Wow it has been that long!!!

Life has been good.  Damon got his license this summer.  We went on trips to Canada for 10 days, Montana for a few days, Moab for a few days...it's been busy.  Now that school is back in session, it is a different type of craziness but no too bad.  J is in Soccer.  Bekah is doing soccer as well.  No sports for the boys right now. 

Anyway, just chugging along. 

Trust-why can't I just be okay with not trusting

someone? I think I have some serious psychological hangups in my life over this issue. I am generally a very trusting and caring person. I usually don't sit wondering if a person is just plain BSing me or if I should believe the stuff being said. But over the past few years my personality has changed. I've been opened up to a complete new world of lying/deceit and a lack of trust. It seems it's commonplace to simply lie or cover up things if they don't fit your view on things or work best for said person.

I'm not perfect in this area, but I try to be upfront and blunt in my conversations. I'm not really good at deceit or hiding my feelings on most issues.

Anyway, I just hate feeling so skeptical and negative about this. I need help.

I've become a slacker.

Lots of things going on in our lives right now. Anna is chugging along in her new position that she entered in the 4th quarter of last year. I am hopefully applying to our leadership program to become a supervisor at the end of this year. The boys are struggling at doing homework...not exactly fun. It makes me think what my mom went through with Michael and sometimes Craig...ugly. We don't exactly expect the world from them, but no F's is a reasonable goal considering our challenges. Gabe has decided to do track after a little encouragement. He has always been a great runner and we're excited to see how he does with a little coaching.

The girls are trying their best to deal with two teenage boys who like to exercise their freedoms a little too often for their own good...We struggle in keeping the girls progressing while the boys have their own issues with us. We love them and hope the best, but in the end they have to decide what they want out of their lives. We hope their lives include a lot of hope and hard work but at times we wonder how much we are really helping them. In the end we will continue to press forward.

Anna and I have our ups and downs. We are continuing to learn and develop our relationship through unique trials. We have been extremely blessed in a lot of ways, just sometimes not in the ways we hope. Bekah had a really rough time last night and was screaming/throwing things for awhile. It was physically and mentally exhausting combined with another incident from yesterday. But this morning I decided that Bekah could stay home with me since work was a little light today. I asked her if she wanted to go on a lunch date with me. She answered, "yes daddy, that would make me very happy." We ended up changing some plans and having a pizza buffet that she loved...

I sometimes struggle to see the positives moreso than the negatives, but in this instance I felt Rebekah's love and I can say I am glad the kids are a part of our family. It breaks my heart to know what the kids have been through and we continue to try and help each of them progress to be the best human being they can be.

Wow it's been awhile.

Yesterday marked the end of the hardest 13 months of my life. It has taken it's toll on Anna and I. We try to stay patient and loving, luckily that prevails most of the time. We do have to count our blessings as we are for the most part healthy and Anna got a promotion at work. We have been able to do some fun stuff to our house/yard. Went to disneyland with the kids as well as a family reunion on a large loop home. Went to Canada and had a good time with the family up there. Got to see Kara, Jim and the their kids multiple times. I wished we lived closer as Jim and I get along pretty well. Did a last minute decision trip for Thanksgiving in Folsom. Spent Christmas in California and both trips had perfect weather-very thankful for safety. Got to do a lot of things while out in California. Saw Jimmer play in a preseason game. Celebrated Hunakah and Bekah won the dradle game. Damon is home although he has had at least 3 different issues come up this year-I hope he can see we are here to help him overcome his struggles. We found out where Netto ran off to and that he is safe.

Overall we continue to have our ups and downs like most families do. We are constantly praying for guidance to help us know the way.

Happy New Year and cheers to be a better year, 2012.

Erasure concert tonight with Anna.

Hopefully this one goes better than the last one when Tatiana faked a serious injury on a trampling and made us come home from the Colors tour 4 years ago....That was interesting with Glen, Jeannette, Geoff and Alisha.

Maybe I'll post some pictures of Andy and Vince. Those two crack me up...okay, mostly just Andy Bell and his sensationalized gayness.

So Life has been a rollercoaster.

Football has started for both boys. Yesenia is trying out soccer...she says she has always wanted to try. We'll see how that goes. We are excited for school to start again....summers are not easy with both of us working and all. A lot of stress with the kids around 24/7.

Was going to go to byu/texas football game for reaching some weight loss goals, but have decided against it. My brother has quit his job...in this economy it isn't easy to find a new job. A lot of overqualified people taking lower end jobs.

Working hard to get a better raise this year at my work. I have had great results the last 4 years with no high ratings..hopefully that can change. A lot of personal goals and things to do the next 4 months.

My mom is coming out to see us next weekend. Should be a good few days. I think Gabe's games start that weekend.

