The Hunger Games; Lendle

Apparently, the book series I am reading (The Hunger Games) is a teenage girly book.  I was shocked to get mocked at work for reading it!  I had no idea the stigma it had!  Even after reading it, I wouldn't have ever said it was much different than other young adult series, such as Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.  Oh well...



So, I recently got a Kindle (which is great!) and found a website where you can lend and borrow Kindle books from other people:

http://lendle.me

I loaned one of my books (The Hunger Games) and am currently borrowing a book from another person on the site.

Amazon's current policy is that some e-books (if approved by the author or publisher) can be loaned out to another person, but only once.  So if you loan your book once, then you can't loan it out again.  Bummer.  However, I don't know anyone else with a Kindle that has the same book interests, so this website allows me to loan out and borrow books I otherwise wouldn't be able to.

I did have to "wait in line" for a book, but only for about a day or two to get the book I wanted to read.  There is also a policy that you can only borrow books if you loan out books.  I think if you loan out a book you can borrow 2 books.

Memorial Day Run & Breakfast

This morning we attended our ward's Memorial Day 4 mile run & breakfast.  Not to brag, at least not too much, I came in first place in the run right at 29 minutes.  That makes about 7:15 minute miles.  Not bad for me, but also not full race pace.  Still, we had a good showing for the run, and there was also an option to do a 1 mile walk that many opted for.

 



The breakfast was great!  Bacon, eggs, and pancakes were on the menu.  The pancakes were so tasty that even a tear came from Henry's eye (look closely at the picture at his left eye).  The kids played on the playground for a while.  They also got to play with a giant parachute that was a lot of fun!  There was a nice cage for the little kids and Henry spent some time "behind bars".  I played some volleyball as well.

Father & Son's Campout

This weekend was the Church's annual Father & Son's campout.  They say you are invited if you are a father or a son.  Fortunately, I'm both!

Friday evening we drove up to Cottonwood Canyon and setup camp.  It's a nice place that's not too hot, not too cold, no mosquitoes, in the trees with mountains all around, with a raging river on the side.  We had foil "hobo" dinners with chips on the side.  The kids dinner's just had hot dogs, but mine had the works.  I also made desert for everyone at camp in my dutch.  I used my favorite Peach Cobbler recipe using the tapioca variation for a smooth creamy texture and taste.  Instead of ice cream, I brought up whipped cream since that would keep better without requiring dry ice.  We also brought up some ginormous marshmallows.  They were a hit!  They are also not very healthy; almost 100 calories in each, but as Jesse Clayson pointed out they have zero fat.



The kids thoroughly enjoyed making dams on the edges of the dangerous raging creek.  They also enjoyed being pyros around the campfire and throwing everything and anything into it.  They also waved large sticks around and climbed rocks.  At dusk, I pulled out the glow sticks and we had a fireside.  Benjamin & his best bud had a great time together!



In the morning, we had a yummy breakfast and broke camp.  We took a hike up Cottonwood Canyon with a lot of the other kids where a lot of time was spent throwing rocks into the creek.  MO also learned to rock climb.  Afterwards we headed up to Whitney Portal and played alongside the waterfall, watched people fish in the pond, and climbed around more rocks!



We all had a great time!  Some key words that would highlight the outing are:  boys, rocks, sticks, fire, water, and food!

Finding Food

We don't need to sweep or mop our floor anymore.  Now that Henry is crawling, he cleans up all messes on the floor.  Including the ones he makes!  He also tries to eat food still in the package.

Pack Meeting

Pack meetings are a fun time for the Cub Scouts and their families to have fun together.  This time they did a skit.  Benjamin was Johnny Appleseed.  They also played a dress-up relay race.  Awards were delivered using a catapult and the boys caught their awards as they were launched into the other side of the gym.

Hawaiian Shirt Friday

This past Friday it was Hawaiian Shirt Friday at work and at school.

Hike

This last weekend I took the kids on a hike in order to condition them a little and try out Benjamin's new pack.  They did very well!  There was a little complaining, but they pressed on and made it.  You can tell from the pictures that they were a little tired.



We also came across a number of lizards.  Here is one of our new friends:



We also had a casualty on the way down.  It's pretty slick with the loose rocks.

We're Gonna Go Backpacking!

I've decided that I will be taking Benjamin and Emma for their first ever backpacking trip in a few weeks.  I have waited for this moment for a long time!!  The day will soon arrive when I can take my kids backpacking and not have to leave them all home!

In the mail finally arrived a backpack we ordered for Benjamin.  It just barely fits him, so there is plenty of room to grow into.  It can also be passed down from kid to kid as they outgrow it.

