A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

This Saturday, we took a family trip to Shaake's pumpkin patch in Lawrence to pick out some pumpkins. We had a blast and took some really cute pictures. They took us out on a hayride into the patch, where Cami had her first pumpkin encounter.Here is Cami with Mommy after getting comfortable at the patch. When first introduced to the pumpkin, Cami wasn't so sure she wanted to touch it, so Daddy helped her out a bit...

Then she patted it on her own, and finally, she plopped right down amongst the pumpkins, happy as a clam.

As we are planning on making a return trip next year, we thought it necessary to document how tall Cami was this time around, measuring just over 2 ft.

To wrap up the day, Chris launched a couple of pumpkins 100 yrds into the air... or so he says! As you see, he had perfect technique. Cami actually enjoyed watching him quite a bit.

You might have noticed his Penn State hat, which leads us into our next topic, where Chris will take over...

Thanks Carrie, actually there isn't much to report on the Penn State front other than that win was huge and if we hang on to these last three games we're playing for the national title. However, I would like to make an appeal to everyone reading who doesn't have a college football team or is perhaps a disaffected Cougar fan and doesn't have much to cheer for the rest of the year. ( Quick tangent. When they finally publish the long awaited book ," How to suck at your job" I'm positive that KC Cheifs GM Carl Peterson and Mountain West Commisioner Craig Thompson will be the co-authors. The worst BYU can possibly finish is 10-2 again and what will be their reward? Another fine trip to the ALPO Dog Food bowl, or something with even less prestige. If the Mtn. West is really almost a BCS league you've gotta have better bowl tie ins. Period.) I think you should start rooting for Penn State, if for no other reason than Joe Paterno. at 81 years old he's given his whole life to Penn State, given practically all the money he's made back to the university, has a hard time walking and getting from place to place but can still find the energy to coach a Major college football program. Now at the end of his career and probably near the end of his life he has a shot to win one last title. This isn't a season, it's a major motion picture..."Something for JoePA" I can see it now ( Those familiar with PSU or old movies probably get the movie title, if not then don't worry about it and just move on.) Anyway, I just wanted to put it out there that the PSU bandwagon is big enough for everyone and if you're waiting for an invitation then please hop aboard!

Other than that, Carrie and I Tivo'ed two episodes of the NBC show Crusoe..We watched them both this last friday after an exhausting night for shopping for Cami. Anyway, The point is I have never seen a show jump the shark so quickly. The Premier was alright, medicore action show, but the second show made no sense and was about finding somebody bones and putting them out to sea..crazy. Anyway, after two shows too much has happened to make me take this show seriously anymore. If Crusoe can build a sweet house and booby trap the whole isle you're telling me he can't build a ship can just sail off? Anyway, waste of time and I'm looking for a new action/drama to watch if you know of any good ones.

Chris posts again

I wanted to share some thoughts with everyone after my extended blogging hiatus. For starters I never wanted to stop writing, I feel a bit like a balloon that is so full or air that it either needs to let a little out or pop at any minute. I just had to stop blogging because if I was going to write it was going to be about sports, and if I wrote about sports I would be going on public record many, many times bragging about how good I thought my various football teams were, and if I did that then every self respecting sports fan knows I would be jinxing what I was considering the greatest start to a football season of my lifetime.

Let's think back to a week ago my friends...(Sorry, I've been watching too much politics and I've inadvertantly picked up several McCainism's in my everyday life. I've even started to catch on to the things I do everyday that might classify me as a Maverick. Taking a swig straight from the milk jug...Maverick! Sliding right behind a car that just pulled out to take a prime spot at the supermarket...Maverick!!) The Giants, BYU and Penn State were all undefeated and everytime I watched the TV, radio, newspaper, internet, podcasts ( I have a little bit of a football addication. I'm sure I consume between 3-6 hours of football related media on a weekday with much more on saturday. Some would say I need to re-prioritize my life and I would then tell some to JUST BACK OFF, I'M FINE!!! ) Needless to say it was a a month of perfect football bliss where I walked around with a bright inner smile and made a conscious attempt to not talk up my teams too much. Saying things like ," We're alright" or "there's a lot of season left, let's not go too far." When inside I'm thinking "We're going to win the national title." or " My team would likely smoke your team by 30 points if they played right now, I'm not even kidding." That's something you do when you're team is good, you try not to talk them up too much and do everything you can not to jinx them, like going on a brag-a-thon or writing a post that makes it seem like you're too confident.

Then this week happened. The Giants got blown out of the building by a sub-par Browns team that played like the '89 49ers. BYU didn't even act like it belonged on the field against TCU, and Penn State had a first half scare against Michigan that caused me to have some minor heart trouble before blowing them away in the second half. Needless to say, I don't have to worry about jinxing my season anymore, So I figured I could get back to writing and doing things I otherwise enjoy. (Quick note on the PSU vs. Michigan game. I actually watched this game on TiVo delay because Carrie and I went to the St. Louis Temple on Saturday. We already scheduled this trip in advance of knowing when the game would be on, but considering how terribly the football week was already going for me I figured there was no stronger anti-jinx action I could take to help PSU than to pretend football didn't matter for a saturday and go to the temple. I'm not sure if this is the type of attitude that causes me to lose all the blessings I gain from the trip or just proves I am mildly insane. The point is, on the way home I asked Carrie to look up the score on her phone and when she told me it was 17 - 7 Michigan in the middle of the 2nd I went into a state of shock. Carrie then spent the rest of the 4 hour ride updating me play by play as it was updated on her phone. I have a sweet wife and I would like publicly thank her for getting me through that tough time.)


