Well I am officially depressed to wake up to the new President of the U.S. speaking. As I told Dennis, our country is now going to H E double toothpicks. I can't believe people in this country can be so gullible and taken in by the "movie star" power etc. If they think Bush was bad ....just wait!! I guess we all know it is even closer to the second coming of the Lord.

ooops!

I thought I was posting this on my "family's" blog and not on the HTown blog. Oh well, we'll call that early onset of senility!

Maiden voyage!

So here we go....this is our first time on the family blog. We've been following, with interest, all the other entries and I've got to say...that first of all, I am not nor will I ever be a follower of that vampire thing. However, all of the girls in our family have been pretty much Twilight to the nth degree! Give me a Clive Cussler novel any day, every day and I will read just as avidely as the next guy or girl. I will admit, that I will probably see the movie when it comes out but that's about the extent of it. Marchelle and her kids came out the other week and then we drove down to San Diego to meet her husband, Rahul who flew in and we spent the weekend with them. We had a great time with them, they stayed on for the rest of the week but here are some pics. The condo we stayed in was 2 blocks from the beach. We were 5 min. from the church, we attended Sacrament meeting and 10 min. from the Temple which we went to after sacrament. Rahul and I caught a few waves Mon. morning before going to Sea World. It was coooolddddd!!!!! I think I could be really happy being a reverse "Snow Bird" spending the summer down in San Diego and then going back to Las Vegas for the rest of the year! Oh well, nice to dream and mostly nice to see everybody and catch up with you all!

Three's not only a crowd but trouble!

As you can see..they are together and they are smiling! Unbelievably, they have been actually pretty good with each other. They all kinda just blend together, each personality giving and making up when needed. Needless to say, both grandma and grandpa are eating up every moment and wearing out at the end of the night. We've forgotten about constant tripping hazards, ie; toys, books, shoes, and little people all over the floor! We've forgotten how every room in the house can look like a tornado just blew through.! We've forgotten about food mostly on the floor and not on the table! Do we care?? To be honest...maybe for about 3 sec. and then we realize that we don't have these moments very often and so we treasure them and savor the moments.

You've also been able to see that we are very close to being finished in the front yard. I was so tickled to see the kids playing again in the yard that it brought back sweet memories of 'back in the day' when they were "all soooo small....." The plants have matured a little more and there is actually color in them. In fact, just today I saw some butterflies on the flowers which means there will be some other flowers cross pollenated in the future. By spring of next year, the ground where Marchelle is standing should be entirely covered by plant growth and color.

I was going to put our house number that Maya is sitting on but it may be covered by the plant come spring or else I will have to trim that part of it. They do make for some interesting sitting and posing rocks for the kids. Oh well, just had a few moments to put this in, will continue to update in the future, within the next couple of days.

I'm tired!

I just wanted to sound off about something that has been on my mind for the last few weeks. I'm tired.....I'm tired of politics!!!! I'm tired of the spins that are made from one candidate to the other!!! I'm tired of the validity that the media gives to celebrities who's agenda is about self promotion, who's bleeding heart want's to "give" everybody the farm without having to earn any part of it and who talk about infringing and being invasive on "personal rights". I'm tired of music, tv, movie, spin doctors and everybody else who think that through their enlightening engagements, we should likewise be so enthralled with their rapture. I'm just tired!!!! Dare I say, I could give a rats@!*!!!! about anything they say and to back that up I quote Korihor's arguement..."but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius...these people are idiots!! That is their game plan, that is their agenda and that is how the master deceiver has twisted and enveloped their once noble ideas!! On the other hand......

Beginning this weekend, we will be able to listen to men and women whose sole intent is to bring all people to Christ. They will teach us how to be better people, better husbands and wives, better parents and better children. They will teach how to lift others up and how to serve others without the blinding glare of recognition or approval ratings. The things the Prophet will promise to us will always come true. Those principles will not always be popular and in a lot of cases, to the common man, appear to be foolish. But I would bank everything on the words of the Prophet, he is the one that we should look to, he is our captain leader and he will guide our ship through the storm. I am ever thankful that we have always had sound leadership "for the past 178 years!"

So if you're like me, tired of all that's has been happening...have hope for a brighter tomorrow as we look to the Christ and live! Be energized in the thought that we have a living prophet to guide us during these tumultuous times.

