Duncan Advances

On Saturday, Duncan found out he has earned another advancement in rank in his Karate class. He is now a second degree orange belt. The white strip on his new belt signifies the 2nd degree.


Here's Duncan after receiving his new belt and certificate.


Here's Duncan being presented his certificate by his sensei, and his belt by a student helper. (Sorry for the poor picture quality, the flash didn't reach that far.)

Monday Music 03.30.09

I came up with another random equation in order to choose today's music...

The number of today's date (30) - the number of kids in the house (4) + ... uh oh, I can't remember the rest (I didn't write it down)... but it came out to 10.

So here's the 10th song on today's shuffle...

"Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Del Tones



Surf's up M@#%$^ F&@!@#%!

Friday Flashback 3.27.09

Today's flashback picture was randomly selected.


The date on the photo says it's Dec. 27, 2001. That would mean Duncan is the baby in Anna's arms, and he's 5 days old.

We're in the coach(mobile home) of grandma and grandpa Letterman.


2001 doesn't "sound" that long ago, but a LOT of things have changed since then. In fact, it's too much to mention. You'll have to do your own reflecting.

My, how time flies.

Week 5- Mr. Sasquatch

Week 5.

One more week to go!

mrsasquatch.com

Have a hairy day!

Sunday Game

The kids play board games on Sundays. Anna figured they looked "cute" playing this one, and took a picture.

Monday Music 3.23.09

For today's music pick, I wanted it to be random. I figured the iPod was the best source for picking something randomly, so I picked it up. Then I thought 'just to pick the first song would be boring', so I decided to create a simple formula: today's date minus the month. That's 23-3, and that equals 20, so I went to the 20th song.

Here's the video for that song...

ABC "Be Near Me"



Awesome in every way.

Friday Flashback 3.20.09

Since St. Patrick's Day was this week, I decided to dig up some old pictures of a St. Patrick's Day Party we had.


The year is 1997. We're in the "downstairs" area of Anna's folks' house. We invited a bunch of our friends over to play some silly kids' games and have some ice cream cake (Anna was still working at Baskin Robbins). I remember we had a great time hanging out and being silly.


In this picture, Anna's about to cut the cake. Looks like she's getting some input from Cindy as to what size she should cut the pieces. Sheila's making sure it tastes right. Sara's sitting on the couch in the background. I'm pretty sure that's Claron's green pants and lizard shirt, but I don't recognise the others' lower halves.


Sara, Claron and Carla watching the pin-the-hat-on-the-leprechaun game (if I remember right).

Bryce enjoying some ice cream cake, and Jaime waiting for hers.

The leprechaun and I shared a strong resemblance. I believe I grew that beard out just for the occasion.

So yeah, a fun trip down memory lane today. We'll have to try and recreate this some day. Maybe next year. We'll see.

Week 4? Mr. Sasquatch

I think we're into week 4 of 6 for Mr. Sasquatch. Here's what I've got going.

mrsasquatch.com

Have a hairy day!

Monday Music 3.16.09

When ever I get my hands on a guitar, inevitably I'll end up plucking out the bass part to this song, which has been one of my longtime favorites from one of my longtime favorite bands...

Jane's Addiction, "Summertime Rolls"



Good one.

Friday Flashback 3.13.09

This picture was taken during a visit to New York. Kristi and Jason were living in NY, and had been there for a while. Mom and dad were planning a trip to visit them, and I tagged along too. I can't, for the life of me, remember what year this was.


I think we're on a ferry boat out to Ellis Island to visit the Statue of Liberty in this picture. I think it was August?

I'm sporting my South Africa Springboks rugby jersey. I really like that jersey. Kristi's dreads seemed so long at that time. Of course, that's nothing compared to how long they are now.

That was a really fun trip. I wouldn't want to live there, and it was a nice place to visit, but I think it was that much better being led around by someone that was living there. I couldn't imagine trying to visit a place like that on ones own. It's too big and crazy.

Casey Jr. Ride

I don't know if it's called the Casey Jr. ride, but it's a ride we don't normally go on, and I can't remember the last time (if ever) I've been on it. But the kids saw it, and wanted to go, so we got in line.

