Primary Sacrament

Every year one Sacrament Meeting is dedicated to the Primary to present a program to the congregation. All the kids in the Primary (ages 3-12) get to participate. Most have a small speaking part in the presentation and they all get to sing a bunch of songs they have learned every Sunday over the year. Our primary had their program this morning. There is nothing like watching the kids get up all excited to say their lines, and it is always a delight to listen to them sing. We had one little boy that really belted out the words to "I Know that My Redeemer Lives". What a testimony he had singing that song. Everybody had a big grin on their face. At one point I looked over to Page and she was crying. Crying? She says she always cries when the primary kids sing. I couldn't help but think back to when our kids were in primary and we sat smiling big at them to get them to sing. It's been a long time since they were in primary. Then my mind went back to when I was in primary and I participated in Primary Sacrament. I'm in my 40's so you know that was a long time ago, but I still can remember those presentations. The place was packed too. Lots of Grandparents, and I'm sure lots of Dad's who would rather be fishing or hunting but had to come see their kids today.

USC dominates Nebraska

This was USC's big test. Playing Nebraska in Lincoln, dealing with the red sea of fans. The stadium was all red. The crowd was loud but USC only needed 4 plays to get its first touchdown. But then Nebraska came back and scored 10 unanswered points and took the lead. After that it was all USC. We ran through their defense at will. #13 Stafon Johnson was amazing and he earned MVP of the game. We ended up beating Nebraska 49-31 but it wasn't even that close. We gave them 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter after we benched our first team and put in the reserves. Of course Nebraska kept their first team on the field. Our coach Pete Carroll likes to give the up and coming players some game time when we are way ahead. This gives them experience and prepares them for when they are first string. I think its great he does that but a lot of SC fans get frustrated because we always give up points when he does that. It was 49-10 when we put in our second string and then to boot at the very end it was our 3rd string in the game. I was very happy for my USC Trojans. They proved they are the number 1 team in the country tonight. LSU is coming on strong, but USC winning on the road in a hostile environment with a good team sealed the deal for USC. FIGHT ON Trojans! And Happy 56th Birthday to our coach Pete Carroll today.

Speaking of birthdays, today would have been my sister, Connie's 44th birthday. I still miss her and love her so much. She has been gone almost 23 years now.

Today was a Perfect Day

A perfect day in the TrojanNation is when USC wins , while UCLA and Notre Dame lose. It doesn't happen very often, but today turned out to be a USC Perfect Day.

USC beat Nebraska

UCLA lost to Utah

Notre Dame lost to Michigan

I hope you had a perfect day today too!

Friday Night Lights- Wyoming Style

I went to my first Powell Panther's High School Football game tonight. Last year they won the Wyoming State Championship. Up until tonight they were ranked #1 in the State. They played Jackson which is #3 in the State. So it was a big game. Both came into the game 2-0. I sat with Roger and Sina and had a really good time. The Panthers experienced a rare loss tonight. So there ranking is going to tumble. They lost 14-6. The stadium was filled with fans which was very nice to see. The weather was great. In Wyoming all high school sporting events are free to the public, unless it is a regional or state championship game. So I got in free! How cool is that? I did feel for the Panthers tonight. They are not used to losing. But cheer up fans, they can still defend their title. They are not out of it yet.

Tamales

I bought three dozen tamales today! And I have a big smile on my face because of it. Last week, me and a co-worker had to go to Lovell. When we drove through Byron we saw a little handwritten sign that said "Homemade Tamales". We stopped and each bought a dozen pork tamales. They were being sold by an old Mexican couple that couldn't speak English (My mission to Spain helped me in this situation with my keen Spanish language skills), so you know they had to be good. We also bought a dozen homemade flour tortillas. I brought mine home to Page and Lacey and they had them eaten in 2 seconds. They were sooooooooooooo good. I did manage to get two tamales before they were devoured.

