Friday, November 28, 2008

Christmas music.... aggh

The day after Thanksgiving and they are already playing Christmas music on the radio. Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas, I celebrate Christmas, but I don't like a lot of the commercialism (paganism) added to the holiday such as the "Christmas" Tree, and good ol' Saint Nick, and I would prefer not having to listen to songs about it from the day after thanksgiving all the way up to Christmas. That's nearly a full month of Christmas music.... aaaaagh... luckily it seemed to be only a few stations that have already turned on their Christmas tracks. Bah Humbug.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I am working, well, technically. I am at work. Just wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving. I hope it's great for everyone.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Video of the kids at the park off my mobile phone


Faith on the swing... having a blast



Grace hiding from me... but still having fun.

Monday, November 24, 2008

What a day!

Early on in the day, Jodi had to go get her glucose test at the hospital. Hopefully things are good and she won't have to take the 2-3 hour test, and hopefully she won't have Gestational Diabetes again.

Then we went to Taco Bell, and drove out to the Blazers and Kings game at the Rose Garden. See the pictures of us enjoying the game below.






Luckily the kids did well, and the Arena did a great job getting the kids into the game. They even brought out this huge balloon that Faith just loved. It was remote controlled and would drop gift cards down on the fans. By the 4th quarter, Faith kept asking me when the car was going to come back. Of course, it wasn't coming back, but she just wanted to see it again. Well, here it is flying above us.



I guess our church team isn't the only team that loses by one point. The Sacramento Kings who were getting beat pretty bad in the first quarter, then brought it back to within 4 by the half and then even had a lead, lost the game by 1 point. I've never been to a Kings game where they have actually won... I've went to one in Seattle, and now one in Portland, and 3 or 4 in Sacramento when I was younger, and they've lost them all. We still had such a great time, and I do like the Blazers too, I actually know more of their players now that the Kings have restructured the team. They still have Brad Miller, Kevin Martin, and Bobby Jackson, but that's it. I went to a Blazer game last year, and had pretty much front row seats, and other than Greg Oden as a starter the Blazers still have pretty much the same guys playing... so I wasn't too disappointed the Kings lost. At least every Blazer game I've been to, I can say that they've won every one. It's a good streak to have.

It was adorable to watch the kids clap and cheer, I don't think they knew who they were rooting for, but the feel of the crowd and arena really got them into the game... or at least made it seem that way.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

You stink

Well, that's what the wife said after I got home from my basketball game. She was talking about odor, not my play on the court which could have been better.

To start off the game, our team Captain for the day, made it a point for everyone to sub out for at least 10 minutes, which may have been a little much since we only had 7 players, but we each made a point to get off the floor at least twice. I felt like I was involved a lot more, and it was my best game yet, but it was all for not cuz we lost... and to make matters worse, the one point that we lost by was due to the last foul of the game that was on me.

I scored 9 points this game, which is my personal best (out of three games so far), but that last point just drives me nuts. The guy drove in on me, I was getting pushed in the back by another player, and he just kind of jammed himself under my arm, and hooked up under me with his arm, and jumped, but he got the call. Both teams were in the penalty and he only needed to make one of his free throws, to win them the game.

Oh well, even though we lost, I had a great time playing the game, and I really am just enjoying myself. I don't have a lot of free time, and rarely have free time to myself. Jodi has a few things she does during the week with other women, while I stay at home and watch the girls, so it's nice for me to get away, although, it would be nice if Jodi and I got away once in a while too.

Then I came home and watched Wall-E with the girls. Of course, they had already seen it, so they lost interest fast. But, it was nice that both Grace and Faith cuddled up with me during the movie, and Jodi fell asleep on the couch with us. Grace kept showing me her loose tooth, and Faith couldn't sit still for long. I liked the movie, and despite the lack of human characters in the movie until about halfway through it, I liked the characters and communication that occurred with the robots. It was a nice movie and I hope the girls like it, cuz before we rented (free rental), we bought it for them for Christmas... shhhh! don't say anything.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Christmas shopping

