Friday, June 30, 2017

Flight Out

The kids took to the skies today and as of my last text with Natty they had made it safely to Anchoage.  I assume now they have arrived in Bethel and all is well. I won't know until we figure out a way to communicate. Natty will have no phone service or data so we will have to figure out other ways when she is on Wi-Fi. I am home tonight after a long drive. Ready for bed.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

And We're Off

Tomorrow morning the kids will fly out to Alaskafor the next 6 weeks or so. It is that time of year. Actually it is about a month later than usual but there are a lot of things that contributed to that delay.  Regardless, tomorrow is the day. We are in Las Vegas tonight staying with Jim and Clo. So we made a little road trip prior to departure and have had a good time. The drive was good even if Natalie squeezed out a surprise victory in the alphabet game. Well, good drive and good food for dinner and then some fun times bowling. It has been a good night. Glad we've been able to spend it with Jim and Clo.

The Line

After Sumner band Andy and I made a visit to the Brick House. Grandpa was there and so we talked to him for a bit. I slid in the back to make Andy a grilled cheese and then ended up working the line for a few. Got to make 5 or 6 philly's and a thunderbird. That was good times.I love that section on the line and sometimes I need that.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Too Much

I am struggling at the moment with everything that is going on. My struggle is to balance the load so that I can progress with school, meet my work responsibilities, and take care of my family duties all at the same time. I need to manage my time a little better though that is challenging as something always seems to be popping up. I have some kitchen projects I've got to do now as well as a need to remove an awning from the front of the building. It never ends.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Back to Serious

For the first 5 months of the year I was pretty serious and diligent in watching my sugar intake as well as my bread and carb intake.  I have lost roughly 20 pounds. In the last few weeks I have not been as diligent and though I had only gained back a few of those 20 pounds I am trending in the wrong direction.  It has been slow as I have not completely fallen off the wagon and I have been pretty good about getting in a few miles of walking most days.  My goal is much lower than where I am at and so I need to reverse my current trend and get back moving towards my goal weight.  Sometimes it is hard because I just want to enjoy things like bread, cake and ice-cream.  I love me some sugar but my body doesn't. And so I need to get back to being serious. I need to stay focused and not allow myself to be weak in the discipline arena.  For the first few months I would do really well during the week and then allow myself to have a little treat on Sundays.  That seems to work well as I give myself that reward and it makes the rest of the week easier.  Well, I am trying to climb back up in the saddle and getting myself geared up to strictly control what it is that I choose to eat.  So much fun. 

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Love

Had a great time at church today. Everything went well. We had our Teacher Council Meeting and had some excellent comments and participation. I really wanted to focus on engaged learning and helping class members to act. In both the second and third hour meetings there was excellent participation. I really enjoyed the meetings. I was concerned coming out of our last meeting with a comment that was made about engaging students in the lessons. Today we focused on love and loving those we teach and we participated in a variety of activities that got people involved.

Nostrils are Burning

The Brian Head fire continues to burn.  Tonight our house smells of smoke. My nostrils and throat are burning. Hoping they can get more control. 

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Smokey

I woke up this morning to the smell of smoke in the house. It was not anything in the house burning. It was smoke settling in the area from the Brian head fire. I am so tired.  Ok, must go.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Down One

Today I sold the Accord. I ended up losing money on the vehicle by a few hundred. I kind of got hood-winked when I bought it.  Well, it is gone.  Now I'm going to have to find something else. Oh joy. First I am off to bed.

Must Rest

So tired. Need a bit of a break but that may be out a ways. I will just keep pressing forward. 

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Swamp Thing II

I seem to remember a movie from my youth, I'm thinking it had to be during the 80's, called the swamp thing.  I don't know if there was a sequel and I really don't recall the first one.  This post has nothing to do with that. Today I had to go in and work unexpectedly. While there I realized that the swamp cooler I fixed Saturday could not keep up and I needed to go and check the other one. I got on the roof and found the pump was out. I ran and picked up a pump and then, after cleaning the unit and getting ready to install the pump, I saw it was the wrong voltage. Sweet. Ran back to the store and replaced. After some additional part cleaning I have that swamper cooling well. Nice. And now that my swamping is over I must needs get some rest.

