HALLOWEEN CAME EARLY

This blog is starting to be a family picture site. Maybe it should be an internet news site like so many other blogs I read, but I guess right now one of my key learnings and values I'm trying to hold hard and fast to is the value of my family. I don't think I'm naturally good at this and I'm trying hard to fix it. Coaching soccer. Hanging with my kids. Trying to make time for the memories that will last a lifetime. These pictures help me remember what's most important in life and make me smile. Hopefully when I post them they encourage you too.

Anyway, the boys had a halloween party at school and they all picked a star wars theme this year for costumes. TJ is OB1 Canobe, Jake is Yoda and Tyler a Storm Trooper. Then on Sunday after lunch with some friends, we made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch. We usually let them play on whatever extra junk there is there, like hay bails and stuff, and then they can pick any pumpkin they want with one parameter. The only rule is, no matter who you are, you have to be able to pick it up and carry it to the car yourself. Guess that might get interesting when they're 17, 14, and 11- though maybe by then we'll just be blowing up pumpkins instead of carving them.

May the force be with you.

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CRUNCH

For everyone of us, I guess there is some definition of what hell on earth is and in jokes or whatever, it becomes the thing that Satan would do to you as torment should you go to hell... cuz it annoys you to no end.

Well, mine would be CRUNCHING. Specifically people crunching food. I won't even give my kids gum because it drives me nuts to listen to someone pop it and slop it around in their mouth. I don't even chew it myself... cuz it annoys me. I have no idea why or what happened to me in my childhood or while in my mother's womb or whatever, but I HATE crunching and listening to people chew. Now that I've posted this.. I'll probably now be given a CD of crunching and crunchy food to all my children to enjoy in my presence for Christmas by all my good friends who think tormenting me sounds fun.

But anyway, in my seminary class, there is this Marine type guy who eats his way through every class. At every break he finds more food. Not sure where he digs it up, though he has a very large bag he brings with him. But two weeks ago, he sat across the room and crunched like crazy. I think I heard every chew in the middle of my spine. Last week he sat right next to me and I thought I was going to dunk his head in my coffee- but the Marine look caused me to hesitate, plus I need my coffee in seminary and even drowning a cruncher might not be worth it. This week the guy is all the stinkin way across the class and crunching like crazy. Not like open mouth, like a cow crunching.... just like chewing an entire box of snap crackle pop that has been in the freezer to enhance the crunch factor.... and now we just got back from a break and some lady just brought in a freakin freshly popped bag of popcorn and the whole place stinks like it... I can hardly wait for some old lady to come in with her freshly nuked tuna caserole- which likely won't crunch, just stink up the place.

This only seems to reinforce another opinion I've been trying not to entertain, but that my hell might be having to sit in seminary class- which I guess is why I'm bloggin in the middel of it... plus, I'm trying to occupy myself so that I don't throw anything at the cruncher.

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DISNEYLAND DAY 2

Well, as my Disneyland Day 1 post would imply, we stayed a second day at Disneyland and California Adventure park for "Disneyland Day 2". It was tons of good ol family fun. Lots of memories. Here's the photo set from day 2. My personal favorite memory... pic on top row.. second from the left, "oh yeah baby"... the words from Tyler after we zipped passed the upside down loop of the rollercoaster at California Adventure- which we had too many fast passes for our group to go on... so Tyler and I went twice, back to back. He laughed most of the time and gave me the biggest hug when it was over.

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DISNEYLAND DAY 1

Took the kids out of school and went to Disneyland with my sister, my brother in law, my wife's parents, my parents, and my family today. Good times. Cool thing is this is the first time my entire family is tall enough so everyone gets to go on all the rides and we don't have to toss a coin to see who's going to wait with the munchkin. Jake even went on space mountain. What a trooper.

Here's a photo collage from today. I'll let them say the thousand words.

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LANDSCAPING UPDATE

We have collumns now. Looks like fort knox says the wife. Me and the boys say we need to add automated potatoe launching cannons soon to defend the house from the neighbors.

Stucco will be nice. Maybe then the neighbors will think we are just trying to change our yard instead of fortify it. One weekend at a time.

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BLUE ANGELS

Yesterday, I pulled the Dad card and a gal at church got me free tickets to go sit in the Patriot Chalet at the Miramar Air Show. Me, my 3 boys, and Aaron from my high school small group went to the show to eat, laugh, meet the pilots, climb around on machinery from all the armed forces,and be amazed by the crazy things America's pilots can do. We had tons of fun. Here's my observations on the day.

DAD DUTY: As a dad, I need to take my kids out of school to stuff like this again... it was tons of fun and a great memory.

FACTS OF LIFE: No matter how cool the tricks you can do in the air in a plane, it can't expand the attention span of a 4 year old. Also there is a law when parenting young children I have discovered: if there is something good about to happen you don't want to miss, someone will have to pee.

HERITAGE: There are men there who flew fighter planes in WWII and every war/military event since then. It's pretty amazing to see how much mutual respect they have and how much they support one another.

PERSPECTIVE: You get a very different feel there on freedom in America than you get in most of the news today. It is good to spend some time pondering all sides of the coin. I wondered how I'd feel if my 3 boys followed these men and women in their careers with the military. I think I'd be proud. I'm not sure how you can walk around that base and not be.

CONCRETE: there is a lot of concrete on those runways. I didn't know there was that much concrete in the world. I think I noticed cuz I put like a thousand bucks worth of concrete in my front yard recently.. and I think there is like 10 million bucks worth on the ground there. Not in the buildings, just the stinkin flight path.

TECHNOLOGY: we have fighter jets that can take off, fly a route, hit a target, return and land all by computer with the pilot there as an accessory and while breaking the sound barrier if they want to. Craziness.

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MY CRIB

If you have 8 minutes and need a good laugh... then enjoy the crib video one of our high school students made of my casa for a series on defeating the comparison game we all get stuck playing called "compareanoia". Anyway...it's good times.

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SMITEORAMA

If I was God, I'd smite some people. I know that sounds judgemental but God is our judge and judgemental is part of his job and maybe I should have been smited a long time ago... but here's my top two lowly suggestions for today.

1. Smite the entire Westboro Baptist Church who plan to protest the funerals of the little girls killed in Amish Country and who claim that they brought it on themselves by denying God and living Amish. I really want to start cussing now. Instead, I think God should smite those who, in my humble opinion, falsely represent him. I mean these are the poeple who sponsor godhatesfags.com. AHHHHHHH!

2. The clowns that decided to market a statue of St. Joseph as a means to sell homes. Yes, believe it or not, you can pay 10 bucks and buy a 4" figurine, complete with burying bag and then when you claim your property by the spirit of the saints, your house will sell... and lots and lots of people do this! Yippee for free market, the web, and stupidity.

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JURY DUTY

I'm stuck in a room in downtown El Cajon waiting for my name to be called. Believe it or not, they have wireless in this small room with a plug and a wobbly table we can sit at. I'm supposed to feel honored that I'm keeping our freedoms strong and doing my part to uphold the greatest justice system in the world... I think I'd rather be a cop.

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LANDSCAPING

Well,

We started landscaping our front yard last week. Something I've been wanting to do since we moved in. The front of our property has looked kinda nasty for a while and we began the process of moving our fence out to the front and building some retaining walls and planters and such. Diego and his friend Samuel have been doing most of the concrete. I do the sprinklers and electrical and whatever else Diego tells me to... He's the man. I'm enjoying working with him and practicing my Spanish.

Here's some photos of the work so far... I'll keep you posted as progress continues.. but it's a side job for Diego so he only works weekends on it. Looks like it will be another month or so before we're "done".

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