Thanksgiving in Boston

We spent Thanksgiving in Boston with Jason, Kimberly, Ethan, Grandma, and Grandpa. We drove halfway on Tuesday night and the other half Wednesday morning.

On Thanksgiving, Jason and I went to play a game of touch football in Salem. However, 15 minutes after everyone was supposed to be there, we only had three people. The third person knew of another football game that was going to start in 45 minutes at another park. The other game was going to be TACKLE. I gave up tackle football about three years ago when we had two Elders in our ward that both weighed over 200 pounds. I tried playing tackle with these guys and was sore for several days and decided that I was too old to be playing tackle football anymore. But, I really wanted to play football and Jason was game so we drove over to the other park. Some of the guys in Jason’s ward were making up the teams and I believe the primary factor they were using was weight. Anyone less than 185 pounds were on our team, and everyone over 185 pounds was on their team. There were one or two exceptions, but for the most part each of our players were outweighed by 20 pounds or more. It was a very close game and a lot of fun. Needless to say, but I will anyway, we took some hits and dished a few out. Jason had a jammed finger that swelled up large and both of us were in pain for a couple of days.

Thanksgiving Dinner was great. We had a Brine Turkey, Mashed potatoes, Sweet potatoes, and Green bean casserole. Kimberly, Jason, Grandma, and LaDonna did a great job on preparing everything and it tasted great. We also had Pumpkin, Banana Cream, and Blueberry pies.

I love Thanksgiving because I usually get to play football, eat, watch football, and browse ads for black Friday. This year a few stores opened early and I found a lot of things that I “needed” were on sale. So, Jason and I got in the car and went to CompUSA which one of their locations opened at 9:00 pm. When we got there, the line was 400 people long and it was pouring down rain. We opted out and decided to go to another location that opened at 12:00 a.m. When we got to the other location, there were about 28 people in front of us and we had a two and a half hour wait before the store opened. We talked to people in the line with us and generally, the time moved quickly. There was a lot of drama trying to get into the store, but I’ll save that for a story sometime. We both wanted to get the GPS navigation unit that was on sale and we both got it easily. We also picked up memory cards and flash drives. It’s a real adrenaline rush for me to try and get all the deals when you walk into the store with a lot of other people that are going for various deals and it’s very chaotic. It’s also a game to see when you should go to the store and begin standing in line. I figure I don’t really have anything else to do at those hours so I might as well get a bargain on some electronics that I “need”. After we got the stuff, we went home and I was planning to go back out at 5 a.m. on Friday, but I set my alarm for the wrong time and realized it too late, so I stayed in bed.

Just a heads up – Jason and I did practice Project Gotham Racing 2 while I visited and are preparing for the Christmas competition.

General update on the family

In September, we sold both the rental houses we had which was another item we needed to complete before we can move to North Carolina. I'm planning to look for a job after the first of the year and as soon as I find a job, then we'll move.

I'm still with AEGON, an insurance company, as an Account manager for Third Party Administrators (TPA) and it's kind of weird now. My boss knows that I'm leaving so he's not giving me any long term projects. It's been really slow for a while because of that. I'm now helping our office in Atlanta set-up a new Third Party Administrator. It's something I kind of just lucked into, but I've set-up 4 new TPA's and am kind-of the resident expert on how to do it and what to look for. Therefore, I was in Atlanta for 3 days last week and am going to be gone all next week. On Monday, we fly to L.A. Tuesday, we meet with the partner at their location in L.A. Wednesday, we fly to Cedar Rapids, IA. Thursday, we meet with there IA location. Friday, fly home. It's kind of a pain to be on a plane 3 days in a week and deal with the time changes, but it shouldn't be a bad trip because it is spaced out a little. I usually only travel a few nights each month and sometimes they are day trips.

At church, I'm Elder's Quorum president and have been now for 4 years. I'm ready to do something new, but they just replaced both of my counselors and left me as president so I'm assuming they won't release me until we move.

LaDonna is teaching primary (Valiant A) and is also compassionate service leader. She's wanted to teach primary for a while and they just put her back in so she's excited about the class. She wasn't really excited they were teaching the Old Testament, but she's doing it anyway.

LaDonna is working for Grandma and Grandpa 3 days a week and the kids go over and play and keep Grandma from working.

Lonna has just started to use the potty. It's very exciting for us since she is already 2 and a half. We still have a ways to go, but at least we are on the road to not having diapers for one of them. The first time she used the potty we gave her one of her Christmas presents early just to try and reinforce the behavior. She isn't going to get a present every time, but it was a special occasion so it deserved something special.

She is very bossy and reprimands LaDonna and I often. One that is/was amusing is when we are trying to get her to move a little faster, she'll say "Don't push Lonna."

Lonna also likes to go down to the marina with Grandma to feed the "baby fish". There are minnows at the boat ramp that they feed crackers or bread. Lonna usually dumps an entire package of crackers in at once if we don't watch her.

Lonna is talking all the time now and only uses signs once in a while. She has tried to teach Bryce a few, but doesn't really use them herself. She is learning her ABC's and can sing the song missing about 30% of the letters. She can count to ten, although she skips #4 most of the time.

We read the same stories at bedtime most nights and recently found out that Lonna has memorized the books. One example is "Goodnight Teddy", we'll read the first couple of words on the page and she'll finish the sentence. Most pages only have a sentence or two, but it's neat to listen to her finish them.

Bryce is now walking most of the time. When he wants to get somewhere fast he'll still crawl, but he is trying to walk more and more. He still has bright red hair and it's only getting darker because there is more of it now. He has learned two signs, eat and drink, and uses them fairly often. He'll also say "duck" and "ball", sometimes pointing at the right item, but sometimes he's not even close. He is more like a typical boy that I would have imagined. He likes to hit, play hard, and head butt. He generally does things more actively than Lonna did around the same age. A story about the head butting, a week or so ago Lonna and Bryce were both on Lonna's bed. They both crawled toward something and their heads collided. Lonna started crying almost instantly and Bryce just looked at her and kept playing. The kid has a hard head and sometime will head butt a wall just for fun.

Halloween

I'll start with an update from Halloween. Bryce was a dinosaur.

He didn't really get to do much other than get carried around all night and watch Lonna go door-to-door collecting candy. He's had a few pieces of candy and knows that it tastes better than the other food he is accustomed to eating.

Lonna was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Ashes made the dress for her and she loved it, as did a number of other people throughout the night. She received compliments at 80% of the houses we went to and people were amazed at how cool the dress was. We have a hard time getting a picture of Lonna while she is smiling. Her forced smile doesn't really look good, but I've included a decent picture from the evening.

We had a pretty good time and Lonna wanted to keep going when we were done.

Introduction Blog

I have enjoyed reading John and Kristen's blogs over the past couple of months and I also was glad when Ashes sent out the update on her family. I wanted everyone to have a chance to read more about our family so I've created this blog. I know Mom (hereinafter referred to as Grandma) probably updates everyone on some of the events and activities in our life. But, the first hand account and pictures are sometimes better.

With that being said, I will try and write in this blog often, whether or not anything of signifigance happens. I reserve the right not to update it as well, not because I don't want to, just because I might not get to it.