WEC this Sunday...

This Sunday on the Versus channel the WEC is having some fights.

But not just any fights, ... there are 3 title fights that night! The WEC is not as well known as the UFC (no other MMA promotion is for that matter), but the WEC is owned by Zuffa, and Zuffa owns the UFC. The production value, and quality of coverage is the same as the UFC, so you know it'll be a good show.

I'm somewhat familiar with the Champs in the WEC, and they are great fighters to watch.

Brian Stann is the light heavyweight champ. He's still undefeated! That's almost unheard of in pro MMA. He's a former marine, and has even served a tour in Iraq before becoming a pro fighter. This will be his first title defence.

Carlos Condit is freaky in his abilities in MMA. He's not "the natural born killer" for nothing. He's the welterweight champ (170). This guy is amazing to watch. His ground game is top notch. I'm pretty sure he'll win in the first round.

Jaime Varner is the new lightweight champ in the WEC. He beat up the former champ quite handily, and was quite impressive in that fight. He'll have his hands full, but I think he'll be able to pick apart his opponent and get the "W".

Other notable fighters on the card are Damacio Page (a featured fighter in last season's TapouT show), Brock Larson is quite good, Micah Miller is a good fighter and freakishly tall for his weight class, then Blas Avena Vs. Dave Terrel should be a very exciting fight. For the full fight card you can go here.

It should be good.

Where were you?

If you live in southern California, you probably felt today's eathquake.

Where were you?

I was at the 99 cent store in Redlands, in the detergent/soap isle. By the time the earthquake got to Redlands, it was more of a rolling than jolting movement. I saw a few items of soap teeter in their places, and the signage above was slightly swaying. A lot of people "froze" in their tracks, while others had no idea there was just an earthquake. No one's cell phone worked. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how calm everyone was and remained.

But I did decide quite quickly that I was done shopping, and made my way to a checkout stand. I figured I didn't want to be in there if another fault slipped due to the pressure release of the one that just passed.

Good times.

BTW- Anna's been on cloud nine since the quake. She's been to a bunch of websites, watched a press conference, received numerous phone calls, made numerous phone calls, etc. She's having a great day. Earthquakes are like Christmas to Geologists!

Our pioneer day...

Our ward had a pioneer day activity last Saturday. We had a good time. It was quite sunny. Some relatives of people in our ward have a covered wagon, and horses, and brought them for the ward to ride on. There were also games and other activities available on the field as well.

The first couple pictures are of me helping Duncan to get a kite up in the air. It wasn't very windy, but with a shortened string, as Duncan ran, the kite would get airborne. Then a small breeze started to pass through, and we were able to let out some string for the kite. Liam enjoyed running with the kite too.






Here are some pictures of the kids in the covered wagon. They ran the wagon around the ball field, so it was a pretty good sized loop. The kids liked the wagon, and rode a few times.

Other than the horses pulling the wagon, they also had a "pony" for the kids to ride. Duncan was in line pretty quick to ride the horse and loved it. Liam was a little further back in line, but waited very patiently and looks like he snuck a little pet on the mane either before or after his ride.

The activity wasn't hugely attended. It was the usual crowd of very ward active people. The nice thing about that is we all get to hang out and have a good time pretty regularly, and if the rest of the ward shows up, that's great, but if it's most of the usuals, we still have a fun time. There was also a ton of food, so that helps any get together be a successful one.

Speaking of food. The activity had hot dogs, so that works for us. The kids just don't have the bun (though Duncan did want one, but he understands), and there was jello which they can have, and watermelon, and potato and corn chips, so the only thing we really had to bring from home was some cookies. Liam also got a little sad that he couldn't have cheetos. He saw other kids eating them, and that's always tough to tell them they can't have it when it's so close and other kids are eating them. So it was ultimately good for all of us because they're learning that even if it's right there, they still have to refrain, and it was good for us to deal with that. It may sound funny, but the more practice we get in those types of situations, the better we'll all be at handling them.

Anyway, yeah, a fun time. Later that day we went to my nephew Andrew's 1st birthday party at the Foutz compound, and had a great time there as well.

But what about your family?

I guess it's been a while since I put anything up here about the family, so here's a quick update...

The kids...

There's been a lot of bumps and bruises lately. And unfortunately, I haven't taken any pictures of them, sorry. A little over a week ago, Duncan found out the hard way why it's important to not run int he church; especially around those really heavy doors. He was trying to out run Liam into a room, and caught the edge of one of the doors just under his right eyebrow on the outer edge. It peeled back a tiny layer of skin, and left a small bruise. After a day or two it developed a solid scab. By now the scab has either fallen off, or been picked off, and he's got the newer pink skin in that spot.

