Michael & Jennifer

Pouring One For My Homies

2011-12-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it has been a while since I have been here but I'm back with something pretty good to report on. Many of you may not know this but today is my Mom's Birthday. My mom passed away on January 18th of this year. I won't go into the details of her death or the circumstances around it but if you would like to know more about that you can read another post of mine here.

Yesterday my brother Chris asked me if I was going to go to her grave tomorrow (today) for her birthday. I have been thinking about her birthday this past week or so but I never intended to go to the grave. I'm not really one of those kind of people who finds comfort in visiting graves. To me, I know that she is not there just her body is. I know that my mom lives and her spirit is not confined to her body anymore. I felt like I could remember her just as well in my home. The more I thought about it the more I felt like I was a bad son for not wanting to go to the grave. A lot of my family is going and they plan on singing Happy Birthday and leaving flowers but that's just not me. While I was thinking about this I came up with a way that I can remember my Mom on her birthday in my own way.

If you know anything about my Mom you would know this. #1 She was physically confined to "The Blue Chair" for the last part of her life. The Blue Chair was a place of confidence to a lot of people. Thousands of visits took place at the Blue Chair, thousands of laughs, thousands of tears shed. The Blue Chair was a sacred place to many people and my Mom sat there for much of her ending years. #2 My Mom had a love for the out doors and a love for outdoor activities. She loved being outdoors and in the sun. She was an excellent skier, tennis player, she loved the beach, and so on. She loved Nature and loved the Outdoors. #3 My Mom had a love affair with Coca-Cola Classic. It was her poison. She had cases hiding in her room and though out the house. She would have someone fill her sippy-cup cup to the brim with ice and she would gulp away. In her life time she probably drank a million cans of coke. Ok, maybe not but she liked it. So with those three things in mind and a little help from my friend Carleton, this is what I did to remember my Mom on her birthday.

My friend Carleton and I had planed on an early morning bike ride from our houses. We have a trail next to our houses that enters the Santa Ana Mountains. Our destination...Sierra Peak. If you are in East Orange County by Yorba Linda, Sierra Peak is where you see all these towers way up in the mountains. It is very easily seen from the 91 and 241 freeways looking east (towards Corona). I left at 6:00 carrying some mementos. I pinned a picture of my Mom sitting in her Blue Chair on my chest and went off riding. Here is a picture at the bottom of Skyline Road which is the beginning of the trail at sunrise.

The ride was fun. It got a little hot so I had to shed my jacket but finally here we are at the top of this section of the mountain with a sippy-cup and Coke in hand.

Here I am giving my Mom a sip.

Taking one for myself.

And pouring one for my Mom.

It was actually a very beautiful day. I couldn't have asked for better conditions. From this vantage point you could see probably close to a 75 miles or more. We could see Catalina, Mount Baldy, Down Town LA, Rancho Palos Verdes, Way into Riverside, Lake Matthews and so on. It doesn't come out on the Camera that well but here is a faint picture of Catalina. Look hard, it's there.

91/241 to the bottom left...Yorba Linda to the bottom Right...and Down Town LA smack dab in the middle.

Lake Matthews in the lower right part and the San Gorgonio Mountains (Where Big Bear & Arrowhead is).

Mount Baldy and Chino & Ontario below.

It was a beautiful day and a great ride. I used to go and tell my Mom about my Mountain Biking adventures and I know deep down she always wished she could go. Today was her day. The ride down was fun and a little crazy. Mom loved every second of it. She was laughing the whole way down. I love you Mom and Happy Birthday!

Baby Names

2011-09-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

So I was looking back on my blog today and ran across this one. Now that Jennifer is pregnant, we are talking about names. Names are a hard thing to come up with. Hopefully we don't blow it. By the way, because Jennifer is pregnant and this is what pregnant people do who have blogs...why don't you vote to see what the sex of my first born is.

An Announcement

2011-09-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

Since it's been a while that I have written here on the blog I thought I would make an announcement by way of an intense action packed video. This is a true story about what happened to Jennifer and myself. Enjoy.

Click Here to watch.

Happy Anniversary

2011-07-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary to the biggest babe I know!!! You have given me the best 5 years of my life. I love you Jenny!

I Love Bob Dylan

2011-02-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

I had the most real dream last night. I was watching the news and they were doing a story about Bob Dylans death. I was so bummed out. I love Bob Dylan and I was really sad about his death. The dream was so real that I had to look it up this morning when I got to work to see if it was true. In my dream, Jennifer couldn't understand why I was so upset that he died. I'm telling you now and I solemnly declare to the world that Bob Dylan is the man. He is the greatest song writer I know and although his singing is border line unintelligible these days, I still love to hear him sing.

My wish for February 2011 is that all of you will know what an amazing man, singer, songwriter, and person Bob Dylan is.

Here are a series of videos of one of my favorite songs of Bob Dylan. All of these artist were obviously inspired by Bob. Some of these versions are long but it is an amazing song and worth listening to every version. Please enjoy All Along The Watchtower performed by:

Dave Matthews:

Pearl Jam Sorry, I couldn't embed this one.

Of coarse Jimi:

For some reason Bob's version is not on youtube and I don't know how to embed his song from my itunes so you'll just have to trust me that it is amazing.

THE STEELWELLS

2011-02-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

My one of my best friends band, The Steelwells, is currently in a competition to be on the cover of Rolling Stone! Please click on the link below and vote for them. You will love their music.

Mount Baden Powell

2011-01-30T18:00:00.001-08:00

Sorry we didn't get a chance to get to this post for a while. Right when I was going to post it, I had to wait because of what happened to my Mother. Naturally her post took precedence. So here we are a month after the event posting about Mount Baden Powell.

On New Years Day a few weeks ago, Jennifer and I decided that we wanted to go on a hike for the day. We also wanted to play in the snow. Mount Baden Powell is what came as a result.

Mount Baden Powell is a hiking trail in the Wrightwood area in Southern California. This trail covers part of the Pacific Crest Trail (Which I would love to hike someday) and is named after the founder of the Boy Scouts. We decided to take Sam with us because she has never seen the snow before. Here is our photo journal of the trip.

Sam loved the snow! We were worried about her getting cold, but her thick coat kept her plenty warm. We loved throwing snow balls off in the distance simply to watch her frolicking through the thick powdery snow. Sam couldn't resist munching on snow during any down time.

Jen and I tried covering all of our bases while in the snow, such as making snow angels, eating snow, and you guessed it peeing in it (Jen didn't want to participate in the latter part).

Love this picture.

I couldn't resist getting a little Bear Grills.

We ended our trip with this breath taking view. Nothing gets better than this. Afterwords we enjoyed four hours of traffic, but it was all worth it. Jen and I would love to come back someday and do an official camp out.

My Mom, Dana Larsen King 12/10/1955 - 1/18/2011

2011-01-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

As many of you already know, my Mom passed away last Tuesday. She struggled for a long time with Multiple Sclerosis and finally on Monday she was admitted into the hospital with a case of pneumonia. At 5:25 Tuesday evening, she passed away. She taught me so much even to her very last day.

On Monday she had an option to be put on a ventilator which she declined. She knew that she would probably die if she didn't get put on a ventilator but she was ok with that. She looked at us and very casually told us, "No, I don't want it" and she was totally at peace with that decision. She never once had a look of fear in her eyes. She knew what was happening, and she was cool with it because she knew she was going home and was going to be free at last. That taught me to have great perspective like my Mother did.

Yesterday was her funeral service and it was such a happy occasion. There were so many people who came out and supported us and showed their love for my Mom. She inspired so many people. One thing that I wanted to say during my talk at the funeral which I didn't really do right was this: My Mom's life was really amazing, yet her body was really cruddy. She was totally disabled. A lot of people would be upset or bitter towards God for inflicting such an amazing person with an incurable disease which would eventually take her life. Something that is equally hard to understand is when people say, "We may not know why God does the things he does but we do know that he has a purpose in all things and that he does all things for a reason". I totally understand why that does not sit well with people. Why would God do this to Dana King? She was too good of a person! She didn't deserve this! I want to echo those words, "We may not know why God does the things he does but we do know that he has a purpose in all things and that he does all things for a reason". In my Mom's case though, I do know why God did this to her and it was made more clear over this past week through Facebook and also at her funeral. God loves us all and he gave MS to my Mom for all of us. She could not have made such a great impact on all of us, literally thousands of us, if it were not for her disease. God knew what he was doing. We are all more humble for knowing her. We are all more charitable for knowing her. We are all kinder for knowing her. We are all better people because we knew her, and she also is a better person for having MS. I thank God for being wise enough to know that this single physical affliction would be the cause of blessing thousands of his children even though we couldn't always understand why.

My Mom put up with a lot. Not only did she have her MS to deal with but she also had 5 rotten kids. I think we all ended up being pretty good people especially because of her but we did put that woman through hell growing up. I don't know how a healthy parent could have managed but she seemed to be able to handle her parental duties perfectly. We had a very unusual relationship with our Mom. We teased her a lot. I know that some of you won't understand this story and will probably think I am just awful for doing this to her. I remember one time I took my Mom to the hairdresser in Anaheim Hills. She recently lost her ability to walk and stand and I would have to carry her in and out of her car to and from her wheelchair. While driving home she told me that I need to hurry up because she had to pee really bad. She asked me to say something that would keep her mind off of it. I thought it would be funny to start talking about a vacation that I have always wanted to do which is to visit the Niagara Falls. She seemed interested at first until I started talking about how it would be amazing to see all that water falling and falling into the pool below. I tried my best to imitate the sound of the water crashing. When she caught onto what I was doing, she started busting up and she peed her pants. We laughed so hard and I gladly cleaned it up and changed her when we got home. It was well worth it. She had a great sense of humor about her disease. She knew she couldn't change what she was given so she made the best of it and often times made fun of herself.

I want to thank so many people who so selflessly came to her house and fed her lunch and did physical stretches with her body which was a part of her physical therapy regimen. Thank you to everyone who befriended her. She loved her friends so deeply. Thank you to all that have prayed for her and our family over the past many many years. Thank you to anyone who touched her life and loved her. And finally a big gigantic THANK YOU to RIK. You volunteered your life to help hers. You married her 16 years ago knowing that this day would come from the very beginning and knowing all the sacrifices you would have to make for her. You are her Shrek. She loved you so much and you earned her's and our love forever.

I love you Mom, and I will live my life the best I can so I can be with you again someday.

Get Ready For The Next Post

2011-01-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

Tin Mine Canyon

2010-12-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

So I got a new Camera! It can be seen here on my lap on my friends Rebekah & Sarah's blog while I am posing in a picture with Donnie! I love Donnie and it was good to see him again.

But this post isn't about that party or about Donnie or about my new camera; however I think I will have new things to blog about because of my new camera, new things to blog about such like the post you are about to read. The post which you are about to read is about a little place called Tin Mine Canyon.

I got off work a little early last Thursday so my wife Jennifer, my dog Samantha and myself decided to go on a little hike. It has been raining like crazy here in Southern California and we wanted to see the damage done to one of our favorite hiking spots in Corona.

