Life has been good.

Court was crazy, but other than that, we are doing well. We may be buying another house to help us have some more room in the future to accommodate a larger family. The boys have taken things pretty rough, even though they don't really verbalize things very well. Hopefully they can calm down and we can keep our patience.

Thanksgiving was pretty good. We got to see my grandpa, even though he is looking very ill. It is crazy trying to sleep/cram everybody in my parents house...but worth it. the weather ended up being very good and not an issue while driving. I'm hoping it is the same for Christmas.

B is now 2 and the cutest little girl ever. She does and says some of the funniest things. She is beginning to do better at nursery and be not so clingy.

Anyway, just thought I would do a quick post before going to bed. night

I hate our government. These socialistic policies

are going to kill us!!! With Medicare and SS going to hell, why would anybody want our government to run our healthcare system? And for those who say it's only one option, it's going to drive private health insurance out of business!!! I do not want the government running any part of my insurance and to get out of my life. This is getting to be ridiculous. Please pray that the Senate doesn't pass this hellacious bill.

I'm just sick of this crap. Please help the liberals wake up to reality. Feelings of helping the world don't solve the world's problems. Cap and tax and now healthcare are going to tax the hell out of us. Please stop the madness. They say this will only affect the wealthier but that is garbage. There are serious trickle down effects from higher taxes on the rich. It seems simple but so misunderstood.

And football is done.

My coaching days for the sixth grade team are done for this year. The last game is actually tomorrow but we have a baptism tomorrow at the same time. It has been a crazy time as it takes up so much of our time. D finishes his schedule in two weeks for the eighth grade team. It was good to see the progress some of the kids make throughout the year. With some of the kids I wonder why they are even out there as they seem pretty disinterested. We'll see if both boys decide to play next year.

At home things have been going pretty well. Anna's work has her working a modified schedule now, so Anna can be more involved with the kids after school each day. Her work has treated her very well...probably because she has worked her butt off for them, but great nonetheless. The kids are doing okay at school. D is almost getting straight A's. He seems to have the best memory and does the best on his homework. G and Y are still a little behind and are working hard at times to get caught up with things.

Y is having her baptism tomorrow. We are so proud/excited for her. It will be my first baptism in over 10 years. Man I am old. We are going to have a little luncheon thing afterward with some of her extended family. Court is coming up in a 4 weeks. Should be interesting.

Overall life is good. I'm excited for a little break this next weekend. 5-6 couples are going down to St. George to stay in a few timeshares owned by our neighbors. Not sure how golfing is going to go...it's been forever. It should be fun to have my mom stay with the kids while we are gone.

I hate being sick.

So I threw up six times last night and this morning. Dang it was disgusting. Still not feeling well at all. Maybe I didn't get all of the bad stuff out yet. Anybody have any suggestions for home remedies for upset stomach/vomiting?

Anyway, it has been fine since Anna left. Little one even slept through the night..until about 6:30am. Too bad my sleep was terrible with the bad tummy. I actually slept well the first 3-4 hours and then it hit me again. How frustrating is that.

So college football starts tonight. I'm so excited!!! I love this time of the year. BYU will probably get worked by Oklahoma, but at least it will be fun seeing them play a good team.

Work is crazy!!!

Someone else has left my office and things are still crazy. I don't think things will slow down until October, when the other team will be integrated back into Farmers claims. They have been handling claims for one of our subsiderary companies, Bristol West, until they could switch over all BW claims to Farmers Ins claims. It may even get more confusing as Farmers has bought part of AIG, 21st Century Insurance just last month. So it's good to see my company be aggressive and grow while economic times are a little uncertain.

Well the kids have been doing okay. We have started the level system, so that the consequences for behavior can be consistent. We just feel that the kids weren't improving and maybe this would help. We are even doing some things to help them take more control in getting up for school...show more responsibility. So far so good with that. N seems to like his new high school.

Our malibu has broken down again...got towed from the freeway as we didn't move it in time. Then had to have it towed to our house. Therefore, we are buying a new used car and will use the malibu as a third car...maybe for N. It has been a mess for sure since the beginning. I will never buy a Chevy, Dodge or Ford. My work car is even having transmission issues at the 1.5 year mark. Sheesh, it's still new.

