Memories of Grandma Blake

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

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

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

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




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

The Little Orphan Annie
Epaminondas
Johnathan Bing

Backyard Baseball

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



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

First Lego League Video

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

Below is the video.



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

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

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

Professional Photos

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

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

Adventure in a Semi-Truck

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




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

Panda Bear Pumpkin

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

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



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



Happy Halloween to all!

Halloween 2010

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

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



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

Kids Run 2010

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

Paper Route

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



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

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




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

Twitter Feed

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

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

Bruin Football

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

really?

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

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

Signing off for today.

Clint

Internet Fun

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



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

Winna Winna Winna

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

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



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



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



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

Meeting with Choir Director

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

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



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

YouTube

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

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

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

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

Names

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

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

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

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

Drum roll please!!!! Ratatatattatararararatatatarraratatatat!

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

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

Found New Fun/Cool Blog

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

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

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

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

Dual Monitors

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



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

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

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

Rifle Merit Badge

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




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

hair style

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

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



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



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

Bloopers

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



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

Scout Camp 2010

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

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

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

Enjoy


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

Special Olympics

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

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



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



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

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

Video Production Studio

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



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

Enjoy!?!

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

GreenScreen

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

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

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



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

Honor Roll

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

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

Kate playing softball

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

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

Here are a couple of photos from my cellphone.

Katie's Power Hit!

Katie running after she crushed the ball.

Katie's smiling face after her triple.

Coby Grylls

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





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

Martin's Cove Trip

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




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

Root Beer

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

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



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

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

First Harvest

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

Tradition

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





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

Auger Falls on bikes

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

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

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



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

Varsity Letter

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



Go Coby!

Take me out the the Ball Game

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

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




Here is the link for all of my FaceBook Friends.

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

water softener

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



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

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

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

Google Alerts

While I was reading Clark's Blog about how he didn't blog even once in April, Which is a cardinal sin in the rule of blog-a-lot-tonia, he mentioned a blog that he followed. So, like a good lemming, I followed his advise and jumped off the cliff and clicked on a link to an unknown blogger. As I was falling to my death and scanning down the page of this new blogger, I came across a post that mentioned Google Alerts. I've never tried google alerts so I wasn't sure what to expect. I quickly leaped from the blog, opened up a new google chrome tab and typed http://alerts.google.com to find out what it was all about. From what I can tell, it will run a search for you on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and send you an email of the search results. This "unknown" blogger stated that one of her friends searched for his name every day. When his name showed up on a blog, or webpage or whatever, he would know. I've decided to give it a test drive. I have setup an alert looking for my name. Now, I'll just put my name in this blog post several times to see if the alert finds this post.

Here we go:
clint carter
clint carter
clint carter
clint carter

Lets go fly a kite

On the Saturday before Mothers day I found myself with my two daughters picking out flowers. I had already purchased some gifts for Deanna for Mothers Day but I usually bought some flowers too, to offer her on this special day. I would normally buy a bunch of small flowers that needed to be planted, and then plant them in the front yard in various places to help beautify our little patch of the cul-de-sac. For those of you that love trivia, "cul-de-sac" is a word of French origin with the literal meaning of "bottom of the bag".

There was a light breeze in the air as we walked around the chilled plan nursery searching for the perfect flowers with a well rounded array of colors. As the wind picked up my mind thought about flying a kite. This would be perfect kite flying weather. It wasn't too windy as to completely rip the kite off of it's string but just blustery enough to keep a simple kite aloft for several minutes. I leaned over to my two girls and asked, "Have you flown a kite before?". Both of them shook their heads no. I was shocked, I definitely have failed as a Father in the kite flying department. I decided right then and there that I would rectify this error and buy a couple of kites and fly them TODAY! (pointing my finger in the air with defiance)

Below is a small portion of our kite flying activity.





