Car problems

I got a call a while ago from high school classmate of mine Stephanie. She was going to be coming out to Spokane with her brother to pick up his car and drive it back to IL. He recently graduated College and moved back home so he needed his car. They arrived Friday and after a lot of talking and a good dinner, they went to bed. Matt and I did go out and take a look at the car, because the engine was really knocking bad. I checked the oil and noticed it could maybe use some, but that is the extent of my short term help.

Here they are at 6am ready for the long drive home.

I told them that they could call me if there were any car issues and I could give them a hand. Sure enough, 2hours down the road the car engine was done. They walked to a rest area and then got a ride to the next exit where they got cell reception. The car was towed to Kellogg and Brenda and I went off to pick them up. Diagnosis of the car problems....water in the oil indicating very very bad problems. The car has a lot of miles and it was decided to junk it.

Matt and Steph saying goodbye old friend to the jeep.

The rest of the day we got home and spent the day watching BBall and trying to find anyway to get them home. I offered her the T-bird for a great price, but that is not quite what they wanted. No big deal as I just got word today that it is sold. Brenda was sad, but I was happy that I can finally take the insurance off of the car. We tried trains, plains and car rentals, but finally they decided on a plane. The earliest flight to Chitown left Sunday evening so we got some more time to hang out.

Here is steph checking out the options....it took about 4 hours to finally find something that world work. Oh ya, and a lot of calls to a lot of airlines.

That night I had heard of a bluegrass concert that was going on not far from here so I thought why not all go together. Quit the mix of people and it was good...especially for free.
Sunday night they left and then it is back to work.

Today was nice weather and we trimmed the trees and worked a bit in the yard.

Here is the coop I made for the chickens. Small, but I think it will work.

Both roofs lift up and it is mobile to keep the chickens moving around the yard
Brenda is looking better and better every day.

Here are the chicks...they grow up so fast.

I have let the mustache and goat grow a bit recently. I know it is red, and may not look that good, but I figure why not.

2 signs of spring...BBall and chicks

As the end of another week approaches, or I guess it is the beginning, I am getting some time to finally download some new pictures and some old ones off of the camera.

We got some Kiwi's the other week or....well it was a long time time ago and I finally got to download the pictures.
Brenda wanted me to eat this one .....I was a bit skeptical. Any thoughts as to what it looks like.

Here is a picture of a hike we went on the other day about 10 minutes form the house. It is only 10 minutes to the trailhead, but it took us 1.5hrs to hike the this view.

Here is the lovely couple. Brenda is quite the trooper and even 6 months pregnant.

The whole hike was to see the waterfall....this is what we got at the end. I guess a waterfall in Washington is not the same as a waterfall in California. I wasn't expecting Yosemite falls, but this was a bit lame.

This weekend was the state tournament for 1B and 2B here is Spokane. Brenda's alma mater Sunnyside girls and boy both made the tournament along with her school she teaches at now. I got to the stadium on for the Saturday games about 10:30 and last night we got home about 11:30. It was a long day, but Sunnyside boys won 1st place (1B) and Northwest Christian also won 1st place (2B). It was a great day, but we sure were tired. Brenda's parents and aunt came and stayed with us for the end of the week and we also had a good time, but did not get to play any games because of the very late nights.

Here is Sunnyside

Here is NWC (Northwest Christan) posing for their picture.

Today I snagged this picture of Brenda. It is not the best quality, but it gives you idea of how big she is getting. I finally can feel the baby moving and I laugh about every time I feel it because it feels like it is running a marathon in there. Hopefully it is practicing it's jump shot.

In preparation for fatherhood last week we got these guys. 5 baby chicks from the feed store. They are all different kinds, and not sure if they will get along, but we thought we would give them a whirl. They are really cute and grow up fast...kind of like parenthood I hear.

All 5 of the little chicks huddled up in the corner.

Brenda like the birds, as long as she does not have to do any of the work.

This one is going to have a huge head of feathers, and we are not sure if it is rooster or a hen. The others are hens....or so they told us. You can never be 100% sure.

Here was a crazy kid at the game. He was really spazing out but I could only get the last little bit of his dance.

California part 2....or 4.

California part 2 is finally here. I probably should call it part 4, because I have been down there 4 times since the first week of January. This time it was only for a week so off to San Jose I went. The weather was a nice change since while I was gone they had a blizzard up here, but it would have been kind of nice to have to stay home from work. The week before I went to San Jose I was down in Sunnyside working a job own there and staying with Brenda’s parents. She was able to come down on the weekend so we could see each other before I was gone for another week. I got Strep for the third time in 6 months and did not have the most fun at work that week, but you can’t always get what you want.

While down in San Jose I was able to go over to Harry and Mindy’s for pizza one night and then another night I went over to Brad and Karen’s for dinner. It was great hanging out and catching up with friends. I also timed my flights to where I flew out Saturday so Friday night I could drive to the Central Valley and visit my grandparents and Kevin & Lyndsay. Saturday morning it was the Almond Blossom 8k run so I went out to show my support.

Here is Ethan and Deb completing the 1 Mile run before the 8K race.

Kevin had the funniest finish when he was running towards the finish at a regular pace this guy sped up and passed him getting about 15’ in front of him. While he passed Kevin, Kevin gave him a pat on the back kind of giving him the surrender sign…but not really. About 30’ from the finish Kevin kicked it into high gear and zoomed past the guy finishing in front of him by about 3’. At this point in time all the people that had gathered at the finish were laughing so hard they just about fell over. It was hilarious.

