Biking Day

Today, we just did some chores and errands here and there. We mowed the lawn, cleaned the car really well, etc. Later in the day, we went for a really long bike ride. It was fun to bike all around. McQueen always seemed to be way out in front. Tinkerbell wanted to stay a little bit farther behind, so as to not accumulate too much speed. It is amazing to see how fast they progress. Less then a year ago, I used to have to push them to get them going again every time they stopped. Now they are cruising around on two wheels with virtually no help at all, except for when crossing busy streets. I used to think it was retarded when people would comment on how fast kids grow up, until I had my own. Then, I had my own and I saw it first hand. Now I say it all the time. In fact, I now say it so much that I think it is retarded again, and that it is just stating the obvious. History really does repeat itself doesn't it......

Surprise Day

Today we surprised the kids by inventing a new thing called, of all things, SURPRISE DAY! Here is how it works: I take one of the kids for the first part of surprise day to do something fun, while Ashley (yes, that is her name; ANNOUNCEMENT: we will be getting married someday, unless she dumps me first; that is all I am going to say for now; more details will come one day in the future) takes the other one. We tell the kids nothing of what is going on, or where we are going, or what we are doing. We simply drive, and they find out when we get there. We then do our activity, meet together for ice cream, and then switch kids. So, here is what we did:

At first, Ashley took Tinkerbell to get her nails painted. They also picked out some new earrings and even a cute little toe ring. Then, they walked around and shopped and looked through all of the stores together.

MEANWHILE.......

I took McQueen and we headed to the Nickelcade (think arcade, but with nickels instead of quarters). We had a great time playing a ton of games. His favorites by far were a boat racing game, and this motorcycle game. He even kept winning so much that he unlocked a bunch of new tracks on the boating game. A kid after my own heart.

After we met up for ice cream, we swapped kids.

THEN.......

Ashley took McQueen to the bowling alley and they had a great time bowling. Afterwards, she took him to the toy store and he was able to pick out a toy.

IN ANOTHER PART OF TOWN.......

Tinkerbell and I went to a place where you can pick out a ceramic item. You then get to use their paints and brushes to paint it however you want. You leave it with them, and then come back a couple of days later after it has been fired. Above are pictures of the pre-fired and post-fired artwork. Tinkerbell really did an amazing job. Just a thought: I wonder if the employee that operates the kiln is a big "The Apprentice" fan. They probably get this sick little laugh as they close the door, turn the switch, and then, in their very best Donald Trump impersonation say: "You're Fired."

To end the evening, we went to a church BBQ at Ashley's stake center. What a great day surprise day turned out to be. It was a really fun to spend one on one time with the kids, and also to make them feel special in their own unique way. We have plans to do surprise day periodically, but not so often that our time is not meaningful.

Anderson Day

Our really good friends the Andersons came back to Utah this weekend. We used to hang out with them all the time, until they packed up and moved to O-freaking-HI-O! It was so much fun to hang out with them, and all of us picked up right where we had left off. We couldn't believe how big their kids have gotten, and they couldn't believe how big Tinkerbell and McQueen have grown. We ate at Cafe Rio (a long standing favorite of ours), and then went swimming with them. The kids and adults loved the slide. We also played a couple of games of pool basketball. I don't remember pool basketball being nearly as tiring when I played it as a kid. I think everyone had a great time, but it was honestly a lot of work for me. I could hardly enjoy myself as I thought of all the ways I could get them to move back here! I finally came to this conclusion: Jason, I will not post the video of you going down the slide if you move back within six months. I do not consider that blackmail, only persuasion. Anyway, just let me know.

