SMILE!!!
Mom, stop kissing me! :)
Sleeping with Dad and the dog
POOPY!
Merry Christmas Smile
Sweet Dreams
GO SOX!!!
Modest in the bath!
"I'm taking a bath Dad!"
Delicious!
9 hours ago
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Our Precious Arrie
Ok, not a lot to say here - just a lot of photo updates. We absolutely LOVE our little princess. She means the world to us! A lot of our friends are having babies right now and I love reading about their little ones coming into this world. It is truly a MIRACLE. Here's our baby!
SMILE!!!
Mom, stop kissing me! :)
Sleeping with Dad and the dog
POOPY!
Merry Christmas Smile
Sweet Dreams
GO SOX!!!
Modest in the bath!
"I'm taking a bath Dad!"
SMILE!!!Mom, stop kissing me! :)Sleeping with Dad and the dogPOOPY!Merry Christmas SmileSweet DreamsGO SOX!!!Modest in the bath!"I'm taking a bath Dad!"Saturday, January 2, 2010
It's NOT Just a Game.
The following was written on January 1, 2010.
First of all, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year. As we welcome in a new decade, I hope we make resolutions that are a little more potent on our minds than just the typical stuff (lose weight, read more, serve more, swear less, etc.).
As I’m writing this, I am somewhere on I-15 between Pasadena, CA and Las Vegas, NV. And I’m not happy. The Oregon Ducks – MY TEAM, my reason for even breathing the words Oregon and Ducks and even remotely liking the 10,000 combinations of green and yellow and white and black and now “graphite” - completely embarrassed themselves and the beloved Pac-10 in the 90-something-th Rose Bowl game. And I’m not happy.
I’d say that, since I’ve had some time to cool off, I’m more disappointed than anything. So as I sit here in the passenger seat of my parents mid-size Volvo, I can’t help but think about why I feel the way I do. A brief history: I can’t remember my first Duck game, but I know I was fairly young. And I can only assume that from that point, the Ducks were my favorite team. My dad and I would get season tickets every year since before I was 10. The only time I ever missed a game was if I was dead. I’ve done the face painting and the tailgating. I’ve been on DuckVision and snuck onto the sidelines. I woke up early (and still do) to catch ESPN’s College Gameday when it’s at Oregon. I stay up late to listen to every word analysts say. I read the Pac-10 blog more than I should and check out the football page on both goducks.com and registerguard.com daily. Needless to say, I have been an Oregon Ducks Football fan “yesterday, today, and forever.”
I remember getting into an argument with one of my roommates when I was at Brigham Young University. He was mad at me because I wasn’t a fan of BYU. All I could do was laugh at his seeming retardedness and say, “Because I’m a Duck fan.” I constantly remind my mother of the same thing. As my father-in-law so eloquently put it when speaking of his favorite baseball team, “I live and die with [the Red Sox].” So it is with me and my ducks. I love my ducks. Period.
That brings me to my point of venting a little bit in this post. The Ducks losing the biggest bowl game they’ve been in almost a decade has killed me over and over again – and it’s only been a couple of hours! I keep replaying the game in my mind and think to myself if only that thing or this thing could have gone differently. I get superstitious, too, and blame the loss on my daughter because she failed to wear her Oregon Duck game attire. I blame myself because maybe I could have yelled a little louder or not gone to the bathroom during the second quarter. I should have waited till halftime. If I wasn’t concerned with getting a good picture, maybe LaGarrette Blount wouldn’t have fumbled the ball. There’s a million reasons.
But I digress. The most disappointing thing of all is when you see a team perform below their ability. The Ducks are – rather, were – one of the premier teams in the country with an unstoppable offense. They got shut down because they failed to even try hard. “Holy Moly Jeremiah Masoli” looked like crap. His throwing abilities rivaled my wife’s and worse yet, he DIDN’T even try to run. Props to the defense though, they did a great job doing the best they could. But Oregon’s best defense is scoring 42 points a game. They only scored 17.
Ok, ok. I could keep going with excuses, but I’m not going too. The fact of the matter is, Chip’s boys didn’t want it as much as I did. They were outplayed by a mediocre-at-best Ohio State team. Even the OSU fans outnumbered Duck fans at least 2:1. That’s pretty sad. Everyone will praise OSU for finally winning a bowl game and Oregon will walk about wondering what could’ve been and with a 15 or 16 end-of-season ranking.
