Jayda had her four month checkup Monday June 1st. She was weighed, measured, and received four immunization shots. Last time she received her shots she lasted through all four shots before she began crying, this time she lasted through the second before letting out a really loud scream and letting the nurse know she was not happy anymore. After the shots were over, mommy picked her up and she just kep crying. I took her from mommy and noticed the doctor had some tie dye curtains hanging in the room so I took her where she could see the curtains and she immediately stopped crying and began laughing. I have learned that she is quite intrigued with bright colors since she always enjoys staring at my hawaiian shirts and remains calm and quiet. She weighed in at 17.5lbs and 26.5″ in length which puts her in the 97% on the baby growth charts.

We have begun to notice her teeth starting to protrude through the gums in the past couple nights. We looked again tonight just before putting her to bed and it appears there are two teeth in the bottom center gum coming through. So far it doesn’t seem to be bothering her too much because she doesn’t cry much at all. She has been a little more difficult to put to sleep at night but once she is asleep she is out for about eight to ten hours solid before waking in the morning for milk. We have been feeding her cereal and milk for a little over a week now and she appears to be taking it quite well. We give her water through the bottle and she drinks it for about thirty seconds before she begins to notice that she doesn’t like it. After she knocks the bottle away, if we try to give it back to her she refuses so we wait a few minutes before giving it to her again so she will drink a little again.

Well, I will try to update the blog more often now to keep you better informed as to her status.

WOW, that is all I can say about the past four months of my life. I can’t believe four months ago I was standing beside my wife in the delivery room as my first born child was being delivered, it seems as if it was just yesterday.

Well, it has been a while since I posted anything on my blog, I have been quite busy with work and the family life. These past four months have been so much fun and I have enjoyed watching Jayda grow and develop through this timeframe. She has come along way and just keeps amazing us with her developments. She has the most beautiful smile you could possibly imagine and it gets prettier every day I see it. Everytime we reach to grab her little hands she uses her legs to push her body up to a standing position. She would much rather stand than sit anytime, I guess she figures the higher she is the more she will see and less she will miss.

This week she has really progressed with her sleep habits at night which has been a real relief to Mommy & Daddy. Sunday night she went to bed at 8:30pm with no problem and woke up at 4:30am Monday morning asking for milk. This was the first eight hour sleep she has had since she was born, it was great. She absolutely loves hearing someone talk on the phone, when someone is talking on the phone we put them on speaker so she can listen. She stares at the phone smiling waiting for the right moment to get her two cents worth in on the conversation. Once she begins talking on the phone she can’t seem to stop, she just has so much to share with everyone.

We had to go out and buy her a new car seat this week since she has already outgrown her first one. She still has to face the rear of the car but she still seems to find a way to fall asleep so easily while riding back there. Today we fed her a small amount of cereal for the first time, it was just so precious to watch her. Everytime we put some in her mouth she looked as if she was going to cry but never did. She just kept licking trying to figure out what she was suppose to do with this new stuff in her mouth.

Softball season is now upon us and I have been playing in a COED league for the past two months and we will be finishing the season in early July. I have also signed up for fast pitch softball in the summe beginning just as the slow pitch ends. I have also signed up with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and joined the local league. I have always enjoyed playing tennis and have played around on the court with friends and have now decided to participate in a league and see how I fare. Tomorrow will be my first try in the league so I am excited to see what will happen. I have never been very good at it but I do enjoy the sport. I will keep you posted how I am doing with that, hopefully not too embarrasing.

As far as the house is concerned, we have added a few more features to the garage and landscape in the past couple months. We added several new shelves, drawers and cabinets in the garage to provide more room and a neater appearance. I have taken the rock & cactus garden from the back yard and transferred it all to the front yard since we have a little girl now. I don’t want to have cactus in the back yard when she begins walking and playing in the back yard. I added some really nice stepping stones in the front yard to add a new look and stand out above everything else. Several of our cactus are now blooming with flowers and it is really beautiful. Unfortunately, when I returned from travel last week, our Crape Myrtle had died, not sure as to why but it was dry to the bone, all the other trees were just fine after only three days. We have been looking around at new houses in the area lately. We aren’t sure if we will purchase another home or build an addition to our home. We want a larger home now that the family has grown.

I will try to get some time to upload some new photos of Jayda to the website this weekend so I will post here on the blog when I have completed that. Everyone have a great weekend.

