The Reason for the Break

It has already been two months since my last post it all comes down to habits my are not the most predictable.  Have you ever had the moment where you do something very well for awhile then the habit slowly fades?  For me the most stand out moment where this will happen is when I play one of my all time favorite video games Final Fantasy 1.  Every time with out fail when I reach the last dungeon (which is also the fist one in the game) all of my ambition to finish off the game disappears. I think that has happened in a different way to my blog.  However I will try to rekindle my habits and post more regularly.

Recap of 2009

I have been neglectful when it comes to posting the experiences and stories of my life.  Over the past few months I started a few entries but they never seemed to get off the ground.  Which brings me to this point where I realized that a new year is upon me and I had not finished out the 2009 year on my blog.  So the point of this post is to share the last few months worth of adventures with a little back story.

One year ago about a week before Christmas 2008 we moved to in my opinion the best and newest apartment that we had ever lived in to date after M and I were married.  With the move happening so close to the holidays I did not have time to properly decorate our new home.  This was a problem I was going to rectify for the 2009 season. 

When it comes to decorating with lights I try and emulate Clark Griswold from the Christmas Vacation movie.  My only limiters this year was the amount of lights I could put up and the limited space on my 8 foot by 8 foot patio.  I started putting up lights out side over my Thanksgiving break yes before Thanksgiving Christmas lights were going up over at my house.  I am pleased that I was able to put up 835 lights on my patio I know what your saying "835 that's nothing".  Well to that I would remind you that my story is not done yet there is still more to come.  We also this year revived a new Christmas tree from my sister (thank you), and for the first time picked out an entire matching set of ornaments (the non-breakable ones) and a complete set of clear lights specifically for the tree. What is truly amazing is the fact that it took 950 lights to completely cover the tree which we set up in our front room window.  So my 2009 total lights count with the tree and outside lights combined is 1775 . 

For New Year's eve I spent it taking down 1775 lights and putting away all of our Christmas decorations.  With all the decorations down and in there place we can now start seating up the baby stuff before the next semester begins.

Christmas Giveaway

My wife told me about this website called 5 minutes for mom that is giving away a lot of great prizes. Right now they're running a seasonal Christmas giveaways and dads can enter too. So now I'm going to head over to 5 minutes for mom and enter in a few giveaways.

Just To Prove A Point...

In reference to the previous post or "my search for my windmill" as a good friend compared it to I was visiting the church web site and saw this little tidbit.
I was unable to post the youtube video here because of a sizing issue but here is the link to view it.
Now that this subject is on my mind I keep running into the same phrase "What Matters Most."  Just the other day my girls were watching the vegie tails movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" I just happend to walkn into the room when one of the charicters said somting the struck me as intresting.  "Sometimes a test helpes us decide what matters most" here is a clip so you can see what I was talking about. http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1106772249/  Then just this evening when I was at the presthood sesion of general confrance (which was very very good) more of the same advice was given.  Now all I have to do is apply it.  My quest for the windmills is on thanks to all of the advice I have recived.

What Matters Most?

Over the last few day a simple idea has been reappearing before me, it appeared within the sources for the talk I was asked to give and in the material for my other church lessons. All I can think about is that there is a very important message that I need to pickup on and seriously apply. Thinking back on my life there are several moments where I could have been doing better in my pre-collage education yet I chose to play and entertain myself. For those choice I have received my reward now I must make a choice, continue to goof off or buckle down and focuses on what matters most. It may seen like a simple decision to make but for me it is and has been very difficult. My study habits are (I admit) mediocre at best (however compared to High School there leaps and bounds better) my desire to work on my studying habits is almost nonexistent (any suggestion would be welcomed). I don't meant to sound like a complete slacker it is just that I have lost sight of what matters most to me and I an unsure about how to reestablish that focuses. It seem that others have a solid goal that is not easily forgotten and one that propels them though other non related classes. I would love to know a way for me to have the same drive I see in others when it comes to information/classes that I see no value in. I'm not trying to sound negative about myself or my ability's to learn but it is hard lately to feel confidant in my studies. It all comes back to what mattes most and figuring what that is.

Relaxing

Some times I find it hard to actual relax for the most part what I do to take a break has involved a move, watching t.v., or playing a game. Each time that I walk away form those activity's I'm anything but relaxed. It wasn't until recently that someone mentioned a way to tell if what your are doing is relaxing or not. I was surprised by the simplicity of the notion that I almost did not pay attention to it, but if it had not been for the start of another semester and a new calling on top of my teaching I would not have listened. With gratitude for thos that shared this message to me I now share this lesson or message with any who want simple key to relaxing. That key is a question to ask your self and the question is this if the activity that you are doing to relax (weather it is watching TV, or playing a game) if you can not walk away with a feeling of refreshment and readement for what is next then that activity it is the wrong thing for you to relax. For me I have found that guitar music help me relax, so I have noticed that my last guitar music post is now on the next page of my blog I thought it is time to post another sampiling of Andy McKee.




I enjoy this music and I hope that it help you relax and prepair for the rest of the day.

Yellowstone Travel Story

It has taken us a few days to finish this story and post the pictures of our vacation to Yellowstone, but it is finally done and you can see it at my wife's blog. Due to its length (and I really do not want to transfer it over to my blog because I'm being lazy) and size of the file I will not post it here. The post was a joint effort and once you read it you'll know why.

Another Semester

It is official the fall semester starts next week, and it puts me one semester closer to the goal of graduation. We did have one last adventure before going back, and it took place in Yellowstone National Park. Growing up my family would go to Yellowstone at least one a year for a vacation I thought maybe I should continue that tradition with my family. I was shocked to discover that my wife of almost 7 years has only ever been to Old Faithful once and never camped in the park. With this camping trip I not only had two wide eyed girls but one in awe wife. It was cute to watch my children light up with each animal that came into view. To hear there little excited voices asking questions about Old Faithful, geysers, and any bug that came into view. Most of all it was entertaining to watch as my wife experienced more of Yellowstone for the first time. :)

Summer 09'

This summer has been very fun. M has enjoyed her time during her internship. We have seen some new sights and done lots of activities for the girls. But if you were to ask me what one thing was the most exciting that would be finding out that we are going to have another child. Yep that is right we are expecting number 3 in February.

Tails of an Overweight Aging Man.

It is two weeks till the end of the semester when the needed one credit class began on a Tuesday night. Surrounded by younger and more fit peer the first and last class session began. This class room session was to inform the class as a hole what to expect and what items were necessary for completion of the field part of the course. Stuff like bring your own tent, clothing, food, water, and lights at least three. Being a one credit class the task to complete for the weekend classes were nothing more than show up and participate.

With all the excitement of a child awaiting Christmas morning I got all the necessities packed and ready to for the weekend field course. Arriving five munities before the pack up and head out time I was able to stow my belongings in the pack truck and stand around for everyone else to show up. With a quick pep talk about the location of our journey and a reminder of what to expect we headed out on a hour and half to the first site. Now I bet you are wondering what it was that earned the title of this post. Our first stop was a old lava tube that was not very difficult to navigate or explore. That is right I signed up for a caving class. Being a Geologist at heart and soon with a diploma (give or take a few years) it was like being lead into a candy shop as a child and told have what ever you want. Everything from the way the cave moved to the structure of the cave it’s self was extremely interesting to me. Often I would be seen just staring at a seemingly boring bit of rock but I would see different colors, shapes, and fracture patterns (some a bit odd by the way) and just try to figure out what happened down in the cave.

Cave two turned out to be another forty five munities away on deeply rutted with patches of ruff basalt popping out every few feet. Thankfully my friend whom I will call Dave was an expert when it came to going off rode with many years of practice and a few old trucks to vouch for it. As luck would have it we had to park the vehicles and hike for about one and a half to two miles over broken up basalt in the middle of the hottest part of the day. On the plus side the wind was cool and kept the hike pleasant. New camel pack and friend the journey to the cave went by quickly. However this cave turned out to be very different for the first. It too was a old lava tube but its size made the other look like a golfer hole. The temperature in this cave was much colder that the last and as a point there were ice goblins and ice stalagmites and stalactites. But the most difficult obstacle was the cave floor being covered in an inch of ice at times.

