The Zohner Family Blog

Too Much Zucchini?

Holly — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:00:13 PDT

Ever wonder what to do with that pile of zucchini that you get from your garden in the summertime? Try this recipe for chocolate zucchini sheet cake brownies.

1 ½ Cup Brown Sugar
½ Cup Sugar
½ Cup Butter [1 C Applesauce can be used in place of butter and vegetable oil]
½ Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
½ Cup Buttermilk
2 ½ Cup Flour
½ tsp Allspice
½ tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
4 cups Unpeeled Zucchini (grated)
1 C Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Cream the wet stuff. Add the dry stuff. Stir in zucchini. Pour into an 11×17 pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake 325 for 40-45 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar or frost with chocolate icing.

More Camping

Jeremiah — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:08:04 PDT

A few months ago, Holly had decided that we needed to go on a camping trip over the 24th of July weekend. I had Friday the 23rd off and she didn’t work at all that weekend so she thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get away. For reasons that I can’t seem to remember at the moment, the camping trip for the 24th got moved up a few weeks leaving us with a three-day weekend full of nothing to do. Sure, there are plenty of things that need to be done around the house, but where is the fun in doing chores over a holiday weekend? After a quick call to invite my sister, Chelsea, it was decided that the Zohners would once again travel into the mountains.

Because our camping trip was planned only a few weeks ahead, we didn’t have a lot of options on where we could go. After looking at a lot of different campsites online, we finally settled on Iron Mine near Duchesne. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that it is in the same canyon as Hades which, thanks to awesome fishing, is one of my favorite places to camp.

Speaking of fishing, we went to our favorite spot on the Duchesne River to wet our lines for a bit. There was something different this time though. I’m not sure if the water was higher than it has been in years past or if the beaver dam had been dismantled. Either way, the water was flowing freely and much faster than normal so the fishing wasn’t great. We all had fun though as we were reminded why it’s called “fishing” and not “catching”.

Once we were done fishing, it was time to get out the guns. Last year when I took the kids shooting, Alex was the only one who wanted to give it a try. This year, Emma and Hannah decided that they needed to get in on the action and stop watching their brother have all the fun. Alex and Emma were able to shoot my .22 pistol and all three kids had a lot of fun shooting my Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. You’ll be happy to know that no eyes were shot out. We ended up putting about 80 rounds through the .22, another 40 through my 9mm, and countless through the BB gun. Both Emma and Alex had a blast and seem to have caught the shooting bug.

Other than the things I’ve already mentioned, there really isn’t a lot to say about the trip other than my mom came up for one night. Holly and I both wondered if she would once she realized that we were actually going into the mountains but she didn’t let us down. It was a lot of fun to see her roughing it in the middle of nowhere. I’m not sure that she realized just how much we enjoy camping before seeing it with her own eyes but we’re glad that she was actually able to see it with her own eyes.

Stuck In My Head

Jeremiah — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:28:07 PDT

I’ve had the song “I Hope That Something Better Comes Along” from The Muppet Movie stuck in my head for the last week. There are two versions to this song. The version that I’ve had running through my mind is the soundtrack version. It has a second verse which was deemed too racy for the movie when it was released in 1979. (This is the superior version in my opinion mostly because the second verse is just plain awesome.) If you have a chance to pick up the soundtrack, I highly recommend it since it has a lot of really good music. Plus, who doesn’t like the Muppets?

Who Doesn’t Love Puppies?

Jeremiah — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:44:50 PDT

The answer: nobody. Unless, of course, their heart is as black as the night. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t think that puppies are awesome? At least until they start chewing on everything and pooping everywhere. Up until that point though, they’re awesome and you know it.

It’s no secret that we’re a dog family. We love dogs. Not having dogs in the house is like not having furniture or carpet; it just feels empty. In my opinion, everyone should have at least one dog. They’re great companions and, unlike most cats, they return the love that you give them. Plus, if you drop food on the floor, you never have to clean it up because the dog will take care of it for you.

Last year for my birthday, Holly got me a female basset hound. She was an awesome dog but lacked in the manners department a bit. She also shed like nothing I’ve ever seen before. After the birth of Lincoln, we had to get rid of her because of her shedding issues. He seemed to be a bit allergic to the pet hair everywhere. While I was sad about this, being the good father that I am, I couldn’t put the health of my child above my dog. A few months later, Holly decided that it would be a good idea to get a lap dog to fill the void created when we sold Hailey. This brings us to Dayzee.

Dayzee is a black and white two-year-old female shih-tzu that Holly found online. A few months after we welcomed her to our family, we decided that it would be a good idea to breed her. We found a stud and arranged for Dayzee to have a romantic getaway. When all was said and done, we weren’t sure that it was a successful venture. Last month though, we decided to take her to the vet just to make sure. I hate being wrong, and in this case I was. Dayzee had at least two pups inside of her.

