Blog Changes

I (Dave) came upon the realization recently that I am more of an internet consumer than I am an internet producer. This stems from the fact, as I mentioned on G+ and FB, I am an info/research geek, so I love reading and learning (i.e. consuming information) and not so much spending the time to produce internet content. When I first created my blog, I had grand plans of being a well-known/well-followed blogger that consistently produced relevant web content. Yeah, that didn't happen.

I have been thinking of making some changes (i.e different URL, different layout, etc.) and then realized that maybe I should just merge my random rambling blog with Corrina's family matters blog (since on occasion, I have also covered familial happenings) and get rid of Ruminations all together. Therefore, that is what we are doing. I will be importing everything I have posted on my personal blog into Corrina's blog, and then eventually delete mine. We will still login with separate ids, so you'll be able to tell who is creating what post, but it will be nice to cut down on some o the web-clutter. Therefore, if you're reading this from Ruminations, follow this link to our newly conjoined blog. If you are reading this on Corrina's blog, congratulations! You don't have to do anything different. Enjoy!

Utah Trip

Its late and I should be in bed, but I thought "Why not blog about our recent trip to Utah?" Warning, this is going to be one of those boring "travel logs" (like the "quotes"?)
Originally, our plan was to leave on Friday morning after I got off of work, but then we heard a storm was going to be coming thru so we decided to postpone it til Saturday. Really glad we did. We were going to leave by 6am Saturday morning, but we didn't finish packing and cleaning til 2 am and when we woke up, there was chain restrictions over the pass so we decided to sleep a little longer. We slept a couple more hours and, although there were still chain restrictions when we left, the storm had passed and the sun was up so we hoped they would be lifted by the time we got there. We were checking the road conditions the whole way on our phone and they were slowly getting lifted, section by section. At one point we saw the sign that said chains required in 16miles, but then traffic slowed to a crawl and by the time we traveled the 16miles, the chain restrictions were lifted. We finally arrived in Provo at my brother and sister-in-law's house at about 11pm. Sunday we went to Church with them, and afterwards, my sister, whose in BYU's nursing program, came over for dinner. Sunday afternoon, we let the kids play in the snow in the back yard and Will and I made a snow man for the kids. Monday, we went to our friends, Jason and Amanda's house, where we stayed the rest of the week. Our kids became fast friends with their friends and some tears were shed when we had to leave. Monday afternoon, my sister introduced me to one of her professors who has a very important title at the pharmacy school I was interviewing at. Probably the biggest piece of advice he gave me was to make a good impression on the faculty interviewer, don't do anything to make them not like me.
Tuesday, we looked at apartments and picked up some applications. Wednesday, we drove up to Ogden to visit our friends Aaron and Ashley. Had a good visit with them and had a laugh over the brain pizza their daughter was eating. :-)
Thursday, I had my interview at the pharmacy school. The questions were of a different style than I got last year but I still felt good about it. During the orientation, the Dean explained that they received 800 applications, offered 600 interviews and have spots for 245 new students.
Our original plan was to stay Friday and drive home Saturday but Thursday night we decided that it would be better to drive home Friday instead. The kids were getting tired of being away from home and we realized it would be nice to have Saturday to recover from the trip. The drive home Friday was uneventful and their was no concerns about chains and road conditions. The kids did great on the drives and we were all grateful to be home. Now we just gotta get back into the swing of things with work and school and housekeeping, etc. And now we just play the waiitng game to see if I get in. Hopefully good things are in store for us.

Thoughts from the Shower

While I was taking a shower this afternoon, I had a thought (Hey! this is my thought. Don't be thinking about me in the shower, thou shalt not lust)

It is well known that I help more around the house than many (most?) other husbands and people have been known to get jealous about it.

My thought was, why is it, when people see this, they automatically think that Corrina is a control freak and forces me to do these things. Has anyone considered that maybe I'm the control freak and won't let Corrina do it so I can make sure it is done they way I want it done?