Bottom line is this: for me it’s NOT just a game. It’s a sense of pride and satisfaction. It means I can go to bed happy. It means this car ride would be a lot better. I would be excited to listen to Owl City. I wouldn’t worry about the McDonald’s I just ate making me fat. It means I would be happy. But now I have to think about what I’m going to tell all those BYU and Utah fans who say they beat the Pac-10. I have to come up with a “fun” way to tell my students what happened and act like it’s no big deal. That’s what I get for living in “enemy territory” and not amongst the other wearers of the green and yellow. And please don’t say, “there’s always next year,” because that’s a cop out. On the bright side, I don’t think I’ll have to wait another 15 years before going to the Rose Bowl again, but I think that next time, I’ll watch it from home.
I think I’m beginning to feel better.
First of all, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year. As we welcome in a new decade, I hope we make resolutions that are a little more potent on our minds than just the typical stuff (lose weight, read more, serve more, swear less, etc.).
As I’m writing this, I am somewhere on I-15 between Pasadena, CA and Las Vegas, NV. And I’m not happy. The Oregon Ducks – MY TEAM, my reason for even breathing the words Oregon and Ducks and even remotely liking the 10,000 combinations of green and yellow and white and black and now “graphite” - completely embarrassed themselves and the beloved Pac-10 in the 90-something-th Rose Bowl game. And I’m not happy.
I’d say that, since I’ve had some time to cool off, I’m more disappointed than anything. So as I sit here in the passenger seat of my parents mid-size Volvo, I can’t help but think about why I feel the way I do. A brief history: I can’t remember my first Duck game, but I know I was fairly young. And I can only assume that from that point, the Ducks were my favorite team. My dad and I would get season tickets every year since before I was 10. The only time I ever missed a game was if I was dead. I’ve done the face painting and the tailgating. I’ve been on DuckVision and snuck onto the sidelines. I woke up early (and still do) to catch ESPN’s College Gameday when it’s at Oregon. I stay up late to listen to every word analysts say. I read the Pac-10 blog more than I should and check out the football page on both goducks.com and registerguard.com daily. Needless to say, I have been an Oregon Ducks Football fan “yesterday, today, and forever.”
I remember getting into an argument with one of my roommates when I was at Brigham Young University. He was mad at me because I wasn’t a fan of BYU. All I could do was laugh at his seeming retardedness and say, “Because I’m a Duck fan.” I constantly remind my mother of the same thing. As my father-in-law so eloquently put it when speaking of his favorite baseball team, “I live and die with [the Red Sox].” So it is with me and my ducks. I love my ducks. Period.
That brings me to my point of venting a little bit in this post. The Ducks losing the biggest bowl game they’ve been in almost a decade has killed me over and over again – and it’s only been a couple of hours! I keep replaying the game in my mind and think to myself if only that thing or this thing could have gone differently. I get superstitious, too, and blame the loss on my daughter because she failed to wear her Oregon Duck game attire. I blame myself because maybe I could have yelled a little louder or not gone to the bathroom during the second quarter. I should have waited till halftime. If I wasn’t concerned with getting a good picture, maybe LaGarrette Blount wouldn’t have fumbled the ball. There’s a million reasons.
But I digress. The most disappointing thing of all is when you see a team perform below their ability. The Ducks are – rather, were – one of the premier teams in the country with an unstoppable offense. They got shut down because they failed to even try hard. “Holy Moly Jeremiah Masoli” looked like crap. His throwing abilities rivaled my wife’s and worse yet, he DIDN’T even try to run. Props to the defense though, they did a great job doing the best they could. But Oregon’s best defense is scoring 42 points a game. They only scored 17.
Ok, ok. I could keep going with excuses, but I’m not going too. The fact of the matter is, Chip’s boys didn’t want it as much as I did. They were outplayed by a mediocre-at-best Ohio State team. Even the OSU fans outnumbered Duck fans at least 2:1. That’s pretty sad. Everyone will praise OSU for finally winning a bowl game and Oregon will walk about wondering what could’ve been and with a 15 or 16 end-of-season ranking.
