Just Married

Tommy got married yesterday. It's been a busy couple of days getting everything ready for the big day. Rachel asked Stephanie to do the cake and Stephanie asked me to help. It was huge and the inspiration picture we were given was perfect and intimidating. Stephanie baked the cakes on Thursday and on Friday evening the two of us put it all together at the deli. We decorated until 1:00am when I started getting freaked out. The deli is on Capitol Hill in Seattle and was recently broken into. (Well, not so much broken into, they climbed through some open windows...) Anyways, we were getting a little loopy by the time we stopped and were very unsure of how it was going to turn out. The next morning I was ready to scrape everything off, smooth it out and put ribbon around each layer. But, when we put the layers together at the reception, I felt a little better. Rachel was very excited about it, and that's all that matters. As long as the bride is happy.

The temple sealing was awesome. It's always nice to actually hear what the sealer is saying and not be the ones everyone is staring at.

We head home tomorrow afternoon. Seth has started working with the strength and conditioning coach at the U of I. He works with the athletes in the mornings and then will finish painting Grandpa's house in the afternoons.

Nothing new in Memphis.

Here's a house we saw a couple weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon walk


Too bad there is a jail one block down and a whole row of abandoned houses on the other side of the block. Why do you think cities don't put any money into their roads or appearance or cleanliness? Is it because of mismanagement? High unemployment so no one pays taxes and the city doesn't have any money to work with?

OM

Does this look like a kid who enjoyed the college life or what!

Les and Ty got back this afternoon from the Odyssey of the Mind competition. They had all kinds of pictures and lots of fun stories. Ty enjoyed trading pins with the other teams and got some fun ones from China, South Korea, Poland and Mexico. His presentation went well and I think that they placed somewhere in the middle. They enjoyed neat opening and closing ceremonies, complete with lasers, smoke and flames. The rest of the time they spent visiting presentations by NASA and other teams and eating college dorm food. Les feels like we had it pretty nice in old DT after living for 4 days in Iowa State University's dorms. Pretty old and worn down.

I survived as Mr. Mom for four days and still have the same number of kids as when I started. Getting three girls ready for church is getting easier and Aimee was proud of doing her own hair this morning.

Right now it is raining pretty good with some thunder and lightning. Aimee built a fort on the couch to protect her, but I'm loving it! Nothing like a good storm!

Brant

Hooray Kanyon!

I made Kanyon take off the training wheels the week of his 6th Bday. He did great the first time and then refused to try again unless he had knee and elbow pads. Seriously? The boys ended up taking bikes to the Father's and Sons Campout this weekend, Kevin was busy doing something so Kanyon hopped on and away he went. Kanyon said it was okay to put this video on--I love the ending. ENJOY!

It's HOT

This is (left to right), my dad, his mother (Pearl), his sister Bonnie, his dad (John), his little brother (Ron). Notice the Mormon derrick in the background. It is used to lift hay from the hay slip (see last weeks blog) up onto the hay stack. The hay was stacked "loose" (not baled) with this method.

Yesterday was HOT. About 90 degrees. Today is a little cooler and the rest of the week should be in the 70's.

Matt and I went to the Fathers & Sons Outing Friday and Saturday. It was nice, no rain, good food. Dave Johnson was in charge of the food - we had breakfast burritos. Matt and I stayed and visited with Beve Sterglund till about 2:00 in the afternoon.

We came home and showered and went to Amanda's reception. Kimbre was already there doing the bride's and mother's hair. They all looked very nice. Richards had a very large tent (from Sun Rental) set up in the back yard and it was quite cool under it. Mom helped with the serving.

Seth, Lacey and family are in Seattle for Tommy's wedding. They will be home tomorrow.

We're still waiting instructions from the guy's insurance company about fixing the Explorer. My patience has about run out. Nobody seems too excited about getting this thing fixed except me.

We had a little bonding with Matt and Kimbre last evening before they went home. Does the setting look familiar??

