Sharp

Some hiking in rose canyon

2010-06-05T23:25:00.002-06:00

Catching up

2010-06-05T23:14:00.004-06:00

Braydens bday

Meow meow!

Bray's bday!

Liz's bday!

Just cool is all.

Brayden's baptism.

Happy Hallows eve

2009-11-02T10:06:00.003-07:00

I suppose if I didnt have kids I'd really loath this holiday. I just rarely see the point to it but gotta love the fam. Even Jen dressed up!!!! :D

Liz "the juice", Officer Jen, Greatest American Hero Bray, and Officer Allan!

Love the bar code Liz.

with the sun setting

2009-05-25T20:30:00.003-06:00

Liz enjoyed the wind thru her hair as the car was moving type of moment.

So the news is

2009-05-17T17:38:00.002-06:00

Dan's been married for 13 years and she still puts up with me. Grats are in order to her!

Happy birthday Liz and Bray!

2009-05-17T17:09:00.003-06:00

They are growing up too fast!

Brrr

2009-02-15T23:15:00.001-07:00

A cute pic of Liz, Alina and Kailee. (2 of pete's daughters) at the park.

Happy bday dad!

2009-02-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Heart went bump

2009-01-19T18:18:00.002-07:00

Its been an odd life changing few weeks I have to admit. And I've never considered the Maynes medical family history till now, but something tells me its relevant all of a sudden. Friday, the 9th of January, one I won't forget. Kind of one of those days I dont know how I made out alive. I somehow dodged being smashed to bits in one of the biggest I-15 semi truck accidents. Tires screeching, cars dodging and semi's smashing I sat in the middle of it all without a scratch. Thanking my lucky stars i drove off to work feeling like I just dodged a bullet. Heh, I landed in the hospital anyways. About 4:50 at work, it had been a really stressful day for me, my chest started to hurt with this gripping pain along with my jaw and left arm. Ive had the feeling several times before just the months leading up to this so I figured it would go away like it had before. It did, about 6:30 i started to feel better. I've assumed it was panic and anxiety that was causing it, which would explain all the swelling feelings I've been getting in the chest for the past month. Anyways, I went about my normaly friday night activities went to bed and about 1am my chest pains woke me up again and I knew something was really wrong. I paced the floor for a bit thinking and debating if it was really E.R. worthy. (Yes yes, Maynes men are notorious for this type of thing.) Jen just having taken her sleep med she got up and woke her sister Les to drive us to the ER. By the time we got to IHC, I was pale, dizzzy and feeling like complete crap with the chest pains still there. Its amazing how fast ER's will process you if you say 2 magic words...."CHEST PAINS" zoom! they got me in a room and on all sorts of machines and meds. Morphein hmmm. Anyways turns out the blood tests showed I had a heart attack, even though the EKG showed normal. They sent me up to ICU for a while where Lynn and my Dad gave me a blessing, and they ran the gauntlet of tests. I have to admit, angiograms SUCK SUCK SUCK. Very painful proceedure. It showed a portion of my heart wasn't beating as vigoriously as the rest and what looks like where a blood clot may have been. Although they never found a clot, guessing its dissolved. So being down ranked to a normal hospital room I recovered from their tests and ate crappy hospital food. It was sooo weird being a 33 year old man amongst all the old people on that floor. I looked like a freak. See lol,

But it was so nice to have so many visitors. I'm really thankful for those that came to see me, call me, and text me on my phone. (Apparently they dont care so much about if you use a cell phone anymore...I was using mine in the ICU room lol). I got home on tuesday the 13th, with little answers but plenty of rest ahead of me. I'll post more when i know more, but right now its just meds for generality (blood thiners make me cold, and anti cholesterol make me tired). Looking back on things its easy to see the symptoms. I've been getting pains for months, even having the jaw pains since 08. Past few weeks I've had the tingly fingers but I just passed that off for sleeping wrong and bad circulation. :D

But im again so thankful for those that visited, called and keep calling to see how im doing.

