The Importance of Eye Protection

It has been a crazy week. On Monday Tyler was playing at his cousin's house and was shot in the right eye with an Airsoft plastic pellet. At first they thought it was like a poke in the eye, but then quickly realized something serious was wrong. He was rushed to the emergency room with a serious eye injury. Luckily the pellet did not penetrate the eye. He has a hyphema and for a little while lost all vision in his right now. It has been five days since the incident and he is slowly getting better. We have had to take him to see the eye doctor every day and he is on mandatory bed rests and no hockey for a month.

He is learning an important lesson. I keep reminding him there is a reason why those airsoft guns come with safety glasses.

St George Adventure 2008

We had a wonderful time in St. George. It started and ended with a bang.

We left Denver after school on Thursday, August 28th. The trip was going well until we heard a huge bang. I was driving the van and the left rear tire lost half of its tread. I was able to keep control of the van and pull over to the side of the road. We were on a slight incline and while I was changing the tire, the jack collapsed. Luckily no one was hurt. I called road side assistance and Janese got the kids out of van and up on the side of the embankment. Before the tow truck arrived a local resident, Glen Wilson from Rifle, CO, pulled over and offered to help. We tried to use his jack, but the same thing happened and this time our axle slid slowly to the asphalt. I told Glen thanks for trying and that we would wait for the tow truck. Thank goodness he was determined to help. He drove back to his work and got a giant jack. I had to help him lift it out of the bed of his truck. Glen was done changing our tire before I got a call from the tow truck driver telling me he was 15 minutes away. Glen wouldn't give me his address or phone number, so I want to publicly thank him for his help. He truly was a good Samaritan.

We arrived in St. George Friday morning around 3:40 am. Amie and Dean's house in St. George has no personal pictures anywhere. They left the doors unlocked for us and once we walked in we worried what would happen if we were in the wrong house? That would not have been good. Luckily we made it to the right place.

Amie and the kids showed up as we were heading out to lunch. That started a totally fun filled weekend. We went and played two games of laser tag courtesy of Mom and Becky, we hiked several times and then hung out and played card games, the Wii, and tons of Guitar Hero. The kids all got along so well. They played tons of tennis and swam at the pool. There's an awesome little rec center just down the street from their house. The smaller kids also played a ton in the desert. Q and Ireland came back to the house sometimes completely red. They were with Harrison and Hayden and built some type of fort in the open space next to their house. Some of it came out in the wash and other parts look like they will be permanent reminders of our trip.

One part of the trip that I enjoyed was having Kori torment the kids. She loves to hold them down and tickle them until they say she is their favorite aunt. She's going to have to be careful though, because at least one time Tyler and Hailey were able to get her down and give her a taste of her own medicine. All of the kids are getting huge! They had a blast with Aunt Kori and were very happy that she came down. I am glad that I am not the only one that likes to torment the kids.

I am very glad we got to go and spend time with everyone. Thank you Mom and Becky for allowing us to be there.

We left on September 1st for the 9 hour drive home. It was sad to leave. The trip was pretty uneventful until we got two hours outside of Denver. As I said at the beginning our trip started with and ended with a bang. As you guessed it another tire blew between Eagle and Avon Colorado. This time Janese was driving and it was our right rear tire and it completely came apart. The first time the tire at least stayed inflated so I could control the vehicle. The right rear tire disintegrated and with no air in the tire the van started fishtailing down the freeway at 75 mph. Thank goodness Janese was able to keep control of the vehicle and no cars were around us. After getting the car under control we were able to pull over on the side of the road.

When the first time blew I thought it was a total fluke. I assumed that it was a flaw in that one tire and that when we got back to Denver I would have the store replace it. Now that both rear tires were gone and our jack was completely destroyed we were hosed. I call roadside assistance and we waited for someone to show up. The biggest issue was how in the world we were going to get everyone to safety. Tow trucks do not come equipped to transport ten people. Luckily the roadside assistance guy went above and beyond and kept calling around for us until he finally connected with the Eagle County Sheriff's Department. They came out with one of their SUV patrol vehicles to help. When they realized we would not all fit inside his car he radioed the jail and they drove out one of their jail transport vans. The kids thought it was the coolest things ever. Megan asked if she could be cuffed. The Deputies took them a couple exits up and dropped them off at WalMart while I stayed with the van. I was told the tow truck would be there soon, but I ended up waiting for close to five hours. We had to get two hotel rooms for the night and I also found out that the store that sold us the original tires had put the wrong type on our van. They had installed four passenger tires that were not rated to handle a van our sizes.

The next morning I woke up early and walked to the next exit to WalMart and had them put four new Light Truck tires on the van. At 10:30 am we were finally able to get back on the road and head home. We made it home at 12:30 pm on September 2nd safe and sound.

