Archive for October, 2007

I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

October 31, 2007 at 2:06 pm · Filed under Family, Younglings

Raising three little boys is quite the experiment, I have to say.  Each one is sooooo different, so just when you think you have this parenting gig all figured out, a child does something completely out in left field.  Then what?  Pretend you’re a new parent again and figure it out.

Dallin has picked up a lot of words and sayings, especially from Aiden.  Because Dallin is only 2, I’m not quite sure he knows what he’s saying.  It’s really cute to hear him say things like, “Cool!  Let’s go check it out!” or “Bye!  Have a good day!”  but to hear him use some words over and over again… well, let’s just say I find it frustrating.  The most frustrating of all is the word “because”.  Dallin uses this word to answer just about any question, and 99.9% of the time it makes NO sense as an answer.  These aren’t questions like, “Dallin, why are you wearing only one sock today?”  These are actually questions like, “Dallin, can you turn the TV off please?”

Today, with the help of the word “because”, we had one circular conversation.  It went a little something like this:

Dallin:  (whimper, whimper, fake crying)
Me:  Dallin, are you crying?  What’s wrong?
Dallin:  Because I sad. (whimper, whimper)
Me:  You’re sad?  Why are you sad?
Dallin:  Because I crying.  (whimper, whimper, fake crying)
Me:  Okay, so you’re crying.  WHY are you crying?
Dallin:  (whimper whimper) Because I sad!
Me:  So you’re crying because you’re sad and you’re sad because you’re crying?
Dallin:  Yeah.  (whimper whimper whimper)

I finally just gave up at that point.  Oh well.  At least it’s a really cute fake cry and the most pathetic “I sad” you will ever hear.  He makes me laugh.

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Elizabeth Bennet

October 31, 2007 at 8:46 am · Filed under Books, Meme

Thanks, Alyson! This was fun.
I am Elizabeth Bennet!Take the Quiz here!

Comments (6)

Monday Night Madness

October 30, 2007 at 12:21 pm · Filed under Family, holiday

Last night was our ward Halloween party.  In church a few weeks ago everyone was handed a letter saying they were accepted to the Hogwarts School Halloween Celebration.  I helped the activities chair come up with a lot of ideas for the party (she loves Harry Potter, but doesn’t know Harry Potter), and I helped her plan the “big surprise”.  No one in the entire ward knew what the surprise was, except for us.

The guests arrived to find “house” tables set up and a “head table” (the entire activites committee were supposed to dress up as certain Hogwarts faculty members, but they ended up mostly just dressing up as wizards and witches).  One table even had the Whomping Willow!  Very cool!.  There were games set up at the sides, and on the stage was…

A band!  The band Ches plays in was the big secret.  The band’s name is Copper Rocket, and the entire band dressed up, too.  We had 2 Professors Snape (Ches was one… he looked HOT by the way!! wink wink), Tonks (She was so awesome!), Lupin, a Beatle, and some guys just dressed funny for Halloween.  They played about an hour’s worth of music, and they.  Were.  Awesome.  The entire ward loved them.  The singles ward was having an activity last night, too, and some people would pop their heads in to hear the band.  So many people danced, it was just great.  I couldn’t be more proud.

There was trick-or-treating, and my kids LOVED that the best, I think.  Aiden was Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi (he was very specific about this), Dallin was Batman, Parker was a frog (so cute!), and I was Professor Trelawny.  I think I looked pretty awesome.  Ches liked my costume.  However, not enough people are that familiar with the books or the movie, and I think most people thought I was just some kind of gypsy fortune-teller.  Oh, well.  I was pleased with my look.  My favorite thing was when a kid who was dressed as Harry Potter walked by I would start saying things like, “Oh, dear boy!  The seeing eye knows!  The GRIM!!!!  THE GRIM!!!!  Death is in your future!!!”  The people who knew who I was found it extremely funny, anyway.

It was crazy getting everyone ready for the party, and it was crazy trying to keep up with everyone.  At one point I figured if my kids weren’t on the stage with the band, then it’s all good.  I never got a chance to sit down and eat dinner (someone stole our seats!!  Even though I had all of our stuff right there on the table, designating those spots were taken), and because I was holding Parker all night I didn’t get any pictures.  Not one.  I’m pretty upset because I wanted some pictures of Ches in the band (which they introduced themselves not as Copper Rocket, but as “Copper Rocket, or better known as Brother Chocolate Phoenix’s Band”.  They called themselves “Brother Chocolate Phoenix’s Band” all night.  They were funny.) and because we all looked so cool.  Oh, well.  Perhaps I’ll still actually dress up on Halloween night. :)

All in all, it was a fun night.  The kids stayed up way too late and ate too much candy (including stealing their bags and eating candy for breakfast before I woke up!), so it must have been a success, right?

