The Head, It Aches

I am sitting here trying to review my day and formulate some thoughts on what I should write about and I am having a hard time because the head, it aches.  That may have something to do with the fact that I stayed up late last night and am a little short on the sleep.  I tend to get a headache under those circumstances.  My head is a real big fan of sleep apparently.  Usually I can find a little time for a power nap but such was not the case today.  Too much to do.  It was a fine day though but now, I must rest this little ache in my head away.  One thing before I close.  Jack and I were at the store checking out a little over an hour ago.  While I was working the self check out stand there was a couple at one of the other registers and Jack began pointing in their direction while making a worried squeel like noise.  He then went up to the cart, tapped the lady on the shoulder and pointed out the leak and the mound of sugar piling up on the floor beneath the cart.  They were very appreciative as was I.   

Dentist Time

We made a run to the dentist this morning for the kids 6 month check up and cleaning.  Everyone did well and all teeth are looking good.  We got to see Andy's x-rays and all of his baby teeth that are hanging around.  That is an 8 year old boy with all of his baby teeth... not that we are trying to rush those out of his mouth, just wanted to make sure everything under the surface was as it should be.  It certainly appears that way, just delayed.  He is just now getting his 6 year old molars.  I have no idea if I spelled molars correctly but it didn't seem to pop up so we'll roll with it.  Anyway, Andy was pretty funny.  He talked the entire time, well, when he didn't have a hand or toothbrush or vacuum hose in his mouth.  He told me all about the fish and one of the hygienists was just watching him and kind of laughing to herself with how cute he was.  Pretty fun kid especially when he has your ear.  Jack was also quite funny.  The dentist talked to him about one little spot he needed to pay attention to on one of his molars that had a little stain starting.  Jack said "it's from a fudge round" and walked away like it was not big deal.  Everyone was kind of chuckling about that one too.  Natty had a hygienist who has been away for a while.  She was apparently out on a mission and just got home and today seemed to be her first day back.  That said, it took her a little time and a couple of redo's.  All good.  Natty said she was a bit rough though and tore up her mouth a bit.  Well, good to have them all doing well inside their mouths.  That is a great blessing.  I should probably try to get in and get my teeth cleaned and looked at.  It has only been 15 years or so.  Pretty sad.  It could be dentist time for me.  

Seeing Padre

We took a drive down to St. George tonight to see pops.  When we first arrived he was in the restroom and so we had a good opportunity to hang out with Grandma who took the kids around to see the exercise room and then we ventured downstairs to see the cafeteria, we had some water and hung out to give pops and his nurses a chance to get him out of the bathroom and into bed.  It was good to see him.  His neck brace is big, he's got some beard action going which is a first and he seems to be in good spirits.  Grandma told the kids about his scar on the front of his neck and so they went up to see it.  Jack caught the first sight of it and I don't think he enjoyed that very much.  He got a bit queasy and kind of bolted away from the bed and towards the door.  Andy kind of followed his brothers footsteps though much less dramatic.  Natty and I managed to keep our cool.  Anyhow, it was a good visit.  I asked him about his legs and he demonstrated how he could move them.  It was great to see those legs kicking at his will again.  We're talking 10 days ago and him not being able to move them or to stand, to barely be able to grip anything.  It was very refreshing to see those things moving.  He even demonstrated the stronger grip he has by pulling Jacks finger.  I don't know that Jack was quite ready for the old pull my finger routine because he didn't deliver... right then anyway.  Good times, good visits, grateful we could go.  

The Walrus

Not talking a Beatles tune or anything like that but we are talking the Walrus today.  You see I was on the exercise bike, enjoying a nice workout and after getting off Jack decided to come and grab my touch my arm or leg, could have been both, I don't quite recall.  Anyway I was a bit on the sweaty side after the ride.  When Jack grabbed me he quickly discovered that I was a bit hot and a bit sweaty.  He backed away quickly and said "Dad, your sweating like a Walrus out of the water".  I don't exactly know much about the Walrus and how badly they may sweat but I did get a good laugh out of it.  In years past I was the Manatee and now ill be rocking the Walrus moniker.  I best get to work on my tusks. 

