Skills

Thanks to the writers of Napoleon Dynamite everyone wants skills.

Yesterday we were lounging around as a family after a busy morning and early afternoon. My son Tristram came into the room I was in and said "Dad, can we go outside so I can ride my bike?" I told him that I had a few things that I needed to get done but I would be able to go pretty soon. So he replied OK and went back to the other room. Less than one minute later he was back in with me. "Dad, it has been a little bit. I really want to go outside and use my bike skills." "Can we please go out now?" I stood there in bewilderment. Bike Skills. Yesssssssssssss. Flippin SWEET! My son has seen Napoleon Dynamite once. I am proud to say my son has Bike Skills. Mad Bike Skills. So today he got to practice those Bike skills on his outside 2 wheel bike......

Tip 'o the hat to Mad Bike Skills......



-D

Perception...

Isn't it nice how something can be great or horrible based on the glasses of perception that we look through?

I recently have been called:

• Mean
• Overbearing
• Excentric
• Lazy
• Unable to give of myself
• Rude
• Belligerent
• Patronizing
• Dishonest
• Two faced

and pretty much anything else that is bad that you can think of..............

I have also been called:

• Nice
• Flexible
• Easy going
• Self sacrificing
• A hard worker
• Giving
• Courteous
• Honest
• Straight forward

and many other kind words.....

Isn't it amazing how everything looks to us just as we want it to? If we want it to be a really crappy day you have a really good chance of having a really crappy day. If you want to have a good day you have a really good chance that you will have a really great day. You reap what you sow. Have you ever heard someone say "Great! That is going to ruin my day!". Chances are you didn't do or say anything that they did not want you to.

So here is to personal perception. The magic thing that can put you on a pedestal one second and knock you flat on your butt the next.

And yes I love the critics. It lets me know that because I have critics I must be doing something right.

So raise a glass of whatever you drink to our many personal perceptions. It really makes the world a more colourful place. (unless you prefer it to be black and white)

-D

The Eternal Project.

Besides my marriage I have taken on what is turning out to be the eternal project.....

A 4560 Sq Foot House remodel (6240 if you include the basement). When I bought it it was 7 yes seven apartments. It had a 2 bedroom a 1 bedroom and 2 studios on floor 1 and three 1 bedrooms on floor 2. The attic had only one room built out in it with only a wimpy pulldown stair access. Yeah it is quite the project..

Somedays i get really really excited about it and others i just look at unfinished stuff and think to myself, "What was I thinking?".

Not to mention some of the opinions I got from some family members right before I tackled it.

"I think you have lost your mind, this is the craziest thing you have ever done." --My Father In-law

"Are you sure you want to do this?" -- My wife Chanel

"Wow that is a really big house." --My son Tristram

So needless to say I bought it and figured what the heck, I should be able to get that all done. We closed on the house on the 23rd of Dec 2003. We opted for an FHA 203k rehab loan. It was not designed to take on the style of rehab we were about to embark on but what the heck. I was determined. After having 3-6 people tell me that I was crazy I knew that what I was doing was right. So needless to say we have endured a lot during this process. We had to move out for nearly 11 months. and we came back in under less than perfect circumstances. We have completely redone all the plumbing, electrical (from 100A to 400A), HVAC, Insulation, wall coverings and well anything that sucked when we bought it which was everything. When we did stucco removal we took out 80-100,000 lbs of stucco.....Yes that was the weight of the stucco alone 40-50 tons. Not to mention all of the slat wood disposal, etc.... So it has been a project. and oh yeah the other day one of those naysayers said "this is the coolest thing i have seen done to a house, I knew you could do it."

HA HA!!!!!!!!!

A man with Vision.....



Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what we have gone through.

Yikes the old Electrical............

The New Electrical..

This is the house not long after I bought it. It had been gutted at this point but the outside still looked the same.

Now isn't that a beautiful home. Not.........

Here is a picture of how it looked in the early winter of 2004

Yes that is my kitchen that has just the ceiling sheetrocked.....but the outside is looking better.

Hey look it's the front stairs.............

Hey it is Well now that is my bathroom, closet and office.................

And here is a look at what is now my bedroom from what is now the office on my bedroom.

LOL The temporary kitchen when we moved back in...............

Progress in the kitchen.......

More Progress in the Kitchen...........

After a day of hard work with Dad...........in the living room.......

LOL I love that one........

anyway stay tuned for more updates..........I have finally mustered the strength to start the final mudding of a few last areas of the house..... It will all be painted quite soon........

Immigration.

Immigration. Has anyone seen it in the news? Yeah me too. So here's my $.02.