So college football is coming in two weeks. I am so pumped. I love football. We lost our peewee football game on Satuday. The other team had a great qb and we don't exactly have a system set up to defend the pass well. We didn't even score. I am the DC and we did okay but not great. It's hard to handle kids this age as they are 11 or 12. Almost half of the team don't exactly have much of a football instinct and seem disinterested all of the time. We'll see how much they improve.

I'm excited for our two trips over the next few months. We are headed to New Orleans for a few days in September when BYU plays Tulane. Then in October we go down to St. George with 4 of our couple friends. They both should be nice breaks. Although R will be coming with us to NO as she is free still for everything.

Anyway, life is going pretty well. Anna just ran a half marathon yesterday down in springville. I'm so proud of her as that isn't easy....especially considering she has asthma. I love her so much, even when we drive each other nuts.

So we are pretty busy lately!!!

Summer is thankfully winding down but dang it has been busy. We have gone on a few trips, survived having the kids home all day every day and have got a few things done outside/inside. It will be nice when the kids are back at school...we have spent a lot of money on food over the summer...at least it seems that way. School does start next week.

So I am the defensive coordinator on G's football team. They needed some help, so I volunteered to help out. It is crazy right now as it is a five day a week commitment right now. But that will go down to 3-4 during school. I also am volunteering again for cougar club security for byu football practices. That is always interesting to me as I love football.

Just finishing up some work and time for bed. Work has been dang busy. I don't think I have been this busy since I have started at Farmers. Just a lot of different factors that is making it crazy for everyone.

Anyway, I just signed up for facebook as I was searching for someone. Nnot sure what I think of it yet. I hate getting all of these friend requests.

And the judge delayed the stuff again...

The attorney got the judge to hold things off until the end of September...then the final stuff in the middle of November. It's crazy to let the kids go on with so much stuff on hold for this long. What a joke.

We are home and back to normal.

I hate trying to play catch up at work when being off for so long. It takes me days to get back into things. So work is still going pretty well. I am one if not the top person in my office. I have been very consistent over the past 18-24 months and it is showing in my results. Hopefully I can get a great raise next year...it will be combined with a 3.5% across the board raise that the company is giving out. So I could potentially get 8-10%. That would be nice.

So the boys are doing okay...sometimes crazy, sometimes fine. It is such a rollercoaster. They haven't spoken with their mom for almost two weeks. Maybe they don't have phones on Montana reservations? So not much else is going on in that front. We are planning to take a few trips this fall. My parents invited me to New Orleans with them when BYU plays Tulane. Anna will probably come too. We'll bring B as the kids will be in school. Then some of our friends invited us to go to St. George with a few couples in October for three days. Becky or my mom will watch the kids while we are gone. B will not come with us on this one as no kids are allowed. So they should be some fun trips.

I'm excited as heck for football season coming up. Dang I love college football. I am doing security for the cougar club again this year. It gives me a little inside info at practices. I almost volunteered to coach pop warner for the boys, but the commitment was too much. Our football season tickets got bumped up pretty good due to losing our seniority last year. Oh well, it should be an excellent home schedule this year.

Anyway, life is good. Need to exercise more. Need to read more scriptures. Need to pray more. Man my life seems like a mess sometimes...lol

So we had a change of plans..

Due to wanting to see my granpda while he was in good health, we actually changed our plans from Montana to out in California. It probably isn't as exciting as hiking and swimming in a lake, but worth it from our point of view. Then there are some issues with my grandma after her knee surgery that care making a huge mess of things. Then my dad catches pnemonia and is in the hospital for two days.

Overall a crazy trip so far. Probably heading back Friday morning.

And cancer hits again!!!

Well my mom called me last night and let me know my grandpa has pancreatic cancer...that has spread to a few other organs as well. He will have an official prognosis soon as they do some more testing. I need to figure out when I can get out there soon to see him before things hit him harder than they are right now...I remember Anna's dad and some of the photos before he passed away.