I told Kevin to stand by these guys so I could get a picture of them without looking wierd. The guy in the white tank had rip off pants on right before thing and pulled them off in one felled swoop. What a tool

Are you serious....do those really make you go faster? If nothing else, they made me laugh

Quick plug: you shoudl check out my brothers blog (link on the side) if you want to see some cool art and like flyfishing....or even if you are just interested.

San Jose Round 1

The past two weeks I have been out of town working around my old stomping grounds of San Jose. My co-worker down there went on vacation and with a lot of turnover to a newer and better water treatment plant I was able to get a trip down there to help them out. They needed someone with facility knowledge and since I had worked down there for a while I was able to be put right to work. The weather was perfect. I was able to get a lot of vitamin D and overdosed once while down there.

Before I left I was able to get out into the garden at our house and harvest these carrots that have survived nicely over the winter. I hope next year we get as good of vegetables as we have received from the previous owners.
Brenda was also able to come for the weekend I was going to be there and that gave us a great excuse to get back together with our friends. Myron, Andrea, and Jake came up from the Visalia area and we got to spend some time with them. Andrea and some of Brenda's old friends threw her a baby shower and she was very excited about it.
Here is Jake...this kid laughs all the time as we had a great time going to lunch with them in downtown Campbell.

Notice the blossoms on the trees already...very nice weather.

Here is a pic of Brenda opening her shower gifts. No I was not there to take this picture. Men did not attend the shower but we went to Brett's house to play video games and toss a few back. A man shower.

Here is another random pic of the girl fun.

Another gift. Everyone was very nice and Brenda loved being the center of attention (as always). Myron and I showed up at the end of the shower to pick the ladies up and of course they had more talking to do so Myron and I stepped outside onto the back porch. I think that had I been inside, I would have hearing loss from all the talking and laughing that was going on in there.

Mindy and Amy are also pregnant...as if you couldn't tell. Guess us guys finally figured out how to get it done at about the same time.

Lots of friends made quite the effort to be at the shower. Lyndsay Schenk came down from Riptown with her twins and they were very cute. Next time I go to CA I am going to make time to get out to the central valley and catch up with them over a few cold ones.

This is the reason I don't go to showers. Camille is Jen and Jeff Baham girl who really liked to play and was gracious enough to lend me her crown and sunglasses.

Some more shower pics

After the shower we wanted to get together with some friends and have dinner. It was about 630pm and Brenda went to put our name in at BJ's....to find out that there was a 2.5hour wait for a table. Well I guess they don't want our money that bad, and the economy is doing just fine. We decided to go to Brett and Michelle's (where we were staying) and get some pizza and brews. This turned out much better and we had a great time.

Here is everyone getting ready for the group photo.

And then it was time for the serious one.

Two big girls.

I tried to strut my stuff as well and think I did pretty good for just being out of shape. I am not really that fat.

Unfortunately Mindy and Harry had parked in the wrong parking space that was not marked for guests and got towed. Michelle brought them to the tow yard and they were able to get their car back, but make for an expensive night.

For all the time we were at Brett and Michelle's we did not get enough pictures of them. Here is their adorable girl named Bria. She was a very happy baby and seemed to be very easygoing from my perspective. She also laughed a lot and was right on the verge of crawling. I tired to train her to crawl so her mom and dad's life would be more difficult, but I failed.

I also messed around on image editor the other day and thought of what our kid may look like when they grow up. I have come up with the image below if it is a boy(right) or a girl(left). I know it is bad when I have to tell you which one is a boy and which one is a girl. Sleep easy as you dream of these two options.

Wow is parenting going to be scary or what.

I have been out of town on and off for the last two weeks and have not really had a chance to post some of these pics. Last week I worked down in Merced Ca for my old boss and worked like a dog, so it was really nice that this week I am in San Diego at a conference and can take it easier although my head does hurt from all the technical papers and presentations I sat through. I am really fortunate to work for a company that lets me do these types of things and really cares about its employees.


Over Christmas break on day we got about 12" of snow in about 14hrs and man did it look so nice. Brenda and I got to have time to just hang out and relax together and take a walk in the winter snow.
We also had a chance to go to Wenachee and visit one of Brenda's old friends. While it was a long drive, we did have a great time and also went to Leavenworth (a Bavarian style town).

Here is a picture of the town. It was a very relaxing get away for us.

Here is one of those weirdo side profile pics that pregnant women take to show they are pregnant and not just getting fat.

Ben and Laura came up for the weekend and brought the kiddos. Of course we had to go to Cabelas and see all the fish and animals there. They had a great time and I think I may have had even more fun having them touch semiautomatic assault rifles and seeing the reaction of Brenda and Laura.

Ashton thought this was a trampoline after I got done with him.

Good thing this gun does not have an recoil...I mean really Laura, you would have broke your nose or gotten a black eye if it was a real gun.

The kiddos also loved to shoot. Ben and I had a competition and he kicked my butt, but the game of course must have been rigged.

San Diego sunsets were so nice. The weather was 65-70 every day with vitamin D in copious amounts.

Classic California. Christmas decorations anyone???

Pic of the palm tree outside of my room in San Diego.

I am back home now and ready for the nice weekend.