Turn For Peace

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apaart,
Searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in  my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

This text by Emma Lou Thayne was put to music by Joleen G. Meredith in 1935 and is one of my favorite hymns.  I don't know the circumstances Emma was under when she penned these verses.  I imagine there was some heartache, some pain, some dissappointment.  At some moment in her life when all seemed lost He answered privately and she knew that He knew her personally. 

Having been there I know the dark and dreary place that it is.  All hope seems lost and it is a lonely  journey.  And then comes the Savior, gently with peace and assurance and calm.  Constant and kind, love without end.  I am grateful for the Savior.  I am grateful for the love He has for me.  I know He lives and I know that He is aware of me, He knows me, He loves me.  I know that He loves you and knows you intimately.  When you find yourself in pain and all seems lost and there is nothing to calm you anguish, hold on a little longer and trust in the Lord.  He understands, He, only one, constant and kind.  Love without end. 

Never Faileth...

Charity never faileth...  I need to do better at praying for charity, that I might be filled with this love which is the pure love of Christ.  I find it easy to beat myself up a bit when it comes to charity.  I have been separated/divorced for 4 years now and it is one of those things that I have a hard time with.  I failed there.  I am not charity.  I am John.  I am a man who struggled in a very difficult situation for some time and I did not endure all things.  I tried, I tried for a long time.  I failed to endure that relationship.  I don't know what else to say there.  Did I fail my children?  I don't know that I can say that I failed them.  We have pressed on and created an environment at home that has been much healthier for them.  Certainly we have our struggles and life is anything but a breeze.  There are times when we do great and there are times when we do not do quite so great. 

And charity suffereth long and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.  Wherefore, cleave unto  charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail -

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God, that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.  Amen. 

Moroni 7:45 - 48. 

SheyBird

We rose early and continued our journey north to Tremonton.  I got somewhere around 4.5 hours of sleep but was good to go and we arrived in plenty of time.  The baptism was great.  The boys were excited to kneel at the font and watch as Nigel baptized Shey.  She was cute as ever and it was certainly one of those experiences where the Spirit of the Lord was manifest through the ordinances of the Priesthood.  I didn't talk to Nigel about this but imagine he felt something similar to what I experienced when baptizing Natalie and also Jack.  It is a special thing to baptize your child, a great privilege and a humbling experience.  Well, I watched, I felt the spirit and I was grateful to be there.  Shey invited me to stand in the circle for her confirmation and I was honored to. I had been debating going with all that goes on here at home with the business and was glad that we made this trip.   The kids certainly enjoyed it as well and it was good for them.  Thank you Shey for your example of faith and for the beautiful daughter of Heavenly Father that you are.    

Springvillefonty

It is late and this will be brief.  We are up in Springville Utah tonight staying with the Jay and Sara Fontano's.   We've gotten the tour of their new home which is great.  We've had time to visit for a bit and now it is time to sack out.  Tomorrow will come quite early and we have to get up to Treemonten  for Shey's baptism tomorrow.  Really need to sleep.

Non-stop flight, or whatever

When I travel across the country I prefer the non-stop flight.  Let's just get in the air and get to our destination as quickly as possible.  The last time I flew back from Florida I think I ended up with a stop in Chicago with a plane change, a stop in Phoenix and then finally in to Vegas.  That isn't the funnest.  One up and one down is definitely my preference.  Well, sometimes when we work it is nice to have a couple of stops in the day or at least a slow down.  Today was like a non-stop flight.  When I came in it was busy and it never really slowed down.  I ended up working through dinner because we were getting slammed.  It was a good day.  It was tiring.  Prep work was not great,  We survived on short staff and that was tough, pretty much survived.  Grateful for my wonderful children who went the evening without me being able to come home.  They are such great children and I sure love em.  Happy to say my flight has come to an end... I'm off to bed!

