Sunday, March 30, 2008

Isaac's Future Plans

Isaac and I had a nice little chat tonight about his goals and interests. Here's what I learned:

What he DOES NOT want to be when he grows up:

  • Factory Worker
  • Construction Worker (like Bob the Builder)
  • Light Bulb Maker
  • An American Idol (this came up because Morgan has recently decided that she does want to be on American Idol when she is old enough, Isaac however said, "Mom, I don't really like singing".)

What he DOES want to do:

  • Work at the front desk at the Courtyard Marriott in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has it all planned out. He'll take his kids there, let them swim in the indoor pool while he works at the desk, then when he's done working he'll play with them for a while in the pool then they'll all go back to their room (I'm guessing that means they'll live at the hotel too). As you might guess we stayed at this hotel a few weeks ago when Morgan had a gymnastics meet in Indianapolis. Isaac had a great time swimming in the tiny indoor pool and as we were driving home he said he was going to take his kids there when he grew up (not Disneyland, not the beach, but the Courtyard Marriott in Indy...what a vacation!). Apparently now he wants to work there so he can take his kids there every day :-).
  • Race Car Driver (convenient--he can hit the Indy 500 track on weekends when he's off-shift at the Courtyard).
  • Swimmer...one who swims in races (he just finished swimming lessons and he's pretty jazzed that he can now swim across the pool unassisted)
  • Baseball Player (interesting because he chose not to sign-up for t-ball this year)
  • Photographer (Excellent! Now I can justify a digital SLR camera purchase..."Honey, it's not for me, it's to encourage Isaac in his interests and dreams" :-).

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Tagged by Angela


What is your Hubby's name? Brent

How long have you been together? Our first "date" was in 9th grade, February of 1987, 21 years ago--yikes, I've never done the math before, that's a lot of years. We weren't together that whole time (a lot of ons and offs in between...but that's another much longer story). We've been married for 14 years this summer. ***I hope you noticed the cheesy Peter Cetera track I added to go along with this post...Brent dedicated this song to me on the radio back in 1987. Aww, he was such a romantic 14-year-old :-)!

Who said I love you first? Is this crazy, I can't remember!?! I'm sure it was Brent (not my style to go first) but neither Brent nor I can recall when it was first said. This is especially funny since we had at least two (and possibly 3) "first times" to say I love you (since we were together 3 different times before getting married). Pathetic!

Who is smarter? Um, me of course :-). Okay, really, Brent is a math whiz, he puts me to shame in that category. He's also very diligent in studying and can ace any test if he can prepare (like the CPA exam and the GMAT). He can learn how to do anything--not just school related, but how to build and fix things too. I think I'm better at language arts and critical reasoning. We are both pathetic spellers (thank goodness Morgan somehow got my sister, Angela's, spelling genes).

Who does the housework? Brent helps a ton, he usually gets the laundry washed and dried and I do most of the folding. If you ask him what bugs him most about me it would probably be that I am very slow to put away the clothes in my clean clothes basket. He often does the dishes after dinner. Brent's very organized, his closet is frighteningly immaculate. We attribute this to the years spent folding clothes at the Gap in high school and college. He's great at de-junking the house when it starts to drive him nuts--he'll get the bug to organize and watch out, he's unstoppable. I do more of the deeper cleaning (along with the help of the 1x a month cleaning crew), but Brent helps a lot with the picking-up and tidying and day-to-day organizing.

Who sleeps on the right? Me, because it is closest to the door and the kids. While Brent is helpful in many ways, hearing the kids at night or waking up to help them when they cry out is not one of his strong suits.

Who pays the bills? Mostly auto pay on the bills, but the overall tracking of finances has been my job for the last 14 years and FINALLY just this month Brent took over, YAHOO!

Who cooks dinner? Usually me, but Brent is happy to jump in if I don't already have something going.

