A snapshot of the last couple weeks...

It's been a full couple weeks, with Thanksgiving, lots of Work, and with school coming to a close I am totally spent. I'm ready for a break. If only I got one. It will be a mad rush for the next week or so, Ill get about a week and a half off and then off to the races again. So without giving all the boring details here is a snapshot of the last two or three weeks.

So Back in October I was kind of dumb and decided to play on an intramural flag football team with some friends. I'm getting to old for this kind of stuff at the ripe old age of 25. Be that as it may, we were playing a game one night and I went to grab this guys flag right as he was cutting in towards me, I got the flag but as I pulled my finger away I saw that about halfway up it had a sharp bend at a 45 degree angle. I thought it was dislocated, so I started ripping out on this thing trying to get it back in place. Well turns out that it was broken. It's out of the splint now, but still crooked. The Doctor says, "Well, your not a concert pianist or a violinist are ya?" uhhh, no. "Welp, thats good because your fingers never really gonna be straight again." So what the heck, what would he have said if I said yes?!

Chocolate Milk Vending Machine. 'Nuff said.

We went down to california for thanksgiving an ordered this pizza. I have to say, someone up here in Idaho needs to make a 28" pizza! When it was delivered we were told that we had to support the bottom when transporting it. We didn't understand what that meant until we saw it!

Luke helping me push the quads back in to the garage.

The long version of this story will have to be told at another time, but I'll give you some keywords: 4'11" Bawling Zumba Instructor, an angry mob of out-of-shape Zumba-ites, and Gavin terrified of heights.

Update.

Good Afternoon everyone! My it's been a mighty long time since I have been on here to post! Busy Life! Too busy at this point. I'll give you guys a brief run down on what it is thats going on.
This semester I am taking my last semester of my Senior Business Core, what BYU-Idaho students lovingly...or ominously refer to as "The Emphasis..." Duh Duh Duh... When you have finished all of your classes in Business Management you take a full semester of classes that you want to emphasize in and you break off into three different segments of your choice: Finance, Marketing, and Supply Chain. I choose Marketing. It's 7 classes of hell. They involve alot of statistics and alot of strategic planning classes. It's interesting the misconception people have when they think of marketing, most people think that marketing is advertising. Not at all! certainly marketing gets involved in that but Marketing is really problem solving. It's getting to the bottom of a problem that a company is having and then solving. It's the most diverse facet of business. So anyway...I am dieing as I am going through it all. It's hard to keep up but they design the program that way. They make it so that your head is barely above water the whole time. Although it sounds funny, you learn best that way.
Anyway, so this semester is almost done, and man I am glad. Keep trudging through I guess. I changed jobs, I was kind of traded I suppose you could say between departments. I called up to the Activities department for the University as a Business Consultant for Special Projects. I am one of the first students to be hired into a position like this. I was assigned one particular project but I have several projects I am consulting on. It's definitely different but it's really cool because I am getting real world experience while still in school. Priceless experience. I am working with people that are really smart and really stand-up guys. I'm pretty sure they picked the wrong guy for the job. But I'll show them I will do it. More so than what people think...the school is very performance driven and it will be a challenge to get them the numbers they are looking for, but I feel that after doing this job, it will give me a great segway into working after school.
Well that's all for right now, Sorry for my unorganized thoughts. See you all later.

a natural talent.

My wife and I were talking today about a project I am working on for a grocery store chain while I was buying groceries of all things and we were talking about what they did before people who were trained in all these techniques of marketing and consumer behavior. I told her that, you know there are just people, school or not, that have a talent for those type of things. I would like to think of my self as one of those people who has a natural talent for it, (if only it was true). But then I got to thinking today as I was reviewing a case study written at Harvard a couple years back about Vans' Shoes. In the mid 90's Vans' had done all but completely driven themselves in to the depths of bankruptcy almost to the point of no return. The case study discussed a marketing and decision making turn around that changed the company. They implemented new strategy and new directions that brought the company out of bankruptcy and obscurity to be the giant it is today.

I thought to myself, you know one day I will be in a position to advise a large company of new strategy that can either drive them further into financial disarray or be successful. Am I ready? Am I ready for the responsibility that will one day be heaped on me. Sure, there's my career, but what about my family? Church? Community? It's a sobering thought...one that will hopefully take more action and less worry.

update on life...

Man, alot has happened in the last couple weeks. I'll explain, no there's too much, let me sum up...


