Family Blog

Oh no, Nathan is 30!

posted under category: General on December 31, 2008 at 7:27 am by MrNate

Well it's the last day of the year and another birthday for me. This year we decided to take advantage of Boeing's holiday break and visit the snow in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It's a nice break from traditional holiday breaks, and unfortunately much cheaper than flying up to Anchorage.

So 30 years. I guess I haven't really wasted much. Let's see. I guess some of the bigger things are:

Married for 8 years.
3 kids, with one more on the way.
Graduated high school, didn't try college.
Moved out of the state I grew up in, 4000 miles to an opposite climate.
Owned 4 houses, and love the current one the most.
Have made some great web apps & sites for huge companies, who were all pleased.
Have a great job that I love.
Became an Adobe software user group manager.
Made lots of friends and have a gaggle of people I adore.
Best of all, I made Jesus the lord of our family, and we have been blessed at every turn.

Oh, and Aubri says:
`ff.xfoolol.......ol.ol.ool.9l,

Birthday man

posted under category: General on October 23, 2008 at 8:30 pm by MrNate

Jude's 4th birthday is today! We went out for frozen yogurt. When finished he looks up, holds his hands up in the air, and, with as deep a voice as he could muster, declares:

Birthday man got messy!

Samantha is writing

posted under category: General on August 14, 2008 at 9:11 am by MrNate

Samantha has been writing things lately. Here is something she wrote for me a couple days ago, written in red pencil:

I LOVE YOU TO DAD
YOUOR MI BEST FRE
ND I LOVE YOO BECUS
YOUR MI DAD I LOVE
YOU SO MUTH   :o) SAM

Snoresqueaks

posted under category: General on May 6, 2008 at 11:54 am by MrNate

Yesterday, Samantha, who turned 5 last week, made a couple new words. Not like she was trying, but she just brought them out in a casual conversation.

The first word was describing Aubri's sleep sounds. She makes these little baby-like noises whenever she's sleeping. High-pitched, continuous, loud (for a 2 week old). They've triggered our baby monitor loud enough to make us think she was awake, numerous times. The word is Snoresqueaks.

Second, she came up with a word to describe belly stretch marks. They happen in a lot of women when they get pregnant, and once the baby is out, they turn into tear-shaped wrinkles, like pruned skin when you've been in the bath too long. The word for these leftover pregnant wrinkling is Prinkles.

A few baby pictures up

posted under category: General on April 21, 2008 at 8:39 pm by MrNate

Quick blurb: we put some pics of Aubri's first day up!

Introducing Aubri Gail Strutz

posted under category: General on April 20, 2008 at 2:51 pm by MrNate

Born April 20th, 2008 at 8:08 AM (PST)
Weight: 7 lbs, 7 oz
Length: 20.5 inches
Apgar score: 8-10

We had this one at home - a great experience. Baby is very healthy! Mom is recovering well. Siblings, excited. I... lack... sleep...

Knock-knock Jokes

posted under category: General on March 30, 2008 at 7:48 pm by MrNate

Having a 3 and 4 year old, we love sitting around telling jokes. We especially love knock-knock jokes. Here's some of our favorites. We made some of them up ourselves and some of them came from who knows where.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Nacho.
Nacho who?
Nacho Mama.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Who.
Who who?
Oh, is there an owl in here?

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Boo.
Boo who?
I'm sorry to make you cry.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Hach.
Hach who?
I'm sorry to make you sneeze! (We apparently forgot the original punch line)

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Tickle.
Tickle who?
Tickle YOU! (followed by screaming, running and tickling)

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Dwayne.
Dwayne who?
Dwayne the bathtub, I'm dwowning. ("dwounding" as the kids say it)

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Don.
Don who?
Don't you think we should stop telling knock-knock jokes?

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Dinner.
Dinner who?
Thanks for making it. (as a funny way to be thankful & polite)

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Dwayne.
Dwayne who?
Da dwo dwaoa doaahwahaaa daoahwa doo daan do. (+dancing) (From Jude, age 3)

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Samantha.
Samantha who?
I didn't say that! (looking insulted, followed by laughing)

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Weird.
Weird who?
Weir'done telling knock-knock jokes

I'm sure there were a few more, so watch out for KKJ's #2 some day.

Nathan: blue badged

posted under category: General on March 21, 2008 at 11:29 pm by MrNate

Today I received my blue badge. This is somewhat significant. See, at Boeing, non-Boeing workers on site are easily visible with a gray-brown badge, whereas true Boeing employees have the blue badges.

Being non-Boeing really doesn't feel that significant. People have been treating me very nicely over the past 6 months. It's like their diversity training has extended beyond age, gender and skin color gaps to where they didn't expect: to contractors.

Contracting, however, has its benefits. Specifically the money. Yeah. I sure will miss that. My current salary is now close to where I was before I started. I've chosen to look at this 6-month contracting gig as like a signing bonus. That makes me feel better. Also the health benefits... there's a free medical plan for the whole family. Yeah. Zero dollars. Fully covered. They sign me up to it if I like it or not, just because it's free. Also the death benefit, much larger than I've ever had from an employer. And the 401 fund matching, 100% schooling coverage, blah blah blah it's all basically amazing.

But there's that ridiculous salary drop. Ouch.

Oh yeah, this way I get to take off holidays. Last Christmas was pretty tough. And I can be sick and get paid. Plus vacation. Contractors do not have these luxuries.

So, more good than bad. Thus, the blue badge.

