Still Getting It Together

I'm still in the process of getting the computer back to "normal".

We can get online and access email through internet explorer, but it's not what we used to use. I think what we used to use (I think it was from att) was on a disc when we got our dsl line all hooked up, but I can't find that disc yet. So even though I can get to everywhere I want to go online, it's still not the same.

I've also been having some trouble installing some of the software from the printer. It looks like it should be fine, but I keep getting a prompt that there's no printer, or no program to run the printer. Also couldn't download iTunes. It said I need to update my windows in order to install it. That's not cool. I thought I had gotten the updates. I was getting too frustrated with that, so I'm going to try again later.

What have I learned from this:
1. Back up your files! We got lucky, and our files we not erased. When I say files, I mean copies of pictures, documents, anything that is stored on your computer only. Once they're erased from a hard drive, they're gone for good. I was told that once a month is a good idea.

and

2. Keep track of any software you installed. I've had to "dig" to find the discs for the scanner and printer, etc. When you are rebuilding your computer, you'll want to put all that cool stuff back on it, and you'll need those discs. We'll be keeping better track of ours from now on.

Anna's had the camera with her the past few days, so I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of my open-bellied computer yet. I'll try to put up a picture or two tomorrow sometime.

Noooooooo!!! *Update*

Our computer has taken a total dump! It happened in the middle of the day yesterday.

There's something wrong with the hard drive. The only reason I'm here now is due to some tutelage of Anna's brother Ken, who's really good with computers. I've removed the bad hard drive, put in the hard drive from the other computer we have to try and access any info from the bad hard drive (which I'm having trouble with, more about that later). The Internet Explorer program on the replacement HD allows me internet access, but it wont let me get into my email (haven't figured out why yet).

The good news is, it looks like we didn't lose the majority of our documents, files and pictures; But the bad news so far is, I can't get it to burn copies to a disc. I'm thinking the new HD needs to have the drivers installed for the disc drives. I'll be calling Ken soon to see if that guess is right, and what I can do to get it working.

Man, this is so lame. I need to get this all figured out as soon as possible. I leave for scout camp on Saturday, and I still have lots to do to prepare for that.

Have I mentioned how lame this all is yet?


**Update**
I figured out how to access my email, so that's a relief.

Anna suggested trying to save our files using flash drives. Brilliant! Except there's way more files than room on our flash drives... BUT...

I figured out how to save our files to my external HD (that houses all my music files), and it seems to have worked fine!! I think the next step is putting together a working computer. The replacement HD is kind of small, so we'll probably need to buy a new internal HD, and go from there. Hopefully we won't need to buy a whole new computer.

Happy Birthday Kristi

Today is Kristi's birthday, so I thought I'd take a moment to put some pictures of my first little sis.

Here is Kristi and Jason in Feb. of 2008, at Grandpa and Maggie's wedding. Very nice picture of some good looking people.

Now for some of the more embarrassing pictures I happen to have...








A young, door way climbing, underwear wearing Kristi. I'm hoping this was during a bedtime routine in which Kristi escaped and climbed the doorway, and not that mom and dad let us just chill in the house with nothing on. But I'm pretty sure it's the second reason. This picture very much looks like Jennan to me.

Here is a picture I took with a very old camera when we were very young. Obviously Kristi is in this one with our long time dog, Fancy. Fancy was a Saluki. She was a cool dog. I took a roll of pictures the day of this photo, and I think they are quite artistic for an eight year old (I think that's how old I was at the time.).

Fast forward a bunch of years. Here's Kristi getting her hair done by my good friend Kara. Kara was taking cosmetology classes through ROP in High School, and hooked Kristi up.

Aahh, yes... good ol' band. I don't remember if this is Kristi's freshman or sophomore year, but there she is, ready to play her clarinet, or at least waiting to play it. This was at some sort of city dedication thing... hey, who's that cool looking guy standing in the back there?

Halloween. Not sure how old Kristi is here, but I'm guessing she's in seventh or eighth grade. Before she went all dark/goth/punk/whatever, she tried her hand at "pretty" pirate.

Well, she's in the dark ages now, and it looks as though she's just put the boots to Kevin's throat. Nicely done. I believe that's my NIN shirt she's wearing. I must have been on my mission at this point.

Coming a little bit out of the dark ages, and beginning to accept color into the wardrobe, but keeping it alternative Kristi. I think it's me she's talking to on the phone. I'm on my mission, so it's either Christmas or Mother's Day, many, many years ago.

