Even shorter

Kathy, passed
Jake, not musical fan
Ron, Long day
Mandy, school spirit
Tim, improving.
Jeff, excited

The story of Sketch.

When I was growing up, we had several dogs. My first dog was a Pomeranian named Cuddles. Cuddles was a great dog. I could walk out from anywhere and yell herecuddlescuddlescuddles, and I don't care where she was, she would come running. Cuddles eventually was ran over by a car on my 8th birthday, ending any desire that I ever had for wanting another dog.
Later on Dad got a German Schnauzer from someone in our ward. This Dog was Ginger, and was actually a pretty good dog. Ginger was a good kids dog, she would always follow the youngest kid, and you could tell where the youngest was , because Ginger would be camped by the front door, and wouldn't move without the kid. It was amazing to see what natural motherly instincts this dog had. The family loved Ginger, and she lived to an amazingly old age. One day, after Ginger finally was too old and sick, and the family was out of town, my brother in-law came by and took Ginger for a drive. She must have got out of the car and ran away, because we never saw Ginger again.
I thought that the Mecham family was finished with dogs, and we had passed that phase, but God works in mysterious ways. One very hot summer day, my sister Mindy was at the Target store by Nellis and Charleston. On her way out of the store she spotted something in the corner of the parking lot, she thought it looked a little out of place and went to investigate what it was, as she got closer, she could see that it was a tiny Schnauzer puppy. Her first instincts were to look around for the dogs owner, certainly the person that had lost this puppy must be looking for it. For those of you that don't know Mindy very well, I should tell you that she has a huge heart, and in near tears she scooped up this poor lost puppy and started walking around the parking lot trying to find it's owner. When she couldn't find them she decided that the dog probably needed water. After getting water and food she continued to search for this poor dogs family. She walked up to people getting in and out of cars, she walked around to stores. She went into Target, the Loan Place, The shoe store.... she skipped the pet store, but did go into the travel agency, Mervyns.... everywhere. She even made a sign and stood on the corner of Nellis (lost dog, please help me find owner). It was no use, after a full day of searching she finally came home with the dog and decided that maybe she would keep him just overnight, and resume her search the next day. She never did find the dogs owner, and that is the story of how we got Sketch. We had Sketch for quite a few years, he would always get out and run away, but unlike the previous owners, somehow we were always able to get him back. He was a good, gentle dog. He loved playing with the kids, just as much as he liked playing with Tommys dogs down at the end of the street. Sketch kind of became Mindy's dog, probably because they bonded that day in the parking lot of Target.
It's funny how attached you can get to pets, and you never know when one will adopt you. Sketch passed away a few years ago, and it tore everyone to pieces when he died, but we will always have the memories of what a good dog he was. So I guess for those of you looking for a story, this is my story of my bighearted, thoughtless sister Mindy.... I mean Melinda.

The Shortest Blog

Kathy has a math test tomorrow.
Jake goes on a field trip to see a Pipi Longstocking play
I am working at the bottom of swimming pools
Jeff starts volleyball soon
Mandy is cheerleading and working on a new violin song
Tim is trying out for track.

The Power of my blog

I recently wrote an article on Lance Armstrong and his missing bike. Well, it appears that the power of the blog has worked it's magic. This article just recently came out on the subject
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/02/more-about-arms.html
It appears that whoever had Lances bike crumbled under the pressure of the very effective article that I put out on the Internet. I am sure that the unknown person read my article and has not been able to sleep for the past week, knowing of all the bloggers that are out and about peeking over walls and open garages in search of the bike. ( Hopefully anyone reading this knows that I am kidding, and am not quite so full of myself).
I would love to know the real story on who this knucklehead was, and what was he thinking when he took the bike. At what point did this guy realize that he couldn't ever be seen in public with it, and there was no way of disguising the stolen bike. If it were me, and I took the thing, I would not have taken it back, instead I would have bought one of the blenders off of the "Will it Blend" commercials, and destroyed the evidence.

