Baby update

I am sitting at the doctors office as Stacey is getting her first baby
appointment here in Salem. We just heard the baby's heartbeat and she
sounds strong. Isn't Stacey's belly looking beautiful? She is
currently at 27 weeks.

My Assistant

When Sami came to my office recently, she immediately grabbed a pad of
paper and a pen and went and sat down on a stool between my two filing
cabinets. If she could stay put there, I would love to have her int
office all day long... But she NEVER stays put long...

Sami afraid

Here is a picture of Sami today standing outside of the house as it
was getting inspected. She was a little scared of something....

I am running a little test to see if I can now post pictures directly
to my blog through my cell phone. You will see in a post below that I
can now text directly to my blog through my cell phone. This is so
amaZing and will add a new dimension to my blogging efforts...

The thing Sami was afraid of

This is a test to see if I can actually send a text message to my blog and it will get posted immediately. If this works then I will be totally amazed at what technology can do!

Life Changing Book

As a little gift to the family, I bought the Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saint Families. It is a rather large book and is over 100 pages longer than the regular Book of Mormon. The book has pictures in it as well as it highlights words that children might not understand and provides definitions of those words. I gave the book to the family when they came out to Salem and we have been reading it just about every night as a family. It has been great! The boys seem to enjoy reading from it and actually enjoy scripture reading time. As parents, Stacey and I have also decided on a new approach to scripture reading - instead of trying to read what we want to read (in the past we would try to get through one chapter) we read until we realize the kids are no longer paying attention or are getting too restless. The nice thing about this new Book of Mormon is that it breaks the chapters down into three or four sections. We do not get through a chapter in our reading but on occasion we make it through three of the sections. I suspect that we will run into evenings when we might make it through one scripture - but our new philosophy is NOT the QUANTITY of our scripture reading but the QUALITY. Our kids are not going to remember everything we read together as a family, but they will remember that we read our scriptures together every night (would you believe - quite often? Would you believe - more than once a week?). We also spend time explaining situations to the kids and try to ask questions that spark their memory from the previous reading. We have enjoyed spending time together as a family and with our scripture reading. Now, I don't suggest spending large quantities of time away from your family, but it has really helped us understand what is truly important in life. The Book of Mormon for families was the best $35 (through amazon.com and not Deseret Book) we have ever invested...

What Next?

Technology is such an amazing thing and tonight I have really recognized that fact as I am here writing on my blog and watching the Cardinals play the Arizona Diamond Backs (in HD) on my computer as I type. Albert Pujols is up to bat and has already hit a HR and Ryan Ludwick has hit two HRs. Hunter and Ryan just got done playing the Wii. Hunter earlier was iChatting with his friend Alex in Colorado. Stacey is sitting on the La-Z-boy recliner playing a game on her iTouch while watching Princess Protection Program (must be something along the lines of High School Musical 1 and 2 - not 3 as that was apparently pretty cool, though I have not actually watched it). In the background my iPhone is chiming with every email that I receive. Amazing stuff that technology. Someday we will laugh at how even everything I describe will be so outdated - I hope to be watching a 3D hologram baseball game in my living room by then...of course, by then I will have a DVR robotic brain...

By the way, Pujols was intentionally walked.

Salem Update

Well, quite a bit has happened in the past week and I will update on a part of it. The family finally made it to Salem to stay. Last Wednesday, I was supposed to head to Utah to pick up the family, but instead Stacey drove the family out with our Sister-in-Law Misty. They drove the whole 13 hour trip in one day. Apparently the kids did a pretty good job and were great on the trip - thanks to DVDs and a TV screen...and lots of goodies. I am not sure who was more excited -- the kids to see me or me to see the family. Samantha had a very interesting response. When she saw me she started laughing hysterically and pointing at me and hugging me, but she was so happy to see me that she was on the verge of tears. It was so cute - her laughing with tears welling up in her eyes. For the next three days, the family just hugged each other continually. On Thursday, I took the day off and we went to our storage shed to go through all of our stuff. We had lined up movers to come help us on Friday and we tried to get them to come earlier, but they couldn't. So, we started moving things ourselves. The moving company owner saw us moving things and told us that if wanted to he could bring his truck over and we could load it up - then, he would drive it to our apartment to unload. We spent the next couple of hours going through boxes and loading the truck. We moved most everything but the furniture ourselves. By the time we were done, the owner had recruited someone to come over to the apartment to help us unload. We unloaded and unpacked the house and were able to set up beds to sleep on that night. On Friday, we went over to the storage unit again and loaded up the furniture. This time we had a little more help and we did not have to move any of the heavy stuff. By Saturday, we were wiped out so we took the day off and went to the Coast. We went up and down the coast checking out the beaches and a lighthouse. We found some sea lions lying on a dock on the bay and we were able to watch them from a higher dock overlook. Sami absolutely loved watching the sea lions. We got to play on the beach when the tide was low and all the kids loved that. They were able to run around crazy all over the beach and play in the water a little bit. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. We closed out the day by eating at the World Famous Moe's - famous for their seafood. By the time we got home that night we were completely wiped out. On Sunday, we drove to Portland and watched Payton give his homecoming talk - he did a fantastic job. As you can tell, we had a busy, fun, exciting first few days. We are just so excited to be together as a family and it has been great. No more bachelor life me...

