Happy Mother's day!

Jordan finished his swim season with his best time in breast-stroke, beating his old time by almost two seconds. He was excited to do so well, and lettered as a freshman this year. We're looking forward to seeing him progress through High School. He's also excited to start up again in football this summer.

It's going to be a busy summer for all of us here. Too much to do, every day will be packed. We've got some fun family vacations planned already. Now, if I could just figure out how to play hookie at work for a few months. Think they'd miss me?

Lacey finished a play she was in, she had a good role as a tree -- a talking tree, and she did great.

I did a 125 mile bike race last weekend (still recovering from that ordeal), but I finished in the lead group, technically tied with two other riders (there's no sprint finish). It was pretty cool.

Dyllan is just insane lately, pretty sure he's figured out how to take over the house, and he's planning a coup. If he gets Cassidy and Lacey on his side, my only hope is that I can use Ryan as a spy, and Jordan as my muscle. Alan could go either way, but he's mostly pre-occupied with his own world domination plans, and probably considers a take-over of the house beneath him.

We're glad we all have our health, at least, and are stoked for the school year to end. Julie may be fearing having four extra kids home all day but she's always managed to plan awesome activities for them most days...especially days when I work from home and plead for her to have a field trip.

Dyllan can climb up on top of the bunkbed without a ladder now. We found how he did it by climbing on the window-sill. Pretty good for a 17 month old. He's a good climber. We took him out of the room and shut the door, and so he learned how to open a door.

Grandma Lula passed away 11/28/07. Most of us were able to attend the funeral (Juliette, Polly, and Andrew couldn't make it), and it was very nice to see everyone. Some of the anecdotes that were told:

Gigi told of staying with grandma and having lots of fun with her as a teenager. Grandma would stay up late with them and giggle like a 13 year old. Grandpa would call from the bedroom "Lula, quit acting like a teenager and come to bed!" She would continue to giggle as her false teeth would about fall out.

After Gigi snuck out of her window a few times, she tells how grandma never confronted her about it, she would just do an "end-around", and she nailed her window shut.

Gigi's and her friend kept sneaking out the front door to the freezer room to eat ice cream -- straight from the container. After a few times, one night they found two bowls and two spoons sitting on the freezer.

Everyone told of how hard she worked and saved. She was supremely frugal with money and learned to do without and to make something out of nothing. She was a good example to all of us how to live simply.

We drove 24 hours total to get there and back, but it was worth it. We had a good time together as a family on the way, and it really wasn't too bad. I'm sure it was a memorable experience for everyone.

There are some pictures of our trip here: http://www.meteorbike.com/2007_12_04

Thanksgiving cometh. Looking forward to some time off. In preparation for T-day, both the dishwasher, and the refrigerator decided to quit working. Long story short, I called the service people, who promptly came out and told me they hadn't a clue on the fridge. They fixed the dishwasher (a simple heating element) for $220. Seems steep. The fridge was not defrosting, but worked fine other than that, until the repair man came. After he left, it wouldn't even turn on. I figured his poking around the motherboard had loosened some wires.

I googled the problem and found numerous solutions posted. After the barely educated tool jockey put the fridge back together (the second visit) and left declaring no joy, I promptly went to work, pulled everything back apart, re-seating all the connectors that he loosened, and then fixed the original defrosting problem. The fridge is currently regulating and cooling like brand new.

Why we have "professional" technicians who don't seem to have the first clue when it comes to their own business, I have no idea. It would seem to me that if I went around repairing appliances and such, that I would want to know more about appliances than your average doofus. Apparently, this just isn't the case. If it isn't really obvious what's wrong (like it's not plugged in) they are clueless. My guess is they go around pressing the reset button on grandmotherly type's refrigerators and collect a pretty good living.

In all fairness I'm pretty much a jerk when it comes to technology.

So, looking forward to T-day. Julie's sister and husband are coming with their three kids. Should be a blast. Full house, for sure, but nothing I can't handle. The weather looks to be really bad, too, so getting out of the house might be more difficult than usual. I'll find a way, though, for sure. I don't know him very well, but he seems like a very pleasant chap. Julie's sister stayed with us several years back for something like a year. It was nice having her around, she's very helpful.

So, here's to long naps, sleeping in, and over-eating.

Juliette has kept an amazing blog of her family here: Julie's Blog

Check it out. I think this is the best way to keep a scrap book.

Wow, it's been a long time since this thing has been updated. Frankly I'm surprised it even still exists. If Andrew hadn't created a BLOG on blogger I wouldn't have remembered I had one here.

General Conference was awesome. Julie especially liked Sister Beck's talk because it basically validated her entire philosophy as a mother. Read it. Live it. You know it's true.