Josh

Well, today has been a long day with travel and sitting. I woke this morning at 3:30am to take a shower, eat breakfast, throw the bags in the car, and say goodbye to my lovely family. 4:30 I arrived at the airport ready to board the first leg of my flight. 5:15am we departed Inyokern airport and arrive at LAX at 6:10am. Departed LAX at 8:00am and arrived in Washington DC at 3:45pm EST in the rain. It took us over two hours to drive from Washington DC to Solomons Island, MD which is only about 70 miles in distance due to rain, rush hour traffic, and traffic accidents. After settling in the hotel we went to the Naughty Gull Restaurant near the hotel for some fantastic seafood. I pigged out on Norfolk crab, crab cake, steamed shrimp, baked potato and green beans. The price wasn’t bad costing me $32 for my entire meal and the service was great as well. Once I was done eating I was quite stuffed and ready to come back to the hotel to relax. Now it is time for me to get in bed and get ready for a long day of training tomorrow, I will add more later.

It has been a little over a month since I last updated my blog and for good reason I assure you. Many of you know that Arlyn and I have had our baby since the last time I posted on my blog. For the ones that don’t know, then here is the information. Jayda Claire joined our family January 30, 2008 at 1:28pm weighing in at 8lbs 3oz and measuring 21.5″ long. She is an absolutely beautiful baby and quite alert I shall say. She is now a little over three weeks old and it has been an absolute blessing to have her in the family. She has brought so much joy to our family and we are looking forward to so much more as time passes.

It appears Jayda is beginning to recognize Arlyn and I with her attention and the way she seems to study each of us in our actions around her. She is now smiling when we make funny sounds or movements with her which is so cute. She hasn’t quite got her sleep patterns down pat yet, we are still working on that. She loves sleeping during the day and being awake more late at night and crying for more food. She is quite difficult to wake during the day, a very heavy sleeper at that time but still precious. She already has a very large number of sounds that she uses quite often as well, I have been filming some her moves and sounds lately to look back on when she grows up.

Well, I need to go for now so I can get some work done. I will be updating the blog more often now since the baby is here so please check back often. You can also check out photos of Jayda online at http://www.mojavesky.com/jayda.

Well, it has been a long time since I have made a post on the blog and I decided since I am now up at 1am on a Friday morning waiting on a callback from my office personnel on an urgent issue we are working, I would go ahead and drop a line on my blog. First off, you are probably wondering why am I up at 1am and if an issue is so urgent why I am blogging. Well, I actually was in bed around 9:30pm and sleeping quite content until my work phone rang loudly next to my bed at 11:55pm Thursday night. I was awaken by my nightshift co-worker because an urgent requirement came about from an external customer so he asked if I could assist him with this requirement. I logged into my office computer from home and was able to assist for nearly an hour, now we are awaiting for some things to complete which take some time before I call it a night again and go back to bed. I don’t feel like going back to bed and be awaken again to find out the status of the solution we worked. At least I do have the luxury of conducting some of my work from home where I don’t have to get in the car and drive to work and enjoy the wonderful brisk cold outside air that goes along with it.

What has made this week long! Monday was a good day at work and at home. Tuesday morning is when it all hit me. It was a routine day waking at 4am to get ready for work and the next thing you know it hit me, the stomach flu which appears to be affecting many all throughout the town lately. I felt like I parked myself on the train track and a large locomotive just slammed into me. I had no energy and a difficult time trying to eat anything all day. I spent nearly the entire day in bed and on the couch, the only reason I went back and forth between the two is because my body kept getting so sore remaining in one spot for too long. I was suppose to officiated two basketball games that evening but I had to call in for someone to take over for me. To make the day even smoother, it turns out our oven decided to lay over and croak on us, it no longer operates and won’t cook anything.

Wednesday I felt like myself again with a ton of energy, I guess this burst of energy came from getting so much sleep the day before. I ran into one of the coaches from one of the teams I was suppose to officiate for the night before and he informed me that approximately half of his basketball team was down with the stomach flu. Well, the day was very busy for me since I had missed the day before so I had to make up for lost time and get in my normal duties for Wed as well. After work, Alryn and I made a trip to the Navy Exchange, Sears, & Home Depot to locate a new oven which was not in our budget. 