The kids are getting older, Grace is losing interest in dolls, Faith says she wants everything, and somehow it's gotten really hard to shop for them. Hopefully they'll like what we got for them, and of course every kid needs clothes for Christmas, right? Needless to say, on Wednesday after we dropped the kids off for Awana's, we went shopping and did a little Christmas shopping. Money doesn't really go as far as it used to, as I looked at what we bought, I thought to myself, that's what $100 gets us. Of course, the wife went back to the store the other day and impulsively bought the cute "baby Hope" outfits and a few more for the other kids. It's good to say that, hopefully, our Christmas shopping is done... for now. Until after we get those nice little checks in the mail to buy more presents, but this time the kids will be able to pick out what they want... whew, what a relief. Who woulda' thought it'd be so hard to buy gifts for 6 and 3 (almost 4) year old girls?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Another day gone by

We watched Kung Fu Panda last night with the girls. It was hilarious and had a good story to it. I found myself just bursting into laughter quite a bit, and if there was any bad stuff in it, I didn't really notice. It was such a great movie, for me and the kids, and just plain funny.

Tonight, I made pork with mashed potatoes and baked beans. It was kind of a simple little dinner, and with the exception of Faith everyone seemed to love it. Over the pork, I just used some Olive Oil and Balsamic vinegar, thyme and rosemary, then added liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, Red Wine, and on half I added some hot spices, Frank's Red Hot, and what I refer to as "rooster sauce," then grilled them up a little on each side and threw them in the oven. But, while I was cooking it in the oven to heat it thoroughly, I basted them with regular ol' Jack Daniel BBQ Sauce. Of course, I added some liquid smoke to the baked beans.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Update

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged and quite a bit has gone on, but nothing crazy.

A week ago both my kids came down with Strep throat, and I thought I was going to get it too and maybe even made myself feel a little sick... somehow. But, I never did come down with it.

Grace and Faith have really amazed me at their ability to memorize. They've been going to Awana's and they have memory verses that they have to recite and little Faith remembers almost all the verses she's memorized so far. We'll ask her what her verse is and she starts reciting a verse from a few weeks back, and then we'll say, "not that one," and then she'll recite the next weeks, and finally recite the one she needs for this week. Isn't that just amazing. Grace also has a small part in reciting a poem at school and she's got it memorized too. She said the poem to us in kind of a monotonous voice, then I asked her to add some feeling, and without hesitation she began rattling off the poem with feeling and then recited it again in a goofy voice, which reminded me of myself as a kid.

Not only is Grace doing well at memorization, but she's also doing pretty well at reading. It's so exciting to see her progress. She's at the point now where she can read to us at night before she goes to bed, and Faith likes to pretend like she's reading to us.

I love cooking, especially cooking any type of meat, and Jodi and I were watching a cooking show where they made Filet Mignon. I had mentioned I would love to try and make some one day, then the next day while I was at work Jodi bought some for me. I was so excited. After I got off work, I made it up and it was the best meat I had ever had. Ridiculously expensive, but ridiculously awesome.

On Sunday's at Church, I've been taking a class on Greek, where I've been learning a little bit about Greek and trying to understand Biblical Greek. There's so much to understand, but I'm really excited about what I've been learning about the Bible and Translation so far.

I've also been playing Basketball with a couple of guys from my church. The first game, my buddy Andrew and I were a little disappointed due to the amount of time that we were on the bench compared to other players. I guess it wouldn't have felt so bad had everyone on the team subbed off the floor at least once. This week was awesome because we only had 5 guys show up for the game, so I got play the whole game, and although I only scored 4 points, it was 4 more points than I scored last game and people actually passed me the ball this game, so I felt pretty good about it, which gave me the opportunity to make some assists as well.

After I came home from the basketball game, I was hungry. We had a little bit of steak (not filet mignon) left in the fridge and since it was getting late I figured I would have to spread it out a little bit and make dinner for everyone else too. I decided that I'd cut the meat up in pieces and dip them in a tempura batter and fry them up, kind of inspired by the Beijing Beef entrée at Panda Express. I made up a little sweet and sour sauce with pineapples and some rice and it turned out to be a pretty good meal; Grace even had seconds.