To Brake is to Admit Defeat!

2011 The year of Miracles

2011-07-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

2011 has been quite a year!

We have had many miracles. Let's see if I can list a few of them.

1) Completed our 5 year plan at the office - in five years;
2) Participated in a wonderful trek;
3) Helped throw a great 50th wedding celebration for my Mom and Dad;
4) Participated with the young men on a great high adventure;
5) Help put on the Bloomington 4th of July; and
6) 16 and 15 year old to Hawaii for BYU EFY.

Whew! That sounds like a pretty good, action packed, first half of the year.

Completed our 5 year plan at the office - in five years

Yeah, we complete some goals. When I first broke out from the law office I worked for, for 14 years, Marta and I set some goals. We wanted to expand our space, and purchase our equipment with cash and grow our case load, not be the traditional advertising firm, and purchase our own building in 5 years. We opened Bradley C. Harr PC on June 1, 2006. We moved Bradley C. Harr & Associates into a building owned by Smile-Adv llc in June 2011 and had our official open house on July 1, 2011. five years later.

We had a lot of help along the way. Val and Kathryn, Marta's parents, of VPC Construction helped in every phase of construction. Marta and my kids provided a lot of labor and 6 months after starting deconstruction we were ready to move in. The remodel was extensive. The building went from a 11,000 sq ft blue roof structure that looked like a house boat to a very modern comfortable office. I am sure that we were inspired to make the right moves a long the way and that the new location will be a benefit to my family, our employees and the people that we serve.

The goal of our office is to take care of people first and the worldly necessities will fall into place.

Thanks to everyone who helped. Marta and I acknowledge the hand of God in blessing our undertaking. Many obstacles were solved easily, which I ascribe to divine influence.

Laus Deo!

Marta and I also participated in a wonderful trek

The first week of June was our Bloomingtion Stake Trek. There were about 240 young men and young women and about 100 adult volunteers that participated. It is impossible to have a pioneer trek and not have a number of miracles along the way. no one broke a leg, although there were a few IV's administered. The rattle snakes were not played with and the program and food was fantastic.

I wonder why we do trek's. Really, we are going to take modern air conditioned kids and send them out on the mountain for three days and have them push and pull a handcart?! The answer is a resounding absolutely. A lot of character was built, friends made and relationships with god established or strengthened.

The goal the first day was to wear the youth out. Well, by the end of the day they were worn out, but when they awoke, they were rearing to go again. many pioneers lost their husbands in the original treks due to exposure, illness, cold, and other reasons. Their wives were left to pull handcarts alone. On our trek we had a silent women's pull in their honor. The youngmen were told told they could not push the handcarts, so they simply took stuff off the carts and lightened the load. It was an amazing sight.

We also had pioneer games, a square dance, a fireside from the Stake President, motivational speakers and Brigham Young even welcomed them into the valley. Heavenly Father blessed me as I was out of the office for three days, work was done and a problematic case involving 5 injured people was resolved while on a cell phone in the shade of a Juniper tree. Miracles.

50th wedding celebration for my Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad had their 50th wedding anniversary and June 9, 2011. I was a tag along on this one. Marta and Liesl started preparations back in January. We did not tell mom and dad until late in the game. I told dad about a month before so that he would not plan a trip or something over the top of it. Then we sent mom an invitation so she got notified the same time as the invited guests. When she did find out it was a complete surprise.

The night went really smoothly. The party was held a Thanksgiving Point and there was an ice cream bar with cookie and drinks. There was a photographer who took a picture of each family or person that came. Marta and Liesl had materials there for a scrap book and then they edited the photo's and gave them to mom so she can complete the book.

I was able to get a hold of their picture books from their wedding and events that happened since. The photo's were scanned and decorations were made out of the 50 years worth of snapshots and placed around the room. People enjoyed seeing the photo's.

I think about 200 people came through the night and it was a nice event for Mom and Dad. Happy Anniversary.

Participated with the young men on a great high adventure

All neighborhoods go through phases. Ours is no exception. Our neighborhood is aging and there are not as many young people in our immediate area as there once was. As a result, it is a little harder to get the same participation. My sixteen year old wanted to have a cool trip and build some unity. So we put together a trip to help build unity and have some fun.

