended up at a restaurant that we've been to a few times. They have a bar on the side and had a guy mixing music till about 1am. Originally, we were going to have a drink there while we waited for another restaurant to open at 10:30 for dancing, but ended up staying till they closed, which was a fun and strange surprise since I wasn't expecting that restaurant to be a good place to stay the whole evening.

On Sunday, we played disc golf and then went over to see someone Jake knows. We're helping her to list her house on the MLS. After that I went home and pretty much went straight to bed. I slept for about 11 hours and I'll still tired. Being sick sucks.

So that was my weekend. I've got to start taking more pictures to go along with these things.

Wendy Came To Visit

Below are a few pictures from Wendy's visit this weekend. We had a great time. Wendy and Melissa also spent some time with me on Saturday helping me pick out a new wedding ring. I know it sounds kind of strange, but my ring band broke and instead of having it repaired, Jake and I decided that it was time for me to get a new ring.


Wendy and Micah



Dad and Caiden


David and Melissa


Alex and Micah

Below is a picture of the new ring. I had a really hard time figuring out what I wanted. Here's the story. Jake and I picked out a ring from Robbins Brothers and they told us we had 30 days to return the ring if we decided against it. The next day I returned the ring and got another. The day after that I decided I didn't like the new ring and put it away to wait for Wendy to come down from San Jose to help me out. After all, I can't keep taking my ring back; I have to finally just make a decision. So Saturday, Wendy, Micah, Melissa, and Caiden all came with me to ring shop. Now, I'm pretty sure I like my new ring, but there is still a nagging in the back of my head that says maybe there is something better out there. I think I have issues.

I'm Sick

I hate being sick. This one took me totally by surprise. I've got a sore throat that feels like it's moving into my ears and I've been achy and tired. I took today off from both jobs and I'm hoping that's going to help, but tomorrow I've got a presentation so I can't really call in sick. I'm also going out to dinner with family and then Wendy, Jeff, and Micah are staying the night here. On Saturday I'll be hanging out with everybody and then we're going out dancing that night. I'm probably just going to get even more sick. This really stinks.

Ok, enough about that. I finally found my camera which had worked its way down into my bag where a binder fit perfectly over it and hid it very well. So now Jake and I have two cameras, which works out well for me, since now we don't have to share. :)

Wendy, Jeff, and Micah stopped by on their way out to see Melissa, David, and Caiden. Here's a picture of me and Micah.

Alan's New Place and Organization

I know it's been awhile, but I haven't found much to talk about. I'll try to keep up a bit more.

This weekend Jake and I spent some time with Alan, who just moved into his own apartment in Anaheim. I think Jake has found his new favorite place to hang out. Alan his computers, internet, video games, robots, and other electric gadgets and gizmos that really don't excite me like it does for them. Today they spent two hours at Fry's Electronics, so I spent that time at Target.

My main goal today was to find some organization for my many, many, almost embarrassingly many shoes. I currently have an enormous mound on the floor of my closet. I figured that five minutes trying to find both shoes probably meant it was time to get organized. My solution based on careful analysis of space, sizing, whether hanger space would be needed and how many shoes could fit in each option, led me to the final solution of three clear, shallow, tubs that are currently in my car. I kind of wish we could go home so that I can organize! But Jake and Alan are currently in heaven with food, alcohol, tv, downloading stuff off the internet, and playing with all the new cables and hookups required in Alan's new place from the Fry's trip today.

We also bought Seven a new dog house/cat house. I woke up this morning and found her food dishes full of rain water. I'm also realizing that she doesn't have anywhere to go at night since we took off her cat door for the garage. It's also getting colder and I want her to have her cat bed again. So we have a nice new house for her that will fit her bed and food dish. I'm kind of excited to see if she'll like it.

Fishing

On Sunday, Jake and I got up at 4:15am to go fishing - it was horrible. I feel like I have jet lag today.

I almost threw up on the boat going out to sea, even though I took a pill to help with sea sickness an hour before that. I felt a bit miserable for a good part of the trip. To top it all off, I ruined my favorite pair of pants. They are black and I didn't think I'd be able to stain them. It turned out that they swabbed the deck with bleach water at the end and my pants were touching the floor. About an inch of my hem is now pink. I was pretty sad last night, but I'm going to see if I can find another pair on e-bay since that's where I found them before. I'm also going to try coloring the pants with permanant marker since they're black to see if maybe it won't be possible to tell from a distance. It might sound silly, but they fit perfectly and matched a lot of shirts that I have.

Jake and I bought a new digital Panasonic camera for $99 at Frys. We figure it'll be good to have until we find our other. The reasons for getting it was that it was cheap, uses an SD card, and has image stabilizer (it's also 5 mega pixels). It didn't work too bad; you can see the pictures below.


I was recovering from being sick in the cabin and came out to find fish everywhere. Jake caught four big ones and there were lots of fish being caught all over the place. I asked to hold the pole and suddenly the fish were gone. I did catch two later in the day, but it was almost like I was the bad luck token at that point. Oh well. Below is Jake's biggest fish.

Wow

On Saturday we saw this beauty parked at the YMCA.

Friday With Alex

Alex and I were going to go on a short hike Friday afternoon, but the road was closed until October 30th. That kind of stunk. When we turned around to leave we saw this deer and fawn crossing the road. Kind of neat.

This is Alex back at home later. Now he's playing video games and loving it. Of course, that was after we stopped at the grocery store to make sure we had ice cream for later that night. And can you believe that Alex forgot to have any.... kids these days, give them a video game and they forget about all the important things in life. :)