October

Well, being back to school, I thought this quarter was going to be easy... boy was I wrong. I signed up for three classes:
-Accounting 201
-ASL III
-Self Esteem (like I need anymore of it)

Let me tell you how grateful I am that ASL is the easiest class that I have, knowing sign language already. The self esteem class, not so much. It consists of two Saturdays (Oct 3rd and 17th) of my time for eight hours *Snooze*. Not only do I despise the class, I have to WORK before the class starts. I work at 4:00am and then leave work at 8:00, off to class, which starts at 9:00 and lasts until 5:00. Now, for my accounting class. I went in, thinking that it was going to be easy, only to be the greatest mathematician in the world. Like I said, I'm taking self esteem, so looking at the glass as being half full. ACCOUNTING SUCKS. Especially when the professor was an accountant for thirty years at Clark College, then retiring, only to teach two days a week. It is a very fast paced class. Even though I spent time in the Tutoring Department for my accounting class, I still bombed my first test. I just consider the test as a wash. Now I will be prepared for what's coming to me. All in all, if I can stay focused on the Accounting class, I hope that I can pull a decent grade from this class. Good thing that December 10th is the last day of class. With all the credits that I have earned, I am hoping that I will receive my associates degree either fall of next year... Hopefully.

Trina is taking classes (that's about it) *Wink* :-)

Kaylee is enjoying school... for now. She is doing great when it comes to homework. Samantha is enjoying preschool immensely, in fact, when Trina or I have to pick her up at the end of class, we have a tough time trying to pry her hands off the play area or bikes on the playground.

End of Summer...or is it??

Summer is coming to an end. Lets cap off what happened during the best season that I would like to call my own:
-Trina and I survived Summer quarter at Clark (Trina finished her last class on Wednesday). Writing five essays in 14 hours is a mistake that I don't plan on making ever again. It was Hell.

-Trina had Girls Camp in August and it was a success, thankfully it is over now. She does way too much as it is anyway.

-My mom came in May, a little Pre-Summer visit, while my Grandma, Aunt and her two kids came up for the 4th of July week. Had a blast.

-John asked my sister Ammie to marry him... it was about time. We will be heading to Salt Lake for the wedding in June. It's at Red Butte Gardens. It's real close to the University of Utah by the Marriott. Real beautiful place. So I'm trying this time to do some sightseeing and possibly visit with some friends and family while I'm there.

-Kaylee started the third grade on Wednesday. back to school night was on Monday and we found out that she gets to ride the bus for one more year... Trina and I are very excited for that. Also, we stood in line for Kaylee's thumbprint for lunch. Gotta love technology. Now there are no worries about forgetting or losing a lunch ticket, they just scan your thumb. She's excited to be in Ms. Candalore's class.

-Samantha starts Pre-school on the 17th, the day after her 5th birthday. Her Teacher is named Ms. Amy. She is coming to visit tomorrow at our house. Sam is excited because she gets to go hang out with Peggy McGlohn (A lady who goes to our church). She is awesome. She has bailed us out many times and during the heatwave, she has actually kept the kids for a few overnighters, for that we have gratitude for her.

-Work is good. I hit my five year anniversary on August 14th. I now get three weeks paid vacation. Very excited about that. The pay and benefits have been great. It's nice to know that I get paid more than I did while I was at Domino's and Pizza Hut... and I'm not even a manager. Goes to show how much Costco treats their employees, in fact, I never have to ask for a raise. I get them when I put in my hours. When I max out, which will be in roughly two years, I will be making almost three times what I did when I working for the pizza joints. And I would only be working 38-40 hours a week.

-Trina and a couple of friends are going to Port Angeles this coming up weekend for some crazy Twilight thing. Port Angeles, Forks and La Push are all locations in the book, even though the movie was filmed in Portland. That area is really the rainiest and cloudiest in the Continental U.S.. It is located at the NW tip of Washington in the Olympic Peninsula. While she will up there, the girls and I get to have one last week of summer

As the forecast shows, summer doesn't seem to want to go away. We received about a half an inch of rain yesterday, and haven't had that type of rain since May, so it's been really dry this summer. As I look on the bright side of things, while Trina is up in that area, I get a three day weekend with the girls, so I don't at least have to hear Trina gripe about the heat *Wink*. The downfall of it all is that I have to get up at 7:00 on Sunday. I have a meeting at our church because of the position I'm in. I am the first counselor of the Elder's Quorum. I'm in charge when the President goes out of town or for some personal business. Now ends my "calling" of being a Bears Leader in Cub Scouts.