In 1996 and 1997 I served a 2 year church mission in the Culiacan Mexico region. During the 2 years that I spend there I had the insight that I would never have been able to experience in the comfortable home that I lived in back in Washington. I remember when I arrived at my first apartment. Concrete floors, brick walls, concrete ceiling, gravity flow water, cold only. I soon learned that we had it pretty good. My food allowance was $300-pesos per month. Back then roughly $30 per month. And let me tell you it was plenty, shopping wisely. The majority of the people I worked with there made less in a month than I made in a week back home just delivering pizza. Another thing. The government had about as much control over the area as the paperboy did at home. The area was completely ruled over by the druglords.

Having said that. What drives these people to come to our country? Need we even ask. The living conditions here are far superior to almost any in the countries they come from. Do we need regulation? Of course. Do we need to round up the 11-20 million people that are here illegally or undocumented? Well let's get real. Take all the people in New Orleans and try to get them out in a timely manner......RIGHT.......We've proven we can do that really well. Yes I agree some people need to go home but many have tried to integrate into our society by learning English and are striving to become educated and move their lives forward. Let me please stress that last part. Learning English. When I was assigned to serve for 2 years in Mexico I was told I had to learn Spanish. Upon arriving there there was no-one to translate for me. No bilingual signs, or anything. Four yes FOUR months later I was getting by quite well with the Spanish I had learned and by six months I was doing fine. After 2 years many people would tease me due to the heavy Culiacan accent I had acquired.... And I hold the success I had while there to the learning of that language.... You can practically link success by immigrants in the USA to the learning of the English language......

I agree something must be done to remedy the situation. As President Bush stated "We need COMPREHENSIVE Immigration reform" It will not be an easy road but NOW is the time to tackle it.

Stay tuned for more on Immigration.

Technology can be great - Sometimes.

Home. Isn't it fun how technology has conveniently snuck into our lives making our lives much more convenient and leaving us with way less time than we have ever had before.

The other day our son Tristram brought home all of the schoolwork that he has worked on for the year. As my wife flipped through the drawings he had made we took note of one common theme in the drawings. They were of us as a family yes but the majority of our pictures included us all in front of a TV. Whoa....... That really made us think. What are we doing to our kids. So we are instituting the read read read program at our house. The boys don't really have a problem with that. They have been adjusting rather well. It does help that we do read together every night. Before bed I read the boys a story almost every night. So the other day Tristram came into my office and said Dad can I watch some TV? Nope.. It is time to go play in your room with your brother. After a small fit he agreed to do so and ten minutes later he and Jadin were running trucks up and down the upstairs hall. They do play rather well together and it is such a joy to see them not plopped down in front of the television.

So here's one for technology.....Thank you, most of the time...........

My talk.

Today at Church I had the opportunity to speak on the topic of "Seeing the end from the beginning". It is based on a talk given to the Priesthood of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in April of 2006 by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. See his complete talk here. It truly is such a large topic and it really caused me to reflect on the things I have gone through in my life. More than anything my childhood. I had the great benefit of having been raised on a farm. Now don't get me wrong here by no means am I the hardest working individual that I know, but I did learn how to work with a certain amount of ethic, set goals to get certain things done in a certain amount of time. For the things I learned there from my father I am truly and deeply grateful.

Seeing the end from the beginning.

You know. Have you ever had negative thoughts about doing something, then after you were through it turned out to be the coolest thing you have done for someone else in a long time. I get really stressed out about helping other people sometimes mostly when there are a lot of people listening or participating. But after I am done I have such a good feeling of Well I guess the best word is Charity, and it just makes you feel so good. I had a blast tonight DJ'ing a dance for a wedding. I even got to dance a little swing and salsa with my wife. It was fun. And oh yeah my 5 yr old son pretty much proposed to a 4yr old girl. I'll post pictures later of them dancing. It was darling. (she happens to be the niece of the groom.) Give it another 17 years or so please.....

And oh yeah I get to speak about this at church tomorrow.

Me.

Lets See. Something about me.

As a Kid I grew up for a great part of my life in Colville, WA. I loved my childhood. I have no complaints whatsoever. In April 1998 I moved to Kansas City, KS and am still here. My wife grew up here in KC and we like it here.

This is a picture of me and my wife. Let's just say I am a very lucky man. I met my wife in the end of May 1998 and asked her to marry me June 19, 1998. We were married on October 23, 1998. I believe the day we were married I weighed 125lbs. Lets just say life has been good to me cause i currently weigh in at 180....







We have been blessed with 3 boys that are a non stop rollercoaster of fun and excitement. They are 5, 3 and 7 months.