Announcement

I have an announcement to make today on my blog. I have started a NEW BLOG called LDS Family.net!!!

I am very excited. It all started about 2 weeks ago when I read a blog post by LDS Web Guy that mentioned a program called SiteAdopt.org. I decided to check it out and found this non-profit organization called More Good Foundation. They are an organization that is trying to promote positive content about Mormons. What an interesting idea I thought. I continued my investigation and found and email address and volunteered to adopt a website.

After a couple of discussions, they were more than willing to give me a shot at adopting a website. My website is called, LDSFamily.net. How cool is that? I will now be posting just like I have here on my blog, but I will be focusing on stuff that happens to me as it pertains to my membership in the LDS Church. So, when people go searching around the internet, and type in Mormon, or LDS, or LDS family, they will find my blog and find good positive content about the church. YES, I can even count it as missionary work!!! Ok, not really. Maybe I'll get a half of a check mark on my score sheet in heaven.

Now that I think about it, how often did I mention that I was LDS in my blog? How many times did I mention that I was LDS? Probably not very often if not at all. How embarrassing really. Anyway, I'll be changing my ways now and hopefully promote good positive content in the future.

I hope you will all add my new blog to your readers and come check out my new site once in a while.

LDS Family Dot Net

Sunflower

During the school year last sping, Katie's teacher gave everyone a sunflower seed. They took time in class to talk about sunflowers and then each of them took a small paper cup, dumped some dirt inside and then planted their own sunflower. They left their little miniature gardens in their classroom until the end of school. Each of them carefully took their little sunflower home to watch it grow over the summer. At this time, the little sun flower was only a few inches tall.

At that point, Katie delivered her sunflower into my care. I wasn't sure what to do with it so I decided to take it out into my sprouting garden and plant it in the ground. I had no faith nor hope that this little plant would survive in the harsh outdoor environment after basking in the warm inviting climate controlled classroom. Nevertheless, we found a spot in the garden and plopped the sprout in the dirt.

Over the summer, I watched it grow, still not thinking much about the flower. I began to take serious notice of this plant after it had grown to about chest high. As it continued to grow and tower over my 5'10" frame, I knew we had something special. I took Katie out one evening and took a video of her with her sunflower. We quickly uploaded it to YouTube, and send a link to her teacher which was overjoyed to see that at least one of those sunflowers from class had reached maturity.

Red and Brown

I have to be very careful today. I have decided to wear a combination Brown Slacks with a Red Polo shirt. For some reason, when I wear this combination of clothing, I have this very intense urge to shop at Target.



When I arrive at Target, I enter the doors and start on my usual path to the electronics department. (I love looking for good deals on cell phones and computer equipment) On my way, I inevitably get stopped several times by other shoppers. I don't know why, but when I wear the red and brown duds, I become the most knowledgeable person in the store. People stop me to ask where things are, ask for prices on items, and ask for directions to the bathrooms. I don't quite get it.

Clint

Oquirrh Temple

I thought I would post a quick picture or two about the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. Before our family reunion, we decided to take the kids down to SLC and let them walk through the temple before it was dedicated. A friend of mine told me that whenever they had a temple open house that was fairly close to Idaho, they always tried to make a trip with the kids to go see it. The idea being that they really will not be able to see the inside of a temple until they are ready to get married or go on a mission. So, what a great way to get them familiar with the temple.

One last thing. They had some big tents setup to view a quick video and another tent setup for a reception. Our kids commented that it was the "Nicest tent they had ever been in". It was like a Harry Potter tent where you think it is going to be this small tent with white walls and when you walk in, it is like you stepped into a palace.

Here are some pictures of our visit.

EFY

This year we have decided to send Coby off to EFY (Especially For Youth). We didn't have enough dough to send him to a program that was "on campus", so we sent him to an area program in Ogden. My parents were nice enough to let him and his two friends stay at their house in Bountiful the whole week.

I don't know why I am so excited for him but I just feel giddy about the whole idea. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than he was. I really hope Coby sees that there are many more youth out there struggling just like he is to live the standards of the gospel. I hope he meets other young men and women that are striving to get good grades, striving to keep the commandments and striving to make themselves better.

Too many times our youth are put down for trying to be better. How great would it be if the youth of today would build each other up instead of tearing each other down.

Positive Peer Pressure!

I listened to a talk this weekend about "positive peer pressure". The speaker talked about how awesome it would be if the youth could influence other youth to be better, to straighten up, to reach higher. Adult leaders are great but youth have MUCH more impact on their peers than adults do.

I've been a youth before. I know that it is hard enough just trying to keep your own self esteem above water. I know that only the strongest youth can walk over and pick someone else up out of their hardships. I just hope we can help teach and train these youth to see their worth so they can be the strength for those that are faltering.

It is very interesting to look at the Junior High years and High School years from the other side of the Adult / Youth fence. I think I would have handled those year differently if I had known what I know now.

Clunker Dealer

I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of it yet, but with so many people clamoring to take advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program through the US Government, why isn't there a crop of Clunker Dealers sprouting up all of the nation.

Since I haven't see anyone pick up on this idea, maybe I'll be the first to open up a Clunker Dealership.

All I will have to do is drive through some of the mobile home parks here in Twin Falls and offer $100.00 to each person that has a clunker in their driveway, or parked on their lawn or even up on blocks. I'm pretty sure I would walk away with several hundred clunkers after one pass through one trailer park. Then, I put these clunkers on a car lot and offer them as available clunkers for the Cash for Clunkers program. I would certify that they are clunkers, charge the customer $500 for the clunker and then tow it to the "new car dealership" for them so they can get a $4,500 rebate. Everyone wins. The Trailer parker makes $100.00 for a car they would never use and probably haven't used for decades, I make some bucks, and the new car buyers gets their new car for $4,000 cheaper.

I think it would be a great business. If I knew where (bring it back) Clancy was living these days, I'd team up with him to make it happen.

