Texting and Driving Public Service Announcement

A powerful message about texting and driving -- or any other inattentive driving. We have got to stop doing other things when we should be driving. Let's save some lives and start talking out about this problem. Please don't text and drive!

Texting & Driving PSA

Our sister station WJBF in Georgia has received a ton of feedback on this Texting & Driving PSA... And so we share it with you, and ask: How are you talking to your high schooler about the dangers of texting and driving?Feel free to use this powerful message to get a conversation started.
Posted by NBC4 on Monday, August 11, 2014

My Dad, Happy Father's Day

 This is my dad, Grant Murray

He was born: December 6, 1931 in Wellsville, Utah

He passed: September 24, 2006 in Pocatello, Idaho

Dad passed away from Colon Cancer. 

 I love this picture, I love the soft colors and I love the look on my dads face, this reminds me of him. 

We usually took a yearly vacation when I was young. This particular vacation was to North Dakota to visit my Aunt Jean and Uncle Glen.

Some of the vacations we took over the years were to:
Yellowstone National Park
Mount Rushmore
Crazy Horse Memorial
Bedrock Village, South Dakota
North Dakota
Red Fish Lake in Stanley Idaho
Camping
Preston and Cub River Idaho
We went regularly to see our grandparents in Preston idaho

Dad taught us how to water ski. He would go out into the lake with us, lift us up by our life jacket and push us up as the boat moved forward.

He took us fishing at American Falls Reservoir and dam.

Dad became a farmer after all if his children were grown. We never had horses while we were growing up.

Dad was an avid hunter and went Elk and Deer hunting every year. Another way he put food on our table. 

 I also love this picture of a young girl who really wanted her fathers love. Yes, this is me draped over my dad and my mom holding a 2nd cousin with my cousins wife Carol. 

 My dad always grew a big garden for his family of 5 children. We also had a root cellar for items we didn't can. 

One memory of my dad in the garden is when he squished bugs off of plants with his fingers. It always grossed me out. 

 My dad and his 2 sons, Lyle and Richard

 Fortunately my brothers were taller then my dad's own 5'8" height. 

 My dad was a huge fan of baby boys. I believe this picture is of him holding Kevin. 

It was kind of sad when I had my son, Jason as the first grandson. My sister Cindy who at that time had 4 daughters called him after the birth of Jason and told him about my son. He said, "Yea, I love you" to Cindy which broke her heart because she didn't give my dad a grandson. Every time she called him about the birth of one of her daughters his reply would be, "Can't you grow a spout on one of them?". He was prouder of his sons and grandsons then girls. 

 Dad with his daughters, going youngest to oldest in picture: Sondra, Cindy and Christine

 It's always rare to see pictures of me with my dad. This is a good one with my sister Cindy, Dad and me, Sondra.

 One of my favorite pictures of dad with his grand children at my sister Christine's wedding. 

Dad is holding Laura, Robin is next to Dad, Michele is the red head holding my son, Jason and the blonde in front is Tracy.

The girls are my sister Cindy's daughters and I had the first grandson, Jason. 

That's such a cute picture of my baby Jason. 

 My dad hold Jason at his farm. 

 Dad holding Brady, with Jason and me, Sondra

A good face forward picture of Dad. 

 Quite the look he's giving Brady. but a good one of Brady. 

 My parents divorced when I was a junior in high school. Unfortunately, most of my childhood/teenage years were of my parents fighting, my dad leaving and living somewhere else. When they finally got a divorce it was a relief that they were moving on.

Dad re-married in my senior year to Joan. He basically left our family unit and he was pretty much gone as our father. He raised Joan's kids more then he did us. 

The one thing I really hated is that he basically quit being my father. He never called. If we needed something it was always us reaching out to him. It's really sad. 

This is a picture of my favorite grandpa (my Mom's dad) and my dad. My grandpa died when I was 5 years old, but I loved him a lot. 

My dad worked for Idaho Power starting out as a lineman, then while I was growing up he was the dispatcher that called in power outages. I remember going to see him at work and the whole wall in front of his desk was a grid of Pocatello with lights on it that showed the power was working when the light was green and red when the power was out. It always reminded me of Christmas lights. 

While we visited Dad, the kids would go downstairs to the employee lounge and play pool. There was a pool table down there and my brothers and sisters has such a fun time playing pool.

My dad worked all the time. He also had a side business called Murray's Electric that repaired electric water heaters. He also served in church callings which meant he was always gone doing something. He was very kind and generous to retired people and usually did their service for free. 

