Scott's Shots

Chnages, Changes, Changes

2012-01-12T22:16:00.001-08:00

I haven't blogged since back in October, and man has life changed since then. I'll try to cover it all, but it may be tough. I'll also be as brief as I can while covering what I want to say. How about bulleting so you can pick out the main points if you don't feel like reading the whole thing.

I returned to work on Monday, October 24 for Teyma USA, which is a firm that is partnering up with another firm or two to design and build a $1.2 billion solar plant in the Mojave Desert. I am a buyer which means that I am constantly doing RFQ's, performing analysis and negotiating contracts, many of which are multi-million dollar contracts. Since the office is located in Victorville, this meant a 73-mile, one-way commute to work each day, five days a week. On the bright side, it meant a regular paycheck and benefits that just kicked in January 1; the first time we have had health benefits since November 2010.
Getting a job that far from home meant selling our house and beginning a house hunt of our own for a new home to rent in the high desert are of Victorville-Hesperia-Apple Valley. We made multiple trips up there to look at houses and meet with our realtor, who I went to high school with, Bryan Bagwell. He was great to work with and did a great job of helping us look at places. He just moved up here last summer so he has gotten fairly familiar with the area and real estate market up here. Now, house hunting, as we had forgotten, is not all fun. It was frustrating as a few houses we wanted to rent were rented before we were able to apply. However, the one we are in now is great and we are thankful for this find.
As for the new house, it is much different from our house in Whittier. It is just over double the size and significantly less expensive, which is good because of the pay cut I took to accept the job I have now. Also, the back yard is huge, although all dirt (which is very common) and the front yard is nice with some landscaping. We have a three-car garage with a pull through into the back yard (for one car) We went from 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms plus a bonus room. Needless to say, we like the house very much although we do miss Whittier. At least we are only a little over an hour away.
After having lived in our house for 10 and a half years, it was interesting to move. It was a little tough on the emotional side because we loved our house and are only moving because my job is too far away to do that commute every day. We are very fortunate to have friends and family that are so supportive and helped us move. We probably had around 10-15 people each day of moving activities. On New Year's Eve, we packed up the moving trucks, which went surprisingly quickly, about 4-5 hours I think. On New Year's Day, we made the physical move to Victorville with a caravan of 5 or 6 cars. Moving in took longer and was a little more complicated since a number of items had to go upstairs. Fortunately things we pretty smoothly and there were no injuries (that I know of).
During moving, I was sick, which is always how you want to feel when you're moving. I was extremely miserable the night of New Year's Eve and was contemplating going to Urgent Care even though benefits kicked in the next day. However, I fought through and felt better the next morning for moving. However, by the next day, January 2, I was just as miserable and decided that since we now had benefits, there was no sense in feeling that bad. So off to Urgent Care I went. Two hours and four medications later, I was one the road to recovery. I was fighting a throat infection it turns out, so, as I mentioned, I was prescribed 4 medications. They were (for): antibiotic, pain, cough and congestion.
One fun note about the move: Skyler lost her first tooth on the day we moved in. She was very excited and so were we: the first big event in our new house! Good thing we have good connections with the Tooth Fairy as (s)he made the visit to pick up Sky's tooth and leave her a little cash.
One of the worst parts of the move, in my opinion, is having the girls change school mid-year. That is one thing I absolutely did not want to do. However, they started their new school this week, and let's just say that we miss Orchard Dale. I'm not saying they are at a bad school. I'm just saying it is not Orchard Dale. Skyler has had a substitute all week since her actual teacher is pretty sick apparently. Courtney seems to be doing fine. Some differences from Orchard that I am not impressed with: Courtney had one sheet for homework for the week, which is like what she had each day before, Skyler has had no homework (although this may be because of the substitute) and Courtney's teacher did not leave a good impression when we met her Tuesday morning for the girls' first day.
One great thing about this move is that I appreciate my family a lot more than I did before. It was almost like I tool them for granted before, but now I truly appreciate what God has blessed me with. Since we don't have family nearby, we have each other and therefore spend more time with each other, which I have enjoyed for the most part.
Another huge benefit is that I get an extra 2+ hours more each day with my family thanks to my 5-minute (2.5-mile) commute to work. You cannot put a price on how precious that time is. Actually, the girls have to be at school before I have to be at work. I'm supposed to be there around 8:00 and their school starts at 7:40.
Searching for a new home church is another challenge we are facing currently. I have a feeling we will not find a church we enjoy as much as WACC, but I know we can find a church that will meet our needs. We've been to one so far and it has left a great impression on us so far. We do plan to visit a few more to see how some others are, but I don't think we would have any problem returning to that church. Plus the girls loved it and Skyler wanted to make that our new church as soon as we picker her up from her Sunday School class. (That's a very good sign!)

So, you can say that we are making the adjustment as well as we can. It will be a long transition process since we lived in Whittier for so long and that's the are where most of our family and friends are. It also doesn't really help knowing that we will probably be moving again in about 3 years (or less) since the project I am working on is supposed to last for about three years.

Despite all the worries I have and the guilt I feel for putting my family through this, I am grateful that they have been so supportive and willing to go on this adventure together. God is changing our lives in a way that is out of our comfort zone, and sometimes, that is when God does His best work. So we continue on this adventure as a family, learning and growing along the way, waiting to see what God has in store for us.

Looking Back and Looking Forward: Big Changes

2011-10-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

The drought is over! Last week I was offered and accepted a job. Who knows how many jobs I applied to, easily in the hundreds, and the several interviews, probably 20+, that I had, but it has all paid off. This Monday, I help decrease the unemployed population by one! It is a significant pay cut, but it is a job that will be a great experience and uses and builds off of what I have already been doing. Plus I will get to learn more about solar power and how it all works. I will be a Buyer for a company called Teyma USA. Their offices are in Victorville. They are helping build a $1.2 billion solar field in Mojave. When I interviewed for the job, the purchasing department had 3 or 4 people in it. I was told that when it was filled, there would be 10 to 12 people, so I'm getting in kind of early. I also know that there are two others that started this past week.It will be an interesting start too. I received an e-mail today saying that I have a hotel reservation for Sunday night at a hotel where I will have training all day Monday. Where is the hotel? Costa Mesa: about 1/3 of the distance to Victorville. The sad thing is it will probably take me as long to get home Monday from Costa Mesa as it will from Victorville.

Looking back at this unemployment journey, it has been a very long road. Only by God's blessings have we been able to make it as long as we have. I never pictured myself being unemployed for a year when I was let go last October from Chevron. As I mentioned, I applied to a ton of jobs. I was fortunate to get a number of interviews too. There were three companies I actually had multiple interviews with: Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Gas Company and Hawaiian Airlines. The rejects of the first two of those were disappointing, but the rejection from Hawaiian really hurt. When I was told why I was not chosen to move on, there were three reasons given, two of which were based on assumptions made by the interviewer, which were false assumptions. (The third one was legit.) That really upset me and changed my attitude somewhat for a while back around June. There were also many other companies I interviewed with a single time and was ultimately rejected from, including my dream employer Disney. Although I got rejected by Disney, I am glad that I was at least given a chance to interview. Now I can eliminate the "What if they just gave me a chance to interview?" question.So with all the experiences from my year plus of unemployment, I have a new chapter of my life complete. It just adds to my personal testimony of faith in God. Looking forward, there will be some big changes, which I'm sure will add more to that.

Since the job is located in Victorville, some 73 miles from home, it is not ideal, long-term, to commute daily. For the short-term it will be fine. So starting Tuesday, my first day in V-ville, I will do the nearly 150-mile round trip drive daily. One thing in my favor is that I will be going against traffic (headed to L.A.) The two times I have been to Victorville, for the interview and house hunting, it has taken about one hour and 15 minutes each direction each time. I can live with that. It's really not to different from the time spent driving between home in Whittier and my previous jobs in Irvine and El Segundo.

However, the biggest change that will occur as a result of this job, is the family and I will be moving to Victorville. The last time Traci and I moved was 10 years ago when we moved into this house, had been married for just 2 years and had no kids. In the last 10 years, we have accumulated a number of things, including our two kids. Well, maybe we didn't exactly "accumulate" them, but you know what I mean. As I mentioned above, we (Traci and I) have gone house hunting once so far. We saw four houses and liked two of them. On the 30th, we, this time all four of us, will head back out there for some more house hunting.

With me being a nerd, I have done my share of analysis over the last week or two. Lately this has focused on the school districts out there. This has also helped us to nail down the city we would like to live in. There really are three cities that would be fine to live in logistically: Victorville, Apple Valley and Hesperia. After looking at the three school districts, here is what my analysis has shown us, and why we have chosen Victorville as our city of choice. Apple Valley has generally good schools, and not so great homes (for rent). Victorville has a mix of schools and some great homes. Hesperia has some great homes, but the schools are generally not that good. So with Victorville's mix of schools and good housing options, we are planning to move there. Also a plus for Victor Elementary School District, is you can enroll in any school in the district, about half of which are charter school and generally perform very well, regardless of where in V-ville you live. So, like many people, you can tell us the schools in Victorville are not good, but based on my research, it depends on what school you are looking at.

Back to the houses in Victorville that we have seen. The first one we liked was 4br, 3ba, 2334 sq ft with a very open floor plan one-story house. The second one we really liked, we would have tried to lock up instantly if we were at that point. It was 4br, 3ba, 2788 sq ft two-story house with an upstairs bonus room that was at least the size of our kitchen and living room combined. (I tried to claim it as a man-cave, but Traci wasn't too keen on that idea...I can't figure out why.) We have another appointment to meet with my friend from high school, who is a realtor out there, a week from Sunday. It actually works out really well because not only will we be taking the girls with us this time, but our realtors (at home) are holding an open house at our home that day. Just in case any of are looking, or know someone who is looking, to buy a house, here is the link to our listing and here is a virtual tour of our house.

On the flip side, it has been some experience putting our house up for sale. It was something we never wanted to do, but here we are with the sign in the front yard, the lockbox on our front door and the fliers ready for prospective buyers on our coffee table. I happened to be mowing the lawn when they guy came by and put up the stake-thing for the sign. It felt like a little piece of me had been taken away. Then later that day when I returned home, the realtors' sign was up and that took a little more of me away. It is sad to be going through this, but I am trying to set my mind as right as possible. I know that home ownership is the "American Dream", but ultimately, it seems as though we are living out God's dream for us, and that is what comforts me somewhat. Although we won't own a home anymore (believe me, we've looked at our options and this is the best one), we will still have a home to live in out in Victorville and for that we should be grateful since there are millions (if not billions) of people worldwide who would kill themselves to live in something the size of our bedroom, or smaller. Our home has been a bog part of our lives for 10 years now, and it's the only home Courtney and Skyler have known, but in the end, it really is just a temporary home anyway. God has prepared a permanent residence for all 4 of us in Heaven. So anything we have on Earth is nothing compared to what we have with Him.

I have to admit the one thing I was really hoping not to do was have the girls change schools mid-year, but that is the path we are headed down. On the bright side, they are both very friendly and make new friends pretty easily. I have a feeling that will come in handy with the move, at least I sure hope so. Which school they will go to...well, that's something we're still working on. Plus whatever school we choose, we need to make sure they actually have openings for the girls.

So back to work I go on Monday. I haven't been this excited to work in a long time, if ever! Traci will have to adjust to me being gone every day again. I will have to readjust to not seeing my family as much as I'm used to. We will all have to adjust to the changes associated with moving (around the holidays, no less). Fortunately, we are a strong family with strong faith in Christ. He will ultimately get us through this transition, and who knows what he has planned for us out there. And besides, I'm sure it will be the adventure of a lifetime for our family. Here we go!

1 Year

2011-09-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that as of tomorrow I will have been unemployed for 1 year. And if you told me that we would still be in our house and not have touched our 401k's, I would have thought you were crazy. However, here we stand one year later and it's all true still.

I'm still searching for jobs just as hard, if not harder, than I have so far. And lately it's paid off somewhat. I had one interview this past Monday, one yesterday, and have one more coming up on Monday. All the while, I'm still in the running and waiting to hear back from Paramount Petroleum (in Paramount) about the purchasing position at their refinery. Of the four jobs I'm currently in the running for, Paramount is easily the top choice, with Southern California Edison (Long Beach...past Monday) being second and Abener Teyma (Victorville, yesterday) being third. As for where Monday's interview's company lies (SF Bay area), we'll have to wait and see my impression of the job after the interview. My guess is that it will wind up as my second preference behind the refinery job.

As for other things in life that are keeping my spirits up and my mind off being employed, coaching soccer is at the top. Even though my older team is challenging in the sense that it is hard to keep their attention, I still enjoy coaching them. Skyler team is low maintenance and always fun.

Today I did something else that I really enjoyed. I went to the girls' school for Read Across OD Day (for the first time) and got to read a from a couple of books to Courtney's class. They were so quiet and paid attention the whole time. It was great! Also, since I had expressed interest to the teacher about helping with math in the classroom at Back to School Night, she asked if I would like to come in for 45 minutes of Fridays starting next week to do just that. I agreed and therefore will be helping in her class on Fridays. That should be a lot of fun.

As for this coming weekend, church should be more fun than normal. We'll be celebrating our church's 40th anniversary and there will be a huge picnic type thing starting after the 9:30 service. While I was at church taking pictures of Courtney's choir for their Christmas performance, I heard the band practicing for Sunday's service and they were practicing my favorite worship song..."Everything". It is an amazing song and I don't think I could ever get tired of that song. It's on my song blog so you can check it out here if you'd like to.

Hopefully I'll have some good news on the job front in the next week or so as I expect to find out about the Paramount job next week. Stay tuned...

The Horror of the Summer, 8/5/11

2011-09-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a little crazy since my adventures to St. Louis. I can't believe I haven't blogged about the accident we witnessed and suffered some minor car damage from back in early August. So here it goes. Warning: some of my descriptions will be pretty graphic.

The first weekend of August is traditionally when we take off on our annual camping trip with Traci's family. Normally it's off to Shaver Lake in the Sierras east of Fresno. However, this year, we headed to Lake of the Springs, which was about and hour and 20 minutes north of Sacramento (460 miles from home roughly). So we hit the road pretty early, just after 4:00 AM.

Over the Grapevine we go and down into the Central Valley. Maybe a half hour after the Grapevine, we witnessed the most horrific accident any of us have ever seen, and hopefully never see again. Let me give you a play by play as best I can. This happened around 6:1 5AM on August 5.

Cruising along at about 60 MPH, following Traci's parents who are towing a 5th wheel (trailer), I happen to notice a white SUV (Suburban) passing us in the left lane (on a 2-lane each direction highway). While I'm watching it after it passed us, the rear right wheel--tire on rim--rolls right off the car. Instantly the back rotor hits the road and starts kicking up gravel and sparks right onto our car which is maybe 100 feet behind them in the neighboring lane. That pulls the car right, slightly into our lane, freaking me out. Then it swerves left across the lane they were just in, continues into the center median which is all dirt and dry brush and about 40-50 feet wide (we were west of Bakersfield on I-5) and then begins to come back up onto the road into the left lane where they began. As soon it was back up on the road, headed almost straight across our side of the highway, it flips. Not just once, but several times, with at least the first complete rotation occurring completely in the air. Once it lands back on the pavement, it continues to rolls at least a few more times. I estimate it probably rolled a total of 4 or 5 times in all. Meanwhile, everything is flying out of the car. This was part of a family from Baldwin Park headed to Napa Valley for vacation we found out later, so the back of this Suburban was packed. Suitcases flew out, which opened sending all contents flying, at least one ice chest opened as it flew out sending everything in it flying. This doesn't count all the pieces of gravel, which were like little fireballs from the friction of the accident as well as parts of the car flying all around that car and into our car which I was in the process of stopping to avoid running into this flying, rolling car. During this scene, something very large and metal hits our car, which is where our damage came from on the passenger's side of the front of our car. Eventually the SUV stops, right side up somehow amazingly, and we are in shock as we are the closest car to them. Once we make sure the girls were ok, and they were thankfully, we told them to stay right where they were so that we could help the people in the car.

There is nothing that can prepare you for this scene if you are not an EMT, cop, etc. When all is said and done, our car is within 150 feet probably of where the other car came to a rest. I-5 is now completely shut down going north since they are in the middle of the two lanes on our side of the 5. Debris is covering from the freeway from several feet behind our car to probably over 100 feet ahead of where the car stopped rolling, from gutter to center median: clothes, ice, drinks, car parts, shattered glass...you name it, it was on the freeway. Fortunately, the one thing that did not fly out of the car and onto the freeway was bodies. All 7 people in the car had seat belts on. As we (Traci and I) approach the car, it was like something straight out of the movies or tv (like ER). Everybody in the car is in shock and has blood running down some part of them except for a 5 year old in the middle of the back (3rd) row. The driver's head, an older gentleman, is cut and has blood running down his head and face. The passenger next to him, his sister we found out, was dead and had a major gash in her forehead. This went from the middle of her forehead just above the point between her eyes, to past her right eye by a good inch, and was wide open, at least an inch and a half, so that when I saw it, I was looking at her scull. In hindsight it was obvious that she was dead. This huge wide open gash on her forehead did not have blood flowing from it, meaning the heart was not beating.In the middle row of seats the people were able to get out on their own, but had blood all over them. The back row had the other most disturbing injuries to a person. The little boy in the middle looked just fine, no blood, no cuts or scratches that we could see. He was strapped in his booster seat. The driver's side passenger was injured and had blood going like everybody else. The passenger on the passenger's side was in and out of consciousness. Her shirt was saturated (so much so it was kind of shiny, you know like when you're fresh out of the pool in your bathing suit) in blood. When she was conscious, she would just moan/cry/scream. Her face had blood running down it as well.

The car that was behind them in their lane when this went down also got out to help and was the first to call 911. He approached the car just as we did. Meanwhile Traci's parents were freaking out. As I said we were following them, but they were ahead of the accident. When it happened, all they saw was a cloud of debris and dust behind them. They lost sight of us and thought the worst. Fortunately, when the dust settled, they saw that we were ok and backed up to come back to help. They stayed with the girls in the car for the most part, although Traci's mom helped the family as well since she used to be a nurse. There was another car that backed up to help out with the accident as well. It was the other part of the family that was in the car that just flipped. They were amazingly calm after seeing what had happened to their family. They helped out where needed with their family. They comforted the two injured girls that were crying, initially from their own injuries and then more when they realized that they were looking at their dead mother. They also helped the other that were injured. They seemed very appreciative when we said goodbye.

We wound up using 6 of the 8 towels we had packed on the people of the accident to help stop all the bleeding. Traci applied pressure on a girl with a severs cut to her foot (that literally gushed when she showed it to one of the EMTs that arrived). Traci mom helped with compressions on the dead woman once I and two other men helped lift her body out of the car and onto the ground. Not what I had planned for vacation, that's for sure.

They wound up closing both sides of I-5 as a result of the accident. They needed to land a helicopter to airlift the one girl in the back seat I talked about. Let's just say it was controlled chaos. Ultimately there were 3 or 4 cops/highway patrolmen, two fire trucks and crews, and at least two ambulances with their crews. Once they arrived, it was amazing to see them go to work. I learned that code black = dead, code red = severe/life-threatening injuries, code yellow = injuries, but not severe and code green = fine.

After it was all said and done and I had calmed down as much as is possible after witnessing something like that, and we had given the cops our statements and got their clearance to leave, we headed back on our way. This was about an hour and a half after the accident occurred, so we still needed breakfast. So we headed to IHOP and continued as best we could to our vacation.

The girls were fortunate enough to have been each given a teddy bear from one of the firemen on the scene. It was very cute and they were very happy about that. It was also fortunate that all they saw was the bloody driver and a the girl being carted to the helicopter. They didn't see much if any of the accident as it happened.

I may have left out some details, but I really don't feel like trying to figure that out. We were also very fortunate that all we had happen was some minor damage to our car. Repairs totaled just under $3,000, but we wound up not having to pay a penny once our deductible was refunded to us. The one thing I can really take away from this is to cherish each moment you can because you truly do not know when God will call you home. You never plan on something like this happening, but you also never know when it will.

St. Louis

2011-08-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I was in the St. Louis area a couple of weeks ago. This was because one of my good friends (Eric) was getting married and I was lucky enough to be asked to be a part of the wedding. So it was off to St. Louis on July 28.

I had never been to St. Louis prior to this trip so I had some high expectations about how fun it would be, although I realized most of the trip would be centered around the wedding, which was to be expected.

Once I landed it was off to get my rental car, which wound up being a Chevy HHR. (Not a bad car for a rental, but it's not a car I would want to buy.) From there it was off to my hotel in Downtown St. Louis, across the street from The Arch. I was excited when I arrived at the hotel without getting lost. It was about half the distance from LAX to Whittier.

Eric, who I shared a room with that first night, was not yet there since he was still out helping with wedding preparations. Once he got there, it was up to the room to drop my stuff. Not too long after that, it was off to Busch Stadium to take in a Cardinals game. This is another stadium that has been crossed off my list of stadiums visited. I've now seen MLB baseball games at Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium (pre-Petco San Diego Padres), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros) and Busch Stadium. It was so fun being in another stadium. The weather really sucked as it was 97 degrees at game time, versus 105 when I first arrived in St. Louis, and the humidity was very high, which made it that much worse. After the game and some freshening up, it was down to the hotel lobby for Eric and I to hang out and chat.

Friday was a whirlwind as I ran around with Eric and his fiance (Stacey) doing some final preps for the wedding and a family brunch. I just remember that once we left the brunch in the early afternoon, the intensity really picked up since the rehearsal was only a couple of hours away. Once we got back to the hotel, I met up with another friend, Micah, who came in from Texas for the wedding, who I roomed with for the final two nights.

The rehearsal went well and was fun. The dinner was even better as went to a local Benihana-style restaurant called the Japanese Garden. I had never been to a place like this so it was very fun and fascinating seeing the chef cook on our table and all of his tricks while cooking. The food was really good too!

Once back at the hotel, it became social hour for those who were in town for the wedding. Lots of drinking and hanging out, making new friends and meeting up with some who hadn't been seen in a while. Being the introvert, I didn't do as much talking as most other people, but I did more than normal. I was just enjoying how happy everybody was and that everybody was there to support Eric and Stacey.

Saturday was the wedding, which meant lots of busyness. Eric, Micah and I headed down for breakfast in the hotel lobby's restaurant. It's hard to go wrong with a breakfast buffet, and this was no exception. After that, it was wedding prep time and, well, after that was the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and everything went as planned except for the wrong verse being read, but fortunately, the verse still fit. It was off to the Paebaek (Korean traditional wedding ritual) and reception at a country club in Belleville, IL after that. It was very fascinating watching the Paebaek, as it was very colorful and symbolic of the two families coming together to support the new couple. Everything ended around 11:00, with the wedding ceremony having started at 2:30, but it was a lot of fun. I was very happy to be a part of it. I could tell Eric and Stacey were loving it all and taking as much of it in as they could, which is the way it should be.

Sunday was very much a wind-down kind of day. It started with a family brunch back at the country club. After about an hour there, I took Micah to the airport since he had an earlier flight than I did. After dropping him off, it was back to the city for some sightseeing. I headed to the Arch with plans of going up in it, but when I found out my ticket would have been for two hours later, I opted for a one-hour Mississippi River cruise that started in about a half-hour. It was cool and worth it. After that, it was off to the airport for my evening flight back home.

Surprise! My flight out of STL was delayed by 3 hours (due to weather in Florida), which meant I could not make my connecting flight out of Las Vegas. Fortunately, Southwest was good enough to rearrange my flights so that I would go to Houston and then LAX while getting home about the same time. It was good to be home and see Traci and the kids again. I missed them, but had a great trip. Congratulations to the new couple, Eric and Stacey!!!

Time of Month, Update #1

2011-07-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

I can add another name to the potential employer list. I talked with DirecTV this morning and they are passing my information onto the hiring manager to see if they want to interview me. The pay is great and the position would start as a 3-month contract assignment and then transition into a DirecTV employee after that. It's in El Segundo, across the 105 from LAX, an area I'm familiar with as Chevron is about a mile and a half from there.

I also sent a follow up e-mail to Accenture since they said they should be in touch with me by today. We'll see what kind of response I get. Hopefully I'll be posting another update soon.

That Time of the Month

2011-07-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha. The title of this entry cracks me up. No it has nothing to do with the female species or my wife. It just happens to refer to a pattern of activity I have noticed during my job search being let go last October. It seems, very much so, that this job search thing is cyclical. There will be times of dealing with multiple potential employers, and then there will be times without any contacts. It seems as though the entire cycle (busy to slow and back again) will last about a month to a month and a half. Right now is one of those busy times, and it happens to be the most exciting activity I have had yet. That is because I will be setting up an interview with my dream company: Disney!

I worked for Disney as a Ride Operator in Disneyland from 1995-1999 and only left when I became a teacher. They offered me a promotion to stay at Disney, which in hindsight I should have taken, but I elected to pursue my desire which was teaching. Ever since I left teaching (2001), I have sent in multiple resumes for a number of positions at Disney. I have never been contacted by them other than the generic "Thank you, but no thank you" e-mails. When they initially contacted me via e-mail last week, I couldn't believe it. After speaking with the Disney HR recruiter last week, she let me know that she would pass my information on to the hiring manager and will let me know if they decide I should move forward with the interview process.

Yesterday (and today) I received an e-mail stating the hiring manager/team would like to meet with me, as well as a call making sure I received the e-mail. She said that one of her recruiters would be contacting me to look at my schedule and setup an interview for the week of August 1st. Needless to say, I am very excited to have gotten this far. I feel like this is my one opportunity to get back in at Disney. I will feel horrible if it doesn't work out, but I will feel a little better knowing that at least I was given a chance. Hopefully at this time next month, I'll be making the long drive to Burbank on a daily basis, but only God knows if that will be the case.

So while Disney is easily my main focus right now, they are not the only potential employer that I have had communication with. I also had a screening call with Accenture (based out of Mountain View/San Jose) and am awaiting a notification (tomorrow probably based on what the recruiter told me) as to whether or not they want me to move forward in the interview process with them. I also received a confirmation from the federal government (yes, in Washington, DC) that I had been certified to have my information forwarded to the hiring manager. I haven't spoken with anybody yet, but I made it past the first small step apparently, which is a step in the right direction. I also expect to hear from Chevron next month since I put in for a position at the Salt Lake City Refinery for the same position I was doing at the El Segundo Refinery. If I don't at least get considered for that position (assuming I don't already have a new job), that will tell me that there may be more problems with Chevron than it already seems there are.

