I'm geting really bad at this "weekly' blog. It is becoming an every other week kind of blog.

There were several activities over the past two weeks so we will sum them up as best we can.

Fishing trip
Knowing we were moving I took one last opportunity to go wade fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. I know I plan to come back and do it again I just don't know when. I had originally declined the chance to go because I was working the PGA tournament here in San Antonio, but I knew I would regret it if I did not go fishing with friends. It just so happened the we were off work on Friday so we decided to go down Thursday night and fish all day Friday and most of Saturday. First and foremost I can report that I was injury free this time. For those that were not aware last year I went and stumbled into an oyster reef and cut my feet, 14 stitches. We got started first thing Friday and I hooked into the first fish. We couldn't keep it, the fish I caught, similar to a catfish is the "carp" of the coast. We ended up catching lots of fish, but only being able to keep a few, size restrictions. I ended up with two good size redfish. Saturday was much windier and colder. I again hooked into several fun fish, but only kept one flounder. I was never under the impression that flounder had such mean teeth. We had a great time and had no regrets.

PGA Tournament
Although I found a subsititute for the weekend shift I was able to work the Wednesday shift. It is by far the best day to work a tournament. The Wednesday is the charity pro-am and the golfers are more relaxed and willing to take pictures, talk, and sign autographs. They were all remarkablely friendly. I took Hunter with me and set him up with a handful of colored sharpies, comfortable chair and a tournament flag. He sat with us at the first green, while myself and two other volunteers "controlled the crowd". Hunter was our crowd. He got every pro on the pro-am to sign his flag, three pros who weren't in the pro-am, and two amatuer golfer. Amatuer golfers, but retired NBA players. All in all his flag is covered and some of the guys he talked to were, Adam Scott, Chris DiMarco, Justin Leonard, Charles Howell III, Anthony Kim and Kevin Na. The two amatures were Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley. Kevin Na you might not of heard much of until this tournament when he shot a 15 on one hole, but he was very nice to Hunter and gave him one of his golf gloves which he signed for him. Hunter also got about 2 dozen golf balls from the players, some signed some not. One of the funnier players on tour is Rocco Mediate. Hunter had a cute interaction with him. As Hunter was approaching Rocco and about 40 feet away, Rocco turned to one of the amatures and said, "I picked about the worse day to not sign for kids" Hunter unphase went up and asked for his autograph. Rocco said, "Didn't you hear whatI just told him?" With a smile Hunter, handing him a Sharpie replied, "Nope." He signed Hunter's flag. a couple cards and two of the volunteer hats. I asked him to sign a golf tee to which he laughed.

Ward Campout
Our annual ward campout was this weekend. It was held in a beautiful location with high cliffs and a river running through that the kids and adults could play in. I choose not to take any fishing equipment and stayed out of the water. Although the site was pretty it was not well designed for groups. We had several families there and had over 160 people in attendance. All of the campsites were spread out and it was difficult to socialize with other families. We knew that this would be our last chance to really visit with several of the families and we took advantage of the time. Linda and Hunter set up the camp and I made dinner with homemade rootbeer. The girls and Nathan quickly paired up with friends and would come and go as they pleased, always under the watchful eye of an adult. We will definately miss this group of friends.

Last Days at Zachry.
Getting a new job is always fun and exciting, but leaving everyone and everything I have worked with for the past 5 years was definately diffcult. I know that in an organiztion that size there were still people I was not able to say goodbye to. I had a great time there and I can't think of a 5 year period in which I learned and grew more than I did in the past five years. Hopefully I will be able to take those things that I learned with me to Arizona and apply them. There is no doubt that over the past five years i have grown more peosonally and professionally than any other five year span I can recall.

Enchanted Rock
While I was fishing Linda and group of ladies took all the kids to Enchanted Rock. From all accounts a good time was had by all, except one of the boys whose nature allergies went into full effect. Apparently he is allergic to everything that grows in south Texas. Pollens and grasses especially. Our kids had a great time and I'd love to tell you more about it, but Linda is the storyteller on that one and shes not available so she'll tell you about it next time.

That will wrap it up for now. I'm sure there are things I missed, but next week should be even more eventful.

jp

The Arizona Palmers Take 2

As most of you know or at least I thought you knew, my parents and sister are in Arizona and for some time have been referred to as the Arizona Palmers. That however, is about to change. I have accepted a position with a new copper mine and our family will be moving to Arizona as well. We will be in the south east portion of Tucson about 45 minutes from my folks and about an hour plus from Linda's. We are very excited about the opportunity, not just personally but professionally. I have been offered the HR Manager position and will have a great group of folks to work with. We will miss our friends here in San Antonio, and Zachry has been a tremendous growing opportunity for me. As a great friend of mine and current boss always says, "Never pass up an opprotunity" and I particularly believe you should never pass up a great opportunity. On with the week.