Anyway, the kids are doing okay. Not much is going on as court got pushed back again another month. Not sure what the deal is but it seemed like some kind of legal tactic to buy more time. Whatever. Poor B didn't want to go on her visit today as she cried when Anna was leaving. She has done fairly well with attaching so far. She got very upset when I tried to leave nursery on Sunday.

We are headed out to camping next week. Hopefully all goes well.

I have become a bad blogger lately.

But it's partly because I can't share much info on what is going on with the kids due to Foster Care rules. Anyway, the two older boys continue to be a little crazy at times. They sure try our patience at least once a day. They have improved on some things, but still the same on others. We know things don't chance overnight, but the younger kids don't need to deal with some of the crap they pull. I think something may be happening soon with this.

So Anna has been away to a short conference in Burbank. It has been an okay time. We haven't done too much. I did cook some ribs last night that were pretty good. It was my first time cooking them and they turned out really well...other than a little overseasoning. We had Glen and Jeannete over. We are going on a couples only trip in October with them to their time share in St. George. It should be pretty fun as we haven't ever done that...actually we did go up to Park city with Geoff and Alisha a few years ago for a weekend.

Overall things are going pretty well. It has been crazy trying to balance our schedules this summer since school has been out. Anna's work has been more than accomodating. It just has never calmed down. And it won't really do so either as we are headed to Montana in two weeks for camping. And we have a day off this Friday...not sure if we are doing anything. Court is next Monday...not much will happen this week.

So our Tahoe, SF and Sacramento trip went well.

No major issues or blowups. The kids got along well and we the kids didn't break too much.. We hope they will be able to come with us to Montana for camping as well. We'll see what happens. There may be a few changes coming with our situation.

So the kids will be with us for awhile...

I'm not sure what is going to happen later on. But we have some tough decisions. Hopefully the therapists can help us sort things out.

Be of Good Cheer!!!

That was the title of the EQ lesson I gave today. It was okay, although the thoughts didn't flow too well. But I hope some people got the gist of the lesson. It was about being happy in our lives. I think some people don't know how to be happy while on the ride of life. It reminded me to enjoy the simple things as there is so much cynicism and pessimism in the world. I want to be known as someone that is happy and optimistic. Someone who see's the good in others. Not someone who needs to rip others down.

So court is Tuesday. I don't expect much to change, but it will be interesting to see what the judge says. So sad...

I survived.

So last week ended up being okay. No big issues. It seems like the boys have calmed down for whatever reason. Not as much cussing or agressive behavior.

So we are not sure how long the kids will be with us. Plans have kind of changed and things are up in the air at this point. I feel terrible for these kids...not knowing what is going to happen.

I am excited for our trip to Tahoe. Going to be gone for 10 days in Tahoe and Sacramento. It's going to be nice. I am going to brave the waters of the big lake...just like I did as a kid. Hopefully it's warm...

So Anna is gone until Sunday!!!!

The first two days haven't been too bad. No major blowups and got a decent amount of work done today. My claims load has been going up and up...and now another person has left my office. Not sure what happened, but is gone. We are down so many people. Another guy is retiring this week as well. A few others were fired last month. I don't have much time to do anything other than handling my claims these days. I have also been backing up two other adjuster the past 3 days.

Home life has been getting better. We had a very good 1.5 weeks...then hell since the kids saw their mom last week. I think it may have finally sunk in what is going on. It's rough..not sure how I would deal with it if I was away from my family so much in my young years.....

I'm pretty excited for our long vacation in a couple of weeks. We are headed to Lake Tahoe and then hanging out in Sacramento for a few days. Maybe we can go to a baseball game or something in the bay area. Maybe I will ask for the day off after my birthday too to be able to have an extra day to travel.

Good night

It sometimes feels like such work to have a good

Sunday. Church is crazy, trying to convince kids, who don't give a rats about anything, to be quiet. They have very poor social skills while in public. That was one of the reasons we cut our Canada/Montana trip short was due to this. It just becomes too much to handle. But we made it through the day without any big bumps...which is more important at this point. There is some progress, but we still have daily issues with disrespect, name calling, cussing among other things. This has really tested our ability to be patient and loving...while at the same time being firm with what is expected. There is only so much verbal abuse and cussing we can take at this point in time.

