Pike Place with Mom!

This happened a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to mention what a great time Mom and I had at Pike Place Market before I left for LA! Pike Place is one of my all time favorite places to visit, and I of course wanted to go there while I had the chance. So Mom and I went and had a great time walking around and visiting all the crafty booths, stopping to watch the Flying Fish workers fake out another audience, and listening to the crazy buskers. We also got delicious gyros at a Greek food stand and some yummy mini cheesecakes. We couldn't leave without picking up some flowers too! All in all it was a fabulous outing and it was good to reminisce on the days when I frequented Pike Place. Mom and I have had some good bonding time in the past couple months we've had in Seattle, I am so glad we could hang out a lot! Love ya Mom!

Chile bows out of the World Cup and summer in Edmonton

So Chile suffered a pretty bad defeat to Brazil in the Round of 16 in the World Cup. The country should still be pleased of their performance since they were expected to get out of their group which they did. Hopefully Chile can learn what it takes to play at the high level since they played Spain in their game prior to Brazil. It was nice to see them play as it brought back memories of their world cup qualifying campaign when I was serving my mission in Chile.
Anyway, so far being up in Edmonton has been great. It has been a bit of challenge to navigate my way around the city, but now it is becoming easier. G&G always give me some food, so that is always a bonus. Well thats all for now.

Interning

So as I do the internship I realize that I have had quite the sort of interesting jobs. Let's just say you could call me odd job. My jobs include construction, land scaping, telemarketing, server, dock worker, warehouse worker, construction clean up, newspaper and flyer delivery boy, LSAT instructor, snow board instructor, Legislative Assistant, Porter, Research Assistant, pressure washer, grass mower etc. etc. As you can see almost all of these jobs enjoy physical labour. And here in lies a problem I think I have been struggling with ...... I think I kinda enjoy physical labour. I enjoy seeing how many boxes I can load in an hour, I enjoy trying to line up all the screws and nails in a base board properly before 5 o'clock. I enjoy racing to see if all the sod can be unloaded before the rain begins to fall. Which is all fine and good but I've realized that I struggle to motivate myself and work with the same energy when the activity is predominately mental rather than physical. For example, I have struggle focusing on writing papers (except for the day before the paper is due in which case the paper writing becomes more of a physical rather than a mental exercise as in how fast can you type). My new goal come September is to treat the mental work as physical work. Thus far in my interning experience I have been dealing with mainly physical activities which is good but when it focuses more to mental activities I will need to get creative in keeping myself motivated. Suggestions are welcome.

Soccer season comes to an end

It's been a fun two months for me coaching Oliver's soccer team and also a fun two months for Oliver since he started playing. We had our doubts as to how much he would enjoy it seeing as how he never played before and seemed to get discouraged easily when we would kick it around in the backyard. When Nana and Gramps came to visit us last October I even remember him directing them to pass the ball to each other while he sat down on the sidelines and happily rested. He was keen not to get involved and also realized that having them kick it around would detract from us trying to get him to play. But after a couple of practices he really started to get into it, was always keen to get "coach" as he started calling me to tell him he was playing well. We're definitely going to get him to keep playing and hope that his Scottish roots will give him that extra advantage over the years to come.

Drive from Provo to Los Angeles

So after I finished spring semester at BYU I had to make the drive from Provo to Los Angeles on my own. I had never done the drive before, but I had heard it was about a 10 hour drive. I am pretty used to driving long distances, but the night before I had gotten a pretty bad sleep since school was over and there was no real need to go to bed at a reasonable hour anymore. I was feeling pretty drowsy after just two hours of driving so I pulled over to a rest stop. I realized that the main reason I was getting kind of sleepy was because the drive on I-15 in Utah, looks pretty much like this (look above) as far as the eye can see. But it worked out and the drive got a little more interesting once I got closer to Las Vegas. Nonetheless, it was still fun to see a part of the country I had never seen before and I made it into Ian and Melissa's place without getting lost thanks to the handy iphone. Although I had to talk to myself to stay awake once I was in LA.

New Couches

We decided, after lots of debating, to recover our couches. It really seemed like an extravagance considering they're probalby going to be trashed again in a couple years, but they were truly disgusting and the expense wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. It makes me soo happy to have nice designs that I love. I've been putting off doing anything to decorate because I feel we're not going to be here long enough, but I'm glad I made the effort. It was stressful at times, driving around trying to find fabric (to give to the upholsterer- I didn't do it!!) and get the best deal- but now that it's over ~I'm glad I dID it. I worked with a pretty funky colour palette, and Lindsay and her artist friend helped me with a beautiful 'painting' that ties things together. Thanks guys!

