Christmas Recitals

I had two Christmas recitals this year. My girls and boys did awesome. I own my own studio called Taryn It Up! I also work at another studio located in Kearns called Becky's School of Dance. B is in 3 of my classes at my studio and also on the competing team at Becky's with all of her cousins! Cash tried out hip hop at Becky's this year and loved it! Here are some pics of my beautiful children, students, awesome assistant, and me!!

Christmas Ornaments

Here was our cute craft for the holidays!! The kids had a blast making these. And yes... the glue was dripping all over the place and I still find glitter around the table. But it was fun!!

Beautiful T

My wife rocks. T is truly awesome. She is now raising five children (4 under 6 & 1 over 30), teaching dance at her own studio and at another studio and working on becoming a math teacher by going back to school (she already has an accounting degee, but has to get a math degree then her teaching certificate. I thought accounting was close enough to math that it should count but aperantly not). Plus all the other things moms/wifes do. Not sure how I got so lucky (blessed) to get such a great wife?

And to top it all off - she's way hot!

Potty Training

Well the potty training finally began. I didn't want to start because I was pregnant, then I had just had a baby, then school and tests were getting in the way. Well now we are pretty much done!! Finally!! Two in diapers was getting very expensive. I have to say that my little J-man is hillarious and very particular. He has to take his pants and underwear completely off before he can let that pee go. (Except for the time when he barely made it to the bathroom; and for some reason I was the only one that got peed on. Grrrrr.) He also likes to sing "pee on the potty" over and over again in his high pitched "pipsqueak" voice!! I am just glad that we are done!!!

Bad......

I don't enjoy reading my posts, so I can't imagine you do. I don't know if its because I'm in a hurry and I'm trying to tell a story in the lest amount of words possible or what it is. But my writing is horrible. Half the time what I write doesn't make much sense, if it was for my wife most of my posts wouldn't make any sense. She reads them sometimes to make sure they read right and check for spelling. I'm a horrible speller. You would think that someone who has written thousands of papers (not really thousands but thats what it feels like) and has spent the majority of their life in school would be able to spell and write half way decent on a blog.

Oh well. You all will just have to live with it.

Netflix

We finally dropped cable.

We've been talking about it for some time for many reasons, save money and to get the kids to watch less tv were the main two. We have had comcast for a few years and dish before that since we've been married. We picked up Netflix in place of cable, we can get Netflix on our tv through the Wii. Two things.

1. We love Netflix. They have a million and one movies you can rent and they have a pretty good selection of movies and shows that you can stream. I can't believe that it took us so long to sign up for Netflix. It should have happened years ago. The kids love it. I think they enjoy that they can see the picture of the show they want to watch. Cash has become a pro at using the Wii remote to watch shows, he has even shown T a thing or two on how it works. We can watch shows on our computer/laptop which makes it great to watch shows in the other rooms. And best thing, no commercials! Our kids are not bombarded with commercials! I love that the most.

2. We havent' watched less tv. I think I watch more now. The kids are glued to the tv now that they can choose what shows they want to watch. We have a harder time turning the tv off and getting them to do other things. I'm pretty sure I watch more tv now. The good thing is I watch less commercials, by which I mean, NO commercials and I watch less tv just for the sake of watching tv. You know what I mean? You don't feel like anything, you just want to think of nothing so you just turn the tv on? Now, when I watch tv I watch a show. I've picked up several shows. I just finished the first season of Dexter. Great! Loved it! A little disturbing. We finished the first season of Weeds, love that one. We were half way through the first season of Psych when they made that a dvd only so we started the second season. And we've been renting the Tudors and are in the middle of the third season of that. I love the number of documentaries they have. I could watch documentaries all day and then some.

We don't have a HD converter box yet, so we don't get any of the local stations. I think we'll be getting one of those soon, mainly for news. I do think overall we do watch less tv and have the tv off more now that we don't have cable. I enjoy the quiet or at least the lack of background noise. Really wish we would have dumped cable years ago.

The Girl who took up two full days

After I posted my last post where I stated I was going to write one post everyday for the month of December, I finally made it to the good part of "The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo" and haven't had time to blog. It took me two weeks to read 150-200 pages, then I couldn't put it down and finished the book in a day and a half. I'm not a fast reader, wish I was, probably wouldn't have taken so long.

