Christmas 2009

This year was a quiet one. It was just us and Michelle T. Christmas eve day I came up with the brilliant new tradition of sending D with the little kids to a movie in the middle of the day so we could have some good daylight prep time. I also came up with a new rule that no Taylor under the age of 22 was allowed in our bedroom on Christmas eve. When they got home, Lelu asked what we did while they were gone. Lately she's really been giving us a hard time about "kissing gross with our tongues and stuff". Must be because she's 12 and noticing PDA's etc and trying to process it all. Sometimes I tend to use those kinds of comments to my advantage I told her "we ran around the house naked and kissed with our tongues". Of course, there were no further questions after that. Just to be clear - that is not what we did while they were gone.

We all enjoyed our tradition of mexican food and then opened our pajamas and made train cars. The kids were all in bed by 9, and we were in bed by 10:30. 6:30 am Christmas morning my cell phone rings and it's D waking us up after setting his alarm. I do not enjoy 6:30 but sometimes I have to give in to their excitement. It was a good Christmas, every one was happy, I wasn't scrambling on Christmas eve and I took a 2 hour nap. It's all good.

This year we had an artificial tree for the first time ever. I also did not make pumpkin rolls for the first time ever. I started shopping back in September rather than December. I actually lost weight instead of gained this year. I helped clean the temple on Dec 23rd from 10 to 12 pm. I think I'll keep these new traditions and think on "The Savior of theWorld" and "A Christmas Carol".

I do love the Nutcracker & I have Photos! 12/19/09

This year I'd been talking to my friend Kelly about going and she thought it'd be fun to take her girls Sierra & McKinley too. So we dressed them up and headed downtown to see "The Nutcracker" at Capital Theatre. One year, I took Becca and she couldn't get over the super revealing men's tights and now refers to it as "The NutPacker". I don't deny that there's not much left to the imagination - but the muscular butts on those guys............you have to appreciate those. Okay, so back to my little innocent girls enjoying these beautiful costumes and ballet dances. They loved it but I have to admit also did ask us if the men's tights were see-through because they could see everything.

After the ballet, we went behind the stage and had their photos taken with the sugar plum fairy & Clara along with the NutPackers (but they were well covered up by the girls in front of them). Next year, I'd love Ari to try out for the little "buffoons" who come out from under the big dress and do back handsprings across the stage. A friend of mine's daughter was in it this year flipping across the stage. She's a year older than Ari and goes to their school. The story of the Nutcracker has nothing to do with the birth of Christ, but I still really like making it a tradition.

2nd attempt at bringing my Family into the Christmas spirit: Hale Center Theatre "A Christmas Carol" 12/14/09

I bought the tickets for the 5 o'clock show because 8:00 is nearly B's bedtime - forgetting 5 is also his dinner time. He ran across the street and grabbed a burrito. I thought it was really great that we had front row tickets. Lelu not so much.....in fact, she put her hood up on her jacket and hid her face in B's arm almost the entire 2/3 of the play. Jacob Marley started it all scaring the crap out of her with his chains and bellowing. Mr. T loved that part but I could see him fade every time a musical note began. Then ghost of Christmas present with his bony long fingers and swirling about the stage coming far too close for Lelu's comfort was pretty much it. I did however enjoy all the songs about the birth of Christ and most of them were. Afterwards we were all starving except B and the kids were teasing and bugging each other. There was crying and whining etc etc....and I was threatening to take them home to eat top ramen - but I my desires outweighed my threats and I stopped at Friday's. Somehow this adventure didn't meet my expectations either. 2 strikes now - maybe I just need to change the rules of the game??

Lelu sings my Favorite Christmas Song 12/12/09

Camera still MIA =:-C

Lelu takes voice lessons and sometimes it's really difficult to get her to her lesson since it falls on my "terrible Tuesday", so I told my friend Sharon, who's daughter Morgan also takes lessons, that after this recital I wasn't going to do it anymore. BUT..... Friday night Dec 11th we went to our ward adult Christmas party and the Alta Madrigals came and performed for us. 2 of the girls are in our ward and we know 3 of the boys through D. I was so proud to know these talented kids personally. So then the next day at the recital, Lelu sang "Oh Holy Night". I promise I am not biased - she ROCKED IT! In fact, Lelu and Morgan blew all the other girls away with their voices. Lelu even looked like she was having a great time. I could totally picture them singing together in the Madrigals in 3 years. I now will eat my words and keep her in the voice lessons torturing myself with getting her there on Terrible Tuesday and (probably complaining) fully expecting to see it pay off! It was a total "Christmas spirit moment" for me anyway.

Ari Found My Camera & I Am Very Happy (Updated 1/10/10)

I have lost my camera & I am very sad (original date

I believe it to have disappeared into the black abyss of the Taylor triangle, along with the ONLY cordless phone, D's cell phone and my workout gloves. All of which the last place they were seen was in my house. I've been waiting to blog about my new Christmas traditions of "enjoying the spirit of the season" complete with photos I took of the first of these traditions. I will forget if I don't write about it - so no photos as of yet. Please say a little prayer I find it? THANK YOU FOR THE PRAYERS!

