Yesterday Tom played this beautiful rendition of an LDS primary song titled “Baptism” in Sacrament meeting at church. He was super nervous but did a fantastic job. It’s one of those days when you as a parent are glad you pushed and perservered through the hard and discouraging times to get to the reward!!!!

Thanks to my great parents and also their parents who knew the influence of good music and encouraged it in their homes. And I have in turn encouraged it in my home. It is a delight to have my piano constantly in use. (Since I’ve been sitting here, Will has played a Christmas song, the Entertainer, Fall For You and is now playing the Mario Brothers theme song). Sometimes it gets pretty loud and even obnoxious, but I try to never tell the kids they can’t play the piano. I have asked them to choose different songs sometimes. Piano music has become a constant sound at our house. I hope the kids enjoy it as much as I do.

Tags: baptism, lds, Music, piano, primary

As I was visiting one of my business clients in Malta Idaho the other day, I was asked to step into an office and talk for a minute. I found out that the gentleman in the office was the Bishop of his LDS ward. We chatted for a few minutes and then he asked if I would be willing to come to his Ward and give a talk about cell phones, computers and the internet. I have given a similar talk many times to many different groups. Each times I have talked about computers, internet, pornography etc. However, I haven’t had to talk about cell phones before. Apparently, there is a huge problem with people taking pictures and sending them in text form to other people. (commonly known as texting) Young people especially don’t seem to understand the implications of taking a picture of themselves and sending it to a friend. It is called sexting. I don’t have texting on my phone, (we have it blocked on our phones) so I don’t have a ton of experience with the issue so I’m going to have to do a little bit of research. I did post an article a while ago about a friend of mine that does a lot of texting. Here is that post.

texting

I have a month to prepare so wish me luck.

In my short research I found an article on the web that talked about a young man that had received a picture from his girl friend. This is what the article said,

“The Sentinel tells the story of Phillip Alpert. After his former girlfriend taunted him, Alpert remembered the nude photos she e-mailed to him while they were dating. He took revenge by e-mailing the photos of the 16-year-old girl to more than 70 people, including her parents, grandparents and teachers. Three days later, Alpert, then 18, was charged with transmitting child pornography. Today, Alpert is serving five years of probation for the crime, and he is registered as a sex offender — a label he must carry at least until he is 43.”

This is a very dangerous practice that can mark you for life. I think my message will be, “DO NOT FORWARD SEXTING MESSAGES AND BLOCK THOSE THAT SEND THEM TO YOU!”

Tags: lds, mormon, texting

Some of my favorite little videos are those produced by a guy named LEELEFEVER. His videos are easy to understand and are usually done with markers and pieces of paper. They are all fun to watch and are very educational. As I was browsing through his videos, I came across his video on emergency kits. My wife has done a great job of preparing us for an emergency by making 72 hour kits for us. She did this in one of her Relief Society classes. (Relief Society is an organization in the LDS Church of women over the age of 18.) The 72 hour kits were made up of backpacks with food and water. I’m sure there are other things in there but that’s all I could see from unzipping one of the packs.

After watching this little video, I noticed that I needed to pack a couple of things in my backpack. One was a “crank” radio. You know, the radio that doesn’t need batteries, just crank the handle and shizam, you have a radio station. One other thing I packed was a multi purpose tool which has pliers, nife, can opener etc. So, when I remembered, I ran upstairs, grabbed those items sitting in a closet and in a drawer and ran back downstairs and packed it in one of the back packs. Who knows, I may never need it. I do feel a little more prepared than I did yesterday.

Here is the video. Emergency Kit Video

Tags: 72 hour kit, emergency kit, prepared, Relief Society