Family Photos

On Sunday, my dad took our family photos. Although he spends every free moment on his photography business and I work with him on most shoots, we have never scheduled a time for family portraits. He's been bugging me for awhile, so we got ourselves all spruced up and headed down to Seal Beach.



I really love them, even though I hate about 99% of the photos of me. (See previous blog.)

Funny Picture of Me

The other day, we celebrated my mom's birthday (more to come on that later). And as usual, my dad was shooting photos. I had just eaten a Tootsie Roll Pop when he started shooting. I knew I had Tootsie Roll in my teeth, so I told him to hold on. He shot anyway.

The only reason I bring any of this up or expose this photo to any publicity is because it's already out there. My dad emailed it to me and Chandler. Chandler emailed it to the Bambricks and Rick wanted to post it on his blog!

So, I'm just trying to put a damper on Rick's enthusiasm to embarrass me! Take your best shot with a caption. Rick has one already, perhaps he'll post it here.

Digital Scrapbooking

One of my favorite hobbies is scrapbooking. I know it sounds cliched, but for me it is a perfect way to combine my love of family, photography and design.

Lately, I've been getting into digital scrapbooking. I have been making the backgrounds and embellishments myself in Photoshop and Illustrator. I have been somewhat limited by my skills.

Not too long ago, I ran across an article describing other digital scrapbookers and their websites. It was a whole new world! There are some extremely women creating some extremely creative designs. For a few dollars, you can get their backgrounds and embellishements and combine them with your own photos in Photoshop for some amazing pages.

Because of a recent comment on my blog, I decided to post one of my favorite all-digital pages.

Very fun stuff.

My Dad's 60th Surprise Party

Last Friday, my mom surprised my dad with a surprise party for his 60th birthday. The biggest surprise was that it's not for another month!

My part in the whole thing was very small. I made the invitation and I got to receive the RSVP's. I wish I had saved my answering machine messages. Person after person called to say they were so excited about coming. They went on and on about how much they loved and respected my dad. Those that couldn't make it expressed sincere regrets and told me they really wanted to be a part of this event.

Over one hundred and fifty people came to celebrate the life of a man I am so proud to call my dad. They all know him in one way or another, but I know the whole man. I have put off writing this blog because I really wanted to take the time to do it right. I wanted to be able to express in just the right words how much he means to me.

Even after a week, I still can't do it.

Words are not enough to say all that I feel for him. Growing up, he was the best dad I could ever ask for. He was so patient and wise. He was a rock. Sometimes, I think kids are in for a shock when they first see their parents as adults and peers. Not me. He is the same consistent, wise, caring, and generous man I grew up with. The benefit to seeing him now as an adult is that I get to hear the stories that just went on behind the scenes when I was a kid. Rather than having my bubble burst in finding out he's human like the rest of us, I still feel the awe and respect I did as a kid.

I think the highest compliment I could pay him would be to say that he did exactly what God put him on this earth to do - he modeled God to me, so that I could better understand who He is. Now, when I struggle in learning to trust God in whatever situation I find myself, I can picture Him just like my dad. I KNOW I can trust my dad in any circumstance and I believe God has given me the gift of my father so that I can see how God feels about me.

Thanks dad. Thanks for being such an amazing father. I love you.

I still don't feel this post adequately expresses how I feel, but like my old man used to say, "Good enough for who it's for."

Fine print: Photos by Paul Wang a friend and mentor of my dad's. Thank goodness he was there with his ten pound camera. We were trying to find out how to get my dad to take the pictures, but somehow we couldn't work out the "pictures of him surprising himself" part. Thanks Paul.

The Skipper Stand Up Show

Tonight, Tim surprised me with a night out he's been planning for weeks. It was a big mystery and all I knew was that we were going with Darrenn and Jenny.

We started off at the Spaghetti Factory (Darrenn's choice and a very good pick) and then proceeded off, who knows where.

We pulled up to a small theater called Mavericks Theater. I was trying to judge by the crowd waiting to get in what kind of show we were in for. Tim knows I hate musicals, so I didn't think that would be it. I didn't think it would be a concert, since the four of us do not agree on music. Finally we guessed it was a comedy event and had something to with Disney.

It wasn't until we arrived inside that we were told it was a group of former and present Jungle Boat operators doing stand up comedy! Tim had found out about it by reading a MousePlanet.com article. The main MC was a professor from Vanguard of all places with a doctoral degree in history and talent for making people laugh. He was a former skipper who worked for the mouse in his spare time. There were nine skippers in all. Most were very funny and their acts flew by. A couple were somewhat painful and they seemed to be up on stage for an eternity.

