Here I am at home. Playing Mob Wars and bugging my wife. Whats a guy to do? The weather can't
make up its mind...hot...cold...warm...cool...cold...warm. This is not very helpful to us in the HVAC
industry. Then there is this little hiccup in the economy, that ain't helping. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, the time at home is nice...for me. OK, yes dear, I will go find something to do just as soon as I finish this post, check my FB, check on my mob, and have a nap.

Later on people!

Elayna's day

Monday was Elayna's day to go snowboarding with me. We went up to Mt. High arriving around 10:30. This was Elayna's 2nd time and she did great. She has no fear and just charges...this is a little scary. If I let her just go she would go straight down the hill until she fell or crashed into something, so I try to stay close enough to stop her. Its fun to watch her shake her hips to try and turn then she will go straight and do a little hop, saying "I jumped". After 4 or 5 runs down she was done and ready to move onto the next adventure. "Now I want to go see Grandma". My mom was working today so we went to great Grandma's house to see her there. Unfortunately G Grandma was at Bible study, but we did get to visit with my mom and Aunt Rissa. We played some games and looked at several of the photo albums. Elayna had a lot of fun and was thrilled to have me all to herself.

Awana Grand Prix

Saturday was the much anticipated Awana Grand Prix at L.B.C.. Once again Ray Hubbard organized a great event. The three Saturdays leading up to the event Luis, Eli, and Yours Truly put on work days for the kids. We provided tools and guidance to the kids. This year we had some real nice cars both in speed and design. Race day was just that, a full day from 8am till 3pm, with a bar-b-que lunch, coffee bar, concession stand, and gospel message. This year I told my kids "I cant help you win for speed but I can help you in design". Becca wanted a butterfly so I helped her design it and she built it. When you see it you may think I made it but it was 85% her, she cut out the pieces glued them together and painted it. Honestly I think she had the best looking car in the race. I told her it might not make it down the track because it was so top heavy. To my surprise it won 2 races, came in 2nd 0nce, and 3rd once. Gabe had a sweet truck with an awesome paint job, working tailgate, dual exhaust, and a spare tire in the back. Just about everyone commented on how good it looked. Elayna's car was called Mini Mouse, as it was so small and looked like a mouse. Noah's car was made from a piece that was cut off of some other kids car. It was real fast...looking. My car was kinda cool style wise but it was over the top with yellow headlights and flashing red jets in the back. Surprisingly the battery for the lights lasted a long time (still going). We all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!

Shooting

Friday I went shooting after work (1 whole maintenance). On the way there my truck started making a funny noise so I pulled over on the freeway to find a flat tire. It was weird because the truck was driving just fine except for the noise. I threw on the spare and was on my way. I met up with my buddy Gil, and we scoped out this new shotting range (new to us, and yes pun intended).
The owner was a real nice guy and very helpful with tips and what not. This place was all about the sporting clays, and it was obvious I was not. I went in fully confident that I was gunna do great, but after the first station it was quite clear that I am not good at this sport....yet. In the words of the Governator "I'll be....."

Mt High with Chris and Abby

Friday after Super Beccs (her new nickname) finished guitar practice we met up with Chris and Abby Bunce at Mt High. The timing worked out perfect as we arrived within minutes of each other.
Super Beccs and Abby had a great time and were perfect boarding partners as they are both at about the same skill level. Gabe decided that his goal was to always be the first to the bottom, and I believe he was. I think I am always the loudest person on the mountain as I am always cheering the kids on, telling them where to go and hopefully being an encouragement. One time Gabe was way ahead of me and he rode one of the boxes making it all the way across for the first time and I'm way up the hill hootin and hollerin. I'm sure people were thinking....What is that guy yelling at...
but hey, I was stoked! Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of him that time. There were plenty of missed photo ops since we were spread out a bit more on this trip. Beccs and Abby both rode over a couple of jumps, Gabe rode up a lift by himself, Chris buttered his first box (twice), and I added two new features, the flowerbox and the quarterpipe. All in all it was an awesome day with everyone progressing.

