The Date Passed with Little Recognition Besides My Own

My oldest daughter, Sarah, is now closer to her own High School graduation then I am to mine. This significant calendar event passed quietly several weeks ago, without fanfare but with an awareness that I mostly kept to myself. Sarah, who will be going into 1st grade in the Fall, will likely graduate in just under 12 years. Me, on the other hand, graduated just over 12 years ago. Kind of crazy! And, sorry if I ruined anyone's day/week/month.

In the Grand Scheme of Things...

... this really is not that big of a deal at all. But it felt like it was, for some reason. Okay, well, it didn't really feel like a big deal, but it occupied my thoughts for a part of the day as I was anxious about the outcome while Mary was gone. While on our way to UT for Mary's bro's wedding and to visit friends and stuff about 6 weeks ago, I realized that we would pass 100,000 miles on our car while on the trip. I really wanted to actually notice this as it happened, it was something I calculated and payed some attention to while we were out and about. Anyway, Friday after the wedding came around and I realized that it would likely happen on our way back home the next day. But then I realized that Mary and her sister were going to go our for some girl time before Jenny had to go to the airport, when I realized this, I realized that it would be a close call if Mary made it back to the house before passing 100,000 miles on the car. While she was gone, this "concern" actually occupied some of my mental space. I periodically would look out the window to see if she was home and inwardly hoped that she wouldn't take any detours. When she got home, I went outside and checked the odometer. Here's the pic:

Now, seriously, could I have gotten any closer to actually seeing the odometer read 100,000! The last zero and the .9 are both tauntingly disappearing out of the picture in what can only be described as a staunch effort to mock me and my effort to make the car that has thanklessly served me for the past 4+ years do so again. I am suspicious that Mary did an extra turn around the block just before pulling in the driveway, but I can't confirm that. Anyway, I actually think the picture and the angst the situation caused me make for a much better story then if I had been driving through Bountiful and said, "Oh look, 100,000 miles exactly... cool; Mary take a picture... [digital sounding 'click']"

Not My First Choice, But Close

[Of all the family-related posts I should be doing... I'm choosing to do this one... go figure!]

I haven't always loved peanut butter, for reasons that will soon be obvious. My two earliest memories of peanut butter are 1st: the gross, oily yellow Adams peanut butter tubs that you had to stir every time you opened it and, let's face it, it didn't taste very good; and 2nd: a neighbor lady and family friend (I know my sis and parents would remember their names) who would have a stored container of peanut butter mixed with jelly to make the PBJ-sandwich-making combo easier. This grossed me out and I never really enjoyed the food option until JIF Extra Crunchy came into the house. This is when my love for PB blossomed into a snack-staple. My mom soon introduced me to PB toast with Jelly sprinkled on top. It is still a favorite pre-bed-time snack. I remember in my voracious appetite years in my teens when as soon as I would get home from school/practice I would make two PBJ sandwiches on delicious wonderbread and devour them on my way out the door. I still think there are few simpler things that taste better.

Mary buys JIF too... except it's the creamy kind. Seriously, why would you get peanut butter without the actual crunchy goodness of the peanuts?! It's a transition that I'm struggling with. We have a large tub in the pantry of the JIF Extra Crunchy and I'm looking forward to breaking that out soon. But, right now, we just have the Creamy available and, let's be realistic, the night-time piece of toast just isn't nearly as good as it was/will be.

Oh, and no, I never liked PBJ sandwiches for lunch at school. It always seemed like the soakage of the jelly into the bread was inevitable.

Superbowl "Snack"

So, I'm not really big into the Superbowl or NFL football, though anyone that knows me knows that I'm a big sports nut. Anyway, on one of the sports blogs that I frequent I found this picture and directions to making this ultimate Superbowl Snack. This is high-caloric culinary creativity at it's finest, according to my unprofessional opinion. What do you think about this? Look very closely: guacomole, 58 twinkies, slim-jims (goal posts), salsa, nacho cheese, sour cream, bacon, chips, chex mix, cheetos, sausages, etc. This is sweeeeeet! If I ever host a big football party (doubtful), I hope I can remember and recreate this!

