If You Give a Garage Door Remote a Jiggle

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the children's book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

I had a similar experience happen to me last week as I 

tried to help my grandma with her garage door remote.

It goes a little bit like this:

If you give a garage door remote a jiggle with a screwdriver, 

then you'll probably move something that wasn't meant to be moved.

Once that something is moved, the remote won't get the garage door to open.

If the garage door doesn't open, you'll have to use the pin pad just outside of the garage.

If you have the use the pin pad to open the garage, 

you might get a little annoyed and want a new remote.

If you want a new remote, then you'll go to the Home Depot, where you're sure there's someone there who can help you.  He'll probably hand you two new remotes that look just like the one you already have.  Since they look just like the one you already have, you probably won't notice until you get home that the model number is different.

Once you notice the model number is different, you might take the battery cover off and see if you can program the remote anyway.  Whenever you try to do something like this, you end up calling customer support.  When you call customer support, you'll find out that the new remotes you bought aren't compatible with your garage door.

If you want remotes that are compatible with your garage door, you'll probably have to go back to Home Depot to get the model they told you when you spoke to customer support.

Once you're at the Home Depot, you'll hope that they take back the remotes you bought, even if you already opened one of them.  When they let you return the remotes, you will be grateful.

When you are grateful that they let you return the remotes you bought that weren't compatible, you will notice that you weren't the first person this happened to.  You will notice that almost all of the packages holding the remotes have been opened before.

If you notice this, you will feel better about yourself, knowing that you're not alone.

Once you've got the new remotes, you'll want to program them 

so you don't have to use the pin pad to open your garage door.

When you start trying to program them, you'll realize that the instructions are for a newer garage door opener, so you'll probably end up calling customer support.

Customer support will talk you through how to program your new remote.  They will probably let you know that when the red light doesn't flash when you push the reset button on the opener that you have a broken circuit board on your garage door opener.

When they tell you that you need a new circuit board, they will probably tell you the store closest by where you can get one.  Once you get to that store, they'll probably ask you if you have the circuit board with you.  Since you didn't want to break anything else, you probably didn't take the circuit board with you to the store.  They will then tell you that they can't help you.

Once you've been told that you can't be helped at a store, you'll think to call a repairman to see if you can be helped at your house.  When you call them to see if they can help, they will probably tell you that they'll come by the next day.  Since they won't be coming until the next day, you'll probably close your garage.

Then, when you try to open your garage again using the pin pad, you will realize that pushing the reset button on the opener with a broken circuit board caused the connection with the pin pad to be broken.  If this happens, you will have to rummage through the house to find the key to your emergency release on the garage door.

Once you find the key on your key ring, you'll wonder why you take that key with you everywhere.  Then you'll put the key into the garage door and activate the emergency release.  

When you do this, you'll be able to lift up your garage door.

If you're able to lift up your garage door, you'll probably be inside trying to fix it yourself when the repairman gets there the next day.  When the repairman sees everything that you've tried, it probably won't take him long to recommend that you get a new garage door opener.

If the repairman doesn't charge you for his short visit, you will probably be happy.

You will then realize that this means you need to return the second set of new remotes that you bought.  Having to return them to the store will make you tired.

Once you are tired, you will decide to hire someone else to install a new garage door opener.

When they install the new opener, they will probably have to install a new pin pad so that it is compatible with your new opener.

When you get a new garage door opener, chances are you'll get two remotes to go with it.

If you get two remotes to your garage door, you'll probably end up losing one of them.

If you lose one of your garage door remotes, then you'll only have one.

And chances are, if you only have one garage door remote, 

then you'll want to jiggle it with a screwdriver.

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Parental Separation

Sarah and I had the opportunity to babysit some of my cousins while my aunt and uncle went on vacation for their 20th wedding anniversary.  I won't use their names for their protection on the internet, but those of you who know us and them will know who I'm talking about.  For those of you who don't know them, their family consists of a boy who is 14, a girl who is 12, a girl who is 10 and a boy who is 7, or somewhere very close to that.  In fact, by the time most of you read this, the 12 year-old will be 13, but that is really besides the point.