Quesadillas by Emma

Emma has a recipe book from her kindergarten class with recipes from each child.  Emma's recipe is for Quesadillas.



I do want to point out that every other recipe in the book says their mom shops at Walmart or Albertsons.  Emma says her mom shops at Costco.

One other thing I noticed in the other recipes was what temperatures were stated for cooking things in the oven.  Here are some clips from other recipes.  Oven temperatures range from 1 degree to 50 degrees.  One recipe calls for cooking something in the over for 10 hours, and another you cook it in the microwave for 100 minutes.

Archery!

For the combined young men / young women activity at Church this week, they participated in archery!  I think they were very excited about this activity!  It is something that many of them have never done before.  I also have to admit I was shocked how skilled some of these young ladies were with a bow and arrow!

A "few" arrows missed their target and flew over the fence, but there were no casualties.

Here is a collage of pictures taken from the event:

He's Crawling!

Henry is now crawling.  He isn't very good at it yet.  Sometimes he doesn't go in a straight line to his destination, but he seems to be able to make it.  More often than not, he gets stuck somewhere, like under a chair.  Motivation for crawling seems to be to get a ball.  He loves balls!

Poor Kid

Henry went in for a well-child checkup with the doctor.  While there, the doctor was concerned about his breathing and he got a breathing treatment, a chest X-ray, and some other tests done at the hospital.  I missed out on the excitement as I was in a teleconference meeting at work.  A co-worker eventually interrupted to let me know that Rachel had been trying to get a hold of me.  By the time I called Rachel, they were back in the doctor's office again.

The picture of Henry's chest X-ray procedure is pretty interesting.  Apparently the doctor referred to it as the "torture chamber".  However, Henry behaved quite well.



After results and another doctor visit, it appears Henry has asthma.  He is undergoing breathing treatments every 4-6 hours.  He usually isn't so happy about these treatments as in this picture:

Open House

Last night was the open house at the elementary school where our kids attend.  We went to Emma and Benjamin's classrooms to see their work.  Emma had a cute project of the phases of a butterfly, but where she was the caterpillar turning into the butterfly!  She has this smirk on her face like she knows how cute and silly she is.



After visiting the classrooms, I helped out with a fitness activity for the school.  The fitness activity was possible because of Rachel's miraculous results earning money for the school from well organized Box Tops drives done smart.  The school was donated lots of balls because of it for the purpose of giving them away in a fitness activity.  In our fitness activity, kids rotated different stations to learn about different types of excercise and practice a little bit.  They earned tickets along the way that were put into a drawing to win some playground balls.  I was the cardiovascular station and the kids did 25 jumping jacks to earn a ticket.  Emma sure had fun!



Then we had the drawing.  Our kids were extremely anxious about winning a ball.  Problem was that there were so many numbers being read over the loudspeaker, they were never sure if it was one of theirs.  In the end both Benjamin and Emma won balls!



I think Emma is going to be a politician; her platform:  peace.

Diet Cola and Mentos

Tonight for our family activity, we attempted the diet cola with Mentos experiment.  This is a fun thing to do with your family and the kids just love it!  All you need are plain Mentos and a 2-liter of diet cola (for some reason it has to be diet cola and not regular cola).  We decided to do a comparison of Diet Coke vs. a generic diet cola.



I quickly put 6 Mentos into each cola.  As you can see in the above picture, the resulting cola fountain went well beyond the height of our fence!  The experiment only leaves a little bit of cola left in the bottom of the bottle.  That means it leaves a big mess everywhere else, so we did it somewhere we don't mind getting all messy.

Here is the video of the event:

Diet Cola and Mentos Video

From Mentos and diet cola 2011

 

The only problem with our experiment is that we forgot to see which cola produced the higher fountain.  I guess we'll just have to do it again another night!

Donuts with Dad

Today I got to go to Kindergarten with my daughter Emma, in what they call "Donuts with Dad".

We played on the swings for a little bit before things got started.  We got to draw a picture together.  We outlined each others hands and drew us camping in the mountains.  We watched a slideshow of pictures from the school year.  The kids sang us dads a song.  Mrs. Lusher read us all a book about things dads can't do.  And of course we ate donuts!



She also had some "presents" for me.  One paper had things about me that Emma came up with.  One noteworthy item was that Emma said I am as handsome as her brother Benjamin!

Thanks Emma for a great Donuts with Dad activity at school!

Primary Activity - Scripture Power!

On Friday evening, we had a Primary activity where the children (and parents) learned about some scripture stories.  We had some great brave souls who dressed up for the part to teach us and make it fun for the kids.

Mother's Day Dinner

This mother's day we had dinner at a friend's home, the Halls.  I grilled up some mean veggies, potatoes, and I even grilled up some watermelon!  Here is what it looked like before prepping.  No, the featured Krispie Kreme donuts are not part of the meal.



