A button, A screw, and no more potty seats and it only took a few minutes

Have you ever found that something is broke? We all have. How many of us, leave it alone, use the broke item for a long time? Then for some reason, you fix it and it only took a minute and its been broke for years?

The sun visor in our Surburban had a screw fall out if about 3 years ago. So for the past 3 years it has saged, swung and been a pain in the head at times. Yesterday, I went to the store, spent 10 cents...screwed it back together and wa-la...it was fixed... 3 years...

About a year ago my button came off my 3 button suite. Then another button, I was down to one button. It took the guy 5 minutes and wa-la. It is fixed. took me a year. why do we/I do this?

This week marked a huge step in a new direction in our home. We are not going to have any more children, and we tossed the potty seat yesterday. Brooke called me as the garbage man hauled it off. She said something like "bring on the teenagers" I know... she is talking all crazy talk like that. She does have a new attitude with the new dew.

That is about it for now, we/I am working on the basement and hope to have the framing all done by the end of the week. We will see how that goes.

Peace out.

Only for my mom...The fish I caught.

The one and only reason I am posting this is for my Mom, I am not patting myself on the back.

The following pictures are from the Gloden Police Departments 2008 Award Ceremony.
I was awarded the following. I cut it out of policy so you can all have the info.

Meritorious Service Medal:

A. The Meritorious Service Medal may be awarded to any member who:
1. Has conducted themselves in an exemplary manner, displaying
exceptional courage while serving in a duty of great responsibility
and importance during a critical incident.
2. In the performance of an act, a member is exposed to operational
risk and/or personal danger for a lifesaving or an attempted
lifesaving act in which extraordinary efforts were used.


This is my best buddy Seargeant Chad St. Aubin
He has been a great friend and...Ill leave it at that

There were 4 citizens who jumped into the river prior to me going in. With out that, we would have lost him. These are 2 of the citizens and the boy and his father.

Chief Bill Kilpaterick and I.

After for a group photo. It was a good night, glad it turned out this way.

Whats new

A few weeks ago I kept hearing things like, " I want to cut my hair, I want to go shoping with Brittany....etc" So a week ago Saturday, I had heard enough and sent my wife on a 6 day trip up to see her sister Britany. I held down the fort, which did not burn down and nothing piled up, and she had "ME" time. She took her 4th Twilight book with her and she started and finished on the trip....phew....I don't know all the details, but she had a great time and I owe Kasey and Brittany BIG TIME. I don't know what I liked more the new hair dew or the big freaking smile she has had since she got back.

We pulled a permit to finish the basement a few weeks ago and decided that the big bathroom down there could be moved to make room for a nice work area. So....

I gave Tyler a hammer and Conner wanted nothing to do with it....and the drywall started to fly. We got it all laid out now, giving us 24"...might not seem like much...but it gave us a nice little work space and allows us to have a window that otherwise would have been in a furnace room.

I took ALL 5 children to the dentist...at the same time, while Brooke was gone. This is Pierce, with his cool shades on. They all did really good and I survived!

I had to get Taylor some new sheets and blanket...

Ohhh...Bella and Edward ate here...how sweet.....

It was fun to pick up Brooke, I still can't take my eyes off of her. I have only known her with LONG hair. That goes for all of you too. She has a little attitude with the new dew as well, but I like it.

I was notified this week that I will be getting a award at the Police Award function this week. I am so glad that everyone went home that night.

Center of Life

After going to Church today I got to thinking about what is at the center of peoples lives. It made me think what is at the center of my life and how that has changed over the years. I have no desire to post personal things in my life so tuff.

Our world is a rushing river of information and everything now. The media can report form anywhere in he world in a instant. They know what is going on before the people involved knows what is going on. Addiction is rampant in all its fourms, food,drugs,sex,media,music,email,the internet,pills,parties,work.....you get the idea. In going through the challanges of life it has caused me to look at my own and look at what the center of my life is.