My boss's boss called me up. He's heard my name maybe twice, but he dropped a 2 minute voicemail on my phone congratulating me and talking about how Boeing was a big winner by taking me on board.

This is genuinely a good company. It's the right choice.

The Dopefly family photos application

posted under category: General on November 14, 2007 at 1:29 am by MrNate

I just blogged about the Dopefly family photos application - the way we get our pictures up on the web site - over on my tech blog.

It's a pretty good read, with screenshots and all, if you're interested in how we get our photos up onto Dopefly. Fun, if nothing else, to see what goes on behind the scenes.

Today is Jude's 3rd Birthday

posted under category: General on October 23, 2007 at 2:45 pm by MrNate

He's a pretty big boy, pretty much the cutest little dude you could imagine. And now he's three! Yay, out of the, erm, wonderful(?) 2's. Boy is he a boy.

We had a pre-birthday party on Sunday after church - we went to the classic standby Chuck-E-Cheese's in Tucson with Alanda's family, including Great Grandma Ruth, whom we adore. Loads of fun, as always. Jude's loving parents gave him a light saber, which he has cuddled with every night since. Grandma & Grandpa Lowder gave him a 4-pack of puzzles, which he has been going at continuously with only small breaks to swing his light saber. Great Grandma Ruth is giving him a 2-person back-to-back swing for our big swing set in the back yard. Aunt Kyra gave him a green eggs & ham board game, and he loves board games. I think he could turn pro at candyland in a couple years.

Yesterday, Jason, Betsy & the kids flew in.

Tonight, Jude's preference, we're going to eat at Joe's Real BBQ. Mmmmm. A boy after my own heart. Actually, he just loves to eat the apple sauce and run around in the yard.

Next Sunday we're having a bunch of his friends over for our big 3-year-old party. Samantha had a big 3rd birthday, too, so it's fair. Pictures to come, I'm sure (cough*Alanda*cough).

New photos

posted under category: General on October 12, 2007 at 9:57 pm by MrNate

We put up a bunch of photos from the stuff I mentioned in my last post. No we're not caught up, but we're making progress.

New in my world, I reorganized the way our family photos work. It doesn't look so good in internet explorer 6 - upgrade!

This will make three

posted under category: General on September 6, 2007 at 10:53 am by MrNate

Quick note because this blog is way underused. We're having another baby, due mid-April 2008. We're currently picking names. We found a midwife. We're pretty happy.

Also, we're building a garage - I need to remember to get some photos of this. It's basically just closing off our carport.

Also, Alanda's mom is doing pretty good, relatively speaking. A lot of her energy is coming back and she's staying really healthy.

Also, we're going to chuck-e-cheese's this weekend to celebrate Great-Grandma Ruth's 86th birthday. I think it's 86.

Also we were in L.A. in late July to hit some beaches. You should hear Samantha say "Manhattan", "Hermosa", and "Redondo" (the beaches we visited). Cutest thing ever. We also visited my friend John H.

Samantha Turns 4

posted under category: General on April 25, 2007 at 10:08 am by MrNate

Today is Samantha's 4th birthday! We went to Chuck-E-Cheese's on Saturday with Alanda's family, and today there's a bunch of kids coming over to play while I'm at work. Tonight we'll probably go out to dinner, someplace fun like Joe's (Samantha's favorite restaurant). Call and wish her a happy b-day if you see this, I'm sure she'd love it!

Universal Studios

posted under category: General on April 23, 2007 at 12:08 pm by MrNate

Alanda and I went to Universal Studios a couple weeks back. Check out the photos.

The incredibly late holiday update

posted under category: General on January 19, 2007 at 12:12 pm by MrNate

So we had a great holiday season. We had 16 people over for Thanksgiving. What a blast. And we had our Wii to play when we weren't watching football. Good times. Noodle salad.

The space in between Thanksgiving and Christmas were such a blur for me. I was frantically working on a huge project at work. Then we were whisked away to Alaska for Christmas & New Year's.

We had a great time in AK. It snowed every day we were there, so the temperature stayed up in the 20's. Driving in the snow on the same old streets, hanging out with old friends, sledding at Service, eating at the Burrito Factory, reading the Daily News and hanging out with my family brought back a lot of those comforting "home" type memories. Samantha thought snow was fun until she touched it a few times and screamed about how cold it was. The kids both had a blast playing outdoors and with their cousins. Thanks everybody!

I'm now 28. I can't even lean towards "mid twenties." Nope. Late twenties. Ouch. Breathe, breathe, ok, mid-life crisis attack over.

Oh, and Jude is potty-trained. He got his prize, a Little People garage. We're so proud of him, turning into such a fun and great little guy.

Back from NJ, in line for Wii

posted under category: General on November 18, 2006 at 5:30 pm by MrNate

The PM from work and I had a good trip to NJ, and figured a lot of stuff out about our project so I can hit the ground running, come Monday. We also took a few hours on Thursday to take a train to New York City - It was incredible. Like everything you see on TV, but a lot bigger. Suddenly 800 movies I've seen make more sense. So awesome.

It was raining in Times Square, but it was pretty warm, which is good for those camped out in line for the PS3, released that night.

The Wii is being released tonight, so here I am in line at the local Walmart on Gilbert Rd. I'm about 17th in line, and they promised at least 20 units, but will more likely have 30-50. The kids are going to love it, but Alanda & I are giving it to each other for our anniversary (25th).

I'll let you all know how it goes!

