Boys at the start of the Freedom Festival 1 mile Fun Run.

Today I went 3 miles at the Oak Canyon track. Because it is Monday, that means interval training for me.

Here is the plan:

• Warm up jog 1 lap
• Sprint 440 yards (1 lap)
• Jog 110 yards
• Sprint 440
• Jog 110
• Sprint 440
• Jog 110
• Sprint 550
• Repeat

One time through the plan is 1.5 miles.

My time was good, but not my fastest. I can feel myself being able to maintain a quicker pace for longer distances on the long runs, so that feels good and is encouraging.

Splits:

Mile 1 – 7:24
Mile 2 – 7:32
Mile 3 – 7:29

Here is the shortlink: http://j.mp/iRuXEk.

After that, I jogged a slow half mile barefoot. I am trying to build up my foot strength and am exploring barefoot running a little here and there. Here is the shortlink for that as well: http://j.mp/jtr2TC

Thus begins another week.

Brandon

Yesterday Cami and I took the boys up the air show at Hill Air Force Base, in Ogden. I friend of mine from work was going to take his family up and invited us to go with him, so we went. I called up our old missionary friend, Brandon Morrell and picked him up on the way and we spent the day looking around the base at the airplanes, helicopter’s and even a Monster Truck (I’m not sure why it was there?)

Throughout the show, there were lots of different pilot flying over and performing their tricks and some amazing stunts. It is crazy to see what they do with their planes. We walked around and let the boys explore and see what was there. After a while, they were getting ready for the main part of the show so we headed over to sit on the grass and watch.

The main attraction were the F-16 Thunderbirds. They were awesome. I think I had more fun then Koby and Spencer. I really don’t know what to say about it, but it was amazing.

Here are some pictures of before the show started.

Then here are a couple of the Thunderbirds:

The top airplane is upside down

One of the cool facts about the airplanes is that they can go over three miles straight up. During the show they did go over two miles up and were nearly out of sight. It was amazing.

Here is a video of the complete show, although this was performed at another air show. They perform the same show all over the place and I found this on YouTube that someone else recorded. (It is much better in person)

Do we really want these types of people representing our nations youth?

(By the way, here’s a follow up and explanation)

Well, it is official, we are back online. It was strange being without internet for so long. It was kind of nice in some regards, but mostly just annoying. It is amazing how dependent we all have been on various tools in our lives. Often times I tried to get a phone number, check my email or just look for information and just couldn’t. But we are back, and there is a lot to update about.

I was called as the Young Men’s sports coach and assistant (to the) adviser in the Priests Quorum. What that means is I teach lessons once in a while (about once a month) and get to play volleyball and bball with the young men. Doesn’t get much better then that. There are about 12 – 15 priests, and they are all pretty fun to be with. I never thought I would be “that old adult” but I guess we all have to grow up at some point. In our stake (and region) they still have really good participation in the sports program for the youth. They won the stake tournament last week and are now going on to play in a regional tournament tomorrow and the following week. It is neat to see the sports program work like it is supposed to, unlike back in Greeley.

Koby is enjoying school and learning a lot. We don’t get a lot out of him after school other then “it was good”, but he is learning how to read and catching on when he sees words throughout the day that he recognizes.

We are still busy with raising the kids and it has been an adjustment in a few areas of our lives, but it has been a good adjustment. We miss my family and are glad to be near Cami’s family. We are excited to go home for Christmas and see family and friends.

Work is going really good. It is challenging but fun. I was excited because I was able to play basketball Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 6:00, but recently found out I have to be ar work from 6:30 am to 3:30 pm. I service accounts in Michigan and they are east coast time, so I am there during their business hours. What this means is no more bball in the morning. Oh well, at least I am home from work about the same time Koby is off of school.

Well, there is much more to write about, but not time now. We are getting ready for dinner and the boys need help with Webkinz.

Visitors are always welcome!

Well, we are here and the next chapter of our lives has begun.

