Back To School Too

Ok, everyone else is posting "back to school" pics so I guess I had better join the herd and post my own.

Here is the Carter's first day of school pictures.

School Starts

Every year we head over to our elementary school for their annual open house. This is a time when the parents and the kids get to see their new class rooms and meet their new teacher. Each year we do this, I make sure that our kids dress up in nice clothes (not church clothes) but nice clothes, to meet their new teacher. Every year the kids complain about having to look nice to go to school for the first time. My requirements are, no flip flops, not tee shirts, no shorts. They are to wear a collared shirt, long pants without holes and shoes. Girls should wear a skirt. All I get is griping, gowning, and complaining. HOWEVER, when we arrive at the school, they are all looking nice and presentable. I follow the same rules and wear a collared shirt, nice pants and a suit jacket.

My Sister Rachael taught me this important lesson one year while picking her brain about life. She mentioned that every time she went to the school to meet with a teacher or an administrator, she always dressed up in her nicest outfit and if she could, she would wear a suit. She found that the administrator and the teachers would treat her much different just based on how she dressed. I totally believe it so now, when I go to the school, I always try to dress up.

So, to round out this blog post, I was shocked at how many of the parents and kids were dressed when attending the "open house" at our elementary school. Parents were wearing flip flops, tee shirts, grungy shorts, tank tops. It was amazing. The kids were dressed the same, sloppy, and slouchy.

First impressions do matter. I'm going to hold to my standard of always dressing up to go to school.

DMZ

I have stared to listen to Dennis Miller on the radio in the mornings as I am headed to work and while I am skateboarding around town trying to solve computer problems for people. I find his musings very entertaining and very insightful. I really like his show because he is always using vocabulary that I am unfamiliar with and he uses analogies that really make you stop and think. Once you stop and think about his analogy and how it fits into his line of thinking, you have just missed the next 10 seconds of his rant. So, you really have to be on your toes to be able to keep up with his discussion.



Dennis Miller

Here is Dennis's website. http://dennismillerradio.com/site If you want to listen live, just click on "Listen Live Free" in the middle section. You could also go to this website link, http://dennismillerradio.com/programhighlights and click on "Download a segment here". Or, click this link to download and listen to his "Pitch" right here.

Once I was listening to Dennis and a caller called in and made the following comment, "I love your show Dennis but I must admit, I only "get" about 1/3 of that you are saying.". Dennis replied, "That's ok because I am making up about 2/3's of what I say."

Anyway, check out the Dennis Miller Show the next time you are in the car and are sick of the all of the other radio personalities out there. I liken this radio show to the concentration and depth of knowledge you need to watch "West Wing".

Outdoor article

So, we have been encouraging Coby to write as much as possible so I decided one day to contact my friend that works at the local newspaper to see if there was something that Coby could type up that might make it into the newspaper. He informed me that sometimes they will have small articles published in the Outdoor section. This was great news because Coby was just about ready to head up to Scout Camp. Before Coby left, we gave him an assignment to write something about an event that happened while being outdoors at Scout Camp. Well, I am sorry to say that I was very skeptical that this assignment would remain in his longterm memory. To my surprise he marched home from camp and typed up a nice little article. I went in to the local paper and asked if he could submit it as an Outdoor article and they gave me their email address. I rushed home to make sure Coby shined up the short story so it could be emailed to the editor.

Well, as of yet, we haven't see his work published. I'm not sure that they ever will so I am going to publish it in my blog. The editor did think writing was good but, he just wasn't sure he would have enough room to fit it in. If it does make the paper, you will be the first (or second) to know.

Here is the link to the paper he wrote. Coby's Hawk Story

Hypochondriac or West Nile

Definition of Hypochondriac

Hypochondriac: A person who has hypochondriasis, a disorder characterized by a preoccupation with body functions and the interpretation of normal body sensations (such as sweating) or minor abnormalities (such as minor aches and pains) as portending problems of major medical moment. Reassurance by physicians and others only serves to increase the hypochondriac's persistent anxiety about their health.

Ok, we all know that a hypochondriac is continually worried about dying of a horrible disease. I would like to submit supportive evidence that I have this problem.

When I was younger, I was told that if my left arm ached and started to tingle that I was going to have a heart attack. Well, there have been several times throughout my life that I am pretty sure I had a heart attack because I have had these exact symptoms, however, it always seems to re-occur right after I am reminded of these symptoms.

A month or two ago I was told that my second cousin had a brain tumor. My Dad told me that the symptoms where uncontrolled twitching of your fingers and hands. I put this in the back of my mind after hearing of these symptoms and low and behold, just a few days later, my fingers felt like they were twitching. As I thought over what I had done over the last few days I tried to figure out what may have caused it because I really didn't want to have a brain tumor. I then realized that maybe it was just my hand reacting to pitching curve balls to my son the two night previous. Either that or I was a gonner.

Just this week I wasn't feeling very well. My stomach was turning and bubbling and I wasn't sure what was causing it. I thought back to what I had eaten over the last few days to try and pin it on something. Maybe I had food poisoning. Then, I read in the paper that the first case of West Nile Virus had been discovered. The symptoms are akin to having the flu. Well, that did it for me, I am sure I have West Nile Virus.

So, for future reference, if you know of a new frightening disease, please do not tell me about it nor tell me about the symptoms. I am very likely to come down with that very disease the very next day.

Social Networking

I have now entered the world of social networking. I'm not quite sure how it works but I'm willing to give it a try. I have signed up for http://www.linkedin.com and I have added a few people to my "network". We will see what happens. I should have a half a million dollar job land in my lap in just a few days. :-)

If you don't know what social networking sites are, you can watch this little video that will teach you what it is all about.

High Adventure

High Adventure Camp was at Redfish lake this year. We had 10 venture age young men with us an 3 adult leaders. We camped for a whole week at the far end of the lake shown in the image below as location #3. There are 2 ways of getting to this camp ground. You can hike 2 miles around the lake and camp, or you can take a boat across the lake. Our stake brought up 4 boats and shuttled all of us over to the camping area.

Redfish like is very beautiful and secluded, however, more and more people are visiting each year. I was suprised to find the lodge full of campers on a Wednesday.

While I was there I did a little geocaching. There are about 7 geocaches in this area. One of the caches I found had never been found before. I was the first to find. (which is very cool in the geocaching world)

The week went very well. We took one day and hiked into a lake called "Hell Roaring".
The hike was about 5 miles back and half way through the trek the clouds opened up and delivered a load of water that completely drenched us all. We started to worry about staying the night but after we found shelter for everyone and started a fire, the clouds parted and the sun dried us out. It was a good experience for us all.

The best part of the week was when a return missionary came up and delivered a talk to all of our youth. He was straight forward and talked plainly about a mission. I think all of the boys were affected in a positive way.

Great week for scouters at High Adventure Camp.

Last Will and Testament

Finally, Deanna and I have completed our Last Will and Testament. Ok, not just that, we finished our living Will, our Power of Attorney and all of the rest of it. If we die tomorrow, we should be good to go (no pun intended).

We have been trying to put this together for years and finally, our ward put together an evening and had one of the lawyers from our stake come over and talked to us about Will's and Trusts. We talked with the lawyer that night and worked through some of the details. Today, we finally went over, finalized our paperwork and signed on the dotted line.

I'm glad to finally have that little issue taken care of in our lives.

BTW, I am leaving all of my debt to my kids. :-)

Too Busy to Blog

Yes, that is correct, I have been too busy to blog. I know that you are all as busy or busier than I am but I am doing my best to use it as an excuse for why I have not posted any pithy comments on my blog lately.

I have had a bunch of ideas for a new blog post but I just haven't been inspired enough to jab away at my keyboard to make them a reality.

Andy is playing baseball in the Cal Ripken All Star League. He is on a team called the Americans. They have a game this week up at Moscow. (not Russia, Idaho) The Idaho version of Moscow is pronounced (Moss Ko). Of course, the Russian version of Moscow is pronounced (Moss Cow). Anyway, we hope he and his team does well up in northern idaho.