Here is our agenda:

Wednesday 5:00 p.m. - leave

9:00 - Manti Miracle Pageant

Thursday 9:00 - Golf at Soldier Hollow

1:00 - Lunch

2:00 - Boating, canoeing, swimming

6:00 - dinner and clean up

9:00 - Astronomer

Friday 7:00 - Lake activities at Deer Creek

2:00 - Salt Lake - visit the Conference Center, Tabernacle, Temple Square, Art History museum

6:00 - Dinner at the Gold Room in the Joseph Smith Memorial building

7:00 - Jim and Marci Duke - Motivational speakers

8:00 - Temple visitor center

Saturday 10:00 Depart for St. George

noon Gold in Filmore

As you can see, there was a lot of activity. All had a really good time. Thank you to Jim and Marci for coming to share some thoughts with us. I thought that when the speaker was done, everyone would want to go back to Heber for Smores. I was wrong, they wanted to stay on Temple Square. We sat by the "Christus" and did not leave until 9:00, when the visitor center closed.

We had a great trip and hope that now we have something to build upon with this group of young men. Hopefully, the BSA Ranger program can be implemented for the next year. All young men need some direction. It is helpful if they have an activity based program that gets them involved in learning and even excelling in something wholesome and positive.

I will help in any way I can.

Bloomington 4th of July

Our 4^th was a success. It started on Sunday night with a non denominational firside a the LDS Stake center. The United Methodist choir came and sang and Val Langston, a Viet Nam vet, was the speaker. The Dalley's and a duet from the Sun River area also came and sang. It was awesome and well attended.

In the morning, there was a flag raising ceremony at 7:00 a.m. My family hosted the 5k. We had about 125 runners, including people from California. One couple was touring the country and happened to stop in Bloomington and joined us. They were complimentary and said they really enjoyed the morning. This year, as it was a community event, we served coffee. That was a little unusual for our community but perfect as it helped create a sense of community. Our community is American and Christian, but not exclusively Mormon.

Marta and I started working on the Bloomington 4th celebration 3 years ago with a goal. The goal was to host a community, patriotic event where all Bloomington residents felt welcome. We also wanted an event where family July 4th celebration traditions could be supplemented. Goals met.

100 Year Celebration of the Boy Scouts of America

2010-09-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the Boy Scouts of America celebrated 100 years in America with a jamboree celebration held at the Washington County Fair Grounds. Bradley C. Harr & Associates was pleased to help sponsor this event and help provide backpacks which each Boy Scout received as part of their participation.
The jamboree started at 1:00 in the afternoon, during which time a video feed was shown of the International Space Station. The video was made earlier in the day as the space station flew over Washington County. Senator Warren Hatch prepared a brief video message which was shown to the Scouts as well as the President of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Thomas S. Monson. Throughout the course of the day, there were Scouting activities and vendor booths for the Boy Scouts to participate in.

On the Cub Scout side, there were over 2,000 Cub Scouts and their leaders who participated in the event. The Cub Scouts are easy to spot as the shirts they received, rather than backpacks, were blue and yellow. They learned about chivalry, made shields and swords, and participated in a mock battle.

Closing ceremonies were held in the outdoor arena of the Washington County Fair Grounds. TMINUS5, a local all vocal group performed for the Scouts. After approximately 45 minutes of entertainment and address on the value of Boy Scouting and this great Country that we live in, there was a huge fireworks display, which was sponsored by local businesses.

Part of the celebration included the Scouts completing 100 good deeds to celbrate the 100th anniversary. If a scout accomplished their 100 good deed they got a commermorative patch. Many hard working scouts accomplished that worthy goal.

Bradley C. Harr & Associates was thrilled to help sponsor an event celebrating a wonderful organization within this great Country we call the United States of America.

Kokopelli Triathlon - September 18, 2010

2010-09-23T15:13:00.001-07:00

Bradley C. Harr & Associates was pleased to be one of the local sponsors of the Kokopelli Triathlon which was held on September 18, 2010. The Kokopelli Triathlon was held in the City of Hurricane at Sand Hollow Reservoir and included sprint and Olympic distance events.

Sprint distance triathlon: approximate 800 meter swim → 15 mile bike ride → 5k run

Olympic distance triathlon: approximate 1,500 meter swim → 25 mile bike ride → 10k run

There were around 600 participants in this event, and the weather cooperated beautifully.

Our own St. George Triathlon Club was well represented in the race. Other notable groups include the BYU Triathlon Club, the American Air Force Triathlon Club, and Team Fastlane from Orem to name a few. All in all, it was a great event with very few mishaps.

