A Flash of Production

Any way you cut it... any way you define it... I'm a genuine first class procrastinator. I can procrastinate with the best'em. In fact, you could say I put the pro in procrastinate. I'm not sure where I got this talent or how long it took me to hone this skill, but I would bet it has something to do with the combination of me wanting to do things just right and me wanting to avoid stepping out of my routine.

That being said, every once in a while, I will have a productive streak. A time when I get a lot done and feel really energized while finishing task after task. It can last a little as a few hours or snowball over the course of several days.

Thankfully, I have recently been in such a productive mode. Very cool. Here's a list of items I've accomplished since Monday: changed the oil on the Altima, fixed a fan, replaced the a/c air filter, built Kaia's play shopping cart, fixed the toilet, did insurance stuff, finished some design work, organized part of the garage, etc.

Even as I'm writing this list, the items seem so insignificant and simple. But these are things that I keep putting off and putting off. They take me forever to do and collectively they become daunting.

Here's to the snowball continuing...

David's 30!!!

For David's 30th, I knew I wanted to do something to really kick off the next 30 years. I considered a murder-mystery dinner, 3 different parties each with different groups of friends (one for each decade), or one big sha-bang. After picking the brain of a couple friends and presenting options to David, we went with the latter option...big party with scavenger hunt and dinner. My original ideas for the scav hunt were much simpler than what we ended up doing...but thanks to David, we ended up with a hunt that was perfectly complex and well-designed for the time limit and groupings of people that competed. So, here's a break up of the evening...it really was nearly the perfect party (except Samantha got scraped up pretty good (good news that she and baby are doing just fine)...darn competitiveness).

1) Scavenger hunt. Teams consisted of two cars each (6-10 players) for a total of 3 teams. Each team was given a sheet with 9 pictures (within a 3 mile radius on our side of town). Teams received 100 points for getting a picture of their team in each location. If they didn't recognize the location of the picture...there were hints below in the form of puzzles.

(Click on image above if you want to see it larger.)

On the other side of the paper, were 30 "extras" to throw into pictures...each being worth 10 points. These included things like a pic near a convertible, in a drive thru, with a biker, ...

One of the extras was a picture with David (this one was worth 100 points). He went to 3 random places and texted teams with his location...needless to say, this "extra" was enticing to all and each team ended up scoring pictures with the birthday boy himself (and this made D very happy!).


Bonuses were given to teams who arrived back before 5:55pm and a bonus was also given to the team with the fewest pictures - it was awesome seeing "grown ups" sprinting towards the house trying to make the deadline. All teams made it back before the 6:00 deadline...and the winning team ended up being the team who received the fewest pictures bonus. Myself, 3 babysitters, all the kidos, Abby and Ezra stayed behind. The babysitters (Lydia, Jennifer, Beka) were incredible...the kids all had a blast. This allowed me to do a few minor setups for dinner and enjoy my time.

Above: Winning team #3 in their Beatles-esque/Abbey Road pose


Team "doing what the sign says." (See "Open" sign in window). :D


Fight scene!


2) Dinner. El Molinito arrived, set up the Mexican buffet, and left before the teams returned. Shortly after returning at 6:00, people started eating. We had 4 large, circular tables set up in the backyard...we were able to borrow tables and chairs from my school (& a church that meets at my school)...David's coworker Dave and his kids Savannah and Jake helped us to transport these to our home and then back to the school! It was so nice of them...and saved us a bunch of $$$. At dinner, it was awesome to see people that didn't know each other previously mingling. David had a chance to sit at each table and catch up with most everyone. For dessert, we had donuts...those who truly know David weren't surprised one bit with that choice (vs. cake).

Having the babysitters there the whole time was awesome for me and the other parents as they got to have fun running around town with their spouse and team and then being able to sit back and enjoy dinner.

Above: Lydia working her magic with the kids.

Several people weren't able to come until dinner time...I believe the party maxed out at about 50 guests, ranging in age from 10 days to 86 years!

Above: Ezra with Daddy Ryan: born April 1st, 2010

Most importantly, David was on a high for days following the party. The party, all the pictures of friends and family, will be forever remembered. Thanks to everyone who made this day of celebration so memorable and joyous!

Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever.

I turned 30 years old on Wednesday. 30! I’m stoked. Despite the fact that my actual birthday was a few days ago, I actually started celebrating last weekend. Eileen threw me a party last Sunday… and not just any party, but an incredible scavenger hunt party with almost 50 of my friends and family!! I’ll let her tell you about the specifics of how she planned it and how it came together, but I just wanted to try to express how great of a gift this was for me.

