Never Give In

Last night I went to Provo for our weekly visit with Brian and Paula.

Teresa didn't go because Matt (Josh & Heather's boy) had a little encounter with some "Orange Glo".

(Nothing serious but we weren't sure until we waited a while for symptoms)

So I spent the evening alone with Becca and Katie and had a great time.

Not sure Katie did cause she cried while Mom and Dad were gone. But I got to watch the BYU game and time passed pretty well.

On the way home, I decided to stop and get a burger and drink.

Tiredness and worry about sleeping while driving made me consider and then approve the purchase of a small caffeine
laced drink. I admit that it was a moment of weakness, founded on a rationalization. I HAD A DR. PEPPER!!!

And boy did I pay for it. It did its job. The caffeine penetrated my system and kept me awake.

ALL STINK'IN NIGHT!!

What do we learn from this little encounter with the dark side?

Don't give in to temptation and NEVER let rationalization get you out of where you should be. I have repented and hope I never repeat this mistake again. I saw every hour and many of the ½ hours throughout the long and dreary night. Finally decided to give up and get out of bed at 4:30. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

New Years Misery

Just a quick entry to welcome the New Year.

We are in the midst of a party that will go all night. Not my choosing but Teresa let Joel do it last year so he is doing it again. Hopefully it will settle down about 3am and we can relax a little. Right now it is pretty loud and crazy.

I'll post some pics when I get them 

off the camera.

Girls and boys having fun.

Didn't quite make it all night.

Have a Wonderful 2010

There are some days when I really believe the world is going to ---- in a handbasket. Then I have to remember that we are not alone in this learning ground we call mortality. There is someone much greater than us who is VERY interested in the events which transpire on this dirt-ball we call home.

He is not interested in failure and has not abdicated His right to guide, cajole, inspire, and entice us back to goodness. We only have to look up to Him and find peace in a seriously dysfunctional world.

The dingbats who are trying to make our lives miserable are, in reality, just a pimple on the face of all that is good in this life. Oh, sure, they can make our day a little less enjoyable but if we take care of them properly (cleaning, popping, ignoring), they will pass into the night of "puberty" and be forgotten. Our adulthood is not controlled by the rantings of demons, bent on finding notoriety in their lives.

I have determined that I will not let others determine my joy in life.

The New Year is always a time to consider where we are and where we are going. My hope is that we are going toward the Savior and His Kingdom. May your lives be full of peace and joy as you discover the truths He has to offer.

Dumb Things

I have been trying to upgrade my blog with a few gadgets and find there are some things that SHOULD work but don't. For instance, the little place to the left that says "Past Posts" should be giving you a quick view of my last 10 blog entries but all I see is a great white space.

Why is that?

If I knew, the great white space would be full of words and numbers. This is the second gadget I have installed to make this work and neither has worked.

Isn't that DUMB??!!!

Maybe one of my smart sons could write a little program/applet to let me do what I am trying to do (hint, hint). Or maybe I will find that I can become smart enough to understand the problem and fix it myself.

(Not very likely)

It just occurred to me that my grandchildren get pretty upset with me when I call things dumb. In fact, my wife isn't too thrilled when I use that phrase/word. Maybe it's because when I say something is dumb it is generally some inanimate object that really has no ability to change from being dumb to smart.

Isn't that dumb??!!!

I suppose some might consider that I am the dumb one and if I smartened (hey, that didn't give me a spelling error) up other things wouldn't be so dumb.

Now, that's really a dumb thing to think!

Well, before I close this one off, here is something to consider. If we keep getting bad results from the things we do, why don't we change the things we do?

Not such a dumb idea.

AHAAA, I did make it!!!

Busy, busy, busy!!

But not so much that I can't find a few minutes to share some Christmas Fun.

Here are a few videos and pictures of our family party.

Pretty typical for how we do things during the Holidays.

Be happy during this time and know that we love you all.

Mike, Teresa, and Joel

(the almost missionary).

