I Love October!

I can't believe the baseball season is drawing to a close and we are entering into the post season. I know I am the only one who really cares about this, but this is what I live for. This year baseball has been pretty crazy. We've seen Tampa Bay of all teams come from nowhere and kick some serious butt on the field. They've all but finished up clinching their division (one game away from eliminating the Boston Bo Sux's). Although my A's were eliminated more than 20 games ago it brings me much pleasure to see Boston beat out by the TB's. I am sitting here listening to the songs on my blog getting pumped for some post season play.

It looks like th AL will be playing a series featuring TB vs. LAA and CWS vs. Bos. Both should be worth watching, but I would have to say the Angels will win their series and it will be a death match between the two Sux's teams. If Boston makes it they are hoping that the Angels win their series because they have been owned by TB most of the season.

Now for the NL, who knows what will happen there. I don't think the Cubbies have the depth to go all the way. Once you make it to this point coming back from behind gets more difficult. The Dodgers have pretty much clinched since Arizona is 3.5 behind and they will be eliminated with 2 more losses. The Phillies and the Mets have been battling it out all season. At one time the Phillies were running away with the division, but obviously remembered that they were the Phillies and that they needed to start playing traditional Phillie baseball. My money is on the Mets (no particular love for them, but if I were to chose one they would be it). So the wildcard will go to Millwakee. We will see a series featuring the Cubbies and the Mets and another featuring the Dodgers and Millwakee. The Dodgers will win theirs because Torre wants to rub it in the face of Steinbrener. Between the Mets and Cubbies it is hard to say. I'll go with the Cubbies because I like their skipper. He should provide good comic relief when it gets tense.

Eventually the World Series will feature the Angels vs. Cubbies and the goat will live on. We'll see though. That is the beauty of fall ball, nobody knows what will happen. I am soooooo excited. LET'S PLAY BALL!!!!!!

My Scouting Champion

Tonight Sam received the fruits of many hours of hard work. During his Cub Scout Pack Meeting he received his Wolf Rank, 6 belt loops and one gold star and two silver stars.

He has been working so hard to get his Wolf and I am so proud of him. He is one determined young man when he wants to be and tonight he proved his ability to do something great.

A Little Bit of Family Fun

Yesterday we had a fun afternoon as a family. I noticed Monica was looking a little stressed so I suggested that we go pick up a pizza for dinner and eat it at the park. The weather was perfect for a picnic. We ate and let the kids play at the big playground located at the Veteran's Memorial Park (aka West Jordan Park). Joshua was in high heaven. He always wants to go out to play, but doesn't get too many opportunities. He had access to the entire playground and we just followed him around. They played for about 1 hour until Ammon got hurt and we had to leave. Joshua had the biggest fit because he wasn't ready to leave. We went home and watched a couple of movies. I love watching movies at home with the big screen and surround sound it is like watching them in the theater. The best part is that we don't miss anything because of the kids. Anyway Joshua spent most of the evening trying to get outside. Finally I let him see that it was dark outside so that maybe he would give up trying to get out. That didn't work he walked outside and wanted to play. I thought that I would scare him into wanting to come inside so I acted like I was shutting the door and he took off. He was determined to play outside. We really had an enjoyable time and I think Monica was feeling better by bedtime.

It is always great when we have the opportunity to spend time together. I am always grateful for those tender mercies granted by our Heavenly Father which allow us those moments.

Pears, pears, and more pears

Thanks to Marnie and her friend I now have 14 bottles of pears. I went to Adriann's house today with Marnie to learn how to can pears. Someone in my ward gave me a box of pears yesterday. I was grateful for them, but had no clue on what to do with them. I found that it wasn't really that hard to can pears, but time consuming. Marnie also let me borrow her dehydrator. So for family night tonight my family peeled, cut and dehydrated pears. Bella thought it was such a fun night. Who knew. The boys also had fun. Maybe we'll have to make this a family tradition.

Time Out For Women

I recently had an awesome opportunity to go to Time Out for Women. It's like a retreat for women. Someone in my ward bought tickets and then wasn't able to go. She asked if I wanted to go, and of course I said yes. It was in Logan, so I carpooled with 3 other women in my ward, and we stayed at a hotel there. We left Friday afternoon, and came home Saturday afternoon. It was a fun getaway for me and opportunity to get to know some of the women in my ward better. I didn't really know any of them very well.

The talks were all inspirational. My favorite was by Mary Ellen Edmunds. She is so funny. She talked about being a peace maker. She got the point across, but I was laughing so hard I was crying. There were a lot of other good talks about finding joy in life. We also enjoyed a concert by Kenneth Cope and also Jenny Oaks Baker (an accomplished violinist). It was amazing! I felt so blessed to have this opportunity.