Got Nothing

I am completely wiped out. The good news is I am ready to crash. I am exhausted. Going to bed. 

Just found Saturdays post. I guess I didn't miss it after all. Just misplaced it for a few days.  I was pretty tired.

Monday, June 19, 2017

No Time

I get to the end of the day lately and feel as if I have no time.  I need to get finished with a class by way of writing a lesson plan but seem to fill my days with so many other things that there is no time remaining for writing a lesson plan.  I really just need to buckle down and get it done.  It is hard to do when I have work and I have kids at home with things that need to be done with them related to summer school and summer band as well as a multitude of other activities.  I just need to stay focused and do the best I can.  In a week and a half they leave for Alaska for 5 or 6 weeks and perhaps during that time things will settle a bit and I can start knocking out some classes.  I also have a couple of big tests to take in July that I need to get myself registered and ready for.  Oh my goodness, it just doesn't end. Well, happy days. It appears that I somehow completely missed doing an entry on Saturday.  I thought I had done it as this has been a daily habit and activity for the last 23 years. I have no record of it and honestly cannot recollect what I was writing about other than we have a fire that broke out Saturday up at Brianhead, it is still going and is barely 4% contained as of today. Not a lot of loss as far as buildings go but over 1000 acres burned.  I worked on a swamp cooler at the Brick House on Saturday and had to do a lot of cleaning to get it functioning again.  Fun times. It is only a year old but when you run it all day and night for a few months out of the year I guess it can get a little dirty. As for today, Natty got her drivers license, well, she picked it up today.  She got it over a week ago but we didn't go and get it until today. Don't know if I am ready for a teenage driver but here we are.  Well, not much else to say.  I am tired and ready for bed.  Need to rest up so I can get up in the morning and get some work done on that lesson plan.  Fantastic. 

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Kids Day

Today is Father's Day and for the first time since 2010 my kids were with me on father's day. So we will call today kids day. It was good to have them home. We went up and visited the folks tonight. They were good and seemed to have had an enjoyable day. My day started around 8 with me running into the shop and getting all the pies ready for the 8th ward. That went well. I had some music on and got the pies cut, topped, and ready to go. I sang along, I danced along, it was a good time.

The power is currently out for line maintenance so the house and neighborhood is dark. Hopefully I can catch some rest, I like it cool.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Reservoir

Dan and Amy came by this morning and whilst here they invited us to go up to Lol on Reservoir this evening. We ended up going and had a fine time. It was our first trip up and I thought it was a really nice place. We will definitely go back.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Playing with Food

Had a thought pop into my head about making our muffalatta into a little pizza today. I used a pita and then topped it with grilled tomato, grilled and chopped up ham, salami, mayo, provolone and our olive medley.  I was surprised how well it turned out.  I may have a need to make this again

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Sleeping

Oh my goodness. In am pretty dang tired tonight. It was a busy day and I may just be worn out from that. Seriously I keep knodding off and cant even think. I may just call it. Done.

Tweaked

I was heading for the basement at the brick house this afternoon and I pulled out my phone to check for message and didn't notice the first step. I thought I was going down and I was, fortunately I moved quickly.  In the process I may have tweaked my back. Sweet!

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

LP's

I need to complete a lesson plan for my current class. I spent some time today looking over the requirements and thought about it.  Wow, it is quite late and I am quite tired. I'm fixing to pass out.

Monday, June 12, 2017

Old Pics

At church I was asked by one of Natalie's young women leaders if I would send them a baby picture of the Nat that they would use as part of an activity. After church I pulled out a big grey storage bin that houses many a picture. I began going through them and there are some fun ones out there. It was definitely a good time on a Sunday afternoon. The kids then came down and started looking and it became an even dinner activity on a Sunday afternoon. There were so many things that I was reminded of. Fun times.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Whoops!

