Are we Thinking Straight?

As Christmas approaches we are trying to find out what the kids would like. I really don't like that I have to think about Christmas before December, but I guess this is the responsible thing to do. A friend on facebook announced that she had finished all of her Christmas shopping like a month ago! How crazy is that? Then what do you do the week before Christmas? I'm not a shopper, don't really care to go look around stores unless it's REI or Kirkhams but I LOVE shopping the week before Christmas. I don't really know why? It has everything I HATE - crowds, driving, parking in crowded parking lots, stores, malls, lots of people in stores & malls and shopping. But for some reason, this is my favorite time to shop & about the only time I shop anymore.

We asked Cash what he wanted, his first response was "What did b ask for?" What kind of response is that? Then T told him that he had plenty of toys and didn't need anything for Christmas, he agreed. "I don't need anything" Yea, if it were only that easy, then come Christmas morning he would be one upset boy. Turns out he really doesn't know what he wants and just repeats what his sister and cousins say they want.

I brought up the idea of drums to T, she thought that this was a great idea. My reasoning is that he has a lot of energy that he needs to put towards a positive use. He likes to pound things with his hammer, anything and everything, the tv, floor, table, fridge, little brother, dad and anything else that is within reach. I didn't really think anything of it but it seems like everyone I tell their first response is "Your brave" or "Are you crazy?"

Maybe I really don't know how loud drums really are?

Does it Ever End!

For those of you who don't know, T started back to school this semester. I think all the homework that I do made her jealous. She has an Accounting degree from the U and is now going back to the U for a Math degree. After the Math she is going to get a Master of Education (think thats what it is?), so she can be a math teacher. Not really sure about people who want to be math teachers. She should be finished sometime in the next millennium or maybe sooner. I on the other hand only have two semesters and should graduate in the Spring! Can't get excited until I receive the degree and then I really cant get too excited until I get a sweet job.

Here are our classes this semester:
T
Calculus 1

Me
Public Budgeting & Finance
Metropolitan Policy

Wednesday Tunes

Florence and the Machine - Kiss with a Fist

Up Up and Away

Columbus day morning, I took the morning off to hang out with the family. State employees no longer get Columbus day and one other holiday off, can't remember which one, so that we can work the 4-10's. This way we can be paid for 10 hours on the other holidays, if we didn't sacrifice the two holidays we could only be paid 8 hours for all of our holidays and would have to make up the other 2 hours some where else.

Anyway, so T and I were sleeping in while the kids were awake playing in the family room. When I walked into the room, Cash, B, Peapod & G money had Jet surrounded on the couch, Jet was whimpering and holding a helium filled balloon as were all the kids. I asked what they were doing to him. B replied "we are trying to make Jet fly, but he doesn't want to"

I went back to bed.

Wednesday Tunes

This is GREAT!! Love it

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano Cello - by Jon Schmidt



Check out his website

Kids & Conference

Im pretty sure the last time I was able to sit down and was able to listen to and enjoy Conference was before we had kids. Since then, there has always been screaming, crying, talking, playing and whatever else kids do that is distracting. I was wondering if anyone out there had any ideas on how to get kids, specifically toddlers, to behave during Conference? This was the first time that we had B sit down and watch some of it, we had her watch President Monson, she threw a huge fit, like we were making her sit on hot coals! We are thinking that for the next Conference we will have her watch one full session. So when should we have Cash start watching?

What are you doing with your kids during Conference? Inquiring LDS minds want to know!

Where to live?

Fort Collins, Colorado

I found this quiz from the Fisher's blog. This quiz asks questions to find out the perfect place to live. I wasn't happy with my first answers so I did it again, and then tried to get the answers I wanted but never did at least not in the top 6. I wanted NYC & DC which I was able to get but not in my top ten. So I posted my top 6 from my first two runs. I'll have to have T take this to see if we would live in the same place or not.

I guess I'm just a medium sized city boy who has to be close to outdoor recreation. I have been to Fort Collins, it's nice, not sure I would really ever live there. I wouldn't mind living in Burlington Vermont for a time, I have been there also and it's a great place. Missoula is nice but not sure I could live there longer then a year. And no way in anyway would I ever live in Provo-Orem or Odgen!!! I think I'll just stay in Salt Lake!

1st go top six
1-Fort Collins, Co
2- Shelburne Falls, Mass
3- Provo-Orem, UT
4 -Burlington VT
5-Missoula Mt
6- Ogden, Ut

2nd go top six

1-Albuquerque, New Mexico
2-Charleston, West Virginia
3-Fort Collins, Colorado
4-Hartford, Connecticut
5-Burlington, Vermont
6-Shelburne Falls, Mass

Remembering Grandma

A few weeks back the Bartholomew's got together to remember Grandma Bartholomew who passed away 15 years ago. It was fun to get together, seems that we get together less often every year. Well, maybe that's because I now have two families and have to miss the activities of one to make it to the other. I'm the the third oldest of the grandchilren with the next one's down besides my sisters being 7-8 years younger then me. I feel bad that my cousins were not able to grow up with their grandma Bartholomew. The picture above is my grandpa with Elenore whom he married a few years ago, her husband passed away also.

