Aqualung

A crazy Real Estate Week

2012-02-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

We have been doing some Real Estate work and it almost buried me this week. It seemed
everything needed major attention:
1. We refinanced our new Parker place.
2. We are refinancing the Branson property.
3. We are selling the duplex in Arizona.
4. We are trying to rent the triplex in Arizona. The water was shut off for a
week and I put up the renters in a hotel until my agent there cut off a lock on
the water main and got the water turned on again.
5. Buying and selling Danica’s old house. It involves a tricky HELOC and perfect timing
to accomplish.

6. A legal issue with an investment property here in Denver with lawyers and a court date.

But we had time on Saturday for mom and me to go to Colorado Springs to attend a Mitt Romney rally. It was great with signs and yelling and enthusiasm. The paper reported 700 people but there were at least 2,000. One story from the rally: when Mitt helped started Staples, they did it with about $5,000,000 a few key people in a back room in a strip mall. Instead of Obama and Solyndra; when he forked over $500,000,000 of our taxpayer money to a bunch of his
campaign contributors and they built a new multi-story corporate headquarter instead of investing in new technology. Vote Mitt!!!

We also got blasted by a nearly 2 foot high snow fall. We really needed it, but let’s spread it out
a little. It is nice to have a south facing house in a snow fall – the driveway clears itself almost.

Keeping me young

2012-01-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

I have two new things in my life now that are trying to keep me young or maybe a little more patient: Teaching primary and starting back into competitive swimming. I'm discovering that both of those activities are for the young of body and heart.

I have the 7 years olds, so it is before the age of accountability and they take full advantage of their upcoming free baptisimal pass to remove their sins. Trying to get them to listen for even a few sentences is like keeping Austin and Don from talking about burps and farts at the dinner table. We are together during the last hour and they are wired by that time. I even had them doing jumping jacks and push ups to burn through some of their energy. The only time I can get them to listen and be quiet is when I tell them an animated story or pass out candy. I'm exhausted when class is over with but I'm excited for their baptism - then they'll be responsible for their actions and will behave so much better......yeah!

Since we don't live in Highlands Ranch anymore I don't get to go play racquetball with the guys anymore and have joined the Parker Masters Swim Team. getting in the pool at 5:45 on cold winter mornings is simply painful and then trying to keep up with a few of the younger swimmers really humbles me. But if Janet Evans can qualify for the Olympic Trials in the 800 M Free at 42 I can at least do a few swim practices. It hurts all day and tests my heart but with my SwimP3 player I actually enjoying getting into the water. It keeps me young.....right?

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

I will write my blog with comments and pictures like I did
before. I was feeling a little
disconnected from the family and I would like to capture some of the missing
magic.

Last weekend we were in Gilbert, AZ for Austin’s baby
blessing and had a blast. It was one of
the greatest joys of my life to sit down and talk with Don about giving
blessings and listening to the spirit.

It brought up all the keen feelings of being a father and all the hopes
and dreams you have for your kids. To
catch an insightful glimpse of their potential and the sheer joy that a life
well lived can produce. There are few
things as sweet as being surrounded by loved ones collectively calling upon
heaven’s blessings for a new born infant.
It was the highlight of the trip.
While in AZ mom and I found a new property to buy, decided
to sell our existing duplex, played Scatagories, cheered on the Broncos as they
beat Pittsburg, stayed up late and went out to dinner. We also spent some time with a missionary who
had lived with us named Mike Naylor. His
family had horses and while I played Naylor in racquetball mom went for a wild
ride and a frisky horse named Blackie.
It must have been very wild because she swore off horse for a while and
is having problems with her back. AZ is
so nice in the winter; it was 80 degrees out as we had a picnic lunch with the
Naylor family.
While we were in AZ a bunny got into our garage and left
many small black reminders of why we don’t have any more pets. I saved the dead bunny’s body to show the
grand kids. It died with soft fur and a
smile on its face.

Moving on Up

2011-08-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

As they say; "The only thing that doesn't change is the fact that everything changes" We are going through some interesting family changes.

Mom and I are finally moving to a new house this next week after 17 years in the same place. It has been very painful trying to sell the house, because people are so cruel in their comments. They have said that the house looks tired. I thought after housing Tracy and I, raising 6 kids, 2 foster kids, 4 exchange students, occasional guests, 1 son-in-law and 1 grand child, and over 25 missionaries maybe it will look a little tired, but very happy. It has been a great 17 years.
We have spent this weekend celebrating with Don and Austin some changes in their lives. Don is moving on to start school and soon to be a father . He is ending his work as a landscaper in the heat of the Phoenix sun and trading in his shovel for school supplies. Don and Leslie are so happy that he will be able to spend more time at home.
Austin has just graduated from 3 months of Marine Boot Camp in San Diego. We were able to walk around the base with him after a few ceremonies on Thurs and then he graduated on Friday. They call it Family Day on Thurs and keep building up the tension by having the recruits run and march in front of us for a couple of hours before we actually get to see them. When they first pulled up in front of us wearing their running shorts I couldn't pick Austin out of the crowd. I though I had the wrong group. He looked so different. He had gotten a little tubby, but was tubby no longer.

They do the Moto Run (Motivational Run) and then go change into their dress uniform to come out and march in front of us. We were sitting in the stands waiting for the company when this recruit limped by and he kinda of looked like Austin and so I tentatively said, "Austin????" and it was him. He hurt his knee on the run and was given permission to come sit with us to watch the others march. We had a grand time as he narrated the action on the Parade Deck and jealous parents all around us had to wait another hour before they got to visit with their recruit.Austin distinguished himself in a couple of ways at Boot Camp. Within 2 days he was selected as a Squad leader over 14 other recruits based on his energy, wisdom, loud voice, ability to understand directions and help other. They change out squad leaders over the 3 months, but Austin only missed one day as leader. He was also chosen as Prayer Leader. He gave scripture study lessons from both the Bible and Book of Mormon and lead the prayer every night. Probably the highlight of the day was after the Marine graduation we went to a local church and Austin baptized and ordained to the priesthood a recruit from his platoon. The recruits mom went on and on about the positive influence Austin had been in her son's conversion.

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Mary Ellen has a new torture called a simple black sand bag. It is exhausting work. We pick up this stupid black 30 lb sand bag, heft it to one shoulder, squat, drop it to the ground, we drop burpee style, do a push up and then jump back up to do it all over again. I had to do 60 of those on Friday in 10 mins. I know it doesn’t sound bad but it was a killer and my shoulders are dead, hey I’m 59 now and things hurt.

Sunday night the 3^rd mom and I went to downtown Denver to Civic Park for a big band concert and fireworks show. It was incredible, especially when the band was playing the 1812 Overture or patriotic music and the fireworks were blasting away. I loved it and I also heard birthday greeting from all my kids. It was a great day.

Summer Kick Off Event

2011-06-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

It was "old folks trying to act young and be cool in the mountains, by Buena Vista, to kick off the summer" weekend. I think we did a great job of looking at least 10 years younger then our actual age...but we blew it when the conversations around the campfire centered on retirement income, our aches and pains, visits to the doctor, and grandkids. We had a blast riding the ATV's up to old mining sites or Kayaking across a windy lake to tour some old buildings. I think 60 is the new 40.

This was our campsite and mom is waking up on a chilly morning.

Mom was having so much fun she didn't even scream on these narrow and steep ATV roads.

I got a rare photo of the Goddess of the Lost Mine, she looks quite striking in the mid day sun.

This was on old remote brothel for the rich folks in Leadville during it's heyday. it is a very large building for it's day. The winter's are long and cold in the mountains.
Dot doing a sales job on how great Buena Vista is to live and play.

Catching Up

2011-06-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

It has finally warmed up and become Spring so the Elders helped prune the apple tree. The top is totally missing, but they had fun.

Mom and I went to Austin, Texas for Multi Awards Conference and it rained most of the time. We had one afternoon to run around town and had a blast. Our trip included a walking tour of Austin's famous ghost site. This hotel had several ghosts, but the scariest part was about the original owner. He built this incredible hotel when everything else around him was just a shack, but he charged $1.00 a night instead of $0.25 and went bust in 5 months.
Right after Texas I had eye surgery that still hasn't worked out very well. Old age is miserable. One of the elders said I had gained weight and looked fat, he also notice I was going bald, and that cateract surgery was for old men. Well I can look forward to our new house which is finally framed out.
We went to Utah for a Family reunion and send Bryce and family off to New York. We had a blast. Tiana and Preston are great hosts.

We were glad to have a new truck to haul all of Bryce's stuff to the airport. All of his baggage filled the back of the truck.
On the way back from Utah the weather was so nice that we took a detour to hike to Hanging Lake. The spring runoff was wild as you can see from the picture the trail had become the river in places. Mom didn't have hiking shoes and it was tough going trying to walk carefully.
Mom was dieting and hadn't eaten anything to give her energy so she "rested" a few times on the hike.

The view was spectacular!!!
And mom is still very hot!!!

Catching Up with Pictures

2011-06-07T19:49:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to catch up from a lot of neglect of the blog.

One is the Loniest Number There Could Ever Be

2011-05-15T15:19:00.001-07:00

Imagine for a whole week around Mother's Day your wife heads off to vacation hundred's of miles away in a flood plain. Leaving you alone to prepare dinner and feed four missionaries for Mother's Day. That isn't the worst; Danica leaves with the only grandkids around and goes with Tracy to Branson, MO. Dave went to his sisters funeral in KY. But there is always Austin to hang around, oh but no he went to Phoenix to visit with Don and Leslie. Well at least I can visit with my CPA buddy, but he and his wife go off to No. Carolina to golf. Thank goodness for the walking stomachs called missionaries. As long as I have food and Simply Orange drink I will have company. It ended up I was only alone during dinner prep and clean up, during the meal I had lots of company. Some day justice.

The Traditional Easter Priates Easter!!!

2011-05-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is what you get when you combine the two biggest holidays of Christendom - Easter and Christmas, you get Easter Pirates. That means mushing the family Christmas picture of Pirates and Easter. The grandkids loved it.

Pre Conference Breakfast

2011-04-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

The mission president promised us that he would send only the finest missionaries in the entire mission to our home, since we have had missionaries for such a long time. He followed though on that promise and here are a few of the latest photos of their fine work:

Eating waffles.

Coolest hats.

Best looking ties.

And yes they have set a few records for the number of lessons taught and investigators found. They are working hard and so we will happily put up with a few goofy pre-conference breakfasts..

Busy but Quick Trip to Utah –

2011-03-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

We were all pulling for BYU to make it to the Elite Eight and I got to see them destroy the Zags here in Denver but I made it off the plane in time to see the last minute of the regular action tie against Florida. The overtime was a disaster and BYU didn’t advance but had a great season.

Friday morning was spent in the Appeals Court Mediation session. I went in owing $22,000 and came out owing only $7,500. So after 4 years we can finally move beyond that stupid 1031 case. All in all I have lost about $70,000 which is better than the $120,000 I thought at one time I would lose, but it still hurts. It’s over and there are more important things than money, like family which I was able to enjoy the rest of the weekend.

I spent some time with a friend going through a hard time and again realize that life is not a straight line, there are knots twists and turns. We had a ball going skiing and snowboarding at Sundance. The weather was cold but clear and Bryce, Marcia, Austin and Preston and I really had a ball. Preston was very impressive taking massive jumps and even though I couldn’t keep up with Austin I had a ton of fun. We even got free dessert at the original Claim Jumper Restaurant in Heber City.

Saturday Tiana and I went to the color festival in Spanish Fork. It is some Eastern Indian celebration and everyone throws paint (caulk) at everyone else. There were thousands of people there and everyone was covered in paint. We escaped with very little damage. Fun experience.

Belize!!!

2011-03-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

3/3/11 From the Colorado winter chill to tropical beach – two moderate commercial flights and one flight in a 20 foot “sardine can” plane and we arrive on Ambergris Caye in Belize, The town is San Pedro an island town famous for scuba diving on the 2^nd largest barrier reef in the world where the main transportation method is golf carts not cars. We stayed at the Royal Caribbean (fancy name for a big movie set of Easter egg painted cabanas). The people are all very friendly and greet us warmly. Even the lady clerk at the local corner grocery store took both of her hands to shake hands with us and introduce her family. They eat rice and beans with chicken stew. The prices are about the same as the states. That evening we had fish on a beach side resort/hotel.

3/4/11 On our first dive we saw some big rays and beautiful blue angelfish in the water because of the white sand beneath. Afterwards, mom took a break while I went on the 2nd dive. BEST Dive ever. The dive master netted some sardines for bait and filled a porous container to take on the dive. The bait worked and it attracted about 8 large huge nurse sharks, two moray eels, and several large groupers. The dive master taught us how to approach the sharks with a hand on their belly and dorsal fin and then flip them over of rub their tummy’s just like a dog that loves to be scratched. The dive master wooed a 12 foot shark with this method as we ascended to the surface and his buddy teased him that he gets more action from the shark than his girlfriend. We stopped at a little roadside stand where our cook was wearing big pink curlers and sent the other cook on her bicycle to get paper napkins. That night we went on a night dive where we saw more big rays and a big green eel and lots of big groupers. It's kind of eerie when they ask you to shut off your flashlights and you are in the dark. We planted one light on the sand pointing up and all these little blood worms were attracted to the light, Then these colorful small fish came by to eat the blood worms, then the larger fish came to eat the smaller fish and the critters kept getting bigger the longer we watched. So fascinating to watch the food chain appear.
3/5/11
I went diving all day to the Blue Hole, Lighthouse reef, and Half moon caye with sharks and groupers. The Blue Hole was a 140 ft. dive down to a cave formation. We were swimming in and out of these massive stalactites and stalagmites. Down that far and for that long I started feeling a bit of nitrogen narcosis, but not enough to kiss any sharks. At the second dive site a turtle came right up to my face and I touched its back On the 3rd dive we did a wall called the Aquarium. It’s a small rock formation and tons of colorful fish. On the way back we saw a flock of birds diving at the surface. The tuna had circled sardines and that attracted several large Mako sharks. These guys were about 10 to 15 ft and are man eating sharks they were so crazed they were coming out of the water chasing the sardines.. Then a 25 ft. whale shark swam by and all the divers went nuts to get in the water. The boat was rocking in the huge waves and people were running all over the deck slipping and falling - grabbing masks, fins, and snorkels to get in the water with that whale shark. It was so dangerous and so fun. Forget those silly Mako sharks we want to swim with a whale shark. I got in but we didn’t see the whale shark while in the water.

Mom went shopping and got a great shell necklace and found an outlet store with t-shirts for $2.50. That night we ate at the most amazing restaurant in Belize, the "Hidden Treasure" The fish was in an amazing sauce made of cream, butter, Parmesan and white wine. Then they served true coconut pie for dessert. Thick fresh coconut.

3/6 We squeezed back into that tiny plane and flew back to Belize City. To save a few bucks we rented a Hyundai at the airport. About 5 minutes from the airport we hit a nasty pothole and it cracked the fiberglass rim. After a $150 repair we got a 4 wheel drive truck, so much for saving a few bucks. We went to Atun Ha. I learned that on one side of each plaza the Mayans created an acoustical effect that enabled the Priesthood leader to stand a top the temple mount and speak to thousands without shouting. Tracy was on top of the temple talking normally and I stood several football fields away and heard her like she was standing next to me. We read from Mosiah 2:1-6, about a similar event from the past.. We had fun telling out guide about the BOM. The poverty In Belize City was shocking. An incredibly poorly maintained city with very few services. Don’t ever need to visit that city again. Did see an interesting kite festival.

