WWII...Coraline and the German Gift

Deeds--On Saturday MLE and Mom came over and we celebrated Julie's Birthday. We gave her the "Secret" gift of a ticket to Germany to visit Tami over Christmas. I think she will have a great time with her sisters. We sure will miss her over Christmas. Hannah cried when she found out. But we will still celebrate Christmas, we will just do it early. I have been excited to give her this gift as we have been keeping it a secret between just Tami, Jer, MLE and I. I sure like Julie!


This week for work I had to do the Quarterly Business Review presentation. My skills at this have come a long way in a year since I was showed how to do it this time last year.

Outside our yard has been doing well this summer. Our Grass really came in this Spring. Our Butterfly bushes are like 12 feet high. We see all kinds of butterflys around them as well as hummingbirds. I took some clippings of another butterfly bush that has different color blooms and I have been growing them in a pot along with some forsythia clippings. I also dug up some of the Rose of Sharon that had seeded from last year and put them in a planter. I am going to see how they do in the planter over the winter.


Thoughts--Listening to the Audiobook about WWII. The carnage in that war was just unbelievable. As they say War is Hell. I wish I had talked more to my Grandfather about the war. I understand he did not talk about it much like many men who fought in it. He did tell me a few stories towards the end of his life. I wish I knew as much about WWII then as I do now. I would love to ask specific questions about where he was and what campaigns he was in. He did tell me the story of having the compass go out on the bomber he was on and having to fly low to the water so he could crawl out on the wing and fix it. He said they made it back to the carrier but ran out of fuel and crashed landed on the boat. I guess he mostly in the pacific theater. I will have to ask Grandma more about what he did.


Words--We watched the animated movie Coraline. It was a good movie I thought. It did get kinda creepy near the end. The soundtrack was really good so I downloaded it and I have been listening to it all week. Not sure why I just really like it and the little songs get stuck in my head.

Fishing with Captain Kirk

Thoughts--I had a dream this week that I went fishing with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as they looked in the 1960's TV show. They were wearing their yellow and blue outfits...

Deeds-- It was Julies birthday this week. I went to the Verizon store Wednesday night and got her a new cell phone. Hers was at least 5 years old and would not hold a charge. So I figured it was time for a new one. I got her a Samsung Trance (Red). Its cool because it has an MP3 player with 1GB of hard drive memory. I also got her a 4GB microSD card. So now her phone has more memory than her IPOD. It took me awhile in the store because the clerk had only worked there for 2 weeks and was not very knowledgeable on the phones...or the "Deals"...or where anything was... Julie really seemed to enjoy her gift. I wonder what she will think of the secret "Combined Gift" on Saturday...

I have not played tennis at all this week. My "Tennis elbow" is still bugging me. Kind of annoying.

Words--I finished the audio book the Souvenir. I am now getting started on "Citizen Soldiers"...a continuation of my WWII theme. This one is 18 discs so it might take me a couple of weeks of driving to work.

What do you think of my use of pictures in this post...

Antique Cars and Speaking Engagements

Thoughts--Last night I had a dream that one of my old mission companions Robert Porter came driving up to me in an antique German sportscar. I was really excited to see him especially since in real life I heard that he had died and that I had not seen or heard from him in 15 years. We were companions in the MTC then ended our Missions together in the same district in La Vega. The weird part of the dream was that he was giving me the antique car as a present. I guess he was pretty well off. I just remeber feeling guilty because I was excited to own the car only so I could sell it. What does that say about me...it was just a dream...or was it...


Deeds-- I spoke in church today. The Branch and the Ward are both still meeting together at the Stake Center since the expansion is not quite done on our building. The topic was "Laws and Ordinances" from the Preach My Gospel manual. I spoke about the time I got pulled over and ticketed doing 29 mph (in a 15 mph zone in Provo) and went to traffic school to get it expunged. The police officer at traffic school said all of you know the traffic laws and you know how to drive but sometimes after years of driving we tend to become complacent and lazy about checking mirrors and using turn signals which could prevent accidents and save your life. I compared this to our lives in how sometimes the things that are important we become complacent about.


Words--Book of Mormon Mosiah 18: 8-10 (LOOK IT UP!!!)

Check your SHOES!

Thoughts--Today is the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. I realized it when I was listening to my WWII Audio book and the author was talking about the bombing and mentioned it happened on Aug. 6th...kinda strange listening to that part of the book and realizing it was the anniversary...

Deeds--I went to the gym before work (in the building where I work). I packed my gym bag with my "work clothes" including my dress shoes, belt, etc. I changed into my work clothes and realized to my dismay that I had packed TWO RIGHT FOOTED DRESS SHOES. I recently bought new dress shoes and my two pairs of shoes were next to each other in the closet. Considering home is an hour away I had quite the dilemna...I can wear my gym shoes with my dress clothes (Dofus)...wear one dress shoe and one gym shoe(Hi I'm a Loser) OR I can wear two right footed dress shoes and hope no one notices and that it doesn't hurt too much. Here is the option I choose (The Dofus + Loser look=Lame!). Weird but no one seem to notice... read quote below.

Words--Movie Quotes (Shoe related)

Shawshank Redemption --"Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guard simply didn't notice. Neither did I... I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes?"

Fletch--"I would have been here sooner, but a manure-spreader jackknifed on the Santa Ana. ***dawful mess. You should see my shoes..."