My brother Brandon asked me to read a booked called The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. It brought me to discover the egoic mind/ aka the natural man. The book is over my head for the most part but I enjoyed the read and it will become part of my study through life. It did bring to light the way I have reacted to the events that occur in life. In doing so, I found that most people get so wrapped up in it that their hearts fail them. The get so caught up in the "world" all the media, all the hype and they forget that everything is really ok. If we really think that the things we belive in are true, we have prayed for the last days to come. We pray for Christ to come again, and here it is and some are running around thinking the sky is falling. No, your heart is failing you because of the center of your life, or lack of.

Don't belive the hype. It is OK.

Another Moment

Last night Tyler and Conner had a scout court of honor. Both of them got the Emergency prepardness merit badge. Due to some dumb rule Conner did not get his yet since he needs to complete another merit badge before he gets this one. I think that is about dumb.

I still don't have my wife back from her Twilight book. She has about 100 pages left so that is good, maybe today she will show up. She has taken over the hard-expert setting on the drums in Rock Band. I was able to get her away yesteday and take one of my suits to get fixed, so that was nice. I have already been told that she will be finishing the book today.

It was 70 here last week, and then it went down to zero now were back up to 20! Gotta love Colorado weather. Our Mnts are getting big PHAT snow flakes this week;)

I will be picking up our permit to finish the basement today. I hope to make some progress with that in the next few months. We need the extra space!

I Have lost my family!

During the holidays Tyler and Conner wanted to get Guitar Hero. No way on this earth was I going to get that game with all the crappy metal songs and wanna be hoes. I had heard of Rock Band but did not really look into it. We had dinner with good friends a few weeks ago..the night I fell, and Candice offered for us to play. We did not but Matt and her like the game and It got me thinking about it.

The boys wanted to get that a few weeks ago so I checked it out and it sounded good. SO they pooled the money and we went and got it last night. The VERY INTERESTING part of this is BROOKE! She is a Rock Band Star! We got this hooked up last night at about 6pm. She came to bed AFTER MIDNIGHT. Her and Tyler stayed up and I was OUT by the time she rolled in.

Now the best part. We went and picked up another guitar tonight so now we are running full on stuff. At 8 we started putting the little ones down and Brooke washed her hair. She informed me that she was going "down" to "kick the boys off, and were going to do scriptures and THEY ARE GOING TO BED." I told her that was great. Then SHE tells me that she has to go do a "SET" in London with the boys.....

SHE HAS LOST HER MIND!!!!

Never in my married life have I seen her like this...I am all smiles and think it is GREAT! She is like a kid in a candy store! I have surround sound and a projector down there and it is quite the set up.

Anyway, life is really good here, we have had 70's for highs last week and our grass was turning green. We are putting in for a permit to finish the basement. We are at that point. It will cost us $$$ to do it with the family TV set up we are putting in. The bathroom is already there and we will put in a small L shaped desk for computers and the rest of the room will be for our family to watch movies and play games and the boys bedroom down there.
I found the sore spot in my foot this week where I hurt it. When you kneel down on the ground, your feet lay flat...that is the spot I hurt. I did that this week and for a few moments could not put weight on it when I got up. Still very sore after 2 weeks. I went to Golden for a night this week and had a great time. Got myself a DUI driver and helped on a felony drug traffic stop. I really love working out there, I really enjoy the officers there. It is my home!
The children are all healthy and doing well in school. Brooke is busy and I help her alot since I work from home most days. I did 5 loads of laundry just today.

We are kicking the idea around of heading out to Utah in Febuary, Hillary I love you, With a very deep love but your snow sucks! But I would still love to fall in it and try out "riding."
I am going out to Tahoe in March for a conference and hope to do some skiing with my buddy from LA.
We are all excited about the decision to go to Mnt Rushmore for Scout camp. They have a family site and I will go as a adult leader. That will go down in July and were going to make a trip to see Brandon and family in June.
That is what I know for now...Love to all family and friends!!!
TJ

Ohhh...you have all seen the "shamwow" infomercial....I just ordered the "slap clap" from the same guy..I am looking forward to getting that thing...it is COOL!

