Unexpected Stop

Our family headed up to Spokane to join the crew on Wednesday, Dec 28. It was rainy pretty much the whole way, so it made the roads even worse for seeing clearly. It was about 10PM and we were about 15 miles west of Missoula. As we came around a corner I noticed a couple of clumps of something in the road. I didn't want to take the chance of sliding on black ice by swerving, so I opted to hit one of the debris.

As soon as we hit the object we heard air bursting out of the front driver's tire. We slowed and pulled off to the side of the road and sure enough, our tire was as flat as could be.

I got out and changed the tire in the misty rain while passers-by sprayed even more water on my backside as I leaned over to work on our third flat tire for the year. I got the donut tire on and after about 20 cold minutes we were on our way again.

I didn't dare take the van through the two mountain passes on the 180 mile stretch that stood between us and our Washington destination. We also discovered from all of our tire information pamphlets in the jockey box that there was a Big-O tire store in Missoula. We had purchased the tire from Big-O and hoped that it would be under warranty.

Once we got to Missoula, we drove around to try to find a hotel we could afford. We were discouraged by the 70+ dollar price tag on the first hotel, but were elated when Holiday Inn said they were having a special for just under $50.00.

We bedded the family down in the hotel room and tried to get some sleep. Amber and I struggled to get much sleep since our adrenelin has been running in overdrive from the flat tire. But, we eventually fell asleep.

I got up about 6:30 and headed to the nearest Big-O tire store. They opened up the doors about 15 minutes early for me so our tire was replaced at no cost by 7:10AM.

I picked up some breakfast food and headed back to the Hotel. Everyone was still sound asleep, so I whispered to Amber to call me on my cell phone when they were up and we would get ready to go.

I did some odds and ends for a few minutes, but then decided to do a litle geocaching in Missoula while I waited for the crew to return to conciousness. I got a couple of caches in and became a lot more familiar with Missoula than I had ever been.

The unexpected stop in Missoula went well overall, and by the time we were getting in the van and heading out to Spokane everyone was in good spirits and ready for the short three hour segment that would bring us to our destination.

Cory Don Andersen

Troy and Linda had their baby on Christmas day. His name is Cory Don Andersen. He sure looks like a little tike when then placed him in this Christmas stocking.

Finally been accepted!

Well it looks like after two and a half months I've finally been accepted into the family, I've now been given an account in the family blog. Thanks John for sending me an invitation.

We really enjoyed being in Arbon for the Christmas holliday and spending time with all of you; it was sure hard to break away and come home yesterday. We kept saying "if we could only stay one more day"; Jen could have, but I didn't think I should since this will be my last week of Junk. So we made the hard trip back through the snow and rain and icy roads (with the piano in back), the whole time dreading going to work the next day. This morning I woke up at 4:30am got on the bus, then trax, then the bus, then walked to a junk truck, then drove to the office, to get there in the nick of time at 8:00 only to find no one else there. When I called Grant (the new manager) he said they had already left to do the morning jobs, and that they would have waited for me but he didn't think I was going to be home until tomorrow...

We apreciate all you're love and support, and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Well, he came, just ask the wee ones at our house. With the help of a digital camera and a little photoshop, Santa Clause got his picture taken in our house on Christmas eve. The evidence was on the table on Christmas morning next to the crumbs on the plate the kids left for the Jolly old elf.

Life Stinks!

Aylee got the game of life from Jen and Dave for Christmas. They wanted to play me and mom. Of course at the beginning of the game, Johnathan declared,"Let's have Dad come play so that we can whip him." I thought I had life figured out, so I took on the challenge.

I hate the game of life. I chose to be an accountant, because Aylee beat me to the punch at being the computer specialist. Aylee earned 90,000 per year and got 50,000 every time someone spun the spinner off of it's track. I had just finished my USU Accounting class, so I felt that accounting would be a reasonable alternative. Not so!

My Accounting Salary was $20,000 - I was the lowest paid player of the game. By the time the game ended, Aylee ended with over 1.7 Million dollars with Amber and Johnathan trailing somewhat behind with over a Million dollars themselves. Me? I barely cleared all of my debts,lost money on my house, turned in my expensive insurance policies that did me no good the entire game, and sold my stock - yielding me a lean retirement of about $300,000.

What a dumb game! :-)

Sorry!

The game that Johnathan got for Christmas was "Sorry!" To my knowledge I don't think the kids have ever really played that game. We got it out and started playing on Saturday. The game was going well until the first Sorry! happened - I sorried Johnathan. As soon as he realized what happened, he broke out in his Bass pitched wailed and tears started just streaming down his face. He couldn't believe what I had just done to him.

Amber and I laughed about it and finally got him to understand the game. We did pretty well until Aylee got Sorried when she was close to getting into her "home" zone. Before we knew it, Aylee had her head buried into her hands as she non-chalantly prostrated herself on the edge of the table.

In the end, Aylee did win the game, thus renewing her enjoyment of the game. I never knew that the game was such an emotional roller coster. So whenever you're in town, and want a good laugh, come on over and invite our kids to play a round of Sorry! Who knows, you might be wiping away a sniffle or two yourself.

Oh man, Pretty, Pretty Princess Victor

I still need to get Jen and Dave back over this one. Jen and Dave drew our family's name for Christmas and had bought the children each a board game. They were leaving to Idaho and knew the kids would enjoy the games over the Christmas holiday, so they let them open the gifts on Thursday night before they left for Arbon.

Well on Christmas Eve, Amber was determined we would play all of the games they received. To my dismay, she also made us play Aliece's board game entitled, "Pretty, Pretty Princess". The object of the game is to go around the board winning different pieces of jewelry. The first person to get all the jewelry of their color wins the game.

Unfortunately, Johnathan was the winner of the game. And much to my disdain, Johnathan enjoyed his victory a little too much.

"Spirit of Christmas" Cache

On Christmas Eve, we decided we wanted to leave a geocache in Provo to reflect somewhat the spirit of Christmas. We made a geocache that was only full of blank business cards. On half of the cards we printed a specific task of service. On the other half, we printed lines so that people could write tasks of their own. The idea of the geocache is that instead of trading trinkets, people would take a task that they were willing to perform; they would them write down a task that they would leave in the cache for someone else to perform. All the tasks were to be service-oriented.

We had a little Christmas money left over, so just for fun we left a "First to Find" task that contained some money for someone to give to a needy family. We all had a great time hiding the cache - we are waiting for it to get approved so that it will appear on the internet for the Geocaching community to find. We're excited to see their reaction.

Soaked Sight See'rs

Last Monday the entire Andersen Clan gathered together and went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was a week before Christmas, and all through the square, not a dry spot was encountered there. It rained on us the entire time we were there. Needless to say, we had to break off from the rest of the group as when we started to notice the kids falling apart. By the time we got to the van, all of our kids were sobbing pitifully. Once we got in the van and cranked up the heat, our holiday spirits bolstered once again.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Aliece....Scissors....Hair....Need I say more?

The Passing of a Dear Friend

As many of you remember, I used to have a home teaching companion by the name of "Bud" Sprouse. He was an old farm boy from way back. He lived quite a lively life, and was always ready with a story from his youth. Over the past ten years or so, he has suffered from some damage to his lungs and has been on oxygen ever since.

Bud and Laurel have been steady company at our Fourth of July and Pioneer Day fireworks celebrations in our front yard.

This morning around 6:30AM, Bud passed away. He has not been doing well lately and they have been preparing for this. He was a good friend to many and will be missed.

Last year he and Laurel asked if I would conduct the funeral. The Bishop agreed to let me do so, and he will provide some closing remarks. The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday.

I know several of you have met him before, so I just wanted to pass this along.

How Geocaching Strengthened our Marriage

With school projects and finals all wrapping up, and the Christmas season with all it's activities in full swing, Amber and I have not been able to spend much time together. Earlier this week we decided to go out on a date for Friday night. The activity of choice was to go to a movie.

Amber wanted to see the new "Pride and Prejudice", but it was at the expensive theaters still. So, we settled on going to a move at the dollar theater instead.

When Friday morning rolled around, I was up at about 6am getting ready for the day. While I was getting my socks on, I brought up my email and started reading my messages. I noticed that I got a geocache email notification that a new cache was hidden within five miles of my home. I get these notifications every few days or so and it is fun to ready about them and see where they are on the map.

