We Won! (Really!)

As I mentioned in my last blog, this weekend was the NCAA Women's Gymnastics National Championships, hosted by none other than our OSU campus. Since we had access to the whole competition, we took full advantage of our tickets.

Friday night the competition continued with the team championship. Amanda and Dawn represented the family and had a ball.. or... a beam.. or whatever the heck you would say for a gymnastics tournament. As with Thursday night, Georgia dominated the competition, winning the competition. Also winning tonight.. was Amanda and Dawn! They had entered a drawing in hopes of winning a prize. Mid way through the evening, much to their surprise, they heard their names over the loud speakers, announcing the won something. They excitedly checked in to discover they had won tickets to next year's national championships.. in Salt Lake City! So the girls will now be taking a trip to Utah next spring and are already talking about their plans like 2 excited teenagers.

Saturday was the Individual Events Championships and once again Dawn and Amanda were there for every second. They also enjoyed an autograph session with all of the athletes competing. They enjoyed meeting the girls and had a poster for them to sign. With that many competitors, you can image, the poster got quite full!! (See it here)

By the time the evening ended, the girls were quite pooped, having spent 3 days (2 for Amanda) and several late nights at the gym. But they had a great time. (Meanwhile, the boys were home building a high speed wireless network... exciting, eh?.. Hence the reason I am blogging about the tournament, and not about which blue wire went into what on the router.)

Oh, and where was our little red headed scientist? Out shooting bunnies in eastern Oregon... ahhh.. boys!

Check out our weekend photo gallery with the kids pictures form the competition and Amanda's autograph poster by clicking here.

Twirl Time

It's time for the NCAA Women's Gymnastic National Championships! And this year Oregon State University is playing host to the large scale event. Taking place over 3 days in Corvallis, the event seems to be drawing fans from all over, eager to see the best competitors in the nation and members of the Olympic team compete.

We have tickets for the full 3-day event, which means there will be lots of gymnastics for us in the next 3 days. The tournament began yesterday, with all 12 teams competing, trying to get into the top 6 for Friday's competition. While I had to work during the afternoon competition, I was able to go up for the evening rotations to watch Arkansas, Oregon State, Iowa, Georgia, Arizona State, and Florida State compete.

Watching a gymnastics tournament.. it's kind of like watching a 3-ring circus. So many things going on in so many places.. what do you look at. What can really be trippy is watching a balance beam routine on one side of the court, while watching a competitor twirl around the uneven bars at the other end of the arena, out of my peripheral vision. Who to watch, who did well, was that girl in the Olympics? Ouch that must have hurt! All going on at the same time.

By the end of the evening, Georgia was in high form, just a perfection level above all other teams, winning the evening, with Iowa and Florida State also moving on. For the Beavers... it was over quickly, leaving some of the home crowd disappointed. But still a fun night of watching some incredibly talented athletes at the top of their game. And regardless of whether it is in football, basketball or gymnastics, that level of competition and skill is always fun to see.

Welcome Squidward!

Just a quick note to announce the happy arrival of.... Squidward a.k.a. my sister's newest little daughter. Why Squidward? Because my sister and her husband seem to have the hardest time in the world naming their children and the child is so far nameless. And that is where cruel uncles come into play...

Squidward is now the youngest of 4 kids. Madeline, my sister's 5 year old daughter announced that she wanted her new sister named after a Sponge Bob character, and so..... Squidward it is!

Welcome to the world Squidward! Weighing in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces and 19" long, born today at 2:57 PM in San Antonio Texas. And what a fabulous life you have to look forward to... with your Uncle calling you the name of an ugly fish.
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4/21/06 Update:
Squidward now has an offical name! She is Chloe Elizabeth. Welcome Chloe... but, you'll always be Squidward to me!

Celebrating Easter

It was a beautiful.. er, rainy, windy, hailing eater weekend.. beautiful easter egg hunt weather, not that that stopped any of us Oregonians. As always we work to make it a fun weekend for the kids, full of Easter traditions.

This year the celebration began for Little Calvin of Thursday as he is now old enough to begin having sleep-overs with his friends. For the parents, this is wonderous news. Their child gets to be gone for an evening giving them some precious alone time. But for the receiving parents, this can make for an interesting night of trying to get someone else's child to sleep. For him and his friend Chandler, this meant getting into bed at 9:30 PM, but not actually going to sleep until midnight. And for me... it meant discovering supposedly sleeping kids under the bed giggling, jumping ON the bed, and essentially adding to my already large crop of grey hairs. But soon, midnight finally hit, all kids were out cold and frazzled Dad got to go to sleep.

