Sarah In Wonderland

Sarah has finally outgrown "trick or treating".

I remember the first time she went, when it was all new... you could see the moment the light went on in her head. "If I knock on peoples door, and say trick or treat, they give me CANDY" you could see the little wheels turning in her mind as her eyes followed the candy from the bowl to her bag, and then the synapes fire, the light goes on....and then she is running to the next door like all of a sudden there's a realization that there's not nearly enouph time to knock on all the doors in Colorado Springs in one night.

After the first couple of years, most of the memories are about costumes that don't fit right, and are so thin that they dont keep in nearly enouph heat, , Icy roads and sidewalks, below freezing winds, and frozen toes. All for a bag of candy that would feed a small city that somehow translates into dental bills the size of Texas.

Last year instead of Trick or Treating, Sarah invited some of her friends over for a Halloween party. She and her mom made a huge assortment of "Scary" treats, Dry Ice "Witches brew" and all the decorations to transform our home into Spooky delight.

It is now officially a "tradition"... this year it's a theme party "Alice in Wonderland" (the new Johny Deb movie is scary in it's own right) so our basment is undergoing a transformation from TV room to Rabbit Hole and Wonderland.

Sarah wanted a "Mad Hatter's" Cake for a centerpiece, and somehow talked me into making it. The nice thing about it is everything didn't have to be straight, and perfect since it was the Mad Hatter's Hat...so it turned out pretty well.

Life goes on, and it's the memories that you have forever, so we'll do this for the next few years, and will always be able to look back on Sarah's Halloween Party's.

Life's Grape

I blame most of this on my mother, somehow she managed to pass on to me a love for the soil and anything that grows... maybe it has something to do with countless hours spent "weeding" the garden, or "picking rocks" out of the ground, so the plants would have a fighting chance at growing. Whatever the reason, it is in my blood now.

When we first moved to the Springs, I planted some grape vines... (that was 10 years ago) I imagined in my mind how nice it would be to make grape juice in the fall, and how nice it would be to have fresh grape juice thoughout the winter months. There are few things as comforting as a nice glass of fresh grape juice, (not "Welche's" from Wal Mart) but the real thing.

I knew that grape vines took a few years to get established, and you had to keep them pruned, and all of that, and I'm a pretty patient guy. My parent's and my wife's parents both had grape vines growing in their back yards in Utah, and they would have had to take an axe and flame torch to them to kill them off. Every year they would have grapes hanging in beautiful clusters all along the fence, with little to no effort on their part, so it couldn't be that hard to grow grapes could it.

Utah and Colorado....NOT THE SAME. I started out with 5 vines, now I have 2. Through freezing winters, hail the size of golf balls, wind storms, Ice storms, and rain that would make Noah envious, it is amazing I still have these 2 vines left.

So you can imagine my elation after 10 years of waiting to finaly have grapes on my vines this year. Ok there wasn't bushels of them, but there were a lot...Ok, maybe not alot but there were quite a few...well, at least 5 lbs, OK, Ok it was like 5 small clusters. But they were beautiful.

I convinced my wife that we couldn't let these beautiful grapes go to waste, and that it would be a good "Investment" for future bountiful crops to come, if we purchased a steam juicer.

The Juicer arrived via UPS a few days later, and I went out and picked my grapes, brought them into the house, got everything set up and 1 hour later had 1 quart of fresh grape juice, right from my own grape vines.

Yes, factoring in the cost of the juicer, that 1 quart cost me about $60.00, it somehow didn't matter. And next year....it's going to be a bumper crop.

To offset the cost of the Juicer it didn't take much convincing from my wife to make the 9 hour drive to Utah, to some more grapes from her parents...

We ended up with about 3 bushels of grapes, and we also got 3 boxes of apples from my parents. So now we are the proud owner of 34 quarts of Grape juice, fresh apple juice and some wonderful apple sauce...

So thanks Mom, I'll send you a bottle

Steamboat Springs

We went to Steamboat Spings on vacation last week. We wanted a little family time with Justin, before he leaves on his mission. It's kind of sad to think that this will be one of the last vacations with him. They grow up so fast, and then they are gone.

If you haven't been to Steamboat, it's gorgeous, and we had a great time...I put all the pictures into a slideshow and attached it below for your viewing pleaasure.