As I read this one, I found that this person who placed the cache had a prize in there for the first person to find their cache. The prize was two movie tickets to the expensive theater. My heart started pumping, and I knew that this was a sign that Amber and I could still go to the movie she wanted. I hurridly grabbed some clothes and kissed Amber and took off. The cache was on my way to work, so I thought I would swing by and snag it and then get to work.

I arrived at the location and took about three minutes to find the small green geocaching container. The morning was pretty frigid, so I took it back to the car to open it. I opened the container and sure enough, I was the first person to find it - there lay the movie gift card. I was elated!! Our evening was saved, due to geocaching! I wrote a thank you note in the cache and left a little Novell pin. I stashed the cache back under the bush where it was placed and headed off to work to brag to my coworkers about my quick find.

Amber and I ended up going to the expensive theater last night and enjoyed the two hour filmed love story. I knew that GPS unit would come in handy!

The Sky Is Falling!

Star light star bright,
First star I see tonight.
You're up so high,
O're my head
But I still see you
From my bed!

Early this morning at 2 AM, Shantell woke me up to tell me she just felt a drip of water. I decided to get up to turn on the light and as I was doing so, my hand went down to feel a wet bed. Oh, boy. When I turned on the light I saw something that made my heart drop. I saw a couple of paint bubbles, the size of golf balls, hanging on the ceiling with water dripping out of the very bottom. Being 2 AM I figured that I'd have to wait until 8 or 9 to get anyone hear to look at it. So Shantell and I grabbed some blankets and slept in the living room.
Slept....I'm not sure that should be the word to use. I couldn't sleep all morning. I just kept thinking of how little money we had for something like this to happen. This was the MOST inopportune time. Then my thoughts turned to insurance. Luckily I bought insurance on the condo the month before Shantell and I were engaged, but I couldn't remember how much I had set the deductible to be. On our new house I had struggled on the decision of whether to have a $500 or $1000 deductible. I bought the policy with the $1000 deductible. I was really hoping that I hadn't been cheap when purchasing condo insurance. I got up at 4 AM and looked for my policy papers on the condo but could not find them. I tossed and turned until 7 AM when Shan got up and went to work.

At 8 AM I was finally able to call my Allstate insurance agent. They looked up my policy and to my surprise it had a $250 deductible. Wow! That was much better than I had thought. While I was on the phone with them explaining the damage that I was seeing, my ceiling in my bedroom came crashing down onto the bed along with all of the insulation. This insulation is not the orange/yellow kind in rolls. This looked more like popcorn sized balls of fiber glass. I knew Shan and I would be in for a long morning.

I skipped work for the day and monitored the emergency cleanup crews that worked on my house all morning. Half of my ceiling was completely removed in the master bedroom and part of the ceiling in my other room was removed and 3 industrial fans were placed in the rooms to dry them out. We then awaited for the insurance adjustor to arrive at 8:30pm to tell us the fate of our next two weeks.

When he arrived he told us what we had already been made aware earlier in the day. Our house wouldn't be repaired for 2 weeks due to the recent disaster demand in the area. We were told that if we found someone who could do the job (licensed or not) then Allstate would pay them. When the adjustor was there, the temperature was very cold due to no ceiling and all of the fans running. He told us to book a hotel and we'd be reimbursed. Shantell and I have booked 6 nights at the Sleep Inn close to Novell. It is a very nice budget hotel. I think if we had kids this would be a nightmare. However, we don't :), so we are having a lot of fun in our hotel.

As an added note: We are spending all of our evenings at our new home trying to get it ready for us to move in by the New Year. And to add a tad more complication to the mix, our renters for the condo are hoping to move their stuff in next Tuesday (5 days away). Yikes!

**I will add pictures to this blog at a later date.

A familiar face

While the Bishop and I were geocaching on Saturday with Johnathan and his daugther, he had mentioned to me that a woman at his work told him about her sister in law that would be moving into our ward from Seattle. He told me that according to his coworker, they would be attending our church this Sunday.

Well, Sunday had come and I had nearly forgotten what he had told me. However, as we were sitting on the stand waiting for the meetings to begin, I was scanning the congregation and saw a small family seated in the middle of the chapel - a couple with two little children. I thought to myself, that must be the new family.

As the meeting continued, my eyes kept falling on the husband in the family. Something about him was strangely familiar. As time passed my mind started to put a name to the face that my eyes kept focusing on. I kept telling myself, no, that is not very probable. However at the end of the meeting, I leaned over to the bishop and asked him in a whispered voice, "Who is that family sitting in the middle of the chapel?" He responded that he thought it was the new family. I then replied, "Your friend didn't happen to mention that he was a plumber did she". Suprised, he said, "Why, yes, I think she did." I said, I think that guy is from Idaho. Again, Bishop remembered, "Oh yes, I think she mentioned that to." I finished, "I know that guy, I dated his sister about ten years ago!"

Sure enough, Trevor Griffiths and his beautiful wife, Jill are the newest members of our ward. For those of you still not connecting two and two, it is Jessica Griffith's brother (Parents are Alan and Sheila in Chubbuck). When I had been dating her he was fresh out of high school doing an apprentisship in Plumbing. I guess he became a plumber, found his wife at LDS Business College and then moved to Seattle where they have been living for a few years.

When I walked off of the stand I went up to them and he had recognized me. He asked if I knew who he was, and I replied that I did, however, I couln't remember his first name. He told me and we talked a bit about his family. It should be fun to have them in our ward.

I remember laughing at Mom's luck of having one of her old boyfriends as our Stake President a few years back, I guess it is coming back around to me. It is funny how small this world can be!

What about me?

Yesterday Amber was sitting down doing something intense - she knew it because she found herself biting her fingernails. While she was in the process of masticating that nail, Aliece walked in and observed for a few seconds before asking, "Mom, when you are done with your's can you do mine also?"

I like that town!

As many of you know that Jake and Shantell have purchased a house in Provo. It is situated just a mile or so from Novell on the side of the hill.

Jake employed Aylee last night to pull staples out of the floor since he had just yanked out all of the carpet in the house. We were getting Aylee ready to go and help Jake when Aylee asked about their house. I was being a little bit funny and I said, "Yep! Jake and Shantell bought a big house on the hill. They are going to be living in Luxury!"

Thinking that Luxury was a city, Johnathan's face brightened up and he said in a hopeful voice, "Is Ashlee and Brett going to be moving there too?!?"

Geocaching with Johnathan

Johnathan and I spent a few hours together on a Geocaching date. We invited one of the neighbor girls that is in his class at school and her dad. I selected a bunch of caches near Alpine just north east of us by a few miles. Despite the cold weather we all had a great time. It was so cold that our pens were freezing up. It was almost dark before we decided to head back. The kids were having so much fun they didn't want to leave.

Aliece and Dad

On Saturday morning, Aliece and I had a bowling date. The bowling alley has a neat feature. You have set it to have rails come up for some players so that they can never get a gutter ball. The rail will go down for other players. So, Aliece got the rail and I didn't.



Man, it was a close game. Aliece got 101 and I think I got a 103. I started the game off well with a strike on my first bowl, but then I realized that my back was not going to be feeling that good if I kept bowling that intensely, so I had to let off a bit.

We had a good time. Our date consisted of bowling, ice cream at McDonalds and a shopping trip for Aliece to pick up an item at the dollar store for her secret friend in Preschool.

Amber and the Forgotten Carols

Amber has a visiting teacher that is currenlty performing in the "Forgotten Carols" play here in Provo. I guess it is a rendition of Michael McClean's "Forgotten Carols" book and music. His son recently made it all into a play. Her visiting teacher, who plays Constance, got us a couple of Complimentary tickets.

After my date with Aylee on Thursday, Amber and I headed off to the play in Provo. It was in a handsome theatre in Provo that neither one of us had been to. The play was incredible. I have been tired of the book and music for the forgotten carols, but the play was very good. Her friend did a great job of playing "Connie Lou".

Golfing with Aylee

On Thursday I had the chance to go out on a date with Aylee. She got a coupon for miniature golfing at Trafalga. So, she and I spent a couple of hours there. On the first nine holes, I blew her away. However, she smarted up and on the second set of holes she beat me by a point. She also got the only Hole-in-one of the game. Pretty savvy little girl when it comes to clubs and balls.