Me and another co-worker had to go back to Lovell today. I told him about the tamales. He bought a dozen. I bought 3 dozen. He called me after he got home today and told me he wasn't sharing the tamales with his family. I TOLD him they were that good. He should have bought more. He will learn, like I did last week.

Cancer Free

We just received great news about my Mother-in-law. She has been battleing Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma for about a year, and she had it probably about a year before they finally diagnosed it. She has fought the good fight and it finally paid off. The doctor's just told her she is in remission and they do not see the cancer anymore. We could not have received better news.

My Mom also had cataract eye surgery yesterday. She was really nervous last week, but got a Priesthood Blessing on Sunday and she said after that she was calm and relaxed. Funny how that works. She said it went very well and does her other eye in a couple weeks. Aunt Gail came up to help and is taking Mom to her house for a week to pamper her. You know my Mom will love that.

We are so glad that our Moms are doing great. We wish we could see them more often but southern California is a long drive away. We got to get them to think about moving to Wyoming.

Patriot Day

Six years have passed since terrorists attacked the world trade center, pentagon, and the attempted attack on the white house or other symbolic target. Many people died that day. I can't even imagine the horror they faced. I do have a friend that experienced it. He wasn't lucky that day as his plane was torpedoed into the pentagon. He left behind a wife and two young children. He wasn't even 40 yet. It was horrific for all Americans to witness, but when you have a loved one that was involved, it becomes even more personal. It is one of those events where you remember where you were or what you were doing when you heard about the attacks. I was living and working in Louisiana. I hadn't left for work yet. When I saw the second plane hit the towers, I knew it wasn't an accident. I watched for awhile and then had to drive to work, which took me about an hour to get to from my house. I heard the towers fall while I was on the road. I just about cried. I wouldn't know about Chris being on the plane for another 24 hours. Page was substitute teaching that day in Bossier City and they wouldn't let them leave the classrooms all day. She had no idea why until she got home from work and by then so much had already happened. The President of the United States flew into Barksdale Airforce Base in Bossier City that day. You could see his plane coming in with fighter jets on all sides protecting his plane. He was a surreal day. We were all nervous because we didn't know if the terrorists would try to kill the President while he was in our town, or if they would bomb the base since he holds our largest fleet of B-52 bombers. The next week I would fly from Shreveport to Long Beach to attend and sing at Chris' memorial service. It was crazy. When I landed in Dallas, there were armed military personnel with assault rifles, in uniform, walking through the terminals. It was so different from the country I knew just weeks before. We all did seem united during that time.

Today, I feel we couldn't be more disunited. Everything is so political now. We just recently heard tapes from Osama Bin Laden. General Patreaus is before congress now discribing the war's progress. There are factions calling him a liar. The President's poll numbers are at an all time low. There is just a lot of political turmoil in the country. We have had more soldiers die in the war that followed the attacks than the numbers that died on that day.

But today is a day of rememberance for all those who perished that day. May God bless the families and the people who have been touched by these events. May God bless this land of freedom. May we find peace and be safe. I am truly thankful for the men and women who are serving in the armed forces that are sacrificing everything to protect our liberty.

I'm sure we all have our own stories from September 11, 2001.

Power of Prayer

I really enjoyed the Sabbath today. I went to Sacrament Meeting with a prayerful heart today. I really opened up my heart to the spirit and the messages that were given. I really believe there isn't ever a boring sacrament meeting if you go in with the right spirit and attitude. I've been in interesting, inspiring but also boring meetings on Sunday. I now know what I get out of it is up to me. There has been some heavy matters weighing on me with much concern about a family member. I have to admit once this crisis started several months ago, I have been more diligent in my prayers, scripture reading, attending my meeting, accepting any assignment, etc. I don't know about you but it seems like it takes a crisis to humble me. I go through the motions in good times, and I try to do the things the Lord would have me do, but I don't do it with the same intensity or with the same heart as I do when I really need the Lord's help. I really need to work on that. Anyway, things are happening for the better in this family member's life that I know it's due to the spirit working in their life. It's not totally better, but it is getting better. That let's me know that there is still hope. Faith is another thing I could really work on. Well, as I was saying, church was very comforting this morning. I also received a new calling that won't go into effect for a couple weeks, so more on that after it happens.