3/7 We saw the Belize zoo and got our foreheads licked by a Jaguar. We also went cave tubing. It was so other worldish to be in this dark cave and hear a waterfall ahead and come around this corner to see the sunlight from another opening lighting up this patch of jungle. It was out of a Jurassic Park movie set and so primal. I could see why the Mayan called it the fertility cave because of the interesting phallus like limestone formations.

3/8 Even though I’ve never had a good experience riding horses, We stayed at the Banana Beach Ranch where they do "horse whispering". We rode our horses through the beautiful lush jungle by the river. We galloped and I stayed on and actually kind of enjoyed it! We took the afternoon and drove down to Punta Gorda. The beach is not lovely here, in fact they get a lot of garbage from Honduras, but we stayed back up in the hills in these little huts. We ate at the Mangrove and had delicious shrimp and conch fritters. We stayed with Bruno who is an enterprising German who build cabanas for tourists and is a cave guide. He became a fast friend and wanted us to move there to help him with several business enterprises.
3/9 We went to Eliadio Pop’s cacao plantation in San Pedro Columbia. Eliadio was so proud of his farm and his 15 kids. His 30 acres had 3 kinds of cacao and mangoes that he planted, limes and palms. We watched them dry roast the cacao beans, dry roast them and then squish them with a rock and grind them into a paste. They made this dark chocolate drink that was pretty amazing. It was the same a CoCo Samoa and I loved it. We saw Labam tuun and Mayan ruin that is famous for a crystal scull that was found there. We visited a chocolate factory and fell in love with Belizean chocolate bars. Tracy made me eat several on the trip (actually I had to have at least one chocolate bar a day)

3/10 We went with Bruno and Silliano (Eliadio's half brother) into 2 cave systems. TIGER CAVE - The first cave had wonderful limestone formations. We even found Mayan pottery pieces.

We were in the dark for hours, way way in the bowels of the earth. My little helmet flashlight went out and I thought….humm It’s really dark down here and there’s big deep holes to fall into and sharp rocks cutting my hands. We saw big spiders and eels and what was that low growling sound? There must be a reason they call it Tiger cave!.

After an hour we came into a huge limestone cavern and the sun rays shone down through the roof. I stood in the light and it was amazing. It felt like the world was working to keep us in the dark and stumbling around but the Savior is this incredible source of light that brings warmth and safety to us.

The 2nd cave was called Blue Creek. It was like home for me, we swam almost the entire way through the cave. It also had awesome limestone formations. These areas are pretty much undeveloped to tourists and so we named some of the formations for them. I loved this rough and raw experience in these ancient caves.

3/11/11 We drove and stayed in a beautiful beach town named Placencia, not as developed as San Pedro. I seriously wanted to buy a lot and build a vacation house here, but you have to pay all cash.

3/12/11 I went diving and saw the largest nurse shark ever, easy an 18 footer. There were also turtles and a gorgeous massive eagle ray. Mom had fun finishing a Mistborn book on the beach and checking out all the jewelry in the 2 shops.

3/13/11 The last day and we went for one last adventure before heading home. We went to the Mayflower National Park. It was a dramatic hike through the jungle to a 140 ft waterfall. I got too carried away and lost mom in the jungle. Actually she was on the right trail and I was off climbing through the vines and underbrush. I paid a price for veering off the right path and the pool at the top of the hike wasn’t the sweet cool refreshing rest we wanted. We got home at midnight and return to work……bummer.

Its a Fritter Frightmare

2011-02-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

Kevin Olson (my CPA partner) and I go to the same trainer who is trying to return our bodies into the Charles Atlas like forms we had in college when we both swam for our respective universities. That requires a rigid and consistent daily calorie count. Well a while back some evil person brought into our office the most incredible apple fritters ever. These were plate sized mounds of luscious apple and cinnamon sweetness. Kevin and I colluded and decided to split one, locked the office door and began to feast on the incredible treat. Unfortunately his wife Becky opened the door and caught us before we were finished. Our sugar glazed smiles gave us away and she immediately reported our crime to Mary Ellen our trainer.

Last Friday morning Mary Ellen sought our repentance by driving us through one of the toughest “burpee” invested workouts ever invented. It was designed to be the Mother of All Fritter Hell Workouts. There were weights and cardio and ab work to burn off the guilty pleasure of that apple fritter that had now become part of my growing love handles. It was to teach us a mighty lesson. But throughout all the intensity of lifting and groaning and sweating I kept thinking of how delicious that apple fritter was. I concluded I would do it all over again, but this time I wouldn’t share with Kevin and I would lock my office door when I knew Tracy wouldn’t be coming by the office.

Last weekend Austin and Stacy came to visit and it was great to see Austin and meet Stacy. We got in a little racquetball, some Wally ball, lots of eating, some split 10 work and some well need visiting. Monday rolled around way too early and we had to say good bye. It was such fun to see Austin with a RLGF, real life girl friend and him free from the burdens of a World of Warcraft habit.

I was lucky enough to have a short business trip to Arizona and was able to visit with Don and Leslie. It was so delightful to stay with them in their new home. They take great pride in really decorating it so nicely. I doubt Don will ever miss any Marine barrack or foxhole because they have done such a great job on making a house a new home. We had a super visit and I got to hear some new Marine stories as we looked around for some houses to buy.

Part of that weekend was spent with the family at the aquarium and Danica took a few pictures and movies. It is so fun to share that experience. I got to pick the shark eggs off of the coral where they had laid them. I kept hoping that they wouldn’t see what I was doing and come attack me.

We are moving after 16 years in Highlands Ranch and mom wants to talk about it on her blog so all you get in this blog is this picture of Austin, Stacy, and mom in an empty lot and our new view of the mountains.

We head out to Belize this coming week to dive the Blue Hole and ride horses in the jungle. It will be a trip with something for both mom and I. It is a happy vacation.

The mission changed out the sisters and we had elders back so that means I get to play more racquetball. I wish with all that extra play time I would get better at kill shots in the corner. The elder from Canada knows his scriptures very well and the elder from California won’t be with us long. He has a serious ear infection that requires this intense surgery where they remove all of those tiny ear bones and replace them and he could lose his hearing. It’s been fun to have him here, even for this short time.

Winter Weekend

2011-02-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

We were wondering when winter was going to show up. A week ago Friday the temperature was almost 70 degrees here. I was ready to break out the sunscreen. Then just 3 days later the thermometer dropped to -15 degrees. It missed breaking the coldest temperature ever recorded in Denver by just one degree. Wind chill was at -30 degrees.

I had a really sweet 59 year old lady client pass away this week and attended her funeral on Friday. It was a challenge realizing that she was only a year older than I. She had 7 kids. I realized sitting through the funeral that the things remember and cherished in one’s life are the shared memories and fun personalities. It isn’t the long hours we work, the great sale we close, or the taxes we pay. It happens to be the love we shared, the service we provided, the laughter we enjoyed, the tears we shed, the funny stories we tell, the time we spend together, the hard times and pain we endure and survive, the thoughtful gesture we so willingly gave, the kind remark we communicated, and the times we just spent being in a loved one presence. Too bad it takes a funeral to help realign my priorities.

We were headed to the mountains with Danica and family to see the snow sculptors in Breckenridge, but they came down with pneumonia and so it became on early Valentines weekend for Tracy and I. We saw the carving at night and they had them lighted with changing colors.
It was spectacular. I loved the scuba diver one and mom loved the snowy horse – surprise, surprise.

The High and Lows of the Week

2011-01-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

There seem to be so many things happening within the family I wanted to do a recap. Thanks for including us in your lives so we may understand the events of our family:

Tiana and Preston are facing a crushing sad loss with a miscarriage. I remember when Tiana was just a few years old how excited she was to think she would be a mother someday. Words escaped me to describe the haunting feelings that that day has been delayed for a while. I'm ever so grateful for the maturity of both Tiana and Preston during this difficult time. I'm frustrated that the temple isn't open to place their names on the prayer rolls.

Don and Leslie rented out the Arizona house this week. We scrambled around to get all the paperwork and bank accounts set up right and sure enough disaster struck. No sooner had the renters moved in that the plumbing backed up and there wasn't a working bathroom in the house and the lady is 9 1/2 months pregnant. Don is earning his management fee handling the problems.

Danica and Dave have had a minor loss this week as one of their Chinese foreign exchange students move in with a neighbor. It seems that they became great friends as soon as they weren't going to live together in the same house.

Austin has been socializing with a girl from work as they have tried to set up for each other among their friends. That didn't work as well as them just being each others friend and they have spent some good time together. Some future plans are a little up in the air. Way to go Austin.

I have decided to become a high school swim official for the rest of girl's season and boy's season. I'm scared of becoming a diving judge because I remember all the unkind things parents and coaches said about the high school judging. I said a lot of them myself.

I have a new anxiety reducing strategy I'm using at work. I have a point system for work activities. As soon as I reach 20 points I can kick back and relax knowing I've put in a good day's effort, and not worry about things and sleep better. So far I'm averaging 28 points a day but my target is 30 and then I will be able to relax and sleep better.

New Year's pictures and video

2011-01-09T19:13:00.001-08:00

Christmas Thoughts

2010-12-26T20:41:00.000-08:00

It is always a struggle to put aside the fun, colorful, and thin decorations that wrap themselves around the reasons we celebrate Christmas. This year was no different but two back-to-back videos helped me.

The first was from the Church’s Christmas web site and it was a series of interviews of people who as adults discovered the gospel, repented and joined the church. They all expressed the incredible lows and depression felt by living worldly rules. They described their inability to find happiness or peace from a treadmill of a modeling career, or empty business transactions, or endless intoxication. Then when they prayed for help and received the Savior’s warm forgiving embrace they felt the true power of the gift of his life. He gave us the way to return to that safe harbor which is our heavenly home. I realized that is the reason we celebrate his birth.

The other video showed a professional choir disbursed among a large group of holiday shoppers at a busy mall’s food court. They were wearing everyday clothes and couldn’t be recognized. Suddenly the mall music system stopped playing the jangle of some dopey reindeer song and a powerful organ started into Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. A young lady stood up and in a beautiful voice started singing this inspiring piece of music. She was joined by others in the choir giving song to the ancient scripture of Isaiah’s adoration of the advent of the Savior’s life, majesty, and gift. Within a very short time the entire choir was standing and singing praises to God. What struck me was the setting. Here was a crowded shopping mall, the height of commercialism, taking pause as “ordinary” people raised their voices to honor the birth of the Savior and the promise of his perfect life. There is a vital place for the spiritual side of Christmas to shine and be remembered.

For Christmas weekend there was nearly 8 feet of snowfall in the mountains, but none here. It is so weird to have 50 degree weather in Denver this late in the year. We had Danica and Dave over for Christmas Eve and enjoyed one of the greatest meals ever prepared, with turkey, prime rib, fresh Chinese egg rolls, pear salad, and twice baked potatoes. It was a wonderful busy holiday kitchen and dining experience. We gave each other a moving dance party game and a soda pop maker. We must be at a very comfortable place in life to give such gifts.

At Danica’s on Christmas morning, it was a typical little kid gift opening frenzy. I received a special gift as my daughter’s had teamed up to digitize old family movies and I could watch 3 year old Austin praddle around the kitchen, stealing finger gouges of butter for a long time. Those old movies reflect a very blessed and happy group of lucky kids growing up with a big yard and big bedrooms, with a rabbit pen, a deer blind, a picnic table, woods to explore, and grass to run on with no TV. What a sweet treasure to watch those movies again and see our younger selves.

Congratulations to Don and Leslie

2010-12-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

What a great experience I’ve enjoyed over the last couple of weeks. It has to be considered one of the highlights of my life to gather in Phoenix with Tracy, Don and Austin and go through the temple for Don and Leslie’s endowments. It was so powerful and sweet to be Don’s escort as he received his endowments and then join with Austin, Tracy and the Galan’s in the Celestial Room after the session. How lucky can one dad be?

The next morning was a kick as well because Don took us to the gym to workout. He said he would pair back his workout because we were there, but I encouraged him to challenge Austin, mom and I. So we started off with 3 sets of 10 pull-ups and did a ton of additional weight work on various machines. I’m delighted to say that I could keep up pretty well with Don and may have surprised Don and Austin. As long as I impress Tracy I’m good to go.

We went house shopping and picked out two houses to buy for Don to rent out as the start of a business. It was crazy to try and buy two houses, take the family’s Christmas picture, meet and party at the Galan’s, and pick up all the kids from the airport and get ready for the wedding and reception in only two days. It was fun busy and we even snuck in a couple of movies and a dancing contest.

The wedding was amazing because it became an early glimpse of heaven. Here were Tracy and I with all six of our kids in the sealing room at the temple. Don and Leslie were so striking and happy. It was strange to hear Bro. Barrand and it not refer to me. I looked out at our family and pictured us all in heaven together, all of us at the age of 24 and thought what a great promise for the future. With all the twists and turns of life to have us all arrive here and be able to participate in this glorious day for Don and Leslie was incredible. I will treasure that feeling always.

Half a day back in Denver and then we were getting up at 3 am for the plane flight to Orlando to kick around with Celeste’s family at as many amusement parks as Celeste could plan to attend. We spent Thanksgiving Day at airports but did squeeze in a wonderful turkey dinner at a local restaurant. It is a lot easier to eat out. We spent the next day shopping, getting discount (?) tickets, and playing at the pool with the grandkids. It was a good day.

We ended up hitting 5 parks in 5 days; Sea World, Disney Magic Kingdom, Disney Movie Studio, Universal Islands of Adventure, and Universal Studios. You could also throw in Disney Quest as well. We would pack a lunch each day and drag ourselves back home every night exhausted. Everyone including grand kids did great. Loved Sea World, although they have toned down the Shamu show and nobody gets in the water anymore. The Dolphin show was like a Hollywood production with cliff divers, trapeze artists, streamers, birds, and very colorful costumes. Somewhere in there the dolphins still brought tears to my eyes.

We liked Universal better than Disney: Newer attractions, colorful ideas, and far fewer crowds. The Harry Potter exhibit was incredible and Butter Beer is very good. I also like Toy Story Mania a ton. Everyone had their favorite ride and we got around to doing something for everyone. I got to be the designated runner to collect fast passes and move us to the front of the line. It helped to burn off excess energy while waiting in long lines.

I felt a little guilty spending a lot of money on amusement park rides and events but I got to be with and know much better my grandchildren who I don’t see enough of, as well as Celeste and Brad, but most of all, time away is good for Tracy and I.

It has been a great couple of weeks, now to survive Christmas.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

2010-10-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I launched into a project I have done everything I could to avoid for over 7 years – the pursuit of the Series 7 exam for Securities. It is the mother of all ugly tests but allows you to sell individual stocks, bonds, options, margin accounts, and other odd stuff. I have been able to avoid it for so long I thought I could escape it’s pain but recent sales and some potential future business required me to get it at this time. Many a good agent has had to take the “7” multiple times to get a passing 70 grade. I knew of the study and focus it required and I simply didn’t want to give up that much time and take the test.

Wanting to avoid crashing on the rocks of defeat like some many others had done I decided to spend several hundred dollars and take a class. That was another fear – paying a bunch of money to sit in a class room all week and sleep through half of the material. Since junior high school I have fallen asleep in virtually every class, training, workshop, play, and movie I have ever watched. To prepare for the week I got a blessing from my home teacher to stay awake.

