Candy has her son-in-law test, Pam's Pammandments

So, here's the deal. This is what Chad had to live up to during his formative years, actually during his first year at BYU. Pam actually had them printed up and gave them to him. I thought I'd share them with you. They are hilarious. Put these together with Candy's list and you have perfection.

1. Thou shalt be home by midnite because the Holy Ghost goes to be then. Nothing good happens after midnite.
2. Thou shalt not say pis-, cra-, frick--, freak-- or bosom.
3. Thou shall wear thy seatbelt always.
4. Thou shalt not drive over 65 mph..the Lord can't protect thee if thou art breaking the law.
5. Thou shalt get thy hair.
6. Thou shalt brush thy teeth twice a day every day.
7. Thou shalt not talk on thy cell phone to girls after 1am.
8. Thou shalt be conscious of what you text, say and write because Satan see and hears everything.
9. Thou shalt always say, "Please and Thank you" and be grateful.
10. Thou shalt not tell lies. Thou has to remember too many details and will come back to bite thee in the buttocks
11. Thou shalt not gamble or play cards on tv, online.
12. Thou shalt be judicious on myspace and facebook. Remember everyone can read everything thou dost write.
13. Thou shalt always open doors for girls.
14. Thou shalt remember that the grass is always greener on the other side because it has more manure on it...and it still has to be mowed.
15. Thou shalt have a prayer in thy heart always. Pray morning and night and anytime in between...especially before a test.
16. Thou shalt not have a steady girlfriend...spread the joy.
17. Thou shalt remember that choice, not chance, determines destiny.
18. Thou shalt remember that what thou thinkest thou art and what thou wilt become.
19. Thou shalt be where thou art supposed to be when thou art supposed to be there.
20. Thou shalt not be alone with girls.
21. Thou shalt keep thy dorm room clean.
22. Thou shalt wash thy sheets at least once a month.
23. Thous shalt not walk around in thy underwear.
24. Thous shalt attend all devotionals and firesides and take notes.
25. Thou shalt write in thy journal weekly.
26. Thou shalt write a letter or email to thy parentals once a week so the female parental can save it for thy scrapbook.
27. Thou shalt get 8 hours of sleep every night.
28. Thou shalt not eat junk food too often.
29. Thou shalt exercise daily.
30. Thou shalt read and study thy scriptures daily.
31. Thou shalt never see R-rated movies...ever.
32. Remember who thou art at all time and in all places.
33. Thou shalt remember the Pammandments because I saith and meaneth it and I loveth thee. I want thee to be the best thee can be.

Nobody comments anyway!

Okay, I'm doing another post. I tell Candy to post and she just gets mad at me. I tell Heidi to post and she just laughs. Lacy tells me to post and so does Candy, so I'm posting, but no one comments anyway. And no one comments on my comments to their blogs, so what's the point with blogging. HB uses all my ideas on his Cougar Sportsline, so as Hitch says, "I've got nothing".

I've really got nothing to say. Chad is gone. I've got no one to go fishing with. It's hot, really hot. I hate one of my dogs and no one will take him. Everyone gets mad when I say I'm gonna take him out in the desert and let him play "Survivor". Incidentally, what a great TV show. I know some of it has to be fake, but it still appeals to my manly manifestoness. Speaker on entertainment, I've gone to more movies in the last month than I have in the last 10 years. All because Chad is gone. It's my way of grieving, I guess. Or maybe it's because Cameron likes to go and up until now he didn't have vehicle. So I went with him or with Pam. Here's my review of the following movies: Fantastic Four.....what a waste; Spiderman....good but too many villians; Pirates....enough with the psycho crabs, not enough action, yet Johnny Depp is a great actor...movie still stunk though; Transformers.....yeah baby....the real deal, although I have no idea which machines were good or bad, just great action and it was funny...the lead guy Beef or Broth or Shilo or whatever his name is (it's something like that) was good; Ocean's 13.....okay, allright good becuase I like the idea of ripping off anything in Vegas but the writing sure has gone downhill since the first one. I wanted it to be funny, but it wasn't, yet they ripped off Al Pacino and Andy Garcia again...okay kinda good but not...it was a good diversion. So here's a movie story for you. Pam, Cameron and I went to see Transformers the first day it was out. Not the midnite thing but day. We had to stand in line for 45 minutes behind some ropes to wait for it. I've never done anything like that before except at Disneyline and I hated it. Anyway, we are there for about a minute in line and Pam says she has to go the bathroom. So she goes. About 15 minutes passes and shes not back. I tell Cameron I'm worried and go to find her. I go to the women's bathroom and wait. Ladies are entering and exiting, but no Pam. Finally, I see someone from our ward coming out. I ask if Pam was in there. She says no. So I call Pam on her cell phone. I rings for a long time and finally she answers in a soft, whispering voice, "Whhhhaaaat"? I ask, "Where are you?" She whispers even softer, "I'm in another movie. I didn't want to stand in line that long and there was another movie I wanted to see if I liked".