Feeling Beat

Today has been a fine day.  It was busy and perhaps a little crazy at times but it was a fine day for sure.  I ended up working just about to close, it was good.  Anyhow, I am pretty wiped out at this point.  I keep drifting off and think it's about time for me to call it a night.  I am grateful to the Lord for the many blessings that I receive from him.  I am grateful for friends and family who are there for me.  Sometimes being a single dad gets a little time consuming and tough.  We press on as best we can, even when we are feeling beat. 

Prayers of Faith

Pops had surgery last Friday.  He has had some fairly major health challenges over the last few months and a lot of it stems directly from his neck and some nerve damage.  Friday he had a surgery to fuse his spine and relieve pressure on the nerves in his neck.  Since Friday he has had some okay days and some pretty rough days.  Today was a better day and he seems to be improving.  That is good. 

I have to say that I am impressed and humbled by my children who have remembered him in their prayers and who pray for him with great faith.  I love to see that and to hear that and to feel that.  It is good and I am grateful for these examples in my life. 

There are times as a parent when I reflect on my children and I wonder who they will be or what path they will follow.  I certainly have my hopes for them and I try very hard to make sure they are being fed spiritually and hope that there faith is being nurtured.  Really they have their choices to make, I don't get to make their decisions.  I do have a responsibility however to teach them the gospel, to lead them to the Lord and his living waters though I do not get to make them drink.  And so I hope, I hope that when it comes time for them to make a choice, they will choose to follow the Savior.  These are things I pray for, they are my prayers of faith. 

When I hear them pray in faith for their grandpa it warms my heart.  When I hear Natalie talk about a scripture passage that stood out to her or a discussion in Seminary that meant something special, I am grateful.  Discussions over scripture stories with the kids or the sharing of testimonies.  These things increase my hope and strengthen my faith in following the counsel of Prophets. 

Dinner On The Road

Some days there is too much to do.  Wednesdays are busy for me.  There is school and getting the kids up and ready for that.  Then there is work.  Then there is come home, pick up Jack and take him to scouts.  Then it is back to work.  Then it is home to run scouts for the 11 year olds.  Then it is time for dinner, homework, reading, scriptures & prayer, book of virtues with the boys etc. etc.  Throw in a needed trip to the store and we are in for a late night.  Well, tonight I got smart and decided to buy pizza for dinner and let the kids eat in the car while we drove to the store.  That saved time on cooking/prep/cleanup and what not and it allowed us to make use of travel time.  We then hit the store with a bit of a laser beam focus and got it done.  We got reading done when we got home and then on to our scriptures, prayers and book of virtues with the boys.  I did have to go and kill a fly that was buzzing around the bathroom causing Natalie to delay taking a shower.  That's my girl.  Told me about this big bug on the wall and how she couldn't go in the bathroom.  I come up, shoe in hand and she points to the fly.  Fun times.  Anyhow, that dinner on the road thing worked out pretty well.  I might have to try that more often, or not, whatever. 

Nightly Reading

I am most certain I have previously written about our nightly routine of reading from Bill Bennett's Book of Virtues.  It is a great book that has excellent stories from history, poems and other meaningful literature.  I enjoy reading it to the boys and they enjoy hearing it.  Well, for the most part they enjoy it.  Jack just told me tonight that he doesn't like reading about Greek Mythology.  That's cool, I can respect that.

Recently we have been reading stories about courage.  One of those was of Lou Gehrig.  I found that quite an interesting read as it talked about his last years in baseball and in life as he battled ALS.  He was a tough guy and he played until he couldn't play anymore.  ALS took his life.  In the last two months the world has been in a frenzy over what is called the ALS Ice Bucket challenge.  In the challenge you pour a bucket of ice and water over your head to help raise awareness for ALS.  You then go on to challenge others to do it and you post all of this video on the internet.  I thought it was neat to read about ALS and to get the children  a little more of an education . 

