I think we missed last week, so I guess we will have to post two this week.
It seems that we always start off by saying that it has been a crazy week and I think that creates and/or harbors more of the same. Because all our weeks are crazy. This week really was crazy and not just by default. It started last Sunday, Bagiera headed down to Las Vegas to the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) convention. Leaving me with the kids. We had a blast and got absolutely nothing accomplished during the day at least. It was also Spring Break so the kids did not have school. The weather was horrible so we were stuck inside all day long until we challenged the cold weather and elements for about 20min. We got creative and built huts, made friggle juice, and played wii.
I will let Bagiera tell about her trip. The two little boys, who knows where they got it from, both from just a few weeks old started sucking on their “minkees” and have not stopped since. Check it out
This past weekend in San Jose I heard a great analogy that deals with fear and faith. Both very closely similar with one single difference. Think about it…
What is fear? Is it not believing in something that has not yet come to pass? You have fear, become afraid, or experience anxiety because you believe something will happen that has not yet happened. (ie. I am afraid of public speaking because I may mess up or I am terrified to walk down a dark alley because someone may attack me.)
And what is faith? Faith is believing in something that cannot be seen or has not yet happened. You look forward with anticipation, hope for, or trust that because you believe something will happen that has not yet happened. (ie. I believe that if I teach my children to do what is right they will become great people or I look forward to warm spring weather.)
Both have a degree of knowledge and experience that comes attached for instance, common knowledge or past experience. Common knowledge declares that burglars or predators attack in dark solitude spaces and wisdom and experience states that for the last bagillion years spring has brought warm pleasant weather.
So now what is the difference? Here it is folks. Faith is believing in something that is positive or attracting positive uplifting experiences into your life. Fear is believing in something that is negative or attracting negative degrading experiences into your life.
Now I know that in some cases this analogy does not work like in cases that we have no control over, but for instances that we do have control over I love how this analogy applies.
So in instances where you can, drop the fear people. Trade that fear for faith and move on. Instead of having fear for public speaking, have faith that you will reach or motivate 1 person or many people. Instead of being afraid of anything look for something good have faith in that and hold on to that when the fear or anxiety rears its ugly head. And for goodness sake never walk down a dark alley, just saying folks!
Filed under: Adventures — Tags: ACN — The Kid @ 1:27 am
Ok this is a little late- this week has 30 more minutes left but I was serious about trying to post weekly so here is this weeks scramble of a post. Bagiera and I went with my parents on a road trip to San Jose for an ACN International convention. This business is phenomenal. 20+ thousand people in attendance.
Thanks to the Wilkinsons, Williams, and Wilsons for watching our kids! We love you guys.
Quick Update: This last week has been really busy, with funerals and all. Two to be exact. Bagiera’s brother’s ex-wife died at age 38. And a great family friend had a 24 year old son pass as well. Sad stuff, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those closest to these individuals. One thing we have learned from direct experience with death is that it is an important part of life. Even when death is accompanied by tragedy and great loss, it offers great time for reflection and evaluation. The mourning, feelings of loss and the process of moving on, as hard as they are, are an essential part of life and its process. It is our duty and obligation, as those left behind so to speak, to either continue on with their legacy or create your own legacy based on a remembrance of the person who passed. No matter what is happening in your life, the death of a loved one stops you dead in your tracks. Sadly it quickly affords time for evaluating your own life, allowing you to determine if your life’s course will get you where you ultimately want or need to be.
Remember, death (physical or spiritual) is not an end. It is only a separation. A separation that lasts only minutes in the grand scheme of things if we align our will with God’s.
So we (actually Mr.E) made it one of our goals this year to update our family blog/journal once a week! Well, he’s a bit (ok, a lot) busy this week, so I guess it’s up to me! I must say I haven’t been a total slacker, I’ve kept up on my photo blog, so that should count for something right!
Ok, well since I’m not the awesome write that my super talented hubby is, I’ll just post a little re-cap of the last couple weeks!
B’s party! So fun. Awesome cake (thanks Annie & Amber)
his list of people to invite consisted of…
monsters
lions
tigers
& Tryston… love him!
(gotta love my wrinkles! I probably shouldn’t post this, but I love it!)
Next we had Pampa’s 50th Birthday party, I think Mr.E already blogged about this.. so here’s a pic!
This last weekend we headed up to Salt Lake to see Uncle Shaner! We had a blast at the zoo and got to see Miss K & her family!!
We miss ya! xoxo
B couldn’t wait to see the Tiger’s!!
Mr. D really did have fun despite his crying picture! (time to go night night! he was asleep within 5 minutes!)
Ok, good morning world wide web. Amazingly this little blog does attract readers from all over the globe… According to Google and its amazing analytics software, we have yes that’s right spanned the globe, that’s kind of exciting. This week I am taking a step down off the soap box and just giving an update and maybe a few favorites from the past month.
So to start check out this little image of our little Lou-Hoo. Sad story, we were visiting Grandma Marti in Springdale and we were playing at the elementary school on the playground. Bagiera was running around taking pictures of the kids and it came to little Lou-hoo’s turn, she was climbing up the monkey bars and right before Bagiera took the shot she wanted to pose and slipped off the bar and fell down quickly placing her bottom lip onto the bar followed by her front teeth right thru her bottom lip.
