Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Are We Divided or United...


Polarization…“The process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes” (Wikipedia). This is a huge problem in American Society. If you don’t believe that it is, think of how many times in the past few years that different states have been classified and either red or blue. This portrayal of ideals from the media and government that you are either “with us or against us” gives the perception that there is only extreme ways to think. I was watching the “Today Show” this morning and they had a person on promoting a book and the purpose of this book was to promote one way of thinking, while condemning the opposing view. Not trying to promote a line of thinking on its merits solely, but at the expense of the other. How does that help to bring a solution to any situation?

What happened to compromise? What happened to looking at the information and then together finding the appropriate solution, not attacking the other person until somebody gives in? That would be an awful way to have a marriage or any relationship; they would be over before they grew to anything worth value. Seeing in black and white values would make life very difficult. You could never accept less than perfect. Imagine if the father of the prodigal son was that way, the son could have never returned. I am sure glad that things are not really that way. People actually have the opportunity to change and make their lives better.


The person on the “Today Show” was promoting a book, so they were there for one reason; money. There are people that make their living polarizing people. There are people who get elected using fear to polarize people. This is both on the liberal and conservative and in-between sides. I don’t believe that people are only red OR blue; I think there are quite a few shades of purple out there.


This image is from the 2012 Presidential Election


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Miss you Brady...

9/11. There is not much more to say than that. I wanted to share a memory that I have from 9/11/2001, not what I was doing, but about someone I knew.
When I returned to Rexburg, ID and Ricks College in 1995 I began working at a gas station/ video store "Horkley's". When I started I was the only person that was not a local. It was a fun place to work. Many of my coworkers mentioned to me another person that had worked there before he went on a mission and that he would be returning in the spring of 1996. That is when I met Brady Howell. He and had fun when we worked together, we would swap mission stories and give the less active members that worked with us a little nudge (like slamming the cooler door when they would come into work in the morning with a hangover). He and I didn't work together a lot as we were both over 19 and could sell alcohol. But when we did it was fun. We shared some good times that summer.
When I graduated in August of 1996, I left Rexburg and moved back to Nampa, ID. I didn't really think much about Brady except when thinking about working at Horkley's as a whole. Then 9/11 happened. After the attacks the names of the people killed were released and I heard the name of Brady Howell. When this occurred it was years since we shared the cash register in Rexburg. By now he had married and was working in Washington D.C. at the Pentagon. When I heard his name I remembered him and realized that 9/11 touched everyone.
Every year on the anniversary of 9/11 I think about Brady's widow and what her life has been like since the loss of her husband and how every year there are many reminders of her great loss. 

Monday, August 13, 2012

Family Reunions... Plural!

The summer of 2012 had attending two different family reunions. At the end of June we attended the Peterson Family Reunion at Anderson Camp in Twin Falls, ID. It was fun we tented it. The kids had a great time swimming and swimming. Gabe, Selah, and Reece also played miniature golf with Uncle Clark. We went to lunch one day at Idaho Pizza Company. Everyone had a good time trying the different pizza types on their buffet. Ali and Reece liked posing by the carved bear that they had in the dining room.








The second week of August we attended the annual Marshall Family Reunion in Pocatello, ID. It was fun. Instead of staying with Uncle Bob we stayed in a hotel with a pool. Yep, the kids got to swim again! They had a great time. Not sure that Grandpa Marshall had as much fun as they did, but it was good. The kids loved the "free" breakfast in the morning where they could make their own waffles and try lots of stuff. Too bad they didn't finish what they tried.

While in Pocatello we went to the Idaho Museum of Natural History  the kids liked seeing the exhibits and the hands-on activities. It was also nice that on a Friday we had the place to ourselves!



Reece had some fun when we went bowling with the Marshalls on Friday night. He spent his $1 in the "Claw" game where you try to grab a toy. We counseled him against it, but he insisted. He won! How can we teach him that it is a rip-off when he wins. Reece got himself a nice "Fruit Ninja" Watermelon.


On the drive home Saturday night Ali hurt her toe coming out of the store with Selah. Here is Ali talking to Grandpa Marshall about her hurt toe.



Fun Family Vacation




Sunday, April 01, 2012

Spring Break 2012... McCall ID

Spring Break was a lot of fun. We took the kids to McCall and spent a few days in a condo with Grandma and Grandpa Marshall. It was great. A nice break from the hustle and bustle. There was quite a bit of snow. We did some sledding. Reece learned how to catch some air on his tube! We ran into some friends that we hadn't seen in a while. We were in the same apartment complex when Gabe was born. We have 4 kids now, they have 5 w/ one on the way. Also, we ran into some other friends on the sledding hill. They helped Reece reach his full potential on the jump! (Thank Lynn & Family). Reece loved the attention.

