Duct tape, anyone?

Alayna is now at the lovable age where clothing and diapers are only a nuisance - an item to be removed and discarded. Last night after several attempts dress Alayna and re-issue her diaper, Amber asked me to get out the big guns - Duct Tape. Remorsefully, we were out of the gray fastening wonder, but I compromised with some wide clear packing tape. As far as I know, the pajamas came right off again, but her diaper stayed on through the night. Anyone got a little extrac duct tape to spare?

To and Fro

The time has come once again to say goodbye to my beloved town and head back to the cramped town of Rexburg. However, I will be returning every weekend to continue working at Heinz. My boss, John, requested that I stay on with them for the summer semester and then in the Fall return and work on a project they will be doing. He siad it will be about as large as the one we just did. He was in hopes that I would stay since I am the only one that has worked on a project this large. SO I petitioned to switch tracks and it was granted. I will still graduate in about the same amount of time it will just take 2 months longer than planned. However I will be making more money than I had planned on making during my last year of school so that will be a major plus.
Looks like my goodbye will only have to be for 2 months then I will bbe permitted to return to the promise land :)! (Well close to it, it will make it so Arbon is only about 40-45 minutes away.) :)

Struck by Lightning?

As many of you know, this past weekend I had youth conference, so Amber took the kids out to Arbon for the weekend. Well, on Friday night I arrived home to a spectacular electrical storm. I watched it for a bit and then threw on a movie.

The movie got over around 10:30 and I decided that I had wasted enough time and that I was going to head to bed. I thought I might take a look at the lightning for a moment before I headed there.

I opened the front door to look outside and enjoy the noisy splendor. As I stepped out onto the front porch, a huge burst of light and a loud crack of sound caused me to jump and the house to shake. Nearly that same moment I heard a sharp POP in the house.

I wondered if we had just been struck by lightning. I ran around checking things and turning them off. Everything that I checked seemed to work ok. I sniffed for smoke and didn't detect any, so I went to bed.

In the morning I got up to go to the second day of youth conference but the Garage door wouldn't open. The unit was receiving no power at all. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and the unit started to work. I counted myself lucky and headed out the door.

When I got home Saturday night, Amber was there with the kids. We were visiting and she asked me why it was so hot in the house. I checked the settings on the thermostat to find that it was indeed warm, but the thermostat thought the air conditioner was on. I went out to the furnice room to find that we had no power to our blower. I unplugged things and reset breakers all to no avail. I then decided I wasn't so lucky with the previous storm.

On Monday, I was heading to work and decided to throw on a movie for Aliece. I went to put a DVD in the player but to my dismay there was no power to my DVD player that happened to be on my $2.00 surge protector/power strip (Note to self, $2.00 power strips do not have real surge protectors inside them).

As of yet, we still need to buy another DVD player (maybe a father's day gift?), but my Air Conditioning friend was able to come over and fix our blower. The unit was fried (scrambled eggs as he put it), but he was able to fix it for $400.00 (and that was the discounted rate).

I called the insurance company, but our deductable is $500.00. So, all of this has come out of pocket.

As I look back on that fateful evening, I should have set the movie aside and sat on the porch all night enjoying the multi-hundred dollar light show.

Beware of fences

When we first moved into our house, Johnathan started getting up at night (several times in the night) to get popsickles and stuff. We believed he was sleepwalking and didn't want him to tumble down the stairs.

In order to remedy this, we started putting up the gate at the top of the stairs so that he would bump in to it and then go back to bed. Well this trick worked really well - until yesterday.

Yesterday morning I was involved in an online meeting over the internet with some of my counterparts in Boston and India. It was about 6:15AM and I heard Aliece wake up and start stirring upstairs. I kept on with my meeting. After a few minutes I heard a huge crash and then tumlbing noises. The air was soon pierced with Aliece screaming.

I ran over to the stairs to see what had happened. Since the gate was up, Aliece was either trying to push it down or climb over it. In the process, the gate came down, sending Aliece down about 10 stairs.

Aliece was pretty sore all day long but we weren't sure if she had just pulled a muscle or if something were broken. We let it be all day yesterday and through the night. This morning we were checking her out and her one shoulder was lower than the other and there was some swelling on the one shoulder.

I worked from home and Amber took Aliece into the doctor's office at 10:00AM By about 2:00pm, they came home with this sling and a brace that is underneath Aliece's shirt (you really can't see it very well from the picture). It appears that in the fall, Aliece broke her collar bone.

She is going to have to wear the brace for about three weeks and the sling will be used as long as she is in a lot of pain.

Upcoming Events

(Amber writing) Thanks for the fun party last night -- it was so great to have Jen, Dave, Jake, Shan, Joe & Julie over for a nice evening of BBQ, conversation and beautiful weather. (Also, thanks for helping with our bed & swing set!) After you all left I realized that I forgot to let you know about some upcoming events for our family. Thursday evening at 6:30, Aylee has her spring choir concert - it is similar to the Christmas one, but with different music (of course). I have heard them perform all of their songs, and they are really quite good; they performed 2 weeks ago at Abravenal Hall in Salt Lake. And, Friday morning at 9:00 is Johnathan's kindergarten graduation. Both events will take place in the gym at Amelia Earhart Elementary School, and both should last no more than about a half an hour. I know that you are all busy with lots of things, but I just wanted you to know that you are all invited if you fel so inclined.

My Kids Browser Has Been Submitted!

Well, one of the 'big' steps was taken today. I went to Granite Distributing and demoed the software, My Kids Browser. It was supposed to be a 10 minute demo but ended up going over an hour. I sat at an oval shaped table with about 10 people sitting around me. I told them some recent statistics of pornography and internet predators attacking young children. I then demoed the program. They were very impressed! I believe that I could have sold each of them a copy of the browser while we were sitting there had I had more copies with me!

Granite Distributing distributes to Deseret Book, Seagull Book, etc. They told me that they will let me know in a couple of days if they have accepted my software (though I'm sure it will after the response I got). They told me that they'd like me to go along with their sales person to approach Deseret Book so that I may demo it for them and explain all that I explained today. If I charge $20 per browser, I will end up getting $8 per copy after DB and Granite take their cut.
It is important to note, however, that I do not make a penny until Deseret Book or other retailers actually purchase the browsers. And even then, the customers will be the deciding factor. The distributors told me (and they know their business) that it will soon be time to spend quite a bit of money on marketing. Up until now, I haven't had much out-of-pocket expense. That will be a small worry of mine.

Anyway, I thought I'd keep you all updated in the latest of My Kids Browser!

Happy Birthday Janae!

Nae! I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday today! Many your getting old. . . . . 21! Hope you enjoy your day and I'm excited to celebrate with you this weekend!

Love your BIG Sis!

Family Hike

We have had a busy day today, but it has been a lot of fun. Amber started off the morning by going to a 8AM performance for one of the young women. The high schooler called Amber a couple of days ago and asked her to play for one of her music solos at a regional high school event.

When Amber got home she grabbed Aylee and they went fabric shopping for a future bedspread/comforter in her soon-to-be new bedroom. While they were gone, I was experimenting in the kitchen and found a GREAT microwave recipe for Crunchy Carmel Popcorn. I was skeptical (any microwave recipe is usually a sham) but I tried it out and it was not only EASY, but it was really good.

When Amber and Aylee got home, I told everyone that we were going hiking and that we would have the carmel popcorn for a treat on the trail. We quickly loaded everyone up and headed to Rock Canyon, just above the beautiful Provo Temple.

It was a gorgeous hike. The kids loved throwing rocks in the cool, clear stream along the trail. I took our GPS unit and found that there was a Geocache nearby and so we let the kids find that one. Alayna was funny as she insisted to hike all by herself for the entire duration of our easy stroll.



We were tight on time, so we only hiked for an hour and we only went about 0.48 miles up the trail before having to turn back due to the little ones stopping here an there for this and that. Alayna was a trooper though. Going downhill was hard for her as she didn't know how to slow down. She fell so many times on the rocks and pavement. She even got a huge gash on her forearm. But she didn't complain and she didn't want to be carried, so we let her be.