Anyhow, all I am trying to say is the Book of Virtues is a good book.  It is filled with wonderful lessons and encouragement.  I highly recommend it. 

Weed Patrol

With the rains we've had the last little while it seems the dandelions have taken courage and are coming out all over the place.  Such nasty little weeds that have no quit.  There is another weed with rounded leaves and it is an absolute beast.  Anyway, they are on the war path and are starting to spring up.  Not sure that really goes with the season but that's okay.  Ahhh, we'll tie it in... I went after the weeds today with a little weed and feed of my own and hope to see these dandenlions and dollar weeds falling all over the place. Yep, cheesy.   Anyhow, the weeds are relentless.  They keep coming no matter what and so one must constantly be on the look out for things that can be disruptive. 

  

Dedication

The kids and I had the opportunity today to attend the Rededication of the Ogden Utah Temple.  It was a great meeting and I think the kids enjoyed it.  They made it through pretty well though there were a few moments that they struggled and they certainly had a hard time sitting still.  Sometimes that begins to drive me nuts because they are all over me, Jack on one side and Andy on the other.  Anyway, we made it through and that was good.  The messages were excellent.  We were in the second session and got to hear from a few of my favorite speakers including Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy who just happens to have been my Stake President when I was Natalie's age.  I shared that little bit of information with Natalie when he was announced as being there and was going to speak.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles also spoke and President Henry B. Eyring conducted, spoke and gave the dedicatory prayer.  That was fantastic.  I can't help but think about the message that was shared back in 1972 at the original dedication of the Ogden Utah Temple by President Joseph Fielding Smith.  He said that what we really do at a temple dedication is dedicate ourselves to the work of the Lord.  That was paraphrased but it was along those lines.  As I listened to the messages of Elder Hallstrom, Elder Holland and President Eyring as well as others who spoke, I heard the same message of personal dedication of and faithfulness to the Lord, of righteous living and being worthy of a Temple Recommend.  In life we can easily get caught up in things that are of no worth, we can be distracted by things that do not last and cannot satisfy in the eternal scheme of things.  I want to live each day as the Lord would have me live.  I fall short of that aspiration regularly but it remains my goal and my hope.  Well, it was a wonderful meeting and I am grateful I could have my children there with me.  I hope it is something they will remember.

What Plans?

I originally thought that I would take the kids down to St. George today to see pops but Jack got sick a couple days ago and I ended up sick yesterday and so I decided it probably wouldn't be the best idea to go down.  Better that we not take the germs down there and just focus on recovering here.  Well, that was a good idea until I decided to run over to the Brick House to help prepare the upstairs room for a group tonight.  I was going to load up the trailer and take a run out to the dump but I don't have the tow hitch for the Escape and had to try and track that down.  Thought it might be on the Jeep that Dave is driving at the moment.  Well, problem, the Jeep wasn't at the Brick House.  Dave's other car was there but no Jeep.  I went inside and was told Dave left to St. George.  So, there I am, not planning on working and all we have is two guys and our dishwasher called in sick.  That before noon and I ended up working until after 7.  That throws a wrench in the day and other plans that we had.  Our ward activity started at 6 and we were getting hit with a ton of orders.  I failed to mention that one of our cooks just failed to show up.  Lovely.  Things can get a little hectic and crazy when you play the role of the fail-safe.  I wasn't planning on working in the kitchen today but it turned out that we had a need and so I had to fill it.  Sometimes that is the way it goes. 

Shake the Tree

On my mission one of my companions, Nelson Marati Letsoalo used to say shake the tree.  It was probably his favorite saying, not true, he loved quoting President Gordon B Hinckley ad did it rather well.  Shake the tree however was his favorite thing to say when someone needed a little pep talk, a little encouragement. 