Skits at Talent Show

We had some fun this year at our family reunion by gathering together and singing some songs and doing some skits.

This first skit of Coby and I doing a skit called "Banadana".

This is a skit by Blake, Grandpa Carter and I. It is called "Quick Draw McGraw".

Grand Mother's Tea Party

If I weren't a Carter Song

In Memory of Grandpa Wardle

Last weekend Deanna's Father, and our Grandpa Wardle passed away. He died doing what he loved best, serving his family, and driving his favorite truck. Grandpa Wardle was a no nonsense kind of guy that would give you the shirt off of his back if you asked for it. He loved all of his children and grand children equally and would do or give anything to make sure they were happy. Grandpa Wardle always had a story to tell about his family, his work, or his friends. When he was on a roll, his local Idaho accent came ringing through giving you a sense of comfort, like you were home sitting on the couch. Grandpa Wardle was always up for fixing your car if you had any trouble. I can remember several stories told when he would get up in the middle of the night to rescue a stranded son or daughter when their car broke down. Personally, I remember having Grandpa Wardle help me replace the U join on my little Honda Civic. After many mild cursings of "Cotton Picker" and "Pot Licker"'s, we were able to remove all of the pieces and parts, and put it all back together again.

Our kids loved Grandpa Wardle. He would take them to McDonalds and would always offer to go to the store to buy us "mugs". We have decided to remember Grandpa Wardle by going out to the store and buying mugs every year. He was definitely a quiet strength for our family.



We will miss Grandpa Wardle. When I think about him, I can still feel his spirit and it gives me peace.

Poisoned

I have to tell you this story because it is "CLASSIC" Clint Carter. For some reason, I really love laughing at myself.

I have a really nice garden right now in my back yard. Every day I go out there to see what is new. I walk around, pull a few weeds and marvel at all of the plants that are growing. The last few weeks I have notice that there are a large amount of bugs eating the leaves on my plants. So, I went down to the local bug spray store and bought some spray that would not harm vegetables. I marched right back to my garden and started spraying. I've killed several earwigs and plenty of ants in my quest to dominate the insect world.

Yesterday I went out again and found a bunch of bugs living underneath my squash leaves so, I ran to the garage to grab my spray. I lifted the leaves, one by one, and gave a quick quirt. One of those times, I miss fired and hit my thumb. Not a big deal, so I kept up my attack. After several minutes my thumb felt a little dry. I then wondered to myself, could this stuff hurt me? I decided to peal back the label and check out the "Warnings". Lets see, the regular statement about squirting in your eyes was there. The normal, "keep away from children". An interesting one that said if it got on my clothing that I needed to remove my clothing immediately and wash them, (which startled me a little). And then, the kicker, "If you spray your skin, wash your hands with soap and water Immediately, then keep running water on exposed skin for 15 to 20 MINUTES! WHAT! 15 minutes? Then, it said to call THE POISON CONTROL HOTLINE! I had definitely underestimated this bug spray. I wiggled my thumb in an attempt to see if my digit was still in good working order. It was, but I could definitely feel that it might be feeling a little bit dry. I then decided to follow the instructions on the label so my thumb would not dry up in to a black shriveled mass and fall off of my hand. I washed my hand with soap and water for what seemed several minutes and then ran my hand under the water as long as I thought was necessary. However, as I looked over at the clock, it was way Way less than 15 minutes. I then went up stairs, casually as to not cause alarm, and removed my contaminated clothing and put them in the wash and proceeded to take a shower that probably could have lasted 10 minutes. That definitely should do the trick, I thought. I stewed and fretted over my thumb for most of the day, watching for signs of poisoning.

At the end of the day, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to die. So, before bed I went in to brush my teeth and noticed a bottle of 409 sitting on the counter. I decided, just for fun, to check the Warning Label to see how it differed from the bug spray. It too began with the normal kids warnings and eye warnings so I skipped down to the skin warning and low and behold, it said, "If you spray your skin, wash your hands with soap and water Immediately, then keep running water on exposed skin for 15 to 20 minutes then call poison control.

I had obviously worried MY THUMB OFF ABOUT NOTHING!!!

Cute Video

Deanna put together a cute video last night from our family reunion.

Reunion

It has been a busy week back here at work so I don't have much time to get into detail but I wanted to at least post a youtube video I put together last night.

Carter Strong Family Reunion 2009

More pics of Yellowstone

Since my last post had hardly any pictures of the family, I decided to put up one more web log with pictures from our Yellowstone trip.

Everyone starts out EXCITED for Yellowstone Park!


One of our first stops of the trip to see a Mother and Baby Elk.



Deanna and Katie with the Mom and baby elk behind them. You can just barely see the elk's heads in the grass behind them.




The kids by a herd of bison.



Me and the kids at Old Faithful.



The whole family at the Canyon at Yellowstone Park.



Everyone is POOPED after visiting Yellowstone Park!

Impromptu trip to Yellowstone Park

Over the 4th of July we made a trip to Yellowstone Park. We have been planning to go to Yellowstone for about 4 years but never got around to making the trip. While Deanna and I were discussing what to do over the 4th, I brought up the idea of going to Yellowstone. She quickly looked up hotels and they were all either full or very expensive, so she looked up camp sites. She found a camp site at the KOA camp just west of West Yellowstone. So, on Wednesday night we decided that Thursday, we would be going to the national park.

I made a video of our travels but when I uploaded it to Youtube, it was too big, so, I made a short vid of our visit to the lower falls at the Canyon in Yellowstone Park. Here is the video.



Coby tried to describe the falls on his blog and kind of challenged me to try and describe it better. Here is my best shot.

"Rushing, stirring, churning, angry water, tears around the corner like a cougar grips the ground gaining speed on its prey. Danger is in the air, the power is overwhelming. You can sense the finality of the falls lurking a few yards ahead. As you see the water dive off of the cliff, you can see the huge volume of water as it shoots out into the empty air. As the sunlight hits the column, you can see all they way though the blue green water.

