Never, Ever, Ever AGAIN...

All I have to say is this is one pretty vehicle! Instead of painting this van silver, I really think it should have been painted LEMON Yellow! As many of you know we have had a lot of problems with our van, well today is no different! It is a 2001 Chrysler Town and Country Limited. Very nice, top of the line everything, leather seats, power sliding doors you name it this baby has it. We decided for our growing family that a van would better suit us then a car or even an SUV. So we did our research and looked at many vans, test drove at least 50 and the one that stuck out was the Town and Country. Well little did we know that it would be nothing but headache for Donovan and I. We bought it in November 2004 (so it was only 3 years old). Two months after we bought it the company offered employee pricing, right then we lost $6,000 in value! After the drop in value the rear right passenger door decides to not work, it is hit and miss for the motor to open and shut it (so we have to do it manually). After this since we were upside down in our loan we decided it would be best to hold on to it until we paid it off or paid it down enough to sell it. In November 2007, I got into a nasty head on collision and in our minds TOTALED the van. The auto body thought differently and decided to just fix it. So needless to say we were stuck! After it came back from the auto body shop we needed to register it in order to drive it. It would NOT pass inspection. We had to take it all over to find the problem. We replaced the master computer (still the check engine light was on), and it still did not pass inspection. So we had to go to SP Fork get a temporary license for fixing cars (if you put more then $1,000 you can do this). So we did. After this we had more problems and found that the transmission was going out! So we dropped another $2,600 into this van! After that we were into our vehicle too much, there was no way we could sell. This summer the drivers side window went out so Donovan spent all day fixing that. Now the locking mechanism is not working, it makes a nasty grinding sound. The bearings are going out so it REALLY isn't safe to drive, so now we are looking for something to replace the piece of crap it truly turned out to be. There are other problems with it, however I will spare you all the details.

I will promote this vehicle and say "NEVER, EVER, EVER AGAIN WILL THE ALLPHIN FAMILY BUY A CHRYSLER!!!"

America's Song...

I heard this song the other day, it was written for our new President and was played at his inauguration. There are few songs that have been able to bring me to tears...this was one. I thought that I would share it with you all.

I Am Going Private...

Since I have been able to track who comes and views my blog, I have been noticing people that I have know clue who they are. I want all those that keep up on my blog to still be able to view so if you would like access...please, please, please send me your email address and I will add you to my list of friends and family.

Thank you to all those that support my blog...see you on the other side of a password!

44th President of the United States...

The 44th President!

Real Change...What Change??? Please tell...

The First Lady!

The Vice President!

The Second Lady!

We now have another President. The 44th to be exact! I didn't vote for Barack Obama, nor do I believe in most of what he stands for. I am hoping that the "Change" he talks about will really takes place and that our nation will become a better place.

I don't get into politics very often and I think Donovan kind of takes offense to that. However this year I tried to really know the candidates, who they were, where they came from, what they stood for and if their views were close to mine. This was very hard for me to do. I really needed to know what I stood for, what was going to be best for my family now and in our future. As I started getting into the campaign last year with all the candidates that ran only ONE stood out. That one that I felt would be the best for my family and for the nation was Mitt Romney. He stands for EVERYTHING I believe in.

Well as you know the election didn't go that direction and Mitt decided that it was best to back out of the races and support John McCaine. I really wasn't to sure of where his loyalties lied since he was a little more left then I would have liked. So that is who I really followed. I thought that he would have made a decent President. I really didn't like Obama. However, I thought he had great speech writers and still do.

I don't want to get into my views too much in fear of offending some one. I will support our new President since that is the right thing to do. However, I will also prepare myself since I think that it will get worse before anything starts getting better. It is always the calmest before the storm. We, I'm talking Republicans are now out numbered in the White House. Anything that has been vetoed can and most likely will be called into congress again and passed. That which we fought so hard to keep will likely be lost and overturned. So with this I will be stocking up on food storage, listening to what the Prophet says and just staying true to the Gospel. The next 4 years will be a turning point for all of our lives. I think that this Presidency will show it's true colors towards that latter part of it term. This will only make way to whom ever is next in line! I will be prepared. I really hope the gun laws stay the way they are and that this RIGHT is not taken away. For some of us it is our way of life (hunting).

I apologize, however this is my journal as well and I felt that I should post something on the recent events that our nation and my family has just undergone!

Happy Birthday Mom...

Happy Birthday Mom. We love you and miss you.

Out of Everything Yucky There is True Beauty...

FROST

In my last post I commented on the nasty, yucky and many other ugly words for an inversion...

Today my post will be a little more uplifting and hopefully I can get across the beauty that I see from this...

One of my favorite times in the winter (this happens more in Alaska) is the frost that forms on the trees and all the vegetation around . This is one of the prettiest scenes of nature, others for me are fall leaves, summer storms and many more. I really enjoy these changes and I am amazed at how the Lord presents them to us. For me an Inversion is ugly, however when you wake up on a frigged cold morning of 10 degrees and look at the trees covered with pure white frost...it is just beyond words. All I have to say is that I am truly blessed to live in a state or even this country where I can witness these remarkable acts of nature. In my mind there is no more ugly and all is pretty again! I guess it is just the way we perceive things. I know that I need to get better at this. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

frost

(frôst) A deposit of tiny, white ice crystals on a surface. Frost forms through sublimation, when water vapor in the air condenses at a temperature below freezing. It gets its white color from tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice crystals.

