Tad and TeriDel

Baby steps - 1st Post of 2011

2011-01-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite sure why I find this story so great, but I do. He just seems like a good guy who has made years upon years of bad decisions. And yet, he still sparkles with talent.

So here's to you Homeless Radio Voice Man (aka Ted Williams).

Best of luck in 2011.

It sounds like you've already got some good things going your way.

Important Life Lessons Part II

2010-06-20T18:31:00.000-07:00

I swear, the internet is just chock-full of important life lessons. Here's one I just picked up on dating. I'll dedicate this one to my little sister - just because she's the only one in my family still single. And because she's the most likely to date a Ken.

Important Life Lessons

2010-06-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

As I was perusing the internet the other day, gleaning information from all of the college conference expansion talk, I was reminded of an important life lesson which is best displayed by the graph below. (Apparently you may have to click on it to get the full effect. Sorry.)

For those of you who may not be as familiar with this 80s classic as I am, here's one of the GI Joe Public Service Announcements that used to play alongside Saturday morning cartoons.

That's right kids. Don't play in all those abandoned refrigerators in your backyard. I'm glad my kids have watched this public service announcement early and often. It's almost as cool as JD's important PSA regarding Munchausen syndrome.

World Cup

2010-06-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world and yet no one seems to care about it in the United States. Just last week our boss asked one of my co-workers to come up with a game that we could play to get into the World Cup spirit. NCAA bracket style games were out because of the World Cup's group play format. A support your favorite team idea was out because we're not sure if more than 1 person could name more than 5 teams in the World Cup this year and even if they could it would probably be just by guessing countries from Europe. So we decided to divide up the teams the most fair way we knew how - picking from a hat.

Given the relatively small cast of characters we work with we all got two teams. I ended up with Argentina and Holland. I have to say that when I picked Argentina I was pretty excited because I knew thay are a favorite this year, perhaps because the team has the best player in the world in Lionel Messi. He's now coupled with his infamous coach, Diego Maradona, who lead the Argentines to the 1986 World Cup with his Hand of God play and the Goal of the Century.

Holland, on the other hand, was a team I knew nothing about. Until I looked them up online I thought that one of the highlights of the Dutch soccer team this year was when the Dutch Pop Idol Stars stopped by to sing during halftime. Boy was I wrong. They're actually good. Who knew? Probably not anyone in the United States.

For picking out of a hat I'd say I got pretty lucky. So, on the eve of my first team's game - Holland v. Denmark is tomorrow morning - HUP HOLLAND! Whatever that means.

(The best part of this video is that apparently Holland does not have enough highlights to last out the entire song. Oops.)

Oh, and if you fall apart Holland, I'll still be able to fall back on my Argentinians. (My apologies to Canada for shwoing this video. I'm pretty sure I know why you didn't make it to the World Cup.)

Now announcing...

2009-08-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back. It seems like things have been going blazingly fast, sort of like this guy, but with a little more substance.

It seems like things have gotten busier on pretty much every front. The kids continue to grow. We've taken on additional work, home, and church responsibilities. It's been a little hectic. But it has also been a fun time for us as a family as we learn and grow together.

Of particular note is that we are pleased to see our family expanding by 1. It's a girl. Though it has been just a short time, we love her and are excited to have her in the family. Little Bella.

She's a German Shorthair mix, but she seems to have taken her look and identity from the Shorthair rather than the mix. She's a bit hard headed and stubborn which Teri says makes her fit right in with the other kids. But like the other kids, she also has a very tender side to her, tries to be well mannered, and usually has a pleasant disposition--at least when given the proper motivation.

We got Bella for free while we were in Safford. David was excited because a German Shorthair is his dream dog and he figured Bella can be his hunting companion. Teri was excited because she has been asking to get the boys a pet for more than a year now. And although Bella has come with the usual assortment of puppy flaws, she does seem to be adapting to the civilized lifestyle pretty well.

Meanwhile the kids have been busy having a fun summer. They both took swimming survival lessons this year for the first time. McKay grew into a total fish and has since braved diving boards, deep ends, and other pool hazards.

Gibby, although compliant with the requests of his swim teacher Ms. Elizabeth, was not very excited about those requests.

Both survived and hopefully, they will be much safer around water now.

As for Teri and me, we are just trying to enjoy the ride.

Go (AZ) Cardinals

2009-01-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

At 3:00 PM or so on Thursday I got an email from my boss telling all employees to support the Arizona Cardinals by showing up for work the next day in Cardinal gear, so long as you didn't have to make an appearance in court. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity to show up in a t-shirt and jeans, I was totally in. But there was one problem - I didn't have any Cardinal gear.

Teri and I set off right after work to rectify that situation but found out that it was going to be pretty hard to do. The sporting goods store had nothing, the mall's cheapest t-shirt was $30, and Wal-Mart after Wal-Mart was sold out. What did we do? We went to the not so local pharmacy store and found an Arizona Cardinals T-shirt stuffed into a mug. Total Cost - $10.

Of course, there was a reason I found the shirt for such a low price. It was light blue. (Like this only without Woody Woodpecker and with the team name and logo in white) You have to figure that these shirts were probably the result of some mistake along the way where the factory completed a several thousand shirt run of blue shirts rather than the red ones ordered. But things like that happen all the time.

Showing up Friday in a t-shirt was great, mainly because no one else did and they were a little jealous that I was able to work in comfort. Having the Cardinals win on Sunday and go to the Super Bowl was even better because I am almost certain to have at least one more "Cardinal Pride" day at work. So here's to you light blue Arizona Cardinal shirt. And go Cardinals! Maybe if you win the big game we might get a chance to show our support in victory parade day. One can always hope.

Those Darn Promises

2009-01-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

I was saddened when I read about President-elect Obama's speech earlier this week about how some of his campaign promises weren't actually feasible. Poor guy. Looks like being a rookie at the whole leadership/campaigning thing kind of got to him.

You know how that goes. You're in the moment and you think hey wouldn't it be great if we could get a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage? Next thing you know your thought accidentally slips out of your mouth and you find yourself saying something you never meant to say. And now people actually expect you to do something that you know you really can't do. It's a terrible predicament.

But I think he's handled it well. Rather than disappoint people by saying that he made some stuff up about what his plans are, he's deftly put the blame on everyone's least favorite thing right now - the economy. Here's his quote to reporters.

“I want to be realistic here, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program broadcast this morning. “Everybody’s going to have to give.” (See the full article here.)

In four years when he's going through this process again, I hope then President Obama will learn from this experience. I know of at least one example of a guy who ran for President who was able to say that he lived up to all the promises he made.

Besides, it may work out for the better that President-elect Obama can't quite give us the "change" he so easily promised. As another former president said in his inaugural address, "Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." Here's hoping we don't stray too far from that ideal.

Birthday Recap #4 - Gibson

2008-12-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

You didn't think I'd forget the little guy did you? Happy Birthday Gibson! It's been a great first year. It's hard to imagine that Gibby has gone from this:

To looking like this in his first year.

Now if we could just get Gibby to get a haircut and a job we'd be in business.

Gibson's birthday wasn't quite on the extravaganza level that we've seen for some other birthdays this year. Actually, his was pretty simple and involved fewer cold swimming pools. Gibby got to eat his birthday cake at the same time as Sarah, his cousin who is just a few days older than him. Sarah went all in on the cake.

Gibby wasn't quite as carefree. He liked the cake, but didn't like the mess. He ended up eating most of his piece, but Teri had to feed him little bites the whole time he was in his high chair. Nonetheless, Gibson did manage to get a little chocolaty.

Gibson made out pretty well with the gifts. I think everyone felt bad for him because his birthday was so close to Christmas. He got all kinds of things like books, a Glowworm, Baby Signing Time - including the ever popular diaper dance (Thanks Nathan), and even a fox (which he promptly tried to eat).

All in all, it was easily his best birthday so far, but I'm guessing he probably won't remember any of it by this time next year.

Christmas Traditions

2008-11-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

The first Christmas after Teri and I were married was a whirlwind. We married on December 16 in Mesa, drove to Thatcher that night for a reception, flew up to Utah the next day to go to my brother's wedding on December 18, had an open house for my brother and me the night of the 18th, and then we were back in Arizona for Christmas in Thatcher. I figured the next Christmas would be a little more routine, but as it approached Teri got the feeling it was yet another whirlwind.

Teri jokes about it now, but she insists that she has never come across a family with so many Christmas traditions. Her secret favorite tradition is kicking the pole - something my family has done for years now. No, it's not some feat of strength.

Kicking the pole actually dates back to when my family was a lot younger. On Christmas Eve my Mom wanted some time to get everything set up for the evening and asked my Dad to get all of us kids out of the house so she could work without all of our pent up excitement bubbling over her preparations.

My Dad started out taking the conventional approach. We drove across the town and looked at lights for a little while, but when we still hadn't killed enough time we drove to Ken Price ballpark, where we sang Christmas carols to the ball field. I know it sounds kind of odd, and it felt odd the first time we did it, but it quickly became the treasured family tradition we repeated every year. Flash forward a couple years after that first caroling experience. My brother Scott was playing in a baseball game at Ken Price field and my other brother Russ was running just outside the confines of Ken when he ran smack-dab into a steel parking lot gate knocking himself flat.

When we made it back to Ken Price 6 months later during the winter someone started kicking the pole in an effort to pay it back for the vicious body blow it dealt to our brother. The next year that had turned into a tradition as well. Teri has even gotten in on the action. The year after we were married we were in Utah for Christmas and we had Teri kick the pole. While trying to feign intensity Teri sternly scolded the pole saying, "You hurt Russ." Teri then dealt the pole a swift kick to its midsection. The funny part was that Teri had never met Russ at that point, he had left of mission just as we were getting engaged, so we were surprised at Teri's enthusiastic response to our family tradition. But Teri's never been one to shy away from jumping in to things with both feet; it's one of the reasons I adore her.

I thought it might be fun to share some of those traditions here. If you're like Teri you may feel they're a bit much at first, but feel free to adopt any that you think would be fun. Although if you decide to kick the pole please let me know so I can give you some tips. You wouldn't want to end up trying to kick the pole only to have your feet slip out from beneath you just as you prepare to deliver your gigantic wallop.

Police Blotter: 2 Dead Escorts Found at Davis Residence

2008-11-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, that would have to be the headline of this week, narrowly beating out "Grumpy: 71 years later. How a 3' Man Doubled in Size and Got a Job at the Junkyard."

It is with great regret that we announce the passing of our second Escort. I like thinking back to the good old times when the Escort had a working motor and not everything under the hood was broken. Times like this:

I don't actually remember anything like that happening, but apparently even the ever plentiful internet doesn't care about the Ford Escort enough to post an interesting video or two. Oh well.

Our first Escort passed on in January. While we had hoped to hold bake sales all year to pay to get it fixed, we unfortunately had to divert money to cover paying for Gibson to be born. You would think we'd get a little more utility out of something that cost so much.

With our cash strapped and our two little boys unable to win any high profile best looking baby competitions, Teri and I decided to put off fixing our white Escort and made the best of using only one car. Our silver Escort became our workhorse hauling us to and fro, here and there, nither and thither. Until that fateful day several weeks ago when it decided it no longer had a will to live and ended its life outside of Kohl's.

A few days and a diagnostic check later, the Escort was pronounced dead on the scene. We took her to the junkyard and despite the best efforts of a gnomish junkyard employee to not use their business, we were able to strike a good deal. We swapped 1 dead Escort for a total prize package (worth $52) to include 20 Totino's pizzas, 3 "as-is" air fresheners from any car in the junkyard, and season tickets to the WNBA. Cucumber melon never smelled so good.

Like most things in life, there is a good and a bad side to this story. The bad side is that we had to replace the car somehow, and while we considered going the "green route," ultimately we decided the kids were too small to peddle. So we bought a Honda. What's bad about that? Well, they didn't give it to us for free. I was hoping for some last minute "Hey you're our first customer in weeks because the economy is melting" giveaway, but curiously enough they did ask us to pay.

The good side of all of this is that Honda driving videos are a lot easier to find online than Escort videos. For example, this little number is amazing and it begs two important questions. Do people in the rest of the world really drive like this? And, do people in the rest of the world really just wander out into the road and stand there as they watch a car that is clearly nanoseconds away from totally losing control and just wait for it to come slamming into them? Oh how the other half lives.

In summary, the bad side of having to pay for the car is pretty much a wash with the upside of watching crazy people nearly kill themselves in a car manufactured by the same people that made mine. Now if I could just figure out some way to teach K and Gibby to wash windows.

Birthday Recap #3 - McKay

2008-09-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

I think Teri and I have been excited for McKay's birthday for about 9 months, no joke. I'm not really sure why. I suppose it is because McKay loves Cars and there are some many cool toys to get excited about. So a few months ago, we decided that it would be fun to play "Pin the Tow Cable on Mater" instead of on the usual donkey. Teri took the challenge head on and came up with her own Mater poster.

I think it looked awesome. Teri had to take 2 pictures of Mater, combine them into one side profile shot, draw it all out, and then paint it. It got a little hectic there at the end when Teri's mom and Teri were frantically slapping background paint on him, but they got it done just in time for him to dry and be ready for the game.

I probably should have won the actual competition, but because I had purchased all the game prizes and knew that they were probably too complicated for me, we let Miriam win. She's 4; I think she'll have a good old time with that 24 piece puzzle.

McKay had his own troubles, although none of them were behavior related. (Thankfully, our fast wasn't in vain.) Actually, McKay struggled with blowing out his candles. Apparently, I should have spent less time teaching him what sounds camels (spitting) and peacocks make and spent more time teaching him how to blow out candles. Oh well, McKay's cousins seemed happy to lend a helping mouth.