Coby is just finishing up his Eagle Scout Application. He met with the Scout Master last night to finish his "Scout Masters Conference". He needs just a couple more signatures before he can mail his app to the national headquarters for review. He has started working on an award called "The Congressional Award". This should keep him busy the rest of the summer. He has also been participating in Speed School at Golds Gym. So, Coby has had a busy summer, not including YCC and Scout Camp coming up next week.

Savanna has been clogging and playing the piano all summer. She has had to really learn quickly because she has moved up 2 team levels and is now dancing with cloggers 2 years older than herself. She seems to be picking up the choreography very well.

Katie lost a tooth this week. She is now without one of her front teeth. The other front tooth came in months ago. She can finally start eating food normally and not have to turn her mouth sideways to try and avoid hitting the loose tooth.

Deanna has been playing tennis this summer but with all of the other activities we have going on, she hasn't found much time to practice. She moved up one level in tennis this year and is now wishing she could go back to her old rating so she go back to crushing her opponents instead of being crushed.

The Twin Falls Temple Open House has begun. There are many OOOO's and AHHH's from the members that have taken the tour last week. Our family will be taking the tour in about an hour (literally). I'll give you a report on our reactions. We have already had our first protester but I'm not sure he is doing such a great job at protesting. He just sits on the grass under an umbrella with a small table of pamphlets. I didn't even notice him when I went past the temple on Saturday but Deanna assures me that he was there. We really do feel more legitimate now that we have our own temple protester.

Well, that is about it for me. Sorry there wasn't some wonderful anecdote nor deep thoughtful message involved. I'll think up something clever next time.

Fathers Day

Just before Fathers day I had a catastrophic event happen to me. My watch band decided to crack and start to separate. I was devastated. You could hear my disappointment all over the house when I bellowed, "Oh No!". Deanna immediately asked me what had happened, thinking that I had either sliced through my finger or fractured my ankle. I replied to her query that my watch band had a tear and was on the verge for breaking apart. I quickly ran downstairs with my watch band teetering on disaster and used my "tech" brain cells to come up with a viable solution. This technique has been used for years by geeks around the world to save similar problems with their favorite coke bottle glasses. I grabbed the black electrical tape and began tightly winding its sticky elastic like tape around my watch band. After being satisfied with my engineering genius, I noticed that the black tape blended nicely with my black watch band to be almost completely camouflaged from the normal persons view.

A few days later I noticed that my timepiece was not held to my wrist like it used to be. In further examination I noticed that the electrical tape had given way to the pressures of holding the two sides of my now completely severed watchband. I then new that either I needed to purchase a new watch, or somehow find a replacement watchband for my Timex Ironman Data Link Watch.
Now, I must inform my readership that this is no ordinary Timex Watch. This deluxe model Ironman watch has many features not offered on any other watch that I have found. It has a chronograph, which isn't much of a new feature since all it does it count time as time passes. It has a count down timer which is awesome for keeping track of how long the hamburgers have been on the grill or how much longer you have to watch "Deadliest Catch" on your lunch hour. It has 10 alarms for waking you up in the morning while out of town. It has schedules, Appointments. It also has contacts that you can upload to it so that if you are out of town, you can still find the phone number to the Park City Condo. As you can tell, I really use my watch and all of it's features. The down side to purchasing this watch is that it comes with a price tag of $90.00 and I am not one to spend that kind of money on a watch so it really made me sick to think it was time to buy another watch.

So, this Fathers Day I ripped open one of my gifts to find a nice new watchband for my favorite watch in the world. I quickly figured out how to snap out the old band and install the new components. My wrist feels normal again and I don't have to struggle to yank out my phone every time I need to know the date and time. AND, I no longer spend too much time at lunch watching the latest episodes of "So you think you can dance".

Texting

I was talking to a friend the other day about using text messaging to communicate with people. He is a Dad of 5 kids and uses texting to talk with his kids while they are away. He went into a very convincing discussion about how his children could be on a date or at a movie and he could still be in contact with them through text messages. He knows where they are and what they are doing. He uses it the most with his teen age daughter and says it has kept them close. I queried him about how many message he or she would send per month. He said that he tries to keep her from sending more than 3000 per month. WOW, that is like 100 texts per day. I don't think I could even thumb and finger out that many pithy comments if I tried. I asked him about how much it cost to have the text service and he just replied that he has a plan with unlimited texting.

Anyway, a few days later I decided to try out my texting skills while taking my daughter to Sun Valley for a clogging performance. So, I sent a text message to Deanna every once in a while letting her know where we were and what was happening. I sent text's like this, "Were almost there", "its raining", "We R stopping at McD's". She would reply quickly and it was quite fun. After about 5 text's she sent this message, "Did you know it costs $.05 per text?". Well, that did it for me, I was done sending texts.

Today, I pondered over the idea that with our cell phone plan, maybe we had free texting between phones on the same network, "Sprint". So I called. I found out that Texting is not free between Sprint users, AND, THEY CHARGE $.20 PER TEXT FOR BOTH SENDING AND RECEIVING!!!!! WHAT!!!!!

Anyway, I thought it was Blogworthy, so I wrote it up and posted it.

Article from the New Era about Texting.

Memorial Day

Our family has a tradition of visiting 3 grave sites during the memorial day weekend. We visit Grandpa and Grandma Carter in the cemetery in Buhl Idaho first. The grave looked well kept but for the first time, there weren't any flowers on the grave when we arrived. Ok, maybe it wasn't the first time but it seemed odd to me. So, we cleaned out the holes where flowers are usually placed, filled it with water and placed our flowers that we brought from home.

After discussing who Grandma and Grandpa Carter were, we went Asparagus hunting. This has always been my favorite part of Memorial Day but this year we were a little worried that we wouldn't find anything because of the late arrival of spring. So, we drove at 5 miles an hour around the back roads of Buhl Idaho in search of the mother load. The first mile we were able to harvest 2 asparaguses (asparagui?). I thought for sure the kids would be board at the slim pickings, but to my surprise, they loved it and wanted to do more. Three or four more miles went by with the same amount of success. By the end of mile 5 we only had about 10 asparagi. The kids wanted to continue to hunt, Deanna and I were ready to go back to Twin. So, I turned the next mile corner to return to the main road when we hit the jackpot. Within a quarter of a mile we picked up 40 asparaguses. The kids were thrilled and wanted to asparagus hunt the rest of the day. Well, we didn't have that kind of time, nor gas mileage so we headed for Twin.

Back in Twin, we visited Grandma Marian's grave back in Twin Falls and then stopped by my Sister's baby's grave. We stopped and talked at each grave, we planted the flowers we brought and enjoyed the casual afternoon with sprinkles of rain. We had a great day visiting these sites and remembering those that came before us. I'm very thankful we have memorial day to make those memories last.

Staycation

I was listening to the radio this morning and the news anchor talked about the fact that a lot of people will not be taking a vacation this year because of gas prices and food prices. She said that many families are going to take a Stay Cation this year. Which basically means that they will be staying home. She said that people are going to spend their money on purchasing a new grill or patio furniture so they can vacation at home.

As I thought about this, I decided to bring up the idea with Deanna. Lets have a Staycation this year. We could stay at home and every day we could go do something fun and exciting that is right here in Southern Idaho. Some places and things we could do on our staycation are Bowling, Swimming, Rollerskating, Balanced Rock, Bruneau Sand Dunes, Golf and Tennis. Anyway, Deanna thought it might be a good idea so we will have to schedule the week and then plan an activity for each day. Another fantastic benefit is that we will be home every night sleeping in our own beds.

I'll let you know how it goes, if we actually do it.

Stimulus Package

What are you going to do with the money you get from the "Stimulus Package"?

I know that the government wants me to go and buy a bunch of junk from the stores to help stimulate the economy but for me, I want to do something really really boring with our money. I want to pay off debt. I know, it is not glamorous, it is not exciting, it isn't even interesting and I am probably turning off a plethora of readers by even mentioning it.