Many will say, "that's ridiculous, we know you're not like that" and my response is: the other scenario is equally ridiculous. It's a little something called communication and division of labor. We have talked about it and have decided on how to divide the tasks how they work best for us as a couple. 

And the only reason I can see why anyone would care is because A) the wife wishes her husband could be as helpful as me, and B) the husband wishes I didn't make them look bad.

To this I say: maybe you need to talk with your spouse and make some changes. But above all, get over it and quit judging us for what works for us.

Brethren, Love Your Wives

(cross-posted on "Behold, It is Written...")

This is the title to an article in the July 1981 Ensign by Elder James E Faust. In it, he relates a time when Elder Boyd K. Packer asked him "What would you have been without your wife?" His immediate answer could have been "not much" but he chose to ponder and reflect upon that question for the next twenty-four hours before giving a full, self-honest answer. Although we've only been married less than 6 years, and we don't have a far-from-perfect marriage, I have often reflected on that vary question. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be much with out Corrina. She has given me direction, motivation, drive, and without her I would still be living with my parents, going to ARC, not really knowing what I wanted to do when I eventually got a degree from some university, somewhere (probably CSUS). I don't know what kind of job I would have and I would probably still rely on my parents' cars to get me where I need to go (why would I buy one myself when I could just use what's readily available for free?) To parrot Elder Faust's response: "I would have to answer honestly that without my wife I would have been pretty much a failure." Thanks to Corrina, I have completed a bachelor's degree, in the process of applying for pharmacy schools, and I know what area of expertise I want to specialize in.

The most sacred, intimate, and blessed relationship of life is between husband and wife. I do not love anybody like I love my wife. My mother has father, and my children have their companions, but Ruth is me. Our wives become part of us, and they become like our own flesh—and as Paul counseled, we should love them as such. (See Eph. 5:28–33.) The simple truth is that it is not good for man to be alone. The greatest sustaining influence in my mature life has been the constant supporting, unqualified, unreserved love I have felt for my wife. The sacred relationship with my wife has been the supreme benediction of my life. I just can’t imagine what my life would have been like without having had that blessing.

I struggle with this concept and I know I'm a horrible husband sometimes, but so far Corrina continues to stand by my side, pushing me to be a better husband, father, and person.

"One of the areas in which our wives perform a very great service is in their loving discipline of us. In their discipline they keep us closer to what we ought to be in our holy callings. In their discipline they teach us. It is part of the polishing we need to fill in the holes in our character and smooth the rough edges and make us more adequate. Together we are a team—we are one." Ain't that the truth! I admit that Corrina is WAY more spiritual than I could ever hope to be and she is the one that always pushes me to magnify my callings the best I can.

Elder Faust then relates about President N. Eldon Tanner:

President N. Eldon Tanner’s daughter, Isabel, says about her father, which with his knowledge I share, “When Mother married Daddy he was just a farm boy.” But she went on to say that when Sister Tanner would give him a loving suggestion, unlike many men who bridle or argue when their wives tell them something that is good for them, he would simply say, “If you think that’s what I should do, I’ll do it.”

I definitely have a lot to learn from President Tanner.I urge every man reading this to heed the words of Elder Faust:

Perhaps in these times of great stress we can become what we ought to be in our relationships with our wives. Perhaps the eternal “every day” causes some of us to be more casual than we ought to be. Of course, we love our wives, but perhaps we take them for granted too much of the time. Perhaps too often we fail to express our appreciation to them in little ways. I know I do. We could certainly show more affection and always look upon our companions with love and respect. We can surely be polite and courteous if we try. We can nourish and cherish them.

I love my wife, Corrina, more than words can describe. Unfortunately, actions speak louder than words and I don't do a very good job of showing it either. But, as I strive to follow the examples of Elder Faust and President Tanner, I hope that I can make it so not a day goes by without Corrina feeling the love I have for her. What can you do to improve your relationship?

Graduation Day

Yesterday was commencement exercises for CSU Chico. I have finally graduated and now hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor emphasis in Spanish. Here are a few photos of the event and a video. I hope you enjoy:

This is before the commencement exercises

Can you see how excited they are for me?