The class was a miserable experience. Eight hours a day for 5 straight days sitting in a classroom listening to the instructor give a rapid fire lecture on the most menial facts and minutia. It was exhausting to sit through but I didn’t nod off even once through the entire 5 day course. I’ve never done that before. That week included study and work every night trying to remember what I had learned during the day. The next week was even worse as I tried to work a few hours and then study the remaining 10 hours. The course material was two telephone book sized study guides. Then the practice tests. Endless 3 hour practice test and the goal was to get through 10 to 15 of those before the actual test. My life was glued to my desk and those books and the results were terrible.

I needed to be scoring in the 70 and 80’s in order to pass and I was scoring in the 60’s and low 70’s. I was brain dead, I hadn’t done my new church job, I didn’t talk to the kids or say hi to the new missionary, and the worse is I didn’t pay any attention to Tracy for two weeks and that makes life really stinky.

I took the 8 hour exam on Tues and the blessing paid off. The question seemed so easy compared to practice tests and I ended up with an 82% for my final grade. I can’t describe the elation and joy of having passed that ugly test – in time to leave the next morning for a rewards trip to Cabo San Lucas. Home Teaching blessings really work.

With only about 2 hours of sleep we got up the next morning for a 0 dark thirty departure for Mexico. I didn’t want to think for the next 4 days, just relax and spend time with Tracy, plus a little scuba diving. We filled our time with checking the sand at the beach, eating tons of good food, catching rays, going shopping, visiting with a few other agents. We also zipped around on Jet Skis, cruised along the Land’s End coast with sea kayaks, did a little really wild body surfing in the pacific, and read and relaxed.

A couple of highlights needs mentioning. While sea kayaking, Tracy and I tried to shoot through this narrow little gap between rocks and ended up tipping over and getting a little bloody on the rocks. I cut my hand and Tracy her leg and now her neck hurts. The body surfing was incredibly wild with a high and low beach which poured the outgoing tide onto you at different angles with real force. Sand got everywhere. We were scheduled for a sunset cruise and everyone made it on the ship except for mom. No one could find her. We left the dock but kept trying to reach her and finally when we were in the middle of the bay she went to the hotel lobby. They hustled her down to the beach plopped her down on a jet ski with a hot Mexican guy who said, “Hold On” and he zipped her James Bond style out to the dinner cruise. Everyone labels Tracy as the Bond girl of the trip and she loved the attention.

We were in Cabo the weekend of the world’s largest Marlin fishing tournament and were lucky enough to be down at the docks when they were pulling in 550 and 600 pound fish. It was amazing. It was a million dollar purse and one boat brought in an 800 pound Marlin, but they arrived 10 late past the reporting time and lost the chance for the prize money. Too bad they couldn’t have jumped on a jet ski like mom did. The diving was good although I didn’t see any whale sharks like I wanted to. I did see massive schools of skip jack and snapper. There were thousands of fish in these schools and the snappers weight between 40 – 60 pounds each. It was like being in a snow storm of 50 pound snowflakes. We saw some sharks and a cool sand cascade. Well worth the time and effort and I want to go back.

I’ve decided that I don’t need quite as much agony to enjoy the ecstasy.

TORTURE!!!

2010-10-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

My next 2 1/2 weeks are going to be torture. It's hard to think of a more ugly way to torture someone then to have them go through Series 7 training. For the next week from 8 until 5 I get to sit in class listening to the most boring convoluted and complex crap about Options and the Securities Act from 1934. Then I get to study all that garbage for another week and then take an 8 hour exam. Yes the exam lasts 8 hours. I'm afraid my head will explode. I'd rather eat 7 courses of meat loaf and watch Pride and Prejudice multiple times than do the Series 7. The only consolation is that we leave for Cabo the day after the exam. I'll either be very happy or ready to punch out the nearest whale shark. Tracy is hoping I'm happy.

Pictures don't lie

2010-09-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

It is amazing what a little time, a rigerous workout schedule, and a great trainer will do for a body. I've been with Mary Ellen for 3 months now and all those plank pains have paid off. Mom has been my inspiration and my body is looking better as you can tell from a actual photo from a workout session. A little photo shop doesn't hurt either.

Mom and I attend Cavalia on Friday night and had a fantastic time. It is one of the best Cirque D' Solie I've ever seen. Take all the beauty, speed and power of horses plus all the gymnastics, actrobatics, and daring of Cirque and fold in the music, set design, and whimsy of incredibly talents artists and you have Cavalia. It was amazing.

The Greatest Show on Earth

2010-09-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Not much out of the ordinary this past week except a fun Saturday afternoon visit to the circus with Lily and Jensen. Dave and Danica won a trip to the supped up Grand Prix go-kart racing at Stapleton and let us have the kids for the day. So we went to the annual Highlands Ranch circus. They put up the tent and set up all the attractions in the morning and run the “The Greatest Show on Earth” under the Big Top in the afternoon and evening.

Steve Jackson got up seat upgrades and we had front row seats for the parade of entertainers. We saw everything from trained dogs, to ponies, jugglers, balancing acts, high circling baskets, trapezes and three racing elephants as the finale. We saw them, but I don’t think the kids got much out of the experience. Lily was performing her own acrobatic stunts as I couldn’t find her shoes so she was barefoot and I was trying to keep her from running around in the dirt. She climbed all over me, mom, and the lady sitting next to us. The lady didn’t quite appreciate Lily’s athletic abilities.

Jensen was way more interested in munching down on the caramel popcorn and holding the binoculars. Not looking in the binoculars but just holding them. I did have some luck having Jensen feeding a miniature cow with a big tongue. He was grossed out with the cow’s first lick on his sensitive palm. He kept wiping his hand on his pants trying to remove the icky feeling that wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t get him to feed any more animals. I don’t think Jensen will select veterinary work as his chosen vocation.

Labor Day

2010-09-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

What a great Labor Day weekend. We were just missing Celeste and Don's family and it would have been totally perfect.

We were able to fit in biking with Bryce and Austin while Tracy went with the rest of the adults horseback riding. We all had a picnic lunch while the kids were playing and wrestling and getting along great. We filled the rest of the day with a wild game of wallyball, Tri Tip Bar-B-Que, and a successful BYU game. I got to do one of my favorite things - taking Tiana and Preston on a private tour of the aquarium, Austin was there as well on a date. WOW everyone was happy.
Quiet time Sunday morning relaxing and talking, good church meeting, then a fun family dinner with the roar of happy children and more wrestling with Dave. Tracy hosted a jewelry party with a non member and the rest of us went to Danica's for games and dessert.
Monday morning we were able to squeeze in racquetball games, ultimate frisbee, a little house cleaning, playtime in the park, and an outdoor lunch at McDonald's with food from other restaurants. Follow by a little more shopping, visiting a prairie dog village, a trip through the old neighborhood and a nap before we hug and said our good byes.

It was a great weekend. Love you all.

What are we thinking???

2010-08-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

It started out a normal week with a few appointments for both Tracy and I and no big life changing events, but life has a way of jumping up and surprising you all the time. On Tues night we met with a fun Chinese neighbor who had a proposition for us to take on two Chinese foreign exchange students. A boy and a girl. We started out with a NO, which worked into MAYBE for two weeks to help out, and ended up as YES for the whole school year. What were we thinking? We like our independence and don't really have time to cook meals, entertain, or run kids around. What were we thinking? It only took two days before the mission office to call and say - "You can't do that with Sister Missionaries." Now I have a whole new reason to love the missionaries. What were we thinking?

We did do a little entertaining taking them to Pike's Peak, the movies, to see Tracy's horse, the Alpine Slide, and a short hike to St. Mary's Glacier. Life is interesting at all times.

Summer Saturday

2010-08-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

It is mid August and summer is about to end and so I felt the urge to use up the glorious Colorado sunshine while it is still here. After an appointment in Boulder mom and I headed to the South end of Rocky Mountain National Forest to hike the Ouzel Waterfall trail. It was a perfect day include something I can compliment Obama on....it was a "fee free" day at the park set up to encourage people to get out and enjoy the natural beauty. It saved me $20, and I got to take these pictures.

It's Only Money -

2010-08-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

This has been a disastrous week as a blow to our financial future. It is the accumulation of a string of bad news related to our finances and it has nearly sent me over the top in anguish. The judge ruled against us in our 1031 lawsuit against First American Title, it is a case we should have won easily but it wasn’t argued well and the judgment went the other way. It means we have lost the $33,000 of equity in the Provo condo plus I have to pay my legal fees which so far amount to another $32,000 and the court will probably have me pay the legal costs on the winning side. That amounts to about $55,000. So instead of walking away with $33,000 in our pockets we will end up losing all of that and pay out $87,000 in legal fees. If I appeal it will only add to the bill, but then it may also go my way and we could have everything restored.

There is something criminal about our judicial system when I have to lose $120,000 to fight and eventually lose a legitimate claim to money rightfully mine. I have always disliked lawyers, but judges are now high on my list as well. Look what one judge in CA did as he rejected the majority vote of 7,000,000 citizens and overturned Prop 8 and allow gay marriage. He is openly gay and didn’t recue himself from the case – totally dishonest. Then the weenie judge in AZ (Clinton appointee) overturned the legal proceedings of the state’s immigration bill. If you can believe it; our federal government supports a foreign government (Mexico) and has sued the state of AZ for putting into state law the same language as the current and unenforced federal law states about immigration. I have lost trust in the judicial system.

It has been a string of financial disasters and losses for us and I just need to write about it, to get it out of my head.

1031 case - $120,000

Ponzi scheme - $115,000

Preferred Care - $ 40,000

Branson home - $ 40,000

Codling - $ 20,000

McFarland - $ 15,000

Total - $350,000

Thanks goodness it is only money and the sun still rises in the morning and we have a loving family and good friends around to soften the blow of a very harsh and unfair world. Heavenly Father has blessed us and I need to be grateful for the true joys in life – those that can be taken with us into the next world. Pray that a few things can turn around for us or we will be relying on our kids for our retirement living.

Here are a few shots of the important things in life:

It's a Guy Thing

2010-07-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

I work next door to a great guy I met working at the temple. He is a CPA and we have been working together for 2 years now. We have a great time together because he used to swim for Utah at he same time I swam for BYU. So we have a built in rivalry, but are civilized about it – as much as you can be civilized when it comes to BYU and Utah football.

Well over the last two weeks the rivalry has intensified exponentially. Kevin started working with a trainer to prepare for a half marathon at Disney World. He was having so much fun with the trainer I decided mom and I would go to the same trainer and started a month ago

For one exercise she has us do the “Plank” and she timed Kevin one morning and he did a 1:00. So she had me do it and I did it for 1:15. Not to be outdone, Kevin turns in a 1:56 hurting and shaking. It was up to me to surpass the record and I did 2:05 the next week. Now the game was really on and Kevin blew us all away when he did 3:04 the following week. I’m totally sucked into this one-up-manship game now especially since he and I go back and forth about BYU vs Utah. I had several days to prepare and worked on my toe techniques as well as head positioning to maximize the time.

Friday was the day and I even wore my BYU T-shirt for good luck, said my prayers, and loosened up well for the ultimate Plank. Everything was ready and I launched my position. Things lined up well, I protected my head, sailed through the first minute, but then started shaking. NO! Not this early, it’s only been 1:30, surely my BYU toned body is better than a U of U graduate. Hang in there, Alright we cleared 2:00 and I can live with the shaking and pain through out my back for a minute. At 2:30 I thought this is so stupid and childish, but hang in there for at least 3 mins. At 3:00 my thoughts cleared and I could stretch this out a few more seconds…..yes, I passed 3:05 and on to 3:10 and that was it. I will never ever do that again.

I said that until Kevin did 3:31 Saturday morning, now I have until Monday to get prepared.

Wild Dive

2010-07-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

It was a wild dive at the aquarium this week. I was in the Sea of Cortez exhibit; now called Under the Sea. The aquarium has hired a number of curvaceous young ladies who wear a skimpy top, a mono-fin, and some stretchy fabric to cover their legs and they look like mermaids. They do their hair is a fun shape and fill the tank with Ariel look alikes. In addition to those extra bodies they have a couple of new huge (6 ft.) rays and a shove nose shark that require hand feeding. It is a big pool but with 3 divers, a 300 lbs grouper, 2 large nurse sharks, 4 adult moray eels and hundreds of other fish the place can get a little crowded.

The guy I was diving with wanted to feed the rays and the shovel nose shark which can be tricky. They were doing a cleanse last week and so the animals hadn’t been fed for a week and were really hungry and they can all be very aggressive when they’re hungry. He is supposed to kneel down and have the animals come to him and the other diver and I have PVC pipe to push away the nurse shark and other animals. But it didn’t work that way. He never got to kneel down before the rays were all over him going after the food (squids). They were even attacking the clear canister holding the food. We were keeping the nurse sharks away but he couldn’t handle the rays.

All of a sudden he thrusts the food into my hand and grabs my PVC pipe and traded places with me. In an instant I have 4 rays and a shovel nose shark circling and bumping into me wanting to be fed. I’m trying to grab a squid with one hand and push away a slimy floppy ray with the other hand and duck my head from getting bit. I loved the challenge until one of the rays decided to chomp down on my thigh. Man that hurt and I couldn’t shake him off. Just then the nurse shark moved in to grab my squid and had to be pushed away. The shovel nose grabbed at my hand with the food in it and got a piece of my fingers. I didn’t have any chain mail because I didn’t start out feeding so I felt the sting. Then the lady diver accidently kicked me in the head with her flipper trying to man handle the nurse shark. But the ray let go of my leg….I don’t think neoprene rubber tastes all that good, and things settled down for the rest of the feeding. I love all the action.

The exhibit also had just brought in 6 new baby moray eels and they lived on the eel wall. Feeding them was also a ball. They were spotted and green and cute and cuddly. Well maybe not cuddly. But I had a great time hand feeding the babies and avoided getting bit as they slithered and snapped their jaws to grab the tiny minnows. It took a long time to do the feeding but it was a relaxing calming experience after the rays. But holding and feeding Charlie is still way better.

Birthday in the Mountains

2010-07-04T19:39:00.001-07:00

Mom and I wore ourselves out this weekend as we celebrated mine and the country's birthday in the mountains around Breckenridge. This must be the bicycle capitol of the world. Every other car had either a full or empty bike rack. So we joined right in and on my birthday we went to the required Art Festival had lunch at a sidewalk cafe then went biking. We tackled Dillon Lake and biked all the way around, a total of 26 miles. Mom was incredible, tackling the whole thing with a healing broken arm and without a complaint - very impressive.
We were a little sore so on the country's birthday we watched the required small town 4th of July parade and then we went hiking into fields of wild flowers and amazing mountain vistas. When we got home we had a dinner of brats, watermelon, and potato salad. It was a perfect weekend.

Back to School

2010-07-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

I took the opportunity to travel back to some of my deep dark roots over the weekend and came away with some very interesting thoughts. I started the trip by flying to Seattle and spending the night with Paulette. My sister and I talked late into the night and had a great time and as we toured around her yard the next day I started getting nostalgic for the Pacific Northwest. Here were all these incredibly beautiful massive evergreen trees, lush green foliage, bright flowers, driftwood from the salt water, and the views of the sound. I asked Paulette why didn’t I live here anymore – it is gorgeous. She asked me to point out the sun and I looked up and couldn’t see anything but a cloudy grey sky and realized that was why we lived in Colorado. I do like the sun.

I drove up to an old party town from high school days called Chilliwack, BC and met up with Elder Sallenbach who was a missionary who recently had lived in our basement and finished his mission. He hadn’t wasted any time moving on with his life as he was engaged within three months of his return and scheduled to marry in two weeks. I met his fiancée Katie and she is a kick and will keep Bach Bach in line. We had time to even visit Cultus Lake, a site of a few high school hi jinks better left forgotten. I enjoyed meeting the parents and was able to remember enough embarrassing stories and give some spicy newlywed advice that I’m sure Brandon was happy to see me leave the next day.

