Pledge of Allegiance

So, we learned that Triton learned the Pledge of Allegiance at school. They also have another verse at the end now! With liberty and justice for all is how I and everyone else learned the ending. However this is Triton's version. With liberty and justice for all, Please sit down. Isn't that the cutest thing ever? The teacher must tell all the children to sit down and he takes that as the close of the pledge. I thought it was just cute as could be. Quinn has been standing on her own by the couch and toys and toy boxes for like a month now. She has been trying to take a step for the past two weeks and with her wobbly legs she could only muster one step or two then fall down on her behind. These past few days she is walking from object to object with only a few steps here and there, but yesterday she walked from the chair on one side of the living room to the couch that I was sitting on. It is only like 4 feet from that chair to the couch but she did it without falling and should be walking by her first birthday. I was worried that she might not be walking by her first birthday, but that shouldn't be an issue at all now. She like Triton didn't crawl for a long time, but it seemed with both of them that crawling just wasn't going to cut it. Triton starting crawling just around 7 months and was taking his first steps at around 9 months. Quinn took longer to crawl but just like Triton only a couple months later and those first steps have been taken. It is so funny to see her follow her brother around and pester him. Funny thing though is if she goes off on her own, then he follows her. He follows her to take toys from her and also to make sure that she doesn't get into his stuff, but it is good to see they play with one another at such a young age. I wondered if he would just be bored with her and not include her in his daily routines. He has a tent setup in the front room, just one of them little tents that have a tube coming out of it, just basically a play fort thing. He lets her play in that with him, and lately he has been getting rougher and rougher with her, but that is when he gets sent to his room. He doesn't understand that she isn't as tough as he is yet. He has been getting more and more whiny. So funny Monday night he was being a terd not listening to us at all. We were at Lowes and he was running off, so when we left I told him when we got home that he was going straight to his room. He threw a fit of course when I made him go to his room. He came down a bit later and did something again that forced me to send him to his room. On his was up the stairs, he was crying and screaming "not again"! So funny, heartbreaking, but funny nonetheless.

Triton's First School Picture

I guess they even try to get money from the preschoolers, they might get some from us now. I was wondering how Triton would be in front of a camera without his mom or dad there. Turns out he must be a pretty good boy away from home, he doesn't have red eyes from crying or anything. I was worried that he might be too shy or have red eyes from crying.

Bowling and Boring Stuff As My Mom Would Say

If some of you don't know I used to be one of the city's best bowlers. I was averaging 213 and was just going to get better from there. I had no aspirations of going pro, but I did want to compete with the best. I loved the competition and trying to beat the city's/state's best. One day I woke up and couldn't throw/roll a bowling ball properly anymore. My average dropped from a 213 to a 175!
I tried to get help over the years from friends who were the city's best of course and they couldn't get me out of my funk. I would have a bit of success here and there, even got my average over a 200 again one year, but that was at a real easy bowling alley and even morons who throw the ball like an idiot could average a 200 or more at the house. Even though I was averaging that high one year I knew that I wasn't happy with my bowling game at all, there was no confidence and I didn't like playing. I told everyone that if I didn't figure something out this year that I was probably going to quit bowling. I said that because it was true and I wasn't enjoying the game anymore, but it was to also light a fire under my butt and force me to grow a brain. The year started out horrible and I wasn't even averaging yearbook of 184. I knew it was going to be my last year of bowling!
A friend of mine wanted me to sub on his league on a Thursday night which is a scratch league. Scratch leagues have no handicap and I told him that I sucked, but he still wanted me to sub. I showed and noticed that his team was bowling Craig Goodwin's team. Craig has been one of the city's best bowlers for thirty years or more. I told him before we started that if he could watch me and see what I was doing wrong to please help me. In the middle of the second game he pulled me aside and told me something that everyone for the past 7 or 8 years had told me. To follow through to my target. It must have turned on a light or something because for the past three months I have probably averaged a 205 or higher. The game is getting fun again and each week I am getting better and better with my release. I struggle and lapse from time to time, but I am at least on the mend and won't have to quit playing altogether. My goal next year is to get my average back over a 200, it might be a 193 now and I don't have enough games left this year to get it over 200. The difference between averaging 200 next year and that one year about 5 years ago is the face that I will be bowling at the hardest house in the city and I have more confidence. I can move on any part of the lane and get the ball to do what I want, whereas 5 years ago I was throwing one line and because of the house I was able to score. So even though you all helped me and told me the same thing Craig did, I have to give a special thanks to him.
Poker is going good too, I have a goal to win $1000 this year playing live and online poker together. I started the year with $4.58 online, and I have gotten that up over $50. So, I am far from the goal online, but obviously it is hard to win a lot of money if you don't have a lot of money to play with. But getting that $4 up over $50 is a feat in itself. As far as live games I am doing good, but I only play at the smallest game and it is pretty hard to lose at a game where 3 to 4 people go and lose $20 every week. I have won a bit over $130 there and I have missed a couple of weeks or I don't get to play very long because I have to go to work at 11:00pm, so I don't get to win as much as I might if I didn't have to work. So, I am close to $200 on the year and once I get my online money up a bit more then I can move up in stakes and win even more. Or possibly lose it, but it isn't money that I deposited I am still playing with the houses money and have been for the past 7 years. I am playing a live tournament this weekend, if I win I profit probably $100, but lose $20 if I don't place in the top 3 out of nine people. That $100 would make it easier to get close to that goal of $1,000. This game is once a month, so if I cash in half and win one I will have positive equity for sure. In that game I should cash half of the time and win it at least once. I played in it once and took third which gave me $30, but only a profit of $10. A profit is profit though. With the snow melting and the golf courses opening though I am going to have less and less time to play poker so who knows about that grand goal?

Quick One

This last weekend we went to the wedding of Sheri's sister, Crystal. This is what we dressed Quinn in for the occasion. She is getting cuter and cuter, just needs to grow her hair out so we can do something with it besides hide it under bows all the time.

Video and blog below to explain...

Riding the Bus Home

After deciding that Triton should go to preschool I had planned on taking him to and from the school myself. On day one Triton cried his eyes out when I dropped him off and he knew that I was going to be leaving. I really wasn't as sad as I thought I would be for some reason. When first talking to the teacher about transportation for him she had mentioned that he would be able to ride a bus if I chose. I didn't like that idea at all and said that I would be the one transporting him.
Well when picking him up from day one at preschool I was just on time to see him hand in hand with the teacher and other children from his class. They were just departing the front doors of the building and I figured he would be happy to see me. He wasn't that happy to see me, not because he wanted to stay at school, because he wanted to ride the bus. I picked him up and he started crying saying school busss... school busss.... I informed him that if he didn't cry when I took him to school that he would be able to ride the school bus. He cried and homeward bound we were. The next day was the same, he cried when I took him to school and didn't really fuss about the school bus when I picked him up, but he gazed in awe when we passed by them on our way to the car. He said he wanted to ride the bus, but he didn't cry about it. Next day same story again, fuss and cry when dropping him off, but okay about leaving. He was happy to be at school once he was settled down and the teacher said that he is great after he gets done whining. Day 4 was a Friday and I kept mentioning to him about no whining or he would never ride the school bus. As we got ready to go to school I kept saying no whining, no whining... He must have been ready to be a man and not fuss because ever since day three he hasn't whined about being dropped off. I was hoping that he would forget about the bus and just be okay with me picking him up day to day. When Triton has his mind set on something he is set. So, I talked to the teacher about having him ride the school bus home. This was on his 7th day of class, a Thursday. She said that she would inform the bus route people and by Monday I should get a call and he would possibly be riding the bus home on that Monday. So all weekend he kept saying ride school bus Monday.
Well, of course nobody called and I drove him to and from school Monday. I still had not received a call so I mentioned it to her again that Tuesday when I dropped him off. She emailed someone else and said that we should just plan on him riding the bus home that day, but to show up as usual just in case the paperwork or whatever was needed hadn't gone through yet. Well, she had called me about a half hour later at home and informed me that Triton was going to be riding the bus home today. His class gets out at 2:00 and to expect him out front of our home at 2:25. I was stoked I had the flip video out and the camera as well to catch him getting off the bus for the first time.
I was outside of our home standing in the cold just waiting at 2:15 of course just in case the bus was going to be early. I waited and waiting, and waiting. It was 2:30 and I had seen two buses but none of them stopped at our home. I was getting a little worried and figured I would stand there another 5 minutes before I called The National Guard. I heard one last bus coming down another street that I didn't figure would be his because it was coming down from a main road. It turned down our street and I ran across the street because the bus door wasn't going to be on the side of the road that I was on. I whipped out the flip video and the camera both at the same time as the bus stopped. I was able to get three pictures along with the flip video at the same time. These are the pictures from the camera...




The lady that you see helping him in the second picture is a lady that helps each and every kid on and off the bus. If the children didn't have this lady on the bus with them at all times I would have never agreed to let Triton ride the bus. He was so stoked about riding the bus and as the bus drove off with other little children inside Triton yelled "Bye kids"! It was the cutest thing and this was the day that I choked up and almost squeezed a tear. I held back for fear that the two ladies on the bus would start laughing and making fun of me.

Christmas and Last Week

On Christmas morning we usually go to Sheri's grandmother's home and have breakfast and gift exchange. From there we go to Papa Rick's (Sheri's dad) and have a big family lunch/gift exchange there. From there we try to fit in as many of my family as possible, go to my dad's and usually end the day at Sheri's mom's.

The day before Christmas Triton had thrown up and had a fever. We hoped that it was just a 24 hour thing and that he would feel better by Christmas morning. It didn't happen. I worked Christmas Eve night and returned home from work at 9:00 in the morning and we roused the little man to open presents and head to Grandma's. He wasn't feeling well, had a small fever and in the middle of our presents he threw up again. So, Sheri took Quinn and did her side of the family. Yes, Sheri cried because we had to spend the morning apart. I figured it best that she get to see her side of the family since a couple of them have to drive from Utah.

Triton started feeling a bit better around noon or so, but I didn't want to drag him out yet. I figured he might be okay to do the late afternoon stuff that was just in town. Sheri's family lives about 15 minutes outside of town, not that far, but I didn't want to have Triton throw up in the car either. I made the little man take a nap with me since he was sick and I was dead tired. The gift that Santa brought him that morning (which he loved and wanted to play with) didn't work. Dang Santa bringing a gift that doesn't work. Good thing he left a Toys R Us receipt to take it back and exchange. It was a race car track. You have to shake the cars in order for them to rev up and then they race around the track once or twice. Well the cars act like they rev up and you put them down but they just sit there! So his luck is turning out to be like mine. He loves the gift but can't play with it on a day that he is mega sick.

My cousin Brandon who is in the Marines was due to arrive in Idaho Falls so I was going to probably drag Triton out no matter what in the afternoon. We woke up around 4:30 from a 3 hour nap or so and headed to Sheri's mom's. Sheri was already there and had stopped by our home to get us but left us asleep and we woke up about ten minutes after she left. More great luck. So we take Triton over to Papa crazy's (Sheri's step-dad) and he is feeling a little better but won't eat much still. He was of course running around and I knew that it would catch up to him since it obviously wasn't just a 24 hour bug. Brandon got into town a little early and I was mad because I wanted to be over at my dad's when he arrived but we weren't able to be there. We ran back home to get my dad and stepmom's gifts (which I of course forgot). Then headed to my dad's. It was so good to see Brandon. He was the first brother (I think of my cousins as brothers) that I had. He and I are basically the same age and we saw each other for the first maybe 4 years of our life and everything after that was sporadic. He was an army brat so he obviously moved a lot. From my dad's house Brandon, his wife and I went to my grandma's on my dad's side of the family. Brandon wanted to surprise her on Christmas without her knowing that he was coming. Sheri took Triton and Quinn home. I guess my grandma had shingles and I didn't want her to give my kids chicken pox. We get there and find out that she had gotten rid of them like two weeks before. More great luck.

She was very happy to see Brandon. He and her have always been very close. It was nice to see her so happy. She didn't like the fact that I didn't tell her that he was coming, but Brandon didn't want me to tell anyone. We stay there for a little while and Brandon was going to go back to my dad's, but I had him take me home so I could see how my little boy was holding up. I figured that the past 5 hours had caught up to him and that he would be sick as a dog again when I walked in the house. He was running around playing with his new toys when I came in. We settled things down a bit and I hugged him as he was sitting on the couch and I noticed (even though he was acting a ton better) that he had a fever. I took his temperature and found that he was at 102.5. I gave him some children's Tylenol and made him go to bed. He was great the next day (thank goodness). Papa Rick and his wife Betty stopped by to watch Triton open their gifts for him. Triton and I saved their gifts for the next day since we weren't able to visit them on the norm. It was a good Christmas for the fact that Brandon came to town, but wicked sad that Triton was too sick to go out. I feel bad that I took him out and maybe made him worse that night. I needed to see my Brandon though.

I tried to get work off while he was here, but I wasn't able to. So for the week that he was here I got to have three days off. It wasn't bad but I would have wanted all days off.


Here is Brandon with Triton. They played Mariokart and Triton won more races than Brandon did on the first day they played. Brandon had never played before so it wasn't too much of an upset since Triton plays a lot.

The next day though Brandon won 9 of the 12 races that we setup, so he got his revenge on the 3 year old.

Here is Brandon and his wife Toni holding my precious Quinn. I am hoping that they get on the move of starting a family of their own.

Brandon is getting out of the Marines in September and hopefully then they will get on the making babies train. I think they would be great parents and make beautiful babies. So hurry up, Triton and Quinn need more cousins.

It was sad when Brandon and Toni left. I didn't want them to go and wish they would move here someday, but that isn't going to happen. They both grew up in Hawaii and wouldn't hack it in the cold weather. It sucks not being able to see them all the time like most of our family, but such is life I guess.

So this last week Triton started school. He is in preschool and it was his first day to go on his own. He was going to a one day a week class for a few months before but I went with him and it was only an hour. For this class he is by himself the whole time for 2 hours and 40 minutes. I dropped him off 4 days, they don't go on Wednesdays and everyday he cried when I dropped him off. When I pick him up he is fine and says that he likes school. That is of course until the next day I guess. So, I noticed that the other kids had a backpack when I dropped him off that first day. So I took him to Walmart and got him a backpack of his choice. He chose Ironman. He has never watched Ironman, but he knows who he is and that is what he wanted. Of course for that whole night he wore the backpack where ever he was. He had it all the whole time. It was cute and I am glad that he is in a class that enables him to interact with other children. We didn't want him to go to daycare, but it is obvious with his speech being behind that it is my fault because I am not a person who talks a whole lot. He will catch up now and hopefully be ready to tackle kindergarten when the time comes.