Walking into the Stadium

She was exhausted, we had to wake her up to get there on time. Apparently, she put the blanket over her head and put herself to sleep.

After the exercises.

In front of the main sign on campus.

Everybody in front of the main sign on campus.

In Memorium...

This last Saturday, while we were in the middle of cleaning our old apartment, I received a call from my dad to inform us that his mother, Grandma Hale (is my family the only family that called grandparents by their last names?), had passed away. It was not unexpected: her health had been going down hill for some time and as far as I had heard, she had even made statements hoping for it to come so she could return to be with Grandpa. Earlier in the week the report came that she had become incoherent and Corrina knew from experience (with her own grandma) that it would most likely be a matter of days. I don't do very well with emotions (whether that's a strength or a weakness, I can't say) but I did have the chance to grieve earlier in the week. As I've said before, I have a lot of time to think at work and my mind likes to wander from topic to topic during the three and a half hours I'm there. That particular morning, I got to thinking about Grandma and memories I had of her.
Seeing as for the majority of my life, we have lived in CA while she has lived in UT, all my memories revolve around the semi-regular road trips to UT we would take when I was younger. I remember vividly visiting Grandma and Grandpa in their little apartment just a few short blocks from the Logan Temple. I remember all of us kids rolling our sleeping bags out in the tiny living room and covering the entire floor with them so you could hardly walk (there was a lot of us kids). (I even remember watching The Commish in Grandma's living room) I also remember that Grandma was of the opinion that face cards were inappropriate for members of the church (not even for playing innocent games like War, Go Fish, etc) so even though we could bring them to entertain ourselves during the drive, once we got there they had to stay in the car the whole time so Grandma wouldn't see them. I remember her cooking breakfast for us in the mornings, can't remember what she would cook but I remember it being delicious. Above all, I remember her loving us dearly, even though we were loud, rambunctious boys that would have driven anyone crazy. I remember after I graduated from High School, my best friend Ben and I took a road trip (with his little brother) to Utah and Idaho to go to EFY for a week. We gave ourselves plenty of time before and after EFY week to visit family in the Logan area before coming back home (he has a lot of family there too) and we made sure to visit Grandma. It was fun to visit with her now that I had gotten a little older and a little more mature. And then this summer when Corrina, the kids, and I took a road trip to Wyoming and Montana, we stopped in Logan to be able to visit her and introduce Jaron and Lara to her. The kids did really well with her and weren't as shy as they usually are with strangers and after the visit Corrina and I both realized that might be the only chance for them to see their great-grandma. We were greatful that things worked out the way they did for us to be able to take that trip.
I also remember Grandpa. He used to be a dairy farmer for Kraft Foods so he ALWAYS carried Kraft caramel cubes in his pocket (had to be Kraft) so when we would see him we would go to shake his hand and he would first palm a cube from his pocket and hand it off in the hand shake. (Kraft caramel cubes are still my favorite brand to this day). I also have memories of when he would walk us down to the temple after dark to see it lit up at night as we walked the grounds and he would share stories of miraculous events that happened in the early days of the temple (my favorite being the heavenly visitations after the temple work for the Hale family was completed).
A couple of weeks ago, it was requested that the family participate in a special fast so that she would be comforted and to let her pass so she would not have the pain and so she could return to Grandpa. I participated in the fast, but I couldn't bring myself to ask Heavenly Father to let her die. I don't know if I didn't have the courage or what but all I could fast for was that she would be blessed with the righteous desires of her heart. I'm grateful that she has now found peace and rest and that she is with her husband.I know that through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, families can be sealed together for time and all eternity, and not just til death do us part, in the temples that He has commanded us to build and dot the earth with.

