"Driving Distance" is Relative

Five years ago when we moved to Denver from Houston Caleb was so excited to be within "driving distance" of Idaho where both our parents live. I bought into that line for the first trip. After sixteen hours of driving I soon realized I'd been duped! So, since we've lived here we've driven to ID 1-2 times a year. I HATE road trips. I don't care about the scenery. I get soars on my arms from reaching into the back of the car to "handle" the kids. Quick stop food makes me feel cruddy. We often drive at night to ease the burden on the children. I'm the first to admit that Caleb usually drives 14 of the 16 hours but when it's my turn to relieve him it's usually in the middle of the night. I get double vision while driving at night. Yes, on several occasions I've convinced Caleb to let us fly. Once I flew with Silas while he drove the boys up. The trip is torture. I am so HAPPY to say that our move back to Houston officially puts us OUT of driving distance!!! From here on out we're frequent flyers!

MJ Part II

To clear the air, I haven't LOVED MJ for quite some time. Yes, I bought BAD on RECORD (yes that was back when I only had a record player). It was the first album I ever bought with my hard earned paper route money. The above photo was a poster on my bedroom wall that I drooled over. That was the Michael that I loved. Seriously, I can probably sing every one of his songs, chorus and VERSES! I know he's been really weird, messed up and freakish these last 10 yrs. or so but I do have to say that I Tami Zimmerman, am a Micheal Jackson Junky. As with all Iconic deaths, I'm going to suspect that MJ's just in hiding and not really pushing daisies.

Tami's Childhood Hero

Yes, it was Michael Jackson. She even did some of his dance moves last night in his memory. I can't believe Tami hasn't already blogged about this but she must be too upset. When we found out that he was doing concerts in London, Tami really wanted to fly over and go to one of the concerts. Let's just say that I wasn't going with her. I never have been a fan of Michael Jackson but if you take a look at our CD's (so outdated) every single one of his songs are in there. I'm sure Tami will add to this in some way but I thought I would get my comments in first. For the record, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum on Michael Jackson!!!

Happy Father's Day Dad

First of all, I need to preface this by saying that my dad will be completely embarrassed by this blog. He doesn't like attention drawn to him in any way. He would rather just go about life working and serving behind the scenes so that nobody would know.

One of the best things my dad taught all of us was the value of work. He wanted to make sure that all of us not only learned how to work but also learned to enjoy working. I need to include serving in this paragraph as well. We attended every ward service project that there was. When they asked for volunteers, my dad was always one of the first ones. If he wasn't able to be there, he would volunteer us to go with someone else. I know it isn't easy to teach kids how to work and I think of all the grief, time and money we cost him while learning to work and I am absolutely amazed at his determination. I have already given up many times trying to teach our kids.

Another great lesson that my dad taught us is personal responsibility. He taught us from a young age and then built on the principle throughout our lives. We never had a curfew growing up. We didn't need one. I came home really late one night (early one morning) and my dad woke me up about 2 hours later and told me we were going to work. Let me just say that owning a logging business definitely helped teach work and responsibility. It was extremely physical work and doing that work with only 2 hours of sleep was miserable. I dont think I ever came home late again. To this day, I am still a morning person and I can't stay up late.

Even though Tami and I have been married for almost 12 years, we still seek my dad's guidance with important decisions that we have to make. When we get in a situation that we don't know how to handle, Tami always says, "you need to call your dad. He always knows what to do." I still call him when I have to make tough decisions at work. He is the most level headed person I have ever met and is always a good sounding board.

My dad has always been an extremely hard worker. He would work long hours and 6-7days a week if necessary. To still spend time with all of us, he would just take us with him. I think my favorite 4th of July was going in the mountains (another benefit of logging) and working on equipment most of the day and then celebrating the Fourth that night. He found ways to spend time with his family while running a very intense business.

Even during all those long days of work, he made time to attend every single one of my highschool games no matter where it was. Some of the best times I had were traveling from Boise back to Coeurd A'lene after a football game or basketball game. I would try to stay up as long as possible so that we could talk. These were our PPI's. Sometimes he would even trust me to drive while he slept (I'm sure he kept one eye open). There were times when we would get back from the games early Saturday morning and then go straight to work. This carried on to college too when he came to almost everyone one of my games. The closest games were 4 hours away.

I know this is a very long blog and I could go on for quite some time but I need to make sure I have some left over for next year. Happy Fathers Day Dad.

Watch Out Criminals-----and Everyone Else

At the beginning of the year, I took a class and applied for my concealed weapons permit. I finally got it a few months ago and I haven't carried one time. I told Tami that I needed a new pistol first so we went and bought me one for Father's Day. I also sold a pistol and rifle and that went toward the gift.

She was giving me a bad time because I spent the time and money to get the permit and never carried. I didn't have the right holster but I thought I could just carry it in my belt on my back. I didn't have a shell in the chamber and figured it would be a good trial.