Then fast forward again to present day. Kristi with her mini-me, Jennan. Kristi is a very positive aunt to our kids. She's always saying encouraging things to them and always very supportive. The kids love the attention, and always look forward to a visit with auntie Kristi and uncle Jason.

Luckily, Kristi and I have gotten along for most of our lives. We've had many of the same interests in music, fashion, and many things alternative to the mainstream. This continues to this day, and I'm thankful for that.

Through Kristi I found some of my greatest friends, outside of my family; worked for some cool people in the restaurant business that gave me a lot of experience; and many more things.

Happy birthday Kristi! Thanks for being a great sister and a greater friend.

Friday Flashback 06.26.09

Today's flashback photo...

I believe this is some sort of birthday thing for Duncan. We are at the food court of the Puente Hills Mall. There was (is?) an L & L Hawaiian BBQ there in the food court, and we had all arranged to meet and eat there for lunch. I think we me there for lunch, and to see and visit Grandma and Grandpa Letterman, who were living in Hemet. They would drive all the way out, just to have some L & L.

If I'm correct, that makes this about Dec. 2002, unless we met up after the holidays, then it could be Jan. of 03. Anna still had her dreads. Dawn would be holding a 6 month old Hunter. Kyle is single. I still have those sideburns.

My, how things have changed.

Ready, Set, Garden!

It's Wednesday, so it's garden update day. (Here's last week's update.)

Here's the #1 mammoth sunflower. Looks to be a little over 2 feet tall, and going strong.


Mammoth sunflower #2. Doing quite well. I don't know that this one will ever be as big as #1, but I'm anxious to see how big it will get. This week, it's up to about 9 inches.

Here's the pumpkin. It's gotten a bit more yellow, but continues to grow. I finally transplanted it in the same area as the sunflowers since those seem to be doing pretty well. Hopefully the nutrients in the soil will help it turn green again. If not, I'll probably have to get some fertilizer.

For Family Home Evening Monday, we all went to Lowe's and picked out some veggies to grow. We chose some corn, roma tomato, zucchini, yellow crooked neck squash, and cantaloupe- our only fruit choice. We also picked out a rosemary plant, but haven't given it a permanent home yet.

In the second planter we mostly put down seeds. You can see one transplanted plant. That's the Lima bean plant Liam started at school. The seeds we planted are mostly like what we bought at Lowe's. We planted corn, zucchini, cantaloupe, and pumpkin.

I picked off some Sago palm "pups" from the in-law's mature Sago. They've "hardened off", and now I've put them in some soil specifically for palms. Sago's take quite a long time to grow, so it'll probably be months till we see anything coming out of these. And that's if I've done it right thus far. If I haven't, then nothing will happen other than the "pups" either drying out completely, or rotting from over watering.


So yeah, now we have to make sure we remember to water them all everyday, and not over water them. We probably need to buy some sort of mulch to help keep some moister in, and the sun off, the roots of the plants.

Now the hard part... the waiting.

Spelling Bee

Last Friday, Duncan and Liam were in their class spelling bee. The kindergarten and first grades did theirs at the same time, and each grade had their own winner.

Here's Liam. Eager to get started.

Duncan too.

Here is Liam up at the microphone to spell a word. He spelled his first word correctly, but got his next word wrong. He was a good sport about it.

Here is Duncan spelling a word. Duncan got a little nervous, and rushed, and got his word wrong his only time up. He was a little bummed, but was fine about it.

They did a great job. It's not easy to stand in front of a lot of people and have to spell. I think it was a good experience for them. Next year we'll try to help them study more.

Monday Music 06.22.09

First song on a fresh shuffle...

Static X "This Is Not" (live)



(I needed that.)

Friday Flashback 06.19.09

Today's random flashback photo is almost 20 years old!...

We are at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Hawaii with our grandparents- Letterman. The year is 1990, and I have just graduated from High School. (And btw- I think that was my skinniest year.) It was the first time we all went to Hawaii together as a family. It's from this trip that the tradition of going to Hawaii after you graduated began.

I remember Grandma Letterman voicing her dislike of our music. Kristi and I must have listened to Love and Rockets' "Earth, Sun, Moon" a million times! That's an exaggeration obviously, but you get the point. I'm sure we listened to other stuff to, but that one sticks out in my mind from that trip.

I remember having a good time on this trip. I think by the time we left, I was wearing "jam pants" (I think that's what they were called? They looked something like these.), super bright Hawaiian print elasticated at the waist and ankles, baggy style lounging pants; and tank tops. Oh, the influence of the islands.

