The Good, The Best, and The Painful

The Good:

Ryan and I spent have finished working on Grandma's house. We put new tile on the floor of the spare bathroom and fixed the tile in the shower window. We also replaced all of the base boards except in the bedrooms and the computer room. Then Ryan painted the ceiling and walls of the sun room and the hallway and everything looks great!

The Best:

I went on another date with Jenn Brianne and Tyler last night. We went to Olive Garden and had a great time but I think our waiters are going to black list us because hours flash by before we even realize it so our waiter has a dead table most of the night. But who cares! HaHa Just kidding we tip really well. I can't wait for our next date!

The Painful:

Grandma had surgery on her foot last Thursday to correct her hammer toe. I'm really proud of her she has been very good about following doctor's orders even though she hates not being able to move around. We went in for her first post op exam this morning and everything looks great. She has another appointment this Friday and should get her staples out next Tuesday.

Day 30: A Motto or Philosophy

Well I just adopted this philosophy yesterday so it is still a little rough, I haven't worked it out completely in my head. I kind of stole it from Camile yesterday. Basically it is that we are constantly given the opportunity to fix what is wrong inside of ourselves. As I look back on my life I can see all of the chances I have had to fix some of my issues and I can see how "coincidentally" another opportunity has arisen at a time I am able to recognize and correct my issue.

If that doesn't make a lot of sense to you than maybe as I explain how I came to understand and adopt this philosophy it will make more help. As I was talking to Camile about my "Mommy and Daddy" issue we realized that one of the ways I wasn't "speaking my truth" (one of Camile's favorite phrases) is that I try to protect people by not saying what I feel and when I do that I am actually hurting both of us. I know some of you are saying "but if I say something that hurts their feelings than I'm not doing them any good." That is exactly how I felt until yesterday but as Camile was explaining that our lives are like puzzles and if we don't have all of the pieces then we aren't whole. My mind went strait to my scar blog. If I had told Mom and Dad that I was passing a clear jell instead of normal bowels I'm sure that they would have taken me to the hospital sooner and we all would have suffered a lot less. So you see if we "speak our truth," even if it hurts a persons feelings for a short time, it opens the door to discuss the issue you may be having at that time.

I don't think I'm making my self very clear so I think one more example should rap everything up. As I said I try to protect people by not saying what is on my mind. Well as I was looking back into my past I could see how I have done that over and over with the women in my life. Then I realized that I now have a new opportunity correct that error and, if looked at from my philosophy's point of view, that things have recently been building up to this point. I have always been the "good friend" that all of the women in my life have come to for a shoulder to cry on. In most of those cases I would tell them what I believed they wanted to hear at that time. Old Jenn is a perfect example of this, she would call in the middle of the night and cry and complain and I did everything I could to try and ease her pain. Other times she would call to talk but wouldn't talk about the problem and so, being the protective guy, I would let it slide even when she had an issue with me. In the end she cut my heart out with a wooden spoon. As I told ShanTay last Friday, I'm tired of being just the "good friend." I had started changing my behavior when I met new Jenn even before I really realized the reasons behind the behavior. Now the next step is to change that behavior with everyone else in my life.

I know I have done a horrible job of explaining this and I'm not trying to be the family shrink but I think it is very important. If done in a respectful calm manner I think we as a family can become more whole if we simply (ha ha simple, right) "speak our truth" to each other. Let me know if I can explain things better.

Before I say anything else a disclaimer: I'm not committing to anything I am simply voicing my thoughts. This philosophy has made me think about just what is leading me to these opportunities to fix my issues over and over again. In my mind it can't just be coincidence. I'm still holding to the fact that I have to search for the truth myself. As I think back after I fell away from the church those "coincidences" seem to keep pushing me back toward the church.

Day 28: A Scar I Have and It's Story

The more I think about this one the more I think Dad has been trying to kill me my entire life. All of my scars have Dad involved in one way or another. The first scar I got is on my wrist from when Dad dragged me behind a snow machine at Grandpa's cabin.(Yes it was my fault) I have another one on my shin when I stepped into a square post on a trailer that had been cut off corner to corner at the Church farm.(My fault again) And of course, I can never pass up the opportunity to make Dad feel guilty about my appendicitis so because that story is the most fun to tell ...

Once upon a time, I was 13 and I was on a 10 mile hike with Dad and my scout troop. About half way through I started to feel sick to my stomach. when we stopped for a break I told Dad and he grabbed my canteen and because don't drink while I'm hiking the canteen was full. Dad told me that I wasn't feeling well because I hadn't been drinking enough water. Bing the dutiful son that I am I drank the entire canteen within the next 1-2 miles. However, it didn't help and Dad finally took pity on me and carried my bag the rest of the way. When we finished the hike I just curled up on the ground until everyone was loaded and ready to go.

