Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns

Here on Halloween Eve, we finally carved our pumpkins. One year we carved our pumpkins on Halloween afternoon, so at least we weren't REALLY last-minute this year! So here are Michelle and I and the four youngest children, posing with our Jack-O-Lanterns. Justin took the photo, and Christopher was at a water polo practice with the swim team.

Haunted House 2007

Every year at Halloween, Michelle's cousin puts on this HUGE haunted house production in his back yard. It's a tradition that's been going on for something like seven years, and each year it gets bigger, scarier, and more popular. This year his neighbor wanted to participate, too, so they knocked a wall down between their yards, and this thing ran in two back yards. We must have done our jobs well this year, because there were two (that we know of) adult guests that due to fright, spontaneously lost bladder control. Perhaps next year we should hand out diapers instead of candy bars!

Below are four pictures and a video from the event, but we took many many more. Took some daytime shots of the back yard(s), some shots of the characters getting ready, some general shots of family members hanging around, and of course, some shots of the haunted house. To see all of the pictures taken at the event, please click here.

Above is a shot of most of the crew that worked the haunted house. This is all family and friends of family. It was a lot of work, but we had a GREAT time!!!

Above is a shot of Christopher, who jumped out at folks with a running chainsaw and scared the wits out of them!

A happier, not-so-haunted activity. Selling hot chocolate to the people waiting in line. Even though admission to the haunted house is always free, this year we thought we'd try selling hot chocolate to keep people warm. The temps were probably in the high 30s during our lovely little affair. Throughout the course of the night, we estimated 400-500 people going through the haunted house. Because we had three tour guides, and took people through in groups of 4 to 6, a lot of people waited quite a while to get in.

One of the "exhibits" was a funeral scene, where the "dead" person (really a live person) goes from a completely still state, to sitting up and completely freaking people out!

For my part in the haunted house, I played the role of executioner using a guillotine, and my "victim" was Justin. Below is a silly video we shot before the haunted house opened, with me cracking a not-so-funny joke. Justin's timing got considerably better by the end of the very dark night, too, and people were utterly shocked by this effect. We got reactions ranging from stunned silence to spontaneous loss of bladder control to terrified screams. Fun stuff. :-)
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Swim Team

Christopher was on the high school swim team this year, and he really enjoyed it. In his freshman year in California, he played water polo and really enjoyed that. Unfortunately, the high schools don't do water polo in Idaho, so he couldn't continue that sport. In his sophomore year here in Idaho, he played football. Really enjoyed that, but football is such a HUGE time commitment; you basically give away your summer and all of your spare time in the Fall to the sport. So this year, he tried his hand (fin?) at swimming.
Of course, in Idaho, swimming is an indoor sport. The school swim teams use the pool at the local YMCA. The picture you see here is at the District Swim Meet, held at our local Y this past Saturday, October 27th. Christopher is in the photo, in the upper left. He's on the dive platform, and is looking to his right.

End of Soccer Season

Last Saturday (October 20th) was supposed to be our last set of soccer games, but due to "standing water" on the fields from a week full of rain, the games were postponed to yesterday. And we've learned there's good reason the soccer season ends early in Boise: at the start of Andrew's 8:30am soccer game, it was 33 degrees outside. By Steven's 2:30pm game, though, it had warmed up to close to 50.

Posted here is a picture of Steven with his coach at his team party. I've also posted a picture of Andrew playing forward. The coach played him as goalkeeper for nearly the entire season, so when the coach put Andrew and his big left foot in as left striker in the second half of Saturday's game, I had to snap some photos.

Brianna's Voice Recital

Brianna is taking voice lessons at the studio of Marta Johns, a very talented musician in Boise. Last night her studio held its annual "Halloween Recital" where the performers dress up in the costume of the character/era of the piece they are performing. Brianna and a young man by the name of Arac Pena sang a duet of "In My Life" from Les Miserables. Brianna is dressed as Cosette.

Herein is a picture of Brianna with Marta, and I am also including a video I shot of the performance. I shot the video with my small digital camera, without a tripod, so the image is a bit unsteady. Even though I shot it at a higher resolution, I down-res'd it so that it would be a smaller download. Even so, the video you see here is close to 40MB, so it will take a while to download. Hopefully the audio comes across clearly.

California Firestorm

Greetings from Thousand Oaks, CA. I flew in to LAX today, and the two pictures on the right show what things looked like on approach. The continuing fires here have filled the sky with smoke, and everything is drenched in an apocalyptic red-grey hue.

