mother: a biological and/or social female parent of an offspring

Having children, when you think about it, goes against every act of common sense we have.
If a stranger came up to you and asked to come stay with you for the next 18-20 years, would you let him? You know nothing of his/her personality, they've done nothing for you, they are a stranger.
He also tells you in the first 2-5 years of living with you, "I'm gonna puke, pee and vomit on everything you own, including you.While I'm around you won't get but 2-3 hours of sleep a night. In the next 5-10 after that, "I'm gonna break yours and neighbors stuff, embarass you, and make you help me with my work. You'll have to pay for doctor bills, take care of me when I'm sick or hurt, and fight with me to take my medicine and earn my keep.
In the next 5 years after that,"I'm gonna barrow your car, make you a nervous wreck. I'm probably going to wreck your car too. Bring my dirty,sloppy,distgusting friends over and trash your house and keep you awake with ou loud music and talking".
Also in the next couple years following, "I may have you pay for my further education, my wedding,and anything else I can come up with".
"Oh hey, while I'm thinking, there may or may not be others just like me asking for the same thing! They'll start this process over & over every couple of years".
If you think about it, thats what happens. Thats why the females are mothers. As a man I would've punched that dude in the face and said, "Are you kidding me"?
Mothers are optomist. They will bring hope and love into any situation. They will feed,clean and cloth these strangers. Mend their wounds,take care of their sickness, and tolerate their loud friends. Do their work, pay their bills, all in the hope that these strangers may one day produce another round of strangers that they can help with.
I know a couple of these crazy people we call mothers. I have one, I was that stranger she took in. I married one and she has taken 4 of these strangers in.
Happy Mother's day you psychos!

Beasts...

...or to put it nicely has Liz does - Beastie Pies. As if for somereason that makes it better?
So this morning the children were being "beasts", so Liz decides to take them out of the house, go for a drive, get the wiggles out or something.
They stop by the office to say,"hi". We go in the back so its not so loud (comunications business, people on the phone). So there running around playing with everything,screaming at eachother, that whole bit. So I say lets go get some lunch, go to a park, get thier wiggles out.
But first we need to make a stop in the restroom. No big deal right? With beasts, wrong!
Owen takes care of business, try to get Oliver to, nope, too busy checking out the bathroom. Let me paint a picture here:
1 stall, 1 urinal, 1 sink. We (3) are in the stall. Owen goes first, while I'm messing with Oliver someone else walks into the restroom to use the urinal. Owen's done, high tails in out of there underneath the door of the stall. He starts running around making fighting noises.
So I'm conscience of him, I look at the floor through the stall, nervous about what he's gonna say, what he's going to do. I see him go up to the back of this "other guy" and hear him make the "punching sound". I see the stranger's feet and body give, immediately followed by a ,"Hey!"
If anyone knows Owen, knows according to him you have a target painted on you at all times. Luckily Owen didn't use his head this time. 90% of the time he comes at you with his largest and strongest object, his head. Its like a hockey check up against the wall when that happens. This stranger was lucky he got away with a play punch to the bum, other wise he coulda fell into the urinal, then the floor.
Sure thats funny as all get up. Unless your the parent of that beast. Its a little embarrasing. Needless to say me and Oliver didn't come out until that guy was gone.
Anyways, anyone looking for some company this summer?

X-Men Beast


Carpenter's Bless the Beasts & the Children


Our Beastie Pie

San Diego

So I went on a short business trip to San Diego this week.
Nothing really to blog or brag about. No interesting stories, nothing of significance. Just something to post I guess to keep this thing going.
Next week Liz & I are going to California for a getaway, so I'll let Liz post about that.
Anywho, last time I was in San diego was back in 94' or something. It was August and like 120 degrees. We went to the beach but it was close due to jelly fish. We did see jets flying around from the bases there.
So I was down there installing some phones systems and training a guy at the same time so he can do future ones there (he's closer).
The weather this time was great! When I landed monday it was a balmy 70 (hot). After ariving down by the marina the wind shifted and cloud cover came in. Turned out nice. Temperature dropped with a cool breeze off the ocean, nice!

Heres a pic from just down the block from 1st install. In the bay next to downtown San Diego.

