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.