Tonight, there was a CES Fireside. Cheryl Lant, the General Primary President spoke to the students at BYU to all church education students. I watched it on the BYU channel and was looking for Sean, since I knew he was in the Marriott Center, but of course I didn't see him. I did see my former Bishop, Gary Moore, sitting up on the stand. He is an administrator in the CES. He was my Bishop when I was a kid in California. Anyway, it was interesting that Sister Lant talked about prayer. She made some very good points. She talked about what keeps us from praying (many I knew from experience) and why we should pray, how to get an answer, etc. I thought it was a very good topic for all those college students, many who are away from home for the first time and not able to have family influence on saying their prayers. I'm sure Sean was listening and took in every word. Lacey was on the computer but I had it on, and I was hoping she was picking up the message even though she seemed deep in thought on the computer.

I think in order to get through the conflicts and traps of earth life, we desperately need to have prayer as a way to protect ourselves and get extra help. I can remember one of the first times that I gained a strong testimony of prayer. I was a young boy and I had lost my wallet. I looked everywhere. I retraced my steps, I double checked. I tore up the house looking for this wallet. I was the only one home at the time. I must have spent over an hour looking with no positive results. I then had a thought come into my head. I should pray to my Heavenly Father for help. I know in the scheme of things a lost wallet isn't a big deal, especially because I don't think I really had anything in it of value, but it was important to me. So I knelt down in prayer and asked my Heavenly Father to help me. As soon as I finished, I was prompted to go back outside to the garage (but I looked out there several times already!), as I walked out to the backyard, I didn't go to the garage but out to the patio. I don't know why because I don't remember going out that way with my wallet, but I did it and on a patio chair was my wallet. I couldn't believe it. I found it within minutes of my prayer. I knew right then and there that Heavenly Father heard my prayer, and that meant he knew me. What a powerful lesson I learned that day.

I need to remember that even when there is no crisis in my life.

Andy you looked GREAT

Even thought you lost to Roger again for the 14th straight time......

Andy and Roger met last night in the US Open quaterfinals. I wish they could have waited until the finals, but oh well. Roger won 7-6, 7-6, 6-2. Probably no big surprise to the tennis world. Y'all know I am a HUGE Roddick fan and would love for him to win a grand slam again, but Roger is just too good for anybody these days. Last year in the finals Andy won a set. Eventhough Roger won in three straight sets, I think Andy looked a lot stronger this year. He lost the first two sets in tiebreaks, and then let the third set get away from him. He played great and has nothing to be ashamed of in this loss. I thought it was cool that they both were battleing in black too, just hate to see him out of the tournament so soon.

Sean made it to BYU

Here is the "Y" up on the mountain. Sean climbed up to this yesterday with his friends. When we were in Utah last week, it was so hot. They were having a heat wave, but we had a great time at new student orientation and getting Sean settled into his dorm, buying his books, etc. I also went to the BYU/Arizona football game on Saturday with Karl. We had a great time and BYU won 20-7. Sean went with Brett and Kyle since they purchased student sport passes. Earlier Saturday, I was able to help with Karl's ordination to High Priest. He was called as their stake's young men's president. Page and I also went out to dinner with Karie and Karl on Friday night. We really enjoy spending time with them. We wished we lived closer so we could see them more. We also got to visit with Hope and Samantha on Saturday night. Page also got to see Becoming Jane in American Fork. I think I was only 1 of three males in the theater. We had a great week in Utah. I think Sean is going to be just fine.

