Video Game Author

When we had that lightning storm in June, it burnt up the kid's computer. They haven't had a computer or video games to play with all summer long. It has been great, but it doesn't stop Johnathan from dreaming. He is compensating for the lack of computer games by inventing some of his own. Johnathan has been making up future video games lately during his Journal time. He draws pictures of them and writes about them. He has created a new character call Nuigi. Nuigi is supposed to be Mario and Luigi's dad.

This is the message that he wrote on this journal entry. This is super mario surfing and super nuegi and super luigi.

The scare I had last night

Last night Jen and I spent a quiet evening watching TV. During commercials one or both of us would run and get something else done that we needed to do (for me it was typically getting more food to snack on until the next commercial). After one of these breaks Jen came back in and sat down, a few minuets later I started talking to her about something, probably to do with the show; she didn't seem to be responding like I expected her to so I turned to see what was up. I got quite a fright but didn't make any reaction thinking it was just in my mind and had something to do with the reflection of the TV. I had to take another look but still I couldn't figure out what had happened to my poor wife who had been responding a bit like Frankenstein's Monster... and now to see her face. Finally I got up the courage to ask her what was wrong, and after repeating herself a few times with muffled words through tight lips she explained that it was to help her look more beautiful??



Here are a few pictures of what I saw, look closely, you might not be able to see it well. The second picture is with the flash but I must say it was a little more creepy with just the green glow of the TV.



I just want to tell Jen, I love you just the way you are honey!!!

I did it!

hay,gises whatch ya up to? Have you read grandma's [mom's] blog and what she said about me finnishing something?Well,now is the time that I shall tell you... I FINESHED
THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!
I'll right to you gies soner or later!
Bye!
Senesseraly, Aylee Ann
ps.I FELT RELLY GOOD insid.
And for my testimony I would like to say that I know the skripshors are trew.

Object Lesson

Tonight we ran to the library and the got ice cream cones with the kids on the way back. While we were in the car we listened to some more of the Harry Potter books on CD.

When we got home, Aylee was folding clothes and I was making dinner. I didn't have much to say, so I thought I would use an object lesson to teach Aylee a principle. I wanted to talk to her about Lord Voldemort - about him having knowledge and great power, but abusing it all.

I started out the conversation by saying, "Aylee, do you want to be like Lord Voldemort when you grow up." The expected answer came quickly..."No!".

I continued, "why not? He was very powerful and very smart."

Aylee replied matter of factly, "I am already all of that." There was a bit of stunned silence on my part. Then I heard Aylee continue. I expected her to say, "notwithstanding, I still wouldn't want to be like him because he used it for wicked purposes." But, no, her response was different, she concluded just as resolute as before, "...And I don't need any more of it!"

That was the end of my object lesson!

Come over for an Evening of Entertainment

Amber and I are very grateful to the Provo clan that has helped us over the past months with moving into our house. With my recent back surgery corresponding with our move, we required a lot of extra helping hands.

On our moving day, Jake, Shan, Jen, and Dave helped us move some larger items (including a bed and appliances) into our house.

Well, you know that after the initial move, there are little (or big) things that need moved here and there. These items have always seemed to "come up" during visits from the Provo family. One time, Amber and I invited Jen, Dave, Jake, and Shan over for a bbq one monday evening. Just after the food, however, I asked if they would help me get the kids swing reassembled from the move, which they did graciously. At another time we had Dave and Jen over, we needed a big thing moved in our yard and Dave was gracious enough to help. These things just always seemed to coincide (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not)

Ok, so Amber and I decided to get a second refrigerator - one of those side-by-side things that has been all the rave since the mid-1980s.

We ordered one from the RC Willey Outlet store just before Amber went off to Girls Camp last week. The delivery of the fridge was scheduled for Thursday morning - around 11am.

Mom was down here taking care of the kids while Amber was at Young Women's Camp. I thought it would be fun to have games and dessert at our house one evening so that everyone could be with Mom and we could visit. I made the invitations for Thursday night at 8pm.

Well, Thursday came along and the fridge did not arrive by 11am. I let it go a couple of hours later and still there was no refrigerator. I finally called the store and they said that for some reason the delivery information was never scheduled. They felt badly and said that they would have a truck drop it off after it made all of it's scheduled deliveries for the day.