McKay loved opening his presents. Interestingly enough, he wasn't more excited about the boxes the presents were in than the presents themselves. At least not until the very end when he realized he could make the boxes into race cars. But McKay had good reason to be excited. He got a lot of cool stuff.

Gibson was very pleased with the day as well. Not only did he get a cool new hat, but he was pretty sure at least some of those toys would be making their way to him.

McKay was pretty worn out by the end of the celebration. He wasn't able to take a nap that day because he was too excited. He just sat in his crib singing, "Happy Birffday to me. Happy Birffday to K. Happy Birffday to me-eeee. Happy Birffday K." So by the time 5:30 PM rolled around he was zonked.

Happy Birthday buddy. We hope you had as much fun as we did.

Birthday Recap #2 - Tad

2008-09-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

For my birthday I got what I had always wanted - another 3-D cake. Years ago, when I was something like 2 years old, my mom made me a 3-D Care Bear cake. It looked something like this, although my mom's cake looked more like a specific Care Bear and didn't have all the cupcakes.

I don't remember which one my mom made for me, but if I were to get one now I would ask for Champ Bear...or maybe Good Luck Bear. I'm kind of on the fence on this one.

Anyway, for my birthday I got another 3-D cake. And this time it wasn't even a Care Bear. It was an entire castle.

I bet you're jealous. I would have been if I were in your shoes.

I suppose I should mention that I basically share a birthday with 2 of my neices who were turning 4. One of them was born on my birthday and the other came 16 hours later but on the next day. This year was apparently not my year to pick the cake design (although they did console me by putting my flag on top of the very highest turret). Here we all are by our respective flags.

The true highlight of the night came just after we blew out the candles. Teri got the kids a pinata. McKay thought this was a great idea. He handled the bat quite well. Of course, he's had a lot of practice doing this to Gibby.

Concerned that I might be upset about not getting enough pinata swings on the parrot, Teri bought a pinata just for me.

The showdown between me and Cookie Monster took longer than expected. Cookie Monster had obviously put in a number of hours to get in peak condition for our bout and if I hadn't had a bat I think he may have defeated me. Cookie Monster was being manuvered by Teri's brother Kevin who managed to get Cookie Monster to whack me in a reasonably strategic fashion. The end result was that I had to assume a defensive posture which limited my offensive capabilities.

Despite the embarrasment of taking 25 minutes to break open a pinata when the kids took a whopping 12 swings (including McKay) it was a great birthday. Kudos to Teri for organizing my fun day. I think she totally deserves the entire turret that she ate.

Birthday Recap #1 - TeriDel

2008-09-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

A good chunk of the year has passed without us blogging about birthdays. We intend to change that in 3...2...1.

Teri's Birthday

In February we got a call from the Young Women's leader in our ward asking if there was a small service project that the youth could come over and do at our house as part of a service scavenger hunt. We heard that most people were having the kids wash windows, weed, or somethign along those lines. Teri decided to use them a different way - cutting coupons. So one Wednesday night we had four kids show up to do their service. They were a little perplexed by their coupon cutting role, but I think they were excited not to have to wash windows for a minute or two. Teri thought the whole thing was fun and mentioned that she used to love scavenger hunts when she was that age. And that's when an idea popped into my head. Why not do a treasure hunt/scavenger hunt for Teri's birthday?

The Saturday just before Teri's birthday she got to spend the whole day deciphering clues and making her way across the greater East Valley area. Included in her journey was a hike up "A" Mountain in Tempe,

a math equation using paddleboat prices from Tempe Town lake, secret codes hidden in a book at the Tempe City library, a jaunt through Bass Pro Shops to find her favorite candy, an intense racquetball battle against Sven - the semi-pro racquetball champion of the world,

recycling old computer parts, performing a 1 woman play depicting a scene from the Lord of the Rings with McKay starring as Frodo (so technically a 1.5 person play),

and my personal favorite, having to jump into Chris and Lolly's backyard pool to fish a clue out of there. Keep in mind this was in early spring and as you can tell by Teri's facial expression, the water was a little bit cold - even for Arizona.

To assist Teri in figuring some of these rather obscure clues I proided her with a clue hotline. Teri's brothers knew a guy from work who could do a lot of different voices and so we plugged his number into Teri's phone and whenever she completed a task or got stuck she had to call him for further instructions. And judging by the fact that Teri thought there were at least 3 or 4 people answering that phone at different times, he did a great job.

All in all I think it was a pretty fun birthday for Teri. Plus, her sister Julie made her this awesome cake.

So happy birthday TeriDel. We love you and are so happy that you are a part of our family.

Love,

Tad, McKay, and Gibby

"Another mystery is history" as said by Tigger in My Friends Tigger and Pooh

2008-09-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

Last we parted, TeriDel was this close to dying of a heart attack. But she didn't. And there was much rejoicing.

It turns out that Teri had a particularly violent reaction to a viral infection that has been going around in the Phoenix/Mesa area. We found this out because Teri's sister-in-law's sister (say that 5 times fast) is pregnant and she came down with the same thing. They did a bunch of tests and presto! viral infection it was.

While most people just get gastrointestinal symptoms, (occasionally resulting in an Oregon Trail incident), other people come down with violent illnesses consisting of chest pain, difficulty breathing, and other heart attack symptoms. I ended up in the first group, but Teri made her way into the second. Regardless, we're just glad that everyone is relatively healthy now and all we have to battle are allergies. Well, I don't have to battle them, but Teri, Gibby, and K all do so I just cheer them on. Go team.

On a tangentially related note - if you are yearning for the good old days when you could play the original version of Oregon Trail, pine no more. I found the online version of Oregon Trail complete with hunting and the original graphics. So take your best shot and see if you can navigate the trail without losing at least one member of your party to some random illness. I am in the Top Ten scores; I bet you can't beat me. And right after I say that Teri plays the game for the very first time and beats me. Now we're both in the Top Ten.

Boy, Do We Know How to Spend a Date Night

2008-08-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Teri and I don’t get out on a date night as often as we probably should. Part of the problem is that we love being home with the kids and even though our time alone together is fantastic, it’s hard leaving K and Gibby. But when we do go out we try to make it something that we would enjoy. Until this week.

We had agreed to watch Teri’s sister’s kids on Friday night and then they would watch K and Gibby on Saturday night. Everything was going according to plan, except for the fact that Teri started to feel a little sick to her stomach Friday night. Saturday morning we were all going to trek out to the West Valley to visit Cabela’s – which Teri and K had never seen – so that Teri’s brothers could price check various camping gear in preparation for the big family campout this upcoming weekend. There was only one snafu – Teri was so nauseous she was having trouble standing up.

Teri’s first thought was pregnancy. Fear ensued. But I just wasn’t convinced because Teri wasn’t quite acting the same as she usually does when she is pregnant and miserable. Despite Teri’s misfortune (or reversal of fortunes as the Hot Dog eating competitors call it), we were all having fun at Cabela’s. McKay loved the animals – although he continued to be nervous the first time he saw them up close. Of particular note was the polar bear they have growling just 3 feet away from the enclosure fence.

The bear looks pretty cool and it’s fun to have him so close to you. As we walked up to him McKay gave his little scream, and clutched on to my collar about to bury his terrified little eyes into my shoulder at the polar bear’s first movement. But the polar bear didn’t move and McKay took courage and was willing to say “Hi bear.” Once the greeting was accomplished K figured that he was a “nice bear” and kept telling me “bear funny.” K rounded off the morning by checking out the cougars, the rhino, the elephant, the zebra, the lion, and then taking a little pop gun around the wildlife museum component of the store and shooting every one of them – complete with his trademark saying, “I did it.”

Then came the ride home. As we’re journeying in Teri’s brother’s truck, Teri starts saying things like, “I’m feeling really nauseous” and “I’m having a hard time breathing” and “My chest is hurting.” Because we still had nearly an hour’s drive to go, I began researching with our primary care physician (Dr. Internet – reasonable prices and always on call), what you should be worried about when you have chest pain and difficulty breathing. The Internet tells me that the chest pain/difficulty breathing combo is not always a heart attack and that you should look for other signs such as pain in the patient’s left arm. It was at this point that Teri says, “My body is hurting.” When I ask where, Teri says “In my left arm.” It was at this point I decided against telling Teri that she was gearing up for a heart attack and just tried to keep her calm and telling me what was going on so that I could relay that to the doctor.

I also began calling everyone I knew in my phone who had some medical knowledge. PAs, EMTs, first aid providers at Wal-mart. The common denominator was simple. If you are having difficulty breathing you need to see a doctor and urgent care might not be the best option because they’ll just send you to the hospital. So once we got home we trekked off to the hospital for our date night.

6 hours, 2 EKGs, a chest x-ray, and a full bag of IV solution later, Teri was pronounced to not be having a heart attack. I think everyone was pleased. Teri kept saying that she just wanted to be told that she was being a silly hypochondriac and be sent home. They didn’t quite go that far indicating that Teri was pretty severely dehydrated by this point which could have been why her whole body was cramping and her resting heart rate was up at about 120 beats per minute for hours. The exact cause of the whole thing was unclear and we’ll now get to embark on a fun medical fishing expedition but that is ok considering that Teri doesn’t have to undergo open heart surgery.

All in all, it wasn’t our best date night. Maybe next time we’ll settle on Golfland or something.

Back to the Workforce

2008-07-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

"When did you leave the workforce?" you may be asking. Well, actually I was laid off back in May and I just started back to work two weeks ago. I'm now working for Maricopa County. I'm excited for the opportunity. It looks like it will be a great chance to learn and grow.

The new job may end up meaning that this blog will be a private blog. I haven't put too much thought into the idea yet, but switching to a private blog may be a wise safety precaution at some point. It's really too bad, but some lines of work make you fewer friends than others.

There is no rush, but if you would like to continue to be a reader of our blog, please email me at davis2028@hotmail.com with the words "Blog" or something like that in the subject so that I will recognize it amongst all the advertisements for pharmaceuticals I receive. Once I figure out what the plan will be I'll email everyone and post another summary up on here.

And by the way, thanks to everyone for your help, thoughts, and prayers on our behalf during the time period I was looking for a job. Teri and I are extremely grateful for your love and kindness.

J. Crew thinks you're a sucker, but I know better.

2008-07-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

For the low, low cost of just under $300.00 you too can have this season's fashion must have. Jeans with paint on them.

But I found a guy who is willing to give you a deal. He's offering hand splattered painted jeans for $150, but the price goes up to $180 if you'd like new jeans. He'll even hand deliver them (if you live in northern Utah county). I'll match his price for anyone in Arizona wanting to take advantage of this steal of a fashion deal.

Golden Compass

2008-07-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Before you read on there is something I should warn you about. This post contains information about...the Golden Compass books. If you believe that these books are the root of all evil then I don't know that I can say anything to change your mind. Even if I did come up with something, I don't know that you would even believe me - after all I am a lawyer. Nonetheless, if you stick out this blog post you may have a little more info next time your BBQ conversation turns to "evil literature."

My Summary
1. I read all 3 books.
2. I still have my testimony.
3. I don't think anyone else will lose their testimony by reading them.
4. The Golden Compass books are distinctly anti-Catholic, but not really anti-Christian (if you assume like I do that you have to discuss Christ, a Christ-like figure, or even some vague idea of atonement to be labeled as a Christian or anti-Christian book).
5. If you like fantasy books, or are a fan of polar bears - especially armor wearing, blacksmithing, flame thrower operating, fighting polar bears - you will probably like these books.

It would be difficult to discuss all of the reasons why people say these books are evil without revealing the storyline of the book. So just in case someone wants to read them, I won't talk too much about the particulars. Suffice it to say this - because of all chatter I heard about the books before I read them I was surprised by the minor role that atheism or attacking God played in the book. To be honest, anything in the books that could be construed as an argument in favor of atheism was presented in an almost silly way. One of the characters decides there is no God because, according to her, following a certain man-instituted church regulation doesn't do her or anyone else any good. If that is the best evidence of God's non-existence you might want to rethink. It would be like someone buying a $1.00 bible coloring book at Wal-Mart, seeing that the pictures were repeated twice in the book and because of that feeling ripped off and deciding there is no God.

The one distracting bit in the series was that I was constantly trying to discern who the author, Philip Pullman, thought God actually was. By the time I was nearing the end, especially with all the rumors I had heard about the books before I read them, it became more and more clear that Pullman had chickened out in terms of trying to define God. All in all, Pullman's atheistic tendencies are mitigated by the fact that he's not even sure atheism is correct. In fact, he's so unsure about who God is, that he won't even commit to actually putting the God most people know in his books.

Anyway, the moral of this post is this - if you like fantasy books you'll probably like the Golden Compass books. They have some interesting characters and are generally easy to read. They aren't for everyone, but that has more to do with what type of literature you enjoy than religious overtones. So enjoy. And if you do end up reading them let me know. I would love to ask a few questions about your impressions of the books.

Confidence

2008-06-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Both our boys had interactions with confidence this weekend. Gibson's began because he is now mobile. While most of the time he just army crawls, he has also figured out that when he especially wants to get somewhere he can put his legs underneath him and launch himself forwards. This new found confidence resulted in this.