Yesterday we were out running some errands as a family for the better part of the morning. When we arrived home, Dayzee was desperately wanting to be alone in her crate. Holly and I figured out that she was in labor and started setting up a box for her to deliver her puppies in. She immediately jumped in and started making herself comfortable. Within 20 minutes we had one puppy and the second came about 20 minutes after that.

Despite having to take a trip to the vet to make sure that Dayzee didn’t have anymore puppies that weren’t coming out, delivering her litter went really smoothly. She is a great mother and seems to be very protective of her new pups. (Oscar came too close last night and she let him know it!) The kids are loving the puppies and can’t wait to see them grow into little dogs.

A New Car!

Jeremiah — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:37:34 PDT

I hate to buy cars more than anything in the world. I can think of any number of things that I would rather do than buy a new car. This is mostly because of some bad experiences that we’ve had. A few years ago, we bought a Kia that was a complete lemon. Then there was the Auction Direct incident that ended up costing us a large sum of money thanks to some fraudulent business practices. Buying cars is just not something that I like to do. I can’t understand how people can do it every few years without developing sever ulcers.

Imagine the stress that I started to feel when I realized that our 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan with almost 200,000 miles on it needed to have a new computer installed. Since the van is only worth around $1,000 on a good day when all of the planets are aligned and the repair would likely cost as much as the vehicle was worth, Holly and I decided that it was time to get something new. Let the stress begin…

Thankfully Holly and I learned our lesson last year so we did our homework this time around. We both researched vehicles and had an idea of what we wanted and what we wanted to spend. We also had ideas of what we could expect to pay and what the vehicles were actually worth. (I love the internet…) This time we also had “a guy” that would take care of us. Holly has a friend that married into a car family. Because of this friendship, we were fairly confident that we wouldn’t get screwed over.

The dealership that we chose to get our car from this time is Beutler Auto Sales in Clearfield. Jordan Beutler took amazing care of us. We told him what we were looking for and he told us what he had that would best suit our needs. Not surprisingly, he told us about a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan that Holly and I both had interest in. We took it for a test drive and were sold. This would be the vehicle that we purchased.

After some discussion, we were able to negotiate the value of our trade in and come to a purchase price on the vehicle. To be honest though, negotiation isn’t really the right word. They offered us a more than generous amount for our old van and the price for the van we were buying was thousands less than we expected to pay based on our internet research. I did some negotiating just for the sake of it but the price was already so low that they couldn’t come down much more, but they still did. To top it off, they offered to put a tow package on for the price of materials. Since we just put one on our old van, I know how much I’m saving there. These guys are great!

The way that we were treated by the guys at Beutler was amazing. I have never walked onto a car lot and been treated so well. It’s amazing how far a little bit of customer service combined with honesty and integrity will go. These guys have made me a customer for life and I will recommend them to anybody looking for a new vehicle.

Back To The Wilderness

Jeremiah — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:19:23 PDT

Those who know us know that we’re avid campers. We go camping multiple times each summer and hate to see each weekend go by because we know that it’s one less chance for us to go camping. This year though, I was a bit concerned about going camping because of Lincoln. In the past, when we’ve taken our babies camping, it’s usually an exhausting experience that involves listing to a baby cry for a few days. Being the family of campers that we are though, Holly was determined to not going to let a little thing like the potential for a crying baby deter us from sleeping in the wild.

Because of the crazy weather we had in June, we were late in scheduling our camping trips this year. This left us with few options that didn’t involve driving for hours and hours. Fortunately, global warming finally kicked in and Holly managed to find a place near Mapleton that claimed to have great fishing so arrangements were made with her sister’s family and we were off to the mountains. Before we could go though, certain preparations needed to be made.

Since we have added a new person to the family since our last camping trip, we decided that a larger tent was in order. I would have preferred a Springbar, but to get one that is large enough to fit the entire family, including a portable crib, we would have had to spend at least $800. If we actually had $800 to spend, this would not have been an issue. Since we didn’t, I had to settle for a Wal-Mart special. It fits 10 people who don’t like comfort or 6 people who like air mattresses and cribs. Since we like comfort and have a portable crib, this was a great choice for our family. A lot of people don’t like Ozark Trail tents but we’ve had no problems with any of ours. We’ve had two and they’ve both worked well for us. But they’re not Springbars… Man, I really want a Springbar…

The next thing that we had to address was our vehicle situation. Last year we realized that when we load up all of our camping stuff, the van gets full very quickly. With a crib, a stroller, and another person, we knew that we would have to do something different this year. Holly came up with the idea of getting a trailer hitch installed on the van and then getting a rack that fits into the hitch that we could pack stuff on. This was a brilliant idea. We had the hitch installed and purchased a rack then loaded it up. We ran into problems though because the hitch is very low and the rack kept scraping the road. Gouging actually… After making a few stops at trailer stores on the way to our campsite, we were able to find a hitch attachment that raised the rack by a few inches which resolved the problem quite nicely. Between the trailer hitch rack and the luggage rack on the roof, we were able to fit everything with only minimum squishage of the children so the transportation/hauling stuff issue was resolved.