There was also some rain that made things a little more wet than we liked. The kids spent some time at the condo pool & gym area. By some time, I mean multiple times during the day they wanted to hit the pool and hot tub! (Who's kids are these?)

It was a lot of fun. Here are the kids in front of the lake. Yep, the lake was still frozen over.




Friday, February 24, 2012

Father and Son Time

Gabe and I had quite the adventure this week. On Wednesday Michelle (my step-sister) was married. It was a great wedding. Following the wedding some of us went to dinner at a local pizza buffet. The kids love pizza buffets. Gabe and I left separately from the rest of the family as he had his first night of eleven year old scouts and I had to be at a combined Young Womens- Young Mens activity for the ward.

I was driving my father-in-laws Mazda Pick up as our van was getting repaired and Tammy was driving my car. I had driven the pick up to work and met them at the wedding in the afternoon. When Gabe and I lef the restaurant we headed back to Nampa from Boise. It was a windy evening.

About three-quarters of the way to Nampa Gabe notices a guy waving his arm out his window to get our attention. He does this for about a mile when I finally see him and open the window. The man informs us that we had lost our bed liner. A minute later another motorist tells us the same thing. We look in the bed of the pick up and sure enough, the bed liner is gone. Then I remembered seeing something fly out of the pick up while we were driving and I thought it was just a grocery bag or something else.

Gabe and I take the next exit off the interstate and get right back on heading in the direction we had just came from. As we drove we searched for the missing bed liner. We found it six or so miles back on the south side of the freeway (we had been driving on the north side when it blew out). We pull over, traffic zooming past and I put the bed liner back in the pick up. We head out and take the next exit and head back to Nampa. As we drive I have Gabe be the lookout for the bed liner. Just in case.

Good thing Gabe was my lookout, I needed him. Because just as we passed the spot where we picked up the bed liner after it blew out before, it blew out again. This time we both saw it fly out like a bird on the wing. Attach straps and we could hang glide. We stop on the right shoulder of the interstate. The bed liner was on the other side of our lanes so the only thing to do was cross four lanes of traffic, then drive in reverse on the left shoulder of the interstate for a quarter mile until we reached the escaping bed liner. 

Again, I load it back into the pick up. This time I ask Gabe if he wants to ride in the back, up against the cab acting as weight to hold it down. By this time is it dark and traffic is still flying by. Gabe was not interested in doing that at all. In fact that is probably the most concerned about doing something that I had asked him to do; that I had ever seen. So I did not make him get in the back of the pick up. I turned on the hazard lights and we drove the final ten miles on the interstate at forty miles an hour. 

We did make it home with enough time to change our clothes and head to the church. Gabe was only five minutes late for his first time at Boy Scouts. (I made it on time, too)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tweets go 'round the world!

Twitter connects us all. Today I posed a question on twitter hoping for an answer regarding the release of a CD from a musical group that I am pretty fond of; The Pet Shop Boys. What I found was that my tweet was picked up halfway across the world. Just like when I share an experience with another musician.

Here is a screenshot from http://www.petshopboys.co.uk The Pet Shop Boys Official site in the UK.

Yep, that's me Chris Peterson

By the way, I still don't know when or if this album will be released in the US. Looks like I may be ordering an import!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Brothers- The whole story.

We all have families. I am the oldest of five children. I have two brothers and two sisters. I recently watched the film 'The 5,000 Days Project: Two Brothers'. (Click the link to watch the film) The film follows the lives of two brothers for ten years. It was interesting to see the parallels with these two brothers and the relationship that I have with my siblings.

Cort is two years younger than I. Many times growing up there were little conflicts between us. We'd fight and argue. We'd try to annoy each other- get under one another's skin. But we also played together. I remember many times organizing all our He-Man toys out on our bedroom floor. We'd set them up like a village. Then we'd have our parents get out the old movie camera and film it. Like we were making our own live-action version of the cartoon. Then it was G.I. Joe or Transformers. We were able to play together. We shared a room until I was 12.

Even though we had our own rooms we were still together. Our family built an addition on our home that gave us an upstairs. Cort and I had bedrooms next to one another. We were the only ones upstairs. So were just shared a larger room. A room that had a pool table, hide-a-bed, and a bathroom.