Auntie Date

Last Week Rach and I surprisingly found ourselves with some extra time to play! Her volunteer shifts at the hospital hadn't started yet and my temp jobs were on relapse. We were planning to go to the beach with Meliss and the boys but the weather (oddly) didn't cooperate. So instead we gave Meliss some editing time and Rach and I ventured out with the boys to the children's museum on an Auntie date! It was a blast! There was so much to do and so many exciting things for them to explore in this two level children's playhouse. It was definitely built for them! Julian had a pile of pennies in his pocket that he had taken from the penny jar at home before we left. How fortuitous! They had an awesome spiraling 'toy' penny spinner (and place to donate)! He noticed how you could get two pennies going in different directions and watched penny after penny go through until he used them all up!


There was a ticket booth nearby that Jack and Christian adored, which allowed entrance into the theater where there was a stage and costumes!

Their favorite was an airplane to play in! Caleb and Julian played pilots and Jack and Christian joined in!




On the lower level there was a water table, puppets, a pretend restaurant, and so many other toys. Christian got excited about the mystery doors with different latches that had clocks and other gadgets behind them to explore. What a fun day!



We’ll have to have try to have an Auntie Date in Edmonton with the Schneider boys too!

Sunday evening, listening to the rain

Welcome: Sitting by an open window, listening to the rain trickle and thunder sound.
After a hot day, this cozy freshness is more than welcome.

Unwelcome: our neighbour who sounds like he has tourettes syndrome. Shouting and hollering without anger or violence, kind of just a habit, a hobby. His noise rudely interupting my symphony of rain like someone hacking and coughing through the moonlight sonata.

This is also how I often feel as a stay at home mom - my days brimming with generous portions of both the welcome and the unwelcome.

Mommy Photos

For awhile I've been kind of sad that I don't have very many photos of me and my kids. Since I'm the family photographer I'm not usually in them, and I'm just not very good about asking people to take them. My friend Lindsay is a very talented professional photographer, and also one of my fellow Joy School moms. She's about to move to Australia, so I asked her if we could get together at the park and take photos of each other with our kids. It was really kind of her to agree to it, because she just got a brand new camera that is totally amazing and so our pictures turned out extra special. I was really happy to just have some nice photos, and I couldn't believe how great they turned out! (I think hers turned out pretty good too) and had a lot of fun editing them. I did my entire page for my 'Project Us' week on the photo shoot. I figured it was OK since I'm not in very many of the weeks to have a one with a bunch of photos of me. I will treasure these photos always! It was so fun to get ready for the shoot. I actually got up early and spent all morning ironing and trying on different combinations of outfits on the boys. In the end I decided not to have us matchy, but just wearing a whole bunch of layers with lots of different colours to reflect how different we all are, but in the end I think everything kind of worked together in a colourful, funky way. It's such a fun time of life! Hard, but fun.

Caleb was my little helper. He loves to help me- whatever I"m doing, he wants to do it too. I try to encourage him as much as possible (although sometiems that's hard)

In A Western Town

As many of you already know, I've been trying to get a movie in production for the last couple of years. Its a western (a genre I particularly love) and I think its a really great script. Its called THE PRODIGAL and I love it. It has gotten very good feedback from a lot of people and I feel really good about its prospects, but I haven't yet had much success getting any recognizable actors attached. I decided to try to shoot a kind of teaser trailer for the project in August up in Santa Clarita. I'm attaching some pictures here for your reference.





I'm very excited about it. Hopefully it turns out well and helps us to push the thing into production. I'll keep you posted as things progress.

World Cup 2010 update - who's in the lead???

The group stage of the tournament has now finished.

There have been lots of upsets, including 2006 world cup champions Italy and 2006 runner-up France both finishing last in their groups!!

One of the best European qualifiers Serbia is also heading home early along with another strong European team, Denmark.

Some interesting things and a quick summary of our picks so far ...