Gibson and I were playing on the bed when I laid him down next to me and went to roll off the side of the bed so I could come around and pick Gibby up. But Gibson, probably thinking that he could just get down by himself, kicked until he launched himself a full 2 feet and landed forehead first on a chest at the foot of our bed. Luckily it was a slow launch. But as you can see, Gibby got two lines of bruises from the smash itself and two rug burns from where his forehead scraped along the moulding of the chest. Nevertheless, Gibson's desire for mobility has not been curbed by this experience. He just keeps on going.

McKay, on the other hand, has battled his fears rather than overconfidence. Among other things, McKay is as terrified of the garbage man as this guy. But after some research I've realized that McKay just may have been an early learner about the struggles between garbage men and civilians who fit in their trash cans.

McKay is also afraid of any toy that talks and moves (especially toys that look like animals or dinosaurs). And for the last 4 months or so K's been terrified of nursery. The nursery bit is the odd one because they do lots of McKay's favorite things. They sing songs, they color pictures, they get to play with a pretend kitchen, and they even blow bubbles. But McKay refuses to do anything unless he is within his arm's reach of a leader. This week, however, McKay had his confidence breakthrough. He happily went to nursery and he was just his normal, happy, energetic self.

Unfortunately, this may have bred some over confidence in him. Later that night when his cousins came over they all had their baths together and Halle and Mila headed downstairs in their towels to go get dressed. McKay decided he would follow in his towel. The trouble was that McKay has never really run around in a towel, especially not on the stairs.

You can see where this is going, and yes, McKay took his very first tumble on the stairs in the near year we've lived here. He was a little shaken up, but he'll be ok. I think more than anything it was his psyche that was damaged. For the next day he would start walking up the stairs and get scared halfway up. But it looks like he's back to normal now, after all, he's back to his normal routine. Although he's never been as crazy as that girl.

Game, Set, Match

2008-06-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Teri and I have seen a bunch of double takes the past couple of Thursdays. For several seasons now, I have played in the men's doubles tennis league every Thursday. Teri is usually there at the tennis courts too, only she patrols the grounds with the stroller, K, and Gibby. But I decided to take the summer off so that Teri could play in the women's singles league, also on Thursday nights. This has meant a role reversal of sorts, where I get to watch Teri play while Gibby clings on to my shirt and McKay runs up and down the walkway with his little kid tennis racket whacking all the used tennis balls that everyone likes to give him.

The first time the guys I used to play against saw me with the stroller and kids they were a little confused. They remembered McKay - he's hard to forget because he's just about the only kid out there and he stands at the fence and calls "Daaaaaaaaadddddddddy" while we play. But once I told those guys that my wife was playing this season they understood, but the double takes were funny nonetheless.

Tennis has been a lot of fun this summer. Although Teri hasn't had as much time to practice as she'd like, she's done really well. She's holding her own against women who have played for several years. As soon as we can get in out there for a little more practice and get her hitting more consistently she'll start playing like all those Russian girls I used to teach on my mission. Note: My teaching was more centered on the Gospel and less on tennis.

Big Kids

2008-05-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

We were a little late in getting the kids in for Gibson's 4 month and McKay's 18 month checkups, but it was fun to get them in there are see how big they had gotten.

McKay, almost 20 months, now stands at a towering 35 inches but only weighs about 24 pounds. In 4 months he has grown 4 inches. At this rate, he'll be Shawn Bradley (7 ' 6") shortly after his 6th birthday.
He's always seemed to be a tall skinny kid. The only time it was different was our last visit when McKay was somewhere around the 70th percentile for height and right around the 50th percentile for weight (which the doctor noted was a big increase from his previous weight percentiles in the 20s and 30s). But this last visit demonstrated that McKay has returned to regularity. He's back to the 96th percentile in height and the 16th percentile in weight.

Gibson seems to be watching and learning from his brother. Diddy or Dibby (McKay's nicknames for his brother) is 24 inches tall and weighs almost 13 pounds. He's now in the 75th percentile for height and the 30th for weight.

It looks like we'll have to feed Little Dibby some Little Debbie.

I've always said that I don't mind if my kids are taller than me. It would certainly appear that I'm going to be held to my word. But I'm ok with that. At least some one in my family will be able to stand up to Randy Newman.

Easter Weekend

2008-05-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, Easter was a while ago and it probably feels like we're taking a trip in the Wayback Machine for this post, but there have been lots of goings on in our household over the last little while.

Back a few weeks ago, my parents came down to Mesa for Spring Break/Easter Weekend/Gibby's blessing. McKay, sensing he would have to share time with his brother, decided to add some sparkle to his personality by cutting all four eye teeth that weekend. But like many plans laid by 18 month-olds, it didn't quite work out the way he intended. I'm sure McKay thought that his eye teeth suffering would garner him some sympathy, but actually he just earned the reputation of being a bit of a complainer.

Grandma and Grandpa got to go to the zoo with us and Grandpa even offered to take McKay on the merry-go-round. McKay was unsure about the whole thing and even though he got to ride on a rhino, one of his favorite animals, his reaction each time he would pass us and see us was about the same. He wasn't too happy.

But we moved on to other things. Grandma and Grandpa got to play with the stingrays.
The Phoenix zoo has a deal with another colder weather zoo so that Phoenix has the stingrays between November and April and they have the rays between May and October. The twist this year was that the stingrays also had a few sharks in their pool. I never got a picture but Grandma has to just about jump in the pool to feel the cool nurse shark. They liked to hang out under the waterfall because there is more oxygen there so it was kind of hard to get to them. This is just after Grandma felt the shark.
The sharks feel rougher than the underbellies of the stingrays. The rays are really soft and slick. Interestingly, they ask you to pet the underside of the rays rather than the tops because the rays are more susceptible to injury on top. I guess they paid extra for the undercarriage coating.

McKay did ease up on the pain and suffering once we got to Oregano's and he was given permission to finish off our Pizookie (Pizza - Cookie). It's a semi-baked chocolate chip cookie - read still doughey - with a lot of vanilla ice cream on top.
Gibson didn't get any of the pizookie, but he was pleased with his new blanket. He already likes dinosaurs, largely because McKay likes to read him stories about them.
The Easter egg hunt itself went pretty well. McKay loved searching out for eggs. He didn't have any trouble at all picking up on the idea that you needed to pick up as many eggs as you can at blazing speed.
Before Grandma and Grandpa left, we showed them the Wii. They got really into boxing.
It was a lot of fun having Grandma and Grandpa here. Happy Easter.

Housing Litmus Test

2008-05-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is when you know the housing market is bad.

I love how the realtor actually thinks he's cool. Usually I give props to people for trying, but I think at some point you can try too hard.

But in the end, this is a nice house baby. Who wouldn't like to live in that place? Maybe I should give Neil a call and inquire about the price.

Singles be warned

2008-05-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

"Are you a loser? Come to Chemistry.com where all of life's rejects come together to meet each other."

I don't mean to jump to conclusions here, but isn't that basically what the new Chemistry.com advertisements are just screaming at you? Take this one for example:

What was the point of that ad? Look I don't really care who eHarmony accepts or rejects. (Fortunately, I'm married to TeriDel who is wonderful. We no longer have to scope out the dating scene.) But if I were to turn back the clock a bit and date again, would I really want to sign up for a dating site whose ad campaign is "Are you the kind of person that has been rejected by members of the opposite sex AND a dating service? Come over to Chemistry.com. We'll take you're money."

Just as an aside, I have nothing against Internet dating. In fact, I think it can be a positive for a lot of people who don't have a lot of time or who find it easier to get to know people. I'm sure there are lots of other reasons to do it as well. I just think you have to be selective on who you Internet date - much like you should be selective of what you eat, what you wear, or even what music video you decide to appear in. Obviously these guys didn't heed my advice.

Anyway, if you are currently a member of Chemistry.com, don't fret. I'm sure there are lots of interesting, fun, and charming people on there. But I'd beware of the new sign ups - at least until you find out a little bit more about them and whether or not they watch advertisements.

Sorry Jason

2008-05-01T12:50:00.001-07:00

Halle, our 3 year old niece, watched American Idol over at our house this week with her parents. Although she enjoyed the show, she definitely showed her potential to become a critic when she judged Jason Castro's performance. After Castro sang his second song of the night, Halle said, "Mommy, I don't like that girl boy." Hmm...I wonder if Paula Abdul is thinking the same thing.

The Ulitmate Pose Off...oh and a wedding

2008-03-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

As mentioned earlier, our heartfelt congratulations go out to our cousin Emily and her new husband Wes. Had you not chosen the 15th of March to be wed, I would have never have gone down to Sierra Vista. And had I never gone to Sierra Vista that day I would have missed...

The Ultimate Pose Off .

Well, actually I did miss the Ultimate Pose Off. The Copper Classic, as it is formally known, was held at 5 PM in Sierra Vista and Teri promised me that if we were still in Sierra Vista at that time she would go with me and the boys. Curiously at 4:45 PM Teri just couldn't bear to be away from home any longer so we packed up the kids and went back home to Mesa.

It's really too bad. Highlighting the event were two guest posers - ages 79 and 73. These guys have a long history of going up against one another in bodybuilding contests. But 73 year-old Hank Diaz (below left) has only beaten 79 year-old Kent Marshall (below right) once.

Personally, I don't understand how that could be the case. True, neither guy looks his age, but I find Hank Diaz much more attractive than the Kent Marshall. But I guess I haven't gotten a good look at their abs - or their thighs.

Despite my enthusiasm for the Copper Classic's silver anniversary event Teri was probably right to decide to pack up and leave. Those events are pretty dangerous. There are lots of attractive women there, but if you get caught ogling they'll beat you up. I got a black eye trying to take this photo just last week - and that was from the skinny one on the left. Who knows what the guy on the right would have done to me?

Mid-March Update

2008-03-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick note about the important events in our lives and yours:

Congrats to my little sister Amy who managed to bull her way into the newspaper. As the Bingham High School drill team matador, she endured the jeers and cat calls of Utah-based Spaniards who, while searching for a 6-fingered man, rudely told her that bullfighting was a man sport. Amy refused to give in and won herself the Deseret News Prep Athlete of the Week. Although Amy may not be as famous as Cristina Sanchez, her bullfighting skills are taking her places...like the rodeo pageant circuit where she'll face off with another Amy and her pleather dress.

Mazel Tov! to my cousin Emily who wed the love of her life Wes on March 15. Teri and I took the kids down to Sierra Vista for the blessed event and we had a blast. We're excited for you Emily and Wes and wish you the best of luck.

Finally, here's a short "Tall" tale. My Dad got into a car accident and a fight all in one day, which is unbelievable because he hasn’t been in a fight for more than thirty years. He was driving to work on a road covered in black ice and although he wasn’t following the car in front of him too closely, when he stepped on the brakes his car just started sliding and crashed into the guy in front of him.

I’ve always considered my Dad to be a very responsible guy and this case was no exception. My Dad got out of his car to see if the other driver was ok. But at that point things went downhill.

You know how sometimes when you’re in a stressful situation anything can just make you start laughing even though it’s not particularly funny? Well, as the other guy is getting out of his car to inspect the damage my Dad sees that this guy is a little person – you know, a midget. Now my Dad doesn’t have anything against midgets, but the stress of the situation just made him laugh.

Well the other guy was not in a laughing mood. He roared out at my Dad, “What’s so funny? This is terrible! Can’t you see that I am not happy?”

“So which one are you?” asked my Dad.

And that’s when the fight broke out.

March Madness

2008-03-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

The most important thing about this post is my idea for a new way for everyone to join in the fun of the annual NCAA men's college basketball tournament. But I quickly divert your attention for one moment to this thought.

[BEGIN THOUGHT] Shouldn't they rename the hyped up title of this event? March Madness? C'mon. Madness implies that this tournament is unpredictable, exciting, and just down right crazy - which I think most people would agree that it truly is. But then I hear people, often who are still trying to figure out what sport they are referring to, say that they are looking forward to filling out the "paper thing" for "March Madness." Don't get me wrong, I think it is great that people take an interest in sports and college athletics, but when "madness" is as commonplace as a "pizza party" the name just doesn't work for me any more. [END THOUGHT]

Anyway, here is my great idea. Usually people get together in an office pool or as a collective of friends to wager a small amount of cash with the person who predicts the most games correctly taking the whole pile of money. While this makes for a great time for the person that wins, it isn't as much fun for everyone else. Plus, Teri thinks that this kind of activity may be somewhat close to what some people call "gambling." So, I've thought of a new plan.

March Madness meets Yankee Swap/White Elephant

In my version of March Madness everyone contributes something. It could be movie tickets, a book, a bobblehead, whatever. Then we all fill out the brackets and see how everyone does. The prizes can be distributed one of two ways.

The first option would be to give 1st place the first choice and they get to keep whatever they end up with.

The second option, which is probably more fun, would be to let last place pick whatever they want and then let each better performance take their pick. You can steal anything you want and there are no caps on stealing (otherwise first place wouldn't get a chance to grab the prize they want most).

So who's in? Today (Sunday) the bracket will be announced. You don't get a point for picking the playin game correctly which means that you have until Thursday, March 20 to decide if you are in.

Well...there goes the neighborhood

2008-03-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

I'm sure everyone has seen those cheap signs that people put out alongside the freeway, the roadway, or some other thoroughfare. You know, the signs that say "KB Homes this way" or "Painting and Electrical Work Call (602) 555-5555" or even "Make $200,000 a week just by looking for rare stamps."

I consider most of these advertisements to be a large inventory of eye filler. You peruse for a glance or two and when you realize that rare stamps probably aren't as common as bad Southwestern art is in Arizona, you move on. But the sign I saw yesterday actually got me to pay attention. So much so that I went back and took a picture. I guess there's a market for everything these days.

So we decided to get a dog...

2008-02-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

...and then we thought better of it. By the first "we" I mean Teri and by the second "we" I mean that Teri's brother David and I thought better of it. Teri, who at a very young age used to own something like 12 dogs at one time, immediately jumped on my idea that we take the kids down to PetSmart to see the dogs up for adoption. Once we were there she fell in love with an older German Shepard/Golden Retriever mix. Kirk (the dog) couldn't stop giving lots of love to Teri and Gibby. He, even at his healthy 60-70 pounds, would occasionally think he was a lap dog and just back right up into your lap and just wait for you to start stroking his back. Then he'd get up and want to check everyone out. He was very protective of Gibby and even came over to nuzzle his head against Gibby's so the little guy would stay warm. Then he'd cuddle up to Teri and lean right into her. Teri was in love. But we really don't have the space for a dog to run around in.

Once Teri had given up hope of adopting him she wanted to adopt two 3-month old kittens who have been together since birth and are pretty adorable. Teri was sort of crushed when she realized that trying to take care of a newborn baby and a new pet/pets had disaster written all over it. But she sacrificed her longterm animal desires and renewed her vow to someday adopt a pet.

The whole trip was funny. I was working on Thursday when I mentioned to one of my co-workers that Teri and I really wanted to get a Chocolate Lab Retriever. After all, who doesn't love those dogs? They are loyal, active, fun-loving, and all around good looking dogs. Well, my casual comment led to my coworker immediately looking up Chocolate labs that were up for adoption from shelters or foster families. One of the labs was going to be at a Chandler PetSmart last Saturday, so we packed up the kids and went down.

But just as we got there, Jake, the lab we went down to see, got adopted. Of course, with our small yard we figured that Jake wouldn't like our house as much as someone else's so that was really ok. We then decided to help McKay turn his love of animals in books into a love of animals he can really touch. It went...ok.

McKay loved the golden retriever puppy. I think McKay liked the fact that he was bigger than the puppy, plus that puppy just loved McKay. While Uncle David and McKay were exploring the puppy, Teri and Gibby met up with Kirk, the older Shepard/Retriever mix I mentioned earlier. McKay wasn't so sure about Kirk even though Kirk liked to give him kisses. Actually, McKay wasn't sure about any dog that was near his size.

Considering McKay's absolute fear of big dogs that day, I couldn't figure out why he would want to go up to a Borzoi that had a muzzle on.

Borzois, as you can see, are big dogs. This particular dog was even bigger than your typical Borzoi. But McKay was undetered. He kept getting closer and closer until he started saying, "Horsie! Horsie! Neigh...neigh." Yes, my son thought the Borzoi was a horse. But I guess I'll let it slide this time...as long as he gets a little better at his multiplication tables. The kid is starting to slack.

Valentine's Day

2008-02-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone's heard about those Valentine's Day gifts where one spouse actually buys a gift for themselves but then gives it to the other spouse. In general, this is a bad idea. But for you guys out there, if your spouse has long discussed getting hair clippers so that she can trim you and the kids around the neck and ears, I want to tell you now that getting her those clippers in a grooming kit which is labeled primarily as a beard and mustache trimmer could lead to some serious miscommunications.

10-4 Good Buddy

2008-02-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

In this day and age with so many downers, like the stock market, the housing market, and Richard Simmons, it's nice to know that there are some gainers out there as well. Count Gibby as one of those. At his 1 month doctor visit he weighed in at 10 pounds 4 ounces, surpassing his birthweight by about 2 pounds (8 lbs 3 oz). This little piggy went to market, had his roast beef, and finished it off by eating a chocolate cake bigger than the one Bruce Bogtrotter finished off.

You wouldn't really know it though as he still looks pretty tiny. But this kid has a pretty healthy appetite. Teri couldn't be happier. Gibby's big brother wasn't a good nurser so having a little one who sucks as much as the Miami Dolphins is a blessing in Teri's eyes. It's built a special bond between the two of them - so much so that Gibby's favorite perch is right on Teri's shoulder.

As usual for little kids, Gibby enjoys the little things in life like eating and sleeping. He has even found time to take little naps out on the lawn.

All in all, Gibby is a happy kid. Although we can never quite coax a smile out of him for the camera he did almost indulge us when Teri was singing to him.

We sure love Gibby and we're glad that he is such a sweet little kid. His patience with his big brother is remarkable. Just don't tell him that he'll have to wait for dinner. I tried that once and things didn't end up so well.

Super Tuesday Candidate Primer

2008-02-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Here's my rundown of everyone besides my endorsee, Mitt Romney.

GOP:
John McCain - The "Straight Talk Express" aka "Senor Exporte"
McCain probably should have remembered his nickname before he started campaigning in Florida. Two days before the primary he boldly announced that Mitt Romney was for setting a "timetable" for the withdrawl of troops in Iraq, a position Romney says is a gross distortion of his comment. Regardless, McCain is the same old same old. Despite the breath of fresh air McCain asserts that he is, he is ironocially the only candidate that hasn't plastered the word "change" on his website.

A McCain presidency wouldn't be the end of the world, although it might be the end of America's industrialization. McCain favors imposing voluntary carbon caps, which would set out a finite limit on the amount of carbon pollution the United States produces. The end result is that companies that want to make things, (and as a result release carbon emissions) would now have to trade for the rights to pollute. Of course, setting an arbitrary number of carbon emissions means that as more industry appears the price of being able to release carbon emissions increases. At the end of the day this means that either 1) the price of American goods goes up to compensate for the higher emissions costs, or 2) we have less industry so that we can be competitive in a global economy. In other words, the USA would be voluntarily pricing itself higher than goods from China and India - two nations who are not going to voluntarily impose carbon caps.

Under McCain we can count on at least one export going immediately through the roof - jobs. But I guess if exporting jobs and importing more finished goods counts towards the trade deficit McCain will look like a succees, right?

Ron Paul - Issue candidate who doesn't believe in his own issue.
I read Ron Paul's website. I listened to his speeches. He sounds pretty good right? He is very fiscally conservative and makes a strong case for reducing government and letting the market and people sort their way through things. Too bad he doesn't believe in his own plan.

I was so disappointed when I heard on a radio program that Ron Paul had gotten millions of earmarks passed for his district in Texas. He says that if earmarks are going to happen anyway then you might as well get them for your district. Which is fine - if you want to argue that the present system is inefficient rather than being broken. But Paul things the government is far too big and covers way too much ground. So why not stand up and take a stand? Why not say to the nation, "Earmarks are destroying our ability to rein in our spending"? Well, because that would make it harder to get elected. Ask Jeff Flake. He doesn't request earmarks and he gets criticized for it back at home. Sorry Dr. Paul. If you don't believe in your own plan, why should I?

Mike Huckabee
Huckabee has some good ideas and some bad ideas. The problem is that he has difficulty explaining any of his ideas. I watched Meet the Press a few weeks ago and the host was trying to give Huckabee a tough question on taxes. As it turns out Huckabee cut taxes in some areas and also raised taxes in other areas for a net result that taxes were raised slightly. When Huckabee was asked about raising taxes, he goes into overly defensive mode and starts talking about how the Arkansas Supreme Court mandated that he raise more money for schools so they did that by raising taxes and now Arkansas' schools are performing well. The host then asks "So you did raise taxes then right?" But Huck won't say "Yes. I was mandated to do so and I was a careful steward of those dollars and now we've reached a result that tremendously outperforms what other states do with their money." Instead Huck says, "Hey, I'm not going to apologize for having a Supreme Court make a mandate." So what exactly are you doing Huck?

I guess my issue with Huckabee is that I always feel like he's trying to be as slippery as the other Presidential candidate from Hope, Arkansas once was. And he's totally unelectable.

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton
This is a troublesome one. It's just way too easy to poke fun at her PAINFUL speaking style. I really can't decide whether she speaks like William Shatner or Robocrook. It's slow, monotone, and overly deliberate. Everytime I hear her I think of the worst church talks I've ever heard and then think...wow she could hold her own with these guys. But even though having to listen to her speak in the future would be cause alone for me not to vote for her that seems like an awfully silly reason to not vote for someone.

So what is it about Hillary that makes me say, "No thanks?" It's all about the money for me. She wants to stengthen the middle class, decrease the cost of healthcare, decrease the cost of college, bail people out for their poor decisions on mortgages, reward kids with $5,000 just for being born, and probably give the world a puppy. And she wants to do all of this on my dime. Look, there's nothing wrong with trying to help people who are less fortuante, but how many things are essentials that people could use to survive and how many things are wants that people usually have to sacrifice for? There needs to be a limit on some of this stuff or else we're going to end up with a country of rationed out surgeries, ineffective workers, and ingrates that take without ever trying to give back.

Barack Obama

Obama is an interesintg candidate. He is a good speaker. He seems to carry himself well. Lots of people say they are inspired by him. But I'm just not sold yet. I guess my problem is the same one that a Phoenix radio host has with him - what are people inspired to do?

As soon as I get the link to his 1 minute commentary I'll post it, but a quick summary of Joe Crummey's Obama opinion is that the word inspiration sure means a lot less than it used to. It used to be that when someone was inspired by a leader they looked to see what they could do. JFK's famous line comes to mind. "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." If you read his speech it really is inspiring. It makes me want to go out and do something for someone.

So what does Obama inspire people to do? I'm not sure he inspires people to do anything other than vote and, if you make too much money, pay a lot of taxes. Obama's key initiatives in commercials are universal health care, making sure that anyone who has a job makes enough money to "not be poor," and expanding various and sundry programs and government entitlements. So at the end of the day the only thing that I can be inspired to do after reading his website is to wait around for the government to come in and take care of me.

Obama is engaging and he promises a lot of things that I'm sure many people feel they need. I have no doubt that he genuinely feels that these are things the government should provide. I just disagree.

Breaking News: Tad Endorses Romney for President

2008-02-01T23:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right. It's the announcement you've all been waiting for after we heard that Dwight K. Shrute was endorsing his cousin Mose for President. I am endorsing Mitt Romney. And yeah, it matters about as much as the Governator endorsing John McCain. But hey, faithful readers of this blog (like Teri) might be swayed by my likeminded views on politics.

Mitt Romney has sound strategies for addressing the shortcomings of our nation. His economic stimulus plan doesn't amount to writing checks and hoping for the best. It actually would provide businesses with an incentive to stay in business and continue to purchase the assets they need to modernize and be competitive. The end result is that more people stay working to produce the things that the end user will buy. But it's not just the economic intuition that gets my vote.

I like the fact that Romney has been in situations where he has made difficult decisions about a company's vitality. Sure he has laid some people off, but who doesn't think that there are plenty of government funded entities that could stand some layoffs (besides HRC and Obama)? We need someone who can take a hard look at our fiscal position and pare things down. (For a rundown of why Ron Paul isn't my guy on this issue, see the forthcoming Super Tuesday candidate primer.)

Romney, like virtually everyone in this Presidential race, could be fairly labeled a political opportunist. It's true that Romney's position on abortion has changed. He cites it as a mistake, but it would probably more accurately be described as a calculated mistake. You can't win the Governor's race in Massachussets as a staunch pro-life candidate. And yet, I'm ok with that. The fact is that every candidate is going to say or do something that may not be a consistent position during the timeframe of their lives. I don't have a problem with changing views until it becomes clear that the candidate truly has no position and will change as the wind does, ala "I voted for the war before I voted against the war."

The fact is that most politicians tailor their message to a particular crowd. When these tailored messages get spread out nationwide via the internet sometimes a tightly woven statement to a particular group gets presented as a "one size fits all" political theory. I don't mind more detailed discussions of what can be done for a particular area or industry just so long as a candidate is not for raising taxes in one state and then decides to abolish the IRS in another. Those people who can't stand tailoring neeed to vote for a candidate like my personal favorite Michael P. Shaw who is running to represent two key constituencies - "the hood" and "the God of Israel." Sure he's only on the ballot in Arizona, but if you're going to be that picky you might as well make your vote count.

The fact of the matter is that in this imperfect field of Republicans, we need to pick the best candidate available. We need someone who believes that a strong economy is good for America. We need someone who believes that America should be secure. We need someone who will ask the pampered citizens of our country to join together to make America great, rather than waiting for "the government" to go out and do it for us. I believe that this person is Mitt Romney and that's why I will be voting for him on Tuesday, February 5.

Dear Hillary Clinton,

2008-01-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

Dear HRC,

In my effort to become a more educated voter I was surfing through your website looking at the issues that you feel are the most compelling in today's USA. One of the topics you addressed was the sagging economy and specifically, the subprime loan blowup. I see that your plan is to 1) ask for a 90 day moritorium on foreclosures, 2) freeze adjustable rates for at least 5 years and 3) get regular status reports on giving people mortgages that work for them so that we can have "real accountability." I think your plan is great - as long as I get a piece of the action.

See the thing is that my wife and I bought a new home in mid-2007. Well actually we put money down on the home around Thanksgiving 2006 and then moved in last year. When we made the decision to buy the home we knew that home prices were on the decline and that the economy may have trouble brewing, but we tried to accurately evaluate our risk and decided that we would still go forward. We liked our home and, most importantly, we felt like our home was one that we could afford and live in for a substantial period of time.

When it came time to get a loan, which as it turns out was only a month or so before the subprime loan crisis arose out of the shadows, we thought that getting an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) would probably be irresponsible. It just seemed too risky. So although ARM rates were significantly lower than our 30 year fixed rate mortgage, we thought we would be doing the smart, responsible thing. But know I realize that I was being dumb.