The HOLE-IN-ONE video

Firepits and Pitfalls

FIRE PIT

This weekend, we had some fun hanging out with some friends. On Saturday night, we hung out with our friends Kelly and Stacey. They have access to some beautiful land with a fire pit. We roasted hot dogs, and made s'mores. We just hung out and talked and played around the fire. We also tried to figure out what the possible ingredient could be that makes marshmallows burn like a gallon of gasoline. As I read all of the ingredients I came across "tetrasodium pyrophosphate." At the end of the evening, the consensus was that since the last word of the ingredient contained "pyro" in it, it must be the flammable ingredient. While we were sitting around the fire, I kept asking everyone what the rustling in the brush was. They kept thinking I was joking............until two big (much bigger when you can't see more than five feet away) horses came jaunting up to our cozy fire. We all had a great night, and enjoyed every minute of our awesome fire and "campfire stories."

PITFALLS

Right after work on Monday, a couple of my friends from work (including the aforementioned Kelly-pictured below) went with us boating. We got to the lake just after 5PM, since I drove the car and boat into work that morning. We had really nice water/weather the whole time. There was a TINY bit of wind at first, but it only made little ripples along the water. There were the usual idiots out driving their boats like, well..........idiots, but overall it was great. My entire life most idiotic boat driving was related to alcohol. After driving in a car so much, I am starting to wonder if the boat drivers are really just texting instead. Picture it, a skier with a waterproof phone is probably skiing along just a little too fast for comfort. The driver's phone beeps, and suddenly the boat driver announces that the skier would like to go 5 MPH slower. Ugh! Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the over use of texting? Soon the good old hand signals of thumb down for slower, thumb up for faster will go the way of the Atari.

As I said, the conditions were not at all bad the whole time we were at the lake. Just when we thought it couldn't get better, 7:45PM rolled around. Many of the boats started pulling off the lake. The wind went completely still, and we were left all to ourselves in the deep channel of Jordanelle Reservoir. The water and scenery could not have been more beautiful as the sun was setting upon it. We took full advantage of the beautiful conditions. We wake boarded and skied until I had to hold my ski high above my head for the boat to find me in the water. We then just cruised the entire length of the lake. It was so beautiful and peaceful to glide across the smooth water with only the pale moonlight glowing on the water's surface. If I could have, I might have stayed out there all night long. We all had a really great time.

Kelly, or as I like to think of him.........Gilligan :)

Bryce-The Professor

The view as the sun was disappearing for the night



This video contains wake boarding at its finest. You cannot find skills like this anywhere. I saved the best for last. I am not trying to brag, but let's just say that not everyone could pull off the move I did at the end of this video. I jumped a little bit sooner then my board hit the wake. Luckily I recovered just in time to do the sweetest maneuver ever! I was really proud of myself! I have watched the video numerous times over to figure out how I made what could have been a disaster, a thing of beauty.

5 Posts in 1

CAR REPAIRS

I started off this weekend Thursday night. As we were leaving the Oquirrh MountainTemple open house last Monday, my window regulator broke. It has been half broken for a year and a half because someone broke the window to break into my car. The other half finally couldn't take anymore and gave out. I got off work really late at night and went straight to work on the window. I got everything all finished and put back together at about 1:20AM on Friday morning.
Just in case anyone is wondering, this is what your car door looks like underneath it all.............as long as you have the same year, make, model, and color as my car.

BOATING....FINALLY!!!

We have not even taken the boat out until this week....for the first time this year! The weekend weather in June was much more like the weather one would expect in April. For the first part of July, I was still recovering from the surgery, so it didn't go out. I went with my brother and the young men from our ward on Wednesday night. It was a great time, but I elected not to do anything because there were so many people and not enough time for everyone.

Friday morning, I made sure I was up by 6AM to get the boat ready for a day on the lake. We had a really great time. We went boating from about 8AM until about 4PM. Afterwards, we of course went to the Dairy Keen (Train Station) in Heber City for shakes. I love water skiing, wake boarding, and getting beat up on the tube. Even with it being a holiday, the lake was not too crowded. That didn't stop people from driving like idiots and me circling back to get between someone in the water and a speeding boat a few times though.