After 30 minutes to an hour of kite flying, both of the girls came up to me and exclaimed, "We have decided that flying kites is better than going swimming." Well, that was an interesting comment and nice to hear that flying kites moved up the fun-o-meter scale, just above swimming.

Here is a link to the video for my Facebook Friends. I don't know why but embedded video links never really make it to my Facebook Notes section.

Up's and Down's

Coby has had a lot of up's and down's this year on the Twin Falls Bruin Varsity Tennis Team. He has felt the thrill of success and the agony of defeat. He has worked hard, practiced many hours and has had to eat a little humble pie. It is nice to announce that Coby is ending the season on a positive note. He is now playing number 3 singles on the Varsity Team and his last two matches have resulted in WINS!

Another positive note is that the Times News has now learned how to spell his name correctly. Here is his score as printed in the local newspaper.

Auger Falls

A couple of weeks ago I had heard about a hike that was fairly new that was down in the snake rive canyon. I decided to load up the kids and our dog and try out the new trail. I was warned by the article in the newspaper that the walk was a little long and that it would be much easier on a bike. Well, I wanted to try it anyway so we set off down into the canyon to enjoy the warm weather. This little trail followed the Snake River from the Perine Bridge down to a section of the river named "Auger Falls". I wasn't sure how long it was but it couldn't be too bad.


View Larger Map

After about 2 miles of walking, all of us, including Jack, our dog, were tired and thirsty. I decided to stop and rest a second and take an inventory of our situation. This had become a very, very long walk. I decided to ask one of the people returning, just how much further we needed to go. When I inquired, the hikers exclaimed, it is still a long way to the falls. RATS! My mind was made up, we were turning back. On the way back, Katie's feet started to hurt and everyone was hot and thirsty. I gave Kate my socks so her feet would feel better.

We talked a lot about the pioneers and that we were pretty much wimps. We talked about our trip to Martin's Cove. I think the Cove hike is about 6 miles round trip and we just about died with a 4 mile walk. I guess if we knew it was going to be so far, we would have prepared a little better and brought water with us.



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



I thought that this was the end of our Auger Falls story but yesterday morning, I noticed a bug in Jack's ear. We discovered that he had a tick! Just another happy reminder of our trip through the sage brush on our way to not making it to Auger Falls.

Garden 2010

This weekend the weather in Twin Falls warmed up to the point that we can now plant a garden. Saturday April 17th was a beautiful day, so I called my Home Teacher and asked if we could borrow his Rototiller. Katie and I walked over and drove it back to our house, at the breakneck speed of 1/4th of 1/4th of a mile per hour. After dropping the tiller into our garden spot I drug, pulled, leaned, grunted and wrestled with that tiller until my garden was nice and fluffy brown. Each step would send you about an inch deep into Southern Idaho's volcanic ashy brown soil. At that point, I needed a long break from gardening. As I took pride in my work, I tried to guestimate just how big the garden was. I figure it was pretty close to an acre which made me very proud. I swaggered as I surveyed my plot of land and quizzically asked Deanna how big she thought our whole entire house lot was. She responded that our whole parcel of land was probably 1/4th of an acre. My shoulders slumped as I realized that my acre garden had just shrunk to 1/4th of 1/4th of 1/4th of an acre. Interesting how 1/4th keeps coming up over and over again.

After a brief break to gather my strength and organize my thoughts, I grabbed my two best planters (Katie and Savanna) and headed back out into the spring sunshine to plant our garden. The following is our adventure and documentary of this year's gardening at the Carter Farm.



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

Easter 2010

Easter for the Carter Family starts with a rude awakening that the easter egg hunt down at the city park is only minutes away. A frantic rush begins as we try to find easter baskets that have been stored for the winter and a dash around the house to find warm enough clothes for the outside elements. We jam ourselves in the car and curse every red light we hit on the way to the park. As we arrive, we notice that all of the other families are doing the same thing, so the park appears to be fairly empty. Eggs are strewn about the greening grass and hand made posters are placed on trees announcing the age groups that can participate in each section of the park. Caution tape is wrapped around trees to cordon off each area. The suspense builds as the seconds tick away before the start of the hunt. The city posts a single police car at the center of the park and the event begins when his siren pierces the ears of the excited youngsters. If the little children are too close to the cruiser, the blast of the siren freaks them out and the hunt is over before it began.

