White Wash

Pics and Vid

Our Kids

Guitar Heroine?

Squint, then imagine the cover of an 80's rock album.

I understand there either is or will soon be an 80's rock version of either Rock Band or Guitar Hero. And Rock Band will have a Beatles version, too. 

WIN

Skyline girls won against Rigby last night. Morgan got to play alot in the first half and some in the third quarter. She did great! No points but she took a couple of shots. She had some rebounds and a steal and no turnovers. Skyline was behind at half and then won the second half 22-9. Final score was 44-35. Now we need a conference win. IF on Thursday, think more good thoughts!

Madsen Party

The Madsen family Christmas Party will be on New Years Day at Marie's house.
There will be food and sledding on the Buttes. (No food on the Buttes!) No Santa, that's a relief. Hope all or some of you can make it. Morgan has two home games this week on Tues and thurs. Rigby and IF, these are games they could possibly win!! Think good thoughts about Berger all week.

Early Resolutions

For the New Year:

Brush Twice, Floss, and Rinse everyday.

No more than 2 hamburgers a week. 3 for Holidays. 

Lose 15 Lbs.

Run 4-5 Times a week.

Lift at Gym 3 times a week. 

Beat Val and Buffy in a Nike+ Challenge.

Re-read my Civil Procedure text.

Finish my Substantial Writing Paper early.

Move to Las Vegas.

More to come.

Next West Piney talent show....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

no comment

more at 11 . . .

Saturday . . . "are those candycanes?"

Sunday: "more cany canes?? An inflatable moose!?"

And later: "A second Cristmas tree upstairs!!!"

Then the other neighbors turn on their lawn... Morgan: "we have got to do something!!"

Kim: "they are in the lvingroom with the blinds open, and all the lights on watching us, and laughing at our house! this is unbelievable! Dad, come see, they really are!!"

Dale: "you know what I have at the store?"

then, dad just walks out the door.

He returns shortly with the deer and a light up santa

Stay tuned for tonight's update

Another Launch

Man am I ready to go home.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/05/us.missile.test/index.html

Time to start asking your waiter questions.

I especially liked the example of the guy who didn't tip his waiter because the waiter was Mormon.

Wow, this means I am going to have to stop doing business with a lot of people who I think make poor decisions with their incomes. Utah Fans, smokers, Congress, people who run the wrong way on the track at school, people who buy domestic branded cars, etc. 

Christmas

Jared, we need to know when your fam will be in IF. We will do a man and woman gift exchange with a $10 limit. The kids will do a dollar store gift exchange. This is when the child receives a dollar and gets to pick ANY gift they would like to give to their person. Very exciting. We figure this will get them to understand the giving idea, rather than have mom and dad go out and buy something for them to give. Here is the list. Name on left is your child, name on right is who they will give to.
Brooke - Morgan
Lydia - Kade
Alex - Ty
Michael -Macie
Daniel - Zain
Kade - Brooke
Ty - Alex
Zack - Daniel
Riley - Michael
Macie - Lydia
Charlotte - Zack
Ezri - Riley
Zain - Charlotte
Morgan - Ezri

Difficult child or bad parenting? You be the judge.

The "crib tent" was heavenly, but then the neighbor called and needed her crib back. The transition to the big-girl bed was not good...until I decided to sew up my own little "bunk bed tent". Much better. Nothing like zipping your kid into bed every night.

Frenulectomy

Some before and after shots. The doctor said when she was sedated he couldn't pull her tongue past her front teeth. As you can see, she has not problem now. Merry Christmas, Macie!

India

When I was serving in Bombay (now called Mumbai), a branch was formed and an ex-pat working in the city was called to be the branch president. He was living in the Oberoi hotel at the time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081126/ts_nm/us_india_mumbai_shootings_15

Morgan's Birthday

Turning 17 has never been soooo exciting. Nothing like a bowl of instant oatmeal, and getting 7 bucks for lunch to kick off the day.

Trauma

I have some serious IPOD trauma. I ran again. It showed my run. I went to sync. I synced. Nothing from Nike+ showed up. I was done syncing. Run was erased from IPOD. Run did not make it to Nike+. No running history exists. This is exactly what happened last time. I think the Nike+ is working, cause it tracks my runs and records them. Any advice?
Skyline beat Rigby tonight in a great game. Morgan saw a little action, but, unfortunately, her perfect shot record is no more. She is now shooting 75% for the season.

Amazing Last Play of the Game

With about one minute left on the clock, Berger puts

Morgan in for a sub . . . the seconds are ticking away and I bite my lip thinking, "the game will end before she gets to amaze us!!"

Then, with only 30 seconds left, she subs in for the last play and drives the ball to the hoop and makes a great shot.

Skyline won!!

(by a lot more than 2 points, but, still, those last 2 were the funnest to see!)

Glorious Kodiak

After 16 hours of travel I arrived in Kodiak Tuesday night at 8:00 pm. Early the next morning we drove the 1.5 hours from town out to the launch complex. Weather on site today -31 degrees, 40 mph sustained winds, measured gusts at the pad of 82 mph (hurricane strength), snow. Road conditions are less than ideal. On the plus side, the sun doesn't come up until 9:30 and sets by 4:30. Those wind numbers are not exaggerated, those are the actual measured values. Anyone want to come up for a visit?

