Viva Cesar Millan!

I have recently discovered The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan.  I know he has been on the air for several years, but we recently upgraded our TV programming.  So that we can receive certain college football games and as a result, we now get The Dog Whisperer.

Cesar is awesome!  Love him!  I like how he is straightforward and tells people how it is.  He doesn’t beat around the bush.  He kind of reminds me of me J.  But I’m not nearly as personable as he is, nor as talented with dogs.  He is amazing how he reads dogs and can tell what they’re going to do before they do it. He truly has a remarkable gift.

Cesar says dogs are predictable, humans aren’t.  When someone tells him their dog is not predictable, he politely disagrees.

He has so many great quotes – which I tried to find to put on this blog, but none of the really great quotes were online.  Cesar has said some very wise things.

I like how he tries to relate people’s personal experiences to their dogs.  He’s really good at that.

Some things I’ve learned from Cesar:

To be a good pack leader, you must be calm and assertive.

A good balanced dog is calm and submissive.

Dogs read humans energy and will mirror it.  If you’re anxious, they will become anxious.

Dogs will not follow an unstable pack leader.  If you are not calm and assertive the dog will assume pack leader position.

Dogs do not follow weak energy and will attack weak energy.  That’s nature.

A balanced dog will correct an unbalanced dog.  Usually through biting or touching with their mouth.

A balanced dog must have exercise, discipline, affection.  In that order.

Never give affection to a dog who is not calm and submissive.  Whatever state the dog is in – excited, anxious, aggressive, fearful, dominant, etc. will be exacerbated by giving affection in that state.  This creates an unbalanced dog.  No dog wants to be unbalanced – humans create unbalanced dogs by humanizing them  And by giving affection at the wrong time.

Do not humanize your dog!  Dogs are not humans.  They are animals first, then dogs, then breed, and lastly personality (individual, name)

Dogs don’t rationalize, like humans. They don’t understand when they are scared, for example, and you say, “It’s okay, you’re okay” and give affection – all they know is you are reinforcing their behavior (fear).  And their brain becomes more unstable and not balanced.

Dogs need rules, boundaries, and limitations to be balanced.

Claim your space.  Claim the door, claim the couch, claim your human, etc.  Do not let the dog come into your space, i.e. jump on your lap, without being invited.

When you first greet a dog – no touch, no talk, no eye contact! Let the dog smell you first.  When the dog walks away after smelling you, then you can greet the dog.

 In the dog world it is polite to smell first.  So when a dog smells you, they are being polite.  Dogs do not want to be greeted until they have had a chance to introduce themselves through smell. Especially don’t pat the dog on the top of his head until he smells you. That shows dominance over him.  If it is a fearful dog pet him under the chin first.

Dogs sense first smell, then sight, then hearing.  Nose, eyes, ears.

Cesar says dogs are like men, they can only do one thing at a time.  This is why walking is important in creating balance. If you walk the dog properly, they will only focus on following the pack leader.

Never let the dog walk in front of you.  Pack leader is always first.  Never leave the house with the dog, unless he is in a calm submissive state.  If you leave the house for a walk with an excited dog, he will never reach a calm submissive state during the walk.

Dogs live in the present.  Whatever bad things have happened to them in the past is behind them.  So don’t feel sorry for what has happened to them in the past.  That just portrays weak energy and will not only not help the dog, but will create unbalance. 

I’m sure there are more things I’ve forgotten but that’s a good start.  I think a lot of what Cesar says is applicable to humans as well.  Since humans are also pack animals.

In rehabilitating dogs and training people Cesar has done much good, not only for dogs, but also for the humans.  It is really the humans who must change if they want to change their dog’s behavior. An unstable dog is really a reflection of an unstable human. So, in reality, I think Cesar is more of a human psychologist as he practices dog psychology.

Cesar is remarkable man, and I would like to think that we would be good friends.  If he doesn’t receive the gospel in this life, I want to be one of the missionaries to teach him in the next life!

That’s my two cents.

Relief Society Lesson -- Be Ye Converted

Be Ye Converted

Bonnie L. Oscarson

Young Women General President

October 2013 General Conference

Conversion to gospel principles comes through righteously living the principles of the gospel and being true to our covenants with the Lord.

