Birthday Recap #2 - Tad

For my birthday I got what I had always wanted - another 3-D cake. Years ago, when I was something like 2 years old, my mom made me a 3-D Care Bear cake. It looked something like this, although my mom's cake looked more like a specific Care Bear and didn't have all the cupcakes.



I don't remember which one my mom made for me, but if I were to get one now I would ask for Champ Bear...or maybe Good Luck Bear. I'm kind of on the fence on this one.

Anyway, for my birthday I got another 3-D cake. And this time it wasn't even a Care Bear. It was an entire castle.



I bet you're jealous. I would have been if I were in your shoes.

I suppose I should mention that I basically share a birthday with 2 of my neices who were turning 4. One of them was born on my birthday and the other came 16 hours later but on the next day. This year was apparently not my year to pick the cake design (although they did console me by putting my flag on top of the very highest turret). Here we all are by our respective flags.



The true highlight of the night came just after we blew out the candles. Teri got the kids a pinata. McKay thought this was a great idea. He handled the bat quite well. Of course, he's had a lot of practice doing this to Gibby.



Concerned that I might be upset about not getting enough pinata swings on the parrot, Teri bought a pinata just for me.



The showdown between me and Cookie Monster took longer than expected. Cookie Monster had obviously put in a number of hours to get in peak condition for our bout and if I hadn't had a bat I think he may have defeated me. Cookie Monster was being manuvered by Teri's brother Kevin who managed to get Cookie Monster to whack me in a reasonably strategic fashion. The end result was that I had to assume a defensive posture which limited my offensive capabilities.



Despite the embarrasment of taking 25 minutes to break open a pinata when the kids took a whopping 12 swings (including McKay) it was a great birthday. Kudos to Teri for organizing my fun day. I think she totally deserves the entire turret that she ate.

Birthday Recap #1 - TeriDel

A good chunk of the year has passed without us blogging about birthdays. We intend to change that in 3...2...1.

Teri's Birthday

In February we got a call from the Young Women's leader in our ward asking if there was a small service project that the youth could come over and do at our house as part of a service scavenger hunt. We heard that most people were having the kids wash windows, weed, or somethign along those lines. Teri decided to use them a different way - cutting coupons. So one Wednesday night we had four kids show up to do their service. They were a little perplexed by their coupon cutting role, but I think they were excited not to have to wash windows for a minute or two. Teri thought the whole thing was fun and mentioned that she used to love scavenger hunts when she was that age. And that's when an idea popped into my head. Why not do a treasure hunt/scavenger hunt for Teri's birthday?

The Saturday just before Teri's birthday she got to spend the whole day deciphering clues and making her way across the greater East Valley area. Included in her journey was a hike up "A" Mountain in Tempe,



a math equation using paddleboat prices from Tempe Town lake, secret codes hidden in a book at the Tempe City library, a jaunt through Bass Pro Shops to find her favorite candy, an intense racquetball battle against Sven - the semi-pro racquetball champion of the world,



recycling old computer parts, performing a 1 woman play depicting a scene from the Lord of the Rings with McKay starring as Frodo (so technically a 1.5 person play),



and my personal favorite, having to jump into Chris and Lolly's backyard pool to fish a clue out of there. Keep in mind this was in early spring and as you can tell by Teri's facial expression, the water was a little bit cold - even for Arizona.



To assist Teri in figuring some of these rather obscure clues I proided her with a clue hotline. Teri's brothers knew a guy from work who could do a lot of different voices and so we plugged his number into Teri's phone and whenever she completed a task or got stuck she had to call him for further instructions. And judging by the fact that Teri thought there were at least 3 or 4 people answering that phone at different times, he did a great job.

All in all I think it was a pretty fun birthday for Teri. Plus, her sister Julie made her this awesome cake.



So happy birthday TeriDel. We love you and are so happy that you are a part of our family.

Love,

Tad, McKay, and Gibby

"Another mystery is history" as said by Tigger in My Friends Tigger and Pooh

Last we parted, TeriDel was this close to dying of a heart attack. But she didn't. And there was much rejoicing.