When we got to the van, I was pretty proud of my performance. I made the hike up and back and my leg/back pain was very minimal and I was feeling great. I started boasting to Amber of my accomplishment (being the first hike since my operation). As I was telling her how well I did, I then realized, I can't be too proud of myself since Alayna was able to hike it all by herself too! :)



When we got home, we cleaned Johnathan up and sent him off to a birthday party. While he was there, I made some more carmel popcorn for one of Amber's upcoming meetings. At 2pm, she had some of the Young Women over for a YCL Young Women's Camp Meeting. One of the girls was babysitting, so she brought those kids with her. So, I watched the crew during Amber's 90 minute meeting.

When that was over, I went off to a Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting. While I was there, Johnathan headed off to a second birthday party. I got back at 6:15. Amber had a delicious dinner of corndogs and carrots on the table. We ate, and Amber went off to Choir Practice and the Adult Session of the Stake Conference.

It has been a busy one, but we sure have had a great time today. It gets me really excited for the warmer months of the year.

What are you reading?

Do you remember growing up and attending school. Doesn't it always seem like the kids now-a-days are learning things in school that you either never studied, or studied when you were a few grades older?

Well, last Sunday, I caught Aliece reading the "Articles of Faith" book. I know they try to get the kids to learn their articles of faith in Primary, but this is ridiculous. Back in my day, we were encouraged to memorize the thirteen, one-verse statements of our faith. Apparently, they have taken it a step further and encourage the primary kids to study the in depth doctrines on those pinnacle standards. Well, I guess it was bound to happen - Sunbeams class is just so much more advanced than I remember it!

Woah, Nae!

Well, I have to say, Nae, you sure got my blood running today. I read your blog and thought, she cannot be serious! I had heard that Chris was just a friend and that was it. I couldn't believe that Janae would be announcing an engagement over the internet!! In shock, I yelled across the hall to Jake, then called Amber. While I was talking to Amber, Jake was on the phone with Joe. After that, I got on the phone with Mom to see exactly what the relationship was with Chris and if it was a Joke. Mom was funny, I said, "Mom did you read Janae's blog?" Mom said she hadn't but that she was just replying to one of my blogs. I said, well you have to read Janae's blog. She said she had a lot to do, but that she would finish her comments, do those things and read the blog when she got to that point. I suggested that she read it BEFORE she did her other "pressing" tasks. So, I hung up. I then called Jen to ask her. Every time I called someone the had not read the blog, so I would sit on the phone waiting for them to look it up and then listen to them as they made stray comments such as, "whaa?", "huh uh!", "you've got to be kidding", "nahhhh!", "can this be true?!". Then we would talk about it. Well, while I was talking to Jen, Mom called and was nearly breathless. I joined Jen's call with mom's and then Dad got on...we wondered together if it were true and then decided that Mom and Dad should call Janae.

Jake and I went to lunch and every five minutes or so we would say, the longer the time for a reply phone call from Mom and Dad, the more likely it is true.

Mom finally called and sounded really exhausted. I knew right away what the news was. She said softly, do you want to conference people in or should I just call everyone separately to tell them the news. I conferenced Jen in and put Jake on speaker. We listened intently as Mom told us somberly that indeed it was a joke! My goodness, You got us good!

I told Amber the news and she said it was just 38 minutes between the blog that Janae posted and her confession. That was a very long and nail biting 38 minutes!

My life changing weekend!

So as you all know Chris and I went down to Utah for the weekend last week. I got off work a few hours early and we began our escape from the stresses of Pocatello :). When we got to Salt Lake we spent about 20 minutes trying to find a place to park. Finally we parked and began our adventure. We had a reservation for the new movie about Joseph Smith at 1:30 however by the time we country kids figured out where to park in the big city it was about 1:30 and by the time we got there it was about 1:45. They said that they arent allowed to have a stand by line and that we would have to try and get one on Saturday. A little bummed out we decided to start playing. We went to the mall and walked around for a little while. We went into a lot of painting shops. And to deseret book. About 3:00 we decide to just TRY to get in with out a reservation. When we got there the lady quickly ushed us in and winked saying just remember next time to make a reservation.
Wow it was pretty much one of the most amazing movies ever! Well, we continued to play and then decided to go to Provo and stay with the family. It was sooooo good to see John and Amber and the kids.
All and all it was an amazing weekend and just what the doctor ordered.
However, there is a part of the story that NO ONE has heard yet. While at temple square and the movie and everything the spirit was soooo strong and Chris and I had a really good talk. We have decided in the near future unless he ends up going on a mission we may have some bigger news for the fam. It was just amazing how strong the spirit was there and we just new right then that we were meant to be together. I know this is the person I am going to be with for the rest of my life and I am so excited. We are still in high hopes that he will serve his mission first. But, we will find out soon. Just thought that for once I would keep you all updated on MY dating life. :)
I have debated whether to tell anyone or not for this whole week and when I woke up this morning I just knew this would be the best thing!!!!!

New Facial

Ok, here is another Amber-Left-John-In-Charge-And-Guess-What-Happened Story. Sunday night, Johnathan started vomiting again. We decided that on Monday, Amber would set up a doctor's appointment just to make sure nothing was terribly wrong.

The next day, Amber set up the appointment and asked me to come home for lunch so that I could watch the girls while she took Johnathan to the care center. I agreed and came home.

Sure enough, while I was home, I was doing some Novell work from my home computer. While I was working I heard a shrill scream from Alayna in the kitchen. I dropped everything and ran into the kitchen to find Alayna sitting on the kitchen counter. In her hands she had an open bottle of liquid cinammon that amber uses in her candles. Alayna had spread the amorous liquid frangrance all over her face and head.

I grabbed her and ran her over to the sink where I started to flush her eyes and hands first. Then I washed her face over and over again. It seemed like the more that I washed her face, the worse the sting would get. Her face started to turn red and little bumps of irritation were quickly appearing on the once smooth landscape of her cheeks.

I got to the point that I didn't know what to do. I tried Amber on her cell phone, but she had left it at home. I then called Dad at home and asked him if he thought some Aloe Vera would helpt he sting. He suggested that I use it.

The Aloe Vera did the trick, I put it on her tender face and soon her screams turned into exhausted sobs. I held her in my arms for about half an hour. After she had calmed down, she quickly bored of sitting on my lap and hopped down and went back to playing.

I cleaned up the bottle and put it up on the fridge. Alayna hasn't learned her lesson, though, Amber found her again, this time on the kitchen sink window sill trying to open the perfume of fire.

Unrighteous Dominion

This is Amber writing again:

For some reason, lately Alayna has been having a really hard time calming down and falling asleep at night. We have found it helps a lot to have someone else in the room with her. Since eventually we would like to have Aliece & Alayna share a room, we thought this might be an opportune time to try it out. I can't say that they go to sleep very quickly, and they aren't very quiet either, but at least Alayna isn't screaming and crying.

Well, this morning, Aliece came into our bedroom and said, "Alayna is having a hard time settling down. I think she needs a good little spankin."

And, just now as I was writing this, Aliece came into the bedroom and said, "Alayna is making me stay awake. Can I give her just a little spankin?"

I don't know where she could have learned that spanking a person is the answer for behavior modification!

Easter Weekend

I wrote this to blog and then forgot to send it. It was written on the Monday after Easter. . . . .

OK. . .first of all, I have to say I really really enjoyed the blogs from John and Amber’s family! They are hilarious and kept me laughing on a dreary Monday sitting at work and wishing the weekend were longer. I just love it. I’m going to laugh right now cuz I know my time will come. . . and when it does. . . .I expect you’ll laugh also!

