Enjoy Your Demotivators

I said I would do a better job at posting every week, and here's proof that I'm a man of my word.  Here's the latest batch of demotivators, I hope all of you enjoy it.

 I'm very grateful that nothing like this happened at the Iron Maiden concert.

This last one is a question I, sadly, often ask myself.

We got to go to Jerome for Labor Day Weekend!

I've got to admit that this walk in the old cow corral, which Natalie called "far-away-land", got me pretty nostalgic. I was also relieved that Natalie never actually poked Jack's eye out.

I'm teaching her young to choose the right heroes. 

Never poked his eye - and what killer dance moves. They loved this thing, which I remember loving too as a kid.

I don't know what this arm action is, but you've got to admit she's got style.

Sorry our post is so late! We love you guys!

Sometimes You Need the Opposite of Motivation, Which is...DEMOTIVATION :-D

After the gap between my last two posts, I have resolved to do a better job on posting demotivators.  So, here's the latest batch...enjoy.

 This wouldn't be as sad if the channel would just change their name (or add the slogan "MTV...it used to be about the music.").

 If you look closely you can see that the idiot in the back is sitting on some sort of bowl.

And this last one is for all of us guys who will be doing any kind of repair work during the autumn months.

We are famous in Monterey

Updated Post

My editor (Mom) brought to my attention that I inadvertently posted a demotivator with a dirty word.  I apologize to anyone who might have been offended, and have edited that post with a replacement.  Please check it out and enjoy.

Pics from military day at the fair 31 August

The girsl had a blast at the fair. I've never though fairs were fun, but this one was great for the girls. They also had a Van Halen tribute band play ("Fan Halen"), and they were awesome. The guys sounded exactly like David Lee Roth. I'll post an annoying video. Ben

Old Geeks Join In

Valiant children,

Thank you so much for all your posts and for updating us on your interesting lives . . . ours not so much.  Mom's foot continues to heal, but she still is wearing a very clunky yet becoming surgical shoe. Hasn't been doing many splits lately.

Dad continues work in the salt mines of the Combined Arms Center--though not many arms around here--and spends the rest of the time figuring out how to restore our draught-starved dead lawn.

Want you all to know Katie plans to post tomorrow--she and Shea drove up to Jerome for the weekend. What a good granddaughter and son-in-law. Thanks to you for looking out for Gramma Williams--means so much to her. Plan is for Gramma Williams to move into assisted living in Bountiful sometime in October, however she probably doesn't know this yet so keep it under wraps.

Grampa Shaha had a bad weekend and is now in a facility for evaluating his mental state; he will probably not come home but be moved to an assisted living place in Draper within the next week or two. Steve and Stacy were visiting Jake and crew for the weekend so we had Uncle Bob spend the weekend in Draper so it was very good he was there--Gramma could not have coped without Bob's presence and help.

Please start planning how to send Mom and I on a cruise to Mars in a few years when we become even more difficult to handle than we are now--be prepared for exciting new developments for Christmas.

Be excellent to each other. We love you all.
Mom and Dad/Gwampa and Gwamma/Nancy and Pat

I am hungry; but it's a good kind of hungry.


This last month has been the most difficult of my life. Time has never gone so slowly. The harsh realities of mortality that have been shoved down our throats as of late have forced us to exercise more faith in the Gospel and hope more than ever that everything we've been hearing since primary regarding the Plan of Salvation is a whole lot more than just a story. We have pictures of sweet little Layla and a plaster imprint of her little foot to remind us of what her body looked like, but the only way I can keep from shaking my fist at heaven is to remind myself that she is still alive and is with her spiritual Parents who I'm sure will take very good care of her. That hope that she is safe and happy and that we'll be able to see her again and never have to say goodbye is what keeps us going and will eventually allow us to heal. Thank you everyone for all of your heartfelt expressions of sympathy and your kindness. We've never been more grateful that families can be forever.

On a happier note, BYU trounced Washington State. I was unable to watch the game because we are too cheap to get cable, but I listened to the first half on KSL and went to bed a happy man. Let's hope they can keep it up. Lucy starts preschool on 4 September. The mascot in her class is the ladybug and she is pumped to get in there and broaden her intellectual horizons. I have finished the poem we have been writing forever. Bethany is going to do the illustrations and then we are going to try to get it published. I still have to edit it a little, but I think I've just about had enough of it now so we're going to cut sling load and go for it. Attached if anyone is interested in perusing.