It turns out that Teri had a particularly violent reaction to a viral infection that has been going around in the Phoenix/Mesa area. We found this out because Teri's sister-in-law's sister (say that 5 times fast) is pregnant and she came down with the same thing. They did a bunch of tests and presto! viral infection it was.

While most people just get gastrointestinal symptoms, (occasionally resulting in an Oregon Trail incident), other people come down with violent illnesses consisting of chest pain, difficulty breathing, and other heart attack symptoms. I ended up in the first group, but Teri made her way into the second. Regardless, we're just glad that everyone is relatively healthy now and all we have to battle are allergies. Well, I don't have to battle them, but Teri, Gibby, and K all do so I just cheer them on. Go team.

On a tangentially related note - if you are yearning for the good old days when you could play the original version of Oregon Trail, pine no more. I found the online version of Oregon Trail complete with hunting and the original graphics. So take your best shot and see if you can navigate the trail without losing at least one member of your party to some random illness. I am in the Top Ten scores; I bet you can't beat me. And right after I say that Teri plays the game for the very first time and beats me. Now we're both in the Top Ten.

Boy, Do We Know How to Spend a Date Night

Teri and I don’t get out on a date night as often as we probably should. Part of the problem is that we love being home with the kids and even though our time alone together is fantastic, it’s hard leaving K and Gibby. But when we do go out we try to make it something that we would enjoy. Until this week.

We had agreed to watch Teri’s sister’s kids on Friday night and then they would watch K and Gibby on Saturday night. Everything was going according to plan, except for the fact that Teri started to feel a little sick to her stomach Friday night. Saturday morning we were all going to trek out to the West Valley to visit Cabela’s – which Teri and K had never seen – so that Teri’s brothers could price check various camping gear in preparation for the big family campout this upcoming weekend. There was only one snafu – Teri was so nauseous she was having trouble standing up.

Teri’s first thought was pregnancy. Fear ensued. But I just wasn’t convinced because Teri wasn’t quite acting the same as she usually does when she is pregnant and miserable. Despite Teri’s misfortune (or reversal of fortunes as the Hot Dog eating competitors call it), we were all having fun at Cabela’s. McKay loved the animals – although he continued to be nervous the first time he saw them up close. Of particular note was the polar bear they have growling just 3 feet away from the enclosure fence.



The bear looks pretty cool and it’s fun to have him so close to you. As we walked up to him McKay gave his little scream, and clutched on to my collar about to bury his terrified little eyes into my shoulder at the polar bear’s first movement. But the polar bear didn’t move and McKay took courage and was willing to say “Hi bear.” Once the greeting was accomplished K figured that he was a “nice bear” and kept telling me “bear funny.” K rounded off the morning by checking out the cougars, the rhino, the elephant, the zebra, the lion, and then taking a little pop gun around the wildlife museum component of the store and shooting every one of them – complete with his trademark saying, “I did it.”

Then came the ride home. As we’re journeying in Teri’s brother’s truck, Teri starts saying things like, “I’m feeling really nauseous” and “I’m having a hard time breathing” and “My chest is hurting.” Because we still had nearly an hour’s drive to go, I began researching with our primary care physician (Dr. Internet – reasonable prices and always on call), what you should be worried about when you have chest pain and difficulty breathing. The Internet tells me that the chest pain/difficulty breathing combo is not always a heart attack and that you should look for other signs such as pain in the patient’s left arm. It was at this point that Teri says, “My body is hurting.” When I ask where, Teri says “In my left arm.” It was at this point I decided against telling Teri that she was gearing up for a heart attack and just tried to keep her calm and telling me what was going on so that I could relay that to the doctor.

I also began calling everyone I knew in my phone who had some medical knowledge. PAs, EMTs, first aid providers at Wal-mart. The common denominator was simple. If you are having difficulty breathing you need to see a doctor and urgent care might not be the best option because they’ll just send you to the hospital. So once we got home we trekked off to the hospital for our date night.