Also called hoarfrost. a covering of minute ice needles, formed from the atmosphere at night upon the ground and exposed objects when they have cooled by radiation below the dew point, and when the dew point is below the freezing point.

Inversion...In My Words...Stagnant Air...

INVERSION



This is the temperature outside my house!

This is the stagnant air hovering above Cedar Hill, PG, and Lindon!

This is looking out towards Highland and Alpine. AF Canyon! See how clear where I was taking the picture.

This is the temperature outside, high above the inversion.

This is taken outside my house. Normally you can see the houses in Harbor Park...do you see them?

This also was taken outside my house. See all the haze we are in. Yucky! The mountains are so fuzzy!

So I decided to really look into the meaning of an inversion. I know what it means, I also know what happens when an inversion takes place. This is one of those times I really wanted to see Mother Nature at it's worst. Every place I have lived has had inversions of some kind.

Anchorage would get terrible inversions, so nasty that when you would look out to see Mt. McKinley all you would see is this really stagnant air hovering around the bottom. This air would get so thick that some days the mountain disappeared completely. Living in Idaho we had the same issues, however with Idaho and being so low in the valley we would also have terrible fog in the morning that would carry on until afternoon.

Right now where we live air quality is so poor that health advisories go into effect, children and the elderly are hit the hardest. Hmmm, doesn't that sound wonderful???

Being here I would have thought that with advisories, red days where you can't even burn (some need this for heating...like me), you would think that the schools would be more in tuned to our kids health and let them play indoors. I was so happy to hear that Kenzie's preschool had kept them in 2 days because of the stagnant air. Ember's school, no luck, I drove by and sure enough all the kids were out in the yucky air breathing it all in. I haven't been sick, but every year when there is an inversion I get a little bit of a sore throat due to the pollutants in the air. Enough of my babbling, here is the definition of inversion and I will be posting pictures of what I viewed with my own eyes. I was actually high enough that I could smell the difference in the air I was breathing. I will be so happy when the next storm rolls through.

inversion

(ĭn-vûr'zhən) A departure from the normal effect of altitude on a meteorological property, especially an atmospheric condition in which the air temperature rises with increasing altitude. A layer of air that is warmer than the air below it is called an inversion layer. Such a layer traps the surface air in place and prevents dispersion of any pollutants it contains. Sounds yummy doesn't it???

Not All Good Deeds Go Unpunished...

The Notorious ticket!

I'm sorry, this doesn't look more then 12" to me. Where is the curb, all I see is snow!

Just so you know the pictures that you see are from the cop that sited me!

I have to post this. From now on I think I might change my blog just a little. From now on not only will it be a way to post pictures of family adventures, my kids and all the other pictures I take it will also be my journal. I am starting this today...well technically my last two posts were a little like journal entries as well.

Yesterday I had a friend of mine say she was craving cookies, so I told her that she might be receiving some cookies the next day (today). Last night while Donovan was out I told him to pick up a couple of things and one was sugar cookie mix. He was sweet and remember my request. I was so excited this morning to make them. Earlier today I heated the oven, got the cookie sheets out, the cooling racks, mixing bowls and the batter only to find that I DIDN'T have butter. So I called friends and family in search for this stick of butter. I was in a panic and posted on Facebook what my dilemma was. I was lucky enough to have a saving friend comment and tell me to go to her place and pick up a stick of butter. So I went. So far these cookies have been a very hard to make and lead up to the biggest lesson of all. I was able to now start the cookies, since they were for others they had to be perfect in my mind. This is not always the case, actually for me I think it happens the opposite because of my mind set. First batch was just a tad over done in my liking. The second turned out great...well so I thought. Just as I am taking them off the cookie sheet and placing them onto the cooling rack two of the cookies broke, just my luck! Finally, I was able to get the cookies frosted and out the door to the friend that saved it all. My Butter Buddy! I will refer to her as my Butter Buddy from now on. When I headed over to my BB house I assumed it would just be her husband home like earlier, to my surprise and happiness my Butter Buddy was home as well. I was invited in, gave her the cookies, chatted and stayed maybe 10 minutes (15 at the very most) and I was off. I came out to find the pictures that I posted! Yes, that is a ticket! I have covered up my license plate # and my butter buddy's address (to protect the innocent). To make my long story not so long, because of my good deed I was punished, which leads me to what my sister told me today. Not all good deeds go unpunished. So moral of the story, just laugh it off and know that they were some dang good sugar cookies!

I forgot to tell how I got the ticket. Well 1st was I was faced the wrong way, 2nd was that I was parked more then 12" from the curb (tell me can you see the curb with all the snow)?

I Guess That Wasn't My Last Post...

So I guess I was wrong. I REALLY wanted to get rid of the cable, internet and phone so we would have the extra money. However I have a few things that I need to take care of and I have to have my email and the internet. So for the next little while I will have the ability to post. Not that I have any pictures right now...who knows we might get out and do some cool things as a family. Maybe I will have some more pictures of Elk the men bring home, they are hunting this weekend. Wish them luck please.