Hannah's Favorite Colors

I asked her if she was doing home work. "Nope, just writing a book." Maybe I'll write a book too.

Harry Reid

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695217196,00.html

I read this article, and thought about two of my favorite Democrat Mormons, Ryan Dopp & Josh Lichty.

It is kind of funny to me that, with all the Latter Day Saints that are Republicans there have been many popular Latter Day Saint politicains have been Democrats, some of which include:

Harry Reid- Current U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Dr. Martha Cannon Hughes- The first female Senator in American history.
William H. King- "He was a US Senator from 1917-1941. In addition he was the President Pro Tempore of the Senate from November 19, 1940-January 3, 1941, which is the second-highest-ranking official of the Senate and the highest-ranking senator and in addition third in the presidential line of succession."
...and many more.

Me, still probably not voting Democrat.

Rush Hour

http://www.eslus.com/Gizmos/rushour/rushHour.html

We have this board game called Rush Hour. It a brain game. The above link takes you to an online version of the game. Same exact game. I came outside to play it. Can stand trying to play it with Suzi and Patrick poking fun.

I was playing it today, while listening to General Conference (yes I can do both, well maybe not according to Patrick) and Suzi and Patrick sitting behind me were giggling as I slide around the cars trying to solve the puzzle. I started at level 1, and had been making my way forward.

Patrick would try reach over and help, every time I would pause to think. After a while that starts to get on my nerves. I would bite his head off, because that's perfectly Patrick. "Don't you see it Dad, all you have to do is...." "Patrick leave me the heck alone, I'm playing, don't need your help." "Well I made it to level 38, and your stuck on 11." "Well maybe I'm stuck on 11 because you won't shut your pie hole, and I can't think straight." Then he'd start laughing, and even though Suzi was sitting right behind me I can't hear her laughing too. The two of them just giggling together when I stop to think.

It was just grating on my nerves. No kidding I couldn't make a move without the two of them giggling. I couldn't think straight. Then Hannah walks in from up stairs, "Oh I love that game, need help?" "No I don't neeeeed your help." Patrick and Suzi laughing again, this time Suzi's laughing hard, like tears are coming. Then Patrick says to Suzi "watching him play this is like watching Luke (our dog) eat peanut butter.

Then the two of them lose it all together. I quit before I got hostile, it took Hannah another 20 seconds or so to finish it.

That's the problem around these parts. Everyone thinks they are the biggest genius.

Parent Teacher Confrence

Every parent teacher conference I've been too with all of my children have been great. Teachers love Suzi's kids. Yeah they are mine too, but Suzi deserves a ton of credit here.
I went to Sam and Hannah's and the teacher just gushed over them. Good kids.

I thought I would pass along a compliment Hannah's teacher made about Hannah. Hannah's teacher said she had been teaching 32 years, and has had only one student remotely like Hannah. "Hannah is going to do something great in this life" she said. "When Hannah comes in the classroom the whole room seems to get brighter." She said Hannah was brilliant academically, gifted creatively, and socially absolutely wonderful.

That's our "Bear Bear."

Sam

Motherly Wisdom

To good to not pass on to you all. Thanks to Jeff Davis for passing it along.

Bite My Tongue

Saturday Patrick and I were rolling the motorbikes off the trailer and into the garage. Clearing the trailer for a project. Patrick, Hannah, and Georgia were all there.

I was rolling one bike backwards down the trailer ramp sitting on the bike. The problem with moving backwards is that there are no eyes on the back of our heads. We can't see what's behind us, and it's not a very safe way to move. That's why movement backwards is not as easy as moving forward. The whole natural selection thing.

Anyhow, I was rolling a motorbike off the ramp backwards sitting on the bike with my feet dragging on the ground behind the pegs on the bike. In front of the pegs would have been a smarter option. So the back of my left leg hit ran into Patrick's bicycle, which was sitting at the bottom of the ramp on the ground. Which wasn't a big deal except that the bicycle didn't move when the peg on the motorcycle met the front of the of my left leg and the weight of the motorbike rolling backwards down the ramp smashed into my shin. The motor bike came to a halt. I pushed it up an inch pulled my leg out from in between the bike and the motorbike.

And finished rolling the bike off the trailer. When the bike met my shin I yelled loud. No profanity, but it was a sound that told all the kids that Dad certainly hurt himself. I bent over waiting for the pain to go away, but it wouldn't stop. So I continued mumbling sounds that still told everyone that I was still hurting.

Right after the first yell, Patrick asked "Dad what did you do?" I didn't answer. Hannah stood there looking with her hands on her face. Georgia was skipping in a nervous circle with a grimace on her face, Patrick asks again "Dad what did you do?" I'm still waiting to for a comfortable point to inhale. For some reason shin pain lingers way too long. This was a pain way down deep in my bones. Makes my toes curl thinking about it again. Hannah still looking, Georgia still skipping in a nervous circles, Patrick asks again, "what did you do?" Hannah still looking, Georgia skipping and Patrick "what did you do?" This was probably the first time I actually understood the words coming out of his mouth. The first couple times, I was in Hulk rage, and didn't hear much. But the third, or fourth, or fifth I don't know maybe the twentieth time he asked I recognized that he had asked me the same question multiple times. I mumbled back, "Patrick....give....me....oooooo.....a....second....it...still....hurts." Patrick said "oh, okay, yeah, ouch, mmmm, yeah, what did you do?"

That was the moment I had to make a decision, "am I going to kill the boy?" Somehow reason entered my mind, and said "no that would be bad, just....wait...one....more...second." I did wait one more second, and finally the pain subsided to a point where I could think some what clearly. I finally answered Patrick's question, Hannah continued to hold her face, and Georgia took off saying "I don't want to hear about it." She really has sympathetic pain for me. Love her.

