2010

I thought about doing the same thing I did last year and give you some statistics about what happened on my blog. Well, it looks like I had a lot more time last year than I do this year. I was able to check out all of my posts and tell you how many comments each one received and what posts were my favorites and which one's failed miserably. This year, I barely have time to type anything into this year end post. I guess I can say that I am glad that this year is over and I hope next year is much much better. I guess I should really focus on the happy exciting things that happened to me instead of the downers. I was able to witness the wedding of my Brother Blake to Estee Blatter in the Denver Colorado Temple. I was able to baptize my youngest daughter this year and confirm her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I was able to walk in the footsteps of the Willie and Martin Handcart companies and ponder the hardships they suffered while returning to my nice air conditioned hotel room. I should focus on the advancement in the Priesthood of my two son's. One becoming a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and the other being ordained a Teacher. I still have a job that I enjoy and that help pay for the necessities of life. I have great people to work with at my job. I am able to teach a strong work ethic to my kids by taking on a paper route. And finally, I should be thankful that our dog healed from his broken leg and continues to be excited to meet me at the front door when I come home from work.

I have begun to ponder why I continue to write a bunch of stuff on this blog. A part of me likes the opportunity to make fun of myself. Part of me wants to make people laugh. Part of me wants to share experiences that might match things in their own life. Part of me just wants to unload thoughts that come to me during the day. Hopefully there isn't a "Clint Overload" out there in the bloggosphere. If there is, please, just unsubscribe or ignore me in your reader, or delete me on facebook, or stop following me on twitter or watching my videos on YouTube or reading my posts on LDSFamily.net. Hummmm, I guess there is a lot of ways I can invade people's lives with my blathering.

Age 42 hit me this year and I don't know what to think about it. I remember when my Dad was 40 and I'm not sure I'm as far along in life nor as successful as he was. Maybe I'll catch up later. A friend of mine taught me about how trees are different and mature at different times. One tree might stand dormant even though all of the other trees around it had blossomed and bloomed. I guess I'm just one of those trees that will mature later? There is also a little story about a vinyard that was pruned back by it's Gardner. The plant that was pruned down to the ground looked up at the Gardner and said, "why was I cut back so far to the ground?". The Gardner looked back and said, "I'm the gardner and I will mold you and prune you as I see fit to make you a strong plant". Ok, that may not make sense.

Am I still writing? I should have stopped long ago.

100th Video

It is official, I have now uploaded 100 videos to YouTube!!!!

The very first video I posted on YouTube happened December 02, 2008 it was entitled Christmas Morning 2007. I don't know why it took so long for me to upload my first video. I didn't know much about videos, uploading, youtube or editing at that point. The video was actually shot by my brother Blake.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc_HGl-vdoQ

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The most recent video I shot and uploaded to YouTube was from Christmas 2010. It is a small video of my parents playing our new game on the Wii called Band Hero.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjJM2OTbJQE

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The video with the MOST hits came from a brief visit to a robotics competition. It was called First Lego League. It has now had over 5,300 hits!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRUh7U5Vyg

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And finally, in honor of my 100th video on YouTube, I'll put a few of my favorite videos to date.

Andy at Camp Bradley (Old Spice Commercial)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsMli_p6Jes

Savanna, Katie, Andy and I doing the Wass Up commercial with our own twist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCgqL0hgo7g

And finally, me and Coby doing the Banadana Skit at a Carter Family Reunion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXg6PNHaI7w

If you like some of these videos, click on the subscribe button when you get to YouTube and you will see all of my latest videos each time I upload a new one. (You have to be a member of YouTube of course)

Christmas 2010

I was in Costco with Deanna walking through the isles when I saw a huge bin of these bears. I thought it would be a cool gift to give the girls this year so I checked out the price. Well, the price was right so I told Deanna I would come back later and pick them up.

Below is a picture of my shopping cart.




I couldn't post these pictures until after Christmas but I just had to let people see how ridiculous I looked when trying to buy my girls a Christmas present this year.

I believe

There was a constant buzz around our house about Santa Clause last year. Fortunately it hasn't been such a big discussion nor argument this year amongst the kids. Whenever we got into the dialog about Santa, I'd always side with the youngest members of the family and state that "I believe".



I still remember the excitement of waking up early in the morning with the hope that Santa Clause had brought me something cool for Christmas. I remember that there was MAGIC in the air because it was always such a mystery. Now that I am older, Christmas has lost some of its magic and glitter, however, I don't ever want to loose that feeling that I had when I was a young child. So, whenever one of my kids, old or young, asks me if I believe in Santa and the magic of Christmas, I always say, "I believe". Deep down in my little kid heart, I believe. I hope that my kids never grow too old to believe in the excitement and magic of Christmas.

Ginger Bread Houses

The other day I was browsing through the Bloggernacle again and found a cool web page that has craft ideas for little kids. I thought some of them looked easy so I forwarded the link to Deanna at school. Later, I found out that when she scrolled through the ideas, she came across ginger bread houses made from gram crackers and frosting. Immediately she remembered her childhood and that her family had made little gram cracker houses when she was little. I thought it sounded fun and cheep, so a rushed down to the store and bought a bunch of Gram Crackers to use for Family Home Evening.

