Monday, December 15, 2008

Mint-Day 2008

For the last 5 or 6 years, my Grandma, Mom, Aunt, Sister, girl Cousins and myself get together a couple of weeks before Christmas and spend about 8 hours make chocolate mints. Every year we regret not taking better notes the year before and screw up a batch or two. Every year we end up with more wasted chocolate than we did the year before. Every year we gobble up more of that wasted chocolate than we did the year before. And every year, without fail, it snows like crazy on mint day.

With so many women and so much craziness in one spot, you would think the men would keep their distance. And they do, with the exception of one; my Dad.

Two years ago, he ran around in the treacherous snowy conditions trying to find the perfect stamp so that we could display "Hand Made with Love" on every box of chocolate.

Last year, he took specific lunch orders for each woman and again weathered the storm to assure we were all properly nourished.

This year, he perfected the ruler used to make the cuts in the chocolate and found some type of gripper thingy to help hold it in place- oh, and he got us lunch again.

All the while, he sits there quietly with the ever-so-often witty comment, just being with us.

I am not sure if he actually eats any of the chocolates, so his purpose in being there is not to indulge in the sugary snacks. So, why, you ask, would any man put himself in the position to hang around with so many women; taking orders, fixing things and being subjected to women gossip?

I think he really just likes us.

I am wondering if we would ever successfully get through mint-day without the help of my Dad.

Thanks for everything Dad! I love you!

Friday, November 21, 2008

She's related to her Father.

Ky has a favorite day of the week and it happens to be Friday because that is show-and-tell day at school; apparently a very exciting day.

She always asks me "Mom, is it Friday today?"

I respond with "No, it's Wednesday."

She then says, "Will it be Friday tomorrow?"

I say, "No, then it will be Thursday."

So she gets mad at me and says, "Mom, you never let it be Friday!!"

Yes, all things are my fault.

Anyway, so we pick out this cute outfit for her to wear on her favorite day: Black dress, red turtle neck and red tights (Yes, the UTES are playing BYU this weekend, it's festive). As I am finishing my morning routine of getting ready I tell her to get her show-and-tell, put her coat on and put her shoes on- and we are off. We get to her school and she hops out of the car and all I see are BROWN shoes! UGH!

"You really put on brown shoes today?"

"Yes, mom."

"You are wearing a black dress, why didn't you put on your black shoes?"

"Cause I'm wearing a brown coat, that matches my brown shoes Mom."

Well, I guess I can't argue with that, sounds like something her father would say. ;D I should pay better attention.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Tribute...


This Veterans Day we would like to thank Jerry C P, Kevin L B, Jerry L P, Anthony M, Carlos R, Matt S for their service in the military. And we also want to personally thank all Men and Women who served in our Nations Armed Forces past, present and future. You are truely the meaning of the word Hero. Your dedication to our Country does not go unnoticed.

Thank you for your dedication and for keeping us safe!

Having a Father who served 25+ years in the Air Force taught me what I know about being a true patriot. Although at times he may not have agreed with the nations direction he looked beyond that and realized that his job was not to complain, bicker or pout about the state of our Country; his job was to dedicate his life to protect the United States of America. Thanks Dad! We Love You!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Spiders

So, aparently it is past time for us to have our house sprayed for spiders.. cause I keep seeing them all over the place. Ugh!

As I awoke on Monday I found a shoe next to me.

I asked Kylie, "Why am I sleeping with a shoe?"

She responds with, "Cause there was a spider on your bed so I was going to kill it."

I said. "Well, did you get it?"

She says, "No, by the time I got the shoe it had crawled away."

A SPIDER was in my BED! A SPIDER is probably still in my BED! My bed is suppose to be my sanctuary, dammit!

So then I spent the next 30 minutes in a hot scalding shower trying to kill whatever may be hiding in my hair!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Yin & Yang

They say opposites attract but geez, sometimes they are annoying as hell!

Dan loves his mornings, I (I'm Laurie, BTW) do not! There are many things I adopted from my parents which I still live by (I know, crazy huh?), sleeping in is one of them. Dan usually makes it a point however to take that away from me, wanting me to tackle the day with him, ugh!

Well, today was no exception of me wanting to sleep in. After staying up late to watch a movie, then being up even later with a sick Kylie, I had no intention of getting up before 9:30 this morning. To my surprise, Dan shut the door to the room so the dogs could not bother me and I would not hear the roaring of the TV or music. I thought, wow! perhaps it is because my birthday is in a couple of days, or because he appreciates the fact I took care of the sick little one last night... either way, I was pleased that he cared so much for me to let me sleep.

As Dan entered the room I became slightly coherent and asked him how Kylie was doing. He responds with "She is laying right next to you, that is why I shut the door- so the dogs would not wake her."

Hmm, well I still appreciated being able to sleep in today. Thanks Ky!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Joys of Public Transportation


I ride public transportation to and from downtown Salt Lake City pretty much each day of the week, riding the Fast Bus is actually quite enjoyable, UTA uses nice coaches to shuffle mostly business people to and from downtown, the stops are limited and the service is quick. Riding the bus it takes about an hour to get from South Jordan to downtown Salt Lake City, driving takes about 40 minutes. I spend 40 hours a month locked in a steel tube traveling down the freeway at 65 MPH, here is what I can and cannot accomplish in 40 hours:
- I don't single-handedly release 1000 lbs of CO2 into our atmosphere
- I do catch up on sleep
- I don't spend $150.00 in gas.
- I do enjoy my coffee in the morning
- I don't stop at the gas station to get doughnuts and/or a Monster Energy drink
- I do catch up on email
- I should do my homework
- I do read the newspaper before I get to work
- I don't spend $30.00 a month on maintaining a vehicle.
- I do come home not stressed from driving
- I can't go golfing at a moment's notice
- I do get to make faces at other drivers as we fly past them in the carpool lane
- I do catch up on reading
- I can't stop to use the facilities because I drank a pot of coffee right before I left work
- I learned to empty the bladder before getting on the bus
- I can farmer blow on the window and have someone else clean it up but, I don't
- I don't put 1083 miles on a car in a month