She sure can cook!

I honestly believe that if I had a stomach I would be fat. Man, my wife can cook! Dinner tonight as per usual was AWESOME. She can cook, she is hot, and she treats me right. Just thought people should know.

Ouch! That's starting to hurt.

Saturday afternoon I met up with Gilbert Altamirano and Aaron Gilbert at the Angeles Gun Club for some skeet shooting good times! Being a newbie I wasn't sure what to expect. First the place was bigger, and way more crowded than I anticipated. And second it suddenly dawned on me that we should all be very afraid. There were a lot of interesting people with very scary lookin guns and this in a state where owning a gun is generally frowned upon by the vast amount of liberals who live here. I think in public you hear "guns are bad" yet it seems everybody and their 10 year old own their own arsenal. Now I feel I should build an arsenal to protect myself from all these gun "enthusiasts". All joking aside I did learn some very important things about shooting #1 there are a TON of rules, for instance it is very much frowned upon when you point your gun at the guy next to you and say "hey, check out my new gun, I just got it today" this makes people very angry. Who knew? #2 shooting 75 rounds your first time is definitely gonna hurt. So anyway. After we were there for a little over an hour the Peter Guy family showed up to join in on the fun. This was good since earlier in the week when Gil invited me he said we were going with Peter to celebrate his b-day. Happy birthday Peter, glad you made it! And thanks for letting me shoot the pistolas, it made me very much afraid. Funny thing is after talking to some guys from church today I learned that I was doing things wrong, lean into it not back, don't flinch
wait....what.....my shoulder feels like Jack Bower just finished interrogating it and I'm not supposed to flinch, I'm scared to death at the thought of pulling the trigger for fear of the pain.
Oops did i just put that out there for everyone to know? What I meant to say was....it was nothin
next time I'll shoot a hundred rounds cause it doesn't hurt a bit.

Sorry no pics but you can check out pics and vid on Aarons FB.
Thanks guys, Im already lookin forward to killing more biodegradable florescent orange clay pigeons.

It must be the beard.

Two days, two different customers, and two free bottles of wine. Its weird I guess people assume that I like to drink wine. I'm not really a big fan. Is it the society we live in or is it something else, because both customers just handed it to me as I was going out the door. Maybe they like it so much they simply assume everyone likes it and wants a bottle. Maybe its just my beard.

Father-son snow day

Gabe woke up Monday night and was selling Buicks (puking, tossing cookies, barfing...) so he was unable to go snowboarding on Wed. as I had planned. Come Thursday night he was still a little iffy, but I packed up our stuff anyway and decided we would sleep in a bit. The next morning I woke him up around 6:30 and he said he was good to go, so we went. We got to Mt. High about 8:30 and it was perfect...sunny, warm, not to crowded. After a few runs down, Gabe seemed a bit off so we took a break and got drinks and put on sunscreen. Again we took a few more runs and Gabe worked on turning on his toe edge. He can fly down the hill turning on his heel edge then he simply slides around, rides fakey (opposite foot forward) and turns on his heel edge again. This way he can go down the hill turning both directions but never on his toe edge. Again he was having fun but still seemed kinda mellow and wanted to take a break. We went to the truck and had lunch and he finished watching his movie from the drive up. Our lunch break made all the difference. Gabe was feeling better and really started to shred. He rode over several jumps and then headed toward one of the boxes and actually got on it and then slid off the side. I was stoked! I wasn't the only one, several other guys saw him and told him he did great. Gabe rode awesome and he just keeps getting better, I was amazed at how well he did especially since he was still recovering from being sick for several days. I love you Gabe!

A river runs through!

Its raining and I love it! I went out into the backyard and our river is really raging, it sounds so cool. And better yet we are getting more snow in the local mountains which is great because it was getting real thin due to last weeks warm weather. Look for a new post in the next day or two about Gabe's trip snowboarding with Dad.

