Ok, so I know I just posted yesterday and this is quite unlike me to post two days in a row, but I felt like I had to describe last night while it's effects are still wreaking havoc on my body. So, we get there and get our lift tickets, meet up with Pastor Jeff and Nathan (his son) and strap on the ole boards. (This was much more difficult than it sounds) When you get on the lift you have to unstrap on of your boots from your board, I'm not sure why this is, I just saw everyone else do it so I did it as well. Riding the lift for like 8 minutes getting to the top of the mountain was one of the coolest most relaxing moments ever. It was completely calm, the sun was just going down below the trees, there was snow in the trees and I felt almost as though I was looking at a painting. That was the hi-light of my evening because everything after that could be described much like an encounter between a 19 year old Mike Tyson and Webster (doesn't matter what age) in the octagon. I was Webster, the mountain was Mike Tyson. I should have known things were going to be bad when I bite it coming off the lift at the top of the mountain. Everything after that was down hill...literally and figuratively. I have to believe I set a mountain record because it took me just under 3 hours to get down one run (a run that was fittingly named "Spud.") When I finally got the bottom I was greeted by the entire group and I felt like I had just finished a marathon and was given the best news of the night: "so Joel, it turns out that the bunny slope IS open." When we first arrived, it was not...or so we thought. Anyway, I spent the last hour of the excursion conquering the bunny slope and actually went down it twice without wiping out. If anyone ever tells you that snowboarding is easier than skiing, punch them in the face. I couldn't even sleep last night because of the soreness in my body and the replays of wipping out going through my mind.
As I am writing this I looked down at my beverage can, its a Monster Energy Drink and there is a warning on it that says "consume responsibly - limit 3 cans a day." Wow...who can afford to drink 3 cans of this crap a day?
Currently listening to: David Cook

Tis the season...

Well, its official. The Christmas Season is over and now I must wait a whole 300 and some odd days till Thanksgiving comes back and thus propels me into the Christmas mode. Looking back over the last month I am very pleased with the way that things went with the transition to Idaho and mine and Mandy's first Christmas as a married couple. Tomorrow night we will celebrate the coming of a New Year together...joining in that celebration with us will be approximately 16 kids that will be staying at our house to help bring it in with a bang. This should be an interesting week. And tonight...oh tonight. I will be trying my hand at snowboarding for the first time ever. Next post I will give you the skinny on whether or not it's really easier than skiing.
Sometimes I would like to kill my dog...or wish that the chocolate would do it for me. If I recall correctly I mentioned the last episode that Manchu (the dog) had with the dark chocolate M&M's. Well it didn't kill him and apparently what doesn't kill dogs only makes them stronger. We come in from shopping the day after Christmas, low and behold, Manchu has somehow managed to get one of those massive 7 oz Hershey Kisses that Mandy's parents sent her and open it up and eat it. So this is the scene I walk into. I open the door, Manchu is sitting on the arm of the couch starring at me with crap all over his face. I look down at the floor to see the box that the Kiss came in torn to shreds. Then comes the search for the remainder of the chocolate kiss, I found it, hurled it across the room towards the trash can and then started yelling at the dog. Apparently for a while he treated the Kiss as he usually did one of his chew toys, slobbering on it, throwing it around the room, dragging it over the furniture, etc. There was chocolate on everything. Sometimes, I want to kill that dog. Oh yeah, and you know the foil that the kisses come wrapped in? We never found that. I guess he ate it too. Stupid dog.
Be sure to tune in next time for: "Joel pulls a Sonny Bono on the slopes."

Currently listening to: Ever Stays Red <---the are kinda punk/emoish but their lyrics are great.

Tarnation...

Well, it's been a while so I suppose I should update, lest I get lazy and stop doing this altogether. The last few weeks have been good, real good, and real busy...perhaps that's what I haven't updated. The youth kids have been busy with Christmas singing and plays and games and all that good stuff, so naturally I have been busy following those things. It has snowed a lot and been colder than a well-diggers rear end this past two weeks and I love it. Mandy loves the snow. And Manchu...well, Manchu doesn't really know what to think. At first he hated the snow, but I think now he likes it. Last night it kinda froze over so now he can walk on top of it but sometimes he will walk over a weak area and break through; I think this confuses him because he stops and looks at the door where I am standing as if searching for support. Stupid dog. Anyway, Fantasy Football ended up this past week and I finished 3rd in one league and 4th in another, not a bad season. On an even brighter note, the Chargers will have the chance this weekend to make up for the garbage call that led them to lose to the Broncos in week 2 as they will have a rematch this Sunday and it will determine which team makes it into the playoffs! So, they are still alive, which makes me very happy. Boise St. plays tonight against TCU, should be a real throw-down, I'm excited, hopefully Mandy will let me watch the whole game. Lastly, one week from today I will brave the slopes of Pomerelle Mtn on a snowboard for the first time ever, lets pray I don't die.
Ok bye.