The first night that their parents were gone, we had an experience that has since caused me to think quite a bit.  We had a fun-filled day which I think helped keep his mind off of his parents leaving, but when it came time to go to bed, the youngest began to miss his parents very much.  He cried and cried and I didn't know what to do.  We called his parents on the phone and he talked to both of them.  Between sobs, he told them that he wanted them to come home.  They comforted him over the phone and told him that although they couldn't come home right that instant, they would be home in a few days.  He told them goodbye and hung up the phone.  

By this time, the older girl had come upstairs to console her little brother and see if there was anything she could do to help.  She hugged him and did all she could to comfort him.  Together they went to the room of the younger girl, where the crying of the youngest boy caused her to miss her parents and start crying.  This led to the older girl crying as well.  (As their babysitter, I had no idea what to do at this point.)  Then, the younger girl suggested that we say a prayer.  She said a short prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help them be able to go to sleep and not miss their parents so much.  Then they started to sing primary songs to find comfort.  

Finally the youngest two went to bed.  When I walked past the room of the older girl, I saw something that touched me.  There she was, kneeling at her bed, saying a prayer.  I'm sure that the prayer was for her younger siblings, asking God to comfort them while their parents were gone.  A few minutes later, the older boy came up to me and Sarah and said with a little bit of a chuckle, "So I was downstairs watching a movie and then all of a sudden, they come downstairs singing primary songs.  It was kind of an intense part of the movie until they got there, then I was like 'What the heck are they singing primary songs for?' "  He gave a little laugh and then dismissed it on his way to bed.

Sarah and I then sat there and talked about what had happened for a little while, full of gratitude that the kids were finally able to go to bed.  It got me thinking about our experience here on this earth.  I think there comes a time when we realize that we have been separated from our Heavenly Parents and we want to be with them again.  We may pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him to let us be with Him again, but I believe the response we receive is similar to that my cousin got from his parents - we are separated for a time, but after a short while we will be reunited again.

When we share this discovery that we are separated from our Heavenly Parents with others, the response we get from them will vary greatly.  Similar to how one of my cousins crying caused the other two to begin crying, I believe the realization that we are separated from our Heavenly Parents causes a longing within us to be with Them.  How we respond to that longing says a lot about our character and our beliefs.  We can feel hopeless as if all is lost and sob about anything that keeps us separated from God.  We can dismiss the idea of being separated from God and focus on other things (like my older cousin with the movie) and even joke about the faith and hope of others.  Or we can respond with faith, comfort others and try to help them as we all strive to return to live with our Heavenly Parents.

The faith of my cousin touched me very much.  Her earnest prayer for the comfort of her siblings reminded me of the faith I should have and also the support I should lend to those around me.  Her simple yet firm faith is an example to all of us.

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Frisbee

 Friday night, we went up Provo Canyon to have dinner with all of Sarah's siblings who live in the area.  After dinner, I was finally able to teach Sarah how to throw a frisbee, which has taken quite a while.  I'm not a die-hard, but I do enjoy a good game of ultimate every once in a while, not to mention that is how I got my one BYU Intramural Champion t-shirt.  So, it will be nice to be able to toss a frisbee around with my wife.  I'll spare you having to read outrageous commentary on each picture, and just let you enjoy the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, making that face helps you catch the frisbee.

What's that?  You don't believe it?  You can't dismiss it until you try.

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Graduation

On April 20th, I graduated from BYU with a Master of Accountancy degree as well as a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.  (I'm never really sure how to word those degrees in a sentence that sounds normal, but hopefully it will be easier to describe my degree once I've graduated with a PhD.  Also, for the time being, I've tried to get Sarah to call me "Master Bryan" but to no avail.)  It is kind of weird to think that my time at BYU is done, but it has been something I've been working towards for a while.  The coolest part of my graduation garb was probably the master's hood, shown below.

