is thankful for

• existing and being able to be thankful
• a Heavenly Father who knows him and is allowing him this earthly experience
• ability to read, in 2 languages
• ability to work with my hands to create
• ability to envision something, work hard to achieve it
• innovative products that enhance our lives
• people who he connects with that feel like they've been friends for millenia
• family, both present and distant
• friends who become family
• family who become friends
• an old table that has stayed unused for many years and returns as a new office table
• being able to connect with people physically, emotionally, spiritually thru multiple means and media
• seeing other people struggle and learn, and learning from them
• ability to want more, to become more, and to slowly achieve more
• being older, yet still feeling young at heart
• a sweet daughter that connects with him so easily
• a sweet daughter that takes care of everyone around her so thoroughly
• a son that is so terribly happy all the time one must comply to his state of happines to truly enjoy being in his presence
• a sweet wife that works so hard at the family, at her newfound love with her job, and basically still lets him hang around her
• his house, a house that seemed too much at one time, then not quite big enough, now is just right
• his toys, both large and small, that allow him small diversions into that childhood he so richly enjoys to escape from adulthood
• friends to play with, learn from, grow with, and experience life together
• a warm electric blanket on cold nights
• leather gloves that shield his hands from the outside chill
• a new streetbike that will take him on journeys away from reality, once its warm enough to enjoy it again
• books, stories and tales that transport him to another plane for brief momments
• neighbors who step up to help out when needed
• new and exciting opportunities on the horizon
• his ability to enjoy racquetball, dirtbiking, motorcycling, waterskiing, snowskiing, paintballing and other activities that keep the heart pumping and young
• his ability to teach, train, mentor and share his knowledge with others
• his ability to learn from others and add to his store of knowledge
• jim the boatwrap guy that protects his little ski boat each year, so come summer, play can ensue on the water once again
• waking up late on Thanksgiving morning, and feeling overwhelmed by thankfullness

Emptying the Storage Unit

Back in June, we got a storage unit to hold all the junk we had in the basement for the last decade. It was quite a bit of stuff. The highlights are as follows:

• Christmas stuff
• Halloween stuff
• Easter stuff
• Camping stuff
• various hobby stuff
• Waterski/boat stuff
• junk, lots and lots of junk

Its amazing what accumulates when you have a storage area like a basement to simply put stuff in. It accumulates. And its seemingly all important stuff. With the storage available, its hard to get rid of any of it. So, it all went into the storage unit.

Before extracting it from the storage unit, after the basement was completed, we made a few rules. It had to go through a QA process. We had to justify anything that we brought back home. Everything. This has been quite the chore, and has been spread out over various evenings and days. For example, the Christmas stuff... It was contained in various boxes, i think about 6 containers in total. Each of those containers was opened, and each item was transferred from that box to another box. We actually purchased some new containers that would stack better, were simply newer, and much more sturdy that previous containers. The plan was to transfer into these containers anything we wanted to keep, while discarding the rest. Either to the trash or to DI. Quite a bit has gone to both locations.

I am proud to announce that the Christmas, Halloween and Easter stuff all went thru the rigorous process of QA first, and were successful. We cleaned a fourth to half of the stuff we had been saving all these years. With limited space now available to us to use in the basement, some cleaning and pruning was necessary.

As the weeks have marched on, and we continue to pay the fee to store stuff, some of which is not anything we really need, while other is necessary, its obvious that this can be addicting, and we could simply quit and keep the storage unit. Paying out monthly payments to keep the stuff. However, that was another of the goals of this task. Have the storage unit during the summer, maybe into the fall, but not much after that. We are now dangerously close to 'after that'. This next week will see the last of the items removed from the unit and placed in their final resting home. Be it our home, or elsewhere. In fact, one item we were particularly sad about throwing out actually got placed last night in a good home. We pulled all the carpet from the basement when we finished it. A large green carpet that had covered those floors for over a decade. Last night, another family was in the storage unit place, and came wondering by to talk to us. We offered them the carpet, on a whim, and they accepted. It will now live in their basement, covering their floors.

We should have taken pictures of this process, similarly to the pics of the basement progress. It would have been fun to see the items disappear from basement, rematerialize in the storage unit, then disappear again.

Soon, we'll be back to just our house and surrounding property that contains all of our worldly possesions. Soon.

Semi annual conference

Every six months we get the opportunity to listen to LDS Church leaders expound on topics that they feel we should hear. The topics are always interesting, and oft times they are exactly what we need to hear. But the overwhelming reason to listen to conference for me is to hear those things that I need to hear, and feel the spirit confirm them to me. We all need repeated reminders of where we are headed and how to get there.

