Michael's World-o-Blog

Memories

2011-06-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Oh the fun times we had last year at Disneyland.

Want to go back, but Sarah said no.

We will have to return again someday.

Camping pictures

2010-09-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Our little music maker

2010-09-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

The musician

2010-09-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Crazy Campers

2010-09-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

On a whim last week I decided to ditch sarah for the weekend while she planned a shotgun weddin' and take the kids camping. We decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and visit my brother's family that just moved to thatcher.

They agreed to even come with us camping and so we set off to mt graham. If you don't know already this is my favorite place in az to camp. It's far, cold and a difficult trek to get there but I love it.

We got there and setup camp quickly and attempted to get a fire going. The wood was damp so we asked kerry (kerosene) to help us. She got the fire going pretty good and we were able to roast marshmellows and have s'mores.

If you ask hunter this was his favorite part of the trip. That boy loves him a campfire and s'mores!

Thankfully aunt becky watched the youngins so I could setup tent. I went fast and it was cold by then but I think they had fun playing and exploring even in the dark.

Luckily I brought the heater and we slept nice and toasty, me and my kids all snug in my bed since reese didn't care much for her bed. Surprisingly they loved it and slept all night! I was so excited for that. Didn't help me sleep better but I still woke up refreshed. Something about that cold clean mountain air that does it.

Unfortunately stevens family didn't fair so good and they got cold. It was pretty funny the setup they had for calie, they certainly sacreficed for her to be warm.

We were so close to a stream you could hear it in the tent and that was neat. That was the kids second favorite part of the trip was throwing stuff into the water. Surprisingly only 1 of hunters feet ended up in the water after slipping on a crossing. He just laughed when it happened instead of the normal wailing.

Aunt becky was even kind enough to take the kids exploring while steven and I made killer bf burritos. It's a trujillo family tradition to use the woks my dad had made for us and we use a turkey fryer burner or in this case right on the fire to make breakfast burritos consisting of chorizo and eggs. It was really good!

The morning fire was really nice, especially after waking up so early with reese. Poor thing, she woke up so happy with a smile on her face and sits up, goes to move and rolls right of the edge of the air mattress on her head on the ground. She wailed for 5 mins at 545am. I am sure the other campers enjoyed that wake up call. Haha the funny part is that it didn't even cause hunter to stir. He also sleeps really good in the mountains like his daddy. She recovered just fine and didn't even have a bump. I think it scared her more than it hurt her and it was nice to setup the tent in grass instead of on rock.

We explored, went for a short hike and just enjoyed the mountain before we had to call it a day. Check out was at 2 so we broke camp while the kids attempted naps. Reese and callie fell asleep on the hike, hunter crashed when we got back.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Cooking over a fire

2010-08-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

Hunter loves cooking over a fire. A boy after my own heart, I love it!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

10 cent banannas

2010-07-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

I went the produce market on my way home from work today and they had 10 cent a lb banannas. So what did I do? Bought a ton of course!

For fun we made chocolate covered bananna treats and the kids just lved it

Then of course we did some serious clean up

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

My happy hikers

2010-06-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I woke up sarah early and made her go hiking with me. By the time we got there it was 87 and when we left it was 93 so not too bad. Fun family times even if sarah isn't a hiker she was a pretty good sport.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

What happens when mommy leaves

2010-06-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

So I start cleaning the carpet and in no more than 5 mins later I come out to this mess!

Crazy kids, so I reverted back to the child lock that I put on it when hunter was 1... Giant strip of packing tape!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Do you know the muffin man?

2010-06-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

So it's sunday morning and we are running dangeously low on supplies like milk eggs and butter, so low it was difficult to come up with something we could eat beyond the normal. Sarah loves muffins so I decided to venture into her muffin cookbook. Normally we can't cook out of it because appearently you can only cook good muffins with bran, and come on... Really? What normal person keeps bran on hand?
Well good news for sarah I got some a while back last time a situation like this showed up and we actually had some!

I settled on upside down pecan sticky mufins and I'd say they came out good. To make them even healthier than just adding bran, I made them with whole wheat flour too. What can I say, I'm a sucker for whole grains. It's about the only time I get nurtrition so might as well make it count.

Then on top of this any of you arizonans know it's going to be close to 110 today so instead of heating the house up with the oven, we grilled them instead. My goal this summer is to pretty much be able to cook everything and anything outside in one way or another. I will keep you posted on how that comes out.

See attached pictures of the mufins grilling the waiting family and the results...

You have to modify the grill a little bit to make it work but that's another post.

Apricots abound

2010-05-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

Just the beginning of our aprict harvest! It's going to be a banner year for apricots

Tree no more

2010-05-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today I helped my dad take out the dead tree in their backyard.

It was kind of scary we used this boom truck thing and a chain saw.

It was really tall but really fun to get up there. I didn't even break the wall but one log hit the ground and bounced back up and hit the top of the wall so knocked two blocks off.

As you can see how high it is and how big the tree was. The backyard looks so much bigger now with the tree gone.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Helping hands

2010-05-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

My two favorite helpers with the tomato harvest

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Good new bad news

2010-05-24T16:07:00.000-07:00

The good news is our apricot tree is bursting with fruit! The bad new I that there was so much it broke this whole branch off one side.

The good news is I picked the first two ripe ones, the bad news I didn't get a taste the kids ate them all before I got a taste.

2010-05-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

2010-04-26T19:31:00.001-07:00

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Reese says quack quack like a duck

2010-04-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

thanks mike

Reese says quack quack like a duck

2010-04-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Celebrate with a cold one and a cookie

2010-04-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Cheers!

I am celebrating the finishing of my capstone project and hopefully my masters. Hope it all goes good and I can be done may 8th.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

I ♥ Faces Week 46 Entry

2009-11-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

Click on the picture for a bigger/better picture, the background makes it look orange and not so good.

http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com week 46 sun flare challenge...

Club 200k

2009-09-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that this morning I was on my way to work and joined the Toyota 200,000 miles club with my 1998 Toyota Camry. At 6:02 AM, my car while driving to the intersection of Ellsworth and Germann was able to gracefully cross the 200,000 mile mark. what a great car she's been and always been there to taxi us around wherever we may need to go. Here's to another 200,000 miles!

Making Soap is Dope

2009-06-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Got the crazy idea this weekend that we needed a new adventurous country living project for the family. I decided on making soap. A little back story, we went up north to a goat farm and really enjoyed seeing the goats and all the things they made with them. We learned about the excellent properties of goat soap and got some for Hunter to use since he has such sensitive skin. My brother and his wife also enjoy the qualities of goat milk soap and also took care of such a venture last weekend, so likewise we followed suit.

I however decided to go a different route, a much more challenging route called the "hot process" method or "crockpot" method of "cooking" the soap. This allows the Lye to complete it's chemical reaction using heat to "age" the soap, making it usable right away. The other method is called the "cold" process, where you basically add all your ingredients and let the natural process work itself out without heat, taking about 6 weeks to fully "age" the soap. the advantege is it is much easier to work with and less risky as you can burn or ruin your soap with the cooking process.

Wow what a venture it was. I highly recommend it to others with sensitive skin or bored with the varieties in the store. An investment of about 30 dollars, 3 hrs of your time, and your garden variety of ingredients and utensils and you have yourself about 30 bars of soap.

Harnessing the great power of the internet, I was able to find a few simple recipes and techniques that worked for our situation and ability level. the simple reciepe included 6.5 lbs of fat (13 cups, we used a mixture for this of 70% virgin pressed olive oil, 20% organic coconut oil, 5% Vegetable shortening and 5% baby or mineral oil) 1 can of 100% Lye, 32oz of Goat Milk, 1 cup of Hot water and 1/2 cup of Honey. I also added 1/2 cup each of both ground almonds and oatmeal.

After gathering all my ingredients needed, I got my tools:

Then I chased down my awesome assistant

Then decked him out in all his safety gear (working with pure lye is highly caustic and dangerous)

Even though he didn't help me with that part, I opted him to have it ready. He was such a trooper.

Then we proceeded to measure out and pour in all our ingredients:

Hunter, promptly and on queue spills the very sticky honey all over the counter, only making half of it in its intended target. So I made him clean it up like a good helper should:

After careful measurement, I proceeded to put all the oils into the crockpot to start their melding together and started the batch of goat milk/Lye mix to add to the oils.