We made it to our house in great time on Saturday and have everything unloaded and in the house. We are not in the house yet because there are people still working on getting some things ready, but we are excited to be in this week. We talked to the landlord tonight and he said we could come in and get stuff organized whenever we want. We will probably go in tomorrow and start getting things situated. We will probably sleep there Wednesday night and see how that goes. The boys are really anxious to get in there and get back into the groove of things. It has been hard for them to be in this transition period and really need a place to call home again.

The trip through that crappy state we call Wyoming was actually pretty good. Friday was the packing the truck day and we were very lucky to get all the help that we got. The elders in the quorum did a great job and we are very grateful for the help they gave. Especially Travis, who brought was there most of the day and then went and got Blackjack pizza for everyone. Also a big help were the Gollhofer’s who brought lunch for us and soda’s for anyone else. Plus they were there most of the day and late into the night.

I really hate the drive through Wyoming. I don’t really care for the state at all. This is the view most of the way.

 I always like this sign.

That night, we went over to Chenel & Drew’s house to spend the night. Then on Friday, I got up at 5:00 and left the house at about 5:15 am to head out to Orem.

The truck did great and was a lot faster then I figured it would be. I figured it would top out at about 60 or 65 mph, but it went pretty comfortably around 75 most of the way.  I left about two hours before Cami and expected her to pass my somewhere in Evanston, but because I was able to go so fast and didn’t have to stop for lunch with the boys, I made it a couple hours before she did and had the whole truck unloaded before she got to town. I wanted to take a picture of them passing me, but they never did, so I had to get a picture of myself.

Here is a picture of the house.

Yes that is the church building in the background. The fence to the backyard is up against the church parking lot. It is pretty sweet and I am excited.  The yard needs some work, as does some areas in the house, but overall we are excited for it and the possibilities.

This is the front room looking from the stairs.

This is the kitchen. I like the island and pantry area. It is a nice feature we didn’t have in Colorado.

Here is the family room from the kitchen.

The tile and carpet combo is kind of weird, but it may work out okay it we set up the room right. If you turn right at the end of the stairs, you will go to the laundry room, bathroom, downstairs and into the garage. There is a food storage room, extra family room, furnace room and another bedroom down there, so that is pretty cool. For all of you that want to come visit, this is where you will sleep.

We are not crazy about the metal banister, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It feels like we are in a commercial building or something. Oh well, what can you do?

We had a lot of help here when we got in and that was great. The house needed some repairs before we could move in, but the wait will be worth it. I took a few pictures of the house, but because there are so many boxes in all the rooms, I will not post them here but will get some when we have stuff put away in a week or so.

I start work on Monday so we will have the rest of the week and weekend to get stuff somewhat organized.

We are excited to be here and invite any and all visitors. Come see us.

This last week was quite a tragic one for some parts of Colorado as we experienced a tornado in a fashion that we are not used to in our neck of the woods.

On Thursday, May 22 at about 11:30 or so, it first touched down in Gilcrest, a small, rural community south of Greeley. As we heard about it and tracked it on the computers it kept getting closer to our houses and office here in Loveland.

I talked with Cami several times and verified that they were okay and we watched it move northwest towards Windsor, Fort Collins and Laramie, Wy.

As I am sure most people heard, Windsor was by far the worst hit area. It went right through the middle of some neighborhoods and completely destroyed many homes and businesses. It was amazing to see houses without roofs or walls and trees completely uprooted. It is amazing the power of Mother Nature.

We watched the weather from our office building on the 3rd floor of our building in downtown Loveland and saw the clouds swirling in different directions. I have never seen anything like it. It was really kind of interesting, but when the hail started coming down and the tress started moving violently, we decided that we should move from the windows and head to the basement where we stayed for a bit until we decided it was safe. Luckily, Loveland was not hit and we just had some high winds and hail.

As we watched it pass over and to the north, we were amazed at what had happened. I went home as soon as I could and made sure everything was okay there, which it was. Koby and Spencer watched the news for about a 3 hour’s and were really concerned about what was going on and what we should do if it hit our area. It ended up getting about as close as a couple miles from where we live, but luckily no closer.