Star Wars in Concert...

was FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went down to Sacramento this weekend to visit family and deliver things to people (baby swing to sister, infant car seat to sister-in-law, christmas tree to friend, quilts to aunt, etc.) Friday evening as we were driving to our destination for the night, Corrina heard an advertisment for something called Star Wars in Concert thaat was playing @ Arco Arena that night (Friday) @ 8pm and Saturday afternoon @ 3pm. When we got to Corrina's aunt's house where we were staying for the night, her aunt said something about it being a laser light show set to star wars music...sounded cool enough, really tempting. Then Corrina read in the newspaper that it was actually an 84 piece orchestra w/ choir playing John William's music from the Star Wars saga with a 3 story screen that they were playing scenes from all 6 episodes from in chronological order...with Sir Anthony Daniels as the narrator (for those who don't know, he played C-3PO in all six episodes). That sounded super-cool so I called Arco Arena up on Saturday morning to see if there were tickets still available and they say yes there is and the doors open 2 hours early because there was going to be a bunch of displays of things from the movies on display for people to look at. How could you pass something like that up?! This is a once in a lifetime type thing and they are only playing in 55 cities on the tour. So I make the exectuive decision to take the family to it.

(The one time we don't bring our cameras to Sacramento is the one time I wish we had...It was supposed to be a short trip we didn't think we would need them)

It, like I mentioned above, was FREAKING AWESOME! We got our pictures taken with someone dressed like Darth Vader (For those that know what it is, all the characters in costume there were members of the 501st Legion) (awesome!). They had tons of props, including Han Solo in carbonite, various blasters and light sabers, imperial helmets, ewok costumes, Boba Fett costume, etc. (awesome!) They had the voice of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) be the announcer (awesome!). At the very beginning, they did the THX sound effect and the "20th Century Fox" fanfare (like at the beginning of all the movies) (double awesome!) There was a laser show incorporated into it (awesome!), pyrotechnics (awesome!), humor (awesome!). The music was awesome (awesome!), at times I forgot that it was being played live (awesome!). George Lucas was intimately involved in cutting and editing the video clips for the concert (awesome!). And for the encore, they played again the Darth Vader theme, but louder because they didn't have the video w/ sound effects/dialogue behind them (super double triple awesome!!!) I was half expecting for Vader himself to come out on stage and force-strangle someone :-) And the whole family loved it. Lara was dancing to the music, until she got tuckered out and fell asleep. I am most definately glad we went!

Update on the Duckies

As you may recall from this post, Jaron has a group of duckies that have been living in his bedroom. As I mentioned previous, we decided just to let them stay there until Jaron was ready for them to go away. Fortunately, that first night was the only night that they disturbed his sleep, and they haven't bitten him since. Additionally, since they didn't break skin when they bit, we haven't had to worry about salmonella or rabies or whatever :-) He has continued to keep his door closed during the day so as to not let them out. But now they are his pets. Approximately a week or so ago, while his door was closed, I saw him open the door, pop his head in, say "Hi duckies!" and then close the door again. And then, earlier this week while I was at work, Corrina reports to me that Jaron wanted the door left open so the duckies could come out. Then later they went back in and he closed the door again. I just can't help thinking that it is so friggin' cute and very humorous that his proverbial "monster-under-the-bed" archetype has now turned into his "imaginary-friend/pet" archetype. (For a decent overview on the subject of archetypes, as defined by Carl Jung, follow this link. Keep in mind that Star Wars is so popular b/c George Lucas studied the work of Joseph Campbell on the subject and modeled the characters and plots after common themes {"archetypes"} of mythology, etc.)

Nostalgia

We are starting the process of scanning a bunch of old pictures and transferring negatives to CD so I decided to post some of the ones I found amusing (if not a little embarrassing):

Any guesses on if this is Will or me? It took Corrina and I a while to figure it out.

Any body remember this big, black behemoth? I learned to drive in this thing

Ah, yes. The skim board Will and I made as a scout activity to prepare for a camping trip to the beach.


Will and I again. Can you believe we would fool people into thinking we were twins?

When Corrina first saw this, she thought it was Gary...Can I pretend that she was right? :-)

There's not much to say about this

This was a fun hike! Look at this group of guys that went.

Will trying to act all serious 'cuz he's on staff...I think that's a dead rattlesnake he's carrying.

