The one Job I want more than my own!

IN MEMORIAM

Today (Sept 4th, 2009) is the one year anniversary of my ex-wife’s tragic death. She, Rebecca, was killed traveling home late from Hurricane to St. George, a trip she had made a hundred times before. In an instant, she, her unborn child (9 mos) and her small daughter Bo, age 2, were killed in a flash by an impaired driver who had taken the prescription drug “Ambien” prior to making a quick trip to the store. The driver, now, completely asleep on drugs, crossed over the two way road without slowing and ran head-on into Rebecca and her VW Jetta with his huge extended cab pickup truck, killing her and her unborn child instantly. She was literally crushed. A senseless moment that should have never of happened. Emergency crews arrived 20 minutes later and Bo died at the hospital a short time later. I remember getting the phone call late that night, which my wife Kristyn answered. On the other end of the phone was Rebecca’s Mother. She explained in a matter of fact way, to Kristyn about the incident. I could instantly tell there was something wrong by the look on Kristyn’s face. She turned to me and said in shock “Rebecca and Bo were just killed in a car crash”. I could feel the blood run from my head and drain to my feet. The energy was sucked out of my body in an instant and I sank to the floor in a crumpled mass. Never have I felt that kind of grief or loss in my life. Thank goodness for my understanding and loving wife Kristyn as she tried to give comfort to my shock. She was there helping me as we both had difficulty trying to understand what this meant. The next morning I had to tell my two daughters that their mother and baby sister were no longer with us, and their unborn brother would never see a day of sunshine. I comforted them as best as a father could. We cried together. In a year from now, most people will not give much thought to her death. In 5 years, even less people will remember. However, she should have lived another 50 years or longer, not including the years her children should have lived. I will remember.
I am a Trooper for the Utah Highway Patrol. I take people to jail every night for impaired driving, and yet, I could do nothing to stop this incident. I felt helpless. I still don’t completely understand it all, but, she will be missed by many, including me. May she rest in comfort and happiness in the presence of God.

ROOF TEAR-UP

I spent all day ripping up the roof on my rental property so we can replace the roof with metal roofing. DIRTY JOB! Then further-more, I decided to make a "dormer" on the north side. So currently there is a huge hole in the side of the roof. What a mess! I will let you know how it goes. I just hope it doesn't rain before I get it finished. :P

Anna's Birthday!

Today is my daughters birthday, August 17th. It is sure amazing how fast my girls are growing up. I know I don't think I tell her enough, but I love her very much. I Love You Anna, very much. Happy Birthday!! I am glad you are my daughter.

Berghia for aptasia

Okay, for everyone that has those pesky glass anemones, aptasia, in their salt water, coral fish aquariums, I have a story to tell. I only tell this on my blog because I am so dang impressed. A few years back I bought a great coral with some aptasia attached to it. At the time I didn't think much of it. However, six months later, these pesky things were everywhere! I had hundreds of them all over my tank. I wish I never introduced them to my tank in the first place.
I tried everything that I could, peppermint shrimp, fish, injecting them manually etc. The list goes on. Finally I came across the Bergia Nudibranch. I thought I would give them a try as I had tried everything else. So...... I called and requested 10 of them. I have a 240 gallon reef/fish aquarium. The sales woman told me "I wouldn't disagree with that number". She told me that they would die off after/if there were no more aptasia. "Fine by me" I thought to myself, "as long as those pesky anemone’s are gone". When she told me the price..... for 10...... I was stunned. A little over 200 dollars. DANG!! Well, if they work they will be worth it. So I gave her my billing information and waited for them to arrive.
When they arrived in a small 4"X4" box, I opened it and saw what looked like 10 pieces of white rice, they were THAT small. I began to think, "have I been taken or what". What a rip off. So I put them into my tank, but before doing so, I took out crabs and/or other things I thought would make a morsel out of these very small critters (seriously, the size of a piece of rice). I could hardly see them, and with in a half hour, they were gone and I expected I would never see them again. I wrote off the $200 + dollars that I figured I had wasted.
I was looking at my tank about 1.5-2 months later, and I actually saw one of these Bergia eating an aptasia. Only this time, it was the size of a small slug. "Nice!" I thought to my self, one has survived and is actually eating the aptasia (glass anemones). Then I saw another, and another. All of them were grown. I still had hundreds of aptasia in my tank, and so I thought "well at least they will eat some before they all die". However, to my amazement, in the next 2 weeks, I could not believe the diminishing aptasia. Pretty soon, I was having trouble even finding some. I would say within three weeks of spotting my first Berghia again, I couldn't find an aptasia to save my life. I AM AMAZED! Looks like they were worth it after all. I am sure that a lot, if not all of my Berghia have died off, I haven't seen one for a while. However, I have still not seen a single aptasia for over a month. NICE! Anyway, if any of you are wondering about these little guys, and if they work, THEY DO! And in my tank........they ROCKED the house!

Burston's Ponds

This weekend we went to Burston's Ponds (a number of ponds where you can camp). It was just nice to get away from everything, job, kids, city and the only question I had to deal with was "should I go swimming now, or wait until after I finish my soda here in the shade?". I was able to convince my wife into coming even though she initially protested and may have preferred to work on cleaning the house or her writings. I think she even had some fun getting away for a minute. I personally would have liked the trip to last a little longer than the Thursday night through Saturday afternoon, but the world can only survive so long with out me and her in it :P . My two brothers (Jer and Nick) were there with spouses, friends and Mom and Dad. It turned out to be quite fun. We had the traditional fire at night roasting marshmallows and smores as we just talked and joked with each other. It was just nice to have no commitments for a day or two. Then Saturday it was back to the real world (a whole different story...ugh). I enjoyed this time I had under the starry night sky, cool breeze, and refreshing swims while I had the chance. The skies were so blue and clouds so white in the day. There was a calming quietness with only sounds such as dragonfly’s and trees rustling in the breeze that seemed to relax the inner self. That is what I did this weekend.............. wish you had been there!