Anyhow, if there were things about this trip I didn't like, I don't remember them. Good memories. Fun times.

Just For Fun

visited 13 states (26%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I found this cool application (I guess that's what you would call it?) on my friend Colleen's blog, and decided to do it too.

Those are all the states I've been in or visited.

I visited Kristi and Jason in New York when they lived there. On that trip, we also drove to Pennsylvania to visit our family members there. We drove through part of New Jersey to get there, so I'm counting it.

I served my mission in Virginia, and I served in an area that had part of North Carolina in it. I've also visited Kitty Hawk, which is in NC as well.

We visited Eva and her family in Minnesota a number of years ago.

When Anna was pregnant with Duncan, we drove with Sara and baby Skyler to Wyoming to visit Bonnie and Allen while they were on their mission there.

I've been to Utah a bunch of times. Picking up and dropping off either Kelly or Keith there a few times. Visiting Anna's family in St. George. Went to the MTC there, and then back for a mission reunion. Visiting Josh and Sara while Josh was at BYU. Etc.

As a kid, we went to Arizona every summer to visit second cousins, and other extended family. In more recent times, we've gone to visit Kevin and Dawn's family, and Jason and Kristi.

We drove all the way over to New Mexico to visit Keith and Mindy for Carters blessing. That was a fun trip.

I've been to Vegas sooooo many times. We also visited Jason and Kristi when they lived in Henderson. And we've also been to Laughlin.

I visited Hawaii a few times as a kid, a few times as a teen and young adult, and with Anna as well. I've been on Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii (the big island).

It's dawning on me that I still haven't been to the pacific north-west yet. I even know people to visit in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. There's lots of other states I'd like to visit as well.

This has put me in the vacationing mood. Who wants a visit this summer?

Officially Blocked

Today is the first day of our Disney annual passes being blocked out for the summer. We won't be able to go back till the end of August.

We decided to go to Disneyland and California Adventure on Monday for our last time. Turned out that we weren't the only ones who thought that. As we came up to the parking structure, there was a sign that said that Disneyland was full, but that Ca. Adv. was still available. Disneyland was at capacity. We couldn't even park in the structure. That was full too. We had to park in "Simba" which is an overflow parking area behind the Disney hotel. There's no tram service there, so you have to walk from there to the Downtown Disney area, through Downtown Disney, and then to the park entrances. The kids were pretty cranky, and Anna and I wondered if we shouldn't have just turned around and gone home.

In the section between the entrance gates, there was a huge balloon depicting the house from "UP!". The kids were happy to get a picture in front of it. I took this shot while laying on the ground to get the right angle. I think I did a pretty good job.

Lines were pretty long. We made a point of going on the refurbished ferris wheel because we ran out of time to do it last time we went. Then we made our way over to the carousel, one of Tegan's favorite rides. Here's mommy and Tegan.

"Kids, turn around and say cheese."

After the carousel, we got in line for the Toy Story Mania ride. The line was only a little bit longer than usual. About half way through the line, Duncan and Liam started playing a nose grabbing game. We let them play it because they were doing a good job of using their karate blocks to protect their noses. Plus, they actually weren't being too rough about it, and they were having fun. Here's what some of it looked like...

Those were the only rides we went on. We still had fun. The boys did a great job walking a lot more than they usually do to get to and from the parks. They were plenty tired by the time we got to the van. I'm pretty sure they were all asleep by the time we got on the freeway. (Anna fell asleep shortly after we got on the freeway.)

On the Grow

Here's another (boring?) update on what we've got g(r)o(w)ing on. See what I did there?

My #1 mammoth sunflower continues to do well. There are a couple of spots that are turning brown though. I'm not sure if it's damage related to bugs eating those parts of it, or some sort of plant disease or something. I'll have to see how much it spreads in the next bunch of days. It's about 20-22 inches tall now.


Here's the #2 mammoth sunflower. It's still fighting to grow. It's doing a lot better than it was a couple weeks ago. The leaves look a little different than the other one so far. Maybe that has to do with the maturity of the plant? I don't know, I'm just glad it's still coming along.

Here's that pumpkin plant I mentioned last week. The rounded leaves are yellowing a bit so I added some dirt to the bottom to see if that helps any. If it doesn't, I might need to get some sort of plant food? Anna said it needs more nutrients. I'm really tempted to put it in the ground near the sunflowers since they're growing there so well.

