Holiday Eating Guide

HOLIDAY EATING TIPS
1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet tableknows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It's rare.. You cannotfind it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into aneggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me.Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!
3. if something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy.Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashedpotatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
4. as for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk orwhole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports carwith an automatic transmission.
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control youreating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat otherpeople's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's.You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is thetime for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table whilecarrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frostedChristmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself nearthem and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center ofattention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind,you're never going to see them again.
8. Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or ifyou don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always havethree. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatorycelebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, come on, have some standards.
10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party orget up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips;start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
Remember thismotto to live by:"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arrivingsafely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid insideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn outand screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"Have a great holiday season

Old Picture

I Found this picture and had to post it

Pictured is, Neil Newell, Owen Mortenson,

Grant Newell, Myself , and Ruthann Mortenson.

I don't remember what the function was, except that it was at the old 3rd ward building in Tacoma. It may have been for scouts or something. Mom, do you remember? anyway I had to post this, pretty funny.

Where I Work

For all you who Might be interested,

Here is where I work, and the View

of the Tetons outside my office door,

I do like this valley. The View is alot

better in person, So...... If you would

like to see it, Come on down, I'ld be

happy to show you some of the sights.

Gingers New Digs

Here it is.............. Gingers New Digs.........TaDuh!!! Well there you have it.

She Loves her new house, and lays in it whenever she has to be in her kennel.Until there is something to bark at of coarse, but she loves to lay around in her new house.

It is full 2x4 framing, insulated, with plywood inside and out,

the outside walls are basecoat, finish coat stucco , and the roof is also insulated with a metal roof.

it should do her good. Maybe she could sleep outside??!!?!?! Probably not though.

Our 18th Anniversary

So, I'm Getting a little flack for not Blogging the important stuff,, Like say MaryLyns Birthday, and our Anniversary, Well we kinda did something for both. We went for a long drive through the hills to Soda Springs, Id. It was alot of fun, Ginger went with us too, she was in heaven, after she realized she wasn't going to a kennel. This Picture was taken at Hooper Springs State Park just outside of Soda. There is a Spring that is "Soda Water", It's cool to bring a drink powder with you and mix it with the soda water from the spring. It's not too bad.

Here's another shot of us and Ginger, We did have alot of fun that day, it was a good Anniversary.

We had lunch in Soda, at the Arctic Circle, and ate it in the

city Park, They have an old Railroad Bus , plus some old mining equipment. there is a couple of mines , and a fertilizer plant, (not the poop kind), Kinda neat to watch the slag from the process being dumped, it pours down a hill like molten lava, happened too fast to get the camera out. So That was Our Anniversary , We did have dinner at home, Steak and Mushrooms, with a bottle of Bubbly.

This is the last picture taken before it was traded. the car it was traded for sold for $65,000.00, so my hard work paid off for my boss. I hated to see it go but I knew I couln't buy it, so I had to just wave goodbye.

UPDATE!!!

O.K. So here goes the Update.................

Oh Shoot, Now I can't remember what I was thinking about.
Wait, wait for it.... It's coming back to me..........Dang it's gone.

Now what I wasn't thinking about. The Summer was not long enough, It is starting to S--- again,(thats still a bad word for another month) and I have too many things going on.
Chris and I are in the middle of building Ginger a new house for her Kennel, It's almost 4 feet square and 30 inches high(inside),Competely insulated with a metal roof, and no windows, however, the siding will be stucco. MaryLyn says we should put carpet inside too, maybe.......
Ginger seems to be very happy about her new diggs, she keeps going in and laying down, even when we were still nailing it together, Crazy Dog.
Christopher loves school, the charter school was the best thing for him. He wouldn't go back to the public school for anything. He is in 9th grade, keeps a B+ average, all the staff
think the world of him, and he's got some good friends to boot. The Permanent building is almost done, we'll move into it during Christmas break, Wahoo!
Marylyn is the best E.A.(thats Educational Assistant) in the school, thats not a bias opinion,just fact. She has been named head E.A. and is in charge of training.