We live in perilous times, and the decisions which you are called upon to make on a daily, or even hourly, basis have eternal consequences.

It is possible to have a testimony of the gospel without living it. Being truly converted means we are acting upon what we believe …

Conversion is a process, not an event. It takes time, effort, and work.

“If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”--John 7:17

“I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.”—Ether 12:6

In our world where instant gratification is the expectation, we are often guilty of expecting the reward without having to work for it.

I believe Moroni is telling us that we must do the work first and exercise faith by living the gospel, and then we will receive the witness that it is true.

True conversion occurs as you continue to act upon the doctrines you know are true and keep the commandments, day after day, month after month.

Desire to share the gospel with others and the confidence to testify boldly are natural results of true conversion.

“When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” – Luke 22:32

A person who has experienced true conversion draws upon the power of the Atonement and receives salvation for his or her own soul, then reaches out to exert a powerful influence upon all those who know him or her.

Living the gospel and standing in holy places is not always easy or comfortable, but I testify that it is worth it!

Chicken Canning

We planned on canning chicken on Friday. Mom and Dad left early to go get the chicken which was on sale for $1.39 per pound at cash and carry. It comes in 40 pound boxes for $55.60 per box. Boneless skinless chicken breasts. So they bought two boxes and came home where Lisa and Derrinda were going to do all the work in cutting them up and putting them in jars.

Unfortunately, they were frozen solid. Usually we get them from Zaycon where they are fresh, not frozen. We didn’t know they would be frozen when we planned it. So needless to say they had to thaw first and could not be processed on Friday.

So, Mom ended up doing all 80 pounds of chicken on Saturday. Great job Mom! We yielded 59 pints and the scraps were fried up for the dogs so they have yummy treats and nothing was wasted.

Just a reminder in case anyone wants to can chicken. Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes --place in pint canning jars leaving 1 inch of head space. Top with lids. Pressure cook at 11 pounds for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts.

The chicken is very moist and tender and great for making easy casseroles, chicken salad sandwiches, topping pizza, etc.

Pressure Canned Meatloaf

I have been wanting to try canning meatloaf for a while now. So I finally talked mom into it and we bought two 10 pound chubs of ground beef that was on sale at cash and carry for $19.90 each. We basically just used our own recipe – kind of made it up as we went along. We did get a couple of ideas from others recipes. Which was probably a bad idea.

We were only going to do one batch in the pressure cooker. But we ended up doing two full batches with enough left over for dinner. 16 pints per batch for a total of 32 pints.

We tried one pint for dinner the other night. Mom and Dad both didn’t like it. I thought it was good except a little salty perhaps.

Anyway I’m going to include the recipe we used and a few pictures. I did read that maybe the onions don’t taste well after being pressure cooked. So if you try it, you might want to omit the onions and cut the salt in half from what we used. Also we don’t usually put sage in our meat loaf but thought we would try it. So I would probably omit that also.

Anyway it was a fun experiment. All of the bottles sealed well. Here is the recipe and pictures:

Pressure Canned Meat Loaf

 

Ingredients:

10 pounds ground beef (80/20)

9 eggs

3 cups ketchup

½ loaf French bread crumbed in food processor

¼ cup worcestershire sauce

¼ cup salt

2 tablespoons powdered smoke

2 tablespoons sage

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion salt

1 tablespoon pepper

2 onions diced (red)

1½ cups brown sugar

 

Directions:

Mix together well. Put in wide mouth pint jars, removing air bubbles, leaving 1 inch head space. Pressure can at 11 pounds pressure for 75 minutes. Yields approximately 16 pints.

Relief Society Lesson -- The Words We Speak

The Words We Speak

Rosemary M. Wixom

Primary General President

April 2013 General Conference

One of the greatest influences a person can have in this world is to influence a child.

Children’s beliefs and self-worth are shaped early in their lives.

Everyone within the sound of my voice has the power to increase a child’s confidence in himself or herself and to increase a child’s faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through the words they speak.

How we speak to our children and the words we use can encourage and uplift them and strengthen their faith to stay on the path back to Heavenly Father. They come to this earth ready to listen.

To speak to a child’s heart, we must know a child’s needs. If we pray to know those needs, the very words we say may have the power to reach into their hearts.

Our efforts are magnified when we seek the direction of the Holy Ghost.

Unfortunately, the distractions of this world prevent many children from hearing encouraging words that could shape their view of themselves.

The answer to our prayer of how to meet our children’s needs may

be to more often technologically disconnect.

Precious moments of opportunity to interact and converse with our children dissolve when

we are occupied with distractions.

We can also influence our children through the words we write to them.

 “We labor diligently to write, to persuade our children … to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God.”-- 2 Nephi 25:23

Home Grown Pumpkins!

The fruits of our labors! This year we planted corn and pumpkins. We got quite a good harvest of corn despite the rocky soil and not fertilizing like we should. We are now using the corn stalks for fall decorations around our front entryway.

The pumpkins didn’t fare quite as well as the corn. We started in containers and transplanted a little too late. Dad worked hard hand watering the pumpkins all summer because the sprinkler didn’t quite make it to that corner of the garden.

But there is something quite spectacular about growing things from seed. So even though our pumpkins are small and perhaps not the prettiest around, we are very proud of them!

 

Stupid People

It seems like the only time I feel like putting forth the effort to blog anymore is when I’m having a bad day – which is the case today.

So therefore, be forewarned before proceeding to read the remainder of this post.

I’ve said it before but I really can’t stand stupid people. I don’t understand how so many people can be so ridiculously stupid. It really baffles me.

I’m just going to gloss over the whole Obamacare government shutdown debt crisis blame the good people praise the bad people thing. It’s really not worth my breath.

But what I would like to mention is people who claim to be good active members of the church who publicly go against church doctrine via media outlets presenting themselves as angels while doing the devil’s work.

Example number one: women who think they should receive the priesthood.

I read several articles about a group of women who are members of the church and claim to be in good standing with the church yet they have a website promoting their agenda that women should be ordained to the priesthood. --Which I don’t even think their terminology is correct. Isn’t the priesthood conferred and then you are ordained to specific offices within the priesthood? But I digress.

First of all, any woman who wants to, or thinks she should, receive the priesthood does not understand the doctrine. The priesthood is a responsibility given to men to serve others. Do we as women really need more responsibility than we already have? Women have access to all blessings available through the priesthood. So it’s really a nonissue. As members of the church women have many responsibilities in leadership positions. In God’s divine plan men and women are given specifically different roles to fulfill. If you don’t understand those, just go read “The Family a Proclamation to the World” where it is spelled out quite well.

I just don’t understand how self-proclaimed faithful members of the church could hold a protest outside the conference center during priesthood session and stand in the standby waiting line to try to get into a meeting for the priesthood brethren just because they want to make a statement. It’s ridiculously stupid. It really just shows how ignorant and uninformed they are about the church and its doctrine.

Example number two: members of the church who want the doctrine that homosexuality is a sin to be changed.

I read an article today about an LDS family who a few years ago went door-to-door for proposition eight in California – which upheld the fact that marriage is only between a man and a woman. – Anyway apparently their son who is now a teenager is suffering from same-sex attraction and considers himself “gay”. Now these parents are speaking out against the church doctrine that homosexuality is a sin and are hopeful that the doctrine will change to accommodate their son. They have changed wards and are still active members for now, according to the article.

Give me a break. Doctrine doesn’t change. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that out. You can still love people who struggle with sin without embracing the sin. People who struggle with same-sex attraction can still be faithful active members of the church. The same way that single heterosexual members of the church can enjoy full fellowship in the church as long as they don’t break the Lord’s law of chastity.

You don’t change the Lord’s Laws/Commandments to suit your lifestyle. You change your lifestyle to suit the Lord’s Commandments.

This is not an isolated case. I have read in the media of several members of the church, some well known, who are, outspokenly,  in favor of same-sex marriage – in other words they are claiming that homosexuality is not sinful.