Dismantled MASH

2008-11-17T10:47:00.003-07:00

October 2008, Equity Title is 50% owned by First American title company and 50% owned by Orange Coast title. Due to the hard economical times Orange Coast title had a note come due and had to pay off quickly, to answer this they sold their 50% to First American title. (they kept 5% but who knows why). First American title being our new full time parent company and with full control switches things over to their way of doing things. I bit of quick background on "Fatco" is they have outsourced most of their title work to pheonix and india. So thus they running the show they closed our title plant here at equity title. Today feels like that last episode of M*A*S*H* where things are dismantled, people leave and hugs are given out. Most everyone was laid off, or the lucky ones were given jobs in the escrow portion of the company but all to leave the building eventually. I was one of the lucky ones, and am finding new and very exciting opportunities in Orem working for our escrow there as a Title Officer Liason. Feelings are bitter sweet to see friends let go but excited for the future and new ideas and chances.

Kids at Pats work

2008-10-07T14:34:00.003-06:00

This is my and my new nerdy beard. (t-shirt apporopriate) Becky said I look more trust worthy, but who knows about that. :D

They got a tour of the bike shop. Got some rides, i think they were a bit scared.

You cannot

2008-09-11T11:07:00.004-06:00

You cannot paint with your eyes held tight

open up your eyes child,

to see the light, be dark

must not paint so mild.

Quote from one of my favorite authors Paulo Coelho.

The way of the tiger

A man was walking through a forest when he saw a crippled fox. ‘I wonder how it manages to feed itself,’ he thought. At that moment, a tiger approached, carrying its prey in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and left what remained for the fox.‘If God helps the fox, he will help me too,’ the man thought. He went back home, shut himself up in his house and waited for the Heavens to bring him food.Nothing happened. Just when he was becoming too weak to go out and work, an angel appeared.‘Why did you decide to imitate the crippled fox?’ asked the angel. ‘Get out of bed, pick up your tools and follow the way of the tiger!’

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!(Ballad of Reading Jail, 1898)

Ramblings of a crazy mind.

2008-08-29T09:37:00.002-06:00

Its friday, so I find myself deep in thought. (for better or worse). While I generally don't toss up musings here I'm in the mood today.

We are powerful. Just don't realize it. It's funny, cause in a world we generally hate one thing. Chaos. Chaos is for the most part the one driving force of fear for all of us. Its why death scares us so much, or what keeps us working or keeps us striving to live a moral standard. All for fear of the chaos that comes from being tossed about in any fashion where we lack control. I think the biggest part of the LDS gospel is about gaining control. The ironic thing about the gospel is its vibe is think of others to save ourselves. Love thy neighbor, honor thy parents etc... The comfort of which isn't necessarily avoiding chaos, but having faith in what we are. ..which you may ask is what?

Being created from the very essense of our Heavenly Father. We are literally made from god material. God is the very pinacle of creation power. Thus I believe as his children we are blessed by the get go to be tiny power creators ourselves. Imagine if we realized this more. The entire earth is filled with life, animals fill their role, plants grow. But humans, we create. Whether we realize it and for good or evil we are filling what we were meant to do....our essence is to create to strive to create anything! Its our very makeup, we center our self dignity, self identity on our creations. Maybe its children, or our ability to survive, or perhaps our ability to make people laugh, or our ability to be lazy or evil.

I think about this, and in our world if feels more and more chaotic. I'm not sure if it really is more chaotic than previous generations. (Its kind of selfish to think it is I believe) or the fact that I'm getting older and realize more and more that it is already. There just seems to be this feeling in the LDS community that the latter days are just going to be aweful and chaotic, so we accept it more as the norm. Thats not really whats important. We lose personal power over our lives by accepting this. When crap happens and we feel like our lives are in chaos, we tend to turn towards the Lord more often than not. While that is good, I think we do ourselves a disservice by forgetting our first and foremost gift. Our ability to create. We MUST have faith in that ability. We are of God, there is no obstical that is too much. WE ARE POWERFUL. we just don't realize it enough. And perhaps by turning to the Lord, we beg for ways to impliment this power into solving our problems of chaos we will have more security.

Super savings!

