Piano Duet

Katie worked on a piano piece this year for Festival that included a small duet. Somehow I was chosen, volunteered, or forced to play the other half of the duet. Luckly I didn't have to play my part for Festival but I did have to perform in front of a live studio audience at her recital. Below is a video clip of our performance. Notice that Katie didn't mess up once and Dumb Old Dad messed up several times. Aaarrgghh!





Below is a link for my facebook friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz61FCIIjqs

Tennis during Spring Break

Coby and his friend Dallas were out playing tennis this week during spring break. While they were out there a photographer from the New York Times, oops, I mean the Times News, jumped out of the car and went over and started taking pictures of them. Well, yesterday this picture showed up in the "local" section of our newspaper. Because we have a paper route, we clipped all of the pictures out of everyone's papers so that Coby could make wallpaper out of it for his room. JK

Alma and Korihor

For some reason, this video really shocked me. I know that it shouldn't because the world around us continues to fall into disbelief. As I watched this segment on TV, it reminded me of the story of Alma and Korihor in the Book of Mormon.

Watch the video below starting at time segment 130. Then, read the segment of the Book of Mormon to see what Korihor said in opposition to Alma's belief in God and that Christ would come again to the earth.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Alma 30: 13 - 60

Korihor says:
13 O ye that are bound down under a foolish and a vain hope, why do ye yoke yourselves with such foolish things? Why do ye look for a Christ? For no man can bknow of anything which is to come.

14 Behold, these things which ye call prophecies, which ye say are handed down by holy prophets, behold, they are foolish traditions of your fathers.

15 How do ye know of their surety? Behold, ye cannot know of things which ye do not see; therefore ye cannot know that there shall be a Christ.

16 Ye look forward and say that ye see a remission of your sins. But behold, it is the effect of a frenzied mind; and this derangement of your minds comes because of the traditions of your fathers, which lead you away into a belief of things which are not so.

24 Ye say that this people is a free people. Behold, I say they are in bondage. Ye say that those ancient prophecies are true. Behold, I say that ye do not know that they are true.

Jimmer

BYU has reached the sweet 16 in the 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Jimmer Fredette has become a national star and continues to shoot outside shots that are several feet behind the 3 point line.

The BYU Harold B. Lee Library has taken advantage of this success and has used him in several videos.

Enjoy these great videos about the BYU Library.





Here are the links for my facebook friends.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hbllproduction#p/u/3/hSxpYGcUU7U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JTysCSBFCo

Birds

Spring is here and the sounds and sights of Summer are here. We saw some birds drinking from a bucket of water in the back yard so I setup my tripod and recorded some video.

Here is a link for my facebook peeps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRqasJbV_hY

Tsunami Video

We pray for the people of Japan and there loss of life and property at this time. Below are some of the most amazing video footage of this terrifying event.







Here are the links for Facebook:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_6iDBoOvb0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zfCBCq-8I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APEsVeE7FGk

geocaching

It has been a long long time since I pulled my GPS out of my Swag Box to track down a cache. I've just been so busy with other stuff that I just haven't had a chance to go geocaching. Last week the Scout Master in our ward called me up to ask if I would teach a class about geocaching to the scouts in our ward. I said yes and started to rummage through all of my goecaching stuff.

I found a bunch of stuff that I had almost forgotten about including the fact that I still have a Travel Bug out there in the geocaching world. So, I logged into my Geocaching.com account and checked it out. To my amazement, this little travel bug named "Tree chain" had made quite a few trips around this small world of ours. Below is how many miles this little travel bug has logged and below that is a picture of where it has been.

Tracking History (23,462.8 miles)


Click on the image for a better view.

Andy and Bball

Andy was fortunate enough to play on the 8th Grade Basketball team for O'Leary Middle School. I should have a bunch of pictures of him playing ball but for some reason, the season passed me by and I didn't get a good shot of him. I did, however, take a picture of a picture of him and his team. It is a horrible shot but I guess it is good enough for historical evidence.

Exciting Stuff ! ?

Ok, the title of this blog is a little deceptive. Nothing really exciting has happened since my last post which is why nothing has been posted. I guess there have been a few moderately exciting things so I guess I should make you aware of them.

Coby made the Twin Falls High School Tennis team. Not just the tennis team but he made the VARSITY TENNIS TEAM! He has been very jazzed about that all week.

Savanna went to a clogging competition in Boise and received a 1st Place award in three of her four clogging performances. This qualifies her to go to Nationals this summer to compete for a national award.

Andy has been playing basketball and was excited that he made Coach Jones' team. He has played #6 all season and even got to start in one of the games. He has enjoyed his time playing 8th grade bball even through they didn't have the winning'est season.

Katie has been practicing hard on the piano and will participate in her very first "Festival". Then, after the festival, she will be playing in a recital where her Dad will be playing a duet with her. I don't know who is more nervous about the recital, Katie or her Dad.

Well, there you have the "exciting" stuff that is going on. Ok, maybe moderately exciting occurrences in our family.

