Temple running with a belly of Filiberto's

It's a race! Ahhh, the thrill of competition on display in full manifest! Where you put all that you've worked so hard for on the line for all to see. Rachael's got her first race of her entire life this Sat! Yay Rach! It's a 5k color run. I'm really proud of you for sticking with the training. Here's to hoping you don't go blind or inhale too much of that color crap!

I can't see you, where did you go! Where's my gas mask?!

I went to Filifarto's Filiberto's yesterday. I do my best to try something new. I shared the carnitas tacos and carnitas totstada with Rach. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Don't know if I'll get it again. I will tell you this though! It was the second time I've left that place with a ripped up gut! I'm not talking look at me I've got ripped abs super sexy; I'm talking about doubling over in pain because Filiberto's must've given me a parasite warrior worm immune to my stomach acid or something...

I'm going to visit the Gilbert Mormon temple today. First and last I'll see inside. Sorry fellow tourists, I had a been & cheese burro from Filiberto's (left over from yesterday too). I think they have a change of clothes there if I need it ;o)  I read that there are 140 of these temples worldwide. It's crazy when you compare Mormonism with Judaism and their similarities with the law (saving yourself) and having sacred temples.
I can't help but think of these verses when I think about their temple:
1 Corinthians 3:16-17         
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20   
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Acts 17:24     
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Acts 7:48-50

Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?"

I'm in search, or on the lookout for (if you will) for some good BBQ chips. Surprisingly, the best BBQ flavour goes to Pop Chips for a bold and somewhat spicy flavour. I won't try Lay's because it's too greasy and there isn't enough bite to the chip that you can disinigrate in your mouth with just your tongue. I've tried Andy Capp's BBQ fries from the gas station but they also lack bite and the flavour isn't strong enough to beat the Pop Chips. I'm currently munching on Pringles BBQ, but the flavour is almost nonexistant.


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Sleep Walking with Salt Deposits

Holy salt bags! I literally finished running 22 miles about 7 hours ago. My legs feel like they are constantly cramping now. Oh no, feels like the alien is in my belly, as I write this my abs are twitching. I'm so glad this is as far as I go in my training. I sweat like an old man trying to climb a flight of stairs ;o) You gotta love the salt deposits left behind. I wonder if I scrape the deposits off my clothing and face if I can reuse it on my food? Or would it taste like piss?

Yes, I was pretty miserable when this pic was taken. Took me 3hrs 33min.

On to other things! Sean and Lacie have sleep walking. It's really quite comical. Every other night or so Sean will come out of his room, find us and jump up and down while holding his crotch. The first couple of times this happened he would ask permission to go pee. Now as we hear him walking up to us all we say is, "Go pee" and we hear him say, "Okay" and he turns around and does his thing. Lacie is a different story. She'll come out of her room and hang out with us but not reply to any of our questions. She'll finally go back to bed when we lead her by the hand. If you don't lead her by the hand and take her back to her room she doesn't know where to go and she'll start to cry.

Rachael and I were introduced to a really funny prank on youTube to promote a movie called, Devil Baby Prank. We thought it was absolutely hilarious! Now, my dear old Dad thought it was humorous, but nothing to really laugh about. He thinks it's a generational thing. He might be right. So if you're an old fart, don't waste your time.

I'm thinking of becoming a writer, but I fear I'm just too creative... I might blow up too many minds or have some kind of cult following. The world doesn't need more people trying to be like me.

What HAPPened?

I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since I've graced you with my glorious words!

I love the way my fingers smell after I eat at a BBQ place. I sit back down in front of my computer and put hand on my chin to think and what do I catch a whiff of? Awesome BBQ!

Let's see... what happened after March 2012? Who knows... that was too long ago! I can tell you I stopped the blog and other things probably because I started training so massively hard for my triathlons. I bought a bike in March and took off from there. Since then I've raced in two sprints, an Olympic, and the Leadman triathlons. I'm hoping to do the half iron man this Oct, but that's for another post. Right now, I'm training my butt off for the Phoenix marathon Mar 1st. 26.2 Baby! Oh yeah, the world didn't end in Dec '12 either, so there's that... moving on to 2013.