It is so nice to have a car and feel that we can go anywhere anytime we want! I still can’t believe we haven’t had a car for the 6 months of our marriage and 9 months total! It was a wonderful Easter weekend as Dave and I stayed in Salt Lake with his family on Friday and then headed to the valley early Saturday morning. We relaxed a lot and felt that we did a whole lot of nothing, but it was sure nice. It’s nice to see the valley it begins to green up. We enjoyed the Thunder and Lightning storms and just being home. Church on Sunday was wonderful. There were some great talks and the Hayden girls sang a song and it was beautiful. Alisha Hayden returned from her mission and it was good to see and talk with her. It was nice to go to Relief Society and I realized how much I miss it where we have been in Primary. It was a nice day.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend. . . . . . . .

I NEED A RAISE!!!

Since we have changed the way our computer is set up, and I don't know how to log onto my own blog account, I'm writing this on John's account. Warning: any one thinking of having children in the near future should not read this!

As you all know, Adee & I had a fabulous time at Capitol Reef last weekend. I was happy to get out of the house for a couple of days, not only to enjoy my sister, the beauty of nature & some good exercise, but also to get a break from my four lovely children who had been experiencing excessive diarrhea.

And, as you all know, while John did keep the children alive in my absence, I returned to a state of near chaos. With children throwing up all over the place, and remnants of Aliece & Johnathan's hair scattered around the house, I told myself that it is good for me to be at home, to keep things under control, and devote my efforts to teaching & training our children, and maintaining order & cleanliness in our home. I felt a minimal sense of pride in knowing that I have a job to do, and that quite frankly, I do a pretty good job of it!

Well, today that pride gets flushed down the toilet -- well it would if we had a toilet that was working! I had a busy morning planned: as well as my "normal" morning routine of getting children fed and clothed and off to school, cleaning the house & getting myself presentable, I also had a camp meeting at our house and an appointment to close on our house immediately following. Everything was going according to plan, and I thought I'd run to the bathroom really quick before my meeting started. I walked into the kitchen, zipping up my pants, and found Alayna in the middle of a mess of broken eggs. Apparently I had neglected to lock the fridge. The door bell rang, and Aliece answered the door as I continued to mop up yolk, whites & shells....

My meeting went well -- for the first 5 minutes or so, until Aliece realized that she didn't have my undivided attention, and began going through every tactic she could create to regain some ground. To sum things up, she basically screamed her head off the rest of the meeting....

Things went fine at closing (I left Aliece with a neighbor :)), and I returned home and began fixing lunch for my children. There were some camp things I needed to discuss with a sister who was not at the meeting, and I figured that while the kids were eating lunch, I would sneak into my bedroom and make the call. And you know what? It worked... the whole time the phone was dialing they were quiet. And, as soon as she answered the phone, they all 3 ran into the bedroom screaming, fighting and crying. I eventually got them back to the kitchen, returned to my bedroom alone, locked the door, and went into the bathroom so I could hear myself think....

I got off the phone, restored things to order, and sat down for some lunch. While I was eating, Johnathan went to the bathroom -- he, Aliece & Alayna still have diarrhea. I jumped up as I heard him yell, "Oh, NO!" and entered the bathroom in time to see poopy water spilling all over the sides of the toilet onto the floor.

I tell you, whoever wonders what women do all day at home has no idea!

All I can say is: Happy Mother's Day, JoAnn! I know it's early, but I hope you enjoy a nice yolk-whites-shell-screaming-fighting-tantrum-poop-FREE day! Heaven knows you've Earned it!!

Anybody want to come gun shopping with me?

Early Wednesday morning I woke up suddenly, like you do sometimes when you’re in the habit of waking up at the same time every day. When I looked at the clock though, it was only 2:15 am, I had to look two or three times because I felt so awake I was sure it must be wrong. I was finally able to fall back to sleep but at around 2:30ish the door bell rang; Jen said something like “oh my goodness that’s weird!” and I said something like “what was that?” (I was still half asleep). She told me what it was and I ran to the door grabbing the only weapon I had on hand, a small 5” knife that I have in our room, while Jen called out for me to not to open the door. When I got to the door I didn’t see anyone through the peep hole and was about to open the door to see if someone left something, almost believing that we had imagined it all (we both can have pretty interesting conversations in our sleep). Just as I put my hand on the door a head appeared and I heard the sound of a bag sliding on the concrete as the person lifted it to their shoulder. Now I was awake and at the window, there was a man casually walking down our porch steps with a large duffle bag over his shoulder. He headed for our neighbors to the East got to their van and got inside. So I figured he must just be drunk and forgot which house was his. So I tried to dismiss the whole thing, and went back to bed.

Jen and I were both wide awake though with our hearts still beating fast. I couldn’t help thinking about the whole thing, and the silhouette of the man with the bag over his shoulder; my first thought had been that it was a guy that works for my company. He’s a temp worker but we’ve had him for over a month. He’s a nice guy but we’re all pretty sure he’s a serious alcoholic. He only lives about five blocks to the West and he knows where I live. A few times when I have come out of our house in the morning heading to work he’s there passing in front of the house; he never used to come down our street until he found out where I lived… so all these thoughts are going through my head as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Then Jen said how she was worried about Julie, she may have opened her door if someone knocked, she said “in the morning I’ll call her three times but I’m not going to go down there” (Jen and Julie go to the gym in the morning). I said we could go check on her right then if she wanted; so we did. I checked the house while Jen went in to see if she was still breathing, luckily she was fine. When we got back up stairs I went and looked out the window again. The man was just getting out of the van (which I thought was kind of weird), then he turned away from the house and kept walking East down the sidewalk. At that point I finally realized that something wasn’t right (I know I’m a little slow, or naive or something) and we called the police. I gave them the best description I could, but it was pretty dark and I didn’t see much. After that we both went back to bed, but needless to say nether of us slept well. I’m not sure if I slept at all, most of the time my eyes were open and my ears straining just in case, so of course I kept hearing things. Once I was sure I heard a knock, so again I jumped up and ran to the door, but this time there really was no one there but as I looked out the winder I saw a police car passing slowly, it was about 3:30 at that time so I guess they ether didn’t see anyone yet or Provo police is just really slow. Ether way I figured the man that was on our porch was still wandering around outside… maybe hiding in our back yard?

Portneuf Floods

Dad told me yesterday that David's fields were flooding. Troy sent this picture to me tonight of David's house, and the flood. As you can kind of see from this picture, his haystack is in the water also.

I am sure the flooding will only get worse with the kind of weather we have been having this week. Here in town we got a skiff. Mom tells me Arbon got a wet six inches!

Andersen Ranch & Farm : HOME

Does anybody know what today is???? Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you enjoy your special day and have a little fun. Have a great day!

Love Jen

Just couldn't make it

(These are one of those pictures your kid will kill you for when they are a teenager and you let her know you posted this on the Internet for all the world to see)

After enjoying a nice 30 minute episode of Andy Griffith with Amber last night, we shut off our lights, locked the doors and headed to bed. I was in the lead down our long hallway when I noticed Aliece, flat down in the hallway with her legs tucked under her - she was fast asleep.

Aliece has been known to sleep in wierd positions and places, so I didn't think much of it until I got closer to get her up. I had turned the hallway lights off, so I couldn't see much, but I though that she must have been wearing some pretty skill colored underwear that was form fitting because that sure looked like a little four-year-old bum protruding from her pajama tops.

I had to turn on the light for some verification. Upon further illuminated inspection, I found that there were indeed no pants (under or over) covering that little behind. I had Amber come check it out and we laughed about it. Amber wondered outloud why her pants would be pulled down around her ankles while she slept in the hallway, and that is when it dawned on me. I gasped and slow, "oh, no". Amber inquired of my reaction and I shared my hypothesis. "I think Aliece was headed to go to the bathroom when she fell asleep halfway". We turned her over to verify my scientific guess. Sure enough, there sat a small pudding of water.

We knew she was tired that night, but we had no clue she was THAT tired. I guess that is three of four kids that have now had creative nocturnal potty stops. When Aylee was that age we caught her squatting in the toy closet in the hallway doing her business. Last year we luckily caught Johnathan before letting it all out in one of the kitchen drawers. Last night, Aliece collapsed from fatigue and did her work while fast asleep in the hall.