I tend to fantasize a lot about creating moments of love and togetherness............it goes something like this:

I planned to finish all of my shopping by December 1st in order to "just enjoy the season". I was finished in time and the first of my plans were to go see "Savior of the World" at the conference center theatre downtown. I bought tickets in plenty of time. The night was beautiful and we headed as a family downtown dressed in our best Sunday clothes. We ate dinner in the Joseph Smith building at the Garden restaurant looking out at the sparkling Christmas lights casting rainbows against the frest snow on the grounds of the Salt Lake Temple. The conversation was about our Savior and how grateful we are for each other and this season. We strolled around the temple holding hands with love in our hearts and kindness in our actions towards others. After taking a moment of silence at the Christus we then strolled over to the theatre. All 7 of us cried tears of joy as we listened and absorbed the message of this inspiring musical based on the life of Jesus Christ. In the car home, we sang my favorite Christmas songs and expressed once again our love for each other.

And then reality always sets in:

I got online to buy the tickets and they were all sold out because they'd gone on sale October 1st. I scanned the ads for someone selling theirs and couldn't find anything so I placed an ad saying I wanted some. This was really a bonus because the next day a BYU student called me & had 6 tickets he couldn't use and sold them to me for face value. BUT I couldn't get an extra one for Aub..... sad moment but I was still going to make the best of it. The night was FREEZING and we drove downtown at what I thought was early enough but all the parking lots were full. B drove around and found a spot while I tried to get our name in at the Garden. They could seat us at 7:30 (the show started at 7:30) The Roof could seat us at 9:30. So we ate at their little crowded cafeteria (I don't recommend the food!) Then we slipped & slided and froze our way through massive crowds to look at the temple lights. We shoved and pushed our way up to standing room only at the Christus with so many heads in the way of taking photos, it was useless. Once we nearly killed ourselves slipping down the sidewalks and got to the theatre, everyone there was dressed in Sunday best but us. The show began and Mr. T slid down into his chair asking me how long this was going to last, sighing and wiggling and humphing and hawing every time they broke out into a song. B was rolling his eyes and running his hands through his hair every time they broke out into a song. True Taylor's those two are through and through (as much as I like to expose them to music - genes are winning). Me, Ari and Lelu are crying after Christ is resurrected (thank heavens for my girls) and D leans over to me and says "Did you know Russel Crowe is going to be the next Robin Hood?" Pause..........huh?? A little sign of ADD perhaps? On the way home B and D decided to get into an argument about ?????? I don't remember what, but an argument nonetheless. I did get some really great photos that are lost in my camera.
And now found & posted!



Coming up next: My second attempt "A Christmas Carol" at Hale Center Theatre.

Our 2009 Gratitude Lists

Since you all got a very nice family photo x-mas card this year, instead of a homemade card including our gratitude lists. I am writing on here what we are all grateful for this year.

DISCLAIMER: ALL ITEMS ON THESE LISTS WERE QUOTED EXACTLY AS THEY WERE TOLD TO ME! The parantheses were added by me for clarification purposes.

Aub - A job she actually enjoys - Helga (the car that replaced Harriet) - and WiFi

D - Video cameras (he has a very close relationship with ours) - Family - Church (I hope not in that order but that's the order he gave it to me in)

Lelu - My family - Being in Young Women's - Earning a lot of $$ this year babysitting

Ari - My Family - my best friend Aubrey moving in up the street - Getting baptized

Mr. T - Getting Baptized - going to Caden's baptism - Earning his orange belt in karate

Me - Christ - Good Health - Great kids & husband - Mold removal - Laughter - Great friends - Kind people - Piano! - getting a family picture - Finishing my Christmas shopping by December 1st.

B - Finally after 3 sets of bad caps: Great looking new front teeth - Tazworks growing even in a slow economy - keeping up with younger stronger guys in jujitsu - K (me) finally getting motivated & slimming down

Thanksgiving, Stockings & Hooter - the Newest Taylor

Okay so I never even pulled out my camera for Turkey day this year. Enough said.........enough times!

We spent the day at Gma & Gpa's house. Thanks to them for hosting all of us. Peg, Jen and Sherisse & family made it up for the day. I made a Razzleberry pie instead of Apple and it was yuuummmy! Even if the name of it isn't well loved;-}Aub had a friend from Germany visiting so she brought him along. After spending a day at Temple Square - he was expecting "a mormon dinner holiday celebration" complete with a lot of praying, singing and talking about the Lord's love. I don't remember exactly but the conversation went from farting to pooping to a few racy things, a lot of laughing but he missed the prayer and nobody sang. I hope we didn't let him down. He also told Aub that B and I were "very young". Not knowing what his perception is on "mormon parenting ages", I wasn't jumping at the compliment. We were glad to have Kevin (not a very common German name - I asked him) join us. He was a very polite pleasant young man attending college in Ohio and if he ever comes back to UT, we'll have a prayer, sing a song and tell him the Lord loves him.