I grew up in California and didnt have the chance to simply wake up and watch conference on the TV. Ever since my time at BYU, I have felt blessed to live in a place that allowed me to watch it so easily. Yeah, I can read it later or even rewatch it on TV or over the internet. But there is something in me that says I need to watch it as it occurs. Be there, in case I miss something. Besides, the repetition of rewatching it will need to occur anyway to ensure it gets pounded into my skull.

For our family, we try to watch each session, or listen to each session. Since 6 of the 10 hours occurs on a Saturday, and Saturdays are either play or work days for us, its always interesting to find ways to listen and learn, as well as implement some sort off fun or todo list crossing off. In the past, we've spent Saturday conference time in the basement, cleaning and organizing it.

However, with the basement now finished, this is unnecessary. So, I woke up early Saturday morning and made myself a list of random tasks. 16 in total. Most of which could be done while listening to conference. With various radios and TV's turned on throughout the house, we could come and go from different areas in the home and outside working on tasks, yet still listening. By breaking us up into groups, it makes it easier to listen and not spend the entire time yelling at each other to be quiet so that we can listen to conference and be edified. ;)

Sunday typically finds us watching it on the TV in the family room as a family together. Its always a challenge to keep the kids either not making too much noise or actually listening, or preferably somewhere in between. Its funny after the first sunday session, we typcially need a break, and our breaks usually involve watching TV. But having spent the last two hours glued to the TV, watching TV isnt really a break. Finding something to do, that only takes 2 hours is always interesting.

This time, after the last session finished, and our naps concluded, we grabbed our books, some drinks, some blankets and headed up Provo Canyon to chill out. We spent a few hours hanging out, reading, playing tag and enjoying the time together.

All in all, the weekend came and went, lessons were learned, the spirit was felt, fun was had, time spent together as well as 6 out of 16 tasks completed on Saturday.

our back yard is on fire

We've been slowly making progress on the backyard patio for a while now (read:years).

A year or so ago, we pulled the trigger on some of the design of the patio and purchased some large blocks to put in the patio as steps. this was a bit premature, as the actual patio floor wasnt yet in place. This was forcing us to kick it in gear and get it completed. The upper patio got completed first, while the lower patio was still undone for quite some time.

Last month significant progress was made on the lower patio, and we got the firepit put in as well. The lower patio now has a floor completely finished up to the waterfall. In the middle of this floor is a firepit. Last night was its maiden voyage, in celebration for Kylie's birthday. We got the fire going, and enjoyed sitting at home, yet seemingly out in the wilderness enjoying a roaring fire. You can see a picture of it on Facebook here.

We have already enjoyed using this patio for various activities. the main one i enjoy it for is working from on those days when i stay home in the morning. And evenings when I sit out there, listening to music, and just chillin. Now, add fire to the mix, and you got yourself a very enjoyable escape pod located within feet of my back door. Here's to many years of use. Next project, finish up the waterfall to add an even more zenlike quality to the outside of our home. Imagine listening to music, with the soft melody of water falling, while a fire warmly soothes your toes... you wanna come and visit on one of those crisp fall evenings with me, huh?

My Little Girl

This weekend, she turns 14. I continue to be amazed to hang out with her, and interact with her, as a parent and often times as a peer. We have built quite the relationship of peerness surrounding our racquetball interests. She often attends games of mine and coaches me, successfully. I return the favor and coach her.
This peerness has migrated to other places of our relationship. Its amazing to see her turn into a real person with her own values and habits and goals. She is still a child, but the adult she will become peeks thru on occasion, often catching me by surprise to see who she will be and realize we will be adults together at some point. In the not so distant future.
Her birthday is this weekend, and in preparation for this momentous event (all birthdays should be momentous) she is planning her planning for Friday night with friends. We took a trip down to the park nearby to see about using a pavilion, and to make sure that it had power for the radio and music that she 'needs' to be present at the activity. We rode our bikes down there, and it was odd for me to simply be along for the ride as she made her plans, and envisioned how the party would occur. Very much in control of what she wants to happen, and able to see the vision of how to accomplish it, i stand back in awe as she takes the reigns and gets it done. A joy to participate in this transition from child to adult.
We had a great time looking at the park, riding our bikes around, and simply being together. She allowed her little sister to tag along, and i could go on and on at the amazing things that this child does to cause me to stand in awe and wonder as well. But this post is mainly about my eldest. My soon to be 14 year old. The amazing experience it is to participate in her life and help her 'become' whom she will be. I always thought that parents had a little more control over what their children became. But that is not so. We can point the rope in the direction we want, think it should traverse space, ensuring its headed in the right direction, but we must realize that its a greased rope that we are unable to grasp and control. Gentle nudging does the trick, if its started at an early age, and followed thru continuously.
I mentioned before that she has her own values and habits and goals. I love to see her stand up for herself, even against her parents, when something conflicts with her values. She is persistent in reminding anyone the way it should be. Amazing. I stand in awe.

Happy birthday daughter. Thanks for sharing your life with me.

