Up, Up, and Away!

I had to swing by my parents' house yesterday and snapped a picture of the hot air balloons launching from the field behind their house.  I never get tired of seeing the balloons and its always thrilling to hear the "whoosh" as the balloon pilot fires up the balloon's gas burners to soar up, up, and away!

Sometimes, There's No Place Like Home

That's the Pacific in the distance...

Last Saturday (a week ago now, I guess--man where has the time gone??), I made some time for a run.  It was not my fastest run nor my longest, but it was a good run.  Because it was such a beautiful day, I came home, went up to my balcony, and snapped this picture.

Even with headphones on, running gives me plenty of time to think.  I'm becoming more comfortable with that.  Sometimes I solve big problems.  Sometimes I solve little ones.  Sometimes, I have no answers whatsoever, but that's okay.

One of the things that I found myself thinking about during this run was that I live in Paradise.  I'm lucky to live where I do.  And I'm grateful for that.

I'm glad that I don't have to fly half way around the world to visit Paradise.  (Even though that would be really fun.  And there are a few places that I can think of that I'd like to visit!  =o)

But I think Paradise can be a state of mind.  Even though I live in a beautiful part of the world, I've come to the point in my life where I think I could live just about anywhere.  For example, I feel like I'm in Paradise when I come home and my kids yell "Daddy!" and come and jump on me and give me big hugs.  I also feel like I'm in Paradise when I look at E. (my little girl) and see her smile and get a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Winsome"

I also feel like it's Paradise to be in the presence of family and friends that care about me.  And I've been blessed to be part of an incredible family and have some amazing friends.  I hope I'm as good of a husband, dad, brother, son, cousin, nephew, grandson, and friend as my family and friends have been to me.

I consider my home a Paradise--no matter where it is--because of my family.  And no matter where I travel, I'll always feel like there's no place like home.

Popcorn Popping...

Pink Popcorn Popping

This is a picture of my Purple Leaf Plum tree in my front yard that I took yesterday.  I don't know if the tree knows that it's still early February.  We just had Groundhog's Day a week ago for goodness sake, but it doesn't look another six weeks of winter to me!

I'm hoping that Spring is just around the corner!  =o)

Mr. Mom

So J. is out of town this weekend.  She is having fun attending our family's "Sisters Weekend" up in SLC.  Every so often my sisters, my mom, and the sisters-in-law get together to hang out and do girl stuff.  Actually, I'm not really sure what they do (probably get things like pedicures and facials or something), but they all seem to love it.

So I've been playing "Mr. Mom" for about two days now.  Yesterday was the first full day.  I was supposed to work from home.  That didn't quite work out as I had a last minute, emergency appearance I had to make for a client.  I thought I'd be home just after lunch and spend the rest of the day with the kids after sending the babysitter home.  Instead, I had all sorts of emergency calls, letters to send, and meetings.  It was probably one of the longest, craziest days I've had in a while.  To say it was stressful would be an understatement.

To make a long story short, I left the house at 8:15 a.m. and sent the babysitter home at 8:00 p.m.  I was 130 bones poorer, but it was worth it knowing the kids had been well-cared for and safe.  I'm not sure how working moms do it.

I thought it would be fun to watch a movie last night with the boys.  They loved it.  I totally passed out!  The boys woke me up when it was over and I made sure that they got to bed before hitting the sack myself.

I got woken up this morning at about 7:30 a.m. by my daughter (E.) asking me for a "chocolate shake."  That's what she calls chocolate milk.  Since then, it's been a whirlwind of a soccer games, errands, trips to the store, diaper changes, feeding kids, more diaper changes, and trying to do a few projects around the house.  Again, I'm not really sure how J. does it on a regular basis.  But I know that she'd be proud of me.  More importantly, she'll be thrilled to read this and hear how "hard" I think it is to do her job.  (I love you J.!)

One of today's projects--I added a shelf for drying clothes in the laundry room.

This is how we roll through Walmart!

The boys are still going strong downstairs.  I pray they haven't made too many messes down there that I'll have to clean up later.  I got E. down to bed and am trying to enjoy the BYU football game before it's time to put the boys down.

It's been a lot of fun to spend some quality time with the kids.  They have been great and we are blessed with better kids than we probably deserve.  E. especially is so adorable.  She is 3 and actually picked out her purple outfit (above) and pink pajamas below and dressed herself today.

I have loved it every single time she has told me today: "Daddy, I love you sooo much!"  She is such a momma's girl, that this is really a huge deal and feels like a breakthrough for me!  :)

Watching the BYU football game together...Go Cougars!

J., you probably are too busy at Sister's Weekend to read this, but when you do, I hope you feel better knowing that the kids are good, happy, and well fed.  We've had a great time, but I'm glad I don't have to quit my day job to do yours!  :)  Hurry home, we miss you!!

The Drought Is Over!

I do not <3 droughts, especially when they are en mi casa!

I'm proud to announce that as of approximately 11:30 a.m. yesterday, the water was back on at our house!  Hallelujah!

If you remember nothing else from this post, here are two very important life lessons that I learned from the recent water outage in our house:

#1 - Check Your Warranty!

Remember how I said that our house was only four years old?  Well, a friend of mine reminded me that new homes in California are basically under warranty for ten years.

What does this mean?

Scott the Plumber hard at work...and The Price Was Right!

It means that one (1) strategically placed call to my builder + one (1) more call to the original plumber = the pipe was fixed under warranty.

Total out of pocket cost:  Zero, zilch, nada, gratis, FREE!

So, when you have a warranty, 1 + 1 = $0

The builder (Standard Pacific) and the plumber are even sending someone out tomorrow to re-pour the concrete pad that I had to have demo'd.  I love good customer service!!!

(and I'm a little embarrasssed I didn't think of this sooner)

#2 - There's Always a Workaround

Remember how I said that I would have run my neighbor's hose into my kitchen if I could have?  Turns out I didn't even need to go to that much trouble.

I did not know this, but Scott the Plumber told me that if you shut off the valve to the house, you can run a hose from his outdoor spigot to your home's outdoor spigot and you will have water in your house.  Maybe it won't be as strong as your normal pressure, but it will work.

I'm excited to try this next time someone I know (because this better not happen to me ever again!) has a pipe break.

#3 - Yesterday Morning -- A Photo Essay

Mark and Gabriel showed up promptly at 7 a.m.
They didn't waste any time getting to work.

Jackhammer?  We don't need no stinkin' jackhammer!

The hole wasn't hard to spot once we got rid of the concrete.

Someone did a lazy repair job during construction.
It's not supposed to look like this...

Much Better!!

This is pretty much what the driveway looks like now...
...minus the plumber of course!

Yes, still not complete, but did I mention that we have water??

Morning Fog

Fog drifts from the sea...

Density and mystery

Shroud the vale below.