We took the Gram Crackers over to my parents house, and we decorated these houses with the Hirschi Family on Monday night. I didn't have a camera ready so I had to take some pictures with my phone. They aren't great but they do that job.

Is it worth it?

Many of you know that recently our family started doing a paper route. Since I would much rather have bamboo jammed under my fingernails than to get up at 4:00am every morning, I have been continually asking myself if it is worth it. Well, I now have my answer.

I had the opportunity to take the girls out for dinner at Wendy's the other night. We stepped up to the counter to order our meals and surveyed the choices. After ordering each individual meal, Savanna looked up at me and said. "How much was my meal?". I replied, " Oh, about $6.00". She looked back at me and commented, "That's about two days worth of doing the paper route". A grin came to my face because I realized that she had just learned how much a dollar was worth. So, now, when we are about to spend some money, I ask Savanna how many days of paper route would it take to pay for it.



Yep, just for that one lesson, it has been worth it.

This is Life.

I don't know about some of you parents out there but sometimes it feels like a burden to get ready and go down to watch your kid play a game of soccer, or clog, or bball game, or choir. You pay your $5.00 to watch your own kid perform and end up spending 90% of your time watching other kids perform and then seeing your kid up there doing their thing for 20 seconds. It can be a little tedious and boring and sometimes, I must admit, I would rather stay home and stare at the wall.

HOWEVER, that that is at BIG HOWEVER, I have grown to learn to appreciate these little snippets in time when I can watch my kids stretch and grow. This weekend happened to be one of these events. Savanna was scheduled to go and "clog" at the Festival of Trees. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you would have already known that. Anyway, Savanna was already complaining about having to go down and perform. She wasn't excited and really didn't want to go. Of course, that really didn't help my desire to go either. I bribed her into going by offering her a sandwich at Subway. That did the trick and the complaining stopped.

We arrived at the Festival of Trees and of course, there were gaggle of other parents there to watch their kids perform as well. After the clogging began I started to think in my mind that THIS was life. This is why we came here, this is why I wanted to be a Dad. I decided to enjoy the moment and soak in this special time to watch my daughter perform in front of an audience. I was proud to say that my attitude changed and I fully embraced the moment in time where I was participating in "real life".

Fortunately for you, or unfortunately however you want to look at it, I brought my flip video and recorded the event for all time. You are all probably tired of watching Savanna's clogging videos but for me, I just can't get enough.



Here is a link for my Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNiEouIogOg

Pictures in a box

I was wondering around the mall the other day waiting for Andy to find some basketball shoes that were "cool" enough and also had his school colors. Those colors being from my Alma mater O'Leary Middle School. While we were waiting and wondering, we, the girls and I, saw a photo box.



We saw some people stuffed inside so we walked past and looked in a few stores. As we shuffled back down the main corridor of the mall, we saw the kiosk again. It was empty. I decided that if the price was less then $5.00, we would get in. We peeked through the curtain and found that photos were $3.00. The girls started to bounce up and down and since it was below my price point, we squeezed into the box and sat down. I swiped my card and prepared to be photographed. The girls seemed to want to do all crazy face pictures but I convinced them at least once to a normal smile. We had a great time and we have some pictures to remember the event. I kinda like those photo kiosk booths.



Deanna and I took one while we were dating. I still love the picture.

Thanksgiving

Our family got together this year at my Sister's house in Boise Idaho. Not all of the family was able to come but we had a good sized group. I decided to take along my flip video to document the festivities. Actually, I almost forgot the flip, but my wonderful wife remembered and stuck it in my coat pocket.

We had a great time eating, playing volleyball, watching Harry Potter, playing games, watching the BSU game and enjoying each other's company.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to my sister and her husband for hosting the celebration! We had a great time.



Here is a link for my facebook friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GgG1cpLK1w

Grandma's Stories

My previous post talked about some stories and poems that my Grandma Erma Blake used to tell us when we were younger. When typing up the post, I began searching for a recording that I knew I had so I could link to it along with my post. As I searched more and more, I began to panic because I could not find the recordings anywhere. I looked on my new computer, my old computer, my work computer with no luck. Yikes, I hope I didn't lose it.

In a frantic attempt to find the missing files, I grabbed my Ancient computer from the pile of computer rubble and booted it up and started a search. Thankfully, I found all of the recordings. So, if you would like to hear my Grandma tell these little stories, here are the links.

The Little Orphan Annie
Epamandas
Johnathan Bing

Memories of Grandma Blake

I was sitting in church this Sunday listening to the teacher in Sunday School when a lady spoke up from near the back of the chapel. The teacher could barely hear her comment so he walked the microphone back to her so we could all hear. She was an elderly lady but it looked like she had a good comment. When she got the microphone up to her mouth she recited this poem.

"Once there was a little boy who wouldn’t say his prayers,
and when he went to bed at night away up stairs,
his mammy heard him holler and his daddy heard him bawl,
and when they turned the covers down,
he wasn’t there at all!
They searched for him in the attic room
and cubby hole and press
and even up the chimney flu and every wheres, I guess,
but all they ever found of him was just his pants and round-abouts
and the goblins will get ya if ya don’t watch out!!"