Tin Mine Canyon is about two miles away from our home and it shoots off of Skyline Road in Corona. I love finding unexpected places close to home and this trail is just that. Why is it called Tin Mine Canyon you ask? Well they used to mine tin there a long time ago genius.

The recent rain thrashed the trail, but it also brought on some welcomed sites. Here is your photographic tour.
We now have a river

Here are my girls

Family picture. Sam doesn't really get the whole camera timer concept

Did I mention I also got a tripod?

Jen took this picture of the moss on rocks which we both thought was pretty

My beautiful wife

I thought this was amazing. The river tore the trail apart. This little chunk of trail survived the river though I have no idea how this was possible.

The old trail

Ahead you can see the trail and how the river cut it away.

This bank is literally 5 feet high. It's crazy to think this storm could plow away 5 feet of earth so easily.

Well I think that it is safe to say that I am back considering I have four new post in just a couple weeks! Bravo to me.

I'M ALIVE!!!

2010-12-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it was just a bad case of eczema. I'll be fine.

My Last Post

2010-12-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

I'm dying.

Today I am going to the Dr. to find out what I have. It doesn't look good. My brother Jeff tells me that I have Necrotizing Fasciitis. I hope that the good Doctor has a diagnosis and a cure for me. Here is a little preview of my agonizing and spreading condition.

If I were you, I wouldn't hold my hand this Christmas.

My Wife Is So Hot

2010-12-13T09:24:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted and I have been thinking about picking it up again. I thought that this would be an appropriate start to my reposting.

I married the most amazing woman. She is not only so incredibly beautiful but she is the kindest and most fantastic person I know. I love her so much more today than I did the day I married her. This picture is of her just after we went to my Company Christmas party.

So Busy

2010-05-26T16:49:00.001-07:00

So this is the reason why I have been too busy to blog lately.
Jennifer and I have finally made the plunge and bought a house in Corona. We are currently in escrow so if all goes well we should be moving sometime mid June.

Let me tell you, there are some major headaches involved in purchasing a home. We are about half way through it all right now and I can't wait for it to be over. We are so excited but we are not looking forward to the drive that we both will have to endure for the next several years of our lives. One day we will make it back to Orange County where we belong. As for now though, cross your fingers that all will go well with the escrow for us.

Las Vegas 2010

2010-05-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend one of my favorite cousins (sorry to all other cousins currently reading) was married in Las Vegas. Jennifer and I decided to make our way up there on Saturday morning and then spend the whole weekend in Vegas. These are the highlights.

We decided to celebrate Jennifer's birthday a week late while we were in Vegas because things are more fun there. We had a gift certificate to Morton's and we decided to see a show on Saturday night. On our drive up there, Jennifer called Morton's to make our reservation for dinner. For some unexplained reason when they asked Jennifer if we were celebrating anything special the first thing out of her mouth was Anniversary. She figured that her birthday already passed and our anniversary was next. So naturally we celebrated our 4 year anniversary last weekend.

After that we saw the Cirque Du Soleil show called KA at the MGM Grand. That show was amazing. Enough said.

The next day we traveled around Vegas. Here is some proof of that.

On Sunday night we went to my cousin's wedding. The lighting wasn't great so here are the best pictures of the wedding.

Here we are with my cousin Natallie.
It's not very American to not love the YMCA.

The Honorable Hank Johnson

2010-04-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

So this is for you Bek.

I have been really busy lately and much to the Tayebi Sisters dismay I have been unable to blog. I won't entirely blame my bloggless behavior on being busy; I have also been experiencing a spell of creative writers block lately. I think this is partly due to the fact that I have been so upset lately with how our amazing country has taken such drastic turns for the worse in recent weeks. The thoughtless nature in which our countries leaders blindly follow their elected messiah is just absolutely disgusting to me. It was so irresponsible what took place and I feel like we have dug ourselves into a hole we will never get out of. Oh, I digress. This post is after all for my dear friend Rebekah and her sister Sarah. I know they probably hate me for this paragraph.

So this is the reason why I blog today. My brother Chris sent me a video of a man in the US House of Representatives who represents a district in Georgia. Last week he was questioning Admiral Robert Willard who is the current Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command about the military using Guam as some kind of Pacific post. Please enjoy.

Yes my friends, these are the kind of people we have leading our great country!

Dove

2010-02-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so here is a confession. I love chocolate. I feel like a woman sometimes with my obsession over chocolate. I struggle to avoid it but I think that I am making some major progress with limiting my chocolate consumption.

My favorite chocolate is Dove. It is so so good. They even have these cheesy phrases that are written on the inside of each wrapper that they call a Promise Message. So today I had a weak moment and I ate a dove chocolate. As disappointed in myself as I was for eating the chocolate, I was even more disappointed in the Dove Promise Message. It said, "Think of every day as a Sunday". That would be awful! Listen, I love Sundays. I go to church every Sunday and I love being there. Also on Sunday's I don't shop, go to the movies, eat out at a restaurant or do anything that require someone else to have to work. If I treated every day like a Sunday, Sunday would no longer be special. I also couldn't ever do anything. Today, I am mad at Dove.

I Had a Dream...

2010-02-07T06:24:00.001-08:00

The other night I had a dream. It was actually a really great dream and it did make me very happy. Well this is what happened. Jennifer and I had a baby! Now let me clarify something here. Contrary to popular belief, Jennifer and I do want to have children. We are excited about becoming parents. We have this crazy idea that people should plan these things out and having a child right now is just not in our plans. Would we be unhappy if Jennifer got pregnant? Not at all, in fact we would be so excited. We just want to wait a little bit longer.

Now back to the dream. Well Jennifer wasn’t around when the nurse asked me for our baby girl’s name. We were just about to leave the hospital and we had not named our daughter yet. I was taken a little off guard when she asked so I gave them the first name that came to my mind. Well I had a little bit of explaining to do as I told Jennifer that I named our daughter Recluse. I have no idea why I named her that but we learned a valuable lesson that day. Have a name ready.

Vintage

2010-01-14T10:54:00.000-08:00

So my sister just emailed me some old pictures from many years ago. We both love these pictures and I thought I would share them with the World Wide Web and you.

This is one of two of my siblings Jeff and Kelly and also myself. We are probably getting ready to go to church or something.

This one is of Kelly and me at Joshua Tree. We went there with my Dad years ago because he wanted to see if this would be a good spot to take the scouts for a camp out. We love this place.

10 Years Ago Today

2009-12-29T09:21:00.000-08:00

So I just saw the date and realized that today celebrates the anniversary of two things. First of all in 2006 the marriage of my sister and brother-in-law Kelly & Nate happened. Congratulations kids, I never would have guessed you two would have made it. The second thing was in 1999 I entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. Even though I officially became a missionary on December 26, 1999, it was the 29th when it all really began. That was a great time of my life when I grew and in my opinion became a man.

That's not what I want to talk about though. When I think of my time in the MTC, I think about Y2K. It was only two days away and everyone was freaking out about whether or not their bank accounts would be safe. If I remember correctly, everyone thought that the computer programs at the bank were not capable to go past a 1999 date so they would just all begin to malfunction. People were pulling their stocks, savings, and a many other assets out so they would not lose everything. Other people thought it was the end of the world, Jesus was going to come and so on.

While all this was going on I was tucked away safely in the MTC. Now this is the part that people have a hard time believing. The MTC was an awesome place to celebrate the new millennium. They threw us a huge party and it was catered by everyone. Pizza Hut, Subway and many other fast food places were all there to feed us. Missionaries from all over the world were congregated in this little melting pot and were celebrating the new year the way they would in their native country. Pacific Islanders were doing cultural dances in the hall way, African, Asian, European, South American Missionaries all there doing their thing. It was awesome and I couldn't think of a better way or place to be to bring in the new millennium.

After it was all said and done, there was no need for panic. Nobody lost money or stocks. It was funny though to think that everyone was panicking over something so simple as a new year. So now I ask, where were you during the change of the millennium? Was it extraordinary or was it totally disappointing?

So I was Wondering...

2009-12-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

...Did this happen to you this year?

New Background

2009-12-21T08:57:00.001-08:00

So I have been seeing all these "cute" backgrounds on everyone's blog and I thought that wanted to get in with it. So I searched the backgrounds available and they were so girly. This is the manliest background I could find. Hope you enjoy.

Kauai 2009

2009-11-10T16:21:00.000-08:00

I know that it has been some time since we have been back home so I apologize for not getting this post up here sooner. I actually have had much of it written for about a month and a half. I guess we were just busy, you know how it goes. So I guess it is now my job to finish what I started. A lot has happened since my last post so let me start with Kauai. So in short, Kauai was awesome. But in long, this is how it all went down.

We left on Sunday the 25th of October. Our friends JD and Katie Price were kind enough to drive us to LAX. What champs they are for picking us up at 5:15 A.M. to get us there for our early flight and for picking us up a week later. They truly earned their Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts.

Early in the morning at LAX. Sorry for the bad lighting.

Nothing real memorable happened on the flight to our destination except for a crazy bird lady in the Oahu airport during our layover. We watched her for about 10 minutes gnaw with her two front teeth some macadamia nuts and put them in her hand and all around her were these pigeon looking birds that would surround her and eat her nuts. Now those pigeons were not like our pigeons here in California. They looked nice and healthy and were a bit smaller but I am quite certain that those were some dirty birds. They would swarm around her and land on her hand and eat directly from her palm. She had these fragments of nuts all over her face as she would grab more nuts (with the hand the birds were landing on) and shove them in her mouth so she could chew them into smaller pieces. This woman was nuts.

We got to Kauai and got our car rental and finally made it to our hotel in Princeville, Kauai. We stayed at the Bali Hai Villa's which was actually quite nice. We did notice one thing that night though. It became apparent that we were two of the youngest people in our resort, by far. I think it may have been senior week or something.

Monday we decided to do a hike to a place called Hanakâpî'ai Beach. This was a great hike that was about 2 miles to the beach and 2 miles back. I had been there before about 13 years ago and actually witnessed a person die and helped save the lives of two others. One guy probably would have survived without our help but the other was a goner without us. This is all for another post though so let me get back to the current vacation. The beach was beautiful and the trail smelled like fruit the whole way. It really reminded me of Jamaica.

This was our view for probably 75% of the hike.

Here is a picture of the beach we were hiking to from the trail above.

Here is the sign welcoming you to the beach.

We had to cross this river which ran right into the ocean.

A cave on the beach.

The view on the beach

After our hike back we hung out at a beach at the trail head and just relaxed for a while. That water was so calm, clear, warm and salty.

Jennifer wanted to take a picture with the light in our faces. It hurt. By the way I promise we have swimsuits on. We call these photo's our Adam & Eve photos from the Garden because there is no evidence that we are clothed. Sorry, I promise we are.

That night we went to the Postcard Cafe for dinner and it was fantastic.

On Tuesday we decided to do a Kayak and Hiking tour. On our way to the Wailua River where the tour started we stopped off at a cool beach by Kapaa called Kealia Beach.

Our tour was to take us kayaking up the Wailua River two miles so we can get to this spot where we hiked for one mile to "Secret Falls". I forgot the Hawaiian name for the falls. We had a guided tour which was cool but I think next time we will just rent some kayaks now that we know how to get there.

