The Only Rune You Know

The best Two years

2011-03-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have not blogged for two years now. These have been the best two years of my life. Not to take anything away from my two years as a missionary. All I can say, is that the two years I spent on my mission, were the best two years of my life at that time. Being a father and a husband is the best! Being a missionary is also the best, but in a different way.

I wonder, will it be two years until my next blog?

Farming

2009-03-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Rune is currently farming on facebook..

He has no time to do anything else..

You may visit him on his farm.

Signed,

The Sheep

Jule hilsen fra Familien Larsen

2008-12-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

'tis the season

2008-12-19T04:22:00.000-08:00

I made a movie like this in the middle of the night, the lighting was great. It had a feeling of cold weather, as it was just great. but the movie turned totally black when I imported onto the computer. So I re-did it in the daylight. Now I contemplating to re-do it again, with pictures into a slideshow.... We'll just have to wait and see if that happens.

Ohhhh, Christmas Tree

2008-12-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

'tis the season for a Christmas tree.

We took ourselves a trip out in the country, and we found ourselves a very nice tree on a tree farm, Carrol's Country Christmas Trees.

We were greeted by a nice young guy named Jared. He gave us a little tree saw, and told us to find the tree we wanted, and he would cut it down, unless we wanted to do so ourselves. We walked the whole tree farm, until we found ourselves the tree we wanted. We walked the whole farm to see if they had at least one nice Noble. That's the kind we have had for all the years our families have been..... meaning... both Lea Anne's parents and mine have had NOBLE's throughout our childhood....
But they did not have any .... well, they had some, but they were not nice enough to pay about $40 for, especially since we had a card for one free tree, given to us from our friends Larry and Diana Walker. We figured, we might just get a DOUGLAS here, and we can buy a NOBLE somewhere else if we don't like it.

Here is the tree we finally decided on. Our Christmas tree 2008.

Look how happy we were when had decided on our tree.

Sam in cutting action.

He was a trooper until the tree fell.

The joy lasted until the tree was placed in the stand. How could our beautiful 9' tree become THIS???

I can guarantee you that we don't have a 9' ceiling!!

If you look closely, you may be able to see that I put a two inch block under the tree to get it higher, but that it is still about a foot to the ceiling.

And I did measure it twice!! I even joked with Lea Anne how silly it was of me to measure height on the exact same spot we were to place it, as our ceiling is the same all over.

I put a little two inch block in the bottom of the stand to elevate the tree.
notice how few branches there is at the bottom of our tree....

I filled in with branches to fill it out... a trick I learned from my dad.... he always made the trees much fuller. Our trees always looked perfect.

I think I will add one more branch before I call it good, and we can start decorating it. Good activity for a snow day.

Did I mention... Sam was too effective in cutting the tree... TIMBER! First take.

If the camera guy is not ready when the tree is going down.... well, then a second take have to be taken....

TIMBER! !
Second take......

(We call it: "To do a Jeanette" in our house.... We love you, Jeanette)

Arborist in action.

2008-12-07T04:48:00.001-08:00

Here is the first picture from the tree removal party that was at our Bishops house yesterday, Saturday December 6th, 2008.

I took about 70 more pictures and movie clips that morning. A selection of those will appear on this blog, but the rest can be found at

http://picasaweb.google.com/norwayfamily/TakingDownBishopsTree#

The pictures on the Picasa site is in a small format, but if you like to have a larger picture, let me know, and I will send it in a larger format to you.

This is about an hour into the event. The other guys started about 10 AM, but I came at about 11 AM.

Until I can get the movie of the tree top removal in place here... here is a link to it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/norwayfamily/TakingDownBishopsTree#5277011932655488834

I could have a couple of movies where the guys are taking turn using sledgehammers to wedge the wood to fireplace size pieces, and it may come, but for now, I will put in a link to where Peter Bergeson breaks apart a huge log with his bare hands all by himself. Those logs WERE REALLY HEAVY, I NEED TO MENTION IT AGAIN! I carried or rolled more than half of those logs by myself to the guys that split them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/norwayfamily/TakingDownBishopsTree#5277014015881528898

OK, guys... here is a link to where you did a great job splitting the logs.

Neil and James http://picasaweb.google.com/norwayfamily/TakingDownBishopsTree#5277013372022958258

Deleted blog

2008-11-30T08:55:00.000-08:00

I guess there is a couple, maybe even a few that my have noticed that I have deleted a whole post right here. It so happen that I had posted a post in the wrong blog. I guess when you have many different blogs, that can happen. At least that happened to me.

