Twilight Movie - Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we woke up early and drove up to Lakeside to spend the time with Tevia's family. It was a quick and easy drive (we have found it much easier to travel on Thursday morning than on Wednesday evening) and we even got to see some snow. In fact, upon arrival at grandmother's house we were able to have a little snowball fight.

Dinner was wonderful with some great turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, etc. Even the yams were great. Tevia's paternal grandparents also joined us along with Quentin and Yesenia. The boys and I spent much of the time finishing our Avatar series on DVD. We are down to the last DVD of the last season (which we actually watched when it aired on TV). This series has quickly grown to one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It is touching, fun, and exciting.

Friday we woke up early for Black Friday to go to Walmart at 5 AM. There was a Blue Ray DVD player for a good price, so we thought we'd go. We drove over and realized that it was probably going to be really crowded when we noticed so many cars on the road. And we were right. The parking lot was full and there was a line to get in. The three of us in the car decided it wasn't worth it and drove home to get some more sleep.

Friday night Tevia and I went on a date to go the movie Twilight. I loved the books, but was a little skeptical of the movie going in. The reviews were okay, and most people hated the actors chosen for the main roles. Probably due to this low expectation, I actually really enjoyed the film. I thought the acting was passable and I thought the director did a great job capturing some of the emotions that made the first book - and subsequent one or two - so appealing. Were the special fx great? No. But the book was not as much a fantasy book as a romance - and in the film they were able to capture that pretty good. It was fun to hear all the teenage girls sigh and swoon when Edward did anything romantic and several times I recalled the fun feelings of falling in love with Tevia and reading this book a year ago when Tevia convinced me I should read the books. One of the funny parts of the movie for us, though certainly not meant to be funny, was every time Carlisle was on screen we would laugh. I laughed because I couldn't remember the actor's name and he was so familiar and seemed so out of place. We stayed to the end to see the actor's name. It was Peter Facinelli who most people probably don't even know but I remember him from the short-lived show Fast Lane. One last comment on the movie - I absolutely loved the music. I know Stephenie Meyer was very involved in putting the soundtrack together (and she even convinced her most loved band Muse to contribute a song). I loved the music and the songs. It even ended with one of my fav Linkin Park songs from their last album ("Leave out all the rest"). I definitely would recommend the movie to anyone that liked the book. Tevia gave a thumbs up to the actor who portrayed her fav character Jacob Black - so that was good, too. Congrats to Ms. Meyer who put together a fun story and now has gotten filthy rich off of it.

Saturday we had a family get-together to celebrate Tevia's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. Last time I attended a get-together on this side of the family was for a Thanksgiving dinner - and by the time I was able to eat they were out of most of the food. This event was consistent with my last experience, but it was good to see others and celebrate a great achievement. Immediately afterwards we went to the movies to see Madagascar 2 with everyone. Due to family photos taking longer than expected, we were a little late and ended up with front row seats. The movie was fun, but sitting on the front row really sucks. It is hard to imagine that years ago as a kid it seemed so cool to sit on the front row.

We left today to come home and once again traffic was better than expected. It was a great trip. Earlier in the week we had Nephi and Naomi visit us from Japan. They left Thanksgiving day and we were sad they couldn't stay that extra day. it was good to see them as well this week and get to know Naomi.

We truly are blessed in our lives. It was nice to celebrate that truth and demonstrate our gratitude by eating as much as we possibly could.

