Golf Outing with G-Pa

I got these photos in reverse order. This is a picture of the girls watching two young Asian sisters practice on the range after we finished. They were all decked out - the bag, the clubs and the outfits.

G-PA offering instruction

Kristine taking a swing and Nichole running after her Mulligan.

Look at the form

Christmas Prep

Shondelle and Jason remodeled their house and lost their vaulted ceilings. They asked us if we wanted their 12 foot Christmas tree (feels like a 20 foot tree). Penni immediately jumped on it. This is Carl and I putting it up. Jason later told me how grateful he was to get rid of that tree.

Our Supervisor

I have to admit that it did look nice after it was up.

Phone Penni

We joke about it in our family – but I know to a certain extent it goes on in all families – we call it “Phone Penni”. Let me set the stage – the kids are not listening, they are fighting with one another, one decides to talk back, another one decides to pick a fight with another sibling, you find one sitting in front of the TV not doing their homework and so on. As a parent you get upset – you may even raise your voice to get your children in gear. But wait – then the phone rings – you answer it - and with a pleasant voice say “Hello – oh no you didn’t catch me at a bad time ……” we call this “Phone Penni”. So when Penni is not in a good mood or the kids have gotten to her and it is my time to be with her – I lean over and say I want “Phone Penni”.

We went out with some friends this past weekend and were enjoying some good conversation. I mentioned that Penni had given me some limits as to what I could talk about – they immediately wanted to know what those limits were. Mind you Penni needs to do this – should do this - because I normally get myself into trouble. So I am trying to be good – we are at a Pub so I work in the stories about Penni and alcohol. Always a great story – then the Phone Penni reference works into the conversation. I explain the term Phone Penni to the other couple and the wife immediately says oh we call that “Church Chris”.

All I want for Thanksgiving is ..... Turducken!!!!

Isn't that a thing of beauty. A Turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The thoracic cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.

For an inside shot -

Do you think Penni will go for it?????????

Time Out for Mothers and Daugthers

Penni called me up a couple of weeks ago and said that she had heard of this thing called Time Out for Mothers and Daughters and she wanted to take Nichole and Kristine. I told her that it was a great idea. Well they went on Saturday and had a great time. It was a win for me too - Zoe and I hung out all day - I asked her what she wanted to do - Do you want to go play basketball, baseball or football and she said "yes" so we played all three. Then she said that she wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Funny girl.

Here are some of the girls thoughts from Saturday:

Nichole - I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my mom and Kristine. I really enjoyed all the singers, (Jenny Frogley and Hillary Weeks, they were my favorite, and then my most favorite was Laurel Christensen -she is a talker NOT a singer) and I really liked listening to their music and their stories.

Kristine - I really enjoyed going to Time out for Woman and Girls. I loved it. When this singer started singing she said " All Beehives stand up and DANCE!!!!",then she said " All Mothers stand up and dance!!!!. My mom got up and started doing all these moves and I just slouched in my chair and pretended she wasn't my mom. But the rest of the time I loved every minute of it with my mom. I love that woman!

I was reading someone else's blog that went to a meeting the night before called Time Out for Couples - this was taken from "her" notes

Richard and Kathleen Walker spoke on 3 main points:

1. Men and Women were purposely created differently. We see and hear things differently. UTILIZE OUR DIFFERENCES AND APPLY THEM TO MAKE ONE WHOLE UNIT!

2. MAKE YOUR SPOUSES HAPPINESS HAPPIER THAN YOUR OWN. Is this really possible? It's the natural man to take care of yourself first. Kathleen said she asked her mom (Marjery Hinckley) one time how to maintain such happiness in a marriage. Her response was: LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

3. Do we REALLY understand and apply to RECEIVE one another? Receive each other as best friends. Receive each other unconditionally, just as we are. Receive each other as #1.

I told Penni about number 2 and lowering her expectations - and she said "No way - I am not going to" - that is why I love her.