Had I known at the time we bought our house that I could buy a home that was much larger AND more costly AND sign up for a teaser mortgage rate on an ARM with the knowledge that the teaser rate would last for 7-10 years, even though it's only supposed to just a short period of time, I would have done that. I am pretty dumb to think that I should take a little bit of personal responsibility myself when I know darn well that I can overreach and my government will pick me up. My favorite part of your plan is point 3 where it says that my mortgage company has to give you an update on how well its doing to get me in a mortgage that fits my needs or else it is going to get in trouble for not being accountable.

Hillary, I realize I am not endorsing you for President yet, but I just hope that you'll keep my plight in mind. I'm getting the shaft here. Will you please let me go out and get a teaser rate mortgage? Can it please last for 7-10 years? I really need to blow more money I don't have on things I don't need, but I just don't want to have to take responsibility for my own decisions. Can't the government do that for me?

Sincerely yours,

Tad Davis
Concerned Citizen and Voter

Predictions 2008: A Year of Change

2008-01-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

2008 is shaping up to be a year of change. Yeah, I know that phrase sounds like all I do is listen to Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama (see quote at top), or Hillary Clinton. Curiously, John McCain doesn't have anything about change on his website, otherwise I might have listened to him too.

I suppose our changes probably won't be as epic as these Presidential candidates' grandstanding, but they just might be more substantive. So just for kicks we're rolling out our predictions for 2008. I suppose it may be cheating to be predicting the course of the year when we have the head start of 27 days of 2008 down already. After all, who could have ever forseen that more people would vote for "Nobody" than Dennis Kucinich in the Michigan presidential primary election? And yet the campaign continues. Has anyone told that guy that you get more than a participant ribbon at the end of this thing? (What's that? Oh, I guess he finally quit.)

Anyway, here are my 2008 predictions:

I will keep up my goal to post at least 5 times a month. This is always kind of difficult for me because I try to make each blog post count. I could just slap down any old thing like, "Look at this Hannah Montana couch Kleenex box cover I found on eBay." but I expect a little more of myself. Plus, if I don't end up writing here I feel a drain in creative energy. But I am supremely confident that I can do this because I have a secret weapon...monkeys.

Yes, that's right. We purchased a thousand monkeys and a thousand typewriters and soon we will have both the great American novel and killer blog posts. The first monkey is done now. He writes, "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times." You stupid monkey.

I will resume taking second place in fantasy baseball. For years I have played fantasy baseball in a variety of forms. Sometimes I've played in a rotisserre league, sometimes a points league, and sometimes a head-to-head league. Most of the time I get the same result - second place. I have more second place finishes than the Buffalo Bills. But last year broke my streak. I took first. I joined some general Yahoo fantasy league with a bunch of people I didn't know and I ended up winning. In the other league I played in I finished fourth - despite destroying everyone in the regular season. I can't say I'm really happy to go back to taking second, but hopefully my prediction will go wrong (in a good way.)

We will take on Dave Ramsey's advice. To those of you wondering who Dave Ramsey is, he's a fairly ordinary guy who has fairly common sense financial advice which when followed yields extraodrinary results. His advice boils down to this - put yourself in a good financial position. I highly recommend his book The Total Money Makeover. Even if you're doing well financially it's nice to just read some good common sense advice on the subject.

Sports Predictions:

Super Bowl: New England Patriots

World Series: Detriot Tigers

NBA Championship (not that anyone cares): Phoenix Suns

NHL Stanley Cup: Stanley Steemers (They've got the name on their side)

NCAA Men's Basketball: Witchita State Shockers

McKay will be talking like he kissed the Blarney Stone. McKay is already determined to try and talk, he just hasn't figured out too many words. But what he has figured out he does with great success. He knows his little brother's name is "Dibby," or "Giddy," or "Diddy." He knows "Daddy" and "Mommy." And he also knows a lot about animals. McKay's already trying to share that knowledge with his little brother by reading him the animal book and making all the sounds.

2008 will be good. Why? I don't know - call it a hunch. All I know is that Teri and I are excited to start another year of being together with our cute little boys. What could be better?

In Loving Memory...Crabman

2008-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

(I really wrote this post in September but I didn't know how to complete it with a video. Now, obviously, I do. So despite the somewhat dated pictures the content should still be reasonably informative.)

If there is a time of day that you know McKay looks forward to, it would have to be bath time. Eating is great. Sleeping can be good or bad. But bath time is always a winner.

When McKay first was able to play in the bath tub somewhat independently we bought him a few bath toys. As it turned out, McKay thought they were all cool, but took an especially strong liking to the small crab. He carried that crab everywhere - not just to the tub. Crabman, as we affectionately dubbed him, went with us to church, on trips, and basically anywhere that McKay went.

Teri and I always knew that if McKay got upset, Crabman's even keeled temperament could always cheer Baby K up. I suppose it probably had more to do with the fact that Crabman was made out of a rubbery plastic which made him perfect for massaging K's achy gums, but then again I wouldn't discount the crab's personality either.

In the end, I think Teri and I started liking Crabman just as much as McKay. I definitely noticed a soft spot in my heart for the little guy, perhaps more out of the fond memories that he brought back to mind than anything else, but I did have fun playing with him too. After his several month infatuation with our crustacean friend, McKay moved on to bigger, better, shinier, blinkier, and noisier things.

(Does this video not show up for you? Click here to watch it.)

Crabman still entertained at bath time, but it was as if his prominent role in our lives had been reduced to a non-speaking cameo on Baywatch. (Interestingly enough, one of my mission companions was the brother of Kelly Packard - a Baywatch lifeguard).

It seemed that Crabman's sparkling personality lacked spark. His sense of pizazz was missing some of its piz - or maybe its azz. Crabman was starting to go the way of all those toys you hear about in Toy Story, once loved and now forgotten.

Despite McKay's fickleness for rubberized friends, I still thought Crabman was cool. And so it was sad one day when I discovered in the middle of McKay's bath that it appeared some of McKay's toys were starting to get moldy on the inside. It was that day that we lost Mr. Turtle and sadly Crabman.

So here's to you Crabman. Although your rubber soul no longer dwells with us your memory will always linger. Your body probably will probably always linger too, but it will be hanging out with a bunch of other moldy toys in some place that probably doesn't smell too good. As you make your way there we send you off with this haiku.

Googley eyes and
pincers to suck on have made
a friend of McKay.

We love you man!

(P.S. Last week Teri and McKay were at Target when McKay started doing his excited caveman noise. It goes, "oooooh. oooooh." Teri turned and was trying to figure out what he wanted and kept pointing at different things to no avail. McKay didn't want rubber duckies, sippy cups, or commemorative Star Wars action figures, he wanted something else. Finally Teri followed his gaze to a small pack of bath tub animals. McKay had seen his long lost buddy and wanted him back. So now we have Crab Man II. Here's hoping there's less mold this time.)

Best of 2007

2008-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Like many people who write things down for other people to read, I feel compelled to offer a Best of 2007 list. But unlike other people's lists, I know from the start that the information I am presenting is totally worthless. Well, I take that back. My best things about 2007 are things that I found interesting, funny, or worth taking note of. Depending on what you think of me, it may or may not be worthless.

Best YouTube Video I Have Not Shared on my Blog in 2007
This one is easy. I've been saving this video for a long time knowing that its day would come. It's odd that it makes the cut here, but it's great.

This clip gets funnier every time you watch. Notice the "I'm awesome" grunt at the beginning and the fact that the first question someone asks is "Are you ok?" to which one of his posse members says, "No, he's not."

Best TV Show to Replace all the Shows Currently on Strike
I'm not a big fan of reruns, unless of course I haven't seen the original run in the first place. Such is the case with ESPN Classic's Cheap Seats, a sports version of Mystery Science Theater. (To see the complete hilarious Mystery Science version of the awful movie Time Chasers just look at the links on YouTube. The movie is divided into 10 parts.)

While I can only vouch for the Cheap Seats episodes that I have seen they are pretty funny. Some of you may remember the commercial for Tom Emanski's Defensive Drills. I wanted to link it here, but despite my diligent efforts I couldn't find it anywhere. As a funny ESPN commentary on the commercial explains, the 1991 commercial features Fred McGriff, a then young and talented baseball player wearing a ridiculous Baseball World hat, who promised that this particular drill video gets results. The commercial is still on TV today although if you watch late night ESPN you already know that.

Cheap Seats took a cheap shot at the commercial after their segment on the Thailand tradition of Elephant soccer. Apparently once a year their is an elephant festival in which one of the games is elephant soccer. Villages compete against each other as they ride elephants and try to get them to kick a giant soccer ball. (Dallas, if you know more please fill me in.) After showing ESPN's coverage of the 0 - 0 tie, Cheap Seats then showed this commercial - a parody of Tom Emanski's baseball drills ad. You have to love Johnny Damon, a career .288 hitter (in baseball), touting the awesome elephant soccer training techniques.

One downside though - I just found out that Cheap Seats actually ended in 2006. So set your Tivo for midnight on ESPN Classic, or whenever it airs, and at least enjoy the reruns. By the way, unlike most network commericial breaks where commercials last 3 minutes or more, Cheap Seats usually only has 2 minute commerical breaks. That's important if you use the 30-second fast forward like I do.

Best Catch Phrase
This one requires a preface. My father-in-law works for Thatcher High School and is one of the replacement bus drivers when a regular driver is out, sick, or otherwise indisposed. It is from this bus driver background that my father-in-law got his new motto.

"Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver."

This phrase narrowly beats out his other new catch phrase. "Never throw a kid out the window of the bus without first attaching a safety rope around their neck."

Best Hard Won Prize
As a frequent reader of the blog you are undoubtedly aware that Jared and I were leading in the Mesa City Winter Tennis League. To further update you, we won the league. Check out my hard won winnings!

I ended up giving my shirt to Teri for a couple reasons. 1) She used to attend Eastern Arizona College the home of the Fighting Gila Monster depicted on the shirt and 2) I don't like cap sleeves.

Recap
2007 was a great year. We saw McKay get bigger and funnier. We moved into our house. We had Gibson come into our family. We are very grateful and hope that 2008 brings even more fun - and less children than the previous 2 years.

Happy Birthday, er, Merry Christmas!

2007-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of the birth of our second boy we bought a Baby's First Christmas ornament that has Winnie the Pooh telling Piglet, "How delightful to be so brand new." We thought it was cute then, but we especially liked it after little Gibson Brock was born on December 23 at 8:16 PM. He was 8 pounds and 3 ounces and 20 inches tall.

Gibby, as we like to call him, seems to be a pretty peaceful baby (judging by the statistically insignificant amount of time we have been able to have him here.) He is already accomplished at both sleeping and eating - things his older brother McKay kind of struggled with.

Gibby was also a lot of fun to have around at Christmas. He certainly added a great deal of perspective to our holiday. The hospital was actually a lot of fun to be at, even though you perhaps wouldn't think so. Our nurse Diane came in on Christmas Eve with her 12 string guitar and sang "Silent Night" - a song that is special to listen to while watching your beautiful wife and sleeping newborn. Another nurse brought in a knitted Santa Hat for Gibson to wear instead of the traditional baby beanie.

Even Santa Claus got into the act. He stopped by everyone's room and gave the newborns a bear for Christmas. Even though Gibby is asleep here, he was pretty excited.

It was just a wonderful Christmas. We were able to bring Gibson home on Christmas Eve, about 24 hours after he was born, because he and Teri were both doing so well. This was great because it meant that Teri and I could be home with McKay for Christmas.

McKay has been one of the big surprises of the whole season. He used to be very possessive of Teri, even going so far as to try and push other babies off of Teri's lap when she would hold them just to make sure that she was still "His Mommy." But McKay has been so kind to Gibson. It's actually kind of funny because whenever McKay would first go up to Gibson we would tell him to give Gibby a hug. As soon as he started to hug his brother everyone would go "Awhhhhh. That's so cute." McKay, ever the learning type, then decided that whenever he wanted to see Gibby all he had to say was, "Awhhhhh" and hugging time would commence. It's been good for McKay too because as long as he can see the baby every once in a while and give him a hug, he really doesn't care too much about the baby - meaning he doesn't get jealous.

So this Christmas we're now a family of four. We're sure that it will still take a little while to settle in to our new roles and new responsibilities. (It's funny that last week McKay was a toddler and now we expect him to be a big brother.) But we are confident that everything will work out all right.

We are very grateful for the many miracles we have seen and been a part of this season and we hope that you and yours will be able to experience the joy of this wonderful season as well.

New Baby Update

2007-12-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

With Teri's due date fast approaching (Dec 21) and Teri having regular contractions, albeit 30 minutes apart, our doctor has decided that Teri won't have to tough it out too much longer. Teri is scheduled to be induced on December 23 in the morning.

We'll keep you posted, but in the meantime if you wouldn't mind thinking positive thoughts so that Teri can go into labor on her own before then we'd be appreciative.

Tennis League (Happy Anniversary)

2007-12-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

I just finished the regular season portion of the 7 week long winter tennis league. My partner Jared and I played pretty well. We only dropped one set the entire 6 weeks. It didn't look like that at the start of the season though. While we had played in the spring league, both of our jobs had us pretty busy during the summer and fall and by the time we played our first match in October, I was feeling like Lightning McQueen - the spokesman for Rust-eze medicated bumper ointment. Everything just felt a little bit off.