Friday, I had the afternoon off so I met the crew in town to watch Ice Age 2 (boys giggled throughout). On Saturday, I helped cook pancake for the church easter egg hunt and pancake breakfast. Then we had to get the house cleaned, as every parent knows that the "Easter Bunny doesn't visit dirty houses!"

Saturday evening we dyed our Eater Eggs in preparation for hiding by the big rabbit. In most homes, Easter Eggs are colored in nice bright colors. In my house, they are covered in Star Wars characters. Only I have the luxury of having a Darth Vader easter eggs. We did have a slight dilema. Little Calvin wanted to use every last egg decoration. That meant that eggs collected previously at the church would be redecorated to match the others. But could we in good conscience cover the "I love Jesus" themed easter egg with Darth Vader? We finally had to compromise and only cover that egg with the "good guy" characters...

The Big Bunny did come on Sunday, hiding eggs, candy and a soccer ball in the house. But what got us into trouble was the "after church conversation" about the true meaning of Easter that we attempted to have before finding eggs.

"Now remember... Easter is not really about bunnies and presents. It's a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus."

He replies "What does resurrection mean?"

"The resurrection is when Jesus came back to life after he dies on the cross."

Then he stops, thinks, and his eyes get all big..

"Wait! You mean Jesus is a ZOMBIE?!"

This then brought on a big discussion on the definition of zombies vs. resurrected beings.. all trying to communicate with a 5-year old. Good ol Little Calvin!

So Happy Easter All! Here is our "Happy Easter" photo collection featuring photos from throughout the weekend! Click to enjoy!

The Hill

Marathon Prep continues every day as I work towards becoming ready for the big race in January. (Only 268 days left!) But in all honesty, the actually "training" for the race will not begin until mid August. The way I originally laid out the plan was simple: August, 2005 - December 2005: Get in BASIC shape so that I can finish at least a 5k race (which I did on Thanksgiving Day). Then from January 2006 - mid August 2006 I would work on overall body fitness training. The goal here is to get into much better shape, capable of running 10k races, get my body strong, and lose some weight so that there is less pressure on my knees when I start putting on the big miles in the fall. August - mid January will be the core marathon training, and hopefully all goes well!

With an increase in daily fitness, I have been working on establishing a new mind set: Marathon Prep is not a phase, it is not something temporary, it is a way of life.. a way of thinking and acting. To do this, I have made several small changes in how I handle things: I try to drink more water than pop (a huge change for me!!!) and my sport drink consumption is way up. I don't drive around parking lots straining to find the absolute closest parking spot I can, and just park in the empty spaces in the back. The extra 20 steps could help, you never know.... Hopefully soon, weather and kids schedules permitting, I can begin to ride my bike to work. And at 20 miles each way, that'll be a descent workout!

But this weeks change has been a nice new shift to the schedule. The suggestion actually came from my wife. With her training in Physical Education and coaching jobs, she tends to have a lot of cool ideas as to getting the most out of my fitness day. Her idea: instead of sitting on my butt during my lunch break, driving the car to get my fast food while wasting expensive gas, why not take an easy lunch and spend the hour walking. And so the lunch break walks began.

One of the things that I feel has been lacking in my fitness so far is building leg strength. Sure it's nice to have my endurance back again, but when your legs die at mile 3, what good does that do? So I need to increase basic length strength and one of the ways recommended to do that is easy: Hills. Lots of hills.

Problem is, where I live in the valley, there are no hills in close proximity to my regular runs... it's nothing but farm land. But here at work, you go across the freeway, and there is... the hill! Straight up the side of the mountain. One mile straight up, then rolling hills for a mile, and one mile straight down. Walk that every day, and that could seriously help!

Now, it does take some planning! I have to remember to actually BRING a lunch, something I am not used to. I have to remember to bring a shirt as I don't want to get my office clothes all sweaty.. but having spent a week walking the hill, I am enjoying the benefits it's bringing. And walking 3 miles during lunch and then running 4 in the evenings.. bring on that Marathon! I like this new fitness way of life!

Hide-and-go-Seek-Death-Match

It was a pretty normal weekend in the Calvin household... nothing major to report. Saturday Dawn spent the day up in Portland, representing the family at a temple sealing. That left me at home with the kids... 3 kids and a Calvin, all left at home by ourselves.. this can't be good.