I Fixed It

Ok, you requested it and I listened. You can now comment on our family blog.

A Family Affair

I just got back from spending a few hours downtown at the Family History Library going through over 2,000 names to see if what work needed to be done within the Temple. I was able to narrow the names list to a little over 100 of Monica's ancestors who are in need of their work to be done. I was thinking, here I have thousands of my personal family ancestors who need their work done and I am preparing the names of Monica's family. Then I thought everyone needs their work done regardless of whose family they belong to and Monica is my family therefore her family is my family. Now it will be quite some time before we go to the Temple and do Temple file names. Too much work to be done in our families. The work will roll on and I will continue to do my family history work and preparing names for Temple work.

I love this work, I get a kick out of it. There is something exhilarating about searching for a name of an ancestor and just when you are about to give up, BAM! there it is the information that you've looking for. And not only do you have the information that you were looking for but enough information to open the door for even more work. It's great, I highly recommend family history work for everyone. It seems to improve your outlook on life as you loose yourself in service to those who have passed on before.

The Toilet From HELL!!!

At the end of June I finished a remodel on a house which I was very excited about, at least I thought I'd finished it. When I went to put the toilet in place, it wouldn't fit. I measured the space and discovered that when I went off of the original wall the imbeciles that built the house didn't put the drain for the tiolet in the correct place. I had a wonderful idea, so I thought and I purchased a special order toilet online for about $470. I wasn't going to break up that floor and retile and the works. The toilet came and there was no flush valve, so I got online and ordered one, another $200. Well a month later it comes and I am ready to install, so I think. I go to the house and cut into the wall and redirect the drain to the back of the toilet and do some additional plumbing to install the flush valve. Well wouldn't you know it, the house didn't have sufficient water pressure to operate the valve. So guess what, I had to break the tiles and cut into the ground and fix the holes that I made to install the other toilet. But the journey is complete and I am done. The toilet from hell is installed and it works and I never want to see that house again. The moral of the story, always, always, always, check the work of others, if not you will find yourself doing a simple job over and over again. Additionally if anybody has a toilet to install, don't call me I've had it with toilets (just kidding if you would like help I will be more than happy to help, I'll just bring my tape measure).

Well I guess we will join the crowd

Well, I never thought that I would end up putting a blog for my family on the internet. But here I am doing it. I really don't know what I will use it for, but whatever it is hopefully it will give people an idea of what is happening in our lives. I hope to get Monica involved in posting what is going on in our lives. Most people will get bored of hearing about us and will go away. We don't live exciting lives or really do anything. We normally sit around our home and wish we had the means to do something different.

Those who know me know that I am a dreamer, and I don't dream small. I am very politically minded and I let myself be heard. At one time I would surf the internet looking for articles about The Constitution and respond to them and to comments being made on them. I would get into some serious discussions with small minded people who had no idea what they were talking about and were revealing their ignorance at every turn. I really enjoyed that. I don't have as much free time as I then had, so I post articles about America on my other blog. I love my family, my God and my Country. I'd do anything for Monica and the kids.

Monica is the rock in the family. She wakes every morning and starts the day with exercise and then dives right in to motherhood. I am amazed at watching her do everything that she does for this family. She is my hero when it comes to maintaining a household. I tried it for a few days when she left for camp back in July and then again when she went to Trek. Believe me it was difficult and she does it day in and day out. She serves in her callings at church with such strength and dignity, she volunteers at the boy's school, she is going to start teaching as a part of a rotation for Bella's pre-school that her and a group of sisters from church are starting for the kids, she cooks, she cleans, she does laundry, does her visiting teaching, and everything else that I, the kids or the church asks her to do. She is AMAZING!!! She puts me to shame on a daily basis.

Our children are pretty amazing as well. I love to watch them grow and develop their talents. Samuel shares a lot of the same interests as I do. We love to go fishing together and shooting and play baseball and he likes to help me when I am working on a project in the garage. Ammon is his own person. He is very creative which I believe he gets from me. He can write stories and do art projects all day and just be in high heaven. Bella is quite the little princess, but always wants to go fishing when we go, although it doesn't last very long once she starts. She loves to play house and always wants her mom to play with her. Joshua is my mini-me. He likes to try and copy the things that I do and he loves baseball, or I should say loves to throw and hit the ball, any ball that he sees. He has quite the arm and can catch pretty good as well. He is into everything and he can drive his mom batty. All my children are so amazing to me. I watch their little spirits as they grow and develop their own understanding of things and I see so much light and knowledge in them that sometimes I sit in awe and wonder, wondering how I deserved them as my children.

Well we shall see how this blog progresses or doesn't. Like I said nothing much happens in our little household.