I passed, I passed, I passed!

>> Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Congratulations to Heidi! After nearly 2 years of school in the Physical Therapy Assistant program at Gateway College and tons and tons of this:

... and a few weeks of practicals at the Maricopa County Medical Center Burn Unit:

...Heidi finally graduated and got to wear this (in May):

...But wait! It's not over yet. After another month of studying for the State Board Exam.....

She passed! Or as it should be properly stated....She passed with flying colors! Even though she couldn't remember 5%?

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Tire Tracks in the Sand

On the way to work the other day I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me that said, "The Lord is my Co-Pilot." So with tongue in cheek satire humor at its best, I thought of this poem to go along with a picture I took at the beach in Emerald Isle, North Carolina.

Tire tracks in the sand

One night I dreamed I was riding along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed tire tracks in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of tire tracks, other times there was only one.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of tire tracks, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would drive with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of tire tracks in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of tire tracks, my child, is when I drove you.”

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Who said cleaning the house isn't any fun?

>> Saturday, July 18, 2009


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Unaccompanied Minors

>> Friday, July 17, 2009

In this episode of the Adventures of WHAW the kids headed north to Grandma’s house alone.

Well, you know the song….

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s house they go.
The kids know the dad who will carry their bags…
Thru the security checkpoint we go, oh!

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s house they go.
Weston knows the deal, no need to swallow a pill
To sleep on the plane, as his energy begins to drain, oh!

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s house they go.
Alea knows the way to put down her tray
And order a cold drink from the FA, oh!

Over the freeway and through the airport, to Grandma’s airport they land.
They have to wait for the flight attendant Kate,
To escort them to the gate, where Grandma waits, oh!

And some kids can’t even go to the bathroom by themselves…

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A great 4th of July celebration to remember (Part II)

>> Wednesday, July 8, 2009

After leaving the festivities behind, we all headed back to Aunt Dalene’s house for the night. As we realized that the house was pretty full of weary travelers, we decided to check a few hotels for availability and found a nice quaint place with a decent price tag. We figured it would be nice to have a quiet place to lay our heads and a bathroom we wouldn’t have to wait in line for. Plus if you notice in the picture below, it had all you can eat cereal from the General Mills silos. After checking in, we continued our way to Dalene’s house to participate in the fireworks show. Since Arizona is too hot and dry in the summer time, fireworks are illegal but in Idaho, anything goes. The kids lined up along the porch and were soon in harmony, “oooh, aaaaah, oooh, aaaah, as they watched the fireworks display. After all the good ones were lit and sent skywards, the kids enjoyed shooting roman candles and twirling sparklers. After the backyard fireworks display, we headed back to our room ready to hit the hay. After a good nights sleep, we journeyed our way down to 14th street to watch the Idaho Falls parade. The kids properly stretched and warmed up in order to gather as much candy as they possible could. In previous years, the candy would rain down from nearly every float. Not this year. You know the economy is bad when the candy count is down. However the parade still provided great entertainment. After the parade, we had lunch back at Dalene’s and enjoyed a great feast. At 2:00 the annual softball game started. As I stood there lined up waiting to bat, I had flashbacks of my youth baseball games, where I hit home run after home run, often winning the game! I remembered all of the diving catches in the out field, and the 90 mph fastballs I hurled over the plate. Strike one, strike two, steeeeriiiiiike three, as the umpire yelled, you’re out! The smell of hot dogs permeating the air and the sound of the crowd cheering, Wynn, Wynn, Wynn…..watch out…crack! Apparently while waiting to bat I had dozed off in my fantasy baseball dream and was hit in the head with a foul ball. Ok not really but it sure makes a better story than just getting up to bat and hitting a fly ball, making it to first, and then getting thrown out at second on the next play.

After the softball game ended, we jumped in the car and drove over to Aunt Linda and Uncle John. They happen to live about 2 miles away from Aunt Dalene’s house. Upon arriving, we found ourselves mingling with 2 giant pans of chocolate brownies and rice crispy treats. The kids ran outside and played on the airplane teeter totter with cousins they’re not quite familiar with. This didn’t stop them from playing together and they had a great time.
Around 8:30 we all decided it was time to go down to the river and wait around for the fireworks to begin. The fireworks display was terrific. We sat on the grass next to the hotel with surround sound blasting patriotic music and fireworks exploding over our heads showering down bright colors of spark. Fireworks are one of the few things in life that can be enjoyed no matter the time of year. After the fireworks ended we walked back to the cars and proceeded to wait in traffic before making our way back to Dalenes’ house. After the fireworks, Jena and Lance decided to put their kids in the car and make the 3 hour trip back home. Weston and I decided to drive back with them in an effort to catch a plane back to Arizona early in the morning. Lance’s lead foot got us to the airport a little earlier than even I like to be there. It was 3:00 am. Now if you have ever wondered what the airport looks like at 3:00 am let me tell you. It’s nearly empty with only the zamboni like machine driving around washing the floors with its built in squeegee. At 3:00 am, not even the security entrance was open. Weston was dead asleep and so I proceeded to find a comfortable place to lie down. Whoever designed the airport chairs apparently never intended to sleep in them, as the permanent arm rest prevents any such horizontal activity from occurring.