Bottom line is this: for me it’s NOT just a game. It’s a sense of pride and satisfaction. It means I can go to bed happy. It means this car ride would be a lot better. I would be excited to listen to Owl City. I wouldn’t worry about the McDonald’s I just ate making me fat. It means I would be happy. But now I have to think about what I’m going to tell all those BYU and Utah fans who say they beat the Pac-10. I have to come up with a “fun” way to tell my students what happened and act like it’s no big deal. That’s what I get for living in “enemy territory” and not amongst the other wearers of the green and yellow. And please don’t say, “there’s always next year,” because that’s a cop out. On the bright side, I don’t think I’ll have to wait another 15 years before going to the Rose Bowl again, but I think that next time, I’ll watch it from home.
I think I’m beginning to feel better.
Monday, November 23, 2009
We elfed ourselves, then each other...and we liked it.
Well, in hopes to spread Yule Tide Cheer this holiday season, we once again did JibJab's forever hilarious, "Elf Yourself." Here are a couple of this year's selections.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
And We're Back!
After a fairly long hiatus (during which we re-evluated life, it's purpose, and our position in it) we're back. I don't just mean we're back writing posts on blogs and doing the "same 'ol same 'ol". I mean, we're back. Plain and simple.
Now before you get pretty excited to figure out what has been happening in our lives the past "x" amount of months, know this - we're back. I feel I really need to make that clear.
Ok. I've got that out of the way and I'm ready to tell you everything. At least the big things that have happened. And you should know that there are some pretty dang big things. Big. So to make this easier, I'm going to break things down into events in chronological order starting with the latest and working my way to the very latest. So sit back, relax and get ready to be amused.
EVENT #1: Teaching. Way back in August, I started teaching. I won't go into too much detail, but public education sucks - and its it's own fault. I ran into a lot of early problems that most first-year teachers shouldn't have to deal with. I didn't have a room for over a month. I didn't have any equipment (computers, cameras, etc.) and when you teach photo and TV broadcasting, you need all that stuff. So, for the first month+ of school, we couldn't do anything. I lost the students and at this very second, I'm working on getting them back. I also was assigned to run a video scoreboard that never worked and I got blamed for it not working. When it comes right down to it, I love my job - which is to teach. I just hate all the other crap that comes with it.
EVENT #2: Pogi. If you said, "Aw, cute blog header!" you probably also asked, "What is Pogi?" Well, I'll tell you. Shortly after I began work as a Red Devil, our beloved dog, Belle, got terribly sick and had to be put down. I felt I needed to actually hold and comfort Belle as she slipped into eternity, which was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Shortly after Belle's death, we felt a void in our life and had an opportunity to get another dog for a very good price. So we did. And named him Pogi. Long story short, Pogi means "handsome" in Tagalog and in the Philippines, they always say "Handome is for dogs." I took their advice and named a dog Pogi. Aside from the constant smell of poop on his butt and his breath, he is supposed to be our dog and we love him very much!
EVENT #3: Mapleton, UT. We took the plunge and bought the most expensive thing we ever have up to this point. A house. It is a quaint little cottage of a house that we now call home. It sits on just under half an acre, so most of the investment is in the land. We've already began to fix things up and will probably post more things about it as things progress. We've also had to fix things, which naturally happens with a 60 year old house. But like I said, we call it home, and it keeps us safe from the elements.
EVENT #4: Arrie (prounounced R-E kind of blended together). Up until Arrie was born, the house was our most expensive investment. On October 21, that changed. We welcomed our biggest investment into the world and it was the most incredible experience. Here is how it happened: 1:30 am, Jen wakes up - water breaks. 1:35 am, I complain that I want to sleep. 2:30 am, we arrive at the hospital. 11:15 am, Arrie is born. Basically, life has never been the same since. It's funny, much like our dog Pogi, all she does is eat and poop. She sleeps when she wants to. I have to speak for myself and say I absolutely love being a padre. That's all.
So there you have it. That's basically all you need to get caught up on our lives. As time goes on, we'll elaborate on some details. I promise we'll get back into the groove of blogging.
Like I said before...We're back.