Now that I have set the stage, my little home made video will show the rest.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6nzGJnvQSM

Piano Recital

After last weeks post about Piano Festival, I decided to video our kids as they played their Festival pieces at their annual Piano Recital.

Below is a video of their piano performances. Don't leave too soon or you might miss out on the best part of the whole night.




Here is the link for all of my facebook friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq1L1ZYYdH4

Superior

Last week our kids participated in a Piano Festival. This is an event where piano students present their piano pieces before a judge to be rated on how well they are doing. This year Savanna, Andy and Coby brought their best 2 pieces of music and played them before a judge. For parents, this is a nervous time because you are really hoping they get a good review so that they will continue on the road to piano nirvana. "Nirvana for piano players is when you get to a point the you can sit down at the piano and play just about anything that is plopped down in front of you." Unfortunately, I have not reached nirvana yet and I don't think I'll even get there.



Each of our kids were directed to their room with their music to be evaluated. I went with Savanna and Deanna went with Coby. I could tell that Savanna was nervous but she was keeping it under control. I waited until she was called into the room, and then I plastered my ear to the door in hopes of gleening as much information as I could as to what was happening inside. It was silent for a while, and then she played a 5 finger scale in hopes of warming up and dispelling her nervousness. She began her first piece and after the first line of music, I could tell she was having trouble. She stopped, my heart stopped. She started again and then after the second line of pros, she stopped again. I was terrified. Stopping twice on the same song was not a good start, not at all. I was then sick to my stomach that she had lost the top marks you can get at festival, "Superior". Savanna regained her composure and played through the first song without missing a beat. She paused for a minute and then started her second piece which was played without faults.

When she opened the door, I about fell over as my ear had become inseparably connected with the wood grain. I pretended to be leaning on my arm and casually asked how she did. She said she did fine, "which is what they always say" and walked over and sat down to wait for the results. Within a couple of minutes the door opened and a folder was presented to the helper. She handed it to Savanna and I looked over while holding my breath. At the top it read, "Superior"! Whewww!



After returning to the front of the church "7th ward building", to hear the results of Coby and Andy, I recalled a time when I was sitting at the piano bench with sweaty fingers and pounding heart as I was being judged on my piano prawes. I told the story of when I had received an "Excellent" instead of a "Superior". It was a troubling day which, to this day, I blame on the fact that my judge happened to be my regular piano teacher. She knew all of my faults and knew exactly where I would have trouble. For some reason I don't blame it on the young boy that would rather play baseball outside than to practice his piano every day. I blame it on the misfortune of having my teacher be my judge at Piano Festival.

Patriots?

Over the last couple of weeks I have been re-watching the TV show West Wing. The TV series was cancelled several years ago but just recently I found a channel that was showing all of the reruns. So, I set my Tivo and started recording them. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed watching. The dialogue is quick and witty so you have to be "on your toes" if you want to understand all that is going on.

Today I bring you a very short clip from one of the episodes from the second season. This particular scene shows a young woman that has just been offered a job by the White House Chief of Staff. What makes this interesting is the fact that Ainsley Hayes (the young women offered the job) is a staunch Republican. Since the President of the United States in this TV series is a Democrat, it is very unusual that he would want to hire a Republican to serve in the West Wing of the White House.

Ainsley Hayes meets with the Chief of Staff with the full intention of declining the offer for a job. As the day continues, and as she walks around the White House, she discovers that the people that are working there are just normal people working hard to make the country better. Even though their political views may be far apart, they are just people trying to do what it right. At the end of her day, and after several short runin's with the senior staff at the White House, she decides to take the job and serve the President of the United States even though she is a Republican.