I should blog more

posted under category: General on November 13, 2006 at 11:36 am by MrNate

If I had blogged more, I probably would have separated all these events, but instead, here's a quick rundown of everything since last I wrote here.

Jude turned 2. We're coming to Alaska in December for Christmas, New Year's and my birthday. We'll be staying at my Folk's house. My parents came down last month - dad floated the Colorado through the Grand Canyon and mom shopped so much that she wore Alanda totally out for a week.

We ate almost all of our pears from our pear tree - there weren't all that many and the kids are just crazy for any kind of fruit. The grapefruit are starting to get ripe. The oranges will be next, around Christmas, followed by the lemons, early next year.

Jude had a surgery last week to correct, well, a little problem. Not a big deal, and he took it like a champ. My work pitched in and got him a bag full of presents.

Speaking of work, I've got some business travel this week - first time ever. I'm headed to Parsippany, NJ. Then, as soon as I get back, it looks like we'll be driving to the nearest retail store to stand in line for the Nintendo Wii. We hope to have one for Thanksgiving weekend, where we'll be having at least 13 people over for the big feast.

About Alaska, Alanda and I are taking reservations for hanging out with people. It looks like we're busy the 25th of December (shocking!), but anytime within a week or so on either side is free. Leave a comment here or email me if you want to plan a day or evening.

Monkey School

posted under category: General on September 4, 2006 at 11:14 am by MrNate

Samantha and jude play dress-up. Well, Samantha plays dress-up, being a ballerina or a princess, so Jude has to wear his monkey costume from last halloween so that he fits in.

We enrolled Samantha in ballet at the city. When she was getting her ballet cloths on, Mom was talking to her about this being ballerina school.

At that, Samantha realized, "Oh, and Jude can go to monkey school!"

Disneyland 2006

posted under category: General on August 14, 2006 at 11:04 pm by MrNate

Our big family vacation this year was a trip to Disneyland! It was amazing how well it worked out. The four of us brought Alanda's folks along, which was a great move for anyone with young kids.

The kids had a blast, and, while Jude was a little young to remember much of it, I think Samantha will really hold onto a lot of it. She still talks about it every day (it was a few weeks ago now).

Anyways, we finally got all the photos up, so go check them out! - they're July 26-29, 2006.

We have a hundred great little stories to tell about what we did, what we saw, what the kids remember, how many princesses we met, and all that, probably too many for a blog, so check out the pictures and you'll learn a lot more.

Samantha Turns 3!

posted under category: General on April 25, 2006 at 11:55 am by MrNate

Today is Samantha's third birthday. She is an awesome kid, very full of energy, emotionally charged, fun to play with, a good conversationalist, a nice older sister, and makes our life exciting.

Well, she's turning three. Last Saturday we had a birthday party, invited all her friends over to celebrate and play. We had a great time. I cooked some burgers and dogs on the grill and we drank a couple packs of Jones Soda (mmmmm). Looks like the kids all had a bunch of fun. Alanda said it was going to be like herding frogs. It was certainly exciting.

Well, looks like we may have another birthday party in Tucson with her grandparents and great-grandma at chuck-e-cheeses.

Also, Jude just turned 1.5 (half birthday on the 23rd). He's getting really smart, and is starting to talk a lot. We really like these little people.

Doing something right

posted under category: General on January 26, 2006 at 9:37 am by MrNate

I know we're doing something right when Samantha (2 yrs old), gives me a big wet one on the cheek and says "We're friends."

Gosh. Yep, we sure are!

Swingle bells

posted under category: General on December 27, 2005 at 2:34 pm by MrNate

Well Christmas was a blast, as any family with kids and good relationships with their relatives will no doubt say. The excitement isn't really over (is it ever?), as we have a family reunion with Alanda's dad's family, and my birthday next Saturday (get your gifts in now!).

We all got lots of toys and things, but the best is probably the swing set that Great-Grandma Ruth got for the kids. Photos will show up soon enough, but until then, you'll have to take my word for it that it's stinking incredible. Solid redwood construction, 3 swings, a climbing wall, a ramp, a slide, monkey-bars, the works! It takes up half of our back yard. On Christmas, in the afternoon, Samantha and Jude were swinging on it, and Samantha started singing. It wasn't for a few minutes until I realized exactly what she was singing - "Swingle bells, swingle bells, swingle all the way." I kid you not, she was butchering a classic in the same way I do to every other song I sing (though in a sweeter voice).

The joy that raising kids brings is so unbelievable. Merry Christmas and happy new year, all. I hope you can spend them with yours (Sorry Mom & Pop)

Ketchup: Jude turns 1

posted under category: General on November 7, 2005 at 10:24 pm by MrNate

Well we all knew it would happen, but it sure did happen quickly. Jude turned one. This post is marked with "ketchup" because it happened 2 Sundays ago. We had a great time down in Tucson with Alanda's family. Great-Grandma Ruth paid for the whole thing, including the cake (thanks)!

We went to Chuck-E-Cheeses. Jude really really liked some of the rides. The poor guy had a hoarse voice, totally silent, so tired screams from a 2 hour drive looked just like angry yawns. It was really kind of refreshing.

You should see him ask for food. Somehow he got his sign language confused, so the "give me more food" signal consists of putting his wrist on his open mouth and waving it back and forth (speed dependent on hunger), while making an "aaaahhhhh" sound (again, volume dependent on hunger), so it ends up like "aaaabwaaabwaaabaabwaabaabwaa". As much as we're trying to fix it, we're relieved he got out of the scream-for-food stage.

