Well it's been a long time since my last post. Adri and Zach have been keeping us really busy. I'll try to remember what's been going on lately and summarize as best as I can. Since Zach was born we have had family over a lot. First it was Natalie's sisters for a week. Then her aunt came for a month. Afterwards her sister came back for another week.

 

Ever since two weeks before Zach was born I started having trouble with my neck after going to massage envy and having the girl shove her elbow in my spine. In March the Fit finally hit the Shan. The weekend we went to the Grand Canyon (my next post) it was so bad I would just come home, go straight to the floor, and lay down with a bag of ice on it. Then one Friday afternoon I started getting spasms in my face and feeling numbness. I was in the El Pollo Loco drive thru one even and started getting light headed and almost blacked out. The next day I was at Crimshield and it started up again. So Natalie made me go to the ER where I wasted 5.5 hours of my Saturday afternoon. I got injected with a dye that made me burn up and got a CT because they were worried it could be a stroke or heart attack. Well they were way off. It's just my neck, no blood clots. I don't know why the stuff in the face, maybe just stress and lack of sleep on top of the neck pain. So since then I've been doing therapy. It's gotten better than it was but still irritating as hell. I was supposed to have an MRI done this week but that got delayed while waiting for insurance approval. So right now not really sure what is going on and just taking it one day at a time. I'm hoping I just wake up one day and everything is back to normal.

 

Around the time I hurt my neck I heard from the investigator at CBP and he said my case was sent to scheduling and I should be hearing from them really soon. This had me worried because training would be coming up and I wasn't physically ready for it. Well a couple weeks ago I got an e-mail from CBP saying I didn't get the job. The letter said something about disability so I wrote them back and they called back saying I misread it. As of right now I don't know why they rejected me I just know they are much of morons. Two years wasted, lots of tax money wasted on polygraphs, drug test, and several investigators coast to coast, and they were deceitful telling me that I should hear from scheduling soon. They knew everything about me. I've had a top secret clearance for ten years and was working for ICE when I was in the hiring process for CBP. They should have just turned me down 2 years ago. So at first I was really pissed off. For the last couple years I have been distracted from moving forward with my career expecting to start a new one. Then I let it all sink in. Over the last couple years I've become very uneasy about our government and their control. Maybe it's better that I don't work for them. If this idiot in the White House was to declare martial law and I was a fed I wouldn't obey his orders. I have a good job right now, I'm an engineer. I would have been cutting my pay in half taking the job with CBP. After thinking about it it's their loss not mine. If they want to hire some clown straight out of school because they need a job instead of someone that would have been giving a career to work for them because they want to, well that's their problem. I talked to my boss and he said they are trying to get a spot open for me to go permanent there really soon. So now I've changed my priorities and looking to better my career.

 

So one of the first things I decided when I found out the news was that we are moving. I have been getting raped because I was expecting to be leaving on short notice so I have been on month to month since November. On top of the high rent here I don't like Chandler. So next month we will be moving up north a bit. Tomorrow we go to look at houses around Anthem. I'm really excited to finally be getting the hell out of here. If we do move to Anthem I would likely be able to walk to empty desert where I could go hunting. Natalie is from NYC. She likes the city. I hate it. I'm a redneck. If I ever won the lotto I would buy up land where no one is around and shoot deer from my patio.

 

So even though things haven't worked out the way I had been expecting, I have to say I'm probably the happiest I've ever been. There's no more uncertainty, I have more control of my own future, and things are going great at home.

 

So anyways that is the quick summary of the last couple months. Below are some pics and short stories to go with them.



 

 

A couple months ago I found a killer baby back rib recipe. I changed it up to my liking and, well, as you can see Adri loves ribs. 

 

Adri loves Frozen. So I pre ordered it Christmas day. It arrived at our house the day it came out. I believe March 19th. Adri was very excited about it. Adri was watching Frozen every day for a while. One day I was in the bathroom and she closed the door on me. Then she yelled through the door "Elsa are you in there? Do you want to build a snowman?" Then she sang the snowman song to me, at one part even pushing her face against the door just like in the movie and saying "It doesn't have to be a snowman."

Adri playing with baby brother.

 

 

Couple videos of Zach. 

 

Natalie's aunt holding Zach. We went behind our apartment to shoot off our newest rocket, Big Bertha. The first launch I didn't think we would ever see it again. It went so high I thought it would never come back. The second launch I got it to land 100 feet away from the launch pad so I was able to catch it. The third I thought it was going to land on the 101. It ended up in a tree. I went home to get a broom and stool but couldn't reach it. It was a good 15 feet up. I thought twice about going up the tree due to fact this was just a couple days after my ER visit but I couldn't resist. I climbed the 15 feet up, had to lock my feet in the branches to bend down and get the broom, then reached as far out as I could to pull in the rocket. I was able to recover the rocket, I was just a little shaky once I got out of the tree.