2013 was a fantastic year! Rach and I got to know our Chilean neighbor Christian and his American wife Karla. They have been such a blessing to us helping us out, inviting us to their cabin and letting me play absurd amounts of ping pong in their backyard. I'd like to say that I dominate like a wild bore charging a squirrel, but Christian's got some weird Chilean ju-ju that manages to beat me. Lookout! I'm closing the gap. Rachael started her new job in Aug at our Church, Mission Community in the marriage dept. Added pressure! Don't screw up your marriage Joe! Lacie and Austin turned 5 and started kindergarten. They love it because of all the games and easy assignments. Wait until college little ones! We went on a week long vacation (in June I think) to San Diego to Sea World, the zoo, the zoo saphari, and the beach. It was fun and crazy to go so many places all in a week. About a month later we went up to Christian and Karla's cabin and had a great time! Jim, Karla's dad taught us all that it really wasn't a big deal to pickup those squirmy little crawdads... Sean turned 7 and had so much fun at his backyard party with the tent (with the big screen inside) and a fire pit going for s'mores. For Christmas we got them all their Razor scooters which I think is the only present left that isn't broken/lost or lost their interest. Sean finished his 3rd season of soccer. Lacie finished her first and didn't like it and probably will not do it again. Austin finished his second and loved it!

This year is going to be a blast! I hope... not much has happened yet, but it better be or my posts are going to suck.

Let's look at how I might age in the coming years...

First I'll get fat and grow a mustache

Then I'm going to get concerned and lose a little weight, but in the process lose my hair

 

Then finally I'm going to lose my lips, get a bunch of wrinkles, and keep the mustache. But I never get gray hair!

 

 

Let's look at the kids to date to see some funny pics...

 

I can't remember what he did to his nose here. I think it's marker.

 

 

Austin decided a stamp all over his face would be fun...

 

Halloween. My two favorite girls!

 

 

I know there should be a lot more for me to write because I missed two years, but really? I just don't think my fingers can handle anymore.

 

Girl Hurt while Boy Visits Pets

Ouch! That really hurts!

Lacie rolled off her bed during nap time and landed on her shoulder. She can't lift her arm all the way up, or lift herself up onto things. Good news is she probably didn't break anything. Still waiting for the X-rays to come back.













I took Austin out on a date yesterday. Just me and him having fun at PetSmart and Party City looking at pets and toys. Sean was sick and Lacie was hurt. Austin LOVED it! We also went out and had lunch and I treated him with a soda. It's amazing how much he eats. He ate a 6" turkey, two pickles, macaroni salad, and his soda. Then he had his Air Head candy. All our kids were supposed to go to the zoo with the Fenter's, but due to our unfortunate events we couldn't. Instead Oz got to see fish, cats, birds, mice, and guinea pigs. A pet extravaganza!!

I bought a nice road bike about a week and a half ago. It's tons of fun and a great workout! I'm hoping to enter a sprint triatholon this fall. I figure I'll get into better shape before I enter into the April one. It's really amazing how quickly I can bike 8 miles (30min) on that thing! I beat my old record for a 5K run of 25min 44sec, it's now 24min 33sec. I welcome the challenge :-) I biked to Billy's house (13 miles round trip) and I felt like I was going to die! Not because of physical exhaustion, but because Apache Junction doesn't have bike lanes, AND all their roads are falling apart! I felt like I was riding a bucking horse on crack. Needless to say, I'm not doing that again!

Rach is still very excited to graduate in May! She's extremely busy with her current load of work. So needless to say, she can't wait to get back to doing other things. Still though, somehow she finds time to go out and do some things with the kids. We went to the park last Fri night with some friends. Sean and Austin are really starting to like soccer and are getting pretty good at dribbling the ball.

Sean is into video games a lot now. Mostly Mario and PBSkids.org. It's hard to get him to play outside now when he knows there are video games to be played. Even Austin is asking to play angry birds lol! Lacie has little interest in playing, but she likes watching Sean play. She still loves coloring and painting. All the kids pictures are getting much better with much more clarity. I had FUDGE day again with the kids at their school. I was a little worried this time because I'd have to be doing different stations (shaving cream, eating ice-cream, and hammering nails into wood) by myself with all three kids. Fortunately, Rach is interning in their classrooms so I had lots of help thank goodness! It was funny to watch the difference between Oz and Sean while putting the shaving cream on my face. I put the cream in Oz's hands and he put it on my face and then all over his hands and arms making a big mess. Sean didn't want to touch the stuff so I had the put the cream on the popsicle stick (later used for cream removal) and he applied it that way. As expected, Lacie wanted to do it like Sean. I don't have any pictures downloaded from the camera for this yet. The funniest part was that all the kids were tasked to draw them with their dad. So I got a lot of good drawings of me. I'll have to post those later.

Picture Taken Last Month

Picture Taken Last Month

In the playset in our backyard

Having cupcakes in our backyard

Rock Climbing with a Bat

How much force does one apply to ones head with a bat to knock one out? There is really no way to know! There are too many variables!!! Everyone has a different tolerance of impact on the brain before it shuts down. What part of the head is struck? Is it a metal bat, or wooden? At what angle is the bat swung, etc...

