A Christmas Carol

We attended the winter production of "A Christmas Carol" last night (12-10-08). This play is put on each in year in Leavenworth, WA by the Leavenworth Summer Theater and this was our first year as a family to attend.

I was working with on of the executive producers of the show to have a photo for the play put in the classified banner of the paper and I expressed interest in seeing the show. She sent me tickets to take the family for the last dress rehearsal. It was great and all the kids really liked it. 

This time we took all the kids, even Jaxsen. In the summer, Jaxsen didn't want to go see the Sound of Music, but we convinced him to go to this one. I kept looking over at him to see if he was interested in the play or not. For the most part his eyes were glued to the stage. Good memories for our family.

Halloween 2008

I am a horrible blogger. As you can see it has been over 2 months since my last post. However, Halloween has come and gone and I love this Holiday. I usually dress up each year and have fun doing it.

This year I was almost not going to do anything as I was overwhelmed with projects at work and didn't want to take the time to do it. Well, one of the managers let me in on their theme of The Wizard of Oz and asked if I could be part of it. I quickly came up with the idea to be the man behind the curtain.

I put together a bunch of black paper at work and created a curtain and a giant head. I rigged it to make it so his mouth could move. Then I thought I can do a little more and look like an older man when I come out from behind the curtain.

I bought some white hairspray and a fake mustache, added some masking tape to a black sweater, pinned on a chain to look like a pocket watch and voila "The Wizard."

When I got to work, without seeing my area, I was called Captain Kangaroo, Sam Elliot and a few other characters, which is what I was not going for. I had fun anyway.

I am hoping to get some pictures together to post of all my past characters at work from Halloween time.

Below is a video of my work area. I had downloaded the sound clip from the Wizard of Oz when they approach him. I would play this for people while I moved the mouth from behind the curtain.

Sound of Music

We attended an outdoor production of The Sound of Music last night (8-27-08). What a treat.

A very nice sister at church gave Alecia 4 tickets to the Leavenworth Summer Theater's production of Sound of Music the other day for helping her with some genealogy items.

These tickets were great seats up on the second row right at center stage and eye level. Also, there were a little ways off from the orchestra pit. Perfect to say the least.

Since we only had 4 tickets, I was going to let Alecia take the 3 kids, but Jaxsen was strongly apposed to going. So, I skipped my Wednesday night Stake meeting (which happened to be a bar-b-que at the Stake President's home) and went with them.

When we got there, this young man escorted us to our seats. He played Kurt, one of the VonTrap family children. He also happens to be our Bishop's nephew. We have been to his house before, so I think he recognized us. But as he was taking us to our seats, he had his canned conversation that all the ushers had from what I could tell. "Have you seen the show before?" "Is this your first time to the theater?" "So, where are you from?"

I had to laugh to myself at the last question as he knew we were from Wenatchee, but he was doing such a great job at his work that I just said "Wenatchee" and "I will tell your dad, hello."

I took his picture and emailed it to his dad and uncle, and guess who showed up right after that. His dad. So I shared the story with him.

The Nuns started off the program by coming out and singing "How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Cell Phone". Very creative way to tell people to turn off their cell phones, watch alarms and to remain seated during the production. The main Nun was a very good at her part.


I was worried that Logan wouldn't like the play, but he really did.

The play started at 8:00 p.m. and we had to arrive at 7:30 p.m. or earlier as you have to park and then walk up the hill to the theater and then get seated. It was a really neat setting as it was a little cooler and a cloudy night, but it wasn't windy and really added to the ambiance of the program.

Next year I think we might try to take the family to see "Sugar" a play based upon the classic film "Some Like It Hot." Looks very funny.

Challenge Completed...???

As you know, Alecia publicly challenged me to read the Twilight series on June 11, 2008. She challenged me for what I think was two reasons. 1st to learn something about the attributes that women find so amazing about the main character, Edward. 2nd to give me an entertaining read.

I accepted the challenge and finished last weekend, August 10, 2008. Took me a month (4 weeks) to read 4 books. That is the most I have ever read in that short of time in my entire life. I will address the 2nd part of her challenge, that yes it was an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Never mind the mushy gushy stuff (almost romance novel type) in the first half of the first book, I can see why these books were on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Now the 1st part of her challenge. I can totally understand and see why women around the world are in love with Edward. Here is a man (immortal) that loves this girl more than he loves himself and would do anything to keep her out of harms way. The other part of what I see to be so lovable is his ability to exercise self-control to express his love and keep her safe. This self-control covers many aspects of his life, such as appetites, temptations, anger among many other things.