Ingredients:

The Field:
1 Pound of Guacamole
15 Oz. Queso Dip For The Steelers End Zone
15 Oz. Salsa For The Cardinals End Zone
2 Oz. Sour Cream for the Field Lines

The Players:
15 Vienna Sausages
Helmets - 3 Oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese

The Goal Posts:
1 Slim Jim for Each Goal Post
1 Oz. Monterey Jack Cheddar To Anchor (each)

The Stands:
58 Twinkies
1 Pound of Bacon
1 Bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos
1 Bag of Cheetos
1 Bag of Corn Tortilla Chips
1 Bag of Chex Mix

TOTAL CALORIES: 24,375
TOTAL GRAMS OF FAT: 1,285
TOTAL COST: $86.47

The PROCESS

STEP 1 - Ingredients

Buy the ingredients listed above

STEP 2 - The Field:
Take one pound of guacamole and smear it on the center of a baking tray, leaving a section on either end for the end zones

STEP 3 - The End Zones
It's important here to fill one end zone with one filling, and one end zone with another, so that neither team receives home field deliciousness. We chose salsa for the Cardinals, and Queso dip for the Steelers

STEP 4 - Yard Lines
Take sour cream and put it into a turkey baster, then squeeze gently to make the yard lines across the field

STEP 5 - The Players and goal posts
Vienna sausages make delicious players, and tiny cheese wedge helmets help keep them from getting concussions. Two different types of cheese helps to distinguish the teams. The goal posts are made from Slim Jim's, that we cut up, then stuck together with tooth picks. Monterey Jack cheese was used as an anchor to keep them standing, with a tooth pick linking the two together. At no point was it necessary to "snap in to" any of these slim jims. Cutting worked better

FIELD REVIEW
Now that the field is finished, you can begin constructing the stadium around it, which you will also eat. It's important to lay down some paper towels, so that no food comes in contact with your disgusting table top. (Because if you're a person who makes this, you definitely have a disgusting table top)

STEP 6 - The Stadium
The twinkie is nature's brick. You can make your stadium as large as you want, depending on how many twinkies you have at your disposal. We had 58. And probably could have used 90. Use tooth picks to secure the twinkies to one another. This outer stadium wall will provide a delicious dessert when the contents of the stadium have been eaten.

STEP 7 - The Bacon Wall
The bacon wall is the most important part of the stadium, because it keeps the throngs of screaming fans, in this case chips, from falling on the field, in this case the guacamole and salsa. Insert tooth picks into the first row of twinkies, and then weave the bacon in and out of them, so that it forms a pliable wall.

STEP 8: The Fans/Chips
Without the fans, there would be no game. It's no different in your snack stadium, so select four different kinds of snacks to fill the stands. Be sure to use pieces of bacon to separate your crowd into sections.

STEP 9 - The Frenzy
Enjoy!

A New Job?

I probably scared a lot of people with the title of that post, maybe even my wife! I'm not changing my job, but if I could I think this would be my first choice:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/

They are currently accepting applications.

It was Hard not to Laugh!

So in my profession and in my current job working with teenage boys with specific behavioral issues, I work with kids that have some very sad and traumatic histories and experiences in their short lives. Most of them are extremely sad because of them experiencing things that no one in this world should ever experience. Some of them, on the other hand, are kind of humorous while also being sad.
Such was my experience the other day. Every third Saturday of each month we have what we call a Family Day where we do a lot of sessions with families/guardians of the kids that we work with. This is the only Saturday that I have to work each month.
Anyway, so Saturday I met with this kid and his mom and her fiance' for the first time. I knew some of the history of this family, but not all of the details. Sometimes, I do a genogram (a glorified family tree) with the family to understand them better and find out about some of the important people in this kids life. As we were doing this this is what I found out. Mom's first marriage ended in a divorce. Shortly thereafter she got married again. Not very remarkable until you discover that she married her ex-husbands sister's ex-husband (her former brother-in-law). She was married to this guy for a while and then divorced him. Who is she currently living with and engaged to? Her most recent ex-husband's brother (yes, another brother-in-law). So, in short, she's married her brother-in-law twice. How does this work out for the kid (my client). Twice, his uncle has become his step-dad and his step-dad has become his uncle. There are more juicy details in other areas of this family of course, but they require more detailed and confusing explanations. The family seemed to know on their own that this was pretty messed up and/or weird at the least.
So, to make this a little more clear, here is an example. This is like Mary, my wife, divorcing me and marrying my sister's, Rebecca's, husband, Chris. Then, after being married to Chris for a little while, she might marry, or at least be engaged to, either Dougie or Mike (my vote is with Dougie). Yeah, pretty crazy!
Suffice it to say, it was hard not to laugh!

