Halloween 2017

What to say? It was a fine day. The kids had a good time. They went out on their own and I managed the candy bowl at home. It wasn't that busy of a night. Our neighborhood just isn't a big draw. It was okay and the kids that came by I had take a few pieces and we still had a lot left over. The boys had a descent haul and seem pleased with their evening.  It was nice to let them roam on their own and they enjoyed themselves. They made a few different runs. Natty hung out with her friends and had a good time.  Well, fun times.

Leaves

Today I battled the leaves. Ultimately it was a losing battle today but I managed to take down a large pile and several small like a I raked up as leaves kept falling throughout the day. In the front yard I ran the lawnmower over the lawn and cleaned up several that way. Then I went on to roll my ankle pretty severely as I was finishing up. Oh my goodness it was painful. I roll my ankles a lot but this was one of those bad ones. I danced around on it a bit when it happened and tried to walk it off but it is pretty sore. I hobbled around on it for the rest of the day. Not fun. Tomorrow I will look at the leaf situation again. I may or may not go for another round... tomorrow anyway.

10/29/17

What a day. We had Stake Conference today and it was great. Loved it.  President Heap shared a powerful message about change. In it he talked about the Book of Mormon and the power it has to help lift us. I am grateful for that lifting power found in studying the Book of Mormon. I enjoyed his remarks. 

There were great testimonies that were shared. The mission presidents wife spoke and was amazing, he was amazing too.

I am grateful for our savior, grateful for his love and patience with me.

10/28/2017

Today was a fantastic day. I had some things to take care of at the shop this morning. Jack came over with me and was excited to help wash some dishes. I like to see him excited to work. We took a time out for the parade. It was the livestock festival parade filled with tractors, horses, campers, and sheep. We enjoyed it.

The real highlight of the day was our visit to the Cedar City Temple open house. What a beautiful building. I am looking forward to its dedication. 

10/27/17

It has been a day. I woke up after 4 hours of sleep to get the kids up and moving for school. I did not feel well and went back to bed an hour later after I got the boys off to the bus stop. I managed a couple more hours of sleep which was nice. I had some things to clean in the house in preparation for the fam coming in to town. I had an opportunity to visit with Natty a bit about relationships. I was able to take care of some banking things as well as make some runs to both stores. We are suffering at the new place. It just isn't taking off and that is making for a struggle. We really need a shot in the arm and hopefully we will get something from the temple open house.

I had a friend of mine, Lacie, send me a message that she was headed to the Brick House and she hoped to see me. I stopped in and visited with her and her family for a bit. It was great to see her. She is a wonderful gal. She moved from Cedar to Nephi a while back.

Jim, Mike, Dan, Andy and I enjoyed going to the Civil Air Patrols haunted hanger. Jack was there participating and had a great time. It is a fun event as we walked through the haunted hanger and shot nerd guns at the zombies. It was good. Andy talked about it for a while after we left. He loved it.

Fun times today.

10/26/2017

Sometimes we have to do things that drive us nuts.  I had to spend time on a report tonight that simply wasn't much fun. Hey a couple hours later and it is done.  I also had the pleasure of drawing a picture for Natty.  She wanted a zombie skeleton mermaid playing a guitar. That is a very normal request for a picture.  Not sure that I captured exactly what she wanted but hopefully it will do the trick for her. 

We had dinner at the Brick House tonight with the folks, Dan & Amy and then we had Mike and Liana in town.  They are here for the weekend with the family gathering, girls night, and the temple tour.  It is great to have them here.  Jack had a good time visiting with Mike and had great conversations about Star Wars and several other things. It was funny to watch them communicate. 

Well, grateful for family, grateful for the day, grateful to head to bed now. 

25 October,2017

Today I got things started with making a white bean chicken chili. It was something I wanted to try and it turned out pretty well. I want to put together a new chili for an up coming ward chili cook off. I don't know if this is the chili I will use for it but it did turn out well.

Saw the folks again today after they have been gone for a couple of weeks. The boys and I went up and visited for a while. It was a good visit.

Natty had work and the boys were both out. Jack had CAP and Andy went to scouts. So it was a busy night. Good to be busy.

She's Cute

At church on Sunday William Bagnall told me a story about something that happened at school last week. In one of his classes Jack and other students were invited to move up from the back row and closer to the front. Jack was a little frustrated by this but Mrs. Cardon talked to him about an open seat by a girl up front and how he could go and sit by her. Jack looked and saw who the girl was and said "Ok, I'll go sit by her. She is cute and she is awesome". Mrs. Cardon loved it and told Will. They shared one of those proud moments that just created good feelings. The girl was quite touched and mentioned how she had never been told that she was cute by anyone at school before. One of those moments that just makes me feel good as a dad.