Here is the final scene of the episode.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJd37-rU2qY

It is my hope that the current administration that is occupying the White House is truly trying to do what is right and trying to make our country better. With all of the bad mouthing that is going on on the radio and TV, I can only pray that there are good honest people trying their best to make our country better.

Over 200 Posts?

I know, it sounds crazy but I swear to you that I have posted over 220 posts on this blog. NO WAY...... WAY!

Now this may not seem like much but I also must bring up the fact that I have also been keeping another blog fully stocked with anecdotes, stories, jokes and personal thoughts. That other blog is http://www.ldsfamily.net. And, to give you even more perspective on how much blogging I have been doing, I have also started another blog just to post stuff on, for my web store where I sell metal figurines. Yes, I started a blog solely for profit. It is http://www.metalcraftstore.com and it is a website dedicated to tell people about my webstore eCarters.com. So, if any of you out there in the bloggosphere think you are overwhelmed by keeping one blog going, just think of little old Clint blogging his brains out month after month so that 2 people out there can read it and one person can buy an overpriced figurine made of nuts and bolts and various misfit metal pieces.

Maybe sometime in the future, my work will become popular and I can make a living by just typing up random stuff that happens to me in my life. At this point, I highly doubt it because I don't feel like my writing is getting any better. It is the same dribble that I wrote 220 blog posts ago.

I just had a de ja vu, well, not a de ja vu because I didn't remember it, I guess I just realized that my son had written this same post last week and now it seems all to familiar. Ok, maybe he didn't write a post like this, but as I re-read it, it looks like something he would write.

Save the Planet?

I know that I can't save the planet on my own. I may not be able to effect any global climate (whether or not man is causing the change). I can, however, in my small little way, help to make the land fills just a little smaller. I can use a little less electricity. I can help the environment be less cluttered. Here are 2 things I do in my life to help the environment even though they may seem infinitesimal.

Just over a year ago, our garbage collection company gave us recycle bins. At first, it seemed a little tedious to break down the boxes and organize the cans and newspaper but, I decided to give it a try. After a week or two, I got into the flow of it and I actually feel like I'm helping.

Recycling facts:
Every ton of recycled paper:
Saves 17 trees
Saves 4,100 kwh of energy
Saves 7,000 gallons of water
Reduces air pollution by 60lb
Saves 7 cu yard of landfill space


When I was a student at BYU, I remember when the university installed the electronic doors that allowed the handicapped to press a button and have the door open for them. Being the average lazy college student that I was, I would punch the button into every building and walk in through the doors as if I were the king of the land. Doors opened for me and shut for me without any effort. Then, I read an article in The Daily Universe that mentioned the fact that those doors were for the handicapped and would wear out much faster if they were used by the general public. I also noted by my own intuition, that those doors were using a large amount of electricity to open and would let in far more cold air than a regular door. My days of using the magic button ended and to this day, I prefer to open my own doors even if Target or Fred Meyer want to open them for me.

The Fab 5 Sisters

As many of you know, my daughter has been taking clogging lessons for several years. She has really become a good little dancer. If you want to see one of her dances, you can follow this link.

Last week she had the opportunity to go with her sister, mom, grandma and cousins to a clogging concert. The performers were "The Fab 5". I don't know if any of you remember or even watched the show on TV called America's Got Talent but these 5 ladies made it all the way to the finals solely on their clogging talent. This was very exciting for the little clogger in our house, so, to go see them live was a special treat. There are some wonderful things about these 5 ladies. They are all sisters, they are all Mormons, they wear modest outfits and they are cloggers. What great role models for our little girls.

After the performance, Savanna and Kate were able to meet all of the members of the Fab 5 and Deanna took some pictures with her phone.





They had a wonderful time.