Liam, the other day, walked into the edge of one of the buildings at school. I guess he wasn't looking where he was going, and as he turned his head, there was the stucco wall. It left a bit of an impression on Liam's forehead.

Tegan just yesterday went to bend over to pick something up next to the computer desk chair, and miss judged where the knob to adjust the seat was and strait head-butted it with full force, right in the center of her forehead. It turned a blueish color right away, and swelled about 1/4 inch out. The swelling went down before the end of the day, but the bruising is still there.

I can't remember if Jennan's done anything like that recently. She's usually our clumsy one, so it's just a matter of time till she's got a new bump or bruise. I'll try to keep you posted.

Other than that, things are going pretty well.

Duncan and Liam will be off track soon. Their last day is Aug. 1st, then they don't go back till after Labor Day. So that will be cool.

Jennan has been all about pretend play the past few weeks. She has a load of beany baby animals that she plays with. Particularly her two cats, Spots and Fur, they pretty much go everywhere with her. And she's getting to where she's wiping her own bottom after going poop, so that's very cool. Now we need to work on her putting her underwear and shorts back on when she's done using the toilet.

Tegan is walking more and more. If she wants to get somewhere quick, she'll plop down to her hands and knees and take off, but otherwise, she's walking to get where she wants to go. It may take her a little longer that way, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Anna is enjoying her time off from work. She's very dedicated to the kids' diet and learning as much as she can about biomedical treatments for ASD, as well as alternate vaccination time lines, and the use of "organic" products vs. regular products. If you have any questions about any of that stuff Anna would LOVE to share what she's learned. She's become quite passionate about those subjects.

As for me, I'm enjoying sleeping till 8am most days. Anna usually gets the kids up and ready for their day. I've committed to doing my calling as scoutmaster to the best of my ability, so that tends to take up some of each day. Anna's been good about not overwhelming me with "to do" lists, but I do have things that need to get done, and she's good about reminding me.

So that's it for this update. I'll try to put more stuff up here about the family more often.

MMA stuff...

If you're looking to get an MMA fix this weekend, you're in luck. There are two places to go on Saturday night for some MMA action.

If you have cable or satelite, Spike TV is airing UFC 84 Saturday night 9pm ET/PT (I have DirecTV, and for some reason, I get the Eastern feed for Spike TV shows, so for me it'll start at 6pm. Check your local listing to make sure what time it's on in your area.). UFC 84 features the main event of BJ Penn fighting Sean Sherk for the Lightweight Title (unofficially the undisputed lightweight title). You can read my take on the fights here. And when you're done watching the fights, you can check out my post fight comments here.

The other MMA fights happening are on CBS. It's their second EliteXC show, and the main event is a rematch from their first show on CBS, between Robbie Lawler (the champ) vs. Scott Smith. Their first fight ended early due to a finger in the eye of Lawler from Smith. I don't remember if it was deemed a "no contest", or if they disqualified Smith, or what ever. But this is their "unfinished business" rematch. That's really the only fight of note on that card. There is a female MMA fight on the card though, so if you'd like to get familliar with female MMA, you might want to check it out. Oh yeah, and also Nick Diaz is fighting too. I'm looking forward to seeing him fight again. His younger brother Nate is awesome, so I hope Nick does well.

In other MMA stuff, I've recently began frequenting an MMA blog called cagepotato.com. They cover all sorts of MMA related news and information. I've been learning a lot about the MMA world outside of just the UFC, and it's pretty cool. If you're interested in going a little deeper into the MMA world, you might want to check them out.

That was all, carry on.

Will need one soon...

Carl's Jr. is promoting a new breakfast sandwich. It's called "The Monster Breakfast Sandwich". (Oh no, not another Carl's Jr. post!)

It's so big, it doesn't even fit in the picture!

I think I'm going to need to eat one of these soon. Luckily for me there's a coupon for $1.00 off. (There is a coffee purchase required for the coupon, but I'm sure there's an allowable substitution.)


Carl's Jr. also has a new hand scooped shake flavor... Banana Cream! Not only do they put a banana cream flavored syrup in the shake, they also blend in real Nilla wafers! There's also a coupon for $1.00 off one of these as well. ( I wonder if they'll let me use both coupons together?)

I'm wondering if all the GFCF food that's taken over our kitchen is why I'm so drawn to so much "outside" food? The GFCF food is a bit more expensive than what we used to buy,and therefor it tends to be all we buy, and then Anna and I feel guilty for eating it because it's for the kids, and it would last longer if we weren't eating it as well. But we haven't been too good about buying groceries for ourselves and we've become a bit scavengeristic in our eating habits, and also find ourselves looking "outside" for food, which in the long run, isn't a cheap habit to get into, or ultimately a healthy one. Though we're willing to sacrifice what we need to to benefit the kids. I think it comes down to Anna and I feeling that having "regular" food in the house would be a strong temptation for the boys, and pull them away from the food they're suppose to eat.