He was a handy man, there wasn't anything he couldn't fix. 

I took this picture at the parade yesterday of an old Idaho Power truck, similar to the truck my dad drove. 

Here is Dad's obituary:

Grant Murray, 74, longtime resident of Pocatello area passed away Sunday morning September 24, 2006 at home following an extended illness. He was born December 6, 1931 in Wellsville, Utah a son of Robert and Edith Murray.

When he was a young boy, his family moved from Wellsville to Clifton, Idaho and then to Preston Idaho where he attended schools and graduated from Preston High School. He served int he U.S. Air Force for four years. 

On August 2, 1955, he married Zoey in Preston, Idaho. They later divorced. He married Joan Edwards on December 12, 1980 in Pocatello, Idaho. He worked for Idaho Power Company for over 35 years retiring as a service supervisor. He was a member of the L.D.S. Church and served in various callings. He liked fishing, hunting and all kinds of animals on is farm. He especially loved his horse. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. 

He is survived by his wife, Joan Murray, Pocatello, Idaho, 2 Sons, 3 daughters, a stepson, 2 step-daughters. 2 brothers Robert and George, a sister Lorraine, a special niece Donna, 22 grandchildren and 9 great grand children. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister Arlene. 

Funeral services will be conducted Thursday, September 28, 2006 at the LDS 37th Ward Chapel (Hwy 91 North) with Bishop Johnson officiating. Interment will be in the Mendon, Utah Cemetery at 3:30 pm with military graveside rites provided by the American Legion. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Manning-Wheatley Funeral Chapel. 

Meridian Idaho Dairy Days Parade 2015

Friday, June 19, 2015 I watched the Meridian Dairy Days Parade. It is a different experience to go the the parade without any children - or even my small children. Life changes as you get older, but I still love to go to a parade, not to mention it is 2 blocks away from my house and in walking distance. 

In past years this has been one of the highlights of Meridian. During the Diary Days Parade in past years they give Chocolate Milk at the beginning, Cheese Strings in the middle and a cup of Ice Cream at the end. 

I stayed for 1 hour and 10 minutes before I was too hot and bored and left and they didn't give out any dairy products. I wonder and hope they waited until the end of the parade, because it would be a complete disappointment to all the parade attendees to not get a beloved dairy treat.  

Here are some fun photos I did take while I watched the parade, enjoy!

 There were girls dancing.

 A few floats.

 Clowns

 All themed around Dairy products.

 Church of the Warm Heart.

This Treasure Valley Drill Team brought back LOTS of memories. You just don't see drill teams with the clicking marching boots like I had when I was young. The uniforms, the boots, all of it reminded of my time marching in parades. I really enjoyed these girls marching along with the click of their boots. 

 I did get a bottle of water this float handed out with a scripture message wrapped around it. Cute and practical idea. 

 Snake River Stampede stage coach. 

Loved this tow truck message: "Texting and Driving is Udderly Foolish"

 I really enjoyed this float drumming on garbage cans. It was fun!

 Inner Diva. I thought this new Meridian store was for children's party playing a diva. But seeing the float, it's a dance exercise and belly dancing place to enjoy your "Inner Diva". 

 Meridian Library mobil bus cow.

 Meridian High School Cheer Squad... Rah Rah Meridian High School!!! Go Warriors. 

 The thing I loved about the Johns Discount Fireworks was that they were playing "Firework" by Katy Perry. Great song for a fireworks store. 

Oh my goodness, I had to post a picture of this old Idaho Power truck. My dad worked for Idaho Power and this also brought back a ton of memories of a truck similar to this sitting in our driveway when I was a young girl. 

Awe, I loved the little electric man on the side of the truck. This is Idaho Power to me. 

I have to complain a little. See this stupid middle of the road divider/flower display. They just put this in during the past couple of months. STUPIDEST thing ever! Way to go Meridian Mayer Tammy de Weerd and City Councilmen - this sure ruined the flow of the parade down main street.

I kept seeing these big trucks moving all the way over to the side of the road trying to get around these stupid dividers. As you can see in the photo above - the tractors are on each side of this stupid divider. That meant that each side of the road didn't see the same up close parade as the other. Meridian Council members have ruined the parade route by placing the unnecessary road dividers in our small town. I think they put them there for decoration, because we are too small to have any safety concerns down main street. 

Just shaking my head at this!

ANYWAY, I'm glad I went to the parade. It seems to be getting less and less kid friendly. Not too many candy was thrown and things the kids love. Lots of vehicles and a few floats. 