It's a SMALL world

2008-11-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

The world seems to get smaller and smaller as I grow older and older. Here I have been doing research on the Bottelsen family line. And a couple of days ago, I received an email from Else Egeland. She found my Bottelsen blog and was able to find some common ancestors, and she gave a link to parts of the family tree that I had been thinking of looking into next. While I was looking at the information and the names, I came across a name that was very familiar to me. It was the name of a teacher at my high school from many years ago, and many miles away. Even in the very northern part of Norway. I was not quite sure if it was a coincidence or if it was the same person. There was one man named Olav Erichsen, who was married to a woman with the name Sigrid Rokne. I told my wife as soon as I saw that, about my teacher friend that was named Olav Rokne Erichsen. And sure enough, a little further down the page, I found a son named Olav. How many could it be with that name? I know I am the only Rune Trygve Larsen in the world, even if I have found that there is no-one with that name in the US... (guess where I live.... and if you have read one of my old posts, you'll understand what I mean.)

I mentioned it to Else in an Email, and she confirmed that he is a second cousin of her, so all along, I have known a decedent of my 'old friend' Peder Bottelsen.

And this is the third time this have happened to me. The second time was when I told my friend Lea Anne (she later became my wife) that I knew only one person in Oregon, and her name was Kathleen Nordgaard. Should you have known.... she went to Church with Lea Anne, even if the place I knew that her hometown was a few hours away from Eugene. But that is how I got Lea Anne's number. She can tell you what she thought of me after the first time we talked on the phone.

I also had a similar experience happening to me while visiting the London Temple after my mission, when I met 7 people or couples (or families) that had a connection to me via a friend.

This was also how I became the boyfriend to an old girlfriend I had looooong ago.....

Who have you met lately that you may have a common connection with that may not be obvious.... Maybe it is me? I know of one woman that knows four of my friends from four different periods in my life. I don't know her myself, but being in the same Facebook group, I found that out. BTW, Facebook is very interesting tool to find out that kind of thing.... Maybe there is one of your friends among my friends on Facebook. Who knows who knows who!

A great day

2008-11-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed a day with the family. We took a trip to Portland, and for those that are not familiar with the distance, it's about two hour drive each way. I was happy to do so, and everyone in the family were exited for us to do this today. We were hoping to try their 99cent breakfast... but we got there about 10 minutes late as we stopped to vote. We also stopped as Big Lots have or had a good sale on portable DVD players- A 9 inch for only $49. We come to a closed location of the first Big Lots in Albany. The second Big Lots in Salem said they had been out since the first hour of the sale, on SATURDAY.... And then we made a wrong turn... making us 10 minutes late for breakfast... We survived.... and enjoyed lunch instead a little later.

On the way back, we stopped at Fry's Electronics, and found that they had the computer memory that I requested, with a $17 mail in rebate on a $30 purchase. I should have known it was too good to be true. I looked forward to installing the RAM to be able to get it going noticeable faster. As soon as I powered down the computer and opened the case, I found that my information about what RAM it using and that I had requested the wrong kind of RAM, and now I just have to travel three hours to return it, or put it into Lea Anne's computer, and have her be able to enjoy her computer even more then she is doing now.

What more can I say: Happy Belated Birthday Lea Anne!

At least I got a new supply of Cloudberry Jam at IKEA today. That is for those that speak Norwegian, Multebær syltetøy. That is what Lea Anne brought home the first time she came came from IKEA. I'm sure I will get my RAM one of these days.

I like to experiment computer stuff.

2008-10-26T02:24:00.001-07:00

I'm on it again... I have been waiting at work for an hour now to be able to continue with my job distributing papers. Not my dream job, but it gives me time to do my own thing while I wait. Today, or in fact tonight, or now that is, I decided to try to mix my two new online things... actually three.. as I am using Windows Live Writer to write this blog that will be on my blog at theonlyruneyouknow.blogspot.com, but will automatically feed to my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=590835403

I just checked back on my facebook profile and found that it had imported a link to all my 50 blog entries. I can hardly believe that, as my wife Lea Anne that I thought was blogging much more then me, have just passed 100... that is only twice as many... and she started blogging long before me.

I am also going to see if the pictures from our picasaweb albums will import, so I can share our pictures in one spot, and accessible from my multiple public spots.

If you want to see our pictures, you can find them at picasaweb.Google.com/norwayfamily

So this is what I do when I have nothing to do at work... and get paid for it . I guess my job is not so bad after all :)

I am open for new and exiting ways to surf the net so let me know of any new things to try. Happy surfing.

So close to a YouTube moment

2008-09-30T23:11:00.001-07:00

My nephew Jason celebrated his 7th birthday yesterday. And as traditi0n have become in the Webb families there have to be a piñata. And this is when the YouTube moment almost happened.

I started with a Darth Wader Piñata ...

Notice the strings = a pull the strings Piñata ...

And all the kids are sitting ready and willing to hit Darth Wader in the head.....

And the lucky first get the band over her eyes....

One Small hit... and the head goes plop...

Then the candy is up for grabs...

Poor Jimmy boy.. he seems a little red..

Jason... I am your father....

Well, Jimmy boy, this is your lucky day... you could have been YouTubed. Heather almost got it. But this hat on your head... LOL.

Just remember we all love you.

Fond childhood memories

2008-09-29T04:16:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my fondest childhood memories.

I grew up jumping on these rocks.