Saturday B took Mr. T to the very exciting BYU vs. Uof U football game courtesy of B's friend Grant. D went off to film a video for all of the seminary classes with his "acting troupe" and I took the girls to see a movie with the rest of the Sorenson family. The girls saw Planet 51 and the rest of us saw "The Blind Side". It's by far my favorite movie of the year. I'll be going back to see it again with B and the kids. It's that good! Then we went back to my house and decorated stockings for Roma's school to donate to Primary Children's.

See Hooter in the forefront - he's our newest pet that supposedly after being mounted on our chimney will scare away the plethora of pidgeons that unknowingly are committing suicide in the chimney. The very young cute chimney sweep that I called (and was really curious how you get into being a chimney sweep and wanting to break out into "chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim charee a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be") told me that the birds just land up there to see out to the whole valley and then feel very warm with the gas coming up through there and just hunker down and go to sleep FOREVER! I said "don't birds fly south for the winter?" He said "not if they have a warm place to hang out in" Then I asked him how come all the birdies don't notice that their birdie friends are dead and decaying and think maybe this isn't such a good place to hang out? He said I should ask them if I ever see them hanging around. He had to clean out 9 of them! So Hooter will be a great addition to our family if he does his job well.

"The King and I" and the Best Angry Mean Guard Character!

Alta High School wrapped their fall musical "The King and I". D played the part of the angry mean guard that held down the slave so she could be whipped for trying to escape (she doesn't get whipped in case you were worried). He was also really torn up about the death of the king too. I say this every play, but I can hardly believe how much time is spent rehearsing for these, but it is definitely worth it because they do an amazing job. On the final night, gma and gpa, Aub, and the rest of the family came to see the play. Our cute back yard neighbor - Linda - who used to hop the fence on a regular basis and come hang out (she's too busy lately) had the lead role of Anna. She did an amazing job too. There were only 4 male speaking parts for this musical so D was quite lucky to get a role. Everyone was supposed to be asian (except Anna) so they all either dyed their hair or spray painted it every night. D chose spray painting but made quite a mess of the bathtub washing it out every night. He and his fellow guards were all shirtless too so they were asked to get spray-on-tan's. I got quite a kick out of explaining the spray on tan process to him. You would have thought I was telling him how to dress in drag! By the final night all the asians were fair complected again.

Next up "The Crucible". Auditions begin in 2 weeks, keep your fingers crossed and good wishes that D get's a really large speaking part. He's definitely put out the good karma, time and effort for it.

Happy Anniversary Chris!

One year ago today, you graced us with your presence, grace and super mad piano skilz (that's for you Peg). We love you more every year, please keep writing!

Love,

~Lelu and K

I Love "Mom Lazy Planning" Birthday Parties!

The tall boy next to Ari is her latest "crush". His name is Cannon and I told his mom that she had a little crush on him. She told me the feeling is mutual and when he found out I only wanted the boys to bring gifts for Mr. T. and the girls for Ari - he had a meltdown. He really wanted to pick out something for her. How sweet is that? Sweet right now anyway - however, I do realize I am totally in trouble in about 5 short years!

Finally! I planned and carried out the twins birthday party! And I made good on a summer activity promise that I had made. I love those inspirational cover-my-butt kill 2 birds with one stone moments.

There is this cute place that opened in town last spring called Young Chef Academy. Since Mr. T and Lelu are especially interested in helping me in the kitchen and I am a terribly impatient cooking mentor, I thought it would be great to take them to a cooking class last summer. I never got around to it. What a shock! So when it was time to plan an 8th birthday party and I am constantly in search of gender neutral party theme locations.....I thought of Young Chef. I sense my days of combined parties are coming to an end too - the boys and girls were polarized to opposite sides of the room the whole time.

It was so darn cute (or "stinkin cute" which is a common Utahism). They make their own pizza's and they teach them all kinds of good cooking protocol by first making a mess of flour, dr. pepper, dirty hands, sneezing into the bowl, dropping hair into it etc. Scary that some of them didn't pick up on the faux pas right away! Then she taught them about yeast and gluten and a few things that I didn't know. All I had to do was bring cupcakes, loot bags and take photos. Lelu got to be the apprentice chef too. And they clean up all the mess including wrapping paper.

This would be the perfect scenario if only I didn't have young moms in my neighborhood who do these really cool volcano themed parties in their backyard, complete with an erupting volcano homemade cake and volcano books from a science institute and volcano themed thank you cards along with those very educational books to take home. Stupid guilt - thanks heavens for rationalization! That's her first child and these are my youngest - I'm either more tired than her or smarter than her, depends on my mood I guess. In addition, it helped keep peace in my marriage. B reminded me at 10 am. that "oh yeah I'm going to the BYU game with Grant who is up visiting from CA". You see if I had a volcano theme going - he would have experienced his wife transforming before his eyes into an erupting volcano (or a werewolf in honor of seeing "New Moon" twice in 24 hours). So it's definitely all good!

