North Family Arizona

First post in almost a year!! If you're anti gun... well read on.

2010-01-07T22:05:00.001-08:00

I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I've posted here. Honestly I have to blame two life factors...

I've gotten kind of lazy and with all the stuff we're doing... I'm even more lazy with the non essentials.
Ella turned one year old last week. Everyone says that the third child changes everything, and they are right. It's taken me a year to get back in control. It only took Holly a week to get back in control so I guess I have no excuses.

For those of you who don't know I bought a couple of guns this year and I love them! I also got my conceal and carry permit. Now most of you who know me are probably scratching your heads a little but if you think deep and hard for a moment you'll realize that this really does fit my personality. I won't go into details about why I am actively participating in my constitutional right to own and bare arms but I "FEEL" inspired to do it. Enough said.

So tonight Holly and I decided to take the family out for a little walk. We used to walk a lot, before Ella came, and have just lately been getting back into it and I have an extra 20 lbs to prove that walking makes a difference in life. We took Tula with us. Tula is our 18 month old boxer. We also have Mahana (Boxer/Pit bull mix) but two dogs and 3 kids are just too much so we left Mahana home. I generally push the BOB stroller (if you aren't in the know google B.O.B. strollers, they are AWESOME!!!) with Natalie and Alana in it. Holly wears Ella in a backpack.

Tonight we went on a longer than usual walk and since it's been getting dark earlier it's always dark when we walk. I always have my 200 candle light Fenix flashlight (properly called a torch), so the darkness isn't usually an issue. Besides we live in a pretty good neighborhood especially for West Phoenix!

We were walking past a church friends house and across the street there was a home with a couple of big guys standing outside. They looked pretty suspicious but we were across the street and walking past them so I didn't really think anything of it. Holly was telling be about something that had happened during the day and we just kept on walking. After about 20 yards I checked to see what the guys behind us were doing. The bigger of the two had started walking down his side of the road following us and the other one had ducked into the house and turned off the garage light. My spidy senses stated to tingle big time. We kept walking and I checked the guy and he was catching up to us. I was pushing the stroller so I stopped, turned the cart around and asked Holly to push. We started walking back the way we had came, back toward our house and closer to a main road. I put Tula's leash in my left hand on my pinkie finger so I could drop it fast and held the Fenix light in that same hand with it switched off. I discretely reached back with my right hand to adjust my cell phone out of the way and clicked the safety off on my 9mm Slim Taurus, all the while starring down our guy across the street. As we passed Holly started to walk more quickly, (I hadn't said anything to her about the guy following us) which was fine with me, I wanted space between everyone else and I if something went down. After 20 yards I again checked on my guy, he had turned around and was headed back toward the house. As we passed the house the 2nd guy came out of the half opened dark garage so I stared him down too. After another 20 yards I checked again and both guys had stayed at their house. I noted later that there was a lady standing our side of a different house half a block up the road on a cell phone. I think that she was the lookout for the guys up the street. I suspect that they were probably selling drugs.

When we got back out to the main road I safetied the gun, put the light away and took over stroller duty. I'm glad that things wend down the way that they did. At no time was I afraid at all! I knew what to do. I had to tools needed to protect my family. Most importantly I knew that I was more prepared and better trained than any common drug dealer to handle these guys. They wouldn't expect a guy with 3 kids and his wife to be packing and that surprise was literally my ace up my sleeve.

So nothing happened and I don't know what kind of intentions these goofballs had but I was aware of my surroundings and as soon as I felt the hair on my neck rise up a little I bugged out and got my family to safety.

I've been following a blog about urban survivalist at http://ferfal.blogspot.com called Surviving Argentina. Ferfal is the author and he's awesome. He hasn't really made me scared just aware and willing to prepare to protect my family if our economy goes south.

So there you have it. My personal, "I'm glad I had a gun story" and I didn't even need to touch the gun. On closing if you think about it the Police aren't there to protect you from a crime, they're only there to respond and clean up the mess after the crime has happened. I think that we all need to be adults about this stuff and take the steps needed to protect ourselves from those who would do us harm. That doesn't mean buying and carrying a gun for everyone but we can all do something more to protect ourselves and our fellow good guys from all the bad guys who would take advantage of our reliance on the police who can't do it all.

Take care and Good Night!

Phil's solution to all Money Problems, Government or Personal It's all the same!

2009-04-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking a lot lately. I know that's a shocker! But really, I've been thinking about Taxes, personal finance, and MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEYYYYYYY (feel free to sing along).

Those who know me well know that I'm a growing Dave Ramsey "kill your debt" fan. I think that Dave has really changed my view of money. Today on his radio show he had the founder of Hobby Lobby (my wife's favorite store) on. Hobby Lobby just adjusted their minimum wage to $11.00 an hour— pretty awesome compared to other retailers (Wal-Fart). But really caught my ear were two things: 1) "we have no debt" and 2) "the Bible says all the money is God's and we think that the Bible is a pretty good book so we subscribe to that philosophy. It's not our money; it's God's and we're just stewards of it. It's a lot easier to give away God's money than your own."

HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!!!

I once had a sales job where we provided products to our clients who then sold them to others. We had a deal that we would give our clients their order and not expect payment for 30 days (net 30). I had one company who was my biggest customer and they never paid within the 30 days. So I had huge orders on hold waiting for these HUGE payments all the time which meant that my little commission was also on hold. I had a great boss who really tried to help me help my customers pay up. I just didn't get it. I hated to hound my customer to pay their bills. (I don't know how I ended up in banking with this kind of attitude. . . .)

Finally my boss was so frustrated with me that he lost his cool. "Phil, collections is really simple. The customer ordered and got the merchandise. If it's what they wanted then they pay. If it isn't what they wanted then they send it back and they don't pay. There are no other options!"

Low and behold when I repeated this word for word to my customer he said "Your right, here's my check."

Why do we have to make taxes, government finances, and personal finances so complicated when there's really nothing complicated about them.

Taxes- You live, play, or partake of the United States of America. You should help pay for that, PERIOD.

No more free rides: Everyone Pays something. I love the idea of the flat tax. If it works for God in the form of tithing 10% then why won't it work for the government? Now, fine— if we have to have a graduated tax where the wealthier pay a little more, okay, but keep it simple.
I heard on the radio yesterday that our current tax code was something like 90,000 pages long... That's just plain STUPID! It should fit into a 30 page pamphlet! What if you just printed 20% in 190 pt font on one piece of paper. DONE!

Government Finances-

Spend what you have, NO MORE! (You might want to save 15% for a rainy day too.)
If your tax income is short of your budget by 20% then every program gets cut 20%. This is the only "fair" and adult way to handle the situation. This would include education, health care and even libraries and police forces. This isn't rocket science.
NO MORE DEBT!!! MY GRANDKIDS CAN'T AFFORD IT!
This works for federal, state, and local governments.
I triple dog dare any pansy politician to make this happen and they will go down in history as one of the greatest Americans since Ben Franklin.

Personal Finance-

Stop acting like spoiled little brats.
Parents: stop bailing out your adult kids! It's not helping them be ADULTS!
STOP SPENDING MORE THAN YOU MAKE!
If we all start living within our means, our economy will crash pretty hard, but I have a shocker here for you: if we don't do it now, the coming crash when we all go bankrupt will be much worse. The reality is that America is bankrupt right NOW. We spend too much money.
We're all trying to have everything. I'm a perfect example of this. Every week it seems like there's something else that I have to have. Last month it was a used car dealer's license. This week it's a really scary looking gun that I can use to scare the snot out of any bad guys who come into my house. Bottom line is that I can't afford it right now so I need to BUDGET, SAVE and EARN what I really want.
Money is really simple.