We have had a few birthdays this last week as well. Little Stinker-hoo turned 3, and my Dad turned 50. Stinker-hoo is in love with Monsters and Super Heroes. My Mom threw a surprise party for my Dad in the form of a wake at Spilsbury Mortuary with a mock funeral service and all, sounds twisted I know but, It was actually a lot of fun and everyone had a great time.
To wrap up for this week, we had a Sunday School lesson that talked about how the right path and the wrong path are getting so far apart that you can no longer walk one foot in each path (trying to avoid confrontation.) You know which path you choose and it is time to show others what path you are on even if it requires you to rock the boat a bit. I received an email that I really liked that was along these lines. Here is a summary:
At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country’s prior actions, here’s a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?”
Without hesitating,
the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the
Brit’s, Canadians, Aussie’s and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t
have to speak German.”
P.S. If you haven’t checked this out yet you need to. It’s hilarious! Mike and Wes good move we love it!
Filed under: Thoughts — Tags: RSS — The Kid @ 11:31 am
The RSS post! (one of the ways where our thinking veers from traditional thinking.) Warning! I think this is the longest post I have ever written.
You have heard the old saying “You become what you think about.” right? Let me explain why I think is very true. First of all, what are most people thinking about? Let me give you a clue. Turn on the TV or radio, turn up the music on your iPod, surf the web, browse through a newspaper or magazine, look at a billboard. You are constantly being bombarded with the latest sensational headlines of war, crime, recession, and uncertainty. You are constantly being shown what you lack, what you don’t have, or how you don’t look. Sadly, what you see and hear daily, becomes what you think and ponder about and what your sub-conscious processes all day (and night).
Your brain is a magnificent creative engine that is constantly solving problems, building paths, analyzing ideas, and overcoming obstacles. Even while sleeping your brain is hard at work figuring out how to deal with information, recruiting different aspects of the brain to join the problem solving process. One of these is the reticular activator which is responsible for regulating arousal and sleep-wake transitions. As your brain constantly sorts the information it takes in everyday the reticular activator alerts you of things that you have absorbed through the course of your life, your month, your week, or your day, depending on the emphasis you placed on it when absorbing it.
Let me show you how this works. (I am getting to my point) Think about the car you drive or the car you want. Did you notice how many of the same car were driving around town before you bought yours or decided that you wanted to drive that car? More than likely not and in a sense (in your mind) it didn’t even exist. What about when you drove that car home from the car lot, all of a sudden there are several of the same car even the exact same color. Did they just appear out of nowhere? NO, they were always there you just never noticed them before. Once that car became yours your reticular activator jumped on board and now alerts you to every of your same car that your eyes see. Can you see how this process works with every aspect of information your eyes or ears take in.
Say you decide you want to loose weight. Immediately your brain goes to work trying to determine how to do this. You see an add on TV or hear from a friend a weight loss solution that worked for them. Your reticular activator throws up a red flag because your brain is trying to build a path for you to accomplish what you decided to do. One of two things happen, your brain reasons with information it has all ready been given and very quickly remembers another friend tried the same program reporting to you that it didn’t work, or, your logic says that this seems easy enough you can do this. And so your brain chooses which case holds the most weight (no pun intended) and decides how to further proceed. These processes happen spontaneously and millions of times per day.
The only thing that you have control over is what your eyes see and your ears hear, and sometimes that is hard to control. For this purpose I have chosen not to listen to or watch the news, I haven’t for years. I don’t care to read the newspapers. Not that I suggest this but I have taken an active roll in determining what my ears hear and my eyes see. Let me also say that I am not ignorant to local and global news. I merely evaluate and decide where or how best to hear or see the news, in ways that I see as positive.
One way that I do this is with RSS (Really Simple Syndication.) Basically, most every company, charity, group or organization has a website that provides RSS feeds with their newest articles or news items that you can subscribe to via RSS. In a nut shell RSS allows you to build your own online “newspaper.” To use these “feeds” you need a feed reader I use Google reader. I then seek out sources of info that I am interested in, websites that teach me, inspire me, update me or make me laugh. Every week I login to my Google reader account and automatically all the newest articles from the websites I have subscribed to are right there for me to view or read. It keeps track of articles I have previously viewed and even suggests RSS feeds I may be interested in based on the info in articles I am all ready subscribed to. This becomes a rich resource of positive, uplifting, motivational content that I have all ready pre-screened so to speak. Here is my two examples:
1) I have actually, via this method and other direct and specific web search methods, over the course of the last year taught myself how to build, from scratch, websites which has offered another stream of income to our household.
2) Yes I have heard and learned of the terrible earthquake in Haiti, however I learned of this not by pictures of loss, and destruction, and stories of disaster and death, but via the LDS newsroom feed that speaks of prayers offered, humanitarian aid sent, team of doctors to assist, personal hygiene kits, and organizational efforts. All positive things that are being done to help the situation. So at the end of the day my brain can focus on the good things of the world while helping me chart a course to my higher goals and interests.