Once we finally arrived at the campground, I was appalled to learn that there was no fishing. Despite so many reservoirs being filled to capacity, the river that ran adjacent to the campground was dried up. (I guess it didn’t get the memo that this is a good water year.) No water obviously means no fish. I was so bummed. Thankfully the campsite was beautiful and so I was able to at least enjoy that aspect of our trip. If I could be guaranteed fishing every time I camped at this site, I’d never go anywhere else.

All in all it was a fun trip. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and Holly and I were able to enjoy nature. Plus, Lincoln did amazing on his first camping trip. He hardly cried at all which isn’t really surprising considering the fact that he loves being outside. I’m excited to see how he does on a two day trip next month.

At Long Last

Jeremiah — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:06:26 PDT

About a year ago, I was laid off from one of the best jobs that I have ever had. A friend of mine named Chris knew this and told me to give him a copy of my resume so that if he heard of any openings at Hill Air Force Base, he could make sure that it made it into the right hands. (Chris was a contractor with a company called Rylex and worked at the help desk on the base.) A few weeks ago, Chris called me and said that Rylex had some openings for IT field technicians and that he had finally given my resume to the VP of human resources. Despite his glowing review of me though, I wasn’t sure that I’d get an interview because Chris told me that he thought that he submitted it too late. Upon hearing this, I started thinking that my chances weren’t very good and resumed my normal duties but then I got a call the next day asking me to come in for an interview. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t excited.

To make a somewhat short story even shorter, I didn’t think that I did very well in the interview. I was only asked a couple of questions and the interviewer didn’t seem very interested in me. Then out of the blue, he asked what my availability was. I told him that it depended on how soon I received an offer if he intended to actually make me an offer. His response was an offer on the spot which I accepted with a big grin on my face and an even bigger grin on my insides. I’m guessing that he had it in his mind before he met me that if I didn’t turn out to be a drooling idiot that he’d make me an offer because I don’t think that any of my answers really wowed him.

The next day, I gave my two weeks notice at MasterControl. I did this with a lot of mixed feelings. The job was mentally draining and I was gone for 13 hours a day but I didn’t mind the work and I like the people that I worked with there a lot. Also, other than an enormous workload that only seemed to grow, my experience there had been pretty positive. Despite the long commute, I had planned on staying there for some time; however, the opportunity working on the Air Force base was too great to pass up so I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to move on. (The fact that they’re paying me more money and it’s only four miles from home doesn’t hurt either. Plus, I’m a field tech. No more spending 11 hours a day answering phones.)

I’ve now been working on base for about two weeks and have loved nearly every minute of it. In fact, I mentioned to one of the guys that I work with that I had forgotten how much I enjoy this type of work. I haven’t really been able to do it for about three years and didn’t realize how much I missed it. Hopefully I don’t screw things up too badly and Rylex decides that they’d like to keep me for the duration of this contract and every other contract that they are awarded.

Happy Birthday, America!

Jeremiah — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:59:56 PDT

Even as neglected as my blog has been over the past few months, I couldn’t let today pass without wishing our country a happy 234th birthday. It was on this day in 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was adopted announcing a severing of ties between England and the colonies in the New World.

To Thomas Jefferson, the inspired patriot who drafted this amazing document, I say thank you. I also say thank you to the other founders of this great nation. They saw a wrong and they did what was necessary to make things right knowing that the sacrifice would be great.

And finally, to those who wake up each morning and do what it takes to keep this great country free, thank you. You do what others either won’t or can’t do because it’s what’s right and for that I am grateful.

GOP Convention Recap

Jeremiah — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:31:47 PDT

Last Saturday was the GOP Convention here in Utah. It was an amazing day. I was able to take part in the political process like I never have before. Throughout the course of the day, I sent a lot of updates to Twitter which were then relayed to Facebook. I know that not everyone that visits this blog follows me on those other sites so I’m posting them here for their benefit.

While not everyone that I voted for won or will be moving on to a primary, I am very pleased with the fact that I will not be voting against a candidate on election day. What I mean is that there is no “lesser of two evils” this time around; all of the Republican candidates seem to be good, solid conservatives who believe in the Constitution and the greatness of this country. I like that a lot.

For those who are unfamiliar with how Twitter works, you will notice that I use a lot of # characters in my messages. The # is basically used to tag something making it easier for others to find. On Saturday, I used the #utpol tag a lot to make my posts easier to find for those who were searching for information regarding Utah politics.