The first run of the day, I was cutting pretty hard on the slalom ski. I WRECKED HARD! I hit a wave just right at almost 30 MPH and it sent me rolling across the water. Because my big feet don't come out of the skis as fast as another person's feet might, the ski rolled with me. That caused my ankle to twist faster and differently then the rest of my body. I was in pain, but I continued to ski and wake board multiple times afterwards. I even went on the tube for quite a while. It was a manageable pain. By the time we got to Heber, my ankle was throbbing. By the time we got from Heber back to the gas station in Salt Lake, I could barely walk and my ankle was at least three times its normal size. I was feeling the pain! The above pictures were taken four days after. I now have just mild pain and some bruising. This is the first time I have ever been hurt boating, even though my parents have had a boat since 1980. I am convinced the only reason I got hurt is because I just turned 30 this year!

THE RODEO

Each year, we go to the Days of '47 Rodeo with my Dad and Mom. My Dad is like an in-the-closet cowboy. It is really about the only thing he asks of the family the whole year long. We always have a great time and it is quite the family tradition. Above is a little monkey named Whiplash. He rides atop a dog, and together they herd sheep. It was quite the entertainment in between the buckin' broncos, barrel racing, bull ridin', etc. The one thing I have to say about the majority of people at the rodeo is, they all seem to be true patriots who love their country. They seem to have so much more respect for the flag and what it represents, then say the average crowd at a sports event. It really is great to see that from so many people.

Above, the kids are wearing their new cowboy hats. They love them.

This K-Bull 93FM, bull was standing tall as we were driving into the parking lot. Suddenly McQueen and Tinkerbell were standing there and it appears it had been tipped. I don't know how I feel about my children engaging in cow tipping. :)

BIRTHDAY

Sunday after church, we went to a little get together to celebrate our friend's birthday.McQueen seemed to get frosting from the cake in just the right position to become "The Joker" in the next series of the new Batman movies

STAR WARS

Lately the kids, (surprisingly, even Tinkerbell too) love Star Wars. McQueen in particular, loves Star Wars. We went to play at our friend's house on Monday. They happen to have all the ORIGINAL Star Wars toys. These things are like classics. You could probably make thousands of dollars on e-bay with all of the stuff they have. Needless to say, the kids were in heaven as they played with the toys for hours.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house today. It was really awesome to see. We missed out on the Draper Temple open house because the kids got sick just before our designated appointment. It was so neat to watch the kids faces as they went through the different rooms and places of the temple. We watched a video before we toured the temple, and the kids loved it. They also handed out little pamphlets that had pictures of the temple. The kids kept them with them, and each time we went in a room that was in the pamphlet, the kids would excitedly show that it was in their "book." It was a really neat thing to take the kids to especially. They are so much more excited for temples now and definitely felt the spirit while we were there. I love to see that light in their eyes. I promised them that we would come to the temple as a family when they turned 12. That seemed to help with McQueen saying he wanted to go into the baptismal font right then, after commenting how good the water smelled. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the temple was, they both said they liked the huge chandelier's shaped like stars the best. It really was a neat experience, and we are even more excited for when it will be dedicated.

While we were in the temple we left the windows cracked a little so the car would not get too hot. As we were leaving I started to roll up the windows. All of the sudden I heard a "pop" noise. Then the window casually slipped all the way down into the door despite me pushing the up button. A year and a half ago someone broke the same window to steal something from my car. Apparently when they did so, they broke half of the regulator that pushes the window up/pulls it down. After tearing the door apart, I figured out that all that stress had caused the other half to break. I was excited that at least I got some more mileage out of it before it broke......that is, until I went to the auto parts store to inquire about a new one. They told me that the new ones all come with lifetime guarantees. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Seven Kids!

This weekend I watched five of my nieces/nephews, with Tinkerbell and McQueen of course. Yes, if you can count fast, that is one me, with seven kids. That means if you take my height in inches, then divide it by the number of kids, each one gets a little more then ten inches of me. Luckily all the kids are really good kids, and we had a really fun weekend.