We have a couple of other options. We have talked about maybe using it for a family vacation. Maybe using it for a remodel of the bathroom that somehow didn't get finished. Or, just tuck it away for a rainy day and when the fuel prices are lower and take a long drive across the USA to visit some Church Historical sites.

Well, I'm not sure what we will do yet but that money is burning a hole in our checking account and we need to decide what we are going to do with it before we spend it all on Twinkies and Ding Dongs.

Appreciate your leaders

Tonight we had a Senior Recognition Dinner for the graduating seniors in our ward. The Laurals agreed to do the dinner and the Priests were to put on the show and setup and take down. Well, the dinner was the hard part. Two of the Laural Advisers went to the church at 4:00pm today to setup for the dinner at 7:00pm. The dinner was amazingly delicious. The tables were set, there were center pieces on each table, it looked wonderful. They worked so hard to put it together and to make it special. I, of course, did my part and the night was a success. I mentioned several times to the whole group of how much time and energy went into doing the dinner and the tables and decorations. The leaders really did a great job.

I am particularly sensitive to this issue of appreciating your leaders because about a month ago I learned what it felt like to not be appreciated at all. Here is the story.

There was an Eagle Court of Honor coming up where two of our Young Men were going to receive their Eagle Scout Rank. The day of the event I realized the no one had planned anything for this historic event except to have a speaker and awards. As I thought about the Court of Honor I realized that I needed to do something to make it more memorable. So, I went over to the church an hour and a half early. I took two tents, all of my dutch ovens, fishing pole, shovel, axe, lantern and any other camp gadget or camp gear I had in the garage. I created a mini campsite in the middle of the gym to set the mood for the Eagle Court of Honor. It took a lot of work but when I was done it really looked cool.

Everyone filed into the gym, we had the court of honor and everyone left. No one helped clean up, no one asked who had set the gym up so nice, no one even noticed. I picked up all of my stuff by myself and took it back home.

I now make sure and thank those leaders that have put in time and effort to make these events special.

Can't live without

My sister wrote on her blog of something she just can't live without. Here is her little blog article.
Anyway, I started to think about what I can't live without and I really couldn't think of anything until this morning. It is my toothbrush.

My toothbrush is all warn down and half of the bristles are flat. I really shouldn't be using it anymore but I just don't want to throw it away. This morning, it was done so I threw it in the trash and got a new toothbrush out of the closet. You must know that the toothbrush I threw away was no ordinary toothbrush. It is a MONSTER tooth brush called a Radius toothbrush.


Now, I am brushing my teeth with 1/8 of the brush I was using before and I am serious, it feels like I am trying to brush my teeth with a toothpick. Look at how many bristles are on this thing. It is AWESOME!!! I'm going to have to go out and buy another set of 3 or 6 or I am seriously going to go crazy with these small, thin, rinky dink toothbrushes that they have in the stores.

I miss my Monster Toothbrush!

Reward

Coby has been struggling to keep motivated about getting his Eagle Project complete and his Camping Merit Badge. He only needs a couple of things on each to finally put them to rest. Coby went to the Scout O Rama last weekend and learned about a game called Speed Stacking. http://www.speedstacks.com. He really wanted but buy a set of stacking cups so I told him that if he finished his Eagle Project paperwork, (which only needed one more signature) and he finished his Camping Merit Badge, (which only needed one requirement and a signature) we would let him buy a Speed Stacking Set.Well, yesterday Coby finished his Eagle Scout Project paperwork. He also finished his Camping Merit Badge. We were able to do both in one evening. So, after they were both signed, I took him straight over to Target and picked up the "Glow in the Dark" Speed Stacking set. He loved it and played with it until bed time. His best time was 20 seconds.

Coby has one more merit badge to complete. It is the Citizenship in the Community. He needs to volunteer for a Non-Profit organization for 8 hours. Once he completes this requirement he will be ready to submit his application to receive his Eagle Scout Award.

Go Coby!!

Overwhelmed

I know it is hard to believe, but I have been overwhelmed with the mountain of activities and responsibilities that have come my way. It really feels like college finals week every single week. You've been there before, you know you have tests all week. You haven't studied enough and if you study every hour of every day before the test, you know you still won't know enough to get an A in the class. Then, your car breaks down so you have to walk everywhere and you were just reminded that you haven't paid your rent yet. Plus, you have a 40 page report due on Friday which is worth half of your grade. Well, I would really like to go back to finals week. Why you ask?Here is a copy of our schedule for this very week. Keep in mind that all of these things have to be done AFTER we get home from work. I generally get home about 5:00pm and Deanna gets home around 4:00pm.

Monday: family home evening, baseball practice; ship some figurines, dinner
Tuesday: piano for Coby, Piano for Andy, Piano for Savanna, Baseball game, Soccer game, fix dinner
Wednesday: Baseball practice, clogging practice and tryouts, dinner, temple interviews and Mutual, Home Teaching
Thursday: Baseball game, Soccer Game, Temple interview, mow neighbors lawn, ship some figurines, fix dinner
Friday: Date night, and some other stuff I think I forgot, fix dinner for kids
Saturday: Youth Temple Trip to Boise all day long, mow lawn, plant garden do yard work around the house and clean up the disaster that happened all week.
Sunday: FAST SUNDAY!!!!! Meetings, meetings, Fast offerings, High Adventure Meeting.

Ok, am I through? No, I still have many other things that I just couldn't fit into the day. Do I sound a little overwhelmed?
Wouldn't it be nice just to go back to college and have finals week again? I am having finals week every week. AARRGGHH!

Stock

I don't know why but I have been really interested in the stock market lately. I try to watch Jim Cramer when I get home from work to learn more about what is happening in the stock market. Recently I have been following and buying stock in a company called ISRG. It has done really well since I bought it so I am happy. Google did not do well so I had to let it go. My next stock purchases will be FSLR or MRK so keep an eye on them for me.

Currently I own ISRG, QQQQ and EWO.

I'm not making millions yet.

Your friendly stock picker!

BOOYA!

Garden

In a feeble attempt to fulfill a commandment from our Prophet, I have planted a garden. We, the kids and I, have planted one whole row of beans. (I think I will be the only one eating this bumper crop of beans). One row of Cantalope. (Which I have never planted before). One row of carrots. (Which I have planted several years but never sprouted). One row of radishes. (which have been my saving grace each year I have attempted a garden). And two rows of peas. (why two rows of peas? I don't know.)



Since Blogging has technically satisfied the commandement to keep a journal, I am hoping that this garden will fill the check box next to my name in heaven that says, "planted a garden".



Here is a picture of the garden.

Click on the picture to enlarge the photo. The green toothpicks are peas, the red is radishes, the blue is carrots, the purple is cantalope and the brown is beans.

I know you were expecting a plot 30 x 100 feet but this is about all I can do right now until I find a roto-tiller. The new and improved garden which I affectionately call gardan version 2.0 will start out in my yard at the end of April.

Stay tuned.

Class President

Andy Carter ran for class president this week. Deanna made some cookies and I printed up some fliers for him to deliver to each of his classmates to persuade them to vote for him. Here is the little Flyer.




The first round of voting was completed on Monday and it ended in a virtual tie. The teacher announced that the voting was too close to call. (where have we heard that before?!) There were three students that were absent that day so the three students would have to vote on Tuesday which could decide the outcome of this election. I guess you could call them Super Delegates!

So, to make a long story sort, I am please to announce that the wait is over, the results are in, the dangling chads have been reviewed. Andy Carter has officially been elected Class President of Mrs. Noah's 5th Grade Class.



Andy would like to thank all of the little people involved in his campaign for President. His first order of business is to make sure that everyone in class gets the opportunity to be first in line when going to lunch. The second order of business is to install a Coke Machine in the back of the classroom and to get student passes to spend their lunch hour in the Teachers Lounge. I think he was making campaign promises he knew he couldn't keep. But, I guess that is politics. *shrug*

130 in 1 hour

Last night Coby executed the BURN activity of his Eagle Project. He arranged to have 3 people bring their laptops or PC's. I brought my PC with 3 external burners. We were able to burn 130 CD's in one hour. Coby had all of the scouts there making labels, putting CD's into Jewel cases and marking on the CD's "K-9 Web Filter". Coby did great at organizing and executing this task.

