Overcoming Procrastination

It's been over a year since I've written in my blog. Part of that is that I don't have anything interesting to say and part of it is that I do have something to say, I'll just say it later. So for the last year or so, since my last post, I've been mastering the art of procrastination in my blog writing and with life in general. I always have things pop into my mind that I want to blog, but they are usually around 2 in the morning when I'm trying to get my 4 to 4.5 hours a sleep before the days starts again. When that happens, I quickly say, 'I'll do it tomorrow', and drift into the land of lala, where I want to spend more time. Such a great place that lala land.

Anyway, I've decided to start working on not procrastinating any more. If you are one of my 4 followers, I hope you stick around to see what's next. If you stumbled onto this blog by accident, welcome. If you've made it this far you are more patient than I am, because as I see a lot of words on the screen and run, haha.

As I go forward with this blog, I'm going to everything that I post on here is solely my opinion. I don't want you to think as I read this that my opinion is the only one that matters in this world and get all worked up into a frenzy over what I write. It is a way of sharing what I believe and why I believe it, notice the I's in that last bit. Me, myself, and I. I have opinions and that is what they are, mine. If they get you worked up, simply stop reading. If you want to leave a nasty comment feel free, that is your right to do so, but it may not make it to the final comment section of the blog because I like to be in control too and moderating the comments gives me a sort of ha... I'm in charge kind of feeling.

Topics that I may cover are things like books I've read; general rants; religion, I know, no one likes a zealot, but remember it's my blog, my opinion, feel free to believe what you want as long as I can believe what I want. P.S. I'm not going to be a zealot, at least I'll try not to be.

If you like what you read, come back, check on the blog often. I'm really going to try and do this and stop procrastinating.

What is True Love

Hello everyone, it's been a while. I guess up until now I haven't had anything that I really wanted to share with everyone. But after this last weekend I want to share some cool stuff with everyone.

The story actually starts about a year ago when I had a friend ask on Facebook if anyone wanted to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar relay with a team he was on. I'm not normally a runner, but I said I'll do it, you know something to get me off the couch. Well I started training in November for the relay that was scheduled for the middle of June. I would run 15 minutes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I was getting pretty good at running for the entire 15 minutes. One day I mentioned to my wife, with the title of this post she had to enter somewhere, that she should run with me one day, she agreed and one Saturday we set out for a 15 minute run around the neighborhood. Quick side note running in my neighborhood stinks because there is nothing flat about it. There is a lot of uphill running and that isn't that much fun. So we started out and she was able to run for about 3-4 minutes before she was done running and I thought she was going to die. She assured me that she'd be ok and that I could keep running. I went ahead and kept running because she had my son riding along on his bike and he knew how to use a cell phone in case she passed out. She continued walking the route we'd talked about before we started the run. I got home just before she did and as she walked around the corner she had that look of "don't ever ask me to run again" on her face and I felt bad because I love my wife and don't want to kill her with my stupid antics. I kept training and finished my first Ragnar relay.

The day after the WB relay is over, I'm in church with one of the guys from my van during the relay talking about this double medal, Saints and Sinners, we can get if we run in the Las Vegas Ragnar in November, the weekend following my 15th anniversary.

This is kind of how the conversation went:

M: We could do the Vegas and get the Saints and Sinners double medal.
Me: That would be awesome, it is the weekend of my anniversary. Hey Chels, we could run the Ragnar for our anniversary.
Chels: (After punching me in the arm, I think)Ummm, no.

Who could blame her for that kind of answer. Reminder I was right off the WB and the hangover hadn't worn off yet. So I was ready to run another Ragnar right there and then.

A short time after that the following conversation was had:

Chels: I was thinking how cool it would be to finish the Ragnar together around our 15th anniversary.
Me: Oh yeah, let's get a team and do it.

We got the awesomest team in Ragnar history together, nothing against the Chafing Tailers, but this one had my wife on it so it couldn't have been more awesome than that. and ran this 200ish mile relay on a weekend we should've been lounging somewhere warm enjoying our 15th anniversary.

All in all, you know you've found true love when after 15 years of marriage you can take your wife and throw her, not literally, in a minivan with 4 other sweaty people, get less than 6 hours of sleep in a 48 hour time-span  make her run 5+ miles uphill in the wind, 5+ miles alone through the desert at night in the wind and cold, and 3+ miles without giving her any support during her run, all to complete a 200ish mile relay so that you can selfishly get a simple piece of metal saying you did something crazy.