Having never made soap before, and trying to understand the process of making soap from a recipe that does not use goat milk (uses water instead but the goat milk can be substituted, but with this substitution calls for a substitution in the process as well) something strange happens when I "slowly" add the lye to the goat milk (as the recipe dictates)...

It starts to turn a bright orange... then a darker orange, then dark brown.. then poof! it foams up and hits the top edge of the bowel and goes almost black as you can see the results in this picture...

I had inadvertently "cooked" the milk and ruined the batch of milk/lye. Wow, I said to myself, I had missed a critical step in making GOAT milk soap is the tempering of the mixture to offset the high temperatures created when lye comes in contact with liquid. It was awesome, but definitely a learning process and had to adjust my game and delayed the schedule. Luckily I was able to recognize this was not right and stop the process there instead of adding it to the costly oil mixture. about $7 more expense, but not too bad. I had to then go get another quart of goat milk and can of lye. As a side note, goat milk tastes SOOO GOOD! it was the best milk I have ever had in my life. Best flavor, rich and creamy and bright white. Hunter certainly chugged the little cup full I gave him as well.

Attempt II.

I corrected my mistake and took the necessary steps to control the temperature of the mixture. I froze the carton of milk, and added the bowel to a sink full of ice. Then I slowly added the lye to this mixture, only about a tablespoon or two at a time, every 10 mins or so, allowing the lye to slowly melt the frozen milk and cool before continuing. I was able to control the temperature of the mix to a cool 80 degrees, down from over 200+ degrees of the first batch.

The result was a creamy mixture of a bright orange colored milky mixture, about the texture of homemade ice cream starter.

At this point I am really getting excited because now the real fun begins!

I used a stick blender to start adding the milk/lye solution to the heated oil soap base. This was definitely an arm saver, as most recipes call to use a whisk. That would have taken forever and too much effort! This was easy. With it all incorporated, it was a nice thick, rich mixture about the consistency of yogurt or liquid hand soap.

After fully incorporated together, the cooking process begins and takes the soap to a phase called "trace" where the soap is about the consistency of thick pudding. Thick enough for the whisk to create traces in the mixture as you move through it. At this point I turned the pot up to high temperate and let it cook, only stirring every 15 mins or so.

After Trace occurs, the mixture heats faster and starts to bubble around the edges of the pot. This is called the "champagne" bubble phase. This is great, meaning the soap is almost done. The Champagne phase starts the mixture turning in on itself like mini waves to the middle of the mixture, pushing the remaining oil to the center:

After the mixture rolled over itself completely (when the sides reach the center of the pot as a whole) I mixed and mixed and mixed it and it was about the consistency of applesauce:

This point is also when it is starting to get thick and starting the gel phase and almost completely soap!

As recommended in my instructions, I let it roll over again in a second champagne phase, allowing the oils to mix and incorporate more.

When it reached the center again, I killed the heat and let the mix cool a little bit, mixing the whole time. As the instructions say, it was very airy and stayed that way the whole time I mixed, like a dough starter mix for bread. As it cooled, the more it gelled and became soap! At this stage, I also added my final ingredients of ground oats and almonds to give the soap a texture.

When it came to a consistency that I was happy with and was waxy to the touch, I proceeded to pour the mix into my molds.

I used a glass cake pan lined with wax paper (for easy removal) as well as a mold that Sarah was so kind in getting us earlier in the day from her favorite craft store she was visiting.

It's pretty ugly at that stage, but was really nice to the touch and was already able to produce nice lather without any tingling after use!

Hooray! we have soap!

Our crock pot was a bit small, so I mixed the batch in a giant pot, then split it up and did it in two smaller batches that would fit in the crock pot better. This allowed for me to make several smaller moldings of the round/oval soaps as well. They definitely cooled faster and were easily removed from the soap.

Overall, happy with the process and also glad we will be able to use the soap as early as tomorrow! Not bad for about 30 dollars and a few hours on a boring weekend to make probably a years supply of very nice, creamy goat milk soap.

I will have to update you later on the results and if the mix was a success but early accounts are point that direction!

Mikes May Mustache Mania

2009-05-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hello. My name is Michael and I belong to the Mikes May Mustache Mania club at LVM. It is a fun club, we grow mustaches. Here is the picture of the club:

I am the one on the left. People call me nacho when I have a stache. Sarah calls me other worse derogatorily stereo-typing names as well. But I enjoyed it. I had to shave it today in preparation of the birthing of our 2nd child. But don't worry. It will be back in full fury force as soon as she's here.

Trendy

2009-03-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

Wow to all those people who had babies in 2007, you are so

TRENDY!

Happy Anniversary

2009-03-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was our 8^th anniversary, so I wanted to wish Sarah a happy anniversary!

Great times, good memories..

Hunters Adventures

2009-01-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

My Suggestions to the new president

2009-01-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Dear President Obama,

I know that I am not in a position of any cabinetry (although I love to make cabinets) or have any governmental experience outside a few minor positions throughout my life. I know that I did not even vote for you to become the president but that’s beside the point and water under the bridge as you move to “change” the country. What I am though is a thoughtful citizen that is concerned with the direction of our country and for the people of this great nation that we have enjoyed for so long. I am an avid gardener and know at times in gardening that we need to cut back and prune and make changes for the greater good.

So likewise as in the coming months and years as we have grown as a country and gotten heavy laden with the fruits of success and grown beyond the capacity of ourselves to manage we too will need some pruning and trimming. This cutback and trim can pose some serious risk to the plant and poses some serious risk to the nation if not done properly and for long term success. I have crafted some ideas that I would like to share that in my opinion would do the country the most good for the long term success and future growth that could continue to make the United States of American such a coveted and desired place to live.

Bring Jobs Back

Well, this is such an important topic because we cannot live without it and everyone is worried to death that they may not be able to survive without one. A few things are needed here besides just the basic job creating and shoring up industries. We are on the wrong path and going down hill fast. Our trade deficit is horrible and how can we Americans stand around while the fat cats at the top are selling us out to foreign nations to save a buck. This has caused a huge transition of wealth in our country to others. We are now indebted to these other countries to produce the goods that we survive on, but if all these sector jobs leave, we are unbalancing our society. Balance my friend, balance. We need to be able to, when the time comes provide self reliance not being dependent on any single country for anything. Yes, we should play nice in the global economy but... but if we are not met in the middle, we are at the mercy of these foreign powers. So my suggestion here would be to jump start our economy by infusing the American working spirit and create a plan to bring those jobs back. Bring back the factories and infuse the necessary capital for these companies to be successful here in America while providing the American worker a job and quality goods. I am so tired of going to Wal-Mart and seeing “made in china” on everything! When Wal-Mart started some 25+ years ago, Sam Walton’s philosophy was built upon made in American. I don’t remember the exact statistics, but it was almost 80% of the goods were made in America at the time. Now less than 20% are made here in America. I am willing to pay more for a better product especially if I know my money is going to an American worker. I can do this by making my American wage and so can they. You have the power to create the necessary outlets (legislature) for these companies to prosper here in America as they have done for over a hundred years. Why all of a sudden in the last 30 years have we “needed” to move our facilities elsewhere? Make it harder to import cheap dangerous goods from other countries at the expense of the American worker. Make it easier to start businesses in the United States. It’s that simple. We have the workforce, let’s put them to work.

Close the Border

Another important topic here is the open border and immigration problem. Having a Mexican American background I understand the importance of working in this country (since they can’t work in theirs, but if they stayed there and made change maybe they could but that’s another story and topic all together) and the history and plight of the immigrating people. I don’t know my exact history but I think on my mom’s side I am 3-4^th generation American. But I American and my loyalties lie there. Yes undocumented immigrants do provide a service to this country and spend some money here, but the majority of them support families and send their money back where they came from. Just look at the western union and money transfer industries for evidence of this. They are using the jobs that documented Americans could be performing and sending the money elsewhere. We are bleeding out as a country. Our money is always going to someone else’s pockets and this is very unhealthy. Keep our money here. Keep the documented workers so they have jobs. We are adding to the workforce people that should not be able to work here legally and pay taxes, while reaping the benefits (healthcare, education) and taking a job from an American that needs one. Close the border. Make the process easier if necessary if we do need these workers. But make it legal it only benefits the world to do so. If our American factories were to go anywhere we should be sending them to Mexico to help kill two birds with one stone. I think we will see great economic improvement if we were to fix this problem.