Debt is a chain that will strangle you, it's NOT a tool. If you can't afford it, you don't really need it—you only want it. (Certain exceptions apply, like heart transplant surgery. However, education is included in this. If you can't afford it, you don't need it! Save your way because the burden of student loans won't go away for a long time and the odds aren't 2-1 that you'll make more money. Also included are houses, cars, cloths, food, TV, appliances, yards, pools, solar panels, patios, furniture, and any other consumables that drive our consumer economy).
If you want more, figure out a way to make more.
Live on what you have. "Do you really need a BOB stroller or do you just want one?"

So there you have it... Why do we make this stuff so dog gone complicated?

Peace and love to all. I'm a novice at this stuff and still don't apply it very well but my eyes have been opened, I've seen the light, I have tasted of the fruit and know that it is good.

Phil

P.S. here's what's at stake.

P.p.s. I was in Denver a few weeks ago and saw this truck.. Look really closely at what's written in the dirt.

Things that I just don't understand. Please Help ME!!!

2009-03-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Why some people stop 1-4 car lengths behind the white line at a stop light. This is especially confusing to me when there is a ton of traffic and this person singlehandedly backs traffic through the intersection behind them. There must be a reason for this behavior that just doesn't penetrate my thick skull? I've been tempted to get out of my car in these situations and just ask politely, why? PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND!
Why my kids want to watch TV instead of go on a walk but they want to sit in the stroller to watch TV.
Why do people like NASCAR? I've been watching and trying to like it for a long time but honestly these guys drive around in circles (except for one race every season where the ex F1 drivers are actually competitive), their cars are all using ancient technology and it's basically really expensive bumper cars. I don't get it.

More to come latter I have kids crying...

Phil

A story about a girl, a car and the Dad that is so proud.

2009-03-01T19:18:00.000-08:00

I'm going to attempt to tell a story and do it justice. It's a true story but honestly I'm not much of a story teller so....

Part 1

About a month ago the entire family and I were on our way to the zoo. We go to the zoo often and this time I thought I'd take a little detour. My plan was just to drive by the famed Ferrari dealership in Scottsdale (only a 10 min detour on the way to the zoo). When we got there Eleanor was screaming and Alana was asleep. Holly suggested that we park somewhere close and that I take Natalie to go look at the cars. I really love how kind my wife is. She lets me indulge and dream.

Natalie and I ran up the road to the dealership. We talked about each car, what we liked best and what we didn't like. Natalie liked the HUGE wheels on the Rolls Royce, which would make her Grandfather very proud! She decided that her favorite car was a red Ferrari F430 Spider with the racing wheels and side badges. She thought that the Yellow Lamborghini was pretty cool too but the Ferrari was a horse car. The badge was what sealed the deal for her.

Feeling guilty that I left Holly in the car with a screaming baby we headed back to the van and I thought that something special just happened there but didn't really know what it was. We went to the zoo and had a great time.

Part 2

Latter that week we were driving to visit some friend, again everyone was in the mini-van (it's important to note that our mini-van has the highest rated horsepower offered in a mini-van... thus the ONLY reason I agreed to buy one... just under 300 horsepower). I love to stomp on the gas when the light turns green and blow the doors off of the boy toy honda racers. It makes me feel manly. On this occasion both Natalie and Alana squealed with JOY!!! From that time on whenever we're in the van Natalie calls from the third row seat "Go FAST Daddy". What kind of father would I be if I didn't give when my child asks so kindly. I think that there is a scripture about that somewhere (Yes I feel like Ricky Bobby some times).

Part 3

The other day Holly was driving with the girls. She and Natalie were talking.

Natalie, "I need to go to the car store."

Holly, "OK."

Natalie;"I want a new car Mommy."

Holly, "We just bought a new car and I like the van. Do you like the van?"

Natalie, "Yeah but we need another new car Mommy."

Holly, "I don't think that we're going to get a new car."

Natalie, " But I want a Horsy car!"

Holly, "What's a horsy car?"

Natalie, "A Horsy car with lots of money in it."

Holly, "That sounds nice...."

A day or two after this conversation we figured it out. Natalie indeed was emotionally touched by the incredible Italian craftsmanship that is a Ferrari and she wanted one, with money in it!

Part 4

Tonight Natalie woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the bed, Alana was walking around the house screaming, Eleanor was hungry and I was food poisoned. We were not a happy family. Then it hit me. The solution to all of our problems was in Scottsdale! I asked Natalie if she wanted to go to the Horsey car store. I knew the answer before I asked. She jumped off my lap and ran for her shoes. Alana let out her favorite thing to say: "YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!" (but she says it in more of a dragon growling way). Holly was a great sport and we all jumped in the van at 7:00 at night.

It was awesome. Natalie ran from car to car pointing to the horses and touching the lights. Again she decided that she liked the Red F430 Spider and stood at the window staring at it.

Alana had a great time too and she really liked the Maseratis. We had a great time and here are the pictures to prove it!

I am a proud father!

Now I just have to figure out how to make enough money to buy one.

But I am secure in my dream that some day one of my girls will be a race car driver. Rolex series races on Saturdays baby!!!

Nursery Rhymes

2009-02-28T07:56:00.000-08:00

It is common knowledge that “Ring Around the Rosies” is really about the black plague. “Pop Goes the Weasel” is about hat makers in London. All of these nursery rhymes come from somewhere.I was reading Mary Englebrieit’s Mother Goose today with Natalie (a fabulous book, by the way). I really connected with the old woman who lives in a shoe. I bet there’s a story behind that one. My imagination has filled in the blanks.

I bet the mom wrote it herself. I bet she felt older than she was due to a lack of sleep and overall exhaustion. I’m going to guess that she was in her late 20’s or thereabout. I think the living in a shoe thing was a metaphor because she felt like her kids walked all over her. I even know how many kids she had. She had three.

When you have one kid crying, you hold him or her. If you have two crying children, there’s room on Mom’s lap for both. I bet every mom who has ever had three children crying at the same time has exclaimed, baffled, “I have so many children, I don’t know what to do!”

Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids, speaking of them individually and not collectively. Every day I have at least some one-on-one time with each of them, and I can look into their innocent little faces and marvel at their amazing spirits. They are the greatest treasure that could be entrusted to me.

When you get them all together, though, they turn into the giant three-headed monster “NaLaNore” and wreak all sorts of havoc. If we have to leave for the pediatrician’s office, for example, Natalie will start to cry because she wants to stay home and play with her horse stable, Alana will trip for no discernible reason and clonk her head on the coffee table, and Eleanor will blow out her diaper. While I change the baby, Alana will push a chair to the counter, reach a glass of water, and dump it on her head. As I clean that up, Natalie will remove her shoes and hide them so effectively that I won’t find them for months, the baby will chip away at my sanity by screaming the whole time, and so on and so on. They have some sort of mental telepathy that allows them to coordinate these things.

So hundreds of years ago, a woman was being driven so nuts by her children that when a little incessant voice whined, “Mommy, tell me a story!” over and over, she leaned over and through gritted teeth said, “I’ve got one for you!” I bet by the time she talked about spanking them soundly and sending them to bed, the kid backed off. And in some sick, twisted way, knowing that other moms throughout time have felt the same gut-wrenching frustration that sometimes comes my way makes me feel just a little bit better.

Thank goodness for little helpers!

2009-02-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

As a mother of three little ones, life can get a trifle hectic. More accurately, it is chaos over here most of the time. Still, I am grateful for the little helpers I have around the house. The older two girls are only too happy to help me with lunch. Alana got this yogurt all by herself!