Here are the "Secret Falls"

On Wednesday we went to the southern part of the island and launched off at Port Allen for a 1/2 day cruise around the Na'Pali Coast. I had a wonderful time. The view was amazing and the ride was fun. Something you have to understand is I love boats. I really feel like I was meant to sail or just be on a boat forever. I never get sick, I love being in the middle of the ocean, I love sea life and the creatures you see. I just really feel at home on a boat whether it is on a lake, river, or ocean. Jennifer on the other hand was miserable the whole time. She was the first to get sick and to make the captain stop the boat after only about a minute of our trip. Literally, about one minute. I still have a hard time believing that she was sick and I know she will be mad at me for saying that. I think she was just nervous about getting sick.

Anyways it was wonderful (in my opinion) and here are some pictures.

By the way as a side note for this boat trip. There are two decks fot the passengers to sit on. There was one point of this trip where I was sitting on the lower deck enjoying the scenory when all of a sudden I looked at Jennifer and she asked me to sit where she was (only 15-20 feet away) so I did. No more than one minute later someone from the top deck barfed over the edge all over where I was just sitting earlier! Thank you Jenny for calling me over.

After the boat ride we went to Waimea Canyon which is the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It was so weird to think that this place was a part of the Hawaiian Islands.

That night we visited our friends Megan, Todd, and their two kids Tanner and Garrett. I have known Megan for I don't even know how many years. Lets just say for most of our lives. They were kind enough to have us over for dinner. I have not seen Megan for many years and consequently had never met her husband or kids. They were really cool and a lot of fun to hang out with. Thanks again for dinner and for your hospitality. We hope to see you again there next year.

Thursday was very simple. We had some down time in the morning and then went to tour some of the Island.

This is the Spouting Horn

Everything was DaKine, including the coconuts

Our hike to Kipu Falls

Rope swing

And the Falls

After driving around we went to this place called the Hanalei Dolphin Center Restraunt which has the 2nd best rated sushi on the island. Holy cow that was some good sushi!!!

We decided to do a tour of the island by taking an hour plane ride on Friday. This was a really cool thing to do and we would recommend that to anyone who would go. It was much cheeper than the typical helecopter ride that everyone else does and apparently is more environmentally friendly. I got to sit in the cockpit which was awesome.

How many waterfalls do you see?

"The plane boss, the plane"

Later that evening we went to a Luau at the Smith Family Garden Luau. It was fun but Jennifer was really disappointed considering she was used to such excellence from working at the Polynesian Cultural Center when she lived in Oahu for a summer. You see we had some of the same complaints which may have had something to do with some of the performers. Well lets say that some of them had some rolls (the kind you don't eat). I was actually impressed that they were able to move the way they did considering.

My favorite fruit from Jamaica, The Soursop

My least favorite fruit from Jamaica, The Jack Fruit

A very interesting fruit that I liked from Jamaica, The Breadfruit

The Imu Ceremony

The rest of the Luau pictures didn't really turn out and really aren't worth looking at. Sorry.

Saturday we went bike riding in Kapaa. We always enjoy a good bike ride.

Aquafina, It's good and good for you!

After that we found the best beach on the Island. We don't know the name of this particular beach, but it was right next to Hanalei Bay which has been rated the best beach in the world. While at this beach we saw 5 Sea Turtles within our first 20 minutes of snorkling. It was an amazing little spot and we were a little sad we discovered it so late in the vacation.

And here is an awesome St. Andrews Spider we saw at a gas station on our way to the airport the day we left.

So that was our vacation. The only notable thing worth mentioning for the return flight was that Jennifer and I had about three toddlers/infants sitting all around us. For the entire 5 hours of flying at least one of those kids were whaling and crying. We never once had a break from the crying. When one stopped another would start. I have never come so close to Suicide.

Once again, Thank you to the Price Family for picking us up from LAX, this time 9:00 in the PM.

Bridge to Nowhere

2009-10-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

So Jennifer and I went on another hike on Saturday. It all started off on Friday night when Jennifer asked what we were doing the next day. I told her that I didn't care as long as I get to watch the Angel game. She suggested that we go on a hike and I instantly knew where we were going. By the way, I am not talking about the Angels right now. That is for another post entirely, of which I am in far too good of a moode right now to do at this time.

We meant to get out much earlier than we did but one thing lead to another and we finally left at around 11:30 which got us started on our hike at around 12:30. The Bridge to Nowhere is a hike that starts just north of Azusa off the 210 freeway. It is a 9 mile hike round trip and I thought it would be a lot of fun for me and Jen to try out. I actually did this hike twice as a boy scout. The first time was a success and the second time was...well, lets just say that we had to finish the hike off by being rescued by a helicopter.

The Bridge to Nowhere was built in 1936 and was part of a project that was supposed connect San Gabriel Valley to Wrightwood. In March of 1938 there was a huge flood that whipped out most of the road to the bridge. The project was abandoned and and now the only access to the bridge is by hiking trails. That is why it is such a unique piece of architecture. Right there in the middle of the wilderness there is this huge beautiful bridge with no roads that lead to it, just a hiking trail. I love this hike and might I say it is so cool to live in Southern California. We are so close to the city, beaches, mountains, biking trails, rock and roll, rivers and Mexico. I seriously love this place.

So here are some pictures of our hike. I wish I could post all of them but Jennifer absolutely forbids it. I don't get it, but here is what she will allow.

Jennifer thought that this last picture was inappropriate to put up and I convinced her that it is not any less appropriate of some pictures of me in a speedo that are circulating around out there. I just wanted to show you that the water was cold. So if you were offended by it I am sorry and I will send you a speedo picture shortly.

Staples

2009-10-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the staple company and the stapler company can't get together and make some kind of agreement about how many staples can fit in a standard stapler. I don't think I have ever owned a stapler that can fit the standard 210 staple strip? I always have to break a quarter of the staple strip off in order to make it fit into my stapler. I know I probably sound like George Banks with hot dog buns but I really don't care. This needs to be taken care of.

Kauai and World Series

2009-10-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I have quite a predicament. I foolishly planned a trip to Kauai for the wrong week. Let me explain.

I am really excited to go to Kauai in two weeks. A vacation like this doesn't come around every year for us and we really can't wait to go. On the other hand I am really excited that the Angels will possibly go on to the World Series.

I leave to Kauai Sunday October 25th and won’t be back until November 1st. Now if the Angels go to the World Series, they will have home field advantage. This means that the Angels will be playing at home on October 28th and 29th for games 1 & 2. They will be away for the 31st, Nov. 1st, and the 2nd. After that, if necessary, games 6 & 7 will be at home on the 4th and 5th of November. Now our company has season tickets to the playoffs which means that I have essentially only two shots at going to any game which are games 6 and 7. There is a possibility that that if one of the teams wins four games right away, I may not even get to see any of the games whatsoever because there is not a chance Jennifer will let me watch any game while on our vacation. Granted this only matters if the Angels beat the Yankee’s four times by the end of next week which I think will happen.

So bottom line is I am really stoked to go to Kauai for a week, but I wish I picked a different week.

Have You Seen This Girl?

2009-10-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

Have you seen Sarah? She has been missing since September 3, 2009 and we are all getting really worried. I don't know why but I think it might have something to do with a demonstration she participated in last June with her family.

Please, if you hear anything contact her family by their blog. Thank you.

I Think I'm In Love

2009-09-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

I recently went to my in-law's home for dinner and Jennifer's mother pulled out of the oven a loaf of rosemary bread. To be short, it was amazing. When I asked her for the recipe, she told me that she bought the dough from Fresh and Easy and all she had to do is stick it in the oven.

I had to get it so I went to Fresh and Easy this week. I gave it a try when they first opened and wasn't impressed but now I think I am in love with Fresh and Easy. Their whole wheat pizza dough was great and that rosemary bread, well there are very few words that can describe my feelings about that bread.

Video of the Day

2009-09-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry if you think I am terribly inappropriate, but this is the video of the day.

A Little Place I Like To Call Kauai

2009-09-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah, It may have taken Three Years and Four Months, but guess what! Jennifer and I are finally taking our Honeymoon! Ever heard of a little place called Kauai?

Heather Ann Luedtke Chapman 5/22/1977 - 8/31/2009

2009-09-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at 4:29 PM our sister-in-law Heather lost her battle with Cancer. It was a really bittersweet experience for all of us. For the past two weeks she has been on hospice care and has has been in really bad shape. Jennifer and I missed being there by five minutes but Heather was surrounded by many loved ones. I was initially upset that we missed out on being there but then I remembered that Jennifer and I were able to be there Sunday night Friday night and many other nights in the past month.

As I said before this was a really bittersweet experience. Heather was loved by so many people because of her contagious smile and her shy and loving personality. It was hard to be mad at her or to be mad around her. She always lifted people up. Last night her Father was telling me that Heather never complained. The nurses at the Chemo facility loved her because she was always smiling and happy. They don't see that a lot. She was an amazing woman in that way. It is hard to let a person like her go. On the other hand it was even more difficult to see her in so much pain. Seeing her yesterday at peace after her passing was so comforting to us all. We know she is no longer in pain and it is also nice to know that she is no longer struggling to stay alive. For the first time in almost three years she is comfortable and her worries of her sick and ailing body are over. We are all so happy she can finally rest.

I later asked Jennifer if she thought there was anything else we could have done to keep her alive? Could we have beaten this cancer? Was there another treatment? Did we exhaust all avenues of treatment and therapy? Jennifer and I both feel there was nothing else that could have been done. This made me so proud of Heather. She was a fighter and she wasn't going to just roll over and let this cancer take her without hoping for her cure. She did everything in her power to become a cancer survivor.

God received a very special person yesterday. I know Heather is still alive. I know her spirit has gone home and she is being greeted by her family that has passed before her and also our Father in Heaven who created her. Heather was one of the more righteous of all of God's children on this planet. She was Christlike. I know God has a very special place for her in Heaven. I believe sometimes God takes the best of his children because there is a lot of important work to be done in Heaven. Heather will be a great soldier for Him as one His Angels.

I love my sister. I felt weird calling her my sister-in-law earlier in this post. Heather has become my sister and I will miss her greatly. I can't wait to see her again.

Funeral services will be held this Saturday September 5, 2009 at 10:00 AM at the Fairmont Building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Church address is:

441 S. Fairmont Blvd.
Anaheim CA 92808

Put Your Hands Together and Welcome...

2009-08-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

...Our first pets!!!!! I can't describe my excitement about mine and Jennifer's new pets. Unfortunately 11 have died so far but I think these guys are here to stay for a while.

Back When I Was A Kid...

2009-08-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

So I was reading my friends Kenny & Jill's blog the other day and I read about a post that made me think. Her post was about the good old days and what stories we will tell over and over again to our kids and grandkids that will make them think we are really old. So with Jill's permission I am posting my responce to her idea.

