Happy New Year!

New Year's ranks really high on my least favorite holiday list. Perhaps it is the grumpy old man in me that doesn't enjoy staying up past midnight making a loud ruckus. Plus, I always had to try and avoid all the ladies trying to get at me for the New Year's kiss. But that all changed last year. Bodie was born on January 1, 2008 at 8:05 p.m. I remember us going to the hospital around 3 or 4 in the a.m. I also remember being more of a nuisance than a help for yet another child birth. I also remember going home after the event and trying to get some sleep and a bath before heading back to the hospital. They took Bodie to the nursery right after he was born and said they wanted to run a few tests. They didn't make it seem like there was anything to worry about. I remember being woken up by a phone call from Sara. She was in tears and some how communicated to me that there was a problem with Bodie. She told me there was a hole in his lungs and that he was admitted to the NICU. I remember getting off of the phone, getting in the bath tub and bawling like I never have before. I have never been so scared. I was worried about giving him a blessing and not being inspired to bless him to get better. I remember saying a prayer and immediately feeling a huge comfort. I knew that things were going to work out. I knew that I needed to pull myself together, because I needed to support Sara and assure her things were going to work out. I got to the hospital and was able to give Bodie a blessing. I remember how crushed Sara was to be released from the hospital without her new baby. Bodie gradually improved and we got to take him home almost 2 weeks later. He was worth the wait. He hasn't had any health problems since. He looks just like Geronimo did at this age, but he definitely has his own personality. We know his lungs are fine, because he uses them quite a bit. Unfortunately, he has been hanging with Madison too much and some of her rebelliousness has rubbed off on him. He's a walker now(I like to call him Texas Ranger), and doesn't hesitate to run away from me when he's about to get into trouble. Overall he has been a great blessing to our lives. He has increased our faith, testimony of prayer and the priesthood, and made our prayers more sincere. I can now look forward to each new year. Here are some pictures of Bodie from the past year:

Joyous Kwanzaa To All

For those of you who didn't have the greatest Christmas ever, perhaps it was because your tree was missing a holiday rectum wreath ornament.

Or, maybe it was because you didn't get two heart-shaped rugs as gifts.
Or, maybe you didn't receive a visit from The Christmas Fish.No matter what your reason is, hopefully you can find solace in knowing that Mike has finally received The Courtesy Flush.

I hope you had a happy holiday.

Ugliest Reverse Lay-up Ever

I'm one of those people who likes to write in their scriptures. A while back I saw a quote I had written down from an institute class. Brother Knect said, "No death of a righteous person is untimely". For some reason that quote stuck with me. It was just a little while after that when I got the news that Keith McDermott was in the hospital.

His family moved into our ward when I was in my senior year of high school. Keith was called to work with the young men in the ward. He was a genuinely nice guy and you could tell that he liked working with the youth. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with him as my leader, because I was quickly off on my mission. When I returned from my mission I got to know Keith better. We served together in various aspects involving the church. Somehow it seemed like whenever some kind of service was being performed, Keith was there with his mustached smile. I knew him to be a great home teacher, friend and family man. The most important thing he did for me was being a positive influence in my brother's life.

On November 15th my family went to go visit him in the hospital. It was a fitting day to go see him, because that was the day Jed and Cyndi got sealed in the temple. Keith was always around for the important events in Jed's life, and I'm sure he would have been in the temple that day too if it were possible. Unfortunately, that was the last time we saw Keith. Here are a couple of pictures from that day:

And here is a picture from Jed's Melchizedek Priesthood ordination. Keith is standing next to Mike.
Today we said goodbye to Keith. The building at his funeral was packed, and I learned even more about what a great person he was. I don't know why Heavenly Father does the things that he does. I just trust that he sees the bigger picture. While it is sad that Keith is gone, I'm sure that Heavenly Father had his reasons for taking him back. It was an excellent service and having a knowledge of the gospel makes a huge difference at funerals.