Conversation with a 2 yr. old

After reading Marchelle's latest regarding her conversation with Maya I thought I would share my conversation with Kalie from the other night when we babysat her as Megan and Charlie went bowling with some friends in their ward. This is from a grandfather's perspective, mind you, so now I know what G/G Richins were going through with our kids, Marchelle, Nathan, Derek, Shaun and Megan and they always did it so willingly as if they really enjoyed it!!!!

Kalie, "C'mon paka" as she grabs my fingers pulling me back towards the game room. (If you haven't figured out what 'paka' means, it means Grandpa)
GPa, "Okay". (here's where it gets interesting...)
Kalie, "bele, bele, bele, happy..."
GPa, "Oh, you want to see happy?" (that's her cue to watch Happy Feet)
Kalie, "Happy, happy, bele, bele, here, bele, bele, bele, sit here, umalimyma..."
GPa, "Huh....!"
Kalie, She is grabbing a puzzle and wants to go back to the kitchen to do it on the table, "Puzzle, bele shuma mima treats paka." Back to the kitchen we go.
As we're going I'm saying, "Don't you want to watch Happy?"
Kalie, "Treat"
GPa, "Oh how 'bout this puzzle first!"
Kalie, "Paka, treat".
GPa, (Why am I such a sucker!!) "Okay...", "Ready to do this puzzle??" We open the hyper-bag and then it's back to the game room!!
Kalie, "bele, bele, bele, shhmashhma". She grabs another puzzle and I'm thinking, what about that other puzzle back in the kitchen! Back and forth we go for the next 20 minutes. Each time I'm looking at Maureen with those 'Rescue me' look in my eyes.
GPa, "Phew, grandpa needs to sit down."
Kalie, "C'mon, paka...." back we go to the game room. Happy Feet is well into midway point,, we've watched maybe 3 min. total and I'm thinking, wait a minute!!!!....this the good part!!! Now I'm chasing her back into the living room, because I'm now the monster! We run around the couch a couple of times, she stops and gets a drink of milk and then we start again! Kaile, then chases the dog all the while grabbing his toy and throwing it so he can fetch it.
Kalie, "Ohhhh noooooo! bele, bele, bele, c'mon paka, paka, paka.....paka"
GPa, "What does she want?" as I look at Maureen. Grabbing my fingers again, we go back to the game room. My mind is saying, "noooo not again!", My body is saying, "you're not gonna last much longer buddy!" However, because I would do anything and everything possible for these little ones,...I go.
Kalie, "Chanted?...Chanted?" (That's another movie, "Enchanted".)
GPa, "What about Happy?", "Don't you want to finish 'Happy'?"
Kalie, "No!", "Chanted"
GPa, "Hey....Babes!!!! it's your turn!!!!!!"
GPa, "Grandma is gonna watch 'Chanted' with you, okay?!?!?" Maureen rescues me, I go back and turn on the Olympics, they don't look nearly as tired as I feel!! Bless your hearts, G/G Richins! *footnote - Kalie is getting much better at putting words together that are increasingly becoming more understandable and maybe grandma and grandpa are in training and just gearing up for Christmas when all 4 grandkids will be together! Hopefully, we'll have this toddler grammer down by then!!!!

Stepping stones

We are getting closer to getting finished. The stepping stones have been set and the crushed

gravel around the plants and stones. We have to be completely done with the desert landscape portion by Sept. 2nd so that we can be inspected by the water authority verifying the conversion to desert landscaping. I'm hoping that when people walk on the stones they won't be confused as to which foot they need to lead with in order to hit the stones properly, can you figure out which foot is the lead?
So after Bear Lake, it is usually tradition to go fishing at "our spot". This time we decided that we would first start out at a "different spot", which we did and were able to catch a couple of nice ones. Shaun wasn't able to go because of school and work. He and Jamie had already missed some school going to Bear Lake, so it was just Derek and I. We ended up having a pretty good day, noting that if we had originally gone to "our spot" we would have been home with our feet up drinking lemonade 3 hrs. earlier. Ohhhhh, but we wouldn't have had "the experience!!!" Most of the fish were in this range.

Next up will be Shaun's graduation ceremonies, we'll see you this weekend!