Family photo circa 1999 (Wes is on his mission)

Our Family, circa 1997 (I would be 14 yrs old)

Ben Saunders, Gary, Will and I when Will, Ben, and I were on staff for Camporee

circa 1999

I'm becoming my dad!

With every passing day I begin to realize more and more just how much like my father I'm becoming. The evidence:

1. I have to carry a pen around with me everywhere I go
2. My joints, especially knees and ankles, creak and pop when I walk
3. I get my children's names confused
4. I listen to conservative talk radio
5. I wipe my children's snotty noses with the handerchief that I carry in my back pocket
6. I fall asleep in front of the TV no matter how much activity is going on around me

That's just what I've noticed lately...I'm sure I'll find more later. I guess you could call this belated Father's Day wishes since Father's Day was on Sunday.

I love you Dad!

Update

Well, its been a while since I've posted anything, and its been even longer since I've posted anything non-political. The last three weeks I've been taking a summer school class and really focusing on that. (Did you know that the masseter, zygomaticus, buccinator, digastric, and sternocleidomastoid are all muscles of the skull, as well as the orbicularis oris and orbicularis occuli?) I still have three more weeks of this but decided to give a quick update because this has been a crazy weekend that's not over yet.

Friday we drove down to Sacramento to drop Jaron off at my sister's place for a sleep over. After spending some time with them, we said good bye to Jaron and drove down to Berkeley. The purpose for going to Berkeley was so I could take the PCAT. Its kind of like the MCAT for for medical school but the PCAT is for pharmacy schools. After checking into the hotel, we had to run to Target to buy some Genteal Gel eyedrops because I forgot mine in Chico, after which we went out to eat. Saturday Morning, I was almost late for the PCAT because UC Berkeley is confusing and Google maps were a little inaccurate. Fortunately, they were only reading the general directions and filling out the front cover of the answer booklet with name, date, etc. etc. I have no idea how well I did and I have to wait ~6wks for the results to be mailed but it seemed more difficult than the practice test I had taken online earlier in the week.

Corrina dropped me off at the test center and went off to kill ~4hrs while I was testing. After the test, she comes and picks me up and tells me about her adventures with the pay-to-park parking lot at the Emeryville Mall. I'll let her give the details...I'll just say that it must have been really stressful, I would have flipped out.

After the test I call my sister to see how Jaron did: overall, pretty good, however:

• He fought going to bed from 7:30 - 10
• At ~2am, woke up screaming and had to be held (right?)
• STILL woke up @ 6am
• Was doing fine that morning, they went to my parent's to go swimming and he was having a great time.

It was ~1:30 when we called and he hadn't gone down for a nap or anything. We we got there @ ~4pm, he had just barely gotten wiped-out and had fallen asleep. We then drove to Corrina's Grandma's house because Corrina's mom, Corrina's brother's girlfriend and their kids were visiting from Wyoming.

Jaron didn't go down til late again and woke up screaming @ 2 or 3. I think he was partially traumatized from not having us the night before and the room being so dark he couldn't even see tat we were there with him. All his crying woke up Lara so it was quite the struggle to try to get them both to calm down and go back to sleep. Now we are goig to go to church, then off to Corrina's Aunt's house for a family get together. And after that, drive back to Chico today to start the week all over tomorrow. Oh, and did I mention that Lara is REALLY tired of the car seat? Fun times :-)

Jaron Being Cute

This is a video I took on a cheap video camera we let Jaron play with now. It was so cute. He loves fish, Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a Little Teapot, and the Pickle Dance (from Little Rascals). What's even cuter is the fact that he LOVES watching it...until he accidentally deleted it from the camera.

more photos

here are some more random photos that some might find enjoyable

first photos

because there has been much anticipation for pictures of the huge baby, i have selected a few to post here. corrina might choose others and we will eventually get all of them on costco photocenter to share.

this is a picture of me cutting her umbilical cord

this is photographic evidence that lara weighed 11lbs 15oz

for those that were wondering, this is a whole lot of placenta (what, you didn't think i'd get a picture?)

and these are the first family photos

see how jaron is loving on her already?