Boy I have Nice Kids

I sprained my ankle playing ball last night. While I was there on the floor of the gym waiting for the pain to go away I swore I'd never play it again.

While I was at the doctors making sure nothing was broken Sam and Hannah polished my shoes for me. Isn't that nice~

Moroni

Suz

Big Sam is 11!

Summer Is Not That Far Away

Just a reminder. I know it's cold and wet, but summer is close.

Morning

Some of those who made it through the night.

Snow Camping

We took the troop snow camping. Quite an adventure. Patrick, Sam, and I got up late. About 5, and they all got there around 2:30. This is the leaders cave.
I didn't sleep in it. Too crowded, and I'm not a good sleeper. I snore way too loud. I didn't have time to build my own cave, and I'm not sure I could have slept in it anyhow.
Brian did a lot of the digging on the leaders cave. It slept 3 that night. Started with four. One went to the car.
This one of the boys cave. Patrick slept in this cave with 3 other boys. So they put down a tarp inside the cave. Then they each had a therma pad between their sleeping bag and the tarp. The got in their bags, and wrapped themselves in another tarp.









Patrick was saying that their cave was very deep. It went for "miles". I try not to think about it. I slept in my tent with Sam. The cave he was going to sleep in was 75 yards from the camp! I don't know what those guys were thinking, but there was no way I was letting him sleep out there. He and I slept great, well he slept great. I slept for about 15 minutes that night. This is a shot of Patrick coming out of his cave in the morning. He survived a 12 degree night time temp. Reported that he slept fine. Maybe in a year I'll be interested in doing it again.

Valentines Day is.....

The most hated holiday of school boys all over the ......... wherever Valentines Day is celebrated. No boy wants to take any of his precious after school time to fill out cards for girls that he "doesn't want to give them the wrong idea."    And no guy wants to give the guys in his class a Valentines day card either!

Not that I'm for or against this type of thinking, but I remember thinking "why is my mom making me fill out these stupid cards! I certainly don't want to fill one out for Melba Raffoni....ugh. Mom would say, "You don't want to be the only one in the class without cards do you? DO YOU?" And like a good boy I would answer "I don't really care. I don't mom. I could care less." But I did it, and I'm probably a better person for it somehow...........probably not. Melba Raffoni....ugh. 

Don't you point that thing at me!

Too early for Sam to have his picture taken.

The Sisters

Lodi

The beginning of down town Lodi.

The Lodi Arch.

Downtown Lodi

Rosewood, downtown Lodi.

A few pictures Patrick and I shot around Lodi at night. Patrick is in the last phone there at the front door of that resturant hopeing they were open. He had to go to the bathroom......they were closed.

Diet Soda

Interesting article on diet soda's.  In my own personal experience I've noticed that if I have order a diet soda I end up drinking 3 or 4 during a lunch. If I have one Lemon Aid, I usually can't make it through one. Same with regular soda's. 

Gordon's Note

I have a friend that passed this note over on email. I want to share it with you because I think it's a good thing to see. We as Saints are a very blessed, and fortunate group of people. I think a lot of the hard work of being a LD Saint was done by pioneer ancestors, and we really as Saints have it much nicer than they did. So continue to help that rock roll along, and realize we are involved with something great. With that in mind, Gordon thanks for passing that along, and to the rest of us, shine a little brighter.

