The Weight of the World

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. I am getting ready to go and play basketball for the first time since February and I am having a hard time getting the energy to go. I had the realization that I needed to get some exercise today at work. I had to take some papers to a customer that was just down the street from the branch. I didn't run or even walk fast. I got back into the branch and was told that I had a phone call waiting. I picked up the line and the first thing that the person on the other end said was that I sounded out of breath.....I told him that I must be out of shape because I basically walked less than 100 yards. Here's my sign.

I have justified gaining a few pounds because I was made fun of in high school for being so skinny and it felt good to actually have some meat on my bones. Granted, most of the meat is around my midsection. It has been good to play basketball and not get pushed around the paint, but I actually do the pushing. I have been told by many a church ball foes that, and I quote, "am a force to be reckoned with." I think it was more for my girth on the basketball court than my skills, but I took it as a compliment anyways. I weigh about 220 lbs. and would ideally like to be around 200 lbs. I think that I will wait for basketball season to get over to start losing that extra 20.

I had better head up to the church. When we first moved into this ward 5 years ago, I was one of the "young ones." Thanks to a couple of new housing developements, I am now one of the "older ones" that gets out and plays. I hope that my experience counts for something. If not my weight should.

Jazz out.....so am I

The Jazz finished another season with another playoff collapse. It seems like they play so well and then come up against a team (Spurs or Lakers) and then they forget that the point of stepping onto the court is to score baskets. When it comes to NBA Basketball, I am a playoffs guy. I don't see the point of watching game number 58 of 88 during the regular season that has absolutely no meaning, other than to make millionaires more money. I would rather wait until only the best teams remain. Now, I do watch sportscenter during the season to stay up on who is doing what, but overall, I don't really care.

I think that TNT was absolutely brilliant for starting their 40 games in 40 nights promo during the playoffs. I think that I have watched almost every night, thanks to a longer spring, there hasn't been much reason to be out in the yard. Tonight, with the Jazz out, I was able to get alot done outside. (see following detail in chronological order)

Arrived home from work
ate dinner
changed into lawn mowing clothes
decided to start gas powered trimmer that I never winterized.
Andrea can see I may be a while, starts mowing lawn.
started gas powered trimmer. (no longer have any feeling to right arm.)
started trimming edges and let string get too short and pulled into trimmer head.
removed trimmer head and rethread string.
continued trimming, felt rock bounce off forehead above right eye. Glad I had sunglasses on.
ran trimmer out of gas.
mixed gas and oil and refilled trimmer.
let Kensie and Ellie smell gas, after hearing that it smells good, warned about smelling gas too much.
finished trimming edges of yard.
Took over mowing, listened to Dave Matthews Band and Coldplay on Ipod.
Ipod ran out of battery, had to finish mowing without music. Time seemed to stand still.
started sprinkler system while finished mowing the back yard.
Forgot that 1st station waters part of the backyard.
huried to finish mowing area in back yard where 1st watering station gets wet.
Put swings up on swingset so I wouldn't get tangled in them.
ran mower into swingset leg and baby swing flew down and smacked me in the head.
cursed swing to you-know-where and finished mowing back yard.
decided to change oil in lawnmower, since it had been over 2 years since I had done it last.
changed oil and removed blades to get sharpened.
scraped off green grassy grunge under mower deck.
cleaned up mess.
tried to start mower to circulate new oil and found that it would not start.
reinstalled blades and started mower.
ran for a minute and then drained oil again.
added new oil and started again to circulate oil.
removed blades.
put away mower just in time for second water station to start watering.
Realized that each station takes 1 hour and that I had spent about 45 min. changeing oil in lawnmower.
Watered new plants and tree out front.
Saw that they were looking a little droopy and that I needed to make area around each plant to keep water from running off.
Called Robert to see about taking some dirt from his dirt pile.
Took down wheelbarrow and went to neighbors to get dirt.
Repeated this step twice.
Watered plants.
Repaired various breaks in water dams.
Was remined of changing water as a kid with siphon tubes and gaited pipe and having to fix the corrugates that would break open.
Remembered the long skinny ballon that Brady and I found in the ditch, that we couldn't get to blow up. Showed Dad and he asked us why we were trying to blow up a condom?

Sweet niblets!

I was home today for a few hours watching Ellie and Sophie so Andrea could go to an eye doctor appointment. I turned up the radio for a new song by Rihanna. To be perfectly honest, I don't have a clue who she is, but the song is kind of catchy. I start to do a goofy little dance for sophie and she thinks it is pretty funny. As you can imagine that it is pretty easy for a 6'4" white guy that has no natural rhythm, to look like a complete dork while dancing. It is a good laugh for those in the room. I submit to the judges that girls start giggling around 16 months old and it continues on until... well okay, so it never really stops.