Emma was a BIG helper, even enduring the pain of removing the husk and silk.



Everything turned out great except the grilled watermelon.  Megan said it tasted like dirt.

Among the other delicacies, we had some awesome nachos with "Qué Bueno" cheese, an incredible blueberry & rhubarb pie, and rotisserie chicken.  Yummy!

This is a picture of the dinner being served:



And of course, here are the mothers of honor:

Homemade Backpacking Stove Wind Shield

I have had a number of experiences while backpacking where the wind has been extreme.  Extreme like Ridgecrest winds.  Misery.  To make it worse, it is almost impossible to boil water with 60 mph winds blowing the heat away from the pot.

One backpacking trip we spent the night at an unnamed 12,000 ft high lake we later named "Lake Misery".  I wish I had a wind shield for me and my stove.

After some research, I decided to make my own backpacking stove wind shield.  Here is my stove with a large pot on top:



Next, I bought two aluminum cookie sheets that were wide enough to go part-way up the pot.  This thin aluminum will make it lightweight - a necessity for backpacking.



Then, I cut off all the sides:





Next, I folded down all the edges by about 1/8 inch to get rid of any sharp edges:



Here is what it looks like after all the edges are folded down:



Then, I did it again with another aluminum sheet:



Now, using a hole punch, I punched holes along the bottom.  The holes will allow sufficient air to mix with the fuel to burn.



And after punching holes all along the bottom of both sheets, use paper clips to attach the them together, like this:



There should be at least 1/4 inch between the shield and the pot.  Otherwise it will suffocate the stove.



Yes, I know I cheated and didn't finish punching all the holes.  I'll finish that later.  Now the real test is to use the stove in the wind and see what improvements there are.

And yes, this is how my wife blogs about crafts she does.  I feel so crafty!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today on Mother's Day I get to recognize the mothers in my life.

First, is my own mother.  I only knew her for 14 years, but I owe her my own life.  She was witty, organized, and well put-together.



Now, Rachel -- I've only known her for the last 11 years of my life.  She is the patient mother of our 4 young children.  She is determined, crafty, and caring.  Her favorite color is yellow.  Her favorite flower is the daisy.  She is a tech-geek.  And she loves physicists!!

Rachel puts up well with an amazing amount of stress.  I travel all the time, leaving her at home with 4 young children at home with little or no breaks.  I also often leave the home to take care of Church & Priesthood duties, and she is so supportive of that.

And she even puts up with me!

Rachel has accomplished so much in her life, but her greatest accomplishment is being the mother & wife she has become!

Thanks Rachel for being an amazing mother to our 4 beautiful children!  We love you!!!

[caption id="attachment_194" align="alignnone" width="502" caption="Mommy & Benjamin"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Mommy & Emma"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_196" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Mommy & Matthew"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_197" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Mommy & Henry"][/caption]

 

 

Summer Has Arrived!

It is a little late for Ridgecrest, but summer has certainly arrived!  It has been up into the 90s and lows in mid-70s.  Today the kids played with Oliver in his new pool.

The new Central Air unit was also installed just in time for the heat!  It is working great and from the way the electric meter is running, it is much more efficient.

Mom

My mother passed away when I was 14 years old. That was almost 19 years ago. I don't get to go back to New York very often, but I was able to visit the area I grew up in back in December at the end of a business trip in the Syracuse area. Here is a (somewhat blurry) picture at her tombstone from December 2010:


My mother passed away from cancer when she was 35 years old.  Right now, Rachel's mother, Cristel, is also battling cancer.  Very different circumstances, but still is hard on our families.

Here is a picture from when I was very young.  I am the little boy.  On the left is my aunt Mary, in the middle is my Grandpa, and on the right is my mom.  Strange to think that I'm the only one currently alive from this picture.

Winner of the A/C Debate

We have debated for years now about when to buy a new Central Air unit.  It was only 30 years old and severely inefficient, resulting in large electrical bills in the summer and warm summer days inside.  We had to fix it a number of times as well.  It was aging and it was only a matter of time.

This year we finally decided to do something about it, partly because we had the cash and partly because of fear the old one would die in the middle of our 110+ degree summers.

I did all sorts of financial analysis.  It was certainly best financially in the long term to keep the old unit as long as possible, since it takes 7-10 years or more (depending on the unit) to recover the cost of the unit in electrical bill savings.

We eventually decided to commit.  My wife signed the papers while I was away on business and the new unit was installed also while I was away on business.

It is worth the peace of mind so we made the right choice.

Here are some pictures of the old unit being removed and the new unit in it's proper place: