Champion of the Whirled

I forgot to report on this, but Rachel's team won the Layton Tournament for her age group. Her team was remarkable in that most of the players understood what was going on, and about three or four of them were really good shooters. 

Rachel didn't contribute much, but she did contribute. In fact, in the championship game (which was pretty close) tiny Rachel came up with a couple of key rebounds, stole the ball once and played pretty good defense.

When Large Objects Collide

Last week the Fryers gave us an old refrigerator. Last Thursday, I borrowed the bishop's hand truck and walked it from Fryers to our house. Our old garage refrigerator leaks condensed water inside, so we thought we would replace it.

Andrew walked in front of me to help me stay on the sidewalk. I pulled the hand truck, resting the fridge mostly on my chest. Gideon stabilized and pushed coming up the hill. 

Christmas Plunder Part III

Argh! Tain't frustration free packin', matey!

Christmas Plunder Part II

Is Hannah showing me her gift, or trying to give it away?

Christmas Plunder Part I

I should share some photos from Christmas morning. My tease this year was that Santa's reindeer were all sick so Santa wouldn't be able to come. I thought it was believable because there is a 24-hour flu-like illness that has been slowing going through the family. Joshua was the latest victim, throwing up just yesterday but feeling fine today.

Andrew was super sick the day before Christmas with the aforementioned bug. Isaac and I gave him a blessing, and I blessed him to recover quickly, but not long after the blessing Andrew passed out in the bathroom and banged himself up a little bit before we could unlock the door and get him out. Kind of scary! 

So a Dung Beetle Walks into a Bar ...

... and asks, "Is this stool taken?"

You are welcome.

Not having a missionary out makes me lazy(er). There are a few news items I should share, and I will, I think, split them into two or three emails (and blogs), for easy consumption.

Images You Might Want to See

This took Andrew awhile to draw.

Hardware Wars

First a Sith Dishwasher, and now a Dark Lord of the Furnace. I am glad we are OK financially. If this continues, we won't be!

Dishwasher Death Wish

This is soooooo not worth a picture. But, I am sending one anyway. 

Do you recognize this space?

UPS Man, UPS Man

UPS Man

UPS Man

UPS Man hates Person Man

They have fight

UPS wins

UPS Man

A Couple of Notes for Hannah and Isaac

Jacob Wamsely is home and looks awesome. He is going to go to school at Utah State in January.

I read or heard somewhere that 40% of returned missionaries are completely active in church after 3 to 5 years. I don't know what that number really is, but, whatever it is, be in that number. Don't let anything else suffice!

Love ya!

Vignettes of the Various and Sundry

I am going to just share news you may or may not know, using the fabulous "bullet point" format to see how it works on the blog.

● Rachel's violin teacher is a very nice, LDS lady. Her husband was the previous bishop in a neighboring ward.

Halloween Pics, Miriam's Birthday, Plus Some Non-Spooky Stuff

Unsolved Mysteries

1. What does Rachel think about this birthday present?

The **@&%$! Samaritan

A "Good Samaritan" helped me the other day, and if I were to put it in parable form it would go something like this:

There She Is, Miss Aphonia

I am surprised I didn't anticipate this. The other day, Esther prayed for Miriam's misophonia, and the added something like "bless her that she won't miss her phone." Of course.

I may have shared these at Thanksgiving. They are better the first time around.

This is a great joke Andrew told me--and didn't understand:

We Already Have Christmas Impulse Power, Mr. Scott: Work on the Warped Priority Drive

I am finding Miriam to be very impulsive, and her latest impulse surprised me. She wanted to buy a tree at the Ogden Christmas Tree Jubilee on Wednesday. The funds are for charity, given to disabled students in the area.

She purchased a "Christmas Story" themed tree, with picture frames and Christmas ornaments created out of pages from a published copy of the Dickens classic.

It cost $450.

Education Incentives

First, I am sending this email to my newly revamped blog to see how it posts. It is the old Benge family blog that we stopped using years ago.

I have invited, Gideon, Isaac, Hannah and my wife to post on the blog if they wish. I simply ask that you only post things that 1) you want family to see, and 2) that you won't be too embarrassed about in the future. You may not want to ever post anything there.

Should I invite my younger children?

Also, I get a request to download .swf files every time I open it. Do you get that, too? Reply here or make a comment.

Anyway, I saw this today and my mind didn't separate these two businesses, which made me laugh at myself:

Moving Down A Generation

Years ago, I, David Benge, the semi-dutiful and semi-ambitious son that I am, created a blog for my parents and siblings to use. It fell into disuse years ago, as my siblings opted to use their personal blogs, Facebook and other platforms.

I have now resurrected it for use with my children, if they decide to use it. I don't know if anyone will.

Here He Is

Enoch Kenneth Benge. Born 5/9/2011 at 7-something in the morning, weighing 7 lbs 8 oz.

I guess I forgot to publish this a long time ago. I am publishing it now so I can show him on his birthday!