Sometimes one literally shakes the tree.  Such was the case today with the Apple tree in the front yard.  I shook that tree hard and we felled a lot of apples.   Brother Larry Reese from down the street stopped by and said we should put the apples in boxes for deer and he would deliver them to the deer.  We shook, we gathered and now I am beat and ready for bed.  Good times were had by all.

Sherlock Holmes at Utah Shakespeare Festival

One of the benefits of our business is that we get vouchers for the plays at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  The vouchers are for the first week of shows where the festival is putting on the shows for the first time and looking for how they are received by the audience.  There are a lot of people in the community that get the vouchers and are able to attend.  I was able to bring the kids and Natty's friend.  It was fun to be able to do that.  Oh, I had one additional ticket and tried to find a date but got shot down by two women.  Rough.  So, I went with the kids only and we had  fabulous time. 

Truly this was a fun play.  It was loaded with humor and the story was quite good.  The actors were all wonderful and what can I say, it kept my 10 year old and 8 year old boys attention for 90% of the time.  That's saying something.  I would also say that if the opportunity arises for me to go back and see this play again I would go.  I think Utah Shakespeare Festival has a winner with this play.  As for the kids, they all loved it.  It was a long time to sit for the boys but they did quite well. 

Anyhow, Sherlock Holmes, highly recommended. 

Battle of the Natural Peanut Butter

There is a battle brewing for who makes the best Natural Peanut Butter.  Let me simply start this off by saying Jiff, Skippy, Great Value, Planters and whoever else makes a non stir natural peanut butter are all out of the running.  If you don't have to stir in the oil you're out.  The rest of my list of competitors comes down to two.  This may disappoint some of you, some may disagree that the all natural peanut butter dominates the other stuff, know that this is an opinion piece, it is my piece and it is my opinion.  Let me also add that the PB2 stuff that is a powder and you do have to stir in water, that does not qualify.  It is foul and has no business being on the shelves at the local grocery store.  That said there are two All Natural Peanut Butters that qualify in this particular battle.  The first is Adams All Natural Crunchy.  Second is Smucker's All Natural Crunchy.  I should have noted that this battle is between the crunchy varieties only. 

Adams has been my go to, love the stuff.  There is just something about digging into that cold peanut butter that is so thick and delicious.  Love it.  Yes, I said cold.  You stir it and refrigerate it.  If you want to make a special little treat out of it get a spoonful and put a bit of honey on top.  So dang good. 

Smucker's is a new comer in the All Natural Peanut Butter arena.  I saw it on the shelf and decided I needed to give it a try and see how it stacked up against the Adams.  Well, it has some cold, thick deliciousness as well.  I have certainly been impressed and enjoy the product.  I don't know that for me it surpasses the Adams but it is a worthy competitor. 

I give the upper hand to the Adams for ease of use as well.  The big 32 oz. jar seems to be a lot easier to stir in the oil then the smaller sized Smucker's.  It seemed to take forever to stir the Smucker's and don't know that I got it mixed quite as well as the Adams.  Regardless, both are delicious and blow away the other peanut butters out there.  I did have a thought that I could purchase some peanuts and try my hand at making up my own all natural peanut butter.  The fact that the ingredients list on both products is pretty much just peanuts and salt, I think I could handle making my own.  I'm sure that's what this Adam guy did and since he is the champ of All Natural Peanut Butter I'd say it's worked out pretty well for him. 

That's all I've got to say about All Natural Peanut Butter at this time. 

Oh Andy

My baby boy can sometimes be a beast when it comes to school.  Some mornings are extremely tough, This morning was wading through the depths of hell kind of tough.  Andy kind of decided that because he was not at school yesterday he really should not have gone today.  We managed to get back in the school then I had to get him down the hallway and to his class.  As he was angry with me he threw a bit of a fit and then a few of his classmates started asking what happened and also mentioned the field trip.  As soon as he heard field trip he was suddenly well.  Amazing how a field trip can do that to someone.

