Tim's Project Announced At Last

People are always asking me what project Tim is working on and I can't tell them because I don't know myself until it is officially announced by Disney.  Disney made their official announcement today and you can check out the Trailer here

Tim called from work to have me show it to the kids and he had fun listening to their excitement over phone.  Luke asked to watch it 3 times!  I think this is by far the coolest project that Tim has worked on since starting at Disney.  So excited!!!!! 

Meet Sarge: Epic Fail

My best Christmas was the year I got my cat Charlie.  I'm pretty sure that jumping up and down and squealing was involved.  I do not remember anything else about that Christmas except my new kitty cat.  Fast forward 25 years and I thought I could recreate my Charlie Christmas for my kids.  By my title I'm sure you can see where this post is going.

Our next door neighbor's have a mini schnauzer, Gizmo, that we tend for them when they go out of town.  My kids LOVE this dog and Claire and Luke carry around a stuffed animal that is a mini Schnauzer.  Luke's Christmas list consisted of:  Dog, Harry Potter Lego.  The kids talk about getting a dog so much that Tim and I decided to pull the trigger and finally get them one for Christmas.  In late November I found the most adorable mini Schnauzer puppy for sale in Orem.  The family was willing to keep him for us until Christmas Eve and we slapped down the deposit and I thought we were on track for the best Christmas ever!!!!!!!  I kinda felt like a little kid with how excited I was to get this dog for my kids. 

This was Christmas Eve. I was tired but couldn't wait until morning

 

Tim and my Dad made the trek to Orem in a freaking blizzard and picked up our little treasure late on Christmas Eve.  Tim and I said about 100 times, "The kids are freak!"  He slept in a crate in our closet and Christmas morning I put the leash by Gage's stocking, food bowls by Luke's, and collar by Claire's.  I had left the puppy in our bathroom while the kids checked out their haul from Santa....they paid no attention to the dog paraphernalia all over the room and then the puppy started whimpering....loudly.  And I thought, "here's my big moment!"  I asked the kids if they heard that sound and Claire yelled out, "Oh, Gizmo's here!?!"  and I said, "Nope, it's not Gizmo."  Then I brought out our little dog with a red bow around his neck and a big dopey grin on my face and so much tension of anticipation that I could hardly stand it. 

 

All the kids stared at me like I was possessed.  Then they said in a robotic voice, "That's not Gizmo."  Well duh!  It's your very own puppy.  No one smiled, no one even said so much as yea.  Then Claire asked for her Dad to open her Princess Castle.  We have video of this epic failure but just the thought of it makes me cry.  When Gizmo and his family came over Christmas morning they acted 10 times more excited to see Gizmo than the fact that they had their own.

Today, Gage came home from school telling me that all his friends got iTouches and Kindle Fires.  He didn't say it in a snotty way but I felt horrible.  I asked him what he told his friends that he got and he said, "A book."  I asked why he didn't say he got a dog and he said he forgot.  Then I saw the note from school that said Friday was "Bring your Christmas Toy to School Day" and I could tell that Gage was stressed about what he was going to bring.  I would have been money ahead if I would have bought all three kids an iTouch for what I paid for this forgettable dog! 

A few days before Christmas, Gage asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said that all I wanted was for my family to be happy and I feel like I can't even get that right.  I knew that puppies were a lot of work and thankfully the previous family did most of the heavy lifting as far as potty training goes.  But tonight as I was cleaning up another pee puddle I couldn't help but feel so defeated.  I knew I would be doing that and I don't mind but I thought that the kid's joy would make it worth it.

Anyway, meet Sargent, Sarge for short  

             

 

 

Tim at least is having boyhood happiness over Sarge. yea.

 

 

 

 

This picture sort of says it all doesn't it?

 

**Note to Reader:  If you decide to go on and read the posts following this please know they are depressing and full of self-pity.  I just needed to get it out.  I'm done now.   

My Incoherent Thoughts on Christmas and Technology

I'm not in a good mood as I write this post.  In fact, I'd really like to shove my face in gallon of ice cream and watch a chick flick.  Yes, I'm talking about a pity party.  The Christmas Season just seemed  off this year.  My sister called about mid-month and said that she couldn't find Christ anywhere in the celebrations and I tend to agree.  I guess it gets worse each year and with Christmas crap being hustled in stores the day after Halloween....actually on Halloween....and 24/7 Christmas music also, the expectation just seems to grow and grow.  I'm not a person who feels like she meets a lot of people's expectations.  Sometimes I think that's ok and other times I feel crushed by it. 

