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

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

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!

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?

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

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

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!

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.

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?

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?

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

Dance Lessons

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?

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

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!

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?

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

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!??

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

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

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...

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.