HOT!!!! Labor Day

The weather has been smoking hot in LA, so on Labor Day we headed south to Newport Beach and cooled off in the Pool at the "Stayner Inn. Hannah Banana loved the floating dog and even tried her luck on the boogie board. Zach is looking forward to surfing with his dad soon, why not start by practicing in the pool?

Zach and Matt watched the LMU Lions Soccer match vs. Cal Poly on Saturday. A friend of ours from church, Andrew Morris is a sophmore center forward, but unfortunately he was hurt for this game and didn't play. Zach got a mini LMU soccer ball which he loves. AYSO season #2 starts this Saturday.
I've started a mini-surf club and we have been surfing at El Porto in Manhattan Beach the past few weeks. With the hot weather, warm water and nice swells it has been a blast. And September is one of the best months for surfing in Southern California and I hope to surf a lot more before the weather and water turn chilly. With our current heat wave I've been spending time in front of the open freezer to try and cool down. 10 days a year we need A/C and it always seems to be over Labor Day.
Now, Summer is almost over. I started school at LMU MBA for my third and final year last week. Zach starts first grade at Westport Heights Elementary in Westchester on September 5th.

Hannah Banana

What is life like for an 8 month old? Well, playing with the water bottle is a big thrill, as is climbing up from sitting to standing on anything semi-permanent. Cute princess wave, and learning to clap hands. Favorite words: Dada, mama, Dack (for Zach), Agua and the constant "HI". She called Mickey Mouse "baby: the other day. She loved our trip to Sea World (Zach enjoyed the soak zone much more than Hannah), and loved watching the dolphins jump and splash! Soon she'll have the house to herself again with Zach back in school, but I'm sure she'll miss her best buddy.

BLOG.STAYNERS.COM

I have transformed the location of my blog to blog.stayners.com. Also, please note the links to family members sites!

Matt Update:
My MBA program at Loyola Marymount University is 60% complete. I plan to finish in August 2008. At work I received a promotion a few months back and am now the Site Lead for Information Technology Services at Neutrogena. I've had a three week break from school this August. Kay, Zachary (age 6) and Hannah (8 months now) all went to Newport Beach to visit my parents, and then to San Diego to conquer Sea World and the beautiful beaches in La Jolla.

I declare myself officially scatter-brained as evidence by my summer reading and exercise schedule. In my spare time I've been reading Harry Potter 7, Eldest, Twilight by BYU grad Stephenie Meyer, Naomi Novak's Temeraire Series, the Word & Void series by Terry Brooks, the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. I usually read one of the books for a few chapters then choose another one. At least I'm not watching as much T.V. as before. As always, if you have a good, clean page turner let me know. I tried reading James Patterson once, but after the third F-Bomb in the first chapter, I haven't read him since.

As for exercise, well I've been surfing the past week. Before that was tennis for awhile, indoor volleyball with the LMU women's team, swimming with the LMU Master's Swim Team, weight training at the YMCA and LMU and softball (does softball count as exercise?). I haven't been on my bike for months (I think I'm bored by the lack of hills and mountains to conquer, riding along the beach is actually quite boring to me). That or I'm no longer interested in the Tour de France since Lance retired and the rest are doped up. The only constant has been basketball at the church on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings.

Lastly, at our home in Westchester, the local cats think our side yard is their personal kitty litter box. Since there are no sprinklers in that area (cats don't like sprinklers), and the yard has been abandoned to dirt and soft sand, the cats have enjoyed months, no years of this wonderful public utility! I tried fox urine (didn't work), throwing tennis balls (the cats thought I was trying to play dodgeball and therefore we ended up with more curious cats around our place since the schools won't let them play dodgeball anymore), and even considered a trap! But, I've attacked the problem in a new way. I started watering the nearly dead grasses, ripped out the overgrown and nearly dead pine bush, and planted new flowers and grasses that are starting to fill in the old litter box. So far I haven't seen any new cat activity, and hope by mid-fall to have the ground cover in place to further discourage the dodgeball cats of Westchester. I don't know where I inherited the green thumb, certainly not from Dave B. or Sue S.

Kay Update:
How is the world's most beautiful supermom doing? Great! Good thing our beautiful kids look like their mother! We recently hosted a party for Kay's UCLA friends from her dorm years. It is fun to see how the group has transformed from swinging singles, to newly marrieds, to now families with little kids. Zach is the oldest kid of this group, and he treats all the other kids and babies great. Kay's work schedule is nearly perfect, M-F, 7am-11am, and Abuelita Gloria Yang watches Zach and Hannah while Kay is at work. The pool at LMU has been a nice getaway from the summer heat for Kay and the kids. That's one of the nicest things about Westchester, having a beautiful university with great facilities 5 minutes away.