We went to Grant & Rhonda's wedding. It was good to see everyone,and visit with Grant and Rhonda, We enjoyed the visit. we had to go home too early,and didn't get to spend alot of time up there, but had a good time with what we were able to do.

Well, I'm going to blog more later, My creativity has escaped me,and I'm too fat to catch it,so there you go............... For Now.

It's still Summer, I think.

O.K. No, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, Much to some's displeasure, I'm really still alive. I was talking to Mom the other night,or was it last night, shoot it could have been last week. So going on, we discussed the fact that I haven't blagged all summer, and no thats not a typo, thats exactly how I said it, Blagged.
This summer has been, lets see, can I even find the right word for it? My vocabulary isn't deep enough for anything more than....ah.... Getting out the dictionary...ah.... still nothing..... Nothing... . . . . . . . . I'm 45 ya know . . . . . . .
O.K. I'm gonna have to settle for................ah....................Feverish. Feverish? Where did that come from? O.k. I'll use it
This Spring, I leased out my pasture to the neighbor, who brought over 2 Mares with Colts, It was alot of fun watching them run around the field, learning about a horses life. Which at their age isn't much. We learned where the phrase, "Horse Play " comes from. then 3 weeks ago the grass played out and the horsies are gone..... but they will be back in september. The Colts are very friendly little guys, I spent some time in the pasture with them, the mothers weren't really friendly though. one colt would come up and put his chin on my shoulder,and let me scratch his neck, while the other colt tried to bite me. I think they had a pact going or something.
It's Sure Nice living out of town, The quiet nights, bright stars, the smell of cow manure, not to mention being able to walk out the back door in your skivies. Last night we got to listen to the neighbor baling hay nearly all night long! What a Treat!
Alright it has taken me all day to get this much written,( Dang customers anyway)
And I've gone brain dead for today.
Until next time. . . . . . . . . . . .. . .

SUMMER!!!! NO! IT'S TOO HOT!!

I just found this in the draft section so I'm posting it now, even though it was last spring.

O.K. now this is screwy, we went from snowing to 100 degrees in like 10 minutes,I'm ready for fall, you know cool temperatures and snow and rain,....... Wait, what am I saying? We just got rid of all that. I just dug my shorts out of the spider infested corner of my closet, and I'm not about to put them back!

I'm a mess, But isn't that the way we are? never happy with the weather, never happy with the yard, and never happy with the temerature of our milk. Everything always needs to be different for us to be happy. well, I personally would be super happy if my lawn mower would start everytime,and by itsself, then I would be content, maybe.

Track & Field

This is the BOY, in his Track uniform, lookong kinda KOOL.

Chris threw the Discus,and the Shotput in the field events,and did pretty good for his first time throwing, his best distances were 70.4 Feet for Discus and 29.5 Feet for the Shot.

Christopher had alot of fun on the track team, and is looking forward to next season.

The coach, who is also going to be the Basketball Coach, has given Chris a summer conditioning schedule, to help him get a little faster and stronger. (He wants to have Chris on the B.Ball team.

He's an awsome Coach and Teacher, The Students really love him.)
We are very happy with this School,( taylorscrossing.org ) the Harbor Method is very learning friendly, Charter Schools teaching this meathod are spreading around the country fast, I strongly recomment this type of learning for Any child. O.K. the Plug is in.

The New building for the school is under construction, and is scheduled to open in October.

The staff and students,are very excited to get out of the Modulars,( The schools nicname has become "Trailers Crossing", which is quite a joke with all involved) once the "Trailers" are done we can get to work on the soccer field and finish the Playground ,Etc... Here are a couple pics of the school. If you can't tell this was the very beginning, It is very exciting to be involved with the school( I never ever thought I would say that) Parental involvment is requested,and appreciated. MaryLyn is a Learning Aide in the Second grade class, and loves the kids.(They kinda like her too)

I'll add more pics later

Summer!!!!

