Happy Halloween

Here are the Liesik boys in the annual Roosevelt Halloween Parade on main street. Picture 1,000 people of all ages dressed in myriad costumes shuffling up and down the dusty sidewalks of main street in small town Utah as business owners and politicians running for office - yes it's an election year - hand out gobs of candy and you basically have the Roosevelt Halloween Parade.



Carson went as an inmate. He later became a zombie inmate before hitting up the neighbors for candy. I love when kids feel the need to combine costumes to make them more cool (e.g. zombie inmate, ghost pirate, astronaut vampire, etc.)



Jackson was the world's most famous wizard, Harry Potter. (He's five and he's already rolling his eyes? Not a good sign.) He's seen here with his cousin, Emma, who of course was an M & M.



Wilson slept through the parade in his stroller, thankfully. He had a dalmatian costume that he only wore the hat for. I like this jumper better.

Grandpa's Grandkids

Vanessa coordinated a group photo of her dad and all the grandkids at his shop. Pictured are: LeRoy holding Emma Womack, Gracie Womack, Shaycee Shearwood, Wilson Liesik, Louis Womack, Carson Liesik (back), Jackson Liesik, and Kason Shearwood.



The three new additions - Shaycee Shearwood (K.C. and Kirby's daughter), Wilson Liesik (mine and Vanessa's), Louis Womack (Stacy and Adam's son).



The cutest baby in the bunch - Wilson Tate Liesik. Sorry, I'm biased.

Happy Fall 2008

Carson, Wilson, and Jackson pose for their fall photo.

K.C.'s First Buck

My brother-in-law K.C. and his friend, Zack Kulland, went hunting Saturday on property LeRoy bought just west of the house. K.C. had early success with this three-point buck (If you count the tiny cheater tines down low, it's a four-point.)



I took the boys down to see the buck. Jackson was really into it. He "supervised" the gutting, up close and personally.



Carson though said it made him feel queasy. He had to sit down.



Then K.C., Carson, and Jack went to look for the buck that Zack thought he may have hit. We never found the deer.

LOTOJA 2008

At the feed zone in Afton, Wyo.,
about 75 miles from the finish
of the 2008 LOTOJA Classic.

In 2007, I tried and failed to complete the 206-mile, one-day cycling challenge known as the LOTOJA Classic. It's a bike race or ride that begins in Logan, Utah, and ends in Teton Village near Jackson Hole, Wyo. I was pulled off the bike 46 miles short of the finish line due to darkness last year after crossing all three mountain summits on the course - Strawberry Summit at 7,424 feet, Geneva Summit at 6,923 feet, and Salt River Pass at 7,630 feet. It was pretty depressing.

Fast forward to Sept. 6, 2008. I finished this year's LOTOJA Classic, riding with the team of nine other riders that I've trained with this year. We all finished together and we finished with two minutes to spare before the event organizers took down the finish line.



The day started shortly after 6 a.m. in Logan, wound through northern Utah into Idaho and then into Wyoming. It ended as the sun dropped below the Tetons at 8:13 p.m. That's more than 14 hours in the saddle and it was all worth it, as you can see from the exhausted look on my face at the finish.



At dinner after the ride, I vowed never to do it again. I'm already thinking about next year though.

A big thanks to my teammates: Dr. Greg Staker, Dr. Mike Catten, Dr. Sean Paulsen, Dr. Shane Powell, Dr. Doug Ogden, Gary Child, Keith Powell, Corey Hicken, and Charlie Allen for all their support this year during training and during the ride. We accomplished a great feat together that many others will never do themselves or truly appreciate. I couldn't have done it without each of you.

I also want to thank all of the people who provided support for us during the ride, especially my support crew, Jill Hicken and Spencer; and Candi Child for creating "the document" that laid out who would provide us with food, drink, and encouragement during the ride.

Finally, thanks to Vanessa and the boys for putting up with stinky cycling clothes hanging in the laundry room after early morning rides and for the hours they were without me on the weekends when the group set out on all-day training rides. Even though you had to stay home in Roosevelt, you were with me all day from the start in Logan to the finish in Teton Village. I love you.

