A Classy Ride Down Memory Lane

An old friend saw this cherry '66 Mustang at an antique car show and sent me the photo.  It is a spittn' image, right down to the paint color, of the Mustang I drove post mission, into marriage, and during the earliest years of the Croshaw family.  Leslie owned the back seat.  Becky had not yet arrived.  Debby and I drove it around Provo/Orem for a couple of years, until one day, a woman ran a stop sign on State Street, and I broad-sided her.  I remember there being some minor front end damage, but  the car was old enough by then (8-9 years) that the insurance company totaled it for $480 (1975 values.)  I loved that car, but to a poor college student, that sounded like a lot of money, and having no concept that '65-66 Mustangs would become highly sought classics, we took the offer, and they kept the car.  I've kicked myself a hundred times since then.  Oh well, at least we have the memories.

Happy Birthday Crystal!

Well, Sunday birthdays may not always mean partying it up, but we'll have a very sabbath appropriate party today! In case you haven't seen it, Matt has a great post on his blog, so I shan't repeat his accolades. But I will say that Crystal adds a lot of depth and thoughtfulness to the family. She has such a generous heart, which I've noticed on several occasions in my limited time in the family. I also admire the great courage with which she (and Matt) have faced the obvious challenges over the last year. Happy birthday Crystal! I (we) hope this year brings much more joy to you and your family!

Extreme Makeover--Pocatello Edition

Hi everyone,
I finally downloaded some of my photos, so I will just let you take a little trip down 8th avenue.

Dad took this one photo which shows the helicopter (Utah Helicopter out at the airport, they had to raise their insurance to 5 million, the show paid for it. They have to pay for their own gas.   This is only a smattering of the details that I have learned, for instance, the concrete gets to 160 degrees.  They add the accelerant a block before they get to Jane's.  6000 square feet.  Only finsihing one bedroom in the basement, they should be back Tuesday and they will do 'move the bus'.  I'll stop.)  You can also go to channel 8 and see more photos.  An especially awful one of me, Jude and Linda.  love you all.  xoxo mom

Otters Have a Dark Side, a Very Dark Side

This speaks for itself.
Attack Otter

Caramel Popcorn - Marcia Payne

1 Cup Karo Syrup
2 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
1 Cube of Butter or Margarine
1 Can (the smaller one) of Sweetened Condensed Milk

In a heavy sauce pan put in Karo, brown sugar and butter. On medium heat let it come to a boil while stirring constantly. Stir in sweetened condensed milk. Cook to softball stage (234 degrees) while continuing to stir. Pour over a very big bowl of popcorn.

Our own little antique store

So we're making carmel corn for movie night with the kids. Usually we make microwave popcorn and add things to it. Well, tonight we didn't have any microwave popcorn, so we had to break out the popcorn popper. Apparently our kids have never seen our popcorn popper before. It's like they are waking up on Christmas morning for the first time. The fact that we have a machine that we pour kernels in and popcorn magically appears. It's really quite funny.

Also heard tonight at the dinner table, we're talking about Nacho Libre, which isn't uncommon here. Jack is singing the Incarnacion song, and he goes "incarnaci-ho-ho-ho-ho-hon. They are ready for you now."
If you don't know the line, I suggest you watch the movie 9 times tonight.

What Matters Most

F-A-M-I-L-Y

You must watch this!!

I saw it first thing this morning and was in tears 10 seconds in... where I stayed the entire length. It has been with me all day. In fact, I have been on the verge of tears allllll day long.

Also... you MUST check out that scripture at the end ;-)

One Year Older and Wiser, too. Happy Birthday, to You!

I am only putting two photos on.  You need to go to Becky's blog for a real trip down memory lane.

Happy Birthday Becky.  How did it get to be 35 years later so fast.  You livened up all of our lives.  We are so grateful for you.  Love and Kisses from home!

Mom and Dad

We didn't want to miss out on all the beautiful grass.  Aren't those kids adorable?

We loved that trampoline, even with all the broken teeth.

You've gotta see this.

Here is a link

Also consider a picture I posted on facebook where I called this a week ago.

Those of you who have facebook pages should also look at the picture and see how well I characterized you.

You've Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

I believe this was taken in our basement on Rainier.  Not sure what Colin is holding, but it looks pretty great.  Maybe some kind of a shield.  Anyway, thirty three years ago today, actually it was around 9:30 or 10: a.m. when he came into the world.  He came four weeks early, during finals.  Maybe Colin had a child during finals, or some big test time.  I can't be sure.  Anyway, it was a blessed event.  We drove over from Oakland, to Moffitt Hospital in San Francisco.  They had some kind of a plan where you paid something like $800 and that covered everything.  Before he was born, the nurse came in and checked me and said, "It's a wee one."  Kind of alarmed me, because he was four weeks early.  He weighed in at 5 pounds, weighed over 8 pounds at his one month check up.  He was a blessing then, and he still is.  What a fine man you have become.  Happy birthday, Colin.  Here are a few more shots I thought you all might enjoy.