TT Two Tone's Favorites:

Mr. T's Favorites at age 8:

Movie: "Monsters Vs. Aliens" or "Up"
Color: Blue
Restaurant: Sweet Tomatoes
Birthday Treat: Football Cupcake Cake
Food: Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich
Day: Saturday (only free day from school etc)
Holiday: Thanksgiving
Song: Viva La Vida
Musical Artist: Coldplay
Vacation: Hawaii (he imagines since he hasn't ever been there, he wants to go)
Book: Where The Wild Things Are
Animal: Lizard
Career Choice: Pilot
How many kids in Future: 5 (2 girls, 3 boys)
College: BYU (as long as he's a football player)
Dream place to Live: Beach house in Hawaii
Quote: "If you think you can win. You can win. Faith is necessary for victory"

Peanut's Favorite

Ari's Favorites at age 8:

Movie: "Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure"

Color: Green

Restaurant: Sweet Tomatoes

Birthday Treat: Chocolate Cupcake

Food: Caesar Salad

Day: Wednesday (the only day she doesn't have any activities)

Holiday: Christmas

Song: "Only Hope" by Mandy Moore

Musical Artist: Taylor Swift

Vacation: Arizona

Book: Berenstain Bears and The Green Eyed Monster

Animal: Tiger

Career Choice: Veterinarian

How many kids in Future: 4 (2 girls, 2 boys)

College: BYU (as long as she's a cheerleader there)

Dream place to Live: White House - Washington DC

Quote: "I hope every day is the best day ever" by Ari

Little Boys, Birthday and Baptism

Last Tuesday, Dave, Shel and the boys came up to visit. I'm always very bugged that I didn't take enough pics. I don't have a single one with Dave in it. Maybe if they post some on their blog, I can steal one or two?? Sorry Dave, nothing personal I promise!

It is so fun to have them around. Taylor is hilarious. We all just love his personality. Last time he was up here, he had a little competition with Mr. T getting attention from his mommy. But this time around, they were total buds and were constantly playing together. Christian is such a little sweet smarty pants. He was fussing for Shel when I picked him up and then I asked him if he wanted some candy. He immediately stopped fussing and smiled at me and said "Yah". Good thing it was just Halloween and I have some candy. Score! Now he'll love me forever, because I will always have candy when they visit.

Saturday was the big day, birthday and baptism day. Two years ago, I bought Ari her dress in anticipation for this day. I had such an unbelievable hard time finding dresses I liked for Lelu and Aub, that when I saw this dress 2 years ago - I bought it. It is absolutely gorgeous! You can make fun of me if you like, but I've learned a few things in order to keep me sane and it works for me. I was also quite disappointed to learn that our new stake does their baptism's as a stake. That's how Aub's was. D and Lelu's were so much more personal, because my last stake gave each ward their own time slot. I tried to work it out that we could baptize them in my old ward, but they were doing their Nov. baptism on Oct. 31st and the twins wouldn't be 8 yet. I complained to the bishop and told him I thought it was like a cattle call. And then Karma bit me in the butt! Teach me to NOT to complain - because I had 2 kids being baptized, they asked me to speak. I assumed that the stake primary president or the stake president would speak too. Thank heavens I didn't know I was THE ONLY SPEAKER until I was sitting up on the stage and opened the program or I may have suffered a minor nervous breakdown. As it was, I waited until the night before to write it when I was completely exhausted because I had gotten up at 5 am. to go exercise so that I could stay on my workout program and still go chaperon for the kid's field trip. I did get up early Saturday and go over it again, and I had some time to tweak it while B and D & the twins were in a meeting before service started. I think it turned out okay.

It was really great to see all our family and friends support us for such a special day. Dave & Shel & Boys, Gma and Gpa, Aub, Roma, Cherie and Kenzie, Maxwell family, Kelly, Sierra, McKinley, Ari's BFF Aubrey, her sister Summer and their mom and their primary teacher too. Even D's really good friend Brittney came. It was also very cool that D was old enough to baptize Mr. T. He did an excellent job too except that Mr. T stuck his little hand out of the water the first time, so D got to do it again. Mr. T keeps telling me how peaceful and how much love he felt the whole morning. Ari loved the confirmation prayer. She told me it made her feel all warm inside. The primary presidency gave us these little books to have everyone sign for them. I thought Summer & Aubrey's messages to Mr. we so cute!

The rest of the day was spent consoling Lelu because Dave & Shel had to leave. They never stay quite long enough. Every time they leave she goes into a deep depression and will start crying at the drop of a hat. I think that means they need to move back to UT. We just need to convince THEM. I'm pretty sure Taylor would agree too, he loves us;D

I took a much needed nap and left my house a mess. It's still waiting on me to be cleaned up too.

