Meanwhile Back at the 3 Bedroom Patio Home*

Sorry to my fans...fan...anyone there?

2008-05-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yes this is a new post, but...

It is only to say that this blog is dead for now. So maybe Coma is a better term (since I may awaken it at a later time when I make it a priority again).

Thanks for the good times!!!

'Til we meet again

-Tom

Tribute to a special and kind man

2008-01-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Most of you know that recently Gordon B. Hinckley President and Prophet of the LDS Church recently passed away. Also if any of you know me very well you know I like Glenn Beck, enjoy his humor and respect most of his opinions. In my opinion Glenn Beck is good at expressing his feelings on things and I'm not very good with expressing my emotions or putting them into words, but I can honestly say these are almost the exact feelings I had when I heard the news of President Hinckley's death.

I too had the oppurtunity to meet President Hinckley at one point when his wife's sister offered to introduce us (my companion and I) to him I truly felt the same way as Glenn expresses in the video, and didn't take the oppurtunity but really wish I had. But even though I never met him in person President Hinckley was a true inspiration and even if you aren't LDS if you met him or saw him speak you knew he was a special and very kind man. I'm very glad to have had him be an influence in my life.

Tagged again!

2008-01-27T20:54:00.000-08:00

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago I was a Senior in High School I graduated in 1998...HOLY CRAP!

5 Things on my To-Do List today:

1. Finish fixing car so I can sell (see #2).

2. Find 2nd job (one of my goals is to pay down as much debt as possible this year).

3. Begin exercising at least 3 times a week.

4. Blog... CHECK.

5. Start my part time business.

Snacks I enjoy:

1. Granola Bars

2. Ritz crackers w/cheese

3. Cheese Quesadillas w/ sour cream

4. Popcorn

5. Chips and Salsa

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Invest money- even at a measly interest rate of 1% you would get a return of 10 million dollars a year in just interest!

2. Have fun giving it to people who really needed it (I think it would be fun to go to stores and tell the manager that everything in his store that is purchased that day would be no cost to those buying, and it be a surprise when people come to check-out).

3. (I stole this one from my wife Emily) Donate tons of money to all of the businesses/hospitals/schools that have helped Jordyn.

4. Make sure my Dad and Mom had everything they've ever wanted (they've given me so much it would be hard to repay them)

5. Buy a couple ranches one for summer one for winter (I've decided I don't really like the cold, although I don't like the extreme heat either).

3 of my bad habits:

1. Too much time online.

2. Procrastination in general... I hate that I do this and work hard to stop it, maybe I'll stop tomorrow?

3. Not exercising like I should.

5 places I have lived:

1. Somewhere in NM (I was too young to remember)

2. Buffalo, WY

3. Salt Lake City, UT

4. Billings, MT

5. Spokane, WA

5 jobs I have had:

1. Rodeo hand (traveled the west and worked Rodeo's)

2. Old Navy associate ( don't laugh...this was a short gig)

3. Blue vest wearing Wal-mart associate...hated it!

4. Surgical Aide-Good times!

5. Meter Reader (electrical meters not parking meters...easiest job ever that paid so well)

5 things people don't know about me: + a bonus!

1. I at one point had a goal to become a podiatrist...weird to think about now.

2. I don't like riding horses (done it a lot while growing up but never for fun... just work).

3. If I'm driving any long distance at all I drive with no shoes on... I've heard this is illegal?

4. I skipped school on Thursdays my junior and senior year to either go fishing or skiing.

5. I want to own a ranch...the work I hated growing up is the work I want my kids to do, one so I don't have to and two it is the best life one could ask for... I love living in the country.

6. Just remembered one that I had to add: My parents almost named me Bandy (after a famous Rodeo Clown or song about one) thank goodness they came to their senses and didn't do it! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Just looked it up; this is the first time I've heard this...Wow how inspirational I think I'll name my next son... Bandy!!!

X-country sickness?

2008-01-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday I went cross country skiing with the scouts in the ward. We get to go camping somewhere new every month and I love it...even if it does involve super hyper, often annoying 12 -14 yr old boys. I had been cross country skiing once before back in high school physics class (we were studying the characteristics of mountain snow) and remember it being fun. What I didn't remember was how hard it was. Not hard to do, skill wise, but physically exhausting... but I loved it and I wish I could do that every other day instead of running! We went up to past Idaho City and there was a ton of snow, the trail we were on was a 6 mile loop. I only got to do about a mile and a half of it (I was pretty bummed) since one of the boys needed to go back because he felt sick and was throwing up. OK what is it with scouts and throwing up? My first camp out in the ward, one of the boys drank what seemed like gallons of Mountain Dew Code Red right before we drove home on a curvy mountain road, and right after we got our new van...you can probably figure out what happened from there I won't go into details... but I made him clean it up no matter if he was sick or not since he didn't get the window down in time. It seems every camp out someone has to throw-up at least once or else it isn't considered a scout camp out. Oh well, at least I can laugh about it now. Anyways so yeah after a mile and a half of X-country skiing I was sweating buckets, wheezing for air, and knowing I would be extremely sore the next few days (I was really trying to push myself hard, plus I'm a little out of shape right now) but it was a lot of fun. I was feeling pretty good about myself until down at the bottom of the hill (a very steep hill that the rest of us only were able to ski down and never thought of going up) here came Super Dad pulling behind him first, a huge supply sled stacked full of equipment, and attached behind that, a sled with his two old enough to be skiing by themselves daughters. To every one's amazement he skied up the steep hill and did it faster than I skied it going down, needless to say we all just stood there with our jaws dropped looking like losers. We all agreed that it was a good thing our wives weren't there to see that and make us feel even less inadequate. Over all the trip was fun and I can't wait to do it again.

I didn't take this picture (because I always forget to take pictures) but this is the area we were skiing it was awesome!

Here is a picture I did take once I remembered that I had my camera on the way back home just to show how much snow there was.

Presidential Election Calculator

2008-01-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Some of you might find this boring, but I enjoy politics and government to an extent, and think it is a great right and duty of Americans to study the issues and vote accordingly.

I found a, what I thought, was a reasonably fair and accurate "calculator" to aid in learning the issues, and the candidate's stands on those issues. I liked it because it didn't take very long, and on issues I wasn't sure on which way to vote, you could click on the issue and it would tell you what it meant if you supported it vs. opposed it. It also opened my eyes to some candidates that were more closely matched with my stands on the issues than I knew (candidates I wouldn't have necessarily thought of voting for before, but now am studying more carefully). It didn't always (took it a few times) bring the candidate that I thought I was most closely matched with to the top. I'm not afraid to share the selectiong that the calculator matched with me, although this is not necessarily who I would vote for since there are a few issues I'm still studying and deciding on, and there are a lot more issues then the ones in the quiz. Mike Huckabee came up as the top candidate for me a couple times as well as Duncan Hunter, feel free to share your results (if you're not too scared...haha) it doesn't mean you will be voting for that person but I think it is interesting.

Go here to take the quiz: http://www.speakout.com/votematch/

P.S. I won't allow any "low blows" in the comments section about people's "selection" since I respect that everyone has different views, and that is what makes America great!

A Tribute to our little Carter

2007-12-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

For those of you who might not know, we had our third child yesterday! His name is Carter James. We are excited to have him here and look forward to his life. Here is a short tribute to him I worked on while sitting in the hospital, we found the perfect song ("Green" by Sister Hazel) to welcome him here to the World.

TAG I'm it!

2007-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

I have been "tagged" by my wife Emily. What does this mean? It means I am supposed to make a post revealing 7 interesting things about myself. I don't know how interesting these will be although some are embarrassing.

1. I was held back in Kindergarten. It wasn't because I couldn't color in the lines, or cut and paste as good as the other kids, but because according to my teacher I wasn't "mature" enough to go to 1 st grade (Hello!! I was 5 yrs old, am I supposed to be mature?) WHATEVER, I'm over it.

2. I intend on owning my own business at some point. I've delved into this a little bit being self employed during college. I had a window washing "business", but it was not really what I would consider a "real" business. I won't bore you with the discussion of what I consider a business and what I do not here.

