Temple Visit

On a drizzly morning in April, Coby and many of his close family went to the temple to support him in receiving his endowments. We had a wonderful session that morning in the Salt Lake City Temple. After exiting the temple, we braved the rain and took a few pictures of Coby outside by the reflecting pool. Below is the short video I took of him while we were there.

Mission Call

The much awaited mission call has finally arrived. Coby has been working on his mission papers since January and finally completed all of the requirements and submitted his papers. We anxiously waited the envelope in the mail to see just what Coby would be doing and where he would be living for the next 2 years of his life.

The envelope finally arrived so we hurried and organized as many family members as we could to come over and watch him open up his mission call. Below is the video of him opening his call.

Coby was called to serve in the Tijuana Mexico Mission. He enters the Provo MTC July 10th 2013 and will be teaching the gospel in the Spanish language. We are very excited for him and we are anxious for him to get started. He has a few months where he can work and earn a little bit of money to help pay for his mission.

Harlem Shake

A few weeks ago my sister posted a video on youtube and named it the "Harlem Shake". I watched the video and saw her kids dancing to a crazy sounding song but didn't quite get what was going on. Later in the week when I was going through some of the videos on YouTube, I found the video and played it again. One of my kids was walking by and watched it too. She told me that she knew what this video was about. It was called the Harlem Shake. We then searched around youtube to fine more Harlem Shake videos. After viewing just a few, I figured out what was going on and then I said, "We are doing one of those videos for FHE!" My kids were skeptical and dismissed it immediately. But, I was ready so when Monday rolled around, I got out the video camera and tripod and told everyone to find something to wear because we were doing a Harlem Shake Video. They were all still skeptical but after I came down into the living room the energy started to build and everyone started to try and find something crazy to wear.

Once we had everything in place, we had to find someone crazy enough to start dancing while everyone else was just sitting there. I opened up the floor to volunteers. No one volunteered. In fact, they all said that I would have to do the dancing since it was my idea. I was ok with that but they would all have to live with the consequences.

Andy found the music and we started the video camera. I didn't know what I was going to do once the music started playing but I knew it had to be big and bold. So, the music started, I started tossing my arms around and ended up punching the air. After that, we stopped the video, put on crazy clothes, turned the music back on, and then went crazy for about 30 seconds.

We took two shots of the second half and then I combined it with the music and uploaded it to YouTube. It was a huge hit will all of our family and friends. Enjoy our "Harlem Shake" Video below.

Sledding

This week a storm his Twin Falls Idaho and dumped a little bit of snow all over the place.  The dumping of the snow wasn't bad but the wind caused the snow to turn into a blizzard.  All of the schools around the area closed so that no one would be hurt while traveling.  So, what do all of the kids do when there is a snow day and they are out of school?  Yep, they run outside and play in the snow.

Unfortunately the snow day did not automatically translate into a day off of work for me.  I still had to work and still had to travel.  I spent most of the day in the office but managed to get a little work done too.

When I got home, Katie begged me to go sledding since she had already tested out the hill.  I wasn't up for sledding that day because I had "worked" all day, but I considered going on Saturday.

Saturday came around so I waited until just before the sun went down so I could hit the warmest part of the day to go sledding.  It still was not warm outside but I bundled up and went over to the small hill by the city pool to get in a few sledding runs before it was too dark.

Below are just a few videos of our experiences.

Coby's off to college

I know this happened a few months ago but I just found the pictures that I took so I'm posting this today.

We took Coby off to college at the end of August.  Coby bought a car from his grandpa at the end of the summer so we loaded up everything we could think of into the Lumina and headed for Logan.  We arrived at his apartment complex and checked in.  We wondered around a little bit trying to find Coby's exact apartment.  The apartment was on the second floor of a large apartment complex at the bottom of the hill close to USU Campus.  When you drop off of the hill, way down below the temple, the area is called "The Island".  Anyway, we found his place and started to unload his car and our Suburban.  After looking through the apartment, we realized that we had packed way to much stuff.  His room was very small.  Not only was it small but he had to share that room with another person.  So, he had to stuff a bunch of his belongings over into a closet close to his bed.  I think the other kids in the family were a little shocked with how little room was.

Below are some pictures of us moving Coby into his new apartment in Logan Utah.