2008-08-19T09:58:00.002-06:00

Funny adventure we had at work. Perhaps to set the setting a bit, my office environment is ..well its faily manly. All guys, talk gets pretty locker room-ish. But its a bunch of great guys. That being said, we landed on the topic of grocery savings. (which in itself is kinda funny) Apparently Smiths was having a sale. 4 bags of cereal for four dollars. A friend of mine chimed in that he had internet coupons for a dollar off a bag of cereal. So in a nutshell, thats four dollars off the deal four for four. hmmmm doesn't seem bad does it? I can handle free. =D. Sooo all of us guys ALL went to smiths at the same time. You have to picture this... A bunch of guys, all in business casual clothes, holding bags of cereal all lined up. ....ALL with the same 4 dollar off coupons. So the first guy gets thru the clerk with no hassles. He takes off. Thats when the cleark gets skeptical and questions the rest of us. To make the story short, there was management involved....coupon verification checks and we all paid 24cents (for sales tax) on 4 bags of cereal. HOW DO YOU LIKE DEM SAVINGS?!! lol.

So here is a pic:

A few of my favorite computer backgrounds

2008-08-18T11:18:00.002-06:00

Feel free to use em!

Saturdays

2008-08-18T11:02:00.003-06:00

We enjoy our saturdays getting some chores done followed by lunch and jumping in the fountains. Sadly this time we got busted by the cops and they asked us to kindly get out. I don't
exactly remember my childhood going like that. If anything we did chores while mom or dad policed us. :D Sadly, our Maynes traditions haven't been faded and my kids feel the saturday punch of hard work and play.

This next picture actually has a story to go with it. To start my poor son Allan was extremly sick this day. Just sitting miserable on the couch. He had his bowl of soup and was watching tv. Liz was on the ground in front of him cutting her famous crafts. This was a large paper craft, beautiful and delicate. Well Brayden, strolled by and knocked Allan's soup onto the floor. Sending bits of chicken and noodle all over the floor and LIz ruining her project. Liz starts BAWLING, upset over her hard work being destroyed. Brayden starts BAWLING over Liz screaming and Allan is upset over his soup being gone. Peace and seconds to pure chaos of crying. Well, to tell the picture story, Allan he see's the situation. I'm unable to calm Liz or Bray down, so he takes on the big brother role. Gathers his siblings up on the couch. Puts his arms around them and soothes them like nobody else can. He glances up at his father, as if to say "I've got this one dad" and thats when i snapped the photo with my phone. Moments like that, I couldn't be prouder and he was making peace not just for peace sake but because he loves his family. And in one simple move he soothed Liz, Brayden myself and the spirit in the home.

Oh so photo time

2008-05-10T21:06:00.002-06:00

Work funnies

2008-04-01T10:15:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd post a sampling of the funny events or pics I see most days at work.

This was my desk before I got here.

Invisa-cat

And his bike:

Denise and Jeff

Sam keeps it interesting

Something funny someone sent me

Denise again with her awesome hair day

Marriage tree

2008-04-01T10:14:00.001-06:00

I call this the marriage tree. Two trees, same roots and same umbrella of branches.

new pix!! woot

2008-03-18T21:30:00.000-06:00

I do not miss the snow. But love this pic.

Liz is so beautiful!

This is my brother in law Pete! Yes his face hair is purple. :D

Christmas 07 pics

2007-12-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

I discovered my scanner. :)

2007-11-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

Below is a pic of Pete and I back when we thought we were too cool.

Caught Liz playing with dolls.

A pic taken with our wedding invitations. I just somehow like this pic.

Aw... Mom n Dad at Bear Lake.

oh my...I'm so scrawny!

This is my favorite "toilet pic" of liz. Every kid has one. This is hers. Notice her sweet halo.

Just after bath time.

Some awesome photos I took

2007-11-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hope you have high speed internet

2007-11-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

CHEESE!

DOH!
Baby BUB.

More random pics by demand

2007-10-28T19:01:00.000-06:00

Musical Chairs...er rooms.

2007-10-28T18:54:00.001-06:00

We finally got new carpet down, and made the monumental task of moving my waterbed and room. Hard work but we are sooo happy.

This is Allan, he snuck off while we worked. How can I be mad at him for t his?

Brayden!

2007-09-13T22:02:00.000-06:00

Brayden's 1st day of school

2007-08-01T22:29:00.001-06:00

All smiles before hand, but he wasn't exactly happy when I left. But by the end of the day he was lovin' it.