She told me to call her when the line got to go to our theater. So this is how the movie thing works, I concluded. Cameron and I waited the entire time in this stupid line. So then we finally march, almost run to theater #19 and I call Pam. She said she'd be there when it started and to save her a seat. Now in her defense, she does have torn cartilage on both sides of her right knee, so I understand and we probably could have gotten a doctors note if had to. But, then I see throngs of people (all healthy) who all of sudden show up in our marching line in front of us beating us to the good seats. It seems that nobody actually waits in these lines. They just hide somewhere else and then magically appear at the front of the line to get the good seats. Some of these people had shaved heads and gang tatoos, so I decided not to confront them. Even so, we got the good seats, you know the ones with the railing in front so you can put your feet up. And, of course we still kept an empty seat between us saying they were taken if anybody was to ask. We did it out of spite to show the others that we were "bad".

Chad leaves for Hamburg in a couple of weeks. He says he can't wait. He's tired of the processed MTC food and ready to see some action.

I think I can do this now

Here are some photos of Chad entering the MTC. If you have free time write him. If not, don't worry about it we probably didn't write you on yours either. Although, I am a frequent contibutor to your blogs. It's a shame missionaires can't blog....legally anyway. It would be really interesting I think. Thanks to Devry for the blog she told us about. We check it out even though Chad isn't there yet. He got to meet his new mission president this week before he heads to Hamburg the first of July. Chad will be in the MTC until the first week in August. He's really worried because the German isn't flowing. He will be celebrating his 19th Birthday on June 30th in the MTC. I wrote him a song that I hope doesn't get him in trouble. I hope he can listen to it at least. It goes.....

Sprekenzie Deutsch in the MTC,

how's it going in there without a tv,

I know this song is not mormon tab,

I hope you all can cut me some slack.

Anyway, that's the first verse. If you want to read the rest of it, I might post it later.

Here are some photos.

It's raining pics

And there was more

Even more pics

More pics

And I've got more to come later.

HB may have movies, I have pictures

So with Chad being gone Pam has been doing some summer "spring" cleaning. She found an old evelope with some photos in them. I thought you might be interested in some of them. Some need identification. I am listing the cutline of the photos below. See if you can match them to the photos.

1. Frogjam

2. Ada

3. Missionary farewell

4. Handsome man

5. Beautiful woman

Notes for the taking

It seems that the quickest remedy to missing someone is to go to movies. I've gone to more movies in the last two weeks than I have in the last 5 years. Pam and I went to see Pirates and Spiderman while in Utah and Cameron and I have gone to see Ocean's 13 and Fantastic 4. I wish the writing was better on Ocean's but it's still a good diversion from reality. Both Cameron and I wish he had gone to see Nancy Drew over Fantastic 4. So I've spent about $40 on movies to get over my separation anxiety and I've decided Spiderman and Ocean might have been worth paying $4 to see, but the others were a waste. Other quick notes: Chad is a district leader in the MTC. He has written us twice now and we're getting a mixture of how great it is to how hard it is. I think the word "prison" came up once in his letters along with long hours and hard to learn the language. Anyway, any encouragement you can give him would be appreciated. So that's a hint to send him a letter or two. We are having to re-do his passport because they wrote on it....Chad Arnett Arnett. He's learning to find joy in simple things like sitting in the shade of tree at the temple for 20 minutes waiting to go in. It reminds me of Howard. He used to lie on the floor of our living room in the light of the sun shining through the windows. When it moved, so did he. He used to tell me he knew why pigs enjoyed the sun so much. I told him if he wanted I could throw some mud on the carpet to make it even more enjoyable. It was the highlight of his day to just lay in the sunlight during the winter.

On another note, Cameron is doing well. He's getting more hours at work and he's been getting involved in the singles ward. He got his license back so he's a little more mobile. I let him take my truck once in a while. He doesn't drive it much because it doesn't have air conditioning.

For those of you lack like head banging music, and you know who you are, I have to recommend the new Scary Kids CD that comes out next month. DJ, (most of you in AZ have met him) and his band are on the Warped Tour again along with some other big name tour. You guys probably know what it's called, but I forgot. Anyway, their new CD is actually good. I've always gotten a preview of their last two CDs first and really didn't like any of their stuff, but this on has got good stuff on it. Their last CD sold close to 8o,000. If they can get this one up to 120,000, they get signed by RCA....then who knows. They have their own touring bus this time around.
That was a commercial announcement for those of you who know DJ. He still comes around to shower and eat.

I'm still gonna post some pictures of Chad going into the MTC sometime. It's still hard for me to look at them, but time will cure that.

This is a hard thing thou has asked of us

It was difficult, it still is. This is difficult but as Lacy says you have to write things down to "make it better". First off, the MTC president kept saying in the meeting that this was a spiritual experience. Neither Pam or I felt the spirit. We couldn't through our tears. Also where did they get the idea to start off with singing "Called to Serve". You all have been through it so I won't rehash the proceedings, only to say we actually said goodbye quickly and had to ask other families to move so we could get out. Chad was in his element. He shed some tears saying goodbye, but he had a smile on face and was ready to go. He knew quite a few of his fellow elders going in. He was greeting them...sharing in all the excitement. When it was time to go into the "great hall" to say goodbye, he said "let's ride, Dad". Then when we had to say farewell we all three hugged and he said, "Game on, Dad". I was so proud of him. He was promised in his setting apart that angels will go before him and that Christ will be in front and on his right and left and that he will help many to realized the blessing of the gospel. I'm not tearful for him, but for us. One little incident you might apprecitate happened after we left the MTC. We needed gas so we stopped at a gas/food mart as Pam needed a newspaper also. Pam went in to get the newspaper and after I had gassed up I pulled up to the side of the food mart so Pam wouldn't have to get wet as it was pouring rain. Pam came out and proceded to get into another man's car. Through teary eyes, she thought it was me. In her defense, it was the same color Honda as ours. She got in and then realized it wasn't me. She screamed and then both she and the man laughed. Anyway, more musings on the day in a later post, but here are a few photos that will certainly make me and Pam cry and maybe you to. On second thought, I'll upload them later for some reason they won't load on this computer.