I'd say if that isn't true love I don't know what is.

Mo Tab Christmas

First off I have to say how cool the retro camera app I have on my phone. This pinhole look is pretty cool.

Anyway, this morning Chels, I, and the three oldest went to the Conference Center for Music and the Spoken Word. It was a very cool castle set and all the dancers were dressed in castle period clothing. Jayne Seymour did the story of the Good King Wenceslas, which I have never heard before. It was cool. They even made it snow in the Conference Center. It was a great experience.

Another Temple Picture

I have an app on my phone called Retro Camera and it does some cool things with pictures. Here is one if the SL Temple.

More From Our Fun Monday

So before we got down to see the lights on Monday we decided to get some dinner. The kids wanted McDonald's so we went to get them food but Chels and I decided that we'd have Taco Bell instead. We get to the Taco Bell drive thru and notice that there is a line and that it is moving really slowly. We order our food and then sit and wait. There are 3 cars ahead of us and it feels like it's going to take a while to get our food. As we are sitting there the 2nd car in line decides to bump the car in front of him, then backs into the car in front of us. Then he decides to hit the car in front of him again. The guy in the front, driving a 4 runner type vehicle is out of his car yelling and cussing at the guy to stop hitting his car. Luckily I was the last car in the line and decided that it was time to back out of the drive thru and go inside and pick up my food. It was an interesting evening in the drive thru.

Christmas Season Fun

On Monday night we took the opportunity to head downtown to look at the lights. It was a lot if fun. Not as crowded as I thought it would be and we were able to spend some time just enjoying things. The kids had a good time and we even got gingerbread men and hot chocolate at Deseret Book before heading back to the car.
-- Tracy

That was a pain...

So I just spent a lot more time trying to get mobile posting to work from my phone than I probably should have. The reason that I figured it out is because I want to start doing a picture a day from my phone. I know, I've tried stuff like this before, but we will see how it goes.

Testing Mobile Posting

I have been working in getting mobile posting to work on my phone. Maybe it will finally work.

This is a picture of or little Christmas tree.

Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures

I don't know why, but I've always like taking pictures of people taking pictures. There are a few of us in the family with digital SLR cameras and when we go on trips, we all take our cameras with us. Here are a few of the picts I took today of others using a camera.

Jared using Papa's camera

Ems with her camera

 

 

 

 

I don't think Papa was being intent on his next shot, but it sure looks that way.

I don't know why I made two of them black and white and left the other one color, but they I like the way they turned out.

Fishing for Lightning

I love living in Utah and having these awesome thunderstorms roll through every summer. I can say that I think I am the only one in my house that likes these thunderstorms. On Saturday when the storm rolled through, I was really tired and wanted to go to sleep but my wife sat up and watched the lightning through our dining room window. She suggested that I should get my camera out and get some pictures of the lightning. I was weighing the options of getting some cool pictures and sleeping when Jarik took mom's advice and started getting my camera out for me. Reluctantly I got out of bed and got the camera all setup and got nothing as the storm decided to die out. What a waste of a good 30 minutes of sleep.

Then last night, the 28th, we heard the storm rolling in. Since the camera and tripod were still out, I decided that it was time to get some good pictures. As I set up the camera and started taking pictures I felt like I was fishing, you know, cast your line in, wait until the big one hits and reel it in. So I'd open the shutter on the camera, toss in the line, and I'd get bites like this:

This where the lightning was way far away or just behind the clouds and it would cause the sky to light up. It is cool, but it is just a bite on the end of the camera 'fishing pole'.

Then you'd get more then get a hit but it wasn't a 'keeper fish' type of picture. Loads of fun reeling it in, but it ends up being a fighter more than a keeper.

All great in their own right, but like most fishers just not the big daddy. Then you get closer and it's pretty awesome.

Then as luck would have it, you toss your line in again and something bigger strikes and you get to go home satisfied with what you have finally reeled in during your day of fishing.

I went to bed satisfied that I had a couple cool pictures to finally blog about. All in all a good night of fishing for lightning.

