Ward vs. Family

I know I already offered a post about stuff that is quirky about me or some stuff that bugs me but I have another one that I would like to add to the list.

This post is not for the squeamish so if you don't want to read a controversial topic or you don't want your mind to be swayed by my opinion, please take this moment to exit my blog because some of the stuff I will say, you might not like or you might not agree with. If that is you, please click on this link and visit a happy place.

I don't know why but every time I hear someone get up in church and say "Ward Family", I get the heebee jeebees. I know, it sounds like a very loving way of referring to your ward, as a "family". It is just a warm and fuzzy image that most people seem to love to say. Me, I don't like my ward being referred to as a family. In fact, this last year our church was very much against changing the definition of marriage. Now this, I am in favor. Let us not change the meaning of marriage. It should be a union between a man and a woman. Therefor, why are we changing the meaning of a family? Shouldn't we reserve the word "family" for a unit with a Father, Mother and Children? I know, some families only have a father and children, some only a mother and children, some only a father and a mother. In any case, a family has a definition that should not change. People that are related. Ok, there are many combinations that could also be families such as adoption, grand parents, only children and no parents, etc.

I would prefer that a family unit remain a family, and a ward remain a ward. A ward has a definition of a group of families that is lead by a Bishop. A family is not lead by a Bishop. I know that people will argue that a Bishop is like the Father of the the ward and the Relief Society President is the Mother, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. It doesn't quite work so please stop referring to your ward as a family. For some reason I don't hear people saying, "Our Stake Family", or our "Regional Family", or our "General Church Family". Lets leave families as families, wards as wards and stakes as stakes.

So, there you have it. I have probably disenfranchised half of my readership now with my opinion of wards and families. I hope I have not offended and I wish to hear your arguments for and against.

Surprise Birthday Party

As I relaxed on Saturday, after running some errands and going shopping, by brain began to think about the events of the day. My birthday was on Friday and we didn't do much but open a few presents. As my brain started to sift through the happenings, I began to wonder if maybe my wife had planned some kind of party for me later on that evening. We had arranged to have dinner with some friends down at a local restaurant at 7:00pm but for some reason my thoughts were starting to draw some connections that may or may not be reality. There were several events that transpired that on a normal day I wouldn't have thought twice about, but, because they were all happening within a short period of time gave me pause. Either there was a party being planned for me or I was just being paranoid. I really hadn't thought of a surprise party all week so I wasn't sure if I was delusional or what. It is hard for me to describe how I felt because there were a bunch of events that came together very nicely, too nicely I thought.

Anyway, somehow Deanna had managed to make me feel like it was my idea to go over to my parents to practice a song that I was to sing for church. On the way over I was thinking in my head that either there will be a group of people in the house or I was just crazy. I was even thinking of telling her about all these connections I made in my brain while we were eating dinner. But, as I walked into the living room of my parents house I was greeted by a rousing chorus of "SURPRISE". Instead of surprise, I felt relief that I was not going crazy and that my suspicions were correct.

We had a wonderful time visiting with all of the families and friends that were able to visit. We ate snacks and punch and talked all evening.

I must say, my wife was very convincing. She did a wonderful job of keeping this party a secret, inviting the guests and arranging the scheme of how to get me to the house.

Thank you Deanna for a wonderful 40th Birthday Party.

100 posts

I didn't know it until today, just browsing around the "blogosphere", that my last post was post number 101! Can you believe it. I have bloviated with both pithy and verbose prose equaling Mr. Monks perfect number, 100. I really don't feel like I have written such a gaggle of posts but if you just type a few ideas every few days is surely adds up. I am not all that sure that it adds up to something interesting, but it does add up.

In celebration of my 100th post, I have decided to offer you something for free. Here is a link to some free stuff.
Free Cycling
Free Translation
Free gmail
Free Web Filter

Tagged

Ok, I'm not sure if I like being tagged or not. On the one hand, it gives me very specific ideas on what to write on my blog. On the other hand, I hate feeling obligated to do something just because others are doing it. Somehow I have always considered myself a nonconformist even though I conform to almost everything I do, so, I'll conform and finish the tag assignment that Clark Draney tagged me with.