After golfing we spent some time on some of the arcade stuff. She let me whip her at Air Hockey so that I would feel better about myself.

A fine finish

Well, I have done it. I finished the Book of Mormon tonight, the last night of November. I spent most of the evening at the church for some youth activities. Once I got home, Amber went to practice duets with her duet group. My back was hurting, so I put off my evening tasks and homework and went into the family room with my scriptures. I lay of the couch and read by the light of the christmas tree decor with some soft christmas instrumental music in the background.

It was a treat to read about faith, miracles, humility, repentance, and coming unto Christ - these were all themes that I have been pondering in my life at this time. Mormon and Moroni applied those topics to such inspiring messages.

I am grateful for all the sacrifices that were made by those early American inhabitants who helped the Book of Mormon be written and compiled. I'm grateful for Joseph Smith's faith and strength in translating to book and bringing it to the world. I am grateful for a living Prophet who challenged me to read the book these past months. And most of all, I am grateful for the message about Christ that is contained within its many pages.

Trimming the Tree

On Sunday Nicole and put up her Christmas tree and decorated it. She did it in Blue and silver. It looked really nice. After we had put the lights on, the garland and all the ornaments and Angel, we started to clean up our mess. In the middle of cleaning, we looked up and her christmas tree started falling over. So we ran and grabbed it before it completely crashed to the floor. So I tightened the screws at base of the tree as far as they would go. Then we sat down to watch a movie. Again, the tree came crashing down and ornaments went everywhere. We tried and tried to make it stable but the trunk is really skinny and it just wont hold it up. So we had to put chairs around the tree so that it wouldnt fall over in the night. We still havent fixed the problem, and the tree with it's scattered ornaments and droopy lights and garland looks sort of mangled and pitful.

My Poor Car

On Sunday, Janae drove my car back to Pocatello where she had left her car. I just ford with Nicole. My car has been having problems lately, the same problems as last winter. If it is going slow or in low rpms, it will die on me. Well because of the icy and snowy roads, Janae had to go really slow. She left about 45 minutes before we did. Since she had to go so slow, my car kept dying on her. Nicole and I passed her out by Portneuf area. She could go a little ways and then it would die on her. I am pretty used to it since I drove with it all last year and this winter and I just thought that Janae didnt know how to coaxe it like I can. But later that night when I went to Nicole's house, it died on me all through town. The worst was going up hills. On one hill it kept dying on me and then I couldnt make it up the hill because I had to stop and it was so slick. There was a lot of traffic behind me. It was really embarassing. It reminded me of last winter when Jake took it to Logan to see Shan and beause of the traffic on the freeway, he had to drive slowly and it kept dying on him and lots of cars were behind him. Atleast it was in Arbon and not on the Freeway Nae. :)

No toilet will defy me again!

Well, it is always nice to come home after a long trip. However, one of the things I enjoy to do is relax on my throne and ponder the things that I have to get back to doing now that the vacation is up. This was a luxury, however, that was not afforded to me after this trip. We got home Sunday night at about 8:30pm. By 8:35pm, we had a plugged toilet. Upset about the toilet, and really wanting to exercise my ritual, I started plunging the toilet.

It was a stubborn job, but I was not going to let it beat me. I worked and worked that night. I spent two hours on the porcelain device to no avail. Man was not the victor in this battle. My back was killing me and I had a ripe blister on the palm of my hand - I had been beaten.

Not to worry, though, while the toilet may have had a peaceful slumber and a smirk of pride in it's stubbornness, I was thinking of my next strategy.

On Monday, I had my plan. After work, Jake and I went over to the Home Depot to see what weapon I could choose to conquer the enemy. There were an assortment of devices - one of which was a $50.00, six foot plumber's snake of the likes that even Tim the Toolman would be proud. I bought my tool and relished the moment when I could execute my attack.

Of course, by the time I got home, Amber had dinner ready, so my plans were postponed. Then it was time for FHE at which we decorated the Christmas tree. It was not until the kids were in bed that I had the freedom to do the deed. I reverently removed the weapon from it's packaging and got to work. In a matter of minutes, I had defeated my once formidable foe. And just to show all of its' kind who was boss, I attacked the other toilet also - just so it wouldn't get any ideas.

Well, now, our toilets have been humbled and my new Snake hangs prominently in our garage. If any of you come across a testy toilet, feel free to solicit my services!

Once there was a snow man

When we got home from Spokane Sunday night, we noticed that there was a little snow in the back yard - and well, I mean "a little". Despite the lack of the valued white resource, Aylee took some time yesterday to build the first snowman of the year.

Home is where the heart is. -- Pliny The Elder

There's no place like home for the holidays. This is more than just a poetic title to a Christmas song. This carries feelings of love, joy, and apprehension for the joys to come.

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays
'Cause no matter how far away your roam
If you long for the sunshine and a friendly gaze
For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home

With this blog, I would like to make three big announcements concerning our upcoming holidays.
FIRST: Shantell and I will be with the Oler family in Aspen Grove for Thanksgiving. You all probably already knew this.
SECOND (and very exciting): We will be HOME in Arbon Valley for (maybe the 23rd), Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning! We aren't yet sure of Shan's work schedule, so we don't know how long we'll be there for. We would like to stop by Shan's parent's place for a day or two so she can see her folks, but Christmas is with the Andersen clan :). This is conditional, however, on changing the bells traditional wakeup time to 9am.
THIRD (and also very exciting): We will be moving in to our new home on Slate Canyon Road in Provo!!! We just got the phone call today from the bank saying that the papers have gone through and that we will be able to proceed to the closing. We are hoping to be closed on the home sometime next week.

We have some decisions to make with the home, however. The carpet is in pretty good shape but it has lots of stains and I believe a slight pet smell. I am meeting with a carpet cleaner this evening to see if he thinks he can make it look (and smell) new again. If he can, we might just have our carpets cleaned. If he cannot, we will be replacing them.

We will also be repainting the entire interior of the home before moving in. This shouldn't be too terrible since we will probably just repaint it white again. The molding and walls are all white, so the taping should be minimal. Always more work than you think it will be, though. Anyone who would like to come to our aid will not be turned away ;). I'm hoping to get one of those Wagner power painters that spray onto the walls. We'll just paint the molding and the walls at the same time.

So, there you have it. "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays." With the Olers, with the Andersens, and with each other in our new home.

I know, I know...and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!

Well, the weather outside is [not so] frightful...

Saturday was actually a very gorgeous day. It was so nice, in fact that our neighbors were mowing their lawn. It sickens me to think this is our introduction to a 2006 winter. I hope we get a little something more here soon.

With the weather being so good, Amber and I decided that it was the perfect day to put up our Christmas lights. I was feeling pretty good about my back, so I stubbornly insisted on being the one to climb up on the roof to hang the lights on the eaves. As I got started we noticed a lot of our icicle lights were having some problems. They would not stay lit very well. At my insistance, Amber hopped in the van and ran to the store for some new lights. We decided to go with Red this year.

Adee came as we were half way through with the lights. It was fun to have her down. By then, my back was killing me and she took over helping Amber hang lights around doors and the garage, while I went to lie down.

That evening, one of our neighbors from Brazil had invited us earlier in the week to come to their house for a festive brasilian barbeque. Oh, it was divine - I think I ate a quarter of a cow while we were there. We had to leave a bit early, however, so that Amber and Adee could run to a wedding reception.

On Sunday, Amber made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner since we will be in Spokane the rest of this week. Adee stayed and ate with us along with Jake and Shantel. Oh, that food was good.

Aliece's Protege

Well, it looks as if our darling little Alayna has been getting some exclusive training from Aliece lately. On Saturday morning, Amber was wrapping Christmas gifts in our room while I was doing my accounting homework. Aliece had run out to get the mail for me. She came right back in and handed me the pile of junk mail and then ran off to play in the other room. After about five minutes or so, there was a knock at the door. Amber was busy, so I went to see who the visitor was.