Our trip to Cleveland

We really enjoyed our drive from NY to Cleveland. We left at 6:30 ish am, and there was hardly anyone on the road, especially no trucks, which made the drive easy. The weather was cold, and PA was white, but the roads were dry and we made it to my dad's in 7 hours! I think a record! Of course, Carol had the traditional meal with lots of side specialties. It was delicious. Mike & Marsha, Kathy & Fred, and dad & I chipped in for Wii for them for Christmas, so, we brought it with us to give them early and set up for them.
We had previously checked with Jacob as to the effort level of doing this, and I also had practiced at home to make sure we could handle this job. It was more difficult than we expected, due to their tv and set-up. Both dad and Carol grew frustrated, saying things like, "we are ruining their set-up, they won't even be able to watch tv anymore, etc." It was kind of funny. I personally stayed confident, and kept telling them we know what we are doing, don't worry. Dad talked to Jacob for a long time, and with his help, we got the job done.
We played a little Wii golf from the Wii sports game, and that was fun. We got dad to try it. He huffed and puffed just getting off the couch.
Our idea in getting this was to keep him active. He says he is working out at a gym with a personal trainer 3 times a week. Well, he must have been having a bad day, because he could barely do one hole of Wii golf.
We continued to play until they were comfortable with it, then we tried a Tiger Woods game. That was harder to explain to them, and it was getting late, and we still had wires all over, so we had to go, and dad and Michael went back the next night and rewired all of it up nicely and hooked it up so they could use it easily.
Come to find out, they were not ever using the DVD player that Michael and Marsha had boughten them, because they didn't know how. I had sent dad 4 movies for his birthday, and he never even opened them. So it was good that Mike and dad showed them how to do this all, and Carol wrote it all down, and now they can play Wii and watch DVDs.
I slept well at mom's, like always. We slept in late, and then just talked and looked at wedding pics. Mom likes it when we take her out, so we took them to see the new James Bond movie. They can't go by themselves because they are nervous to walk in the dark theater, she can't see well in the dark and can't feel the slant of the floors. They liked it a bit, it was wild and loud and crazy for them, but at least they got out.
Then we took them to a steak house for Milan's birthday, Longhorns. I had a steak salad that was delicious!
We just relaxed the rest of the evening as Mike and Don were at dad's doing their technical jobs.
Saturday morning we went with Michael to Brecksville to walk Honey, then headed home. We thought we'd hit some snowflakes or traffic, but, no snow at all. There was more traffic than on Thanksgiving day, but we still make it home in 7 1/2 hours!
We were relaxed, and it was wonderful seeing my parents and brother and Marsha! I love going home!
I missed you all.
Please try and send a card to your grandparents for Christmas, they ask about you all and love you. Mom loves the pictures of Hazel in her yellow towel! It is on her frig. She has pictures of the 3 boys all over the place.
Kathy- you wanted Carol's phone number for recipes.

Here are addresses and phone numbers:

John and Carol Pylick
1426 Spyglass Hill Dr
Brunswick, OH 44212
330-273-9761

Mrs. B. Uhvin and Milan Borota
7257 Chateau Dr
Parma, OH 44130
440-845-1349

I would love it and so would they if you guys were brave enough to call them sometime!

Happy Thanksgiving

We as a family have much to be thankful for.
I am thankful for all of you who read this blog! You mean a lot to me, and I send love and good wishes for a nice holiday tomorrow. Poor Cari, I hope you feel better. I will be driving 8 hours to Cleveland, but usually, my dad's wife, Carol's, cooking is worth it.
We are bringing Wii to give them for Christmas, (my brother and sister chipped in). I hope we can get it to work for them. We also bought them Tiger Woods golf.
We will spend all day Friday with mom. She wants to play cards, go out to dinner, and watch Get Smart. Then, Saturday morning, we will hop back in the car and drive across PA in what the weather channel is now calling 'snow showers'. Sunday is snow across the whole northeast, so Saturday is our best bet.
Good luck to Kathy and Jimmy on their first turkey. She is also going to try and make Bonnie's rolls. A challenging endeavor. Let us know how it all turns out.
Bret and Tev, have a good trip, be safe.
Jacob, take care of Hazel so Cari can rest.
I will miss you all!

Favorite Church Activity

Our subject in sacrament meeting was attendance at church activities. Suzanne, although not happy with her choice of topics, did a great job being creative and positive.
I was interested in knowing some of your favorite or most memorable ward or church activities.
I just wonder which ones had an affect on my kids, because as adults, we kind of start to think of some ward activities as a real sacrifice to go to, to support the ward, and not for any fun or uplifting reason.
I used to love when our ward did square dancing. And line dancing on the same night. I don't know why we stopped doing it, as it brought out all sorts of people and their friends.
I miss good old firesides. We hardly ever have them anymore.
I love our yearly December musical Christmas program. It really brings the spirit of Christmas in to my heart.
We had some really fun elder's quorem events in Utah.
No, I am not getting called to ward activities director. I am just curious.