3. I have had facial reconstructive surgery. When in high school I broke my face in a tragic P.E. dodge ball game. I now have metal plates scattered through out the left side of my face. Luckily, they did the reconstruction through the inside of my mouth so there are no visible scars.

4. I have two half sisters. My Dad has two daughters from a previous marriage. A little know fact, although they are almost more like aunts (yep I'm calling you old if your reading this Jody and Crystal) but family is family and they are part of mine.

5. I was kicked by a horse in the chest when I was 2 years old. That explains a lot huh? Nothing was broken but I'm sure it scared my parents pretty bad. I still have a horse shoe imprint on the middle of my chest...not really I just had to throw that in for the shock factor.

6. From kindergarten through 4th grade I attended a county school. Yep, a one classroom, one teacher (the one that held me back!) little house on the prairie type school. The teacher even had a old bell she rang by hand when recess was over. It was awesome!

7. My favorite singing group throughout my youth was The Judds. Although embarrassing it is true, they were the first concert I went to I was so excited to see them in concert! Here is a special tribute to my childhood music heroes, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I reckon' it's time to post again.

2007-10-31T16:05:00.000-07:00

JUST A SHORT QUICK HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

There's a new Sheriff in town. Emily didn't like the look-I'm still trying to figure out why.

Definately the cutest Ragedy Ann I've ever seen.

Later Gator! Happy Halloween!!!

Dance Lessons?

2007-09-28T11:39:00.001-07:00

It may be a surprise to all of you, but since we have moved to Boise and don't have any family and friends to entertain us, we have been a little bored. Em and I were looking to add some pizazz to our families life...so we decided out of all things to learn to dance. We are all learning quickly and wanted to share our best moves with you all. Hope you enjoy. (Note:For optimium enjoyment make sure your speakers are on,also you'll need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player-download free at www.adobe.com)

See Dance Lessons videos below there are three.
This is a repost the video players are kinda tempermental so you might have to hit play mutiple times (until pause symbol appears) then you should hear some audio, and then you'll have to wait and the video should appear. I hope everyone can view these because they are priceless!

Dance Lessons?

2007-09-28T11:36:00.001-07:00

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!Emily and I decided that disco would be fun to learn. Enjoy.

Dance Lessons

2007-09-28T11:34:00.001-07:00

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!We wanted to make this a family thing so Evan and Jordyn joined in the lessons and learned this latin number.

Dance Lessons?

2007-09-28T11:33:00.001-07:00

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!I don't know where I get my moves, but after searching through some old videos we found out where Emily and the kids got theirs...I didn't know dance skill was hereditary until I saw this.

The Berryhill / Powell Connection

2007-09-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been a blast! After much talk something happened that I never thought would happen. All the male cousins from my Mom's side of the family (Berryhill is her maiden name) got together for a fun weekend on the lake. This was something that has been talked about but you figure it will never really work out where everyone can come due to jobs, families, lack of money etc. It did happen and it was such a good time. We all went to Lake Powell down on the Utah/Arizona border...WHAT AN AWESOME LAKE! The best part of it and the part that absolutely drove the wives and aunts (my Mom has 4 sisters) crazy was it wasn't planned out, we knew where we were going but that's it, we didn't know where we would sleep, eat, or do everyday but just spontaneously winged it every day, it was great. One of my cousins (Scott) brought his boat and we went boating, swimming, cliff jumping, tubing, wake boarding, skiing, and played tons of board games. The first night we all arrived about 1 or 2 in the morning which would usually mean it's time for bed but we didn't go to bed, we instead went and explored the marina, docks, and house boats. When we finally did decide to go to bed we went to the parking lot blew up air mattresses and slept in the boat and truck beds. We slept for like 3 hours woke up and went out on the lake all day. Lake Powell is a canyon lake with miles and miles of channels, bays, coves and canyons to explore, you can find your own "private" lake area any where you go. The second day it ended up raining and being windy but that didn't get us down we ended up going and getting a single person hotel room in Page, AZ all snuck in our air mattresses and covered the floor with them to sleep on, and played games(Liar's dice, Settlers of Catan, Risk, Axis and Allies) all day long...So Fun! We would go somewhere nice to eat every night and just eat snacks during the day. The next day we slept in and then saw it was a nice day and even though we needed to leave for home in 3 hours, we decided to go back out on the boat and get the most out of our time. Then back home we went, which was an adventure in it's self, 4 of us (Scott, Chae, Brandon, and myself) came from Salt Lake (the others from Arizona and New Mexico). Well since Scott's Suburban had broken down a few days before we were to go, he had to borrow a truck to pull the boat, the only problem...it was a single cab pickup. Leaving SLC we all 4 squeezed very tightly into the cab, until we got out of the city. Then we blew up an air mattress put it in the back of the truck put one person back there covered with a sleeping bag and travelled the rest of the way (5 hours) we would take turns riding in the back and sleeping...again it was great! As you can tell we had a lot of fun. Can't wait to do it again in 2 yrs (don't tell the wives but we made a deal we would be doing this every other year)...I'm counting down the days! The view we woke up to the first morning.

RP and Caleb "Let the tube wars begin!" We had a tube war single elimination tournament Chae ended up winning.

Brandon and Wyatt in tube wars

Doing a little exploring

Chae has conquered that cliff!

"Check that out!" Cruising the lake looking at the amazing scenery. (see more below)

This is Ace jumping off the 40-50 ft cliff that we all jumped off of. You don't realize how high it is until you jump... as you'll see/hear in the video.

The Pact has been voided!

2007-08-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Well, if you've have known Em and I for very long you know about our pact we made for our family when we got married...WE WILL NEVER OWN AND DRIVE A MINIVAN! Well the pact is now obsolete. Finance and space issues have beat out style, power, trend, and coolness. We got a minivan. This goes against everything we believe, but now that we have it, we kinda like it. Call them what you want ("Mom Mobile", "Mormon Motorhome", "Turd Taxi", "Kiddie Cart", or "Wiggle Wagon") minivans are convenient, affordable, and efficient. We do have to love how easy it is to get the kids in and out of, and we don't have to take Jordyn's wheelchair apart anymore (it fits in the back fully assembled YES!!!). Evan is mesmerized by the power sliding door that opens "magically" anytime we reach our destination. We were somewhat forced into getting a new vehicle this weekend, it has been in the plans due to the growing family (our car would not fit three car seats) but due to the car falling apart and breaking down this week it expedited the process. Of course, we first looked at SUV's, but for the money you can't get anything less than 10 yrs old and with less than 100's of thousands of miles for a decent price (by decent I mean something that fits in our budget). So the next time you see us pull up in the van, if you would, make us feel a little better by referring to it as our "Family Ferrari" instead of the "Loser Cruiser" that would be nice...Thanks!

2002 Dodge Grand Caravan other wise known as...The Bybee Bullet!

Tiger Striped Pigs?

2007-08-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's not very often that email "forwards" are worth more than a quick glance, and then into the trash file, but I found this one entertaining, inspiring and interesting. The pictures are great!

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?

Don't know if this is all true but it's entertaining all the same.