The line wasn't too long, but there's only one train, so it's a pretty slow line. It gets to be our turn, and the kids want to ride in one of the "cage" cars, so we head to the one with "Monkeys" on it. We're a group of six, so we figured we'd be the only ones in there. Everyone got in except for Anna because she wanted to take a picture of us in the cage. Well, I guess we looked like we had plenty of room, so a lady steps in with her two kids, just as Anna's taking the picture. She barely turns to say sorry, and continues in. I saw her coming, and figured she'd stop for the picture, so I didn't say anything. Oh well.

Anna did take a picture of the kids from inside...





Then as the ride ends, Anna figures she'll take a picture of us in the cage when the lady gets out. We stop, they open our door, and the lady doesn't move, she just sits there. I think Anna even said to her "Go ahead", as in, you may exit first, but nothing. This all happens very fast. The worker tells us we can exit, and our kids get up and out, so no picture. We were baffled by the whole thing.

Here's the interrupted picture. I think Anna even tried to move the camera over a bit to avoid the intrusion...

We pretty much file this instance in the "people are generally oblivious to anyone but themselves". We do our best to not be those people, and try to teach the kids the same thing. Courtesy and politeness are dieing traits these days.

Anyway, other than that, we had a great time. We also went on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates, the carousel, Dumbo, Small World, and Buzz Lightyear (I beat Anna yet again). We got to see the fireworks as we made our way to the tram, and on the tram.

Fun stuff.

It Starts

The other night, I was putting the kids to bed, and Duncan ended up being last. Duncan being the last to be tucked into bed is nothing new, it's quite common.

Over the past year or two, Duncan's gone from wanting to be first to go through the bedtime routine, to now insisting to be last (so he can be up later). By insisting, I mean he politely offers to let the other kids be next, and they're usually happy for the offer and step in to be next. Most often, this occurs during the teeth brushing, which is what they do last before getting into bed.

So this night, Duncan is last, we've sung our bedtime song, and I'm trying to say goodnight, and he wants to talk about why I'm farther in a Wii game that he is. He asks me if I play after he goes to bed, and I say yes, sometimes. He doesn't think that's fair.

Then comes the question we've all asked our parents... "Can I stay up later?"

He then begins to explain why he should be able to stay up, and I feel the laughter brewing inside of me. I'm trying not to laugh, so he doesn't think I'm laughing at his request or explanation, but the memories of asking and trying to explain why I wanted to stay up as a kid came quickly to mind, and I couldn't keep it in any longer... i had to laugh. It came out as a hearty chuckle and it made Duncan stop talking because he wasn't expecting it. He asked why I was laughing, so I told him I remember asking MY mom and dad the same question. And then I laughed some more, because I knew I was going to say no. It was a weird feeling recognising the memories and being on the opposite end of the question, and giving the same answers I probably heard as a kid.

It was just as fun telling Anna how it all went down, so I thought I'd share here too.

It Starts...

Mammoth Tusk

Anna took the three older kids out to a local museum in Riverside, called the Jurupa Mountains Cultural Center, last Saturday. They have a lot of geologic exhibits and items, including a newly found mammoth tusk fossil. I don't remember how many millions of years old it is, but I'm sure Anna knows, so you'll have to look for her comment below for the correct estimate.



Here are the kids "running" from this carnivorous dinosaur.



Here they are standing next to another of the dinosaur statues at the museum.

Here's Liam getting to touch the mammoth tusk. Duncan and Jennan have picture of them doing the same thing.

I believe they were giving Anna the VIP tour because she won that national award, so I'm not sure everyone that visits gets to touch the tusk, but our kids got to, so that's very cool.

It's a pretty small place, but they have some pretty cool stuff there (says Anna). They would like Anna to use them as a resource for her teaching, so she's going to borrow stuff from them from time to time.

Monday Music 3.9.09

I like this song a lot...

Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) "Hawai'i 78"

Friday Flashback 3.6.09

Again, as I pulled out a picture for today's flashback, two were dead set on exiting the pile. So here they both are...