This whole blogging thing has been fun to try, but I think I might be running out of things to talk about. Originally I thought the whole family could keep up on the blog together, but if I ask them to write up something for the blog, they look at me like I have some type of mental disorder. For anybody who read the Chili's post that I wrote, I had a comment from a guy named Frank. He was an area manager for Chili's and wrote to thank me for the things I said in the blog. I talked to him on the phone and he mentioned how tough it was to have to close the Las Vegas stores, He also sent some gift certificates that we could use as a family.
Friday night we went out and used up some of them, the remainder we shared with my sister. I figured that since it is one her favorite places to eat, it would be the right thing to do. So Frank, if you are reading, thanks for the gift, and good luck to you and your employees in weathering this economic storm.

Jake Cello Recital

I couldn't find this for Jake post yesterday, so here it is.

Jakes Birthweek

Jake is having his birthweek, starting today. We are calling it his birthweek because even though today is his official birthday, his party is not until Thursday.

I can't believe that he is already turning 9. Kathy is sad because this is her baby, and he is growing up too fast.

Here are 10 things about Jake.

1) He is a good friend. Every since he started school, we have had parents come up to introduce themselves to us so they could meet Jake's parents. We have had people tell us that their kids constantly bug them to have Jake come over to their house.

2) Jake is a natural athlete. When he was a toddler, the chorister was playing a game where she would toss a beanbag to the kids, when Jake threw it back he threw it so hard that it almost knocked her over. He likes to play Soccer, Baseball, football, and volleyball.

3) His big brothers and their friends think he is cool. They have always included Jake in the things they do, partially because he can hang with them.

4) He is very musical. He not only plays cello, but has a natural singing voice. When he goofs around singing opera, it actually sounds good.

5) He is a great helper. Jake like to help his Mom and Dad with things around the house.

6) He has a spot in his hair in the same exact location as his Dad.

7) He is very competitive. It doesn't matter if it is school, sports, or church. He can make a contest out of anything.

8) He snores, and talks in his sleep.

9) He did everything young, he walked at 9 month, rode a razor scooter before he was two, and started shaving when he was 6 (just kidding)

10) He has a great sense of humor. Jake has a funny sense of humor that can be very subtle and can crack up the whole family

Have you seen this mans bike?

Yesterday, it was reported that Lance Armstrong had his bike stolen from his Astana team truck in California. This is pretty tragic news for a bike rider. It is not as if they stole just any bike, they took his time trial bike. For anyone reading this that is not a bike rider (that would probably be everybody except for Ron S) you are probably thinking, "big deal, buy another bike". It is irrelevant that Lance probably has not had to buy a bike since he was in his late teens, he is such an awesome rider that manufactures line up to give him free bikes and gear. A riders bike is more than just a chunk of parts attached to two wheels, it is an extension of them and their personality. Here is a picture of Lances missing TT bike.

This bike is a one of a kind $10,000.00 plus racing machine. It has been custom fit in a wind tunnel so that it takes full advantage of not only Armstrong's racing style, posture, and build, it is just plain cool to look at. If this were to be compared to a race car, it would be a Formula 1. This bike has not only been designed to go fast, it has been color coordinated to make the greatest bike rider ever, look even more cool than he is already. If Lance were behind you in a time trial race,and you saw him coming at you on this bike, you would probably pull over, get off your bike, take a picture, and run to the nearest internet cafe to blog about the religious encounter that had just happened to you, all the while forgetting that you were supposed to be racing.

Don't believe me, look at this picture. Even in this still frame you can see that this bike was made for Lance. Lance is such a strong rider, that on this bike the laws of physics are defied. It has been proven that Lance is such a strong time trial rider, that when he is in full race mode his bike actually is standing still and the world rotates underneath him. (again refer to above photo). So please, for all of the thousands of people that follow this blog on a daily basis, please return this bike to it's rightful owner. You will probably not be prosecuted, the police will understand that just gazing on this bike may cause a normally law abiding person to have visions of grandeur of passing every other bike racer ever born, or yet to be conceived. Please understand that just like Excalibur, there is only one that has the ability to handle this tool, and in the wrong hands it is useless.