Where have we been?

No posts in nearly two weeks? Where have we been? Well, hawaii. Last week we were in hawaii for my sister's wedding at the La'ie Temple. She is now Kathy Cox - and we welcomed Jimmy (Jim?) Cox into our family. I enjoyed the whole trip - though a few moments were stressful as driving to beaches looking for 'just the right waves' can be stressful. In the end I got to do everything I wanted to do except learn how to surf. That will have to wait for another day when I can learn from someone experienced and I have a healthier knee. But I was able to:

- Go to the Polynesian Cultural Center where I recalled my old polynesian friends
- Ate some great local Ono food and remembered my old polynesian friends and old fave restaurant in college (Bamboo Hut - and NO, not the same as the one in Provo now)
- Snorkeled - a lot!
- Body surfed on huge waves. And got smashed by a 20 foot wave!
- Spent good quality time with family

Hawaii was beautiful and relaxed. We avoided Waikiki and Honolulu and stuck to the north shore area. This was great. We went to the Hukilau Cafe twice for great breakfast (mmm, banana pancakes...). It says it is in 50 First Dates, but it sure don't look like the one in the movie, at least not that I recall. We also rented a Jeep Wrangler (4 Door) and loved it.

I'm glad my sister got married there as I don't think we would have ever gone to Hawaii had she not. Now I have been there, and to be honest, I would go back - especially to see the other islands and chill around the North Shore.

We're back in regular life now. Comments encouraged.

interesting economic prophesy

HI, after the RS and Priesthood lesson today, I came home and looked up "signs of the times" in Mormon Doctrine. I found this very interesting:
page 729. 1966
"Economic turmoil: Because of iniquity and greed in the hearts of men, there will be depressions, famines, and a frantic search for security- a security sought without turning to the Lord or obeying his precepts. We may expect to see the insatiable desire to get something for nothing result in further class legislation and more socialistic experiments by governments. Economic inequalities
will certainly give rise to further class warfare and bickering. "
Wow!

Fridays...

So, I am sitting here at work with a million things to do, but I can't move forward because the company PRO7 I need to work on can't get me access to their SVN until Monday. Add in the fact that last night I was flaked by the stake for my annual membership audit and I am getting annoyed at not getting done many of these high priority assignments. But, at least it is Friday. Although I do have to run an employment workshop tomorrow, it is only 3 hours and I am looking forward to resting tomorrow afternoon. This lifestyle sucks. 8 hours sleep, 1 hour in the morning to get to work. 8-10 hour day at work depending on the day. That leaves at most 6 hours at night and when you add in the church you average less than 3-4 hours a night to spend with your family and unwind with games etc. My Sundays have also largely been taken away form me.

Why am I ranting? Cari and I were given a new assignment by the Stake through the bishop to attend the temple once a week during the daytime hours as official patrons. While I am thrilled to go to the temple once a week, and I will request to be a temple worker(which at the Provo temple they almost always grant) it is 3 more hours gone, the need of a babysitter(during the day) and honestly I'm not sure if I will be able to stay afloat.

It is strange for me to think I will begin to struggle with my priorities of life when thus far I have been so diligent in doing things like a weekly date with my wife, Internet Safety Podcast community service and general computer service and help for all those in my complex. This company was such a cushy job in the beginning and I took it mostly because it would allow me to continue a fairly flexible life.

God surely must know how to lay the trials on the right order. There is no way I would have predicted such a lifestyle change in so little time. I had honestly wondered what trials lay in front of me a few months ago when even job hunting was unable to phase me mentally. The news at my company has continued to deteriorate to the point of 50% layoffs sometime soon.