Upon opening the door, I was surprised to see our neighbor, Karen. The surprise was not in seeing her at our door, but it was the what she was carrying that caught me off guard. She was holding Alayna. Karen kindly explained that she found Alayna in the middle of the street with nobody in our family outside. Turning a bit red with embarrassment and hoping she was not going to go home and call Child Protection Services, I thanked her profusely and snatched up the escapee. We had not been outside at all. The only thing we can think of is the possibility that Aliece left the door open as she ran to the mailbox and Alayna must have snuck out.

Cleaning out the Garden

The kids all helped Amber rip out all of the frozen plants from this year's garden. As you can tell from this picture, Aylee had a blast making sure all of the dead plants would fit in our garbage can.

We had counted on the garden being dead and worthless for the last three weeks or so. However, as they were removing the debris, Amber found more than a large box worth of tomatoes that were still good. What a treat!

Aylee's Choir Performs at Macey's

Aylee's school choir performed at Maceys on November 11. Amber plays the piano for the school choir. Normally students are not allowed into the choir until they are in something like the fourth grade. However, if they have family members in the choir, they can join it early. Since Amber plays for the choir, she falls in the "family" category, and thus Aylee is able to be part of the singing troupe.

Their performance at the Macey's grocery store had a Christmas theme to it. Man, they all did great.

Potty Mouth

---------- Parental Discretion Advised!!! ---------------
I was supposed to go to Pack Meeting tonight to do a little demonstration. However, by the time I got back from work, my back was starting to hurt really bad. Amber kindly whipped some stuff together so that she could do a similar presentation and headed off in my stead.

Well, here I was, thinking that Amber took off to give me a little R&R. I don't know why I expected that...

You all know how Aliece gets at times. Whenever she wants to sound important or be funny, she lets out a slew of "potty profantities" such as "poo", "pee", "stinky bum", etc. It is probably a 3 year old form of Turrets Syndrome. Being an older sister, Aliece must be having an influence on her little sister, Alayna. More about that in a minute.

Aliece needed to use the bathroom while I was cleaning up the kitchen and family room. She was supposed to be helping me, so I told her to hurry. Off she went. Of course, Aliece prefers our bathroom as opposed to the kids' bathroom. So, she was secluded from my sight for quite sometime. When I finally realized that I had not seen her for a while, I went into my bathroom to see a bunch of open containers on the bathroom sink, with Aliece rubbing lotions and other "Health and Beauty Aides" over her body. Alayna was in there with her, doing her own thing and appearing to be having a ball.

I got angry at Aliece for getting into Amber's things and sent her out of the bathroom. I took her over to her pile of books in the family room and instructed her on her task. Then I ran back to the bathroom to grab Alayna. When I got in there, Alayna had smears of brown all over her face and hands. Sure enough, I thought, there goes Amber's new mascara that she purchased this past week. I grabbed Alayna and sent her out, figuring I would clean her up before bed time. I knew there was a mess in the bathroom, but I figured I would clean that when the kids went to bed.

Well, I resumed my cleaning tasks, but found it hard with Alayna following me around, grabbing my leg, etc. I picked her up to go and take her to some toys, hoping that they might entertain her a bit longer. As I was walking to the toy closet, I started to wonder what Alayna had smeared all over her body - it was fairly aromatic. As I walked, I tried to think of the different concoctions stored in our bathroom that she could have gotten into. I would take another sniff and rule out one or two more items. Finally, I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew that smell. I ran into our bathroom and sure enough, there on the floor were sopping wet piles of toilet paper, a wet toilet seat where the toddler had been playing, and an unflushed toilet where Aliece had, just a few minutes ago, made a sizeable deposit. I looked around the bathroom, and yes, little brown piles lay on the floor and the rugs. Drying, dark smears on the walls and doors also provided evidence of Alayna's activities.

Well, I scrubbed her hands down along with her face and mouth. We got her in her pajamas and put her to bed. It will be a few days before I let that little girl give me wet, slobbery kisses, or let her put her hands in my mouth while we wrestle together.

So folks, Alayna appears to have joined the rest of our kids in the "potty mouth" stage, albeit a little prematurely - and much too literally.

The Lone Ranger

Still in the Halloween mood, Johnathan wanted to be the Lone Ranger again today. Since he could not wear a mask to the halloween activities on Halloween day, he decided today that he would make his own mask. He fashioned his mask out of construction paper, yarn, and scotch tape.

Did you vote?

Well as most of you know, today was Election Day. We had only three things on our ballot to vote on, so it wasn't too difficult. There are just some years though, when you aren't really too excited about either of the candidates running for an office. That was the case for me this year. Amber went and voted this morning on her way home from the dentist. I had tried to do it this morning, but they had moved the voting place. I showed up and no one was there. Amber set me straight when I got home. So, I grabbed Aylee and together we headed off to the elementary school to vote. Aylee was a good helper on the voting. She helped me put the card in the voting slot and I showed her the boxes that we were going to punch. Once they were all punched, Aylee took the ballot to the volunteer and put it in the box. We both received our "I Voted" stickers. It was a pretty quick, but fun little outing for us. It was Aylee's first time to see the voting process on election day.

This experience reminds me of the time when I was in elementary school - just a year or two older than Aylee, if I remember correctly. We were having an election. In Arbon, the votes were done at the elementary school. Our teacher, Mrs. Faler, must have done a good job teaching us about the election process and getting us excited about the campaign trail. I remember that at recess, on election day, I made a bunch of signs for one of the candidates that I thought should be the victor. I then proceeded to post the signs on the school doors and in the stairway where country folk were coming to vote. The signs stayed up for most of recess, but when the teacher realized what I was doing, my "Vote for Hansen!" signs were quickly taken down. Even today, I remember Mrs. Faler's supressed smile as she tried to explain to me that it was illegal for me to post those kinds of signs at a polling location.

The Wanderer

Aliece sure gave Amber some heartburn today. We all know that Aliece has two jobs, that of getting the mail and getting the newspaper. Well, today, Aliece asked Amber if she could go and get the mail. Amber told her that she could, so out the door she went. Well, after a few minutes, Amber realized that Aliece had not come back in the house. She looked out side to find Aliece in the yard with yet, another, lawn ornament. Of course Aliece had "no clue" where the ornament came from, so Amber enlisted Johnathan's opinion. He said that it looked like one that the next door neighbors have. So, Amber took Aliece over there to find out that it was not theirs. They started searching the neighborhood and soon found a house across the street and a few doors down. She talked to the owners and apologized and sent Aliece back home.

Well, Aliece turned up missing again later in the day. She was gone for quite some time. Amber finally had to get on her bike and start riding the neighborhood to find the girl. It was no use. I guess Aylee wound up finding Aliece in a cul-de-sac a block south or our street. Amber had been scared to death by this time. OF course, Aliece was not phased a bit - she knew where she was and there seemed to be no issue in her mind about having done anything wrong.

We are just wondering if it is medically OK to implant one of those RFID chips in Aliece. They allow you to use a little gadget that uses satellites to track down the precise location of the embedded chip. If any of you have the means to do so, that would be a great Christmas present!

Joseph II

Halloween is over and the ghosts and goblins have all gone home. However, this halloween seems to have left its mark on our family. Ever since we had the trick or treating activites and mounds of candy lying around the house, a MONSTER has been born. Little Alayna is seldom sweet anymore. She has discovered that she LOVES candy. She is hooked, folks. She stands by the refrigerator and yells and complains in the only way a nearly 15-month old can. We try to give her her drink from the fridge, only to find that she discards it in disgust. The cheese we give her gets tossed over the shoulder -- and still she stands there screaming. The only thing that calms our little monster down is to get the little candy basket from the top of the fridge and stick a sucker into her mouth.

This really is starting to remind me of another little candy snarf - Joseph Christian Andersen!

The Boys are Down

Johnathan and I had a bonding experience yesterday. I had went to lunch with Jake at his place yesterday. When I got back to work, I started to feel very ill. I had a cold sweat and started to get very light headed. Amber called me as I sat there dazed in front of my computer screen. We chatted for a few minutes and then said that Johnathan had just gotten home from school and had a fever and was not feeling very good. I told her that I was feeling the same way. Sure enough, ten minutes later, I knew that I couldn't stay at work anymore, so I headed home. Johnathan and I spent the rest of the night lying down, getting babied by Amber and puking our guts out.