Psych

As a family we watch a lot of TV shows. Some of our favorites include NCIS, Wipeout, Good Luck Charlie, and Angel. One of our favorites right now is Psych. We just got season 5 from Netflix and finished watching it. Season 6 starts in October and we are excited in the McGee house.

Today I came home to my own little Juliet O'Hara...

Bree is such and cutie wearing Jarik's suit and has his badge and everything. It is just awesome. I love that my kids like to use their imagination and play like they are the characters in these shows.

Splashpad = Tons of Fun

Last Monday was the holiday for Pioneer Day. We sat around the house most of the morning, which was a nice break. Then in the afternoon we headed out to Herriman to take advantage of the splash pad there. After that we bar-b-qued us up some food, had some dinner and ended the night watching the movie Adjustment Bureau. If you haven't seen that movie, I would recommend it. Here's a picture from the splash pad...

T, J, and B at the Herriman splash pad waiting for the water to start.

Coming Back

Hello blogger world. I've decided that I want to have a reason to start taking pictures and what not again so...I'm going to pretend that I'm going to be blogging a little more. Things have been pretty hectic and I'm hoping that this will provide a little break from the world. We'll see how it goes. I'm famous for saying one thing and then doing another, haha. I was going through some pictures today and found this one that I thought was pretty cool. It was taken from the balcony of the cabin we stayed in last year in Island Park.

Laters

Blog Name Change

Everyone the address for this blog is going to change from heynerd.us to tcmfam.blogspot.com. Please make any necessary changes to favorites/bookmarks. So the four of you that read this, please make the change. The change will be effective tomorrow. I know short notice.

Tracy

Photos of the SL Temple

Yesterday I had some time to kill before Harold go off work before our BBQ and games. I decided to leave work early and head downtown and get some pictures. I want to get working with my camera again so I decided to blow the dust off and see what I could do. I didn't play with too many of the settings, just changed the camera from aperture mode to shutter speed mode and played with that a little. It was a bad time of day to get pictures but I did what I could with the light I was given. Here are a few of my favorites. These are unaltered, straight from the camera to the blog.

This was just a single flower standing tall in the Beehive House Garden

The SL Temple is so beautiful

The recirculated water fountain/stream going through the grounds of the Church Office Building

Nice reflection. I'm horrible at taking portrait format pictures.

Tried this to see if it would be cool. I like it.

More beauty...

I like this one too...

This bench is on the west side of the temple, sort of out of the way. I thought it was cool.

Last one.

I was thinking of heading up to the Capitol building but ran out of time. I also want to go get some pictures of the Cathedral of the Madeline. Stay tuned...

Quick Post for a New Picture

We had a nice lightning storm roll through tonight and so I got my camera out and took some pictures. I probably took about 20-30 pictures, only about 9 of them had any capture of lightning at all. This is my favorite.

Lighting to the south.

I took it through the kitchen window and you can see the vertical lines of the screen if you look close enough. This was cool. I waited to long to get some good ones, but next time I won't. I'll post the rest tomorrow.

A Couple More Pictures

I was looking through a few more of the pictures from our trip and thought about posting them. The first day we were in Yellowstone there were some high winds that knocked the power out at the Yellowstone Lake lodge and there was a fire somewhere that was blowing smoke in from the south. Here are a couple I took.

The Sun over Old Faithful through a slit between the smoke and the horizon.

The sun over Yellowstone Lake.

The sun over some trees on the road in Yellowstone.

I thought they were some cool pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

It's Been A While

Good evening everyone. It has been a while since I've blogged, I know, I'm a loser. Well there has been a lot of things going on in life since I wrote last. Chels has been having some stomach issues that have kept her down a lot. She has good days and bad days, but for the most part, she's doing OK. We will hopefully get to the bottom of things with her shortly.

I was released as the YM President of the ward and put on the Stake High Council. It has been a lot of fun. We I have spoken twice since my call and I will be speaking a lot more. I don't mind speaking in public so it will be fun.

We've been home for a week or so now from our family trip to Yellowstone. We had a great time. We stayed in a huge cabin in Island Park with Chels parents, Sam and Cait, and Erik and Ali. Twelve of us total. We spent some time in Yellowstone where we got to see some wildlife, but not as much as we'd hoped. We saw a lot of bison, some elk, a beaver, and an eagle. We got to see some huge waterfalls and Old Faithful. We took a hike along Henry's Fork of the Snake River in Island Park and hung around the cabin. After 4 days in Island Park, we headed down to Jackson Hole, WY for a Bar J Chuckwagon dinner. It was a lot of fun and the food was great. Other than a disappointing visit to Quake Lake, it was a lot of fun and we are going to plan another trip in a couple of years.