Blackfoot vs Skyline

High School Women's Basketbrawl . . .

a mix between some frantic form of basketball and rugby, these women played a tough first quarter with some great slides, tackles and dog-piles. Berger seemed like he was a bit under the weather, perhaps a bit horse from Burley's match the night before? Still, for me, he was the most entertaining part of the game. (I only heard Val yell at the ref's once . . . maybe next time she can out-yell Berger??)

I have a video clip of a long pass, where Berger yells "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo" for the whole pass. The next clip is of a out of bounds pass directed to Morgan, that is stopped by the back board . . . then a clip of Berger's time out "When you're doing an out of bounds pass . . . Don't stand behind the basket ... "

We all know how well uploading video works at mom and dad's, so you will have to check it out on Thanksgiving if, you want.

Second Chance

SO, I ran 8.5 miles today. YES. Longest run since the half marathon. I went to sync and it deleted all my workouts! It simply says "No saved workouts". Just thought I'd let you know. I thought after today I'd have this one in the bag. Confidence not so high anymore.

Morgan games

Here is Morgan's game schedule. We are going to Burley tonight for the season opener.
Nov 14 - @Burley
Nov 15 - @Blackfoot
18 - home
21 - Rigby
25 - Hillcrest
Dec 2 - Home
4 - Twin Falls
6 - Home
9 - Home
11 - Highland
16 - Home
18 - Home vs IF
Jan 6 - Home
Jan 8 - Madison
14 - Home
16 - Wood River
20 - Home
22 - @IF
27 - Home
29 - Bonneville

Cultural Event

I got the Forgotten Carol tickets for Monday night, the 24th. Our options were seats on the very far side in the back, or rows one and two on the balcony. I went for the balcony. Hopefully it will be good. They were $16.50 each, but then there was a charge for printing them so just plan on paying me back 17.50 for each one. Macie's tongue goes under the knife tomorrow morning - we hope to post before and after pics as soon as she will let us get a good shot :) Say a little prayer for her!

My Nike+ Died

I went to run last night and it appears the battery in my sensor is kaput.  It couldn't find it, no matter what I did. I came home and it was able to connect to Ali's sensor, so I think mine is just dead. Sad.

Ethel Boyes Scholastic Book Fair

Ethel Boyes Scholastic Book Fair is going to be next week for any who live in Idaho Falls that may be interested.  The dates and times are:

Nov. 18 & 19  -  8:45 - 3:30

Nov. 20   -   8:45 - 7:30pm

Nov. 21   -   8:45 - 12:30

Can't they go back to. . . whatever they did before?

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Is the ONION main stream media?

Forgotten Carols

I want to do a girls night out and go see the Forgotten Carols. I am sure this will make all the husbands happy that they do not have to go! The tickets are at Deseret Book or online through Deseret Book. They range in price from 12, 16.50, 20. The dates it is showing at the Civic Auditorium are Nov. 21, 24 and 25. Tickets are still available for all dates. I can't go on the 21st - Rich will be in Salt Lake taking the CFP test. But Mon. the 24 or Tues. the 25 work great for me. Pat, Kim, Morgan, Val, Grandma Carver - anyone interested in going?

Basketball Starts!

Zain and Pat in coordinating outfits.

Zain in the Bumbo sporting some "Dale socks." He is almost too big for it!!

Morgan made Skyline's varsity basketball squad . . .

pictures to illustrate how much fun she must be having ...

Soccer Ends!

Soccer is over for the fall. It's such a relief to have a few hours on Saturday to relax, or at least to mow the lawn, clean the car, rake the leaves... well, maybe I wish soccer was still going on.

Michael's 6 year old team was unstoppable this year. We had one player on our team who was quite literally better than most of the girls on Lydia's 11 year old team. We also had a first year player who turned out to be really good as well. Not to be outdone, Michael somehow found his will to score. Most of practice (and a fair amount of each game) he's the team comedian, putting cones on his head, pretending to be a dog, stuffing the soccer ball under his shirt - all the signs of a true soccer phenom. Our last game of the year, however, he scored the most goals (5). He's not very flashy, nor very fast, but he would go up to the ball, start kicking and just sort of move his way down the field like a little tank until he scored. It was really quite remarkable.

Brooke's team also had a lot of success this fall, although since I was coaching Michael's and Lydia's teams I didn't get to see many games. Brooke scored a goal once and loves to play keeper.

Lydia's team had mixed results, they won about half of their games. Lydia is the defensive star on her team, and also plays a little keeper, and occasionally forward. She scored a couple of goals over the course of the season, and almost assuredly does the most screaming on the field (talking to her teammates).

Basketball starts in two weeks.

Halloween

trunk or treating with the Johnson family
Trick or treating at great grandma's

Zain's makup was quickly drooled off, except for the eyebrows, which still partially remained at church on Sunday

Lunch in Rigby with all the Madsens

The Pumkins

Ezri giving Blue some fur

Carving for almost 3 hours?

Making rolls with Grandma

halloween and mr plow