But the day turned out to be fairly normal: morning buttermilk pancakes and cartoons... the kids playing in their rooms. Then we began almost if by accident to play a favorite game in the Calvin household... Hide-and-go-Seek-Death-Match. Now what is THIS game, you ask? Allow me to explain the way this works. One person is "it". That person is typically me, both because I am the world champion of Hide-and-go-Seek-Death-Match and because I am the scariest (will make sense later). Anyway, I hide somewhere in the house and it is the kids job, either collectively or individually to find me. I have discovered the best spot too: Go to the kids bathroom, turn out the lights, pull the shower curtain back, but only half way. This way the kids THINK you are not there and quickly move on. Sounds like traditional Hide-and-go-Seek, but then comes the fun part. Here come the kids, quietly creeping down the hall, weapons in hand (you must have weapons for Hide-and-go-Seek-Death-Match, toy lightsabers or pirate swords are the norm), peering in each room, trying to find you. But unlike traditional Hide-and-go-Seek, rather than just saying "fine you found me"... I jump out, screaming at the top of my lungs and making gurgling sounds as if my heart is being ripped from my chest. This causes the kids to turn tail and run screaming in terror back down the hall, having the snot scared out of them. (Quite literally too, just ask Tyler..), By the time the little mob gets down the hall and around to the kitchen, they are laughing so hard they can hardly stand up, giving me ample opportunity to slip around another corner and hide again, before they realize I just slipped away. About 10 rounds of this and we are all just exhausted. This tends to be a fairly...eh... noisy, destructive game, so it's best played when "Mom" is not home, and oblivious as to what we are really doing.

I also learned another very entertaining game... "Maximum Overdrive", inspired by the old 80's Emelio Estevez movie. In this game, I position my self very carefully where the kids cannot see me, but I can see them. And there I stay with an RC car remote in hand, and proceed to chase the kids around the house with the RC car seeming to them to be driven invisibly and it has a vendetta against them. Also, another game best played in Mom's absence.

But soon enough we switched gears to more... eh... conventional entertainment: A family bike ride, stories in Little Calvin's Star Wars cave (see photo)and a movie night watching "Dreamer", a movie that Amanda especially loved.

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Top lines uttered by Little Calvin, age 5, over the weekend:

"Ahhhhh, I wish you guys were married" -Spoken to Dawn and I, as we looked puzzled at each other.

"Dad, you know that I am smarter than you and Mom" -Proclaimed to me out of the blue while driving to the store.

"Ok Bunny.. Prepare to DIE!!!" -Yelled loudly while walking though the store, having just received his free cookie from the bakery in the shape of a rabbit.

Spring Sports Begin!

For Amanda, it was basketball, now it's track. For Tyler it was football, now its baseball. And for Tanner, a.k.a. Little Calvin, swimming season is done, now its time for soccer. From the looks of things, spring sports are here!

It's always fun to watch the kids branch out, find new things that interest them, and explore new frontiers. Today we began what could be a whole new frontier, as I have seen this sport take over family lives for years. Today was Tanner's first day of soccer practice.

I remember playing soccer as a child. I smile with some of the memories from my old team. I remember shortly before my first season began, my dad took me to the school soccer field, basketball in hand. Yes... basketball. I specifically remember questioning the whole basketball thing and my dad saying something to the effect of "we don't need to spend money on a whole new ball when we have a perfectly good one right here!" And so I began to learn basketball, er.. soccer.

And I began to learn.. in JEANS. Now, this is one thing I must ask my parents.. Ok, so I picked out my Indian pants by myself, but I refuse to believe that I CHOSE to wear jeans for sports. I have pictures of me as a child playing soccer. The whole team is in typical soccer garb: shorts, team shirt, etc. and there I am wearing jeans. Everytime. Upon finding my old team photos a few weeks back, this was the first question out of my wife's mouth: "Why are you wearing jeans?!"I have no clue. But I remember wearing them, to every game.


Soccer also provided me another unexpected experience... one of my first major crushes: Ashley Gottsman.. the little first grade beauty I had my eye on (Don't freak out! I was a second grader!!) Her mom was our team's coach. And so with Ashley, I beagn to learn the high art of wooing women. Was I successful? Well, considering I never really talked to her at practice.. (I was a full back, she was a forward.. no real time to chat) I never really talked to her after practice, and the few times our familys were swimming at the pool together and I never got up the guts to say diddly squat.. I can say that in the world of reality, nothing ever happened. But in my head, it was the wind blowing Gone with the Wind scene, strings playing.. love blooming. Jeans and all.