Everyone I've talked to about The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo have said basically the same thing, takes a long time to get into the book but once the book starts going they cannot put it down. Overall it was a good book with a good underlying theme. Well, really not good, it's sad and disturbing but good that it's being talked about. Give you a hint of the underlying theme, the original Swedish title of the book is "Men who Hate Women". Parts of the book are pretty disturbing and it boggles my mind that in 2010 we still have slavery, women/girls who disappear, violence against women and to a certain extent treating women bad is acceptable.

The book is about 200 pages too long. There are many "details" in the book that really add nothing. I cannot think of a book that talks so much about what they are eating and the amount of coffee drunk is unbelievable. I'm amazed that they slept at all with all the caffeine consumed.

I would recommend this book, though there are disturbing scenes, which are necessary to the storyline. I will be starting "The Girl who Played with Fire" soon!

Wednesday Tunes

My goal for December is to post daily for the whole month. We'll see how that goes. Its been a really long day so I'm glad it's Wednesday and I can just post a music video.

Baby Its Cold Outside - Will Ferrell & Zooey Deschanel


If it doesnt work go here

I never thought about it but someone on facebook suggested that this really isn't a good song. She's saying no, he's saying yes and there's something in her drink. I don't know but I love ELF.

Picture book

I recieved a free photo book from Shutterfly for placing reviews on Trip Advisor

Here's the book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Voting Time

I voted early. I hate voting early. I love voting on election day. It's a very exciting day for me and voting in the morning is a perfect way to start it off. But alas, I will be unable to vote next Tuesday so I had to vote today. I'm going to post some endorsements for a few of the candidates I voted for and why. So, if you don't want to read politics, this is my fair warning. But even if you dont agree with me, make sure you study the candidates and the issues and vote. I don't believe people should vote just to vote. Whats the purpose if you don't know why your voting for someone besides their party affiliation? In fact, voting just to vote without a clue why your voting for someone I believe is worse then not voting at all. Oh, and never vote straight party! If you happen to vote individually for all of one party that's fine but don't punch the straight ticket. If you do, learn to think.


STATE CAMPAIGNS

GOVERNOR
Well this one was easy. Peter Corroon has lead Salt Lake County extremely well. Corroon knows how to govern and how to run a large bureaucracy and govern it well. He was able to take a balance approach in balancing the county's budget, making cuts where he could, even cutting pay while raising some taxes. I honestly Corroon would make an outstanding governor because of what he has done with the county and what he plans to do as governor. Corroon's economic focus would benefit the whole state without doling out millions to out of state companies. Corroon would focus on funding education fully as well.

After being placed as Governor when Huntsman left, Gary has pretty much riden the coat tails of his predecessor. Gov. Gary has been laying low and not doing much of anything. Its pretty bad if UDOT can spend $13 Million to cover a mess they created and he didn't know about it until it was brought up by his challenger. What kind of governing is that? $13 million in a year where budget cuts and more cuts to come next year. I work for emergency managent, if we have a disaster we cannot spend more then $500,00 without asking the Legislature for more money. Gov. Gary has also approved a strip mine near Bryce Canyon. Funny thing about it, the permit was going through review and after Gary meet with some of the mine's representatives and donated to his campaign, magically the permit was fast tracked. I really think that Gov. Gary's true side will come out further if he wins his first election as Governor and his true side is more back room deals and lack of governing.


US SENATE

My vote went to Sam Granato. Sam has been a business man for most of his life, not that I place much into that but some people do. Sam's a hard worker and gets things done. Sam is more moderate and fiscally conservative. He will be willing to cross party lines to get what he feels is the best policy to help Utah move forward. I honestly Sam will best represent me in Washington DC and do what's right without all the rhetoric and lip service.

Utah 1st Congressional District

It's really too bad that Bowen didn't run a better campaign. I have met Bowen and like him a lot. He's a great guy and would do a fantastic job as our Representative. Bowen is qualified to be our representative and would do a much better job the current sloth that is in that office.

I love how Utah Republicans complain about "pork" projects but mister Bishop is all quiet and pulling in all sorts of pork. (I dont' mind pork, its how you get things funded, its the hypocrisy I don't like). Bishop hasn't done anything any other rep wouldn't have done.

It will be interesting to see how the draw the congressional districts when we get the 4th district.

Thats all for tonight. I'll throw in some county candidates later.

To Cut or Not to Cut.........

