North Pole City

We got a good tip from some long-time residents in our ward about a year-round Christmas store called North Pole City about 30 minutes from our house. My camera photos don't do it justice. You walk in and you're inside a Christmas tree. Lights and ornaments everywhere. Tree after tree, nutcrackers of every size up to the $3000 model that's taller than me. Just incredible. The $1 kids train ride didn't hurt either!

New Design

It still needs a bit more polish but here's our redone design ready for our Christmas newsletters to go out. Yay!

Christkindlmarkt

We had such fun going to Christkindlmarkt today! We went to the annual event put on by the German-American Society of Tulsa (Oklahoma) which is a traditional market in German towns with craftspeople selling Christmas things, ornaments, etc. St. Nicholas and the Christkindl also roam the market. It takes place on St. Nicholas' day which is already a fun day for our family. On that day we leave out a shoe each for St. Nicholas to (hopefully) put some treats in.

In the morning we did have some treats and after Dad, Grant and Nina attended the Home Depot Kids' Workshop we piled into the van and set off for Tulsa which is about an hour and a half away. Nina unfortunately didn't make it to Tulsa without getting sick and losing all those treats she had. But she recovered and we enjoyed the market, the puppet show, the kids' play room, and the great German food- schnitzel, bratwurst and sauerkraut, apple strudel, and stollen which was my favorite. It's kind of a fruitcake I'm guessing.

Our Favorites from the Photo Shoot

Our great friends (and cousins) at Fife Photography came to Thanksgiving and brought potatoes, pie, and a camera.

Our April Calendar Page!

The journey is complete. See if you can guess who's who (not hard) and what their power is (much harder).



(You can click it for the big version too, BTW)

My Stand

Well, the last week and more have been a very trying experience for me. As anyone that knows me knows, I have been a dedicated and enthusiastic Mac user. That changed when Apple made their announcement to donate money to the efforts to stop Proposition 8. I was interested to note that this announcement has since been utterly removed from their website.

This is what I have written and will be sending to Apple and a few others:

To My Friends at Apple, Inc.,

My name is Dave Lyon and I've been a dedicated Apple user and fan for over four years. I'm a webmaster for a software company and I love Apple products. In that period I've purchased (or had purchased for me) two iBooks, a MacBook Pro, a 17inch iMac, a Mac Mini, and numerous peripherals designed to work with Apple hardware. I pre-ordered Tiger and Leopard for all my computers, and bought new versions of iWork and iLife as soon as they were released. I have bought too many independent software titles for Mac OS X to list here. And I'm sorry to say that iTunes has made a fortune on me. I will not estimate how much has been spent there. Hundreds of shows. Several movies. I've taken my kids to the Apple store for the great classes they offer on how to use the Macs in our home.

But despite that history, Apple has permanently lost me as a fan and as a customer.

Recently, Apple announced that they were against Proposition 8 in California. Contrary to what was said in the press release, this is a political issue. Gay and lesbian couples already have full protections and rights under the law and Prop 8 will not change that. I support Proposition 8 but since I don't live in California it's not up to me. But it's not up to you either- companies should not meddle in the democratic process. That right is reserved to citizens. But I could have let your opinion on the matter go. What I cannot let go of is that Apple has in essence taken money that I have paid and used that money to oppose Proposition 8.

You need to realize that your customers are not just liberals or people that don't care how marriage is defined- I might even speculate that a large segment of your user base is fairly conservative. Regardless, up until now, Apple has enjoyed more and more success because you make beautiful computers that work beautifully. The audience for such a product is everyone that has to use a computer. I can't think of any company that does it better. It's an inclusive message that will resonate with most people. At every turn you have made efforts to expand your market with new and better products.

But in this one action you have changed who you are and placed limits on who your market consists of. You still make beautiful computers that run beautifully, but now you've qualified that with a statement about how people should think and vote. That your beautiful computers belong to people who hold a certain set of values. And that message no longer resonates with everyone that uses a computer.

I am choosing not to follow you to the new place you are taking your company. And though it's been difficult, since you made your announcement I've switched to using Ubuntu Linux and a bit of Windows Vista. Apple will not be making any more money from my family. You have made your stand and now I am making mine.

Regards,
Dave Lyon

October Pictures

News Update! We have more children than just Grant!

Lest anyone think that Grant is the only child that was in the Primary program, I should add that Nina also did a great job.  She was scared, but she said her part wonderfully.  This was her first time in a Primary Program and she behaved her self as good as expected (we have yet to get her necklace that she was swinging around her head like a helicopter back from her teacher).  We love Nina!