For you Hannah Montana aficionados out there, like myself, you probably recognize the title of my post. Kensie has been saying this phrase constantly for a week now. "Where did she get that from?" I ask Andrea. "Guess." she says. "School?" I say. "No, guess again." she says with a slight hint of disgust in her voice for my lackluster guessing skills. "Disney channel?" I retort. "Hannah Montana." she replies back with no emotion in her voice, due to the fact that she has heard this phrase about 100 times that afternoon. "Ohhh!" I reply. "Hannah Montana, should have guessed that one."

Now we all know that some of the best "one-liners" come from movies and TV. I can remember in high school quoting the Chris Farley movie"Tommy Boy" about a million times. As a tribute to this classic I have compiled a short list of quotes from the movie.

1. "Son of a....that's gonna leave a mark!"

2. "Holy Shnikeys!"

3. "Does this suit make me look fat?" "No, your face does."

4. "Your my naughty little pet!"

5. "Housekeeping!"

6. "Fat guy in little coat."

Please feel free to tell me your favorite "Tommy Boy" quote that I may have left out.


View of John Hancock Building from Lincoln Park Zoo

Sidebar: While on my mission I was serving in an area just north (Lincoln Park) of downtown (the loop) Chicago where he died. He lived in the John Hancock building, which is where he was found dead from a drug overdose, and I remember looking at that building from a distance and thinking that I would never laugh again. Immediately upon returning home I rented "Beverly Hills Ninja." I never finished it. I think I fell asleep. Needless to say, the wounds have healed.

Winter fun

I was looking at some of the pictures that I have taken this winter and found this one. During christmas, I borrowed blair's snowmobile and we went up into the hills with andrea's family and went sledding. I took everyone on snowmobile rides back into the trees and over to thompson's flat. It was a great day to go sledding. I love doing activities with my girls. It is fun to be with them when they experience something for the first time. They love riding on the 4 wheelers, so they both had a blast. I only got stuck once, and spent about 15 minutes digging and trying to pack the snow around me and lifting and moving the snowmobile around so it was finally facing downhill. It is not easy doing all of that when you sink into the snow up to your waist.



We have had a couple of good days of snow, but this day was one of the better ones. The girls go out and play, but they only last for about 1/2 hour before they get "bored". They then go in for hot cocoa. I think that the only reason they want to go outside is so that they get cold and have an excuse to have hot cocoa. Pretty smart if that's the case.

New Years resolutions

We had a very great Christmas and New Years with alot to be thankful for. I was able to find a job that kept us here locally after my brief stint as a mortgage loan officer. I have always felt that if you are doing what is right, the Lord will bless you, and we have definately been blessed with me finding a great job back with US Bank. For the record, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

We spent christmas with the Smith's this year. Everyone made it down and we even had a few extra thanks to Scott and Erica. They took in 2 girls from CSI's volleyball team. Nachi and Yelli spent 4 days straight with total strangers and seemed to enjoy their time with our family. We took them sledding up at pomerelle and I even borrowed one of blair's snowmobiles and took the two foreigners on their first snowmobile ride up over to thompson flats. It is really pretty up there in the winter with all of the snow.

Christmas day was alot of fun. Dad and Mom came over in the morning to see the girls open presents. Mom got called into work, so she dropped off dad and we had to wait almost an hour for everyone to wake up. I think that it is pretty fun for the girls to think that Santa made some magical trip to bring them something on christmas morning. They were so excited to leave santa some milk and cookies. Kensie and Ellie both warned me that the cookies were for Santa and to not eat them. I promised them that I would save them for Santa. They also unlocked the front door so santa could get into the house, since we didn't have a chimney for him to come down. Mom had brought stuff to make german pancakes for breakfast. After we ate breakfast, we went to Smith's and spent the rest of the day over there. It was a nice relaxing day. The kids were so good with each other. Usually there is fighting and alot of crying, but during that weekend, they were all really good together.

Mom and Dad helped us buy a table for our christmas present. We also got our name entered into a drawing for a new queen size serta mattress. I was very suprised when I got the call from the furniture store that they had drawn my name out. This is definately the biggest thing I have ever won that didn't require me to answer some trivia question on the radio. I guess it goes to show that even morons get lucky every now and then.

We survived new years by watching the ball drop on fox news at 10:00 pm local time and then watched some crazy dude set the world record motorcycle jump by clearing 320+ feet through the air. It was just a typical new years, pretty boring.
I need to go and take care of coughing kids. I will update more later.

