The forbidden question...

This is a copy of an email I sent to my boss just a few minutes ago. I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Someone just had to ask the forbidden question…”what next?”

Well, we received word that Marni’s Grandmother (not the one whose husband just passed away) is in the hospital with pneumonia, a bladder infection, and gall stones. And as if that is not bad enough, we just discovered that Carolyn had thrown up some time after we put her to bed earlier tonight and she had been asleep in it since. Marni opened the door to put some clothes away and almost passed out.

We came home a bit earlier from a family birthday gathering with all of the cousins, that will make their parents really happy.

Carolyn had dried puke in her hair and on her face. I have discovered that strawberry shampoo only makes the smell worse. I am thinking of sleeping in the car tonight, it may be colder, but the pleasing odor would be better than what I am getting in here.

So, I am not saying I will not be in, I don’t know that yet. I am just notifying you of the possibility that (Yuck!! Carolyn is on bended knee, paying homage to the porcelain king again) I may be needed here in the morning or that I may not get much sleep tonight since Sammy was complaining of a tummy ache earlier as well.

This November is going to go down in the Journal as a not fun one, one to be hopefully forgotten very soon. Between the dishwasher, the washing machine, Melanie’s cough freaking me out every few minutes and the foul odor wafting through the house, I could be in for a long night.

Hopefully dreaming of a peaceful Thanksgiving,

Jamie

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Marni's Grandfather passed away today. I don't imagine there will be any rest in Heaven tonight. There is much work to be done, and a man who knows how to work has just arrived.

I finished a book tonight, Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero. Near the end there is a poem that I thought seemed good to share.

Few pioneers live long enough to see
what they have done;
Most men are glad if they can leave
the world a single son;
Did ever a man, before he died, see
such a dream come true?
Did any leave so many living
monuments as you?
A.P. Herbert

Grandpa is a hero to me. I did not know him for long, because I married into his family, but he taught me the value of hard work and of a strong testimony of Jesus Christ.

Sleep? What is that?

Last night I was sitting on the couch next to my wife reading when my cell phone rang at 9:31 p.m. It was my Dad. Not out of the ordinary for him to call me on a Sunday evening. I had not spoken with him for most of the week, life is busy. I figured he was calling to check in on the family.

The conversation started out with the normal greetings and how are people doing type questions. And then Dad's tone changed a bit and I realized that something was up. He told me that he had Mom in the hospital again.

Mom has not been feeling well for the last few weeks. Really it goes back to June 1st when Dad called to tell me that Mom was in the hospital and had been since very early in the morning. She woke up with pain in her back. Twelve hours later and a whole lot of tests, it was discovered that mom has an enlarged heart and was in congestive heart failure. Her heart rhythms were out of whack and she was in critical condition. She spent most of a week in ICU while the doctors worked to get things back to normal.

Three weeks ago, Dad had Mom in the hospital again for severe abdominal pain. she had a CT Scan and a few other tests that did not find a real cause for the pain other than some possible diverticulitis and another minor issue. She was referred to another physician. He sent her home with some medicine and to check her wallet at the front desk.

Back she was again last night not feeling well and suffering from abdominal pain still, a fever and an elevated white count. During the course of the tests, Mom's Coumadin INR was found to be at nine. Pretty high by any standard. When I arrived at the ER, they were preparing to admit Mom to the medical floor. She needed some plasma transfusions to help bring her levels down (I don't know if they gave her anything else along with the plasma). Mom's blood was tested again before the plasma was administered and the INR was 10.5 (going the wrong direction).

Dad and I waited until they had started the first transfusion before we headed home for some rest. I got home around 1 a.m.

Around 6 a.m. when they were about to start the third bag of plasma, Mom had a reaction and started to shiver and shake. The nurses covered Mom with a lot of blankets trying to keep her warm. They stopped the transfusions and actually found that the INR had come down to a normal level. Mom was monitored for the rest of the morning and afternoon and was allowed to go home around 5pm.

I called Dad tonight and he reports that Mom is feeling a ton better and actually at some pudding, soup, and crackers for dinner. That is more than she has eaten in the last three weeks. I am glad to hear she is feeling better.

I am headed to bed early tonight!

A Great Book!

I finished reading a very good book today. I am not much of a book reviewer, so I am including a link to a friend's blog. Todd is the one who recommended the book, at least I read his blog and became interested in the book.

If you read my previous post, you know I love to cook. If you have seen me, you know I love to eat. There were many quotes in the book worthy of remembering and mention but my favorite was from Big Russ. "You gotta eat."