It's amazing what a few boats in a row can do to a mans brain.

These boats were laying as they have always done.

There were so many memories that flowed back into my mind when I saw these boat laying like they, or the boats like it have done for at least 35 years.

Not much have changed.

You can see the Jelly fish, just an arm length out in the water. There were always a ton of jelly fish right at the boatlanding.

I used to try to get the shell that looks like a little Chinese hat off the rocks, hopefully without braking them. I never knew what they were called.

There were always a ton of Blåskjell, or clamshells as they are called in English.

What would this place be without the the fish skeletons. My dad would always filet the fish right there on the shore after we got in.

It was like time had stood still...

except they added a molo.

They made the boat landing wider.... it used to be room for only one, maybe two boats if you really had to.

And I had my wife with me. I so wish that she could even have a tiny little glimpse into my mind when we were there.

It were the closest I have been to be 5 again.

1st Larsen Family Garagesale EVER!

2008-09-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

WOW, we're having a garage sale!

It have been a project 8.5 years in the making. Garage sale is not something that is common in Norway. We have something that were more common a few years back, even before I was of school age... it was flee market. But we never participated.

Even used stores are uncommon where my mom lives, and I grew up. In fact, it's just a couple of years since it the first one opened. But living in America, I have become very accustomed to them, but never been part of one.

So far at our garage sale we have had;
1 early bird, that were looking for antics
three cars that turned around so fast that they almost do not count.... (before we had all our stuff out,)
then we had a woman and her daughter,
a man on a bike,
at the same time as we had one that just turned around, and one couple that viewed our garage sale from the comfort of their car,
- Three potential coustomers at the same time, WOW, Sam should have seen it... he would have been in HEAVEN. He have been complaining that we have no-one coming to our garage sale, but that every one is going to our neighbors down the street...
We also had a young lady, and also a single lady of a few more years...
And that is the status of our garage sale at the time of 10:45 AM, and we started at 7:30 AM to get ready...

And here came Grandpa to contribute as well- some well read paper back books... what is a garage sale without book... you just have to have it. No garage sale without them.

This is the story behind our garage sale....

When our niece Anita were here a couple of years ago, she became a big advocate for us to have a garage sale. To finance a trip back to NORWAY, but we have now found a better way... just ask mom.....
So in the process of time we have talked about having a GS. But it was this summer, when our dear friend and neighbor Delores, suggested that we should have a GS, and I told her that I did not think we had good enough stuff to have people spend the time to come to our GS, and suggesting that a better deal would be to have a GS covering the whole street. With that in mind, we started thinking of a date for the 'big' street wide GS. With lots of stuff planned, we could not have it in June, as it would be to soon. July and August were out due to travels. Not only our Norway visit, but also theirs.

So now, so many months of planning, and preparating, and collecting all our stuff, we had A SALE! We had two ladies, with a little 5 month old beautiful red head, that were our first real customers - a whole $ worth. They bought a pair of pants that matched the baby girl's red hair, at 11:02.

And then there were two cars, that would have been, if they could have been drive-by's. But since we live on a dead end, they just turned around.

I don't know if Lea Anne just could not bear parting with the wreath, or just realized that adding a few fall colored leafs into it, it could last for another year. So I sold it back to her.

Then there came an older grandpa guy, that found one of our child swings that he wanted to have for a grandchild, and our third sale were a fact!

The last hour of our garage sale have been alittle slow. But that's OK, as the sun is really shining on us now. It beats the rain that I was afraid we were going to get. This will make it easier to stay 'open for business' a little longer.

You may wonder what our garage sale looks like. Well, I have pictures of it all, except the customers. I figured it would be a little aquard to ask them to pose for a picture.

But here are the pictures I took of our garage sale.

Overview of the Garage sale stuff

Lilly at the Child Play thing department

The children cloats department

Lilly looking for a good deal in the 'Computer and electronics department'

The only good was herself...

A fancy IKEA hack.... drying rack is good to hold cloats. Picture was taken before fancy London Fog Coat were added to the inventory.

Lilly found what she wanted ...

The electronics department features a lamp that sells for $30+ on ebay, but no takers at our sale.

The furniture department with an expensive glass table top among the couches.
No takers of the FREE couches! What have the world come to?

The after picture... well, not, but it could have been...
$4.50 in profit of a whole days work.
You try to compare and find what is missing.

We are ending our garage sale on a high note. We had a run of 6-7 customers, even two at the same time, and the last one to leave was the big spender, as he bought TWO items, namely a chicken to have scrambled eggs in, and a book, totaling $2.50 bringing our total to $4.50 for the day.

It have been a great experience, that may be repeated in the spring.... we'll see....

Make me a Celebrity and Family History.

