Vacation week

This week has been a full week. Tara and I decided to use her Jet Blue benefits for the first time. We flew to New York to see the sights. We didn't want to stay overnight because of the hotel prices there. We just walked all over the city and sped around on the subway system. It is a colorful city, we were about the only white people we saw with the exception of tourists from Europe.

The Statue of Liberty was pretty cool. We were really cold and tired by the time we got there. The statue of Liberty has made its way into our group of immortal national figures, that artists and directors use regularly in their craft. Ben Franklin, George Washington, Honest Abe, The Bald Eagle, Francis Scott Key, Paul Revere, General Patton... in all these figures the Statue of Liberty embodies all the ideals that they stand for. I felt that most of the people there were just there to get a picture for their collection without realizing the gravity and the important message and purpose Lady Liberty has. Of course it was 30 degrees and everyone wanted to be on their way quickly.

This is a really cool poem about the Statue of Liberty. It is written by Emma Lazarus.

"The New Colossus"
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That night, Tara had to go directly back to SLC so she could work on Sunday. I took the kids on the flight to San Jose, and we spent a day and a half with my Mom and Dad. We were at the Atlantic ocean one day, and the Pacific the next.

The kids had so much fun climbing the redwood tree. Ali got stuck, and I had to go up to her rescue. Isaiah climbed 2/3 of the way to the top. Tara couldn't have handled it, so it's good she wasn't there. At the beach, I dug a big ol' trench, and all the kids around gravitated to it. We were preparing for the beach invasion. While I was there, I beat Tara's score at Geo Challenge. It's pretty funny how competitive we are with each other. It's only a matter of time before she beats me, and I'll have to up my game again. That's how we keep the romance alive. Geo Challenge love.

Constitution of the United States

Constitution of the United States
Originally uploaded by The Adventures of Tiff & Sean

Looked like the real thing.

Catch up

Texaco Mexico Pepsico Calexico with the California kicks kicks kicks and the super cooley tricks. That is one of Ali's little jump rope songs/ryhmes. Sorry we haven't posted in a while tough times. I have been getting written up at both my jobs. Job security is good at UPS but not at the JLTC. All the orders I write up have a clause saying continuation of order dependent on funding. Funding might go away with Obama. We are going to St George for Thxgvg and hopefully take a trip to California for the first time on Jet Blue. The week of ThxGvg may be a problem.
Does anyone have a boss or management that breathes down your neck or watches your every move? I do and it stinks. I don't just stop at one mistake I dwell on it and get flustered and think about it intensely and then I make a whole separate mistake. I don't want to list all of them but I always get a UPS truck that takes unleaded. Last Saturday I get in my truck go to top off the tank and after I finish I realize I just put unleaded gasoline in a diesel engine. Hope they don't fire me after peak. They will use me until peak is over then fire me probably.
Good people of California came together and made their voices heard. The side that lost is now beginning to persecute the church. Its very touching that they put out these very personal human interest stories about how Joe was partners with Bob for forty years and they loved each other more than any straight couple ever loved each other and how they didn't have any visitation rights or whatever because they were "gay". I know how these journalists work. Just like Stephanie Meyer gets us to love Bella and root for her; these columnists make these characters in their stories very likable and endearing. Don't fall for it and let pure emotion and sympathy take precedence over righteousness and practicality. Don't be guilted into changing your view by people calling you "haters" hate the sin not the sinner as they say. If you haven't heard there has been a major increase in vandalism to LDS churches along the Wasatch Front. Broken windows and one attempted arson.
For those of you that have read the Book of Mormon I suspect that the Gaddianton robbers were homosexual. That I remember there is zero mention of females or children among them and they always want people to join them. Reminds me of the City of Sodom and Gomorrah "send your men out that we may know them". Genesis. I probably misquoted but that was the gist of it.
It is getting way late I am going to bed before I go further into abstract and meaningless subjects. Maybe I will write again this weekend.

A Halloween post, intending to make Christine so homesick- she comes home!

Cameron's sister, Christine, has been living with her husband and three boys in Turkey. Our goal in writing this post is to make her so homesick for her favorite brother, her in- laws, and all her nieces and nephews... that she realize that Turkey is no fun. Utah is better. Come home!