I layed Weston in my lap and propped my feet up on another chair and closed my eyes. I opened them again after what seemed like a couple of hours of sleep, only to find that the clock now read 3:07 am. I knew it was going to be a long wait. Around 4:15, people started to arrive at the airport and slowly a line began to form near one of the ticket counters. At 4:30, a mob of TSA agents began to come down the hall and quickly took their positions and opened the security entrance. I emptied my pockets of all items known to set off the metal detectors and proceeded to walk through security. I found gate A2 and picked a spot on the floor to lay Weston down on. Upon doing so, he opened his eyes, looked up at me and said, “this floor is hard as a rock….and it smells funny too!” So I picked him up and found some chairs without the arm rests and layed him down again. Finally after what seemed like forever, the sun came up, the gate agents came out, and the stand by list was called. Weston and I were getting on the plane and headed home.

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A road trip, a baby, and fire works... A great 4th of July celebration to remember...(Part I)

>> Tuesday, July 7, 2009

On this 4th of July, we decided to head to Idaho and celebrate the birth of our new neice as well as the Fourth of July!

So this episode of the Adventures of WHAW began with a stand by ticket, where we literally stood there and waved bye! The glamorous side of traveling the skies unfortunately comes with a lot of waiting, and waiting, and in some cases even more waiting. Heidi and the kids grabbed the last 3 seats on the plane, so I waved goodbye and hung around for the next flight.

The next flight came and left without any empty seats, so I waited around some more with the same results. So after nearly 9 hours in the airport (thanks to a delayed flight) I was able to grab the last seat on the last plane headed for SLC. You should have seen the look on the poor guy's face that was just after me on the stand by list. After all, he had waited nearly most of the day as well with no such luck. I thought he was going to empty my suitcase, jump in, and force me to lift him into the over head bin.

Since the flight was delayed and didn't leave until almost 9:15, we arrived in SLC fairly late. Our standard transportation when flying into SLC, is to have our limo driver, Wyatt, come pick us up. As always, he was right there when I stepped out of the terminal. Since it was late, I decided to forgo the extra hour drive it takes to get to Mom and Dad's house, so I crashed at Wyatt's house. Before heading there, we made a quick stop at the local Taco Bell. Anyone else remember when seven layer burritos were only 99 cents?

The next day, the traveling clan of clowns, otherwise known as my 2 kids accompanied by Jena's 3 kids, came to pick us up and start the caravan trip to Idaho. Jena had negotiated a pretty good deal with Grandma and Grandad, and placed the 5 kids and a first round draft pick to be named later in their van. This left our van kid free and an enjoyable ride as we drove to Idaho.

We arrived and headed over to the church to see Wade and Katie's creation. She is adorable! Who would have known Wade had enough genes in him to pass down and contribute to such a beautiful baby. Afterall, he is the youngest of 6 kids and I hear his oldest brother got nearly all of the good looking genes!

We enjoyed a great dinner with nearly 50 of our Idaho relatives and their families and commented on all of the memories of running around as a kid, while the adults sat by and chatted. Now we found ourselves on the chatty side while our kids ran around endlessly. The evening was really special as we got to participate in blessing Aubrey Marie and welcoming her into our lives. Alea was especially proud that she shares the same middle name and initials as her new cousin.

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We have officially run away to join the circus!

If anyone is looking for us, we have officially run away to join the circus. When we got to the circus, a few clowns asked us what we were doing there. We have come to join the circus, I said. They just laughed at us. I asked them to stop clowning around and show us to the ring masters office. They then escorted us to the center ring and asked us to wait there. Pretty soon, along came the ring master with 4 clip boards each with an application packet an inch thick. He asked us to read through the legal liability release forms and then fill out the other information. After we read and signed away our rights to any form of safety nets, the ring master told us we would have to be photographed. Afterwards, we were escorted beneath the arena seats to the make up and wardrobe room. The spandex uniforms were really comfortable.
Weston was dressed as a tight rope walker. Looks like all that practice standing on his head has paid off.
They assigned me to play with a few of the cats. When I realized it was the tiger cage, I asked for a couple of whips. I caught a few clowns trying to stuff a few steaks in my pocket which made me mad. This time I really yelled at them, "STOP CLOWNING AROUND!" After all, that seems a little dangerous for someone who just signed away there rights to all safety nets.
Since Heidi and Alea specialize in arial acrobatics, they were asked to do a few flips in the air. Now don't think for a second, that these were just any ordinary flips. They were going to be shot out of a cannon and do a few flips in the air, clear across the arena.
The cheers from the crowd were amazing!

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