Fortunately, we were able to play regularly after that first match and things seem to be falling into place. The unlucky part of the story is that although we're 6 -0 in league play, we'd really rather be playing in the division we belong in - even if that meant having a mixed record. Our last stint in the Mesa league featured us playing teams really close but just not being able to finish. So even though we were tied for 5th after the regular season, a coin flip left us in the 7th -8th place game where we won handily to avoid last place. But the league doesn't reward close finishes and so even though we had at one point defeated the team that ended up winning that league, we were demoted to a mixed league that included two teams who were pretty good and two teams who weren't very good.

All in all it is fun to be playing tennis again. It reminds me of when Teri and I were dating. I had signed up to be in the Mesa league with a law school friend and we were playing in the 4.0 league. 4.0 is a tennis term for a good but not great tennis player. Truthfully, we were over seeded and most matches weren't even competitive as we lost again and again. The one match we won that season was the first match Teri attended.

The week before that match, Teri and I had just started dating. I was leaving to go up to Utah to see my brother Russ off on his mission to Maine. Teri and I were getting to know each other and we had some definite mutual interest in one another. The night before I left I had decided that I was going to kiss Teri prior to my trip - leaving her yearning for me the whole time I was gone. It was a clever plan, but it didn't work out the way I'd hoped.

As Teri says now, she knew something was up that night and she was terrified that it meant I wanted to kiss her. The problem was Teri had never kissed anyone - at least willingly. One of her old boyfriends tried to kiss her and Teri made him regret it. Poor Teri was a conflicted young woman. While she liked the thought of being in love, she was terrified of the physical attraction and the kissing that came with it. All night, Teri rebuffed me. We'd cuddle and then she'd break away to get or do something. In her mind she was just to delay the inevitable kiss.

Finally, towards the end of the night Teri broke away to the kitchen to get a drink. I followed. I embraced Teri around the waist. She, now feeling trapped and helpless, leaned away rather than in to me. Then she began to shake. At first I thought it was cute. "Teri's probably a bit nervous," I thought. "And she is awfully young so she might not have kissed too many times before." Then her light shaking turned into a trembling. If Arizona had regular earthquakes I might have mistaken her reaction. But even though Teri was obviously nervous to the point of impairment I still figured that only a kiss could ease her tension.

Our foreheads met; our heads started to turn; and just as our lips were about to touch, Teri turned her head to the side and blurted out at the speed of the Micro Machine man, "How many girls have you kissed?" It was like one of those last second shots from beyond the half court line - you figure it won't work but at least it gives you a chance. Teri would have done anything not to kiss me that night. And in this case Teri's prayers were answered.

I told her 6. I thought that was a low number. She was appalled. Quickly recognizing that I had seen her surprised look, Teri tried to make amends by saying, "So am I going to be number 7?"

"Yes Teri. You're going to be number 7," I replied. "But not tonight." No, that night was pretty much done for in romantic terms. I kissed her on the cheek and said my goodbyes.

While I was in Utah I played tennis every day with my dad and brothers. I also talked to Teri a few times on the phone. I had let her borrow my car with the hopes that she could pick me up from the airport and then take me to my tennis match which she ended up doing. That match turned out to be the best I had played in a long time (including since then). Teri saw us win and that's not all. We went back to her apartment after the match and there with no trembling and no awkward questions we had our first kiss.

It's funny that tennis has always been a little more special since then. I guess it's because Teri is special. Happy Anniversary Teri. I love you.

Tag! I'm it.

2007-12-11T22:11:00.000-08:00

Here are seven things about me (and Teri).

1. Teri and I only went on two official dates before we got engaged. One was to the Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers game, where Teri freaked out when I explained infield defensive shifts by "drawing" a baseball diamond on her leg near her knee with my finger. Our second date was going on the paddle boats at Tempe Town Lake. The rest of the time Teri and I would just be with each other doing exciting things like watching the 2004 Olympic coverage every night, swimming, and playing Texas Hold 'em - where Teri would eat all of my high dollar chips (Starbursts).

2. If given the opportunity I will pump gas into my car exclusively from Pump #11 regardless of gasoline brand or station. I will use any other gas pump number if a) Pump #11 is broken, b) someone is already using Pump #11, c) I feel like I'm getting too neurotic for my own good or d) if Pump #11 is the diesel pump, ethanol pump, or something else that would ruin my car. I'm not particularly sure why I started doing that other than 11 has been my lucky number since before I left on my mission on August 11 and most good things have happened to me either in sets of 11 or on the 11th.

3. I am a sucker for certain TV shows - some good, some bad. For instance, I think it's funny when people ask me "Did you ever see the episode of the Office when..." because they should know that not only have I seen the episode, I own the DVD...and a Dwight K. Shrute bobblehead.

I also am planning a big get together of fellow Children of the 80s on January 6, 2008 because - yep, you guessed it - the new version of American Gladiators comes out on NBC. I'm still not sure about the blonde guy in front.

4. In 6th grade I was the student body president of Horizon Elementary School.

Apparently believing that the student body president actually meant something I tried my best to be active in the school politics. Looking back I suppose I was fairly successful. For instance, when the Principal cancelled the annual 6th graders vs. Faculty softball game because, as she announced it, "the faculty wasn't interested," I conducted my own poll of the faculty and found 12 teachers who were willing to play but had never been asked about it. I took my findings to the Principal (and the 6th grade teachers) and the game was reinstated. Unfortunately, there were 90+ 6th graders who signed up to play so I batted 77th. I never got up but I was happy that we had gotten to play. By the way, 6th grade won 11-7.

5. My top 5 radio stations are: Alternative Rock, News / Conservative Talk Radio, Hip-Hop, Top 40 of the past few decades, and Sports Talk Radio. It's kind of eclectic, but so are my tastes.

6. Teri and I have been married for three years come December 16th. Teri has been pregnant for half of our marriage.

7. When I graduated from BYU in 2003 and decided to go to Arizona State for law school I was heartbroken about leaving BYU right before the glory days of football began. Back then everyone was excited about the prospects of Ben Olson and Ofa Mohetau returning the Y to its prime form. Of course, now we know that the 2003, 2004, and 2005 seasons weren't that great; Ben Olson went to UCLA; and Ofa Mohetau transferred to Texas Tech and then disappeared.

As it turns out, ASU didn't work out too bad for me and I really didn't miss good BYU football because of law school. Now I just miss BYU football because the mtn. has adopted the Copper Hills High School motto. "We aspire to mediocrity...someday."

Tag You're It:
Andrea (Frost Yourself), Dallas, Scott and/or Heather, Matt, Jeremy & Brittaney, and Kristen.

Headed to Hospital (Updated)

2007-12-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my tag response for a few days now but I can't seem to break away from Teri for 10 minutes to finish it. We are now heading to the hospital. Looks like I won't finish it tonight either.

More details to follow.

UPDATE:

Teri was having contractions about 4 minutes apart from 5:30-ishish until 7:30-ish but they weren't that severe. Then from 7:30 until 8:30 she started having contractions 3 minutes apart but still not too severe. So we went to the hospital. Although Teri had contractions in the wheelchair up to triage, once she got into the hospital bed they stopped - on a dime. Teri had one contraction in 20 minutes, but she had dialated to a 2. They took her off the monitor (so of course she immediately had a contraction) and sent us home. Teri's now had contractions all night, but they are inconsistent still.

We'll see how things go.

Pre-Halloween Thanksgiving

2007-11-28T07:30:00.000-08:00

Perhaps this isn't the most timely of posts (seeing as though it is just after Thanksgiving), but it is a funny story nonetheless. Teri's cousins invited us down to Sierra Vista just before Halloween for Thanksgiving dinner. After quickly perusing Wikipedia to confirm that F.D.R.'s fourth Thursday in November rule was still in effect, I began to ask, "Isn't it still October?"

It was. But actually Teri's aunt, uncle, and cousins were being very accomodating and were trying to have their big family get together (aka Thanksgiving dinner) at a time when Teri can still travel. Actually, at a time when Teri and Britney, our sister-in-law who is due the same day as Teri (Dec 21), could travel. Still, it is a little unsettling to be having all the Thanksgiving goods like turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and Cheez Whiz before you've even gone trick-or-treating.

Thanksgiving weirdness aside, I enjoyed my first stop in Sierra Vista. I saw the Wheel of Progress, something that can only be described as the poor man's perpetual motion machine monument. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I wanted to get one, but at the time I pulled of the road to figure out what the heck the thing was, Teri was pretty hungry and wanted to get home and eat. (I know - let's get our priorities straight.)

I also went to the Sierra Vista mall. McKay had lots of fun romping on the plastic/foam rubber tree in the playground area. His frustration was while the tree had two "slides" (basically the foam rubber went down at a 45 degree angle) there weren't any stairs to get up. For the bigger kids it was a problem. But McKay could not get up there despite his toddler stregth. So I spent my time there heaving him around.

All in all it was pretty fun. Teri and I even started to get into the Thanksgiving mood when we stopped for gas. This gem in Sierra Vista isn't quite the pilgrims and the indians, but it's pretty close. Here's Teri and the pilgrim,

Tad and the Indian,

McKay and his nap.

Funny things I have actually heard lately

2007-11-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

These are actual thing I have heard recently. I think they are either silly or very silly.

1) The Writers' Guild of America is on strike. These are the guys who write the scripts for most all televisions shows and movies so you'd think they'd be pretty clever when it came to writing some kind of striking chant. They came up with,

"Eva Longoria -we write the storia."

Yes, I'm being serious. I guess I now know why it is that I have a hard time finding much of any television worth watching. Although, for the sake of the Office and Chuck, I hope the strike ends soon.

2) Arizona is growing like crazy and people are trying to figure out how to keep the growing transportation problem at bay. One suggestion has been to build a series of toll roads. As I was watching the local news one man they interviewed thought that they should just turn the HOV lane into a toll road because, "Everytime I drive on the freeway I am stuck in traffic and the people who are carpooling keep wizzing by. It's obvious that this system [the HOV lane] is not working."

Ok, I get it. If the car pool lane were as clogged with traffic as the rest of the freeway then it would be working right?

I have some more, but these were my top two.

Live from the Turkey Bowl

2007-11-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

Ah, the Turkey Bowl. Who doesn't love a game with 17 wide receivers facing off against 15 cornerbacks and two safeties? Today's Turkey Bowl ended up being standard 14 vs. 14 football with no offensive line so not quite the full effect but still enough to be fun. We still decided to divide up and play 7 on 7 with two different fields.

Final tallies:

Games 1 and 2

Davis, Tad: [Offense] 2 receptions out of 2 intended passes (100%), 45 yards, 2 first downs

End of offensive highlights

(Yeah, not a whole lot of action offensively)

[Defense] 1 touchdown saving interception (which complements my 1 near Pick-6 which I wasn't able to intercept which led to an opposing team touchdown)

6 "tackles" (which really means I just got the guy's flag), 4 solo

5 quarterback hurries, 1 pressure sack (I can't really count it as a sack because right as I was about to pull the quarterback's flag he fell down)

End defensive highlights

Halloween 2007

2007-11-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

Ugh...Halloween 2007.

Much as we tried to get all geared up for McKay's first Halloween as a mobile person, things just weren't quite working out our way. For all the ambitious plans we started out with, everything seemed to be converted to a Plan B, C or even Plan R.

For starters, our original Halloween costume ideas were, well, awesome! McKay was going to be the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. I was hoping for something cooler like everyone being Snap, Crackle, and Pop, but Teri was convinced that the Scarecrow costume would be adorable and so I relented. My costume - which apparently will be for the Halloween 2008 extravaganza - was the ever topical and relevant, Hamburglar. So cool. Teri hadn't decided on a costume, and being pregnant limited some of her options so she was going to be a Rubik's Cube - also a funny, topical costume.

But after making our grandiose plans, we got caught up in the storm of life. Teri has been doing her student teaching this semester and she has to teach full time for 6 consecutive weeks. That has been really hard on her physically. All the standing and walking has just worn her down a little bit. She does love teaching, which was a good thing to find out, but I think she will be very happy when she can just take a break and be home with McKay. The student teaching put a crimp in our plans as Teri simply didn't have enough time to make McKay's costume, or my cape. I would have volunteered to make my own cape, but I know how I get along with manual dexterity tasks and I backed away. After all, the Hamburglar costume is a once in a decade costume and it needs sufficient craftsmanship to outclass all the other costumes. Teri's Rubik's Cube also got put on hold for time reasons.

We ended up repeating our previous performances for costumes. I was Woody from Toy Story. Teri was the Chick-fil-A cow. McKay was a monkey.

Besides not being able to finish the costumes, we never got to carve pumpkins. We bought pumpkins. We even put them on our porch. McKay thinks they're funny and likes to try and pick them up, but he can only really get a hold of the little one.

Then there was Halloween itself. We went to our ward's trunk or treat. It featured a chili cook-off which was interesting. I'm sure the good people at Hormel would be proud of how many votes their chili from a can received. While the chili cookoff didn't have its usual sizzle, the trunk or treat proved to be pretty fun. McKay got up close and personal with a horse. He liked it.

After we got back from our trunk or treat we still had some time for trick or treaters so we popped in a movie and waited for the masses to arrive. As it turned out we only had 10 total. But get this - 4 of the ten came twice. And not only that, but I wanted to unleash some Halloween shock and awe on those kids.

The problem stemmed from the fact that when I was a trick-or-treater I always liked it when adults would allow me to select my candy of choice. That way I could acquire the right mix of candy and make sure that my mom's "taxes" didn't mean I was left without a Snickers. So naturally as an adult now I wanted to give that same experience to other kids. But I found out the hard way that some kids these days have no self control.

