Automatic Ads

I was browsing the web and found the following - auto generated ad from Google. Google creates ads on web pages based on keywords for that page. Some companies like eBay have ads on google that take keywords and say they are for sale.

It usually is a good system, however, here is an ad I just saw - I guess it did get my attention! :)

Conceive For Sale
Low Priced Conceive Huge Selection!
ebay.com

Family Cruise Order

Hello everyone. Joe has decided that the 26th of February will be ok for our cruise. The details are we will fly out the 26th (Sat morning) and return on March 3rd (thurs evening). The cost per person will be ~ $1000. I will order both the airline tickets and our cruise tickets when people post on this blog and let me know that I should do so. For example, if Joe comments that he wants the tickets ordered, I will be able to order his and mine (sinse we will be rooming together). When Jen and Nae comment, I will order theirs (etc).

Please comment soon and I will do the final orders right away!

It's been a while!

Well, I haven't been too good at blogging lately and thought I would write a bit today. Everything has been pretty good. We have sure had a lot of rain. I believe it was last Wednesday when it rained all day and the news stated that the Utah area had not seen that much moisture in one day for 20 years. It was pretty cool. I loved it!

Joe has been working in my building many mornings and it has been fun to see him more often. It's fun to have him close and to chat as I pass by. It's so much fun to have him work here. I will miss him when he moves back to Idaho, but am also very excited. We had so much fun at school and in the Village. I really miss Idaho. Fun times.

Nothing big has changed in my life but it has been good. I am still working at the mental hospital and still love it. It is always a unique yet wonderful experience. You learn to ignore, or laugh a little and continue on. The individuals there are a lot of fun to work with for the most part. Sometimes you walk away feeling so good for the opportunity to serve and the next time you wonder if you are doing any good. I wouldn't give up this experience for anything though. We had Enrichment night last week and painted little pumpkins. It was sure interesting. Some were amazing artists. . . .and then let’s just say. . . .some take after me :) One lady in particular, painted her whole pumpkin bright pink. . .the whole thing! Another lady painted hers silver. It was a lot of fun. I wish they would allow us to take some pictures for them to keep in their rooms, but they will not allow us to. They are extremely concerned about confidentiality and protecting the patients which is understandable.

A couple weeks ago, a member of the Seventies, Elder Morrison, came to the hospital for a fireside on Mental Illness. I believe it was a multi-stake leadership meeting. It was full of Bishops and leadership in the church. It was very informative. It sure does help me to realize how mental illness is truly an illness just like physical illness. I might have already shared that with you, but I can't remember.

This last weekend, we had a Relief Society retreat. We stayed at one of the counselors homes and the Bishopric's wives gave a fireside and then we played games. It was a lot of fun. I ended up leaving at midnight and then just went back for breakfast the next morning :)

Saturday night, me, Jay, Jake, Joe and Julie went to a Bluegrass Fiddle Fest competition here in Provo. They had some pretty talented people! I love Bluegrass!

Well. . .there's my life in a nutshell for the past little while. Not too exciting but good!

Lost a tooth and program

The    Monday      befor      last       Monday     I      lost a  tooth.  It   was  the  top  snipper   on   the   left.   The     tooth  farey     left      more    money  then      the     two     teeth     then  last time.     The last      two     times      ther   were    two     cordrs,  but  this  time she  left  me $1.10.     Today    me    and     Johnathan     got    to   sing  in    the      program     at      church     today    and I    got    to   say    the    theme.     The    theme    is   obaing   Hevenly  Fathers    camamnens  and    foloing   Jesus  makes  my   family  be   happy.

 

                                                Love ya    family.

 

                                                         

                                                                 love, Aylee

Christmas Budget

Well, after much discussion, a Christmas budget was decided. The changes will not be as dramatic as was earlier proposed. The limits for the kids is $50 for the person they drew. The limits for the parents will be $30 + what Mom has already spent on supplies. If there is an error in this information or someone would like to comment on this, feel free to enter a comment.

