Proud papa

My oldest son sang his first solo today! I'm so proud!

Merry Christmas 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

This year we're trying something a little different. We're sending out Christmas Cards without the traditional letter and directing people here to do our part in "being green".

We've had a great year! Here's an update from each of the family members:

Dawn - I'm still busy with homeschooling the kids, which I enjoy more and more as the kids get older and we start talking and learning about really interesting things like the science of creation or the effect of Christianity in Rome or the foundations and beliefs of the United States. It's great fun! This year was extra chaotic as I directed our church's summer VBS program, hosted my Grandma's 80th Birthday and am currently co-directing the Christmas play. The word 'No' is still a concept beyond me. Scott and I did manage to spend some quality time in NYC for our 11th anniversary where my wonderful husband took me to "Mary Poppins" and "The Lion King" on Broadway. I loved every second of it and then and there determined to bring the kids to "The Little Mermaid" which was being held in Denver for pre-Broadway shows in August. We had a magical time. Oh, and we went back to Disneyland with our adopted family Mo and Alex Gulas in September. I know, it's an addiction but one not likely to end any time soon. Overall, God is good everyday and has blessed us with a fabulous year!

Scott - I'm now in my 3rd year as a consultant, and I've spoken at 3 conferences and have a technical book out with an interested publisher! I've been fortunate to only work with one major client this year, and that work has taken me to New York City, San Francisco and Oxford, England! Oxford was a particular treat, since I took a little extra time (on Mother's Day nonetheless, which Dawn continues to point out...) to go on the C.S. Lewis tour and experience this incredible city! Dawn and I have been able to travel quite a bit together this year, including New York City, San Diego (twice), and our favorite: Disneyland! It was great to spend the day with Brandon and getting to meet Carina! We also got to see the Red Bull Air Races in San Diego on that trip (very cool!). I was also blessed to take Collin to a Broncos game, and Connor to Game 3 of the World Series! Caileigh and I have a special engagement in December, too. This year, I also took the MSF safety course and now have my motorcycle endorsement, and am saving patiently for a good commuter bike. Life continues to be busy, but fun, and blessed with good family (including a new nephew, Garrin!) and friends.

Connor - I am 9 years old and in 5th grade, and learning Spanish, Latin and started a new math program from Singapore (Singapore Math). In June I went to a Bible camp by myself for the first time, called Maranatha. I went with my best friend, Austin. I played basketball last January, and I learned about a new programming language called Scratch! I continue to learn piano and compose my own songs, too! I really liked going on California Screamin' at Disneyland and getting soaked at Sea World. I got to meet Dusty Baker at the World Series, which was AWESOME!

Caileigh - I am 6 years old and in 2nd grade. I have a really fun math and I like to do art the most. I had swim lessons and went to Soccer Camp this summer, which I really loved. The new Nemo ride at Disneyland was really fun. I liked the roller coasters too. I also went to Sea World and saw the dolphins which I really liked. I got to talk to a dolphin trainer, too. I had a great time seeing Little Mermaid before it went to Broadway! I really studied hard and got a really big part in the Christmas Play; the character's name is Holly. Merry Christmas!

Collin - I am 6 years old and in 2nd grade. This year I went to Disneyland and my favorite was getting Miss Mo on Tower of Terror, since I had to go on Pirates (I was scared and didn't like it)! I went to Soccer Camp with coach Poncho and I loved it. I've been in soccer for a long time. I also went to Grammy's house with my favorite cousin, Jadin. I also went to the Children's Museum with my friends Carly and DiDi. I loved going to a Broadway show, too. It was very special and I didn't have to wear a tuxedo! I went to the Broncos game and had Dippin Dots (yum)!

We hope you enjoy this special time of year as we celebrate the birth of God's son! Merry Christmas!

I'm an Uncle, again!

Congratulations to my sister, Heather, and my brother-in-law JC on the birth of their 3rd! Baby boy, Garrin, was born around 2:30pm. His name means "Guardian".

Glad everything went well, and look forward to meeting my new nephew soon!

Happy "Holly" Days!

We welcomed a new member of our family this weekend: Holly!

She's a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, and absolutely adorable.

We were planning to surprise the kids on Christmas Day with a puppy, but saw her this weekend and decided it would be better to go with a puppy we really liked early, rather than wait and have one not be available, or have no choice in the personality. Holly and our collie, Duncan, get along famously. They already run and play together.It's fun having a puppy again, except for a few accidents and waking up at 2am, she is very well behaved. I think she has made a great addition to the family. Merry Christmas and Happy "Holly" Days!

Categories: General

Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza

What did you do for Thanksgiving this year?