Patrick responded with something like "that wasn't very smart." Good thing I didn't explain how it happened any sooner, if he had said that to me while I was in Hulk rage no telling what could have happened. Love that boy.

Flying

I decided to fly out early this morning to Chicago, instead of late yesterday, to be home for some church meetings.

Got out of bed at 3am. Ouch, my head hurts thinking about how long this day always is, flying back east. Hustled into the shower and got on the road. Checked email before I had to hit the road at 4am. Parked the car hurried into the airport to find out the flight has been delayed until 8am. I really was too tired care.

The part I love the most is when the ticket agent says, "you know the flights delayed until 8 don't you?" It implies that I should have known some how. Called, checked online, looked at a monitor, whatever. Somehow that statement makes me feel like she was trying to blame me for something. So I replied with a smile "I had heard this might be a problem catching this flight (which I had, all my peers flew back yesterday for this exact reason). How do you get this far behind this early in the day? A wing fall off?"

So here I sit. Ugh. With 8 other people sitting with their laptops plugged into the wall. They're probably all working. I'll have plenty of time to work on the plane.

With all that nuttiness said, I hope you all have a great week. Enjoy every moment you possible.

Sup?

This is my gangsta-homie-glamour-pirate. Isn't she lovely?

Birthday Girl

Luke

I hear they taste like Chicken

Georgia, she's not afraid of much.

You're Bruising My Neck Meat

Grapes!

Suzi took these pictures when she went with Hannah's class to the grape festival. The Grape Festival is a big time event here in Lodi every year. I missed it, and Sam did too. However, everyone else in the family made it over there this year.

It's the carnival environment that you all love. The fried food, dangerous rides, scary people, and interesting ways designed to take your money.

Patrick went over on Saturday night with some of his buddies. That night there were 20,000 people there. Funny part is he wanted to hang out late with his buddies. Mom called him and said she was going to come pick him up, but he begged for more time. Not much later after that he noticed the crowd had changed as the night moved on. Some fights with the testosterone crowd had taken place, and magically he was good. Ready to come on home. Mother knows best.

Anyhow, these are some of the murals made primarily of grapes in the pavilions there at the grape festival. Hannah's class went during school hours.

Gratitude

Ever Have the Feeling Your Being Watched?

I was out front, and it was very dark. I was shooting some pictures in the dark. I could see that the girls window was open, and had a feeling someone was peeking out. So I said "girls are you in bed." There was about a 3 second pause, and a some very quite pitter patter, and then came the reply "yeeeesssss." So I waited a couple of minutes pointed my camera at the window, and bang GUILTY! Two little heads in the bottom corner of the window. Click on the picture to enlarge the photo, and you can even see which child is which head. It gave me a good laugh.

Someone is Six!

Like Candy, Only Worse

"The rise in soft drink consumption mirrors the national march towards obesity. At the midpoint of the 20th century, Americans drank four times as much milk as soda pop. Today, the ratio is almost completely reversed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, in the past 30 years the national obesity rate has more than doubled, and among teenagers, more than tripled, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Interesting article.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/18/kd.liquid.calories/index.html

Touch Down Gordon

My old boss Gordon, and his son Brandon were down at the game. I think he was sitting directly behind me 60 rows up. He's a big time Cougar fan, and I think most of you would love him. He's a very good friend to the Kelly family. Should have given him my seats. Well at least invited him to come squeeze in with us. Actually he wouldn't have had to squeeze in, there were plenty of seats around us.

What's Clay Looking At?

I would guess Clay is looking at a bunch of things. Went to the BYU vs. UCLA game this past weekend. I'll post more pictures later. Had a great time. Saw a bunch of old friends. There must have been close to 30,000 or more BYU fans at the game there in Pasadena. It was a good game, and had a fun time. Suzi, myself, Patrick, Chris & Jacob Gonzalez, and Clay Shields went to the game. We had a ton of laughs. It was about a 4 1/2 drive down, and as soon as we ate dinner we drove straight home. A lot of road time for the rest of the gang. I call that a normal work day.

Red Neck

I'm not so sure that's an intercom. I think that's just a hole pretending to be an intercom. By the way no one ever answered and pressed that button more than once.

Waiting

Some Days Start Better Than Others

Got a good jump on traffic, going to be out in the Napa Valley early, looked like a great day. Sometimes the perfect start can go south quickly. However, I was back in the game at right before lunch time. Whatcha gonna do? Got three new tires out of the deal.

I'm the one in the middle.

How often do you get art work made for you? One more reason why little girls are the greatest.

Labor Day Party

Super Star!

The Gang!

Seat Belt

Georgia: "Dad where are you going?" Me: I'm going to drop off Patrick." G: Put on your seat belt. M: Ok. G: Dad don't forget. Me: OK. G: Dad: Yeeess. G: I want you to say in your head "put on my seat belt, put on my seat belt, put on my seat belt." Until you put on your seat belt, OK?" M: Great ok, great, thanks, I will. Got to go. G: Bye, put on your seat belt.

I drove away about 20 yards, and Patrick said Dad I forgot I need _____. I can't remember what it was, so I backed up and pulled up to the curb. Patrick ran inside, and Georgia came flying out the door. Ran across the lawn smiling. Jumped up on the side of the car, looked in the window and screamed "DAD WHY ISN'T YOUR SEAT BELT ON!!" I didn't even lie. Didn't even try to have an excuse. Just put down my head, shamed by my 5 year old. I apologized, and she said "it's ok. Just do it" and ran back inside. Sheese.