Happy 30th to Brittanie

Not to be too cheesy, but I truly am the luckiest guy in the world. My beautiful wife turned 30 yesterday. It is hard to believe that we are both in our 30's now....even harder to belive that we have been friends for more than 20 years now. Britt is an amazing Mom. So patient and tender with our girls. She does all of the little things for them and devotes all of her time and attention to them. (especially their hair)

And to me.....well, you can only imagine that being married to me is not always a treat. We have seen many great times together, been through a lot of heart ache together.....she has been involved in almost every aspect of my life since I can even remember. She puts up with my moods, my bad jokes, my travel....and in a nut shell, she has every great quality that I lack.

She truly is the love of my life. I am so grateful for her and forever indebted to her for being so good to our little family. Happy Birthday Britt!!!

Would the real President please stand up?

Today was an interesting day at school for Katie. They spent the week talking about Presidents. She has done several arts and crafts including a lovely rendition of President Lincoln's log cabin using popsicle sticks.

Today the conversation turned toward our current President. When Mrs. Merik asked asked if anyone in the class knew who the President was, Katie raised her hand high and said, "President Monson." I would have loved to see the puzzled look on the teacher's face as she tried to figure out who this "President Monson" was. Katie was very bothered when Mrs. Merik said that 'W' was our President. Who can blame her.........

The end of an era

So "B" has been with us since Katie was born. Gradually we have seen 'her' fall apart piece by piece. Katie sleeps with it over her ear every night. During the day she chews on it.....which hasn't helped it's life span. When we wash "B", it is only by the grace of a tightly knotted pillow case that it survives. We think we are in the final week or two of "B's" 5 + years with us. I'm not sure if it will be harder for me or Katie when we actually have to throw it away. The three pictures of "B" are in the various stages of its life.

Ever been in a tornado?

I have. I spent last week in Memphis and Tuesday night was one of the strangest nights of my life. I'm sure you have heard that Tennessee was blasted with powerful thunderstorms and several tornados. This picture was taken about a mile away from our hotel. The closest a tornado came to us was about two blocks. The strangest part about it was that me and two of my co-workers spent the entire time watching it while standing under the parking awning in front of our hotel. Fascination overpowered common sense in this case. Lighting was flashing almost every second. The winds were among the most powerful I have ever felt. The rain....well, it made Oregon rain look like nothing. Until the day after the storms, I don't think any of us realized how close we were to everything and how stupid we were for standing out in the storm.
It is good to be back in Oregon and you won't hear me complaining about our weather anytime soon.

Me and Gov. Mike

So I'm in Memphis right now and I was out with some co-workers eating BBQ tonight. We noticed that a bunch of news type people started walking in the restaurant. We asked what was going on and were told that Gov. Mike Huckabee would be coming. Sure enough, he soon walked in and started kissing babies and shaking hands. I had my cell phone camera out and before I knew it one of the people I was with had asked if I could take a picture with him. He pulled me right in and started giving me a hard time about my USC gear. We talked sports for a minute or so, which was absolutely surreal. I kept waiting for him to walk away be he just kept talking to me. I have to admit, it was one of the coolest experiences I have had in a long time. It was great to see a presidential candidate out on the street, trying to drum up some much needed votes before Super Tuesday. In the second picture he is covering up the USC logo which got a pretty good laugh from the crowd.