I also get a lot of help cleaning. Here is Tula our faithful (-ly annoying) dog taking care of the yogurt mess. Yes, there is work to be done in our household, but when you learn to delegate tasks like I have, it becomes easier.

Thanks, Tula, for getting the face too!

I hate SCAM EMAILS from Nigeria but this one seems different.

2009-01-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

OK so I really hate it when people try to fool me into being nice just to take advantage of me later. That's the way I feel about every email I've ever received from Nigeria! The one I got this morning through me for a loop though... it started Dear Elder North.... What the crap is this!!! Comments to follow....

"Dear Elder Phil North ,

My name is brother David Opara.I am the proprietor of Lehi Compassionate School,and I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter Day saints Old umuahia branch umuahia district,Nigeria.

We are a non profit educational institution composed of my wife and other volunteer teachers whose mission is to give free basic education to less privileged latter day saints and non latter day saints children and adults from elementary to junior secondary.Please visit us at our website

As part of our resolve to improve the quality of what we teach these students,we have included in our school curriculum for 2009,computer education and we wish to extend our hand to you for your computer donation to this selfless effort.

We are not asking for money,all we ask is that old PC of yours no matter how old or new,it will greatly benefit these students.

We trust it will help to hone students' critical thinking skills as well as provide a forum for their creativity.

We would also be more than grateful if you could make the computer available to us by the end of January or first week of February to enable us start with it this term.

May God bless you and replenish you ten fold as you become an instrument in God's han nd.

Brother David Opara,

Proprietor Lehi Compassionate School,

Kilometer 47 Umuahia-Ikot Epene Road

Ibere Nta Village

Ikwuano LGA Abia State,

Nigeria."

OK so I have a few problems with this...

1. There are only a few ways to get my email address and then connect it to the church. I guess they could have gotten it off of Linked In and saw that I went to BYU, they could have hacked the BYU Alum. page, they could have hacked the church website, or most likely they have a virus or spy-wear on someone's computer in my ward/stake and data mined their email... (Update... OK So Tim helped me by googling my email address and it popped up on a public mission alumni page...GRRRR)

you have to understand that I'm ruthless with junk email. I have a special email address that I give to everyone who may sell or spam me. I never check that email I think that it has something like 20,000 new msgs in the inbox. If you sent me an email and didn't hear from me then you probably have the spam email address.... call me and we'll get that straightened out.

2. Nigeria is the SCAM capital of the world! This guy should know that and if he was legit he should have communicated in a fashion that is completely un-scam-like... NOT EMAIL.

3. This person is using a virtually anonymous free Yahoo email account.... All the Nigerian scammers use these free email accounts to stay anonymous.

4. These scam emails always have little grammatical and syntax errors. Look at the way the he types the name of the church. Why capitalize some title letters and not others. The idea is to make it look more valid, like a human wrote this in a hurry and sent it directly to you and not to 10,000 other people.SCAM.

5. These guys are professionals, they know that if they ask for money we'll all get suspicious. so they go for something less suspicious used computers. I'm not tech genius but I know that there are ways to get information off of a deleted hard drive even when it's been reformatted. My understanding is that the data is usually still there it's just the directories that get erased. This saves time... So here's a top tip. If you want to give away/sell a computer replace the hard drive just to be sure...

I can see a few targets that these guys have.

a )hard drive info with personal data, passwords, soc. tax info. contacts/email/phone numbers. Bank access, credit card i info with you security code.

b)They aren't clear in how or where to send the computers so that you will email them back or call them, either one confirms your email address as valid and or your phone number which can be sold to the next scammer.

c) They don't care about kids and I doubt that this school even exists.

6) These professionals are really smart. Church members are the nicest, most generous, and frankly generally trusting on the verge of being gullible. What a great group of people to target and take advantage of. Don't fall for this scam, Don't call this guy, Don't email them, Don't go to their website, Deleet Deleat Deleat, Report them as Spam.

RUN AWAY!!!!!

7) If this was legit then the Church has programs and countless donors who are willing to help.

Let me know your thoughts and if I have missed something....

Phil

PS this isn't new Check out this link of a similar scam email sent to the Catholics

Here's a link to the Department of Justice website to report Spam and other Electronic Crime.

More Baby Pictures

2009-01-01T08:33:00.001-08:00

Regarding Boy Names

2009-01-01T07:36:00.001-08:00

Most of you will give me a terrible time for blogging about this the day after Ella is born (Beth and Zak)... but I've been thinking about boy names. Honestly I don't think that I could make a boy anyway but if I ever were to make a boy and introduce him into this very girly family I'd have to set him up for some serious hyper masculine success. The first step to this hyper masculine success is a hyper masculine boy name!

Holly was reading in a Horse magazine about a pro rodeo rider who named his two boys Tough and Clint. Now those are awesome hyper masculine boy names. Which reminds me of a movie that is highly inappropriate and promotes some seriously negative social stigmas and behaviors but is still really funny Talledega Nights(not recommended for viewing by the writer). The lead character Ricky Bobby is a Nascar race driver and he names his two boys Walker and Texas Ranger because if he wanted sissy boys he would have named them Dr Quin and Medicine Woman... On this subject Ricky Bobby ad I are of the same opinion.

So other hyper masculine boy names;

Butch

Bruno

I really like Tough

Man Child North would be cool too.

Spike

Piston

Posi-track

Brembo

Rambo

Trans Am

Wrench

Duke

Spartacus

Teancum

Boone

What do you guys thing?

Phil

Some pictures but not the one's you're probably looking for

2009-01-01T00:54:00.001-08:00

So today has been a really long day. BTW :) Happy New Year!!!!

I went and picked up the girls and brought them to see their new sister and a funny thing happened, everyone was really excited... look at Natalie's face! Then we saw Alana make a face that we hadn't ever seen!...sorry that the images are so big.

Eleanor's HERE!!!!!!

2008-12-31T12:55:00.000-08:00

Oh she is so beautiful and little for a North!!!!

7lbs 1 oz.

20 in

1:31pm

9.9 apgar

She only let out two cries and then she just looked around!

Ye HAW

pics to come!

Hospitals are so boring!!

2008-12-31T10:14:00.000-08:00

So I think that a Hospital would be a fun place to work but as far as being a fun place for patrons to be THEY AREN'T...

There's nothing on the TV, there's no WiFi access, no pay preview, no waist of existence video games. It's just not a very fun place to be.

Don't get me wrong, the people are "lovely" (Holly's word)... but don't you think if you owned a hospital that you could differentiate your services in the marketplace by making it a fun place to be?

Do a Hotel style movie, video game, TV combo deal minus the adult entertainment. Hey you could even nickel and dime people and add a revenue stream. I bet that those who won't pay their hospital bill will rent a movie!!!

And honestly why not do WiFi access... Live in the Now Man!

So back to the Baby and Mom.

They're still connected and we're still waiting. Holly just fell asleep which makes me thing that we're still a ways off.

We just found out that we're at 6 cm... Hmmmmmm.... I don't think we'll have her by lunch time. I wonder if Holly will let me out of the room for some food... I'll have to think of a good excuse to sneak out because she can't eat anything and I don't want to make her feel bad... naw I'll just tell her the truth and see where that gets me.

There you have it an update on the girls and a million $ idea if any of you end up being a hospital administrator.

Just saw the Doctor.

2008-12-31T07:48:00.000-08:00

We just saw our doctor and it looks like things are really getting going. We should have a little one by lunch time. Holly said the funniest thing, "perfect then we won't interrupt nap time for the girls". This brings up two points, 1) she's already trying to get Ella on the nap schedule. 2) It reminds me of a Jeff Foxworthy skit about redneck women popping babies out and getting out of the hospital cus they got stuff to do... not to suggest that Holly's a redneck woman, rather that she's tough as nails.