I am reading a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. I was assigned to do a book review on it. Not bad--it's essentially a pep talk for introverts or the parents of introverts. Quick read and has some pointers that I found interesting on how to raise kids who aren't outspoken. Lucy is on the quieter side, but we all pray that one day Hailey will learn to CONTROL THE VOLUME OF HER VOICE! We'll have to see if she will sing the Gummy Bears theme song for you at Christmas. It's hilarious.

Hope you are all well. We are looking forward to Christmas and to getting even fatter with all of you.

Joe, Bethany and crew

 

Washington and Stuff

Hello Family! Mom, thanks for the reminder to post on Fast Sundays. Here's my contribution. 

This is Oakley and I on the airplane to Denver from Cedar Rapids. Everyone is pretty excited at this point... after a three hour layover in Denver, not everyone was quite as excited. However, we made it to Seattle in one piece and all was well. 

This is one of the swans at the hospital where I'm working. They keep all the annoying, ugly, and prolifically pooping Canadian geese away. I guess the swans are really aggressive and territorial so they scare off the Canadian hosers who are larger in numbers. 

Here's Mt. Rainier from the old parade field. Awesome. 

This has become one of our favorite activities out here. There are blackberry bushes just about everywhere you look on post and Wendy loves looking for them. She and Oakley will go through a bowlful everyday. They're delicious but you've got to be careful picking them because they're surrounded by thorns. 

Here's the house we used to live in. It looks mostly the same as I remember it. Good times. 

We got to go to Mt Rainier last weekend and it was awesome. Clear skies, wildflowers blooming. We lucked out. Wendy posted a bunch more pictures on our blog (daveandwendy.wordpress.com). 

I had to include this picture from the Mt. Rainier trip. May qualify as our most awkward/awesome family portrait to date. 

The old pet cemetery up on the bluff. There were some fresh graves up there. Pretty spooky. 

We went to the local aquarium. Here's Oakley standing in a shark's mouth. She wasn't sure what to make of it. 

We took the ferry out to Seattle from Bremerton. So pretty!

We caught a Mariners game. They lost. D'oh. 

We're loving it out here in Washington and hoping that we'll come back and live here for a few years. We'll see how things shake out but I think we'll make it. 

One other thing, and this is a little dated now, the US men's national team beat Mexico in a soccer friendly in Mexico City for the first time ever last month. It was extra awesome because the Mexican Olympic team had just won the gold and they were having a special celebration ceremony just after the game. Booyah. For those of you aren't familiar with the US/Mexico rivalry, it's crazy go nuts. The really cool thing is we beat them with a lot of second string guys and a new defensive line up. So cool. Here are the highlights. The winning goal was scored on a combination play from three subs. I was geeking out. 

One other thing, did you guys see the Cougars win? Awesome stuff. Especially the fact that we held Washington State to -5 yards rushing offense. I'm excited for the Utah game in a few weeks. I really hope we can beat them this year. The last two outing have been pretty painful. Party on guys. 

Ben, Marinda, Emily, Caroline

dear family i went to the beach with Emi. I Made soap at the cabin. love, Emily Emily has been excited to write letters lately. Emi was a girl who was the niece of one of Marinda's friends. Emily played with her when we went to Pismo Beach a few weeks ago. Random memory I guess as was the statement that she made soap at the cabin. When the girls were in Utah, Marinda's Mom conducted a "Cousins Camp" where the cousins who were old enough (out of diapers) congregated at the cabin in Scofield to participate in "skunk" festivities. One of the events was soap making, and Emily has been talking about it ever since. I'm getting ready for finals which is always a pain. I have two final papers two write as well as a bunch of military stuff (CONOPS, CDR guidance, Mission statement for a JTF in a fictitious war in Borneo for those who care, which is likely none of you except maybe Dad, and that's a big maybe). COL Espinas also asked me if I wanted to go to a FAO conference in Belgium right after finals. Marinda is hoping to go in my place. I don't think I'm going to go because we were planning to go to Yosemite and then Katie and Shea will be coming at the end of the week which we're all very excited about. I was able to watch the BYU game with my neighbor who is a Washington State alum. Bummer of a game for them. I left at the half. BYU looks pretty good though. We gave up cable recently. I always feel pangs of regret when football season comes around and I can't watch any. I am excited for Fantasy Football this year though. My new team name is "Mormon Coup d'etat" in reference to all of these Mormon Moments we're all having. Hope everyone is enjoying it! Ben