Here's an update, in list form:

• We're not going to Kyrgyzstan. Because of the recent political unrest (aka the coup), UVU has deemed it unsafe for us to travel there and forbade my internship. So we'll be here for the summer, doing odds and ends.
  
• We've been learning about flood irrigation since our neighbor gets a good 5 hours of water from the irrigation ditch. We help him flood his yard, our gardens, and then our yards every 7 days + 8 hours.
  
• I'll be in the Orem Summerfest parade next week with my karate school.
• We've been having backyard bbqs since the weather finally turned nice. We're hoping to avoid any more snow until November or so.
  
• Kelly's taking her ESL class on an educational camping trip next week. They'll go to Arches, and Monument Valley, and hang out with a Navajo guy on his acres upon acres of land.

That's all.

Father-CHILD campout

This year our bishop opted to combine the father-son and ward campouts. He gave moms a break and allowed them to stay home. Lisa attended a Pampered Chef party while I took the four kids up to Ellsworth Park. Lisa was worried that I would lose Adria, but she jumped in the van right as we were leaving. Ellsworth Park (on Lookout Mtn, west of Denver)

The girls.

Adria, Raya and their friend Emmalie

Braxton, Kanyon, Trevor and William

HPGL

Solve the letter puzzle to guess my new calling at church.

Not Much News

Not much new happening here this week. I posted about our near miss yesterday and not much has happened since then. Mom and I went to the Farmers Market yesterday and enjoyed it. We usually see quite a few friends and acquaintances from the ward. It is just fun to hang around and watch people. There are lots of tree huggers and environmental wackos but also lots of good food and things to see and buy. I had a cinnamon roll that was about 3' by 3' (no not really).

This Friday and Saturday is the Quail Run Ward Fathers & Sons Outing. Matt is coming down and he and I will be going. If I feel ambitious, we may take the new tent Mom and I bought several months ago and give it a try.

The weather is beautiful today (naturally, it is Sunday) it is supposed to rain every day next week. We'll go camping anyway.

Hope it is spring where you live.

A Close Call

It was Friday night and Mom and I were headed to the New Hong Kong restaurant for dinner. We were headed south on Hayes approaching East City Park and preparing to turn right onto 3rd street. There, in the few parking stalls along the east side of East City Park, was a youngish looking couple leaning against their car and being quite amorous. Mom noticed them, I noticed them, and obviously the lady coming the other direction toward us noticed them too. I was doing about 35 miles per hour (legal for that section of street) when suddenly the lady coming toward us decided to turn across our lane and park next to the amorous couple. I hit the brakes and stood on them and hoped for the best. I remember thinking, we are too close, we're not going to get stopped, and this is a brand new car. I just kept pushing harder on the brake pedal. Just as I thought impact was inevitable, we came to a stop (about 6-8 feet from her right side doors). She looked up, waved her arm and continued into the parking stall, all to the consternation of Mom, me, and the amorous couple.

All's well that ends well. In other words, no dent, no foul. If she had messed up our car I would probably have jumped out and pummeled her about the head.

We proceeded to the New Hong Kong and enjoyed our meal.

End of the Year

"Miss Patti"

This week was Katie's big end of the year show for her pre-school. After three times the songs are still the same, but the kids are just as excited. Katie had fun and enjoyed singing for us. She has a teddy bear picnic on Wednesday and then she is officially done and ready for Kindergarten!

Saturday was also Senior Graduation party day. Les did the rounds with the kids and then I met them at the last one. It was for our next door neighbor. They held it at the park near our house. We had fun visiting and even saw one of our old neighbors that had moved away. I find it hard to believe, but we have been in this neighbor almost 10 years and have made some fun friendships with our neighbors through the years.

This weekend was also our Stake Conference. One of the stake counselors gave a great talk on pornography. Rather than dwell on the we "should nots", he spent most of the time on the beauty and meaning of intimacy betweeen a married couple. He then finished by stating how pornography cheapens that relationship. I actually came out spirtiually lifted which is hard to do when covering that topic. I mentioned that we can now hand out the usual copy of the "Miracle of Forgiveness" and a copy of this talk along with it.

Have a great week!

Brant

Can You Guess What's Missing?