One of the nice things that makes more confident about wanting to pursue the three opportunities (not Chevron yet) above is that I know salary will be not be an issue with any of them. Disney's target/goal for salary is slightly above what I was making at Chevron, Accenture didn't have a problem with my minimum requirement, and the DC position starts at about 10% above what I was making at Chevron.

So it is that time of the month where I enjoy the job search activity and get very hopeful. However, the stakes feel a bit higher since Disney is in the picture. Oh, and for what it's worth, I applied for this Disney position back in April. Here's to hoping the end of unemployment is near!

Summer Travels

2011-07-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

After spending a long day in El Cajon last Saturday, helping our pastor friend and his family move, I realized that this coming weekend (starting in a few minutes), will be the last entire weekend I spend at home/in town at least until mid-August. I guess I better enjoy it.

Next weekend, we head to San Diego for a day for Traci's family's (dad's side) annual family reunion in Mission Bay in San Diego. It's always fun and when it's not overcast, it's great weather usually.

The weekend after that, I am in St. Louis for my friends wedding, which I am a groomsman in. I'm very excited about this because we have been friend for about 20 years now. Also, I've never been to St. Louis, and the night I get there (two weeks from today), I will be enjoying a Cardinals-Astros game at Busch Stadium; another ballpark I can check off my list!

The weekend after that is our annual camping trip with Traci's family, which normally is at Shaver Lake, but this year will be at a new place in northern California.

Th weekend after that, we will be in the San Diego area (again!) to support our pastor who is being installed as the new Co-lead Pastor of a young church in La Mesa.

The weekend after that, we are all home for the weekend. The weekend after that, I will be camping with the guys from my Bible study group. And believe it or not, that leads up to the week that the girls go back to school. No wonder Summer flies by so quickly!

Hopefully somewhere in all that craziness, I will start a new job. I have a few prospects out there, and they are scattered all over the U.S. The job I want the most is also the one local prospect I have right now: Disney!!!! If you know me, you may know that I worked at Disneyland (1995-1999) while working on my undergraduate degree. I loved it and once I realized teaching was not where I wanted to be, I wished I had stayed with Disney because I loved working there. Well, this may be the one opportunity I have to land something there. I have sent them so many resumes over the years and to actually talk to a Disney HR recruiting employee this week was awesome! It seemed like the screening call we had went pretty well. I should know by Friday (tomorrow) whether or not they want to interview me for the position. The commute would not be fun as the job would be located in Burbank, but for Disney, I would do it in a heartbeat! I'm praying and hoping that this works out. Only God knows, and I hope this is His plan for me, but that is for Him to know and me to find out.

I also have a resume in with Chevron for the same type of position (same exact work) I was doing before the layoff. However, this position is located in Salt Lake City. That would be interesting since the weather is a lot different than here and we have no family there. Fortunately we do have some friends that live in that area. I haven't heard anything from Chevron yet since the posting is open until July 29.

The other prospect is for the government, and is located in Washington, DC, but the salary starts at about 10% above what I was making at Chevron and goes up from there. Again, much different weather, but for that much money, it would be worth the move, and the extra money could go towards travel to come back and visit family once in a while.

However, I still sit here waiting for more calls regarding positions I've applied for and continue looking for new jobs and using new job search resources I learn about. I'll tell you though, if you are currently searching for a job, I highly highly highly recommend LinkedIn. I have been contacted by a number of recruiters who came across my profile there.

I should probably sign off now since it's about midnight, which means it's almost Friday, which means it's the day I should hear back from Disney, which could be the beginning of something magical!

Crazy Week

2011-07-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

This week has the busiest one in a while and it's not slowing down. The girls started swim lessons this week and will finish them up next Friday. i love watching them because they love to be int he water and swim. It just makes me a proud daddy...makes me very happy.

It all goes back to Sunday. If you remember, last weekend was a bad weekend emotionally for me due to the rejection from Hawaiian Airlines. But nonetheless, life goes on. Sunday after church, we went to a picnic at the park with my Bible Study group and their families, which was pretty fun. After that we spent the evening at our church for their Patriotic Concert on the Lawn.

Monday, of course, was the 4th. We started off going to a friend's house for an lunchtime holiday BBQ and the kids had fun with some water play. After that it was straight to Traci's aunt and uncle's house for a huge block party and fireworks. Skyler was scared by most of the fireworks, especially the illegally professional ones that were very loud. There was actually one down the street that exploded before leaving the ground. I couldn't tell if anybody got hurt, but it was pretty scary to see.

Tuesday the girls started swim lessons and that was pretty much it besides my quarterly psych appointment.

Wednesday after swim lessons, we headed to the beach for the first time this year. Of course the girls had a ton of fun. This also represented the first time that we let the girls go in the water without holding their hands, so Traci and I were kind of on edge watching them nearby. They actually did pretty well and between that and playing in the sand, they were pretty happy. After that we headed to my sister's mother-in-law's fiance's house for an impromptu BBQ. She treats our girls as if they were her own granddaughters which is very sweet. It gave us a chance to get to know her fiance a little better too, which was nice. He has two dogs and the girls enjoyed playing with them and petting them. Dinner was also great! We all even took a walk to a nearby park where the girls got play a little before we finally headed home.

Thursday after swim lessons we headed to a friend's house for some fun swim time. I was used as a floating jungle gym by the girls, and it was a lot of fun. It's times like those I really cherish. After that, we went home for a little bit before heading off to my kickball game, the first time Traci and the girls had been able to make it to a game. I enjoyed having them there to watch, and we won so that was pretty cool too. (We are 2-1 now, by the way!)

Today after lessons, our swim day was cancelled which was nice because it gave enough time to come home and prep the girls for their auditions today. Yesterday we were notified that each girl had an audition today, so Traci took Skyler to her audition in Santa Monica while I took Courtney to her audition in Hollywood. When Courtney and I arrived, we learned that the casting people were on lunch for another 45 minutes so we walked down the street (in Hollywood, remember) to a nearby Jack in the Box for a snack. As we arrived, there were a man and a woman yelling at each other looking like they were going to go at it (fight) right outside the JITB. I calmly walked Courtney way around them and into the restaurant to make sure we were both safe. Once inside we got our food and I had to let Courtney know not to stare at a woman who was talking to people who weren't there, if you know what I mean. Ahhhh...just another day in Hollywood! After we made it home, we had a chance to eat dinner and get the girls packed and over to Traci's parents' house for a sleepover tonight. The reason for the sleepover?

Tomorrow morning, Traci and I head over the house of one of our pastors to help them move to their new house in El Cajon, near San Diego, since he is becoming Co-lead Pastor of a church down there. Needless to say it will be a busy Saturday...again.

Despite all this busyness, I have still made time to apply to a number of jobs. How many will I actually have a chance at? Based on my success so far...none. But if I don't keep trying, nothing will happen. However, I am getting in touch with a recruiter that helped one my friends a little while back. I'm hoping that may help end the drought, but I'll believe once it happens. So in honor of Will and Kate's visit to L.A., chin up!

Rough Weekend

2011-07-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

Usually this is a very fun weekend as we celebrate the birth of our country. This year has been a little different so far, though. As you may or may not know, I recently had two interviews with Hawaiian Airlines. This would have been a major move as we would have needed to relocate to Hawaii since the position was based out of Honolulu. However, yesterday morning I received an e-mail from the recruiter who originally contacted me about the position. It said that they decided to pass on me and provided 3 reasons the VP, who most recently interviewed me, gave for taking me out of the running. Two of those three reasons were total crap, which is the main reason I am so pissed and upset about this missed opportunity. The one that gets me the most is that he didn't understand why I left Chevron because he assumed they were doing fine. Here's the two part problem I have with that. First, he assumed! Secondly, he never asked me! I'll give him the fact that although Chevron was crying that they weren't doing well (I guess only making $10 billion in 2009 isn't good enough, never mind the $20 billion they made last year, you know, the year they made all the workforce cuts...don't even get me started on that). Most companies would be fine with that, but not Chevronor other oil companies. Regardless, if he wondered about it, why didn't he freakin' bring it up? But, what's done is done. However, if the first guy "really liked" me (per the recruiter who talked with him), did he talk to the VP? Now I'm just running "what if?" scenarios through my head.

Of course our parents are glad that we aren't moving, but I don't care and don't want to hear that right now. That's almost motivation for me to look exclusively for jobs outside our current area. (Can you tell I'm a little bitter?) I really had my hopes up for this possibility, especially since the first interviewer liked me so much. All I've got to say is thank goodness for my meds. If I didn't have those, who knows how low I would have gotten this weekend; yesterday was bad enough on them. At least I have my next psych appointment on Tuesday.

I have applied for a couple of jobs since the rejection, one based in Texas (with another airline) and one based locally with a high-end sunglasses company. I'm not expecting anything to happen, but at least I've applied.

I have become very frustrated with this whole job search thing. My career coach said that if you get in for an interview, you are 80% of the way there (to getting hired). He also gave me a stat about if you get a second interview. I think it was over 90%, but I'm going to assume only 90% for hte purpose of the following calculation. If it were true, that would mean that I have a (.1 x .1 x .1 =) .001 = .1% chance of not getting hired by any of those three employers. So does that mean that I suck that bad or am I just lucky to be the one person out every 1,000 that has 2 interviews with 3 different employers and doesn't get hired. See where I'm going with this? If I assume that the probability was 95% instead of 90%, there would be a .0125% chance of me not getting any of the three jobs.

Now that I have passed the 9-month unemployment mark I feel like my faith is starting to be challenged. I know God has a plan for me, but what is it and how long will this continue? Is He going to take me to the edge again, like 2 years ago? Is this some kind of test? Whatever it is He's doing, I hope He enlightens me soon. I'm getting sick of this waiting game!

Oh and on top of all this, there are other things to worry about...big things. We have only one payment (for August) left on our temporary loan modification plan. After that, we are done with payments if I'm still unemployed, which means we will have to get rid of the house. Then, after October 1 (ironically, the 1-year anniversary of me being unemployed), my unemployment claim maxes out and we will have pretty much no income. Feels like a perfect storm is brewing to me.

One more thing that irks me is that I keep hearing that those who are currently working have an easier time finding a new job that those who are unemployed. Please tell me I'm stupid, because this doesn't make sense to me.

Ok, I think I'm done venting. Now I just need to calm down so I can actually sleep tonight.

Summer Vacation

2011-06-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that Skyler is on vacation already and Courtney will be once she finishes up school tomorrow. When I was let go back in October, I never imagined myself still being unemployed come Summer Vacation. But here we are and here I am. All in all, I'm kind of excited about it, though. It will be fun to spend a lot of time with the girls being home all day. I'm sure there will be days when I don't feel that way, but I think it will be fun overall.

This is shaping up to be a very interesting and potentially big-changes kind of Summer. I'm currently in the process of working on three job leads. One feels dead though since my last interview was the end of March, even thought they have told me they haven't filled the position. One is just getting restarted thanks to a request for a lower pay rate. The other, most promising, opportunity is being delayed by people taking vacations. This opportunity would relocate us pretty far away, but I have at least two more rounds of interviews, so it's far from a sure thing. They have told me they are in the process of coordinating schedules for the second interview, but with some people being out of town, that really slows things up. I'll know next week though. I won't give any more details on it because there is such a ways to go in the process. However, if I get flown out for an interview, that will sound like a very strong possibility and will probably give more insight then. For now, we wait.

Our family has our first fun Summer activity planned for next week. We have our first visit to the Getty Museum planned for next week. I'm not a big museum guy, but this should be worth it. It will make for a good day trip. It happens to be on the 17th anniversary of my high school graduation, which is pretty scary to think about.

I'm also doing something kind of crazy. I am on a kickball team. Yes, a game that I hadn't played since elementary school until our practice this past Monday. I am still recovering physically from that, but it was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to playing, currently as a sub, and seeing how that all goes. The first game is Thursday next week and we'll have to see if I'm able to get out of bed on Friday. Hopefully I will...me and Traci's 12th anniversary is that Sunday, the 26th.

Another Interview

2011-06-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

Had an interview for a position with BP today. It's a local position based out of Carson. I think it went pretty well and should know something by the end of this week, according to the guy who interviewed me. It is only a 6-month contract position, but it would be living off of unemployment and savings. Although it seemed to go well, it would only be a good short-term solution, not long-term, which is a concern for me. If I were to accept this position, if it is offered to me, I would not stop looking for other jobs or take myself out of the interview process for Hawaiian Airlines, which is a full-time, employee position, with benefits and everything. (BP would just be pay, no benefits, paid time off, etc.)

The concerns about the long-term picture with BP has more than one component. One is that it is pretty certain to be just a 6-month position, meaning I would be without a job come the beginning of 2012. While they are currently looking to fill the position with a contracted worker, they would still be searching and interviewing to fill it with a "permanent" full-time employee, meaning I may or may not be in the running. Secondly, the refinery I would be working at is in the process of being sold. When the sale happens, who knows what that could mean for me as an employee there. I could be kept around by the new owner or I could be let go if they decide they have someone else in mind that they would like to bring in. Of course they could offer me the position and everything could work out, but it seems like that has as much of a chance of happening as the concerns I just pointed out. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to hear on when my second interview with Hawaiian Airlines will be. The guy who interviewed me the first time (Sr. Director of Strategic Procurement) is now on vacation the rest of this week. I haven't gotten a call back from the (external) recruiter for this position, who is traveling today, either. I'm assuming I will know when the next interview is sometime next week, which could be a problem depending on whether or not BP makes an offer. It's a lot to think about, but I'm really just running possible scenarios through my head at this point since nothing has happened. With my active mind, stuff like this constantly runs through my head and I try to think of what I would do in the different possible situations, but who knows. There could be something else out there that I don't know about yet.

8 Months

2011-06-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that I've been unemployed for 8 months now. However, with the recent activity in the job search, it seems like that may come to an end soon, possibly before the 9 month mark. Last week, I had interviews with an employment agency and Hawaiian Airlines. The agency then called me back later last week with a possibility, but I requested not to be considered for it because of the 25% pay decrease and my current search activity. Hawaiian Airlines is currently in the process of arranging a second interview (phone) and I should hear back from them once they have found a time that all 5 of their employees can talk. Then earlier this morning, I received confirmation of my interview with BP next Tuesday. It's nice to have all this activity right now. I'm just really hoping I can land one of these.

School's almost out for the kids. Skyler finishes up preschool next week and Courtney finishes school the week after. When I was let go last October, I never imagined I would still be unemployed when Summer vacation rolled around, let alone still have some money.

Plans for Summer vacation are forming pretty well. We have our annual camping trip in early August scheduled, which comes right after my (alone) trip to St. Louis to be in my friend's wedding at the end of July. The girls will have swimming lessons like usual and there is a reading program at the library again, which they did last Summer. We also have our first trip to the Getty Museum planned for later this month. Depending on how the next interview goes with Hawaiian Airlines, Traci and I may be making a brief trip to Honolulu for final interviews, but I need to get past the next one first.

Job Search - Still Going

2011-05-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

After seven and a half months after my last day at Chevron, I am still looking for a job. When I was let go, I never pictured being out of work this long. On the bright side, I have had many interviews and am much more comfortable interviewing than I have ever been. It's funny how job search activity seems to be very cyclical, at least for me. It seems like I'll have a week or two where I have multiple interviews and then a few weeks without anything. Fortunately, this week is one of the busy ones.

I had an interview today with LA Business Personnel, a job search firm based in L.A. My interview today was more of an assessment, though. I took tests for MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a typing test as well as a brief interview so they could better understand my job experience. It went well, but will help them look for job possibilities for me. I still have to go through the normal interview process with whatever company they find for me.

Tomorrow's interview is more interesting. I'll be having lunch at CPK while interviewing with Hawaiian Airlines. If anything develops from the HA interview, things could get very interesting, but I'll leave it at that for now. It was originally going to be a phone interview since the guy I'm interviewing with is based out of Hawaii. He happens to be travelling back to Hawaii from Chicago and will be in town tomorrow; thus the face to face interview.

My last interview with The Gas Co. was on March 31. They have not yet filled the position and have not yet made a decision. I have no idea what the holdup is, but at least it's still a possibility. My (and Traci's) hope is that they are trying to get the ok to open up a second position, which they mentioned to me in my last interview, and try to hire me for that one. Ii have no idea if that is what is going on, so we'll see.

Otherwise, life is going fairly well. The girls are getting ready to finish up school in a few weeks. We're especially excited about Skyler finishing up preschool for a couple of reasons. First, that means she will be in kindergarten in the Fall. Secondly, because we will no longer have the monthly preschool payment!! We've been getting some financial aid the past few months, but we are still paying the majority of it and we will lose that payment after our last payment next week.

Softball season is over (see my last posting), but I was asked if I was interested in the being on the League's Board. It sounds like a good idea, especially since I've seen some inefficiencies that shouldn't be that hard to improve. We'll have to see if they like me enough to put add me to the Board. Although I'm not doing it for the resume, it won't look bad on there either.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up and the girls are very excited to be going camping with us and Traci's parents. The girls love camping and the fact that the campground we are going to has a huge pool. They haven't gone swimming in a long time and they live for that.

The Dodgers have been very disappointing this season. I feel like it's already a lost cause. Hopefully once the ownership situation and the issues surrounding that get worked out, things will turn around.

Just got off the phone with the guy I'm interviewing with tomorrow. He needed to change the time of our meeting tomorrow so now we're having breakfast at South Coast Plaza instead of lunch at CPK. I like morning interviews because then it's over early and I don't have to worry about it as much during the day. I'll have to deal with some rush hour traffic, but it should be worth it.

2011 Softball Reflections

2011-05-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

The softball season has come and gone and I now have my first season as a coach under my belt. Overall, it was a very good experience. I knew it would be fun and there may be moments where I wouldn't enjoy it, and it turned out that way. The good very much outweighs the bad, however, and I am thankful for that.

It was very fun getting to know all of the girls and their different personalities and watching them improve as the season went on. Sure it was frustrating at times when things didn't go the way I hoped, but that's part of the game and being a coach.

I loved encouraging the girls, especially when they did really well. There were a number of funny instances, as can be expected at this level. Whenever the girls found ladybugs in the grass either before a game or at practice, things would come to a halt instantly. Sometimes the dirt formations were more interesting than the game itself. Girls would be singing while in the field, including Courtney.

I was fortunate to have a good team mom and great coaches that helped out a lot. That made the experience more enjoyable since that meant it wasn't all up to me.

Things didn't always go our way. The controversy of the rules and how the opposing coach changed them while already playing the game, in our second playoff game, when we lost. A number of our parents, including me, have been vocal to the league about that since it sounds like the same coach did the same thing last year, and won the tournament both years. Very sad, especially at this level. As a result there are at least two families from my team that will be leaving the league next year. Fortunately, I got a good response from the league President, who at the end of his e-mail asked me if I had considered being on the Board. It's something I'm now looking into, so we'll see what happens with that.

I'm hoping I am able to coach again next year, when Courtney moves up into the next division. It will definitely be more challenging, but I loved the strategic planning associated with the post-season tournament this year. At the next level, I'll get to do that every game! But first, I need to get a job and make sure that my schedule will allow me to coach.

For the time being, though, I will continue my search for a new job, which has lasted for over 7 months now. Being able to coach the girls' softball team was definitely something to take advantage of while I had the time. Next up, coaching soccer in the Fall at church.

Gas Prices...Self-inflicted?

2011-03-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

What the heck am I doing writing something like this? Well, I'm tried of seeing these signs around Whittier saying not to drill in our hills, and those same people (well everybody I guess these days) is complaining about the high cost of gas (and I'm not in the greatest of moods). Here's my two cents worth...IT'S YOUR FAULT!

Maybe it's not all your fault, but at least a portion of it is. Let me try to lay out my reasoning for this. Keep in mind that although I used to work for Chevron, I do not anymore. And while that may allow me to have a little additional information than the average person, in no way does that make me an expert on this subject. I'm just trying to apply some common sense. I accept arguments that have solid logic behind them, which is why I have such an issue with this topic, which has become somewhat more of an issue locally since there is a big deal being made about new (or resumed) drilling in the Whittier Hills. So please try to hear me out. If you have an opinion on this, please feel free to post it.

Everybody is upset now that crude is over $100 per barrel and about $4.00 per gallon at the pump. So let's take a step back and look at this from what I feel is a logical point of view. Speculators (who are an issue all by themselves in my opinion) are the ones who increase the cost for a barrel of crude, based on their speculation of current conditions. Lately this seems to based on the conflicts in the Middle East. That is somewhat understandable, but until they oil supply is cut off from the rest of the world, there should not be an issue.

However, even if they decided to cut off our supplies, you would think we would have enough access to oil elsewhere in the world to help us get through a crisis like that. This is where my biggest complaint comes into play and where I think a lot of the logic of people (at least some) complaining has no weight in my opinion. You want us to be less reliant on foreign oil (more specifically the Middle East), but you don't want to drill locally because of your fear of some type of accident and how that may affect you. While this is a valid concern, it's like saying you're scared to fly because of the plane crashes you hear about. yes, they happen, but they are few and far between. So, if we go with that argument, then we should not drill near any of our national population.

But wait! We can't drill offshore because of the same concerns and how that would affect sea life. So we can't drill offshore either. Therefore, we are required to rely on foreign oil, a large portion of which is in the Middle East. But per the speculators, they could cut off our supply anytime. So, we can't drill near US population, we can't drill offshore because we might hurt some sea life, and a large part of our foreign supply could be lost at any minute. Ever heard of supply and demand??? Decreased supply + roughly the same demand = increased prices.

One more key point that needs to be brought up, which I didn't know before I worked for Chevron...The refineries (i.e. Chevron, Shell, Cononco, etc.) do not get their crude supply from within the company. The very small part of the crude they do get from their own company, they still have to pay the Upstream (drilling/exploration) "company" within the company and they are charging the increased per barrel cost you hear about on the market (although they buy months in advance). So, the costs to refineries to process the crude into fuel that we can use increase when the market price increases, and they have to make up for that increase somehow. SO they charge the stations (most of which are like license agreements and not owned by the oil companies) have to pay the higher prices for gas to get it to their stations to sell to us. Therefore, they must pass their increased costs onto us, which coupled with the whole supply and demand thing, explains why prices are so high. And again, I argue that this is at least somewhat self-inflicted because we force ourselves to rely on foreign oil.

Oh, and please stop with the "Don't buy gas from this station" or "Don't buy gas on this day" chain e-mails. snopes.com explains it very well why those are so poorly thought out approaches. Those just piss me off when I see them

What are your thoughts?

5 Months

2011-03-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

I find it hard to believe that I have been out of work for 5 months now. We are still in our house and current on payments we are current on all payments and actually have a little money to spare for the time being thanks to receiving my pension benefit this week. When this layoff hit, I looked at the money I knew I had coming as part of the severance and figured we could make it into January without much trouble. Here we are, March 2, and we're still here and in better shape than I imagined we would be in at this point. This all points to one thing...God provides! He has provided in so many ways. I feel so unworthy to receive all these gifts and love, but I know God is providing it all. So I will humbly accept what He is providing for us.

Don't get me wrong, unemployment sucks. I'm just trying to make the best of it since that's the situation I (and the family) am in. It has it's advantages, but the disadvantages can be down right scary. I'm receiving the maximum unemployment possible, but that is equal to about 3 days of work at my last job and I'm only receiving it once every two weeks. We've made some necessary adjustments and continue to look at additional ways to cut costs. I think next up is cell phone cost cuts. The funny thing is I'll probably end up with a better phone while saving pretty significant money every month ($60-80/month). We were able to get our lender to temporarily (up to 6 months) lower our mortgage payment about 75%. I just received my pension benefit (not my 410(k)...still haven't touched that thankfully) and it was bigger than expected.

Obviously, unemployment is the big life situation that has been at the forefront for sometime now, 5 months to be exact, but there is other good stuff going on that keeps me excited, hopeful and happy. (Please indulge me while I talk about them.)

First, I'm coaching Courtney and Skyler's softball team. Based on the age cutoffs for the League, this will be the only year they play on the same team. It seemed like a no-brainer to coach this year. Last Saturday was supposed to be our first game, but it got rained out, despite it not actually raining last Saturday. I'm sure the field was pretty soggy from the all the rain the day and night before, though. Regardless, our first game is this Saturday now and I am excited. All the girls on the team seem to be having a good time, which is good. I'm excited to see how they do in games,

Second, I joined a Bible Study small group about a month ago. This is something I've wanted to do because I know my knowledge of the Bible is well below where it should be. Fortunately, a friend of mine invited me to join his group and since I already knew most of the guys at least a little, it has been easy to fit in to the group. The way this group is setup is pretty much what I had hoped for in a Bible Study group. it's a great group of guys and as of yesterday, we all began the challenge.journey of reading through the Bible in an entire year. I haven't done this before, and after studying John1 the other night, I'm really looking forward to making this reading a daily part of my life. This group is also planning a men's retreat for our church this fall, which should be fun. I haven't gone to the men's retreat before because it's always been in October and, if you know me, that means the playoffs and World Series are happening then. But if we are planning it, you can bet I'll go as long as I can afford it.

Next up, the cruise. Having a photographer for a wife has its perks. In just over three weeks, she will be shooting a wedding her sister-in-law's sister's wedding. What does this entail? Well, they are getting married on a cruise. It's been worked out to where Traci and I get to go on the cruise for FREE as payment for her photography services! I am so looking forward to this. A vacation will be very nice, especially while unemployed. I do have to miss one softball game, but I've got good coaches that will cover well for me. (I'm so glad I have the coaches that I have!) Unfortunately we can't take the kids with us, but they will have fun with my parents that weekend, I'm sure.

I'm hoping to be able to make another trip or two come July. There are two out of town weddings I/we would love to go to. The first is a cousin's wedding in Colorado in mid-July. We go the save the date card, but this will be the toughest trip to make (of the three out of town weddings we have the opportunity to go to) because it would involve flying all four of us or driving to Colorado. Gas prices are soaring so that's a lot less appealing, and flying 4 of us wouldn't be cheap. I suspect this is a trip we won't make. One of my best friends is getting married in late July in St. Louis and has asked me to be a part of the wedding if I can make it out. He knows and understands my job situation, thankfully, but I really want to be a part of this. This is a trip I would go solo on, which would be much less costly than the Colorado trip. It will depend on what kind of tax refund we get (should know in the next week or so), whether or not I get my annual Chevron bonus, as was rumored to be the case for those who were laid off, and whether or not I get a job. Even if I do have a job and they are unwilling to let me take one or two days off to travel (understandable), I could work the travel out I'm sure. It would just be a lot quicker turnaround than I would like.