These are taken at noon, on what is an otherwise very clear, cloudless day. In the first photo, I'm probably less than half-a-mile above downtown L.A., and the scene is very grey with a reddish hue. In the second photo, we're on direct approach to LAX, probably less than a mile out. Again very dark, at noon.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by these tragic wildfires.

James Michael Cotter

This past weekend, we had a special visitor. For many readers of this blog, you may not have ever heard of James Michael Cotter. Michael is Michelle's brother, and we lost him almost three years ago. Michael passed away back on January 2, 2005, just short of his 34th birthday.

Michael was really great, and we all miss him dearly. He brought laughter and love in to the lives of everybody he met. And he met a lot of people! He graduated high school from the Speech and Language Development Center, and long thereafter, he participated in their alumni association's Hi-Tops dance team.

The Hi-Tops will be participating in the upcoming Special Olympics Winter Games to be held in Idaho, and their director, Ms. Sandy Garcia, visited us this past weekend while she was up here checking things out. We had a great time sitting around and visiting with her and her grandson, and one of the Hi-Tops dancers who came along. Most of all, we had a great time reminiscing about Michael.

To the left here is a picture of Michael. It's one of our favorites. To see some 200+ pictures that I've posted online, please click here.

We love you, Michael.

Music is Awesome!!!

Last night was Justin's debut performance in a university concert. He is in the Boise State University Symphony Orchestra, and last night they had their Fall Concert, "The Moon and Beyond." It was held at BSU's Morrison Center, and their feature piece was Gustav Holst's "The Planets" - I particularly enjoy the "Mars" and "Jupiter" movements. Good music!!! What would we do without music in our lives?!

Unfortunately, the Morrison Center does not allow photography of any kind, so I could not get any pictures/video of the concert. Therefore, the picture I'm including here is one of Justin's senior pictures, actually taken some 14 months ago. To see all 96 of Justin's senior pictures, please click here.

From Justin's marching band performances, to performing in Carnegie Hall, to playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture in the All Southern California High School Honors Orchestra, Justin has brought a lot of great music in to our lives. We look forward to a great many more concerts, as Justin advances through his music career!

Hot Air Baloon

Quite often we see hot air baloons floating above our fair city. This morning, however, we saw one REALLY close to our house. It was right above our neighborhood, and with the foreground of Fall leaves against a blue sky backdrop, it was quite pretty.

THANK YOU!!!

Earlier in this blog I had made a general "thank you" remark to all those whom had expressed concerns about me hopping to Japan last month, so soon after a trip to the hospital emergency room. Well... I was at a game-industry-sponsored children's charities black tie dinner in San Francisco Wednesday night of this week, and associates I hadn't seen or talked to in months came up and said, "Glad to see you back on your feet, John; I understand you've had a rough time lately." A couple people even commented that they saw reference to it on my blog (and I didn't even know that they knew I had a blog). I'm not sure how this news traveled so widely. So in reply to all the inquiries, here is what has transpired. I'll put it in timeline format:

• March 6, 2006. The morning I was supposed to leave for Japan, incredible back/abdominal pain causes me to black out. I'm taken to hospital emergency room by ambulance, and later find out I'm passing gargantuan kidney stones. Several intravenous doses of narcotic painkillers later, I pass the stones, and I'm on the flight to Tokyo the next day.
• June 22, 2006. This time I know what the symptoms are, and before pain causes me to black out, Michelle takes me to the ER. I miraculously pass stones that should in no way have been able to pass. Surgery avoided, and it's a good thing, because five days later, we moved from California to Idaho.

Through all of this, we realize that I am a unique case. The U.S. has the highest percentage of dehydrated people of any country in the world (I've become a HUGE fan of everybody drinking a lot of water!!!). As a result of this, we as a people get more kidney stones than anybody else, and some 95% of these stones are composed of calcium oxides, caused by poor calcium metabolism. Not me... I'm a bit of a freak. My stones are composed of uric acid, caused by having too much blood urea. From what I have come to understand, these stones are tricky to treat. But we treat them and I'm OK for a while. But the chronology continues:

• May 18, 2007. On my last day in Tokyo on business, I start to recognize that I'm about to pass more kidney stones. I naively think that I'll be able to make it home before they become a significant problem. I end up passing kidney stones at 30,000+ feet over the Pacific, in the airplane lavatory. Talk about terror on an airplane!!! I resolve never to pass kidney stones again, except for in a hospital under a morphine drip (like I have any control of that).
  
