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.

Idaho Power--My new BFF

So, I was out walking Wednesday, nice warm weather, and I see some BLACK clouds behind me.  No rain until a little bit when I got home.  I am in the laundry room, sewing and we hear this gigantic crash of thunder, and everything goes black (remember, I am in the laundry room).  No power.  It amazed me how much I could not do with no power.  Dad was trying to leave for work but said he couldn't because he had to deal with it.  I told him I would  'deal with it', so I called Idaho Power.  I called Hills, their power was out, too.  Just us, Hills and Norma (up above).  Idaho Power told me there were no power outages reported.  Hmmm.  They came up, and the Idaho Power experience began.  At first they thought it might be a fuse blown on the power line.  They thought it was fixed, I came inside, and a minute later heard a huge BOOM, and looked outside and saw black smoke.  Not a good sign.  Outside I go, following the Idaho Power guy around.  Peppering him with questions.  He opened up the green box between us and Hills.  Lots of cobwebs and icky stuff inside.  He said it looked fine.  They were thinking maybe it was the transformer.  It wasn't.  Then, maybe it was the cable buried under the ground.  Under our driveway.  The cable not in conduit.  If it had been, they could just pull out the old cable and fish a new one through, but alas...  They were really, really hoping it was not the cable.   Idaho, electric code changed in Dec, 1987, requiring all electric cable to be buried in conduit.  Our service was installed in June 1987 - No conduit.  So they dug up the old cable in a couple of spots and tested it, using very interesting instruments.  Both spots on the cable were fried.  Sigh... cable couldn't be repaired.  They would have to replace all 250 feet of it.  Bear in mind since around 9:30 a.m. I have had no power.  it is now later afternoon.  

I had been calling Dad, giving him updates.  These photos are all day three.  I should have taken some yesterday, that is when we had vehicles up and down the driveway, in the cul de sac, and behind us.  So to finish up day one, they couldn't repair the cable.  Need to replace the cable.  Have to dig 5 feet under the ground to do that.  It is 7 p.m.--still no power.  Decide to lay temporary cable above the ground - all the way around the back of the house, to avoid putting it across the driveway - and hook it up to the green box (above) just so the three affected homes can have power until the permanent cable can be replaced IN CONDUIT under the ground.   So we had power restored from day 1 evening until day 3  about 9:30 a.m.  In the interim, they trenched and bored 250 feet under our front lawn and driveway and Luther's back yard and then down the alley to install conduit and permanent cable.

 The above picture is the guys replacing the cable.  You might notice that the bush on their right has been hacked up a bit to allow them room to work.  Very sad for Dad, especially.  It was a really pretty snowball bush.  Power is more important to me, at this point.  

This is really just a smattering of the vehicles we had in our driveway, etc.  There were also many vehicles down at Wilson's driveway too (the one below us).  Addendum.  Talked to Jan Wilson day one to see if their power was out.  She said she was outside when the lightning bolt hit.  Said she could taste it in the air.  Yikes!  Day two they work all day, many, many Idaho Power workers, who were all really nice, boring (the Idaho Power guys were not boring, the machine was boring into the dirt, under the ground:)), digging, working on the Cat, guiding the underground bore, advising, standing, talking.  There was even one guy whose job it was ALL day yesterday just to watch the above ground cable so no one got hurt on it.  Safety first.  Little orange flags were marking the easement, etc.

Here is the Cat working at Luther's.  The easement went along his fence.  He had big, big mounds of dirt in his back yard.  They even had to remove a section of fence.  You can't see here, maybe you can enlarged, but there are 8, that's right 8 men working on this trench.  The borer could not go the rest of the way because of all the rocks in the ground, even at 5 feet down.

This gives you a little better idea of what went on with the trench in Luther's yard.  No back yard playing for Lucas and Patrick today.  They finally got the conduit in, cable replaced.  Oh, did I mention that the cut my telephone wire as well as McKinlay's the afternoon of day two.  We didn't have telephone service last night.  They were good enough to replace it, at no cost to me.  I think!  I can't  imagine how much this little adventure cost.  All three days we had many workers here, all day long.  I should have made them cookies, I should have given them water.  What kind of a hostess am I?  What kind of a best friend am I.  When I got home from the grocery store today, they had all gone.  


Until the next adventure,  appreciate your electricity.  Think about what you would do without it.  I hope your days are relatively uneventful.  Just wanted you to see what is happening on 20th.
Love,
Mom

Our Little Florida 50s Bungalow

So...long time no talk. Sorry everyone. We've been pretty busy this month with home buying, wedding attending and a family building adventure. Between that and work, we haven't had much time for anything else. Hope you're all doing well. Miss and love you!