Hope you are all well.

Dad and Mom

Adria's Bday

Thanks for the gifts!
Especially the singing microphone. We'll be sure to bring it on our next trip to Idaho!

OOPS!!!!

We just got back from Palouse Falls. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice ride. We got there early (10:30am) before it got too crowded and enjoyed the sights. As we returned to the car to get our picnic lunch, there stood a man, his wife, and the park ranger, looking at our car. On the ground lay what was left of our left turn/brake light assembly. He was trying to park close and got a little too close. We swapped info, gave the Park Ranger our info, shook hands and went our merry ways. I'll call our insurance company tomorrow and see what they want to do. With an old car, I always worry that they will want to total it. Hopefully it is worth more than the damages. We'll see what happens.

PS - I had the camera in my hand when I walked up. It's nice to have a photo record of the incident.

My latest project

A lady in my ward is having a family reunion this summer. She asked if I could help to create an image that they could use on t-shirts, mugs, posters, place mats, etc. She gave me this picture to work from. It is an old barn on their family's original homestead in North Dakota.I created this image based on the photo above. It took me several months (of procrastination).
Braxton had his first baseball practice last Monday. Kanyon had his first t-ball practice on Wednesday, led by Coach Z. We had fun running around the bases, throwing tennis balls and learning about bat safety. Our games start the week of the 1st.
Since it's getting warmer, Lisa thought she would finish the jeans quilt that we started last fall. She'll probably finish it in June, just in time for the summer heat.
Hope you alls have a good Memorial Day.

How Astute Are You?

Did anyone notice the name of the fraternity on Zack's t-shirt from last week?

More Old Pictures

This is the Zirker men standing (leaning) against Great Grandpa's hay slip. A hay slip is a platform of wood boards nailed (bolted) together, pulled behind a tractor (horses), that is loaded with hay and brought into the farm yard to be unloaded. It actually slides along the ground (the long boards act as runners). The people in the picture are: Uncle Ron, Eugene, My Grandpa Zirker, Me, Your Grandpa Zirker (dog = unknown).

Summer is here. The trees are blooming, the grass in growing like mad, flowers are starting to bloom and today everyone has gone camping. We combined all four "Married Wards" at church and it just made one nice sized ward. The four bishops take turns conducting. Last Sunday as we were going through the days our ward conducts, my first councilor noticed that we conduct on Fast Sunday all three months of the summer. We just smiled and said, "don't tell anyone." I'm not sure Bishop Skinner noticed as he put the schedule together and I'm not going to tell him. Conducting on Fast Sunday is the easiest Sunday of the month.

Mom and I are going to Palouse Falls tomorrow. I've wanted to go but just never got around to it. All of the rivers are running pretty full due to the warm weather and run-off so the falls should look pretty good. I'll post a picture next week if it turns out.

Grandpa's house is turning out nice. Seth (with Lacey's help) is moving right along. They hope to have the front done before they leave for Seattle mid-week for Seth's brother's wedding. The trim is kind of a cream color (similar to ours) and the body is "olive" (Grandpa calls it brown).

Mom only has 7 days of school (to teach, she has a couple more for teachers) left. She doesn't have any summer school this year so she is looking forward to the break.

Matt and I are going camping Friday and Saturday for the ward Fathers and Sons Camp out. He may have to testify in court but wont know for sure until Thursday. If he does, we'll just be a little late getting to the campsite.

Enjoy the holiday (those that get one).

Trent's Wolf

Last Wednesday at pack meeting Trent received his Wolf. He also received a gold and a silver arrow point. He really loves cub scouts!

In other news, I (Erik) was released from the bishopbric today. Something about not being able to serve in the bishopbric and on the high council at the same time. By the way, does anyone know where you can get a used rameumptom?

It finally stopped raining here in Memphis so we took advantage of the good weather (no humidity today because of the north wind) and took a drive/walk around town.