If I sound passionate about this, you will have to excuse me. Unless you have ever been in love with your bike, you will not know the loss that Lance must be feeling right now. When I was a kid my dad.. er... Santa, brought me my first love. A Schwinn Orange Krate, a bike that oozed cool. It was orange, with a big fat slick tire in the rear and a little tiny wheel up front. It had chrome handle bars, chrome front shocks, and piston shocks on the rear seat. The seat was an Orange and shiny silver banana seat with SS stripes highlighting the S that stood for Schwinn. It had a freewheel on the back, drum brakes up front and a rear clincher brake on the back. The coolest thing about this bike was the 5 speeds that could be shifted by the large selector shifter on the center crossbar, If you forgot hpw many gears there were you only had to look down the big black 5 on the shifter. It even came with orange tassels streaming from the handgrips, (I removed them immediately because they were slightly nerdy even in the 70's).

I was in love with this bike. I washed and dried it by hand, and made sure that it was kept out of the rain. If I ever went to 7-11 I would wait outside with it while my friends went inside. When I finally outgrew my bike I still held onto it. It was kept on the side of the house, and even though I could no longer get parts for it and knew I would never ride it again, I would occasionally check on it. After I got married, I went on the side of Mom's house to check it out, it was gone... I frantically tried to find out what could have happened to it, nobody knew where it was. Just when I thought that the bike was gone for good, Mom asked me to check with Darren, I did, and he confessed that he had given it to the Gubler kid to make a lowrider bike out of it. I went into full blown panic mode, I had visions of the Gubler kid chopping up my bike and riding it around with his big elephant like ears (Sorry gube, you know they were huge). I also felt betrayed, Darren had given away my bike (I still think this would have disqualified him from Metro, if they had ever found out.) I made Darren go get my bike, and to this day I still have it. I have looked up companies on the internet, made calls to a local guy that restores old Krate bikes, but know that there is no way that I can justify spending the $1,500.00 that it would cost to restore it. Even if I did restore it, I wouldn't want to ride it for fear that it was not as magnificent as I remembered it., and how stupid would I look doing it.

I have thoughts that maybe some day I will find a guy that has a love for this particular type of bike, and the knowledge to properly restore it. If I ever find that guy, and after a very thorough background check to make sure that it will not be sold to anybody, ever, I might think of adopting it out. In the meantime, it is still in my possession. Since then I have had other bikes, and I have loved them all. There was the red Scrambler, the chrome Redline that I cracked in Cedar City, the white metal 10 speed that I used to ride out to Boulder City and back on Sunday mornings. I had a Raleigh 15 speed that I rode from Salt Lake to Vegas, a black Nishiki that probably could have been ridden more. My only Mountain bike is a Rocky Mountain, that needs new pedals and a rear tire. I have a blue Trek that I rode my first Century on and have ridden several times in the Rosarito to Ensanada ride, as well as the Tour De Tucson. My blue Trek is one that I loan out to people that are thinking about riding. One day I just showed up at my friend Darius' house and told him I would come by to pick him up the next day. He now has his own bike, and since then has loaned my Trek to his brother, (rode it once, hated it.) and is now with an insurance agent. At home I have 2 Carbon fiber Fondriest bikes that I bought from a friend. My Luxtor is the one that I love to ride, although the F1 is a more expensive and has better components. I know everything about the bikes that I have owned. I can show scars from screws, handlebars, spokes and pedals. If I ever had to go to a bike morgue to identify one, I would be able to, I have this weird memory that I can recall irrelevant thing, and would remember the scratches, dings, layers of paint etc... of each one of my old bikes.

So please, If you are the one that has Lances bike and are reading my blog, (you never know, please refer to the chil's comments) please give it back to Mr Armstrong, so that he can get some much needed sleep, and use it to kick some French butt this year in the Tour De France.

Oh Yea, I forgot to mention.

I didn't have any intentions of ever doing two posts in one day, but I forgot to mention a couple of things in my earlier post. Jeff is having his Eagle project this weekend. He is painting a map of the United States at a school. I know that there are going to be several Aunts, and Uncles (hint, hint,) but we would like to see others. I am also kind of embarrassed to ask for help, but seeing that most of the Mechams kids were only aware of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona, growing up,(we only new about Arizona because you have to drive through a small section of it to get to Utah), we want to make sure that we don't make a mistake with the other 47 states.