You gotta eat, so you may as well eat things you like. I love salads and fruit and vegetables. I also happen to love just about anything deep fried and greasy. I know smoking is bad for you, but one of my passions is to sit in my backyard close to my smoker and stoke the fire with soaked hickory chips and chunks. There is not a food that I love more than a smoky, tender, slow cooked piece of pork or beef. I am sure the blackened parts that have been charred are bad for you, but they taste oh so good. You gotta eat!

Chili and Barbecue

Tonight we went to our Ward "Trunk or Treat" party. It was very well attended and the kids had a great time. They came home with tons of candy for mom and dad!

Part of the party included the annual chili, trunk decoration, costume, and dessert contests. I was a judge for the trunk decoration division along with the other members of the Young Men's Presidency. It was actually pretty easy. Not too many people decorated their trunks.

This is probably my favorite Ward party each year. This year was extra special since I won one of the four categories for chili, "tastiest." What I did was find a recipe on the Internet that looked interesting and made it. Here is the link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chili-Ricks/Detail.aspx to the recipe.

The thing that caught my attention was that the recipe uses chocolate as one of the ingredients. I was surprise by how much the chocolate added to the flavor. As I told people what the secret ingredient was, they were all surprised and maybe even shocked that someone would use chocolate to make chili. Really there was not that much chocolate, only two ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate, but it made the difference!

I really like the allrecipes website. I have found many recipes here that have been really well received by my test tasting gallery for which I am really appreciative. I have a great family that love to eat and I am happy to feed them. Cooking brings me a certain satisfaction, and immediate return on investment that I can't get anywhere else.

For example, I love to see people's reaction when they get that first bite of tenderly smoked brisket and/or pulled pork. If I had the money to quit my job and buy the necessary equipment, I would open a barbecue joint in a heart beat. I have this dream of taking an old gas station, garage, rundown building or whatever other old place I could find and turning it into a hole in the wall dive where people come to eat succulent, tender, slow cooked brisket, pork ribs, and pulled pork. Add my families potato salad, coleslaw, barbecue beans, and a few other choices of side dishes and I think I have the "recipe" for success.

I kinda want one of those out of the way places that people would go to just because the food is that good, not because the place is pretty. Where people would not have to pay an arm and a leg just to eat great food and would waddle away full and feel like they got a great value as well as a great meal. A place that would become a family tradition, a weekly or even more often trek to get the best food around. Am I asking for too much? I hope I don't sound prideful or conceited. I just love to cook and barbecue is my favorite. I love the time it takes to make perfection happen, throwing the wood on the fire and keeping the heat going at a constant temperature...low and slow. The smell that emanates from the smoker and the scent of my clothes after tending the fire all day. I am sure my wife does not appreciate the smell though. A small price to pay, she loves the food as well.

The only thing I have to come up with still is my own signature sauce. There are a few commercial sauces that I am partial to. Sweet Baby Rays and KC Masterpiece are two of my favorites. Recently I watched a show on PBS that was sort of a quest to find the best barbecue sauce. One of the tested brands was one I had not heard of before is Aurthur Bryant's. I understand this sauce is more of a vinegar flavor sauce rather than a sweet sauce. I am eager to get some ordered and try it out. If anyone wants to order some in, I will cook up a smoky slab of beef to go along with it.

As for a sauce for the pork, I make a North Carolina sauce based on one that I got out of a book by Steven Raichlen. The sauce is a bit like the one you can slather on the delicious pulled pork at Sugar House Barbecue in Salt Lake City, Utah. My sauce needs some work but it is getting there.

I have got to stop! I am sitting here drooling on the keyboard, fearing I will be electrocuted, and have also made myself really hungry. Now I've gotta go find something to eat.

My Tummy Won't Stay Up and Baseball

At first look, you may think the title is referring to my protruding belly...it is not. Marni and I were relaxing on the bed, making comments to Adam who was playing a game on the computer in our room, talking to himself, while we were answering his comments, though he was oblivious to our comments. Melanie and Carolyn came bounding in and jumped on the bed and joined us. So much for relaxing!

After a few minutes of tickling the girls and them getting me back, Carolyn all of the sudden says, "my tummy won't stay up. It keeps going down." She said this while she was bouncing away, happy as can be. Then she noticed that the pillow cases are not on the pillows (they are in the wash with the sheets). She said, "where are your pillow cushions? I can't feel them."

With Carolyn, it is a laugh a minute. She always has something funny to say, that leaves you asking where it came from.

