Aiden loves to watch videos on You Tube that other people have made. Specifically, he loves home made Star Wars movies. He has been wanting to make one of his own,so I let him at it today. This is his finished result. (Rest assured, I’m sure there will be many, many more.)
Archive for July, 2008
Alias
We’ve been married for 10 years, 2 months, and 24 days. Last night I learned something completely new about Ches. I had NO idea, and I NEVER would have expected this.
Ches gives out a fake name when at restaurants and the like. He is so tired of the same conversation whenever he makes an order. It goes a little something like this:
Ches: I’d like a Venti Hot Chocolate and a blueberry muffin, please.
barista: Your name?
Ches: Ches.
barista: Chet?
Ches: no, Ches.
barista: Jeff?
Ches: No, Ches.
barista: Chase?
As you can see, this can go on for a while. So he started giving a fake name.
barista; Your name?
Ches: Ricky.
Apparantly, he just says the first name that comes to him. He said once it was even some hispanic name. Yeah, because he looks like a Latino! heh. He said it’s just easier and no one ever makes a mistake with Joe or Andy or something. He’s just really surprised I haven’t been doing it most of my life.
Seriously, I had no idea. This is so not like him. It’s just cracking me up. He’s actually a really funny guy, but most people don’t get to see this side of him.
Memories!!I
I want to play, too! So…
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.
Vacation or Staycation… Whatever. It’s all a Schmaycation to Me.
Normally I love to read up on everyone’s posts and see what you’re all up to. I love to see the pictures of your families and adventures, whether posted on blogs or on Flickr or Facebook. Whatever. It’s great. But right now.. I respectfully ask all of you to quit having such a good time with your families.
Yup, I’m jealous.
While you are all out camping and hiking and going to museums or the beach or visiting family or even having family visit or whatever else you are doing this summer, you know what we’ve done this summer?
We sat at home. The kids have watched a lot of movies (they now know every word to “The Sword and The Stone” and you can often hear them singing “In and out, lean and stout, that’s what makes the world go ’round.”). The kids played video games for a little while, but the XBox is dead and we don’t have the money for either a resuscitation or a new XBox (we’d like a 360, if we’re going to get something new. I’d like a Wii). Aiden has discovered all sorts of Star Wars videos on You Tube and Dallin and Aiden are both really good at the various games on lego.com. Parker can sing along to “Everybody wants to be a cat!” and makes light sabre noises when playing with Star Wars toys.
There have been no trips. Not to San Diego or to Preston or to Texas. Not even to Flagstaff or Prescott. It was a big deal when we went to Tempe last week to pick up a couple of things at Ikea. That’s as far as we’ve been. 20 miles to Tempe.
We have not seen any of the blockbusters this summer. We did take the boys to the cheap theatre last week to see “Horton Hears A Who” (which all three loved, by the way), but this summer has been a “Ches MUST see this movie” kind of summer, and we haven’t been able to see a single one. Not even Iron Man, which opened on our anniversary.
We still haven’t celebrated our anniversary.
No one has come to visit us, so we can’t take them anywhere. Well, we can’t go anyway, I guess.
We haven’t been to the Zoo or the Science Museum or to the Hall of Flames Fire Museum or the Mesa history museum which has lots of cool dinosaur stuff. We haven’t been to the wave pool at Kiwanis Park or to the big water slide/pool play place that some of my friends got summer jobs doing catering at so they could get in for free with their kids. We haven’t even just gone to Cold Stone or Dairy Queen for ice cream one day.
School starts on the 4th, so we only have one week of summer vacation left. What do we have to show for it? A big fat nothing.
So yeah, I’m bitter. I’m glad you are all having fun, though. When do WE get to have fun?????? Grrrrr. I’m just a little tired of this stage of life, if you can’t tell.
Permalink Comments off
Ways to Know You Really Are a Grownup
10. You get excited when buying your vacuum. So excited that you even call your younger brother and describe every detail of said vacuum and all of it’s functions, even though your brother just wants to hang up the phone to go out with his girlfriend.
9. You hear about the engagement or marriage of a friend and think, “Well, it’s about stinkin’ time!”
8. You have complained about the music kids are listening to these days as too loud and indistinguishable from any other music that’s out there these days.
7. The kids you used to teach or mentor are now all married and starting to having their own babies.
6. You sympathize more and more with you mother and all she went through when trying to raise you and your siblings.
5. You have answered a question from a child with, “Because I said so, that’s why.”
4. You look at the clock one night, notice that it says 10 pm, and exclaim, “Oh my gosh! It’s so late! I gotta get to bed right away if I’m going to be able to function at all tomorrow.”