Justin's girlfriend Kelsey went with us and we were glad to have her along. It gave us some time to get to know her better as well.

How to eat Crow

Ok, So it's been a long time since my wife has been able to say those 4 words that every man 'loves' to hear..."I told you so".

For those of you who haven't been to our house, we have a pretty nice leather sofa, that we've had for 10+ years, it was a nice light tan when we purchased it, but over the years it seems that the oils from peoples hair has caused dark spots to appear on the back cushions. We tried cleaning it with several different leather cleaners, but nothing we tried worked, and it seemed to be getting worse.



I've worked with leather a little bit, (I mean, I did get my leather working merit badge when I was in scouts) and I was looking at the sofa one day and had a small epiphany, why not stain the couch the same color as the dark spots on the cushions.

It was a GREAT idea, Save the couch, revitalize the color scheme in the living room, and make my wife happy all at the same time, and if I did my research, and took the proper precautions, what could go wrong?

So, I got online and looked up the address for the nearest Tandy Leather company, (luckily for me they were just a few miles away) I jumped in the car and went down to talk with them and see if this was something that was feasible. They were very helpful, and assured me that it shouldn't be a problem, and showed me what products I would need, and the options I had for different shades of stain.

One of the options was a little aerosol unit for about $10.00, they told me it would make the stain go farther and would make application allot easier, you just poured the stain in a small bottle on the bottom, and like magic you had you own personal stain sprayer, for $10.00 it seemed like a bargain.

I realized that with a spray there would most likely be some over spray, so I went to Walmart and got a 10 x 20 foot plastic sheet that painters use to put under the sofa and protect the carpet from any possible spills, and over spray, I also picked up some latex gloves to protect my hands, I was all set.

I started with the cushions, and they went pretty quick, it probably took me about 1/2 an hour to do all 3, and then I started on the sofa itself. I had been kneeling on the plastic and realized that the over spray was settling on the plastic (as intended) but I was getting it on my pants as I crawled around on the plastic (not great, but if I lost a pair of older jeans, to the project it was an acceptable loss, sometimes there is collateral damage)

I had purchased 1 quart of Dark Brown stain, and one aerosol unit and realized at this point that it wasn't going to be enough. and I would need at least one more quart to finish the couch, so I thought this would be a good time to take a break and run down to the leather store to pick up another quart of Stain.

(This is where I should have started to get really concerned) I pulled off the latex gloves, and discovered that they hadn't protected my hands nearly as much as one would have thought, in fact my hands were pretty much stained bright orange, I also noticed that the blow back from the spray had stained my arms a nice light orange...almost like a spray on Tan. "Hmmm", I thought, "I'm starting to look like an Umpa Loompa from Charley and the Chocolate Factory, I'm going to need to put on an old long sleeved shirt, when I get back and maybe a painters mask" I also noticed when I looked in the rear view mirror that there were some orange stains under my nose and on my lip where I must have rubbed my nose with my finger..."That's not good" I thought "People are going to wonder at church tomorrow why an Umpa Lumpa is teaching the Gospel Doctrine Class?"

I arrived at the leather store and Nancy the lady I had been working with asked how things were going, and commented on my new tan. I told her the sofa was looking good but I was going to need another quart of stain to finish and possible another two spray units. She went back to get the stain, and of course they were out. "Ok, This isn't good" I knew a half stained couch and husband wasn't going to work for Randie. Nancy pulled out the catalog and we looked at what other stains they had, I told her that a darker stain would probably work, and i could just quickly go over the area's I'd previously stained. Luckily they had one that was darker, I got two quarts this time, and Nancy assured me that I could bring one back if i didn't use it, and I also got two new sprayers.

The new stain worked great, and I actually liked the color better than before, I went over the cushions again, and finished the rest of the couch. Including the trip to the store, and everything it took me about 4 hrs to finish, but it was worth it, the couch looked fantastic. I just needed to clean everything up before Randie got home from work, so she could walk in and see her new couch.



I moved the couch and pulled up all the plastic, and re situated everything in the living room...it looked really good. I had been using the kitchen table kind of as my work bench, and All the stain and rag's etc were on the table (don't worry the top is covered with glass) So I cleaned all that up and then got a clean wet rag to wipe off the table top so it would be nice and clean.

