Convenient Memory and Parental Perspective...

many Many MANY years ago - in the pre-offspring years I was hanging out at my in-laws house and they had picked up a movie to watch. Based on our recommendation. OOOOOPS! We hadn't seen it since its theatrical release and only remembered the funny laugh out loud moments - I'd claim innocence/ignorance but the truth is that "So I Married An Ax Murderer" just didn't set off our "mute button sensor" back in the day... until we tried to watch it with parents in the room.

This keeps happening to us now... a funny movie from our youth that we think the kids will appreciate turns out to be something that should have been rated PG(boiysiitl5ywtpp) - and for those of you not in the motion picture industry and therefor unaware of this particular rating it's Parental Gguidance but only if you've seen it in the last 5 years with the parental perspective...

You see, we've forgotten things... and APPARENTLY have become a little more aware of what is being shown to little eyes.

We pulled out the old standard "Mrs Doubtfire" last night - after a wonderful family night of Karaoke (to get them ready for the reunion)... and I'm just thrilled that we started it late enough that most of the kids fell asleep!

I won't go into detail - but let's just say that I have a copy of this movie if anyone else wants to subject their kids to a little too much of Robin Williams' early humor and give their thumb a good workout on the Mute and FF buttons.

okay... so THAT part was HiLaRiOuS...

HOWEVER - another thing we've recently been allowing them to watch has given them only WONDERFUL lessons in life... that lesson being that "special effects" were a little less special and a little less effective back in the seventies when they filmed the original Land of the Lost Episodes... can anyone remind me WHY I loved that so much as a kid?

Oh wait - I remember... because it was the ONLY thing ON! Yes folks, I'm showing my age because I grew up in the pre-cable era... I actually remember waking up early on Saturday morning and having to WAIT for programming to begin because there was not a channel just for cartoons in my day and age...

you know, way back when before dirt was invented...

all those other bloggable things - in no particular order....

Mr Bendy Hop Along Bill took our trip with us... and made his way into MANY of the road trip photos. Mostly because I turned camera duties over to my oldest son, who shall hereafter be referred to as T Jr. (so as to avoid confusion... he IS quite manly and all boy... and he's not REALLY named after me...)

Remember these Shoes??? Yeah, well T Jr. is growing out of them. So, let's begin again - he got a lot of good art from family on this trip and should be able to get them completed by the end of the OTHER family reunion... as a matter of fact, he might need a whole other pair!

We went to see the amazing fireworks - had to enjoy it because usually it's so amazingly HOT that we have to watch from the safety of an air conditioned vehicle... T Jr. and I traded off the camera trying to keep it nice and steady - until we discovered that it was MUCH more fun to just shake the heck out of it and get some interesting shots!

Great, blurry AND sideways... but my point is that my friend Shelley makes some awesome goodies which she brought for the whole crowd when we got together. If you're a Coloradoan you should check her out... if you're not, don't make fun of Coloradoan, because REALLY... Utahn is FAR worse (just the word, not the people)...

Ha - don't we look luverly? more friends - this time at the park... we did take more attractive photos - but with my habit of making weird faces in all photos - it was much more flattering if everyone else was too! Luv you girls for playing along... and in case you didn't recognize quilter extraordinaire there on the right - check out her blog here.

all the cousins - you might recognize my little rugrats - but if you don't the tallest two are mine... and the boy inbetween them is mine too... even if he doesn't look thrilled about it! That little cutie on the right is mine... and the one second from the left is my CLONE so if you've ever met me you probably didn't have to be told THAT! The rest? well, they're just darn cute too... and even though this picture is less than 2 weeks old it's already outdated as my sister had another baby a few days ago... so just imagine a little newborn tucked in there somewhere.

some old friends and I met at a Karaoke bar... where I chickened out but had a grand time visiting with high school friends. Now when our 20 year comes around (in oh... say... 19 years... because of COURSE I'm that young...) I'll be able to recognize them all at first glance!! This one is K - who has always had an incredible singing voice and a wicked sense of humor - love her. (and everyone else too... but my pictures all turned out sucky... gotta go scour facebook for more!) (and... lest anyone worry - like my kids - I drank two tall glasses of ice water and had a yummy sandwich!)