So Kara and I, in an effort to quell rising costs of living while I am finishing school in a recession and really to get some more management experience, set out to find an apartment managment job. After a couple interviews, a job offer and the drama involved with that, we passed over (...in a sense) that offer only to take another one near where we live. Well after our short vacation we got home to move into our new apartment. Not 3 hours into our move I get a call from a family who has a broken toilet. Quite the learning curve right? After fixing that and finishing our move not 3 days later we have a refrigerator go out, OUR REFRIGERATOR! Luckily we had some tenants who hadnt moved in yet so we took our food up to their apartment until they got there. Shortly after that experience we had a tenant's AC unit go out...and then another AC unit. AHHH! all in a week. Quite the job eh. It keeps us busy. Although I will deny this if anyone asks me, it's probably a little more busy than we thought we were going to be. I think my Dad has seen this as I have called him at work with my hands covered in someone's toilet water or my upper body buried deep in an Air Conditioner unit, but he always gives me the technical help I need and the advice I want and never once has rubbed my nose in it that it was probably more than I thought i was gambling for. Thanks Dad, I appreciate that. With Kara and I both working outside of this it will make for a busy year. But we can do it, and in the long run it will be worth it to be able to pay our bills and maybe still have some left over at the end of the month...who knows.


I am excited for this semester to start although I am happy with it taking it's time getting here. This semester I will be able to get one step closer to finishing my degree. in fact all I have left is two semester and then I'm done! (...for a while at least.) Fall semester will be the last of my Marketing classes. Winter semester will just be some left over classes from my cluster and and my Capstone class for the Business department.


I guess as another update, I am the newest ref for the GridKids football. Just a weekend gig. It'll be fun though. I love watching little kids play football. they're just in it to have fun, now the parents on the other hand...not so fun. I'll manage though.


On a final note, Kara started her new job this week. Her first post graduation, prefessional job. She loves it! She is working for Madison School District at the new Madison High School. She works with developing special needs teenagers while they are in high school. It was funny on her first day because she wasnt nervous about the new job, meeting new people, new policies, handling the kids in the classroom, or something like that, she was upset that she had to wear the "stupid, ugly" shirt they were requiring all the faculty and staff to wear the first day. Haha, thats my girl.


On a final final note...Congrats to Jonathan Ridge and Kristina Ridge for graduating from Portland State University. (although it was jonathan who graduated, the spouse always deserves a congrats too.) He graduated Summa Cum Laude, that's quite a feat.

Until Next time...

The beauty and the reverencing things of life.

Well, Kara and I had the opportunity to take two weeks after her graduation and just get out of Rexburg. It was a great two weeks, we were able to go visit her family in Indiana and my family out in Virginia. Indiana was fun, we got to go back to Muncie to visit her family and luckily it was timed just right that her brother attending BYU was able to get time off from the MTC and come out as well. We got to eat some Steak N' Shake and Culvers, attend Kara's Family Reunion (which I have never been to a reunion before) and see some old friends and make some new ones.

During our trip to Virginia I was able to go see my Mom and Dad and their new house. I gotta tell ya, that is one nice house! My Dad was transferred out there a couple months ago. The move has been hard on them. They're far away from family, they don't know anyone out there and really they've never lived anywhere else BUT California. But this move is good for them, hopefully it gives them a second wind in life and helps them stretch their wings. They live just outside of Washington DC, a place I have never been before. It was so amazing to go there and see all the beautiful sites and to see our nation's Capitol. I mean this is stuff I have only seen o

n TV shows and read about in history books. We went into DC and saw the Air and Space museum(a personal favorite of mine, anyone knowing my background would know why), we saw the Art Museum, the National Archives, Fords Theater, The White House, The Vietnam Memorial, Gettysburg, and many many more things. Going back there really made me

appreciate the history of this Nation and what makes us free. I think everyone should go back and visit the memorials and museums and appreciate the beauty an

d experience the reverence of knowing there were people, great people who stood where you now stand.

the things that I love...

This blog post is entitled "the things I love" because ironically its about the things that I love. So... here it goes:

These little boys+1...nothing makes life more simpler than watching little boys play. These two little boys are my nephews. There's one missing, he wasn't alive yet when this picture was taken, but let me tell you they'll run you to death, they'll break just about anything they can see and they can make you sometimes pull you hair out, but when they hug you and tell you that they love you, there's nothing else like it.