Well, I didn't mean for this post to get all feelings and stuff, so yeah... Monster Breakfast sandwiches and Banana shakes! When you try them, come back and leave a comment on what you thought.

UFC FN recap...

Here's my UFC Fight Night Recap...

I'll start with the main event. The highly anticipated debut of Anderson Silva, the current middleweight champ (185 lbs.), fighting as a light heavyweight (205 lbs.). Taking on knockout artist James Irvin. The build up hype, the elongated entries, the overly emphasised introductions from the ring announcer, the referee instructions in the center of the octagon, last about a thousand times longer than James Irvin did in the fight! They came out and sized each other up for a few seconds. Silva lands a big leg kick, and Irvin tries to answer it. They "dance" again for a moment or two, another kick from Silva, maybe a fake jab or two are thrown, and Irvin loads up for a body kick. Silva catches Irvin's leg, and throws a straight right that lands right on the jaw of Irvin. Silva continues to hold the leg, and Irvin lands on his back and immediately goes into fetal position. Silva stands over Irvin and unloads a barrage of rights onto the side of Irvin's head. They seem to be doing little damage, so Silva changes his punch angle and lands two other punches right on the button, and sends Irvin to la la land. This all happened in 61 seconds. Awesome! Silva is indeed, the pound for pound, greatest fighter in the UFC today.

Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy. I was really hoping to see the Brandon Vera of a few years ago. Coming out strong and aggressive and finishing his fight. That wasn't the case. He gave a lot of "respect" to Reese, and by the second round they were both pretty gassed. Brandon was able to remain busier, and out work Reese, but it was a pretty uneventful fight. Brandon won by unanimous decision. I hope as he becomes accustom to fighting at 205, he'll be back to his old winning ways.

Hermes Franca vs. Frank Edgar. The 155 pound weight division is always exciting, and this was no different. Both guys came out and fought at a blistering pace. Hermes was looking for that big punch to land, and Frank was looking to take the fight to the ground. For the most part, frank was able to avoid any major punches, and was also able to take Hermes down to the mat quite often. Once on the mat, Frank was able to land a lot of damage; punches, elbows, hammer fists, etc. Hermes is world class in ju jitsu, but Frank was able to pull out of the numerous submission attempts. Only by the very end of the 3rd round was Hermes finally able to land those big shots he had been looking for the whole fight, and if Frank wasn't careful, he was going to be looking up at the ceiling lights asking "what happened?", but time ran out and the fight was over. Frank won by unanimous decision.

Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O'brien. These heavyweights came to fight! They both came out aggressive, but it was Cain that was able to get the upper hand early, and put himself on top of Jake's chest with both of Jake's arms pinned down. Jake's left arm was trapped between Cain's legs, and the right was pinned down by Cain's head, which allowed Cain to wail on Jake's huge head undefended for what seemed like a really long time. Jake tried to buck him off, and get his arms free, but he couldn't get out, and the ref had to stop it. That fight lasted a little over 2 minutes, but it had a ton of action. Cain will find himself a contender for the heavyweight belt before he knows it if he keeps it up.

Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns. Anthony likes to knock guys out, but Kevin was able to withstand any punches, and was able to land quite a number of his own shots on Anthony. You could tell early that Anthony was getting frustrated. Anthony was complaining about getting fingers close to his eyes during the fight. Kevin even got a warning about having his fingers out in his jab. Kevin was able to take Anthony down, and work on him from that position. Kevin looked like he was winning the fight. He kept Anthony on the defensive for most of the fight. In the 3rd round, about halfway through, Kevin throws a jab, and one of his fingers goes into Anthony's right eye. Anthony lets out a yell and falls to the ground. The ref ends the fight. Most people are figuring that Kevin just lost by disqualification due to the warning he got earlier about fingers in the eye. After a commercial break, we find out the official decision... Kevin wins by TKO? That was a surprise. Not that Kevin didn't earn it per say, he was winning the fight, but he did inadvertently put a finger in Anthony's eye. During the post fight interview, we learn that Kevin in unable to throw a regular left punch due to constantly breaking his hand doing so, so he has to throw a palm strike. The crowd was unimpressed with his apology and explanation. In a real show of class, Anthony tells the crowd not to boo Kevin, he fought a great fight, and didn't deserve the boos. It was still an unfortunate way to have a fight end though.

Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway. For some reason, I don't remember a whole lot about this fight. I must have been distracted by the kids or Anna or something. What I do remember though is the sweet submission CB used to win the fight. CB was in a side control position with Jesse's elbows and knees on the mat. CB reach over Jesse's shoulder and under his other arm. Then CB put his leg over Jesse's head while cranking on his neck from his overunder grip, and Jesse had to tap. It's a choke submission called a "Peruvian necktie". Nice.