So does this mean I have completed the challenge...I don't think so. I do love my wife and my family extremely so and would do anything to keep them safe to let them know I love them. Where I need tremendous help is exercising self-control. Now my self-control isn't necessarily in the same areas as Edward, but there are many I can relate to.

I still think Alecia is much more like Bella (the main leading lady), more than she will ever realize, and I truly love that about her.

Vue Dale Drive-in

Last Thursday night we decided to take the kids to the Drive-In Theater. Now we have done this before, but have never found it very enjoyable due to the fact that watching from within the minivan. It gets hot in the car, nobody wants to sit behind somebody else because they can't see.

The theater won't let you put blankets or chairs on the ground for safety reasons, so I thought about asking someone to borrow their truck and put lawn chairs in the back of the truck along with an air mattress. We got the truck, but their stereo didn't work, so I had to get a boom box. After some work we found someone at my work to let us borrow their boom box.

Alecia made snacks to take all day long. Carmel Popcorn & Muddie Buddies & Regular Popcorn. We went to see Iron Man and I think the kids (even Alecia) had a good time.

IPod Shuffle

At work we switched cell phone plans from Verizon to AT&T. This was part of our Sytems Department managers plan to 1. save money & 2. to integrate with our new advertising system we are currently installing.

To integrate with a new ad system, the outside sales reps and managers got iPhones and since I am a manager I was lucky enough to get one. A few months ago, Logan and I both got iPod Touches and we loved them. They are exactly like an iPhone without the phone, texting and camera features.

When Logan heard I was getting an iPhone he wanted to know if he could have my cover for my iPod Touch and then he would give his cover to me and then I could give the new cover and touch to Alecia. We were supposed to get the iPhones 2 weeks ago on a Monday, but they didn't as they were on back order. He would ask me everyday after work if it came yet. After 2 weeks, they finally came in this past Thursday.

So we did the iPod shuffle to work things out. Logan and I really like our iPods and the different apps that we download to them to make them better. We added a scripture application and hope it can evolve to be better and more useful.

Weekend Projects: Light

It has been a few weeks since I have been able to do any special projects. With scout camp one week and swim meets the next, this weekend was the first chance to get a few of the projects out of the way. And wouldn't you know, all the projects dealt with light

Twilight (Breaking Dawn)
Now this really wasn't the first project, but I have to share. Alecia spent Friday night (early Saturday morning) on the couch. No, she was not in the dog house, but chose to stay there to read.

Here is how it goes. On Friday, August 1 at 11:30 p.m. Alecia headed down to Hastings Book store to pick up her reserved copy of Stephanie Myers latest book in the Twilight series "Breaking Dawn".

She said the parking lot was full and the line for the release of the 4th book went to the back of the store. She came home with the book and immediately went to reading it.

I woke up a few times during the night noticing she was not in bed, but knew she was safe reading her book. When I got up to fix waffles (click here for the recipe) for Brooklynn and her friend Maddie, this was the picture I first saw coming down the stairs.

I tried to get Alecia to let me take her picture, but she was very self conscious about the way she looked. Never mind that she was absolutely beautiful and really cute in her reading glasses, I still had to take a picture with the book in front of her face.

She stayed up til 9:00 p.m. Saturday (awake almost 38 hours straight now) reading the book (754 pages) and finished the book. I am only on book 3 (see Alecia's challenge to me to read the books here) and I am now on team Edward. In an earlier post I was on team Jacob.

Ceiling Fans/Kids Room Lights

When we first moved into this home they had ugly gold light fixtures all over the home (inside and out). Over time we replaced all the light fixtures inside including the kids' bedrooms.
We put ceiling fans in all the bedrooms and put cheap ones in the kids' bedrooms. The fans were noisy, and the glass fixtures over them broke a little while later. So we finally got some new light fixtures and took out the cheap ceiling fans.

Outside Lights

Speaking of ugly gold light fixtures, we have always hated these standard gold light fixtures on the outside of our front door and garage door.So we got some new lights at Lowe's, put them up in less than a half hour and WOW, what a difference. The lights were a little bigger than the last ones, so I had to move the house numbers down a board in order to see them from the street.