The first time the four kids came to our door I told them Happy Halloween and then said "You can choose what you would like." To my honest shock the first little boy, probably about 8 years old grabbed a handful of candy, then another. His sister followed suit and found Hot Tamales whereupon the little boy came back - yes, came back - and grabbed some of those too. His other two siblings were far nicer preferring only to grab one handful a piece. It was absolutely shocking! They did this right in front of their mother and she must have not even thought about it because she brought them back again. The second time they came back they each only grabbed 1 additional handful despite me telling them that they could choose whichever piece of candy they would like. Wow.

But I guess Halloween will probably get more fun as McKay (and bro) get bigger. Besides, Teri and I are excited for our first Thanksgiving and Christmas at our own house (largely due to Teri being unable to travel) and for our new baby boy to be born. And in the larger scheme of things that sounds like a lot more fun than Halloween anyway.

McKay Chips a Tooth

2007-11-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

McKay is becoming quite the adventurous soul. As his coordination allows him to do increasingly more things, his fear of potential consequences drops dramatically. It's like living with an invincible teenager only without the sass.

Truthfully, we would probably have a little bit of sass from McKay if he had learned how to talk yet. While he has mastered "Mommy," "Dada," "side" (short for outside), and "mallo" (short for marshmallow) talking seems to be about the only thing McKay hasn't tried to already figure out. Within the past two weeks McKay has started opening doors, and drinking from a straw.

And he even figured out how to turn on the dishwasher.

With McKay's ingenuity I'm beginning to think that child labor laws may be a bit outdated. Give McKay a few more months and he could probably earn twice as much as me.

The one concern with all this development is that McKay finds himself in situations above his head. And that's saying something considering he's 36 or 37 inches tall already. (I'm not really sure how tall he is. I tried to measure him with a tape measure as he was sleeping, curled up in the fetal position.) One of those situations has already occurred in what many people are calling McKay vs. the infant car seat.

McKay's friend Sadie came over for a visit and McKay wanted to play in her car seat. But he didn't just crawl in there, he tried to climb in and to the top. Just as we were trying to get over there and catch him the car seat shifted and McKay came crashing down face first into the tile. The end result was that he chipped his front tooth.

While the idea of baby dentures did sound promising at first, we figure that baby teeth just aren't worth whatever it costs to make them appear more cosmetic - or the flight to the Philippines. Plus, the chipped tooth just adds to McKay's personality.

Post Script - Just after I had finished typing out my thoughts Teri called me downstairs because McKay needed some help. It turns out that McKay might not be ready to enter the workforce after all. His twin cousins were outside playing with McKay when they rushed inside to tell Teri that McKay was eating mud. Of course, it's possible he just has a more refined palate. That's usually what they tell rich people when they like something that no other normal person likes.

Lisa's Wedding

2007-10-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my sister Lisa and my new brother-in-law Tyrel. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple in September and we had the great opportunity to be up there and share that experience with them. It's always fun to go to weddings, particularly weddings for family. The only weird part was that Lisa Davis is now Lisa Clark. I suppose I knew that was coming but it is still weird to not have a Lisa Davis anymore.

On the bright side, Russ is dating a Lisa. My Dad has already dubbed her "LT" - short for Lisa Two. I figure that name is good for at least a little while. But if Russ ever marries a Lisa (I don't want to put any undue pressure on this particular Lisa) I figure her new name should be L2D2 - kind of like Lisa Davis the second, but cooler. Besides, who wants to be named after the NFL's most prominent rusher when they could be named after some deuterium lamp?

Anyway, it has been reported that Lisa and Tyrel have settled into married life quite nicely and it looks like things are going splendidly. As you can see below, Tyrel is a quick study at roles in marriage - we took this picture at McKay's birthday party just two days after the happy couple wed.

The wedding itself was fun. As was the trip up there. McKay got to wear his cool sweater vest, play with Grandpa, and sit in the good chairs.

He also got to repeat his impressive hanging out performance. McKay actually did this the first time we brought him to Grandma and Grandpa's new house in May. He was 7 months old then. So even though it's not quite as impressive to see a kid do this right before his 1st birthday, I think it's pretty cool.

Teri pulled off her first ever practical joke by telling Amy's friend Dane that the new mini watermelons came complete with edible rinds. Dane, apparently forgetting that only horses eat those things, took a big bite. But I wasn't able to get a picture so he graciously took another bite. Kudos.

In closing, Teri and I would just like to wish many happy returns to our sister Lisa and new brother Tyrel. Mazal Tov!

McKay's Post

2007-10-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is McKay and this is my first blog post.

Daddy said that he would let me post something for my birthday. But then Daddy got mad at me and took away my posting privilege because I had one too many temper tantrums that day. I looked kind of like this.

But I promised that I would be really good on the way home from Utah and I slept the entire plane ride leaving Mommy and Daddy free to listen to some music and read a book. So, as a reward, Daddy is letting me post. I'm really excited.

I like animals. All kinds really. I even like to get up close to them as long as they don't make any sudden movements or sounds.

I love slides. Going down is fun, but trying to climb up is better. I still haven't figured out how to walk up the slide, but I'm working on it.

I love swings too!

But I'll only go on the big swing if Grandpa takes me.

I don't really like TV. Mom tries to make me watch the Smurfs with her, but I'm just not sold yet. I'd rather listen to Josh Groban, Guster, or Hannah Montana. Of course, who wouldn't want to listen to Hannah Montana?

Well, I better go. Mommy's got some bananas for me and I love my bananas.

This and That Volume II

2007-10-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

We still have more things that we we need to catch everyone up on so here they come.

Boys and their Noise(s)

McKay has recently become aware that all animals make noises and he has been very eager to share this discovery with us. McKay just has one problem. Every animal we see now, be they stuffed, real, big, small, feathered, finned, desert-dwelling, or Antarctic based, they all make the same sound. They all growl. And not just any growl. McKay has a very deep throat based growl that also leads to the expectation of expectoration. Rrrrraaaawwwwr. If I can ever capture him doing it on video it would be worth a post. But noises appear to be the one area where McKay is camera shy.

Davis Family - Bowling Champs 2008

For quite a few years now my family has faced off against the Lang family on December 31 in our annual New Year's Eve bowling championship. This started way back before any of the kids from either family were married. Eventually the Langs went out and bought a "travelling" trophy for the bowl off. Unfortunately, putting travelling in quotations marks is appropriate. In the history of the bowling championship only the Langs have won.

Much of the Davis family bowling problems can be attributed to a lack of personal training by some of our team members. Unfortunately, Lisa and Amy have had a history of bowling like this lady.

Notice that she actually threw the ball into one gutter and then the ball made it all the way to the other gutter without hitting any pins.

Now that members of both families are married, the new spouses have become critical in enhancing our bowling average. We tried to get Lisa to marry this guy, but she fell in love with Tyrel. And despite my prodding about Tyrel's bowling scores, Lisa kept those a secret before she married him. Here's hoping he can beat out Lisa's high - 47.

But it looks like 2008 could be the Davis' year! Teri and I were very pleased that we can up our training regimine because we know live super close to a bowling alley. That and we try to get in at least 2,000 frames a week on the Nintendo Wii bowling game. (For a well-produced and very funny look at a senior citizen Wii bowling tournament, click here.) So watch out Langs - you're trophy may be travelling soon.

Tad & Teri Get Callings

Tad just got out of the Elders Quorum presidency where he'd been for the last 3 years so he was very excited when he got an opportunity to grow in a new way - in the elders quorum presidency. Yup, I kind of feel like the Juan Pierre of elders quorums. (No, not in the sense that I only produce 25% of the time and only in non-clutch situations - although we are similar in the fact that we both need a 5th grader to relay a ball from the outfield into the infield.)

Actually, Juan Pierre has the longest streak of consecutive games played in the major leagues at 434, (see bottom of article for details). I mean, I'm sure there's a Cal Ripken of Elders Quorum presidencies - the guy who long ago spent the 35 years in the presidency in one capacity or another and now holds the record. But I feel like I'm on my way. Truth be told, I'm holding out to be called to the nursery - or the ward flyer maker.

Teri, on the other hand, is excited at the prospect of being in the Relief Society each Sunday. She was called to be on the Enrichment Committee over personal preparedness. Apparently, the Primary tries to snag every new person in the ward and does a pretty good job too. But Teri had made a couple of friends in the Relief Society Presidency and they called dibs. It took them a few weeks to figure out a calling, but Teri is excited about it.

Finally, McKay Loves Music

McKay loves singing and music in general. Regardless of his mood, if you will sing to him he starts to calm down. If you play Josh Groban for him, he's silent within seconds. But finding good McKay songs can be difficult. So, I'll leave you with my personal favorite song to sing to McKay. It's a blast from the past - a song that I loved as a kid - and features two of my favorite childhood heros, Ernie and Lefty the (Crooked) Letter Salesman.

Uni-Watch

2007-09-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

I've been saving this post since sometime in late June, allowing the topic of college football to slowly simmer back up to the surface. And here it is, September and we are now already in the middle of the season. It's a perfect time to bring up one of my favorite time destroying activities...evaluating uniforms.

For those of you new to this type of keen evaluation, there are a boatload of resources to help ease you in. In fact, ESPN online actually pays a guy to write a column about uniforms that appears every once in a while. In addition, he has his own blog which is updated more frequently. Based on the time and effort he puts in to evaluating uniforms, I wonder if he does it full time.

Anyway, my post stems from a list released in June from Sports Illustrated giving their top 10 best and worst uniforms. They came up with the list after Oregon State announced their snazzy new duds.

All in all I thought the list was a little silly. For example, SI lists Michigan on their best dressed and Delaware on their worst dressed. Huh? Did they same guy/team of editors work on these projects? The other funny one was their inclusion of Yale.

I guess no one bothered to look at BYU?

The one thing I did think SI got right, which to me should be unanimous across the globe, is that the Oregon Ducks have the worst uniforms ever. One of my favorite photoshopped pictures has Oregon ties. Here is the latest in Oregon fashion. Notice the chubby fellow second from the left. He's no lineman. Actually, he's in his costume carefully photoshopped to show us all what the movie Tron would have looked like if it would have been shot in Oregon.

Anyway, evaluating uniforms is fun. Or at least can be if you have nothing else to do. With that being said, I'll leave you all with my all time favorite football photo with newspaper caption. Here's to you Marquis Weeks and your uncanny gift of description.

Mr. Weeks had just scored a touchdown on a 100 yard kickoff return and was pretty excited talking to the newspaper. His exact quote, in case you can't quite read it from the newspaper, "That was just instinct. Kind of like running from the cops." Awesome.

Have a great college football season and go Cougars!

McKay's First Cardinal (StL) Game

2007-09-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

Teri and I took McKay to the baseball game on Friday night to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Arizona Diamondbacks. We were all pretty excited because who doesn't want to go see a baseball game between two teams competing for the playoffs? Plus, seeing Albert Pujols in person is just plain fun.

The one problem with our plan was that the baseball game starts at 6:40 PM and McKay goes to sleep at about 6:30 PM. The good news was that we talked to McKay about it and he seemed fine going to bed way past his bedtime. He was even more excited when we told him that Smashmouth was performing after the game. He's wanted to go to a rock concert for a while now.

In the end, the game was a lot of fun to attend. Despite the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals lost, Teri and I were happy just to be there. After all, going to see the St. Louis Cardinals play is the only non-weekly thing I have done every year since moving to Arizona in 2003. Thus, this game proved to be my fifth year anniversary of seeing the Cardinals play. Having McKay there just made things more fun. He made really good friends with the old couples in front and behind us. The guy in front was kind of funny, wearing a Smashmouth band jersey to the game. Then behind us we had one couple who would cheer so loud it spooked McKay and the other couple who spent 75% of their time at the game trying to get McKay to pay attention to them.

The lone downside to the game was that some maroon sat in front of Teri and me for a while wearing his cowboy hat and skinny jeans. (See the top photo in that article for a rough version of what we saw or if you are interested in skinny jeans you can read more here.) For two innings Teri could only see the batter and I could only see the pitcher. Without consulting each other, we both thought about asking him to remove his headgear. The problem was that everyone in our section kept talking to the guy saying "Hi Cowboy, " etc. Because we had gotten our tickets for free from our cousin we figured we didn't want to interrupt a bunch of season ticket holders greeting each other, especially if they all knew him as a cowboy and we were asking him to remove his cowboy hat. In the end, we elected to not say anything and eventually he left.

So after the game wraps up we hear the cheering lady ask the guy in the Smashmouth jersey in front of us, "So, you're a big fan of the band huh?" I thought this question was kind of funny seeing as though Smashmouth was only really popular in the late 90s and early 2000s and here you have one 60+ woman asking another 60+ year old man if he's a big fan of the band. But as it turns out, he's not just a big fan of the band, he's the drummer's dad. So you know what that means, the guy with the cowboy hat wasn't a season ticket holder, he's a rockstar. I guess we should have asked him to take off his hat, but then again we probably wouldn't have been able to get this cool picture.

Next time we head to Chase Field, we'll just tell them we're with the band...or at least the band's parents.

This & That Volume I

2007-09-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

During the past few weeks while we have been absent from our blog a lot of things have been going on. Here is our attempt to quickly update you on our adventures.

A few weeks ago, Teri and I stopped by the burned section of our subdivision to see how the rebuild was going. It all looks really good, and the burned houses are going back up quite nicely. But the big surprise was that there were three foxes hanging around in the grassy park area. They were pretty cool and even let us get somewhat close to them to take pictures.

McKay can walk. Actually, that is pretty much all he does anymore. He gave up crawling because he can't get around fast enough to chase his cousins.