What to do in Twin Falls, ID

2007-07-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we took a trip to the world famous Twin Falls Idaho (OK it isn't that famous). The Wilkins, our good friends from my mission, met us half way between Salt Lake and Boise and that just happens to be Twin Falls (not exactly halfway but the only civilization in between). We had a hard time coming up with things to do there but we had a good time just visiting and being our crazy selves. The whole Wilkin family came up, all 9 of them, it was a blast. Who knew it was so hot in Twin? We all stayed in two hotel rooms, had a hot picnic, and viewed the sites. The sites consisted of the Shoshone Falls, some public swimming hole made on the banks of the river, and a big bridge. The swimming hole ended up being fairly entertaining not because of the good swimming but because of the Twin Falls locals. This place looked more like a Kentucky backwoods family reunion-in other words for lack of a better phrase total white trash chaos (I don't want that to sound mean because I'm a little white trash myself at times and proud of it). Anyways, if you didn't have at least 6 tattoos on your chest (male or female) and at least one dangling earring somewhere on your bare overweight body you did not fit in there. It was a people watchers heaven if you could stand to watch. Man I sound mean but it was pure entertainment. The next day we spent a lot of time at the I.B. Perrine Memorial Bridge (longest span bridge in the west at 1500 feet long-that was for you Susan.) and we found some entertainment here also. It is 486 feet above the Snake River and I guess a great bridge to jump off of with a parachute (base jumping). It was pretty cool to walk with the random people out on the bridge and stand right next to them as they jumped. Their adrenalin was shared with the spectators as it seemed at least on one jumper (a girl going for the first time) that her chute was not going to open, that made all of our hearts skip a few beats. Overall Twin Falls turned out to be fairly entertaining, but if any of you know the Wilkins these events above don't hold a candle to how entertaining the Wilkin family is...they're are all extremely fun to be with and make everything you do exciting! Thanks Wilkins for the good time we had a blast!!!

Evan didn't like the cold water but sure liked the mud!

The bridge

You could feel the bridge flex when a semi drove over

The girls enjoying a blistering hot day under the bridge

Jordyn's new friend Aubrey

One of those crazy adrenalin junkies

Ketchup taco's and sweet cottage cheese!??

2007-07-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tonight as we were making our taco's there was only enough sour cream for one taco, so I let Emily have it. I rummaged through the fridge looking for some other condiment I could liven up my taco with... hmmm pickles... no, cottage cheese...possibly, mustard...no, I usually do put ketchup on my taco's and so do a lot of my family, but there was no ketchup. Well I came across the cream cheese spread and thought, "what the heck it's kinda like sour cream it couldn't be too bad", and well it was quite good if I do say so myself. I got to thinking while eating it the strange things that I put on food that doesn't seem "normal." One of those like I said is ketchup on my taco's that is a norm on my Mom's side of the family and I grew up thinking it was normal but then once I got out of the house everyone thought it was wierd. Other things that seem different are sour cream on my scrambled eggs and ham, milk poured over cake- as long as it's chocolate cake with chocolate frosting I heat it up in the microwave till it's piping hot and then pour cold milk over and eat it like cereal...mmmmm good! One other thing I enjoy is bannana's on my peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich that is a new one for me that I tried and really liked it. I come from a family that puts wierd things on other things my mom with the ketchup but that doesn't compare to my dad who puts sugar on his cottage cheese, salt on his catalope and eats saltine crackers crushed up with milk over them...all things I never adopted. So what strange things do you do to your food I'm curious and need some more ideas to try.

First Official Business Trip

2007-07-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well all you may be tired of me only posting about my job all the time, but this is what takes up most of my time and I haven't come up with anything else to blog about, so more about the job.
My first travels for my job send me to Tamarack, CA where I will be giving (mostly learning how to give) technical assistance on how to stack one of our log houses.

I don't know California very well and didn't have any idea where Tamarack was and I basically had only had one place to compare it to that I've been to; Tuolomne, CA. Well it just happens that it is only about 60 miles away (I'll be darn!).

I'm excited to learn the process although it's going to be hard work in hot weather but it should be fun. Something funny happened when my boss told me I was going he said "I've booked your plane tickets" and told me what day I would be leaving and what day I would return (for example "you'll be leaving Wednesday and returning on Friday") I thought OK I'll be gone for 3 days, but then when I looked at my flight schedule it was 9 days. So I went home and told Emily that I was going to be gone to California for 9 days, she was freaking out not knowing what she was going to do for 9 days in a town where she doesn't know anyone. The next day I was telling my boss about how I thought it was 3 days but was actually 9 and he was all confused saying "WHAT?! It is only 3 days!" he had actually scheduled my flight to return 9 days later instead of 3, but luckily it was a refundable ticket and he fixed it. He said "Thanks for catching that; I don't know what you guys would have done down there for an extra 6 days." Anyways I'm excited and enjoying the job more each day as I meet more and more clients and help them achieve their dream of a log home.

The new job, new home, and new name

2007-06-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

First of all our status has changed, as far as where we live, and with that the name of my blog must change too, as has been brought to my attention by a few people. I did change the name but I will leave the web address the same, to save you all some work.

Well, as you all know I have started my new job. I'm enjoying it so far and think it will be a continuing good challenge (which is good). I really think I'll enjoy it, especially meeting with the clients and keeping them updated on their project, which is our (the project managers) main job. It consists of a lot of e-mailing, and calling clients, builders, engineers etc. Again, the part I've enjoyed most is , meeting the clients, another part of our job is to do a presentation in the design meeting-a meeting where the client comes to the office, when they've decided to go with our company, and talks with the arichitect, designer, salesman and the project manager in a confrence room- my presentation consists of explaining our "client connect" feature on our website (a tool the client can use to see the status and stage of his/her project) and then to explain the expected schedule and how things will be done. My region that I thought I was going to cover (see last post) is being covered by someone else, so now I'm in charge of all clients in California, and then every thing east of, pretty much, the mountain time zone line,(so Jenny and Chris when you want to build a cabin talk to me, since Joel and Maria already have one, you guys are my only potentials -although you'd be one of the few clients from Kansas since it's not known for it's MOUNTAIN homes-, oh I guess you from Cali. also would be under my jurisdiction). The region is interesting to me since I haven't been out east very much, and from the clients I've met so far, they're a different breed of people then those here in the West (at least those from the far East). I'm enjoying the people I work with and the company, it's fairly laid back (jeans and a polo job), there seems to be a lot happening right now and a lot of potential for the employees. Otherwise we are really enjoying our new house and what little we've seen of the Boise area.

What the future holds...

2007-05-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well it's official, we are moving to Boise, well actually Meridian, a suburb of Boise. We accepted a job with Precision Craft (a log and timber home builder-a rendering of one of their homes above) as a project manager. We will be headed that way soon after I graduate (June 16). From what I know I will be in charge of 40-50 clients that are in the process of building a home within the Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington region. The company manufactures the log home kits then sends them to anywhere the client desires to build. I will be finding builders, coordinating deliveries, managing schedules, providing customer service, coordinating payment and occasionally traveling to the job sites to provide technical assistance (basically a personal liaison between the client and the company). I went down to Meridian a couple weeks ago and really liked the company, where it is headed, and how they ran things, I also liked the atmosphere and people I would be working with (most of them are young graduates like myself) so I think it'll be a good time.

Jordyn is excited because of the Adventure Island Playground, a playground in Meridian specifically designed for those with special needs (wheelchair accessible swings and all). Evan will be excited to explore a new city and apartment. Emily and I are excited to have a salary paying job (it'll make it much easier to make a monthly budget) and explore a new area. We're also sad to leave friends and family (the Kovichs) behind. Spokane was good to us and we're hoping Boise will be too.

Man...I'm a LOSER!

2007-04-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

As of 4/12 it has been one year since Emily and I started our healthier lifestyles. We have both lost a lot of weight and feel a lot better too. People always ask me "What are you guys doing to lose so much weight?" the trick for me is my wife; she has been cooking healthy food for the past year. She exercises a lot but I don't always, but I've still lost weight consistantly just from eating better. We also live by the 80/20 rule, that is eating healthy 80% of the time and still eating "bad treats" and fatty food etc. 20% of the time, I think this is the only way to go, so you can stick with eating healthy without going crazy. We do this easily by just setting aside one sometimes two days to eat "bad"(not usually the whole day but 1 or 2 meals) and then eat good the rest of the week. Emily just plans our menus out of Light and Tasty magazines each week and they are actually really good, we don't even really watch portions very good, but anyways here's my numbers I guess they speak for themselves and the pics too. (The only place I haven't lost any inches is my ankles...I'm still working on that!) Numbers are from mybodycomp.com we been taking measurements throughout the year.