We decided on an oven at the Navy Exchange that had a small dent because they were offering a decent discount for us due to the dent. We saw the same exact oven at Home Depot for $50 more but at the Exchange we didn’t have to pay tax, a real benefit. I left work at 1:30pm to pick up the oven and take it home. A friend and I got to the house and took out the old oven and replaced it with the new oven. A big difference since the new oven was about an inch wider, we had to shave some sides of the counter to make it fit. This was quite interesting and took quite some time to accomplish, but it was finally complete. During this time, Arlyn and I were to have a doctor’s appointment with the baby doctor so she went by herself for the first time during the pregnancy. The doctor told her it doesn’t appear we will be holding our new baby in our arms by Feb 2nd as it was originally set for. We will go in for another checkup next week and see if there have been any changes at that point. They did tell her that if she doesn’t have the baby by Feb 8th that they will take her in the hospital and induce to force the baby out. After all this, I still had to go back to the office to finish up some work that I hadn’t been able to finish. I was back in the office until 7pm. I went home and spent the next couple hours on the couch with Arlyn watching a movie and eating a wonderful dinner that she had prepared while I was at work. We went to bed shortly after and then the dreaded phone call near midnight, so here I am still waiting for the phone call.

Well, I’m going to end this post here as I am losing focus and not sure how many words I may have already misspelled or will if I keep going. I nned to finish here and make a phone call back to my office to make sure they haven’t forgotten to call me back, I was hoping they would have called me back by now. Well, enjoy your day, I will as soon as I get back to bed. Until next time. 

It has been a month since my last post and things have been very busy for us. High School football and fall league softball are over now. Our men’s League softball team finished the regular season 7-4 and lost in the second round of the playoffs. Our Co-Ed League softball team finished the regular season 1-6 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Arlyn and I have decided to not do the 3D ultrasound in Lancaster, we will just wait to the baby when she is ready to appear. The baby is growing quite rapidly now and becoming very active. I wake up around 4am each morning during the week to get ready for work and the baby appears to wake at the same time and begin moving around. It is a joy to wake in the morning and have Arlyn grab my hand to feel the baby moving around as if she is trying to say “I Love You Daddy”. Wow, that sounds so nice.

We have changed the date of for the Baby Shower from Nov 30th to Dec 5th which will be a month before the baby is due. We are registered through Walmart and I have been updating the registry just about every day lately. We have also been through about 8 books lately and many different websites searching for the right name for our new baby when she arrives. We have a couple names in mind so far but we still have two months so we may have several more chosen by then. The preparation for our first baby has been fun and a lot of work but it will be worth it when she arrives and we want to be prepared as best we can.

We saw our baby doctor this past Tuesday for our monthly visit and all is going well with the pregnancy, the mommy to be and baby both appear to healthy and happy. The mommy to be has put on 9 lbs in the last month which is good. The babies heartbeat was 130 bpm. This was our last monthly visit to the doctor, now we begin bi-weekly visits for more checkups with the doctor. We are both anxious and excited and we hope we will be ready and well prepared for her grand appearance. I guess you could say we are very nervous as well since this will be a new thing to both of us and we don’t really know what to expect.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and spent some time with friends for a delicious Thanksgiving meal that was very filling. After enjoying the meal with our friends we went back home and watched the traditional Turkey Day football games. I another half of pumpkin pie while watching the games as well, this made one whole pumpkin pie and 1 large slice of homemade applie pie eaten on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a good thing the gym is on the way home. 

It has been a while since I last posted on my blog, so I have a lot to write down this time. I have been very busy with work, new baby homework, football, and softball. First off, I would like to thank each of you for stopping by to check out my blog again and I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Everything is going great for Arlyn and myself and we are very happy.

Lately work has been stressful with new business we are taking on and now we have been given a timeline in which to take on this new business. I have been heavily involved with writing up the standard operating procedures as to how will conduct our business. We are spending much of our time proposing new business rules and procedures so everything should be in place and ready for implementation in early December.

The pregnancy is going great, Arlyn and I are having a great time and spending much time playing with the baby even though she still in the tummy. We have talked about driving down to Lancaster for a 3D Ultrasound photo of the baby lately, we aren’t sure yet but we are considering.  We have been looking around at baby items in the stores and have begun budgeting for items we will need to buy for the baby once she is here. 

We set a date for the baby shower on November 30th, a friend of ours will be hosting the shower at her house. We are making our list of family and friends to invite to the shower now, it is amazing how many people we really know. We have recently registered at Wal-Mart and will send this out to all our family and friends once the list has been completed. We are also finding it difficult to find the right name to choose for our new baby, there are just so many of them out there to choose from. We have narrowed down our list and we have a good idea of what we will name her, at least for now, I can’t guarantee what the name may be when she comes out I will have to let you know when she enters this world.