I remember the good old days when I used to have to type reports to turn in for homework. Because my Dad felt that only secretaries would have to use computers, our family never had one. This is when I would have to grab a case that felt like it was 150 lbs., put it on the table, open it up, and plug in the typewriter. I used to hate messing up and then breaking out the liquid whiteout to fix my mistake. You see liquid whiteout is not like whiteout today, you have to wait for it to dry rather than just rolling the whiteout onto your mistakes like how these kids do it today. Eventually we bought an electric typewriter that had an erasing strip. That was like a dream come true. I used to write things out on our typewriter and watch carefully as I pressed the erase button and one by one the letters would disappear. It was a wonderful marvel of technology.

Eventually my parents got a divorce and my mother saw the wisdom of having a computer at the house. The typewriter didn’t get much action after that until my brothers and I all served as missionaries and filled our missionary applications out. We used the typewriter to avoid our really bad penmanship.

You see before we had this amazing machine I would have to write letters and mail them off through the USPS so my friends would be informed about what was going on with my life. There was a very pretty girl I met while she was vacationing here in California from Tennessee. We wrote back and forth for about two to three years, all handwritten, all mailed through the USPS. Eventually we lost touch.

Now that we had this computer I was able to unplug our phone, and plug in another phone line that was attached to our computer. After that was done I could log onto our AOL account and send letters through the World Wide Web!!! Whenever I would log onto our AOL account it would take about a minute before we were actually “online”. All the while our computer would make this hideous sound like it was sending a fax or something. Now-a-days these kids just have to press one button and they are online instantaneously! Oh, that reminds me. You kids probably don’t even know what a fax is now do you?

Ah Man, I remember the good ole’ days.

What stories will you tell your kids and grandkids about your ancient past?

ZoHawk

2009-08-06T13:39:00.001-07:00

So this...

Equals this...

and also this...

I don't care what you say, my niece is cooler than yours!

P.S. I sure hope that the anonymous reader sees this post!!!

Jennie Lake Wilderness

2009-07-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

A few months back, Jennifer and I were discussing a Summer vacation that we would take this year. We were discussing Italy, Costa Rica, or even Hawaii. All of our choices would have been amazing, yet expensive. This is when Jennifer said the words that I thought I would never hear come from her mouth. She said, "Mike! What if we spend our money buying camping gear instead of going to Italy"! Maybe that wasn't her exact words but that was the gist of it and what she was saying is that we should spend money on something that we can reuse again. I couldn't be happier. Months later we had everything and our weekend getaway was just last week.

We decided to go on a three day two night hike to Jennie Lakes which is in the Sequoia Nation Forrest. Think of Fresno and Lone Pine. We were somewhere in between. I took off work on Friday so we could hike on Friday through Sunday. We left early and got to the trail head sometime around 2:00 in the afternoon. As a side note, we took the most ridiculous way to get there. Our drive was probably an hour longer than it should have been. If you need to know how to get there let me know and I can point you in the right direction now.

Let me have Jennifer take over for a minute because I know she loves telling how this trip went.

Ok first of all my back pack was only supposed to be no more than 18 lbs. and it ended up being over 28 lbs.!!! Our first day of hiking was only 3.2 miles but was all uphill. It was really hard but I think it was because I was still adjusting to the altitude. We crossed all these beautiful creeks and the Forest and meadows were incredible. One of the highlights of this day was when we crossed this creek and saw 15-20 butterflies flying around this one spot.

Here is a picture of my hot husband figuring out where to go and how much longer we have to hike for this day. He always knew where we were on the map even though he didn't always explain it well to me.

I'm throwing in a few random pictures of that day of the trail, scenery, and us.

Finally we made it to our first destination, Weaver Lake! It was so beautiful and was like a crossing the finish line of a long race.

We immediately met some really nice people who told us of a camp site across the lake that was really "easy to get to". They pointed us in the direction to go and we were on our way. I think it is important to remind you that I was wearing a 28 lbs. pack and Mike was wearing 48 lbs.! After jumping over these huge boulders and trekking through marshlands, we made it to the campsite! It was beautiful. Ok, Mike's turn to write.

We set up camp, got firewood, and got dinner ready. Can I just say now that lighting a fire "Bear Grylls Style" is not easy. I tried that flint for probably a half hour before Jenny finally made me use the matches. Here are some pictures of Weaver Lake.

It was really cool having our tent only about 50 feet from the lake.

Our tent faced west so we got an amazing view of the sunset. I am in the lower left corner pumping the lake water through our water filter. You probably won't believe this but this is the tastiest water you would ever have if you get the chance. Screw Arrowhead!!! The next morning...

We had to hang our food so the bears couldn't get to it. We found out later that this was ineffective. Ohh well.

Jenny and I packed up and left that morning for an 8.7 mile hike to Jennie Lake. Here is Jenny flexing in a Lilly grove.This hike was pure punishment. I think we gained over 2,000 feet in this one day. We hiked down this huge valley and back up this huge mountain, crossed four creeks, drank all of our water (I was able to pump more at the creeks), and fought very painful feet. I was so impressed by Jenny. I couldn't believe how hard she was working. Don't get me wrong here, she definitely complained a few times but I thought it would have been much worse. We were both really drained. Here are a few pics of that hike.

Finally we made it to Jennie Lake. We set up camp again, had a fire again, had dinner again, and slept again. The next day we did some fishing and exploring before we took off to the car.

This picture is from where our tent was that night.

Unfortunately we had to leave. This day of hiking was about 7 miles and was probably one of our easiest days of hiking except our bodies were starting to feel the pain. Here is how we finished our hike.

This was a great site. Through the trees we finally saw my car which I don't think ever looked so amazing.Sequoia are some of the oldest and largest living things on planet earth. This one behind me was actually quite small considering some of the larger ones we saw driving out of the park. This one behind me is over two thousand years old.All in all we are definitely going on another hike soon. We will do it a little differently next time though. For instants we plan on going to one campsite so we can explore more and hike less. We are also going to pack fewer things. In the end Jennifer got 4 blisters and some sore feet. She feels it was well worth it though. Also as a side note, I really like my hat so suck it.

The End...

Stay Tuned

2009-07-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a little teaser of our weekend.

Jennifer,

2009-07-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary my little lady!

TWENTY...

2009-06-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

...represents how many pounds I have lost since February. Thank you Jenny.

RIP In Dodger's Outfield

2009-06-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

So as for some of Grandma Kings final wishes here is one that I think you might like to hear about. My Grandma was a big time Major League Baseball fan and wished for her ashes to be spread on as many MLB fields as possible. The Dodgers was the first.

I called up my brother Rhett and he of course agreed to come with me to be a part of that memorable night. He actually agreed to do the honors of laying her to rest there. Our friends Doug and Erin also agreed to be there as well.

The Game was on Tuesday night against the Oakland A's and here are some of the pictures.

Me, Rhett and Grandma King (Rhett is holding Grandma)
Me, Rhett, Doug, Erin and Grandma
Grandma enjoying the game...

Rhett & Grandma...
And, me and Grandma...
Now getting Grandma on the field was more difficult than it seems. All of the ailes that went up to the field were being watched by the ushers during the innings and the same ushers would all walk down to the bottom of the ailes in between innings. Our only opportunity was to wait for the inning to start and watch the ushers walk back to their post. At that time Rhett would have to run down to the field and throw Grandma out there. This is how it went down.

...and here is one more from a different vantage point.

Thanks to Doug and Erin for being a part of that special night and many thanks to our brave soldier Rhett for his hard work getting Grandma out there.

A Trip to Remember Grandma King

2009-06-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well a bit of sad news hit our family last week. My grandma King passed away. It was one of those expected things since she has been struggling with cancer for a while now. She was an amazing woman and was incredibly kind. Even to the very end she was always concerned for others before she was concerned for herself. I love her very much and am glad that she is finally with her sweet husband after 14 months of separation. Theirs was a marriage to pattern after. My grandmother wouldn't want my wife and I to have this melancholy weekend in her behalf so we decided to have a little fun as we traveled to Northern California for her funeral/memorial. Here is a full account of our trip.

Jennifer and I were supposed to leave on Friday morning at around 5:30 am so we could make it to our first destination for breakfast. We ended up leaving around 7:30 and had a brunch instead. After about 4 hours of driving we finally made it to Solvang,CA. This place was awesome. I wish we took more pictures of it though. Solvang is a Danish community north of Santa Barbra. As we were driving in we could see a ton of farms, an ostrich ranch, and tons of old Danish style buildings. I have been hearing about Solvang for years now and I was so excited to finally go. Jennifer and I ate at the Danish restaurant called Solvang Restaurant.
For the first time in my life I tried an Aebleskiver which is if you can imagine some kind of spherical pancake about the size of a tennis ball and doused with raspberry jam.
It was so good.

We also learned about Danish Days which is in the third weekend of September. This is a huge festival in Solvang where people make tons of Danish food and pass out free Aebleskivers on the streets. Jennifer and I want to go back this September. By the way thanks to Joey for suggesting the Aebleskiver.

After Solvang Jennifer and I drove to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle. This place was amazing. I was totally thunderstruck by every ornate detail at this place and I certainly gained a new found respect for W.R. Hearst and his family. I always focused on the negative things about this man, which are many, but failed to realize the great things he did for people and for the preservation of Art and history. He loved animals and had the worlds largest privately owned zoo. He also treated his employees who worked at the Castle well. By the way, Hearst never called it Hearst Castle. I was so upset that I forgot my camera and I apologize for no pictures of this place. I'll go back though because it is huge and I didn't come close to seeing the whole thing.

Next Jen and I traveled a little north and met these guys. These my friends are elephant seals He got mad I took his picture
It was so funny watching these guys fight. They could only fight for probably 10 to maybe 15 seconds if they had a lot of energy. Then they would rest for a few minutes and start up again.
At this stop there were a bunch of Squirrels that were so trusting of humans. I took this picture only about 6 inches from his face.

Nothing would prepare us for the next 70 or so miles of PCH. This was the most tranquil and beautiful drive my wife and I have ever taken. We have seen this drive in movies and commercials, but being there in person was a totally amazing experience. Here are some pics.

We highly recommend taking this ride. It is much longer but well worth the drive to see all of this amazing coast line.

Now this is where things got interesting. Jennifer and I decided to stay in San Francisco for our first night up north. Rebekah didn't want to hang because she was already hanging out with Sarah. So Jennifer and I went straight to our hotel. We looked on Travel Zoo for some cheep hotels and found a hotel in Japantown which was really well priced. It was called Hotel Tomo.
Hotel Tomo is an Anime themed hotel smack dab in the middle of Japantown. Jennifer and I really are not fans of Anime but we thought it would be funny to stay here for one night.

Here are some pictures of the lobby.

...And this is our room. The room had this Anime wallpaper and some creepy framed eyes that would stair at you.

Here is our bed
Jennifer and I really liked the deer.

...and we even got a bean bag!
All in all, Hotel Tomo was a lot of fun but I will probably never stay there again. It's a once in a life time thing you should experience though.