5 Years ago Today..Happy Birthday Taylor

5 years ago at the very moment I am typing this, my wonderful world was coming to a very sudden stop. Brooke and I started the day, heading off to Longmont United Hospital, and looking back if I knew then what I know now, I would not have had any concern during that day. Brooke was overdue with our only girl and the little girl was ready to come into this world with the help of modern medicine.

We got there and were settled in and met our Nurse, Polly. Brooke was to be induced and that is what happend. We went through a long day of contractions, the movie "freaky friday" and other stuff. It became time for Taylor to come and it went in a very interesting direction. Brooke had experienced 3 other births and we had no complications and this delivery would make up for that. If I remember right, Brooke was beyond tired and the room was full of doctors, nurses and people being busy for a new baby to come.

I have always loved watching our childs heart rate and listining to the heart beat. Soon this became my worst nightmare. Taylor's tones would drop, pause and stop and her hart rate would drop during contractions. This went on for some time and the concern was written all over our good doctors face. The feeling in the room changed and it became clear that Taylor would need to be delivered a diffrent way than expected. The doctor sat next to Brooke and told her what needed to happen and he checked her one more time and then, something changed again and it went from, "sorry" to " lets go NOW" (I am not going into details here but you get the drift.)

within a moment Brooke was out the door and down the hall with nurses and doctors moving really fast. I knew they had to move fast and I was right behind them with Polly trying to get me ready to go into the operating room. It was only a few minutes, but seemed like 10. The doc had swung into "get this baby out right now" mode and I was trying to be a good husband. Brooke was feeling no pain and was warm. Brooke could not see the doc but I sure could, within a moment he was trying to get Taylor out and he could not get her. Brooke was no longer happy and this is where it all started spinning for me. I heard the doctor say/yell that he had "cord around the neck and arm" the drug doctor was now concered about Brooke's stats and I saw her eyes roll. That is when it dawned on me that I might not be going home with a wife, or a baby.

Another doctor arrived and the tension was high. There were alot of very direct orders from the doctor to nurses and he finaly had Taylor, as blue as could be and not moving at all. I remember as though it was happining right now. I knew it was bad, Brooke was back and she kept asking why the baby was not crying. She turned to the drug doc and told him she wanted to be out, the nurses wrapped Taylor up, and showed her to Brooke and Brooke was out. Another doctor came in and took charge.....like a storm. The fury was around Taylor, her lung was collapsed, her blood pH level was way off and they could not get a "line" into her and the doctor turned to me and told me to start signing forms because Taylor was going to leave, "right now."

Being the "cop" where I fix things, I am in control, and I fix things. I could not fix this. My wife barley made it, Taylor was still blue and Iwas alone in the midst of controled chaos. I signed the forms and they performed a procedure to put a line into her belly button. I asked if Taylor would make it and the doc said she would but was not staying here but going to Childrens, ASAP and the call for the "flight for life" crew was already put in. They were en-route from Denver and Brooke was being taken to recovery. I got there and it was around 1030 at night. Brooke was not really with it when the flight crew showed up. They worked on Taylor for about 45 minutes and had her ready. The crew was very kind and I knew the nurse from my police work which lightened the load. There was my new daughter hooked up to several machines, lots of beeping things and Brooke reached out for her and put her hand into the incubator she was in. The flight nurse then handed me a black and white striped zebra with a flight for life bandana.

There I stood there with a stuffed animal in my hand as I watched them leave, Brooke was still out of it for the most part. I think some of my family showed up and I called Nelson and Trish. I can't remember what I said. I went home for a while and tried to sleep. I got up around 3am and went to Childrens. I lived in Childrens ICU for a week and went to see Brooke everyday. I remember the first time the hospital let Brooke go to see Taylor. It dranined Brooke, but so worth it. Taylor had a feeding tube that she pulled off her face and got rid of a week or so into it. Brooke was released and then we spent our time at Childrens for a few weeks.

Just typing this tonight takes me back to that night. And tonight, she is very strong, has very strong feelings and is TOUGH as nails with her brothers.

Brooke paid another price to get Pierson here, so needless to say, no more children out of this home.

Happy birthday to our one and only little girl!