The twins played and played and played, esp with the gifts Roma brought them. Mr. T slept with the Wolverine hand on, he loves it! Roma also built this really cool miniature apartment/loft for school and then gave it to Ari for her birthday. She promptly filled it up with miniture babies, furniture, polly pockets and littlest pets. She fell asleep next to it and started playing with it again this morning as soon as her eyes popped open. We dragged them away last night to go see "A Christmas Carol". Very scary for little kids btw. It's more true to Charles Dickens than most.

And now on to planning an actual B-Day party. Next year is all odd birthdays so this is my last party for at least 14 months! woohoo.

I Finally Made it To Chaperone a Fieldtrip!

On Friday, the 2nd graders went on their 4th field trip this year. I promised I'd go on as many as I could and this was the first I could make it to. A couple weeks ago, they went out to Bingham Copper Mine. I was in CA for a couple days, so B went along for that one. This one was to a rock climbing gym. They are studying rocks, so this somehow supports that unit. Personally, I think it's a bit of a stretch. My twins assumed that they were going to be climbing "real" rocks and wouldn't believe me until they saw with their own eyes, the rocks were not real. I learned how to belay for the kids. I got some awesome callouses too, but at least no blisters. Ari is quite the little monkey. She has been blessed with some amazing upper body strength. B and D each have pull up bars on their closet doors. They are in some kind of competition to do more and more pull-ups. I think B is up to like 7 and D can do 9. I could be wrong by those guesses, so don't quote me. Ari frequently hangs on it and can do 12 pull ups. Mr. T tries really hard too. He isn't blessed with that same strength. I catch him doing push-ups all the time, trying to build it up. I'm sure he'll catch up someday with that kind of motivation. At the climbing gym, he had the advantage of monkey toes that can grip anything. His BFF Caden is also very strong and made it to the top of every climb he did. Most of the kids petered out quickly, so it was a proud moment to see Mr. T, Ari & Caden persevere.

Halloween & My Twin Costume Choice is My Fav So Far!

I am still allowed to pick the twins costumes. I give them the story that I missed so much sleep taking care of them, that they owe it to me. They totally buy it too! Isn't that great?? I've told them that they can pick when they are in sixth grade, so I get three more picks. It's really the only thing I like about Halloween. they both said Thing One and Thing two has been their favorite. I think they got the most attention with this one. Lelu tells me that she will never be anything scary. She didn't even like posing with D because he looked too scary. The weather was the nicest I think it has ever been in our years in UT, so B wasn't suffering too terribly on Trick or Treat duty. D's friends all wanted to T or T, but I've rubbed off on him with my attitude that kids shouldn't T or T after 13, so he says he just hung back on the street while his friends all went up to the doors. It's a proud moment for me. I may just buy him a whole Costco box of his favorite candy!

Braces at 7!

Last week I was taking Mr. T and Lelu to the Orthodontist. Mr. T needs a spacer for a tooth that had to be pulled so the permanent one can come in. We keep checking Lelu to see if she's ready for braces. The last 4 baby teeth are very stubborn and won't fall out - so if they don't fall out in the next 6 months we will have to pull them. That will make 9 baby teeth pulled. Poor thing! Anyway, I brought Ari as an afterthought because I was worried about how big the space was between her front teeth. The ortho was quite shocked too, so we took an x-ray. The two teeth next to her front teeth were beginning to twist trying to come in. So he recommended pulling them together ASAP. SO we left with my littlest child sporting 4 braces. I threatened Lelu & Mr. T with their life to be very positive with her. So they said "Cute! You look cute". The girls in the office all told her how cute she looked and she left very happy. Her bff Aubrey (we call her little Aubrey) came over and said "Cool, you are so lucky! Come show my mom and sister". Now she feels like a little celebrity. It could have gone the opposite with her......she can throw a tantrum that can last a month if she isn't happy. I avoided a real headache, phew! The plan is to keep them on 2 to 3 months and then put in a permanent retainer to keep them together.

Halloween Dance 2009

This was girl's choice, her name is Kenzie. D is a sort of Indiana Jones that got his heart cut out by his Mayan Cannibal date. See she's holding his heart. I don't understand his facsincation with gore, but I guess they were quite the hit at the dance.

Our First Piano Recital September 21, 2009

I thought I'd be able to put a video on here. But I can't narrow down the dvd to just us. I'll just have to paint the picture for you with words:

Last year after I won the piano lesson with Chris Martin, the DJ asked me on the air if I play piano. "No", I say, "but my daughter does so I'll bring her." All my friends asked me the same thing. Do you play piano? No, but...... I started really thinking about it. I get that question a lot. When B bought me the grand piano for Christmas. People asked me all the time. No, but I really want my kids to. I love piano music!!! I finally decided I was NOT too old. I was going to learn how to play. Last March, I hired a teacher that comes to my house. She is so positive, I actually feel not stupid. She told me in June that we'd have a recital in September. I picked a duet for me and Lelu to play together. It's the Feather theme from Forest Gump. I love that song. I was blissfully unaware how hard it is to play a duet. I just knew I couldn't play the whole song myself yet. I must have practiced 100 hours on my part. Lelu really didn't get her part down until the day before, so I was quite nervous.