Here I am the proud father of my first son, the family name will live on. As we hold our preciouses son in the hospital room nothing could be better. Then the nurse comes in and says it's time to get him circumcised and whisks our poor unexpected son away. We had never discussed circumcision, no one had warned us, it never crossed our minds. It would have been nice if maybe our doctor who T had been visiting on a regular basis for the previous 9 months, half of which she knew we were having our first boy, would have at least mentioned it to us. Instead we were put on the spot, right there and then, not really asked, just told. Being young and foolish we followed and I watched them botch my son's circumcision.

Well, since that time I have become a confirmed believer that the practice of circumcision is a sad and misguided "tradition of their fathers" type of thing. There is not one reason for circumcision. The highest rate of circumcision in the US was in 1965 at 85% which has dropped to just above 50% in 2005. So, no your son will not be the only uncircumcised boy in the locker room. With our last boy our doctor told us she was maybe circumcising 50% of the boys she delivered. She also thought that the rate of circumcision was higher in Utah.

Unfortunately, because our first boy was cut, we felt we had to do the other two as well. We didn't one of them being different from the others one way or the other. Although, it would have kinda been cool, they could have compared and swapped stories when they got older.

So, if you haven't had a boy yet, research circumcision and talk about it with your spouse before hand. Hopefully you make a better choice then we did.

Wednesday Tunes

It's a little past Wednesday but have to get this in. We just finished "Funny People" - it was pretty funny in parts and really crude in other parts. Anyway they finished the movie off with this song which reminded me how much I love it and being that John Lennon's Birthday was this past weekend thought I better get this up for Wednesday Tunes.

New Addition

Chase Jones decided to finally join our family last monday. Well, he still hadn't decided but we didn't give him a choice and made him come. The whole pregnancy/birthing process is just weird. Everything about it. It blows my mind that enough babies survived throughout history to make it to where we are today. Really, could you imagine giving birth 1000 years ago let alone 100? Now we have technology, modern day medicane as well as all these comforts of life.



We have the hardest time naming our babies. We were pretty set on Charlie, we love that name. But when he popped out, he just didn't look like a Charlie. To me he looked like a Deaken and that's what I pushed for. Obviously I lost out. We were ready to leave the hospital by 11:00 am but didn't leave until after 1pm cause we were debating the name. You can leave the hospital wit out giving the baby a name but it's a pain to fix. We have had a hard time naming every one of our babies.



Everyone loves Chase. Cash and Jet are excited and love showing him off and holding him. Though Jet only holds him for a few seconds before he is done. B loves to help and is actually excited to change diapers. We will see how things go when the three boys are fighting over the same toys, blankets and where they're sitting!

By the way, I'm going to open up a "feed my teenage boys" account for anyone who would like to donate.

Wednesday Tunes

Some weeks I forget what day it is. This is one of those weeks.

Watched a movie a while back called "Wind that Shakes the Barley". After visting Ireland, I decided to watch it again, makes more sense now that I know more about Irish history. You don't have to go to a place to learn the history but visiting Ireland peaked my interest and I've been reading books and watching movies (well one movie) about Irish history. Great movie and highly recommended by me. Anywho....... here's a song that is in the movie - "Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile"



Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile -


Here is a full version
The Dubliners - Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile




Here are the words

English translation
(Chorus)
Oh-ro You're welcome home,
Oh-ro You're welcome home,
Oh-ro You're welcome home...
Now that summer's coming!

Welcome oh woman who was so afflicted,
It was our ruin that you were in bondage,
Our fine land in the possession of thieves...
And you sold to the foreigners!

Chorus

Gráinne O'Malley[5] is coming over the sea,
Armed warriors along with her as her guard,
They are Irishmen, not foreigners nor Spanish...
And they will rout the foreigners!

Chorus

May it please the King of Miracles that we might see,
Although we may live for a week once after,
Gráinne Mhaol and a thousand warriors...
Dispersing the foreigners!

Boy Names

Boy's are soo hard to name!! Must be why we're having three of those and only one girl. So, not sure if you're vote will count but go ahead and throw your 2cents in on which of the following names you like.

In no particular order
Charley
Alex
Landon
Chase
Chance (maybe spelled different)
Gage
Wyatt
Ezra
Oliver
Trey
Parker
Deacon (maybe spelled different?)

Middle name will more then likely be Jones but could be Ralph or Richard (all family names)

Probably going to go any minute...........course T has been saying that for a week and a half now. But this is the week, then we'll have to decide on a name.


The voting lines are open............

Picture Collages

I've noticed that many blogs have picture collages. I've looked around and really can't find a program that I like or that does what some of you do. It seems like a much better way to share multiple pictures together instead of having 10 separate pictures.

So send me where you all do your collages to post on your blogs.

Thanks!!

Irish Food

As I mentioned before one of the main reasons we choose to visit Ireland was because it was foreign without being too foreign. Ireland really felt like visiting another state and their food was no different. One of my friends who visited Ireland a year before we did, didn't try much of the food and said they ate mostly at Italian restaurants. Boy did he miss out! Every place we ate had fantastic food! I don't remember not liking any of the places we ate at. Well, there was one that I'll talk about later.

I had Irish Stew and I did ask for 'bangers & mash' but the waitress wouldn't let me, she gave me a disgusting look and told me "NO". So, I ordered something else. Wish I could remember every place we ate, but I don't. But if you do go to Ireland, just know that anywhere you do eat, it's good.




I don't remember which restaurants these pictures are from, they are the only food pictures I did take. The one below is Irish Stew, I love Irish stew!! Wish I would have had it every night for dinner but only tried it once. Since we had pre-paid for our Irish Breakfasts with the vacation package we got from Exploring Ireland, we decided that we could get by only eating dinner and snacking for lunch. Most of the time we just walked around looking for restaurants that looked good which more often then not ended up being pubs, especially in smaller cities/towns. We did eat at subway a few times but manly because it's expensive to eat out every day and we were trying to save the budget. They don't have regular mustard in Ireland - no where in Ireland! Which really changes the taste of a subway spicy italian. We also found a great Chinese restaurant in Dublin next to our hotel that was practically free it was so cheap.



There was a bar we went to our first night in Dublin by one of the trendy areas that wasn't so great. I ordered a hamburger (yea, not Irish I know) plain. I thought that plain ment that it would come with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup. Yea, it didn't come with any of that! It came with a bun and a piece of meat! And then since they don't work off of tips and we didn't order beer, we didn't see our waitress again!! We avoided places like this and ate great the rest of the time.

Some other FYI's.....
Coke is more expensive then beer and comes in a 12oz bottle
They do give you ice with water
Waitress's don't work off tips, so you rarely see them (wish we wouldn't have tipped so much)





The pictures of us are at the Brazen Head, Dublin's oldest pub and a fantastic place to eat. I highly recommend that if you do visit Dublin that you visit the Brazen Head. Not only is the food great but it's got an awesome atmosphere.

HaHa!!

I set up a new gmail account!!! Yes!! I win!! Alright, not sure what I win if anything but now I can continue using blogger and this blog by linking my new pictures to this email account. On the downside I have 5 email accounts. One for work, one I use, one I use to use but is not just a spam collecting email, school (maybe I don't have that one anymore) and now this one. Good times online!

What to do?

I'm at a loss on what to do with this blog. Google only allows so many pictures and I've reached that limit. Actually I reached that limit sometime ago but I have been deleting pictures as I add new ones, but I'm done doing that. So, if I want to continue blogging here on blogger I have to either continue deleting old pics to add new ones or blog with no pictures. Blogging with no pictures is worse then reading a book with no pictures.

So, I'm going to play with wordpress and see if I want to switch over. I kind of don't but then I'll no longer be able to post pictures and I know how you all die to see pictures.

Wednesday Tunes

Mos Def - "Quiet Dog"

Missing This

Everyone morning while we were in Ireland we had an "Irish Breakfast". Funny that they name it an Irish breakfast, wonder if they do that just for us tourist or if it's always been called that? But seriously, loved it! T didn't like it, she's not much of a meat eater and since it's mostly meat, it didn't really work for her. But everywhere we went they served basically the same thing; Irish bacon (ham in America), sausage, eggs, tomatoes, brown/white pudding (talk about this in a minute) and toast, and then sometime fruit, cereal, hash-browns/potatoes and yogurt were part of the breakfast as well in some type of variation.

I tried the white pudding, it looked kinda of like a sausage paddy but was soft and bread like. It didn't taste very good, it wasn't bad or disgusting just not good, so I didn't eat any more of it. Come to find out after we were back home, it is also called blood pudding. Blood pudding is a sausage made of blood. NICE. And I ate that?

Hate Being A Dad

I swear I cry at more things now that I have kids then I have ever in my entire life! At commercials? Really?