Dream Theater concert

2007-08-01T22:27:00.000-06:00

4th of July fun

2007-07-05T20:27:00.000-06:00

Blue sunsets

2007-07-05T11:45:00.000-06:00

I love sitting in a lightning storm, feeling those sudden breezes. They tend to put me in an ethereal state of mind. Only to be shattered as a bolt rocks towards the ground. As it lights up the sky, you feel small under the canopy of clouds that look odd having been lit up from underneath. Kinda of like instant blue sunsets.

the I took this pic a year ago, quite pleased to catch this on film.

Wow Pics

2007-06-27T20:07:00.000-06:00

Fountain Fun!

2007-06-26T21:12:00.000-06:00

Allan learns to ride

2007-06-26T21:11:00.000-06:00

Monday night fun

2007-06-18T20:14:00.000-06:00

The view outside my door.

More artwork.

2007-06-17T23:37:00.000-06:00

Old unfinished artwork.

2007-06-13T09:21:00.000-06:00

I'm the type of guy that if I don't finish something while I'm into the drawing then I usually don't finish it. This was a piece that I started for a friend. Make superman bald and it actually looked like my friend (hence why I called it Pete Defeat lol). His wife is supposed to be WonderWoman. This picture is a copy from a comic book, I can't recall what is happening to her arms but its something. I guess. :D I toyed with some coloring with photoshop, so ignore the ugly parts and focus just on the drawing itself.

Grammy Ruffie's house!

2007-06-11T21:29:00.000-06:00

Old Artwork

2007-06-11T10:57:00.000-06:00

An old picture of my son Allan and I. (Originally it was supposed to be a woman, hence the earring but its supposed to be my likeness.)

Swimming on vacation

2007-05-22T07:05:00.000-06:00

2007-05-18T12:08:00.001-06:00

Jazz playoffs! Game 5

2007-05-16T21:50:00.000-06:00

That Ol' apple tree

2007-05-14T10:42:00.000-06:00

Yes, I climbed it many times when I was a kid. Great tree, it gave tons of apples. Although I never eat apples I really enjoyed throwing them. Just ask the neighbor's window. Oh noes!! :)

2007-04-25T21:52:00.000-06:00

Pics!

2007-04-17T22:32:00.000-06:00

Allan making Easter eggs.

The kids being cute. Allan was soo proud of his bunny ears he pulled on Liz.
Brayden crooks his lower jaw alot when he smiles now. Kinda weird.

Liz...what more can I say?

The weekend rollercoaster

2007-04-02T08:42:00.000-06:00

Ya know, sometimes Mondays are a welcome sight. And its not like the weekend was bad, oh no it was wonderful. But really, by the time Sunday night comes rolling over im pooped. I think thats why in part I enjoy Monday's so much. I know thats sick of me to even say but its true. I enjoy monday's (I'm sure thats affect because I love my job)
This weekend was conference weekend, which is always nice. An excuse to not do anything but play computer with the TV on loud in the background while kids enjoy skipping out on chores. The funny thing is when the 10:00 session gets out, utah roads become packed with people hurrying to get some saturday shopping in before 2:00. Well at least in my neighborhood. Rewinding to the beginning though, we had Pete & Heidi's (my inlaws) kids over for the night. Pretty cute kids, and my kids were thrilled for them to come over. Friday night we all went over to a family Easter party. The baby stayed home with Jen, while Liz, Allan, Brayden, Mel & Alina all went for some majoy egg hunt fun. I took the guitar along to show Austin (nephew) some things. Just to be showed up by my cool bro in law Chris (he grew up in a guitar family lol) The party was fun, a million kids, chatting with my brothers n sisters is always great for me. All I had to do at that point was find a way to get my kids and the sleepover to actually fall asleep. 11:00 and job accomplished! phew. Then its time to cook Jen a meal, relax and pick up for the next day to start. Saturday of course, conference, chores, computer games, cooking and the like. We usually have preisthood session at my fathers Stake, my mom will make homemade fudge and everyone has a nice time. But this time around, my kids were sooooo freaking tired from their prev. night. They were fighting and just crying over the smallest things, i figured I had to bad any more outings and get them to bed early. (Of course, that didn't happen but at least the outside world see how bratty my k ids are when they are tired lol). Sunday was nice, but I witnessed my sons saddess day ever. His iguana died. I knew it was coming, it had gotten ill and wasn't eating, even force feeding didn't help. I wrapped my arms around Allan and gave him the news. He just sobbed and sobbed. Oh it broke my heart. Poor kid. As I dug a hole in the back to bury ol' Henry, Allan asked to go see it. I knew it was a mistake to let him but he went anyways only to return crying even harder. Oh 2nd heart break. We buried him, while Liz, Allan, Bray and I all stood over the grave, offered some words and had a quiet moment. Brayden started to cry and turned to me and said "I know he's in heaven but he'll live again." oh from the mouth of babes right? Allan was really distraught over the whole day and night over it. So I tried to just cater to his feelings and we all had comfort food and treats for the rest of the day. Sunday evening was spent getting the kids clean, laying out on our new trampoline, throwing the balls around and just being together. Getting the kids to bed, I finally get some time with Jen. We watched some new Henry the 8th show and just did our usual. Allan kept poking his head out cause he couldn't sleep.