So to wrap up, your brain is a terrific problem solver. I want my brain to guide me to where I want to go and who I want to be. You and I are capable of so much more, if we can just more specifically guide our brain to where we want to be. Think of it this way your brain is a College Student thirsting for knowledge while (because of what we choose to think about, talk about, read, and view) is stuck in a Kindergarten class bored to death, maybe even scared to go outside for recess because of all the junk the media puts in front it.
Start today choose a RSS feed reader, find items and articles that talk of success, happiness, innovation, prosperity, good times, fun activities, or that teach you about things you are interested in. And then ditch the junk.
Enjoy! If you have found any that you would pass on please share in the comments so we and other readers can check them out.
Stay with me here, this post is rated PG and I don’t condone any 4-letter words but the one I absolutely hate is so obnoxious, demeanoring, be-littling, non-progressive, haltering, obstructive, paralyzing, and just flat out damaging to one’s personal growth- have you guessed it yet? The word I have banned from my household and the word I am referring to is CAN’T. I hate it with a passion! I believe we were all born for greatness, and when we utter that word we fall so short of our ability and our capacity. Listen, put boldly we are all God’s children, and as his children we have the capability of being tremendous even under our mortal limits. I am sure that to some degree God feels so frustrated when we become satisfied with mediocrity and mundane activity. I say that because as I interact with my kids and I see their potential and then I see them settle or stop their progression, usually, labeled with “I can’t do it!” I become so frustrated myself. As their dad I know for certain that the current task they may struggle with is well within their current ability and I am sure that like I mentioned above God feels the same way.
We firmly believe and teach our kids that anything is possible, and instead of saying “I can’t” we teach them to turn it into a question “How can I?” this becomes more optimistic and the possibilities become endless. That is the mindset we want for our kids for all aspects of life.
We tend to be a little less traditional then most when it comes to thinking and methods of operation. In someways this may have been less effective but in most ways we could not have been more ecstatic about our outcome. The reason for this is we are both very artistic and both want the same things out of life. In raising our kids we are trying to eliminate CAN’T from their vocabulary. Wish us luck.
Quick update: We have been loving the heck out of the Washington Rec Center. Here’s a little tip to anyone interested. We go at night about an hour before close, swim for an hour and have the pool to ourselves pretty much the whole time, bonus: the kids are very tired and spent afterward and walk directly to their beds. Its Great!
Here I find myself a few days into the new year and just getting around to where the holidays are winding down. First I have to say I am very excited for the new year and the fresh start I see to a better (a heck of a lot better) future. I have learned a lot about myself and about success here in the last few months, and have concluded that I am going to step away from the troubled economy and rise above it. There are many who have not been affected by the economy and I am choosing to be one of them. I have found that I have held the economy to blame for most everything that I don’t like about my current situation and in some ways, some aspects been waiting on the economy to change so my current situation can change back to normal. I am not sure that normal is anything we will see ever again. I know that I am 100% responsible for my life and have let the economy overshadow that fact. So in lieu of the new year and a fresh start we have set some new goals, some pretty high goals that some may say you have to be joking, however this is what I know.
1) It does not take any more effort to dream bigger dreams than smaller ones.
2) The main difference between those who I see to be successful or who have accomplished much or who have attained their ultimate dreams and those who have not, comes down to one thing: The high achievers have had bigger dreams and set higher goals.
3) Any goal is possible when accompanied with that goal is a clear path with steps, milestones, and directions on how to achieve it.
4) Your goal becomes a journey and not just a wishlist.
So, of our many goals we have set this new year, here is one that you may be interested in. We are going to change direction with our flog (family blog.) Most all well balanced successful people keep journals, and we have also been counseled by church leaders to keep journals, I am horrible at keeping a journal but find it easier to blog than to sit and write. And surprisingly this little blog has been in circulation for four years. This is the best and longest journal I have ever kept. So here is our new resolve, we will post weekly with fresh new updates which may or may not be more detailed and personal. Santa also brought Bagiera a little point and shoot camera for Christmas, that she will carry at all times. So you will definitely see new pictures and videos accompanied with our posts. So if you haven’t yet subscribed to our rss feed now may be a good time to do so. If you have no idea what an rss feed is keeping reading our blog I will later someday explain how to use them and what benefits they can provide.
Quick update: Our holiday was terrific- here is a little recap. Yah-hoo went snow boarding for the first time and loved it minus that fact that he can’t yet turn to his right. He also learned how to play canasta and hasn’t stopped asking to play. Lou-hoo has been non-stop playing with her babies. Stinker-hoo and Shnooky-hoo have been chasing balls around the house, and Bagiera and I have been addicted to the new Mario Bros. Wii game.
Very Merry Christmas! We are playing waiting for the weather to turn to winter. Yay-hoo is kicking a ball, Lou-hoo is riding her bike, Stinker-hoo is racing down the hill and Shnooky-hoo is chasing a ball. What a great time to be alive! From our family to yours, we wish you all the best 2010 has to offer, and from our perspective it will be excellent!