Zach Update:
Summertime fun for the rapidly growing 6 year old. His shoes last about one month due to extreme abuse and feet that just won't stop growing! He spent several weeks in "Star" summerschool visiting places such as the Long Beach Aquarium, Museums and the Staples Center to see the WNBA LA Sparks play. The kid loves sports. My many adult friends tease him mercilessly about his loyalty to UCLA, and to his credit he never flinches. This year we have 2 season tickets to UCLA football, on the 50 yard line, and we can't wait! He played AYSO soccer this year and loved it (he scored 2 goals in his first game). He blossomed in T-Ball this year and season 2 of soccer is right around the corner! He is a great older brother to Hannah and can make her laugh like no one else. His favorite is bouncing a beach ball on his head (maybe he got that idea from the Seals at Sea World?). And Hannah adores her older brother.

Hannah Update:
Where's a picture? I'll post one soon. Her curly hair and dark eyes are adorable (looks just like mom if you ask me). We are still debating whether her first word was "mom" or "dada", either way, she now says "dada", "mama", and "Dack" for Zach. And she is on the move. Never much of a roller, she army crawled for awhile until she found out that regular crawling was much faster. Now she is climbing up the furniture with daily "booms" when she falls. Like her brother she is a near perfect sleeper (8 pm to 6 am nightly). And a ferocious eater. If you think you have the olympic skills and speed to feed this precious baby, good luck. She gives you about .5 seconds between spoonfuls, or she starts whining and crying. Unless you have a perfect technique and speed, she will let you know. Don't even think about waiting 5 seconds, unless you have ear plugs. Her Aunt Megan claimed after Hannah was born that she was the loudest baby with the strongest lungs she had ever heard. We agree, she has a beautifully powerful voice!

Hope you enjoy the rest of this beautiful summer free from fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, plagues and floods.

Hannah 2

Hannah on her Birthday, November 30, 2006. She is now home eating and sleeping well and adjusting to life at home. Enjoy!

Hannah Kay Stayner

Hannah Kay Stayner was born on Thursday November 30th, 2006, at 10:16 am PST, at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Kay Yang-Stayner, delivered a healthy baby girl via C-Section. Hannah is very healthy, and scored 9s on her APGARD scores. Kay is recovering well from the surgery, and Hannah has started nursing!

Kay and Matt dropped off Zachary before school at Gong Gong and Abuelita's house in Westchester, then headed to the familiar hospital near Beverly Hills, where Kay works as an Administrative Analyst in the Research Compliance department. We spent New Year's Day 2001 in the Labor & Delivery wing of the North Tower awaiting the arrival of Zachary Matthew Stayner. The kid just didn't want to arrive. So Kay was induced almost 2 weeks after his due date, and finally was delivered on January 2, 2001 at 2:46 am via emergency C-Section. Gratefully, mother and son survived that ordeal, and he is now a healthy 5 year old, about to celebrate his 6th birthday.

February 2006

It's 2006, a decade after the internet boom, and Matt Stayner, once hip and on top of the technology world, is finally blogging. Oh, and I own an iPod too, am I cool or what?

Here I am at 11,000 feet on Mt. Whitney July 2005. That's my "tent". I summited not (I get high altitude sickness at around 10,500), and since I have a 1% tolerance for pain, well, that is as high as I went. Cool picture though!

Life is fat, literally. I weigh 212 now, down from 214 at the beginning of the year. My goal is to lose 2 pounds a months this year. Yesterday we watched the Super Bowl (Pittsburg vs. Seattle) at our home on 82nd Street in Westchester. The SoCal "Stayners" were in tow, mom & dad, Liz & Alex Kopayghora (the newlyweds) and the Phelps (Rachel, Ryan & Mia). Of course my beautiful wife Kay, and son Zachary were there also. I probably gained back those 2 pounds yesterday, so my goal is to lose 4 pounds this month. That's me snoozing at the Neutrogena, IM BBQ. Tech nerds can be so boring.

I am busy as an Analyst at Neutrogena, working for NCS in the Networking & Computing Services division. I like my job, especially since Johnson & Johnson (it's confusing I know), is paying for my graduate school education. Um, wait, don't I already have a graduate degree? Well, yes, still have the MA from NYU in French, and the 2 1/2 years of PHd Studies at UCLA. But this degree has real career potential. I'm in my 2nd semester at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, in B school. That's right, MBA. Just like the old man, and bros in law Andy, Josh & John.

I still surf, but not as often as I'd like. The key to life right now is "balance". Balance between work, family, school, church, sports, etc. Here is my favorite picture in the world. Talk about priceless. This is Zach's very first day of school. He is 2 years, 9 months old, starting Pre-School at Covenant Presbyterian in September 2003. And that's Kay, the most beautiful woman in the world. Good thing Zach looks like his mother! Zach loves to wrestle, play baseball, army solider. He is a really bright kid and is learning how to read. He starts Kindergarten in the fall. Kay is working part-time as a Research Analyst as Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and has worked there for the past five years. This year will be our tenth year anniversary!