There is some slight movement on the job front. I received an e-mail yesterday from the Southern California Gas Company saying they would like to interview me for position. The last time I submitted a resume to them was a few weeks ago. It took some time on their end, but I was glad to hear from them. Now I'm just waiting to hear back as to when they would like to interview me. They asked about my availability next Monday and Tuesday so I figure it will be then. Let's keep those prayers coming. God has provided so much up to this point and I know He's now stopping now. He has a plan and He will show it in time.

January in Review (and a Little of February)

2011-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my lovely wife. She is so special to me and I really hope that I can make this a special birthday for her!!!

One month down, 11 to go. January seemed to go pretty fast, and a lot seemed to happen. So I thought I would try to recap it here.

Of course we celebrated the new year to kick things off. We also celebrated my brother-in-law Shawn's birthday since it was on the 3rd and he was going to be out of town for work on his birthday. The kids always love cousin play time so we all had a good time.

Skyler's 5th birthday was the positive highlight of the month. We had a smaller-than-usual party, which was really nice. She even had her best friend from pre-school come. They get along really well and are fun to watch when they play together.

Also, sometime during the month, I agreed to be a t-ball/6u (six and under) manager in Whittier Girls Softball League (WGSL). This will be my first softball coaching experience and hopefully there will be many more after this. I was able to get in touch with all the parents and starting getting ready for the season. We had our first team meeting last night and it went well. I already have a Team Mom and a couple of coaches...very encouraging.

Unfortunately, the month was highlighted by big injuries to both kids. Skyler gave herself the biggest bump I have ever seen on a head. Apparently she was running at my in-law's house and she wound up knocking her head on one of the dining room chairs. The bump on her head was literally as big as half a golf ball. I didn't think heads could swell that much. After it went down, the bruise formed and colorful. Fortunately, it was just a bad bruise and nothing else. She's back to normal now although there is still some slight bruising that has yet to go away.

The moment of the month, although not fun at all, would have to be this past weekend at my parents' house. We were over there to have dinner and celebrate my dad's birthday, which was on the 27th. We brought the kids' scooters so they could ride them around the backyard. While I'm on the phone with one of my softball parents, I hear Courtney come into the house crying. I figure she fell and got hurt like she does on occasion. I was right, but this was a lot worse. She came in holding her hand under her chin. Most of her chin up to the lip was solid red. I realized when my mom reacted the way she did that it was serious. With that much blood coming from her mouth (inside and out) I was a little freaked. I don't like seeing my kids get hurt, let alone that much blood coming from them. Turns out while on her scooter, she was turning, hit a groove, which stopped the scooter, but not her. She landed on her left knee (really bad bruise) and the left side of her mouth. Talk about being scared as a parent, boy was I. We don't have insurance right now, but when I found out Urgent Care was open for another 20 minutes or so, I decided she should go. Fortunately, they discounted the office visit and we got an antibiotic (generic). All in all, we only paid $100 for everything related to the injury. I'll take that. Now she is healing. The swelling is gone and a very large scab covers most of the left side of the left side of her lip. I'm very glad that she is ok and talking more normal. We kept her home from church on Sunday and school on Monday to allow it to heal a little before exposing it to the dangers of the school yard. Her first day back was a little tough because she had to answer the question "What happened?" a million times. It's hard as a parent to see your kids go through something like that, but you can't protect them from everything. Just been there when they need you.

On a brighter note, there was some positive news on the job front. I was contacted by two different companies, the same week, about openings they had and thought I may be a good fit for. This week I have an interview with each. I had my initial interview with a recruiter from Experian yesterday and will hear back early next week. Tomorrow, I have an interview with Time Warner Cable (with the Controller). I'm hoping one of these works out, but as I've learned, this is a very slow process. God is teaching me patience, and apparently I need a lot of practice.

Quick Update - Good Day!

2011-01-25T17:42:00.000-08:00

Today is turning out to be one of those days where everything seems to be going well. We had to order a new printer because our other one is really flaky and Traci needs one in order to print model releases and CD covers for her business. Fortunately, we found a really good deal at Costco.com and ordered it yesterday. We chose standard shipping which said 7-10 business days. It showed up today! Sweet!!

I was supposed to get my softball roster yesterday (I'm managing Courtney and Skyler's team), but they wound up not getting released. Therefore, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the team roster tonight in my e-mail. Then I have to get right to work as uniform sizings are this Saturday (and I have no coaches as of now...something else I need to work on). I can't wait for the season to start.

Finally, probably the most exciting this today, I was contacted today through LinkedIn by a recruiter for Experian about a job she thinks I could be a strong match for. I responded that I am interested and am now waiting for a response or call back.

Let's hope things keep heading this positive direction!

Happy New Year

2011-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

I just realized I haven't blogged in over a month. Oops. Oh well, that happens. The holidays kind of keep things busy, though. And once the holidays are past, we are full steam into birthday mode.

This past Saturday was Skyler's birthday party and it went really well. We invited maybe half as many people as we normally do and it was much more comfortable in the house. She got a lot of things to play with and some cute clothes. The bouncer was a hit as always, and we got it for free since it was delivered a little after the party had started. We were ready to stop using this place, but since they seemed genuinely sorry and let us use it for free, they are still on our usable list.

Skyler is now 5 and she is very excited about. Her class celebrated her birthday last Wednesday since she doesn't go on Thursdays. She got to wear a special birthday hat and we brought Rice Crispie treats for their snack. It was fun to be there for it. Her teachers asked her how old she was and she said 4. This confused the teachers until they asked how old she would be tomorrow. She said that tomorrow (Thursday) she would be 5. She is so literal...just like me.

Traci's photography is going well. We found a good deal on a 2TB external hard drive so we now have that and our computer and all of Traci's pictures, are backed up. It's nice to have that comfort. After all, we've had our computer for 6 years now. We've had our printer for 2 1/2 years and it's on it's last leg. One of the nice things about Traci's business is that so many of our purchases are write offs! It also has other perks. Traci has booked her first wedding in March, and it turns out that payment for her services is that we get to go on the cruise where the wedding is...FOR FREE!!!!

I'm still looking for a job now that I have been out of work for 3 1/2 months. Money has been ok to this point, but it's starting to get scary. I've had a couple of good leads and prospects, but they haven't panned out. I had two interviews with Kaiser, but they decided to go with internal people. I met with a construction management company about being a Project (contract) manager, but the only thing I was missing was medical equipment purchasing experience. I was contacted a week ago about submitting my resume for a position at Chevron as a contractor. It would be an 18-month contract. There would be no benefits or paid time off, but it would be like a promotion with higher pay. Looking strictly at base pay (salary before and hourly for this), it's about a 50% pay increase. I think I could manage that. However, it is one of those too good to be true type feelings I have so I don't' have any expectations. They said they wanted to fill it as quickly as possible, but I didn't hear anything back last week after I was contacted on Monday. I sent a couple of e-mails and left a voice mail so I'm going to try to not contact them too much this week for fear of irritating them, but still let them know that I am very interested in this position. We'll see.

Softball season is coming up and both girls are signed up. This is the first year Skyler has been eligible so this is the only year she and Courtney will be in the same division. I have also signed up to be a coach so I'm especially looking forward to the season. If I get a job before or during the season, that may complicate things, but we'll figure something out.

Over the weekend I was asked to be a part of a wedding this Summer if I am able to (i.e. have a job/am financially able to go). It's in Missouri which is why the finances are an issue. I'm hoping it works out because I really want to be a part of my good friend's wedding.

Well, I guess it's back to Facebook for me since Traci and the girls are at a teddy bear tea party. TTFN!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2010-12-03T10:51:00.001-08:00

Ok, so as you might be able to guess from the title of this blog, there are three main topics I'll hit on to let you know how life is right now. So let's begin.

THE GOOD - This weekend is the weekend of Christmas performances. Courtney has one tonight at school, and then 4 at church over the weekend: 1 Saturday and 3 Sunday. At church, Skyler has 2 performances (1 Saturday and 1 Sunday), immediately preceding Courtney's performances. This is always a great time and one of the biggest joys as a parent. I know they both enjoy singing and love it. They also love it because they get to wear the new Christmas dresses their grandma (my mom) bought them. Courtney has been counting down the days to when she could wear her dress and tonight is the night...finally!

Also, today is a happy day for me and Traci because it was 16 years ago we started dating. (It has been 21 years this month since we were first boyfriend and girlfriend.) Not really any special plans prepared as our schedule is pretty busy, but just remembering this day makes me happy! Happy anniversary, Hon!!!!!!!!

It's also been a lot of fun to watch Traci take on the challenge of her own business and so far it is going pretty well. She has been busy with many photo sessions since early November and is actually at one right now as I type this. She has more on the calendar, into January, and there are no signs of slowing up yet. I know the Christmas season is helping, but I've heard and seen good things from these initial sessions. It will be fun to watch as things progress!

THE BAD - Yes, I am still unemployed. My last day at work was October 1 and my last day of getting paid was November 9. At least the last check included a week and a half of vacation I didn't use. Somehow, we have managed to make that check last. However, it is pretty much gone. I am expecting more money coming including payment for working the polls on election day, stock dividends (from Chevron), severance and my pension/retirement. Once the severance shows up, we should be fine into January, which is when the retirement should come. However, in the big picture, I need a job. Kaiser didn't work out (twice!), which bummed me out after having gone through 2 interviews with them. I supposedly have a possible opportunity in the works right now, but no call for an interview yet. I've learned not to make assumptions about anything until it actually happens. If this does happen to work out, it could be great...IF. But until I get that call, I'm trying to keep from getting my hopes up.

THE UGLY - When we dropped Skyler off at preschool (Whittier Christian) this morning, there was some information about her school Christmas performance, which we had expected prior to now. However, we were shocked when we saw that we would have to pay to watch our daughter, Skyler, perform this year!! What that heck is that about?!?!?!?!?! It's $6/seat, which means we'll need $18 for the three of us to watch her sing. $18 may not seem like a lot, but when you have no income (Traci's income is going towards additional supplies for her business) it's especially frustrating. We are not going to pull Skyler from the performance, as has been suggested by some, because she has put a lot of time and practice in at school and should be able to present the final product with her schoolmates and friends and I don't think it's fair to her. She shouldn't be punished for a dumb decision made by the school.

There are two things the preschool is doing different this year than in past years: 1) the preschool is performing with the elementary kids, and 2) it's at the La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts. That is probably why I suspect they are charging, but still. Does it have to be such a big venue for a school performance? This just pisses me off because the last thing we need is an additional expense right now.

Courtney went to preschool there for two years and this is Skyler's second (and final) year there. We have made a lot of effort to cut our budget and eliminate things we can do without. There are two things we have discussed before but have decided not to touch them...yet. One is World Vision. We may have things rough right now, but our "rough" and how rough the life of our Malawi child is, are completely different. Therefore, we decided that we needed to continue that. The other item is Skyler's preschool. It's $360/month for three half days a week. (It is more expensive than other preschools we checked out, but we also get more than we would get at those other places. Plus we know all the teachers at WCS are followers of Christ, which I question at at least one other preschool we checked out.) We decided she should be able to go to preschool since she loves it and it's been a great experience for her. If I don't land a job in the next couple months, that may be a cut we have to make, which will break all of our hearts, and I don't want to go there. So to summarize my feelings about this whole pay-to-see-your-child-perform thing, I think Whittier Christian really needs to rethink what they are doing. I think it's crap and I'm a little pissed off.

My meds seem to keep me even-keeled and positive, but those negative feelings keep creeping in periodically. At least they are not that bad, but they do worry me occasionally because of the whole job situation, and the last thing I want to happen right now is to go back to where I was. I don't think that will happen, but I can't say it's not possible. I know God is with me and on my side and has plans for me, but I just don't like the timing, whatever it is. I guess it's just His way of reminding me he is in control and to trust Him. I'm excited to see what happens, but just wish I knew when it would happen. All in good time I assume.

Mindful Diarrhea

2010-11-05T23:48:00.000-07:00

It's about 11:00pm as I start to write this and while I should be going to bed, there are too many things going through my mind to allow me to go to sleep right now...a movie I just watched the end of, a disturbing trend I've noticed on the news and life in general.

We just started a free 90-day trials of a movie package through FiOS and tonight is the first night we have had access to it. I caught the end of a movie that just disturbed me somewhat. What happened was this...there was a couple that was engaged to be married, and his friends throw him a crazy frat house bachelor party. He does things he's not supposed to and gets caught in a situation he should not have been in in the first place. This was partly setup by his fiance's ex. Because of this, he is late to his wedding, arriving as his then former fiance is walking out of the church married to the ex that set him up. He (former ex, now husband) cheats on her almost immediately and she goes running back to the guy she was going to marry in the first place.

The whole premise of a bachelor party like that doesn't sit well with me in the first place. I know I would not have been able to look Traci in the eyes at our wedding and seriously mean the vows I said to her if I had been through something like that. I'm glad my bachelor was pretty cool...box seats to a Dodger game (where I was forced to wear a Giants hat for the entire game) driven there by limo (which was way cool!) and I think that was after we hung out for a bit at Dave & Buster's. My type of laid back gathering.

Along the same lines, we already have dates saved for three wedding next year, and each of them in a cool place! The first one is on a cruise ship, although sadly enough, we will not be able to go on the cruise with everyone else afterwards. The second one is in Colorado, which we would love to go to, but probably will not know until just before. The third wedding is two weeks after the second one and is in the Mid-west. I would love to attend all three if invited, but money will be the key issue. (Isn't it always!)

The second disturbing trend is kids being killed and more specifically being killed by crazy parents that are seeking to do harm. I have heard of two cases like this in the past week locally in So Cal. it's ridiculous to me. I don't care what the reason is for wanting to do harm, there is just no excuse for actions like this. My personal opinion is that is probably a lack of maturity, at least in some cases, and in others it could very well be a mental disorder. (I understand what it is like to have mental problems and think crazy things. That's where I was exactly one year ago.) One of the incidents was where a 19 year-old and her 10 day-old baby were killed by the father/ex-boyfriend when the mother wouldn't let him have the baby earlier in the day. Hearing about that reminded of a show I watched briefly for the first time the other day..."16 and Pregnant". I think it's on MTV. The girl was pregnant and the boyfriend was rarely home because of work and then hanging out with friends. He was ignorantly irresponsible; not for the work, but for always going out with friends (pretty much every day) after work.

Watch out, here comes my soapbox to pick me up. If you have sex, you know what the potential consequences are! (Perhaps my assumption is ignorant, but I like to think that people who get themselves into a situation where they can actually have sex have half a brain that works.) You should understand that before you put yourself into that situation. This leads into my beliefs on abortion (uh oh, rare controversial topic opinion ahead). It seems that many women and nearly all politicians are pro-choice. I would not have a problem with this concept if the baby inside the womb was able to say "I don't want my parents! They are stupid and are not capable of taking care of me!" There is only one situation where I think abortion is ok, and that is if the mother's life is in jeopardy. In other words, it is a matter of losing two lives or one. I have a friend who was unfortunately and unexpectedly in that situation. It was not something she wanted to do, but needed to do in order to try to fight for her life. Unfortunately, she passed away a year and a half later. The one aspect of abortion that I'm kind of semi-iffy on is rape. On one side, sex was forced not desired. On the other side, I don't believe in murder, and yes I do think abortion is murder. Please explain to me how stopping a beating heart is not considered killing life, or how eliminating something that will develop a beating heart is not wrong. Therefore, I still think that abortion from rape is not ok, even though it is probably not wanted. Ok, the soapbox has left.

Other things in life that are constantly running through my head all seem to revolve around my job situation. I have now been home from work for over a month, and although I am still on payroll through next Tuesday and have a severance package coming after that, I still wonder how long this will go on and how I will be able to provide for my family should this extend beyond our financial means. I do have one potential job in the works, but it's just that: in the works. Nothing is certain until I am on-site, being paid to work, and the prospective job would have me as a contractor, which is somewhat unsettling although I believe that once I'm in there, I will prove to them that they need to keep me around. I've heard of many instances where people are out of work for several months, some over a year, in this economy. So if this job does come through, I will consider myself lucky and privileged.

Well, I don't know about you, but I feel better and have cleared my mind somewhat. Hopefully I can sleep better now. Especially since we have soccer in the morning, followed by a 3-hour drive to Santa Maria where we are spending the night, courtesy of one of Traci's clients (high school friend) is paying for our hotel for us so that Traci can do a photo shoot for them. Oh, and I have to do more laundry, too. Gotta be sure we have everything ready for the trip that we need!

Job(less) Update

2010-10-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I was expecting a call from a company (Kaiser) that seemed to have interest in me. Well, in the time since that post, I have had two interviews with them. The first was with the recruiter and lasted about a half hour. I made it past that screening and had a second interview yesterday. That one lasted an hour and 14 minutes, and I am not waiting to hear what happens next, which I was told I should know in the next few days. I feel good about how it went and am really hoping they feel the same way, which should mean a third interview, face-to-face finally...hopefully...since the first two have been via phone.

One thing that I feel good about is that I don't really get that nervous for interviews, especially over the phone. Also, since I have taken advantage of the career counselor services provided by Chevron, I was pretty well prepared for this last interview since I had been given a cd by my counselor about nearly 100 interview questions and how they should/could be answered. I remember two questions I was asked were worded exactly the same on the cd as they were in the interview. The interviewer, who would be my manager if I'm hired, seemed to be pretty interested in many of the things I was saying. he spent most of the interview asking me about a variety of different situations that I had experienced, which made the interview that much easier. There was only one that I had a little trouble coming up with an answer for, but I did come up with one.

Needless to say, I'm really hoping this will work out and that they realize that I'm the right person for them to hire. The commute (Pasadena) would be 2 miles longer than my current commute (El Segundo), which is manageable. This would also represent the third general area of the "Southland" that I have worked in: Irvine, El Segundo, Pasadena. To me that is kind of cool because it gives me more familiarity with southern California, especially when it comes to alternate route. I already have the alternate route to/from Pasadena recognized, and it would cut the commute to 21 miles via surface streets the entire way!

So what have I been doing with all this time at home? The biggest thing to me is spending time with the family. I get to take the kids to school and pick them up, which I love doing. I get to spend more time with Traci, although with the way Traci Steinman Photography is going, she is pretty busy now, not to mention that she is also co-coordinator for MOPS at our church, which is another job all by itself. I have been doing some job searching, although that has slowed considerably with the prospects of this job at Kaiser. Plus I have attended a few webinars related to job search preparations, via the career counseling services company.

I also spend time just hanging out. It's been nice to be able to watch the playoff games that are on during the day (even though the Dodgers are already playing golf) and I have taken Skyler to Disneyland a couple of times while Courtney has been in school. I'm planning on taking Courtney by herself on the 29th since she doesn't have school that day (parent conferences) so that we can do all the fast and crazy rides she wants since we're kind of limited when we usually go.

The highlight of my week has remained Saturday because of the joy I experience coaching Skyler's soccer team. I haven't felt that good about doing something in quite a while. The kids are great, the patents are great, my assistant coach is great and my team mom is great. Of course it helps that the Asst. Coach and Team Mom are family, but that makes it that much better.

Traci and the girls will be home from the gym soon, so I better catch up on the Yanks-Rangers game and hope that the Rangers are taking control of the series! Too late, they're home and need to get ready for bed...the girls anyway.

Time Off

2010-10-02T22:31:00.000-07:00

So it has begun, the nerve-wracking time off from work. In one way it's nice because I don't have to worry about getting up early every morning, I don't have the stresses of work or sharing an office with someone who I do not feel very comfortable around. However, there are the other stresses from being home such as wondering where my next career move will be, financial concerns if nothing pans out before the money does and the (what feels like the remote-) possibility of heading back into depression, especially if money issues affect being able to medications.

The one nice thing is that although I would still love to be working for Chevron, financially, what's going on could be a ton worse. I turned in all my company stuff yesterday and now have no access to anything Chevron. However, I am on their payroll until November 9. This means that benefits are will remain in place through November 30 and that I will continue receiving my normal semi-monthly paychecks. If I don't have a job by November 9, I then qualify for 8-weeks of severance pay, plus unused vacation (1.5 weeks). In other words, we should be OK with money until the end of the year.

I have never enjoyed job hunting. I would rather negotiate the purchase of a car before job hunting. Fortunately, though, it appears I may have a lead on a potentially promising position with Kaiser Permanente (in Pasadena). A friend of mine who actually took over my first analyst position at Chevron, let me know about the position, which just got posted this week. From the sounds of it, this would be a great move for me as the job sounds very similar to what I have been doing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying and hoping that something comes of this. I've been told that I will be contacted, but so far, no call. Therefore, I assume nothing yet about it.

In the meantime, this next week should be pretty productive as I will be establishing communication with the Chevron people (a specific corporate team) that will be looking out for other Chevron positions that I could perform based on my experience and the like. I will also be attending a webinar orientation for the company that will help me market myself, sharpen the resumes and such in order to successfully navigate the job market (outside Chevron). Both of those services are paid for and provided by Chevron...not bad.

One thing that has very quickly become the highlight of every week for me, especially with the current circumstances, is coaching Skyler's soccer team, the Green Gators. It has been so much more fun than I expected. It's awesome to watch the kids get better and better each week, We've now played 4 games and have 6 to go. Our first two games, we tied. Our last two games, we've won! So we are undefeated after 4 games: 2-0-2. I would not have expected this based on my significant lack of knowledge of soccer. In that sense, this has been a good learning experience for me as well as the kids. I think some of them know a lot more that I do about the sport. Some of them are just flat-out studs/studettes!

Thanks to my friend, I was able to take in one last Dodger game this year last night. Of course the Dodgers lost 7-5, but what happened in the game did not compare to my experience in my seat. For the first time ever, in about 25 years of going to Dodger games, I caught a game ball! We had pretty good seats on the Loge (second) level about seven rows behind third base. The ball initially landed two rows and one section past me, but took a hop or two off a chair and/or fan who didn't know how to catch. All this while my friend was up getting a drink or hitting the restroom...but, oh well.

Top Ten Potential New Owners of the Dodgers!

2010-09-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

I may not be David Letterman, but I can still make a top ten list with a little bit of humor (or so I think). So here's my latest attempt. (Are there any other lists you want me to try? Let me know.)

10. Peter O'Malley - Why not?

9. Me - If the Dodgers are community property, and I'm a part of the community, then I should already own them!

8. Lady Gaga - I would love to see the Dodgers new uniforms!

7. Japan - Free baseball player pipeline

6. China - They already own half of America

5. Vince McMahon - I would love to see baseball played inside a steel cage!

4. City of Bell Officials - This is something legal they could do with all that extra money they've collected

3. President Obama - He's throwing money everywhere else to make things better. Why not include the Dodgers?

2. Mark Cuban - Seriously...Mark Cuban

1. Preparation H - They might make us feel better since current ownership is such a pain in the @$$!

The Best Engineers

2010-09-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

So, being the weirdo that is fascinated by spiders that I am, I was watching one of my friends in the backyard last week as it moved from the center of its web up to the tree where it is attached at one point. As I angled to see just how the web as setup and where exactly it went, I began to appreciate the instinctively intelligent design of it. If you've ever watched an Orb-Weaver create its web, it really is something pretty cool, if you aren't freaked out by the spider.

Typically, you have one master strand that is strung from two high places that is the main line used to create the rest of the web, from which they drop down one new strand for a third attachment point of the web, sometimes on or close to the ground. Upon watching the spider crawl along the main strand back into the tree, where it hangs out when it's not in the middle of its web, I noticed that it had at least three other strands attached to that main strand, from the tree, to support it while the large spider (it's body is pretty close to the size of the fingernail on my pinky finger) crawls along it. The main strand only sagged a little while crawled along it. That's what got me to thinking about how smart these spiders are in terms of web design (and I'm not talking IT here). And it's all instinct...no schooling needed!

Tick, Tick, Tick...Goooooooooooooooooooooooal!

2010-09-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

As each day goes by, I continue to wonder what God has planned for me and the family. No news on the job front is not a good thing in my mind. Then again, the news I have already gotten hasn't been good either; a number of thank-you-but-no-thank-yous, and no interviews. I'm trying to stay optimistic, which can be tougher on some days than others, because I don't want to think of what may happen if I wind up with no work. I'm determined to make something happen, though. So I check the internal postings daily at work and am noticing that the number of openings seems to have dropped pretty dramatically within the last week or so. I still have a number that I'm waiting to hear on or the postings haven't closed yet. I'm getting in the mindset that we will be moving because I'll get one of those internal jobs I've applied for. (The only way I can stay with Chevron at this point, is to accept a position in another location.)

There is this one phrase that I have gotten used to, which is a good thing: "It is what it is". The first time I really remember hearing that phrase was at my last employer, when my manager there would use it, typically in a negative way. So everytime I hear the phrase, I think of him, which makes me a little tense because of how I left there and the fact that I didn't like him. I hear it so often now that it doesn't bother me as much although I always picture him saying it when I hear it. Fortunately, I can make myself laugh though because I picture the chef from Ratatouille saying it. He and that manager look eerily similar. (Traci even agrees!)

There's not a whole lot to do at work since I turned all my contracts over to a co-worker. Contracts were about 80% of my job even though my title is Procurement Analyst. The other 20%, the analysis, I'll be turning over to my "roomie" here at work next week when she's back from vacation. I will not miss sharing an office with her. She's very smart and knowledgeable about the work she does, but she comes across as talking down to you when she explains something. I've gotten used to sharing an office with her so it's not bad. She just wouldn't have been my first choice.

On the home front, Skyler had her first soccer game last Saturday, which was also my first coaching experience. I was happy with how it went. We tied 2-2, but at the age of these kids (4-5 year olds), that doesn't matter much. The idea is to teach them some basics of the game and to have fun playing the game. It seemed like most of them had fun. The only one I think that wasn't enjoying himself was my assistant coach's nephew. I'm hoping he warms up to playing as the season goes on. If he starts running with the kids in the game, I'll consider that a victory. There's another kid on the team who is extremely shy. I was excited during the game when he kicked the ball and looked back at me (I was on the field also) with a smile that said "I kicked the ball!" That was great to see.