No, we are not dead. Just haven't been in the mood to blog. Spend most my computer time elsewhere, mainly facebook. Maybe one day in the near future I'll get back on track with this blogging thing.

Ireland

For my graduation present I gave myself a trip to Ireland. Why Ireland? Why not? I've never been off the North American Continent and thought that it's about time that I had. And what better place to visit than Ireland?

Going to give you an overview of our Ireland holiday in this post then for those who care or just for my own entertainment I'll blog a few posts with more detail.



This is my google map of our itinerary, we stuck to it for the most part. The problem is that we didn't have google on the road and I didn't get around to print the maps so we looked at it in the morning when we could and did the best we could to remember where we wanted to go. A great help was that we used an Irish travel agency - Exploring Ireland. The main reason we went with a travel agency is that we did not have the time to research where we wanted to visit and to find hotels and Bed & Breakfasts. We gave Explore Ireland an idea of what we wanted to see and do while we were there and how long we were going to be there and they found our rooms, a car and gave us a suggested itinerary. We were thrilled with Exploring Ireland - all of the hotels and B&Bs they sent us to were great, we didn't have a problem with any of them or the car rental. The best part was that we paid Exploring Ireland and they gave us vouchers, so we didn't have to worry about paying each hotel/B&B some of which wanted cash, so we didn't want to carry around extra cash.


We spent the first 5 days in Dublin. The first night we spent at the Fitzpatrick Castle in Dalkey, which I think they built the castle with the idea of turning it into a hotel the minute it was done. It didn't seem like much of a castle. This was about a half hour south of Dublin and to get there we took the crazy taxi, thought for sure we were going to die! The first day is a blur - seemed like two minutes after the sun set it was rising again and I cannot sleep on planes.

I love Dublin! It felt like an American city. I compare it to Washington DC because both cities are the capitals with government buildings and memorials and both are low rise, no tall buildings but still very densely populated. There is so much to see and do in Dublin that we should have spent more time there. One interesting thing is that the whole country shuts down at 6pm except pubs. There was nothing to do after 6pm, even some of the parks shut down, except go to pubs and since we don't do much of that we just roomed around the streets.



After Dublin we got a rental car with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car and the driving on the wrong side of the road and no GPS. The first day of driving was kinda nerve racking- everyone drives 50-60mph on skinny winding roads and trying to remember to stay on the left side. Their sign system is difficult to figure out (when there are signs) and it takes a bit to get use to all the round-a-bouts. But after two days of driving it got kinda fun and I actually miss the round-a-bouts, much more efficient. They are in the process of building a freeway system, some of which has round-a-bouts, think about that, driving on I-15 and coming to a round-a-bout to get onto I-80. The freeways we did drive on were very new and most of the time we were the only ones on it.

The greatest thing we did besides the Hop on Hop off bus to tour Dublin, that gave us three days of using their tour buses, any city bus and the airport bus (that we used to get our rental car) was purchasing the Heritage card. Everything we went to cost money, 1 euro to 15 euro each, that adds up and makes the decision of what we wanted to visit. The Heritage card gave us access to all nationally owned heritage sites. We more than used what the card cost us and went to many sites that we wouldn't have gone to with out the card. We ended up focusing our site seeing on what sites were listed in the heritage book which we should have done in the first place.


We loved Ireland. Around every corner was another breath taking view. We have hundreds of pictures of scenery most of which T took while driving past. We would have needed another two weeks at the least to stop at every picturesque opportunity. T's favorite was the Muckross House and the Ring of Kerry. I would have to say my favorite was Dublin and the history of the whole country.

Master of the Universe!

I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL! I think that I have dragged it out long enough. I am ready to move on with my life, ready for the next chapter. Not that I have really been waiting to be done with school to move on, but have with some things.

For those who don't know or don't remember I have spent the last three years working towards a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Utah. The MPP program at the UofU was challenging and rewarding and definitely pushed me to work hard and find hidden abilities. I will miss the class discussions, friends and meeting new friends but I will never miss writing research papers. So yea - I'm down with MPP.

Palace Beautiful

Palace Beautiful is a beautifully written book. I'm not just saying that because the author lives in my ward (thats why I read it) but because it is. Actually the ONLY reason I read this book is because the author lives in my ward. This is not my genre, I would have never in a million years picked this book up. If you go to my goodreads and check out my book list, this genre of teenage girl books is not there.