We saw the TempleIt's a small one and it's in one of the nicer suburbs on the far northern side of Memphis. It's only open for one evening session each day except on Tuesdays when there are three sessions.


We also drove through the Downtown area and walked along the river. Watching the boats go by and seeing all of the islands in the middle of the river made me secretly wish I was Huck Finn. My friend, Ry-Ry, once tried to convince me that we should canoe from Montana to New Orleans. I'm starting to think that wouldn't be a half bad idea.

Summer is here!!!!

Seth finished his last final for the semester on Friday morning!!! The weather turned nice just in time for summer to begin. On Thursday, Seth started working on Grandpa's house. He's been pressure washing and doing all the prep work. I went over on Friday morning for a little bit to help and did some scraping and had to leave so the kids could take naps. I also found out on Friday afternoon that I was accepted to Saturday's Farmer's Market. It was a little hectic getting everything ready with such short notice, but we all mananged. Mom and Dad were good to help watch the kids and take care of everyone on Saturday. It turned into one of those days where you have to be somewhere every hour. Farmer's Market went really well and I hope to do it again next Saturday. Seth has to help move a couple of neighbors this week, but in the mean time we hope to have finished the prep work on Grandpa's house and get the front and side painted.

Can anyone guess where these pictures were taken?

Odds and Ends from Moscow

Mom has been wanting a new barbecue, so when I saw this I knew we had to have it. I just wonder what it must be like when you are towing it down the road and some guy pulls up behind you.

Here are the fender emblems I mentioned last week. I find it fitting that they are nestled here in the bookcase with the discourses of the prophets. All good things are together on the shelf.


Yesterday was graduation at the U of I. At two o'clock we went next door to a party for Zack. There was lots of food and drink (of several kinds). He is working for UPS and plans to stay there for the present time. That is his girlfriend sitting beside him. Don't know what the plans are in that department. The first picture shows how much he looks like his Dad.

We went to Zack's party at 2:00pm, then the Commissioning Ceremony for one of the men in our ward. He received his commission in the Navy and will start training to command a nuclear submarine. From there we went to the Quail Run building for Courtney Berglund's reception. We met and visited with some of the old gang from our town ward.
I think summer is here. It is about 75 degrees today and supposed to be in the 80's tomorrow. I got the lawn mowed, Round-up sprayed, dandelions dug up, and cars washed yesterday. Today at church many of us had a little sunburn.
I'm looking forward to Fathers & Sons camping with Matt. It will be nice to get out and smell the evergreens and eat a side of bacon.
Have a good week.

Jet Cars

For your viewing pleasure, I present ....

Brant

More B-Day Pics

This is the volcano cake that Lisa made for Kanyon's birthday. Notice the sparkling candles, dry ice smoke, lava icing, and dinosaurs ascending the cinder cone in a suicidal death march. We had about 10 boys, and one neighbor girl, over for the dino-party. Lisa also made a t-shirt for each party attendee. For all you curious crafty ladies, she cut a stencil out of butcher paper, ironed it wax-side down onto the shirt, then painted around the edges with a sponge. She then removed the paper. They looked great, before they were washed. Over half the paint came off after laundering.

The boys' first piano recital. Here is Kanyon warming up beforehand (or maybe this was taken afterwards).

And Braxton.

Kanyon said to Lisa the other day, "Hey look, I'm a barber pole."

Since the blog is a little slow tonight, I'll answer Dad's request and tell ya'll a little about life here.

I live about 20 min south of downtown Memphis, just about 3 or 4 miles into Mississippi. Memphis is a regular large metropolitan area, but it isn't huge. Definitely smaller than Denver, maybe about the same size as Salt Lake (the downtown seems smaller than SLC).

This isn't the building where I live, but mine looks just like it

It's very green with huge trees and hedge rows everywhere and it's rained about 3/4 of the days we've been here. I guess that's the price you pay for the green. We've had some thunder and lightening storms that kept me from sleeping for an hour or more at night and even a tornado watch one county over.