This Girl right here...
Sometimes she drives me up a wall... but I love her to death. I love her sense of humor, her whit, her hard work and her love. I'm grateful for each day I get to spend with her, for the good and the bad ;) I love you Kara.

Flying...
There's rarely an experience in life you can't compare to flying. My Dad taught me to fly when I was a teenager. It was a time that was special to me that i got to spend with him and he got to pass to me a lifetime of knowledge he had spent gaining himself. To this day whenever I am having a hard day I drive out to the airport and sit out on the ramp and watch the airplanes in the pattern. There is little that can be better than soaring through the air with little to care.

Obviously these aren't the only things in my life that I love, only a few. Life is meant to experience, and how grateful I am for the one's I have been blessed to have.

weird day. heck, weird week.

So starts another week. Man sometimes it seems like the weeks just drag on. If only I could speed up the weeks when I wanted to and then slow them down when I come across something I enjoy. Who knows, just one of those days I guess. We're currently playing a waiting game for a lot of decisions in our life. I'd like to have a little clicker to speed up time right about now.

Anyway, We took Kara's graduation pictures this weekend. Here's a little sneak peak.

Weekend at the Splashpark

So, recently on the weekends we have been watching these two little boys. They are two cool little boys. This last Saturday we took them down to the "Spray Park" at the city park to let them swim. Here's some pictures of our little trip.
He loved the camera so much. I brought him around the other side so he could hold it and it he was so calm and captivated by it!

angry birds con't.

So we got the Angry Birds Pigs in at the hospital today. They are about 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and purely AWESOME!!!! haha anyway, snapped a quick picture with my phone.
Notice the chair next to it for reference.

How to make a hanging flower basket...no homo.

So being as the dirt poor people we are,but still wanting our place to look somewhat nice, Kara and I watched a couple episodes of Mcgyver and we devised a plan. We made homemade hanging flower baskets. So, I'm not a little homemaker by any means, but Kara sucked me in by convincing me that I could be the one who flexed my ingenuitive muscles to build it. So what I will attempt to do is show you how I did it, pretty cool actually.
1. So we just got any plastic flower pot from Wal-Mart. I think ours cost like $1.50. You then take a drill and put three holes at three different point, forming kind of a theoretical triangle.
2. Take some rope. I used paracord, mainly because it is small but holds a lot of weight, and lets be honest I just had a lot of it laying around. You loop it around and tie a simple knot at the end. cut off the excess on the short end, burn it, and flatten the end while it's still hot so it never pulls through.
3. Pull the end without the know through the hole from the bottom. Do this for all three stretches of rope and the accompanying holes.4. Take an old hanger wire hanger, some tin snips (or similar pliers) and cut the long, straight end of the hanger. With your pliers, or bare hands if your the Hulk, bend it in half. From there, begin bending it again, this time in a "U" shape. bring the two loose ends through the hole, so now it is a tear drop shape. With your pliers bend the two ends back over and twist them around.
Why not just use the hook from the hanger? Well, it won't support the weight of the basket. Problem solved.
I'll put up a picture of the finished product tomorrow. But it looks cool. and better yet, here's how much it costs: Plastic Flower Pot=$1.50, paracord= $.10/ foot, Flowers $2.50, hanger=$.50, all to a grand total of $4.80. Good deal eh? Give it a shot. it works great!

Longboarding and sunsets.

Kara has night classes on Wednesday nights so for three hours I have all kinds of time to get myself in to trouble, although it definitely doesn't take that much time. Well I decided to walk up the hill with my longboard and then longboard back down the hill to campus so I could meet her after class. Although I would love to tell of some dangerous exploit that nearly landed me in the hospital like last time, I got nothing this time, although i do have this great picture I took (which is really the purpose of this blog post...) at the top of the hill just behind the Ricks Building on campus, looking over the valley and a beautiful sunset.And then theres this other picture, as I was standing on my longboard taking this picture, these guys pulled up in a truck, happoed out, pulled some big wheels out the truck. The truck zoomed off and these guys just took off down the hill on the sidewalk. It was hillarious. Nice guys too, we talked for a second, turns out they had outfitted these big wheels with a set of brakes off of a bike. Cool, thats all I have to say.
(they're hard to see, but they're down there in the center of the picture.)

Day at the airport...