We then took him up to campus and went shopping for some books for his classes.   Yikes, the prices were high so we looked online for a few of them to try and save some bucks.  After making the book purchases we decided to go and buy some food.  We went over to Walmart to stock him up on some food.

After getting back from the grocery store, we took the food into his kitchen and discovered we had bought way too much food.  We had taken up almost all of the room in the kitchen with just Coby's food.  Oops.  Anyway, I guess he could share if there wasn't any more room.

We then said goodbye and headed back to Twin Falls.  Mom and the girls shed a few tears as we left our oldest son in a city several hours away from home.  We knew that things would never be the same, but we also knew it was time for Coby to start his life on his own.

Since then, Coby has worked hard at college.  He had a job that ended just before Thanksgiving and probably won't start up again until March or April.  He has learned what it takes to get good grades in college.  He has learned the importance of studying and how much he needs to use the computer lab.  On one of his computer programming finals he worked and studied and was able to get a 100%.  We hope he continues to learn and grow as he gets closer to leaving to go on a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Christmas Letter 2012

The dynamics of the Carter Family has changed this year.  We had one of our decedents (Coby) graduate from High School, pack up his things and leave the nest.  We didn't think it would ever happen and we were pretty sure he would not survive on his own.  Amazingly enough, Coby is still alive and has managed to live, on his own, for four whole months.  We are pretty sure he is living on milk, Cup-o-Noodles and toast.  He has spent the last semester at Utah State University and is entering his finals week.  We are anxious to have him home for Christmas to hear about all of his experiences at college.  Coby is planning on starting his mission paperwork so that he will be ready to leave on a mission in early spring 2013.

Andy tried out for the Junior Varsity Basketball team this fall, and made the team.  So, we are traveling around the gem state in hopes of catching a glimpse of him playing on the TFHS JV basketball team.  So far he has played really well for the short periods of time that he has played.  Andy was ordained a Priest this year and is excited to be in the Priest Quorum.   At the end of the last school year, he was fortunate enough to quality to play in the State Tennis Tournament in men’s doubles.  He is really excited for tennis to start but has to wait two more months before tryouts and practice begins.

Savanna has been serving as the Beehive President in our ward.  She completed her Young Women Recognition award this year which is a MAJOR accomplishment for a little Beehive.  Savanna continues playing the piano and clogging.  She worked very hard this year to make the highest team in her dance studio called Pride Elite.  The Elite team is made of girls from a senior in high school all the way down to 8^th grade.  She is very lucky to make such a special team at her age.  Some of her clogging dances can be found on YouTube.

Katie has decided to play basketball again this year.  She wasn't on the same team as last year but still had a winning season.  Katie has also decided to start clogging again.  She tried out for a clogging team called Thunder and made the team.  She hasn't been clogging for 5 years but picked it back up very quickly.  She had her first performance this month and did very well.  You can also see her clogging performance on YouTube.

Clint has made a career change of sorts this year.  He has enjoyed being a computer technician but was wanting something more.  He talked with his employer to see what other opportunities were available.  After some deliberation and investigation he has moved from being a computer tech to sales.  He is now referred to as “Technology Specialist” on the sales team at Integrated Technologies.  So, if you need any computer equipment, any toner, a printer or copier, please call Clint and buy from him.  His livelihood now depends on what he can sell.  So far it has been a good move for Clint and the future looks bright.  Clint continues to serve as the Elders Quorum President in our ward which keeps him busy and involved.  He enjoys the opportunity to serve people and create fun activities for the Elders in the Quorum.  Clint has decided to volunteer as an assistant tennis coach for the Twin Falls High School JV Tennis Team.  Tryouts and practice begins at the end of February.

Deanna has been studying her brains out this year.  She continues to work on her Master’s program so that she can say that she is definitely smarter than anyone else in the family.  We already know she is smarter but she wants a diploma to prove it.  She has about 1 year left before she earns her Master’s Degree.  Deanna continues to teach at Sawtooth Elementary as a Kindergarten teacher and also serves as a Laurel Adviser in our ward.  She loves working with the Young Women and the Young Women leaders.  They rally around her and sit close so they can participate in the fun witty humor that Deanna brings to the activities.  This summer at girls camp, Deanna’s little tent was filled with Young Women Leaders as they stayed up late into the night bouncing funny stories and sarcasm off of the paper thin tent walls.