Here are some pictures of our trip...

Erik and I stayed up almost every night to get some night shots. This was the last one I took.

We stopped at the Idaho Falls and Rexburg temples on our way to Island Park. This is us in front of the Rexburg temple.

Once we got to Island Park we hung out at a place called Mack's Inn. KK was having a good time throwing rocks.

Jarik got a first aid kit for his birthday and carries it everywhere. Bree hurt her toe so it was Dr. Jarik to the rescue. He's a great Cub Scout.

Yes this is creepy. This is Sarah, Tiaree's doll. She ended up with being stuck in all sorts of creepy spaces.

Three men with digital SLR's. This is going to be a long trip with loads of pictures. I took over 500 myself.

This little guy, OK, he's kind of big, slowed traffic down. We passed him twice.

The family at the Upper Falls.

 

 This is a picture taken at the Lower Falls.

This was just the moon setting in the west. Taken from the cabin.

This is Chels and KK doing the 'Firepower' thing from Night at the Museum 2. It was cute.

It was a great trip and there are sooooo many more pictures. I'll have to spend some time getting some up on FB.

3-day Weekend Blur

I got into work this morning and was talking to someone about the weekend. After they got done describing the weekend they had they asked how my weekend was. I couldn't at the time think of what I did on Saturday. I sat there with that thinking look on my face and seriously couldn't remember. It was annoying. I remember now what I did, but at that moment in time, nothing.

Overall the weekend was a good one. Minus the welts I sustained while mowing the jungle, I call a backyard, down yesterday it was a great weekend. On Saturday the YM/YW did a combined service project at Oakcrest girls camp. We cleared some trails. It was actually a lot of fun and something we may look at doing in the future. We met Nester there.

Nester is a dog that was wondering the camp that was very friendly. He became a couple of the YM's best friend while we were there. It was funny.

After the service project we headed home and took naps, 3 of the 4 kids fell asleep. Then we had Rick and Nic's kids for the night as they went to Wendover. It was fun for the kids.

Sunday was our usual Sunday, church meetings etc. Chels' mom, dad, sister and sister's husband came over for a bbq on Sunday and we hung out for a while and played some SingStar. It was a cook night.

Monday was the tradition of the early morning breakfast. We headed up to Big Cottonwood Canyon, the Storm Mountain picnic area, for the yearly tradition of bacon, eggs, hash browns, sausage, and fun. We get up there cook breakfast, eat breakfast and then just chill for a bit. Pretty much everyone, minus the kids, tried to get some shut eye enjoying the beautiful atmosphere we were in. We talked about heading down the canyon and getting stuff for the rest of the day. We decided to forgo that idea in the interest of saving some gas and headed home. I decided that we were going to have a marshmallow roasting fire in our fire pit so I opted not to shower and headed into the previously mentioned jungle to get some things done. It was a lot of fun to find out that some of our backyard still has some pretty nice grass and that we may not have as big of a project coming in the backyard as we thought. Then the family that was over Sunday for another bbq and we had the fire in the fire pit on our back patio for those that wanted to roast marshmallows.

It was a great weekend. Here are some pictures that I got this weekend...

KK with a pretty flower in her hair.

 

 A bridge over the river in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Storm Mountain picnic area.

Marshmallow roasting in the backyard with the kids.

Rick, Nic and Fam

Last night I had the opportunity to take some more pictures of my sis, this time with her family. And believe it or not, my camera still works. Hahaha, just kidding Nic, I love ya! I'm getting a little more comfortable with my camera in the small area that I'm using as a 'studio'. The 50mm f/1.8 lens is helping but there is a little more blur. But without an actual studio, these pictures turned out pretty nice. I think the winning family picture was the last shot taken of the night. Here are a few of them...

Nic and Karsen

The best family shot of the night. They are so cute.

And this is how we all know them best. Silly family. 

It was fun taking pictures of these guys, even though Karsen would smile really good and look away from the camera or look at the camera with a weird smile on his face. We are going to go do some outside shots soon. Fun stuff.