6 hours, 2 EKGs, a chest x-ray, and a full bag of IV solution later, Teri was pronounced to not be having a heart attack. I think everyone was pleased. Teri kept saying that she just wanted to be told that she was being a silly hypochondriac and be sent home. They didn’t quite go that far indicating that Teri was pretty severely dehydrated by this point which could have been why her whole body was cramping and her resting heart rate was up at about 120 beats per minute for hours. The exact cause of the whole thing was unclear and we’ll now get to embark on a fun medical fishing expedition but that is ok considering that Teri doesn’t have to undergo open heart surgery.

All in all, it wasn’t our best date night. Maybe next time we’ll settle on Golfland or something.

Back to the Workforce

"When did you leave the workforce?" you may be asking. Well, actually I was laid off back in May and I just started back to work two weeks ago. I'm now working for Maricopa County. I'm excited for the opportunity. It looks like it will be a great chance to learn and grow.

The new job may end up meaning that this blog will be a private blog. I haven't put too much thought into the idea yet, but switching to a private blog may be a wise safety precaution at some point. It's really too bad, but some lines of work make you fewer friends than others.

There is no rush, but if you would like to continue to be a reader of our blog, please email me at davis2028@hotmail.com with the words "Blog" or something like that in the subject so that I will recognize it amongst all the advertisements for pharmaceuticals I receive. Once I figure out what the plan will be I'll email everyone and post another summary up on here.

And by the way, thanks to everyone for your help, thoughts, and prayers on our behalf during the time period I was looking for a job. Teri and I are extremely grateful for your love and kindness.

J. Crew thinks you're a sucker, but I know better.

For the low, low cost of just under $300.00 you too can have this season's fashion must have. Jeans with paint on them.



But I found a guy who is willing to give you a deal. He's offering hand splattered painted jeans for $150, but the price goes up to $180 if you'd like new jeans. He'll even hand deliver them (if you live in northern Utah county). I'll match his price for anyone in Arizona wanting to take advantage of this steal of a fashion deal.

Golden Compass

Before you read on there is something I should warn you about. This post contains information about...the Golden Compass books. If you believe that these books are the root of all evil then I don't know that I can say anything to change your mind. Even if I did come up with something, I don't know that you would even believe me - after all I am a lawyer. Nonetheless, if you stick out this blog post you may have a little more info next time your BBQ conversation turns to "evil literature."

My Summary
1. I read all 3 books.
2. I still have my testimony.
3. I don't think anyone else will lose their testimony by reading them.
4. The Golden Compass books are distinctly anti-Catholic, but not really anti-Christian (if you assume like I do that you have to discuss Christ, a Christ-like figure, or even some vague idea of atonement to be labeled as a Christian or anti-Christian book).
5. If you like fantasy books, or are a fan of polar bears - especially armor wearing, blacksmithing, flame thrower operating, fighting polar bears - you will probably like these books.

It would be difficult to discuss all of the reasons why people say these books are evil without revealing the storyline of the book. So just in case someone wants to read them, I won't talk too much about the particulars. Suffice it to say this - because of all chatter I heard about the books before I read them I was surprised by the minor role that atheism or attacking God played in the book. To be honest, anything in the books that could be construed as an argument in favor of atheism was presented in an almost silly way. One of the characters decides there is no God because, according to her, following a certain man-instituted church regulation doesn't do her or anyone else any good. If that is the best evidence of God's non-existence you might want to rethink. It would be like someone buying a $1.00 bible coloring book at Wal-Mart, seeing that the pictures were repeated twice in the book and because of that feeling ripped off and deciding there is no God.

The one distracting bit in the series was that I was constantly trying to discern who the author, Philip Pullman, thought God actually was. By the time I was nearing the end, especially with all the rumors I had heard about the books before I read them, it became more and more clear that Pullman had chickened out in terms of trying to define God. All in all, Pullman's atheistic tendencies are mitigated by the fact that he's not even sure atheism is correct. In fact, he's so unsure about who God is, that he won't even commit to actually putting the God most people know in his books.

Anyway, the moral of this post is this - if you like fantasy books you'll probably like the Golden Compass books. They have some interesting characters and are generally easy to read. They aren't for everyone, but that has more to do with what type of literature you enjoy than religious overtones. So enjoy. And if you do end up reading them let me know. I would love to ask a few questions about your impressions of the books.