Old Guy/Twilight

OK. So Alecia already posted this on her blog, but I thought I should post it also.

Brooklynn had a district swim meet in Leavenworth yesterday (her final meet of the year). It was my first chance to go as all the others were on Wednesday nights when I had Stake meetings. We were there from 7:40 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. and it made for a long day.

I thought this would be a great chance to try and catch up on Alecia's challenge to read the Twilight series that she blogged about on July 11. She wants me to learn about some characteristics to incorporate in my own life that a fictional character by the name of Edward has from this series. I took the challenge and started reading the first of 3 books on the scout camp I attended with Logan.

I didn't get all the way through the 1st book "Twilight", but finished it at home. Now I am reading the 2nd book "New Moon" and am only half through. Mind you, Alecia read all 3 books within a 4 day period of time and I am sure it is frustrating her that I am not reading them all as fast. The books are romance action/adventure novels with a twist. The main characters are vampires and now werewolves. They are a little mushy (really mushy in the 1st book) up to about half way through, and then they get in some good adventure and suspense. So I must admit I am liking them a bit.

Anyway, while reading "New Moon" between swim events, I was walking around in the park with the book. I overhear 2 teenage girls say "Look at the older guy reading the Twilight book. Doesn't he know those are girly books." Well, I didn't know what to take more offense to first, the "girly book" comment or the "old guy" comment. I have never thought of myself as old, but I guess I am starting to look the part to the younger generation.

The "girly book" comment didn't really upset me as like I said earlier, the books are not that bad and there are plenty of mens men that are reading the books. See "Twilight Guys Report" to read more about that.

Now about learning some characteristics to be more like Edward. I am only through one and a half books and I have to say first of all, Alecia is more like the main character, Bella, than she realizes. Second, from what I have read about Edward so far, I don't want to be like him (but am already like him in many ways). What I don't like is he fell in love with Bella because she smelled delicious and he can't do that as it is against his morals. He can read peoples minds to know how to act around them, but he can't read Bella's mind, so he has to read the minds of those she talks to understand her more. Then he abandons Bella "for her safety" but has really left her in more danger than ever before.

A character I wouldn't mind being like more is Jacob. He looks and Bella, studies her and tries to know more about her by her actions, who she really is. If I could do that with Alecia, I think that would be great, and in some ways I am do that already. Jacob also leaves Bella "for her safety", but comes around to wanting to be with her and protect her always.

From what I understand, I am supposed to pay more attention to Edwards character in the 3rd book. So I will have to update my opinions of him as I get to that book.

Disappearing Facial Hair

While Logan & I were at scout camp, I decided that I wanted to grow my beard out. Alecia doesn't like my facial hair (too prickly), so I thought the week we were gone would be a good time to grow it out.

I started 2 days before we left for camp and by the time I got home it looked pretty good. I would trim it up along the neck and down the cheaks to give it a clean look.

I knew once I got home I would have to shave it off sooner or later, but decided to have fun with it for a week.

Each day I would change it up a little bit by shaving more and more off. After we got back I left the beard on from Saturday to Tuesday.

On Wednesday I shaved it down to a goatee with long sideburns. Ryan told me to keep the goatee, but shave the long side burns down.

On Thursday I shaved the side burns but also shaved down the goatee to a long soul patch with a cowboay mustache. I hated this, as it looked aweful. So when I came home from work at lunch I shaved that down to a regular mustache with a smaller soul patch. Didn't like that much either.

On Friday I shaved it all off with the exception of a tiny soul patch. Alecia couldn't keep a straight face when I did this. It was nice to see her smile and hear her laugh so I kept the soul patch for a couple of days.

Sunday I was clean shaven once again and could feel good about looking my best for church.

Alecia did tell me that she liked the beard the best out of all and I have to say that I agree with her. Maybe someday when she doesn't mind the pricklies so much I can grow it back.

Camp Bonaparte

Logan & I just spent a week (July 14,2008 thru July 18, 2008) at Camp Bonaparte for the Boy Scouts. Bonaparte is 20 miles east of Tonasket, WA and 20 miles west of Republic, WA.

