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Ye Old Family Home Theatre - Part II

Noah's & Jared's Arks

Today in Sunday school we discussed Noah's Ark, but we mostly discussed building our modern, Spiritual Arks, not too much about the deluge or the like.

But one thing I remembered we read briefly was this verse: Ether 6:7 - And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

It got me thinking - so if Jared's boats were "tight like unto the ark of Noah" - did that just mean they were water-proof in the same way or were there additional similarities? Then, as if stumbling across a rock that happened to be the exact rock you were interested in finding I read this article a few moments ago: Noah's Ark Was Circular. Basically, it's a very, very old engraving describing Noah's story and how the Ark would've been a circular vessel - because it didn't have to go anywhere - it just had to float.

So I'm really just thinking online here so to speak. I just found it very interesting that if, in the Book of Ether, Jared's ships are likened unto Noah's, perhaps they were more alike in other ways - if not identical in design. Afterall - Jared lived only 100 - 300 years after the flood.

Ærowyn: I want to go back to the Philippines.
Brandon: Why?
Ærowyn: I want to eat Bob's waffles.

Bob's is a western-style restaurant in Bacolod that we frequented. They had the best waffles in town. They were also the only waffles in town - but they were still pretty darn good.

Kristy: Is there anything else you'd like to do in the Philippines again?
Ærowyn: I'd like to go back to the other Bob's.

The other Bob's is Bob's Cafe - it's about 2 blocks from the first Bobs and specializes in sandwiches, yummy chocolate and fruit drinks and brick-oven baked pizza.

So in terms of the whole cultural immersion I guess we failed - but at least she has fond memories of eating western-style foods in beautiful, air-conditioned buildings in the middle of the city. Which city happened to be in the Philippines. :-P

We're a bunch of Geeks

Here is a recent IRC conversation we had at work. The names have been changed to protect privacy and all that - except mine - 'cause I approve.

[joe] so frank, any news on your brothers baby? has his wife delivered?

[frank] I have not heard any today

[padme] support had their baby... come on engineers, step up

[benji] i'm still in the design phase for my baby

[padme] i'm still requirements gathering ;o)

[padme] doing my competitive analysis

[brandon]we're in agile development right now

[bob] maintenance phase

[joe] sometimes you have to rush out a prototype

[frank] I've completed my final version. We sorta killed all the little engineers so we won't be producing any other versions, sorry :(

[benji] brandon, lol

[james] i scrapped the project

[don] my funds got cut

[don] heh j/k

[gil] don't you just hate it when your funds get cut!

[brandon]don - better than your tools getting cut

[don] or put on a freeze

[benji] i actually added the baby project to redmine (my local proj mgmt system)

* benji checks the gantt chart

[padme] not practicing release early, release often here

[frank] I'm having enough problems maintaining my current releases

[padme] hard to maintain different versions at the same time

[frank] I hope to make them self sustaining as soon as possible

[don] I hope obama will help reduce support costs

[padme] hopefully he doesn't come through on that end of life policy

[don] heh

[don] some versions you just have to keep supporting regardless the costscosts

Home Theater Makeover

Here is our entry into Wired's Media Room Makeover contest.

We shot and edited it this weekend as a family. It was a ton of fun and we'll definitely do something like this again. Click the image and enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Well, I guess I'm a couple days late for the actual celebration, but we've been busy.

Our New Year celebration was quite deflated after our power went out at 10pm! We let the kids drink some root beer and explode some party poppers and then we all snuggled in our bed to keep from freezing to death during then night (not knowing when the power would come back on). What a way to bring in 2010 :-P

Although it started out a bit rough, the New Year has had some promising moments so far. One of them was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever laid eyes on. It's hard to capture on film, but I'm pretty happy with how our photos turned out.



I spent the day today updating our family website with all the holiday pics from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Plus I started a new family link for 2010 (on our Family Time page) to start adding all our great moments for this year! I am so excited! I finally updated Ærowyn's page with a new Kindergarten link and she was pretty stoked about that - just scroll down to the bottom.

All in all, 2009 was AMAZING, but we are looking forward to this year and all the new adventures our family will have!

A focused Christmas

So for family home evening we watched The Christmas Spirit. We talked about how Christ is the first part of the word Christmas as how we need to remember that. Here is the tail end of the conversation:

Brandon: What do we celebrate at Christmas time?
Ærowyn: Jesus' birth.
Brandon: Who should we think about during Christmas?
Ærowyn: Jesus.
Brandon: So who should we focus on during the Christmas season?
Ærowyn: Me. (long pause) Oh, wait, I mean Jesus.

Classic 5 year old response.

Firsts all around

Some great first have taken place in our family and we want to share them with you.

Ærowyn's first day of Kindergarten. It's a complete 180 from what her school was like in the Philippines. She came home the first day and was so excited because they get to do crafts in class. So far so good, she loves it!!
The pics are of us waiting to meet her teacher and her amazing bright and happy classroom.













