The Jane Goodall Experience

Faith recently got to meet Jane Goodall at a conference in Washington DC. The story, however, only gets more unbelievable from there.

Not only did she get to meet her and get a photo signed for Ava, but a few days later we received a signed copy of her recent book in the mail. Then, a few days after that, we got a phone call from Jane herself asking if Faith had received the package that was sent to her.

It was pretty unbelievable. The Standard did a story on the whole experience that goes into more detail. You can read that story by clicking here.

Some may not know who Jane Goodall is. If you want to know more about her and/or her organization, take a look at her Wikipedia entry, or her website.

Funny Video

Somebody sent this video to me recently. C'mon, this is just funny!- regardless of your opinion of women's basketball. These guys get points for creativity.

The Infection and The Road Won This One

Want to see some pictures of our daughter at her absolute worst???

Are you sure???

Ava was teething last week. Let's just say that she was not a happy camper. Well, after the teething seemed to subside close to last weekend, she kept on with the unhappiness (that's the nicest term I can come up with to describe the situation). We went on through the weekend not knowing if she was somehow still cutting a tooth, or if something more was wrong. Finally on Monday we took her to the doctor for her to tell us that Ava officially had her fourth (yup fourth) ear infection (and throat with this one too) of the year.

We were frustrated and relieved in the same breath. We were frustrated that she could have another infection and another round of antibiotics. We don't like her having so many antibiotics at such a young age, and they usually result in a good diaper rash- so they are not our favorite medicines in the world. But then again, we were happy that we finally knew what was wrong with her. I honestly believe that is the most frustrating thing about having a young child. You can see that they are not happy about something or don't feel good, but they can't just tell you. I spend a lot of time looking at her and just wishing she could just say what was going on.

But then again, they do figure out little ways to communicate. Whenever Ava gets mad at something, she'll begin to flail her arms around in front of her in a kind of, "Get outta my face!" routine. It's funny most of the time.

Anyway, take a look at the photos below at your own risk.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that on top of the teething and the infection, Ava lost her battle with the pavement on Sunday also. She gave it a valiant effort, but she came out the loser. The doctor told us that such things would happen with a daughter that figured she could walk so early on.

Enjoy (Thanks to grandma for taking this photos and recording our horror during a visit to her house):




Not even such a foul mood can interrupt a good episode of the Telletubbies.

Monday Morning Musings

Here are a few things for Monday morning.

1- Teething children aren't fun (explanation to come later).

2- Here is a photo taken of me on Friday at work.

It is a fun photo. My boss (who really was going above and beyond his duty to jackhammer out some concrete) was using the jackhammer as I was walking by. I asked him if he needed a break, since neither of us generally use the jackhammer unless things need to get done (which it did in this case). Well, somebody got the camera out and decided to take a picture of it. This job is the first job in about two-and-a-half years that has allowed me to be on site a lot and as a result get to do cool stuff like use the jackhammer and drive big machinery like this one (the John Deere Loader... that's the big yellow one if anybody is wondering) that I drove last week (photo from tricitymaterials.ca):

3- I used this video for a priesthood lesson yesterday. It shows the church growth by stake and year since 1847 (I believe). It is a pretty nifty video that the church has made available on their website for download. With it comes my tech tip of the day. You can download any of the church videos from their website (found here) and put them on your iPod. Then you can buy a little device like the one shown here (photo and item from Radio Shack) and watch the video on TV! It works great for church lessons (you can put PowerPoints on iPods too and get them on a projector or TV too) or any presentations. Also, any show you buy on iTunes is high enough resolution to be shown on your TV, so with this cable hook up you can watch anything off of iTunes on your TV as well as your iPod.

Anyway, here is the video I was originally talking about. Enjoy:

Thanks Everybody!

Not just thanks for my ring (which many of you contributed to for a graduation present), but thanks to the many, many of you who have helped us get through college in one piece. To say that college was difficult for me would probably be a severe understatement. Not that I didn't enjoy learning, etc., but the whole work full-time, go to school full-time, be a husband and father full-time thing was a lot to bear. As I look back, it becomes especially remarkable when I think of going through such events as pregnancy, loss of a child, aftermath from loss of a child, adoption of a child, and fathering an infant. I look back and really don't know how I did it (of course I do, we all do) When school finished in late April, I thought it was no big deal. I figured that I was just fine. I didn't realize, however, how mentally, physically, and spiritually drained I had become over the past few years. The end of college was the cue for my body to relax for a bit; and it took full advantage of it. I pretty much just shut down (with the exception of those things that couldn't be missed) for a while. It was not until a week or so ago that I actually felt like doing anything again.

As for my degree, I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Construction Management Technology. I have to say that I am a bit defensive of my chosen field of study because of the more than a few times over my college life when I would tell someone what I was studying and they would say, "There's a degree in that!?" Yup! And it's a good one. We graduate with one of the higher starting salaries out of college and have nearly perfect placement of students. Of course that's due to most of us working in the industry full-time while we go to school, but for those who don't the placement is still remarkably high.

Also, the degree is a good one because of the fact that a specialized college degree was never the norm in the industry until just recently. The construction industry is one of the last industries to have a major computer technology integration and therefore people with specialized university training are needed. I like to say that the days of sketching up drawings and building as you go are done.

The industry is trying to get away from the above perception

I have been trained to use, and get to use several highly advanced software programs to make sure that highly advanced buildings worth millions of dollars get built correctly. College grads. come out with the skills to run a business and be a good businessman or businesswoman, run the accounting operation for a business, read and understand highly technical building plans, estimate costs for buildings, and knowledge of how to manage these projects. As I said and as I am sure you can tell, I am very proud of my degree. But as I said before, there was no way Faith and I could have made it through without the help of too many people to fully mention (family and specifically mother's especially). You are all angels to us and we are very grateful for your help in getting us to this point.

On a final note, if any of you want to visit me, I am working downtown and would be happy to receive a visit from anybody. Here's our project:

It's not much to look at right now, but it's getting busy. Here's what it will kind of look like when we get done:

Videos of The Week

Okay, so now that I have started to think about the internet videos that I want to publish here I want to post every funny moment I see. Bot alas, I have to limit myself. Here are some funny videos that I thought I should post this week:

This one is from SNL. It is a parody of the show "Rock of Love" on VH1. It is pretty hard to avoid any exposure to this show, if for nothing else than to see how true this clip really is. My favorite is how well the guy plays the star of the show.



Number two is a Geico commercial I saw this week that had me in stitches. I really don't even like NASCAR, but this little guy is hilarious:



Lastly, my blast from the past this week is Duck Tales. C'mon Duck Tales??!?! Yup, I didn't miss an episode of this show. I loved this show! I always wanted to know how Scrooge McDuck could swim in the money. It just seemed like the physics of it would be difficult, even at such a young age (okay, I probably wasn't thinking about the "physics" of it, but you know what I mean).

I Love Internet Videos

You know why I love internet videos? Because in this great age you can remember funny things that you saw when you were a little kid and actually find them somewhere online. Up until two years ago we were left with just quoting lines from Dumb and Dumber or remembering scenes from Thunder Cats. Now we can find those on youtube and post them on our blogs!!! It may just be that I post more internet videos here than actual photos because I am just like that.

Here are some recent funny vids:

Faith got mad at me the other day for singing this song to Ava before bedtime. She said that it showed our age difference. For me, I just love this song:



Faith and I saw this one on SNL last Saturday night. It was the last skit of the night, I believe, so it probably wasn't meant to be one of their best skits. There is really no plot to the skit, but for some reason we were laughing our heads off: