life with the fat man

relaxation

2009-02-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

Man do I need a vacation!! Lets talk about my last Vacations of shorts.
-January 09 Hawaii I worked 64 hours in 4 days. The last day we played for a bit but there was a storm not much relaxation.
-September 09 SLC: Cindy and I had a nice one night getaway not much time for me to unwind but nice.
-July 09 Island park Idaho: I took a group of Scouts to summer camp. 13 boys and 4 other adults. I had fun the time of my life but not allot of time for relaxation.
Feb-09 Park City: Cindy and I went off for a weekend for her Birthday. Fun but again not much time to relax

You know the list goes on like this. For years and years. So what I think I want is a nice long week on the beach.............. No I'm not that happy with sand.................
How about late spring at the cabin for a week. No phone. leave it and the laptop at home. Plenty of good dutch oven food to cook and eat when I want. Lots and lots of liquid refreshments. Half the week alone and the other half with family and some friends. Only the kind that can take care of themselves. After all I'm on vacation getting some relaxation.
Thous of you who know me know I'm not much of a relaxer but I think I'm going to give it a try.

jokes that back fire

2009-01-17T22:45:00.000-08:00

So I have a three year old daughter. And when Sophia was very young her Mother would sing to her at night. Well one time Cindy headed off on a trip with a friend. Sophia was about two and Cindy was so worried about what I would would do with a two year old little girl. Cindy wanted to record some night time songs for Sophia. So when it was night time I cold play them for her. The joke went like this:
"I can sing to her at night that's not a problem." Said I,
"Oh," Cindy replied." You can sing twinkle twinkle little star?"
"of course I can!" I said in a stern confidant voice.
To witch I got "what about baby mine?"
Hm I thought what song is that? I can think of the tune................. What is that form? What are the words?

"Well" I replied "If I can't remember the words I will just hum it or I will sing her some of my songs."
To witch I got " HA HA Ha HA Ha "

So the day of truth came at last. Cindy was gone and Sophia was ready for bed. We had our bath. We even stayed up late (shh don't tell mom)
When I was tucking her in bed. I leaned down to give her a kiss good night when Sophia said.
"Sing me a song" gasp I had forgot about that. What was I going to do? I froze up I couldn't even remember the words to twinkle twinkle let alone baby mine.

So I did what any Father would do in this case. I told her I didn't know those songs. Daddy's know other songs.
"Like what?" She asked.
"Oh different ones is all. I'm not sure you would like them."
"try"

OK so I knelt down and started in on what ever came to mind.
And to this day these songs in this order are requested by Sophia. As "Daddy songs"

"Ring of Fire" by Johny Cash
"Oh Danny Boy" by who ever you want I have 7 different recording of it on my i-tunes.

This is the part that makes a tear well up in your eye.
When we are driving in the car and any of these songs come on they are Daddy songs and Sophia can sing all the words to them.

Hell Ya Proud Dad.

So some day this joke is going to come back and kick me in the but. But for now its just adorable.
Don't you think?

Pay back

2009-01-09T22:49:00.000-08:00

Pay Back!
For those of you who know me know that I have a hell of alot to pay back. This my come as a shock to the rest of you but in my younger days (15-25) I was a hell raiser. Lord knows the pain I caused other people. The frustration I gave to my parents. The crap I gave my college roommates. The hell I put some girls through. Oh and Todd.... what a great guy to put up with my crap. And Brady and Kevin to stand by me even when I was wrong. As I got older and had offspring of my own and as they grew. I thought to my self. "self" I said (through back to Mr. L at Orem Jr. High) How ever will your sons not go through the same crap you did. It then hit me what was the one thing that stayed with me through the years . What taught me right from wrong. (knowing is not doing) What was the one main fall back I had? "Scouts" more specific Troop 51 and Joe W. and all of my scout friends.
So in 2007 I found Troop 51 again. luck would have it there were some other parents looking for a troop like 51. The Scout Master at the time said he wanted out 10 years was enough. I'm not sure what I was thinking but I said I would step up to the plate and do it. But I wanted time to do some training. So 7 months latter I took over as the Scout Master of Troop 51. (the oldest and best Troop in Utah)
We camp every month. And on our camp outs we have a camp fire. We sing songs, do silly skits, tel story's. You know camp stuff. But one thing we do is at the end of each campfire we have what we call thorn and roses. This is a time when each boy and air out any differences. At the same time they can tell people thank you for what someone else has done. It was at one of these campfires I realised why I was doing what I was doing. Its Pay back, pay back for the love and the help I received as a young lad.
So I started a cause on face book called Random acts of Kindness. I realized on Monday at my Aunt Claude's funeral what it all meant. (I know something in my life Finley came together.) At this point it is my job (and yours) to pass on what we have learned.
So last week at Scouts during the Scout Master minute I talked about this great person I know. How there acts of kindness and unconditional love made such a impact on my life. So I asked them all to make a point in the week to do 2 random acts of kindness.
Now I'm going to brag a bit about my sons.
So this weekend is Tim's birthday. And we went out for his Birthday dinner today. He wanted spaghetti and meatballs. So we went to the old spaghetti factory for dinner. When we finished dinner we went into the mall to do some shopping. So we stopped at the fountain to put in a Pennie and make a wish. (well what would you do?) When I herd some people say "Wow what a wondrful boy." So I turned to see where my boys were. And there they were holding the doors opening it for every person that came through. So like a putz I said "what are you doing stay with us". Tim sai,. "Dad I'm just doing random acts of kindness."
So I'm paying back to all the people who where there for me with there random acts of kindness. Even if they don't know they did them. I hope in my small way I can make a diffeance to one person.

the first

2009-01-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

So a blog. This is what my life has come to now. Blogging............ Who ever would have thought that? I'm not 100% sure where to go from here? Tell you about my life till now? Just keep this going as my life as it happens? My random thoughts? Where do we go from here?
Its the begging of a new year. And its not starting out that great. Tomorrow we put my Aunt Claudia to rest. She had a tough fight with cancer this last year. Claudia is the 4th chilled in the Dart family to pass a way. I feel so bad for my Grandmother. In the perfect world we would hope to never out live our own children and she has done it four times. Plus her Husband. Not to mention Mom, Dad, and I believe two sisters.
But this brings me to some of my thoughts. Love the people in your life. Don't be afraid to let people into your life. These are just words I know unless we act on them. In a way I feel bad for the people who said. "gosh I meant to get over and see her I just never found the time." We have all said it and yes some times we don't have the time. On our way home from work all we want to do is go home. The last think on our mind is to get off at that exit and stop by. Did they really want to stop and say HI? Or are they telling that to themselves in a out spoken monologue. So we don't think them a bad person? Or are we afraid to admit to ourselves that we are mortal and that could happen to us too? Questions of life I know. I don't expect any of us to have the answers just things to chew on.
I myself feel sorrow for my Cousins. I want to make sure they all know how much I love them. I want my Aunts to know how much I love them. My Mother (who at this point we are not talking to each other) to know that I do love her even though we don't see eye to eye on much of anything. But most of all I want my grandmother who I love more then any other person in this world to know how much I love her. She is the ROCK of the Dart family and as dysfunctional as we all are. We are still family.