We have a new foster daughter R. Situation is unclear but she is 12 and has been hanging out with Yesenia a ton.

Bekah is currently in pre-school limbo as we are trying to get something for her. She is only 3 but she is pretty smart and we're hoping to get her started sooner than later.

I just heard some terrible news from

a friend of mine. Our prayers go out to her and her family. So much sadness in this world these days...

Passed my coverage test from that class

in Seattle. So I don't have to take it again!!! Probably only 25% of the people pass it on the first try so go me!!!

Going on a weight loss journey again...need to take it more seriously to feel a little better about myself. Worked out five days last week and it felt pretty good. Now more cut backs on food and soda this week. Trying to take a gradual approach to hopefully make subtle changes along with the increase in exercise.

Going to Canada in 3 weeks for a week...haven't been up there in a few years. Should be fun. Although coming back from long breaks kills me at work.



The California trip was nice. Although the colder than normal weather made it difficult at the beaches. The kids did get to swim once back to my parents' house as the weather quickly went up to over 90. It was hot.

Still seeing what is going to happen at Anna's work with her job.

I am buying my erasure tickets tomorrow...

Coming to SLC in September!!! I'm excited.

Trip begins tomorrow-

After all of the turmoil over the past six months, we are finally headed on our long trip tomorrow. Headed to Vegas and staying the night. Then to Disneyland for two days, the beach for one and then back to Disneyland for the third day. Then driving up to Monterey/Santa Cruz for the family reunion for 4 days. Should be fun. Lots of pictures as I'm sure the girls are going to have a blast at DL.

Too much simple minded thinking in this world.

I am no genius, but thank God and my parents that I am not an idiot.

That class was terrible in Seattle.

I sure hope I passed the test and don't have to do the class over again. Overall things are going well. Damon should be coming home at the end of next week. He is doing much better. We are all very excited to head to Disneyland here in 3 weeks. We are also headed up to Monterrey for a small family reunion before routing back to Utah. Also staying in Vegas one night on the way down. Should be fun.

We have been doing some great landscaping in the backyard. We planted one tree, with 3 more trees on the way, about 15 shrubs/flowers, lots of sod and waiting on curbing/black stuff around flower beds and bark pieces. Should look really good. We had some drip systems put in that make it easier to do all of these things. Still have to plug up some holes in the sod pieces eventually but perfection will take awhile with that. The clay under the top soil mixture make holes while watering so much. We've tried not to walk on it much for that reason. We also painted the garage floor after doing some much needed cleaning and organizing. I love getting projects done.

Overall things are going well.. Now just need to lose more weight.

Seattle is pretty exciting...

So I am up here for four days doing a coverage training for work. Yeah it is as exciting as it sounds. Sitting in class for seven hours with another 3 hours in my hotel room working on coverage. I did get to see my two sisters, my brother in law Cracka and my nephew. Carter is a cute little bugger. And the most important thing...he didn't cry when I held him for about ten minutes.

Anna and the four kids are traveling around northern california...I miss them a lot. I will be back on Friday and the kids on Sunday.

My sister has a sweet Mercedes...

Liars and deception-

I'm having some issues with trust lately. All stemming from people lying and deceiving us. I consider myself a pretty honest person, so when this happens to me I am not too pleased. I guess some people are so delusional that they think lying is the answer to all of their problems. They have no idea how this affects others and how others may deal with them and their lying.

Keep N in your prayers...I'm not sure where he

is at this moment. But it is sure hard to think about the future and how this will affect him and his relationship with his siblings. And also our relationship with his extended family....

N is still gone.

I wish we could plaster his name all over the news and get some attention over this. Kid is going to screw up his life even more.

N has run away from his foster home...

Not sure what is going on or what is going to happen but this is creepy with the different dynamics going on.

I just got defriended on facebook by my own

sister. Can someone help her learn how to deal with others?

It's Anna's birthday.

I just wanted to do a quick post and tell the world(well those 5 of you who read my blog), that I am incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful wife as my companion. After having her as my best friend for over 10 years, I can easily say I married up!!! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

As a birthday present, we are getting our largest federal refund ever. Too bad we are responsible and stuff...otherwise we could do some really fun stuff. Although we are going to spend some money finishing our backyard this spring/summer.

You know, life really doesn't have to be that

hard. It has been nice around our house the past few weeks. A lot less tension and problems. I'm not exactly sure what is going to happen with Damon, but we love him regardless of his choices. Anna is doing pretty well at her new job. I'm surprised how well she can function while sleeping a lot less. She is a trooper.

Anyway, we are chugging along. Trying to plan our trip for this summer. Trying to fit in a family reunion type deal as well. Trying to make sure we can actually budget after mocking others who can't budget. Trying to treat each other with more respect and kindness. Anna's birthday is in a few weeks.