MRI

I had an arthrogram/MRI today on my right shoulder. It wasn't quite what I had expected.

I got to the Doctors office about 15 minutes early. Filled out the necessary paperwork and then waited in the waiting room for about 5 minutes before they called me back. I was taken to a changing room where I was given a locker for my clothes and valuables. The nurse asked me to change into scrubs. I then sat in the changing room for about 10 minutes. Next the Dr that was going to do the arthrogram came and got me and had me take off my scrub shirt and change into a gown so he could get better access to my shoulder.

After changing (again) he led me into the room where the arthrogram would be performed. The DR said something along the lines of "I'm just going to mark where I'm going to insert..." Whoa... "Uh, Insert? What are you inserting?" He explained that an arthrogram is a procedure where dye is injected into the joint (in my case my shoulder joint) to help with image contrast. I didn't realize I was going to have dye shot into my shoulder joint. I thought I was just going to go into the big MRI machine.

I laid on my back on the x-ray machine while the doctor performing the procedure began to tell me what he was going to be doing. First he cleaned surface of front of my shoulder with iodine. He then injected a numbing agent into my shoulder. He said, "Just a little prick and then a burning sensation." Although that didn't feel good, it was nothing like the next needle. While watching the x-ray monitor for guidance, he inserted what felt like a huge needle into my shoulder. This wasn't sharp pain, but was very uncomfortable. I could feel the needle moving around. It only took about a minute for him to insert the needle. Once he got it to where it should be he attached a syringe with the contrast agent and injected it into my shoulder. At this point he said he was going to pull the needle out, which didn't feel good either.

I was already feeling light headed when I sat up. The Dr asked me if I was ok a few times. Apparently, I was quite white. Although not feeling 100%, I walked down to the MRI room. As soon as I got in there, I asked to sit down.

Again, not ever having had an MRI, I wasn't sure what to expect. They laid me down moved me into position and told me to not move at all. They gave me ear plugs, as it was very noisy inside the machine.

When I was done, I asked how long I was in the MRI machine. To my surprise, I had been in there for 35 minutes. I knew I had been in there a while but didn't think it had been that long.

I went and changed back into my clothes and realized my shoulder hurt more now than it did when I went in for the MRI. Now I wait for the Dr to look at them. I hope he finds out why my shoulder hurts.

How do the Chinese do that?

For Christmas, we got a free movie rental at Hollywood Video. This was perfect as Ryan's been wanting to rent a movie for some time and we've been having a hard time finding it at Redbox.

Anyway, as we were driving to the store, Ryan was sitting in the backseat holding onto the free rental voucher. On the back of it, it had the Logo of Hollywood Video printed in special ink that if it was exposed to heat, like breathing on it, the Logo would temporarily disappear, so that you can tell if it's a legitimate voucher. Ryan read the back of the voucher and realized that if he breathed on it the logo would disappear. Then he said "How do the Chinese do that?"

Not knowing what he was talking about, I responded with "How do the Chinese do what?" He then explained the special ink on the back of the voucher and how it disappeared with heat. Then Ryan said, "Well don't the Chinese make the special ink."

The answer was "Yes, they probably do make the special ink."

The Smells of Chirstmas

This morning it was quiet in the house so I decided to get up and do a little blog reading and catch up on my email. Ryan eventually came up stairs and came over to talk to me. We were whispering as we didn't want to wake up Deni or Sydney. As Ryan got close to me to whisper, I smelt something very familiar. My favorite candy of all time, Chocolate Orange. I asked him what he had been eating this morning, even though I knew the answer. He smiled and said "a Chocolate orange". I quickly thought about my responses and the best one was this.

"Go get me a piece and then no more candy before breakfast."

Christmas day 2008

As usual, Santa, grandma's, grandpa's, uncle, aunts, etc found us.

It all started this morning with the kids yelling from the bottom of the stairs at 6:18am - "Mom and Daddddddd". Deni I both jumped up and got dressed and reported to the top of the stairs. I thought the kids would sleep in a little bit longer, but apparently Ryan woke up and then promptly woke up his sister. As we got to the top of the stairs, I said, "ohhh it looks like Santa's been here" and "wow - Santa must have eaten the whole pie that was left out for him". I remember my dad saying things like that when I was a kid, while I was waiting at the top of our stairs. It's funny how we do things like our parents.

It was snowing this morning, but not sticking. Plus with the "Spanish Fork Wind" blowing, the snow was blowing horizontally, however it was warm inside and the kids had their minds on other things than the weather outside.

Ryan got a new bike, even though he was more excited about the Pokemon cards his sister gave him. The bike was in the garage, but we couldn't convince him to put down the Pokemon cards to go take a look, even when we told him there was something "special" for him in the garage. Go figure. We eventually got it for him and rolled it down the hallway. After he saw it, he jumped up and ran to it. The local bike store was doing a "bike drive" where we turned his old bike in for 10% off the one we bought for him. Ryan's old bike was great, but he had outgrown it this last summer. Matter of fact, he asked for his bike a few times after we had already traded it in, so we had to tell him we had taken it to Grandpa's to fix a flat tire.