Well, knowing my luck, the truck did not arrive at the house until 7:45pm. The delivery guys had to measure the hole for the refrigerator and sign things, so it wasn't until 8:00pm that they started to remove the refrigerator from the truck. It was also at that time that Jake, Jen and Dave were arriving. Jen saw the big delivery truck and turned to Dave saying, something like "Oh, not again!". She thought for sure that the reason I invited them all over was to help me install my new appliance.

Of course, my intentions were pure - I wanted them over for an evening and games and treats. I still thought the install of the refrigerator would be able to happen without their assistance. However, as it turned out, the hole for the refrigerator was just a few milimeters too narrow and we had to widen the gap a bit with a hammer and board. The installers wouldn't hook up the water line because it didn't have the right shut off valve at the end of the hose. So, I was stranded with a refrigerator stuck halfway into my kitchen that needed water connected and brute force to snugly wedge the white giant into the opening that was barely adequate for a device that size.

Familial responsibilities and stewardships fell into place and Jake and Dave assisted with the rest of the installation. After about 30 minutes, we were able to start our evening of relaxation and entertainment.

As President Monson would put it, "Despite the unexpected events that enveloped the evening, unforseen rewards were reaped as family ties were strengthened, brotherly bonds were built, and heart-melting memories were made."

Jake to the Rescue

A couple of weeks ago, Amber and I decided to look for a refrigerator. We went to a number of places, but found the best deal at the RC Willey outlet in Provo. The problem with purchasing something there is that once you see a good thing you have to act on it right away.

I had remembered Jake telling me that if I ever was to purchase something there at the outlet, to have him come with me because he can get free shipping and a discount with some package he purchased earlier in the year.

Well, Amber and I were on a date, so it was evening. I figured it was a long shot, but I called Jake up on his cell phone and told him that we found something. He and Shan were out on an excercise outing at the Provo Recreation Center. Jake was kind enough to drop everything and run over to the outlet to help negotiate and purchase our refrigerator with the free shipping deal.

Now, skeptics will say he only did that so that he could get out of exercising...but I know Jake better. :-) Thanks Jake for your help (and to Shan for letting him run off like that)!

A Special Request

Aylee is at that stage in life where she is territorial of her bedroom and places signs on her door such as, "Knock before Entering", and "Trespassing will result in your severed had being hung from my door jam!" (Well, OK, she didn't really have the second sign on the door, I just threw it in to make this post a little longer since it is meant to be a pretty short post).

Anyway, Aylee has been staying up very late these past few weeks. It is not all uncommon for her to go to sleep around 11:00 pm. Last night, Amber and I went to bed just before midnight and Aylee was still awake in her room. Well this morning, I got up before everyone else and headed downstairs to drive to work. As I passed her door, I noticed a new sign hanging there. It was a simple request, though one that baffles me - could it be a plea of assistance in a self-driven reformation process? Her request, "Please wake me up early tomorrow, like 4:45." Needless to say, her request was denied.

Swimming at Seven Peaks

While Amber was at Young Women's camp, I took Aylee and Johnathan on a date night to Seven Peaks last Tuesday. They were "high flyer readers" last year in school and won these passes to Seven Peaks, so I was the only one that had to buy a swim pass.

Grandma made us some yummy sandwiches, drinks, and snuck in a roll of Neccos for a treat. We headed off into the sunny afternoon for some water fun. The kids were amazing in their swimming abilities - the progress they had made from the last time we were there last years was phenominal.

I had a head cold and was not feeling particularly well, so I had them start out in one of the pools that had small slides. They played in that pool for about 30 minutes while I stretched out on the side of the pool, dandled my white legs in the water and slept. After my little nap I was feeling 100 times better. We then took off and found some tubes and floated the lazy river. I thought they would stick in the tube, make one round on the river and then beg me to get out. However, they loved the lazy river. They didn't want to ride the tubes at all. They spent their time swimming by themselves in the slow current. They tried catching each other and swimming under the waterfalls. We had a great time.

Our next stop was the wave pool where they were fearless. We went to the deepest end of the pool during the wildest part of the waves and they thought that was the greatest thing.

Following the wave pool we went on the big tube rides. I had two tubes, a double and a single. Aylee would take the single tube and Johnathan and I would ride the double. We went on a fair amount of those rides. I was worried that once we started the tube rides that would be all the kids wanted to do, but no, they surprised me again.