Saying good-bye to Sean before heading back to WY

Sean is unpacked and settled into his dorm room

Here is Sean's home for the next 9 months

20 things I learned on my trip to Utah

1. It takes 8 hours by car to get to Provo from my house.
2. Southwest Wyoming is desolation. I bet the pioneers had to work hard to keep their morale high.
3. Heber City sure has grown since the last time I was there.
4. Trees in Provo Canyon are already turning colors for Autumn.
5. Utahans are terrible drivers. I lived in LA, I know bad driving when I see it.
6. Provo/Orem is clearly an urban center. They have everything and everybody living there.
7. Jamba Juice with soy milk is yucky.
8. BYU sure knows how to conduct a new freshman orientation.
9. BYU knows how to take care of the parents too.
10. President Samuelson laughs at my jokes.
11. I wish I was a freshman at BYU, it looks like it will be a great experience for Sean.
12. Utah is in a heat wave. Boy was it hot!
13. BYU Creamery on 9th doesn't sell individual ice cream cups in the frozen section.
14. BYU is better than Arizona. 20-7
15. The Haka really does put fear in the heart of BYU's opponents. The Haka was cool!
16. Lavell Edwards Stadium has the most awesome views than any stadium in the country.
17. Rise and Shout is hard to learn. Good thing they put the words up on the board.
18. They retired #14 for Nielsen and Detmer and they are still considered "young men" to Lavell. (very funny when he called them "young").
19. It's hard to say goodbye to a child you are leaving behind.
20. It still takes 8 hours to drive home.

BYU or Bust

Today is the last day to have Sean at home with us. He is busy packing up his things for BYU. We leave tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. He has so much stuff, clothes, tv, video system, clock, backpack, bath supplies, etc. He asked the other day if he was going to bring a bike... where would we put it? Plus Page and I have to load our suitcase in the car too. Should be very interesting. We are expecting to be in the car 8 hours. First stop will be the dorms to get Sean checked in. I am really envious of Sean. What a great experience.

I probably will not be blogging the remainder of the week. I will give y'all an update when I get back. Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out!

Family Outing

This afternoon, Page, Sean and I took a little drive up Chief Joseph Highway. The highway starts only about 30 minutes from our house, and ends at the Beartooth Highway. Just minutes into our trip on the highway we saw a young bear running up the hill. Sean got a great picture of it on his camera. We were thrilled to see a bear. Then to our amazement just a turn up the hill we saw yet another small cub. He was smaller than the first. He was sitting in the middle of the road. As soon as he saw us he ran up into some trees. We never did see a mama bear. The scenic byway is beautiful. We saw rivers, waterfalls, lakes, meadows, majestic mountain peaks. We were hoping to see some Rock Chucks, but they were all hiding today I guess. We finished the trip down in Red Lodge and stopped at a great candy store that had every candy you could think of. We were good and only bought a couple small pieces of taffy and fruit slices. It took us four hours to get to Red Lodge on the highway. We were so high up, we even saw some remaining snow. On the way back we took the fast route around the mountain range and got home in about an hour. But all we saw was desert. We had a good time. We wanted to do something with Sean before he left for BYU. Lacey is up in Washington visiting a friend so she missed out on all the fun, but I'm sure she is having her own adventures.

Here is Sean at the top of Dead Indian Pass on Chief Joseph's Highway in Wyoming

Here I am on the Montana side of the Beartooth ready to descend down to Red Lodge.

Old Testament Time

Here it is midnight and I am still up! Haven't had much sleep the last few nights. You see, Page started teaching seminary again yesterday. Early morning seminary! She is so excited to be teaching again. She pulled out all her old seminary boxes and over the last few days we have been decorating her class. She goes all out. We have been up at the church building everyday in her classroom (which she has to share with the scouts on Wed. and the High Preist group on Sundays). We put colored butcher paper on the bulletin boards, we hung up banner for each of the 12 Tribes of Israel on the wall. We had to hang Old Testament pictures on the wall. The room had desk chairs. Not good enought! So we had to haul them all out of the room and replace them with tables and chairs.

