Why Mark should have been a Marine...

So I was thinking to myself the other day as I was on a backbreaking run through the woods, "Self, Mark should have definitely been a Marine. He lives for this kind of stuff." I have to honestly say that being a Marine is an awesome job in a myriad of ways, and I just wanted to let Mark know what he's missing out on.

1. The Motivator

Imagine showing up to the starting line of your next triathalon looking like this. Service A uniform, nasty grimace and a fresh high and tight. Nothing says "you turds don't belong in my league" quite like a high and tight. Come on Mark, you wouldn't even have to run.

2. Rank Structure

How awesome would it be to own the title, "Captain Crosby"? (For all of you civilians out there, a naval captain is not the same as a Marine, Army or Air Force captain. Right now, Mark and I are both Lieutenants, but he outranks me. I know, it's really weird and that's what this post is about) Mark, you could seriously change Kaemon's Cap'n Crunch cereal boxes to read "Cap'n Crosby". Now you have to wait like 10 years before you'll ever get that chance.

--While we're on the topic of ranks: Ensign pronounced "en-zin" is a rank in the Navy. Ensign pronounced "en-sign" is a banner, standard or church publication.

3. Battlecries

"Oorah" can basically be considered the official bark of the Teufelhunden, or Devil Dogs. In the battle of Belleau Wood in World War I, the Marines fought so fiercely and scared the Germans so much that they (the Germans) began referring to the US Marines literally as "the dogs from hell". Oorah!

4 & 5. US Marine Corps War Memorial

The statue of the flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima is one of the most iconic images in America. Everybody recognizes this one. (#4)

Kari and I visited the memorial yesterday. I was in uniform and there was a large group of foreign exchange students visiting as well. After much deliberation they chose an official spokesman for the group and asked if I would take a picture with them. After that a line formed and I ended up taking plenty more pictures. It was an absolute honor to symbolize the Marine Corps along with the memorial. (#5)

6. You tell me...

vs.

Just in case the rest of the men thought they were going to escape the wrath of this Marine, here you go...

Bret:

Infusionsoft is right. It's time to get hard and join the Marine Corps.

Bret, meet Gunnery Sergeant Angell. Your worst nightmare wrapped up in fresh cammies and complete with a scream similar to that of a Pterodactyl. I know this because he was an instructor at Officer Candidates school when I was there.

Chad:

We all remember that night when we were playing Five Crowns and out of nowhere Chad let us in on his little secret. Apparently Bret had been picking on Chad not too long before and that was the last straw. Well Chad, the Marine Corps has its own Martial Arts program. Here you can learn all the little tricks to keep your soft brother in check.

Step 1-

Slam him to the ground.

Step 2-

Make him squeal like a piggy. Who's the little girl now, Bret?

Reed:

Here are the two things that can be permissibly worn around a man's neck.

M32 grenade launcher.

Medal of Honor.

Ryne:

Within 48 hours, you will have clear and inarguable evidence. Check our blog in two days.

Barry:

You always talk about being a pilot and getting a plane. Well how about flying Marine 1?

Yes, the Marines fly the president's helicopter.

Laverl: (you thought you were going to escape didn't you?)

Everybody knows why Laverl should be a Marine- bald is always in style.

Even though this post is extremely sarcastic, I want you all to know that I love this country like none other. Happy 4th of July everybody.

At Last! A post about LaVerls Solar project!

Since the kids have all been posting their 'super posts' I thought I'd better get one done for Dad on his major project of putting our solar system in. First Dad needed a shed to house all 18 of his huge batteries, & the big electronic panels that are the 'brains' of his system. He bought a pre-built shed, but this is the cement foundation for it.

The cement truck came and Dad poured cement for the shed floor.

He had a guy come help, that saved him a little hard work.

This is the huge hole he dug for the big poles that the solar panels on are on. They were almost 5 feet deep! Along with all the concrete, he added huge rocks to help make it really strong!

This is the pole with the concrete setting up.

After Dad painted the poles all nice, he started working on the framework that will hold all the solar panels. His system will track the sun and follow it all day long!

This is the inside of his little shed. You can see the huge batteries that store the solar power. Once the batteries are all charged, the extra power the system produces, feeds back into the "grid" so we are building a credit with Navopache Electric, we like that idea!

Now he's got all the panels on and all the wires run from these panels into his main controllers in the shed that monitor everything and can tell him exactly how much power he is generating and how much we are using.

You can see how big they are, 12 panels per frame!

They have an electronic "eye" that keeps them exactly focused on the direct sun.

Now here's the inside of the shed, with the batteries protected inside these big plastic tubs. He had to put in these special vents to help control gases.

These are the two very expensive meters that control each panel. They are so 'smart'!! They read everything and can control every detail.

Here's the main panel that Navopache made him redo. Plus he had to set a new power pole in too. They didn't like the old one or the old board we had everything set on before. You can see it is all pretty major!!