You can now see the weight of the water as it tumbles like a freight train off its tracks. It feels as if you are watching a never ending accident as box car after box car of water falls to its death. Fear continues to flow through your veigns as you sense the unstoppable and crushing power of the waterfall. The calamity continues every second you watch."

Garage Sale'ing

Last weekend was probably the first warm and dry weekend we have had this summer. Because of this fact, everyone (and their dog) put there "junk" on their front lawn and hammered a sign on the nearest telephone pole announcing a Yard Sale. With this many temptations posted everywhere, my daughter couldn't help but nag me and nag me to go garage sale'ing. So, with a great deal of reservation, I decided to take her and Andy on a short trip around the block.



I had already convinced myself that we really wouldn't find anything useful and I was trying to decide how to tell Savanna that she didn't need any more stuffed animals. After the first couple of yard sales, we had come up empty. It was late in the day and all of the "good stuff" was already gone. I had my eye on a punching bag but I knew that $50.00 was way more than I wanted to spend on something I would never use.

After just a couple more stops I was wondering up a driveway, minding my own business and almost effortlessly browsing over pile after pile of used clothes when I noticed a bread maker. At first glance it looked very clean. I decided right there that if it was $25.00 I would buy it. I drew closer and noticed the sticker that stated, "Brand New $10.00". Oh no. I was now faced with a difficult decision. The price was less than I would have paid for it and, it was Brand NEW! I walked up to the makeshift checkout counter and asked about the bread maker. I knew that I could get myself out of this jam if I asked for the manual and they could not produce it. Upon the request, the salesman dipped into the house for the search. To my surprise, he exited triumphantly from the swinging door with the manual in hand. My final ditch effort to leave the sales floor with my money in my pocket was to offer him half of what was marked on the sticker. "Would you take 5 bucks for it?" I asked timidly. He immediately said "Sure, its yours!". That is when I knew, I paid way too much. I borrowed the 5 dollars from Savanna and walked home with my new Bread Maker.

We have made 3 loaves of bread so far and everyone loves the warm moist bread. I guess garage sale'ing isn't so bad after all.

Published on KMVT

I was browsing around the cable TV channels one day and I noticed a short ad about posting your own pictures and videos on KMVT.com's web site. The little blurb was about YouNews. YouNews is a section of their web site where anyone can post their local news articles. So, if you catch something interesting on film or photograph, you can post it on YouNews so people can see armature footage and pictures of stuff happening locally. (ok, I think I just said the exact same thing twice but with different words)

I decided to take them up on their challenge so I created a user account and posted a few pictures that I took while in Buhl. If you are a regular blog reader of mine, you may remember the pictures I took of the ice crystals. My article was about the weather and how foggy it had been for several days and then uploaded my pictures. I didn't think anything of it so I checked back once in a while and noticed my pictures were approved. A few weeks passed and while I was talking to my Father-in-Law, he mentioned that he saw my pictures on the news. I took a double take (mentally) and asked "What did you say". He repeated the statement and I asked him what pictures he saw and he described my pictures from Buhl. WOW! What a surprise. My pictures were on KMVT Channel 11 News Twin Falls Idaho. That was very cool. It was too bad I missed it.

I was excited now. I went back home and the next day I posted a couple more pictures of my garden and some flowers. I made a few comments about how much rain we had received and submitted my article. Two days later my Father in Law called me up and said my pictures had made it on KMVT again. RATS! I missed it again. I didn't even think about recording the news to see if my article was mentioned. Here is the YouNews Article I posted.

Now my goal is to post another article and try and catch it on TV.

Katie's Softball Video

I don't know how many of you participate in little girl's softball but if you do, you know the rules. Everybody hits, everybody plays, everyone's a winner. So, I thought I would take my little flip video out to her game and take a few short clips of her softball game.

Go Katie!

Fathers and Sons 2009

This year the Twin Falls Idaho Stake decided to host a Fathers and Sons outing to Murtaugh Lake. We have been watching the weather all week in the hopes that we would not see rain. Every day, in the paper, it showed that we were safe with partly cloudy skies. Then, Friday morning, I opened up the paper and what did I see? No, not popcorn, but a forecast for rain. WHAT?

Even with a gloomy outlook, we decided to brave the weather and pack up our gear and head out to Murtaugh. We unloaded our dinner but waited to setup the tent until we knew we were free of rain drops. Unfortunately, the rain did not "go away". I gave my son, and his friend, two options. We could setup the tent and hunker down for the night and know that we were going to get hit with some major wet weather, or we could head back into town and see if we could catch the last showing of Star Trek. You might all guess how the vote came down. Three votes to nothing.

Here is my little video of our experience.




Of course, we had to come back in the morning to help with breakfast and a service project so at the end of the video you will see us huddled in the truck trying to stay out of the rain.

Garden Update

I just wanted to give everyone an update on my garden. (and to make a few of you jealous, Clark)

Here are a few pictures of how it looks today. Keep in mind, we have had almost 2 weeks of rain so everything looks great. I had better take a picture now while it looks this good so I remember the good old days of rain while in the desert.

Interest Rates

Well, this morning I was going about my business of paying all of our bills and I noticed something strange. I normally look at the monthly minimum payments that are required on every credit card (even though I always pay more than the minimum) and on one of my credit cards, the minimum payment was much higher than normal. I checked, then double checked and I found out that the interest rate on that card had doubled. DOUBLED! I immediately called the credit card company to see what was up. They said that they had notified me in February about the new interest rates. Of course, they probably did, but I get so many stupid credit card offers that it probably just got shredded and discarded. I then asked if I could negotiate a lower interest rate and they said no. I could either continue with the new rate, or pay off the balance.

It is hard to believe that in these hard economic times, the credit card companies would all be raising their rates to put even greater hardship on the family. It is no wonder that the leaders of the church have been telling us for years now, to get off of credit cards.