Education is our Future

We cannot remain a global superpower if our education standards do not reflect this. We have to stay ahead of the curve and we are falling behind. It is insane in this country the quality and focus education receives. We pay our teacher’s substandard wages, our standards are lackluster and the first thing on the chopping block when budgets are tight is educational programs. In Arizona, in light of budget shortfalls for the state they want to cut 600 million dollars from the state funded universities. What message does that send? How can we not see this is an investment in our future? Why is it ok in this country to “get by” without an education? We need to be the example to the world what education, research and development and great minds can produce. Create programs that will help Americans see the benefits of such an educational focus while creating a new generation that can keep moving us forward in the right direction. Education should be more important. It is the foundation where success is built.

Environment

Going green should not be just another fad, or catch phase. It should not be a band wagon everyone jumps on when gas prices sky rocket. It should be a way of life; an American way of life. This starts at the top. Those with the power to be should be the ones that hold the mantel of respect and loyalty to the earth in which we live. It is our due diligence to protect it and our stewardship for future generations and ourselves. It affects our health and our lives. We create too much trash, burn too much fuel and create too much pollution. By creating a strong American environmental policy, you could create an entire new segment of working Americans and infuse our spirits and bank accounts while doing a good thing. It’s a win-win. We get a healthier way of life while stimulating the economy with new jobs.

One of the best ways to protect the environment is to reduce our use on fossil fuel namely foreign oil. The largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world has taken place filling the coffers of foreign powers for oil. This has to stop. We are at their mercy and this gives them too much control. We saw this control being tested last summer when gas prices skyrocketed to over four dollars a gallon – the highest prices in history with little reason to do so. Unacceptable and in my opinion one of the leading causes to why we are facing the recession we are now in. The high gas prices affected everyone and jumpstarted inflation and took the bottom out from many industries profits. It has too much affect on our society to be left in control of the market and foreign powers. We some great minds creating great plans to help us get off this drug we call oil. Pickens plan is a great option. He has some great ideas to look at. A huge allocation of funds has been made for the auto industry to stay validated. This is a great opportunity to use this money to infuse a new generation of transportation options and policy change for the better. What a better time in our history to make such a change to our entire automotive infrastructure. This can be a catalyst option to help bring economic stability while providing change that you spoke so highly of in your effusive speeches.

There you have it; my ideas and the reasons for them to keep America on a great path of prosperity and success. I love this country and hope for the best in your presidency and it is my hope that you do not let us down. All my ideas have a single connective theme; the success and health of the American worker through education and change to move us as a people forward prosperously into the future.

Snow Day

2009-01-07T06:47:00.001-08:00

Trujillo Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

Ode to the Cell Phone

2008-12-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

If you get a chance today, ask Sarah about life without a cell phone.

Over the weekend, Sarah’s charger for her cell phone met a most unfortunate foe for electronics – Water. She had been diligently cleaning the kitchen and sometimes the counters get a little overflow from the sink on them. Our phone chargers are normally safe from harm, located on the half wall above all the kitchen counter action. Unfortunately sometimes the cords drape on the back side of the wall instead of the front side, or top where they normally are, and if done in succession with the dish washing action the combination can be fatal to the cords. Corrosion is a leading cause of cell phone and cell phone charger damage and caused by excessive moisture. Even the slightest amount can damage the sensitive components made from copper gold and other fine metals. Having been in the business a while, I cringe at the thought of water or any other damage to a phone and watch carefully anytime hunter has access to our equipment.

Needless to say, if you have no charger you have no phone. For Sarah, this is devastating. Her phone is her lifeline. To put some perspective on the situation, Sarah talks an average of 3400 mins a month on her phone. The average month has 30 days and If divide the minutes into that is about 114 mins a day. That’s the equivalent to almost 2 hours a day! She talks on the phone to all you other phone talking junkies almost 2 hours a day! That’s nuts to me. But it’s her lifeline to the outside world and I completely respect that.

Poor thing- You should have seen her. It was like seeing a junkie coming off drugs for a day. This all happened Saturday, so by Sunday her battery was all the way dead. Luckily she actually spent Sunday with me and talking to me so she had less need for the phone on that day. Come Monday though I was receiving phone calls from people looking for Sarah and giving me updates to relay to her when I got home. When I got home on Monday evening, I actually thought Sarah was coming to hug me, only to realize that there was a hand in my right pocket and it wasn’t to get frisky.

You guessed it. She was reaching for my phone. She just had to call her friends and those she had not spoken to in what had to be several hours of withdrawal. After relaying her messages and getting her “fix” in, she gave me my phone back. After that, she returned to a bit more of a normal Sarah. Glad she was able to get it worked out.

Last night I cleaned her charger a bit and seems to be working, so she may actually have a lifeline today. Please give her a call and help her out by getting all that talking energy out that has been built up over the last 24 hrs.

Thanks,

Michael

Dear Santa,

2008-12-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

I have compiled the following list to give you some ideas on what to bring me for Christmas as I have been (despite what my wife says) a good boy:

Slicks for my bike
Blackberry
Call of Duty 4 for MAC
Impact driver (rigid)
Disneyland trip
In wall speakers
New TV (Toshiba 46xv454U)
Freezer (chest, 8-13 cubic feet)
Apple TV
Knife sharpener
Receipt scanner
Convection oven
Meat grinder attachment for the mixer
Grill propane meter (Sam’s club for 15 bucks)
New hiking boots

Let me know if you have any questions or need specific links to the products best priced location.

thank you,

Michael

Weekend Adventures

2008-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good adventure this weekend goin’ squirrel huntin’

The adventure began Thursday when we loaded up a trailer full of camping gear and went with my friend Ben Rogers a group of guys he normally goes to. I thought it was nice of them to include me in their group.

We stopped for dinner shortly after arriving in Payson at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that I enjoy, even though I don’t’ think everyone else does when we go. It’s just one of those places you love or hate.

We also had to stop for some extra supplies that we may have forgotten when we left and all go to use the facilities one last time before leaving civilization.

Ben had a spot picked out north of the town of Pine off FR 300. of course it was dark when we arrived and setup in the cold (about 38 degrees) and with everyone’s help got Ben’s massive outpost tent setup in no time at all and had gear and fire started and the party began!

I was the lone person roughing it on the ground, having padding in place of a cot sleeping system like everyone else. It wasn’t too bad except I keep rolling downhill and getting a cold breeze in the bag ever few hrs. Something with the angle also made my circulation trip out and my arms kept going numb and stuff... but got sleep nevertheless.

Breakfast was excellent with Trujillo size Pancakes and plenty of breakfast meats to eat (bacon and sausage galore!)

We then headed out to the woods for the star event of the weekend – squirrel hunting!

I have to say this was my first time going and it was pretty awesome. Those are dang fast little forest rodents and particularly clever in their escape attempts. There was more than a few that got away after our pursuits.

Having said that, we too were clever in our attempts to capture them and successfully terminate their existence. Ben said we were even more successful this year than in previous years. To make the hunt more adventurous and challenging, the hunters use .22 caliber handguns making it very challenging to shoot such a fast moving, high-flying target. I unfortunately am handgun handicapped and chose to use my favorite and very reliable 10/22 ruger riffle. I am sure that even though others were leery of having me there with a riffle, I was able on a few occasions to get a squirrel that no one else was able to and was called into service to scare a few out of hiding.

We averaged about 4 a person and had a great time going through several boxes of ammunition in our attempts.

Cleaning was easier than I was expecting and you basically trim the edges and then pull the fur off. I even brought Hunter home a tail or two and some fur to practice tanning hides. He’s going to have a blast playing with it, although I think Chloe maybe the one that ends up with more fun.

Although hunting was the main event, nothing beats a good dinner of ribs and campfire stories. I say it’s pretty dangerous to get a bunch of guys together around a campfire telling stories and adventures from all topic spectrums.