Chad's Farewell address

Sixty-three years ago yesterday, in North Peckingham, England, a young World war II bomber pilot and his B-24 crew prepared for a mission to Brunswick, Germany approximately hundred miles south of Hamburg where I'll be serving my mission..
Knowing the pilot had served as an LDS missionary to Australia, the crew asked him if he would lead them in prayer. His mission had previously been interrupted when he was called back to the US for the war.
The crew gathered together under the wing of the aircraft which had been named "Boomerang" for obvious reasons by the pilot. The prayer went as follows: “…Please help each of us perform our assigned tasks well, that we will work harmoniously together to successfully complete our assigned mission, and please Father­ keep us safe and protected from harm so we may return to our home base safely....” As the pilot uttered the words “return to our home base safely,” something was different. He suddenly knew that they were not coming back! It was hard for him to finish that prayer, but he did know one thing for certain: he would not tell his crew members. He was hoping to find something seriously wrong with the aircraft so that they would have a legitimate reason to abort the mission. But, there was no such luck, everything was working perfectly.
As the plane was over the English channel, he was thinking about the last time he was home. It was then that his thoughts turned toward Jesus Christ and His experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even, HE, the Son of God, was looking, at least temporarily, for an honorable way out of his ordeal as he prayed, “Father let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” A feeling of peace then came over the pilot as they passed across the channel and reached the Netherlands coastline. He knew they were not coming back, but he prayed earnestly for their lives to be saved.
Accounts of the day are varied and details of the air battles are rather foggy. The Luftwaffe caught their bombing group twice without fighter protection and the scenario was set for a massacre as about 40 messerschmidtt fighters began firing cannons and machine guns at the B-24 bombers.
The Boomerang had been hit several times by enemy fire and was crippled. With two bad engines and a damaged vertical fin and rudder the only hope was to try to make it back to England. As planes were exploding in the air all around him the LDS pilot turned for home. He told the crew he was going to stay with the plane and gave them the choice to bail out. All members chose to stay with the plane. When the last engine failed, the plane had to crash land in occupied Holland. Miraculously, only one crew member was killed, although others were injured. Before the plane even hit the ground, German soldiers were there to take them prisoners.
They were forced onto a train where they were transported to their new destination ... a prison camp called Stalag 17. This was the infamous site the so called "Great Escape" where previously about 50 allied prisoners attempted a tunnel escape to be re-captured and executed in front of the other prisoners to deter other escape attempts.
The LDS pilot spent 9 months in this prison, but the allies were closing in, so they were forced to march in bitter cold and in a foot of snow for a one full day and two nights where they then were transported by train to another prison camp. Food was scarce and hunger rampant and the prison guards were often cruel. A short time later they had to march again, this time 100 miles to still another prison camp where conditions were even worse.
Back in the United States in a little town in Southeastern Arizona lived the parents of this LDS pilot. They had two sons fighting in Europe during World War II and one of them was a prisoner of war. Any news about their son was difficult to get so all they could do was pray fervently for his safety.
War is a two sided affair, and not far away in Safford, Arizona was also a prison camp that housed Germans prisoners of war. This prison was a work camp. Each day prisoners were trucked to different farms in the Gila valley to provide work for families in the area. Two prisoners named Ernst and Fritz were transported daily to a small farm in Franklin, Arizona for work.
The family they worked for was the family of the LDS pilot who was imprisoned in Germany. It would have been easy for members of this family to harbor ill feelings toward their German prisoners. It would have been easy to show animosity for the hardships their son had to endure, but each day this family treated these two prisoners with respect and dignity. In fact, the mother of this family insisted that Ernst and Fritz be fed the same as their family.
All they were given each day from the prison was a sandwich of two bread slices and a thin slice of bologna. This was not good enough. This mother made sure they be fed like her family because she prayed each day that someone in Germany would treat her son as well as she treated Ernst and Fritz.
While her son was not treated well, it didn't matter to this mother. She had true Christlike love for all people. She was able to forgive any trespasses and cruelty imposed on her son and hence on her family.
Elder Ukedorf recently gave a talk at conference on forgiveness:
He said: Jesus taught us an eternal truth when He taught us to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. … For, if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not … neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (3 Nephi 13:11, 14-15) Therefore, extending forgiveness is a precondition to receiving forgiveness
Pres Hinckley says of forgiveness: “I think it may be the greatest virtue on earth, and certainly the most needed. There is so much of meanness and abuse, of intolerance and hatred. There is so great a need for repentance and forgiveness. It is the great principle emphasized in all of scripture, both ancient and modern"
The great crowning love of the Savior was expressed when in His dying agony He cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
In our day the Lord has said in revelation: “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:9-10)
A great example of forgiveness was shared by President Thomas S. Monson. It's a story about a family which came to America from Germany early many years ago. The English language was difficult for them and they had but little by way of means, but each was blessed with the will to work and with a love of God. Their third child was born in America, lived but two months, and then died. The Father was a cabinetmaker and fashioned a beautiful casket for the body of his precious child. The day of the funeral was gloomy, thus reflecting the sadness they felt in their loss. As the family walked to the chapel, with Father carrying the tiny casket, a small number of friends had gathered. However, the chapel door was locked. The busy bishop had forgotten the funeral. Attempts to reach him were futile. Not knowing what to do, the father placed the casket under his arm and, with his family beside him, carried it home, walking in a drenching rain.
If the family were of a lesser character, they could have blamed the bishop and harbored ill feelings. When the bishop discovered the tragedy, he visited the family and apologized. With the hurt still evident in his expression, but with tears in his eyes, the father accepted the apology, and the two embraced in a spirit of understanding. No hidden wedge was left to cause further feelings of anger. Love and acceptance prevailed.
To have forgiveness we must have a change of heart.
When King Benjamin finished his remarkable address in the land of Zarahemla, the people all cried with one voice that they believed his words. They knew of a surety that his promises of redemption were true, because, said they, “the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent … has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, [and note this] that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” (Mosiah 5:2)
When we have undergone this mighty change, which is brought about only through faith in Jesus Christ and through the operation of the Spirit upon us, it is as though we have become a new person. Thus, the change is likened to a new birth. Thousands of you have experienced this change. You have forsaken lives of sin, sometimes deep and offensive sin, and through applying the blood of Christ in your lives, have become clean. You have no more disposition to return to your old ways. You are in reality a new person. This is what is meant by a change of heart.
With this change of heart comes forgiveness from the Father through the Mercy and atonement of our savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the mediator between us and the Father. He is the means through which we can communicate. This is why we are taught to pray in his name. Along with being the mediator between us and Heavenly Father, he is also the Fathers advocate. Because of the sacrifice that He made on behalf of human kind, he is able to, as 2 Nephi 8:22 reads, plead the cause of his people. Jesus has felt our temptations. He has felt our pain and suffering. He has felt our sorrow. Because He has been where we’ve been, He pleads our case to God the Eternal Father. Jesus has compassion on our souls and has done the ultimate to help us return to our Father so that we may all dwell as brothers and sisters in paradisiacal glory. It is now up to us to take hold of this chance we’ve been given to return to God our Father. It is up to us to use the tools that Christ has given us.
One of, if not the, greatest tools Christ has given us is the tool of our salvation; the Atonement. The Atonement satisfies the demand for justice. It is the power by which we can live forever. In 1 Nephi 11:6 Jacob tells us that “save Christ should come all men must perish”. We do not know or understand how Jesus did so great an act; all we know is that he did it. He suffered for our sins. He bled from every pore and died on the cross so that we may be made perfect. Without Him, we would be damned.
The Atonement is a wondrous thing. Not only does it apply to our eternal salvation, but because of it we can also be comforted in our most trying times. As I’m sure many of you here know, I played volleyball in high school. Once during a practice I injured my ankle very badly. I was angry, I was hurt, I couldn’t understand why this would happen to me. Then something my dad said came into my mind. He told me that if I didn’t humble myself, the Lord would do it for me. This made me even madder. I believed that my dad cursed me. I thought that it was his entire fault. Well as weeks went on my ankle began to heal and I began playing again. But something wasn’t right. Nothing was meshing. I had lost several inches off my vertical jump, the team had grown together without me because I was not able to play, and nothing was going the way I wanted or needed it to. Because of the lack of balance in my sports life, I started loosing grip on other parts of my life. My academics were slacking. I was fighting with good friends. I was still angry at my father and at the church. I tricked myself into believing that if God loved me and wanted me to be happy, none of this would have happened.
This attitude continued on for several months. Everything continued to spiral downwards. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t straighten out my life. I became depressed. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t stand to be around people. Finally I had enough. I had to find a way out of my slump. The problem was that I didn’t know where to turn or who to talk to. I wanted to change my life but I was still to proud to talk to my parents. I was still fighting although there was nothing left to fight.
Luckily, Christ was there to catch me and comfort me as He always is. I had a lesson in priest’s quorum one Sunday on the Atonement. I remember thinking to myself, “What’s left to lose? I’ve lost everything that I once held dear.” In that moment I decided to take the car and drive to my personal spot. The place that I felt was mine in the world. Once I arrived there, I knelt down and cried. I told the Lord all that I was feeling. I begged for help. As soon as I did so, I felt as if a thousand pounds was just lifted off of my chest. The thought came to my mind “Chad, you never had to beg. I was always here. I am always here. Let me help.” The spirit bore witness to me that through the power of the Atonement, I didn’t have to bare my burdens alone. I know that I never will.