The teacher handled the situation masterfully and moved on with the lesson but several people grinned not understanding what had just happened. I smiled too but immediately I thought of my Grandma Blake. Ema Blake used to recite this poem to me when I was little. Memories of my Grandma flooded into my mind and I smiled as I thought of her in her home with the thick shag carpet and the heater vents in the halls. I remember her playing card games, telling us stories and fixing us meals. I felt a closeness again with Grandma Blake while sitting there at church. I was determined to walk over to this elderly lady and thank her for reciting that familiar poem.

When the lesson was over and people were leaving for their next class, I found her sitting in the pews and asked her about the poem. She was very pleased to start reciting the poem again but started reciting a different poem about Joseph Smith. She stopped half was through and asked if that was the one that she I recited earlier. I could tell she was a little confused about which poem she had given during the lesson. I then told her it was about "Little Orphan Annie". She immediately began to repeat the correct poem again for me. When she finished, she told me that she learned the poem when she was 8 and that she was now 80. I thanked her again for reminding me of my Grandma and went to my next class. I found out later that this lady had Alzheimer's disease just like my Grandma Blake.




I am grateful this week for my Grandma Blake. She worked hard all of her life so that her children, and grand children, could have a good life, good education and a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I felt close to her today as I remembered her through this poem. I hope I am living up to her hopes for me. I will read these three poems this week to remind me of her.

The Little Orphan Annie
Epaminondas
Johnathan Bing

Backyard Baseball

Now that summer has passed and winter is upon us, I thought I would post a video of a warm sunny day earlier this year. Katie and Savanna join forces in this little video to take on the world champion of Backyard Baseball, Andy. They make up the bases just like I did when I was young. The tree is first base, second is a stool by the fence, the slide is third base and home plate is an old frisbee that has fallen apart. These creative kids have added a new rule invented exclusively for Carter Backyard Baseball. The new invention is "Ghost Runners". I don't remember using ghost runners when I was young but it works out perfectly when you only have a couple of baseball players on your team or even if you only have one player. I happen to capture the end of this particular game where Savanna and Katie actually defeat the undefeated.



Here is the link for my Facebook Friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQ55y3Ob64

First Lego League Video

I am really shocked today at the success I have had with one of my little videos that I have posted on YouTube. I have worked very hard to make videos that people would want to see with the hopes that one of them would go viral. With no immediate success, I decided just to take my video camera and view a few local events just to documents stuff that our family has been doing. I took a video of our service project on 9/11/10. I did a short video of Katie and Andy running in the local "Child Run" event. Each video getting a few hits but nothing really noteworthy of viral proportions. So, I was shocked to find one of my videos start to take off at a rapid pace up the "Most Views" chart on my YouTube Channel. This video is not well crafted, it is not funny, it is not even about my family except for the very beginning. Even though I didn't think this video would do anything on the internet, I was amazed that it started receiving several hits every day. In fact today, this video has now surpassed my top hit getter. It has now passed my video entitled, "Carters get a Wii". I'm guessing that it will hit 1,000 views by the end of next week if the trend continues. WOW!

Below is the video.



Here is the Link for my Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRUh7U5Vyg

It is really more of a video of our visit to a competition in Twin Falls. This competition was called "First Lego League" or FLL Body Forward challenge. Elementary age youth put teams together to compete with small robotic machines to do small tasks which equated to points. The team with the most points wins.

Coby volunteered to help with the event so I grabbed Katie and went over to see what was going on. I took my flip video camera with me to document the trip. The video shots I took were from a practice table that they had set aside for each team. After practicing each task, the teams would then be ready to compete.

Professional Photos

Every year our family tries to schedule a time to take some professional photos of our kids. Unfortunately, we get so busy that some years we just don't get it done. We have our photographs done by Kim Critchfield. He does a great job and always gives us wonderful pictures of our kids as the grow up. We get these professional portraits done because the school pictures just don't turn out very well. You know all of the problems, the kids don't have their hair done right, they just come in from PE, they make a funny face, their shirt isn't tucked in, their zipper is down etc, etc, etc. This way, we can control all of the variables and get a nice clean picture of our kids that we can look back on with fondness instead of horror.

Here are the pictures we took this year. It is always surprising how old they look when we get the photographs back. They are growing up FAST!

Adventure in a Semi-Truck

Periodically I get little assignments from my Dad to do little projects here and there. Sometimes they are a little challenging. This time I was asked to pickup a Semi-Truck from the mechanic's shop and drive it out to the Truck Stop. In my truck driving days, this would have been a breeze, but as you might see in the video, I am a little rusty. Ok, in reality I never was really good at driving the semi truck. I decided to take Katie along with me to document our adventure.




Here is a link for my Facebook Friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj7nOSfc6RE

Panda Bear Pumpkin

In an attempt to live up to my reputation of being a "grand champion" pumpkin decorator, I asked my daughter for an idea for a pumpkin this year. All Katie could come up with was a Panda Bear. So, I wandered around the internet looking for some creative examples of panda bear pumpkins. To my dismay, there was only one example of a bear that I liked, so, I went the store to buy a series of pumpkins. Big, medium and small pumpkins were on the menu and I had to find just the right sizes to make it look presentable. (you know my standards are high) After eye-balling the layout of the pumpkins in the store and having several people look at me like I was a little weird, we bought the needed items and headed home to put them contraption together.

We glued, stabbed and fastened all of the pieces together and then pulled out the brushes to get it painted. This is where we ended after our first painting and assembly stage.



