Photo 'Splosion!

Well, this morning finds me with Sarah at the hospital (working), Claire asleep and Carter doing self-imposed homework (we buy him pre-school/kindergarten work books at the store and he loves coloring, filling in blanks, connecting dots, etc.) so I have the chance to organize all the photos sitting on the notebook and get them into slide shows. Here are some slide shows and a few videos of a bunch of images we've captured in the last couple of months including Rob's wedding, random photos we took at my parent's house, etc.

Spring time evening beach trip with my mom and the Hamiltons(Huntington):




Random springtime photos:




Some photos from my classroom:


Our photos from Rob's wedding:

Gone Fishing II

My friend Dan from work bought a boat a while back and in May (or April?) we took a trip out to Catalina with a bunch of the guys from work. We tried our hand at fishing but came up short in terms of catching any sizable fish but had a great time nonetheless. The weather was great and being out on the ocean in a smaller boat is a lot of fun because you have such a great sense of speed and the air and sights are so refreshing. We chased from fishing boats around and saw some interesting sights including some seals swimming out in the middle of nowhere and talked to some funny people. Here are some of the photos I took.

Team Todd Zoo Videos

These videos go with the post (picture slide show) about our trip to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park in March.


"Flying on deez!"


Carter, overwhelmed with happiness high above the zoo declares his love for mommy: "I love you mommy."


Carter gets nipped by a goose (I was obviously more scared than Carter):


The "post-poop interview" (Carter got pooped on by a bird and it stunk):


Sea otter gazing. I think the other kid and Carter call it a "llama":



"I'm an orangutan." Carter spent most of the time doing, or trying to do, things like this:


"1, 2, 3, 4, 5! And nothing happens..."




Carter runs and finds pinecones:

"Charlie, that really hurt!"

I love funny stuff and this is funny. I hear I'm late to the game and that April and Wes already blogged this and showed it to me, but for some reason I don't remember having seen it before, so here it is: two British kids, brothers apparently, and....just watch the video...

Happy 27th Sarah!

Happy birthday Sarah! Sarah is the most wonderful person I know and I know her VERY well. While no one is perfect, sometimes I think she comes pretty close. She is so sincere and well-meaning and is constantly concerned with the welfare of others. She never wants to hurt anyone's feelings and is always striving to be a great mom, to serve others, and to do her duty both at home, church and work. Although she usually works only one day a week, her job comes with a high level of stress but she tries not to let that follow her home. I know she sacrifices time with her friends to be home with the children, to spend time with me when I get home from work, and to assure that she gets everything else done on her plate and I'm very grateful for that.

Sarah was born on June 26th 1981 in Logan, Utah and grew up in Riverside, CA. It's funny because I too was born in Utah (Ogden...the "armpit of Utah" some say which fits me I suppose) but grew up in Southern California. We met at BYU in 2000 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Happy Birthday Sarah and may we celebrate many more together. Ti amo sempre amore mio!

The Todd's Go to the Zoo

We just got back from a fantastic trip to Zion National Park and we're very excited to share the photos we took there but, before getting those photos out there, we are still working on the backlog. Here's a little slide show we put together in Picasa of our trip to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park we took in March (the zoo and animal park are two separate places....we visited both over a two day span). We ended up purchasing a year pass and we're planning to go back soon. It was just us, Sarah and I and the kids. We stayed at a hotel and between our trips we hung out at the pool which, we must admit, Carter enjoyed more than the zoo. He loves to swim!

You can slow down the slide show by running your mouse pointer over it and then controlling the speed by clicking on the PAUSE button and then using the arrows.

We hope you're all well and enjoying the summer. By the way, I know this slideshow is bigger than the dimensions of the blog, but I did that on purpose in order to make the images more visible. I think you can click on it and see it in Picasa but what I don't know is if you have to have Picasa installed on your machine (maybe if you have a blogger account you have a Picasa account because Picasa is also a Google tool).