Oh Wonderful

Coming up with the title for tonight was tricky.  I could have easily gone with The Tree and The Trampoline part 2 but I settled on Oh Wonderful.  What does Oh Wonderful have to do with yesterdays post?  Why, thank you for asking.  "Oh wonderful" was pretty much how I responded to a phone call from Natalie informing me that Jack had flipped off the trampoline and landed on his head.  He was pretty shaken up and had hurt his knee, his back, his head and other parts of his body.  Thee good news is that he is going to live.  When I asked him how it happened... "I jumped out of the tree onto the trampoline and shot out in the air and flipped off the trampoline...".  Yep, that sounds about right.  Then he got a little emotional and talked about how he wished he would have listened to me and not jumped out of the tree.  And so we talked about how we learn in our lives.  Sometimes we learn through others mistakes, by listening to their voices of warning and avoiding certain pitfalls.  The other way we learn is when we hit that pitfall and experience the pain it brings for ourselves.  Well, I don't know that I need to worry any longer about the trampoline and the tree as Jack is ready to remove the tree completely, Oh, Wonderful!

The Tree and the Tramp

When I was a slightly younger boy than I am today I used to live on the trampoline.  I loved it.  Jumping, flipping, spinning, wrestling, flipping some more, it was simply great fun.  My cousins served as inspiration and I wanted to do the tricks they were doing.  They are a few years older and I definitely thought they were the coolest and still think they are the coolest.  There is something about a trampoline and living on the edge.  It was always against the rules to climb on the roof and jump off onto the trampoline but somehow I would find myself doing that anyways.  Naturally it started off with things a little lower like fences.  They were easier to situate the trampoline next to and didn't raise too much suspicion from the folks.  I had only one negative encounter jumping off of roofs onto the tramp and that was at a soccer friends house in Sandy.  We were hanging out and decided that it would be fun to jump off the roof and it was.  We had a ladder set up in the front of the house and we would get on the roof, climb over to the back yard and then launch off the roof land on our butts on the tramp and go flying back up in the air.  Well, all was good until I landed a little funny, lost control and flew backwards.  The momentum spun me backwards and I ended up landing head first on the trampoline frame.  We never told anyone about this little accident because we didn't want to get in trouble.  I am fairly certain I had to have been concussed as I was pretty out of it.  At the same time we were some tough boys and decided that a bit of liquid refreshment would help.  We actually called it think drink.  I remember that clearly.  It was really just water that was in an orange Gott cooler for the soccer team.  Oh well, by calling it think drink it gave us special powers that regular water couldn't.  At least that is what we told ourselves.  Soon enough we were back on the roof and jumping off onto the trampoline again.  Great times never to be forgotten. 

Anyways, I thought about this story yesterday evening when I came home to find that the kids had relocated the trampoline so that they could jump off the tree and onto it.  I watched as they climbed and jumped.  There landing was very much controlled and they were not launching themselves back up in the air.  I talked to them about moving the trampoline away from the tree and Andy was ready to come and string me up.  I shared with them a story of the dangers of a trampoline and I cautioned them to always be careful.  The tramp is still next to the tree.  Moving it will prove fruitless as they want to jump out of the tree and onto the tramp.  I can move it and they will move it back.  At least I would have when I was a kid.  My hope is that the excitement of the tree and the tramp will fade and it will no longer be an issue.  That fading process did not happen today.  Shortly after I got home Jack was putting on a demonstration from quite a high branch.  Pretty impressive.  Then there was a small accident as he jumped again and while landing he smashed his face into his knee.  That slowed him a bit and I thought it would discourage future jumps.  It did not.  I didn't even offer him think drink before he was outside and ready to go.   

Having Fun

Pretty much everyday at work is a fun day.  Oh there are times when things get a little stressful and there are people who might drive us crazy but for the most part we are having a good time.  We have good people working for us and they are a lot of fun.  That is a good thing.  We don't have a lot of drama at the work place and when someone screws up we tend not to get all crazy about it but we will laugh and joke and have fun with it.  I don't mean for that to sound like we don't care and we don't take our work seriously.  We certainly do take it seriously and we do push for excellence in everything but we don't walk around cracking a whip with our personalities on the shelf.  I feel very fortunate.

Where do we go now...

Just typing the title I hear the voice of Axle Rose in my head kicking out the lyrics to Sweet Child O' Mine, the Gun's and Roses classic hit.  Where do we go, oh, oh where do we go now...  That's one of those great songs from my teenage years that I simply just enjoy. 

The other day I put out a post about where I hurt.  Oh, I still hurt there and so it begs the question, where do we go now?  I don't know.  I have not crawled into my little shell of comfort this week.  No, I did some things to try and put myself out there with this lady I referenced.  Way to go right?  Yeah, well, let's just say my efforts may have been for nothing.  I don't really think she is that interested in me, she may be interested in the Brick House and our food but that is probably the extent of it.  So then, where do we go now?  Just leave it alone I guess.  What else is there to do?  I don't want to do anything else and make things weird so I'll take a couple steps back and not worry about it.  Ultimately that isn't fun especially when I quite enjoyed this gal but no worries, I am pretty familiar with my comfort zone and can go back fairly easy.  It's a comfortable place to hang out.    

Jacksonversations

Jacksonversations!  It's a new word.  You won't find it in Webster's latest edition.  I just made it up.  Crap.  I just googled it and wouldn't you know, some joke generator program referred to something as a Michael Jacksonversation.  I don't know if we can call that legitimate.  What do you think?  Well, regardless, I just made it up because I had never before heard or seen the use of this word before.  I'm sure there is some opinion page of a newspaper in one of the many cities named Jackson that has Jacksonversations that is all about conversations related to the city.  Perhaps not, but they should.  It's a great word.  My particular use of the word is solely based on conversations that I get to have with Jackson Walter Fontano, my boyke. 

There is a lot of fun that comes out of the mouth of Jack.  There are a lot of finer details about, well, about whatever he is into that day be it trains, planes, bridges, plants vs. zombies, Ford trucks, Mini-Coopers or whatever.  Jacksonversations happen.  Sometimes they are very one sided and it is just an opportunity for Jack to unload, to release what it is that is filling up his mind.  Those conversations sometimes happen late at night when everyone is in bed and Jack can't sleep.  He comes and finds me sitting at the computer, typing on the blog and he unloads.  There are times when our Jacksonversations are quite exhausting, it's hard to keep up.  Then there are the funny things he says.

Yesterday we were in the car and Jack started telling me about a boy in his class that is depressed.  I don't recall his name but asked Jack what he was depressed about.  "Math, he doesn't like math so I talk to him and tell him he can do it.  When he gets focused he can go through that math like a blizzard!"  "Like a blizzard?" I replied.  "And what kind of problem solver are you?  Summer?"   "No, I'm like a cumulonimbus".  "A what?"  "It's a big storm cloud".  You know, because every 9 year old refers to the weather when describing how they do math.

Tonight as he was in bed and I had just finished reading from The Book of Virtues he says to me "Dad, you're a 200 pounder.  You'll break sticks if you step on them.  You're a floor creaker."  Not real sure what inspired these thoughts, perhaps my stunning physique.  Anyway, I could go on for some time and discuss some of his thoughts and conversations.  Suffice to say it is often fun stuff that simply makes me smile.   

Awful Smell

We were working away, actually it was our second best day ever, anyhow working away and I walked towards the back to get a knife and there was this odor that was terrible.  It came on quite suddenly.  We had no idea what the smell was but thought it was coming through the employee bathroom.  I went down stairs to look at some piping and discovered a rather large pool of water that was backing up in the system.  Twas the source of the stench and it was bad.  A few hours later I was hanging out with a local plumber and was quite relieved when his rather large sewer snake managed to clear the blockage.  The water receeded rather quckly and the awful smell may take a little longer. 

Science Project

Jack is participating in the science fair tomorrow.  He wanted to do an experiment with Hot Wheels cars to see if they would freeze.  That was all he wanted to do, stick a few Hot Wheels in the freezer and see if they would freeze.  I decided he needed a little help so we decided to run some tests at room temperature and then we would freeze the cars and run the same tests.  We set up a track to run the cars down stairs and test travel times, travel distance and length of jump.  It was a good time.  Jack quite enjoyed the tests and was fascinated by the results.  Now, there is a lot of work to do to get that thing ready for the science fair,

Where I Hurt

Here is my pain, it is where I hurt, where I struggle and what I have to overcome.  You see I rarely date and my busy life is my convenient excuse.  There is no doubt that I am busy and I am constantly moving either because I am caring for my family or because I am working or because I am trying to fullfill a calling or an assignment or whatever.  I can keep busy without a problem and that is the convenient truth which makes it a convenient excuse.  The reality is that if I really wanted to date someone I could make the time.  When I am not really interested in someone I don't really want to go on a date.  Doing so creates a certain amount of anxiety and it just isn't my funnest activity and yet when someone says they have someone for me to meet I go, anxiety and all.  That said, when I meet someone and I would like to go on a date with them and I want to get to know them, it's like the hounds are released in my mind and I am tormented by self doubt and fear of rejection.  In my mind 'I am not good enough' echoes loudly and the thought of even trying is exhausting.  I don't want to open my heart to the pain that I have once endured.  I am afraid to fail again.  Not opening the door and facing that potential rejection makes things easier on me in a sense and yet it also torments me.  I can only succeed through being unafraid to fail.  I have to get past this.  I have to try in earnest to make the time and to do it.  Alas, my heart aches and I long to leave it alone.  I don't want the pain, I don't want to hurt.  Let me be brave. 

Making Sandwiches

Yesterday we had a gentleman in the cafe' who was there to judge us for the Best in State awards.  I don't know that I could have picked better sandwiches for him to try and for us to compete with.  He had the Philly and the Ruby, my one and two.  Dave made the Ruby and I put out the Philly.  The judge was quite impressed with our operation and he loved the food.  I hope that love for the food translates into us winning best in state for something or other.  Anyhow, it was a cake walk as far as making the sandwiches go.  I wasn't at all nervous and just went for it and let me tell you, it looked fantastic.  It is nice to have that kind of confidence in your food. 

Well, it was a bit of a different story today when this lovely lady who I met the other night came in and she ordered a sandwich of the secret sandwich menu.  It was the Hawaiian.  As many as we have done I don't recall ever making this particular sandwich myself.  Well, I told her I would personally make it for her when she ordered a sandwich so there I was making this Hawaiian.  I was a nervous wreck.  It was crazy as it was a complete contrast to the sandwich yesterday.  The fact is that I kind of like this lady and so it was important to me that this sandwich was perfect.  The good news is that she loved it and I got to talk to her for a few minutes.  I know, I am a goofball but what does that matter?  I probably stand no chance with this lady but does it hurt to dream a little.  

Back to the Bridge

As I noted a couple of days ago Jack is really into bridges at the moment.  He has wanted me to take him to the bridge at the field where he played soccer for the last few days.  Last night I asked if we could plan on those visits tonight for FHE.  He was on board with that.  So, after dinner tonight I actually pulled up that post from two nights ago and shared the  poem.  We talked a bit about what it meant to be a bridge builder and then we decided to go examine a few bridges starting at the soccer fields.  Jack was armed with a camera and he got down and around that bridge and snapped up some pics.  I love to see his enthusiasm for how things work.  Andy and Natty also had fun climbing under the bridge and checking things out.  We drove down a little ways and saw another bridge and then up the canyon for one more.  When we had seen enough we headed to the local Wendy's for frosty's.  The kids love them and at $.99 they don't break the bank.  Anyhow, that is all from our trip back to the bridges.