Don't get me wrong, there are cons; on public transportation I get to deal with these types of people:

- Mr. Talks-To-Air - even with headphones on, you can still hear his side of the conversation
- Mr. Needs Personal Space - I'll sit in the aisle seat, just so no one will sit next to me.
- The Mannequin - once I sit down, I'm staring at a fleck of dust in the window till I reach my stop.
- The Speed Reader - After I spent untold amounts of money on the Rocket Reader program, I am determined to show off my newly found talent: reading my book cover to cover before I get off the bus
- The Sleeper - I fall asleep as fast as possible and try to wake up as close to my stop as possible, sometimes missing my stop completely.

I fall into the last 2 categories, although I haven't missed my stop yet.

Most importantly, 98% of the time, work leaves when the bus does, so I come home relaxed and ready to spend time with Laurie, Kylie and the dogs, this reason alone is reason enough to ride public transportation.

Monday, October 20, 2008

The 70 pound protector named Kota.


When I was a child my Dad used to put me on top of the refrigerator. It was suppose to freak me out but eventually became play time with Dad.. oh such memories.


So, Dan is having play time with Kylie tonight and in re-living my memories, I tell him to put her on the refrigerator. She screamed at the suggestion but the closer she got to the top of the refrigerator, the harder she laughed.


Once Kylie was up there (still laughing her head off), Kota started to growl. As Dan looked down at Kota's reaction she starts to bark at him. We look at each other like, "Did that really happen?". A couple seconds later Kylie is in Dans arms on her way back up to the top of the refrigerator and sure enough, the hair on Kota's back is on end, tail stuck straight up and she is barking at him again.


We will forever be safe as long as our Kota is there to watch over us.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Anyone have about 40 minutes?

As 5 year olds do, ours has a unique way of understanding everything perfectly...

Kylie joins us in the kitchen to spark up conversation about her new finding of the "clock" in the bathroom.

"Hey Mom, you know that clock on the floor in your bathroom?"

"Um, yeah."

"Well I am forty minutes!"

Oh, how would it be to not have to worry about any extra "minutes" you might have?

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Church + Paper + Crayons = Embarassment


It's been approximatly 10 years since I've been to church on my own willingness. Kylie has been asking about it lately so I took her last Sunday, being 5 years old, I brought a pen and paper with me to help entertain her while I took a nap. OK, so I didn't nap...

Ahem, while I was paying attention to the pastor, yeah that's it. A couple ushers saw Kylie's interest in coloring so they brought her a few crayons and MORE paper.

I glanced down halfway through the service and saw her drawing frantically, she was drawing a person with what looked to me like three legs, trying not to be a dirty minded person, I was a little uncomfortable with the drawing. I leaned down and asked Kylie who she was drawing and she said 'A person'.. Hmm, interesting.. I left it at that, still a little uncomfortable..

After service we got home and a proud Kylie showed her picture to Mom. Mom did what I didn't want to do.. Mom says "Why does this person have 3 legs?"

Well, lets just say this..

- It wasn't a leg.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Did that just happen?

You know, it's the little things we take for granted in life. Here is one such example:

As we were leaving for Disneyland to surprise Kylie for her birthday. We were waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the terminal. Finally, a shuttle pulled up to our stop, I could barely notice a passenger inside the shuttle waving frantically at us, my mind began to wonder who this apparition was. Was it someone I worked with? Was it a weirdo? Was it a neighbor? Was it someone Laurie knew? As we stepped on the bus, still concerned, I looked over and saw a familiar face and heard and heard an even more familiar voice said 'Hey', Kylie looked over and yelled 'Papa!'

Lookin back, what were the chances of that happening? Out of the hundreds of shuttles that run during the day, we jumped on the same one as Papa Payne.

Recycling


We all should know the importance of recycling our waste, but some people just DON'T get it. Case in point, I'm sitting in a Environmental Science Class, listening to ways to reduce our carbon footprint, when the subject of recycling plastic bags comes up..


Professor asks: How many of you recycle your plastic bags?


more than 1/2 the class raises their hands, at this point I was pretty impressed...


Professor asks a few people 'How do you recycle them?'


One person responds 'I recycle my plastic bags by putting the trash that is my car in them, then I throw them away'


Like I said, some people just DON'T get it.



CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

ahhh, it's about time. About 3 years ago, Laurie set out on an adventure; that adventure included hard work, dedication and a uncanny personality to get a long with others.

Laurie, we want to congratulate you on deserving your degree in Finance!


Now we can use that Finance degree to find a creative way to pay for it.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Goof Troop

Yup, here I am with Kylie; what a goofy lookin pair. Laurie always gets mad cause I can't do a real smile for a picture, this pretty much sums up our life; what is life, without the fun? This picture was taken at Disneyland California Adventure, we suprised Kylie with a trip there for her 5th birthday. We told her before we left on the airplane that we were going to get her birthday present, and it started with a 'D', she assumed it was a dog.... haha, little did she know.

Intro

Well, here we go. Let me introduce the 2 of the most important people in my life. My gorgeous wife Laurie, and our beautiful, 5 year old daughter Kylie. We all have life stories about trials, tribulations and triumphs; I want to share ours. Stories go unnoticed unless they are told, this is my medium to tell ours. I've been inspired by my family to do this, lets hope its successful.