Sydney got "Disney Sing it" for the Wii. Most of the Wii games are a little too old for her, so this will be a great way for Sydney to be able to use the Wii. Sydney also got High School Musical things (jacket and cheerleading outfit).





Deni got a new phone. She's been needing one for a while and we've been putting off. I'm amazed that I was able to surprise her with the dufus from the AT&T store attempting to foil "Project surprise Deni" First the dufus almost wiped out her VM a week before Christmas, he sent 2 emails congratulating her on her new purchase, plus he sent a text to her phone. I luckily was able to intercept all of the above and pull my Project off.



I got a few things for my bike. First I got a new heart rate/altimeter/cadence wireless bike computer by Trek. Also, so I could ride in style, Deni got me a Tux (shown below).



I also got this cool tripod for out little Canon camera. Now we can take pictures of the whole family on our outings.




Finally, the family got Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii - Here's Deni rocking out. I love this video.

Christmas Eve

We got together at my parents for Lunch. That is whole family, minus Shane. We were running a little late, so I took off with the kids towards my parents house. (we needed to take 2 cars anyways) Deni followed shortly with the food that had still been cooking. While I was waiting, I went outside and was attempting to get the packed ice off of Mom and Dad's 40 degree sloped driveway. Deni got there and I continued to scrape ice. Not too much longer, Dad came out and said we were ready to eat and that all were waiting on me, so they could say the prayer.

I was just about finished, so I finished the small section and headed in. Everyone had their arms folded and heads bowed, but I didn't hear anyone saying anything, so as I walked in, I yelled "AMEN". Everyone started laughing. Apparently, Dad had gone inside and told everyone to pretend to be praying, so I stole his thunder by yelling "Amen" when I came in the door.

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting and playing games.

Around 6pm we all headed home to do our own family traditions.

Our Christmas Eve traditions are:

1. Open one, preselected present from under the tree (it's always a new set of PJ's for the kids)
2. Open and read the Christmas book that Mom and Dad give us. This year we got "God Bless your Way - A Christmas Journey" by Emily Freeman. This is an amazing book. If you are looking for a good Christmas book, this is it.
3. We read the Christmas story out of the Scriptures (We actually have a binder with pictures, text from the scriptures and songs that we do as a family).
4. Put the kids down for bed so that Santa can come.

Hurt Shoulder

My right shoulder has been hurting me for about 2 months now. It's alternating the way I sleep (I have to have my right arm down by my side), so I decided it was time to go to the Doctor. The dumb thing is I'm not sure how I hurt it. Deni made me an appointment with the same Dr that just did my Dad's shoulder surgery. He took x-rays, which he couldn't see anything, and then suggested that I get an MRI, so next week, I'll be going in for an MRI to see if we can find out what's wrong with my shoulder.

Check the "Ruin your whole Christmas" pocket

I couldn't find my North Face jacket this morning as I left for work. Knowing that I have the receipts to ALL of Deni's Christmas in my jacket pocket, I stuck my head in to the bedroom and kindly asked Deni to not look in my jacket pockets, if she were to find my jacket.

While I was at work, I get the following chat from her.

(01:25:26 PM) Deni Berger: I found your jacket
(01:25:37 PM) Deni Berger: which pocket was it that you wanted me to check?
(01:30:38 PM) Brett Berger: Check the "Ruin your whole Christmas" pocket.
(01:51:29 PM) Deni Berger: he he he

I think she's playing my own game against me.

Sydney is going to be a great mom

Sydney woke up early this morning despite not going to bed on time last night, however she was happy. She crawled into my bed as I was getting up to shower at 6:45am. As I got out of the shower, I asked her if she was going to make me a lunch. She smiled, sat up in bed, and then headed towards the kitchen. I followed her to have some breakfast and she went to work.

She got the bread, peanut butter, and jelly out and began making me a sandwich. She got me an apple, some grapes and even carrots. Sydney is a great little girl and will make a great mom and wife someday.

7,804 lbs of coal

Just in case I get coal for Christmas this year, I was checking up on the going rate for coal (so I could sell it.) Turns out, I'd have to be really bad to make any profit on the coal I would get. However in the process, I learned some interesting things.

First, per the "Howstuffworks" website

The thermal energy content of coal is 6,150 kWh/ton. Although coal fired power generators are very efficient, they are still limited by the laws of thermodynamics. Only about 40 percent of the thermal energy in coal is converted to electricity. So the electricity generated per ton of coal is 0.4 x 6,150 kWh or 2,460 kWh/ton.

That made me look at my utility bill. On average, my family uses about 800 kWh a month.

800 kWh X 12 months = 9,600 kWh per year / 2,460 kWh = 3.90 tons X 2,000 lbs in one ton = 7804 pounds of coal to run my house per year.