We decided as a family that we wanted to give because we have been so blessed already. We spent the week of Thanksgiving with a team of 45 people from Rock Creek Church on a mission with IFM to help the people of Juarez, Mexico (more pictures from the trip can be viewed here).

It is disturbing and amazing to see the living conditions of the people there.Many of them live in "pallet homes" made from shipping pallets, cardboard boxes, and any other material they can find. Water is delivered once a day for 10 pesos, and is stored in a plastic barrel at the corner of their property. Sometimes they have to sleep in their cars because the wind blows so hard, or because of the cold. Of course, you can also expect to see a fair amount of lice because of the unclean conditions. They were also heavily impacted by the extreme flooding earlier this summer.

Our schedule on the trip was very full: Saturday: travel by bus to the House of Cornelius base in Fabens, TX.

Sunday: indoor and outdoor mercados in Juarez, Mexico

Monday: food and ministry to the people of La Colonia Granjas del Desierto

Tuesday: food, medical, health fair and ministry to the people of La Colonia Granjas del Desierto

Wednesday: Brother Ray's Feeding Center in Juarez, Mexico (pictured is Jenny, Ray's widow)

Thursday: Thanksgiving and day of rest at House of Cornelius

Friday: ministry, puppets, tea party and Christmas gifts at an Orfanatorio (orphanage) near Colonia Granjas de Desierto

Saturday: leave for home

The scary part, is that they were relying on my Spanish to get us across the border for 4 of the days! (Yo hablo un poquito español!) We made it across each of the days, though.

Elvia, translated for us on two of the days. She is such a neat lady.

We made a great friend, Eric, who also works at the Feeding Center.

He taught us a great song:

Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza, Eso lo dice El Señor

Si tuvieras fe como un grano de mostaza, Eso lo dice El Señor

Tú le dirías, a la montaña “muévete”, “muévete” Tú le dirías, a la montaña “muévete”, “muévete”

Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá Y esa montaña se moverá, se moverá, se moverá

Translated, it means "If you have faith like a grain of mustard, this says the Lord: If you say to the mountain, "Move", the mountain will move"

For me, this trip has been very moving indeed.

Categories: General

Mission to Mexico

My family and I are raising money for a mission trip during Thanksgiving week (Nov. 18-25) to help the flood-ravaged people of Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas (for more info, see http://www.ifmus.org/). The money raised from the following items will be used to help fund this trip.

G. Harvey signed, numbered Lithographs:

"Whosoever Believeth" $300

"Beside Still Waters" $225

Larry Dyke signed, numbered Lithograph:

"A Heritage From the Lord" $300

Broncos tickets (face value = $70 each, asking $100 each as fundraiser):
section 235, row 11, seats 16 and 17

• Sun Nov. 19 vs. San Diego Chargers
• Sun Dec 3 vs. Seattle Seahawks
• Sun Dec 24 vs. Cincinnati Bengals

Please send email to scottys dot log at gmail dot com if you are interested in any of these items.

Categories: General

IPBuddys: a new eComic!

My son, Connor, has created a pretty cool comic series about two computers in the networked world. The computers? Right now, a PC laptop and an iMac. Perhaps at some point he can add our old Pentium II-266 tower and 486 desktop!

Originally, he wanted to call it "Saturday.COM", but that name is currently taken, even though that URL doesn't seem to respond. I tried to help him come up with a new name, and eventually settled on "IPBuddys".

He's publishing on Blogger for now. If you have any suggestions of a better place to publish a comic, send me a comment!

You can view IPBuddys at: http://www.ipbuddys.com. What an amazing time we live in, where even an 8-year-old can share his creativity with the world!

Categories: General, family

Ten years of wedded bliss!

  

Today, Dawn and I mark ten years of marriage! We are planning a trip to Scotland this year to celebrate. Tonight we are getting together with many of our original wedding party. It will be fun to see everyone again. For those not with us, we will be thinking of you!

Categories: General, family

A Quick Review of my 2005

This year has been a fulfillment of several of my life's dreams. I finally got to go to Space Camp with Connor. I have wanted to go since I was his age. With my new job at Flatirons Solutions, I've also been able to work at Cape Canaveral two different times this year on Boeing's Delta rocket program. It was hard leaving Sun after 9 years, and the extensive travel schedule, but I have grown tremendously both personally and professionally. I also spent quite a bit of time in New York City, Kansas City and Washington, D.C. As a family, we also traveled on several trains in Colorado, including the Georgetown Loop and Cumbres & Toltec; we hope to ride more trains next year, and see more of our magnificent state. We also enjoyed our trip for the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland, and spending time with family and friends.

To all my family, friends and blog readers:

Happy New Year
To One And All
Long Life, Happiness,
Peace and Prosperity to You
Lang May Yer Lum Lou
(may there always be the warmth of a fire in the home
and so employment and prosperity)

Categories: General

Thank you, Veterans!