In John chapter 21 Jesus asks his disciple Peter the following: (read verse 15 through 17)
Now if I have learned anything in seminary it is this. If something is repeated twice in the scriptures, PAY ATTENTION. If it is repeated three times, you better do it.
We all have a great responsibility that has been placed upon our shoulders by the Savior. He said, “If you love me, Feed my sheep”
That includes searching out those that are not with us and extending to them our love and fellowship. They stood with us in our first estate. They stand alone now. They need our help.
I hope to feed the people of Germany like I have been fed with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and follow the example of my great grandmother who fed the two German prisoners like they were her own.
Jesus promised in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”. This is the message I hope to give to German people.
TESTIMONY.

On Hold For A While!

This is what is comes down to. Chad becomes a missionary and he gets all the blessings...er..fish. We took a trip to our honey hole -- Pretty Water, just south of Palo Verde, CA. It's about where Ira Reid's place used to be before the River was ruined by the BLM. It is actually the old river channel that is now a huge backwater. Anyway, Chad, myself and Duffy, the wonder dog, went over for Memorial Day. There were no other fishermen there. We had it all to ourselves. Everything was ripe for another Jeff Arnett spanking of Chad Arnett....as is should be. But, missionaries have the touch, I guess. I got spanked. I even had to count the small "anchovie" size bass just to say I caught two fish. I will miss our fishing trips together. It is a big sacrifice for me to give up this boy for two years. It was a lot easier for me to go on my mission than to send him. Nevertheless, if Cliff, Larry, HB and Candy can send theirs off, I can too....I guess.

Now Chad will become a fisher of men I suppose, just like A.J., Anthony, Danny, Casey, Dana, Lacy, Jantzen and Meghan. That's quite a group of fisherman (not too mention their spouses who went.) The older Arnett's thank you for your service to the Lord. We know that Howard and Ethel are proud of your sacrifice as are we. Now, Chad becomes the 9th grandchild to go. Here's to good "fishing", son.

The White Field!

Chea took some photos of Chad this week. I have to admit she's got the touch. One of her friends, who does photo touch-ups like announcements, etc. did this one of Chad....for the free publicity. Check with Chea to see who she is. Anyway, here it is.

Bits and pieces!

A couple of notes and observations over the last couple of weeks. Chad's mission includes the place where Anne Frank hid. Their is a museum there, etc. Also, Brunswick is part of his mission. This is where Uncle Charles was headed before being shot down in his B-24. Hamburg is the second largest port in Europe. Can you say, seafood? I wonder if Chad can fish on P-days? We received an email from Larry and Kathy about good friends of theirs' who have family in Hamburg. Can you say, keep an eye on Chad? It rains more in Hamburg than anywhere in the US.

Chad gave his farewell address yesterday. I'm gonna post some of his talk along with Cameron's graduation speech from the ARC. I think both will be of interest to my bloggin friend's. I also have pictures to post later.

Here's how it went down!

