"Run Fat Boy, Run!"

Thanksgiving morning I ran a 5k at the South Davis Recreation Center in Bountiful. This is the begining of some personal goals I have set for myself recently. I started training for the race that Monday. I ran Cross Country in High School and running a 5k was nothing back then. I was in the mindset before the race that running a 5k would still not be a problem. Let's just say I hit the wall early on in the race. I did walk much of the race, but I still beat the one legged man. I am planning on doing another race in Feburary, and lets hope I can take a good 20 minutes off my time from the Thanksgiving race.

Another Bad Day!

Bad days are becoming a proverbial thing in my life the last two months. I thought my trip to Logan and USU would be the crowning moment of the day and the remains of the day would cap off like a setting sun over the Great Salt Lake. Traffic, the end of the work day and the replacement of the broken window would be the things to bring down my day. The replacement window cracked as I was sliding it into place. Also, I did not wear gloves, thus the band aids on my fingers. This must not become a trend!

Chalk this one up as one of the worst!

I thought today was going to end as a pretty good day. No major problems when I woke up, but, oh, when I arrived home after work, down came the curtain hiding all of the demons of horror.

The first problem I had to solve in the morning should have been the indicator that it was going to be one of those days. My son Isaac does not like to flush the toilet. I flushed what he left for us to flush and the water started to runneth over the bowl. This little incident made me late for work. Work would be the only respite I would have until I arrived home that evening.

When I pulled up to the drive, I saw Kristi pulling the garbage bin around to the side of the house. She was picking up broken glass. Adeline broke the glass in Isaac's bedroom window, with her head. She is lucky to be alive (in more way than one.

I stepped inside to change so that I could help Kristi, and I found the kids destroying the kitchen (making one heck of a mess).

We took out all the broken glass and I sent Kristi on a peace mission to Albertson's for Double Coupons and a chocolate bar.

As soon as Kristi was gone, Isaac started throwing up his dinner in the bathroom sink with Addie asking if she could watch and see it. If you ask Isaac the reason that he threw up is because he ate too many rolls.

I hope the night will end better with dreams about loving my children, rather than sending them to military school.

The day would finish with my Blood Drive coming WAY under goal.

What a day!!!!

Math Problems

Today Isaac asked for some help preparing his "Math Bag." He has to bring in a large number of objects to be counted, sorted and measured. To this point everyone in the class has brought in a food based object (mostly candy). Isaac was set on that fact and that he too had to keep the Status Quo. Kristi and I stated that we would use something we already had, and the fact that candy never lasts long, the objects he would take to class would most likely be something plain and boring. He said he would look "stupid and lame." I quickly shot back saying it would most likely be the latter. I explained that he would always be remembered as the kid who brought beans or pasta, because no one remembers all the different candy that was brought in. I guess I am just a mean Dad.

Facebook & Patrick Duffy

Not everyone is hooked to Facebook.

Book Club

I would like to introduce the blog of the book club my dad and I formed. The name of our book club is "Two Men & A Book Club." We have since grown beyond the two men, but the name has stuck. We wanted to share our thoughts on books that have a historical background. I don't think my dad understood what he was getting into. We have started in the early years of our country and walked the path with Harry S. Truman. For me these are the kind of books I really like to read. For my dad, it has been an eye opening. He has since forming the book club found that politics is a dirty art.

The blog is still a work in progress, but we have most of the books we have read together up. We still need to make our comments on each book. I hope there is enough room on the web for my criticism of Joesph Eillis's books.

Well, happy reading. I know that I am.

A Scout should always be prepared

In Scouts I was always taught that a Scout should always be prepared. Yesterday as a troop we went to Crystal Hot Springs. I spent a month getting the permission slips taken care of, ensuring I had every one's Class 1 Medical forms, camp site reserved and Tour Permit filed with the Council. I thought I was ahead of the game and this would be the best camp out ever. Well that was what I was picturing in my mind. What I had left to do was the food prep and packing. In my mind that was the easiest part of this camp out.

Kristi insisted that she go shopping with me for the food. If it was not for her and her suggestions at the store, my Scouts would have eaten Hot Dogs and Pop for dinner and breakfast. I know that I was taught different when I was a Scout, at least I could have cooked garbage (Frito's, beans and peppers). Kristi helped me prepare a well balanced set of meals for the camp out. We were to have Dutch Oven Parmesan Chicken with a salad and Dutch Oven Apple Cobbler for dessert. For breakfast I bought oatmeal and a lot of fruit (of course I disregarded Kristi's advice to have scrambled cheesey eggs too). Any Nutritionist would agree that these were the perfect meals for growing boys.

By this time I was envisioning in my mind the boys saying, "Brother Koger took us on the best camp out we ever went on; and he feed us like Kings!" I think I spent too much time reveling in my future glory rather than planning for the "Perfect Storm" that was soon to happen.

In my haste to prepare the night before, I thought I could pack and get all the small details taken care of when I got home from work. Well, I was delayed and I was also was stuck in traffic for a while. When I got home all I could do was change out of my work shirt and put on my Scout shirt. With late start we did not get to the campsite until after 7pm. By then it was dark. With haste we put up our tents and started on dinner. I sent the boys off to swim while I finished with dinner (and the only reason dinner even got started in the first place was one of my really prepared scouts had the can opener and matches that I forgot). Well, I was not ready to deal with all the snow and cold that would hinder the cooking of the dinner. It took almost 2/3 a bag of charcoals to get the dinner somewhat warm. With all the time it took get all the charcoals hot, the winter weather had greater force on the outcome of the dinner. Only one of the chicken dinners was fully cooked, and the Cobbler was still pretty much still goo at 11:30pm. With all the energy it took to get dinner to luke warm, I was so tired. I was ready for bed. Again, I did not prepare for the cold night a head. I was sooo cold all night long. I even put my mittens on my feet to keep them somewhat from freezing.

I thought breakfast would be my saving grace of the camp out. Our neighboring campers offered my Scouts some of their Mountain Man breakfast. The boys took one look at the oatmeal and fruit, and set them down and took the campers up on their offer.

All I had to do was jump start my car and get the car out of the hole I drove it into (that is a whole different story. Lets just say it did not help the trip.)

Needless to say, I was never prepared and I felt awful the whole time. I want to be the Scoutmaster that you see in the Norman Rockwell posters. I know there is always room to improve, but I never envisioned I would need to prepare so much room.