I've been in D.C. for the past few weeks, and finally had a chance to take in a few of the sites I haven't seen before. My favorite, by far, was the World War II Memorial. I also got to see the FDR memorial and the Jefferson memorial.

The World War II memorial was especially stunning at night! Since my grandfather, Frank E. Mason, served in the Pacific theater during the war, it was especially meaningful. His brothers also served in the war, though in the Atlantic theater.

To all the Veterans: thank you for your years of service defending this wonderful country! I appreciate all of the training and hardships you have endured for our sake.

Categories: General, family

Riding the rails

We had a very special 4th of July weekend treat: riding the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad.

So, now we've done two of the trains in Colorado this year. We still need to ride the Durango/Silverton, Pikes Peak Cog, Cripple Creek, Royal Gorge, Leadville, and others. We are probably done for this year, though. Some of them can get pricey with a family of 5! There's a complete list at: http://www.coloradolinks.net/Colorado_Railroads.htm.

See also: General

I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!

I've spent another great week in the Big Apple. Our flight was delayed several hours inbound because of the rain on Monday, but the weather was just great for the rest of the week.

I was pretty beat, since we were supposed to arrive at 8pm, got in at 12am, and then had to unpack and crash by 1am.

On Tuesday, I had to hit up the Greek place near Madison Square Garden. The Gyro platter was awesome! For dinner, we went to Nick and Stef's Steakhouse at the Garden. I had so much for lunch though, that I had to settle for a light Caesar Salad w/ steak tips.

On Wednesday, I had a return visit to Guy and Gallard for a wonderful Cuban panini and the best Beef and Barley soup I've ever had! For dinner, we went back to the Tir na Nog Irish Pub near the Garden, though I opted for a burger this time.

Thursday was my favorite day of all. I worked from the hotel in the morning, doing updates to our documentation and preparing for our afternoon meeting. Around 11:30, I finished up and decided to make a "quick" run to the World of Disney store. Unfortunately, I didn't quite realize the hike from 9th and 36th to 5th and 55th! I made it around 12:15, and had a 1pm meeting at Two Penn Plaza near the Garden. I had about ten minutes to shop, and then run for a cab. The cabbie tore through the streets, giving me a true cab experience, and getting me to the meeting on time. He got a really good tip, too!

Our meetings finished up at a reasonable hour, so we walked to the Empire State Building. Unfortunately, the line was still really long, and I didn't want to stand around all night. So, we walked up to Rockefeller Center. They had a ton of Easter lillies out front, and they smelled heavenly. The ice rink was very cool.

The highlight of the night was going to the Rainbow Room at the top of Rockefeller center. In honor of New York, I had a Manhattan (a little strong, but the cherry finish was great). From the Rainbow Room, I think we had one of the best views of the city, without having to wait in line for hours!

Since it was nearing 9pm, we left for some lower cost dinner, and came across Via Brazil, a nice atmosphere with live music off Little Brazil. I had a mixed grill, and a terrific banana tiramisu for dessert.

Friday had another trip to Guy and Gallard this time for a Sicilian panini and some terrific clam chowder. After that, it was good bye to the great folks at McGraw-Hill Education, and back to my family in Colorado!

See also: General

Connor's Weather Service: That's my boy!

Nick O'Kelly from 9 News in Denver requested kids send in audition tapes for a chance to be on a morning weathercast with the Weather Whiz Kids contest.

My oldest son, Connor, and I went to work gathering the latest weather data from Denver/Boulder Severe Weather at the National Weather Service.

We put together a script, and he drew up a map of Colorado with a few significant current temps from the viewing area.

Next we did a practice run (we only had a week to get a tape/DVD in for the studio deadline), and then filmed it on our new Sony digital camcorder.

We took the camera up to the iMac and captured the clips in iMovie, put together a quick intro image in iDVD, dragged the iMovie over, and burned the DVD!

I sent it in, and we waited, and waited. Yesterday, during the morning show, they featured Connor's audition! We didn't tape it, unfortunately, but lots of friends and family saw the segment and called or emailed in to our new TV star!

We still don't know if he's won a spot on site at the studio, but his clip is featured on the 9 News website at: http://www.9news.com/

I'm so proud of my little weatherman!!!

See also: Weather

A really Big Idea!

Our family LOVES Veggie Tales. We have all of the videos, and the Jonah movie, and have attended several of the new video launch parties. The 3-2-1 Penguins videos are also some of our favorites.

If you've never heard of Veggie Tales or 3-2-1 Penguins, they are created by Big Idea Productions. They are very family friendly, and teach values: something severely lacking in much of today's entertainment programming. As their tagline says, "Sunday morning values, Saturday morning fun!"