The first place we went was a grocery store. We pulled up in the parking lot and I got out to get Jude out of the other side. As I was walking around the back of the pickup, I felt the pistol start to slide down into my shorts. I don't remember what I said but I grabbed the back of my shorts and Tami started laughing. She said, "That looks like Silas when he has to go the bathroom really bad." There were people all over the parking lot and I'm sure they were thinking that I had just loaded my shorts right there in front of everyone. I opened the pickup door and backed into it and had Tami shield me. The pistol had fallen perfectly into the inseam of my shorts so I had to shake it out one of the legs. Once I got it out, I slid it under the seat and left it. For some reason I haven't packed it since.

Rumor Has It...

I've witnessed firsthand now, how a rumor can spread like wildfire! I know this announcement comes as a shock to NO ONE, but I'll say it anyway... We're moving to Houston! For real, we told about 3 people of our move (as we had to wait for the news to be formally announced within Caleb's business community) but you'd swear it was posted on our foreheads by the amount of people who were in the know. Well, I think I may have some news that you might not have heard yet. Caleb has been promoted to U. S. Region Vice President, Smith Technologies. It's a very exciting career move for him. We feel very blessed to have this opportunity. Everything is moving forward very quickly. Last week my Bestie, Kris, watched our boys for a few days while Caleb and I went to find a house. As has been the case with all our homes, we feel totally frustrated in the search until we walk into "the one" and then we both just KNOW that it is our house. We've never had to deliberate over several places, it's always a case of the one and only for us. So, needless to say our new home will be perfect for our family. We didn't check out the church but do know that it's a pretty close drive and found out once we were under contract that our Stake Center is an hour and a half away in College Station. We'll just hope to be team primary teachers!!! We leave in 3 weeks on July 8th. Anyone looking to buy a GREAT house, ours is for sale!! I have to put in a shameless plug for it...4182 sq. ft, 6 bedroom, 4 and 3/4 bath, half acre lot, formal dining, loft/office area, TWO laundry rooms, exercise room w/ rubber floors, 2-3 storage rooms, Large media room w/ surround sound and wet bar, formal living, MUD ROOM w/ built in storage (I'm going to miss this the most), Granite throughout, 5 piece master bath with huge walk in shower and huge jetted tub, cedar lined walk-in closet, top of the line rainbow play set, dog run, 10 fruit trees, berries, grapes, and garden pots (all on drippers), 2 ovens (1 electric, 1 gas), gas range, lrg. over sized island w/ sink and bar, butlers pantry and tons of storage in the knotty alder cabinets, 220v in the over sized 3 car garage for a welder and work area in the back hmmmm... I know there's lots more but I already made a book on the house details. Here's a link to the listing for those who might be interested... Click Here. I've had lots of peeps wanting to see the new house so click HERE for a slide show of the new place. So, now that we can talk freely of the move I'll probably have more things I can blog about!

Fishing

Silas was very concerned last week because I had never taken him fishing. He didn't want to go to his primary class so I told him that I would take him fishing if he went to the class. This week I had to pay up.

It was really sad that the boys didn't even have fishing poles. We had to buy poles and worms and then we headed out. The first day we didn't catch anything. I didn't really care because my end of the bargain was complete. I didn't say that I would take him catching. I really don't like fishing but I enjoy catching. Somehow though, he guilted me in to taking them fishing again on Saturday.

We got a lot of bites but one of the funniest was when Elias had a fish on his line. He must watch too many fishing shows on TV. He was pulling as hard as he could and then he would let the pole down and real as fast as he could. While he was doing this, he was backing up the bank. You would have thought he was trying to real in a world record sword fish. Of course we didn't make fun of him for that one at all.

Silas was reeling his line in and after all the false alarms of "Dad, I think I have a fish", I wasn't hurrying over to see what he had "caught". When I got there, he really did have a fish on his line. I guess he never quite realized what was going to happen once the fish was reeled in. We tried to get a picture of him with his fish. He was going to hold the line but as soon as the fish flopped, he screamed and ran away. We couldn't get him close to the fish to even take a picture so Isaac had to hold the fish steady for the picture. He also held the fish as we tried to get the swallowed hook out. The poor fish didn't make it. If there are any expert fisherman out there, "would it have been better to just cut the line and leave the hook in?"

Markers and Monsters

Silas and Isaac really like to draw. As a result I'm always finding markers, pens and pencils around the house. The boys were in charge of Jude the other day and this is what he managed to do under their watch. For some reason when I stripped him naked and put him next to the wall he got pretty sad/embarassed. Almost all of Caleb's family came and visited over Memorial weekend. We didn't get out as much as we planned due to the rain but Caleb's siblings have no problem making up indoor games with the kids. Gabe's specialty is "Monster in the Mountain". He hides under a blanket and grabs anyone near and pulls them all in the mountain. We had a blast. It was so nice to have everyone here!