Saying Good-by to a Friend

I have been thinking about this for quite some time now. This week I will be saying good-bye to my closest friend - THE SHED. How exactly should I say good-bye? I mean, THE SHED has been through all the good times and the bad times here in Salem with me. Those dark and cold nights - who was there? THE SHED (granted it was cold because THE SHED can't keep heat in it. Who was there comforting me after each iChat with my family and realizing how much I missed them? THE SHED. Who was there on those weekends when no one else would hang out with me (not counting Billy the Blue Jay, and Nuts the Squirrel? THE SHED. Who was there on the nights that I cried myself to sleep when I missed my family like crazy? NO ONE because I didn't cry myself to sleep - because that wouldn't be manly...probably didn't happen. But had I done that, then THE SHED would have been there. Even when I found myself another friend (my electric blanket) was THE SHED jealous? No, THE SHED stood by me even then and we had quite a little party group on Saturday nights - but we didn't go out much together - we all preferred to stay home. When spiders, carpenter ants, sugar ants, and termites came into THE SHED, did THE SHED help me there? No - THE SHED was scared of them as well, but my electric blanket protected as I curled into a ball and through it over my head. As you can see, it is going to be hard for me to say good-bye to THE SHED, and I am not sure proper way to say good-bye.

Maybe I will just extend my middle finger and yell out 'I hope I never see you again!!'

Exciting Week

So, this is the week. This is what I have been waiting for all winter. We will finally be reunited - it has definitely been a very long time. Yes, baseball starts today and the first week of the season officially opens up tomorrow! I am so excited! Also, I will be going to pick up my family on Wednesday night - just for the record, I am more excited about that then baseball season. See I have evolved and grown up over the years. After ichatting with the family today and listening to conference talks about family all weekend, I can barely wait to see them on Wednesday. I predict that there will be a lot of hugging and kissing going in the first few minutes I see the family...and it won't stop for the next few days after! We will pack everything up on Thursday and drive part way to Oregon - maybe stop in Pendleton? Then, on Friday we will drive the remaining way and start unpacking our stuff and then on Saturday we will do a full blown move into an apartment. Getting the right house in Salem has been a challenge and a task for us, so we will rent until we do find the house that we love. Should be quite the adventure. But we are just so excited to be back together as a family - I can't wait for the family to experience Salem.

Salem Update

April 7th is not coming fast enough. I am sooooooo looking forward to seeing the family again. It seems so close, yet so far away! So, Stacey and I made an offer on a house that is right next door to the house that we made an offer on a few weeks ago, and someone came in and swooped it away from us. If we get this house, we feel like we will hold no grudges against our neighbors. This house is a little pricier then the other house and fits us a little better, though it has one less bedroom - but it does have a den. You can see some video I took of the houses at www.horsecloverhouse.blogspot.com. The first 6 videos on the website are of the house we are looking at now, and the other videos are from the previous house we lost out on. Anyway, we made an offer and the bank countered on Friday. We decided to counter back, but because the bank was not willing to drop very far on their price, we are not certain if they will come down very much further. We hope so. We hope to find out on Wednesday May 31, if they will meet us.

On a somewhat related story, I went to the temple yesterday. It is nice to be able to do that on a Saturday morning. Of course, I have had a lot on my mind concerning the house and getting the family out here, and some of you may know that I am a planner and worry about the future, or try to plan around various scenarios that frequently include the worst-case scenario. Anway, I opened the Book of Mormon in the temple yesterday (normally I read Isaiah in the temple because I love the allegories of the temple in his writings - so this is something I have not done in a long, long time) and read Chapter 12 and 13 of 3rd Nephi for no particular reason but the fact that the book opened to those pages. After that I went through the session and then sat in the Celestial room for quite some time. I was just about to leave when the thought came to me to re-read Chapter 13, so grabbed a BoM sitting on the table next to me and re-read the chapter. The last 5 versus struck me so very hard, especially to the 'planning-brain' side of me. The versus are below:


30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith.
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

This may not mean much to you, but to me it hit so hard - I have little faith. I should not be planning for worst-case scenarios, but I need to be planning how to help my family and I be more spiritual. As long as I (and my family) am keeping the covenants I have made with the Lord, and putting my faith in his hands, then he will provide. So, if I am worried about providing for my family, then I need to rely more on the Lord and seek the "kingdom of God." With everything in the world and the economy in such a flux, now is the time more than ever to hold fast to the covenants we have made with the Lord. As I do keep the commandments, covenants, and grow closer to him, then he will bless us and make sure we have food, clothing, and a roof over our heads.

I am grateful for how the Lord answers the prayers of our hearts - sometimes, when you are as pig-headed and prideful as me, it takes some extra prodding.

Salem Update

So, it has been a little while since I have posted. Stacey and I terminated the contract on the Arroyo RIdge house due to the third flood that took place - and no rainbow. We moved on to our next favorite house, and found out today that someone came in and swooped it away from us. Now we are back to square one. However, we are going to take a break from active looking for houses and just get an apartment. I am going to Utah to pick up the family on April 8th and we will finally be together!! Yipee! I am going to leave the house looking up to Stacey....