Jeff also checked on line this weekend, and it appears that he did get his B.Y.U. scholarship. Because of his grades and great test scores, he was eligible for an academic scholarship that is offered by B.Y.U. He has also applied to B.Y.U Idaho for an academic, but I think he will like it at B.Y.U.

Also, since we are new to this whole blogging thing, if there is anybody checking us out that has not left a comment, please feel free to do so, or add yourself to our list. We would like to know who is reading, and it seems that half the fun of the blog is to follow other sites. It is amazing how small the world is when you can find links to people that you know, through other peoples blogs. So again, please log in, and let us know what is going on in your life.

The Day after Valentines Day

Yesterday was Valentines Day. I remember a time when Valentines day was a big event, this year it seemed to kind of just sneak up on us. With the economy being what it is Kathy and I didn't make any plans. We are obviously not alone though, according to many of the news articles this year, people all over are taking a different approach to Valentines, and many other Holidays. In this article from the San Francisco Gate, the author writes..

Valentine's Day spending is expected to drop this year to $28.6 billion, or 4.8 percent below last year, according to IBISWorld Inc.
Considered more of a discretionary holiday than Christmas or birthdays, the day will be especially vulnerable to the tough economic climate. Retailers already have struggled through one of the worst holiday seasons in decades.
"Tightening household budgets will make it difficult to justify splurging on loved ones this year, especially for couples with children who have just had to budget for the Christmas holiday," said George Van Horn, senior analyst for IBISWorld.
The group predicts cards, home-cooked meals and boxes of chocolate will replace jewelry, lingerie and other more expensive gifts.
Couples are expected to spend an average of $102.50 per person on Valentine's Day gifts, down about $20 from last year, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation.

Thank goodness the kids did not let this Holiday come and go without getting into the spirit. Jake and his friend Cade talked me into taking them over to Vila Pizza for a slice of Cheese pizza and a murder drink (he means to say suicide, but it probably sounds to gruesome). While we were there eating, the girl taking the order asked the cook, "This lady on the phone wants a large pie with the pepperonis spelling I LUV U." The cook said "I can't spell that out on a pizza, are you nuts? Tell her I can make a big heart." I thought this was funny, because the girl ordering probably thought it was such a romantic idea, the guy getting the pizza probably found it annoying, because he would have to arrange the pepperonis to get an even peperoni to cheese ratio.

Jeff and his friends all made arrangements for a group date. They talked Kathy into serving a valentines dinner at home, followed by desert at the Olson house.

Kathy spent the day making Lasagna, Salad, and breadsticks, Olive Garden style. We served the kids on the china and the real silverware, (although it was tempting to break out the Styrofoam plates and plastic forks.) She made lemonade and strawberry lemonade. I made strawberry daiquiris. It was funny when Kathy went in and asked "Who wants virgin Strawberry daiquiris." Like there would be any other option. The group of friends that Jeff hangs out with are such a good group. They are funny, and it was nice to hear them in the dining room laughing and discussing interesting facts. (Thanks to Cameron I now know that if a glass of water is filled with ice, the level will not change when the ice melts if... the ice is floating. If the ice touches the bottom of the glass, then it will cause the glass to overflow when it melts). The group is funny to watch, because they seem to rotate dates. For instance, Jeff asked Ema T to dinner, but at the same table was Aubrie H, and Callie D.. They were dates from previous dances. When I was younger it seemed like once you had dated a girl, she was off limits to friends dating. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, it is just the way it was.

While the kids were finishing up dinner, Kathy and I sat down and ate. It was nice to sit and eat with just the two of us. After everyone left, we did the dishes. I don't know that doing dishes is necessarily one of my favorite hobbies, but some of my best memories revolve around doing dishes. When I was a kid I remember doing dishes with Grandma Mecham at her house in Escalante. She kept the water so hot that you had to use tongs to get things out of the rinse sink. As a kid I can remember a few dish washing sessions at home that turned into towel snap fights, complete with laughing and real fights (depending on who got snapped). When there are 11 kids in a family you have to do something to make it interesting. Last night, was nice because as we did the dishes and talked, I realized that this was better than a movie or dinner at a restaurant, just being there together. (I need to check with Kathy to see if she feels the same.)