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An Open Letter to a Certain Band Parent

October 29, 2007 at 9:10 am · Filed under Mr. Universe, Rant, music

Dear Band Parent,

Thank you for your concern about your child and the future of the band under the direction of Mr. Chocolate Phoenix.  We understand you are concerned and that you take issue to a few of his policies, however we must clarify a few things for you.

First of all, if money is, was, or has EVER been an issue as to your child’s participation in the marching band, we wish that you had contacted Mr. Chocolate Phoenix or the Band Boosters right away.  Mr. Chocolate Phoenix’s policy has ALWAYS been that money should never be a deterrent in participation.  There are ways to make it work.  However, you have not paid any of the fees for band this year for either of your children.  I understand that money is tight for you.  If you want to compare notes sometime, I would be glad to go into battle with you on that.  Please don’t lay out your entire budget for the principals and band booster president.  It’s not necessary.  Just let us know that money is tight.

Mr. Chocolate Phoenix told the kids on Friday if their shoes and gloves were not paid for, they would not be marching on Saturday.  At no time did he say if all their fees weren’t paid they wouldn’t be getting on the bus on Saturday.  Get your story straight.  By the way, if you want help paying the fees, have your kids participate in fundraisers.  Your husband wearing a funny hat for the 50/50 raffle at football games just doesn’t cut it when you owe in excess of $300 per child!  Your children didn’t pay for band camp.  That was paid by the band boosters.  Quit complaining about money and DO something about it.  Marching band isn’t a free ride.

As far as the “fun” going out of marching band… the past teacher may have been a fun guy and a friend to the kids, but he sure wasn’t much in the way of a teacher.  The job of Mr. Chocolate Phoenix is not to coddle the students and make them feel good about their performances, no matter how aweful the performance was.  His “drive for perfection, perfection, perfection” as you call it is merely his pushing the kids to live up to their potentials and put a quality marching show on the field.  It is a hard show, and the past director wrote the music.  Music the kids can’t play.  You would think that a man who taught these kids would know how to write for them, but no.  Apparantly he’s too busy trying to make himself look like a master composer when the reality is that the music is waaaaaaaay over the kids’ heads and it really isn’t that well written.  Mr. Chocolate Phoenix and his staff has made numerous changes to the music to make it playable, and they have had to spoon feed it to the kids.  The staff has to teach the marching band the very basic of basics because it apparantly has been skimmed over in the past.  Would you like the kids to go on the field and make themselves look like idiots because they can’t march in a straight line when need be, or would you like them to put out something of quality on that field?

At no time in rehearsal has Mr. Chocolate Phoenix told the kids to “walk it off”.  If a student was having a severe asthma attack, as you assert there has been numerous, he would not shrug it off!  This man is not an idiot and he is not out to put the kids in danger.  There is no extra exhaustion from running.  The kids ran ONE lap around the track.  They do more than that in PE.  If your child had a petit mal seizure for the first time since 8th grade, I do not believe it is from running one lap.  It sounds to me like your children exaggerate what is going on in band and are trying to play the pity card.  Your daughter spent most of band camp whining and complaining of her ankles, often sitting out because she couldn’t handle the marching.  Yet at the dance on the last night of band camp, she was on the dance floor the entire time, wearing extremely high platform shoes, kicking up a storm.  Where were her weak ankles then?

The reason the band looked so “small and dispirited” when they walked out on the field at ASU band day is because that is exactly what they are… a SMALL band!!  I don’t know where you got dispirited from.  I only saw that after they performed their show and couldn’t keep it together in the third part.  Maybe 4 kids were playing.  No one knew their music or their drill.  Mr. Chocolate Phoenix almost stoppped the band to get them to restart at a point they could play and finish their show.  Of course they were dispirited from that!!  Mr. Chocolate Phoenix had spent the entire MONTH on just that part, yet no one was willing to put in the effort to learn this difficult music!  It is not Mr. Chocolate Phoenix’s fault that it is a small band.  As you stated, the district “split the band” when they opened the new high school in your district.  That had nothing to do with Mr. Chocolate Phoenix.  Also, the band had to perform after two very large bands.  That was the time given to our band, and it is unfortunate they had to follow the groups they did.