It was fun to see which of the kids seem to have a talent for the game and how each of them performs. They all followed the ball really well and for the most part knew which way to kick it. Both us and the opposing team kicked one into our own goal. The ref didn't count either one, although it turns out it wouldn't have mattered. I think I'm really going to enjoy coaching this team, even if soccer isn't my sport. This Saturday will be a little more fun than usual too. One of the coaches on the opposing team was a high school baseball teammate of mine. (It all comes back to baseball!) Then in the afternoon, we have our team's first party of the year...the always enjoyable pizza party!

Job Update & More

2010-09-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

And the job search goes on. So far within Chevron, I have been rejected for 3 and have 12 more I'm waiting to hear on. Of the 12 I'm still waiting to hear on, they are located in Bakersfield, CA (6), San Ramon, CA (4), Salt Lake City, UT (1), Covington, LA (2), and Houston, TX (1). There are no positions available in El Segundo where I currently work. Therefore, if I stay with Chevron, which is my preference, we will need to relocate. Fortunately, Chevron would pay for almost all of the moving costs. It would still be a hassle though.

Outside of Chevron, I have submitted for 8 different positions located from Whittier to Universal City. I submitted all of those today so nothing has happened with any of them yet.

I took the girls to Disneyland tonight and realized that as of tomorrow (Sept. 4), it will be exactly 11 years since I last worked at Disneyland. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but I think that's because I always think about it and how much I enjoyed and wish I could work there again. Hey, there's another place I need to look at for work!

Traci continues to amaze me. She ran (and finished) her first half-marathon this morning! I couldn't be more proud of her. She has built up quite a bit of endurance since she started running. I need to try to catch up to her.

Busyness All Over

2010-08-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

I guess it comes with this time of the year, but it seems like there are so many things going on. Everytime I ask Traci what we have going on, it's like a while new list! I figured I would try to organize my thoughts while I have a little time, even though it's getting pretty late and this weekend gets really busy tomorrow. So here's the haps...

First of all, the biggest issue right now is my job situation. Chevron (Global Downstream operations) is in the process of downsizing. They are currently neat the end of the seventh of eight rounds. This seventh round is the one I'm involved in. The first week of this month, I put in my request for the five positions I'm most interested in. Three of them are in El Segundo, where I currently work, and two are in Brea, which would be a very nice commute (< 30 minutes one way). This week, my (new) manager was at HQ up in San Ramon with all the other managers associated with this round, in meetings to determine who would be offered what positions. I have an appointment with him on Monday afternoon, as do the other 11 in our department that are going through this at the same time. Of the 12 of us going through this joyous process, only 7 of us will remain after this is all said and done. There are others in our department who have already gone through this process and they all ended up with jobs within our department, sot his will be the first bad news for the group and where all the changes will really take place, although we did layoff two support staff at the end of June and didn't replace one who left earlier this year. I also have other potential options within Chevron that I have been pursuing but one of those doors is now shut I learned yesterday; still several others open, although I'm not sure I should hold my breath for any of those. The good thing is that my depression has not comeback during this more-stressful-than-usual time.

Outside of work, personal life is going pretty well although starting to get really busy for all of us. Traci is in her first semester of co-leading MOPS at our church and she has already been very busy with that. Courtney starts first grade on September 1 and Skyler starts Pre-K two days earlier. At least we already have Skyler's school supplies bought and ready to go when she meets her teacher(s) next Friday.

Also, Skyler will be playing soccer in our Youth Kicks league at church and I'm the head coach of the team. I find that ironic because my only soccer experience was in PE classes in school, and I have never really liked the sport that much, I think mainly because my feet do not function well in sports. Running was always the weakest part of my baseball game. We went through some training last weekend and it just confirmed that soccer is not my sport. However, I was asked by the Sports Pastor at our church if I would be willing to coach, and I accepted. I figure there's not really a whole lot to teach since they will all pretty much be chasing the ball like a swarm of bees. Besides, I'll have a cool Assistant Coach in Traci's cousin Bryan. It should be a fun season and I'm really looking forward to it. The fact that all practices are immediately before the games on Saturdays (at 8AM) is nice too since it will still leave Saturdays very open for us. We take team pictures next weekend and the season starts September 11.

In preparation for the season, I will be spending tomorrow, most of the day, at church helping construct the new indoor soccer walls for the upcoming season. I'm excited because I may be able to use my screw gun, which doesn't get a whole lot of use, and I really enjoy using it when I do. Plus it will be good to know that I have helped get the church gym ready for the season. (Traci will be at an all-day meeting for Women's Leadership for our church, so the grandparents will enjoy some quality time with the girls.)

Sunday will be made up of church,and Sunday School BBQ/game day and then a birthday party (out in Corona). it should be a pretty fun day and I'm looking forward to all of it, but I know I'll be pretty tired at the end of the say, not to mention probably sore from Saturday's work day.

Let me back in time slightly. Last night turned out to be quite the interesting night. Since Traci was hosting a MOPS leadership meeting at our house, I needed to take the girls somewhere for a while and Disneyland was the first place we all thought of, but we didn't have enough gas in either car and we didn't have enough money to put gas in either car until I got paid today so, Disneyland was out. So off to my parents' house we went. The girls always have a good time over there and last night was no exception. Things got interesting very quickly towards the2 teeth had been knocked out: the two top front teeth. The right one was already hanging on by a thread so it didn't bleed as much as the other which was loose, but not nearly as loose as the other one. I'm assuming that was the one she was holding in her hand since there was so much blood on it. My mom and I had her sit on the couch to put pressure on her gums, with a paper towel, where the teeth had fallen out. Within about a minute, the paper towel was half red with all the blood has absorbed. Fortunately, it began clotting pretty quickly after that and after 5-10 minutes, the bleeding was done. We started looking for the other tooth but couldn't find it. (Fortunately, my parents found it as soon as we left and brought it over.) So now Courtney has a big gap in the front of her mouth since the two top teeth are no longer there and one on the bottom (immediately to her left of the middle teeth) recently also fell out. Now there is another tooth hanging on by a thread on the bottom on the other side of the middle teeth. That one could easily fall out anytime as it can already be pushed pretty far forward and back. So she has lost 5 teeth by the time she is 6 1/2 (today) with a sixth ready to go. School pictures should be classic this year!

Now that it's just past midnight and I need to get to bed, I'll sign off. Until next time!

Frustration, Anxiety and Patience, Oh My!

2010-08-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

Work is as interesting as it has ever been right now. As you may or may not know, Chevron is downsizing. Well, the Global Downstream part of Chevron is downsizing. There are 8 stages to it. They refer to it as ROM (Resource Optimization Management). You know, one of those big fancy corporate terms that sounds better than downsizing.

This week is the beginning of ROM7, or the seventh round of ROM, and it happens to be the round I am in. Here's how it works. At the beginning of the week, they post all of the positions worldwide that are included in this round. In this case, that number is 1,431, of which 273 were in the US, about 20-25 in Southern California, and about 8 in El Segundo (all our department...lucky me). We each choose 5 positions we would like to apply for and then meet with our manager to discuss which four he would like to nominate us for and then one choice we nominate ourselves for.

On Monday, I reviewed the positions available and put in for three procurement positions (within my department) and two in Brea that I think I could do well. Next week, nothing happens. The week after that, all managers who oversee the position affected in this round meet in HQ in San Ramon and discuss/debate who should be placed in what position. The following week, we are told what position we have or that we have been "left standing" as they put it. So at this point in time, I basically have to wait for at least two weeks to find out my fate.

However, in wanting to head this off and not go through this whole process, I have applied for five other positions with Chevron, but in the Global Upstream part of the business (and not in Procurement). Four of the five positions have closed (no longer accepting applicants) and one closes on Monday. At this point, the four that are closed are in the process of determining who they want to interview and who they want to issue the "Thank you, but no thank you" e-mails to. I haven't received any e-mails yet, so that's a good thing, but I haven't received an invitation for an interview yet either. Being in holding position as I am now with these five, as well as the other five, is not very comfortable.

Here's how I see it. I am at a 3-way fork in the road. One direction keeps me going straight ahead with a very similar position to what I have now, one represents the unknown, and one represents BIG changes. The worst part of being at this 3-way fork is that I don't have much control over it. I'll be happy as long as I am not sent down the unknown road. That road is like the road that fades off into the fog: you know it's there, but you have no idea where it will take you.

So, that's where I'm at...very on-edge about work. I guess for now all I can do is keep doing the job I have, and pray. After all, I know God has a plan for me. I just wish I knew what it was.

Vacation!

2010-07-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have taken this week off from work for vacation. We don't have any travel plans, but we're just doing fun stuff around here. It's always nice to take trips when I have time off from work, but it's also nice to not feel like we have to go anywhere either. So here's a little snapshot of what's been going on and what's lined up.

Last Friday, I won the battle of the smog test with my car. It failed the first time and wasn't ready yet the second time we took it in to have it re-tested. Finally, when we took it in Thursday, it passed and now I await the sticker for my car. It was due Friday, so I barely got it done on time. If only we had money for a new car...

Saturday was fun. It started off with a half-birthday party since the baby's birthday is Christmas and throwing a party around Christmas is, well let's say, nightmarish. I like the concept of a half-birthday party if you're not going to throw a traditional birthday party. The girls had some fun waterplay with a some of their friends at the party.

After that we rested for a while and then went to my buddy's house for his housemate's birthday. I don't get over to his place in Long Beach very often, so it was nice to get down there and visit with him and his fiance. I'm really looking forward to their wedding, whenever they set the date, and assuming I'm invited.

Sunday was a lot of fun too. Church in the morning where the girls actually sat through the service, although half of it was in the foyer. Then after a little rest at home, we were off to out 4th of July party at my brother-in-law's mother-in-law's house. I actually spend a couple of hours in the pool which was fun. It was fun when Courtney and my niece and nephew decided it was time to climb on me. Normally, I'm not big on that kind of play, but they were being fun and not too rough, so it was good. We got a really cute picture of it too! Finally, after the pool time and very yummy BBQ, it was time for fireworks...in a city where they are actually still legal (stupid Whittier). The kids always love them, and even though Skyler was scared at first, she was loving them by the end.

Yesterday, we implemented a new reward system for the girls and they are eating it up! It the whole marbles in a pail thing where for certain actions, they earn marbles to put in their pail and for certain actions, they have some marbles taken out. The seem to really enjoy this and we had to remove the first marbles from Courtney's pail today (not a big surprise). She was extremely upset when this happened, and I may have made it a little harder, when I had her remove the marbles from her own pail. She was in tears. However, we encouraged her to earn them back by doing some of the things on the list, and sure enough she did.

Also yesterday, even though I'm on vacation, the girls started VBS. However, since our church is not doing it this year due to extremely tight finances and major construction underway, our friend told us of a church (Green Hills Baptist Church) near them in La Mirada that is doing it this week for free. So far, they love it. Also, I have to admit I am very impressed with how this church has run it so far from what little I've seen. It is nice having a little time together with Traci though.

Tomorrow we all go see Toy Story 3! I think all four of us are excited to see it. We'll go after VBS and lunch. It should be good. And in the evening I'll be hanging out with the guys since one of my friends is in town for a few days. It's always good to see him.

Thursday will be very exciting for me as I start my All Star Week Volunteer duties, which will have me on the field at Angels Stadium! I'm not sure what my exact duties are, but I'll find out when I show up. I know I work a few hours Thursday and Friday afternoons and I get two tickets to All Star Fan Fest as a result. It's very exciting since there were 5,000 applications for 2,000 volunteer positions, and not only did I get chosen, but I will be a big league field for the first time ever! Did I say I'm excited?

Finally on Sunday, Traci will be running the All Star Charity 5K (and Fun Run) at Angels Stadium. I'll take the girls to document it. It would be awesome if I could get a picture of Traci with Jillian Michaels since she will be there. We'll see how that goes.

Then it's back to work on Monday. However, it won't quite be work as normal. Last week at work, I applied for three internal jobs at work (in a part of the company that is not affected by the downsizing!) and the postings all close next week at various times. So I could hear next week about whether or not I get to interview for any of those positions. I'm hoping I can at least interview for the positions, but I don't want to set the expectations that I will, which I'm afraid I already have. So if I don't get contacted, I will probably be disappointed, but I will also know it is part of God's plan. And then it's back to the anxiety of reapplying for positions the first week of August

Summer is Off to a Fast Start

2010-06-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hey, I have an idea! Let's go into the Summer running and not catch our breath! At least that's what it feels like right now. While I sit here, I have brownies in the oven, which will be a part of the Team WACC potluck at the Relay for Life at Cal High. Traci is there right now probably walking or running her legs off.

In a little while, we'll headed over to the house of one of our pastor's at church who just graduated with his Master's Degree from Bethel Seminary. He's probably the pastor I know best at church, so it should be fun to go celebrate with him.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day, so we're hosting our annual Fathers Day BBQ. The yard is ready to go since I mowed and edged yesterday. Boy, did it need it! It's always fun having the BBQ here on Fathers Day. This year will be a little more fun that it has been the past couple of years because Traci's brother and his family have moved back down here from Colorado. SO instead of my kids being the only ones, they will have their 3 cousins, which they love hanging out with, here to play with.

If I may (yes I can...it's my blog!) I'm going to go off on a little tangent. Yes tomorrow is Fathers Day, but I don't expect special treatment, which is where I have a problem with some people. To me, Fathers Day is another day. To some people, they expect to be treated special on a "special" day like this. I don't take that approach because if I do and things don't go exactly the way I would want them to go, I would be really upset and Fathers Day wouldn't be any good, which means I would rarely enjoy Fathers Day and then have nothing to look forward to when it comes around each year. With two kids (girls), there will inevitably be some drama at some point in the day. Get my drift? There are some people that expect to be the center of attention on a special day and that kind of annoys me. And then there are the people that expect to be the center of attention EVERY day. I don't want to even go there, so I'll leave it at that.

Friday's have pretty much become Frugos Friday since we discovered it about a month ago or so. The girls always like it, and so do Traci and I. It's just fun and is really good. Also, they sell bottled water for $1! That's an awesome price, especially since it's .7 liters.

It's been an eventful month so far besides everything coming up, including me and Traci's 11th anniversary a week from today. Oh the joys of being poor...we'll do something local without kids and make the most of it. It worked out pretty well last year and we had a lot of fun. Skyler finished her first year of preschool last week which means she has one more year of preschool before she hits kindergarten and we save $350 each month! Courtney just finished kindergarten yesterday and she is very excited to be a first grader now. She did amazingly well this year. We are very proud of her.

Well, the brownies are almost done, which means I need to get ready to go. TTFN

Get Over It!

2010-06-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

Since the bad umpire call that blew the perfect game for Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga, there have been a lot of people throwing out ideas of instant replay, reversing the umpire's call to award the pitcher a perfect game and other crazy ideas (such as firing the umpire), I thought I would weigh in with my opinion of the whole situation. I though Bill Plaschke's article on this whole event (in the LA Times) was a great article. While I don't agree with him an all points, he supports his case very well. That's probably why he's writing for the LA Times. (Check out the article here.)

In my eyes, the two big questions that have come out of this whole situation are these: 1) Should the call (at first base) be reversed and therefore give the pitcher credit for a perfect, which would be only the 21st ever in baseball history? and 2) Should instant replay be used on a broader basis? Well, here are my thoughts and opinions.

Question 1: Should the call be reversed?
This one is simple in my mind...NO!!!! If baseball was to reverse this call, there would be a bigger than life can of worms opened up which would be more annoying than anything. Besides, as soon as the game was over, the umpire in question, Jim Joyce, asked to take a look at the play, apparently without any prompting. As soon as he reviewed the play, he admitted that he missed the call and that when he made the call he honestly thought the runner was safe. (If you have seen a replay of the play, you will also see that the runner was clearly out.) Put simply: Joyce did his job. Umpires are as human as the rest of us. We have all made mistakes and that will never change. Some of the mistakes may have bigger impacts than others, but that's the way it is.

Also, if this call is reversed, how many other calls will people want to see reversed? Missed calls have been a part of the game as long as it has existed. As a matter of fact, some of those missed calls are a big part of history, as this one will now be. What's done is done. Let's accept it for what it is, no matter how wrong it may seem, and move on. Joyce and Galarraga have done that, why shouldn't we? They both realize what happened, and how unfortunate it was, but they hold no grudges, have hugged and shook hands and are moving on. Joyce has been in tears on multiple occasions already. He feels bad for the mistake. He manned up and took responsibility for the botched call. That's more than a lot of us do.

Another issue with reversing the call is that the umpires lose the power of the game. Allowing someone who is not an umpire to reverse the call, such as Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, would undermine the umpires' authority. If the umpires lose their authority, the potential for players and coaches and managers to always question the umpires could get out of control. I'm not saying this would happen, but it seems like a possibility. And while we're headed down this road, how many players, coaches, etc. would then appeal to the Commissioner to overturn other calls when they happen?

Question 2: Should instant replay be used on a broader basis?
This one is not as simple in my mind and it will take some explanation, but I think the answer should be YES!!! Currently, instant replay is only used when a home run is in question. Was it fair or foul? Did a fan interfere with it? Did it really clear the fence? I think instant replay has been well-used so far. I have seen a number of home runs upheld and I have seen some overturned. Every instance when I have seen it used, it appears the ultimate call has been the correct one.

While I think the use of instant replay should be expanded, I think there are also limitations that would need to put into place. I think it should be available for use on all plays, except for calling balls and strikes. Since there is no way to get a head-on shot of the strike zone, it would not make sense to use it there. The view from the traditional center field camera is above and off to the side of the alignment of the pitcher and batter. Even the projected strike zones used on Fox ESPN and the like are not the most accurate. Besides, they only show the strike zone going up to the belt, which in and of itself is inaccurate.

People have said that the expansion of instant replay use would slow down the game, and this is true. However, if you put the right restrictions in place, it wouldn't have that much effect on the length of the game. I would propose allowing each manager/team two requests/challenges (to use the term from football) for review per game, regardless of the number of innings played. I think by restricting to two reviews per team per game, that will force the manager to decide if the play is really worth challenging. Once the game is over, there are no more challenges, unless there is an immediate challenge on the last play.

You may think I'm contradicting myself based on my statements from the first question and answer (about us all being imperfect), but I figure that if we are given the opportunity to correct our mistakes, why not do it? And I think you have to limit the number of challenges since unlimited would truly make some games a lot longer. (Don't get me started on why the Yankees and Red Sox seem to be incapable of playing a game in less than three and a half hours!)

So in summary, no the call should not be overturned and yes I think the use of instant replay should be expanded. All the media attention being given to this has been somewhat blown out of proportion. The two individuals who were involved have made up and moved on with life. Let those who run baseball make the ultimate decision. Everybody else just needs to get over it.

Final Basbeall Thoughts...Finally!

2010-05-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

Oops, I guess I kind of screwed up with this series since I never really finished it. Since I'm not finding the desire to get on the computer at home as much anymore, I figure I should zip through the last several years of my baseball experiences. So here we go....

After the Whittier Little League AAA A's, there was a big dispute within Whittier Little League, which is when Whittier Pony league formed; 1987. For the first two years of Pony, I was again on the team lead by Traci's uncle. This obviously allowed me more time to see Traci, even though nothing was happening with us at the time.

Anyway, on the Padres, I typically had a really strong first half of the year and then tailed off towards the end. No top 3 trophies either of those years, but i really enjoyed playing and had a lot of fun. One of the memories I have from those years is when I was playing 3rd base and really had to go to the bathroom. I think our pitcher walked a batter or two while I danced around at third base trying to keep it in. Eventually, we got the third out and everybody was yelling for me to run to the port-a-potty. Somehow I made it, but man was it torture standing around being frustrated pitch after pitch waiting for the chance to go.

Another memory I have from the Whittier Pony, Pony Division Padres is when we were being no-hit by the opposing pitcher and I broke it up with a triple down the right field line at Joe Miller field.

My finest pitching performance ever was mercy rule shortened game where I pitched a 2-hit complete game shutout. I didn't pitch very often because although I was accurate, I was not very fast. Regardless, that was a great memory.

After playing for Traci's uncle for three years, it was time to move on to the Bronco Division, where I was on the Reds for two years. I didn't do great either year, although my highlight from those two years was a home run I drilled at York Field where there were no fences. It was a shot into the left-center gap and I had time to circle the bases before the left and center fielders could chase down the ball an get it back to the infield. Considering i only hit 3 home runs in my whole time playing baseball, it was a pretty special moment for me. (Notice that both home runs i have hit to this point have involved not going over a fence.)

After the Reds came La Serna High School. I started at La Serna High School in the Fall of 1990, which is just a few months after the school's baseball team had won a CIF Championship, very exciting. I made the Freshman team my freshman year and was excited to play at the high school level. I started the year sharing playing time with the other, bigger first baseman. Eventually, I earned a majority of the playing time. Although I had one of my worst offensive years that year (I think I hit .225), I still loved playing and was looking forward to advancing up the high school ranks.

My sophomore year I made JV. I saw limited action the first half, but when I was given a chance to start a game about half way through the year against Pioneer High School, I took advantage of the opportunity, hitting a ground-rule double (bouncing over the fence), showing I deserved playing time. I managed to start every game the rest of the year, whether paying first base or DH (Designated Hitter). I finished the year with pretty good numbers although I don't remember the stats.

My junior year I had hopes of making the Varsity team since there were typically very few juniors on the JV team. The JV coach said he thought I would make the varsity team and so I was excited. However, a couple week s later when JV and Varsity team rosters were posted, I found myself on the JV for a second year. Needless to say, I was disappointed. however, that couldn't make me quit; I was too determined. Again, as a junior this time, I rode the bench most of the first half of the year. Again, I was given a chance to start a game about half way through the year, this time at Whittier High School and I played the game of my life! I went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI (runs batted in)! And my hits weren't little singles. The first hit was my first, and only ever, home run that cleared the fence. It is a moment I will never forget! The pitch was down and in. I know I had two strikes on me because first I fouled a pitch down the third base line and almost got my coach near third base. The following pitch I fouled off into my team's first base dugout. The next pitch I nailed and it soared over the left field fence, bouncing on the tennis courts! I remember my parents screaming with excitement. I was totally pumped when I saw it bounce off the concrete past the fence. I didn't think I had hit it that well. I wanted to keep it cool circling the bases and was able to until I saw all my teammates gathered at home plate to congratulate me. Then I couldn't hold back the smile. Later in the game, I drove another one to the left-center field wall, which turned out to be a double. I tried to advance to third on the throw that got away from the catcher trying to tag out the runner, but I was thrown out at third. Oh well. As a result of this game of my career, I again played in every game the rest of the rest of the year. I finished with my best offensive year ever, batting over .400 (.429, I think) and earning Most Improved Player of the Year Award for the team. It is still the award I am most proud of that I ever received.

The following year as a senior, I made the Varsity team finally. However, it was an extremely frustrating year. I saw a total of 10 at bats the entire year, although I did have 3 hits for a .300 batting average. Those three hits were productive though. One was a bases loaded, bases-clearing (3 RBI) double against and at Loyola High School in L.A. during a Spring Break tournament. Another hit was during the last regular game of the season, when we were at home playing against Santa Fe High School. We had given up 5 runs in the top of the 1st inning. i was batting ninth in the lineup and actually got to bat in the 1st inning. The score was 5-4 in favor of Santa Fe and there were 2 runners on base. The first pitch I saw I drove to the wall in right-center field, knocking in both runners and giving us a 6-5 lead, which wound up being the final score. Also in that game, I grounded out and walked. The best part of this was that the coaching staff from Whittier College was in attendance since I had already received a partial academic scholarship from there. Coach Brock told me that they were very impressed with what they saw. Although I didn't wind up laying in college because I decided to focus on keeping my scholarship, it was great to know that they saw what I could do. The funny thing about my third hit that year on Varsity, it was a single that made it onto the school's video annual that year, along with a play from that same game where I did the splits at first base. So the stats for the year were a .300 batting average with 5 RBI. We made the CIF playoffs that year as the League Champions. We made it to the semi-finals before being eliminated. I don't remember seeing any action in the playoffs, but it was fun to watch and be there.

Since then I have played a softball team a church one time and have played a few years in MABL (Men's Adult Baseball League) in Orange County. Watching Courtney play softball for the first time this year has given me the itch to try to get back into baseball, but I need to get into shape (and save money) if I ever want to play again.

Baseball has always been a part of my life and always will be. There's just something in my DNA that prevents me from being who I am without baseball. In addition, it is because of baseball that I am married to the person I am married to today. What more could I ask for?

1986 - Whittier Little League AAA A's: A Year That Would Change My Life

2010-03-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

Above is my picture from my second year in baseball: 1986. I was on the AAA A's and was looking forward to another season of baseball. Now that the rookie year was over and I had more of an idea what I was doing, I figured it would be even better. And how could it go worse than 0-20 the previous year? Well things certainly went better this year and I had no idea how it would change my life.

There are definitely a few highlights from this season. The first one that comes to mind is my first and only walkoff hit ever! Unfortunately, I didn't even realize it at the time. I didn't know that if you're the home team and you take the lead in the bottom of the last inning that the game ended instantly. I know I hit a single although that's all I remember. When I got to first I remember my team being really excited and yelling for me to come in the dugout. Of course there was lots of celebrating when I got there. I actually appreciate it more know that I realize what had happened. It turns out this was the only walkoff hit I ever hit playing baseball.

The second thing I can recall from this season was my first homerun! If I remember correctly, I tended to swing late at pitches and therefore would frequently hit to the right field side of the field. Well, in this at bat, I did just that, hitting right over first base and down the line all the way to the fence against another field. I just ran and ran and before I knew it, I was scoring. In some ways I feel like there should be an asterisk next to this HR however. The other team only had 8 players. They decided to go ahead and play anyway though. They only had 2 outfielders and they were both towards center field, so it took them a long time to get to my hit. Nonetheless, in the record books, it is a homerun! Therefore, I claim it!

The last memory I have from this season is another pretty exciting one. I think we finished 12-8 this year, which was good enough to put is into a tie for 3rd at the end of the season. In these days, only the top 3 teams in the division got trophies and if two teams tied, there was a playoff. So, I participated in my first playoff game, and man was it exciting. I had a much better understanding of the game by this point and knew how cool and nerve-wracking it would be. When it was all said and done, I remember running in from center field when the last pitch was made and we had won! We were getting our trophies and the other team (the Mariners, I think) did not. While I felt a little bad for them (I remember some crying), I also realized that there had to be a winner and a loser. That was quite a memory.

