The Baptism, the Cheesecake Factory and the First Day of School

Jill's parents and sister came for Emma's baptism. Jill said it was a fun week having them around, especially since I was in Houston all week for a training class. They had loads of fun shopping, going out to breakfast and hanging around.

Emma had a lot of fun with Aunt Jan shopping and being with her.

Erick was in heaven having his grandma and grandpa around. He spent lots of time singing with Grandpa.

Ben liked all the attention and Camille was elated to get all that love!

The baptism was good. I was a lot more nervous than Emma. I had picked out a jumpsuit to wear the week before, but didn't get a chance to try it on. When I put it on, it didn't fit. So I had to scrounge through the other jumpsuits and the only one that I could put on was an extra-extra large sized one. I was sweating all over. So when I finally walked into the relief society room, which was about 60 degrees, I felt much better.

The program was great with our home teacher giving a talk on baptism. The baptism went well. Emma was very relaxed and did great! Grandma Hobson gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost and the spirit was strong. After Emma's confirmation, the primary gave her a "welcome" as the newest member of the Church and then the primary kids sang and then the bishop spoke. Then we all ate of Jill's delicous refreshments.

Later that night, all the adults and Emma went to the Cheesecake Factory. The food was great and the dessert was to die for. The party next to us was for someone's birthday. Our waiter sang to the girl ... he sang it like an opera singer and he was incredible! Everyone clapped and cheered when he was done. We told Emma that he'd sing to her too. She got a little nervous, but excited. When he sang to her, her face lit up like a Christmas tree. She was just beaming. It was the cherry on top of a perfect day.

Monday was the first day of school. It was a typical August morning ... warm and somewhat muggy. We walked the kids to school, dropped them off, met their teachers and then walked home. The house was quiet ... then the party started!

Their first day was great. They love their teachers and enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

You can see all the pictures in the slideshow.

We have almost survived!

The summer is close to its end! I think that is why I have not posted on the blog for so long, every single ounce of energy was taken by having all my children home with me all day. It has been a very fun summer and I have enjoyed the kids. I will miss some parts of summer break, but for the most part, I am ready for school. It will start next monday the 25th. Hooray!

Also, the HEAT of August. Luckily, this is a big blessing, the last few days have been beautiful! We are being blessed with 90 degree temps and that is saying a whole lot for Texas in August. These temps should stay for the next week, it is a miracle from above I tell you, and just in time too because my parents come on Tuesday to visit and be here for Emma's baptism!

Yes, I said Emma's baptism, it is almost here, the day we have been waiting for! We have had quite a celebration for Emma's 8th birthday. We bought a desk for Emma which was a total surprise. We had her go to her friend's home (thanks Mary!)and play all day while Don and I moved the desk in and all the other accessories that I had prepared. My good friend (thanks Marie) helped me make pillows and a new lampshade to go along with the beautiful new room. We could not do the transfmation on her actual birthday because Don had to work that day, so we did it a few days before. Here are some pics. . .

The pillows


The new lamp shade


The new desk




Ben came with me to pick Emma up and I was very proud of him because he did not ruin the surprise. In fact, all day, he helped Don and I with the room and was very excited for Emma and her new things, not jealous or upset that he wasn't getting these new and fun things. That is a good brother. Of course, he hopes that for his 8th birthday he will get a "new room". When we arrived home, we took Emma to her room and she literally lit up with excitement! She loved every bit of it! It was so fun for Don and I to do this for her. We enjoyed it just as much as she did.

That same night, we went boating with some friends on the lake. We had so much fun and Emma said "this has been the best day of my life!"

On her actual birthday, we had a fun day too. For breakfast we had all of Emma's special requests. . .

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal with Fruit loop cereal straws. Very healthy!


On the way home from the gym, we stopped off at Kentucky Fried Chicken (old man chicken as the kids call it) and got Emma's favorite lunch. It was finger lickin' good!


After Cami's nap, we headed to our wonderful neighbors' home (thanks Ali!) to swim and have Emma's favorite mini cheesecakes.




Then, the next day (it was really a week worth of birthday celebration) we had Emma's party at Lifetime Fitness (remember, I work there and so I got a great deal!). It had rained that morning and we were afriad we wouldn't be able to swim outside, but it cleared up and got nice and sunny and we had so much fun! We practically had the whole place to ourselves and everyone had a great time.





