My Christmas Thought.

This morning after all the gifts were opened and all the kids were playing with their new things, I was sitting on the couch looking at the aftermath of the ransacking that took place. As I scanned the scene of wrapping paper, ribbon and empty boxes I came upon the gifts that our parents gave us. They were both unwrapped and sitting next to each other. My parents gave us a wheat grinder. A wonderful gift for us, as Rachel likes grinding wheat to make bread, and I love to eat it, but more than that it was a provident gift. Rachel's parents gave us a water purification kit. This has been on my list of emergency preparedness items for years. The few times I have thought about buying it I have blown it off. What a relief to have it now, for 'just in case'. As I gave these two items another thought I was reminded of this story that Elder Joseph Wirthlin recounted a few years ago in General Conference:

"On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, creating a deadly tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. It was a terrible tragedy. In one day, millions of lives were forever changed. But there was one group of people who, although their village was destroyed, did not suffer a single casualty. The reason? They knew a tsunami was coming. The Moken people live in villages on islands off the coast of Thailand and Burma Myanmar). A society of fishermen, their lives depend on the sea. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, their ancestors have studied the ocean, and they have passed their knowledge down from father to son. One thing in particular they were careful to teach was what to do when the ocean receded. According to their traditions, when that happened, the "Laboon"—a wave that eats people—would arrive soon after. When the elders of the village saw the dreaded signs, they shouted to everyone to run to high ground. Not everyone listened. One elderly fisherman said, "None of the kids believed me." In fact, his own daughter called him a liar. But the old fisherman would not relent until all had left the village and climbed to higher ground.1 The Moken people were fortunate in that they had someone with conviction who warned them of what would follow. The villagers were fortunate because they listened. Had they not, they may have perished."

The warnings are becoming more clear and more frequent, so much that they are coming in gift form. I am thankful for wise and obedient parents who heed the counsel and continue to teach, even their grown up kids, what is most important.

It's Christmas Eve

I read this story this morning, it was just what I needed.

There are some games where cheering for the other side feels better than winning.

by Rick Riley, sportswriter

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas. It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans? They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name."I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach. But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."
Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?" And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us." And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."

And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope.

Kitchen Fun

Every so often Fry's sells rib roast for cheap. (Like $4 per pound--I cannot pass that up.) Last night I picked up a couple of them.

I found this idea on Allrecipes.com. a few years ago. It is tried and true.

1. Season roast with season salt and pepper.

2. Coat roast with 2-3 cups of salt.

3. Cook in a 210 degree oven until internal temperature is 145 degrees. (In my oven a 5lb roast takes about 5 hours.)

4. Let Roast stand. I leave the thermometer in until it drops a few degrees.

5. Remove salt crust, slice, and enjoy!

We enjoyed tonight!!

Update from the Salt Mine

It's been a while since I've had any work stories. Work is still busy. Not stupid busy like it had been for the past 5 or so years, but steady busy. I just started crews on the second phase of a big project downtown. We are starting two large basins on both the east and west end of town too. Those jobs will take us into the summer and a little beyond. I have very good, proficient, hard working men who work with me. They also try their best to keep their language and stories clean when I'm around, I have never had to ask them to do this, they just care. So in short, I am grateful for what I have and what I am involved in. I suppose it could all go away tomorrow, but for now it is a good thing.

Cityscape Phase II: We are drilling the perimeter of the basement before we excavate. We will tie in to the hole (in the foreground) that we dug last spring.

A few of the good guys:

Terry is an ex-army guy from Kentucky. He will do anything he is asked and do it with a smile on his face.

If you look closely the operator, Saul, is wearing a snow cap. I asked him if there was something wrong with the heater in his loader and he said, "I'm not using it. All the other guys are out in it, and I didn't feel right about being all comfortable and warm up here."

Ego Boost

The other night I put on a movie for Calvin. Like most of our DVD's after a few minutes it started skipping and getting all fouled up, it was scratched. Calvin said, "Dad you fix it with you tools?" I told him I didn't have a tool to fix it. He persisted and insisted that I fix it. Finally I asked him how can I fix it if I don't know how? He answered by saying, "You fix it 'cause you great Daddy"

I have been asked by alot of different people why I have so many kids. My usual response is that it's nice to have people on my side. No matter how many problems I have at work or how many things I get all fouled up, it is nice to know I can come home to a group of people who are excited to see me, and don't care about all the ebbs of this world. They don't know how to be critical, they just love. Even Cal thinks I'm great! What else could a Dad want?

Dr. Dad

I'm not a doctor. I have never had any aspirations to do anything in the medical field. I'm not a blood and guts guy. I don't even like getting shots. It's just not my thing. Through the years I have had to administer first aid and on a few occasions, some of the scenes would have been rated "M" for graphic blood, that does not bother me. I think it's the procedure or surgery that is hard for me to hack. You are planning on cutting or poking me? No thanks. Albeit I am thankful for medical advancement, modern medicine and the good people who's passion it is to help mankind in that way.

Parenthood lends itself to plenty of opportunities for first aid, no problem. The tough part is the occasional minor medical procedures, I'd pass if I could, but most of the time I cannot. I have been procrastinating the dental 'procedure' of pulling my 5 year old daughter's tooth. The tooth has been dead for a while now and the gum has started receding, so it needed to go. My dentist, who also happens to be one of my best friends, advised my wife that it would be better if he did not pull it as to not create negative dental trauma. (Whatever.). So, trusting his professional and personal judgement, I made a promise to myself that I would do it before the end of the week.

Sunday afternoon came too quick. I semi stressed for a few hours trying to find the opportune time to break my little girls heart. Then at 7pm I had her on my lap and told her that I needed to pull the 'down tooth' (her term), out. Surprisingly she was calm, she told me that she would like to do it herself. Perfect! I was so vulnerable that I didn't see this as a stall tactic. Then she said she needed to look in the mirror to do it...by herself. "Sure sweetheart, whatever you need." After an hour I wised up. I approached her and then she became hysterical. This is not what I wanted. I talked for a while, explaining things like the 8:30pm cut-off for tooth fairy same night pick-up, magical teeth pulling tools, famous one-fingered-wiggle dance, nothing was working. I believe it was 9:30 when I had Rachel hold her arms down, and I when in got a good grip of the little pincer I pulled. (wincing) I felt a tiny 'pop', and it was out.

She cried for a minute, then we both gave a sigh of relief. We congratulated each other for our valor and courage. Then I put her to bed. She is so precious.

The tooth fairy came and almost gave her all the cash he had in his wallet, but cooler heads prevailed and gave her market value.

The next day Lauren was talking to Simon and very lugubriously said, "Simon, it hurt so bad I screamed...to....death!"

So all things considered, it was a good experience.

the tooth.

Road Trip: Part 1

Short work weeks are tricky. It may seem like an easy week but in reality a calender week is a calender week. So basically I have three days to get five days worth of work done. If that seems a bit distorted it may be because it is.

Monday morning I got a call from one of my foremen informing me that he broke down, naturally it is a speciality tool that are hard to come by. The nearest part was in Long Beach, Ca. I mistakenly thought I had some stoke with the vendor and thought I could strong arm him into rushing the part to me. He wouldn't budge on two days delivery time. I really could not afford to waste a whole day. That's 1/3 of the week! I told him I would come out and get it. So I did.

As I gathered myself I knew I'd be arriving in the L.A. metro area around 3pm knowing that time would be of the essence and HOV lanes run empty I thought it would be a good idea to have a travel buddy. Rachel had pulled Jake from school for a dentist appointment. I intercepted him before he went back to school and he and I made the roadie together.

We had a good time.