I just noticed that my post from last night didn't get published. As I read the post I realized that last night I was pretty tired and going to bed was weighing heavily on my mind. I did go to bed, just in case you were wondering. 

Today I managed to keep plenty busy. Had Morgan over at the Depot Grill early to work on relocating the condensing unit for the walk in cooler. It was a bit of a job but it is done and it is actually cooling.

While Morgan was doing his thing I went through and put all the chairs up and then did a good sweep of the dining area followed by a mop.

Ok, I am starting to fall asleep. It was a great day. Happy to be heading to bed. Echo yesterdays entry.

Walking

I am going to make this quick. I am tired. I am ready for bed. I really need to be getting to bed.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Passed

Took a test for my instructional planning course today and passed with a score that was 14 points higher than My pre assessment. This is great.oh my word I am sleeping.

I can't keep my eyes open. .must sleep.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Temple Walking

Andy started summer band this week and goes Monday through Thursday at 11. Rather than come home for an hour I have been walking from the school down to the temple and back. Jack has come with me over the last two days. It is a good walk and with Jack it makes for a good talk. He has had much to say about star wars and sonic. I've asked him some thoughts about conference talks and we've had some good chats. Temple walks are a good thing.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Tagged Out

Oh my goodness, I feel like I am about to go crazy.  The summer break is really moving fast.  Tomorrow makes two weeks since school let out.  It will be back in before you know it.  I had a purpose for titling this post as Tagged Out but then I went to get things started I completely forgot why.  Now I am struggling.  I think I thought I had a real good idea but now I have nothing.  Look at the rambling going on here.  I really need to tag myself - out!

Monday, June 5, 2017

Jack on Engines

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting at church.  Jack decided to get up and share his testimony.  He got up and talked about a truck engine and compared it to our faith.  He said the air filter is like the Book of Mormon.  He said the battery is like the church and he said the fuel is like the Savior.  He said if we are missing any of those things our engine won't work or it won't work very well. That's how it is with our faith.  It was a simple message and it made people think.  I had several people come up and tell me how much they enjoyed his testimony. One sister told me how blessed we are to have Jack in our ward.  When he came and sat down he told me he was just thinking about it because we had pulled that engine out of that truck.  It is pretty neat to me that he makes these kind of connections in his life.  I also like the fact that he is not afraid to get up and share his thoughts.  He wanted me to get up and share some thoughts.  I procrastinated some and then there was very little time left and a couple other people got up so I declined going up.  I told him I would get up when they get home from Alaska. 

Too Laté

It is way late. I haven't been sitting here doing anything productive. Just watching random videos for no good reason. Dumb. Must get to sleep and must be more productive moving forward.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

One year later...

I had a memory pop up today on the facebook. It was a picture of my sun burned legs and my extremely white feet. Looked pretty funny. Today, one year later, we weren't at Long Beach but we did spend a few hours at the lake on the hill where we hung out on the beach and played in the water. My white feet were exposed to the rays of the sun and are no longer of the white variety.  I went on a nice walk this evening and the burning of the feet was evident. Not so pleasant. They will feel better once they stop hurting. 

Get Back on Track

For the last couple weeks I have kind of put my strict diet on hold. It is time to regroup and revisit. And now, I must go to bed.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Learning

I have gone over and played a little racquetball with Kaden Leno recently. We played tonight and had Will Mitchell join us. We played cut throat and it was a good time. I'm pretty inexperienced with the sport and bring the average level of play way down but it is fun and I do my best to be competitive. I think it was nice for Kaden to have Will there because it brought the level of competition up quite a ways. I wasn't all bad and did manage some nice shots on occasion. There will come a day when I get better and will better be able to compete. That doesn't matter much as I go for the exercise and association. It is good to go hang out with friends and to be actively doing something

Thursday, June 1, 2017

GBR

GBR stands for Garth Brooks Radio. For the last month or so I have been dialed in to the Garth Brooks Radio station on Pandora.  It is bed time music for Andy and tonight it appears to bed bet time music for me.  I am way tired.