Here is the picture that we took , after the dishes were done. (Kathy is not a hostage, I promise)

Mandy went to a party for two of her friends. While she was gone there was a loud knock at the door. When we went to answer it, there was nobody there. On the doorstep was a valentines card, a stuffed bear, and a box of chocolates for Mandy. I was not too thrilled about this, because 12 is way too young to have boys leaving these type of things for your daughter. I will probably feel the same when she is 16, 18, and 21. When she got home and opened the card I was relieved. Here is what the card said.

I have removed the boy's name from view, only because I remember what it was like to have a crush as a kid, and don't want to embarrass him. I am relieved however, that Mandy has big brothers that can instill enough fear to keep the boys away, for at least a while.

Speaking of Tim, he went to a party with some friends. I probably ruined it, because we picked him up at 10:00. I don't feel too bad though, Tim and co. seem to have a party at least once a week. I have never seen a group of kids that have so many birthday, holiday or whatever parties. If only I could have been that popular in school.

All in all I think everyone had a good Valentines day. I like to see that no matter what the circumstances are, kids have an ability to make the best of things and can have fun no matter what.

The story of the boot

I ran across this forum a while ago about a guy that had his car booted. It was in his own complex, he had a permit to park, but was booted and fined anyway. It is a funny story about the little guy stickin it to the man. If you have some time to kill it is worth a read.
http://www.parkingenforcementforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3&sid=3536c4462c2853a6f6e507dc2fa64e0f

Happy Valentines Day

Good bye Chili's on Durango

Tonight is a very sad night. After a long week, it is now Friday, and we have nowhere to go. Earlier this week Kathy and I were watching the news when they announced that Chili's was going to close 3 of their Las Vegas restaurants. We both looked at each other and sympathetically wondered what the poor people would do when their neighborhood Chili's was closed. When they announced that one of the casualties would be our new-found favorite hangout, "Our" Chili's on Durango we were shocked. How can it even be possible that our Chili's on Durango would be one of the selected few to go. It was still so new, so fresh. I know that it was not the busiest of the chains stores, but it was still in it's infancy, and had lots of room for growth. I think that one of the reasons that we liked going there so much was because it was not as crowded as the more hip, established Chili's restaurants, it is almost as if the thing that made it great was the thing that brought about it's demise. Whenever we would have a reason to go out as a family it was to our Durango Chili's, when Grandma and Grandpa would come to town it was Durango Chili's, when we had the chance to go out with new friends we would go to our new Durango Chili's.

I think that it was the only restaurant that I could be comfortable and be myself. I could impress everyone with my ability to order, "Southwest Egg rolls, Fajita for two, extra vegies"

On special occasions we would order the Chocolate cake with the hot chocolate sauce and ice cream. One order, 6 spoons. About a month ago as we finished our meal, I looked at Kathy and said "I love this place, where else can we eat for less than $25.00 (tip included)" Now it is gone.

Today when I went to the bank I had to drive by to see with my own eyes that it was really, really gone. I hardly recognized it. In one week the evil corporation that owned it had removed any signs of it's existence. The big fake pepper, gone. The signage, gone. Even the parking spaces reserved for Chili's to go customers were missing. The signs next to them for handicap parking was still there, but no curbside to go signs.

I find it difficult to write about this, because it was so new, it was almost like it was a part of the family. The paint on the building is so fresh, and I know that it was probably one of the few places that we go to that didn't have enough time to even get cockroaches or that disgusting grease build-up that befalls so many other fine dining establishments.

I know there are still plenty of Chili's restaurants in Vegas that we can still go to, but somehow it just doesn't seem right. Goodbye Chili's on Durango. You will be missed.

Oh yea, it is the Mecham Review.

I keep forgetting that the review means a: a retrospective view or survey (as of one's life). So let me review, survey and retrospectivate the lives of the Mecham family.