It sure was a sight to see me vomit. With my back problem I cannot tense up anywhere in the lower half of my body without feeling intense pain. I would have to lie face down on the floor and extend my left leg out as much as I could and hold my body up off the ground a few inches with my right. Once I had the combination just right, I could load the contents of my stomache into the bowl on the kitchen floor. I guess you had to be there.

We were both feeling a little better today, but Johnathan started getting a fever again this afternoon. I have remained a little weak, but non-the-less I am doing a lot better.

One advantage of all of this, I stepped on the scale this morning and it read a mere 192!!! Wow, now I have not seen that scale reading for a loooong time. I am sure it will pop back up around 200 when I start feeling better, but it is fun to celebrate it non-the-less.

Movie Night

Amber and I were supposed to go on a date last night. However, yesterday when we were trying to determine what to do, we realized that with my back the way it is, we couldn't guarantee that I would be able to walk, ride, sit down, or stand up. Lately, the only position that has been comfortable is lying down. I am always better in the mornings so we decided to move our date to Saturday morning. So, instead, Amber ran off to run some of the family errands, and I stayed home with the kids for "Movie Night".

A few days ago I had checked a DVD from the library. It was "Spy Kids". When I told the kids what we were going to do, they got really excited and asked what we were going to watch. When I told them it was "Spy Kids", they were all pretty dejected. Aylee insisted that she wanted to watch an old TV episode of the "Lone Ranger", and Johnathan was crushed that we could not watch "Harry Potter 3". We have never seen "Spy Kids", so we didn't know what to expect. But, I persisted with the choice of DVD.

We had cheese sticks, pizza pockets, and (thanks to Amber) fresh homemade bread with butter (hmm). We spread a blanket out on the floor and watched the movie. Despite some scratches on the DVD causing some skipped scenes, the movie was a hit! The kids loved the movie and now are full-fledged "Spy Kid" fans.

So, in the next few days, if you talk to our kids and get confused by their terms of "Floop" and "Thumb-Thumbs", just roll your eyes and remember - Spy Kids Rule! (At least until we get the Star Wars III DVD) :-).

Thanks for celebrating 32 years

Mom and Dad...I wanted to follow up on Jen's blog yesterday. It means a lot to us kids that you are celebrating 32 years of marriage. You are both an example to all of us as we, at this time or in the future, work on marriages of our own. We know that it has not all been magic. There has been a lot of work, patience, love, stress, and joys throughout the years. 50 years may be the golden anniversary, but your marriage will always be Gold to us.

Thanks for being in love and staying in love.

We look forward to many more anniversarys for the two of you.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 32 years Mom and Dad! Wooohoo! Can ya believe it?

Time surely flies. . . even though I haven't been a part of your life for 32 years. . .I have been for 29 of them. Thinking of all the good times growing up and all the work and fun we've enjoyed together. It's been good.

I think I realize more and more as I grow older how blessed I am to have such wonderful and good parents who taught me well and always treated me with love and respect. It is a blessing that I am so grateful for.

Hope you two have a great anniversary and party it up!

Lots of love,
You're Daughter. . . . Jen

Survived another layoff

Over the past eight years of working here at Novell, I have experienced about six or seven company layoffs. Jake and I survived this one, once again. Our team took a fairly chunky hit of roughly 35% (in my calculations). We had had rumors for several months now, and were just waiting for it to happen. We did have to say goodbye to a lot of friends that will be missed. And now we move on and try to make up the work that would have been done by the others.

Halloween Cowboys, Indians, and Clowns

Well, we survived another All-Hallows-Eve this year and no one in the family fell over in a coma due to an overdose to sugar.

The festivities began with sending Aylee and Johnathan off to school in their costumes. Johnathan was the Lone Ranger - Amber did a great job painting the mask on Johnathan since they can't wear the dangerous accesories to school. Aylee, of course, was the faithful companion, Tonto. She sported the old Indian costume that I used to wear when I was her age. I believe Mom made it for me for an elementary school play or for halloween, I can't remember. They boarded the bus with out guns or tomahawks because those type of toy weapons are banned from our public education institutions.


Amber then proceeded to dress up Aliece and Alayna for the festive day. They were both excited to be colorful clowns - I suspect their excitement was heightened by the opportunity to have their hair colored Blue with some dyed hair spray Reed gave the kids a year or so ago for Christmas. Once dressed, Amber took the pair off to Macey's to run some errands. Maceys is a great family grocery store and had different stations for our clowns to trick or treat at during the shopping errand. They had a great time.

I came home around noon to work from home while Amber headed off to Aylee's school class to throw a Halloween bash for the second graders. Amber was in charge of the party and it sounds like it was a great success. She had prepared some 30 sugar cookies (no, not 300 - that is reserved for Christmas). She took them to school (although it is expressly prohibited to give school children anything that is homemade - what can I say - we're rebels) and had the kids frost and decorate the cookies. Sounds like it was a hit!

Once Amber got home, I headed back to work to help some people there and to get ready for the trick-or-treating rush at Novell. At precisely 4pm, the mob hit. Hundreds (or probably thousands) of little dressed up ghouls and goblins, Harry's and Hermiones, Fantastic Fours and Jedi, were combing the white-gray walls of our eight-story sanctuary. I gave out hundreds of wrapped smarties to the little guests and enjoyed making visits myself with our own dressed-up sugar-seekers.

After the candy reserves were depleted in my office, and our kids' halloween buckets were filled, we headed home to resume the pegan tradition at our base-camp (home). By this time, my back was really killing me, so I layed down on the floor and Amber took all the kids out trick or treating with the exception of Alayna, who was quite offended that she was not allowed to infiltrate the neighborhood with the other kids. As you can see in this picture, she mostly stood by the door the whole time wanted to haunt the neighborhood with the other partiers. However, she did enjoy opening the door every time the costumed capers would knock. Alayna entertained me however, as she quickly learned to hold out her hand and say, "chickocheat".

After our children returned home with their caches of candy, chocolate and treasures, Jen and Dave stopped by for a few minutes for a suprise visit to witness the foray for themselves. We had a nice visit with them and let the kids parade their custumes in front of them before we cleaned them up and sent them to their bedrooms for detoxification.

In the end, Amber and I were left with this amazing site. Mounds and buckets and piles of candy, wrappers, and processed sugar sitting there for the sole purpose of being ingested during the next 12 months by children who will bounce off the walls as their poor little bodies try to process the C12H22O11 sucrose compound.

Well, I hope your Halloween was just as successful as ours. Happy Halloween!

Jack-O-Children

On Saturday, we worked on carving our pumpkins. The kids got a little carried away, as you can see...

Alayna-O-Lantern

Aliece-O-Lantern

John-O-Lantern

Aylee-O-Lantern

I hope the rest of you show a little more restraint than our family did, and keep your heads on this halloween!

Not quite there

Well, Saturday has come and gone and now Sunday is here. I am losing a little hope in the Epidural injections for my back. I do walk a lot straighter now, which has been a great blessing. However, I do experience a lot of pain down in my leg - especially upon lifting, sitting, and bending. At night it is the worst of course and the only comfortable position is lying down. Looks like I might be calling the doctor on Monday to see if I can't schedule another shot.

Three strikes, and I am out though. I really hope this doesn't take me to the operating table. Argh!

Epidural

Today was the day I had long awaited for - only to find out there is another day that I need to await.

I went in to the hospital this morning at 8:15am. Amber dropped me off and was going to do some Joy School teaching while I was in the hospital. By 9:00 the doctor was in my room explaining the 10 minute procedure that they were going to do to my back. The procedure went well - I didn't feel much. I did learn that I have enough hair on my lower back to warrant an area shave.

The epidural injection contains two medicines. One is a numbing medicine that has kept my back and leg fairly pain free for the day, however, it is supposed to wear off by tonight. The other medicine was the cortizone-type injection that is supposed to reduce the inflamation in my back that could be pinching the nerves. That medicine doesn't start to kick in until Friday or Saturday, if at all. The doctor gave me an 80% chance that the shot will work for me. I really am hoping it will do the trick. However, I was kind of let down that no one told me that the medicine wouldn't kick in for a few days. So, now I am eagerly looking forward to Saturday to see really how well my body is going to do with these shots.