The last fight we got to see was between Rory Markham and Brodie Farber. Both guys looked to stand and trade punched in the opening moments, and it doesn't take long for Brodie to land the better punches and start rocking Rory. Rory does his best to answer the punches, but only ends up getting punched more. He's got a good chin because he's taking some pretty clean shots. Rory starts to circle out to avoid the bigger shots, and Brodie follows him with more punches. Rory was able to create a slight distance between himself and Brodie while he circles out, and as Brodie winds up for another punch, his hands are slightly down, and Rory shoots off a high kick that lands cleanly on Brodies head, and knocks him out instantly! Brodie hits the mat like a corpse. Yikes! Brodie came to a few moments later, but Rory definitely put the stamp on that fight. We'll be seeing that on highlight reels for years to come.

An excellent night of fights. The one thing I noticed with watching the fights on Spike was the ratio of fights to everything else (the hype, the introductions, the commercials, the entrances, etc.) is actually pretty low. Luckily I was watching the fights a little later in the evening so I was able to fast forward through most of the non-fight stuff. BUT if all I have to do is wade through that stuff to get free fights... I'll do it. It sure beat having to fork out money to see the same quality of fights.

"But Ken, how did you do with your picks?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Of all the fights I had an opinion on, the only one I didn't pick correctly was CB Dollaway winning over Jesse Taylor. There are even a few fights that I picked the correct method of winning. But I won't pat myself on the back too much, the next UFC PPV is August 9th, and in MMA, anyone can win at any moment, so I'll make some picks, and we'll see how I do with that one.

The new favorite show...

The kids have a new favorite show these days. It's called "Pet Star" and it airs on Animal Planet.

I'm not quite sure how they found this show. I don't know if the TV got turned on and it was in progress, or if it started after a show they were watching. But most likely is was recorded on the Tivo's "suggestions" category. Duncan's gotten pretty good at using the remote, and the suggestions is one of his favorite things to check. Keep in mind I have the TiVo set to record a bunch of the shows they already like, but he's into checking the suggestions.

Here's an example of what the show is like...




People bring their pets on and do some tricks, and then a "celebrity" panel gives them a score. After all the pets have been seen, the audience votes on the top 3 scorers, and the winner gets some money. I've yet to sit through a whole show, so that's what I've been able to piece together from what I've seen.

So next time you come and visit, you might be treated to a hearty helping of Pet Star!

25% off at Sports Authority coupon

There's a coupon for 25% off at Sports Authority for July 17 through 19th.

This is an excellent opportunity to save some money on a larger emergency preparedness item. Or piece of sporting equipment, exercise equipment, camping, etc. Make sure to check the exclusions.

I've used many of these, and I've never had a problem.

Here's the link. It should open a .pdf file that you can print your coupon from. If you have problems with that, go to slickdeals.net and look for the link there.

There's also a coupon code if you prefer to shop online. It's TSA25DEAL.

You're Welcome.

A little skin?! ...scandalous!

Carl's Jr. has new fries. They're a "natural cut", skin on style of french fry. Their add campaign is "Don't blush... we're showing some skin." Personally, I liked they're old fries just fine. I don't know why they had to go and change them?

I've tried the new fries already by accident. Well, maybe not "accident", but I ordered some fries last time I was at Carl's Jr. and these were the fries I got. They're not horrible, but they do have that coating a lot of other fries have now to give them a better "crunch" on the outside. At least it's a very thin layer, so it's tolerable. Also they're a bit thicker that their previous fries.

Anyway, if you need an excuse to try them, you can get a coupon for a free fries and drink with the purchase of any Prime Rib burger HERE. (By the way, if you haven't tried the Prime Rib burger yet, it's a very tasty burger. I highly recommend it.)

Fight Night...

This Saturday night, Spike TV will be broadcasting UFC Fight Night live, nation wide, starting at 6pm pacific time. That means FREE FIGHTS! We won't have to shell out for a PPV! They should do that more often.

The UFC isn't giving us a bunch of second rate fighters for free either. We get to see the greatest pound for pound fighter in the UFC, or the world, for that matter, Anderson Silva. He's taken out all of the top contenders in the 185 pound division (some of them twice), so he'll be fighting at 205 pounds to take on his next challenger.

I'm skipping going through the UFC fantasy league thing this time. I just don't have the time to look into each fighter and how they're preparing for the fights. Plus half of the fight card are guys making their debuts, so I don't know anything about them to begin with, so that makes putting together an educated guess that much harder. I'll be focusing on the fighters I know for my picks this time around.