My grandma was a great women, she was always doing something for somebody else. She always had goodies at her house, cookies, cake, bread, all homemade or some candy stashed somewhere. One of my funniest memories, I was riding in her car, we were at a stop light and some young punks pulled up next to us, and she said something to the lines of "I love to race these young guys, they think their so fast" and then she raced them off the line. Good times, she is missed.




Some of my cousins are bringing the '80's back! This is why I keep all of my clothes, so my kids can wear them, assuming that I was in-style. Actually, Im not sure what happened to all of my flannel, I bet that Marcee stole them all while I was on my mission. You know if the neon colors of the '80s are back, then grunge and flannel will be back for sure! Seems as though every generation brings their parents generation style back into style, too bad the '70s style didn't stick around longer, probably one of my favorites. When is the '20s coming back?

Below is a picture of a good portion of the family. My grandparents had 9 children, some of them adopted. I lose count how many grandchildren they now have, for some reason I'm thinking in the 30's. They have 9 great-grand children. I might have to change these numbers after my mom or sisters read this and call me to tell me the numbers are off, but they're close enough.





Jet came after the camera, he's getting pretty ticked! He has one of the biggest tempers I have seen and he doesn't forget that he's mad. When something doesn't go his way, he yells, kicks, screams, and throws things. If there is nothing close by to throw, he'll walk/crawl over to something he can throw just to throw it. T doesn't agree with me, but I think that it's because he's the baby and he can't be bad. A great example happened tonight, at pea pods b-day party he had a cup of ice cream and a fork. When he was done, T took them away from him. You'd have thought that she slapped his face! He didn't just cry, he threw a huge fit, walked into the middle of the room, trying to get sympathy not breathing because he was crying so hard. He then buried his head into T's lap until T shared her ice cream with him. This is just one example out of many.

Wednesday Tunes

I had a hard time choosing today's tunes but concluded on this one. Hope you like it.


An animated music video composed entirely of machine-knitted frames. The music is by the Montreal band Tricot Machine (which translates to ‘knitting machine’). Via http://drawn.ca/2008/11/09/knitted-animation/

Private Blogs

Blogger allows you to set your blog to private and only allow those you want to view your updates. Some people have done this, we have talked about it but have not felt we need to take that step. If your blog is on my list of blogs to the left and you have it set on private, add me to your list of people who can visit!! I know there are a few that I can longer visit because they are set on private. Of course, maybe you don't want me to visit, I get the hint though I'll just act like you forgot to add me to your list!

Preparedness Fair

Our Stake had a preparedness fair a few weeks back. We were inadvertently involved in the fair. I believe that because I work for emergency services that I become the default preparedness guy. Which is funny because I am probably one of the least prepared and if it wasn't for my mother-n-law I would have nothing for preparedness.

No, I really don't mind though we were asked if we would help come up with ideas for heating, cooking and lighting when the power and gas went out. That turned into providing the ideas which then turned into providing everything related to what we were asked and manning the table. It really was good for us and was actually a great experience. I usually get nervous about preparedness fairs, they seem to bring the crazy people out but it wasn't so bad, only a few crazies and they weren't really that crazy.

For cooking, I just brought my camping stoves and my mother-n-laws dutch oven and huge propane stove. I really should get a good dutch oven and learn how to use it. We also had heat in a can and some other storage heating stove. We had a pamphlet that my mother-n-law gave us that we passed out talking about emergency lighting, heating and cooking. If you haven't already noticed the theme here, it's that I have no clue about emergency preparedness, while my mother-n-law is a preparedness pro!

I am going to do some name dropping! That's how I roll! Yes, I am standing next to Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton Christensen, by far one of the best if not THE best city councilman anywhere. Also we met Gov. Gary Herbert, not a fan, but still the Gov. He said that he had a business partner that was a Bartholomew and I quickly asked for a job! No, just kidding. I told him that I didn't know the man but pretty sure that we were related.

Wolverines!!!

I love Red Dawn! I went to Hunter High school, they are the Wolverines. So my senior year in high school, we watched Red Dawn about once a month, doesn't sound like a lot(my sister watched Grease everyday for a year, twice on Sundays) but for a group of teenage boys to watch the same movie, that was a lot! We had a lot going on. Anyway Patrick Swayze was the man. We can forgive him for Ghost.

Patrick Swayze - She's Like The Wind