That's alot of coal.

As far as the price of coal. It appears that for the Uinta Basin, the going price is about $73.00 a ton.

Ryan's Funny

A few funny things Ryan's said recently.

Ryan was watching a cartoon and one of the characters said that Santa could fly because he used "Pixie dust". I looked at Ryan and said, "I didn't know that is how Santa flies." Ryan said, "Actually, it's the because of the special corn the Reindeer eat."

I've also been teasing the kids that I'm getting Deni a puppy for Christmas. They know I'm not going to get one, but I continue to tease them about it. Ryan said "Whoever buys the puppy has to clean up it's poop." I said, good, then I'm going to use YOUR money to buy it, so YOU have to clean up it's poop." His response was "Sydney needs some extra responsibility." He's always thinking one step ahead of me.

Sydney found the Camera

I was taking the pictures off the camera and came across this little video clip of Sydney. Matter of fact there were about 30 little video clips similar to this. Sydney thought she was taking pictures of herself, but had it on the video mode.

I thought it was funny, it looks like she is jumping or something.



Thanks to her Mom for making her the Elf hat (seen in the video) for Elf Day at School.

Photo Splice

I was playing around with Picasa tonight and took these 3 pictures of my nephew Devin, niece Shawnee and nephew Logan and spliced them together. The cool thing is it makes them look like they all jumped at the same time. In reality, they all jumped at different times and all jumped in the exact same spot. These pictures are from this summer when we went to Goblin Valley.

How cold did you say?

I talked to my dad today. He asked if I wanted to go Ice Fishing this Saturday. I quickly looked at the weather and saw that in Spanish Fork, which is 4000 ft lower than where I go ice fishing, that the high on Saturday will be 16 degrees with a low of 0 Fahrenheit. Don't get me wrong, I love ice fishing, but I'm having a hard time wanting to go when the ice hole I drill will freeze over in 30 seconds.

I still have decided if I'm going or not. Not much more time to make a decision.

Originally, I wanted to go the morning of Christmas Eve and may still do that, guess we'll see.

Shhh Don't tell Deni

Two of my favorite pastimes are:

1. Teasing Deni
2. Surprising Deni for Christmas

When I combined the two, it's twice as fun.

The other day Deni and I were out and driving on I-15. I saw a Billboard about Laser Hair Removal and the idea came.

I looked and Deni asked her which side of the bed she wanted. She looked at me a little confused and I continued to explain that I was getting her Laser Hair Removal for Christmas, but I could only afford one leg, so I wanted it to be on the leg closest to me in bed.

We both got a good laugh out of it. It's fun to tease Deni that I'm going to get her only one leg of Laser Hair removal.

On a side note, I have my kids trained that they DON'T ever want to have a dog. I told the kids that if we got a dog, that they would be in charge of 2 things.

First, cleaning up it's poop and
Second paying for it's Vet bills.

If I ask Ryan if he wants a dog now, he says "No way, I don't want to clean up poop or pay the Vet bills." Awesome.

Ok back to teasing Deni about her Christmas present. We were out as a family shopping and Deni ran into a store by herself. As soon as she got out of the car, I asked the kids if they could keep a secret about Deni's Christmas present. They said they could, so I said "I'm getting Mom a puppy for Christmas". Ryan immediately started laughing and said "Ohhhh, so Mom can clean up it's poop and pay it's vet bills."

Berger Mento Experiment

Last night we went to the grocery store to get a few things. As we walked in, all the Coke products were on sale. 2 liters for 69 cents. Ryan went straight to the Diet Coke. Why Diet Coke? Blame it on Youtube. For some time now, Ryan's been begging us to buy Diet Coke and Mentos and to try the Youtube "experiment".

I agreed and we put the Diet Coke into the shopping cart. After that we had a hard time finding mentos, however Deni finally found them. It was too dark to do the experiment, so I told him we'd have to later.

When I got home I asked Deni if it was appropriate Sunday activity. Neither of us saw a problem with it and decided we'd do it Sunday Morning.

So here it is. one 2 liter of Diet Coke, 12 mentos, one 6 inch piece of PVC pipe and a slip of paper.



This was great family fun, all for under $2.00

A funny note, after we did this and watched the video Ryan said that his voice sounded different. We said that is how you sound. His reply was "Curse you Technology."

Here comes Santa Claus

We had just finished dinner when we heard a knock on the door and before we could get up to get it, the door opened and we heard "Ho, Ho, Ho" and the some bells. We turned around and there's Santa coming in our house with a large red sack (just like in the story books).

Santa was tired, but on a mission to come and visit with Ryan and Sydney.


Sydney got 2 bears (a girl and a boy).




Ryan got a supersized Rudolf Stitch. In this picture he has his old stitch and the new Rudolf the Red Nose Stitch.