Last night Jeff came home from Volleyball practice and started to break out in hives. He complained that his throat was swelling up and he was having difficulties. We can only guess that he ate something that didn't agree with him. (There is also a possibility that he almost got a B on a math test). We woke up this morning and he was still alive, so everything must be ok.

Tim is still trying out for track. He is in hard core serious training and is carefully watching what he eats.

He is also still trying to grow his mustache. This is probably as close as he'll get to one in a while.

Mandy is busy with cheerleading. She likes it, but I think she misses gymnastics. Maybe we will win Megabucks and can afford to put her back in.

Jake is busy with school and the Cello. He woke up a little late today and missed going to student council. He was pretty bumbed. When I came home his Mom was putting a bandaid on his arm. I don't know what he did, but if he wakes up tomorrow then we'll assume he is fine. He just recently had his blue and gold dinner, and had tons of fun with it.

Kathy went to school today. She had her first pop quiz. She is finding it a little easier now that she is getting back into it. She still has to study pretty hard, but is determined that this is something that she wants to do. She received her first substitute teaching call today. It is only for a half day tomorrow, but she is nervous-excited.

Me, I am waking up everyday feeling like the sky is falling, but somehow I keep getting through one more day. I wish the economy was better, but it is not. I realize that it could be a lot worse, but Kathy keeps helping me to count my blessings and stay positive. My sister Michelle is my sounding board. She talks me down off the ledge at least twice a week, and I try my best to make her wet her pants at least once a week. I love to make her laugh, because she gets all Grandma Mecham on me and starts to say "

Oh Dear", or "Oh My" and sounds just like Grandma.

So there you have it, The Mecham Review.

There you have it, the Mecham Review.

Baby Blessings

Today the alarm went off at 5:00. This was the worst thing that could have happened. I could hear the rain outside the bedroom door, it was Sunday, and it felt like perfect sleep in weather.
After hitting the snooze button a couple of times, I realized that it was a losing battle and I needed to get going. Kathy was already up and getting ready when I went in to turn on the shower. We woke up Jake and Tim, loaded them in the car and started towards St George. Today was the day that Doug and Mary blessed baby Grace. As we drove to St George everyone was asleep except for me. The sun came up but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise. By the time we hit the gorge Kathy was awake, and Jake was stirring in the back seat. He woke up and asked "did I fall asleep?"
We pulled into St. George on time and found the church. Dan and Karen were already there in the parking lot with Tracee. The rain had stopped and people were starting to file into the church. We found our seats up front that Doug and Mary had saved. Mary's family was already seated, Doug and Mary were on the front row with baby Grace and you could see they were probably ready to get going with the blessing.
I sometimes have a hard time remembering that Doug is a grown up. When the Tebbs first moved to Las Vegas I noticed how cute their daughter was, and Doug was the perfect bait to get to know her. I worked part time that year in a T-shirt store and made up a shirt that said "Tough Uncle Douglas" (this was his nickname from the family). I don't know that I really needed to give Doug this shirt, but it gave me a perfect excuse to go by the house to see Kathy, and with any luck it would get me an invite into the house. (I was only partially successful with this plan, and I'm sure that Kathy was confused why I was buying her 4 year old brother clothes.)
Doug was an outdoor kid that never really seemed to fit into the whole Las Vegas environment. He would go to the wash and catch crawdads, play in the desert around the house, and was always kind of a dustball from being outdoors all the time. As Doug got older he started to spend more time at the Ranch in Panguitch. Some summers he hardly came home, and would hang out at the cabin with Jenny and the cousins.
When Doug graduated from high school I thought I would hook him up with a really good job cleaning pools, this lasted less than a week and before he realized that cleaning pools in Las Vegas was probably not what he wanted to do and he left to go to Panguitch.
When Doug got into roping, life at the ranch changed for my kids. It was not possible for them to walk without having a rope thrown around there feet, followed by a tug that would pull them to the ground. If they ran, they got roped, if they stood still they got roped, if they were eating lunch (you guessed it, they were roped to the chair.)
Doug went on a mission, came home, continued to throw ropes at my kids, went to school, roped, worked at Bryce Canyon, roped. It seemed like roping was the only thing that Doug liked, and it was all he thought about. We always teased him that he liked cows more than girls, and seemed to have better luck with them. It looked as if Doug was destined to a life as a ropin bachelor that would travel from city to city, spending all of his money on ropings but only talking about the ones that he actually won at.
Then came Mary. Doug changed. Life changed. Doug still roped, but now he had someone that would go with him and watch him. When Doug started putting on ropings, he quit throwing ropes at my kids and started using them to help with the events. My boys enjoyed working with him, and they really liked the pay at the end of the day. They would come home exhausted, with an appreciation of what it is like to put in a hard days work. When I heard that Doug and Mary were going to have a baby it was a little hard to believe, because I still have this image of the dusty Tough Uncle Douglas in the back of my mind. Peter pan was the boy that never grew up, and this was the image that I had of Doug.
Today as Doug held baby Grace and gave her a name and a blessing, it was a perfect day. Grace was so calm and just looked wide eyed at the two Grandpas, a couple uncles, a few of the priesthood members from the ward, and her Dad. The prayer was sincere, and heart felt. After the blessing, the proud Dad held up his baby for everyone to see and cradled her as he sat back down. After the Sacrament Meeting was over, Doug and Mary stood by the door with baby Grace, as friends and family congratulated them on the events of the day. Observing from a distance, it was easy to see that Doug is all grown up. He became a husband, and is now a father. It is apparent that his priorities have changed, and the most important thing in his life now, and forever is a little girl that has him wrapped around her tiny little finger. Mary is a proud Mother, and it is hard to imagine them not ever being a family. I still have to wonder though...., when Grace starts to walk, will she have to worry about getting roped.