The next first was the first snow of 2009! The kids had their snow clothes on faster than I could get the camera ready! Of course we didn't get much and it melted quickly, but they had fun making trails and of course eating as much as they could.


Our last first, is the greatest of them all. While we were traveling home from the Philippines, Ærowyn fell and hit her mouth on the floor which in return made one of her teeth a little wiggly. When we went in to the dentist a couple weeks ago, he said not to worry about it, that it would come out when it needed to. Well, a last Saturday it was really starting to get lose. She was running around screaming that she was scared and didn't know what to do. Sunday, it was starting to turn colors and we knew it needed to come out, but we wanted to let her do it on her own. Sure enough, that night while brushing her teeth, it fell out. She was so excited and even more excited about getting to meet the tooth ferry. She was sure that if she wrote him a letter and told him to wake her up, they would be able to chat and she could ask him all her questions about teeth. Well, that didn't happen, but the she did have a nice surprise under her pillow. The funny thing was, I had to remind her to look - she had forgotten all about it :) What a crazy kid!!

Lincoln Logs and Opti-Mash Prime

Brandon's mom was going though her stuff and found Brandon's old Lincoln Logs so the kids and I decided to have some fun with them...





Here are 3 pics of our new surroundings. The house is just a normal house, but we have a nice fenced back yard and nice views out the front and the back of the mountains. When we get the inside set up a little bit more we will post more pics.

To Infinity and Beyond with the Good Witch, the Black Cat, and the Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder

Well, Halloween has struck again. It's sad to say because we are still moving in and trying to get organized we didn't get to do all of our traditional Halloween activities, but we did have a wonderful holiday. We were able to carve our pumpkins at the last minute and get some super great costumes together (all 4 of us for under $10!!!!) When we asked Wrævn what kind of face he wanted on his pumpkin he said, "Scarrrrryyyy" while holding his hands and shaking. Ærowyn drew her designs out on paper and then chose her favorite. (you'll have to click the pic below to get a closer look at all of them)
Dad did Mr. Yuck, and mom did a gingerbread man.


First thing in the morning Brandon went to help his mom unload her u-haul. After that, we all got dressed up and headed out for our day. We went to the mall because they were having a sale on mattresses and Brandon and I are tired of sleeping on an air mattress, so Happy Anniversary to us - our bed will be here soon! Then we let the kids play on the playground to get some energy out and since we were there when it began, we took them trick-or-treating at the mall. Pretty soon we were off the the church to go trunk-or-treating. It was fun and the kid's of course enjoyed themselves. Ærowyn even went through the haunted house and survived. Finally, to end our wonderful day we headed over to Grandma Gwen's house where we had super yummy hot chocolate, played with the kitten, and chatted with her as the kid's played in her unpacked boxes.

Both of the kid's decided on their own what they wanted to be. We were lucky enough to find 2 costumes just the right sizes at thrift shops. We couldn't find any cheap Buzz wings so I made some. It's amazing what you can do with cardboard, paint, and glue!

Costume Introduction:
Ærowyn: The Beautiful Good Witch
Wrævn: Buzz Lightyear
Brandon: A Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder
Kristy: Ærowyn's Black Cat






All in all it was a great day! The costumes will go in the play clothes so they can enjoy them all the time. I doubt Wrævn will want to put anything else on for a while... I guess that saves on laundry :0

Here's a link to the rest of the Halloween Pics. Enjoy :)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

Well, we made it back to the states and now that our computer is once again alive and running I can catch up on what we've been up to the last couple of weeks - and believe me when I say it's been crazy! You really need to visit our family website to view all the pics, videos, and descriptions.

Our last few weeks in the Philippines were spent frantically trying to sell our stuff, getting packed, visiting friends, and taking in as much of the culture as we could.

We visited The Lagoon in downtown Bacolod one last time to say goodbye to the crazy Talapia fish that live there.


After our relaxing trip to Punta Bulata (previous post), our neighbor Ms. Mackaling Ascalon not only took us up for a day at her ancestral home and sugar cane farm, but also had us over for a farewell dinner at her house where we ate some super delicious food which included chicken ham (seriously, it's chicken that tastes like ham!!), friend shrimp, fruit salad Filipino style (yum), and many other amazing and wonderful things to stuff our bellies with. The pic below is of the kids on an albino carabao at the farm.


We decided to go to Manila a few days earlier than our flight so we could experience what that city had to offer. Luckily, a sister of a friend of ours from the states lives there. Robert and Emma took a day off work and spent it with us! They are amazing and if we ever go back we will surely look them up again. Brandon and I were able to go through the Manila Temple. It was of course beautiful. It was just a couple days after the first typhoon hit so attendance was down, but the faith and spirit of those who were there was so strong. One man walked home after working in the temple 9 km, the last km up to his neck in water, only to find his home was gone. The next morning he was at the temple, clothes cleaned and ready to serve!