Anyway, court is tomorrow. Hopefully the judge does the right thing...whatever that is. -

Court goes on forever...

So another date is set without anything getting done. Poor kids have to continue to wait to find out what is going on. It's sad the kids are this familiar with being in foster care...

Not sure what we are going to do this summer as it's pretty clear things are not going to be done overnight.

At last...

So I have been very hesitant to weigh myself that past four weeks with the five kids in our home. I haven't had much time to work out and things have been hectic. But I did weigh up in Canada during our trip and I have lost 26 lbs since December. So it has been slow but things are still going okay. I need to get more consistent to lose anymore, but it was good to see I haven't gained much if anything.

So we cut our trip short due to issues with the boys...they seem to have some serious social issues to say the least.

Still issues with getting the oldest two in school.

Talk about incompetent and idiotic government employees!!! Sheesh, taking way too long for a kid to be able to start school at a new school. What a joke!!! Not sure if it is going to be tomorrow or Wednesday but dang this is ridiculous.

They seem to be good some days but back to chaos the next. Hopefully things get better when all are in school.

School is only happening for the two younger

kids. Dang prior school can't check them out until early next week. So another 2-3 days for the older two boys. It's tough but they seem to be getting better. But we found more property of ours destroyed in their room. Nothing big just lame they have broken so many things already. They don't have any sense of property or leaving things alone.

So court didn't happen today...

the mother's lawyer didn't bother showing up. So we at least have the five until next Thursday...although they are getting a kid in custody waiver to put them into school. So we won't go crazy trying to babysit them all day every day. Anna was going crazy this morning when the caseworker suggested just having the kids sit home all day for another 9 days...eesh. So our worker called the girl and finally talked some sense to her. So now they will at least be in some school. Sounds like the caseworker was just being lazy.

They are very difficult but getting better.

It is tough to handle teenagers that act

around half of their age or what? I mean I was a pain sometimes as a teen but wow this is difficult. Seeing what an inconsistent and fractured home can do to kids is extremely sad. But it helps you understand kids a little more. I don't get as upset at some of the neighborhood kids that have some lame homes when I think about it a little more. I mean when the parents are screwed up, what else do we expect from the kids?

Sad but true.

I'm tired!!!

So they had court yesterday just to determine they want an official court date with the kids judge next Tuesday. So, who knows what is going to happen.

I suck at getting woken up multiple times in the night...

She is a sweet little girl but dang I'm not used to it. Then when I try to help out, she pushes me away and wants Anna. I think this may be to the fact her brothers are the only men in her life. So they are fairly nice kids that are somewhat shy. The two oldest boys didn't want to go to church, but mostly because it involves interaction with people they don't know. We'll see what happens on Tuesday and then adjust our lives accordingly. I feel bad for the 15 year old boy as he was set to move in on Friday but that got placed on hold. If this turns into a longer type of placement, I don't know if we could handle 6 unless Anna quits. I don't even know if we want to do that at this point but certainly an option. Anna loves her work but we are both ready for a family...and starting one, one way or another. It is frustrating seeing all of these idiots with lots of kids that are pathetic parents and yet we can't even have one child in eight years. But at the same time we have been blessed a lot.

So a change of plans!!!

So we got a call yesterday afternoon from our caseworker asking if we'd be interested in shelter or regular foster care for a family of 5 kids from 15 months to 14 years old. Anna seemed excited to help out and I told her we could as long as she knows her schedule would have to change. They have court on Tuesday to figure out what's going on with the kid's mother.

So here we go again.

We are going to have a fifteen year old boy in our home starting on Friday. It should be quite interesting as he has a girlfriend and is very in to her...almost obsessive. We'll see how that works out. We also finally finished our lds family services online stuff and should get that approved soon. So our profile should be up in running here soon. Maybe I'll put some link on this blog to it or something. Anyway, we are also being considered for 3 african american kids and one 11 year old. So things could change quickly over the next month or two. We are headed up to Canada in two weeks, which should be a nice break. Then get to her nephews and niece up in Montana on the way back.

Anyway, life is always chaging, hopefully these will be changes for the good.

So my raise is...

9.5 effing percent!!!! Yay. Soon Anna will be able to quit and things will still be fine. My emlpoyer also plans on giving everybody in claims positions raises of 3.5% in January due to some changes in benefits...and on top of that another performance raise. So, it could be a fat year and a half at my work.

So my new goal of losing another 20 lbs will

start on Monday. Going to do it by May 15. Going to cut out everything as my partial diet kind of plateaued a few weeks ago. So I have been studying my workers comp stuff for the past few weeks. I took the test today and passed!!! So I get an official designation called Assoicates in Claims or AIC. I get a $300 bonus and I get to put it next to my name. Anyway, things have been going well. I passed my Farmers prep courses in portland, promotion test and now my designation test. I am going to sign up for one more class too to get another designation. Should be fun.

New PSB album next month...

I've already ordered it on amazon.

Take a listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsYzsV4RzdE

Not too bad. Catchy.

So that test is now behind me...

on to the next one in two weeks. So I passed my freaking test today!!! Yipeekayah. Anyway, the three other adjusters all failed...they were retaking it and I was taking it for the first time. And, yes Julie, I did finish my test first in 35 minutes for 50 questions. Not bad eh. So now I get a raise at 6-7%. Sweet.

So now I have my workers compensation course to finish up and take the test on 3-6. If I pass that, I get a $200 bonus and a new designation next to my name...AIC or Associate in Claims. Then if I take a customer service course, I can get ACS next to my name or Associate in Customer Service. Anyway, things are going well at work. My boss has approached me about learning the ropes more in order to eventually promote. The Lord has blessed me tons. This is setting up well so that Anna can hopefully quit sometime in the next year or two. We'll see when anything changes on that end of things.

And we are childless again...

Well that was quick. Two foster daughters leave within 3 days each... Both are funny/weird stories but probably shouldn't be shared on the blog. Kind of sad as 16 year old seemed like a good teenager. She would have been fun to be around the next few years. Oh well...I will say one thing, she was crying when we dropped her off at her home. And it wasn't because she was going to miss us...

Sad.

So I'm down about 20 lbs.

It has been quite refreshing to steadily lose weight...so hopefully it stays off. I have been watching my calories more and working out every day. I can reach my goal sometime next week. Then my next goal will be 25 lbs in the next three months. I think this is a good pace for me as I don't have the best discipline in food choices. If I just focus on exercise and cutting out fat, I should be good to continue losing. With Anna, it appears she may win her work contest and get the pot if others don't reach their goals. Anna has told me I can get high definition tv if I reach goal. So, it's going to get done. I can't wait to see how it looks on my sweet sixty seven inch hdtv. The only issue with losing weight is getting fitted clothing. I am going to bust out some of my old clothes or buy some new clothes soon as really bagging clothing makes you look a lot bigger.

Oh, my promotion test is next Thursday so wish me luck. I could use another 6% raise. That's another few hundred bucks. I do enjoy the new 401k plan, even though net I am taking home less money. I'll have $500/month in that account. So combine that with my retirement and bonsues going into there every year and we should be good at retirement.

Anyway, life is good.

Two foster kids...

Well we have a foster daughter come and go...in the quickest amount of time....three days!!! She had a history of running away and did it while I was showering on Friday morning. She had been doing fine but then started telling the sheriff she didn't want to live here anymore. So they took her to DT. She has some serious issues in the head as she was doing fine one day and then ran away the next.

So now we have a 16 year old foster daughter that could be here long term. She seems like a good kid that is pretty mellow. She just was dropped off today by her caseworker.

Anyway, hopefully things go better this time. Not much we could have done with our prior foster daughter. It's kind of crazy having a 16 year old here though...

So I passed my two tests in Portland.

I got so nervous the first day as some of the questions were quite tricky. But I got a 95%. The second day I thought I did better but got a 88%. Oh well, good enough to be able to take my promotion test in February. If I pass that I'll get probably a 6% raise, which isn't too bad. Some people don't pass this test the first time, so I'll have to study up to make sure I don't make any stupid mistakes.