Today was a great day. It was great to spend the morning with the family down at the airport. The airport has always been a staple in our family. Here's a few shots from the morning.

Angry Birds and Human Resources...

So, I'm not a gamer, not by any means. While I've been in college I have been roommates with quite a few wizards, so I mean I can speak intelligently on the subject. Although, even as lame as this sounds, I do have to say that recently I have become somewhat addicted to the game Angry Birds. I find myself having a hard time sleeping, so what do I do? Roll over and play Angry Birds. It's kinda ridiculous actually. So what, right? Why am I talking about this? Well, the Human Resources Director for the Hospital walked into our office the other day and started talking about this company picnic she was trying to put together for July. She talked about these crazy activities they had come up with and said that they were trying to do something like Angry Birds. You have to understand that the HR Director has this really thick British accent so it came out sounding more like "Ahngry Bairds," but that's neither here nor there. But by the mention of a real life Angry Birds made me stop pretending to be too busy to be involved in the conversation and suddenly found myself blurting out, "...I CAN DO IT!" Oh crap, what did I just get myself into. So there i was, I had just volunteered myself for a project I really knew nothing about. I had enough on my desk to last me until my hair turned grey, what was I thinking?! Oh well, turns out to be more fun than I thought, she wanted me to make a giant size version of the Pigs that are on the game. These things will be about 4 feet tall, and they have constructed this balloon launching type apparatus to launch these big rubber chickens out of. This big pig thing will be plastered to the front of a piece of plywood cut out to the same shape mounted on a spring which is in turn mounted on a four-way stand, similar to construction signs that are allowed to flex in the wind without falling over. Anywho...I made this thing from scratch in illustrator, give me some feedback....look like the real thing?

Great American Rhetoric...

I love Rhetoric, I love hearing the speeches that have a cadence, they have a style, a certain sense of swagger but with no arrogance. I love feeling my heart pound, my mind race, and my spirit soar.
In short I love hearing a great speech. A great speech is not so much words on a paper being read by a vibrant person. A great speech is a system, kind of like one of those automatic carwashes. You go in one side and come out the other feeling totally refreshed, excited, invigorated. A good speech speaks to the soul of a man. It inspires, it lifts, it tells of the future. I've been to conferences and meetings and such where afterward a spectator says to the keynote speaker," man you could have read the phone book and I would have loved it!" Fact of the matter is, a good speech isn't a lively reading of the yellow pages. It's a combination of literary technique, hopeful content of the past present and future, and it's the reader's unrelenting emotional connection to the text. Here are some examples

"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

"...So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." - John F. Kennedy

Really, good rhetoric, or a good speech doesn't just require a great speaker, literary technique, or any of the things mentioned above, it requires big ideas, it requires enormous thought, it requires someone who thinks bigger than the moon and is not afraid to share it. Frankly, Im not saying the good rhetoric can solve the ills of the world, but what I am saying is that we need big thinkers, we need big doers. Im really not on a JFK kick I promise, but JFK said that we would put a man on the moon within the decade, regardless of the cost, regardless of the hardships and the challenges. He was a man with big ideas. It wasn't just about beating the Russians to space, it wasn't about colonizing the moon, in my mind there was no other purpose, and no greater purpose I might add, then to inspire the generations to come. Little boys and little girls sitting around the TV watching a man step off a lunar lander made their imaginations light up the sky. These same little boys and girls are now captains of industry, science and commerce. If for nothing else, it inspired a young boy to shoot for the moon in everything he does. And for that I am grateful for great American Rhetoric.

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up, went to work, I was there for 21 hours...ok maybe not that long, but it felt like that. I came to a realization today that life doesn't need to be easy for me to be happy or even to enjoy it. I don't need wealth, possessions, status, nice things or anything else really. Happiness and enjoyment HAS to come from something else... t comes from simple things. What kind of simple things you may say? well here are some things that the Lord says are key...
"we count them happy which endure," James 5:11
"He that has mercy on the poor is happy," Prov. 14:21
"whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he," Prov. 16:20
"he that keepeth the law, happy is he," Prov. 29:18
"(reading) sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness," Alma 44:5

The fact of the matter is, life's happiness does not come from the things we always look to, money and material things, in fact Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind." The fact is, it's not gonna be warm tomorrow, it's probably going to be windy and cold, I'm not going to be rich tomorrow, I'll still be tired when I wake up and the gas prices will still be going up. We have to find a way to find the good in things because lets be honest, somethings in life aren't inherently good, they have to be made that way. I read this a couple months ago and think he can express my point a little better,