Tuesday a little of the same. Little warmer though. Did a couple installs, took a good chunk of the day so I didn't get to do any site seeing or hit the beach.
Wednesday was a bright sunny day and not too hot. First install was right on the beach. Front yard was a little cove where the seals came to lay out. Still too busy to go up and club one.
I headed out a little early so I could drive the coast. Stopped and took a pic with my phone of a little cove and a tall building next to the beach.


Turns out that building was our install. Sweet! The building is an apartment complex, only 1.5 Million for a 2 bedroom 1 bath. Petty cash.
Heres a sweet view from the roof. Wish we had time to go down to the beach and club that baby seal.



I know, right! Your feeling for me.
Flying out that night was cool. Some foggy,rain clouds billowed in and created a cool view of the city lights through them and of the coast (no picture).
Flying into a blizzard in SLC was fun too (not for the faint of heart).
Got to my car, and drove home in a blizzard.



Little bit of a contrast. I'm hitting the beach next week though!

Happy Valentines Day

Here is a little tune, ahhhh!
To some, Valentines day = emotional blackmail
To some, it means taking a significant other to a nice dinner.
To some, its a mad fight at the last minute over flowers,chocolate and cards.
To some, it is another reminder that you are a pathetic loser, alone again/still!
ect....yada...yada

To me, its a chance to watch someone put everything else aside (job,chores,screaming kids,ect...)and do something nice for 5 beasts. Even when they don't deserve it. Take care in making a nice dinner,cake and wrap little goodies for those in her life.
Knowing that we are special to her, makes her special to us!

OKC ...new home almost

(Tommy Boy audio)

So I was in Oklahoma, again this last week. For those that may not know the company I work for opened an office in Oklahoma City back in September. Brother Wayne moved out along with other members of the company and new ones in the area have started.
Rimrock has had a presence on OKC for a couple years. Not sure how it came about actually, but we take care of a couple Tribal casinos' phone systems.
Here back in the spring/fall one of our sales people was on the ball and was able to pick up the telecom account for the new NBA team, OKC Thunder (formerly Seatle Super Sonics). If your interested heres a couple articles:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20080923/ai_n28112094

http://okc.biz/article/11-10-2008/OKC_Thunder_opts_for_latest_in_telecom_technology.aspx

http://www.rimrocktechnologies.com/www/?q=testimonials

That put our foot in the door in a big way. We now have sales people selling small systems left & right. We invested in a suite @ the Ford Center (OKC Thunder Dome). I went to the Jazz game Wednesday. Of course the Jazz lost by like 20 points or something. Still cool to be up high, have food and drinks. Good time! Here is a picture of the door to the suite. My phone doesn't take good pics.

Anyways, One of the tribes invited a few of us to take some "Networking/Telecom" class for certification. So I went with 3 others from out of state and 2 others in OK. The tribes had some of their own people too, 12 guys total taking the class.
Hard class, especially for me. Many of you know I'm semi-retarded. But I tested out and passed, barely.
So Friday we went out on the town, walked the "Brick Town River Walk". It was cold & windy but still fun. We stopped and ate dinner @ Toby Keith's I love this Bar.

I've been by this a couple times in my working in OKC but never went. It was great. The food was really good, the atmosphere was cool.

Later that night we stopped by one of the casinos. We drove by this everyday to class and it looked pretty empty. Friday night was a whole different story. We had a hard time finding a parking space and inside it was packed!!!
On the reservation the tribes don't have to comply with the "air quality" standards. So it was pretty smokey. We were in there for 20 minutes before we had enuff.

All in all a good trip. Very exausting mentally and physically, but came out with a certification, which was the whole point.
So I've been to OKC several times now (4) twice I drove down. But its still flat, still windy, and still humid in the summer and tornados will never go away. So no, not moving yet. I'll visit all the time though!

Family in a Galaxy far,far away...

My youngest brother Mark has been working on a Christmas present for my family. He wanted to do a family portrait. He is an illustrator.
He had me send him some pictures, then manipulated them into Star wars characters. He's under some impression that my family likes Star Wars.
I had hair at the time. I'm the trooper, Liz in Endor gear, PK & Ben as Jedi, Owen as Yoda and Oliver is a wookie (chewbacca).
Mark also had this printed on photo paper which we will soon frame and hang up somewhere in the house.
This is our first family photo. Might be a few years still until we get "real" portrait done.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid!

