I'm working on it

I have a problem, an addiction if you will. I don't do drugs, I don't smoke and I'm not an alcoholic. So what is my addiction? Television. When I got married and moved out of my parents house my wife and I decided to not get cable or even hook up an antenna to the TV. We just had a DVD player and our movie selection and Redbox rentals. I loved it. I felt more connected to my wife and never stayed home to watch a show when friends called and wanted to do something. The television had been forgotten and left to do it's own thing.



I was happy not having the TV around to fill my nights with entertainment. Then we bought an antenna so Charity (the girl my wife helps take care of) could watch her favorite shows when she hangs out at our house. Then I found my self watching the news and family guy again, then I started watching other shows but only when my wife wasn't home or when we were both really tired from a long day. Yes I watched this kind of stuff,




This last month Chelsea and I bought a Bluray player that has netflix built in. At first I loved it, we would watch a documentary or a move but we have now started watching TV series on it and its starting to effect my life of not sitting on the couch and doing nothing after work. I have over 100 things on there saved in my play list, things I honestly want to watch and that's the problem.
I'm thinking of getting rid of my account and going back to no TV or moving the player to the exercise room and make the rule that netflix can only be watched while on my bike. The only problem is that I feel like an addict if I put a bunch of unenforced rules on something.

Half the time I'm tempted to just throw the TV in the trash and the other half I love watching a good show or movie and relaxing.

I think I have the best dog in the world! I never thought I cold love an animal they way I love my dog. Its a funny story they way I got him, My dad wouldn't let me have a new while I was living at his house and I knew I would be getting engaged soon. So I told my mom that I wanted to ask chelsea to marry by buying a dog and taking her on a picknick with the new dog. So with that idea my mom told my dad I WAS getting a dog. I'm slick like that. The way I looked at it was if Chelsea said no I got a dog, if she said yes I got a wife, win win for me. lol

Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Home brewing!

This is a hobby that I have started this year and I LOVE IT!!! It all started with a love for beer and a basic beer brewing kit. I started by brewing an apricot wheat beer and despite a lot of mistakes in the brewing process it turned out great! It was a little cloudy but it had a great taste and a smooth apricot finish. It felt amazing to make my own beer.



It started an addiction, so I bought another kit right off the bat, I decided to stick with wheat beers and tried a strawberry wheat beer. It turned out like crap, but hey thats part of learning. I bought a larger brew pot and a few other things that make brewing easier.

I'm now on my 6th batch. It has become a great hobby and I don't see me stopping any time soon. However I am thinking about branching off in to wine making....

Christmas time again

"He See's you when your sleeping. He knows when your awake. He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake." Who else does this sound like? As Christmas time rolls around we are all singing songs, baking cookies, running around buying presents, but if you don't mind taking a few seconds I would like to poke at your brain.



If we compare Santa and Christ we find many common factors, charity, love, compassion, punishment for being bad, reward for being good, they both see everything we do, and they both lived at one point in time. Yet one of these we stop believing in some time as a child. What if you took a young child who knew all about Santa, and nothing about Christ and put him away from all other people so he was never told Santa doesn't exist. He would wait for Santa on that first Christmas and be extremely disappointed when there was no present sitting under a tree for him. He would believe he was a bad child, and probably cry. The next year would be the same, as well as the year after that. He would grow up either hating Santa, or he would decide that Santa never existed.



How easily can that be transferred over to understand people who either hate god or don't believe he exists. After so many years of praying, and asking for help, only to be left helpless, even the most faithful can start to doubt and loose faith. The question is how many days, months, or years of waiting would it take for you to loose faith? (and if you answer never, you are lying to your self)


The funny thing about religion is how picky people can be about such small things. Every one believes in a Santa with a red suit and hat. Well, What if some people believed he dressed in blue? The idea of Santa is the same, the person is the same, yet in religion that would be a big enough difference that it could literally tear apart a family, and o' my what if his elf's were really midgets. It may seem silly or even stupid, but non the less it can cause blind ignorant hatred.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter what color the Santa suit is, it's the message that the man represents. Who cares if they are both are made up, who cares if both are real. Does it really matter if we say merry Christmas, happy holidays or happy Hanukkah? The idea or message is the same, love each other, be kind and all will be well.



Merry Christmas, and my Santa fill your stocking to the top.

P.S. Don't forget that this is a time for giving, and there are many people who are in need this year. If you feel like donating to the homeless give to the road home. www.theroadhome.org
or to help autistic kids get an IPad with apps to help them learn go to http://linkykids.org/

That Man is a Success

There have been a lot of people I know who have lost someone in the last couple months. When ever I hear that someone has died I think of the following poem that I have hung in my basement,

That Man is a Success
Who has lived well,
laughed often and loved much;
Who has gained the respect of intelligent men
and the love of children;
Who has filled his niche
and accomplished his task;
Who leaves the world better than he found it,
whether by improved poppy, a perfect poem,
or a rescued soul;
Who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty
or failed to express it.
Who looked for the best in others
and gave the best he had.

Gordon B Hinkley interview in time mag 1997

(TIME magazine, August 4, 1997 (D. Van Biema).

Interviewer: Just another related question that comes up is the statements in the King Follet discourse by the Prophet.

Hinckley: Yeah.

Interviewer: About that, God the Father was once a man as we were. This is something that Christian writers are always addressing. Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are?

Hinckley: I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it.