This is where things started to go downhill...I've worked with spray paint over spray before, usually the over spray (all the microscopic paint particles that are atomized by the aerosol) dries before it lands, and leaves a fine dust that you can just wipe up or vacuum up) Stain over spray...TOTALLY Different.

It seems that when stain particles become air born, and land on an object, even though they might be dry, they still maintain their staining capabilities. As I wiped the table the water in the rag REACTIVATED the stain (thank goodness the table was covered with glass) when I looked at the rag it was completely dark orange. and you couldn't even see the stain particles on the table...HUGE WARNING BELLS started ringing in my head, If there was this much over spray on the table, how much was there everywhere else?

As it turns out, it was throughout the whole main level...and it had settled on any Flat surface (thank goodness it didn't stick to the walls) Luckily for me, our kitchen floor and counter tops are all Dark Brown Tile, so no worries there, and all of our wood furniture is pine, so even with a little staining, it just enhanced the pine look.

To Stain an old couch and make it look new: $75 Dollars
To Stain the Carpet along with the Couch and get NEW Carpet: $1000.00 Dollars
To Hear those 4 words "I told you So": Priceless



Yes I had plastic down, but if you remember earlier the Latex gloves didn't seem to do much to stop the stain...so it would seem held true with the plastic. When I tried to clean the carpet we had nice Splotches and Streaks of browns and oranges...it looked like someone threw several pots of coffee all over the carpet, and then tried to wipe it up.

I guess your never to old to learn...some lessons are just more painful than others.

I have to say in closing that Randie was great throughout the whole thing... she only mentioned once "I told you so", (and when I originally proposed the idea, she did say that I should take it out in the Garage... I of course told her I would be extremely careful, and she had nothing to worry about.)

but to be fair she did get a new looking couch AND new Carpet... So I don't think she's too upset about the whole thing... I'll just get to hear her tell this story for several years to come :-)

Milk and Cereal for 21st Anniversary

Yesterday was our 21st Anniversary, and we spent most of the night shopping for Milk and Cereal(Don't worry were going out to celebrate next week)... I'm guessing like most of you, we try to save a buck werever we can...and we did pretty good this week. King Super's is having a sale were if you buy 4 boxes of cereal (Kellogs Brand) for 6 dollars you get 2 Gallons of Milk for free.

When I saw the add I showed it to Randie and after running some errands we stopped and got 4 boxes and 2 gallons of milk, sure enouph when we went through the checkout it rang up for $6.00 Thats not to bad at all.

What the add didn't say is that you also got a store coupon with your reciept for $3.00 off your next purchase.

I'm not a rocket scientist but the little light that is in there clicked on...if we go back and get 4 more boxes and 2 more gallons then we would get another $3.00 coupon, which means we could get the next 4 boxes and two gallons for free.

You know what? It worked... So when it was all said and done we ended up with 20 boxes of cereal and 10 Gallons of milk (we gave 4 of the gallons to a neighbor)for a grand Total of $22.00

You might ask, What will you do with 6 Gallons of Milk, (It just seems to disapear magically). I figured out tonight that we go through about 5 Gallons of milk every week.. you would think with 5 people that would work out nicely to 1 gallon per person, in reality I think Randie and Stephen dring 2 gallons each and Sarah, me and Justin drink the other gallon.

I ran some numbers just for fun. We'll say that milk averages $2.50 a gallon, thats $10.00 a week, or $40.00 a month, or $480.00 a year (Holy COW), How much does a cow cost anyway?

I looked it up and I could probably get one for around $600-700, average milk from a cow is anywere from 6 to 10 gallons a day, or course the kids would REALLY complain about cleaning up after it, (they complain about picking up after Jake our miniature schnauzer as it is now), and we would have to move, I don't think the neighbors would believe it was an overgrown greyhound for very long, and we would probably need about 4 acres for alphalfa, a tractor, combine, hay baler....

I figure I can pay up to $10.00 a gallon for milk and it would still be worth while. So when I can get it for Free it's a pretty good Anniversary.

Stimulus Package

With everyone tightening their belts and the economy headed the way it is, you have to wonder if the Stimulus package actually did anything or not. I realized today that it did.

A few weeks ago I started baking bread about every other day... I "thought" it was because the weather was getting colder, and it's just nice to have warm bread and a warm kitchen when it's cold outside, but I realized the real reason tonight. I realized how nice it's been not to have to buy bread, and I started running the numbers in my head... We probably go through 3-4 loaves a week, at $1.50 a loaf that's about $6.00 a week or $24.00 a month, or $288.00 a year....that's a good chunk of change.