Everybody seems to have at least one Keith story to share, so here is mine. I remember one night playing basketball many years ago. Keith came to play that night. He requested to guard me. I remember looking at him in his biker shorts and sports goggles. He stood about a foot shorter than me and was about 20 years older than me. I thought it would be an easy night for me. I was very wrong. He made his whole purpose to keep me from getting the ball, and was very successful. It meant that he wouldn't get the ball much himself, but he was willing to make that sacrifice to benefit his team. He did get the ball a couple of times and proceeded to sink the ugliest reverse lay-up that I had ever seen. I seem to remember him falling to the ground afterward as well. It didn't matter what it looked like as long as it went in. I remember finishing that game and feeling roughed up and frustrated. And so it was with Keith. As the years have passed I have played a lot of basketball, but I can't remember anybody who shut me down as well as Keith. He will be missed, but it was a privilege to get to know him as long as I did.

Bodie Update

It's been a while since I've given a Bodie update, so here you go:







He has moved from furniture walking to this at a rapid rate. He looks exactly like Geronimo did at this age. In a future post I'll add some pictures to prove it. I can't believe it has almost been a year since he was born. Time flies.

On a Christmas note; if you haven't received a card from us yet, it means that we probably don't have your address. Please send me a message with your address and we will get it in the mail a.s.a.p. Happy Holidaze!

Top Ten

I like watching movies associated with the holiday that we are close to celebrating. In this case, that would be Kwanzaa. Since I haven't seen any movies about Kwanzaa, I watch movies about the Christmas Season. I like getting the kids together and watching the movies to get us hyped for when Christmas comes. Here are my favorites:

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

You'll probably notice that there are some classic movies missing from my list. I have never seen Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life. Maybe this will be the year. Are there movies that you like to watch during Christmas time?

Black Friday

For some unknown reason I have subjected myself to the chaos called "Black Friday" for several of the past years. I have had numerous memorable experiences on that day(i.e. being rammed by an old lady's cart, physically grabbing two old men trying to cut in line and pulling them behind me while entering the store, and enjoying a delightful morning at Kohl's last year), but there is one story that everyone in my family seems to enjoy most. Perhaps I will share that story at the end of this post.

This year I had almost all of my Christmas shopping done before Black Friday. After looking at the ad's on Thursday, I didn't see much that would make me need to subject myself to the pandemonium. My brother, Kyle, was in town for the holiday. He, Jed, and I decided to go fishing early Friday morning instead. We went to the San Gabriel River. We usually keep track of how many fish each of us catch. I should have known from the moment I met up with Jed and Kyle that they would be trying to sabotage me throughout the day.

The plan was for Jed to pick up Kyle at his in-laws and then meet up with me at the LDS church parking lot before heading up the hill. I called Jed when I was on my way to the rendezvous point and he mentioned that he was at the Jack-in-the-box just north of the freeway off-ramp. I asked him to pick me up a chicken sandwich and he agreed. I got to the parking lot first and waited for them to arrive. I saw their car and exited my vehicle. As they pulled up, Kyle rolled down his window and flung something in my direction. As I watched the object explode as it impacted with the concrete I realized it was my chicken sandwich. I still don't understand why Kyle would pull a chicken sandwich drive-by. After all, I was going to be getting in their car in just a few short minutes. I hadn't expressed to him that my life depended on immediately eating the chicken sandwich. My only theory is that it was strategy to try and get in my head and prevent me from dominating them in our fishing battle. If that was the reason, it failed miserably. I was one fish away from catching as many fish as the two of them combined. This was all despite their numerous efforts to try and take me out. Jed whacked me across the face with his fishing rod (he tried to pretend he slipped and fell in the water right behind me as he did it, but I know better now). Kyle even got to the point that he was whipping my rod with his as I was trying to reel in a fish. Despite their efforts, I had an enjoyable time showing them how to catch fish and debating whether we are human or dancer. I'm not exactly sure, but I think San Gabriel must mean trash in Mexican because it is always filled with a ton of garbage and there is graffiti everywhere. Jed even helped lead us to a dead skunk floating in the water. It was a symbolic skunk of how Jed's fishing day was up to that point.