Band is supposed to be fun.  Yes.  However, it is also a time of learning.  A time to cultivate talents and perfect a craft.  Music is something that demands perfection.  My husband doesn’t demand perfection.  He demands the kids to play to their ability and fulfill their potential.

DO NOT call for my husband to be fired unless you want a real war on your hands.  I will not stand for someone to speak ill of my husband when he is working his ASS off and spending more hours with YOUR children rather than his own 3 young sons because he is trying to rebuild a program and get rid of the bad habits of the previous band director.  If you want someone to make your kids just feel good all the time, you’d better check out of life.  The real world isn’t going to always be on the side of your kids and always tell them they are so wonderful when they really aren’t.

Oh, and the conversation where Mr. Chocolate Phoenix said he knew he was doing his job right because he was “pissing people off” had nothing in the world to do with you.  No, he did NOT look right at you.  You were not in that conversation.  You do not know what the conversation was actually about.  As far as all of you previous complaints… you never took them to Mr. Chocolate Phoenix, so he was blissfully unaware of them until now.  He only knows of these complaints because the band booster president was kind enough to let him know an email had been sent and it seemed pretty serious.  He has not been infromed of anything in the past. 

Get over yourself.  Look at the big picture and you might just see what kind of a teacher Mr. Chocolate Phoenix really is.  I do not say this just as his wife, but as a collegue.  I have worked with him and under him in music in the past.  Very few of the teachers I have worked with show the dedication that he does to his groups.  He is an excellent teacher with an excellent track record.  He will build this program to something it has never been before, and the students will love him and the parents will love him.  If you have problems, maybe you should take your kids out of band.  It sounds like they are used to being coddled and protected by mommy, so let them keep it up.  I feel for them when they move on to their adult lives and find out what the world is really like.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Chocolate Phoenix

P.S.  If you really want to make a difference in the band program, why don’t you try showing up for a band booster meeting once in a while????

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Mi Casa es Su Casa

October 24, 2007 at 4:17 pm · Filed under Friends

I got the BEST surprise this morning.  One of my closest friends from Reno is in Southern California and she was supposed to be going to San Diego for a few days.  Because of the fires, she obviously isn’t going.  So she looked up the distance and realized from her dad’s place to mine is only about 4 hours!!  So she called to see if she could come visit and stay the night with us. 

Uhhh, YEAH!!!!

I did a dance around the living room (making Parker and Dallin laugh), then called Ches’ office and left a giddy, crazy sounding message, complete with silly giggles.  I am SO excited to have my friend and her daughter come visit!!  YAY!

On a sad note, I am sorry for all those who have had to evacuate their homes in SoCal.  I’m sure it’s a scary thing, not knowing if your home was destroyed or not.  And for those who are there and haven’t had to evacuate yet, my home is open if/when you do evacuate and you don’t know where to go.  It may be a little further drive than you’d like, but we’re open!

Now, back to cleaning this office so Ly’ has some place to sleep tonight. :)

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Dumbledore Outed

October 20, 2007 at 8:34 am · Filed under Books

J.K. Rowling has made it official and has outed Albus Dumbledore at a recent event in New York.  Many people are shocked by this, for a variety of reasons.  I am one.  I didn’t see any of the supposed subtle hints that others have mentioned.  Mabe I’m just really slow on the uptake.  Or maybe I just wasn’t looking for that and don’t really care. 

You see, what does it really matter?  Does Dumbldore’s sexuality have any kind of repercussions in the Harry Potter series?  Not really.  The man Dumbledore was in love with was his good friend Gellert Grindewald, and while that blind love affected Dumbledore’s actions as a young adult, I don’t see it as a big deal about his sexuality.  It’s not like you see Dumbledore hitting on any of the male professors or his former students or anything.  It seems like there are many people who are afraid that being homosexual means hitting on young boys or being completely driven by sex.  No, my friends, that would be pedophiles and sexaholics. 

So, ultimately, Dumbledore is gay, it’s going to affect more crazy religious people to try banning the books, but to me it just doesn’t matter.  Personally I look at the character of a man, not his sexuality.  It has nothing to do with me.  Dumbledore’s character is definitely something to emulate.