04/24/07--- 04/12/06--- Total
Weight
187.00 ............ 226.90.......... -39.90
Height
73.00 ................73.00 .............. 0.00
Neck
15.00 ............... 17.25 .............. -2.25
Shoulders
46.50 ................51.25............... -4.75
Chest
37.75 .................43.00 ..............-5.25
Waist
33.00 .................39.25 ..............-6.25
Abdomen
36.00 .................42.50 ..............-6.50
Hips
36.50 ..................41.50 ..............-5.00
Thigh
24.25 ...................27.50 ..............-3.25
Knee
15.25 ....................17.00 ..............-1.75
Calf
15.50 ....................16.50 ..............-1.00
Ankle
9.50 ........................9.50.................0.00
Arm
13.25 ......................15.00 ..............-1.75
Forearm
11.25 .......................12.00 ...............-.75
Wrist
6.85 ...........................7.50 ...............-.65

BEFORE (MARCH 2006)
Weight:227 lbs

AFTER (APRIL 2007)
Weight:187 lbs

Make-up work and backseat blogging

2007-04-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

So as you all know it's been a while since I've published my unparalleled wisdom and knowledge here for the world to see. As you can see it's also been a while since I've done a reality check on my humble attitude. Anyways, I do need to start blogging again, and I feel I like have tons of work to make up, like in school when you go on vacation and then come back and the teacher's have all this work for you that you missed. That was always a pain and at times made the vacation seem not worth while. I don't have a good excuse for waiting this long to blog, in fact, sticking with the school analogy, my excuse note from my mom might read something like this...

Dear teachers,
I would ask that you please excuse Tom for the last month... or longer, from blogging because...,well just because.

Thank-you,
Mom Bybee

But hey now I'm back and will make up the work I've missed, it will take about a post every day for the rest of the month to catch up on my 3 posts per month goal, but I'm up to the challenge I'm counting this as day one.

Also a topic that may have already been discussed at some point... backseat blogging. When I started to title this blog Emily started asking questions, and I told her I wasn't going to write my blog with her in the room. She asked "Why?" and I told her "Because you'll stand over my shoulder read it and correct my comma errors, spelling, or ask the whole time "Whatcha writing about?" or "You're not writing about me are you?" she laughed and said "You don't want me to be a backseat blogger?" I said "No it's like when you're playing solitare and have someone watching you and the whole time they're like you can put that black eight on the red nine overthere." I'm sure you've all had a similar experience. I made a rule that she couldn't read my blogs until they're finished, we'll see how long that lasts and until she's back over my shoulder you'll have to forgive my comma, spelling and gramatical errors.

3rd post for the month

2007-02-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

To stick with my goal I made earlier in the year (at least 3 new posts per month) I need to post two posts today. I know I'm a procrastinator, but I'm learning...it's only February so by the end of the year hopefully I'll have this down. Anyways, I don't have to much to post about except I guess the few things I've been up to in the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to attend a Gonzaga Basketball game which might not seem like too big of a deal except that there is a 5 year waiting list for tickets and all the games are sold out. So how did I score tickets you ask well my friend Dan and I put up Christmas lights and washed windows for the head coach and the rest is history. It was a great time and they even won (although at this time they had never lost at their home court- a four year streak, that was

sadly broken the next week).

I'm taking a swimming class at school (not to learn how to swim, but how to swim better and for conditioning purposes) hoping that it will help with my triathlon training. I'm slowly getting better and more conditioned but am still afraid of drowning after a half-mile swim with hundreds of crazy people thrashing around me at the triathlon. I've also been waking up early every other morning to go play basketball with a bunch of guys from our stake. I'm really not good at basketball and have always wanted to do better so this is helping me out and is great exercise.

As most of you know I turned 28 on the 24th. I had an enjoyable birthday weekend. Friday night I went to a cabin on Couer d' Alene lake for a father/son campIN. We didn't spend the night, but just had a good get together with the youth and their fathers and had a fireside and dinner and such... it was quite enjoyable. Saturday I watched the kids in the morn. so Em could go running and to the women's conference. In the afternoon she took me shopping, and that night we ordered pizza and watched a movie (The Prestige-good movie). Then Sunday we got together with the Kovich family and had dessert (blondie's-like the ones from Applebees with the sizzling hot maple sauce over the top. Emily found a recipe online and mmmmmm man they were good!) and played games. I received a pair of new running shoes, some shirts, a magazine subscription, money, and lots of cards as gifts, all of which I appreciated very much, thank you all!!

The Blondie

I also recently received my first official Chiropractic adjustment the other day. I had hurt my lower back (playing basketball is my guess, although I'm not sure) and it was throbbing pretty bad. So I went to the chiropractor and he adjusted me, which by the way feels great if you've never done it, the chiropractor said I literally grew close to an inch from the beginning of the appointment to the end, and I could tell he wasn't lying. The one thing that did surprise me though is the first thing he did was walk up to me and grab my head and twist it. I was positive my neck snapped by the sound it made, I must have had a surprised look on my face because he said "Have you not had an adjustment before?" I laughed and said "Not like that!" he apologized and said he usually explains it to first time customers, but he thought I'd had one already.

So that is how my life has been going I've also began looking for employment for when I graduate so if you have connections...let me know. Hope the next few weeks are as good as the past few (besides the back issue)

Al Gore's Dream home

2007-02-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

It was recently reported that Al Gore's energy usage at his residence was 20 times that of the average home owners so being the nice guy I am I've been scouting out houses for him to help him maybe cut down on energy uses since he's such a energy conscience guy. Here's one I found for ya Al.

This passive-solar house is positioned to absorb winter sunlight, warming the interior walkways and walls of the residence. Geothermal Heat pumps circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground. A 40,000 US gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof urns; wastewater from sinks, toilets, and showers cascades into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is then used to irrigate the landscaping around the four-bedroom home. “By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small,” says David Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. Furthermore for thermal mass the walls are clad in "discards of a local stone called Leuders limestone, which is quarried in the area. “They cut the top and bottom of it off because nobody really wants it,” Heymann says. “So we bought all this throwaway stone. The house is even a nice "green" color for those "green" individuals.

Now Al, I don't know what the price will be (but I'm sure that's no worry since you just made a lot of money from your recent documentary) but I do know who the owner is that you can contact... his name is George W. Bush. Yep you read it right this is his house on his Prarie Chapel ranch in Crawford, Texas, maybe you guys can work out a deal???

Success after EWU

2007-02-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

The other day I saw an intersting article posted on the website of Eastern Washington University's (the school I attend if you didn't know) website. It was a list of people who graduated from EWU that have gone on to be "something". I was pretty impressed with the list but I am sure that those of you reading that have graduated college have even more impressive lists to pull from since the schools are larger and probably a little more elite (ie. KU,BYU,MSU and even Purdue) but anyways here's the list from "my" university in little Cheney, WA it goes to show ya that it doesn't really matter where you go, there are brilliant people all over. (my comments are in red)

Jess Walter (’87 BA journalism) achieved new literary heights in 2006 when his newest book, The Zero, was named a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award. (Haven't read it but I guess this is a novel about the day after 9/11 or something)

Kris Monaghan (’03 BA recreation management) a 15-year LPGA Tour player, went to Beijing, China, in 2006 to become the first LPGA golf professional at Central Golf Beijing.

Luke Clausen (’01 BA business) can lay permanent claim to being the greatest bass fisherman in EWU history. He caught an all-time record three-day bag limit of 56 pounds, two ounces, to capture the Super Bowl of professional fishing - the 2006 CITGO Bassmaster Classic and the $501,000 that went with it.

Angela Pixton (’83 BS nursing) is the first female commissioner of The Washington State Potato Commission. (I wonder what that job consists of?)

Mohammed Al Falasi (’98 BA business) heads up operations in Pakistan for Emaar Properties, the world's largest property development company.

Linda Boggs (’84 BA reading, ’88 MA school administration) was named a National Distinguished Elementary School Principal of the Year in 2003 for her work at Blue Ridge Elementary in Walla Walla.

Colin Cowherd (‘85 BA radio-television) can be heard every weekday on ESPN radio interviewing the biggest newsmakers in sports as host of “The Herd.” (I was surprised by this one because this is someone I listen too when at work quite often, and I had no idea.)