Anyway, Since the unwritten laws of jinx offically allow me to write again here are a couple of things I've been thinking about lately.

1. Facebook - Some of you already know I started a Facebook account a couple weeks ago. This makes me one of the last 15 people my age to have one, but I figured better late then never. Anyway, totally different experience then I thought it would be. I figured it would be a nice little waste of 30 minutes on a day when I was feeling particularly under the weather. It's actually been like attending a huge reunion of almost everyone from your life and only having to talk to the people you actually want to talk to. I'm quite hooked.

2. Politics - You know, being a Republican right now is like being a fan of Nebraska football. Follow me on this one, about a decade or so we had a great thing going, great tradition , an old fashoned scheme we played to perfection, titles, everything you could want. Then we saw ourselves slipping a bit so we brought in new leadership to blow the whole thing up and start going about things a new way. The new way causes us to lose our identity, and now our leadership is so poor and our record is so bad we basically need to start over from nothing all while watching folks we used to beat easily destroy us. Confused yet? Me Too. the point is I am a conservative and the republicans have not governed like conservatives. When I think of What Bush has accomplished in the last 8 years, this is what comes to my mind. The Tax Cuts, The war in Iraq, Creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security, No Child Left Behind, The Wall Street Bailout. I only support 2 of those 5 things, and that's just not good enough. Republicans need to regroup, find new, promising, conservative leaders, and try to get back into the game in a couple of years.

In the meantime, I hope what republicans are left take a page out of the democratic playbook and whine, moan, complain, and generally make a pest of themselves for at least the next 2 - 4 years while the party reloads. That's how the Democrats treated the republican majority and that's how they need to be treated. What makes me more more mad than anything else it is the double standard in Washington. A corrupt Republican is quickly swept out of office, a corrupt democrat is put into party leadership. We should print calendars, articles, T-shirts and do everything we can to let everyone know how incompetant we think Barack Obama is ( and make no mistake, he is less qualified than Sarah Palin, He's just more ethnic so we look past it) Let's see how they like dealing with opposition that has not interest in doing anything constructive but being a pain in the rear. It will be a sad two years for public discourse but a fun one for those of us looking to have stupid fun at the democratic party's expense.

Our Little Lady(bug) & I LOVE this Country!

First off, I have to post a few pics of Cami and I at our ward Halloween Carnival. This was our first chance to dress our kid up for Halloween, and we can't help but think she's cute!

Next, I was listening to country music as I drove home yesterday, and I while I know it makes you – or at least me – more naturally nostalgic and emotional, or at least makes me wish I lived on a farm and went to county fairs, it got me thinking. I really love the USA. I mean I really, really do. This is a great place we live in – we have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the ability to provide and care for our families. We can be happy because our government doesn’t control our lives and we can choose our own destiny, for better or worse.

Well, as far as I can see, as we (the government, which is collectively using all of the money that WE pay in taxes) buy up shares in banks, mortgages and the stock market, things are changing pretty fast. I just want to yell, “LEAVE US ALONE! PLEASE DON’T HELP ANYMORE, REALLY!” Now maybe I am overreacting, as I’ve always been pretty passionate about politics. But part of me can’t see any outcome to this mess that makes us better off than we were before. My greatest fear is that we will be left in such a place/situation that people will start thinking socialized medicine could be a good idea too. What ever happened to freedom of choice and accountability for our actions? I know way, way more people called their leaders and asked them not to pass that bailout. I know they did anyway. I hope I am very wrong about what this will do to our free market capitalism system. All I am seeing is corruption, corruption, corruption.

I could go on and on, but here, in a nutshell, is why I am sad. I LOVE this country. I know that many people aren’t making positive choices, but there are still a lot of good people out there. But have we crossed that threshold? Are we to the point that the evil, or the confused, are going to get their way? I speak to so many who don’t even know what they believe – at least politically, and don’t know if the leader they favor represents their views. In my mind, you can’t trust most of our news outlets to tell it straight, so I don’t even know that the voice of the people could be heard if they wanted it to.

Okay, I’m not that great at articulating my feelings sometimes, and maybe this didn’t make any sense, but it does to me. I want freedom. I want to make my own decisions. I want accountability, even if it seems hard sometimes. I want assistance to be fair and moderate. I want human life and family values to be respected. Does anyone in Washington hear me? I used think we all wanted the same thing -Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives – we just disagreed on the right way to go about it, but lately I am starting to wonder. I don’t think we can afford to be cynical in these times, but I do think we can afford to prepare. We don’t have to be afraid, and we definitely should never give up, but maybe we have to stand apart a little bit more. I’ve never respected the political views of celebrities, but their petty hate-speech of late has made me realize even more that we have to be strong on our own, and let our friends and children know how we feel. That is not why I am writing this, more I just need to vent, but we can’t let the powerful make us feel powerless – and how funny that I don’t mean that in the traditional political sense. Okay, I need to clean my house now. If you think I’m crazy, you don’t have to let me know :).