Dead Bird Day

We had our whole family together for Thanksgiving minus our son-in-law Tim who opted to work double shifts for the extra money (in today's economy, I didn't blame him and it wasn't like he didn't have some of our turkey dinner sent to him).


Pics by Seth (Some were lucky and didn't get caught on camera, others, well, I'll kill that kid!)


Dinner is ready.



The Dead Bird

Bria with her gorgeous smile.

Sean kicking back. What you don't see is Bria practicing

a reflexology foot massage that she is learning to do on her own.

A little scratch and a little tongue. Content dog.

Bria massaging Sean's smelly feet.

The newlyweds, Sean and Sarah.

Seth loves to have fun With Bria.

Crazy kids.

Sean, stuffed with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and a foot massage.

I think he enjoyed Thanksgiving.

Whoa! Is this my daughter-in-law, or

America's next top model. The original photo

was very striking. Sean, you did well.

Kisses!

Somebody needs a kiss from Chloe.

Girl problems, Koda moves in for the kiss, kiss, kiss.

Dog day afternoon.

Yep, a stuffed turkey. I mean, doesn't she look like

Sleeping Beauty.

Out for the count.

Yes, I've got bling. And I'm a pampered thing.

Matching teeth. They both need braces.

Donations, please.

This is my happy face.

10 minutes into the movie and he was unconscious.

Dog like master.

Steve's U10 Soccer Team

Stephen's U10 girls team presented quite a few challenges. Mostly, it involved girls who did not show up to practice (practicing with less than a full team was hard), didn't know their left from their right, thought they should have the ball only or showed up as the game was to start or even after.

In league, we placed seventh out of nine teams. In an end of season tournament, we beat the team that placed fourth in league. After the first round, teams were placed into a gold, silver, or bronze bracket. We ended up in the silver (fourth place team went to bronze) where we lost to the fifth and sixth placed teams each 2-0. Those games were played on Sunday and our star player is the bishop's daughter, Sadee Ball, who didn't play.

All in all, the team showed great improvement. To beat the fourth place team with Sadee and losing to the other teams by only two goals (they beat us by 3 goals or more in league) without Sadee says a lot. I was very proud of how we ended up.

Above all, I fulfilled my dream to coach a team on which I had no son or daughter. It felt great but I was busy. As for Lupe, she wasn't always a happy camper about this so instead of a coach's gift I talked them into a coach's wifes' gift of $50 to Kohls. That made us both happy.

Safe and Secure

There was one time, perhaps a year ago, when I used PayPal to make a purchase, I think on Amazon.com. Anyway, on Sunday, October 12, someone gained access to my PayPal account which was tied to my bank account. That evening we began to receive emails from PayPal which
seemed to be odd. I didn't trust the emails so I went to the PayPal site and logged in and everything looked Chinese. They changed the language on the account. The next day on Monday I found out that they had accessed my bank account for $137.50. We contacted the bank. Stop payments were issued. And we were not out of pocket but had to close the account and open a new one. The interesting part is, after a round about way of contacting PayPal in English (which was not easy), I found that purchases were made in Euros not US dollars.

Safe and Secure. Yeah, right.

Seth's School

Seth attends the University Charter School located on the

community college campus of West Hills Lemoore. Steve

was on the school board when it was decided to go into

partnership with West Hills and Fresno State. The joint use

facility relationship with the college allowed this school

to be built without having to pass a bond. (Our second school

built without a bond or borrowing money). This school

has two classes each of 5th through 8th grade.

It doesn't take much to hit water around here. Near the

school there are some drainage ponds that were used

in order to lay pipe to the school. Between the school and

Lemoore NAS lies the Kings River wetlands.

At the West Hills College, Seth has access to the Library

because he has a West Hills Student Body card.

Pumpkin Carving October 2008

An anuual event is pumpkin carving.
And yes,
Bria's mother had her carve a pumpkin.

Scotland

Returning to the land of my ancestors, my sister, Carolyn and her husband, Jerry traveled once again to visit friends in Scotand. They found a town with my father's first name of Leith (rhymes with Keith and often confused with that name). Here are some pictures from their trip.

My sister Carolyn on the right with a mime.


My sister once again.


My brother-in-law, Jerry dressed in a kilt.

Sean and Sarah's Beach Wedding

Our son Sean married Sarah Greer, a recent convert to the church, on October 4th, 2008, on the beach in the town of Grover Beach, CA. The ceremony was conducted by their bishop, Bishop Haar of the Fresno Singles 3rd Ward which meets at the Institute of Religion across from Fresno State. Sarah was first escorted by her stepfather and then by her father who gave her away. In spite of an early morning rain shower and a ceremony conducted under cloudy skies, the wedding concluded with the sun peeking through just in time for their first kiss as husband and wife. Wedding picures were taken by Sister Amy Evans and the wife of Sean's boss who is also LDS. The honeymoon couple spent their first night in Huntington Beach followed by in the ensuing days with a cruise to three Mexican ports.


The groomsmen. Sean is first to the left; next is his best man
and former soccer team mate, Kyle Zimmerman; his boss Matt
from PML landscaping; his friend from Visalia; and Seth.

A closeup of Seth in his penguin suit.
He seems to be wishing to see one-piece
swimsuit clad girls on the beach.


The procession of bride's maids.

The ring bearer, Sarah's half brother.

Sarah escorted by her step father.

Sarah escorted by her father.

Sarah and Sean standing before Bishop Haar. The bishop

related the advice of Sarah's father (stay close to God),

the advice of Sean's mother (compromise), and some Scottish

advice based on Sean's ancestory that Sean's Dad and Aunt gave

(the husband needs to remember two words "Yes, Dear!").

Sarah passing off the flowers before the exchange of rings.

The sun breaks through on a day that had an early

morning rain shower and on a wedding held under overcast skies.

Husband and wife.