Happy 3rd Birthday Kayla!
Yes, our little girl is growing up. Yesterday she had a few friends over and played while we had a bbq. She had a great time, and we got a couple of pictures with the neighbors camera, and will be posting them soon.
Yes, our little girl is growing up. Yesterday she had a few friends over and played while we had a bbq. She had a great time, and we got a couple of pictures with the neighbors camera, and will be posting them soon.
Garion had his first soccer game today, playing for the "Vultures" in Eagle Mountain's city league. Having had only one practice previous to this, Garion did pretty well. Especially against a team that even for his age, had kids with serious soccer skills. Garion did the expected, chasing where the ball was, and stopping to think before trying to kick. But he did really well in keeping running, and in not trying to grab the ball. Not bad at all. So now we get to try and teach him the basics of soccer, and hope he starts to learn.
This message is actually some commentary to reply to a recent posting by a "Hoser That's Not My Brother". Since he decided to take his food-snobbery into an area that I care more than a little about, I thought I'd give a few opinions. Please go read his bit first, and then come back here and this will make a lot more sense. Actually, from other discussions, much of what I have to say is in agreement with the hoser, but I do hope to clarify some points, and give my opinion on others.
Starting off, there is much confusion in the food storage world, and he's right, what to store must come from you. "Store what you eat, and eat what you store," is an oft-repeated mantra that is very correct. Just blindly following some list will get you in big trouble if you ever need that food. You probably won't know how to use it, and it will likely give you serious problems shortly after eating. The provident living website is a great resource for very basic elements of storage, but it is just a starting point. Along with that, it's a good starting point for the information you need in actually using your storage in an efficient manner.
For me, I think one of the most important things to start out with though is by asking yourself the question, "Why food storage?". I too have gone through some inter-job difficulties before where the bit of storage we had was a lifesaver for us, but there could be more. Maybe you want to be ready for WTSHTF aka TEOTWAWKI, maybe you just know that food bought now (well, better last fall) was a great way to beat inflation, and the stock market (often by double digit percentages). Whatever the case, how much, and what you need to store will change with that definition. Me, I figure if I'm prepared for the absolute worst case that I don't think will ever happen, then I'll feel pretty good if I just get laid off without job prospects again. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Now, to review by category:
Grains
Yes, it is a lot of wheat to keep around, but then again, they don't call it the staff of life for nothing. Try going without bread for a week or so, and see how you feel. Sure you can say you did the atkins things before, but let's also look at some other factors. First, given a situation where you really *need* to use your storage. There is a good chance that your physical activity level is going to be changing a bit. Be it heavy stress, to just plain walking a lot more, your body will be needing those carbs quick. Also the fiber content will be very helpful in combating bad side effects of your stress levels, and other dietary changes. One word of caution though, do ease into using real whole-wheat (even from store-bought whole wheat flour), or you will have some serious issues to contend with. Wheat itself can also be used to cultivate simple meat-substitutes (hey, if you're really starving), and as stated, its protein content is necessary for making breads from other cereals. Besides all of the above stated, your grains are some of your absolute *cheapest* ways to augment just how much food you have stored, heck even at today's way inflated prices you can get sealed buckets of hard wheat for $23 or so for 45#. Add to that the fact that stored properly it has the longest stable shelf life of any food storage item, you should make sure you have a good amount of wheat and cereals in stock.
But it is smart to mix up your cereals some. Get a couple of types of rice, maybe some softer wheat (cake flour, etc), Rye, Corn, Oats, and others. you'll always want some variety in your diet, and hey, you can always just experiment with new breads too.
Oh, and do get a mill/wheat grinder. Get a powered one first, and a hand mill second. It's amazing how much better bread is with fresh flour. With a powered one you're more likely to use your wheat right now, saving yourself money, getting much better breads, and just getting healthier. Added bonus, your house smells much nicer.
Fats and Oils
Yes embrace the necessity of Fats. Well, I know I've never needed to tell a chef that, but I'll just back you up on that one. For basic storage of oils, I can answer one good reason for shortening over standard vegetable oil. Shelf life. Based on it's nature, it tends to have a longer time before it goes rancid. You have to be careful about how long you keep your oil around, which is one reason it doesn't tell you to keep too much. Most people would buy some Costco sized mega-container, and it would all spoil before it was even opened, much less the problems it would have if opened. I'll agree on the PB too, it's something we can't have enough of, and have no trouble rotating through (in fact tend to over do that :) )
Legumes
Dry beans are important for food storage, because as any Brasilian (and really any Latin American) will tell you, it's food. It's cheap food, and combined, beans and rice bring out some wonder-twin powers in each other. They combine to form more complete proteins which most of us will be lacking in a crappy situation because we won't have nearly the amount of meat we're used to. With he dry beans, yes, choose most any you like, and get some variety (and learn how to use them). Get the other dry or canned, as you would use them, but variety is good. Dried soup mix can be the basic soups you see, largely for spices, but more often refers to a Soup Base, that the canneries used to have. Was a simple soup/stock that was designed for mixing things in. Stock has great nutrition, even dried, and makes it much easier to use so much of this dried food.
Sugars
Actually, I wouldn't lower it at all. Now part of why this seems so high is based on the targeted usages for your food storage. It's expected that if you're smart enough to be storing food, you'll probably have a garden too. You'll see that sugar disappear the first time you make jam. Don't forget your body will likely be craving some things that can sooth a sweet tooth while you change diets, and adding to that, most people can really do with the stress relief of their favorite desert.
As for the kool-aid, if you've read this far I'd think you're drinking some :) . Actually one of the biggest reasons for the powdered drink mix is for water storage. Depending on how much, and how you've stored it, or what your filtration method and storage is, you can wind up with some funky flavors. It may be clean, but might taste quite off, and a little flavor will help you keep hydrated, which is pretty key in this area. Same thing camping, that mountain stream water aint always that refreshingly crisp :)
I actually think I'd want more of the honey and molasses though. We have a lot of good recipes using them.
Milk
How could you even question "other". As a chef this should be seen as too little, without even trying. Sweetened condensed milk is a good one, along with evaporated milk. But let's be even more obvious:
There are some good ideas on how you can use powdered milk too, for making things like cheese/yogurt and more. Those could help you out.
Cooking Essentials
Seasonings Seasonings Seasonings! You've got a lot of 'basic foods', you'll want to spice them up. Dried, whole, etc, and get your herb garden running.
Oh, and as for the salt, as mentioned with the sugars, just think of having to do some pickling. Oh, and tanning, since I'm sure *everybody* will be running out trying to do some of that :)
Water
This is of course something that we can't be without, but always think is the last thing that we will not have. Possibly, but I'd rather be prepared. I go with the 2gal per person, since I think if I ever really need it, it'll be in the summer here, and I know I'll need more. Plus I like to be clean, meaning more than the minimum.
As for bleach, it loses its real potency starting after about 6 months, so check as to how much you store. You can get good dried chlorine too, good to keep around, and lasts longer.
Summary
There are great books that can help with this subject, and plenty of crappy ones too. I can suggest a few, and love to help friend get ready for the best or worst of times.
Starting off, there is much confusion in the food storage world, and he's right, what to store must come from you. "Store what you eat, and eat what you store," is an oft-repeated mantra that is very correct. Just blindly following some list will get you in big trouble if you ever need that food. You probably won't know how to use it, and it will likely give you serious problems shortly after eating. The provident living website is a great resource for very basic elements of storage, but it is just a starting point. Along with that, it's a good starting point for the information you need in actually using your storage in an efficient manner.
For me, I think one of the most important things to start out with though is by asking yourself the question, "Why food storage?". I too have gone through some inter-job difficulties before where the bit of storage we had was a lifesaver for us, but there could be more. Maybe you want to be ready for WTSHTF aka TEOTWAWKI, maybe you just know that food bought now (well, better last fall) was a great way to beat inflation, and the stock market (often by double digit percentages). Whatever the case, how much, and what you need to store will change with that definition. Me, I figure if I'm prepared for the absolute worst case that I don't think will ever happen, then I'll feel pretty good if I just get laid off without job prospects again. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Now, to review by category:
Grains
Yes, it is a lot of wheat to keep around, but then again, they don't call it the staff of life for nothing. Try going without bread for a week or so, and see how you feel. Sure you can say you did the atkins things before, but let's also look at some other factors. First, given a situation where you really *need* to use your storage. There is a good chance that your physical activity level is going to be changing a bit. Be it heavy stress, to just plain walking a lot more, your body will be needing those carbs quick. Also the fiber content will be very helpful in combating bad side effects of your stress levels, and other dietary changes. One word of caution though, do ease into using real whole-wheat (even from store-bought whole wheat flour), or you will have some serious issues to contend with. Wheat itself can also be used to cultivate simple meat-substitutes (hey, if you're really starving), and as stated, its protein content is necessary for making breads from other cereals. Besides all of the above stated, your grains are some of your absolute *cheapest* ways to augment just how much food you have stored, heck even at today's way inflated prices you can get sealed buckets of hard wheat for $23 or so for 45#. Add to that the fact that stored properly it has the longest stable shelf life of any food storage item, you should make sure you have a good amount of wheat and cereals in stock.
But it is smart to mix up your cereals some. Get a couple of types of rice, maybe some softer wheat (cake flour, etc), Rye, Corn, Oats, and others. you'll always want some variety in your diet, and hey, you can always just experiment with new breads too.
Oh, and do get a mill/wheat grinder. Get a powered one first, and a hand mill second. It's amazing how much better bread is with fresh flour. With a powered one you're more likely to use your wheat right now, saving yourself money, getting much better breads, and just getting healthier. Added bonus, your house smells much nicer.
Fats and Oils
Yes embrace the necessity of Fats. Well, I know I've never needed to tell a chef that, but I'll just back you up on that one. For basic storage of oils, I can answer one good reason for shortening over standard vegetable oil. Shelf life. Based on it's nature, it tends to have a longer time before it goes rancid. You have to be careful about how long you keep your oil around, which is one reason it doesn't tell you to keep too much. Most people would buy some Costco sized mega-container, and it would all spoil before it was even opened, much less the problems it would have if opened. I'll agree on the PB too, it's something we can't have enough of, and have no trouble rotating through (in fact tend to over do that :) )
Legumes
Dry beans are important for food storage, because as any Brasilian (and really any Latin American) will tell you, it's food. It's cheap food, and combined, beans and rice bring out some wonder-twin powers in each other. They combine to form more complete proteins which most of us will be lacking in a crappy situation because we won't have nearly the amount of meat we're used to. With he dry beans, yes, choose most any you like, and get some variety (and learn how to use them). Get the other dry or canned, as you would use them, but variety is good. Dried soup mix can be the basic soups you see, largely for spices, but more often refers to a Soup Base, that the canneries used to have. Was a simple soup/stock that was designed for mixing things in. Stock has great nutrition, even dried, and makes it much easier to use so much of this dried food.
Sugars
Actually, I wouldn't lower it at all. Now part of why this seems so high is based on the targeted usages for your food storage. It's expected that if you're smart enough to be storing food, you'll probably have a garden too. You'll see that sugar disappear the first time you make jam. Don't forget your body will likely be craving some things that can sooth a sweet tooth while you change diets, and adding to that, most people can really do with the stress relief of their favorite desert.
As for the kool-aid, if you've read this far I'd think you're drinking some :) . Actually one of the biggest reasons for the powdered drink mix is for water storage. Depending on how much, and how you've stored it, or what your filtration method and storage is, you can wind up with some funky flavors. It may be clean, but might taste quite off, and a little flavor will help you keep hydrated, which is pretty key in this area. Same thing camping, that mountain stream water aint always that refreshingly crisp :)
I actually think I'd want more of the honey and molasses though. We have a lot of good recipes using them.
Milk
How could you even question "other". As a chef this should be seen as too little, without even trying. Sweetened condensed milk is a good one, along with evaporated milk. But let's be even more obvious:
- Cheese - Serious comfort food, excellent enzyms and good storage. Freeze dried, Canned "queso", or *real* canned cheese (that stuff is quite good, and amazing storage). Or if you have "wine cellar" type qualities, keep some cheese wheels around, they'll just get better tasting, and you know you'll rotate through them.
- Yogurt - Important dairy, will work wonders for your digestion, especially if not feeling well. But how do you store it? Well, you can get cultures that will store well, and learn to make your own!
- Soy Milk - yeah, it's worthwhile to have :)
- UHT milk - Boxed milk, stores for a year or so. Parmalat is famous for this.
There are some good ideas on how you can use powdered milk too, for making things like cheese/yogurt and more. Those could help you out.
Cooking Essentials
Seasonings Seasonings Seasonings! You've got a lot of 'basic foods', you'll want to spice them up. Dried, whole, etc, and get your herb garden running.
Oh, and as for the salt, as mentioned with the sugars, just think of having to do some pickling. Oh, and tanning, since I'm sure *everybody* will be running out trying to do some of that :)
Water
This is of course something that we can't be without, but always think is the last thing that we will not have. Possibly, but I'd rather be prepared. I go with the 2gal per person, since I think if I ever really need it, it'll be in the summer here, and I know I'll need more. Plus I like to be clean, meaning more than the minimum.
As for bleach, it loses its real potency starting after about 6 months, so check as to how much you store. You can get good dried chlorine too, good to keep around, and lasts longer.
Summary
There are great books that can help with this subject, and plenty of crappy ones too. I can suggest a few, and love to help friend get ready for the best or worst of times.
Coming soon to this server, Downtime.
With my change in employment, I have to move my server, and I really want to move a lot of it off the physical hardware. Well I have a lot moved, but the family and lug-nut sites aren't yet. I'm awaiting some different hardware still, so tomorrow I have to take this box down, and migrate it home for a while, before I can set up my replacement box.
Not that it matters too much, I mean how often have I posted this year :) Oh, it's my *other* services that matter to me.
With my change in employment, I have to move my server, and I really want to move a lot of it off the physical hardware. Well I have a lot moved, but the family and lug-nut sites aren't yet. I'm awaiting some different hardware still, so tomorrow I have to take this box down, and migrate it home for a while, before I can set up my replacement box.
Not that it matters too much, I mean how often have I posted this year :) Oh, it's my *other* services that matter to me.
I didnt' get a chance to blog about the early start to paintball this year. The regional SPPL qualifiers was held in Utah on May 2nd and 3rd this year, which as those who know me will note was the last day at my previous job :). What an exciting day.
What was really fun is this year DesertEdge fielded two squads (Yin and Yang), which gave me the chance to captain the Yang group. This had several seasoned team members, as well as a complement of our Junior group, and a couple of team tryouts (talk about trial by fire).
Through two days on very challenging fields though, we proved ourselves. As the sun set on the championship game in the Masters division, it was DesertEdge vs. Desertedge for first and second places. (gee, who won?).
What a great way to start the tournament season, with a nice first and second place standing, and nationals qualifications.
What was really fun is this year DesertEdge fielded two squads (Yin and Yang), which gave me the chance to captain the Yang group. This had several seasoned team members, as well as a complement of our Junior group, and a couple of team tryouts (talk about trial by fire).
Through two days on very challenging fields though, we proved ourselves. As the sun set on the championship game in the Masters division, it was DesertEdge vs. Desertedge for first and second places. (gee, who won?).
What a great way to start the tournament season, with a nice first and second place standing, and nationals qualifications.
For a while I've been trying to get a better way of managing my calendars on systems. Between my iCal on my laptop, at home, my phone, and my google cals (gmail account, and apps for my domain), I've gotten worse, rather than better at keeping things in sync.
