Started 17 day dejunking challenge- so far we have thrown away 100 plus things.

Had our first non-family babysitters (a big important step) and picked Sushi for our date.
Liam started crawling and the fun has increased exponentially.

Went Ice Climbing in Ouray- improved from being really bad to not being really bad.

Turned 30 years old

Started doing a healthy lifestyle challenge and have been choking down several fruits and veggies every day.

House issues and repairs- pipe broke nearly flooding basement and sink started leaking all the same week. (not necessarily highlights)
Now riding the bike trainer 2 times/week for 30 minutes resulting in very sore bottom.
Swimming 2 times/week- moved up in the swim world, and now I am  starting to compete with the 65 year old women in lane 2. Boo-Yah!
Dropped iPad and shattered the screen- later repaired it- learned it is easy to live without
Enjoyed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocal

My 17 day challenge for the month of February is to dejunk and de-clutter and throw away a box full of stuff. The size of box we chose is approx. 16x12x6 inches and each day we are going to fill it up and throw stuff away or take it to DI, or give it away. Michelle is all over this challenge and she has already filled up the box to start us off. This is going to be a very difficult challenge for me but I look forward to jettisoning our junk.

So here we go- if you want any of these movies: lake house, lord of the rings 1&2, bolt, Harry potter 4, let me know and I’ll sneak them out of the box and set them aside for you. You would need to pick them up by February 4th.

I really wanted a stand for my iPhone one morning and so I started to think about the design and how I could make one. After finding some tape and 5 credit cards and a rubber band, I came up with this design for an iPhone stand, and put one together in about 20 minutes. I was pretty proud of my little invention for a few days, and I thought I would get a patent and make a million dollars. I showed it to everybody- my 11 month old son, my family, my customers, my friends, strangers, etc. After I showed it to so many people and sensed their lack of enthusiasm for my genius idea, I decided I didn’t want to pursue making this into a product, as I am still being asked how my struggling ipad keychain stylus business is doing. The best comment that was made went something like this, “Mike, I do believe that one day you will invent something that will make you money, but I don’t think that iPhone holder is a million dollar idea.” I was crushed for nearly a whole minute, but then I came back to reality and decided that it was a million dollar idea, but not one that I would be pursuing at this time in my life. I just can’t dedicate myself to developing this unnamed iPhone holder, so if anybody wants to steal my idea and run with it and market it and make a million dollars, all I would expect is this- you take me and my family to a really nice restaurant, and give me credit for inventing it.

But for a limited time, I will make a holder for anybody that wants one- you just have to bring me the five credit card sized cards and maybe an apple or an orange.

To consume or not to consume, that is the question. The healthy lifestyle challenge continues. This week’s bonus challenge is to not eat high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). So is somebody bound by a rule they don’t understand? Anyway, skipped french toast and syrup and went with a healthy omelette, I ate a dry Arby’s roast beef sandwich for fear that Arby’s sauce has HFCS, and tonight we had veggie burgers (which after my first taste of one 13 yrs ago, I swore I would never eat again). Although I have to say Michelle makes a delicious veggie burger sans high fructose corn syrup, definitely a meal worth repeating on or off the healthy lifestyle challenge. This challenge is changing my life. Instead of fries, I choke down some crunchy celery and carrots, and I have a pitcher of water by my bed to gulp down before bedtime. I sure do enjoy this.

My Dad invited me to go ice climbing a few weeks ago, and without really thinking about it, I said I would go. I had no idea what ice climbing was, what equipment is used, how far away the place would be, or what adventure awaited.

Let me tell you about my ice climbing observations. It is rock climbing and dodgeball and exhausting all at the same time. You have spikes on ski boot like shoes, two ice axes and a daunting cliff of ice you are told just to go climb. Yesterday, I thought it was the hardest sport I had ever tried. I made it half way (sometimes not that far) up the route before I was so exhausted and afraid that I asked to be let down. Although I was recovering from a knee and shin injury that I sustained as I saw an ice ax that was dropped, coming fast straight toward my head, I panicked and dodged, but a huge waist high rock impeded my quick escape and took me out, I tumbled, fell and flipped over the offending boulder painfully landing on my back. A couple people came over to help me up and I told them I would just like to lay in the cold snow for a few minutes. The oncoming ice ax stopped and stuck in the snow 10 ft in front of where I was standing, so there was no need for me to even move. Also, 60 and 70 year old men scaled the mountains with ease, and I just sat at the bottom discouraged and dodging large ice chunks.

That was yesterday.

Today was different. I made it to the top 3 times, had them take a lot of pictures. A stark contrast from yesterday.

I am amazed at how much a little confidence influences performance. I guess that is why we need to start small and get little victories under our belts. Especially when we have big goals

If at first you don’t succeed, try starting small and remember “baby steps”. By the way, Liam learned to crawl last week, and it is awesome to see how on Wednesday he couldn’t crawl and then on Thursday he could and a week later he is moving all over. It is cool to learn from your own children- they don’t seem to get discouraged, they fall and then try, try again.

Also- any of the cool looking climbers pictured here- not me.

I don’t know what the winner gets, but I am determined to win. It goes until until March 12th. I’m throwing out this challenge to my worldwide blog audience, because I really believe this is a good and achievable challenge.