 

 

 

This was some really funny stuff. Unfortunately I started filming too late. One of Adri's tantrums. It was over something really stupid too, I can't remember what though.

I came home from work one day and Adri gave me this. She told me it says "Adri loves Daddy loves Mommy." She told me I have to bring it to work with me. Well Monday came and I forgot to bring it to work. I got to hear about it when I got home. Tuesday I forgot it. That was the day I say my doctor for my neck. I called Natalie after my appointment and Adri demanded Natalie put her on the phone so she could tell me I forgot my letter. The next morning Adri woke up early and followed me around as I got ready reminding me over and over to bring my letter to work. I didn't know where it was so she found it for me and stayed awake until I left. Well here it is on my desk.

Ever since the letter Adri has been getting up to say goodbye to me. I always go in to say goodbye to her before work. But then as I am putting on my shoes she comes running out of the bedroom to give me a hug and say goodbye again. Then as soon as I leave she's back to bed. Such a cute kid when she isn't terrorizing us.

There is a park close to where we are house shopping tomorrow that has mini trains and they have free rides on Sunday. I decided to take Adri up there, just me and Adri. She fell asleep before we got there. There are multiple tracks that go all around the desert. We rode them for a couple hours and went to lunch.

 

 

A couple weekends ago we were on a family walk. Adri was in her skirt and every time she would run it would fall down. I thought it would be funny to record it. Then came the fall. We had to her about her boo boo for a couple days.

 

 

In April my dad and brother in law came out to do a job in Queen Creek. We got to have dinner a couple times throughout the week and my dad even babysat the kids so Natalie and I could see Captain America opening night in 3D. The weekend before my dad left my sister decided to come out with all her kids. We had a bbq one afternoon at Lost Dutchman, went swimming, bbq some ribs, did another rocket launch, and went out for Gelato.

This was launch #4 for Baby Bertha. The first and only launch of the day. It was a little windy and I miscalculated the angle needed for this launch. The rocket went nearly straight up and the updrafts were keeping it from coming down. I ran to the other end of Thude Park an estimate it landed at least 1/2-3/4 miles east of the park. We got in the car and did a search but couldn't find it. Adri went back to the apartment crying. When we left she settled down and played with Raelynn but when we came back empty handed the water works started up again. She doesn't care about the promises of another rocket. She's always sad when we lose one.

There she blows.

The little man.

This was a few weeks ago. They flood the park to water it. I also thought they did it through one of the storm tunnels. Well since the water was pouring out while we were walking we got to see the source. Then we went over the bridge and saw where they open the gates.

After our walk Adri put on one of her sticky fake diamonds and said "Look, I'm Aunt Chris". Funny kid.

I took this picture while doing my lunchtime walk by work. Saguaros have the strangest flowers.

 My cousin Tawnya is going to school in Prescott. She was down in Mesa for the weekend before Easter and got to stop by for a visit. Before she left we went to an Easter party at Adri's bff's house.

Adri and her bff.

Easter morning. I found Adri a Hello Kitty Easter basket. She was very excited about it. Zach got Yoda. If they ever make one I will be getting Darth Vadar.

The lil man sportin his Sunday best.

I don't know what is wrong with Google. This picture is completely normal on my computer. Uploaded it twice and both times it gave me white lips. I wasn't eating coke, I promise.

 

Adri's Easter Egg hunt. LOL. I always laugh at that one.

 

Two weeks ago I had plans to take Adri to a park by my work with a train museum and train rides. Well a dust storm came in so being outdoors was not an option. Instead we went bowling. My phone's camera took this messed up picture but as you can see Adri was very happy. She keeps asking when we get to go bowling again.

 

 

My newest addition to the family. I was hell bent on getting a Browing Bar A bolt. For years I had been eying the BAR Safari. But then looking around I thought a bolt action might be better, especially with ammo so hard to come by. Well Tuesday when I went in to finally get my gun it was gone. So the guy talked me into a Tikka T3. When he first told me Tikka was just as good as Browning I was very skeptical. I learned that Tikka is made by Sako and imported by Berreta. So it better be as good as this guy says it is. When I got home I showed Natalie a 30 06 bullet. She couldn't believe how big the bullet was. Then for some odd reason she was shaking it near her year. I couldn't help but laugh. It's a bullet not a bell.