I understand that they have close family members who struggle with same-sex attraction but, that doesn’t mean that you should use your fame to express your errant umbrance with church doctrine through media outlets.

It’s really oxymoronic for members of the church to disagree with and want to change church doctrine yet call themselves faithful members.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt I will assume they are moronically ignorantly stupid. Otherwise they are apostate – which is far worse.

That’s my two cents.

Relief Society Lesson-We Believe in Being Chaste

We Believe in Being Chaste

Elder David A. Bednar

Of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

April 2013 General Conference

Why is the law of chastity so important?

The eternal importance of chastity can only be understood within the overarching context of our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness for His children.

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and … has a divine nature and destiny” -The Family: A Proclamation to the World, 1995

Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, a depth, and an intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal existence.

The means by which mortal life is created is divinely appointed.

Marriage between a man and a woman is the authorized channel through which premortal spirits enter mortality.

Complete sexual abstinence before marriage and total fidelity within marriage protect the sanctity of this sacred channel.

The power of procreation is spiritually significant. Misuse of this power subverts the purposes of the Father’s plan and of our mortal existence.

 Our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son are creators and have entrusted each of us with a portion of Their creative power.

“The power to create mortal life is the most exalted power God has given his children. Its use was mandated in the first commandment, but another important commandment was given to forbid its misuse. The emphasis we place on the law of chastity is explained by our understanding of the purpose of our procreative powers in the accomplishment of God’s plan. …

“Outside the bonds of marriage, all uses of the procreative power are to one degree or another a sinful degrading and perversion of the most divine attribute of men and women”

– Elder Dallin H. Oaks, 1993

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a single, undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate relations are proper only between a man and a woman in the marriage relationship prescribed in God’s plan.

The natural man or woman is unrepentant, is carnal and sensual, is indulgent and excessive, and is prideful and selfish.

The “man [or woman] of Christ” is spiritual and bridles all passions, is temperate and restrained, and is benevolent and selfless.

As sons and daughters of God, we have inherited divine capacities from Him. But we presently live in a fallen world. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” – Matthew 26:41

We are here on the earth to develop godlike qualities and to bridle all of the passions of the flesh.

Because a physical body is so central to the Father’s plan of happiness and our spiritual development, Lucifer seeks to frustrate our progression by tempting us to use our bodies improperly.

Violating the law of chastity is a grievous sin and a misuse of our physical tabernacles. To those who know and understand the plan of salvation, defiling the body is an act of rebellion and a denial of our true identity as sons and daughters of God.

Living the law of chastity invites some of the greatest blessings men and women can receive in mortality: appropriate spiritual confidence in the presence of family, friends, Church associates, and, ultimately, the Savior.

Guilt is to our spirit what pain is to our body—a warning of danger and a protection from additional damage. From the Atonement of the Savior flows the soothing salve that can heal our spiritual wounds and remove guilt. However, this salve can only be applied through the principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, and consistent obedience.

The Lord’s truth is not altered by fads, popularity, or public opinion polls. I promise that obedience to the law of chastity will increase our happiness in mortality and make possible our progress in eternity. Chastity and virtue are now, always have been, and always will be “most dear and precious above all things”.

Fence Building

Dad and Michael have been working hard building fence the past few weeks during Michael’s break from school. They have got a lot done. They broke the record for a single day. The old record was 13 posts in one day -- which was achieved two or three times. The new record is 15 posts in one day! Check out their hard work.

  

 

Stone 5K 2013 Results

Today we held the second annual (probably last) Stone 5K. Here are the results:

Gate and back (approximately 1/2 mile)

1.      Dallas 3:44.8

2.      Chanelle 3:55.9

3.      Elijah 4:42.4

4.      Lisa 4:50.7

5.      Kingston 5:24.9

6.      Brandon 6:52.0

 5K

1. Michael 21:25.6

2. Richie 23:39.7

3. Juliet 25:45.51

4. Dallas 38:24.92

5. Rex 46:08.4

6. Derrinda 46:30.92

All participants did a great job. All kids race participants who finished received one dollar as a prize. Winners received five dollars. All 5K participants received five dollars for finishing. 5K winners received $10. I hope everybody had a fun race.