Thomas had a very serious dirt biking accident on October 15th. Tommy and his  step-brother Jimbo ran into each other head on at full speed on a slight turn with lots of shrub around where they couldn’t see each other until it was too late.

Jimbo came out of the accident with a few cuts and bruises. Tommy, however, wasn’t so lucky. He has a serious break on his right femur (thigh) bone just below the hip. He also has a shattered right wrist and a not-as-serious fractured left wrist.

Tommy will being going into surgery for three hours today to align the femur properly and to have some sort of metal rod installed to maintain the alignment during the healing process. Tommy told me on the phone that in a year and a half, he will have to go back into surgery to have this rod removed after the full healing process is complete.

Tommy is on a morphine drip right now and seems to handling his pain fairly well. He also still sounds like he is in good spirits. He even joked a little bit on the phone during our 20 minute phone call.

Although most close family is being kept up to date via telephone calls, I thought I would post this to make sure everyone is updated. I’ll be posting followups as I get them.

Categories: Family Updates
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At 2AM last night, I saw the first snow flurries of this winter season here in Cedar City, UT. I figured through the night, we’d have about an inch on the ground for the kids to enjoy in the morning.

What I didn’t know, it snowed HARD through the night and we have between 4-6″ of snow on the ground! Our trees are still going through fall and have plenty of leaves still. One of my trees had 3 large branches snap due to the weight of the snow caused by the leaves still being on the tree.

I spent the morning clearing the rest of the snow off of the branches on all trees. That was fun! While I was out there, Holly came out from her dog house and played in the snow for the first time in her life. That was fun, though, she did get cold and went back in to warm up. Heh.

Here’s a couple pictures Tammy took early this morning.

10/17/2006 – First snow. At least 4 inches!

Cole and Brittany playing in the first snow of this fall/winter season.

The kids had a great time before Brittany had to go to school.

As of right now, it is snowing! It is a nice and warm 34 degrees with a little bit of snow melt since this morning. We’re having a blast!

Categories: Family Updates
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Hi all,

If you have NetFlix, please send me a quick message so I can add you as a friend in my NetFlix account (if you aren’t already).

The friends feature is pretty cool.

Thanks!

Categories: Misc Stuff
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For all the dire health problems associated with aspartame — the worst of them being cancer — the original “anything-but-sugar” substitute may have an ideal purpose to exist, not as a food additive, but as an ant poison.

Already aware of aspartame’s origins as a toxic chemical, a health-conscious consumer with an ant problem emptied one packet of aspartame in the corner of each of her bathrooms two years ago. The “sweet” solution worked brilliantly, as she’s seen no signs of carpenter ants crawling around for the past year.

Aspartame may be just the thing for getting rid of fire ants (impervious to many poisons) too, although this solution takes a bit more effort. Initially, fire ants ignored their aspartame treat until a light rain moistened it. After the rain, however, the fire ants came back with a vengeance, taking the aspartame back to the mound by the hundreds. Within two days, any evidence that fire ants existed at all, save for an empty mound, vanished.

No mystery aspartame works like a pesticide, as the asparctic acid contained in this toxic product is a well-documented excitotoxin that causes specific brain cells to become excessively excited to the point they quickly die, just as both kinds of ants did.

Makes you wonder if aspartame is a far safer, better alternative to getting rid of lawn and home pests than the average toxic pesticides found at your neighborhood hardware store …

Categories: Fun on the Web
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