We decided to even setup the heater the 2^nd night and slept toasty and moved so I didn’t roll so much the 2^nd night.

Despite the restful evening, I think everyone was pretty tired Saturday morning. We moved a little slower and hung out longer at camp enjoying some shooting festivities as well.

We did get the chance to take out a few more squirrels and enjoy the crisp mountain air as we adventured deeper into the woods. Wow it was amazing how enjoyable the woods are in the fall.

I truly enjoy camping and being out in the forest. I only wish I was able to go more often with my family so that Hunter can enjoy such an adventure.

I guess I will have to wait until he is older to enjoy time with him as I have with my own father.

My Voice

2008-10-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today I am happy to say that I successfully filled out an early voting ballot and cast my voice into the political arena.

Smoke Alarm Test

2008-10-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

If you get a chance now that we are getting into the colder season of the year, it might be a good idea to give those trusty smoke alarms a test.

I was half asleep on Saturday night when our test was being performed; unfortunately they failed miserably - unless for some unknown reason we did not let the fire on the stove continue long enough to produce a proficient amount of smoke to trigger them.

We definitely were at our limits with the smoke and had to pull the plug on the test. Even though I had to end the test early, I did learn a few lessons from the test:

We do not have a “PLAN.” You need a plan. Make a plan. If by chance something like this weekends events happened for real we would have a “plan” to account for the event and we definitely don’t have one, how to get out, closest exits, meeting place, etc... Something we definitely need to look at especially as hunter ages and stuff...
Make sure your fire extinguisher is close and easily accessible. This is a good one, I had just found our kitchen fire extinguisher recently and gave it to Sarah to place in a more conspicuous place (it was buried behind the dog food and mixer in the very back corner of our pantry on the floor), unfortunately in the events on Saturday I failed to ask Sarah where it was and would have had no idea had this been a real emergency.
Cook Ramen Noodles on the correct burner. If by chance you have a craving for ramen noodles in the middle of the night (11:45 pm to paint the picture) make sure you are alert enough to place the ramen noodle-filled pot on the burner that you are actually going to use and better yet, the one you have turned on.
Do not store items of non-stovial nature on the top burners of the stove. Given the limitations of space in the average kitchen is daunting enough, try finding room while you are making and decorating 6 cakes – a non average task trying to be performed in the most average of spaces. It’s definitely not a good combination and yet somehow Sarah manages to keep it organized enough and somewhat disaster free. We however will walk away from our test with the knowledge that the stove is not a great place to store items that do not belong there, especially items that are flammable such a wooden cutting boards, kitchen towels, pot holders, etc.
Do not use the stove while items of non-stovial nature are on the burners. If given the limitations mentioned above, it is requisite that if by chance the real estate of your kitchen and activities persist that you do need to facilitate the use of your kitchen cook-top space, please keep in mind that you pose a risk of fire if you desire ramen in the middle of the night and turn the stove on while the given items of a non-stovial nature are being stored there. It is best that if you do need to store items of a non-stovial nature on your kitchen cook-top space, please remember to remove them before firing up any of the burners on said cooking surface.

On the up side, our house still has a resonant smell of campfire - something that makes me happy!

6:38 AM

2008-10-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

At 6:38 AM, something special happened to me on my way to work. I know maybe I am a little crazy for celebrating such a feat as this, but I have always taken some sort of enjoyment when my car odometer rolls over a landmark mileage mark.

Today was the day for me, my car rolled over 190,000 miles!

Okay, so I was not able to snap a photo right at 190,000 because I was speeding down the freeway and it's a little unsafe to try to even attempt a picture as you are dodging traffic and exiting at the same time. Luckily I was able to get my phone ready and snap this picture as I came to a stop on the off ramp.

I can't believe how much I drive! I guess I haven't had the car the whole time, so not all of those are mine, but still I love my car and its relentless dependability. Today, I will have to reward it and give it a bath and an oil change or something to tell it thanks for all the great adventures we have been on together. It is sad someday I will have to part with my beloved vehicle, but I guess we can enjoy the times we have had and keep on keeping it wheel. wah wah :D

98 is Great

2008-10-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Most of you who know me understand that I am pretty introvert and stray from social events and awkward moments. Why I ask myself would I subject myself to the tortures of going to a 10 year high school reunion I have no idea!

I am proud that I was able to muster up the courage to go and be around people I haven't seen in a long time. What was nice about it is that most of my friends were there too so it was more a reunion of our friends than anything. I really miss my friends and all the good times together. It definitely made me more comfortable and enjoyable.

The Festivities started on Friday night going back to the "old school" CGUHS for the Friday night football homecoming game. I really enjoyed this and took me way back. We got there right before the game started and ran into Evan as we were entering the stadium. We got to see Kelsey for the first time and let me tell you she's going to be a heartbreaker. Absolutely adorable and animated for such a little thing. I am sure Evan and Nicole are really proud and have many adventures with her ahead of them. We met up with the crew and got to see a lot of families and teachers (Ms. Jue in particular) we haven't seen since HS.

We also had the abrupt realization of how young and little HS kids are these days.. Made me feel old and grown up, which I guess I am anymore. I just don't like to realize it and prefer to hang out in my own little world of denial. It was a good game, lots of things going on and Hunter certainly enjoyed it all!

After tiring from the game, we headed to Brian's house to have a more cozy gathering with our friends. It was fun to catch up and laugh with all the homies. Unfortunately by about 10 hunter, having stayed up later than any other time in his whole life was becoming irritable so we retired to our quarters at my parents house.

Bright and early Saturday, myself and 5 of my friends got up for a little golf at good 'ol Dave White Golf Course in CG. Wow, that really took us all back. We spent a lot of time there growing up. you could say that was like our course and park growing up. From Church events to birthdays, learning how to golf to just hanging out with friends. It was definitely a blast to the past. Amidst all the changes in Casa Grande since we have been gone, it was nice to see something so familiar and relatively in tacked the way I remembered it.

Breakfast was at the Cookie Jar, another classic CG hang out. We had many friends work there in high school and was a place to remember and joke with the buds. After all this time with just the guys, we had to go pick up the families and head to the parks activities. It definitely reminds us how hard and different it is to have families and kids relative to how it use to be. We now have wives, kids, and jobs that get in the way of the fun we use to have.

We made the best of it and enjoyed the park activities with friends. Cory and James and the graduating class crew did a great job putting together a little lunch and party to get the families acquainted and see people that weren't at the game. It was also nice that the weather was just about perfect minus the high winds. We enjoyed it so much, I almost have Sarah convinced to move back to CG again!

The last activity of the "reunion" was a semi formal dinner party for the adults. That was nice and cozy as well with a few additional people show up and reminisce with friends. Seeing all the people that we hung out with and those that we didn't but still were nice to and all was nice. Most people were the same, just older and wiser and in different places. We all took different paths, but really ended up close to the same place. Summer Mace was nice enough to bring the old DECA photo albums for everyone to review. I cannot believe we had so many pictures from our adventures. That was a HUGE part of my HS life, so it was neat to see us back then. Frankly it was really embarrassing too.

I am glad I went and found a connection with the people I grew up with and shared so many adventures in HS. Hopefully time will treat others just as well and life will move forward, not forgetting where we came from and what we shared. Thank you for the good times we shared and the good times we will share in the future.

2008-09-02T10:06:00.002-07:00

2008-09-02T10:06:00.001-07:00

Sarah's Birthday trip 2008

Sarah's Birthday Wish LIst

2008-08-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

Yeah I don't post much, dont' have much to say anymore really... but if you are one of those blog addicts that you check the blogs all the time, I wanted to give you a heads up that Sarah's birthday is coming up soon and if heck you want to get her something... here are some ideas:

diaper bag
Spark by Skip Hop Diaper Bag - Squiggle or the red one

Large collage picture frame for the hall (wood color not black)

I would like new bedding, but am still deciding, I think I like this one the best
Martha Stewart Collection "Hanging Gardens" 10-Piece Well Decorated Bed
it is found at macy's and on sale, but it is still pricey

new waffle maker (belgian)

Twilight by stephanie Myer (it is the first book in the series) hard cover

new clothes

I came, I saw, I tiled...

2008-07-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, and for unknown reasons now, we decided it would be a good time to tile our hard surfaced floors. This includes the laundry room, and two bathrooms. Well sounds easy enough right?

Fast forward to the present time.. and still at it. I finally got the nerve and time and resources to work on my tile project and was able to tile the master bath last night. Sarah always says I do things Half #SS (edited for the younger readers) especially with my home improvement projects. If you ask her she will give you a list of items still yet to be finished on the honey “do” list.

I am sorry if I am not a very focused person like the rest of you and I get side tracked and distracted very easily and can’t always get things done in a orderly timely manner. Not to mention I was taking back-to-back summer graduate courses and have a 1 year old at home. I can keep going with the excuses for ever if you want, but needless to say I have the house all tore up right now working on this project.

Along with this project, we decided to add wainscoting to the guest bathroom as well and paint it a nice calming blue color. I think this is where it all started and caused the chain reaction that got us to the point of adding to the mess. It’s methodical the way I do things and there is always a reason behind things. I couldn’t finish the floor until I put the wainscoting up, and can’t paint or caulk it until I get the tile finished so I can reattach the baseboards and I can’t finish fixing the grout until the master bath gets tiled. And I can tile both bathrooms at the same time because we need one working bathroom (and toilet)

So back to my story of tiling the master bath. My friend Ben was able to come over last week and help me get the tile cut up to fit to the bathrooms fun layout. It actually went quickly and really appreciated the help he was able to provide (not to mention the tile saw). This wasn’t the first time I received help and cannot claim I produced such a fine tile work if it were not for the good friends I have. Justin also came over earlier in the project and provided the needed tools and experience to get the ball rolling with the other two rooms. Oh great I will finish quickly and get it all done… until the next distraction

So as I am starting the tile project I failed to remember or needed to remember we were having a joyous celebration for the birth of our first son as he returned to the date on the calendar of the day he was born for the first time.

Lucky us to have a bathroom all torn apart for tile work, and using one bathroom in the hallway with all the 20+guests at his party. I guess I probably wouldn’t have let people use our master bath for the party, but it still would have been nice as a backup incase well, we had a “backup.”

Oh how I love to get my hands dirty in home improvement work, and last night was no different. I was able to scrap the floor on Friday before the party and returned to the prep work early yesterday after work. The floor was impeccably clean from the vinyl that had graciously covered its bareness for the last 2 years and I am proud of the techniques learned to get it this way. I was excited I got to finally get to lay tile.

The excitement soon wore off as I remembered I was cheap and went with mix your own mortar (instead of the thrice costly pre-mix as recommended) but I was able to mix and mix and might I brag a very good consistent mortal “thin-set” for the laying of my tile.

All the pre-work really paid off as the actual laying of the tile took a mere 2.5 hours of backbreaking labor to complete. The tight space of the bathroom made for an interesting process of laying the tile, but I seemed to manage and was able to get pretty decent lay work.

My gracious wife finished the work for me by sweeping up the thin-set mortar remains and then scrubbing the floor for the first (but not the last) time to remove the residue remaining from the process. This left the tile squeaky clean and ready for the further work that lay ahead as it now needs to be grouted with hopefully the proper color this time.

Oh man, there is still so much to do, I have to grout it and then seal it. Then I get to reattach the floor molding and caulk and paint that. Then I get to caulk and paint the wainscoting and trim in the other bathroom and then I will done for this round!

Summer school is over

2008-07-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

So I finished my two summer school classes recently right before the 4^th of July holiday (and just in time of me being completely burnt)

I was a little worried with the confusion I had with the first class and was dropped from the class on accident, but was able to get back in, only to find in a few weeks later I got an email saying I wasn’t on the roster and the professor could not turn in a grade for me. After some more investigatory work and the minor hiccups that came from the original mistake were fixed, I was able to get my grades this passed week.

I am happy to announce I got an A and B in my first two classes! This may sound standard and what’s the big deal, but they were tough classes and I normally get C’s and stuff so for me to get an A and B it was an accomplishment for me, especially after having anxiety about going back to school in the first place.

It was a tough few weeks and I was definitely getting tired and wearing out, but I prevailed and was able to get good grades. Thanks to Sarah who made it possible to study almost every night when I came home for hours and have some privacy.

I did have to make time to play with Hunter so I wouldn’t miss the little bugger. I get a few weeks off before the next round of classes starts in August.

Weekend Adventure

2008-07-09T15:41:00.001-07:00

Well as you have seen on Sarah’s Hunter Family blog we had a nice adventurous weekend.

If you didn’t know already, Independence Day is my favorite holiday growing up. I am a self-professed pyromaniac and LOVE playing with fire, especially fireworks. Growing up, I would save a lot of my money to spend on fireworks when we would go visit my grandma in New Mexico for their small town celebrations.

It was a blast. Ha, literally. There were many times that my cousin and I would (while playing with fireworks) light the field on fire or the irrigation ditch (my grandma lived on a small farm) and we would get scolded for our devious actions (could be because we were very young when this all started). I have such found memories of visiting and enjoying these times; Not only for the fireworks, but for the family works as well. It was one of the only times in the year we would get to visit with my Nanny and cousins and aunts and uncles on my mother’s side of the family. We would have a huge feast, all you can eat watermelon (with the accompanied seed fights) and then the big finale of fireworks and fruit-flavored homemade ice cream. The awesome part was we got to light are own fireworks show since they are legal in New Mexico.

My Nanny passed away over Easter weekend a few years back, we grew up and started families of our own and haven’t’ been able to enjoy this tradition we enjoyed for so many years as an adolescent. These memories live on in my heart. As we have grown in our family, adding our respective counterparts and children as we age, we have attempted to create new traditions in our home state of Arizona.

To help facilitate this, we have a family cabin now in Heber Arizona as many of you know; we visit there frequently throughout the year to “get away.” This along with the added traditions of our latest grafted member of the family Becky and her family tradition of spending the 4^th in Heber has allowed us to start a new tradition.

We now gather as a family in Heber Arizona with our family, siblings, children, spouses, etc. to enjoy the great weather, small town ambience of Heber. They have an excellent small town traditional Independence Day celebration that goes for several days and includes lots of activities the whole family to enjoy. Some of our favorite activities are the parade (full of the awesome small town spectacles such as decorated UTV’s like the Polaris ranger, ATV’s, tractors, fire trucks, hot rods, 4x4 trucks, and horses) the craft fair at the park, and of course one of the best and loudest fireworks shows in the state of Arizona.

We also add to their celebrations with our own traditions such as this years family Olympics, a family picture, a gluttonous array of summer-inspired food, and the best part – homemade ice cream while we enjoyed the blastivities from the fireworks show all in a comfy seat on the cabins back porch (which because of it’s proximity to the launch site provides excellent acoustics and birds eye view of the show).

I certainly enjoyed myself this year and long for the next time we get to enjoy the company of our family, the food, and fireworks while enjoying the down home comfort of Heber’s hospitality. It was a great weekend and certainly lives up to my expectations that keeps the 4^th of July my favorite holiday. I hope you all took the time to enjoy the celebrations and festivities wherever you may have been. What could be better than getting together with our families and celebrating for a brief moment the freedoms we enjoy in such a wonderful country; one that affords us the luxury of getting together and enjoying such a gathering with more food that is humanly possible to eat. Thank you to those that make this possible.

important

2008-06-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

This was important enough I thought i should add it to the blog:

ok so sarah said it was too bad to show the video, but it was about testicular cancer. I think it is an important subject and as the slogan says, be a man, self exam.

8,000 men a year are dianosed with this type of cancer and I certainly want to find it early. It is just like breast cancer for woman, so hope you are checking...

if you want to see the video you can go to http://www.carpetestes.org/

School is Cool

2008-05-19T07:40:00.001-07:00

I have talked some about going back to school and had to really evaluate why and what I wanted to accomplish with it. I did some research and found several programs that would work for what I wanted, the only problem was that 4/5 of them were too much of a stretch for us to make it work in our lives. So it was either drop everything and start over so I could go to grad school or, go with a less appealing program that is good, and works for what we wanted, but just not exactly what I wanted. It’s like trying to buy a house, but you have a limited area you spouse will live in and a limited budget, but high expectation and requirements. So it really narrows the field down and you have to go with what you can get.

That being said, I am happy with the decision I have made to start school again. I started on the 12^th in the Master of Administration program at NAU. It is very similar to a MBA minus the business in the middle. It’s more focused on leadership and human development over a broader scope than business, with the ability to focus in a specific topic. My focus will be in project management since that is my chosen profession at this time (someday I will be a farmer). This will also fulfill the education requirements for the Project Management Institutes (pmi.org) Project Manager Professional Certification program. This is the industry standard for project managers and almost all major corporations require or request this certification for their project managers.

That is my ultimate goal in going back to school is to become certified in the field I have chosen while fulfilling my personal goal of going to graduate school. Along with the experience I am gaining working in the profession, I also wanted to add some credibility behind it as well. When you work with a PMP it shows. They have a level of professionalism and mastery of the skills a PM should possess. That is what drove me to this madness. My first class has been exciting and challenging being a summer course it’s very quick and intense.

Wish me luck.

2008-05-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Keep on Truckin' (biking)

2008-05-13T09:50:00.001-07:00

So I haven’t blogged in a long time. I have been off doing other stuff I guess and really got away from it. They blocked our internet at work so I didn’t have access when I had something on my brain so it faded and I would forget when I got home.

It was interesting the other day there was a newscast on how high gas prices are getting and people are turning to alternative methods to get to work. IMO the gas companies are trying to rake up as much profit as they can because they are going the way of the buffalo. One of these methods was riding bikes and there has been a big run on bikes and low mileage cars, driving up the prices on the little cars and making bike manufactures and bike stores very happy.

Then I heard that one of my co-workers was starting to ride his bike to work. Keep in mind we live far south of where we work, me in particular live in Queen Creek which is about 17 miles south of work. So it was a bit of a stretch to think that I was going to ride to work from there, seeing how it would take me forever for one and I would be so tired I wouldn’t be able to work. But then we came up with this brilliant plan to ride to work from his house instead which is only 8 miles to work.

So I mustard up the courage to make it happen (after a heaping teaspoon of peer-pressure) today and made the trek. Sarah and I have been meaning for like 2 years to get a bike rack, but never been able to drop the several hundred dollars it would cost to get one that goes on a spare tire mount. But about a month ago we saw a cheap one at Wal-Mart that would work for us and got it with 3 bike posts for the future. Normally I am pretty anti-Wally world, but this was the only place we have seen this one and it just worked out good. So I sent Sarah to fetch it for me, (ha-ha just kidding, she needed to go there anyway) and I was very happy to set it up.

I awoke this morning anxious for the ride before me, luckily got everything ready the night before since I had a hard time waking up a little earlier than normal. It definitely wasn’t faster by any means to get to work this way, but I only had to drive 10 miles of the trip and biked the rest, and only took about an hour to get there. It actually felt really good to ride that trip, it probably helped more than I realize that it’s cloudy out and there was a nice cool breeze the whole way.

I feel like I did my part and if I can keep it up a few times a week, work from home a few times a week, I can really make a difference in our gas budget, help the environment and stick it to the man (Gas Company)

Give it a try sometime, I know you will not be disappointed getting out there, wind in your face enjoying the great cities we live in and save some green.

Update Coming Soon

2008-05-13T07:52:00.001-07:00

What do Target and American Idol have in common?

2008-03-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

What do Target and American Idol have in common? Not much really, just that I had to experienced them both yesterday evening.

Sarah attempted to pull a fast one to go shopping and ditch the kid off on me, but I tricked her and "wanted" to go see the newest attraction in the QC: our very own Target superstore! Wow, have really hit the big time. It’s really nice. It’s about as close as the old target was from our old house, but this one is newer, nicer and of their new designs as well. Overall it met my expectations as a one stop shopping destination and entertainment megaplex, however I was a little disappointed in where they put their garden center since that is where I like to enter the store and exit with less traffic and lines, etc. but there is no close parking to it as at the old store- bummer. Luckily to make it up, the shopping center will soon be getting a Lowe’s to satisfy my home improvement and gardening needs.

While I wasn’t monitoring Sarah’s spending, I was able to do a bit of store exploration and am pleased with the quality of their goods and product selections. It will be nice to have some form of grocer store close to home with relatively good prices- some really good; some not as good so it seems to balance out the universe in my mind and makes it ok to shop there for our needs.

Why were we there might you ask?

Since Hunter has been a naughty little boy with four teeth coming in now, it’s udderly insane anymore for Sarah to milk him anymore. Her feedings with him have been causing her horrible pain and suffering. Due to his dental increase and the problems that have arisen, we had to purchase more feeding supplies and tools to support his eating habits. With as much as Sarah wanted to buy, you would’ve thought we had a newborn or were having a new baby or something... crazy women – hence the need for me to monitor her monetary outlaying. I will have to let her tell more about Hunters chomping adventures in her own post, but I am just proud of the little guy and his teeth and that he uses them- only sorry it’s on his mother’s milkers.

We get home just in time to put dinner together and find that nothing interesting is on TV. You would think this wouldn’t be a problem since we do have a DVR and can record shows – in fact even two at a time if we wanted. I guess in hindsight I should have thought of this so I didn’t have to suffer through what I had to experience last night: American Idol. It should just be called American Dull and leave out the “I “part.

I don’t mean to offend the fans in my postings, it’s just not my favorite show, nor do I enjoy watching it ever or anytime in the past 12 seasons (well we did follow a bit the first season and this is where I built my immunity up to this sickening social disease.) Luckily while Hunter was in the process of being put to bed, I was able to DVR real-time and get a lag time built so that I could fast forward all the lame-o parts of the show, well almost all of it I guess except for one singing goddess’s performance. That Brooke Something-blonde-chick has some voice on her. I didn’t really like her raspy dorky style when all the people that we know were all hyping her up and stuff, but after listening to her because Sarah’s friends got her back into watching it ( yeah thanks a lot you know who you are) now I have to watch some too, I have grown to really like her voice.

Music is special when it speaks to you. It touches in ways that are uplifting and inspiring in some form, whether the lyrics speak to you, the rhythms move you or the tones tickle the strings of your heart, music can play a huge part in influencing moods and feelings. This is what I think of when I hear her sing. It’s like what all the judges say about her. She has purity, a “soul” to her sound and it’s really cool music and right down the isle that I buy my music from. So in a way, thanks to those who have “raved” enough about her so that we would actually listen to her, and at the same time, I am still mad at you that I have to put up with all the other idol nonsense to get the little music fix from that special voice of Brooke Something-blonde-chick.

Financial planning in our troubled economic world

2008-03-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

I have been sick and still sick so I haven’t had much on my mind other than that. Poor little Hunter is a trooper for going through his little sickness with a smile. If you float around the blogs, you will see there is a lot of illness going around. So we have been trying hard to do our civic duty and keep out of the public world as to not infect others with our germs.

But before all the sickness happened, We had been looking at new cars, since if we do have a 2nd baby this year, our poor little old RAV4 will be too small in our opinion to accommodate 2 little kids, all their stuff, our stuff, etc. since currently it’s a little tight with just Hunter and his stuff. We could stop traveling as Sarah would like, or pack less stuff. Not an option for me to stop living life by not going anywhere or packing less in Sarah’s world. So to compromise we have looked at several new car options such as the Toyota highlander or the GMC Acadia.

But then you look at the price of the cars that work for what we want, and they are 30k! Crazy expensive in my opinion! I guess in the state of the current economy they would be a little more willing to wheel and deal, but that is no guarantee. Then we decided to wait because if the economy is tanking the way the media is portraying it for us to believe with their negative economy propaganda, we better hold off and start storing nuts as the squirrels do for hard times.

That doesn’t mean that we will be saving much money, seeing how to me it’s a waste to just plain “save” money in something such as a banks savings account. I mean come on, not much of an encouragement to save money seeing that they give us like .04% back or something like that and we earned a whole .4 cents on our last statement from our savings account. I was pretty bummed and discouraged when I read that because I was all excited to have one with liquid funds in it in contrast to the few others we have locked up tight in non-liquid funds. I would think if they wanted us to save money for them to lend out they would encourage you to do so by giving a much better rate of return on the account, however they have not. They have gone the more profitable route in charging higher rates on credit cards, loans, etc and putting the American people in debt by their deceptive ways of making it easy to get loaned money, but trapping them with their high rates.