When Eileen asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday party, I brainstormed for awhile with her and we eventually arrived at the scavenger hunt idea. Most people know that I enjoy playing games, so this idea was perfect. It allowed me to share my love for games, hang out with a large amount of people I care about, and create a memorable unifying event that I will remember forever.

Obviously, I knew I would like the party, but I wasn’t braced for just how much I would enjoy it. I have been on a super high ever since it started! Here were all these people representing all the many parts of my life, all in my house, all at the same time. There were friends from work, from church, from playing games, from playing sports and from school; not to mention family from my side and Eileen’s. It was beautiful.

I had the pleasure of watching them have fun doing the scavenger hunt. The laughter, the playful competitiveness, the joy. And to think that most of these people were strangers before the hunt started. I love watching people come together over a good game. On top of all of this, I have the whole night documented with pictures from the hunt, as well as from the dinner afterwards in our backyard. The conversations were awesome. The smiles and hugs were aplenty. And the love everyone showed me was unforgettable.

And as if this wasn’t enough, after Eileen and I cleaned the disaster that was our house… we sat outside under the stars, held hands and talked. Priceless.

Well, I’m blessed to say the least. And I truly feel humbled to have such amazing people around me shower me with their gifts of love and joy.

Thanks to everyone for showing up. For being there for me. For thinking of me. For making me feel special.

And a special thanks to my wife, Eileen. You’re amazing. Thank you.

Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever.

...

One Down...Many More to Go...

So, I check my email the other day and find this...

"Congratulations on completing the IDP training unit requirements!"

Boo yah. This basically means that I'm now officially qualified to start taking all of my architecture tests. Big thanks to Eileen for helping me with all the paperwork and jazz. Oh the paperwork.

With this latest milestone met, I now have nothing stopping me from becoming an architect... except of course those 7 tests.

Sigh.

This & That

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a wonderful lunch at Tanque Verde Guest Ranch to celebrate my mom's birthday...it was very relaxing as Kaia stayed home with sitter Jen to nap. Even got to relax by the pool for awhile. (If you haven't been here for lunch, you need to go. Awesome ranch, one of the best buffets (mmmm...dessert table) out there!)

After Kaia's nap, we headed to The Children's Museum, Jason's Deli for a salad, then to Elements church service. It sounds like we did a lot today, and you might be thinking that we had a ton of energy. But truth is D and I have been pretty sleepy all day. Getting out the house is energizing for both of us and Kaia had a blast too. :)

My friend Jessie has now visited the top 10 restaurants in Seattle. I went to check out Tucson's top 10. I was born and raised here and have not been to all of the top 10. We'll have to see what we can do to fix that - anyone want to go out? (I need to hit 2, 3, 8, & 9) Number 1 is Cafe Poca Cosa which is a favorite of mine, so I feel like I can trust this list.:)
http://www.urbanspoon.com/lb/59/best-restaurants-Tucson

Oh, and David and I have decided each year to celebrate Valentine's Day on the weekend closest to the 26th of February (since our anniversary is on May 26th). Just want to avoid the crowds, limited menus and expensive flowers...and be a little different. Hmmm...maybe we'll hit #2 (the restaurant, that is) that weekend. :)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend (& that you get tomorrow (Pres Day) off!).

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, here we are a year ago:












And here we are now:












My friend, Chelsea, had this great idea, and I'm gonna steal it. :)

Things We're Thankful from A-Z:
A - Our little angel!
B - BGG! Feeding David's hobby (plus where else can you score "geek gold"?)
C - Conners! Wonderful role models & amazing grandparents.
D - Daily Dancing!
E - Eileen! Yes, I know I'm writing this, but David told me that he's very thankful for me. :)
F - Friends! Such a blessing - so talented, caring and fun.
G - Grandma! Such a blessing to have her in our lives (and home from the hospital too)
H - Hot Summers! Lots of fun playing in the water.
I - Insurance! Usually a pain, but in this instance it paid off.
J - Jobs! It's wonderful for both of us to have work that we look forward to each day.
K - Kaia! For bringing such joy, laughter and love to our lives.
L - Lisa! Couldn't ask for a better sister, aunt and friend.
M - Music! David loves all kinds, and it's rubbing off on us too!
N - Nights...especially game nights! (F5)
O - Oprah Mob Dance!
P - Playing at Parks! Great excuse to be outside, together as a family.
Q - Quality time together! David coming home for lunch, my PT job, ...
R - Reading! Can't get enough of Curious George, Dr. Seuss, Relevant Mag, ...
S - Shorts! For a family that stays close despite the distance.
T - Tucson Children's Museum! Lots of weekly fun for Kaia, cousins and friends.
U - Unkey Monkey! For fun-ness (& best bbq) that never seems to end.
V - Vacations! San Diego, Tennessee, Pinetop,
W - Wonderful-est Dad ever!
X - Xylophone! Kaia loves playing hers & her other music makers.
Y - Yahweh! For His unending love.
Z - ZZZZ's! Kaia slept until 9:45 today! (and I slept in much later - thanks David!)