This first picture is poor, sorry! It's the very end of the night, and every kid in sight was chasing and tackling Jason, because they didn't want him to go.


Right before we left, Cam was teasing Ewan, tickling and grabbing him from the car. I picked him up and handed him through the window to Cameron, and Peter said, "Yes, take him home please, he eats way too much. You can keep him." Anna ran into the house crying. Peter and Wendy thought it was because they had told her she needed to go change into pajamas... Nope, she really thought her Dad was giving Cuppy away.

A Halloween video at the Morkel's home.

You Missed a good party! And they even had real, ORANGE pumpkins!Ali Jump roping from house to house. Cecily made a cute bumble bee.

Ewan said he didn't get that scar when he fell from his second story window, into the basement window well below... It's just part of the costume- don't worry.

This one you really have to strain your eyes on... They were running so fast they were too far away to get a good picture. It's Anna, in her pink princess gown, chasing Isaiah, the fearless ninja. As you can imagine, he deserved it.

Cam borrowed Ewan's glasses for this Gandhi Pic. This is between hunger strikes.



Here's Ian, Peter and kids on the trick- or -treating circle.

Happy Halloween

So getting Cori to wear a costume took bribery... Luckily we happened to have candy on hand. She was a slow poke, so she ended up on Daddy's shoulders half the time. Can you see her hiding behind her Nemo costume?
Ali and her cousin, Jessica at the Springville main street trick-or-treat.

Looks likes a candy coma, doesn't it?


Isaiah, the Ninja... he is a sneaky little crapper.


Our angel, Ali at the school halloween parade.

Saturday drive to Dugway

Way sucky got tired had to get out to do some jumping jacks to stay awake. Went to Crystal Hot Springs with the kids again. Had a super bad tooth ache had to leave church with the kids in tow. Had a root canal today way fun by the way. Feels like someone used a dewalt drill in my mouth. Jack hammer is more accurate as to how it feels now. Not even the 800 mmgs ibuprofen fully takes away the pain. Cori had her tiger cake for her third birthday. Tara thinks she liked her little animals and dolly the most. Savers toys!, awesome, she doesn't know the difference. Fighting a cold and a cough it is crappy will be looking for jobs again this next month. Tara will be adding more pictures of Cori's party we used a different camera and it will take a while to figure out how to transfer the pics. See you next time something out of the ordinary happens.

copyright infringment

I read my wife's cousins blog tonight about her quirks. I thought to myself that those aren't very strange quirks except for maybe the one about not liking to run into people. I gave it some thought and found out that I have some pretty odd quirks too. I don't know if I will be able to come up with seven tonight but there are a couple that stand out.

1. When I eat cereal in the morning I pour milk into the cereal until I see the first flake or puff or FMW or cheerio move. Then I proceed to rotate my bowl clockwise and tamp down the cereal into the milk so none of it is extremely dry or sharp on my gums.

2. I firmly believe that 2% milk is the only way to go. I have a near philosophy on the matter. Why drink milk at all if it is closer to being water than milk. Why is milk good for you?... because of the calcium right? Well calcium is white and when the color of skim milk is opaque or less white than the two percent that would indicate that something has been lost. Women that drink skim milk are drinking it because they don't want to exercise to work off the chub they accumulate from watching three hours of soaps a day. I compromised with my wife and drink 1% but whole milk is another story. If you are going to drink whole milk why not just buy a cow. There is a scripture that says "delight in fatness" so a little fat isn't all bad.

3. Hamburgers. I eat them a certain way that nobody I know does except maybe the people that have seen the superiority of my method. I set the hamburger on top of my hand and rotate it depending on where the drips come out of. Clockwise too by the way. After all if its good enough for Father time its good enough for me. My method is cleaner and more effective. Your hands don't get greasy by squeezing out the guts of the burger they remain clean and clear of any sauce, grease or other debris that comes out of the hamburger. If you are skeptical try eating a Carls Junior six dollar burger, (specifically the guacamole bacon) without spilling anything out of it. I have accomplished it with my hamburger eating method. Let me know and be honest zero spills.

4. If I wake up in the morning and stub my toe or something super crappy happens in the first fifteen minutes of being awake I am next to certain that my whole day is going to suck badly.

