Wii Fit

We have had Wii Fit for nearly 3 weeks now. I must admit that it has been
a welcome addition to our home. It is very interesting to see all of your
family members using a fitness tool daily - and for quite a bit of time.
Wii has made getting a little exercise fun and competitive and easy to do
from your front room. It is easy enough for kids to do and yet challenging
enough for adults to do and even feel sore. I find myself looking forward
to doing the Wii Fit and getting new Yoga poses and getting higher reps for
the strength training. I have seen myself struggle to do some of the
trainings at first and seen large improvements in my strength and stability
in just a few short weeks (e.g. the plank!). I have found my arms sore
from doing a pushup challenge and my abs sore from increasing my reps on
the V.

But the thing I find most interesting and best about the Wii Fit is it
motivates me in other areas, too. So not only am I doing some physical
exercise on the Wii (though you could argue limited), it inspires me to do
my other exercise and to eat better. I am motivated to get my BMI down and
get excited when it does. Though more recently I have been disappointed
when it goes up, it hasn't made me give up hope entirely. And the fact
that my whole family is doing it with me keeps me going, too.

Regarding the weighing in, I have found that on days I think my weight
(BMI) will go down, it tends to go up, and vice versa. I'm not sure why
this is. In the end my BMI hasn't really decreased much (overall) since I
started nearly 3 weeks ago. But I feel like I look better. My pants
"feel" better. I am convinced that my body carries a TON of water weight
or that our carpet gives varied readings to the Wii. I have found my
weight go up nearly 7 lbs in one day. And go down just as many another
day. And these are on "normal" days - not days I have fasted or eaten a
huge meal. Saturday my weight went down nearly 5 lbs from Friday. I am
convinced this is more due to the fact that I had helped someone in the
ward move and was stuck in hot truck sweating like crazy for a couple of
hours. By Monday it was all back.

And though this blog is meant to be a positive thing on the Wii, I do find
the whole BMI a little odd. According to the Wii (and I verified online)
for my height my ideal BMI and weight would be at around 155 lbs. I
haven't weighed that since before I got married. In fact, I find it hard
to believe that I am nearly 30 lbs overweight. Of course, that is just the
"ideal" weight and on certain days I do fall into the "normal" BMI category
(like last Saturday when I lost 5 pounds!). But I think I would look
pretty scrawny losing 30 pounds. But I agree that a good 10 - 15 lbs would
do me great and I continue working toward that goal. If anything, the Wii
has brought fitness to the front of our thoughts and done it in a positive
manner. I have never felt so motivated to eat right, work hard, and get in
shape. And I love the Yoga. Who knew I would love yoga? Nintendo, who is
smashing the competition over the past year, deserves all the money they
are getting. They have truly found a way to reach out to non-gamers and
provide innovating games that are fun and, dare I say, good for you. And
remember, this is the first game of this type. Other companies can now
perfect this and make fitness games that are even more fun/challenging. I
would venture to say that Wii Fitness is worth the purchase of a Wii alone.
We have had fun with it. And while my little Mii continues to have a
little round belly, I look forward to seeing it continue to shrink.

Books that changed my life

Several bloggers have recently posted their list of books that changed their lives. So I thought I would think of the books that had big impacts on my life. I'd love to get lists from others as well. Here are mine:

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien. This book is one of the few that really transported me to a new world when I read it. I was pretty young when I first tackled this trilogy and I can remember the impact certain parts had on me. Gollum to this day brings back great memories of how I imagined him and the travels of Frodo. Obviously this book is more well-known now due to the movies. And though the movies were pretty good, they can't compare to this fantasy masterpiece.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rawlings. I enjoyed the first two books immensely, but it wasn't until I read the third in the series until I realized what a genius this author was. I couldn't put this book down. It renewed my love of reading for "fun."

Aliens - Alan Dean Foster. Odd, I know. But I picked this up at around age 12 or so at the public library (Milcreek Library in Utah) because I couldn't see the movie since it was R-rated. This book opened my eyes to a different style of more adult writing and immediately led to more of Mr. Foster's books including the Spellsinger series which began a true love of reading. I had read before this book, but I recall this book opening my eyes to the value of the library to find new books.

Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn. Being a huge Star Wars fan, this first book after the movies (now dubbed the Expanded Universe) was wonderfully written and sucked me back into a whole new galaxy of adventures. Though I have continued to read many of the Star Wars books through the years, none really have topped this first book/trilogy.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey. This book confirmed to me that the way I look at life is the best way to look at life. Whether Covey and I share a brain gene I am not sure, but whenever I read his books I feel that he thinks just like me. This book helped me to put into words habits that I had developed and made me truly focus more on important things - and not just urgent things.

Dune - Frank Herbert. I tried to read this book multiple times before I was able to actually finish it. I am glad I kept trying. This book, and its sequel Dune Messiah, emerged me into an entire political economy in a future of our species ages from now. This is one of the few books that I actually took notes and had to write down and look up words in the dictionary in order to even read it. Paul Atreides is still one of my favorite book heroes.

Book of Mormon - translated by Joseph Smith. Yes, this seems like a given, but since the other lists almost all contained the Bible, I thought I had to have a religious book that changed my life. And though I love the Bible and truly it has had an impact on my life, no book has had greater impact than the Book of Mormon. This is because I live my life according to a religion that is completely tied to the veracity of this book. My desire to pray and know for certain that this book is truly scripture from God led me to choices and a lifestyle that I continue today: a lifestyle vastly different from the majority of people. I feel that knowledge - and choice - has provided me with immense joy and happiness. Truly no book has had nearly as close an impact as this book.

There are so many other books that I have loved as I have read so many. Some honorable mentions:

Ender's Game, The Kiterunner, Interview with the Vampire, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, The Book of Three, 1984, Pride and Prejudice, The Davinci Code.

Happy Birthday to Mom!!!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear mom
Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Sorry we can't all be there to celebrate this day with you. And I still haven't mailed your gift. My brain and body are separated by about two weeks in getting things done. Someday I will have to get them in sync with each other.

I just want you to know that we all love you and hope you have a wonderful day. You are an amazing woman that leads her family in strength, by example and with a loving hand. You have raised four wonderful children who are strong in their convictions and with testimonies bright and strong. A greater example of motherhood would be very hard to find indeed. Thank you so much for giving to Bret your devotion and love, even when your life was hard, and imbuing him so thoroughly with confidence and sense of worth, and purpose in this life. Because you taught him so well, my children will also benefit from that. Thank you and again, Happy, Happy Birthday.

Bored at work

Well, I guess i have to blog now, because as I was considering it, i accidentally hit enter and created an empty blog. Anyways, I'm just at work right now bored. I finished using my tester for a certain board type at about 10, and put in for maintenance to change to another board type. Well its currently 12:30, and I've already taken my lunch to waste time and for some reason they aren't here yet. I'm guessing none of them are in today. Oh, well, what a job eh?

So I just read Tevia's blog about the trip to Ut. Which must mean I had a buncha free time, seeing as how it was so long. But it sounds like you all had a really fun time. Staying home and working that week wasnt all that fun for me. So I'm jealous I didn't get to be there. I miss living there, it was a lot of fun.

Well, wow, a maintenance guy just showed up so I guess I get to work, ending my blog.

Classes over! Clean house

Well, classes are over and I finished all my projects. The last project is actually graded rather than pass fail, and I feel I did good enough on it to pass. So, what do you do when you finally get a second to breath in life? Well, I usually start by cleaning, then catch up on podcast stuff and eventually get back to waisting time playing games. Cari is at work, well kind of, she is working next to me on another new computer. We finished her new setup this morning and I think it is pretty good. She wants a better chair, so we will have to see about getting her a new one. This blog was really written for one purpose only and that was to put up a picture of our funny living room:-) I have to either rewire the house a little or get a very nice extension cord because my surge protectors are extremely unhappy with the setup and won't allow the blue ray player and a game to be played at the same time! Yeah, it's a pretty funny picture.

