Another infrequent update.

I'm so busy that I never have time to write on this blog. NOT! Well, I've been laid off since Thanksgiving. I'm slowly going stir-crazy. I do a few things around the house, then play a game on the computer or playstation, then read for hours on end. Financially, I'm going to have to find an interim job for the winter. I'm just waiting till after the new year, since we're going up to the cabin for a week or so for Christmas. I've got to take a test on Monday for a job working for the U.S. Census on a part time basis. Don't know if I'm smart enough to do that, though! I've had a hard time getting in the holiday mood this year. I'm finally there, though, and going to head over to Charlie and Gayle's to wrap presents today so that dad can sneak them up to the cabin for me Saturday night. I recently joined Facebook and and found a lot of old high school and college friends that I've often thought about. It's been great just getting in touch with ones that I haven't talked to for so long. Things are going pretty good. I love spending some time with my girls, and it seems like everyday I'm finding something about KaraDawn that makes me love her just a little bit more. Still trying to kick all my bad habits so that we can get sealed in the temple someday. Maybe I'll try making more New Year's resolutions......again! Anyway, here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a great new year!

Been awhile.

It's been awhile since I posted. With the computer crashing, the car and pickup both breaking down, and everything else that could possibly go wrong going completely awry all in a matter of a few weeks, I've been a bit too busy to post. Let's see, I spent 4 weeks working up in Dubois, where the car lost the fuel pump. I then spent a week or two living in the camper up there. Upon returning home, I spent a relaxing 2 weeks making a run up to Jackson twice a day for work. This allowed me time to get the car put back together. 2 weekend ago, I put the lawnmower on the trailer to go to Charlie and Gayle's to mow their lawn. The pickup died on the way. The poor van has now had to tow both the Toyota and the pickup home. It was the fuel pump, and some wiring issues. The next Monday, I was informed that I would be spending the next 3 or 4 weeks living in my camper in Teton National Park. Imagine my joyous rapture!! I spent 6 hours trying to get the pickup fixed before I threw in the towel and borrowed dad's pickup to tow the camper up to Teton Park. The trip up was pretty uneventful. The worst part about where we're working is that there is NO cell phone service where we're at. If we want to call our wives at night, we have to drive our vehicles ten miles down the mountain to get a signal. It was the second night there that I drove down to call KD, and a monsterous 6x6 bull elk ran out right in front of me. I locked up the brakes and managed to slow to a mere 5-10 mph before the corner of dad's pickup hit the monster in rear leg. The elk got knocked over momentarily, then hopped up and ran away. (I hope he had a limp) The pickup's damage was mostly cosmetic as everything still worked. It was still sickening and annoying as I wondered what the heck else could go wrong. Anyway, I got sent home Thursday, as it dumped 2 or 3 inches of snow on us that morning, and the weather report was ugly for the weekend, yet we're supposed to be back up there Sunday night. I finally got the pickup fixed yesterday, and put new (ouch) tires on it. It's been rough for everyone here with me gone, and not making enough money to cover the daily expenses, plus my trips to Teton. Things could always be worse, though. Anyway, everybody is pretty much healthy here. Just trying to prepare ourselves for the weekend storm, and the upcoming winter.

Rough Times

It's been a rough year at HK. I've been getting about 25 to 30 hours of work a week. 40 hours just covers the bills. It seems we're just sinking lower and lower, and getting further and further behind. The calls and threats come in daily. I've thought about finding a different job, but with KD's medicine being about $600 a month if we don't have insurance, I just don't know what to do. Other than that, we're all doing ok. The kids are growing and changing daily, it seems. KaraDawn has spent so much time having fun with them this summer, that sometimes I feel like a third wheel (and a little bit jealous.) Aside from the usual child tantrums, I have such wonderful children and a great wife. I still wonder what I did to deserve the wonderful wife, the beautiful children, the great siblings, and the incredible parents that I was somehow blessed with.

We're all still alive, it's summer, kids and grass are growing, and work sucks. That about covers it.