I went as an Adult Leader, not the same as a Boy Scout Leader. As we prepared to go, I was not all that excited as I don't find camping to be all that fun. You know with being outside in the hot sun, the bugs, no TV and so on. But as the time got closer, I got more OK with it.

We prepared for the bugs by taking Garlic pills a couple of days before going. I had heard from a co-worker that taking Garlic will prevent more bug bites and ticks. We took the Garlic pills for every meal that whole week. We also stayed prepared by taking a bug spray that had 40% deet. I think the compination worked very well overall as Logan and I came home with a combined total of 3 bites. Other scouts had well over 20 bites and boy were the mosquitos big up there.

As a leader I got to stay in a cabin tent and Logan got to stay with me. We had wooden cots to put our air mattresses on to make it a little more comfortable. We didn't have to go through the extra step of setting up a tent.

The kids had 5 classes each day for merit badges and this kept them busy. I would go to the classes on some days to take pictures and then go either read or play games with another group of leaders (Scott & Marc).

Last year I was able to go with the scouts to camp Fife and didn't like that camp as much as camp Bonaparte. The food was better, but the accomodations were not as nice as Fife. However, when you are camping outside each night to eat inside a nice building doesn't make that big of a difference.

I took a few photos to view below.

Weekend Projects: Shower Head

This weekend was spent preparing for the scout camp coming up this week. Monday thru Thursday, Logan and I will be going to Camp Bonapart (part of the Grand Columbia Boy Scouts camp areas). I am hoping to get some good pictures to be able to post them when we get back.

I was able to fit in one tiny project, that of replacing the shower head in my bathroom. Not a hard project at all. Our old shower head was getting clogged with deposits and I never liked the hose attached to the shower head anyway. Bed, Bath & Beyond had a coupon special for $10 off a purchase and a special on a double shower head that I wanted. So we used it, got it and put it up.

Badger Mountain Fire

What a busy week with work. I have been in the office for most of the week. We just purchased a new advertising order entry system and the company that we bought it from (Brainworks) is here this week doing preliminary fact finding for the install up coming in the next few weeks. So busy I was that I didn't realize how bad a fire was that is brewing across the river.


The Badger Mountain Fire started a few days ago and as I drove home from work today the smoke was just billowing high. Could even see some flames. Badger Mountain is across the river from us and over East Wenatchee.


These pictures are from across the street from my house looking over the tops of the other homes in our neighborhood. My house is the on the left border of each picture.

I went outside tonight after dark to see if I could take some pictures of it and it didn't work, but the night sky was glowing. You could see miles of fire lines just burning. Thank goodness so far it is only burning brush and sage covered hills, but it could reach some homes very easily. We pray that all the fire fighters and citizens helping control this are kept safe and that no homes are destroyed or damaged from this fire.

Go to wenatcheeworld.com to read some stories about the fire and check out some arial photos of the burned area.

Sabbath Day

Today was a week that I was able to stay home and go to church with my family. After sleeping in longer than we should of, I went downstairs to take time to think and ponder. My faith means the world to me as it is my life and my family. Were it not for the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't know what my life would be like.

I am not a perfect person by any means, and wish I could be more disciplined in many areas of my life. A few that I need to work on are reading the scriptures, reading good books, expanding my gospel knowledge and being in the habit reading the scriptures & praying with my family more often than not.

While I was downstairs Logan and Brooklynn eventually came down. They were just sitting on the couches with me and I decided to read to them the First Presidency message by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf out of this months Ensign. We talked about the article and about our Prophet today, Thomas S. Monson, and prophets from the past. I shared with them them who was the President and Prophet of the Church when I was there age. That was President Spencer W. Kimball.

I have a testimony of gospel, that of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I want my posterity to know of the truthfulness that lies within this church. I am so thankful to have the knowledge & testimony of a living prophet. To know that God communicates with his prophets today as he did in times of old. That God, through a prophet, leads and guides us today in a time when we need it more than ever before.

Weekend Projects: Mine/Not Mine

Weekend projects always involve mowing the lawn and something else at home. This week however Jen & Scott were working on replacing the wood on their deck with composite material similar to TREX Decking.

In talking with Scott yesterday, I got the feeling he really wanted help, but he didn't come right out and ask if I could. So, this morning I called Jen and told her about that and she said he really could use the help. I went over at about Noon and came home about 9:00 p.m. and we only finished about 1/3 of the project.