Santa must have been working overtime or his Elves are working at the Disney Store. We went to the Disney store a few days ago and Ryan found this Rudolf the Red Nose Stitch, however he was too expensive to purchase. As we left the store, Ryan was thinking of ways to save money to come back at a later time to purchase the Stitch. How did Santa know that Ryan wanted that Stitch.

As Santa left, Deni asked if she could go with him. He agreed and they left together to make a few special visits.

Ryan and I played Monopoly while we were waiting for Deni to come home. I lost to Ryan after continued to land on the only property Ryan had put buildings on. I think I landed on it 3 times in a row around the board. I mortgaged all my properties, but finally ran out of money.

I put the kids to bed about 8pm.

Deni got home about 8:25pm and shortly after that Deni's parents showed up. They will be in town for the next few days visiting us.

Black Friday, Berger Style

I woke up at 4:18am this morning to an empty bed with a kid on each side in a sleeping bag. I got up showered and headed downstairs for some breakfast. Deni had gotten up sometime before my alarm went off and was just so excited to go shopping, she went down to go through the ads again.

We left about 4:45am and headed to our first (and only stop), the Disney Store in Orem. It opened at 5am and had an additional 20% off everything in the store. When we got there, there were more employees than customers, which is quite unusual for Black Friday, but we didn't complain as it gave us time to look around the store and get what we had gone there for.

From the Disney Store, we headed to Macy's to get some new silverware. At this point, we were done with our shopping. It was about 6am.

With the kids silently sleeping (we hoped) at Grandma and Grandpa's we thought we meet up with Teresa and help her out. So we called Teresa and decided to meet up with her at Target.

After Target, we parted ways with Teresa and we headed north to American Fork. We got some jeans for the kids at Old Navy, can't beat 50% off (kids jeans $9.95).

Ryan is currently wearing size 8 and Deni always makes sure that she buys him Slim, as he is very slim. Matter of fact, if they had an XX Slim, we'd buy them. When we got home and had him try them on, the length was perfect, the waist was another story. I think we could have fit 2 Ryan's in here. Thank goodness for adjustable waists. After a little adjustment, they almost stayed up without a belt.

We spent the rest of the day at my parents eating turkey and pie leftovers. We played a few card games but mainly visited.

We left about 5:30pm and on the way home, picked up a Pizza, so Deni didn't have to cook dinner.

Thanksgiving at the Bergers

Today was Thanksgiving. We spent the majority of day at my parents house. The whole family was in attendance except for Shane, although we called him and passed the phone around so everyone got to talk to him.

We had Thanksgiving Lunch instead of dinner. As usual, the meal was great.

After lunch, we played games, put together puzzles and visited.

I finally learned the card game "Hand and Foot". Hand and Foot was one of my Grandma Berger's favorite games, although I always refused to learn it. Ryan learned it about a year ago and after some arm twisting today, I sat down and learned the game. It was surprisingly fun.

Teresa made some gingerbread houses out of graham crackers that the kids decorated. I didn't take any pictures, so I had to steal these pictures from Stefanie's blog.

Cousin Jaycee, Sydney, Aunt Teresa and Cousin Kennedy



Deni helping Ryan with his roof.



Ryan's finished product, complete with pretzel gate.



Sydney's finished product.



We decided to sleep at my parents house, so that we could get up early tomorrow and go shopping on Black Friday, while the kids slept in. We tried to talk Teresa into sleeping at Mom and Dad's house and go with us, however she decided not to.

Headed to bed. 4:30am comes quick.

Visit from the Young Men General Presidency

After returning from the Boy Scouts of America weeklong training called Woodbadge, Deni started working on some of her Woodbadge tickets (goals.) One of her goals was to have a fireside for families about Scouting.

If you know anything about my wife, when she's made up her mind or committed to something, you know it will be done and done well. When she's committed to something you better get onboard to help her or get out of her way, as there's no stopping her. This is one of the many great attributes she possesses.

Deni's first goal was to have the some or all of the BYU football players come and speak at a fireside. She had a contact that said he could make that happen, however it didn't pan out, so she next decided that she was going to get someone from the General Young Men's Presidency from SLC to come and speak. (Notice where Deni aims. BYU Footbal team and General Young Men Presidency from SLC.) She made a few calls and a few minutes later she was cold calling Bro Nieder, second counselor in the General Young Men's Presidency, on his cell phone. After a quick introduction, she stated the reason for calling and requested him to come speak at the fireside. He generously accepted and the plan was set in motion.




Fast forward to today. Not only did Bro Nieder accept her invitation to come speak at a fireside, he expanded the invitation to visit Primary, teach a combined Young Men Class (3rd hour of church), and provide a Question/Answer with Adult Scout leaders an hour before the Fireside.

"His car left late" so he didn't make it into Primary but did make it in time for the 3rd hour of church and attended the joint Young Men's meeting. He was an excellent teacher and kept the boys very interested during the 40 minutes that he spoke. We had all the Deacons, Teachers and Priests, along with our Old Bishopric, the newly called Bishopric (as of today), Full Stake Young Men's Presidency and then all the normal adult leaders (including myself).