Snowmobile Investment

Well, our excitement was put to rest Sunday at 6:00 pm when the bid ended for our snowmobiles. Jake and I were willing to bid up to $12,000 for them but when the bids surpassed our maximum, we had to decide if it was worth bidding higher. When the bids seemed to peak at $13,100 we talked about going for $13,200. We had almost decided to go higher when we refreshed the window at the last second and saw that a new bidder had taken the bid up to $15,656. That just shattered our dreams of being the very proud owners of 32 snowmobiles. I guess that it is kind of a relief too since we really didnt know where we were going to store them or how we were going to make 8-10 trips up to Park City and then up some steep mountain trails to the shop where they were being kept. It sure would have been a fun and exciting investment. I guess we will have to keep our eyes open for the next exciting deal to come along. Atleast now I know how much credit I am approved for. :)

Missionary Conspiracy Theory

In all of my life, I have never had the missionaries in my home. I
had always dreamed of having the missionaries over for dinner as a
youth. However, due to the fact that the missionaries only visited
Arbon once a year, and that most of the families in Arbon were LDS, we
never really had a chance. Then when I moved to Provo and realized
that there were two missionaries for two stakes comprising of about
10,000 people jointly, I knew my chances were minimal.

Well, on Sunday, my hopes were realized when the missionaries knocked
on our door. Well, they really weren't there to see us, they thought
we were a different family, but we told them that the Smarts were not
home, but they were welcome to come in for Amber had just taken some
cinnamon rolls out of the oven. We visited for about 15 minutes.
Jake, Joe and Jen were there also, so we had a good visit. After the
visit, I drove them to their next appointment.

Well, my joy was full, I was able to entertain missionaries in my
home. However, what to my surprise, last night, there was a knock at
the door - there were our two new missionaries again. I had no idea
why they were there, but we invited them in. It turns out that they
were wondering how to get in touch with Jake and Joe to find out about
when they play basketball. I guess the church has just rolled out a
new exercise program for the missionaries where they are supposed to
exercise until 7:30am. I gave them Jake's number. We were in the
middle of dinner, so we invited them to eat with us. They did so.
After dinner I then drove them to their next appointment.

Well, I was feeling pretty good that we were able to have the
missionaries in our home TWO times in the past week. I was still
happy in my heart in the evening. It just so happened that I was
helping Aylee take a bath. I guess the missionaries visits had caused
her to think also. She shared her ideas with me.

"Dad," she said, "Why do you think the missionaries came over to our
house again?"

To which I replied, "I don't know Aylee, but it was nice to have them."

She then shared me her thoughts, "I think they are trying to trick us."

I replied, a little less sure of myself, "Why do you think that?"

Aylee responded, "I think they are trying to teach us the gospel and
have us get baptized without us knowing it."

I quickly responded, "Hmm, well we already have the gospel and have
been baptized."

She replied, "Well, we do, but I am not baptized yet."

So, then our discussion turned to not needing to be baptized until you
are eight years old and the discussion soon drifted to other things.

As I left the bathroom to let Aylee finish her bath, I had to shake my
head and wonder...where did we get this girl!

Announcment: Primary Presentation

Ok, first of all, let me explain, this is just an FYI.  By reading this blog entry you are by no means obligated, coerced, solicited, petitioned, asked, assumed, or committed to act on the message of this blog - nor should you feel any sense of guilt, anger, retaliation, offense, or blame for any inaction to said blog entry...

 

Aylee and Johnathan will be having their Primary Presentation in our ward on October 24th.  We are excited to see them in the presentation along with the fact that it will be Johnathan's first primary presentation.

 

To finish this entry off...the fine print...

For documents and software available from this server, John Andersen does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed.

Christmas Idea

I was wondering if we might suggest a "smaller" christmas in lieu of our Family trip in February. Our expenses might get quite high during these months and a less expensive Christmas would help ease the financial stress (especially on Mom and Dad and John's family, since you bear most of the load for the gifts). In other words, I think it would be fun if we put a limit of what Mom and Dad could spend on each kid and what we spent on each other. Maybe $25 or something. It would also make it fun to see or creativity in how good a give we could buy (or make) w/ $25.

I don't believe anyone would feel bad, especially since we're going to spend our time in Cancun or the bahamas (etc) very soon. The trip would then essentially be part of our Christmas.

What do you guys think? It would sure ease the financial burden having these two big events so close to each other. More than that, though, I think it would be a blast to see how creative we could be in getting (or making) very good gifts for each other while only spending < $25.

Please blog your opinions of this ASAP in the comments section of this blog. This way we can see how everyone feels about this. Please be honest.

Last post was made by Jake

I wrote that from John's computer and forgot to log him out. Shantell was actually with me all night, not him ;)

A Fun Visitor

Yesterday I got a call from Shantell telling me that she was going to be passing Provo to goto Zions national park in southern Utah to do some hiking with her friends for the weekend. She just wanted to let me know that she was passing by and she wanted to say, "hi."