The main event is, like I mentioned earlier, between Anderson "The Spider" Silva and James "Sandman" Irvin. This fight is a Light Heavyweight fight meaning Silva is fighting at a heavier weight. He's the Middleweight Champ (185 lbs.). James Irvin normally fights at 205, so he'll be used to it. I pick Anderson Silva to win. He's an accurate puncher with heavy hands, and that's just the beginning. He's also a black belt in Brazilian Ju Jitsu, so if/when it goes to the ground, he'll tie you up tighter than a pretzel. Irvin also has heavy hands and accurate punches, but it seems to me that he's more one dimensional that way. I think the only ground game he has is defence, and in Ju Jitsu, it's like chess. They get you to defend one thing so you'll put yourself in danger for the next thing, and so on, till they get you. I would love to see Silva KO Irvin, but I don't think that will happen. I think this will end from the ground. Possibly a TKO or choke in the second round.

Another interesting match up on the card is Brandon "The Truth" Vera fighting (again!) a guy named Reese Andy in the Light Heavyweight division. This is Brandon's first fight in that division. He normally fights in the heavyweight division. I think because he's lost two questionable fights recently as a heavy, he's finally going down a size to test the waters there. I don't know anything about Reese Andy (other than he's got a last name for a first name and a first name for a last name), but it wouldn't matter. I've been a fan of Brandon's since his debut in the UFC, so I'm picking him to win. He's got great Muy Thai, and I'm sure he'll be using it. Particularly his kicks, so we might see a head kick KO if Reese Andy doesn't watch for that. Actually I think Reese is a wrestler, so I'm sure we'll see this fight go to the ground, and I'll look forward to seeing Brandon finish this fight with a submission.

We'll get to see Hermes Franca fight Frank Edgar. Is this Hermes' first UFC fight since his suspension last year? If so, there might be a significant amount of "ring rust" he'll have to wade through. He's been known to gas in the latter rounds, so this might be tough for him. Frank Edgar is a "come right for you" type of fighter, and that won't give Hermes much recover time between bursts of combat. I like Hermes as a fighter, but there's a good chance Frank could out work him. I think this will go to decision with Frank Edgar getting the win.

Cain Velaquez vs. Jake O'Brian. I believe these guys are both from wrestling backgrounds, so they probably both prefer a "ground and pound" fight. I think they'll spend a lot of time standing up to set up a take down, and that whom ever gets caught on bottom will work to stand back up. Cain looks like he can be very aggressive, but Jake has a lot more experience as a pro fighter. There's a good chance they'll cancel each other out and it will go to decision. I'm guessing Cain will out work or out "score" Jake, so he'll probably take the decision.

Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns Both of these guys are coming off impressive wins. Anthony with a first round KO, and Kevin with a 2nd round submission. Anthony likes to stand up and throw bombs with his heavy hands, so we'll probably see Kevin stand up a little to try and set up the take down. Anthony does have some wrestling background, but Kevin's got some solid ju jitsu and an active guard. I'm going with Kevin Burns to win by submission in the first round.

Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway. These guys were on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter, and a lot of people thought that they would be in the finals against each other. That didn't happen (on many levels), so this is the "could have been, should have been?" fight that people were looking forward to. (Personally I'm glad Amir won.) Jesse is physically strong, and that helps him out of sticky situations in the octagon, but he tends to fight without "vision", meaning he's just in there throwing what ever and hoping they land (at least that's how I see it). But I guess that works for him. CB seems a bit more thoughtful in his fight, but we've seen him get complacent and leave his guard down just enough for his opponent to capitalize. Both of these guys are looking to redeem themselves, so I expect it to be a fast paced, exciting fight. I think Jesse will win. Probably going to decision.

Tim Credeur vs. Cale Yarbrough. Both of these guys were on the most recent season of Ultimate Fighter as well. I think they might have both been semi finalists, but whatever. I like Tim's fight style and general attitude. Cale is a young guy and pretty new to pro fighting, but has a bright future. I think Tim will work hard to win. He'll be wanting to stick around in the UFC for a while, and a win will do that. I'm going with Tim to win, probably by submission.

After that, there's 4 fights that I don't know either guy yet, so I'm not making any picks in those fights. If the "bigger" fights have early stoppages, I'm sure we'll see a prelim fight or two, and then the next time they fight, I'll have an opinion. See how that works?

So don't forget to watch Spike TV this Saturday the 19th at 6pm pacific to catch UFC Fight Night, and then come back here and let me know what you thought about the fights.

Till then, keep your hands up and your chin down!

J Fo's Bday dinner and party...

Jennan's birthday was last Saturday. We planned a last minute birthday party for her for Sunday, so we decided to go out for a birthday dinner that Saturday. This would be our first time eatting out since putting the boys on their GFCF diet.