Received a tender mercy of the Lord today. Minutes after we got home from a movie, and being gone for four hours, we heard a loud gushing sound. I thought water was boiling over, but it was coming from downstairs. We knew that a pipe had busted downstairs and that we needed to quickly turn the water off. We found the water main outside and turned the water off. Nothing was permanently damaged. Nothing that 20 towels couldn’t clean up. I called a plumber and he came to fix it in 1/2 hour after my neighbor had also offered to fix it. The stress level in our house rose during this whole fiasco, and I couldn’t help but think that it was a great blessing that we were here in the house and in a room where we could hear what was happening. When the plumber was here he reiterated 5 times how lucky we were that we were here, and awake and most people aren’t around and their basement floods and ruins all their stuff and they have to replace everything and file an insurance claim and so on and so forth and more pain and anguish. He said we were definitely being watched over.

Yes- we could have been gone longer, not been home, been asleep, been in a room where we couldn’t here, been away, not been together to act quickly enough to find where to turn off the water, etc. all would have and could have resulted in a completely flooded basement and possibly an even rougher week than spending so much time with extended family and slaughtering our son’s sacred sleep schedule.

I went back and read elder Bednar’s talk about tender mercies, he says and I have experienced and know “the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence.” i recommend reading it again- it only takes a few minutes, but it will help you see the tender mercies even during difficult times. Here is the link here

So in no particular order (chronological or importance) here we go:

Life Events

Liam was Born
Gave Liam a name and a blessing
Bought an iPad
Went to the Masters
Ran a Marathon in Dublin, Ireland
Spoke at a Funeral
17th place in Suncrest Half Marathon

Fun

Went to Disneyworld with the family
Ran the Epic Relay Race with awesome team in beautiful Jackson Hole
Full Week of Scout Camp- created and played Spotlights and Ninjas
Drove the Mustangs at Miller Sports Park
Played Promontory Point
Played Glenwild
Played Salt Lake Country Club
Played Valhalla Golf course
Walked the San Antonio Boardwalk with my wife and family
Went to the Nickelcade to help my wife induce labor
Won 3 point contest by some miracle
Asked and went to Prom with Michelle

Random

Learned the game Dominion
Thought that it would be genius to invent Tattoos that disappear after 3 years
Started mbahack.org which I haven’t maintained
Started Parental Ponderings blog
1st experiment with crowdsourcing
Bought an iPhone 4S- quickly fell in and out of love with Siri-
Started early rise routine for one month
Ended Early rise routine
Bumper Sticker Call Campaign idea
Caught a fly out of the air
Memorized Proclamation to the Word: The Family

Travel

Grand Teton NP
Glacier National Park
Zion National Park
Idea to do an International Marathon entered into my thoughts and never left
9/11 Memorial in NYC
Walked through Occupy Wall Street demonstrations
Visited Stonehenge
Visited Salisbury Cathedral
Toured the Roman Baths in Bath England
Visited Blenheim Castle
Went to Preston, England Temple
Visited York
Visited London Temple
Saw the London Bridge
Toured Tower of London
Visited Churchill Museum in London
Drove the Ring of Kerry
Visited Killarney National Park in Ireland
Toured Trinity College- saw the Book of Kells
Miracle of the returning of our passports
Fulfilled lifelong dream of going to Four Corners

Movies Watched

Knight and Day
Bobby Fischer at Sundance
Unstoppable
Social Network
Source Code
Killers
X-Men First Class
Season 4 of 24
How to train your dragon
True Grit
Regretfully watched “Limitless”
Regretfully watched “Green Hornet”
Harry Potter- Last one
Pay it Forward
Sherlock Holmes (1st one)
Made it through Fiddler on the Roof for the 1st time
2nd Sherlock Holmes

Books Listened to or Read

Listened to “Lone Survivor”
Read “Seal Target Geranimo”
Listened to “The Hunger Games”
Listened to “The Last Lecture”
Listened to “How to Master Your Time” by Brian Tracy
Listened to “Million Dollar Habits” by Brian Tracy

That’s all for now!

P.S. I can understand what you guys are saying, and I agree with dad.

We started driving and it is a little different, but my strategy, I thought, was solid- closely follow the car in front of you. It didn’t help that we didn’t know where we were going. It needs to be noted that mine and Michelle’s and my navigating philosophies are polar opposites.  My strategy of getting somewhere is to jump in and drive and if we get lost to ask people or guess, but figure it out on the way there. Michelle’s strategy is to not start the car and go until you know where you are going.

Well, we were on our way. The first roundabout. I looked left and was following the car in front of me, missed the fact that a huge bus was barreling toward us- I quickly exited the roundabout and entered a different car rental place, where you can’t back up or else your tires will be popped. I was quite embarrassed, I then had to explain to the car rental people that I wasn’t returning the car, I was just lost.

Driving was a lot more difficult than I thought. More concentration required, narrower roads, unfamiliar area and signs and bad location GPS on the phone.

Michelle finally convinced me were lost and I stopped and added internet to the phone and asked a guy where to go. We were off..

After a few hours of driving we finally arrived in Bath, we found our rental place, which was an adventure in and of itself. Liam needed more baby food so we walked to the store, and found that the stroller wheel had been damaged on the flight, but was still functional. Liam didn’t mind. Next Day we were on to Stonehenge, which by the way is in the middle of nowhere.

I found it quite interesting. Definitely worth seeing. It wasn’t as tall as I had imagined or pictured. My journal for that day says  – “Stonehenge, it’s cool just because everybody thinks it is cool. Happy we went. Once in a lifetime thing- like, you don’t go back twice.”

Liam really seemed to enjoy Stonehenge. See the intrigue below.

After Stonehenge we went to find some dinner in Salisbury. We saw a huge cathedral and decided to go see.

It had an interesting modern art display that I really liked.

Also, while in that city I got a much needed haircut and talked to the hair cutter about our trip. She was bewildered why anybody would spend money to come see her city. It made me realize that we don’t really appreciate all that is close to us.