Poisoned

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

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

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

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

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

Cute Video

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

Reunion

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

Carter Strong Family Reunion 2009

More pics of Yellowstone

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

Everyone starts out EXCITED for Yellowstone Park!


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



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




The kids by a herd of bison.



Me and the kids at Old Faithful.



The whole family at the Canyon at Yellowstone Park.



Everyone is POOPED after visiting Yellowstone Park!

Impromptu trip to Yellowstone Park

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

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



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

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

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

Garage Sale'ing

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



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

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

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

Published on KMVT

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

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

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

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

Katie's Softball Video

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

Go Katie!

Fathers and Sons 2009

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

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

Here is my little video of our experience.




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

Garden Update

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

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

Interest Rates

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

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

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

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

Cheese?

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

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

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



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

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

What happened to that guy?

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

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

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

Dentist

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

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

Enjoy.

Muggled

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

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

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

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

Drivers Ed?

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

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

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

Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted.

Garden

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

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


Strawberries that I planted last year.


Lettuce from ground level. These look awesome.



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



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

Memorial Day

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

Enjoy!

musings

Here are some things that I have thought about lately.

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


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

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

Savanna Clogging

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

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

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