"Born to be Wild"

The Army has a lot of pros and cons. Pros are things like health care, job stability and a different a pair of gloves for every occasion. Cons are things like mandatory workout at 6:30 in the morning, silly training classes where the instructors tell you what they are "TOLD" to tell you and then show you how "things are really done". Leaders that think they are gods gift to the Army and expect you to agree. Did I mention working out at 6:30 in the morning?

Well this week I got to participate in one of the best things that the Army offers soldiers. (In this Sergeant's opinion) This week I took the Motorcycle Training Course. In the civilian world this class costs about $150 and you have to do it on the weekend. But soldiers get take the course during the week and its free. Now you might ask (and so does my wife) why would I take a motorcycle training class if I don't have a motorcycle?? The answer to that is you don't even have to own a motorcycle to take the class. Sweet, Right?!! Well the class was very fun and I learned a lot. Especially since I've never actually ridden a motorcycle. I learned how to ride one and become pretty proficient at it. The good thing about the class is that they dumb it down for all riders. If you've never seen a motorcycle before or you've been cruising with the Hell's Angels for 20 years your going to learn to be SAFE.

Waiting in line to run the bike course

Me on the Hog

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!

Hey its my dads birthday!! HA-ZA! Well at least on the fifteenth of this month. so I thought I would do a post for my dad. so here are some pictures of him.

Dad with little baby Cora

Dad gearing up for war

Dad with Cora on his lap and nose hair trimmer in his nose

Dad fixing Megan's veil

Dad with his little female clone

Dad with my little lovable stinkers

So there you go that's my Dad.
I love you Dad. You are the father that I will always strive to be like. I can only hope that I can be half the example to my children as you have been for me. Also how's the nose hair trimmer working for you?

musical

So recently I became aware of a little musical show that was broadcast strictly on the internet. The name of the show is Dr. Horrible's Sing along Blog. Its just a short little musical about a supper villain wannabe thats trying to make a name for himself in the supper villain world. Very funny! Anyway my daughter the little princes Cora one day decided that she really liked some of the songs in it and she has even learned one.

Fall Out

Spoilers are in "quotes" if you want to read them highlight them with your mouse.

Ok so Breaking Dawn. I loved it! I'm not sure what everyones deal is I really couldn't think anyway to make it better. Well I guess there could have been cool car chase scene where Bella was driving at speed upwards of 250 miles an hour"hence the cool Ferrari picture". That or maybe as Edward was running to save someone he breaks the sound barrier and Charlie hears the sonic boom.
I think for a lot of people they where looking for some literary masterpiece or something. It could have been a really crappy story and I would have still loved it as long as it had a good ending. The reason is because after the first book as long as "Bella became a vampire" I would have liked it. Thats because I liked Twilight so much that all the books that followed I would have enjoyed just for the reason that I was getting the rest of the story. It was a good book.
I also liked the surprises in this one there where things in it that I would have never guessed"like Bella getting pregnant or Bella having an easer time with the thirst then the others" Another thing that I liked about this one (and this is something I don't consider a spoiler) is that there was more than just Bella's perspective in the book. I'm really looking forward to when the Midnight Sun comes out because it would be cool to get Edwards perspective on the beginning of their relationship. I guess I should admit at this point that I have read the book once and listened to it once. I read it first so I can know what happens in the book and I listen to it so I can get the details that I missed in my fever pitched reading frenzy.

THE BIG BOOK THEORY

Yes first off I know that I haven't blogged in a wile I think Tobi might be marking off the days on the calender, counting how long it takes for me to post again. My only excuse is that I have no excuse. So now that I have that out of the way I come to the real reason that I'm blogging today (that is the real reason other than Tobi pestering me). As you might have read a couple of blogs ago I like to read. One of the things I like about reading is anticipating what a new books will be about. Part of that is coming up with theory's (most of which are completely wrong) about what will happen. So I have decided to share my theory's that I have about Breaking Dawn the fourth book in the Twilight series.

First is the really big question of whether it will be Edward or Jacob. I think that most people would agree that Edward is going to end up with Bella at the end. But I also think that we would all agree that that pretty much stinks for Jacob. I hope that in the end Jacob will end up imprinting on someone maybe Leah Clearwater. It seems like she should have a happy ending too. But on the other hand if someone dies I think it would be Edward.

The other big debate is whether Bella will become a vampire. I think she will or maybe I should say that I hope she will. I have to admit that I will be really disappointed if after all four books she still isn't a vampire at the end. If she isn't a vampire at the end of the book than I think that Edward will definitely be dead because she will have no reason to change herself.

