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Justin took pictures of Tate yesterday further proving that he is one of the cutest creatures God has ever created (Tate, not Justin).

Say "sayonara" to the undefeated A's!

The A's opened their 2008 season in Japan last night, playing the Red Sox in front of 55,000 people. It would've been fun to be there. I want to go to Japan someday. That said, I Tivo'd the game (it was on at 3am California time) and watched Huston Street blow the game as I ate breakfast this morning. They seriously need to trade that guy. I actually don't think they will be that bad this year despite the fact they traded 3 of their stars (Kotsay, Swisher, and Haren). Their young guys are good and Tate is pretty optimistic that they will win a championship by the time he is 4. Though young and naive, his points were convincing: they have amazing young pitching (Gio, Eveland, De Los Santos, Harden, Eveland), promising young hitters with a lot of upside (Barton, Buck, Gonzalez, Sweeney), veteran studs (Mike Sweeney, Ellis, Blanton), a girl (Crosby), and guys with funny last names (Hannahan, Furmaniak, Fiorentino). His unbridled hope has left me with a feeling of promise and excitement. Oh to be young again. On Saturday Mel, Tate, and I went to Shadow Cliffs with Jen, Lacey, Makenna, and Allison. We brought the dogs too. The weather has been super nice and it was fun to get out. Tomorrow we (Mel, Tate, and I) are heading to a cabin in Twain Harte. I haven't been there since I was really young so it should be fun. Twain Harte is a wild spring break party destination. Our families are coming up on Thursday. I'll post some pictures upon our return. For now you can enjoy these shots from the weekend:

The girls.
Grammy and Tate on Easter.
The Foster's joined our Easter festivities. (Editors note: Dan and Jake absolutely DESTROYED Josh and Chris in Bocce Ball).
Tate's winter-themed dusk Easter outfit.
Goodnight.
Straight gangsta.

He is risen indeed!

Yesterday Tate insisted that he and I wear a tie and then take family pictures. Melissa and I, not wanting to frustrate the little guy, decided to have Justin take some pictures for us. I have a bunch of pictures from this weekend that I will post tomorrow. For now, enjoy these:

20 Weeks

Tate is 20 weeks old now. He is becoming a little boy right before our eyes. Not that he wasn't before, but you get the idea. One of my favorite things to do is sit on the couch with him and play guitar for him and make up songs. He is enthralled by the guitar and I can't wait until he is old enough to learn. Melissa will love that. Tate and Mel had bad colds last week which was a bummer. It threw Tate's sleeping pattern off a bit but he is doing better now. I subbed for the first time today. Essentially I did what I have been doing for student teaching except I got paid today since Mr. Levey was gone. Student teaching is going pretty well. Today was day 43 of 75. Time is going by pretty quickly. This weekend is the beginning of spring break. Tate's off to Cancun. Justin took some funny pictures of Tate today and below you can find some of my favorite pictures I have taken of Tate lately:

Looking rather Conley-like.
Say that to my face.
St. Patrick's Tate.

Tate's Friends

The men's retreat was a lot of fun. Aside from a football collision with Deej where I nearly lost consciousness, I escaped the weekend nearly unscathed, having learned a lot. Over the past week or so Tate has had several visitors. He is quite social and naturally, welcomes the company. Cara brought Peet over the other day to play with Bauer. It was a splendid reunion for the dogs. Laura Panfilio and Jen brought Paige out the other night. Unbeknown to Tate and Paige, they have been betrothed to one another. They seemed to have hit it off pretty well. Mark your calendars for a summer wedding in 2030. Mel and I gave Tate a bath over at the Perry's last night. He loves the water and really enjoyed his first "big boy bath." He is going to be starting swimming lessons in May at Cal High with Hayley Townsley...no joke. They have a 6 month to 2 year class there. He is excited!

Blue Steel.

Talk to the hand.
Tate is staring.

Proud moms.

Big boy bath.

Men's Retreat

I am heading off to Silver Spur for the church Men's Retreat today. Should be fun. My dad and Mark are going as well. The Ton and I are driving up with my dad. I will post some pictures and highlights upon my return. For now, here is the second installment of The Manila Initiative promo video. It's a prequel and yes, I spelled Eisenhower incorrectly.

Envy

I generally am a pretty content person. I don't covet all that much. I am a happy guy. However, a couple years ago my friend Justin borrowed my video camera to film a band that was recording some songs in the building where he and his partner James (not in the gay sense) have an office. Long story short...the band they filmed was Switchfoot (a small detail he neglected to tell me until after I agreed to let him borrow the camera). Anyway, he used the footage with some other stuff that he shot in South Africa a few months prior. Below you will find the end result. It is quite cool and a must-see for any Switchfoot fan. I still havedn't talked to Justin to this day. Luckily I have Tate and Mel to make me happy.
South Africa Switchfoot Edit

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(This song was actually written by Jon Foreman (singer) while the band was in South Africa).

That's What He Said

Today was day 34 of student teaching. I will spare you the details but needless to say I was the brunt of several "that's what she said" jokes. All of which were quite funny. I was observed by a teacher from my credential program and she said that I am doing really well. I had the opportunity to share a little bit about the Lord with her and about all of the experiences that led up to me applying for the credential program (basically God telling me that firefighting was not in my future by breaking my wrist). I am starting to get the hang of teaching now but I will be relieved when this placement is done (though I think I will miss interacting with the students). This weekend Mel and I got tickets to see The Swell Season (the guy and girl from Once) in Oakland in April. We are quite excited. The tickets sold out in 20 minutes and are on Ebay right now for about 10 times what we paid for them. It's our only foreseeable date night in the near future. Life in the Middle School Ministry has been really good lately. I feel like God has given me a renewed sense of passion and purpose for the ministry. The last couple months have been kind of trying. Attendance sort of shrunk on Wednesdays and my schedule was so packed that the MSM fell a bit by the wayside. I sent a letter home to students and parents encouraging them to participate more Wednesday nights and to bring friends (we only have 8-9 kids a few weeks in a row). Last week we had 23 students and it was one of the better nights in recent memory (not just because of the number increase). All that being said, life is good right now. Mel and I feel really blessed and Tate continues to bring us joy on a daily basis. As you can see...we love this kid!

Only because he asked me to.
Really sleeping here. That is, until Mel woke me up with the flash. Tate highly recommends sleeping with your arms extended. He says it increases circulation.
He's a big fan of this seat.
Tate is over having his picture taken.

I will post more pictures of Mel and Tate later this week as well as some more video stuff.

The Boo Boo Lip

Tate likes listening to me play guitar. He likes watching TV (though we do not intentionally let him do so). However, he is not a fan out high pitch noises. Case in point: Below you will find my favorite picture of him that we have taken so far. The fire truck toy in the pictures makes a high pitch siren noise. Apparently he doesn't like it. Like his father before him, it is unlikely he will become a firefighter. I took a ton of pictures this weekend and will post them throughout the week and will have some more video up as well.

Grandpa must be so proud!