• September 9, 2007. Wow... another kidney stone attack. My first trip to the hospital ER in September. Not how I wish to spend a Sunday evening, but the morphine drip sustains me.
• September 12, 2007. I undergo a surgery called "lithotrypsy" where they essentially blast my kidney stones apart, so they can pass. Later analysis of "captured" stone fragments shows that I'm still cranking out the unusual uric acid stones. I'll spare you the detail on "how" those stone fragments were captured, nor will I give you detail on the "ureter stent" they put in.
• September 21, 2007. Ureter stent removed. I am warned that less than 1 in 20 patients, post stent-removal, can have kidney-stone-like symptoms, as the ureter spasms after the trauma to the ureter. Little did I know...
• September 22, 2007. I become a not-so-proud member of the 5% Club, becoming one of those less-than-one-in-twenty patients. Symptoms get so bad that Michelle takes me to the ER, for the second time in September. Morphine drips have at this point become my friend. So... Saturday night in the ER with Michelle. Am I an entertaining date, or what?!?! Little did we know that it wasn't just trauma-induced ureter spasming; as we later learn, I'm passing more stones. If I had known that, would I have not taken off for Tokyo two days later???
• September 28, 2007. At a conference in Tokyo, in the presence of several hundred game developers, I have a wicked kidney stone attack. I end up in the emergency room of Tokyo University Hospital; my third ER trip during the month. Even though I'm overseas, I'm at least happy that I'm in a country where I speak the language. I miss my flight home that evening (ya' think?!), and fly home the following day.
• October 4, 2007. I undergo a surgery called a "ureteroscopy" - look it up, gentlemen, if you care to be completely freaked out. I will never again complain about a prostate check as long as I live - that stuff's child's play! In this procedure, they go in and extract a 20mm kidney stone. The stone has trashed my ureter, and to allow it to heal properly, they put in another ureter stent. This one has to stay in a bit longer than the first one, and for the past 15 days it has been causing me rather annoying pain and discomfort. At times, I've wanted that morphine drip that has become my friend, but 4 ER trips in the span of 4 weeks would just be too much!!!
• October 19, 2007 (today). In a procedure that I think could be rather highly effectively used to extract information from enemy combatants, they go in and pull out the stent. I'm glad to be rid of the thing, but am now in moderate ureter spasm pain, like a mini-kidney-stone-attack. Typing in the blog proves a nice distraction.

Through all of this, the doctors think they have settled on the right mix of medicines and diet to control these stones a bit. As my doctor said today, "If you've got 10 more kidney stone ER trips in your life and we've cut them to three, then we've done some good things." Well... I'M HOPING FOR NO MORE!!!

Through all of this, I appreciate all of the thoughts, well-wishes, prayers, cards and gifts sent my way. I even thank all of you whom have stood in the long lines to lecture me about taking better care of myself, and I'll commit to trying to significantly cut back on the 200-250 days a year I spend on the road every year. I appreciate everybody's concern for me. THANK YOU, EVERYBODY!!!

Sunrise at 8am

Living so far north of the equator, one of the things we're still getting used to are really short days during the winter, and really long days during the summer. Yesterday, I took this photo at 8am, when Andrew and I arrived at the soccer fields for his game. It was also a very lovely 40 degrees outside. Eight o'clock in the morning, and the sun is just coming up; we still have two months before the shortest day, too.

Pinewood Derby Time!!!

This past Thursday was our Cub Scout pack's Pinewood Derby. Below you see Mark with a couple of his friends showing off their cars before race time. Also at that meeting, Mark got a rank advancement to Webelo; Steven also got a rank advancement to Bobcat. Below, also, you see Michelle painting Steven's face with Bobcat marks. He proudly did NOT wash his face to show it off at school the next day.

Fall Leaves - October 9th

So here's our home just four days later. Leaves are a more vibrant color; I think it's just gorgeous! The weather is really pretty today... temps in low 70s, mild breeze going on, bright blue skies. And red, orange and yellow leaves all over the city. Can't beat this time of year...

Asleep on Couch Watching TV

Michelle, Christopher, and Steven fell asleep on the couch watching TV today. Don't they look nice and cozy??? :-)

Soccer Time!!!

This year, Andrew and Steven are playing soccer, and loving it. They are playing through the Meridian Police Activities League, and they play at a soccer complex that sports something like 30 soccer pitches. It's HUGE! Anyway... today I was finally able to get out and take some pictures at their soccer games. It was tough shooting pictures today, though because it was COLD and WINDY!!! The temps were probably in the high 40s, but the WIND made it bitterly cold. But it was fun to watch the kids and take a bunch of pictures.

