Peter & Maren are leaving :(

It is so sad, Peter has been offered a very nice scholarship at the U of A and this week they will be moving away from San Diego. Their ward had a going away party for them this weekend and with Lisa out of town I represented our family. It was good to see them but I'm going to miss their occasional Sunday evening visits. I guess we'll just have to make a trip out to Tucson to see them. It won't be in the summer though. I think Tucson in February sounds like a good idea. 


For those of you who know where Peter got his undergraduate degree you may be a little confused by the U of A. The U of A (The University of Alberta) is a very prestigious University in Edmonton, Alberta and that is where Peter (as did I) received his undergraduate degree. The U of A is also a very good University in Tucson, Arizona and that is where Peter is going for graduate school. I will miss them. Maren's mother lives just a few exits up the I-15 though so I expect we may see them once in a while. 


So my wife has finally decided to come home.She fly's in tomorrow and if she ever decides to let me know what plane she's on I will go and pick her up at the airport. Maybe she's having too much fun with the grand kids and she's decided not to come home. That would not be good. I really do miss her. I suspect however that after ten days with toddlers she just might be ready to come home and get a full nights sleep.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The leading cause of death in America is medical error.

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Conservatives vs Liberals

A few days ago my nephew Peter wrote a blog stating that there was little difference between Democrats and Republicans. I do have to agree that both of these parties have become so corrupted that there is little difference between the two of them and that neither of these two parties look anything like what their original values were even just fifty years ago. I do want to point out however that the difference between Liberals and Conservatives however is like night and day. The problem is that you can't find a truly Conservative party anymore. For that matter you can't really find a truly liberal party anymore either. I tried my darnedest not to let Peter draw me in to this discussion because I'm quite sure no one really wants to hear my opinion but after several more posts and comments on Peters blog I just can't help myself. I'm going to dedicate a few postings to expressing my opinion of the difference between Conservatives and Liberals.

Basically the whole discussion can be broken down into the following. Conservatives believe that the role of the government is to protect it's citizens so that they have the freedom to live their lives however they choose and to let them solve their own problems. Liberals believe that the role of the government is to solve all of the problems for its citizens. Those both sound like wonderful values but how those roles break down into every day life is very important. Let me discuss a few important issues and how conservatives and liberals address them.

economy

health care

welfare

immigration

national defense

affirmative action

gun control

Winter Formal

I have a ton of pictures to share and a lot to tell. I'll try and keep it interesting but if I get boring feel free to move on. Friday morning I slept in. I felt I deserved it. I then took the morning to work on a job for another client who was paying a lot more money than Hi-Z was plus I made arrangements to get my cell phone switched over to a private account before Kyocera disconnected it. I then ran into Hi-Z to start working there. We have a big potential investor coming in next week so there is a lot to get done. We didn't have a chance to talk about any details of my employment so I guess that will have to wait. I then had to rush home from Hi-Z to go to see Mackenzie's dance recital. She did a wonderful job of course. I also learned that she is in the Miss Valley Center competition. That will be an exciting competition to go and watch. I think they said it is in March.