Last weekend we went to all the wards in Powell to meet with all the freshmen and sophmores and gave them invitations and ark animals (that they had to bring the first day of class for a treat- they had to sit in the seat that had a picture of the animal they chose... a random seating assignment). Those kids that didn't show up to the meetings, we drove to their homes to meet with them personally. Some were way outside of town and we got to see a lot of cows and chickens. It only took us 3 hours to make the visits...

Last night we ran into Cody to go to WalMart for last minute supplies. We got back into town about 1 a.m. Tonight, we went up and made a large well with butcher paper that said "Fill your Buckets with Living Water, from the scriptures". Page then is making water jugs to set around the well with the kid's names written in Hebrew. Right now she is making labels for small bottles of water that tells the kids to drink from the scriptures 10 minutes a day. Real cute! This morning she had a big Goliath on the wall in the cultural hall and the kids all shot at him with slings and ping pong balls. She taught them that they have to slay their own Goliaths, whatever they may be. How come seminary wasn't this fun when I was a kid? Anyway, I hope I get some sleep soon.

I have also been busy at work recruiting a general surgeon who is here from Idaho. So I have had a busy few days.

Catching the Fat

A common virus that causes colds can be a factor in obesity, according to a study released Monday offering further evidence that a weight problem may be contagious.

The adenovirus-36 (Ad 36) has already been implicated as the cause of weight gain in animals, but with this study researchers showed for the first time that it can also cause humans to pile on the pounds.

The findings could accelerate the development of a vaccine or an antiviral medication to help fight the battle of the bulge alongside diet and exercise.

This really explains a lot. I obviously have some type of virus......

Let's go clothes shopping, Sean!

Sean leaves for BYU in little over a week and Page and I had a great idea.... let's take Sean to get some clothes before he heads down to Utah. You see, last Wednesday, when Page and I went to Billings for my bagpipe lessons (yes, I have now had three lessons and I can "throw down a D"!) we stopped at Penny's because Page needed some new work clothes (yes, Page has a new job at the bank in town working in the loan department) and we found that they are having a great sale. Some things were marked down 75%! We saw some great clothes for Sean to look like a new college man. No more t-shirts and ratty jeans....

Well, we took him to Penny's last night. As soon as we get off work at 5 p.m. we rushed him up to Billings, and specifically to Penny's. He asked on the way up if they had those sweaters that have the half zipper on them. I answered, yes, they have everything! Oops, I was wrong. They didn't have those kind of sweaters, and it pretty much went down hill from there. He didn't like the layered look that we saw on the manikins because they were "flannel" shirts. He tried on a sweater, but we talked him out of it. We wanted him to get a vest jacket, and we almost got him to do it, but at the last minute he put it back. He did end up buying two henley's and some t-shirts. You see, we were not paying for the clothes, he was, with his own money. You see, Sean is very frugal with his money and so he wasn't buying hardly anything. If it was our money being used on this shopping spree I think he would have picked up a few more things. Page really wanted him to get some pants, but he only wanted Old Navy jeans, so we quickly headed over to Old Navy before they closed and he bought a pair of jeans and some khaki cargo pants. Page wanted him to buy some green cargo's too, but he didn't want to because it would have taken another $20 from his savings. Page and Sean had a little "discussion"....