So, now to top it all off, my parents and sister are coming into town and Emma will be baptized this Saturday the 23rd. We invite all who would like to please come and rejoice with us for Emma. We love you Emma and are happy about the decisions you are making. Happy 8th!

Me on Google Maps

Last Fall during one of my running sessions, I spotted a Google car taking pictures. I knew they were snapping shots for the "Street Viewer" maps. I stopped to look at the guy in the car and then proceeded to finish my run.


Today while using Google Maps, I noticed that they have the street viewer up for Lewisville. I remembered the time I saw the Google car, so I went to that intersection and sure enough ... I'm there.



I'm "immortalized" by Google.

Lemmings

This game brings back a lot of memories ... Lemmings. The link takes you to a website where some guy recreated the game using DHTML. Besides the sound effects and music, it is pretty close to the version I used to play as a kid. I remember the graphics were a little better too.

I think it was Bob (my brother) who gave me this game for my birthday one year. I spent hours playing it. Lots of memories! Too bad they don't have a version for the Wii. I'd probably spend more time playing it than trying to get to level 100 in Tanks on Wii Play.

One Hundred Pushups

I may be biting off more than I can chew, but I'm gonna try to do the 100 Pushup Challenge. It will last about six weeks.

I did the initial test today and eeked out a mere 18 pushups before I melted into a pile of useless fat.

I'll keep you posted.

Rangers Baseball Game

I took the kids to a Rangers baseball game. It was a lot of fun! It was dollar hot dog night ... as soon as they saw Ben, they got really nervous. He just about polished off all ten hot dogs we bought!

Here is the glorious and grand new Dallas Cowboys stadium. It is massive! When I first saw it, I thought they were building that intergalactic transport machine that was in the movie Contact.

Rangers in action.

The Putnam Family Band

One day, the kids just decided to start a band. The music and performance was very interesting and entertaining.

Blogging Merit Badge

Even though I'm an Eagle Scout and all, I just earned my blogging merit badge.

The next one I'll be working on is the Wii/Remote Control Merit badge.

You too can earn some one-off merit badges. Click here to see more available merit badges.

John Adams HBO Miniseries Review

I'm sure some of you will chuckle at my recent fury of movie reviews wondering where I find the time to watch movies. The truth is, during these long, slow nights in a data center, a good movie is the antidote to dull boredom, especially when my eyes tire of reading.

Anyway ... I few years ago I read McCullough's book. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot about our nation's history. I was deeply impressed with all that John Adams accomplished as one of our Founding Fathers.

The miniseries was fashioned after the book. I had read up on the miniseries and one of the things the producer and director wanted to accomplish was to show the realities of the harshness of that era. I think the series did a great job of this ... or at least it felt like I was transported back to that time. As I watched, I could feel the bitter cold of those winters; the pain of watching a man be tarred and feathered; people dealing with sickness, fevers, pox as well and what was endured with no modern science. That John Adams lived almost to 91 is simply amazing.

I enjoyed watching how they developed the relationship between Adams and Jefferson. Their attitudes were such polar opposites, yet they had such a close friendship.

Hamilton played a large part during Adam's presidency. I never knew much about Hamilton. After seeing his character in the series, I did some searching and read quite a bit about him.

Overall, it was an exceptional series. I really enjoyed it, felt inspired by it and learned more about our great nation's history.

The series ends with John Adams talking to posterity. In the movie he said, "Well, posterity, you will never know what it cost us to preserve your freedom. I only hope that you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it."

I did some searching and found the original quote by John Adams: "Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it."

The Hottest Summer

This is the hottest summer I've ever lived in.

In talking to one of my co-workers, she mentioned that 1980 was the hottest year she's ever survived. Take a look at this information page. In 1980, there were 31 days of 100+ temperatures in July ... that is hot. I can't even imagine. That streak of 100+ temps started June 23, 1980 and ended August 3, 1980. 1980 had 69 days that were over 100 degrees. That was a hot year here.

This year we had about 15 days of 100 degree temps.

Tomorrow ... we bake. It will be 107.