President's Day

While listening to the Kid Kraddick Radio program this morning I was reminded that today was President's Day. We are supposed to be honoring our Presidents, as in the Presidents of the United States. Sure, there are POTUS's out there but there are also other Presidents, like Class President, School President, President of a business, etc. So, I started to think of instances of when I was a president. It hasn't happened very often but I was the President of the Deacon's Quorum, and a Young Men's President in my church, the Mormon Church. While I was working for my Dad at the Truck Driving School he said I could be President and CEO of the business so I might count that one. I'm also President of my online webstore business called eCarters.com. But, I think that is about it.

When have you been a "President" so that we can honor you today? Maybe you ran for President of something at some point or had a calling of being President in your church. If you have, and obtained the title of President, we can salute you today, President's Day!

Mailbox

Another little video I posted on my "Neighborhood" project.

This is entitled, Our Mailbox.



Here is a link for my Facebook Friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAS5WzsOQM

Photo Project Gone Rogue

My friend Clark posted on his blog last week about a project that was started for photographers. The project was stated as follows:
"Taking photographs is fun. Sharing them is even better. Sticking with one theme a month, upload one photograph a week that somehow represents that theme.
One theme a month.
One photograph a week.
12 x4 = 48 photographs.
You in?"

I am definitely not a photographer, however it did sound like fun so I clickity clicked on over to the website and asked to join. After seeing a couple of the photos posted, I decided to go rogue and upload videos instead of photos. I hope they don't mind. It will give me a chance to try out some video production and video editing skills. Below was my first post.



Here is the URL for my Facebook Friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNoD0M2yTEY

Jive 2011

Coby has been working very hard in Jive over the last few months for the production of the "Jive Winter Showcase". This is a show that Jive puts on to show off all of the songs and dance steps that they have learned since school began in 2010. Normally Jive practices their songs during 8th period at the High School and then they practice their dance steps every Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7 to 10 pm. However, on the final week before the showcase, they practice every day from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. It is a long and grueling week of practice but it all pays off on the finally day (Saturday) as they present their musical performance to a crowd.

As a "Jive Parent" I had volunteered to help out with something. I thought I was going to help with a picture montage or something. As we talked with the choir director he mentioned something about putting together some video of the members of Jive between songs, just like BYU's Young Ambassadors do in their production. So, my video brain turned on and I started putting by ideas together.

Since I had kinda built a studio in my garage, I had the lighting all setup. And, I had my new flip video camera from Christmas, so, I was ready for my first official "GIG"!

I interviewed each of the members of Jive and then every night that week I edited the video into 6 short clips that they could use between songs.

Below are all of the clips I made. They aren't perfect but it was the best that I could do in just one week. Now that I know what I'm doing, I'll be able to make a much better set of videos. So, my mind is already thinking about the "Spring Showcase".

















Here are the video links for my facebook friends.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xHtJtyhnLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgu3av1AWmQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp-lLFImk2A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POeMm9B6im4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpqVlRbsap0

Epic Fail

Recently I have begun to notice that the younger generation (my kids) have begun to use a word in a different way. My kids now use the word "Fail" as a noun. Maybe it is due to the website called failblog.org or maybe because of this YouTube Channel, I don't know. This is how the word is now used around our house, "That is a fail!". Yes, it is very strange to me too. Usually fail is used as a verb in a sentence instead of a noun so it just doesn't sound right. However, over the last few months I have become accustomed to this misuse of the verb and have even come up with a few "fail" nouns myself.

The most recent occasion to use this new found noun was when I was headed to the grocery store with my 3 kids. Andy and I had just been to Great Clips where we had our hair cut. Our journey took us over to the west side of town to an establishment known as Walmart. As we were rambling around the parking lot looking for the most epic parking spot ever, Andy remarked with much enthusiasm, "Thats a fail!". I didn't notice what he was talking about because I was completely focused on parking positions. So, when we got out of the car I asked him what he was talking about. He said that as we entered the parking lot, he noticed on the ground that it said "YIEED". Humm, what in the world is a Yieed? Well, you can look for yourself. This is what the youngsters of today would call an "EPIC FAIL!"



This is an actual photograph from my camera phone at Walmart in Twin Falls Idaho.

2010

I thought about doing the same thing I did last year and give you some statistics about what happened on my blog. Well, it looks like I had a lot more time last year than I do this year. I was able to check out all of my posts and tell you how many comments each one received and what posts were my favorites and which one's failed miserably. This year, I barely have time to type anything into this year end post. I guess I can say that I am glad that this year is over and I hope next year is much much better. I guess I should really focus on the happy exciting things that happened to me instead of the downers. I was able to witness the wedding of my Brother Blake to Estee Blatter in the Denver Colorado Temple. I was able to baptize my youngest daughter this year and confirm her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I was able to walk in the footsteps of the Willie and Martin Handcart companies and ponder the hardships they suffered while returning to my nice air conditioned hotel room. I should focus on the advancement in the Priesthood of my two son's. One becoming a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and the other being ordained a Teacher. I still have a job that I enjoy and that help pay for the necessities of life. I have great people to work with at my job. I am able to teach a strong work ethic to my kids by taking on a paper route. And finally, I should be thankful that our dog healed from his broken leg and continues to be excited to meet me at the front door when I come home from work.