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are often more dull that otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey . . .delays, side-tracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas, and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

~ Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Teddy Bear Clinic, Cont'd

Hey Everybody, So I gave you a pretty short rundown of the Teddy bear clinic yesterday, I thought I would just though some pictures in there to back it up, I wish I got enough pictures to really give you an idea of the magnitude of this project, but it was managed to a tee!! Many thanks to the Madison Women's Auxiliary, Madison Memorial Foundation, Madison Memorial Admin. and all the employees and volunteers who came in on off days and sacrificed personal time to make this happen and make such a cool experience for me.
(Above)I think that kid in the middle was a ringer...he did not look like he was in the second grade!

The first stop for all the kids was right off the bus into an ambulance manned by a EMT from Madison County Fire. Brave woman to be in such a small space with so many second graders touching things!
After they came from the ambulance they went into the ER, where they got a run down on what happens there. This lady had a giant bear hooked up to a honey "IV" and an oxygen mask. up on the wall (just out of view) they had some fabricated X-Rays of the bear and his "broken bones." This little boy in the grey sweatshirt raised his hand and began telling everyone about each of his mom's hospital visits...apparently his mom is accident prone. haha
Intently focused...or extreme boredom. haha
This lady was actually the wife of one of our doctors. She willingly got in this bear suit and stood in the intermittent wind and rain to greet these kids as they got off the bus. She was such a sport, the inside of that suit was hotter than a kitchen at KFC.

Holy Hyper Second Graders, Batman...

Today was the Teddy Bear Clinic. For those who have never heard of it, The Hospital puts on this program every spring where they invite all of the 2nd graders from the Hospital's service area, pretty much from Island Park to Menan to parts of Bonneville county. These 2nd graders flood into the hospital on busses with their own stuffed animal in tow. The object of this whole thing is to give these kids a good experience in the hospital by having them follow their stuffed animal as the teddy bear or whatever gets worked on rather than the child. Great idea. The whole thing went off without a hitch, minus one errant bus driver, but other than that, it was great. But I will say this, after dealing with 800 second graders... I'll be happy to not see a 2nd grader for a while...a long while!

start of a new semester...only not...

Well, today was my first day of my internship. Not my first...oh no...it would be my second. That's right people, the BYU-I Business Department requires not one but two internships. I guess it's not bad, it's just highly inconvenient. Anyways, I started my second internship today at Madison Memorial Hospital in the Marketing department. It's gonna be a busy semester. Alot of cool things happening, for instance they are expanding the L&D wing of the hospital, Madison's goal is to be the top L&D hospital in the state and guess who is gonna be doing the Market research to see what it's gonna take to do that? you guessed it...

as many of you may know...

As many of you may know, Kara had surgery this last week on her tonsils and her nose. She is doing well but as anyone who has had their tonsils out knows, it's not the most pleasant experience. Not only can she not eat anything, she has to breather strictly through her mouth because they put splints in her nose to aid in that recovery. So unfortunately breathing through her mouth doesn't make for a good time if you just had your tonsils out. It leaves your throat drier than the Gobi Desert. So why am I telling you this? Well Im telling you this to show you this...
The medication they have her on makes her nauseous, dizzy and very sleepy so she's been very down and out the last couple days. Last night Kara's brother Kepler asked if I would take him to Wal-Mart so he could do his grocery shopping. I knew that we needed a few things, so Kara made me a list (Why do women give us lists...they know we're never going to stick to it...). Right before we went Kara got up and announced that she was going too. Well, with a sickly little woman on those kind of drugs, the above picture is what resulted. I pushed her around in the little big old kid's cart. I do have to say, those things have an amazing turn radius. (and no that's not a funny face...that's the way it is! hahahahahahaha)

5 a.m. comes way too early...

5 am comes way too early. I have been working at 5 am everyday this week and let me tell you it sucks! My body is just not built to wake up that early, regardless of how early I go to bed. I mean don't get me wrong, I get up just fine, it's just getting through the day past noon is the hardest part. I suppose it wouldn't be too bad if I didnt just sit in the office all day. At this hour of the morning, and seeing as though it is a break between semesters, there are no students meaning that I sit and stare at a computer screen all morning until 12 and then my zombie like condition begins to sit in. So what ends up happneing is I get alot of time for introspection. for this reason I actually love working at this time because I have so much time to think and to reflect on my life. So here are some of my thoughts:

1. I'm proud to be married to my wife. Now most of you are probably saying to yourselves, well gee, I would hope so, you married her, if your just now figuring this out... But the fact of the matter is I know that, and I have known that for a long time. But the fact is that I love her. And I have loved her for a long time, but i realized today how proud I was to be married. I don't envy my old self nor do I wish I could go back, I am happy where I am, hardships, happiness and all.