He has talked with the Bishops in our Stake and they will contact Coby on how many CD's they will want for their wards. When I talked to our Bishop to see what he would want, he said he would like all 130 CD's but he felt that was a little too much to take them all so he would settle for 70. So, all Coby needs to do now is deliver the CD's and he will be ready to have his Eagle Project signed off.

After the Eagle Project is completed, he only has his Camping Merit Badge and his Citizenship in the Community and he will be ready for an Eagle Board of Review.

Congratz Coby!

Now, we just need to keep this momentum up for our 11 year old scout.

I'm Famous?

I received a call from my Mother in Law last week that I was famous because I was in their local newspaper. She told me that "The Southern Idaho Press" (SIP) had written a story about me.

I could only think of one thing. It can't be good!

My Mother in Law brought over the newspaper clipping a couple of days ago so I had to post it to my blog for all to see.

If you look through the rest of the report, there were 3 other poor souls that decided to plead guilty to the misdemeanor change and pay the fine. So, the guy in front of me and they guy behind me weren't so lucky.

I might also tell you that I received a bill in the mail from the lawyer friend of mine. He spent 2.75 hours on my case. At $170 per hour I was really swallowing hard and didn't want to look at the bottom of the page for the total bill. The total said, $0. What I super nice guy!

Parable of the washing machine

A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson.

At stake conference this last weekend we had a visiting GA. He is a member of the Quorum of the Seventy (how many quorums of 70 are there now?). Anyway, he told us of a parable that he had heard from one of the Apostles. I hesitate to put this on my blog because it will be totally from memory and I would hate to miss quote a 70 who was telling a story about an Apostle. So, this is not fact, this is a parable told 3rd hand. I will not even mention the 70's name nor the Apostle.

Here is the situation. The visiting GA said he was in a meeting with a number of brand new Mission Presidents and their wives. The Apostle told them a parable then left the room. He told them to figure out what it meant and then call him back and let him know.

Here is the Parable of the washing machine.

"At the front of the store was a new washing machine. There were a number of salesman standing around the washing machine. The inventor of the washing machine was also there. The wife of the inventor walks up to the group standing around the new washing machine and asks, "What is this supposed to do?"."


Well, that is it! The GA then opened up the room for discussion to come up with the meaning of this parable.

What do you think it means?

Inspection

I have implemented a new program in the Carter House. It is called inspection. I wasn't sure if it would work or not but so far, it has been great.

I have two daughters that don't think twice about dropping anything and everything they have on the floor of their room. They have 200 million stuffed animals, they have 100 million books, and 50 million crayons. In a matter of minutes their room can be so cluttered with stuff that you can not even see the floor. Then, every Saturday we go through the process of yelling and screaming at them to clean up their rooms. It really never gets clean. SO, last Saturday I held to my guns and made sure that EVERYTHING was picked up off of the floor. I mean everything. Not one animal, not one shirt, not one sock. Then, I told the girls that I would inspect their room every day.

First day, I found a few things on the floor during inspection and I found their drawers open and shoes left out. I pointed them out and the girls put the stuff away. The room was clean. The next day, less items were on the floor. Each day there have been less and less stuff on the floor. Tomorrow is Saturday and I think they are starting to see with a "small" amount of effort all week they will have a clean room the next Saturday.

The girls like it so much, they find me when I get home from work and ask for an inspection of their room. I have started to have fun with it and I am now requiring them to salute. :-)



The next disaster area I am hoping to clean up with my inspection tactics will be unleashed on the boys. I'll let you know how it goes.

Eagle Project

Coby has been trying to put together some ideas on what he can do for an eagle project. He first wanted to do a project where he would gather a bunch of stuff to send to the troops in Iraq but he didn't get it done and thought out fast enough to get it done for Christmas. So, he started thinking of other things he could do for his eagle project. Of course, I have been looking for something for him as well. So, last week we started talking about some possible projects. One of which I brought up he decided to pursue.

Here it is. I have come across a web filtering software that is FREE. Not just an evaluation copy or a trial copy but completely free for home use. I thought this was a pretty cool product and I have installed it on a few computers to test it out, including my computer at home. The software is excellent and again, free. So, my idea was to have copy talk to the Stake and see if they would allow him to give out 100 free CD's with this web filtering software. Oh, I should probably tell you the software, it is called K-9 web filtering. http://www.getk-9.com



Anyway, Coby liked the idea so he started putting together some ideas.

Here were the ideas;
1: Put together a fireside where the threats on the internet were discussed and then Coby could make a presentation about the software. He could explain how it worked and how to install it. He would then make 100 CD's available to those that wanted to take it home and use it.
2: Make 100 CD's available for all of the bishops in the stake so that the bishops can give out these CD's to people who want them.
3: Make 100 CD's available to the High Council speakers to distribute when they give a talk about the internet and pornography.
4: Offer the CD to those that want them as part of a 5th Sunday lesson.


We then went over to his the Eagle Project Review guy and talked to him about it. He thought the project would be great but he would need to get the Stake President or Bishop to approve this project first. So, Coby called and setup an appointment with the Stake President and went in and presented the idea. The Stake President liked the idea and asked Coby to present his project at a Bishops meeting in March. All those bishops that would like to participate could then opt in or opt out. The Stake President thought it would be best to make it an options for a 5th Sunday lesson. Anyway, he signed Coby's paper and the next day he had the Scout Committee, Scout Master and the Eagle Project Review guy. He now has a completely approved Eagle Project in hand and is just waiting to put the rest of the pieces together for the presentation in March.

I think Coby is excited about it and the bonus is that it has to do with computers and CD's and programs which he really enjoys.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes from here.

Clint

Does this count?

On Sunday I was taking an inventory of all of the things that I still do not do in my life to be perfectly in line with the teachings of the Prophets. One of them that came to mind was a journal. I have a small journal writing program on my computer that I use to type up some of my journal entries. Every time I look at that program, my last entry is inevitably 6 months to 12 months ago. I always start out my next entry with, "I know it has been a long time since I have written in my journal, I will recommit to writing more often". And so it goes each entry.

As I was kicking myself for not writing in my journal, I then realized that I might be able to "count" my blog entries as a journal. Wow, what a concept. All I will have to do is copy and paste my blog entries into my journal. Do you think that when I get into heaven and the checklist is read off, that a check mark will be placed in the "journal" column? Or, a demerit might be placed in it's stead and in big red letters it states, "A blog is not a journal!".

The journal software I purchased is is called It's Personal. Unfortunately it has been discontinued, http://www.rkssoftware.com/misc/discontinued.html.

Plead Guilty

I plead guilty on Friday and I'm happy about it?

So, my lawyer called the prosecuting attorney to discuss a lessor sentence than a misdemeanor citation. The prosecuting attorney agreed to drop the charge of misdemeanor citation and lower the charge to a traffic violation. The traffic violation that I was charged with, and plead guilty to, was a speeding ticket. So, I went into the courthouse in Burley Idaho and paid the fine for my speeding ticket and somehow, I was happy to pay it.

The misdemeanor citation would have cost me $90.00 but having a misdemeanor citation on my record could have cost me a lot more.

Now, the final chapter in this story will be the cost of the attorney. I had my friend work on the deal and I am not sure yet how much he will charge me. It could be up to 3 hours worth of work and at $170 per hour, it could cost over $500 for the whole deal.

What a lesson to learn about using the Emergency Cross Over on a Freeway. Don't Do It! Not even in an emergency.

Earthquake!!!

This is Clint Carter reporting live from Twin Falls Idaho were it has been reported that there was an earthquake this morning February 21 2008.