Anyways, Jude is way awesome, and now he's one. He'll be walking any day now, as soon as he has a reason to, I imagine, and he's picking up a few more words, correctly identifying major family members, saying hi and asking for food, that sort of thing.

We only keep the cute ones.

Carnage (that's a pun)

posted under category: General on October 17, 2005 at 9:50 am by MrNate

Got into an accident on Sunday, in the van, coming home from church. We had the whole family, plus Alanda's folks and little sister, a full load of people. We were in the left lane, cruising through an intersection, when a big, white, full-sized ford truck, you know, the kind with the giant steel bumper thing in front, dual rear tires, etc, was making the slowest possible right turn on a red light.

I slammed on the brakes, and the horn. He said he didn't see us coming. I think he didn't look. He scraped the front of the passenger-side door, took out the mirror and destroyed the front body panel, while mashing us against the median. He pulled into the nearest parking lot, mostly unscathed. We limped in on 3 tires.

He looked like paul jr from orange county choppers, plus it helped that he had an OCC shirt on, too. He ran up and apologized about 15 times, then he helped us change the front-left tire, which got demolished by the median. Nice guy. His dad called him on his phone to make sure he was alright, i think he had been driving with one hand, talking with the other.

So we got our thoughts together and the cop gave him a ticket, then we went across the street for lunch, mostly for me because my hands were still shaking.

Everyone is fine. The passenger door doesn't open and the power mirror is hanging by a cable, but we're all good. State Farm will give us a rental while ours is in the shop. We can't be carless. We've planned Jude's 1st birthday in Tucson next week. Maybe we're crazy for driving. I was extra-cautious on my way to work this morning.

Photos going up

posted under category: General on October 11, 2005 at 3:14 pm by MrNate

We're actually getting photos up in "Our Family." It's been so long, I've almost forgot what it was like to have pictures up on the site. What a feeling.

Well, soon I'll post something up on the techblog about my first real, working and released piece of desktop software, the uploader tool (written in c#). Alanda is using it to upload photos to the web site. It's not really impressive, but it does what it's supposed to, and that's make it easier and faster to get pics up.

So check out the our family photos again, and send feedback or leave comments here if you like it.

It's a long drive

posted under category: General on September 15, 2005 at 10:18 pm by MrNate

Did I mention my new job was 30 miles from home? That's pretty easily an hour of freeway time, unless I leave by 6:am. It is freeways most the way. I think in november the loop 202 will stretch to us, so that will cut it by a few minutes, plus I won't have to go through the ghetto to get there.

Otherwise, it's a great job. I was telling them how this is probably the best company I've ever worked for (sorry jeff, dana, howard, dave, harry)

Well, We got a new toy, Alanda is planning on taking some school classes (remotely, from home), and the kids are doing good, now that we bolted all the furniture to the walls.

Our never-ending home remodeling Project is turning out nicely. We got some shelves for our walls from Ikea that are... well, I should wait to show you the Pictures. We plan on getting some photos updated soon, so stay tuned. I'll make note of it here when we do. We're almost done with the kitchen, painting the cabinets white. After that, it will probably be the master bedroom. We're still drafting our plans.

I wrote this whole bog entry on our tablet PC, so let me know if it dropped the ball on a few words or letters It was fun to do. Seems a lot more like writing in a journal than typing. It's not going to be an every-time event, but it is fun..

The last day!

posted under category: General on August 26, 2005 at 3:29 pm by MrNate

Finally the last day has come. Whew, what a relief! And what a painful day, too. Just a good way to remind me of why I wanted to leave.

Well, next Monday I start as Senior Application Developer at interactive sites in Scottsdale. I visited their office a couple weeks ago and was really, very impressed. I was amazed that there could be a real ligitimate dot-com business, even after 9/11 and the industry downturn. This is great news, it's taking me back in time. Good thing I'm a lot more mature than I was back then.

Well, I'm getting excited about working up there. There are a lot of cool things to look forward to. Too many to list even. Maybe that means I haven't sorted them out yet in my head, so, when I do, I'll try to jot them down for you.

Another work weekend

posted under category: General on July 18, 2005 at 9:48 am by MrNate

We're always doing something. This past weekend we took advantage of Noah staying with us, and decided to remodel some of the main parts of our house, mostly in the living room. Here's the list:

• Scrape the popcorn texture off the ceiling
• Re-texture the ceiling (looks good!)
• Tear out the horribly cheap carpet and padding
• Paint the living room (a dark brown)
• Install laminate floors

Back, and finally rested

posted under category: General on May 23, 2005 at 10:26 am by MrNate

Well we've been home for almost a week, and we're just now feeling rested. It was a really successful trip (well, work party), and huge giant thanks to everyone who showed up to help us out! We needed your help and you were there. We won't forget this!

One of the best things that came out of the trip is our new 'can-do' attitude toward home fix-it projects. We tore apart our shower head and tweaked it to get a little more water. We're talking about building things and are sort of hoping to get an older home down in Chandler so we can fix it up.

ps. we're doing some work on the 'our family' section, so hopefully it'll be up in some way in the next week or so.

Samantha is 2 years old

posted under category: General on April 26, 2005 at 8:45 am by MrNate

We celebrated Samantha's 2 year old birthday yesterday and the day before, both at a couple Chuck-E-Cheese's. One in Tucson on Sunday with Alanda's family, and one yesterday in Mesa with some friends (including Samantha's best friend, who she calls "Emen", and is in turn called "Deeta").

It's pretty neat having a 2 year old. She's piecing together sentences and learning to get into everything.