8 favorite TV Shows (in no particular order because my tastes and preferences change)
1. Greatest American Hero (from when I was a kid)
2. M*A*S*H
3. The Apprentice
4. American Idol
5. Seinfeld
6. Hogan's Heroes
7. Candid Camera
8. Medium

8 things I did yesterday
1. drove home from Logan
2. kept basketball stats on Andy's Game (they lost)
3. checked my email
4. orders on eCarters.com (a shameless plug for my web store)
5. stopped at Wendy's and had lunch
6. took the girls to Pets Mart (or is it Pet Smart, or Pets Smart?)
7. scrapped snow off of our car windshield
8. visited Deanna's parents

8 favorite restaurants
1. Olive Garden (love their salad)
2. Chick-fil-a
3. P.F. Chang's (love the lettuce wraps)
4. Panda Express
5. All You Can Eat Sushi
6. Central Park
7. McDonalds
8. Anything but Mexican Food

8 things on my wish list
1. Lexus (not an SUV) (sedan with tinted windows)
2. A big house on either North or South Temple Drive
3. 7 day trip to Bahamas or a Cruise (just Deanna and I)
4. I wish I was a failing bank and could request 300 billion dollars
5. more patience with my kids (same as Clark Draney)
6. I wish I was taller
7. 8 more wishes (got to throw that one in there)
8. a trip to someplace fun with the kids (Disney World or national parks or Mormon Historical Sights)

Tag, you're it
1. Melinda
2. Marni
3. Rachael
4. Analee

Turning 40

I don't have much to say about turning 40. At this time in my life I really don't feel like I am having my "mid life crisis". I think I had the crisis a few years ago when, out of the blue, I stopped into McDonalds and bought myself a Big Mac. I know it was a crazy time but I did it, and I'm not all that proud of it. I have dropped back down into reality and have ordered the two single hamburger meal since the breakdown.

I decided to just list some stuff that I thought were evidence that I was actually 40 since I still look like I'm 15.

Signs that I am 40 years old.

1. I found a hair on my shoulder that was about 40 inches long. That's an inch for every year for those mathematicians reading my blog.

2. If I grow out my beard, (which I used to do to form a goatee) you would notice that I have gray hair.

3. Jumping on the trampoline is not fun any more. It really hurts. It's like I can feel all of my internal organs sloshing around inside and they really don't like sloshing around.

4. My waist line has expanded to 34 inches. I am no longer size 32X32. Even my 34's are starting to feel tight.

5. My hair line is starting to resemble that of Bruce Willis.

6. I don't mind driving the speed limit on the Highway.

7. I listen to talk radio and actually understand the subjects they are talking about.

Signs that I am not 40 yet.

1. I still have good vision.

2. I still like speeding in town.

3. I still have a goofy streak that shows itself every time I do the "Quick Draw McGraw" skit.

4. I still get "carded" when filling up with gas at the local Chevron Station. "Are you old enough to be filling up with gas?" (I then flash my license at the attendant)

5. I have all of my teeth? Well, minus 2 and a half. BUT, I haven't replace them all, yet.

6. I still spin cookies in the church parking lot. Just ask my terrified kids.

Early Christmas Gifts

Deanna and I have already given each other our Christmas gifts this year. I know, I know, we need to wait and be excited for Christmas morning, but we could not wait a second longer. I took our van down to the local Les Schwab and we bought each other new tires. I bought Deanna the right front tire and she bought the left. How romantic.



It is a sign of true love and affection.

Christmas lights

Finally--we got our Christmas lights up on the house.

It didn't take as long as I thought.

Quirks

I've been tagged by my sister Melinda. Here are some quirks about me. Please keep in mind that they are not in any particular order. If fact, they are arranged in random order. (oxymoron)

1 - My High School English teacher taught me to say "reared" instead of "raised". She said, you raise cattle and you rear children. Now, every time I hear "raised" in reference to people, I cringe and every time I say "reared" I feel weird.

2 - I love whip cream, whipped topping, or cool whip. I like to put a huge pile of it on my pie. Interesting that it is the exact opposite of my sister.

3 - I don't like nuts. Nuts taste ok but I don't like how the little pieces of nuts linger around in your mouth for hours. Not in cookies, not in cakes, not in fruit cake, not in ice cream. I do, however, like nuts in my peanut butter.

4 - I hate swimming pools. I don't like swimming in water that a thousand other people have swam in. If you want me to be more specific, I can, but it will completely gross you out and make you a pool hater too. If you want more detail, send me an email.

5 - I hate getting my fingers dirty or sticky. I hardly ever lick my fingers. I use a spoon to spoon out cookie dough. I would rather eat a donut with a fork and knife than get my fingers all sticky. I like Jerry Seinfeld's idea of eating candy bars with a fork and knife so you don't have to get chocolate all over your fingers.