Apparently, now they sell houses on you tube. It was the only link I could still find online for the listing.

Well Deserved

For those of you who did not watch the ESPYs, which is probably everyone except Jason and maybe Mom, enjoy this video. Lebron James is a moron.

The Dad Life

I know Fathers day is past and gone for this year, but I just came onto this item, and had to give it some air time on the blog. It's for all of you dads, or would-be dads, but I'm dedicating it to Ray, because we all  know how partial he is to RAP.  If you can't see the full screen on this post, got to this link.       Enjoy.

Love you all,
Your Da-Da-Dadio

Asher in the paper ;-)

Pretty great story and a big ole picture of Asher. I have to say, I did not know I would be in the paper. I thought we were just getting Asher, I got a text from one of Valerie's friends saying, "You and Asher are in the paper!" So funny.

Thoughts and Prayers...

GRR! My camera has really left me upset this day. It will not take photos with a flash, it will not zoom-in, but I have been able to do flashless, in-focus pictures outside. Now that is not even happening. I am at a loss... I think it is because it has had over 10,000 images taken with it and is just losing function. Still though... Sad!









So, most of you probably know although Matt and I have kept it quiet... he was fired Friday. What a smack in the face. This time, I feel, very sad for Matt and at the point of anger of the guy who owns UMA. Matt finished the project- it needs to be painted- and he was fired.

The infuriating aspect is that it was done. That we were supposed to (finally) get health insurance and that Matt had been promised a raised at the end of the project. The fact that he was fired left me feeling like the breath had been knocked from me.

There is real concern for me here... considering that this is the fourth time... Considering that yes, I do have a great job that starts in August, but since I work 9 of 12 months, my salary is not stellar (though much better than before) and I have no plans to be the provider for our family long-term. I took this job as a "do what I have to for now" sort of thing.

We really need clear direction as to how best to move forward. Both of us have individually felt the best way to not allow this to happen again is to open a business. Matt absolutely DOES take a "long" time to do things, but to his credit, he is meticulous. The problem is, he is meticulous to a fault in the eyes of an employer. The only way for this to not be an issue is for Matt to be his own boss (well, he and I), I am certain. The impression has been undeniable. However, figuring out what to do with this is what needs to be determined next.

In other (sad) news (what a weekend)....

I found out 2 Mondays ago I was pregnant. Of course, I was of mixed feelings about this since we have no insurance and honestly, since Asher is such a handful... but I started getting really excited about it in the last several days. We told Valerie, Jennifer and Debby. This morning, we were just talking about boy -v- girl, names, where "the baby" would sleep...

I am miscarrying. The interesting thing was that I actually saw the embryonic sac. I am a developmental embryologist by training, so I spent a lot more time than a normal miscarrying mother inspecting it. I even called Matt in. Sad. This is our SIXTH miscarriage (for one pregnancy that ended with an Asher). I have protectively sort of been like, "oh, well..." but it really is sad. Maybe some day in the future...

anyway, we just wanted you all to know what is going on and I do not feel like putting it on my blog since I have so many frequenters (which is why I added ads to my blog)...

Here is the thing, though:

My best friends had to have their baby delivered by c section Friday because of pre-ecclampsia and something (scarier) called HELLP. They had been medically controlling it for four weeks, so the baby (Madison) had be administered four doses of steriods. It was looking incredible, because Madison started kicking and screaming at birth. That is unheard of in a 25 weeker. Clearly, the steriods really helped speed her lung development. Instead of a ventilator, "all" the needed was a CPAP to keep positive pressure in her lungs.

Well, last night, the NICU ( army hospital, Hawaii ) had to intervene to save Maddi... Come to find out, the blood pressure-lowering medications to control the pre-ecclampsia Krissy was given decreased flow to her placenta. What that meant is that the baby was getting much less reduced blood flow. That caused her GI tract to start dying and decaying. Also, in 4 weeks, she did not grow at all.

It is a horrifying nightmare. As you can imagine, this can get bad quickly. Please pray for this family. They really had to work to get this baby and with all the complications, Krissy and Joel decided to have a tubal ligation at c-section.

This all made Matt's job loss seem almost... Not as serious. I found out she was going to be born about 5 minutes before I got home from Asher's photoshoot where Matt told me he had been fired. It was not good, but it seemed so small in comparison to the imminent birth of a baby 25 weeks gestationally... but my miscarriage feels all the more sad. One thing I plan on asking my Heavenly Father about is why these things happen. It is so hard on us mommies...

I hope you all had a great fourth. Ours was good. We even had a sparkler-induced grass fire.

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God