I was hoping to sleep in Saturday morning but I had to drive Sarah to a wrestling tournament. Sarah in a wrestling tournament you ask? As exciting as it would be to watch her wrestle she is only the team's statistition. She loves doing it and I'm sure they're glad to have her. The problem is that today is Winter Formal and Alex and his date were taking pictures at 4:30 but Sarah needed a ride home from the tournament. That is why I got the early shift. We still wanted to be home for when her ride came so we were just a bit concerned about the schedules. Alex's date lives in Rancho Santa Fe. Just in case you've never heard of Rancho Santa Fe, that community is known as the most expensive community in the United States. As we drove into one of their many gated communities it wasn't hard to believe. Their house is literally on the top of a mountain and the view is unbelievable. If you look in the picture taken from their back yard the hill on the horizon is Mt Soledad in La Jolla and to the left of that if you look closely is Coronado Island. You can see the ocean off to the right. It truly is stunning. I didn't dare ask what his house cost but he told me that the house down the road burned in the brush fire and it was worth twelve million dollars. Right across the valley was a huge house that he figured cost thirty million dollars and it looks like a castle. It even has a moat around it. The thing that makes me sick is that the owner of the house is only thirty years old. He made his bucks in the .com boom doing something on the internet. That just doesn't seem right. It was funny as he was telling us the story. He said that when they were building the house they were digging a huge hole. He and Bree (his daughter, Alex's date) went over to see what the hole was all about. He said it looked like they were putting in a bomb shelter or something, he thought maybe they were Mormons or something. We just smiled and listened to the story but Alex almost burst out laughing and had to walk away. Little did he know that his little girl was going to the dance with a Mormon. We took a ton of pictures and I will share some of them with you here. I threw in a picture of one of the other couples that was there because I thought you might find it interesting. The girl in this picture is Arianna and she was on American Idol. She passed the first round and is headed for Hollywood. Alex had no idea and we were watching American idol a couple of weeks back and she came on. Alex burst out, "I know that girl!!! I go to school with her." I guess this is proof that he does know her. After everyone was totally sick of getting their pictures taken we sent them off to the restaurant and then we got a tour of the house. They are very nice people and really down to earth. I think Bree is an only child, at least she is the only one home right now. We were invited to stay for some drinks but we had to pass and rush home to get some pictures of cute little Sarah before she left. We arrived not long after she did so we rushed around getting her ready to go. Sarah's ride showed up and I got some pictures of them together but they were rushed and it was already dark so I don't have too many pictures. That's a bit of a rip off for Sarah but hey, she's only fifteen and she is the one who wanted to do wrestling. It know this looks like a date but it really is more of a ride to the dance. It's a long story and I won't bore you with it. I figured that Lisa and I should go on a date but instead she dragged me out to do some shopping. Yay... and then we came back to the house and finished cleaning it up while Peter and Maren watched a movie. The movie seemed interesting and I'm thinking I want to watch it before they return it. When Sarah came home we sat and watched an episode of Monk that had been recorded. I should say I slept on the couch while an episode of Monk played on the TV. So that is my weekend so far. From all accounts it seems like it was a great evening for everyone. I'll hear more about Alex's night tomorrow. I'm going to bed.

-------trivia------

Once you reach 80 years of age the probability of dying in the following year doesn't change. It remains at about 25% for the rest of your life no matter how old you get. After the age of 80, when you do die it is usually quick, relatively painless and low cost. The probability of dying in the next year is lowest at age 14 (0.02%) and increases exponentially after that.

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Sarah is in Madrid?

Some very good friends of ours were in Spain last week. For those of you who know Mahonri and Molly Sanchez, they were in Spain. They saw this billboard in Madrid and sent it to us. I honestly had to look at it two or three times before it dawned on me that this really isn't Sarah. It looks just like her. I had Sarah make the same pose so you could all share in my amazement. Crazy eh? I still think the real Sarah is prettier. Tonight Alex has a Halloween party. Him and a friend dressed up as Spy vs Spy. I think the costume turned out very well. Lisa did all the work but I made the beaks. Don't you like my eyeballs. Peter also showed his rebellious side and went to a Halloween party as a Rock Star. I think I need to talk to my daughter about the kind of guys she hangs out with. As far as what I was able to accomplish today I spent the day cleaning out the garage. What fun.