 

My graduation wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for a few people.  I know you're probably thinking of  people like the university board of directors, my professors, or the Church, but the people I would like to thank are my parents as well as my wife.  If it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't have made it as far as I have in my life. 

 

Thanks Mom and Dad! 

 

Thanks Sarah!

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Flag Football, Season 2

For those of you who are new to the BS Report, I coached Sarah's flag football team last fall, where they made it to the semifinals of the lower division tournament.  Sarah tells me that their first season (before I was coaching them) they only won one game.  The funny thing is I'm not sure how much I actually do in coaching them.  I've gone from trying to design plays and draw them out on cards to just teaching them basic principles like how to block a defender.  (Kind of the reverse of how you think it would be taught, but I guess I assumed too much coming in as their coach.)  

I do have to admit that one of my proudest moments as their coach came during this season when the girls came up with a play by themselves and everyone blocked for Brenda as she ran all the way down the field for a touchdown.  I was so happy that they had taken something I had taught them and used it very well.  In fact, they used it a little too well because the touchdown was called back because one of our girls lowered her shoulder when blocking and knocked the opposing girl onto her back, which the refs thought was a little bit too much contact for flag football.

Another thing I'm really proud of as their coach is that they have improved each season I've coached them, both on an execution level as well as their performance relative to other teams.  This spring, they made it to the championship game in the lower division, only to come up short.  They gave it their all and despite their disappointment with the outcome, they were willing to let their coach take a picture for his blog.

 

Although they took second place in flag football, they might take first in human pyramids.

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We're Moving To...

For those who didn't know already, we're moving to Oklahoma in the fall, where I will be starting the PhD Program in Accounting at the University of Oklahoma.

 

I had Sarah take pictures of me while I was signing my offer before I mailed it out. 

 

I felt like it was a really good fit with the professors there and I'm really excited to go.

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Pancake Art

For a wedding gift, someone gave us a couple pancake molds that you put 

on the griddle and pour the badder into as well as a "pancake pen" 

that you put the badder into and use to draw pancake pictures.

  

I'm sure this was meant as a gift to use when we have kids so that their dad can at least make one dinner that they really enjoy, but we decided that we couldn't wait until we had kids to use it. 

 

If you couldn't tell, I'm not the most artistic person in the world, but that's why we'll have to use this when our kids are really little and don't know how to critique the artistic value of their food. 

 

And if that isn't good enough for them, we'll just have to use the molds so they can have smiling suns, moons and planets.

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Pinewood Derby

Nothing brings the kid out in you quite like a good pinewood derby.

In March, our Elders Quorum held a pinewood derby, because as we all know,

pinewood derbies aren't a competition between the boys 

but rather a competition between the dads.

(And the fact that we have like three young men in our ward was probably a factor as well.)

I can't speak for Sarah, but I'm pretty sure her favorite part of the pinewood derby was 

the preparation that went into it.  I don't think it was actually the preparation itself that she enjoyed so much as it was watching me and how giddy I was to make my car.  The 

preparation included a couple trips to Murray to use an old ward member's disc sander 

and drill press and well as to make another visit to our favorite dentist for the pinewood 

derby car weights I knew from my childhood.  

Highlights from the preparation included, but are not limited to:

Trying to sand my car on the wrong side of the disc sander, resulting in a block of wood flying across the garage but not before it managed to catch the corner of my fingernail and bend it back, causing a steady flow of blood from my finger and a wife that was disappointed in my blatant disregard for safety and common sense when using a disc sander.

Sitting in the office of our favorite dentist, taking the thin piece of lead out of old bite-wing x-rays for at least an hour.  I won't say which employee of the dentist told us it was safe to be handling that lead, but we were both a little concerned when we told a friend who is in dental school about our experience and she said that lead is considered hazardous material.