Father-daughter snow day

So there is this whole recession thing going on and it seems when you combine that with perfect weather a/c guys like myself have a lot of free time. Hhmmm, what to do, what to do?
Might as well go snowboarding! This week was a first for me as Gabe was sick and I was only taking Becca. Well let me tell you....the first father-daughter snowboarding trip was a huge success. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the mid to high 40s on the slopes. We arrived before they opened and since we did not have to wait in line for tickets we were among the first in line for the lift to the top. They had been blowing snow for 2 days and most of the mountain was freshly groomed. This year the kids have improved to the point where they can venture around the mountain more, this makes it more fun for them and me. After warming up with a few runs Becca decides, all on her own, that she wants to go over some jumps. You should have seen the smile on my face:) Man I was so stoked! And a little scared!?! Becca heads for the first of 5 jumps in a row and..........didn't quite make it. Undaunted she heads for the next one and cruises right over it! I am thinking this is good until as she approaches jump #3 I'm thinking uh oh....to fast, but she made it and almost got her whole board off the snow! We both decided this was a fun run and stuck to it for most of the day with her going over the jumps and me sliding the boxes and hitting some of the jumps as well. After Becs sees me sliding the boxes she thinks she ought to give it a try. She gave it three valiant efforts but no luck:( Her last try was on our last run down for the day and she was really bummed when she did not make it, so I had her take her board off and walk back up the hill to try it with my help. I held onto her as she went and she made it all the way across with my help. She then decided that she would wait till she was a bit better before trying it again as she discovered how slippery the boxes are. I must say this was an unbelievably awesome day for me. The best part was walking across the big patio area of the lodge as we were leaving, we each had a snowboard under one arm and we were holding hands:) :) I love you Becca!

The family that plays together...

Kathy and I took the kids (except Noah) snowboarding earlier this month. This was Elayna's first time and she was very excited. Kathy continued to impress us all with her improvement. Elayna loved going straight. Becca and Gabe will soon be better than their Dad. And I had a great time!

Kathy's Party

I think it was in September when I asked Christie (Willis) to help me organize a surprise party for Kathy. Then I did nothing until about the middle of December. I have always been pretty good at putting things off till the last minute and this was no exception. I started making notes, drawing diagrams, and of course lying to my wife. All the deception was the hardest part... it was killing me!
Almost everyday I would expand my plan, this was a bummer because whenever I have what I think of as a good idea I tell Kathy with great excitement. Usually she then very lovingly tells me why my plan won't work. But this time I had to keep it all to myself. When Kathy asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told her i-tunes gift cards, this of course was also for her party, as I downloaded a bunch of party songs. This way I didn't have to shell out $ 600.00 for a D.J.. I'm pretty sure she thought I was trippin. Her parents were here from AZ and I'm in the office feverishly spending all my money on songs for my ipod. The next big project was building a huge tent structure onto the back of the house. This was difficult because how do you do it without raising suspicion? HEY BRIAN? HOW COME THERE IS A HUGE TENT IN THE BACKYARD?
So when she was out shopping I simply built the pieces and stashed them on the roof or the side of the house. The food was the next big challenge. I told her Coby wanted me to go with him to look for stocking stuffers for his girls. Of course she asked "where are you going"? Uhmm well Costco. Now where do you put several hundred dollars worth of food when you aren't supposed to have it? At the neighbors and Moms house of course. I thought it would be cool to have a fancy cake of some sort but hhmmm what kind? Well since Kathy is such a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies, I ordered a cake that looked like a cookie. Thats done but the question remains "Will there be enough food?" so I ordered fried chicken from Albertsons. Now its the day after Christmas and Kathy needs to be out of the house, so her mom takes her to see Mama Nelly.
Everything is going good. I called the "help" and had them come over. Christie, Rachelle, Laura, my Mom, Jackie and Emma all did a wonderful job with the food and decorations. Thanks ladies!
While that was going on inside Mark (Kathy's Dad), Coby, Bill, and I were outside setting things up. Now is the time when I say sorry. I am sorry you guys had to put up with me. I was a wreck.
I missed calculated on the roof trusses and it was not going to work with what I had, bummer.
What do you do in such a situation? You call your dad. What I did not know was my Dad was at home and was very sick, sorry Dad, but of course he picked up the lumber I needed and brought it right over, then he went home to bed. Your the best Dad! Daniel was in the middle of this whole mess with the tent trying, and succeeding, to put up the 10' screen, projector and Wii. Thanks Daniel you rule! Did I mention that each room was lit with different color lights and we had black lights outside. It was really cool.
The guests are here. We are all ready. I am a mental case.
Kathy calls me and says "Why did Albertsons call me and tell me my 75 piece order of chicken is ready?" WHAT!! I forgot the chicken and I gave them the wrong cell number. Yes I know what you are thinking. So I say to Kathy "Well we ordered chicken for dinner but there must be some mistake I will call them and see whats up". I know....lame, but it was the best I could come up with. Luckily for me my wife thinks there is no way her husband can pull off a surprise party so she still did not figure it out.
Finally after another 20 minutes of waiting she walked into a house full of friends and family yelling SURPRISE! And yes she was! The music was loud the Wii was LARGE the food was plentiful and the people....awesome!
The party was a lot of fun and Kathy had a great time. Thanks to all who attended.