While I am still pretty sure I will not be affected(at least initially) the moral is so low most teams are accomplishing absolutely nothing. Which in an ironic sense is funny since it is really allowing me to shine since my projects are going fairly well. I am so excited to get a break in Hawaii and I think we all need to think about the future and a way to escape slowly from this dumb pattern of life!

lyrics

I was handed a list of the following songs, and told to screen them for acceptable to use at our Super Saturdays:
T.I featuring Rihanna- Live Your Life
Blink 182- All The Small Things
Daft Punk- Harder, Better, Faster
We The Kings- Check Yes Juliet
Boys Like Girls- Thunder
Cupid- Cupid Shuffle
DJ Casper- Cha Cha Slide
Lil' Mama- G Slide
Secondhand Serenade- Fall For You
Corbin Bleu- Push It To The Limit
Rihanna- Disturbia
Danity Kane- Damaged
Chris Brown- Forever
Chris Brown- With You
Sum 41- In Too Deep
U2- Vertigo
Daft Punk- Technologic
Linkin Park- What I've Done
Linkin Park- In Th End
Paramore- Misery Business
David Archuletta- Crush
Fall Out Boy- I Don't Care
Now, I just started last night, and luckily, most of the sites I found let me listen to them and read the words. I just have to say, good grief! Some of the words, you can't even tell if they are trying to be sexual or not. At least I can't! Some I can tell better by the way they sing them. So I may need some help. Bret, let me know if Lil' Mama- G-slide is okay. and btw, you guys have to listen or see the words to the 2 Daft Punk songs. Hilarious. Jacob, it is techno music at its funniest!
If any of you already know that some of the songs are okay or not, let me know before I do much more checking.

Flash of Genius

Dad and I went to the cheap theater on Saturday night to see this movie. It looked like a feel-good movie from the previews. It is about a guy who invented intermitten windshield wipers, and supposedly, Ford stole his idea. It was actually quite sad. Yes, he wins his case in the end, but was it worth it? He made millions of dollars. No, greed was not his motive, but pride. Too bad that the media actually makes it look like this guy beat the system and won. Dad and I feel he won at too great a price, and really lost 12 years of his life.

Por quien was a votar?

Dad and I went early to vote. only one other person was there. I am glad I do have the privilege, even though our vote doesn't count for much in NY.
I hope you all get to exercise your freedom to vote!

Opportunity Lost

I haven't blogged much lately. But it has been an interesting few weeks. About three weeks ago we were planning on a trip to UT. The day before the trip I went to a Chinese restaurant with a good friend of mine and got a fortune. It said, "A new career opportunity will present itself." That night we headed off to UT to enjoy a great time with family and friends. The next day, while in UT, I received an email from an old colleague who mentioned a job opportunity it UT that he thought I might be interested in. I called them that weekend and that started a process which eventually led to an interview in UT last week.

The opportunity looked wonderful and fun. Though we haven't often thought about moving to Utah, the idea of living close to family there and friends seemed like a great change and fun. I put a lot of positive energy into it and did a lot of praying. The entire process seemed positive. The company was very interested and every conversation I had with them went well. This week I was supposed to hear from them and fully expected an offer. But the days went by and all I heard was silence. In the end, on Friday, I finally did hear from them. They called with bad news that due to the economy they were on a hiring freeze and this position was no longer being filled. Their company had laid off 50 people or more that week and therefore would not be hiring anybody for some time. This was disappointing as we had imagined a fun change in our lives. Maybe in a few months the economy will pick up and the opportunity will present itself again. It all happened so quickly that our emotions were pulled and pushed so often. I think I finally had conceded that we could leave Phoenix even though there is so much I love here. From a professional standpoint, I am ready to move on as there is not much for me at my current company any more. Their change in strategy and direction (not to mention their deterioration in market share and profitability) have limited the use of my global skills and experience. I am ready to move on and go to a company where I can make a difference. I will now be working with a headhunter, but given the market conditions and my lack of desire to move most places outside of Phoenix or Utah or the west, I believe we will most likely remain here in PHX for the next few months.

Maybe I'll get laid off and we can then move up to UT and get a house to share with Jake and Cari. So, unfortunately, we won't be moving close to the Jake's and our friends in UT anytime soon. SOMEBODY must not have been praying hard enough! =) Maybe in the near future. In reality, it probably would have been a bad time to move.

For now I am anxiously awaiting our trip to Hawaii!