While that little battle was going on between Page and Sean, I had to chuckle because it reminded me of a battle I had with my Mom when I was a kid buying school clothes. She saw on the rack the ugliest pair of yellow cords pants that you have ever seen. I had not seen yellow cords before that, nor have I seen them since. Yet, there they were on the sales rack! (yeah nobody wanted them that's why they were on clearance). My mom fell in love with them and thought I had to have them. I told her no. We got in a little tiff, or "discussion", about them. I was putting my foot down. I mean, I would never wear them so why spend the money on those pants, when I could use that money for something I would actually wear. Why couldn't we get brown or blue cords like everyone else? Well, my mom had a melt down and right then and there with a cart full of my school clothes she said "Fine, we won't buy anything then!"... Ah, she was playing dirty now. If I wanted all my other new school clothes or would have to accept the yellow cords. I wasn't a dumb kid, so I sat there and said, "let me look at them again". I held the yellow cords in my hands and then became a great actor (in my mind) and said, "well, these would go great with 'this' shirt or 'that' shirt", etc..... My mom got all excited and agreed with me. So I told her I wanted them, so she added them to the cart, and I was able to get all the other school clothes I picked out and the yellow cords. We took them home. I can actually say, I do not think I ever wore those yellow cords to school that whole year, and for some reason my mom never asked about them. (Hey Karie- this all happened up at Payless on Woodruff. I was doing my school shopping at Payless! no Penny's for me!)

Well, back to Sean. He ended up getting the green pants and we were all happy. I think he did the right thing and gave into Page.

Perseid Shower

Did you watch the Perseid Meteor Shower last night? It's an annual event and last night was the best night to view it. They say you can see up to 50-100 shooting stars an hour! Well, if you live anywhere near me you were out of luck last night.

First, all the farmers around town decided to burn their fields yesterday. We were in one big smoke cloud all day and into the evening. Plus there are fires near Yellowstone and in Montana which helped to block the night sky too.

Lacey and I decided to take a chance and drive up on the bluffs last night to see if we could see anything. We thought if we got above the smoke we might get lucky. All we found up there was more smoke and blocked skies. It was really disappointing because the night before the sky was clear and you could see a million stars. This is the best area for sky gazing since there isn't a lot of city lights, but how can you compete with smoke and fire?

On the way home we did manage to run over two rabbits, and several more attempted suicide but escaped. Oh well, there is always next year.

James E. Faust

President James E. Faust, 2nd Counselor to our Prophet and President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away this morning. He had been failing in health the last few years, and passed away from old age. He was 87. I use to love to hear his stories, especially his Christmas stories he would tell at the Christmas Devotional. He served the Lord with all his heart, mind and strength. Well done. He lived a good life and fought the good fight. My prayers go out to his family.

Who gets the flu in the summer?

Obvioulsy, I do! I have been sick since the weekend. Missed work all day Monday and Tuesday and half day Wednesday. Still feel tired and sluggish. It stinks to get sick in the summer. I can understand a winter cold when it's 20 below zero, but it is in the 80's this week. Very nice weather. Lots of people at work are getting sick, so it just passed along to me. Hazards of working in health care I guess, but you would think I would have great immunity to germs working in this environment so long. But hey, I'm sharing the fun, Page is coming down with it and I think the kids are next.

Bagpipping

I went to my first bagpipes lesson last night in Billings. I got my practice chanter and a lesson book. I've been wanting to learn the bagpipes for awhile now. I wanted to start in Lousiana, but the lessons fell on a night I had to be at church as the Bishop, so I had to defer my desire to learn the pipes. Then we moved to Montana and I saw a bagpipe band in the 4th of July parade. I still wanted to learn but thought since there was no local band to practice with, I was out of luck. Then I moved to Texas and looked around to see if there was a local band where I could get lessons, and couldn't find anything. Now I am in Wyoming, and I feel like if I ever am going to learn to play the pipes then I have to get more pro-active, so I contacted the band in Billings and they give free lessons every Wednesday night. After beginners are good enough, they let them join the band and they can perform with them. How cool is that? I actually contacted them last winter and was going to do it, but then got called as a ward missionary, and we did our visiting on Wednesday nights, so again, I couldn't make the lessons. Right now I have Wed. nights free so I made the big leap last night and went. Page came with me and she did some errands in Billings. So look for me at the next Livingston 4th of July parade, marching down the street in my kilt playing the bagpipes!