Future Warriors

For our Family Home Evening activity we found ourselves back at Discovery Park or Park Discovery or whatever they call that park here in Cedar City that is up by the Middle School.  We were there last night for a bit, prior to Andy slamming his face into the corner of the kitchen counter.  Sorry, a little lite on the details in yesterdays post about Andy's visit to the ER. 

Anyhow, at the park this evening I pulled out the smartphone stopwatch and times Jack as he made a run through a little obstacle course that included 4 sets of monkey bars and two challenging obstacles to cross.  The boy can swing across those monkey bars like they're nothing.  He ran the course in 1 min 33 seconds.  I thought it was pretty good and I think he can do it better.  I am going to encourage him to stick with this.  I think it will be good for him. 

Andy also got in on some of the monkey bar business and when he gets a bit bigger and is able to reach them without a boost, I think he is going to be a stud.  A couple of future ninja warriors on my hands.  Sounds great. 

ER Andy

At the moment Andy and I are sitting in the emergency room at the hospital.  We just saw the doctor, no stitches.  Andy feels happy. 

I'm a Ghostbuster...

I signed the family up to go and help clean the church this morning.  The family part of that didn't quite happen as Natty had to march with the Cedar High School Band in the SUU Homecoming Parade and the boys didn't feel like cleaning.  So, it was pretty much me out on the cleaning assignment and the boys there for moral support. 

In times past I have scrubbed toilets, dust mopped the cultural hall floor, vacuumed, gathered trash and a variety of other things.  Never have I had the privilege of wearing the backpack vacuum.  Not sure how I lucked in to that one today but I did.  As I got strapped in Kaden Leko was walking down the hall and told me I look like a ghostbuster.  So I replied with a line from the movie; "Someone saw a cockroach up on twelve".  It was good for a few laughs and I certainly found myself quite funny. 

I was busy vacuuming the Relief Society room when Andy found me.  He looked me over, checked out my sweet backpack vac and said "you look like a ghostbuster"!  I didn't reply with a quick line from the movie though there are several I could have used, it is loaded with some great material.

Anyway, I am not a ghostbuster but I do play one on church cleaning assignments and I would definitely do that again. 

Some Things

Some things don't make there way into this record of my life.  Some things just remain private and quiet.  Perhaps it is this format in which I chose to record and share that causes such reservations.  As a single parent of 3 children there are obviously some things from my past that are unknown to some and there are certain things that I don't care to air on here.  I say this only because I have a little boy who just told me that his mind is broken.  He said that right after telling me that he loves me as much as he loves his mother.  That is a bit of a heart breaker.  I think we went through a period of great loss when suddenly mom was no longer in the home and I think we have gone out and done the best we could do and we do the best we can today.  Natty was 10, Jack 5 and Andy was 3 when this happened.  I know how painful things were for me and I knew that things were painful for my children.  I hoped they would be unaffected but how could they?  I know the kids miss there mom and they enjoy spending time with her.   It isn't all that often, 10 weeks out of the year I guess.  Andy always takes that separation hard and struggles for a while after having time together.  It makes him sad.  And so it has been a tough week for him and I get to endure some nastiness and some mean things but we make it through.  I feel for him though and I hurt because I know he hurts inside, his mind is broken.  What does one do to make that better?  I don't know.  Just love him and be there for him, every day.  Well, some things are tougher than other things and some things are worth every ounce of love that we can give them. 

Cello Boy

It's an exciting year for Jack as he decided to join the orchestra at school.  He is going to learn to play the cello.  He got his cello today and was very excited to show me.  Hoping this will be a fun adventure for Jack.  He is excited about that cello especially since he watched the piano guys cello wars video though I'm not convinced that a bow can actually turn into a lightsaber.