I felt a very capacious lack of JOY this year.  When I was out shopping people didn't seem happy.  Not a smile or chuckle could be heard.  Usually, as the day draws near the cashiers will strike up conversations about the holidays or even say Merry Christmas but this year was silent.  I guess I can't blame the cashiers...Target and Toys R Us didn't even close this year for Christmas Day which is just wrong.  People in the marketplace seem so consumed with well consuming that people just seemed on auto-pilot.  The tricky part about consuming is that once you consume one thing they just come out with a new one the next year and suddenly you are holding your iphone 4 wondering how much you are missing out on the iphone 5 and once you buy that then they will come out with the iphone 5s anyway.  The cycle just goes around and around.       

Sometimes I feel like society and me are going in two different directions.  I wish Friend meant someone who you could count on to listen to you and always be on your side and not a button you pushed on Facebook.  I wish that people would talk to me instead of bury their face in their smartphone.  I wish that technology enriched our lives rather than ruled it.  I wish children played board games instead of solitary games on an iTouch or DS.  I wish that men would open doors for me or hold my arm on the ice.  I wish that we valued the wisdom of the elderly instead of what some celebrity thought, said, or slept with.  I wish that we valued people by their character and not by what car they drove or what vacation they took their family on, or what electronic device they gave a loved one.  Sometimes, like tonight, I wish that it didn't bother me so much and that I just went along with it like everyone else.    

Where's that ice cream again?          

Twinkie the Elf

I know we are quite possibly the last family on planet earth to get an Elf on the Shelf, but Santa finally sent us one this year and boy was he a lot of fun.  He was a bright spot in our Holidays.  On Christmas Eve, Claire told Twinkie (that's what we named him) that she was going to miss him.....A LOT.  I oddly missed him too.  It was so fun listening to little feet in the morning as they tried to find him.  The squeals of delight when they did was pretty cute too.   

Our Elf was pretty chill. I don't have as nice of a camera as the pinterest babe's who pin gorgeous pictures of their elf's shenanigans but I want to remember just the same. So here are all the places that Twinkie was to be found in our house.

The book arrived on our front door step and Twinkie had already set up shop right above the front door. 

Twinkie likes the Wii

I said it looked like ribbon surfing

Very incognito

He just loves bells....door bells that is

Elf bath

He likes Gage's reading medal

Must have played Uno with the other elves

That rascal wrote his name in marker on the glass of my temple picture

He feels most at home with Santa

Candy Junkie

Twinkie 007

Even an elf wants a little pocket money

Superior upper body strength

Stockings make for a soft napping place

It must have been hot up there in the kitchen light

He could see the TV from this vantage point

He can't wait for Christmas either

He loves origami Yoda as much as Gage

Twinkie hasn't forgotten the true meaning of Christmas

What a messy cook.  Yummy rice crispie snow men though

I think he was looking for the chimney.  The old swamp cooler shaft will have to do. 

What Has Happened Since Thanksgiving 2012?

The month of December 2012 will live in infamy, in my memory, as a stressful strung out month.  By the 21st I was beginning to think the Mayans might have been onto something.  Gage got sick about a week into December.  It was a nasty flu, like high fever, painful cough, body ache kind of flu.  He took over a two weeks to get better and it all culminated with a trip to Primary Children's for a chest x-ray.  The x-ray was ok by the way, he just had to keep suffering for a few days. 

Then Tim got sick.  I've decided Tim doesn't get sick half way.  He was as miserable as Gage and his illness culminated with a huge crash heard only by me and which was the sound of Tim passing out in our master bathroom and smacking his chest, shoulder and Head on various bathroom fixtures.  He had a black swollen eye, a gouge on his shoulder and a bruise on his chest.  We found out a few days later that he had a concussion and sinus infection as well. 

This is when I began to suspect that Tim's head was more of an issue than initially thought.  When he was wearing sunglasses inside because the lights were too bright


Sort of overlapping Gage and Tim's illness Claire started up with asthma attacks at night.  Those are painful to listen to and sometimes scary.  I got her straightened out on steroids and an inhaler in time for her to also run a fever and be miserable too.  She did not faint or need an x-ray though so yea for her. 

Of course, Luke soon followed.  He took it like a man for the most part and his did not last very long.  I took it like...well a man...and didn't get sick at all but the whole thing felt like one long trip to the pharmacy, drug aisle at the grocery store, and hospital/Dr. Office.   

 A not so excellent way to get my Christmas shopping done.  Throw a little Primary Drama in there and December shaped up pretty crappy.