Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

Monday, December 22, 2008

 

We made it to Utah on Sunday, Donner Pass was not fun, but fortunately we are all safe.  After the pass the weather really wasn't too bad, we were ahead of the storm that came in on Monday.  

Monday we all did odds and ends, my day looked like this:

That is a lot of accounting to catch up on before the year end tax planning meeting with our accountant, which Craig hates to go to.  This year I so graciously volunteered to go without him

and just share the bad news  later.  I found  it works much better this way.  It's a good thing the roads were bad and we couldn't really go out because that was an almost all day job.  Next year I promise to keep up!

                                       

And here is Brent keeping busy making Ariel's Christmas present!!!

Who says my boys don't have a feminine side, while Brent was busy making a blanket, Bri was in the kitchen making sugar cookie dough for family night.
And speaking of family night, Yep we got our tree up, three days before Christmas this year, we are improving.

Brittany and Dan

It's official 

Dan, I have never seen Brittany look happier, she is so beautiful

Cutting the cake

Brittany and her dad, dancing to "I Loved Her First"

Brittany and Papa

Brittany and Grammy

Frank and his mom Martha

Brittany's Dad and Grandma McGowan

Kathy and Brittany's new father in law, Vern

 Brittany, thanks for the privilege of being your escort, I am so happy for you and Dan.  It was a special moment for me to be in the sealing room with you, Uncle Craig, Kevin and Brian.  Congratulations again to both of you!

More fun family pictures

December 20, 2008, Sacramento, California

The men in my life

Brian, Craig and Kevin

, 

A bunch of Lytals:  Melinda, Glenda, Bob, Tony and Kathy

Kathy, Grammy and Me

Me and the boys

Brian and Papa

Jeanette and her date, Chris

Jill in the middle

Jon, Kathy and Grammy

Darcy and Dave

Aunt Betty, Britt and Grandma Ercie

Cousins-Erin, Ashleigh, Brian and Brent

My Therapist Called Today

And wanted to know what was up, how come I had failed to keep so many appointments.  I tried to explain just how busy I have been, and I see no foreseeable chance for an appointment in the near future.  She reminded me, how important my group therapy sessions are, and that I have let down the group.  Yes, I'm feeling guilty.

Dr. Madone:  I saw you walk by this morning, you didn't see me, but I noticed you've gained a few pounds, are you working out your problems with the endless bounty of Christmas goodies that are everywhere instead of with me.

Me:  Well, yeah, maybe a little, but you see it is so much simpler to just down a handful of Christmas cookies or grab one or two (or more) Sees candies.  Instant stress release that doesn't require an hour or more of my time.

Dr. Madone:  Well how about today, I've got a cancellation, I can work you into the schedule.

Me:  Hmm, no it's raining, you know I just don't like to go out when it's raining, the roads get a little slick, I just don't think it would be too safe.

Dr. Madone:  Your friends have made excellent progress in group therapy, should I recount for you some of their accomplishments?

Me:  No, no that's ok, I know all about it.

Dr. Madone:  Well you know there's a big event coming up in February and if you want to get through this, you ought to be getting ready, when can I see you?

Me:  Umm, well I'm leaving for Sacramento on Friday and then to Utah on Sunday, I'll be there for three weeks, and then.....

Dr. Madone:  Ok, January 10, I've got you on my schedule, no excuses.

Me:  Well, I'll just be getting back and....

Dr. Madone:  January 10.  Goodbye.

Dr. Madone

And if anyone thinks I have a problem 'cause my bike lives in my bedroom, or that I may have a problem with personification of inanimate objects, please don't tell me, I already can't keep my therapy appointments.

The Real Question is "What will they learn next?"

The Mini Z is waiting for the boys.

And I won't let dad sell either of the 50's, there's one for Kael and one for Kyle

You've heard of "Fearless Flying"

and Brad's already been giving them skateboard lessons.

Keep them away from Uncle Kev if you don't want them jumping out of airplanes, and way away from Uncle Bri if you don't want them having lessons in drag racing.

beach acrobatics.

Who taught my child this?...