So we took the boys to the mall to see Santa a bit ago. PK is now very adult-like about Christmas. He's ditched a little of the selfish, it's-all-about-me attitude and has been understanding the years when we've told him it's not going to be a huge Christmas. He sat next to Santa and had a nice little chat with him.

Benjamin went right up to Santa and started spouting off his mile-long list which was much longer than the list he told us 10 minutes prior. One of the things he asked for was a back scratcher, so Santa in turn, scratched his back, which I thought was very cute.

Owen, who is still having issues with potty-training, and has been getting in big trouble for it because he is now 5(!), decided he didn't want to go see Santa because he was in trouble. This was our conversation:

Mommy: You excited to go see Santa tonight Owen?
Owen: No, I don't want to see Santa
Mommy: Why not? Don't you want to tell him what you want?
Owen: No.
Mommy: Why? Is it because you know you're in trouble?
Owen: Ya.
Mommy: Well maybe you could tell Santa that you're going to try harder to poop in the potty
and ask him nicely for what you want.
Owen: No. Just you.
Mommy: What do you mean just me? You want me to talk to Santa?
Owen: No. Just you get me what I want.
Mommy: Nice try buddy. You have better luck talking to Santa. He's not the one who has to
wash out your underwear.

He decided by the time we got to the mall the he was excited to talk to him.

Oliver, as beastly as he may be at times, did nothing more than sit on Santa's lap and wish him a Merry Christmas. He doesn't quite grasp the concept of Christmas yet, but it sure is fun to watch him enjoy the decorations and say, "Merry Christmas Mom!" several times a day.




My Christmas came a little early this year and I couldn't be more excited about it! Bruce and I decided that instead of getting each other a bunch of loot, we would rather buy a new kitchen table. Most of you in our family have seen our tiny table that we've had since we first got married. My family can't even fit around it! So we bought a beautiful big table and 8 chairs. I got a little teary eyed at the thought of my whole family, (and even guests!) being able to sit down to dinner together. Thank you Santa!

Oklahoma, OK!

Hey all! Look who learned how to blog! Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Bruce and I had the chance to go on a quick trip this weekend. He had to drive Wayne's car down to Oklahoma City and I got to go with him. (Thanks Nathan) And the best part was we got to go by ourselves, no kids! (Thanks Mom, and April & Mark, and as usual, I'm sorry!) The trip seemed like it would be a little rough, a total of 18 hours of driving, then hop on a plane and fly back home. But when you have time without your kids, you do what you can to make it the time of your life. Well Bruce texted me right before the trip and said "Bad news, the car only has a tape deck." Ooooooh, you've got to be kidding me. We have to drive a third of the way across the country without CD's?? But I am here to tell you that when you're in a jam and desperate for a good mixed tape, no one, and I mean NO ONE rises to the occasion like Bruce. He was so excited to blow the dust off all of his old tapes and gather up a few for the drive. And if any of you know anything about me and Bruce, you know that when we were young'ns, he made me a mixed tape a week. And if there is something I learned from this trip it is that nothing rekindles the flame like bustin' out all the old mixed tapes from 1989, 90, 91 and even a couple from 94!! I mean who else can get away with combining Poison, Kenny G, Bon Jovi, and Elvis all on one tape? I know this should be illegal but Bruce somehow pulled it off. And I'm here 19 years later to tell you that it did the trick! We had a great time in the car listening to them.

But don't worry, the trip wasn't all just bad music from Jr. High. We stopped for a little adventure just outside of Moab at Wilson's Arch and decided to hike it. It doesn't look very high or steep from the bottom but once we got going I had do ditch the flip flops (duh) and hike it barefoot. Once we got to the top I battled my fear of heights to take a few pics.


No I'm not moving out into the sun,
are you insane? Just take the picture!
That's right, dead drop off on the other
side of the arch.

He wasn't a resident,
so he can do whatever he wants.

We talked, we laughed, Bruce drove, I had a few naps, and of course, as usual, Bruce took pictures of me sleeping in the car with my mouth gaping open, which I will NOT post, thank you very much. I know, he's such a brat.