Our family photo

The girls in their christmas dresses

The Coolest Christmas Party

This last weekend was pretty wild for us. We were pretty jam packed with activities. The girls both performed at festival of trees. Kensie actually performed twice. She sang with the Dworshak Kindergarten classes on Friday afternoon. I think that I need to get my head examined because when I worked in Burley and everything was within a few miles drive, I drove the junky white car that got 30 miles to the gallon. Now that I work in Rupert, which is a 9 mile drive from home, I drive a gas guzzling pickup that gets 16 miles to the gallon. So, a drive to Burley Friday afternoon to watch Kensie perform cost me $3.07, when in the white car it would have cost me around $1.53 to make the same trip. The price you pay to ride in style. I don't even think about what it costs me to watch my little girls perform, because it is very much worth the trip. I think that the moment I make work or money more important that seeing my girls grow up first hand is the day that I have lost touch with what is important in life.

The good thing is that the girls had 2 dance performances over in Rupert, so I was really close to go and watch those. I actually like working in Rupert because alot of bank customers have no idea who I am or who my parents are. When I was in Burley, it seemed like most people knew me from when I was young or knew my parents. Not that them knowing my parents is a negative thing, because it was not at all. I just like the fact that I am not the "little boy" they use to know. In Rupert, I can kind of be my own Man, (insert Tim Allen impersonation here). I am learning more about my job responsibilities each and every day. Sometimes when I sit and think about what I am responsible for at the bank, I feel like I am too young to have so much responsibility on my shoulders. Good thing I am not much of a thinker, because I might implode.

Andrea threw a bridal shower Saturday for a girl in the ward. Andrea works with her mom, Lisa, at Dr. Pickup's office. This girl does not have any sisters, so Andrea was her sister for the day and threw her a bridal shower. I took the girls and went out to Mom and Dad's to help hang Christmas lights. I am not sure what Dad was doing Thanksgiving weekend, because the weather was warm and windless. This last Saturday it was probably in the low 20's with the windchill, and there I am up on the roof, stepping over snow drifts, thinking to myself that at least I have some life insurance to help Andrea out until she finds a replacement husband. I am serious, I was sitting at the peak of the roof leaning over to slide the light hanger under the shingles and I thought to myself which would snap first if I fell; my neck or my back? I looked down and there is dad, feet firmly on the ground, nonchalantly wrapping lights around the vinyl fence. I even think I could here him whistling. My life was in the balance up on the roof and dad was worried if he had enough lights to make it to the end of the fence. Yeah, I had sucker written across my forehead, actually it was wind burnt onto my forehead.

Denton and Virgene Darrington had a family Christmas party at their house Monday night. We were invited to attend and went to visit, eat, and get presents. Yeah, we were told presents, but it turned out they were not the presents I was thinking. Denton goes to different conventions as a senator and collects stuff, to put it nicely. It is the kind of stuff you get when walking through the commercial building during fair time. Various items with the business logo on them. Picture in your minds eye the following scenario. Crowded into the bonus room above Denton and Virgene's garage are 40 Darringtons of different ages. Denton is standing at the end of this room hovering over a table filled with bottles, bags, pins, pencils, rulers, stuffed animals, T-shirts, etc, etc. There are probably close to 200 items on this table. He picks up each item, tells you exactly what it is down to the wording written across it. After each description, 20 different hands go up and you here 20 different, "Me!Me!Me!" yelled at him. Denton scans the faces of the hands and through the power of deduction and reasoning.... okay, he just gestures the item toward a couple of different hands in mock throwing motions, and then finally throws it to whomever he feels like throwing it to. It is easily on of the funnies things that I have witnessed in a long time.

If he can't think of the proper term for the item, he describes to you what it is used for and how it can benefit you. "I have here a sticky thing that you put on the dashboard of your car to hold cell phones, sun glasses, or whatever you need to hold on the dash of your car, I have one of these and they are great!" he exclaims with the tenacity of a used car salesman sealing the deal. Denton truly enjoyed giving away all of this stuff he had collected. After about 1/2 hour, each kid in the room had at least 3 items, and their excitement had worn off. I don't know if it is the fact that these kids have been given the same kind of stuff year after year and they don't want any more of it, or if they just got bored after so long. Not my girls. Every item that Denton held up, they would jump up and down and yell, "Me!Me!Me!Me!" I think Kensie got at least 10 different items and Ellie probably got 8 things. It was really quite humorous. It was a fun party. I think about all of the Darringtons that live in Declo, and I really can't think of any of them that are weird or strange. They are just some really good people.

This coming weekend Andrea is going to Utah with Mom and Kristen to shop and see the lights at Temple Square. I am staying home with the kids. I will let you know how that goes next time. until then. Later.