Bradley C. Harr & Associates is pleased to sponsor local events that not only encourage Washington and Iron County residents to stay healthy and to be fit, but also boosts our local economy.

Great job to the organizers at BBSC Endurance Sports!

2010-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! What a great day. It is Easter Sunday and there is a lot going on. It is general conference weekend form members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It makes for a nice day to listen to the speakers in general conference.

Last night was the session for men who are 12 or older. Elder Rasband spoke about missions and how the inspiration comes to call a missionary. The message was close to my heart as Jed is going on a mission in July. He has been called to serve in the Taiwan Taipei mission where he will learn and teach in Mandarin Chinese. What a wonderful opportunity. It is exciting to see him prepare and get ready to spend two years in Taiwan. I am sure that the language will be difficult for him to pick up. Nonetheless, the Lord will help him and he will learn.

Anyway, Elder Rasband spoke about the process. He described how one of the Apostles has a couple of large computer monitors set up in the office. The prospective missionary's picture appears and the Apostle gets to study the picture. He then reviews the application and reviews the comments which have been sent by the missionary, their Bishop and Stake President. On another monitor is a global map which shows all of the missions in the world. The Apostle then prays or continues in prayer until they feel prompted where the missionary should serve. Elder Rasband did not say how long the process took. As he gave his talk I not only felt that Jed's call was correct for him, I had already received that confirmation, but that I received a renewed confirmation of missionary work and their calls.

I am grateful for Jed's opportunity to serve and trust him into the Lord's care.

Brinley's Baptism Invite

2009-12-25T16:40:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Back to School Already

2009-09-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Life is good. Here we are in September and time keeps on going. We have had quite the adventuresome summer. I am the Father and Dad of 7 great kids. This summer was a little different as our oldest is now 18. He plans on an LDS mission and we wondered what he was going to do until his 19th B-day. Should he go to school, work and save, or just play. The latter not an option.

As we came into the M and I spent a lot of time talking with our oldest. Unfortunately, that was not really fair to our other 6 kids. Sooo, we put the brakes on discussions with our oldest and put a plan together with our other kids. We discussed with C that we wanted to know what he wanted to do. After much discussion we decided to go to Salmon ID to a river camp where Kayaking was taught. In order to attend the camp the participants had to be at least 14 years old.

We took our senior team, ages 18, 15, and 14 with Marta and I. The river and canyon and river are spectacular. The plan was to spend three days on the river in a combination of kayaks and rafts. We had a ball. The kids had a really good time. J and C learned how to roll the kayaks. Due to a misunderstanding with a rock under the water I spent some time watching and taking photo's of Marta and the kids. It was good for my kids self esteem to be asked if they wanted to come back next and work at the camp.

Our oldest daughter, L, loves horses. She has her own blog based around horse theme's. Before the summer ended she moved her horses to a stable that has shade for them. I know it is good for the horses, but I am not sure it teaches responsibility in the same way as when they were in a pasture and she had to take care of them 100%. Still she has a job there and is working off the board fees in part. She is up early trying to get the stalls cleaned and working on the other jobs they have her doing. I am sure that she likes that S or C go with her and help. It is always More fun to have someone working with you rather than being alone. I wish she had more interaction with other kids her age. She gets along well with Adults and she really loves the horses.

At the end of the summer J was given the opportunity to play B-Ball at Southern Virginia University or Houghton College in New York. M got him as ready as a mother can and he and I set out to check out the two school schools. We we unable to make a trip where the coaches from both schools could meet with him until the week school started. J and I had a tight schedule and a lot of time in the car. It was good for him to be recruited by a couple of schools and to have a choice.

We first went to SVU. We spent Sunday and Half of Monday there. There are a number of people from St. George who attend SVU or have attended. While there we constantly asked what the bad parts of the school were. Here is the list:

1. Cell phone reception is little spotty;
2. Wal-mart is the mall;
3. Buena Vista (the town where SVU is located) is small.

Not a bad list of "worst" factors. The best features of the school are the faculty and the closeness of the students. I was amazed at how nice everybody was and how east the administration was to work with.

We next drove to Houghton, 500 miles north. It is a non-denominational Christian school South of Buffalo New York. The coaches were great and the facility was physically better than those at SVU. J and I really liked the coach and his concern for J as an individual. After a long night, J decided to go to SVU and become a Knight. When he told the coach of Houghton he said "I knew that." He saw Jed struggle to make the decision and prayed about "what was best for this young man named Jed" and was told he should be in Virginia. WOW, I was so impressed. It made any doubts that J had dissipate.

We went back to Virginia and got J set up in a modular house with 10 other guys, set up his schedule, paid our part of the tuition, bought books, went the the WalMart mall and then left. It was really hard to leave him there. It is 2500 miles from home, no car, he really does not know anyone and he is my oldest and first to leave the nest. It was long ride to the airport. He is doing great.

J is not the only ones back in school. L is enrolled at Dixie as is C. While I was with J Marta helped L and C apply for scholarships at "High Tech High" which is a new charter school co-sponsored by Novell. Both got partial scholarships and are now taking classes. It is a Little early to tell how it is going but they seem to be doing well. I just hope the don't procrastinate their online assignments until the end and it is a push to get everything done.

Our junior team is good as well. S's reading is really coming along well. He takes a turn reading scriptures in the morning and does a great job. B and little S take turns reading the "small" words. They sit on Marta or my lap and follow along. It is a lot of fun.

Back to school already? Well the summer came and went but it was a full one and a good one.

The Good life

2009-06-28T08:13:00.001-07:00

Here we are on Sunday morning working our Blogs. M has chosen to break up her posts into a couple of posts as she has been gone for a week. Typically, she is good at publishing a new post every other day or so. I am happy to write when I can.

What is the good life. A question that we all ponder to varying degrees. My life is full of great things, and yet, sometimes I wonder if the activity is taking me in the right the direction. A better question is how do I make sure the activities in which I participate take me the right direction? If the activities of my life bring me closer to M and our 7 kids then it is probably a pretty indication.

Last week our Sr. team participated in the "Ragnar Wasatch Back". The race itself is 188 miles long. It starts in Logan and ended in Park city. The race is run continuously, or participated in around the clock. It is designed to be a 24 hour, round the clock, race.

M and I and three of our kids, J age 18, L age 15, and C and 14, were all on the team. It was a lot of fun/work/change of pace. M and I were in one car with 4 other friends. Three of our kids were in the other car and our Jr. Team (4 of them) were with grandma following the race from granny's truck. Why do we do it!? For fun of course. Each runner takes three turns and end up running between 13 and 18 miles total. This is the first year for Team Smile Adventures and the second year that M and I have participated.

A team is comprised of 12 participants. Then the team in divided into 2 groups of 6 each. While the first car load of people are running the second car is resting and then they switch. This year we used V's truck for the second team car. What an inspiration M had on that one. It was great to have the bed of the truck to work and cheer out of. We were not cramped and for space which I think made everyone a little happier.

I was runner 8. That means that I had one of the easier routes. 3.5 miles around Pine view reservoir in Eden, 7 miles down the back side of east canyon (in the dark), and then 6 miles from Charleston to Wasatch State Park on Saturday morning. It is kind of funny, when I was running, I want to be done. Yet, while one the run it is a great time to clear my mind and change a change of pace. Life gets so full of schedules, obligations, and the base facts of living (i.e. making a living or other obligations) that we forget to move forward in a meaningful way.

I am not a great runner, but I like to participate. I win every race I enter simply by finishing. Earl Nightingale once said that there is not real competition in this world unless we create it for ourselves. Further, a success is a man or woman moving forward toward a worthy ideal or goal. The race therefore, is not against the other teams, but to move forward toward better health, better relationships with family or friends, and feeling better about the effort we put forth to become a success. M is a success because she is constantly moving toward her goals and also re-evaluating and making new goals that will continue to cause her to stretch. I am a success because am making progress toward my goals. The Ragnar is not about finishing first, but finishing and taking home something from the race. Maybe it is finishing a leg faster than the last time; maybe it is about running harder each time; and maybe it is about celebrating the fact I can run and leave with the knowledge that I may be a little big to run a race like that; but when our team runs across the line, we know that together we can accomplish amazing things.

So what is the "Good life?" I have it. I have the knowledge that I can be better. My family works hard to work together and be close. Thanks M and family. I still have goals to achieve, some of which have not even been set. As the new day begins, I get to begin again and create a GOOD LIFE.

Valentines day is coming.

2009-02-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

Another holiday is upon us. How can it be another holiday. There are still a few remnants of Christmas lingering around waiting to be put away. Valentines day is kind of strange. It seems most of the world focuses on the having an evening with your sweetheart, be it a candle light dinner, weekend getaway or other mini excursion. For our family the day and the days leading up to Valentines include making treats and delivering them anonymously. We tell our children to not get caught delivering because if the people answer their doors, chase, and catch you they may kiss you! That's incentive to run fast.

I don't know. When Marta and I have tried to go out for a Valentines date the restaurants are full, the flowers are more expensive than usual and my sweetheart does not like chocolate hearts anyway. By the time we make the deliveries to friends there is no time left, so the question remains, what is Valentines all about anyway? The history channel tried to track down the origins.

The idea of a priest falling in love with his jailer's daughter and sending notes as described in the link is probably the most quaint. it appears that commercialism has taken over, again, and we really don't know why we celebrate, it is just a good excuse to send a note to family and friends letting them know we they are in our thoughts and that we care.

This year, I hope you have fun and realize that if a token of friendship and appreciation is left on your door, that you will have fun, and run after the cute little buggers that left a treat. Good luck catching them though, because they want to give treat and just leave it at that.

Happy Valentines Week.

Triathlon? Marathon? What fun!

2008-10-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

It is Sunday afternoon and we are here listening to conference. It has been a packed month. Where to begin. On of my daughters, Liesl, and I were sure that we were a little to heavy so we decided to do something about. We started on a nutrition plan called Isagenix. Yes it is a multi-level marketing product. No, we are are not trying to sale it to anyone.

Anyway, we have had pretty good success with it as we have both lost approximately 25 pounds in the last month. On Liesl's blog she posts that she never felt better, or been happier. Comments like that bring a smile. She is active on her blog and writes often. Marta and Liesl do the best with keeping their blogs current.

A couple of weeks ago we competed in the Kokopeeli triathlon. I like the tri because we have so many participants from our family and friends. This fall our team included:

Marta, Jed, Liesl, Chandler, Val, Kathryn, D. Lee and me.

It was a beautiful day for a tri. I told Marta it was my best swim ever. I didn't rest by hanging onto a boey, dog paddling, puking, or back stroking. I even passed a couple of people on the swim, and I can't recall that ever happening in the past. Even though it was my best swim, it did not set any water records. Both of my boys came in from their swims before I started the bike leg. I can honestly say I enjoyed it.

At the end of the day we had some pretty good results. jed took first in the 19 and under category. I won the over 40 fat man division, and Dawn won her division. More importantly, all had a good time and were smiling as the crossed the line. Really, if everyone feels they did their best you can't ask for anything else.

Yesterday was the Marathon. As has become customary, Marta waited for me. She is patient and kind. There was a little twist as, for the second time in history, it rained on the St. George Marathon. It was a little strange to run in the rain for about 25 of 26.2 miles. I had a pretty good run. It was good to lose the weight before the run, but I didn't have the reserves to maintain for the whole run. I was dizzy and feeling faint at mile 15 and had a couple of other problems along the way. I was able to have a slight kick at the end, a very slight kick and we crossed the line with a time of 4:48 something.

I have never been this stiff after any of the previous races in which we participated. My right leg is the most stiff. It will get better in a few days, the pain and fatigue will fade and we will be ready for the next adventure, whatever that turns out to be. I will promise to do better with my training for next year, and I am sincere in that goal, though life seems to get in the way.

President Uchtdorff said in the Priesthood session of our Church's conference that tomorrow will not provide more time to get the things done we want to accomplish. We have to make the memories along the way. Marta got teary this morning with President Monson said that before you know it the endless piles of children's laundry will not be endless and we will wish that little hand prints once again marred a freshly cleaned wall. Marta and I have teenagers to a two year old and are loving the journey. Marta is my best friend, thank you for all you do.

Next year you won't have to . . .

Noth'in will keep you runnin' like summer!

2008-08-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

Summer is over and I am not entirely sure where it went. As a family, I am pretty sure that we spent more time apart than any other summer I can recall. I wonder if we had a "Good, Better or Best" summer. I am sure that our activites were not only good but that they at least made the "Better" category. How many were the Best, I am not so sure.

In June I attended Timberline youth leadership training with Chander and Jed. Timberline was a week long event that was held at Thunderidge Boy Scout Camp up Parowan Canyon. Jed was the Senior Patrol Leader and Chander was a participant. I must say that it was in the Best category.

I also took the time to go to Girls Camp for three days. Liesl was there and I chaparoned. In the past I have taken a lot of time to spend camping with the boyscouts, wether my kids were on the camp or not. Girls camp was quite a bit different than boyscouts. We had a good time. I became the jester of the camp. We had a nice little prank ring going. The girls, led by Kia, toilet papered my tent, so I duct taped their thent closed. They, in turn, simply stole my tent altogether. I found it and made them do a dance for leaving it out of place. (If someone left there gear out, we made them sing a little song to get it back.) It was all in good taste and in good fun. The camp ended on a spiritual high with President Hal Anderson giving a fireside on the restoration, and of the prophet Joseph Smith. I was able to provide support and it was good to spend the time with Liesl.

We also ran the "Ragnar" which is a 180 mile race that is completed in about 28 hours. Our team was "Ford - the Best never rest" for Marta's uncle who has cancer. We enjoyed the race, even if it was hard. I ran three legs of it which totalled about 17 miles. It was fun to watch Marta and Chander run. Both were determied to make up time and pass people on the hill, which they did, and did well. When it was over, our time was 29:43:09.5. We already signed up for next year. COOL :)

Then of course was our regular scout camp at Camp Frontier. It is located high in the Uintah's. We took 6 boys and 5 leaders. That is a pretty good ratio if you ask me. We won the most improved award for the John Coulter run. John Coulter was a mountain man who was captured by indians. They gave him a head start and then began to hunt him down for fun. In this race the scouts raced against the clock. The race included canoing, swimming, running, archery, hatchet throwing, shooting and more running. Our Troops Court of Honor is August 26, 2008.

Our family has spent a lot of time together but, not in the traditional ways. We have taken kids to Basketball camp, sent them on outings with grandparents, spent a little time (veyr little time) at the lake and tried to keep up on morning exercise.

We will keep on having fun and trying to keep up with our kids.

The Crazy Days of Summer are here

2008-06-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

The crazy days of summer are here and before you know it they will be gone. I have been gone for the past week as I was on Staff for a Boy Scouts Timberline Course. For those of you who are not familiar with Timberline, it is a leadership training camp where 13 - 15 year old Boy Scouts learn leadership skills for a week. The role of the adults is to help implement and oversee the program while the youth leaders teach skills to the participants. Its purpose is to teach young men communication and leadership skills that will enable them to return their respective troops and help the program run better.

We had 25 participants, 13 youth staff and 6 adult leaders. The camp was held by Brainhead at a formal scout camp called Thunder Ridge. Whe chose a lion theme, and tied in the Biblical story of Daniel and the Lion's den. We had and award called "Dare to be a Daniel" and it was awarded to scouts who were nominated by those at camp for acts of service. Once a scout earned the award, additional awards were beads which were then added to the original award. It was a lot of fun and the camp was a success.

In a larger sense I had to take a minute and think about what we are trying to accomplish. I hear so mauch about the bad things that happen in the world, and the problems without youth, and yet, the young men that participated were generally good young men who are trying to figure out who they are and how they can be better. They wanted to learn and grow. We had a flag ceremony each day and they got progressivley better through the week. We retired a flag during the week on the top of a knoll and spoke about our duty to God, Family and Country. After the ceremony was over they walk down an Honor trail where they were instructed on the points of the Scout Law. It was was a great night. If we all lived the scout law our country would not have anything to fear.

Let's all remember A Scout is:

Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean and Reverent

What a great set of values/virtues for all of us.

The summer will come and go as we each make a few memories. I hope to make an difference, in my away from the office time, by working side by side with my wife, Marta, and kids. Hopefully, the we can influence the scouts I work with, or whomever I come in contact.

Let's make the most of this summer and make a great memory.

Brad

What do you do in the Summer Time?

2008-06-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and there are lots of great things going on. Marta and I have 7 children and three of them are teenagers. School has been out for a week and already one has gone to EFY or "Especially for Youth" and two others have gone to mountain bike trail building school hosted by IMBA. As a family we went to Salt Lake this past weekend and helped work on a mountain bike trail up Killyon's Canyon. It was nice to work with a dozen or so other people on a trail that had been overused.

Marta and I enjoyed the time in the mountains and took the time to smell the crisp mountian air. We hiked up a mile or so and then went to work for a couple of hours. The area where the trail was diverted was all washed out and cupped. Overall there were about fourteen people clearing brush and smoothing the trail. Chandler (13) was not too impressed with the new trail as it was so smooth you could have ridden a road bike on it, and he want a little more adventure. We enjoyed the time together.