It turns out that this season was life-changing; not because of what happened on the field, but that I was on the team I was. It turns out it was a family run operation. The manager was a brother and son of the other two coaches, and they had two kids on the team. It also just so happens that the sister of one of those teammates of mine was a girl named Traci. That's right, the same Traci that I have now been married to for over 10 1/2 years! There were no sparks at all during the season. After all, I was in 4th grade and she was in 2nd, but you just can't question God plans, especially when don't know what they are. It was a good thing I got to know the coaches and their kids. I had no idea how important that would be, and that my parents and sister got to know them too.

So in summary, I had my first walkoff hit, first homerun, first playoff game (and postseason victory) and first trophy. And then I met the girl/woman of my dreams! Now you know one of the reasons why baseball is such a big part of my life. And now that our oldest daughter is in her rookie year of softball, I get to experience it all in a different way. (I just don't like thinking that she could meet the boy she is going to marry in two years. Seriously?!?!?!?!?!?!

The Rookie Year - 1985 Whittier Little League AAA Royals

2010-02-17T20:39:00.000-08:00

This is the year my passion for baseball hit a new level: 1985. When the season began, I was 8 years old. My parents had asked me the previous year or two if I wanted to play and I had always said no, mainly because I was shy and wasn't sure about the whole thing. Finally they really urged me to try it, and good thing I did!

I think this year was also a blessing in a couple of ways. First of all, I had never played in a league before and had no idea what to expect. Secondly, while most of my friends were at the AA level, I started off at AAA, which is the next level above AA. Finally, it was a blessing in disguise, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I don't remember a whole lot about this season. After all, it was 25 years ago. (Man, that's a long time ago...am I really that old?!) And now, into the memories...

There is one game I remember. I played second base that year and I loved it. I had no problems playing the infield. I have no idea how I got chosen to play there, but that's irrelevant. In one game, I remember ball after ball getting hit to me in the game. I know there were at least 10, and keep in mind we only played 6 innings. Each one I fielded cleanly, threw to first and got the runner out. It was a great game and I remember my parents being proud of me after that game.

Another memory was the the game our own catcher shoved our pitcher at home plate when he was trying to tag out the runner coming home. Needless to say, we threw our own catcher out of the game. The catcher's name was Thomas Ebbitt, or something like that. It's just one of those things I randomly remember.

The next thing, I don't remember, but my parents have reminded me of frequently, was that our coach quit part way through the season. I think that's a sign that the season was less than ideal for a rookie Little Leaguer.

Another memory was our opening day game. Believe it or not, that first game is still the worst defeat of any team I have ever been on (part of the blessing in disguise). We lost that first game 32-2! That's right, 32-2!!! We were blown out many times during our 20 games that year, which brings me to the main reason this season was a blessing in disguise. Of the 20 games we played, we LOST ALL 20! This was a blessing in couple of ways. First, if I still liked the game after a horrible season like that, you know it was part of me, possibly in my DNA, to love baseball. Secondly, no matter how long I played baseball, I could never be on a team that did worse. I had nowhere to go but up. And that is certainly the way things went.

Below I have posted some pictures from that season and a little caption explaining each one. Enjoy!

Here is my first baseball picture!

Here is our team waiting to get our team picture taken.

Here is the team picture from that year.

This is me. For what it's worth, I wore #5.

Here I am swinging at a pitch, and you can actually see the ball coming. Looks like it was going to be a strike.

Getting down and dirty...sliding into 3rd base. I love the action shot! Not bad form for a rookie.

I scored!

Back in the Day...A New Series

2010-02-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

I was just taking a shower when a thought occurred to me about what I could talk about on here! Since Courtney has started her first year in softball, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of the memories I have from playing baseball. I started in 1985 with Whittier Little League and played all the way through high school (1994) and even in a few adult leagues since. However, I haven't played since before we had kids. In other words I haven't played in over 6 years. I would love to play again, but it's expensive and would take up most of my Sundays.

This year is the 4th year that La Serna is having their alumni vs. varsity game. The only problem is that it has fallen on the weekend of Courtney's birthday every year, and this year it's on her birthday, which is when her party is. Maybe eventually I'll get to play; it sounds like a lot of fun. I am out of shape, but I wouldn't mind working into a little better shape for that. It would be so much fun.

So in starting this new mini-series on my blog, I'm hoping to post pictures of me and/or my teams from as many years as possible. I have memories from most of the years I played from my first home run to teammates mooning cars behind us as we rode home from a JV game in high school without the coach on board. If this sounds interesting, keep coming back. I'm not sure how often I'll post, but I'm hoping to post fairly often. We'll see if time permits that.

February? Already?

2010-02-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

Man is time flying! I can't believe it is February and we are already halfway through the Steinman birthdays. Skyler's was Jan 13 and Traci's was Wednesday. Next up is Courtney's in a couple of weeks. However, first comes Valentine's Day in just over a week. It'll be kind of weird because it falls on a Sunday this year. Oh well.

In the midst of all the normal February birthday festivities, Courtney is starting her rookie season in softball with Whittier Girls Softball. I'm looking forward to seeing her play. Unfortunately I can't make it to any of the practices as they start at 5:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll get home about the time they end. At least when they have weekend games, I can make it to those. I'm so excited to see her play. I've had fun teaching her and Skyler how to play. I knew I would have fun teaching them, but I don't think I realized how much I would enjoy it. I wish I could do that everyday, but I don't get home until it's dark during the week. We just need to take advantage of the weekends when we can. It'll rain most of this weekend, but we might be able to practice a little on Sunday before the Super Bowl. Monday represents her first practice and I really wish I could be there. I'm sure she will have fun and make even more friends.

I'm really excited about how well Traci is doing with her weight loss. She has now dropped 45 pounds overall. She has passed what I lost with Weight Watchers a while back (40 pounds...although it's all come back). It's exciting to see her do so well and remain so motivated. I don't think I've seen her this determined with something before. It's pretty cool!

Something I'm proud of is that since I made my return to work on December 8, I have not missed a day! I keep thinking that it would be cool if I actually had perfect attendance this year since I've never had perfect attendance with anything before. Then again, I have two kids who are both in school and a wife who seems close to becoming a sub at the preschool. My chances are slim to none. Guess I better enjoy it while I can.

Also, today was my first meeting with members of the RLT (Refinery Leadership Team), aka the big wigs. Ok, so actually only one was there as well as a few of my colleagues and bosses. it went really well though. I'm glad to get that first one over with.; especially since I get to do it again next month.

I'm getting excited about this time of the year. Although our finances remain extremely tight and we somehow manage to make it paycheck to paycheck, it is just about time for us to get our breathing room. I'll be receiving my bonus in exactly one month, which as of right now is 11% of my salary. There is one more element to be calculated in and I have a feeling it will bring it down slightly. I'm not worried about that since I get a bonus at all in these time. It's also tax time which we'll get around to doing later this month. I'm not sure how much to expect back, but it will be nice no matter how much.

Our family is now down to 2 Disneyland passes since mine expired in November and Skyler's expired on her birthday. Courtney's comes due next month so we'll be covering those three with my bonus/taxes or at least that's the plan right now. We made a list of things we need and would like with our extra money upcoming. Property taxes top the list since that's a necessity. The passes are on there as I mentioned, and we also are planning to get a camera since we haven't had one since Christmas morning. I think we'll be upgrading slightly from what we had, but not spending a ton.

I guess I should head to bed since it's almost 2:00AM. After all, we need to get up at 6:30 to get the girls ready for school. Naptime!

2009 In Review...Finally

2010-01-17T22:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to the 2009 Steinman family letter. No you did not receive a Christmas card. Yes, this is the letter that would have accompanied that card. Things are tight so we eliminated cards and Christmas mailings this year altogether. However, the tradition of an annual family letter must continue! And so here I am on January 1, 2010, looking back at 2009 (finally posting it on January 17) saying goodbye and good riddance! It was a rough year and although the lowlights outweighed the highlights, I will try to focus mainly on the highlights for the purposes of keeping this upbeat. So let’s begin the review of 2009 (and get comfy; it's a novel)!

JANUARY

We welcomed in 2009 in the way we usually do…birthday parties galore (four in the first four weekends to be exact). Of course one of those was Skyler’s third birthday party. She is at the point where she can really appreciate the party and the presents and the cake! It’s always fun to see having a good time surrounded by so many people that love her so much. Her third birthday also represented a new expense…Skyler’s first annual pass for Disneyland. At this point, all four of us had passes and Disney had us by the pocketbook.

However, we also saw Traci’s brother and his family move from Lake Arrowhead to Colorado, which meant seeing them less often and the kids spending less time with their cousins. It was said to say goodbye, but thank goodness for Skype!

FEBRUARY

February was as busy as usual with Traci’s birthday and Courtney’s fifth birthday. However, as if that isn’t enough in itself, along with a number of other family birthdays in the last week alone, our Sunday School class, which I was the facilitator for, decided to do an open house to let other young married couples in our church know about our class and come check it out. It went well as we probably had 30-40 people show up, compared to about 10 in class on a normal Sunday. It went pretty well and we had fun.

Two days before Courtney’s birthday, we welcomed a new (extended) family member! Our niece Bella was born on the 18^th. It was exciting to find out since this was my sister’s first baby.

Another highlight of this month was that Courtney had two auditions in a three-day period at the end of the month. (Remember, last year she signed with LA Models to be her agency for print, model, TV and film.) With those being in the heart of LA, it’s a decent time commitment for Traci and Courtney to make it to those, especially while I’m at work. She didn’t get either gig, but they are always good practice for the next one!

MARCH

Our church’s annual Serve Weekend was held in March this year. Since this was the first year that I didn’t lead a project, Traci and I worked together on the same project. We were photographers. We got to travel to about a dozen of the 119 service projects throughout the community, taking pictures and documenting the activities of the various project teams. It was a blessing to be able to see so much of what was going on and how so many in our community could be blessed by God’s servants. It was truly an amazing experience. We are looking forward to serving again this Spring!

March also represented a change for me at work as I earned my first promotion at Chevron. I went from being a Global Analyst to a Local Analyst, but that also involves formulating and managing a number of contracts (somewhere around 60 I think), the largest of which averages about $15,000,000 per year. It’s a nice change and has involved a lot of learning but has been enjoyable. I love the people I work with and I have a great boss. In these times, I cannot complain at all about my job. Good pay and benefits and the fact that I have a job at all in these times is great, let alone one of the best I’ve ever had. God has blessed me, and my family, with this job.

APRIL

April had one of the biggest highlights of the year. No it wasn’t my 33^rd birthday. No, it wasn’t the Dodger game we attended the following day. No it wasn’t attending an award ceremony for my mom’s union, at which she received a prestigious award (although that was pretty cool). It was Courtney’s first job! We were so excited when we got the call that she was on the short list/on call for a job. Then we were even more excited when we got the call that she was in! The excitement went to whole other level when we found out it was for O Magazine!! (That’s right, Oprah’s magazine!) The shoot took place on the beach in Santa Monica. She did really well and had a great time. She even got to take home the beachball from the photo shoot. If you haven’t seen it, it’s in the July 2009 issue of O Magazine on pages 110-111. (The photo takes up most of the two-page spread and Courtney is right in the middle facing the camera.)

Traci has continued to be involved in leadership for MOPS at our church and in April we hosted a MOPS fundraiser yard sale since we have a great front yard for it. Since Traci was in charge of fundraising, she organized the event and did a great job of it. However, since we were hosting it, that also meant our home was the drop-off, or Salvation Army/Goodwill/name your charity here, for the event. Therefore, we had stuff piled up for the yard sale everywhere. We had a path to the washing machine and dryer in the garage and a path to the kitchen from the living room. However, thanks to the great planning, the support of the MOPS group from our church, and the tons of donations from everyone, the yard sale made about $1,200! Way to go, Hon! I’m proud of you!

MAY

May was the first really rough month we had. However, there were some good events as well. We celebrated Mother’s Day at the park, as has become tradition in recent years. Both sides of our family get together and go potluck-style. The kids love to play, the adults love to talk; it’s great for everyone, especially with four generations involved!

However, the month quickly turned downhill after Mother’s Day. Our dear friend Monica, who was only three months younger than me, lost her 18-month battle with Cancer the day after Mother’s Day, leaving behind her husband, who we’re also good friends with, and their son who turned three the following month. She and her husband had been in our Sunday School class for quite a while so we had gotten to know them pretty well, especially Traci. I had the honor of speaking briefly at her service the next weekend, where it was estimated about 500 people attended, to give you an idea of what a great, Godly woman she was. While we mourned the loss, we can celebrate the fact that she is no longer suffering and is in Heaven. Her departure is only temporary for those of us who also have reservations in Heaven.

The day after the service, we had another highlight: watching Courtney’s church choir do their Spring musical. It is always fun to see Courtney perform and having fun while honoring The Lord. It really makes us proud.

JUNE

Ah, June…a month we have grown very fond of, but I’ll get to the reason in a minute in case you don’t remember why. June represented Courtney’s last day of preschool and her preschool “graduation” ceremony. It was very cute and although it was just for preschool, it really made me realize how quickly Courtney is growing up. How is it that she is ready for kindergarten already?!

The weekend after that was a great weekend at church as we held our ground breaking ceremony. Our church was breaking ground for construction on phase one (of two) of our campus expansion. Phase one represents nearly tripling our parking spaces in preparation for phase two, which will be construction of a new sanctuary. Some of the parking was completed in time for Christmas Eve services last week. It was a more emotional experience than I expected. I think it’s exciting that we have outgrown what we have now and need to expand so that we can bring more people to God on our campus. It was also emotional because at one point they had those that had become Christians at the church come fill a test tube with dirt from the ground breaking, and Courtney was one of those people. It literally brought tears to my eyes and the test tube is still on our kitchen counter just above the sink.

It was also around this time that Skyler began her swim lessons. She was in the Mommy and Me swim class with Traci. There was an obvious difference from last year in terms of her ability and enjoyment. It’s amazing to see how she grows over time and how she develops and her amazing athletic abilities. We’ll need to keep an eye on her!

The following weekend was Father’s Day, when we held our annual BBQ in our front yard. It was fun as always. However it was the following Friday that represented a pretty big milestone, at least in our eyes.

Friday, June 26, 2009, was me and Traci’s 10^th wedding anniversary! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 10 years, but what a great and amazing 10 years it has been. God has blessed me with the best wife in the world and has blessed Courtney and Skyler with the best mom in the world! We are truly a lucky family with her as a part of it. A big milestone like this meant Traci and I needed some alone time! So we pawned off…I mean, we let the kids have a sleepover at Grandma Linda and Grandpa Dave’s house. We had a great time celebrating 10 years of wedded bliss and are looking forward to as many more as God will bless us with! I can only hope that we can make it as long Aunt Frieda and Uncle Dick (63 years now)!

JULY

We started off the month on a great note, traveling to Colorado to see all of the family we have out there. We were gone July 2-11, a good length for a driving trip, which the girls did very well on. We had a great time staying at Shawn (Traci’s brother) and Rani’s house, which allowed the girls to have some good cousin time. After that, we spent some great time at Susie (my sister) and Adam’s home and seeing our niece for the first time. We didn’t do a lot of sight seeing, but rather focused on spending time with family and just hanging out. It was nice to relax and get away for a while. All good things must come to an end, and so the trip did when we made it home safely.

However, I had no idea that my life would flip upside down beginning the following week. It was that following week that I began my battle with depression. I have never been through anything like it before and hope I never do again. Unfortunately, my battle had negative effects on the family, and so it was a very tough four months or so for everyone.

The end of July represented the first time the girls got to attend VBS at our church! They always seem to hold it the same time that we go to Shaver Lake for Traci’s family’s annual reunion/vacation. This year, they were different weeks, so it worked out really well. The girls had a really good time.

July also represented the last time I would lead our Sunday School class as I let them know I could no longer lead the class. It was just too much for me on top of everything else going on in life in general as well as the latest issues that were going on (although they didn’t know that yet).

AUGUST

August was busier than normal, but in a good way. We left for the aforementioned Shaver Lake trip on August 1. We returned two days later since that was the only day we wanted Courtney to miss of her swim lessons. She couldn’t wait for her swim class and did amazing once she was in the pool. I think she would live in the pool if she could. Not just because she could be like Ariel (the Little Mermaid), but because she loves to swim and show us how well she can do. She can also hold her breath for quite a while. She has learned that jumping off the diving board is quite the thrill also. No fear in this girl when it comes to swimming!

Just a couple of days after returning from Shaver Lake, Traci and I attended the Leadership Summit which is hosted by Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. Our church was a satellite host and it was a great experience. Great speakers, great topics, great time all around. Our church was one of three featured in a segment with an interview with Bono from U2. (The video is on our church’s website if anyone is interested.)

A couple of weeks later we headed to San Diego for Traci’s family’s annual San Diego family reunion. (Can you tell her family is pretty close? That’s a good thing!) We had fun as always and the girls did as well as they got to hang out with cousins. The weather is usually pretty good down there and there is never a shortage of food! However, if there ever is, Sea World is just down the road!

The day after San Diego was the highlight of the month for me, without a doubt. I went with a friend to Staples Center to see Summerslam (a WWE pay-per-view event) live! We had a great time. Three hours of gratuitous, choreographed violence, indoor pyrotechnics, one tag team that rode into the arena on a tank and a main event that involved tables, ladders and chairs. Ah, high quality entertainment, indeed!

Coming off of the high of that day, I was stunned when I was still struggling with depression the rest of the week. As a result, I started on three and a half weeks of disability that week. A disappointing option I was hoping to avoid.

However, the last day of August was a milestone. Skyler started preschool! She is attending the same preschool Courtney did: Whittier Christian, Maybrook Campus. She has enjoyed it so far and her teachers love her. We couldn’t be more pleased. She is always excited to show us what she has done, especially arts and crafts. We were worried she might be more hesitant to start school than Courtney because she is more reserved and shy, but she did great…no crying, no clinging, just a goodbye hug and kiss and she was good to go. She’s such a big girl!

SEPTEMBER

This month had a big milestone for Courtney. On the 2^nd, she had her first day of Kindergarten! Man, is it weird to be going back to my elementary school, but this time as a parent! I’m proud of Courtney as she has done extremely well so far in kindergarten. On her first report card (December), she was at or above level in all areas. I almost teared up when she said her favorite subject is math. That’s my girl!

I was cleared to go back to work on the 21^st of the month and so I did. It was a welcome change. However, it would not go quite as well as I had hoped. I made it through three days and could not work the fourth. (I work a 4/10 schedule and therefore have all Fridays off.) Turns out I wouldn’t work a full week for a while.

The last weekend of September, Traci was able to get away for the weekend to our church’s women’s retreat. It was a much needed break for her, especially after having to deal with me. It also allowed me to have some good time with the kids, which was also needed.

OCTOBER

With October comes the kickoff of the holiday season with Halloween and Harvest Festivals and the like. We made a trip to a big pumpkin patch with lots of slides, a petting zoo and a train, courtesy of Grandma and Papa (Traci’s parents). As always, the girls had a blast. We also had the joy of attending Harvest Festivals at each of the girls’ schools…on the same day! Fortunately, Courtney’s was in the morning and Skyler’s was at night. We were able to get a much needed break in between and therefore, were able to thoroughly enjoy both.

At the beginning of the month, the girls had their first sleepover at their friends’ house. They had a blast and we were grateful to our friends for being willing to put up with four girls between the ages of 2 and 5 for the night.

On the 25^th, our church did something different as part of their building project. It was a commitment service where we held just one service (versus the four we had each weekend at the time and five now) in the Biola University gym. With over 2,600 in attendance, those who could make financial commitments to help support the building project that is currently underway. Afterwards, we all just hung out and enjoyed talking, eating and good times. Traci sang in the choir for the service.

The last week of October brought on yet another personal challenge for me and my battle. On October 26, I began a 6-week stint on disability due to my depression. I could not make it to work more than a day or two at a time, which is not what I or my friends at work needed. So at home I was again. Not where I wanted to be, but where I needed to be. This did allow time to find the right “cocktail” (as the doctor put it) to help me.

Halloween was one of the busiest days of the month. Of course there was trick-or-treating, but before that, there were two birthday parties to attend! What a crazy day that was. Somehow we made it through and the girls managed to have a really good time that day. This year the costumes were…Courtney – Sleeping Beauty; Skyler – Butterfly. They were very cute, but would you expect anything less? (I know I wouldn’t!)

NOVEMBER

Personally, November started off rough and ended frustratingly. Now that I was home from work for the whole month, and generally feeling like crap, I just had to try to make the best of it. However, on the November 4, my Disneyland pass expired for the first time since I bought it after I first bought it in November of 1999 (a couple of months after I stopped working there). It was sad, but there was no way we could afford to renew it. Oh well, life goes on.

Fortunately, thanks to some family, we were given four free tickets to Legoland. None of us had been there before, so it was exciting for all four of us! We went with Traci’s cousin and his family, who have three kids and enjoy hanging out with ours (they are cousins, you know). By the end of the day we were all ready to head home and had a great time. I think it took Skyler about 30 seconds to fall asleep once we started driving.

I am so proud of Traci for what she accomplished in terms of weight loss this year. She participated in a challenge with some friends from church. This brought her total weight loss to 38 pounds. I am excited to see her succeed like this and get closer to reaching her goals. It makes me a proud husband!

Thanksgiving was extra special this year as Susie, Adam and Bella were flown down here for the weekend courtesy of my parents. It was great to see them and to be able to spend a lot of the weekend with them. Holidays are always better when you can spend them with family (especially if it’s family you love)!

The last day of November was very frustrating. It was the day I was supposed to return to work. So I did. A couple of hours after my arrival, I was told I needed to check in at the on-site medical clinic. At the clinic, I was told I had not been cleared to come back to work, and therefore needed to stay home until I was cleared. So home I went…again. This time feeling fine for once, though, while all the paperwork and miscommunication issues got worked out.

DECEMBER

Thank God for December!!!!!!!!!! Despite the carryover frustration from November, the month quickly turned around in a big way. On December 4^th, Skyler accepted Christ into her heart! It was so exciting as Traci lead her in the prayer at prayer time before bed. Skyler started the conversation by asking Traci how we get to Heaven. Traci jumped at the opportunity while I was putting Courtney to bed. We could not be happier now that we know all four of us have reservations with our Heavenly Father! If I fail at everything else, I can know that at least in some minute way, I did something right to help our girls want to become Christians.

Despite that being the highlight of the month (easily), Courtney’s school’s Christmas program was earlier that night at the middle school Traci and I attended, in the same gym where Traci and I first danced exactly 20 years ago! (We also have been dating this time around for 15 years as of this month! What a year of milestones for our relationship, huh?) She did great and we enjoyed watching her.

The following day, she did the first of four weekend Christmas performances at church: one Saturday and three on Sunday. Then as if that wasn’t enough for the weekend, Skyler’s preschool Christmas program was later Sunday afternoon. That was an awesome program. And although Skyler was fighting a cold, she still sang her little heart out and knew all the choreography! We didn’t expect her to do so well. We sure could not have been any prouder than we were. What a trooper and what a talent!

Continuing the positive news, I finally returned to work on December 8^th! Even better news…I have not missed a day since! I feel like the depression is gone, or at least well under control courtesy of three medications (and a fourth as needed). Praise God that I’m feeling fine, work is going well, the family is back to normal and life is good!!! Despite the many cutbacks that we’ve made this holiday season (no cards, mailings or gifts for anyone except our girls), we’ve been able to celebrate and have a great Christmas season. The Christmas Eve service at our church was amazing.

We were also privileged enough to participate in an amazing church-wide service project earlier this week (Dec. 30). It was our church’s project for this Christmas: meal preparation for the poor and starving in India. Traci, Courtney and I signed up for a 2-hour shift (9-11 am) to help pack the meals into packages. We would have taken Skyler, but kids needed to be at least 5 years old. Our goal was to raise $72,000 through our Christmas Eve offering to cover all costs including shipping to India and to pack 285,000 meals on the 30^th. (Update, we raised over $100,000!)

So with that, I finally come to the end of the novel that is the 2009 year in review. I am very glad to have made it through 2009 and that my family made it through the tough times and enjoyed the good times. I have never been so happy to see a year end. I hope and pray that 2010 will bring our family many blessing and a much happier year than 2009. I also hope and pray that 2010 will bring you and yours many blessings and memories. Happy New Year!

HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. Look who's coming back to his blog. Things are going well right now and I'm not going to make this long, but just a heads up that I will attempt to begin blogging again on here soon. I won't give a date because, honestly, I don't know when it will be with all the Christmas activities going on. However I do have a little vacation time coming up just after Christmas. See you soon!

Great Song by Phil Stacey - "You're Not Shaken"

2009-11-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

I love this song a lot because I can really relate to it right now. It's on my other blog, but I connect with it so much that I felt it should be here as well. It's by Phil Stacey. He was in the top 5 on American Idol a few years back (season 6?). It has helped me during this dark time of life. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Still Here

2009-10-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've been working on a new blog that is currently private and I'm using as a journal for what I'm currently dealing with. It may be a while before I resume this blog, so please be patient. I just wanted to let you know I'm still here.

Summerslam Review

2009-08-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 23, my friend Don and I, went to the Staples Center to see WWE Summerslam live. We are both into wrestling and when I discovered back in March that this event was going to be held at Staples Center, I popped the idea of getting tickets. He liked it and so we did. We had a great time. So enjoy my little pictorial review of Summerslam.

Since we got there between 2:30 and 2:45 and it didn't start until 4:45, we walked around the Summerslam Axxess area outside Staples Center. It was separate admission and we didn't feel like paying more so we just walked around to see what was going on. We hung out near the ring that was setup outside. When we realized they were going to be having a match there, we stayed. It was pretty cool because we were maybe 50 feet away, which is how I was able to get the picture above. That is the Hurricane leaping off the top rope onto Paul Burchill. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Finally at about 3:15 we headed over to get in line to get inside. It was good timing as the line grew pretty quickly after that.