 I made it home and went to bed. I don't remember how long I was sick before Mom and Dad finally had a doctor in our ward come to check me out but I do remember that it was on New Years Eve. (Disclaimer): admittedly Mom and Dad didn't have all of the info at the time. -those with weak stomachs should skip a little bit- What I wasn't telling Mom and Dad was that I wasn't having normal bowel movements, all that was coming out was a clear gel ???  Anyway, the doctor looked at me on New Years diagnosing it as intestinal flu and that same night at 11 P.M. I woke up feeling Great! My appendix had ruptured :(.

Again, I don't know how long it was after my appendix ruptured that we finally went to the hospital. I was very dehydrated by the time we got to the hospital so it took several tries and needles to get an IV into me. They finally got it into my Right elbow so I had to eat everything with my Left hand. I was rushed into CAT scan where they drained the abscess in my abdomen and inserted a drainage tube into my right butt cheek. I guess I have 2 scars for this story :). I spent the next week in the hospital with the drainage tube, I was never left a lone even tho I wanted to be sometimes. Mom would get me up everyday and make me walk around the nurses station. So here I am dragging my IV with one hand and keeping my gown closed with the other. The day finally came to remove the tube which made me very happy because it was sitting on my sciatic nerve that whole time! The doctor gave me fair warning about how painful removing the tube would be because there is a hook or something on the end to keep it from coming out. He lays me on my side, counts to 3, and pulls about 3 or 4 feet of tubing out of my butt ... cheek :). WORST PAIN EVER!!! I let out a little yelp and I guess all of the nurses came running to see if I was OK. It hurt so bad that I felt paralyzed. Even with my butt hanging out I didn't want to roll onto my back.

I spent a while longer in the hospital and had to wait a month before removing my appendix. Removing parts of my intestine to get at my appendix didn't sound so fun. We went in for the surgery and as they gave me the anesthetic I was determined to stay awake and hear what the anesthesiologist was telling Mom. Next thing I know I wake up feeling GREAT, then I moved :). I hated Post-OP more than being in the hospital because I wanted do things but no one would let me because of the stitches. So to every one's disappointment I lived and have discovered that Mom and Dad really do love me.

Day 27: A Physical Feature I Love

I don't think I'm going to answer this one because I don't think it is fair to everyone else. I mean I am absolutely perfect and I don't want to make everyone think I'm better than them :).

Day 26: A Childhood Memory

Where to begin, where to begin? 27 years of childhood memories to choose from. Well I could talk about how Mom and Dad let my appendix rupture but that is too easy and Mike stole the one about trying to drown me. I could talk about Uncle Reed dropping me over the downstair's banister or about all of the times all of us cousins tried to kill ourselves (jumping off the rail car, everything we did on the tramp, . . .so on and so forth). Come to think of it, it is amazing I'm even alive to talk about my childhood. :)

But seriously, some of the memories I cherish the most are the times spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Rich lane. That house was perfect for a large family with lots of insanely overactive boys to gather in. The double padded pink carpet in the living room was perfect for "wrassling" with Grandpa and Uncle Reed. The great room in the basement provided all the room we kids needed to play and those support posts were so much fun to climb up and swing around on. Trying to make Mario jump higher by shaking the controller (we were way ahead of the motion controller curve).  The whole of the Internet isn't enough to contain all I could say about the love, happiness, and sense of family that that one house contained for so many years.

(sorry to big to scan so had to take a pic of a pic)

Day 25: A Recipe

I have been waiting for this one for quite a while. Just remember not to knock it before you try it.

Italian-Style Beef and Pepperoni Soup (Modified)

Ingredients:

1 lb Hamburger

4 Pepperoni links (not the pre-sliced)

1 carton Mushrooms

1 bundle Green Onions

1 Bell Pepper

2-3 cans Italian-Style Stewed Tomatoes

3-4 cans Kidney Beans undrained

Garlic, Oregano, Basil, and Thyme to taste

You will need a big pot! Cook the hamburger and pepperoni together until hamburger is brown. Then just put everything else into the pot. I like to let mine cook for at least an hour or until it has simmered down to the desired amount.

Jail House Menudo

(only half the lethal dose of daily salt intake) :)

Ingredients:

1 gallon Ziploc bag

2 Ramen Noodles (I prefer the spicy chicken)

3-4 Pickled Sausages

1 lg bag Corn Nuts (Picante)

1 sm bag Potato Chips (Jalapeno)

Precook the noodles in the gallon Ziploc bag by filling with hot water. While noodles are softening up cut up the pickled sausages into bite sized pieces. When noodles are soft dump out the water leaving the noodles in the Ziploc bag. Again throw the rest of the ingredients into the bag and refill with hot water. How much water you put back into the bag after the rest of the ingredients will depend on how soupy you like your soup.