I remember in school we always rode the bus together to and from school. I remember we had an minor earthquake. We were waiting at the bus stop in the fall, Cort had run home quickly to take care of some "business" and the quake hit. I was sitting on the side of the road shivering in the early morning. Cort came running back to the bus stop and asked me if I had been at our house shaking the lights. I told him that I had just been shaking with cold there at the bus stop. Only after we got to school did we find out there had been an earthquake.  Then in sixth grade Cort and I were no longer in the same school. It was interesting not having him around or riding the bus home together.

We'd end up at home at different times and then argue about who was going to do which chore or what T.V. program to watch. Other times we'd work together to get his newspapers folded and then deliver them for his paper route.

In junior high we were in school together again. I was in ninth grade and Cort in seventh. By now we had acclimated to not being together. We each had our own friends that we hung out and walked home with. We'd still see each other at school though, occasionally.

In high school we were together for the last time my senior year and Cort was a sophomore. By this time we were very different people. I was in the Jazz, Concert, and Marching bands; Cort was in Cross Country and Track. Although we had separate lives at school we had something that we always did together at home. We mowed lawns. So even though we might not see each other much during the school day, we'd be ready at home to load up the Datsun pickup and cut grass. at the peak we had roughly 25-30 lawns that we tended to each week.

Then after graduating I went to college. I moved three-hundred miles from home- across the state to Ricks College.  It was the first I'd ever lived on my own and it was exciting. Going from living with my parents and siblings to having five roommates was a change. Talking to my family by phone a few times a week instead of multiple times during the day was a change too. While I was away Cort became the oldest brother. I remember my mom commenting on the change that seemed to have happened. My dad and Cort would argue sometimes, but after I moved away his countenance changed and there wasn't the same level of conflict, like before.

I was in college for a year and then I left for a two- year mission for the LDS Church. For his junior and senior years Cort was the oldest at home. While serving as a missionary I only communicated with my family via letters and the occasional phone call on Mother's Day and Christmas. I noticed a change happen to Cort during this time. He was no longer my little brother, he was becoming my friend.  A friend that had been there with me from the beginning. Through the letters we shared I saw the little brother I remember maturing into a fine young man. Cort continued with Cross Country and Track in high school and then attended a year of college while I was a missionary.

One of the most memorable experiences I have of my time as a missionary was when Cort, while on tour with a performing group from Ricks College came to California where I was serving. I was able to visit with him and then stay for the performance that evening. This was a little less than three months before I returned home.

The summer I returned home Cort was working earnestly to save for his upcoming mission. He had finished one year of college and in September he was leaving to serve a mission in the Philippines. That summer he was in and out leaving town to visit friends going on missions and it was the first time in a long time that I felt alone. Even though I was in the same upstairs that he and I had shared for those many years, when he was not there I was alone in my own room for the first time.

I returned to college the fall after coming home from the mission. Cort left to the MTC soon there after. He was in the MTC for over two months for intensive language training before leaving to the Philippines. Before Thanksgiving I learned that my parents were going to separate and later divorce. A few days after Thanksgiving we were meeting Cort at the Salt Lake Airport on his way to the Philippines. At the airport I was under strict instruction not to talk to Cort about what was about to happen. I obeyed my parents, but I was not happy about it. Cort and I shared letters while he was in the Philippines, but I must admit that I was not the best pen pal. Especially during this time, I was engulfed in my own feelings about the breakup of my family and didn't think about how it effected Cort. I tried to support him as best I could, I remember making a mix tape for him - I called it "Marinduque Blues"- Marinduque was an island where Cort was serving at the time.

While he was in the Philippines I graduated from Ricks College, returned to a very different home than the one he left and I met, dated, and married my wife; Tammy. When Cort returned home from the mission Tammy and I were there to help him adjust to life. He wasn't home too long and he was back at Ricks College. But when he'd come home to visit we always made it a point to spend time together. Cort then continued on to BYU in Provo, UT. Still a good distance away, but he'd visit from time to time. We'd go out Cort, Tammy and I for dinner or spending time together. (Sometimes Cort would forget cash- at that time not all locations accepted debit cards-). While at BYU Cort spent at semester interning for UNICEF in the Philippines. When 9/11 happened that is where he was. He was far from home, but we kept in contact.

In January 2002 Cort was back in Provo at BYU. I was working for HP and attending graduate school at Boise State University with a wife and a small child. January 29, 2002 our mom died. I rushed to meet Tammy and our eleven month son at my mother's home where my youngest brother Clark and youngest sister Carley lived. The ambulance was still there when I arrived. Along with the neighbor from across the street and my dad who came. With our parents divorced Cort and I took to planning the funeral and making other arrangements that were daunting to anyone- especially a twenty-seven and twenty-five year old. This experience; as had others, brought Cort and I closer as brothers.