The beauty of seeing a pay-per-view (ppv) live is that they had a "bonus" match before they went on air. In this case, it happened to be a 15-diva battle royal. This just means that you get eliminated when you are thrown over the top rope and both feet hit the floor. You can see the chaos above after the opening bell rang. The best thing was that after the match Hornswoggle came in the ring and wound up dancing with a bunch of the divas. Honestly, I think they have the bonus match to test everything out from lighting to sound to the ring itself because after it was over, a bunch of guys, including the referees, were out there weaving rope through a new mat cover, which was actually underneath the mat they wrestled on here. That's another cool thing about seeing an event live is everything you don't see on tv.

I like this shot for a couple of reasons. This is during the match for the Unified Tag Team titles: Chris Jehrico and Big Show vs. Cryme Tyme. You can see the action in the ring where one member of Cryme Tyme is trying to escape from Chris Jehrico's submission move: the Walls of Jehrico. However, if you look outside, you see the other member of Cryme Tyme on the ground (between the camera guys). Meanwhile Big Show is totally just hanging out on the far right of the picture. He stayed there until he clocked the guy grabbing the bottom rope with a right hand, which ended the match and allowed Jehrico and Big Show to keep their titles. Not the outcome we were hoping for, but oh well.

This picture represents, by far, the coolest entrance of the night, which was by Degeneration X (DX), which is made up of Triple H and Shawn Michaels. (See the cool little glow sticks that some people are holding up in an "X"?) We had no idea what was going to happen, but when a bunch of stagehands start moving the massive ramp that the wrestlers walk down to enter, we had no idea what was about to happen. They rolled into the arena on a tank! How sweet was that?! This was also exciting because this was DX's first match in a couple of years and they were facing a tag team that pretty much everyone hates. It was great when DX won.

This picture shows John Cena and Randy Orton beginning their match for the WWE title. It was a bizarre match to say the least. First Orton got disqualified (which meant he kept his title). Then Vince McMahon orders the match to be restarted and if Orton get dq'd again, he loses the title. Next Orton gets counted out (which also means he keeps his title). Then Vince McMahon orders the match to restart again and if Orton gets counted out again, he will lose his title. Then Orton pins Cena by using the ropes as leverage. Another ref comes running out from the back and tells the match's ref what happened so the ref restarts the match. Then what looks like a fan from the crowd goes running into the ring to pull the ref out of the ring as Cena locked in his submission hold on Orton. (Turns out it was someone affiliated with Orton, which was revealed on Monday Night Raw the following night.) Finally, after the distractions ended, Orton won fair and square. By far, this was the most disappointing outcome of the night. But again, oh well.

This is during Jeff Hardy's entrance for his World Heavyweight title defense against CM Punk in a TLC (tables, ladders and chairs) match. It also shows how cool fireworks can be inside an arena. This was the best match of the night, which is probably why it was the last one. It's also why I posted the most picture from this match to give you an idea of what this match is like.

Here you can see that Jeff hardy is climbing the ladder and CM Punk is trying to kick the ladder down to prevent Hardy from reaching the title belt which is hanging above the ring. That's how you win the match, you have to climb a ladder to reach and grab the belt. Once you have it, you win and are the champion.

Here is a picture of Jeff Hardy slamming CM Punk from about half way up the ladder. Pretty painful to watch, but a pretty good action shot.

This has got to be the craziest moment of the night. You can see the referees holding the ladder. Figure they are about 6 feet tall. Therefore, you are looking at about a 20-foot ladder. If you look next to the top of the ladder, you will see a blur of Jeff Hardy as he leaps off the top of the ladder onto CM Punk, who is lying on the announcers table below. No matter how fake wrestling can be, this had to hurt both of them. Obviously the table collapsed when he landed squarely on Punk. Somehow, though, the match continued on with CM Punk eventually winning we grabbed the title belt after knocking Hardy off the top of the ladder they had both climbed.

However, the most exciting moment of the night, and the moment when I lost my voice, was after the match. As Punk was standing over Hardy, the lights went out in Staples Center and you heard the bell of the Undertaker, who hadn't been seen since Wrestlemania in April. When the lights came back on, he was laying where Hardy has been when the lights went out. He grabbed Punk by the throat and chokeslammed him sending a message that he is back and after Punk's new title. Both Don and I lost our voices as soon as the lights went out and the bell sounded.

So that was my experience at my second ever WWE live event. The last one was about 20 years ago when my friend Mike and I went with three of the jr high staff at church, and things have changed a lot in the last 20 years. I definitely hope to do this again sometime. It was awesome!

Song

2009-08-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

This song really hits home right now. Enough said.

Hmmm...

2009-08-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while and have a feeling I won't post very often in the near future. The reason is I'm dealing with some personal stuff and I think I'm just afraid that writing on here will cause me to reveal more than I am confortable with or mre than I want people to know. If there is something I want to write, I will, but I'm not making this a high priority in my life right now. I've got other crap to deal with. So if you happen to follow this little blog of mine, don't be surprised if there are big gaps between postings.

However, today was the conclusion of the Leadership Summit, which is hosted by Willow Creek Community Church annually. This year, our church (WACC) was a satellite campus/host. This is kind of cool (to me) for a couple of reasons. Of the 14 new satellites nationwide, we had the largest attendance/enrollment at just over 500 people. It was also cool because a number of other churches attended the event at our church. Like our pastor pointed pointed out, it is great to see churches coming together for events like this. After all, we're all here for the same reason (or at least we should be). It was also cool because our church was featured in the session that included a follow up interview with Bono (of U2) because of our Malawi Miracle a few Christmases ago (2005?) that resulted from an idea of our church's leadership atendance at the Leadership Summit that year. While I wish I was at a different place personally to get more out of it, I am still glad Traci and I went this year and we both want to go again next year. (Our church has already said they are going to be a satellite site for next year's Summit...August 5 and 6.)

And now, back to life.

Colorado 2009

2009-07-17T10:43:00.001-07:00

We made it to Colorado for our 2009 trip and had a great time. We were gone for 10 days (July 2-11), 4 of which were driving. It was a lot of fun and we took lots of pictures (over 300) as can be expected on a vacation. I'm not posting any pictures here, they are on Facebook. It would be hard to pick just a few to put on here. So here are some of the highlights.

Our first stop in Colorado was at Traci's brother's (and family) house in Longmont, CO. It was good to see them again since they moved at the end of last year. My allergies really kicked up with the animals there: two cats and one dog. Allergy medicine helped I think, but it was still more than my body was used to. The girls enjoyed dressing up and playing with their (3) cousins there. Since we were there for 4th of July, we did some fireworks. The kids, except for Autumn who is 2 (and the youngest) enjoyed them. The people in the surrounding neighborhoods go all out. We're talking the cannon-shot fireworks. Pretty cool. We spent the first part of the day at a family friend's house swimming and playing games.

Sunday night brought the roughest thunderstorm I have ever experienced. It only lasted like 15-20 minutes, but it looked just like what you see on the news when the crazies are reporting from in a hurricane...horizontal sheets of rain slamming the house, trees looking like they were going to snap and blow over. I have to admit it was pretty cool.

After staying at their house for a few days (Fri-Mon) we moved on to my sister's house in Henderson, CO. This was the highlight of the trip as we got to meet our new niece (or cousin from the girls' perspective), Bella. She was just born back in February. It was fun to hold and play with her and see how the girls reacted to her. Courtney loved her and Skyler seemed fairly indifferent. We also went to my cousin's place in Superior for dinner one night and drove down to Colorado Springs for a day to see my Great Uncle and Great Aunt. I always love seeing them. They are just so fun and hospitable. And the girls love them too.

While at my sister's house, we were introduced to a new game we have known of for a long time, but hadn't ever played: Cities and Knights. It's part of the Settlers of Catan series of games. Really long, but really fun. I think our game lasted about 2 hours with the three of us playing (Adam was at work).

Being the nerd that I am, I really enjoyed seeing the cloud formation that formed off in the distance on Monday night. There are a few great pictures of this on Facebook. It started off with the clouds that "bump" down, indicating the potential for tornado formation. Then it became part of a much larger formation that I hadn't ever seen before. I'm sure it was pretty nasty for those who were actually under it.

If I took the time to hit on everything we did on the trip, this would be a novel of an entry. It was a great trip and I look forward to the next time we go out there, whenever it is.

10 Amazing Years

2009-06-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

As I start to write this, Traci and I are just 18 minutes from celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's already been 10 years, but what a great 10 years it has been! If I were to try to write about all the memories we have in our 10 years of marriage, I would be writing until our next anniversary.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow! After breakfast we will be dropping the kids off at my parents house for a sleepover they have been looking forward to for some time. Then it's off to celebrate the bid day, just the two of us. We'll begin by seeing "The Proposal". After that it's home to feed the fish and then off to lunch and Disneyland, where I imagine we'll be the rest of the day and will hopefully stick around to see to the new and improved Fantasmic and fireworks. I'm really looking forward to spending the day with Traci.

I have spent a lot of today trying to remember exactly what we were doing 10 years ago today. I remember the rehearsal and dinner. At this minute (11:47) I was asleep. It was just me and my friend Micah in the apartment. I remember all the fun we had that day making final preparations for the wedding. I remember the prank my father-in-law pulled in getting the pastor (Don Perini) to try to get me to denounce the Dodgers while practicing saying the vows. (He was unsuccessful at getting me to do so.) I remember almost being late to the rehearsal because I was picking up my cousin Christina and her son, our ring bearer, Sam from the Murrieta area. I remember the fun of the dinner and having so many good, close friends involved in our big day and seeing everyone sign the matting around our engagement picture, which is still hanging in our living room.

I love thinking back to those memories and all the happy feelings they bring. The more I think about marriage, the more I realize what a big commitment it really is. In looking back, I almost wonder why I wasn't really scared about it. Then I think of Traci and remember exactly why I was never scared. With her by my side for the rest of our lives, what is there to be scared about? God brought her into my life for a reason, and I am so thankful that he did. I have no idea who I would be or what I would be doing if she was not in my life.

It is almost midnight now and it feels a little bit like New Years Eve. I think I need to go and get ready to kiss her at the stroke of midnight. Happy anniversary, my love! Here's to 100 more!!!!!!!!

DCA

2009-05-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

I think this picture sums up our day yesterday...tons of fun, but very tiring.

Fun Weekend Ahead

2009-05-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that although the 10-hour work days can seem long sometimes, it's always worth it come Friday...because I'm always off! Just one of the things I love about my job. So since my weekend is now underway, and I'll be busy for most of it, I though I would preview it.

But first, the event of the day today was Courtney's Kindergarten assessment. Traci took her to it this afternoon and they said she did good and was recommended for the extended-day K. They gave the early bird and late bird options. I"m letting Traci choose which one she prefers since she will be the one dropping both Skyler and Courtney come the fall. She's preferring late bird since Sky needs to be at school by 9:00 and Courtney would start at 9:05 (to 2:25, I think). Apparently there's a lottery or something like that to determine who gets their preference for starting times based on how the kids are classified after their assessments. When asked to count as high as she could, Courtney got to 59. Not bad for someone about to enter Kindergarten.

Now for the upcoming weekend. Tomorrow we have a playdate scheduled with the Parkers who are visiting from Idaho to gather support and promote their upcoming journey into the missions world. They will eventually be heading to Congo as Wycliffe translators. However, tomorrow it will just be fun to hang out in the morning. After lunch, we'll all head our own ways: the Parkers to move into their next host-house, me to pick up Courtney from preschool, and Traci to take Skyler to her first dentist appointment. That should be interesting considering it's her first time there. At least our dentist and the staff are really good people. Then tomorrow night it's a game night with our Sunday School class, which includes the Parkers since they were a part of the class before moving to Idaho.

Saturday brings a trip to DCA (Disney's California Adventure). My parents are going so they can use up their 2fer pass before they expire in a little over a week. We may have Sky try Soarin' Over California and Tower of Terror since she is tall enough for them now and wants to at least try Tower of Terror. (I haven't asked her about Soarin' yet, but she has no fear.)

Then Sunday after church, we have the Parkers' Open House where they will be doing a presentation for their missionary work. It should be interesting as it is such a drastic life-change to take on something like this. I really respect them for doing this.

Time to head off and clean a little before Traci gets home from the gym. If I'm ambitious, I'll post some picture from Saturday on here or Facebook sometime this weekend.

The New Disneyland

2009-05-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, since my last posting, I have felt much better. I think I really just needed to get my feelings out instead of holding them in which I do too often. It also may have helped that I was insanely busy at work this week and therefore couldn't think as much about other things. Whatever the case, God helped.

Even though it is Memorial Day weekend and we knew Disneyland would be crazy busy, we decided to go anyway. Plus we went in the morning, so it wouldn't be at its busiest in the evening. It turned out to be a good call. Not because of the business factor, but because each of the kids reached a milestone today...on the same day! Courtney reached the 46" mark and Skyler reached the 40" mark!

This, of course, meant that we (Courtney and I) had to do Indiana Jones. We took advantage of Fastpass since it was only for a couple of hours later and we had just gotten there. She was pretty scared in line, but afterwards, she had a big smile and said she liked it. She said the big snake was kind of scary, but loved going under the rolling rock. Needless to say, we'll be making many more visits there in the future.

And then there is Skyler. To this point she had been limited to Matterhorn and the Toontown roller coaster. But now she can go on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Star Tours (not to mention Tower of Terror in DCA)! We did half of those today: Splash and Big Thunder. She loved both of them. Unfortunately, we didn't use Fastpass on Splash. Courtney and I hadn't used our Indiana fastpasses yet so we couldn't get four for Splash. So we waited in line for over an hour. It was worth it though. We got a little wet on the first few drops, but nothing to be proud about. Then came the last (HUGE) drop. After cruising at the bottom, a huge (probably 6 feet tall or so) wave kicked up from the front the front of our log and of course, we pretty much went through it Seeing Skyler's big smile and Courtney's smile afterwards and hearing Traci's laugh and realizing how wet I was, made it all worth it. Those are the moments I live for in life.

Then came Big Thunder Mountain. Again, we were able to take advantage of Fastpass, and that probably saved us about 45 minutes (similar to the advantage on Indiana Jones). Skyler loved it so much and was laughing everytime she lifted off the seat according to Traci who rode with her. That's my girl! Courtney did her usual top-of-the-lungs scream on Big Thunder which led her to her belly laugh between screams. I love it when she laughs like that.

Days like today at Disneyland are the moments I will remember for a long time to come and are what make having a family so enjoyable and worthwhile. I look forward to many more moments like this. Now onto the rest of the long weekend with much more family time planned, just the way a long weekend should be.

Unloading

2009-05-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

To say the last week and a half has been a struggle would be accurate. Monica was a good friend and although it appeared she would leave us sometime, I did not expect it to affect me as much as it has. I knew it would hurt. It's not like we were best friends, but she was a good friend and I have never lost anyone this close to me before. I think that's probably why this is tough.

I tried to do her good when I spoke at her service last Saturday, and from the feedback I've received, it appears I did well. However, the strength I tried to show during the service and since her death has been a show. Or at least that's how it feels.

Since she has relocated to Heaven, it has caused me to take a look at my life, what I've accomplished and those I (may) have had an influence on. I don't like what I've been thinking as a result of this self-analysis. I have had many negative thoughts as a result of looking at my life so far. Sure, there have been successes, but being one who tends to dwell on negatives, that is all I can seem to focus on.

Something else that is not good for me (to some degree) is that I tend not to accept failure at anything. That only applies to me though, not my family. I'm trying not to pass that on to my family, especially the girls, as I know it is not always healthy. However, I think it is something I will always struggle with and at times like this, it is just not good for me. Looking at Monica's life, I can only hope to be half the person she was.

I've been holding in all these emotions, the loss of a dear friend and the disappointment of a life of many failures, for too long. Thus the blog title. It's time to unload these emotions, and hopefully they don't upset anybody.

I have not enjoyed my time in the car, or on the train or the walk to the shuttle for work as during these times, I have constant thoughts and feelings running through me. And they don't make me feel any better. Even the good music from the radio or iPod can't seem to help. (Right now I've got my Christian music and HSM playlist on it.) I feel like I'm going through the motions of life and not getting anything accomplished. I constantly think about about the various failures I've had so far, such as our financial situation, the periodic yelling at home (whether it's me or the girls or both, which I know I have passed on based on my behavior), being let go from my last job, the state of the Sunday school class I "lead", the fact that our Colorado trip is in jeopardy, and the list goes on. Couple that with the emotions of losing a friend and I just don't know how much more I can handle in my head. I feel like I need a good cry, but just can't get it out. I feel very fragile and vulnerable, and I don't like that. I wish I could just move on in life, but I know I can't and don't know how reasonable that would be anyway. If I didn't have Traci and the girls at home, I don't know how I would be right now as it feels like I would have no motivation for anything. Fortunately, they give me motivation to make it through the day as I love seeing them when I get home, even if it's only for a few hours.

I guess I just don't know how to handle it all and that drives me crazy. I like to be in control and I don't feel even close to that right now. At least I've got God and the comfort that He will not give me more than I can handle. Just wish I knew how long these feelings and emotions would last.

Article on Monica in Daily News

2009-05-16T13:06:00.001-07:00

There is a great article about Monica on the front page of the Whittier Daily News today. I am including a link here so you can read it. Also, it is currently showing up as the most viewed article online at the Daily News. If you have the time, please read it.

A Long Week

2009-05-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

This has been a long week already and the weekend is just beginning, which means things just speed up.

As you may or may not know, we lost a good friend Monica on Monday evening. She had been battling Angiosarcoma for about a year and a half and ultimately lost her battle. She leaves behind her husband of more than 7 years, Sol, and their 2 year old son, Kai. It's a very heart-breaking time. We got to know Monica ans Sol through our Sunday School class. They have been a part of the class for about 6 years I think and fit right in. Traci got to know Monica pretty good as they seemed to have a lot in common like games and scrapbooking. I think her passing is probably hitting Traci more than me because of that., although it still has gotten to me all week. She was a great part of the class and will be missed dearly.

Tuesday and Wednesday I teared up off and on all day, so I took Thursday as a vacation day to just try to relax and be available for Sol if he needed anything, and today is my normal day off. I think the reason I am so sad and upset is not because Monica is actually gone, although that's definitely part of it. I think it's more because I empathize with Sol. I picture what I would feel like losing Traci, being left to raise Courtney and Skyler by myself. I picture myself having to talk to them about why Mommy won't be home with us and having to deal with their pain as well as mine. I just cannot imagine what that would be like and hope that I never have to. Losing someone you love is never easy. Losing someone who makes you who you are and gives you motivation for life, is incomprehensible to me. (Needless to say, I have been hugginh my family with more meaning this week.) And yet here I am trying to help a friend who is going through exactly that. My heart goes out to Sol and Kai as they adjust to their new life. I'm just really glad that they know God, and because of that, can know that someday they will see Monica again. And she will a happy, perfectly healthy Monica. What a day that will be! I think that's why I'm not as upset over missing Monica, because I know she's in Heaven and having an amazing time hanging out with all the people she knows that are already there.

I bet God has a volleyball court for her, too. I decided to google her name earlier this week and came across an article from a few years ago when she was inducted into her college's Hall of Fame (the inaugural induction I might add). I didn't realize she was so good at volleyball.

I didn't know what to expect when I went to see Sol on Wednesday after work. He seemed to be doing well, all things considered. It was really good to see him and give him a hug and talk for a little bit. I know he's been through a lot and to be holding up as well as it appears he is, is amazing to me.

So, as the weekend is now here, plans get insane as they seem to on too many weekends. Courtney has school today, as is normal on Fridays, although she only has 4 weeks of preschool left now. I've already taken my dad to his post-cataract-surgery appointment (things are going as they should) and he treated me to breakfast. The rest of the day is pretty open, but I may be spending time with Sol. Tomorrow will be a little crazy. I'll have the girls most of the day as Traci has a full morning beginning with MOPS/MOMS brunch with church. As soon as she gets home, it's off to a friend's baby shower. Meanwhile I have to take Courtney up to church for choir practice for their performance on Sunday night. Then after everyone is home, we (at least Traci and I) will head to Monica's memorial service at church Saturday evening. Sunday morning will be church as normal, but with Roads and Bridges (the Sunday School class I lead) hosting a time of prayer and talk about Monica, Sol and Kai. Then to wrap up the weekend, we will see Courtney perform in a musical at church Sunday evening. It will be a long and emotional weekend, but I'm up for it. I need to be.

Man-ny! Man-what? Hey, Free Souvenirs!

2009-05-08T00:37:00.000-07:00

I had the joy of being at the Dodger game tonight. Kind of historic in the sense that it was the first of 50 games the Dodgers will play without Manny Ramirez thanks to his suspension for taking performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) as indicated by a positive test by MLB. While this is obviously a concern for the team, not having his services and all until early July, I am not too worried about the Dodgers and how they will do without him. Tonight's game confirmed my thoughts about that (more details following). After all, one player does not make a team, and it's very hard to win when your bullpen gives up 10 runs.

It was obvious right away that the Dodger did not need Manny to score runs tonight. They scored 6 runs in the first inning alone to go up 6-0, 4 of which came on Matt Kemp's grand slam. Randy Wolf pitched a great 6 innings giving up only one run on a home run that I almost caught! The ball was caught by the guy sitting one seat over and two rows down from me. (You might be able to see me and my friend Martin if you pause the video at the just the right time. At the 0:12 mark of the video, you will see a guy in a yellow shirt bend over to get the ball. From there, look slightly up and to the left. Martin is in a blue shirt almost on the edge of the video and I am right next to him, in a light gray shirt with my blue Dodger hat.) Also in the game was a wicked crazy double play turned by the Nationals' Christian Guzman that spoiled the major league debut of Xavier Paul for the Dodgers. (It actually is ESPN's #1 Web Gem for Thursday.) Ultimately, the Dodgers lost 11-9, their first home loss of the season in their 14th home game. Not bad. So now they are only 21-9 with a 5.5 game lead in the division. Exciting game, but wrong results as we left two the tying runs on base to end the game.

Now, as to how I actually caught a ball during batting practice. The Nationals were taking their pre-game batting practice and many players were in shagging fly balls in the outfield. Once in a while one of them would toss a ball into the crowd, either into the left field pavilion or our area of the field level. One of the players had a ball and was looking towards the crowd in our section like he was thinking about throwing it to us. So I stood up and held up my glove in hopes he would see me. He did and threw the ball towards me. It started hooking away from me towards Martin (who did not have a glove was willing to let me defend him with it) so I leaned in front of him and caught it. Good thing too as he didn't realize the ball was coming our way...he was still watching the batter. So since they were giving away little radios in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers first world championship in LA (beating the White Sox in 1959), I walked away with two free souvenirs for the night. And yes they were truly free as the tickets to the game were free as well!

Below are a couple of pictures. One is with me and the ball I caught. The other is me re-enacting me catching the ball. (Very realistic, I know.)

The Good, the Bad...Now I'm Sad

2009-05-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

What a rough weekend. Thank goodness they are not all like this.

First of all having left work early on Wednesday and then calling in sick on Thursday due to a stomach bug of some kind, that didn't go away until Saturday, was a sign of how things would go, I guess.

On Friday, I took my car into the nearest Jeep dealership, which is now Cerritos after two others nearby have closed in this downturn, to take care of a problem that the last mechanic I took it to said could only be taken care of by a dealer. Well, they were right, unfortunately. Now that I've been putting up with my car stalling at random times for the past several months (we're talking since Christmas or just before), it is nice to have the problem fixed. Turns out the computer, you know the one that runs the car, was having an internal short and therefore making the car stall. The computer alone was $583 (not including labor). There was also a problem with air and gas control that meant the repair of another part. After all was said and done, we're out almost a grand. We are lucky in the sense that we were able to afford this right now and make the car last until now. However, the bad is that it cost about what our trip to Colorado would cost and spending that much again would not be smart at this point in time. Therefore, I have a feeling we won't be heading to Colorado this year, which really sucks. It kills me every time the girls mention and get very excited about going to Colorado. At least we have Skype.

Then, my worries about going to Colorado and spending the money on my car didn't seem very significant. Our friend Monica, who has been battling Cancer (Angiosarcoma) for about a year and a half now, was admitted to the hospital on Friday. We found out Saturday and were able to visit her that afternoon. She is in a lot of pain as the tumors rapidly grow in her. From what Traci told me from Sunday School today (I was home with Courtney who is sick) she has a 22cm tumor. The chemos she has been through have not been working. She needs prayer, as do her husband and almost 3-year-old son. It's obviously hard on them as well, especially Sol (her husband) as he better understands what is going on. I ask that you pray for them.

(Since I just posted a new song on my other blog, I wanted to post the previous video for my current favorite song as it means so much to me right now. Hope you enjoy it if you haven't checked out my other blog lately.)

Ummmmmm...

2009-04-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

I feel kind of bad for staying home from work today after coming home early yesterday. My stomach has that "unstable" feeling and has since I got home from work Wednesday night. Fortunately, nothing has happened and I hope it stays that way, but it's just annoying when it feels like this. If it's still like this tomorrow, there will be no Dodger Dog for me at the game tomorrow night. At least there are plenty of other options there.

Courtney's First Job!

2009-04-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Courtney had her first photo shoot. It was done at Will Rogers State Beach and was for O Magazine. We don't know what issue it's going to appear in, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out. She is one of about 20 people in the shot and is the only one looking directly at the camera. I wasn't there, so I can't provide a lot of details, but if you go to Traci's blog, you can find out more since she goes into more detail...and posted pictures. We're proud of her and hope that she continues to get jobs as long as she enjoys doing this.

Birthday Time

2009-04-16T00:44:00.000-07:00

It's officially my birthday and in just a few minutes I'll officially be 33! I'm looking forward to today and tomorrow as there are some fun things lined up. Tomorrow, it's off to Disneyland with Traci and the girls after she has her MOPS meeting to prepare for the massive yard sale at our place on the 25th. After Disneyland, we'll head to dinner with some family. Nothing big, kind of low key, which is good.

Friday, we head to our first Dodger game of the year where they will take on the Rockies and we'll be treated to postgame fireworks. That should be lots of fun as we (the 4 of us) head to the game with my parents (using Mom's handicap placard!) and my good friend Eric.

I think I'm just excited because it's all fun stuff and with people I really like being around. Here's to being about 1/3 of a century old! (That officially happens August 16, when I turn 33 1/3.)