• everyone picked Italy to go at least as far as the quarter-finals!!! a costly mistake for all of us in terms of overall points as it turns out
• most of us picked England and USA to advance and finish in that order. No one however picked the USA to finish ahead of England as it actually happened
• kudos to Meliss and Linds in Group D, the only two to get their Group D picks spot on
• commiserations to Dad and Jordan, who both thought we had a perfect Group C (England and Slovenia in that order and the only ones not to pick the US to advance) until the last minute dramatic US goal against Algeria completely ruined that order and put the US in first
• Japan was the only team of the 4 teams in Group E that did not get a pick from anyone in the pool to advance! it turns out however that they did advance to the next round
• our most successful Group was probably Group H - we all picked both Chile and Spain to advance from that group
• but the prize so far for most unorthodox pool (that is still doing pretty well) is ... Char!! Char was the only one in the pool to correctly pick Uruguay to advance (while also correctly predicting Mexico to advance at the expense of France, as France was also picked by many of us) and was also the only one to correctly pick S. Korea to advance. She also has one of the very few picks seeing Paraguay to the quarter-finals, which isn't looking like such a bad pick at this stage either.

So the results of the group so far ...

1. Goo and Mom (tied for first place) 155 points

closely followed by

3. Char & Rico (tied for 3rd place) 150 points

5. Beej 145 points

6. Ian 140 points

7. Woozie 135 points

8. Dad & Jordan (tied for 8th) 125 points

10. Melissa 120 points

but as it's early stages and more points are awarded for later in the tournament, anything could still happen. all of the winners we picked are still in the tournament so will keep everyone posted.

The Griddle

Rico came to visit and Rach made her way over for the summer so we went to a new Schneider favorite- the Griddle. There wasn't as much of a dilemma as Ian and the Pizza in making it my new favorite because there is so much variety with the pancakes and they are so GOOD!! They are very creative. Yes, Juniors can take back seat. One thing about them that's hilarious though is the size of the portions!!! Oh my gosh! The first time I went I polished off only 1/6 of the food on my plate! Here are some of the final percentages we achieved after our dining experience. Rico scored highest.

Rico 67% Pancake 33%


Linds 25% Pancake 75%


Rach 20%, Pancake 80%


Fun times were had by all :)

America's World Cup Fever

My family is a big soccer family. All of us played for a number of years growing up, I did a little coaching and some reffing. I'm probably the least educated in the sport out of my siblings, but, on average, we're way more into it than most Americans. I got excited this week as America got through and on such an exciting goal by Landon Donovan. I saw this video from a sports bar in Nebraska of the reactions of the crowd watching the game. I've never seen anything like it before. Definitely worth watching.

My Pizza World Turned Upside Down!!!

Melissa did a great post about our terrific New York anniversary weekend. If you haven't already, check it out at It was such a treat to get back to the city. Haven't been there since graduation in 2003.

However my fond memories of the best pizza in New York were deeply challenged. We stayed in SOHO, an area I'm not very familiar with and we made our regular trek across the Brooklyn bridge to Grimaldi's, which has always ranked as one of my favorite food places in the world. We thoroughly enjoyed our pizza (I'm including a sample pic of the pies)



But that same evening we were looking for a place near the hotel to grab a bite and I found another, new pizza placed call Keste. The reviews were uniformly glowing and claimed that it was the best pizza in town. So we made the short walk over and were totally blown away.

Don't get me wrong, Grimaldi's is amazing pizza and the sauce and the toppings at Keste weren't notably superior, but the crust was unbelievable. Light and chewy, but with a great crispness. Just absolutely melted in my mouth. As we left the restaurant I felt a little disoriented and uneasy. I struggled to rationalize that Grimaldis was still superior, but after a while I stopped trying. Keste was my new, best New York pizza.



I wonder if my pizza experience isn't similar to other facets of our lives. I know I've been guilty before of grasping to the good and familiar things in my life even when presented with something better. I hope, in the future, I can be more open and willing to embrace change if it gets me closer to the person I want and need to be. Funny how even pizza can teach you a thing or two.

World Cup Wannabes

In light of the World Cup games, some friends of mine have started organizing our own pick up games of soccer. Some of us have never played, some stopped in early childhood, and others are really skilled, having played in high school and/or college. But despite all these differences we always manage to have a lot of fun! It can get rough- I've gotten cleated in the shin and have huge bruises from it, and some of the guys playing are big, but I've never been one to shy away from soccer. It's a great game to watch and to play! Too bad I will have to stop playing with them since I leave for LA tomorrow, but it's been fun. Hopefully with more practice I'll be better next time we all play!

Who do you think you are?

A friend of mine from Aberdeen ended up moving back to the US the same time we moved back to Canada. We spoke a few months after our moves and she told me that her 13 year old daughter was taking FOREVER in the morning getting ready for school. Every morning she would deliberate over the perfect outfit, how to style her hair, the pink striped bag vs the green damask patterned bag. The details of her 'look' mushroomed into nuclearly important statements of who she was. One day her mom said "Paige, your looks shouldn't matter this much. Why don't you go to school and just be yourself?"

