NEW MOON!!

We are heading out on a date tonight to go see "NEW MOON" wahooahohaohha! Looks to be good, and I am actually looking forward to it. I haven't read the books, but I have heard from my beautiful wife enough about them to know what to expect in this movie. Should be good, I will post thoughts later!! Oh man look at those abs, looks just like mine, except mine have a little more insulation! HAHAHA

The Atonement!!

I know this is totally not what I usually put on my blog, but it has been on my mind as of late. I have been into reading about what our brother Christ did for us by atoning for our sins. In my reading I have come across some very beautiful facts about the atonement that many of us probably really never even thought of, but they are of great importance. We know that when Christ was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, that was for our sins and his suffering was so great that he bled from every pore. This is what I would think of when someone would mention the Atonement to me. Did it ever cross my mind that he wasn't only atoning for our sins, but our sorrows, sickness, pain, etc. and also the sorrows, pain, sadness, etc. that we cause others when we sin. So in reality EVERYTHING we ever experience in this life he has felt. So when we struggle or fall from the path of righteousness, we need to remember that Christ DOES understand how we are feeling and can help us as long as we ask. Next time you are sick, sad, in pain, having a bad day, mad at the driver in front of you, just remember if you pray to be comforted, Christ will be there and will know how you feel.
One other thought on the Atonement, and then I will get back to my posting of worldly things!! HAHA! When Christ was fasting and Satan was tempting him, it seems that Satan was really trying to get Christ to fall into temptation, and it must have been very hard to resist. Never had I thought, that this was nothing in comparison to how hard Satan must have been trying to cause the Savior to sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. I mean he was suffering beyond our comprehension, and Satan I'm sure knew this was his best chance at succeeding in his mission to get the Savior to fail his eternal mission.
So with all of this in mind, let us not forget that when we think we can't overcome something in our lives, that Christ is there and he will listen and help us through. He want's all of us to feel his influence in our lives, we just need to let him in!!

New Desktop Toys!!

So I needed a lamp for my desk at home and a pen holder, so I bought these beautiful pieces of car art for the desk since I am a car fanatic!! The lamp is made of aluminum and carbon fiber, and the up/down motion is controled by a coilover and the lamp is surrounded by what looks like a disk brake. The pen holder is made of an engine cylinder and it is beautiful!!

SAW VI WOOHOOO!!

http://www.saw6film.com/

Oh yeah it is that time of year again!! I love SAW!! Go and check it out and get yourself prepared for the goodness.....or is it badness!?! Wahahaha!

Chicago Trip!!

So we just returned from our annual trip to Chicago. It was a great time. We ate mucho pizza, had all kinds of great food and had Christie's favorite cake. We hit up the Sears Tower.....now called the Willis Tower (lame) and were able to go out on the new glass boxes at the top of the tower, where you look straight down!! It was awesome!! We also attended the Harry Potter exhibit that was in town and man the amount of work that goes into making the costumes and backgrounds and stuff is amazing. So needless to say we had a grrrrreat time!! If you want to see photos of some of the stuff we did go to http://www.madsenfam03.blogspot.com/ Christie will be posting pics tomorrow! I thought I would save the pics for her, since more people visit our family blog than mine......teardrop!

PEACE OUT

Tune Me Up!!!!

As some of you know, I have been waiting and waiting to have my ride "tuned." Well that day came just the other day, and it was a beautiful thing to behold for sure. The stock Mini Cooper S comes with the stats of 172 hp and 177 ft/lbs of torque. Now as most of us know the numbers that you get from the manufacturer are never quite what they say they are. So I'd say that my car actually started probably with something like 160-165 hp. So here is what all of my mods and the "tune" have gained me. My numbers are up to 226 hp and 256 ft/lbs of torque.
So needless to say I am freakin excited. The car is a whole new animal, and it totally rips now. Thanks to my new buddy Jan, you are the man!!

U.S. Open!!!

I have been way into tennis lately. Some of my neighbors and I have been getting up at 6 am to play doubles and sometimes we just play singles. It is extremely fun, and a great workout. Not only that, but it is US Open time. And even when I wasn't playing, I always watched the "Open." So now that my boy Roddick is out, here are the two players that I am cheering for.

Rafa Nadal, I want him to make it to the finals and take it to Federer!!
Melanie Oudin, she's 17 and has taken out 3 upper tier players. Today at 5pm Mountain Time she battles again and I will be watching!

Family Campout!! Vol. 4

And in the final posting of the Campout pics, I saved the sleeping bag pics and some cool headlamp night shots for all y'all!! I will be posting again soon concerning some of the upgrades on my car since the last time I posted on here. Peace!!

Family Campout!! Vol. 3

Roasting marshmallows was hillarious as you can see in the pic. The kids eating them was fun times too. We learned that you can't leave the chocolate bars in the car....because they melt!! Who would've thought? But I have to say the melted chocolate actually went onto the smores alot easier and ended up being even more awesome than full bar chunks!!

Family Campout!! Vol. 2

Here are some more pictures. Top is the kids cleaning dishes with mom, and then some more pics of us out in the woods by the river and throwing rocks and such. As you can see Addie is checking on Elmo in the bottom picture and Kyler is preparing to throw a rock the size of his head!!

Family Campout!! Vol. 1

We went camping up in the Uintah's on the weekend of the 22nd. It was our first campout with both of the kids and my first time with Addie, and Christie. It was a blast. Our campsite wasn't very far from the river pictured above and the kids absolutely loved throwing rocks into the water. They both did awesome....and Christie did too. As you can see even though we were camping Addie needed her purse and elmo.