We stopped in Albuquerque to pay a quick visit to Summer and Roy. Couldn't stay very long but we finally got to see their lovely home and had a nice little visit. We had a good time playing a game with their baby and his stuffed pig, he has never wanted so much as to look at me so I was excited that he let us play with him! After Albuquerque, we stayed the night in Santa Rosa, N.M. Then we drove to Oklahoma City on Sunday where we got on a plane and flew home.

All in all it was a fun trip, although it was short, we got to see some really pretty parts of the country. And they're not kidding when they say "Oklahoma, where the wind goes sweeping down the plains". The trees actually grow sideways there because of all of the wind! It was a very funny sight.

And in closing I have a little anecdote for all of you family members who used to make fun of me for having to pee so often on car trips. For those who don't know, when I was younger and we would drive back and forth between Utah and California, I was the butt of everyone's potty jokes. I was called Madame Pee-pee because I had a "bladder the size of a pea". HA-HA! You are all SO DAMN FUNNY! As soon as Dad would get back on the road, I had to stop again. So everyone said I should write a book called "Bathrooms Across America" and rate the cleanliness of all of the bathrooms that I visit. Well, let me tell you, nothing has really inspired me to do so until I paid a visit to the bathroom in the Oklahoma city airport. 10!! I am a real stickler about using toilet seat covers. If there aren't any, I will cover the seat with toilet paper, or just float above it. Well, these toilets had an electronic toilet seat cover dispenser. The whole seat was wrapped in plastic and when you push a button the plastic rotates out of the back of the toilet to reveal brand new clean plastic! (At least that was what it lead me to believe) It was like a Christmas miracle I tell you!! I think I sat there and pushed the button about 10 times just for the pure funsies of it. (Wasteful, I know) But Oklahoma City Airport, you get a 10! And if I ever find myself so bored that I actually write this book, your toilets are going on the front cover!

Late Halloween '08

Yeah I know the Halloween post is late, yada yada, you wanna fight about it?
Don't have any good stories to tell, just a couple pictures to share.
PK went trick or treating with friends. I took Benjamin,Owen, Oliver and cousin Hyrum around the hood.
It rained just a tiny bit. Made it nice and cool though. Ben & Hyrum were racing from house to house. Owen tried keeping up but fell futher and futher behind. I was with Oliver who was content with every other house since I had to carry him to catch up.
Don't know if its bacause we live in a "young" neighborhood or if its kids these days. Cuz we were only out for an hour or so. Sure the boyz got more than enough candy. Buts thats it. When I was a kid treating, there was never enough. We were out for 3-4 hours. Maybe my boys need to do some squat thrusts or something. Get there stamina up.
Heres a couple pictures of the kids,slide show of PK and a couple videos of PK.

Men in Black (Owen & Oliver)


Freaks n Geeks (Benjamin & PK)


Treating bunch (Hyrum,Ben,Owen & Oliver)


PK's Joker

PK trying to be creepy



I almost dressed up. But I do every other night, decided to take the day off.

Way to Gough

Pk had his one art class with Utah Famous artist Brian Kershisnik a couple weeks ago.
Yeah thats right,just getting around to it now!
He didn't really do a full blown artistic movement tutoring.He went over basic sketching and where ideas come from for art.

Brian with the other winners of the contest


There was a funny moment just before the class started. The Museum classroom helper was passing out aprons and materials to the kids. On the apron there is a picture of "Ethnic man". Ethnic Man is a 15ft or so sculpture that I guess is famous for the Museum. Its multi-colored and has an un-distinguished face. The artist created him in homage to all the imigrants or something like that (I should do my homework).
Anyways...the museum helper handed PK his materials and asked, "Have you scene or know the story of Ethnic Man?"
PK says, "Yeah." Points to the wall and says, "Thats my painting right there."
"Well then, you know all about it then."
I asked him if he looked around the room and asked if anyone else already had a painting at the museum. But he didn't. Would've been a cool boasting opportunity!



Brian with PK, maybe looking at a painting of Brian's.


PK applying what he's learned.


Along with the class PK won the family a year membership. We went and saw the Monet exibit. They had other pieces from a bunch of artists. There were a couple Van Goughs which were really cool. There were several sculptures from Rodin (the thinker) that were really cool.