One of the hidden gems in Colorado - Swetsville Zoo - no animals at all, and probably a grand place to hurt yourself if you run around crazy - but I love it! The entire place (every 40 foot dinosaur, snoopy, and humpty dumpty) are made from old car parts, gas cans, and assorted other junk that is now not cluttering up a landfill somewhere! If you're ever near Loveland, CO - this is worth a quick stop, really!

sideways again???? grrrrrr... okay - well, bonus points to anyone who can tell me what credit card company used this guy in their national ad campaign... or at least I THINK it was a credit card company... it's keeping me up nights!!!

seriously blurry on this one... just proving that the true bloggist in me had my camera out even at lunch... and apparently my sis has gotten into the photo spirit even though I've never seen a single photo over at her blog...

I made the mistake of introducing my kids to the old game of "hold your breath through the tunnel" What? you didn't play that game??? oh, you must not have every driven with my parents who would do ANYTHING for a few seconds of silence... it didn't work so well with my kids - because they'd all gang up on W and try to make him laugh. and then there was the Eisenhower tunnel incident...

Next (well, actually first, but I'm guessing you can't tell while reading this that I'm writing the post in reverse order... it's just easier that way) - I may have mentioned that T Jr. was in charge of the camera during the car trip???? I had to go twice around a roundabout in Grand Junction for him to snap a photo of a big dinosaur... and then he did this... creepier than the money guy from the Geico commercials any day!

one of the 13 bloggable things...

okay - not much time (yikes, I think that's getting to be my mantra... maybe I'll print it on a t-shirt) - but I had to share...

I cheated.

Not on M.O.T.H. (hang your head in shame if you even THOUGHT that!). Not on my diet... well, not really - because I'm starting that later... but on my beloved Cozy...




Truth be told it was a brief and tepid affair (okay - it was WAY too hot) and really the pictures were just for Kristina and now apparently Shelle who even after reading THIS wonderful expose don't believe me... There - photographic evidence that I've tried the competition (and a very fancy version of the competition at that!) but I still prefer my Cozy... if it will ever forgive me for straying.


(more bloggables to come...)

An addition to the family... ?????????

Okay, so we're home. Along the route I ran into at least 13 things that I thought were "bloggable" ... and yet, when I got home, I was met with something the trumped ALL of that!

Yep - I get home to a card - addressed to "the C family" - which is our name - at our address... so the ManOfTheHouse opened it of course..


Imagine his surprise!!!!
I mean... when I left town I only had the 5 kids he knew about... so is he expecting me to bring home an extra?

The card was signed by "Tom and Cindy" - which are the names of my aunt and uncle - so he's thinking that it's either legit or an honest mistake and they meant to send it to another niece? I think by this time M.O.T.H. is afraid I've been keeping a secret even better than his sister Megz! (who prefer to wait until the blessing day to announce that she's prego)

Okay - so really, the explanation is quite simple as there is ANOTHER Q.C. in town... we've received a number of phone calls for them in the past... if we were EVIL we might have been able to capitalize on this... or at least have chosen a really bad granite color for their counters when those people called... but NO, we've politely told them that they had the wrong number...

I get it - not everyone wants to be called constantly and asked if you're THAT Q.C.... right? I get it... well, mostly because now WE get those phone calls instead of you!

But this time... ummm... well folks:

.
I'm holding THIS hostage :) (nah, just let us know where to send it... I'd leave contact info, but hey - we're in the book!)

but really - there's a time limit here... because my curiosity will eventually get the better of me you know!

Old Home Week

For those of you who haven't figured it out by the fact that I haven't shown my face in the blogosphere, I'm out of town. I'd post a bunch of pictures and all that to keep it interesting, but the fact is I'm dead tired and since I'm on a borrowed laptop I'm not sure I could figure it out without a good nights' sleep!

The kids have been great. Seriously - maybe it has something to do with the fact that I NEED them to be helpful... or maybe it's just that they don't want to embarrass themselves in front of too many relatives? That's not to say we haven't had our "moments" but they've been blessedly few and brief!

The drive was good - MUCH better than I had feared. Last time we attempted this trip all 5 kids came down with the flu AND I had a tire blow out in the middle of a cell "dead-zone"... not that it would have mattered much because I didn't actually HAVE a cell phone at the time! With that as my "reference point", it had to get better! I've been monitoring the kids' health (and that of their friends) for weeks, I've been to Discount Tire to have the tires checked, rotated, and balanced, and I've been holding on to my cell phone like it was the Iron Rod of scripture!