I wonder what Alayna has in store for us.

Hair Cut

While Amber was away, I was doing a very good job of working from home. Howevever, that meant, I was not doing a very good job of watching the kids. On Friday, I let the kids watch Star Wars VI. Of course you know how engrossed Johnathan and Alyee get in the movie. Aliece isn't as mesmerized by the spacey light shows provided by the movie. I came into the family room to do a sanity check and found several toy cups lining the family room window sill. I also found a wet comb, a pair of kid scissors a large pile of hair, and yes, Aliece. She had butchered her hair. I was starting to boil over when I noticed, sitting in the green chair just in front of Aliece was Johnathan staring into the silver television set - he now had some bald spots in his recently buzzed head. In his rapt attention to Yoda, Luke, 3P0, and Ewoks, Johnathan didn't pay attention to what was happening on his now soggy, hair-matted head. Luckly his hair was already rather short. Aliece on the other hand had a very crazy looking head. The above picture of aliece after her work.




On Saturday, Amber went to work on Aliece's garbage disposal hair and did a pretty dang good job improvising. Aliece's hair is now pretty short, but it is cute once again.

Easter Activities

Adee stayed for our Saturday Easter activities yesterday. We painted eggs together and I decorated some sugar cookies for the crew. We enjoyed having Adee over for the easter fun. Although we had some illnesses, everyone was excited to participate in the activities.

Vomit, Vomit, Everywhere

We have had sick kids throughout the week. Most of the illness affected the family while Amber was gone to Capitol Reef with Adee.

This is a wierd sickness because those infected do not really feel sick. They just have diahrea really badly, and some have some vomitting during the night. Up until Saturday, Johnathan was the only infected one to throw up.

Saturday morning, however, I was walking by Alayna's bedroom door and smelled something horrible. I peeked in, and man, I wanted to leave the house. Alayna sleeps on the top bunk of a bunk bed. It is the type of bunk bed that has a small bunk on top and a full size bed on the bottom. Well, bright red puke was spread all over her bed, clothing, face, and bedding. There was red vomit lining the entire wall near her head. Because the bottom bunk extends beyond the top bunk, there was red chunks all over the bottom bed also. The carpet has badly stained and the vomit had dried in many spots leaving hard residue.

Amber and I spent a couple of hours on that room. We had to move the bed around, clean carpets, matresses, bedding, walls, and electrical sockets. I was amazed so much gunk could come out of such a little tummy.

Aylee started getting the stuff on Saturday afternoon and I got it on Saturday night. Aylee ended up vomitting last night, and I luckily have only had sit in the bathroom for hours at time.

The hard thing about this sickness is that we don't really know when we are better and not contagious. We feel fine when our heads aren't stuck in a toilet bowl and our opposite ends are not similarly engaged. We have decided to give it a 24-hour rule. If you are clean for 24 hours, you must be good to go. That means Johnathan and Amber will be the only ones attending church today.

Capitol Reef

On Thursday and Friday Amber and Adee went on a backpacking trip to Capitol Reed National Park in southern Utah. From what I hear they saw some amazing land formations and cool old buildings.

They were able to hike many trails and they said they found the perfect camping site for the night.

Train Station

A couple of weeks ago, our kids had spring break. I took the Wednesday off, and we went up to Ogden to the Union Square train museum. It was a pretty cool place. There were trains outside that you could walk around and look at. Inside of the museum there were smaller museums. There was geological and native American artifacts, the Browning Gun Museum, an old Automobile museum, and finally the train museum. Each part was impressive. After a couple of hours, the kids still wanted to stay much longer but we were supposed to meet Grandpa Reed in Salt Lake for lunch at McDonalds.

After McDonalds, Grandpa Reed took us to his Hotel and we swam in the pool there and ate pizza. It was a pretty dang fun day.

Are you strong?

Yesterday at church, I picked Johnathan up from his class. As we were walking out of the foyer, Johnathan saw one of his buddies. He stopped and they both hunched over and flexed their muscles as you would see body builders do in those full color magazines on common grocery store isles. Once they did this for a few seconds they both relaxed and resumed on their way.

I asked Johnathan what they were doing. He said, we were seeing who is stronger. I replied with a simple, OK. However, Johnathan wanted to explain further. He said, "Dad, do you know how who is strongest?" Of course, I told him I wanted to know. He answered, "Well, when you flex your muscles you see whose face turns the most red - and that means they're the strongest." I replied with a hearty "Wow" and he then mentioned that if you are REALLY strong, you're hair will even turn red when you flex your muscles that way.

So, for those of you looking to bulk up a bit. Start flexing and wanting your head in the mirror. You might be surprised how strong you really are!

Sold!

Last night at 9pm, Amber and I sat around our kitchen table and signed the Purchase Agreement papers to sell our home of the past 6+ years. With Amber's wisdom and direction we did not advertise our home on the Realtor website for Utah ($400.00) nor did we advertise in the local paper ($140.00). We did not go with a realtor ($11,300.00). We just put a sign in our yard ($15.00) and made a website ($7.00). The house sold in nearly exactly one week's time.

The closing date, of course, is later in the month or early next month, but they are pre-approved on their financing and they are the parents of one of our neighbors who want to live closer to help with their grandkids (Cool Idea!).

We enjoyed our visit with them as we signed the paperwork. Aylee was torn up about it though. As I went into the bedroom to make copies of the documents, the poor sweetheart was near tears. She asked why we had to sell our house rather than rent it to them. She also didn't understand why we felt we needed to leave our house that we loved so much.

I knew how she was feeling because many of the same feelings have come into my mind. It is funny how a house can be so personal and an emotional thing.

My website to by used by Penn State University

I thought you all might find this interesting... I did :). I received an email from a student at Penn State University. He had been doing research on pornography and he came upon my website: mykidsbrowser.com for a Kid Safe Internet. He wanted to credit the writer of the website for the stats listed there. I told him my name and also told him who I received the stats from. I told him that he should send me his paper when he finishes. If I find it relevant to my website, I might publish it there.
Anyway, I got pretty excited that people are actually finding the information I have worked so hard to compile. The fact that he is citing me in his research paper is even better :) !

Congrats to Jake and Shan

Congratulations Jake and Shan. That is so exciting. I didnt think it would happen this soon, but it is still exciting. Is it too soon still to know whether it is a boy or girl? I dont know much about all of that. I just wish I could have heard from you guys first before I heard it from Mom. But that is ok. Congrats.

House for Sale

Amber and I put a "FOR SALE BY OWNER" sign up in our yard on Thursday evening. On Friday we had three different people call to see if they could come and look at it. We were surprised because we hadn't even put it in the paper or the MLS system yet.

For those interested, you can see our home's website that I created this morning at:
www.flag-house.com

Hopefully when we get the house in the paper and on MLS we will really get some activity.

Just wait until it's your turn

Ashlee and Brett posted some pictures on the Reed Family blog of their nine-month old daughter, Elyvia (my only Niece [hint, hint]).

http://reedfam.blogspot.com/2006/03/welcome-to-name-that-object.html

Elyvia swallowed a tiny pair of fingernail clippers this week. These are pictures inside her little tummy. Yikes! The emergency room didn't believe them when they took her in. They didn't see it happen, but they heard her scream and it looked like she was having a hard time swallowing something. They had just trimmed her nails and couldn't find the clippers anywhere. They finally had the emergency room just trust them and take the pictures. Sure enough! But they had to then go to a neighbhoring town's emergency room that had a doctor there that could remove the clippers endoscopically.

How do our kids ever live to become adults?

I am thankful for animals

For anyone who has taught young children in Nursery or the Sunbeams class, you will appreciate the lessons that are taught to the young-uns. Some of the lessons includes "I am thankful for my hands", and "I am grateful for rain", etc.

Each lesson usually involves a photocopied coloring picture that is scribbled in blue, green, and yellow waxy crayon marks by the youngster that they proudly bring home to share with their family.