After fishing we headed back to our families and met up at my parents' house. We agreed to have Thanksgiving dinner on Friday this year to enable everyone to spend Thursday with their in-laws, and to allow us to spend more time together on Friday. After arriving we got everyone together at Butterfield Park to take some family pictures. Then we were treated to a delicious feast. My belly is always grateful for my mother's cooking. We participated in some watching of basketball, some Xbox, and filling in the blanks to a Thanksgiving story. The funniest story seemed to be one filled out by Your Friend. It was a great day, and an enjoyable break from my normal Friday routine.

As an ode to posting too much information on the Internet, here is my Black Friday story:

A couple years back I was in line at Toys-R-Us waiting for the doors to open. I like hitting there first because they usually open before the time that is printed in the ads, the store is organized for a nice flow of people through the store, and the other shoppers aren't very hostile. They don't usually have too many outrageous deals, but I usually complete all of my shopping for the nieces and nephews there. I arrived there about an hour before they were supposed to open. I noticed some people I knew at the front of the line, but in my anti-social fashion didn't say hello. It was cold out, but I had sweatshirt on and was quite comfortable. Just after I got into line, a swarm of people began to show up. The line quickly went past the adjoining businesses and around the corner. I was probably between the 20th and 30th in line. I had my ad in hand and was carefully reviewing my list, when I was reminded that I had enjoyed two huge Thanksgiving feasts the day before. I was reminded by my bowels deciding they wanted to move, and they didn't want to wait much longer to do so.

I didn't know what to do. The store was getting ready to open, and there wasn't going to be enough time to have someone hold my place while I searched frantically for a bathroom. At the same time, there were people there who knew me, and pooping myself would most likely get heavy rotation in the gossip chain. I decided to try and wait it out. I immediately began doing the "no poop" dance. I received some strange looks, but the dance seemed to be working. The doors opened, I grabbed my cart and dashed about the store to try and get the items I needed. All the while I was praying that I could make it through. My stomach was churning and I was getting close to having everything on my list. I needed one more thing from the electronics department. I saw a very long line that had formed around the inside of the store to get into that section and knew that I wouldn't make it through that line. At that point I saw the people that I knew headed in my direction. I made a quick turn down an isle and bolted for the registers. I unloaded my items as quickly as possible while still doing my dance. Drops of sweat were dripping down my forehead. I was so close to escaping without having an accident. They rung up the items. I swiped my card without even looking at how much I just agreed to pay and ran out of the store pushing my cart. I made it out! It was a very small victory in a huge war with my bowels. I threw the bags into the car and headed out the driveway. I was sure that I wouldn't make it home in time. As I drove I wondered if there was anything that would clean up my potential mess, or if I would have to drive the car to the junkyard. About that time I saw a gas station. While steering with one hand I unbuckled my belt with the other. I slammed the gas toward the bathroom, threw it in park and darted for the door(with my car still running and the door wide open). Luckily for me it was the first time in my life that a gas station bathroom door didn't require me to ask the cashier for a key. I flung the door open, dropped my pants and exploded. I now know why gas station bathrooms smell the way they do. I sat there relieved to have made it hoping that nobody would steal my car or presents or open the unlocked bathroom door. After spending a few minutes in the bathroom I headed home and spent the rest of the day making frequent trips from the bed to the bathroom.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Anniversary!

It has been exactly one year since my foot tried to break up with me. Luckily, we were able to stick together. However, our relationship will never be the same. I am reminded each morning of the pain the break up caused me. I also will never be able to completely trust my foot again. I'm not confident that it will be able to stand strong against major adversity. I guess I have to find solace in the fact that I would be much worse if the break up had been permanent.

Deja Vu

I saw Coheed and Cambria perform again tonight. They have released 4 albums and are playing one per night. Tonight was my favorite of their albums and they didn't disappoint. Just like any other normal family, my family members call each other from the concerts that they are at. So, Kyle, Knick, Cyndi, Jed, Mike, and Debbie all got to enjoy a little bit of the concert. Prior to the concert Jed had requested hearing A Favor House Atlantic, but instead of calling I decided to grab a video of it for him. Here it is along with some pictures.


Kato is trying to set a new concert-going trend of wearing dress shoes and sweat-pants. Good luck with that Kato!