This first picture is of me (as an alumni of the band) playing the snare drum at a Homecoming game. I'm guessing it's the fall of 94 because Kevin is not in uniform. Kevin is playing one of the tubas in the lower right corner. He graduated in June of 94, so this is later that year (new school year). It's hard to tell, unless you enlarge the picture, that my hair is kind of long (for me anyways) and it's got a reddish tint to it. It's the one time I dyed my hair. The color was called "cherry cola". My friend Kara did it for me.





This next picture is of me playing the upright tuba for concert band. (Interesting that the two pictures pulled out today were both of me in band.) I'm not quite sure what year it is, but my guess is 1989? I think this is near the end of my junior year. We're dressed up, so it was probably an end of year type performance. Plus, I think it was my junior year that I shaved my head. In case you couldn't tell, I was very cool back then. I'm wearing non-prescription glasses, a bow tie, and a vest. Ooooh, the things we do to stand out and be different in high school.

Being in band in high school was awesome. We got to do a lot of fun things. Good times.

New Favorite Show

My new favorite show on tv is called "Man v. Food" on the Travel Channel.

The host, Adam Richman, goes to cities all over the country and features restaurants and other eateries that serve up big food, or well known places that are "must eat" when you go to that particular city, etc.

Not only that, but he also takes on restaurant food challenges. When he featured Amarillo, TX, he took on the famous 72 ounce steak dinner challenge at the Big Texan.

Unfortunately, the Travel Channel website and my computer don't get along, so I can't really go there for better details, but you can check out the show's website if you want to.

Here are a couple of commercial spots...







I think I'm a little hungry all of a sudden.

Week 2 - Mr. Sasquatch

Two weeks down... 4 more to go!

week 1

mrsasquatch.com

Have a Hairy Day!

Monday Music 3.2.09

Last week sometime, I did one of those dumb survey type things and posted it to the blog. It was the one where you shuffle your music player and put the song titles as the answers to the questions. Most of the song titles didn't match the questions, but some were pretty humorous. Anyway, one of the songs that popped up in the shuffle was "I eat Cannibals" by Total Coelo. Total 80's new wave pop.

Here's the video...



A few days after posting the results of that survey, we were driving home from somewhere and it popped up again (the songs were reshuffled), so I thought I would share it with all of you.

You're Welcome.

Sunday Game

On Sundays we try our best to keep the tv watching and video game playing to a minimum. They can watch Veggie Tales or any church related videos (primary song sing-a-long dvds, Living scripture dvds, etc.) and they can only play video games if we're at someone else's house that allows video games to be played on Sundays.

The kids are pretty good about accepting those rules. They usually end up playing board games, and yesterday was no exception. All the kids got together to play "Flippin' Frogs". They were playing so well together that Anna snapped this picture.

There they are. Bringing much joy to their parents. (It lasted about 30 minutes, then they were back to their normal selves.)

Front Tooth #2 IS Outta Here!

This morning, Duncan was having his cereal as usual. Cocoa Pebbles. As he's taking bites, he mentions that his bottom teeth hurt his loose tooth. He was a little concerned, so I told him that because his tooth was loose, it was a little lower than normal, and that he might bump it on his bottom teeth every once in a while. He accepted the explanation and kept eating.

A moment later, he makes a sort of grunting squeal sound, so I turn to look at him (I was doing some dishes). I see him fishing around in his mouth, and pull something out. I walked over to the table, and sure enough, it's his tooth. He checks for blood, and sees some so he gets a little frantic for a moment. I get him a paper towel and he puts it on his gum, he gets up, goes to the bathroom, and rinses his mouth. He finds Anna and tells her the story.

After everything is ok, he wants to put it under his pillow right away. Anna helps him with that, we take a couple pictures, and under the pillow it goes.


Duncan already had a pretty sizable gap between his two front teeth when they were in; But now that they're out, it almost looks like he's missing more than just two teeth.

That loose tooth had even made it through the previous day's sparring in Karate! But it was no match for the mighty pebbles of cocoa!

Hopefully the adult teeth don't take too long to come in.