Now that we are home I am doing battle with the tire company to reimburse us for all of the unexpected expenses caused by their error. I think it will turn out well. They are showing they are going to step up and handle this so far. I got two repair estimates on the damage the exploding tires did to the van. The lowest was $2,500.

It was an insane, but very fun weekend. Even though it began and ended with some craziness, it was well worth it and I can not wait to do it again.

Margaret Martha Powell Christley 08/07/1920 - 08/18/2008

I am so happy that we went back to Roanoke, VA when we did. We had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my grandparents and family. On August 18th my dad called early in the morning to let us know that Grandma had passed away. She was 88 years old.

I did not know if I would be able to make it to the funeral, but thanks to my lovely wife I was blessed to fly out the day before her funeral. It was a wonderful spending time with my family sharing our memories of Grandma. She had a wonderful sense of humor and a quick wit. I remember enjoying listening to her and my grandpa telling stories of their past. Grandpa would tell his version and then Grandma would tell us how that wasn't how it was and proceed to tell us the truth. They made an hilarious comedy team.

My dad spoke at the funeral and did an incredible job. We laughed and cried the entire time. He reminded us how you could not go to Grandma and Grandpa's house without being fed or at least offered food. When he spoke about that it reminded me of when we walked in the door late one Saturday night in July, the first thing she asked was if we wanted anything to eat. She then laughed and said if we did we would have to get it ourselves.

We will all miss Grandma madly.

Panasonic Pics

Being part of the Panasonic Living in HD family means that occasionally we are called upon to provide them with product feedback, send them pictures, videos and to fulfill other assignments.

Our latest assignment was to send them ten pictures of us using select Panasonic products. We spent a Saturday running around the yard taking pictures of each other. If our pictures are selected they will end up being put on the Panasonic Living in HD Mobile Tour tractor trailer. Imagine seeing one of our huge heads plastered on the side of a large truck screaming down the freeway. If one of our picture is selected we will let you know.

Roanoke Trip 2008

We had a wonderful time in Roanoke. It was so nice to see everyone and let the kids get to know all of their family members on the east coast. I used to think that once all of the cousins grew up, that Roanoke would no longer be the same. I was completely wrong. There's now a second wave of cousins that live a lot like we did when we were young.

We originally planned to tour around Roanoke and visit several sites in Virigina. What we ended up doing was spending all of our time with family and swimming at Aunt Joyce's pool. The kids swam for hours and hours every day. They also ended up sleeping over at different family members houses almost every night. I think Madison spent the night with us maybe twice the whole entire trip.

I am so grateful for such loving and accepting family members. They accepted everyone into the family without missing a beat. Ireland had a blast with Heather's son Justin. They are the same age (5) and Ireland was convinced that Justin was his only cousin. When we were at the pool he would ask where his cousin was. When we told him that all of the thirty kids (not overestimating) in the pool were his cousins, he would shake his head and say that only Justin was his cousin.

All of the kids seemed to find someone that they bonded with that was close to their age. Anna and I used to do a lot together and it was funny that Tyler and Anna's daughter were buddy buddy too.

It was also great to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. They are doing well. Grandma struggles with her mobility, but overall they are pretty dang good for their age. Grandpa is 90 and Grandma is 87. I hope that I am doing as well as Grandpa is at 90 if I make it that long.

It was fun to hear their stories and to have them interact like they did when we were kids. Grandpa loves to tell his altered stories i.e. of their running off to get married, and many other things and Grandma tells him he is full of it and tells us what really happened. They make a great comedy act. The last night we were there a ton of family came down and we got Grandma and Grandpa to tell us stories from their past. It was so much fun. I heard a ton of things I had never heard before. We got a lot of it on video thanks to Panasonic.

It was sad to leave. It will always be home for me even though we moved to Denver when I was twelve. Several of our kids begged us not to go. They loved the fact that they had so many kids their age to interact with. It still is its own little safe haven from the world.

Afraid of the Washing Machine

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been charged with packing my four kids for our trip to Roanoke. I failed to mentioned that that also entails having to do laundry. After much deliberation and text messages to Janese, I now have three or four potential loads of laundry piled in the laundry room floor. My problem is that I am afraid to put them in the washing machine. Don't even mention dryer!!

From my pre-trip instructions from my lovely wife I was told to keep the darks separate from the lights/whites and anything red should be washed in a red load. When I walked into the laundry room to start the process I noticed there was a purple pile already started. What in the world am I supposed to do with purple!?! Luckily Janese had just landed back in Salt Lake City after a quick trip to California when I texted her again for help. She told me I can decide on my own whether to put the purples with the reds or the darks with the purples. Is one better than another? Does purple bleed? What benefit could I potentially get by putting purple with red? Does it ultimately come down to the number of purple items I end up with after the final sorting? Is purple a red load filler? If I put them with blue jeans is there the potential of ending up with purple jeans? The pluses and minuses of my purple pile of laundry are coursing through my head.

