Year: 2010

Categories
life

Nine Years and Counting

Nine years ago today I was privileged to make covenants with the greatest woman I have ever known. I spent a lot of time today thinking back to our wedding day (hint: that was back when Mother Nature still remembered that it’s not supposed to snow in May) and all that has happened in the years since then. We have been blessed with five kids and I get to contrast my nine years of marriage with the ten months and counting that a friend of ours is enduring of divorce proceedings. While we were at stake conference today being spiritually edified I saw the weight of care showing on this friend’s face and thought how blessed I was to have a wonderful wife to share the weight of raising children to the Lord so that they will be prepared for the challenges they will face when they go out into the world.

Categories
life

There’s a Mouse in the House

Before the title causes anyone to get too excited let me quickly clarify that this is not actually a mouse story but “rodent” does not rhyme with house. Also, I should mention that “rodent” does not refer to a wild animal. Lastly, for anyone who remembers our adventure with Moonlight, this does not include tearing apart any walls.

Currently in our house we have 16 gerbils – which is seven more than I would ever have planned on. We have two parents who occasionally have a litter of around five pups and we have two gerbils from an early litter that we allowed Savannah to keep. Two weeks ago our mother gerbil, Sweetie, gave birth to a litter of seven pups a few days earlier than we had expected so we had not sold the five gerbils from the previous litter. We hurriedly moved them to a separate cage just before she gave birth so those five little gerbils are under Savannah’s care right now.

This morning as I was getting ready in the dark I saw a rodent shadow cross our bedroom door and I knew we had a problem. I went into Savannah’s room and looked in the cage to discover that one boy and both girls from that barely weaned litter had escaped in the night.

Savannah and I soon found the boy, Cecil, under a dresser in her room but he escaped past us and got into the master bedroom. We found him again behind a bookshelf in the master bedroom but he escaped again. In the process we woke Laura up.

The three of us stopped while Savannah said a prayer asking that none of the gerbils would be in the walls or the vents and that we would recover them safely. Within a minute Savannah heard a noise behind our refrigerator. The three of us looked and saw one of the girls. We carefully surrounded the fridge and I pulled it out allowing Laura to catch our runaway.

Savannah and I decided to put some food out to entice the others. Savannah put a pile on the floor of the master bedroom and I placed some food near their cages hoping they would return toward home. Another minute later Laura walked into the master bedroom to see the other girl scamper away from the food. Laura and I worked to remove obstacles such as the recliner she ran toward and soon we had her trapped in one corner under our bed. When Laura moved the last item in that corner we saw that both of our remaining escapees were hiding there. I tried to surround them but Cecil got under my arm again – maybe we should call him Houdini. I caught the other girl and passed her to Laura. Again we heard Cecil behind the bookcase in our room. This time I was able to catch him.

So after half an hour of excitement we had all our gerbils back without even waking the other kids when we searched their room early in the chase. At 6:00 AM it was time for a prayer of gratitude.

P.S. Despite the date, this story is no joke.

Categories
life

Winning the Contest

Yesterday at church was apparently a contest of wills between Isaac and me. He was acting up and causing a disturbance in sacrament meeting and I took him outside. Eventually he won his way back in only to have Laura take him out a few minutes later after renewed disturbance. Laura came back in a few minutes later sans Isaac and informed me that Isaac only wanted me. I went outside to where he was sitting and talked to him. He wanted to go home and take a nap. As we talked I explained to him that he was tired because he had been struggling with me in a struggle that he could not win. I told him that I did not want to take him home but that I would be happy to let him take a nap in my arms. Due to his continued sobbing I finally asked if he would be willing to take a short nap at home and come back in time for the last hour of church. He agreed to that and I collected Enoch (so that Laura would not have to take care of the baby while teaching her Sunday School class) and left as sacrament meeting was drawing to a close.

As soon as we got home and closed the garage door Isaac announced that: “I won the contest.” I asked him what contest he was talking about and he told me he won the contest with me about us going home.

Not to be outdone I decided to turn the tables on Isaac. (Yes, that’s dad, competing with his three year old in mind games.) I asked Isaac if the whole idea was to win the contest. He said that it was and so I asked if we could go back to church now that he had won the contest. He agreed. I quickly took the opportunity to put in my contacts (that I had forgotten before church) and then we went back to church before the chapel had even cleared from the meeting.

As we parked Isaac said that he wanted to go home and take a nap. I reminded him that he had already won the contest and had agreed to come back because of that so he went in and I took him to primary. I was feeling pretty proud of myself – I figured that I had won the contest after all – although I would not say such a thing to Isaac. Later I saw Laura in the hall between meetings and I explained how we had been able to come back to church so quickly because of Isaac winning the contest. After we got home from church Isaac announced to Laura that: “Dad won the contest.”

Apparently he recognized that he had been outmaneuvered even without me rubbing it in.

Categories
Uncategorized

Mountain West Perfection

I noticed after publishing my Split Championship post that the Mountain West Conference managed to get the perfect football season that they fell short of last year with perfect order top to bottom in the conference.

The only blemish being their 4-1 record in bowl games this year and the glitch that Colorado State appears to have played an easier non-conference schedule than UNLV, San Diego State, and New Mexico.

Categories
politics thoughts

Split Championship

With Cincinnati falling hard to Florida we can rest assured that there will be two and only two undefeated FBS football teams this year. Last year Utah failed to convince the AP voters that as the only undefeated team in the FBS they deserved at least a split of the title, despite the fact that they beat Alabama more convincingly than Florida had in the SEC Championship game. Of course that turned out to be a great excuse for Barack Obama, Orrin Hatch, and Mark Shurtleff  (among others) to complain to Congress and the media about the BCS.

This year I have already heard some people who argue out of spite that the winner of the Alabama – Texas game should not be considered the National Champion. Personally I think that’s foolish. Whatever team wins that game will have gone undefeated having played against an undefeated team in their bowl game. What more could we ask of them? The same criteria will apply to the winner of the TCU – Boise State game and thus I argue that while the coaches are obligated to vote for the winner of Alabama-Texas the AP voters should create a split championship by voting for the winner of the TCU-Boise State game (unless Texas-Alabama is compelling while TCU-Boise State turns out to be a really sloppy game on both sides). In fact, Obama should follow his sportsman’s heart by inviting both teams to the White House and honoring them as is traditional for the National Champion. (If he really wants a playoff the President could invite them on the same day and watch them play a friendly scrimmage. 😉 )

I just had to get this out before the Fiesta Bowl began today so that I could be fair to both teams – especially considering I have a favorite in this contest. While I like both TCU and Boise State better than either Texas or Alabama I would definitely prefer to see TCU win.