24 hours

I recently had a conversation with a good friend and it got me to thinking. If you could do anything at all, anywhere, and with anyone, for just 24 hours; what would you do and why? I'm interested in seeing what your comments will be.

Daddy Daughter Day

Tuesday was a fun opportunity for me to spend the entire day with Tristyn. In the morning she had a field trip with her class up to the environmental center. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was up there with my class. We were able to go cross-country skiing, which was Tristyn's favorite, and snow shoeing. They fed us a hearty school lunch in between. That night Cream of Weber took us to the Jazz game, and since Tracey was working I got to take Tristyn with me.

The weather was perfect, it was a beautiful day outside.

Chillin' at lunch

Snow shoeing experts

It was the Jazz bear's birthday so there were some mascots from other teams that came to the game. Tristyn got to meet the one from Minnesota.



The only bad part about the day was the Jazz losing. It was sure fun to spend the day with my little girl (who suddenly isn't so little anymore).

Things to avoid.... and why!

The other day I got home early from work and decided to go for a little run. Tracey warned me that it probably wasn't the best time to go running since it was raining like crazy outside. I told her not to worry, it couldn't be that bad. About halfway through the run a duck came waddling up to me laughing and said here's your sign, it was then that I started to see the wisdom in her advice. I then started thinking of the other things I'd learned the hard way to avoid and came up with a top ten list of those things and why. So here they are in no particular order:

1. Lettting your daughter have a large jewelry box even if it is a gift.........because then she thinks she needs to fill it up.
2. Shopping at Wal-Mart........because it's Wal-Mart.
3.Throwing snowballs at an un-marked police car.....do I need to expound on that?
4. Putting your son's hair in pony-tails, even if it is crazy hair day at preschool........because it's your son!
5.Talking back to your wife.......because you may end up with a black eye(see picture below)...Just kidding- it's actually from basketball.
6. Driving a Ford pinto in a blizzard.......because you may end up with frostbite in strange areas when that pinto can't quite make it through the snowbank you tried to drive it through and you have to walk home.
7. Driving an Ford pinto anywhere.......beacause it's a Ford pinto.
8. Trying to doorbell ditch with a snowball that has a rock in it when the doorbell is located next to a large picture window........because you may miss the doorbell.
9. Running in a torrential downpour in shorts in the middle of January......two reasons here, because you may end up with hypothermia, and frostbite on your legs- and you may end up with chaffed nipples consequently having to wear band-aids on these same nipples.
10. Betting on a "sure win" football game with money that you don't have......just trust me on this one- don't do it.

Warning

Warning: This is what too much honey on your Wheaties can do. Notice the increased muscles, the extra energy, etc., etc., etc.! Don't say you haven't been warned!

Fun at the VM (not osha approved)

This has become a tradition during the winter. When we get a cardboard bale, we have to pull it out with the truck. Rob likes to see if he can ride it to its final resting place. This video clip is one of the milder ones we've seen. We're currently taking applications for Rob's positions as we are worried he may not survive the next one. (sorry Lisa, he signed a waiver first)

Rocky IX

For Christmas the guys at the VM gave Terry and I a punching bag (there must be some kind of hint there). We recently hung it up in the back room, and now we have a daily training routine. If anybody needs a stress outlet I highly recommend coming over to the VM and going a few rounds with the bag. ( By the way yes that is a real egg that starts off the training regimen).

(Sidenote: Happy Anniversary Tracey! 12 years on the 17th! I Love you!)

Blast from the past

For Christmas my Mom gave all of us a DVD and a cd-rom that my Uncle Steve had gone to a lot of time and effort to put together. He took all of Mom's old slides and converted them over so we could all have copies. The first one we got had from 1970-1978. We haven't received the others yet but here are a few pictures from the one we have so far. Thanks Steve for all of your work. We'll be able to treasure these for a long time.


July 1970

Here's some early photos of when I was born.

Richard and I ready for Halloween. You'll notice these costumes get recycled later. (Mom made these for us). I think last year I saw two kids in North Ogden wearing these.

This is where Ty gets it from (running around without his pants on)

Say no to crack!

Every year for Christmas we would have a re-enactement of the manger scene. I think the only reason we did it was so Dad could get a kick out of painting mustaches on us.





Now you'll notice in this Halloween picture that the cute little bunny that used to be Richards, is now mine. You'll also notice that all my friends have cool costumes such as spider-man, etc. No wonder I had a hard time getting a date that night.

Birthday party. Can you guess which one is Brandon?







Rob joins the family. Nice couch huh?

Produce tip of the day...

Here is a little beauty that most people don't know about. It's called the Cara Cara orange, also known as "The Power Orange". On the outside it's a very attractive orange, but what sets the Cara Cara apart is what's on the inside. It looks almost like a grapefruit. It is an extremely sweet orange, with low acid, and packed with vitamins. A great source of Vitamin C, A, and fiber it is also a good source of the antioxidant Lycopene. The hardest part about the Cara Cara is they are gone before you know it, leaving you longing for more. Check them out at your local grocery store before they're gone.

Christmas...(a little late)!

We're a little late on the Christmas post, but here are some of the pictures from Christmas.

Coming downstairs to see if Santa came!


Tristyn's favorite was her new bedding.

Ty finally got the sword he'd been wanting.

Grandpa and Grandma Ferguson

Ma'am Shirley and Papa Rip. Ma'am Shirley made these blankets for all the great-grandkids.

Finished the day off over at the Hancocks. We all had a fun day, and everybody got spoiled.

Emmitt Smith...(in training)

With the national football championship game on last night and the girls gone to clogging, Ty and I decided to start his training for the football that he will surely want to play someday (Dad's hoping).

The year that was

Since we didn't start posting until August of '08, here is a little review of '08 in reverse- August back to January

Going for a bike ride

Fun times at Lagoon

Tristyn's clogging competition

Ty's new Spiderman bike

Fun in the snow

Hot chocolate

This is a little something I got handed at work, and it sounded like a good recipe for the new year so I'm passing it on. "The wisdom in hot chocolate". A group of graduates, well established in their careers were talking during a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kithchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups- porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite- telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While is is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups, and then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now, consider this: Life is hot chocolate; your job, money, and position in society are the cups. They are just the tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of the life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided for us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything they have." Enjoy your hot chocolate (or just drinking water from the hose)!