That reminds me of a time I was out with my dad and Adam. We were looking at model homes. My parents were getting ready to build a new home here in Utah. We happened to be in an Ivory Homes neighborhood in Layton, UT, just off of Highway 193. We were in the upstairs of a spec home and Adam looked out the back window and spotted a fire station on Church Street. Out of the blue he turns to me and says, "I know what the job is. We need to go to the fire station and see the fire trucks." At that time in his life, he wanted to be a fire man, police man, ambulance driver, and a cow boy. He even kept his horses in on Corado.

Those days are gone. Now his world revolves around baseball. Of course it is World Series time so the T.V. is tuned to Fox for each game and we are transformed into fans of whatever team Adam wants to win this year. In just a few days, we will go into the long dark and dreary season between the end of the current baseball season and the start of spring training. Don't worry, baseball is not done for Adam. He will spend the next few months playing MLB Baseball on the computer. When he gets tired of that, as if that could ever happen, Adam will then head outside to throw balls against the house and play a pickup game of front yard baseball if he can round up at least one other person crazy enough to be out in the cold. The crazy thing is that Adam does not care what the weather or temperature is outside. It could be 10 below outside and Adam can still be out found outside throwing a baseball. I am waiting for the stucco to fall off of the front of the house from being hit so many times.

A visit with the Great Grandparents

Monday night we had Family Home Evening with Marni's Grandparents. We sat around and talked about what life was like for Grandma and Grandpa growing up. We sang them some songs and had a great time.

I am not sure why I have been so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. I could never on my own have put together a better family to be a part of.

3 Year Old's Wisdom

I wanted to blog this before I forgot. We were having dinner at my parent's house last Sunday. My 3 year old daughter, Carolyn, came in and asked my wife to take her to the bathroom. While Carolyn was sitting on the throne doing her business she looked up at my wife and said, "when something flies over my head, I dunk."

Great Night!

Last night Adam and I went to a Bees game with Mike and Julie. I left work early to catch a bus home so I could surprise Adam with the news that we were going to the game. Mike got tickets from his friend Matt (he plays for the Bees).

It was military appreciation night at the game so they had a bunch of activities going on. At the start of the game during the singing of the National Anthem, a guy from Hogle Zoo brought out a Bald Eagle to stand next to the young lady singing. As if that wasn't cool enough, an Apache Helicopter pops up over the trees behind the stadium and hovers over the stadium doing a few maneuvers and circling around. That was the third time this week for me to see an Apache flying around. One other ceremony held before the game was the swearing in of twenty new Air Force recruits.

After the game, which the Bees lost, there was a really cool fireworks display, one of the best and the longest I have been to.

Ouch! The money pit was really deep this time...

So, I got the truck back yesterday. I received the call in the morning that the repairs were going to cost my right arm, both legs, part of my torso, and two of my children. I waited all day and finally called at 4:48pm to be told that the mechanic had just finished up and was pulling in from the test drive. Marni took me down to the shop and I paid the man the many pounds of flesh. Then I somehow managed to drag my mangled body and wallet out of the store, climb in the truck and drive off into the sunset, quite a bit poorer,wondering if it was worth it. Now I have a fifteen year old truck with brand new brakes and several other important parts related to the brakes.

Cars, the never ending money pit

This has been a busy month for car repairs. Last Friday I had to put a new battery in my truck. I took the day off today to get the oil changed in both vehicles and to get them both inspected. As it turns out the van didn't need an inspection. I can just pay the registration and I am good for another year. The truck is a different story.

The truck failed the safety inspection. There is a hole in the exhaust pipe where the pipe is welded to the catalytic converter. The inspector couldn't get the rear brake drum off because of a groove in the drum and he cannot remove it for liability reasons. And to top it all off I need to have the bearings repacked on the front end. Nice!!!

So, I took the old bolt bucket to Master Muffler to have them look at the weld job they did when I had a piece of the tail pipe replaced. They said it was a bad weld and fixed it while I waited. I got to talking to the owner of the shop and realized that they can fix all of the other problems as well. So I called up my wife and had her come and pick me up. A repair man will inspect the rear brakes and repack the bearings for me. If it needs new brakes or anything else they will call.

I can only imagine what the repair costs will be. Fortunately the weld job was under warranty (at least something was working for me).

The highlight of the day was I got to spend part of the day with my daughter, Carolyn, as she went with me to get the oil changed on the truck. Sammy went with me to the muffler shop and had a great time. I bought him a Country Time Lemonade and that made his day.