The Next day we went to Livermore where the funeral was going on. It was just held at my cousins house and only family and a couple of friends attended. Grandma King was cremated so after we reminisced, we went to the cemetery where my Grandfather was buried over one year ago to spread some of her ashes over his grave. I thought that was kind of strange and was praying the wind would not pick up but it ended up being much cooler than I thought it would be. Here is a picture of Grandpa King's grave.
The sandy specs on his headstone are some of the ashes of Grandma King.
Here are the pictures of that day. This first one is everyone who was there minus me.
Rhett & RIK
Momma
Grandma & Grandpa's surviving children
Me & Jen
It was a really wonderful day and we finished it off with games and Chinese.

The next day Jen and I went home. We stopped off in Gilroy, CA at a fruit stand and bought some fresh cherries and strawberries. These were some of the most amazing strawberries and cherries I have ever tasted. As a side note those days of chips and jerky on road trips are long gone.
A few hours later Jen said that she really wanted to go to a Mission on the way home. About ten minutes later we found this.

The San Miguel Arcangel Mission had to of been the least taken care of mission of the 21 California Missions. It was interesting and I learned some cool things but I think that Jen and I will be stoping by a better one soon.

Well that was our trip. We are going to miss Grandma King very much but we are glad she is with her husband again. Hopefully next time we go to Northern California it is for a happier occasion. All in all though we had a stellar time in Nor. Cal.

Zack Morris is Alive

2009-06-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

I think I should apologize about my absence lately. Sorry. I have a great post coming up about my weekend. Until then please enjoy this clip from the Jimmy Fallon Show. Most of you will enjoy this 9 minute clip.

Jeffrey=Mother Bird

2009-04-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

So here is a new story that you will either find really sad or really great. I guess it just depends on what kind of person you are.

At Allied Steel we have many trailers that we either own or rent to ship all of our material to our job sites. (See Picture)

At one particular job site, we have had three trailers that have been sitting there since January with our material on it. We try not having trailers sitting at a job site for too long but in this case we were forced to have these trailers in Winchester, California. Just yesterday we finally were able to use this material and send two of these trailers back to our shop in Los Angeles.

My brother Jeff was walking by these trailers at our shop in Los Angeles and heard a noise coming form them. He started to look around where this noise was coming from and realized that the noise he was hearing were four baby birds that were all in a nest that was tucked away in a discrete area on this trailer. Some how these birds were able to miraculously stay in there nest the entire 95 mile drive. Now at our shop in Los Angeles we have a ton of ferrel cats that roam around and Jeff knew that these birds would be killed the first night and there was no way we could drive this trailer back to the job site and just hope that the birds mother would find them so Jeff decided to take them home.

Now here is where it is sad. Somewhere in Winchester, CA there is a poor mother bird who is searching for her nest and four kids. I actually feel really bad about that. Another sad thing is that we are now trying to do what we can to make sure that these birds survive until they can fly away. The best chance these birds have at survival is their real mother. Jeff and his family will do their best to nurture these chicks.

On the other hand this is a great story because my brother Jeff has now become this kind of savior to animals. He is always trying to help stray and defenseless animals.

Today my sister-in-law brought the birds to work and this video is of me feeding my brother's babies.

Remember That...

2009-04-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

For Kelly and Rebekah, Sorry I was Busy

2009-04-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

I just want to let everyone know that I really miss my beard

Connor Chapman

2009-04-06T08:26:00.001-07:00

So all I have to say about this post is that my nephew is hard core!

You should have seen the other guy.

April Fools

2009-04-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Well it was kind of out of obligation and for that I am sorry. I am not sure how many people actually fell for yesterdays post and how many people were just humoring me by saying "Congratulations". Well, my wife and I did not buy a house. It was a lie and quite frankly, not my best. I will try to do better next year.

WE DID IT!!!

2009-04-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

Well after over two years of living in Anaheim and saving up money, Jennifer and I were finally able to make an offer on a home!!! We made the offer three weeks ago and we found out yesterday that it was accpted. I guess it takes longer for bank owned properties to accept an offer so it was a really long three weeks.

Anyways we are going to miss Anaheim, but we won't be very far. This is in Orange so we are still really close to family and friends. All we have to do now is wait for escrow. Wish us luck.

Mountain Biking

2009-03-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

So many of you may know that I have taken up a new hobby. I bought myself a Mountain Bike last January and it is Uhh-MAY-ZING!!!!!!!! I have so many great stories like how I already cracked my first helmet, crashing over the handlebars, riding down insane rocky hills in the dark, and so on. Well I love it and you may find a few blog post in the future about my Biking.

Last Saturday I went biking with a few of my friends. It was a fun ride and is the ride I cracked my helmet on. I couldn't get this picture totally centered because I had to do a timer and set the camera on a steel post. In this picture we have Rhett, myself, Skyler and Elise.

The boys...

And this is who I have to thank for getting me into Mountain Biking. And yes I know that I capitalized Mountain Biking. I actually considered capitalizing the whole two words to show you my true feelings for MOUNTAIN BIKING but I thought that may be a bit much. Thank you Skyler and Elise.

Riley's Baptism

2009-03-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

On March 7th my nephew Riley was baptised! This is the first baptism of all of my nephew's and nieces so it was pretty exciting for me. So congratulations Riley. Jenny and I are very proud of you.

Riley and the Uncles

All the boys

All the girls (and Riley of coarse)

And everybody

And this is for some reason how we celebrate the most significant and holy day of Riley's life.

And this is what Aaron thinks about the baptism.

Dancing is good for the soul

2009-03-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

This is why the Chapman's are so good at dancing. We start off at a really young age to train and master our art. Here is a good example of my brother Jeff training his Daughters Ryann and Zoey how to dance properly. Turn your volume way up to hear the music.

First we have The Arm Wave...

... and now the Interpretive Dance

...and finally Mr. Roboto

New Haircut

2009-03-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

Never mind her red eyes but doesn't my niece look awesome with her new haircut? She wanted this haircut so bad and she really loves it.

Before...

...and after

She reminds me so much of Natalie Portman now.

HAPPY SQUARE ROOT DAY!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-03T07:08:00.001-08:00

It doesn't happen very often so I thought that I should mention that today is Square Root Day. The last Square Rood Day was February 2, 2004 and the next one will be April 4, 2016, after that May 5, 2025 and so on. Square Root Day only happens nine times a century. This is so exciting!!!!

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

2009-03-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

So I really love music and I really love Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So this is what happens when you take an overly dramatic awesome piece of music and play some clips of Ferris Bueller to it. I would like to thank my Brother Chris for sending this to me.

Mistaken Identity

2009-02-23T16:14:00.000-08:00

So last Friday my wife and I went on a double date with our friends JD and Katie. We went to Corner Bakery at the Block and afterwards we went to see He's Just Not That Into You.

While we were at the Corner Bakery I saw a friend of mine walk in that I haven't seen since high school. I told my friends and my wife that when we leave I wanted to say hello to her. After we finished our dinner and we were walking out I walked straight to her table and said, "Ashley"! When I noticed that she didn't recognize me right away I said, "Do you remember me? I'm Mike Chapman from your high school"? I was so embarrassed as she said, "No I'm sorry, I don't remember you". I was a little taken back and thought to myself that there is no way on this world Ashley does not know who I am or has forgotten about me. I then said to her, "Yeah, we went to Esperanza together". At this point Ashley finally said, "My name is Valerie and I didn't go to Esperanza".

I felt like a total fool and wondered to myself why she didn't say right away that she was not Ashley. Regardless this gave us all something to laugh about. Hopefully I will see the real Ashley sometime in the future.

On a Lighter Note

2009-02-12T10:29:00.000-08:00

Am I wrong in thinking that Joaquin Phoenix has lost it? If you have 11 minutes you can watch this whole thing but I can tell you that it doesn't take long to get the gist of what is going on here. As an actor I really like Joaquin but in real life...Man! Koo Koo...Koo Koo!!!

Quick Update

2009-02-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

I found out Monday night that the results of Heather's MRI she had over the weekend showed not just 4 tumors in her brain but 10. Apparently there are 4 large ones and 6 small ones. One of the large tumors is situated either on or up against her brain stem which is causing her nausea and vomiting.

As you can imagine this is heartbreaking news for us all but regardless, Heather and Scott want to fight this. This Friday two of the top neurosurgeons in the world will be operating on Heather and removing the one tumor situated on her brain stem. Radiation should take care of the 6 small tumors. I really don't know what will happen with the remaining 3. Scott and Heather do not want to give up and I am supporting them 100%.

This Friday many of us will be fasting and praying for them and for the success of the surgery. I understand if you cannot do so or if this is not a part of your faith, but if you are able to take part in some way by praying, fasting, thinking about them, or what ever, I know we all would appreciate it. I know a lot of people are asking what they can do to help in this almost helpless situation, and this is the first thing that I could think of where people actually can do something.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped out in any way possible. All of your prayers are felt and appreciated.

Heather Chapman

2009-02-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

Well many people ask how my Sister in law Heather is doing. Well we had a real shocking update on her this weekend.

Many of you know that my brother's wife Heather has been battling with Breast Cancer for the past two and a half years. My brother Scott never really lead us on to believe that Heathers cancer has been progressing so when Friday rolled around and I got a phone call form Scott telling me that Heather had a huge seizure, I was a little unprepared.

Here is Heather's story. After she had her second child, Aaron, she noticed something wrong as she was nursing her new baby. After some testing she was officially diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2006.

After much fighting and a double mastectomy she was finally declared as a "Cancer Survivor". Several months later, she was in for a check up and they found that her cancer was back.

Last November we found out that her tumors were getting larger and they were spreading as well. At that time we found out that her cancer was in her lungs, liver, blood, and bones. We were totally devastated but after a change in oncologist and cancer treatment we felt a little optimistic. Her new oncologist felt that even though she could never be cured from her cancer, it could be managed with an oral chemo.

This last two weeks Heather has been feeling sick and has lost 20 lbs. Scott felt like this was just a bad flu, but as we learned on Friday it was much worse. At 8:45 I got a phone call from Scott telling me that at 8:15 Heather had a major seizure. She was taken away by the ambulance to the hospital and he was driving there at the time he called me. He wanted me to call everyone in our family to tell them the news. Later that afternoon, my Dad and I picked up Jennifer and we went to the hospital to visit her. She was so frail and weak. It reminded me so much of my Grandmother when I visited her the day before she died. Scott told us everything that was going on at that point. Her seizure was caused by four tumors which have formed in her brain. She was having so much pressure in her brain that the neurosurgeon was surprised that she was not in a coma. At this point I felt that she wasn't going to make it more than two weeks.

Later that day Scott spoke to the oncologist who told him that with all the treatment they can offer, he would be very surprised if she makes it to Christmas. We all feel like it is going to be much sooner than that. After this weekend we see that she is on a roller coaster with her health. She will look and feel fine one day and then she will be throwing up and miserable the next. She is supposed to have some intense radiation for the next 10-15 days that will shrink her brain tumors which will relieve the pressure on her brain. This should prevent her from slipping into a coma. Regardless though, my brother will be without a wife very soon, and my niece and nephew will be without a mother.

Today she is supposed to find out that she has less than a year to live with treatment. I don't know how she will take this news, but my heart just breaks thinking about it. I love this woman so much. She has been such a great mother and wife to her family. She has been such a positive and wonderful sister to me. She has truly made this world a greater place for me.