Life here is great. Teaching seminary is a riot. Tough to get up that early every day, but we're all managing.

Work is going great. Lots of cool new development going on right now. The coolest new thing are "hybrid" disk drives. You know what FLASH is, right? Like those memory sticks you put in your computer? Well, we're making hybrid disk drives that are half flash, half normal spinning disk. You can store your OS (like Windows) on the flash portion and everything else on the disk. That way Windows boots and runs like a ton faster. They are the future of computing, for sure. Lots of cool new projects going on at Seagate right now. It's pretty cool to be developing this stuff. When I first started here, three years ago, the stuff I worked on is just now beginning to go into real products.

Just posted some new pictures on my website. Enjoy. I've actually had a few people come to me asking for me to take their portraits. I think they turned out nice.

The interview went well but Andy probubly won't take the job. It is for a little tiny mine 2 1/2 hours south of here. But there is like an 1 1/2 commute both ways 4 days a week. He is just not so sure how much he would like the drive and how small it is there. We will just keep looking.
Other than that not much happening on the home front.
Thanks Polly

Whitehead Family Forum

How did the interview go Polly? When will you guys hear about a job? Hope all went well!

Hi Joe, I guess this is a very in-frequently visited place, but it's not totally dead yet! I would like some pictures if you want to send them. Do you need my address, or are you just e-mailing or what? How is the newly-wed life? I hope you are doing well.

I wish I could get some desire to actually do some studying tonight...but it is one of those cold, rainy lazy Sunday's and I would rather just veg out. We are doing well, just had a nice weekend with Lestie and Tim. We went to the pumpkin patch, and got gouged for kids rides etc, but they loved it. I am getting fatter daily, it is so fun to feel the little one squirming around in there though. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but it is a girl! I am so excited to finally be able to buy pink girly things! She will be well loved by her big brothers. Ok, that is about it...not much else new- school, church, blah blah all that jazz. :)
Love,
Juliette

Hey Joe I would like some family pictures. That sounds great . Hey I know, but e-mail works for almost anything. Everyone has e-mail. Well, We are doing well. We are currently looking for a new job. Andy has an interview on Fri. at a place about 2 hours away. We are just sick of promises and no action. Andy was promised a position in July and still has not seen any indication of that happening. So we look. Well not much else is up. We are doing well and hope you all are too!
Lots of Love Polly

this sucks my entire life i wanted to be on the in. now that i know about this blog thing nobody used it from what i hear. if anyone does and would like wedding photos of us that means you to, then just give me a hoot.

Dear Family-
Grandma Gwynne is having her 80th birthday and we have all been asked to write her a note addressed to Aunt Corrie. I don't know what you want to say but something nice would be good! I can now say I have contacted you all. Love you and hope everything is well with everyone.
Love, Lisa

We are still around, just having the kind of summer that doesn't feel like summer except it is too hot to be anything else.  I just finished my 6 credit CNA course this week, that ran for 7 weeks, 4 days a week.  It was hard to spend most of the day Sateurday and sunday at the hospital for clinicals instead of with my family doing fun summer stuff like swimming and camping!  Now that I am "free", I am not really free.  We are expecting a new little one in January, and the doctor has put me on bedrest.  I had an ultrasound and he found a chorion amniotic separation.  It is a pocket of fluid between the amniotic sac and the uterus, and I guess could rupture and cause a miscarriage.  So, until I see the specialist and hear otherwise, here I sit.  Hopefully he will give me good news so I can finally get up and clean my house, that is very rapidly deteriorating.  Other than that, we are doing well.  The boys also love swimming, although Jackson still likes to use a lifejacket most of the time.  Conner is getting braver and braver with his doggie paddling, and thinks he can swim in the deep end.  He also just taught himself how to ride his 2 wheeler, and in spite of a few minor contusions, loves it.  Jackson is a little socialite, and knows all the kids within a 2 mile radius.  He is getting very hard to keep track of lately.  Bryce, our "baby" is 20 months now, and has quite the attitude.  He is very cute with strangers though, and will turn up the sweetness for them.  He is fun to have around, especially since he still naps 2x a day.  When not watching the boys for me, Chris is busy with his projects at work.  He is going to Portland in August to present his research at an Ecological Society of America conference.  Then, hopefully we will see some of the family at Joe's wedding! 

Where is everyone?  I have been terrible at posting, but I will try to update this at least once a week.  Most of the plans for Joey's wedding seem to be solidifying.  We'll definitely be there (just Julie and myself).  Polly, why don't you have an answering machine?  Polly was supposed to take care of the Hotel reservations or something, but due to her car accident and now, from what I heard, Lisa having a mishap on her front porch, she may have forgotten to get back to us.  I assume we have a room somewhere.  Really looking forward with seeing everyone.  Actually, I'm just looking forward to eating out...I've been really strict about my diet this year and haven't eaten out hardly at all, so it's a real treat for me to get to go to a restaurant.  Saved a lot of money that way, too.