2007 Jamborall

What a great weekend! We took the scouts to the Trapper Trails Council 2007 Jamborall this past Friday and Saturday. We had a great evening of fireworks and star gazing. There were several huge telescopes setup on in the parking lot and we were able to see many incredible things. One telescope was setup to look at the moon. It was incredible! I have never seen such detail when looking at the moon. We even got to see a cloud move in front of the moon.

What got us interested in going over to the telescope area was a gentleman who came over and asked if we wanted to see the rings of Saturn. As soon as the fireworks were over we headed straight for the telescopes. What an amazing view of Saturn. I had never seen the rings of Saturn other than in pictures. What an awesome sight it was! I need to set some money aside and save up to purchase a nice telescope.

On Saturday I spent most of the day in the Museum building with the scouts watching over our booth. We setup a Collections Merit Badge Booth. Several of the boys brought a collection of something to show. The hit of our booth was one boy's rubber band ball. He has created this ball entirely of rubber bands over the past two and a half years. It is now the size of a basket ball. There was no shortage of amazed people.

We also had baseball cards, models planes and ships, Yugioh cards, a Mickey Mouse collection and little cars from the movie Cars. It was a fun time had by all. The scouts took turns working the booth and running around seeing what other things were going on.

Marni brought our children and one other scout and they had a great day. My parents are part of a train club and they brought their trains to setup and show for the scouts as well. It was fun for our kids to have Grandma and Grandpa there. It was a long and hot couple of days but we all had a great time.

A highlight for me was to have an Apache Helicopter fly over and land in the morning before the flag ceremony. Unfortunately the helicopter was early and my kids missed it.

Now we look forward to OA Ordeal, Woodbadge, and Youth Conference in June, Scout Camp in July, and the District Fall Camporee in September.

Great Book!

I finished Book 2 of Fablehaven in just a few days. It was great. I had a hard time putting the book down and couldn't wait to see what excitement awaited me on the next page and in the next chapter. As I closed the book at the conclusion of the last chapter, I was sad to see it end. There is one more book in the series due out next year...I hate waiting!!

Kendra has some new power that she received from the Fairy Queen in the first book that has yet to fully be played out. I am curious to see where this will lead. Seth has not changed much, which is good, and is constantly getting into scary situations. He adds and excitement to everyone's lives through his curious nature.

The great thing about these books is how real the characters seem. As I am reading along, I can imagine being in Fablehaven, walking along with Kendra and Seth as they struggle to overcome the Society. The books come to life in my mind and sparks my imagination.

Brandon Mull has done a great job with this book but has now left me hanging, waiting impatiently for the next book. I would love to be able to read an advanced copy of the next book! If I only had connections...

An early birthday present!

We had a family gathering today to celebrate Mother's day and several birthdays. May is a big month for birthdays in the family. Anyway, I received an early birthday present from my wonderful wife. She gave me the newest book by Brandon Mull. Fablehaven: Rise of the evening star, Vol. 2.

If you love fantasy then this is the series for you. Lots of magical creatures and adventure await the reader. One of the things I really liked about the first book was that even though I knew there was more to come, I was not left hanging and upset that I had to wait. There was at least some closure at the end and I could patiently wait for the next book to come out. It is here and in my hands (actually sitting next to me). I will start it tomorrow on the bus ride in to work!

http://www.fablehaven.com/

Mother's Day Poem

Motherhood

The dearest gifts that heaven holds,
The very finest, too,
Were made into one pattern
That was perfect, sweet, and true;
The Angels smiled, well-pleased, and said:
"Compared to all the others,
This pattern is so wonderful
Let's use it just for Mothers!"
And through the years, a Mother
Has been all that's sweet and good
For there's one bit of God and love,
In all true Motherhood.

~ Helen Steiner Rice ~

Could have been worse...

Yesterday we went to Marni's grandmothers house to help with the yard work. I brought along my trusty weed eater. Of course as gas powered equipment tends to do, it leaked and smelled up the van. So, upon arrival I took it out of the van and placed it on the ground. I left the back door of the van open to clear the air. At the end of the day I put the weed eater back in the van (of course I didn't use it) and closed the door. When I turned the ignition to start the van...the battery was dead. YIKES!!! I tried jump starting it with grandmas truck but that didn't work. All of the men folk had headed out for Stake Conference and I figured I was left alone to find the correct tools and a place to buy a new battery. Fortunately grandma called a cousin who happens to work at a small garage. I stopped by there and picked up a new battery, borrowed some tools and headed back to install it. Marni helped me find the correct socket and I was able to install the battery. The new battery is great!! We dropped the core off on our way home, thanked all that were involved, and stopped at Burger King for dinner. All is well in Zion!