Also, Jude is now 6 months old! This one came quickly, so we're still in shock. We have some awesome kids!

Oops

posted under category: General on April 14, 2005 at 11:03 pm by Alanda

Well I did it. I don't really know what or how, but I did. I seem to have deleted every single photo in "Our Family". That was 100's of photos and dozens of hours of work down the drain. So for all the people that got on to see it, I am sorry.

While the first instink is to burst into tears, I moved on and we are now constructing better and less time consuming ways of doing it again. So the adventure begins, we are trying to make lemonaid out of lemons. Instead of just trodging through thousands of photos to find the right ones all over again, I am actually going to redo our entire photo organizing system and do it all over again. Weeee....

So I want to thank all of you that visit and like seeing the photos, because without you and your enjoyment of the website, we would likely just give up at this point. Now would be a wonderful time to give any suggestions on how we could make it better...let us know your thoughts...anything at all.

Jude is Mobile!

posted under category: General on April 8, 2005 at 9:58 am by MrNate

Jude is now rolling and moving all over the place. When he sees something he wants, he'll roll onto is back and back to his front. This gets him an inch or two closer. Then he repeats until whatever he wants is finally in his mouth. He's just growing so quick, it's amazing.

Photos Reversed

posted under category: General on March 25, 2005 at 8:18 pm by MrNate

Our Family Photos has been begging for some work... or is that just Alanda in my ear? In any event, photos are now arranged in reverse order, so newest ones will always be at the top, except for adventures, which sort of tell a story, so they will stay in order.

The continuing saga of the house

posted under category: General on March 23, 2005 at 11:12 am by MrNate

Well, I know I said we wanted to move back someday, but slow down will ya?

Dad said the rumors in AK were that we're moving back like ASAP. Yeah, slow down -- did I mention it's 70° today? That's right northerners, slow down or come down.

So anyway, it turns out it's expensive to own 2 houses. Wow. And to be fixing one up from 3,000 miles away? That's expensive too. So, we're selling it. We plan to make a tidy profit to buy yet another house, except down here still.

Anyways, it's on the market since last Friday, and we've already got an offer, we're about to see if it goes through, so say a prayer for it. Thanks!

Ketchup part 2

posted under category: General on February 12, 2005 at 2:48 pm by MrNate

It's the stunning conclusion to "What happened to the blog?"

Well, after new years and my folks leaving, we were ready to have a break from company and excitement and all. Of course that didn't work out quite like we'd have liked it to.

We instantly got sucked into buying a house. Crazy, insane story. Foreclosures and lawyers and contractors, oh my! It was Alanda's parents' old house. Just over a month of work, plus a dozen close calls and almost-nots, we actually got it! So if you're driving around Anchorage and want to take a look at it for us, we'll tell you where it is.

It's amazing that with the housing market skyrocketing up there, we could still score a great deal on a big place. It's a fixer-upper, though, and worse yet, we aren't even there to fix it up, so Alanda's on the phone with everyone trying to get it fixed from afar. She did an absolutely amazing job getting it all in the first place.

Our goal, currently, is to rent it for a few years, and then, yep, brace for it... move back someday. We like our little condo here, but, like I said, it's little, and that house is big. No hurry though! We like the weather down here!

So that stressed us out like crazy, and we're just now getting to relax, even though we know the financial crunch is still ahead. We're pretty confident. We know that God got us through it this far, and he won't leave us hanging. It's just an amazing thing altogether so far, so we're ready to see what's going to happen next.

Keep in touch, friends & family. We'll try to do the same here.

Time to fire-up the blog again

posted under category: General on February 10, 2005 at 9:37 am by MrNate

Yeah, so we had a nice holiday from blogging. And boy did we need it. Let's play catch-up (ketchup), ok?

A week after Thanksgiving, Josh & Holly came, and we all had fun. We plan on hooking up with them in Colorado sometime this spring or summer. Malachi wasn't walking yet, but he was a cool guy. I schooled Josh in Madden, but Alanda let us open NBA Live early (and she re-wrapped it after), and Josh schooled me in that. We'll see about next time.

Amy & Mom (Nathan's sister and mom) came next, that very weekend. We got our signals crossed and double-booked a weekend (d'oh!). I think they went to Ikea 14 times in 3 days. Just kidding! They did love it though (but who doesn't?). We had a nice little visit, and it was just a miracle that Amy got to come down at all.

Since I double-booked that weekend, we had the next 2 free, well, sort of. Alanda had a baby shower, thrown by a lady at the church. That was really really sweet of her.

Then we had christmas... let me recall what happened.

Jason and Betsy (and Kadin) flew up. They stayed at J's sister's house. We all hung out and when J's parents flew down, we went to zoolights at the Phoenix Zoo. Not many animals, mostly just lights.

We had Christmas at our place with the Lowders. I cooked another turkey - we love those things. It was a good fun time all around, lots of surprises and cool stuff. The next day my folks flew in and we had Christmas Day the 2nd with them and Jason & Betsy. Our little tree looked like it had just as many presents the second time as it did the first. For 2nd Christmas dinner, we had prime rib (Mom paid).

Jason and Betsy left early on the 31st (my birthday) because they had to get back to Spanish school, but Mom & Dad stayed another week. We feel bad that we weren't incredibly entertaining, but that's what we get for having 2 little kids, one only 2 months old.

Well, I'll finish ketchup next time, where I'll tell you what's up since then. Stay tuned!