Todd McFarlane (’84 BA general studies) is creator of the Spawn comic book series and current co-owner of the NHL's Edmonton Oilers.

Thomas Hampson (’92 BA government) is a Grammy-nominated opera singer.

Launi Meili (’90 BA liberal studies) took home the gold medal in women’s three-position small-bore rifle shooting at the 1992 Olympic Games.

Michael Roos (’05 BA business) is a starting offensive tackle for the NFL's Tennessee Titans. (Michael is one of Jenny Schlenker's-Emily's best friend from High School- husband's best friends and was in their wedding so this is someone I've actually met, it's pretty cool to watch someone in the NFL you have a connection with.)

Tom Thompson (’72 BA general business) was named the Nation’s Restaurant News Chain Leader Operator of the year in 1998 for his work as chief operating officer of CKE Restaurants Inc., parent company of the Carl’s Jr. restaurant chain.

Larry Rencken (’84 BA marketing) is CIO for Welch's. The Concord, Mass., company is the world's leading producer of juices, jams and jellies.

Mary McCormick Busse (’74 BA radio-television) is CEO of MBI Media in Los Angeles. She’s listed in the Who’s Who in Entertainment, 1st Edition, and Who’s Who of American Women, 15th Edition.

Scott Schaefer (’85 BA radio-television) was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award as part of the directorial team for Showtime’s Penn & Teller special. Schaefer previously won three National Emmy Awards for writing for Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Terry Langston (’78 BA professional accounting) is a co-creator of the blockbuster board game Pictionary. (Interesting, I thought this game had been around forever)

They forgot an important one:

Thomas Bybee (hasn't graduated yet) ran in and WON- in his age division- the 2006 Chief Joseph Run in Laurel, MT.

What happened way back then?

2007-01-31T21:40:00.000-08:00

Although it's not quite my birthday month yet (although I'm sure most of you are reading this in Feb.) I had to get my third post in for the month to keep with my resolutions (see last post). So I thought I'd try to learn something about the year I was born. Then thought it be interesting for everyone to learn something about the year they were born if they didn't already know so here's a little help. Here's mine for 1979. Make sure to post your too. Click the link at the bottom to find out what happened your birth year.

In 1979 (the year you were born)

Jimmy Carter is president of the US

A major accident occurs at a nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island near Middletown, PA

An American Airlines DC-10 loses its engine and crashes seconds after takeoff, killing 275 people

Hurricane David kills over 1200 in the US and the Dominican Republic

Some 90 people, including 63 Americans, are taken hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran

The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan

ESPN starts broadcasting

Aaliyah, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Norah Jones, Heath Ledger, and Kate Hudson are born

Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series

Pittsburgh Steelers win Superbowl XIII

Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup

Kramer vs. Kramer is the top grossing film

Sophie's Choice by William Styron is published

"My Sharona" by The Knack spends the most time at the top of the US charts

The Facts of Life premiers

http://www.blogthings.com/whathappenedtheyearyouwerebornquiz/

My Favorite Outakes!

2007-01-18T23:53:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had a picture of yourself that you despise? The ones you see when you get your pictures and tear them up or delete them before anyone has even the slightest chance of seeing? Well these might be some of those pictures. I hope that the retaliation from this post isn't too harmful (in other words hope nobody "kills" me for posting any of these) but I couldn't resist these are some of my favorite out takes. Oh and one last note,even though you may beg to differ, no alcohol was consumed prior or after any of these photos were taken. So enjoy. I've titled each of the pictures with the first witty or not so witty thing that came to mind (if you have better suggestions for titles be sure to share)

"The Swamp Thing"

I really don't know what to call this one (This is Evan when only a few weeks old if you can't tell)

"Could someone take me drunk becuz I'm home" (New Years Eve at the Andersen household...just to reiterate no alcohol was involved...seriously!)

"Underwater Craziness"

More GREAT Outakes!!!

2007-01-18T23:16:00.000-08:00

"The Sceaming Duo"-Elizabeth and Jordyn whoopin it up.

"The inebriated Cruella"

"Cutestcouple??@pychward.com"

"There goes lunch...a classic kodak moment" (Emily just happened to snap this picture at the instant Elizabeth spit up)

Resolutions...Resol-smlutions

2007-01-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

I hate to write about them since that is all that has been talked about in the media the past couple weeks but it is a new year, and that of course means new resolutions. I would report on how I did on my last years (2006) resolutions but I don't remember any of them, that is part of the reason I thought I'd share some of my resolutions for 2007 here. I always hear you need to write down your goals for them to be effective, so what better place than here because you "readers" will hopefully remind me and help me achieve them. I'm sure you all are thinking of the same thing as far as a goal I can work on for 2007 so we'll just get that one out of the way first...*

1. I will update my blog at least 3 times per month (I know, I know you are all thinking goals are supposed to be realistic, but I believe in myself and am determined)

2. I will floss my teeth at least 3 times per week (I know it's supposed to be daily, and to be honest I don't know if I know anyone who does that so-Him without sin cast the first stone- . This is yet another hard one... I brush the recommended amount per day and chew gum (sugar free) constantly, but I was never trained in this department, being from cowboy country a toothpick after dinner (which I still enjoy) is as close as it got. I remember going to the dentist a few years ago and him asking how often I floss my response "I never have." which really surprised him but he said I was lucky and had very nice teeth and gums but of course would recommend it in the future...well this year I'll get around to it.

3. Now an easier one - I will eat healthy and exercise more often (this is usually not the easy one but Emily and I have been doing this for the past 8 months so it should be easy to continue...hopefully) although I've slacked off on my exercise lately so I'll have to pick that back up.

4. Graduate (June 16 if you wanted to know) and get a job (at the informal request of my wife and parents this HAS to be included in the list)

5. WIN AMERICAN IDOL -Just kidding but this one could be just as hard... I will finish (not last) a sprint triathlon. That is a half mile swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run- and if I get lucky I'll be the only contestant and win the whole thing- it's happened before. Let me know if any of you want to join me in the suffering and I'll get you the training schedule.

*not a comprehensive list and not in any particular order

Wish me luck and I'll do the same for you for 2007!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2006-12-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone even visits my blog anymore,which I know is my fault, since I haven't put anything new up forever(if you're interested in exactly how many days it has been ask Jenny, she supposedly keeps track of these things. *see comments on "A Short Halloween story"). So to catch up I finished my fall quarter of school and now have a month off...YES! I have been very busy working the past couple weeks since school got out, installing Christmas lights. I think we (my friend Dan and I) have averaged 12 hour days 6 days a week for the past two weeks. It was a lot of work, but I must say I really enjoy putting up lights. It's always fun to see how they turn out, and even more fun to see the kid's reactions to the lights. I can say it helps me get into the Christmas spirit, even though it's disturbing what people will pay just to have lights on their house for a month (the house below was a $1400 job and we only did the front of the house)...crazy huh? Anyways, it's a good time and works out perfect for a little extra funds during the holiday season. My friend Dan and I who wash windows, just decided to try this whole Christmas light thing last year and it's been a great success. Last year was stressfull because we didn't really know what we were doing at first. This year has been a little stressful, because we had too many jobs to do and Dan and his wife had their baby right in the middle of that too, but overall it was worth the stress. Well that's what I've been up to...hopefully helping people enjoy the Christmas season a little more, and I hope you all have a great Christmas season as well! One of the larger light jobs we enjoyed decorating. It is on top of a big hill that overlooks the city so it can be seen from miles away.

Although we didn't decorate this tree, it is very impressive (it's over 50 ft. tall) it had to have taken days to do (with the rental of a hydrolic lift) and has a least six different power sources running to it, since you can only hook 5 to 6 sets of lights together end to end. I commend the person who does this every year for other's to enjoy.

A SHORT Halloween Story

2006-10-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've heard the complaints from parents how they don't like long children's stories, so I made this one real short!

Once upon a time...There was an "evil girl" named Cruella Deville, she was ready to snatch up the first dalmation puppy she could get her hands on...