Damn you purple!!!

I am also completely confused over what is considered a white/light. I of course know what white is, but what do you do with those mixed articles of clothing? While going through the sorting process I discovered a white shirt with dark blue stripes or maybe it was a dark blue shirt with white stripes. In what pile does that belong? Is it a dark or a white? Even more confusing are the oranges, pinks, and yellows that are now scattered throughout my potential white pile. Should I create a pastel pile? I am almost to the point of washing each individual article of clothing, currently lying in haphazard piles on the laundry room floor, one piece at a time. I think that way I would avoid causing anything to bleed over (ask me about my pink underwear on my mission) and being yelled at from every kid in the house for ruining a favorite shirt or pair of pants. I think at this point I will skip the dryer all together. Who in the world created those hieroglyphics on the tags of clothes these days anyway? How am I supposed to tell by some squiggly line whether I can throw it in the dryer or not?

Wish me luck. I am heading for the laundry room and need all the prayers I can get.

Damn you purple!!!

Preparing for Roanoke...Aaaaaaahhhh!!!

Happy late Fourth of July! Janese is out of town with her four attending a Gillam Family Reunion in Utah, so the other kids and myself are holding down the fort. Yesterday we attended the Highlands Ranch 4th of July Parade and the local fireworks display later that night. It was a fun day. I got in a nap, which made it even better.

This next week the kids will be back at their mom's and I will be a bachelor with the designated task of packing myself and my four kids for our adventure to Roanoke, VA. We are going back to my home town to spend some quality time with my grandparents and other family members. I have been pretty concerned about driving 23.5 hours one way with eight kids in the van (insanity!) and how in the world would we make it in one piece, mentally and physically. We know from past road trips which kids need to be kept seperate and which kids work best sitting next to each other. For example, Q and Madison do not mix, especially for anything over 30 minutes worth of drive time. If seats are not assigned ahead of time, blood will be spilt.

I've decided now I am more concerned about how in the heck am I going to pack clothes for the kids?!? We are going to get to Roanoke and they're going to look like mismatched clowns for a week. I can just see Quinton freaking out and going around shirtless, because I accidently pack him one of Megan's shirts to wear that day. I can't tell whose clothes are whose! It is going to be really interesting when Janese gets back from Utah the day or two before we leave for Virginia and goes through my selections. I guess I will do the best I can. She has threatened me with my life if she comes home and nothing is done. If I have to, I might grab the kids from their mom's during the week and have them double check my work. I am amazed that Janese can pick up a sock and know who it belongs to!! I think socks should be disposable and biodegradable, so that eventually they just disappear in the washing machine. Aren't they already like that?

Grandpa Christley is very excited for us to come out. I am ashamed to say that I haven't been back in ten years. My last trip home was when Tyler was four and Zakary was 2. Grandpa has already called me several times from his cell phone wanting to know what type of milk we drink and the breakfast cereal we eat and when we expect to be there. I told him repeatedly that we are going to bring food and shop while we are there and feed them. Hopefully they let us serve them. They are wonderful people and I am so exited for Janese and the kids to meet them. I will make sure I post pictures and blog entries about our trip when we get back or somewhere with Internet connection during the Self Imposed Insanity Summer Tour 2008.

I am off to pack. Wish me luck!

Panasonic Family

It is official! We have been selected as one of the Panasonic Living in HD families. It is so awesome to have all of the incredible Panasonic HD equipment in our home. The kids are all experts and do a great job using almost every piece of equipment. The people from Panasonic have been great. They actually sent out a person to train us on how to use everything (Panasonic school) and to make sure it was all set up properly. They also sent out an installation crew. We are in heaven!

To see us on the Panasonic web site go to www.panasonic.com/livinginhd/. Once at this site you can click on Meet the Community and by clicking on the picture of us, read about our experiences Living in HD.

Almost all of the pictures on our blog have been from our Panasonic digital cameras.

Thank you Panasonic!!!

Dad's Kicking Butt

My dad is kicking butt on Isagenix. He is down 80 pounds since December 13th. I am very proud of him. Here is his before picture taken on December 13, 2007 and his latest picture taken on June 1, 2008.

Down 30 Pounds!!