Suspect #1:

Suspect #2

Suspect #3

Or... better yet... who encouraged this?

THE CULPRIT!!!!!

(caught red handed)

Cross Country 2008--Most Improved

Winter Concert

Tonight was Kyle's Winter Concert for Wind Ensemble. He looks cute in a tux!  The concert was very good.  I thought I was taking a video clip, but I wasn't.  Guess there's still a learning curve with the camera.

A Christmas Tree

Our Christmas trees have progressed and regressed over the years.  We had a small condo during dental school and then a rental house, our trees couldn't be too big.  Next came our first home.  It had a vaulted ceiling in the living room and we could have tall, big, fat trees.  The kids loved going to the Christmas tree farm and picking out the best tree.  The trees got bigger and bigger every year.  When we built our current house it has a room sorta octagon shaped with a sunroom/indoor patio.  This room was the perfect room, for the perfect tree, we moved into our house Thanksgiving weekend and told the kids they could have any tree they wanted.  Off we go to the Christmas Tree Farm and there standing in the middle of a field was a tree all by itself.  I am sure that this tree was left over from the previous year and it was gigantic.  Think, perfect for some large public building.  It was so gigantic our stand couldn't hold it.  We got a new stand.  It was so gigantic it still wouldn't stand up.  We bolted it to the baseboards (ouch, my brand new baseboards, that happened when I wasn't looking).  It was so tall, probably twenty feet we couldn't reach the top without a ladder, but it was so fat that even with a ladder you couldn't reach the tree.  And then there was the problem of lights, ornaments etc.  Anyway, after that year we decided to move the tree, some years it's been in the family room, some years in the living room, and the size has been decidedly more manageable.  Some years we would have Christmas at the cabin, and our tree would be a smaller one we cut.  My favorite part of cabin trees are the candles we put on it.  Last year we had Christmas at the condo, I'm not sure what day we got there but for some reason it was Christmas Eve and we were looking for the perfect tree.  We finally found it (at least I thought it was pretty perfect).  Anyway, this year Brad let me know that is was not ok to be looking for a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, that he wanted the perfect tree, perfectly decorated, no last minute affair.  It reminded me of Easter (click here

for another account of proud parenting).  Sometimes I forget that Brad is only 12, he hasn't had all of the Christmas experiences the other kids have.  I forget the importance of making a celebration important and special for him.  I get lost in the hustle and bustle of too much to do, and forget the very people we do it all for.  This year is a year to remember each other, a year to sit and enjoy the tree, the stockings, the food, the family.  So family, slow me down, remind me that we don't need one more thing, we don't need one more last minute item, we just need time for each other.  And a perfect Christmas for a twelve year old boy.

The Garage

A week or two ago I drove up in the little car, opened the little garage door and couldn't drive in, there sat where I park the little car a little pool table.  I went in the house and hollered, "boys, why is there a pool table in our garage?"

Brent:  "Hi mom, isn't it great?!"

Me:  "Great?, Brent do you recall that we already have a nice, massive sized pool table upstairs?"

Brent:  "Yeah mom, but it was free."

Me:  "What do you mean free?"

Brent:  "One of my friends was giving it away."

Me:  "Well where do you think we're going to put it."

Brent:  "At the condo"

Me:  "No, no, no that condo is already manly enough besides there will be no room when I furnish the downstairs family room."

So anyway, there the pool table sat in our garage, I told him to put it on Craigslist and buy me a new purse since the little car was sitting out instead of the garage when my purse was stolen.

Last night, the pool table had been moved, now it was in the driveway.

Me:  "Brent, why is the pool table in the driveway?"

Brent:  "One of my friends wants it he's coming to pick it up tonight."

Me: "Yahoo!!!"

So this morning I get up and go to the gym and notice there is no pool table in the driveway, I'm a happy mom.  I get home from the gym, open the garage door and there sits the pool table, still there, and in addition to the pool table, where I should be parking the little car sits:

And if anyone has any questions about that please ask Brent or Kev, cause I'm not saying a word, except I would like to park the little car in the garage.

