Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sent on the Now Network? from my Sprint® BlackBerry
fabulous fall finds
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Sent on the Now Network? from my Sprint® BlackBerry
Annual newsletter - 2008 recap
Monday, January 19, 2009
Wow, really? Time for another annual Anderson newsletter? …Okay. Here goes.
Due to the inescapable economic times and a push to be green and further reduce our carbon footprint we are going digital this year. Please don’t be offended by being forced to read our yearly journal entry on-line via our new blogspot blog or electronic version versus an in-your-hand, sent snail-mail hardcopy letter. So here’s our Jamaican me crazy recap.
Porter the Cave Man– 22 Months old
Porter has grown by leaps and bounds this year and has the bumps and bruises to show for it. Porter has truly shown his parents that boys ARE different than girls with his full speed-ahead approach and physical nature. He has learned to count to three and jump from counter tops, stairways and other high perches. We have learned to stay alert and always keep our arms open wide. This year Porter has gotten all his baby teeth in and has an adorable smile (especially when he’s up to no good). He has also found that he gets a lot of attention if he pulls the hair of any unsuspecting girl in the room. Watch out ladies.
Ellie the Gymnast – 4 Years old
Ellie is now in her second year of pre-school attendin
g Mrs. Goodrich’s class down the street. She loves to ride her two wheel bike, which she has recently mastered, to class and back again. She is quickly learning her ABC’s and all the sounds. Ellie began the year attending The Little Gym, but when it went out of business she started classes at Oasis Gymnastics which has a more serious curriculum. She loves doing the Spiderwall and hanging from the bars. When Ellie isn’t tumbling she’s out playing with her friends and letting everyone know she’s 4 years old.
Jaycie the Ballerina – 7 Years old
Jaycie is in the 1st grade this year and her teacher is Mrs. Burke. Jaycie is growing up fast, much to the chagrin of her parents. Jaycie has learned to read so well this year and often demands to do her homework before going to bed each night. Ballet and Jazz dance have continued to be her main afternoon activities, but she has also begun taking piano lessons with recording artist William Joseph. When Jaycie isn’t busy with her planned activities she’s riding her bike, scooter or zooming around on her heelies (shoes with wheels on the heels).
Maritza – 7 * 4 Years old
Maritza and Jaycie have now had the same number of birthdays. Sure is fun to be a leap year baby. In commemoration of the every four year event, Maritza was surprised by friends and family on a complete master bedroom makeover project. She was awoken early in the morning of her birthday and completely occupied the whole day, only to return at nightfall to a newly painted and decorated bedroom. Complete with all new bedroom furniture, bedspread, window coverings and interior designer, Shauna Wright, custom decorations. Ty Pennington and The Extreme Makeover show would have been proud! While not basking in her beautiful new bedroom haven, Maritza continues to rally the kiddos in and out of the mini-van, in and out of the bath, in and out of the bed and off of the counter and each other.
Myron – 33 Years OLD
Myron continues to work for Home Meridian International. His company has gone thru some consolidation during the year and the service organizations from Virginia and Arizona were moved to High Pointe, North Carolina. Lucky for Myron the warehouse and data center are still needed in Phoenix and hasn’t been asked to make any life changing decisions. With the moves to North Carolina, Myron spent a few weeks during the year training new employees and changing current business process to remove waste and increase productivity. In addition to his day job, Myron continues to find and interview prospective tenants for the family rental properties. He’s getting good at creating web pages and marketing thru Craigslist.com and KSL.com.
We’ve had a fun and exciting year as a family. Some of our favorite events and places visited included:
• Preschool field trips for Ellie
• Master bedroom makeover surprise for Maritza’s birthday
• Work trip to High Point, NC for Myron
• 10 year Anniversary trip to Jamaica
• Interior of home repainted
• Terramar Elementary Carnival for Jaycie
• Preschool Graduation for Ellie
• Gymboree gymnastics for Porter
• Little Gym presentation by Ellie
• Jaycie’s ballet and jazz dance recitals
• Summer fun at Water World
• Family trip to Huntington Beach, CA
• Myron’s 15 year High School Reunion
• Visiting with Sister Bethany Anderson on her mission in St. George, Ut
• Hiking Sunshine Mountain near Morejon’s new home
• Attending Chase Leavitt’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor
• Family trip Payson and Salt Lake City
Thanks for sharing in our year in review and we hope you have a year filled with great times and great memories.