I have decided to move off of that credit card and not use it unless there is an emergency.

I hope that all of my readers, (both of them) will double check their interest rates on their credit cards and make sure their interest rates have not doubled.

Cheese?

This year Andy has again decided to play All Star Baseball. This will be his 3rd year. The team is really going to be relying on him a lot this year because he is one of the oldest boys. (and one of the best if I can be so bold) He has already had a few games and he has pitched in almost every game. This is the first time that he has ever been used as a regular pitcher.

At the beginning of every season, Andy is required to come up with some money to help defray the cost of the tournaments. Each year he usually finds a sponsor or two to help. This year, we asked Glanbia Foods if they would be able to sponsor him in his endeavor. The word came back that they would not be able to donate money, however, they would be able to donate cheese. Cheese? How will that help? Well, he was given 100 pounds of packaged cheese. Each came in a 2 pound block size. The idea being that he would just take the cheese that was donated, and sell it to people willing to support him. There were some skeptics in the house but I was confident Andy could do a good sales job.

So, I stopped by Glanbia Foods, picked up 100 pounds of cheese, and headed home. This is what our fridge looked like that afternoon.



That very evening we stopped by a number of friends and family to see if they would be willing to buy some cheese. Without much effort at all and in about an hour and a half, Andy was able to reach his goal.

Thank you Glanbia for supporting by son's All Star Baseball Team in 2009.

What happened to that guy?

I remember when I was a young Dad (not that I'm an old geezer) and had by first little boy. One of the first purchases for Christmas was a baseball bat and mitt (glove), basketball hoop and ball. I was so excited for this chubby little blob of a boy to grow up and play catch with me. I would sit and roll a ball over to him in hopes that he would understand my playful banter and push it back to me. All too often the ball would tumble across the floor and hit him smack in the nose and topple him over onto the ground. I'm sure we have all done this when we had small little children.

Now that I have kids that are old enough to catch the ball, throw the ball and make baskets, where is that Dad that wanted to play so much? He's sitting on the couch trying to make sense of the day. He doesn't want kids jumping all over him the second he walks in the door. He just wants some quiet time. He is watching TV trying to get his brain to settle down after a long stressful day at work. He is worrying about a job and money and the future.

What happened to that guy? I've been trying to remember that guy that I was 15 years ago, excited to see my kids grow up so I can play with them. It is so ironic that now that they can play, I just want them to leave me alone. (kinda)

Dentist

I had to post something about these 2 videos I found on Youtube.com This first video is about a little kid named David and he is coming home from surgery and he is still a little groggy. His dad has a flip video camera and does a quick little video of his son.

You have to watch the first video before you play the second one. After watching the first video I didn't think it was that funny but after watching the second video, I couldn't stop laughing.

Enjoy.

Muggled

In the world of geocaching, there is a word that has been adopted from Harry Potter. That word is muggle. In the Harry Potter series the word muggle is used to describe a non-magical person. In the Geocaching world is used to describe a non-geocaching person or someone that doesn't know what a geocache is nor how geocaching works. Those of you that are muggles (in the geocaching sense) may not know that a geocache is a treasure box for a person with a GPS to find. Coordinates are posted on the internet that point directly (within about 10 feet) of where the cache is hidden. When you find the cache, you are to sign the log, trade anything you find in the cache with something of equal or greater value, and then put it back. Muggles, which don't understand what the rules of geocaching, will steal the items inside and possibly move it to a new location rendering it unfindable.

I have personally hidden 4 geocaches to date. I am sad to say that last week I discovered that my 4th geocache has been "muggled". All four of my geocaches have been muggled over the years. I must say, in the Muggle's defense, that this geocache was first hidden 11/12/2005, so it has lasted quite a long time without having problems.

I'm not sure if I'm going to replace the cache or just let it drop off the map of geocaching.com

It is too bad that we live in a society that doesn't respect other people's property.

Drivers Ed?

There is no way that I am old enough to have a son that is ready to take Drivers Ed. I didn't realize how much trust and faith my parents must have had in my to allow me to drive their cars. I am now starting to feel the full weight which drops precariously on my shoulders now that I have a teenager.

June 8th will be Coby's first class at Professional Driving School. I'm pretty sure that he can sign up for driving times that very same weeks. Therefor, I will be sending out notifications to all of my friends and family declaring which days Coby will be rampaging out of control around the streets of Twin Falls. Hopefully you will all be able to manage your schedules correctly so that you will be out of harms way.

As my keys jingle in my pocket, I realize that the day will inevitably come when Coby will be driving me around town. It's the same feeling I had when I was told I would need to get my teeth pulled, but the surgery was scheduled in 2 weeks. The anticipated stress and anguish will probably be much worse than the actual trip around the block with Coby at the helm.

Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted.

Garden

I have been trying to think of something interesting to post about my life lately and sadly, I have come up with zilch. I have decided to report on something just as exciting as watching grass grow. What might that be? How about watching my garden grow.

This year I have had great success in growing my garden. I have planted radishes, peas, carrots, beans, corn, potatoes, flowers, pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and peppers. Everything that I planted came up and is flourishing. Unfortunately the weeds are growing just as well as the vegetables. I ran out this morning and took a couple of nice picture to show just how green my thumb is. I also could not miss out on the opportunity to use my camera in "macro" mode to get nice clean closeup shots of my plants.


Strawberries that I planted last year.


Lettuce from ground level. These look awesome.



Here are my radishes which I have already started to eat. I'm not a huge radish fan but they are fun to grow because they are the first to sprout. It really boosts your confidence at the beginning of the season.



Being from Idaho, I had to try my hand at potatoes. Here is my row of red potatoes.

Memorial Day

I thought I would take you along with me on our Memorial Day outing. We stopped by 3 grave sites before heading to Castleford Idaho to visit Balanced Rock.

Enjoy!

musings

Here are some things that I have thought about lately.

