Jinga's New Territorial Claim

I haven't been seeing much of the cat during the day.  I figured she'd found a new place to sleep the day away.  I found where she's been hiding...

When the "Big One" is away, Beijing will play (or sleep).  I wonder what will happen when Jonathan comes home for Thanksgiving Break and wants his bed back...

Procrastination Can Be a Pretty Sight

I've put off doing most of the fall "clean up the yard" work.  Yes, I pulled out the annuals and raked up the leaves, but I hadn't cut back the perennials, iris, gladiolas, lilies, daisies, yucca, or roses.  One morning last week, as Miles and I were outside waiting for his bus (because, evidently, waiting inside where there is heat isn't any fun), I looked over at the rosebush and saw something pretty.  The too-late-in-the-season-to-bloom buds that I'd been too lazy to cut off were dotted with frozen water droplets.  I thought they were really pretty.

Well, as of yesterday, those buds have gone on to "better place."

Miles Sings About Thanksgiving

How Miles Really Feels about Jinga

It's never been a secret that Miles does not like Nolan's cat, and the feeling between the two is mutual.  Jinga has expressed her dislike of Miles since he was just days old by hissing at him.  Five years later, not much has changed other than Jinga not having claws and Miles expressing his fear of the cat.  Currently Miles is so afraid of the cat that he freaks out if they are in eyesight of each other. 

Last night Miles ended up sleeping with me.  It was one of those nights where I really needed a second adult in the house... so many things going on that required my immediate attention and at 11 p.m., I hadn't had time to put Miles to bed so he slept with me.  This morning, I was awake in bed and in denial that the day needed to start when, in his sleep, Miles started laughing and then exclaimed, "Jinga is all dead!"  Wow!  What a dream he must have been having!  The joy emulating from his sleep-talk was eye-opening as well.  I must keep an eye on those two for the next while.

Vending Machine Heaven (for Dan, at least)

For me, a good vending machine will be stocked with all sorts of yummy temptations- Twix, Skittles, Gum, Almond Snickers, Milky Way Midnight, Peanut Butter M&Ms, etc. Even though I know vending prices are a complete rip-off, candy is always tempting, unless you are Dan.  Until last night, I thought that the only vending machine that would tempt Dan would contain varieties of beans, ketchup, high fiber tortillas, oatmeal, and Fiber One Bars.  However, last night we encountered a vending machine like no other.  It was a bike repair vending machine.  Seriously.  Last night we went and checked out a Mexican restaurant that moved into our favorite fast food place, about 10 years ago that is.  Monstros closed and Mama Chuas opened.  Our loyalty to Monstros kept us from patronizing Mama Chuas until last night.  Pulling up to the restaurant, it appeared that they had a Red Box machine in front.  However, as we neared the entrance, we noticed that the vending machine said "Mad Dog Cycles" on the front. 

Mad Dog Cycles is like Disneyland for Dan.  Upon closer inspection of the machine, we saw that its contents were 90% bike repair essentials (with Red Bull and energy bars and goo accounting for the "edibles").  Seriously, a bike repair vending machine?  Cool idea!  The machine is located near the mouth of Provo Canyon, which is a very popular cycling place, and pretty far from any bike shop.  And as surprising as a bike repair vending machine was, astonishing was its reasonable "in the middle of nowhere" prices.  So, what's inside a bike repair vending machine? 

Well, tubes ($8),

lights ($15) and batteries ($4-$6),

chain lube ($6),

chains ($23-$37) and a water bottle ($8),

and tire levers ($4) and a spoke repair kit ($12).

 

There were a few other bike essentials in there too, like a patch kit, but to list everything would be too boring.  Anyway, cool vending machine concept, especially if they added Peanut Butter M&Ms.

Joshua Bell Concert

Last night Joshua Bell, world superstar violinist, gave a recital at BYU.  Yes, BYU.  In the deJong Concert Hall.  Capacity 1,269.  Tiny hall for a megafamous virtuoso.  I found out he was coming and jumped at the chance to buy tickets to hear this master.  When I bought the tickets, I chose the "best available" option and was not disappointed.  We were row 1 balcony on the left.  I think the only better seats would have been the two seats to the right of ours.  Awesome view of both the violinist and his accompanist.  Not only was I excited about my seats, but the price was great too!  $47 to hear this master in the "best available" seats in the house.  Joshua Bell played 3 pieces... Tartini's "Devil's Trill" (one of Dan's favorites), a Beethoven Sonata, and selections from a Stravinsky ballet.  Such beautiful music!  So smooth.  Mesmerizing.  Sad when it ended.  Luckily, he played 2 encore pieces- a Tchaikovsky, and a Wieniawski.  But then he was done.  Well, sort of.  While his playing was done, he came out into the lobby of the HFAC and signed programs and CDs, shook hands, and posed for pictures.  What a guy!  His CDs sold out before we could buy any, so he signed 3 program for Dan and posed for this picture.

