Our Great Grandpa Sherwood, 100 years old this March!

Here is our tribute to our Great Grandpa Sherwood who will be 100 years old March 7, 2008. Please note the amazing picture of him and I pounding it last year at his 99th birthday party!

Grandpa Sherwood has always been a great example to me. He is an example of endurance, optimism, faith, commitment, perseverance, and a warm heart. He has influenced so many people in so many ways. He has also inspired everyone that he has met. Never before have I met or heard of anyone that has been able to do the things that he has in the latter half of his life. I think it goes without saying that he is probably the oldest person that any of us know, and yet he is one of the youngest. Have you ever seen a 98 year old man pull weeds on his hands and knees, or get on his hands and knees to work on his lawnmower and sharpen the blade? I have, last year when I went to visit. Have you ever heard of a 98 year old bruising or breaking a rib? How about doing it while jumping on his 14 foot trampoline that he has in his back yard? It’s not just for the grandkids! My father (Ryan – who will kill me for saying this) was struggling to read something within the last year and asked for his glasses (as most people do at his age). As soon as Grandpa heard that he asked, “What is the matter with you? I’ll read that.” He promptly took it from my father and read it to him…without glasses! I also remember, as many of you do, when he recently visited the hospital a few months ago and gave everyone a big scare. When we got the phone call that grandpa was in the hospital and the cause was uncertain, the thought rushed to my head that it could finally be his time. Low and behold his medicine was not prescribed correctly and as soon as they got things figured out, later that night, he was walking down the hall with out any assistance. Are you kidding me??? I am sure the doctors and nurses were truly amazed! Grandpa was also the one who introduced us to the all too famous “Grandpa Specials” (toast with jam on it, in a bowl of milk). Man, who ever thought bread in milk would be such a great combo? My wife is still scared to try it but one day I know we will end up passing that tradition on to our kids and grandkids. Another specific moment that really sticks out in my mind that I will never forget is when I was 14 (1995ish) and I was on a job site with my father, and Grandpa Sherwood was there working. I asked how old he was and he said 88. I could not believe that he was working on houses at 88 years old! I recall asking him years later why he worked so long and why he was so active now at his age, to which he answered that he tried to retire in his sixties once and it almost killed him. Since then grandpa has dedicated his life to being the most active person I know. Not only do most people not usually get the privilege of being on the earth this long, but most people half his age are half as active and succumb to laziness and then bad health. I honestly believe that God has a plan for everyone and that we leave this earth when God needs us, or when our work here is done. Grandpa obviously still has more lives to touch, more youth to influence for good, more people to inspire, and more young people to put to shame. Though he is not the youngest person in the world, he will still work harder, and get more done in a day than you or I could ever hope to. He is more agile and more productive than men half his age. He is the most kind, gentle, loving, witty and hilarious person I know. He is still as quick witted as he was when he was younger. We could all learn a lot from his example and from the way he has lived his life up to this point. Oh, and did I mention that he is more in style than most people in High School? See the picture below of him and I “pounding it” at his 99^th birthday last year! We love you Grandpa! Happy 100^th birthday!!!

Breaking into cars...new career path?

So this picture is from this past Saturday 12/1 when I took the interns paintballing up in Snohomish. It was freezing that day but it was fun nonetheless. So after our outing we were all changing and ready to get some food and be warm again, when one of the Intern hosts that came up with us (he took the picture) said that he had locked his keys in his truck. My first thought was, "where is a metal hanger?" Unfortunately I was unprepared (I know, some eagle scout I am!) so I went looking for anything resembling a wire coat hanger. After much searching I stumbled across an old torn down barbed wire fence. Someone had a leather man so I went to town cutting and stripping the wire (final result is in my hands in the picture). Within a few minutes the door was open and we were on our way. So the next day at church our friend Sarah locked her keys in her car. Conveniently I just happened to have a barbed wire in my trunk that I had made into a door picking device the day before! I am starting to think I might want to look into a a career change.

Chang's Mongolian Grill with the Family!

Click on the picture to see the rest of the pictures:

Kandi, Carson and Maddie came over from Spokane to celebrate Kandi and Carson's birthdays so we went to Chang's Mongolian Grill for an all you can eat buffet.

What's New

Once again it has been a while since we had updated our Blog so there are quite a few new entries in October to recap the last few months. Here's our current status:

Darren: I am now an Intern Recruiter at Google and running the entire program for the Seattle area. Needless to say, it is a lot of work and a lot to learn in a short period of time. As has been the pattern in my last few positions, I am being thrown in the deep end and hoping I can swim. Trial by fire, you've got to love it. But so far it is going great! I love working with interns because they are so appreciative of everything you are doing for them, I mean, after all, I am getting them an internship at Google! It is night and day from working with people who have been working in the industry for a while. For them it is not such an honor and privilege to get a great job anymore; more an expectation. Plus, as you see in one of the posts below, I have the privilege of taking the interns to do fun stuff. Here is a picture of the Headquarters in CA from this past week when I went down for some training.