Below is our finished product that is on display at the school. Let's just hope we did well enough to win some kind of ribbon so that my pumpkin decorating mystique is not lost.



Happy Halloween to all!

Halloween 2010

I tried to make a video of our family painting our front windows in preparation for Halloween but the video was dead boring. It was excruciatingly slow, like watching paint dry, humm, that is exactly what it was, letting paint dry.

So, to make it a bit more entertaining, I sped it up.



Here is a link for my facebook friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2und7F83Ud8

Kids Run 2010

Two of our kids participated in the First Annual Kids Run event in Twin Falls. Andy and Katie both ran and both won 4th place in their respective age groups. I took a little bit of video to display as evidence. As you might see in the video, I ran along with Kate for the last 50 yards. We had a great time.

Paper Route

When I was younger I swore that when I was older and was able to make the decisions about my life, that I would not under any circumstances, under threat of life and limb, make my kids do a paper route. I'm hear today to tell you that somehow, some way, I have failed to live up to that promise to myself. Yes, that is right, we are now a "Paper Route" family. Yes, one of THOSE strange families that get up at crazy hours in the morning to blacken their fingers with news print and find a way to stumble around the neighborhood and deliver the news of the day. Rain or Shine, sleepy or really sleepy, the newspapers must be delivered.



Andy (and Savanna for that matter) have been talking about a way to make money all summer. We have had them mow lawns but now that we have hit the time of year when grass begins to slow it's growth, we are faced with a challenge of how to allow them to earn money. There just aren't many chores around the house that merit pay. We don't have pigs to feed, cows to milk, hay to bail, (even though we do live smack dab in the middle of a large agricultural area). So, we toyed with the idea of taking on a paper route. For many months we checked the news paper only to find that the only routes available were to far away (Ahh, that really was a sad fact even though I was secretly happy). Then it happened. We woke up one morning and our own street was listed in the paper needing a paper deliverer (if that's a word). Hummm, how could I get out of that one? I hoped that it would go away but day after day our street showed up in the paper as needing a paper boy, (paper person for those of you keeping track of politically correct lingo).

Finally I gave in, went down to the Times News, and signed my life away as a parent of a paper boy.




We've only been delivering papers one week and I can already tell you, it still isn't any fun. I'm just hoping that when it is time to get paid, Andy and Savanna will think it was all worth it. The more likely scenario is that I will offer them the same pay for NOT doing the route anymore. :-)

Twitter Feed

When the average american reads the title "Twitter Feed", they probably picture a bird feeder advertisement. In my case, it is a little different. Many of you already know that Twitter is a website that allows people to post very short little pieces of their life on the internet. These pithy comments on the web are called "tweets". I really haven't done much with Twitter in the past until I found out that you can send a text message to your twitter account. That way, you don't have to be at your computer to post a brief comment. So, over the last month, I have started to send little tweets to my twitter account. Then, after learning how to make that all work, I decided to add my "Twitter Feed" to my blog. So, now, you can see my tweets every time you visit my blog.

My Twitter Feed has been placed on the right side of my blog under "Twitter Feed".

Bruin Football

We try and support out local sports teams by attending their sporting events. Sometimes we miss them but we hardly ever forget to go to a football game. We live less than 100 yards (football lingo) from the football field so when they crank up the lights and test the loud speakers, we are the first to know. Below is a picture of us at the Twin Falls Bruins football game. This year there are 4 football players on the team from our ward. We cheer extra loud for them when they get a chance to play. I think the Bruins have only lost one game this year so far. Let's hope that they continue winning and make it to State. Go Bruins!

really?

Really, I've got nothing better to write than to post a video of a baby monkey riding a pig? Either I'm really busy with a bunch of stuff in life, or nothing significant has happened in my life that I'm willing to share with the entire world. Hummm, I don't know which of these two answers fits my situation. I apologize to all of those subscribers that come to my blog looking for some good literary pros. Apparently the best I have is a monkey riding a pig.

Obviously, I still don't have much to say or I would have said it by now. Hopefully all of my readers will give me ONE MORE CHANCE at coming up with something witty and pithy.

Signing off for today.

Clint

Internet Fun

I am sure that all 7 of my subscribers know that this is the place to find out what is new and fun on the internet. Not every post is new and fun but once in a while, I'll hit something great. Well, here is the latest fun video that is spreading like wildfire around the internet. Remember, you saw it here first.



Don't watch it too many times or you will start singing the song and it will get stuck in your head.

Winna Winna Winna

Those of you that have been to the Twin Falls County Fair and Rodeo will understand the title of this blog. As you walk down the trampled grass cooridors your ears fill with the sounds of "Carnies" yelling at the top of their smoke filled lungs to try and get you to play their carnival games. If you happen to pass by at just the right time when someone has actually one something, you will hear, "Winna, Winna, Winna". This year was no exception.

One of the visits we try to make while at the fair is a wandering wramble through the art buildings. This year Kate had her art project posted on the wall. She beamed as she pointed to her masterpiece displayed as part of a kaleidoscope of art from her elementary school.



Afterwards, the girls got their hands stamped and rode some of the rides. I tried to take some pictures with my camera phone but they don't turn out too well. This was their first ride, which also made Kate sick.