The hardest part of staring this project was putting the first board under the railing. Notches had to be cut out to go around posts and measured just right. After that the rest of the deck should be pretty easy until we get right up against the house.

It was a long day, but I know Scott really appreciated the help. I was really tired and couldn't wait to get home, get cleaned up and go to bed.

4th of July

Today was the 4th of July. Pretty much a lazy day and that's OK. It all started off by sleeping in, not making any of the kids wake up early or rush out the door to be here or there.

Afternoon came and we met up with our friends, Jen & Scott and Brandon & Tammi and Scott's parents Pat & Chuck, at Lincoln Rock State Park on the Columbia River. Spent most of the afternoon just snacking on food, laying in the shade and riding on Jen & Scott's boat on the river.

Evening came and we all met up again at Jen & Scott's for a barbeque, lit off some small fireworks (our wives broke tradition this year by staying in the house during our personal firework show for the kids, however they were making the traditional carmel popcorn for the major firework show) and then off to Walla Walla Point Park down by the river to watch the big firework show. We arrived at Walla Walla Point Park just as they were starting the fireworks and they lasted about 20 minutes.

On the way back home, Brooklynn asked if anyone else thought the fireworks were lame this year. Deep down I know she enjoyed them, they just went by way too fast for her this year. I certainly enjoyed the firework show and always enjoy being in a smaller town to watch them as getting home is really quick and easy.

Another tradition broken this year was the fact that we didn't take any pictures at all. However, two of Brandon & Tammi's kids were videoing the show with their cell phones. I am hoping to get one of the videos to post here at a later date. The picture of the fireworks above is from the front page of today's Wenatchee World

—

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
~The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

Wilfred Sings

Part of a Wenatchee World tradition is the Chairman of the Board (Wilfred) singing to the employees on their birthday's.

My birthday was a few weeks ago and we celebrate birthdays in the advertising department once a month. So today was a celebration for those of us with birthday's in June and July.

Well, Wilfred got smell of the food, came down to eat and sang to each of us.

It's a fun treat and we love to see Wilf do that for all employees. It is also fun to track Wilf down to do this if he doesn't happen to know of someone's birthday.

TVGuardian

We love to watch movies in our home and a few years ago (before High Definition TV's were really popular or should I say while they were really expensive), Alecia and I bought a new DVD player for our regular TV with a new item called TVG Technology or TVGuardian.

This technology was built into the DVD player and didn't cost anything extra to have it. What it does is filter out foul language. And what I mean by filtering out language is the DVD player looks at the Closed Caption on a movie whether it is running or not. It recognizes a bad phrase or word, then mutes the sound on the TV when the phrase or word comes up. You can change levels of filtering and settings and it will pop up a Closed Caption phrase in place of the muted word, or you can choose not to have that happen.

We LOVED this DVD player. The only downside sometimes was if there were mentions of Christ or God in a movie of a religious tone, and not a taking of the name of God in vain, it would mute the sound. We found that we were losing a lot of important dialog (DaVinci Code was the movie we really noticed this on), so we would have to change the level of filtering or turn it off. Anyway, we really got so used to this that when we watched regular TV, we were really shocked at how many bad words are on there since the TVGuardian we had only worked with DVD movies.

Well, our DVD gave up the ghost a year ago or so and when we went to get a new one, they didn't have any DVD players for High Definition TV's with the TVGuardian. In fact it was hard to find any DVD players with TVGuardian. I chose to get a DVD burner/player that had HD Upconvert. We were never really happy with it and really missed the TVG Technology. I researched on the internet for the TVGuardian and found out the company that does this is not making DVD players with this anymore and the technology is changing so fast for players and they can't afford to keep up with the technological advances. They are however hoping to get TVGuardian available with Satellite and Cable company providers. This would mean we could filter regular TV shows.

Whenever I go to the big box stores, I always look at the DVD players to see if they might have some with TVG. Well, I was in Target earlier this week and found one. The technology was a little different as you had to pay an extra fee to activate it. Thought about it and thought "it's worth it." The DVD player even had a HDMI upconverter for my HD TV. I will be selling my RCA DVD Burner/Player and hoping to offset the cost of the new player.