At about 7:20am this morning the Carter Family felt a 6.3 magnitude Earthquake rattle through their house. Clint, the father of 4 children, was resting nicely in his bed when he heard a loud rumble and heard and felt the house shaking. Being wide awake in an instant, he immediately jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. His wife and 8 year old daughter were sitting at the kitchen table with wide eyes. His wife asked, "did we just have an earthquake"? "Yep, that was an earthquake", he said. As they sat around the kitchen table Mr. Carter noticed that the kitchen chandelier was swinging back and fourth a little and on the wall, Mrs. Carter had hung a number of wooden painted signs that had the 6 Be's on them. All of them were swinging back and fourth on their strings. Mr. Carter remarked that is felt like a large truck had just rumbled past the house (which is almost impossible since they live at the end of a cul-de-sac). Mrs. Carter stated that it felt like about 10 seconds of shaking whereas Clint felt only about 3 seconds. Deanna likened the jolt to a sonic boom. Mr. and Mrs. Carter then turned on the radio and listened to News Radio 1310 KLIX as they reported, within minutes, that there had indeed received a 6.3 shock wave with an epicenter just east of Wells Nevada. Wells Nevada is approximately 100 miles from Twin Falls Idaho. Other reports have been streaming in from Burley and the surrounding areas. No reported injuries or damage at this time.

This is Clint Carter reporting from the Carter News Network. Now back to you in the studio.

$500 or 5 years in prison

So, I talk to my lawyer about this Misdemeanor Citation and he tells me that this charge has maximum penalties of $500 or 5 years in prison. YIKES!

I talked to a lawyer friend of mine and had him look at the citation I received to get his advise. He told me that I could plead guilty and pay the fine and have a misdemeanor on my record, or I could go and plead not guilty and explain my situation to the judge and hope of a lessor charge. He also said that he could represent me at the court and take care of it for me but he would charge $170 per hour for his time. Burley is 1 hour away, so it would be at the very least 2 hours in travel and then his time at the court. Holy Cow, That is over $500 right there!!! I don't see how people can afford to use a lawyer.

Anyway, I am having the lawyer call the Prosecuting Attorney and see if I can get a lessor citation of an infraction. If that works, I'll no longer be a hardened criminal on the lam. I'll be an infractor. (if that is a word)

Misdemeanor Citation

Can you believe it? I have been Cited with a Misdemeanor!!!!! AAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!

I was driving to Malta last Monday and expected to take I-84 south down to Malta. When I reached the interchange I was met with a sign that said "Road Closed, Detour". The detour pointed further down the road towards Pocatello. I didn't want to drive to Pocatello. I continued down the road looking for a detour so I could drive back to Declo and take the back roads into Malta. As I looked ahead I saw a truck crossing the middle using the emergency crossover. I figured that this must be the detour. (conveniently leaving out details) I was then met by a police officer standing in the middle of the road which motioned me to pull over. He then informed me, as his teeth chattered from the cold, that I would need to wait for him to give me a citation. I sat and waited to see what would happen. Hopefully, I thought, he would just give me a warning and let me go since it was a wintery day and due to the unusual circumstances. Well, that didn't "detour" (no pun intended) our friendly freezing police officer. He gave me a Misdemeanor Citation for using the Emergency Crossover. I asked him, "when can someone use the emergency crossover"? He said "never!". I said, "If there was an emergency, I still can not use the crossover?". He said "correct".

I then find out that this is not a ticket that I have to pay, it is a Misdemeanor. I have to show up to court! WHAT? So, a week from Monday I have to go to Rupert for a court hearing in front of a judge about my Misdemeanor Citation. YIKES!!!!

How am I going to plead?
Could I get excommunicated?

I have decided not to contact my Idaho State Representative on the matter since he did not handle his own "Misdemeanor Citation" very well.

Reading A Book

Because I grew up with a minor case of Dyslexia, I really haven't ever liked reading books. To this day I struggle reading books because it takes so darn long to get through them. I read at a pace of about 20 pages per hour. I know, it is terrible. I am probably not reading correctly. For some reason I read every single word. I have tried reading faster but I alway lose the meaning of the story or I missed a "NOT", or a "DID" or "Didn't" that would totally change the view of the story. Anyway, I am doing something that I have never done before. I am re-reading a book. Deanna has always talked about re-reading books and I have always thought she was crazy. Why would you want to re-read a book? It is hard enough getting through it the first time. The book I am re-reading is "Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card.

I really enjoyed reading this book the first time, plus, it doesn't have a thousand billion pages. I am half way through the book and I am really enjoying the second read. I remember bits and pieces from when I read it the first time which excites me more to keep reading.

The down side of me really liking this book is that I found it in the Juvenile section of the Public Library. So, I figure, I am probably reading at about a 5th grade level to a 9th grade level. That is ok with me.

Don't bother sending me your list of books that you know I will love. I probably won't read them. I tried to make a new years resolution a few years back that I would read 6 books during the year. Well, I didn't make it. I haven't had the courage to make a new years resolution like that again. I think I'll stick to movies and television.

Zoey

My daughter of 8 years has been watching Zoey 101 on TV. I have watched it with her (trying to stay as macho as I can) and have found the show to be clean so we have let her watch. For Christmas I gathered up all of the manly courage I could and walked into a Clair's store to buy her a Zoey 101 Key Necklace. I thought it would be a great stocking stuffer. After this news about Zoey (Jamie Sears), we are no longer allowing are daughter to watch the TV show and we are taking the Key Necklace back to Clair's.

I will bet that Nickelodeon will continue to air Zoey 101 without any regrets. I have heard that they have the whole next season already filmed so it would cost them a lot of money that they have already invested in the program to shut it down now, or to even bring in a new Zoey character. This is all around bad news.

I'm sure glad that I don't have a teenage movie or TV star. It seems that early fame and fortune ruins peoples lives. I guess I'm glad to be living in Po Dunk Idaho working as a computer geek with a mediocre house at the end of a cul-da-sac.

Clint

Kindergarden

Hummm, is it spell Kindergarten or Kindergarden? Well, it look like the "T" version wins as far as my spell checker is concerned. It will always be a garden for me.

Anyway, little Katie had a Christmas program yesterday. She was very cute but a little sick. She only smiled when she had to. Here are some pics.

Also, I heard something interesting when I was watching Cranky Geeks the other night. They were talking about writers and that there are a lot of people out there that want to be writers. One of the "writers" talking about the subject said that anyone can be a writer, all you have to do is start writing. In fact, he said, if you can write 300 words per day, in one year you could have a full novel. Well, I decided to take him up on that idea and try and write 300 words each day. Well, I didn't get very far. I started writing and found my self writing about writing 300 words. It won't make much of a novel. I have decided after one full day of being a writer, that I am a terrible writer and I should just stick with fixing computers.

For a copy of my first page as a writer, please click this link. It is really horrible so unless you have a good 15 minutes to waste, please don't read it.

My Inner Pain

StrongBad and Homestar Runner

Ok, this post is a little "out there" but I thought I would share a couple of my favorite Home Star Runner episodes. Those of you that don't know anything about Home Star Runner, sorry, I really can't help you. You will just have to watch the three episodes that I have posted. It is a little childish but it is hilarious. You need to be in a goofy mood to watch them so don't watch them while at work, watch them at 1:30am after watching the full version of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

http://www.homestarrunner.com/firsttime.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs4.html

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail50.html

Last Pack Meeting

We have hit a milestone in our lives this week. This could possibly be out LAST PACK MEETING. Yes, I know, it is hard to believe but Andy is now 11 and he earned his Arrow of Light. So, he is now officially out of the Cub Scout program.

Although there are some real positives to Pack Meetings, I am finding that I like the idea of not having to carve a pine wood derby car. It was always depressing to see the sad look my boys gave me as the block of wood that I slaved over just hours before the event, slowly hobbled down the race track at snail like speed. My pine wood cars were never flashy, always had a residue of wet paint and almost always lost a wheel on the way down. I am definitely not good with wood, paint, or art. For the longest time I didn't even own a power drill. So, it did not have the skills nor the tools to produce an award winning pine wood derby car. So, in some ways, I am glad that era is behind me and I hope I didn't do too much damage to the ego's of my two boys.

clint

I WANT MY WEEKEND BACK!

