Pouring One For My Homies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tin Mine Canyon

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!!!

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

My Last Post

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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?