I miss all the dairy through the parade, the free t-shirts and a bag full of candy. However, I'm glad they are keeping the Dairy Day Parade tradition alive. Although I've said it before and will say it again, I think it's always so weird that they hold it on a big travel weekend like Father's Day weekend EVERY YEAR. They need to change that to adhere to more of the residents schedules and not a big travel weekend. 

Cleaning: Dusting Furniture 101

Most of furniture is made from wood that comes from trees.  When you cut down a tree and make a piece of furniture with it, it is no longer alive. It is dead wood. Because it is dead wood, you need to use some type of furniture polish / oil to keep it hydrated and looking good. 

The furniture polish I use: Behold, Kleen Guard and Endust.

I also use oils such as: Lemon Oil or Orange Oil when I clean furniture. 

I use a microfiber cloth to dust, polish and make my furniture shine. 

For some reason I see a lot of people with dusty furniture or dry furniture.

You can't always "dry" dust your furniture and expect it too look good or not to look dry and it will continually look dusty. 

Furniture made from wood needs something to moisturize it to keep the dust away. 

Another thing I run into is people spray on furniture polish, wipe and call it good. Sometimes when I take on a new customer, I can tell that they use this technique because there is a pull on my rag when I dust. Plus, this technique doesn't work to keep the dust away.

How I dust furniture is spray on the polish and take my rag and buff the furniture polish until you see a shine. It takes a little bit of movement to shine up the polish on your furniture. You move the rag back and forth or circular motion quickly as you buff your furniture until it is slick and smooth shiny surface. This is when dust doesn't adhere as much because it is so slick. 

When you feel a drag on your microfiber rag or cloth, you haven't polished your furniture to keep the dust off longer as when it is buffed up into a slick, smooth and shiny surface.

Sometimes when I go into a new customers house, their furniture is so dry and looks terrible. Dry furniture will look and become dusty fast. 

When furniture is dry, I take lemon or orange oil and put some moisture back into the wood. My customers are always amazed at how beautiful and dust free their wood becomes after a few cleanings. It's a dramatic change just to add moisture back into the wood. 

Furniture polish is needed to take the dust off of furniture. If you don't use some type of polish, the dust flies into the air and comes down again on to your furniture. 

You will also need to dust more if you have pets or children. They stir up dust and you will always seem to have more.

If you feel like you can't keep up with the dust, that means you need to vacuum your carpet more too. 

The 2 things go hand in hand ... dusting and vacuuming. 

I'm always asked what I do first, vacuum or dust?

I always dust first so that the dust that may go on the floor is vacuumed up. Also most vacuums have a hepa filter that cleans the dust out of the air as you vacuum. 

If you have children, you should always have a dust free home. Children love to help clean.

Take a sock and add buttons for eyes and maybe some yarn for hair and make a sock duster for your child. I put some lemon or orange oil in my hand and rub it on the sock. Then send your child off to dust the furniture. 

When I was young one of our jobs was to dust the baseboards. It's much easier for a child to reach those areas because they are small.  Plus you have the added bonus that they feel an accomplishment of doing a good job cleaning and helping. Make sure you always praise them when they finish. 

Once your furniture has oil in it and has a furniture polish shine, I do use  a swiffer duster to keep up between polishing (using furniture polish once a week or once every 2 weeks). 

 When I'm talking on the phone, I usually go around and swiffer my furniture to multi task. I also do a quick swiffer before I vacuum if it's before the weekly or bi-weekly furniture polish I do on my furniture. 

For my home of 1 empty nester, I use furniture polish bi-weekly and swiffer in between. My house doesn't get too dusty because I don't have pets or children. 

If you have pets or children, you should use furniture polish every week.

I also have to add that I HATE feather dusters. all they do is stir up the dust, put it in the air and then it falls back down and everything looks dusty again.

If your cleaning service uses a feather duster .... it's time to find a new one. 

Throw out that feather duster - it's useless!

To recap:

1. Furniture made of wood that is dead and needs moisture to keep it looking beautiful.

2. When using furniture polish, you need to "buff" your furniture until it is smooth and shiny, moving your cloth to buff up the shine and a make the surface of your furniture smooth and slick with the added bonus of a brilliant shine.

3. If you have pets or children, you will need to dust more.

4. To keep dust out of your house and off your furniture, you need to also vacuum more. 

5. Use your children to keep the dust off your furniture with a sock duster. 

6. Use a swiffer in between your weekly or bi-weekly furniture polish dusting.

7. If you have a feather duster - throw it out!