Christmas 2009 - Summary

We recently returned from a week long vacation that started in Sea World for Christmas day, and ended all over California. Multiple locations were visited, much fun was had. Each day, adventures were had and pictures were taken. To capture these, I tried to summarize the day with pics in a blog, to record these adventures for ourselves mainly, as well as for friends and family. If you missed any of them, they are listed below.

• blog part 1
• blog part 2
• blog part 3
• blog part 4
• blog part 5
• blog part 6
• blog part 7
• blog part 8

If you do not want to read the blog posts, I will attempt to provide a summary here as well, and the last blog post about the trip.

While on our trip, I tried to update Facebook with as many status updates as possible, so that those following the trip could keep up. I did do some twitter updates, but since that crowd is typically work related, I refrained from updating on twitter as much about personal matters. Thus, Facebook provided the majority of the status updates. I had been talking about the trip for a bit prior to its actual departure, and continued while vacationing. At the end of the trip, I had totaled 40 updates via Facebook. Only 8 of these were statuses about blog postings. With these posts, other folks added over 72+ comments or likes to my updates. Out of interest, I summarized these additions to my Facebook feed. 33 distinct people made comments with 52 total comments. 14 distinct people flagged my statuses as statuses they 'like', with 22 total 'likes' having been logged. 40 distinct people made comments or 'likes' to my statuses. I wish I knew how many people were actually following the updates.

So, how many more summaries, totals and the such are there?

• new tires purchased to make the trip possible - 4
• days sleeping away from home - 8
• distinct hotels - 5
• 1 day we were in 4 distinct states
• 9 state lines were crosses (some multiple times)
• low temperature - 13 degrees
• high temperature - 73 degrees
• days above 60 degrees - 5
• days above 30 degrees - all of them
• miles travelled - 1900
• visits to In N Out - 1
• cheapest meal for family of 5 - $29
• most expensive meal - $100
• most spent on food in 1 day - $100 (same as above day)
• Argentine restaurants visited - 1 (above as well)
• longest stretch in the car - 7 hours
• latest arrival to a hotel - 12:00am
• earliest arrival to a hotel - 7:00pm
• days without my trusty pillow - 4
• new pillow purchases while on trip - 1
• days with more than 1 hour travel - 6
• hours of car travel - 30
• extra hours of car travel due to traffic - 3
• visits to gas stations - 5
• visits to the ocean - 5
• opportunities to pet a dolphin - 5
• actual times petting a dolphin - 1
• animal toys purchased to replace long lost toy - 1
• animals purchased for Trey to remember Sea World - 40+
• number of days Trey was homesick - 1
• nights in bed and asleep before midnight - 2
• mornings we woke up earlier than 9am - 1
• consecutive breakfasts with biscuits and gravy for Kylie - 3
• meals we skipped - 4.5
• days we ate on any kind of schedule - 0
• days we actually had time to exercise and actually exercised - 1
• movies watched - 1 + how ever many the kids watched while in back seat
• electronic devices to entertain the kids - 5
• pops purchased to drink while driving - too many to count
• times one kid got in trouble for messing with another kid - fewer than expected
• times we had to stop and do laundry to have enough clothes for rest of trip - 1
• hot fudge sundaes eaten - 0
• coconuts drained, opened and shared for first time - 1
• cemetaries visited - 2
• grave sights visited - 5
• grandparent graves visited - 4
• graves of beloved animals (Pete) visited - 1
• quantity of pictures and video taken - 1300+
• pictures taken - 1200+
• size of digital media created - almost 10G
• number of people happy to be home, missing the warmth of the trip, full of good memories from this awesome adventure - 5

Christmas 2009 - Part 8

Our last morning in Tehachapi was upon us, as was the drizzling rain with an amazingly cold wind. We had to be out of the hotel by 1pm, but were rather slow about it. Breakfast was provided downstairs as it was the previous day, and like the previous day, we barely made the 10am cutoff time, descending to feed in our jammies, with the sleep still in our eyes and he confused morning sensations still filling our sleepy heads. After feeding, we had some time on our hands, but not enough to leave and return, so we simply hung out and stayed. Exercising was on the menu, and for the first time in the week we have been vacationing, we actually accomplished this task. Showers were in order next, as well as loading up all our gear for the long road ahead of us. We had a few hours left in Tehachapi before we needed to get on the road and head to Mesquite. Christy brought the car around and started loading up.