Things that seem like they should go together, but don't.
-Toothpaste and Orange Juice- They are both used at breakfast but are horrible together.
-Root Beer and Chocolate- They are both brown and sweet but do not taste good together.


Things that shouldn't go together but are great.
-Chocolate and Cinnamon Bears- One is soft and chewy, the other hard and sweet.
-Peanut Butter and Chocolate-
-Peanut Butter and Mustard-

If you can think of any more, please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Savanna Clogging

Many have requested a video of Savanna Dancing. Your wish is my command!

This is a video of Savanna at the Spring Fest put on by American on Stage. She dances 4 solos before the judges. The video isn't that great because we are a few rows back and the Flip Video doesn't do a very good job with long distances. This is the best I could do for the moment.

This Saturday, Savanna is headed to Lagoon for the "National" competition. I'll have more video at that point.

1st Place Finish

Congratulation Savanna on getting a first place ranking at the Spring America On Stage competition in all of her 4 Solo Dances!







This qualifies her for the National Competition next weekend. Wish her luck as she dances before the judges a week from Saturday at Lagoon. Go Savanna!

Cooking Video

I have been watching a bunch of shows on TV about cooking. I know, cooking is not very exciting but for some reason, I can be caught up in a cooking show. I decided to try my hand at making a cooking video. My inspiration is a guy on The Food Network called Alton Brown. He has a show called, "Good Eats".

Here is my very amateurish cooking show on how to cook Macaroni and Cheese with Hotdogs.




I also did a video of Savanna baking a cake.

Ghosts on the Computer

I was reading a column in our local newspaper by David Cooper that reminded me of a story that happened to me.

I was called out to work on a computer in our neighborhood. The owner was very concerned that someone had gained access to their computer and had somehow taken over the controls. I was very skeptical that someone could actually take over a computer from the internet without their consent, so I was willing to go out and investigate.

When I arrived, they showed me to the computer in question. I went over all of the normal operations of the computer and found that they were all in working order. I checked their Anti Virus and Anti Spyware and they also seemed to be functioning correctly. As the people emptied the room, I decided to take a couple of spins around the internet to see if there was something weird going on. After a few minutes, the mouse began to move. Not just a regular malfunctioning mouse movement but intentional, directional movement. The mouse moved over to the side of the screen and actually clicked on an icon on the desktop. I quickly looked around the room to see if someone was behind me, messing with my mind. I checked the mouse, checked the keyboard and was baffled. How in the world could someone gain access to this computer? My brain started to think up possiblilities. Could someone really have taken control of the computer? Maybe they can also see the screen? Maybe I was on Candid Camera! I actually looked around the room for some sort of camera in the corners.

After the mouse made a few more specific movements, I decided to confront this phantom computer user. I opened up a blank word document and started to type, "Who is this?", and I waited, no response. The mouse bounced around again. I typed, "Hello, is someone on this computer?". No answer. I decided at this moment to figure out how they were gaining access to this computer. If it was by use of the internet, I could disconnect the computer from the web and the connection would be severed. I reached back and grabbed the network cable. I removed it from the computer in hopes that I would catch this intruder red handed. No way! I said under my breath. The mouse continued to move and click. At this point, I am totally shocked. I was sure someone would come in at any moment pointing and laughing that they had caught me in a good practical joke.

My last thought was to unplug the mouse and keyboard to see what would happen. I discovered that the mouse and keyboard were both wireless. So, by unplugging the receiver, I would disconnect the mouse and keyboard from the PC. Once I did this, I was presented with the answer to this supernatural conundrum. The mouse and keyboard both stopped moving. It was then that I decided to ask the question, "Is there another computer in this house?". The answer, with a surprised expression, was "Yes". I asked if it had a wireless keyboard and mouse. Again, with a hint of excitement the answer was "Yes, and it has the exact same keyboard and mouse as this one". With a huge grin on my face I asked the owner to direct me to the other computer. I walked down the hall and was guided to a room where there was a young men mousing and clicking on his computer screen. I looked at the owner and said, "Here is your poltergeist! The wireless signal from this mouse and keyboard is being picked up by the receiver down the hall on the computer I'm working on." Some smiled, some giggled and some laughed out loud at the solution to the "ghost on the computer". I recommended they buy a different brand of keyboard and mouse for the second computer so that this issue would not happen again and headed back to the office.

Andy gets a hit, or gets hit.

I attended Andy's baseball game this last week and brought my flip video along to take some video. I sat right behind home plate to try and catch the best view of Andy up to bat.
You will see that I almost got hit by a foul ball. The best part is right at the end of his "at bat". I replay the moment so you can see what happened. OUCH!

Favorite Websites

I have a few websites that I go to every day for news, information and technology. I also have a few websites that I go to just for fun. I decided to start a list of favorite website and share them with the millions of blog viewers that come to my blog every day.

Free Translation Website: http://www.freetranslation.com/

Low Price electronics: www.NewEgg.com

Common Errors in English: Common English Errors

Cool Website Tools: http://www.dynamicdrive.com

the Drudge Report: http://www.drudgereport.com

Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/

Aaronic Priesthood/Scout Room

I was in a church meeting the other day and the speaker was talking about the different rooms in the church buildings. If you walk down the hall in a typical Mormon church, you would walk into a room with padded chairs, doilies on the table, artwork on the walls depicting women from the scriptures. You would know that you are in the Relief Society Room (the room that the women meet in for classes). If you continue down the hall you would find a room with small little chairs, pictures of Christ with children, children's music and you would quickly identify the room as the primary room (where all of the children under 12 meet for classes). Continue around the building and you would easily pick out the nursery room with toys and mats and treats. On around the building you would find a room with lace and themes on the wall about young women values and personal progress. Pictures would also adorn the room with thought provoking quotes and the Young Woman's theme. Again, it is easy to see that the young women of the church meet in this room (ages 12 - 18). However, I would challenge you to find the room where the Aaronic Priesthood meets (young men from 12 - 18). If you walked into our building, the rooms that the Aaronic Priesthood meet in are void of any pictures, statements, quotes, or themes. I never thought about it before this talk.