Why make this insane trip? Good question... and just because you asked I'm going to tell you!!!

My youngest brother came home from his mission (for the LDS church) last week - I would have been here when he arrived, except for that darn scout camp. After two years we were all eager to see him and see if he'd forgotten all his english. Amazingly enough - he still qualifies as a native english speaker even after two years in Chile!
My older sister is also here - from New York - so I just had to make it... otherwise my mother might have photoshopped a picture of me from less flattering days into the family shot we finally took!

And (thanks to Facebook) I was able to connect with a lot of friends! Dive Bar Karaoke anyone? THIS I'll go into more detail about when I get home...

Well, pray for a speedy return trip - we're heading back Monday and looking forward to seeing M.O.T.H. again - and I'm sure he's looking forward to us being home. I talked to him a few minutes ago on the phone and he admitted that he's eaten a peanut butter sandwich and a TV dinner today. If anyone local is reading this could you look in on him?

See you all soon, I'm not abandoning the blog-reading... just taking a break!

days of ease and comfort...

the oldest boys spent the better part of the week at Scout Camp... when I first wrote this on the calendar I was looking forward to it... looking forward to Po not having anyone to fight with... looking forward to not have to BEG certain children to join us for morning prayer... looking forward to only having to cook for 3 picky eaters instead of 5.

It seemed like a great plan!

and then... the reality hit. I had to get the tired rotated. If the oldest boys were here it would be simple:

"Hey eldest child - gotta run an errand, I'll be back in an hour - call if there's an issue" and I'm OUTTA THERE!

without them here?

"hmmm... let's see... #3 can hang with his friend... #4 and #5 will have to come along. Did you know that the tire place is REALLY stinky? and also not so good for the developing latex allergy... so we walked over to Sonic Drive In... luckily you don't have to be in a car to order... of course, having to take our time turned out to be a good thing because otherwise we might have been 67 blocks away before realizing that #4's "kids grilled cheese meal" was minus a grilled cheese sandwich. Twisty straw, check... Banana (really), check... Drink, check... Sandwich?

I chose Sonic over Red Robin because I could see the garage from our table... and as soon as they took the car down we began to walk back... of course then we had a few more errands to run... so I was reminded pretty quickly that shopping WITH children is much more time consuming, expensive, and frustrating than shopping alone.

So boys - hope Scout Camp was fun... glad that it doesn't last longer!

I wanna be an Avatar...

Some mornings I wake up and look in the mirror... I see a few wrinkles, the same old eyes, the hair that I would cut weekly if I could be assured that it would grow back quickly (remember that cut 'n style Barbie thing? - that's what I want my own to be like)... I have debated the merits of colored contacts because as much as I love my brown eyes - change is fun right?

I like myself - I really do. If I weren't me I'd want to hang out with me... If I weren't me to the tune of being a guy not me I would SO want to date myself. See, I'm self obsessed even - so this isn't a lack of self esteem thing, it would just be SO CONVENIENT!

If I were a HUGE game player (which I am not... really) I would know all that stuff about creating a cool avatar - according to makeuseof.com it is very important to have a "stylish avatar"

Well the fact is... I kind of wish I were an avatar... want a tan? click here. New clothes? bing! what? weight issues - begone! Want your eyes to be a different shape? there are 59 to choose from! and eye color? okay - let's see... brown, green, blue, hazel... okay - they have 24 to choose from, maybe they're not so concerned with reality.

Did I just say Reality? of COURSE they're not concerned with reality! Because in reality I can't just try on 80 hair styles in 24 colors to see what I want to look like today. Of course, if I could... I probably would. True story - I'm just like that! I would tell you how many hair colors I experimented with in the HS days... but my kids sometimes read this :)



in just SECONDS, I could be ANY of those people... maybe...

F.Y.I. - in the amount of time I wasted trying to find a site where I could create an avatar (free was crucial) and actually be able to keep it to post... I could have gotten ready for a grand ball... of course, I couldn't have grown my hair out and changed my eye color...

with nods of acknowledgement to planetcreation.co.uk - even though I couldn't save my pouty looking girl with the 3-D glasses, zwinky.com - even though they don't like Macs, a bunch of others that didn't seem to work... sorry, for now you're stuck with Audrey :)