I am now the stake physical activities director guy.  So I get to run the sports seasons and the 5k run and such.  It should be fun.  I'm also a ward missionary, well I have been this whole time, I just didn't do anything because of my other callings.  Now that I have the time, the missionaries and I have been teaching the wife of an old missionary friend of mine.  She's not a member and he hasn't been back to church in 7 years.  Weird, huh?  Anyway, I'm his home teacher and thought we should try to meet with them, and it turns out she's totally golden.  She's getting baptized August 7th.  And, he's coming back to church, with her of course.  Great experience.

Jordan and Alan have been competing in the swimming thing.  Jordan won 1st place at his last meet in the breast stroke.  He's pretty fast and I'm very jealous of his great abs.  Both he and Alan are lean racing machines right now.  Alan did fine except for the individual medley, which normally you have to be older to compete in.  He was dead last, and by about a minute.  I was proud that he did it, though, it's not an easy event.  They secretly wish they could eat ho-ho's and twinkies like their friends do, but it's good for them that Julie keeps the house stocked with good food and has not allowed any junk for years.  When they get on their own, they're going to rebel and eat all the junk food they can.  The other three children, yes I have five, are doing marvelously.  Lacey is going into first grade, while Ryan is still not old enough for kindergarten.  He just missed the cutoff.  He's a tank, that one is.  His favorite cereal is oatmeal, and asks for it over just about anything else.  Cassidy is over one year now and at that very cute stage where she can't talk at all, but walks around communicating with mutant baby talk.  

See everyone in August.
  

 

Hey all, just checking in. Ben, you are so great to keep up with this! With all that you have on your plate, I am impressed. I forget about the blogger, until we get an e-mail about family stuff. Speaking of, we are looking forward to Joe's wedding, it should be lots of fun. It will be especially nice that we only have to drive about 3 hours. :) Not sure where we are staying yet, I am still thinking about leaving my kids with a friend overnight to make things a bit easier. If not, then we might stay a bit longer to check out the sights.

Things are great here, school let out last week and it sure feels great! Chris has to go to Vegas more often, but with no school we still feel like we see him a lot. I am starting summer school in June, a CNA class to get me more points for the RN application. Chris is still the financial clerk at church, and I am the activity days leader. I teach the 8-11 year old girls every other week, we work on completing their awards. The boys are boys! They are excited for the pool to open this weekend, and to go up to Lake Tahoe soon. Conner starts year around school in July, and Jackson starts preschool in August. It will be nice to have a couple of hours in the morning with just one kid! Bryce is growing fast, and hitting the terrible twos quickly. He has a great mad face, and throws tantrums daily. He is terribly cute too, which explains why we haven't given him away yet. We are all healthy and happy!

How is everyone? With all that's going on, I'm sure no one has cared to blog much, but I'd like to hear from you all. So, what's new with us? Not much. Still riding a lot. Jordan's school scored the highest in the state on the standardized tests, 95%. Pretty cool, they're actually learning there. I'm still in young men's trying to do what I can for these guys. I'm the teacher's advisor and I'm reminded what a tough age 14-15 is for boys. It seems that if a boy is going to be a rebel they start making those moves in the teacher's quorum. It's just a really troubling world out there, and I try my best to give good lessons and have good activities. Father and son's outing is this Friday, should be really fun. For the fireside, I asked a Iraq war vet from our ward, who just got back, to talk about his experiences and his priesthood, etc. Should be good, he's a really cool guy. Father and sons has become a real tradition for my boys and me, they love it and look forward to it all year.

We get this newsletter from my sister-in-law every couple months. It's just about hillarious. She sends it out to over 100 people (no kidding), and it reads like the Corrie newsletters of past. It starts out, "sorry we didn't get this out on time, and we know how much each of you enjoys hearing about our family..." I thought that it was an attempt at self-depricating humor, but after reading on (3 full sheets of paper, front and back, single spaced -- I only got through 1 1/2). The thing that strikes me is, she got married like last year, she just barely had her first child, and she's convinced that everyone is dying to sit at her feet and take part in her vast wisdom of parenting and motherhood. It's comical. Not that I'm all experienced, I honestly haven't the first clue how to be a parent, but I've been around long enough to know most people don't either. Plus, all throughout the thing she's taking mild digs at her husband, 'cause you know, men just is stupid and can't figure out things like child-birth and such. Anyway, just so you know -- there's one in every family.