Remember the Mexico clothing drive?

Lumenarias(?)  Alex, a little help here-- on Christmas Eve on 20th.  Maybe our first Christmas on 20th.  I really like Becky's pink socks and tight jeans!  The yard looks a little different than it does today, thanks to all of your help.

Colin in a contemplative moment with Stephen, at some holiday gathering at Suttons.  For sure that is Grandma, and maybe Verna Lee to her left, and me beside her.

We love you!

Mom and Dad

How will you measure your life?

A friend of mine just shared this article with me. It comes from Harvard Business School's 2010 graduation speaker, Clayton Christensen. I think everyone can appreciate this - not just business-minded people and definitely not just recent graduates. He makes a lot of insightful points about staying focused on the important things.

An excerpt:

Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of Intel. He had read one of my early papers about disruptive technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon Valley and showed up at the appointed time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”

I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.

When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is...,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.

I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.

That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.

My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.

On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.

He goes on to address each question using examples from his own life. It's powerful. Please make some time to read it.

Some thoughts on home teaching

I seriously laughed for about 5 minutes when I watched this. Enjoy!

http://personalfinance.byu.edu

We got information about this website when we were in Cascade over the 4th of July, or maybe it was even Memorial Day.  Anyway, what I would like us to do is, starting Monday, read a lesson a week, then comment here on the blog on what you think.  There is a bit of introductory reading, but I am hoping it will benefit all of us.  For those of you who have taken the Dave Ramsey course, I would be interested in how this compares.   I feel like Dad and I will be able to learn important things that we can implement in our lives.

Mom

He was lost and is found

Hi everyone.  I was going to write on Sunday, but didn't want to compete with Dad's post.  Such exciting news in Pocatello.  Grandma cut out an article for Dad about a 360 pound pig that a guy is keeping for a pet that is causing quite a stir.  


Anyway, in church Sunday our bishop was telling us about a woman at work whose son was at scout camp at Little Lemhi.  He was on a hike, and got lost.  She got a call from the camp at 11 p.m. one night, and was told they couldn't find her son.  They quickly drove there, arriving in the middle of the night.  As the night progressed, she said she was amazed at all the help that showed up.  Friends, neighbors, not even close acquaintances came offering 4 wheelers, food, and any kind of assistance they could to help find her son.  It was just so amazing to her that all these people would come on their own for a young boy (I believe he was 14) they didn't even know that well.  The next morning a helicopter spotted the boy on a road, heading back toward the camp.  He had found a hunter's camp, and spent the night in a tent on a cot  Quite a comfortable night, really.  


It reminded me of a time when we lived on Rainier.  Matt was lost, maybe 3 or 4 years old.  We couldn't find him anywhere.  I can remember people all over the neighborhood looking for him.  There were lots of fields at that time, so people were scouring the vicinity to try to find Matt.  Lots of people looking for him.   I don't know if we had called the police to assist or not.  Finding Matt was everyone's number one priority.  Isn't it incredible how we do that?  How we can drop everything to find a lost child, not even just a child, really, but any lost person.  Something within us reaches out to try to find something so precious as a living, breathing human soul.  You all remember the happy ending to this story.  We had that mattress on the floor in the basement.  We put it there so the kids could jump on it or lay on it, or whatever.  In this case, Matt crawled under the sheet, and went to sleep.  I can't even remember how I found him. I am sure when I was able to calm down a little bit, the Spirit directed me.  


Anyway, just a little reminder for myself, and all of you, that people are really the only thing that matters in this world.  You have all probably had varied experiences that reminded you of this, too.  I love all of you so much.  


Luke 15:9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the (child) which I had lost.


Mom

Pocatello Happenings: Pelicans vs. Trout, Etc.

Throughout the years, newsworthy stories have become pretty scarce in Pocatello, and the Idaho State Journal has become progressively hard-up for news.  Today's Idaho Sunday Journal was no different as it provided some extra special stories of the latest happenings in Pocatello and environs (mostly environs).

