sights that warm my heart #1

I know I'm behind on blogging and I'm sorry. I have been busy and every day I try to start a post and get distracted. I have other things I want to say and other pictures I want to share, but tonight I wanted to start a new series I've been thinking about called "sights that warm my heart." Every once in a while I see something that makes me stop and remember how happy I am. It is rare to have a camera on hand at that precise moment, so I'm not sure how many of these I'll be able to do, but here's a start.

Tonight I went and saw Scott play a show with Paul Jacobsen & the Madison Arm at a quaint little art gallery in Salt Lake. It was the perfect setting for PJ&tMA and they played incredibly -- dynamic, energetic, personable, tight. When Scott plays guitar (when he's sitting down) he always crosses his feet like this. It's one of the first things I noticed about him when I'd see him perform or practice when we were dating. Now when I see this familiar sight it makes my heart happy and overwhelms me with that nostalgic giddy feeling of young love. I love seeing him play music and am so grateful that he has such great friends who help bring that out of him.

the washing machine ate our socks

I know this is an age-old excuse to explain the pile of unmatched socks that every family inevitably acquires, but it's true. Today my beloved washing machine got sick, and I paid $130 to have a guy come clean out the drain. This is a sampling of what he found, in addition to a gross mangled sock and about a measuring cup's worth of unidentifiable muck (not pictured). The good news is in the end the visit will only cost us $104.51 due to the amount of money recovered (assuming I can reasonably clean it up and a store or bank will take it). Guess I need to do a better job of checking the pockets. And now I know how to clean out the drain.

In other news, Scott neglected to mention the best part of Oliver's halloween costume: his autograph.
He asked me to teach him his autograph so that when he's dressed up as a bike rider/motorcycle rider he could give it out. He actually got pretty good at it and took a sharpie and pad of paper to school with him and handed one out to everyone. Man this kid is funny.


Also, Lisa asked me to post these links. Here are our interviews with Stephanie almost exactly a year ago:

Nienie's interview with Scott

Nienie's interview with Sarah

Halloween-Best Day Ever? or Please Never Return Again

Halloween - Best Day Ever:
Not only did I have a great reason to leave work early and hang out at home, but we were going to carve pumpkins and get ready for trick or treating!
Halloween - Please Never Return:
What ever happened to Jack-O-Lantern? You remember Jack, he looked like this -

eyes, nose, mouth, just what you need to get the job done.

well folks, say adios because Jack has been downsized and replaced with this:

brenden's pirate ship pumpkin

seriously? do you have any idea how long this took to do? dont get me wrong, Brenden started it....guess who finished it?

needlessly elaborate.

Jack, we hardly knew you...


Halloween - Best Day Ever:
The kids look great in their costumes. I mean, cmon how great is it to see them all dressed up. And what a fantastic photo opportunity.


Halloween - Please Never Return:
Photo opportunities inevitably lead to meltdowns. Here we watch as June devolves -

sarah tries to put june down, apparently her legs stopped working

here we see June immediately before she put her face down on the concrete
i was however, able to use this for a laugh from the boys when i threatened to squash the bug with my foot
(not a big hit with June)


and finally, fully sprawled out on her back

Halloween - Best Day Ever (silver-lining edition):
The great 2008 Juney Halloween Photo Session Meltdown did, within but moments, turn into this -


she even threw in a leg trick, to increase her presentation score! -


Halloween - Best Day Ever:
The Robertsons, our neighbors from across the street, hold an annual neighborhood Halloween BBQ.

june on her way across the street to the party

The whole neighborhood turns out, lots of kids on bikes and running around. It was great.

Halloween - Please Never Return:

They only serve hot dogs, chips and root beer at the party, so while many of us were well fed, Sarah-not so much.

Halloween - Best Day Ever:

Trick or Treating! While the boys were off like lightning to gather as much candy as possible, it took June a while to get the hang of her first real trick or treating experience.

While Oli is already on his way, candy in hand (not bucket, guess who was carrying that - file under please never return) June was slightly apprehensive about approaching Dracula for candy, even if Dracula was only a 13 year old Kyle Howard, and he was wearing jeans.
June also didn't like the fact that I kept putting her candy in the basket. She clearly supposed that I was running some sort of child labor scheme, sending my kids out to do my candy bidding, only to take a hefty percentage off the top.
She also couldn't understand why every candy tasted the same, like a plastic wrapper. She tried, but she just couldnt get through to the good stuff.
As the night progressed however, she caught on and before long she was eager to continue and get more "da-doos."
We are pretty sure that she decided that due to all the "thank-you's" we insisted on when the candy was offered, surely these treats must be called thank-you's.
So she would get the candy, run back to us, point and say "da-doo." Whatever works I say, I mean, it's free candy!

Halloween - Please Never Return:
Wardrobe Malfunctions. While none of our children had any Janet-esque flashing incidents, we did have our fair share of costume ordeals.
First, Oliver was supposed to be a motocross rider, but seeing as we turned down his request to ride his motorcycle from house to house, he decided that he was dressed as a bike rider wearing motorcycle rider clothes. What he didn't tell me though was that bike riders wearing motorcycle rider clothes usually only wear their super heavy helmets for 15 minutes or 5 houses, whichever comes first.
Lucky for Oliver though, I was dressed as a Dad who is willing to carry costume cast-offs and buckets (see above), so win-win.
Brenden was a great sport, despite the fact that he was wearing a wool coat, wool pants, and a stack of over 12 hats, the bottom of which was a wool hat.
Not only was he super hot and itchy all night, but he had to constantly hold on to that stack of hats to keep it from falling, all while being essentially choked by a stuffed monkey draped around his neck.


Halloween - Best Day Ever:
Look how pretty Sarah is in my grandma's old sweater! Apparently she dressed up as a super hip, super hot mom.


Well everybody, that's all for this way-to-long Halloween wrap up. I think in the end we will celebrate Halloween again next year. It was on thin ice a few times last night, but all in all, a success.

oh wait, there is one more thing, I think this would be filed under both categories. After about 20 houses, with their buckets only half full, all the kids were ready to go home. Sarah and I did our best to motivate them. Keep going! Free Candy! but alas, they were ready for home. Stranger still, when we got home, brenden went upstairs and took a shower on his own, then came downstairs and proceeded to practice piano on his own without a single word from us whatsoever.
All of this prompted me to ask Sarah what she had done with the real brenden.


and finally, for Rachel - Halloween flashbacks

chris peterson and i as either 1.luke skywalker or 2. karate guys. in both cases we were also dressed as guys who's moms used bowls as tools during haircuts.

sarah and annee oct 89. annee is either assistant devil, or possibly assistant to the devil. sarah is either I Dream of Jeannie, a more run of the mill Genie or part of one of those weird kids groups that dances near the foodcourt in the mall around christmas time.
either way, they both have too much makeup on.