Getting geared up for the Utah #GOP convention today. Should be a lot of fun meeting with all of the candidates. 6:20 AM May 8th via Echofon
Just had a parking attendant see a pocket Constitution and say that we weren’t democrats. LOL #GOP #utpol 7:32 AM May 8th via txt
Very impressed with #DanOaks. #utpol 9:18 AM May 8th via txt
.@MikeLee2010 “I will be successful not in spite of my conservatism but because of it.” #utpol #utsen 9:36 AM May 8th via txt
Blackberrys and iPhones everywhere at the #UT #GOP convention. #utpol 10:35 AM May 8th via txt
.@bobbennettutah These problems that you say you’re going to fix came under your watch. I think you’re in trouble today. 10:54 AM May 8th via txt
Fabiano’s speech was painfully delivered. Thank you. #utpol #utsen 11:14 AM May 8th via txt
Hey Merrill Cook, didn’t you use to be a Democrat? And an independent? #utpol #utsen 11:22 AM May 8th via txt
David Chiu looks like Morpheus. #utpol 11:23 AM May 8th via txt
.@MikeLee2010 gets a standing o before even opening his mouth. #utpol 11:23 AM May 8th via txt
.@MikeLee2010… Very powerful speech. #utpol 11:27 AM May 8th via txt
.@MikeLee2010 is waving his arms like Dwight Schrute accepting a salesman of the year award. #utpol 11:30 AM May 8th via txt
.@CherilynEager has the whole world in her hands. Literally. Nice globe. #utpol 11:32 AM May 8th via txt.
@CheriilynEager… Great speech. #utpol 11:35 AM May 8th via txt
98.6% of delegates in attendance. wow #utpol 11:40 AM May 8th via txt
No ballot oragami. #utpol 11:45 AM May 8th via txt
Just voted for@MikeLee2010 with a @BobBennettUtah pen. 12:01 PM May 8th via txt
Just had lunch. Who puts tomato on egg salad? 12:18 PM May 8th via txt
Dan oaks up next. #utpol 12:38 PM May 8th via txt
Interested to see how well #Oaks does. I’m impressed by him. #utpol 12:38 PM May 8th via txt
Gov. Herbert – It’s a microphone. It helps amplify sound. There’s no need to yell. #utpol 12:44 PM May 8th via txt
Romney passed government healthcare before Obama. Why so much love? #utpol 12:47 PM May 8th via txt
Rob Bishop is up next. He has my support. #utpol 12:50 PM May 8th via txt
Bishop: “We are the party of hell no!” #utpol 12:52 PM May 8th via txt
GOP candidate Ridgeway bashing GOP. Really? #utpol 1:01 PM May 8th via txt
Is #Ridgeway a democrat infiltrator? #utpol 1:03 PM May 8th via txt
Re: Mike Ridgeway’s talk- what the crap was that? #utpol 1:05 PM May 8th via txt
I like @Jasoninthehouse a lot. Apparently the UT 3rd district does too since nobody chose to oppse him. #utpol 1:29 PM May 8th via txt
We need more people like @Jasoninthehouse. #utpol 1:33 PM May 8th via txt
I think @BobBennettUtah is done. If he survives the next round, I’ll be surprised. #utpol 1:38 PM May 8th via txt
Just voted for @MikeLee2010 with a @BobBennettUtah pen… again. He probably shouldn’t have given it to me. #utpol 2:09 PM May 8th via txt
Overheard @ GOP convention: “My only regret is that I can’t vote against Orrin Hatch too.” #utpol 2:09 PM May 8th via txt
Senator Hatch loves me. #utpol 2:32 PM May 8th via txt
Looks like @BobBennettUtah can start planning life after Washinghton. #unemployment #utpol 3:41 PM May 8th via txt
It’s nice to not have to choose between the lesser of two evils. #utpol #utsen 3:46 PM May 8th via txt
I wonder if Orrin Hatch pooped himself a little bit when he learned that Bennett lost? He’s next. #utpol 3:52 PM May 8th via txt
Nothing was bad about the day from where I stand. I think I’ll have withdrawals when nobody calls me next week asking for my vote. #utpol 10:17 PM May 8th via web
.@BobBennettUtah Thank you for all of your years of service to Utah. #utpol 10:40 PM May 8th via txt
@MikeLee2010 Congrats on advancing today. You have my support in the primary. 10:43 PM May 8th via txt

There you have it, my day at the GOP Convention. If you didn’t take the time to read through everything, I won’t be offended. I realize that it was a lot and a lot of it probably made no sense to people unless the were at the convention. It was a lot of fun sharing my thoughts in real time though and I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to be there.

Awesome Accomplishments

Jeremiah — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:36:45 PDT

This completely made my day.

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