The anesthesiologist is on his way in for the epidural and it's starting to get exciting.

Holly is absolutely amazing. She really is tough as nails!

So far this morning I've done a little work on my website and Holly spent some time editing her big book project. We both got a little sleep but spent most of the quiet time listening to Ella's heartbeat.

I took some pictures but I think that I'll have to get Holly's approval before posting them. Sorry... she's a photoshop junkie.

More to come...

Phil

3 hours and all is well...

2008-12-31T02:17:00.001-08:00

It's 3:00 AM now and Holly sent me out to the gas station for chap stick.

The nurses all thought that was a little odd. I told them that I just do as I'm told. I didn't mind and I was able to buy a candy bar and get a bottle of water.

It's slow going but Holly is doing great.

We have another 3-4 hours of this stage and then things should start getting exciting.

Holly doesn't remember it being this uncomfortable..."I guess you forget about this stuff when it's over".

I just don't like the smell of the hospital. The Dad chair is the worst in the world! But we like our hospital and our doctor.

For some strange reason Holly felt like watching Top Gear, the greatest car TV show on the planet. This could be a good omen for me... I hope that Ella is a gear head like her dad. Natalie loves horses, it looks like Alana will be a dancer and I really need a race car driver. Since I've lost hope of ever getting a boy and I don't know if I'm feeling the 4 kid family vibe Ella is my best shot.

More updates and ramblings to come.

Phil

We're at the Hospital!!

2008-12-31T00:48:00.001-08:00

All Right!

Get ready for a play by play series of postings as we bring our new little girl into the world!

We checked into the hospital at midnight this morning and it looks like things are progressing well!!! YE HAW...

We're still trying to work out the spelling of Elanore, Eleanor or Eleanore. What do you guys think?

More to come.

Phil

Video Chat

2008-12-27T12:55:00.001-08:00

Hey all

What video chat applications do you all use? I'm trying to set up video chat with my parents and just downloaded the SightSpeed application. I haven't tried it yet but I wanted to get everyone's thoughts.

Thanks for your help

Phil

Late on Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T22:12:00.001-08:00

Well it's 11:12 Christmas Eve.

Santa has come and gone...we had a lovely chat.

Holly asked me to download all the memory cards from the cameras so that we could be prepared for the big day and I came across this little clip.

I laughed so hard I almost woke up the kids....

BTW, we were cleaning the house getting ready for friends to come over. Thus the vacuum and the trash can in the middle of the room. This also explains why we're rocking out... I just can't clean without some good music to get me into the mood.

!!!Warning any who would be offended by a 1 year-old dancing in a diaper to awesome "classic" rock Don't watch this video!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Music is one of the all time greatest songs... All Right Now by Free

Happy Festivus!!

2008-12-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas!!!! I love this time of year!

In a true HR guy spirit I understand that some people out there may not celebrate Christmas and to me that's okay. Whatever you celebrate have a great time!

I think to buck the traditional Happy Holidays salutation I think that this year my broad generic salutation will be Happy Festivus.

I finally understand the "Credit Crisis"

2008-12-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

I've been cruising along in ignorance all this time thinking that I had a good idea of what had caused the "credit crisis", though I'm not a huge fan of NPR liberal radio I came across this 1 hour news story that really connected all the dots for me. I listened to this at work today and if you have time I suggest that you listen too.

Let me know what you think and if this helps you understand how our economy got to where it is today...

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

Phil

More political soap-boxing...

2008-12-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

Fundamental Principles of Business and How the Government Messes it all Up

A few months ago I spent a lot of energy to try and convince my dad that we needed to bail out the financial industry. Maybe it was because I work in the financial industry but really I think that I was swayed by all the hype and energy that the media built up regarding a great depression and financial Armageddon. Last night I called my dad and confessed that I was very wrong and have now changed my view.

Why would I change when the economy is in worse shape then it was before? I realized that there are fundamental principles of business and life. If you adhere to the principles you will win. If you break the rules you will eventually loose. I’ll outline some of these and I challenge you to measure your family financial situations and the companies that you are familiar with by these principles to see what part of this mess each of us is responsible for.

1. Maintain control of your leverage.
The Church often states that they are completely out of debt except for some transactional debt that is required in some situations. I can only imagine that these situations have to do with the transaction of real estate and the timing to free up or sell assets. Perhaps they have a line of credit with building products manufactures so that they don’t have millions of little transactions. I believe that this strong control of debt is inspired and a key reason why the church is generally considered to be the most financially secured religious organization in the world.
This brings us to the housing crisis. Banks and the consumers used real estate as a debit card and got way over-leveraged. If you watch CNBC you will hear about the deleveraging of the markets over and over. We’re more leveraged now then we ever have been. The problem isn’t just the banks—it’s the people, almost all companies . . . it’s everyone! So when times get hard we stick each other with the debts and the only answer is to either go out of business or get the government to take on your debts.

2. Cash is KING, or Cash flow is KING
There are only two problems to a budget. Either there is too much going out or there isn’t enough coming in. So those who have cash and more cash coming in are in a good place. If you’re in trouble you either raise cash or go to #3.

3. Giving up an asset that has future upside in order to survive until tomorrow is the right answer.
So you either increase your income or you tighten the belt to reduce the outflow. Part of tightening the belt is letting go of great parts of your business/life in order survive even if you plan on buying that part of business back at a premium in the future. GM should let go of some plants, brands, and international companies in order to survive. Following the car theme, Holly and I recently bought a new van. There isn’t anything really cool about a van but if I lose my job we’re prepared to sell that van at a loss. In fact it’ll probably be the first thing to go. (You guys don’t have to hold me to that ☺ it’ll be really hard.) But this is an example of the right thing to do. If a company isn’t bringing in more cash then it’s paying out it needs to tighten the belt, cut some people, some production, and even a division or two.

These three principles of business are key fundamentals and I feel that our government is completely ignoring these things. In fact they are making it worse by going into debt at a ridiculous rate. They’re doing this because they don’t believe that the American people can handle the situation. It’s too hard for us to get through this. What if this turns into another depression? What if we loose 2 million jobs? What if, what if…. I’m sick of this crap. We are a great and powerful people who need to be told the straight deal! We need to go to work. We need to stop spending other people’s money. We need to start living within our means. We need to stop squandering our inheritance. We need to give our kids something other than trillions of dollars of debt.

I’m a GEAR HEAD. I love cars! I subscribe to three car magazines. I religiously watch a number of car TV shows. I dream about someday being in the car business. (Although I do despise car sales people… well, except for Pinkie). It is my humble opinion that US cars are just OK. I don’t feel that they’re innovative. They don’t induce passion. Generally they’re really ugly (think the entire Cadillac line). They all use outdated technology. The new ecotech engines are really cool and have great upside, especially in forced induction situations, but that’s about it. The companies that build these cars have to cut on quality in order to be competitive. The unions have sucked all the life out of the car companies. The top-heavy management and legacy costs create a huge outflow of capital. There is simply no way that they will be competitive. They need a major chainsaw to cut management, divisions, and the number of cars they build. This should have been done early this year but the fools didn’t do it. They chose instead to let it get so bad that they became too big to fail so the principle-less politicians would throw money at them!

Holy smokes.. Natalie just fell asleep sitting on the floor! She fell forward and landed on her face…. HOW FUNNY!!!!