Have you ever had a weekend where it felt like all you did was work? Well, Sunday night I felt like I had been through "The Wringer". (I am guessing that this reference is to the old fashioned way of washing clothes where you stuff wet clothes through two rollers called a "wringer") if this is true, that is how I felt, like someone took my head, stuffed it between two rollers and cranked away until I was squished out the other end. This whole weekend was so full of activities, meetings and parties that I don't know if I can even list them all. Let's see; Andy's Birthday Party (Lan Party), Court of Honor, Camp out, Scout Meeting, Coby going to NYC, Church meetings, Priesthood Preview, set up, take down, Stand up Sit down Fight Fight Fight!

I WANT MY WEEKEND BACK!

I guess, if you really look at it with a positive attitude (which I don't usually do because I am a pessimist), you would see that I was living life to it's fullest. I really gained some valuable experiences and made some awesome memories. The Pessimist in me just wants to take a long nap.

BTW, I wanted to report that the LAN party was a huge success and over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I'm planning on taking my game on the road and setting it up at Melinda's house. I don't know if she will hate me, or thank me for it. At one time I think we had 7 computers going. Everyone was shooting everyone else. I even jumped in the middle of the battle to see how I would do against these intimidating 5th graders.

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I hope I get plenty of nap time, I mean, I hope I live life to it's fullest.

Clint

Ball of Light

I finally made my first "Ball of Light" ornament. It looks really cool. Here is a picture of one that I found on the internet since I haven't been able to take a picture of the one that I made, yet.

Anyway, I'm planning to go to my sisters for Thanksgiving and while I am there, we will make a bunch more and maybe even put them up somewhere.

I talked to my mother and she would like to put some up on her big evergreen tree. I think it will look really cool.

I now have it to the point that I can make one in about 15 minutes. Once I start put them up on some people's houses, we will see if I can get a small business going by selling them to people.

Clint

Essay

Coby had to write an essay for one of his 8th grade classes. We found out that the teacher allowed him to read his essay for the whole class. After he read the essay aloud the teacher said she was glad that he presented his essay because she really loved it. So, I am going to post his essay on my blog. Ok, I'm not posting the essay, I am posting a link to his essay.

Coby's Essay

clint

getting closer

I can tell that Christmas is getting closer. I received 3 orders on my web store today. The shoppers are starting to ramp up their purchases. I guess it will really start to hit after Thanksgiving. I have 10 boxes going out tomorrow morning and about 5 orders sitting in the Queue. Our little web store usually makes enough to help pay for most of Christmas, so, we keep it round all year.

Shameless plug for my web store: http://www.ecarters.com


I am working on a new product for our store. Deanna doesn't know about it yet but I am trying to put the resources together to start selling a large Christmas ornament. When I have all of the details worked out, I'll post a link on my blog so that you all can be the first to make a purchase. :-)

LAN Party

This next weekend we will be celebrating Andy's birthday. He has invited 9 boys over for the party. We have come up with the idea of having a LAN Party. A LAN party is when you hook a bunch of computers together and play a video game where they can all participate.

So, this will be my first LAN party that I have put together. I am a little worried about it but I think I can pull it off. My main concern was what video games they would play. Andy and his friends are only 10 and 11 years old so I don't want anything to harsh. Most LAN parties are based on some very graphic images with a lot of blood and gore. So, I hunted around for some "tame" LAN games that we could use. I found two that we are going to be playing that night.

Motocross Madness



Nerf Arena Blast

Both of these games are multi player so they can all be playing at the same time. The Motocross game is just a motorcycle game and the Arena Game is a shooting game but instead of shooting bullets and granades, they will be shooting each other with Nerf guns. It is really pretty cool. No blood, not gore, just clean Nerf guns. It is pretty cool how each gun really shoots like a nerf gun would shoot. Nerf balls, nerf disks, nerf darts. Anyway, I hope I can make it work.

Now all I have to do if figure out how to get 9 computer together in the same location all talking to each other. That will be the interesting part.

"This note is for my sisters!"
Please don't mention this stuff to my boys because if this doesn't work out, I'll be giving these games to them for Christmas. So, PLEASE KEEP THIS QUIET. Shhhhh!

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

Clint

No hits

OK, so I am not getting many hits nor comments from talking about my venture crew, so, as of today, I am officially changing the topic of my blog. It will no longer only discuss the adventures and mishaps of my venture crew.

I will now talk about anything I want. That shouldn't be hard.

So, from now on, I'm just going to ramble on about what I have been thinking about, what I have been doing or just random stuff.

Fasten your seat belt. I could go out of control.

New Leader

I lost my Venture Crew advisor to the bishopric a few weeks ago so I get a chance to train a new Venture Crew Advisor. Our entire bishopric was turned over so I also get a chance to train a new bishop. I'll keep you posted on how the training goes.

clint

4 Eagles

I am proud to announce that 4 of our Venture Crew received their Eagle Scout Rank yesterday!!!!! We were so excited to have their Court of Honor. We really went all out to make it special and I think every young man felt honored and special. They have worked hard to finally finish all of their requirements.

We will now begin to focus on Ventuing Awards such as the Bronze Awards. We also need to help a couple of them finish their Duty to God program in the next month or two.

Anyway, we are having success.

Eagles

We have finally worked our way forward with 4 of our Crew members. This month 3 of our Crew will finish their papers for the Eagle Scout Award. One received his last year. The other 3 needed some encouragement. So, we are excited to have an Eagle Court of Honor for 4 of our Crew next month. I am hoping to have Huge Extravaganza for these Venturers. We want to make a big deal out of this event so that the other scouts at the other levels of scouting will be excited to get their eagle awards.

We do have a couple of Varsity Team members that really don't want to have anything to do with Scouting, so we have to make is so cool that they will want to work hard to get it done. Otherwise, we will have a very hard 3 years coming. :-(

Ski Trip

Our Venture Crew advisor scheduled a ski trip last month. He found someone that would allow us to stay in a condo for free and said we might be able to get the lift tickets for free as well. We planned the trip assuming that we would have free ski lift tickets. Well, the day before we went we found out that it would cost $24 per youth and $40 per leader to go skiing. We couldn't cancel the trip now, we had hyped it up so much so we had to go.

After being very nervous about the cost of the trip, I actually walked away from the activity thinking it was a huge success. Our religious leader wasn't too happy that we spent so much money but looking back, it was totally worth it.

We had a couple of Venture's that really hadn't integrated into our group. On this trip, these two young men became good friends with each other and with the others in the group. We really came together and everyone enjoyed skiing. I think we have finally found our focus in our Venturing group, we all love to ski. So, I think we will try and have 2 more of these ski activities before the ski season is over.

Venture crews are supposed to have a focus or something that everyone has in common and I have been struggling to find what that might be. At first I thought it was sports, but there are a couple that don't like sports, then I thought music, but that didn't work for some. Anyway, we are now going to focus our efforts on skiing since everyone in the groups knows how to ski and enjoys skiing. My only issue is that skiing costs money. We can work around that, if we run the program correctly.

Also, I just wanted to announce that one of our venturers earned his Eagle Scout Award. We have 3 more that are really close. They only have to submit their papers and have a Eagle Board of Review and they will be done. Then, at that point, we will start focusing on the Venturing Awards. My goal is to have 4 of our Ventures with a "Bronze" Award by the end of 2007.

Wish me luck.

Leader Specific Training

I volunteered, last week, to teach the "leader specific training" class for Venturing. This was a Council Level training but was in my District so everyone in our local area was invited to come.

Well, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't get a whole bunch of Venture Leaders to this training so I planned on about 5. So, I studied for about 6 hours the week previous, I arrived at the training facility and how many Venture Leaders do you think were there? ONE!!!!! Only One Venture Leader showed up for the Leader Specific Training. YIKES!!! How embarrassing.

There has been a lot of talk in our area about losing our 14 to 18 year old boys. Well, here is one of the symptoms of the problems. We don't have any trained leaders. AARRRRGGGHHH!

I have decided to make a goal of having 10 leaders come to the next training that is in our area. I will email and call church leaders and let them know what happened and the next time, everyone will know about it. The next training is in 6 months.