The speaker continued so say that young men are very susceptible to visual images. Why don't we try to fill their heads with positive visual images and quotes. Why don't we try harder to combat the visual images they see on TV, Movies, Magazines by promoting our own religious images and values.

As you might have guessed, I have started to do this in our ward building. I would ask you to keep this hush, hush. I have talked to someone in authority about making some of these changes but haven't heard back on how to procede. So, I just started to add things to room. I posted the article about return missionaries that play for Utah State. I posted an article about a local leader being called as a mission president. I also printed a copy of the "Purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood" and my wife (bless her heart) bought me a very nice frame to use. I'll be posting this framed document on the wall this Sunday. I was able to post some of these items quickly and easily because there is a cork board just off to the side of one of the chalk boards. I don't know if anyone is noticing but at least it is making me feel better and giving me a chance to be creative and (a little sneaky). This week, I am working on a small picture with the Scout Law on it. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but last night I decided to make a "Wordle" out of the law and see how it would turn out. This is what I was able to come up with. I think it is pretty awesome. I'll be posting it in the "Aaronic Priesthood" room this Sunday.



Stop by and take a look if you would like. Maybe you will get the bug to start adding spiritual, faith promoting pictures and quotes to the Aaronic Priesthood Room in your building.

ISAT's

Yesterday at Sawtooth Elementary they had their ISAT tests. I don't know much about the ISAT test but, from what I understand, the test is taken on a computer. Each student starts answering test questions at their own grade level. As the student answers questions correctly, they continue until the computer determines where their ability stops. Theoretically, if they keep answering questions correctly, they can continue into high school level questions. Again, I don't know but I think that is how it works.

The reason I explain that is, that after school, my daughter came up to me and told me that she got a good score on her ISAT's. I don't know what a good score is so I just congratulated her on her accomplishment. Then, she paused and stated that she received the highest score in the school. A little skeptical, I asked, you mean in your class, or in the 4th grade? No, she replied, I received the highest score at Sawtooth. Still a little leery of her statement, I asked Deanna and she confirmed, Savanna had the highest ISAT score in the whole school. Higher than all of the 6th graders scores. Needless to say our 6th grader, Andy, was not happy to hear about this little juicy fact.

CONGRATULATIONS Savanna on getting the highest ISAT score in her whole school. I can tell you one thing, she didn't not inherit my test taking abilities, that gene came from her mother.

Shoshone Falls

The Falls have been running at full power this last week and there are tons of people rushing down into the canyon to see the falls while it is at its best. Sunday afternoon I was reading some blogs and found one of my friends had posted a few pictures of the falls from their trip. I quickly jumped up, gathered the kids and piled them into the car for an afternoon hike down to Shoshone Falls. As we made the turn to head towards the canyon, I could tell that a thousand other people had made the same decision. The cars were stacked all the way back to the little church on the corner. I, being an impatient person that I am, decided to turn around and head back home. Either we would have to find another way down, or we would go home. I wasn't about to wait hours in line to go down to the falls. As I started back home, I decided to take a quick detour down by the Lyman's house to see if maybe we could pickup the walking trail down at the end of that street. We crept around and stuck back as far was we could and then parked the car on the side of a private street. We got out of the car and started hiking to the canyon rim to see how far we were from the falls. I turned on my Flip Video and the rest is history.

Enjoy the video.

Easter 09

Here is a little video I took of our Easter Egg Hunt at the Twin Falls City Park.

Time

I love watching a TV show called Medium. I'm not quite sure why I like this show. It is about a lady that knows things before they happen or knows things that happened because of a dream.

I just watched the latest show and it had this quote. I liked it so I decided to add it to my blog.

"Time is priceless, yet it costs us nothing. You can do anything you want with it, but you can’t own it. You can spend it, but you can’t keep it. And once you’ve lost it? There’s no getting it back. It’s just…gone.

— Allison DuBois"

Am I alone?

We have some rules in our house. Some we copied from our parents and some of the rules we made up along the way. Eventually these rules will be tested in a variety of ways by our kids and when they bump up against one of these rules, sometimes it hurts and sometimes its hard. Eventually we will get the same response I remember giving my parents, "All of the other kids are allowed to do it". I know that I did this when I was a kids but I just thought it would be interesting to see if it is true. Deanna and I may be the ONLY parents on the planet with such strict rules.

So, in an effort to make myself feel like I am still a nice guy and not a tyrant in my own house, and in an effort to help my kids see that there are other parents out there just as mean as I am, I have decided to create a little poll. It is anonymous so please feel free to TELL THE TRUTH and not select the "correct" answer. If you really do allow it, click that you allow it. Don't sugar coat it. I don't care if your rules are different, I am just interested to know if we are the only ones out there trying to solve these difficult moral problems. If I'm nuts, then I'll have more evidence that I need to be committed.

If you have any poll questions, let me know and I'll add a few.

Here are the questions:

Questions are no longer available.

it all started with a fence post

This weekend I decided to use the warm weather to get some of the outside projects completed. On the top of the list was a job entitled, "replace the fence post". So, Katie and I went down to Lowe's to get the materials required to get the job done. I didn't know what I was doing so we had to make several trips back and forth and back again. After many excruciating trips, we were ready to replace the bad post.

After putting the new post in, I realized that I was on the wrong side of the fence to try and put the fence slats back on the fence. So, I devised an engenious plan of putting my ladder over the top of the fence and just climb over. I dragged the trampoline over to the fence so I could position the ladder just right. It looked like this.