I promise both of these soups are really good. The Jail House Menudo may take a little experimentation to find the right mix of ingredients but when it is done right it is exceptional!

Day 24: A Movie No One Would Expect Me to Love

This is actually a pretty good movie about a hockey player who gets teamed up with a rich, spoiled figure skater to try and win the Olympics. It is a definite "chick flick" but the story is pretty good if not very original. I don't know why I like this movie so much but I do.

Day 23: A Way in Which I Want to be Remembered.

I don't want to be remembered in any special way. I want people to remember me for who I was and to be honest I won't care by then because I'll be dead. The way people treat death seems morbid and from an LDS standpoint ridiculous. Why would anyone want their last memory of a loved one to be of that loved one dead (usually for several days) in a frilly box. And grave sites are just stupid. The decomposing flesh in the ground is not who that person was. It is our personalities that make us who we are not blood, flesh, and bone.

Day 22: A Favorite Website

Well I wouldn't say I have a favorite website. I don't understand how anyone can "surf" the web for hours at a time. I treat the Internet a lot like shopping, get in and get out as fast as possible. I spend the most time on the blogs. Other than that I have little use for the Internet.

Date #2 :)
I went on my second date with Jennifer Momson last night and had a blast again. My spy (Brianne) told me she would get off from work at 5 and that I should call her then. Well Jenn and I both dislike talking on the phone so I asked Jenn if she would like to go out and she said "I would love to see ya!" SWEET! Well I got a little excited and forgot to ask how much time we would have so I kind of planned for anything :). I got a single pink rose with greenery to give her and against all odds a pink rose is her favorite flower and her middle name who would have guessed! Call me crazy but little things like that have been happening. Before Brianne told me her name I knew it would be Jenn, then I just knew my offense would come up last night (she is very understanding), and then the flower??? We went to Jamba Juice and the time just flew by

I know Shan and Jess are dying to know what Jenn looks like by now so here is the only pic I have of her

Day 21: Something I Know I Do Differently Than Most People

I have adventurous taste buds. I believe in the saying "If it looks good, eat it!" I'm sure that there are a lot of things that look good but taste horrible. Even knowing this I want to try as many different foods as I can. I like to eat very strange things like sushi (eel is my favorite), liver is pretty good, tung is very good if done right, and the one time I had goat was awesome! For me food is all about flavor.

Day 20: A Hobby

Well it's no secrate that I'm a gamer, what better way do blow off steem than killing hundreds of alien invaders. ;) I kind of lost most of my hobbies when I moved to Idaho but I am looking into getting my scuba certification! I know where are you going to go scuba diving in Idaho? Ryan said that he likes to dive in Ririe but he doesn't have a dive partner to go with. Besides if Hanna thinks it's fun than it has to be true. Right!

My kind of scuba diving!

Day 19: A Talent

Well at the risk of sounding conceited the talent I'll go with is I can get along with just about anyone. I may be lying through my teeth to do so it but I can usually identify a personality and characteristics and if needed adjust the way I deal with that person. There are a few exceptions to this however. 1:Crazy people, I just cannot deal with completely crazy people. 2: People who throw a fit trying to get something for free, it drives me nuts that people do this and I flat out will not give into them. 3: is of course Brianne and ShanTay ;), I mean what kind of brother can get along with his little sisters. Love you Girls.

Day 17: An Art Piece

This is actually a painting that Cindy (my office manager from the clinic) has hanging above the dining room table. I took the photo with my phone so the colors are just a little off. I have no idea who painted it but I like it so much that it is the background for my phone.

Day 16: A Song That Makes Me Cry

Martina McBride - Concrete Angel

This song rips me up. We see or hear about situations like this song (both child and women abusers) all of the time and yet very few people do anything. What is even worse is that even when someone reports something like this nothing is done or the victim is the one who is prosecuted.

P.S. Country music is the leading music people listen to before suicide. It's a fact!

Day 15: A Person I Admire

I have tried to stay away from the Primary answers while doing this challenge but I can't ignore the two people I admire the most.

Dad: I admire Dad for the calm and loving manner he handles everything in life. I admire his comanding but magnetic pressence. His ability to diffuse a situation and comfort both parties at the same time. But the thing I admire the most about my Dad is his uncoditional love and respect for Mom. It is his example as a husband that strive to emulate in every part of my life.

Mom: I admire Mom for bing the soft rock of the family. She has always been the person I could enfold myself within and know that she would always be steadfast and immovable. I admire her devotion to our family. Despite all of the struggles and heartache me and my brother and sisters have put her through I have never questioned whether I was loved or where I could turn to for support when I was crumbling.