Treyson, loving the hotel

Once all our miscellaneous gear was gathered, bagged, shuttled outside, and safely ensconced in the car, we got ready yo take off. As we began to depart from the hotel, I noticed the infamous 'Check Engine' light was illuminated. Crap. Turning off the car, and restarting it did not reset the light, as I had hoped. After opening the hood and checking all the things I could think of to check, we took off to find a Checker or AutoZone. As we approached the store, I could tell something was wrong, as there was a shake or shimmy in the engine. Worry creased my brow, as we drove to the auto part store, with a scared quiet nervousness wafting from the backseat. Once at the store and after describing my dilemna, they described theirs. They are not allowed, by law, to diagnose the 'Check Engine' light anymore. They are only allowed to sell me the device, with no refund so that I can determine what the problem is. This doesnt help me. I ask him to suggest a mechanic, realizing that I never visited a mechanic when I previously resided in this town. A mechanics shop was suggested, and we headed to it. This time, the car was acting normal, but the light remained on, glaring at me. Once at the location (J&H on Tehachapi Blvd) i described the dilemna I currently existed in. We were to hit a couple more spots to see sights, and then take off to Vegas and Mesquite. We had our day planned, had checked out of the hotel already, and needed to be moving, not stopped by vehicle problems. With our dilemna understood, and probably not heard for the first time, the owner grabbed his fancy dancy detector device to interpret what our car was trying to tell us. As we talked, we realized this this man was my parents neighbor. He knew my dad was a teacher, and I knew where his house was located. We had just been there the day previous, visiting my old home. He diagnosed the problem as a miss fire in cylinder 4. This could be all kinds of things... He investigated, and swapped out a plug as well as the cable. After a couple of attempts, got the right combination of products to try out. He reset the code, gave us back the original parts and said to drive around the block. If the light came back on we were to return to his shop, if not, we were to go about our business with his new years wishes. I couldnt not leave without paying him something, but he refused, claiming I was his Ex Ex Neighbor. Wow. What a Christmas present.

We went about our last few tasks, with a vigilant eye on the infamous light, and were pleased that it has not turned back on since. We went out to the Perryman's racquetball court, in the hopes of showing the kids where my love of the game was born. The building was still there, as I remember it, but was locked. The Perryman family was not present and the court was not open. Bummer. But in the grand scheme of things, we were driving our fixed car, and on schedule for the day. Pictures were taken and we departed. Lunch was had at a favorite restaurant, Domingoes. This is a favortie of the Belt family, and Christy spotted it the day previous, with desires to eat the vittles they prepare so well. A very full lunch settled in our bellies, and we took off on the long road to Mesquite. The valley was still socked in with clouds and fog, which prevented us from seeing the grand glory of the windmills dotting the hillsides. We were able to see some of the windmills and grabbed some photos of them as we departed the valley. The kids were amazed at the quantity of windmills they could actually see, and I was amazed at the memory of the vast quantity of true windmills. This is one of Christy's favorite parts of visiting Tehachapi.



Perryman racquetball court

Once out on the desert floor near Mojave, it was like reaching back into my memory of many other trips on these roads. There is not much to see out here in the desert, but its still reminds me of so much that I always enjoy the trek across the vastness. There is a new freeway system that circumvents the old highway which we decided to take, much to our chagrin later. The new freeway joins i-15 on its way to Vegas south of Barstow. The 15 minute road that we were to travel thru Barstow to the point that the old highway meets was so full of traffic at this hour, that it took us an incredible amount of time to traverse. An accident had caused a lot of congestion and backup, and we crawled along envying the snails that were probably winning this race. This was only a taste of what was to come. The road to Baker was as slow as we had just experienced, with bouts of speed, followed by huge periods of random brake checks. It seemed that the entire California populous was headed on the same road as we were. The funnest part of the entire trek from outside Barstow to outside baker was stopping on Zzyzx road to take an unplanned pee break. Once outside of Baker, for some reason, the beast that is traffic decided to spread out a bit, speed up a bit, and flow in a normal fashion. Speeds were again reached that caused our calm to become active again. We had lost an hour or more in slow traffic. This forced us to not swing by the Las Vegas temple as previously planned. This would have caused us even more of a delay, forcing our arrival at the hotel in Mesquite to occur after midnight. We skipped visiting the temple, drove straight thru Las Vegas with no stops, realizing that to traverse this town takes almost a half hour, as the town has grown and grown. I remember reaching Craig road on the north end of Las Vegas, then driving for 15 minutes before really hitting town. This is no longer the case. Town seems to stretch from Paruhmp to Craig road with few breaks.

Domingos

About to head from Tehachapi to Mesquite

The sun setting over the Tehachapi mountains, as seen from Mojave

The hills alive with windmills

Christy attempted to capture traffic

Christy attempted to capture traffic

A little around an hour later, we arrived at Mesquite, and settled down for the night. No food stops were necessary as we were still full from the great meal at Domingos in Golden Hills in my home town of Tehachapi. This sustained us amazingly for the entire 5 hour trek. That and a couple snacks, helped us make it. Bed, arguing, playing, wrestling, getting yelled at again by mom for messing around, and we all finally laid down to get some rest. This was our last sleep away from home, last night in a hotel, the vacation was almost over, and no one wanted it to be so.