Funny Commercials

We don't see a lot of commercials anymore because of our DVR and because we really don't watch TV much. Every once in a while I see a commercial that's so funny it reminds me that some of the best comedic moments on TV are actually in commercials. This thought sent me on a short expedition to find some funny commercials. I really like bizarre stuff, so hopefully you find these funny too. Enjoy:

Randomosity

We have so many photos just sitting on our computer that haven't been organized, edited or backed up that it seems impossible to keep track of them. The other night we were looking for some specific photos and I realized we have some really fun ones that we've never posted, so here are a few of them (no chronological order):

My sister's graduation announcement I helped her create:


Carter straight loungin' in San Diego at Rob's wedding reception:


Strange house I saw one day driving to work:


Carter leaping at Tumble Tots:


Old Man Todd ("Granpa Dan, you've ALREADY told us that story before!" screamed the grandchildren. "Kids, if there's one thing that gets better over time, it's my stories, so listen up!")

Happy Father's Day!

How To Be The Best Dad In The Galaxy

Givin' feedback on the BEST browser: FireFox 3

I just thought this was funny. You'll see below that I recently sent some feedback to Mozilla, the company that makes what is, in my opinion, the best browser (the program you use to surf the net), namely FireFox. Anyway, after submitting the feedback I got some text about Jimi Hendrix which I thought was a nice little touch. I think Google is partially responsible for the kind, humorous touches that more and more software companies are beginning to add to their products. Mozilla, by the way, is freeware/open source group, so it's not for profit and is largely developed by pooling together talented people to provide quality software tools without an evil CEO wringing his or her hands in some tall backed leather chair somewhere (and don't get me wrong, I'm not Bill hater, but I think open source is cool...and is the future).

Hendrix - Submission Successful

Why "Hendrix"? The late Jimi Hendrix is credited with making popular the technique of using feedback in the creation of music.

Thank you for your feedback, and for using our software.

Your message was:

Name:    Daniel Todd
Email:   djtoddatgmaildotcom
Product: Firefox
Summary: COntrol F Should Reset the Search Field

Comments:
So, as a teacher I use the search function in FireFox 2 (Control + F
key) to quickly search for names in a large roster.  In version 2.0
after I had searched for a name and then clicked on a button in an open
window if I hit Control + F it would automatically take the cursor back
to the search field and highlight the text so all I had to do was type
in a new name, no clicking of the mouse required.  Now, however, in
version 3, after I have clicked off the search field on a button, if I
hit Control F it doesn't automatically take the cursor back to the field
and highlight the name, I have to manually click on the search field
with the mouse.  A small thing to some, but it costs me a lot of time
over the days and weeks, you know?

Browser Details: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
From URL: http://hendrix.mozilla.org/

LOL Dogs

There seems to have been a lot of tragedy around us lately. From the untimely passing of a friend to the sickness of our dear friends' newborn baby. I don't feel it's appropriate to go into detail regarding these misfortunes, at least at this time, but suffice to say we've been feeling a bit down. Everyone has their own way to deal with things, and one of the ways I try to stay happy, besides praying, meditating on the fact that we're eternal beings and talking things out with Sarah, is to look on the bright side of life and remember that there's always something funny and beautiful out there to cheer the spirit. So here's a lighthearted post which I hope brings a smile or a chuckle to someone out there.

I don't know if you have ever heard of lolcats (click here for the official definition) but I've always found this internet meme quite silly, for lack of a better term. Anyhow, the other day my students were completely burned out after testing so we spent the last ten minutes of class surfing the net looking up funny pics and we discovered some "LOLdogs" which I thought were quite funny and, dare I say, "cute." Anyway, here are a few of the best. Carter really got a kick out of these:

Can you imagine seeing this "live?"

Rays migrating. Wow.