11 Year Olds

Working with the 11 year old scouts for the last, well, almost 2 years has been an adventure.  It has been a bit of a challenge at times as I was more of the number 2 guy on the leadership depth chart and just kind of showed up so we had two deep leadership.  I didn't really enjoy it a whole lot back in those days.  I didn't really feel like there was a lot of organization or control over the program.  I probably should have asserted myself a bit more and shouldn't have worried about hurting someone's feelings or stepping on someone's toes.  We stopped meeting with the other ward a few months back and that has made a huge difference.  I am working with Kaden Leko and he has been fantastic.  I really felt like we needed to put more responsibility on the boys themselves and have them learn leadership and develop those skills.  We have consistent turn out by the boys now instead of sporadic attendance.  It is a wonderful thing.  On Sunday I sat in two board of reviews as we had boys earning ranks.  Today we had two more scout master conferences and will recommend both boys for board of reviews and rank advancement.  It is good to see boys progressing.  It is good to have consistency.  Jack will be 11 in April. I thought what a shame it would be if I got released from this calling before he comes in.  Hopefully we will be able to work together in a few months. Anyhow, the 11 year olds still have a lot of energy, I mean a lot.  It can be a challenge to keep them focused and it really feels good to see them progressing.  

Tinker

Sometimes I like to tinker with things.  If there is something that is working the way it is supposed to I might open it up and see if I can't discover what is wrong, fix it and put it back together.  Sometimes in my tinkering I find that things are damaged beyond repair or damaged beyond the scope of my ability to repair.  In these cases I typically throw the thing away, assuming that it's value is not that great.  Otherwise I could enlist the help of someone who has training or skills in the matter.  Last night I opened up the exercise bike that I ride in the mornings.  It has started making a rubbing noise that is loud and obnoxious.  It started to get worse and so I decided to pop the cover off of that area of the bike.  I found a wheel that was rubbing and played with it a while.  Couldn't seem to get it figured out.  I noticed some shavings built up on the bottom of the wheel where the rubbing had occurred.  I blew out the shavings, dust and whatever else and that seems to have eliminated the rubbing noise.  I haven't yet put it back together but I did test ride it this morning and it was good.  I do like to tinker, especially when the results are good. 

Reap What We Sow

For Family Home Evening tonight we reviewed a talk by President Uchtdorf called The Lords Harvest.  It is a great talk with a great story that leads into a discussion about reaping what we sow and laws pertaining to blessings that we receive.  The kids were not behaving really well and so after a time I just stopped with the lesson and we moved on to our scripture reading and prayer followed by bed, well, technically it is followed by some Book of Virtues for the boys while they are laying down in bed.  I knelt a little longer after our family prayer and after the kids had headed upstairs to take care of a few bedtime duties and I had a little prayer of my own.  I prayed about reaping what I sow and the exercising of my faith that is required sometimes to hold Family Home Evening and to read nightly in the scriptures and hold family prayer.  Sometimes these essential activities are a tremendous trial of my faith and yet I believe that our family will be blessed as we faithfully follow this counsel from our prophets.  We reap what we sow and so I have to believe that the seeds that have been planted with my children are good seeds and that everyday we nourish these seeds and they are growing.  They are sprouting and beginning to grow and to take root.  As hard as it can be and as much as I may want to give up I cannot give up.  I can have faith and I can have patience and I can trust in the Lord.  Some days that is harder than others but alas, it is what is needed and it is what we will do. 

Up Front

In Sacrament Meeting today Andy was called to come up front, up to the podium where he was recognized for his baptism yesterday.  He and Will Simmerman both.  They went up at the same time, shook Brother Lambeth's hand and then they both just stood there looking out over the congregation with little smiling faces.  It was pretty dang cute.  It took brother Lambeth letting them know they could go and sit to get them to move.  It was a great moment there for Andy. Sure do love that boy as well as his brother and sister. 

The Baptism of Anderson James Fontano

It was a special day for our family as Andy was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  This is my baby boy and baptizing him was just as special as baptizing Natty and Jack when they were eight years old.  I think it is a special thing for a father to baptize his child.  It is a sacred privilege and duty.  I am grateful for these opportunities and blessings in my life. 