Christmas shopping, day 1!

posted under category: General on November 28, 2004 at 3:35 pm by MrNate

Alanda and her mom, with Jude, woke up early on Friday to hit Sears. They were giving $10 gift cards to the first 200 people in the door. They were in line about 20 minutes early, but it wasn't quite early enough. They came in around #215. Just missed it. So with that, they packed up and headed to Best Buy.

Best Buy had more like 2000 rather than 200. Even though they still made it well before 6:am, they had thousands of people in front (and quickly behind). They scored a $15 DVD player for the Lowders. As soon as they got home, Elizabeth and I headed out to get an anniversary gift for Alanda -- Oh, did I mention, the 25th (turkey day) was our 4th anniversary? Yeah, it kinda fell by the wayside with the holiday and new baby Jude and all. We promised to make up for it next year. -- I got some 600 thread count sheets for $50, then we headed for my favorite store.

The parking lot at Fry's Electronics was packed. I've never seen that many cars there. Wow. Stunned. We got in and most of the good deals had been taken, but then we did find --CENSORED BY SANTA-- and a cool --CENSORED BY SANTA--. Awesome deals. The checkout line started by the washers & dryers, went throuhg a few of the kitchen appliance isles, across the length of the store, then down and back & forth a few times before reaching the 45+ register checkout lane.

What a day, it was tons of fun. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Thansgiving 2004

posted under category: General on November 28, 2004 at 3:21 pm by MrNate

Good times with the start of our holiday season. The Lowders (-1) made it up to enjoy it with us, and they brought up Grandma Ruth (aka Great-Grandma) for our big mea. We pulled it off really well. Mom & Dad, you'd be proud of us. I carved my first turkey. We got a nice freerange gobbler at Sprouts, it was really tasty. Grandma brought us a fiber-optic turkey. We saw about 9 hours of football and parades. Ugh, don't know what else to say. It was fun!

Jude's Mood

posted under category: General on October 30, 2004 at 7:11 pm by MrNate

So far, Jude seems to be a pretty relaxed, easy to handle kid. He's very content. Don't get me wrong, he's still a baby, and he'll cry if he's hungry/uncomfortable/cold, etc., but other than that, he's really a pretty laid back, calm little boy.

He's a week old today, so he's still new to us, but so far he seems like a nice guy.

Samantha's first double-play

posted under category: General on October 25, 2004 at 11:07 am by MrNate

Samantha made her first double-play on Uncle Noah today. They were playing EA Baseball 2004. She's not too sure about which buttons to press, but Uncle Noah told her to press the A button to throw, so she did, then the 1st baseman caught it and tagged the runner on first. Pretty soon she'll be tackling my running backs and blocking my shots. :)

Introducing Jude James Strutz

posted under category: General on October 24, 2004 at 1:50 pm by MrNate

Born October 23rd, 2004 at 8:43 PM (PST)
Weight: 7 lbs., 12 oz.
Length: 20 inches
Apgar score: 9-9

Baby and Mom are healthy and happy. Will have photos up soon!

Alanda's Due Today... And In Labor!

posted under category: General on October 23, 2004 at 10:38 am by MrNate

It looks like Alanda's in labor... 10 minute intervals. We'll see where this is going, but we kind of have to pay close attention since the birth center is at 35th Ave and Bethany Home, a good 45 minutes away.

We called har parents and let them know, they said they are pretty much on their way up ASAP.

8 crazy dates

posted under category: General on October 23, 2004 at 10:17 am by MrNate

Thanks (much) to Alanda's little sister, we've gotten to go out every night on dates. Here's a quick summary:

1) P.F. Chang's - High-end Chinese food, though we always leave hungry, which is strange for any Chinese place. We love the atmosphere and the flavor of the food. Afterwords, we hit the Tempe Cinemas, and saw spider-man 2 finally. It's been hard for us to get out and see the regular summer blockbusters. Tempe Cinemas is only $2 each.
2) Tomaso - We had a $25 gift cert we bought for $4 at restraunts.com. This is a very high-class snobby restraunt, and for 3/4 of our meal, we were the youngest people there. It's a big place, and it was mostly empty, but the food was great. I had a big expensive steak! After dinner, we saw Collateral at the cheap theatre again.
3) Applebees - Just appetizers and dessert after 10 to get half price appetizers.
4) Cheesecake factory - We like this place, but who wouldn't? Nothing else really to say except it's like the perfect restraunt.
5) Macaroni Grill - We split one of their huge calzones. We had a great waiter, so it was really nice. He let us know the Red-Sox score as we ate. Macaroni grill has paper tablecloths and puts crayons on there for us.
6) Drive-in theatre in Scottsdale. We saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It was strange: we turned off the 101 and ended up in the 1940s. A totally fun unique experience.
7) Fusion restraunt in Scottsdale. Probably the best calamari in the world. The food was unique and good. The couple who owns it seem to be almost the only 2 employees, and they're very nice.
8) Warner Valley-View, the closer local discount theatre to see The Bourne Supremacy. It was predictable but great.

2 days to go!

posted under category: General on October 21, 2004 at 10:31 am by MrNate

We're due this Saturday! It's hard to believe. We're definately looking forward to our new little guy.

We've had Alanda's sister stay with us for the last couple weeks, which has been great because she babysits while we go out to dinner. We've been to a lot of places over the last week. 6 date nights in a row, which is great for a couple with kids.

Last night we saw Sky Captain at a drive-in theatre. What a trip! It was like we turned off the 101 in Scottsdale and ended up in the 1950s. We rolled up, tuned in our radio to the screen's signal and watched a movie from the comfort of our own car- though that's not really as comfortable as theatre seats.