I had my kidney stone uteroscopy (there's a word!) just two days ago, so it was nice to get out today. A bit tiresome, though, and when I got home, I slept for four hours! :-)

Today, Steven's team lost their game by one goal, and Andrew's team won their game by four goals. Steven played about half the game, divided between being on the field and in the goal. Andrew played the full game, playing the entire time in the goal. I'm posting a few photos here, including some great sequences where Andrew gets some great saves, but for all 52 photos I've posted from today's games, click here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/12556474@N03/sets/72157602298205325).

Steven as goal keeper, waving to his adoring fans.

Steven on a throw-in.

Andrew taking a gaol kick.

Andrew kicking the ball away after he saved a shot on goal. The attacker watches the ball sail over his head. Andrew's developed quite a left foot; he can boot the ball about three-quarters the length of the pitch.

The attacker kicked this shot pretty hard, and Andrew batted it up and caught it, saving a goal.

Nice save, Andrew!

Fall Leaves - October 5th

Ahhh... just love this time of year in Boise. There are some areas around town where the leaves are REALLY changing colors and things are very vibrant. At our house, the leaves are just starting to change, but it's still pretty colorful. It's also a nice, toasty 49 degrees here, but forecasts call for mid-70s next week.

Our boys, who take care of our yardwork, know what these changing leaves mean: they'll soon be all over the ground!!! Hey, maybe there'll be enough leaves to cover Christopher's car up on jack stands! :-)

I'll probably post an updated shot in a couple of weeks, to show how the leaves continue to change, and not too much longer after that, we can post snow pictures!

Payette River Rafting

Continuing to catch folks up via our blog, back in June Michelle's sister, Melinda, and her children Brian, Brett, and Loren (oh... wait a minute... Brian is her husband), came to visit us in Boise, from Riverside, CA. We really had a great time together. On June 16th, we went river rafting on the Payette River. The launch point is only about a 30-minute drive from where we live.

The twelve of us (plus two raft guides) boarded two rafts, and we really had a great time!!! Check out the photos, below. It's hard to see too much detail, but if you click on each photo, you can see a much larger version of it. I love the facial expressions in many of these shots.

I love Steven's smile in the photo, above. You can tell he's really getting in to this!

Our Shadow Family Member

In continued efforts to catch readers up via our blog, shortly after we moved to Boise, we adopted a dog. Just a little 70+ pound puppy. He's a gorgeous Husky / Alaskan Malamute mix, and we absolutely love him. We've named him "Shadow" and he's great with the kids; he's great with everybody.

Here you see him with Andrew, Mark and Steven, and also jumping while Michelle is playing with him with a tennis ball. Man this puppy can jump!

Corn Stalks and Snow

In California, we used to boast that it was possible to swim in the ocean in the morning, and ski the slopes in the afternoon (not that we ever actually did that).

But where else but Idaho can you see corn stalks and snow in the same photo? I took these photos this morning after dropping the kids off at school, at 9am. For those of you who know Boise, these are taken from Chinden and Mountainview Drive. It was a crisp 48 degrees when I snapped this photo, too. There's not a whole lot of snow up there, but what you see in the background is light snow on Bogus Basin, our local ski resort, just a few miles outside of town. Snow on Bogus on October 2nd? Looks like it could be a good season!

Steven's Baptism

Steven's baptism in to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was supposed to be this past Saturday, September 29th, with the rest of the 8-year-olds from the Stake getting baptized. However, given all that happened in Tokyo last week resulting in my delayed return home, we got permission from the Stake to do our own special baptismal service this evening.

The service was really nice, and especially for a Family Home Evening night, we had a very nice turnout. Christopher did the baptism, and Justin did the confirmation. It was VERY cool to have Steven's brothers perform these ordinances.

So... it was great to do the baptism when I could attend, and also before Grandma Cotter flies home tomorrow. She had come in especially for this, and it was great to have her in town this weekend. She also got to see Justin in the BSU Blue Thunder Marching Band on Thursday when BSU's football team played Southern Miss, so that was a nice added bonus.

You see here three pictures posted from the evening. One of our whole family, one of Christopher and Steven, and one of the family at Red Robin afterwards for dinner. I took quite a few pictures this evening, of friends and family attending the service. To see all 28 posted photos, please click here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/12556474@N03/sets/72157602228340668/).