I had the day to explore Vancouver and headed straight for the aquarium. I wanted to see whales and dolphins and really enjoyed visiting another aquarium. Plus I had enough time to swing by Simon Fraser University.

This visit really hit me hard. Since the time I was in the 8th grade until my senior year in high school I used to practice with the SFU swim team and became great friends with the coach Paul Savage. He was an American like myself and promised me a juicy scholarship when I was ready to go to college. I dreamed of swimming for SFU for several years and that bubble burst mid summer after my senior year of high school. Paul Savage said he wanted to recruit a breaststroker out of Montreal and needed the housing portion of my scholarship money. He said I could live at home since I lived so close. I owed Savage a lot since he let me swim there for free and get excellent coaching, but I couldn’t stand the thought of living one more day than I had to with my dad. I needed that money to move out. Savage and my dad were good friends and I always wondered if my dad had arranged for me to lose that part of the scholarship money so I would be forced to live at home.
I was pretty dejected that summer and told many of my friends of my frustration. One of my swimming buddies, Karen James, listened and remembered my anguish and changed my life. She was traveling in Scotland and while there ran into, Bob Stoddart, another swimmer from Canada who swam for BYU. During their conversation my name came up as someone who wanted to consider other schools. Bob told her that BYU was looking for a backstroker and if I could swim backstroke BYU might be interested. Karen knew that backstroke was my best stroke and so something possessed her to write me a postcard and tell me to check into BYU.

That postcard arrived in August 1970 and school started in less than a month. The timing would be razor thin but I called the coach at BYU and he said if we moved fast then I could start school in the fall and have a scholarship including housing.

The rest of the story is for another time, but here were my thoughts as I revisited the swimming pool at SFU. The pool is now called the Margaret and Paul Savage Memorial Pool. The trophy case went into great detail of Coach Savage’s great record at SFU earning his first national championship in 1972. Had I gone to SFU, my times would have been star quality, and I would have been on a national championship team. But as a senior in high school I was definitely headed in the wrong direction. I had earned a police record, was drinking heavily, taking drugs, and partying. I had no moral compass and was completely sucked into worldly and wicked ways. Going to SFU would only have accelerated my downward spiral, but for a simple postcard my life would have crashed.

I stood in the natatorium and reflected on the thin chance that came together that brought me to BYU instead of SFU. One swimming buddy of mine at the time put the choice to me this way – “Go to SFU and find drugs and sex – Go to BYU and find God; your choice.” It hit me so hard at how close I came to missing the opportunity to attend BYU and find the life I’m now able to live. I’m so grateful that I was given the chance to make that choice and how stunning it would have been if I had messed up and remained in BC. I’m so blessed.
I attended the reunion and met with old friends, swapped stories, missed those that weren’t there, saw an old girl friend that looked 67, and generally had a good time. One girl told me that I had the most hair and smallest stomach of any other guy there. That, made the trip all worthwhile. I looked around and saw for the most part happy people, but so many were missing because of their injured lives and they were a tad embarrassed about multiple divorces, alcohol addictions, wayward kids, or crappy jobs. How easy it would have been to end up with a tangled life, but because of a simple postcard followed by a few good decisions I have been blessed with a full and rich life beyond measure. The trip really helped me appreciate good opportunities and better decisions.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

We did something yesterday that we hadn’t ever done in the nearly 20 years we have lived in Colorado. We went to the Renaissance Faire in Larkspur and it was a blast. We should have done it all along. It was like an old English/French/Italian/Celtic/Dudgeons and Dragons village from 300 or 500 or 800 years ago. Before you enter the Faire there is a shop where you can rent costumes for the days in the ‘village”. About 1/3 of the guests were in costume and they were fun, colorful, and a little flirtatious with some of the women’s bodices. There were lots of entertaining jugglers, singers, musicians and acrobats performing on several live stage shows. The food selection ranged from hard boiled Scottish Eggs, to Thai coconut crusted Green Beans, to “Steak on a Stake”, and Deep fried ice cream. We went through a lot of cash very quickly tasting the fun food. They even had Mac and Cheese on a stick.

It was a perfect day weather wise and we went with another couple who were particularly fun. Dave, the husband, is a couple years older than me but a true child at heart. All day he was saying things like, “Oh, there’s a Maze, let’s go!”; “Look at these cool wooden swords, I want one.”; “Let’s ride the camels and the elephants.”; “I just got to have some of those fries.”; “Are we going to see the jousting?”; and “This is the best funnel cake with ice cream and strawberries I have ever eaten.” He made it so fun because of his childlike enthusiasm.

I have been thinking about my dad a lot lately for two reasons: I’m going back to Canada for my 40^th High School Reunion next weekend, and it is Father’s Day. With the new Vancouver temple having just opened last month I thought it would be cool to do my dad’s endowment in that temple. I really had to ask myself if I was ready to forgive and move on from the torturous relationship we had, and I’ve concluded that I’m ready. I just don’t feel the poison I used to about him. His toxic life style was sad and destructive for him and his family but if I dwell on his noxious behavior I’m held back.

I have finally made peace with him. I can see his weaknesses and his strengths and the scale is not equal, but one thing I have learned over the past 6 years is that only the Savior is perfect. We are all flawed and fall way short of the ideal. It is for God to judge and for us to try to forgive the damages and the hurts. If we don’t; we are the ones that suffer. All my anger towards my father doesn’t hurt or repay him it just diminishes my soul and standing before my Heavenly Father. And I need all the help I can get.

Ta'alofa Lava

2010-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Every once and a while, out of the blue, a long standing prayer gets answered. It is one of life’s tender mercies and brings with it unexpected blessings and strengthens faith. For almost two years now since the missionaries started living here, during every transfer I have requested a trade in for a Samoan elder. Over time and realizing that there are only two Samoans in the mission I had given up my hope of swapping silly Samoan songs with a native speaker and having someone verify that the gibberish I often spoke when I tried to communicate with an Hispanic face in a foreign country was real. But the Lord has listened and decided to bless our home with a genuine Samoan elder.

I know he is a real Samoan because he recognized my tapa cloth wall hanging, loves to sleep in, likes all kinds of physical activity, laughs at my silly jokes and stories, likes to tease his companion, and cooked his companion a dinner of canned mackerel with onion and rice. It filled the house with that unique fish smell for a couple of days and I thought I was back in the Islands.

Now I’m embarrassed with my weak language skills and fumble through a mix of Samoan and English to tell a story but it is so fun to have a “Faifeautala’i” in our home. He has been so kind to play along that he understands my diminished word selection and talks very slowly with me. I get a few of his words and it sends my mind back to sweaty hot days, walking dusty roads, fighting off mosquitoes and bugs, eating fish heads, and teaching the gospel to the most beautiful faith filled people on earth. The Lord must love me a little to bless my life with this spot of fun and joyful memories.
Thank you for answered prayers. Tofa Soifua.

The Branson Experience

2010-06-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

If getting there is half the fun then our trip to Branson was a blast, because the trip there was an experience. Surprise, surprise we got a bit of a late start and decided to have Dave drop us off at the terminal while we went to park the car. I felt lousy – my heart was fribulating – and mom had a broken arm from her biking accident and Danica was carrying Charlie. Mom and I honestly tried to corral Lily and Jensen who were super excited to be on a traveling adventure. They wanted to explore everywhere as long as it was in different directions and they could leave their bags behind. Unless of course one touched the other’s bag then there would be howls of protest.
The airport was really crowded and the security line was at least 30 mins. We were stressing - Dave was delayed parking the car. Our little explorer Lily had found that under the hand rail for the moving sidewalk was this fun black grease that worked like finger paint and tasted good. And Jensen was crawling, climbing, and crowding around all the people. Fodder wing Tracy and I took all three kids through security so Danica could wait for Dave with his boarding pass. In the midst of supreme confusion of the crowd at security as we were removing shoes and unpacking toiletries and the lap top; Lily bit Jensen on the arm he let out a scream that nearly set off other alarms. Jensen ran off to find Danica, the security guard wanted Tracy to open Charlie’s bottle which she couldn’t because of her arm, and Lily started crying – I wanted to cry too, but a few minutes later we some how passed through the pandemonium and limped our way to the gate where we met with Dave and Danica and thankfully a flight that was delayed by 45 minutes.
The hour flight felt like to took three hours with a couple of delays, but we arrived in Kansas City and had a rather unpleasant experience renting a van. They gave us a 5 passenger sedan for 7 people and then wanted to argue about it. Finally a nice lady helped the guy read the rental agreement and we got our van. Four hours later we were arrived in Branson at 4 am. I was glad to have that half of our fun done.
Celeste arrived the next day to added two more children, so we were 6 adults and 5 children all 4 and under – it was almost even odds with the battle favoring the kids. I don’t really mean that cuz I love my grandchildren and we had a great time with them at the pool, miniature golfing, at Silver Dollar City, at restaurants and at the fish hatchery. The adults loved the Beatles show, the second miniature golfing game, the rising table at McFarland’s, shopping at Branson Landing, laser tag, go carts, water fights at Silver Dollar City, and nap time.
It was great fun to be with family, make memories and remember the really important things in life. It is spending time, and talking, and planning, and cooking, and eating, and hanging, and playing, and swimming, and watching movies, and eating caramel popcorn deserts, and in general enjoying each other’s company. Travel may not be smooth, and the costs may be steep, and the ear drums may suffer a little but it is so worth it to be with family…..a little slice of heaven.

The Bike Hike

2010-06-05T19:29:00.001-07:00

I got to live a dream last weekend. Every time I drive to Utah as we pass through Fruita on the south side of the freeway is a rise of hills that hide a treasure – a single track bike path along a cliff above the Colorado River. Several years ago, when Don and Austin were Teachers, we went on a scout outing to bike that path and I was so miserable out of shape, not having biked for several – I mean several years. It was so embarrassing to prattle along way behind everyone and walk along the scary places, but it was so beautiful that I wanted to come back and really enjoy the challenge, the exercise, and the scenery. The only thing to make it better would be to bike it with as many of my sons and son-in-laws as possible. Well last weekend five of us (Bryce, Don, Austin, Preston, and myself) gathered Sunday evening in Grand Junction to brave the wild winds and threatening cloudy skies to ride my dream on Monday. I have been doing some summer biking to get into shape to keep up with crazy Bryce who wants to kill people on his bike hikes.

It was cold and windy and we really didn’t know where in the world we were going but we ventured forth up a long smooth dirt road with the wind in our face. It was a great warm-up for a dandy uphill slog to get over the hilly ridge and then a nice downhill run to get started on the trail. There was a trail Bryce was contemplating called, “Moore Fun”, but the trail guide called it “more pain” so we decided to torture ourselves in different ways. Right at the start, we ALL consciously peddled right past a sign clearly marking our trail as a dead end and thought it was the right trail. We explored this little used rocky road for a couple of miles until – surprise/surprise it ended in a dead end at a cliff with a nice drop off but a great view of the river and trail we should have been on below. When it was determined we need to go back and start over again there was an audible groan.

So after an interesting detour we finally got on the correct trail and enjoyed a spectacular ride through the rough countryside, along a dramatic hillside, and a couple of sheer cliffs. Along the backside run it was this cool downhill with stair stepping rock drop offs. With every drop I though I was going to go “a__ over tea kettles” but managed to hold on. Don had the dramatic move of the day as he skidded, laying rubber, over 10 yards as he tried to avoid slamming into a parked Bryce and ended up parked parallel with just two inches to spare in Hollywood fashion.

Hey, I tackled and conquered the last long uphill pull and relished the coasting ride into the parking lot. It was a great day, I felt redeemed from the previous outing and I got to spend time with some of the most important people in the world to me in an incredibly beautiful place – so what if my legs felt like they were going to fall off and Don had to drive home because I was so tired. Where are we going to go next month???

The "Boys" are home for a week together

2010-05-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan couldn't tame Don and we were lucky enough to have him transported his "tackle life" attitude stateside for a week while Austin was here as well. It has been a fun and exhusting week. For example last Thurs we got up at 5:30 to go play racquetball til 7 am. Then we went golfing to celebrate the struggling sunshine. Somehow we fit in lunch and a little bit of actual work in the afternoon before the evening's activities. After dinner we played a wild game of Wallyball for a long time while we waited to see the midnight release of "Iron Man 2". I made it all the way through Wallyball, but cashed in before the movie. It will age me trying to keep up Don and Austin, but I sure love having them around. Here are some pictures.

Peru Part 4

2010-04-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

We went to the little museum in Cusco after a stupendous breakfast of fresh jungle fruit, yogurt cheese and eggs. Then we saw the 12 and the 13 sided stones and the Puma and Snake stones. The Inca were such master stone craftsmen that they shaped their sacred animals into the block stone walls. We bought me a silver and green pendant and I got a massage. ½ hour of glorious rubbing for only $7. Then we flew to Lima and then Iquitos with only a slight mishap. We lined up at the right gate for the departing flight in Cusco according to the flight attendant and were watching the line waiting for our turn to board the plane. Suddenly over the sound of my book on tape, I heard my name on the intercom. I looked up and saw we were at the wrong gate and had to race to get to the right place before they shut the door. Then in Lima, we were confused about the plane – asked he flight attendant for the correct directions – and she walked off never to return. So we left the airplane to go find our other flight and ended up going all the way through the entire airport and repaying the airport fees before we raced back to get on the exact same plane for the flight to Iquitos. Again we made is with just a few minutes to spare. It is much hotter and more humid in Iquitos in the Amazon basin. We found a restaurant called the Yellow Rose of Texas where you can eat these two amazing fishes; the Dorado and P something wrapped up in a banana leaf and baked with tomatoes and onions. So delicious.

4/18

Humanitarian Day: Met Steve Jackson, Kizzy and Dave Meza for breakfast. We went with a doctor, nurse and pharmacist to Santa Maria a very small village on the Amazon. While the medical people handed out medicine for malaria and parasites. We met with the villagers’ in a room and Kizzy spoke Spanish with them. As with any enterprise there are tons of problems with the project. Steve donated a lot of money for seeds and other supplies but the villagers are slow to clear the community hectare for corn. They have delayed 3 months and couldn’t get organized to clear the land. The corn is to be sold to help the whole village. However, the government bought corn seed and the seed is “missing” (probably going to a village with more important voting power). As it is so late in the season, the water will flood the patch of ground anyway. I handed out crayons and paper and they drew me pictures of the river, their houses on stilts, and the animals in the jungle. One boy had been to Iquitos and he drew an ambulance and 2 story buildings. The community chicken coop in the next town was a little better. It takes 100 days for a chicken to mature and they’re going to use the proceeds from the sale of chickens to replace the batteries for their generator. We handed out little toys to the kids in the village. We bought Don a tiger skin drum from the village handicrafter. We probably spent about 4 hours in the boat this day. But it was worth every minute because on the way home we saw a pod of Pink Dolphins chowing down on a school of fish. I was so excited.

April 19

We went with Freddie, one of the local tour guides, to view some jungle animal reserves. First stop “Monkey Island”. So many kinds of Monkeys in this little spot on a jungle island 35 minutes down the Amazon in the fast small boat. Iquitos is at the junction of three major rivers and each is a different color. The Amazon is chocolate brown while the others have more of a blue color. The two colors can run side by side for miles. The river is filled with branches, logs, and whole trees ripped from the river bank of the jungle. It is a hard and fast rule that small boats must be off the river before dark because of all the junk in the river.