Well, football season is in full swing now and I have been on the field ever week for about the last 7 weeks now for High School and Youth football. I traveled to Mammoth to ref three Youth football games October 6th and it was quite interesting to get there and see 3-4 inches of snow on the field. The grounds keepers for the field were on the field with snow blowers to get the snow off the yard lines when we arrived. We had three games that began at 10am, Mojave vs. Mammoth. Mojave is a desert team that never sees snow, Mammoth is at 8000 ft. altitude that sees snow on a regular basis every year, a complete advantage to the Mammoth team. As far as officiating the game, it was cold, wet, and bright due to the sun shining on the snow. 

This past weekend I officiated five games Thursday thru Saturday. Thursday’s game was a JV game between Barstow and Burroughs High Schools at Burroughs. Friday night was a Varsity game in Lone Pine, Montclair vs. Lone Pine. This game began 15 minutes late due to a special ceramony for a recent graduate from Lone Pine High School that was killed Thursday in Iraq by a IED road side bomb. He was  a football and basketball player at Lone Pine High and graduated in 2004 and joined the Army in 2005. The VFW participated in the ceramony prior to the game by retiring colors in honor of the fallen soldier. It was a somber moment for everyone but it was nice to see the school commemorate the young man in an honorable fashion at the game.

I officiated Youth football this past Saturday in Boron for three games and it was not a good day for football. I received a pretty good wind burn on my face with the strong winds coming through the desert. There were times in the game that we couldn’t even see the other end of the field due to the sands from the winds during the game. Driving home was not much fun either and I heard once I got home that some gusts had been recorded at nearly 80mph. I couldn’t even see the mountains for much of the drive home due to the sand being tossed into the air.

Men’s fall league softball is coming to a close this week. We have played 10 games and our team is 7-3 and our last game of the regular season is this Tuesday night. We will begin the playoffs this Thursday night in a 9pm game. Last week was a great week for me in softball because I hit my first ever homerun over the left field fence, and to make it even better, the bases were loaded so it was my first home run and Grand Slam, we won the game 23-9.

Well, I think that is it for now, I will update the blog again when I get the chance. Once again, thanks for checking out the blog.

This past weekend was quite busy and ended painfully. Friday night I officiated a high school football game between Palmdale and Burroughs at Burroughs High School. The game went really well and not too many penalties called, Palmdale won 61-20. I traveled to Kern Valley Saturday where we officiated three youth league games between Mamoth and Kern Valley. The third game became cold and rainy the first half and the field was muddy and more difficult to get good traction. I returned home later that afternoon and relaxed the rest of the day. I noticed a little soreness in my left foot which I thought was just from running so much over the past three days in five football games. This is usually normal with so much running and turning over that many games.

When I woke up Sunday morning to get ready for church, my left foot was bothering much more than the night before when I stepped out of bed. It was difficult to apply much pressure on my foot so I made it to the couch where I remained throughout most of the day keeping my foot raised and drinking plenty of water and juice. Finally, late in the afternoon Arlyn wanted me to go to the Emergency Room to have it looked at. We went to the ER and waited over two hours before being seen and another hour in a small room waiting for the doctor. They conducted X-rays and said everything looked good and there were no breaks. When the doctor came in to see me, he said you don’t have any breaks so it must be a sprain from all the football you were in over the weekend. After waiting another 30 minutes, a nurse appeared and asked me what size shoe I wear and walked off. She returned about 15 minutes later with an open shoe for with a wrap bandage. I asked them to if it might be gout since I have suffered from gout over the past few years but they were sure it was a sprain.

I went to work on Monday and wore the bandage and shoe and the later the day got the more painful the foot became. I went home a little early to elevate and rest my foot the remainder of the night. Unfortunately, that night the pain became so excrutiating that I could not go to sleep and Arlyn did everything she could to help. We finally decided that it was a gout attack and this was the worst attack I have ever had. I was in bed by nin o’clock and took Indocin hoping to relieve the pain but it just wasn’t happening and the last time I looked at the clock it was 1:45am. I took the day off from work on Tuesday and remained in bed and on the couch all day with my foot propped up and drinking water and juice, eating strawberries and cherries. Arlyn called my doctor’s office to see if he could see me and take a look but they said they couldn’t see me until Oct 2nd. Well, that’s going to really do me some good seeing him once I’m perfectly healthy again.