Anybody there?

I guess nobody reads our blog, since nobody ever leaves a comment. Guess I'll quit wasting time posting here.

Idaho weather

Don't you just love the weather in Idaho. I was thinking about it the other day, and realized that I have seen it snow here every month of the year except August. Maybe I'll see snow in August this year, then I can say I've seen it snow every month of the year. I'm very disgusted with the snow I woke up to on Wednesday morning. We got about 2 inches of the white stuff here. Needless to say, everything in my garden except the onions and peas is now dead, dead, dead. I keep debating whether to re-plant of not, but know that I will in the end. Things are going ok here. The kids are finally getting outside more, and trying to wear out the swingset and trampoline. KaraDawn has tons of fun every day watching 3 or 4 kids of the lady down the street, plus our own. I don't know how she does it. I thought I would be the one too busy to post on the blog within our family, but apparently I'm not.

Third Time

Ok, this is the third time I'm trying to post to the blog. First, my pop up blocker wiped out the long entry I typed after Memorial Day weekend. Then I tried to post a couple of days ago. After typing for about 5 minutes, and clicking on "Publish Post," it came up with a "sorry we can't post to your blog right now error." Lovely. Anyway, not much going on here. The kids are having a blast being able to play outside. We put up the trampoline, and I think it's going to be worn out in about 2 weeks.

Update: Just discovered that there was a draft saved of my previous two attempts, guess I'll be able to post them now? Maybe? I hope?

Arghh!!

I made a nice long winded blog entry about our Memorial Day weekend last Tuesday. I wanted to upload some pictures off our camera, so I ran to the bathroom while the pictures were uploading. Upon my return, the pop up blocker on our computer had come up, blocking my uploading pictures to the blog. Without thinking, I clicked on allow access. POOF! All my long typing, and more painfully so, the creative thinking process of how to describe our weekend in a creative, fun, and engaging blog entry........gone. Anyway, here's a couple of pics. One of Sydney and I on the four-wheeler, and Jack before and after his hair cut.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, it was a great Memorial Day weekend for us. We drove out to Monteview on Saturday, and visited my friend Levi for a little bit. Then we went to visit mom's grave in Terreton. Tom and Emily and their kids, Charlie and Gayle, and Heidi and Dad joined us. Afterwards we went to dad's house. There we visited with aunt Beth. The kids wore out dad and Heidi with all their requests for four-wheeler rides. We rode the four-wheelers and motorcycles and had a lot of fun. We also got to see dad's new toy. I dug up some lilacs at dad's to tranplant to my yard, they were ones originally from Grandpa and Grandma Mecham's house. On the way home, we put some flowers on Brittany's grave in Rigby. Monday morning, I managed to mow the lawn and plant the lilacs just before it started to rain. It rained all the rest of the day. Being bored, I then got out the clippers and proceeded to give Jack a hair cut. He flinched at the wrong time, and lost most of his beard, so now he really looks like a chihuahua. Other than that, we just spent the time playing and watching movies with the kids this weekend. We had a lot of fun, and got a lot of relaxing in. One of the best Memorial Day weekends I can remember.

An infrequent update

Here's another infrequent update to the blog. Not a whole lot going on right now. I've finally started working what I consider full time. That is about 60 or more hours a week. Guess how much time that leaves me to do things around the house? KaraDawn is watching a lady down the street's kids during the week, and that keeps her busier than she would like at times. Other than that, I'm just keeping busy, and currently fighting the worst case of allergies I have ever experienced.

