Simpsonized

I was browsing around the internet looking for some friends that are on the interent and I ran across a new friend's blog. His name is Clark. On his website it had a "Simpsonized" picture of himself. Fortunately, he had placed a link on his blog so that you could try it yourself. So, you guessed it, I clicked on over to http://simpsonizeme.com and this is what I look like SIMPSONIZED!

BYU Game

I don't know why but over the last couple of weeks I have been totally jazzed about going down to BYU for the Homecoming game. I don't normally get that excited but this time, I was really animated about the idea.

Last weekend we packed up all of the kids and headed down to Utah to go to BYU's Homecoming. We stayed in Bountiful with my parents and then got up Saturday morning and headed to Provo. It was slated to be a chilly morning but we were up for a good time so we packed all of our warm clothes and headed for the south side of BYU Campus. As we drove up the street we were going to hang out on for the Homecoming Parade, we noticed that the police escorts were just passing by. We had managed to arrive at the exact right time to see the whole parade. The kids loved watching the different colleges, bands and cheerleaders walk by and enjoyed picking up the sprinkling of candy.

After the parade, I had arranged to have the kids take a look at the student housing at Heritage Halls. We were given a quick tour of the girls student dorms. After leaving the dorms the girls mentioned that the apartment was really small. The bedrooms were smaller than there current bedroom in our house.

We wandered over to the Wilkenson center where we browsed through tons of BYU toys, clothes and gear. We ate lunch at the Cougar Eat. (I don't know if it is still called that or not). While everyone was sitting back and enjoying the meal, the kids started getting restless so I decided to take them to Kimball Tower to drop coins down the stair well. The kids loved it. I was actually able to drop a quarter 6 stories before it caught a rail and stopped its fall.

Be broke up after lunch and the girls went shopping the guys went to the game. BYU had a mediocre game but it was good enough to put a W on BYU's game column. Here is a picture of the boys and me at the game.

Global Cooling

It is official, at least in my book, we are now witnessing global cooling. It has been reported that Twin Falls Idaho will get snow Friday October 9th. Yes, that is right, SNOW!!!!


Our family has been planning on traveling down to Provo Utah this weekend to attend the BYU Homecoming game. Now we are having second thoughts because of this nasty storm system that will be traveling our way Friday and Saturday. Of course, it has to come from the Gulf of Alaska. It has been predicted that we will get snow accumulations up to 2 inches. So, do we stay or do we go?

We had such high hopes for this trip to Provo this year. The BYU Cougs should be fun to watch this year since they have had an incredible winning streak.

We normally head down to the south side of campus to watch the Homecoming Parade but now, it looks like there might be 2 inches of snow on the parade route. That just doesn't seem fun. I guess we could bring our skis and inner tubes and try to make some fun out of the miserable weather.

I'll let you know what we decide. I guess if the weather is really bad, maybe it will be so bad that it will be a trip that we NEVER forget.

Eagle Scout

This weekend Coby Carter received his Eagle Scout Rank. We had his Eagle Court of Honor down at the river and had President Ward hand him his Eagle Scout award. Here are some pictures.

From Coby Eagle Scout

From Coby Eagle Scout

From Coby Eagle Scout

From Coby Eagle Scout

From Coby Eagle Scout

I took a few pages out of my Mom's Eagle Court of Honor play book and had 2 canoes ready to escort the 2 Eagles across the pond at the golf course and had them escorted by their mentors up to the Eagle Court of Honor. We had a bon fire, a bunch of flags and one big US Flag which made the event special. The weather was perfect and we all had a wonderful time. I think Coby felt special and that all the hard work had finally paid off.

Congratulations Coby!!!

New Sites

Well, you know me, well, maybe you don't but I am a computer geek. With that geekyness I should be up on all of the new technology and new websites that are out there. Sorry to disappoint but I haven't been. One of the reasons for my lack of nerdyness is that I have been serving as the YMP (Young Mens President) in our ward. Last week I was released. You have all probably felt the same disappointment and releaf that comes along with being released. I'm both sad and glad at the same time. Very strange. Just yesterday I went over to the church to help with some "Board of Review" interviews, and the youth were meeting for their Mutual activity. I found myself wanting to go in and feel the excitement but at the same them, the calm, knowing I wasn't in charge. So, after getting home last night, I had a smile on my face because I didn't have the stress of making sure everything was running correctly in the YM program.

Anyway, getting back to my point. I have ventured out into 2 new internet sites and I must say, they are both addicting. They are definitely not "NEW" websites, but they are new to me. The first one is Craig's list. This is so much fun to browse through the items that are available for sale in my local area. Almost every day now I take a minute to checkout what people have listed from Twin Falls Idaho. The second site is FaceBook. And what do you know, I already have 9 friends. It sure makes me feel special.