At the Monkey place I told them I had to use the baño and that was a cultural experience in itself. Thank goodness the outhouse had a toilet seat and toilet paper because 80% of the toilets here don’t. This particular outhouse was open and wild. In the reserve there was a baby spider monkey with a yellow belly and a long face that thought I was his mom. He insisted on wrapping his tail around the back of my neck and cuddling with me the whole time. He had long thin soft fingers and toes. He liked to be petted and tried to taste my silver ring. He only weighed as much as my little granddaughter Charley and wanted me to carry him around the whole way to view all the other monkeys. I hope to have a pet like him in the Celestial kingdom; I hope he likes riding horses too. The monkeys loved to eat bananas and the baby ones loved to hug us. Then we rode more on the river to get to the ¨serpentaria¨ with snakes. There we got to hold a big boa and a baby 2 meter anaconda. On the way there Freddie informed us that a pregnant woman was washing her laundry on the side of the river, and a huge anaconda swallowed her head first. They found her when they cut open the snake. So when they showed us a small anaconda at the serpentaria I only wanted to hold the body, I was leery of holding the head. For lunch we had the most amazing Amazonian Peruvian food. Rotisserie chicken with piles of green rice flavored with cilantro and this yummy Peruvian style hollandaise sauce over
everything with ripe sliced tomatoes and avocados. I love the fruit and avocados in the jungle. When you are done eating and have them put the leftovers in a to-go box to give to a kid on the street. We bought embroidered fabrics from Amazon Indians in the center square
which I plan to make purses out of for presents. There are so many amazing fabrics and handicrafts and jewelry to shop for here – at least 3 lifetimes. Mark has been great as he lets me ride horses, buy jewelry and fabrics and waits patiently.

April 20

A nice restful morning for our last day in Peru and we headed out to the most bizarre market I have seen. I’ve visited lots of village market days and witnessed many bizarre meats and vegetables and people crammed into small spaces with colorful sights and smells to knock you off your feet, but never have I seen such a huge market with as such an outlandish concoction of strange things. There was even a Viagra row with shop after shop of multi colored potions and lotions to help old men. Unfortunately many of the show owners saw me as old enough to qualify for their wares. I was highly insulted and Tracy and Freddie just laughed. The rows of meat vendors ran for 3 blocks and included the usual piles of plucked chickens and pig’s feet, but also had piles of turtle, alligator, piranha, snake, and guinea pig, plus some mounds of general intestines. Right next to a purveyor of dead fish would be a great place to buy a nice watch. It was a mix mash of fabric and food with no sense or order. Cages of monkeys were next to a mound of yellow mush that promised larger breast for a woman. Lunch was being cooked and devoured next to gross displays of guts and innards. In these narrow little walkways people pushed past the stalls in a never ending stream of motion. We had to have a guide in front to mark our path and another behind us to protect from pickpockets. We wandered through down to the river’s edge. It was still city with buildings partially flooded. The river will rise another 12 ft before it starts receding and will completely put the first floors of the buildings under water. The people were in the process of moving to the second floor to wait out the annual flood. We went out in a small canoe to tour the floating city where the really poor people of Iquitos lived. They lived in very squalid conditions with bare wood walls and small rooms for a whole family to live. Little kids were swimming in this filthy brown river water chalked full of parasites, germs, and raw sewage. This trip creeped me out with how incredibly rich our lives are compared to so many people in the world, how can we ever complain about our lives.

We stuffed in a trip to the Iquitos Zoo where I got to feed the pink dolphin (he returned the fish to me so I got to feed him over and over again as he kept giving back the fish to me) a final lunch at the Yellow Rose, and even a little shopping before we caught the plane for an overnight trip to Chicago. Our target is the heart of commercial shopping American style along the “Magnificent Mile” at the Peninsula Hotel. It is without question the nicest hotel I have ever seen or stayed in. The contrast couldn’t be any more dramatic from the Amazon basin to Tiffney’s – polar opposites.

Peru Part 3

2010-04-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

April 15, 2010 Machu Picchu

Because of massive rains and the destroyed train tracks we left for Machu Picchu at 4 am. Some people walk the Inca trail and 2 or 4 days. We didn’t have enough time and we found out later that those treks have 2-3 porters for each person and all you have to carry is your personal possessions, they carry all your food and bedding for you and prepare all the meals.

The other Inca ruins we’d seen were in the high dry part of the Inca Empire. Machu Picchu is much lower (7,000 ft) and is in the beautiful tropical, lush jungle. I was prepared to be underwhelmed with all the hype of this ruin, but it was incredible. It is a massive area that was an ancient breadbasket for the Inca that lived in the area. The inhabitants build the terraces by hauling tons and tons of gravel sand and soil up the steep slopes to fill in the terraces. Less than a 1,000 people lived in the buildings; it was mostly a farm and ceremonial plaza. The sun on the grassy terraces looked like glowing jewels. I really liked how they would incorporate a huge stone into the temple or house wall. We climbed Wuayna Picchu, the tall mountain right next to Machu Picchu. If you turn pictures of Machu Picchu on it side you can see the profile of an Inca warrior’s face and that mountain is the nose. It was a spectacular 2 hour humid hike, virtually straight up the mountain. For someone queasy about heights this would not be a good place to go. Now if you wanted to quietly get rid of someone then it would be a different story. They only let in 400 people a day to climb it and we were #381 and #382. We saw the guards carry a couple of people down on a stretcher. It is such a well hidden site; it took hundreds of years to find it. The Inca people were so amazing at stonework and building. It’s pathetic that only 160 of Pizarro’s men overcame such an advanced culture, effectively wiping them out. If only the Inca’s in the 1500’s had had gunpowder, the wheel, the written word, they could have repelled the Spanish invaders.

4/16

It rained all day. The river right outside our hotel seems stronger and more destructive in this heavy rain. The side streets had piles of sandbags from the flood in January. We tried to hook up with the missionaries but no luck. Boy we were blessed to get to see Machu Picchu on a sunny day. We went to the hot springs in Augas Calliente which weren’t all that hot, but the high mountains rising abruptly with jungle vegetation growing all over them was great. That afternoon we spent 6 hours traveling via train and bus to get back to Cusco.

Peru Part 2

2010-04-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

13 April 2010

We flew to Cusco. It is 12,000 ft in altitude and the tiny mud homes are plastered all up and down the rolling hills. This was the Inca capital and they felt it was the “Navel of the Earth”, I guess it could have worst names – like armpit or backside. First thing we got to do was ride horses up to the temple of the Moon. It was a strange little cave with a hole in the top to let in moonlight on certain nights to illuminate the stone alter. There were carved rocks shaped like a puma, a condor, a llama, a couple of snakes, and female fertility stuff. I figured it must be their make out cave. On the way back down the mountain the horses saw this huge grassy, muddy meadow and took off trotting and galloping like crazy. For Tracy it was wonderful like flying and she couldn’t help but giggle. I was in terror/pain/terror/pain/terror/pain and almost fell off more than once. We then go on the city tour to the Cuzco Catholic Cathedral and Santa Domingo where the Dominicans built the Catholic one over the Inca temple. The foundations and base walls were from the Incas and the walls and roofs are Spanish. At least the Spanish were smart about this because it took too much work to dismantle the Inca foundation and they never fell down in the earthquakes like the Spanish buildings did. The Spanish wanted the Indians to integrate into the catholic beliefs they enticed the natives with things never used anywhere else. The cathedral had mirrors because the Inca’s like them. In the artwork Mary was depicted as Mother Earth as in the Incan religion, the Savior was seen with the Sun and the Moon as in Inca times and at the Last Supper Inca chilies, corn and guinea pig was served.
We toured some of the outlying ruins near Cusco such as; The Sacsayhumwan ruins (pronounced sexy woman) are shaped like the head of a puma. The largest stone tightly fitted is 125 tons. We also visited the temple of the waterfall and the Inca trail nearby. It was their human pony express that controlled the empire and you got to admire anyone that can run up to 10 miles in that altitude in a very short time. Last stop was at the temple of mother earth where the mummified nobles laid. It was these cool caves and trails – I figured it was another make out spot with a view of the city. We had grilled Alpaca for dinner.

14 April, 2010

We left Cusco city for a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Inca’s. It was an incredible drive. We were as high as 12,500 ft and dropped to a low of 8,000 along the drive. The Andes around us went up to 18,000 ft and at that altitude you would think it would be cold, but this close to the equator it is warm all year and in these wide mountain meadows they had two growing seasons. The drive was along these narrow two way roads that had massive speed bumps across the highway multiple times in every little village. In Chincero we bought “real baby alpaca sweaters” and saw a demonstration on dying wool and spinning it with hand held spindles. In Pisac we went to a silver factory where Mark bought me cocoa leaf and silver earrings. There was a brick bakery with empanadas. In Urubamba we had lunch. At Ollanteytembo’s temple there were 7 rose colored granite monoliths on top of a terraced mountain with granaries even further up. The end of the tour was along the river valley that had flooded in Jan. The towns had evidence of the water about 3 ft high on the buildings and they said that all their fields had been flooded. The floods had wiped out the train tracks and the road in spots. The road has been repaired barely and some towns were totally isolated until repairs could be made. Most of the train cars were on the Cusco side of the break so train service to Machu Picchu was really limping along requiring additional hours of bus rides along very narrow one way dirt roads with tons of construction delays to reach the new temporary train station. That night we ate in the market and I also talked mom into eating some guinea pig – it is very expensive and the ugliest things imaginable on the picture menus.

Peru Trip Part 1

2010-04-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

12 April 24, 2010 Lima Peru

What an incredible city, founded by Pizarro in the 1500’s to become his port and Spanish capital in Peru, it was like stepping back into colonial times only with tons of traffic, smog, and honking horns. On the city tour we saw a famous San Francisco church with catacombs. There were brick bins filled with bones and skulls with this one spot where they were organized into this circle pattern. I love the plazas with the Spanish buildings all around the square. Most of the buildings were built in 1800’s because the previous structures had been ruined by earthquakes. There was a 1970 earthquake that killed 70K people. For lunch we went to a Peruvian Greasy Spoon and had the “Monumental Platter” which included fried egg, cheese, ham, hamburger patty, chicken and huge fries. We tried the INCA COLA which tasted like Bubble Gum. We went down to the beach. The place is famous the world over for surfing and it was a blast to watch the surfers. It wasn’t a gentle beach – no sand just rocks. It hurt like crazy to go on the beach because it was like walking on big marbles. The sun sets at 6 and the Peruvians love colored lights in fountains. We went to a dinner show. There were giant avocados stuffed with yummy seafood and they have elevated the potato to new heights. (300 varieties) We got to sit right in the front for this really fun show of dance from the different regions. Instead of just the mountain region where they just spin, we saw really sexy African/Spanish dances and an unbelievable scissors dance. For the scissor dance they throw in a little French ballet, Russian Cossack dancing, Chinese acrobatics, New York break dancing, and a painful form of “frying bacon” all while clicking these large scissors to the beat with their hands. They give a whole new definition to “don’t run with scissors.” Or “Watch out Edward Scissorhands, here comes the Peruvians.”

Pre Peru Posting

2010-04-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

In honor of Don's expected return in May here are some humorous comments by David Petraus when he spoke at BYU:

General Petraeus: Top 10 reasons BYU grads make great soldiers
By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
Deseret News
Published: Friday, March 26, 2010 10:37 a.m. MDT
As Gen. David Petraeus began his remarks at BYU Thursday night, the commanding general of U.S. Central Command shared his sense of humor by reading the following list, which was received by waves of laughter and applause.
General Petraeus' Top 10 reasons BYU grads make good soldiers:
10 — They have already been on many a mission.
9 — Army chow is no problem for folks accustomed to eating green Jell-o and shredded carrots.
8 — It's not a problem if they don't know what rank someone is, they just refer to them as Brother or Sister so-and-so.
7 — They never go AWOL. They just call it being less active.
6 — They will seize any objective swiftly if you tell them refreshments will be served.
5 — They know how to make things happen. In fact if you ever need a base built quickly in a barren wasteland, stride out to where you want them to start, plant your walking stick down and say in a loud voice, "This is the place."
4 — They have innovative ideas for handling insurgents — like assigning them home teachers.
3 — They always have a years' supply of provisions on hand.
2 — They are the world's most reliable designated drivers.
1 — They understand how far Iraq has come over the last seven years, and they think that Iraq's old spot in the "Axis of Evil" can now be filled by the University of Utah.

A Sad Day for Us All

2010-03-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring! Last week was wonderful with temperatures in the mid 60’s and we were finally crawling our way out of a long grey uninspiring winter season. The warmth of the sun was so welcomed on the face and hope was restored that green grass will soon replace the crusty brown stubble. Then Friday rolls around and the mercury drops into the teens and 6 inches of snow falls is a day long decent into a late chill of winter. The cold white blanket only dampened the spirits for a day because in true Rocky Mountain fashion the sun ruled the sky on Saturday, the warmth returned, and the snow melted. It was warm enough for grab the grandkids and head to the sledding hills. We poked our thumb in old man winter’s eye as we giggled and slid on the snow that hopefully was the final taste of this winter’s freeze. I love Spring.
I believe that our fleckless congress will vote today to condemn your and your kid’s future to a massive servitude to the federal government. They are going to approve the Senate’s Health Care Bill and it is a disaster. I support health care reform, but not this. Obama will win this round on his march to “change” this country. With chilling speed he has introduced the government into so many aspects of our life where it doesn’t belong – finance, auto, health care etc. This is way beyond the scope of the original constitution and the design of this government.
They claim with great pride three major accomplishments with this bill. 1. Covering 30,000,000 Americans who aren’t covered now by insurance, 2. Eliminating pre-existing conditions for health insurance, 3. “Reducing the deficit by $180 billion in 10 years. I like these goals too, but this bill does not accomplish these goals and it introduces huge problems into a fragile system.
1. 30,000,000 new patients when the current system can barely handle the patient load now. Payments to doctors are being reduced and malpractice insurance will rise. There aren’t enough general care physicians now and that number will drop. The unintended consequence of this bill will be to reduce medical services to all Americans.
2. No pre-existing conditions in place sounds great but there are other ways to accomplish this noble goal, and not as described in the bill. Imagine no accounting for speeding tickets or age with car insurance – the bad drivers will pay less and the good drivers will pay more – doesn’t make sense. Or if a life insurance company starts writing life policies on a recent heart attack patient or someone diagnosed with cancer. Let’s pay a $5,000 premium to buy a $1,000,000 policy and then the patient dies within a short time, what happens to the insurance company. It will go out of business and then the government will have to take over. That is what they want.
3. Reduce the deficit….who are they kidding. They are double counting some taxes and banking on cutting $500 billion from current Medicare. They can’t cut $5 billion from Medicare without the Dems screaming bloody murder. They are lying!!!! Medicare and Medicaid are broke now, and there is no way they will cut another Half a Trillion dollars with serious cut backs in medical services. Pray you don’t get sick in the future.

The bill does help with the jobs program – 17,000 IRS agents will be hired to
monthly monitor our lives to make sure we are signed up on this “great” program.
If it is so great why do we need hall monitors to control our lives this way?
If it is so great why is there no bi-partisan support?
If it is so great why does 55% of the American people hate the bill and only 35% support it?
If it is so great why do the democrats have to bribe their own member to vote for the bill with our money?
If it is so great why do the democrats have to be threatened by the party if they don’t vote for it?
If it is so great why are members of congress asked to vote for the party and not what the people they represent want?
If it is so great why have 38 states begun the process to legally prevent the application of the bill in their state?
If it is so great why does the government have to fine people if they don’t sign up for it?
If it is so great why have so many major corporations that had supported Obama, now complaining that this bill will cost them hundreds of millions of dollars?
If it is so great why doesn’t the President feel he has to dirty the office of the President by lying to the American people?