-Labor Day was nothing unusual, except for the fact that just hung out at home and practically did nothing. At least Kaylee returns to school.

That's pretty much the whole summer in a nutshell.

Let's see what miraculous things happen during the fall.

-Sam was already getting excited for Halloween. She told me that she wants to be a cat. We shall see.

Thanksgiving is too far away to know what we have planned... Yeah...

Dog Days of Summer

We did it today. Stifling hot outside and it hit 106 in Portland. Supposed to be as hot for the next two days. Coming from Salt Lake, I am used to this type of weather during the summer, so nothing new. Only one problem... we have no A/C in our place. If you're from Portland, you don't have A/C, unless you have a new house or decided to upgrade and get central air. It's going to be hot until next Tuesday, after that, we should be back to normal. Gotta love the "Dog Days of Summer." The Camas Pool was packed with no surprise.

So, I have been taking Public Speaking this summer. At first, I had no immediate desire to take the class, but now that I am getting the hang of it, it's turning out to be not as bad as I had expected. On the other hand, I hate to admit, this professor has this class very structured to how she wants a speech setup. If it's not a certain way, you get docked several points for not doing something a certain way. Oh well, such as life. I had her for another class last year, and I enjoyed that class as well. I have done three speeches already. One, being my intro (Telling a little about myself) . Second, being my informative (how to communicate with a deaf person) and third, impromptu (if everything could be only one color, what would it be?). That was my topic and we had only two minutes to prepare. It was interesting. I have the next one, being my persuasive speech. I was going to talk about how Obama is going to FORCE US INTO Socialized Health Care and the negative affects it will have on this country. Sorry, but I'm not paying for some homeless, crack head or anyone who wants a free ride through government controlled health care that you, I and every taxpayer will pay for. Look at what it is doing in Canada and the UK. This was in Canada... Some lady found out that she was pregnant, and was told that she had to WAIT TEN MONTHS FOR AN ULTRASOUND! My response would have been, "Wouldn't you think that I just might have the baby before then?" DOH! How about waiting four months for a root canal, when you can get one the same day here in the good ol' US of A. All this in Canada. How about this. A lady had to get an MRI, and waited for TWO YEARS after being told that she DIDN'T QUALIFY for one! Thanks, but NO THANKS. Obama is on the right track to making our country slowly turn into a Utopia. What I mean by Utopia, is a great example I read in a book called "The Giver." Our government is slowly working it's way into controlling our lives. Read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry and you will know why I am against socialism and government control. Someone beat me to the punch, so I have to pick another subject to talk about for my persuasive speech. I'm not sure what I want to do it on yet, but we'll see.

I have next week off because Trina has Girls Camp for our church. Lots of fun. I get to hang out with the girls. Maybe I'll take them fishing up the Washougal River and catch some Salmon. Who knows yet.

Celebrities die and Vacation time and visit

People that died in three's in a short period of time: Ed McMahon (a regular on Johnny Carson and the Publishing Clearing House spokesperson), Farah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels and what not), and then last but not least, Michael Jackson (Jackson 5 and the "King of Pop"). Talk about an interesting day. Sad time around the world for MJ fans. In record store across the nation, and the world, his albums sold out. The jokes also came out as well.

My aunt Joylynn called and asked if she could stop by the airport and drop off her kids, before heading to Newburg and Salem to drop off some other people. I told her to meet me at IKEA. I would bring her kids over here and they can hang out and rest for a couple of hours until she got back. I can already see that It's going to be a long drive for them, but the visit will be worth it.

Father's Day and Kaylee's last day of second grade

As some of you may know, Kaylee's last day of school was supposed to be last Wednesday, but no, we had to get a FREAK SNOW STORM. So, Kaylee had to make up a few days because of it. So, today was Kaylee's last day of second grade. It has been a great experience this year, because she got to ride the bus all year long. That will changed, due to budget cuts. She won't get to ride the bus until middle school. She had "Camp Fox Rocks" all of last week, where they had a day camp for all second and third graders inside their classes. Trina and I send letters to Kaylee during the week. Kaylee reads so well and she is excellent in math and science. Congratulations Kaylee on completing the second grade.

