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!

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!

"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!

When Christmas Comes to Town

Hi everyone! Just a quick plug for an upcoming show. Connie Muir, Delmo Andreozzi, and I are putting together a Christmas show again this year in cooperation with Terry Hritz. It will follow the fireworks (Christmas in the Nighttime Skies) on Saturday, December 6th. Tickets are JUST 5 bucks each and the show will be held in the GBC theater. (Give me a call or email--I have tickets and can hook you up!) We'd LOVE to pack the place as the money collected will be donated to a charity chosen by Delmo, Connie and me. (We haven't picked yet just what that is--past recipients have included, Relay for Life, Hospice and a few others...) Hope you'll come and kick off the Christmas season with some good music and fun!

I'm not dead.....yet

"Bring out your dead!" "I'm not dead yet!" Movie anyone? I don't have time to post but just wanted to put something up so my sister would quit bugging me about it! A Nisbet update, soon to follow.

Just passing along some good advice...

Tough Love vs. Spanking - Good Argument

Most of the American populace thinks it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.' One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc.

Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too.

I thought it'd be really funny to paste a picture of Ryan onto this kids face but I didn't have the time to do it...Sure do love my kids but don't we all have moments like this?

Tagging

Isn't that illegal? Tagging things? You know, I was never very good at that game. Much too slow. When playing "tag" as a youth I used to try and outwit those who were after me because I never had the speed (or the desire, actually) to out run them. You can imagine how well THAT went...anyway, Suz, here ya go. (And, why 6?)

6 favorite TV shows....(Tough because we haven't had tv service for the last 4 + years...I used to like a few though. You know, back in the day my homies!)

*ER
*CSI
*Brady Bunch
*Sesame Street (WAAAAAAY back in the day...)
*The Muppet Show
*Pretty much ANY game show...I'm a junky

6 restaurants where I like to eat

*Kaye's Kitchen
*Johnny Carinos
*Cafe Rio (yummmy.....pork salad)
*Sergios
*The Star
*Flying Fish--but only because when I go there it is because I get to go with people whose company I enjoy. (The food is just NONSENSE)

6 things that happened today

*I swore at Ryan
*I made pizza and sandwiches at work (shocker...)
*Went to Ian's soccer game
*Wished Suzanne would come over and do my laundry
*Visited Jim at the drive up window at the bank
*Went to a violin recital--it was very well done!

6 things I am looking forward to

*financial independance (come on Publisher's Clearing House!)
*singing with Delmo and Connie at Christmas
*going to bed after finishing this blog entry!
*going on Courtney and Suzanne's 20th anniversary cruise (Where are we going?)
*Watching Mama Mia AGAIN (and again and again and again and again.......)
*Going to see Wicked---someday...

6 things on my wish list

*1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets
*a maid
*a debt free life
*new socks (this is always and forever on my wish list...if I could I would open a new pair EVERY time I had to put socks on and never wear them again after that time I would.)
*a faster metabolism OR that all the foods I love that are not good for me would suddenly have a negative caloric value like iceburg lettuce does...(HEY, it's a wish list, it doesn't have to be realistic...)
*to make a CD of me singing that might actually impact someone other than my mother!

6 people to gag (sounds rude to me....I don't like gagging but I said I'd play so....)

*that mean man at work who complained today that his pizza cheese was not "toasty" enough
*people who throw their cigarrette butts out of the car window. (Just who do they think is going to clean those up?)
*men who have crack showing--they make me gag so making them gag seems fair enough
*the dentist (or anyone else who has ever made me gag when taking impressions)
*gangsta rappers
*whomever it is at JR's that keeps putting loogies in our drinks