Lacey's Scholarship

Lacey just found out she got the scholarship she applied for at Northwest College. She is studying graphic arts and really is enjoying her classes. She is making lots of friends in her classes and at Institute. Congrats Lacey !!!

Billings Temple

The Livingston youth had a temple trip today in Billings. They needed extra help so Lacey and I took off from Powell to Billings this morning to meet up with Page, Sean and the rest of the Livingston Ward youth. We did baptisms at 10:30 this morning. The Billings Temple is one of the prettiest I've been in. It is so peaceful in the temple. I was sitting in the little chapel next to the baptismal font this morning and I felt so good being there with the sun shinning brightly through the windows. I also realized this is probably the last time we will be in the temple with Sean until he goes through for his endowments. After our morning in Billings we all came back to Livingston where Lacey and I will stay for the weekend.

BYU BYU BYU

Sean got his acceptance letter to BYU yesterday in the mail. We are all really excited. So looks like Sean will be packing his bags and moving to Provo in August. Sean has really worked hard to keep up his GPA and score high on the ACT. Sean called me when I was in my Bishop's office getting a new calling. I was just telling the new Bishop about Sean and his desire to go to BYU and that we were still waiting to hear, then my cell rings, and it's Sean telling me he got the letter, just when I was talking about it. So looks like we have to find some money for tuition, books, housing, food. How hard could that be? Oh, and my new calling? Ward Missionary!

Me and Governor Dave

I had a legislative conference in Cheyenne this last week. On Thursday night at a health care reception, I ran into the Governor of Wyoming. A friend of mine snapped this picture with a cell phone in a dark room, so not that clear, but that is me and Wyoming's Governor. Also earlier in the day our state representative for Powell, introduced me and the rest of the Powell delegation at the legislative conference to the legislators on the floor of the House. We were up in the balcony. As he read off our names, we stood and all the legislators stood, cheered and clapped for us. It was pretty cool. Then they went back to work passing new laws.

Sleepless in Seattle

I flew to Seattle this morning for a meeting to get orientated on the medical student program from the University of Washington. We have a third year medical student about to come to Wyoming for a 5 month rotation in rural health at our hospital. The meeting is on Saturday, so Dr. Spomer and I toured Seattle today. My feet are killing me. I was walking up and down hills, huffing and puffing. But I did get to see the Farmers Market, Fish Market, the Warf and the Space Needle. We ate lunch at Ivars and had their famouse claim chowder. It was good, but I have to admit, nothing is better than Page's chowder. I haven't tasted anything that beats it. I got to see the Fish Market (see post below) which was a highlight of the day. We walke miles today. We went to the top of the Space Needle too and looked over Seattle. It was a cloudy gray day, but the views were still spectacular. Tomorrow I am in meetings all day long so no sight seeing, and I fly home on Sunday morning.

FISH!

Bear
Erik
Richard
Yori

I went down to the Pike's Place Fish Market today in Seattle. It was a dream come true. If you know anything about the customer service program "FISH!" you know it is based on the fishmongers from this fish market in Seattle. When I was working in Montana, the hospital I was working for adopted this program and I was the facilitator. I taught FISH! and had to watch the videos a million times. Richard and Bear are in the videos and it was so cool to see them and talk to them in person. It was a quiet day, not a lot of people around the market. Bear talked to us a long time about the salmon. Richard snuck up on us and made a monk fish move right in front of us by pulling a string. Dr. Spomer screamed. It was fun. I bought some paella seasoning and when I gave them the money they were all shouting at each other the price of the seasoning. It was cool to see them in action. They are world famous and have fun at work.... if fish mongers can do it, you can do it.

John Wayne Marathon

I had a little John Wayne marathon today. Two movies I really like are 'True Grit" and 'Rooster Cogburn'. It was a lot of fun watching these old John Wayne movies. My favorite part in True Grit is when he goes up agains four outlaws, the leader being Robert Duvall. What a stud! Although Glenn Campbell has to help him before Duvall puts a bullet in him when John Wayne gets his horse shot out from underneath him. And in Rooster Cogburn I love it when Kathrine Hepburn tells John Wayne at the end that he's a credit to the male sex and she is proud to call him her friend then rides off and John Wayne is irritated that she got the last word in again, but then goes "well......" with a grin. I love it!

ucla did it again!

I finally get to watch a USC basketball game today. We played ucla in our new Galen Center (for the first time). It is being aired on Fox Sports Network and we have it on DISH. Yes! I think it's time for payback. I mean we were ranked in football and they weren't and they beat us. They are highly ranked in basketball and we aren't so payback is fairplay, right? We had won the last 5 out of 7 home games against them and this is our home game.... so many simularities. It was a pretty good game. We were leading at half. We were leading by 10 half way through the 2nd half..... so it's looking good. Wait! We start missing our free throw shots all through the second half and allow them to get right back in it. They are leading my 6 now with a minute to go. We shoot a 3.. YES! then we get it back and shoot another 3... it's tied... oh wait, they fouled us too, we get a FT and make it. Now we are ahead by 1. ucla gets the ball and shoots, misses, rebounds, makes it! ugh. We are down by 1 with 4 seconds left. We throw it in, it's tipped. We get it, we get blocked, we are running out of time.... desperation throw at half court as time expires..................... it misses! We lose by 1 point to the #4 team in the country and our hated rival, in our house. This was not the way it was supposed to end!

Wyoming Sunset

well, my "Sister from another Mister" was bragging about her Utah Sunsets on her blog the other day. So when Lacey and I were up on the bluffs looking for the comet I told her to take a picture of this Wyoming sunset as we look west towards Yellowstone National Park. It's beautiful too.... and I don't think it was due to any pollution in the air, unless the buffalo were stampeding a lot of dust on the other side of the mountains.....