They are all leaving

Today was a nice relaxing day after the whirl wind week we have had. For me it started early. Brandon had to head back north to continue earning money for his very expensive law school tuition and his flight left at the insane hour of 6:30 AM. That meant he had to be there by about 5:00 which meant that we had to get up around 4:15. It was sad to see him go and I know it was tough for him too. He left his darling wife and little girl behind so we could get a chance to see them for a bit after the commotion of last week all settled down. I'm so glad that they are going to be living within a reasonable distance to us next year. I expect we will be making a few trips to Malibu. I then came home and promptly went right back to bed. Our church meetings this year don't start until 12:30. That makes for a nice and peaceful morning but you have no day left after you get home and eat dinner. While I was sorting through the 700 pictures that I took yesterday Grandpa was teaching Kira how to play the bag pipes and Peter, Justin, Alex and Sarah played a rip roaring game of "Settlers of Catan". That really is a fun game and I wanted to play but sometimes there just isn't enough hours in the day. It has also the first time that Grandpa and Nana have been able to see Evan so we made sure we too a four generation picture. Grandma Shaw had her four generation pictures at Christmas time when everyone was home. The first Sunday of every month is a "Fast and Testimony" meeting at church. This is different from other meetings in that members of the congregation who feel so inclined can get up and express their feelings over the pulpit. The Fast part is because we go to church fasting and the testimony part is because we normally testify to the divinity of God and Jesus Christ. This Sunday was especially wonderful because all of our children who were there (Kira, Alex and Sarah) took the opportunity to bear their testimonies. Brandon had already left for Alaska, Ben was on his honeymoon and Alycia had to work but it was still very cool. I really wanted to get up and say something but I think if I had it would have only detracted from what my wonderful children had said so I stayed put. It was a wonderful and relaxed morning, a beautiful service and afterward we polished off a huge roast. Later in the evening we had another sad event. We had to drive Justin, Kira and Evan to the airport and send another portion of my heart off on an airplane. It's just too bad we have to work. It is very clear to me that true happiness in this life comes from our children.

Family Dinner

Because everyone is here, something that rarely happens and will happen less often as the kids get older and busier, Lisa and I felt bad sending Alex and Sarah off to school everyday. Today we pulled them out of school so they could be with everyone else. It is a bad time to do it with finals and junior papers imminent but I can't help feel that this is more important. Today was focused on the family dinner tonight. Of course it is a major job just to keep the house clean but come four o'clock we loaded up the van and headed to the church. Yesterday when the girls went shopping they all bought these funny blankets that they can wrap around themselves and tie them up like a dress. They are all so excited it is funny to watch them. You'd think it was Christmas or something. The first picture shows them all in their wraps. Everyone gets to the church and we all start our different jobs. A very good friend of ours, Molly Sanchez, cooked all of the food. Here is a picture of Brandon in the kitchen with Molly showing her how to cook good Mexican food. You can also see that Peter is very busy as well. Despite the picture Peter really is a sociable fellow. We have forced him to read Twilight. He was reluctant but we assured him that anyone who works at a book store should be familiar with this very popular book. The agenda for dinner was divided into four general sections. Introductions, story telling, video and thank you's. I want you to know that it is very difficult for me to get up and talk in front of a group of people so I was definitely out of my comfort zone doing this dinner thing. First of all we got the tables all set and and looking pretty and then I got up and welcomed everyone and we made all the introductions. I introduced all of our family, Chuck introduced all of the Cotters and then we made Ben and Sharley get up and introduce their bridal party and their significant others. After that I got everyone started eating. As you can tell from the pictures, the whole dinner had a Mexican theme. This seemed appropriate since Ben went to Mexico on his mission. This is the same theme and same food we had for Brandon's wedding reception when he was married. Brandon also went to Mexico on his mission. It was really good then and it was really good today. Once people were all dished up I once again got up in front of everyone (embarrassing) and told a story about Ben. I couldn't think of anything really funny to tell so I just shared one of my favorite memories. I then invited Chuck to tell a story about Sharley and then I invited anyone who wanted, to share a story about Ben, Sharley or Ben and Sharley. A lot of people told a lot of stories and you can see from Sharley's picture that some of them were quite embarrassing. I obviously can't tell all of the stories but I would like to share my favorite story. It was shared by Alycia. In elementary school Ben and Alycia were walking home from school together. Ben would have been older (5th or 6th grade) and Alycia would have been younger (around 2nd grade). There was another kid who kept harassing Ben but Ben was a good boy and ignored him. Finally Alycia couldn't handle it anymore so she tells this punk to take a hike. Immediately this punk starts into Alycia at which point Ben picks him up and shoves him into the lost and found bin and tells him to leave his sister alone. They then head for home and Ben chews Alycia out for picking a fight with an older kid. It was really pretty funny and pretty cool how Ben protected his little sister. The stories went on for most of the evening but as they petered out I got up once again (ugh) and we watched a couple of video's. The first video was of Ben's skydiving/bachelors party. That must have been quite an experience and I'm really quite jealous. The second video was from an experience at Sharley's bridal shower Wednesday night while I was at Sarah's Track banquet. Since Justin, Brandon and Alex were home alone and totally bored they decided to crash Sharley's bridal shower. Some one there had a video camera and caught them on film. Justin found Alex's old Halloween costume and put it on. It was a golden crown , a sword and a long red robe. He represented the long lost prince that many girls are looking for. He didn't have a shirt on so his hairy chest was prominently displayed in the open robe. Brandon had his shirt unbuttoned, wore a cowboy hat and played a guitar and Alex wore a "Tonka" hard hat and carried a tire iron. They showed up at the shower and then once they got some appropriate music on (I believe it was the beach boys) they started dancing. You should have seen it. Justin (quite surprisingly) was quite reserved. Has anyone ever seen Justin reserved? Alex was a bit more animated but Brandon was into it big time. He was really swinging his hips. He ripped his shirt off and tried to get Sharley to dance with him. That wasn't going to happen. Finally Justin was swing dancing with Kira and Brandon was swing dancing with Serene but poor Alex couldn't get anyone to dance with him. It was a very funny video. Before everyone left I got up again and thanked the Cotter family and told them how thrilled we are to have Sharley become a part of our family. The Cotters have always been good friends and I think this is a cool thing. The whole dinner went very well and most people stayed to help clean up. We then went home and had a surprise birthday party for Brandon. His birthday is June 2 but he flies back to Alaska on Sunday morning and won't be here. He had a cheese cake for his birthday cake. The one thing that put a bit of a downer on the day was when Lisa noticed that her ruby was missing out of her ring. This was her Granny's ring and Lisa's birthstone is ruby so it had great sentimental value. She is broken hearted. We went back to the church and looked but we had swept up pretty good. Most of the garbage was already in the dumpster but I brought the garbage bag from the kitchen home. I will go through it but it was late that night and I still haven't done that. Other than that lost ruby it was a very fun day.