The restaurant we decided upon was Red Robin. There's a couple reasons why. First of all, the kids like it there, and that's a big help. But more importantly, they cook their fries in their own friers. Meaning, that only fries are cooked in that oil. Places that fry other breaded items in the same oil as their fries contaminate their fries with gluten (through the little pieces of breading that come off in the frying process). So Red Robin has a huge plus in our book for their cooking methods.

Red Robin was very accomedating. We brought our rice ice cream, and they put it in their freezer, and dished it for the boys. We able to order a plain grilled chicken breast that Liam and Jennan shared, and Duncan had a hamburger patti with pickles on it. All the kids really like the fries at Red Robin too. The waitress was very good, and never made us feel like we were asking too much, or taking too much of her time. For a first time eatting out since the diet, it was a pretty painless experience. Now the quest is to find other restaurants that have the some cooking practices and are as accomedating. One other place we know of for sure, for quality, non-cross contaminated french fries is In-N-Out. Oh darn.

Sunday afternoon we had a small Foutz family reunion of sorts and a birthday party for Jennan. My aunt Becky was in town from Idaho with my cousin Samantha (11 yrs. old), and my uncle Larry was in town with my cousin Eric (32?) from Merced, CA. Neither knew each would be in town at the same time. All my other local aunts and uncles were invited to chow up at the compound to visit and hang out. We did a pot-luck dinner, had the huge slide out for the kids (and many of the adults), and had a good time visiting. As I mentioned, many of the adults went down the slide. Even my 77 (?) year old grandfather! Other adults of note were my aunts Kathy and Lisa, and my uncle Jeff. Of course Becky did, but I think we all figured she would. And maybe the biggest shockers of all were my dad and mom! Needless to say, everyone was having a good time.

A little later we had cake and ice cream, and a pinata. The cake was decorated as a cat, and it was made with 2 different kinds of GFCF chocolate cake. The head was made from a mix, and the body was made from scratch. The scratch cake was a little chewier than the mix cake. The mix cake was definetely better. I think we'll be trying other scratch cakes in the future though to find a good recipe. The frosting was a "butter-cream", but without the butter. We brought a soy ice cream (ran out of the rice ice cream the night before) for the boys, and had regular ice cream for the masses.

It was really great to get together with extended family. Also from Anna's side, her mom and dad and her sister Sara and her family (minus husband) came to the party as well. Even Sara went down the slide a few times.

Good times. Good food. Good visit. Good day.

(This video is old, but it's to show you the slide everyone was playing on.)

GFCF mini corn dog meal...

As many of you know, we have Duncan and Liam on a GFCF diet. That means gluten free and casein free, which means no wheat (or similar grains) and no milk or dairy. That can make meal time kind of tricky. We've been trying new recipes to see which ones the boys (everyone) likes best.

One of the recipes we were drawn to was "food on a stick". The recipe was for the batter. It came time to try it, and Anna put it together. I helped with watching the mini corndogs as they cooked to make sure they didn't burn, and taking them out. Anna was dropping them in the oil. We were very pleased with how they were looking as they were coming out of the oil. If the food looks good, the boys will eat it better. We even cut one of the cooked ones early on to see how it tasted, and it tasted pretty good. Pretty dang close to a real regular corndog. Anna was very excited.

One of the things we've read and heard in making GFCF foods that your kids like, is make a HUGE batch, and freeze what you're not going to eat at the next meal. This way, when you don't have a lot of time to make everything from scratch again, you can just reheat some of what you put in the freezer. So that's what we did, we made a huge batch. We just kept frying till the batter was all gone.

Another thing we've decided to do is make things we used to make with regular flour, with alternative flours. I decided to make chocolate chip cookies using sweet rice flour, and milk free chocolate chips. Everything else was the same. They turned out pretty ok. They were definitely different, but not terrible (at least to us). I read that in using the rice flour as a wheat flour replacement, that you use 7/8ths of a cup of rice flour for every cup of wheat flour. I ignored that detail figuring that the extra 1/8 of rice flour wouldn't make that much difference, but the cookie dough was pretty dry, and so were the cookies. So next time I'll follow that direction. By the way, you get 7/8 of a cup by taking out 2 Tbs. from the cup. I think for the next batch of cookies I'll be using a GFCF all purpose flour, and Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate chips (milk free).

So on Friday we ate GFCF mini corndogs, french fries, cantaloupe and strawberries, with chocolate chip cookies for dessert. The boys also had rice milk with their dinner. Anna kept calling it our GFCF thanksgiving meal.

The more we strive to continue to use the GFCF diet, the easier it is becoming. Thank you to all of you that have been supportive of our efforts.

Almost forgot... the kids LOVED the corndogs!

Three!

Today is Jennan's birthday!

She is now 3 years old!

Happy Birthday Jennan!

Slurpee Day!

