Hair today gone tommorow

So here is the fro, the straight hair and the buzz.

Guitar Hero II

So here are a couple new pics of my guitar in making. My father in law has kept it going. I'm loving the way it is turning out and I can't wait till it is done and I can have with me and I get to play it. Sorry bout not posting in a long long time but I've been busy and my internet down for a couple of weeks.

Daydreaming

So this is our overweight beagle Ima propped up on our couch wishing she was running loose. You ever wonder what you pet is thinking? Well I know that this dog is dreaming of knocking over trash cans and eating whatever she can.

Guitar Hero

So I am building my own guitar, with lots of help from my father in law (who is making his 33 guitar at the moment) of course. It is so cool to be able to design and create your own instrument. To pick out your own wood and make the inlays and shapes that will make you instrument and one of a kind. In the first pic you can see my handy work on the neck of my guitar the top chunk of wood is what I started with and the middle is the final neck shape with my fretboard below it. The inlays on the tuning head where all done by hand and the inlay is done in blood wood (click on pic to see inlay up close). In the next picture you can see the front and sides of my guitar the top is spruce and I can't remember what the sides and back are but I know it's cool looking wood. Now my in laws live in Nashville so I have only been able to work on it when I am out there visiting, so I have asked my father in law to keep me up to speed with the guitar his is making, I would love to have it by next summer. It has been a great experience learning more about the guitar by seeing how they are made on an intimate level.

Customer Service?

So one of my pet peeves is the decline and absence to customer service. It seems now a days you go somewhere and give them your business and they treat you as if you are the one serving them. No one is friendly no more everyone seems to hate their job and they let you know that they don't care whether your there or not. I don't want to be treated like a king or even have a conversation, I just want a smile or an acknowledgement that I am there. This Sunday though I found some customer service in an unlikely place, Taco Bell. I was shocked to hear a friendly voice over the drive through speaker asking how I was doing, now that's no to big of a deal, I've heard it before. What surprised me was that the guy continued to be downright nice. I drove up to the window and the young gentleman continued to be nice and even wished me a happy fathers day, and gave us tons of napkins and hot sauce which I usually have to beg for more of. The encounter with the good customer service had me so surprised I couldn't stop talking about it for about twenty minutes. Maybe just maybe this is the return of customer service (yeah right), well at least at that one Taco Bell when that young man is working.

Sabbath Thought

The read: 2 Kings 4:1-7

The thought: Gods limit to his blessings is our capacity to recieve.

Pirates of the Caribbean

So this past Sunday we had our last school banquet, which was themed Pirates. Here you can see pirate dad with his little sailor girl. It was a nice banquet and it was fun to dress up. The food was good so I thought till a Tuesday when both me and Alana and a bunch of the students go a sick with stomach stuff, I don't wanna say it was food poisoning so I guess I won't say anything at all. Just thought you might want to see this blogspot exclusive pic of us pirating.

Belated Happy Mother's Day

My computer at home has officially crashed so I wasn't able to blog for a while. I just wanted to wish the two most important mothers in my life a belated happy Mother's Day (on the blog, I did wish it to them personally on Sunday). First my Mom for being a wonderful mother putting up with three boys and not loosing her mind. Second my wife for being a wonderful mother to our daughter while still putting up with me often acting like a little child. Honorable mention to my wife's mother who raised a great daughter and mother.

Congratulations!!

Just want to wish my brother and his wife congratulations for the birth of their first child a baby boy named Camden Tehler Montes. He was born this past Sunday and now Kaiya has a new cousin and I have a new nephew. For those interested in seeing the young fellow just follow this link http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s157/josefermontes/ to see the handsome little guy. Its about time seeing as my brother is 7 years older than me, but I know he is going to be a great father because he was a great brother. Way to go Montes family.

Bangkok

So here is the view from the hotel we stayed at in Bangkok. It was a beautiful view overlooking part of the city. The hotel was $80 dollars a night and it was a suite with a kitchen living space a bedroom and a bathroom with a spacious tub. The suite was very roomy and we had lots of room to spread out and relax. We would never stay in a place this nice anywhere else so we decided to take advantage of being able to. We had a nice time in bangkok despite Kaiya being a little under the weather causing us to loose a little time to site see but at least the room was nice so staying in wasn't bad. We had fun at the night market bargining for better prices and seeing all the neat local wares. The public transportation is cheap and very easy to use so getting around the city is usually pain free, even the taxis are reasonable usually running only a couple of bucks to get were you need to go.

My sweet ride

So here we are taking a family elephant ride through a Thai jungle. We went to this place were we saw a small monkey show and rode an elephant for half an hour.

Back from the east

So were back from Thailand, we got in last night after some 18 hours of travel. Man we felt like zombies yesterday, I'm feeling better today I slept ok last night especially after four in the morning. Pictured is Kaiya sleeping on our first leg from Thailand to Taiwan in a baby bassenet, we were lucky enough to have an open seat on the second leg so she slept in her car seat. Well stay tuned I got a few more pictures of the trip coming.

View from restraunt

Scootering some more

So here is Alana and I scooting along some back roads in Phuket(don't worry Alana's taking the picture especially after my first driving experience). Notice the wind blowing my hair back accentuating my huge forehead reflecting the suns rays like the moon.

Scootering

So here I am on a scooter we rented for a day it was lots of fun driving it around Phuket. But I did crash on it, don't worry my body is ok but not my pride, for you see I crashed it in the parking lot as soon as I got on it for the first time. I had only driven one scooter before this on and it was 50 cc bike that was actually running on 20 cc because it was so old. So I got on this one confident that I knew how to drive it no problem. I got on gave it some gas not realizing the difference between about 20 cc of power as compared to 125 cc of power, the bike started going with me not being ready for it to be going, so I pressed the the brakes but at the same time I was still giving it gas at the same time so it kept going right into the wooden fence in front of me knocking a couple of boards off and knocking me down along with my pride as everyone in the front of the hotel watched me tumble including my in-laws. After that every time I drove by the taxi stand in front of the hotel they would hoot and holler at me as to say "yeah your still alive way to go!"

View from boat

So this is the island we went to. A beautiful beach with some nice snorkeling and very little people to compete with. It was a worthwhile expedition with a wonderful payoff.

Long boating

So we took an a snorkeling excursion were we had to take a long boat to another island of Phuket. You can see we had to take a small hike out to the boat the man ahead of Alana is our boat driver. The ride was a beautiful one hour relaxing trip to the other island.

Local food

So the Thai food is yummy if you don't get anything too hot. Here I am having a coconut milk shake right out of a real life coconut. You better be an adventurous eater you never know what you might get.

On to Phuket

So here we are boarding the plain to Phuket. We took a bus from the terminal to the plain way out on the tarmak.

They love the light kids

So the Thai and other locals are really enthraled with Kiaya they love to make faces and reach out to her. Here she is with the owner of an Indian restraunt we ate at.

Waterfall restraunt

So this is a view from a roadside restraunt we ate at.

Walking around

So here were taking a walk around the Mission College campus. The first pic is Kaiya being pushed around by here cousin. The other is us posing in front to some pretty plants on our walk.

Arrival in Thai airport

Playing in Taiwan airport

So here is k

Trip continued

So we were lucky enough to have an empty seat next to us on both flights so Kaiya had her own seat and was able to sleep. She was a great traveler, no crying.