If someone breaks into my house and I want to knock them out and not kill them, this is a tricky little dealio!

Thinking...

So what's been going on? I took Sean rock climbing for his first time! He loved it and outlasted me (and I didn't climb!). He climbed for over 2.5hrs and didn't seem tired at all! My neck and back were hurting from standing and looking up at him for that long. He never really fell. He would let go to rest, but then got right back on the wall.

He reached the top with no rope!

Afterward, we ate at The Waffle House for dinner.

He loved every minute of it!

Right now, I'm really addicted to grilling up some juicy hamburgers with the buffalo hot sauce on it... I think this one is almost 1lb.

Finger-Lickin' Good!!!

Lacie and Oz are doing great! Healthy and wonderful as usual!

Ready to have fun!




My camera was not on the right setting at all for this picture. Oh well.

Playing baseball with his brother

Farting Hang Glider Survives Lightening Storm

Holy lightening Batman! A few days ago we were surrounded by butt-loads of lightening. So I did what any good father would do, I brought the kids outside to watch! There was some good thunder. Lacie was the first to want to go in, surprise surprise. She reminds me of a smurf wearing Sean's slippers.

Almost like a seance huh?

Oz and Lacie should be starting school soon, hopefully next week.

I won my first match of my fall tennis league. We'll see how the remainder of the season goes. I'm still trying to get in shape and cope with my crappy shoulder. I don't know how a 70 yr old man feels with arthritis, but after my match I can imagine!

I saw the funniest fail video the other day. You gotta watch it!
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81839852/
You gotta wonder... at what point did this guy stop enjoying the ride and just want to get off? If the instructor didn't start a rapid descent after number 4, I think I'd put the 5th all over him.

I just tasted one of Rach's desserts that has a pineapple glaze and is kind of like a pound cake. It was really good, but my breath faked me out and caused me to think one of the kids left a crap filled present for me nearby! I gotta rap this up and brush my teeth-sorry!

Okay I'm back... turns out I just farted.

Pretty much sums it up!

Friends?

So Sean did the cutest thing ever!  -Let me give you a little background. Sean had spilled my beer on the carpet a few days ago from the side table and I admit I reacted like a grumpy old man. I yelled out a loud grunt while quickly getting some paper towels and telling Sean he shouldn't have been playing near my beer. All the while, Sean is saying "sorry sorry sorry, it was an accident" over and over. I felt bad later apologizing and making sure he knew I wasn't mad at him and that yes, it was just an accident.

So it's a couple days later now and I'm sitting in the recliner and he comes up to me with a smile. He says, "I spilled your beer daddy and it was just an accident. Okay?" I said, "Yep, you're right, it was just an accident." His smile grows and he leans in and touches his forehead to mine looking into my eyes and says, "Friends?" I said, "Yes, friends" Then he backs away and not two seconds later he looks at me and calls me his pal.  Gotta love it!

Sean and Oz are bunking up a lot more now in Austin's room. They really like keeping each other company. Lacie is still as sneaky as ever sneaking out of her room at 9 or 10 at night to spy on me and Rach. Rach has pretty much finished her first class since she's been back to school. I saw her course load for next semester and almost peed my pants! All I can say is that I'm sooo glad I'm done with school!

X-men Trim Their Toe Nails on the Pot

So I found the perfect place to trim  pick my toe nails. On the pot! I don't know why I never thought of it before! I mean, I'm already hunched over 3 feet away and I'm sitting on my trash can!

My daughter came over to me while in my recliner and handed me an empty little toy water gun, you know, just so I could have it. She left to do who knows what else. I proceeded to pull the trigger of the empty water gun over and over and  over and over... I couldn't stop! I had the toy gun in my hand, and my finger on the trigger. It was like some weird crazy impulse. You try it. Pick up an empty toy water gun and put your finger on the trigger and tell me you're not temped to pull the trigger at least three times!

Stacy came over Friday night to babysit so Rach and I could go out. Thx Stace! We went to Carrabba's Italian Grill, our new favorite spot where I had one of the best dishes ever! I had their Sirloin (rhymes with groin) Marsala with garlic mashed potato's and  Rach had some grilled chicken dish with her all time favorite blackberry sangria. We saw X-men once we had quenched our belly's and were happy to be sitting down to allow for ample flow of blood to our stomachs. X-men was good and kept me entertained. Rach didn't seem to into it. Before the movie started she asked if Hugh J. or Wolverine was in it. When I said no, I knew from that moment on it was going to be rough for her. I wanted to take my shirt off and take a pic and send it to her phone so she could have some eye candy throughout the movie, but the theater didn't seem the right place to be pulling a stunt like that :-)

I was an idiot and and wanted to get some sun on my white body yesterday, so I did my yard work w/o a shirt on. Now I have red all over my shoulders and back! And that's what we call cause and effect at its finest. Don't forget to pickup Aloe Vera at the grocery store babe...

