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.