My Weekend Job

Sometimes I have the pleasure of working on the weekend. This particular job is not one that I receive compensation for, it is one where I get to assist in marking first downs or moving chains, it may involve running the clips. Whatever they ask me to do as a member of the chain gang for either Cedar High School or Southern Utah University football games, I am happy to do it. It allows me to enjoy a football game from the best seats in the house. Sometimes the seat is so good that the action comes right at me and I have to jump out of the way. Well, take a look at the following picture, in the background you see two guys with red shirts on under blue and white vests. One of those guys is me and the other is Dean, a fellow chain crew member. Photo credit to Taylor, great shot and not just because I'm in it. This is what I mean by beat seat in the house. On occasion I will have a coach step out in front of me, or I might have to look over the shoulder of the official. For the most part I have a front row seat and direct line of sight. It is a lot of fun. I also work on the opposing teams sideline and that can sometimes be wildly entertaining. It is a lot of fun and one of those rare things I get to do for myself. I enjoy being able to participate and to associate with a great group of men. We have a lot of fun.

Natty Got to Talk

Natty was called by the bishop early last week and was asked to speak in church. Last night she remembered she had the assignment and this morning I double checked with her to make sure she was prepared. She was working on it. She came into my room a little later and shared what she had written. She also asked for some help on other parts of it. I shared a couple of thoughts but she pretty well had it under control and did a great job with it.  Way to go Nat Sue!

Great Win for SUU

Worked on the chain crew tonight as SUU took on Eastern Washington. I was a bit nervous in the first quarter as Eastern Washington was killing the Thirds.  I am way tired and ready to go to bed.  The chain crew is fantastic.

Climbing Wall

We had a good time tonight. Andy has been wanting to go for over a week. Tonight we made it happen. The kids all seemed to have a good time. They got on that wall and just had fun. I enjoyed watching them get up there and try new things. They conquered fears and pushed themselves. We will do this again. It is going to take some budgeting because at 6 bones a pop I am not going to be able to afford it very often.

One More Down

My task came back and I have officially passed the math methods couare. Nice to get another one done. I am tired. Wow! Great day.

Submitted and Passed

Though I was hoping to have my task completed and submitted yesterday I was not able to get it done until today.  This morning I had a goal to have it done before noon but didn't get it finished and submitted until around 1. Oh well, it is done and it has been submitted.  I really hope it passes.  I don't enjoy the task portions of these classes and would rather not have to spend more time on it.  The challenge is that I look at all the miner flaws in the lesson plan and analyze things too much then I keep rethinking and re-doing several parts of the task.  It is a nightmare.  I just want to get them in and be done. Hopefully that will be the case with this class. 

I had a nasty headache come on around 8 PM.  That was pretty frustrating as I needed to get the math pre-assessment done tonight.  I didn't feel very good and was going to go to bed and forget this but around 11 PM I decided to go forward with the test.  It was scheduled to be a two and a half hour exam but I went for it anyway.  The really good news is that I managed to pass it.  Oh, I looked at the coaching report and there were some areas where I was pretty bad.  Fortunately I can go in and work on those areas specifically.  I'm going to need it. 

Getting There

Managed to make some progress with my class today. Not quite done yet but should get there in the morning. I've got to knock it out and I need to get my math class moving. Lots to do. I felt good about the day and the progress made.

October 16, 2017

I need to get things moving with school. I find myself busy with several things. I am not managing my time as effectively as I need to. I need to crank things up and get things moving forward.

Good Church

Had a good day today. I enjoyed church services and feel strengthened for attending my meetings today. Colin and Stephanie Shurtliff spoke today and they did a fantastic job. It was a great sacrament meeting and I am quite grateful that Natty has Stephanie as her math teacher. She has a powerful testimony of the Savior and is a great example for Nat. Anyway, they spoke about accountability and a talk by Elder Anderson from April conference. They both were great.

We had our teacher counsel meeting today and that went well.  Sure appreciate the dedicated teacheers in the 8th ward.

Out of Gas

I was settling down to write the blog and go to bed about an hour ago and received a text from Natty saying she was on her way. She didn't show up. The phone rang. She was on the side of the road in a truck that wouldn't go. A policeman was there with her and I was grateful for that. I got dressed again and headed out. Turns out she ran the truck out of gas. Back home we came and retrieved the gas can and then ran to the gas station. Put some gas in it and sure enough it fired up strong and I drove it home. Glad all are safe and that is wasn't something much worse.

Idea

Still working on my class. Actually I finally sat down, looked at it and came up with something to use for the task requirements.  It is not done yet but I will be working on it again tomorrow with a goal of getting it submitted then.  Wow. I am exhausted and hardly feel like I did much.  Must sleep. 

High Dive

Today was racquetball and I brought the boys with me to SUU. They went to the pool while I was easily dismantled on the court. After Kaden left I kept practicing for a bit to give the boys more time in the pool. After a while I went to get them and found them at the only place that really matters at the pool, that's right, the diving boards. Jack got up on the highdive and showed me a sweet move where he jumped off backwards and did some twinkle toes thing. Then Andy got up there and he was afraid to jump. He did the back and forth thing and really wanted to do it. It was a great moment when he conquered his fear and jumped once that happened he couldn't be stopped. That was a good moment as both of my boys were enjoying one of my favorite pastimes.