Currently listening to: Toto <---I know thats not Christmas music, but still...come on.

P.S. I hate the Yankees even more now

Wow. So things have been incredibly busy here as of late, thus my excuse for not making a post in a while. I have been really busy doing activities with the youth, just in the last week went out for pizza, decorated houses for Christmas, had our regular meetings and attended some band concerts. The next two weeks are looking to be even busier. I love the Christmas season. As I was browsing through the channels last week I came across High School Musical again, it was on the Disney Channel and after about ten minutes I realized that I was still watching it. Maybe I enjoyed that movie more than I led on. I got to see the first half of Prince Caspian last night, watched it with the youth and man, that movie is pretty intense. I like it. Mandy and I have also recently started working out, doing the ole' Power 90 DVD...we realized something. We aren't as young as we once were (and I'm definitely not as light as I once was.) It's all good though. I have many things to do so that's about all for now. I would like some feedback on something though, if you read this then please comment and give me your opinion. If you were given the option of of creating two service times for Sunday morning church, what would they be and which one would you most likely go to? Thanks!

Currently listening to: Jeremy Riddle

Alright, well I watched High School Musical last week and it was a movie...and sometimes movies are good. Sometimes movies are not so good. This movie fell somewhere in between but in an ok sort of way. It was Disney at its finest, a movie that 8 year old kids can watch and enjoy without being bombarded with filth and a older people can watch and think, man, this is really cheesy yet I still find myself kind of enjoying it. I will say that I liked the Lizzie McGuire movie better, but this was not as bad as I thought it would be. Moving right along. Mandy and I ventured down into the South Hills this past weekend in search of the perfect Christmas tree and after about three hours of searching, we found a pretty good one. There are some pretty good sized little peaks in the south hills, nothing over 10,000 ft though. The location that we finally stumbled upon that had our tree was quite high and took us up a dirt road up the side of a mountain. Mandy said repeatedly, "Joel, drive to the right...drive to the right!" I think she was a little concerned that the road was going to crumble and we were going to plunge to our death. Needless to say, we did not. I have posted some pictures of the excursion for your viewing pleasure.

Well, it is two days till Thanksgiving and since I addressed being thankful in my last post I will spare my readers the expense of doing it again, just remember we should always be thankful. Ok, so since I got to watch Rambo I now have to pay a price. You see, the way it works with our Netflix deal is Mandy gets to choose a movie, then I get to choose a movie, then Mandy gets to choose, etc. Strangely enough, up until Rambo most of the movies we had watched were Mandy movies...it looks like we are headed back in that direction as the movie on its way to us today is none other than....High School Musical. Now, I'm very open to different types of movies, I will sit through almost anything and there have only been 2 movies that I actually got up and left the theater during, Master and Commander and the second Meet the Parents movie. I can only take so much. No doubt my limits will be tested again tonight as I subject myself to the teeny bopper phenom that is High School Musical. I will let you guys know how it goes. In addition to the HSM movie, I have another dilemma approaching. You see, I have a problem. I am an impulse buyer. I see things that are cool and are cheap (because I never pay retail) and I immediately want to buy them. It doesn't matter that I don't need it, or I already have three of them, I still need to buy it. Why is that a problem you ask? Well, because Friday is Black Friday and I will be up with the East Coast Friday morning knocking down the doors of various internet sites trying to get good deals....mostly on things that I dont need. Please pray for Mandy as she will get extremely tired of saying, "Joel...NO!" on Friday.