Anyway, weight is doing pretty well. I didn't gain much on my trip to Portland, even though I only exercised for like 30 minutes those three days. The exercise room there sucked at the hotel. Oh well.

We saw New in Town with Renee Z last night. It was okay as long as you didn't have high expectations. We'll probably go to Last Chance Harvey next weekend. That one got better reviews.

So I'm headed to Portland on Monday.

I have to take a few courses in order to take my promotion test. I have to pass both one day courses on Tuesday and Wednesday. It should be very exciting. Once I pass these classes, I hope I can pass my promotion test. The last 4 people in my office haven't passed it.
Anyway, my exercise is doing very well as I have done it 5-6 times a week for the past month now. Now I just need to tweak more carbs out of my diet and I should lose more weight. At this point I will need to cut everything out of my diet to reach my goal. I exercised on the eliptical for 30 minutes tonight and then went to my stake basketball game in which we won by 1 point. I only scored 5 points..but went 2-4 on my shots. Some guys take it way too seriously. But it was fun as I hit a three pointer with a few minutes left to put us up 1. Good times.

Tom Hanks calling out Mormons for voting for

prop 8? You know what you uneducated idiot...we can vote however in the hell we want you ahole!!! Sorry, just had to put that up somewhere.

So I am down about 10 lbs now...

I think the increased workout time is helping a lot this week. I'm doing about 45-50 minutes a day on the eliptical. It has really helped me feel better. Although I am noticing I am sleeping a little better with the working out. Anyway, if only I ate better I could be losing more. Oh well.

So I didn't get as good of a raise as I had thought...

I had a great year far exceeding all of my goals at the office. I had thought that meant I achieved greatness and was deserving of one of those large raises that I had hear about for the past four years. And then I got into the meeting. I was told my behavior, for reasons unknown to my supervisor, was deemed to knock me down from far exceeding expectations to exceeding expectations. Basically cutting my potential raise in half. Damn them!!! And without a reason...so I have emailed my HR person to see what is going on. Maybe the scales have gone and a 5% raise is up there. But, out of principle I'm not happy. I had a great behavior year as well with being positive, volunteering for additional projects, backing up my supervisor, getting my promotion to the next level. Anyway, the hr lady will get back to me by tomorrow. I'm just sick of some upper management schmucks who seem to always knock me down. To hell with them. I worked damn hard to improve and reach all of my goals. It wasn't even close.

So worked out last night and burned about 1400

calories. I really don't know how accurate the eliptical is, but that's what it said. The weird thing is, I could go for another 20 minutes and still feel fine. Are there other fat people like this that still have good health and stamina? Anyway, still working my diet and cutting out sugars. Anna has stopped buying white bread...which sucks, but oh well.

We are still waiting to hear from our Foster Care rep about any kids. She called us before Christmas about a four year old that needs to be adopted, but we want older kids for now until Anna quits work. We have to finish that stupid collage for lds family services still too. So many little things to do....

Peace

Down 8 pounds. Not too bad.

It has been a good few weeks. I need to average about 3 pounds a week for the next 7 weeks though for Anna's work contest. I think i can do it as my exercise and diet are going pretty well. I will up my workout time to 40 minutes tomorrow to keep up the fat burning as things may flatline a little this week. Wish good luck to me.

And here come the lbs....

And no, not linebackers. I have been doing pretty well on a better diet and better exercise since the beginning of the Christmas holidays. I have lost about six lbs over that time. I need to lost another 40 lbs before I can use the Wii fit with Anna. She seems to be liking that a lot. Anyway, I have been doing some great workouts, which seem to be doing wonders to my metabolism. No more recumbent bike for me..not a good enough workout. Anyway, I'll post more often now things are rolling. We had a great Christmas. All around fantastic time...although at the end of it, it was a little creepy that we saw six movies!!! Ave Maria!!! Anyway, Happy freaking New Year. Oh, stupid thing happened. Our Malibu didn't pass the safety test for registration. I get a big back notice back saying REJECTED!!! I felt like those pictures where people put fail on the bottom of them. I was pretty ticked.. Maybe we'll get a new car as we are tired of all of the small repairs over the past eight years.