Please pray for her and our family as this has been the most difficult thing many of us have ever had to go through. We have all been absolutely devastated. If you know her or Scott and would like to send a card, just let me know and I can give you my address. I go there pretty much everyday and can give them any cards you may want to send. Heather's sister Cherise also blogs about them and you can probably find better updates on her site. Here are some pictures of Heather, Scott, Hannah, and Aaron.

I did steal these pictures from Michelle so I hope you don't mind. Thanks for taking these wonderful family pictures of them.

Shower Habit Turns Amusing

2009-02-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

I like that title. Well let me tell you about something that Jennifer and I do differently in the shower. I realize that many people shower differently so I'm not writing this to criticize my wife or anything.

You see when I am reaching the end of my soap I will get a new bar and kinda fuse the old bar to the new one so I don't have any waste. My wonderful wife on the other hand does not do this. She will use about one half to 3/4 of a bar and then move on to the new one. She will never fuse! So me, not wanting to be wasteful, will fuse her bars for her.

About a month ago I bought her some new soap from Costco which was a little bit different than her old soap. The old soap was some exfoliating yellow Dove bar and the new one is a white Dove bar so when I fused the two bars together this is what came up. So for the next week Jennifer was washing herself with an egg which we both thought was funny. End of story.

Utah

2009-02-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

There are a few things that I love about Utah and I must say that this is one of them.
I love waking up in the morning and seeing my car the way it is supposed to look (covered in mud or snow). I know that those of you who live in Utah are probably thinking, "Try living here and then you won't like it so much". And to that I say, "You are probably right. I live in California so I love being able to be in this weather every so often". I realize it is not always an amazing sight to see your front yard covered with a new layer of snow.

Now this is the real reason for the trip.
I did get to go snowboarding for a day (which was sort of rad) but the real reason I went to Utah was I got to see my niece one last time before she and her parents moved to Illinois. She was blessed in church on the 25th and it was great being able to be a part of that. I love this kid.

Now the snowboarding. I did take many of your suggestions from my earlier post and I went to The Canyons. When I got there it was raining in the parking lot. I was so close to going back to my sisters place but I said to myself that if I did then I had no balls. So I went and I was glad I did. The rain stopped half way up the mountain and it was snowing all day. The powder was amazing and it was so much fun. Unfortunately I accidentally made my way to the bottom part a couple of times and got rained on which totally blew, but all in all it was a really fun day. Thanks for all of your suggestions.

Skyrone

2009-01-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about my next post for a while and I wanted to do something more uplifting. That is why I wanted to talk about some people who I downright think are just rad people.

Today I want to highlight my good friend Skyler. I have no idea how many years Skyler and I have been friends but I can tell you it has been a long time. I remember I used to go to his house when we were young and play in the green belt. I thought Skyler had it all. He had a cool snake, if I remember right a black dog that was really friendly, and an electric guitar. I remember when he learned how to play Paradise City on the guitar and he came to school and told me all about it.

Later on I admired his Ford Falcon on a daily basis and his inventive imagination that brought a piece of crap truck into a crazy off road machine. We prepared for our missions at the same time by going to institute together and Skyler even took me to the Oral Surgeon to take my wisdom teeth out. During our missions we kept in touch by mail and even an unofficial Christmas call to see how each other were doing. Also Skyler was one of my groomsmen in my wedding about two and a half years ago.

Today I feel Skyler is living a great life. He has an incredible wife Elise that he can share almost all of his hobbies with and from what I can tell he really likes the work that he is doing at his ad agency. My wife and I do get to hang out with them from time to time. I think it is great that not only my wife enjoys hanging out with some of my great friends but that I have been able to maintain such great friendships with people like Skyler over so many years.

So this may have a kind of obituary feel to it and I did not mean to do this. As of last night Skyler is alive. I just wanted to write something about someone whom I admire and am grateful for the years of friendship. I am sure that some of you also know Skyler so lets make him feel good and tell him what we think of him. Skyler, you are the man of the day.

Seriously, Who Cares?

2009-01-08T10:34:00.001-08:00

My friend Rebekah for some unexplained reason has this strange obsession with Frida Kahlo. And I say to her and anyone else reading, who cares about Frida? I understand that she was a famous Mexican artist who was a bisexual adulteress. I know, I get it. I just don't understand the fervor. In my eyes, Frida ain’t no thang.

Help Needed

2009-01-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

VS.

I've never done either of these parks and I'll be there January 24th and maybe the 23rd too. Which should I do?

Babies Everywhere

2008-12-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

This is what I feel like right now. It seems like there are babies everywhere. I have some friends, Matt and Katie who just had Scott, My cousin Steve and his wife Tracy just had Cody, and my sister Kelly and her husband Nate just had Lyla. I love this commercial and I realized that right now it is kinda like the woman in it. There are babies everywhere and I feel great. Don't worry though, Jen and I are not going there just yet.

So these are pictures of my wife and I holding my my first born second cousin. I have lots of second cousins but none that have been born from my first cousins. These are exciting times!

Hummmmm?!

2008-12-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

So I was looking through my pictures at my computer yesterday and a certain picture came up and I noticed something new. Now this was taken last July at our annual Chapman golf tournament at Black Gold in Yorba Linda and is of my wife, Jennifer, getting ready to tee off. What I didn't notice before was in the background my Sister-in-law Nicky. I was trying to figure out what in the world she was doing. I have only one really good guess that involves her feeling much better. What do you think she is doing?

Consider Your Options

2008-12-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

Joey, I think that it is time for us to act like adults and settle this dispute civilly. I think that it is important that you call Ali and Kristy and let them know that you do not deserve to be considered as "the favorite". They will laugh at you because they probably don't even like you anyway. Now as for your beef with me. I suggest you follow the example of my little friend here and wave your white flag of surrender. Otherwise, someone is going to get hurt and it's not me.

I Hate Joey Winter

2008-12-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to start a website but the URL is taken. The website is www.ihatejoey.com and for some weird reason it is taken by this movie about Jerusalem and its relations with Christians, Jews, Muslims and so on. I don't really get that. How does www.ihatejoey.com relate to this?

Anyways I do hate Joey Winter and I want your support. If you don't know the story between us you need to read about it. I need you to join my side on this too. This is a really serious matter and the more people that hate Joey Winter the better off we all are. Thank you.

All Time Best?

2008-11-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

Fine Katie I will update the blog. Sorry to all of my fans for taking such a long time to do this. It has been all too busy for me to update our blog so I will try and do better.

So what are the all time best of anything you can think of? Movies, Bands, Gifts, Friends, Albums... and the list goes on. This post is about my all time best albums of all time. Well one in particular. I love music. I don't think I can put my finger down on "The Best Album of All Time", and I don't really think that is even possible. I would say though that I could easily put Pink Floyd's album, The Wall, in my top five albums of all time. I love every song, and it is laid out so perfectly in the album. I can listen to it for days on end.

Well I saw a little bit ago that The Australian Pink Floyd Show would be playing at the Honda Center and would perform The Wall in its entirety. This was an amazing opportunity that I simply could not pass by.

As "Cover Bands" are concerned I can think of a few that are just spot on to the original. There is Iron Heart, Electric Youth, and now I can say The Australian Pink Floyd Show. They literally sounded just like Pink Floyd and did such an amazing job performing. I absolutely loved it and if you are a Pink Floyd fan and this band is coming to your town soon, I would definitely try and make it to this show.

By the way, although I hate Joey right now I must thank him for taking me and Jenny to this show. He really is the man for doing so, even when we are in a fight for our lives.

New Inspiration

2008-11-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

I feel relieved that the election is over now and we can move on and write and talk about other things. I have however been struggling with something to write about and have experienced somewhat of a writer's block. I needed to do something and I needed to do it fast in order to get my groove back. Well here it is.

I promised Jennifer that as soon as the election was over we would go on a hike to some local area. Last July I bought Jennifer a book called Top Trails which has a bunch of hikes locally to Los Angeles. We decided to use it for the first time this weekend and we traveled to Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains. This hike was only about a 40 minute drive from our house and was well worth it. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

We started off on a ski lift that took us up to the point where our hike started.

Basically, I am getting ready to rock this mountain!

First thing was first; Jennifer and I had to get our bearings, so we climbed this tree.

I was totally amazed to see that when we reached a certain point we could to the east see the valley plain off to Victorville and Barstow, and to the west we could see Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties. This is to the east.

I don't know why, but Jennifer begged to get her picture taken with this Pine Tree. She really was becoming one with nature.

To me, these were awesome pictures.

Watching Jennifer go up this hill was a moment of pride for me.

And this is what it was all about.

At the end of the day it was a little hard to say goodbye. Jennifer and I felt even more connected with our beautiful local San Gabriel Mountains. We had to leave though so we could go bowling with our friends JD & Katie, but don't you worry! Jennifer and I will be back real soon to reconnect once again with Mother Nature.

Thanks for the Great time Mount Baldy!

Intolerance?

2008-11-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

People who oppose Proposition 8 are really quick to point the finger and accuse the supporters of being intolerant. I appreciate people like "K" who was highlighted in my last post for the civility in their arguments. However I find that there are a lot of those who are not like "K" and who are some of the most intolerant people out there. They are trying to take away our free speech, and right to feel safe. Just this morning my Dad found my sticker on my car has been decimated, which might I add takes away my freedom of speech. Now who is being intolerant?

Outlaw Divorce?

2008-11-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

In my last post about Bigotry I had a great comment by an anonymous reader who identified herself as K. I was so grateful for this comment for two reasons mainly. First this person was totally respectful and I feel sincere, and secondly it really is a great question she asked. Here is what she said in her comment.

Hey Michael,

I'm a 27 year old woman living in Orange County, CA. I'm opposed to Prop 8 however I'm trying to better understand your point of view. No worries, I'm not here for name calling or any heated arguments, etc. :) Anyway, if your true intentions are to protect marriage shouldn't you be campaigning to outlaw divorce instead of TAKING AWAY other people's rights? It doesn't make logical sense to me.

Thanks,
K

Well I think that this is a fantastic question and though it may seem a little extreme I have thought of the pros and cons if this were to actually happen and it is not a bad thought. Allow me to list them

Pros:
*People would take marriage more seriously
*This would prevent "Shotgun Weddings"
*Couples would work out their differences and try to understand each other better
*Children would still have a Mom and a Dad at home

Cons:
*Adultery would be more prevalent
*Couples would be forced to stay in an abusive relationship
*Children could be at risk by being in an abusive environment
*There still are "dumb" people out there who will not consider the life long consequences before entering into this union.
*My parents would still be married

Now K, if you want to understand my position on this you must understand that I am a devout Christian and my belief on marriage is that it is a institution that was designed by our Heavenly Father. The ideal marriage is a perfect plan that is used to bring God's children into this world and to establish families. I also believe that children should be raised by a mother and a father.

Now although God's plan for families is perfect, the participants are not. It is my opinion that the primary deteriorating factor in marriage is pride. As people become too proud to admit that they are in fault, too proud of their work to pay attention to their families, too proud forgive each other, and too proud in themselves. Pride, I think, can be a good thing when used correctly e.g. Being proud of children for accomplishments. However, when used unrighteously, pride will destroy people and families.