Today is July 11th, or 7/11, which means that at participating 7-Eleven stores, you can get a free 7.11 oz. Slurpee!

We don't have many 7-Elevens by us, so we don't get to take full advantage or this opportunity. I hope you do.

You're Welcome.

Have a brain freezing slurpalicious day!

On the brain!

As you may know, I went to Boy Scout camp for a whole week recently, and since then, I've had scouting on the brain. It's pretty hard to escape. Even if I'm not thinking about scouting, I'll realize it, and then there it is again.

Yesterday, I got a call from a mom of one of my scouts. She needed some names of merit badge counselors for her son so he could work on them during our stake high adventure trip to Mt. Whitney. I had to dig a little to find a partial list. I still can't find my complete list.

I also started the paperwork to turn into the scout office, for the merit badges the scouts earned at scout camp. I need a couple of other signatures, so that won't be done till Sunday. (I'm not into driving all over town for signatures.) I also had to fill out a new adult volunteer application as a scoutmaster. Wish someone would have told me that when I got this new calling. Luckily, Anna (our ward's primary president, so she's over cubs) just worked with our district scout executive to finish the cub scout recharter (that was suppose to be done back in March, but the person in charge of doing it moved and didn't tell anyone they didn't do it.) and she new I needed to fill out a new application for my new position. Oh yeah, because of the cub scout recharter stuff, and because Anna's the primary president for our ward, she got put as both the cub scout and boy scout committee chairperson. That's a lot of responsibility, but I think she can handle it. She'll have to get really good at delegation.

Another reason I can't get scouting out of my head is because we are having a Court of Honor at the end of the month, and I'll need to put that together. Normally that falls on the committee chairperson, but I volunteered to do it. It's always good, as a scoutmaster, to stay on your committee chairperson's good side, especially when it's your wife! This Court of Honor is traditionally our biggest of the year because the boys just completed scout camp and have a lot of merit badges and hopefully rank advancements that need to be given out, as well as sharing what they did at camp. Plus, being the new scoutmaster, and recently going through leader training, I'm trying to build a better scouting program in our ward, and I'll need to do a good job at the Court of Honor to set the tone for the coming year.

It might sound weird, "the coming year", because I'm not referring to 2009 so much as I'm referring to the 2008-2009 school year. I've decided to run the scout year as the same as the school year. As the new school year approaches, the school schedule is finalized, and now I know when their days off are, etc. To run the scout year at the beginning of the new calendar year means I don't know about the second half of the year as far as school schedule goes. Plus, running the scout year along with the school year makes scout camp our big end of the year activity. At the very least, I'm giving it a try for this year. We'll see how it goes. If it's too confusing to the boys and parents, I might have to revert back to going with the calendar year. So we'll see.

And finally, I probably can't get scouting out of my head because all I thought about for a week was scouting. It still hasn't even been a week since I got home. But maybe if I get some of it out, that will help. So here's my week at scout camp report (abbreviated)...

We went to scout camp a day early. That means Saturday. Check-in is on Sunday afternoon, and because we don't want to travel on the Sabbath, we go a day earlier than go a day late. That means we need to bring our our meals for Sat. dinner, and Sunday breakfast and lunch. That's not a big problem, it's almost like any other overnighter we do.

The boys ended up bringing a lot of snacks and junk food. Next year I might have to put a limit on how much they can bring. Even one of the adult leaders brought an ice chest full of sodas.

Saturday night the boys were out of control (not literally). They were loud and obnoxious. There's a time and a place to have that kind of fun, but during quiet time, before lights out, isn't one of them. I had to walk over to their tents 3 or 4 times. At this point I'm thinking, "what have I gotten myself into?" I had to pull the "I'll move your tent to the other side of camp.", to quiet them down, and that seemed to work.

Then Sunday, we went to "the bowl" to have a church service. We met with some LDS staffers and another LDS troop that was up there a day earlier too. It was about 40 minutes long, and helped it feel like Sunday. Somewhere between that and registering for camp and finalizing our weeks schedule, a couple of the boys have a falling out. Unfortunately, they're tentmates. One boy wants to be in another tent with some other boys. I say no, because we can't have someone in a tent alone. He tries to make another boy switch tents with him, that boy says no. They come to me and complain. "He won't switch with me. Will you tell him to switch with me?" and "He's trying to make me change tent's, I don't want to change tents." I can't tell you how happy I was that they had this problem! It gave me a chance to use some of my leader training... "You guys work this out. Let me know what you come up with." and I was done. By the end of the day, when it was time to turn in for the night, I asked what sleeping arrangements had been made? The two boys that were at odds had made up, and everyone was staying in their original tents. A small victory for a new leader.