An Update

Here's some of the latest pictures of Hazel:



The last six weeks have been a blur. I can't believe it's been six weeks already! Answers to the common questions I've been getting from people:
I'm grateful for the sleep I am getting (about 3-5 hour blocks at night) but honestly, I could still do with more.
She's now almost 10 pounds, I won't know how long until her next doctor's appointment in two weeks, but she's definitely getting bigger.
She is a very good baby with a very good temperament. She doesn't often cry for no discernible reason. She's very content and very happy 95% of the time. I couldn't have asked for a better baby.
Yes, she sleeps in the crib now!! At least at night. She doesn't usually make it there during the day. Either she falls asleep in her swing or on the floor and if I try to move her, she's awake before we get to the crib, or she's in her car seat because we're out on the town. But the laundry basket was officially retired almost two weeks ago.
And yes, she wears more than just her diaper more often now. Mostly that's because Jacob and I are back to just our one car (we had his sister's car at our disposable for about a month until his parents drove it back to NY) and Hazel and I give him rides to and from campus and I don't take her outside unless she's clothed.

Jacob's almost done with spring term, which leaves him just his capstone project next term and then he's done!! I'm just a little excited. :-) No decisions have been made about where he'll work or where we'll live after he graduates, so we'll keep you posted. His classes this term are going well and all of the major projects are done. Just another couple little projects and a paper or two!

So we're doing well. I'm mentally preparing myself to start working again next week. At least I'm working part-time from home and can set my own hours. But it's still going to be a sizable chunk of time scheduled when I haven't really had much of anything scheduled for over two months now. I'm actually excited to start again, weird though that is. It will be nice to have something structured to do. Not that I couldn't have come up with structured things without work. Now that I'm thinking about how to budget out that time from my normal daily routine (which is never the same from day to day - surprise), I've got all these ideas of things I could fill my time with. But those can wait or can be weekend projects. But I should be able to work during Hazel's naps, so it should work out well. Wish me luck!

fly there, drive back

We are back, safe and sound! It was a wonderful trip! We were both blessed and lucky the entire trip, and except for a sore back, there were no problems at all, and I would do it again.
It is just more exciting to see the country little by little than by plane. The drive from Provo to Colorado Springs was awesome! What beautiful country! I will blog more tomorrow with details, but I have to say, it was great seeing you all! What fun! I love being with my kids and grandkids.

Paraguay, Asuncion

Well, mom and dads youngest boy finally has his mission call. They're running a little low on kids. Anyways, my mission call was sent last Friday, and arrived today, around 1:30ish. Kathy was here with me with Karen, and well, she was almost more excited than I was, and there was no way I would be not opening it until mom and dad got back. Anyways, before we opened it we did try and call them, unfortunately for them, they were in the temple at the time, and were unable to answer the phone. Anyways, I opened the call, and quickly found that I was going to the Paraguay Asuncion mission.
I am very excited and happy to have finally gotten my mission call. I can't wait to get out there, I know it'll be a great experience. One reason I know that is that I've had 2 brothers already serve missions and enjoy them and have great experiences. I want to thank you guys for being such good examples to me in my life, and good brothers.
So Tevia heard next and shortly after telling her, Bret called the house looking to talk to me, seeing as how he had heard the great news. Too bad for him though, I'll only be learning boring old Spanish and not Portuguese. Eventually I was able to get a hold of mom and dad also, and I talked to Jake too. Thanks guys for being excited for me.
I was really hoping to go foreign, and I got to, I think its great and I'm glad.

And for anyone who doesn't know and might be interested, Boomer also got his mission call, the same day as me. And he is going to the New Delhi, India mission, English speaking, and his mission president will be the Ricks Grandparents. A very interesting mission call.

I think thats it for what I imagine is the first actual blog I've written. Atleast I can't remember writing anytime before, except in comments.

Back in the USA

I'm back. How wonderful it is to be able to cuddle with the woman I love
every night before going to bed. How great it is to see my children play,
eat and have fun while I am right there to witness their ups and downs.
Since being back in the USA I wouldn't necessarily say that I have been
home much. The first weekend we headed up to Show Low to see Tevia's
family. We were going to go camping, but the snow we encountered on the
way up to their home made us think twice about spending the night in the
cold with our Arizona tent not built for cold weather. It was a fun
weekend with memories of La Casita food, BB guns, hobo dinners (we called
these tinfoil dinners when I was young) and a fun hike on the Mogollan rim.