We have found, lately, that we do not need the colorful photocopies anymore to tell what lesson Aliece has had in her Sunbeam Church class. Lately, Aliece's class has been grateful for different animals. Two weeks ago they had a lesson on being grateful for fish. That same day after church, Aliece asked Amber if we could have Fish Sticks for dinner. We didn't think anything of it.

We finally made the connection however, when last Sunday, after church, Aliece asked Amber if we could have dog. Amber said, no, we don't have pets. Aliece so, know, can we have dog for dinner? Amber and I asked her if she had a lesson on dogs in her primary class. "Yep!" was her answer.

So, I am going to have to check in on the Primary teachers just to see how "grateful" they are for the animals in their lessons. Something tells me, however, "eating" the animals is probably not a part of the lesson - just another one of Aliece's entertaining personality traits!

Picture

California Colalge

Here is a collage that I put together to share with you some of the sights that I was able to enjoy this last weekend.

The "Crack of Dawn"

Last week Amber took a picture of my back after I got the stitches out. I thought that this picture was a little tamer than the last, so I am including it with this blog.

The way my little incision site looks, one might think I have developed a second "crack" - as any good plumber would consider it. I hear that it is the latest rave for plumbers whose pants ride up - they can implant these for the same visual effect that their low-riding peers enjoy.

Anyway, that is not the only crack I have been experiencing this past week. I went off my medicine a week ago with out too many side effects. Last Sunday, Amber and I decided that we were going to start getting up earlier each morning. On Monday morning, I was proud of myself when I arose at 5AM sharp - at the crack of dawn. I was alert and fully awake. I hopped out of bed and got some work done. Tuesday morning I woke up at the same time. Again, I didn't feel drowsy, I was wide awake so I got up and started on some more work.

Tuesday night, however, we had a young man stay the night that used to live in our ward whose family had moved to Ohio. He was going into the MTC on Wednesday. Since he was here, we visited with him until about 11pm. So, I got to bed a little later than I had expected, but to my astonishment, I was wide awake at 4:00 AM the next morning. This time however, I wasn't really productive, I tried to be, but couldn't really function well mentally, but I couldn't fall asleep.

I still did pretty well though as the day wore on. But on Thursday morning, I found myself waking up at 3:00 AM. I was totally unproductive and mostly just stared at my computer screen all morning long. During the day I felt pretty wasted and had the kind of head ache that gives you a nauseated feeling. It was a horrible day. I shouldn't have even stayed at work, I really got nothing done.

My body was shutting down, I was tired, miserable, and dry heaving all evening. Amber had a practice with some women that night, so I decided I was going to bed early. I rummaged through our dusty supply of forgotten drugs in the laundry room until I found some old sleeping pills. I had never taken them before in my life, but I was getting pretty desperate. I took one and laid down by 8pm. I slept fairly well through the night all the way until 7AM. Oh, it felt good to "sleep in" that morning. On Friday evening I followed suit with half of a sleeping pill and was able to sleep until 7am again. Last night, I tried abstaining from the pill with good results.

Amber and I believe my brief bout with insomnia was probably related to going off all of my medicines so abruptly and all at once last week. Hopefully I am over that. It was a terrible feeling to be so tired and not be able to get the sleep that I was craving.

I am feeling pretty good these past couple of days and I am looking forward to a great week.

The Birthday Girl

As you know, last week we had Aliece's birthday. It was quite the busy day. I couldn't believe everything that Amber did for that birthday. Of course, Aliece woke up to a decorated house. Pink streamers were dangling from the ceiling and posters of the birthday girl hung around the family room and kitchen.
As the day wore on, Amber threw a party for Aliece and all of her friends. Aliece wanted a Princess Party, but she also wanted to invite her male friends to the party. Seeing a possible incompatibility, Amber convinced her to rename the party to a "Palace Party". Girls came donned as princesses and boys were able to come as handsome princes' or heroic knights.

One of the boys that came to the party is one that Aliece enjoys a lot. He knocked on the door at the beginning of the party. When Aliece opened the door, she found this handsome prince standing on her doorstep with a small bouquet of flowers. He won Aliece's heart and quickly became the "best man" of the party.
After the festivities with friends, we had an enjoyable evening with our family having cake and ice cream in celebration of Aliece's special day.

And a little child shall lead them

I have a friend that is not a member of the LDS church. He lives in Utah, and has a lifestyle very compatible with his member counterparts. He looks the part and lives the part for all that I can tell.

We were visiting today at the end of work and he was saying how difficult it is to find a wife. He really wants to get married - he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life single. He is only nearing his mid-twenties, but he is starting to worry about his marriage-ability due to his not being a member.

One of the hard parts about it all is that has the lifestyle of a Mormon, so he attracts Mormon girls. Those are the types of girls he is attracted two. However, when it all comes down to the relationship, they want a covenant living member of the church.

He is to the point where he is considering being baptized into the faith so that he will become an "eligible" bachelor. He is willing to live the gospel (he already attends the weekly meetings) and do what is required to be a "active" member so that he may enjoy the blessings of a family.

I was discussing this with Amber at the dinner table, trying to get her advice on the subject. We both feel terrible for the situation that my friend finds himself and we were just at a loss for good counsel.

In this frame of though, I asked the kids what they thought my friend should do. Aylee, who of course has been visiting with Amber and I often about the gospel as she is preparing to be baptized, simply stated, "he needs to read the scriptures more and pray about them more". She then quoted James 1:5.

Not one whit behind Aylee, Johnathan added, you can't "buy" the gospel. Aylee followed that thought with some scriptural examples. First she said, yeah, like the time the man wanted to buy the priesthood from Peter. He didn't understand where the priesthood comes from. Johnathan nodded in agreement, that this was the idea he was getting at.

Amber and I looked at each other in amazement, and Aylee continued. "It reminds me also of the people that built the tower of Babel that wanted to get to heaven so that they wouldn't have to deal with problems here - it was the easier way."

Amber and I had nothing else to add. The counsel was given - the appropriate counsel. Taught to us by our children, none of whom are even old enough to qualify as members of the church through its ordinances.

The dinner table is such a great place to share these ideas and thoughts. Not only to impart wisdom to your children, but obviously, to receive wisdom from their own lips and glimpse into the spirits that are within them. Besides that, I will probably borrow their thoughts next time I visit with my friend.

You can tell that it is March

We woke up early this morning to see that we got a few inches of fresh snow in the wee hours of the morning. Amber donned her coat and gloves and shovelled the walks for me this morning. However, when she was done there was another light layer of the fluffy stuff on the ground. I am sure it won't last long today, but it is fun to see for the morning.

I have to admit though, these past few warm weeks have me set on Spring arriving. So, I do hope the snow goes away by later today :)

The day March blew in

Yesterday felt like March. The wind had picked up, and our seasonally warm weeks told on a chillier face as the day was mostly grey and windy.

Johnathan brought a homemade kite home from school which caused a chain reaction in the Andersen household as all the other kids had to make kites. They had a fun time "flying" them outside.

My first day at work

Well, yesterday I woke up feeling pretty good about myself. I decided that I would try to go to work for the day.

My morning routines are a little slower with my back still healing, but I got to work just before 9:00. I lasted most of the busy day. There were so many people needing to visit with me about work with my 15 day absense that I spent only minutes in front of my computer and the rest of the day in meetings and in conversations.

By four I was mentally dead and I was ready to come home. It was nice to get out of the house - it had been a week since I had even been out of the house except for a daily walk around the block.

Beans, Jumping Jacks, and Heartbeats

The other night, the kids were having a hard time eating their green beans. Each had a nice little pile still on their plate, and Johnathan was on the verge of tears when we mentioned that he still had to eat his beans.

Hoping to avoid a night of weeping and wailing and gnashing of green vegatables, we started to talk about their latest cartoon craze character - Popeye the Sailor Man. We asked them what made Popeye get strong and they appropriately responded that it was Spinach. Amber and I just happened to have some spinach salad on our plates, and we told them that spinach helped us get strong, but canned green beans would help them get strong like Popeye.