Speaking of school, Sam has been put on a list for a preschool in Washougal. She missed the cutoff day by 16 days to start kindergarten this year. The school is at a church which is located across the street of where we lived for a year before moving up on Prune Hill. Washougal School district is a little sketchy. So we decided, with the help of Trina's mom finding this place up here, to enroll the kids in Camas School District. The reason behind it was due to the fact that Camas, WA was rated in the top 100 best places to live in the U.S. by Time Magazine and Camas School District was rated one of the top 10 best school districts by Newsweek back in the late 90's.

On Saturday, Kaylee, and other daughters, had a breakfast at our church for the Fathers for Father's Day. We had to write down three things that we liked to do as a hobby as well as Kaylee. We had to guess what they were. It was great. I have great daughters and a wife that I love and appreciate everyday. They also gave me two shirts. I needed more shirts and love them.

A week from today, my grandma, aunt and her kids are coming. It's going to be great. Apparently, we have tickets to go on the Portland Spirit. It is a ship that goes up and down the Willamette. You see the Waterfront and all of Downtown Portland, including the West Hills, OHSU, PGE Park, and to the East you can see Mt. Hood and St. Helens, The Columbia River Gorge, etc. It's a two hour ride, including lunch. We are going to the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Oregon and from there we are going to Mo's at Cannon Beach (where we frequent very often), where you can see "Haystack Rock that sits right on the ocean, about a couple of hundred feet off shore. Haystack Rock can be seen in the opening scene of The Goonies, (Also one of my favorite 80's movies) when the Fratellis are fleeing from the police and then enter a ORV (SUV) race on the beach. It can be seen in the background. Later in the film you can see Haystack Rock again when Mikey is pointing out some rocks in the distance, with the doubloon." Cannon Beach and Tillamook is only about an hour and half drive from our place. We will probably do the Portland Zoo as well, and maybe Multnomah Falls or even Beacon Rock, which is up the Gorge. This will be a good visit and I will post pictures after the visit.

Presentations and quarter ending

This week, I had a presentation in my ASL class on monday. The topic was on the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). What is the NAD. It is an association that works for deaf people's civil and legal right. I did a PowerPoint that consisted of topics from the NAD. It was a great success. Now we have finals coming up. I am actually excited to see that I can take my health final with as many attempts as I want to. It so convenient to do it online.

Sociology has been easy. Dr. Ludwig, our professor, had a stroke a few years back and the first day we met him, it was interesting. If you knew how strokes affect the speech area of the brain, you would understand. The first day of class, he asked us a question about first impressions of people. This is what he said, "If I were to come up to you in downtown Portland, wearing dirty clothes that made me look homeless, what would you think of me?" Nobody answered. So he asked again, "Anyone, anyone?" So I raised my hand and he said, "Yes, what would you think of me?" My response was, "I would think that you are retarded." Everyone laughed. He then said, "That's what society percieves us as, what 'we' as people, think we are." But I already knew that he was that way, because Trina took his class last quarter. So, I was already expecting it.

Health, we had been punished for not exercising. So, Laura, our professor had us play volleyball across the street from the college. It didn't help that is was terribly muggy, but it was fun. Our last class is tomorrow (Thursday).

Tim (my partner in crime) in Cub Scouts (we lead the Bears) got stuck up in Tacoma and couldn't make it in time for scouts. I just worked on a few things with the boys. Next week, we have a cop that is in our ward (Church) that we can fingerprint the boys and my mother-in-law has some plaster we can use to make footprints. Oh I have a feeling that this will be messy. We can probably work on this stuff outside, out in the pavilion (covered picnic area on our church property).

Kaylee has until the 22nd to be out of school. She would have gotten out of school earlier if it wasn't for the stupid snow storm we had in December, the most measured snow ever recorded all the way from Seattle to Eugene. We got a total accumulation of 22 inches stretched out over a week. Good thing it was gone after a day. So they made the kids make up a few days, which I think is crap. I only had ONE snow day my entire life. Kaylee in Kindergarten, alone, had a week. We only had snow one day and it was nothing. The reason is because Mt. Livingston still had snow and that's why they canceled school for that week. Another bummer for the following years to come is this will be Kaylee's last year riding the bus. We live two blocks from her school, and the district is doing budget cuts and buses was one of them. If you live farther than a mile from the school, you can still ride the bus. I told Kaylee that at least she got to experience riding the bus to school.