Boys of Summer

Here's a photo gallery of the boys and some of their summer fun.

It's Another Boy

Wilson Tate Liesik joined our family at 10:37 p.m. MDT on July 8. He weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces and was 21 inches long. He and Vanessa are doing really well.

Baby Name Request

We've got a name nailed down if we have a boy, but we're looking for some help with girl names. Your suggestions are welcome. Be forewarned: Any first name that begins with the letter L will instantly be dismissed, as will the name Roberta (Sorry dad).

Utah SPJ Awards Night

Vanessa and I attended the Society of Professional Journalists, Utah Headliners Chapter, awards banquet at the University of Utah tonight.

To make a long story short ... I was named Reporter of the Year for Utah's SPJ chapter in Division C (weeklies). I also earned a third place award for spot news coverage (my breaking story on the Daggett County jailbreak in September 2007 by two convicted murderers).

Lezlee Whiting, my former editor and current correspondent, took home second place for her series on a local junior high school teacher who got pregnant as a teen, placed her baby for adoption, and recently reconnected with him.

Also, Manette Newbold, an intern at the Standard during the summer of 2006, earned several awards for her work at The Utah Statesman, Utah State University's student paper. We'll take some credit for her success, too.

I've said it before, we don't do this job for the accolades, but it's always nice to be recognized.

The Amazing 3-D Liesik Baby

Here are the 3-D images from today's ultrasound of Liesik baby No. 3. No, we still didn't find out whether the baby is a boy or a girl. We don't want to know because, as Vanessa's so fond of saying, "It would be like knowing what's in your Christmas presents but not being able to play with them." Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.



Five little toes.



One little fist.

Same parents, different kids

I'm always amazed that Vanessa and I have created two children (the third one is still due July 28) who are so different. Carson is content to watch cartoons or read a book for hours on end, while Jack has difficulty sitting still and would rather be outside "doing something." Both boys have inherited the "Liesik gene" that compels them to tell fanciful stories about their days, their dreams, and their plans for the future. Carson has even turned into quite the writer and illustrator, creating stories about the Civil War and a town that had food fall from the sky.

Over the weekend, though, our boys' differences were manifest again in a very visible way. Here is Jackson before climbing aboard the ATV that Vanessa's parents bought the boys for Christmas. If you can't make out his shirt it says: "You're so lucky I'm not your kid."



And here he is driving the ATV at high-speed around his grandparents' pasture. Notice the speed and the giant smile on his face. Jack hasn't yet learned to let off the throttle in the corners and doesn't seem concerned when the four-wheeler rocks up on two wheels.



Then there's Carson. He concentrates the whole time he rides. He doesn't go too fast. And he goes slower through the corners. The difference between these two is just so much fun to watch.

Remembering Heroism

I wrote this editorial for our April 8 edition.

At 2:15 p.m. today President Bush will welcome the family of Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor into one of the White House's opulent rooms and present them with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Monsoor, a member of the U.S. Navy's elite SEAL Teams, won't be there to accept our nation's highest military honor for bravery. He was killed in Ramadi, Iraq, on Sept. 29, 2006, in an action that saved the lives of three fellow SEALs.

Monsoor wasn't from the Uintah Basin. So why dedicate space in a newspaper that covers a rural part of eastern Utah to a man whom none of our readers are likely to know? Because we think it's important to be reminded of the courage that Monsoor and the countless men and women in uniform like him display on a daily basis in defense of our basic freedoms.

So here is a little background on our country's 3,466th Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

He was a native of Garden Grove, Calif., who played high school football, enjoyed snowboarding, and drove a Corvette. He made it into the SEALs on his second try after a broken heel forced him to drop out of the special operations unit's grueling training course the first time. He was also a loyal friend; a quiet, dedicated professional; and someone who always had something funny to say, his colleagues told the media.

At the time of his death, Monsoor had already been recommended for the Silver Star – the nation's third-highest commendation for valor in the face of the enemy. The honor, which was also bestowed posthumously, was earned when Monsoor charged into an Iraqi street to rescue a wounded comrade as insurgents traded gunfire with his teammates.