My largest problem was that I didn't want any single location to be the absolute truth in terms of knowledge, especially when it came to choosing where to edit. As an example, I dont' have to have to go to google calendar to edit, just because my iCal can only *read* from there, or vice-versa. So enter GCALDaemon, a Java (I know) app which can run on linux, mac, and more and allow bi-directional work between my gcal, and ical, kontact, and more. It works quite well, except the direction don't apply for the current Leopard release of OSX. The main difference is in the location of where iCal stores its information, which is now in:
~/Library/Calendars/<Unique-id>.calendar/Events/*.ics
Which just happens to be the data you need for the config file, instead of the location they originally suggest. Also of concern was that by default, my google apps calendar wouldnt' give me a "private" link, but I just had to munge the url of the public ics file with a s/public/private/ and it worked. I now have my google calendars syncing bi-directionally with my laptop and desktop.
I haven't tried yet, but it also has a tool for getting an LDAP access to your google contacts, which will be nice.
My largest problem was that I didn't want any single location to be the absolute truth in terms of knowledge, especially when it came to choosing where to edit. As an example, I dont' have to have to go to google calendar to edit, just because my iCal can only *read* from there, or vice-versa. So enter GCALDaemon, a Java (I know) app which can run on linux, mac, and more and allow bi-directional work between my gcal, and ical, kontact, and more. It works quite well, except the direction don't apply for the current Leopard release of OSX. The main difference is in the location of where iCal stores its information, which is now in:
~/Library/Calendars/<Unique-id>.calendar/Events/*.ics
Which just happens to be the data you need for the config file, instead of the location they originally suggest. Also of concern was that by default, my google apps calendar wouldnt' give me a "private" link, but I just had to munge the url of the public ics file with a s/public/private/ and it worked. I now have my google calendars syncing bi-directionally with my laptop and desktop.
I haven't tried yet, but it also has a tool for getting an LDAP access to your google contacts, which will be nice.
What a night, after my team paintball practice, I had to run down to the American Fork pool to help my brothers' ward scout group learn basic kayak safety. They've decided that they are doing a kayak high adventure at lake Powell this year. So my brother and I brought down two of the kayaks, and started with the basics of entry, seating, control, and water escape. It's been a few years, so the demo of water re-entry was a little scary, but I did it.
It was great to get the boats back in some water (and quite warm at that), and we'll be getting quite a few more chances to take these guys out to practice this summer so they can get the feel for kayaking before their trip. And yes, these aren't tiny little whitewater kayaks. :) 19' Seda Glider, and a 17' Necky
The past couple of months have had me running around forever busy, and especially in regards to work, unable to *do* things. With the change in employment I've been kept out of being able to do any development work, which as most of my friend will probably agree with is something that begins to drive me batty.
So this weekend turns into the first time in a while that I am home with no outside commitments, so I had to do *something*. My wife is out in Colorado for a baby shower, so I've been a bit constrained watching my 3 kids, but still managed to get phase one of some new shelving done.
My basic premise was this wall in my garage. Previously here was some old thin metal shelving, totally overloaded with assorted cruft. It also made the "outside" fridge sit in front of other shelving, and was about "Windows ME" in terms of stability. It also made access to my kayaks a bit difficult (you can see the end of one there in the top corner). With my growing food storage, I had run out of other areas to put in cans, and wanted to improve the ability to rotate commonly used staples. Systems such as the "Shelf Reliance" products are very nice, but were quite out of my budget. Especially considering my needs in this situation. I wanted the can rotation, but I needed the ability to have standard shelving also. This would be much more apparent if you looked at the rest of my garage, which is stuffed, much of it the contents of the shelving I just pulled out.
Now I say Phase 1 with this project because this is not complete, in fact I plan on doing more tonight as my children hit the actual "sleeping" stage. Right now they are *going* to sleep which means I have to stay in earshot to refill water and the like. The next phase will be building out standard shelving from the wall I have just built, encaging the fridge, and providing storage on its side. The beauty of this project is the can rollers take up so little space, and then provide a wall in which I can do something like this. Heck, I could have surfaced it and just had it look like another wall.
So this weekend turns into the first time in a while that I am home with no outside commitments, so I had to do *something*. My wife is out in Colorado for a baby shower, so I've been a bit constrained watching my 3 kids, but still managed to get phase one of some new shelving done.