Friday morning, before we went to watch the kids, McQueen and Tinkerbell helped me clean up the boat and wash and wax it. We had a lot of fun. They grabbed the spray gun and thought it was so funny to spray me. I just looked at them like they were in trouble. They quickly handed it to me. I then laughed as I sprayed them and made them run away laughing. I love those two little twins so much! The boat looks great and everything is in working order. I haven't even taken it out this year because of the April (June) weather we have been experiencing, and the tonsillectomy recovery. I am planning to go out this weekend though.

Saturday, we mostly just played around the house. In the early evening, we went to a big family picnic in the park. We had a great time, and the kids were exhausted afterwards. The boys all started out in sleep positions in beds and sleeping bags. When I went into their room to turn off their bedside lamp, I found them all like this. It was too classic not to take a picture of them all practically laying on top of each other with all their legs entangled.

Sunday we went to their ward. I was so worried that we would be really late, especially considering there were seven kids. We actually were 15 minutes early, and all the Primary aged kids got gummy worms from the Primary for being on time. I swear that I was being scrutinized the whole time by their fellow ward members. Maybe, I should say that my brother and his wife were being scrutinized. Let me just say that I know that I am not the "typical" babysitter for a weekend. I mean what kind of a freak has a divorced Dad watch their kids for a weekend? I was actually pretty complimented that they would trust me with their five kids, while bringing my two with me. After church, Grandpa and Grandma invited us over for dinner. Grandpa always cooks Sunday dinner, and is quite the amateur chef (among so many other things). Who can resist an offer like that?

Monday, we went swimming at our friend's pool. We got Little Caesar's Pizza and some soft drinks and had quite the time. We stayed there for a couple of hours and really enjoyed it.
McQueen and one of his cousins hanging out in the pool.Tinkerbell is getting some help from this really good looking girl, who let us come swim at her pool with her. She also hung out with us here and there throughout the weekend. :)My nephew flying through the air, to what I can only imagine would be a belly-flop. This is my cute 1 1/2 year old niece. She is so sweet and funny. She is so good and cute, but doesn't let anyone push her around. If she wants something, she is not afraid to push anyone out of her way. After a little while of swimming, she decided she wanted a drink. We gave her a Capri-Sun, and she sat there happy as a clam for quite a while.

After the pool, we got cleaned up and then took McQueen and Tinkerbell back to their Mom's house. My five nieces and nephews seemed to be okay with the two and a half hour drive down to her house and back.

When the weekend started, I was worried how things would go with me and seven kids. I certainly was tired at the end of the night, but it truly was a great time. I think it was great for all the cousins to play together, and we did a lot of fun stuff. All of the kids were really great and it was a lot of fun. The very next time my sister-in-law turns 40, and my brother wants to take his wife to San Francisco for the weekend, I would be not even think twice about watching as many kids as I possibly can. :)

Screwed!

Yesterday afternoon, I had just pulled back into work, to get more orders, to take care of more patients. In a matter of about three minutes, my beautiful new Goodyear Integrity front tire gave up being a new, buff, hulk-like, strong, man tire. It instead decided to become a flabby and lifeless couch potato of a tire. It seems the tire had literally been screwed. I had just been talking with a friend the day before about tires. I expressed that some people seem to be prone to flat tires. I told them that I had been very lucky and had probably not had a flat tire in about 10 years. Even then, I have only had one in my whole driving career (despite driving on some pretty worn tires). I guess that is what I get for opening my big mouth!
The plot thickens: I had a fairly easy time getting 4 of the 5 lug nuts off. The last one seemed pretty stiff. I gave the crowbar quite a bit more pressure, and then SNAP! Nope, it didn't instantly become lose (well, I guess it depends on your definition). Instead, I broke the whole bolt that the lug nut screws on to. You can see what is missing in the middle top of the lug nut pattern above. While I had the wheel off, I noticed that the brakes pads probably only had about 1,000 miles left on them (miles I could put on in less than a week). I thought it was funny that my flat tire would occur at my work, considering I am not there for most of my work day. When all of the rest of this stuff happened, it became even more hilarious. So, I put the weenie wheel and the four remaining lug nuts on, and parked the van. I can't wait to get it back in a month or so. Normally these repairs could be done in a day, but the shop we take them to, must be more thorough then most or something. Oh, how I will miss feeling like a soccer Mom, as I drive a big cargo van, until my Caravan is once again road worthy.