...but, the first dalmation puppy Cruella could get her hands on, was not so worried and mocked Cruella Devilles plan.
THE END

Well, that concludes this years Halloween costumes, which my wife spent many hours planning and developing. I think they turned out pretty good! We didn't actually get to go out trick or treating tonight (Halloween), since we have a stomach bug being passed around the house (Emily currently has the pleasure). We did do trunk or treat on Sat. night with our ward, and Jordyn also had a party today at school, so she got some candy which she (and her parents) really enjoyed!

WOW...A new post (don't get too excited if you haven't read it yet)

2006-10-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well ok yeah I'm a slacker when it comes to blogging. I guess I have to post now, and the only thing going on in my life is school, so sorry you'll just have to deal with the not so exciting subject matter.

This quarters classes aren't the most exciting for me, but they consist of Physics, Statics, Metallic Processes, and another which I'm not sure what it is called but it's basically Computer tools for project management (using Excel, Microsoft Project etc. to plan out projects) this class has fairly interesting content but not an interesting teacher. My metallic processes class is most enjoyable since it consists of building things (we get to work with welding, forging, sheetmetal work, and machining metals). I've done most of these things already since I've taken some classes out of order, so this is a pretty easy class, but I have to teach all the others how to do everything... Which is fun for a while anyways. Yeah, so that is my life until December (then in Jan I will start my last quarter). I ride the bus out to school (35 miles) and back which is always a good time especially for a people watcher like myself, but it also gives me a little extra study time so that's nice (when I actually take advantage of it). I'm sure once I'm done with school I'll be at work missing it, but for now my feelings are the opposite and I'm ready to be done.

Pike's is THE PLACE! (cont.)

2006-09-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Some of the weird people we enjoyed watching, this lady was doing an interpretive dance and thought she was pretty sexy, but she wasn't!
I'm guessing this guy was looking for the Sci-Fi convention, cuz I know with all surety he couldn't be looking for his date.
This is the world famous Pike's Place Fish Co. It is famous for the tossing of the fish and the fun work atmosphere. Emily mentioned when she worked at the bank they had a training video involving this place on how to enjoy your job, etc.
Here is the most awesome, colorful, fresh, cheap flowers I've ever seen. I'm not a flower kind of guy (you can ask my wife) but I have to admit these were impressive.

Pike's is THE PLACE!

2006-09-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

One of our stops on our Seattle trip was the world famous Pike's Place Market...What a cool place! It was very crowded but that was a plus since Emily and I love watching people (it's one of our more enjoyable hobbies). Between the street performers, crowd, and workers there were plenty of interesting people to watch. We saw the famous fish tossing, which was more entertaining than I expected. A huge crowd was gathered round as they tossed the fish back and forth. Then the worker said, "one more" while he grabbed another fish. He threw it once again except this time purposfully in to the crowd, every one screamed and scattered thinking they would get slimed by the fish, but as it hit the cement floor everyone realized it was a foam replica instead of the real thing...great fun! The thing that I was most surprised with is the cost of things. I was expecting everything to have a huge mark-up on it since this was such a popular tourist attraction, but I was wrong, you could actually buy things there that were way cheaper than they would be anywhere else. For example, the flower arrangements were not only the most perfect, colorful, flowers I'd ever seen but were the cheapest I'd ever seen also. Comparable arrangements would easily sell for 60-80 dollars and they were selling them here for 14-25 dollars it was crazy, and even though they were awesome I still couldn't bring myself to "waste" my money on a flower arrangement that would die in a couple weeks. The food was also great. We had fresh clam chowder, not just any clam chowder, but the "nations best" (it has won the national chowder competition almost every year including this year). Overall Pike's market was our favorite stop on the trip, and a place we would go back to any chance we had... we would recommend it to all who are in the Seattle area but don't forget to pick us up on the way.

Welcome to the "Clarification Meeting"

2006-09-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

This "meeting" has been called for some individuals (whose names will remain anonymous) who made comments about my last post(check comments of "Weekend Delight" if you feel out of the loop). A little clarification is needed. Although this may feel like a harsh rebuking it is merely a jestful clarification.
There are two things on the agenda today.

First the Elephant Ear vs. The Funnel Cake:This here, that the girl is eating, is an Elephant Ear.

This here, is not an Elephant Ear ,but rather a Funnel Cake. Although, both fried dough, they are different. A funnel cake is like fried batter, an Elephant Ear is risen dough rolled out flat then fried, I prefer the Elephant Ear over the Funnel cake (we have both up here in the North West).

Now next on the agenda: "fake snake vs. real snake"

This is a fake snake.

This is a real snake. No matter how yellow it is...it is still real.

I tried to clarify these things in the comments section, but it wouldn't let me add the photos, and I thought they were needed to make sure everything was clear. Thanks for the comments though I think 9 is a new personal best! I encourage those involved to continue leaving comments even if they feel patronized by this "meeting". Thanks for your time and support...Meeting adjourned.

Weekend Delight!

2006-08-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend has been a good time, actually something exciting enough to blog about. Friday night all of us went to our annual ward BBQ (even though last year everyone that went got a lovely surprise the next day with a little lower intestinal tango) this year was good fun. We enjoyed the grilled chicken prepared Polynesian style (a member in our ward is from Tonga, he marinated and grilled the chicken... at least I hope it was chicken, I only say that because I had an experience on my mission at a Tongan family's house where there was an array of meat at the BBQ including horse, but it was still good they didn't tell us till afterwards). Anyways there were also a few games like triva, guess how much candy is in the jar, and a water balloon toss. Out of those three games I did win one...I wasn't going to guess how much candy was in the jar because I didn't want the candy to eat for the next two weeks (trying to eat healthy these days, although I allow one day a week to splurge, this candy would have lasted a long time) but anyways because of my own stubborn pride, knowing I could make as good as guess as any I ended up guessing and winning the candy. I did have the will power to not eat any of it though, and gave it to one of the young men. So overall we had a great time, and didn't have any surprises the next day...Phew!

Saturday turned out great also. Many of you have read about the Spokane Shock on one of Emily's posts, if you haven't they are a new arena football team in Spokane that our Elder's Quruom President owns. It was their first season this year and amazinginly they made it all the way to the Super Bowl of Arena football (AF2). The game was in Puerto Rico but was televised so I watched and again amazingly they won, that is the first time a 1st year expansion team has won it all in this league it was AWESOME!!! After the game we as a family went to the North Idaho State Fair, a good friend of mine hooked us up with admission tickets (his inlaws have an Elephant Ear booth at the fair every year) and he also hooked us up with Elephant Ears and drinks. It was a cheap date since we only had to pay for parking. We ate our treat then just walked around the rest of the night looking at the animals, exihibits, and people it was good fun and the kids enjoyed it alot. Evan was so tired but wouldn't go to sleep because of all the lights, and noises and things to look at, and Jordyn just loved all the commotion. I've included pictures of our adventure.

Jordyn enjoyed looking at all the animals, this goat was very curious on what was going on outside the pen. At the sheep exhibit Jordyn had her feet on the pen. The sheep mistaked the little flowers on Jordyn's shoes as a tasty treat and started nibbling at them, we got a good laugh at that.

Evan was totally mesmerized by all that was going on and all the new creatures.

I couldn't resist taking a picture with the python (I needed something exicting to post about), I was going to have Jordyn and Evan help me hold the snake, but my mom would have called Child Protective Services on me in an instant! (She hates snakes, and would have killed me if I subjected her precious grandbabies to the "evil creature") Oh and I didn't want to wear the hat but the guy with the snake talked me into it saying "You've gotta look the part mate" (he was from Austrailia). This was the coolest exhibit they had all kinds of spiders, lizards, snakes, (not any of my favorite things but interesting to look at in their cages) even an alligator and baby zebra so it was a popular attraction.

I'm back w/ a vengeance

2006-08-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have not posted a new blog in a while, but with a little tactful jabbing from a fellow blogger (you know who you are) I'm back and will do better this time around. So keep checking my blog for new posts cause now that I'm back I'm going to post something new every three minutes hope hope you can keep up.

