Working With Snakes

Let's just start by saying that I HATE SNAKES. Seriously, I hate them. They creep me out, they smell, they like to squeeze, bite, and venomize stuff, and they remind me of Satan (see Genesis). Well, we have a customer up at Research Park at the U that collects venom from rattlesnakes to do something with brain tumors. Sounds interesting, right? Well, not when you're there! The only sounds I hear make my blood run cold...

Yeah. Just imagine having to work just inches away from those suckers! I don't care if they're in a plastic "Tupperware" bin or not, it freaks me out! Floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, rooms full of Mojave Reds making that horrible sounds wanting to bite my face off. Especially this one:

 

It is also worth noting that this little white board did not make me feel any better... In fact, it freaked me out even more! And what constitutes an "incident"?! A snakes sheds its skin or someone's finger gets bitten off?! Ugh. No thanks, man.

The Watch Spring

I got a new watch recently (yeah, I know what you're thinking, okay?) and I've been wearing it everywhere. It's gunmetal gray and it's ridiculously sick. After wearing it around for a few days, it started it feel a little too loose around the wrist. No big deal, I thought, I'll just adjust the band.

I went out to the garage and grabbed a small screwdriver set and started to remove one of the links. After putting it back on it felt a lot better... But it just wasn't perfect! You see, I'm kind of a perfectionist and a little bit OCD about somethings. This would bother me.

There's a place on the clasp that has a small spring rod that can be adjusted to make the watch just a bit smaller if necessary. Adjust this, and it would be perfect! I pushed in the spring and slowly tried to ease it out and... BOING! Gone. I heard it bounce on my work bench, hit the far wall, and fall down into the abyss that is the corner of my garage where random stuff gets stored. GONE.

I immediately went over and started searching through the stuff that was in the corner. It wasn't that stuff that was the problem, though. There was so much sawdust and dirt that had accumulated there that it was impossible to find this tiny spring. I was just completely sick to my stomach. Of course it doesn't come with an extra spring. I was so frustrated.

Then I realized I should just say a prayer! I said a quick prayer, went back to the corner, and started rummaging around again expecting the spring to just be there in plain sight... No. I searched and searched and couldn't find it. Fail.

I stood in front of the work bench and just without thinking got onto my knees again and this time offered a true heartfelt prayer for help finding the spring. I knew it was just a little piece of coiled metal that didn't mean anything eternal, but in the moment, it was a big deal and I needed help. After I finished my prayer, I opened my eyes and saw the spring on the ground at my knees, in plain sight like I'd expected the first time.

So here's the thing, I found the spring at my feet where I was working on my watch. I know for a fact that I heard it bounce across the bench and into the corner of the garage. I heard it! And yet, it was there at my feet. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and the opportunity to LEARN from it. And I'm so grateful that our Heavenly Father cares enough about His children that even a tiny coiled piece of metal can be important.

Mirror Lake with the Scouts

Tyler and I took 6 of the boys up to Mirror Lake for a camp out and it was one of those "it's all fun and games until someone breaks an ankle" type of camp outs. Did I just ruin the ending? Oops. SPOILER ALERT!!!

We left K-ville and headed up into the mountains. We got hit with a bit of rain on the way up, but we found a great campsite and the rest of the day was clear skies! It was beautiful weather for a camp out. We threw up the tents and hammocks and made ourselves at home...

We spent the rest of the day exploring, cooking hamburgers, doing Merit Badges, and enjoying the great outdoors. We had a beautiful night sky that night and sat around the fire for hours talking and cooking marshmallows. It was a great night.

We woke up the next day to beautiful sunshine and started cooking breakfast. Somehow overnight the boys had gotten really dirty... It was kind of funny.

Oh, and they like to dance in the morning apparently. Haha! I love these guys...

After breakfast, we got into a hardcore game of Capture the Flag! Instead of playing in an open field or meadow, we decided we'd play in the middle of trees, hills, and rocks! Perfect! It actually turned out to be really fun. Everyone was having a great time until one of the boys was chasing Tyler and as Tyler was jumped over a log, he landed in a hole and screamed out in pain. As it turned out, he didn't break his ankle, but it was really close! He sprained it really bad. Fast forward a few days and this is how it looked:

That pretty much put an end to our fun. We decided to pack up and head to the lake. The weather turned nasty on us on the way up there and it turned out to be really cold when we got there. We climbed out, took a short look around, and decided to head down to Kamas and get some pizza! It was delicious.

The trip home was rainy, but uneventful. I'm pretty sure all the boys had a great time. I'm 100% sure we did a good job of wearing them out...

Golf Merit Badge

We took the Scouts out to Swan Lakes Golf Course recently for the Golf Merit Badge. It was kind of like herding cats out there... (Is there a Cat Herding Merit Badge???) Balls were hit, balls were lost, but everyone had a great time. Here's the proof:

The Play Set

For a while now, I'd been scouting out some different play set kits to make one for the backyard. There were a lot to choose from, but each one had something about it I just didn't love. And not only that, but they were all really expensive. I started pricing out the materials compared to buying a kit and realized what I needed to do: take matters into my own hands! So what started out as a simple drawing, became my latest project! Logically, I brought Dad in to help me throw the thing together. And yes, of course we went to Home Depot!

Yeah, I'd say it turned out pretty awesome! Jeremy was super stoked for sure. Now he's got a steezy play set to play on as much as his little heart desires. What an awesome project!

The Pergola Business

Tim and I have been scheming up business plans again... We decided to throw up an ad on KSL.com for our pergola design and it really took off! We couldn't believe the response that we received. We've done several already and they've turned out really nice! So once again, our Jackalope Bros. enterprise is expanding. No big deal.