2008-07-28T22:24:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I took the time to blog. I have had a couple of things that have kept me busy, and that is what I will write about now. 'Make me a Celebrity' on Facebook, held my interest for a month or so. Lea Anne started playing the game, and I got into it by playing for her, when she was not at the computer playing. I soon found myself so into the game that I created my own Facebook profile, and quickly had over 600 Facebook friends, that all wanted to be in my Entourage. I guess you can say I got addicted. I reached Z-list celebrity status. That was our goal, and to prove that I was not totally addicted, I cut down on the time I spent playing. I then deleted all my 600 plus Facebook friends, and started adding my real friends and family to my Facebook profile. You can find me using this link if you want to add me to your facebook friends.... http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=590835403

Well, my celebrity days are over, I used to be theonlyRuneyouknow, but I am now known as 'Elvis has left the Building' on 'Make me a Celebrity' from Mesmo on Facebook. I soon may be "The king is dead'.

After I stepped down from the spotlight on the celebrity game, I traded one addiction with another. I got totally into doing my own family history. And for those that do family history research, you will understand , as I have in my recent bust of treasure seeking among my ancestors, I found a great grandmother! That was so fun! She have been the big hole in my family history. I finally completed my 4 generation chart, that I started on in 1993, when I first started with family history work. I found just a few days ago that I have direct ancestors from Finland. And one may also be from Russia. My last find was a 9th Cousin. By using Ancestry.com, I came across, Torkil Grindstein, who had some common people in his family tree to mine. But we did not know who it was, until I, earlier today decided find out. It turns out that he is married to my 9th Cousin Hilde Strand.

Test of new Gadgets

2008-06-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

I, as you know, if you have read some of my old posts. And I have now set my eyes on Windows Live Writer to write my blog posts. And this will be the first to set a bench mark to see if it live (pun not intended) to the standard I expect. I am writing this of line, for later to upload it. Not that I need to do it off line. It just happen to be that way it does the posts. I am more interested in the possibility to cut and paste from ms word or something like it. Being able to take something I already have written, and paste it into the blog. For now, this is all I need to say, and really can say, except that I can tell that it seem to work fine so far. The installation process took longer then I had expected. But that could have something to do with the other gadget that I am testing out at the moment. Let me clarify. I have started the test of a different virus software, as I have recently experienced some problem with a different virus software. I have been using AVG anti virus from Grisoft for a very long time. And they have been the anti virus software I have recommended for all my friends until now. But they recently changed. And not for the better. Even this last month they switched from the 7.5 version to a 8.0 version. They have a free version, with limited ability, and they have wanted to let different companies "sponsor" their paid version. But they made it difficult to find the free version, and they made it almost impossible to activate without paying after rejecting the paid version.

So I am now using Avast Antivirus software. But I had a very hard time to uninstall the AVG, as it had not completed the installation since it was not activated.

In any case, the main reason I switched, was that I experienced that all our computers have been acting so sluggish that I was considering switching to Linux or Mac to get away from the sluggishness of MS. But it dawned on me that it may be the AV that was the cause. And I were right, or at least I have found others that found the AV to make the computer sluggish after upgrading the AVG to 8.0 . So I have only made the switch on one computer so far. But so far so good.

So if you want to make the switch, here is the link that goes directly starts the download. After you have downloaded the file, that is 21.98 MB, you just install it. Then you will need to register. It is free, and you should not need to re-register for 14 months they claim on their web site. You will get the link when you install the software, and they send you a registration code to your email.

Now I just have to see if I will be as happy with Avast as long as I were happy with AVG. And that must be something like, 4 or 5 years.

Let me know what Anti virus software you use, and how happy you are with your AV choice.

The Rune that don't exists.

2008-05-22T00:25:00.000-07:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Well, I just came from reading the mommyducks blog. She did not feel special, as she have about 280 with her name. I feel non-existent as there is non with my name in the US. So I don't exist or I am not here... You decide. I hope to find out who I am soon.

Honey, they shrunk the kids

2008-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

I very much dislike false advertising. When is the burger is not as good as picture. I know that advertisers are faking the ice cream, because the ice would melt in front of the cameras due to heat from the lamps. But do they make the ice cream look better or bigger then the real thing. I have had a problem with Dairy Queen and their ice cream.

But today, when I blew up the pool we just bought from Walmart, that took the cake.

Well, on the picture on the box, the pool was really blown up, and I KNOW the kids was shrunk.

I really dislike when they manipulate the picture so much, that it fools me.

I don't know what I should do. I just feel so cheated. If I don't return it, it will be as if I accepted the price and the false advertisement. If I return it, I feel cheated for all the work I put into it. If I ask for a price reduction, I feel I support a company that cheat their customers.

The kids had fun in the pool. Well, at least Sam. But he's able to have fun in and with a pool that have an inch of water and is lacking air.

You tell me. What should I do? And what would you do?

Hurra for Syttende May

2008-05-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

USA have 4th of July. Mexico have cinco de mayo (fifth of May).

NORWAY have Syttende May (17th of May).

And as a native Norwegian, we are going to the Norwegian lodge to have ... Chili. That is right. Maybe my information is incorrect, but it's not the most Norwegian food, but that is what I have been told will be served at the celebration. Last year they served rømmegrøt.