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I Am An Expert, So Listen To Me

October 19, 2007 at 12:10 pm · Filed under Books, Family, Review, TV, movies, music

I’ve become fond of a lot of new things lately, and of course I have wanted to share my new interests with you guys.  I just haven’t had a ton of time to sit down and write a post about everything.  I just got Parker down for a nap and Dallin is busy watching “Cars” (yes, I use the TV as a babysitter.  Ya gotta problem with dat????), so I’m just going to tell you everything now, in one big post.  And we all know how I think I am always right, so you have to listen to me.  So there.

While at Disneyland, Ches and I got one of the Star Wars pictures done at Star Tours.  It’s taken me forever, but I finally have it so you can all see it.  It think it’s just plain awesome.  I love showing it off. :)
Padme and Annakin
Let’s all pretend that is actually my body, okay?

*****

My sister, Erica, met some musician guy on the “T” one day.  She sent me a link to his MySpace page so I could listen to the music and give her an opinion.  All she could tell me was it was some kind of jazz, she thinks.  Well, I checked it out.  And so should you!!  This guy’s name is Thomson Kneeland and he is an acoustic bassist.  His music is heavily influenced by jazz, but he has a wonderful juxtoposition of jazz and world music with some 20th century thrown in there.  It’s different, but it’s SO good.  I absolutely fell in love.  My favorite piece has to be “Moja Tesknota”.  It just rips my heart out.  It speaks to me.  So go here and see what you think.

*****

When my sister, Lura, was visiting in August or something we decided to rent a few movies to watch.  We actually ran out of time for “Miss Potter”, so I’ll have to try that one again, but we did get to watch “The Holiday“.  It has Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Jack Black in it.  Lura and I loved this movie.  We could only describe it as “delightful” or “lovely”.  Yes, it’s very predictable and very cheesey, but I thought it all worked really well.  I’m not normally a Cameron Diaz fan, but I think she worked well in this one.  Kate Winslet is one of the greatest actresses out there and is so beautiful with her “real” looks and body type, so I always enjoy watching her.  Anyway, I don’t care what so many critics have said.  I loved it and I could watch it again and again.

*****

I have had enough.  I am sick and tired of people asking me when the baby is due.  I’M NOT PREGNANT!!  I hate all this fat and the large (very large) number on my scale.  I’m on medication for my thyroid now, so it’s working normally and the doctor said I should find it a lot easier to lose weight.  So here’s my plan.  On the advice of family members who have done the diet and lost a lot of weight and kept it off, I am starting the South Beach Diet.  The first two weeks look like they are the hardest, so I’m kind of easing myself into it right now.  I’m taking two weeks to get into it, then I’ll do the actual first two weeks.  It’s just really hard for me to suddenly not eat ANY fruits or breads or pastas…  After the first two weeks I will be slowly introducing the “not allowed” foods back into my system.  On top of the diet, I am walking everyday.  Either to take Aiden to school or to bring him home.  Well, on the days that I babysit I drive partway there because right now it’s just too hard for all 5 kids to walk that distance.  I’d really like to walk Aiden to and from school, and maybe that is something to work towards.  So… we’ll see how it works!!!  I want to be Skinny Sariah again.  It may never happen, but being Fat Sariah is killing me.

*****

I am totally loving Facebook.  I started it out just to see what the big deal was, but now I am totally addicted to it.  Mostly because of Scrabbulous.  I also have Tetris on there (which I am a master at!) and I love seeing all the cool stuff that people come up with.  Yes, it is a time suck.  I just keep it open all day and whenever I get a moment I will stop in and check on my Scrabbulous games or perhaps I’ll carve a pumpkin (I did a really cute one this morning with a tie and a nametag for my brother who is leaving in December on his mission to Philidelphia) or I’ll work on the TV Show Quiz a bit.  I’m trying to get Ches to open a Facebook account, but he says he doesn’t have time for that right now.  Plbbbbbt.  If any of you are on Facebook and are not in my friends list, let me know and let’s be friends!  If you don’t have a Facebook account, go ahead and get one and let’s be friends!  Come to the dark side!!