Because it ISN’T great – the price we are paying to insure more American and eliminate pre-existing conditions is criminally high with this bill. We could allow competition across state lines, apply tort reform, remove government red tape, improve private insurance companies, and accomplish those goals without the government take over, but it really isn’t about health care it is about more government control. We are less a country for this type of reform.

New Camera; New Blog

2010-03-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Our old camera died and so I couldn't blog for a while, but we got a new camera yesterday and so I can start blogging again.

Not much going on here. It is the lull time of the year without too much fun activity. We have a funny little elder as one of the missionaries – Elder Dalton. He is a clean freak and the basement looks brand new. He is incredible. He has completely cleaned and organized the back area in the basement with the food storage. Straighten up the book case and made the extra bed and neatly stacked the games. The entire carpeted are is vacuumed almost daily and the couch is rearranged to give the maximum space to the recreation area. Even the kitchen area is neat and clean and the garbage gets taken out every week. It even smells nice down there. But that is just the surface stuff. He completely took apart the camping and blanket closet and cleaned it up, removed all the dead mice, and threw away the canned apricots that had been there since 1992 and leaked all over the basement floor. The zebra room is orderly and ready for guests with uniform hangers and space in the closet for storage. To top things off he tackled the incredibly chaotic and random storage room where you could barely walk through and now there is enough room in there to throw a party and have room to dance. But I had to stop him the other night. Some banging woke me up at 11:30 at night and I poked my head out of the bedroom to find Elder Dalton with a broom cleaning cobwebs from the ceiling. I told him to go to bed and he just laughed and headed on downstairs. I think I may be able to convince mom for us to move downstairs because it is cleaner there and we may make Elder Dalton a permanent offer to set him up in a house cleaning business in Denver after his mission.

Naples, Florida

2010-02-01T18:41:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend. It was my awards and contest winning trip to Naples, Florida with mom staying at the Ritz Carlton. It was right on the beach and the sunsets were magnificent. The meals were superb and I must have gained 10 lbs. During our one free afternoon we did something I always wanted to do. We drove down to the Everglades, hopped on an airboat and zipped around the mangrove swamps and grassland hunt’n gators. We saw quite a few; they were all over the place. Even while driving along the road they were out there on the little patches of grass by the side of the road. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon. I will never forget my trip to Naples, FL.

News from Don

2010-01-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

We got a surprise call from Don last night at midnight and he sounded great. He is working hard in the Helmand province Afghanistan. His company has been involved in a big operation in Now Zad called Operation Cobra’s Anger. It got a bit of news coverage and if you look at the attached video clips you may be able to see Don.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCMyynmIM2Y&NR=1

http://www.libnot.com/2009/12/31/marines-of-lima-co-3rd-bn-4th-marine-regiment-make-the-most-for-christmas/

He said he has been feeling the spirit and has made the decision to make the Marines his career. He also said that he has been doing daily scripture study and daily personal prayers. He told me what turned things around for him and it is a good lesson for all of us.

While in Iraq or on base back in the States he had other members around him a lot. His captain was LDS and he had a number of friends who were members of the church. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he liked that association with the spirit and with members. They were all at different starting places but they all were trying to improve their lives to return to Heavenly Father. It is so good to know that the Savior takes us from where we are and can make up the gap rather than demanding we reach an acceptable level of righteousness to qualify for the blessing of his atonement.

In a true case of “you don’t really know what you’ve got, til it’s gone.” Don was transferred to Afghanistan and has no one around him remotely associated with the church. He said he felt the missing spirit and the absence of the comfort of other members. It really bothered him to not be able to feed his spirit, so he prayed and got a spiritual confirmation to read his scriptures, say his prayers and repent. He expressed his joy over the comfort those sweet and simple things have brought into his life. He admitted that he isn’t perfect yet but he is in a good place. He created a hunger for the spirit over the difficulty of his situation. The lesson I take from his experience is that the reward comes when we dig deep into our own soul and figure out for ourselves what Heavenly Father would have us do and then do.

If you haven’t written him please do so and if you have written him…..write again, he loves feeling connected to the family.

Busy Week

2010-01-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday afternoon mom and I went to the temple with another couple in the ward to do some sealings for their family names. You may remember when we had you sealed to us in the temple. There were two other couples there we knew from when we were in the Lone Tree ward and it was like how I picture the Celestial Kingdom; families will meet up with old friends and celebrate a lifetime of struggle but ultimate success in the important things. I got to knee across the alter with mom and hold hands look into the “eternity” mirrors and hear the divine words that pronounce us man and wife for time and all eternity. Mom looked so beautiful with her green eyes and large smile. It made for a very special afternoon with her in the temple in that scared sealing room.

On Tues night I was scheduled to go with the missionaries to visit an investigator lady, but she cancelled because of a family emergency. She was in the hospital with her 15 year old daughter who had tried to commit suicide that afternoon by slitting her wrists. We offered to visit them in the hospital and the mom agreed. It was quite a scene at the emergency room. The daughter was a beautiful girl with these large bandages across her wrists and a crushingly sad look in her eyes. She pronounced that there was no God but she and her friends knew there was a Satan because her friend worshiped the devil. I was stunned and my mind went blank and I couldn’t think of anything to say (that doesn’t happen very often). What to say to this young daughter of God who earlier that day had wanted to take her own life and leave this world. The weight of confusion and probably guilt and a dulled conscious had brought her to the edge of a horrible horrible tragedy. She had been flirting with the most serious of sin – the taking of a life but as I watched her face I saw something remarkable.

The young Elder Naylor squatted down at the foot of that girl’s hospital bed and began to teach the gospel of love and repentance and hope and the atonement. His thoughtful act of getting eye level with this girl was so powerful. It directed all her attention to what he was saying and the policeman in the corner and the nurses coming in and out of the room weren’t distractions. Even when the mom interrupted the elder, the daughter said, “Quiet mom, I want to hear what the missionary is saying!” Only hours before she was willing to lose her place on this earth. Now at that moment her shrinking and starving spirit was trying to drink in hope of a loving Heavenly Father and the presence of good in this world. It was a remarkable thing to witness. Then his companion Elder Boyer read a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon that expressed hope and joy and you could see the profound and positive effect of this spiritual food on a famished soul. I talked a little of the power of the Atonement and it’s promise, that He has paid for our sins and that He will never leave us alone. No matter how stained or troubled our lives have become. The Elders gave her a blessing, and we headed out.

It was so funny, I entered and left that hospital with two young 20 year old goofballs, but while we were in that hospital room, when the Savior needed to be there to buoy up a lost soul, they became valiant representatives of Jesus Christ and spoke with the voices of angels. It was an honor to be there with them.

On Wed night it was crazy at the temple. I knew it was going to be something special when I couldn’t find a parking space which is usually so easy to find. The patrons just kept coming and we ended up setting a new record for the number of endowment done, over 240. We had to add on not one but two sessions to accommodate everyone. The sealing rooms were all filled, initiatory was overflowing and there were folding chairs up and down the hallways for people to sit waiting to start a session. We had to press any warm body we could find into service to get the veils done. I kept wondering if this group knew something about the second coming that we all should have known. I finally left the temple an hour later than usual with very sore feet but a great big smile.

Interesting Missionary Experience

2010-01-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

I have a funny missionary story to tell you. I was visiting with a new client in Broomfield and they are Jehovah Witness’s. The wife asked me what church I went to and I told them the LDS or Mormon Church. She said she loved the Mormons and their solid family beliefs. In fact she had recently visited with the missionaries at the door and had accepted a Book of Mormon from them. She said she like to understand other beliefs and was interested in reading the book.

Then her 12 year old son in the other room yelled out, “Mom, you threw that Book away!”

Mom said, “You are mistaken, I liked the book.”

Son said, “You told me it had the spirit of the devil!”

Mom said to me. “I’d been having these headaches and nightmare, so I threw out a bunch of stuff that might be causing my suffering.”

The son said, “Mom you only threw out the Mormon Book!”

The lady was turning red and then said, “Sorry”

The boy then said, “I got a Book of Mormon from my friend at school”

The mom said to me, “See we already had a Book of Mormon around.”

The son fired back, “But mom you made me throw that Book away too!!!”

At this point the mom told the boy to go back to doing his homework. She later went in to him and told him, “not to say such things because it might embarrass someone.” She was right it embarrassed her a ton.

I was also in a very tough competitive situation this week and on Friday I was on the phone with the client while the competitor was sitting with the family and we were both presenting to them and “discussing” the relative merits and problems with each others solutions. It was very intense, but at the end I got the other planner to agree that my plan was better for the clients. This contact could lead into working with a whole group of retirees from Coors and it could be great. We shall see. Prayer for me.

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

I have been reading a few things about developing as a man and am going to pen some different New Year's Resolutions this year. In the past I've divided goals into Spiritual, Physical, Social, Intellectual items but that isn't where I want to head this year. I want to be a better person and so here are my ten New Year's Resolutions:

1. Listen to the promptings of the spirit - when I get those flashes I need to act. The missionaries failed to meet some non-members we had over for dinner tonight because they didn't listen to a prompting and I don't want to miss opportunities.

2. Forgive others - even the most difficult ones to forgive. I don't need to extra weight of carrying grudges.

3. Honest in all my doings - especially with clients. I may not be the smartest but I can be honest and trustworthy.

4. Less personally competitive - I want to feel more joy at the good news of others, less emphasis on money, and more value placed on giving.

5. I want to be more thankful and grateful - this leads to greater happiness and is as easy as changing ones mind and prospective.

6. Let virtue garnish my thoughts - think and see the good in others.

7. Patience - that even means in traffic situations and when I'm running late.

8. Kindness - to speak and act with others in mind. Don't pick on the weak and look for opportunities to serve.

9. Speak out for the Savior - use opportunities to talk about my beliefs and my love of the Savior.

10. Love others - what would make Tracy happy, how can I help the family, doing a good job at my church calling, and if there is a way I can help someone I need to step up and do something.

I would encourage you all to help me with these personal goals - I want to be a better disciple of Christ.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T15:57:00.000-08:00

Since Dave and Danica were the only family in town we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve by going to see Avatar. I was disappointed in the story and plot, but I was blown away by the FX and CGI. The story was way too much one dimensional – good guys were way good and bad guys were way bad. Evil corporation and military, it was like a democratic political speech with all the environmental issues thrown in to make me barf. “Fern Gully” on CGI steroids. But then I don’t have strong opinions on things so it was a good movie. The Na'vi chick was kinda hot so I asked Tracy to use more blue eye liner. My bad.

This is not an optical illlusion; everyone in Danica's family is wearing the same PJ's and they don't clash with the Christmas tree.
It was a wild rush to open presents including the elders who join the family fray. Jensen got trains - surprise surprise.

Like a typical kid Lily had a ton of fun with the boxes of the presents just as much fun as the things inside. When will we as parents ever start giving empty boxes as presents. Maybe when the parents enjoy the toyboxes as much as playing with the toys. Lily really got into ripping open the wrapping and then running to the next wrapped present.

Putting together Lily's kitchen.
Charlie is spreading joy and it is either a dirty diaper or spitup
Jensen and Lily didn't eat their dinner, but later snuck into the candy dish and hid under the cushion cover and giggled and ate their "dinner" until they were caught.

The completed bathroom!!!

Christmas thoughts 2009

2009-12-20T15:04:00.001-08:00

Here is part of the letter I wrote to Don today:

I hope you’re able to enjoy some aspects of a Christmas celebration and remember the Savior and all the hope he brings to the world. Because he conquered death with all may have eternal life and because he paid for our sins, if we repent we can live with Heavenly Father and inherit all he has. That is why I’m happy this Christmas. It is the season of hope, not Obama style hope, but of a real sincere plan of never ending true happiness, charity, and love. This life and world is ugly and tough, as you’re experiencing in Afghanistan. It is full of pain and cold and hunger and suffering and cruelty and sin. The world is designed for us to experience these torments so we will be motivated to strive to have a much better existence in the next life. How would we understand a pain free eternity without suffering pain during this mortal existence? How would we appreciate the companionship and blessings of loved ones unless we experience the loss of a friendship or the death of a close family member? How would we be able to treasure the loving environment of Heavenly Father’s charitable realm unless we slog through this bitter and hard scrabbled world? How would we be able to appreciate stain free white garments unless we experience the cleansing of scarlet sins through repentance and the Atonement? The Savior’s life made all our deepest hopes and joys possible and that is why I’m happy this Christmas. May you feel the elation of hope that is found in the celebration of Christ’s birth this Christmas.We miss you a lot Don and you are constantly in our prayers and thoughts. Have a great Christmas and remember the Savior.

Love, Dad

Thanks to the Family -

2009-12-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

Despite the cold weather (-15 going to racquetball in the morning this week) there are a lot of wonderful things that warm my heart this week. It all has to do with the family.

Mom is working three jobs, plus managing the home and me. So with all that spare time on her hands she may be heading off to Peru next month to do some humanitarian work with the native tribes in the Peruvian Amazon basin. Got to love her energy.

Celeste has pulled together a fantastic family picture for this year’s card. The whole thing looks great and Celeste and Brad have really worked hard to help us all look so good. Of course she had great material to work with.

Bryce has been captured by the spirit of Elijah and is going to town in ways I never thought of related to genealogy. He has uncovered about 400 ancestors and many will need their temple work done for them. He even found a Marcia Barrand (I had to gently tell him that Marcia was my grandmother and the all you kids have met her on our travels back and forth from Utah to New Jersey. Way to go Bryce, thanks for bringing the family together.

It is so nice to have Danica and Dave so close, they help us keep our sanity, while she battles three sick kids. She has us over for dinner and between them there is always some fun project they’re working on. Danica has spent hours copying the slides from years ago and is trying to put together each kid’s pictures. Thanks for saving our memories.

With Preston and Tiana, Preston has been helping mom with her web site development. I used to think it would be good to have a plumber or carpenter in the family but it is proving best to have computer savvy and web familiar kids to deal with the age of Twitter.

Don is upholding our family and country as he serves in Afghanistan. I haven’t heard much from him except he likes boot socks and mechanics gloves to protect against the cold weather. I hope no news is good news.

A lot of great things are happening in Austin’s life. His internship is turning into a wonderful experience. They have started giving him so real meaty projects and he has impressed the boss with his attitude and hard work. He has also signed up for a demanding schedule next semester including Biology, Calculus, and Programming. He has also landed a teaching position at BYU – a diving class. I’m sure he is hoping for a pool deck full of attractive coeds so he can help them land a reverse twist. He said he would offer the cutest ones extra attention. He was also invited to join an apartment of social return missionaries from Toronto West. I hear they aren’t gamers so that makes me ever so happy. With all that going on in Austin’s life I will forgive his not keeping up his blog. He isn’t even coming home for Christmas because he wants to stay in Provo and learn a new programming language. Life is good

Thanks to all of you for being such an incredible family.

Where's that boarding pass?