I guess you can pronounce it like ruhmma gruhth. I figured the best way for you to get to know what it is to turn to wikipedia. So here is the link to rømmegrøt at wikipedia.

Here is a automatic translation. It surprised me when I pasted in the text that I had highlighted and ALL this came, because I had only English words when I copied before pasting it in.

Rømmegrøt is a porridge, where sour cream is basisingrediens. Andre viktige ingredienser er melk og hvetemel . Other key ingredients are milk and wheat flour. Tidligere ble rømmegrøt anvendt til spesielle anledninger, så som eksempelvis ved barsel , slått og Jonsok . Previously, rømmegrøt used for special occasions, such as for example by Maternity, turned and Jonsok. Man finner litt ulike oppskrifter avhengig av hvor man befinner seg i landet. One can find a little different recipes depending on where you are located in the country.

På Vestlandet brukte man ofte semulegryn i tillegg. On the Western-man used often semulegryn as well. Oppskrifter fra Orkdal har mindre rømme og mer gryn. Recipes from Orkdal have less sour cream and more gryn. På Aulestad finner man oppskrifter hvor man i tillegg har både kremfløte, risengryn og surmelk (kulturmelk/kefir). On Aulestad'll find recipes where you as well, both the whipped cream, risengryn and surmelk (kulturmelk / kefir). Som med vanlig grøt bruker man sukker, kanel og (rømme)fett. As with regular porridge use sugar, cinnamon and (Ben) fat. Man serverer gjerne rød saft til. It serves like to red juice.

--- The end of the Auto translation, and that is why people can make

And we got to see lots of people in Bunad, the national costume of Norway.

And with the fun translation of Rømmegrøt, I figured I would paste in the autotranslation of the info from the norwegian wikipedia page.

Bunad is a collectively, which is used in several types of garment in Norway. For det første brukes det om tradisjonelle folkedrakter , og for det andre brukes det om historiserende moderne festdrakter som ble konstruert i det 20. For the first used it on traditional folkedrakter, and the other is used for the historiserende modern festdrakter that were constructed in the 20. århundre . century. Bunader brukes i Norge hovedsakelig ved fest- og høytider. Bunader used in Canada primarily by a party-and parents. Navnet kommer av norrønt «búnaðr» («utstyr til hushold», «klær»). Gets its name from watering "búnaðr" ( "equipment for the household", "clothing").

De vanligste bunadstypene har navn etter det geografiske område de har sin opprinnelse i. The most common bunadstypene has named after the geographical area they have their origins in. Utformingen av bunader er resultatet av både tradisjonell utvikling og organisert arbeid for å skape festdrakter. The design of bunader is the result of both traditional development and organized efforts to create festdrakter. Utformingen av en bunad er typisk meget forseggjort, med broderier , sjal og håndsmidde sølv - eller gullsmykker . The design of a bunad is typically very forseggjort, with embroideries, scarves and håndsmidde silver - or gullsmykker.

Men folkedrakter (f.eks. beltestakk fra Telemark) er autentiske drakter, er de fleste bunader konstruerte. But folkedrakter (eg. Beltestakk from Telemark) are authentic costumes, most bunader constructed. Flertallet av drakter som markedsføres som bunader har svært liten forankring i tradisjon, men er konstruert i det tyvende århundre. The majority of suits that are marketed as bunader have very little in line with tradition, but is designed in the twentieth century. Bunadbevegelsen går tilbake til Hulda Garborg . Bunadbevegelsen go back to Hulda Garborg.

Here is a little part from the English Wikipedia site.

A bunad is a traditional Norwegian costume, typically of rural origin. Bunads are local to Norway's traditional districts, and the result both of traditional evolution and organized efforts to discover and modernize traditional designs. The designs are typically elaborate, with embroidery, scarves, shawls and hand-made silver or gold jewelery. There are bunads both for men and women, although women's bunads are more diverse and popular.

If you want to read the rest of the story, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunad

And this is what the local dress for the area where my mom lives if we were to have one for our family.

But our family were never a bunad family. They are WAY expensive.

This is what my bunad would look like.

But my family history say that this is the costume I should use if I was truly traditional.

And talking about being traditional, I found that I may be related to Renée Zellweger, (I have to find out if we're related) as she is , just as me, of Sami decent, as well as all these fine people in this picture.

My Presidential thoughts

2008-05-10T02:50:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by being politically correct. I am not allowed to vote, and I am worried about that at all, because I have no strong feeling either way when it comes to politics. I just want to point this out about politicians, more specifically those senators who is running for President. I have no affiliation towards any candidate of any party, so don't misunderstand me. But, I have a hard time understanding this little fact: "Someone that is running for President, and show it so much that they solicit their friends for money to do so, obviously don't want to have their own job. And is spending about 6 months... (here those that are following politics, take that time estimate with understanding for me who don't) telling people everywhere, why they should have a different job (they want to be the President), why should they then have their current job after campaigning and have not done anything at that job for 6(?) months. Why would we then want to have them as President, if they have this feeling about their current job. I don't understand. Well, I am just me, and I am not Running for President.