Tuesday, Wilson Tree Service arrived about 7:30 am and removed the three big trees between our deck and Stavros deck. Shane had wanted to for several years because he worried about the trees leaning over our house. We kind of liked them so told him not to worry about it. Finally I could see that the trees really were leaning quite a bit so I told him to go ahead. The tree service said it would save him about $300 if they could boom them over our house. I had already gone to work but Mom said they went right over the house. I wish I had stayed home to watch. When I got home everything was all cleaned up and all that was left was a little saw dust. It really leaves a hole in the sky and Tracy Stavros is not at all happy. I guess Shane will sleep better at night, Zack said he worried every time the wind blew.

Not much news this week. One of our custodians took the "buy-out" and retired this week. We had a little party for him on Thursday. The other two who will be leaving will stay until December (the latest the church will allow them to stay).
Mom and I got another calling today (we will be sustained next week). We will teach the temple preperation class. There is a recent convert (single mom) and a 19 year old boy that are getting ready to take the class but Bishop Walker said neither is quite ready yet. We will probably start in a month or two.

That's all folks.

It's too late to turn back now.

We're one step closer to redoing the floor on the main level of our house. Over the past few weeks (eternities for Lisa) we ripped out the four layers of kitchen flooring, the tiles and plywood in the hall, and carpet in the living room (Lisa worked so hard for 6 years to keep it clean). I bought the new laminate yesterday. Hopefully we'll start this week.

Graduation

Is that bar actually bending?

Traditional pose

As you can see from these two pictures and the ones on Lacey's blog, yesterday was the big day. Contrats to Seth (Lacey and boys) for completing the journey. We were proud of Seth and afterwords it was fun to see where he has been working these last couple of years. I couldn't even lift the bar off the ground. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed visiting with Seth's family, eating Hawaiian BBQ, making smores with our family and a couple from the old Moscow University 6th Ward. They are friends of Seth and Lacey's and Lacey had been tending their kids while they cleaned their apartment. They left for Boise Saturday morning.

I think Seth and Lacey are about moved in and somewhat settled. It looks like a real home and I'm sure Grandpa would be proud. They have fixed a few things they found "our of order" and have a few more to go, toilet, wall crack, etc.

I drove to Boise on Tuesday and did building inspections on Wednesday. I was supposed to meet a contractor in Pendleton on Thursday but the parts didn't arrive so I came home Wednesday night. I kind of enjoy the trip but do not like to stay in motels. I like my bed, shower, and pillow.

We think Spring/Summer is just around the corner. We are in the upper 70's but next week we drop back into the 50's and 60's.

Wilson Tree Service will be here on Tuesday to take out the trees between us and Stavros. Shane has been talking about it for several years but I kept talking him out of it. Finally I decided that they did kind of pose a threat to falling on our house. They gave him a better deal if we would let them park in our driveway and boom the limbs over our house. Wish us luck.

Have a good week.

Cub Scout Bike Rodeo

Lisa wanted me to post this video of me on a sweet ride at our cub scout bike rodeo yesterday. One of the den leaders brought the bike. Her son made it when he was a teen ager.

Graduation 2010

Seth graduated yesterday!!! As you can see from the pictures it was kind of a circus. Seth's parents and his brother Peter and his daughter came over for the festivities. After the ceremony we went to the weight room in the Kibbie Dome to show Seth's family where he has been working. We came back to our place for a fantastic luncheon with some hawaiian bbq from LocoGrinz here in Moscow. He'll officially get his diploma after he finishes his internship in Seattle this summer. We head over to Seattle next Monday. I'll come and go with the kids between Moscow and Seattle during the summer.

A few pictures

Happy 7th Kanyon!

Existing Site: Bball hoop on sloped lawn.

After excavating 60 yards of modeling clay. The soil would bend as the skid steer drove over it. We then built a retaining wall.

Meet Micho and Fransisco, our day labor finishers.

This is about the best picture I have of the finished project.

Trek Prep

This weekend was our Ma and Pa trial run for the stake pioneer trek. This is a picture of me setting up our shelter. I caught a lot of teasing from the Stake President for not copying his tent model, but it kept the wind off of us through the night. It was Les's first time sleeping in a mummy bag, so I made sure to cinch it up good and tight around her face. A little cold and claustrophobia makes for a good night sleep.

Thanks for all the phone calls on my birthday. After running around with only three wheel covers on my Focus, Les got me a new set. I was getting attached to my black wheel, but the new covers look a lot better.