The kids were looking for adventure right and left. Our next destination was the activity pool where the Lilly Pads were located. This particular pool was deeper than the kids were tall. There were two ropes above the pool and then six floating pads that you had to try to step onto and cross to traverse the pool. There was a sign that said kids were not allowed to attempt the activity if they could not reach the rope. Johnathan and Aylee were the smallest kids there in line. They really wanted to try it out so I stood behind them. When it got to be their turn, I would hang on the rope when the guard wasn't looking and have the kids then grab the rope that I had lowered for them with my 200 pound frame.

Aylee made it across the pool over all six lilly pads twice. Johnathan gave it a valiant effort. He made it over four of the six pads before his little arms and legs gave into fatigue (it was hard for him to try to reach out to each floating lilly pad). He finally fell in. He doesn't yet know how to swim, but he has been giving it a valiant try lately. I jumped in with him and let him hit the bottom. I then grabbed him and told him he had to swim to the side. I gave him a push and off he went swimming to the wall. (Granted, he was a bit scared).

We then continued practicing our swimming there in the deeper pool and then repeated some of our earlier activities. We had a great time together - it was a memorable evening in the sun and water.

Grandma Camp

As most of you know, Amber went off to Young women's Camp last week. Mom came down to take care of the kids for us while Amber was gone. The kids were really excited to have Grandma come visit, but I don't think they could have anticipated the great fun that was in store for them.

Grandma's visit included picnics, visits to McDonalds, cool workbooks, stickerbooks, coin books, beadwork, movies, and more! They had their own little "Camp" with Grandma here. It was fun to see them all so involved, but I am sure it wore Mom out by the end!

We had our home teachers over yesterday and they asked the kids if they missed their mom while she was off to Girl's Camp. They all said, No. They had such a great time with Grandma, that they really didn't have much of a chance to think about their mom's absence.

Thanks Grandma for the fun activities and time you spent with our kids!

Happy Birthday Johnathan

Johnathan is Six years old Today!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I have been off to scout camp this week with the Deacons. In my absense, Aylee has been quite productive. Amber told me that each day that I was gone, Aylee would go and invite kids from a specific street to come to our house at a certain time of the day for a magic show. There she would charge them about 25 cents for the production. Each day she would target a different street, and each day she would make about three dollars.

It appears she really was enjoying the profits that she was able to reap from the magical acts. On the last day before I arrived, unbeknownst to Amber, Aylee raised her show prices from 25 cents to $1.00. She had a good number show up too. When Amber got ear of the price hike, however, she made Aylee walk to every child's house and return 75 cents to them.

When Aylee was originally caught in her price gouging, she nervously asked Amber if she had to tell Dad what she had done. Amber told her no and Aylee breathed a sigh of relief. I have a feeling, however, that it was not Aylee's nerves that Amber was trying to calm, rather she probably knew that I would tell Aylee to try $1.50 tomorrow :-).

Duct tape, anyone?

Alayna is now at the lovable age where clothing and diapers are only a nuisance - an item to be removed and discarded. Last night after several attempts dress Alayna and re-issue her diaper, Amber asked me to get out the big guns - Duct Tape. Remorsefully, we were out of the gray fastening wonder, but I compromised with some wide clear packing tape. As far as I know, the pajamas came right off again, but her diaper stayed on through the night. Anyone got a little extrac duct tape to spare?

To and Fro

The time has come once again to say goodbye to my beloved town and head back to the cramped town of Rexburg. However, I will be returning every weekend to continue working at Heinz. My boss, John, requested that I stay on with them for the summer semester and then in the Fall return and work on a project they will be doing. He siad it will be about as large as the one we just did. He was in hopes that I would stay since I am the only one that has worked on a project this large. SO I petitioned to switch tracks and it was granted. I will still graduate in about the same amount of time it will just take 2 months longer than planned. However I will be making more money than I had planned on making during my last year of school so that will be a major plus.
Looks like my goodbye will only have to be for 2 months then I will bbe permitted to return to the promise land :)! (Well close to it, it will make it so Arbon is only about 40-45 minutes away.) :)

Struck by Lightning?