I’d feel better if we built a border fence, built power transition lines across the country, invested in massive solar power collection stations, or even gave tax breaks to buy cars made in the USA (including all the foreign car models made here). Do anything but give people who have failed a green light to squander and fail again!
So I stand in a new place. I’m not extreme right wing. I do think that there are some worthwhile ways and thing that the government can do but I don’t think that throwing money at rich and high leverage focused people is the right answer. Doing this just supports bad behavior and removes the natural consequences of bad decisions.
Just a note to end the post: I’ve been laid off twice so yes I have some blood in the game. I’m more leveraged than I think I should be. I believe in the American people! I know that if we forget ourselves, roll up our sleeves and GO TO WORK! we’ll all be just fine. It will NOT BE FUN! It will BE HARD! It will take SACRIFICE! But it will be all these things regardless of what the government does. I personally would rather take my whooping now than tomorrow.

Let me know your thoughts… mine were very different 3 months ago so you may get me to change again.☺

I need your thoughts and advice on politics

2008-10-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all

This is a letter that I wrote to a friend regarding socialism and the presidential campaign. I've filled out my entire ballot already except for the presidential election. This is my take and I need some advice on your thoughts and feelings. I hope that I don't offend anyone here and publicly admit that I can be swayed one way or another.

Phil

Tim

Thanks for the dialog. I don't think that most republicans are talking about kicking the poor to the curb and cutting them off. I don't believe that taking care of the poor is socialism. I do believe that our current system is meeting many of the needs of the people in that it doesn't give them everything but does support basic needs. No one in the US needs to starve or be without the basics and I think that few actually are. I don't believe that everyone needs a college education. I don't believe that everyone should be able to get fast food to eat every day. I get the feeling that this is where some left side policies are going. People should struggle. It's been that way for all time.

Socialism is when the government controls all monetary transactions on behalf of the people. I believe that the republicans recently have taken more steps in the socialist direction then any politician in the history of the U.S. I don't believe that socialism is an issue in this election. Both parties are leaning towards it regardless of what they say.

When it comes to the big issues though there is a difference between the candidates. I'm looking at where they stood in January of 08 as I believe that both candidates have publicly adjusted some of these views since then and their original views may be more revealing.

Roe v Wade Obama supports, McCain does not support. I'm on the fence. There are times when abortion is appropriate and Roe-v-wade allows for those times in addition to others.

Education, Both candidates support similar reforms in addition to No Child Left Behind

Energy and Oil Neither candidate support additional drilling in ANWAR or off shore in Jan of 08. Both have moved on this subject since then. This is an issue that I have with both candidates. I am a member to the T. Boone Pickens army and believe that comprehensive energy reform is the answer to many of our future issues including the middle east. Neither candidate actually has any idea how to solve this big issue. Their handlers have had the play lip service to energy but neither actually believe in it.

Guns, Obama supports additional gun bans. McCain does not. I am a member of the NRA and a gun owner. My wife is editing a book written by a holocaust survivor. In that book he speaks about how in the beginning of the nazi power struggle some saw what was happening and wanted to fight back but the government had banned all personal weapons so the only people with guns were the nazis. I'm not suggesting that we're going to be the next Empire or anything but I do believe that we will experience difficult times in these last days and I want to have in my possession the tools and knowledge to protect my family from those who would destroy it. This includes assault rifle style of arms which are designed to defend protect and intimidate. Which is what I need them for.

Immigration- Both support a path to citizenship for Illegals and a border fence. I support both these views. But this is a bigger issue to me then anyone except Sharif Joe is making it.

Iraq- Obama apposes the war and supports troop withdrawal McCain believes the inverse. I'm on the fence here and actually see both sides. We do need to get out of the mess we are in there but we need to do it in a way that is supportive and respectful to the people who we have ditched to their own problems with the Soviets before. Most people don't understand the history of the U.S. in that region very well. I don't assume to have a clear picture myself but I respect that we have had a hand in making it the unstable place that it is and we have had a hand in creating the fierce hatred by our past actions. Besides. all those who believe in the second coming of the Savior understands that there will be a lot going on in this region in the time to come regardless of our political views. If we pull out and it destabilizes the area bringing the second coming sooner I guess I'm ok with that but I still think that we need to do it in a respectful manner and I believe that McCain would actually do better at this. Even though he comes across as a bit of a war monger.

Minimum wage- Obama supports and increase and McCain does not. I've never been a support of the minimum wage.... well since I was 16 that is. I'm a free market capitalist even though we screwed up the housing and lending markets I think that in most areas free market capitalism gets it right. Besides I believe that the minimum wage is supporting illegal immigration.

Same Sex Marriage- Neither support same sex marriage and neither want a constitutional amendment to ban it. Obama supports civil unions and McCain supports something like civil unions. These guys are both taking a politically safe middle ground on this subject. I'm actually a little torn here and wish that I actually had any idea where they each stand on this.

Taxes- Both of these guys are going to raise taxes. I believe that the small business people will be hit the hardest and it's tempting me to scale back some of my own business ideas. It just isn't possible to do the things that we are doing today without raising some capital. This is depressing but I believe that Obama has a more feasible plan.

Finally the VPs Biden is a career politician and comes across as slimy as ever and it's fun to see Obama have to tell him to sit out campaigning when he says stupid things. Pailin is awful. She has been portrayed by the McCain camps actions as a weak stupid woman who can't speak for herself. There are more effective choices he could have and should have made.

I still don't know who to vote for. I believe that Arizona will turn out to be a swing state even thought the poles don't show it to be there are a lot of people here who really don't like McCain. I'm trying not to be a pawn to the media but I have a doubt implanted in my head about Obama and his past/present relationships. Both sides are pushing to either downplay or up play these relationships but I don't know if I believe Obama when he simply brushes them away as nonsense. It just feels fishy to me.

So what it comes down to for me is guns, iraq, energy and free markets. This would put me in the McCain camp but then I just feel like he's a grumpy old man who does some stupid things.... which reminds me of a current president who I'm not very happy with. So do I do as the politicians do and buck my beliefs for someone who appears more intelligent and much more polished?

That's my struggle.

Phil

Holly's Utah Trip Commentary

2008-10-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

I received the greatest shock and surprise of my life this weekend at the wedding of Phil’s brother Chris. A few months ago, Chris called us and asked us if Natalie could be a flower girl at his wedding. Phil, confident in our daughter’s abilities, bluntly stated, “Sure, as long as you don’t need her to do anything, because if it requires more than just standing there, it won’t happen.”

Well, the fateful morning eventually arrived. We begged, cajoled, and pleaded with Natalie for us to let her do her hair in a respectable bun. She was very excited about her beautiful blue dress and “diamond” necklace that the bride-to-be, Kiersten, had graciously provided. We showed up at the reception center early for a quick rehersal before the main event.
The mansion was beautiful. The wedding was to be held on the lawn about 50 yards away from the house alongside a waterfall and in a picturesque gazebo. The bride and her entourage, including Natalie, were to walk from the house down about three flights of stairs, pausing for three seconds at each landing, and then walk across the lawn and down the aisle to the front of all of the guests and stand for the duration of the ceremony next to the bride and groom. I stood at the top of the stairs with Natalie (Phil had Alana on the lawn with the other guests) picturing our very opinionated daughter alone with strangers and thought, “Yeah, right! Good luck with that!”
To top it all off, the two flower girls were to descend the staircase immediately before the bride. All sorts of visions of various calamities crossed my mind. I saw Natalie, walking with the older and, we soon discovered, much faster flower girl and falling down the stairs, breaking a limb right in front of the bride, severely crippling the ceremony. I saw her sitting down half way down the steps resolved to go no further, with Phil and me a hundred yards away with the other guests unable to do anything besides helplessly watch. I saw myself, a big pregnant lady, running across the lawn to chase her as she ran, throwing the tantrum of her life, in whatever path would make us most visible for the longest period of time. I saw her jumping into the fishpond and splashing in the waterfall. In my mind’s eye, I saw her doing everything besides walking graciously down the aisle, delicately dropping petals from her silk-covered basket.