When Cort married and started a family it was great that we could still be so close and live near each other. We see each other regularly and our kids play together all the time. We both have four kids and they know what it means to be friends with your cousins. When I think back to the times that we argued growing up if you'd told me that we'd be as close as we are today, I would have said you were crazy. But now I know that we're more than family, we're brothers.

From Boise State vs. Utah State



Sunday, February 05, 2012

Brothers... (Part 3)


(Continued from Brothers (Part 1 & Part 2)

While Cort was in the Philippines I graduated from Ricks College and returned to a very different home than the one he left and I met, dated, and married my wife; Tammy. When Cort returned home from the mission Tammy and I were there to help him adjust to life. He wasn't home too long and he was back at Ricks College. But when he'd come home to visit we always made it a point to spend time together. Cort then continued on to BYU in Provo, UT. Still a good distance away, but he'd visit from time to time. We'd go out Cort, Tammy and I for dinner or spending time together. (Sometimes Cort would forget cash- at that time not all locations accepted debit cards-). While at BYU Cort spent at semester interning for UNICEF in the Philippines. When 9/11 happened that is where he was. He was far from home, but we kept in contact.

In January 2002 Cort was back in Provo at BYU. I was working for HP and attending graduate school at Boise State University with a wife and a small child. January 29, 2002 our mom died. I rushed to meet Tammy and our eleven month son at my mother's home where my youngest brother Clark and youngest sister Carley lived. The ambulance was still there when I arrived. Along with the neighbor from across the street and my dad who came. With our parents divorced Cort and I took to planning the funeral and making other arrangements that were daunting to anyone- especially a twenty-seven and twenty-five year old. This experience; as had others, brought Cort and I closer as brothers.

When Cort married and started a family it was great that we could still be so close and live near each other. We see each other regularly and our kids play together all the time. We both have four kids and they know what it means to be friends with your cousins. When I think back to the times that we argued growing up if you'd told me that we'd be as close as we are today, I would have said you were crazy. But now I know that we're more than family, we're brothers.

From Boise State vs. Utah State



Friday, February 03, 2012

Brothers... (Part 2)


(Continued from Brothers... (Part 1))

After graduating high school I went to college. I moved three-hundred miles from home- across the state to Ricks College.  It was the first I'd ever lived on my own and it was exciting. Going from living with my parents and siblings to having five roommates was a change. Talking to my family by phone a few times a week instead of multiple times during the day was a change too. While I was away Cort became the oldest brother. I remember my mom commenting on the change that seemed to have happened. My dad and Cort would argue sometimes, but after I moved away his countenance changed and there wasn't the same level of conflict, like before.

I was in college for a year and then I left for a two- year mission for the LDS Church. For his junior and senior years Cort was the oldest at home. While serving as a missionary I only communicated with my family via letters and the occasional phone call on Mother's Day and Christmas. I noticed a change happen to Cort during this time. He was no longer my little brother, he was becoming my friend.  A friend that had been there with me from the beginning. Through the letters we shared I saw the little brother I remember maturing into a fine young man. Cort continued with Cross Country and Track in high school and then attended a year of college while I was a missionary.

One of the most memorable experiences I have of my time as a missionary was when Cort, while on tour with a performing group from Ricks College came to California where I was serving. I was able to visit with him and then stay for the performance that evening. This was a little less than three months before I returned home.

The summer I returned home Cort was working earnestly to save for his upcoming mission. He had finished one year of college and in September he was leaving to serve a mission in the Philippines. That summer he was in and out leaving town to visit friends going on missions and it was the first time in a long time that I felt alone. Even though I was in the same upstairs that he and I had shared for those many years, when he was not there I was alone in my own room for the first time.

I returned to college the fall after coming home from the mission. Cort left to the MTC soon there after. He was in the MTC for over two months for intensive language training before leaving to the Philippines. Before Thanksgiving I learned that my parents were going to separate and later divorce. A few days after Thanksgiving we were meeting Cort at the Salt Lake Airport on his way to the Philippines. At the airport I was under strict instruction not to talk to Cort about what was about to happen. I obeyed my parents, but I was not happy about it. Cort and I shared letters while he was in the Philippines, but I must admit that I was not the best pen pal. Especially during this time, I was engulfed in my own feelings about the breakup of my family and didn't think about how it effected Cort. I tried to support him as best I could, I remember making a mix tape for him - I called it "Marinduque Blues"- Marinduque was an island where Cort was serving at the time.

Continued in Part 3-->

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Brothers... (Part 1)

We all have families. I am the oldest of five children. I have two brothers and two sisters. I recently watched the film 'The 5,000 Days Project: Two Brothers'. (Click the link to watch the film) The film follows the lives of two brothers for ten years. It was interesting to see the parallels with these two brothers and the relationship that I have with my siblings.