Spring Fever

I guess I must have spring fever. Katie was over this weekend, and all the girls wanted to do was play outside. I took the tiller and tilled the garden twice, then fertilized it, then tilled it again, then I made furrows. Then, since I couldn't resist, I just planted it and was done with the garden. Hopefully, it won't freeze. Then borrowed Charlie's weedwhacker, which he thought was dead, and got it running, and trimmed around the house and the fence. Then I round-upped the weeds in the driveway and the alley behind the house. Then, decided to finish off the fertilizer by fertilizing the lawns. Started watering lawn to work the fertilizer in, and finally finished that last night. Also had to put up a fence around the garden to keep four legged and two legged beasts out of it. KaraDawn kept pretty busy in the house doing some cleaning and taking advantage of all the girls being outside with me. Sydney wore herself out toddling around and exploring the microcosm that is our backyard. Katie's great-grandma passed away Friday, so I have a viewing tomorrow night, and the funeral on Wednesday to go to. Been busy enough, I guess. Tonight, I'm either going to mow the lawn, or clean out the shed. The pictures are of the truck that got hit by the train in front of our house, and one of Karly all worn out from playing dress up.

I'm Back

I made it back from Challis Thursday afternoon. It wasn't too bad. They figured, going by how long it took others, that a round would take us about an hour and a half to haul a load. Funny thing: We don't mess around like others; we did rounds in 50-55 minutes. Needless to say, we got done a lot sooner than expected. I then worked part of Friday in Idaho Falls, hauling to the new Snake River Landing. (where Monroc used to be) As I come home, now used to the increased traffic on our street due to a detour while they redo the bridge on the main road, I see 4 fire engines and 4 state police vehicles and the street blocked off in front of my house. I then noticed the train buried into the side of a truck. I get inside, and discover that everyone in the house, except Karly had literally slept right through a train wreck. lol. Anyway, that's all the excitement we've had lately. Later, All!!

Be right back.

Well, I'm off to Challis tomorrow at 4 in the morning. I'll update the blog when I get home. I'm not really looking forward to this trip. Aside from the fact that I'll miss KD and the girls horribly, it's dumping snow as I type. Our lawn has disappeared under a blanket of white yet again, today. I should be back Thursday night or Friday, everything permitting. Take care, everyone, and see you soon.

Challis on hold

Well, technically, I had today off. Since I was supposed to be going to Challis for a couple of days, starting tomorrow, I decided to go into work for a few hours to get my truck ready. I greased it, which took an hour and a half wallowing in the dirt. Then I took it over to the shop, and took the pressure washer to it. Dang! My truck is white. Not the brown I thought was its normal color. Anyway, after getting hot, high pressure, muddy water splashed on me for another hour and a half, I had had enough. My truck and trailer were now white, but I myself was now brown. Now my truck looked decent for the long highway runs we would be doing in Challis. But, no! My boss called later and told me we weren't going to go to Challis to do that job until Monday. So, tomorrow, I get to take my freshly cleaned truck and drive it through, (since it snowed and rained,) a nice muddy job site for the next two days. Since they'll only pay us once a week to wash our truck, I guess I'll have to drive a brown truck in Challis next week. Anyway, I love the spring weather in Idaho!!!!!!

Back to work, finally.

Well, it appears I'm finally officially back to work. I get to pack up and go to lovely Challis, Idaho for a couple of days this week. Sounds fun, huh? Not really, but I guess I'll do what I have to do. Still fighting the remnants of the bug that I've had for over a week, so some days are good, others less so. The girls are adjusting to daddy going back to work. It's so cute when I come home now, and have 2 girls come running to the door to give me a hug. KD has been doing some spring cleaning, and taking care of the girls, and keeping me in line, sort of. lol. Anyway, things are ok here, and hopefully will get better as I get back to work full time, and bills, etc. become less of a worry. TAFN

Seasons changing

Jack came home on Wednesday. We're so glad to have him back. Karly won't leave him alone, and Sydney keeps following him around and trying to give him hugs. He seems subdued, though. He's not as playful as he used to be. I wonder what horror stories the other dogs at the shelter told him? We hope he returns to normal soon. I worked for a whole 6 hours yesterday, and get to do the same on Monday. I thought I was getting over my cold, but yesterday it was once again worse, and working didn't help much. I finally gave in and went to the doctor today. Funny thing. Looking at the doctor's records, it turns out I get sick once in October or November and once again in March or April. At least for the last 4 years anyway. Same thing, too. Bronchitis and a sinus infection. Doctor says its probably my allergies acting up at first, and that weakens my system enough to get it every dang time. Sydney was playing peek a boo with Tigger and Toby today. It was so cute. Katie and Mandy are coming for the weekend, so it's going to be a busy one.