With that said, I ended up enjoying Palace Beautiful. It took me about 50 pages or so to get past the teenage girl part and into the book but after I let my prejudice go, I couldn't put it down. I loved the story and the way it was written. The book is about two sisters who move to the Avenues in Salt Lake City and find a journal in the attic of their new house. With a new friend the sisters read the journal of a 13 year old girl from 1918 during the Influenza and go though their own story of being 13 in 1985. While I enjoyed the main story, I LOVED the journal story!! The girls read the journal in sections, making you wait in anticipation for the next time they're going to read the journal. I have learned a lesson that I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Just because it's a book for teenage girls doesn't mean that I won't like it. I hate to admit this but Palace Beautiful made me cry a little. The story has a great life lesson for everyone every age and while I highly recommend this to all teenage girls I would also recommend it for all.

Who knows, with my new lesson in life I might even read the Twilight series.

Doing Ok.....well as good as can be expected

We are still around and doing as good as a family with three kids, both parents going to school, one working full time the other teaching dance at one dance studio and running her own dance studio, all of our church callings and community work can be doing.

On a good note, my Master's project is looking something like a project and is no longer just some concept. The draft is due this week and the final is due the 22nd and hopefully thats it! Right now everything is based on me finishing school, well it's been that way for a while. Going to build a chicken coop - when Im done, going to go hiking with the kids - when I'm done, going to work on the basement - when I'm done, going to work in the yard - when I'm done, going to work on genealogy - when I'm done. Are you seeing a pattern?

What else .... we're going to Ireland for my graduation present. No particular reason, we have a list of places we want to go, a long list and we felt Ireland is the place. I am part Irish, my mom's father is a Conlin, who's grandparents came out of Ireland after joining the church.

We are having our 4th child. Yes, we are having our fourth and final child in October. You have no idea how glad I am to be done with infants! Really, I've been changing diapers for six years now and have at least three-four more years to go. T is kinda sad, well not now that she's pregnant but she will be later.

And that is what we have going on. You might not here much from us for a while but hopefully things will get back to normal - whatever that is and I'll blog on a more regular basis.

Wednesday Tunes

Ok Go - This Too Shall Pass

Never Ending

I want you all to feel sorry for me, I've been sick since before Christmas and it just won't go away. I'm done with it. It hasn't been bad enough to keep me in bed all day or stop me from going to work, it's just been lingering and bothersome. Until this past week, it hit me and knocked me out. Really, I didn't tell you that to feel sorry for me, but rather to explain my lack of blogging, I just haven't felt like it. That and I really don't have much to blog about, well I do but nothing special.

I will share with you all our school for this semester. T has some pretty exciting classes and Im sure that you're all are jealous. This semester T has History of Math and Calculas II. She has to write a paper for her History class, it's kinda funny, math people don't like to write and she just complains that the reason she likes math is because she doesn't have to write papers.

This semester, my last semester ever of school!! I have two courses, I'm taking Econometrics which is actually just half of the semester and I'll be done with that on March 1st!! Then I have my Graduate Projects class, were we just talk about our masters project, where we are at and how things are coming along.

Trying to find where I can stream live olympic coverage but haven't had any luck. If you have been streaming the olympics live online let me know where. No not NBC.

Monday Movies

I'm going to try something and see if I like it or not. We usually watch a movie or two over the weekends, mostly from redbox and I enjoy spending Monday's talking to friends about the movies we've watched as well as the movies they've watched. I'm not much of movie critic, I have no "in's" and I'm far from any movie expert, I can't tell you who directed what movies or name some unknown actor. I just want to share with my readers what I share with my friends, what I thought about the movies I watched over the weekend.

This past weekend we watched "Bright Star" and "Inglorious Bastards"

"Bright Star"


Bright Star is about the poet John Keats and his relationship with Fanny Brawne. I don't know much about poetry, not a big fan, so I had no idea that Keats was actually a very influential romantic poet and this movie was based on a true story. If you don't know about Keats and want to see this movie, watch the movie before you read about who Keats was or it will ruin the movie for you, well, kind of.

The movie was pretty slow, but other then that I enjoyed the movie and thought it was a great movie. I would recommend this movie, especially over V-day if your with someone special. It is a great love story - kinda. I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

Here is the poem the movie was named after and that Keats wrote for Fanny.

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.