Funny story from the weekend. Earlier in the week, Allan has lost his ball over the fence to the nieghbors yard. This older lady had just recently had her entire backyard fenced in with those white vinyl fences. Now picture me inside the house when Brayden comes busting in a panic. "Dad! Dad! Onion is stuck!!" (he calls his brother onion lol) . Allan had climbed ourside of the fence, which has a half sized chainlink fence so he was able to get over to her side to get his ball, but not back. He was stuck, in an unknown yard , worried he was gonna get busted. So I helped pull him up. Later that same day the ball went into the yard again! So this time, Allan and I walked to the front door of the womans home and asked to get the ball back. She's a nice lady, but I know she values her quiet time and privacy. So I tell that story to tell this one: we were sitting on the tramp last night, when a ball comes flying over the fence from the old lady yard. Then another, then another, then another and yet one more ball. Brayden yells "THANKS!" the old woman just says "no problem, try to be more careful" lol. My kids had just let their balls go to no-mans-land, cause they were too afraid to get them. I wonder how many we could have lost to the abyss lol.

Allan's Babtism

2007-04-01T20:10:00.000-06:00

It was a wonderful day. Allan was just beaming the whole day!

And of course, Brayden living up to his name sake.... Sharp dressed man! :D

2007-03-14T11:47:00.000-06:00

Louisa Hale Bush

Louisa Hale Bush 10/10/21 ~ 03/07/07 Louisa Hale Bush has joined her eternal companion Milton Easler Bush. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on March 22, 1938. Born in Oakley, Idaho to Edward H. and Gertrude Bates Hale. She loved the hymns and shared her testimony of the Savior by singing them to her family up to her last breath. Louisa enjoyed serving in the Salt Lake Temple and working at Hotel Utah where she loved serving the Prophets and Apostles. A special thanks to all her caregivers throughout the years. We look forward to seeing your beautiful smile in Heaven. Louise is the mother of Dennis (Ione), Linda DeAx (Randy), Edward J. (Terry Johnson), Ruth Maynes (Russ), Robert (Margaret). Preceded in death by sisters, Viola Johnson, Blanche Lundquist; brothers, Clane, McKay, Jack, and Ervin. Survived by her children, 33 grand-children and 59 great-grand-children; sisters, Ruth Larsen (Ralph) and Emily Barber; brothers, Ellsworth (Dorothy) and Edward (Dorothy). Friends may visit family on Mon. March 12, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Deseret Mortuary at 36 East 700 S. Salt Lake City. Funeral services will be held at the Ridgedale Ward LDS Chapel at 3400 S. 1100 East, Salt Lake City, beginning at 12 noon, Tues., March 13th, with a viewing from 11:00 to 11:45 a.m. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.memorialutah.com

Sunday afternoon play time

2007-03-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

Throwing a blanket over the bunk bed makes for a perfect base from "Space invaders". Sending each kid out for fun missions, like...camera retrieval from the evil clutches of mom's lair.