Keep me in your prayers!

Fathering...

While we were in Arbon for Grandma Mamie's funeral this weekend, Aliece was playing in the family room. Joe was in there with her. She started doing something that she wasn't supposed to be doing - like jumping on the couch or something like that. Joe told Aliece to stop doing that. Quick as a lick, Aliece turned on Joe and demanded, "Joe! Stop fathering me!"

I guess Joe got his first experience in "fathering". This is just one of the reasons I wonder if I should ever "father" again. :-)

Modification!

OK. . . so it's been a while since I've blogged and also a very long day. . . . . . .

I meant to say. . ."I'm MARRIED to David Richardson" . . . instead of . . . ."I'm not married to David Richardson. . . ."

Oh boy! ;)

Change is in the air!

Well Family! I haven't written on the blog for some time and thought it may just be about time to do so. Life for me has changed quite a bit these past few months and as you all know I'm now married to David Richardson! We compromised on the name-change though. He said since I'm changing my last name. . . .we could change the spelling of Richardson to "sen". I feel much better about that ;)

I'll write more and update on our wedding and honeymoon this week but also wanted to let you all know I have accepted a new position here at Nu Skin. I will now be a Benefits Specialist still working within the Human Resources department. I'm excited for the change and for the opportunity for new challenges and growth!

An official date has not yet been set for the change to take place but it sounds as if I will be working both for a while which will keep me pretty busy.

MRI Results

I have talked with the doctor about my MRI results. It appears that I do have a herniated disk in my lower back. I have been scheduled for a same-day surgery on 10/24 for an epidural injection into my spine to relieve the pain. I can have at most three of these shots over the next six months. If that doesn't help, it looks like it could lead to surgery.

I am ready for this pain to be gone, as it is affecting everything that I do. It is very frustrating not to be able to do anything active. Oh, to be 29 again!

Aylee going in for Tonsillectomy

Aylee is going into the hospital tomorrow (10/18) for a tonsillectomy. They will also take advantage of the opportunity to remove her adenoids. We are hoping this will allow her to sleep better and eliminate her snoring problem. She has been a bit nervous about the ordeal...getting as much information as she can about the procedure.

She goes in at 8:40am. The nurse told us to expect being there at the hospital for about four hours.

My Ford Ranger is Gone!

Well, it has happened. I have sold my pickup for $11,650. I am going to use that money to put toward a down payment on the new house. This is one of the only pieces of property that I have felt real attachment to.

Kyle, a 19 year old kid who looks like a gangster, is the one who bought the Ranger from me. As he drove out of my parking lot, I just knew that he would go off-roading with it and not treat it as good as I did. It was hard to see my baby go.

Today, I cashed the cashiers check into cash (long story of why I did that) and have now deposited it into my account. Somehow, seeing the cash in my hand made it a little easier for me to 'let go' of my beloved truck. I am riding my motorcycle around town until I can find a good deal on an old beater little pickup (preferably) or a little beater car. Once I can find a good deal on one, I will make the purchase. I see that there is an auction on Sat in Pocatello at 10am with lots of vehicles. I'm thinking of going to that. Know this, Jen, that I'll be thinking of you while I'm there :).

Runny Noses And Boogers

(Click on the picture to get a better view of this work of art)

Last night while I was working on some homework and Amber was cleaning the kitchen, Aliece was busy with an art project that was consuming all her attention and effort. She would occasionaly blurt out, "Look Dad!", as she held up her partly finished drawing. I would acknowledge her and she would go back to work.

When it was completed she ran over to Amber to show her the finished masterpiece. Amber asked what it was that she drew, and Aliece said, "Runny Noses and Boogers".

I guess the circles in the artwork are eyes and vertical lines are the noses with long horizontal lines being the mouth. All the dots are boogers and all the other lines are runny noses.

I personally, think the work and the title of it would rival any modern art that I have experienced myself. I think I might want to send it to the Gugenheim Art Museum in New York City for display before we try to sell it though - so that the entire world may enjoy our child's creativity, talent, and oh yes, personality.

My first MRI

As most of you may have heard, I have been suffering from a sciatic nerve problem for over four weeks now. I walk like a 90 year old man. Amber jokes around that I am trying to look like President Hinckley - however, he walks better than I do at this time.

I had talked to a lot of people about it and most said that when they have had it, or when someone they know has had it, it took them between one and two months to get feeling better.

Last Thursday, I finally broke down and went to the doctor. He gave me some really good pain medications. The first couple of days on the meds I was pretty looney. There are three different types of pills and each bottle lists immediate side affects which are: Drowsiness, Dizziness, Blurred Vision, and Liver Disease (if taken with Tylenol). I had a hard time being alert with those in my body, but now I have grown accustomed to them.

Anyway, the doctor scheduled an MRI for me for this Thursday. I have never had an MRI done, so this is going to be a first. I have heard many people tell me about this small tube they stick you in - Man, I can't wait.

I'll try to update you all as soon as I know the results. It has been hard having this back problem because I cannot run, bike, or do any other kind of exercise. Because of this, I have gained about six pounds. On Saturday, I enlisted myself into a strict diet. If I don't weight 202 in the morning, I don't get any treats and my eating is very restricted. This morning I was down to 203. Hopefully tomorrow I will be at 202 or lower.

What a wussy generation

Johnathan came home with a chant that he learned in kindergarten. It had a catching rhythm to it and I quite enjoyed hearing him recite it. However, as I listened to him perform a second and third time, I realized the tune was a familiar one to me. Do you all recal the little rhyme or song..."Going on a Lion Hunt?"

It goes something like this:

Going on a lion hunt,
I'm going on a lion hunt,
But I'm not scared,
I'm not scared.
I've got my gun by my side
I've got my gun by my side
and my bullets too
and my bullets too.

Well, the version he learned starts something like this:

I'm going on a bear hunt,
I'm going on a bear hunt.
But, I'm not scared
No, I'm not scared.
I got my lunch by my side
I got my lunch by my side
and my camera too
and my camera too.

I guess we are not supposed to hunt Lions, tigers or bears with guns and bullets now-a-days.

My biggest concern...what are the chances of a kid surviving a bear hunt with a smelly lunch and a useless camera?

I'll stick with the song the way I learned it.

The Little Bear song

Here is yet another song that Johnathan has learned in school - I thought it was fun.

The Little Bear Song

Wedding Part II: The Honeymoon

I know that many of you still feel as if I have died, but I have been very busy. I have a few blog topics that I have wanted to do but haven't gotten around to them yet. So, this may be reaching a little far back in time, but I think you'll find this interesting.

THE HONEYMOON:

As Shantell and I awoke at the Radisson Hotel, I looked at my cell phone and noticed that I had received a message. It was 6 am and we were in a hurry to get ready to go to the airport. When I heard the message, I about died. "Hello, Jacob. This is John Doe from Expedia.com. I am just calling to tell you that your cruise dates have changed." Right about there, my heart dropped. This couldn't be happening! I then listened to the rest, "Instead of a 7 day cruise, it will end one day early. I hope this doesn't mess up your plans. To compensate you, Carnival is giving you $100 per person refund and $50 per person ship credit." I felt relieved that our plans would remain the same for the most part.

We got to the airport and flew to Galveston, TX. I think many of you remember that I had had a cold during my wedding so I was worried about my ears on the flight. They hurt a little, but I did alright. We arrived in Galveston, got on the ship, and went to our cabin right away. We had a window room (that was nice). Otherwise, it was exactly the same as our rooms when we were on the Sensation. We were very tired from our late night the evening before (driving home from Idaho) and our early morning to goto the airport. So we just went to bed.

The ship was very similar to the Sensation. There were some differences, but the decks were named the same and the layouts were very similar. The light scheme was different (less Vegas style, more relaxed).