They were starting to buy it, but we wanted them to be eagerly convinced. So, I had all of us show our bicep muscles. Then I said, let's each our beans and spinach and then we will see how much our muscles have grown. That got them all excited, so we each did our muscle display show and then everyone vehemently dug into their previously detested vegatables.

Within minutes, the food was devoured and we began comparing muscles. Sure enough, everyone's muscles had grown a bit. This really got them excited. Talk began to turn to how many vegatables the kids were going to eat every day. We then told them that vegetables helped them to be strong for a few minutes, but exercise and vegetables helps them to be strong for a long time.

Johnathan went with that idea and started running, doing kindergarten push ups and jumping jacks. It wasn't long before all the kids joined in. One of the kids mentioned how their heart started beating fast. So we got out the stethascope that Grandma Andersen gave them for Christmas. We let the kids listen to each of their hearts after a vigorous exercise routine.

It was a fun dinner, to say the least. Amber and I enjoyed our spinach salad as we launched and watched the entertaining exercise show before us.

Andersen Ranch & Farm : HOME

Well, we've known it was going to happen but it's still a shock when it finally does. Yesterday was the hardest day I've had at Nu Skin, watching people I've worked with for a few years and have really enjoyed. . . . as they packed up their belongings and walked out the door. This is the following article that appeared in the local paper today. Thought you might be interested. . . . . .


Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Nu Skin lays off about 50

GRACE LEONG - Daily Herald
Nu Skin Enterprises on Tuesday laid off about 50 workers at its Provo corporate office as part of a restructuring of its global direct-selling operations that's expected to be completed by March 31.
Unfavorable foreign currency fluctuations had weakened the company's revenues, prompting it to lower its fourth and first quarter earnings guidance, and to launch plans to "eliminate organizational redundancies and revamp administrative support functions," said Truman Hunt, Nu Skin's president and CEO in a statement in December.
"We're in early stages of restructuring. That's why we adjusted our earnings guidance," said Blake Roney, founder of Nu Skin. "We're looking for redundancies companywide, and may combine some of our research and development functions globally. Currently, the Nu Skin personal care line is completely independent in terms of its R&D functions from our Pharmanex division. We may try to combine the two divisions' backoffice functions wherever it makes sense."
Kara Schneck, senior director of public relations, said the company had announced the planned restructuring a few months ago and has provided "very generous severance packages and outplacement services" to the affected workers.
Nu Skin has around 1,400 workers in Utah County. Among those laid off Tuesday was John Petersen, who had served at Nu Skin for about 15 years in community relations, and was most recently the director of corporate public relations, a position he held for two years.
Petersen said he had heard that up to 10 percent of Nu Skin's work force was laid off, but couldn't confirm if those numbers were accurate. Schneck declined to specify how many layoffs have occurred to date and how many more are expected in the coming weeks.
"The layoffs are an ongoing process. Some occurred today and it came from various departments in Nu Skin's corporate office. In some cases, the layoffs were due to redundancies in some departments," Schneck said. "But those that used the outplacement services get jobs twice as fast as those that didn't."
Petersen said he wasn't surprised by the company's move and described his severance package as "very generous."
"There've been rumors of planned layoffs for the past few weeks," Petersen said. "Kara invited me to her office this morning and both her and someone from HR said my position didn't exist anymore, and they explained the severance package to me, and the package was very generous. Kara made it as humane as possible. I had as much time as I needed to say goodbye to my colleagues."
"We've been told that the company is doing well, but it can always do better. The business would be better because of the changes they're making. I'm sorry I was of the people that were let go, but I already have other irons in the fire. This will give me the chance to try something I wasn't able to do before in a 9 to 5 job," Petersen said.
In its fourth-quarter earnings statement issued Feb. 8, Nu Skin lowered its guidance for the first quarter ending March 31, anticipating a 12-cent to 22-cent loss per share because of restructuring charges.
"The restructuring charges are expected to include $10 to $15 million of severance expenses and approximately $5 million of expenses related to other streamlining initiatives," Hunt said in the statement.

Basketball Star

Last week was Aylee's first week in the city basketball program. She surprised Amber and I this winter by wanting to learn basketball. Amber enrolled her where she is the only girl on her team. That doesn't let it stop her...she mans her position well and enjoys navigating with the ball.

Financial Woes - Just raise your credit limit

A very small (two paragraph article) in today's Provo newspaper got me all fired up. Ka-wow-wow-wow! (As Aliece would so eloquently put it)

The articles I have found on the internet are as follows:

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002681164

Essentially, the US Treasury Secretary is asking Congress to raise the government's credit limit so that we can avoid the FIRST EVER default on the nation's debt obligations.

They claim that they have done everything legally in their power to avoid this, but the time has come to raise the credit limit before having to shut some of the government operations down. Not only this, but it is the FOURTH time the Bush Administration has requested (and received) a raising of the government credit limit.

This type of fiscal policy and habits of spending make me wonder if President Bush is truly a conservative Republican. In my book, Republicans believe in smaller government and fiscal responsibility. You would never know with our President.

Granted, I voted for Mr. Bush. I support the War on Terror. But from day one, I have never supported or agreed with his spending theories. In my mind we need to cut the overbloated government programs and (am I really saying this?) increase taxes until we can get control of our nation's debt.

Whew...Man, I am glad I got that off my chest. Anyway, I need to get back to work. I would like to do a little extra on the house and I hear that I can up my credit limit online by $10,000...That should just about do it.

Clarification of the term: Uteris

Ok, so Dad caught me on this and replied to an inside joke. In my last post about Aliece coming up missing, I mentioned that Amber's Uteris kicked in. A year or so ago, Amber's brother, Reed, was jokingly responding to the question "Why can women find things in a home when a man has looked five times without success". His hypothesis was that it was the uteris that acts as a homing device (pun probably intended) and allows women to find things better than men. Of course, for women who have had a hysterectomy (I know I probably murdered that term with my spelling) one would modify the claim that ever having "had" a uteris provides that gift.

Anyway, I used the term with out reference to it's origin. I knew better, but wondered if I would get away with it. Anyhow...as dear ole Paul Harvey would say,

"And that's the rest of the story!"

When do you issue an Amber Alert?

It is amazing that Aliece doesn't get herself killed or in trouble of some kind.

Today, Laurel Sprouse came over and watched our kids in the morning while Amber went to some camp meetings for church. I still can't really do much with Alayna because of my back and I had some interviews I was going to take care of at home. So, Laurel came and stayed with the kids for over an hour today.

Soon Amber returned from her meeting just as I was finishing up my interviews and phone calls. We let Laurel return home to prepare for church and we thanked her greatly for her help.

When the kids were saying goodbye to Laurel, Aliece started to throw a fit saying that she didn't want Laurel to leave. I told her that she would see Laurel again soon.

Amber and started visiting about our morning and we worked on getting the kids ready for school. It was about then that Amber realized that
Aliece was not in the house. We started searching for her. As we went to the front of the house, we could see Aliece in the far distant end of the block walking toward Laurel's house. We don't know if she ever made it there or not, but we called to Aliece and she returned without much incident.

After church today, everyone came home and changed their clothes. Aliece inisted on wearing her slip and only her slip. She thinks thats her dancing outfit. She was dancing around in the living room and then she started nursing one of her dolls.

The next time I walked by the room, however, she was not there. I checked all of the rooms, yelling in each one, calling for Aliece to respond. I checked the back yard, and the Smart's backyard. No where. I then went and started around the block. I met some members of the ward that had come from the east end of the block. I asked them if they had seem our little girl in a silky white slip. They said that they had come from that direction and had not seen her.
I was a little more concerned now, and so I headed over to the other block where she has been known to travel on occasion. However, my searching was in vain. No Liecey.

I was starting to panic now. So I hurried home, wondering how to best get the word out to the neighborhood. I ran into our bedroom and alerted Amber to the situation. She started getting scared too and she rechecked all of the rooms, yelling Aliece's name. Good thing Amber was involved in the search, her uteris kicked in and she found our soon-to-be four year old. She was fast asleep in the guest bed, with all of the covers completely over her. I would not have been able to tell she was there. It was a good thing Amber checked the covers because I was ready to sound the alarm and alert the police!