Chapped Lips

This past weekend Eileen and Kaia went up to the White Mountains to spend time with Eileen's parents at their cabin. I stayed here in Tucson and attended my annual board game convention called RinCON.

While I definitely enjoyed my time at the convention (playing games, learning new games and meeting new friends), I missed my family... especially Eileen.

Ever since we started kissing (circa 1996), I haven't had any need for chapstick for my lips. Eileen wears some constantly, so my lips get chapped every time like clockwork when Eileen and I are apart for more than a day or so. When it happens, it's a great reminder of her and how we should be together.

Luckily for me (and my lips) we aren't apart very often!

Afternoon at the park... on a work day!

One the many things I love about my job is that it allows me so much time to spend with Eileen and Kaia. Not only do I get home around 4:40 pm everyday normally, but once a month or so, management lets us off even earlier than that. We even got off at 1 pm one time.

Well, yesterday was one of those early days, so Eileen and I decided to go to the park so we could run around with Kaia and enjoy the sun. It was great.

"MUST accessorize with my hat and purple shoes. Thanks mom, for making my shirt."

"Ball!"

AZ sun + barefeet in grass = good times

Navigating the slide on her own

"I've got the keys, and no one's stopping me!"

When it rains...

So, Eileen and I had the best week last week. I worked all week, but I swear it felt like I was on vacation. It was so awesome.

It all started last Sunday, August 23rd, when we hosted my coworkers. It was the first time we had my coworkers over as a group with their families. Eileen came up with the creative idea of doing a "build your own pizza" night. The pizza was wonderful and everyone enjoyed making it and eating it. We laughed, talked and just connected as friends, not just coworkers. As an added bonus, I got to play chess with one of the sons and Eileen played the board game Jamaica with the kids too. It was a wonderful time.

Monday was normal, so I'll skip it. Tuesday night, Lisa spoiled us by watching Kaia overnight, while we went out to eat with our friends Jon and Kirsten (who are expecting their first baby soon). We went to Buddy’s Grill. It was good stuff as usual.

Then Wednesday night, we hosted a bunch of friends for a nice dinner. Eileen rocked it making French dip sandwiches and an awesome salad! Delicious! Afterwards, we played Egyptian Ratscrew (which is mostly a speed card game taught to us by our friend Christy). Then after that we played Hoopla (which is in the Cranium family games series). Love the food. Love the games. Love the people. Can't beat it.

Then Thursday night, Eileen went out with one of her friends, while Kaia and I kicked it at home. It was a solid night.

Friday night, Eileen, Kaia and I decided to go to Traildust Town on Tanque Verde. We just walked around, rode the little kids' train and carousel. Kaia loved the train. When the whistle would blow, she would move her arm while Eileen said “woot, woot”. While we were there we randomly ran into some more of our friends: Jon and Cara Hasbrouck, and their 3 month old daughter. We ended up talking for a while and eventually staying to watch the stunt show together. Random meetups with friends rock!

Then Saturday morning, we dropped Kaia off at the Conners and left for PHX with Michael and Lisa. We went to the new waterpark! The lines were really long, but it was still fun. We stayed the night at a Marriott Residence Inn. Slept in Sunday, did some window shopping and ate good food. It was so nice to just hang with Eileen without Kaia. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Whew. I’m finally done. What a week! Like I said, I worked all week, but I felt like I was on vacation since I got to hang with so many friends and family. We are ridiculously blessed.

Staying Cool

I stole my friend Jessie's post title. She lives in Seattle, and it's been abnormally hot there...we're talking all-time record! Because the summer's are so mild, most people don't have AC. Oh, and did I mention that she's due in a few weeks?! Love you Jessie...hope Seattle's getting back to its gorgeous weather. (Oh, and btw, she has the BEST recipe blog evah!)