Praying Mantis

A few weeks ago we caught a Praying Mantis. Those things are sweet. It looked like it was pregnant as it had such a large abdomen (we later found out it was just full). It's a good size one too. Anyway, as is our typical routine when we catch something in the yard, we kept it for a day and then let it go. We caught it in the lavender bushes we have in front of our house and that's where we released it. It's been in the same general bush for the last couple of weeks and the kids enjoy checking on it when we come and go. It's probably the closest thing that we've had for a pet (sad, I know). One cute thing that Sarah said when we had caught the Praying Mantis and were looking at it: "Do you think a bug knows it's a bug?" Great question and pretty cute!


A couple of days after my cousin posted about a leaf-bug Mary caught one that was hanging out on our rear sliding door. It was so cool because we had never really seen one and then my cousin posted about it and then we caught one. Cool. Again, we had it for a day and then let it go in the backyard. (We thought we took pics but couldn't find 'em so we stole this one from my cousin)
Then, just a couple of days ago when Mary was coming in the house as usual they checked on our Praying Mantis who had recently caught a nourishing snack: a Leaf Bug. The gory pic is above (but you have to look close to see that it's eating and to see the victim with all the green around!) and if you pay enough attention you can see that he's in the process of devouring the thing... head first of course. We promise we didn't feed the Leaf Bug to the Praying Mantis... but it was a pretty funny coincidence. Be careful it's a bug eat bug world out there!

Three Jobs

So I'm ridiculously behind in blogging due to a week-long vacation in McCall (yes it was wonderful and yes I hope to blog about it soon!), but this is one I've been wanting to do for a while.

I've decided that I've had quite a diversity of jobs in my brief "career". Though, like most people, I have had a decent number of jobs, I will focus on three that underscore the range of my jobs.

1) My first job after my mission was at a place in Bellevue, WA called "Fox's Spy Outlet". Yeah, it was a spy shop, kind of a little hobby store and most of our traffic came from curious businessmen on their lunch break. Though we got a few sketchy characters in there occasionally. I was typically alone in the store and ran it by myself. And because business was SO SLOW typically, I did two things: read and watch re-runs of the Cosby show. Even though I had served a mission and enjoyed really reading the scriptures... I developed a LOVE for reading during my 6+ months I worked there. I started the "Work and Glory" series, and completed a good list of other books that I hadn't had time to read/study on my mission. Three highlights from doing the actual job: letting two guys experience being tased at their request and watching their knees buckle (that was pretty funny!), being able to shoot one of those launching wires tazer things at a poster and watching the shocks spread down the wires and then all over the wall (I felt real cool) and lastly: I sprayed some pepper spray in the front of the store just before closing (I was bored at times and tired of reading) and then went in the back of the store to do some closing paperwork. When I came out ten minutes later I was surprised when I started gagging and my eyes started running and my throat was on fire. I couldn't believe that the stuff was still in the air and that it was that potent still after ten minutes. I hope I (and you) never have to experience pepper spray again!

2. Just before I got married I took a job with David's Bridal and spent 2.5 years working for them in the bridal gown industry (primarily dresses). For most of my employment there I was the only male that worked there.... when people asked what I did my response (if I wasn't very comfortable in my manhood) was that I was a "shipping receiving manager at a local retail store". I did enjoy my job for the most part, though it was often really busy, especially during "Bridal Christmas" (Jan 1st - April... but it seemed to continue into the summer). I know all about A-line dresses, fancily-named-colors, and everything from bustles to boustiere's to bridesmaids gowns. The job allowed me to work full-time while completing most of my undergraduate studies. It also had great benefits. It was an interesting job, but it felt like I was undergoing estrogen therapy the whole time!

3) For the last year I have worked for Three Springs, Inc here in Idaho and serve male teens with Sexual Behavior Problems. Although in some ways it's a difficult population to work with, I really enjoy my job and the work that I do and the change that I get to see with juveniles and their families. It has allowed such a diversity of work, which I really enjoy (running groups, family sessions, individual sessions; coordinating treatment with education, behavioral, medical and psychiatric staff; and interfacing with state agencies).

Anyway... these are some pretty diverse workplaces in the last 7 years! Oh yeah, and Mary and I were Landlord's for 3.5 years!

I would love to hear about your three craziest, strangest jobs.

GROSS!

