Made my heart swollen...

This is a blog that I wanted to post a few weeks ago, but have not been able to until now. We went to a Pumpkin Patch Festival of sorts in Marsing Idaho. We went out there to pick a pumpkin and listen to some live blue grass music etc. After we picked out our pumpkins we decided to take Rykon on his first Hay Ride. We walked by a boot that was selling fresh Kettle Corn so we decided we would buy some for the hay ride. Well after loading up on the back of a flat bed trailer with hay bail seating and a tractor as our horse we headed down the old dirt road. There were about 18 people on the ride. Across from Rykon and I was a little boy about a year older than Rykon. The young boy was with his mom and his grandmother. While the three of us ate the kettle corn I reached the bag across the ride and offered it to the young boy. He gently placed his small hand into the still warm bag. He was grateful and his momma told him to say thank you which he gladly did. This is where it gets good. After the small boy finished his small handful Rykon pointed at him and said to me more popcorn. He was asking me to give more popcorn to this boy again. I smiled and fulfilled the request and once again the boy placed his hand into the bag and gently removed 4 to 5 pieces. Now Steph and I know that Rykon has at this point in his nature a very giving heart, but what happens next I did not expect. After this boy finishes his last piece Rykon takes the bag and walks across the ride and opens the bag for the boy again to share his treat. After the boy takes a third handful Rykon side steps and opens the bag and offers it to his grandma, she smiles ear to ear and takes a few pieces out and tells Rykon thank you. He then side steps again to the boys mom and offers her some also. She smiles also and takes a few kernels. He comes back over to me and sits down. After about 60 seconds he walks across the ride again and offers the small boy more, the grandma more, and the mom more. They all comply and this is what gets me. After he finishes with these three people he then begins moving towards the front of the ride to my amazement and starts offering each person his treat. The people all were amazed and blessed by this child's willingness to share and offer his own snack with them and would smile and say thank you. He slowly walked to each person while the ride continued and offered to every adult and child a handful of his Kettle Corn. He did not stop once and look at Steph or I but kept at the task at hand until it was complete. I can honestly say that I have never been so proud of my young son as I was at that very moment. I watched the peoples reactions and there facial expressions as he willingly served each person. I saw firsthand how one small 23 month old boy brought a whole group of people together in one moment and brought joy and happiness to there faces and there life's. It was amazing how each person after this incident began talking and laughing with one another. It truly was a blessing and a memory that I will never forget.

Thank you God for our Blessing!

Americans and our Health.

America, home of the free and land of the brave! I could not have said it any better. A country where we have freedom of speech and religion. Where we have the right to keep and bear arms, a country that I will forever love and fight for. And a country that has the right to be over weight and unhealthy. In fact I read an article published by the US Centers for Disease Control Prevention that in the year 2005 alone the US spent $2 Trillion in health care expenditures. They claim this was an increase from 2004 of 6.9%. Excuse me did you say $2 Trillion??? I thought so. I have deep sadness for this great country of mine with all of the news articles and people I speak with in the Health Care profession. I guess I have just had the wool pulled over my eyes and it seems many Americans have also. I have always considered myself to be a healthy person and I exercise on a somewhat regular basis. My reason for the sudden interest in my health is two fold. One I am the sole provider for my wife and I and two I have a son that is currently 23 months old. I was told most recently that the generation my wife and I are a part of is going to be the first generation to out live there children! That alone nearly took me to my knees. The next thing I learned was that they are forecasting that all children born after the year 2000 will have a 50% chance of having diabetes at the age of 30! That again took the air out of my lungs.

So with hearing this I did my own study to see what is going on in our country and to make it more personable what is going on in my own home with health. I am planning on writing a few posts over the next week to share with you the statistics that I have found and share with you what I am doing and what I have seen to help my family and help those of you that would like to know what we can do to help change our country's health and especially our own family's.

I will provide you with charts and graphs that have helped me see what is happening. I know you will be surprised and blessed by the info. The more you know the more you can help your family. Please ask any questions you might have and I will see if I can help. Please keep in mind I am not a Doctor and will in no way try to diagnose any problems or offer any real medical help. I am just wanting to inform people to what is going on and also some solutions that I believe in with all my heart and want to help as many people as I can. See you soon.
Rich

Quail Anyone?

