Opportunity

I love working in the Youth Group at Church. I have 2 reasons. The less important of the two is my own selfish reasons. Youth group helps me stay active and young. The more important reason is to be used by God in ways I never thought possible and to be possibly the only positive influence in these students lives. God is truly remarkable in how he can use what we think is the littlest most insignificant thing we have to offer to change or reach someone. Our youth group is so blessed that we have a church that fully supports it in anything and everything we do. One thing we have the ability to do is take a ski trip every year. It is pretty cool because we get to go to some pretty cool places. This year we are going to Snow Basin. See picture below of a view from the top. This trip allows kids in the youth group to invite any and all of their friends to join us. This is huge because it gives the adults and church a way to bridge the gap between the world and what they think of church. Who thought Christians could have fun. Well news flash for you we do have a blast. It is an amazing life as you live for the Lord. I am so excited about this trip. Not only because we get to do some amazing skiing but we are going to have an opportunity to meet kids we have never met and be able to show them the love that Jesus has for them. Please be praying for us. First for a safe trip, second that those God desires to be there will be, and finally that they will see Jesus through the friend that brought them and everyone else they meet.

Blue Man Group here we come!!!!

Tonight is the Blue Man Group show at the Idaho Center. Jen and I saw them in Vegas a couple years back and they were amazing. I got an email about 3 months ago that they were coming to town and had to go. The tickets were cheaper here than what we paid in Vegas. We just had to go and will be taking both the boys with us as well. We have great seats in the 8th row. Should be a blast. The only down fall is that it starts at 7:30 and probably won't end until 10 or so, but it will definitely be worth it. If you ever get a chance to see them pay the money it is well worth it.

Look MOM no training wheels!!!!

I have been trying to get the bikes out of the garage and started for several weeks now. The boys bikes took a little trying but started up the first day I tried. Mine on the other hand was quite a bit more difficult. I have had it out on several different occasions trying to get it started with no luck. I tried the electric start, kicking, jumping it off my truck. Nothing would do the trick. I thought today might be the day and so I got it out and used jumper cables to hopefully charge it enough to get it started. That didn't work. Finally after messing with some things I jumped back on it to give it one more kick to see if that would work. The sun was shinning on me today. It started and stayed running. I didn't know what to do nor did I have a clue what I did to get it going. While I was doing this Austin came out and wanted to start his also and with starting it of course comes riding. Not soon thereafter Taylor comes tearing into the drive way on his bicycle from a friends house. He said he was hungry and actually did eat something but my hunch is that he heard the roar of the bikes and didn't want to get left out.

My plan all winter was to get his training wheels off so he could start practicing without them before the heart of the riding season hit. Sounded like a pretty good time to do it. Since he hadn't been riding for awhile I told him and Austin to go to the backyard to ride for a little bit. When I finally got out there my lawn where the turned around was well let's just say it was aerated. This is what it looked like. It doesn't nearly do it justice.

I figured I better get Taylor's training wheels off quickly before my lawn was gone since I knew it was him that was doing it. I thought once they were off he might be a little reluctant to ride and may need a little help. Boy was I wrong. He is a little slower now than he was, but once he gets comfortable I know it won't be long before I am eating his dust.

Finally!

The last 2 weeks have been extremely long. We had a development team from Malaysia that came in on the 13th for 2 weeks of training on a new system we are implementing in May. That in itself was enough. The first week they were here the earliest I got home from work was 6 at that ws only once. The kids got sick that week also. Between the kids being sick and myself being run down from the week before I got sick on Wednesday and have been ever since. I missed 2 and half days of training. Not looking forward to trying to figure out how to make that up. Not looking forward to the hundreds of emails in my inbox either.

I want so bad to enjoy the weekend and I keep getting off the couch to try and do something and then go sit back down somewhere to rest. Being sick SUCKS! I am completely movie watched out. I think I have watched like 4 or 5 a day so 15 total yeah that is more tha enough. The weather outside is so inviting but yet I am still confined to the house for now. I am hoping tomorrow I am doing much better so I can go to church and enjoy the last part of the weekend before going back to work.

To have pets or not?