Then on top of all this we have recently been told by several of our friends that financial advisers are actually encouraging people to foreclose on their homes because it’s easier and cheaper to do that then actually try to sell their home in this market. Crazy! I cant’ believe that is the “sound” advice going around currently. How can that be good in any situation? I guess it would work the way they have laid it out, but still? Wow I can’t believe it’s come to this. That hurts all of us in the long run because someone has to pay for it. Either in taxes, or insurance rates or bank rates somewhere, somehow it will all come full circle.

So I don’t know anymore if it would be better to get a car now before everything goes sour, or hang out until rates/something gets better or until China takes over. I am so confused anymore, we are just going to have some money saved for a new baby, and wait and see how things turn out and put the rest in tangible commodities.

Good luck to the rest of you.

I love my wife.

2008-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

This is a plug for Sarah.

She is the greatest wife in the whole world! what other wife would put up with me and all my antics?

She is so pretty and nice. She takes pride in her looks and it shows with her efforts.

She works really hard with Hunter and he is developing so nicely. He can even stand on his own holding something, even with his big head.

She cooks dinner. She made some sort of experimental chicken dish last night that was pretty tasty.

She keeps our house clean, despite my trail of clothes and shoes and other things.

I always have something to wear to work in my closet. Sometimes she even picks out stuff for me to wear.

I Love you Sarah, you are the BEST!

Plug for the Beef Industry

2008-02-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

I love Cow! I think it tastes so good. I like to eat it all the time. for lunch as a burger, for dinner as a steak. Anyway you make it, it always tastes great.

Please remember this when you hear all the bad news from the recall about some stupid place that abuses animals and could have possibly tainted some minuscule portion of the beef supply as a whole by their stupid actions. No reported sickness have come from it, nor have their been anything linked to their actions to date, considering most of the "tainted" beef has already been eaten from 2006 to now.

As I write this, I am remembering dinner last night, the roast Sarah cooked to perfection, eaten between a moist and flaky dinner roll... mmm.. Beef.

Please be smart about how you react to the news of a beef recall, and by all means, use prudence when you decided to "write off" beef as bad. not all places mistreat animals. I am all about taking good care of the animals that we eat- it certainly doesn't hurt anyone and I personally like to think.. well it makes them taste better. You have seen the cheese commercials " happy cows make good cheese, and happy cows come from California" I also like to think that "happy cows make good beef"

Thank you, and enjoy a good piece of beef. The cows will thank you that they still have a job.

It wasn’t just the rain that dampened the Javelina Hunt this year.

2008-02-20T07:28:00.000-08:00

As long as I can remember, we always go javelina hunting in February. My family and friends’ family would get together, go to happy valley, camp, hunt and have a good time. We even went to church on Sunday at the local ward down the road in Benson. It is one of my favorite hunts because of the camaraderie that everyone shares and the adventures we have. It gives us a chance to get away at the beginning of the year and those javelina's are tricky little buggers to hunt.

Times change, people move away, schedules get busy and so we didn’t get to go this year. I was a little bummed and kind of dampened my spirits. However, I still got to go javelina hunting, just not with everyone like normal. Luckily I was able to con my friend Justin into going with me; I think it was just an excuse for our wives to get us out of the house so they could party. We came home to shopping bags on the floor, chocolate wrappers everywhere and stupid chick movies playing on the tube.

Despite the change in plans for the hunt, I still had a good time even though I did not shoot a javelina. I am not a die hard hunter where success is measured by the size of the kill, or the manner in which it was hunted down. I measure success in many ways, and hunting is a hobby and believe that if you cannot have fun doing it, then it shouldn’t be done. I had a great time trekking the new area which we decided to try. We even played around with some javelina calls- getting the coyotes in the area all riled up.

Another unique thing from this hunt was all the road runners. We had to have seen 10-15 in a mile stretch about mid-day on Saturday. I have never seen so many in one area at one time. It was pretty amazing to see. I have also never seen it actually snow in Oracle. I had to take a picture. It was crazy when we started getting close to the hunting area around Oracle, it was just at daybreak and we could see the mountain covered in snow... Then slowly as we drove closer, the snow got lower and lower and we could see it on the roadsides. Oracle is about 4500 ft elevation, so that must have been a pretty good winter storm they got. It made the hunt that much more challenging to work with after a snow (javelina don’t have fur so they get cold easily and have to huddle for warmth) and really muddy. We were getting a little worried when we got there and some of the roads had already been worked into really deep mud pits (it’s a little scary when you are sliding sideways in a huge 4x4 truck, with all 4 wheels spinning and you are still sliding the opposite direction down the mountain side towards the edge.) There were also some hairy places where the road had eroded and there was less than a foot of give on each side of you preventing eminent demise; All the more things to make it a great adventure. Once we got out and moved around, the area was well cleaned over from the cows and rain, so we didn’t see much javelina sign at all such as food or track. The rain gave the desert a fresh slate.

We didn’t go to happy valley, we didn’t camp, and we didn’t go to church in Benson, we didn’t shoot a javelina but we did have fun and in my book that makes it a successful hunt. Besides, if I would have gotten a javelina, I don’t know if Sarah would have let me build a BBQ pit in the grass to cook it in anyway.

Domestication

2008-02-18T14:29:00.000-08:00

Oh the joy coming home to a wife cleaning with her new vacuum. I bought Sarah a new vacuum for Valentine's Day (ok it was just because, and purchased around the time of Valentine's Day so I will claim it as such, but you will have to ask Sarah what I really got her for V-day)

What a great wife she is to clean up after all the messes I make. Ask her, she will tell you I make a lot! For this reason, I got her a really nice vacuum this time (with all the bells and whistles, unlike last times POJ) since we have been married almost 7 years now, nothing but the best for my cleaning companion!

Next Post, Javelina Hunt Details...

Grand Discoveries of A Baby

2008-02-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hunter discovers new things lately at break-neck speeds it seems, and this week is no different. I wanted to highlight 3 things that he discovered this week as his 7 month birthday passes:

1. His feet. Not that he didn't see or notice his feet before, it's he has discovered them to be used as musical instruments. We are walking through the store the other day with him in his stroller and we look down and he is down there patting his feet together in rhythm (or so I like to think) to our walking. It was just like how a seal would pat their flippers together, he's there patting away with his feet. It wasn't even for just a little bit, it was almost the whole time we were there. He also has started doing it at home when in his swing (which he is just about done with) and on the floor.

2. His hand. it's funny, Sarah went to see how he was doing the other night when she had put him to bed, and there he is looking at his hand psychedelically in the glow of his new mobile like a person smoking the green. He is getting very good at grabbing things and wants of course to put everything in his mouth including the chew toys Chloe brings to him (we have to put her outside anytime he's on the floor to prevent this from happening.) They are sure becoming fast friends. I am impressed with his level of hand/eye coordination, something I struggle with even in adulthood (supposedly I am an adult, Sarah may beg to differ) getting food in my mouth as an example, not dropping things, etc. you give that kid a spoon and its getting to his mouth quickly. Maybe that's why he's a heavy little bugger.

3. His man part. I take Hunter's diaper off the other day and where does his hand go? he reaches down between his legs and right to "himself." I just had to laugh and show Sarah. There is just something cool when your boy finds "himself" so to speak. In one sense I was proud like "that's my boy! he can now grab himself and tell the world to stick it" (if he wants,) and in the same sense it was, "dang it kid, don't start playing diaper pool." His mother thinks it is completely gross, but I think it's really funny. Don't worry, I am not there letting him "explore" but when I figured it out, I mean come on? You just have to laugh and congratulate him on his discovery.

He is such a funny kid, but has been giving mommy a hard time sleeping lately and we can't tell if it's just a little sickness or he's teething or something. Babies are so just so much work packed into that little package they come in.

More discoveries to come soon enough.

An Article for Everyone to Read

2008-02-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

I found this article today and thought it would be great for everyone to take a look at. It is about being financially sound in tough times. How many times has that been preached to us and we actually listened or were given instructions? I think it's a pretty good list of starter items to start getting our "ducks in a row."