Today, I’m back at work and have plenty to catch up on after taking a day off.  

This past week has been very busy. Arlyn and I have made several trips to Home Depot to finish up the tile flooring this week due to my short measurements. I didn’t take into effect that we were going to need more thin set to raise the tiles to even with the wood flooring. I obviously measured this out quite shorter than anticipated so we have made four trip to Home Depot since last Friday picking up everything to complete the floors.

We have someone working on the tiling in the house and he has finished the dining room and most of the kitchen, we still have the laundry room and two bathrooms. Once these are complete, we will finish with the molding and our major projects for the year will be complete. The house looks much better than it did when we moved in with the new floors.

Since last Saturday, I have officiated three youth and one high school Junior Varsity game. I traveled to Bishop last Saturday for three youth football games. It took a little over two hours to get there and it was a beautiful day for football. I did receive a nasty sunburn on my legs and arms during the game. The temperatures were lower than they were here by about 10 degrees. After the games, Bill and I stopped to eat dinner at Bill’s BBQ. I had a large slab of BBQ ribs, fries, and salad, it was all delicious and we had to sit at the table for about an hour before getting on the road to return home.

Last night I officiated a Junior Varsity High School game between Apple Valley and Burroughs at Burroughs High School. The game was quite long due to all the turnovers and penalties. The game lasted about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Tonight I will be officiating an 8 man high school football game between Excelsior and Trona at Trona High School.

Today I offciated my first High School football game. One of the officials for tonights game had to cancel so I filled in. I was the Line Judge tonight and did very well, I’m really getting the hang of this now. Today’s game featured the Freshman between Tahachapi High School and Burroughs High School. The game went really smooth for the most part, we didn’t have to many penalties in the game but the game did end up in a blowout. Burroughs slaughtered Tehachapi 43-12. I will be traveling to Bishop this Saturday for youth league, I will be officiating three games. The drive is a little over two hours north so it will make for a full day.

This past Saturday was my first actual football games that I have officiated. I officiated two youth games locally so no travel involved. The first game was at 2pm at the high school with 7 & 8 year olds and the second game was at the Kerr McGee football fields with 11 & 12 year olds. I only made two inadvertent whistles between the two games, so this was an improvement and I’m getting the basketball officiating mentality out of my head.

The first game was a very hot one being at 2pm. There were no clouds to cover the sun and the temps were between 100-108 and no coold breeze for relief. I was the Head Linesman in this game which means I was responsible for watching the line for any penalties and making sure the chain gang was in proper place at all times. By the time we got to the Kerr McGee field for the second game of the day, the clouds had rolled in to cover the sun and brought with it some cool breezes to make things a little more bearable.

After the games, I went to a friends house for a BBQ and swimming pool where there were two other couples and their children sitting around enjoying good food and relaxation from the heat.

I have finally found the time to work on my personal website tonight. I have been wanting to get around to getting it back online for the past couple months but just haven’t been able to find the time. The website is http://www.mojavesky.com. I just wanted to get it back on the Internet tonight so there isn’t much on the site right now. I will be updating it as often as possible with news, events, photos, sports, and astronomy.

I have always been an astronomy and sports fanatic and living in the desert is perfect for astronomy in the evenings. I have also been quite involved in sports in the local area with officiating basketball and now football. I will be officiating my first real football games tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it. I will be officiating Youth football on Saturday’s and High School football during the week.

Recently I have became interested in photography so I have added a photography section to the website where I hope to share many of my own photos I have taken and will take. I am learning how to do astrophotography but I have been having some problems with that, I still need to buy a remote switch for the camera. So far, all my astrophotos have turned out blury, I am far from a professional, but I’m learning and that’s what matters. I will be updating the site often so please check it out anytime.

When I got home from work yesterday afternoon, I noticed just to the south some dark clouds. I stepped out in the back yard for a few minutes to look into the sky and watch the direction of the clouds to see if we might just have a chance this time. Usually when we see rain, it is in the mountains which surround us in all directions and we remain completely dry and hot. A couple hours after being in the house I noticed it getting dark outside and I looked out my living room window to see my neighbors in their front yard. I decided to go out and see what everyone was looking at. I walked over and looked to the south and the sky was lighting up with lightning all across the sky. This was a spectacular show for us here in the desert, I know many of you probably think I’m totally crazy talking like this about watching lightning but we only see this type of activity about once a year here. I remained outside for the next hour with my lawn chair watching the free light show from God. Just as the night was falling on us I felt my first drop from the sky, this was a good sign. within the next 10 minutes the rain became steadier and the air much cooler, a wonderful sight and relief. Later Arlyn came home and we went inside to eat dinner. Afterward I took the trash out and the rain was coming down quite nicely and my yard was actually showing moisture. I just stood around in the yard enjoying the rain like a little kid.