5. At UPS I have to throw my last bag on the belt or disaster will befall me. Other people can throw the others on but not the first or the last. It is a serious superstition.

6. Toothpaste should exit the tube a certain way. From the bottom up. Not from the middle out or from top to bottom. I am pretty sure I picked that one up from old Dad. No excess needs to be left gumming up the cap area.

7. Since basic training I fold my shirts just a certain way. If they are folded otherwise I refold.

8. I am particular about the way I hang my pants. I place the first two belt loops together on each side of the button or snap. I don't rehang pants though not as big a priority on my list of quirks.

9. Sorry girls but I cannot drive as a passenger to a woman without being very nervous to the point of near hyperventilation. This is attributed to Alice Martineau who rolled her Geo metro in a blizzard on a mountain pass in Northern Nevada with me as the passenger.

10. I am ultra sensitive to the ground shaking ever since the 7.1 earthquake of 89 in Los Gatos Ca. if you want to play a good joke on me lift a desk up and shake it a bit while I am sitting on it and you will see the worlds fastest human.

So I came up with ten; more than I expected but I think they are diverse quirks and some of them I take some pride in as you may have been able to tell. My youngest daughter takes after me and she can be very difficult sometimes. So yes I know I need to keep these things to myself to avoid warping my childrens brains.

Provo trip

Robyn and me went to Provo and picked grapes at one of my sisters past places of residence. I am terrible at doing video I don't talk enough or I talk too much. I either keep too still or I move around too much. You will see what I mean when I post these videos. Watch for the fabled you'll put your eye out actually happen with Isaiah and Ali on the fence. Bed time see you next time.

soccer

Here are some recent videos of lagoon and soccer. My wife erased one of my posts that had some cool links on it. Dadsagainstdrugdealers.com, kirstin roper photography, and weburbanist.com. I have a secret everyone; something that Tara doesn't want her mom my aunt Robyn to know about. I played another game with gays and dolls, oops guys and dolls coed team last night. I didn't have such a good night as last time. The coed teams only allow guys to touch the ball three times per possesion, that really lowers your chances of getting a goal. I think I might join a mens team instead. Our van got a flat, lame. We go to Provo soon I will take pictures of your old house Christine maybe get you homesick enough to come back.

Here's a horrible pic (I need a new phone.) of Cori going to town with her, "Chocolate Hot." She loves it.
Cori's funny joke of the day... She made it up. You can't tell where her political influence comes from, can you?
"Knock Knock." "Who's there?" "Obama eats poo-poo."

cori's only swimming pool

I have taken my kids swimming quite a bit throughout the years. Our third child Cori always is a party killer when it comes to swimming though. "I'm cold daddy I want to go hooome." So this weekend I thought I would try out Crystal hot Springs in Honeyville Utah. I took her there once before but she was still scared of the water. I guess you could say it didn't go over too well. But we have been to other pools since and she has gotten in and played for a little and then gets cold and wants to go home. At Clearfield pool and Bountiful Recreation Center they have hot tubs that only adults can go in. Can you guess where I am going with this?... So I go to Clearfield last week and I try going in the hot tub while watching Cori play at the other pool but she decides to throw a fit because she can't go in the hot tub. So we leave in order to spare everyone their ears what a shreiking screaming little turd. So I decided to try Crystal again last Saturday thinking she has had more experience with water and swimming environments since our last time there. It worked great all except the part where they close and my kids don't want to go home. So now all three are on the same page for Crystal. It is the best with the exception of Lava according to the two oldest ones Isaiah and Ali. I like Lava too but Crystal has an unregulated way about it that I like very much. Very few rules exist there, no lifeguards telling you not to run, all you have is your own good judgement which is just how it should be. Anyway here are some pics of Cori getting used to the nice warm water and one of our traditions of getting popsicles after going swimming at Crystal. Cori didn't look to happy in the picture but lets just say she warmed up to it, ha ha ha get it, hot springs, warmed up to it. What a nerd I am huh. She almost drowned by the way, thank goodness her dad looks out for her. I was in the hot tub trying to track all three kids in different directions and when I came back to Cori playing in the chlorinated pool on the other side she had lost a hold on the bar by the stairs and was drifting out splashing and panicking wow I felt like it was slow motion but when I got back to the hot tub the lady that was sitting across from me was looking at me in half shock and said "I have never seen anyone move that fast!" Cori didn't have any negative effects from the experience and wanted to go right back to playing thank goodness. Ali felt left out and had to tell them about the time she almost drowned in a swimming hole we found up in the mountains and her dad jumped in with his clothes on and boots and cell phone in his pocket to save her. The experiences with swimming wow. I will leave the Mexican Log jam story for another time.