Pre-Christmas Message

For many years, Teresa and I shared a Christmas letter with all our friends and family. It was a bit of a pain but we loved our friends and wanted to keep them abreast of our changing clan. Some of you may have noticed that the letters stopped a few years ago (with one of two exceptions). It's not because we care less about our connections but we have become careless in our maintenance of those things. In other words, I got lazy and quit writing.

Now we have a family blog and it opens the door to lots of sharing with those who care to know (and some who don't). In fact, the whole purpose of these posts is to eliminate the need for sending out those delightful (???) missives from the past. So if you are missing your Christmas greeting from the Mike and Teresa Whitmer family, please read the previous posts contained on this blog.

I may get in trouble for this but there are some changes coming in the numerical value of our family. Having spent many years growing from two to seven, we are now up to 21 (Mom and Dad, 5 children, 4 spouses, 10 grandkids) members. In the next few months (not nine from now because that would be too many for the beautiful girls to endure) we will increase our size by two. Kevin and Jenny are expecting sometime….??Mayish I think???......(don't you hate it when your on-board computer loses little bits of data?) and Little Matthew (Josh and Heather) will be receiving a sibling shortly after that. We are all thrilled and look forward to the new additions.

For the past couple of weeks I have been conducting tithing settlement in our ward. Sometimes I hear that bishops don't like this time because it is so busy and takes so much time. For me, this is one of my favorite times of year. During these weeks I am able to visit with all the faithful members who are reporting on their worthiness. No one complains and it gives me a few minutes to chat with them and see how their lives are going. Oftentimes I spend too much time with each family and fall behind in my schedule (that's why I limit the numbers I have in each night). It really is a pleasant experience for me and I hope for them.

If I am able to remember, I will try to make one more post before Christmas time but knowing me I may not get back here. If that is the case, please have a Merry Christmas and remember Who we celebrate. This is the time of year to renew our commitment to the doctrines and principles given to us by the Savior of all the world. He is our Example and our Hope for a better life. May His love be with all of you this special season.

Mucho Excitement!!!

Just a quick post to give some exciting news. But instead of telling you, I will show you with the video. Enjoy.

Wellll, maybe I won't. Seems the blogger won't upload my video.

Looks like I will just have to announce that Joel is going to the California Ventura Mission on February 3, 2010. More later and possibly the video.

OK, here it is....finally*&%^%$#@#$

Party Time on the old Homestead

Thanksgiving was great!!!

Teresa's family invited us all down to Huntington for a Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration and we all had a good time. The turkey was delicious, the pies were delightful and all the activities were first rate.

The only negative was that Josh and Heather were in Virginia visiting her parents and family (they moved there earlier this year after Don lost his job in North Carolina and took another in VA).

A bunch of us went paintballing on Thursday. As I have commented before, I am only good as a target for all the other players. I can't get down low very well and I am much larger than I used to be so it is harder to hide behind trees (they have to be pretty broad to prevent anything from hanging out the sides). The positive thing is that Parker was able to 'kill' grandpa twice in his first escapade with paintball. In fact, I was the only player that 'died' every game so I guess I have the most experience with 'resurrection'. Joel, Kevin and I got into a pretty good 'firefight' and I received my most painful shooting when Joel nailed me in the back as I tried to get away. I can't see the impression but Teresa says it is pretty large and welt-like.

(Different colors are to represent the paintball experience)

Saturday afternoon Joel and I went to the annual BYU-Utah game and had a really fine time. The game was nip and tuck all the way with the Cougars finally prevailing in overtime. It has been several years since I went to a game live and this one was worth the wait. There was a bit of a brouhaha when Max Hall made some comments about the Utah fans and such after the game but I think it has been blown out of proportion by the media and others. What he said was not really much different than the quote I shared from a Utah fan who attended last year's game in Rice-Eccles Stadium. Sadly, these games seem to bring out the worst in some people.

It was a little hard for some of the students to come back to school today. All those days off gave them too much time to forget how to behave. It's only three weeks until they are off again and this time it will be for two whole weeks. January is going to be interesting.

We are only days away from a mission call for Joel.

Birthdays
this month
are Joel, Grandma Grange;
Melissa, and Parker.