At 1:00 am, I got a phone call from her. I was still awake from watching BYU lose a game after fumbling 11 times. When I answered it was Shantell again. She said that their car started to lurch so they had to turn around and they made it back to one of thier friend's place in Orem before they had to stop. She wanted to know if I wanted to come over and visit. I did. It was fun to get together with her again. It has been over a month since I had seen her last.

Today she and her friends took a different car and are taking a modified hike and will return home to Logan tonight.

This is how I spent my friday night - I spent probably an hour trying to undo this padlock on our fence. It was a cheap, $4 padlock that we used on the gates of the fence. However, this one gelled up on us and we couldn't get it undone. I thought it would be a cinch to cut it off, but after hacksawing and then drilling, it took me a good hour. I even broke one of my drill bits - that didn't make me happy. But, despite my supportive wife's unbelief, the lock finally came off! :-) 

Familiy Vacation Plans

Well, I thought I would get you all up-to-date on the lastest developments of our family vacation. We thought we were sure on the California->Baja Mexico cruise but then changed our minds on that. We've talked to people that have said that the water is cold during that part of the year and that you need to have your jackets on if there is a breeze. This hardly sounded like the vacation that we had hoped for.

We did some more research and I found a cruise that departs New Orleans and goes to the Caribbean. This is a five day cruise and the weather should be perfect. It will be slightly more expensive ($900 - $1000, depending on excursions done, etc) but much more enjoyable.... and it's an extra day :).

Looking to even more options, John is currently looking at land cruises. I believe you fly to a hotel at an island and they provide all of the meals there and some entertainment. A couple of benefits of doing this is that John & Amber (and anyone else, for that matter) could leave a couple of days early if they needed to and we will have much more time on the beach. Plus, I believe many of the activities are ?free? whereas on the cruise you pay for activities when you're not on the ship.

John is currently researching the price for these. I'm going to guess that the land cruise will be close to the same $$ as our water cruise.

Please, post comments on this blog as to what your hopes are for this vacation. Do you want a cruise or a land cruise? When John gets more info, we will put the two side-by-side and make a decision. Whatever we do, we need to decide fast. Flight prices are already starting to increase for Feb 05 flights.

This is going to be fun!!!

Best Buddies 

Little Dates

Yesterday, Aylee had an early out day of school.  This means she was home by 1:30.  I went home for lunch and had a couple of pork chops with Amber while we waited for Aylee to come home.  When she got home I invited her to ride the motorcycle with me to Novell and spend the rest of the day at work with me.  She was excited, so we headed off to the great and spacious building.  We had a good time together.  I sat her at her own desk in my office and let her do her homework.  We went and visited Jake and then popped some popcorn together.  Amber also sent some snacks with us. I was still able to get my work done and Aylee worked on a picture and put together a pretty tough puzzle.  It was a great little date we had together.

 

Later that evening, Aliece and I went to WalMart for our date.  We did the grocery shopping for the entire month of October.  Man, we had that cart loaded.  She actually had a good time and didn't cry or scream once!  Of course, Amber had given me some M&M minis, so I would sneak her some here and there.  She is still waiting on her motorcycle ride, though.  We'll have to go on one in a day or two.

 

Today, I took Johnathan with me to a Mutual activity.  He and I rode the motorcycle to a Provo park where our youth were ripping out flowers in the flowerbed.  He really liked being able to pull the flowers and not just the weeds.  Of course Johnathan got a lot of attention by all the others there.  He then had two donuts and two glasses of apple juice - I am suprised he is not sick to his stomache.  He thought it was great though.

 

And, as I have been sitting here typing in this blog, Alayna and I have been having our "Date" - she is sitting on my knee as I bounce her and type at the same time. :-)

Update

Conference weekend was a lot of fun. I missed you all like crazy, but, it turned out alright. I went to Ryan Littlefords house to meet his mom, his sisters and a bunch of his friends. It was fun, however, it was extremely overwhelming. I am not sure if it helped our relationship or hurt it. Because while we were gone I thought it helped a ton; but, now that we are back I keep trying to find excuses to not hang out for very long. :s (thats bad I know) so we will see.
School is going really good. I am loving my classes. I have a lot of really hard classes this semester, it keeps me on my toes. I had 4 tests, 3 papers and a big worksheet that I had to do last week, and I only have classes the first four days of the week. So that was a lot to do in four days! Well I love you all and will talk to you all later!