Nothing else new here. Hope you all are keeping your testimonies intact. Half of the questions I ask my teachers during lessons, one kid always responds with his canned answer "go to church, read the scriptures, pray, and yes." He's usually right. Not much to add to that if you think about it. With all we've been through lately, we need it now more than ever. On a side note, I'm just waiting for someone to come up with an all-encompassing newsletter covering the last few months in our family. Yeah, hold your breath for that one.

Gosh, Lisa that is terrible!!! I am glad you got your money back, but it is so sad that the kid will learn the hard way.

It was great to see everyone at the family gathering. I am sorry I had to duck out Friday and missed all the fun on Saturday but sometimes I guess you do what you have to. At least I was able to retrieve some sanity on Saturday just in time to find out that we were robbed on Friday while we were in Salt Lake at the wedding. Our neighbor is a policeman and caught a young man in our ward staking out houses and searched his car. They found our savings bonds on him ($4000)! Thants how we found out. He then confessed to breaking in to our house and stealing our strong box from our file cabinet...anyway, all is recovered and the kid is in prison with two other local teenagers. The heart breaking thing is that it is the son of a Bishoprich member and he and his wife are good friends. Also, nothing else was stolen...wierd. We will have fun in September and in August as we gather again. Love you all!

Jacob's wedding in T minus 7 days. For those of you who haven't heard, we're staying in the courtyard marriot off 106th south. Call Jake for info. Word is Joey has a prospect of his own he's working on. I for one am not going back to Utah for another wedding in a month. Between Julie's and my family, this is out of hand.

We just finished our pinewood derby here at work. It was fun, there were some cars that were flat out unbelievable. The car I made last night, just so I could enter something, won fifth place. I missed 4th by 0.0012 seconds, but I'm glad I did, because I figured it wasn't a good career move to beat the VP. My boss bought a very cool electronic track that times everything. There were 33 cars total, and I got a $15 Best Buy gift certificate.

I'm taking Jordan and Alan to a hockey game tonight, the Windsor Eagles vs. Oklahoma City. I've heard the games are a total riot.

Ben, you telling Jordan to beat everyone up and down the court made me think of Dad, he always told me that too. Sounds like your family is doing great, and your kids are all growing in the things they enjoy most. I remember being in the spelling bee and loving it-I was such a nerd. :)

We are doing well too, school is back in full swing again. Chris is really busy trying to submit a presentation for ESA(Ecological Society of America), as well as finish a progress report for the Department of Energy so that their grant is continued another year. I am plugging away as well, taking 6 credits again. Conner is loving preschool, and the other day when I picked him up his teacher told me that he was the most well behaved, well mannered kid she had! I was a proud momma. Jackson is still Jackson, a little odd but one of a kind! Bryce is learning to walk (finally! He is 15 months old) but gets so giddy he falls down laughing most of the time. He is starting to show his true colors that include a bit of a temper, but is still very sweet. It is fun having Lestie and Tim closer, the boys love playing with their cousins. Gabby and Conner get along like nobody else! They are cute together. Anyway, that is about it for now- looking forward to seeing everyone in about 3 weeks!
Love, Juliette

Hello all, and yes, Happy New year (as it's almost February). We had fun in Utah for New Years in the massive snowstorm of the century.

We will be at Jake's wedding. Can't wait to travel to Utah again...ahem. We'll see you all there!

And in other news. Not having anywhere else to write this, I will now brag about my kids. They all tried out for the Missoula Children's Theater again this year. Only Lacey made the cut. She worked hard all week learning her part, which consisted of jumping up and down and yelling "baaaaaa", (she was a lamb). Come performance time, she nailed her part. So, she was a star for a day. Alan got straight A's, which was almost more than Jordan could stand. Alan's report card was like something out of the twilight zone for someone like myself who always looked for ways to change the F's into B's. My teachers always wondered why I wasn't a good student, "like Tyler". Alan got that similar rare genetic defect where he actually cares what his teacher thinks and tries to please them. They have spelling tests and, trying to challenge Alan, the teacher had to add bonus words. The spelling lists look like this: call, ball, wall, mall, hall, and bonus words, philanthropist, cellular, circuit, and dodecahedron. True. Alan has yet to miss any of the bonus words to date. I guess it's okay for now, but it is kind of eerie. Jordan, is not stupid either. He got second place in his school (which goes to 8th grade) in the Geography Bee. He was in the paper for that one. Actually, I sit back in amazement as Julie does so much work helping these kids reach their potential. It's exhausting just to watch. Jordan is getting better at basketball, too. His team came back to win a game where they were down 11 points at the half. He is no real offensive threat, but he's a great leader and rallied the troops on defense and hustled up and down the court. I told him I wanted to see him beat everyone up and down all day long, and he darn near succeeded. That was one of the few times I saw his face go flush because he was actually working hard. They are now 2-0.

So, that's the news.