Baby Girl!

Well it has been sometime since I have posted and figure now would be a good time. For those of you that still do not know we found out the sex of the new baby last week. We are excited to announce that we will be having a little girl. This came as such a surprise to me. I thought for sure we would have another boy. When Steph and I talked about it she asked me if I was excited to have lil girl? I told her that I was excited and nervous all at the same time. She said did you really think we would have another boy... well ofcourse I did. She then asked me did you think you would have all boys? I simply told her "uhh yeah I am a boy". She looked at me strangely and said seriously? I told her that I did in fact think we would have all boys simply because I was a boy and figured that this is what I made... boys. So you can understand now how shocked I was to find out we were having a girl. I have since asked myself how am I going to do this? You see since I am a boy it makes it alot easier on me having boys. I know how the plumbing works with boys, I know how they think, why they spit, why they scratch etc.. I have been a boy for 33 years now so it comes second nature in raising a boy for the most part. Ok now let me tell you what I know about woman... they smell nice, usually have long hair.........................................................................................................................................................

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did I mention they smell nice? Seriously I don't completly understand what to expect.

I do know that I am extremely excited to have a little girl and decided I better get back into the gym and start pumping iron again for that day when the guys start coming to call on her. I wonder how I will handle that with my lil girl's first date... I think of things like this and get nervous, scared, excited, nervous, happy, nervous, happy, nervous. I can't wait to see her and hold her! I am very excited for Rykon to have a new sister and to show the ropes to. I think he will be a great big brother, and will really enjoy having someone else in the house. So I guess that raps up my thoughts for the day. Till we post again. Here's to you Lil' Baby Girl!

Love Daddy

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!