Finally, my daughters insist that I mention one other thing.  At the beginning of last year we found a little dog lost in the streets early in the morning.  We took him into our home with the hopes that we would find his owner.  We did not find the owner so we added another dog to our family.  This fall, little Simba died as a result of a hole in the fence and a bigger dog’s rage, so we had a small funeral service for this little adopted dog.  We miss little Simba in our lives.

We love you all and we pray for your health and safety. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Clint, Deanna, Coby, Andy, Savanna, Katie

SIMBA, Rest in peace.

Many of you may already know but last month our little dog Simba passed away.  If you don't know how Simba came to be a part of our family, you can go to my blog post earlier this year by clicking here

So, Simba has been with us since February 2012. He was welcomed with open arms from all of the kids.  Simba has been a loving pet to all of us except for Jack.  I think he tolerated Jack for the most part but when there was a battle for attention or food, Simba, the smaller dog, would always win.  Simba liked marking his territory so much that I gave him the affectionate name of Weedler.  I called him Weedles, Weedler, Weedy, and Weeds.  Simba didn't care, he loved the attention.

Simba would be the first dog to the door when someone came home.  He would jump up on the couch or chair to sit by you while you watched TV, played on the computer, or just sat reading.  He didn't care what you were doing, he just wanted to be sitting by someone.  One of the fun traits that Weedler had was that when we talked to him, he would tilt his head from side to side as if he was trying to figure out what you were saying.  It was very cute.

Weedles met his demise by trying to find love.  There was a girl dog around the corner from our house and Weedles felt the need to respond to the call of the wild.  He snuck through 3 tight fences to find this girl dog. Once we found Simba missing, we all went hunting for him.  We searched until it was too dark to see in hopes that he would just come home of his own accord.  The next morning we received a call from our neighbor that Simba had passed away.  The girl dog he was trying to court was a Great Dane.  Needless to say, she was not in the mood and he received the brunt of the attack.

That night, we dug a hole in our backyard and gave a short funeral for our little dog.  Each of us talked about what they will miss missed about Simba.  All of us cried as we lowered his little body into the ground.  We will miss little Simba.  I hope we get a chance to see him again in the next life.

On TV

I was on TV this morning at 7:00am. I know, there arn't that many people watching that early on a Monday morning, however, they posted our show on the internet so now I can rebroadcast the program to all my friends and family.

I am a member of PLaNT which stands for Professional Leadership and Networking of Twin Falls which meets every Tuesday to talk about our businesses and promote leads for sales. I am the IT guy for this group and I represent Integrated Technologies (which is the new name of the company I work for).

I was a little nervous at first but was able to be calm for the live shoot. It was a little shocking how quickly the program started and how fast the time flew once the cameras were rolling.

Family Pictures

Before Coby left we decided to take some pictures of our family. Below is a small video of all of the pictures that I thought were great. Some of the pictures were cut off a little bit by my video editor. I'll have to fix that later. At least you will be able to see a lot of our shots.

Olympic Medals

The Olympics are in full swing this week so I guess I had better post some interesting new thing about it. This time, I'm posting about something that I am finally fed up with. Ok, fed up is a little strong. Maybe I'm more annoyed than fed-up. Ok, no, fed up works fine. Michael Phelps, that is my irritant. Michael Phelps Greatest Olympian, Michael Phelps most decorated olympian, Michael Phelps most metals of all time, Michael Phelps wins another gold medal. AARRRGGGHHHH Stop with the Michael Phelps stuff and stop giving him medals. Why does he have so many medals? Well, it is because there are so many swimming events. If there were 300 fencing events, maybe one of the fencing olympians would have a bunch of gold medals. Here is a good example. Lets say there is a really good runner. Lets say he can run the 100 yard dash really well and can beat everyone in his field. So, lets compare that with the swimming. Swimming has 100m free style, 100m back stroke, 100m butterfly, 100m breast stroke. There are four events right there. So, we should have 4 events in the 100 yard dash! 100 yard dash, 100 yard backwards, 100 yard skipping, and 100 yard sideways run. Plus, in the swimming they have the relays. Backstroke relay, freestyle relay, butterfly relay, breast stroke relay. We should add all of these relays to running as well. You get the picture. So, I think the swimming people have way too many events in their category where they can win medals. Poor "shot put" people only get one chance. What if they had the shot put throw, shot put roll, shot put shuffle, shot put flip, shot put relay? Many more shot putters would be getting medals and would then be able to compete with Michael Phelps' record of the most Olympic medals. Maybe it is just that I don't like swimming. For me, it isn't fun to swim. For me, you are just a few kicks and arm digs away from drowning. That's no way to have fun with the fear of drowning on your mind all of the time. Wow, I went way off the deep end on that one. No pun intended. Ok, maybe a little pun intended.