I tell Mom, Dad, Roma & Aub it's at the Piano Gallery at 7 o'clock. We show up at 7 on the dot. There must have been 50 people in the room and my teacher is standing up at the front thanking everyone for coming and she see's us come in and says "Oh the Taylor's made it. We have an encore." The whole room turns around and looks at us. I think it's a joke and am not quite clued in. I say "Doesn't it start at 7?" "Uh, no it started at 6, but come on up." I say "What, really? crap! Ari you go first". She's only been taking for a month but she confidently walked up there to play. And then my cell phone goes off twice and I start digging in my purse to turn it off. Mom & Dad and Roma are all calling me trying to find the place. I instantly start sweating and think I may lose my bowels. Ari's songs take about a minute and a half. It's our turn way too quickly. Lelu isn't even phased. B and D think it's hilarious and are relieved we don't have to sit through 20 other people. We get up there & I don't remember anything my teacher told me before especially if you mess up just keep playing. We start the song and our teacher is turning the pages for us. She turns the first page 2 measures too soon. I KNEW this by heart I played it so many times - but my brain froze! And I stopped! Just stopped! Lelu looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot. I say "you turned the page too soon, start here, no start here" My teacher says "Just start over". And we start over. I can feel sweat dripping down my back and under my eyes. The second time around we play it perfectly. Whew!!

Mom, Dad & Roma show up after it's all over, so we played it again for them. Aub apparently fell asleep after work so didn't even try to make it. I think I've almost recovered from my complete and utter humiliation and am enjoying learning more every day. Lessons learned: Next time - It'll just be me and Chris!! & we'll be on time to our recital! I figure by the time I'm 50 I should be pretty good.

Family Picture Event August 14, 2009

This one is not my favorite. We're all squinting - esp me! You'll have to wait til x-mas season to see my favorite.

I've been debating whether or not to blog about this or just write it up and send it with my Christmas cards. It's a story that I believe needs to be recorded for posterity. I've already told some of you about this, so you can just skip this one if you want.

Last February I was in a place of trying to accept myself and how I look because I am not in very many of our photos. My little kids are complaining loudly. Sometimes just because I'm taking the photo but mostly because I am not photogenic and I can't stand looking at myself in them. I have not scheduled a family picture since D was a baby, and when I've done "All About Me" posters for the kids for school I can't find any pictures with all of us except including Donald Duck at Disney World. Sad, but very true. I've also had this dream of having our family picture on the beach, so I've thought I need to do it in CA. One of my friends had a beach photo and it was taken at the Great Salt Lake. So I called this photographer that my friend Connie had used last year (I really liked her photo). They told me they only do Salt Lake photos 5 days out of the year in August. So I scheduled it for Aug. 14. Five months in advance!

The photographer recommended we wear khaki and white. I told B this and he says "I don't wear white, I will not wear white!" So I say, "Well, what color will you wear?" "Blue". Okay, I decide the boys will wear khaki and light blue and the girls will wear white. I found Lelu and Ari's dresses before Easter and they wore them as Easter dresses. A proud moment for me!

Of course, the week before the photo I am frantically searching for a light blue shirt for B to wear and white shirts for me and Aub. D was in charge of finding his own. I know I had 5 months, but that's the story of my life it seems. I tried on khaki pants that I liked but they were too long and I didn't have time to have them altered, so the saleslady tells me they have them in petites. So I go over to petites and sure enough they have them, but another saleslady tells me that I have to get a size bigger in petites. Which I totally refuse on principle! The principle that I will go into a deep depression if I have to wear a size bigger. Keep in mind that there is a good reason I haven't scheduled a family photo before - it makes me a total lunatic! I also scheduled all the girls to get their hair done, so I didn't have to worry about it. The day before I settled on 2 shirts for me and Aub. She and I both wore our old khaki pants.

August 14th opens with pouring rain and I mean pouring! I call the photographer and she tells me we'll just still plan to go, maybe it'll break. Me and the little girls get our hair done, it's still pouring. There is a girl at the salon that has done my make-up for various special occasions that I just loved, so I scheduled her to do mine that day. I get a call the day before saying "I'm sorry Mindy no longer works for us, but I have a new girl I can set you up with". I hate salon's policy that they won't tell you where their people go! Aub shows up last to the salon and is mad at me because she doesn't get a hair cut too. I go ahead with the new make-up girl and she puts more make-up on my face then if I were on Broadway (on the stage or the street). I run home to get the rest of the family. I'd bought 3 shirts for B to choose from. He hates them all and then asks me "why aren't the boys wearing white like the girl's?" I almost choked the life out of him, then and there!!! He'd apparently forgot our Feb. discussion. So he grabs a striped shirt out of his closet and says he'll wear that. And then he says to me "All that make-up really makes you look older. It's all settling into your wrinkles". Please kill me now!