Report Cards

Ok, the report cards are out and it is time to go public with what the kids are doing in school.

Mandy is doing great in Jr. high. She has quite a few honors classes and just missed getting straight A's. Mandy is very organized and methodical in how she goes about her school work. She reminds me of her Aunt Jenny with the way she makes lists and notes and coordinates everything just right.







This one is Tims. We are pretty happy with his grades, If you look at his final Grades he did great, but I don't know what happened on his exams. Tim was recently pulled out of wood shop and put into weight training by the Varsity football coach. This didn't go over so well with the woodshop teacher that promptly had him replanted in his woodshop class. I don't know that Tim was real excited about this, but Kathy and are have big plans for a new birdhouse and cutting boards for the kitchen. Tim works hard when it comes to school. I think he has a great work ethic when it comes to learning. He has to study harder than my other kids, but sticks with it until he understands.

Here is Jeffs Card, what a disappointment:(

Not a single A+. He says that they don't give + or - marks, but we are arranging a parent teacher conference. When Jeff was getting ready to start Kindergarten his pre-school teacher pulled Kathy aside and suggested that we keep him back for a year. The reason was that he could not cut straight and she felt that he was not ready for school.... at the risk of sounding rude.... In your face Mrs. whatever your name was.

Jeff is an aide for the volleyball coach, it is an extremely easy class for him and allows him to catch up on some of his homework from classes that I can't even pronounce. His coach pulled me aside during one of the parent teacher conferences and tongue in cheek told me that Jeff was getting an A in his class. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Jeff has never had anything but A's in his classes, ever. (We don't count paper cutting as a class.) I hate to say that school comes easy for Jeff, he just seems to get it without having to work as hard as most of the kids in his class. I built a pool for one of his Math teachers the year we went to Canada. When we left the teacher said "I'm kind of worried that Jeff isn't going to be here for the math review. Do you want me to show you what is going to be on the test" . I told him that Jeff would probably do alright. When we got home he received the highest score out of his class, even without the review or studying.

Poor Jake did not do so well, A great big F.

Not really, Jake is doing awesome. He is really into school this year. He makes Kathy and I do flash cards with him so that he can be the fastest in his class. How bad is it when you tell your kid to quit doing homework and go watch tv so you can get a break.

Jake has found a way to approach school like a sport. he is very competitive and does not want to be outdone by anyone else when it comes to math and spelling tests. I will post his report card when we get it.

We are very proud of our kids and their hard work. I don't know what side of the family the brains come from, I'm just glad they got them from someone. I didn't post these to be an obnoxious parent, I just wanted to share with Grandma and Grandpas that don't have the chance to see these things.