I have begun to ponder why I continue to write a bunch of stuff on this blog. A part of me likes the opportunity to make fun of myself. Part of me wants to make people laugh. Part of me wants to share experiences that might match things in their own life. Part of me just wants to unload thoughts that come to me during the day. Hopefully there isn't a "Clint Overload" out there in the bloggosphere. If there is, please, just unsubscribe or ignore me in your reader, or delete me on facebook, or stop following me on twitter or watching my videos on YouTube or reading my posts on LDSFamily.net. Hummmm, I guess there is a lot of ways I can invade people's lives with my blathering.

Age 42 hit me this year and I don't know what to think about it. I remember when my Dad was 40 and I'm not sure I'm as far along in life nor as successful as he was. Maybe I'll catch up later. A friend of mine taught me about how trees are different and mature at different times. One tree might stand dormant even though all of the other trees around it had blossomed and bloomed. I guess I'm just one of those trees that will mature later? There is also a little story about a vinyard that was pruned back by it's Gardner. The plant that was pruned down to the ground looked up at the Gardner and said, "why was I cut back so far to the ground?". The Gardner looked back and said, "I'm the gardner and I will mold you and prune you as I see fit to make you a strong plant". Ok, that may not make sense.

Am I still writing? I should have stopped long ago.

100th Video

It is official, I have now uploaded 100 videos to YouTube!!!!

The very first video I posted on YouTube happened December 02, 2008 it was entitled Christmas Morning 2007. I don't know why it took so long for me to upload my first video. I didn't know much about videos, uploading, youtube or editing at that point. The video was actually shot by my brother Blake.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc_HGl-vdoQ

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The most recent video I shot and uploaded to YouTube was from Christmas 2010. It is a small video of my parents playing our new game on the Wii called Band Hero.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjJM2OTbJQE

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The video with the MOST hits came from a brief visit to a robotics competition. It was called First Lego League. It has now had over 5,300 hits!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRUh7U5Vyg

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And finally, in honor of my 100th video on YouTube, I'll put a few of my favorite videos to date.

Andy at Camp Bradley (Old Spice Commercial)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsMli_p6Jes

Savanna, Katie, Andy and I doing the Wass Up commercial with our own twist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCgqL0hgo7g

And finally, me and Coby doing the Banadana Skit at a Carter Family Reunion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXg6PNHaI7w

If you like some of these videos, click on the subscribe button when you get to YouTube and you will see all of my latest videos each time I upload a new one. (You have to be a member of YouTube of course)

Christmas 2010

I was in Costco with Deanna walking through the isles when I saw a huge bin of these bears. I thought it would be a cool gift to give the girls this year so I checked out the price. Well, the price was right so I told Deanna I would come back later and pick them up.

Below is a picture of my shopping cart.




I couldn't post these pictures until after Christmas but I just had to let people see how ridiculous I looked when trying to buy my girls a Christmas present this year.

I believe

There was a constant buzz around our house about Santa Clause last year. Fortunately it hasn't been such a big discussion nor argument this year amongst the kids. Whenever we got into the dialog about Santa, I'd always side with the youngest members of the family and state that "I believe".



I still remember the excitement of waking up early in the morning with the hope that Santa Clause had brought me something cool for Christmas. I remember that there was MAGIC in the air because it was always such a mystery. Now that I am older, Christmas has lost some of its magic and glitter, however, I don't ever want to loose that feeling that I had when I was a young child. So, whenever one of my kids, old or young, asks me if I believe in Santa and the magic of Christmas, I always say, "I believe". Deep down in my little kid heart, I believe. I hope that my kids never grow too old to believe in the excitement and magic of Christmas.

Ginger Bread Houses

The other day I was browsing through the Bloggernacle again and found a cool web page that has craft ideas for little kids. I thought some of them looked easy so I forwarded the link to Deanna at school. Later, I found out that when she scrolled through the ideas, she came across ginger bread houses made from gram crackers and frosting. Immediately she remembered her childhood and that her family had made little gram cracker houses when she was little. I thought it sounded fun and cheep, so a rushed down to the store and bought a bunch of Gram Crackers to use for Family Home Evening.

We took the Gram Crackers over to my parents house, and we decorated these houses with the Hirschi Family on Monday night. I didn't have a camera ready so I had to take some pictures with my phone. They aren't great but they do that job.

Is it worth it?

Many of you know that recently our family started doing a paper route. Since I would much rather have bamboo jammed under my fingernails than to get up at 4:00am every morning, I have been continually asking myself if it is worth it. Well, I now have my answer.

I had the opportunity to take the girls out for dinner at Wendy's the other night. We stepped up to the counter to order our meals and surveyed the choices. After ordering each individual meal, Savanna looked up at me and said. "How much was my meal?". I replied, " Oh, about $6.00". She looked back at me and commented, "That's about two days worth of doing the paper route". A grin came to my face because I realized that she had just learned how much a dollar was worth. So, now, when we are about to spend some money, I ask Savanna how many days of paper route would it take to pay for it.



Yep, just for that one lesson, it has been worth it.