Reflection on the election - a la JJ

Thankful:

For a daughter that became very passionate about the elections and really passionate about who she thought should be the next President. She formed her owe opinion and when I pressed her on why she believed the way that she did – she actually had answers to my questions and was well thought-out for a sixth grader.

Prop 102 in Arizona and Prop 8 in California passed. It was not a political issue – it was a moral issue.

That I live in the country that gives me and my family the opportunity to have a voice.

For feeling patriotic as I stood in line to cast my vote at 6am with a few hundred other patriotic citizens.

That the Republican Party secured at least 40 seats in the Senate so that the Democrats can’t have complete control.

That our first black President doesn’t rhyme in his speeches. I came up with this one after hearing Jesse Jackson say that Obama was chosen for his direction, not his complexion.

Disappointed:

Friend and neighbors that had their property damaged because they put signs in their lawn showing their support for Prop 102 – defining marriage as between one man and one women. One couple had a car placed in front of their house for 72 hours with the words Begot written on it with an arrow to their house. The police couldn't have the car moved until it had been abandon for 72 hours. Laws even protect the stupid.

Seeing the sore losers that supported a “no” vote to prop 8 in California demonstrate at the LA Temple – the poor temple workers having to deal with all that hatred.


Final thought:

As a sat on the couch next to Penni on election night, watching our new President-Elect give his victory speech I was surprised that I started to feel a burning in my heart, yes it surprised me too. Especially, since I have found it hard to find anything in his politics that I agree with. It may have been that I began to notice the faces of the black people as the camera panned the crowd in Chicago. I was happy for them, I could see the pride on their face - because race is still a big issue in this country. The fact that America has elected a black president is a big hurdle in this country. I heard on a radio program that black people had something great to be proud of as a people, that they finally had a seat at the table of national power. They mentioned that they haven’t seen this much pride and unity in black people since celebrating the acquittal of OJ Simpson. I thought that was a interesting parallel.

My hope is that President Obama can do some good for this country. I am willing to hold judgment and give him a chance to make a different. My hope is that he will be able to keep the liberal democrats at bay.

Another - story of my life

One of the things that was on my list to do this weekend was to replace the key pad on the outside of our garage for the garage door opener because the other one was hard to use. So I replaced it and it is a little different than the old one so I was going to have to show everyone how to use it. As I am driving to work I remember that I didn't train everyone on how to use the new key pad. Then I remember that Penni is home so they can get in through the front door, no one is going to need the key pad. I thought that it would be a great FHE lesson - how to get in the house.

So I am at work it's 9:00am - I am meeting with someone and my phone rings. My phone has a "special" ring for the number that I gave Penni to call me on - so I know when it's her calling. Back to the story - I am in a meeting, the phone rings, I know it is Penni but I need to finish the meeting. Fifteen seconds later the phone is ringing again - this time the people I have in my office say - do you need to get that? No, it is my wife she just probably wants to tell me that she misses me. I am not sure that they got the sarcastic tone of my voice. But this time she did leave me a message - Todd, I need you to call me back as soon as you get this. So I called her back a couple of minutes later when my meeting was over. Now for the story of my life - Penni got locked out of the garage and needed to know the new code to the key pad. I bet Penni has used that key pad five times in the three and a half years that we have lived in that house and today was one of those days. Of course. You may ask how she got locked out of the garage because she's a smart cookie. Seems that our washing machine was spinning so hard (and according to Penni it is out of balance because I have never balanced it) that the bottom drawer of the washer opened enough so that it makes it that you can't open the back door that leads you into the garage. Honestly I don't make this stuff up - it's my life. One of the girls in the office asks me - dead battery - nope - out of gas - nope - water heater - nope - a/c - nope - Roscoe - nope - then I said - she got locked out of the garage - you're fault - yep. Then she says - you think that you would learn by now - nope!!

How the Girls spend their Sabbith Day.

They send emails to their Grandparents like this one -




Grandma,
Kristine and I thought this was quite funny!!! Can so you see a face of a soldier but what else do you see??

Did you see the man bending over on the top??Have a good day!! -Nichole and Kristine

I am surprised that they were able to type because they were laughing so hard.