A few things from his lesson.

In talking about Priesthood quorums, he said "when we are working together, working as one, our power to do good is increased." He also talked about how we learn in our quorums and then practice at home and that the home is the best place to magnify our Aaronic Priesthood.

During opening exercises, we always quote the Purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood. Bro Nieder was impressed with all of the Young Men knowing and being able to quote the Purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood. While he was teaching had asked if any of the boys could quote anything else. (church or otherwise) There was one boy who quoted his favorite poem (which was impressive as it was really long.) We also had a boy get up and quote Doctrine and Covenants 4 . After the boys had finished their quotes, he had all of the Young Men stand up and learn a new quote. The quote was this "Mom, I love you. Take the night off, I'll do the dishes." Amazingly enough all the boys learned it the first time.

Bro Nieder also taught us the Features of a Quorum.

A Quorum is:

• where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is taught
• a service organization
• a Brotherhood (where we have friends and belong)

Finally he taught the Quorum Presidencies what they were responsible for, by asking a few questions such as "Who's responsible for Missionary work? or Who's responsible for verifying that truth is being taught in the quorum? or Who's responsible for making sure the boys are fulfilling their Duty to God certificate?" Each of the answers to these questions were "I am".

After church, we brought Bro Nieder to home for a quick dinner. We invited our old Bishop and his family over as well. We ate about 5:15pm and hurried out the door for the 6pm meeting with leaders. Although not well attended, the Leader question and answer session was a success.

Finally at 7pm was the Family Fireside. Deni spoke, the Young Women from our ward sang and Bro Nieder spoke. As Bro Nieder got up, he had Deni, our new Bishop, and a member of our Stake Presidency stand up to receive a gift from him. They each got a neckerchief that said "LDS Leadership Conference - Every boy deserves a trained leader." (you can see it below) There were about 100 in attendance and it was a great event.

Here's a picture of Hal Henderson (our Woodbadge Course Director) Bro Nieder (2nd Counselor in the General Young Men's Presidency) and Deni (my hot wife :)-



Bro Nieder was nice enough to pose for some pictures for our family.

Oh, so we're Puerto Rican

I put Ryan to bed tonight and this is how our conversation went.

Ryan: "Dad, how old were you when you lived in Spain?"

Me: Being a little confused, I said "Ryan, I never lived in Spain."

Ryan: "But didn't Grandma and Grandpa live somewhere....."

Me: Realizing what he meant, I interrupted him and said "Well Grandma and Grandpa lived in Puerto Rico before I was born."

Ryan: "Oh, so we're Puerto Rican?"

Proud of my anti-socialness

Through some series of unfortunate events this last week, I think Deni is finally starting to see some merit in my anti-socialness. Maybe I should write a book with some best practices.

Amazing Christmas tree

I was browsing a Sam's club website the other day and came across this unique Christmas tree. It it wasn't so pricey ($200.00), I think I might go for it. Maybe I'll watch for it on clearance.

Explicit Language - Beware

A few months back, my mom was watching my oldest sisters kids (Teresa). While babysitting, my mom asked Austin (my nephew) to clean up something. A little while later, my mom and 3 year old niece, Kennedy, found that Austin hadn't put away all of this things. Kennedy said "Austin's a butthole of doing that." This obviously caught my mom off guard coming from Kennedy and tried to keep a straight face while telling her she shouldn't talk like that.

Since hearing that story, Deni and I have joked around by saying substituting "butthole" with BH. So we say "You're a BH for doing that!" We used BH because we didn't think the kids would catch on. Not too long after we started saying it, Ryan caught on and figured out what BH stood for.

Fast forward to last night. We were trying to go out to Wal-Mart as a family and I was teasing Deni (as I normally do) because she was taking too long to get ready. Out of the blue, Sydney said "Dad, you're a BH." Deni and I both started laughing.

Time to start drinking and smoking

During church today, our Bishop announced that next week a new Bishop would be sustained in our ward.

No time like the current to start breaking the word of wisdom, right?

Deni's new haircut

I finally found the battery charger and charged the camera battery. As promised her is my beautiful brides new haircut.

No power - only fuzz

The other night, after helping put the kids to bed, I went through my normal routine.

Go to my bedroom -check
Turn on the TV - check.... uh wait a second, no power.
Try again to turn on the TV - still no power. Being a troubleshooter by trade, I checked the obvious things first. Yep, just as I thought, it had been unplugged. I plugged it back in. Now the power button. Nothing but fuzz. Hmmm that's odd. Maybe the kids had accidentally turned it to some random channel, so I changed the channel and I still got fuzz. Hmm. Next I looked around the back of the TV surprisingly enough the cable had been undone.

Just about this time, Deni came walking into the bedroom with a grin on her face.