Currently listening to: The Fray

So last night marked the first time since being married that I was off duty. Off duty means Mandy was out of town overnight. Knowing that I would be off duty for a night, I got on Netflix and requested the latest Rambo movie. I was quite impressed to say the least. Even at 61 years old Stallone can still throw down with the best of them. Anyway, he is living in Thailand and working a boat and catching cobra's for a living, then some missionaries ask him to take them up the river into Burma, he initially is like, no way, but then does it. The missionaries are captured by some rebels that are pretty much just going through and killing everyone and that opens the door for Rambo to open up a can...if you know what I mean. Now, this movie definately deserved its R rating and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a squemish stomach (or sensitive ears). But it does give a good look into the kind of warzones that missionaries risk their life going into everyday.That takes a special kind of person. Its interesting because I was talking to my kids last week about how rich we are, even in the midst of this bad economy...I mean, we have a car to get from point A to point B, 92 % of the people in the world dont have that luxury. I may look at my purple Toyota and think, "man, that thing is such an eyesore," but 92% of the rest of the worlds population would look at me in my ugly car and say, "man, that person is rich." I can get up off my couch and walk to the fridge, get out my Brita Water Jug and get a drink of water. Millions of children would look at me doing that and and think, rich. As Thanksgiving rolls around I think it would be good for all of us to take some time to think about how good we have it, and then take some time to think about how we can spread it around. Despite what the media tells us, we are rich...and lucky that we aren't being stalked by John Rambo.

Warning: You should probably stop reading here.
I talked to Brad yesterday about the movie before I watched it and he is like, "dude, text me when he rips the guys throat out." So naturally I'm like, yeah, ok. I thought he was being sarcastic. Low and behold, just as this rebel is about to do away with the woman missionary, Rambo pops up behind him, grabs him and literally rips out his throat. It was crazy. If you read that and are regretting it, I'm sorry that I'm not sorry, I warned you.

The times they were a changing....

So today is the day after the election and we now know we will have a black president. Hooray. I'm bubbling over with optimism and enthusiasm. I watched the news for several hours last night and then again this morning and have observed a couple of things. First off, I didn't vote for Obama. My reasoning for this was not because he is black...I could care less what color he is, I just don't like him. I don't like his policies, I don't like the fact that he has no morals and dislikes America. I don't like the fact that he is going to make gun buying difficult or that he will tax the crap out of ammunition. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin. Everyone is making a big fuss over the fact that America has turned a new leaf...lets be honest, who cares? This is not 1960. There are not segregated schools, restaurants, water fountains...people of color have the same opportunities that whites do just like women have the same opportunities that men do. Let's see this election for what it really was, a cry for change. In saying that, McCain was probably doomed from the beginning, too many people saw a repeat of the Bush administration and that scared them. Now that McCain has lost it seems to be popular to turn around and point the finger at Sarah Palin, like it was her fault that 'Pubs lost. Palin actually made me feel better about my vote. But that's just me, you either love her or you hate her. I just hope people see this election for what it really was and that all these new voters knew what they were voting for because if this election was won due to the color of Obama's skin, we are in trouble. I do hope that he comes through though and is a great president, however at this point, I have my doubts.

I have also seen a lot of disunity as a result of these recent changes, I log onto facebook every few minutes to read the changing statuses of my friends and am going to post some of them for the reading pleasure of the audience. They are as follows:
1. _______________ is wondering if a wood chuck could chuck wood, how much of that wood would obama take and give to those lazy wood chucks.
2. "the world is not over people, we have 3 months before Obama becomes president...even then the world isn't over."
3. "oh crap we' re all gonna be muslims."
4. _________________ thinks a lot of "Christians" need to reread Romans 13.
5. _________________ is enjoying seeing all these crazy Christian Statuses :)
6. _________________ loves how bitter and angry "christians" are over the turn of events. "How about you pray for your New President. What's done is done. Get over it."
7. "you all got what you wanted...a socialist country that is run by a man who isn't proud to be an American."
8. _________________ is shocked Ron Paul didn't win!

Please note that these are not my statements but the statements of friends of mine as taken from Facebook. Very interesting.

On a different note, I returned home yesterday to find literature stuck in my door from none other than the Jehovahs Witnesses. I can finally relax a little bit in knowing that some things, will never change.

A squash is a squash...