So while I was helping Sarah tonight for her bedtime routine, she informed me that the soap dispenser in the bathroom was out of soap. So I got her a little soap squeezed out of the dispenser and proceeded to fill it up with soap. Just as I finished that Sarah needed help getting toothpaste on her toothbrush, which I proceeded to also do. I then noticed I got some on my finger and licked it off. At about the same moment my touch touched the substance on my finger I realized in my head that it was soap not kids toothepaste (which is pretty yummy). My tastebuds registered the distaste shortly thereafter and Sarah was real curious why I was spitting in the sink. She was even more curious after my explanation, stating "Daddy, why did you eat the soap, that's icky?" Thanks for the support kiddo!

I think I had forgotten (repressed, maybe?) that I may have had my mouth washed out with soap at one point in my childhood. I'll have to consult my mom or dad to confirm that though. Anyway, it was gross, but fortunately it wasn't very much (this time I mean), so the tast left quickly.

Whodathunkit?

According to the Mountain Home News, we will be hosting the Idaho State Chili Championships on July 26th! Pretty cool... the article goes on to state that there are some prominent local members of the International Chili Society (ICS) here in Mtn Home. In fact, Barbara May and her husband are both "Grand Masters" in the ICS and Barbara is the current ICS World Salsa Champion (Salsa is one of the categories in the ICS cookoffs). Anyway, it made the news here so it must be a big deal! Book your reservations now!

Funny Random Anecdote from Mary!

Tonight, as I was sitting here at the computer beginning a blogging session, Mary was sitting behind me rocking Jane to sleep and studying for her lesson on Sunday (always the multi-tasker!). She had just asked me what I was going to blog about and I wasn't sure where I would begin so I said "I don't know". Then, a couple seconds later, out of nowhere, comes this statement: "You know, it really is amazing how much Jane's poopy diapers smell like the really buttery movie theatre popcorn."

Nice!

Yes, I Do Totally LOVE Casserolish Foods!

As has been mentioned in a recent comment somewhere on someone's blog (Leah's I think) from my sister, I am a total casserole person, through and through. Give me a meal and I will likely eat it. Leave several random items in the fridge as leftovers and I will figure out how to combine them. I mix foods and I always think they taste better together (just like the Jack Johnson song, Better Together, or something like that). Case in point: some leftover salmon from dinner two nights before and some leftover Quinoa from breakfast 2-3 days before. Put the two together, add two over-easy fried eggs, some salt, Coconut Oil, Braggs Amino Acids and viola, a breakfast made in my heaven. Here's a pic below if you don't believe me. I just woke up, peeked in the fridge and everything fell in place like it was meant to be. It was delish, and I may never have it again in the future, but hopefully I will. It was a serendipitous moment!

I LOVE How Kids Think!

So on Sunday we were getting dinner going. Sarah was helping me cut some veggies and then frying them up. Then Mary started to get into the dreaded cutting of the onion. It was a pretty potent onion and Sarah wanted to help with that as well. So she went over and stood next to Mary while she went about the task, quickly. Mary finished and Sarah was complaining of the onion being "spicy" and hurting her eyes. She went away rubbing her eyes with her hands as Mary was saying "hurry and go wash your hands and don't touch your eyes!" Sarah emerged a few minutes later after washing her hands and looked like this...

.... so we naturally had to take a picture! Her response to our open-ended inquiry about why she had the glasses (we already were laughing and had an idea!!): "For the onions mom!" (with a "Duh" look on her face) Looks like the onions got the best of Mary!

But here's the funny thing. I was looking for a funny picture on Google Images to put to fill the gap that I wanted between the above text and the picture and when I searched for "onion eyes" it came up with, among other things, these:


They're called the "Onion Action Goggles" which apparently protect your eyes from the toxic vapors. Pretty funny that they actually have these out there and Sarah came out of her room with something similar. Who knew?

Fillin' Drawers

The other night, I was helping Sarah and Nathan brush their teeth while Mary was in Nathan's room putting laundry away. As I was walking out of the bathroom I heard some rear-end emissions coming from Jane's direction in the living room. I said "Whoaaaaa, Jane is really filling her drawers!". To which Sarah replied "No Daddy! Mommy's filling the drawers." And I looked over and realized that Sarah had seen Mary putting some of Nathan's clothes away in his dresser drawers. It was a funny, coincidental play on words that Sarah had caught. I laughed at that one for a while. And I had to explain to Mary (who had overheard the whole conversation) what Sarah had heard and seen and why she interpreted it that way. As adults, we use sayings where our intended meaning has a vague (at-best) connection to the literal meaning of something. But when I made my statement, Mary's mind interpreted my intended meaning without thinking about the literal meaning of what I said while Sarah understood only the literal meaning. If I hadn't seen what Mary was doing at nearly the exact moment that Sarah corrected me, I probably wouldn't have caught on either. I thought this was pretty funny! Sorry I couldn't find a good pic on Google images to fit this post.