The houses where I work are inhabited by about 90% Black folks. The Wal-Mart that we go to is about 50/50 Black and White. Our apartment complex is about 3/4 White and it looks like there are 1 or 2 Black families in our ward. The races seems to be divided along socio-economic lines, but not completely. We live in a nicer part of town at the very southern edge of the Memphis metro area so I'm guessing that's why there are more Whites in the Ward and apartments.

Work has been fun. We usually start around 3 pm and make it home between 9 and 11. We've worked across the Mississippis River in West Memphis, Arkansas and now we're working near our house, just across the border into Tennesse. There are no shortage of characters out there and the best ones are the old, Black matriarchs. I had a 90 yr old lady tell me that I better not be trying to slip anything past her because it wouldn't work and my friend about got a whacked for putting his foot on a lady's coffee table. She didn't even hesitate or care that she didn't know him, as soon as his foot hit her table she said, "Git yo foot off my table".




Happy Mother's Day Mom. Thanks for everything, especially all those paper routes and papers typed during High School.

After 23 Years.......

The inside unit.

The door attachment

The power unit.

My favorite part. I don't have to "fling" the door up and down any more.

It was a busy week so I'll try to keep it brief. I did 4 Eagle boards of review, 1 bishop's training, and met a contractor late evening on Friday night. So, I had no evenings to myself (whine, whine). This next week looks a little easier. I didn't even have time to mow the lawn. I'll do that tomorrow.

Yesterday I installed the garage door opener I got for my birthday. It took quite a while as a one man job (Mom helped occasionally) but I am excited to have it in.

Early in the week I met a local ward PFR in Kamiah to look at a job we're doing and afterwards we sat in the pickup and he told me his life story for about 1 1/2 hours. The most interesting part was his experience in the Korean War. He was in the first Marine Division that fought it's way into North Korea and all the way to the Chinese border and then got cut off from behind. They were told they would have to fight their way back out. There were 30,000 of them against 150,000 Chinese. He made it all through the war and never spilled a drop of blood. He did receive 8 different commendations (medals). Now I am into the Korean War history. When you know someone who was there it makes it much more interesting. Much of his fighting was done in the snow at about 30 below zero. Google it if you want. They are called the Chosin Frozen (a name they gave themselves). The Chosin is a reservoir they fought to take. I even found the name of my cousin that was killed in that war.

In 1964 Eugene and I went to the National Scout Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. On the way we stopped in Dearborn, Michigan and toured one of the Ford assembly plants. They were making a new car called the Mustang. As we were going along the assembly line there was a huge box of Mustang Fender Emblems. Some of the guys took some. I didn't and have always wanted one. So, with my birthday money from Grandpa, I ordered a left hand and right hand emblem. They are now proudly displayed on my bookcase - 45 years later.

For Mothers Day in the ward, Mom suggested a "Brunch" during relief society. She put it all together and after the opening exercises we open the accordion door off the relief society room and there is was, all set up. There was chicken salad crescents, vegi trays, nuts, mints, etc. The men all picked up their children and went to the nursery were the real circus began. Those without children sat in the foyer and visited. The sisters seemed to really enjoy it and had fun visiting and talking. The Elders have requested Sister Zirkers doughnuts for Father's Day.

That's about it for now. More next week.

Bucksnort - One of the many towns I've seen while driving around the Tennesse countryside.

Kanyon's B-day

This is one of Kanyon's many "cakes." We had cupcakes yesterday (notice they are oversized. Lisa bought a large pan and has had fun making big cupcakes). Today he took brownies to school for all of the kids. And Friday, he will have another cake at his party. I think he got this Lego set from Grandma Ellefsen. He had it built (all by himself) within an hour. Thanks Mom and Dad for the baseball stuff.

Sorry I missed the long line of blogs yesterday. It was one of those night where I fall asleep with my Sunday clothes still on. (Yes, I changed them this morning).