Well, it's hot here too, but no surprise. We, with kids, are always looking for fun things to do with the kidos indoors. David, Lisa and I headed to the Tucson Children's Museum on Sunday and again on Wednesday morning. Wow, was it fun!! Kaia (15 mos.), Rachel (2 yrs.) and Gideon (4 yrs.) had a blast and could've stayed much, much longer! We got a great deal on a 4 month membership, and Lisa and I plan on heading out there at least once a week for the rest of this hot period. The museum, swimming, playground at the mall, and chilling at home, and going outside very early or late in the day ought to get us through the rest of the summer. :)

Testing 1...2...3...

David & I took this Partner Awareness quiz and had fun reminiscing...and acing it, of course. :) Enjoy!

Partner Awareness Quiz

Boom, Boom, Boom...

...Mr. Brown is a wonder. Boom, boom, boom, Mr. Brown makes thunder. -Dr. Seuss


Monsoon season is upon us and with that comes many, magnificent thunderstorms. One night it was just a bit too loud for Kaia. David and I took turns holding her until the storm moved on.

Tennessee Fourth

Oddly enough, we spent our 4th of July in TN. My brother Mark and his family live in Franklin, which is just outside Nashville. It was beautiful there and the weather cooperated quite nicely. Fortunately, everyone's schedules worked, so my entire immediate family was able to be there. 13 people, including 4 kids under 6 years old, in one house. Thankfully, we managed to dodge most pitfalls that such close quarters might amount to, which is both a testament to our wonderful family and to Mark's huge, comfortable home. Major fun was had by all.

Some highlights were playing games, watching my Dad draw stencils with the grandkids, watching the Wimbledon tennis final, fireworks at a local park and exploring downtown Music City. I must say, I'm not sure what I was expecting to see in downtown Nashville. I knew full well that it was the music capital of our country, but I was not braced for just how much music there was. We walked all over downtown and almost every single building/storefront had a live band playing music. Crazy.

Father's Day

What a wonderful Father's Day and such a blessing that Kaia has such a loving dad to grow up with. We joined my parents and sister's fam for lunch at Casa del Rio to kick off our Father's Day celebration. Then enjoyed a lazy afternoon at home while Kaia napped. In the evening, my parents, D and I went to see Bill Cosby. Great show...wonderful seeing him in person.

I made a little slideshow of David & Kaia. Enjoy!

F5

or in the case of tonight, F6. Allow me to explain. Every First Friday of the month at Five Fifty-Five pm we have a game night. Well tonight could be called F6, because the first Friday of June happens to fall on the Fifth, and is still at 5:55. :) David started these game nights in January of this year.

The first hour or so can be a little crazy for us moms & dads because our kids are still up and having lots of fun with each other and/or are cranky, because they're hungry or tired. Around 7:30, most of the kids have gone home or are sleeping here.

Lots of different games going on (often simultaneously)... card games, strategy games, games that people here have invented, even some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) every now & then. Tonight, I think a record was set of the most people thus far... 15 adults and 4 kids. We weren't expecting very many people tonight, so I was pretty busy making more food - they just kept coming... so awesome! I felt like it was a "real" party when 5 people walked in that I had never seen in my life (don't worry - David knew a couple of them).

It's about 9:15pm and so far, there have been two games of Sabateur (card game), two games of Yes Master (card game created by BJ - one of the "gamers" here), one game of Acquire (one of my favorite board games), and one game of Gangster (board game). This'll probably go until midnight, so more games to come... I'm blogging now cause I just finished making food and am waiting for one of the groups to start a new game so that I can jump in.

Good food (every game night you can be assured that I will make California Club Pizza & have peanut M&Ms on hand - there's a lot more than that, but those are consistent), amazing people and fun games... join us anytime. If you'd like to be on our email list for F5 reminders, just let us know.

A little R & R

San Diego, May 16-19

Well, we finally made it back to San Diego, long overdue. What a wonderful time we had as a family. As we were planning this trip, we invited my sister and her family & my parents to join us. My parents were the only ones able to come and drove out a day before our flight. We stayed at a great little place in Encinitas - great value - and only two blocks from the beach!

It was such an amazing time... I was surprised with how much I was able to truly relax. We had lots of fun with my parents, our talented & beautiful friend Christy, David's childhood best friend, David Lothspeich and his family (wife: Megan; kids: David Jr. & Serenity), and Danny (David L.'s brother). It was great that David was able to spend a lot of time with the Lothspeich's. We don't see them nearly as much as we would like. Nevertheless, we really enjoy hanging out with all of them, especially since David L's family is so sweet & fun to be around.