Halloween is almost upon us and that can only mean one thing...actually, it could mean several things, but most importantly for me, it means Mandy's birthday. Of the other less important things that Halloween signifies, pumpkin carving. Last night I carved the first pumpkin myself of my life. Mandy brought the pumpkin in, did the outline that she wanted and then said, "here." Everyone knows that I am terrible with numbers so naturally when I see the sign at the pumpkin place that says $.18 lb, I'm like, sweet I can get one of those big ole honking pumpkins and its only going to cost like a dollar. Well, either I'm not a good judge of weight or am worse with numbers than I thought, that joker cost me like 8 bucks. So needless to say, as I am carving it with a filleting knife I start kicking myself for getting such a big pumpkin. The walls of this thing are like 5 inches thick. Anyway, this is what it looked like last night after I got done with it. We roasted the seeds and ate like 10 of them until I was about to throw up. I'm glad pumpkin seed roasting time only comes around once a year. Last night also marked the end of the World Series. Not that I really cared because my team was at their respective homes watching on their home theater systems. Gas has finally got down under $3 a gallon here, thank goodness. So anyway, like I was saying before I thought of that stupid pumpkin, Mandy's birthday is tomorrow. She will be....23...yes, that is correct. And I went out on a ledge and defied the "you don't have to get me anything," bull that I was given last week. I'm pretty sure she is going to enjoy what I got her, although since my money is now her money and her money is my money, it's like she bought herself something except, I bought it...oh well, at least I am covered because I didn't fall for the don't get me anything line.

Words cannot describe how happy it makes me to see the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox to get into the World Series. For the last how many years they Rays have been the bottom dwellers of the AL East, it does my heart good to see them rise to the top and bully the Yankees and Boston. The Orioles...well, they are still terrible. Speaking of terrible, how about the Chargers? I mean honestly...3-4? And they lost to the Dolphins? I guess it could be worse, the Cowboys lost to the RAMS! Hahahaha. Oh man...

The states I despise...

Well allow me first off to say that Mandy and I did finally make it to Idaho after 4 very long days. The stories from along the way are probably enough to fill a short book but at this moment I'm not ready to take the time to write them. I will say this though, Colorado has risen to the top and overtaken West Virginia as my least favorite state in the history of the world. I despise West Virginia because of their roads, they have the nerve to charge money to drive on their crappy roads? I can't fathom, but I deal with it because the last time I tried to beat that system I took route 52 through WV and found myself on the scene of Deliverance...I said to myself then and there, never again, I will just pay the stupid toll. Anyway, I cross several more states, good roads, no tolls and then I come to Colorado and I think to myself, I'm only on this road for 24 miles, surely the toll won't be that much.....$18 dollars and 24 miles later I found myself barely resisting the urge to throw everything I had in the truck out the window so that some employee of that crappy system would have to spend time picking it up and thus putting my STOLEN hard earned money to use. I have been mad before folks, but never as mad as I was when I crossed through that last toll plaza. Fortunately Wyoming, Utah and Idaho were very pleasant drives and by the time I got to Twin Falls I was over it...now that I'm writing about it I am burning with anger all over again. Stay tuned for the tale of "Manchu throwing up on Mandy as we pass through St. Louis."

On the contrary...

The last time we met for my blog I was gushing with optimism, minus the bike ride and thing were looking very up. My fantasy baseball team went on to lose in the first round of the playoffs and no, it wasn't even close. While we are on fantasy sports lets talk about fantasy football. It has been 3 years since I have won a fantasy football championship and so I devised a foolproof plan this year to carry my team. Despite my better judgment I decide to take with my first pick of the draft, a seasoned QB, one that has proven himself over and over again and that is not prone to injuries...although I can't stand him, I picked Tom Brady. Those of you that follow sports know exactly how this turned out for me. Brady plays like 5 minutes and then tears his ACL. Folks, my logic was impeccable...it's not going to be my year. In that same spirit, a few minutes after hearing this news on ESPN, I go to check our flight itinerary for the Twin Falls trip and I notice something terribly wrong. Our departure date-9/11 is correct, however our return is listed as 10/15. This is a problem. Our stay in Twin Falls is intended for 4 days, not one month. I immediately call Travelocity and recieve some very bad options (both of which are going to cause us to eat anywhere from $600-800.) At least thats what I think...it was sort of hard to decipher the broken english from both people I talked to. For all I know they could have been saying, "yes Mr. Stamper, we will change those flights for you right away and since you are such an idiot for booking the wrong return flight, we will do it for free." But I'm pretty sure I caught the "you're going to eat at least $600." Mandy, being the smarter of the two of us decides to call the airline directly. They are easier to work with and offer to just change the return flight for us, for the low low fee of $100 per tick. But, thats a lot better than 300 a tick. On the brighter side, at least we caught the mistake before we got to Twin Falls and realized we wouldn't be leaving for a month. Then I'm sure they would have really stuck it to us.

A brush with death...