There's a new service available where you can get personalized Veggie Tales music CDs and adventure books! They actually have recorded your child's name for the audio, and insert your child's name and other information into the story for the books.

For those of you in the Denver area, go to Flatirons Crossing and look for the booth, or visit: http://www.justmemusic.us/ndenver/index.php. If you see Curt, tell him Scotty from Sun sent you! :-)

For those of you elsewhere, check out: http://www.justmemusic.com

See also: General

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I give thanks to God for the blessings of good family and friends, a good job to provide for my family, and the freedom and liberty protected in our wonderful United States of America.

Spending the last week in Washington, D.C. provided some great perspective and interesting experiences on why this is truly the greatest nation in the world. I am also very thankful that our democracy works, and that the people have spoken in support of our President George W. Bush. Many disagree, but they are a very vocal minority. The election this year had a record turnout, so I think the results truly indicate the voice of the people.

For a history of thanksgiving, take a look at Bill Petro's articles:

• History of Thanksgiving
• Squanto
• First Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1676
• George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789
• Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863

Happy Thanksgiving, and may God continue to bless America!

See also: General

Congratulations, Dad! (Retired)

My dad officially retired from the USDA Farm Service Agency on October 3, but we held his retirement party this weekend at the Flying W Ranch.

Dad graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor's degree in Biology and became a school teacher at Trinidad High School.He commuted about 120 miles/day to Trinidad from our ranch in Trinchera, Colorado every day for 10 years!

Dad then moved to the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) later named the Farm Service Agency (FSA), where he has been the County Executive Director for El Paso, Park and Teller counties for 28 years.

The Flying W Ranch (http://www.flyingw.com)was a perfect place for his retirement party. The entertainment was spectacular, and surprisingly, dad had never been there. We presented him with a Cowboy bronze sculpture by Remington, and about 40 people were in attendance. Some folks traveled all the way from Lubbock and Seattle to see him off.

I know I'm selfish when I say this, but I have the best dad in the world. He has always been there for me and my family. His Godly character is exemplified every day.

I love you, Dad!

See also: General

Real Men Wear Kilts

My family and I attended the Longs Peak Scottish/Irish Highland Festival this weekend. I think it was one of the best we've ever been to!

We started on Thursday with the Tatoo (The word means: evening drum, bugle, or piper signal recalling soldiers to quarters. The earliest form of the word is from the Dutch "tap toe" which literally means to "close the tap" of the cask in the barrooms.). This spectacular event featured the King's Own Scottish Borderers Pipes and Drums, 78th Highlanders Pipes and Drums, 78th Highlanders Drill Team, Marine Band Twentynine Palms, Fort Carson Mounted Color Guard, cannons, HeadTalk-a drumline, and Dogs of the British Isles. Also quite moving was Isla St. Clair singing "When the Pipers Play".

On Friday, we went to the Field Day, taking in Scottish athletics (Caber toss, Sheaf toss, Stone throw), more bagpiping, shopping for Scottish items, and Scottish food. The weather was overcast and drizzling -- perfect Scottish weather. Then around noon, the sun broke out and warmed everything back up -- perfect Colorado weather!

My mom wanted to try Haggis, but changed her mind when she found out it was boiled. I passed as well... We bought the boys their own sets of armor to defend their "little princess" sister, and I got a Utilikilt!

I first found out about Utilikilts when Eliot Kimber wore one while presenting at Extreme Markup. The pockets are cool, and hold more than a Sporran. I got the Mocker version (seen here with Collin at the Estes parade)

Saturday we went to the parade. I usually march with Clan Cameron, but decided against it this year. I've got Cameron, Robertson, Baird, Sinclair, and Watchman clan blood, so it's hard to get kilts for all of them. Maybe I should get a kilt pin for each and pin it to the Utilikilt ;-) All of you Scots just winced, I know...

The festival is always the weekend after Labor Day in Estes Park, Colorado. Make plans to attend next year!

See also: General, Scottish

Happy Father's Day (early)

My family and I were walking through the Colorado Mills outlet mall, and I begged to stop by the Lego outlet store, and I saw it...

I've been drooling over this set since it was first released. My wife said, "I was going to order this on the Lego site for you anyways for Father's Day, so let's go ahead and get it. This way we don't have to pay shipping!"

Not having to pay shipping is a very good thing. This set weighs as much as a small child!

I was able to show considerable restraint in front of my children by not jumping up and down, but I am an extremely happy man! The set was too big to fit in a bag, so I had to carry it through the mall like a very proud papa.

Interestingly enough, every male in the mall turned their heads to check it out. Most mumbled something about "is that for you, or for your kids?" My silly grin says it all...

Categories: Lego, Sci-Fi, starwars