After climbing over and back and over again to finish the task, I realized how fun it would be to jump off the top of the ladder onto the trampoline. I grabbed Coby to see if he would be willing to do it. I don't jump on the trampoline anymore because of #3 on my "turning 40" post. He made a couple of jumps and immediately I started to think about my video camera. "This would make a good video clip" I thought. So, I grabbed the flip video and started to make a movie. I had to leave to help serve food for the Young Women in our Stake so Coby, Andy and Landon finished the rest of the movie. Some of it is kinda choppy but I thought it turned out pretty good. Below is the final product.

US Economy

I don't know anything about the economy except for what I see in the newspaper and on television. I don't understand how "smart" people, like the elected officials that we supposedly have in Washington, don't understand nor know how to fix it.
I have listened to radio personalities of course but I am also watching President Obama's news briefings on how he plans on fixing the economy. From what I understand, the President wants to spend a bunch of money on infrustructure projects, green projects and education to help pull us out of this recession. He feels that we need to spend this money as an investment in the future. For example, if a business wants to get ahead, sometimes they need to make some major purchases to make themselves more efficient. I watched a show just last night that showed a company buying a 2 million dollar machine that would make their shipping department work more efficiently, saving the company millions over the long run. So, with that idea in mind, I kinda get President Obama's idea of investing in the future. It wouldn't be so bad to have a bunch of jobs that have been created by the government to help get people back to work. Maybe they need an IT guy. The government always pays well and the benefits are always good.

With that idea in mind, I was watching Glenn Beck last night and I watched this interview he had with someone from the Parliament in England. Apparently England has been walking down this road already and is in a much worse position that we are.

Listen to what is happening over there. He describes perfectly what will happen if the government creates a whole bunch of jobs to try and save our economy.

YIKES!

big feet

I am starting to get a little worried about Coby. He has been trotting along at a good old speed and staying just ahead of the younger kids but still a little less than his parents. However, he came home from going shopping the other day and announced that he is wearing size 9 1/2 shoes. WHAT!!!!



I wear a size 8 1/2 and sometimes a size 9 depending on the shoe manufacturer. Now, I must also state (in an effort to still dominate the landscape in the Carter House) that I am still taller than he is and I think he is still a half of an inch shorter that Deanna.

It is definitely getting harder and harder to push him around. I'd better start working out or start taking karate classes just to stay ahead of my own kids.

Role Models

I recently attended a talk by Young Mens General President Dahlquist. He visited Twin Falls a week or two ago to talk to us about the youth of the church, and specifically about the Young Men of our Stakes and Wards. I know that I'm not supposed to quote general authorities when they come and visit, so, I'll just talk about some stuff I have been thinking about that was spurred by some of the topics he discussed. Is that vague and general enough?

Anyway, he was talking about hero's and that the young men need role models in their lives. I agree that our young men need someone to look up to, someone with good moral standards and values. I decided to try and find some famous people that had been Eagle Scouts. (do you capitalize eagle scouts?) I wasn't looking for just your run of the mill Eagle Scouts, I wanted someone that the young men would go "WOW, he was as Eagle Scout? COOL!" So, I put my best search engine skills to work. I wanted to find an NBA star or an NFL star that all of the young men would recognize and point to him as being an Eagle Scout. BUT, I didn't find one. I thought for sure that someone would put together a list of famous people that were Eagle Scouts. I did find a short list but it didn't have anyone that a young person today would recognize. I wouldn't think that Bill Bradley, Walter Cronkite, Steven Spielberg nor Ross Perot would be recognizable to our youth. Maybe Steven Spielberg, but the rest, I am sure are virtually unknown names to 12 - 18 year old boys. Steve Young was a scout but apparently never received his Eagle Rank. I'll keep looking and let you know if I come up with any more good names.

Today, I received a copy of the Church News. Along with the Church News, there is now a new publication called the Mormon Times. I noticed on the front page of the times there was an article about missionaries and basketball players. The article was entitled, "Mission experience pays off for college basketball RMs". It is a great little article about return missionaries that are currently Basketball players at Utah State University and other colleges. The best part about this article is that it has a picture of a return missionary from Twin Falls Idaho named Brady Jardine. Brady was a basketball star from Twin Falls High School. He is actually in our Stake and attended church in our same building. We watched him at high school basketball games and even went to Boise to watch him take the Idaho title. He then signed with USU and then left on a mission. This summer, he returned from his mission, traveled up to our High Adventure Camp, and gave a talk about preparing for a mission to our youth. It was AWESOME! He took his place on the USU Bball team this fall and is now a valuable player on their team this year. I don't know if he was an Eagle Scout, but I'll take a good return missionary as a role model any day.

NOW THAT IS A ROLE MODEL THAT OUR YOUNG MEN CAN LOOK UP TO!

Still got it? NOT!

Last night I decided to run over to the church and see if our ward was scheduled for a basketball game. When I got there, I found a number of young men just shooting around at both ends of the court. I quickly rallied them together and started a game.



I held my own against these youngsters and even scored a couple of points. One of which was a 3 pointer.

After several long minutes of play, the "pickup" game ended and the adults began warming up. Our ward only had 2 people (including myself) show up to play. We grabbed some guys that were there waiting for the next game and filled the rest of the slots in our 5 man game.

The game was fast and physical but I held my own against these younger men. At the end, I was exhausted but still felt good about playing in both games. I don't know if I still have it, but it sure felt good to be out there showing them my moves.

Wass Up?

I have always enjoyed watching the "Wass Up" commercial that a certain dealer of a intoxicant produced one year. I have seen many variations of this same commercial which made me laugh as well. I decided, on Sunday morning, that I would re-enact this video using the talented actors and actresses from the Carter Family. I hope that you don't notice that Katie appears in 3 different outfits. Deanna felt I should redo those scenes to keep congruity but I was feeling that I just wanted to get it finished.

Enjoy.

Spirits and Physical Bodies

I have often pondered as to whether spirits can touch and feel things. We know that spirits are more fine and pure. We know that spirits can float and can appear and disappear. I guess there are no scriptural references that show that spirits can go through walls but I've always just assumed that spirits could do that. We also believe that our soul is made up of a spirit body and a physical body. If spirit is more fine and can travel through walls, how does our spirit stay in our bodies? Even more interesting question is, how does our spirit control our bodies? There must be some connection between our physical body and our spiritual bodies. Where is that connection and how does it work? Is there a special connection in the brain that allows our spirit to communicate with our bodies?