We were back in Phoenix for just a couple of days before driving up to Utah
to visit the Jacobs. We split the drive in two on the way up. The first
night we stopped after about 5 hours of driving in Las Vegas. We stayed at
the Westin there and I was excited for Tevia to try their wonderful beds
and showers (think family, people, we had the kids with us - this was not a
honeymoon-type stay). We also headed over to the Bellagio to see the water
fountains - the same ones I had seen a few months earlier with Tom on our
way to UT. We enjoyed the fountains, but just making our way their and
back (about a block or two) was difficult as we tried hard to distract our
kids from looking at the filth posted to signs and in bins. And by filth I
mean porn. Vegas truly is a man's town - or perhaps more specifically a
single man's town (or men who want to pretend they are single) with low
morals. I am generalizing, of course, as we were just on the strip.
Perhaps outside of this small piece of town there is a wonderful,
family-friendly environment. But we didn't see it. We had also stopped on
the Hoover Dam for a few minutes to see the wonder of this man-made wonder.
Even cooler was the bridge they are attempting to build over the valley.

The next day we headed north and stopped briefly at Jacob Wall's home to
see Hazel and play some WiiFit before heading to Jacob Webb's home to spend
the night. We had so much fun at the Webb home as the weather was
fantastic and the backyard made for fun playing with the kids. Enok had a
lot of fun with Ellery (yikes - how do you spell that?). The weekend was
spent with my parents, the Walls and the Webbs. We had fun playing soccer,
eating Mexican food, eating BBQ (Webb made some great shrimp that night,
too), drinking apple beer, playing Wii, playing in rivers, losing shoes in
canals and seeing dinosaurs at the museum. We also visited our friends the
Fosters up in SLC and enjoyed laughing with them. It made me really miss
having friends here in Phoenix. Why can't everyone in UT move down here?
Tevia is pretty adamant that we will not be moving there. The main event
was Jacob's blessing of his new daughter Hazel Marie. He did a good job
and I think he may have even choked up a little during the blessing. This
would have proven to me that he is human - but we all know Cylons have
emotions too. We got to see a few family members (Grandpa Wall, Brooke and
Carol, Bonnie and Craig, Andy, etc.) for a brief period of time. It was an
overall wonderful trip.

Tuesday we headed back and this time drove straight through. We did stop
for an hour or so at a spot I had seen when Tommy and I drove up in the
winter. It is a place in the small piece of AZ between LV and St. George
along the Virgin River. At the time we passed it on I-15 it had looked
like a great place to camp and spend time with the family. Upon stopping
there on Tuesday I was happy to see that it was a wonderful place. We had
the small path and river all to ourselves that Tuesday morning. The river
was shallow and warm. The sand was soft and warm. It was ideal and a
great place for a quick stop. The boys loved playing in the water. I
loved the water and beautiful scenery. It certainly looked like an ideal
place for a "desert trip" type camping experience with some water.
Certainly not as remote (e.g. accessible by car) which could be good and/or
bad.

We got home safe and sound and still it seems too cold to swim in our pool.
How can it be June and not be warm enough to swim?? Seems odd. Global
warming is a scam. =)

Tom's mission

Tom is done with his papers, and meets with the Stake president on Sunday. This went rather quickly. Tevia reminded me this morning that we should get our bets in as to where he goes. We could go back and look at what we predicted, or just re-predict what we think.
A few of the last guys we knew have gone stateside; Martin Wall to South Carolina, Brandon Prettyman to Las Vegas, Dan Morgenegg to Utah.
I am thinking he will go foreign, South America, probably Brazil. Did I say that last time? I'll have to look it up.

Wii fit

Dad bought me this for mother's day. I finally made a mii, named Kari. I did 17 minutes of a combination of yoga, arobics, and balancing. I am great at the yoga, terrible at the balancing. Actually, I did beat Tom in crossing over the high wire. The balancing part would be great for Jarek and Malik. Good news- it does not consider me overweight, just right on the border of being overweight. Bad news, it considers me as 73 years old! The way it measures 'real age' is a combination of weight, BMI, and balancing. I didn't understand the balance thing, so I didn't even really do it. I guess that will make it easy to improve!