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A few weeks ago, McKay was really upset and it looked like he was teething. We had always heard that the eye teeth were the worst and those were the next ones for McKay. But no eye teeth showed up for a week. And then we discovered McKay has a molar coming in. He now has three molars and no eye teeth. One of our dental friends informed us that some people never get their eye teeth. We'll see how that one works out for K, but the internet has provided hope. This website says that you will get molars before your eye teeth. I should probably ask my brother the dental student to make sure, but then again when has the internet ever been wrong?
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Our new ward has been very welcoming. In fact, they invited me out to play basketball one Saturday. They must have figured they had nothing to lose, because after all, I am shorter than everyone else there. But they let me play anyway. I was pretty rusty. Although I made good decisions and cuts to the basket, I could not make a layup. I think I went 1 for 30. I kept getting steals or fast breaks but just couldn't convert. It was terrible. I finally started passing up an open layup to kick it out to a guy behind the three point line. Sounds like my deacon's basketball team all over again. But next time will be better. Thank you Lenny Wilkens!

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Teri's student teaching is going really well. She loves Moutain View and it seems like they really like her. Everything is a positive, except for the chair she gets to sit in. The funny thing is that Mountain View has amazing resources for their students. There is a math lab with computers for those students. They had lots of cool gadgets and programs to use at the board. But then they give their teachers these hard metal chairs to sit on. Well, Teri couldn't take it anymore and new baby was making her ache way too much, so we got her a new chair. It's the best deal you can find. Yet another reason we like Ikea.

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Because I feel bad that we haven't been active on the blog for so long I wanted to give you a freebie of sorts. So here is some legal advice. Take it for what you paid for it and realize that I wouldn't actually rely on this advice, but hopefully somewhere down the road it will come in handy.

#1) If you are ever charged with a crime hire a lawyer.

#2) If you decide not to hire a lawyer do not ask the judge to address you by your alias.

#3) When cross examining expert witnesses, do your homework. That may include thinking back to 9th grade biology before you ask something like "So sperm can't come from a female?"

#4) If you decide to put on a defense, don't just repeat the same eight questions six times a piece to ten different witnesses. It gets old and repetitive.

#5) Finally, don't ever admit that you don't care what the jury thinks about you and your case. Even if that's true and you're consigned to going to prison for the rest of your life, don't tell everyone. That just makes the trial MORE frustrating.

By the way, you can not follow my advice and get convicted on all 16 counts of criminal activity.

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Our last tidbit, Teri now works with me for CVLAP. She will be working something like 2 hours a week helping out with the grants. Yep, it looks like everyone in my family will begin working for CVLAP. We'll see how soon until McKay gets hired.

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Again, sorry for the absence. The house is finally coming along and so we should have a bit more time to dedicate to letting you all know what is going on. Pictures to come soon.

We really still are here.

2007-08-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for absence on the blog. We have not gone all isolationist. Actually, we moved into the new house a few weekends ago, but due to some wiring confusion the internet was not accessible on our desktop. That obviously has now been corrected.

Stay tuned for more fun updates.

Happy Pioneer Day Harry Potter

2007-08-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

As some of you might know the 24th of July is a state holiday in Utah - Pioneer Day. The state uses that day to honor the Mormon Pioneers who settled the Great Salt Lake Valley. Interestingly those celebrations are not limited to Utah. Thatcher, Pima, and Safford in southeastern Arizona, as well as a few other Arizona communities farther north, also celebrate the 24th of July. Like in Utah, the Gila Valley 24th celebration often gets just as big or bigger than the 4th of July holiday and some residents are puzzled when they find out that the 24th isn't a national holiday.

Coming from Utah myself I was excited to go to the Thatcher 24th celebration because Teri had talked it up a lot. We had never been able to go in prior years because we had either 1) been in Utah, or 2) been taking the bar exam. 2007 looked like it was going to be the perfect opportunity to head down to Thatcher and enjoy in the small town festivities - that was until the monsoon hit.

Rain cancelled the parade which was too bad because I was looking forward to the scripture study float. While I have yet to see the float reliable sources tell me that there is a truck with people sitting in the back reading scriptures all along the parade route. Man, and I thought that the Murray 4th of July parade was awesome! There's nothing like the engine roar of a Pinto, which comprises 2/3 of the Murray parade.

After the rain started we figured all wasn't lost as McKay had never seen a rainstorm. As you can tell, McKay had a lot of fun. So did Mommy.

In the end, we were going to go see the firework show they put on, but McKay fell asleep and Teri gave in to the temptation of reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Actually, she had her Dad go out and buy another copy of the seventh book (because ours had been delivered to our address in Mesa while we were in Thatcher) so that she could read. The funny thing was that despite our three year wait to celebrate the 24th of July in the Gila Valley, we all just ended up celebrating Harry Potter. That weekend I read Books 1 and 2 and half of 6; Teri finished 6 and read 7; Teri's Dad read 7; and Teri's Mom read half of 7. Oh well, there's always next year...or three years from that.

One real highlight of the trip was that Grandma got to give McKay his first haircut. As you can see he kind of needed it. This was him a few days before we went up to Thatcher.

This is McKay taking his bath to keep him occupied while he gets his haircut.

We'll see if this means the end of McKay's prodigious Sampson-like strength.

Announcing......

2007-08-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

A new baby BOY. Thanks to all those who voted in our poll. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell me who voted for what so I cannot personally congratulate those who picked BOY. Nevertheless, you should feel proud of yourselves because after all, you went out on a limb and stuck it out with the minority of voters, but were vindicated in the end.

We are still not sure about a name. One option would be to auction off the naming rights to the highest bidder on eBay. I think the last time someone did that they made at least a couple thousand dollars. How about Random House Davis?

Or Coke Davis?

Or even Chili Davis?

Lots to think about. Which give me an idea for a new poll. What should new baby's name be? Stay tuned for your chance.

Burning Updates

2007-07-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering what is going on with our house. Some of you may be studying for the bar, preparing to get married, preparing for a reception, moving into a home, or trying to figure out how Legos work, in which case the following update may not be for you -- at least right now.

The house is coming along quite well. It's be fun to watch the house go from framing all the way to completion. The picture above is the house about a week after we went and just saw the concrete pad it was built on. The picture below is our house two weeks ago.

We have been very excited about the progress of construction and it looks as if now everything is almost done. Below we have a bunch of photos from our last outing over there.

But now here's the hangup. As much as we would like to close on our house, and as much as our builder would like to close on the house and get paid, Karma seems to think otherwise. Originally, we were supposed to close on July 11th or thereabouts. But the county had yet to approve our drainage system for the subdivision and so everyone was put on hold.

Then the fires started. On July 5th, 3 houses just barely in the framing process were burned down. Then on July 10th, 10 more houses fell victim to arson. Fortunately, our house was not affected. It stands in the portion of the community that is currently done. All the fires occured in homes that were still being framed. Still it is a great cause for concern, especially considering that the next area of the subdivision to go into framing is the area that abuts our finished portion.

But it appears as though there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Our builder just called and said that we will be able to close on our house sometime before July 31. We haven't had a fire there for 8 days now. And best of all, Teri's already made most of the curtains.

So stay tuned for the latest news and enjoy the pics below.

Here Teri, her brother David, and her sister Julie inspect the kitchen, while Merilee inspects the carpet behind them. The fridge will go right behind Teri in the open space beneath the cabinet.

Ellie was checking out our master bedroom/bathroom. The bathroom doesn't have a door, but it does have a nice archway. Ellie really liked the cardboard strips they laid out to walk around in the house.

Merilee and McKay love the new stairs. McKay climbed up the stairs 3 or 4 times in the 20 minutes we had over at the house just looking around. We were holding him the rest of the time.

The real danger here is that McKay is great at going up, but still hasn't figured out how to get down. Like a poor boxer, McKay likes to lead with his chin.

In the words of Strong Mad, "DAGRON."

2007-06-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

Teri has always had an affinity for dragons. Her favorite book genre - fantasy. Her favorite book recently - Eragon. Her favorite flash animation character with at least one beefy arm - Trogdor. She even downloaded a lullaby from a daytime talk show to play for McKay each night when he goes to sleep.

So it was no surprise when we found ourselves at the 1st Annual Events Competition for the National Association of Catering Executives this past Tuesday. Or maybe it was a surprise. Either way, we went because Teri's sister Julie had created a dragon cake for the competition. The competition was designed like a wedding expo, with event planners showing off their table top decorations and pastry chefs showing off their cakes. Every entry was assigned an element: Earth, Fire, Water, Sky. Julie worked on the fire element.

Notice the beefy arm. This guy doesn't have much in the way of consummate V's, although he's nailed the majesty bit. (Did this paragraph not make sense to you? Please click on the Trogdor link above. If that doesn't make sense, please visit the First Time Here link on Homestarrunner.)

My favorite part of the whole competition was wandering around to the various table top decorations and cakes. At every cake, someone was waiting to offer you a piece of cake and a business card should you desire to have them make a cake later. I knew right away that 28 cake samples could end up spelling Rolaids, so I ended up only eating about half of one piece of cake. McKay ate the other half. McKay and I both liked it, especially that yummy strawberry glaze in the middle. Teri ended up not having anything as New Baby has a strong dislike of anything sugary. That's right - anything.

Our preference for no cake made for an interesting afternoon of discussion as well. Chefs would come up and offer us a slice of cake. We would politely decline. They would raise their eyebrows as if to say, "Well why are you here then?" One chef even went as far as to ask, "So are you in the industry?" I had to laugh. This is a picture of us that day. Do we look like we are in the catering/event planning industry?

Interestingly enough, Teri's brother David came home after we got back and told us there was one really awful cake there that he had sampled. Apparently, it was loaded with alcohol and just really sent his taste buds in a tizzy. I told him I was pretty lucky then because I had only eaten one piece of cake. When I told David which one I had tried he just had to laugh. I guess McKay and I have strong tolerances for alcohol, because we both wolfed down that loaded strawberry glaze. In retrospect, I suppose I probably shouldn't have eaten it and I really shouldn't have fed it to McKay. But you only live once right?

Anyway, the competition really was amazing. This was the overall winning cake. Everything, including the ceramic looking plate it sits on, is edible, although some if it is gum paste.

This cake took third overall. It was made by a Russian woman who claimed the cake was inspired by a Russian fairy tale. I'm no expert but Russia was never quite as fun as these cake seems to be.

This was Teri's favorite table top. It doesn't have any dragons, but she loved the ambiance it created.

Here's a closer view of the table decor.

Non-Maricopa County Fun

2007-06-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Once again for work I had to take a trip outside of Maricopa County. This time the destination was Willcox, Arizona, a town best known for being the birthplace of Rex Allen. My father-in-law's family used to live in Willcox and he informs me that his family's claim to fame was that his dad beat up Rex Allen, apparently when they were both in school.

My mother-in-law can one up that story though. Her claim to fame is that when she was running a beauty salon in southeastern Arizona a woman came in bragging that she used to be Rex Allen's mistress, only to find out that the woman she was bragging to used to be Rex Allen's wife. Tension ensued.

Because Willcox is a fairly long drive to go there and back in one day I figured I would take along Teri and McKay for the ride. We all stayed over with Grandma and Grandpa and then I hit the road. Just as I was leaving town, I saw this billboard.

I already know what Matt is thinking. All Heroscape radio, all the time! And that's what I thought too. I mean look at this guy!

But alas, it was the Gila Valley's version of the greatest hits of today and yesterday. I did hear the Fugees though and oh did that bring back memories.

One important take-away from this week's trip was that McKay is learning at a young age what is important in life. He made me proud when he did his best Scott Spiezio impression.

Thanks McKay. Daddy loves you! Go Cardinals!

Otter Pops

2007-06-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

If there is one signature item for summer it has to be Otter Pops. After all, who doesn't love Otter Pops. And don't try to pass off Flav-o-flav Ice or any other knock off as the real deal either. Although coincidentally Jel Sert, the maker of Otter Pops, is also the maker of Fla-Vor-Ice. See JelSert for exciting merchandise options.

Anyway, back to the Otter Pops. So McKay had his first taste of Otter Pops months ago as Teri was searching for foods that McKay would cringe at when he first tasted them. Among the foods resulting in cringing were Otter Pops, peaches, and ice cream. McKay did not cringe when fed pickles, tomatoes (much to Mom's dismay), or peas.

Here is McKay's first try at the frozen wonder.

Well, McKay has since developed quite the affection for the frozen treat although it seems as though he now has decided that he prefers them room temperature. His Father's Day gift to Dad was to chew through 2 unfrozen Otter Pops. As you can see, he ate through Lil Orphan Orange and then turned his attention to Louie Blue Raspberry.

In any regard, Otter Pops should be enjoyed by everyone during summer, especially when it is 115 outside. If you would like more information about Otter Pops, including helpful Spanish phrases you can say to other Otter aficionados, feel free to visit http://www.otterpops.com/. By the way, did you know the Otters are a band with music videos? I didn't either.

To California...And Back

2007-06-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

So I went to California today for work. I was out there for a total of about 2 minutes before I made it back to Arizona. Oddly enough, in order to get to the Yuma (Arizona) County Courthouse from the freeway you have to take the first California exit and then drive back across the border.

Other than that my trip out to Yuma was relatively uneventful. I did take a quick tour of the Space Age Lodge (pictures forthcoming). On a scale of 1 to Charles in Charge

I give the drive to Yuma a 4 (with a strongly depreciating value on a return visit for the lack of a novelty factor).

McKay Starts Early

2007-06-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

McKay is now 8 months old, but it is never too early for a little bit of future planning.