Now before you get pretty excited to figure out what has been happening in our lives the past "x" amount of months, know this - we're back. I feel I really need to make that clear.
Ok. I've got that out of the way and I'm ready to tell you everything. At least the big things that have happened. And you should know that there are some pretty dang big things. Big. So to make this easier, I'm going to break things down into events in chronological order starting with the latest and working my way to the very latest. So sit back, relax and get ready to be amused.
EVENT #1: Teaching. Way back in August, I started teaching. I won't go into too much detail, but public education sucks - and its it's own fault. I ran into a lot of early problems that most first-year teachers shouldn't have to deal with. I didn't have a room for over a month. I didn't have any equipment (computers, cameras, etc.) and when you teach photo and TV broadcasting, you need all that stuff. So, for the first month+ of school, we couldn't do anything. I lost the students and at this very second, I'm working on getting them back. I also was assigned to run a video scoreboard that never worked and I got blamed for it not working. When it comes right down to it, I love my job - which is to teach. I just hate all the other crap that comes with it.
EVENT #2: Pogi. If you said, "Aw, cute blog header!" you probably also asked, "What is Pogi?" Well, I'll tell you. Shortly after I began work as a Red Devil, our beloved dog, Belle, got terribly sick and had to be put down. I felt I needed to actually hold and comfort Belle as she slipped into eternity, which was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Shortly after Belle's death, we felt a void in our life and had an opportunity to get another dog for a very good price. So we did. And named him Pogi. Long story short, Pogi means "handsome" in Tagalog and in the Philippines, they always say "Handome is for dogs." I took their advice and named a dog Pogi. Aside from the constant smell of poop on his butt and his breath, he is supposed to be our dog and we love him very much!
EVENT #3: Mapleton, UT. We took the plunge and bought the most expensive thing we ever have up to this point. A house. It is a quaint little cottage of a house that we now call home. It sits on just under half an acre, so most of the investment is in the land. We've already began to fix things up and will probably post more things about it as things progress. We've also had to fix things, which naturally happens with a 60 year old house. But like I said, we call it home, and it keeps us safe from the elements.
EVENT #4: Arrie (prounounced R-E kind of blended together). Up until Arrie was born, the house was our most expensive investment. On October 21, that changed. We welcomed our biggest investment into the world and it was the most incredible experience. Here is how it happened: 1:30 am, Jen wakes up - water breaks. 1:35 am, I complain that I want to sleep. 2:30 am, we arrive at the hospital. 11:15 am, Arrie is born. Basically, life has never been the same since. It's funny, much like our dog Pogi, all she does is eat and poop. She sleeps when she wants to. I have to speak for myself and say I absolutely love being a padre. That's all.
So there you have it. That's basically all you need to get caught up on our lives. As time goes on, we'll elaborate on some details. I promise we'll get back into the groove of blogging.
Like I said before...We're back.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
You know that song...
So, I know it has been a very long time since we last blogged. A month maybe. But I got to thinkin' about a certain song to let everyone know that "I'm Still Here" (by Vertical Horizon). Listen to it here. It kind of applies.
Anyways, if you've been missing us, don't worry, we have to! We'll be writing again shortly so stay tuned!
Anyways, if you've been missing us, don't worry, we have to! We'll be writing again shortly so stay tuned!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Arrie Jo Boss
Here are Arrie's first photos!!!! Isn't she cute! :) We went to the doctor on Friday morning and It's A GIRL!!! We are so excited! Mostly we are so excited that she is healthy. Also, you will see a picture below of her right foot, so far we only can count 5 toes, but she had her toes on her left foot curled, so maybe there are 6 toes on that one! :) It was a very cool experience - I have to say, I was relieved there was actually a baby inside of me and not something else moving around and making me sick! Most people thought it was going to be a boy, but Braden has always known since he was young that his first child would be a girl! - and it is! Oh, and last night, for the first time, Braden felt her kick! VERY COOL!
THE Happiest Place on Earth
I have always wondered why they call Disneyland the "Happiest Place on Earth." I mean, isn't it all relative to the person saying it? Well, I decided to give Disneyland a try to see if I too could gain a firm testimony of the famous phrase. Now that we have been home from there a week, and that I have had some time to really think of my experiences there, I think I have come to a conclusion.
