The Colorado Times, Issue 1

We headed to Colorado for Fall Break.  It's the first family vacation we've taken since Millie was about 3 months old -- she turns 3 years old in two months.  It was time to get the heck out of Dodge.

So we left the heat (yes, it's still in the 90s here in good ol' AZ) and went to the mountains.

It was a good choice.

We stopped and had some vacay time with my sister and her family.  It just so happened to be the weekend my nephew Trenton was baptized and my parents and my two brothers and their families all came.  We had a lot of fun with everyone and loved watching sweet Trenton on his special day.

On the trampoline



Josh with Abby, Teagan, Emma, and Millie




Abby asked for an extra picture so she could pose.  Vogue!


We also were introduced to Kid History.  Have you seen these?  A family with at least 4 brothers has told family stories to their kids so many times that the kids can retell the story.  The adults then take the kids' narration and dialogue and act them out.  My description does not to do it justice.  You much watch it to completely get it.



This one is good too.



There are six episodes and I highly recommend that you watch all of them.  Highly.  And if you don't begin quoting it, we may need to reevaluate our friendship.

Randay!!!  Randay!!  Randay!!!  Randay!!!  Randay!!! Randy?

Bye-Bye Bah

Millie is getting to be a big girl.  And it's time for her to give up some of the things that Mommy has let her hold on to.  Millie has been our baby for nearly 3 years now and it has been hard for me to tell her to give up her Bah, or pacifier as most people call it.  She's so cute with it and I know it gives her comfort. 

But it's time to say bye-bye.

Last night Millie slept without her Bah for the first time ever.  She slept through the night okay, but the sadness of being denied her Bah was difficult for about 20 minutes before she fell asleep.  The look on her face was priceless and my heart broke as I wondered if she thought I had kidnapped her best friend.  It was the look of true sadness.  I tried to hug her and comfort her, but eventually she just wore herself out.

Tonight she asked me again where her Bah was.  Actually, she said about two or three sentences worth of words but I couldn't understand any of them.  I just kept reminding her that we said bye-bye to her Bah.  Then I wondered if I should let her literally say good-bye to her Bah. 

We went downstairs and I grabbed her Bahs (three of them) from the top of the fridge (the only place I can keep them where she can't reach them) and told her we needed to say bye-bye and throw them in the trash.

I instantly had the notion that I was being too harsh.  Was it mean to have her throw them away rather than some cute "give them to babies" sort of thing?  Millie was crying and said she didn't want to say bye-bye.  I was dying inside and asked Josh what we should do, especially since she was making that face again!  I held her in my arms with the other kids standing around watching Millie struggle with becoming a big girl and Josh telling me of a book about giving pacifiers to baby horses. 

I turned to him and asked if he thought I should let her have her Bah until I could get a copy of this book when suddenly Millie threw both of her arms up the air and yelled, "OK!  I say bye-bye to Bah!!!"  The five of us stared at each other in shock as I held out the Bahs to Millie.  She took them one at a time and threw them into the garbage can.  When she finished she yelled, "I did it!!" and the rest of us cheered with her. 

We all began laughing at the sudden turn of events.  I began crying (shock) and Matt began laughing so hard he cried too (actual shock)!  He told me that he's never been prouder of his little sister than at that moment.  Millie went upstairs and on her way she pointed to the top of the fridge and announced, "All gone!" 

Yep.  they're all gone.  Our baby is becoming a Big Girl!

Border Woes

In case you didn't know, when you travel along the roads in the southwestern US, and you are close to the Mexican border, you pass through Border Patrol Checkpoint Stations. 

It doesn't matter that I'm a legal US citizen.  Nor does it matter than all of the people in my vehicle are US citizens.  I get a bit intimidated by the whole thing.  There are working dogs, men with guns, the whole sha-bang.
So when we go to visit my parents and have to stop at one of these checkpoint areas, I automatically sit up straighter, use words like "yes sir," and hope I don't say something stupid.  Because they don't check my I.D.  They ask me questions.





Today we visited Mom and Dad for Labor Day.  And on the way home tonight I was asked, "What nationality are you?"  I immediately replied with my answer, but couldn't help but wonder as we drove away, What if I'd gotten mixed up and nervous and said the wrong thing? 




So now that all of these thoughts have come into my head, next time I visit my parents I'm going to be thinking extra hard about what my answers should be.  Not because I'm lying, but because I don't want to say the wrong thing!

Date Morning

Most people will shout for joy when they get to experience Date Night. 

When you live with a night-shifter, your schedule goes a bit caddywhompus.  There are all sorts of things you do differently.