I had just been "stimulated" to bake bread to offset the rising cost of living...and I'm betting LOTS of other people have been similarly stimulated. So in honor of the Stimulus package, I'm going to call it "Obama Bread" and each time I take a bite...I get a little more satisfaction.

Sonya LeBaron

Time moves continually forward day after day, and for the most part we pay it no mind. Perhaps it's because of the steady rate at which it moves that we often lose interest and only glance up occasionally to note its passing, in those moments when we do take notice, often so much time has passed that we get the illusion that it has sped up and somehow sneaked past us without our knowledge.

Haply or not we are sometimes forced to take notice of it's passing and in shock we find that we are looking at empty pages in our book of life, that otherwise might have been filled if we had only been more aware.

Time is a treasure most often disregarded, and then most often wished for when we find it is gone.

Yesterday my "Sister in Law" died unexpectedly (such a generic description for someone who was never close to being generic) in all truth Sonya was more of a Sister, and a friend, and her presence will be greatly missed.

Before yesterday we had the option of looking forward, (at least in this life) to a continued friendship, now we are forced to only look back at what we had, and wish that we had more.

I pay tribute to an amazing woman who touched many lives, who touched my life, someone who loved life and who always welcomed us into her home when we came to visit. She was one of the few modern day pioneer's that I have known, and like all who knew her I will miss her greatly.

My prayers are with my brother, and my nieces and nephews; I know their loss will be much greater than mine.

I am so grateful for a loving Savior, who paved the way for life after this earthly existence to continue, that loss can become gain once more, and that death can be overcome, and friendships can be renewed, and continued.

Goodbye Sonya for now... I will wait patiently for the day that we can resume our friendship once more... until then your friend, Rich

Prom Past and Present

Just a quick post of Justin when he went to prom before school let out....It's amazing to watch your kids grow up, sometimes it's almost a sureal experiance.

I think way....back to when I went to Prom... (Yes the dorky looking guy is me, and the beautiful babe beside me is Randie) We would be out in public together and I know all the girls would turn and wisper to their boyfriend "How did such a dorky looking guy get such a good looking girl"...and the boyfriend would take his eye's off Randie for a second to wisper back "There was a guy with her?"...

It will be interesting to see how Justins Prom picture looks 20 years from now...I know mine sure has changed.

Yeah!...Summer is here

Yes, I'm finally updating my blog, I think that sometimes life is like a whirlpool (No, not that it sucks) but it spins you around so fast that by the time your head stops spinning you realize it's been a month or 3 since you last updated your blog.

We just recently returned from a LeBaron Family Reunion, (it's the first in about 10 years) and It was nice to see cousins and more cousins, and then a couple more cousins....all together they estimated that there were 250+ LeBaron's running around American Fork Canyon. Actually we were all in a lodge because of the rain and it was pretty packed...at least claustrophobia doesn't run in our family.



On the way home coming up out of Provo Canyon there were some really nice cloud formations especially by Deer Creek....I took about 16 pictures and compiled them all together into the picture below.



My Garden is all in, and doing well, I'll post some pictures when it gets a little more established.

The kids are going every direction...I think Justin is gone as much as he's home this summer with EFY (Especially for Youth), High Adventure Camp (which he's on right now) and The Trek (Re inaction of the Pioneer Handcart company crossing Wyoming) Plus the Family reunion, and the upcoming Breinholt Reunion next week, He's got a full summer.

I'll try and be more diligent, because it is nice to have this as a "historical reference" to show that we have done and are actually doing things.

I was recently asked to teach the Gospel Doctrine class (Adult Sunday School Class) which I really enjoy, it helps keep me grounded and realize whats important in life.

Fireproof

If you haven't seen this movie, you should. It's probably not going to win any academy awards, but it has a strong message that every married couple should see. When it came out in the theaters I was thinking it was just another "BackDraft" type movie... I couldn't have been more wrong, and happily so. It is a heatfelt movie produced by the Sherwood Baptist Church and touches on relavent modern day issues that plague husband and wife relationships today. No matter what type of marriage you have this will touch a cord and give you something to think about... Kudo's to the Baptists for putting out such a great message.