High Adventure

We are planning our High Adventure Activity this coming weekend. Our Venture Crew Advisor has put it all together and we are ready to go. We will be going on a rafting trip down the middle fork of the Boise river Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have filled out our Tour Permits and our Safety Afloat Plan and we are ready to go. Our VCA really has done a great job, however, we haven't assigned much to the Crew. So, I am working on getting them more involved so that they have responsibilities too.

I will also be trying to focus on our DTG program while we are up there sitting around a campfire trying to get dry.

Anyway, it should be fun. They YM are really excited.

Wood Badge

I am so proud of 2 of my leaders. (not that I'm not proud of them all) but these two leaders signed up for Wood Badge and are there right now. The Varsity Coach and our Assistant Scout Master. I am sure they will learn a whole bunch of stuff and hopefully will come back with renewed energy and commitment to make our Scouting program better. I am really excited to see them and hear of their experiences.

Go Wood Badge!!!

On hold

Our Venture Crew has been on hold lately because of a Trek that we are going on this summer. Most of our Wednesday activities have been centered around that upcoming activity. I did, however, work some fun stuff into our program. One Wednesday our VCA (Venture Crew Advisor) brought harmonica's for everyone. I brought some songs we could learn and all of us played our harmonicas. After practicing a few times, we walked down to the Young Women's room and played a selection for them.

It was fun and we were able to pass off a couple of our DTG requirements.

Outside the box

Our Venture Crew participated in the Scout O Rama this weekend. Most of them were a little hesitant about participating because of the "stigma" of the Scout O Rama as being a Cub Scout activity. I, however, wanted to make a SPLASH with our Venture Crew.

I decided that we needed to do something different, something out of the ordinary, something outside the box. So, I started brainstorming. I didn't want a regular camp site. At first, I thought of brining a trampoline and have the Ventures sleep on the trampoline. Then came the perfect idea. We would borrow some Semi Trucks and sleep in the "Sleeper Cabs" of the semi trucks. It would take some organization but I thought it would be a blast. I set up the event and lined up the trucks. I told our Crew of the idea and they loved it. One member wasn't going to go because of the Prom, but if they were going to stay in Semi Trucks, he would make the time. It was great.

The day finally came, I picked up 3 trucks from a local trucking company and parked them at the Scout O Rama. Everyone there was amazed at the sight. All of the Venture leaders from the Council and District supported us and loved the idea. We stood out as an example of what a "Venture Crew" could do at a scouting event. I was pleased with the reaction we received from all of the Scouters at the activity. I think the boys felt that pride as well. I really hope our Venturers can now see the endless possibilities that are available to them. One of the crew came up with the idea of staying at the Dorms next time. The Scout O Rama is on the property of a Junior College. I thought it was a great idea. Not only would we be the envy of the Scouts, but we would give our Ventures the opportunity to live in a college dorm for one night.

In any case, I think we have set the standard for Venture Crews for the Scout O Rama. I hope that next year our Venture Crew comes up with something even more cool and more creative. It was a great day for our organization.

More Training

Last Saturday I went to the "Leader Specific Training" for Venture Crew Advisors. I had a lot of questions about how to turn the program over to the boys. I received great information on how to do this.

I was told that being a "shadow" leader is much harder than being the leader. I was told that to turn the program over to the boys you need to guide and instruct and lead from behind the scenes. One suggestion was to make a list of items that the Young Men will need to do to pull off their assigned duties. You need to plan everything but give the Young Men the reigns to complete them. For example, on Wednesdays, I should not just turn the time over to the young men and have them plan everything. I should have some ideas on what they could do, write down some key points and key things that have to happen. That way, when the "president" of the venture crew stands up, he has a list of items to review. As for the other Ventures, they just see the President as taking charge and implementing an event. They don't see the hard work behind the scenes that happened to get them to that point. Then, as the Crew matures, each of the members starts to see the responsibilities of the Venture President. So, when they become the president, they will take on the responsibilities that they saw the previous president do. That is how the tradition begins.

Great advise. I'll use this in our next meeting.

Turn it over to the boys

Well, It was our first try at turning the program over to the boys and it was a huge disaster. We tried to encourage them to plan a campout and to plan a booth at the Scout O Rama. All they could do was make jokes about having a kissing booth. So, nothing was planned, nothing happened and I was frustrated. I tried to tell them that they need to be in charge and that they need to plan the event and if they didn't, then it would fail. Well, still nothing happened.

After the 1 hour of goofing off and no decisions, I talked with the other Venture Leader and we decided to turn it over to them a little at a time. If they don't follow through on their assignments then it would fail. Failure is part of the learning process so we need to let them fail so that they know that it is their program. We need to get to the point were the leaders (adults) will just supervise and help here and there but we want the boys to run the program.

So, after the disaster, the other leader found the boys and assigned them the tasks of food and of the booth. If they don't follow through with the food, then I guess we don't eat. If they don't follow through with the booth, then I guess we just sit in chairs at the Scout O Rama.

On a positive note, I am trying to think outside the box on the Scout O Rama. A Venture Crew is not a normal Scout Group. We are above and beyond a regular Scout Patrol. I have come up with 2 great ideas for our campout. I have suggested that we have a Trampoline at our campsite and I think I have come up with a BLOCKBUSTER idea for where we are going to sleep. I am going to borrow 3 diesel trucks from my dad that owns a truck driving school and our crew will sleep in the sleeper cabs of the trucks. I think this idea will BLOW EVERYONE AWAY and hopefully set a tradition that Crew 60 is a Venture Crew to watch because we are "OUT THERE"! I am excited to present this to the Crew for approval.

Our Scout O Rama booth will be a "handicap awareness" booth so we are borrowing wheel chairs and we will have activities where Scouts can learn the difficulties of navigation while using a wheel chair. We have a person in our ward that is in a wheel chair that we are hoping will help us out. This satisfies a venturing Bronze Award requirement as well as a DTG.

Court of Honor

We had a Court of Honor last week and I think it went well. I really wanted our new "Scout Committee Chair" to be there but he didn't make it so the First Courselor in the bishopric conducted. It went well and I broke out my harmonica for teh singing portion of the program.

Two of our Crew received merit badges. 3 of the 4 that came were in their uniforms and even our Crew Advisor had his class B uniform on. So, I guess it was ok. I was hoping for more enthusiasm but it turned out to be a good evening.

Unfortunately our Varsity Team is really lagging behind. I don't know what to do to get these guys lit up.

Our Sunday evening meetings aren't working out. It seems that everyone has an excuse why they can't come to the YMP meeting. So, I have changed it to Wednesday nights right after our Mutual activity. They should already be there so they really can't skip out.

Sorry to be so down about everything. I guess I just need to be more patient. I think we are making slow progress but progress non the less.

Training

Wow! We had a fast start training session last night at 5 of the 6 leaders showed up for training. Yippee!!!

Although 2 of my leaders were making jokes all the way through the meeting, I think they both learned something new and I think they will use what they learned. I am hoping to have the best trained YMP in the Stake. I think we are on track to make that happen. Unfortunately my Venture Crew Leader didn't make it. :-(

Anyway, we are on our way.

The Talk

I finally decided that I would need to sit down with our Venture Crew Advisor and talk about his responsibilities after 2 un-organized activities. I went right over to his house after one of our activities and we talked.

I found out that he really wasn't sure what his responsibilities were and he didn't want to step on my toes because of my "YMP" calling. I told him that I really didn't want to step on his toes either but things really weren't being organized. So, as we discussed it, I told him that I would like him to take charge of Wednesday activities and that I am a resource he can use. I told him that I wanted him to plan the activities and then I handed him a worksheet that helped him plan what he needed to do. This worksheet is a 2 year plan that a Priests Quorum/Venture Crew can follow that will make sure that each member earns their DTG award and earn the Religious Life Bronze award. So, after giving that plan to the Venture Crew Advisor he started so see what was expected. He started almost immediately to plan the next few activities. We talked about many different ideas and many plans for the future. In a matter of a half an hour we had all of the Wednesday activities scheduled all the way to June. It was great.