Ode to my cool hair days

Seriously, I've had some cool hair in my days... now, not so much (hair or coolness)! Below are a couple of old pictures of my cool hair days, in addition to my blog profile pic. The first is of me and Odie in bed cuddling for a picture. This 'do was pretty cool because it was obviously long, curly, and luscious on top and completely shaved on the sides and around the back. I promise this wasn't a mullet... to my knowledge I never had one, but this ones pretty rad!


I think this above pic (taken at McCall while playing baseball at the family reunion) is when my hair was it's longest... to about my bottom lip. I think that Mary would let me grow it this long if it was still this curly and I didn't have the balding situation goin' on. I think there are some other pics floating somewhere in the memoirs of this good hair era for me, but I don't have any digital copies of them. This was probably in my hair (and tan) prime! This was some way cool hair!

This is a cool 'do as well and a total cute pic, if I do say so myself. Does anyone see resemblances between this pic of me and Nathan? I drew this picture of my earlier self in H.S. and gave it to my folks for some holiday or something and they still have it in their room, which makes me feel special... even if it wasn't a very good rendition of the pic. Anyway, I think this is cool hair, and even cooler cuz it's back in style nowadays... I'd love to grow Nathan's hair to this length but I'm sure it was unruly!

Streak Ended :*(

My "Weak Week Running Streak" ended this week... after five good weeks. With my class starting on Monday and running 'til 10 pm, I wasn't going to run on Monday AM and didn't feel up to it on Tues. I wanted to run on Wed but we got snow and I didn't want to run in that kind of weather and I wasn't feeling great on Wed. Thursday I was feeling a little better but I was planning and greatly looking forward to playing b-ball that evening at the church. Well, that did me in... we played 3-on-3 full court and I was thoroughly spent by the end of the evening. I think I definitely overextended myself and was too sore to go running on Friday and started feeling really sick Fri evening and that has run into the present moment. Oh well, I will try to start a new "Weak Week Streak" this week. I have lost 14 lbs. over the last 7 weeks, which is pretty cool.

Streak Running

Okay, now don't get the wrong idea or anything about the title of this post. I read an article on ESPN.com recently (coincidentally I could start a lot of conversations this way) about streak running, which is people that run every single day.... for years... decades even. The guy pictured above and at right has been running every day since Jan 1st, 1975. His names Robert Kraft, but you can just call him the "Raven". You can look at the active list of Streak Runners through the United States Running Streak Association, Inc. The guy at the top of the list has run every day for like 39.5 years (over 14,000 day)! Raven isn't even in the top 10! That's just crazy!

Anyway, I started my own streak recently, though I don't think I'll qualify for any list of any sort. I now have a streak of running two consecutive weeks (I ran last Saturday and this morning). One might call this a "Weak Week Running Streak". Sure, 14,000 days is a lot, but if we're counting just the weeks, that's only 2,000 weeks, so I'm like 1/1000th of the way there! Plus if I say that the only people that can be a part of this club had to start their streak after me, then I'll be unstoppable... if I keep this up... which is highly unlikely! We'll see if I can even make it to 5 weeks! Now I just need a cool nickname, short shorts, lame glasses, no young kids, and a long flowy mane. Mary will probably like this post as much as she liked the Evel Kneivel one! Oh, and it's true that I may have written this post solely for the purpose of getting a comment from my bro Jordan.

"Superman just doesn't die, right?"

Even thought the statement above is a little misplaced since the Christopher Reeves tragedy, it was said today by Billy Rundle, referring to his long time friend, Evel Knievel. "America's legendary daredevil" (according to the Smithsonian), Evel Knievel died today at the age of 69. A hero for some, an icon for others and just plain PSYCHO for the rest of us. Seriously, look at some of the videos on Youtube of this guy, he was crazy! He broke nearly 40 different bones in his career, and on one jump at Caesar's Palace in Vegas he cleared the 151 feet, but the crash landing put him in a coma for nearly a month. He tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in a jet propulsion motorcycle ("Skycycle") but had a malfunction which landed him in the canyon itself. He was pretty cool, though. He used to run a motorcycle dealership and would give discounts to guys that could beat him in armwrestling. "Over the Top", baby! This guy was crazy, but it's sad that he passed away today.