I know, I know, these sites have been around for a long time and most of you are already members and have been checking them out every so often. This just shows you just how much time I have spent on the internet lately and how much time I have had to just goof around.

Crash

My sister called the other day and wanted some help with her computer. Unfortunately her computer had crashed and wanted to know how to proceed. I told her that if the Hard Drive was ok, then she could get back her her files but that probably meant her motherboard was bad and she would have to buy a new computer. If her hard drive was bad, that means she couldn't get her data but she could probably replace the drive in her computer inexpensively.





Well, we found out, that her hard drive was toast so she now was trying to get some of her important information off of the drive which may or may not be possible. RATS. One of the most important of all of the data on a computer these days is your photographs. So, I want to give all of you "Little Enoch Readers" a couple of tips.

Tip #1: A file is not REALLY saved unless it is in 2 places.

This means that it can be on 2 computers, or a computer and a backup drive or a computer and on the internet. If your pictures are only in 1 place, they are not truly safe.

Tip #2: I found this little video about saving your pictures on the internet so my second tip is to follow this guys advise and safe your pictures to a website. Here is the vid.



Personally, I purchased a 350 gig external hard drive that I backup to every once in a while. If one of my computers crashes, I can get it off of this other drive. After watching the video, I am now also keeping some photos on the web. Great Stuff!

Summer of Coby

Well, with all of the happenings this Summer, who knew that it would turn out to be "The Summer of Coby" (in a deep announcing voice)!

Andy played baseball the first part of the summer where he traveled all over the state to play in "All Star" tournaments.

Savanna had clogging competitions at Lagoon and performed in several locations.

Deanna played tennis for the local tennis league.

I didn't do much of anything.

BUT, COBY, he had a pretty awesome summer.
Coby finished his Duty To God award for Deacons. Coby finished his Eagle Scout award and should receive his patch within the next couple of weeks. Coby practiced and performed for the Prophet at the Youth Cultural Celebration. Coby was ordained a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. Coby began seminary this year. Wow, what a list of accomplishments.

Now, on a lighter side. Coby has a group of friends that have started messing around with making video clips and they have now published their first video on You Tube. Here is a link to their short video. Yes, it is a little goofy, well, who are we kidding, it is really goofy, but they did it and they plan on doing more. Coby is only in the first scene but they are planning on doing a re-make of their first video and adding Coby to the cast.

The video is called "Totally Pointless". You will see that the title matches the performance.

Enjoy

New Stake in Twin Falls

It was announced in church on Sunday that there will be a new stake formed in Twin Falls Idaho. The new stake will be called the Twin Falls South Stake. Because of this new stake, the Twin Falls Stake, the Kimberly Stake and the Twin Falls West Stake will be affected. The new Twin Falls South Stake will take 3 wards from the Twin Falls Stake. These wards that are leaving our stake are the 3rd ward, the 9th ward and the 13th wards. This is significant because 6 of our High Council members are from these three wards, a number of people in stake presidencies have people from these wards and also our Stake Patriarch, and our 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency. So, there will be some major turnover in the Twin Falls Stake in the next 2 weeks. It should be exciting.

Although the Twin Falls Stake will be losing 3 wards, we are also gaining 2 wards. The Twin Falls Stake will take back 2 wards from the Kimberly Stake. These 2 wards will be the 11th Ward and the 15th Ward. So, that means we will pick up a Stake Patriarch from the Kimberly Stake and a member of their Stake Presidency.

The new Twin Falls South Stake will not have a building at first so they will use the old Twin Falls Stake Center as their meeting house until their building is constructed.

These changes should take effect on September 14th during our General Stake Conference.

Isn't this exciting?!?!?

YCC Success

After many many long months of practice. The YCC (Youth Cultural Celebration) was a HUGE success. Many of the leaders, parents and youth were wondering if all of these hours and hours of practice would be worth it. Scouting programs were put on hold, youth activities were put on hold and many schedules were re-arranged just to make this happen. Many families gave up a lot to be involved in this event. After all is said and done, everyone that I have talked to has said it was totally wort it.

The Celebration was Awesome. Many times during the performance I was litterally brought to tears knowing how much work was put into the production and to see it blossom like it did was just amazing.

If you were to ask anyone in the stake if they would do it all again, I am almost certain that they would all say YES, it was completely and totally worth it.

Here are some snap shots that someone else took of the celebration. You really had to be there to completely appreciate how well this performance was presented.

Back To School Too

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

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

School Starts

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

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

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

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

DMZ

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



Dennis Miller

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

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

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

Outdoor article

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

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

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

Hypochondriac or West Nile

Definition of Hypochondriac

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

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

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

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

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

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

Social Networking

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

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

High Adventure

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

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

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

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

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

Great week for scouters at High Adventure Camp.

Last Will and Testament

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

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

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

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

Too Busy to Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fathers Day

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

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

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

Texting

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

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

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

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

Article from the New Era about Texting.