Kathy's surprise party... coming soon!

Christmas morning

This year things were..... the same as last year. Except for the turkey recipe. We brined the turkey for about 16 hours, some (Mark) questioned this method. I must say Kathy and I made the juiciest most tasty turkey ever. It was a pretty mellow morning. The kids got up around 7 and dug into there stockings. We allow them to open their stockings so that we can get up and ready for the day. It wasn't until about 8 that Becca and Lydia started things off by reading Luke 2 for us and then it was time for the gifts! Everyone seemed quite satisfied with what they received. Later that day Kathy's family came over and we all ate a ton of food. However I had a hard time staying focused as I had been so into planning Kathy's surprise party. All in all it was a great day and I don't think the real meaning of this day was forgotten.

"Christmas lighting"

For the last 6 years we have taken our kids, Jackie and Lydia out to look at Christmas light displays around town. The kids refer to this as "Christmas lighting". The first 4 years we would stop at 7-11 for hot drinks and some junk food, sadly for the last 2 years we were unable to carry on that part of the tradition due to time constraints. Maybe next year. This year we found a great house where the lights move in rhythm with the music when you tune your car radio to a certain frequency. This house was definitely the highlight, pun intended. Unfortunately due to rain the trains were not running at the train house. The train house is always the kids favorite. The homeowner sits out on his porch running three very nice train sets through his yard and through several very intricate little towns. One of the trains has a car that is filled with little candy canes for the kids to take. Again, maybe next year. We all had a great time, and were thankful that even with Jackie and Lydia living in another state for the last 2 years we still haven't missed a year! Note to Mark: you will always have to come to California for Christmas. Just think of it as penance for moving to Arizona.

Snow!!!

We took our kids and Kathy's sisters up to the mountains for a little snow play a few days before Christmas. This was a first for Elayna, Noah, Jackie, and Lydia. We found a nice little area with some untouched snow and did all the fun stuff your supposed to do. Elayna made a couple snow angels, we all took a few turns on the sled, most of us ate some snow, and we made (finished) a snowman. Good times!!!

Childrens choir

Once again Becca and Gabe participated in the children's choir at our church. They sang with the adult choir in two of their performances and then they had their own performance which was a lot of fun. Becca had several speaking parts in which she did great. She actually memorized all the speaking parts of all the kids! Gabe sang loud and did a great job with the hand motions even though he was almost squeezed out of his row by the two kids on either side of him. Next year Elayna will definitely be joining them as this year she sang most of the songs while sitting with us in the audience.

35 years

This year I turned 35. I feel blessed to have made it! It has been 10 years since I was "mostly dead". This year my beautiful wife invited a few people over to celebrate my b-day. I enjoyed having some family over and Kathy did a great job making a real tasty cake. Thanks also to all who sent cards and or gifts.