And yet that’s what happened (just about). Now we know that miracles happen in our times! She was amazing! She walked without stumbling down all of those stairs, pausing at approximately the right times. She made it all the way across the lawn and even stood with the line of bridesmaids for the entire ceremony! Phil and I just sat there with our jaws on the floor. It was the surprise of our lives. The only hiccup was that we hadn’t practiced dropping the petals, and Natalie had grown so attached to them that she would throw a handful and then stop to pick them up. She didn’t hold up things too much and frankly a lot of people thought it was cute. Since she didn’t destroy anything, we were more than pleased with the way things turned out.

What’s the moral, you may ask? Well, I think that Phil and I will have to work on not standing in our children’s way. We don’t let Natalie try things because we don’t have the confidence that she can do them successfully, when she might have more talents that we are stifling. The bride and groom had more faith in her than we did, and it turned out to be a great experience, both for us and for Natalie. Thanks, Chris and Kiersten!

Some other highlights from the trip were hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, seeing Buddy and the cat, going up and down all of the stairs hundreds of times, visiting with good friends such as the Graves family, Aslynn, and Jodi, and seeing all of our great aunts, uncles, and cousins, and hanging out with Great Grandma. The girls had a fantastic time.

Alana also gained the confidence to walk at the airport. She has been walking short distances for a while, but she just couldn’t make the switch from crawling to walking full-time. When we were trying to keep her contained near our luggage, she saw her opportunity and made a break for it. She wanted to get out in the crowd in the main aisle of the terminal and walk with all of the people. We got looks that could melt iron from busy travelers as I followed this little girl around the crowded terminal and Phil followed with the video camera. Alana has been running around ever since.

Overall it was a fun trip. Thanks, everyone!

It's been 10 years!!!

2008-09-27T15:11:00.001-07:00

Well I'm approaching my ten year Mission reunion... Well in 6 months. Regardless as you all have seen I've been a little nestalgic lateley so I thought we might just continue the theme. I was digging though some old pictures. The kind that you have to have developed. I thought that some people might be interested is some good old missionary silliness.

Now as a general rule I try not to post pictures of other people on my blog... I'd hate to be liable but I know most of these people really well and.... they know where to reach me if they don't like it...

This picture is from the MTC. James, Michael and I all ended up in the MTC at the same time! Go figure. A bunch of goofy junior high school friends back together again...

This is by far my favorite picture from the mission. This was probably my most challenging time on my mission but at the same time it was the most rewarding too. This picture and the following are in front of Prague Castle. Prague is in the top 3 most amazing places that I have lived.

Pictures and thoughts of the summer

2008-09-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

So summer is officially over now... it's kind of sad but at the same time we have some great pictures and memories of the summer!

These pictures are some of my favorites from Family Reunion at Bear Lake. What a great adventure!

Reflections

2008-09-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking a lot lately about high school. I've reconnected with some of my best friends from those great years. Yes I said that they were great! I truly can't remember many really bad times in high school. There was this time when I took out my best friends secret crush to the big freshman dance. That didn't go over very well on just about every account imaginable... I was late, she had a horrible time and... well I think that's enough of that story.

Everything else was really fun! I don't remember worrying about anything. If we could dream it we could do it. Mike Jensen and I made up some of the best group dates ever and I believe that we really were on the leading edge of the popular creative dating trend in LDS society. One of my favorites was the Plan of Salvation Date. It was so awesome!

I don't remember sitting around very much and it seems like I was always doing some kind of activity with friends, hanging out in the TImimos' man cave (garage), tooling around the Vancouver back roads with Jared only breaking a few traffic laws. I spent a little time at the Ogden household which was the safest and most uplifting place any high school kid could be. Though I think that Emily and Sarah got a little fed up with me at times and i don't think that Brian really liked the idea much. They introduced me to bean soup and tuna on toast! What great times!!!

I don't think that I was best friends with everyone in High School. I can think of a few fellow priests who didn't care for me much but I don't remember that ever bothering me. What I remember most from High School was a that I had friends who excepted me for who I was, with all of my weaknesses and faults. I had friends who helped me set rules to stay pure. I had friends who were great examples!

I feel that I had one of the best High School experiences possible and I hope that those that were there with me felt the same way. It may be true that I only remember the good times and none of the tough times but hey I'm okay with that.

So a special thanks from my wife and I to all those who took part in molding a goofy boy into a semi decent adult. My parents are at the top of my list as they are the most Christlike people I know and at the same time the hardest working... not to infer that the Savior wasn't hard working.... Then in no specific order; Mike, Angel, Tim, Eric, Stacie, Womack, Draper, Lori, Dan and Bev, Jared, Reed, Michael, Ben, and Livvy. I know that there are more people that I missed... always a worry with such a list... I'm sorry if you were missed. Just pretend that you weren't and send me an email so I can add you!

I'm overfilled with joy that I reconnected with some of these people in the past week. A few years have passed since high school but the memories are still very precious to me.

Hard Times

2008-09-01T15:17:00.001-07:00

So everyone has been giving me a hard time about my blog and the frequency of my posts.... Needless to say I've never been much of a journal writer and that translates directly to poor blogging performance.

So we've had a lot of family updates lately and though my title "hard times" may be a little misleading our life is still interesting.

So a couple of months ago my company told me that I was to be effected by some corporate downsizing, they're going in another direction and wanted to help me "find a job somewhere else" Lay offs are an adventure in and of themselves and this one turned out to be a good thing. Most people who know me know how much I despise the bank and working for one wasn't a very good fit for my personality. It was still tough to be compelled to make an adjustment on their timeline rather then mine.

I started one month ago with a new much smaller private firm in the same HR job I had at the bank only with national responsibility. It's a great job and a fun company. Most importantly is that they need me whereas I don't thing that a Fortune 20 company really needs anyone. Best of all is that I work out of a home office. I can't believe how much I am able to accomplish in the same workday with out all the office distractions. Being home more has effected my girls in a very positive way too.

So we broke down and bought a mini van... I can only find 3 cool things about the van. 1. the power doors are awesome. 2. the engine is awesome, I love blowing the doors off of sports cars at stop lights in a mini van it's sooooo awesome. 3. I really like the gages, they look like the ones in a Lexus. And that's about it... The space is a plus but no very cool. So with the van I had to sell my car.

I think that summer is finally coming to a close... oh, wait. I just looked at the forecast and it's above 110 all week. Never mind about the summer coming to an end comment that was a "false and shocking statement". But the pool season is still in full swing now the trick is to keep the pool clean! (no rodents allowed)

Alana is on the verge of waling she is growing so fast and gets so excited that the is standing on her own that she falls down. It's an amazing process to watch your kids grow and develop.

Natalie is potty training with is an adventure as she really likes the stickers and treats so she's always asking to go potty.

Finally for those who don't already know we're expecting number 3!!! And it's another GIRL!!! I'm really excited for the lame reason that we don't have to buy a bunch of new stuff. But even though we would love to have a boy someday I guess I have to make up for my parrents 6 boys so I'll take it like a man and be happy. I have told my wife that one of these girls had better be into cars because I'm putting someone into go-cart racing at the age of 8. It's my retirement plan. In fact Natalie has take to reading car magazines upside down. I think that it's a sign... or she just thinks that dad is cool and want's to do the same thing he does.

Well on that bombshell it's time to close another quarterly post. Please leave a comment so that I can subscribe back to your blogs!

Phil

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

We Hope that you enjoy the video!!!

Love Phil, Holly, Natalie, Alana, Mahana and the puppy...Tula or Kalani?

A New North Family Addition!!!

2008-04-30T22:00:00.001-07:00

Hi I know that it's been like 8 months since I last posted but it's been crazy busy! I'm still working hard at recruiting bankers and this Saturday I'll be done with school....Again...

You are all probably scratching your heads about the title of this post but Holly decided to surprise me with a graduation present and fulfilling one of my life goals. She talked me into spending a bunch of money on a pure bred Boxer Puppy. I know we already have the worlds most perfect dog Mahana. We rescued Mahana a couple of years ago from the pound and certain death. We were looking for a boxer then but Mahana looked up at us with her big brown eyes and Holly couldn't leave her there. I'l so glad too because she's the perfect dog for our family. Mahana is mostly boxer and just a tiny bit pit bull which you can see in her nose.

Well tonight we got an 8 week old boxer puppy. We met her parents and they were awesome dogs. The mom was gentle as can be with Natalie and all her pups trying to get her attention. The dad was HUGE! and full of energy. Our dog was one of a litter of 6. 2 girls and 4 boys. All the boy dogs were super rambunctious but our dog was involved with the style of a lady.

So we met all the dogs and I backed out telling the breeders that we'd have to think about it. We got around the block 3 times before Holly and I talked each other into taking the dive and going for it. I then accidently miscounted the $ and gave them $40 less than they asked for... they had to run out to the car to let us know that if anything went wrong or if there were any issues that they would only refund the total minus $40. Boy did I feel stupid.... and I call myself a banker. So a stop at Petsmart and another $100 later we finally made it home an hour after our little girls turned into pumpkins. Of course we had to start the house training right away, we had to introduce Mahana to her new puppy and then we had to take pictures for which Natalie was happy to dance.

The puppy couldn't fit in better! Everyone is so happy and we've all received a ton of boxer kisses tonight. Now all we need is a name. We're open to suggestions but since we went with Mahana for Mahana we're thinking about sticking with the Pacific Islander names for the new puppy. So far we've thought of Kalani and Laka. Any how here are some pictures...

What an adventure life has become!!!

2007-10-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Again it's been a while since I've written. I am constantly amazed at how correct the advice people gave me when I went to college. They told me to enjoy all the time that I would have because I'd never have so much discressionary time again... I guess that i've developed a clearer understanding of this and I agree but I hope that someday I can retire and have some discressionary time again.

So we've been having a few adventures lately. It's an adventure to have our new baby girl Alana home. She is naturally a happy baby but we just need to learn all the things that make her unhappy to allow natrue to make her happy. So we've cut out all sented laundry detergent or fabric softner, Holly can't eat eggs which was narrowed down from wheat, milk, soy, nuts, and anyting but fruits and vegies. So now that we've found what she's alergic to we're all much happier. Oh and she really likes the vacume. So to help her sleep now we just leave the vacume on in her room...

The weather is changing and we're finally out of the 100s!!! We're spending more time outside and everyone likes that.

Grandma North came to visit for a week. She was amazing. Our whole house was calm while she was here. Holly is convinced that she has some magical control over dust because normally we dust every two days but while my Mom was here Holly didn't have to dust at all... I think that Mom just snuck out at night and dusted while we slept, either way it was really fun to have her here. And I want to extend the invite to all of our family, anyone who wnat's to come and hold a baby can come over to our house and hang out.

I'm back in school after a short break after Alana was born and I really can't wait to be done.

Natalie is grrowing so fast. She's so smart and has a great sence of humor. Today she thought it was so much fun to sit on my head and use me as a human jungle gym. It's the best time of my day when I come home and when Natalie hears the door open she yeals DAD! Life is good.

OK so I need to write more!!!!

2007-08-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

Howdy all! It's amazing how it just keeps getting more hot every day here in AZ! I can't wait for winter to come and then I can get some yard work done!

Everyone has been asking for more pictures of the family. So since I'm turning into a fat old guy (not to infer that my Dad is old... hmmmm), and Holly is content with the pictures that I've already put on here I'll post some of our cute kids who are too young to complain.

This series is one of my favorite we've taken. I was at home on a Saturday and was buisy with my usual past time (sleeping on the couch... I think that this may be where the fat comes from). To be more comfortable I took out my wallet and placed it safely on the table next to the couch where I could keep an eye on it... It was an odd thing that it actually had some cash in it and Natalie took a big intrest in those greenbacks.

Next we have Baby Alana's first bath! Holly puts her in a towel to keep her warm in the water. Alana loved her first bath and it was fun for everyone, Natalie was asleep which made it much more peaceful.

Next we have another of Alana ready for her first trip to Church! Everyone was surprised when we showed up with Alana only 9 days old... We're CRAZY people though and we took our 9 day old to church... :)

Now back to Natalie, but first, let me explain that it's hot here in Arizona. There's a GEICO commercial that explains this to me every day when I'm driving to work, which is really annoying. Anyhow I just want to state that just because it's hot doesn't mean that little girls shouldn't dress modestly! However, when that little girl is 16 months old and a self apointed professional finger painter who's medium is whatever she can find to stick her hands into it's just more ecconomical on so many levels to let the kid run arround in the house in a diaper. It saves on 3 loads of laundry a day. It saves on stress as she freaks out because she's hot (she's never really done that but I assume she would if she thought of it). So long story short, We don't care how trashy we look, these are still great pictures and it's still HOT and it's not like we take her out like this or drive with her on our lap...

So Natalie's figured out where we keep the snacks. Which just happens to be in a lower cupboard that she can easily get into. (No I'm not trying to make my one year old fat in order to make myself feel better(we put child locks on those doors after this picture)). So we caught her shutting herself in the goody cupboard!

So we'll do a couple more in quick succession here. Natalie loves to play dress-up in our closet. She also loves swimming! Some how we accidentally ended in a house with a pool so we go swimming every day! Especially when it's so Hot her! (One of my beloved cousins was complaining about how hot it is in Texas... HA I think I have you beat!) I'll sneak another picture of Holly in here too! We took this picture at a Man Toy Expo and Auction that I talked the girls into going to. Mind you Holly was 8 months pregnant and Natalie was trying to finger paint this $200,000 classic Mercedes and every other car there with her sticky slimy tootsie pop fingers (yes I gave her the tootsie pop.) This picture is specifically for my Father in law who I think would really appreciate the efforts that I went to while saving the paint job on this beautiful car.

Most of you have heard about or OUT OF CONTROL projects around our house. One of which is Natalie's new room. Natalie loves animals and we've lovingly given her the nick name of Monkey. So we built her a Jungle Room including a Jungle Hut bunk bed. In these pictures you can see the initial construction process, Natalie helping me do some finish work and a near finished Jungle Hut. Notice the tea-chi torches on either side of the door. I'm especially proud of these! I wired them for power and put in those flickering flame light bulbs!!! It's so cool.

Finally our last picture of the evening is of Natalie sitting in Alana's bed playing with her under close adult supervision.

Please let us know how you are doing!

Our New Addition!!!! Alana is Here!!!!! Phils account.

2007-08-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

Well I thought that this would be a great first post to the North Family Blog. We've had a busy couple of days. I'll share my side of the story and then see if Holly wants to make and adjustments to it in her post later.