As many of you know, this past weekend I had youth conference, so Amber took the kids out to Arbon for the weekend. Well, on Friday night I arrived home to a spectacular electrical storm. I watched it for a bit and then threw on a movie.

The movie got over around 10:30 and I decided that I had wasted enough time and that I was going to head to bed. I thought I might take a look at the lightning for a moment before I headed there.

I opened the front door to look outside and enjoy the noisy splendor. As I stepped out onto the front porch, a huge burst of light and a loud crack of sound caused me to jump and the house to shake. Nearly that same moment I heard a sharp POP in the house.

I wondered if we had just been struck by lightning. I ran around checking things and turning them off. Everything that I checked seemed to work ok. I sniffed for smoke and didn't detect any, so I went to bed.

In the morning I got up to go to the second day of youth conference but the Garage door wouldn't open. The unit was receiving no power at all. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and the unit started to work. I counted myself lucky and headed out the door.

When I got home Saturday night, Amber was there with the kids. We were visiting and she asked me why it was so hot in the house. I checked the settings on the thermostat to find that it was indeed warm, but the thermostat thought the air conditioner was on. I went out to the furnice room to find that we had no power to our blower. I unplugged things and reset breakers all to no avail. I then decided I wasn't so lucky with the previous storm.

On Monday, I was heading to work and decided to throw on a movie for Aliece. I went to put a DVD in the player but to my dismay there was no power to my DVD player that happened to be on my $2.00 surge protector/power strip (Note to self, $2.00 power strips do not have real surge protectors inside them).

As of yet, we still need to buy another DVD player (maybe a father's day gift?), but my Air Conditioning friend was able to come over and fix our blower. The unit was fried (scrambled eggs as he put it), but he was able to fix it for $400.00 (and that was the discounted rate).

I called the insurance company, but our deductable is $500.00. So, all of this has come out of pocket.

As I look back on that fateful evening, I should have set the movie aside and sat on the porch all night enjoying the multi-hundred dollar light show.

Beware of fences

When we first moved into our house, Johnathan started getting up at night (several times in the night) to get popsickles and stuff. We believed he was sleepwalking and didn't want him to tumble down the stairs.

In order to remedy this, we started putting up the gate at the top of the stairs so that he would bump in to it and then go back to bed. Well this trick worked really well - until yesterday.

Yesterday morning I was involved in an online meeting over the internet with some of my counterparts in Boston and India. It was about 6:15AM and I heard Aliece wake up and start stirring upstairs. I kept on with my meeting. After a few minutes I heard a huge crash and then tumlbing noises. The air was soon pierced with Aliece screaming.

I ran over to the stairs to see what had happened. Since the gate was up, Aliece was either trying to push it down or climb over it. In the process, the gate came down, sending Aliece down about 10 stairs.

Aliece was pretty sore all day long but we weren't sure if she had just pulled a muscle or if something were broken. We let it be all day yesterday and through the night. This morning we were checking her out and her one shoulder was lower than the other and there was some swelling on the one shoulder.

I worked from home and Amber took Aliece into the doctor's office at 10:00AM By about 2:00pm, they came home with this sling and a brace that is underneath Aliece's shirt (you really can't see it very well from the picture). It appears that in the fall, Aliece broke her collar bone.

She is going to have to wear the brace for about three weeks and the sling will be used as long as she is in a lot of pain.

Upcoming Events

(Amber writing) Thanks for the fun party last night -- it was so great to have Jen, Dave, Jake, Shan, Joe & Julie over for a nice evening of BBQ, conversation and beautiful weather. (Also, thanks for helping with our bed & swing set!) After you all left I realized that I forgot to let you know about some upcoming events for our family. Thursday evening at 6:30, Aylee has her spring choir concert - it is similar to the Christmas one, but with different music (of course). I have heard them perform all of their songs, and they are really quite good; they performed 2 weeks ago at Abravenal Hall in Salt Lake. And, Friday morning at 9:00 is Johnathan's kindergarten graduation. Both events will take place in the gym at Amelia Earhart Elementary School, and both should last no more than about a half an hour. I know that you are all busy with lots of things, but I just wanted you to know that you are all invited if you fel so inclined.

My Kids Browser Has Been Submitted!