Sooooo, do I expect my own son to find his first love on our city park playing fields? Nope. Am I teaching him on the side with a basketball? No. BUT, like many parents with kids on the team, am I buying the kid soccer shoes, pads, specialized shorts, etc for 4 tuesday practices? Sorry. Like my parents when I was young.. he's wearing what he's got. Maybe when he is older he can create his own blog and vent about his parents making him wear blue sweats rathing than ponying up the dough for the designer sports duds. It's just the way it works.

I have posted a short video of soccer practice: Day 1. You can watch it by clicking here. Note: This is a Quicktime video file. If you do not have Quicktime already, click here to download it.

The 4 AM Blog

So here I am... at my desk... at the office... at 4 A.M... I really can't complain, it's not a new work schedule, it's not a new standard. It is simply a one-time incident as we support our East Coast business needs. But as I have gone through the whole "being at the office at 4 AM" thing, I have made a few observations:

• Plastic toy TIE Fighters make A LOT of noise when accidently kicked across the living room, as I silently try to leave the house.

• It is depressing enough getting in the car to go to work at 3:30 AM. But when the car clock still says 2:30 thanks to not having been adjusted to Daylight Savings time, it makes it all the worse.

• Talk radio at 3:30 AM..... stinks..

• Parking lots are VERY dark at 4 AM! Watch out for curbs!

• My boss has very weird musical tastes at 4 AM!

• People are pretty darn cranky without coffee.

• I went to bed last night. For me it is Monday morning. My co-worker just stayed up all night. For him its still Sunday. Communicating so far has been very confusing..

• If you want a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, wait until McDonalds opens at 6 AM. DO NOT settle for a gas station equivalent!!! They must put health department warning on those things...

• After a "super-cafinated" extra large cup of coffee, my boss actually cackles as he laughs.

The Hinkley Report

It was General Conference weekend this weekend, and what a great conference it was. (If you have no idea what I am talking about right now.. Every 6 months, our church has a conference where church leaders address the world via Satellite from Salt Lake City) Having spent 10 hours over the weekend attending conference sessions, I know I benefitted greatly for the experience and knowledge received. There were things from all 5 sessions that stand out in my mind and never in the past have I felt like the Apostles were talking directly to me with their messages.

One of the things that really stands out in my mind from the whole conference was seeing President Hinkley, the prophet and president of the church. For one... I could actually SEE him. Typically we listen to the conference on the internet, but all sessions were actually live broadcast on our local Eugene basic cable service, and for this town, THAT is a miracle in and of itself!

Keep in mind, President Hinkley is one of the more.. energetic people I have seen. So busy and so full of life. Even though he is ready to turn 96!! I remember meeting him here in Eugene when he was 86 and going strong, you'd never expect he was as old as he was. But the spirit this man carries with him is indescribable.

But, this conference was different. He has had a pretty serious health turn for the worse in the last 6 months. His weight loss was noticeable this time but sense of humor still going strong... In regards to his recent surgery "It was the first time I have been a patient in a hospital. I do not recommend it to anyone." But humor aside, it really felt like he was taking an opportunity to address the saints for what could be the last time.

This is a man that has been high up in church leadership for the last 50 years. He has worked with so many past leaders and seen so much growth, it is astounding. Even just a few years ago when he became the president of the church, there were 40 temples. Now, 12 years later there are over 120.. just amazing progress.

His main talk of the conference was different from what he has done in the past. He focused on talking about things he has done in his many years of service. He didn't do this is a "look at all the cool stuff I have done", gloating style. It was more of a "Look how far the church has gone in the last 50 years". While he did say, that he looked forward to speaking again in October and continuing his work, to both my wife and I, this feels more like a man putting all of his affairs in order, but at home, and now for the church. While I would love to hear his inspiring words again, I would be very surprised to see him at another conference.

But if this was his final address to the saints, what a way to go. I don't think there was a dry eye anywhere amongst everyone watching or listening. The spirit was unrestrained, a huge peace sinking into all who listened. His memories were sharp and his conviction a strong as ever. "The vision given the Prophet Joseph Smith in the grove of Palmyra (N.Y.) was not an imaginary thing. It was real. The resurrected Lord and his father, "the great God of the Universe," appeared to the young prophet and opened the dispensation of the fulness of times. The Book of Mormon is all that it purports to be . . . The priesthood has been restored under the hands of John the Baptist and Peter, James and John. All of the keys and authority pertaining to eternal life are exercised in this church . . . This church, which carries the name of the Redeemer, is true."

Thank you, President Hinkley. We all benefitted from the experience! This will be a weekend long remembered, regardless of what the next 6 months holds.