Sunday Dinner!!

So this is my second time making this meal, and I have to say it is friggggggin awesome! I found it in one of my Men's Health magazines and I must say it is now a favorite of mine and of Christie's! It is seared steak topped with mushrooms and the side is tomatoes with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar. It is TTTTTASTY!! Here are a few pics for ya, and if any of you want the receipe just shoot me a note!!

WOWZERS!!

So we have one of our friends staying with us for the next couple of days, and she reminded me that I have a blog. Yep, I had almost totally forgotten that I had this and it has been a long long time since it has been updated. So here is to a new start, and a hope for weekly updates. I will try not to let you down this time.....whoever you may be!!

Coming Out On Tuesday!!! WOOOHOOO!

This game is going to be off the chain!! The first one was awesome, and I am freakin excited Tuesday morning here I come!

Updates On 007 Recovery!!

This pic reminds me of the movie "Faceoff"

Kyle working hard, in both of these pics!

And these two, well all I can say is "naked!"

So here is where 007 stands now. Things are looking like possibly the end of the week we could see him back in action. This has been some kind of experience. Hopefully I can do something to get the AMVIV jinx off of my car, so that next year we can actually make it to Vegas and be able to enjoy driving with all of our friends. I had to make sure I said to enjoy driving, because my luck would have been we would make it to Vegas and something would happen, after all we made it a little bit further this year than last.......so I guess we made some progress. Thanks Kyle for working so diligently on my baby!!

AMVIV!!

Well, here are some pics of our A MINI Vacation In Vegas. As you can see I have MINI in bold and italics. Not because it was a trip for our MINI, but as you will see in the pictures it was a MINI trip. On our way down, my car started to act a little funny. I shared my concern with Christie, and the group by using our marine radios. About 2 minutes later, my check engine light came on, and I decided I better pull over. Once pulled over, my water temp overheating light came on and of course billowing smoke from my hood. Come to find out, the snow had created a slush/ice barrier over my upper and lower grills on my car making it so that the radiator wasn't getting any air to cool the engine. I removed the ice, and then had a great couple that was driving with us get me some more coolant. Of the 9 that went with on the trip with us, 3 cars stayed back to help. Thanks Emily, Chris, Evan, Trisha, and Trisha's parents!! I was able to get the coolant pumped through the system, and then we had to jumpstart the car. We drove to the next exit about a mile and a half away. All seemed well, until we got back on the freeway and all of the lights started going berserk!! Called Mini Roadside, they towed my car back to Mini of Murray, and our good friend Michael came to Nephi from work to pick us up.

Come to find out the head is warped, and I need to harass Mini to see if they will cover it under warranty. If not, then I will try my insurance. If that fails, then to have a new head installed costs about 5 grand. I am fully convinced that AMVIV is a curse to my MINI. Last year it was the wheel falling off, so I couldn't go to Vegas, and this year this crap!! Well, now that I have talked all of your ears off.....good day!

One Of My Favorite Videos!

This has to be one of the best videos ever! I love how Addie laughs her butt off, and then stops and looks around. Then patiently waits for Kyler to jump off the stairs towards her, and the cycle starts all over again. LOVE IT!

Woohoo

Three Must Watch Shows!!

I was sitting here thinking about my 3 favorite shows on TV right now! Psych on the USA Network is hillarious and I can't seem to get enough. And then Man Vs. Wild on Discovery Channel is off the hook! I love watching Bear Grylls eat all sorts of stuff, and showing us how to survive in the wilderness. I seriously got freakin ill watching him the other day. He found a bear crap, and showed that the bears body processes and expels food very quickly. So there were pieces of apple in the crap and he washed it off and ate it!! Are you freakin kidding me? But I guess if you had to survive.....ummm I'd find something else. And last but not least 24 on Fox! Jack Bauer is the man! He is unstopable, and just Hardcore! So there are my top 3 shows.

Oh The Joy!

So today I thought I would get started on all of the projects that are lined up for my car. These include things like, suspension, short shifter, gauges, bushings, etc. So I figured I would start with the suspension, the most involved of all projects. I started by taking off the front passenger side strut and coil. When I got my new coilover to install it....the camber plate (top part) didn't fit. Come to find out it is the part for an R53 (older MINI). So that means I won't have the correct part until the middle of next week. To add to that I started on the rear suspension. I am drilling a hole to mount an adjuster inside of the car. The freakin drill bit breaks! So after all of that I said forget it. I will work on it tomorrow. And of course to add to the pain, we had a church basketball game tonight. We were leading the entire game, and at one point were up by 14. When in the 4th quarter it started off by me hitting a 3 pointer, and then followed by the opposing team going on a 19-0 run. We lost by 9 points!! So what a freakin day!!

Wowzers!!

Ever since my mission, I have been rediculously allergic to cats. It came to my attention after we had met with someone we were teaching. She had 5 cats, and my eyes puffed up huge. The whites of my eyes when I would look to the side would fold over the colored part of the eye. It was disgusting. So here is what happened the other day. I picked up some tickets from a friend..you know who you are, and put them in my pocket. Later that night I reached in my pocket and soon after rubbed my eyes. This is the result. It was swollen for 2 days. Cats and I do not get along.

Addie!

While organizing pics, I also wanted to post some of Addie, and how far she has come along. She is a beautiful little pill. She is a Diva for sure, and likes what she likes and if she doesn't she has no problem telling you...or headbutting you, hitting you, etc. She is a cute little monster too, and once again I am glad to have pictures.