Great night!

A Mom and Miles Fieldtrip

Miles wants to know where we buy everything.  Literally, everything.  He wants to know where we buy toilet paper, milk, cars, shoes, "sofas", and the TV.  I told him both the sofa (I laugh that he calls it a sofa.  I call it a couch) and the TV at RC Willey.  Then Miles wanted to know what else RC Willey sells.  I told him beds, refrigerators, chairs, rugs, and just about anything else one may need to furnish a home (and a whole bunch of junk that no one needs).  Miles was psyched.  He wanted to go to RC Willey and check it out.  This past week, I took Miles to RC Willey.  He was amazed.  He opened about 30 refrigerators and 5 washing machines.  He sat in lots of chairs and checked out lots of desks.  He thought the store was fabulous.  He kept saying "take a picture" in front of everything he saw.

 He did have 2 favorites- the electric fireplaces (because evidently the 2 gas fireplaces we have aren't awesome enough)

and the pool tables. 

He was pretty insistent that we buy one, buy I held my ground and told him "no".

After about 90 minutes, Miles was ready to leave RC Willey.  Now he's bugging me to take him to Sears.  Ugh.

Puzzling It Out

Yesterday, Miles and I were looking at a set of animal/alphabet "flashcards."  Miles was flying through the cards, rattling off the names of the animals... alligator, beaver, cow..., until he got to the "N" animal.  Here's what he saw. 

He analyzed the card while scowling, trying figure out what "N" animal it could possibly be.  Finally he looked up and pronounced the animal a "Nizard" and continued on.

Oven "Fried" Onion Rings

A few years ago, Lynn made some baked onion rings that were really good.  Recently, for some reason, my mind recalled these onion rings and I wanted to make them.  All I could remember about Lynn's recipe was that he got it from America's Test Kitchen.  Well, a quick Google search landed me with the recipe.  I made them on Sunday and they were yummy.  I guess they are supposed to be healthier for you since they are baked, but I'm not sure that they really are.  Here's the recipe, slightly modified...

Oven "Fried" Onion Rings

Make rings out of 2 onions, make them thick!  Use the biggest rings... dump the tiny ones.

In one shallow dish, put 1/4 C flour
In another shallow dish, combine 1/2 C milk, 1 egg, then wisk in 1/4 C flour, 1/2 t salt, 1/4 C cayenne pepper
Blend 4 C Kettle style potato chips and 1/2 box of Triscuits and put them in a third shallow dish. 

Make the onion rings... coat a ring with flour, then dip it into the milk mixture, then coat it with the chips/cracker mixture. 

Place onion rings in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Add just enough oil to the baking sheet for a thin, even coating.  Bake on a lower rack in a pre-heated 425 oven for 15-18 minutes, turning once. 

Place on a paper towel covered cooling rack and eat.  Yum!

Jonathan's Concert

Jonathan is the principal clarinet in the Utah Campus Symphony at the University of Utah.  Their first concert of the year was last Wednesday.  Loved being able to drive up and attend the concert.  It's nice to be in a real concert hall (compared to a school auditorium).  They played fun music.  They sounded great.  I love being able to hear Jonathan play his clarinet. 

Below is the video of the Campus Syphony playing "Mars."  Jonathan wasn't overly impressed with the way they sounded, but I thought they did a great job!

Saturday...

Yesterday was a work day.  It was a beautiful day, pleasant and warm; which meant a "get the yard cleaned up day".  Lindon will haul away all your leaves if you bag then and drag them to the curb.  We removed 135 pounds of leaves from the yard- 8 overstuffed, big, black garbage bags full. 

Every year we do this, but this year I was a bit more annoyed about having to clean up the leaves than in the past.  My next door neighbor is a nice man with some quirks.  Back on October 28, I was getting the mail and he pulled curbside.  During the previous night, there'd been quite the wind storm.  So Mr. Neighbor greets me with, "So are you happy today?"  Not knowing what he was getting at, I replied, "Sure."  He then went on to say something along the lines of "Good, because the wind last night blew all my leaves onto your property and now you get to clean them up," and then he laughed and drove off.  I looked over to the part of our property closer to his, and sure enough, we had a mountain of leaves to deal with.  His yard was bare.  Mr. Neighbor has a maple tree and about 6 aspens planted essentially on the property line.  The trees magically slant onto our property.  Every year we are cleaning up his trees' leaves, but this year we also got to clean up the leaves that happened to fall on his yard and then were blown into ours.  I loved the way Mr. Neighbor acknowledged that his leaves were now in my yard and then laughed as he told me they were now my problem.  I do not get him.  Sometimes he's such a nice and kind man, and then at times he's so rude, whiny, and weird.  So, leaves were the Saturday morning project. 

Saturday afternoon I decided to deal with the storage room.  Storage rooms are a good "idea" but take quite a bit of discipline to keep them organized.  The room had turned into a "chuck the stuff on a shelf and shut the door" kind of place.  It was time to sort it out.  I made a huge mess doing so.

However,several hours later, multiple trips to the trash can and recycling cans, and tons of stuff boxed up for DI, I put it all away.  The room is organized.  It looks "nice" for a storage room.  You can walk into the room without needing to follow a path... you could dance in it, if you wanted to.  It feels so good to get "stuff" organized.

While I was battling the storage room, Dan took Miles on his first fishing trip.  That gave me hours of uninterrupted work time.  As my organizing project was entering the "clean it up phase" I heard Miles come in.  I called to him and he came downstairs.  He brought his "friend" with him and was so excited.  All I could think was "go wash your hands!" 

He loved his catch.  He decided that it needed to go swimming. 

Guess there's a tub that needs to be disinfected now.  Miles' friend is now in a more appropriate place... in the freezer with his other buddy.

As a reward for the manual labor day, we watched 3 episodes of Duck Dynasty.  Great way to end a day!

And Today in Pre-School...

Miles learned about root vegetables.  Did you know that sometimes we eat the roots of plants?  Did you know that we can grow these vegetables in our gardens?  Miles does.  He came home from school today all hot to plant carrots.  He grabbed a shovel and asked for some carrots from the refrigerator.  He ran outside to "grow carrots".  First he tried digging holes in the grass, but finding that difficult, he decided to plant his carrots in the garden.  He planted 4 baby carrots, about 1" of each in the ground.  Then he filled the watering can and thoroughly watered his carrots.  Finally he came inside and told me that it was time for his carrots to grow.  He played inside for a while, then we ran errands.  As soon as we pulled into the garage, Miles said it was time to pick his carrots.  He hurried outside and harvested his baby carrots.  He was so proud of his carrot growing "skills".

Sometimes Only One Word is Necessary...

Busted!!!

5 Year Old Check-up

Today Miles had his 5-year old physical.  Evidently he's extremely average.  He's in the 51st percentile for weight (40.8 lbs) and in the 52nd percentile for height (43").  The pediatrician commented that obviously Miles is a good eater since he's growing so well; I laughed.  We discussed his anxiety, but didn't come up with any real solutions other than possibly meeting with a neuropsychiatrist to help figure out the root of Miles anxiety.  I think I'll wait on that suggestion.  Miles got 4 shots today... his kindergarten shots (MMRV, DTaP, and Polio) and a flu shot.  He didn't even cry! 

A Rediscovered Food!

At the breakfast in the hotel in St. George, Miles decided that he wanted Strawberry yogurt.  Once upon a time, he loved yogurt, but he hasn't eaten it in years.  I opened the yogurt for him and he just stared at it.  He decided he wanted candy instead.  Dan told Miles that he had to taste the yogurt in order to have candy.  Reluctantly, Miles licked some yogurt off the spoon.  Then he kept licking the yogurt!  He ate about 2 spoonfuls of yogurt before he decided that he'd had enough.  He took the open yogurt back up to the room.  We were packing up and Miles said he wanted to take the yogurt home.  I told him that he couldn't take it home because he didn't have have a lid for the container.  Enterprising Miles found a solution... the "lid" from the drinking glasses in the room and turned it into a lid for the yogurt!

In the car on the way home, Miles decided he wanted to eat the yogurt.  Hopefully, a new trend has started.

Here's Miles on the way home from St George after a hydration stop in Fillmore.  Happy kid... Coke and his "iPad",

Oh Yeah, Nolan was in St. George Too!

Nolan hung out with the marching band the entire time.  I think the extent of face-to-face conversation I had with him in St. George was
Me:  "Hey, nice show."
Nolan:  "Thanks"
Me:  "Call me tomorrow morning when your guys leave."
Nolan:  "Okay"
Me:  "Bye."

