I couldn't think of a good title for this blog because I am not sure where it will go (although I am planning on it being short, we shall see). Did anyone see the documentary tonight? If you didn't I think you can watch it on PBS.org--2 hours long, though, so we'll see. It was interesting, this first part. I am excited to see the second part tommorow as they explore "what the church is today". I think the reaction to the documentary will be in the eye of the viewer. For example, I pulled these two comments off of the PBS.org Web site:

1. This program literally made me sick to my stomach. It was such a biased view of what the church is like. They didn't discuss half of the hardships that the early members endured and spent most of the time discussing things that didn't really pertain to what the church is about. I hope that tomorrow night gives a better view of who we are and what we believe. But so far, with the anti-mormon spin that has been placed on this documentary, I doubt that will be the case.
Cassilyn RhodesOshkosh, Wisconsin

2. This is far too partial to the Mormons, at best a very misguided group. I would actually call them not only Christian heretics (something that can be put up with), but socially dangerous as a group.I'm really terribly disapointed in PBS for allowing such a program, not only sympathetic, but unbalanced, to air.
Terre Haute, IN

Person 1--obviously a faithful member, and person 2 probably a former faithful member of the church, but who knows.

In order to comply with my early statement that this will be short (mostly to prove to Jenny since she passed behind me and said, 'Yeah right' as I wrote it) I will end with this, one of Joseph's statements from the Wentworth letter:

"The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame," (people may make biased documentaries littered with testimony of the apostates) "but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

Any publicity for the church will end up being good publicity I think. Nothing will stop the work, right? So although I might have a heated review tommorow, I am calm and optimistic about it.

Go Mormons!

OK... so this blog is for anyone planning on running the Provo River 1/2 marathon....so I guess that would be everyone! (including you - David) I made a tentative group running schedule for the next few months with runs every other Saturday at 8:00 am. Anyone and everyone is invited to run and whoever can make it - GREAT! It'll be fun. I have thought of a couple different runs we could do, but if you have a fun run you'd like to include, let me know. One of my favorites is the actual run down Provo Canyon, but you guys up north might have some fun trails you know about! We will just go the pace of whoever is with us because on the actual run it is most fun to run all together anyways, so don't not come because you think you are too fast or too slow.

May 19th - 4 miles (That is in 3 weeks:)

June 2nd - 6 miles (Day of the baptism--so Mom and Britt will be up here to do it with us)

June 16th - 7 miles (There is a Provo River 10 miler on this day if anyone wants to do it)

June 30th - 8 miles

July 14th - 9 miles

July 28th - 11 miles

August 11 - CHUNK'S BIRTHDAY and the 1/2 marathon!

P.S. From our house to Suz's is about 14-15 miles. Yikes! We can do it! This will be a blast!!

Go to www.trailrun.com to register. The website says to register early because it has filled up the past 12 years. David and I sent in our registration today.

They call me...Mr. Bulldawg

Well...this won't be new news to anyone, but I had to put a blog up, since I was informed today 4 different and separate times that my blog was on probation for lack of blogs. Plus, it will be good to announce this in excitement and explain a little more about this new move. Starting at the beginning of the summer I will move all my books and files and things over to Provo High School seminary and that will be my new place of work for an indefinate period of time. This is not an uncommon thing to be moved within an area (CES is divided into areas across the globe. Ours is called Utah Valley South and goes from Orem to Nephi). I am willing to go, and I know that I am going to like it there at Provo, but I am really bummed to leave the faculty at Springville. These are some of my greatest friends that I teach with, and the hardest part of the switch is leaving this great group. Some people get along with people they work with, mine are seriously my friends. So aside from having to meet and get to know new people, and getting comfortable with a new building and a new set of students and a new schedule etc. etc., leaving my faculty is the tough part. So anyways...maybe this was boring to read, but I liked typing it because I got to clear my brain and sort out thoughts about the move. Hopefully we will get a camera soon and can continue to blog good stuff! peace

Boomshakalaka!