After some more long lines and a few rides, it was time for the girls to go home and it was time for Andy and I to start working at the Fair Booth. Each year our LDS ward has one fundraiser. This fundraiser is a fair booth that sells hot dogs, hamburgers and other stuff.



Coby came out to help as well since it was busy and we were down a person or two. Again, the picture isn't great from my phone. The picture is just good enough that you can see Andy's back (wearing a red hoodie) and Coby.

Meeting with Choir Director

Coby came home from school the other day with a story to tell. He said that he was in class and one of his friends came up to him and told him that Mr. Casperson was looking for him. He didn't think much of it until a second friend came up and told him that Mr. Casperson was looking for him. At this point, he started getting nervous (gulp). He thought for sure he was in trouble somehow but wasn't sure why. He thought that maybe it was for being late or something so he was a little reluctant to run down to his office to find out what it was. Then, while at lunch, four more people came up to him and told him that Mr. Casperson was looking for him. (Mr. Casperson is the Choir Director by the way). So, Coby finally decided to take his punishment and head down to the Music Teacher's office right after he finished his lunch and take it like a man.

Upon arrival, Mr. Casperson invited Coby into his office. The Director politely asked Coby what he had for 8th period. Coby replied that 8th period was when he took his IDLA class online, however, since the class he wanted wasn't available this semester, he was just doing some online html this semester to fill the time during the class. Mr. Casperson was happy to hear this news and replied, "Well, I just found out that I will be needing another boy for my 'JIVE' singing group." Coby paused. Coby had tried out for Jive at the end of the last school year but was not chosen from the group of boys that tried out. He was a little shocked that he had now been asked to join them. He told Mr. Casperson that he would check with his parents to see if this would work into his schedule. Coby brought this news home to Deanna and after a small discussion decided to accept the invitation to join the singing group "JIVE".



We are very excited about this opportunity for Coby. We know he will need to stretch himself but we know he will grow and be successful. It will, however, take quite a bit of hard work. But, I really think Coby will enjoy his time with this group. Way to go Coby!

YouTube

I don't know why but lately I have been obsessed with how many views my video's have been receiving. When you look at the old spice commercial spoof that BYU produced, they received over 2,000,000 views. That is incredible. I mentioned to my kids that I was hoping that the Old Spice Spoof that Andy and I did at Scout Camp would go "viral". They looked at me like I was a little crazy. "What does Viral mean?" they asked. It is when a video becomes so popular that it spreads around the internet like a virus. It isn't an actual virus but it spreads so quickly that it just gets seen by thousands and possibly millions of people in a very short period of time. Businesses pay lots of money these days just trying to get a video out there in the bloggosphere that will go "viral". Anyway, none of my videos have gone viral, in fact, they haven't even been sneezed at. Below are some stats from my Channel on YouTube.

I currently have a measly 6 subscribers.
My most viewed video is "Carters get a Wii" with 665 views.
2nd is "The Super Nerf War" with 479 views.
3rd is "Lower Falls at Yellow Stone Park" with 255 views.
4th is "Banadana skit" with 191 views.
and the one I hoped would go viral at 5th on the list is "Camp Bradley Old Spice Spoof" with 162 views.

Even though the Camp Bradley Video didn't go viral, it definitely moved up the rankings in my YouTube Channel very quickly. It only took a few weeks to hit number 5 on my "most views" list. In comparison, the "Carters get a Wii" video has been out there since December 2008.

Anyway, there you have it. My top five video's on YouTube. Click here if you want and become a subscriber to my YouTube Channel.

Names

I received a comment on one of my videos from a website that had bible names. I decided to track down my name to see what it meant and how awesome or dorky I really was (which I am almost certain is completely dependent on the name given to me at birth).

By traveling around the internet and making several loops around the globe using nothing but fiber optic cables, I was able to confirm my name's meaning.

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Clinton

http://www.behindthename.com/name/clinton

Drum roll please!!!! Ratatatattatararararatatatarraratatatat!

My name means: settlement on the summit
My name means: fenced settlement
My name means: Settlement on the river Glyme

So, with this in-depth research and not one step outside my door, it has been determined that my name is pretty close to meaning "A fenced settlement on the summit on a river". I'm not sure how you can be on a summit and be on a river at the same time but who's to argue with the name-meaning people.

Found New Fun/Cool Blog

I always risk sounding too feminine on my blog posts and today is no exception. I have found a new fun blog. (yes, you could hold your arms up on the sides and let your hands droop down and wave them back and forth to get the full feminine effect), however, in my case (to make me look more masculine) I am holding two huge Sloppy Joe's in my hands while flexing my biceps and reporting that I have found a new cool blog.

Ok, enough with the dramatics, give me the stupid (bad word in our house) website address to this "supposed" fun/cool website.

The website is called Going Postal, Stories from the Mailroom.

This little blog is about a student that works at the MTC. What makes it interesting is that she works in the Mail Room which delivers all of the mail to all of the Missionaries. Every once in a while she posts an interesting little event that happens while at work.

Dual Monitors

Maybe it is the computer geek in me but today's post will be about having dual monitors.



I first setup my computer with dual monitors when I was working for Glanbia. I really didn't feel like I was gaining much by having two monitors at the time, I just like the look and the feel of being able to have so much space on my desktop. I also kinda liked the look people gave me when they walked into my office and saw my monitors wrapped around my desk. "Wow, that's cool", was usually the comment made. I felt cool too. When I left Glanbia I also went back in time to the old days of a single monitor. It wasn't long before I started feeling the pangs of how restrictive one monitor can be. However, I lived with it for a time.

Now, I'm back into technology working for Trilogy Network Systems where I have a little latitude on what I can use on my computer and I'm back to 2 monitors baby! I found this article put out by Microsoft that talks about dual monitors and guess what, it really isn't that hard to get it setup. You will need a video card that matches up with your computer that can handle two monitors ports. Plug the video card into the motherboard on your computer, plug in the 2 monitors and Windows will handle the rest. Here is the article.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/twomonitors.aspx.

The only down side is this (and I tell people this all of the time) once you go to two monitors, you'll never want to go back. Maybe because of the desktop space it gives you. Maybe because of the number of blogs you can pull up at once, or maybe you'll get it just so that someone will walk into your office or your home and say, "Wow, that's cool!"

Rifle Merit Badge

Andy went up to Scout Camp this year with the hopes of completing his Rifle Shooting Merit Badge. As many of you know, this isn't as easy as you would think. Sure, the bookwork is a piece of cake and sitting though the hours of safety instruction is a necessity but the hardest part is getting the bullets to land correctly on the target paper. To qualify, you need to be able to group your shots in groups of three, small enough so that a quarter will cover your bullet holes. You can not use a scope for this requirement and it must be at 50 feet away. At that distance, the bead at the end of the barrel is about as big as the circle on the target, so you have to be very steady and very consistent. Unfortunately, Andy was not able to complete this requirement up at camp so I called one of my good friends that is a gun expert and asked if he could take us to a shooting range and give Andy some more practice. He accepted the challenge and we went out to the range on Saturday. We had a wonderful time thanks to Andy's (my friend) generosity. Even the Dad's got in on the action to try and out-shoot the youngsters. Of course, we had to pull out all of our rusty cowboy talk and swagger the best we could to try and be authentic (just kidding). At the end, Andy was able to fulfill his requirements and walked home with some targets demonstrating his ability to shoot like Wyatt Earp. Here is a short video of all of us at the rifle range. Thanks again to Andy Hamblen for taking some time out of his busy schedule to take us to the rifle range to do some target shooting. We enjoyed every minute of our time out there in the dry Idaho wind at the shooting range.




Here is a link for my Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjuHaVni4NY

hair style

I have had the same hair style since I was about 1 year old. My Dad taught me to part it on the right side and comb it over to the left. There was only one time when I drastically changed my style and that was on my mission. I actually had a flat top hair cut for a couple of weeks. As my hair grew out, it reverted back to the part and comb.

Well, I guess it is time for a change so I picked a picture that looked "modern" and told the hair cut lady to do her best to make me look cool. This is what it is supposed to look like.



Below is the result and my new hair style for the next 40 years. Ok, maybe for the next few months. I know, it isn't anything drastic or exciting, but, it is a change.



Here is a link to the video for my facebook friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjs1E8HrQHo

Bloopers

We have had a pretty good response to the Camp Bradley Video Andy and I made at Scout Camp. It is interesting to note that only a few people have noticed that at the end of the video, Andy rode off without a bike helmet. At Camp Bradley, that's a "no no". After creating this little video, I thought it might be fun to do a "bloopers" video as well so you could see how many times we had to go over everything before we got it right. So, here are the bloopers.



Here is the link for my Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLDctUj4g5w. I don't know why but when my blog post makes it to Facebook, the embedded video is stripped out.

Scout Camp 2010

Yes, it is time again for Scout Camp. It seems like we were up there just a few weeks ago but if you look at the calendar very carefully, you will be able to see that 365 days have passed.

To help Andy get excited about Scout Camp, I promised him that we would make a movie while I was up there. Once I was up there, I kind of lost some of my enthusiasm because I was so tired after serving dinner to 120 scouts. I asked Andy if he still wanted to do it and he still was willing to try it. So, Andy grabbed one of his friends and came with me as I put together this little "commercial".

If you are not familiar with the "Old Spice" commercials on TV and on the Internet, you may not "get" the funniness of the video we made. BYU also made a hilarious commercial as a Spoof off of the Old Spice video that can be viewed at this link.

Enjoy


Here is the link for my Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsMli_p6Jes

Special Olympics

The Special Olympics just became more special for our family this year. Zach Mayer, my nephew and our kids' cousin, qualified to travel to Lincoln Nebraska to compete in the 2010 Special Olympics USA National games. Grandma Wardle and a bunch of family members volunteered to help support Zach in this endeavor and invited Savanna and Katie to travel with her to this wonderful event.

Zach's events included several entries in the Power Lifting competition. While competing for one of his events, the dead lift, he noticed that he had reached the limit of which he was capable of lifting, however, this weight would put him in second place. He knew that 260 lbs was the most he had ever lifted in this particular event but, he found that if he could muster up some extra courage, and extra strength, he would win the gold metal. With his determination fixed, he made a small comment to himself that he was going to try his hardest for his Grandpa. He steadied his feet and fixed his grip. Giving all that he had, Zach somehow managed to lift all 265 pounds, a personal best, to win the gold metal. Many in the audience did not realize that almost a year earlier, his Grandpa Wardle had left this earth unexpectedly. It brings tears to my eyes that Zack still remembered his Grandpa Wardle and wanted him to continue to be a part of his life even though he was on the other side of the veil. I know Grandpa was proud of you Zack and I know he was giving everything he had to help you succeed. I know the veil is thin and I believe that on special occasions, loved ones are allowed to come and witness special events in our lives.



Below is a video clip of Zach taking second place in another event, however we will always remember his triumphal power lift (with the help of Grandpa Wardle) that placed him on the top podium at the Special Olympic Games.



For those of you that don't know Zach, he is on the 2nd place podium on the left of the stage.

Here is a link to the video for my Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drm5WLUj6Wc

Video Production Studio

I thought I was going to be all cool and start producing some amazingly funny video clips (Like this guy) and post them on YouTube and have a thousand people start to follow my YouTube Channel and start earning a ton of money from advertisements and quit my job and move to Hawaii and live on the beach. So (big breath) I decided I needed a studio. I fiddled around the internet looking for "inexpensive" ways to create my own video studio. I gathered the pieces together and made my first video clip.



I must say, it is horrible, terrible, dumb, pathetic, too hot, the sound is too soft, video is too dorky and my face is too fat.

Enjoy!?!

Here is a link for my facebook friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc1Y9RLkBtc

GreenScreen

Just thought that I would let everyone know that I'm taking my video producing and editing skills to the next level. I decided to try out some GreenScreen effects and see what I could do. You probably already know what "Green Screen" is but all of you non-video-editing-producers-and-editors, it is a technique where you put a green color behind your subject, take a few video shots, then take a seperate video shot of something else and then blend the two shots. Everything in green is filled in with the second video shot.

Below is my first try at green screen techniques. I know that it isn't very creative but I didn't have a whole bunch of time to play with it. I just wanted to see if it would work.

Here it is, I've named it, Katie walking around the back yard. Ok, not a very creative name either.



Here is the link for all of my facebook friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8QQFC6NZA

Honor Roll

Congratulations to Coby for making the Twin Falls High School Honor Roll again this last year. Here is his name in print.

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/community/article_3ccd7a61-c466-5b51-8dac-0baf6a02d91b.html

Kate playing softball

I swear that I just did a video of Katie playing softball last month so I went out to my blog to find it. To my amazement, the "Kate playing softball" post was a year ago. I couldn't really believe it so I looked at the posting date to double check. I'm sure that I just did that video last week. Sure enough, the posting date reflected the same date on the video, June 2009. I guess it is time for some more pictures of Katie playing softball.

Katie has really done well this year. This last game, yesterday, she hit the ball well and was able to advance to 3rd base off of two of her power hits. In one particular inning while playing 2nd base, she was able to get all three outs all by herself. She would get in her ready stance, put her glove down in the dirt and prepare for the worst. She would then inch forward in anticipation of a well hit grounder. When the ball was hit to her, she kept her knees bent and scooped up the ball looking for the nearest base to tag. In these three cases, she simply stood up and ran down the nearest player that was running from first to second rendering them "OUT!".

Here are a couple of photos from my cellphone.

Katie's Power Hit!

Katie running after she crushed the ball.

Katie's smiling face after her triple.

Coby Grylls

Coby has always been good at imitating Bear Grylls from the show "Man Vs. Wild" on the Discovery Channel. We've never really figured out a way to get him on video with his impersionation until now. Deanna forced Coby to do his Bear Grylls voice while climbing down off of Independence Rock. Turn up the volume so you can get the full accent and speech patterns.





Here is a link for my facebook friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90CdxJO0GWc

Martin's Cove Trip

Last week our family took a trip to Denver Colorado to attend the wedding of Blake Carter and Estee Blatter in the Denver Colorado Temple. Because we were traveling so far, we decided to make this our "family vacation" for the summer so we looked at our options and found that Martin's Cove was "kinda" on the way to Denver. We scheduled our time and made the trip. Below is my little Flip Video log of our trip. We were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Carter, and the David and Analee Hirschi family as part of our handcart company. We had a great time. I know it is a really boring description but I'm just really tired from the return trip last night.




Link for Facebook Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTIPnK0wWpY

Root Beer

Andy had a baseball game last week in Buhl. With all of the schedules we had to mesh together, it ended up that Deanna took Andy out to the game, and I brought him back. Andy's team did well and won 7 to 14. On the way back from Buhl, I had a hunkering for something but I wasn't sure what. On the way out of Buhl I didn't see anything that would satisfy my craving. We slowed down to travel through Filer so we wouldn't get pulled over by the local police in their speed trap but still, nothing caught my eye.

As we reached Twin, we passed several gas stations and several pawn shops. I resigned myself to just go home and scavenge something from the cupboards. Just then, I saw the A&W sign. Immediately I had a flash back to the days when I was a kid and we were driving back from one of the Stake softball games. If we won, my Dad would usually stop at the A&W and buy a gallon of Root Beer. So, I pulled over to the center lane and signaled to turn into the A&W/Gas Station. Andy looked at me with an inquisitorial look and wondered what was going on. We walked in and I order 1 gallon of Root Beer.