Sometimes, even asleep, Aliece can make her parent's fret!

Back Surgery

On Monday, February 27, I had my Lumbar laminectomy surgery. They went in and trimmed my L4/L5 disc that has been herniated for the past six months.

My notes from February 27...

Dr. Richey will be performing the surgery. I have met the man for only a few minutes a couple of weeks ago. And now I am trusting him to open my up around my spinal cord to do som mme trimming. That really is an amazing thing. However, I am not too worried. I have had a blessing by my brothers and Dad last weekend and I have had many prayers on my behalf. I feel comfortable with the surgery. I hope and pray that this surgery will help me get back to my regular routine

It has been a very humbling time for me. I have had to rely on a lot of people -- especialy my dear wife for these Months. Amber has surprised me with her support and patience and love during this long period of time of dealing with me in this state. I am a lucky man to have her. I know it has been hard on her, but she has borne this burden like a saint. It would have been so much harder for me to be hurting like this if Amber weren't so supportive.

Yesterday during church, I had many prayers given in my behalf. I had tears in my eyes several times as I was prayed for in the early morning meetings before church. Sawn Miller touched my heart as in his closing prayer in Sacrament meeting he prayed for those who were suffering and going into surgery. It was a touching thought from him. Then in Deacon's quorum, Jeff Smith said the closing prayer and prayed for my surgery. I was very emotional contemplating the number of people who were concerned and praying for my health and success in the surgery. There is a calm that is felt with such support. I hope that after this is all said and done, and that I am healed, that I will remember these feelings while I have been hurt so that I may better know the needs of others and be able to empathize with them.

I now know what people mean when they say trials have been a learning experience for them. I have learned more by going through this problem than I ever could have without it.

---Present day... Nearly a week after the surgery...

I have been feeling a lot better these past couple of days since the surgery. I was so glad that Mom came over to stay with us. She stayed until Thursday. Amber and I were so blessed to have her there with us. Amber got a few outings on her own to run errands, and we were able to nap together while Mom watched the kids. I can't stress enough how helpful and thoughtful it was for Mom to be here with us.

Last Wednesday was probably my worst day - mostly emotionally. I had a lot of leg pain like I had before the surgery (but not nearly as bad as it was before) but I also had the surgical pains. I was pretty depressed about the surgery fearing that it may have done no good. However, that night as I prayed, the comfort of the spirit whispered to me to remember the prayers that were being given for me and my recovery. I felt a great deal of comfort from that moment. I have been pretty happy and positive since then. The gospel is such a blessed thing.

Now the leg pain is minimal - mostly comes after I have been laying down for a while. I think it is the pressure of my laying on the surgical site - it somehow must be touching the nerve. The more I am up and walk around the better I do.

I have decreased my Lortab to 1 tablet every 5 or 6 hours. I started out with 2 Lortab every four hours. I am hoping to work from home the first part of the week and then hopefully go to work near the end of the week.

Amber took a couple of pictures of my incision site. Can't really see much but a bloody mass, but if any of you are interested, I'll be happy to send you a picture!

Toyota Corolla Trouble

Whenever I thought of quality in relation to an automobile, the first names that came to my mind were Honda and Toyota. Not anymore. Shantell has a '96 Toyota Corolla (believed to be one of the most reliable cars in existence) with only 115k miles on it. Well, this last weekend we stared hearing a knock under the driver-side floor. A couple of days later the knock got pretty bad so I took it to a mechanic. I guess the differential oiler stopped working for some reason and so my differential was spinning with no lubricant. They say it will be $950 to fix.

The Corolla has also had transmission problems lately. Shantell said that when she is on the freeway, the car sometimes has trouble shifting into overdrive. We were also told previously that our clutches were burning. So, I am taking this opportunity to get the transmission overhauled as well. They said that they would do it all for $2200. I whined and told them that if they could do it for $1500 I'd have it done. They said that they couldn't so I told them to just repair the differential. About an hour later they called back and said they'd do it for $1650 and I said, "ok."

I just hope that this is the last repair I have to do to this car in a long time. The engine is strong. It had better last me another 100k miles.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

We had a great time this weekend celebrating Dad's birthday. Although Dad was able to enjoy most of it with us, there were a few key moments he missed out on.

I guess when you get to be over 55, you just can't make it through ALL of your birthday party. We had to split the party up into little bits here and there so the old man could take it all in strides.

Going under the knife

Yesterday I met with the back specialist for an assessment of the options ahead on my disc problems. After reviewing the MRI films and the prior treatments that I have had, we decided to go ahead with the surgery. I was somewhat relieved to hear that surgery would not be including the fusion of discs in my back. I have two herniated disks, but one is minimal and not causing any problems. The other one is still small, but it is the one that is pinching the nerve to my leg - causing all of the problems.

The doctor will be trimming a bit of the vertebrae and protruding disc to let the nerve return to it's proper place without obstruction. He said that it will require an overnight stay and some bedrest for about a week. After that, I will need to be really careful with what I do for about six weeks. Also, he mentioned that I could have some permanent nerve damage to my leg that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. But he believes it will be managable and that I should be able to participate in most activities that I enjoy as time goes by.

The surgery is scheduled for Feb 27. We are hoping to close on our house around that time two. So, it is going to put a lot of things a little tight, but it is well worth it.

Piss and Valentine's day

Grandma Reed sent the kids some Pezz dispensers and Pezz candy for Valentine's day. The kids thought that was really cool. They had one packet of Pezz consumed within ten minutes. Alayna set the Pezz candy aside however, and stole a big sucker that one of the kids had given to me for Valentine's Day. She walked arouond the house with the big ball of sugar in her mouth. The sucker was so big, however, that she couldn't swallow the saliva in her mouth, and she got a huge 10cm diameter sugar-spit mark on my pants and on the couch before I knew what was happening.

Johnathan was exercising his reading skills by reading the Pezz package. After reading the package outloud he told us he wanted to thank Grandma Reed for the "Piss" that she sent to them. Obviously we need to work on his reading & phonetics a little bit more.

Going, Going, Gone!

Well, our offer was accepted today - we just need to fill out the paperwork!!! I told Amber that this was her birthday present :-).

We're pretty excited about it. It is on an L shaped street that does not have any through traffic on it.

We won't be moving in until end of April most likely as the family is building a new home and wishes to wait until it is done before they move out.

We just need to fill out the paperwork and then we will be done. Wish us luck!

Get together in Provo

This last weekend, Mom, Janae, and Joe all came down to Provo for a weekend of fun. The three of them arrived in Provo around 11pm (I believe) and stayed the night at Jen and Dave's place. That happened to be the place where Dustin stayed the night as well. Shantell and I just stayed at our place by ourselves ;).

In the morning, everyone came to my place and we had pancakes and hashbrowns. Shantell and I really enjoyed having everyone over and hosting our little breakfast. We had 9 people there. It's the first time since we finished our house that we've had more than 4 people there. It was fun to chat with everyone and swap stories. There was a pushup contest. Janae won out of the girls and Jacob won between the boys :) ). We also did hand stands where Mom took the prize for standing on her hands the longest without falling. I had no idea she was so good at handstands.

After breakfast (which should probably be called lunch at this time) the girls went shopping and Joe and I worked on our computers. Then we went to The Work and Glory part II. It was really good. Shantell and I had been wanting to see it for awhile and it did not disappoint us.

It was so fun last Saturday. I invite the family (including Dad next time if he can) to come down more often. We had a blast hanging out. We really should do that more often.

I have no idea why I am the one blogging this. I have no idea how the reception went or anything that went on at Jen and Dave's place. Joe, Jen, Nae, Mom.....you guys may add to this blog if you wish.

It's time to start working out again!

Hello everyone. It feels like I am slowly losing touch with what is happening to everyone as I am sure that others feel the same way about me. It has been quite a while since I have blogged an update on my family.