Hope you like:

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/104404/15-Money-Moves-for-Tough-Times#1

(to view, cut and paste link into new browser window)

Qwest

2008-02-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Qwest - learn the first time, learn from our mistake.

There is an unwritten rule (well maybe it's written somewhere)in customer service that you make a person happy, they will tell a few people, you make them mad, they will tell EVERYONE! so here is our telling EVERYONE the POOR service we received from Qwest.

Some of you may know that in our house if we have anything to do with a complaint or have to deal with customer service of any company, this is Sarah's department. She is much meaner and feistier than I am, plus I have shell-shock from my days in wireless to the point that I am not the most effective person when dealing with customer service.

So this is round II with Quest and we should have learned the first time around not to go with them for anything. The first time we had service we had phone for 2 weeks and had nobody call us but the people they had sold our number to for telemarketing. We promptly went cell phone only have been ever since. We also attempted at that time to have internet hooked up, but after 2-3 weeks of working with their service department, we gave up and just didn't have internet.

So our story begins....

Sarah had to give Qwest a call about our internet service that we had with them for just over a year. We originally went with them for internet because at the time they were running a good deal. Let me be the first to tell you, it's a mistake to go with someone based on price alone. About 3 months (maybe less) into a service that we got such a good deal on, we had to call them 2 times because our internet service kept going down, or stop working, they had to then send people to our house to fix "something in the box" and get it working again, while we waiting 3-5 days without internet. Then again in a few more months we had to call again to keep our service working, or make some change to our router (that we were told was outdated 4 months after buying) just to get mediocre internet service to begin with. It wouldn't have been such a bad gig, but we had Cox internet on base for free, and NEVER had trouble with internet while we lived there for over 3 years. So that is what we were basing this on; and I am kicking myself for even going with them in the first place. but, only paying $26.99 a month was a great deal at the time (cox was $40) so I guess we paid the difference with poor service.

This "great deal" ran out last December when our bill went from $26.99 to $49.99. Quite a big jump in price, so we decided to start shopping and found Cox internet to work better, and was now $29.99. We ended our service with Qwest in January and signed up for Cox (who promptly set us up with a free modem, install, etc and works great.) I ended the service on what I thought was the last day of our bill cycle because of the date listed on the bill, but a few days later we get a bill for January service for $50. I then call Qcrap and about it and the service rep said not to worry about it, service had crossed a bill cycle and it would cut a last bill for any proration we had off of that $50. So I am thinking great, we use to do that with Alltel and there was no problem with that, etc. that's where the real trouble began.

Last week I then receive a random call on my cell from some collection agency demanding payment for a delinquent account from Qcrap. So I am flipping out because we take a lot of pride in paying on time and have VERY good credit from our efforts and NEVER have collections calling us. I promptly ask Sarah to call them and figure out what the deal was.

She calls, there is no comment about anything for collections and the service rep tells her the same thing, next bill will be our last and will come out in 2 days. Everything is ok, so we thought. Then we get a letter from the collection agency, and this time Sarah goes postal on them (qwest) and finally gets to someone in a department that knows whats up and she tells them the story of what is happening and why we are disconnecting and about the collection agency, etc. Things then get heated when the service rep starts yelling at her and telling her to pay her "bill" for $50 that we shouldn't have been changed since I disconnected on the day before our bill came out. I guess it turns out that Qcrap sends you to "collections" promptly after your service disconnects if there is any amount on your account.

We then have to wait 2 days until the bill cuts for our real (and what we were told to do) amount due for service terminated. Guess what the amount is for?

$1.68.

Yep. That's it. ALL this trouble and harassment for a measly $1.68. It cost them more in paper and manpower than it would have to just zero out the account in the first place. Alltel has a policy that we would use to cover that. it's so much easier for both the company and the customer. The icing on the cake too, Sarah calls after we get this bill (after speaking to them 2 times previous with 3 different reps) and says she is not authorized on the account and there are no notes from any of the previous service reps! HA! Now that just goes to show how poor their system is. Now they have lost us as customers for LIFE and a lot of bad press in my opinion. As this quote says:

"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect.They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." -DONALD PORTER

I didn't expect them to be perfect, I just expect them to fix things when they go wrong. All of this could have been prevented with service rep training, all the 1st (disconnecting) rep had to do was comment the account that we were disconnecting and waiting for a final bill, this would have put a hold on the account to "freeze" it from any litigating action until a final bill would cut, then when I called the 2nd time, the rep could have seen it, said truly disregard the bill coming out since a final one would be cut, and/or seen that there was no hold and added one. Then the 3-4th times could have totally been prevented. Instead they choose to argue with the customer in an attempt to solve something? POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

There are better ways using good customer service to solve problems. Please learn from our mistakes and go with a company willing to fix things when things get broken. I didn't expect them to be perfect, I only expected them to fix things when they went wrong and Qwest does not know how to do that.

If not, "filling a complaint is easy" -http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html

Project Lifeline

2008-02-12T07:13:00.000-08:00

You have to ask the question, is it our fault or were we duped by devious businesses being creative with their offerings in a form of entrapment- toying with the ultimate American dream of home ownership?

I can’t believe that the American people are so irresponsible that we need to have our government bail us out when we get stuck in a “pickle” so to speak with bad mortgages and foreclosures right now.

If you haven’t heard a new project (in addition to the extensive help the government has already provided to help salvage the “sub-prime” mortgage loans and companies,) called Project Lifeline is going to be announced today to assist us in our “mortgage” crisis. It is the brain child of the Hope Now Alliance (love all these cool names) which is a group of lenders, non-profit organizations, and investors. They are trying to help the crisis by developing new finance options for people to save them from foreclosure.

All of this because of the record high foreclosures and losses by the “big six” mortgage lenders that are crippling our economy right now, well supposedly. Did we forget that we live in a capital system? Have we already forgotten that for the last 5 years or so these very same people and companies were posting record earnings (which they should have saved to offset the bad times like this) and equity? Wow. I am certainly not perfect by any means and there could be a chance that we could be sucked into this downward spiral, but I hope that I have prepared enough that we will not have to fear. I secured a pretty decent loan and made sure we weren’t in some kind of “creative” finance experiment so that if something were to happen we would still be able to afford our home. I believe it is my responsibility to provide for and protect my family. If I got into a mess, I would certainly like a handout, but would not want to rely on it, and hope to all high-heaven that I would have taken every precaution to not be in that position in the first place; AND do everything in my power on my own to rectify the situation. I just have such a hard time believing that there are so many people in this country that need assistance? What went wrong?

We can’t be the greatest country on earth if we are failing financially. We cannot expect our government to fit the bill every time we screw up. That is not the responsibility of the government. We need to be more fiscally responsible on our own and educate ourselves on a market system and good and bad deals.

I look at this as a great opportunity to really evaluate our position and standing financially and have really been getting all our ducks in a row. I hope that everyone will do the same and learn from their mistakes if they are in a bad position. It’s not the end of the world if you are hurting, and thankfully we do have a government that actually would take the steps to protect us in such a way that we will not fail as a country. I applaud that, I am just a little disappointed in both the American people and the devious businesses that got us in the situation in the first place. I hope this project works and people can learn their lesson and live within their means.

It seems like such a simple concept, yet so overlooked anymore. Then there is our government telling us that spending is good (being a bad example by spending more that they have as well) and it helps our economy. Well I think we learned now that isn’t necessarily true if you don’t have the money.

I only wish that this whole situation hadn’t ruined the market so we can’t sell our house and move to the country now like I have always dreamed; Maybe in a few years.

Until next time.

(source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iPpplpVSr2ixU2laMGwo2QnmANHQD8UOQE200)

Introducing...

2008-02-08T07:10:00.001-08:00

So I decided that I am going to start a side-shoot of our family blog as many of my friends have done off their "family" blogs to spare others of their rants, ideas, etc.

This will keep our family blog pure and clean for Hunter to bask in the glory of his family's love for him, because, let's face it- that's all we blog about.

well I like to blog about hunting, fishing, backpacking, cars, gardening and politics so sorry Hunter, maybe you will get a post here or there- if you are lucky.

Enjoy the new blog and visit often.