Parents Reactions

I don't know if our children know or not but us parents go through a lot of emotions while we are watching our kids play sports. I've always wandered how goofy I looked sometimes while watching Andy, Coby, Savanna or Katie perform. Well, I finally have a mirror to look at. While I was watching the olympics last week, the spotlight turned from the gymnast Alexandra Raisman to her parents. They replayed Alexandra's whole uneven bars performance but only showed her parents in the stands. I loved their reaction and finally found the footage on YouTube. This is probably how I look when watching my kids at their performances.

Prank

When I was growing up, each of the kids was involved with scout camp and girls camp. For the boys it was always Camp Bradley. For the girls it as always Alturas Lake. We would pack our bags and prepare for camp a day before leaving for camp. For some reason, the Girls camp was much more easy going and playful than the boys camp. I remember several times seeing my Mom sitting in the middle of the living room floor with the pajamas of my sisters. I remember asking her what she was doing. Well, she was sewing up the bottoms of their pajamas. This was a little prank that my mom would pull on her daughters just to let them know that she was thinking about them while up at camp. Now, in the modern era of political correctness, this playful prank isn't so well received. I would imagine that pranks are no longer encouraged and small notes of encouragement are now the norm. Well, I'm not going to follow the norm, I'm going to follow tradition. So tonight, I'll be heading over to where Savanna has dropped off her camp gear to sew up her pajama bottoms. I hope that when she goes to bed that first night and as a hard time getting into her pajamas, she will think of her geeky Dad and smile.

One Ping Only

I have a few little sayings that I like to quote.  I don't use them all of the time but they come in handy every once in a while.  One of these little phrases is, "One Ping Only".  Many of you may not know what movie that is from.  It is from "The Hunt for Red October".  It is a very important part of the movie that makes or breaks the fate of a submarine crew.  I decided to try and track it down for those of you that have heard me use the phrase.  Enjoy.

Mints

When I was younger, quite a bit younger, our parents would leave all of us kids at home to go to a wedding reception. Although we were not happy that we were left at home and didn't get to see the cool stuff that went on at wedding receptions, we did have one reason to be excited. Usually our parents would leave the house stating that they would bring us home something special. We all new what that ment too. It ment that Mom and Dad would bring us home some mints. Sure enough, if we were still awake, Mom or Dad would pull out a small napkin filled with little green and pink mints. Sometimes even some nuts. Well, it was my turn to carry on the tradition. When we were at a reception for Brian Stevensen tonight, I decided to gather a small pile so mints onto a small plate to bring home for the kids.

Below is my small stash of reception mints I brought home for the kids.

Utah State

It is official!  Coby is now registered and ready to go to Utah State University in the fall.  BYU has always been at the top of Coby's list for college but with the full ride scholarship and an excellent job offer Coby received from a business owner in Logan, Utah State has become the more viable option.  It has taken some time to make a decision on what he wanted to do but through prayer and pondering, Coby really feels excited about his new adventure at Utah State.  Deanna and Coby traveled up to Logan to check out the campus, check out the computer science and computer engineering programs and to look at the possibility of getting on-campus housing.  Just this weekend he sent off his down payment for housing just off campus in Logan.    

Today, he confirmed that he would have a nice paying job with a tractor and implement company in Logan that will work with his school schedule and give him the money he needs to pay the bills.

Everything has just come together perfectly for Coby and we feel he will have a great experience at Utah State.  In fact, one of the councilors that he met with last week had the curiosity to ask Coby if he happened to know another Carter named Gordon Carter.  Coby grinned sheepishly and said, "yes, he is my grandpa".  It turned out that this councilor had been on several Charity Anywhere Foundation service projects to Tijuana Mexico.  Coby felt accepted right off the bat and already had at least one new friend.

Now, lets just hope that he gets some really good roommates!