Well, one of the 'big' steps was taken today. I went to Granite Distributing and demoed the software, My Kids Browser. It was supposed to be a 10 minute demo but ended up going over an hour. I sat at an oval shaped table with about 10 people sitting around me. I told them some recent statistics of pornography and internet predators attacking young children. I then demoed the program. They were very impressed! I believe that I could have sold each of them a copy of the browser while we were sitting there had I had more copies with me!

Granite Distributing distributes to Deseret Book, Seagull Book, etc. They told me that they will let me know in a couple of days if they have accepted my software (though I'm sure it will after the response I got). They told me that they'd like me to go along with their sales person to approach Deseret Book so that I may demo it for them and explain all that I explained today. If I charge $20 per browser, I will end up getting $8 per copy after DB and Granite take their cut.
It is important to note, however, that I do not make a penny until Deseret Book or other retailers actually purchase the browsers. And even then, the customers will be the deciding factor. The distributors told me (and they know their business) that it will soon be time to spend quite a bit of money on marketing. Up until now, I haven't had much out-of-pocket expense. That will be a small worry of mine.

Anyway, I thought I'd keep you all updated in the latest of My Kids Browser!

Happy Birthday Janae!

Nae! I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday today! Many your getting old. . . . . 21! Hope you enjoy your day and I'm excited to celebrate with you this weekend!

Love your BIG Sis!

Family Hike

We have had a busy day today, but it has been a lot of fun. Amber started off the morning by going to a 8AM performance for one of the young women. The high schooler called Amber a couple of days ago and asked her to play for one of her music solos at a regional high school event.

When Amber got home she grabbed Aylee and they went fabric shopping for a future bedspread/comforter in her soon-to-be new bedroom. While they were gone, I was experimenting in the kitchen and found a GREAT microwave recipe for Crunchy Carmel Popcorn. I was skeptical (any microwave recipe is usually a sham) but I tried it out and it was not only EASY, but it was really good.

When Amber and Aylee got home, I told everyone that we were going hiking and that we would have the carmel popcorn for a treat on the trail. We quickly loaded everyone up and headed to Rock Canyon, just above the beautiful Provo Temple.

It was a gorgeous hike. The kids loved throwing rocks in the cool, clear stream along the trail. I took our GPS unit and found that there was a Geocache nearby and so we let the kids find that one. Alayna was funny as she insisted to hike all by herself for the entire duration of our easy stroll.



We were tight on time, so we only hiked for an hour and we only went about 0.48 miles up the trail before having to turn back due to the little ones stopping here an there for this and that. Alayna was a trooper though. Going downhill was hard for her as she didn't know how to slow down. She fell so many times on the rocks and pavement. She even got a huge gash on her forearm. But she didn't complain and she didn't want to be carried, so we let her be.

When we got to the van, I was pretty proud of my performance. I made the hike up and back and my leg/back pain was very minimal and I was feeling great. I started boasting to Amber of my accomplishment (being the first hike since my operation). As I was telling her how well I did, I then realized, I can't be too proud of myself since Alayna was able to hike it all by herself too! :)



When we got home, we cleaned Johnathan up and sent him off to a birthday party. While he was there, I made some more carmel popcorn for one of Amber's upcoming meetings. At 2pm, she had some of the Young Women over for a YCL Young Women's Camp Meeting. One of the girls was babysitting, so she brought those kids with her. So, I watched the crew during Amber's 90 minute meeting.

When that was over, I went off to a Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting. While I was there, Johnathan headed off to a second birthday party. I got back at 6:15. Amber had a delicious dinner of corndogs and carrots on the table. We ate, and Amber went off to Choir Practice and the Adult Session of the Stake Conference.

It has been a busy one, but we sure have had a great time today. It gets me really excited for the warmer months of the year.

What are you reading?

Do you remember growing up and attending school. Doesn't it always seem like the kids now-a-days are learning things in school that you either never studied, or studied when you were a few grades older?

Well, last Sunday, I caught Aliece reading the "Articles of Faith" book. I know they try to get the kids to learn their articles of faith in Primary, but this is ridiculous. Back in my day, we were encouraged to memorize the thirteen, one-verse statements of our faith. Apparently, they have taken it a step further and encourage the primary kids to study the in depth doctrines on those pinnacle standards. Well, I guess it was bound to happen - Sunbeams class is just so much more advanced than I remember it!