It's another Monday.

Well, its another Monday. I've had to wait a week to write about certain things, just so I could write what I'm thinking, not what I'm angry about. Most of you know about the occurences of last Sunday. Anyway, Jack is doing ok. He really misses us, and I we all really miss him. He'll be home on Thursday. I want to think that Chris was just worried about Andrew, but I'm still having a hard time believing that. She has probably convinced herself that I don't care about Andrew. Like I want my nephew to get hurt in any way, which incidentally happens a lot when he's in her care. Anyway, I'm starting to have a hard time not thinking bad thoughts towards her, so time for a subject change. Not much going on at our house. We've been doing a little spring cleaning here and there. Everyone in our house except me got sick the last time. Guess it's my turn. I've been fighting a cold since Thursday. I was feeling lots better on Saturday. I went to Tom and Emily's to help Tom build an entertainment center. I don't know if it was just doing things, or being out where it was cooler, or what, but Sunday my cold jumped up and kicked me in the teeth. Yesterday, between the coughing, the sniffling, and the headache and body aches, it was an incredibly miserable day for me. Doing slightly better, today, but not much. Anyway, TAFN.

Not much going on today.

Not much been going on here lately. Just being lazy, and doing a bit of spring cleaning now that the weather is nice. Going to take the girls to an Easter egg hunt at Emily’s tomorrow after church. We’re going to dye the carpet... I mean dye some eggs later on this afternoon. Monday, I get to make another run to Wyoming to help move the other crusher to Big Piney at 6 in the morning.

Learning to cope.

Still learning to adjust to the changes in our lives without Brit around, but we're slowly learning to cope. We haven't done much this week. Just spent a lot of time thinking and contemplating the complexities of life and such. Katie and Mandy are coming to spend the weekend with us. Tomorrow, we'll dye some eggs and do some egg hunts.

We lost a dear friend today.

It's been a rough day. Sydney has been sick. She was throwing up and running a fever last night, so I decided to sleep out on the couch, so that KD could have her sleep in the bed with her to keep an eye on her. I don't think KaraDawn got much sleep, and neither did I. While I was in town today, our friend Brittany's parents stopped by our house. They had horrible news. Brittany passed away last night. Talk about a shock. She'd been sick all week with the flu, and last night, she just stopped breathing. She was only 28. The best guess is that the flu, combined with the heart murmur she's had for a long time was just too much for her. KaraDawn is devastated, and I'm hurt, but still feeling a bit numb right now. KaraDawn has been watching Brittany's daughter, Giselle for the past 5 months, and she and Brit have become almost a part of our family. The standing joke between KaraDawn, Brittany and I, is that Brittany is my other wife. I can't count the time she's helped us out. Whenever KD and I have issues, Brit has been there to help us out, completely impartially, yet knowing which one of us needs a little nudge in the right direction. She's helped me to forgive, to try to understand, and to let little trivialities that bother me go by the wayside. Technically, she's KaraDawn's best friend, and I guess I never really realized how much of a friend of mine she was, too, until today. Anyway, Brit, I'm going to miss you horribly, and I know KaraDawn misses you even more. We love you, and will always remember you. We know you're in God's arms right now, and we'll look forward to seeing you again someday.

Sometimes it feels like life is feeding you this much crap. lol. Anyway. We had a good weekend. Katie Jo was here. We just lazed about and played, and didn't get much done, but had fun. We didn't make it to church today, as KaraDawn, Sydney, Katie, and Karly all had the sniffles, and/or full blown colds. So far, I've lucked out, and just had a little sniffle, and then it went away. Hopefully it stays that way.