Having to go back and use the drill press the next week (at the same person's garage) because I wasn't satisfied with the depth of my hole for putting in the weights that I had put myself in harm's way to acquire.  (There was no weight limit for this pinewood derby.)

(One of the extremely time-consuming parts of preparation is a trade secret I learned from my dad, so I can't reveal more than saying a few hours were spent doing that in preparation.)

Telling my wife that it was her responsibility to paint the car (my least favorite part as a child).  She came up with the school bus design, and did quite a good job painting it if you ask me. 

   

  

These pictures were all taken after the pinewood derby so that is why the wheels don't look too straight and the weights can be seen hanging down below the bus.  (We let one of the three year-olds in our ward play with it while we were cleaning up and he managed to drop it quite a few times while trying to put it on the track to have it race down over and over again.) 

   

"The Magic School Bus" was quite the fan favorite among the kids (probably because they could all guess what it was from the design and paint job.  It ended up taking third overall, so I was pleased with the results after all the time, effort and injuries that went into making it.

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Snowshoeing

Because my brother-in-law Quinn works for the Outdoor Adventure Center at UVU (where you can rent different outdoor equipment or sign up for various adventurous day trips) and because not enough students signed up for the snowshoeing adventure, Sarah and I found ourselves hiking up a mountain in American Fork canyon one Saturday in January.  The only problem being that one thing was missing:  Snow.

I'm not sure how many of you have tried snowshoeing without snow, but if you're having a hard time imagining it, it looks a little bit like this:

 

Although we had hiked a considerable distant and had yet to find any snow, 

our spirits remained high.

 

Finally, we found what we had been looking for:  Snow.

 

There wasn't a ton, but it was enough to make us happy.

I think that was mostly because it meant we could actually put our snowshoes on, 

rather than carrying them in our hands or hanging them from our packs 

and having the spikes bounce up on down, tenderizing our hind quarters.

  

Although we could still see the brush coming up through the snow, 

we had fun racing across the meadow in our snowshoes 

(because we all know it can't be fun for the Brockbanks without a little competition). 

 

After making it to our destination and traversing the snow in our snowshoes,

we had to hike back down and enjoy the dirt on the path.

 

I don't think it was quite what I expected for my first snowshoeing adventure, 

but when do things ever go like we expected?

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First Christmas

I realize we're always six months away from Christmas, 

but that doesn't mean I can't share some Christmastime pictures with you.

 

 Our Christmas Tree

 

  

 I'm sure this was the picture combination everyone has been waiting for since Christmas.

For those who are wondering, I'm not just posting these pictures now because we took the tree and lights down last week.  It's been at least two weeks.

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Return of the BS

I always laugh to when I look at people's blogs and every post starts with something like 
"I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged.  
I told myself I wouldn't do this when I started my blog."

There are a few reasons that I haven't updated the blog in a while.  
I will enumerate just a few for you:

1.  I wanted everyone who visited my blog to know how much I love my mom.

(Since the most recent post was about her, the odds are

 that people would read it, if people actually read my blog.)

2.  Time.  All of us know how busy our lives are and we have to choose how to use our time.

I've used the time since I last blogged to do some pretty important things, which you may 

even be lucky enough to read about if I find the time to share them with you.

3.  Popular demand.  I wanted to know if anyone outside of my mom (and my dad when he is bored at work) reads my blog.  So, when someone outside of my immediate family said something to me about reading my blog, I decided it would be worth continuing.  (I'm not sure whether I should thank my aunt Ruth for stalking me on the internet, but her comments did play a part in the return of the BS Report, so the person you really need to thank is her, if you know her.  If not, you're missing out.)

And yes, I realize that she is still a pretty close relative.  That's why I said my immediate family.

As an interesting side note, I was looking at the statistics for my blog and I think my page views have been higher in the last four months than they were when I was actually blogging.  

I guess you just kept checking back, waiting for me to post again.
I hope the anticipation didn't kill you.

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