Cameras

There are some things this year I just haven't been able to hang onto.  One of them is a camera. I have never been a big picture taker, I don't like scrapbooking and organizing pictures.  Kerri gave me the greatest gift for Christmas last year.  She took boxes of pictures home with her and organized them into photo albums for me (no, even though she had the pictures for months I never missed them).  It was the perfect gift.

This year though, since I have a blog now I wanted to be able to put pictures on it, and with no paper pictures to organize I found I like taking pictures.  I'm not talking "photography" just a fun snapshot of what's going on.  My first camera was good, but 26 miles of running in the rain at St. George killed it.  Really it didn't take 26 miles, it was probably just a few.  Oh well, who knew it would rain, so after the marathon I got a new camera, a nice one that wasn't too hard to use, perfect for carrying around everywhere in my purse.  Unfortunately my purse was stolen Thursday and my camera was in it.  So, now I'm on my third camera of the year.  Hopefully I can hang onto this one.

Please...I don't wanna go :(

Yes, it's that time of year again. the first weekend of December and you will always know where I am, Palm Springs. Don't let the pretty resort post card fool you. This is torture, I will be here for all day Friday and Saturday to get my CEU's. At least this year I don't see beam forming mics on the program, but there is Asymmetrical Directionality (which actually sounds kind interesting) but I'm sure it is the perfect topic for thousands of power point slides of polar plots, and toss in some scatter plots and bar graphs of what KEMAR did and there you go we have a three hour lecture on five minutes of material. JB tried to convince me to go to House in October, but I said, no, no, why go in October when I can put this off till December! At least I have KR to go with, maybe we can get internet and do Christmas shopping while listening to Dead Regions of the Cochlear Compression. (EDIT: When I read that title I thought I really do need some CE, it makes no sense, but aha it was a typo, it should have been two topics, 1) Dead Regions of the Cochlea 2) Compression. Every year I suggest to KR that we pay someone to sit there and get our cards punched while we ride, it should be a perfect day to ride and get a little therapy in, but KR always reminds me that she accomplishes so much there. Last year all of MR's wedding announcements got addressed during the conference. Then there was the year of the embroidery project. This year I think we can get all of our yearly planning for YW done. So boys, while you are having great fun at SkiDazzle think of mom sitting in a large boring conference room trying to stay awake as another meaningless, totally useless power point slide flashes on the screen.

Old Jeans

My favorite jeans

I am sad this morning as I pulled my favorite jeans out of the dryer, they are history. They are so threadbare I really can't even wear them one more time. I suppose I should go on the "great jeans hunt". It is hard though to find "favorite jeans". I don't think you can go shopping for them, they just sorta become. I think favorite jeans are a lot like favorite friends, they evolve over time. They become more comfortable, the more you wear them, the better they are. They forgive you, what's a pound or two up or down, they love you when you dress them up or pull on your favorite old race shirt with them. They don't mind when you wipe your hands on them, clean the house in them or wear them out to dinner. I didn't go searching for this pair of jeans, there they were in a stack of jeans at Costco, they said, "Hey I think I'll fit you, take me home and try me out." They are far more precious than my expensive jeans hanging in the closet, rarely worn. I suppose I should have appreciated them more, maybe not put them in the dryer time after time. I looked through my closet for the next "favorite" pair. They aren't there, maybe they are, they will just have to evolve.

Spidey Boys

Yesterday I spent the day working on the downstairs family room, I have it partially furnished but the boys weren't going to let me anywhere near shopping today.  So it was a lazy day, we slept in, had huge decadent waffles for breakfast, went out to lunch and of course to The Quarry, can't come to Utah without going to the The Quarry, Little Spideys may even go back tonight after Big Spidey gets off work and climb some more.  (Ok, well I did sneak a little shopping in, I took Bri shopping for some desperately needed new clothes).

Kevin the Great  (it really says that on Craig's cell phone when Kev calls, wonder how that got put on there?

Kevin the Great fell after doing the Century Route, he made it to 89, I'm not really sure how to orient this picture.

Brent

Kyle

Brad