Nothing Comes To Mind

Trying to think of a topic for this blog and nothing comes to mind so that is the title.  It's one of those days that was pretty full and there is really much I could talk about and yet I am struggling to find a topic.  Our Stake Conference was quite good and I am grateful for the good people in our Stake and for a wonderful Stake Presidency.  I do have to say the two hours can get a little rough.  I've got two little boys that are all over the place and usually end up laying across the seat and resting their heads on my lap.  They force my arms to lay in specific ways to cover ears, faces, etc.  Oh my goodness it gets old quick.  It gets to the point that when they ask to get a drink I say yes, and take your time.  Being constantly climbed on doesn't make it quite as enjoyable.  We managed though.  There is a lot more I could write about but I am falling asleep so I am going to end it here.  Pretty much because when I fall asleep nothing comes to mind.... 

Builder of Bridges

Jack came across a new game that he quite enjoys called Bridge Constructor or something like that.  It is right up his alley as he has to build bridges across a variety of chasms and has to use different building materials and fit it into a budget.  It is pretty cool.  I got him the full version of the game today and we had the opportunity to work on a few bridges together.  It is challenging on some of them.  Anyhow, I was thinking about bridge building as we hung out and built bridges together and I rememberred a poem that I quite enjoy called... wait for it... The Bridge Builder.  I thought I should find it and share it with Jack, that he would get a lot out of the story.  I left the thought as I had to get ready to leave for Stake Conference.  Wouldn't you know it, Sister Brown from the Second Ward spoke and as she concluded her talk she shared a poem The Bridge Builder.  It is a family favorite apparently.  Is that something we call coincidence? I'll need to find it.  Here it is:

The Bridge Builder

The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole 1860–1934

An old man going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide.

Through which was flowing a sullen tide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followed after me to-day

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been as naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

Sometimes We Cater

Ended up spending the day working on a catering order.  This was a bigger order for a retirement party.  I say bigger, it wasn't quite like catering for the institute closing social.  It was a meal for 100 people.  We did the Hawaiian thing which we have gotten pretty good at doing.  Lots of mac salad, Kalua Pork, Shoyu Chicken, rice and grilled pineapple at this one.  All went well at the dinner. 

We did have a little problem prior to the dinner.  The pork that was cooked last night did not turn out well.  It would likely have been okay but our cooks did not seal the container with foil as they should have and used a loose fitting lid instead.  The pork was dry and it was salty and really, not good enough.  That was 33 pounds of pork and there was no time to roast more of it.  So I pulled/shredded what we had and then I came up with a way to smoke it and re-flavor it.  I took a warmer and turned it up on high, then I put a base over the water and a second pan that was for steaming.  I made an apple juice and liquid smoke sauce that I poured over the pork that was sitting in the steam pan and I put a lid on it.  That really seemed to do the trick.  The pork was back to flavorful and moist.  The word from dinner was the pork was fantastic.  Success! 

Well, sometimes we cater and it can be a lot of fun.  Always a challenge, always some sort of a surprise and always a learning experience. 

Work Doesn't Stop

When you are a single parent the work doesn't ever stop.  Well, it is after midnight and it has just about stopped with the exception of this blog post.  What I'm saying is that life doesn't really slow down.  There is work and then there is family work where we get to meet our family responsibilities.  Sometimes we get a bit worn down and that is hard but we keep on movin, we have to.

Tonight for example.  I got home a bit after 7 and I went to work making pancakes for dinner for Natty and Jack.  Andy refused pancakes so I got to make him a different meal and that is just dinner.  No worries, there's still more.  After dinner  the boys got hair cuts followed by showers.  Then it was clean up the bathroom time, scriptures, prayer, read to the boys time and finally I got to start making pies, just 16 of them.  And now I type. 

And so it goes.  I've got a bunch of laundry to start doing and there is always something to clean.  I don't have a tag team partner on this and that is why I say the work doesn't stop. 

Tire Swing

The kids love the tire swing here in the new house.  Last night there was a notice from the power company that their tree trimming crew would be coming around to trim up some trees to protect the power lines.  Upon sharing this information with the kids they were immediately up in arms about their tire swing.  I assured them that the tire swing would be safe and that there was no reason to worry.  I couldn't see any interference with power lines coming from that tree and figured all was well.

Turns out the tree trimming crew doesn't mess around and they were on the job this morning.  What was my surprise when I walked into the kitchen and there was some dude standing in the back yard looking up at the tree and then there was another guy way up in that tree.  A few minutes later the guy in the tree was all harnessed in and the trimming of branches, or shall I say the pruning of the tree had begun.  Apparently the tire swing branch had been marked for death and suddenly there was a very real possibility that the kids would come home to no tire swing and my street creds would be totally null and void.  The large branch began being removed one section at a time and it wasn't long before the chainsaw ripped through the branch right where the tire swing rope is tied.  Fortunately for me that is as far as they cut on that branch, the tire swings on and I have lived to write another day. 

Back On

For the first time in over a month I managed to get back on the eliptical.  When I started working on the house and had a tight time frame in which to get things done I had to give up some things.  The eliptical and my morning run was one of them.  This morning I decided it was time to get back on.  I felt good and enjoyed moving though I was a little tired all day but that may just be the fact that day light savings time change kicks my back side in the spring.  I was allready missing sleep and losing another hour didn't help.  Anyway, it was good to be back on and I look forward to being on again tomorrow. 

Morning Study

I listened this morning to an interview with Elder Christofferson on the Mormon Channel.  Sherry Dew interviewed both Elder and Sister Christofferson.  I enjoyed it very much and learned quite a bit.  There are things we experience that help to shape our lives.  Our actions as parents are part of what shape the lives of our children and we have a great responsibility to lead them in love, to be examples to them, to teach them how to work.  One of the things Elder Christofferson mentioned that stood out to me was that his father would read to them scriptures that were important.  He said that when he reads "choose you this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord" he hears it in his fathers voice.  What am I doing that speaks to my kids?  What scriptures am I sharing to will help to shape their testimonies.  Tonight I shared Helaman 5:12 and the need we have to build upon a sure foundation.  There are many great messages in the scriptures that I can share with the kids that will help them to build upon that sure foundation.  They are good kids and they have a desire to do what is right.  Nurturing that desire and helping it to grow is an important part of my duties as their father and the patriarch in our home.  I love these wonderful children and am so very grateful for the blessings we receive in our home that help to strengthen our faith. 

One additional note on the Christofferson's and strenthening our faith.  Both Elder and Sister Christofferson spoke of the power of the Book of Mormon and their own testimonies and how they have been blessed through reading the Book of Mormon.  I loved their love for the Book of Mormon and could identify with their experience reading from the Book of Mormon and how it impacted their lives and their testimonies of the Savior.  Wonderful messages worth learning more from.                               

Primary Sub

Had the privilage today of substituting in Primary.  It was a little crazy at times but I enjoyed the kids and we had some laughs and hopefully learned a few things too.  I think it was the CTR 6 class, meaning the kids who are turning 6 this year.  There were 6 in the class - Meagan Rasmussun, Ryder Stubbs, Laura Nelson, Brinn Garfield, Stephanie (not sure of her last name), and Colin Taylor.  All great kids and lots of fun.  Our lesson was on prayer.  The material was fantastic though we didn't get too far into it.  I did field a number of questions about the Brick House and the food we serve.  We also played the quiet game.  Here's what I learned from this class.  The girls dominated the quiet game though I think it was because the boys were sitting across the table from each other and couldn't help but make each other laugh.  Having the giggles can be a lot of fun.  I remember a thanksgiving weekend back in 1991 when our buddy Shane Saucedo came by and Pete, Shane and I got to laughing about something and we laughed quite hard for some time.  No amount of quiet game was going to help that situation.  And so it was with these two boys today.  I really just used it in desperation to try and get some things settled down.  It worked.  Anyhow, it was good to sub in Primary.  I had a good time with the kids and had a few good laughs. 