We pick up Aub from the salon and she says "this shirt is ugly, it's like the puffy shirt Seinfeld had to wear". It's still pouring! I had to really hold back the tears at this point. Instead of crying I just started yelling. Lelu is in the back saying "Please don't fight. It's family picture day." Aub yells at her "Family picture day is not a holiday!" All of this in the car driving (it's still pouring) to Salt Lake where miraculously it looks clear!

We arrive and the photographer promises me that my make-up will look fine in the photos - I will not look old or freakish. She also says B's striped shirt is fine. It stinks to high heaven- there are the biggest spiders all webbed in the rocks we are sitting on-dead fish everywhere-flying bugs-and dead birds in a very strange trail across the sand out to the water.

BUT - the sunset was absolutely beautiful and the pictures turned out amazing! I already have my Christmas cards FINALLYwith a real family picture on it. Please don't expect another one like it for at least another decade. I think I could have skydived with less anxiety than this caused me. Nevertheless - I HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Stitches, Pumpkins and Princess Leia!

Tuesday night, Lelu was being dropped off after YW and the wind blew the car door shut on her right index finger. She was too embarrassed to let her leader know that she was really injured and ran bleeding around the house impatiently banging on the doors to let her in and bawling her eyes out. It was nasty enough looking that B took her to the ER and she came home with 4 stitches and a very black and blue finger around midnight.

The next day, I took the kids to the pumpkin patch as promised - even though it was slightly raining. The drizzle turned out to be a good thing because they picked their pumpkins in less than 10 minutes. I need to remember that.

Friday night, B & I had plans with our good friends to go to a dueling piano bar. Lelu had a birthday party to go to, so I told D he was our babysitter. He was not very happy about it, to say the least. Apparently, King Karma was on his side because half hour before we were to leave, our friends scored tickets to Star Wars in Concert at the Delta Center. Enough for us and the twins. D was free to go socialize and we left and headed downtown. B was not excited for two reasons. He wasn't feeling very good and he doesn't like symphonies. We were all totally impressed. C3PO (Anthony Daniels) hosted it. It was all the music from Star Wars with a giant screen behind it playing all the highlights with a really cool light and laser show. I love live music! And I got to laugh at the goofballs who dress up to go to these kinds of things. It made me go hunt down my super cool Princess Leia 3rd grade school picture too. I've humiliated myself for your viewing pleasure............even though I was only 8! Dueling piano bar will be saved for date night another weekend.

I Believe in Reincarnation!

Okay, so hear me out.......For those of you who have known B and I since we got married, this story is old news to you. For those who haven't I'll give you a brief synopsis......

B has an unbelievable ability to keep dogs alive for much longer than they should be. When we got married he had this dog named Kizzy. She looked like a black golden retriever. I think she was 15 when we got married and I'm pretty sure she stayed alive this long in order to TORTURE me. She couldn't hear, had horrible fleas (in CA), disgusting tumors all over her, stunk to high heaven and found ways to get in the house. She leaned against the walls to walk and left a gross greasy black line along each one. I could not scrub it off with anything! She pushed through the screen door at night in order to sleep next to our bed and I would wake up smelling her. 20 years later and I can smell her like it was yesterday. She lived until around 17 yrs old and died one month after we bought our own house and left her with B's brother Jeff. I don't think that was a coincidence. B & Jeff made sure that she tormented me up until her body was buried in the Santa Monica mountains at 4 am......that's another story for another time. I used to say that Jeff would never get married until Kizzy died because NO ONE could stand her. And he started dating Christina 6 months later. She has no idea how lucky she is!

Flash forward 3 years when we moved to UT and decided to get our own dog. I wanted a really cute younger pup and B said he felt like Roxie was the one, she was a little older. Since he is the dog lover, I let him decide. I should have figured it out 15 years ago..........Roxie is Kizzy.

Here are my reasons: 1.They both are completely neurotic during storms and fireworks 2. Even though they are outside dogs, they think it's their right to bolt into the house anytime they please 3. They both can open doors to let themselves into the house 4. They both destroy doors 5. They live to ruin my sleep. 6. They are both determined to TORTURE me. 7. They both have disgusting tumors in their old age. 8. They are both deaf in their old age. 9.Roxie has the same longevity, she is 15!

Last Monday was a particularly trying night for me. There was a storm and Roxie did a total number on my door before I woke up and kenneled her. I could not go back to sleep and I laid there planning my visit to the vet to have her teeth pulled out and her front paws declawed. Pure fantasy, of course, because my husband is Dr. Doolittle and would never let me put her through it. The next morning, let me just say I used up my quota of swear words for the year (the kids were still asleep, I ranted for B only).

I have a list of books that I want to read that are highly rated on GoodReads - some I know nothing about but if it's available at the library, I check it out. Later that day, I started a new book called "The Art of Racing in the Rain". It is a novel narrated by a dog. Yes, a dog! I couldn't help but see the irony in this. In the book, he talks about how he is ready to be human after he is reincarnated. He tells a story of a Mongolian documentary about "Dog's souls leaving their body waiting to be reincarnated into another body when it is time". But some dogs just remain dogs and keep coming back as dogs. (I don't buy the becoming human part) Of course, that dog only lived to 10..... There you have it! Kizzy's soul just waited around to enter Roxie's body!