Last Days in Hong Kong

What do you do your last days in a country? Shop? Tour? Cry? I am the type of guy that likes to recreate memories. Last night I decided to go over Victoria Harbor on the Star Ferry and watch the lights on Hong Kong island. The night was fairly clear and not too hot. Since it was Friday it was crowded on the Kowloon side with many tourists and different languages being tossed about. I watched the beautiful skyline of Hong Kong island dance in the multicolored lights and lasers. On the ferry back I smelled the harbor, the fuel that powers the ferries, and enjoyed the slight breeze on my face. I then laid down on a bench and looked up at IFC tower for perhaps the last time. I have great memories of this place. And though the last few months have been marred by the fact that I have been alone for the most part, I am grateful to have had my family here.

Today there was temptation to go to Shenzhen. But the only reasons I could determine to go were to shop and fill my second slot on my China visa. I didn't NEED to buy anything, so decided not to go. Instead I headed over to Repulse Bay where we lived as a family and put my feet in the bay. I walked along the Seaside Promenade and remembered times with my family here. I came out on Deep Water Bay and grabbed the 6X bus to Causeway Bay. While there I bought a few little things with the small amount of cash I had left and had my last meal in the basement of Times Square in CitySuper. It was fun to remember the many times we ate there as a family and the kids love of Curry in a Hurry.

I am now packed up and ready to go. I will soon be on my next tiny adventure to London where I will spend a few days. At this point I wish that I had not made this trip to London, but it will be good to see our office and help me in my career if I decide to stay with Prudential. In the end it only delays seeing my family for five days. But at this point five days seem like an eternity. I look forward to seeing an old friend on Sunday. In fact, she was my first friend and mentor when I started my career at Prudential so many years ago. But most of all I look forward to getting that much closer to my wife and children.

A Beautiful Mother's Day Poem

Jarek was sick last week and missed bringing home his mother's day gift to me. Gayla Finlayson (a member of our ward who also works up at the school) brought it to our house tonight. This was the highlight of my day, reading this poem. Jarek wrote this for me all by himself. It made my heart burn with joy and my eyes fill with tears.

MOTHER

I love you the color of
A Beautiful red flower
Growing in the meadow.

I love you the color of
The bright orange sun
Shining for the world.

I love you the color of
The nice green palo verde trees
Swaying in the desert.

I love you the color of
A sweet purple dusk
Hanging over our house.

Oh mom, I love you very much!!!

Love,
Jarek

scary and sad world

wow! that is a lot of people that were wiped out in China and in Mynamar! The numbers keep going up. 15,000 in one place, and 60,000 in another, with more to come. That simply amazes me. For journal purposes, Mynamar is a small country near India that I think used to be Burma. They had a cyclone, which is much like a hurricane with a tornado in it. China had a huge earthquake right in the middle of the country. Both of these catastrophies happened within a few days of each other.

Clue

We found a game that we don't fight about. We have tried it with all sorts of variations. The 2 we played last night were:
- put any three cards in the mystery envelope, don't use the board at all, guess any 3 guesses each turn, ( you can guess 3 people, 2 rooms and a weapon, etc), and no lies.
- put any there cards in, don't use the board, you have to guess a person, weapon, and room each time, and you can lie one time in the game.
I found them both fun, and I actually lost the second game because Kathy is a good liar. :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in my life. Today in church we had the Area President (President Garn) talk on mothers. It is always so great to hear general authorities speak. He said two things that really touched me. He said that Russell M Nelson, who was a heart surgeon, was once asked why he had chosen that career. He said that the greatest job on earth is to be a mother, but since he wasn't able to do that he thought he would try to help the sick.

President Garn then quoted from another general authority (I can't remember who) who had said that the role of men is to protect, provide for and to admire women. I thought this was very deep. Especially the "admire" part.

I want to the most important mothers in my life - my mother and the mother of my children - to know that I do admire them. I love them with all of my heart. I hope one day to be as good as they are. I hope to always make them proud. Both of them keep me on the strait and narrow. Thank you for all that you do. I love you.