He had also earned a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a Combat Action Ribbon.

During the fight that claimed his life, Monsoor was providing protection for three other SEALs who were manning a rooftop sniper position when an insurgent threw a grenade that struck the 25-year-old in the chest and bounced to the floor. Monsoor was near the roof's only exit.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day told the Associated Press. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."

Monsoor survived the blast and was evacuated to a field hospital, but died 30 minutes later. One other SEAL, besides the lieutenant, was injured. The fourth man in the room escaped harm.

Monsoor's Medal of Honor is only the fourth to be awarded during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He joins Army First Sgt. Paul Ray Smith (Iraq); Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham (Iraq); and fellow SEAL, Lt. Michael P. Murphy (Afghanistan); in this distinguished fraternity.

A quote often attributed to British author George Orwell advises that: "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." Whether Orwell ever uttered those precise words remains unresolved, but it doesn't demean their truth.

The sacrifice of the volunteers who wear our nation's uniform allow us the ability to live our lives in relative comfort, free from oppression, and capable of determining our own destiny. It is a sacrifice we must never take for granted.

Click here to visit the U.S. Navy's memorial Web site for Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor.

The The Impotence of Proofreading

This bit of stand up comedy/freestyle poetry by Taylor Mali is hilarious, but it makes copy editors and English teachers everywhere cringe. (CAUTION - This clip has some "unintentional" naughty words that might make your grandma blush if you repeat them at Easter dinner.)

Recreating the past

It's nearly 24 hours since the server crashed and we learned that our back-ups hadn't worked. I'm sitting here cobbling together whatever I can to go into the paper that we'll put out tomorrow morning, one day behind schedule. To do this I've combed through my e-mail files for submitted articles and begged photos from people who were at the same events we covered last week, all while doing my best to stay positive; not my typical outlook on life. What can I say: Sometimes bad things happen to good newspaper editors.

CRAAAAASH!!!!

At 1 a.m. today our server crashed, taking with it a week's worth of articles, photos, ads and other assorted items on press day. There is no back up in place. Nice; I know. We are trying to recover the ones and zeros that make up all the electronic information that we fill our pages with. Wish us luck.

Reaping the Rewards

The Utah Press Association held its annual winter convention over the weekend in St. George, about seven hours away from Roosevelt. Vanessa and I drove down for the awards banquet Saturday night.

I told Vanessa before we left the hotel room that I wasn't expecting much at the banquet. I was feeling good about the work our paper did in 2007, but we are in our second year of competing against papers with much larger staffs (the UPA bases its divisions on circulation numbers).

The evening went much better than expected. The Uintah Basin Standard earned 11 awards from the UPA: first place - Best News Coverage, Best General News Story, Best Feature Story, and Best Editorial; second place - Best News or Feature Series, Best Breaking News Story, Best Feature Column, and Best Front Page; third place - Best Sports Page, Best Feature Page, and Best Feature Photograph.

These awards came less than a month after our paper received the General Excellence Award for Brehm Communications Inc.'s Better Newspaper Contest. Twenty-two other weekly newspapers owned by BCI were in the running for the award, which we won based on points for each category we received awards in.

In the BCI contest the Standard brought home: first place - Best Web Page Promotion and Best Circulation Growth Idea; second place - Best Front Page, Best Editorial Writing, Best Original Photo-Sports, and Best Original Photo-Portrait; third place - Best News Presentation and Best Business Page.

The Standard also claimed third place in the Best Print Quality competition, which included all BCI-owned papers with printing facilities, and publisher Craig Ashby won the Outstanding Team Performance Award for his work with his brother, Kevin, the publisher of the neighboring Vernal Express.

I feel fortunate to have our paper recognized for the work that we do week in and week out. It's often difficult to see the quality of your work when you're on deadline, and while awards aren't what I do this for, they do make me happy that I chose to feed my news addiction.

The newest photo of the newest Liesik

We had the big ultrasound this morning and everything with baby No. 3 is OK. We are having a.....just kidding, we're not finding out the gender of the baby. The due date is still July 28, which happens to be Jack's birthday as well.

2007 Sledding Trip