Today while I was out and about, I saw this. No, the gold Nissan Altima did not rear-end the red GMC Jimmy. The Jimmy appeared to be out of gas, and they were using the Altima to push this mid-size SUV. How could it get even better you ask? Well, they were trying to push it onto Redwood Road! You know, only one of the busiest roads in the state! I sort of wondered if maybe that was a "special" Altima, that was actually made to push a 4,000 pound SUV. You can imagine my disappointment when I figured out it was not. It was hard to tell, but I used my special detective skills. When I heard the engine screaming, could smell the clutch burning, and the Jimmy only inching forward, my Sherlock Holmes training came back to me. Best of luck with that sweet setup my friends!

Today I went in an apartment building that might have been built before the Salt Lake Temple. The only difference was, that this building has probably received about 1% the maintenance that the temple has. After I spent a couple of minutes, worrying about falling through the stairs, I got quite comfortable. Maybe it wasn't such a bad place after all. But then, as I was leaving, I saw this sweet note on the inside of the front door. I guess as long as everyone follows the note, the place could still be nice. I wonder if they are going to post another note about termites soon. Hmmmm.....

A couple of weeks ago, my Alero flashed this at me! Yep, the old girl just turned 150,000 miles. It still runs really well though (knock on wood), and as long as it does, it is worth keeping. I have owned this baby for a long time, and it has been with me through a lot. I have hardly had to fix anything on it. I have owned it now for six years and it has continually soldiered right along. I have tried to treat it well, and it has rewarded me numerous times over. I really have loved owning and driving this car. While I am a car nut, I also am pretty practical. Therefore, I cannot really come up with a compelling reason to ditch my paid off car that runs fine, for a new car and payment book. So, baby, here is to another 300,000 miles AT LEAST!..........OR........to me winning the lottery and buying the whole fleet of dream vehicles I would like to own.

Library Cards

The kids are showing off their very first library cards

We checked a year or so ago to see how old one has to be to get a library card. I could have sworn the people told me 6 or 7. This Saturday, when we were at the library, I asked again, because the kids wanted to know. To my surprise, the people told us 5 years old. I then took my two excited kids over to the computer to type in all the necessary information. Within a few minutes, their library cards were in their hands. The kids love that they have their own library cards now, and were so excited to check out books and movies. I think they felt so special and important. It is always a good day when you can make your child feel that way. They were even still excited when I told them that their library cards have to live in Daddy's wallet except when we are at the library. I am sure that we will be spending even more time at the library now.