2009-12-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting experience returning from Phoenix this week. I was down there to attend a training class and dodge the 4 degree weather in Denver. It was also nice to stay in a hotel where there was a shower in the room. I appreciate that because our bathroom isn’t completed yet and I still don’t have a working shower in the master bath. I think that I will sponsor a party in the shower when it’s finally completed….on second thought maybe we’ll just have a dinner to celebrate.
Anyway, the training class in Phoenix….I forgot how tough it was to sit through two days of listening, stuck to a chair, trying to stay awake for even interesting presentations. I attended with my good friend Larry from Ft. Collins and another work associate from north Denver named Terry.
Terry is a character. He has lead a very rough and tumble life, full of all the worldly pleasures available if one has the time and money. Terry has made good money through his life and so he has feasted at the banquet table of thrills and pleasures. He and I about the same age but he looks 15 years older as he has misused his body fumbling after the tinkling lures of the world. Through all the rust and canker Terry has a good heart. He married about 8 years ago and had his first child shortly there after. That young son has really changed Terry’s heart and he is now very active in his church struggling to swim to the surface after a lifetime of abuse and over indulgence. We have talked a little religion a couple of times and I gave him a Book of Mormon a few years ago. He wasn’t that interested.
After class and while we were sitting in the airport lounge waiting to board, he leaned over to me and asked, “What does Mormonism have to do with Christianity?” Well the question caught me by surprise and I wanted to think a minute about an answer so I cleaned up a few loose papers in my luggage and excused myself for a minute to throw the garbage away. When I came back we had a great conversation about the gospel. He asked about polygamy and I got to talk about prophets. He asked about Joseph Smith and I got to talk about the Book of Mormon and he asked about our Christianity and I got to talk about the Savior and his Atonement. It was great and he was interested this time. Then they announced our flight and I went to board the plane and my boarding pass was missing.
I had accidently thrown it away when I threw the other papers away and had to go digging through the trash bin filled with a half eaten McDonalds Big Mac and a sloppy salad. I finally found the boarding pass with an extra piece of lettuce, the flight attendant gave me a funny look but I was able to fly home. I thought about Terry and no matter how much stain and slop we may acquire in this life if we clean off the old boarding pass through repentance we can take our seat for the ride home. I will have to follow up with Terry.

Feast or famine

2009-11-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

Last week was too much activity and craziness and this week there just wasn't all that much going on. We got the floor of the bathroom done finally. I had a good week in sales and my company is offering me a nice check to stay with them for another 5 years. They like my work. I also won a trip to Florida in Jan because last year's sales. I just hope they have diving where we're going. Looking forward to Thanksgiving when almost all of us will be together. Don is looking for boot socks and mechanics gloves for his squad in Afghanistan and the ward to is stepping up to request donations. He says it is very cold over there.
This week was a famine for news.

One crazy week -

2009-11-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday with Celeste’s gentle insisting I took mom to see the play Wicked which was in town. The acting, voices, and staging was incredible. I loved how the story came together and it is always interesting when things are not pure good or pure evil. There are bad characters you can like and good characters you can dislike, sort of like people in life who are not all good or all bad – except for most of the left leaning Democrats – we know they are really bad. I was a little disappointed in the music, there wasn’t anything that captured my humming abilities and so I didn’t leave the theater rolling a song around in my head.

On Sunday the drama started that lead to a whole week worth of craziness around here. A recently baptized new member came over to dinner as well as a missionary who was just released from our area 3 weeks ago and the girl he had baptized the last week of his mission. She had a boyfriend who was getting baptized in one week, but he didn’t attend the dinner. It seems she broke off the relationship with the boyfriend and now she and the missionary are very serious and the baptism of the boyfriend is up in the air. It made for a fun dinner conversation. Latest flash the baptism is on for today and the returned missionary who is now the boyfriend is performing the baptism for the ex-boyfriend.

Then on Monday the parade started. We had the missionary, Chris Larmouth, and a pre missionary from the ward start ripping out our bathroom fixtures to begin the remodeling process. The were banging and crashing and crushing things, then mom’s newly hired cleaning crew shows up to clean the house. On top of that the franchise team from Florida for Preferred Care at home came for the six month visit, and spent a couple of days at the house going through the accounts. There were plumbing issues so all the water in the house was shut off. Then the hot water heater pooped out on us when the water was shut off. There were three camps in the house – one was destroying things, one was trying to clean, and another was trying to conduct business – but we weren’t finished. On the heals of the wrecking crew came the handyman and his wife to get the destroyed bathroom ready for the tile crew. The garage was covered in ripped sheet rock, shower doors, glass mirrors, broken cabinets, and tile pieces. I almost forgot the missionaries who live in the basement who were kind enough to rake up all the leaves in the yard during the week so we had ten bags of leaves to add to the garbage.

Imagine life down one bathroom and a house full of people coming in and out, construction, no hot or running water, conducting a business, and a mound of garbage, but that wasn’t enough. It started so innocently with just a few soft flakes and turned into a massive two day, 2 ft., traffic stopping blizzard. That really compounded things for mom because her care givers couldn’t get to their clients and her phone rang constantly. All of my appointments cancelled and we ended up shoveling snow most of the time. When the garbage man finally came he didn’t take away any of the construction debris and we had to drag the wet snowy junk back into the garage. I don’t need it to ever snow like that again.

We spent Halloween doing the worse thing ever – shopping, for bathroom stuff – tile, vanities, and faucets. Who could have believed that three bathroom faucets could cost over a $1,000. My credit card will never forgive me. The bright spot was visiting with Danica and family and seeing how funny and excited Jensen and Lily were about trick or treating. Lily got an early start when she took her bag for candy over to the bucket of candy to give away and started downloading the chocolate giveaways into her bag – singing and laughing the whole time saying, “Candy, candy, candy……

It's Lucky Seven -

2009-10-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Our seventh grandchild was delivered over the weekend and there is joy over the arrival of this lucky infant. After two weeks of headaches, dizziness, and low levels of critical fluid the doctors decided to help Danica and nature along with a little inducement. About 6 hours after a lunching on patosin Danica delivered a beautiful nearly six pound baby girl named Charlene Hazel McDonald. They are going to call her Charlie for short. She had dark hair and beautiful light skin with a face just like her brother Jensen. I guess that means that the next one will look like Lily. Everything is perfect with Charlie like sleeping through the night and eating well, except a small causality of birth. She has a “windswept” foot which means it flairs out a little too much. That should correct itself with time and is not a worry.

I can’t believe I’m old enough to have seven grandkids until I run head on into taking care of Lily and Jensen for the weekend. I can go biking for several miles (even uphill), play racquetball for 2 plus hours, or swim a full triathlon worth of mileage and come away a little fatigued, but that is nothing compared to watching a 2 and 3 year old for the weekend. It wiped me out and I don’t understand it – but little kids just drain off energy from their care givers. Thank goodness they are cute or it would be twice as much work. How did we ever survive 6 kids with anything leftover for middle age?

I took the kids to the park yesterday and was helping Lily climb on the monkey bars and this boy asked if she was my little girl and I said, “Ohhh.... no, she is my granddaughter”. He said I couldn’t be old enough to have a grandkid. I wanted to buy him an ice cream cone.

I also had a fun missionary experience this week. The missionaries have been working with this one young man for a long time and because of family complications he couldn’t be baptized but they continued to teach him. He was coming over to the house for a lesson and the missionaries were a mess. They had other elders over at the house and were playing risk and arguing with each other. With 15 minutes before the investigator arrived they were fumbling through a pile of CD’s with the BOM on audio and were going to play something for the young man. My father instincts took over and I took away the CD’s told them to find a quiet place to pray for inspiration as to what they should teach. They came back from prayer excited – they had remembered while praying this scripture guide that would be perfect to read with the investigator. I coached them a bit on a few things as the potential member arrived. After the lesson they came in to my office and said the scriptures were perfect and that the young man will be baptized in two weeks.

Don is Deployed

2009-10-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

Not much news here except that Don is now in Afghanistan. He has been promoted to 2nd in command in his squad instead of just team lead. He is a little nervous about all the work they need to do and the oncoming winter. He can't get email or internet so he needs your loving prayers and physical letters.
Here is an article about the church in Afghanistan and the military. It is interesting to note that the church meets on Friday there to match the rules of Islam. Gives a new meaning to Friday night dates.

Church News

LDS military district in Afghanistan brings blessings of service

By Michael L. Haller

Public affairs representative, Kabul Afghanistan Military District

Published: Monday, May 18, 2009

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Members of the Church continue to enjoy the blessings of the gospel while serving in Afghanistan. There are more than 400 members serving in Afghanistan at more than 40 locations. While they make up only a single district, Latter-day Saint expatriates can be found in virtually all corners of the nation.

"We have been blessed with a special opportunity to serve the Lord in Afghanistan," said Eugene Wikle, president of the Afghanistan Military District. "Our service is needed and appreciated as we serve Him and our respective nations."

Kabul Afghanistan Military District Presidency, from left, Winn Noyes, first counselor, Eugene Wikle, district president, David Andrews, second counselor.

The Afghanistan Military District was created in July 2008 and includes the entire country. It is part of the Middle East/Africa North Area. The Middle East Desk and the Church Military Relations Division maintain contact with the district presidency as they administer the affairs of the Church in Afghanistan.

Latter-day Saints assigned to military, diplomatic or aid and nation-building missions and activities within Afghanistan may find themselves among a large body of Church members or at a remote location. The district includes four military branches and numerous LDS service member groups across the country.

"We've had the blessings of having had LDS chaplains on our district council with the ability to move about the country and meet with fellow saints, as well as others who've taken up the mantle of leadership in assisting Church members when and as needed," President Wikle said.

Bagram Military Branch Members, Interdenominational Chapel, Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

In many areas of the country, Latter-day Saints follow the Islamic traditions of honoring the Sabbath on Friday. "Being a bit adaptive is very necessary to being successful in everything we do to help Afghans," President Wikle said. "While we clearly maintain our standards, we've learned to adjust how and when we meet as both a practical matter and also a matter of respect to our hosts. Such courtesy demonstrates our true desire to be of service and speaks more to the Afghans than almost anything else we might say."

Each week Latter-day Saints receive a devotional message and other important news from the Church through the district presidency. To help relieve some of the stresses of serving in a war zone, they also are provided with DVDs and CD recordings of "Music and the Spoken Word," Church devotionals and general conference through the Church Military Relations Division. The Brigham Young University football team has provided DVDs for members from time to time as well.

Many wards or branches "back home," no matter the country, help provide service men and women with generous amounts of special packages of food, treats and other remembrances from members, friends and families alike.

Service in Afghanistan is challenging. "We encourage each member to stay close to the Lord through daily prayer and scripture reading, and to receive the blessings of the sacrament each week," President Wikle said. "Our active participation in Church services and association with other members of the Church helps strengthen each of us. In this manner, we are a positive example with those whom we serve and with the citizens of Afghanistan."

Members deploying to Afghanistan may contact the Church Military Relations Division at: PST-Military@ldschurch.org or call 1-801-240-1931.

Thoughts on Conference -

2009-10-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

I have been working with the missionaries as they are teaching a young lady about 26 years old. She remembers Tiana from high school. She was raised strong Catholic and for the last two years has been very active in a Evangelical Christian church where she works with the youth and has made several charitable mission trips to Mexico and South America with that group. She is one that is living the religion she has been taught. A whole new world has opened up to her by teaching her the restored gospel. The first LDS church meeting she attended was a very powerful and spiritually rich Stake Conference two weeks ago and she made a very interesting statement after the meeting. As I’m listening to General Conference this weekend I keep on thinking about what she said.
Her impression was one I have heard from a number of investigators or visitors to our church meetings. Their walk-away impression of an uplifting and spiritual meeting has always bothered and saddened me. To summarize her comment she said, “It seemed like a business meeting. Where was the room for worship?” Her comment just blew me away and I wondered about the disconnect, and are we missing something in our meetings?
I think it is all based on the premise of why we attend church. To many in the Christian world, they attend church to “worship” God. To aid in that practice they employ crosses, ornamentation, gowns and robes, participatory services, and lots of “Praise the Lord”. They attend weekly to drop off their few minutes of worship and praise and once that’s taken care of they can go about and live their own lives. It is good to bow in respect and admiration of Heavenly Father and in the Savior, but is that true worship? Almost sounds like the Rameumpton people in the Book of Mormon.
During our “business meetings” the heart of the reason we gather weekly is to take the sacrament. Instead of bellicose external worship our route is one of very quite and individual reflection of our standing within the family of God. What better path then personal introspection into our discipleship and need for repentance to bring us back into at-one-ment. That is the whole reason of Christ’s passion. The ancillary talks are then designed to allow the spirit to direct our thoughts to ways we can live our lives better and draw closer to our Heavenly Father. Our worship is deep and personal but quiet and reflective. What better way to honor our HF then silently repenting and/or resolving to change our lives for the better. No need for drapes or incense or candles or crosses, just a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I like that kind of worship.
As I watch and enjoy General Conference it is a personal experience of worship as we have the opportunity to put on the whole armor of God and put off the natural man. It is a great opportunity and I’m so glad you all are taking advantage of the treasure of listening to a prophet’s voice. Enjoy conference.

GO GREEN - Recycle Congress

2009-09-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Whewwww…..We just got back from a fun filled trip to visit Celeste and Brad and family and I had one of those top ten thrills from the party Celeste threw for us on Saturday. Some of you may have heard about it on the news. But first let me ask who turned me in to the White House as being opposed to this administration? When we got to the airport, very late of course, the machine wouldn’t issue my boarding pass. Come to find out I’m on the watch list as a suspected terrorist. The guy at the ticket counter took my ID and had to call in to some Big Brother number and get approval to issue me a boarding pass. He said it was happening more and more now-a-days. My guess it is all those anti Obama emails I like to forward on to you all and the White House is watching and listening. Well listen to this- “Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored.”

We had a great four days visiting with the Baillio’s and we got the royal tour to Ft. McHenry, the inspiration for the Star Spangled Banner, downtown Baltimore, dinner in little Italy, the National Aquarium on the inner harbor, the Smithsonian, the Antietam battlefield, Harper’s Ferry, and several monuments in Washington DC. But the crowning event of the trip was the opportunity to join with thousands, no tens of thousands, no hundreds of thousands marching through the street to protest what is happening to our country and it’s sharp left handed turn into socialism or worse.

I felt 20 years younger as our little family grabbed signs, waved flags, and thronged Pennsylvania Ave to march on the capital building. I grew up in Canada during the Viet Nam War and missed all the fun the Americans were having at protests and marches. Finally now in my mid 50’s I could contribute my voice and spirit to protest against the stupid, scary, and costly policies foisted upon us by this Democratic led government. Wow is it ever fun; I should have done this years ago. The visual banquet was amazing. Lots of people dressed in colonial garb and patriotic shirts displaying American flags and carrying painfully honest but humorous signs.

Joe Wilson was the big hero and Nancy Pelosi and Obama were the goats on most of the signs. Lots of veterans paraded in their hats and insignias. I was so proud of this nation and its citizens that can come together and make their voices heard. The march passed by the Newseum building which is a museum dedicated to Free Speech and a Free Press. On the 12 story structure there is a statement that covers one half of the building. That statement describes how important it is to have the ability to speak out and fight against Tyranny. It was inspiring to march by those words.

We travelled to DC on the Metro and as we approached the city the crowd grew louder and more colorful in the train. They were Americans from all over the county coming to the capital to live an important part of the American Dream. The train came to a stop at the right station and the platform was almost so crowded that the train couldn’t let off the passengers. Masses of people dressed in red, white and blue were chanting “USA! USA! USA!; man it was so thrilling to be there. We took the train down two more stops to visit the WWII Memorial before joining the protest. As we left the train we rode up the escalator with a nice black couple wearing OBAMA t-shirts and talked a little bit. They were headed to a large Black Family Reunion on the mall near the Washington Monument. I asked if they were going to join the big parade and they said “probably not today.” Here is an “only in America” point of interest. The marchers had much better signs and speakers, but the Black Family Reunion had better music and food….so after the rally there were tons of “Tea Party” and “Don’t Tread On Me” t-shirts peacefully chowing down on excellent Southern Fried finger food and Bar-B-Que at the Black Family event. It was a sight to behold; the happy enterprise of capitalism operating so effectively and efficiently. It brought together people of opposite and often violent views to eat and to make a profit. I love America.