So I ask, "What is my lesson in this?" I myself will NEVER get another dog. She can't take over Lucy or Izzie's body - so if I don't ever get another one, I am safe! However, I am worried about my posterity. Esp. my boys who don't like dogs either. My girls are like B, they LOVE dogs. D and Mr. T will need to watch out and not marry anyone who is a dog lover in order to be safe. That is why I am blogging about this.......help me keep them safe!

In my new house, Roxie can see into my kitchen. Her life consists of WATCHING me (so creepy that I can hardly explain. I call her CUJO), pooping, eating and sleeping - with a frequent freak out chewing the crap out of my no longer beautiful wood doors. I am sure she will live at least 2 to 3 more years and eventually chew all the way through the door. Lord, help me!

Homecoming 2009! The First Dance He Did the Asking:

Here are a few of D's photos. I don't know why the one in the middle is so small. I pirated these from facebook because he loaded them on there but not onto my computer. Presently he is in Cedar City at the Shakespeare Festival with his camera so I can't get them off his memory card.

It was a couple weeks ago, so I thought I better get writing about it.

He took a very nice Senior named Jessica to the dance. They group dated with 12 other couples. Yes, 26 kids went all together! They went on their day date to the Children's museum and the Gateway and then to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. They wanted to BBQ at our house, but with my ongoing construction, I really did not want to host 26 kids for dinner. Afterwards, they ended up at one of the girls houses to play "murder in the dark". He said it was one of the funnest nights ever.

Mr.T has caught Football Fever

Because he isn't old enough yet for tackle football, he played another year of flag football. At the beginning of the season, I won't sugar coat it- his team was Horrible! They didn't know where to run or who to block or even how to play the game. Last night was their last game, and boy have they improved. B usually takes him to his games on Tues nights. I call Tuesday, "Terrible Tuesday" because I am in my car nonstop driving to and from activities from 3 to 7:30. No joke! B and I even have to divide and conquer. Usually I take Ari to gymnastics and he takes Mr. T to football. A couple of days ago, he and Ari decided it was time for him to come watch gymnastics. Of course on the COLDEST night so far and I was still nursing a cold. Waa waa waa, I know. But I was so glad I went because not only was Mr. T responsible for pulling 3 flags, he made 2 touchdowns. The second one was from the other end of the field. It was super cute, because his teammate Gavin followed right next to him and blocked every kid from getting his flag. Yay! They get how to play the game! He was on fire and running faster and playing harder than I've ever seen him. It's all in his motivation. And no, I did not have the video camera (I NEVER have the video camera). D is a video camera hog with all of his important bloody and violent videos he likes to make.

Come picture day, we had just taken our family pictures where I learned that Mr. T has a "Chandler Bing" smile. Did you see the Friends where he and Monica were taking engagement photos and every time they'd say smile, he'd pull an awful fake smile? Well, Mr. T definitely has that curse! Anyway, I told him when he went to take his picture that tough football players don't smile, they look tough. So the individual photo is his "tough look" and then he couldn't help but pull his "Chandler smile" in the group photo.

Next year, when he starts tackle, my friend Sharon and I are lobbying very hard for B to coach. That way our best bud boys can play together and they'll get in some good play time too. It's a big commitment, so we'll see if he can tear himself away from work for a few months. D would have had a MUCH better football experience if he had B coaching him instead of Coach Evil. And I don't know if you all know, but B's helmet was retired and cut in half and is on display at Westlake High because he was such an awesome player - He CAN coach and coach well, I am sure! Stay tuned....

The Last of My Summer Entertainment List Checked Off!

Lelu is in the top middle swing and Mr. T and Caden are in the bottom leftish area.

Why has a place that has so many happy memories from my childhood turned into such torture as an adult? We used to go every summer that we'd come to Utah to visit our grandparents. It was the highlite for me. Do I now see it with jaded eyes or is it just grosser?

I promised my kids, as well as our friends the Maxwells promised their kids we'd go to Lagoon this summer. It always seemed too hot to go and let's face it, it's not something I was looking forward to. Unbelievably, yesterday was the only Saturday that Lelu did not have a soccer game, so we went for it. For Lagoon, it was the best possible day. The weather was perfect in the 70's and it wasn't too crowded. The kids loved it as much as I remember loving it. I even went on Wicked, which I must say is aptly named. B was a good sport and just followed along carrying the backpack, staying with Ari when needed (she does not like "scary" rides). He rode a few of the non-twirling, jerking or nauseating rides. I was the only one who got completely soaked on Rattlesnake Rapids. We were out of there by 6:00 when all the spooks really come out. They each had a friend to hang out with. D went to homecoming last night so was busy with the day date etc. Blog for that coming soon when he gets the photos.

Even though it was a good day, I know we wouldn't get that lucky again. I won't be making that promise again for a few years.