It all started late last week when I surprised Holly by showing up at her doctor's appointment (even though she parked next to me and didn't recognize my car). I thought that this could be the last appointment before the baby came and we had been in debate over an early induction or waiting to term on the 16th. Holly did a lot of study and we spent a week in "debate" over the issue. I didn't do an study at all so I wasn't very helpful in comming to a decision, then Holly started to feel uncomfortable, really uncomfortable which, in the end was more motivating than anything. Our great doctor wanted to induce Holly on Monday the 6th but when we went to see him last Thursday he suggested that we do the induction the next day.

Holly and I were a bit nervous about inducing the baby 12 days early but.. deep down I thing that we both felt that it was right. I'm glad now that we went with out gut instincts. We were supposed to report to the hospital at 5:00 AM Friday morning. I have a great boss at work who was so supportive. She helped me apply for a paid family leave of absence so that I didn't use up too much vacation and took on my responsibilities for me so that when I return it should be manageable. We farmed Natalie out to some good friends who took her for the night. The clock was ticking and we had so much to do that we didn't get to bed until midnight. I was doing last minute cleaning (Bob and Janelle came over mid-day Saturday to stay at our house to watch Natalie and they're so much cleaner than we are that we didn't want them to have to deal with all of our messes) and Holly was putting the finishing touches on a hospital nightgown that she had made so that she didn't have to wear the ugly and uncomfortable one the hospital provided. So we were taking care of the priorities. This was actually good because we were told to call the hospital after 10:00 PM Thursday night to make sure that they weren't full and then again before we left at 4:30 the next morning. We made the call at 10:00 and got the green light...

The next morning we were up at 3:30 putting the final touches on the 3 hospital survival bags we needed, all of which were so full that they wouldn't zip up all the way. We thought about calling the hospital again but agreed that we should just show up. This is a typical tactic of our family, what would the hospital do? Even if they were full we would go to breakfast for a couple of hours and then come back... It turned out to work in our favor. They were full and didn't have a nurse to help us start the process. They did however have a room in Labor and Delivery which we accepted. We were told that they would do all that they could to get us going but that we might have to wait until 7:00 when the shift changed and they had more staff. It turned out, to our pleasure, that with us just sitting in the room sleeping the nurses felt pressure to get us going and we were off and running by 7:00 when we got one of the best nurses that we dealt with the entire time.
Holly was a total trooper! To her, the worst part of birthing a child is the IV. She did awesome with getting stuck with the IV and then just pretended that she didn't have a left arm. This brought a lot of humor to everyone who came in because she just refused to move that arm. Not only did she not want to move it but she also refused to look at it. I was only slightly reprimanded when I took a picture of the IV and was coerced to delete it quickly. Amazingly latter in the day that arm came back to life and it was the one of the funniest moments of the day!

The anesthesiologist came in around 10:30 (I think...). The last guy was a sore spot in our last pregnancy...no pun intended. But this time around we broke through the grumpy professionalism and actually had a lot of fun! At the beginning he ignored us and only graced the nurse with his verbal communication. Then he asked Holly some questions. I think that since I wasn't the patient and no one really knows if I'm the dad (except for me and Holly and anyone who actually knows us) that the doctors and nurses don't really like to talk to me. Then again maybe it was because I had a two day growth of beard and was hovering over my wife like an injured bulldog guarding it's most prized possession. Any how I finally broke through this guys grumpiness and got him to laugh a bit. Some how we got onto the topic of saving the placenta and how some cultures eat it... I know it sounds really gross now but at the time in the hospital it wasn't so disgusting (no offense to anyone reading this who has eaten or condones the eating of placenta... To each their own). Any how this doctor got us all rolling when he suggested that we could make Jerky out of it and it would last forever... maybe even make it a birthday tradition to eat a hunk of placenta. Really funny stuff.... ahhh the memories.

Well at about 10 to 6:00 Friday night it was pretty obvious that the time was near. The nurse called Dr Bass and Holly was feeling a lot of pressure and pain even through the epideral. Dr Bass showed up and the pushing began. Holly was again really good and was working hard when Dr Bass asked for her hand. She volunteered he left one with the IV in it and Dr. Bass asked surprised if she was left handed. Holly just looked back confused by the question. I could see the thoughts forming in her head, "What, Dr. Bass does this have to do with me and my BABY!!! I'm busy here stop asking stupid questions and lets get on with it." What came out though was completely different, " I don't know" The whole room started laughing and Holly gave Dr. Bass her right hand so that she could feel the babies head. I personally think that this is kind of strange but I think that I know why he does it. He uses this to distract the mother between contractions. The man is a really good doctor.

So Alana took more pushing than Natalie because she was face up (posterior). It turns out according to the doctor that if Alana was much bigger then he may have had to use some other techniques, possibly including a c-section which was our biggest fear. So I chalk this one up to one more time that Heavenly Father was watching over our little family! Alana was born at 6:13 PM on Friday August 3rd. She is 7 lb. 6 oz and 20.5 in long. She came out a beautiful pink color and scored a 9.9 on that new born test... I don't remember the name, but 9.9 is GREAT! She has a perfect nose just like her sister and it looks like she may have her Uncle Michael's feet. She took to eating like she had been starved and feeds very well. She is a very quiet baby.
It's amazing at the differences in personality between Natalie and Alana. We call Natalie our little Monkey. She is always playing and running and laughing. She loves animals, fire trucks and airplanes. She loves her Jungle room! Although her favorite movie is Barbie Twelve Dancing Princesses and Princess and the Popper. Deep down I think that she just likes all the singing and dancing... another Monkey trait.

I know that it's only been two days since she came out to play with our family and I may be projecting a bit here but I think that Alana will be our little Princess. She is so serene even when she is upset she is still very princess like. She is much calmer and dignified. She has that proper air around her just like her Mom. (I know that Holly was more like a monkey when she was a kid but in college she was much more like a kind loving princess.)

I am so happy that she is here and I am completely overwhelmed by the miracle of it all. I catch myself getting choked up all the time. I'm so proud of my amazing wife and best friend. I'm happy that Natalie likes her sister and isn't too jealous yet. I'm grateful for all the amazing hospital staff and doctors who really made the hospital (a naturally horrid and depressing place) a joy to be at. I keep counting my blessings. We have wonderful friends who helped us so much. I think for the first time I am in a situation where I couldn't do it all myself, I just couldn't be everywhere and take care of everyone who needed me, even though I tried. It was great family and friends who helped us in our time of need. Beth and Zach took Natalie for the first night and Janelle and Bob took her the second. We missed her so much that I came and got her and Natalie spent the last 6 hours with us at the hospital. I know it sounds foolish but I just felt uncomfortable without her there with us. I can't imagine how my personality will take it when my girls grow up and move out. I'll have to learn to let go.

I hope that you all enjoy the pictures and the story. There's to much to write and I've left a lot out. Nonetheless I hope that you can feel our joy happiness and hope. We will be using this blog to update everyone on our adventures and life. Feel free to add your comments and give us a ring. We miss and love you all.

Holly's Addendum: Phil summed up pretty well. I just want to emphasize that yes, it was very uncomfortable! I did feel several hours of miserable contractions. I wanted to throw that in for the record. I felt great after the delivery, though. It was easier the second time around. I would also like to add that Natalie is being a great helper. She just helped me change a messy diaper (by pulling out an ample amount of baby wipes for me to use) and she rubbed some lotion on Baby Alana's feet. She is going to be a great big sister! Oh, that 9.9 score is called the APGAR score. I'd like to extend thanks to a few more people who've really earned it these past few days. Thanks, Janelle and Beth, for taking care of Monkey. Thanks, Phil, for the Panda Express at the hospital and for being an amazing dad and, for this week, a great housewife, and thanks to whatever blessed soul invented the epidural!