Paige replied "Well, I don't know who that is."

That story comes to my mind every once in a while and it did again this morning as I was reading an excerpt from The Cocktail Party by T.S. Elliot:

"We die to each other daily.

What we know of other people

Is only our memory of the moments

During which we knew them.

And they have changed since then.

To pretend that they and we are the same

Is a useful and convenient social convention

Which must sometimes be broken.

We must also remember

That at every meeting, we are meeting a stranger....

You're still trying to invent a personality for me

Which will only keep me away from myself."

The Correct Spelling is R-A-C-Q-U-E-T

I always thought tennis was kind of a silly game - running around like a crazy person after a ball - well I guess that can be said of almost any sport - think basketball, lacrosse, football (I'm using the worldwide definition of the term)

So I can't really say WHY I decided that I should give tennis a try! - maybe it was Rico saying that he wanted to learn or maybe it was hearing friends and Beej say over and over how much fun they had playing- but even that doesn't make sense because I've NEVER wanted to give GOLF a try --- anyways - one day in May I said to myself 'I want to play tennis!' But I didn't want to do it myself, so I talked to Rach, who's always up for something new and said let's do this. We found a teacher and the two of us have had five lessons - would have had more but it's been raining for six straight weeks here! - and even though I'm BAD!! - I have to say - I LOVE this game. I don't even know how to serve yet because I still have to learn how to hit the ball over the net but its still a ton of fun. Thanks Wooz for being my tennis buddy and thanks Oj for not laughing too loud at me . It's my goal to play a real live game by the end of the summer. And win.

GRILLIN'

Nothing says summer like grilling. We've had a long spell of cold and rainy weather here in the great Northwest, so we finally broke out the BBQ when we had company over on Friday. (Even though it was still overcast.) You California folks must be chuckling about all the complaining we do about the weather.

Anyway, we have a recipe for chicken kabobs that is a surefire hit whenever we serve it, and it is incredibly easy. I put the chicken chunks in a gallon ziplock bag with the sauce and marinade it for 4-24 hours, the longer the better. Soaking the bamboo skewers in water for a couple hours will ensure that they don't burn during the cooking process. Also, leave a little space between the chicken pieces on the skewer so they cook evenly.

HAPPY GRILLING!!

Luv,

Gramps

HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN SKEWERS

1 cup mayo

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp honey

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in 1 inch pieces

Whisk to combine, pour over chicken pieces and marinade, then thread three or four pieces on each skewer.

Prepare a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill, or preheat a gas grill on med-high. Place skewers directly over the fire. Cover the grill and cook on one side for about 6 minutes. Turn and cook another 5 minutes, covered.

Makes 6 - 8 skewers

Happy Birthday Melissa!

I don't think I can adequately outline here the amazing load that Melissa carries with grace each and every day. She is a top notch mother, taking care of our brood of little monkeys in a housing situation that is too small with neighbors that aren't always the most understanding. She takes the time to teach joy school, shuttle them to and from play-dates, classes and other activities. She's always working to teach them, to nurture them and to love them. She is a great mother.

She also works a demanding part time job as a freelance editor for the church, cutting together amazing stories of faith and devotion. They have been a source of inspiration for our whole family and I'm so glad she continues to keep her professional skills sharp. She is definitely the best editor I know.

Additionally, she teaches gospel doctrine in our ward, which is filled with the highly educated and opinionated. She does an outstanding job and takes tremendous pains to be prepared. Her lessons are always fabulous.

She does so many other things too; fantastic scrapbooking and journalling, awesome friend to many of the other young mothers in the ward, 5k runner, the list goes on. That said, the thing I'm most grateful for is how loving and supportive she is of me. I wouldn't be the man that I am, without this wonderful woman. Thank you, Melissa! I love you! Have the best birthday in the world!

BIRTHDAY GIRL!!

Grandma is 90 YEARS OLD today!

Grandma, I'm sure that each one of us wishes we could be in Edmonton with you today to celebrate, but please know that each of us wishes you a Happy Birthday from wherever we are! We look forward to celebrating with you and paying tribute to you at our reunion in August. We love you and admire you so much. We feel very blessed that you've had such a long and beautiful life and that you continue to be an inspiration to us every day!

Happy Happy Birthday!!!