From the FRONT page, a full 1 1/2 PAGE story tells about how an "exponential" population explosion among pelicans has been implicated in a decline in cutthroat trout in the Blackfoot Reservoir, and how Idaho Fish and Game issued a 5 year management plan to restore the balance between the species.  It was a long story, but essentially, their plan is to put the matter under observation - to wait and see if weather trends will continue to inhibit nesting before they start killing pelicans. Ray, you may want to call them and see if they need your services.  Bring a few tubes of your capsaicin inhibitor.

In this photo two agents subdue a suspect, while another stands guard.

Also, from the front page item, we learn how 60 policemen, numerous SWAT teams from throughout Salt Lake County, used police dogs and a "BARICADE-SMASHING TANK" to end a 14 hour standoff by forcing entry into a West Salt Lake hotel room to arrest Idaho State Prison escapee, Joe Dee Stang, who they found hiding in the attic space of the room, the whole time, leaving 50+ evacuated residents of the hotel "homeless" overnight, and this all subsequent to Stang's walking away from a prisoner work detail in Idaho Falls (not even a Pocatello story,)   Just goes to prove what I've always thought - you can't trust anyone named STANG.

Stang - Good lookin', isn't he?  Sort of reminds me of another famous outlaw:

"Name's Smalls. Leonard Smalls.  My friends call me Lenny... only I ain't got no friends."

Next, from page A2, the lead story, entitled "Pooches paint with paws", tells us how a group of animal shelter supporters are putting Canine-made works of art on sale to benefit the shelter.  Get your wallet out, and don't be chinzy.

In the above photo, volunteers lead one of the artists, Chipper around a fenced area full of paint and paper during a "DOG PAINTING ACTIVITY".  I am not making this up.  I'm also not sure that's all paint Chipper's tracking around.  Buy this art at your own risk.

Seriously though, apparently there is real artistic talent at work here, according to Ken Weaver, shelter volunteer, "To say the dogs simply walk through the paint and then step on paper, would not do it justice.  It's more complex than that because each of the artists have their own personality.  We had Reese who is more aggressive in the paint.  He's the Jackson Pollock style.  Then there is Snickers.  She's very shy and DELICATE."
Yeah sure, they take advantage of Chipper's, Reese's, and Snicker's talents, and then tomorrow they gas them.  But, the paintings will be worth more after they're dead, right?

On Page A3, we read about how Rosco, a Newfoundland Labrador mix, whose execution for biting a human was stayed back in January, through a plea deal between Pocatello's city attorney and Rosco's owner, is AGAIN in trouble for "allegedly" attacking and injuring another much smaller dog, 8 month old sheltie, Suri, during the GRADUATION CEREMONY of DOG TRAINING SCHOOL.  Picture this:  It seems Suri's owner, Bonnie Brown was also injured when she "received scratches as she avoided Rosco's attempt to bite her after she HIT HIM OVER THE HEAD while trying to get him off Suri.  Well, there goes Rosco's chance for graduation.  The Sheriff issued a misdemeanor citation and another court date to Rosco's owner.  Considering his history, this could be it for Rosco.  But not so fast.  According to city attorneys the files from Rosco's earlier case are sealed per the agreement, so his future remains uncertain.  Oh, the drama of small town news.

Rosco - biting something (what's left of Suri?)

And last but not least, on PageA5 (I spared you the obituaries from page 4), we read how Tyler and Jill Fleet -- AKA -- Tyler Fyer (cute spelling for Fire) and Thrill Kill Jill, who incidentally were married to each other on Valentines day in 2006, by Elvis in Las Vegas, brought their "Lucky Daredevil Thrill Show" to the Bannock County Fairgrounds on Saturday, as part of the "POW*MIA Awareness Rally and Motorcycle Rodeo".  I swear I am not making this up.

Here's Thrill Kill Jill electrifying the crowd with her sword swallowing act, using a "real" sword, an act which "can be pretty dangerous stuff," according to Jill, who also says that medical care for a sword-swallowing injury,  according to the SWORD SWALLOWING ASSOCIATION,  will run between $25,000 and $75,000, ON AVERAGE.  Colin, seen any of these cases in the ER lately?  I'm having a hard time with those numbers - are they accurate?  If the SSA says it, it must be true.  What a racket, that medicine.

Here's "The Amazing Blazing" Tyler Fyer, captivating the crowd with his daredevil antics of breathing fire.  Along with this act, Tyler repeatedly advises the audience that he and Jill have spent "years" leaning their "skill" and warns all not to "try this at home."  Hailing from West Virginia (maybe that explains it) Tyler and Jill tour their act around the country from May to September.  Since I missed it here, maybe I can still catch the act at the state fair.  Maybe we all can.

Well, there you have it - the news for Lake Wobegone -er- Pocatello.