I guess my nights of watching TV in my bed are over. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Wrong kind of change

Last week in my post Make All you Can... I said life was good.

I even thanked President-Elect Obama for the meager 4.3% "change"/increase in my 401k in the Month of October.

Well - I take it all back.

Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 11/11/2008 is -41.7%

Maybe Obama's slogan of "Change we can believe in" was really his economic plan and all I'll have left in my 401k will be a three quarters, 2 nickels and a dime. Ha.

Don't take me too seriously on the Obama joke. I'm just having fun. Personally, I don't think that any President has the power to effect the economy. But they sure take credit when it's going well and sure are quick to blame others when it tanks.

I have to keep telling myself, I'm in this for the long term, I'm in this for the long term, I'm in this for the long term. I'm still trying to convince myself of this.

Why would I be mad?

5 minutes before I leave work for the day, I get this txt to my phone from Deni.

Don't be mad. I cut my hair :-|

First of all. I'm not sure why I would be mad. Especially about something Deni wanted to do.

I immediately tried calling Deni's cell but she didn't answer. Next I tried calling the house - and Sydney answered the phone and finally persuaded Sydney to let me talk to Deni.

For the record. Deni has a very cute haircut. My guess is that she cut at least 8 inches off. I'll have to get a picture of the new cut.

Picasa 3.0 for Linux - way cool.

I gave up on Windows along time ago. For the most part, there are comparable applications on Linux. One that I've been missing is Picasa. But just recently found a beta for Picasa 3.0 for Linux - way cool.

From Our Kids

Make all you can......

Life is good. I'm up 4.3% in my 401k in the last month.

01/01/2008 to 10/09/2008 is -39.2%.

01/01/2008 to 11/04/2008 is -34.9%

I'm sure President Obama will take credit for it, so I better give credit where credit is due. Thank you President Obama.(grin)

Fishing at Maple Lake

This morning, both the kids wanted to play with someone, so I let them go out and play with their friends. Sydney couldn't find anyone home. Ryan played for a while, but then came home. They wanted to do something outside as it was a beautiful day outside, so I suggested that we go fishing at Maple Lake, up Payson Canyon. Deni was at a Boy Scout Training up Payson Canyon and we had to pick her up, so it was good timing, although we went fishing before we picked up Deni. Although Deni would have loved to be there fishing with us (just as long as I put the worms on for her.)

We fished for about 2 hours. We didn't have any luck for the first 1.5 hours.

Sydney fishing at Maple Lake



Ryan fishing at Maple Lake



Although it was a beautiful day outside, it was a little chilli in the shade. We moved places but still no luck.



I decided to try changing the lure on one of the poles after 1.5 hrs of no luck. First cast, I caught a fish. I released it. I thought, I wonder if I can do that again. I cast out in the same place and on my 2nd cast, I caught a second fish. This time once I knew it was hooked, I let the line go and let the fish take the line out then allowed Sydney to reel it in. I had hooked the fish through the mouth and in the eye. I tried to get the hook out without hurting it but one of it's eyes came out with the hook. We kept it, but offered it to a Hispanic family that appeared to be fishing for dinner, not just for fun.

After our fishing, we headed down the canyon to Camp Maple Dell to pick up Deni. We were about an hour early, so sat in the car. Ryan was finishing up the second book of Fablehaven and would giggle every few minutes, which was fun to hear.

Pumpkins

Like last year we grew pumpkins in our garden again. We got 6 small ones this year.

We enjoyed carving the pumpkins tonight as a family. The kids have been looking forward to doing this since we picked them a few weeks ago.

I'm not into technical pumpkin carving, although it looks really cool when it is finished. I'm into carving what the kids draw on the front. Although one of these is mine and one is Deni's.

I think I had more fun taking these pictures than carving the pumpkins.

I'm not sure Sydney changed her face in these 8 pictures.

Primary Police

Being married to the Primary President has it pros and cons.

I was asked to go sit with a Primary class during "singing time" today so that the Primary teachers could attend a "Teacher Development" class for one of the 2 hours of Primary.

I was asked to sit with the 3 yr olds. There were 5 or 6 kids. Not so bad. Then a little boy came and sat next to me. First of all, he didn't appear to have the capacity to control his body nor his outbursts. I tried and tried to keep him quiet and sitting reverently but couldn't. Deni knowing the situation better, had the little boy go sit by her and color. Even though they were doing their best to control his behavior, they still ended up getting his mom/grandmother to come sit with him.

After failing at keeping the 3 yr old under control, Deni asked me to sit with the 3 yr olds older brother that is about 5 yrs old.

I didn't do much better with the older boy either. However, I could at least understand the names he was calling me as I attempted to keep him quiet. At one point, as the 5 yr old was digging his fingernails into my arm, he looked at me as said- "You're fat, ugly, and stupid." Biting my tongue, I looked at him and told him - " I love you even though you are saying naughty things to me." Then I got he stuck out his tongue at me. After many attempts to keep the 5 yr old under control, I resigned to just keep him facing forward and somewhat quiet. Well at least until he started elbowing me in the side. I took his arm, got Deni's attention and she took him out. I stayed with the rest of the class.