Summer!! Where are You? Or How about Spring? Do you not exist anymore?
Today on JUNE 11th I woke up to 1/2 inch of snow. Yes you read it right SNOW!!
we really appreciate the moisture,but we would like to have some warm temperatures, so maybe we could at least go outside. This is definately a crazy year, Wet and cold in the West, Record high Temps. in the East, and the middle of the country is, well Under Water. I Feel for all the people who have lost everything, I can't Imagine what that is like...........
Maybe I should Patch the bottom of my boat tonight, or put some floatation devices on the Trailer, Yeah that would be better, then I'ld have a Pontoon Bed, but probably just a wet Trailer.
Soooooo...... Back to the original subject... I am anxious for Summer...... Oh Wait!!,
as long as it's snowing, I DON'T HAVE TO MOW!!!! KEEP SNOWING PLEASE!!

Lawn Mowing Season

I don't want to sound negative, but .....
Lawn Mowing season really sucks, Not Mowing itself,But the lawn mowers.
I Started out the season, Got the Mowers out of cold storage, now the riding mower was also used all winter plowing snow,so there wasn't much to do to it, I got everything operational, then we started mowing, first the hand mower started acting up,and then we lost the engine on the riding mower. so, I cleaned the carburator on the push mower, started mowing the front yard, got 3/4ths done and it quit alltogether, now i'm without a mower. The other night I was at the neighbors house, I noticed an old riding mower in the weeds, so I promptly went to look at it,Because if it's sitting in someones pasture, somehow it's a jewel. The engine looked the same, So I asked my neighbor about it. His reply, much to MaryLyns Horror, was, "I would love it if you hauled that thing off". well he didn't have to tell me twice, I went right home and got the 4wheeler and a rope,took Christopher with me, and we drug that old mower home.(the tires were all flat and only one would hold air)
The first thing we did was put gas in it, and tried to start it, Funny, It started right up, it didn't run great, but it ran, For about 2 minutes.
After cleanig out the whole fuel system, we got it running again, and thought it was going to run good, so we gave it a test. First we engaged the mower deck, that was a thumbs up, then we tried the drive system, seemed to work good too. so I couldn't help myself, I had to try mowing the grass,( remember the flat tires). I sat on the machine, kinda fwabbled across the driveway to the grass, and engaged the mower deck. I couldn't believe it, it was working too good, it was mowing nice and even, and that was with flat tires too! Too good to be true!!
on the second pass,('cause one wasn't enough) it quit. so I'm now back to the begining except I have another junker in the yard. It's a good thing scrap iron is at an all time high, I'ld have alot of "Lawn Ornaments" in the yard.

Christopher

Christopher is now 14?!! Wow! when did this happen? The cute little boy is now GONE!! Now he's 6' tall, has a deeper voice than he used to talk in,(for those of you that don't know, Chris, When having something important to say, Would lower his voice,and talk with a very authoritive tone.{like his dad}). Not to mention, He's now a Teenager to the Extreme, We are working through that, He's a good kid though. He Was Ordained A Teacher on the 4th of May,and recieved his Deacons Duty to God as well, We are proud Parents. School is going pretty good for him, However he is excited for it to be over with. Weren't we all at that age? Summer should turn into a real adventure for Christopher, The neighbor has hired him to move pipe and build fences on his ranch, Chris is excited for that. I think Mom is too...

Lightning

Have you ever had one of those days where you just can't get enough of nature? I Had one of those days today, Except it was snowing, Again, or Still, and cold, And I didn't have my raincoat with me, and then I thought of growing up in Washington, If you didn't do something cause it was raining and cold, you just didn't get to do anything at all. That's when I got up and went outside, watched the rain and snow, stood in it and enjoyed the moisture. Then I started to notice other things again, like the different colors in the pine trees, and the way the birds react to the storms, and then the Lightning came, it seems weird to have Lightning and snow in the same storm, But it made me think of the Awesome power it took to create the Earth. Anyway I love to watch storms. That is one big pluses to living in the Mountain Desert, you get to see the storms coming from a hundred miles away, and then in a couple of hours, they are on top of you. For those of you who have never experienced that, it really is exillerating.(is that spelled right?)
I really do Love the outdoors.