I have always liked others peoples pets and thought it was good for them. It was nice to see them but not have to clean up and take care of them. While growing up I did have a few pets like fish a hamster or two stuff like that. I could say I had a pet but did not have a daily mess to clean up after. My brother on the other hand had 2 yellow labs while he was growing up. I can remember how much he hated to feed, water, and clean up the piles of poop. I think those memories are what kept me from even considering the idea of having larger furry pets like cats or dogs.

I fought this idea long and hard even after we had moved into a house where we actually could have one of them. The reason is that Jen wanted whatever animal we did have to be an inside animal and I didn't like the idea of that at ALL! So for a few years that worked. It wasn't until my daughter at the age of 3 captured my heart and said she wanted a kittie. How could I resist. With her mom's guidance and help Emily knew exactly how to get what she wanted from dear old dad. The pictures below say it all. I don't think I made a mistake!

It quickly became her very best friend. She treated it just like part of the family and despite our little girl the kittie was quite at ease around her. Sister the Calico above was Emily's kittie. She named her Emily, after herself, and gave her the nickname sister, again after herself. Due to a tragic accident and yes it was an accident JEN, she is no longer with us. It didn't phase Emily though. She just quickly adopted Taylor's cat Socks as her own. And she was not going to let Socks be just any old cat. He was going to be an educated cat. My words don't do it justice. See below.

That's our Emily. After giving in and yes of course the cats being indoor cats I began to soften to the idea of having a dog. Austin had talked about it for quite some time and I finally made good on my promise that he could have one. We surprised him with a yellow lab for Christmas. Taylor and I had picked her out when she was 4 weeks old and we couldn't pick her up until Christmas Eve which worked out perfect. Again my words don't do it justice to how happy he was.And I guess I have gotten use to the idea of having a dog around. Just see below. I am really looking forward to the warm weather so me and the gang can take her camping, hiking, and anything else we can find this summer.

I couldn't get her to sit still and look at the camera. She wanted to eat my ear.....
lick my face....
and finally with a little restraint!

Where did Christmas Go?

I love Christmas time! It seems like you look forward too it for months and if you aren't careful you blink and it is already over. We had some great times with all the family in town and had just enough snow in the mountains to enjoy also. I love the decorating of the house with lights going through all the ornaments from years past and then the final touches of decorating the Christmas tree. Growing up our grandma gave us all a pair of knitted skates and every year they were the last ornament to be put on the tree. Each of us would take our turn to try and see who could get their skates the highest and stay. I have carried this tradition on with my kids as well and it is funny to see how each one of them reacts to it. Austin and Emily enjoy it but don't care much if theirs was the highest or not. Taylor on the other hand being the competitor he is will pout for an hour if his are not the highest. Just like his daddy!

Happy New Year to everyone. SO what if I am 6 days late. Better late than never is a good motto to live by. It has been a hectic first week back in the swing of things. I think our whole family spent most of the week back to there usual duties but dragging while doing them. Despite it being a short week because of New Year's Day being on Monday, it still felt like a long week. I did sleep much Monday night. Not sure if it was the Broncos winning an amazing Fiesta Bowl game or the fact that I knew I had 1000 emails sitting patiently in my inbox at work for me to get back. I typically love surprises but when I got to work I was surprised to find a meeting invite for all day training Wednesday through Friday. Just what I needed, only Tuesday to catch up on the previous 4 days I had taken off for vacation while also trying to get anything done I would normally have to do for the balance of the week. It is going to be a rough couple weeks coming up with some of the meetings and training I have to do....

Christmas Vacation

I love Christmas Vacation. This year I decided to take the whole week between Christmas and New Year's because Christmas is on Monday and I knew I couldn't go to work on Tuesday. It is now Christmas eve and I am 3 days into that break. On Friday Austin, Jen, and I met up with some friends and skied Bogus. It started out kind of cloudy, foggy, and windy. The clouds and fog lifted leaving just the wind but the sun came out and it made for a nice day.








Saturday we had most of Jen's family over for breakfast and then we went past Idaho City for some sledding. Before we left the news said there was a winter snow warning for the Boise mountains right where we were heading. That didn't stop us. We headed up and at 3 just like they said it started snowing. We left about an hour later after everyone was plum tuckered out. As always I got a vehicle stuck but after spending some time digging I got right out. Everyone had a blast! I love spending time outdoors with the fam.









The rest of the day holds more family time and going to the airport t see Megan and Ben fly in from Florida. Can't wait to see them and see what we end up doing the rest of the week. Hope I can keep up.