6 - I am amazed at how often I can associate something in real life with an episode of Seinfeld.

I'm not going to tag anyone because my sister tagged all the people I would have tagged.

Here are the rules.
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag some fellow bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

funeral

There is nothing like attending a funeral to put your life back into prospective. This weekend I attended the funeral of my Uncle Ron Carter. This is my uncle on my father's side. Ron Carter was the father of 8 children. Five boys and 3 girls. As each of the children got up to speak, each of them mentioned how important the family was to their father. Each of them had their own favorite saying, favorite event that was emblazoned in their minds that engulfed the feeling of what their Dad meant to them. As they told these stories, talked about mannerisms, and discussed childhood nicknames, I couldn't help but think about my own roll as a father in my family. What stories would be told about me? How would I be viewed by my kids? What memories would they have of me? I am almost positive that the memories that I have and the lessons that I want them to remember will not be the ones told at my funeral. As we listened (I say we because Coby and Savanna were with me) I could see Savanna writing on a small piece of paper. As I peaked over my shoulder to see what she was doing, I discovered that she was writing down all of the nick names that I used for my kids. This brought a smile to my face and gave me the assurance that maybe I was on the right track.

I have always looked up to the cousins that I have in the Uncle Ron family. I still remember when I was little and the BIG Carter Cousins came over to our house to have lunch. I remember they were all really tall and really good at basketball. I wanted to be just like them. One very vivid memory was when we had a bowl of chips and one of the Carter boys picked up the chip and put the whole chip in their mouth. WOW, that was awesome. I couldn't do that. Latter on in life when I got a little older, I used the ONE BITE technique of eating a chip and that is when I realized, it wasn't that hard. :-) I don't know where I was going with that last comment, I just put it out there.

After the funeral service I had a sad feeling. Not that I was devastated for the passing of my uncle Ron, but that I wished I had gotten to know there family better, because they were all very "GOOD" people. I could tell that all of the children of Ron and Laree Carter were, in the words of my Dad, "The salt of the earth".

One final thought, what does, "Shoot Luke, the sky's full of pigeons." mean and where did it come from?

Ready for Christmas?

I think I have mentioned this in my blog before but I have learned to look for gifts for kids and my wife all year round. I don't just shop the last week before Christmas to get the gifts, I am looking for things all year. Unfortunately, I have run out of gift ideas for this year. Especially for my wife. I normally have a notepad full of gift ideas for Deanna but with her birthday and Anniversary this summer, I have used up all of the good gift ideas. Now, my list is empty and I'm very worried about it. I have the regular gift ideas that have been on the list forever like tennis gear, a car starter, kindergarten stuff but I don't have anything exciting and new. I pride myself in getting her something that she didn't know she wanted, but will love to have. I know what you are thinking, "why don't you just ask her what she wants?". I have asked her several times and the responses so far have been that she would like some piece of clothing. Now, I have been trained and taught from Stacy and Clinton from What not to wear, so I know that I can not just pick out a piece of clothing and expect it to fit. The process of buying clothes requires trying on every piece to make sure that it fits in all of the right places. So, I am not buying clothes. I have also decided not to buy gift cards. I know that if I tell everyone that I am buying my wife gift cards for Christmas, I would have and uprising in the female community that would eclipse the uproar of an angry crowed of disgruntled factory workers.

I guess I'll just have to keep listening for clues to find out what she wants. Oh, one last thing. I was given the advise a few years back, that I should never give my wife a gift that is normally a household item. One year I gave my wife a new kitchen faucet for a gift for her birthday or mothers day or something, (which we needed really badly) and all of the ladies in the office thought I was a clod. So, I try and stay away from these types of gifts too.

If any of you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Movie Review

As a new addition to my blog. I am now writing about current movies I have watched. I really haven't watched a movie for over 6 months so, I am guessing, that these reviews will be few and far between.

The movie I am reviewing today is "High School Musical 3".




I'll start off by saying that this movie is rated G. Even with a G rating you never know what you are going to see or hear. I am very thrilled to report that it lived up to it's rating. I thought the movie had awesome music, great dance scenes and a good storyline and ending. I would recommend going and seeing the movie. You can also review it on Screen It.