The Summer of Andy

In 2008 I wrote a blog post entitled, "The Summer of Coby".  This year, however I can already say that this summer will be "The Summer of Andy".  Many of you might be wondering where I got this silly idea of naming a summer after someone.  Well, I got it from an episode of Seinfeld. If you follow this link, you will see the short clip of George Castanza announcing that this summer will be "The Summer of George". http://youtu.be/ZPS3qLtaFtw

Anyway, back to the summer of Andy.  Well, Andy has been working on trying to put together an Eagle Project.  He have searched high and low for a project that would be worthy of his efforts.  He has found several ideas but never really got them going.  Finally a project came available through the Twin Falls City Parks and Rec.  He was to organize and execute a plan to clear out an area of Derkie's lake for people that would like to kayak and canoe.  A 20 foot section of the lake front would need to be cleared and sand would need to be moved to create a nice beach to launch and extract small boats.  Below is a picture of the backhoe taking out the weeds.

Andy has also been working towards getting his drivers license.  We signed him up for Drivers Ed right at the end of the school year, which was a big mistake.  Trying to get through DE during Tennis, Concerts, Year end church and school activities is like herding cats.  Needless to say, he missed over half of his classroom times and only got a couple hours of driving done.  So, he had to go to the next class that started in June and continue to get his driving times in.

I tell you both of those stories to let you know that Andy finished Both of these huge tasks yesterday.  Andy completed his Eagle Scout Project on Saturday and finished his last driving hour the exact same day.  On a side note, I didn't die during the parent drive portion of his driving classes.

Way to go Coby!

Mom and Dad (Gordon and Susan Carter) drove up to Twin for Coby's graduation about a week ago.  They sliced out some time from their busy schedule to come and attend this momentous event.  While they were here that weekend, Grandma Carter (Susan) decided to make a poster that we could hold up for Coby when he stepped across the stage to receive his diploma.  I thought she had made a small poster that one person could hold up and try and draw attention to Coby.  But no, the poster was like 15 feet long. The poster said, "Way to go Coby!".  It was huge.  Below is a picture of the banner that they held up for him.

Of course, we were a little embarrassed to hold up this sign for Coby but it turned out to be pretty fun for all of us.  In fact, the local newspaper picked up on the story and mentioned it in the Times News.  So, to read all about it, you will need to click on this link.  Twin Falls High School Graduation 2012.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Carter for coming up and supporting Coby Carter at Graduation.

Senior All Night Party

The Twin Falls High School PTO puts together a party for the graduating seniors over at CSI every year to try and get the students to spend the night in a controlled environment so they don't go out partying and possibly getting into trouble or even worse.  So, Deanna and I volunteered to chaperon this all-night-party.  Deanna had access to a cotton candy machine so both of us stayed up all night serving cotton candy to the students.  While there, I had to take a few breaks to make sure that I stayed awake. At about 1:30am, I saw  Shane Schvaneveldt standing on the joust mat boasting his strength and challenging all parents and students to a battle.  Like a gallant warrior I decided to take him up on the challenge so I marched right over there, took off my shoes, removed my wallet, took off my watch, took out my phone and keys and stepped onto the bouncy house joust battling ground.  The standards that you are required to balance on were very shaky because they were supported by air, so right off the bat, you are uneasy and a little wobbly.

The challenge had been announce and I was there to meet his skills with my cunning.  I rose my battle gear in the air and prepared for a confrontation.  Round 1. After just one swing and a miss, I leaned too much forward and fell off my post.  AARRRGGHH!  "I'm better than that." I murmured under my breath.  Round 2.  I took a few stabbing pokes at my opponent but could not get enough forward momentum to be effective.  I took a couple of hits to the side and regained my balance.  Another couple of hits to the side and I felt myself falling backwards without any way to recover, so in a dramatic display of defeat, I through my battle bar into the air and took a leap back into the abyss of the air filled mat.  I was determined to do better this next time.  Round 3.  I was focused, I stratigized and made my play.  My opponent found himself leaning when he should have been swaying and he started forward towards me without a return hit to bring him straight and decided to just dive into my legs to try and get me to fall.  The chopping action of this dive took me down but not until after my adversary had already left his post.  Round 3 goes to me. Round 4.  I decided that I didn't have much strength left and this was probably my last round so I took my jousting stick and swung it around with one hand and tried to take out my opponent's legs.  The swing was hard, my aim was true and the blow landed just at his knees.  I knew that this pounding would disable my opponent at the knees and render him unbalanced to the point he would fall off his pedestal and dive for the mat below, HOWEVER, the impact was not as dramatic as I had expected.  I looked at him, he looked at me.  A grin came over his face and he laughed with a hearty gladiator like grunt, "Is that all you've got?"  I was shocked and found myself vulnerable without both hands on my weapon and took a couple of good shots to the side and head and in the end, took a devastating blow that rendered me unbalanced and defeated.  Again, in a show of dramatic theatrical display, I threw my arms in the air, spread my arms and legs out and took a final dive backwards to the mat.