Explanation :)

Ok. . . so I'm not as smart as the average blogger. I can't seem to get mine to post on the first try or something! I didn't know it would add to my stats twice. . . .but hey. . . .that's a great idea! I think I'm finally getting this thing down.

Well. . .my week hasn't been that exciting yet but it's only Wednesday. I went to a training last night at the mental hospital on mental illness. Alexander Morrison, a member of the first quorum of the seventies, spoke and it was really good. There were quite a few people there. Some patients, past patients, bishops in the area, and family of people who struggle with mental illness. I sure thought I understood a lot more from the opportunity I've had to serve at the hospital, but I've realized there is so much I don't know or understand. It sure is interesting. Elder Morrison really focused on Mental Illness being a real illness. One statement he made that really made me think was "You never tell a person with a mental illness to 'show a little backbone', 'just get on with your life' or 'try a little harder'". He said would you tell a person with cancer to 'show a little backbone' etc?? He said it is the same as a person struggling with a physical illness. Anyway. . .it was very interesting and a good opportunity to learn a little more.

60 Miles

I have been riding my bike to work everyday. It is a bit cold in the mornings but I manage. I now have about 60 miles on my bike. I would have more, but Nu Skin is so close to where we live that I dont rack up too many miles.

Everybody keeps asking me if the blue bike is mine. They always tell me that they were looking at it trying to figure out what brand it is. It is a lot of fun to ride to work though. It worries me that one day the kick stand will fall off and my bike will fall over while it is parked in the parking terrace. I just know that something like that is inevitably going to happen.

The VP for the labs wants me to go out riding with him. He goes out riding a lot and he knows some good places to ride. He has a 2004 Kawasaki 650 dirt bike and when he parks his bike next to mine, it (mine) looks tiny. My bike looks really cool and nice and that is what everybody thinks, but I would be embarassed to take it riding with the VP because my bike is really wussy. I still need to get it adjusted correctly. But it sure is a lot of fun.

Ummmmm, No.

Aliece called me at work today. She likes to do that once in a while
with her mom's help. Anyway, we talked for a few minutes and she was
telling me about her day. She mentioned that she had been playing
with toys, playing outside, playing with Johnathan, etc.

Upon further conversation, she added....and I had some of Mom's water
out of her mug. I interjected, "Oh, oh, did you get in trouble?"

Her reply, "No."

Knowing something was up, and then queried, "Does Mom know you drank
out of her mug?"

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line and then, Aliece
replied, "Ummmmmmmm.....No."

I didn't have the heart to tell Amber, so I guess she will just have
to find out when she reads this blog entry :-)

The moral of the story....It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to
ask permission. But it is even better never to let anyone know in the
first place.

Padding the Stats

I didn't notice this before, but I was just looking at the blog and I noticed that Jenny is trying to pad her stats by submitting her posts twice. Let's play fair, Jen ;)

Peaceful Slumber

Well. . . I got to work today and people were asking me if I had heard the shooting last night. I didn't know what they were talking about so one of my co-workers sent me a news clip. It's crazy! It's weird how things like this can happen in your own neighborhood. And of course, I was sound asleep in my bed and didn't hear a thing! :)

Check it out:
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=123112

Peaceful Slumber

Well. . . I got to work today and people were asking me if I had heard the shooting last night. I didn't know what they were talking about so one of my co-workers sent me a news clip. It's crazy! It's weird how things like this can happen in your own neighborhood. And of course, I was sound asleep in my bed and didn't hear a thing! :)

Check it out:
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=123112

Don't Drink and Drive!

Well, multi-tasking isn't always the best. I prepared my breakfast drink Tuesday morning of last week and was headed out the door to work at about 8:10. I got in the car, put my drink in the cup holder and began to head to work. My drink must not have been settled very well in the cup holder, and low and behold, it tipped over and spilled everywhere! I calmly put my car in reverse and pulled back in. My breakfast drink was made of milk and I was quite concerned about the smell it might leave. It wasn't a big area, but I scrubbed the carpets for about half and hour to try to get it all out. I think I did pretty good, but didn't want to take any chances so I took it in to get the carpets cleaned after work. I took my car to John and Amber's that night and left it in their garage to air out through the night. It finally dried after a few days and so far I don't smell a thing!

I guess that's the way to get your carpets cleaned!