Inglourious Bastards



This movie was 100% about Quinten Tarantino and him showing everyone what a great and talented writer/director he is. That said this movie was horrible, mainly for that reason. I thought Tarantino tired so hard to be Tarantino that this movie blows. I was absolutely bored with it half way through. This movie is based on what Tarantino wished would have happened to the Germans and Hitler during WWII and while we all dream about such things doesn't mean they should be made into movies. Brad Pitt is one of my favorite actors but he kinda annoyed me during this movie, I thought he ripped his accent off from George Clooney in "O' Brother, Where Art Thou?" But he did save this awful movie, him and the detective Nazi, Col. Hans Landa played by Christopher Waltz. While Hans was a Nazi and we were suppose to hate him, I thought he was a great character and while it was hard to like him, I did.

Like other Tarantino movies, this one is bloody and gory, that's how he roles. I would not recommend this movie to anyone, not because of the blood and violence but because it's not a good movie.

Favorite Super Bowl Branding

The Super Bowl was the second NFL game I watched all season, the first being the Vikings losing to the Saints, dang Farve. I really didn't have a preference on who won the Super Bowl other than I wanted to see Austin Collie receive a touchdown pass. That didn't happen so here are my two favorite Super Bowl commercials.

Wednesday Tunes

This video makes me smile - not only do I love this song but the video is great!

Vampire Weekend - "Cousins"

Have I done any good

Funny, this is pretty much my talk was about last Sunday. Most of my talk was taken right from Pres. Monson's talk though, he can just say it so much better than I could.

Boys Adrift

With Cash money the way he is, all crazy and out of control, I've decided to turn to books about raising boys for help. Cash really isn't that bad, he is crazy but overall he is a good kid, I just want to raise him the best way that we can and we do have two boys so hoping that there is some crossover in raising them. Cash doesn't take much for listening but I think that has as much to do with him being 3 as it does with being a boy. I think that the terrible twos are nothing compared to the horrible threes.



The first book I read was Boys Adrift by Dr. Sax. This book is great if you are white-middle to upper class and have a boy. If your boy does not fit in this category, the book will be still be of help but if your boy does fit in this category it's a great book. The author mentions more then once that this is not a book about girls or minorities. The middle to upper class part I figured out in the fact that most of his stories are about boys that have the option of private schools and in good neighborhoods with decent public schools. I do believe that Dr. Sax tried to offer advice to those who do not have the liberty of unlimited funds but he fall short with this advice.

The main focus of this book is to identify why boys are remaining boys and not growing up to be responsible men. The author uses a lot of generalizations and admits this. Not all men remain boys but an increasing percentage do. Why are boys content with living at home, not going to college or trade school, why don't they care about high school or much else?

I saw much of myself and friends in parts of the book which helped answer some questions and should be helpful for me. It did take me until I was 30 to get a four year degree! Dr. Sax comes to five factors that influence boys and he does this after a long career as a psychologist. The five factors from his website:

1 - Video Games. Studies suggest that some of the most popular video games are disengaging boys from real-world pursuits.

2 - Teaching Methods. Profound changes in the way children are educated have had the unintended consequence of turning many boys off school.

3 - Prescription Drugs. Overuse of medication for ADHD may be causing irreversible damage to the motivational centers in boys’ brains.

4 - Endocrine Disruptors. Environmental estrogens from plastic bottles and food sources may be lowering boys’ testosterone levels, making their bones more brittle and throwing their endocrine systems out of whack.

5 - Devaluation of Masculinity. Shifts in popular culture have transformed the role models of manhood. Forty years ago we had Father Knows Best; today we have The Simpsons.



Dr. Sax uses the movie Failure to Launch as an example of what he is talking about. Boys are smart and creative but have no initiative to do something with their lives. Boys are living at home with their parents far longer then they should with no goal of finishing school or saving for a house but just rather because mommy takes care of everything.

From me:
1 - Video Games. He says that it's not all games that are bad but violent games and spending too much time playing these games. When boys would rather play video games then real sports then there is a problem. Of course not all boys play video games and video games do not lead to problem boys in every case.

2 - Teaching Methods. Boys are not meant to sit still in class rooms learning to read when they are 5 or even 6. Kindergarten has changed and is now what 1st grade use to be. There is less time devoted to activities that requires exploring type learning and more time is devoted to sitting in desks learning. School today are more focused on desk learning and much less on experience learning. Most boys do much better with experience learning. They could care less to read or hear about how a tadpole transforms into a frog unless they have seen and chased tadpoles and frogs in a pond.

3 - Prescription Drugs. ADHD is a real problem but most boys who are diagnosed are miss diagnosed and most boys who do have ADHD could be helped with drugs that have fewer long term side effects.