Well the beach/ocean is always the highlight of our trip. This year was no different. Coronado Island has one of my favorite beaches. It was Kaia's first time at the beach. It was the happiest I've ever seen her in her life, and she's a happy girl generally. We cancelled other plans in order to have more beach days after seeing her initial reaction. So fun seeing her rake her hands through the sand, laugh as I bury her feet, and dance & squeal as the water washed upon her feet.

Tires shouldn't go "Pop"

Most of you know by now, but I recently totalled my Chrysler Sebring. Don't worry, everyone is doing fine.

My brother in law Michael and I were on our way back from Phoenix after attending a boardgaming convention. We were going about 80 mph or so when my back driver's side tire popped. I naturally hit the brakes and that sent the car spinning wildly across the freeway. Thank God, it was around midnight and almost no one was on the road with us. We ended up driving backwards for a little ways on the freeway and then slammed into the freeway fence, which then twisted us around again.

Safe to say it was quite the scary experience, but no one was hurt and we didn't hit anyone else either. Major blessings considering what could have happened.

Pressing The Reset Button

Often throught my life, I need to step back and reevaluate my priorities; reflect on why I do what I do. This sounds cliche and much of it is, but then again, cliche statements and behaviors consistently hold an uncomfortable amount of truth.

To say that I don't know much about politics is an understatement. I have never had much interest in it and have not really been party to much of the hullabaloo. I have voted when it was my time to vote and I probably knew slightly more than the average individual, just due to the osmosis of my friends' and family's intellectual conversations around me. But I was mostly in the dark, and I liked it that way.

Unfortunately, I have been barraged, like most of us have, by a political onslaught this year. For me it has been unavoidable since my new job surrounds me with coworkers that talk politics everyday in the office. I sit and listen and throw my ignorant two cents in from time to time. It's really interesting to me and I find myelf being stirred more and more by the current political situation.

Today, I stumbled upon this blog post while searching for music on one of my underground music websites. It was written by a person like me who has always been on the political outskirts and it spoke about how the author fell into the trap of making politics a bigger priority than loving your neighbor. It hit home for me and it sparked my inspiration to write this post. Click here to read the article. I highly recommend it.

I hope it helps you reset your focus as it did for me. Enjoy.

Inreach

Our small group had our third inreach yesterday. For those of you not in our small group, the concept of an inreach unfolded when discussing various outreach possibilities earlier in the year. The idea was that while we were out in the community helping and loving strangers, why don't we also spend energy helping eachother in the same way. So instead of an outreach, we birthed the start of the INreach. So, I put together a schedule where once a month, everyone in the small group goes to one of the small group family's houses and does any random chores or odd jobs that the family needs doing.

So, yesterday's was at the Ross' home. It was a beautiful day with some rain sprinkling here and there. We helped move lots of stuff and get rid of things that the Ross' didn't need any longer. Their neighbor coincidentally had rented one of those giant trash bins and graciously allowed us to use it. So we filled it with all kinds of jazz. While some of us were doing that, others were pulling weeds and still others were painting inside the home.

I can't tell you how beautiful it is to see people give of their time to help their fellow brother. There we were doing work that we all dislike doing (especially pulling weeds) and yet we were there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon working our rear off, but smiling and laughing the entire time. It was unusually enjoyable.

It's strange how when you're doing something in love for a person that you love, even pulling weeds becomes fulfilling.

Answers to Prayers

Yesterday, two wonderful things happened. First of all, David started his new job. Such an answer to prayer. We had, of course, been praying for months for something closer to home that David would really love. A few weeks ago, while praying, I felt that God was agreeing that David should have a job closer to home...I know this may sound bizarre, but I just had a peace that God wanted the same thing as us. Two days later, David had two interviews lined up - not an easy task - he had been sending out resumes for months and positions just weren't opening up. Both interviews went really well, but he went with CAE, a company he had interviewed with earlier. I'll let you read the details on his post...

The second thing was Kaia's first visit with her new pediatrician, Dr. Cochran (due to our new health insurance at David's new job). She's grown 5 inches and gained 3 lbs. since her birth - nice long and lean! She had to get 5 shots at this 2 month checkup. She did great at the office and was adorable when we went to visit Lisa afterwards - she ate and smiled.

As the evening came, she became more fussy and more tired. She would crash on our shoulders, but cry anytime she was awake. She wouldn't eat at 6 nor at 9 - which was a first - refusal to eat. Around 10, Dave and I prayed for her - her comfort and appetite. Shortly after, she ate! She fell asleep on Dave until 2:30 am, then I fed her and she slept until 9 am! She seemed back to normal.

What an answer to prayer!