Have you seen these crime fighters!!!!!

The other day Stephen’s friend found his Halloween costume and put it on. Stephen had to do the same of course. Then the tow of them began an epic day of crime fighting and battling of “Really Bad Guys”. When I mean epic, we’re talking about 5+ hours of battling. This would happen at our house in our back yard, in the trees and of course at our neighbors trampoline. These battle’s we loud of course and involve lots of ” I am much stronger than you”, and of course the old faithful ” You’re dead” ..not my favorite.  when Turners brother got home then they began battling the older boys on the trampoline. I was fun to watch the youthful imagination in action and that no TV was requested for almost 6 hours

new phone and down time with Theodore

I was able to pick up our new phones a day early on Friday, and yses I am now an official iphone junkie. I can’t begin to explain how cool and fun they are. But they are practical too. I have input all or our contact information and our calendar,,so know I do not have any excuses about not knowing..Lynese loves this.

Lately Theo has been fussy with me, but today I got a reprieve..He napped on and with me for about 2+ hours..it was awesome

Check it out

the new phone…soon

So at the end of the month I am suppose to be getting an iPhone. I need to wait until the 31st so I can get a price break. The problem is that my current phone is seriously struggling, but it has held up where few have before. This last summer I actually ran over my current phone with my truck and it still works. I surprised that it was still working after that. 

Currently my phone is able to make and receive calls, but the screen is blank. So I can’t see the number I am dialing or the incoming call. But  I only have a9 days left to wait. Needless to say I am pretty excited about joining the current age. I have read up on and played with a few iPhones and am looking forward to it. I will just have to leave it in the truck when doing construction.

More to come

212 days…

Ok..the back history. we have direct tv w/ TIVO. The TIVO needs to be able to communicate w/ direct tv via the phone line, but we didn’t have one by the tv. So we were industrious and bought a wireless phone jack. It lasted about 10 months. So convinced that putting in a new phone jack was a nightmare we bought another wireless phone jack. It lasted about 1 year. By now we have spent about $170 on wireless phone jacks an I was refusing to buy another. I decided to put in a new phone jack and added it to the system, yet I was terribly afraid of playing with the phone system. So I talked to a neighbor who does this stuff and decided to move forward. I bought a new mother board for the phone system to upgrade it and make future expansion easier and the necessary stuff to install a new jack in the wall. I waited and asked the neighbor for help. Needless to say I gave up. When I decided to do it myself, TIVO was giving us daily messages about not communicating,we were at 212 days, that I was putting this off, SO…….

1st-make sure the cell phones are charged. Note: mine is even worse now, the screen is blank I need to wait 2 more weeks stillbefore I can get my new one.  more in another post

2nd-ask the guy at home depot about phone stuff..apparently really easy.

3rd- just do it

It took about 1 hour for me to convert our existing phones to the new mother board and add the new jack.

Really, 212 days, seriously…did I need to wait and for that long on something that is apparently very easy

 

That procrastination for ya

Tattoo redo

On Friday, the 9th, I had Theodore’s initials added to my tattoo.  The tattoo has personal history and meaning so let me explain.

Since I joined the fire service, I have wanted to get a tattoo, but couldn’t commit to one. I figured if I was going to permanently modify the body given to me, it better be special. So for nearly two decades I have himmed and hawed about ideas, but nothing ever struck me as just right. Then, in the fall of 2007, I was painting the boys room and everything came together.We were making the boys room look like a fire  station and I was painting  my old station logo from Bernalillo County FD Station 2. The logo was a dragon holding a  numeral 2 with a banner underneath that read “Numquam defesus a ignis”  which is ‘Never Tire of Fire’ in Latin. I worked in BCFD for 10 years and learned the trade. While I was painting, the idea hit me: I can get that logo modified for a tattoo, but include elements from my past and present and a little deeper meaning.  I translated “My Brother’s Keeper” into Latin. This was a motto that we, at CRFD, used in regard to our beloved brother Jeff Dunn and the care we were giving him during his battle with ALS. Jeff also is Stephen’s God- father. We asked Jeff and Cyrilla to be God-Parents after Stephen’s birth, despite his then recent diagnosis with ALS. He and Cyrilla felt extremely honored to be God-Parents and in my heart I believe that Jeff  still watches over Stephen.  

The general layout of the tattoo: I changed the dragon and placed the ‘brother’s keeper’ quote honoring Jeff, on top in Latin and the ‘Never tire of fire’ on the bottom in Latin. Instead of having the dragon hold a 2, I decided to have the dragon hold the IAFF logo. IAFF is the International Association of Fire Fighters and I have been a member since 1993.  I feel it embodies to true brotherhood of fire fighters. In the bottom crest of the logo I added Jeff’s date of death and his initials. His date of death that all of us are on borrowed time and we must make the most of life, and to remind myself that I and a few others really came together and walked the talk of being our brother’s keeper in our care and support of Jeff, it was an honor to serve him and his family.I did this because there was about 6 of us that went to the extra mile for out brother Jeff and his family.  

Now if you look closely at the wings of the dragon, you will see the initials SJZ, FMZ,LAZ and now TAZ. They are kinda of hidden, which was the point. These are the initials of my 3 boys and my wife and they cover the dragon, protect him, and support him aka me. It has lots of meaning for me and a reminder of all that is great in my life. So enjoy the pictures and try to see all that hides.

sledding and coffee anyone

The other day we decided to try out the new sled and ski pants that the boys got. The pants were hand-me- downs from a neighbor of my in-laws and the sled was an impulse buy by me, because I can’t grow up.

