I have not title for my entry.

Nothing outstanding this week. No stories of drunks climbing signs, sissy white kumonos and yellow belts, defacing Richard Scarry books, or feminizing my children, but we'll see what I can come up with.

Yes dad, like you I enjoy this blog thing. It is great to hear from all of the family members (I get Erik's blog at work), and see the pictures. Les, sorry we didn't go to your show this year. It's been a busy month and two of my priests have shows next weekend.

Dad, I feel a little like you in administering your ward. We've made some changes in the young men presidency and things are starting to "click." The Bishop thanked us today in APC and said that any one of us leaders could be in his seat. We all looked at each other and asked "is it I?" The big news is that we plan to attend General Conference this spring. Originally I was just going to take the young men but then the YW heard about it and asked "why can't we go?" We are now planning for 30+ attendees. I have no idea if we'll get that many tickets, but we're going anyway. I think Brant is going too. Brant, I'll Nextel beep you in the Conference Center.

Lisa played a duet in sacrament meeting with one of her piano students. It was great to see the fruits of her labor. The student is a YW who only started a year or two ago. She now accompanies her seminary class.

Monkey see, Monkey do

Tonight's picture fits perfectly with Lacey's copycat theme of Weston. Katie saw Tyler doing his workbooks from Grandma and decided she wanted to play along. She led me into Ty's room and had me help her get out a Richard Scarry book and then she found a pencil on the floor. She then set herself up across from Ty and proceeded to draw in her "workbook." Monkey see, monkey do. (Nice tie in to Dad's e-mails, huh?)

This week's news is that my nerdiness has increased another notch. Saturday, I took my General test and have now moved up another Amateur Radio License. A lady in our stake took it and got 35 out 35. I didn't want to be outdone (male ego), so I studied really hard. I ended up making a dumb mistake and got 34 out 35. I now have access to most of the frequencies alotted to Hams. (I can now talk radio to radio to Hams around the world.) Now I just need to start saving my pennies for that new radio. Sidework anyone?

Les had her shows this weekend. The kids did really well and it just got better each night. She had a lot of friends from church come each night and it was fun to see their reactions. Tyler and I went Saturday night with Les's dad. It was fun to see it all put together and polished. I had seen many parts of it during rehersals, but it was the first time to see it all together.

Today was our Ward Conference. It centered around Christ and the sacrament. I was given a speaking part near the end of the presentation during Sunday School on the crucifixtion and resurrection. In true Zirker fashion, I bawled through the whole thing. The music was really good and the spirit was really strong. The Stake President spoke during Sacrament meeting and then we finished with the sacrament at the very end. Our Bishop blessed the sacrament with the priests. It was a neat way to end the conference.

Have a great week!!!

Brant

Can You Find Me in the Picture?

Lacey just posted their blog from here and now it is my turn. We had a total change in our bishopric today. My two counselors were both Vet students and they both graduate in May. They have been very good but now are involved in "rotations" and are out of town or on-call a lot. I decided to change the whole bishopric. So, now I have two new counselors, a new ward clerk and a new executive secretary. They are a good bunch and I am looking forward to working with them.

Tomorrow morning I go in to see Dr. Pennington to get the results of my MRI. I am a little apprehensive as usual but eager to get this thing fixed. It is a constant pain and sometimes just aches from hanging there. I cannot feel it improving at all so I am assuming there will be some sort of surgery.

The Jazz Festival is history. It snowed almost every day. Not a lot but enough to make it messy. Mom and I went out to run of the sacrament meeting programs last night and the stake center was a mess. She and I spent an hour and cleaned 6 restrooms and mom hauled out all the garbage. Finally we just left chairs, tables, pianos, drum sets, etc. all over the place. This morning it was all put away and cleaned up. The jazz fairy must have done it.

Sacrament meeting was great. Besides the change in the bishopric, I had taken a few minutes at the end of the meeting last week and asked everyone to try to get to church on time (sometimes we start with about 8 people in the congregation). Well, this week Seth and Lacey's talks were about attending our church meetings and they both talked about their families attitudes about getting to church on time as they were growing up. They gave excellent talks. At the beginning of the meeting the chapel was about half full. See, someone was listening last week. I felt good because the Stake President and one of his counselors were on the stand with us.

I contacted a stump grinder for an estimate but he hasn't shown up yet. Maybe this week.

The contractors have completed the building addition on our building in Pilot Rock, Oregon so I am going to the "substantial completion" meeting on Tuesday. Bishop Berglund is going with me. I enjoy having him along. We are a couple of "has beens" and we gab about old bishop's experiences all the way down and back. It is about a 4 hour drive each way.

Mom is busy with school and college. She has a big paper due this week so she is busy working on it.

I know I've said this before but I sure enjoy your blog entries. Keep on blogging.

Love, Dad and Mom

About the picture. You guys don't know what real sky-diving is all about. We were doing it with military parachutes and ill fitting helmets. My jump was a static line jump. My rip cord was tied to one leg of the pilots seat. When I jumped out I was all alone and the ground was a long way down. The other guy in the picture is Keith Rodeback. He was a year older than Uncle Eugene but was of our "group" of friends from Warden.

Eyelash Curler

We had to log in under mom and dad's name because I can't remember our password and our computer is old and slow at home and doesn't like blogs...One more way we use Mom and Dad...

To explain this week's picture, often when I am rushing to get ready in the mornings, Weston is in his high chair eating breakfast, watching me apply the puddy to my face. He likes to get in my make-up drawer and "pretend." This is him trying to use an eyelash curler.

Our Sabbath meetings were exceptional this morning, Seth and I had to give our talks. Thanks for the input Kevin, Seth quoted you as the general authority of the family. Seriously though, the tidbit fit right in.

I finally shelled out the money and joined Curves officially this past week and I love it. Seth dropped me off once and saw one of the ladies that works there. He said she looked super old, and I told him she was about the same age of the other ladies that workout there. I love it, it's something that I can actually go and do without feeling silly.

That's about it for us.