I have to share an experience I had last night at a dinner in Dallas, Texas. I don't know why, but it was astounding and highlighted why Romney "never caught on" to the open-minded inclusive GOP. I was dining with several endocrinologists--that's a "doctor" for those of you in Rio Linda. Anyway, the discussion turned to presidential politics. I listened intently as there was one obvious Obama supporter. The other two were clearly republican, and a fourth seemed rather out of the loop but seemed to lean to the right. Early on all four of them commented about how great it was that a black man and a woman were leading contenders for the white house, and one of them commented that "we (the country) have come so far." At one point the conversation drifted to the GOP, and quickly to Romney's departure. The republicans seemed sad, wished he had done better and were non-committal on McCain. Then, the physician who was most outspoken about the republican race blurted out, "Well, to be honest, I'm kind of relieved that we won't have a Mormon in the white house." There was a momentary pause, as we were all surprised. Her angst seemed to come from deep inside and we were all taken aback. One of the doctors commented that it's "kind of like the catholic thing..." But the physician quickly jumped right back. "It's nothing at all like the catholic religion, and if you'd like to hear more I'd be happy to fill you in." There was a buzz at the table, but I jumped in. There was no way I could let it go uncharged. I asked her, why being Mormon had anything to do with being president. She rolled her eyes and started to speak when it finally hit her. She looked at me and said, "I hope you're not a Mormon." I smiled at her and said, "I absolutely am, and I can't wait to hear your answer." Now, these people are my customers. I was at dinner with them in part to earn their business. The last thing I wanted to do was stir up controversy and hurt my business. So when, as if on cue, a server appeared with water for the table, and the doctor quickly changed the subject, I chose to let it go. The physician didn't speak to me the rest of the night, in fact our eyes never met. I was disgusted and offended. She, I think, was embarrassed and ashamed. I chose to let her sit in her muck. Nonetheless, the experience illustrated for me clearly that despite her earlier comments, America has NOT come a long way. It was over 150 years ago that the Mormons were driven from state to state and ultimately out of the United States to practice their religion in peace. Now, despite 150 years of peaceable, christian living, the religious persecution has risen again and this time it cost the nation a preeminent leader. I don't know if there is a solution, but four years of Mitt Romney as the leader of the conservative coalition can only help.Gordon

Georgia's Working Hard

She loved doing this, go see. 

A new and improved version. Recognize the stain?

Lodi FC Crushers

Sam's Club.

Red Rover, Red Rover......

.......look Tanner came over!

Probably The Coolest Dude You Know

Suzi shot both of these pictures...........and I think they are both fantastic! I was looking through the pictures I up loaded from my camera and found a bunch Suz shot. She's really got it. Don't you think! Puff helped a little with the looking cool and stuff.

Sam Was Home Sick

He's fine now. However, this was a big deal. I don't recall Sam ever being home sick from school. He was seriously sad about not getting perfect attendance. He didn't feel good, but didn't want to miss school. That line of thinking would be confusing to me as a kid, but as an adult I think I can see where he's coming from. So the Goose didn't go to school. He's a good boy.

Sam's Arrow of Light

Sam got his Arrow of Light. Big award for Sam. Man he's a cool kid. He looks good doing anything. Smart, kind, brave, solid guy.

My Favorite Super Bowl Ad

This is funny to me for a whole bunch of reasons. After interviewing for days on end during 2007 I know I had this moments just like this.

Michael Scott Quote of the day

Ever since I was a kid people have been telling me I can't do things. Like "you can't be on the team", "you can't move on to second grade." Well now there telling me I can't win customers back using old fashion business tactics. Well...... we'll see about that. And FYI, I eventually aced second grade, and I was the biggest kid in the class. 

It Tastes Like Chicken

Georgia, Patrick, and I went out to dinner the other night. She got the Orange Chicken, Patrick got the Shangra La Chicken, and I got the Kung Pow Chicken. Guess we like Chicken.

Georgia pounded hers. She really likes it. The waitress made her way to the table and told us that Georgia's was actually the Orange Shrimp. Georgia doesn't like shrimp.

After she was done, I finally told her, "hey appearently they goofed up your order, you were eatting the Orange shrimp." "I ate what?", "Shrimp, you seemed to enjoy it." "No I didn't." "Yes you did. You put that stuff away. You even were going. MmmmMmm." "No I wasn't." Then she started with the simulated gagging.

She's a funny one.

I Might Agree With Ann

Take a look at this article. I think I agree.
My order so far among top candidates:
Romney
Clinton
McCain
Obama