Spurs Game

From time to time I have friends and co-workers that help me out with tickests to events. We've gone to basketball, hockey and football. this time I asked a friend for some tickets to the Jazz/Spurs game and I greedily asked for the courtside tickets. He had offered before, but I turned them down so he was very willing to allow me to use them for a game I was this interested in. I took Hunter with me and we had a great time. As normal we arrived way early hoping to get a photo or autograph of a player or two. I had purchased a Tim Duncan jersey in hopes tha maybe we'd get lucky and he's sign it for Hunter. We got there as they opened the door and were allowed to stand next to the tunnel. Hunter got the first spot next to the tunnel where the Spurs players go in and out. There wasn't really any room for me which was fine because I was watching the Jazz players shooting. When the teams warm up they do so on the opposite basket of where their bench is, so we were standing on the side where the Spurs would sit but where the Jazz warm up. I noticed one of my favorite guards growing up was a coach on the Jazz so when he approached the bench I went over to get an autograph. Of course, I left my Jazz hat at home because, "Like I'm going to get any Jazz autographs." All I had was the little freebie program with Spur's players info in it, but he can sign the back of it. I went over to get it and he very polietly signed it and I got Gordon Hayward and Evan's autographs as well. At which point an usher suggested that I go to the other tunnel and get other Jazz players to sign it. Hunter was cool on his end and had already gotten a few autographs on the jersey so I went to the other side. Since he was in front I could see him fine and since I'm 6'5" and was in a bright yellow shirt he never lost me. Anywho, I was standing next to a couple Jazz fans when the San Antonio big three Duncan, Parker, and Ginoblli, came out to warm up. I got some ok shots with the cell phone and camera and then out of nowhere Duncan heads to my tunnel. I flip to his page in the little program I have and bam I got his autograph. A few minutes later Ginobilli comes our way and bam bam got his too. A little while later Parker heads our way and bam bam bam got his as well. Not bad for being on the "wrong" side of the arena. I got Al Jefferson from the Jazz and Hunter ended up getting George Hill, Matt Bonner, De'Juan Blair and a couple benchers. We were sitting a few rows from the corner next to the Spurs bench for the game and as the time went down we moved to the front row thanks to a guy I met at the game. The pictures included are from the front row and the one picture is of me taking Hunter's picture from the telecast.

Hog Hunt

A friend of mine and I took a couple guys hog hunting as part of the scout auction. We had baited the area for a few weeks and knew that they had been showing up around 9:30 pm. We got there at 7:30 and began to set up. One of the individuals got on his phone walking around talking and the other decided to talk to a man about a horse. As these two things were going on Brad sees a herd of pigs heading right at us. We get everyone back to the guns to find out that one them could not find his bullets and one of the guys did not bring a gun. So the first "customer" got his gun and steadied himself the other could not find his bullets still so I gave him my gun. They got ready I told the second one that the I had put the safety on when I gave it to him and told the first to pick a pig and get ready. I asked if they were ready to shoot and had a good broadside shot. Yes and yes!! One.....Two.... Three......BANG. The ears stop ringing, the smoke clears we look at the bare grassy area and no pigs. Shayne airmailed his shot over the back of the pigs, and Troy forgot to take the gun off of safe. We searched and searched, but no indication of a hit. We sat for four more hours and never saw another pig. It was fun though.

Award Ceremony

Each quarter the kids elementary school does an awards ceremony for each of the grades. Students can receive awards for perfect attendance and for earning all A's. We are fortunate to have kids that are incredibly healthy and that also tend to get good grades, so Linda got to attend awards ceremonies for each of them. All four of them had perfect attendance and Hunter and Taylor both had all A's. Also, Hunter and AnnaLynn both received word that they have been accepted into the National Elementary Honor Society chapter that the school is starting. They were both thrilled--Hunter even gave a little fist pump.

Book Fair

One of the school districts top fund raisers in the annual three day book fair. This is no run of the mill new book book fair. This is Texas! Each elementary school is responsible to collect as many used books as they can and turn them into the district. Then books are sorted and organized into sections. Children's (Picture, elementary, series, and young adult), Sports, Humor, Romance, Mystery, Classic, Fiction, Non Fiction, Biography, Travel, Art/Culture, Texas, Reference, How to, Hobby, and more. Then to keep the math simple all, yes I said all soft bound are $.50 and all hardbound are $1. Needless to say there are some professionals that come, no I am not referring to those that bring a wagon, sack lunch and water. I mean book resellers that scan each book to know the value and inventory that the store has. Then there are those that think they will look for one or two specific books in the somewhat organized chaos. We were in the middle. I took a long lunch from work and met Linda there. We knew series that the kids liked or thought they would like, topics that they might have an interest in and authors and subjects that they liked. We went through the endless tables and rows and picked out some great books. At the end of the day we had found some old school Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys (hardback), new school Nancy Drew (Soft), Star Wars, Spiderman, Magic Tree House, Magic School Bus, Wizard fo Oz, book on insects, books by Janette Oke, Phyllis Whitney, and Mike Lupica (Hunter's favorite author), and many many more. In all we bought 100 books. Some real favorites of mine were a softcover book on how to run the west coast offense (for Hunter and his coaching desires), a 10th anniverary Far Side book (soft) and a book of quotes by Yogi Berra. Linda's favorites were the Snow Treasure, a very nice Little Women copy and a Series by Beverly Lewis (3 books). We also got a Disneyland tour guide book for $.50 for our upcoming trip.

Singing for Relief Society

I (Linda) got a call this week asking if the girls would be willing to sing at a Relief Society Auxillary training meeting on Saturday night. Both girls were thrilled to do it and so we ran through the song a couple of times and then showed up at the church a couple of minutes early (thanks for that good training Dad!). A few other children were singing with them and everyone was right on time and ready to go. Unfortunately, the sister presenting was not aware of the time. The children waited patiently and sort-of quietly in the hall for their turn. Twenty-five minutes later she finished and the kids went in to sing. I played the piano for them and they sounded beautiful.

Playing Catch Up

Wow time really gets away from you when you aren't paying attention. I will try and capture a few of the highlights fromt he past two weeks. Hunter's Birthday!!! The big 11. He had a pretty good day. We had a small party for him where he got a few gifts and some cash. The big gift was a Tim Tebow Denver Bronco jersey. He also got a microscope, but it does not work as well as we had hoped it would. He asked Linda to make him a brownie cake in the shape fo a football. She did that and then covered it witha chocolate glaze and decorations. that, with A big scoop of ice cream made a very tasty treat. Pinewood Derby This was Hunter's last cub scout pinewood derby race. We had come up with a pretty cool design and with the help fo scroll saw were able to make it. we did everything as normal and thought we had a pretty good car, but the competition gets better and better every year. He placed fifth, I think there were 16 entries this year. After the event was over i jokingly turned to one fo the faster cars made by a family that does quite well and asked, "So do you start polishing the nails for next years car tomorrow?" They laughed and the dad told me their secret. He said that he goes to the auto parts store and gets a top quality sandpaper to sand downt he nails. At this point that is no secret. Then he said he puts the nail in his dremel tool and spins at high speed rubbing the nail with wet dry sandpaper. Again no secret. most of use that trick, I do it in stages from 100 to 400 grain. That's the difference. He said he starts at 300 grain and goes all the way to 2000. I'll try it in a couple years when Nathan turns 8 and is scouts. Twisted Ankle I know what everyone is thinking, "Of course you twisted your ankle. What were you thinking playing basketball at your age with those young kids?" To which you are probably correct, but it wasn't me that twisted an ankle. It was Linda! She has been playing some pretty competitve volleyball with some of the ladies from church and landed on someone's foot. She kept in ice for 24 hours. No not the whole time. 20 minutes in 20 minutes out. The ankle never got too swollen and she has recovered nicely, but will be out for another week or two I'm sure. Bowling Party This past weekend AnnaLynn had an end of year choir party at a nearby bowling alley. It was well attended and she had a great time. I volunteered Linda to take her because the parents had to attend the whole two hours and were only to watch and not bowl. As some of you know I enjoy bowling and I would have struggled watching a bunch of kids bowling while I watched. I figured that with Linda's ankle the temptation was removed and she could only sit and watch anyway. Of course whe she got home she informed me that parents were free to bowl all they wanted. AnnaLynn did very well at first and then tired as she went. Linda started to do the math and figured the ball weighed over 15% of her actual weight, so getting tired is explainable. She had fun and that was the point of the whole thing. Will try to post pictures later. I know this is a pretty weak recap of the last two weeks, but we are all doing great and hope to have more interesting topics next time.