The only answer I have come up with comes from D&C 7:7. "Spirit is matter". It says that "There is no such thing as immaterial matter." So, spirits do have matter, but it is finer and purer. There must be enough matter there to be able to make a connection with the body and communicate with it. How it stays inside the body is a mystery and is probably predicated by a law of God. It will be interesting to learn just how spirit bodies communicate with physical bodies once we leave this life and start learning things in the afterlife.

look alike

I've decided to start posting some ponderings of mine.  I'm just going to float them out there into the blogosphere and see what kind of resonses I get.  I already sent one out there entitled Ward vs Family.  I received mixed reviews, however I enjoyed the social banter it created.

I have always wondered about whether I would look the same as a spirit.  We are taught in the Mormon faith that our sole is made up of 2 parts, a spiritual being (spirit children of a Heavenly Father), and a physical being (from earthly parents).  Many people belive that our spirits look just like our physical bodies.  I don't know if I believe that theory.  I do believe that our spiritual bodies are a likeness of our physical bodies but not exactly the same.  How could that be, you ask?  Well, here is my theory.

I believe that our physical bodies are subject to physical rules and regulations.  We receive DNA from 2 parents making our bodies unique.  We also receive a lot of physical attributes and physical features related to our parents.  Many people can look at someone's face and say, you look just like your Dad.  I have heard that time and time again in my life.  When I look at old pictures of my Dad, I do look like him.  My son Coby looks like me.  So, I believe that we look the way we do because of genetics.  Here comes the leap.  How is it possible that our specific spirit attributes looks like our specific physical attributes?  I assume that spiritual attributes come from spiritual parents.  Physical attributes come from physical parents.  So, my guess is that our spirit looks different than our physical bodies.  (facial features, height, hand size, hair etc)  It would be silly to assume that because your physical parents are short, that your spirit is short too.  Or, if your physical parents have a crooked nose that your spirit would enherit the crooked nose.  

So, how does it work?  I don't know.  Maybe we will get a choise as to whether we want to look like we did on earth or how we looked in heaven.  Maybe we can pick and choose features that we like.  I know I want to be taller than I am now.

One last thing on this issue.  You remember that after Jesus had been resurrected, he walked with his apostles, and they did not recognize him(that is a paraphrase).  Could this possibly be the answer?  Maybe He chose to show Himself with His spiritual appearance instead of His physical one.

It is definately fun to think about.

Metabolism

I was talked with some friends last night and somehow the topic turned to metabolism. It was very interesting because all of these "middle aged" men mentioned that they noticed when their metabolism started to slow. I'm glad that other people experience the same thing because I am definitely feeling the symptoms of a slowing metabolism.

I have always been thin. As Mr. Monk would say, "its a gift, and a curse". A gift when I played sports and a curse when girls would look at my skinny legs and exclaim, "I wish I had your legs". Yes, that was their comment. BTW, if you ever feel the need to comment on a guy's legs, please do not utter these words. It is a little de-masculating.

I have always concidered eating a need, not a want. I would rather not eat but I have to eat to have energy so I always would eat enough food to keep me going but I never just enjoyed eating. However, I am finding this to change a little as I get older. I am seeing myself eating more at the dinner table and enjoying the food. I have even caught myself putting more on my plate that I can eat. The tastes are so good that I want another helping even though I am completely full.

It reminds me of a trip I made to a restaurant in Boise. I was with a number of friends from my church. We may have been at an all-you-can-eat establishment and we had just finished our meals. All of us were leaning back trying to let the morsels settle. One of my friends exclaimed, "I think I just broke the word of wisdom". I shook my head at the time and thought, yes, you may be right.

History

I was up in Bountiful this weekend helping my mother with a history of my grandparents Loy and Erma Blake. As we were going through the history, I found a couple of really great pictures of our family when we were all younger. Can you pick me out?

New Family Portrait

It has taken us a while, (maybe as long as 6 years) to get our family portrait taken again.  I know, it is sad that it took us this long.




Aren't they the cutest family you have ever seen?

Show me your workplace

I follow a blog by Clark Draney and he challenged me to take a picture of my workplace.  I kept forgetting to bring my camera to work so I just never got around to doing it.  Well, this morning, I was working on a laptop and noticed that it had a built in web cam.  Using my highly trained technological prowess, I decided to turn on the laptop's web cam and point it at my desk so that I would finally have a picture of my working environment.  I don't think the quality is too good but you can see my desk, monitor, and speakers. You may not be able to see it, but there is a layer of dust on my desk.  The dust is not from my lack of cleanliness, but rather, a continuous flow of construction silt that lands on me every day.  Our office is under construction and I don't exaggerate in saying that they have been plastering, cutting, sanding, and hammering for an entire month. I'll take a picture when we are in our new offices and my desk is more organized and dust free.

Carter News Flash

Here is another very quick Carter News Broadcast.

Anniversary of Engagement

Many of you may not celebrate it or even remember it but for some reason it sticks in my mind as a day to remember.  This was the day that I "plucked up enough courage" to ask Deanna to marry me. This day had to be well planned, ring purchased, events organized and flawlessly executed.  The day was March 3, 1993.  It will go down in history as a wonderfully happy day, when Deanna said Yes.

Happy Engagement Anniversary Deanna.

I Love You.

Clint

Video's about the Mormon Church

I follow a blog called LDS Web Talk.  It has great stuff about the church and technology.  Today, I found out that there are some videos on YouTube made by a group called Mormons made simple.Watch the two videos below,  Book of Mormon Made Simple and Attending a Mormon Church Service.

I'm thinking of sending the links to a couple of non-member friends of mine.

Enjoy