Then things went downhill and just turned down right ugly!!!!

Making bad choices

2007-02-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Making bad choices just to prove you can make your own choices is childish. So why are young adults and adults are the biggest offenders? Sure it takes a big boy/girl to do what you want right? Its your life, you aren't hurting anybody. ...right?

I had recently been talking with a friend of mine over the issue of going to church. They said: "I think you should do whatever you want to. If you like church then go, but if not then you should not be forced to do something that you don't want to do. " And of course, I agree. But who's forcing a middle aged newly divorced man to go to church? His parents? perhaps...but if that's the case I'm sure the issues run deeper than just the problem of choice. Personally I've been a big proponent of choice. After all its what started this whole thing. God sided with Christ's plan of choice leaving Satan's idea of forced control on the outs. And even at that moment God honored our choices to either be cast out with Satan or remain and be able to come here to this earth. Of course, did we know at that time the repercussions of that choice?

How often do we see teenagers, in the attempt to prove how adult they are, make awful choices? I really don't see much different from a teenager and a child in their thought processes. Its just that as we get older we are able to make even dumber mistakes. Of course we all know what brings wisdom. Knowledge applied.... of course the curve for figuring things out is up to each individual.

Cops, filmed on location

2007-02-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

We were getting ready for a fun day of sledding at the park. While I was getting out I notice a police officer next to me loading 2 shopping errant carts into the back of his truck. We looked at each other and I said "I guess you never figured you'd be pushing carts as a cop huh"

I laughed....he did not. At least the day was gorgeous

Overpopulation? Or just cluster cramps?

2007-02-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts.

Been thinking lately of the hubub of the myth of the overpopulation of the world the US, illegal immigration problems and how they might actually be related.

http://www.jefflindsay.com/Overpop.shtml is a great read on the subject and better yet an LDS perspective on it.

While I'll save the time and not throw numbers out there, I've felt for a long time that the more the merrier. While shrinking our numbers we shrink our opportunities for population bubbles. That being said there are certain areas that are overcrowded. Looking at major cities it seems we lack the sense of expansion but rather "pack it in" for ease of transportation and location for work etc. Which leads to, I believe, raising a generation in which they are unable to think above the city walls in which they are born in. While the cause for that is perhaps the turn our society has taken, I don't believe we would ever be able to outgrow the Earth before it serves its purposes. (of course, I'm taking an LDS spin on the whole thing at this point.) I don't believe that a God would created something that doesn't serve its purpose. Animals live to their fullest, nature acts exactly how God intended and planned, mankinds purpose here is to choose...which we seem to be doing awefully well.

Anyways getting back on track here, I wanted to tie in the immigration crisis here. At our current state there is legislation trying to be enacted to wall up our borders. Perhaps this is the answer or perhaps this will only be like slapping a band aid on a gushing wound. I think that this thinking is frail logic in thinking that it will help anything long term. The problem with illegal immigrants isn't that they are here. But rather the cash flow. They obviously sustain a large workforce, some saying that Americans are unwilling to do. But its not that Americans aren't willing to do the work, but rather they aren't willing to do it for such low wages. The true crime here isn't the people here illegally, but rather the American companies that employ them under the table. I feel that instead of focus being so much on our borders it should be granting amnesty to those that are here, and getting them "inked" into the tax and social security system. The current defunct social security system only works if it has a bigger base of paying workforce to support the smaller retirement segment. Our country is growing but the social security base paying workforce isn't keeping up. I feel that the illegal immigrants is the answer. They are here, despite the millions of tax dollars spent on keeping them out.

And of course that being said, perhaps redirecting our efforts in understanding why so many are willing to come here illegally from a defunct and corrupt Mexico system and seeing what we can do to help, educate and uplift our neighbors.

Taking again in account my LDS background, I do not believe that the "promised land" begins and ends at American boarders. I believe we will see a day where Southern American and central American will excel in every way possible. Of course based on the righteousness of the peoples there. Which I don't know if anyone has noticed has a larger population of LDS members than America.

/random thoughts

Presidents Day surprise

2007-02-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

We spent most of the weekend enjoying great weather. Then wham! hit with a snow storm. Of course we made the most of it....