It appeared as if it were going to rain again this afternoon but it was all a big tease in the sky. It would have been a miracle for us to get decent rain two days in a row in the summer. But, the clouds did help keep the heat down and made it a little more bearable today.

Saturday night was my first time on the football field officiating. It wasn’t a game it was only scrimmage for Burroughs High School. The officials were there to get some mechanics in and teaching the new guys (Me). I learned so much more being on the field and watching each play and being critiqued by the other officials after each play. For the most part, I did quite well. I did embarass myself on several plays early on because I kept blowing my whistle anytime a foul occurred. Unfortunately, I’m only suppose to blow the whistle when a play is over or in case of a dead ball foul such as defensive encroachment or false start from the offense. Other than that, officials are only to throw the flag and allow the play to continue and blow the whistle when the play is dead. Once the play is dead is when I approach the umpire and notify him of what had occurred during the play then mark off the penalty and pick up my flag. I did finally grasp the calling and felt pretty good about the evening overall.

Sunday was an easy and relaxing day for me, I went to church in the morning then Arlyn left for work and I remained in the house and became lazy on the couch watching tv. It was too hot to really do much outside so I stayed indoors all day until around 6:30pm to water the plants and trees.

This morning we began the day with an early morning visit to the doctors office for our monthly checkup for the baby and mother soon to be. We had our second ultrasound of the baby. This time you could see the skeleton which was quite interesting to see the first time. The baby is doing well and the heartbeat is 155bpm. When we finished at the doctors office, we dropped off my car for its normal maintenance and Arlyn followed me. We stopped by Abby’s Carpet to take a look at some tiles for the rest of our floors in the house. We are looking to finish the rest of the house with tile in the kitchen, dining room, laundry room, and bathrooms. We also stopped by Home Depot to check out their tiles and pricing and they were very similar to Abby’s. We also stopped by Wal-Mart to buy a new phone because our home phone stopped working out of the blue, not sure what happened but it was done.

Last night several of us got together at a friends house for our Fantasy Football Draft in our High Desert fantasy football league. We began the fantasy football draft at 6:30pm. We have 10 guys in the league and we had to complete 12 rounds which ended up taken 3 hours. I I received the first draft pick to start the draft. Each member picked twelve players for their team, seven will be starters each week and five on the bench. My picks for this year are as follows
Quarterback:
Peyton Manning (Colts)
Brett Favre (Packers)
Running Back:
Reggie Bush (Saints)
Marshawn Lynch (Bills)
Tight End:
Antonio Gates (Chargers)
David Martin (Dolphins)
Wide Receiver:
Vincent Jackson
Deion Branch
James Jones
Defense Special Team:
Miami Dolphins
Green Bay Packers
Kickers:
Jeff Wilkins
Martine Gramatica

Last year I didn’t make the playoffs but I also didn’t know what I was doing. I think I have a much better chance with the team I have this year, I’m feeling really good about my chances.

Arlyn and I finished all the closets last night. We installed each of the sliding mirror doors on all four closets for the finishing touches in the house. The floors were finished a couple days ago, the only thing remaining now is installing the new baseboards. We ran into some snags last night while installing the closet doors because the distance between the top and bottom sliders was too far because the wood floors are a little lower than the carpet was. So, we made a quick trip to Home Depot and bought some 1.5″ thick wood for the top sliders. After that, everything worked like a charm and all doors went in smoothly.

Yesterday was also the first time we were able to park our cars in the garage in over a month since our furniture has been in the garage for so long while working on the floors. We have moved most of the furniture back in the house and it looks liveable and half-way clean again. I have three days off from work beginning Friday so I will be busy cleaning.

I will have my first high school football game this Saturday at Burroughs High School for a scrimmage game. This will be the first football game I have ever officiated so I’m excited. As some of you already know, I have officiated youth and middle school basketball for the past couple years and have really enjoyed myself, and it also keeps me active and plenty of exercise. I won’t have the opportunity to be involved with basketball much this season since we are expecting the new baby.