Coby's Senior Year

Coby's Senior Year is almost over.  He has worked, he has played, he has won, he has lost, he has performed and he has succeeded.  Coby has been to Boys State, he has performed for the Jive show choir, he has kept up a part time job at Smiths, he has completed his Duty to God, he has graduated from Seminary, he has been accepted to 3 universities, he has traveled to Mexico on a service project, he has played on the Varsity Tennis team and next week he will graduate from Twin Falls High School with a 4.0 except for a couple of B's.  :-)

As parents, it is our duty to take some pictures of him along the way and record his experiences for posterity.   So, below, I'll put a few of the pictures we took of Coby during his Senior Year of High School.

Way to go COBY!!!!

We are hoping that Coby is able to find a full time job working this summer to help cover the costs of his housing and tuition at school this fall.  Coby has decided to attend BYU and is preparing to go down to Provo in August.  His apartment has been arranged and he has selected some classes he will be taking.  He is excited to get out into the real world and experience life on his own.  His parents are a little reluctant to let him go but know he will be successful in what ever he chooses to do in college.  At this point, Coby plans to attend a full year at BYU Provo and submit his papers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the end of next summer.  He then plans to serve a 2 year mission for the LDS church wherever the Lord would like him to preach the gospel.

Garden Again?

Last year my garden was pathetic. It started out strong, rows and rows of different veggies.  Of course, my radishes are always successful, they grow like weeds.  Maybe it is because they are from the "weeds" family.  They kinda taste like weeds according to my kids.  My loose leaf lettuce usually grows quick and full.  My beans and peas grow at an OK rate of speed and we usually harvest them early because we are excited to eat fresh peas.  But, after the first month of garden heaven, our interest in the garden starts to wain.  The tomatoes haven't produced yet.  The potatoes look like just another weed in the garden.  The radishes that I didn't eat, go to seed and the beans and peas have produced their two pea pods and we ate them as soon as they were ready.  From then on, all of the vegetables that take a while to produce are forgotten and the weeds begin to take over.  We leave for a weekend for one activity or another and I look out the back window and can hardly identify my garden anymore.  By late summer my garden is overgrown with weeds and I can't even find any of the plants I had waited so long to harvest.  My tomato plant can't breath anymore, my potatoes have been over-run by weeds and have given in to not having any sunlight.

Now, why in the world would I start another garden?  I talked to my sister living in Boise and told her about my gardening plight.  She recommended a new path.  "Have a special family home evening", she advised, "and tell all of the family that you aren't doing the garden alone this year.  If you want a garden, everyone will need to help."  It was great advise.  I had grand visions of each child in the family taking a section of the garden and weeding it, cultivating it, and harvesting a bounteous cornucopia of vegetables for our family's enjoyment.  I marched right home from this brief meeting and announced to my family that we will not have a garden this year unless everyone helps out.  Everyone looked at me like I was a little crazy and retorted right back with the same enthusiasm.  "Ok, we are fine without having a garden".  I looked around the room and everyone but Katie was nodding with approval.  Katie raised her hand and said, "I'll help you with the garden Dad."  So, there you have it.  What was I to do?

Well, today was the deciding day.  It is Memorial Day weekend.  I have some free time on Saturday but it was raining very hard.  Everything was wet and the garden plot was muddy.  I guess it just wasn't going to happen this year.  But, for some reason, I still had this small yearning to plant something and watch it grow.  Was it the deeply rooted genes from my ancestors that compel me to be a farmer?  Was it the call of a prophet that each family should have a small garden in case of hard times?  Was it the thrill of spring when all the world starts turning green?  Is it the excitement of seeing something magical happen in a small patch of brown dirt?  I don't know, but whatever it was, I succumbed to the pressure and started a garden today.