One more comment on Jeffs report card that cracks me up. He is taking food prep class with Cameron. He loves this class. Even though he didn't need to take a full day of school he picked this class,and his class as an aid to fill his schedule. Food prep is a class that I might have passed, it is usually not loaded with the scholars in the school, but now that Jeff and Cameron are in the class and have access to refrigerators, ovens, and kitchen appliances, I am sure they will finally invent cold fusion as part of their final test.

What do you do in a week? It seems like every day blends together and becomes a lump of time. When you look back on what you do in a week it looks fairly insignificant, but when you break that into individual events it is fun to see what moments of life are made of. Here are some of our recent moments.

This is Jake on crazy hair day. His hair is silver for the day. Kathy had school that morning, so I was the one that got to apply the spray. Did you know it takes approximately one whole can and approximately 3 minutes for a dad to give his kid silver hair. That seems like a lot until you realize that it takes about 20 something years to for that same kid to give his dad a full head of hair that is the same color.

Jake came home from school and washed out his hair, but we were still lucky enough to have residue of it left on our bedspread when he came home.

This is Heather and Mandy's moment. Mandy loves her aunt Heather. She likes to call and schedule Hez to come to our house and do her hair. Heather is such a good sport that she shows up and gives Mandy a full Salon experience right in her own kitchen. On the first day of school Heather even woke up early and came over to do Mandy's hair for the first day of school, just so everything would be alright.

It amazes me how Mandy loves this, but Tim will not let Heather anywhere near his head. He complains that she is too slow. Heather is an awesome aunt to all of the girl cousins, I think she has the ability to make them all feel like they are important, and treats them like princesses. I know some day when they are older they will remember these things and pay her back. I wonder which one she will end up living with in her old age? Probably Riley.

Isn't she lovely?

This is a moment from the Stubbs family reunion. Tim and Grandma Mecham took a minute to pose. I don't know why, but this is one of my favorite pictures. I think they have some very similar features, and Tim is now taller than Grandma. It is very seldom that Tim takes a picture that

1) He is standing so close.

2) He is not putting on a forced smile

#1 I think he gets from me, #2 He gets his picture smile from his Mom.

In this picture We are missing both 1 & 2. I think this is what makes it such a good photo.

This is Amanda and Jenny's Baby, Aspen. If you want to see how time flies, look at a baby. At Thanksgiving we saw Aspen and she is getting so big. I remember when Mandy was a baby, I used to love holding her and just looking at her tiny nose and fingers. Now I am lucky just to get a glimpse of the back of her head as she runs off to School, music, cheer leading, friends, or you name it. I miss the days when she was little, but am glad to see that she is turning into such a pretty young lady.

What do I fill my moments with? These are pictures I took all in the same day.

This is a water-fire feature that we just finished building for a client. It was designed by Jason Karos, one of the guys that works with me. I think it turned out awesome. The client wanted something to break up the tile in the courtyard part of the back yard, but still be usable. Sometimes when we do these projects I feel a little jealous that I don't get get to keep them, and have to turn it over for them to use. We built the fireplace, masonry seats, and water feature. I love how the three sheer descents all fall to meet in one fall into the basin. We are doing some really cool projects that are unique. If there is any interest I will put a few of them up.

This is a shower that I looked at for a remodel. Besides building pools we are working on a few construction projects with our general contracting license. This project will be re-modeling three bathrooms in a home that the owner wants to sale. It is interesting how styles change over time, and sometimes when we look back on things we wonder "how was that ever in style?"

If Mom is reading this I can only say "red velvet wallpaper".

This picture is from my last stop of the day. Don't ask me how, but I ended up going to a restaurant to install a refrigerator door that had fallen off. (If Ron Swift is reading this, I think that this is in my scope of work as a contractor). As I was laying on my stomach on the greasy kitchen floor, with my head stuffed in between the cans of whip cream and salad dressings, while a couple of guys were cooking behind me, I realized that I don't know $*@+ about installing kitchen doors. After analyzing what I did in a day, it now is clear why my kids don't have any idea what I do for a living.