Graduations Galore

So, we flew into Utah on Wednesday. We went to dinner with Matt, Lecia, Jim, Becky and Kennedy. On Thursday, we went to dinner with Rock, Carol, Mike, Tara, and some of Tara's Family. On Friday, we got up early to attend Matt's Graduation. It was in the Ballroom. We saved seats for Jim, Becky, and Lecia. Grandpa held Kennedy most of the time.
Then we went to the Marriott Center for Michael's Graduation. We met up with Mike and Tara before hand. Mike borrowed Matt's blue Cap and Gown so that he would not be out of place.

Friday evening we had a birthday party for Ben. He turned two on April 26th, but he was going to be out of town that day, so we held the party on Friday.

Kennedy was there, being cuter than a girl has a right to.On Saturday we had the baby blessing for Kennedy. Matt and Lecia graciously arranged to have it on Saturday afternoon, since Ben and his dad, Tim could not be there on Sunday.

On Sunday, Tim and Tiffany met their two boys at the Airport, where they boarded a Boing 767 for Hawaii. it was cold and rainy on Sunday, and it snowed on Saturday afternoon. The plane ride was long. Kayleen was sick with the ucky stomach thing. Both Peter and Ben traveled very well. Ben took a few laps around the plane when the seat belt light was off. Peter colored, slept and did stickers. We landed at about 2:30 Hawaii time. By the time we rented the car and got to KoOlina, it was 4:00 PM and Kayleen was still quite sick, but was feeling a little better. We checked into room 705 and 707. This is a view from the balcony on Sunday evening.

The boys have been an absolute delight. More pictures to follow.

Is it the Stalker ?

I went to the Orthopedic place early today. I was supposed to have an RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) on my left side. There was a delay because the nurse had to take my blood pressure about 7 times, in an effort to find a reading they could live with. The Doctor came in and we talked. He verified that the pain in my hip is back pain, and that it stems from the lower lumbar region. However, my blood pressure was too high to turn on the microwave. Dr. Gorman gave me some stuff to ease the pain and to relax me, but my blood pressure then went even higher.
At that point he told me that it was not safe to continue, and they sent me to the recovery room.

So why is my blood pressure too high?

• Is it my weight?
• Is it my personal genetic code? (Wally joked that we should sue Mom for the bad set of genes she gave us :) )
• Is the pressure from work or church getting to me ?
• Do I need to exercise more?
• Is it all the other stuff I have been taking for back pain?

These are all good questions. We have no answers yet, but I have an appointment with my PC Doctor, in which we will begin to explore these areas.
In the mean time, my wife tells me to "Don't stroke out."

Good advice, if you ask me.

Teachings for our time

One of the responsibilities that I have, is to choose 5 of the conference talks to be used in the Teachings for our Time. I also get to assign topics for Sacrament Meetings. I have a list, but would welcome any thoughts you may have.

I like to view Conference as a time to hear what is on the minds of the Prophet and the Apostles. That gives us a very good idea of what kinds of things we should be focusing on. Of general note, there were several talks that covered the protection that comes when living gospel covenants. We heard about the blessings of temples in our lives. We heard about service and the blessings that come from adversity.

I have not yet discussed these with the Ward Council, but here are my preliminary picks:
Teaching for our Times (4th Sunday Priesthood / Relief Society Lessons):
Dieter Uchdorf - "I am Doing a Great Work, and Cannot Come Down."
Dallin Oaks - Unselfish Service
Jose' Texieria - Freedom to Choose
Richard G. Scott / D Todd Christofferson - Faith and Protection from Temple Covenants
M Russell Ballard - Learing Lessons from the Past

Sacrament Meeting Topics:

David Bednar / Gary Stevenson - The Blessings from the Temple
Jeffrey Holland - Standing by the Savior, (or, You'll never have to walk alone.)
Henry B. Erying - The Blessings of Adversity
Robert D. Hales - Resisting Debt and Addiction
Dieter Uchtdorf - The Pathway to Discipleship

So - I welcome your thoughts, your comments, your suggestions.

Gerald Likes to .....

Tiffany did this to me. I had to look. Because of her blog, I put it my name in google, followed by "likes to " and punched the "search" button. I wasn't feelin too lucky (google joke)

Top 10 (usable) results .......

Gerald likes to rock out and dance!

Gerald likes PMA training

Gerald likes to give presentations to youth groups, and has many talents relating to the tribal history of music and dance, as well as arts and crafts.

Gerald likes to lie to me

Gerald likes football and fishing, but lives in a house full of girls

people just like to tickle Gerald

Gerald likes large colourful fish of good quality, but keeps them mostly for decoration and as pets, without getting too fanatical about their exact markings or Japanese names.

Gerald likes to welcome you and show you in

Gerald likes to ... play baseball

Did you know... Gerald likes ice cream?

Catch up

We have been traveling a lot this year already.

In January we traveled to Utah for Emma's birth and funeral.

In February, Kayleen went to be with Lecia when Kennedy was born.

I was going through the annual ordeal of hosting the outside accountants, so I stayed at home. The review went very somoothly by the way. In March, we traveled to Utah for Mike and Tara's wedding.

We did get to take some excellant pictures of our whole family

At the end of this month, we have Mike and Matt's graduation. We also have a special birthday trip with Ben and his family. I am having to work extra to get 1) my review of March and the 1st Qtr completed before I leave on the 22nd, 2) have my church appointments and duties caught up before I leave. I will also be having the nerves in my back fried again on the 16th, so that is another day not working. But I am very much looking forward to spending almost 2 full weeks with family.

The only bad part of the trip, is that after we get back, I will have to stay in Tucson for a few months, and make a pretense of earning my salary.