Both: Aside of that, Brandi and I are both youth leaders in the church. That includes weekly and monthly activities. We are really growing to love the kids we are serving and working with. It still amazes me that we are leaders over youth when we (and by we I mean Brandi!) were just barely that age. In fact, not a week goes by where someone mistakes us for the youth in the ward...once again, mostly Brandi. Over the summer we got to be "Ma" and "Pa" at a 3 day trek. A trek for those who may not know is a reenactment of the long journey that the Mormon Pioneers made on foot as they pulled incredibly heavy handcarts across the US. We were the leaders of a made up family of 8 kids. It was an amazing experience, but the best part was the constant mistaking of Brandi and I for youth. Brandi continuously got hit on by the young men in the stake. It was great!

Brandi: As for Brandi, she is probably more busy and stressed out than she has ever been but handling it like a champ! She is taking 6 classes right now and working part time. The interesting thing about the schooling is that 5 out of the 6 classes are online. Now in order to complete these courses, she has to have everything done very early to allow time for her to 1: send her work to the school in the mail (it's not just online stuff), 2: the school to ship the tests out to her, 3: take the test with a proctor somewhere, 4: ship the tests back. Everything is due for her by the end of November which essentially has given her 8-10 weeks to finish 5 out of the 6 courses while working and dedicating herself to her calling over the young women in our church. She is truly amazing; I am a lucky man!

Carving Pumkins with our friends - Halloween 2007

Click on the slide show to see the rest of the pictures larger. Brandi and I decided to have our friends Parker and Sarah over to carve pumpkins this Halloween. Our pumpkin was by far the coolest pumpkin that I have ever carved, and believe me, I have carved some pretty amazing pumpkins if I do say so myself. TMNT Power!

Brandi's little accident

Okay, I get a call 2 weeks ago on Wednesday night and Brandi sounds kind of panicked and says, "Darren, I am off the side of the road. I am ok but...". It was on an on-ramp to the freeway during rush hour traffic in the rain. There was no way I was going to be able to get there in less than an hour because for some reason, when people in Seattle see rain, they all freak out as if it is some kind of horrible blizzard. You would think they would get used to it but unfortunately this is not the case. Anyway, I made some calls and had a friend that was near by come try to help her. By the time he got there a cop had already arrived. He called a mandatory tow truck because as you can see, the tail end of the car was sticking into the lane a little bit. The tow truck driver was not the brightest person in the world but he was able to get her car off of the small concrete barrier that it was high-centered on (only with the help of my friend of course). That was a nice $190.00. Then the cop slaps her with a $175.00 ticket for driving too fast for conditions (I know, ironic how we get irritated with the slow drivers). Add that to the $1,500.00+ in damages and you get one expensive lesson that those irritating drivers just might have something!

Family Room Camping with the new camping gear!

We are still doing some of the shopping for things that were on our registry that we didn't get but that are necessities. Camping gear is a must and being that we are somewhat newly-weds, we waited until all of the things were on sale to get them! The little 7'x7' tent and 0 degree mummy bags were only $20 each. Also due to the fact that we are still fairly newly-weds we decided to go camping that night in our family room; I know cute aren't we? Anyways, we were very tempted after about 10 minutes to scratch the idea and go to our comfy bed but decided to stick it out. Chalk it up for one of those crazy things you do when you are first married.

Yes these are Christmas PJ's that Brandi bought us last year. What can we say, we are excited for Christmas!

Testing out every string on the new mummy bags. I was surprised how many it had.

Rockclimbing with the Interns

So I just started into a new role at work; I am working with the Interns. It is always crazy and very time consuming but below shows one of the perks that comes along with the job. This is what I was doing one night for work. I take the interns out to different fun events to show them a good time while they're here and well, someone has to get paid to do it!

Studying at the beach...well, it's a beach in Washington!

So for some reason there was a really nice day here in October in Seattle (Renton) where we live. We live 2 miles from the south end of Lake Washington so we decided that we would go study at the beach (State Park). Brandi is studying like crazy to finish her Associates Degree and I am studying for my new position at work.

Out on the Boat with Brittany and Ryan - Summer (Late Post)

So, we will try to do a quick recap. In early September our friends Brittany and Ryan came up to visit and we decided to go out on the boat on Lake Washington. One of the days they were here we went on the boat during the day for fun and one of the evenings we took the boat in to Lake Union to get dinner at Ivars. It is really cool; you can dock the boat at the restaurant and go in and eat. Fun times!


Yeah, we are pretty much a couple of tough guys.