Something else I really liked about it was that the boys that were dancing and singing in the movie were actually cool. When the actors needed to look like they were good at basketball, they were actually really good. Most of the time, they get an actor and try to make them look like they are good at basketball. For example, Michael J Fox playing basketball. He is supposed to be good, but it is obvious that he is not. Also, the boys singing and dancing in this movie show young boys and youth that it can look cool to dance. The dancing scenes were macho when they needed to be and graceful in others.

My only complaint was actually with the movie theater itself. If you go into a movie theater, you expect AWESOME sound and effects. For some reason, the only speakers that were audible were the very front speakers. The music was awesome but without full surround sound, it sounded very flat. I felt I could get better sound out of my hoky speakers on my computer than we had at the movie. I complained twice to management but they just said, "That is just how they must have designed the movie."

Two thumbs up from me on this movie.

Enjoy.

Book Club

For all of you who know me to any degree, you know that I do not enjoy reading books. I am a little dyslexic and I feel I am a slow reader. Reading to me is a chore and may even be hard work. What I am about to tell you may be a huge surprise so please take a minute to take the last bite of the cookie that is in your hand and sit down. Make sure that the glass of milk next to your keyboard is out of striking distance.

I have joined a book club.

AARRRGFGGHHHHH!!!!! Splatttt!!!!! Curpluink!!!! Curfuffle!!!!

I warned you.

Yes, 5 manly, matcho, masculine, ruff and tumble dudes have organized a book club exclusively for men. The first book that was recommended by this group of raging, robust males was "Enders Game". And, if you are a current subscriber to my Blog, you would know that this book is one of the only books that I have re-read in my life. Therefore, when I found out that this book club would be reading books like this, I decided to join.

Last month we read "Never Cry Wolf" which was a good book. It is funny and easy to read. We had great discussions about wolves, politics and hunting. (interestingly enough, none of us hunt, but we could if we had to)

This month, we will be reading, "Me and the Geezer". We will see if the other brave gentlemen enjoy this book about baseball as much as I did.

The interesting thing about Me and the Geezer is that it was written by my Uncle, Ron Carter. The story is written from the son's prospective which would be my cousin. The Geezer is Ron Carter himself as the father. Some of you might already know that Ron Carter is a notable author which wrote the "Prelude to Glory" series.

Grand Champion

Every year at Sawtooth Elementary there is a pumpkin decorating contest. Yes, decorating because if it was pumpkin carving then after about 2 days the pumpkins that are displayed in the library would start to rot and stink. So, all of the kids are invited to decorate a pumpkin. This year Savanna decided that she wanted to decorate a pumpkin like a porcupine. Hummm, not the easiest but probably a very creative idea. I pondered over many ideas and even scoured the internet looking for an idea for a porcupine pumpkin. You may all be astonished to find out that there really aren't that many Porcupine Pumpkins out there in circulation and believe me, I employed all of my internet searching talent to find something to spark some creativity. I really didn't find anything to help me out of this artistic hole so I decided to just make it up. We went to the store and picked up some wooden skewers, googly eyeballs and some play-doh. This is what we came up with as a finished product.



The pumpkin sat at the end of a bookshelf in the library for a week and on the final day I received a phone call from Savanna. We had one a prize for our entry. Not just any prize. We were really thinking we would get something dorky like, "Most Porcupinee'est". We received the award of "Grand Champion". This is not just an award they give out willy nilly. They only give out 2 of these per year. One for the K - 3 grade and one for the 4 - 6 grades and Savanna's won Grand Champion for the 4 -6 grades.




I have mixed emotions. I am thrilled that we won, of course, but this also means that Dad will be expected to create a high level of pumpkin decorating prowess for years to come. I don't know if I'll be able to match the success we had this year. Maybe I should do as Dennis Miller always says. "Always be closing!" And Seignfield said on his TV program that if you had a great laugh off of one of your jokes, quit on a high note. "That's it for me folks, you've been great!"

Clint Carter for President?

I think someone nominated me for President and there is a lot of people out there willing to vote for me. Watch this news clip!!!

http://wordle.net/

Now here is a fun little exercise. Connect to http://wordle.net/ and input your blog address and it will give you a quick summary of words that are used the most in your blog and then arranges them in a cool little pattern. Give it a try.

Here is a Wordle of my Blog.



Here is a Wordle of my Family.

Halloween 08

When I was a kid, we used to get out all of Mom's acrylic paints and paint the front window in our house. We had a huge front window which consisted of one large paine and 2 smaller windows on each side. Rachael was our artist in the family and it seemed like every year she would draw a design on the window, with a crayon at first, to outline the images we would paint. Then, we would paint over the crayon markings with black paint to give detail to the pictures. Then, the fun part. We filled in the blank spaces with all sorts of colors. We really loved painting the front windows.