While Deni had the 5 yr old out in the hall, he stuck his tongue out and then spit in her face.

I'm glad I wasn't out there in the hall.

So what did I learn today. I learned 2 things.

First, I'm thankful for my family. I have a wonderful wife who patiently puts up with other peoples lack of parenting every Sunday for 2 hours - she's an angel. I have a great son, Ryan and wonderful daughter, Sydney who are for the most part polite and well behaved kids. No matter how bad my kids act at home, they have NEVER been as disrespectful to anyone as these two brothers today.

Second, I'm grateful for my own calling of working with the 14 and 15 year old boys (and I'm sure glad I wasn't called to be the Primary teacher of either of these unruly kids.) If given the choice, I would choose to stay in the Young Men's for years and years, well at least until these 3 and 5 yr old brothers turn 14.

HSM3 - Opening Night

For the last few weeks, Sydney has been counting down the days until the release of High School Musical 3 (in theaters). And today was the day.

I bought tickets online about 2 weeks ago. Originally, this was going to be a Daddy/Daughter date, but after talking to Deni, we decided to do it as a family. I'm not a big "opening day" movie attender, but opening day happened to fall on a Friday and what better excuse to leave early than to take my daughter to a movie.

We got to the movie theater about 45 minutes early, however they had changed the time on our tickets, so we had just over an hour to wait. So we got in line.





Deni saw that another showing had been added and there were good seats still available, so we jumped out of line and went into the earlier showing. Saved us about 45 minutes.

HSM3 was a cute movie. Sydney sat next to me (and on my lap for part of it) but she loved the singing and dancing. She had a great time. I enjoyed seeing her so happy. I won't give the movie away, but I looked over during a kissing scene to see Ryan squinting his eyes closed. It was classic.

Kids pics

I took the kids up the canyon to take some pictures. I love the progress of these 3 pictures. It shows the real Sydney I know and love.

Hottest new game show

There's a new game that is taking America by storm called, How much can I lose in my 401k?

Seeing the Dow Jones Industrial Average go below 9,000 yesterday (and continue to fall today) to over a 5 year low made me look to see where I was in this hottest new game show.

I'm not sure if I'm winning or losing, but my Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 10/09/2008 is -39.2%.

One of my co-workers tells me to look on the bright side of things. I guess the bright side is I still have 60.8% of my 401k still left.

I'm not sure there is much I can do at this point but ride out the storm and hope it bottoms out soon.

High School Musical 3, here we come

Sydney loves High School Musical (HSM) and has been looking forward to HSM3 (Coming to theater near you on Friday, Oct 24, 2008.)

Originally I had planned on taking Sydney out for a Daddy/daughter date to see High School Musical 3 opening night, however we've decided to take the whole family instead. So tonight I bought movie tickets for opening day through Fandango. Sydney is going to be excited when she finds out we already have tickets.

No matter how bad a day is going (for Sydney) I can always ask her if she wants to watch HSM with me and she will immediately perk up. The movies are fun to watch...and YES - Sydney and I have fun singing along. We pick up the TV and DVD remotes and sing at the top of our lungs. I'm sure some will mock me for learning and singing songs from HSM, but mock away. Watching and singing the movies with Sydney makes her extremely happy, plus I'm spending time with my baby. What more could I ask for.

Priesthood Session

For at least the last 2 years, Ryan has always wanted to go with me to the Priesthood Session. Some think I'm mean for "making" him go, but the truth is, he wants to come with me. I've never made him come with me, he always expects to go.

We were running a little behind on Saturday and Deni suggested that maybe Ryan should just stay home this time and not go to Priesthood Session with me. You would have thought that Deni just broke Ryan's favorite toy. He was pretty upset.

It makes me pretty happy to see him get upset about not being able to go to the Priesthood session.

So we hurried things along and I waited for him to get ready to go. Truth be told, he is usually pretty good about taking notes and listening. Matter of fact, in the past, he has remembered stories better than I have.

Ryan is a good little man. I hope he continues making great decisions like wanting to go to the Priesthood Session of Conference.

No, I'm not done, what's his name again?

Sydney was saying her pray tonight and paused for a long time. I wasn't sure why she had paused, so after a long silence, I decided to prompt her by saying "In the name of....." to see if she would finish her prayer. She then said, "No, I'm not done, what's his name again?" Not knowing which name she was talking about, I asked her who she was talking about. She then said "I remember President Monson, and Elder Eyring, but what's the other guys name." She of course was referring to the Prophet (President Monson) and First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I told her it was "Elder Uchtdorf" and she promptly continued on with her prayer.

Happy 31st Birhday Deni

Today was Deni's 31st birthday. Very anticlimactic for her, I'm sure. Why, you ask?

