Well, here's one of the first posts on the Christmas we just had. Here is a video of Elise opening her present from Jason and what a nice surprise that was. Unfortunately I didn't get it started soon enough. Way to go son! The road to a woman's heart is through a good sewing machine. Just kidding.

And here is a photo with my eternal companion. She loves to read.....



More to come later.

Tradition

Each year at Christmas time we have a tradition for our grand daughter. Kori was born with a chromosome defect and passed away three days after she was born. She will always be known as our first grand daughter.

In Kori's memory, we decided to select a toy that would be appropriate for what her age would be that current year. So three days ago, Sharon and I went out to a Target store and found a toy that Kori would probably like to play with. Then we donate that toy to the Fire Department so that some young girl, around Kori's age, would be blessed with a toy to play with on Christmas day.

We started this tradition last year but this year we thought we would take a picture of this toy just to remember what we got and what we did. Kori will always be in our thoughts and in our hearts.

Christmas is Coming!!!!

Wow. I didn't realize it's been so long since I last updated this. I have been using Skype to talk with my mom which she is real excited about because of the video. My uncle Tommy in Scotland has been trying to use Skype but we keep getting disconnected. He'll need to try and upgrade his internet account and get a bigger bandwidth. I think that will solve the problem and then he can talk to his big sister and see her at the same time. Skype is really great and it's free!

It's Christmas and we are looking forward to having family over to celebrate it with us and to enjoy our grandchildren. I will have to add photos in my next post.

One unexpected Christmas gift we had to make was to repair our Camry at the cost of $1,186 But keeping the proper perspective, it's better than having a $20,000 loan for a new car to pay off!

We read a report about a flying accident recently and it's going to make a lot of children sad. Santa had an accident on one of his practice runs and this is what happened...



But I think he will recover. The pilots will just have to watch out for Santa when he is making those left hand turns next time!

Our Sister Paula

My wife, Sharon, has 4 sisters and Paula is the oldest. Paula wrote us an email recently and sent us a photo of her. It also includes her 5 grand kids.

Here's a picture of her so everyone can now know who she is when Sharon or I talk about her. And boy do we talk about her.... in a loving way of course!

I'm guessing that Jim, her husband, was taking the picture. They are at Pirates Cove somewhere in Denver and she looks like she's having a lot of fun!

Get Well Gift

After my mom's surgery, my beautiful wife, Sharon, came by and gave my mom a get well gift. It is a statue of the famous "The Christus". Because it is white it really stands out on her entertainment stand. Once my mom gets her eyesight back to normal she will really enjoy it then.

Sharon also brought her, her favorite Sees candy; all soft centers. The road to a mother-in-laws heart is always good chocolate! Great choice!

The care taker, that's me, got a big kiss. Now that's a beautiful present. Yippie!!!! Unfortunately no photos of that one.

Mom's 60th Anniversary

Here is a photo of my mom celebrating her 60th wedding anniversary. She had to keep her head down because of her surgery. With her are Christina and her boyfriend Eric. Both are great friends and they make a great couple! It's a pleasure knowing them!

Christina made a anniversary cake for her and it tasted great and the flowers are from her and Eric!

Mom's Surgery

On Tuesday, August 11, 2009, my mom had surgery on her left eye. She did well and when it was over it didn't hurt. She started to feel her left eye had water. We called the doctor and Dr. Shelton said it was the gas bubble she was seeing and that she needed to keep her head facing down so the bubble is pressing the back of the eye to help heal the retina. It's hard to have her keep her head all the way down.

The next morning, 4:00 a.m. she had nausea and did not sleep all night. I took her to her schedule appointment the next morning at 8:30 a.m. Her eye had high pressure. The doctor did not say give any measurement and I failed to ask at the time. So I don't know what it was. She did a minor operation to take out some of the gas. The eye still had high pressure. She had to do it again and was told it was down to normal. We were given 4 different eye drops to give her to lower her eye pressure or maybe they meant to say to keep it low.

On Thursday, her follow up appointment at 8:30 a.m. seemed to go okay. The pressure was still normal and to continue on 3 of the 4 eye drops this time. I'm concerned about her eye sight. The assistant had her read the chart with just the bad eye and she couldn't see a thing probably because of the gas bubble.

Here she is on one of those recovery chairs to help keep her head down. She has a mirror on her table so she can watch the t.v. and her Angels baseball games!