Cort is two years younger than I. Many times growing up there were little conflicts between us. We'd fight and argue. We'd try to annoy each other- get under one another's skin. But we also played together. I remember many times organizing all our He-Man toys out on our bedroom floor. We'd set them up like a village. Then we'd have our parents get out the old movie camera and film it. Like we were making our own live-action version of the cartoon. Then it was G.I. Joe or Transformers. We were able to play together. We shared a room until I was 12.

Even though we had our own rooms we were still together. Our family built an addition on our home that gave us an upstairs. Cort and I had bedrooms next to one another. We were the only ones upstairs. So were just shared a larger room. A room that had a pool table, hide-a-bed, and a bathroom.

I remember in school we always rode the bus together to and from school. I remember we had an minor earthquake. We were waiting at the bus stop in the fall, Cort had run home quickly to take care of some "business" and the quake hit. I was sitting on the side of the road shivering in the early morning. Cort came running back to the bus stop and asked me if I had been at our house shaking the lights. I told him that I had just been shaking with cold there at the bus stop. Only after we got to school did we find out there had been an earthquake.  Then in sixth grade Cort and I were no longer in the same school. It was interesting not having him around or riding the bus home together.

We'd end up at home at different times and then argue about who was going to do which chore or what T.V. program to watch. Other times we'd work together to get his newspapers folded and then deliver them for his paper route.

In junior high we were in school together again. I was in ninth grade and Cort in seventh. By now we had acclimated to not being together. We each had our own friends that we hung out and walked home with. We'd still see each other at school though, occasionally.

In high school we were together for the last time my senior year and Cort was a sophomore. By this time we were very different people. I was in the Jazz, Concert, and Marching bands; Cort was in Cross Country and Track. Although we had separate lives at school we had something that we always did together at home. We mowed lawns. So even though we might not see each other much during the school day, we'd be ready at home to load up the Datsun pickup and cut grass. at the peak we had roughly 25-30 lawns that we tended to each week.


Continued in Brothers... (Part 2) -->

Friday, January 13, 2012

Ten Years

"Today would have been Mom's 60th Birthday. Ten years ago they had a big party for her @ work-black streamers & all. She was so surprised. Happy Birthday Mom! I know your watching over the grandkids. We talk about Grandma Lynn all the time. We love you!"

This is my facebook status right now. I both can and can't believe that it has been ten years since Mom's death. This week the death of Roger Kotter from the same thing that took Mom. Life seems shorter. I think about my own mortality. What have I given my kids to remember me by. Have I taught them enough? Do they know I love them. Does Tammy know how much I love her?

The only way to answer these daunting questions is to act. To do something. Play a game. Read a a book. Read a story. Spend the time. Together.

"No. Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.".- Yoda

"As I have loved you, Love one another"

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Election... blah blah blah

It's 2012 and election new is starting to pick up even more. Today I read the following story:


Georgia Lawmaker 'Afraid' of Romney's Mormon Faith
01/04/2012 | 
Sigh. Here we go again. A Georgia state legislator says Mitt Romney's LDS faith makes him wary.

The Marietta Daily Journal spoke with a number of Georgia legislators about the 2012 field. Republican Representative Judy Manning went off about Mitt and Mormons in general.




“I think Mitt Romney is a nice man, but I’m afraid of his Mormon faith,” Manning said. “It’s better than a Muslim. Of course, every time you look at the TV these days you find an ad on there telling us how normal they are. So why do they have to put ads on the TV just to convince us that they’re normal if they are normal? … If the Mormon faith adhered to a past philosophy of pluralism, multi-wives, that doesn’t follow the Christian faith of one man and one woman, and that concerns me.” 

Romney is also a flip-flopper, Manning said. 

“When he was the governor of Massachusetts he performed 100 — and I’m not sure this number is right, but my mind says it’s about 180 gay marriages — and now, when he is running as president on the Republican ticket, he says that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Manning said. 


Read more: Utah Policy 

http://utahpolicy.com/bookmark/16986285

Here is my response:

Representative Manning, 

I wanted to pass some information on so that you could educate yourself on The Mormon faith espoused by Governor Romney. The church is named: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can find much information regarding this religion on  http://mormon.org/  Please take time and learn a little more about this faith. Ignorance is cured by education.  You may also view online videos on the life of Jesus Christ from the Church here-  http://lds.org/bible-videos/?lang=eng 

I am trying to convert anyone just pass along information

Thanks for your time.