Christopher Creek and a Dressed Up Flying Kite That Graduated

So we (our totally awesome family) went on a vacation to Christopher Creek instead of our previously planned vacation to Greer. Why did we change plans a day before we left? Crazy Wallow fire blazing with its infamous fury!

Despite the terrible tragedy and utter destruction of helpless trees, foliage, and cabins, we all enjoyed the peaceful serenity of God's beauty. We stayed in a 600 sq ft cabin that had 5 beds! Four of them were in the attic. The creek was literally 15ft from our back door!

This is the back door. The wooden fence to the right guards the creek.

It was a 2 night vacation that was maximized to the fullest! We saw a trout hatchery, went on many little hikes, and had many spills in the creek. I was able to catch two baby crawdads! I didn't see any full sized ones, probably because I didn't want to go deep enough. If for some reason I had an insatiable hunger for crayfish I probably would've rolled around in the creek like a pig in slop!

On the way to the playground in the CC loop area we'd run into the Mogillon Monster carved out of wood. 

Lacie's not in the pic with the monster because she was really afraid of it. The pic of her is a true Happ reaction to Sean going to touch it hahaha. I mean, we kept passing it and she just never got used to it. I love how the artist felt that the monster should have some abs :-) The kids called him grumpy old troll.

We are trying to plan another vacation for August to get out of the heat as soon as possible!

As I write this Sean is throwing the foam airplane at me trying to get my attention. What?! Me?? Neglect my children?! That's preposterous!

Sean wanted to start with some extra air

Should a women approaching 30 be standing on a picnic bench? You decide...

 Don't forget SMORES (Super Marshmallows On Ridiculously Exquisite Squares) for those of you who aren't familiar with the dessert...

Fire restrictions force SMORE action over a grill

Along with this vacation we all went to Sedona for Mother's day last month. We went hiking up the West Fork trail again. Sean's second time, the twins first. Sean's first time that he'll remember though. We stayed one night at a hotel in Cottonwood and flew a kite for the first time ever out in the parking lot! I can't find any pics from that vacation for some reason. I blame technology. I'm obviously leaving out a whole lot of details about this trip. This is due to my outrageously tired fingers!

Sean graduated (kind of) he'll still do another year of pre-school. He got the Mr. Personality award this year. That's because I taught him everything he knows! His teacher may just have a list and randomly give out awards, who knows...

Awesome Pose Buddy!

Mom and Dad visited. We all went to the children's museum.

Grandparents watched the kids so Rach and I could have a date night and get dressed up to see a play in old town Gilbert. The play was pretty good. I haven't gone to see an actual live performance like that in a very long time. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Driving to Work is Hazardous to Your Health

Do only fat people watch The Biggest Loser? I guess that would be like saying only single people watch The Bachelor, or lost people watch Lost.

I drive into work every day wading myself through mundane traffic in its crappy stop and go motions wondering if there is a possibility that I could ever enjoy being in such nonsense! What would it take? I guess I could be chauffeured and the possibilities from that point are endless. But that's just unrealistic and won't bother entertaining such babble. What kind of job would it take to enjoy such a torturous part of my life? A video game or energy drink tester, or maybe an Olympic athlete? Or maybe I own my own extremely successful business and my drive consists of getting into a go-cart and zipping down the hall to my office! As Sean would say, "Just thinking..."

I started playing in my tennis league a little over 2 weeks ago. So far I'm in first place. I've played three opponents beating them all. My left shoulder is pretty beat up though. I'm beginning to think I have cancer in it or some bone calcification growing. I prefer the latter. The Australian Open is on right now. Federer and Nadal are through to the semis so it should be a good final!

Our renters are moving out the Feb 15th so we posted the house with some pics on Craigslist Monday. We received an awesome response within the first 3hrs of posting it! Who knew such a small house would be in such high demand!! We were able to get a couple with their two kids to sign a 2 yr lease yesterday! So it's a big load off our minds and real blessing!

Rach is talking with a long time friend today about a business opportunity with some wedding stuff. We don't know the specifics, but it's exciting that people want her for her talent.