Emma had breakfast all ready for us the next morning, and then we were off to the temple again - this time to say hello to a man from my home stake who is in the temple presidency. It was a great experience to see him and hear about the strength of the people after the typhoon. After a brief visit with him, we visited MOA, The Mall of Asia. It's HUGE! It's just a bunch of shopping so we didn't stay too long, but we did get to see the ice rink and eat some yummy ice cream.


While we were at MOA, Brandon's 3rd mission companion Oliver, his wife Ces Leon, and his little girl Chelsea met up with us. It was a great reunion for them. After MOA, it was off to the Manila Ocean Park where we saw lots of cool fish and ocean creatures.


We also got to visit a super cool jelly fish exhibit there as well. The jelly fish were all clear (except for the black ones) but they had changing lights in their tanks. It was beautiful to watch them.





For our last dinner in the Philippines, we decided to have waffles! Sounds, crazy, but it was fun. Actually, Brandon and Ærowyn were the only 2 who had waffles, but everything else was super yummy too.


We said farewell to a beautiful country and a loving people, and flew over the giant ocean once again. We landed in L.A. where we spent a week playing and working. Brandon attended Adobe MAX for work and the kids and I tried to keep busy. We did get to spend a couple of days with Cousin Dallas which was great. We all walked down Hollywood Blvd and took in some tourist attractions which was fun for a day. The kids played in a fountain and had fun getting wet.



We went to a 3D showing of Toy Story 1 and 2 where we got to see Woody, Buzz, and Jessie in person!

One of the days we spent with Cousin Dallas at the Griffith Observatory. It was awesome!!! We viewed a movie in the planetarium about water in the galaxy. The kids loved it and Ærowyn knew the answers to questions about planets and stars that the M.C. had - what a smarty :) We learned all about the planets and the solar system. I hope we can go back one day at night and view the stars!!

















Well, we made it back to Marysville to get our stuff loaded and even had a chance to visit Aunt Carol one last time before she moves to CA. We will miss her, but are glad we got to see her again :) The first pic is of Ærowyn playing her organ.













So, until we get pics of our new house up, that is it for now. Hopefully it wasn't too painful for everyone :)

Sun and Sand

What an amazing week we've just had. It will be a good way to say farewell to this beautiful country we've called home for the past 6 months!!

We have so many pics, so you'll have to go to our website to check them all out, but get the stories here first.

We've only eaten at Ting Ting's twice, but it was amazing both times. They don't have AC seeing as they are an open air eatery so we had to go there on nice cool days and those are few. They have the best buko (young coconut meat) shakes in town! We had to go to FedEx but had some time to kill around lunch time because offices close down here for lunch... crazy huh... so we decided to partake of their wonderful atmosphere and food one last time.




We decided we'd better take one last mini vacation before heading off to the land of the lost, so we headed down to Punta Bulata Resort and Spa near Sipalay. It was around a 3 hour drive, and the last 4km were bumpy, rocky, dirt roads so that was fun :-P It is a lot more mountainous down south and as always AMAZINGLY beautiful!!!

The beach was fun. It was covered in coral, hermit crabs, and shells - many of which we collected (the shells, not the crabs) - but when you stepped in to the crystal clear water the sand was as soft as a baby's bum. It was the perfect day, overcast but not raining so we stayed out as long as we could. When it got dark, we went for a swim in the pool. We were the only guests that night so we had the entire beach, pool, and grounds to ourselves! It was so calming and peaceful. It did sprinkle on us the 2nd day, but that didn't stop us from playing on the beach and swimming in the pool again :) The kids got to play with more starfish and we got to see a sea urchin which was fun. All in all, it was a great way to start our weekend away.



























The second half of our weekend was spent in Pontevedra, Brandon's first area of his mission. We tracked down Walter Pobledor who was the Branch President when Brandon served. He helped us drive around and we were able to meet up with some old friends and just hang out in their little neighborhood. The kids are amazing out in the province and just had smiles and giggles to share the whole time we were there. Ærowyn found a chick to carry around and was extremely sad when we wouldn't let her bring it home with us. We stayed that night at a little beach resort in Hinigaran. We got there late at night so we didn't get to do much that night other than swim in the pool, but that morning when we went down to the beach we got to see some fishing boats and the men fixing their huge fish nets. We chatted with them for a while and then it was off to church. The branch there is small, but the members are strong and so loving. Ærowyn (as always) found some little creatures to love - this time is was a little frog and a tiki.








To end our wonderful weekend away, we visited an old friend of ours here in Bacolod. Medley Caspe was a sweet lady who picked us up in her car one day because she was afraid we were lost and didn't like seeing Wrævn and Ærowyn in the heat. Anyway, we went to say hello and ended up staying for lunch and chatting most of the afternoon while Ærowyn played with her cats and puppies (the only animals she's been able to play with here). We're glad we got to see her again and say farewell for now. It was a great weekend away. Hopefully we will be able to come back and visit all of our friends again some day.