My phone and Internet is back up and running at the house again. I recently disconnected my Internet and phone in order to complete the floor in my computer room. This was the final room in the house and the house looks much larger with the new wood floors installed. The floors feel solid throughout the house. I completed mThere was a thin layer of ash on my car this morning when I left for work.ost of the house on my own but I finally hired someone to help finish the house near the end of the project because the bending over so long was really bothering my back. We will have the closets finished today so the only thing remaining will be installing the base boards.

Well, you are probably wondering why I titled this “Red Sunday”. Yesterday morning Arlyn and I went to church at 8am a returned home a little after 9. She left for work a little before 10 and I stayed home moving furniture back in the computer room. Later in the afternoon as I was sitting on the couch in the living room I noticed the lighting throughout the house was looking quite different. When I looked out it appeared as if we were going to finally get some rain, which we are in desperate need of here this year since we are nearly 3 inches below our norm for this time of the year. I finally decided to go in the backyard about an hour later, when I opened the door a strong odor of smoke was lingering as if a fire was right next door. I couldn’t even see the mountains to either end of my street which I can see any other time. The air was filled with smoke and ash from a wildfire well to the south of us. When I looked in the sky, I saw a glimpse of the round sun attempting to shine through with a dark red glimor. It appeared as if we weren’t even on earth, it looked more like we had just moved to Mars, I have never seen so much red for as far as I could see.

 Along with the smoke and ash in the air came the miserable allergy problems as well. I had problems sleeping last night due to my allergy problems sniffing, coughing, and runny nose all night. I have spoken with several other people I work around this morning that had the same problem yesterday, so I guess I’m not the only one suffering this weekend.

I have a football officials meeting but I may not be making it tonight. I’m considering going home after work and resting and taking some allergy medicine and do nothing.

Today I went to work late, I didn’t have to be in the office until 7am since we are short on personnel this week. The first couple hours this morning were hectic with everyone needing something in a rush and then around 10am it all came to a halt. This was a good thing since I was beginning to fall behind on some other items on my list of things to do, which never seems to get any shorter no matter how much I get done. Most of my day was quite smooth and nice and I did get a quite a bit accomplished. I also had time today to study up on some NFL players for my upcoming draft in our fantasy football league. 

After work I returned home to a wonderful smell of my favorite dinner. I was met at the front door by my beautiful wife with her apron still wrapped around her with a smile to greet me. I walked directly into the kitchen, (come on, you didn’t think that would be the first place I would visit) where there the aroma was even stronger in the air. She had cooked stuffed green peppers and it was almost ready to eat. YUM YUM. Dinner was served minutes later and it was quite filling and I was quite happy.

Last night was my second class for the California National High School Football Officials Association this year. I have been officiating youth league and middle school basketball for the past couple years here in Ridgecrest and have had a blast. I have decided to try officiating football this year for the first time. I have always enjoyed watching football so I decided to try it out on the field in the white and black stripes. Before I began these classes I thought I knew most of the rules, I have quickly found out there is much more to the rules than I though. Well, that is why they have me going to these classes. I have to complete take home homework before I get to class each Monday night and I have to take a test before my first game. I’m looking forward to the new challenge. I probably won’t make many games in basketball this coming season since Arlyn will be delivering our first baby around early February.

Well, I have to get some studying in tonight before I go to bed, I will add more later.  

I woke up around 3:30 this morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower under a gorgeous dark clear sky. I remained sitting in my lawn chair about half and hour watching the sky and enjoying the free light show from God. It was absolutely beautiful watching the gleams of light scream across the sky, large ones small ones some bouncing off the earth’s atmosphere and some bursting through. It was nice to sit there and stare at God’s glory streaming across the sky after a stressful week at work, this was a wonderful getaway from the stress of life.

Hello everyone, I have created my first online blog for sharing events with our family and friends. As many of you already know, Arlyn is pregnant and we are expecting around Feb 2nd. This is our first baby and we are both very excited and looking forward to the new family addition. We have been searching many resources to be better prepared to be the best parents we can possibly be. If anyone can provide us any guidance to better prepare us, please feel free to add your two cents, we are open to ideas.

We have spent the past month now on and off working on the floors in our house. We ripped out all the old carpet throughout the house and installed the new bamboo hardwood floors. We installed the bamboo floors in the living room, hallway, and all three bedrooms. We will install tile floors in the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms later.

I will add photos later.