This is my newest plant project. These are Sago Palm "pups". Other than from seed, these are what you grow new Sago palms from. I plucked them from a big Sago palm in front of Anna's folks' house last Sunday. Right now they are "hardening" or drying. Probably Monday I'll put them in planter pots to begin trying to grow their roots. Sagos are slow growers (it seems), so these will take a lot of patients. I hope I can handle it.

I'm sorry to say I still haven't gotten our planter boxes prepped and ready for planting yet. I need to borrow a tiller, and the guy in our ward I'll borrow it from is out of town this week. Maybe if I found a decent one for pretty cheap I'd be tempted to buy it, so we'll see.

Here's a link to last week to compare it to this week.

Well, that's my plant update. If you have any tips, pointers, or whatever, leave it in the comments section. thanks.

Tegan's Birthday "Party"

On Sunday, we had a family get together for Tegan's birthday. It was mostly just a carry-over from the day before, which was our nephew Isaac's birthday party. It was still a good excuse to spend more time with Jason and Kristi, and Kevin and Dawn's family, while they were all in town from Arizona.

Here's Tegan taking in the Mickey and candles...

Here, Jennan gives Tegan a hand opening a present...

Tegan showing off her newest beanie baby. She loves those animal toys. Plus it's a Bull Terrier, which very cool, so I'm ok with it.

It wasn't anything big, just family, food and fun. Luckily that's all we need to have a good time together.

Good times.

Rank Advancement

Last Saturday, the boys had their final karate class for this session. They are in different classes, but in both, they did a lot of warming up, reviewed some techniques, and did some sparring. Just before the end of class, they were awarded the ranks they earned during testing the week before.

Duncan earned his 3rd degree orange belt, and Liam moved up to yellow. Liam got a medal for perfect attendance, and Duncan got a star to sew on his gi for the same thing.

We might not be signing them up for the summer session because we don't know if we'll be trying to do some weekend trips this summer. We'll see.

Monday Music 06.15.09

Today's Monday music was not recessarily chosen at random per se, though it kind of is...

In our travels this weekend, I had the iPod in charge of our music and on shuffle. Out of the nearly five thousand songs on the iPod, every once in a while, within a short amount of time, we'll hear two songs by the same artist, and even more rarely, those two songs will be from the same album. Such was the case this weekend.

The album is titled "Shot Forth Self Living", and it's by a group called Medicine. If you're a fan of the movie "The Crow", you've heard music from Medicine, and even seen them. "Shot Forth self Living" is a great album. I can very easily listen to it from beginning to end. They're described as an "alternative noise-pop/rock band". I think that's a pretty accurate description.

Here are the two songs... (don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page)

"Miss Drugstore" (audio only)



"A Short Happy Life" (audio only)


Good stuff.

Friday Flashback 06.12.09

Here's a randomly chosen picture for today's flashback.


Luckily, where ever this picture was developed, they put the date on the back. The date on the back is 4/27/06. That's right around a bunch of birthdays, so that's probably why my mom is at our house. We probably had a get together. In April of 06, Duncan would have been 4, Liam just turned 3, and Jennan was not even a year old yet.

Photo observation: In this picture I can see we still had the plum tree. We never were able to take advantage of any plums. They were always so little, too high up in the (half dead) tree, eaten by bugs, etc. Can't say that I miss it. Glad to have that open space.

Other than any of the other things mentioned in this post, things look pretty much the same in the back yard. Though I do need to establish a better watering routine to keep everything green.

In other news: Today is Anna's first day of summer vacation! She will be doing some work for a research project being done by Cal. State San Bernardino, for a total of about 10 days over a few weeks, but I don't know that Anna will consider it work because she'll probably enjoy it too much. It also marks the first day of my "work" season. When Anna's home, I tend to be a busier person, with lists of things to do. Last year she took it a little easier on me, but we'll see what this year brings. Sure would be great if the boys were out too, but they don't get a break till August. Curse you year round school!

Bunch O' Stuff

Over the past week we've done some fun stuff I haven't had a chance to post. So here are a bunch of those things...


Duncan and Liam's current karate session is ending and last Saturday they had testing to see if they are ready to move up in rank. We'll find out if either of them are advancing this coming Saturday morning. Here they are just before we left to go to karate.


Later that Saturday night we went to the drive-in to see "UP!" with our friends, the Bocanegras. It got a bit chilly, but we were prepared. Here is a picture of Jennan and Tegan all bundled up in the double chair.

