Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Safety Violation

So, I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile now....I was in my one-butt-kitchen not too long ago cooking something. (I can't remember if it was breakfast or dinner?) Ryan was sitting on the other side of the counter "helping" me. (Actually I think he was on the counter, in the sink, standing on the dishwaser and under my feet....) As I turned from the stove he said, "Mom, SAFETY VIOLATION!" Aside from being quite suprised at his warning, I nearly fell over from his choice of words...this is not a phrase that to my knowledge has been used much in our home. I was incredulous--not sure what kitchen sin I had committed. He pointed to the open cupboard door above my head and said it again, "Mom, SAFETY VIOLATION!!!" I laughed and closed the cupboard door thinking it was over. However for the next 15 minutes, every time I turned around it seems I was commiting some sort of culinary infraciton. "Mom, SAFETY VIOLATION!!!" (I had turned on the tap in the sink.) "Mom, SAFETY VIOLATION!!!" (Too much salt in the soup?) "Mom, SAFETY VIOLATION!!!" (I didn't wash my hands after blowing my nose?) "Mom, SAFETY VIOLATION!!!" (I put the yogurt next to the ketchup in the fridge?) I guess I should be glad (?) that I have someone to help me be safe in the kitchen....One additional funny thing that Ryan said lately was when he told me that some girl in his preschool class was "hot." While waiting to go into school one morning I asked him the name of the little girl crossing the parking lot. He replied, "That's Jeannie-she's kinda hot!" (Not the answer I was expecting at all...) In my suprise I asked, "What did you say?" This time he repeated it with a tone and tempo meant for someone who was really dumb or extremely hard of hearing..."THAT'S JEANNIE....SHE'S KINDA H-O-T!!" He cracks me up!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

When Christmas Comes to Town - done (whew)

Okay, for those of you that weren't able to make it to last night's performance for one reason or another, you really missed something great. I must admit that, according to my totally unbiased opinion, Amy was AMAZING! She'd been fretting about doing "The Mom Song" for a couple of weeks because it is so hard to get all of those words out and she absolutely nailed it! A big thanks to Terry Hritz for being a driving force behind putting together the show - both Amy and Delmo usually need a little spur to get them going to start putting together the show. He did a great job of keeping things on track and took care of so many of the tasks that often go unnoticed. Another thanks to Kari and Suzanne for helping Amy out with her wardrobe, hair, makeup, and other appropriate "primping" - she felt really spoiled.
The audience was really great last night with about 25 people standing up in the back of the theater to see the show and every seat taken five minutes before the show began. Troy Eden and Tera Hooiman sang some songs before the show to warm up the crowd and did a great job of it - everyone really appreciated their participation and I hope that they felt good about their performance.
So what's next now that the show is concluded? Well, Amy's got about 150 pages of her textbook to read and her final test in her nutrition class that she has to take before Wednesday - so there's still plenty of stress for at least a few days.
Thanks to everyone that came to the show and/or expressed support for Amy, Delmo, and Connie in whatever way you could!

Monday, December 1, 2008

"I'm actually feeling much better..."

Okay, so we're not totally dead yet. Even though Amy is still sleeping currently (6:30 - who can blame her?), I thought I'd take a few minutes to update our blog just a touch...

We had a great Thanksgiving with both sides of the family (most of them) coming to Elko to share in the holiday. On Wednesday, my brother Matt, wife Raylene, and way-cute daughters Natania and Elise came from Sunnyvale, CA. I personally haven't seen the girls (Raylene included) in what must be a couple of years so it was fantastic to see them and get to hear all of their funny stories about parenting such intelligent children. We all got together at my cousin's house that lives in Spring Creek for Thanksgiving on Thursday. The extended list included my parents, my brother and his fam, our six of course, Troy & Kirin & their boys, aunt Kris, cousin Jon and Allie and their son Liam, and a couple of other friends of Kirin. We had a lot of great food and only had to reach around the fig jelly and pickled watermelon rind to get to it. Amy made Chocolate Frango which was exceptionally good (an old family "tradition" from my grandmother) and all seemed well with the world.

When we got back to the house on Thursday night, Dennis & Kaley and their five kids had made the trip from Alpine, UT even though Kaley wasn't feeling 100% up to snuff. Mike and Kaye had arrived on Wednesday to help work on the bathroom in the basement and work towards completing that project so that our boys don't have to just try to pee down the drain in the floor. We guys spent a good portion of Friday puttering with the tile and working on other small-ish projects that have been waiting for me to have a day off and a bit of motivation to get to them. When the time came, we were priveleged to get to have a big Thanksgiving meal all over again on Friday afternoon. Quite delicious (even though I expected it to be a bit diminished because it was a lot of the same (or similar) foods that we'd had just the day prior) I must say.

On Saturday, everyone sort of split up and Mike & Kaye and Dennis's family all headed back to Utah. I had to work but Amy was able to spend a good portion of the day with Matt & Ray & the girls as well as my parents as they headed out to Lamoille and played in the leaves, had lunch at O'Carroll's, and got to visit some more. That night, Amy and I went bowling with Troy & Jon as well as the D'Arrieta's that we kidnapped to take with us. We had a really good time and got to bowl three games each. Towards the end of the night (about 11:45), the group on the lane next to us packed it up and so we got to have a goof-off lane and see how much spin we could put on the ball while keeping our "serious" lane that was tracking our scores. Troy and Jon ended up being the "Champions of the World" by besting Amy and I by a measly 7 pins. I'm not sure that win would qualify them for any soft of tournament in Reno but we all seemed to relish the good times.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends, family, loved ones, pets, neighbors, companions, strangers, the housing department, social services, public employees, and whomever else you were able to be with!