Lacie and Oz are almost potty trained. They've pretty much been waking up dry. They still need to be reminded throughout the day and taken to the bathroom. Oz and Sean go down to bed really well. Lacie on the other hand has a very hard time. So we have been implementing some serious discipline the past couple nights.

The other day Sean was at school and was really excited to be outside with "his girls" and accidently hit a swing set pole smack dab on his forehead! It left a pretty good sized knot, I could feel his pain. The teacher also said that he said he was going to marry Abigale! I thought that was the funniest thing. I'm not for sure on this, but I think it's crazy that Lacie and Oz are going to start pre-school in 7 months!

9 Year Anniversary

Rach and I went on a much needed "staycation" last weekend for our 9 year anniversary. It was tons of fun! We left the kids at home with Ellisa and trusted she wouldn't let anything happen to them. Boy were we wrong! Just Kidding! She took care of everything while we were gone. We really are lucky to have someone like her in our lives who is willing to take care of the kids for two days. The trip was all day Saturday and Sunday. I won't go into too much detail, but we most certainly did some crazy things. Okay, I'll go into some detail.

We hiked Camelback mountain. It was harder than I thought it would be, but nothing Rach and I couldn't handle. We made it to the top and by the time we made it to the bottom we both felt our joints telling us it was time to stop. I hate getting older! Holy Crap! I'm going to be 30 in two months! Anyway, Rach has many more pics regarding our trip on Facebook, but here's one we got about a quarter of the way up.

After the hike we were starving so we headed to Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale and ate at Z'Tajas and had a little of this and that...

Afterwards we did some shopping, then went to the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak to check in (same hotel as our first night up 9 years ago!). The hotel provided a "Manicure and Margaritas" service. It would be my first manicure experience so I thought I'd amuse the idea, the margarita helped my decision of course. Afterwards Rach said the manicure was done very poorly and that we'll have to try it again at a real salon. We'll see about that... my nails haven't felt the same since. I think my typing is being affectedddesestedsdfe, so I can't be held responsible what's typed from here on out...

Later Sat night we went on to see True Grit (John Wayne remake). Really good movie. I recommend it. For those of you who have seen the flick and found it as hard as I did to understand the Marshall, then you should find this quick video amusing.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1945368

We wanted to make sure we got to bed early for the early morning hot air balloon ride Sunday morning, but I really wanted to enjoy the hotels hot tub. The hotel was awesome because they brought us some chocolate covered strawberries while we were in the hot tub! We also met a really nice couple that drove from AL for the college championship game.

We finally got to bed around 11:30 and knew it was going to be hard to wake up at 5:30.

We met the hot air balloon group at Deer Valley airport and from there took a van north on I17 a few miles and got off somewhere between Happy Valley Rd and Pinnacle Peak. When we arrived they were working on the balloons.

Getting in the balloon basket and feeling the ground move under our feet before we took off really got my adrenaline going. Seeing up into the balloon and seeing all the ropes made me really wonder how old the ropes were. In any case, I'm still here to tell the story so that's good.

We made it up around 5000' high. It was a great experience that I think everyone should add to their bucket list. It was much more calm than I expected. A perfect day with 9 mile an hour winds. We were up in the air about 90 minutes or so. It was cool to see the pilot steer the balloon with specific ropes in front of him. Great to see low tech used in such a high tech era. He did however have all these high tech instruments in front of him.

It was a really smooth landing, smooth enough that I took a video of it on my camera. After the landing they setup some tables and put together a really nice breakfast with some champagne. The pilot told a story about how the early French aerostats landed in a field and went up in flames. The peasants wanted to kill them because they thought they were demons. The French were saved because the champagne they offered as a gift had the king's seal on it. After that the king decreed that every flight should have champagne.

We went to Anthem and picked up some clothes for us and toys for the kids. We bought them the robotic claws (minus the tree)...

and quickly found out that when they get a hold of your wrist it's really annoying and painful to get it off. After Anthem we saw the movie, Social Network. Another good one that I'd recommend. We got home around 6:30 Sunday evening.

We started potty training the twins as of Monday of last week. So almost two weeks. Lacie gets excited when she goes and so she stops going and minutes later when we think she's done she has an accident. Austin doesn't have any problem with number 1, but has mastered pushing out one poop pebble at a time to get a treat for each one. Masters of manipulation at the age of 2.

Rach has her cousin and second cousin from the east coast flying in this Friday to run the PF Chang's half marathon on Sunday. They'll be staying with us so it's our duty to introduce them to real Mexican food. I hope they get adequate sleep and the kids don't wake them up. It'll be Sean's first bunk experience with Austin.