*****

My new favorite TV show is Ace of Cakes.  It’s on the Food Network.  The show is all about extreme cake guy Duff Goldman and his shop in Baltimore.  Of course it’s not all about Duff.  He has tons of his friends who work for him… none of which are trained in cake decorating or whatever.  They are artists or architects… things like that.  But the cakes are SO cool!!  One of my dreams is to go to Baltimore and drop into Charm City Cakes and get a cake done by these guys.  Duff always says at the beginning of the show they they “make it bigger, make it badder, make it awesome.”  (Side note, for some reason I always expect him to say “awesomer”, even though that isn’t a word.  I’m such a dork, huh?)  Anyway, it’s always fun to see what crazy things they can make.  When I was making Aiden’s birthday cake I said to Ches, “You know, if you ever decide that being a band teacher just isn’t the thing for you, let’s open up a cake shop.  Because it’s not a bakery we don’t have to work at 4 in the morning.  We can have the hours WE want.  And it’d be SO fun, huh?”  His response??  A chuckle, followed by, “You’ve been watching too much Ace of Cakes.”  Oh well.  I still think it’d be a good idea.

 *****

My kids are so precious!  I have to share my new favorite picture of them, even if you have already seen it on Flickr.  I didn’t pose them like this.  They really and truely were like this, so I ran to get the camera.  Aiden is reading to his little brothers before bed, and Dallin and Parker are just eating up every word.
Reading Time

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This Is A Story About A Girl

October 18, 2007 at 7:55 am · Filed under Books, Observations, movies

I know this girl who started dating this guy recently.  Nothing too serious now.  Still very early in the relationship.  Anyway, she tells me what a nice guy he is and the get along pretty well and he treats her really well… all about how nice he is.  They went to a movie recently.  A chick flick.  He didn’t complain once, and she thought that was a good thing.  The movie was “The Jane Austen Book Club”.  Things are going well, I suppose.  They’re sitting there in the theatre, probably eating some of the popcorn and reading the trivia on the big screen as they wait for the previews to start.  Then, just before the lights go down, the guy turns to the girl and says,

“Was Jane Austen a real person, or is she just a character?”

What do you say to that????  After you pick your jaw up off the floor and have regained the ability to speak again, that is.  The girl reassured the guy that yes, Jane Austen was a real person and they watched to movie.  (BTW, I have no idea if it was a good movie or not.  She never did tell me.)

Next, the girl asked me, “Is it bad that this is really bothering me?”  This is a really intelligent girl who is a literature buff.  My response?  “Yeah, there’s no future.  You’re gonna have to dump him.”

I kinda feel sorry for the guy, but honestly.  How do you not know if Jane Austen was a real person???

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Walking, Concert, Migraines

October 3, 2007 at 1:57 pm · Filed under 3 Beautiful Things

1.  Today was some big “walk to school” day.  So I made sure we got up early enough and I pulled out the monster of a double stroller we have, and out the door we went.  We walked Aiden to school today, and it felt really good to be out walking!!  At school they gave every kid (and whoever was with them) that walked to school a small orange juice, a donut, and a cool pencil sharpener.  I want to make it an everyday thing, this walking to and from school, but it’s still pretty hot out.  I got home and couldn’t wait to hop in the shower.

2.  Ches’ first concert of the season was last night.  It wasn’t bad!  Ches made it out to be like it was going to be a miracle or epic proportions for it to come together.  There were some really good things happening last night, and I was happy.  He seemed pretty content with most of it, too, so that’s good.  At the end of the concert, the band council presented Ches with some flowers and said they appreciate all the hard work he has done and that they think he’s doing a great job.  With that said, the band students jumped to their feet, applauding and yelling.  I saw some parents do the same, and that made me really happy.  There are tons of problems there, but they are starting to appreciate him.  yay!

3.  For some reason I have been getting a lot of headaches lately.  Huge migraine headaches.  At least once every day.  So I am thankful for a husband who is more than willing to pick up the slack when I’m in bed, in the dark, groaning out of misery and pain.  I am thankful for ibuprofren, even though it doesn’t work half as well on me as it does on other people, at least it helps so I can function.  Migraines suck, but I have a couple of helpers, and I appreciate that more than anyone will ever know!

Happy Wednesday!!

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What to Read??

October 1, 2007 at 4:09 pm · Filed under Books

Alrighty, all my bloggin’ buddies (I was going to combine those two words, but then it came to “bluddies” and that just sounded weird).  I need more books to read.  I need suggestions.  So… I would like you to tell me 1) Your favorite author; 2) Your favorite book; and 3)  A good book you have read recently that you would recommend.

And April, talking about your husband doesn’t count. ;)   We all want to read his book and I bet he’s awesome.  So you have to give me something else.  Heh.

Okay.  Books.  Go.

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