Anyways, it was neat and fun, and certainly something to remember.

3 weeks to go!

posted under category: General on October 4, 2004 at 3:36 pm by MrNate

Alanda is now 37 weeks along with our 2nd, which means, on most tables, she's considered 'term.' Living with a pregnant wife has its challenges. Some of them are...

• Have to avoid mood swings by telling her she's beautiful all the time
• Have to give in to her food cravings, even if it means eating Thai food again and again and again
• Have to remind her twice before we leave to use the restroom
• Have to sit near the bathrooms at a restraunt
• Have to make frequent stops on the way to/from her parents' house
• Have to carry everything over 11 ounces
• Have to remind her to print directions before she drives anywhere
• Have to corral our other kid way more while she's busy being pregnant
• Have to hear about anything i may have said 2 weeks ago
• Have to feed myself because she eats every 2 hours
• Have to keep her eyes on the prize -- only 3 weeks left
• Have to help her concentrate on normally simple things, like a conversation
• Have to listen about her off-the-wall dreams
• Have to go pregnant clothes shopping, even though they won't fit in a few weeks anyway
• Have to abstain from posting lists about the difficulties of living with a pregnant woman while she's still pregnant

Weekend with the Lowders

posted under category: General on September 28, 2004 at 1:26 pm by MrNate

We spent last weekend with the Lowders. We're so glad they're back from Alaska. We were getting bored here without them. We went down to help them unpack and rearrange their furniture and stuff. Alanda was the organizational queen, making sure not to lift heavy objects in her condition (she has "the pregnant").

Samantha had the most fun of all of us, chasing zorro and scotch around, yelling "doggie! doggie!" everywhere she went. Aunt Kyra was an excellent babysitter while the rest of us worked. Kyra will be staying with us for some babysitting time for some of October and November, while Alanda's REALLY pregnant, and through the time when we've got a newborn. We're getting pretty excited, but can't believe he's only a few weeks away!

Well, It was a good time. Too bad we didn't even bring the camera :( Even still, Alanda will have some new pictures up in our family soon, now that she bookmarked the upload page.

Alanda's Blog is no more

posted under category: General on September 6, 2004 at 11:18 pm by Alanda

Hello friends and family who actually read our family blog. This is Alanda the brains behind this little operation. Ok not really, Nathan is doing a pretty amazing job on the website. The funny thing is the back-end of this site (aka the part that makes it possible to upload photos and update this text right here) is probably 10 times as amazing as the website itself....it turns out Nathan and I think different parts of designing a website are important. I apparently care about the aesthetics and he is all about the coding.

Well Nathan made me my very own blog. It was really sweet of him, but it turns out nothing, neat enough to write down, happens in my life. So I figure I will just add random updates to the "Family Blog" instead. You will hear from me every now and then on here. (You can tell who the entry was written by if you look close, its right after the date)

I will probably mostly pop up on here to let you all know when I have made an update to the family photos. It is all my job now, this is good and bad. It means I don't have to bug Nathan to update the photos....but it means you all have me to blame when they aren't up to date...hehe.

Well God Bless you all. Hope you have a wonderful time looking at our photos and reading little blups about our life.

Our trip to San Diego, Day 5 (Wed. 7/28)

posted under category: General on September 5, 2004 at 7:29 pm by MrNate

We woke up late thanks to those wonderful blackout curtains. Wednesday was our last day, so we called the front desk and got a late checkout, so now there was enough time to hit the beach!

We went back to Mission Beach (again, it was close and easy to find). We got there around 10:am and stayed for just a couple hours. Samantha had a blast reorganizing the beach, Alanda stuck her tummy down in the sand and hid from the sun, and I went for the waves.

After that we cleaned up and checked out an hour early. The drive home was mostly uneventful, except for a game of peek-a-boo with Samantha's new stuffed doggie, until we stopped at DateLand AZ, where we got a date shake and a prickly pear shake. Both were huge (only 1 size) and excellent. We were home by 7:30 PM, and thus ended our vacation.

Hope you had fun reading about it. Probably not as much fun as we had taking it, but still hopefully fun to read about.

Our trip to San Diego, Day 4 (Tue. 7/27)

posted under category: General on September 4, 2004 at 11:07 pm by MrNate

Sea World Day! We're excited! It was also Alanda's Birthday.

Follow along with us in the Sea World Adventure.

We made it to the gate by 9:30 AM and went straight to see the whales. Samantha kept saying "Wow," which is something she picked up from the 4th of July watching fireworks. She was amazed at the big things swimming by the window.

Next we went to the dolphins, right at feeding time. We muscled our way past stubborn families that didn't obey the rules and got to feel, pet, and feed the dolphins. Even Samantha got to pet them. She loved it!

Next we pet the stingrays and starfish and got a good seat for the whale show. We sat 6 rows back so we could get nice and wet. It was fun. Then we walked around and looked for food, and hit up the dolphin show. Those things flip fast, so they were hard to get a good picture of, especially dolly, the flippin flipper. Then we saw the french show... I really didn't get it, but Alanda and Samantha were entertained. Then we saw the shark show.

Alanda and I took a rest and had a smoothie while samantha took a nap in her stroller. Only the 2nd time ever since she was 2 or 3 months old. Next we rested our feet in the penguin display, which was very nicely air conditioned. We considered taking a nap, but I wanted to ride the rollercoaster, so Alanda and sleeping-but-soon-awake Samantha watched the orca-looking dolphins. The ride was a pretty cool roller coaster and I got fairly wet.