1. Deni bought her own birthday present
2. Deni opened it a few weeks ago

See her early birthday post

Today was extremely busy today with church, meetings, etc however I did find time to make Deni dinner (even though it was only a spaghetti dinner).

After dinner, we went out on a walk as a family. Actually only Deni and I walked. Ryan was on his roller blades and Sydney on her scooter. As we walked, it gave us time to walk hand in hand without the kids being so close. I sure enjoy walking hand in hand with Deni.

Happy Birthday Deni. I love you.

Back from Wood Badge

I had a great opportunity to attend Wood Badge at Camp Maple Dell this last week. Even better, Deni was able to attend with me. Although we didn't see much of each other, here is a picture that was taken towards the end of the week.



I've been functioning as the Boy Scouts of America Varsity Coach for the boys that are 14 and 15 in my ward for the last couple of years and Deni was recently called as the Primary President in our Ward, which means she has the responsibility over the 11 year old Boy Scouts. We've both had leader specific training in our own areas, however a co-worker of mine had been "bugging" me to sign up for Wood Badge for sometime and I finally broke down and signed up for it and shortly thereafter, Deni signed up for the same training.

Camp Maple Dell is a Boy Scout Camp up Payson Canyon and it was beautiful this time of year. Here is a picture of the lake at Camp Maple Dell.



Wood Badge is an Adult Scout leadership training. The training aims to make better leaders by teaching advanced leadership skills and by creating a bond and commitment to the Scout movement. The Training was a combination of classroom and practical outdoors-based trainings.

Going to Wood Badge was a huge sacrifice for us. Not only was it 5 days off of work + all day Saturday, but it was also the cost of the training ($160.00 per person) plus getting a full uniform (including belt, socks, activity shirts, etc. - And that ain't cheap.) Deni and I already had Shirts, however we didn't have a full uniform. We do now.

As for the training itself, they asked us to not talk much about the actual materials/lessons so that those that go will get the full experience. Wood Badge was a unique training that helped me learn new skills that I am applying to Scouting, work, and home life. We were divided into patrols where we played, lived and worked together. Deni and I were in different patrols, so we didn't see each other much, matter of fact I had to steal a kiss from her about 5 days into the training when our paths briefly crossed.

Deni getting an award during lunch.




We were also able to experience the fun and adventure of Scouting first hand (it was pretty amazing to see Bishops and Stake Leaders acting like 14 yr old boys and having fun in competitions). Throughout the whole experience, the staff set a perfect example of how a perfect pack, troop, team and crew should be run.

All in all, it was a great week and well worth the time spent.

Here are some pictures of my Patrol

Salsa day

The tomato plants. Actually these tall tomato plants aren't the actual tomatoes we used. The Roma tomato is a much smaller plant (barely in the picture to the left) with a longer beefier tomato. These tall plants are Beefmaster and Early Girls.



Deni and Sydney blanching the tomatoes to get the skin off.



Cooking the peppers on the grill



Cooking the Salsa. You boil the salsa for about 30 minutes.



Finished Product - Today we bottled 14 quarts of fresh Salsa.

Ryan's Baptism

I can't believe that I have a child that is old enough to be baptized. Ryan turned 8 earlier this month, however we had to wait until Stake baptism today to actually baptize him. Ryan has been very excited since his birthday.

We had a great showing from our families. Both my sisters and families were in attendance, as were my parents. Deni's parents flew in to participate in Ryan's baptism as well. We also had a few cousins (on either side) and good friends (Ben & Emily Williams & family).

As always things were very hectic this morning. Deni not only had the stress of her own son's baptism, but as the Primary President, also had to conduct part of the meeting and welcome Ryan and the little girl that was baptized with him into the Church and Primary.

Ryan and I changed into our white clothes and Dad took a few pictures of us.



I then went to help Deni finish up the photocopying of the program.

Ryan, Deni and I all sat in the front of the chapel. I felt the spirit very strong in the chapel. As it was Ryan's turn to be baptized, Ryan and I walked hand in hand down the hallway to the Baptismal font. Garrin Ellis and Keith Bigler were the witnesses of the baptism. The water was warm as we entered the font. I took Ryan by the right hand and as I raised my hand to the square, I was overcome with the spirit. I paused for a few seconds to gain my composure and then said the baptismal prayer. Ryan went completely under the water and came back up. After looking to the two witnesses to confirm I had said the prayer correctly and that Ryan had gone completely under the water, we exited the font.

Ryan and I quickly changed back into our Sunday clothes and we went back to the chapel. We heard a talk on the Holy Ghost from Grandpa Keith Bigler and then Grandpa Terry Berger confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and gave him the Holy Ghost.



Here's a picture with Grandpa Berger



After the special events, we invited all our friends and family back to our house for a luncheon where we had Navajo Tacos (or as my family calls them - Scones). We had a great rest of the day visiting with family.