Random Week

2009-09-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Nothing major this week, just a collection of random pluses and minus happening this week around the family:

1. My shoulders, arms, and back are killing me from trying to do weights with one of the missionaries staying with us – Elder Larmouth. He has 50 lbs dumbbells and I went along with the name and was dumb enough to think this old body could bench press them. The joke is on me and I can barely lift my arms.
2. To help a care giver out mom is having us watch her dog while she gives care. God must have been in a bad mood when he created Pug dogs – they are just down right ugly and this one stinks and farts constantly and wants to sit in everyone’s lap. Jensen and Lily liked him though; they have no sense of smell.
3. Average week for mom as she teaches on ground classes, on line classes, does counseling, and is working 24X7 trying to herd cats called caregivers into doing what they said they would do. She even has to listen to reasoned adults talk about themselves for 47 minutes. Her nickname is Atlas around here.
4. Congrats goes to Tiana….she landed her dream job of making people beautiful. They mainly do laser hair removal and this guy needs to be your first appointment.
5. Bummer with Austin….Keith doesn’t have room for him on the diving team at BYU this year but wants him next year. After looking at the pictures on Austin’s blog that might not be a bad thing…the pics show the results of a missed Rev 3 ½. Ouch!!!!
6. Congrats to the BYU Cougars who beat #3 ranked Oklahoma 14-13.
7. Don is preparing for a tough assignment in Afghanistan during the chilly months of winter.

Enjoy the Labor Day Holiday and remember that it was hard work and entrepreneurship that built this country, not social giveaways and government control.

It has been a Knock Out week –

2009-08-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

The strangest thing happened this week; I was walking this female client out to her car after a late afternoon appointment when this mugger jumped us and I ended up with this black eye…..no wait it was mom simply tired of me leaving my dishes out and she wanted to punctuate the point…..or could it have been my tender Marine son Don who wanted to handicap our racquetball game at the beginning with a quick shot to my eye with the racquet. You guessed correctly, it was Don leaving me a reminder of his visit. It was great to see him, if only with one eye.
In fact it was great to see all the kids together for the first time in 4 years, even if it was only for an hour brunch. I can’t tell you how much I love my family. You all have taken our feeble efforts to make a few memories and daily scripture study into happy marriages, healthy grandkids, and a positive attitude towards Heavenly Father. You even all vote conservative – a parent couldn’t ask for more. Life is good.
Here are a few pictures from the week.

Adding my voice....

2009-08-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

With all the fun this country is having with their town halls, I feel I have missed out on the opportunity to shout a little bit and raise some H___ too. So I’m spouting off here in this venue.

I listened to part of Barak Obama’s town hall meeting held in Grand Junction yesterday. This man is a con artist. The words he so smoothly dispenses are so different than his actions and the poison he spews is wrapped in a sugar coating. The scary part is that so many people believe him.

He makes the insurance companies an enemy to us: to cover the weakness of his health care plan. It is their fault we have a crises – “let’s get ‘em”. Yet private insurance could be part of the solution and is probably the best solution. He effectively blocks off a source of ideas and solutions to create an enemy. That is self preservation not leadership.

He says – “You’re either for reform or anti-reform”. I say NO. I’m for reform but not his flavor of reform that allows for: the government to have access to our personal banking information to “collect payments”, rationed medical care, slowly eliminating private insurance companies, creating a national database of personal medical information, paying for illegal alien’s medical coverage, and supporting taxpayer funded abortions, etc. Yes we need to make improvements but so use the free enterprise system that reduces costs and improves service. There are many great ideas out there that are not being circulated or talked about because the Obama plan has sucked all the air out of the room. I want plans not government based like Medicare which is burdened with incredible amounts of debt and corruption.

Let’s start with tort reform and remove the obscene amounts of wasted money paid to trial lawyers who are not part of the solution. The government is not the appropriate administer of a health care plan – we can do better.

The bottom line fear is “who is going to pay” for the services. How do you add 47 million patients to the system and then claim that a government-run health care solution will decrease the debt. It is a blatant LIE and people still believe him. The Zimbabwe currency was declared defunct yesterday because of rampant inflation that required billions of their dollars to buy bread. We are headed down the same road unless we get the government to stop printing money. Having them run health care will not help to strengthen our currency or country. It is a recipe for disaster.

Now I feel better

Bike Hike

2009-08-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

No time to write, just some pictures from our weekend getaway to Woodland Park and Garden of the Gods for a bike hike. I loved the lake trail and mom loved the rocks in Garden of the Gods.

New Light on the Subject –

2009-08-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

I have been working for almost two years to get into this one company to do their 401 K program. It is a good sized company, growing fast, and they have doctors, but they have been reluctant to pull the trigger on a program because of the economy. They finally started the process and my name wasn’t on the list of prospective providers. My contact with the company got me an appointment for a presentation at the last minute.

I was panicked. I hadn’t been able to meet with them to do any data gathering and they were already at the selection stage. They sent a truly ugly RFP by way and it was some idiot document pulled from the internet and gave no direction at all. I had no time to prepare, no direction, no ideas on a plan design solution, and big expectations. My friend had stuck his neck out for me to arrange my appointment. I did what any silly sales guy does – I procrastinated hoping for then to just give me the business based on good looks. That would be a fast shut down.

I actually prayed like crazy for a couple of days with nothing reveled to me. The day before the presentation I was in a real panic. Then that morning during prayers it all came together. I saw how I needed to organize my presentation and spent a couple of hours after the temple shift that night preparing the agenda. During the meeting I had to fight the urge to persuade and sell and instead I helped them organize their thoughts and outlined what they needed to do to put a complex plan in place. We got really involved in mapping out their organization and what they needed to do and we ran out of time before I had told them all my sales points. I thought it was over.

They called the next morning to say that I was the only one that seemed interested in their business organization and how to help them put the proper plan in place. The business was mine and they canceled two other presentations. The spirit is a great business partner – I ought to use it more.

The other light came from mom’s wishes to have new lights in the front entry. We spent all day on rented scaffolding 15 ft in the air changing out the light fixture. Ladders aren’t my thing anymore.

The Thick of Thin Things Week –

2009-07-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have always felt one of my management weakness’ was ability to too easily get caught up in the thick of thin things. Life just comes at me like a conveyor belt of tasks, duties, priorities, clutter, wild goose chases, personal goals, useless activities, distractions as well as a few really important issues. Too often in the jumble of the day I can pick up the useless distraction and let it override the really important things that need to be done. Items don’t always come marked with their appropriate priority designation so in the rush of daily demands it’s sometimes hard to order things correctly and I often mislabel priorities due to my laziness or lack of vision. This week seem to be one of those where I was so busy all the time but didn’t feel much progress. Does anybody else feel that they would like to poke their head above the avalanche of daily “to do’s”, take a big breath, and figure out what is really important and have the energy to tackle those key activities? I felt like that this week.

Last Sunday – Do I visit with a recently divorced man in the ward to provide some support or go to the Stake Priesthood meeting?

Monday – spend time with Danica’s family visiting the house or study for my Continuing Education (CE) test so I can keep my insurance license?

Tuesday – Go to a client seminar with a very well healed new prospective client or go to my required Employment meeting?

Wednesday – Fulfill my assignment at the temple or catch up on my evening cold calls, or sit in on a financial seminar offered by major carrier?

Thursday – Should I fly to Utah for one meeting and hope for some future business or stay at home and take care of existing clients?

Friday – Tackle client problems from a week of neglect, take the CE test which I haven’t prepared for, prepare for a huge presentation scheduled next week, go with mom to a special workshop, dinner, date????

So on Saturday, I decided to relax which meant a nice Saturday agenda of a long social bike ride with mom in the morning, business cold calls, diving at the aquarium (I was in a swirl of Bamboo Sharks – wild experience), clean the kitchen, nap, visit the Dragon Boat Races in Denver, host a bar-b-que for Danica’s family with the missionaries and a part member family, that visited until 10:30 pm.

No wonder I feel exhausted today. I need a giant filter to screen out the silly and useless and just keep the important stuff, but then that wouldn’t be much of a colorful and fun life, maybe the thick of thin things isn’t all bad.

The Hard-y Family

2009-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

It was after a rather rigorous racquetball game and early in the morning so I wasn’t in my right mind to start with when Richard Anderson and I were exchanging a few church regrets. I was disappointed that after teaching seminary for seven years I never got to teach the Book of Mormon and that mom and I had never been on the Trek which sounded kind of cool. I should know better than to open my mouth especially when the brain isn’t engaged, but I thought it was safe. The Trek was only 10 days off and they had picked their “Ma’s and Pa’s” literally months ago and the stake had been preparing them for months with meetings, films, books, and an exercise program to get everyone in shape. It was a life opportunity that had passed us by.

But that night I got a call from Richard and he said he might be able to help me with one of my regrets – they needed a last minute Ma and Pa. I asked – “Was that a token ‘Grandma and Grandpa’ to pass out cookies and tell lame jokes?” No they needed a legit Ma and Pa to walk the Trek and take care of 8-9 teenagers. I remember those creatures from years past – they stay up late, talk loudly, run your car out of gas, and keep you on your toes with worry from physical or spiritual injuries. But I also remembered how insanely fun it was to have a house full of teenagers with high energy and hi jinx’s, so mom and I again stepped into insanity and said yes we would go.

It was an intense 10 days of prep work – getting equipment, making cooler collars and bloomers (mom’s favorite), studying pioneer stories, and walking walking and more walking. We even did some in depth research – we asked Tiana, Don and Austin their memories of Trekking. Don remembered the food, Austin the water fight in the Sweetwater, and Tiana begged us to let our family members flirt with the kids from other families. With that critical knowledge with were ready for the 3 day experience.

We named our family the Hard-y family because besides the social fun of being outdoors there are hard things we need to choose to do in this life. When we come to those times in our life when the right thing is a tough and hard thing to do we need to be able to work though the tough challenges. That may mean getting out of our comfort zone, making sure to tackle the difficult assignment at work, being able to forgive someone, getting back on the board after a painful 3 meter disaster, making that next cold call, knocking on a foreign and unknown door, battling back depressive thoughts, or working through pain. We know we all have hard things to do in life and this is a concentrated 3 day experience to share with some kids in an outdoorsy spiritual context some of those hard things our pioneer ancestors faced. Besides Hard-y is easier to pronounce than Barrand.

The night before we left Scott Turek (who was in charge of the whole company of 295 participants – 200 kids and 95 supporting adults) pulled me aside, smirked and told me that I was the oldest person on this Trek and that I was representing all the old people that make the pioneer treks so I better hang in there no matter how hard it got. I really didn’t know how to take that..

We started at 5 am and that has never been a great time of mental acuity or sharp looks and it showed as 300 people stumbled around in the dark, met their “family”, lost their friends and tried to make sense of the piles of tents, sleeping bags (all in the exact same black trash bags), buckets, lanterns, snacks, and personal items. That is such a hard time to size up the social dynamic in the crush and pandemonium of packing buses. No time for cheering or disappointment, just get on the bus and sit by who ever and get comfortable for the 6 hour ride to Martin’s Cove.

The weather was beautiful, around 90 degrees with a light breeze, lunch was good and the trail smooth. We ended up with a great family. It was easy to pick us out in a crowd – we had the tallest kid in all the youth and if anyone was lost they just looked for 6’4” Austin and he was our gathering place. Now if Austin was ever lost or in the wrong place we all ended up there with him, which was only somewhat comforting.

After hiking along the Sweetwater, doing the women’s pull, and hiking for a long way we arrived at camp. Oh no this wasn’t our campsite….we’re only halfway to our campsite, we have another two hour hike ahead of us and that is where that work principle kicks in. We could have stayed here but we do need to push ourselves a little more.

At sunset we arrived, set up the tents (ours has seen better days), chowing down a very rustic dinner, clean up, square dance and devotional then to bed on a very comfortable air mattress.

The highlight of the trip was the crossing of the Sweetwater. It is considered sacred ground and we maintained silence as we approached. A talented sister was playing “Come, come ye saints” on a violin and I got caught up in the emotion of the acts of sacrifice and service preformed here. The problems at Martins Cove was partly due to bad choices of the leaders, but here at the crossing of the Sweetwater it was the pure epitome of the gospel – giving of ones life for the safety of others. The spirits of those four young men who for hours ferried the entire handcart company across the ice chocked river whispered to my spirits of the importance of giving of ones self as a gift for others. It was a powerful and moving experience.

I think some of the group got the picture that everyone is of value. They didn’t just carry across the river the “good looking kids” or the “cool kids” or the “funny kids” or the “athletes”, they took everyone across. Every life was valued as a brother or sister. There were no razor sharp distinctions of “coolness” that include some and excluded others because of looks or social ineptness. The Sweetwater crossing helped me realize in a little way how God views all of us in our need to be helped across the river of life. Looks and social graces are not the pass keys to the Celestial kingdom, but making those hard decisions and loving the Lord more than man unlocks that door.

Raw numbers: 3 days – 27 miles hiking – no rain – 8 kids – Mom earned the title of biggest blister and I was two short of the most blisters (with only 4) – OK food – great air mattress – and the spiritual enrichment was priceless.

Kids -

Austin – 17, wants to be a marine biologist, very tall (6’4”) very energetic and very hard working.

Jason – 14, likes drumming, learning the social graces, the trip was a challenge for Jason, but he rose to the occasion and conquered his physical pains.

Doug – 14, great hard worker who is a bright spot in the family. Talks in his sleep.

Derrick – 14, overcoming much (loss of a close brother) with a great heart and an entertaining conversation style particularly around girls. Great kid to have around.

Lindsay – 16, hard-working big sister. She was a great asset to the family with her smile and willingness to pitch in and help.

Tory – 15, in the tough spots she would push to the front and pull with the best of them. Loves soccer and volleyball

Didi – 15, overcame a lot to come on the Trek

Megan – 15, her good decisions are spot on and she has a lot more righteous grit in her then she gives herself credit for

Quiet Week

2009-07-12T09:54:00.001-07:00

As the title describes, the week was quiet. I was trying to get my business back on track after a couple of very disappointing weeks and was moderately successful. Mom and I have been walking as much as possible in order to get in shape for the trek coming up this week. We are late choices as “Ma and Pa” and are racing to prepare all the fixings’ for a great WY experience. The house is beginning to look like the camping section of the local Sport’s Authority store. It is littered with tents, air mattresses, mess kits, lanterns, ground cloths, and pioneer bloomers and bonnets. How did the pioneers ever get ready for months of travel without the comfort of sunscreen, body glide, TP and insect repellent? I think I will have a much greater appreciation of their efforts in a week’s time.

They shouldn’t have picked me to highlight the spiritual side of the sacrifices of the Willie and Martin handcart companies. Yes they suffered terribly and there was an incredible and painful loss of life but in some ways it was unnecessary. They started on the trail near the end of August - way late in the season (no fault of their own). They were told my experienced missionaries to stay the winter in Iowa or Nebraska, but they said “Oh the Lord will protect us, we’ll be alright. Divine intervention will save the day.” It was a terribly selfish and foolish way to approach God. It was an unrighteous dare made by those in leadership of the handcart companies. To me they are a great example of a dangerous arrogance when we set aside prudent thought and demand that Heavenly Father save us. It’s not a good idea to tempt the Lord; we need to do our part.

Here are some pictures of our picnic with Dave, Danica and family. These shots were taken just before I got into a fist fight with another guy in the park who wanted to kick us out of the fountain.

I hope I’m in one piece next week to write to you all. Happy walking.