Before (February 2008)

After (April 2008)

I know what you are thinking, "why would you want less of such a good thing"? The weight loss is actually an awesome side benefit to the Isagenix cleansing program that Janese and I have been doing. I am still pain free and doing great! I am also wearing pants that I haven't been able to wear for the past three years. They have been sitting in the "some day" section of my closet and have been almost on their way to Goodwill several times. Janese has lost 14 pounds and looks incredible, but I was told that if I put her picture up I would be killed, and I believe her.

Slacker!!

I have been such a blog slacker these past couple of months. I do not know how these bloggers that do multiple posts a day stay on top of things.

We have been very busy since my last post. Janese and I took it upon ourselves to paint the entryway and the upstairs and downstairs hallways of our home. It took a lot of paint, tape and sweat equity. Also since Janese can climb a really high ladder, but can not function once a few feet off the ground, I had to tape and paint all of the vaulted sections of the entryway. It went very well except for one night when I did not have the ladder high enough on the wall. In the middle of painting the ladder started to slide back down the wall. I started screaming like a little girl and Janese had no idea why, because it was a slow slide. Finally I was able to get some coherent words out of my mouth and she saved me from plummeting to my death. I was actually more worried about dumping a gallon of brown paint all over the entryway. It was the only gallon of brown we had. I also made enough noise to bring almost all of the kids running out of their bedrooms, after being down for the night, wondering what the heck was going on. The kids didn't appear too concerned about my dangerous situation and seemed more to enjoy telling me I scream like a girl.

Everyone is very busy. Tyler started a new season of hockey. His first game of the season is this Saturday. Madison, Zakary, Tanner, Megan and Makena all have some type of music lesson on top of Scouts, Young Womens and Activity Days. We need a full time chauffeur that can cart all of the monkeys around for us.

I'll post some picture of the new paint job and of the kids. Our new landscaping is starting to bloom and grow and it is very exciting. Once we get more growth I'll have to post a before and after picture of the landscaping as well.

Since my gorgeous picture below I have done two more cleanses. I am not down 26 pounds and several pant sizes. The weight loss, living pain free and new energy is awesome! The expense of buying new clothes is going to suck.

Garrin & Janese

Last month we went to Mike and Carla's ward to bless their new baby. His name is Garrin and he is a cute little red head. Janese, Megan and I all took turns holding him throughout the afternoon. Even though we already have eight kids of our own we can't seem to get enough of babies. We will sometimes plan where we sit at Church so we can steal someone elses baby during the meeting. We get an instant baby fix and they get a small break. It's a win win!

The best part is after the meeting is over we get to give them back.

Cleanse!!

I know what you are thinking, "That is one burning hunk of a gorgeous man!". Also no, I am not posting naughty pictures of myself on the Internet either. I started an Isagenix Cleanse on January 27th and ended it this morning. I don't know if you can notice much of a difference in the pictures, but on top of feeling incredible I lost 12 pounds.

The other great benefit from the cleanse is I haven't had a headache in 11 days. Before this cleanse I was taking 800 to 1,600 milligrams of ibuprophen a day. I haven't taken any since I started.

Now it's all about keeping my improved health going.

Party!!!

Makena and I were both born on the 3rd of January. Normally that means I get to blow out candles on some girlie pink Barbie cake. This year Janese out did herself. On top of some awesome gifts we each had our own cake.

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Makena's Baptism

Makena was baptized today. She was very excited. I think she was most excited about getting her scriptures, which is a family tradition. After every kid is baptized they get a new set of scriptures as a gift. We have six down, two more to go

Makena was lucky she actually got baptized today at all. It seems like we always run into some type of problem on baptism day. On Tanner's, people forgot things important for the meeting and Ireland threw up all over the place. His Uncle Brad ran over to him and picked him up and proceeded to run him all over the room with Ireland throwing up, making sure they spread the barf over every part of the room. They acted like some type of horrible vomit sprinkler system.

When we arrived at the Church for the service at noon, the ward before us thought they were being helpful by draining the font and putting back all of the chairs. Somehow they failed to remember that 5 or 6 other wards had baptisms after them. We had to wait for 45 minutes to re fill the font with now freezing water. Once it was high enough they turned the water off and started the meeting. When it came time for the actual baptism they realized that the seal was not put in the drain correctly and most of the water we had put in had drained half way out again. Makena was baptized by her Grandpa Gillam and they tried to dunk her before the water was completely gone, but after two tries they gave up and we had to wait for the font to fill up a second time. Finally on the third try Makena was officially baptized. Quinton will be baptized in November of this year. I hope all the kinks are worked out of the system by the time his day comes along.

After the service was over and after dragging everyone out of the Relief Society room, we went to the Gillam's for lunch. They are wonderful people and great to be around. They take great care of the kids. It ended up being a good day. Joy made an awesome lunch and we hung out for a couple of hours.

It was a good day that I am sure Makena will never forget.

Thank goodness for my ipod!!!