So we bundled everyone up and packed extra gloves and headed to a small hill in town that we go to. There was only about 3″ to 4″  on the ground, but enough. what should be noted is that my little sister  and my niece Elizabeth came with us and they really do not like the cold. when we left our house it was about 28F with minimal wind. But when we arrived at the hill it was very windy,…..like really cold windy. So we bundled up and hit the slopes for a short period. Lea, my little sister, and my wife stayed in the van with their perspective little ones and stayed warm. They rest of us crazy kids hit the hill. The boys had it figured out. They would get on the tube or sled and bury their faces in the sled and their clothes, so no skin was exposed to the wind. Then Liz and I pushed and rode down the hill with them. Then we would drag them back up the hill and do it again. BEING A KID IS GREAT!!!

However after a few wrecks and snow being splattered down out jackets, see attached picture, we set out for a local watering hole, ie Starbucks. It of course was busy and we managed to find some seats and enjoy some liquid heat.

 

Also this Friday is a big day for Theodore….I am having his initials added to the rest of the family’s on my tattoo and having some touch up done…see ya soon

Time off with 3!

I have the fortune of being able to take a lot of time off with the kids. With sick leave, vacation and trades I will been off from December  13th through March 11. On return in February for 2 1/2 shifts starting on the 22nd but not full till until the 11th. This affords me the opportunity to to spend  a lot of time with the three z’s, as can be seen by the pictures. Stephen and Fred have also be very helpful with the various projects that I have been working on. My main job while I m off is to tend to the two older boys and a try to let Lynese get as much sleep as possible. So in the mornings I get up with the boys an get the daycare kids checked in and situated and fed while Lynese sleeps, see she has to get up and tend to matters at night that I am not able to attend to. Then during they day I wade in and out of the house working on projects and helping with the kids. My big projects on the honey do list have been shrinking. WE cleaned out and organized the kitchen, I completely redid the garage and my tool storage and started organizing and going the vast clutter in the basement. we have actually made great head way. The hold up has been t he helpers. We told them that we need to go through the vast toys and thin the herds. They wanted to give toys to kids that don’t have any, this was out suggestion and they agreed, but easier said then done. We pulled out toys that they hadn’t seen in years and couldn’t let go saying they were their favorite!!!!!… Owell, progress continues enjoy

Christmas Review

Christmas was wild crazy as usual. We started checking Norad for Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve morning, so by about 6 pm Stephen kept saying that he needed to go to bed so he wouldn’t be awake when Santa arrived. We were reminded of this about every two minutes. As the evening wore on we placed a plate of food and 2 diet cokes out for Santa, Freddy wanted to put out a beer. That’s my boy. We then put out the Santa key out side and read traditional Twas he Night Before Christmas. After the boys went to bed, we took care of the necessary stuff and went to sleep ourselves.

The next morning we were awaken at 6 am by the pitter patter of feet running down the hallway.  Stephen announced that he knew Santa had come because he saw his magic footprints. Freddy exclaimed that this was awesome. So  the boys and I headed down stairs to go through our stocking and start eating our usual xmas morning doughnuts. All Freddy wanted to do was eat his candy and Stephen was very happy about getting alot more green army men so he could have a really, really, really, really big battle.

After Lynese awake we began the crazy paper flying festival, aka opening presents. As the piles developed the boys were elated. Stephen would get really happy about clothes and his new sheets, must be his mothers genetics. Freddy was just happy to open presents.

The highlights:

1-the boys got spiderman web shooters, note don’t let kids shoot the webbing in the house, it sticks to everything and after a can each I noted that it says that it can stain clothes wood rugs and plastic..great

2-we got a wii and the boys both need to have their licences revoked already..they are CRAZY drivers

3-Thank god for early naps

Enjoy the pics..more to come

Bank DAY

Today was a big day for my two oldest boys, Stephen and Fred, regards their financial future. For a few years now we have given the boys some change each night before bed. This has also been some bribery too. If they stayed in their own bed they would get a quarter. If they didn’t they would get less, and if it was a disaster of a night they got nothing. So through time and attrition they have learned that typically money needs to be earned. We also have from time to time taken money from them if they break something doing something careless or if they have been completely out of their minds misbehaving. So they have also somewhat learned that  one can loose money if you do stupid stuff. None the less we have decided to take it to another level. Saving our money. I personally have not been very good at this and wish to teach my children to be better. So finally today we opened saving accounts for Stephen and Fred at Wells Fargo. These kids account aren’t billed any monthly fees and have slightly higher rate than the normal savings account, like .1% I think. The  cool things is that the kids get to dump their change into the coin counter and make deposits.When they make deposits they get Stage Coach bucks, which can be redeemed for toys and knickknacks. They can only get one of these if their deposit is greater than $3. So it can take frequent  deposits to get something they want from the prize chart. The best part, they were both very excited to go and do this. We talked after we made their initial deposit and they both picked out toys the want to save for. And we talked that it will take a while to get there. So we agreed that we will go make a deposit a month until they have enough. I think that this is a great lesson for them. I can wait  to more with them as they get older. Enjoy the attached picture of the boys holding their new brother

I’ve gone crazy!

I decided to post a blog since Lynese has had some success with hers. I figured mine would have different theme and character and hopefully be filled with the qibs and trials of my three sons. so far they have turned out to be absolutely wonderful and a challenge at the same time.

the blob is a play on the old tv show my 3 sons, but  that site was already taken, so I added the Z to it. yes its because it will be that boring, be actually for the last name.

My thought was to help keep  the family posted on the various “attitute” that the boys have exerted on Lynese’s house and their daily trials. I am glad that we waited 7 years to start having kids but I kinda wished that we had stared sooner. I love these guys more than is humanly possible and wish we could do more together.

This site will also have a fire fighter twist to it and will occassionaly host a rant here or there but I hoope to let peoples comments kind of guide the mood and posts

thanks and have patience

Zuke