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH DEAR

Thoughts--This month is such a special one its Birthday time for Joseph, HANNAH, Tami, Julie, Jeremiah...

Words-- HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUPER HANNAH MICHELLE VORHAUER!!!!

Deeds-- Time to Eat birthday Dinner, and Cake (That Hannah helped make) and open presents! Today is your birthday SHOUT HOORAY!

Wolfprey

Thoughts-- I had a dream Monday night about the military helicopter/jet plane called the Osprey. It is an actual military vehicle that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like an prop-jet airplane. HOWEVER in my dream I witnessed the next generation called the "Wolfprey". Don't know if this exists but in my dream it essentially functioned the same way as an Osprey except it had radar stealth technology and it was silent when hovering like a helicopter. It was shaped almost like a Snowspeeder from "Empire" but had kinda that Stealth Bomber look to it. The stealth design allowed it to move into combat areas undetected. The silent Helicopter function allowed soldiers to be dropped onto buildings from repelling ropes to create surprise attacks especially in hostage situations. NOW why I had this dream I have no idea...I ate ice cream and watched Sportscenter before falling asleep which is a standard for me (But then bizarre dreams like this are also a standard). I had to look up what an Osprey looked like to see if it matched my dream. My big fear is that somehow my mind wandered into the Military mainframe computers while I was sleeping and accessed Top Secret Military aeronautical test information on this new "Wolfprey" that I "Dreamed" up.

Deeds-- Tuesday night I had dinner with John Raeder the CEO of IQNavigator. He was in DC on business and invited 6 members of our team that support the Northrop Grumman account to dinner as a celebration for the long term contract that was just signed between our companies. He had just met with Calvin Freeman who is the Procurement Director that I report to at Northrop Grumman. This was the first time John and I have met and it was amazing because he starts giving me all of this great feedback that Calvin had passed on to him about the great work I was doing, how dedicated I am to the account and what meant the most was Calvin told him that I am a strong of "Family Man". That meant alot because above all that is how I hope people think and remember me. John told me that these are all attributes that are dear to him and commended me on my success. I of course was feeling pretty good about things when we then sat down to dinner. The first thing John does is share with the entire team about his meeting with Calvin and then proceeds to tell the whole team everthing he had just told me. I think my head was floating off my shoulders at this point. Our team ended up staying at the Restaurant with John for nearly 4 hours eating, and talking business and life. The other thing that stood out was how everyone knows I do not Drink and they went out of their way to support me in this. The group that came up from Newport News had gotten gifts including wine for other members of the team. They brought me a nice bottle of Trader Joes Sparkling Lemonade as a gift. And when they ordered Champaiyne to toast our success they made sure that the waiter, without me knowing, only brought glasses for everyone else and they had me toast with my Ginger Ale (I take this as a compliment). I am very blessed to be in the job position and company I am with right now.

Words-- Monty Python Quote of the day--"Did he say Splunge?... What does Splunge mean?!?!"

"It means it could be a great idea but possibly not...I'm not being indecisive...!"

Day Too

Words--Song Quote of the Day: "Those who are dead, are not dead, they're just livin in my head".

Thoughts--My commute to work is about an hour each way. I got a library card from the Reston Library near work. I have been checking out audio books that I listen to on my commute. Lately I have been doing a WWII theme. I have listened to "Night" about a holocaust survivor, "The Diary of Anne Frank" about a holocaust victim, and now I listening to "Souvenir". It is about a women who after her Fathers death, finds hundreds of letters that her Father wrote to her Mother during WWII. He never spoke of the war so she is learning about who he was before he experienced combat to how he changed during and after combat. The souvenir is a small silk Japanese flag that he sent home that she tries to find out where it came from and why. I always read and listen to non-fiction and this Libary has a huge selection of non-fiction audio books. For whatever reason I want to read stuff that is about real life especially history. I think because I have enough fantasy nonsense going on in my head I don't need to really add more "Fiction" to it.

Deeds--Julie and I played tennis today after work. I won again 6-2. She did win the first game on a long volley in which she got me running all over the place and finally placed it perfectly in the corner to win. I love playing tennis with her. We have done it a lot this summer and we both look forward to playing. It sure is nice having a court in front of our house.

...And so it begins...

My main reason for starting a blog was just so I could be like everyone else...

Wait...no thats not it...

I wanted to start a Blog to share the latest happenings in the life of the Vorhauers...

Uhm...Ohhhhh SNAP!!! Thats been done before...Julie keeps an amazing blog of all of the cool events in our life.

Hmm so my main reason for creating a blog is...never mind lets just get started.

Sunday Thoughts---(Its the Sabbath so I will post something Churchy)

Today I taught Elders Quorum. I shared my favorite Joseph Smith quote that I have found so far from his Journal. Random people were always showing up on his doorstep. January 21, 1836 a Minister from Conneticut show up and began asking Joseph Smith about the Church...

"He then asked me werein we differ from other Christian Denomination..."

I personally have been asked this question many many times. My responses typically begin with our belief in the Book of Mormon, Latter day revelation and Prophets etc. HOWEVER I love JS response...

"...I replied that we believe the Bible, and they do not..."

This is quite a bold response but it speaks to the Knowledge that Joseph Smith as a Prophet has of the Gospel. He was a chosen servant the same as other Prophets from the Bible and from his own revelations from God he understood and believed the Bible more than anyone.