Girls weekend & Daddy Day Care

Sarah and some of her girlfriends are taking off tomorrow and will be back on Saturday afternoon which means I'll be home with the kids. Although I'm not one to be "a feared" (sometimes I slip into bouts of Huck Finnesque language so excuse me if I do) of being with the chillun' a by my lonesome (there I go again), I'll be the first to admit that I am not the greatest multitasker, at least when it comes to household duties and child-care. It's ironic because I can check an email, post a blog, listen to a podcast, and watch TV all at once, but if Carter needs his bum wiped and Claire starts crying, my stress level mounts rather quickly and I wonder, sometimes aloud, how Sarah can do all of these things at once. Perhaps that's why I come home to a woman with hollow eyes and tangled hair sometimes. Ok, I take that back (gulp). Seriously though, sometimes, mostly in the past, I'd come home and see the house was a little out of shape and say something along the lines of, "Whoa...what have you been up to today?" Not only did the slap to the face teach me not to talk like that, but being home with the kids when Sarah's not around has made me realize that two kids is hard work, especially now that Claire is walking, falling, and generally wreaking havoc. Throw a precocious three year old in and you have the recipe for chaos. Actually, the kids don't really destroy the house so much, it's more the constant need they both have for attention combined with the fact that Carter often dumps an entire bin of toys in the living room and then declares, "It's too hard!" when you ask him to pick it up.

So, if you're not doing anything tomorrow and want to come by and help me with the kids or go to the mall or something, give a brotha' a call. And men, if you don't already know, women are amazing creatures with what some might call "mad skillz" when it comes to taking care of doze chillun'.

What a weekend! Fathers and sons and a new car...

We had a crazy end of the week/weekend and it's nice to wrap up the madness with a day of worship and service at church followed up by a delicious dinner and relaxation at the Carter home. I'll post more information later, but the Ford Focus finally died, despite having pumped in about $1,000 in the past few weeks trying to keep her alive (we really DID NOT want a car payment and we also don't want to have Sarah work more than one shift per week at the hospital which, fortunately, she won't have to). It bit the dust as I was driving to Redlands from work on Thursday afternoon. I think the breakdown was precipitated by my trying to do some jury rigging to keep her alive so I was even more upset by the fact that it felt like my fault to some degree. I had to have Sarah and her mom meet me up there to get it towed and I hate maki her bring the kids when it means parking on the side of the freeway, etc. After hearing about the fate of "Farina" (the little Focus that could) and a lot of research, thought and prayer, we decided to purchase a new vehicle. This was not an easy choice and we would not have made it if it had meant having two car payments. Although our goal is NO car payments, that is going to have to wait a few more years!

We've been looking at Honda Odyssey EX mini-vans for months and without even a test drive, we chose that as our next vehicle. This, of course, is a choice primarily fueled by the fact that we have two children and plan on growing our family in the future. Also, nothing on he market (save perhaps the GMC Acadia) has the same cargo volume and passenger space (it aseats 8 although only 6 adults comfortably in my opinion) and still gets relatively good gas mileage (18/26). We looked at used cars and financing options and finally decided to purchase with something new. We wish we were in the same position as Sarah's grandparents, Bob and Carole, who made ONE payment when they purchased their 2008 Honda CRV recently but- as we all know-it takes nearly a lifetime for most folks to be in such a position so we're OK with our decision. Anyway, it's a great time to buy a new vehicle because many manufacturers produced too many new vehicles in the face of rising gas prices and the "recession" which has, at least in the minds of many, become a true economic slump. We ended up dealing with the fleet manager so there was absolutely NO haggling. In fact, we got the price over the phone/internet and ended up paying around 5K below the sticker price.

Now that our transportation woes are out of the way, we can refocus on what matters most which is, of course, our relationship with one another and our children. I had a great time with Carter up in Big Bear on Friday evening and Saturday morning. He loved hiking around the campsite and is quite the little hiker! He made it up and down some steep and rocky spots and I had to make sure he didn't jump off any cliffs! We also had the opportunity to take some boys up who didn't have fathers attending the event which was a pleasant experience for both them and us. Although I didn't sleep well in the a-frame tent because of the cold and notwithstanding the fact that my wake up call was Carter's voice saying, "Daddy, I just peed!" as he lay in his sleeping bag, I had a great time. Being out there amongst the massive trees and rocks helped me focus on nature and, therefore, existence and those things are what help me find the energy and will power to move forward in service to God, my family and everyone else.

We hope you all enjoyed this weekend and we look forward to hearing from you and reading about your own goings on.