Halloween true story

Ok It's halloween soon so I am going to share some scary stories with all of you and this is the scariest thing I have ever experienced on the internet. Ok pop your toes pull your ear lobes and type in badger badger badger in the search area above and you may never be heard from again. If you can bear to talk about it afterwards you can share your thoughts with me about your experience.

first snow

I didn't crash. I have been stressing out about the first snow storm of the year because I drive for UPS and I have heard so many horror stories. Well today was the first Saturday that I have driven in bad weather and it wasn't so bad. Isn't it always like that, you feel differently about things until you jump in and do them. Personal experience is an interesting thing. Tonight for example I found a friends blog and his wife maintains it mostly, anyway I know she is a huge Twilight fan. I am a man and when my wife started reading those "stinkin vampire books" I was really against it. Mainstream vampire culture really sucks in my opinion the people who are into that are freaks, it is simply evil to drink blood and it is glorified, those are and were some of my thoughts before reading these books. I don't want to go into detail on the why's and the how come's because it would take forever but after I read them I realized nothing is ever as it seems until you try it. Take the Underworld movies, the biggest fans of that movie are men at least in my experience because of Kate Beckingsdale. Interview with a vampire with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt evil and dark bad intent all the way through. I really hope Stephanie Meyer does not let Hollywood corrupt her books and make a trendy vampire movie that doesn't focus on some of the uncommon themes of her books.
I am Bella by the way according to my twilight personality test. Go to Twilighters anonymous I think it is called. Sorry about that tangent. I drive for UPS out in Tooele, Grantsville, Stansbury, Erda, Lakeview, Dugway, Vernon, Delle, and Magna. On Saturdays most of those lesser known towns don't get deliveries but it is fun to go on a weekly road trip even if it is in an ugly brown vehicle. So it was snowing hard there today and I didn't get wrapped around a telephone pole or slide completely off the road like I was imagining I might. I met two MIB dogs super friendly. I met a family that I can only assume adopted twenty physically or mentally disabled black children awesome people props to them. They have got to be loaded and good hearted. I was given help finding an address today by UHP strange that I was served and not given a ticket which has been the case with me historically. Served might be the wrong word because I have gotten served before when given a ticket in a sense. So props to the UHP everyone they aren't all bad.
I am lame, I missed my sons first goal in soccer because I was donating plasma and thought their games would be cancelled due to the weather. So I got thirty bucks for donating plasma and then had to give twenty of it to Isaiah as promised for the goal. He went out right away and bought two transformers and gave two to tithing. I am a proud father today. Man alot happens in a day so much to tell. The coolest things about Isaiahs goal are that three weeks ago he was looking up at clouds and picking grass during games. When I said twenty dollars a goal he changed completely. His first game he tried really hard and came close but no goal. So I told him "I can't do consolation prizes but I can work with you to improve your game if you want." So he got fired up and practiced hard then he had a second game still no goal. Then he practiced more and finally after working for a desired result he made a goal and got really close two other times. So basically he learned in a small way what work and practice can do. So I am hoping that is like adding fuel to the fire. Second thing that was the most cool was that he remembered tithing. I am thinking his Mom reminded him but he came downstairs to tell me he paid it and I think he felt good about doing it. I am really happy that I am not a complete failure as a father today and hopefully with the help of the Lord things can go like this on a regular basis. I know the quality is bad but that is a little clip of the game. In the future we will use our camera that is better.