Who drives when you are together? Always Brent, I don't like driving when we're together. Because he isn't used to me driving, on the rare occasion that I do drive he's a nervous wreck, and an awful passenger. This gets me off the hook for driving on many a long road trip :-)

Who is more stubborn? Ha, these are my answers, so I say BRENT (I'm sure he'll disagree...but then again he never reads the blog so he won't protest :-).

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first, in 9th grade on the steps of the Pioneer Memorial Theatre at the U of U after a Ute basketball game. I believe he was the 3rd boy I'd ever kissed. I seem to remember he was wearing Polo cologne and chewing Big Red gum...there was probably a Vanillaroma air freshener in the car afterwards. Those smells seem to go along with any memory of kissing in my youth.

Who proposed? He did - he was so nervous that night, we were at dinner before he proposed and his palms were so sweaty. He had to excuse himself to the bathroom about five times. I had a clue something was up because he was acting so strange--but I was thrown off because there was no sign of a ring in his pocket. We walked to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square in downtown SLC where his brother and sister-in-law had been sent to hang the ring from a tree for me to find. Once I'd discovered the ring he bent down on one knee and proposed. I wanted to cry, but couldn't, but the onlookers did :-).

Who has more siblings? Me - I have 5 sibs, he has 2 sibs.

Who wears the pants? Hmmm, I'd say it's a joint democracy. Although Brent's trained the kids to say that I'm in charge.

Per Angela's request I tag Sheree and Bekah...and Lisse too!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Spring Break or Christmas Break?



Yes, this is really a picture of the kids out in the SNOW today...yes today, EASTER. The first day of Spring comes and goes and what do we get? 9 inches of snow! All of you California friends can just stop your snickering now. I'm in no mood to listen to it. I realize we should be spending Spring break setting-up patio furniture and wearing capris. But NO! We'll spend Spring Break sledding, building snow forts, and whacking icicles off the side of the house.

The good news is I just bought Morgan a new snow coat on clearance for next year and now she doesn't have to wait a year to use it.

The even better news is that as much as it is fun to complain about the lack of a Spring, truthfully the kids are having a blast in the snow--and if the kids are happy, mom's happy :-). We went sledding yesterday and they got to try out the huge toboggan like thing they made with all the neighbors--it actually made it 1/2 way down the hill at a descent speed before they all fell off. Ethan was committed to learning to snowboard despite repeated tumbles and falls. Surprisingly he did a pretty good job and was quite pleased with his own efforts.

So while this winter is dragging on, and we'd love to see some sunshine, at least we have fun snow to play in which is much better than cold and rainy or just plain cold. I'll just keep on listening to the music of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (IZ) (who I have on the iTunes right now) and reminiscing about laying on the beach in Hawaii last year this time! Oh happy memories :-)!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

And the Silver Medal Goes to...MORGAN!


Today Morgan competed in the State Gymnastics meet for Level 4 gymnasts. In order to participate all gymnasts had to qualify by earning a qualifing score in an earlier meet--so the competition was tough. Morgan pulled through with a stellar performance--her best of the season! It's been a goal of hers to earn 9.0+ scores in all four events. She was close at a few meets, but one of the 9s always eluded her. Today was the day she was working so hard for, all 9.0+ scores! What a great finish to the season and a great final performance of her level 4 career (she'll now move up to level 5 and all new routines).

She placed 2nd on Vault with an amazing 9.725 score (2nd only to her own teammate who edged her out by .025). She placed 6th All Around. She was all smiles and so excited! Her scores were...

Bars 9.200 (7th place)
Beam 9.025
Floor 9.075 (10th place)
Vault 9.725 (2nd place)
All Around 37.025 (6th place)

Her team took 2nd place.

I realize I'm bragging, but I'm just so thrilled to see her end the season on such a great note (and so happy to see her so proud of herself).

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

How Fast Are Your Fingers?

Found this fun little game on Melissa's site. Angela, I'm anxious to see your speed, you always had such fast fingers...

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