I love to ride my Bicycle

Our summer goal for Caleb is to teach him how to ride a bike.

Day One was good. He was hesitant to get on the Schwinn Pixie that I had learned on 33 years before. It's in pretty good condition.

We're still working on the trust issue. He's under the impression that I'm going to let go at any moment crashing him to the ground. That's not until lesson 3 or maybe 4, though.

Where have I been?

Sorry, I've been neglecting this blog lately, but it's been a busy month.

First, we participated in The Race for the Cure.



April's sister asked her to participate and we got the kids involved. We went with the Hubbard family, and had a great time.
After not running into April's sister, she asked her if she went, and her sister said no, they backed out at the last minute because she had too many things to do. April kindly asked her to let her know when she's going to do that again with something she had April be a part of.

A couple weeks ago we were driving home form Kelsey's band concert and passed this dog going the other way.

We turned around to chase down the dog. I got out of the car to try to grab it, but she was elusive. Finally I opened the car door and called for her. She ran right in the car and fell asleep on the seat. We drove all around the neighborhood trying to find the owner, but had no luck. The next day we put signs up in the area, and within 5 minutes the owner called worried sick about her. The kids were bummed, because they thought they'd get to keep the little furball.

Then April and I went on a little road trip to San Francisco. We stayed at her sisters in Stockton and had a couple days of relaxation. We hoped to swim, but it was unseasonably cool. Then we went to the city and took in the sights. After all that, we went to my old area in Concord and hung out with some of my really good friends from the past. My old church ward even had a pancake breakfast that weekend, so we got to see a lot of people I miss from the past. All in all it was a great trip that helped me realize how blessed I am to have such great friends and a special someone to share my life with.

The Oakland Temple

I think we are at Ghiradelli Square here

Love the wink!

April posing in front of my design work on display at the Metreon.

My Old House. Guess the new owner didn't like the beautiful magnolia tree in the front yard. :(

13.1

I survived my first half-marathon.
My time was 2 hours 8 minutes. Not quite my goal of 2 hours, but my main goal was to finish. I can work on improving my time in future races.

The highlight was when I was about a mile and a half from the finish, and my sweet kids were there with April to cheer me on.
I stopped to give them hugs and thank them for coming when a funny thing happened. My legs thought the race was over, and as I started to finish the last mile and a half they begged me to give out.

So, a new rule for anyone wanting to cheer me on… don't let me stop unless you are at the finish line.

Knowing Bob may Induce Nightmares

Most of you have been following my situation with April and the aunt and uncle she lives with.

For those of you that aren't up on it, April and I have been dating, but keeping it from the aunt and uncle because they are not cool with it. They say it's because my divorce is not final, but now I'm suspecting other reasons unknown to me.

April woke up this morning and stepped outside her room to go get a shower. Her aunt was waiting for her and said "Where have you been at night."

April told her that she'd been working on her high school class reunion stuff and last night went to the mall with her friend Karen and grabbed dinner.

Her aunt told her that she's been having nightmares about Bob (me) and she doesn't trust him (me) at all. She then expressed her opinion yet again that April should stay away from me. Keep in mind that I haven't spent more than 45 seconds talking to this aunt. It was mainly small talk at church and I never felt as though I left an impression like that.

April has become numb to all of this. I've met most of her immediately family by now and we all get along great, and she has their approval to hang out with me. This continued assault from the aunt is only going to distance April from her, who is now looking into renting a room in the area solely so she can be out of her control.

Punishment

My cousin Mickey was in town last night. His company, Symantec, purchased a company out here, and he comes in town every now and then to do training or teach employees how to submit their will to Symantec and Norton Utilities.

Mickey and I took Caleb to pick up some carryout from my favorite Chinese place down the street. Before I left, I gave Kelsey and Karissa explicit instructions not to fight or get into trouble, I would be back in ten minutes.

When we returned with the food, I came through the garage door and had a nice view of the backyard, where my sweet angels were walking atop the 8 foot high fence/stucco wall that surrounds our property as though it were a balance beam.

I screamed at them for an embarrassingly long time and sent them to their rooms. Then I went to the kitchen to get dinner on the table. I looked out the kitchen window which has a slightly higher vantage point and noticed that my neighbors behind me were having a nice quiet family dinner outside on their patio, which was interrupted first by my daughters walking on the wall, then by my maniacal screaming.

I sent the girls to showers and bed directly after dinner. Of course they felt this was unfair; I felt it was not enough. If I would have pulled a stunt like that when I was a kid, the punishment would have involved a paddle that my mom bought at Six Flags.

What do you think? Is it enough punishment one night of going to bed early, and should I apologize to my neighbors and let them know to expect many more rants by me.

Caleb the Casanova

I've known for some time that Caleb is a smooth talker with the ladies. He has four girlfriends at school now.
One of them has begun to call him to talk on the phone .

He's also working on stealing my girl April away from me. Here's two instances.

1. One evening at dinner I got a text from April. I was replying when caleb asked if I was saying 'I Love You'. I said I wasn't. He said "Give me the phone, because I'm going to tell her and send it."

2. A couple evenings later at dinner, April was over and Caleb was sitting on the opposite end of the table when he leans forward towards her and says, "April, you are soooooo cute."

We're hoping this doesn't become a problem. I'd hate to have a heart to heart talk with my 5 yr old to stay away from my lady. I don't mind if he plays the wingman role, he's pretty good at that too. I'm just not ready for him to become a rival.

Working from home

Well, part of being single dad means that if I have a sick kid I have to take care of him/her AND work.
Luckily I have a full work rig a home, so it's an easy problem to solve.

Currently Caleb is my little sick guy. About 7 last night, he started having the dreaded diarrhea. I'm sure he would horrified if he knew I was letting everyone know about this.

Then later in the evening I was informed that Friday while at his mothers home, he was throwing up. That would have been something nice to know when he came over on Saturday. Might not have sent him to that birthday party in the afternoon.

Oh well, we're both a little tired, having been awakened every 2 hours by uncontrollable bowels. (I hope noone is eating while reading this.)

Currently he is able to help me work. Here's some pics of him coloring in my office.


My sister says that when he is able to start eating, give him the B.R.A.T. diet. Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast. Seeing as he doesn't eat half those things, he'll be on the R.T. diet.

Does anyone out there, have any other tips??