Peter

203.0 down 2.7
Today I want to make a tribute to another young man who graduated from college. Peter is Lester's eldest son. Lester is my baby brother, he may be taller than me but he is still my baby brother. Peter is taller than Lester so I feel quite small around him. I'm even more impressed with Peter because he graduated from the University of Alberta which is my Alma Mater. My mom and dad have thirty five grandchildren. I'm not sure how the older grand kids grouped together but I know in 1982 when Kira was born four of us six kids had a baby. Mom and Dad always referred to the 1982 grandkids as the '82 crop. Peter was part of the '82 crop and they all get along well. Kira really likes Peter. Besides Kira and Peter, Greg had Meagan and Jackie had Kristen. In 1984 when Brandon was born Dixie joined the team and we had five grandkids. The '84 crop was a real bumper crop. Greg had Lindsey, Dixie had Eric, Jackie had Melissa and Lester had Andrew. Fara is the only child who was barren that year. In 1986 when Ben was born, it was a lean year with only only Greg, Dixie and I having babies. Dixie had Wally and Greg had Phillip. After that we didn't double up again except when Alex was born in 1991. That year Greg and Gaylia had Damon. So where were we? Peter graduated last week and since he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do he figured he would work while he was trying to figure it out. With a degree in psychology he figured he could get a job anywhere he wanted so in Edmonton in the middle of the winter who wouldn't think of San Diego? We told Peter we would be glad to have him here as long as it took him to get settled in with a job. Peter and his friend Doug left Edmonton April 28 and took a week to get here. They went through Clinton, BC to see old friends, stopped in Washington to visit with Flora, saw San Francisco and East Los Angeles where he served his mission. He spoke Spanish on his mission. I never knew Peter all that well but in the fall I was in Edmonton for a couple of weeks and I made sure I took the opportunity to get to know him better. It turns out that he is a great kid. Lester and Barb, I'm sure you're tremendously proud of Peter and you have every right to be. You did well with this one. We'll keep an eye on him for you.