Life

2009-04-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

I was at our refinery's business plan roll out today at the Disneyland Hotel and after a speech from our retiring President of Global Manufacturing (who oversees all of our refineries worldwide), it just helped me realize what life is about. He talked about retiring after being with Chevron for 32 years and that he wants to be a better husband, father and grandfather, while going out on top, in terms of his professional accomplishments, and also wanting to give back in the community in which he was raised in India. One of the last things he mentioned in his speech was how much he felt blessed by God, and that was very good to hear.

Before his speech this afternoon, I pretty much just saw him as one of the corporate big-wigs. However, after the speech, I saw him as a fellow human being in this journey called life. I could completely relate to his desire to spend time with his family. He talked about the fact that he has put his wife of 38 years through 18 moves during his career, and that in the last six years (while in his current position) he has logged about 8,000 hours of airtime (not counting time in the airport or for transfers) and that he has typically traveled about 2 1/2 weeks every month. From that I can understand why he wants to spend more time with his family. He gained a lot my respect today. I could tell there was a lot of personal emotion behind his speech today and that is why I feel for and can relate to him.

I will tell you now that I have no desire whatsoever to take on a position of any kind that will make me be away from my family that much. I also know that not wanting to relocate can limit the opportunities available to me at Chevron. However, I will not sacrifice my family for my career. I also know that having a family that I value could affect the perception of my performance relative to my peers. While I don't think that is fair, that just may be the way it seems to some people. Fortunately, that has not been the case so far. As my uncle says, I'm not living to work, I'm working to live.

I am very thankful for the family that I have and I believe God wants them to be my top priority (behind Him). Therefore, I structure my life that way. When all is said and done in my career and my life, I am most concerned that they will look at me and be proud of what I did and who I was. I don't want to embarrass them or have them feel ashamed of me. I want them to be glad that I was a part of their life for as long as I was here.

At Chevron, we have something called the Chevron Way, which explains what our company is about. The values associated with it align very well with how I want to conduct my life, and perhaps that is part of the reason I enjoy working for Chevron so much. Trust, honesty and integrity are three of the characteristics I want to incorporate in all areas of my life. From those, I believe respect is inevitable. And if I have the love and respect of my family, I will be a happy man.

On another note, I am excited for it to be Easter weekend. After all, it is because of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection that we celebrate this holiday and can have eternal life. I always love our church's Easter services. This year, we're doing something different as we'll be attending service on Saturday instead of Sunday. Part of the reason is that so much of our family is going then: my parents, my grandma (who we still think is unsaved at the age of 95), Traci's parents and Traci's grandparents. Afterwards at least some of us will be having dinner together and then re-gathering on Sunday afternoon for the official Easter get-together. One extra thing to be excited about for the services this year is that Eden Espinosa who played Elphaba in Wicked. (She went to college with our worship pastor so he has the connections.) So if you happen to be looking for a good church to celebrate Easter at, hopefully that will encourage you to give WACC a try. Happy Easter everyone!

The Weekend

2009-04-03T22:16:00.001-07:00

I have to admit I'm really loving my 3-day weekends now with the new schedule. The longer workdays take their toll during the week, but when it really starts getting to me, it's the weekend again! And with this weekend comes lots of fun stuff.

Today we turned in Courtney's kindergarten registration packet and she is now officially enrolled for the fall at Orchard Dale, where Traci and I both went to school and where my mom works (when she's not recovering from hip surgery). I think Courtney is really going to like school and I think she'll do well. She has been starting to read on her own a little and that is very exciting. I have always been a little scared of that since I have never liked to read yet I want to encourage her to read whenever she wants to. So far so good.

Traci had her annual eye checkup today and we were scared of what new contacts would cost as she has been noticing a difference in her vision over time. However, last year, once we got on Chevron's benefits, we learned that our eye doctor didn't take our insurance. I wound up spending $500 for my appointment and glasses. Well, they just started accepting our insurance, EyeMed. Her contacts and appointment will cost us a total of $120. Much better than we were expecting. It turns out that they were almost forced to start accepting EyeMed since a lot of the people going to his practice have dropped VSP because it is too costly to their employers. I remember when working in underwriting at my last job that EyeMed was always cheaper than VSP and it is accepted at many large retail outlets (i.e. Sears, Target, Lens Crafters, etc.), which appeals to a lot of employees. So after cancelling my appointment for tomorrow (the time wouldn't have worked anyway...see below), I rescheduled for a couple weeks from now. We'll see what happens there.

I wound up taking my car into the shop since it stalled once yesterday coming home from work. I thought the new fuel pump and filter we installed last week had done the trick, but I guess not. It was due for an oil change anyway so I took up to a local shop here that I really trust. Unfortunately, they couldn't fix the problem, but were able to explain why. They said the coil (whatever that is and does) came up when the car was hooked up to their diagnostic machine. However, they said they had fixed that on other Jeeps like mine and it didn't fix the problem, but that it was probably the computer that runs the car. He said that it needs to be reflashed, which resets it apparently. That can only be done at a dealership, so I'll be taking it to a third place to get fixed. If after the reflashing, it still isn't fixed, then he said it probably needs a whole new computer, which will run in the $400-500 range, which is not what I want. Heck I'll flash the computer if that's all it takes! Ok, not really.

Tomorrow should be fun as we drop off the kids at the in-laws and then head with my parents and Nora (Mom's good friend) to Pasadena for her to get an employee-of-the-year-type award from her union. We weren't going to be able to go because our church had scheduled their Easter egg hunt for this weekend, but I found out earlier this week that they cancelled it. Mom was able to get a couple extra tickets so now we can go. It should be fun.

Then comes Sunday, the highlight of my weekend by far! Not only does the 2009 MLB season get under way, but a friend, just today, invited me over to his place for Wrestlemania 25! This is the same friend who will be going with me to Summerslam in August. Fortunately, we know them from church and he and his wife have two girls, just like us. So the wives will be keeping an eye on the kids and hanging out while we are secluded in our pay-per-view "suite" in their house. I could go into all the great matches planned for the 4-hour event, but most of you probably don't care. If you do, just check out the Wrestlemania site for yourself. Man do I love the gratuitous choreographed violence that is the man's soap opera called WWE!

And then after the weekend is over, it's back to work, but only for 3 days as our refinery's business plan roll out will be held at the Disneyland Hotel on Thursday, which I'm volunteering at. That means I have to be there at 5:30 in the morning, but it's over around 1:30 so it's a short day. And then another weekend, which includes Easter! And then another 3-day workweek as I'll be taking a vacation day on my birthday! Man, I love April!

Oh, I also posted an awesome new song on my other blog today so check it out if you have a chance.

Courtney Quote

2009-03-27T23:10:00.001-07:00

I forgot to include this in my blog earlier today. Courtney was displaying her attitude towards Skyler (as usual) and when we told her she should be nice to her sister, she told us (and I quote word for word), "That is not my plan." She said it so matter-of-factly and calmly. Traci and I were shocked and busting up on the inside and had to look away from her so she wouldn't see us laughing. Fortunately, we were pretty successful since she didn't catch on. But hey, at least she's honest, right?

What's Going On

2009-03-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since I've posted, but I'm afraid this may be the new regularity. That is because with my new job at work, I have switched to a 4/10 schedule (work 10 hours M-Th with every Friday off). It's great because I now have every Friday off. It sucks because I now get home about 6:30 every night and only have about 2 hours with the girls before they go to bed. Plus I need to get to bed a little earlier, which takes some time away from Traci, since I'm getting up at 4:30, or at least trying to.

Last weekend I was able to get a little dirty with the help of a friend when we changed out the fuel pump in my car. This was no easy task since the pump is in the gas tank. Needless to say, we dropped the tank, changed out the pump and reconnected the tank. It sounds so simple, but when you've got 12 years of grime making sure things stick together pretty good, it takes that much more work. Fortunately our friend Bill (thanks, Bill!) is really good with cars and was willing to work on it. He did most of the work, but I was able to help out some. Took a little skin of my thumb in the process, but that's all part of the experience. Hopefully it won't stall anymore now. It needs to last at least until Skyler finishes pre-school in a little over 2 years.

If you have Facebook and check it regularly, you may have seen that Traci has allowed me to get some pretty cool tickets for my birthday. So, come August 23, I'll be going with a friend from church to WWE's Summerslam at the Staples Center. I've only been to one WWE (WWF at the time) event back in junior high with three members of the jr high staff at church and one of my good friends back then. It wasn't even a televised event though. Summerslam is a pay-per-view! Should be a fun time.

I was able to make a trip up to Dodger Stadium this morning to get my first tickets of the year. We (the four of us, my parents and good friend Eric) will be heading to see the Dodgers Manny-handle the Colorado Rockies on April 17. And there are fireworks after the game, just for my birthday! Ok, not really, but their fireworks are always awesome. We're going because I thought that would be a fun thing to do near my birthday, which is the day before. I also got 2 tickets to the May 7 game. Then my mom calls and asks if we want to go on May 1 with her union. The cool thing about the tickets I got at the stadium is that it was a total of 9 tickets that normally would have cost $240. I only paid $80! The reason for that is that last weekend when I was at the Honda dealership getting some maintenance done on the car, there was a sales guy selling a package of tickets. For $50, you get 6 buy-1-get-1-free vouchers (I used 3 of those today) and two vouchers good for 2 free tickets each (I used one for field level seats May 7, normally $50 each). Needless to say, considering I paid $50 and saved $160 today alone, I'm already ahead on the deal. The sales guy said they were selling the packs to get some demographic info on who is buying the tickets. I can handle a little spam (if I get any) for some Dodger tickets.

This weekend is our church's Serve Weekend. Traci and I are on the photography project, where we will be running to 10 different projects (9 on Saturday) to take pictures of those projects to be shown at the celebration at church on Sunday evening. I'm looking forward to it as we will be all over Whittier and poking into La Habra and Fullerton for a couple.

Considering we're dropping dinner off for some friends tonight (in less than an hour) before going to Disneyland for a birthday, I should go start getting ready.

Breathing...A Good Thing

2009-03-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today was the day we have been waiting for for a long time. Our federal tax refund landed in the bank today. With things having been so tight for so long, it was weird going to Costco and Ralphs tonight and feeling restrained as to how much we could get. We didn't go nuts tonight, just got some stuff we needed, but not feeling stressed about going to the store is not something I ever thought I would be so excited about. It's nice to be able to breathe again.

Unfortunately, we have plenty that needs to get done with this nice little tax money. Fortunately, it should all be covered with a little to spare. That means we can just let the state refund sit whenever we get it (if the state actually has the money for it). The same goes for my bonus when it rolls in next month (at the same time as a raise...happy birthday to me)!

On the work front, things are going well, but busy and about ready to change. I begin the transition into my new job on Monday, which involves a physical move back into the refinery. (I was up in San Ramon last week to transition my responsibilities over to the other analyst for our group.) That's not all bad though. I give up my 7th story window cubicle for an office that I will share with someone for two weeks before having it to myself. No windows, but having an office is pretty cool, I think. It should be interesting as my workload will be increasing and it sounds as though training will be minimal at best. I hope that changes but I'm not holding my breath. At least I know that the people I will be working with can help me out. Seems like a pretty fair trade off since I've already worked with them and done some training for them. And they are all good people, so that only helps. My new boss is pretty cool too. I'm looking forward to working with and for him. This is the first of what I hope will be many changes/promotions throughout my career at Chevron. Also, it's pretty weird to think that next month will mark two years that I've been there already. It's the third longest I've been at one place behind UABT (4 years, 4 months) and Disneyland (4 years, 5 months). And as I was telling a friend at lunch the other day, this is definitely the best job I've had since being at Disneyland.

With Spring training well under way and the World Baseball Classic in full swing, I am extremely excited for the season to start. (And how about that team from the Netherlands, shocking the Domincan Republic twice to move on to the second round and sending the Dominican players back to Spring Training for their respective teams!) In case you've been under a rock for the past week, Manny Ramirez re-signed with the Dodgers after an insanely long, but ultimately rewarding, negotiating process. We have made plans for 7 of us (me, Traci, Courtney, Skyler, my parents and my good friend Eric) to go to the Dodger game on April 17th, the day after my birthday. There are fireworks after the game so that should be fun as well. It makes it a little more fun that they are playing the Colorado Rockies too. I am looking forward to seeing the Dodgers beat them pretty handily (I'm thinking like 7-2) with a Manny home run in the mix. (Take that all you siblings who have moved to Colorado in the past two years!)

Well I guess I should go enjoy some of the yummy Costco cookies we picked up tonight before I go to bed. Oh, and Traci is awesome! 24 pounds gone! There is definitely less of her to love, but what's left gets more attention. =)

Courtney and Taxes

2009-02-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

So the title may be a little misleading as I will talk about Courtney and taxes, but as two separate topics. First up, the first born.

We had been wondering if her agents had been continuing to look for work for her or not since we hadn't heard from them since before Christmas. Well, she had a "fit model" audition today. A fit model is someone who will try on clothing to see how the fit is. This is the last thing done with the clothing before it goes into mass production...kind of like a dress rehearsal for a play. They use the models to see how the clothes fit and see how they feel when being worn. She just tried out for it today so we don't know if she'll get it or not. If she does, it could be an ongoing gig. There were a couple more kids coming in after her. This gig pays $90/hour (with a minimum of 1 hour)! Holy crap, that's way more than I make! It would be cool if she got the job, although driving to East LA a few times per week (potentially) may not be fun, it would be a good experience for her and she would enjoy it I'm sure since she likes to dress up so much. Oh and she has a print audition this Saturday too (which just happens to be Traci's dad's birthday). It is with one of the companies she tried out for before so maybe that gives her a leg up. We'll see.

I may have mentioned this, but we got our taxes done by Traci's cousin Teri on Sunday. I knew we would be getting less back this year since I had less withheld from my paycheck since we have been struggling. However, we are still getting a good return, about what I hoping/expecting. Also, Teri was going to e-file (and direct deposit) for us so we could get it quicker, but the stinkin' site would take Traci's information. She tried a few different ways to see if she could make it work, but it just didn't. So she suggested Traci call the Social Security Administration to see what they had for her name, ssn, and birthday. It turns out they had her birthday wrong! What's up with that. They had her birthday as Feb. 2 instead of Feb. 3. And apparently this dates back to when she changed her name when we got married nine and half years ago! Seriously? I don't get it, nor do I wish to spend the time trying to figure out how that happened. Regardless, we can now look forward to getting some money in a few weeks. (And after that comes my bonus and raise, both in April!)

Work has been crazy busy lately and it's not going to slow down anytime soon. I just accepted an offer to become the Procurement Analyst for procurement dept. So, next week it's off to San Ramon for the week to start turning over my current workload to the other analyst we work with. I fly up Monday morning and fly back Thursday afternoon (and then have Friday off). I think is as long a trip as I've had since working at Chevron. However, I must admit that I'm excited about my hotel because I know there is an In-N-Out very nearby! Double Double, here I come!

A Good Day

2009-02-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days you always look forward too having, but are never really sure when it's coming. Two cool things happened today, although we won't experience the effects for a little while.

First, Traci's cousin Teri prepared our taxes today. We went out to her house in Rancho Cucamonga yesterday to give her all the stuff she needed. Plus we hadn't seen her and Kevin's house before. We also visited for a little while. We don't see them very often so it was nice to visit. Well, she let us know what state and federal refund will be and they are about what I was expecting. I knew it would be less than last year because I increased my withholdings this year so we could have more money each paycheck. We still came out pretty good. It will help us catch our breath financially and should be here next month. (Well actually we won't know it's ours until we check our bank account...the joys of direct deposit.) Our state refund was actually a few hundred higher than last year, which surprised me, so that was good news too!

The other good news was that I got a formal job offer for the last position I applied for. It's a lateral move, but will allow for many additional opportunities in the future. So it feels like a promotion in that sense. The start date is March 1 (next week). However, I probably won't start the responsibilities associated with it until the following week because I will be in San Ramon transferring responsibilities to the rest of the team I'm on now, especially the other analyst for next week (Monday - Thursday). It's exciting as it is the first of what I hope will be many moves within Chevron's El Segundo refinery during my career.

A side note. It's kind of funny that we'll be picking up my parents at LAX next Sunday when they return from Colorado and then my dad is taking me to LAX the following morning for my trip. It's funny how when we go to LAX, the trips seem to come in clusters. Don't know why that is, but it's kind of funny.

It's good to have a good day coming off a busy and fun weekend where we celebrated Courtney's 5th birthday. I don't think I'll be posting any pictures here as I have already posted them on Facebook. Check them out there if you would like.

Sick Again

2009-02-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I was healthy for two weeks after being sick for two weeks. And now I'm sick again. Doesn't it figure. I'm home from work today. (We don't get it off at work unless you work a traditional 5/40 schedule.) I figured with everything coming up at the end of the week (Courtney's birthday, and therefore a Disneyland trip, on Friday and her birthday party on Saturday), I should probably rest up.

I also found another reason to rest up when I spoke with one of my (two) managers today. She wants me up there, San Ramon, for a week to begin transitioning my current duties and responsibilities to the other analyst on our team. Don't worry, I'm not getting laid off. They are assuming that I will be get this last job I applied for, which is a local procurement analyst. Since I already have a training scheduled for next week up there, odds are the trip would be next week. It would be nice to be healthy while traveling.

It didn't help being sick yesterday when I began a 5-week series on the Five Love Languages in our Sunday School class. It turned out well I think. We had 21 people there by my count, which about double what we have typically had on a Sunday. It was fun though.

As I mentioned, Courtney's birthday is this Friday and our first-born is turning 5 already! It's hard to believe she'll be kindergarten-age already. Another milestone to look forward to this Fall. After we pick her up from school on Friday, we'll head down to Disneyland to take full advantage of the $59 "Fun Card" she'll receive since she already has a pass. It will be nice to have her birthday off and it appears we'll actually have weather that will allow me to mow the yard, which I have been unable to do for 2-3 weeks now due to rain...what's up with that?! Then Saturday is the big Hannah Montana birthday party. (Just pretend the Nemo bouncer is really Hannah Montana dressed as Nemo.)

I also mentioned I applied for a local analyst position at work. This is after I was informed I didn't get the first position I interviewed for. I can't complain about not getting that one. The person who got it someone who I respect highly and know will do a great job. That position deals with creating and maintaining local contracts for the refinery. This position I'll hopefully be interviewing for this week, if half that and half analyst, which I do now (except currently I do global analysis for one category and would be doing local analysis for all categories...a lateral move that would allow for additional local opportunities down the road).

If I can figure out how to post a video from our camcorder, I may post a video of Courtney performing to "All for One" and "Fabulous" from High School Musical 2. It's pretty funny as she knows most of the words and a pretty good amount of the choreography from both songs. Quite impressive and entertaining if I do say do myself.

Oh, and from what I know, Susie has not gone into labor. She was due last Thursday and is scheduled for induction Wednesday. Very exciting times as we prepare to welcome Bella into the world. I've been pestering her almost daily about any updates, but gave her a day off yesterday. I'll have to resume today. Hey there's only a couple of days left!

I'm proud of Traci as she strives toward her weight loss goals. She is now down 19 pounds, and has been an inspiration to see going to the gym at least 5 times a week for the past several weeks.

Evolution of Dance

2009-02-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling you have probably seen this before. If not, then enjoy, it's pretty good. And now there's a sequel!

Passing Time

2009-02-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

I just haven't felt like blogging lately. I've been trying to maximize my enjoyment of the FiOS TV experience. However, life goes on, and upon a brief, and I mean brief, reflection of the recent times, it has been busy as normal.

Earlier this week we got an e-mail from our tax man's wife saying he had passed away unexpectedly. A little scary considering he was around 50. Then just a day or two later, Traci finds out one her sorority sisters from CSUF passed away, and she was 16 weeks pregnant. That's even scarier. They say bad things come in 3's. Upon thinking that, 2 people immediately came to mind. Well, here's to hoping that's not the case. Traci's dad did have a scare the other day at work when his leg gave out due to numbness. He'll be having an MRI soon to find out what's going on there. (On the tax person front, we're having Traci's cousin do our taxes this year since she's certified. Thanks, Teri!)

This past Tuesday was Traci's birthday so we took advantage of Disneyland's birthday offer this year. I took the day off from work and we spent a while there. Very nice...mid-week + off-season = lots of stuff in a little time! Traci and Courtney got stuck under the waterfall going up the first lift when the ride broke down (thanks to some moron standing up near the end of the ride). Nonetheless, we had fun. One complaint about the Disneyland offer, though. If you have an annual pass, you can get a "Birthday Fun Card" which is essentially a gift card, but it can't be used just anywhere. You can't use it on food. What's that about? Anyway, Traci bought a new jacket to replace to the one that got torn when a cast member squeezed past Traci in the restroom a couple of times back. Disneyland wouldn't replace it, although they sent us a $25 check for "goodwill." Having worked there, I completely understand their stance on that, but having heard Traci tell what happened, I know they didn't do anything to investigate probably.

I found out yesterday I didn't get the job I applied for at work. Oh well. At least the person who got it deserves it. If I had to lose out on the job to anyone, I'm glad it was her. However, I also found out there will be another job posting that they want me to apply for that is a cross between the position I lost out on and what I do now. I have higher hopes for this one so we'll see what happens once it's posted.

I've been feeling physically anxious today, for a few hours now. Not a feeling I like. Reminds me a little of the heart issues I had back near the end of high school through the beginning of college, just without the rapid, chest-beating heartbeat. Hopefully this feeling goes away soon. I'm attributing it to writing bills and getting ready for our Sunday School kickoff on Sunday. It's the culmination of our "marketing" effort that I've been heading up since December. We're looking at having as many as 60 people, which is a big jump from the 10 or so we typically have on a Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it, but it's been a lot of work.

Glancing around the house, it appears I am the only one awake right now, so I'm going to take advantage of this and do some more preparation on the series I'll be leading in our Sunday School class (The Five Love Languages) beginning the 15th.

My FiOS Experience So Far

2009-01-31T16:16:00.000-08:00

As you may know, we ordered FiOS as soon as it came into our area, which was the first of the year. Knowing that it's new and that many people may be jumping on board with it, I thought I would provide our experience with it so far.

To summarize, it's a pretty good product and bundle package. We have enjoyed having long distance on our phones again (when they've worked). (Sometimes, the cell phones, just aren't the most reliable.) The internet has been good. The TV has been great! That's definitely my favorite part of it so far. We were paying about $80/month for phone (without long distance) and DSL and no cable or satellite. Now we pay about $20/month more and have unlimited nationwide calling and something like 265 channels. Because of this, it may wind up saving us money once baseball season rolls around. Last season, I went to about half (6) as many Dodger games as I do most seasons (12-15). Now knowing that I can watch as many games as I want to at home (read: as many as the better half will allow me to watch), I won't feel the pressure to try to attend so many games, although watching it on tv and going to the games are completely different. But I digress. I have also enjoyed getting back into the WWE and now the option to order the pay per view events like back in jr high with my friends. However, considering they usually run around $50 for a 3-hour event, and the fact that money is horribly tight right now, I won't be ordering many, if any. But the product (FiOS that is) is a very good thing.

The service we have gotten from Verizon has been, well, let's say, embarrassing. And I don't mean embarrassing for us, I mean embarrassing for Verizon. We placed our order on Jan. 3 and booked our installment for Jan. 6. The tech guy shows up on time and gets to work. He was very personable and we liked him. He explained things very well and took the time to answer our questions and be a great service to us. However, when he hit a problem, we had problem #1. He installed the "brain" as he referred to it, outside our kitchen wall and the battery back up unit inside our back door. He then went to the hub to get the signal to be directed to our house, or however that works with fiber optics. When he got there, there were a few other Verizon tech guys who all had the same problem. Verizon had not routed FiOS to that hub! None of those tech guys (including ours) could finish installation. That sucked! Not his fault, but it still sucked.

After calling about 3 times over the following 3 days to see if they (Verizon) had fixed it, they wound up calling a few days later to setup a completion of the installation. They came out and finished the installation when they said they would. Problem #1 fixed, problem #2 created. When I get home, the phones are not working! I spend a half hour plus on the phone, only to have them not fix the problem. They suggested a couple of things, which I tried, but to no avail. After I hang up, I notice the phone line used for DSL running over to the computer still. It wasn't connected to the computer (FiOS was) but it was still connected to the phone jack with the split for the phone as well. I disconnect that and plug the phone back in, without the split and DSL filter (or whatever it's called). It works! Problem #2 fixed!

Problem #3 happened yesterday, and this is a little weird, with pretty much no logic as I see it. (You'll see.) The phones don't work again! What's going on here?! I spend another half hour on the (cell) phone with a guy telling me to disconnect the batter and reset our whole FiOS system. This would have left us without all services for a few minutes, which didn't sound like a good idea to me...too much risk if I screw something up. After me and the guy going back and forth trying to understand what the other was asking. Ultimately, I request a tech to come out and check it out. And now that the problem has been fixed, I'm glad I did, because the guy on the other end of the phone was nowhere near discovering the problem (and there was no charge...I would have been screaming at them if there was). The problem with the phones is classic...wait for it...they never connected the phone line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the?????????? The only way I can figure that happened was because our installation was split over two different weeks and two different techs. But then how were we able to use the phones for the week and a half we did have FiOS?!?!

I've given up trying to figure out what's going on. As of right now, all is good and if there are no more problems, all will be ok. So, in summary, good product, embarrassing service. And we haven't even gotten our first bill yet, which I have heard from multiple sources is an adventure in itself. Stay tuned as I may need to rant yet again.

PS - I'm still sick...completing week 2 of this cold!

Enough With the Germs!

2009-01-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

Here I am, day 7 of this crazy cold I have. I first noticed it hitting me, thanks to some mild aches last Sunday night. Now it's a lot of congestion and fatigue. I couldn't really take much time off from work last week because I had so much to do, not to mention an interview for a new position at work. I took a half day on Tuesday and Wednesday, had the interview Thursday. Fortunately, I had Friday off so that was nice although I still had plenty to do. I went to the dentist after dropping Courtney off at school. Then I went up to church to look over the mailing list we're doing to advertise our Sunday School class. Saturday morning I spent cleaning up after Skyler as she threw up at least 5 or 6 times within a couple of hours. Finally today I've had a day where I can relax and just rest. It's been nice so far. Actually, I should get back to that.