I mowed the lawn for the first time this year and dumped on a lot of fertilzer. I was hoping that with all the rain we have had this spring that my grass would be a little greener. I think it finally ran out of gas and needed a little boost. We are suppose to get a rain/snow mix mid-week so I'll keep my sprinklers off a little longer.

Brant

Happy Mother's Day

Hope you all had a happy Mother's Day and your husbands cooked you breakfast in bed like I did for Mom (Not).

Friday I had a meeting in Coeur d'Alene and Mom had a class up there Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. I drove up with our custodians and then stayed and came home with Mom yesterday. We stayed overnight with Matt and Kimbre. Mom enjoyed her class and my meeting went OK. The church is buying out all the custodians - yes, but the end of the year you will no longer have any custodians at your buildings. Some wards and stakes have already switched over to total member cleaning and others will have to by December. This means I will lose two and 1/2 of my people. I will just have my office lady and two mechanics. I was offered the buy-out also but it was just about two years too early. If I had been closer to retirement I would have taken it so fast it would make your head spin.

Today, Mom and I spoke in church. I thought we did pretty good. The Primary kids sang. There was about a kazillion of them. Not like in the married student ward where there are two kids.

The weather is great and I think spring is just around the corner. Usually it shows up with a big bang and the temperature soars into the 70's and 80's over night. We'll see with this week brings.

Have a good week.

Summer Plans

Now that I've finished my first semester back at school, it's time for me to figure out what I will do with the rest of my college career. As part of my new degree, I have to do an internship that is somehow related to political science. Earlier in the year, I was planning on going to Phoenix for the summer to help a friend that was running for congress. My friend decided not to run, so I had to find something else to do for the summer.
I am currently about 80% sure that I will be spending a couple of months in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan this summer. Many of you are probably wondering just where that is. Don't worry I didn't know either until I took a class about it this semester. My professor is the former ambassador to the US and Canada from Kyrgyzstan and he has been helping me work out the details. Kyrgyzstan was part of the former Soviet Union and since 1991 they have been one of the countries that is the most interested in implementing Western style ideas for government and economics.
While I am there, I will be studying Russian and working with 2 or 3 non-profit organizations. This summer the people of Kyrgyzstan will be voting on a new constitution as well as a new parliament. My professor knows many of the key players, so I should have some good access as I watch it all develop. Here's a map of the region to give you an idea where it is. Kyrgyzstan is the little dark green country in the middle just south of Kazakhstan.

Click on the map and it will get bigger

For anyone who may have concerns about safety (Mom). Yes, Kyrgyzstan is far away and in an interesting part of the world. But, since the Soviet Union broke up there have not been any wars there and over the years there have only been a few centralized riots each for very specific reasons. As far as the people and culture, think more Mongolia meets Russia than Persian or Middle Eastern. The attitude there is generally friendly towards Americans and I will have contacts with people that can keep me updated on any unanticipated events.

I still have to wait for a few more official approvals, but as long as those come through, it looks like I'll spend about two months there this summer.

I Spy

The picture of Grandpa's garage should give us plenty of treasure-hunting items for weeks to come.

I spy: "A Yellow Z"

Nostalgia

This past week I packed up Grandpa's kitchen. There were many items that reminded me of Grandma and it was kind of fun, as much fun as packing two kitchens in one week can be...
So, this morning I popped open a can of orange rolls for the boys. When I put the oven on preheat to bake the rolls, it started smelling like pot roast. I thought it was cool that the oven still smelled like Grandma's pot roast after all these years.
When we got to Mom and Dad's today I told them how cool it was that you could still smell Grandma's pot roast. Mom politely informed me that she cooked a roast in G & G's oven two weeks ago when everyone was here... So much for that moment.

Good Morning!!!

The back yard on a rainy Saturday morning
The "Move" with 6th Ward elders

The "Job" ahead for Eugene, Kent, Brenda, and Tami

It's Saturday morning and I was eating a piece of toast and jam and looking out the glass door at how green the yard is this time of year. Having grown up in the desert, it is nice to see things so green. I love Moscow this time of year. Today is Renaissance Fair at East City Park and yes it is raining as usual. All the crazies are out at the park.

Seth and Lacey got moved over last night. They have been moving smaller stuff all week and last night they rented a U-Haul truck and the elders from their ward help with the bigger stuff. It makes you appreciate the elders quorum more.

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday morning as much as I am.