Primary Program

The Primary did so great today. Although he was a little bit out of control on the stand, according to many his talk was the highlight of the program. I managed to get them to give their parts one more time for posterity:



Grant wrote his talk himself, and Missy made some great notes for him to use:



P.S. At Stake Priesthood tonight, the new high councilman from our ward spoke- he's Grant's best friend's dad. And he mentioned the talk and referred to me as "Grant's dad." :)

Happy Birthday to Missy!

Thursday was my birthday- I am now 34.  Just a year away from 35, and after that it's a downhill slide to 40.  When I was a child I liked slides, but they are not that fun anymore.  Nowadays the ...how should I say it.... increased surface area of my sliding region creates too much resistance and I end up usually getting stuck in the middle of the slide, or having to inch down. Not very fun. Which is strange, because from what I remember from my physics class I would think the increased weight would make you slide down faster.  Or does it add too much friction?  Do I need to grease my rear before I get on a slide now a days? But, as I say, I am now almost 40 years old, so I can't really trust my memory anymore.  Another thing that is no more fun at the park anymore is swings.  Those little slings are just not a comfortable seat anymore.  And those diaper swings? HA! I can just see myself having to call Dave to come get us at the park because I got myself stuck in one of those things.  I know from experience that those things are much easier to get in than out- No, I didn't try it myself, but I did have a bad experience once when I thought it would be a good idea to put both Grant and Nina in one with their legs sticking out like a giant spider.  I learned that was not a good idea.

Anyway- I had a great birthday.  Dave is always so wonderful at making my special days special.  He bought me a new jewelry box this year.  My jewelry box I had since I was 12 years old was bursting at it's seams and all my necklaces were always in a big knot.  But what I really love about his gift is that he spent the time to find one on craigslist to buy for me instead of just spending a lot of money at the store.  The gift says to me "I love you", but also, "I love our family, our goals,  and won't make impulsive and wasteful decisions with our money".  What a great gift!  The kids were in on it too.  I kept getting clues all week long about the present they were getting me.  Things like, "I'm going to whisper what we got you, can you hear it if I say it like this?" or "It rhymes with rulery box and it's brown." Nina made a tag for the box- It was actually a piece a paper with TAG written on it and attached to the box.  And always a bonus gift that I get for my birthday or mothers day is that Dave takes all the kids to the store with him the night before, which gives me at least 2 hours of free time.  That's how long it usually takes him to have 3 kids help him pick a birthday cereal and chapstick for me.  

So, to summarize, I am now older.  Dave is the best.  And my kids are cute.

Missy says not to brag...

But I can't help it. I don't know how these reading tests work but Grant was recently scored as reading with 80% comprehension at a third grade level (he's in first grade)! That supposedly puts him in the top 1% of readers nationwide for his age.

The test is probably rigged to make parents feel good. And it worked.

Wow

http://centripetalnotion.com/2007/09/13/13:26:26/

On the one hand, I'm just in awe and on the other just horrified. The... books... the... poor... books... . . .

Two Sisters on the Road

Found and finished touching this up.

Great Soccer Photos

One of the dads on Grant's soccer team has a ridiculously awesome camera and has volunteered as our team camera man. And he's just great.

http://edwinchendra.smugmug.com/Soccer

And my favorite- and now my wallpaper- http://edwinchendra.smugmug.com/gallery/6112890_bff5M#384264653_RvU7W

20 Pounds Down

We've been on a fairly strict diet for a month now and I'm 20 pounds lighter! It's all about portion size, types of food and exercise. I can post more details if they're wanted but for now I won't bore you. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty heavy so the struggle continues.

Sicko

Well, Rachel threw up Friday once and then this morning felt pretty hot. We decided, since both of us are teaching today in the third hour, that Missy, Grant, and Nina would go and Rachel and I would meet them for the third hour.

Unfortunately, Rachel threw up several times during the first two hours. I couldn't get a hold of the High Priests Group leader, so we just went (equipped with certain supplies). The thing is, I was thinking the whole time "this is a bad idea". Missy in her lesson was doing some things outside for a wise man-foolish man comparison. A feverish kid is one thing but a nauseous one is another. And I thought that taking a nauseous kid into the Bishop's office to teach the class was at least equally as bad an option.

Luckily, the Group leader and I talked when we got there and they met with the Elders today. I guess I'll just file that lesson away to give sometime in the future.