My basic premise was this wall in my garage. Previously here was some old thin metal shelving, totally overloaded with assorted cruft. It also made the "outside" fridge sit in front of other shelving, and was about "Windows ME" in terms of stability. It also made access to my kayaks a bit difficult (you can see the end of one there in the top corner). With my growing food storage, I had run out of other areas to put in cans, and wanted to improve the ability to rotate commonly used staples. Systems such as the "Shelf Reliance" products are very nice, but were quite out of my budget. Especially considering my needs in this situation. I wanted the can rotation, but I needed the ability to have standard shelving also. This would be much more apparent if you looked at the rest of my garage, which is stuffed, much of it the contents of the shelving I just pulled out.
Now I say Phase 1 with this project because this is not complete, in fact I plan on doing more tonight as my children hit the actual "sleeping" stage. Right now they are *going* to sleep which means I have to stay in earshot to refill water and the like. The next phase will be building out standard shelving from the wall I have just built, encaging the fridge, and providing storage on its side. The beauty of this project is the can rollers take up so little space, and then provide a wall in which I can do something like this. Heck, I could have surfaced it and just had it look like another wall.
The build is really simple, I simply took some 1x1/2 slats, and cut them to fit my 70" wall, giving a 4" height difference at the end, what seemed like a good incline. 8" between rows, then build the opposing wall to match. 1/4" particle board was laid in my 8" width. This size fits your #10 can perfectly, with 1/2" in each side for wiggle room, and just under 2" on top.
With my wall size, this will accommodate 96 cans (I could add one more row at the top, but it's a little to tall for anybody in the family except me). That's a lot of food I'm able to move out of my basement, under-the-stairs closet, which I can't get to most of the time anyways. Given that this is just outside the kitchen <-> garage door, it makes it a nice accessory to the pantry. And since my garage is well insulated, and I know the temperature ranges in it, I can put in a pretty wide range of foods without them being affected adversely.
All told, the materials were $61 for this project, including the wood to frame out the front end shelves which aren't done yet. Not a bad price for largely increased storage, with can rotation.
With my wall size, this will accommodate 96 cans (I could add one more row at the top, but it's a little to tall for anybody in the family except me). That's a lot of food I'm able to move out of my basement, under-the-stairs closet, which I can't get to most of the time anyways. Given that this is just outside the kitchen <-> garage door, it makes it a nice accessory to the pantry. And since my garage is well insulated, and I know the temperature ranges in it, I can put in a pretty wide range of foods without them being affected adversely.
All told, the materials were $61 for this project, including the wood to frame out the front end shelves which aren't done yet. Not a bad price for largely increased storage, with can rotation.
Yes, I'm moving on. It's time for me to go to a new place, so I'm starting to troll along with my resume for anything interesting. I won't go into my reasons here, as I am still employed :) but would like to find something new.
If for some reason you are reading this and don't know what I do, or what I'm good at, wow, I'm surprised :) but here goes a little.
I'm a very experienced Perl programmer,with previous experience in the usuals (C, C++), but those are pretty outdated in terms of experience. The larger part of my experience and background is in dealing with Billing and Finance applications, and large scale replicating site/cms tools. I'm a core developer on the Freeside billing system, and heavily involved with the local Open Source community. Go ahead, check out the resume - http://halls.lug-nut.com/jayce/resume.html
If for some reason you are reading this and don't know what I do, or what I'm good at, wow, I'm surprised :) but here goes a little.
I'm a very experienced Perl programmer,with previous experience in the usuals (C, C++), but those are pretty outdated in terms of experience. The larger part of my experience and background is in dealing with Billing and Finance applications, and large scale replicating site/cms tools. I'm a core developer on the Freeside billing system, and heavily involved with the local Open Source community. Go ahead, check out the resume - http://halls.lug-nut.com/jayce/resume.html
After a a few casual tweets, a website is born :)
http://geeksnguns.com/
Phil801 had been discussing shooting to blow off some stress, and I mentioned that it sounded time to have another geeks-n-guns event. He found the name amusing, and the site is born. Go check in if you are a geek with and interest in things that go boom!
http://geeksnguns.com/
Phil801 had been discussing shooting to blow off some stress, and I mentioned that it sounded time to have another geeks-n-guns event. He found the name amusing, and the site is born. Go check in if you are a geek with and interest in things that go boom!