Day 14: A Vacation I Would Like to Take

This one relates to my favorite TV show. I would  love to travel around the world and try all of the different food. It wouldn't even bother me much if I completely skipped the tourist hot spots. If I'm going to go somewhere I want the true experience of the place I'm going  not the mainstream tourist traps. If I'm going to a foreign country why do I want to be surrounded by the same people and culture I'm trying to have a vacation from.

I guess I have two vacations I would like to take. The other would be hiking back into the mountains hundreds of miles from anyone and kind of live off the land. That idea has appealed to me for quite a while. I'm sure I'm romanticizing it to the extreme but it would be fun to see if I am even somewhat up to the task of surviving without going to the store for all of my food.

Day 13: A Guilty Pleasure

I have two guilty pleasures. The first is pretty obvious to most of you which is playing video games. I can spend hours playing and hardly realize that several hours have passed. There have been many an night that I have bought a new game and played it until 3 or 4 in the morning.

The second is teasing my sisters! It does get a little harsh some times like the night we kept teasing ShanTay about looking like "trailer trash" because she had given herself big hair. It got a little carried away and I felt really guilty about it that night but it won't stop me from teasing Brianne and ShanTay. They just make it so easy and after all these years they still haven't learned how to counter very well.

Day 12: A Song I Want Played At My Wedding

I have been thinking about this one all day and I can't come up with anything. Very little music sticks with me for very long which explains why my favorite songs are very recent top hits. So the answer I have come up with is: I haven't been told what I want played at my wedding yet.

Day 11: A Recent Picure of Me

Sorry this one is pretty boring. the most recent pic of me is the one at the top of my blog from when we went to Phoenix.

Day 10: A Picture of Me From 10 Years Ago

Day 9: A Picture I took

I loved my girls and I miss them a lot

I don't take a lot of pictures so here are some of my best

Day 8: A Thank You Letter To Someone Who Has Changed My Life

Sorry, I think I'm going to have to pass on this one to mushy for a macho man like myself.

Day 7: Five things I Couldn't Possibly Live Without

1. Mt. Dew

2. XXL Blanket

3. Cable

4. Video Games

5.  Family

Day 6: A Moment I Wish I Could Relive

This one has been the hardest for me so far. There are tons of moments I wish I could relive. But I decided to pick the Havasupai (Pronounced: have a soup I) trip that dad and I went all of the way down to the Colorado river. The Colorado was kind of a let down (Just looked like my bath water after we got home) but the hike back was beautiful. The crystal clear mineral water, the mineral formations from the water, and the wild grape vines that we walked through. It's about 10 miles of dust and heat before you even see the water, another 2 miles to the campground, and another like 3-5 miles to the Colorado and we didn't use the donkeys. Does anyone feel sorry for us yet. Then try eating nothing but Ramen noodles and oatmeal for the 3days we were down there. Still no sympathy? There is a reason you don't see the campgrounds let alone the toilets in the video. Honestly, it was a blast every time we went and I would do it again. I always did want to swim under the falls but was to chicken and that water is FREEZING. 

Day 5: My Favorite Quote

Jane Rubietta
Someone may have stolen your dream when it was young and fresh and you were innocent. Anger is natural. Grief is appropriate. Healing is mandatory. Restoration is possible.

Day 4: My Farorite TV Show

As crazy as this may sound to most people My favorite show is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. I love to see all of the interesting places that he goes to and things he eats. I consider myself a very adventurous eater and I would love to try half of the things hat her eats. And of coarse I can't forget Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. The two are essentially the same just with different hosts. I love food!!! 

Ok I know this has no food but come on Ted Nugent and an M60 ... need I say more.

Day 3: My Favorite Book

I don't have a single book that I could call my favorite. If I'm going to buy a book I try to Buy a book in a series and my favorite series is Steven King's The Dark Tower.

Day 2: My favorite movie.

Well I could say that this covers both today's and Day 24: a movie no one would expect me to love but I won't be that lazy. I love this movie because A. it has Robin Williams, B. Love should conquer all, and C. a world made from paint is just awesome. The visual aspect of the movie in incredible as well. If you watch the video below you'll get see some of what I mean.

Day 1: My favorite song

My favorite song changes every day depending on my mood and what I'm thinking about at the time. It is because of this that I can't choose just one song so these are my some of my current favorites.

Begrudged Challenge Acceptance

Ok so I got guilt tripped into starting my blog by mom yesterday. The fact that she is sick and sounds horrible just made me feel even guiltier so here we go. I think blogging is just as bad as texting and will help bring about the downfall of personal interaction. Love you mom.