Poor Rachel. Of all our kids she just throws up all the time. In consequence she knows all about it. She knows to throw up in the toilet if she can and that the bowl next to her on the bed is "my bowl where I throw up".

Insults and Injuries

So during soccer practice lately we've been switching off. We always have brought the girls to play on the playground while Grant plays soccer. But in the past I would just stay with Grant and Missy would stay with the girls which I have to admit is completely unfair. So now we switch halfway through.

Last night while I was with the girls, pushing Rachel on the swing and watching Nina on the jungle gym dome thing, Nina fell. She had been perfecting the dismount and landing on her feet really well. Then for some reason she felt the next step was a dismount onto her hands into the gravel but missed and landed on her chin somehow. It wasn't very far and I made it over there quick to pick her up. She was crying with good reason. Her chin was a bloody mess with a lot of abrasions and had somehow managed to get a pokey thorn thing on her lips in the fall. We washed her injury with some of Grant's water and she was tough.

The next day, I got a call from the school that Grant was in the nurse's office and wanted to talk to me. He told me he had been running on the track at recess and had fallen. He had pretty bad scrapes on both knees and one elbow and was kind of traumatized. Even then, though he wanted to go home he was worried about how Nina would get picked up. Every day they tell him when Mom pulls up and he walks over to get Nina and bring her to the car. And he was very concerned that she wouldn't get picked up without him to help. But I convinced him it would be ok and he came home.

Meet Muffy Our Dog

Unlike Grandpa Fife's family, our family pets did not usually meet cruel ends (not all the time), but I have ended up with a... resistance to the idea of pets. Of any kind. Ever.

So it may surprise most people that Grant has a dog named Muffy. He's a very nice dog. He's never, ever made a mess on the floor. In fact, he never comes inside our house and never complains or whines. He manages to keep his messes to himself somehow and hasn't impacted our budget much. And believe it or not, Grant is the only one who takes care of him.

You see, Grant one day at recess met Muffy who lives at a house with a fenced backyard that borders the school playground and now Muffy is his dog. He is a nice looking dog. We were all introduced after a soccer practice last week. I said as we were walking away that if we were ever going to have a dog it would be like him. Missy smiled and said "That's how it starts and before you know it you've got one." To which I replied, "No, I mean a dog like that that's owned by someone else." :)

Family Movies

This is for my little sister Mary who needed some proof about how cute her nephew and nieces are.

A while back we made several movies as a family. It was a fairly harmless way to have a fun time. They were put together without much thought before hand and due to (if I may say so) some clever editing, turned out pretty good. I think so anyway. It became kind of a chore so we haven't done one in over a year now. Probably should.

I was putting all of our family videos up on Yahoo! Video, since I prefer Yahoo services to Google's- more on that later, since I can't really justify it- but in looking at the Yahoo terms of service it says you have to have the written consent of everyone in the movie. How crazy is that?

Anyway- they're now on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/davestlyon for those that don't have the DVD.

The most recent, Nephi and the Broken Bow, is still on Yahoo Video here.

Pesky Barbarians

You know, life throws a lot of curve balls. Whether we admit it or not we all have a master plan. It may just be go to work, get home, sit down and watch TV but that's still what we expect. And things can be painful when we're interrupted. Lately, aside from reading, I've been playing Civilization IV (sometime I'll do a post about Civilization and Me). In the most recent game I tried out a scenario of the ancient Greek World which is very neat. I'm the Romans and started out with just some legions and two settlers. The legions are pretty tough and pretty soon I had conquered what is now Italy, France and Spain. To me part of the fun of games like this is to build the cities and add to them- essentially making the kingdom great. Rather than just attacking the world- which rarely goes well- I was hunkering down and solidifying my rule, building up great cities, creating monuments, and converting each city to Christianity. So I was frustrated again and again by those pesky barbarians.

In Civilization, you are one civilization competing against others. Aside from them are the barbarians who have no civilization- they just want to attack and raze the cities of the civilizations to the ground. I've noticed for quite a while that typically this happens as they come out of unexplored regions of the world map. But you don't have to worry about them except on the frontiers of the civilization- the theory being that in the heart of your civilization they don't have anywhere to spring from. That rule didn't play out here.