3. You have referred to current university students as ”kids”.
2. Your dream in life is to own a nice refrigerator and your own steam cleaner.
1. You have talked with your friends about the state of “kids these days” and you’re referring to teenagers, not to 5 yr olds. And the “kids these days” don’t know how good they have it in comparison to your teenage years.
Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?
I got a new calling at church a couple of weeks ago, and last week was my first week. I’m the primary chorister, although I tend to think “song leader” is a bit more appropriate of a title. I’ve never done music in primary before, and it scares the heck out of me. Getting ready for Sunday felt like my Elementary Music Methods class at University of Idaho. Basically, I was trying to come up with a lesson plan to teach a new song that all the kids would enjoy and would be able to learn from. All the kids means all 120 of them!!! Argh!! scary.
This Sunday, in addition to learning the song, I want to do a fun activity for the 20 to 30 minutes I have in Singing Time. When I was a kid in primary we would sing “Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?” and I just loved that song. The summer my parents separated my mom took the three of us kids with her to live with her dad and stepmom in Kelowna. My grandpa’s house was this huge place, on top of a mountain (or so it seemed to 6 year old me) that over looked the Okanagan lake. That summer (and the summer I was 10 and got to visit my grandpa all by myself while my mom and stepdad were on their honeymoon) had many afternoons of sitting. looking over the lake, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ogopogo. I swear I even saw him when I was 10, and I stick to my story today.
I still remember going to primary that summer when I was 6 and during Singing Time getting to sing the Summertime song. Then the leader asked all of us children what WE liked to do in the summer, and she replaced the regular lyrics with what we said. One kid even said he liked to look for Ogopogo in the summer.
(I’m going to steal the idea and do this activity with the kids this Sunday.)
I was thinking today of the different things I used to do as a kid during the summer. Once school got out, it seemed like summer was the best time of life. In California we rode bikes all over town. We climbed trees. We’d play soccer in the backyard and baseball in the street. We’d go to Thrifty and get ice cream cones for 25 cents. We would walk to Grandma’s house to play cards and to go swimming. In Maine we’d walk to the local swimming pool, or my best friend would take me with her to the lake with her parents. In Wyoming we’d go to the Frontier Days parades and pancake breakfasts and carnival. In Norway we went camping and sightseeing and once went fishing in the fjords. In Arkansas we’d walk to the park and meet up with friends. In New Hampshire we would walk across the street and down the path to the beach. In Indiana we would walk to the library, the park, friend’s houses, downtown. We’d play in sprinklers, on the slip-n-slide, or just use the hose to drink from. No matter where we lived, our summer activities were basically the same, and they were always spent outside for the majority of the time.
My kids stay in the house and watch movies or play on the computer. We go swimming almost every day, but almost no time is spent just outside, running around. We have this huge, grassy, common area right in front of our house, and some evenings the kids go outside to see if any of the neighbor kids are out. It’s pretty rare, though. We have a playground practically across the street, but we’ve only been 3 or 4 times since we’ve moved in. My kids don’t own bikes, and they don’t know how to climb a tree. They don’t get to walk to the closest grocery store or convenience store for ice cream treats. We haven’t been camping since Aiden was Parker’s age, and we just don’t have the money to travel to see relatives like I did when I was a kid.
What is wrong with their summers??? Summer was supposed to be the most enjoyable time of the year for kids! What happened?
Oh, yeah. We live in the desert of Arizona. It’s frickin’ hot out, and we can’t stand to be outside for more than 30 seconds. I took Dallin to the doctor today, and from the second he got out of the van, he started complaining of how hot he was. Don’t start with all the “Oh, but it’s a dry heat!” business, because i have to tell you, 115 is hot, not matter how humid or how dry. Yes, it’s beautiful here in January, and we spend a lot more time outside here during the winter. However, it’s just not summer. Winter time is full of school activities. You don’t get that freedom that comes with summer.
School starts in just two weeks, and I have to say I’m really happy. Aiden will finally have something to do. He will make friends, and in just another 2 or 3 months it’ll cool off enough for the kids to go out and play after school. And maybe we can see about getting some bikes. I feel bad that my kids don’t get the awesome summers of freedom that I had as a kid. I know there are tons of things we could be doing that doesn’t involve melting in the heat, but again. Summer is supposed to mean outdoor freedom, not structured trips to indoor, air-conditioned places. I’m going to mourn this for a while, I think.