Pam and I have been calling Chad since Monday about 10 times a day to see if "it" came in the mail. We knew the call was issued as of Friday because you can find out online now. At least someone with authority can find out. That someone told Chad last Friday night it had been issued. So we all started dreaming....literally dreaming about where he would go. Chad dreamed he got his call and the letter started out, "Dude", you've been called to....etc. We knew that was bogus. Pam also had a dream he got called somewhere foreign. I dreamed he had an APO address and went somewhere deep in the jungles of Malaysia. That was out because there are no missions there. Anyway, our dreams were way off. After waiting until Friday morning, the call arrived in the mail. Chad got us on a conference call and opened the packet, after seeing how much postage it took (Lexie, once again I was right and you were wrong). So, we were all floored. It seems he will be following Casey to the cold climes. He is going to.......the Germany Hamburg Mission. He reports June 6th. That's right just a few weeks away. He doesn't turn 19 until June 30th. He will be on a bike most of the time and he's gonna have his work cut out for him. I read an online letter from his mission president that talked about the joy of serving and serving some more without much results. The mission averages about 1/2 baptism per missionary, but boy is there lot's of serving going on. We're excited for him. He looks rather German. He's gonna be about 500 miles from his cousin Lauren in Norway and 500 miles from his Uncle Steve in England and 800 miles from his cousin Casey in Sweden and many miles from us. Way to go, Chad. The adventure begins!!!!

Photos from fishing outing.

I've never been called an "Aquatic Hitchiker" before.

How could I not marry her?

How you ask? After seeing this photo I was hooked. She had me at tutu.

Canyon Lake on a Saturday Afternoon

It was 90 degrees on Saturday. It's also the start of spring break for Pam so she wanted to do something exciting. A trip to Paris was out of the question. Even a trip to Provo right now is out, so we did the next best thing.....a 40 minute ride to Canyon Lake. I thought I'd take our little fishing boat out for it's first 2007 excursion.

It seems everyone else in Phoenix thought the same thing. It was very crowded. Jet skis, boats, fisherman, trailers, snowbirds and tourists. The roads were crowded, the beaches full and the lake choppy due to the large amount of boats. The only thing there wasn't plenty of was fish. The fishing was good, but the catching no so good.

I really didn't expect to catch anyway. This trip was to see if Pam would enjoy sitting in the boat while I fished. I've posted some photos. Tell me what you think? Did she like it? What didn't she like?

I don't know why?

I thought I'd report on last weekend's Arnett cousins trip to Cibola. It was a huge succes, probably because I didn't come up with the idea. Spencer Arnett and his brother Chet were the instigators. At first it was just gonna be a few of us, then it blossomed into an outright reunion.

The plan was for me to show Spencer and Chet around the old ranch in Cibola. They wanted to see the actual plane crash site and what the farm possibly looked like. Once word got out, other cousins wanted to jump in. We had just over 60 Arnetts. That's alot of A.S.S. Fortunately, there were no Alpha male encounters.

So here is what happened.... since Chad was in town he went with us). We met at Spencer's house at around 9 am. Much to my surprize there were tons of people and women who were going. I knew camping would be "Spartan" to say the least, so I was worried about those that might have to "squat" on occasion. Anyway, about 5 or 6 of the grandaughters attended. Some were even in-laws. As rough as it was going to be, it seem's Spencer is the guru of campouts. He had a 60' trailer (for hauling mules, etc). This was quite the set-up. The back was for the mules, but the front was like a travel trailer. He cleaned out the back and stored all his food preparation gear in it.

His sons towed camping trailers...they really know how to rough it. In hindsight, I gues It wasn't so bad for the ladies. Anyway, we arrived in Cibola just about at noon. Chad and I were ahead of everybody else, so we stopped to fish a couple of canals along the way. To lighten the mood a little, we pretended to fish over Cibola road at the entrance of Bisop's ranch. All those that were following us got a kick out of that.

The Bishop Ranch is just north of the Arnett Brothers farm. Our hosts were Tom and Sharon Marriott. Tom is originally from Orem, Utah. They were incredibly generous and kind to us. They had a huge clearing prepared for us to camp in. They also had a large stack of mesquite wood ready for our campfire. They let Chad drive their Kubota's and he hauled all the firewood we needed, plus gave the kids rides around the area.

The Marriotts took me on a personal tour. We went to the old Bob and Zetta place and saw the old Post Office and cattle pens. They also drove me around to see the old Woods place, etc.