Finally it's monday! That means the boys go to their merit badge classes! And I get to finally enjoy some quiet in camp. Every one in out troop had archery and rifle. After that they all had their own things; canoeing, horsemanship, first aid, Indian lore, climbing, camping, bird study, reptile and amphibian study, nature, environmental science, and woodworking. Those were the merit badges they signed up for. They could have spent their free time working on other merit badges too, but all of my guys usually chose to go to the rifle or archery range to do more shooting. I told them that was fine, as long as they were going to finish their merit badges.

Most days of the week were the same. A few of the days, I signed us up for some troop activities. As a troop we went to the rifle range, the wrangler or horse area to ride some horses. I think for all but one of our guys, this was their first time ever riding a horse. We also did "low cope" which is a set of team building activities, and another day we did "high cope" which is a set of high wires and obstacles that they maneuver through, ending with a zip-line slide. The boys did very well with those activities.

Once we were in the camp routine, the days went my much quicker. Some other items of note: We chose to do "Jamboree" feed over "central" feed. That means that the camp provides us with our food for the day, and it's up to us to store it and cook it ourselves. We do that for a couple reasons. First, that's how our troop has done it for so long, it's a tradition. And second, it gives the guys a more full camping experience. Also it's about $35 cheaper per boy that way.

I brought an air mattress to sleep on during camp. The first night, I roll it out, grab one of the two air pumps I brought, and turn it on to blow up the mattress... no juice! I thought for sure both pumps were fully charged! I grab the second pump thinking if this one is pooped out too, this is going to be a really long week. Luckily it's got a full charge and the mattress inflates just fine. I go to bed. At about 6am, I realize my hips are on the ground. The mattress has a pin-hole leak somewhere. Just great. Luckily for me, the air mattress pump kept it's charge all week, and I was at least able to fall asleep each night on a full mattress. Plus, by about 6am each day, I had a reason to get up.

The boys got really dirty during the week. You could tell which boys still only wash up because their moms make them. As well as who has chores that they have to do at home. I had to really get on a few of the boys into helping out their chore-mates. I definitely had a few whiners.

I think that's a pretty good over view of my experience. There are a ton of details I left out, so if you want to hear those stories, you'll have to ask about camp next time you see me.

Sorry for the lengthy entry.

Stuff...

It might be a little bit backwards, but this post will cover a bunch of stuff briefly, and then later, I might post some details in their own entries. Make sense?... Anyway, here's the stuff...

Left for Boy Scout camp on June 28th. Got home from Scout camp July 5th. Since then, things have been pretty busy.

While at scout camp, Duncan and Liam started the new school year. (The district they're in is year round, and the track they're on starts school in July, off for August, back in September till Thanksgiving, off till January, back till April, off at the end of June.) Duncan is in 1st grade, and Liam is in Kindergarten.

Duncan and Liam also started a new diet the week before school started. It's a gluten-free, and casein-free diet. Gluten is a wheat protein, and casein is a milk protein. These two proteins can be very harsh on the digestive system, and if there's a build up of these proteins in their system, it can affect the bodies chemistry (particularly the brain's), and cause a lack of focus, communication, self control, etc. The GFCF (gluten-free, casein-free) diet has been an effective biomedical treatment for disorders such as ADD, ADHD, and Autism. Neither Liam nor Duncan have a current diagnosis of any of these disorders, we decided that if it would help them succeed in school, it was worth doing. We will be seeing a specialist in the month or two to find out for sure if the boys have any of those disorders. The GFCF diet has been challenging to say the least, but we're learning more and more about food alternatives and we're eating a lot healthier in general because of it. The boys have been great about being on the diet as well.

Saturday when I got home from scout camp, we went to the drive-in to see WALL.E. It came out the weekend before, but I was leaving, so we told the kids we would go when I came back. Duncan is a pretty good rememberer when it comes to that stuff, so there was no getting around it. The kids enjoyed it very much. The other movie in the double feature was kung fu Panda. I was happy to see it again. Everyone else fell asleep.

Sunday, only half the scouts made it to church. Lame.

After church, we went to visit a Friend of Anna's from school. Her daughter was having a birthday. We brought our own GFCF cake for the boys to eat. It was a fun visit.

Our friends live in Whittier, so since we were so close to the compound, we stopped in to say hi to my mom and dad. We were at their house for about an hour or so.

We've spent the past couple days researching more foods that fit into the GFCF diet. We're looking at labels, calling manufacturers, and comparing prices at different stores for foods that we know we're going to buy. We can buy fresh foods at any grocery store, but there's certain things that we can only find at health food stores.

Oh yeah, there was a UFC PPV on Saturday as well. I bought it, and made two copies. One for Kristi and Jason, and the other for Kevin who now lives in Queen Creek, AZ.

I hope to get around to posting some specific entries about some of these things, so you'll have to check back later for those.