Tonight, Sunday, we had a planning meeting. We all had a lot to contribute to the week. Marta commented that rather than get an overview of the week, we had to plan each hour. Monday, there is basketball camp for the boys, not to mention the plumber and electrician coming over, Scouts on Tuesday, and meetings for the Timberline Camp next week, the two oldest have Youth Conference at the end of the week and Jed (17) has a basketball tournament in Payson, Utah simultaneously with Youth Confrence. As we wiped the sweat off of our forheads after wrinting all of that down, we looked at the next week. It looks pretty much the same. So the crazy not lazy days of summer begin to scream by.

Life is crazy and wonderful, and I am glad to share it with Marta. Marta is truly graceful. I have heard a lot of defintions of grace, but the one I like the best is simple and yet challenging. I define grace as the ability to undertake something, which is very difficult, and make it look simple. Marta does that every week. She accomplishes so much every week with such seeming fluidity that it is mind boggling.

I guess that really we all want to have our own bit of grace somewhere in our lives. We watch Olympians with awe as the they perform amazing feats of strength, agility, stamina, endurance and balance. Deep inside each one of us we watch with the hope that we will find our niche in life where we feel like we have given our Olympic performance. Most likely we have. Probably, our performance is not of physical grace but along the journey we have the opportunity to share our humanity. Along the way we have been there for someone, or are there day after day, making someone elses life little easier, and hopefully better. I am sure most of these act or deed are done when or where few can see or recognize the good deeds, yet they remain, testaments to the goodness and the humanity lies within each of us.

So what is the relationship between grace and the crazy schedules we hold? Well, it is simply this, we continue to drive ourselves, and often our families, in the hope that our children will have opportunies to realize their own greatness; we hope that by providing them with new wholesome situations, that they remain fully alive. As we watch our children grow, we also grow, inside, and our hearts stay young with them. Someday, when they are grown, we continue to live the principles we tried to instill in them, and when the end comes and we graduate from this life, we look back and know we did our best.

Fresh Start

2008-01-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

Here it the new year. I have felt for awhile that I needed to keep a journal of some sort. The question is how, where and when. In this modern era of computers, internet, PDA's, cell phones, e-mail etc. how is a real question. Will I lose all that I write? Can I remember this new password? Alas, for whatever reason I have chosen the route of the blog. Wish me luck.

I spent quite a bit of time working on my personal goal statement. Over the last month or so my wife, Marta, has the read aloud the book, The Power of Story, by Jim Loher. It has been a pretty easy book to read as we believe that it coincides with what we are working on in our family. Its premise is that we create our life by the story we write for ourself. Said in other words, we live the life we believe we have. It suggests that each of us write a mission statement that, if read at our funeral, we felt our life fulfilled. I will learn how to back up this blog and save it so my thoughts, in a small way are preserved if any of my acquaintances should like to read them. There are those whose lives intersected with mine, who are no longer, that I wish more was available about.

Enough nostalgia. Here is another opportunity to get better at keeping a journal. When I was an LDS missionary I kept a regular journal. When I review it I have to laugh. In the beginning it is really serious, then the unabashed, cocky, young man comes through. While I certainly had my faults I also had a good sense of purpose. I still have a good sense of purpose. I am a husband to Marta and the happy father of seven great kids. It is still a blur how I ended up turning 40. My family also has 2 dogs, a cat, two horses, and a couple of turtles somewhere in the yard. By profession I am an attorney who focuses on injury law. Our church has a lay ministry (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and I work with the 12 & 13 year old young men as an advisor and Scout Master. Life in great.

This past weekend I took the Scouts to Zion National Park for an overnighter. I was able to take two of my sons, Chander and Sam, age 12 and 7. We had 6 boys go. A few of the mothers were worried as a big storm was due. It rained all night long and all morning. Fortunately, our water proof tents were still water proof and all remained dry. When moring came there was no real push to get breakfast, as generally people just wanted to go home. The rain lightened and we set out for a ride. What a great choice. Zion National Park is always beautiful, and the rain with snow on the higher elevations was no exception. We saw buck deer, water falls, and filled our lungs with clean, cool winter air. Attached are a couple of the photographs. What a great time.

It seems a little strange to start by writing about a Scout campout, but I suppose the recency of the event brings it the most easily to mind. There are lots of great things to write about and I commit to write at least twice a week, hopefully it will get easier as we go.