Settlers

Since forever our family has been insanely competitive as everyone knows. I personally like this because I thrive on competition and I think it helps me improve myself. However, I do not think that I am going to play another game of Settlers of Catan in this family for a long time. Usually at least some one gets mad every game but lately since Tommy and I have been home, every single time we play, I think every single person has gotten frustrated to the point where it is no longer a game but a yelling session. And last night, we decided or Dad decided that we were going to be very positive and complement each other frequently through out the game. LOL. That probably lasted the first 15 minutes. However, it was still an exciting experience because in the middle of the game mom's tooth came out and I almost fainted. Anyways I love Settlers, mostly because I get lucky almost every game but its going to be awhile until I play again. It's aquire all over again!! lol Why can't our family just play a nice game together? Even though I like competition sometimes I wish it wasn't life or death in this family and Dad didn't leave ready to kill someone, Tommy didn't try to talk about it for 10 hours after the game (like Jacob) and Mom didn't say things to make it better even though she makes it worse. And I could control my frustration and want to keep playing. Maybe we'll get better but I honestly doubt it lol. And even though I say this, I bet we play another game of settlers tomorrow. =)

Temple, Iron Man, Shake 'em Fries

It is a three day weekend here and also my last. So last night I spent some time trying to figure out what to do. There are many options as there are still many things I have wanted to do since being here in Hong Kong. In the end I decided on going to the temple and seeing "Iron Man."

I woke up a little later than I had wanted to and that started the day off on the wrong foot as that meant I had to rush to the temple in order to make the session. This is never a good way to go to the temple. I did make it though. Barely. I could have used a few minutes to sit and wait and clear my mind. The session was in English, which was disappointing. I like the chinese sessions better. It was good though as I needed some peace during this stressful time of being away from my family and wondering where I will be in 6 months.

Afterwords I had a good plan to walk over to the cool theaters with the rumble seats to see Iron Man. I did not bring a map (hey, I've been here for 9 months) and this led to a bad situation. I do not like not knowing where I am. It is a weakness. And unfortunately I took it out on my wife who was waking up so anxious to talk to me. I guess the temple spirit didn't stay with me too long. I'm sorry Tevia. I eventually did get there - MUCH later than anticipated - and that through off my plans for the day.

The movie was excellent. I absolutely enjoyed it and these theaters are so fun with the rumble seats. I then did a little shopping at some of the markets and by the time I got home it was nearly 8:00PM. Another typical day in HK where I leave in the morning and don't get back until right before bed.

For dinner I just stopped at McDonalds. It is a bad habit because I am so cheap. It is so hard to justify eating at a healthy place for $10 USD when I know I can eat at McDs for $3. It is terrible I know. But, today they had a special where you could buy a Chicken McNugget combo with fries and it comes with a bag with flavored powder (think ramen noodles package). You then shake them in the bag (the nuggets and/or fries) and eat. I got the curry flavor. The nuggets were ok, but the fries were awesome. I don't even like fries! But these were great. So I expect I'll have at least one more terrible-for-me-but-extremely-cheap meal at McDonald's before I leave.

More Pics of Hazel

wicked

The evening was beautiful. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We left early enough to have a nice drive down, but ended up a bit early, and couldn't park in our Icon parking lot until 6pm, so dad pulled up along a road and I had to stand lookout for 20 minutes for cops. I felt silly and like a spy. I would have just paid the extra money to not have to had to stand there and waste time, and we could have had a nice leisurely dinner. As it was, we had to rush down our delicious sandwiches at a deli as fast as we could and race to the theater.
The play was wonderful! It was even better than I expected. As you all know, I don't like to see movies or plays twice, so I thought I might be a bit bored. I was not! They have made some small changes since dad and I saw it last, and I understood it much better. Some of the minor connections that I must have missed the first time were clearer. The people were great, in my mind, although Kathy and dad thought Galinda has been better in the past. I thought she was great, as was Elphaba. Our seats were fine for the 56. we paid, and I hope Tom enjoyed his first Broadway play. We did get in a traffic jam on returning home, which was not the best way to end the evening, but we got home about 12:30, which wasn't too bad. Poor Kathy had to be at work at 7am, and the rest of us slept in till 8.