On the journey back to the parked vehicles the group spilt into several smaller groups that all found there way back with the last group containing the instructor and his aids excitedly telling everyone that they had discovered a new cavern not on any of the maps. Promising all that would attempt to go and enter the cavern that the trip would be well worth the effort required but nothing more was said other than you will need gloves and knee pads. Upon entering the cave witch stood only five feet tall and rapidly narrowing down to a foot to two feet tall with a jagged ceiling and floor one would wonder if they had a nasty prank just pulled on them. Crawling on the rock was tiring and craning my neck up to see were I was going caused a sharp pain to develop in my neck making it difficult to look where I was going for long. It turned out that I was being left in the dust by everyone else I could tell that the instructor felt bad for me as she stayed close to me to make sure I could make it to the end. During part of this journey some of the other class members would stop and roll over to rest and giving there legs and arms a much needed break one such individual was resting up ahead of me when the incident happened. Our instructor aid, who was ahead of me, reached the point right next to the before mentioned caver who reached out and grabbed the instructor’s arm and said her name. All I heard was her scream witch caused me to look up to see what had happened. But when I looked up to see her turn on her side slightly and start punching at every part of the resting caver intent on doing as much damage as she could. As for the caver he was trying the best he could to curl into a more defensible position an almost impossible feat as the cave was so small. This bit of amusement seemed to brighten the gloomy and sharp predicament I was in by leaps and bounds as I was the only one behind them and could easily see what happened. Roars of laughter could be heard echoing all around the group as the story was retold to those who were up ahead. After army crawling a tenth of a mile the cavern opens up into an antechamber with an exit to the surface further on after a short crawl and a bit of a tight fit. This chamber was spectacular a large gas bubble like one that can be seen when driving through a lava flow. On the outside it look like a giant mound or hill but on the inside it is empty.

It was decided that this unknown cave would be the last on our trip for that day and we broke out camp in a little valley with the hope that it would shield us from the now very cold and gusty wind. Needless to say that night was miserable to cold and windy to sleep but the next day was full of promise at six a.m. (anyone who know me knows better that to require me to be up and coherent at 6 a.m. let alone cheerful). The next cave was the most technical and thankfully the last that we would be doing that day. It started with a 20 to 30 foot repel into a cavern which was full of rock mounds which were the result of the ceiling caving in. This cave also had a short crawl the only difference was the floor was covered in about six to seven inches or more of find sand. Compared to the previous cave this short crawl (maybe a hundred feet) was like crawling on velvet. Unfortunately the cave did not have any alternate exits which meant we had to ascend out of the cave the same way we went into it. Not wanting to go first I watched all the others use the ascender doing the equivalent of 30 pull-ups. David (my new friend) wanted to go early on and hooked into the lines and with surprisingly little effort was up and out of the cavern (he is in the air national guard). When my turn came Another one of my instructors that were on the outside of the cave started joking around that they would pull up all of the ropes except two for the instructor who was still down in the cave (who by the way was the same instructor who was startled in the previous cave). Panicked stricken she started asking the only reaming person in the cave who had come well prepared for rock climbing (and was the person who startled the instructor in the previous cave).

With more words that I would care to type I emerged from the cave with the distinct thought of being over weight or lacking muscle power or both (more likely the later). True to there word they yanked up all but two ropes for the remaining instructor who despite the disadvantage emerged out of the cave without the aid of the extra lines and ascender.

As for the title of this post it was stated to me by David (who is the same age as me) the day before and I quote this question and answer session that made me smile and laugh he asked me.

David “Do you know how I can tell that I’m old?”

Rich “How?'”

David “I’m at the end of the group.”

(Short pause)

David “Do you know how I can tell that you are old?”

Rich “How?”

David “You are behind me.”

(Much laughing)

I hope you have enjoyed my tail of an over weight aging man who is me. ;-)