Sam's questions...

2008-05-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

I was driving down the street, and Sam asked me a question. My answer was: "I don't remember on top of my head." His reply were: "How about on the bottom of your head?" No, there either. On the backside? On the front? On the Left? On the right? I just had to let him know that I did not have the answer anywhere at the time. I don't know if he was serious, but he sure sounded serious.

I love gadgets

2008-05-08T02:07:00.000-07:00

I love gadgets. I had my biggest disappointment with gadgets a couple of weeks back. Visiting Kohl's department store, after walking through the whole store, looking at things and clothes, I spotted at sign "GADGETS". I thought all my walking finally would pay off. But to my great disappointment, it was not gadgets that was for me. It was all KITCHEN gadgets. Not quite my cup of tea.. pun intended.

I did however come across a new gadget that I think is cool. It is a blog gadget. You may have already seem it.. or not. It is the Snap Shot widget. It allows you (me to see a snap shot of the links I have on my blog. There is two settings on it. You can see the page or you can see the last posts. Great if you ask me.

I was also exited to find a blogger add-on to MS Word. But after several failed tries, I just had to admit that the blogger add-on don't work with the new Blogger. So don't go looking for it.

I have however found Firefox very valuable while blogging, as it have a build-in dictionary and spell checker. That is certainly worth a try, even if I could not have it help me with the word "defenatly".. So if you know how to spell that , let me know.

My newest gadget may be the one you will suggest for me, or I find somewhere on the internet.

My Cheerleader (* UPDATED *)

2008-05-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

I have biked to school both with Sam and Katie. With Sam, I bike behind and call out directions. That is how we get safely where we need to go, whether it is to or from School.

With Katie, it's a whole different story. She is in the bike trailer. I have the pleasure of doing most of the work. Well, that brings us to yesterday, when I had both of the girls in the back, and Lilly yelled, "GO, GO, GO, GO...." and that was ALL the way to Katie's school. Katie calls out: "You can do it." This is repeated most of the way. It was interrupted by "I am your biggest cheerleader, Do you like that I am your cheerleader?" What could I say. I told her that I LOVE that she is my cheer leader. They are verbal if they think I go to slow, then they unified call out to me "FASTER, FASTER".

Here we are home after one of our trips. The whole ride one way is 1.9 miles. So with a return trip that means about 3.8 miles. I used the car to measure it. (* UPDATED *)

I have a newfound admiration of Bike taxi's. (* UPDATED *)

Here is the route we take.

Guestbook

2008-04-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hey who ever you are.

This is the best way I though of to have a Guest book here for you to leave a little note about yourself.

My Mission areas and companions

2008-04-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to visit my mission's website. I served in the England Birmingham mission under President David H. Jessop and Terry Spallino from September 1995 to September 1997.

I had a wonderful time there, and miss that time, serving the Lord full time. With no concern, but for my investigators and mission rules.

While I was on the mission site, I decided to update the information there. The information about my companions can be fancifulled with HTML code. But there is not a easy way to edit that on the website. But I knew that it was easily done on the blog site. So I copied it here to edit. I thought to myself: "Why have it only there?" So I, decided to blog about it here... walking down memory lane.

So the following is the list of all the areas and companions I had while I was on my wonderful mission.

If any know any of these guys, feel free to let me know.

Bretton, Peterboro -

Warwick

Elder Darryl Johns
Elder William Fullmer IV
Elder Larkin

Banbury

Elder Jarin Smith
Elder Nathan Bingham

Beeston, Nottingham

Elder Andrew Bingham
Elder Jamie Ballock

Stafford

Elder Niel Yates
Elder Kenneth Steffensen

Derby

Elder (Sorry, Elder, please remind me of your name)

Northampton

Elder Daniel Cache Merrill
Elder Jedediah Rampton

Time for a Sunday post.

2008-04-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking. Wow, and it did not hurt at all.

I was assigned to teach the lesson in Elders Quorum to day. I have had a couple of days to prepare. I thought it would be hard, as I had been up working last night. It made it easier to stay awake in class. I have to admit that there are times I have to stand up in class to stay awake. It comes with the "work at night to Sunday" part. I was easier when we had 1 o'clock church. I got a few more hours of sleep between the job and church.

In any case, I have been thinking and wondering of what to blog about. Not much have happened lately that are blogable. But I realized that much have happened in my life, that are blogable. Just because it happened a long time ago, don't make it less blogable. It just means I may have less pictures to attach.

Back to the original topic. I was, as mentioned before, assign to teach Elders Quorum to day. The topic was "Why are we Members of the Only True Church?" It was based on a article by Elder Enrique R. Falabella, Of the Seventy. If you want to read it, just follow the link. It was a fairly short article, and well worth reading. Short and sweet, and with wisdom from a 6 year old in regard to prayer. Quote: “Well, once you’ve thought of it, tell it to Him! When you finish, wait and see if He has something to tell you.”