I got it all hooked up, settings are now different, but got it all worked out and watched Vantage Point. Great movie and even better now that we have the TVG back. It caught every word as far as we could tell. I highly recommend buying TVG technology if you ever get the chance, especially if you want to avoid the bad language from the ears of your children.

Below is a YouTube video on how the filter works. If you don't want to hear the bad language example in this, stop the video before it reaches the end as the filter is turned off then to show you the difference.

Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band

We got Guitar Hero III for the Wii when it first came out and gave it to our kids for Christmas 2007. Fun game, played a few times, but never got a second guitar to have dueling players.

Well, Rock Band for the Wii came out last week and we got it just for fun. This game is very similar to Guitar Hero except it comes with AND can have a guitar player, drummer and a singer with the option of adding a second guitar. Now, four of our family of five can play this game at the same time. The drums are really fun, but difficult.

I like Rock Band better as far as being family friendlier. More of us can play at one time, plus the characters are not quite so hard rock as in Guitar Hero III. I also personally like the song list much better in Rock Band. So, I decided to sell Guitar Hero III so we could use that money to go buy a second guitar for Rock Band since the Guitar Hero is not compatible with Rock Band.

Being a newspaper guy, there was no way I was placing this for sale on Craigslist. I placed an ad for free in our paper since the item we were selling was under $100. We ran the ad for 2 days and got 3 calls. They came today to pick it up. Whew, good thing it sold as I was almost tempted to see if Craigslist would work for me.

Now I hear Guitar Hero is going to start selling a new game soon that will include drums and a microphone also to compete with Rock Band. Looks cool, but I am going to stick with Rock Band.

Sunday Visits

My calling in church is the Stake Executive Secretary. As part of this calling we, that being the Stake Presidency, visit a different ward or unit each week. The one week a month we don't travel is the first Sunday of the month (Fast Sunday).

This week we visited the East Wenatchee 1st ward. It was their Ward Conference and President Webb (the Stake President) and I were the only members of the Stake Presidency to visit. Reason for this was the 1st Counselor (President Bennion), 2nd Counselor (President Christensen) and Stake Clerk were all out of town.

With it being their ward conference, there is the sustaining of church leaders that needs to take place and one of the counselors usually does this from the pulpit. Well, since no one else was available, it fell upon me to do. It was neat to do and was easy enough, as it is all outlined for you on a print out to read.

The above picture is a picture of our Stake Center that I took just over a month ago for our Stake Conference program and didn't have it saved in color. This is the building that the East Wenatchee 1st Ward meets in.

Weekend Projects

Mowing the Lawn

The weekend is always filled with projects and one constant one is ALWAYS mowing the lawn.

As I was mowing this morning around 10:00 a.m., it was HOT!!! It got up to 99 degrees today and it sure felt like it was near 90 when I was out mowing earlier.

I was mowing in the backyard and would go under the shade of the trees and boy did that make a difference. Felt 10 degrees or more cooler. And as I walked under the trees it reminded me of a situation we had encountered with our neighbor a week and a half ago.

Trees

When we first moved into our home about 6 years ago, there were no trees just shrubs. And the shrubs were planted haphazardly throughout the lot. No rhyme or reason to any of it. We moved all the shrubs to other spots in the yard and planted some trees. We put in 6 willow trees, 3 pine trees and a quaking aspen. Realizing this was way too many trees, this year we pulled out 3 of the willows and 2 pine trees all from the back yard. Still have to work on getting the stumps out and putting grass over them.

Well, our neigbor came over and told us that we "have to cut back our willow tree" that overhanges in her yard (see picture below on the right). She said that they grow 3 feet each day and they are too messy.
Needless to say, we were not going to trim back the trees or take them out. These trees provide a little bit of privacy and create the much needed shade in the hot summer sun. Alecia volunteered for us to go talk to our neighbor after dinner and I did not want to go. The neighbor was all up in arms about the leaves dropping on her garden and the sticks that blow out of the trees when the wind blows. I said that was an act of God and not our doing. I also said that we don't throw these things into her yard on purpose like she does with our yard. YES, she actually picks up the leaves and sticks and throws them over the fence into our yard. Things were getting a little heated at this point and Alecia had to calm us down.