For those that haven't already heard, perl 5.10 was just released for perls 20th birthday. I had hoped to note this earlier, but was in my car the last two days transporting the family to the Holiday festivities. So, what's with 5.10? why a big deal for just another small release? Well, unlike some languages that change major version numbers at each small release, Perl has actually kept its numbering sane. So what is in 5.10? A lot of new features, many of which were specifically brought down from the perl6 design.
Syntactic things like the say operator, built in switch statement, smart match, named regex captures, regex plugins and more. Add to that interpreter improvements for speed and memory.
A good help with understanding some of the new syntactic sugar can be found in Ricardo's Slides.
Syntactic things like the say operator, built in switch statement, smart match, named regex captures, regex plugins and more. Add to that interpreter improvements for speed and memory.
A good help with understanding some of the new syntactic sugar can be found in Ricardo's Slides.
A big thanks to our friends at Tier 4 for buying 15 cases of marballizer paint, and inviting all of us to play. It was a great day for paintball with beautiful weather, lots of fun players (both first timers, and experienced people), and plenty of action. It was fun to begin setting up teams by calling out for .RPM vs .DEB, and then watch as destruction happened in various game formats.
Make sure to thank the sponsors, and maybe they'll buy for us again! If you did enjoy it and would like to do it again, also let us at UTOS know, so we can plan more activities for the groups in Utah. Also thanks to the non-geek Team DesertEdge members for helping out with team balance, and keeping the games moving :)
Make sure to thank the sponsors, and maybe they'll buy for us again! If you did enjoy it and would like to do it again, also let us at UTOS know, so we can plan more activities for the groups in Utah. Also thanks to the non-geek Team DesertEdge members for helping out with team balance, and keeping the games moving :)
Well, Heather has set a good example for me. She blogs every week
about her family. I feel a strong desire to do the same, however, I am
not very good at it. I am going to pick one day a week and write a
short paragraph about each of us. So, this is the first week, though I
am not sure Wednesday will stay the day I write. :) So far this week
has been fairly uneventful. THe weekend was really fun though. Jason
had fun playing paintball with his team Desert Edge at the Regionals
and completely blew away all the competition. Desert Edge Yen and
Desert Edge Yang took first and second place and then were able to play
each other in the Finals. They apparently went out only a single hopper
each and had a great time. Jason, unfortunatley missed the finals
because he left early to attend a Cinco De Mayo party with the kids and
I. It was a sacrifice to miss the best part of the Regionals, but we
are grateful and had a good time with him at the party.
The party was hosted by a high school friend of mine named Scott and his beautiful wife Heidi. There were several other friends of mine there from high school and their families. It was really fun to see each of them since it has been as little as a year and a half for some and as much as 7 years for others. Warren Page proposed to his girlfriend during the party which was a special treat and an honor to be a part of. We ate good tacos and watched the Three Amigos.
About 2 months ago, Garion was begging me to join a football team. He is not currently involved with any sports or extra curricular activities, so I told him as soon as I found out when and where I could sign him up, I would. We have finally found out that sign ups are form now through the begining of June, but apparently Garion has changed his mind. He says he is afraid of getting tackled and getting hurt. I can't blame him, but I am still trying to talk him into joining because I think it would be a great experience for him. I have a few doubts about how much tackling will be happening with 7 year olds, but I guess you never know. He is going to pray about his decision not to sign up. We will see what he decides.
Brynn is officially one for 2 weeks now. She had her immunizations on the 25th of April and yesterday, 10 days exactly after the shots, she had a reaction to the mmr. She has had a fever all weekend, but yesterday she got a rash from her toes to her head. It is fine, it doesn't bother her or itch or anything like that and her fever is gone. I called the doctor about it and she said not to worry, so I haven't. The rash is better today but still fairly pronounced. She has been pretty clingy and lathargic today, so maybe the rash has had some effect on her after all.