Christmas Photo

We didn't take any pictures on Christmas Day this year. But Lacey got a new camera from Santa so the day after we had her try out her "timer" and guess what... it worked. Here we are in Powell in front of our Christmas tree the day after Christmas.

Comet over Montana

Last night on our trip to see Page and Sean in Montana, Lacey and I FINALLY saw the comet. See it above the mountain? We pulled off at the rest stop near Columbus to get this shot. It was 15 below zero at the time. We REALLY wanted a picture!

Freezing on the Range

It's cold! When I left for work this morning it was 2 below zero. At 4 p.m. it had gone down to minus 3!!! brrrrrrrrrr. The wind is blowing too and somebody said the wind chill factor was 20 below zero today.

Home on the Range? There are no deer or antelope playing today, that's for sure......

Searching for Comet McNaught

Did you know there is a comet up in the sky? Lacey sure does and she has been determined to see it. The problem is that the comet is heading towards the sun right now and the only times to see it is right at sunset when the sun dips below the horizon or early before sunrise (like we are getting up that early!). It is so low in the sky, that if you wait much longer the comet dips behind the horizon as well. So Lacey gets me to rush home from work to drive her up to the bluffs above town yesterday. I only have a 1/2 hour becuase I have a 5:30 dinner meeting in town. She assures me that is plenty of time.

We get up there and looking to the West towards Yellowstone National Park. And what do we see?... CLOUDS. nooooooooooooooo! Ok, so maybe we can try this again tonight, but we are expecting snow today, so probably will not have any luck again. Oh, what we are willing to do to see a chunk of ice hurl through space.

USC kicker, Mario Danelo, found dead today

ESPN has just reported that Mario Danelo was found dead at a bottom of a cliff in San Pedro today. The Trojan Nation is in mourning tonight and in total shock! Nobody is sure what happened. He was a major player on the USC football team. David Letterman just mentioned him in one of his Top 10's. Mario just helped us win the Rose Bowl. I feel so bad for his family. This is tragic. He was only a junior at USC.

R.I.P. Mario Danelo #19

Mario was the team's leading scorer. He made a couple FG's in the Rose Bowl just last week to help us beat Michigan. FIGHT ON, Mario!

President Gerald Ford's funeral today

Our 38th President was laid to rest today. He passed away at the age of 93 on Dec. 23rd. He was president when I was only 12 years old. I remember he took over for President Nixon who resigned due to the Watergate scandal. He was never elected Vice President or President. He is the only President who never won election. He healed this country, although he wasn't much appreciated at the time. After he pardoned Nixon, his popularity fell and he did not win election in '76 against Jimmy Carter. Now he is considered a healer and a uniter for what he did.

USC, Rose Bowl Champions

USC 32 Michigan 18

USC came back and showed us what this team is made of! After the UCLA defeat, many had written off the Trojans and didn't give us a chance against #3 Michigan. In fact we had fallen from #2 to #8 before the game. The first half was a defensive battle with a 3-3 score at half time. The second half we lit up the sky with pass after pass from John David Booty. He connected to Jarett in a lot of clutch situations. Many are predicting we will be pre-seaon #1 and may meet Michigan again in next years Championship Game. It was a great Trojan Day. It was good to see us win in the Rose Bowl again.

Despite how great USC did yesterday, the team of the Day was Boise State. I just happened to turn on the game during the last quarter. I couldn't beleive they were beating Oklahoma. Then Oklahoma came on fast and tied the game in very dramatic fashion, with about a minute to go. Then Bosie throws an interception and Oklahoma takes the lead. Ok, game is over, Oklahoma pulls it out..... no so fast Bronco! Some how Boise State keeps it's composure and throws a trick play, a hook and ladder, and it works! Boise scores and ties the game. Now they go into over time and Oklahoma scores a TD pretty fast. Boise takes over and soon it's 4th down and 18 yards to go, and I figure they are toast, yet they throw into the endzone for a touch down. Now they decide to go for it all and go for a two point conversion instead of playing it safe and tying it with a field goal to go into OT #2. The play is a fake statue of liberty play, another trick play, and it catches Oklahoma off guard and Boise State wins.

Like I said, I was happy for USC, but the Fiesta Bowl stole the show today. Except for what happened with a certain USC Song Girl......

Best Parade in the World

The Rose Parade

Watching the Rose Parade is a New Year's Day tradition that I really enjoy. Another tradition is eating black-eyed peas every New Year's Day, but that's another story. The kids had a big New Year's Eve Party at our house in Livingston last night so the family is all asleep still. I woke up to watch the parade, since I went to bed early last night with a terrible cold. I really enjoyed the Honda float with the fire breathing dragons, the float that featured Kathrine McPhee from American Idol, and I even saw Marie Osmond on a float. There were a couple Lacey would have liked. Cal Poly and LaCanada-Flintridge both had floats that featured Penguins. Star Wars was a big part of the parade since Lucas was the Grand Marshall. They had a float of Endor with the Ewoks, a float of Naboo with the Queens of Naboo, and Grambling State Band wore Imperial Guards uniforms. They also had Darth Vader and hundreds of storm troopers marching too. It was fun. Of course, I like seeing Long Beach's float since it is the city of my birth. They had sail boats and a light house... always a nautical theme for them. Lakewood use to have a float but stopped in the early '80's. I always liked seeing theirs too. The coolest thing I saw was the Oklahoma float where they had a guy with a jet pack come out of a giant gift box and he actually flew for 30 seconds over the parade route. The crowd went nuts. I was very impressed. And of course, I got to see my beloved USC Trojan's cheer leaders and band march down the route. I hope they beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl today, but it will be a tough matchup. HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone !!!