I told her she has every right to trim the tree herself up to the property line but not an inch over. Then I volunteered to trim it myself up a little way, but not all the way up. Better to do it myself than have her hire someone else to do it and look totally bad. If you enlarge the picture above, you can see a notch on the bottom right corner as not to hang over too far into her yard.

Cars & Bikes

The next project was to work on rearranging the parking situation in our garage.

With the price of gas so high these days (just paid $4.14 gallon at Costco today), I decided to start riding my bike to work each day and let Alecia drive the smaller car that gets better gas mileage. She takes the kids to swim team practice every day and has to go back and forth more than 2 times.

With Alecia driving the small car, it is usually parked on the side of the garage without the automatic garage door opener. She wouldn't park the car in the garage because of having to get in and out of the car and would just leave it in the driveway to soak up the summer sun. Boy did it get hot in there.

So, I rearranged some things to make it so the mini-van could be parked on the manual garage door side and the small car could go on the side with the automatic door opener. Now there is no reason to let the small car sit out in the sun and get super hot the next time she drive it.

40th Birthday Surprise

A week and a half ago, my wife told me not to do anything special for her 40th birthday. I thought "SHOOT" I haven't done anything. So the next day I called Alecia's best friend, Jen, and asked if we could use her house for Alecia's 40th. I wanted to invite those closest to Alecia and knew I couldn't get everyone as I didn't want to take advantage of Jen's hospitality.

As the week flew by I would try to do things while Alecia wasn't around: Making the invite while at work and sending it out by email. Scanning the pictures of her throughout the years and printing them out to putting them in frames. Making the prune bouquet out of the trunk of my car. Buying the balloons, paper plates, crepe paper and finally the buying and making of the food for her favorite cake and hors d'oeuvres for the party at Jen's.

For part of her birthday I decided to invite people to bring an hors d'oeuvre and a gag gift. I almost changed my mind on the gag gifts at the last moment as Alecia was going through a "mid-life" crisis moment the night before her birthday (Sunday, June 22, 2008). Almost in tears she was saying how tired she was of being told she was old (mind you NOT by me) and that she hadn't accomplished anything in her life (never mind the 3 most awesome children and husband she has). The next day the party came and everything went fine. She laughed at the gag gifts and I think felt good about herself.

Those who came were Jen & Scott, Brandon & Tammy, Dale & Kirsten and Sandra.

You would never guess Alecia is 40. She is beautiful and loved by her family. Alecia, I hope you really had a good birthday and that you may realize that you don't look a day over 29. We all love you very much.

Cake and Hors d'oeuvres

The morning and afternoon of Alecia's birthday was time cooking and preparing for her party that night at Jen's house.It started with me cooking more Angle Food cake for her party while she was at swim practice with the kids. Her favorite cake to have on her birthday is Angle Food cake with whipping cream and strawberries. The house smelled sweet with the angle food cooking and with Alecia gone for only 1 hour I had to think of a way to get the sweet smell gone.

I went around the house lighting matches, spraying Febreeze and opening up the windows. This was around 7:30 a.m. The wind was blowing so it helped a lot. Then I put the cooked caked in the trunk of my car with Saran Wrap on top to cool. I think I accomplished my goal as Alecia had no idea that I had made any extra cake.

Next was cooking and preparing Sweet & Sour Pineapple Appetizers and Wingers Chicken. I couldn't hide the fact that I was cooking these to go to Jen's house, but she thought it would only be Jen & Scott and kids and our family. She thought is was a lot of appetizers, but I kept saying I could eat half of them if I didn't have dinner.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Appetizers

1 (15 1/4 oz.) can pineapple chunks, undrained
1 (8 1/2 oz.) can whole water chestnuts, drained
16 slices bacon, cut in half
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato catsup
1/4 cup water
2 TBS. red wine vinegar
1 TBS. cornstarch
1 TBS. soy sauce

Drain pineapple, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Cut water chestnuts in half. Pre-cook bacon a little to where they are still soft and haven't crisped up. Wrap bacon around water chestnut halves; top with pineapple chuncks and secure with wooden toothpicks. Lay on cooking sheet and set aside.
In small saucepan, over med-high heat, cook and stir reserved pineapple juice, brown sugar, catsup, water, vinegar, cornstarch and soy sauce until mixture thickens and begins to boil.
Brush pineapple appetizers with sauce. Broil 8 inches from heat source for 8 minutes on each side or until bacon is cooked. Brushing sauce occasionally. Serve with remaining sauce.

