Oct 18, 2009

Happy Halloween






It seems that only the southern Utah people really know who we are. Once we put Derek's nametag then it made more sense to people. Guess these Northerners don't know what real polygs look like! They need to go to WalMart in Cedar or St. George to truly appreciate!











Nachhhhooooo and SuperWoman!





Chelsie and Travis



The Phantom of the Opera




Sara and Graham





The Obama's




Thhe Lane Family


Cruella and Crazy Joker

THe Laracco's




Ximenha and Craig





Sleeping Beauty bad Lady and Crow?



The Poppletons





Cleopatra and Cesar



Beta and Dan

Oct 16, 2009

Scientific Mud

Ha, I found this posted on SUU website, I got bored and typed in my name in Google, and I forgot about this old essay I wrote, I won $50.00 bucks to the bookstore...cheers.

Hahaha, so many memories. It's funny, I actually liked this English class.

Harmony Hesley
Expressive 2010 Runner-up

After registering for the 2010 English class, it became apparent to me that I did not know English as well as I thought. I would think that with thirteen years of English, I would be able to comprehend the title “Science and Values.” After the first day in class, I screamed to myself, “I’m doomed!” Science and I mix as well as oil and water. I have been studying construction management, and it seems science rarely comes up. If science does appear in class, it is easy enough that I can understand it. After putting more thought into it, I have found that science is and always has been in every part of my life. By no means is science as I use it complicated. The science applied in my daily life is simple. Unknowingly, I have been using scientific methodology to learn important lessons in my life. For example, I know water and dirt make mud when combined, or so I thought mud turned out to be quite complicated. What I thought was simple fun, turned out to be a complex experiment.
Over the years, I have conducted various experiments with mud without knowing I was using scientific methodology. As a teenager, I spent many summer months working in my Grandma’s garden. Grandma planted corn, squash, soybeans, and other vegetables in what was to become my own little experiment in agricultural engineering. I wanted to reduce the time it took to weed that garden. It seemed that every possible type of weed known and unknown to humanity grew in that garden. In the sweltering heat, I would go out into the garden, pick a row, and pull every weed. I noticed that sometimes the weeds would practically slide out of the ground. Others would break at the dirt. The ones that broke at the surface made the process twice as long, because I had to dig deeper into the ground to remove the root completely. After working a couple summers, I finally determined two reasons why some weeds came out easier than others did. Reason One: Weeds have one of two different kinds of roots, a single main root that grows straight, or roots that branch out and spread wild. Reason Two: The amount of water in the ground was the primary factor for the root coming out easily or not. After watering, it was much easier to pull the weeds. Taking advantage of this enormous discovery, I would always weed the garden right after watering. After a few more trials, I realized that water was not the only factor. Another factor was how much water was in the ground. In order to get the perfect mud consistency for pulling the weeds, I needed to either use as much was as possible, or barely enough. Too much water resulted in a puddle. If I did not use enough water, then the sun’s heat would quickly evaporate it.
Mud has to be just right in order to pull weeds. Not only does mud have to be the right consistency it also has to be just right for many other activities.
At one time or another, almost everybody has participated in a raucous “mud fight.” I have had a few mud fights myself, and from experimenting with mud, I know that too wet of mud is like throwing soup. If it is too dry, it breaks and falls apart in my hand. Mud of the proper wetness is ideal when I can press it into a shape of a ball. If it keeps the ball shape, long enough that I can throw it at my sister, it is a good consistency. And if it sticks onto the back of her shirt, it is a perfect consistency. Through my sister’s sacrifice, I discovered how much I use science in daily life.
A couple months ago, it rained quite hard, and I decided it was a perfect opportunity to go “mudding.” Mudding consists of taking a four-wheel drive vehicle and bulldozing through large mud puddles. Few activities are more exciting than looking out of a clear window for the purpose of watching Southern Utah red mud splashing all over the car. In my experiences, I have discovered mud needs to be the ideal consistency to be enjoyable.
For example, one day I was particularly daring and experimental so I took my 1987 Land Cruiser out after it had rained. Driving on a slick road for some time, I came upon a large pond-sized puddle. It should have been obvious that a puddle large enough to look as big as a lake should not be driven through, but I succumbed to peer pressure and soon found myself stuck in the wrong kind of mud. It was sticky enough that it enveloped my tires.
Rocking back and forth, I finally gave up. I sat for a moment in the seat clutching the steering wheel. I contemplated the consistency of the mud and realized that obviously there was too much water. It did not occur to me from my previous experiments I should have know this was going to happen. There was too much water and not enough dirt. I had just driven into mud soup! Realizing the mistake, I was quite upset with myself. I thought I knew mud well, but I obviously did not. Luckily, two girls, who were also experimenting with the mud in a dune buggy and an enormous diesel truck, witnessed it all. They noticed my big problem, analyzed the situation for a while, then pulled their vehicle over. She then got out, waded to my Land Cruiser and tied a rope to the front bumper. Then she went back to the truck started the engine. The truck gave its best effort but the rope did not. The only movement was the sudden snap of her rope. Not only did we have a broken rope, but now we had two short ropes, which meant she would have to move her car closer to mine, moving her even closer to the extremely wet, deep mud. Again, she tied the rope, doubling it, and pulled. We still did not move. We actually moved a step back in the process. The diesel’s wheels were now spinning and throwing too wet mud everywhere. “Too much water,” I thought again, sighing. “Something like mud is simple, why did it have so many complicating factors?”
Suddenly, I remembered my rope in the back of my car, pulled it out, rolled up my pant legs, and jumped into the depths of the mud. When finally hitting the bottom of the water, I realized what a fool I was. I was standing in a couple feet of water plus at least 6 inches of mud. You would think this was the end of my “experiment,” but it was not. This was not ideal for my mudding escapade. Luckily, my rope was much longer than hers, allowing her dune buggy to be in shallower mud. After a couple tugs and pulls, she finally was able to pull my Land Cruiser free. Wasting no time, I geared up the Cruiser and headed towards the road.
I started driving out only to find myself sliding down the side of the hill. From afar, the mud looked solid, but looks can be deceiving. Once again, I hit too mud that was too wet, but this time instead of my driving through it, it was doing the driving for me. The next few seconds were terrifying! Gravity also wanted to be part of the experiment. Fortunately, gravity released its hold just in time and my car came to a stop. I was able to drive safely out to the road, while silently vowing never to go in a puddle unless I walked through them first.
Now some might not think of my experiences with mud as science. I gathered empirical data through scientific experimentation, used trial and error, and found that mud should be the right consistency to bring happy results. I also learned that wide mud tires distribute the weight more efficiently. I never thought that mud would have had so many complicated factors. Too much and too little of water played a big part. My simple experiences with mud were fun, and sometimes frightening. However, they were all scientific.

Oct 10, 2009

Hannah writes some very creative text along with videos and pictures, if you ever need a good laugh, Hannah is hilarious. Plus to see a rocking skeleton or creepy faces go here! Happy Halloween!

Bargain+cute shirt=Hot Husband.

I went to Kmart the other day, they had men's shirts for $3.00, I bought six in hopes Derek would like them, He did! So we went back the next day and bought 4 more!

They were actually good looking shirts, better yet, cheaper than the DI. He does not wear logos, it's been a stretch to get him to wear some graphics on the shirts, but tell him it's a mere 3 George Washington's and SOLD! I've come home now to find him smartly dressed. He even had some loafers I'd bought him for $4.00, but he decided they hurt his feet too much. Sigh, you win some, lose some.

Good Friend Annie


Anne and I walking the moon at the Hansen Planetarium. We've been friends for a very long time and see each other every couple years. It's great to be able to pick up like nothing has changed.





See how Derek is very excited to be on the moon.













Union Station/Gateway Mall.

I haven't been here in many years, last time it was for Prom, and the guy I went with was allergic to red dye and believed he would die at 23 from MS. It's a cool building though!

Photo Shoots









































































One of my favorite houses in Kaysville, so awesome. Don't worry, one day, we will have a home like this.









































































Can someone explain this to me? What is David's Star doing on a LDS Tabernacle....any history?















Hannah recently received a very large camera complete with big buttons, flashes, lenses, screen, and probably a huge manual. She wanted to take it on a photo shoot. So we did. Kaysville has some awesome old architecture and buildings. Here's just a couple of the shots. But mostly with my camera as we couldn't figure out Hannah's 95% of the time. Hannah is an instruction reader and thoroughly enjoys it, so I'm sure the next photo shoot will be better.


Kona also joined us, although I don't think she liked it, she dramatically slumped over the gutter and sighed when she realized we weren't leaving.

Long Weeks

So, many of you will find this not so excited to read about, I write this blog mainly to my future posterity in hopes that they will want to continue traditions.



I thought to myself whilst climbing trees this weekend "Self, when do you think you'll be too old to climb trees?" The next morning I felt like I was broken.








Conference weekend, always a good one. It's nice too that it is in the Fall. I will admit, I have a hard time watching a full movie let alone a conference talk. It seems like the last couple years I've had apples or pear apples ("Nashi" Japanese pears Caleb) that I dehydrate, so that keeps me busy while listening to the talks.









I knew I wouldn't be able to stay awake for the afternoon session, plus Aunti Mitsie wanted to pick the Nashis (Japanese pears Caleb), so we did both. I put the radio outside, climbed the tree, and picked the delicious fruit (When I think of the tree of life, this is what Adam and Eve ate) with the Mama and Mitsie. Really, I probably heard 10% of the talks. So nice that they are available on the Internet now.

It's always a dangerous expedition. Affectionately known as bucket heads, we wear buckets on our heads to keep them safe from the dangerous fruit trying assassinate us. While I picked in the tree with the others below, fruit will fall and people's toes, heads, or break open when it hits the ground. It's always terribly sad when a large "nice" looking fruit falls and is broken. This year we tried holding a tarp and shaking and letting the fruit drop. Probably not our best idea as the fruit did bruise. We will be doing apple pie filling and I will take picture then so you may witness the Bucketheadness.

Also, it's always fun when the Men go to Priesthood, Derek and Caleb go together and Melinda and I hang out with the kids.



I found a pumpkin at Walmart that I was going to decorate but I looked at the bottom and there was a pumpkin pie recipe. So we're trying out real pumpkin pie from complete scratch. We'll see how this goes. . . Melinda had made a pumpkin pie from scratch in college and we're beginning to wonder if there are different pumpkins for pie purposes...but we did make pumpkin seeds!

*Added notes later.
Also made butternut/pumpkin/yellow squash soup, it was pretty good.




Gram said the pumpkin pie was delicious! Derek made the crust and it was super flaky, i guess when you follow the recipe completely it comes out better!











Random Flower in front of Gram's yard.


Date 10/10/09

Spent a great time with the family making apple pie filling, apple juice, dehydrating apples, and applesauce. And we literally have at a box from a dishwasher FULL plus two other boxes of apples, not to mention the boxes we've already dehydrated these last weeks. Good Land.

Oct 5, 2009

Derek's Second Love....or First or Third?

Derek has 3 or 4 loves in his life. Shown in no particular order:

Harmony (we're assuming)















Mac PowerBook














The Kona










iPhone



















I'm not sure of the exact line of importance, but recently one of them has fallen ill and is waiting at MacDoc's for a new graphics card. . . in about a month!! Derek is completely distraught.

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