After most everyone arrived, including Tom and Don Arnett, from Nebraska and Missourri respectively, we set up camp and then took a tour of Arnett Brother Ranch, or also know as Cibola Land and Cattle Company.

Our first stop was the old corral, pump and shack. The bus is gone and so are most of the old International pickups, but the shack is still standing along with the loading shoot of the corral. There was an old flat bed trailer that had some of the stuff from the bus and some cousins got some old parts of bridles and halters. They were really excited. Most of our conversation at this stop had to do with how the ranch was started and how it was lost. The bottom line being water was available and the death of Fred and Marvin ended it.

We then went to where the old Bulldozer was. This is the implement Howard used to build the now famous Arnett canal. The people at the Cibola Wildlife Refuge still marvel at how he was able to build that canal with the water running upstream.

After some photos around the Bulldozer, we then went to the canal. It is still in use, although the current now runs south to Cibola lake. The BLM has hooked it into existing canals to the north and water feeds it from there. Aside from an appreciation for the engineering marvel, the cousins weren't really all that interested in the canal. I was because little do they know that most of our recreation on the farm was centered around this canal. I looked for the diving board on the other side of the canal, but couldn't find it. Anyway, it's amazing how you can have fun when there's nothing else to do.

Next we crossed over the bridge, the one that cuts our farm in half, and went to the fish and game place. This is now an island. It is still being farmed, but for wildlife use. We saw at least 100 deer in a field as we drove to the old airstip.

At the airstrip, we stopped and held kind of a devotional. Everyone, gave their thoughts and memories of the event. It seems all the facts aren't clear as we all had heard different things. Cliff and HB would know more than any, but we still tried to piece everything together. Alot of tears were shed. This event changed alot of lives and created hardship on everyone. What really impressed me the most was the emotion showed by the grandaughters and grandsons who never knew their grandfathers. They were really moved to actually be there. I suppose it's kind of the song " I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked". I don't mean to equate this experience with what the Saviour went through, but being there brought everything home to me and to them.

After the airstrip we went back to campground and prepared for dinner. I must say I was unprepared for how good it was. This Spencer fellow, and his sons, really know what they are doing. He put a covered tarp area about 60x20'. He had tables and chairs set up. It was like a ...well I can't explain what is what like. It was uptown in downtown Cibola. He had several propane grills going along with charcoal grills. Anyway, we ate like we were at the Marriott. We had steak, chicken, fish, fried potatoes and fresh garden salad. The food alone was worth the trip for me.

That night we sat around the campfire just talking. It was a very cold night and the fire was much needed.

After a few hours we all went to sleep. Sleep wasn't all that abundant for some of us as it was extremely cold.

Chad and I slept in the boat. Were figured we were just two sleeping bags short. We both needed one more than we had. Chad got up about 3 in the morning and sat at the fire with cousin Tom. Tom had been there since about 2 am. I really wanted to join them, but I couldn't muster the courage to get out of my one sleeping bag.

The next morning, those that had arrived late went back to tour the ranch again. For breakfast we had scrambled eggs with chile, hash browns, toast and orange juice. I know it seems odd I'd talk about the food so much, but it really was good.

Some of us went fishing at different spots. I was worried because it was so cold and I was right. I don't think anybody caught anything except meeeeeeeeee. If kind of felt bad for all the rest, but not really. After all, that's why they call if fishing and not catching. That's one of Howard's old sayings.

Around noon everyone packed up and headed out. I spent about an hour with Marriott's talking about the past and the future. Tom is going to do some branding in about a month or so. I offered my services and I know Cliff would like to go over and help too.

They really are trying to create a type of living museum on their place. They want stories and photos of Bob and Zetta, etc. I told them we would have some old home movies up on the website soon for them to watch.

HB is taking care of that. Incidentally, HB, I appreciate the site and seeing those old Howard Arnett reunion movies. I didn't realize to skinny I once was and what a great beard I grew.

So, that's about it. The photos show the Bishop's ranch, our camping spot, the Bulldozer, the canal and the 2 lb. bass I caught.