Priest Lake

2006-08-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well since I don't have any thing else to blog about right now I'll tell you about my weekend. We went up to Upper Priest Lake (about 20 miles South of the Canadian Border in Northren Idaho) with the Kovichs (inlaws) hiked about 2.5 miles ate lunch and played on the beach. It was good fun, all the kids did really good and enjoyed themselves too. I think we are making this an annual event since we did it last year too, and plan on doing it in the future years. Well I'll end there since a picture is worth a thousand words so here's about 4000 words for ya...enjoy!

Deep Thoughts
by
Tom & Evan:

Just testing out the water for Daddy:

My cute baby
and even cuter wife!:

Jordyn being a
beach bum:

Men can do exercise videos too!...Can't they???

2006-07-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

I've been looking to find an exercise video that is more manly than what my wife has. I have to admit I have tried her videos and they are hard and make you sweat, but they are definitely not masculine at all ; I feel like Richard Simmons when I do them, and trust me that's not a good feeling.

So I've set out on a search to find a video (since it's nice to workout inside sometimes especially when it's 100 degrees outside) that will give me a good hard workout and will let me keep my manliness intact. Well after a lot of searching and researching I think I've found one that will fit the bill... US Navy SEALs Workout featuring a real Navy SEAL "pumping you up".

Now lets see if my wife can make fun of me while doing an exercise video (I would laugh too if I saw myself doing an hour's worth of choreographed butt thrusts, and sissy dance moves), I mean how could she or anyone make fun when I tell them I do the workout that the most elite fighting force in the world does, nobody would dare...HOOAH!!!

Adventure pics

2006-07-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

One of the many fish I caught. This is a cutthroat trout, but there were also many rainbow trout as well.

Black Lake
Waterfall we hiked to.
Although located at one of the highest points of the basin (7200 ft) we didn't expect to find these mountain goats at the only manmade structure in the basin (a microwave tower), she let us get really close and didn't even seem to care.

High Adventure

2006-07-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

This past week was our Young Men's high adventure. We took six boys ages 14-18 up to the Jewel Basin in Montana (near Bigfork) and backpacked for 6 days ( I only was able to go for 3). It was an awesome time, all the boys did great and hiked a total of over 30 miles. There are 27 lakes in the basin and we would hike to a lake, set up camp, then do day hikes to peaks from there, hike to another lake, camp and repeat. We caught a lot of fish, saw lots of wild life (deer, moose, mountain goats, rock chucks, and 6 teenage boys of course) it was grizzly country but luckily we didn't run into any. The trail head that we started at was called Camp Misery which we didn't know why, but found out at the end of our adventure. When we arrived back at Camp Misery to head home we were all tired, but excited and in a good mood because of our accomplishments. The ranger that stays at Camp Misery changed our mood quickly when he wrote us a 250 dollar ticket. It turns out that one of the boys accidently left an empty egg carton (egg shells in it) in our utility trailer when we left to go out backpacking, the ranger wrote us a ticket for inproper food storage, since it is bear country, so that put us all in a somber mood for the drive home. Other than that the whole time was an adventure of a lifetime.

When it rains, it pours...blessings.

2006-07-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

Warning: This entry is extremely long. You might want to wait till morning when your eyes are well rested to read this.

Over the past few weeks our family has had some bad luck, but being an optimist always helps brighten the dark and dreary sky. Here is a list of our luck over the past 3 or 4 weeks with commentary.

1. If you've been reading this blog you know that before our vacation our car was giving us troubles and cost us lots of money to get ready for the trip and to pass emissions (see "Idaho here we come"). Positive side-we made it to Montana and Wyoming and had an awesome time with our families.
2. A day or so before we left for vacation, sickness struck pretty much our whole family. We had various symptoms of the cold or flu. I was fighting it throughout the whole vacation time and probably got all my extended family sick, I was feeling lonely in my misery I guess. Positive side- Both of the kids slept pretty much the whole trip while driving 8 hours without making a peep and we didn't have to make any unscheduled stops, AWESOME!
Besides being sick all of us had a great time. Our so called "bad luck" didn't bother us while we were visiting and enjoying our families.
3. Heading home from vacation our "bad luck" returned with a vengence. Everything was going good, kids sleeping the whole way once again, great stories and conversation about our trip, and great music to listen to (thanks to Chris and Jenny allowing us to copy some CD's and Pop for actually burning them for us). Anyways, everything seemed great, besides the fact our vacation was over or so we thought. Emily was driving, for the first time the whole trip, when the speedometer and tachometer started jumping around like a caffienated cheerleader. Then suddenly the speedometer, tachometer, and car went dead. Emily pulled over and we sat there thinking of what to do. Of course at this point, both kids woke up and started screaming and with no A/C running in the car it was pretty miserable. We decided all to walk back about half a mile to an exit we had just passed (we did get lucky that we broke down so close to an exit). So, we put Jordyn in her wheelchair and Evan stayed in his carseat and we started walking on I-90 (not the safest thing to do but necessary). We got about a quarter of a mile and greatfully a young couple stopped and picked us up and took us the rest of the way. We were extrememly greatful for them. The town we arrived in was Superior, MT... haven't heard of it? Not a surprise, population from what we could tell-8 people and a couple dogs. Well, we called a tow truck (also the only official repair place in town who said they wouldn't be able to get to our car for a week) got the car towed, while doing that the driver said,"Hey let me call so and so he also fixes cars and he could probably get to it tomorrow." (the nice thing about a small town everyone knows eachother and what eachother does...could be a bad thing too) So anyways, got the car to the repair shop, all the while Emily is sitting at the gas station with the kids next to what seemed to be a meth house with a bunch of scary characters going in and out of it. Well, we ended up staying the night in one of the two Motels in town (according to Emily, worse than the Skookum for those of you who know what that is) and luckily got the car fixed by the next morning and headed back home. -long story I know- Positive side- The car just needed a new battery, according to the Superior mechanic, and we got to extend our vacation and actually enjoyed our stay in Superior. Almost all 8 of the people were very nice. The town was rundown a little, but in an awesome location.
4. Not home from vacation yet, and Jordyn has two big seizures to add to our stress. She usually only has big seizures when she has a fever but not in this case. We don't know why she had these, maybe it was too hot in the back seat? Positive side- A lot of the time on vacation Jordyn was very irratable and grumpy, after the seizures she has been happy and calm- they often say that siezures are the body's way of correcting something that is out of synch, and in this case it seemed so.
5. Finally home and back to work we go. Well, my illness that plaugued me throughout vacation decides to get worse for a couple days. I was hating life but still needed to work to pay off our extra expenses accrued in Superior, MT. Positive side- we were home, sleeping in our own bed, eating our own food etc.
6. Evan's cough gets worse and he starts throwing up because he is coughing so hard. We take him to the doctor and they decide to admit him to the hospital. He is there 48 hours which is very stressful because of worry plus staying in a hospital room is the most boring time of one's life. The nurse also decided to give Evan his IV in his right hand which would be fine except that is the side he sucks his thumb on to go to sleep, so he is very upset the whole time. Positive side- A renewed appreciation and love for my family, a realization of how much they all mean to me and how hard Emily works taking care of her three kids (Jordyn, Evan, and me). Also, a plus for Emily, instead of 6 days without her husband (supposed to leave on backpacking trip for scouts July 17-22) she only has to be without me for 3 and a half days.
Note: Evan is home doing good, we just have to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours.
7. Ok, the same day Evan went to the hospital our car decides that it isn't fixed after all. I break down at the store and have someone come and give me a jump. So the car sits at home over the weekend until the shop can get to it Monday. Well, I have a small Toyota truck also but it will not fit the whole family in it, but it didn't have to since Emily and Evan were at the hospital so that was good. Luckily the hospital is within walking distance from our apartment. Well got the car to the shop Monday and $500 dollars later for a new alternator it is "fixed". Positive side- I don't have one for this experience because I'm too ticked about our stupid car. Without the car, this list I just made would have been half as long. I'll continue to look for the postive in everything...everything except my car that is.