At the end, I offered him assistance with his children during our scheduled Wednesday activities. He declined the help and I think he got the message that he really shouldn't bring them along to our meetings. So, all in all, it was successful.

We had a "low-adventure" activity this last weekend. It was in my backyard but we had a lot of fun. It gave us a chance, again, to get to know the boys and for them to get to know us. The activity was a success but we didn't get anything "important" accomplished. We will plan our next campout better so that we get some of those "important" things scheduled and completed. For example, we should work in some DTG requirement or some Venturing requirement and we should have a spiritual message prepared. We will do better next time.

Tough Love

Over the last few weeks I have started to notice that our Venture Crew Advisor has not been planning any activities for our Venture Crew on Wednesday. He is even bringing one of his kids to the Venture Crew meeting. He usually sits in the back of the room and watch the activity unfold. He is fairly young (10 years older than the YM) and that may be part of the issue. He may feel more like a YM than one of the leaders.

This Wednesday I didn't have anything planned so I emailed the VCA to see what he had planned. He really didn't have any good ideas. So, I told him to talk to some of the crew members and see if they could work on some merit badges.

I arrived at the Wednesday activity with a backup plan but I was going to sit back and see what he did. Usually I had something planned just in case nothing else was planned and I usually ran the activities. This time, I wasn't going to do anything.

The time was turned to the Crew President and he sat there and asked what we were doing. They all looked to me and I looked to the Crew Advisor and asked him what he had planned. He just sat there with his child on his lap and shrugged his shoulders. There was a awkward pause as everyone could see that nothing was planned for today. The President actually did a great job of saving the silence by deciding to plan our next campout. He turned the time over to the Crew member in charge of the campout and they planned what they were going to eat and stuff.

After they were done, again, there was a pause on what we were going to do. I asked the Crew Advisor again and asked if he had anything. Again, a shrug.

I finished by going over a bunch of activities that were coming up that I thought they could participate in such as the "Fathers and Sons" activity and the "Scout - O - Rama". We then finalized the "Snow Sports" merit badge with a couple of the YM that were working on the badge.

Anyway, I hope he felt awkward and embarrassed that he didn't have anything planned. As bad as it went, I really still don't think he understands his roll as the Crew Advisor. I really feel that I am going to have to go over to his house and talk to him about his duties and how a Wednesday activity should be run. Then, I'll make sure he knows that he is in charge and that I'm not going to be planning the Wednesday activities any more.

Anyway, I tried "Tough Love" by letting the activity flop but I don't think he felt that it was his fault. We will see.

Goals

I have decided to start setting specific goal for our leaders. By doing this I hope to install a sense of urgency in their callings as leaders.

The first goal was to have each leader become a merit badge counselor for at least 3 required Merit Badges. That way we could cover 21 merit badges if all 7 of us are counselors. There are only 15 required so this should make it much easier to pass off the merit badges for the scouts in our Troop. When I asked how many of them were signed up as Merit Badge Counselors only 2 of us raised our hands. WOW!!!!! I explained that it was an easy process and it would do a lot to help our YM advance in Scouting. Each said they would get this done. I set the goal to have this completed by the end of March.

The second goal was to make sure each boy would receive 1 merit badge by our next Court of Honor. That is at the end of March as well. So, two goals that are both challenging but both possible. We will see how they do in trying to meet those goals. I think we will weed out those that are willing to put forth some effort and those that are along for the ride.

I wanted to make the third goal of having each boy pass a DTG requirement by the end of March as well but we ran out of time in our meeting. I will bring it up in our next meeting that we will be having, which will probably be sooner rather than later.

Dropping like flies

The campout was last weekend to some caves nearby. As the days got closer I was having more and more leaders dropping out of the activity. Even my Venture Crew Advisor dropped out. I was a breath away from canceling the campout altogether but I knew I couldn't do it. The leader before me would cancel campouts all of the time and I didn't want to be like that. So, no matter what, we were going to have a campout even if we only had one Young Man.

As it turned out, our Varsity Team Leader stuck it out and came with me. We had 2 leaders and 5 young men on the Campout. It was bitter cold outside and a nice 55 degrees inside.

I really didn't get a chance to run the campout they way it should be done because of the lack of leaders but the YM had fun and got to know me a little better. I guess that counts for something.

I think it was also a test for me to see if I would break under pressure and I think the other leaders saw that I was going to have this campout with them or without them. They now see that these activities are important to me.

Campout

This coming weekend we will go on our first Campout. We want to make it some sort of "High Adventure". The Venture Crew has decided to make a trip to some Caves nearby. So, we are hiking into the caves and using out GPS units to find it.

I really hope that this campout pulls our Crew together a little more. Hopefully they will get to know me a little better and our other Crew Advisor.

I have found it frustrating how little time we have to organize. Each Wednesday we have an activity planned so it is hard to sit down and organize how we are going to accomplish our goals. If fact, I don't think we have even decided on goals. Maybe that is what we need to talk about on our campout. I know what I think their goals should be but that is probably different than what they want it to be. I guess I had better start now on that stuff so that we don't waste this great teaching moment while we are walking to the caves.

I have also decided that I need to meet with our Crew Advisor much more. We really need to sit down and talk about activities, merit badges and lessons that need to be taught so that our young men are able to get their Eagle and DTG. I sure have a lot of work to do.

Training

I just found out that there is more and more training that I can go to now that I am a venture leader. I thought that once I had been through "Basic", that I was trained but I guess there is a "Basic" Training for Venture leaders as well. So, I need to attend Basic Training for Ventures and I need to attend "Leader Specific Training for Venture Leaders". Wow, training never ends...... As it should be.

I was a little disappointed in my "RoundTable" meeting this last week. I am a new venture leader and was ready to learn about the Venturing program and two weeks in a row we ended up making weave bottle holders in our meeting. I think I will be calling the Venture Trainer for Round Table and ask him to give us some real training about what we should be doing in Venturing and how we can get our Crew to Advance.

I have noticed some subtle direction from my priesthood leaders not to get into Venturing unless all of the Crew has received their Eagle Scout Award. I'm not sure how I should handle and work with this idea.

Quorum Meetings

Last week the Bishop and I talked about Quorum meetings. I voiced the concern that we needed to have each presidency of each quorum start to have Quorum Presidency Meetings. I suggested that the Bishop call his first "Priest Quorum" meeting (since he is the president of the Priest's quorum). Anyway, he did and last Wednesday we had our first meeting. It was a little awkward but the first meeting usually is.

Anyway, we had a Stake Conference Priesthood meeting yesterday and what did the General Authority talk about? Yes, the need for Presidency Meetings for each quorum. We found out that each quorum should have a Presidency Meeting once a week. It was a great lesson and I think the Bishop and I both got the message that we need to be doing better. It was great to have the Young Men at this meeting so that we all heard the message.

It was great to receive such "specific" direction from a GA.

Discovered new challenge

I discovered today in one of our meetings that our Crew doesn't know the Bishop very will. I was really expecting to see a good communication with the Bishop and the young men but I saw a lot of awkward moments and silence. I need to find ways that the Crew can be with the Bishop in a roll outside of church. I am really hoping that the Bishop can come on our next campout. Maybe that will create a little more friendship. I am hoping that I get to know the crew better as well so that they see me as a leader as well as a friend.

We talked about Eagle Projects today. I think we were able to motivate our 4 guys to start on their Eagle Projects. I know that I walked away feeling like an Eagle Project was not as hard as I thought it would be. One problem I do see is that our Crew seems to have big ambitions for their projects. One wants to put in an electric sign for a auditorium which will cost 4 thousand dollars. Another wants to put in a Basketball court as a public park. I thought we could convince some of them to just put up a sign in a park or paint a bathroom in a park or something but they all seemed to want to do these gigantic projects. I think it is ok to be ambitious but if it is going to stop you from progressing you should look at fulfilling the requirements and look at an easier project.

Anyway, our Venture leader showed up in his Class B uniform but non of the Crew came wearing their shirts. :-(

They all can't be great days. I am ready for the new challenge of having the crew get to know the Bishop better.