it all started with a fence post

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

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



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

US Economy

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

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

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

YIKES!

big feet

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



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

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

Role Models

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

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

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

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

Still got it? NOT!

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



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

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

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

Wass Up?

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

Enjoy.

Spirits and Physical Bodies

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

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

look alike

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

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

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

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

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

It is definately fun to think about.

Metabolism

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

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

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

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

History

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

New Family Portrait

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




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

Show me your workplace

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

Carter News Flash

Here is another very quick Carter News Broadcast.

Anniversary of Engagement

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

Happy Engagement Anniversary Deanna.

I Love You.

Clint

Video's about the Mormon Church

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

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

Enjoy

Things I've Done or Haven't Done

Bold the things you have done... [comment if you wish...]

Started your own blog
Slept under the stars
Played in a band [Marching, Concert, Symphony, Pep]
Visited Hawaii
Watched a meteor shower
Given more than you can afford to charity
Been to Disneyland
Climbed a mountain
Held a praying mantis
Sang a solo
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightning storm at sea
Taught yourself an art from scratch
Adopted a child
Had food poisoning
Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty [floated past]
Grown your own vegetables
Seen the Mona Lisa in France
Slept on an overnight train
Had a pillow fight
Hitch hiked [on my mission]
Taken a sick day when you're not ill [kids were sick]
Built a snow fort
Held a lamb
Gone skinny dipping
Run a Marathon
Ridden in a gondola in Venice
Seen a total eclipse
Watched a sunrise or sunset
Hit a home run
Been on a cruise
Seen Niagara Falls in person
Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
Seen an Amish community
Taught yourself a new language [spanish]
Had enough money to be truly satisfied
Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
Gone rock climbing
Seen Michelangelo's David
Sung karaoke
Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
Visited Africa
Walked on a beach by moonlight
Been transported in an ambulance
Had your portrait painted
Gone deep sea fishing
Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
Gone scuba diving or snorkeling [snorkeling]
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Gone to a drive-in theater
Been in a movie
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business [eCarters.com]
Taken a martial arts class
Visited Russia
Served at a soup kitchen
Sold Girl Scout Cookies
Gone whale watching
Got flowers for no reason
Donated blood, platelets or plasma
Gone sky diving
Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
Bounced a check
Flown in a helicopter
Saved a favorite childhood toy [I still have pinewood derby cars in my treasure box]
Visited the Lincoln Memorial
Eaten Caviar
Pieced a quilt
Stood in Times Square
Toured the Everglades
Been fired from a job
Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
Broken a bone
Been on a speeding motorcycle
Seen the Grand Canyon in person
Published a book
Visited the Vatican
Bought a brand new car
Walked in Jerusalem
Had your picture in the newspaper
Read the entire Bible
Visited the White House [just the outside]
Killed and prepared an animal for eating [fish]
Had chickenpox
Saved someone's life
Sat on a jury
Met someone famous [Glenn Beck]
Joined a book club
Lost a loved one
Had a baby [not me but my wife]
Seen the Alamo in person
Swam in the Great Salt Lake
Been involved in a law suit
Owned a cell phone
Been stung by a bee [wasp]
Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

Exciting game

Andy notified me that there was a Bruin basketball game last night and asked if we could go. I found out that this was a "do or die" game for the Bruins to go to State. We threw on our coats and ran out the door. Before we left, I decided to try out my new MP3 player that had a built in FM radio tuner. Maybe I could listen to the play by play while watching the game.



I tracked down MIX 103 for the game and got a really good signal. As we entered the building I looked over at the announcers table to see if I could spot the "caller". He had a headset on and was stationed just below the upper deck of the gym. I decided to find a seat on the opposite side of the gym where there weren't as many people.




We sat and watched the game as the Twin Falls Bruins pulled ahead to create a cushion of 10 points. As we entered half time the announcer on the radio made a comment that he was having trouble staying connected to the radio station by cell phone. He mentioned that his cell phone was running low on battery and he wasn't sure how much of the game he could call. I thought it was interesting that he was using a cell phone.

As we entered the final minutes, the announcer started to get very anxious, his cell phone was dieing and I could see from across the gym that he was frantically searching for someone that had a cell phone. The radio station then went to commercial because the connection had been lost. I thought for sure that someone else in the gym would notice that he needed help. I sat for a few seconds waiting to see what would happen. After seeing the frustration and the announcer almost giving up on calling the final minutes of the game I quickly turned to Andy to see if he had his cell phone. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and I asked, "is your phone charged?". He checked and nodded that it was. I said, "are you sure it is fully charged?" He said yes and showed me the bars on the phone. I then told him to run the phone over to the radio announcer on the other side of the gym. He looked at me like I was crazy. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "here, you take it over." So, I grabbed his phone and ran down the steps and up the other side of the gym. I reached through the fence on the upper deck and held the cell phone and asked if he needed a cell phone.



He looked up, saw the phone and grabbed it out of my hand looking for the microphone jack. He quickly found it and plugged in his headset. There was less than 3 minutes on the clock and they were completely off the air. I could tell he was in a hurry as he quickly tried to figure out how to dial the radio station number. After a couple of attempts he got connected and once again began calling the game. He gave me a big thumbs up after reconnecting with the station. Andy and I returned to our seats to enjoy the rest of the game.

The Bruins won the game by 10 points and secured their spot at a birth at the State Tournament. Andy and I returned to the announcers table after the game to pick up his phone. After they had done the interview with the coach, he was very kind to mention that we had saved the program by letting him use our cell phone.

I found out after the game that the announcer is the husband of Kate's first grade teacher. I also found out that most of the games that are called on MIX 103 are done by cell phone.

Needless to say, it was an exciting game in many different ways.

full length movie? "Just In Time"

This week, I decided to try my hand at a full length, (ok, not full length) movie. We've named it "Just in Time". I created the script, chose my actors and went for it. I tried to add some comedy and drama. You will notice that both of my actors have a hard time not looking at the camera. You might also see them smiling when they really should be smiling. However, they were good sports and allowed me to do my stuff. I'm actually pretty pleased at how it turned out. I learned quite a bit and will use some different techniques for my next movie. Enjoy the show.

Ski Trip

I went with Andy's 6th grade class to Pomerelle ski resort this Wednesday for a ski trip. We received some free ski classes before they let us loose on the mountain. After getting used to my borrowed skis, from my brother Blake, I took my chances on the man made jumps.




Ok, so my jumps are REALLY, REALLY LAME but that is all of the courage I could muster up for the jump. Maybe I'll take it faster next time, which will probably be in a few years when Savanna has her 6th grade ski trip.

The last jumper is Andy. Andy did very good for his second or third time skiing. He was even brave enough to take the jumps.

The weather was perfect. There was 2 feet of new snow and the lines were short. It was just a great day to be skiing.

Carter News Brief

We had some time Sunday afternoon to put together a Carter News Brief. I hope you enjoy the reports.



I think we have some great potential news anchors in our family.