I don't remember, now, exactly what order the following events occurred, but there are some of the highlights of the cruise:

Gambling! Shantell and I tried our luck on Blackjack while we were onboard. There was a tournament that was going on where you could pay $20 and receive 1k worth of chips. I thought that this would be good for Shantell and I to get to play a lot on a real table, with a real dealer and play awhile without losing any money. We did this and I did VERY well. I came in 8th place overall and the top 7 went to a playoff! I was almost in! Oh, well, I guess I still haven't gotten over that yet.
We then paid $20 and I took 2 chips and she took 3. We played for about 5 mins, took our winnings and left. We cashed in $20 in winnings and had $25 left over. The next day we played a little more and more than doubled our money again! We cashed in $40 and kept $20 a piece in chips for each other. The following day we played for a long time and did very well again. We cashed in another $80 and kept $40 in chips total for us to play with on our last cruise day. Our last cruise day we lost that money in about 5 mins. However, we had cashed in around $150 from our $20 investment:) . We did very well and had a lot of fun.

SNORKLING: In Cozumel, we got of the ship and I found us a Mexican that would take us snorkling out at the coral reef. We went on a glass bottom boat with about 6 other people to the reef. We snorkeled most of the day. There were so many beautiful fish! I have learned that snorkeling out by the reef is the only way to go. The Mexicans took us to 5 different parts of the reef. We even got a picture taken of us underwater with the fish! They gave us Coke and we had a great time
That day was probably the best day of our cruise. However, it was cloudy outside and neither one of us put any sunscreen on our backs. Of course, when you snorkel, your back faces the sun pretty much all day. Our backs got burn very bad and hurt the rest of the trip. ;(

TOUR IN BELIZE: I was disappointed with Belize. I didn't think there was much to do at all. We did find a guy who took us around the country and he showed us a lot of places. Shantell wanted to see the orphanage so we went and played with the kids there. They were so fun that I wanted to bring one of them home :). There was a little boy there that jumped in my arms (I felt like it was against some rule for me to hold him). We dribbled a ball around and just played. I was very sad to see the poverty these kids were in at the orphanage. I really think this little boy wanted to come home with us. If we can't have kids, I might just adopt a kid from there.
Shan also wanted to meed our Belizian guide's family. So he took us home where we met his wife and kids. That was fun. He then showed us a little plot of ground that he is homesteading. I guess the country will let residents homestead a piece of ground. They have to build up the swampy soil with clay, and then build on it. It was very interesting.

There is so much more that happened. A lot of it I believe I'll put in my journal instead of here. This text would be too long to keep anyone's attention. I just wanted to let you know a little part of our honeymoon. It was really nice.

I See...

Amber spent most of the day today at various doctors' offices with Aylee and Aliece. This is a picture of Aylee after having returned from her Eye Appointment. They ran a series of tests on Aylee and determined she has near-perfect eyesight. Aylee has been suffering from headaches off and on and we wondered if it might be her eyesight. Due to these concerns they opted to dialate her eyes to check inside them. She got these cool sun glasses for it.

On the other side of things, Amber took Aliece and Aylee to an Ear, Throat, and Nose specialist. He said Aliece looks good and Aylee probably ought to have her tonsils removed - we are hoping that will solve her regular snoring problem.

January, February, March, April...

Johnathan sings the "Months of the Year" song. Although, he still calls them days of the week instead of months of the year. I fall for it every time. He says, Dad, what is the first day of the week? I say, Sunday. He emphatically demands that it is not, and so I say, Monday. He still insists it is not. So I proceed to go throught each of the days of the week, with the same response on Johnathan's end. Exasperated, I insist that those are the days of the week. Johnathan always replies that he wants me to tell him the first of the OTHER days of the week. Then, I realize what he is talking about - it is the months of the year, rather than the days of the week. So, I say January. He then breaks out into this song.

I Can Choose

Johnathan singing "I Can Choose"

I Survived!

Well, after numberless meals of cold cereal, hotdogs, hamburgers, cheese sticks, and a shamefull number of hours of television, we welcomed Amber after her week long stint in Vermont. She has finally returned home to bring peace and order to our week of chaos.

We may have survived the week ok, but there are three younguns and one guy that sure are glad to have Amber (and Alayna) home once again.

They looked good and seemed to have had a great time. Rumor has it Amber even went off on her own during her three hour layover in Boston riding subways and snapping pictures of Boston Harbor.

Thanks Ashlee, Brett, Elyvia, and Sammee for entertaining these two escapees. But, as Aliece stated yesterday, "Mom can't leave anymore" - well at least for a very long time!

Letter from Aylee to Johnathan

Aylee wrote this letter to Johnathan on the computer today...
Dear Johnathan,

I know my persen that I am going to spy on. Now lets not forgit that

I am spy capten.Is enything going right abowt spy stuf.Woud you like to here how I am going spy on?I am going to spy on mrs. Fair.I love you super

dopper much.

Love, Aylee

Jake & Shan Get Married!

(A little late, I know :) ) As you may well be aware now, Jake and Shentell are officially married! I thought that I would tell you all exactly how the day went. This blog is also for those who were not able to be part of the wedding and keep asking me how it went.
On Sat morning, I was a little bit sick with a cold as we headed into IF for our wedding breakfast. When we got to Denny's, we sat and ate some really good breakfast. Only immediate family and very close friends were there. We sat in a U shape with Shantell and I in the middle and our parents on either side of us.
Dad conducted the breakfast very well. He had each of us introduce ourselves and then say a small memory about the bride or groom. It was a lot of fun.
After this, we went to the temple and got married, took pictures, and talked with our invitees. Everyone left to get ready for the reception while Shantell and I decided that we needed to eat somewhere. We were alone and didn't have much time. We were also dressed. So we decided to eat our first meal as husband and wife at the temple cafeteria :). This is one of our favorite memories. We hadn't had time to be alone the entire day until now. We had great food and we could tell that the temple workers were staring at us. A couple of them even asked why our family wasn't able to make it to our marriage :). We had a good laugh about that. I don't think that it's often that a bride and groom are alone in the temple cafeteria right after their marriage. We really enjoyed it, though.
We then had our reception which I really enjoyed. I don't think most newlyweds enjoy the reception but Shantell and I loved it. The food was great, the company was wonderful, and everything just came together. Susan Oler did a magnificent job in all of this. As did everyone else who helped. Thank you all very much, we know that it wasn't an easy task.
One more thing to add.... After the reception, we drove to SLC and made it to our hotel by 10:30 (we drove pretty fast :) ). When we got there, was unpacked a little, and started to get ready for the night when I saw a framed engagement picture of Shan and I on the nightstand. I yelled out to Shantell who was in the other room, "honey, did you put this picture of us here?" She did not. Then I noticed on the desk there was a gift bag. The coworker who paid for our hotel had traveled to SL, figured out which room I had reserved, and placed those items there before we got there. We were both pretty suprised. We then checked around the room for any tape recorders or video equipment. I wouldn't put it past him :).
It was a wonderful wedding. I have not, however, received or seen any pics from the wedding yet so I have none to post except for one that is present on a blog from one of our visitors. I've downloaded that pic and posted it here.

So that's what Amber does at home when I am gone

I am working from home today to help out Amber if needed today. They all seem to be feeling better, but a little weak from last nights gastrointestinal activities. We let Aylee stay home from school today with the other kids just in case she is contagious or comes down with the bug.

Well, anyway, Amber has been lying on the bed and I have been working in our room on the computer. The kids have been in the family room watching TV. I started to hear an arguement in the family room. Aliece and Johnathan were yelling at Aylee that they didn't want to watch this show. After a few minutes of this, I went in to to calm things down. Just as I entered I caught Aylee saying, "just wait, it is a good show, you'll like it". I intervened and agreed with the younger kids on this one. Amber may allow this kind of TV viewing while I am at work, but when I am in the home, I put my foot down! While I am at home, the kids will not be seeing, "The Young and The Restless".

The Plague

What a long day! Our home has been infected by some sort of pink-vommiting plague. I was preparing for a training this afternoon. Amber gave me a call and we visited around 1:00 pm. My training started at 3:00pm. While I was giving the training I received a cell phone call. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, so I just quickly hit the silence button and continued on with the training. A few minutes later, Jake, who was also in the training, got a call on his cell phone. He walked out to take the call. A few minutes later he came back in and slipped a note in my hand. I stopped the presentation for just a few seconds as I read the note.
Well, I finished the training for the rest of the hour. When it was over, I gave her a call and she sounded terrible. She said that around 2:30 or 3:00 it hit her hard - without any real warning. She wanted me to come home and watch the kids so she could lie down.