Love the Andersons (Myron, Maritza, Jaycie, Ellie and Porter)
Training wheels and 800 numbers
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Anyone who is a parent understands that it isn't piece of cake or a walk in the park, but that it's more like a roller coaster of some fun highs and dreadful lows. The times I get to be super dad while Maritza is away from the house are always an adventure. Yesterday, Maritza took Porter to his gym and then to do some grocery shopping. I decided I wanted to get a project done on the house while she was gone. I've been trying to put up an outside light that shines onto our built-in bbq. During which I hoped the girls would play with neighborhood kids and mostly stay out of the way. Well, one can only hope.
First off, is anyone tired of the political phone call yet? I had one phone receiver with me when a call from an 800 number came through and I assumed it was just another "vote for me" call. I ignored it and let it ring. Jaycie comes running to hand me the phone because the person on the line asked for me by name. I told her hang it up. She replies into the receiver that her daddy says to hang up. She listened to the caller and then hung up. She then turned to me and began to cry and told me that I hurt her feelings and that I was mean for not talking to them. I tried to talk to her and let her know that I don't have to talk to people just because they know my name and are calling our house.
Later, Ellie found me to tell me she needed help with her bike. Some how her training wheel had been bent straight up. Just like any other dad, I stepped on the training wheel and bent it back into place. In doing so a neighbor girl says "Why don't you take them off". This gets into Ellie's mind and once something gets there she's not going to budge until she get's what she wants. I tried to reason with her that I needed to get back to what I was doing and that I didn't have enough time to help her ride the bike without training wheels. Finally, I give in and I take the wheels off. I gave her the basic riding instructions and gave her a push and began to run along side to catch her before she fell. Well, to my amazement so didn't need me to be there. She zoomed up and down the street for nearly and hour and a half with only one little tumble. I never got back to my project, because I felt I should stay out there and help keep an eye out for cars. I guess it'll have to wait until the weekend.
So going one for two as super dad for the night will have to do!
Hiking Sunshine Mountain
Sunday, October 19, 2008
We are not outdoorsy type people so any activity that gets us into the thicket of nature is a real accomplishment. Tutti and Papi Morejon recently moved into a neighborhood that has some great trails nearby. So this last Saturday, after all our weekend chores we completed, we hiked a little trail on Sunshine Mountain. Now, there are no real mountains in the Phoenix area. This is solely my opinion yet substantiated with my childhood memories of growing up on the foothills of the Wasatch front in North Salt Lake City. It was a great little hike and the kids had a great time. I think it was fun educating them on the wildlife and telling them the names of all the various types of cacti along the way.
Round trip to work costs how much??
Friday, October 10, 2008
In these current times of high gas prices and economic woes I'm always looking at cost savings and cost cutting measures for the personal finances. I recently stumbled upon a new little website that helps you estimate the cost of your trip by calculating the distance, the car brand and type and the current cost of gas. It can be found at http://www.city-data.com/gas/gas.php. So I put in my home address and my work address at $3.30 a gallon (which is about the average cost in Phoenix right now). So, based on this little calculator I'm spending around $6.00 a day just to go to work and back. That turns into $30 a week or $1565 a year and that doesn't include trips to go get lunch or run errands in the middle of the day. This doesn't even begin to include the cost of maintainence or purchase price of a vehicle. Luckily for me the car has been paid off for years, but within the last month alone I have plopped over $700 into new strut mounts and new breaks and then another $85 on a new tire.
Oyi...I wish mass transit was a more viable option. On the converse if I routinely worked from home one day a week for the whole year the yearly cost would only be $1251 which is a savings of $313 and possibly hundreds more on maintainence savings.
Time to get approval for more telecommuting!!
Porter and the Build-a-Bear Furniture
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
I guess if we can't slow him down then we need to accommodate him. I figure if he had his own bed then he'd be more than likely to stay there. One of the furniture lines that my company carries is the Build-a-Bear licensed bedroom sets. They are really nice. We've been looking at two different sets. One is called Bearrific and the other is Libearty. The Bearrific is the lighter wood and the Libearty has a darker, rich color.
Porter's room has a dark, metallic blue paint job and accessorized with Fender gear and swag. A real swank room for any toddler if you ask me. In which either should look great. So, until we make up our minds on which furniture line to go with, I guess we will have to continue to have patience with the little bear in the middle.
I love good freeware
At work the other day, I was tasked with getting a couple of logos to go on our customer statements. The files I had were not sized right and I couldn't get them on the output correctly. My boss told me about a Photoshop like software call Paint.net. It downloaded easily and unlike Photoshop was not too difficult to use. If you've ever used Photoshop without ever taken a class on it, you know what I mean. So, I got a little adventurous and even created the header picture on this blog. I found a stock photo on the web. Cropped it, added a little effects and slapped a title on it. I'll pat myself on the back later for it.