With Family at the Scottish Festival

In May 2009, we went to Costa Mesa, CA. to see the Scottish festival. It was great watch to performers and to listen to the music and more importantly to be with family. My wife Sharon, mom, Jason, Elise, Jordan, Caden, and Matt were all there and I think we had a great time. Fish and Chips and Meat Pies were great. Here are a few photos...

Elise, Caden, and Sharon...


Jordan with Grandma...


Our oldest son Jason, Jordan, Caden, and Elise

Our sons Matthew, Jason, and Jordan, Elise,

Emmy Time

I met a movie and television producer. How did that happen? Well I work for the Department of Parks and Recreation of Los Angeles County. We had our 2009 Employee Symposium held at the Arboretum in Arcadia, California. The guest speaker was Stan M. Brooks who is an Emmy Award winning producer of movies and television. I believe the Emmy award was for producing Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. In 1996 he was, deservedly, recognized by the Board of Supervisors for his special contribution to the parks and children of Los Angeles. For the short time I listened to him he turned out to be a very nice person.

Stan spoke about his dream as a child to work in movies. He said to be nice to the people going up because you’re going to meet them coming down. He compared that to the actor John Duvall who was such a great actor but everyone he worked with just hated working with him. As a result, he didn’t get many jobs. Then he compared it to Walter. I can’t remember the last name. How much Walter was admired by everyone he worked with and when those that worked with him met others that worked with him and they all shared positive experiences with him. With Duvall, it was different. People wanted to get their guns out and shoot him type of reaction. So he encouraged us to get along with everyone you meet. He said those that may be your assistance today may later on be someone you are working for in the future! He told it better than I am doing here.

Lou Gossett of the movie Roots was the one that handed him the Emmy. He brought his Emmy award to the meeting and he allowed us to hold it and take our pictures with it. I didn’t have a camera but asked another employee, Imee Perius, and she was nice enough to take my picture. I wanted to take it with him in it as well but he was busy talking with some people at the time.

So here is the picture and…. I want to thank my wife and my mom and dad for helping my get this award…. and to my boys who I hope are not in bed yet….



If you want to know more about Stan…. He told us a story of how Beverly Hills, in the 70s, would publish the names and addresses of ALL the residences who live in Beverly Hills. So that included all the famous actors and actresses. For Halloween he dressed up as Groucho and he and his friends knock on Groucho’s door. A woman dressed in a black and white maids outfit answered and said they had no candy and she left leaving the door open. He saw a very large painting of Groucho hanging on the wall so he knew he was at the right home. Then a young woman walked by and saw them and called Groucho over to see his Groucho costume. Groucho invited them in and they had a very nice visit with him.

In 1995, he founded Once Upon a Time Films and the Hollywood Indies Little League Foundation and has two movies coming out later this year.

It was a really nice visit listening to his experiences.

Blessing our Angel Grandson, Caden

Well, it is about time I updated this blog. It has been far too long since I last entered something in here. I hope to do a better job in the future.

Today we visited my son Jason and his wife Elise at their church ward. There we witnessed Jason blessing his son Caden. Christians take babies and have a Christening or baptism. Latter-day Saints, instead, give a baby a “name and a blessing.” It isn’t a baptism. We don’t do that until the child reaches the age of accountability for his actions and decisions which the Lord has revealed as age eight. We believe that children are born without sin and do not need to be baptized but they are born into a sinful world.

During the blessing we had our heads bowed and eyes closed as the blessing was given. A few times I peeked at Caden and saw him watching his father saying the blessing. He was calm and quiet and seemed very intent on what his father was doing and saying. Not understanding what was going on. Or did he, and not be able to talk about it? Do babies retain even a small amount of memory of their former pre mortal existence that will soon have a veil drawn across their minds that cause them to no longer remember?

He behaved this way each time I peeked as the blessing progressed. Toward the end when his father mentioned that he be blessed to go on a mission, the most wonderful smile came across his face! I wished I could have captured that smile on camera. It was so beautiful. It was almost as if Caden was saying, "Yeah dad, thank you for adding that part. I’m going on a mission for my Heavenly Father. That is one of the missions he has sent me here to perform." He seemed so very, very happy about that.

I hope I lived long enough to witness him going on his mission. It was a remarkable experience for me and one that I am glad to have witnessed. Sorry for peaking but I’m glad I did!