4 - Endocrine Disruptors. Im going to try and put together a post to talk more on this.

5 - Devaluation of Masculinity. American society does not have any traditions that introduce boys into manhood. Most societies have some type of ritual where the boy can show that he is ready to become or has become a man. Boys do not have role models on how to act like a man. Again these are generalizations like everything else in the book. This is where I feel that LDS boys/men have an advantage, the priesthood teaches many young men how to become and act like men (whether they do or not is a different story) and sending boys on two year missions could be a ritual of when a boy becomes a man (again, whether they do or not is a different story).

Overall I thought that this was a great book and gave me many ideas on how I can better raise my boys. I would suggest this book to anyone who is raising boys at any age. My sister is reading my copy now and then T will is going to read it, after that any of you are welcome to borrow Boy Adrift.

2010

I've never really been one for new years resolutions or even setting goals. I usually enjoy living one day at a time and taking everything in stride. The things I have accomplished I've never written them down as goals or something to be achieved, I just did them. My issue with setting new years resolutions is why do you have to wait until new years day? Or any day for that matter to set resolutions? If you want to change or do something then don't wait.

My problem with goals is many, I'm lazy for starters and if I actually write down a goal that means I would have to do something to achieve it. To where getting a degree was never a "goal" meant if I didn't get a degree I didn't fail at achieving my goal.

Going against everything I know to be true I'm going to make some goals for this year. It's a first and probably a last - we'll see how I do.

- Exercise

- This one I will be forced into- I have signed up for RAGNAR which is a race from Logan to Park City. Luckily it is a 12 person rely race, so I only run three legs at 4-10 mile a leg. More info can be found here

- Get OUT

- I NEED to get out more - by that I mean I need to hike, camp, fish, backpack, snowshoe, ski and all that. The eight+ years I've been married I think I have only had a fishing licence 2ice and not once since we've had kids. I need to hike way more whether it's with friends, the kids, the wife or solo. I have never been snowshoeing but is something I really want to try and hopefully will before spring.

-Watch less teevee

- I don't really watch much teevee to begin with, mostly just to fill the room with noise and to distract my brain to think about nothing. I really hate teevee and think it's generally bad for me and my kids. By teevee I just mean in general and does not extend to movies or other shows on dvd without commercials. Going to get rid of cable, will be easier for me then the wife. There is little time as it is.

- Read more

- I have a stack of books that I have started reading and five other stacks that I want to read.

-Blog

- I kinda already do this but I would like to have better written blogs. I've decided that even though I can't write I'm going to randomly review a variety of things. Just about anything and everything I do, read, buy and or use and just about anything else. This way if you are thinking of buying or using or reading something, maybe I'll review it and you can see if it's worth your time and money

-School

-Last but not least - finish school by receiving my Master of Public Policy

Well, there you go, my 2010 goals. Now TAKE STATE!!!

Wednesday Tunes

Ok not really a tune but a video.

Happy New Year and New Decade!

I have been working on this post of a while now, for some reason I just can't get it out to you all. I know how you all wait on pins and needles for my blog updates.

We had a fantastic holiday season! The kids loved Christmas as well as us parents. Christmas day has sure changed a lot from when I was a kid, it was fun and exciting to experience Christmas as a kid. Then when your a teenager, it's still kinda fun and exciting but nothing compared to what it was when you were younger. Then in the young adult years, it's just another holiday where you have to buy everyone presents and now that you making decent money you feel abliged to buy better presents. Then you get married and you spend all your money on your spouse but the excitement that was Christmas is still missing though the spirit of Christmas never really leaves. Then when the kids come along the old excitement of Christmas returns. I think I get more excited about the kids opening their presents they do!



My beautiful wife was the last baby of the '70s born in Utah. They received all sorts of gifts and goodies for having the last baby of the decade. It's interesting to look back on this last decade and the many changes that have taken place. Ten years ago I was single and hadn't even met T yet and in all seriousness I wasn't ready for marriage in many ways. I was living with a good friend and we had one heck of a bachelor pad if you know what I mean. Now, ten years later, I'm married with three kids, a college degree, almost a masters, a mortgage and a career. What a crazy ten years. I wonder what the next ten years will bring? What kind of technologies our kids will be showing us how to use.




"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
— Gordon B. Hinckley





I am surely blessed with more then my fair share of beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed!