CHRISTMAS

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!






Santa Clause made a special visit to Grandma and Grandpa Schmalz's house.










It seemed everyone was happy with what they got for Christmas.













Shiny new clothes.














Eric made it over.









Jessica and Justin made it over later in the afternoon for dinner. We spent the afternoon and evening eating and playing games. It was a lot of fun!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving was a great time. Everyone came home but Tiffany. But that's okay because she was just here a couple of weekends ago. I'll put up some pictures that we took.

Janet outdid herself again. She cooked a 20 pound turkey (which was moist and wonderful) and ham and mashed potatoes and all the fixings that you can think of.

And thanks to Mom and Dad for the wonderful pecans. We've made at least four pies since getting them. I've enjoyed them raw and in the pies both. They're delicious.

All the family plus Charlie and JoAnn showed up around 4pm for the feast. Sarah and Amanda helped set up a beautiful table for us to enjoy. Janet brought out that beautiful tableclothe that she bought in the Virgin Islands. We ate quite a bit and then adjourned to the front room to talk and visit and open birthday cards and presents for Janet and Jessica. I always thought I was picked on because my birthday was close to Christmas. Every once in a while Janet and Jessica's birthday lands right on Thanksgiving. That's the pits. Thanks everyone for the nice cards for their birthdays.

Alas, poor Janet overdid it and got sick later that night. I think she was just overstressed about trying to make everything perfect. So while Janet rested up in the bedroom the kids and I played games in the kitchen. Amanda's boyfriend, Alec, came over and we played boggle, farkle and ended with some rousing games of mexican train that Janet came out and enjoyed. I guess we were making so much noise that she couldn't sleep. Everyone was gone by 10pm.

One of the presents that I got Janet was a retreat at a scrapbooking store. They called it "Crop Intstead of Shop." It started at 10am Friday morning (so you could really still go shop the early sales) and ended at 10pm that night. Janet actually went to Roberts Craft Store early Friday morning and bought one of those Cricket machines. So she loaded up her machine and went out to the craft store for the day. The kids and I just layed around and watched movies and relaxed. I think Janet finally made it home at about 9pm. She had a blast and is looking forward to the next retreat that she can go and show off her cricket machine.

Saturday was the BIG GAME! BYU vs. Utah. We went next door to our neighbors house and watched it on their huge television projector. I'll bet it's more than 70 inches. Anyway, we took over our leftover veggies and a fresh bowl of guacamole and chips and had a feast as we watched the Cougars beat the Utes 17 to 10 on a last minute play. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday night Nick came to stay with us and he and Hali came to church with us on Sunday.

A long and happy weekend.

I hope that everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving!

I GOT HIM....I FINALLY GOT HIM....

HIM is a gopher. I've been tormented by him this summer. He first appeared, or at least evidence of him appeared, in July. It was the ever-recognizable pile of dirt in the flower bed. I thought that I could drown him, so I put the hose down his hole and let water run through his tunnels for 30 minutes and the water was bubbling up in the gutter. I thought, "That ought to do it." Ha! The next day he had a new pile a few feet out in the lawn. Another dose of water will take care of that, I thought. Another 30 minutes of water and I let it alone. He was gone for a month or so. The great white hunter moves to the top of the food chain again.

Nope, he was just sneaky and didn't push up a pile to be seen by his adversary. He got a little cocky around Labor Day weekend. He decided that the thtreat was gone and pushed up a new pile of dirt closer to the house this time. I was pretty disgusted that I'd failed, so I let him have his day and I brewed over it. I did take a look at rodent poison at WalMart and I talked to Dad about what I should do. He actually offered to send me some magic beans. Actually castor beans. They're supposed to be poisonous to gophers. Don't know the biology or chemistry of it, but Dad swears by it. Being the cheapskate that I am I again stuck the hose down the hole and flooded his tunnels. This time he'd pushed up closer to the house and the water trick was better suited because of the downhill slope from the house. My thoughts were that it would fill his tunnels and really get him this time. Don't remember how long I let the water run this time, but it was a while. I finished up and watched for gopher hills for a few days. No signs. I got him this time. The great whited hunter to the summit again!

Nope. About a week ago I was walking out the front down and looked into the flower bed and noticed a fresh pile of dirt. Could it be? Naw. I killed him last time. I took a closer look and sure enough...I'm mad now, but still not willing to give up on my water method. I put the hose down his hole and turned on the water. Two hours later the water finally bubbles up in the gutter. Two hours? That's one ambitious gopher. Sure enough all the old holes are wet or flowing with water. He's got to be dead this time. I put enough water in there to fill a couple of kiddie pools. I must have flooded every nook and cranny of his system.

Nope!!!! Just before I took off for Park City for the weekend I noticed that he'd pushed fresh dirt into the hole that I was using to flood his residence. I didn't have time to deal with him before heading out for a long weekend. I just put him out of my mind and enjoyed my weekend with the family (we'll do a seperate post for the weekend in Park City.)

Monday, October 15th, 2007. I got home from work. It's a beautiful day. Sunny and warm after a rainy cold weekend. The birds are singing and the kids are playing and laughing. All is wonderful. I get to the front porch and look to the flower bed. There it is. The fresh pile of dirt. I grabbed the hose and went to work. I pushed the hose into the hole and started the water. I went around back to do something and about five minutes later I returned to the front yard and noticed that the water was already running down the road. Darn it!!! I walked down to the hole that I was using to flood the tunnels and looked in. While I was bent over I saw something move in the corner of my eye. I looked up and...EUREKA!!!! There the little booger is. Not little really. He was about five inches long and fat from eating my tulip bulbs. I ran over to him and thought that he would run away. Nope. He started coming at me. I was ready for a chase and he wanted to take me on. I raised my boot and he bared his teeth and raised his front paws. YIKES!!! He wants to fight. So, I dispatched him. One quick stomp and he was gone. I couldn't believe how quick it was over. I was kinda disappointed. I didn't have anyone to tell. Mandy was downstairs on the computer and Sarah was over at her friends house. Janet was at work, so I called her and let her know my good news. The great white hunter IS the victor.

Amazing what a fuss I've made over such a small animal, isn't it?

LABOR DAY WEEKEND...

Well, we went camping for Labor Day again. It's a tradition that we have with other campers in our neighborhood. Plus a couple of other times each summer.

We camped in the same spot as the past couple of years. Clyde Creek, up by Strawberry Resevoir. Up high for the good weather but not too far away from home. Sorry, we forgot to take pictures. Really, we took the cameras but didn't bother to take any pictures. Go figure.

We went up Friday afternoon and set up camp. Janet, Amanda, Sarah and me. Eric didn't come because of work. He's got two jobs right now. He works at Macey's on the graveyard crew and at Blackjacks Pizza on weekends and some evenings during the week. Anyway, we got to camp with plenty of sunlight to set up. We were surprised by an extra camper in our camp. It was the Biorgi's. They used to live in our ward but still have contact with us through neighbors that they work with. That evening we ate and visited with our neighbors.

Saturday was bright and sunny and we (Sarah, Amanda and I) went down to the Lake and did some fishing. Actually Amanda just laid out in the sun by the water. Sarah want to play with the crawdads so Janet gave us a chicken leg and I tied it to some fishing line and put it out in the water. Just about 20 feet out in the water. Every couple of minutes we would drag the leg back in very slowly and the crawdads didn't want to let go. We would get the leg within a couple of feet of the shore and then yank it quickly onto the shore. We usually got about 3 or 4 crawdads onto the shore and Sarah would scramble to catch them before they crawled back into the lake. We forgot to bring a bucket for her to keep them in, so she made little pens out of rocks along the shore. She played with those crawdads for a couple of hours while I watched my pole. I thought that I would be skunked, but just before I gave up a fish took the bait. I pulled in an 18 inch cutthroat trout. But I couldn't keep it. The rules state that cutthroats between 14 and 24 inches long must be released. It's a breeding thing I think. Too bad too. It was a nice fish. Wish I'd thought to bring my camera to prove it. We were pooped by that time so we went back to camp and had dinner and visited some more. That night I came back to the house to watch the BYU football game and be home for church in the morning.

Sunday I didn't get back to camp until 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. When I got there Janet said that it had rained pretty hard there just a couple of hours before. While we were setting up to prepare dinner the clouds began to thicken up and it began to rain again. This time it rained for 2 and half hours solid. Not just a shower, but rain, hard and steady. Luckily we have a shelter that we set up for our kitchen area on these camps. It's about 12x20 and about 10 feet tall. It was okay as long as the rain came straight down. Janet and a couple of the others cooked chicken and made salads for dinner that night. One of the families tents began to leak and they were ready to head home when the Biorgi's offered the back of their trailer to them. It worked out perfect. Everyone had a dry and warm place to sleep that night.

Monday dawned sunny and warm again. After a nice breakfast we (Janet and I) borrowed a wheeler from on of our neighbors and drove down to a visitors center for the state park just a couple of miles down the road. While we were on the paved road a county sheriff's deputy stopped us and warned us that we weren't supposed to be on the road with an atv. I explained that the pit toilet that we usually use was closed and locked. He didn't think that was a good enough excuse. I asked if there was a back road or trail that led back to Clyde Creek and he answered negatively, but he would allow us to get back to the camp "this once." How nice of him. The atv was licensed and had lights, maybe not turn signals, but I thought we were safe. Oh well, we were given his reprieve or leave or whatever. We got away.

We spent that day riding wheelers and enjoying each others company. We packed up at about 4pm and headed home to the heat. It was supposedly the hottest Labor Day weekend in more than 50 years. It was in the mid to upper 90's everyday down in the valley. Up where we were it was in the 80's on Saturday and probably only the low 70's on Sunday because of the rain and clouds. But on Monday it was sunny and maybe 80 all day long. It was a beautiful weeken all-in-all.

Not Much New...

Spent Saturday helping a neighbor put vinyl siding on his garage/addition. I wanted to learn how to do it so when we finally get around to adding a garage to our place I'll know what I'm doing. It was a service project for our high priests group. I got there a little late because I slept in (it's the only day I get to.) So I got there about 10am and we had luch about 12:30 back to work and stayed at it 'til 5pm when Janet came and got me. We had dinner plans with her parents for their anniversary. They were down this way for the weekend and decided to let us take them out to dinner. We went to "Sam Hawk" the Korean place that I've blogged about before. It was them and our two youngest and us.

THE SKY IS FALLING...THE SKY IS FALLING...

Thought this was quite interesting...found it in the Washington Times via a headline on the "Drudge Report."


Before Gore
D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress and came across an intriguing Page 2 headline in the Nov. 2, 1922 edition of The Washington Post: "Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt."
The 1922 article, obtained by Inside the Beltway, goes on to mention "great masses of ice have now been replaced by moraines of earth and stones," and "at many points well-known glaciers have entirely disappeared."
"This was one of several such articles I have found at the Library of Congress for the 1920s and 1930s," says Mr. Lockwood. "I had read of the just-released NASA estimates, that four of the 10 hottest years in the U.S. were actually in the 1930s, with 1934 the hottest of all."

Worth pondering
Reacting yesterday to word that certain European governments and officials are suddenly trying to abandon their costly "global warming" policies, Royal Astronomical Society fellow Benny Peiser, of the science faculty at Liverpool John Moores University in Great Britain, recalls the teachings of Marcus Aurelius: "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.


Am I in the majority?

OKAY, SO IT'S BEEN A LONG, LONG TIME....

I guess I'm just not into blogging like others. Don't really feel like my life is all that interesting to others. Don't do many exciting things or go that many exciting places. At least not that often.

Did go camping with the scouts this past month. July 18 thru 21 about 12 of us went to the Mirror Lake Pass in the high Uintas.

Taken up golfing...again...been going with my neighbor and his dad. Wish I had more time. I get very competitive and want to work on my game, but others things, such as work and family, seem to get in the way. Go figure. Need to find a job that requires me to go golfing with clients or potential clients. That's the kind of job for me. Sounds kinda selfish, don't it?

The weather here is finally starting to change for the better. Haven't seen 100 degrees in a couple of weeks now. Nights are starting to cool off too. This is the perfect time to head to the mountains for camping. Which reminds me that I need to get my fishing license so I can grill up some trout the camping trip we take. Last year the kids caught some crawdads and boiled them. They even ate them...all? Can't remember.

My lawn is starting to recover from all the heat and drought. Green is starting to cover the corners now. May not seem much to others, but I like the feel of lush green grass under my feet...and I do go barefoot a lot. I get home from work and change into shorts and a t-shirt and don't put shoes on again until I have too.

OKAY SO IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME!

We went on a little trip this past month...Georgia and Florida were mighty fine. The smoke from the wildfires was a little bothersome at first, but that soon went away with the rain. The rest of the trip was great. As you can see from the photo above we had plenty to do...

Everyone was having fun...I'm so glad that all of get along so well. The kids played games and the adults played games and we sat around and talked and caught up and just enjoyed each others compay.

It was very nice to have Eric with us. Even if it was only for the first week. We enjoyed having him with us.

The first weekend we went to Florida, Destin to be exact. We had a hotel room right on the bay, the Fort Benning Rec. Area. It was small but we had a great view. We caught some fish off the pier and enjoyed the sunsets.

The white sand reminded me of snow...

Just had to add this picture of Mom. She was suffering from heat-stroke and was acting a little crazy. So we gave her some raspberry ice cream and had some fun...No! not really. She's just a fun loving and funny person and was having fun with the grandkids.

I'll post some more stuff later.

FOOD!!

I love food. You can see by my svelt figure....240lbs....

But, I was sitting here with my tamales from 'Cafe Rio.' And I thought to myself..."What a great country we live in. With so many immigrants and all the recipes they bring with them..." I guess I was thinking of that because I'm listening to 'Rush Limbaugh Show' and how the hispanic immigration march turned into a riot in LA yesterday. That and I'm doing indexing for the church genealogy department these days. I've been seeing so many different immigrant family names on the records from the 1900 census in Massachusetts. It wasn't the hispanic families back then, it was British and other European people back then. It's interesting to see the amount of families.

So, anyway. Food. Janet and I try to go out each weekend for a date. We try not to make it a date at the grocery store, but sometimes you can't help that. But we get to eat out a couple of times a month and we try to make it a new place every once in a while. Here in Provo we have BYU and UVSC (which is almost 20,000 students now and soon to become a university next year) and they draw quite a few people from around the world. All of these restaurants are owned and run by people from the countries of origin, not returned missionaries trying to bring back food from the country they served in.

Just two weeks ago Janet and I had dinner at a Peruvian establishment. It was tasty. It wasn't anything like Mexican/American. No sauces. No tortillas. It was interesting. I don't quite know how to describe it. My dish was a fish and shrimp salad. Kind of a vinagrette tossed salad that was more onion than lettuce with lots of breaded fish and shrimp. It was really tasty and really big. I couldn't finish it. A little pricey though.

We've also found a nice little Korean place just down the road from us. They have some really good food. More meat than I was expecting. I guess I was thinking Chinese...rice, noodles, things like that.

We've also discovered a Thai place with some really spicey sauces. I've talked to Donna and offered to make a Thai curry dish that we've learned to cook at home. It's actually pretty easy to make, thus we make it at home at least once or twice a month.

And then there's the the Mexican fare that is all over the place around here. Janet was game the other weekend when we were shopping and I stopped in the Mexican food aisle. I was just looking at a package of corn husks and said to her, "We could do this." Well, she took the challenge and we bought all the ingredients and made plans to try our hands at it the next day (Sunday.) I got caught up at church and Janet, bless her heart, did the whole thing all herself. They were delicious. Won't be doing it again anytime soon though. It was quite involved. But if we were to work together I'm sure she'd be game again.

Boy, I really do love food.

Well, I've finished my tamales from Cafe Rio. I call today, "Tamale Thursday," because it's the only day Cafe Rio has tamales on their menu. And they're gooooood. Guess I oughta get back to work.

Busy Weekend For Our Family

Well...not really the family, just me. The Stake President called this past Saturday afternoon and wanted to see Janet and I as soon as possible. We already had plans to go to a friends wedding reception at 6:30 pm and I had an appointment with the Bishop at 8 pm. So we squoze the Stake President in at 7:30 pm. I was all ready to be released and thanked for my time served. Janet was speculating all over the place...Bishop, counselor, high counsel....

Well, I was released! Then asked to serve as the first counselor to the new Bishop. His name is Steve Bjornberg. He and I went to school together a few years ago (to get our master's in Public Administration.) He was also the Young Men's President when we first moved into the ward 12 years ago and he called me as his first counselor back then. And to top it off he called Merrill Brockbank to be his second counselor the same as he did twelve years ago in the YM Presidency. LeeAnn Brockbank (Merrill's wife) pointed that out after we had been set apart. I thought about that for a moment and turned to Bishop Bjornberg and told him that if he were called as Stake President that we were moving.

Sunday was like a blur to me. You would think that I would be used to it, being in the previous bishopric. But for some reason I was still overwhelmed. I think it goes back to the fact that I was called into an existing situation and I was able to just follow the lead of Bishop Ferrin and Brian Brown. I'll admit, Brian and Bishop Ferrin did most of the work. I just tried to keep up with them and learn from them. I just hope that I learned enough to help Bishop Bjornberg make a smooth transition.

So, Dad. You almost got it. I'll call you later.

Weekend in Cedar...

The family and I took off for Cedar to go to church with Linda and her family this past weekend. Nick's home and we wanted to hear him speak in Sacrament meeting. He did a great job. Sounded like potential Elder's Quorum presidency material. But I'll let Linda brag about him.

Janet, Gail, Mandy and Sarah spent Saturday morning at a scrapbooking fair in SLC. They started at 8am and didn't finish until 5:30pm. They got home at about 6:15pm and we were loaded up in the car and out on the road by 7:30pm. It was an uneventful drive down and we were in our beds at the hotel by 10:30pm.

Up and had breakfast and to church at Linda's ward by 11:00am. Like I said before Nick did a great job on his talk.

The rest of the afternoon we spent with Linda and her kids talking about mission experiences and kids. I thought there would be more visitors from the ward around to see Nick, but I guess they've already said their "Welcome home"s in the last couple of weeks. So it was mostly the Liebhardt side of the family hanging around the house. Linda put on a really good spread and we ate like pigs for a couple of hours. We finally got out of their hair about 7pm and home by 10pm.

IN THE BEGINNING...

Well, here we are. My very first blog. I'm serious. The very first time I've put anything on the internet. I've been surfing the net since 1995 when I first searched for our surname (I'm still searching).

Donna is my inspiration. She's always willing to try new things. I've been watching and reading her new blog and I decided, "What the heck. I can do that too." Thanks Donna.