I hung up the phone and immediately packed my things and headed home. By the time I got home, I found Aliece in the bathroom puking out her guts. This is the first time that she has vomitted that I can recall, and she was not enjoying the experience. Amber helped her get cleaned up and then laid down and I took my turn watching the kids. Aliece was very docile and laid on the couch for the rest of the night - moaning occasionally.

When Aliece would moan, I would grab an old bowl and try to give it to her. However, she must have thought that meant I "wanted" her to throw up. She would vehemently exclaim that she didn't want to do it. I would leave her alone until she would moan again. Once more I would run to her side with my trusty bowl. She, however, would freak out about "the bowl" that she would get up and run away from me. So, here I was with my bowl, running after Aliece all around the house while she would be yelling, "No!! I don't want to!! No!!"

By the time the vomit came again for Aliece however, she could not run and I was able to make it to her in time for the chunky-pink interception.

Aylee, Alayna, Johnathan and I ate our dinner while Aliece lay on the couch and Amber lay in our room.

Once it was bedtime, Johnathan started to complain of a upset stomach. We gave him a bowl just in case. Well, about an hour later, Johnathan started the cycle - to be repeated again yet another hour later.

Seeing as Alayna threw up today and a couple of days ago, it looks as if Aylee and I are the only survivors. It is after midnight, and as I type this, I wonder what is in store...Tomorrow are Aylee and I going to be grabbing "the bowl" for our own needs? Is this my last blog before the plague catches me too? Is it just a matter of time?

We'll all find out tomorrow (or, err... I guess today).

Ok...Maybe I jumped the gun

The subscription service sure looked like a great idea, but it doesn't seem to be working. Let's put it on hold for now. I'll announce it when it looks like it is working.

Subscription service

I receive requests from people all of the time to see our blog. Since it is available to all the world as a website, I thought it would be cool to be able to have people sign up for notifications when we post a new article on the blog.

To facilitate this, I have added a Subscription Service on the blog site such that anyone can subscribe to the blog so that they can get an email notification when the blog changes. They still do not have rights to post articles on the blog, only read and comment.

Thus, if you have family or friends that are hoping to keep in touch with the goings on of the Andersen family, give 'em the website, arbonfarm.blogspot.com and tell them to subscribe at the bottom of the page.

It's simple, it's easy, and best of all, it's free! (That's my marketing classing shining through)

Sorry Guys, It's Therapeutic

(FROM AMBER) I realize that our family wirtes the majority of the blogs, and that of those, the majority are about Aliece, but John and I have decided it is quite therapeutic to let our families know a small part of what we are working with, and why we are suddenly (within the last 3 1/2 years) insane!

Another Aliece story...

This morning as I was blow drying and trying to sculpt my hair for the day, Aliece had her own sculpting project going on. With a pair of scissors and her imagination she cut all but 3 of the branches, and leaves off of one of my tallest plants. Can anyone tell me what would possess a 3 1/2 year old to do that? I had checked on her a few minutes previously, and she was calmly watching cartoons. Lucky for Liecey, her parents seriously are going a little looney, so rather than lashing, all I could do was laugh. Any sympathy would be greatly appreciated....

She was innocent!

Another Aliece story....

Joe came down this weekend and visited the Provo clan. He stayed from Friday and was going to leave Sunday night. Well, he came to dinner and we enjoyed a long evening visiting. About 9:30, Joe decided he need to be headed home. He had borrowed Jen's roomate's scooter and needed to return it to her before he left. He went to get on the scooter and realized that he didnt have the key to the scooter. He thought he had set it on the console in our entryway when he had come to dinner.

Right then we knew that if there were any keys there, Aliece would have taken them to play with. The problem was, Aliece was already asleep and we didn't want to wake her up to ask her where they were. So, we searched all of the locks on all of the car doors near the house (seeing if she tried to open any of the doors). No luck. We look all around the scooter, No luck. We looked in cushions and under furniture, No luck. It was dark, and we new if the lone key had been dropped in the grass, it could be a long search in the daylight.

Jen called her roomate to inquire if she had an extra set of the keys. To our horror, she did not. She has only just recently purchased the scooter and had not gotten duplicate keys made.

We finally woke Aliece up and tried to get the truth out of her, but we could it right away it was going to be no luck.

Amber first got Aliece up and asked her, "Where are Joe's keys?". Aliece got off the bed and led Amber to the bathroom. She then took of her pants and sat on the toilet to use the bathroom. Once that was done, Amber asked her again, "Where are Joe's keys?" Aliece started off into the family room with Amber close behind to see if she could gather any clues from Aliece, but no, Aliece went and laid down on the family room sofa. Amber got her up again and asked, "Where is Joe's key???". Aliece stood up once more and Amber followed her to her room where Aliece simply laid down on her bed and went back to sleep.

Well, needless to say, we all said many prayers in our heart for the missing keys. After a few more minute's search, I found the key stuck between the rocking chair cushion and the chair frame. It had fallen out of Joe's pocket while he sat and visited from that chair.

Believe it or not, Aliece was Innocent!!!!

A mad dash

I don't want to stuff this blog full of the activities of one, Aliece JoAnn, but our lives seem to be entertained (if that is the right word) each day by her actions.

During sacrament meeting yesterday, Aliece was pretty clingy with Amber down on the bench. Amber would have to set Alayna down on the floor so that she would hold Aliece. However, Alayna would keep trying to get away from the pews and walk down the isle. Amber would have to grab her and bring her back into the pew-space. At the closing Hymn, however, Amber let Aliece sit down on the bench so that she could attend to Alayna's needs.

We were singing the closing hymn for sacrament meeting when Clark Jensen jabbed the bishop, who then jabbed me and pointed to the side door of the chapel near the stand where we were seated. There was Amber in the doorway holding Alayna and trying to get my attention. When I saw her, he made a "what should I do?" sort of look. I followed her eyes and noticed that Aliece was standing behind the chorister leading the hymn and walking around.

Now most of you know that Amber sits at the back of the chapel in case she needs to take a crying child out without too much disturbance. Also try to picture the pews on the sides of the chapel against the wall - you know how they are angled. Well, Because of the angle of the pews, there is about a five inch gap between the pew edge and the wall. Aliece had squeezed through that space into the row in front of Amber and then she would do the same to the next row, catching stunned looks from the occupants of each row that she would squeeze into. She did this through every row on that side of the chapel. Amber spotted her and ran outside the chapel to intercept her at the doors near the podium, but Aliece was too quick - she was on the stand before Amber could get to her.

Luckily one of the speakers was a friend of Ambers from the relief society presidency. She grabbed Aliece and tried to have her sit there. Aliece sat for about 15 seconds and then hopped up. She came near enough to me that I was able to catch her and set her on my lap - all to the stirring tune of "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd".

Tonight the Bishopric hosted a Daddy-Daughter Activity up in the canyon. We had a potluck dinner and then the kids played soccer and got their dad's to go on some mini hikes with them. We concluded the evening by having the bishopric provide a skit (our third time doing the same skit this year :) ). Then I, Clark Jensen, and then the Bishop gave some remarks to the crowd. It was a fun evening. Here is a picture taken by myself with Aylee and Aliece at the activity. We had a great time eating, playing, and spending the evening together.
 

The nurse is on the loose

For my birthday I received dress shirts from Ann & Verne and Amber. I had hung up one of the shirts for wearing the next morning. As you are all aware, each dress shirt comes with about 50 gazillion pins inserted throughout to make it look nice at the store. Well, I was in a hurry so I stuck the pins in an old hat I had sitting on top of our filing cabinet.

The next morning, the kids did not have school so I left for work with Amber and the kids all in bed. Well, I shouldn't say all of the kids - Aliece actually got up before I left and I sent her into the bedroom to lay down by Amber.

I guess she was a little more busy than I had hoped (I must be a slow learner). While Amber was asleep, Aliece brought a chair into our bedroom and set it next to the file cabinet. She climbed the chair and played with the items sitting on the cabinet. Well, she saw the pins stuck in the hat and formed a plan. She took one of the pins out of the hat and crawled into bed with Amber. She then proceeded to play "nurse". Amber awoke to hear Aliece telling her "Don't worry Mommy, this will only hurt for a second"!

Needless to say, Aliece didn't stay in bed with Amber much longer that morning.