But first, let me tell you how this all started. Oh, about a month ago or so, we were talking to my parents when they mentioned they were going to take Jerik, their oldest grandson, and their youngest son Dill to Disneyland. Jen wanted to go and so I made the mistake of saying we had the money to go and that was that. I just said that to be nice, but didn't really think she would jump at the opportunity. I thought she would have wanted to save the money. Anyways, the "Priceline Negotiator" got us the best deal (4 days 3 nights in an awesome hotel really close, and airfare for just under $240/person). We got Park Hopper passes on ebay for about $120/ea. ($20 less than at the park). Oh. We also got a full-size rental car (a van) for 4 days for $89 thanks to Jen's mom's "Entertainment Book" membership. That's the details, now to what we did.
Day 1: Thanks to Captain Kirk, we got on a great mid-day flight to Long Beach. Once there and the rental car gotten, we headed to the beach in Surf Town, USA - Huntington Beach. That was fun, hot, and salty, but fun. We then went a few miles east to the hotel, checked in, freshened up, then went and ate at Cheesecake Factory. Dang good shiz.
Day 2: Disneyland! Got there early and no waits in line. It stayed that way pretty much all day. Now, because Jen is "with child" and because my mom was a wuss today, they went and got the rest of us fast passes to things. But we really didn't have to wait that long for anything anyways. Dill and I had to wait about 40 min for Space Mountain, but that was well worth the wait. Food was expensive, so we split most everything. There was a parade in the evening which was fun. Weather was overcast and not too warm, but perfect in that we weren't miserably hot. Good day. Fun day. We were glad to go to bed. We did everything (seriously, EVERYTHING) at the park between the hours of 9 am and 6 pm. No regrets. "Happiest place on earth phrase" in question.
Day 3: California Adventure! And oh boy what an adventure it was. First, Soaring California twice! It was fun and I really thought we were flying. Next was the Rapid ride which was fun, but we all got soaked and due to the weather, which was overcast and colder, so we were all wet for most of the day. Next I was pleased to experience Screamin' California. FOUR TIMES! Loved it. Probably the best ride so far! The best experience though was getting my mom to ride it. She was terrified and it was great. She screamed frantically and was practically crying. I was laughing so hard I thought my cheeks were going to split open! Tears everywhere between the two of us, I couldn't talk for some time after wards without laughing hysterically. Best memory of my mom to date. Another really fun ride was the Tower of Terror. I loved the overall experience. Again, Jen got us all fast passes and was able to go on a few rides herself, including the Toy Story ride, which is super fun! Finished up Cal. Advent. around 7 and headed over to Space Mountain one last time, this time with my mom. That was a super long wait because someone blew chunks all over the ride. But, once again, totally awesome. Mom did a lot better. Then was Tower of Terror one last time, this time with mom. No fireworks tonight. But the bed felt better than ever.
Day 4: Last day of awesome free breakfast at the hotel. Did some free laundry at the hotel, packed up, and left. Thanks to the host of the old show "Rescue 911" we had a 4 hour wait at the airport. Smallest airport ever. We got home, ate, then went to bed.
So. One week later, after much thoughtful consideration, here are my "Best's":
Best Ride Waiting Experience: Tower of Terror
Best Ride Element: Indiana Jones
Best Ride Animatronics: Pirates of the Caribbean
Best Overall Ride Experience: California Screamin' (with my mom)
Most Suspenseful Ride: Tower of Terror & Space Mountain
Best Kids Ride: Toy Story
Stupidest Ride: Roger Rabit
Longest Wait: Space Mountain
Shortest Wait: Haunted Mansion
Best Food: Soup Bowls (California Adventure)
Best Place to take a Nap: Tiki Room
Biggest waste of time: Waiting to get autographs from characters (They always cut the line off when we got to the front)
Now that I've written all of this, here is the verdict: The combination of Disneyland and California Adventure really do make up the Happiest Place on Earth. For now. But also know this, we'll wait to take our kids when they are past the age of accountability (8). Jerik just got tired and didn't want to do a lot. But that's it. It was a great trip and nice to get out of Utah for a bit. It was much needed and again, a lot of fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