Funny, how the wisdom of kids can blow your mind away.

I have just had my 15th anniversary of my baptism into the Church. That was a special time in my life. Just as my anniversary of my marriage and sealing to my wonderful wife of eight years, Lea Anne, My Princess Annie-Girl, that I married for Time and All Eternity in The Temple of the Lord in Portland, Oregon.

I love her so much more then she will ever understand.

Here is one of the pictures that we took on our wedding day at the Temple.

Fun Day at Uncle Mike's

2008-04-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Our kids are so very lucky to have a fun Uncle Mike. Every child should be so lucky.

We had a great visit with him and Aunt Kathy on Sunday. We spent the whole day after Church at their house. Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there.

This is not Uncle Mike's tractor, but it is one of those that is in the barn where he lives.

Uncle Mike have a great tree fort and a fun trampoline.

and he have a very fun creek with a bridge. He promised us that we are going to float boats down the creek next time we go to his house.

Here are a couple of pictures we took in barn after playing in the hay.

This big tree fell in a storm not long ago, and so did Lilly as we going to take the picture.

Here is Aunt Kathy's birds. They were sitting so nicely together, like two good friends.

Sam at the Register Guard

2008-04-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sam had the opportunity to come with me to work one night. And he had so much fun, that he bragged about that at school, and when my boss Jim retired, he came to the Register Guard and asked my new boss Dave, if he could come back again. And not quite understanding what Sam wanted, he said that he could come anytime. I had to tell Sam that Dave had misunderstood, and meant that he meant to the Register Guard. So Sam said one day that he wanted to come and help Dave with his job. That would be interesting to see. Here are some of the pictures I took of Sam when he came with me to the retirement farewell for Jim.
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Here is Sam on the dock. He had lots of fun, and helped a lot in the ways he was asked to.

Here is Sam pushing a ton of paper literally. Each of these rolls weights about 2000 pounds.

Here is Sam at the controll desk of the paper. Every change that do not need an actually hand to fix, can get fixed from here.

Here is Sam (1) looking in on the press, (2) looking where the "Blankets" are made, (3) where the finished paper have it's last appearance in the press room, before fore it is sent to distribution. Blankets are a sheet of metal that contains the image of the page in one color. It need 4 blankets for each page, to get all the colors it needs to be complete. When Sam was with me, they made him his own blanket to remember his visit by. He also got three papers right of the press. He gave one to aunt Patty and her neighbor Mel.

Here is Sam in the Distribution. This is some of the comics that are inserted into the Sunday paper.

Strong man Sam moving a ton of paper.

If you want to see the press in action, let me know and we can see if we can't schedule a visit on a friday afternoon when the press have an early run.

Crazy Hair Day at School

2008-04-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Sam have been very exited about today for a long time. It's CRAZY HAIR DAY at school. And there were quite a few that had some crazy hair due today. I guess the craziest was the Mohawk and the other one was the crazy dad who put Elmers Glue in the hair of his kid because the gel disappeared on the way to school while they were Biking. My wife was very surprised when I told her that I put Elmer's Glue in Sam's Hair.

Here is a collection of some of the "best" hair due of today.

An last but not least, Sam's teacher Bev.
Not to mention Austin who shaved his head for the occasion.

Hidden "Easter" Egg in blog.

2008-04-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

So, I had some fun the first day I blogged... I hid a little Easter Egg in one of my posts. I have wondered if there was any one that found it? I guess the only way I can know... is if anyone comments.

Biking to School

2008-04-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Sam got quite exited when I asked him if he had his jacket and HELMET on, when I asked if he was ready to go to school today. He understood immediately that a helmet meant that there was a bike ride on the plan, without me telling him about it until we did. That is my way to avoid a constant nag about biking to school. Of course, that will be the way from now on. You do it once, and it is desired for the rest of the school year. That will mean that I have to get up about half an hour earlier. But what don't you do for LOVE.

Here is a collection of pictures from our journey to school today.

Here is an exited boy who is ready to roll.
He was so fast on his bike that, he took three rounds infront of our house before I got on my bike.
An action shot from the bike behind Sam, on the road.
We take the time to press the button before we cross River Road.
Sam jumping of the curb as we approached the bus stop.
I guess we waited for some roads to cross, but not all. (To Sam's defense, it was green on River Road, where we had just biked, and I thought Sam would continue onwards.)
Sam got a shoelace caught in the pedals. (Who haven't experienced that) And unfortunately did he fall down (or that I did not get a picture of him laying there), right after this picture was taken.
And there is the offending shoelace.
And here we go the wrong way, as you can see the arrow. Not to worry... it was only a empty drive through.
I am not quite sure what is happening here... But we made it to school.

Daddy's Little Girl

2008-04-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have an amazing little girl. You may think that she is just beautiful, but she have a funny little talent as well.

Quite amazing and funny what a little girl can realize that she can do.
Well, you get to see this movie if it ever completes uploading... It was showing that it was uploaded. So I am not sure what's wrong. Well, now it's on, but it took me another upload to get it here.