I am still young

I played indoor soccer tonight at the Sportsplex it was really fun. Despite what Tara says soccer is awesome. To some its like beer, it is hard to drink at first but after awhile you start to enjoy it or at least the effects of it. To others it is hereditary. I play at work with some older guys and word nerd linguists but tonight I played against athletes and I smoked all of them. Six goals!!! I am awesome excuse me while I pat myself on the back. In case you haven't noticed I am passionate crazy about this sport. I have always looked back with regret to my sophmore year when I made the varsity team only to discover I was ineligible because of math. I am trying half heartedly to ween myself off of politics, it makes me angry and after I realize there is nothing I can change I become very depressed. Soccer is a worthy pursuit. It makes me happy even when I lose. I lost fifteen pounds in a week playing for an hour and a half per day four days a week mixed in with riding my bike to work. I make friends and remember what its like to be socialable again. Speaking of friends I have run into some friends from high school. Lane Argyle's wife Jamie, Sarah Lund Bangerter, Todd Allen and Mark Andrezzi. Someone should tell Tara she should welcome me playing soccer because I could be taking up other hobbies like shrinking skulls in my basement or VOODOO... (on Barak Obama) he he he.

Boy-0h-boy. I haven't even been online for awhile, but I can see I need to start posting again. If for no other reason than to balance out our blog. I can't have the whole world, (or the 10 or so people that actually check our blog) think that BOTH of us think "The world is going to end next week, but at least we have soccer and Sarah Palin in the mean time." That may be taking a bit of paraphrasing liberties, but Cameron has been pretty sillious lately. By the way I love my scouts, they are not punks. They are just in their young 'rough draft' form.
So, funny quote of the week goes to Cori. I'll end with that.
"Mama, let's get your swimming soup and go swimming. Daddy is strong. He can pick me up, and take me in a boat, and we can go swimming. Where's my swimming soup?" At Walmart today, she "rowed" herself around the store with a mop as her paddle, and the cart was her boat. She had fun with that. So did I.

Ronaldinho Freestyle

another noteworthy video of the king of soccer.

Gov. Palin On The Hugh Hewitt Show

This radio interview is of Sarah Palin, the VP on the McCain ticket. Off to the left here is Bill Ayers a leftist domestic terrorist that blows and is one of Obama's close friends. I know who I am voting for.

Conference time

Well I am not crazy. Even the General authorities say hard times are coming. Can anyone say I told you so. President Monson said it shouldn't be important to be right but it feels kind of vindicating. I got my kids to sit and watch two hours of conference. I had to use threats of cleaning the house and picking up after themselves as the other option of course. I told them I would give them a quiz at the end of the Brazilian guys talk about the still small voice and the importance of simplicity or rather our testimony not needing a powerful experience to make it strong but a gradual daily feeding. When they failed that quiz miserably I gave them another chance. The next talk was on trials and tribulations and how we should meet them. I hope they at least felt some of the spirit of the conference even though they were giving me the standard guesses about what the talk was about. First guess Jesus, Second guess Faith, Third guess follow the commandments, and so on down the list of the most successful guess sequence they have developed for their primary classes. Anything but listening. That is what I am going to do!, if my kids can pass a quiz on sacrament meeting each week that will determine whether or not I lock up the television. Maybe then I can get something from sacrament meeting again. Some great things were given to us this conference. Just by hearing some of it on the radio made me want to see it. I had drill this weekend so I missed most of it but I still caught some of it. Isaiah and Ali had a jog a thon at school. The fall precipitation has begun along with cooler temperatures. Cori said she wanted a strawberry birthday cake with lions and tigers and bears and horses on it. My jobs are getting tiresome. I am trying to learn computers with the military but it is hard with nobody to teach you but yourself. Tara is working with the scouts a lot. She puts in a lot of effort even though sometimes the boys just want to play video games. "Punks" I say. They have been very rude to my wife and to me. I don't like kids when they reach the age of eight and nine. At least (these) kids are on my scat list. This week I am going to hike up to Ben Lomond peak before the snow comes. I went to see a movie with my fellow air force buddy from ups we saw Apoloosa? I don't know how you spell it but it was pretty well done. We went to the Gateway mall and I walked by the new Tocanos restaurant. The low lighting and the brazilian jazz with the smells of the barbaque wafting out of the 10X10 windows letting you see the flames of the fire light up the shadowy meats rotating on their spits almost made me climb over the window sill and into the restaurant. See you all next Sunday or whenever.

Ronaldinho bicycle kick v Villareal - incl buildup + Eng com

this is another awesome video of one of the best players in the world.

Ronaldo

This guy is amazing enjoy. The music is kind of catchy too.