Spring?

O.K. I know it's supposed to be spring and all, but it only quit snowing here the other day.
However, the past 2 days have been more like late summer, 85 degrees, a light breeze blowing,what a wonderful weekend it was. Well, at least the weather was good.
so I got out the hoses and sprinklers, hooked them all up to the ditch pump(about 400' of hose and 4 spinklers),then I put the suction hose in the ditch,and primmed the pump,at this point I
knew i should have left the sprinklers off the hoses when starting the pump for the first time,
but I didn't,and as a result, every rainbird got plugged up solid, The dirt was packed in so tight I had to disassemble all the sprinklers and dig the dirt out with a wire. You would have thought that I'ld learn from that experience,and turn the pump on Without the sprinklers on the hoses.
Wrong again, I promtly put the things back on the hoses and turned the pump on. Vuala the sprinklers again plugged up. well by this time I had had enough, I turned off the pump, walked into the house,and looked up the weather. What do you know, it's supposed to snow again this week. ( I can't imagine why it wouldn't be snowing in the middle of MAY ) So I'll let the stupid sprinklers sit there for a few more days. Spring is Great isn't it?

Suicide Deer

Well, It finally happened. The famed kammakazi deer, ran out to greet me, however the greeting wasn't so cheerful for the Deer.
I was driving to work, I made it about half way there, it was about 6:00 am, and I'm the only one on the road for miles. I was going down this hill,and this Deer ran out to greet me. only it didn't slow down,( oh and neither did I) so it slammed into the side of my truck,nose first
into the drivers door( if it's not too graphic for you, imagine that at 70 miles per hour +) It's
shoulders took out the rear door,and for the finishing touches it's butt came around and smashed
the bed side. Over $3000.00 to get it fixed. thank goodness for Insurance companies
My boss wasn't really happy about it,but he understands that **** Happens.

Cars

These are 2 cars I worked on.(in the slideshow at the bottom). The 33 Ford tudor custom convertible I did 90% of the build, It was done for my boss and the first build i've ever done. It was a fun project, I look forward to another. The 57 Belair is my bosses Father in Laws car, I did the wiring,and helped with alot of the assembley, the car builder is Laddie Shaw, a well known car builder. It was cool to work with him on this car. Next up is a 71 'cuda Hemi, I'll hopefully be able to work with him on that car as well. Depends on timing, since he likes to work late at night,and I have to leave for work early in the morning, that leaves little time to help with it.
Laddie wants me to do the wiring though so somehow all will work out

Winter of 2008

Here it is February 14th and it's still snowing and BLOWING, Valentines day never looked so good. We Haven't had this much snow in the valley in years, (according to the farmers) So we are Looking forward to a very soggy spring, Much like the spring of 1997 when the army core of Engineers were called out to Pump the Excess water Over the Dam so it wouldn't wash out. Hopefully the watermaster will be a little smarter this time and pull the drain on the Resivuor soon enough.
We had to bring home a bigger snow plow the other day, Our driveway was getting too skinny, The snow has really been piling up. We haven't had to shovel the roof yet(not that christopher is not begging to go up there)but it is getting close,I may have to do it this weekend
as much as i hate going onto the roof in winter.
The other Day My Boss suprised me with a little Extra, He gave me one of his old
4wheelers, it's a polaris 400 4x4, a '95, it's been used hard but taken care of too, it does need some work and maintenance done, but we(especially Christopher) are excited to have it,and are very Grateful to Justin HAll(thats my boss) for giving it to us.