The next day, I got a call from the bishop and the first counselor in the stake presidency and was told to organize a group of 10-15 elders from our quorum to be “on call” to help in the cleanup efforts if they needed us. They said that we would be informed later in the weekend and given our assignment. I called my 1st counselor and we split the quorum into two groups and went down the list and got commitments from as many as were willing to help out and then just waited. They wanted to make sure that the insurance adjusters could make it in to assess the damage before we started cleaning it up. They said that would take some time.

On Saturday morning, I was told that our group was being called to help on Sunday. We were told to go to another wards sacrament meeting in our work clothes and then leave and head to Windsor as soon as we were done there. We made the calls and had about 20 people that committed to come along. It was a great turnout (probably because they were both allowed to skip church and got to go check out the damage . Everyone was totally willing to help out and do whatever needed to be done. Cami was asked to help prepare meals for the workers and help in that regards.

When we got to the location, we were given an assignment and went to work. Everything was just a mess and our group was given two chain saws and instructed to go dig people out. We went from house to house and asked how we could help. As you can see from the picture, it was a complete disaster. Most of the houses had serious damage and would just end up being bulldozed and re-built. Many of them were condemned and we weren’t even allowed on the property.

We stayed there until about 5:00 or so and they continued the next morning. Most of what was done was piling debris up on the sides of the road so that the dump trucks and tractors could come by later and pick it all up. There were a lot of trees that were destroyed, so we tried to cut them up in pieces. In general, it is just a big mess.

The church was expecting about 200 people (based on what I heard) but they ad about 500 show up on Sunday. Everyone helped a ton and the homeowners were very grateful and appreciative. Monday they had a more assignments, but I wasn’t there so I do not know how many showed up.

Over the next few weeks there will be a lot of change out there and it will be interesting to follow. I will update here based on what goes on.

If you want to see more pictures and video’s that I have, click here and enjoy.

One of the blogs that I read is by the creator of the Dilbert cartoon, Scott Adams. Most of the time it is really funny as he has an interesting sense of humor.

He wrote a comic last year that asks the question: “Why does it seem as if most of the decisions in my workplace are made by drunken lemurs?”  Pretty funny when you read the strip.

There was a man in Iowa that got fired for posting the comic at his work. I guess that the comic is more accurate than most people thought.

Here’s the story – http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/story?id=4323900.

I got this from a friend, not sure where he got it from or where it originated:

How to Start Each Day With A Positive Outlook:

1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it “Hillary Rodham Clinton”.
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin.
4. Empty the Recycle Bin.
5. Your PC will ask you. “Do you really want to get rid of “Hillary Rodham Clinton ?”
6. Firmly Click “Yes.”
7. Feel better.

Pretty funny.

Has anyone ever seen The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch? I have been obsessing over that show for a long time and have gotten a lot of inspiration from Donny. (By the way, if you haven’t seen it, check it out).

I have begun keeping a journal about some ideas that I have had as a result of watching the show. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I am workig out some details and licenses soon and want to make sure they are properly protected, but here are some vague snippets.

New Products/Improvements in:

1. The way people deal with financial education
2. Car Care
3. Software product and related eBook
4. New type of sports camps that are available for underpriveleged kids

There are a few others, but these are the more serious ones. My plan is to have major steps in a couple of the ideas within the next year. This blog will be where I keep updates of my progress.

What are your ideas?

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ALL MY POSTS REGARDING COLLEGE FUNDING HAVE MOVED AND WILL BE UPDATED HERE.

COLLEGE FUNDING IS A TOPIC THAT DESERVES A SITE OF ITS OWN. THIS SITE IS 100% DEDICATED TO COLLEGE FUNDING.

THANKS FOR VISITING.

Reading online today and found this article by Seth Godin about the horrible reality of college admissions.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/2007/04/the_horrible_re.html

Sad, but true.

Spring is in the air and we seem to be thawing out from this past winter. We are also seeing a lot of students that are receiving their admission and acceptance letters.

Now the question becomes, what do you do with them. How do you pick the one that fits your budget and make the right choice. There are a few things that you must do, and the podcast will help you figure those out.