pants

This is a little embarrassing to mention but it is kinda funny and maybe there are some people that have run into the same problem.

Yesterday morning I woke up and found a bunch of folded clothes on the bed. There were teeshirts, polo shirts and pants all folded neatly in a stack. As the clothes teetered, I decided to put them all in their rightful place. I picked up the shirts, hung some, stuffed some in a drawer. I picked up the pants and placed them in my drawer nice and neat. I then went through my regular routine of taking a shower, combing my hair, brushing my teeth etc. I went back into the bedroom and grabbed one of the polo shirts I had just put away and the jeans that were on top in my drawer. Everything was going well. My shirt felt a little snug but it always does after it has been washed, plus, I wear a "medium" polo shirts which, I am told by "What not to wear", is what size I should be wearing. (What's wrong with being a medium?) I then put on my pants and took out my belt. As I put my belt on, the belt hit the leather tag at the back, which it normally doesn't do, but I dismissed it without a second thought.

As I was leaving for the day, I grabbed by keys, wallet and cellphone (these are my weapons of war in the modern day battle). I guess I didn't notice until I put my wallet in, that my back pocket really wasn't big enough. I thought that was kind of funny but washing jeans always does funny things to your clothes. I walked out to the car and put my hands into my pockets for my keys and I noticed that my front pockets seemed a little small. Well, they were regular size but not as deep. Again, I dismissed it and drove off to work.

Once I was at work, my brain kept giving me subtle hints that something was amiss with my pants. My brain kept on reminding me that the pockets were small, there was a leather label on my pants and my wallet just doesn't fit like it normally does. I knew it could not be true, but my brain had assessed the citation and told me that I was wearing Deanna's jeans. I didn't want to make a big deal about it at work as it might cause way too much imbarrassment for myself. And I wasn't about to go to a job site with the possibility of having someone notice that I had women's jeans on. So, I picked a suitable time to leave and ran home for a few minutes to confirm my suspicions.

On arrival, I took off the pants, and looked for a tag. If the tag said size 12, they were womens, if they said size 32X32 they were mens. I looked at the brown leather tag on the back of the jeans and it said Ralph Lauren (Could that be a guy's jean label?) Ralph is a guy isn't he? However, there is a Lauren name on it too which sounds very much like a woman's name. This tag didn't help we with my sleuthing. Finally, a tag with the size, (12). RATS, I had accidently put on my wife's jeans again. I grabbed another pair of pants, put them on and everything was right with the world again.

Disclaimer Deanna's currently wears a slim and trim size 10 jean. The size 12's that are mentioned in the above post are her old pants that no longer fit her.

Marriage Stats

Marriage Year 1993
1 Temple Marriage
16 years of marriage
5 apartments
4 cities (Provo Utah, Sandy Utah, Idaho Falls Idaho, Twin Falls Idaho)
2 houses
9 cars: Lynx, Honda, Mazda 626, zippy, pickup, voyager, grand caravan, F150, Altima
8 different jobs
4 wonderful kids (2 boys, 2 girls)
2 trips to Disney Land
1 trip to Hawaii
2 trips to the emergency room

Announcement

I have an announcement to make today on my blog. I have started a NEW BLOG called LDS Family.net!!!

I am very excited. It all started about 2 weeks ago when I read a blog post by LDS Web Guy that mentioned a program called SiteAdopt.org. I decided to check it out and found this non-profit organization called More Good Foundation. They are an organization that is trying to promote positive content about Mormons. What an interesting idea I thought. I continued my investigation and found and email address and volunteered to adopt a website.

After a couple of discussions, they were more than willing to give me a shot at adopting a website. My website is called, LDSFamily.net. How cool is that? I will now be posting just like I have here on my blog, but I will be focusing on stuff that happens to me as it pertains to my membership in the LDS Church. So, when people go searching around the internet, and type in Mormon, or LDS, or LDS family, they will find my blog and find good positive content about the church. YES, I can even count it as missionary work!!! Ok, not really. Maybe I'll get a half of a check mark on my score sheet in heaven.

Now that I think about it, how often did I mention that I was LDS in my blog? How many times did I mention that I was LDS? Probably not very often if not at all. How embarrassing really. Anyway, I'll be changing my ways now and hopefully promote good positive content in the future.

I hope you will all add my new blog to your readers and come check out my new site once in a while.

LDS Family Dot Net

Sunflower

During the school year last sping, Katie's teacher gave everyone a sunflower seed. They took time in class to talk about sunflowers and then each of them took a small paper cup, dumped some dirt inside and then planted their own sunflower. They left their little miniature gardens in their classroom until the end of school. Each of them carefully took their little sunflower home to watch it grow over the summer. At this time, the little sun flower was only a few inches tall.

At that point, Katie delivered her sunflower into my care. I wasn't sure what to do with it so I decided to take it out into my sprouting garden and plant it in the ground. I had no faith nor hope that this little plant would survive in the harsh outdoor environment after basking in the warm inviting climate controlled classroom. Nevertheless, we found a spot in the garden and plopped the sprout in the dirt.

Over the summer, I watched it grow, still not thinking much about the flower. I began to take serious notice of this plant after it had grown to about chest high. As it continued to grow and tower over my 5'10" frame, I knew we had something special. I took Katie out one evening and took a video of her with her sunflower. We quickly uploaded it to YouTube, and send a link to her teacher which was overjoyed to see that at least one of those sunflowers from class had reached maturity.