After arriving home, I pulled a cup out of the cupboard and poured myself a tall frosty mug of Root Beer. Now, I don't know how many root beer officionados there are out there reading my blog, but draft A&W Root Beer is in a class by itself. Not even the A&W Root Beer in the can or liter can measure up to the taste.

I am not quite sure what it is that makes it unique but it has a little bit of a bitter taste but a little bit of sweet. However, bitter sweet really doesn't describe it right. If you want the taste of a true old fashioned Root Beer, go to your local A&W store and order the draft. If you like it, order a gallon and take it home and enjoy it all week.

First Harvest

I thought I would post something today about my garden. It is still fairly early in the growing season but I have already been able to reap a harvest from my fledgling flora. At dinner, I went out to my patch of radishes and found 3 of the round red rooted plants big enough to pull and clean. Then, I took my sickle and lopped off a few delicate lettuce leaves. I combined them in a bowl, and a nice fresh tossed salad was my bounteous harvest. It will be a while before my tomatoes and cute cumbers will be ready to join my salad concoction. For now, I am satisfied.

Tradition

I would like to officially announce today that I have raised a son that is carrying on the Carter Family Tradition of running out of gas. Yes, I am sure there will be many skeptics out there that do not believe that the Carters could ever be risky enough to try and drive one more mile after the gas gage has dropped below the "E" on the display panel. But, it has happened. In fact, not only did Coby run out of gas, but he somehow managed to run out of gas on both tanks. Yes, the truck that we allow him to drive has 2 tanks.





So, for all of you non-running-out-of-gas people. What are the official steps to getting your car back on the road and to the nearest gas station? In the Carter Family, we use the following steps.
1. Try starting the car again.
2. Try using the other tank (if the one you are using is empty) Maybe there is enough gas in the other tank to get you going. "All we need in 1 gallon, and there has got to be at least one gallon in there."
3. Try starting the car again.
4. Siphon gas out of the nearest car with a garden hose.
5. Buy a $20.00 plastic gas can and fill it with 1 gallon of gas.
6. Poor gas directly into carburetor to prime the engine.
7. Hitch Hike to the nearest gas station and then follow number 5, then 1, then 6, then 3, then 2 (maybe you poured it into the wrong tank).

Auger Falls on bikes

Many of my blogger readers have requested a video of our second attempt at going to Auger Falls. As you may know, our first attempt was a complete and utter failure. You can read about our failed attempt here.

After the failed hike, we decided to try going to auger falls on bikes. Andy and Savanna braved the elements and the soar legs to ride our bikes. As the video starts out, we were amazed at how far we rode and how much ground we covered. We discovered that Auger Falls was still quite a ways from where we turned around. If fact, Savanna started to complain how far it was, even on a bike.

Here is my short video on our trip on bikes. Please watch all the way to the end. There is a "kicker".



Here is the link for my facebook friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNCsSe_fHQc

Varsity Letter

Coby has worked very hard this year to play on the tennis team. He practiced weekends, he practiced after school, he practiced after practice and after he practiced after practice, he practiced some more. He has really improved and become a valuable player on the Twin Falls High School Tennis Team. Tonight he was awarded a Varsity Letter for his efforts and for playing on the Varsity Tennis Team.



Go Coby!

Take me out the the Ball Game

My brother Blake will be getting married next month and I have been thinking about doing video's of weddings for some reason. I've watched a few on YouTube that were very well done. Not only did the videographer capture video of the newlyweds and the attendees at the wedding, but the video also captured some of the unseen ambiance and detail of the wedding. For expample, one of the videos shows the flower arrangements, or the shoes of the groom all shiny, or just a couple holding hands. It inspired me to try and capture some of that "other" feeling in my videos. So, with that in mind, I drew my flip video out of my holster and began to shoot. I didn't add any transitions but I tried to add some "color" to my video'ing. I really don't think it added much to a baseball video but I am sure it would have been better if I was filming a wedding.

Anyway, if you would like to watch the vid, here it is.




Here is the link for all of my FaceBook Friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7--eUmDwPOU

water softener

I didn't have much planned for this Saturday. I was excited about having a nice leisurely weekend. As I stumbled around I decided to go down to the laundry room to move some wet cloths from the washer to the dryer. I turned around to look at our water softener and noticed a small leak coming from a small tube on the filter. The leak was a small steady stream of water that sprayed over onto the water heater. As I moved closer to see how bad it was, it was at that moment that I knew my Saturday had taken on a whole new theme. It was "Replace the Water Softener" weekend.



I was so excited (you all know how excited I get when there is plumbing to do) that I ran quickly upstairs and grabbed my BUCKET OF PIPE FITTINGS! Unfortunately none of the fittings would work for the delicate plumbing job I was about to undertake. So I turned off the water to the house and ran to Lowes to find a new water softener. I don't know if any of you know, this is not a cheap proposition. I picked the softener that best fit our families size and wept as I opened my pocketbook to pay out the $500.00.

After 3 more trips home and back to Lowes, I finally had the plethora of pipes and connectors to put my new softener into action.

After replacing our softener, we have noticed a huge difference in water pressure. We used to wait 10 minutes for the toilets to fill up and only one person could shower at a time. With our new softener, we enjoy a full complement of pressure which makes nice showers, but also uses up our hot water much quicker.