Andy is a wonderful boy and was full of excitement today.  When it was his turn we went down in the warm water and got aligned in the font.  Andy looked at the group of people there and kept looking at them.  I started the prayer then I thought I had made a mistake so I stopped and went to start again and then realized I had it right the first time, paused and started again.  We got it done and it was good.  As we changed in the changing area Andy talked about how good he felt.  It was neat to see the joy on his face and to be there with him,  clean and pure.  A precious moment for this dad.

We then went and joined our family and friends from the ward for the confirmation.   Will Simmerman from Andy's primary class was also baptized.  We had a short message on the Holy Ghost by Dave, who did a great job by the way, and then the confirmation.   When it was Andy's turn I was joined in the circle by Bishop Elison and Jim, Jay, Dave and Dan.  It was a great group of priesthood holders to be gathered with.   This too was a special moment as we confirmed Andy a member of the church and bestowed upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost.  That is a humbling task and one that perhaps I have not fully appreciated.   The Gift of the Holy Ghost is perhaps the greatest gift we receive in mortality. 
Today was truly a wonderful day.  It was wonderful to have family here and to see and feel Andy's joy.  We had a nice get together at the park afterwards where we ate hot dogs and other delicious food.   So very grateful.

Pops was not doing too well today and following the baptism Dave took him to the hospital.  They are still there now.  Hopefully he will be good to return home soon. 

First Rodeo

Tonight my friend Annie invited me out to the rodeo.  I have never actually been to a rodeo and had thought about going so why not.  I was actually working when she invited me and had to clean up so we didn't get there until late but had fun.  Got to even catch some bull riding!  Good times and now I can officially say "this ain't my first rodeo!"

Visitors

There are visitors in my home,  staying with my children whilst I have removed myself and am residing at my folks house.  I labored all morning to have the house clean and ready.  I did not leave my children in a strangers care.  No,  their mother and grandmother are here for the baptism of Andy.  neat!  Tired!   Must go sleep. 

The Load

The load makes the difference.  Not talking about the loads of laundry that I have done in the last few days.  I am talking about an excellent talk by Elder David A. Bednar  in the last conference where he talks about the load.  He shares a story of a friend who got his truck stuck in the snow while up to cut wood for his family.  With the truck stuck he could go nowhere and decided he would start cutting wood and he loaded up the truck.  Then he attempted to pull out again after the truck was loaded.  This time it moved and he was able to get clear of the snow.  It was the load that allowed him to do that.  Sometimes in life it is easy to feel overwhelmed and stretched beyond capacity.  When we understand that the load is a good thing and that it is a source of blessings in our lives, we will carry our burdens with a more thankful heart and will find help to carry the load through the savior. 

Poor Concrete

Yesterday I decided I would try my hand and pouring some concrete to finish off the driveway where I took out a rose bush and several golf balls, weeds and things a few months ago.  I have been killing weeds and things in that area since then and have planned to pour concrete there since the beginning.  Well, it has come to my attention, very clearly, that I am not an expert when it comes to concrete.  This little project didn't quite turn out as planned.  In my mind it was going to look so good.  I had watched a concrete crew do a lot of work at the hotel next door to the Brick House a couple of months ago and they made it look easy.  Well, it wasn't all that easy and the mixing process was a little more difficult then I thought it would be.  In the end, I have a permanent weed barrier.  That is nice.  I will see if there is something I can come up with to enhance to good looks of this poor concrete. 

Andy the Archer

For his birthday Andy got a bow and arrow set.  The set I had picked up was the last one on the shelf so I just grabbed it.  When I got home I realized it was missing a few things that were described on the box.  We took it back and ended up getting another set at another store.  Andy loves it!  We came home set up the target and did some shooting.  Andy managed to hit the bullseye.  We had to get a picture of the man in all his glory.  Andy the Archer folks!