Winger's Chicken Wings

I got this recipe from my brother Bret (Julie's husband). It is a copy-cat recipe that has been modified (my kind of "simple design")

1 Bottle of Franks Red Hot Sauce
2 Cup Brown Sugar
5 Tablespoon Honey

Mix in pan and heat (on moderate heat).

Cook pre-breaded chicken according to instructions (I used frozen chicken wings, soaked them overnight in salt water and then cooked in the oven for about 40 min. at 350 degrees), then submerge into Winger's sauce. Serve with Blue Cheese Dressing and Celery.

Note: Some internet recipe's call for heating the sauce to a moderate boil for 10 minutes. I found this to really thicken the sauce more than I like, so I just heat/mix it until bubbles begin to form then take it off the stove.

These were a big hit at the party and people commented on how moist they were. The sauce was excellent. It made enough for 2 batches.

1968

Part of Alecia's party was first sending out the invite by email. Below is what it looked like.

Next part was to decorate. I had the day off, but also had a previous lunch meeting that had been scheduled with the United way for me to attend. I told Alecia that the meeting would be 2 hours, knowing full well it would only be 1 hour. So I went to Jen's and set up pictures of Alecia throughout the years in picture frames.Next I researched events from 1968. I initially wanted to try and only find events that actually occurred on June 23, 1968, but that proved to be too hard. You know it was hard when the only thing I could find was the birthday of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark was born on that day. So I ended up going with the events for the whole year. Here is a copy of the list that I put together

Major Events from 1968

Alecia was born June 23, 1968

Other events & statistics that occured in 1968, some not quite so major.

• Elvira (Mistress of the Dark). Born June 23, 1968
• Vietnam War ongoing
• Lyndan B. Johnson is President of the United States
• Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II
• Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
• U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
• The Beatles announce the creation of Apple Records in a New York press conference
• U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot.
• The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
• Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control.
• 150 women protest against the Miss America Pageant.
• The 1968 XIX Summer Olympic Games are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
• Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry.
• U.S. presidential election, Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
• Yale University announces it is going co-educational.
• The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi.
• The White Album is released by The Beatles
• The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated
• The1968 XIX Winter Olympic Games are held in Grenoble, France
• US Explodes experimental hydrogen Bomb.
• The Emergency 911 Telephone service is started
• The first automated teller machine (ATM) in the U.S.
• The first Big Mac goes on sale in McDonalds
• The unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent
• Average Cost of new house $14,950.00
• Average Income per year $7,850.00
• Average Monthly Rent $130.00
• Gas per Gallon 34 cents
• Average Cost of a new car $2,822.00
• Movie Ticket $1.50
• Top Movies of 1968
1. The Graduate
2. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
3. Gone With the Wind (reissue)
4. The Valley of the Dolls
5. The Odd Couple
6. Planet of the Apes
7. Rosemary’s Baby
8. The Jungle Book
9. Yours, Mine and Ours
10. The Green Berets
• Top Songs of 1968
1.”Judy In Disguise” ... John Fred & His Playboy Band
2.”Green Tambourine” ... Lemon Pipers
3.”Love Is Blue” ... Paul Mauriat
4.”The Dock of the Bay” ... Otis Redding
5.”Honey” ... Bobby Goldsboro
6.”Tighten Up” ... Archie Bell and the Drells
7.”Mrs. Robinson” ... Simon and Garfunkel
8.”This Guy’s in Love With You” ... Herb Alpert
9.”Grazing in the Grass” ... Hugh Masekela
10.”Hello, I Love You” ... The Doors
• Most Popular Television Shows
1. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (NBC)
2. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (CBS)
3. Bonanza (NBC)
4. Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS)
5. Family Affairs (CBS)
6. Gunsmoke (CBS)
7. Julia (NBC)
8. The Dean Martin Show (NBC)
9. Here’s Lucy (CBS)
10. The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS)
• Academy Awards
Best Picture: “Oliver!”
Best Actor: Cliff Robertson ... “Charly”
Best Actress: Barbra Streisand ... “Funny Girl”

I put her pictures on the laptop as a screen saver and a few snippets of events from 1968 between the photos. Finally, I decorated with black balloons and crepe paper.