I am a champion!*

2006-07-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I have become a champ. What qualifies me you ask? How bout 1st place* in a 4th of July Chief Joseph Run, and a key player** in the stake softball championship team. That's right folks it's true what you hear, first of all on the 4th I ran a two mile race in Laurel, MT there were around 150 competitors overall in the event, I ran my heart out and to my surprise won 1st place in my age division...I don't even like running, yet I must have a talent I guess... Anyways I got my plaque and am now thinking about retirement while I'm on top, although there is a possibility I will come out of retirement to go for a record of 8 wins (Gotta top Lance Armstrong) at the Chief Joseph run so I can make the cover of the Laurel newspaper, possibly Sports Illustrated and a Wheaties box. That's not all though, this past Friday our stake softball tourney came to an end with our ward on top, and I was part of that team. It may be hard to believe for those of you that know me but I am a champion athlete.

(Optional reading follows)
* I was the only one in my age group, so I won 1st place out of one.
** Played catcher, dropped the ball on the one play at the plate, got out 3 out of 3 times batting.

Dear Fans,

2006-07-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

I must apologize to all of my fans and all of you lurkers too (yes I know about you, and you must comment to lose the reputation you've made for yourself) -if you don't know lurkers are people who enjoy the benefits of reading people's blogs without identifying themselves: think online stalker- anyways like I was saying... I need to apologize for pressing Pause on all of your adventurous, and exciting lives while you waited and waited for me to post again. I am back from a great vacation in MT and WY which included many fun and not so fun adventures, I'll post later about those. Thank you all for all your support and letting me know you missed my posts (I didn't receive any comments while I was gone for 3 weeks), the good news... your lives can go on now for a short period of time, because I am back and officially pressing Play, so enjoy!

www.myfavoritewebsites.com

2006-06-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

As I was thinking of what links to add to my blog site, I obviously started thinking about my favorite websites. Although I don't spend a lot of time at these websites I do frequent them often. Let me get on with the list:
(in no particular order)

1. www.howstuffworks.com I've always been fascinated with how things work, I remember being young always taking apart different things to see if I could figure out how they worked, if only they had this site when I was a kid, actually a site called howtoputthingsbacktogether.com would have been helpful also. Anyways this is a fun site for the curious type and you can find out anything from how those amazing pop-up turkey timers know when the bird is done to how the new 20 dollar bill works... great fun!

2. www.craigslist.com This is a new one I recently have been enjoying, if you like eBay you might like craigslist. This site is like a huge local classified ad that is free to post your things for sale or things you want to buy. I like it because you can find great bargains on things in your local area (no shipping and handling) there is even a "free stuff" section which is always good to look at since we all know some people's junk is another's treasure. I haven't bought anything off of here or sold anything here yet, but I've seriously thought about it, great fun for all you bargain shoppers (Momma K). Note: this might not be as good of site in smaller cities, but it's great in larger communities and it's getting more popular so you small town folk check it often so you don't miss out on that vintage egg spatula you've been searching for.

3. www.myspace.com This is one I hate to admit but it is one I use often. I don't use it to meet new people like a lot of folks do, but rather to find old friends, you can look at your schools you've graduated from to find you ol' high school buddies, or I've actually found a lot of my mission companions and friends as well as some good music (Dorian-for those out of the loop Dorian is my brother in law's band) There is 88,927,657 (as of right now) people that have profiles on myspace so there's a good chance you will know someone (although for those more experienced in life this site is mainly popular with the younger generation, but you won't be able to say you don't know anyone cause have my own space on there...embarrasing I know.

4. www.snopes.com Have you ever heard a story but aren't sure if it is true, or seen a picture online and wonder if it's real...enter snopes.com this is a site that attempts to give accurate information about rumors and urban legends. Although it doesn't answer all the unknowns like is it true that all window covering specialist don't have window coverings in their own place of residence? (haha Just kidding Momma K, I'm a window washer with dirty windows too) but it does help you get your facts straight before telling the "story of the week" at the water cooler on Monday morning.

5. www.mybodycomp.com This website is a great tool to those of you who are trying like myself to get more fit or less fat. I think Aunt Susie introduced us to this website if I remember correctly. This site keeps track of your body measurements as you progress then calculates things like body fat % and so forth and allows you to compare "before and after" measurements.

6. http://maps.google.com This site works like mapquest, although I like mapquest for directions better, but the thing I most enjoy about this site is the satellite maps ( or satellite photos rather) of any address you put in. I can also use this with my GPS unit to publish where I have been onto a satellite photo, or regular map. Great fun, it makes you feel like a secret agent spy, although the satellite maps won't allow you to get that close and unfortunately aren't real time.

Well those are some of the websites I enjoy and often visit. Obviously these don't include this website to check everyone's blog, google to find whatever, ebay to find whatever, my email or www.ragingbullpaintball.com (my brother just opened a paintball field in Sheridan WY so I check to see how things are going quite often) which I visit more often than these others but they are not necessarily my favorites. So what are your favorites? Maybe one of yours will become one of mine and vice versa, happy surfing.

Idaho here we come!

2006-06-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

I don't want this to sound like an Andy Rooney disgruntled rant, or any"Opinionated AARP Member" (sorry "pop" couldn't resist) for that matter, but I hate emissions tests and here is my rant. Here in Washington it is required that you get an emissions test on your vehicle every other year before you can get your new tags. I understand and enjoy clean air just like most but the experience I have had is more trouble than it is worth. The test isn't a big deal if you have a new vehicle that doesn't have any problems. It is a big deal to me because our car (1997 Nissan Maxima) runs great has no problems...except the dreaded check engine light is on which means automatic failure at the emissions test. The light has been on almost ever since we have had the car I have scanned the computer to get the code which tells me it is the speed sensor, which I tested-nothing wrong with the speed sensor- the problem is communication between the transmission and the speed sensor which is nothing serious and does not cause any problems with the car and how it runs and does not effect the emissions at all. The problem is I don't know how to fix the communication problem and it seems that no one else does either, so we just live with the orange light on. This of course isn't good enough for the emissions place though, cause they test the car and it fails because the light is on. To get a waiver you have to spend $150 specifically on improving the emissions, and then if it still fails they will waive the test. The problem, like I said, is there is nothing wrong with my emissions so I can't spend 150 dollars to fix something that isn't broke. I spent $400 to have some other repairs to make the car run better but they won't except it because the money I spent wasn't specifically for repairs on the emissions system. Even the mechanics shop I took it to said "They shouldn't be doing this to you", well finally after taking the car into the shop 3-4 times in a week the mechanics called in their emission representative and he just signed off the car so I could get my tags which were already expired, because of not being able to pass the test. The engine light is still on, still not causing any problems but is annoying, it's really annoying because I went through the same month long process last year (even though it was not the year for my car to get emissions) since we had just moved into the state they make you get emissions test. Well now I'm supposedly good until 2008 but if I still have this car I will have another month of driving between the repair shop and emissions test center until someone is called in again to sign it off. I told Emily we're moving to Idaho (it's only about 10 miles to the border from here) just so I don't have to get the dreaded emissions test!

Jumping on the computer nerd bandwagon.

2006-06-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well after contemplating about becoming a blogger for some time now, I've finally caved to the tremendous pressure, and am therefore much closer to my inner-nerd.

Chris & Jenny ->For those of you who don't know Chris and Jenny are my brother and sister in law<- have inspired me to do two things in the past few weeks:

1. Run to get in shape 2. Create a blog. Hopefully one out of the two I will end up liking (running is not my favorite thing to put it nicely, but I do it anyway). I have titled my blog "Meanwhile Back at the 2 Bedroom Apartment" that will hopefully change as the years go by possibly to "Meanwhile back at the custom built 5 bedroom 2 and a half bath, house on a few hundred acres of prime mountainous real estate with a nice creek running close by that has huge fish in it...etc. " But more realistically, probably simply "Meanwhile back at the Rancher" either way it will be interesting to see where life takes us. Anyways I'm excited to record my simple yet GREAT life here as it passes by, hopefully you'll enjoy it with me(and comment about it too).

Funny side note: I used the spell check that is built in to this blogging site, and the word "blog" or "blogger" is not a word in their dictionary!?!