Been kind of boring here lately. Not much going on. Just the usual daily chores, and playing some online games. Also been playing Warcraft II. KaraDawn says I'm addicted to it, and she may be right, but she is definitely addicted to playing Bookworm on her cell phone. I am finally starting to get tired of snow. I really want to be able to get outside and do some work on the yard and garden, as well as break out the motorcycle. Soon....

I had a 7:00 kick off meeting this morning for HK. Same sh!t they feed you all the time. They promise to improve things, put more money in your pocket, but don't want to change the things they do that suck that money right back out, since you should be grateful to work there. Since I work full time seasonal, I still don't get any holiday pay, or vacation time. Your vacation time is considered the winter when you spend the time hoping that whatever you managed to save up, and you get for unemployment will make ends meet. Let me tell you what...they dont' by a long shot. They better get me back to work and full time within three weeks, or I'm looking for another job. By that time I'll be in danger of losing my house, and no job that treats my loyalty like it is expected of me is worth that. I really enjoy the work I do, and the people I work with on a daily basis, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I'm tired of pie crust promises from employers. Funny my previous employer had an ad in the paper looking for workers, pay DOE. I did spend almost 4 years there.....HMMM............

After working on stuff inside the house the past few days, I finally did something out in the garage. I put up the peg boards I bought. I got these pegboards including hooks and mounting screws for a whopping 12 bucks at Big Lots. After pricing pegboard at Home Depot, this was a steal, even though they're plastic instead of wood. We'll see how they hold up. It's been a busy day. I had an appointment with children's counselors for Katie and Mandy. I also had to go to Andy's appartment and beat on his door till he woke up to let him know his son was in the hospital with pneumonia. It's been strange not having Karly around today. She's spending the night at her grandma's house. It's just really weird not having her around wanting to help me with things, or wanting a snack, or just making noise around the house. I spent about 2 hours today breaking up the ice pack in front of our driveway. There was a ridge of ice, then a puddle on the other side of it in our driveway. This made for a chunk of ice about 6-8 inches thick with a drop off of up to 10 inches or so on the other side. I got the car hung up on it a time or two, as did other visitors to our home. I decided to try to do something about it today. I tried driving the pickup back and forth on it to break it up, but to no avail. It took a hammer and chisel to break it up into chunks that I could throw off to the side. Now it's just a 2 inch deep puddle. Better, but I think I'll feel the exercise tomorrow.

I'll try

I'll give a go at starting a blog here. Don't know if it'll be very entertaining or interesting, but I've started one. I finished putting lights up in our living room today. When we moved into our house, there was a switch that didn't do anything. I thought it should run an outlet to have a lamp come on, as there was no ceiling mounted lights in our living room due to the fact that we have a lovely radiant heat grid covering the whole ceiling under the spackle. It didn't seem to run any outlets. Three hours of staring at wires later, I figured out that someone had put in a new switch who didn't know what the heck they were doing. They simply plugged wires till the the outlets, etc. worked, and left it at that. After finally figuring out how it should be wired, what do you know, one of the outlets in our living room was controlled by that switch. Too bad it was the outlet for the aquarium and the computer. Had to do a bit or rewiring to get constant power to them at this point. Anyway, after a full day of chasing wires and a couple of headaches on Saturday, I finished mounting 3 wall lights in our living room so that we don't have to try to find a lamp in the dark to get light in the living room. KaraDawn is very happy with the new lights. I've been busy on the house on a budget the past few days. I put in a vinyl entry way in by the front door, removing the grungy carpet that collected water and mud. I put in a new bathroom light fixture, so that now there's enough light in the bathroom to see your face. I also bought enough of the same vinyl I did the entry way in to also do the bathroom floor at a later date. The lights, vinyl, wire, and everything cost me a whopping $120 give or take, but the hours of climbing up and down the ladder, wiggling through the beams in the attic, and frustration with wiring..................I was pretty tired this last weekend.