Anna and I started a diet last week. We're doing one of those low carb diets. We both enjoy a late evening desert, so in keeping with the diet, it's got to be low carb. We'll usually have a bowl of sugar free jello with light cool whip, but the other night I decided to dress it up by putting it in glass cups and topping it with strawberries. It's funny, but it's way more satisfying when it's "dressed up" than just plopped into a bowl. (It looked so good I took a picture.)

Liam had a class project to make an animal from the ocean. He chose a puffer fish. Anna helped with blowing up the balloon and getting the paper mache together (and I think putting it on the balloon). Then mom and Liam spray painted it, and dad and Liam hot glued the "spikes" on, as well as a couple of eyes and some fins. He was very happy with it.

So yeah, that's a bunch of the stuff that's gone on around here lately. We're a pretty busy bunch.

Sunflowers are growing

It's been a week since I last told you about the sunflower seeds I planted, and their growth at that time. So here's an update...

Here's that second little sprout from last week. It seems like it's about doubled in size and it may have split, which probably isn't too good for a flower that gets as huge as these hopefully will. We'll have to wait and see what happens.


This is the one that is growing great, and it's still going strong. I think it's doubled in size too. The lowest leaves seem to still be dinner for the bugs, but the bugs are leaving the rest of it alone, so that's good.

Last week I had a picture of a leafless stem, as the 3rd potential successful flower, but there's been no change in that one at all.

We still haven't gotten our garden together yet. We've been just too crazy busy. Anna will be done with school this week, so there's a good chance we can get some seeds planted early next week.

Also, Liam planted some seeds at school in a couple of cups a bunch of weeks ago. One was a sunflower seed, and the other was a pumpkin seed. Of the two, one is growing very well, and the other hasn't grown at all. I believe the one that's growing is the pumpkin seed. I may have to put it in the ground soon as I think it's beginning to be too big for it's little cup. That would be so cool if we can keep it going and grow some pumpkins. Even if they were only softball sized, I'd be happy with that.

That's it for the update, maybe I'll do this every week. I haven't decided yet.

btw- I'm LOVING this June gloom weather!

Tegan's Birthday At Disneyland

We went ahead and went to Disneyland for Tegan's birthday even though she gets in free anyway any other day. We got her a birthday button and everything.

While in California Adventure, we visited the tortilla factory and Tegan got a bag of tortillas as a birthday gift.

She was so happy to get those tortillas. She wanted to hold on to them for quite a while before she let us put them in the basket under the stroller seat.

Here is the tired birthday girl, all worn out.

We spent most of the evening at California Adventure. By the time we got into Disneyland, the fireworks were just about to begin, so we stopped and watched them. There were a lot of people exiting, so once we made it down Main Street, we went left to the Pirates of the Caribbean. That ride is nice and dark, and slow, and seemed to melt all of our energy. Even the kids were saying, "Can we go home, I'm tired.", so we headed back to the car.

Oh yeah, one more thing about Tegan and her having that birthday button. The cast members would say "Happy Birthday", and she would get this look on her face that I would interpret as "Wow, how did they know it was my birthday?!", or "Hey, they just said 'Happy Birthday' to me!" It was pretty funny.

Fun times.

Tegan's Birthday Redux

(That's pronounced ree-doo)

Since the communication between my computer and the blogger website was choppy yesterday (to say the least), I wasn't able to post a birthday tribute Tegan. Well that's only part of the reason. But I'll mention that later.

So without further delay, here is what I was going to post yesterday for Tegan's birthday...



Two years ago today, Tegan entered the world and joined our family. Here's Tegan and mommy together.



Here's Tegan with Duncan just a few days later. There are other, more in focus, pictures of this moment, but this is the only one with Tegan smiling, so it's the one I happily use.

Here's Liam getting his first chance to hold his new baby sister. Liam's expression in priceless.

Jennan wanted in on the baby holding and picture taking action too.

Here they all are together. What a cute set of kids, if I do say so myself.

Then here, I was going to also put in some pictures from the the last 2 years, but I can't find my disc of our 2008 pictures! That, plus the computer/website issues, were driving me crazy and stressing me very much out, so I had to walk away. And even though I do have more pictures I could use from 2007, and this year, I'm choosing to just keep it short with the pictures you've just seen.

Tegan is such a fun little girl to have around. She loves to be involved with what ever the other kids are doing, and doesn't seem to realise sometimes she's not as big as they are. She brings a lot of happiness to our home with her smile and silliness.

So, a big happy birthday to Tegan!