Red and Brown

I have to be very careful today. I have decided to wear a combination Brown Slacks with a Red Polo shirt. For some reason, when I wear this combination of clothing, I have this very intense urge to shop at Target.



When I arrive at Target, I enter the doors and start on my usual path to the electronics department. (I love looking for good deals on cell phones and computer equipment) On my way, I inevitably get stopped several times by other shoppers. I don't know why, but when I wear the red and brown duds, I become the most knowledgeable person in the store. People stop me to ask where things are, ask for prices on items, and ask for directions to the bathrooms. I don't quite get it.

Clint

Oquirrh Temple

I thought I would post a quick picture or two about the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. Before our family reunion, we decided to take the kids down to SLC and let them walk through the temple before it was dedicated. A friend of mine told me that whenever they had a temple open house that was fairly close to Idaho, they always tried to make a trip with the kids to go see it. The idea being that they really will not be able to see the inside of a temple until they are ready to get married or go on a mission. So, what a great way to get them familiar with the temple.

One last thing. They had some big tents setup to view a quick video and another tent setup for a reception. Our kids commented that it was the "Nicest tent they had ever been in". It was like a Harry Potter tent where you think it is going to be this small tent with white walls and when you walk in, it is like you stepped into a palace.

Here are some pictures of our visit.

EFY

This year we have decided to send Coby off to EFY (Especially For Youth). We didn't have enough dough to send him to a program that was "on campus", so we sent him to an area program in Ogden. My parents were nice enough to let him and his two friends stay at their house in Bountiful the whole week.

I don't know why I am so excited for him but I just feel giddy about the whole idea. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than he was. I really hope Coby sees that there are many more youth out there struggling just like he is to live the standards of the gospel. I hope he meets other young men and women that are striving to get good grades, striving to keep the commandments and striving to make themselves better.

Too many times our youth are put down for trying to be better. How great would it be if the youth of today would build each other up instead of tearing each other down.

Positive Peer Pressure!

I listened to a talk this weekend about "positive peer pressure". The speaker talked about how awesome it would be if the youth could influence other youth to be better, to straighten up, to reach higher. Adult leaders are great but youth have MUCH more impact on their peers than adults do.

I've been a youth before. I know that it is hard enough just trying to keep your own self esteem above water. I know that only the strongest youth can walk over and pick someone else up out of their hardships. I just hope we can help teach and train these youth to see their worth so they can be the strength for those that are faltering.

It is very interesting to look at the Junior High years and High School years from the other side of the Adult / Youth fence. I think I would have handled those year differently if I had known what I know now.

Clunker Dealer

I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of it yet, but with so many people clamoring to take advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program through the US Government, why isn't there a crop of Clunker Dealers sprouting up all of the nation.

Since I haven't see anyone pick up on this idea, maybe I'll be the first to open up a Clunker Dealership.

All I will have to do is drive through some of the mobile home parks here in Twin Falls and offer $100.00 to each person that has a clunker in their driveway, or parked on their lawn or even up on blocks. I'm pretty sure I would walk away with several hundred clunkers after one pass through one trailer park. Then, I put these clunkers on a car lot and offer them as available clunkers for the Cash for Clunkers program. I would certify that they are clunkers, charge the customer $500 for the clunker and then tow it to the "new car dealership" for them so they can get a $4,500 rebate. Everyone wins. The Trailer parker makes $100.00 for a car they would never use and probably haven't used for decades, I make some bucks, and the new car buyers gets their new car for $4,000 cheaper.

I think it would be a great business. If I knew where (bring it back) Clancy was living these days, I'd team up with him to make it happen.

Skits at Talent Show

We had some fun this year at our family reunion by gathering together and singing some songs and doing some skits.

This first skit of Coby and I doing a skit called "Banadana".

This is a skit by Blake, Grandpa Carter and I. It is called "Quick Draw McGraw".

Grand Mother's Tea Party

If I weren't a Carter Song

In Memory of Grandpa Wardle

Last weekend Deanna's Father, and our Grandpa Wardle passed away. He died doing what he loved best, serving his family, and driving his favorite truck. Grandpa Wardle was a no nonsense kind of guy that would give you the shirt off of his back if you asked for it. He loved all of his children and grand children equally and would do or give anything to make sure they were happy. Grandpa Wardle always had a story to tell about his family, his work, or his friends. When he was on a roll, his local Idaho accent came ringing through giving you a sense of comfort, like you were home sitting on the couch. Grandpa Wardle was always up for fixing your car if you had any trouble. I can remember several stories told when he would get up in the middle of the night to rescue a stranded son or daughter when their car broke down. Personally, I remember having Grandpa Wardle help me replace the U join on my little Honda Civic. After many mild cursings of "Cotton Picker" and "Pot Licker"'s, we were able to remove all of the pieces and parts, and put it all back together again.

Our kids loved Grandpa Wardle. He would take them to McDonalds and would always offer to go to the store to buy us "mugs". We have decided to remember Grandpa Wardle by going out to the store and buying mugs every year. He was definitely a quiet strength for our family.



We will miss Grandpa Wardle. When I think about him, I can still feel his spirit and it gives me peace.

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.