Hello my friends. It is that time of the year again. The mornings have a slight sharpness of chill early before the sun comes up, and the grass has a white dew upon it. We are only one more full day away from the official opening of bird hunting. One of my favorite birds to hunt is the California Quail. They are a very beautiful bird and are very vocal at times. They will typically run a small amount and then covey up on a large sage brush or weed patch before exploding into the cool fall morning air. One of the nicest things about hunting quail is that Idaho has a great deal of them and it is very seldom that you will go home empty handed when quail hunting. That is of course unless you miss everything. The dog pictured above is my dog Husker's dad. He is a champion field dog that is built to hunt. This will be Huskers 3rd year of hunting with me. His first experience of hunting was when he was only 6-7 months old. He more or less would just run around and get into things. I lost him probably a handful of times in a few corn fields which ends up being a search and rescue mission for nearly an hour per incident. The next year which was last year I was able to train him and work with him before the season which made all the difference. He did extremely well with quail. The pheasants hunting was a bit more of a challenge for him simply because they run so much. Husker really seems to have a knack for finding quail and once he finds them he will lock up tail pointing straight in the air until we flush the birds and take aim. I am hoping to have some pictures of him this year. It is such a spectacular scene to watch your dog go on point. This is the whole reason that I put up with him all year eating my yard, digging holes, jumping the fence and running away. He has a lot to make up for over the past few months! We will see how he does. This Saturday morning at 7am we will see how things go.

To Be Continued

Recent Summer Days...

Is these or ain't these just amazing pics? That's right...
Good lookin out to Meg my Lil' Sister down in FL who took these pics while the whole family was in town during the end of July. I really love the one with the Frog. I was not sure if the Lil' Man was going to be down with Kermit, but he took it all in stride as you can see from the picture he is one with the frog! It has been a lot of fun hanging out with all the family the past few months. We have had some great times and have made some lasting memories. I know that Rykon will enjoy looking back at these pictures. We were up in Idaho City doing some panning for Gold. It was to bad because we really did not find any color in them there hills, but we did find some gems while hanging out with the family. Love you all and we will chat soon.
Late!
R

Dove is in the Air!

That is right my friends it is September 1st yet again. Today is the official day when Fall begins. College Football fans can be heard around the country and the smell of gun powder is in the air. There is a a small but nice sharpness in the air today which means only one thing... Hunting Season has begun. Today we will head out around 4pm and try our luck on some various spots for the doves. The dove are alot of fun to shoot. They are quick and agile and do not fly in a straight pattern which makes them even more difficult to shoot. I am already looking forward to Quail and Hun opening which will be in about 20 days. Then onto the bird I love to hunt most Pheasant! Pheasant will not open until October 18th this year which will give plenty of time to hunter and dog to harness there skills and prepare themselves. I wish everyone the best and we will see how we fair.

Honey anyone?

Some of you may know or some of you may not know that I have honey bees in the backyard. This is a hobby of sorts that I got introduced to by my Pops when I was a kid. We had a bunch of honey on the combs inside the hive and I was outside with Rykon a week ago and I decided to take some out and let the boy experience a new thing. Steph got these great pics for us to share. Now how many people can say that they have actually eaten honey right out of the hive? This was something I was glad to let Rykon try. As you can see the boy enjoyed it to the point that we had to strip his clothes off and into the shower with dad. It was fun watching his face light up each time he grabbed another fistfull of honey and jam it into his mouth.
Oh Beehave!

Pimpin the Deere...

Ok here it is...
I have been waiting now for over 20 months to see the boy wear a hat and keep that hat on! We bought him this hat when he turned one. The problem with the hat at that time was that it was to big and he did not want anything to do with it. Well yesterday at lunch Steph put the hat on and he pimped it for over an hour. So I am the proud dad of a boy wearing a hat. I couldn't be happier! Life is so good when you can look at the little things that make a huge thing better! The best part is not only the fact he is rockin' the hat, but he is rockin' the Deere.
Po Pimp Player for life!

Good lookin out Girl!

A special shot goes out to my wife for Fathers Day. She planned a great day for us on Sunday. After church my wife and I loaded up the Jeep with all the fix ins she made that day. Fried Chicken homemade potato salad, watermelon, fresh rolls. Then as we pulled out of the driveway she let me know where we were headed. The St. Chapel winery had a Fathers Day event in Marsing. So after about 35 minutes we arrive. There was a great turnout and a live band that was very good and fun to listen to. Marc Hamilton and his wife and little girl met us out there shortly after. We just laid around and listened to the music while eating. After eating my son and I ran around and played for awhile. It was a really fun time. She also gave me a very nice card and a new money clip with my initials engraved on it to replace my worn out one. We later joined up with her folks and family and ate a bit of food and played a few rounds of bad mitten. Then we headed over to my folks to wish my dad a happy fathers day and then onto the house. The Lil' Man didn't get a chance to take a nap all day. He did get a 5 minute cat nap just before we left Marsing. All in all I felt very loved and appreciated. Thanks Babe.