Also there is the whole Volturi issue. I think that the Volturi will come back and either try to get rid of the Cullen family or the Werewolf pack or both. Either way there will be fighting and the Volturi will be involved.

So there are a few of the theories that I have right now. If you ask Tobi she'll tell you that they change at least once a month or so. But I thought that if I wrote them down then I can look back and see how well I did at my predictions.

pipes and wailing

OK so most people that know me know that I like the Bagpipes. Well I got some almost two years ago but that's not where my obsession really started. When my brother Jayson was in high school he was in a musical called Brigadoon. For those of you who don't know its about a little town in Scotland that appears once every 100 years. For me the highlight of the whole show was during the wedding scene when a bagpiper would walk down the isle playing some wedding song. I don't know how it is for other people but when I hear music that I really like it make me tingle every where. Well this was one of the first times that has ever happened to me.
Later when I was about 18 or 19 my parents gave me a practice chanter for Christmas that is of course after I had asked "Santa" for bagpipes for about six years. With the practice chanter I was able to learn not only that bagpipes are hard to learn to play but also that is was going to be a long time before I was going to be playing anything with a bag.
I went to college and brought my little chanter so I could continue to learn. Little did I know there was a girl there at BYU-I (Ricks at the time) that played bagpipes. One day I was walking home from school and I heard her playing in the distance. The fortunate thing about bagpipes is that the noise can carry for very long distances. I tracked her down and she was able to show me that I was learning to play the pipes all wrong. She gave me some pointers then we went our separate ways.
I went on my mission, got married, had a couple kids, joined the Army but still didn't have any bagpipes. The main reason after all those years and no pipes was because they are SOOOOOOOO expensive. To get a set of wood pipes without any adornments or anything but wood would be about $1,000, anything fancy is about two to five thousand dollars more. But still I had my chanter and some day I was sure to get a real set.
Thanks to advances in technology in plastics, Bagpipe manufactures were able to make pipes with plastic instead of wood. They still make the pipes in the same fashion with a lathe and other carving tools the only difference was they used plastic instead of wood.
In September of 2006 I was scheduled to go to Iraq. My mother thinking that I needed something cool to do wile I was out there decided to get me a set of these plastic pipes. When the eventful day arrived and the bagpipes were here I couldn't wait and took them out immediately filed the bag full of air and squeezed the bag with all my might. The ensuing noise that came forth from the carefully crafted instrument should be (in my opinion) against the law in all fifty states and Canada. It will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. The shear looks of horror and terror that where on my children's faces is burned like a brand in my mind. Needles to say I sucked. After all those years of practice and dreaming, I never thought I would sound so wrong.
fortunately for my wife and family I went to Iraq to practice and I had 15 months of nothing but time. Now I can almost sound like a real piper I think to most people I would but to a trained ear probably not.

Should I be ashamed?

I love reading. If I could, I think I would spend all of my waking and sleep time with a book (if there were that many good ones out there). When I was 21 my mom told me that I had to read Harry Potter she said it was the best series. I reluctantly decided to read it and found to my surprise that it was awesome. I quickly devoured all the harry potter that I could get my hands on. after that I figured that I would just read anything my mom or anyone suggested.
One day(I was in Iraq) Tobi suggested that I read a book she had got from Rachelle. She wasn't very forthcoming with allot of details about the book so I agreed to read it. When twilight came I read and and quickly found myself addicted. So like any other series I had to read it all. So now I find myself addicted to a romance series. But do dare come out to my fellow comrades in arms? will I be ostracized for the rest of my army career? The real question is can I make it until Breaking Dawn comes out.....

a shiny new bundle of joy

On Saturday the twelfth 2008 at 1350 (1:30PM for those non military types) Tobi and I became the proud owners of a brand new Wii. We were very happy with its weight of four pounds zero ounces and a good length of 7.87" inches. We were so relieved that its little remotes had all their little buttons and knobs and that the accessory guitar had a workable wamy bar. Alec and Cora are just delighted with the new surprise addition to our family. Alec especially has taken to more responsibility in helping Tobi and I feed the disc's into the disc drive. Anyway enough talk I sure you all are just dying to see the pictures of the little tyke so here are a couple for you.

falling into the great and endless beyond

Ok so the blogness monster has final reared its ugly head and I have decided to make a blog of my own. So now I have a venue for the world to see all the strange and interesting things that encompass my life. For example. I love bagpipes, taking baths and listening to my Ipod. I don't like waking up early, humidity and silly people that think that I am killing the environment with my truck.