Oops! I Did it Again!

Yes, it's true. Once again, I forgot I had a blog. Today I was sitting at a red light on State Street in Orem at the intersection of 1200 North and out of the blue I thought "Crap! I have a blog! I haven't written anything in days!" So here I am, penitent again. I sure hope I can make blogging a successful habit.

Okay- summary of the last 2 weeks. Jonathan- end of term- all A's again! Loves to go to Oak Canyon home basketball games. Shovels snow a lot. Skiing- twice so far this year. Has experienced changing clothes in the locker room for PE and survived! Nolan- got glasses. playing basketball (and made a basket in today's game), making pinewood derby car (must be ready to race on Thursday). Skiing- once so far this year. Developing monster-nasty attitude! Dan- nothing new (oh wait, I lied, Dan bough 20K worth of SII stock yesterday... hope it goes up or he'll have to put off retirement to compensate for lost money). Laura- Trek kick-off meeting done! 51 bridal shower invitations handmade and delivered! Pioneer dress- in progress, but let's not blog about that now. Laundry- in progress. Mom and dad have been here. They think Utah is miserably cold. My Zurg friend played with a mushroom and is now terribly sick (events are not related).

Dan is Spaciously Gifted (in some instances)

I took down all the Christmas decorations, beginning on January 1, 2008. I did 99% of that work myself. I got them nicely boxed up (done 100% by me)... and reduced the number of boxes of holiday carp by 2! It took both Dan and I working as a team to figure out how to get the tree back in its box, but we succeeded! I inventoried the boxes so I actually know what is in them come next December. Most important is that I remember that the "December First to Christmas" countdown ribbon is in the metal popcorn tin.

Today, I convinced Dan that this was the day to get the boxes out of the living room and down to the basement to the "closet under the stairs" and to the "little room". I told Dan that I was far too much of a weakling to haul the tree down the stairs. He rose to the challenge like a man. Heave! Ho! and Down the stairs it goes! Up and down the stairs we went, hauling the 20+ boxes. Then Dan began his magic.

See, while Dan cannot efficiently or effectively pack a suitcase, or put clothes in his dresser, he does wonders when it come to a car trunk or a closet. I told him where in the "closet under the stairs" the tree went and then Dan took over. When it was all said and done, every Christmas box was stored under the stairs except for the 3 that I told him didn't go in there and the box full of Christmas books (because I told him it was too heavy to be stacked on top of boxes with fragile items inside!). Last year, I put all the boxes away. When I got out all the Christmas stuff this year, I got lots of stuff out from the "closet under the stairs" and lots of stuff from the "little room". Dan was definitely more efficient at storing all the boxes than I was because now I have more room in the "little room" to store more useless carp... unless I choose to use that newly found additional space for food storage... now that's a thought.

The Most Boring New Year's Eve Ever

Yep, December 31, 2007 will go down in the history books as the most boring New Year's Eve ever! We actually motivated the boys to get their work/stuff done by 3 p.m. We bribed them with a late lunch/early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. We made it to Sweet Tomatoes 5 minutes before the lunch pricing ended. Jonathan ate his usual 1/2 kids tray of plain pasta, 8 pieces of pizza, and 2 huge bowls of mac and cheese (how/why he loves that stuff, I just don't know). Anyway, after lunch/dinner (lunner?) we went home for a couple of hours. Around 7 p.m., Dan announced it was time to go see his parents. Whatever. So we went. We got there and Parley and Bona were watching the "Live from Lincoln Center" broadcast of the New York Philharmonic with Joshua Bell as the violinist. We sat there in relative silence until 9 p.m. When the concert ended, we went home. What a visit. We got home and had a Mario Kart Double Dash 4 player All Cup Tournament. I'm proud to say that I came in second once and third place 15 times! Dan won one race and came in last 15 times. Jonathan was the family champion by 1 first place victory over Nolan. This, of course, enraged Nolan who took the Poor Sport title as the threw a lovely tantrum. After the tournament, we finished watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (it only took us 3 nights to watch the movie). After the move, there was still more than 20 minutes until midnight. I fell asleep. I was woken up. We watched the ball drop. By 12:02 a.m., Dan, Nolan and I were in bed Jonathan went outside to "run around". He also filled his collection of 20 ounce soda bottles with water and jumped up and down flinging the water out of the bottles. He was back inside by 12:05 a.m. and in bed shortly thereafter. And that was New Year's Eve.