Losing Sleep

It is officially the worst night of the year.  I am not a fan of Daylight Savings Time and of the two switches this one is the worst.  Springing forward kind of ruins the surprise.  I sit down to type this out, fall asleep and when I wake up I have allready lost an hour.  Crazy.  And now, since I have been asleep and lost that hour, I am just going to let this suffice as my entry and call it a day. 

Back On

It has been a bit of a challenge over the last month and a week to type the blog.  We have had no internet connection so I have been typing my posts on the not so smart phone.  That is truly a pain and I am thrilled to be occupying the home row keys on this here keyboard. 

I do have to say that not having internet has not been a bad thing.  I don't waste a lot of time checking out the latest posts on facebook or reading every comment of some off the wall story on yahoo.  Not having the internet didn't really matter a lot as I didn't have any time for it anyway as I have been working on this house.  The kids however, they have missed it and they are thrilled that they are able to once again connect to the internet. 

And so we are back on.  Feels good. 

Nope

Sometimes I get to the end of the day and I try and put together something on here that makes sense.  Nope! Can't run.  Too tired.

Fun Boy

I walk Andy to school every morning.  It used to be that those walks were slow and painful.  Now they are quite a bit better and only occasionally are they a pain.   We had a visit with his teacher today to review how things are going.  He is working hard and progressing well.  What a studly character.  

Early.to bed...

It was actually before 11 when I sat down to type.  That is the earliest I have Blogged in a while.  I am still wiped out though and can't keep my eyes open.  I should add something to this but don't have the stamina tonight.  Must rest. 

Serving Patrick

It was a late start for our Family Home Evening, well the lesson part anyways.  We had an activity a bit earlier.  It was an obstacle course in the backyard created by Andy.  We all ran it twice but I had to run back to work and the boys came with me.  When we got home we carried on with the fhe.   We had a song and were about to pray when there was a knock at the door.  Jack jumped up to get it and there stood Patrick. 
Patrick is an older gentleman who lives across the street.  He has asbergers and is a little quirky but that is okay with us.  Because of Jack we have a little understanding of autism and being a little quirky.  I think I wrote about Patrick back in June when we went up and hiked the Blowhard Trail.  He is extremely smart as one might expect.

Well Patrick is suffering a bit right now.  His son just moved up to Salt Lake and that has left him with a bit of a void.  To make matters worse his exwife told him she is moving back to Cedar.  This is what has Patrick on edge and has his mind way over stimulated. 

So anyway, we had Patrick join us for our fhe lesson.  Jack read his report on Oscar Fontano and he did a great job.  There are a couple errors in the report that we need to fix but otherwise it gives a nice little account of Oscar's life.  I'll post it on here in the next few days.  We went on to read scriptures and have our night prayer and then I got the boys in bed while Patrick waited.  I went down and talked with him for awhile, well I mostly just listened.  The same thing happens with Jack when his mind is over stimulated.  At a quarter to 12 Patrick headed home feeling better.  Hopefully we were some sort of help there.

Day Off

It was so very nice to have a day off today with no big plans or requirments.  Fantastic.  Now I must sleep.

Clean and Out

We are completely out of our old house.  That is good.  I am fairly exhausted after a long month.  There is still a ton of work to do here with unpacking and what not.  The challenge is that I still have a floored to replace downstairs so setting a bunch of stuff up doesn't make a lot of sense today.  We'll get there. 

I spent a few hours today just cleaning up the old house.  Scrubbing the oven is not my favorite activity but it had to be done.  Right along with that was the microwave and then the refrigerator.  It is looking.good in there.

With that place done we now get to start organizing and putting more stuff away here...