The funniest parts were those that related directly to their Disney experiences. They interspersed video into their acts with one clip showing a skipper, dressed as Indiana Jones, breaking into the Aladin Show next door and stealing the magic lamp while yelling, "This belongs in a museum." Another funny video gave a tour of California Adventure on it's first day of opening, pointing out failures such as the Superstar Limo saying, "That should be around for at least a year and a month." One former skipper discussed the stereotypes he found reinforced while working for Disney. He came to believe that desperately waving both hands in front of a Chinese driver on Autopia must mean, "Speed up and run me over" in his native language. And he proudly identified with the white redneck who wondered if the water on the Jungle Cruise was real. Myths such as Walt Disney's frozen head was buried under Sleeping Beauty's Castle were dispelled. Apparently his whole frozen body is part of the Indiana Jones ride, and it looks suspiciously like the frozen Han Solo from Star Wars.

Overall, it was a great night, with a lot of laughs both in and out of the comedy club. What a treat to have my husband plan a very fun evening (childcare and all)!

Homeschool Day at the Aquarium

On the way to the Aquarium today, Chandler asked me how many kids are homeschooled. I told her it was about 3,000,000, which she thought was a very large number. When we arrived, she told me she thought they were all there!

It was that crowded.

What did I expect for $6 admission? Oh well, it was fun hanging out with other homeschool families and seeing the delight on the kids faces as we experienced some fascinating animals. My favorite one was a seahorse that looks like a plant. I think God has such an awesome sense of humor as well as an amazing ability to create what seems impossible!

Days like today, make me glad we homeschool. Even with the crowds, I was so glad to be there and experience so much alongside of my kids.

Wanna know how to vote?

If you have questions about the propositions or judges, Dennis Prager recommended this site on his radio program today, so I share it with you: http://www.robynnordell.com/onestop.aspx

This is from a decidedly Republican/conservative viewpoint. If you are a Democrat/liberal, it will tell you how NOT to vote, I guess!

Mouse Adventure

O.K., so we didn't win... again. I'm getting tired of not winning. We always do well, but never win.

I was quite nervous this time. It was an Amazing Race style scavenger hunt put on by MousePlanet.com, and the last time they did this, we fell too far behind and didn't finish. That's the only time we did not at least complete every quest. This time, it was another Amazing Race type event, with at least 10 miles of walking over 7 hours!!

We started off strong. The first quest was to identify numbers from the Main street area. These were fairly easily found (i.e. how many cannons are there?) The numbers were recorded and added up. The correct answer got us our next quest. This allowed us to choose, "Train or Twain?" We chose train and had to answer two more number questions while on the train, then plug all the numbers into a very cool grid of letters connecting them with lines. We were to cut along each line and we either got our next clue or a lot of confetti. Fortunately, we got our next clue, and proceeded to Buzz Lightyear. Tim had to compete against another team for the most points while the rest of us answered question mostly around TomorrowLand. The answers eventually led us to a locker and a compass that led us to the Tiki Room. (Fritz is the last bird to speak, by the way, if you ever need that information for a similar trivia quiz.)

The day continued pretty well until we got to a very maddening quest. We were to use the compass to find different locations around California Adventure and then answer questions about things found in that location. If the compass actually pointed north, it might have been easier. The answer to each question gave one digit of a phone number. When we just could NOT get the last number, we decided to guess. With the two quarters included with the quest, we began calling. Fortunately, the quarters were returned if there was no answer. The 8th try gave us a recorded message about our next step - the ferris wheel.

Jenny is deathly afraid of heights, but she cowgirled up and jumped on (eyes closed the whole time). From that height, we found the order of the "mountain" rides at Disneyland and also spotted 3 umbrellas with a number on each. That became important to figuring out the next clue - unscramble shonrcesp. (You try it!!) It looked like "princess" to me and apparently I was right! That led to the final quest, which unfortunately, we were not able to finish as we ran out of time. Too bad, because it was very easy questions like what is the north-most statue surrounding Walt and Mickey or how many items on the Hungry Bear menu.

Oh well... We're probably out for the spring unless Jenny wants to buck up at nine months pregnant. We could wheel her around I guess... maybe get her one of those cool Segways! We'll see.