Now as for my family. I have experience with divorce in my family. My parents were divorced after being married for 18 years. I remember very well what it was like to have them both at home and I can very boldly say that a divorce was the right thing for them. I never doubted that my parents were in love. In fact a few years ago I found several letters from my Dad to my Mom written while they were in separate states working as they were courting. I saved these letters and today they are in my filing cabinet at home. These are some of the most loving and tender letters I have ever read and there is not a doubt in my mind that they were totally in love. Now over a span of 18 years things happened, hearts and values changed. I love both of my parents very much so don't expect me to go into any kind of detail about why they grew apart or what caused the divorce, I will say though that it is a good thing that they are not required to be together. Though they were very similar and in love 33 years ago, they could not be any different today.

One last point I would like to make. Proposition 8 is not taking away any rights of gay couples. Under California law, "domestic partners shall have the same rights, protection, and benefits" as married spouses (Family Code § 297.5). Proposition 8 does not take away any rights, it just restores traditional marriage.

K, Thank you so much for your great question. I hope that this response helps you understand my position on Proposition 8.

Bigots?

2008-11-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

This past week I held up signs in support of Prop. 8 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I do have a lot of fun doing this but there is one thing that bothers me about it. I know that by the nature of what I was doing this week in support of Prop. 8, other people will respond in a supportive or negative way. I totally expect that and I must say that in the locations that I was holding signs there was an overwhelming response of people who are supporting this Proposition. However, the opposing side is there as well and I actually really appreciate it that they also feel passionate enough to exercise their freedom of speech as well. One thing that I don't like though is when I am being accused of bigotry. Prop. 8 is not about bigotry, hatred towards gays, intolerance, discrimination, or taking away of civil liberties. It is about protecting the sanctity of marriage, our families, our religion, our rights as parents, and putting back in place what California voted on previously. Here is a great video about what I am talking about. By the way, the second person to speak in this video is Katie from Fullerton, CA and I am friends with her. Doesn't she sound so smart?

November

2008-10-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

I have been wondering if I would be doing this or not and I thought that I should for some very good reasons. I have decided to talk about the election and two of the things that I will be voting for, Prop 4 and Prop 8.

First, Prop 4. I am a little surprised that this proposition is not getting some more attention. Simply said it is a yes vote will require that Doctors wait to perform abortions on girls whom are under 18 years of age until 48 hours after he notifies the pregnant girls parents or guardians. A no vote keeps it the same and girls can continue to get abortions without their parents being notified.

I agree with Prop 4 and here are the arguments. Prop 4 supporters claim that if this is not passed then child predators will continue to pay for their little girlfriends abortions so they can continue to have sex with them. Also parents will know of all medical procedures done on the girl and can notify doctors if this girl is in the hospital later because of complications due to her abortion. Sarah's Law was created because a girl was taken to get an abortion by her much much older boyfriend and did not notify her parents. She later had to go to the hospital because of complications from her abortion. Because her parents did not know of the abortion they could not report it to the doctor. Eventually they found out what had happened to this girl through test but it was too late. This girl ended up dying because her parents did not know about this procedure. Here is another video for supporters.

People who oppose Prop 4 say that this will force girls to tell abusive family members about their pregnancies. Here is their video.

Personally I feel that parents need to know about their children's medical procedures. They can't get tans a tanning salons without permission but they can get abortions without their knowledge.

This picture kind of helped me muster up the courage to post something about Prop 8. I feel very strongly about Prop 8 but I must admit that I have not always felt so strongly. When I heard about Prop 8 I was actually going to vote no on it. I have gay friends, and I felt that they are good people and they should be allowed to marry if they want to. I used to be angry in church when people would talk about it and make plans for supporting it. I was quite about it though and talked about it to only a hand full of people.

After a while I started to realize some of the consequences of gay marriage. As most of you already know, gay marriage has already been legalized in Massachusetts. We have a unique opportunity to see what has happened there before we make our vote on November 4th. So far children have been taught in schools that gay marriage is an equal alternative to heterosexual marriage. Catholic adoption agencies have shut their doors in Massachusetts and have to operate out of state because they were being required to go against their religious beliefs and place children in same sex households. This is not good for our society. Also as homosexual relationships are considered more and more acceptable, religious people will become more and more persecuted for being discriminative and intolerant. I don't want to have my religious beliefs be scrutinized and challenged because we won't adapt the we believe to coincide to the way people feel today.

Another point I want to make is that same sex couples have all the rights that traditional couples have. This is not a civil rights issue. I agree with this and fully believe they should enjoy these same rights. Here is a video about Prop 8 that I like.

The Ducks

2008-10-30T07:53:00.001-07:00

So we went to the game last night and it was amazing. Teemu Selanne pulled off his 21st NHL Hat Trick and for the first time I saw hundreds of hats thrown on to the ice, well maybe like fifty. Also for the first time I saw 4 squids thrown onto the ice and for the first time I saw a fight in the stands between two fans. Rumor has it one of the fans is Bobby Grich formerly of the California Angels. By the way the Ducks won last night 5-4 in overtime!

Halloween 2008

2008-10-28T08:43:00.001-07:00

I love Halloween. I really don't need to say very much more than that. I will say one thing about it though. I don't really like that "scary" is being taken out of Halloween. There are supposed to be vampires and warewolves and mummy's and other types of ghouls. I don't want to diss on others who don't do these things because there are some very funny and creative costumes that are going on out there.

Ok, enough of that rant. Let me tell you about last Saturday. I have been wanting to be dead for a while now and I got to do that on Saturday night for not One, not Three, but Two Halloween parties. I was just going to be a dead zombie but my friend Elise suggested that I be Edward Cullen which would have been really easy. I am already really good looking and my wife could have been a good Bella Swan. I did however decide to be a walking dead and here are some of the pictures of the night.

By the way I wish I had pictures of the earlier party and going to Corner Bakery (which was very funny by the way) but unfortunately we forgot our camera at home and had to get it later on in the night. I do have to say that I am extremely proud of my Brothers Chris and Jeff for their costumes, particularly Chris. Chantelle, my sister in law, made Chris a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume and it was awesome. My brother Jeff made an incredible lumberjack and my nieces and nephews were all great in their costumes as well.

So I wanted to be dead and after I finished my make up Jennifer felt bad because she didn't have a costume. All of a sudden she figured it out and we made her a knife. It was a very simple idea and quite frankly a brilliant one too. It only made sense. Jennifer likes this picture which shows her very lovingly killing me.

And I like this picture which shows a little more reality in her expression.

We were sad that our friends JD and Katie couldn't make it to our second Halloween Party. I guess they were just really tired.

Skyler was Ned Flanders...

...and Elise was a Cowgirl.

This was Jennifer's favorite picture for some reason. Just so you know that is a syringe from a nurse at the party.

And a very serious much thanks to our good friend Kristen Lawrence for hosting yet again another amazing Halloween party.

Bank Robbers Are Bad People

2008-10-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

So I haven't thought about it but I should have posted this last week on the blog when it happened. So my brother Scott was robbed at his bank on Wednesday and the three men involved got away with a lot of money. Here is a video of the robbery and the news report of what happened. He and everyone in the bank are OK so that is the best thing. The guys kept on yelling at him if he didn't hurry up then they would shoot him. What total A-holes huh? I wish I was there because I could have used my mad skills to detain them. Ever heard of a karate chop to the neck? There would be two hits, me hitting them and them hitting the ground. Sometimes though I wish I was Sylar though. I would totally work them then

Allied Steel

2008-10-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Some people ask me from time to time what I do for a living so I thought I would expound on that. I work for my family's company called Allied Steel. My Dad has been working here for 30+ years and owns the company with his brother Perry, and my Grandfather owned this company before them. I really like what I do, well most of the time. Here are some pictures to show you what exactly we do.

Allied Steel has been in business for the past 60 years and we specialize in steel construction for water treatment plants and sanitation districts. We do the steel construction for all those places that make your water drinkable and those places that clean your used water.

We make handrail...

...and buildings.

Here are some of my employees installing a roof to a building.

Here is the same roof from below.

We also do grating.

We make stairs and ship ladders as well.

This is a cool plant in Rialto that turns human poop into fuel. This is an experimental plant that may or may not work. The project cost over $200 million. This is our building called the Dryer Structure which, well it's going to dry the poop. This is before all the equipment was put in.

...and after most of the equipment.

Now this is the part of my job that I hate. We also do work for Sanitation Districts. This is where my pet Mobey went after my friend Erin killed him. You also may have many pet fish that have gone here too after they have deceased. Other names for the Sanitation District are Wastewater Treatment Plant, Brown Trout Farm, Turd Farm, S%*@ Plant and so forth.

This building is called the Grit Building. FYI from this point on if you have a weak stomach you better skip the rest of these pictures.

Inside the grit building you find big machines that separate water from things.

These machines send surprises onto this conveyor belt.

I'll spare you of the kinds of surprises you can find on this conveyor belt. I have close up pictures of these surprises. Let's just say it smells like crap in the grit building. I have to go to places like this from time to time to measure the spaces where we will build things. In this particular room we are building a platform so people can walk on it and look into these machines that separate the water from the "things".

This is where the conveyor belt takes these little surprises.

Can you guess what are in these pictures?

That's no balloon!

These are everywhere.

Well that is what I do for a living. I hoped you enjoyed your virtual tour of Allied Steel. I really like my job but I do hate to go to the Turd Farm. Click Here for further learning tools about where your pet fishes go.

Wicked Games, Who Did it Better?

2008-10-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Chris Isaak

...or HIM

I AM SO EXCITED FOR TONIGHT!!!!!!

2008-09-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

2008-09-17T21:11:00.001-07:00

It's not very often that I have the opportunity to grow out my beard because I shave every Sunday for church. During the month of August my wife and I went on several vacations which we were out of town during the weekends so I had a four week period where I was able to grow out my beard. I wish I would have gotten pictures of my beard in all its glory, but fortunately I do have pictures of the final week. It is a tradition of mine that after I do grow out my facial hair that when it comes time for me to shave I like to shave various facial cuts, trims, styles or what have you. The first picture is of me two years ago. I liked to call this picture "Living in Porn"

My most recent addition to the facial gallery are found in the following pictures, and you may agree that I had to dress the part for dramatic effects.

I hope you enjoyed.

Summer Fulfilled!

2008-09-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

All summer long I have wanted to do one thing and that my friends was to ride a bike. I have always been a big fan of bike riding but haven't done it since August 2005. Last month, Mike and I went with our friends Alex and Charisse to Coronado Island in San Diego and this is where my summer dream was fulfilled. The late afternoon was perfect. The bike we took was right next to the bay so we could see all the sail boats and the sun setting. I had such an amazing time with Mike. Here are some pictures of our day.

