Daddy's Little Girl

My life has changed. I am a father. There is a wide variety of emotions. My outlook and purpose in life has seemed to change completely. Things that were once of high importance aren't. I love this little girl more than I ever thought I could love. A great bonus in all of this is that the love that I have for my wife has increased tremendously. Life is an exciting journey.

What can you learn from a Petsmart employee?

Once upon a time I bought a fish tank and filled it with Tiger Barb fish. They were playful and fun... so I went to Petsmart and bought 2 more, adding to the fun. Little did I know that 1 of them had a disease called ICH, and they all died. (Stick with me here, I am just giving some background, the point is coming) Luckily I got my money back on all the fish due to a 14 day return policy on the fish... haha. I was depressed and put the fish tank away, not wanting to kill more little things.
Well, I have done it, I pulled out the tank, dusted it off, and decided to try again. This time, I have done my homework, studied all the ins and outs of the aquarium world. I studied every aspect of keeping a healthy enviornment. I wanted to go to the pet store prepared with good questions and buy the right fish. This time, I knew I was going to buy hearty fish that are indestructable and won't die.
I got there with Sam, we looked at all the fish, and decided to buy 3 neon tetras and some Fancy Tail guppies. I found an employee and went through my laundry list of intelligent questions. I then got this idea of maybe buying a female guppy to go with some males....
Alright, you might see what is coming. The intelligent, MEDICAL STUDENT and not to mention father to be asked this profound question... "So if I buy a female guppy, and put it with the males, I guess I will get babies?" Right here, I am thinking... earth to idiot, did you just ask that? Are you not fathering a child? Are you not studying all this stuff at school? And you are asking a Petsmart employee about this kind of stuff?
Less than intelligent...yes... educational... yes... embaressing...yes...
Lessons learned at Petsmart. Give it a try.

Past Assumptions

Many times in the past 7 years I have thought about this certificate. I got this "award" in seminary my senior year with the seminary council. Why? I really couldn't tell you. But it might have to do with my relatives being bald. However, this "award" has haunted me since the time I recieved it. I have checked weekly for signs of a receding hairline. While I may have lost less than a cm, I have wondered when the magical day will come when it comes out in clumps. There have been a few times where hair has been lost from my head, but those time really only come when I have a stressful test and I am readily pulling it out in clumps.
Now, this certificate does say "MOST LIKELY" to go bald. That means I do need to know if the other members of the seminary council have gone bald or not... so I need everyones help. I need to know if Alan Marvin, Kurt Renlisbacker, Joshua Jones, or Preston Neilson have gone bald. If you know, or have seen them lately, please, leave a comment and tell me if they are shiny on top. If none of them have, well, I just might still be the most likely to go bald.

Skeet shooting

Iowa offered its best weather today and allowed Ben B. and myself some time to break out the "boom boom stick" and shoot some clay. Good thing we picked up some mosquito repellent, cause by the time we got set up, I got bit a good 5-6 times! Every shot with the shotgun could have dropped at least 30 of the bloodsuckers. They predict that because of the flooding, we are going to have 4-7X more mosquitoes that last year!
Anyways, we shot in rounds of 5. I got off to a slow start, trying to remember how to shoot my gun, but by the end, I was hitting 4/5.
Shooting is great therapy. Hopefully by November I will be ready for the annual Elder's quorum turkey shoot. I don't want to look like the fool I did last year. Plus,I need to do the Thun name proud.

10 lbs takes flight

So spring cleaning revealed some treasures under all the cobwebs. One of those would be mission pictures on CD that I didn't remember that I had. As I was looking at these pictures, I realized there is a great story behind each peculiar scene. I thought that I should share some of those pictures and stories.


This is the first. Bowling was a huge fad in Taiwan in the mid to late 90's, but dwindled off after a few years. Hence, numerous, spacious bowling alleys with nobody in them. This was a p-day favorite. There has been rumors that there was a picture out there of me doing this, but here it is for reals, in the flesh. Obviously, we weren't going for "highest score", but we were going for "longest hangtime". At first glance, one might wonder "where is the ball?" Don't look on, but rather above the alley. That yellow ball nearing half way... the ball hit the alley about 3/4 of the way down, and hit the pins with a flash of furry.
The owners of the alley thought that the way we were bowling was amaricanized methods, and laughed and laughed. We did too, wondering if I had put dents down there at the end.
As a side note: check out those pants...