After the solar panels were in LaVerl started on his wind generator! With all the wind in Eagar, he wanted to utilize this resource! This is LaVerl trenching to run all the wires that will run from the generator into the main controls in the shed. Setting the pole was pretty intense. 40 feet is taller than it looks. LaVerl had to use a "boom" ? truck to raise the pole up. It is hinged at the bottom so it can be brought back down to work on it.
LaVerl built the pole, all the fittings for the 'guy wires' to attach too, everything. He is a pretty handy guy!! Now getting the 40 foot pole up was kind of scary!

His good, very handy friend, Jim Rogers was there to help him. He had to do this on a day when the wind wasn't blowing!

Finally it was up straight and LaVerl could bolt in all in.

Yeah!!! Its up!! It has two sets of 'guy wires' to stabilize it in our strong winds!!

Once it was up, LaVerl had to get his big ladder to take the straps off that they used to raise it. He was way up there! Now we don't mind the wind so much, because we know its making power! This little "Whisper" has really been tested, we had some major winds that were reported at 112 mph out at our airport last month!! It has a safety feature that slows it down in high winds that sound like a truck putting on its air brakes. The neighbors find this a little annoying!

So that's about it. He LOVES his system and now he can check one major thing off his list of preparedness things. His next project is a rain water retrieval and storage system-hmmmmm?

The year half over!

Hello Family! I was just reflecting on the fact this it is already June! Already 6 months into the year of 2010! SO I was thinking it would be a good time to reflect on my own goals and resolutions I made at the beginning of the year, and as always there is room for improvement. But, why not try to finish the year out strong:)? As a reminder Here are the simple things most all of us agreed to work on for the "Perfect 10 in 2010"

Daily:

1. Personal Prayer

2. Family/couple prayer

3. Personal scripture reading

4. Family/Couple scripture reading

Weekly:

5. Family home evening

6. Journal writing (mine is our blog)

Monthly:

7. Attend the temple

8. Home teaching/ Visiting teaching

9. Fast and give a generous fast offering

10. Pay a full tithe

SO how ya doin? I sure love you all and miss you.

Kaemon's Preschool Graduation

The kids put on a really nice religious themed singing presentationOur Graduate! First of many to come.Proud parents - This was a team effort. We worked together to make sure Kaemon made it to school by 9 am Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri with a healthy lunch packed and picked up at 1pm.

Aeromedical Officer Graduation May 27, 2010

My wife pinning on my "wings of gold"My supporters for my big day with guest speaker Captain Knight

All smiles in my dress white uniform and new wings

My good-lookin' bunch

I received a pretty cool award called the Surgeon General's Award, presented to an outstanding member of the Student Flight Surgeon class in recognition of scholastic achievement, officer qualities, leadership, and flight aptitude.

What a good mouse trap!

So Dad & I usually keep a few mouse traps set in the furnace/storage room in the basement and IT'S A GOOD THING WE DID! I went in there for something and when I looked down and saw this huge thing in the trap, it freaked me out! I couldn't tell what it was and assumed it was a RAT due to its size! Of course I left it there until your dad got home, then I told him he was never going to believe what I had to show him. He was so funny, he opened the door just a crack and peaked in, afraid of what might pop out at him I think! Any guesses??? Yep, a baby rabbit!! Thats alot better than a rat I think!! But how it got down in the basement is a mystery. Dads going to seal up the wood drop door better, but there is only small little cracks, so how did it get in?? I'm just glad it didn't grow big in there, making all kinds of noises, that would be scary!! Isn't life just full of lovely surprizes?

Tired of winter, wind, and cold!

On May 2nd we got another snow storm, about 5 inches! So we decided to head to someplace warmer-- Roosevelt Lake! We spent a couple of days enjoying the Spring weather!

These are some of the pretty flowers we saw on our little 4-wheeling ride!

We crossed this creek about 6 times, it was beautiful!

At the end of the trail is Reevis Mountain Ranch where Peter Bigfoot has his little sanctuary! He is pretty self sufficient and a really nice guy. He was getting ready to teach one of his many classes he offers in the summer months.

This is one of about 4 or more places where people can stay while taking his classes! If you're interested, you better book right away as they go pretty fast!! His classes do sound interesting, learning about desert plants, surviving off the land, making herb tinctures, etc. Of course, Dad wants to attend some, but they are pretty expensive, probably because of the high class accomodations!

An Exercise of Willpower

So Saturday I traveled 70.3 miles (1.2 by sea, 56 by bike, 13.1 by foot) to complete my first Half Ironman triathlon event. Wow!! This event chewed up my ego and handed it to me on a plate and is the hardest physical thing I have ever done. Multiple times I was gonna call it quits, especially on the "run", by just telling myself "Just make it to the next water station". I have tremendous respect for anyone completing a Full Ironman, an event which I don't care to ever do. You may be asking, Why would someone not only volunteer for such a painful event, but also pay good money to participate? Because it feels so good when you reach the end and it's all finally over.