So lets take it back to yesterday morning at approximately 9:00 a.m. I was settled in at the computer, prepared to waste another day simply not doing anything. Mandy walked into the room and I, like an idiot, just sat there on the computer, sublimely ignorant of her intentions. "Let's take a bike ride," was the statement that brought me the first hint reservation. Actually, let me rephrase that, "Joel....JOEL, are you listening to me?" was the phrase that first nailed me, followed by the infamous bike ride comment. Like and idiot I enthusiastically stopped what I was doing, found my tennis shoes which conveniently no longer fit and "saddled up the horses," (put the stupid bikes on the bike rack. Off we were, charging along, myself putting forth the same unbridled enthusiastic spirit I had kept hidden deep inside since the last time I was sent in for a hemorrhoid surgery. The first 6 miles was a breeze, it was cool, shady and slightly downhill (a fact I wouldn't realize until later when I was coming back, slightly uphill). We stopped and had a very relaxing chat by a beautiful waterfall and then when hunger hit we decided it was time to head back. This was the first mistake, as I stated, the trek back was all a slight upgrade. The sun had risen to an overhead position, there was no more shade, no more cool in the air and the only comfort I had was that of my woman's camelback-which every time I took my hand of the handlebar to reach for the tube to put it in my mouth, I almost wrecked. We finally arrived back at the car after what seemed like hours of laboring that stupid bike. Then came the redeeming part of the trip. Japanese for lunch. Mmmmm!

On the mend...

August was a rush of emotion, change, uncertainty and then laziness. It was a good month but all in all I truly believe it will pale in comparison to September. We have finally started having success in calling rental places in Twin Falls and perhaps might even find a place to live in the event I get hired. Mandy has an interview this evening with an accounting firm. My fantasy baseball team made the playoffs as a 4 seed and is currently winning this week. I found a website that has old television shows on it and now Mandy and myself send ourselves to sleep watching old re-runs of ALF, which is not as kid friendly as I remembered it being. I do find it to be very hilarious every time ALF makes an attempt to eat the cat. Oh goodness. I have also started walking....yes, I did indeed say walking. Its an attempt to become healthier and perhaps work my way up to being somewhat athletic again. It's a long shot, but we will see.

New Beginnings

So here we are, September 1st 2008. A new month means a new attitude. I successfully went from Sunday August 17-Sunday August 31st without really doing anything at all. While it was quite enjoyable to have time to wind down from a busy camp season, it at times also became somewhat boring. Yesterday I filled in for dad at the pulpit while he and mom went off gallivanting at the beach - you can rest assured that I brought the hell-fire and brimstone...actually I spoke mainly on being merciful. This morning I started going through crap of mine that hasn't been touched in years - I always have been a pack rat and it has finally caught up with me. I probably have a truckload of junk that is destined for either the goodwill or the dump. Ten days until we fly to Idaho. Also on the bright side, Manchu has not defiled the house since Thursday.

The marathon continues

I am currently nine working days into the marathon and I can honestly say that I have never felt more worthless in my entire life. I am slightly comforted by the fact that I am indeed in the process of a big change, but nonetheless I haven't done anything even remotely productive since the morning of August 16th. So what do I do with my time off, you may ask. Well, I'm glad you asked. I read John Grisham books that I have read before, I piddle around on the internet, I call apartments in Twin Falls to ask them if they will allow me my dog in the residence-only to be told that I may not unless I have a doctors note. What am I supposed to do with that? Go to my family doctor and say, "Jack, hey man, long time no see! Umm..listen, I need you to write me a note saying that cleaning up dog crap off my floor is thereaputic for me, so if you could do that, it would be great. By the way, I don't have insurance, so if you could not charge me for this, that would be good too." Apparently Twin Falls does not like my dog. I feel their pain. Which reminds me. I was putting a load of laundry in this morning, Manchu, the dog, followed me downstairs and managed to go after mom again by walking into her bedroom and dropping a deuce on her floor, she caught him. I'm sure by this point they are wondering, when are they going to get this dog out of the house? Revenge was mine yesterday, I gave the dog a haircut, all by myself. : )

Leaving the dog unattended

We are currently 10 days into the "how long can Joel go without doing anything" marathon - I must say, I feel quite worthless. When mom and dad came home this evening with a new dryer I jumped at the opportunity to help unload and set it up. Caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment, I left Manchu (our two year old Shi-tzu) unattended upstairs. 30 minutes later I come back upstairs, feeling good about myself for not allowing the entire day to be wasted only to find my mother frowning at me. "Your dog peed three times and crapped in the floor," was the statement I walked in to. I looked down at Manchu who was starring up at me with his tongue barely sticking out of his mouth, eyes bugging out of his head and couldn't help but chuckle inside. I hate that dog.