I'm excited for school to be over with. My Summer and Fall schedule is a lot better than my Spring schedule. two days of school instead of five. When she visits, my grandma wants to ride the steamboat that goes up and down the Columbia. It sounds enlightening.

School End, Summer Begins!!!

One more week before finals. I am so excited. I need a break. My grandma Roberts from Parowan, Utah is coming out to visit and she is bringing my aunt Joylynn and her two kids. I have taken some time off so we can hang out. I was thinking, at least, that we could go to the coast and eat at Mo's, as usual. Maybe go to St. Helens and check out the visitors center. Who knows, we might see some more of it erupt, knowing our luck and all. Hang around Downtown Portland, Chinatown (The Pearl) and the Waterfront. We were going to watch the fireworks at the Fort, but nooo... the guy who always donated the money for the fireworks isn't going to do it this year, because of the recession (cheapskate). It is, or was the best firework display, west of the Mississippi, too. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Okay, I have taken all the tests in my ASL class (Which I have gotten 100% on each) and Sociology, which I have gotten fair grades from as well. Lucky for me, I can take my Health Final on BlackBoard as many times as I want, until I get a 100%. Easy, not like last quarter, which sucked. At least I didn't fail, but talk about pressure.

Someone told me that Portland Community College has an ASL program. I am considering it, except I have a dilemma. One, parking is $33.00 a quarter, except summer ($15.00). Two, This particular location is right off of I-5 and Capitol Hwy in Lake Oswego, about a mile from the interchange of I-5 and 217. The campus is a five minute walk from the Portland Temple. So, from work and Camas, it's 30 miles just in one direction. We'll see what happens.

Looks like Kaylee has survived 2nd grade well. I can't believe how well she reads and has excelled in math and knows so much about things she has learned from science. She has an email address now. She asked us the other day if she could have a cell phone. I told her, "If you get a job, you can have one." She wasn't too thrilled with that answer. I remember getting the Brick Motorola flip phone right after high school. This is back in '95, so you could only imagine. The plan was with Airtouch (which Verizon bought out) and I had 30 minutes for $30/month and for $15 extra I got weekend and nights for free. Back then, that was a good plan. Now, I pay $50 for everything unlimited. No it's not Cricket, because they suck. Everywhere we lived, we could not get service at home, and everywhere I went, service sucked, and the phone would cut out all the time. I love Boost Mobile. I have, by far, had no problems with them at all.

Camping, Photography, Mints and so forth

Well, here is a blog about how much I don't blog. Trina told me that I need to blog more. I told her that I lead a boring life, other than being with the family, work and school; other than that, my life is pretty dull. I don't get out as much as I would like to. Apparently, we are going to change that here real soon. Trina decided that we need to go camping at least twice a year. At that moment, the song that started rushing through my head was, "Hallelujah." I thought Trina would never come around. The reason why I say this is because when we were first married, Trina told me, and I quote, "My idea of camping is staying at a Hotel overnight." My jaw dropped. So in other words, she didn't like that fact that you don't have a soft bed and a shower when you wake up in the morning. Let me tell you. Last year she went to girls camp for our church. I went with her to drop her off and at the campground they had showers and there was even a pool there. Talk about camping luxury. When I went to Scout camp, we didn't have any of that crap. I you wanted a shower, you had to jump in the river or the lake. I believe that was the reason why she wanted to start going camping. Now we just need the camping gear.

So, I am taking a few classes, including Photography. I have a deadline to take certain types of pictures. Today is the day to take pictures. Lo and behold, it's raining. It's been really nice this week, sunny and 55-60 degrees during the day, until today. It looks like it's getting lighter outside and it has stopped raining. I have to get some shots.

Tuesday, we had Tasha over to play with Kaylee. Tasha is a girl that we watch. Sam kept walking around and had a mouthful of MY MINTS in her mouth. So, I went to look for them and found them in Kaylee's Webkinz backpack. I asked both Kaylee and Sam who put my mints in the backpack. They both denied doing so. This went on for a couple of minutes. I decided, at that point, if neither one of them confessed to putting my mints in the bag, they would both be punished to their rooms for the day. Then I went on to say, "If, by the second day, you both still don't tell me the truth, it will be another day in your room." Kaylee finally confessed to the whole ordeal. So, all week, she gets to stay in her room with no TV, Wii or computer. Then later on she came back to try to tell me that she didn't do it, even though she confessed into doing it. I told her that it wouldn't work with me.

So, all in all, that was my week in a nutshell.