Sewing

Spent a number of hours sewing patches onto Jacks civil air pattil uniform. This is his camouflage uniform referred to as BDU's. I read earlier what that stood for but can't recollect what that is right now. Stitching on a patches is not one of my strengths. Don't get me wrong, I have them on there and don't expect them to come off without some real effort but hand stitching is not a quick project for me.  There was also a wing patch that I had to sew onto a sleeve. This was not so easy and in the process I managed to bend the needle. It was just not going well and so I ended up cutting out the stitching I had already completed on the wing patch and plugged in the glue gun. A few minutes later I had the patch successfully affixed to the sleeve. It was a thing of beauty. 

Also Dad...

I was having a conversation with Natty about church and testimony related things when Jack got out of the shower and was headed down to his room. He was not engaged in conversation with us, no, he was just heading down to his room.  At the bottom of the stairs he stopped and looked in the workout room and says "also dad, I think you should s go to a gym. Then in a few months you could go from plump dad to ripped dad."  What a guy. I love it when he has random thoughts, especially when they are centered on my plump dad bod.  I just had to laugh and enjoy the fact that Jack operates without a filter. It makes for good times.  Sure love these kids and hope for their futures.

Headache

I spent a restless night with a major headache. It was a rough one. I have had a headache for the last week or so. Not super strong and not constant but a fairly good shot of pain now and again throughout the day. This morning it was bad and after taking some meds I managed to sleep for a couple hours. It was good but the head wasn't exactly clear. I had to keep moving and it eased up throughout the day. I am grateful for my family. Grateful for my sweet children.

Senior Pics

Today after church we went out and took pics for Natty. Our friend Greg had an opening and so we took it and he did a great job. There are a lot of great shots on both the mountain and at the depot grill. Turns out the depot grill is a great spot for pictures. Anyway, this sweet girl of mine is growing up to fast. Glad to spend a few hours with her today trying to capture the perfect picture. This was one of my quick snaps that I thought was quite fun. Love this Natty Sue Bug.

Blah

I feel like carp right at the moment. I had a little under 5 hours sleep last night and was then at the brick house at 7 am. I have been going non stop and my body is done. I must sleep.

Got to go to a birthday party for Sam and Ellie this afternoon. It was a fun. I then had the SUU football game. We won. The boys and I then went and with Dan to feed the new pigs. Cleve and Dan worked something out. I get the food. For one of them.  Should be an adventure.

Busy Day

The Brick House had a significantly busy day for October. Though it wasn't our busiest day ever it was likely our busiest day in October and one of our top days outside of Valentines and SUU graduation. It is SUU homecoming so that is a likely reason for the heavy business. I am very grateful for it as we need a financial boost. The Depot appeared to have a great day as well and it is good to have both places performing well. We look forward to continuing to build our clientele at both locations.  The boys and I enjoyed a visit to the depot for dinner. I think they quite enjoy it.

Fryers

I ran in this morning to help with some pies that we were catering and ended up working the fryers through a majority of lunch. It wasn't bad, had a good time. I do tend to find some things operationally that upset me because they contribute to a lack of efficiency. Simple things that should be decided each day and stocked as necessary. I don't like to be in the middle of a lunch rush and not have what we need to be successful.  Oh well, I get in there and swear a little, and make sarcastic comments and generally try to have a good time. Well, I ended up being there a lot longer than I anticipated. I've got a delivery tomorrow so I will be in but don't know how long. Hoping to make time for school.

Stalled

My school week has stalled. I need to jump start it and get this class done. I've had other things that take my time and it becomes difficult to balance everything that I must. I will press forward and do my best to keep things moving.

Homework

My evenings are spent doing homework with the boys. It is one of those things where I have them doing reading on their own and Andy practicing trombone on his own but then comes math, and then comes spelling, and then there are the other things that come up like book reports and a variety of projects. It is a bit crazy some days and I can spend hours working on things with them. Last night was probably a 4 hour ordeal. Tonight was about three hours. That isn't exactly easy to do all the time. Being motivated to do my own homework after that is tough. Well, I just keep on trying to move forward.

Bad Situation

Woke up this morning and Natty asked me if I knew about Vegas being attacked. I had just gotten out of bed and hadn't immediately checked out the latest stories on my phone and news feed. I would have expected more coverage on the national anthem and the NFL and wasn't really interested to hear more about that. I don't have tv and so I haven't watched the NFL other than streaming the Superbowl. It has all been a bit tiresome to listen to.  Anyway, the stories were not so much about that as they were about an attack on a concert there on the strip.  Gunman in the Mandalay Bay shot and killed over 50 people and injured over 500.  Really just sad. 

Continuing Conference

Today was a wonderful day as conference continued. Between sessions news came that Elder Robert D. Hales of the quorum of the twelve passed away. There were some touching moments in the afternoon session and the brotherhood among the brethren was evident.

We had a family dinner at the folks house. Jim, Clo, and Kathryn came through along with Clo's brother Newel and his wife. Amy, Dan and fam were there. It was a nice get together. 

Grateful for the weekend and look forward to having the opportunity to review the conference talks over the coming days.