So Spring Break is done, ya? Well, after Christy's post on spring break and talking to Suz about their adventures, I figured we better do a post spring break post. well...we should have gone to St. George! ok- it would have been fun to go, but when I look back over the last couple of days we really had a good time. I loved playing with the boys and spending time all together. I will miss that on Monday. I loved Jackson waking me up every morning, and when I put him down at night hearing him talk about how we will play the next day, and I will "tackle me". We went on a pleasant family run, and spent some time at the park where Jackson went down the "scary slides" for the first time after we assured him they didn't have spiders on them and Stitch went to show him it wasn't that bad :) The break ended victorious this morning. After pulling the lawnmower plug six thousand times, I decided to give up on it. I borrowed my neighboor's 6.75 horsepower lawnmower and never knew mowing lawns could be so enjoyable. My other neighboor passed by and I explained my lawnmower trouble, so he came over and helped me fix it. When we got it working after cleaning the spark plugs and the air filter and fixing the belt on the automatic wheels I felt like a champion! (keep in mind here, I am no Brian. I have zero handyman skills--although I am learning). I can't wait for next Saturday to mow again with pride. I kind of hope it breaks so I can fix it again. Well not really, but hopefully you can feel the glowing aura of accomplishment surrounding me. Bam! We also fixed the weedwacker. Oodelalli!

New Phone Number Batman!

Some of you may already have this number, but if you don't, this is it:

801-769-0191

We got rid of the 801-785-2415 number which was Jenny's cell phone. If you try and call it you will hear the boop boop boop (I hope you don't misread that!), and you will not get to talk to us. You must now dial the new number. We waited for a few months for it to transfer and we kept running into problems. We wait no more. Adios muchacho. No number for you!

p.s. We still have the 801-318-9285 (david's) number also. If you call this one, you will not hear the boops.

Pre-LOST quiz

ok everyone-- the beginning of the end. Hope your excited for tonight. Here is the question of the week:

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE SPIDER THAT "KILLS" NIKI AND PAULO?

Happy Birthday Emma! We hope you had a great day! We love you!

The Chunk Crawleth

Now I can crawl? I can try?

Mahalo to...

the newest member of the family....

Emmy Jessica Kerr,

born April 7th

Chunky for being so dang cute....ducka, ducka, ducka

Finding the greatest shirt ever at. . . . . .DI!!!

the view from my bedroom window... my indoor tulips...

running everyday this week....booyah!!!

Oh no!

I just want to make a public statement that I still stand by Juliette. Give it time, she will turn out to be a good guy...or girl I guess I should say. This is killing me waiting week to week!! I love LOST!!! Whoopee!

Pre LOST quiz

Who said:

"I wish everyone would quit looking at me like I'm a time bomb of responsibility about to go off!"

A new way to dye

Ok, so we told a couple of people about this new technique of dying Easter eggs and thought we'd show the results. This was the Martha Stewart coming out of Jenny. I thought they turned out pretty cool though.

So you take raw eggs, and you go buy some silk ties at DI or something, and then you cut out pieces of the tie you can wrap tight around the eggs, and then you boil them, and WALLA! cool lookin eggs. I'm going to assume no one has some 4th of July egg dying traditions, so if you remember a year from now and want some more specific instructions, you can ask then :)

Name that movie...

"How about that Mr. doubting Mustafa?!"

Easter Morning

Here are just a few cute pictures of the boys Easter morning :)

Jack Jack Easter Morning

Here is a little video of Jackson "hunting" for his treats Easter morning. What a cutie! (By the way, we have recently added music to our blog, so if you want to hear the sound of the video without being interrupted by the background tunes, go to section on the right titled "musica" and push stop or pause while you view) Enjoy!

Survival of the Fittest!

There will probably be more pictures of Easter later, but I thought I would get some of these up quick for everyone to see. We had a ball watching Jack Jack get so giddy finding all of "his treats". On Saturday we went to huge Easter egg ________. Hmmm, not sure what word to use there. Most would say hunt, but maybe scarmble, or scrum would be a better word. There we were at Mountain View High School, battling for spots around the field with every other parent who brought their kid along for admission. As the 9 o' clock hour approached, position was crucial. Many people adopted the stroller technique, trying to box out others from their claimed territory. Jenny and I did the "we normally take up this much room to stand together and keep talking and don't make eye contact with newcomers" approach. It worked well. We had a good 15 minutes to coach Jackson before the whistle blew. This was important considering the rule: Parents may not touch the candy or eggs. We were in the toddler group (0-3) and started out snickering at the parents who were trying to teach their kids how to run and pick up eggs quick, but soon started to sweat a little wondering if the lady next to me had her eye on the same eggs that I did. Do I go to the left or to the right first. I wonder what they have in them. This was intense. Only the strong will survive. We started to notice some kids who seemed to be over 3. That's not fair! They will run faster! They have better eye/hand coordination! Make them battle with the older kids in the stadium! This is our turf! Wait a minute...Listen to me. This is ridiculous. It's an Easter egg hunt. A celebration of a Christian holiday. Is it worth losing my cool over? I could go to Target down the street and buy as much candy as I want for a couple of bucks and it will be better than this cheap taffy junk they have melting in the morning sun and covered in dew (you know the kind). But then we wouldn't have the satisfaction of winning. Forget your values, don't lose your pride...The whistle blows!

Don't worry...no black eyes. No elbows thrown... and we actually faired ok. I...I mean Jackson...got some great treats, coupons, eggs, had fun, and we even won some of the "big prizes" because we got a number in our egg. A success. We are definately doing it next year!

flap and snap part 2

Anyone who comes to our house now has to embrace the flap and snap. It's an entry fee. Here are some of the lucky new converts to our new found wonder.

flap and snap

ok, so last week our friends the lesues blogged a most excellent blog and issued a most excellent blogging challenge: the flap and snap. Simply, the rules are you let your face go limp and "flap" it back and forth and "snap" a picture mid flap (hence the name--flap and snap). Jenny and I took the flap and snap challenge and came up with the following results...

this is not for professionals...do try this at home...and do post your most excellent flap and snap treasures for all the world to see!! If you need some coaching, please don't hesitate to call.

pre-LOST quiz

Ok, this might end up a post-LOST quiz depending on when you answer, but in celebration of the greatest show on earth coming tonight, I thought this would be fun. First person with the right answer get's street bragging rights.

Ok, here it is:

WHAT IS CLAIRE'S CONNECTION TO MR. EKO?

Just like football...

That is not a taunt, just a clever title. I didn't really want these two teams to be the final game, but I guess I don't always get what I want (except for when I wanted a beautiful wife, and a boy first, and then a boy second, and this one time I was thinking about how much I wanted flank steak for dinner on Sunday at Suz and Jeff's and we had it! Oooh, that flank steak is good!!). Speaking of the Bunkers, we had a little party at there house. Well, maybe "little" isn't the most appropriate adjective. Double party? We kind of had two parites going on at once, so that is fitting. We had a ball though--no pun intended. Some great things came from tonight. Including the following:

1. Brian and Christy aren't having a baby until Suz and Jeff do.

2. Jacquelyn is not having one until Christy does.

3. Christy wants to wait and have babies the same time as Brittany.

4. We aren't having a baby until Jacquelyn (well, we all know that is not true, so this one is discarded).

4. We can't decide whether or not it counts if Suz and Jeff adopt. The jury is still out.

5. If Brian and Christy go back on their word, there are harsh consequences, the least of which, ripping off his big toe nails. (may I point out, it's not that bad--it has it's advantages. nub nub)

6. One of Josh and Jacquelyn's guests can really bend!

7. New blogging rules: If you don't have a new entry in 3 days you are deleted from everyone's links.

Well, good times, great oldies. Hope all ya'll Ohio State fans recover well. Go Texas?!

p.s. Shannon promised a good blog tonight, so be on the look out.

The Maiden Voyage

In between sessions of conference we took out our bike trailer out on her maiden voyage to the temple. Both boys had a blast. We rode around the temple a couple of times (waiting to see if Elder Hruska would come up for a Sunday walk to the temple since it was buzzing with dark suits and name tages) and to practice for the ride up to our house. Yes, we build our temples on hills for all to see, but that means if you go to the front and you live in the back it is an uphill journey back home. Not too bad though. It was while I was huffing and puffing (I pulled the trailer up by the way--redeeming myself from our first bike ride) that Jenny suggested we ride one day out to Suz and Christy's houses. The invitation was quickly declined. However, at one point I quickly declined an invitation to run a ridiculous 26.2 miles, and I have a medal and empty bottle of Celebrex that demonstrates the outcome of that. Thanks again Mom and Dad for the bikes! We love them! There are many more rides to come with these babies. Next stop the canyon! I love summer!!!!