Kayla has been very excited because we have been painting her room. It is a really light, creamy yellow on top and a nice violet purple on the bottom. We are going to get a chair railing to put up hopefully this weekend and she has spotted some dark purple curtains that have silver shiney spots on them a Lowes that she really wants. It has been a fun project for me to work on. Something different than the mundane things or ordinary days. Although, it has been a little hard to convince Kayla that I don't need help painting, So she just sits there and watches me for the most part. I would have let her help, but I just really didn't want myself or the carpet to be painted. :)
I have been trying to get back in the habit of running, but I have been having a hard time with it. So this week, I decided to try roller blading. I really enjoy the sport, but have never taken the time to really do it. I bought some pads and went out yesterday morning. I felt a little self-concious putting all the padding on. Who knew you would need so much armor just to roll down the street! :) But I had to go down a few hills and I was really glad for the protection when I was going fast. I am proud to say that I made it home without falling once! We will see what happens tomorrow.
I guess that is all for this week. I will write more if it comes to me before next week! Have a happy day!
Kelly
The party was hosted by a high school friend of mine named Scott and his beautiful wife Heidi. There were several other friends of mine there from high school and their families. It was really fun to see each of them since it has been as little as a year and a half for some and as much as 7 years for others. Warren Page proposed to his girlfriend during the party which was a special treat and an honor to be a part of. We ate good tacos and watched the Three Amigos.
About 2 months ago, Garion was begging me to join a football team. He is not currently involved with any sports or extra curricular activities, so I told him as soon as I found out when and where I could sign him up, I would. We have finally found out that sign ups are form now through the begining of June, but apparently Garion has changed his mind. He says he is afraid of getting tackled and getting hurt. I can't blame him, but I am still trying to talk him into joining because I think it would be a great experience for him. I have a few doubts about how much tackling will be happening with 7 year olds, but I guess you never know. He is going to pray about his decision not to sign up. We will see what he decides.
Brynn is officially one for 2 weeks now. She had her immunizations on the 25th of April and yesterday, 10 days exactly after the shots, she had a reaction to the mmr. She has had a fever all weekend, but yesterday she got a rash from her toes to her head. It is fine, it doesn't bother her or itch or anything like that and her fever is gone. I called the doctor about it and she said not to worry, so I haven't. The rash is better today but still fairly pronounced. She has been pretty clingy and lathargic today, so maybe the rash has had some effect on her after all.
Kayla has been very excited because we have been painting her room. It is a really light, creamy yellow on top and a nice violet purple on the bottom. We are going to get a chair railing to put up hopefully this weekend and she has spotted some dark purple curtains that have silver shiney spots on them a Lowes that she really wants. It has been a fun project for me to work on. Something different than the mundane things or ordinary days. Although, it has been a little hard to convince Kayla that I don't need help painting, So she just sits there and watches me for the most part. I would have let her help, but I just really didn't want myself or the carpet to be painted. :)
I have been trying to get back in the habit of running, but I have been having a hard time with it. So this week, I decided to try roller blading. I really enjoy the sport, but have never taken the time to really do it. I bought some pads and went out yesterday morning. I felt a little self-concious putting all the padding on. Who knew you would need so much armor just to roll down the street! :) But I had to go down a few hills and I was really glad for the protection when I was going fast. I am proud to say that I made it home without falling once! We will see what happens tomorrow.
I guess that is all for this week. I will write more if it comes to me before next week! Have a happy day!
Kelly
Happy 3rd Birthday Kayla!
Yes, our little girl is growing up. Yesterday she had a few friends over and played while we had a bbq. She had a great time, and we got a couple of pictures with the neighbors camera, and will be posting them soon.
Yes, our little girl is growing up. Yesterday she had a few friends over and played while we had a bbq. She had a great time, and we got a couple of pictures with the neighbors camera, and will be posting them soon.
Garion had his first soccer game today, playing for the "Vultures" in Eagle Mountain's city league. Having had only one practice previous to this, Garion did pretty well. Especially against a team that even for his age, had kids with serious soccer skills. Garion did the expected, chasing where the ball was, and stopping to think before trying to kick. But he did really well in keeping running, and in not trying to grab the ball. Not bad at all. So now we get to try and teach him the basics of soccer, and hope he starts to learn.