And of course, we must not forget that this is when we celebrate the Savior's birth.

(Real birthday is April 6 for those who don't remember)

It's time to start playing Christmas
Music (several stations in town have been at it since October….Not Cool)

Thanks for the Memories

I know what you are thinking!!!

You probably think I am going to share a list of "thankfuls" in my life.

You're right.

But it's not a list like any I have made before. This one will share some of those invisible people

who have done some little thing and never been recognized.

None of the things they did were earth shaking but they were significant to my progression.

See if you can get a little of the drift for why I remember them so fondly.

 

Mr. Hobart Tompkins—probably the first teacher to take time to really help me feel like I was worth something. Mr. Tompkins was my English teacher when I was at Flagstaff Jr. High (9^th grade) and he was a stickler for proper grammar. All that I know of writing and speaking came from the lessons he taught and the practice he demanded. He was also the only person who believed I should run for student body office in that same Jr. High. The vote was not close but the seed of confidence was germinated and it grew from that experience.

Brother Reid—sadly, I don't remember his first name but I will always be grateful for the work he performed as my first scoutmaster. Physically I was a small boy but he encouraged me to be successful…and I felt like I was. He was killed in a trucking accident (my first experience with death) and left our troop to someone else but his influence has helped me have a desire to work in scouting. I have often thought of him while working with the boys in my own troops.

Raymond Beckham—OK, his influence wasn't such a little thing but he is not a person most people think of when looking back on my life. As the Mission President in the Canada Calgary Mission, he was assigned to keep track of nearly 300 19-21 year old young men and a few sisters and couples. As I have grown older, I am more and more amazed at the patience and care he was able to offer, despite what must have been an overwhelming responsibility. He was firm and demanding but those are things I needed at that time in my life. He was also very influential in setting the tone for the rest of my life. The two years he blessed my life have been the foundational years for my adulthood.

Ron Shill—Bro. Shill was my favorite professor during my undergraduate years at BYU. My first introduction to him was from another student who suggested I might want to transfer from his class. He was known to be difficult in his requirements and many were scared away but because of scheduling needs, I had no choice. My classmate was correct…the class was the hardest I had ever taken. But it was also the most interesting and enlightening business class of my years at BYU. I enjoyed it so much that I signed up for another class the next semester. I learned to be prepared and never try to fake a presentation from this marvelous teacher.

There are other people who have helped me along the way but these are the first that came to mind for this post.

Maybe another day I will be able to remember some more names.

Really stinks to get old and forget all the good.

Thank heavens for the Resurrection!!!

East Canyon and No Rants

I am experimenting with new fonts for blogging so be patient with this post. In the past I have found some to be too busy and almost unreadable. It does help to increase the size but many are still too fuzzy to be useful. This one seems to be pretty good so I will use for today.

Last weekend we had our annual family trip to East Canyon Resort. This has become a family tradition and has grown to include all the grandkids and even a friend or two for the single children. The setting is pleasant and there are no real distractions so we can focus on building the bonds that last forever…or at least try not to kill each other. It did help that we were able to use some 'bonus time' and get extra condo's so we weren't all on top of each other. One other benefit: each of our children made one of the meals and all were delightful. It is so nice to have good food when we are all together. Thanks ladies (and those men who helped) for improving the size of our waistline and tickling our taste-buds.

One of the grandkids was ill early on and by Sunday, we had several others who were exhibiting sickness signs. Don't think it was 'piggy flu' but who really knows these days. Even with the maladies, we were able to get in a few paintball games.

It was Bryce's first time and he really seemed to enjoy the action. And I was pleasantly surprised that he made no complaints when he was shot (more than once). He's getting to be a really solid young man. Can't wait to take the rest of the little ones out and take a few pot-shots at them. Reality is that I am so slow and stiff that I am an easy target for them and it makes me feel good to give them success. Or maybe I'm just a horrible player and get killed easily. Whichever, we had a grand time.

No new political or religious rants this time so I guess things must be pretty cool for now. Hope all are happy and praying for wise decisions from those who lead us. See you next post.