The Other Day

2008-09-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

I was going to the bathroom at work and I saw some ants on the porcelain. I thought to myself, "that is a really strange place to see ants"! So when I finished my business I decided to wipe the ants into the toilet and flush them down, after all there were only a few of them. Later on that day I had to go to the bathroom again but this time let’s just say I was sitting. All of a sudden, and pardon for the graphic description, I felt a very sharp pinch on the back of my ball sack. I quickly turned over my balls to find a little ant franticly running on my balls and away from the bite site. Needless to say this ant needed to die for what he or she had done. I grabbed it and smooshed it in my fingers until I could not recognize it was an ant any longer. It deserved to die. No ant bites my balls and gets away with it.

August 2008 Rules

2008-08-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I haven't done much blogging in August and I think that I have a legitimate reason why. It's because August has been too awesome for blogging. Let me explain.

August 13th (Sarah Darling's Birthday) my wife and I flew out to Cancun, Old Mexico with Jennifer's family. I know what you are thinking, total buzz kill with the in-laws but it wasn't that bad, as a matter of fact I really like my in-laws so I still had a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of our very first flight together...

...and here are the in-laws.

This was my first trip to Cancun and I was really glad to be able to go. We didn't do a whole lot of things in Cancun itself but we did a lot of things in surrounding areas. Our first full day was at the ancient Mayan ruins called Chichen Itza. This place was amazing and I was so surprised about how big it was. I always thought that it was just the main Temple there but there are so many other buildings. Our first stop this day was to a cenote which is a sink hole that is about 40 meters deep of fresh water. We were able to swim in this cenote which was about 15 minutes away from the Chichen Itza ruins. The water was amazing and so crystal clear. There are hundreds of cenote's all over Mexico like this one.

After the Cenote we went to Chichen Itza which like I said before was amazing. Here are a ton of pictures that I loved from there. Oh and as a warning, half way through this trip it started to pour rain on us. We coincidently got soaked and I took off my drenched shirt for the end of our tour. This was our first full day so I did not have a tan yet and for that I apologize for any disturbing pictures you may see of me.

The Main Temple

A column from the Temple of 1000 Warriors. There are probably a couple hundred columns just like this one. I thought of you Erin when I took this picture. I thought you would like it.

These next pictures are of building I liked a lot. It is a big building that only is about close to six feet tall. All around the perimeter are carved skulls which I thought was really cool.

This first picture is looking down the south facing wall...

...This one is looking down the west facing wall...

...and these are the skulls.

According to our tour guide sacrificed humans would be thrown in this Cenote. The Mayans performed human sacrifice and dumped them in cenotes like these to help bring forth new life. They believed that these water openings was a sort of conduit to the afterlife and by performing sacrifices like these it would bring rain, crops, and plenty of prosperity. It was an honor to be sacrificed.

Proof of the rain...

Here are some other pictures of our trip that I like a lot.

Jennifer took this picture at Isla de Mujeres which is called Island of the Women. This is a Mayan woman giving birth.

Promiscuous statues all over our hotel

Jennifer really excited about virgin strawberry daiquiri's

Going to church

Falling asleep at dinner

Together at Xel Ha

Getting some Mexican action (Jennifer is half Mexican and we are in Mexico)

Dinner with the Mariachi Band

Jen hanging out with a dead guy

This was an amazing trip and I can't wait to do something like this again. I hope that our next international trip will be to Ixtapa Zihuatanejo.

Nobama 08

2008-08-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

You would never see this covered on the news.

Twilight

2008-08-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Twilight. Does this make me Gay?

A Great YouTube Treasure

2008-07-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

I discovered this video about a year ago and just had a great memory of it. I thought that everyone should see this.

Gas Stations Suck

2008-07-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

This bugs me beyond belief. $75.00 does not buy you a whole lot of gas these days, however there are some gas stations that will only sell you $75.00 of gas per transaction. This means that I need to make two transactions just to fill up my gas tank or I have to come to the gas station earlier than I ought to.

Also, because of this stupid limit, I will now get fewer miles to the tank. Let me explain. My car gets around 330 miles to the tank and I know that as long as I get to the gas station before my odometer hits about 320 miles, I will be fine. I ran out of gas one week on the freeway when I had 290 miles on my odometer. Why you might ask? Because I was expecting to get 330 miles and forgot that my last "fill up" stopped at $75.00 When I was trying to fill it up and my tank was not actually filled up. I hate when gas stations do this.

Bad Driver, Bad

2008-07-07T09:53:00.001-07:00

Can you honestly step out of your car and think to yourself, "I think that parking job is good enough". This person is mental!

I Hate Uncle Sam

2008-07-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

I just got a bonus from work which I am very happy to have. Do you know who else is happy about it? Uncle Sam. Yes, it is true. 40% was taken away from me. I hate him, and I am afraid that it will get worse.

B.O. and Pepper

2008-07-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have a "friend" who is convinced that Body Odor is reminesent to black pepper!!! This "friend" of mine does say that only certain people have this black pepper B.O. I was wondering if anyone of you have ever smelt someones body odor and thought to yourself, "Wow, if I could only put some of that B.O. on my eggs!!!"? Please, I would love to know if some of you have ever thought this. I know that Jennif...oh I mean my "friend" also would like to see these results. Please let me know.

Quote for the Day

2008-06-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

"Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day"
-Harry S. Truman

Way to go Humans

2008-06-17T16:36:00.000-07:00

Some of you guys out there are a bunch of jerks!!! Thanks to many many humans over the years we have now declared the Caribbean Monk Seal extinct.
This was, like most seals, a very unaggressive and curious animal that was first discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494. He killed 8 for their meat but most people ended up killing these seals for the oil from their blubber. The last confirmed sighting was in 1952 and after much research and many expeditions scientist have now on June 6, 2008 declared them extinct. (If you have ever killed one)I hope that you are all happy for what you have done!!!

Just Another Reason

2008-06-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

So here is just another reason why Utah would be a terrible place to live. It has just been brought to my attention that you can not get one of these in "Zion"!!!
What a terrible thing it is that you can not get the Magical Pink Box in Utah. I know that you can get Krispy Kreme there but it is not the same. Nothing is better than a delicious tender Chocolate Bar, or a Sprinkle Donut. I love donuts and to think that you cannot get one in Utah makes me sick. I am so gratful that I was born and raised in Wonderful California. This is "The Place", if only Brigham knew.

The Giver

2008-06-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is a great book that I just finished this weekend. Let me tell you the story.

My Dad was dating this girl that was raving about this book and then bought it for for him so he could read it. For those of you who don't know I work with my Dad and go out to lunch with him most days. One day he and I went to Togo's and he was telling me about this book and how interesting it was. At that time he was only about a 1/4 of the way through the book and was so impressed with it. All of a sudden this employee of Togo's interrupts us and says, "Excuse me, but are you talking about The Giver"? We responded in the affirmative and he continued to tell us how this book changed his life. He had read it in the 7th grade and still remembered what a great book it was. This got me thinking, ok now I have to read this book.

When I finished Lord of the Flies I started The Giver. I was totally impressed and absolutely loved this book. This is a book that takes place in a socialist community where a boy, Jonas, grew up. At age twelve he is given his assignment which will be his career for the rest of his life. Jonas is given the assignment "Receiver of Memory" which is a very prestigious job. I don't want to give anything away because I think that you all should read this book.

I love this book because it shows how important it is for us to have choices and to act according to our desires. Oh and socialism sucks!

Erin I got your message and I have already bought 1984 and will start it probably next week. Thanks for your other suggestions. Are there any other suggestions from anyone else?

Books

2008-06-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

By popular demand (Kelly) I have began blogging agian after a two week hiates. I would like to personally appologize to my audiance for this absence.

Let me introduce you to the Lord of the Flies, but first an explanation. Back in High School I did the bare minimum in order to get my diploma and finish high school. I really do regret that decision. I wish I would have applied myself in high school and done the things that I should have done, but that time is gone now so there is very little I can do about that. One of the things that I can do though is this. I am going back and reading the books that I should have read in high school but did not. I started off with Lord of the Flies.

Now I saw Lord of the Flies when I was young and it scared me to death. I think that the idea of little children my age being stranded on an island killing eachother was a frightening thing for a kid. I always had this evil feeling about the movie and thought that the book would be the same. Well now that I have matured I can see that this book is actually quite brilliant. The way I view this is the struggle of power between two leaders, Ralph and Jack. Ralph is the orderly guy that is very structured and Jack just wants to have fun. I enjoyed the struggle between these two and found it very believable.

I should finish my next book tonight and will talk more about that later. Meanwhile has anyone heard of the Twilight series? Everything that I have heard about it makes me think that it is a chick book, but I do like vampires.

That Really Hurt Charlie!

2008-05-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

I love this kids facial expressions when Charlie bites him. I also love Charlie's sinister laugh.

The Monster Squad

2008-05-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since I have updated the blog. I do have a worthwhile entry to share with you all though.

As a kid I fell in love with a classic movie. As a matter of fact I fell in love with a bunch of movies as a kid. The only problem about this is when you fall in love with a movie as a kid you will later on in life want to watch it again thinking it is the greatest movie ever made. Well you are now a few years wiser and now can't figure out why you ever liked this movie in the first place.

My first experience like this came when I wanted to watch The Great Outdoors again when I was an adult. I thought this movie was the funniest movie ever made. I loved the scene when they shoot the grizzly bear in the butt. So a few years ago I watched this movie again and it was so incredibly stupid, it made me question all movies I loved as a kid.

Last night I watched The Monster Squad with my wife.
This movie was the greatest monster movie of my time. Well, after last nights review again I have to say that this movie is nothing short of spectacular. I completley forgot about Gillman. Even though Gillman didn't do anything really I would have to say that he is freaking scary and completely a completely awesome character. Dracula however, is the coolest monster of all. This movie perfectly animates how bad A he really is. I totally recommend everyone to at least rent this film. I am probably going to buy it soon. Do yourself a favor and watch the video on The Monster Squad link.

Floating Priest

2008-05-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I should laugh or if I should feel bad. What do you think?

Amazing

2008-04-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

I love those Japanese!

Congratulations to my Wife

2008-04-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Jen wanted to make her first post and announce to everyone some exciting news but she was a little busy and couldn't do it for a while. So if I may, I would like to congratulate my wonderful wife Jen for her amazing accomplishment.

Jennifer will be graduating from college in June with a degree in Dietetics. Unfortunately you really can't become a registered dietitian (R.D.) until you have completed an internship and pass the R.D. exam. Jennifer applied to two internships her first choice being Cal Poly Pomona and her second Los Angeles Veterans Hospital. Cal Poly only accepts 15 interns a year and usually none of those that are accepted are people who applied for the first time. Out of over a hundred applicants, even though I say thousands, Jennifer found out on Sunday that she is one of the 15 people invited to the Cal Poly Pomona program (and she made it her first time applying).

I am so proud of Jennifer. She has put in so much hard work and totally deserves this great opportunity. The only bad news to this is that this internship is not paid and it last for 9 months. However starting in June of 2009 it looks like we will be a real two income home!!!!!!! Well, until we have kids.

So if you have her phone number give her a call and congratulate her or leave a comment. She is such an amazing woman and I can't tell you how lucky I am to have her as my wife. I love you Jenny! This picture is for you.

I Like This Video

2008-04-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Even if the song is a little lame.