A special shot out goes to all the dads who do it day in and day out. It is on us to lead our families both spiritually and financially.

God Bless

du dat ta cycle

As I sit on the floor in an empty vacant home while doing an open house I thought it would be a great time to write. This past weekend Steph and I bought Rykon this small box of 5 motorcycles. He seems to have some type of obsession with them now... thanks Rob... Well there are 5 motorcycles that are about 5 inches long and stand about 2-3 inches tall. The package contains one blue Yamaha dirt bike, a Suzuki street bike, Honda CBR, a Harley Davidson chopper, and I am not sure what the other one was. Well I decided to pace ourselves and see what he thought of them. I gave him two of them. He eyes both of the bikes in my hand and instantly yells du dat ta cycle which simply put means motorcycle. Not sure why he does not sound out the "m" since he can say more and ma ma. Well the small gift was a huge success! Since Saturday night both motorcycles have toured the concrete of the driveway, the wood paved roads of the flower beds, the tall light brown weeds aka the living room carpet and the smooth cruising surface of the tile floors in the kitchen. All in all I think we have surpassed the 6 months or 2,500 mile bumper to bumper warranty on both bikes. He has pushed and pulled those two bikes for miles. It brought back memories of my childhood. We had similar toys that we put nearly 30,000 miles on... I have the calluses on my knees to prove it! All in all I am well pleased that $10 today still goes a long way for the happiness of one small boy. Have a great day!

God Bless.

Butterfly kisses

I almost forgot... Yesterday I was hosing out the garage as I do every week, and I saw this huge yellow monarch butterfly. Now I don't know where you are from, but I use to remember when I was a kid seeing butterflies all the time. I just realized at that time that it is so rare for me to see butterflies anymore. I actually found myself just standing there outside the garage watching this massive yellow insect float and flutter around in the sun for nearly 5 minutes. I have a side to me that always enjoys thinking back to the old days yes I said it the old days of being a kid. Just thought I would share a bit of happiness with you all.

Opa!

Opa!... I think I am saying this right. The announcer said it about 93 times while we were there in a one hour span.

Yesterday Steph, Rykon and I went down to the annual Greek Festival in the North End of Boise. This was Steph's second time and mine and Rykon's first. Well we split a meal together, and I wish I would of had my camera. Rykon and I both tried for the first time a grape leaf wrapped thing. Shows you how much I know. It was actually really good, and the boy seemed to love it also. We ate a bunch of really great food and we all enjoyed watching the dancers perform there cultural dances. It was alot of fun and I look forward to it again next year. Opa!

It's On Baby!

Lets get ready to Rrrrrruuuuuuummmmmmmmbbbbbbllllllleeeeeee!!!!!!
I cannot explain in many words the joy that I have on this day the 5th of June 2008. This rivalry has been in hibernation since 1987 and now we have awaken the Giant! The last time these two Franchises met I was 12 years old and gas was only a $1.30 per gallon. For those of you that do not understand the history of this rivalry you should do some research about it. This is why ratings on the NBA have gone off the charts since these two teams have clinched there respective Division Titles. Sport Guru's claim that the most popular team in America is of course the Los Angeles Lakers followed by number two the Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtics have won an amazing 16 NBA Titles and the Lakers have won 14. The Lakers have won many over the past 10 years, while the Celtics have not won a title since the 85-86 season. This would be a great thing to watch for those that are fans and for those that are not fans. The story line behind both of these teams and the rivalry that is portrayed is second to none. This is a must watch TV event. The 1st game is tonight on ABC. Have fun watching and as always
GO LAKERS!!!!
Out!

I am back in the game!

Hello to everyone! It has been sometime since I have last spoke in this thing we call the cult... errr Blog. I just wanted to let you know that I will try to keep up to date on this since this is such a good resource for family and friends both in town and out to keep in touch with one another. I look forward to hearing from you all from time to time. Take care God Bless

Rich