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

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"

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

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

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

This song really hits home right now. Enough said.

Hmmm...

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

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

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

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

Fun Weekend Ahead

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.