Surgery and Recovery

I made it through my very first surgery just fine. I went into surgery in the afternoon of June 24th. I was not too nervous for the surgery itself. I was only nervous because I have never been under general anesthesia before. I had no idea how my body would respond. I also heard horror stories of the stuff people say when they come out of anesthesia. I was actually quite coherent when I came out of surgery. I remember asking the nurse if I could just sleep a little longer. The guy next to me was not so fortunate. He was babbling like crazy. He kept saying stuff about lollipops and his childhood home and stuff. I remember asking the nurse if they had any earplugs. It was not purely because of this guy, but also because of the general noise all around. She found me a semi-private recovery room not too much after that, and I slept for another hour or so. When I came home, I felt pain, but it wasn't overbearing. I actually made a couple of phone calls too. They told my Mom that I could not eat anything for 48 hours; not because of the surgery, but because they apparently had to use so much anesthesia to get me under that if I ate anything for the next couple of days, I would become VERY sick. The recovery went well too. I won't lie and say that I wasn't in pain, but as long as I seemed to keep my throat wet (however painful that was), it was manageable. I had to put fluids in my mouth (including water) then build the courage up to gulp them down. I talked like a retard (yes, even more so than usual) for about a week and a half. Last of all, I got quite comfortable in a recliner for about a week and a half as well. I took pain meds for the first couple of days, but quickly cut them back, and then stopped them completely. I know some people love that "high" that they get and love the "relaxed" feeling. I don't like it at all. I like feeling like I am completely in control. I also think that the pain was more manageable for me because of the week previous to the surgery. In connection with that, I also have had strep so much that I am used to throat pain. I think this definitely aided me in the recovery. Since I wasn't taking the pain meds, I decided to go back to work six days after the surgery (on light duty), even though everyone told me I would for sure have to take the two weeks off and some people said a month. I went for my follow up appointment today and I am 80% healed and should be 100% within the next ten days or so. He also told me that they looked at them, and also dissected them. He told me that had me that if we had not removed them, I would have had a lot of long sicknesses. Things would have only become worse. After the week before the surgery, I would have to definitely think he was being nothing but honest. It only now hurts if I sneeze, or if I stretch my mouth like you would to yawn. I learned quite a few things throughout this recovery though. I learned that given the right circumstances, Jamba Juice and Sonic Drive-in (their slushes) can be closer friends then they normally are. I learned that ice cream must only be a kid tonsillectomy thing, because it was not cool for me. I learned that the "designer" Popsicles must contain less sorbic acid or something because the generic twin pops (especially the banana) felt like they contained pure acid. I learned that while blue Gatorade can often feel good and help in the healing process, blue Powerade does not feel the same (minus the aforementioned Sonic slushes). I learned that being really sick with throat discomfort and then throat surgery is not all bad.....especially when it alleviates you of thirty pounds you can do without. I also once again realized how grateful I am for a wonderful family and friends who are always supportive and helpful to me.

Now I feel obligated to talk about the doctor and surgery. This is in no way a commercial for him, just information to anyone who may need a similar procedure. I went to Dr. Bryan Tagee in Salt Lake. I did not know him from Adam before I went there, but I am very impressed. He was recommended to me by my primary care doctor. He is an excellent, knowledgeable, surgeon/doctor. He also has a great, friendly personality and great bedside manner. He uses a different technique than many doctors out there. I guess there are three major techniques for removing tonsils. One is to simply cut them out (which also involves electrocautery). The next is to use pure electrocautery (burn the suckers off, involving temperatures up to 400 degrees C!!!). The third is what Dr. Tagge used. It is a procedure called coblation. He estimates that in Utah, only roughly 30% of doctors use this technique. If I understand correctly, they send radio frequency waves through ionized saline and this just makes the cell bonds detach and dissolve. There is virtually no bleeding whatsoever. According to the Internet the highest temperature reached in this technique is 80 degrees C. Therefore, there also is not the thermal damage all around the healthy tissue from the electrocautery. I think this procedure is amazing, but as I said, only about 30% of doctors are using it. I have not had many of the horrific side effects that so many told me they had/I would have, prior to my surgery. I also do not believe that I have had the same level of pain that others have had. I asked Dr. Tagge why he felt more doctors weren't using it. He told me that he actually campaigns other doctors TO use it. He said that you have to perform the surgery 15 or so times to feel comfortable, and most doctors quit after 5 or so. So, having heard that, here is what I am thinking. Let me get this straight: Some doctor is too freaking lazy to learn a new technique and therefore the patient has to suffer higher levels of pain and discomfort, coupled with possibly more pain meds, missed time from work, and return to normal life. Gee, sure am glad I am one to the lucky 30%!!!! Let me just bluntly say that those doctors sound like jerks. With Dr. Tagge's permission I included a video of him doing the procedure (not mine, but I wish it was). For those of you who do not have a weak stomach, check it out. The whole video/procedure is only 8 or 9 minutes. Also, if anyone needs a great ear, nose, and throat specialist for any reason, or needs their tonsils removed, I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Tagge. Strep, we have had a long, on-going friendship, but I think you have used and abused me in our relationship. Here is to hoping that I NEVER see, feel, or hear from you again.