Here's the hottest bass drummer in the THS band at the Red Rocks Competition.

More Marching Band St. George Trip

There's nothing like getting back from Las Vegas late, sleeping terribly, then having to be at the Saturday competition at 8 a.m.  THS put on their best show of the year at the last competition.  A great way to close the season.  After they finished, we decided to go to Zion National Park.  The park in the fall is beautiful.  We went on a hike to Upper Emerald Pools.  Miles walked the whole way!  The Upper Pools were really pretty with still waters with great reflections of the rocks.  People were enthusiastically snapping pictures until Miles started throwing rock and leaves into the pools creating ripples.  Whatever.

After the hike, we went over to the Virgin River to let Miles throw some rocks.  He also enjoyed throwing leaves.

Funny thing of the day... it was 75 degrees or so in Zion... a beautiful day!  We got on the shuttle to take us down canyon and this guy gets on the bus and he obviously thought it was frigid outside.  Where could this man be from that he needed to wear a fur-lined hat with ear flaps?

St George Marching Band Trip

There's nothing like getting to get up at 4 a.m. to take Nolan to THS for their St. George marching band trip, especially when that day is the day after Halloween.  Ugh.  Luckily I got to go home and go back to bed until 6 a.m. when I had to get up to drive to St. George.  I wasn't planning on going to St. George for the competitions this year, but Dan decided to take Friday off from work and join us on the adventure (which wouldn't have happened if he didn't take the day off).  THS competed at 11:15 a.m. on Friday.  As soon as they finished, Dan, Miles, and I left for Las Vegas.  We decided to live dangerously and eat lunch at place that I've heard about from several friends, Hash House a Go Go.  The Hash House doesn't serve food that I typically eat and the portions are huge.  We decided to try the Chicken and Waffles (no, thank you) and the Roasted Red Pepper and Mozzarella Burger (and next time I will read the details about the burger and learn ahead of time that it comes with 2 patties).  The burger was actually really good (but oh, the indigestion!).

After lunch we drove over to the strip and took Miles to Adventuredome inside Circus Circus (boy, that end of the strip is a real dump).  I thought Miles would love the rides.  He was pretty straight faced on the carousel, the hot air balloon Ferris wheel, the kiddie coaster, the airplanes, and everything else until he went on the swinging pirate ship ride which he loved.  He went on that ride 3 times and his smiles got bigger each time. 

After rides and rides and rides, we took Miles upstairs to see a circus act.  Miles saw the slot machines and went nuts.  He really wanted to play them.  We kept explaining that you have to be 21 to play the slot machines, and it took forever to get that message through to him.  Finally at the end of the night he was saying that "When I am 21, I will play slot machines, poker, and bingo" to which I added, "and you'll have to use your own money so you'll have to get a job." 

Around 7 p.m. we went for a walk on the strip.  We watched the volcano erupt at the Mirage, then walked over to Max Brenner's inside the mall at Caesar's Palace.  While I wasn't hungry at all, we had dessert at Max Brenner's.  I told the server that Miles wanted vanilla ice cream.  She brought him out 3 huge scoops of ice cream and he ate it all.  He told us it was "delicious". 

After he ate everything he could scoop, he drank the melties. 

We headed back to Circus Circus and Miles went on one last pirate ship ride before the drive back to St. George.

Funny note... the hostess at the Hash House had an interesting shirt on.  From it back, it looked like she was wearing the world's longest thong... an over-the-shoulder variety!

Halloween 2013

Miles was really excited for Halloween.  Several weeks ago, he decided he wanted a Batman costume.  He never deviated from that decision.  He did try on a few accessories though!

For the first time in 3 pre-school Halloween days, Miles happily wore his costume to school.  I also was finally able to help with his class Halloween party.  In the past, if I came into Miles' classroom, he'd start to cry.  This year, that wasn't a problem.  I wore a witch hat to the party and when Miles saw it, he decided to be Witch Batman and took the hat from my head.  His class party was the "best"... making haunted houses, playing Bingo, crawling through tunnels, snack, and playing "Operation".  After the activities, the kids sang and had storytime. 

After school, Miles was anxious to go Trick-or-Treating.  Nolan took the first Trick-or-Treating shift with Miles and them dropped him off at the house when he found some of his friends out getting candy.  Nolan decided that 14 wasn't too old to Trick-or-Treat so dressed as Santa, he went out begging.  Miles wasn't through getting candy though so Dan took Miles out again. 

At the end of the night, Miles was thrilled with his candy, but so tired!