The picture at left is what was happening left and right. Normally barbarians would filter in from the frontier and you'd get warnings about the city of Such-and-Such being alarmed by barbarians. They'd get closer and closer and then if you hadn't done anything or had troops in the city, that city would be destroyed. Now I always have troops in the cities. In fact, in this case most cities had two defending units. But the barbarians did three things I didn't expect: 1) They gave no warning, 2) They came in great numbers, and 3) They popped up anywhere. A turn would end and suddenly there would be barbarians right next to a city in the heartland. There was no time to get help to them, no warning they were coming. And they usually had about seven units attacking which made the sack of the city almost a sure thing.

You should know (and I should remember) that no matter what it is you or I want to accomplish that it will not go as we expect. At my Dad's work training Army officers there's a slogan I remember- 'No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.' Even when we know the enemy is upon us, things don't ever go exactly as we expect. Rather than get frustrated, recognize that barbarians will be at the gates sometimes. Expect them to take a lot of time to deal with and expect them not to come calling when you've finished what you were working on. Don't worry. Hang in there.

September 11

In our family, September 11 has become synonymous with a task that Melissa has taken upon herself- re-evaluating our 72 hour kit and making plans. She dumped out all our kits and saw that some of our water bottles had exploded at some point probably while it was in transit on our moving truck but had dried out even before we moved in. With everything in bags, though, nothing was ruined.

Other supplies needed to be cycled out. Batteries, glowsticks, etc. So there's usually a large expenditure there. All in the name of preparedness. And Melissa has it all in the computer too so she knows what will need to be replaced when. Along with making sure we have stuff, she makes sure we have information. Key personal data and health info like SSNs, blood types, bank and insurance info, emergency utility numbers. False identification papers for getting out quickly. No wait, that was in a book I just read.

One thing that was obvious was that the kids have grown so we had to pack in a new set of clothes. Rachel's got the toughest job of course since her backpack is loaded with diapers. So while I'm carrying the huge bag with tons of water I'll need to be carrying Rachel and her bag too. :)

Each of us has a bag for the 72 hour kit. A backpack for each kid with some activities and snacks they can have in a tornado. A large duffle for Melissa and a very large rolling bag for dad with a lot of water and heavy things.

Grant's looking over my shoulder wondering what a blog is and when I explained now wants to help. We'll see...

The Bus

We had talked about it before but suddenly this morning I was gripped with anxiety. Today Grant was going to ride the bus to school. He's never been able to until first grade and we had just been driving him. But he wanted to ride the bus and it's sure more economical for us (even though school is about a two minute drive).

How can I let this little boy hop on a bus full of strangers? I wouldn't even know if he got there safely. Would he be alright? Would he get off at school or hide under the seat so he wouldn't have to go? Not as farfetched as you might think. But I chose not to share my fears. He looked out the window at me and gave a big grin. Freedom! :)

Later, when I asked if it went ok and if he got off at the right place he said that he didn't and the bus driver had to bring him back. We stiffened. Then Missy asked, "Are you making that up?" And Grant gave a grin and nodded.

Game Day

You wouldn't think that they'd have a game the first week they have a practice, but they did. It was pretty interesting. I lost track of the score but I know we lost- not horribly but definitely. This age group plays four on four with no goalie. The idea is basically a three forward and one sweeper setup. But I think our team didn't have time to get into the concept of positions yet, since our side didn't do well at keeping to positions.

Grant is on the 'Tiger Sharks' by the way and he's number #66 by request. You can tell when he's out there playing he just loves it- when the ball goes into play he gives a little howl and goes after it. There were a couple times when the ball being rolled back to the center for a kickoff was suddenly in play again until the ref got control again. I suspect at these times... Grant got the ball. :)

They're so new (even the ones who've played before) that they don't really ever know what to do. There's a lot of blank looks to the sideline, often as the game starts again, while parents and coaches shout instructions. Bad moves by the four on the field become teaching moments for the four on the bench as the coaches have a quick huddle to let them know what should have really happened. It was lots of fun.

Makes me curious though. I think the media's message is that parents shouldn't drive kids to play/do better in life because they should come up with that motivation themselves. But would we? Without knowing what our parents want for us and understanding what it takes to achieve would we really ever be able to set our own goals. I think, in the gospel anyway, that it starts out with the basic premise of missionary work- Heavenly Father gets the word out on His goals for us. He doesn't enforce them, but does promise rewards. Gradually though, the goal becomes our own.

Maybe the constantly reinforced media message of "The children should do whatever they want." is more suspicious than I used to think.