I decided one year, to give it a try on our front windows. I am definitely not an artist and everything I draw has to be plagiarized, but the kids really enjoy painting our front windows. Here is a sampling of our work.


Fun Looking Monster

Pumpkins and Trick or Treat (which I had to write backwards to look correct in the window)

Cat and Pumpkin

Ok, so the pictures are not great and the camera that took the photos were from my cell phone so they look very very rough, but I think you get the cut of my gib. (a quote from Dennis Miller)

Savanna Published on LDS.org

I have been following a blog called LDSWebGuy for a few months now and he always has some interesting "tech" information about the Church. One of his posts a few weeks ago announced a place where the Youth in the church could comment about how they felt about General Conference. I liked the idea so I sent the link to all of my kids to see if they would comment.

Savanna was the only one that picked up on it and typed something up. I wasn't sure if they would use her comments or not but when I looked today, her post had been published on the LDS Website. She typed this all by herself without any help from her parents. In fact, I asked her yesterday if she had written something and she said she had but didn't remember what she had said. I think it is awesome that they added it to the youth comments.

Here is the LINK to that page. Great Job Savanna!

Lift Where You Stand

I wanted to write something about General Conference that we had in October. Here are some of the talks that I enjoyed.



I'm not sure why but the talk that sticks out most in my mind from the Conference weekend was President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk during the Priesthood Session of Conference, it was titled, Lift Where You Stand. I really liked the idea that everyone, whatever the calling, needs to "lift" where they are standing. Whether that be the ward greeter or the Bishop, you need to do your best to lift the ward where you can. The story goes that a number of men were trying to lift and move a piano. They had tried every configuration of men at the front, at the back, on the sides, on the legs but they just couldn't move the piano. Finally, one of the men said, "Lets all stand as close together as we can around the piano and Lift where you stand". After trying this idea, the piano was moved into place. There are many great lessons that can be learned from this parable.

---

The second talk that I really thought was good was by Elaine S. Dalto Young Women General President called "A Return to Virtue". I think I enjoyed this one because we have been talking with Coby about these very issues in his life. The best quote out of the talk actually came from President Monson that counseled: "You be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone". Coby has already had to make this decision in his life. We know that he will be blessed for these decisions and that in the future, he will be looked up to by his piers for making correct choices.

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And my last quote was mentioned by President Thomas S. Monson. He stated in his talk, "Brother Hess wrote—and I quote: “These things are important: temple marriage, mission, college. Press on, set goals, write history, take pictures twice a year." I am now justified in taking photos of our kids every year. Now, we just have to work on getting those family pictures taken a little bit more often.

Professional Photographs

Every year we try to take photographs of our kids so that we can go back through their life and see how they have grown and matured. We have found that the normal school shots don't quite cut it as a good photo of our kids. Last year we gave it one more try to see if the "school" pics would be nice enough for our yearly pictures of the kids but the they turned out to be horrible. They were blury and out of focus and too far away to see their faces. So, we went back to Kim Critchfield to have their pictures taken. We got them back on Friday and they look wonderful. The only complaint we have is that they all look too old. They are growing up too fast. Out of all of our children, I think Coby has changed the most.

I also feel justified in taking these "expensive pictures" because it was mentioned by President Thomas S. Monson in the October 2008 General Conference. He stated in his talk, "Brother Hess wrote—and I quote: “These things are important: temple marriage, mission, college. Press on, set goals, write history, take pictures twice a year."

So, there you have it. I'm now justified in taking pictures of our kids. Now, we just have to work on getting those family pictures taken a little bit more often.


Kate Carter 2008


Savanna Carter 2008

Coby Carter 2008

Andrew Carter 2008

57 hits?

I was nonchalontly parusing my Google Analytics to see if anyone is visiting my sites when I came across some very interesting data. On Monday the 14th I had 57 hits to my blog. Now, to most of your this may not seem like much, but if you look at my hit counter you will see that I normally average around 11 to 20 hits per day.



Where did all of those hits come from you might ask? Very good questions. I did a little research and found that the hits came from 19 countries.



Hummm, I wonder what countries have hit might web site? Here is a map of the countries that have visited. 19 Countries?



Here is the best one that I could find that visited my blog.



Riyadh, Saudi Arabia!! What! Now who in their right mind would visit my blog from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia? eh?