We Are Go for FiOS

2009-01-20T14:59:00.001-08:00

Well, we finally have fully functional FiOS. I have to say that so far I have been pleased with the products (phone, internet and tv). However the installation process has been less than good. First, Verizon sent the signal to the wrong hub for our house/area so when the first guy came for installation two weeks ago, he couldn't complete the installation. They fixed the problem last week and we had a different guy come out yesterday to finish the installation. From what Traci said, it seems like the guy knew how to hook it up, but didn't know much about the functionality or how to use it, or at least not as much as he seemingly should have. After he leaves and I get home, I can't use the phone because all our phones say "line in use" even though all three were not in use. I call tech support and they are of little to no help. He tells me to try a couple of things with the phones and that doesn't work, so he gives me another suggestion to try once we done with our call. Fortunately, he did give us the number to call to get access to our voice mail, which the install dude should have done. He tells me he can't help me with the finish of the internet installation (although we still had access), which the install dude told Traci to finish by following the prompts on the computer. The tech support guy I spoke to gave me a number to call today for help. After being on hold for a half hour, they inform me that this was not the right number to call for internet tech support. I call the right number and fortunately, that guy was really good and fixed what needed to be fixed. We also found out that the internet security suite we ordered has not been included. (I'll have to check the bill to make sure that they aren't going to bill us for it.) So, long story long the product is great so far, but the installation has been a hassle. (I have to admit that watching WWE Raw last night was pretty cool. With access to over 250 channels in our bedroom, I may never sleep again!) Kind of reminds me of a Weird Al song...

I'll Sue Ya

The Birthday Girl

2009-01-17T00:08:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post a few picture of my big little girl who just turned three this past Tuesday. Traci took these pictures of her on her birthday for her 3-year pictures. I'm too proud of a daddy not to share!

And now for a few pictures from her party last Saturday, which was a lot of fun. Can you tell she was excited for her party?

It was a My Little Pony theme.

She got some pretty cool gifts that she is enjoying every day (except for the kitty in her right hand in the second picture, which she has enjoyed daily and slept with nightly for who knows how long)!

Courtney was happy too because she got to spend some time with her best friend, Kate.

But eventually, the party had to end. She is saying goodbye to her friend from church, Madison.

And finally, I had to post this picture as it is one of my new favorites. All three of my girls inside the bouncer. It is now my desktop background at work.

I'm Still Here

2009-01-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

I know this has been the longest time I have gone without posting in a long time, but things have been crazy stressful and crazy busy. Just finally have a few minutes to blog again right now. Between the birthday madness that is this time of year, dealing with our financial issues and prepping our Sunday School for a big kick off (and associated marketing, advertising, whatever you want to call it, within the church, which kicks off this Sunday) on February 8, there has been little time to blog. I did manage to post a song on my other blog last week, though. Hopefully I'll have more time soon, especially to post some pictures from Sky's birthday party this past weekend. Stay tuned.

Oooooooh! Aaaaaaaaaah!!

2009-01-01T13:58:00.000-08:00

With a new year comes a new look to the blog. No new features or anything really (besides the blog description above), so don't get your panties in a bunch. Just thought I would change things up a little.

Speaking of changing things, I had my first really messy plumbing experience this morning. I called my father-in-law over to see if he could lend me a tool and maybe help fix the bathroom sink clog if he knew how. So he guided me through the process of dismantling the U-shaped trap area under the sink. (I heard on a tv show this is where most of the clogs occur so decided to try that instead of calling a plumber who would charge who knows how much.) This was after I had already taken out the drain plug to discover there was nothing there to clog the sink. Anyway, we get the U-pipe (as I'll refer to it, not being a plumber) off and after emptying it out and discovering the clog was not there either, it was suggested I stick my fingers in the pipe coming out of the wall to see if I could feel anything.

Bingo! I felt something just an inch or so in. After using a couple of small tools to try to get the clog out, we undid a wire hanger and shoved that into the pipe. When I tried to pull it out it got stuck. Needless to say, some force had to be used to remove it, and when I did, it went all over my shirt (and in a little too) and pants in an explosion-like manner. Talk about starting off the new year with a bang!

In hindsight, a picture would have done the incident more justice than this description, but at the same time, may have induced vomiting to some of you. Let's just say it was nasty looking (black, gray and grimy/slimy) and smelled like crazy. And even though I got my Home Depot fix for today, I will be calling a plumber to complete the repair. Things are hooked up, but leaking. My father-in-law didn't want to tighten things anymore for fear of doing damage, and I don't blame him one bit.

So after my second shower of the day, I am feeling cleaner, the bathroom is all cleaned up (from the "explosion") and all are napping except for me. Life is good.

2008: The Year in Review with Pictures (and Brief Explanations)

2008-12-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the year in review, I wanted to just post a note that if you are looking for the S2S (Songs 2 Share) feature, they will no longer be posted on this blog. I have created a blog just for those, and you can find the link to the left under the blog list, titled Songs 2 Share. And now, on to the year in review!

JANUARY

The highlight of January was celebrating Skyler's 2nd birthday. As you can tell it was a Tinker Bell theme, which is what she was really into at the time. It was great to have so many family and friends celebrate with us.

FEBRUARY

It was hard to pick just one picture for February as Traci and Courtney each celebrated their birthdays. Traci's was a milestone birthday of sorts as she hit 30 and began her fourth decade of life. (Don't worry, I'm a couple of years into my fourth decade.) I hosted a girly party for her and it seems like everyone had a lot of fun. As for Courtney, she turned 4 and enjoyed spending time with good friends Kate (left) and Charis (right). She calls Kate her best friend and it would seem that Charis is her best friend at school. This year will present Courtney with some adversity as Charis and her family are moving to Hungary in January to become missionaries. She already misses her.

MARCH

We were crazy enough to get tickets to the exhibition game between my Dodgers and the Red Sox. The crowd set an all-time record for attendance at a baseball game (115,000). While this in general was not a positive experience between the hour and a half wait at Dodger Stadium for the shuttle to the Coliseum (and back was longer), the horrible crowds once we got to the Coliseum, the nearly overflowing outhouses, and keeping the kids from getting trampled (literally) on the way to our seats. However, seeing 115,000 people doing the wave was freakin' awesome!

APRIL

April means it's time to celebrate my birthday. We just went to dinner and don't have any pictures from that night because, well, we lost our camera that night. So if you see any pictures floating around the internet, they've been doctored! Just kidding. One tradition we have is for me to take a picture with my nephew Steven. He and I have the same birthday. This may have been the last time we will get to do this picture as they are moving to Colorado as I type this. We will probably try to get out there once a year, but more than likely it will be during the summer.

MAY

The end of May was great as we took a trip to Colorado to visit my sister Susie and brother-in-law Adam, pictured here with Courtney at the Denver Zoo. We had a great time spending the week with them and visiting other family in Colorado. If I went into more detail about the trip, I would need to hire a publisher. (If you want more details, check out my past blogs about it.) The next time we go out to see them, hopefully mid-2009, we will get to meet our niece! Susie is due in mid-February! (As if we needed anymore birthdays that month...hers is then too.) Yay!

JUNE

June brought the end to Courtney's first year in preschool. She is pictured here with Charis. She had a great year and we were amazed at everything she learned and were glad that she enjoyed it so much, but being the social butterfly that she is, that didn't surprise us much. Oh, and Traci and I had our 9th anniversary, but that will be covered in August.

JULY

While Traci went to PartyLite's national convention in St. Louis and I enjoyed spending time alone with the girls (despite two trips to Urgent Care for Skyler in a 3-day period), the highlight was camping with Traci's parents and family at Lake Lopez. They have a water park there in the campgrounds, which is where this picture was taken. Courtney loves stuff like this and it was all the more enjoyable with family. She loved going down the water slides with her cousins. In this picture, she is going down with Kayde who lives up in Northern California and came down with her family for the camping trip. Courtney loves hanging out with Kayde.

AUGUST

August falls into the too-good-for-just-one-picture category. Two amazing trips can summarize my August this year. Traci and I celebrated our 9th anniversary a couple of months late by going on a cruise. Words cannot express how much I enjoyed this trip, which took me to Catalina and Mexico for the first time. (It was also my first cruise.) It was a much needed break, which was enhanced by the lack of our wee ones who had a great week with the grandparents (both sets).

And as if the cruise wasn't enough, I spent a long weekend, with a couple of really good friends from high school, in Boston. From the Freedom Trail to Harvard to bar hopping (my first time) and consuming more than I ever had before to taking in a Sox game at Fenway. There is a reason it took me several blogs to explain how enjoyable this was. And all at the suggestion (of a guys trip) by Traci since she had taken two trips without me already. What a wife! She really is the best.

SEPTEMBER

Less than a week after returning from Boston, it was off to Temecula for Traci's cousin Teri's wedding. Courtney and Skyler have grown to love weddings for the chance to dance with coordination that didn't come from me! Courtney loved dancing with Teri a few times. The picture above is one of those times. You can tell her excitement from the expression on her face.

OCTOBER

Susie and Adam swung into town for a week in early October, and although we only had the opportunity to spend a few days with them, it was great seeing them and hanging out. We miss having them around. We had a baby shower for her and that made the time with them so fun. My sister makes me proud to be her brother and I loved seeing her pregnant, knowing that I'll have a new niece in just a matter of weeks now. I love this picture of her and Traci.

NOVEMBER

The highlight of November, besides Thanksgiving, was getting to take in a concert at our church. This is a picture of us with Robbie Seay from the Robbie Seay Band. I almost never go to concerts, but the music is so much better live. I am a big fan of this band now and am glad we had the opportunity to see them and actually talk with Robbie Seay for a couple of minutes after the show. I also gained a greater appreciation of musicians from this concert. (You can check out my blog about the concert for more details.)

DECEMBER

And now we have come to December and the end of the year. Christmas is by far the highlight of the month. This is just a great picture of our family, taken the day after Christmas at my in-laws' house. I love seeing the kids having a good time with their cousins and opening gifts that they really enjoy. It is amazing to see them gain a greater appreciation of Christmas every year. It was also great to hear Courtney say "It's not about presents. It's about Jesus." repeatedly this year. I guess we're doing something right.
And now we move on to a new year full of amazing opportunities, beginnings and blessings. I know it will be an interesting year as I am trying for a new position at Chevron. Skyler will begin preschool in the Fall and Courtney will start Kindergarten at the same time. We'll have a new niece. (Have I mentioned that yet?) We're also working on growing the Sunday School class that I lead at church. We'll also have to deal with challenges such as family (Traci's brother and his family) and friends (Courtney's friend Charis and her family) moving away. You never know what life will throw at you. At least we know that God is with us and that with him, all things are possible. May you have a blessed New Year.

Following In Daddy's Footsteps & A Christmas Poem

2008-12-23T23:57:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, we went to Disneyland after church for our Advent activity. We went on a few rides, but the highlight was when a cast member, Bekah, at the Village Haus restaurant in Fantasyland let Skyler help her ring up our order. I decided to post the picture here because it came out really good and Skyler did really well following Bekah's directions. It makes me wonder if Skyler will follow in my footsteps and work at Disneyland someday (although I was in attractions, but that's no big deal).

And now I would like to attempt a Christmas poem:

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before the night before Christmas
And all through the house
Germs were abundant;
At least there's no mouse.

Courtney is hacking
And Skyler is too.
Traci is better and
My eyes are all goo.

The shopping is done
And most gifts are wrapped.
With all of this illness
We're feeling quite zapped.

Tomorrow we'll kick off
The festivities
With energy high
From activities.

Kids will be plenty
And food overflowing.
Santa is coming,
The kids will be knowing.

Gifts will be opened
With smiles everywhere.
"Where is my gift?"
"Why, it's over there!"

After the fun,
There will be a big mess,
But the girls will be happy
In their fancy dress.

Toys will be scattered
And jokes will be said,
All while I'm sitting
With bows on my head.

Four generations
Will be at the party.
Hugs will be real,
And the love will be hearty.

At the end of the night
We'll all be so tired,
But with all of the sugar
The kids will be wired.

We'll go our own ways
And head to our homes
With visions of sugarplums,
But I'll dream of gnomes.

Christmas is here
And I'm quite excited
To see all the trees
So brilliantly lighted.

Tomorrow's forecast
Calls for precipitation
And kids will be anxious
Across the whole nation.

Santa had better be
Very prepared,
For in inclement weather
The reindeer get scared.

As for me, I know
That Santa will come,
But if his reindeer back out
He'll use his thumb.

As we prepare
For these joyous days
There's so much to say
In so many ways.

But I'll keep it simple;
I'm not good with words.
If I try to be eloquent
I may get the birds.

With that being said,
I'll leave you with this:
Just one simple thought
Like a hug and a kiss.

May you enjoy this Christmas
And think of the reason
That we celebrate
This holiest of season.

(c) Scott Steinman, 2008

We Did it! Lo Hicimos!

2008-12-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

Well, somehow we managed to get through our Christmas cards and letters tonight. They are all at the post office waiting to go out tomorrow. This all despite dealing with Courtney being sick, Traci being sick and me having Pink Eye. I won't even mention how much ink we burned through on the printer tonight or the money we spent on postage and supplies in general.

On the bright side, we are done with Christmas shopping. (Traci will argue otherwise saying she needs to get me more stuff, but I'm having a hard time convincing her not to.) Traci has been doing an awesome job of wrapping. I think we may be all ready for Christmas before Christmas, even if only for a few hours. I personally will be finding my happy place around 4:00 tomorrow I leave work, knowing that I will be off the rest of this week, returning only Monday next week and then not returning until January 5. All using only 2 days of vacation!

And on that note, I will sign off and try to get ready for bed. Merry Christmas!

S2S - "Mary Did You Know?"

2008-12-17T22:13:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest S2S and you've probably heard the song before, but it has a great message and story. I hope you enjoy listening to it. If you haven't heard it before, take it in, it's good.

Disney Knows What's Up!

2008-12-15T21:11:00.000-08:00

How's this for cool?

Blogging 101

2008-12-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Clever title for being my 101st blog, huh? Well, I really just wanted to say I could blog right now, but really, I'm more interested in playing Wii. It should be able to take my mind off the way-more-mentally-exahusting-than-it-should-have-been day. (It was just "one of those" parenting days, which is a bummer after having had the girls spend last night at my parents' house while Traci and I were at my work Christmas party.) Girls are down, Traci is next door doing a party so I'm off to conquer the (Wii) world!!!!!

I Survived Last Weekend!

2008-12-11T22:27:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post the fact that I made it through last weekend unscathed, for the most part. So I thought I would post a brief summary of how things went along with a picture from each day/night.

FRIDAY:

Courtney had her preschool Christmas musical and it went as well as it could. It was hard to see her because she was in the third row of students that were on the stage and not on risers. It was fun to see her singing and doing all the motions this year as it was sporadic at best last year. It was fun to have all our parents as well as the (Great) Grandparents McCarthy, Aunt Maureen, the Hoopers (who had Josh and Madi performing as well) and the Shoemakers in attendance. Below is a picture of the four of us after the performance.

SATURDAY:

This day started off with Courtney's rehearsal for the Christmas program at church. It lasted an hour and went well as they went though their program three times, twice in the sanctuary (ok, worship center). Then the first performance was at 5:00. We only stayed for that part of the service since we would be back the following day at 9:30 to see the whole service, which included the elementary program. The picture below is of Courtney outside the worship center in her beautiful dress that she enjoyed wearing and is looking forward to wearing again on Christmas Eve.

SUNDAY:

This day was chaotic at best. As mentioned above, Courtney had two more performances at church in the morning. Traci left after the 9:30 service to go and get ready for the Candlelight Procession at Disneyland. After church, I brought the girls home, had lunch, changed, Courtney's clothes and then took off for Disneyland. As suspected, Disneyland was busy, but mainly for the two performances. Traffic was at a standstill once we got on the off-ramp. However, we got in the park about 3:30, two hours before the first performance started. We found our place to watch the show from and established our territory. Fortunately, I brought the girls' Leapsters to play with while we waited as well as some snacks. Unfortunately, Skyler needed to make two bathroom trips after we had our spot. Fortunately, there was a very nice lady in front of us who watched our spot both times. By the time we got back from the second trip, it was about 10 people deep from front to back in the viewing (standing) area. Try that with two little ones in tow! All the seating area was reserved for those who bought dinner packages. Ont thing that really sucked was that they made us stand the whole time from about 4:00 on. Although it was a challenge to get through the performance, right before which Skyler decided to have a meltdown. (At least she calmed down once the show started!) Afterwards, we grabbed dinner in Fantasyland and then proceeded to get on two rides before heading out of the park while the second performance was going on. The picture below is of the second performance as we were passing it while we were leaving.

S2S - Newsong "Christmas Shoes"

2008-12-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling that a number of you have heard this song. I consider it the "I Can Only Imagine" of Christmas songs. There are no lyrics included here because I think they are pretty clear in the song and many of you may have already heard the song. I hope you enjoy it.

Tha's Wassup!

2008-12-07T00:52:00.000-08:00

We've almost made it through the crazy weekend. We got kind of lucky on Friday night when our church's preschool/kindergarten choir rehearsal was cancelled (due to how well rehearsal on Tuesday went) so we only had to go to her preschool's Christmas musical. It was very cute and I was proud of how well Courtney did. It's amazing to see the difference from last year.

Then tonight she had her first performance at church and it was great! Only about 15 minutes long or so, but she did great in that as well. Now she has two more performances at the 9:30 and 11:10 services at church tomorrow and then she's done for this year.

However, it will quickly get crazy after that. After church we 9me and the girls...Traci will be on her way to Disneyland) are going to come home, change, eat lunch and then head off to Disneyland to hopefully see the Candlelight Procession, which Traci is singing in this year. I know the crowds, at least in the area of the performance will be crazy. They always have a celebrity reading the story of the birth of Baby Jesus between the songs (which is pretty sweet considering it is Disneyland) and this year it is John Stamos. She has to be there at about 12:15 tomorrow for performances at 5:30 and 8:00. She probably won't get home until almost 10:00 since each performance is about 45 minutes or so. I'm excited to see her sing tomorrow (as well as walking the parade route as a choir to get there), but she is nervous about it. I know she will do fine and have a good time doing it. I'm a little nervous myself about keeping an eye on the girls while the performance is going on. We'll do some rides after (without Traci) to make it a full day since we'll be trying to catch the 5:30 performance. If you have the chance to get down there, I would say go for it. I remember hearing about it when I worked at Disneyland, but have never seen it. I'm looking forward to it from that point of view.

Toss into this leading a discussion with the Sunday School class I lead about our class' direction and changes we want to make and that adds a little to my stress level for tomorrow. Fortunately, though, it appears most of the class is on the same wavelength based on the responses I've received for the survey I sent out the members earlier this week. That's encouraging.

And finally, the reason for the title of this posting. I was finally able to beat Lou on Guitar Hero to officially be done with the easy level. It took battling him three straight time today to do it, but I rocked him! It's kind of odd, but that's one thing I've been trying to do for a while. Maybe it's a sad sign that I actually felt some relief after beating him. Whatever, I'm past him now.

I'll try post some pictures from this weekend sometime this week. Speaking of pictures, we're a little behind on Christmas cards this year. We've had pictures taken and should have access to them soon to get the cards done, but for now, you'll have to settle for a few snapshots from our photographer's blog. (There is a picture of Courtney, my favorite picture ever of Skyler and a great picture of the fam!) Plus, we haven't even started our Christmas letter yet. At least things will calm down after this weekend, not to mention, we'll be without the kids overnight next Friday night thanks to my work party going until midnight and my parents being willing to keep them. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

S2S - Mercy Me "Joseph's Lullaby"

2008-12-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

I thought about combining a general posting with this but decided against it. Anyway, here is the latest song I've chosen to post. This is a song I only hear around Christmas and it's a great song by Mercy Me called "Joseph's Lullaby." I hope you enjoy it.

Here We Go

2008-12-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

Gotta love Christmas time. Usually this time of year gets pretty crazy and we're off and running already. Here's a rundown of this week: how it has gone and how it's going to go.

Last night - Courtney had a rehearsal for our church's children's Christmas musical at 5:00. However, she had to miss it because she had an audition for a Six Flags commercial in West L.A at 4:30. It was great getting there, only took 45 minutes, but coming home in rush hour took an hour and a half.

Tonight - as I type this, Traci is at church setting up for the final MOPS meeting of the year. Also, it was 14 years ago that we started dating (this time around...long story...too long for this blog). So it's kind of a sappy day. Brings back lots of good memories like asking her to be my girlfriend as we walked to her parents car to go to her grandpa's birthday party (which is also today). We did our annual ornament exchange tonight to celebrate.

Tomorrow night - Traci has one last choir rehearsal before performing in Disneyland's Candlelight Procession on Sunday.

Friday - Courtney has a church choir rehearsal at 5:00. As soon as that ends we whisk her away to Uptown for her preschool's Christmas performance which she is singing in. Performance starts at 7:00, but she needs to be there by 6:30 and we have to get dinner on the way there. Also, this is a Friday I work so I won't be home until about 4:15 or so.

Saturday - Courtney has a church choir dress rehearsal at 9:00, then the first (of three) performance at 5:00.

Sunday (take a deep breath!) - Courtney is in the Christmas musical at the 9:30 and 11:10 services. Traci needs to leave to be at Disneyland by 12:15 to be ready for the Candlelight Procession which is at 5:30 and 8:00. So after church lets out, the girls and I will have lunch and then probably head to Disneyland to try to somehow get a seat for the first performance. This is a very popular performance that some people travel from all over the country just to see so there will probably an insane amount of people there, especially along the parade route and where the performance is near the Main Street train station. By the time Traci gets home, hopefully the girls will be in bed and I will be nearly passed out myself.

Just another Christmas week at the Steinman house.

S2S - Lifehouse "Everything"

2008-11-30T19:34:00.001-08:00

This time you have two videos to watch. The first one below is the song with lyrics, so you can hear the song and get its message. The second one is a powerful skit that was performed to the song. I'm not sure when or where it was performed, but it is amazing. I first saw it a while back and then just came across it again this past week. If you only have time to watch one of the videos, I highly recommend you watch the skit...it is much more powerful.

I know I said I was going to start doing Christmas songs after Thanksgiving, but I wanted to share this since I came across it and didn't want to pass the opportunity up. I hope it hits you as hard as the first time I saw it.

Black Friday...Success!

2008-11-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

I lived through another Black Friday. Last year, Traci did pretty much all of the BF shopping and this year it was me. Last night we sat down and planned out what we were going to get most of the people on our list and actually placed orders online at three different places, only paying shipping at one of them. (One of the things we ordered last night is my first iPod. This will make the train ride and walk to work much more enjoyable!)

I knew exactly where I would be going this morning and had a list of items to get at each place. I was able to purchase all the items on the list we made at each of the places. Here is how the timeline went.

3:45am - Arrive at JC Penney at Whittwood Town Center
4:00am - JC Penney doors open...I'm about the 15th person in line...let the madness begin.
4:15am - declare success #1 while leaving JC Penney and heading to Toys R Us in La Mirada.
4:30am - Arrive at Toys R Us and get in line which is around the side to the back.
5:00am - Toys R Us doors open
5:30am - get in line for cashier
6:00am - Declare success #2, despite now being behind schedule, and depart for Target back at Whittwood Town Center.
6:10am - Arrive at Target, which has now been open for 10 minutes.
7:00am - Declare hat trick success (#3) and leave Target to head for Big Lots to see if they by any chance have any more of the $5 TMX Cookies/Ernies left.
7:30am - Return home to silence as all are still asleep. I join them after being awake for 24 hours and get a three hour nap...a three hour nap. (It's funny if you say it like the Gilligan's Island theme song.)

So just one day into the shopping season and we have already completed shopping for a number of people on our list and spent half our Christmas budget. Seems like we're in good shape so far. This is the best we have done this early in shopping and I think it's because we sat down came up with a game plan. Something I'm sure we'll keep in mind for the future.

Black Friday...The Game Plan

2008-11-28T01:27:00.001-08:00

Here I am at 1:30 in the morning on Black Friday. I could have gotten ready for bed around midnight, but I figured with the game plan set for the best shopping day of the year and with our budget for Christmas tighter than it ever has been, we should take advantage of of what deals we can get to. So Traci just crawled into bed about half an hour ago and I decided, at this point, what is the point?! So I've played Wii, checked Facebook and My Space. Now I'm blogging and will then partake in a 15-round game of Mario Party before showering and heading out to JC Penney which opens at 4:00. After that I'll be off to Toys R Us which opens at 5:00 and then complete the morning madness by running over to Target which opens at 6:00. At that point I should be thoroughly exhausted, although I think I may already be there.

Will I be able to rest once I get home? Not likely. We are hosting a game night for our Sunday School class tonight at 5:00 (15 1/2 hours from now). This means there is cleaning to do. I also need to get out the Christmas decorations and do yard work, but I think I'll save that for Saturday since I should be in better shape then.

Ok off to Mario Party I go! Wish me luck (and sanity)!

S2S - Brandon Heath "Give Me Your Eyes"

2008-11-26T21:45:00.000-08:00

If you were in church a few weeks ago, you heard Bryan sing this song. It is a great song and, like the other I have posted before, has a great message about trying to see things through God's eyes, which is pretty much impossible for us humans. I hope you enjoy the song. By the way, this is the actual video for the song. Lyrics are below.

Lyrics | Brandon Heath lyrics - Give Me Your Eyes lyrics

S2S - Mercy Me "You Reign"

2008-11-23T14:34:00.000-08:00

Here is the next installment on S2S. This is from Mercy Me, which has had many great songs. You've probably heard their biggest one "I Can Only Imagine." This one is called "You Reign" (this appears to be the official video...lyrics are scrolling separately below) and feels to be a song for me personally right now as I have been struggling with myself much more than normal lately. It's a good reminder that he is in control and that even though, often times things seem to be not what we want, He is still good to us.

Lyrics | Mercyme lyrics - You Reign lyrics

S2S in honor of Andrew - Mark Schultz "He's My Son"

2008-11-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

There has been some sad news for many in our church this week. An 18-year old young man named Andrew passed away this past Monday night from cancer. He was diagnosed about 10 months ago from what I've read in a friend's blog. While I was not lucky enough to have known him personally, I can see what a great person he was through my friends at church who did know him. I thought this song would be appropriate to post in his honor despite the fact that I did not know him. Just in case you haven't heard this song, you may want to grab some tissues.

S2S - Third Day "Revelation"

2008-11-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Here is another great song from Third Day called "Revelation." The lyrics are below the song in case you want to know what they are I hope you enjoy.

- Third Day Lyrics