Bouncehouse Collapses- Children Flee in Panic

You know those big blow up bounce houses that are everywhere now? We went to a big school fundraiser today (grumble, grumble, I already pay taxes, grumble, grumble) and it was mostly a big bouncehouse neighborhood. The bouncehouses were arranged so that only certain age brackets could jump in the same house. So we went to the youngest one and waited in line. About six kids were in there and each group gets five minutes.

All of a sudden, a breaker must have blown and the air blower keeping the house inflated turned off. The house sagged. For just a second I think, most of the watching adults were probably just thinking 'oops' as the volunteers tried to figure out what to do. But the house deflates fast. Very fast. And what was almost amusing at first became something pretty scary. The houses are made of a very heavy polyethylene (I'm guessing) and since it's anchored in place with stakes, you have pretty limited ability to arrange it once it's up.

The kids were screaming now and all the adults in sight had rushed over to prop it up as they could. But we could only hold up so much from outside. The center was just completely collapsed. One volunteer had squirmed inside and making sure all the kids were out. No one got hurt. But everyone was asking "are there any kids still in there?" and no one really knew.

Shouldn't someone be legislating proper bouncehouse safety!?!?

(I'm joking- let's not waste time on ridiculous minor issues at a government level, please. But if you're involved with bouncehouses be aware...)

First Soccer Practice

We signed up for Grant to be on a soccer team with the Edmond Soccer Club recently and today is the first practice. Only a couple of boys have been in soccer before. But honestly that doesn't appear to have given them an edge. :)

Anyway- it's pretty different being a parent on the sidelines. Note about activities: they're expensive. About $200 I think for Grant to play. That's why Nina's ballet lessons got shelved- she can start next year after we pay off the van.

Grant did pretty good out there and had lots of fun.

One Last Shebang

Melissa and I are entering upon a strict diet starting tomorrow. The only reason it's not today is because we had to go buy all the food for it. The diet we're going on is a diet created for me by Total Health and Fitness over four years ago. Wow, hard to believe. Anyway, it really worked although it's not easy. There's no magic drug or bit of equipment. You control your eating and exercise. Pretty basic. It just takes willpower. Anyway, we decided that we'd go out to dinner tonight as one last shebang while we weren't on the diet.

We went to Hometown Buffet since the kids had free meal passes from the library reading program this past summer. I have to say that nearly everything I had was very good. Not spectacular or memorable really, but very good.

Since I gave up all forms of chocolate several months ago (sigh), the dessert selection was pretty limited for me. Luckily, for some reason, all buffets carry tapioca pudding. I love tapioca pudding. Aside from any taste sensation, I love the memories I have of making it with my family in Malaysia. It's never with the desserts at the buffet- often with the salad or fruit. At Hometown Buffet, it was by the hamburgers and hot dogs- near the other fixings for those two. Kind of odd placement. I almost mistook the vanilla pudding for mayo.

The thing about Buffet Tapioca is that all the buffets in the world stocked their tapioca from one central source twenty years ago and are still working through their stockpile. Kozy Shack tapioca in most grocery stores is the best I think. Buffet Tapioca has some kind of drier taste. Not sure. Anyway, I didn't empty the small tub they had of tapioca but I did my best- you've got to do something to reach the $11 price tag.

At one point the manager was walking around and kind of glanced at me filling the soup bowl with the tapioca and I could tell that an upcoming conversation was stewing in the back room:

"What do you mean the tapioca's gone, Frank?!"

"I'm telling you, Gus, there's a guy out there that seems to like it."

"But that tub was supposed to last us another year- do you know if that company's even still in business to order more?"

Frank should his head. "Not sure Gus. No one could have guessed that someone would like that tapioca. It was selected to be totally outclassed by the other desserts but I guess in this case..."

"Is he gone?"

"Yeah, he and his family got cleaned up and left about five minutes ago or I would've called Guido."

"Hmm. Well, check on the tapioca stock and get the usual signs made up for our other branches to watch out for that guy. I assume the security cameras got a reasonable photo we can distribute?

"Sure Gus, sure. We'll make sure if he comes in again the tapioca tub'll be empty."

Not Kozy Shack but yummy. No wonder I'm on a diet...

First Grade Has Arrived!

Grant's already half way through his first day. Unbelievable.

Nina's Birthday

Melissa made the awesomest cake ever.

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A Very Moving Story

Here's our look back at the whole process...

Closed

After numerous delays, we're finally in our home. Mom, Dad, Daniel, and Joe came down with us to help us move in.