• We eat dinner early (5 - 5:30pm) so he can eat with us before he leaves for the night.
• Days off are not real days off unless there are at least 2 scheduled in a row.  Otherwise the day off is overshadowed by his need to sleep and recover from working the night before.
• Doctor, dentist and other appointments must be carefully scheduled around sleep-time, not work-time.
• Cleaning the Master Bath and/or Bedroom is tricky when he's sleeping during the day and your cleaning capacity functions better before dinner.
• AND, Date Night is rarely an option.  A much more viable option is Date Morning

So this morning, at about 9am we headed off to our date.  First, we went bowling.  In case you didn't know, East Mesa, AZ, is notorious for housing senior citizens.  And this just happened to be where the bowling alley was located.  We pulled into the parking lot and I was surprised to see it so full of cars. 

I had no idea so many senior citizens bowled together on Monday mornings.




Josh and Millie bowling together


We were easily the youngest people there by at least 30 years.  The group next to us was probably in their 70s.  But, man, did those old people know how to have fun!

Every time Millie bowled, she'd turn around and start jumping and yelling, "I did it!  I did it!"

Josh is a good bowler.

That's right.  I had 5 gutter balls.  And this was my best game.  What of it???

I am not.

After that we decided to grab some lunch and then head to the new LDS Gilbert, AZ Temple. 

It's still very much a work in progress, but it was really cool to stop by the Visitor Trailer to see so many of the plans of what it will all look like sometime in 2013. 

The tall spires are the elevator shafts.  They stand 53' high.  The Angel Moroni will cap the temple at 193' high, an additional 140' above the elevator shafts.  It's hard to understand how grand that will be from the pictures because it's hard to understand how grand that will be even when you look at it in person.

And a temple only 15 miles away from home!  How great will that be???

And that, my friends, is a Date Morning.  We got home in plenty of time to then separate to run different errands, but it was a wonderful morning while it lasted.

#30 30 Day Movie Challenge

#30 A movie in the theater at this time last year

We went to the movie theater a few times last August.  I remember this because I had to look up which movies were in the theater.  But I really didn't care for any of them.

But a few months ago Josh and I got a movie from Netflix that came out last August.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

This is kind of a weird movie to end this challenge with.  It's a much different movie than any of the others I've listed.  And it's a bit of a weird movie anyway.  I wouldn't just go ahead and recommend this movie, but I did like it. 

Scott Pilgrim must fight off the evil exes of the girl he likes in order to be with her.  And because it's based on a graphic novel (meaning a comic book type novel and not porn, which is what I originally thought that term meant) there's lots of psychedelic oddness to the movie. 

It's just very different, quite weird, and somehow enjoyable.  But I don't know that it's one that everyone will like.

#29 30 Day Movie Challenge

#29  A movie from your childhood

So many of the movies I've already listed are from my childhood.  I watched them for years and grew up loving them.

So, one set of movies from my childhood that I absolutely loved (and still do), but haven't mentioned yet....

The Muppet Movie

This includes all forms of the Muppets: The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Great Muppet Caper, and the newer movies like Muppets From Space and A Muppet Christmas Carol.  Plus the newest of the series which is coming out this Thanksgiving, The Muppets.  Pretty much, any movie with the word Muppet in the title is going to be a good movie.  And very quotable.

Watching these movies takes me back to my childhood.  And watching my children love these movies just creates moments of pure joy.

And this clip is from The Muppet Show, which is not technically a movie, but it made me laugh.  My mom and dad still tell the story of me making us all watch The Muppet Show every time it was on.  And if you need something to do, watch all the related videos.  They are all so worth it!

#28 30 Day Movie Challenge

#28 Favorite movie adaptation of a book

In 8th grade we had to read

The Outsiders

I thought it was a good book, especially considering that it was written by a girl only a year older than I was at that time. 

But then I found out who starred in the movie.

Matt Dillon.  Ralph Macchio.  Patrick Swayze.  Rob Lowe.  Emilio Estevez.  Tom Cruise.



It's one of the few movies I've seen that stayed very true to the book.

#27 30 Day Movie Challenge

Another two movies in one night.

#27 A movie you wish you had directed

There's really only one movie that comes to my mind for this category.  A near-theatrical spectacle.

The Phantom of the Opera

 

The topic of directing takes me directly to the theatrical stage.  After all, my senior thesis in college was to direct.  And I loved it. 

I thought the film direction of Phantom was actually very good.  The vibrancy of the lighting, the costumes, the characters.  It's an over-the-top production, which is what you would expect an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical would be.  It makes me miss my days living in the theatre. 

I love Minnie Driver in this, btw.