Our trip to San Diego, Day 3 (Mon. 7/26)

posted under category: General on September 4, 2004 at 12:14 am by MrNate

Monday morning we woke up at 7:30 because we forgot to close the blackout curtains. Monday is beach day! We picked mission beach because it was easy to find.

We headed off to the beach and got there at 9:30. Turns out they don't actually 'open' until 10:am (open, meaning lifeguards and masses of other people).

Turns out Samantha LOVES the beach. Sand, water, everything! We brought her down to the ocean and she couldn't stop giggling and screaming. She would point at a wave and say "please. please." When it got closer she would keep pointing and say "down! down!" and try to wiggle out of my arms. Finally when it was about to hit her, she screeeeaaaamed, and then laughed hysterically as it passed by.

She spent the rest of the morning further up the beach dilligently organizing the sand. Into the bucket, out of the bucket, left side, right side, pick it up and walk it over here, make a hole, fill it up again. She really loved it.

After a few hours we were roasted, so we headed back to the hotel to clean off. But now what? It's noon and we've got nothing to do. Should we go back to Balboa park, or maybe over to Coronado Island again? Nah, let's go to Tijuana!

On the way down we stopped and got a Rally Burger! What a total american classic. We recommend the Cajun Burger. We also hit up the Old Navy outlet store on the way down. Good deals galore.

Tijuana here we come!

Our trip to San Diego, Day 2 (Sun. 7/25)

posted under category: General on September 2, 2004 at 8:34 pm by MrNate

Keep following along in pictures with Our Family, Adventures.

We totally slept in on Sundy because we drew the blackout shades. I asked "should I open them?" to which Alanda promptly replied, "Open them? We should buy them!" Sure was nice to sleep in.

We headed out to old town, but had some time to kill before it really opened, so we hit up the coolest looking goodwill store we've ever seen. Alanda got some pregnancy clothes and I found some Pier 1 wall-mounted candle holders for our bedroom.

Old Town San Diego was pretty neat. All touristy stuff of course, but still neat. Lots of old Spanish influenced design and products. The first store we were going to buy stuff from had a cranky, crabby, mean old lady who wouldn't take our $20 (we were buying about $8 of stuff), because she didn't want to run out of change. Geez lady, just bring more change with you in the mornings, duh. Anyway.

Lunch was amazing, we ate at a Mexican food place where the mariachis sang to Samantha. She liked it but was a little confused. We saw some Mexican dancers in old Spanish dresses, which Samantha loved. She fell asleep in the stroller for the first time since she was really little. She doesn't usually like to sleep when stuff is happening.

Read on for the thrilling conclusion of Day 2...

Our trip to San Diego, Day 1 (Sat. 7/24)

posted under category: General on September 1, 2004 at 9:36 pm by MrNate

Follow along in pictures with the Our Family, Adventures page!

We woke up at 6:00 AM on Saturday and were out the door before 8. The highway I picked to reach I8 was surprisingly nice, and a good shortcut. It was well over 100° all day until we finally dropped down right near the coast, then it was 80° from then on. We made it to San Diego at about 1:30 PM and had to waste some time before we could check in to the hotel at 3, so we drove around and oriented ourselves with the city a little bit.

We drove up Sunset Cliffs Blvd and pulled over at this nice spot. Samantha got to feed the birds and we met some nice folks on the cliffside. They were so nice that I thought they were going to sell us something or convert us to their religion or something, but no, they were just genuinely nice people.

After settling in our hotel room, we went shopping in a big open-air mall just across the street pretty much from our hotel, then we ate at the hotel restraunt. It was a little odd that we were almost the only ones there, but we felt better when we saw more people there over the next few nights.

That was day one, stay tuned for day 2!

Olympics are over (finally!)

posted under category: General on August 29, 2004 at 10:54 pm by MrNate

Somewhat sadly, Alanda and I just spent the last 2+ weeks watching TV. The Olympics is the one thing that will always lure us to the television. So you know what that means?

No more TV for 2 years!

Yeah, we wish. Anyway, Alanda's family is still up in Delta Jct., and we miss them. They're our only real babysitters. We're planning on taking her Grandma in Tucson out to dinner next saturday.

Oh, and this week, I plan on typing out notes from our vacation in San Diego last month. I'll try to add one a day. We had a blast, so stay tuned to hear about it.

Ready for the Olympics!

posted under category: General on August 13, 2004 at 9:57 am by MrNate

Alanda and I are eagerly awaiting the Olympics, certainly one of our favorite events. When we first got married, we probably saw less than an hour of TV a month (movies are a different story). Then the 2002 Winter Olympics came around. We considered getting cable, but we settled for a rabbit-ears antannae.

This year we do have cable, and we're thrilled. Finally we'll be able to watch all the obscure sports they only put on cable channels!

Here's a picture I found: Athens Olympic Sports Complex from space

Welcome to our blog!

posted under category: General on August 9, 2004 at 4:34 pm by MrNate

Welcome friends and family to our new blog. What is a blog? It's short for 'web log', and it's basically journal on the web. It's not actually all that different from what I used to have, but there are a few advantages:

1. No more editing raw HTML files to make an update
2. No more having to remember the date on each entry (it's automatic :)
3. The code for my blog is used in 3 separate blogs, so not only is it easier, there's going to be more content as well
4. Gave me something to do (programming it) for a few weekends