First of all, I just want to tell everyone that familyworkout has been updated and improved! It still has its little glitches but I hope to have them worked out before too long. It is better, however, than it was in the past. It's quite a fine site I might say :). I would like everyone to begin to log their workouts again on this site. I know that Mom, Jen, John, and Shantell have been working out, but only a few have been logging their exercise time. This site is a powerful too to see progress and regression over different periods of our life. The address for the workoutzone is http://workoutzone.net . You can also access it the usual way from the andersenranch website. It would be good for our health if we would exercise a little more and track our progress :).

Things have been good for Shantell and me. Our life has slowed considerably since the move and improvements to the house were complete. Things are getting busier, however, now that I'm full swing into a new semester at school. I am hoping to finish my prerequisite classes by August and start the Utah State MBA program in September. I have enjoyed doing these courses simultaneously with John. It makes it a lot more fun. It does feel like school will never end, though!

Oh, and for a funny story to tell. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night laughing or (very seldom :) ) crying. I tell Shantell every time that it happens and she thinks it's pretty funny. Well, last night I did it again. I woke myself up laughing.
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A few minutes later, however, I heard Shantell laughing in her sleep :). I told her about it in the morning, but she doesn't believe me yet :).

Long Night in Pocatello

Last night Nicole and I broke up.

Long Night

Aliece has been doing much better today - she has still been cranky, but she has been awake, eating, going to the bathroom, and playing. It was good to see her greet me when I came home from work this evening.

While we were eating dinner, however, Amber and I both noticed that Aliece's lips were very dark - nearly black. Amber pressed on her hands and arms and observed that the color was a little slow getting back.

Amber decided to call a nurse and see what she thought. There was no question in the nurses response, but that we were to bring her into the after-hours care center.

I stayed home with the rest of the crew while Amber hauled Aliece off to the hospital. After three hours, a pneumonia scare, and some x-rays, they decided that Aliece is just fine. I guess they were worried that sometimes when a child get's ill their body is weakened and they can catch pneumonia easily. According to the x-rays though, she didn't have pneumonia. They assume that it is just that Aliece's body is still not up to par as a healthy child, but she should get there in a day or two.

Amber says that Aliece did really well at the hospital. They got back home just after 10pm.

Snow Angel

Alayna must have loved her little stint outside playing in the snow on Friday. Yesterday I stayed home from Church to watch Aliece since she was still sick. Alayna stayed home with me out of convenience.

I was doing something in the kitchen - probably making a sandwich, and Alayna kept coming over to me holding this stocking cap up to me and grunting. I would put it on her and then she would walk over to the patio doors and try to put the snow boots on. She never got them on, but soon she was back over to me with a large polar fleece type shirt. She did the same grunting noises and so I put the shirt over her head so that it fit around her neck and on her shoulders. After that she went to the patio doors and stood there for many minutes grunting and trying to open the patio doors. There was no doubt that little girl wanted to go outside and play in the snow. She was pretty bummed when I did not go over there to help her get out in the white stuff.

What is this stuff?

Yesterday morning we got our first real snowfall of the year. It was the first (and possibly only) time this winter that I had to shovel the sidewalk. It was really wet and heavy snow too.

After the kids got home and I got done with work, we headed outside to play in the white stuff. By then the snow had crystalized and we couldn't get the snow to pack at all for snowmen, but we had a great time doing snow ball fights instead.

Alayna made it out for the first time in a snow suit to play in the snow. She wasn't too adventurous in it as she mostly stayed in one place and watched us all play. After a while she decided that it looked good so she stuck her face in the snow - man she quickly repented of that!!

Aliece, sadly, was unable to come out and play with us. On Wednesday, Amber caught her filling up the toothbrush holder in the kids' bathroom and drinking the water out of it. She got on her case and told her that it would make her sick. A few hours later she was sick. We don't know if it really was from that, but we tell her that it was so that she doesn't do it again.

Anyway, we are getting kind of worried for her. She is unable to keep anything down, and thus has not been able to drink liquids since Wednesday afternoon. Amber will call the doctor's office today to see at what point we should worry about dehydration. Hopefully she gets better soon enough to play in what remains of our "winter".

Mmmmm, Mmmmmm

On Monday we had a family day with the kids. Amber took Aylee shopping and I took the other kids to run some errands. Then we rented a movie and watched it with the kids. For dinner I cooked up some of that lamb Dad got for us. I barbequed the chops and ohhh...they were good. The kids all seemed to like the new kind of "chicken" (as they call all meat). Thanks Dad and Mom for the meat. It is good stuff!!

This would have never happened with our first child

I had to leave work early today because Aylee had a choir practice that I had agreed to take her to. The plan was that I would arrive at 4:30, pick Aylee up and take her to the practice.

It was all going well. I left work just in time and arrived at the house at 4:29. When I pulled into the drive way I saw Aylee playing with a bunch of friends in the neighbor's front yard. I thought Aylee knew the plan, so I just rolled down my window and told her to get in so that she would get to the practice on time. I kind of hurried her on her way into the van. She hopped in and away we went.

When we got to the church, it was locked and we walked around to find an open door. Finally, we found one on the other side of the church, so I left Aylee there and then returned home.

When I got home, Amber was visiting with Ellen Kosmicki, so I took an opportunity and visited with her also. It was not long after that Ellen had to leave. Amber and I visited about a couple of things and I opened the mail and read over some of the bills and such.

After 20 minutes had gone by, Amber suggested that I go to the Church and wait for it to end so that Aylee wouldn't have to walk home in the dark. I was shutting by bedroom door. I saw Aliece in her room and Johnathan in the living room playing on the computer. As I got my things together to go get Aylee, I asked Amber where Alayna was. Busily working, Amber just stated that Alayna was playing with Aylee. There was a big pause by the both of us after she said that...and then the panic ensued.

"You mean, you didn't see Alayna when you picked up Aylee", spurted out of Amber's mouth. Quickly following, "You mean Alayna was supposed to be with Aylee?!?", were the words out of my both while the two of us rushed out the front door.

We hurried on down the street, looking on both sides of the street and into backyards as we nervously hastened our search. Luckily it was only a few feet from our driveway that we noticed a conglomeration of five, six, and seven year old neighbor kids huddled around a green jogging stroller. I spotted her right away. Alayna was in the jogging stroller with her blanket and baby doll, and all of the neighbor kids were playing with her as if she were their own baby.

When I got there, they all said, "Aylee left Alayna here, so we were taking care of her". I thanked them all profusely and in relief, we both returned home.

I always knew that our parents got more lax with the younger siblings than they had been of us. I guess we are falling slowly into that same pattern.

It always helps to live in a neighborhood with good neighbors....and their seven year old kids!

Wow! All I can say is Wow!

This is what we got in the mail today. This is the back of the envelope. The Letter, it appears has been blessed. It came with a 10x16 paper prayer rug that you are supposed to kneel on. You say a prayer and when what you prayed for comes true, you mail the prayer rug to the original sender. Interesting... As for me, I'll continue my prayers on the carpet.

I do have to admit though, these people are not selling anything. They just want you to use it, mark on a piece of paper what blessings came to you for using it, and send it back (return postage is even paid).

For those of you who hate skiing...

Tonight I went to mutual to be with the youth of the ward for a little while. It was the joint activity, which means all the young men and young women meet together for the activity. Tonight we were making Ginger Bread houses and having contests between them all.

While I was observing the ginger bread houses, I noticed a cast on one of the young men. I asked him how he broke his arm. He told me he got it while skiing earlier this week. Apparantly, it was very foggy, which causes frost to accumulate everywhere - including the chair lifts. He was on the chairlift by himself, sitting on a frostly seat. A blast of wind came up and tipped the chair a bit. Because the chair was so slippery, off he went. He said he fell some 25 or 30 feet to a scary terrain below. He landing first on his feet and then fell to the ground on his stomach. His arm was between the ground and his stomach. The force was such that it broke the arm.

So, for those of us who aren't going skiing in this year, just be glad that you won't be taking that sort of risk. :-)

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.