Renewed life for a sandbox- or filling the sandbox

2008-04-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the kids, with the rest of the sand that is destined for the sandbox in our backyard. It only took 7 minuttes and 45 seconds to fill. We know that because Sam was given charge of the camera, and he took a MOVIE of the WHOLE ordeal ... so with enough requests.. we will publish that movie. (Please, if you want to see someone get a workout, go to the local gym)

This is a picture of the scale where we loaded the sand at. We need a picture to show how much our car weight without the sand. But I think we got our money's worth.

Katie with a bucket helping unloading the sand from the car. This is at 5 loads into the small tub we used to transport the sand to the sandbox from the car. They were about half of the amount of sand as I used the first time getting sand.

You can't see it here, as the kids jumped into the box right after the first tub was emptied into the box. And this is when only 5 tubs was emptied in.

10 small tubs removed. I used 10 shovel scoops to fill a tub. Not the biggest scoops, just about half scoops. Sand is very heavy after a while.

Here is the Big tub, the sandbox and the small tub used for the filling of the sandbox. 15 small (about half full, as you know, sand is very heavy).

But what is a sandbox without kids.... as you can see they stormed to it after the one picture was taken. And it has been hard getting them out of there since.
And they left the mess in the car for dad. Well, he is the one that got it in there.

Gardening - Before and After

2008-04-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

It is amazing what an hour of hard work can do to a garden. This is the before picture, and below is the after the work have completed. So when berries comes, it will not be blackberries I will enjoy from the garden.

As you can see from the next two pictures, I still have plenty of work ahead. I still have about 7 more bushes to rescue from the weeds.

You may have wondered, how much weeds did I take out. I have a box underneath, but you can hardly see it, but it really helped me when I put it all into the yard waste box.

More gardening opportunities

2008-04-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

Yay for gardening. My sweet Katie girl, is tending her special onion plant she has planted herself. And she is very proud of it.

Here is our welcoming berry, the strawberries that grows right by our front door. An every one's favorite when we come home from our many outings. The Easter bunny... well, that must be an old picture that I found in in the computer.
(Not really, we just like him out there... hidden like an Easter egg).
Maybe there is one more Easter egg hidden out there.
Are we trying to grow delicious blueberries, or is it Blackberry we are hoping for this year. Well, we have a much better place to pick the Blackberries, so they have go, and hopefully the blueberries will be just as delicious as previous years. This year I will be wiser, and not give them all to the blue birds, so a net will be hung soon.

This doesn't look like much now... but come fall, there will be tons of grapes just right for the picking. I really want to make the vines climb towards to house on a arbor. Time will show if that happens.

Whisky is not on the menu, but as you can see, we have a handful of barrel ready to be planted. And we have some plants to go in, but we're not quite sure what to have in them...

Plants or veggies? That is the question!

The sandbox

2008-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

The joy of the garden for the kids... a sandbox. It has been so loved, that all the sand had vanished... and this is how it looks now, after the second load of sand has been put into it. We will be putting two more loads of sand in it, as that is what we will get free.

We have a quarry close to our house. For the longest time, Sam wanted to go there... so a year after we first contacted them for the possibility to have a tour Gordon, one of the head guys there took us... and that was interesting! We wanted to buy some sand from them. Since we don't have our truck registered, and I did not think that we needed that much sand, we would just use our minivan and two 11 gal storage totes to haul the sand in. To make the long story short, we had to go to a different place. And they started out charging us $10 for the two tubs. We thought this was a little big excessive, so we talked to Ben, the owner.
The first thing he said when he saw how much we had compared to what we paid was: "Oh GOSH, You can have the next three loads for free. Just tell Jack that Ben told you to tell him." And that is how we still have two loads left! YAY

I was thinking for about a 10th of a second that I could take out the sand from the sandbox so it could be a more accurate picture of what it looked like. But no, I'm not that desperate to be Mr. Compulsive blogger man.

Vegi Garden in Progress.

2008-04-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is how the garden boxes had ended after a year without any tending. Well, that is not completely true, as I, Rune, weeded they out in preparation to get plants in.... but, that the only plants that ended up in those were weeds and a few potatoes. That actually sprouted, and gave us a tiny harvest.... You can see the great harvest below. This is how it ended after a few HOURS of hard WORK. Now the only thing that is left is to fill this one with soil, and then... I have to do the other one (the one I used as "the before picture"), find the seeds, and plant them and continue all summer watering so the harvest can be enjoyed.

Did you notice the raspberry canes in the back ground? Well, hopefully they will yield some yummy berries too. Just a little weeding in that bed too.

Here is the garden box that already has given this years first harvest... it should have been last falls harvest, but we did not think there would be anything there since the frost came, and the plants disappeared, and weeds enjoyed the good soil.
Here is the infamous harvest.. of course we ate some of the yummy potatoes before we took the picture.. who can wait for a picture when you have yummy potatoes strait from the dirt. It's so good, you can even eat the dirt.