2. My brother in law gave me some advice before I got married, He told me, (paraphrasing of course) You let your wife handle her family and you handle yours. If there are problems, fights or disagreements in your spouses family, you butt out and let her handle it, and same goes for her. So I have found, such is true. I have my opinions on what goes on in my wife's family, and she has hers. But me butting in and mouthing off what I think about what someone has done is out of line. I think a lesson that everyone should take in their respective families whomever they may be.


3. Manpri's are totally unacceptable...for any occasion. (...nuff said...)


4. Act your age. Now granted on the surface many of you might say, well you're one to talk, I am one of the goofiest people you know. But you have to understand what I mean when I say this. There is a difference between being childlike and childish. Childlike is possesing qualities of a child, typically, good qualities, things like fun-loving, quick to laugh, seeing the good in others, being persistent. Being childish is selfishness, it's being so immature that people don't even want to be around you, It's making excuses when your caught, it's blaming others rather than taking accountability. It's putting down others to make yourself feel better, it's gossiping, it's faithlessness...faithlessness is family, friens and aquiantances and sometimes God. Personal vendetta against childishness in those around me? maybe...but if in an argument, you stop and find that the sum of ages of the people involved are over a century and your still arguing like a bunch of 12 year old girls...you have a problem.

So these may seem like alot of random thoughts, but these are the things that I'm burning on right now in my life. Anyway, try waking up at 5 and just sitting there, it does your body good (or is that milk...I dont know...).

New Pictures

Have some new pictures that will be up on the Document Rexburg site when it's up and running. Here's a few cool ones coming from the school.
Spori Building and a beautiful overcast sky.

Another of the Spori.A pano looking at the Spencer W. Kimball, New addition of the Manwaring Center and the Joseph Fielding Smith building a little ways off.

Well Hello blogging world. It was an eventful weekend. Well not really, but still kinda was at the same time. It was conference weekend which is always fun, but unfortunately I didnt get to see as much of it as I had hoped. It all started last summer...(Insert waving daydream lines like you see in scooby doo) I was interning at a company named ESG last summer. I started to develop this pain in my back. This slight pain turned into a major pain, (no not Damon Wayans, that's "Major Payne") this pain became debilitating. Turns out I have a degenerative disc in my back. after several MRI's and X-rays they determined that the only route we could go was PT to slow it down. So I did it, I got better, end of story. before I finished my Internship and headed back to Idaho, The doc told me that It would probably come back and I would be miserable for a little while. (wavy lines to exit daydream).
This weekend I missed the first session of Conference due to having to work that morning. As I was working I was doing something and I felt an very familiar pop in my back and sudden pain. It was fine, until later that night I was getting dressed for Priesthood and my legs gave out and I collapsed in pain. Sleep didn't bring relief, niether did LOTS and LOTS of Ibuprofen. By the next morning I had become all but completely crippled. When I fell Kara had to help me back up. I could turn, couldnt sit up, couldnt hardly stand under my own power. Needless to say this landed me back in the ER sunday morning. What a way to spend your conference sunday. Fortunately I got a good nurse, a good TV to watch conference (cough cough and the patriot) a good x ray tech and a not so caring doc. Well, two shots in the back and two bottles of pills later, Im feeling much better. They think all of what happened was one of my discs started to swell, putting pressure on my spinal cord, explaining the short bouts of paralysis and extreme pain.
So thank you to my wonderful wife who took such good care of me this weekend. She really deserves a medal for all that she does for me. So next time you see a guy wandering the halls of BYU-I with a limp and a bracing himself against the wall, don't offer to help, I'm as crabby as an old man about it.

new artform...

So I have been trying to learn the skill/art of panoramas. Now ideally this would be done with a wide angle lens, but unfortunately I don't have $600 throw around, so photoshop it is...here is an example of some early attempts. It's a panorama of our apartment complex.

Sneak Peak, SNL.