Last Sunday my son invited me to go to his new sister-in-law’s  return home missionary speech.  He didn’t mention that he would be singing in the choir so I was pleasingly surprised when I saw him get up with his new bride, who is a trained opera singer and an excellent pianist, to sing in the choir.   I absolutely love the things my daughter-in-laws get my sons to do that I would have never been successful talking them into.  I like marriage for my boys and I am enjoying watching them please their wives!!!

Shawn didn’t want to go to his Jr. Jazz basketball game because he would be playing a team that was their biggest rival and several of his teammates needed to leave before the end of the game to be on time to their choir concert.  It appeared that his team would be short one player once the choir players left for their concert, and Shawn didn’t want to be around for a possible loss or even forfeiture.

My husband and I told him it is important to be a dependable team player and that he couldn’t possibly predict the outcome of the game and encouraged him to go.  After some deliberation, he put on his uniform, grabbed his basketball and left for the game.  The game was extremely close and went into overtime.  His choir teammates made the decision to stay and suffer the consequences of being late for their concert.   Shawn was able to make several baskets leading his team to a narrow victory which I doubt would have happened if Shawn had stayed home.

It was a lesson well learned, and we were proud that he chose to help his team.

Thanksgiving was fabulous.  We decided to stay home this year and enjoy some local activities with our immediate family.  We participated in a 5K race…..the proceeds from the race went to a local food bank.  Kyle and I felt comfortable walking and the kids enjoyed competing with other runners who enjoy running competitions.  It felt great to start the day out exercising in the fresh cool air before tanking up on all the Thanksgiving goodies.  We liked it so much so I think we will do it again. 

 A few hours after the race, we ate a yummy traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Then we decided to enjoy digesting our food while catching an afternoon matinee.  The movie, “Blindside” received bad reviews, but my family and I totally disagree with the critic’s reviews.  My whole family loved it, and we thought it was the best movie we have seen in years!

I am already looking forward to next year’s Thanksgiving.

Tyler had an interesting dream last night…a dream that probably only a youngest child would have.  

He dreamed that he made a gigantic cake covered in whipped cream and strawberries as a Christmas gift for a friend.  His brother Shawn ate most of the cake leaving only the edges.  Tyler was so mad, but for some reason he didn’t try to beat him up!  He decided to make another cake and put a large “DO NOT EAT” sign on it. This time Shawn and Brogan baked a smaller plain cake and switched it for his large one. They also switched the sign to “HAHA!” for added effect. When Tyler saw the note, he was livid and started searching the whole house looking for his cake. When he finished with the house he started searching out in the garage.  Then I woke him up and he was grouchy because I interrupted his dream before he found his cake.

I think there may be a reason he wants to take a Jiu Jitsu class!

I remembered a story that happened in the early years of marriage while we were living on a farm in Idaho that I thought was worth posting on my blog. 

We had the nicest Japanese neighbor that grew a big garden and we considered her the neighborhood gardening expert.  Every year Mary would bring us grocery bags full of yummy, garden-grown vegetables.

One day Mary knocked on the door and she could hear that we were home because my husband had the radio playing loudly so he could hear it above the shower.  Mary knocked a few times, and waited awhile before deciding to walk-in to leave a bag of vegetables on the table.

When she walked around the corner, my husband had just gotten out of the shower and was standing there COMPLETELY naked.  Kyle was so shocked and embarrassed when he saw Mary that he could not speak as he stood there wearing absolutely nothing!  Needless to say, he quickly vanished.  I had never seen a Japanese person blush before, but I can’t say that any longer.  Mary’s face turned so RED! Flustered, she mustered up the courage to yell to Kyle, “It’s not like I haven’t seen a naked man before and you pretty much all look the same!” To this day, I laugh out loud as I vividly remember Mary’s bright red face!

The last few years, my boys have gone to Halloween parties with their friends leaving me home alone to hand out Halloween candy.  Although I have enjoyed seeing the neighborhood kids in Halloween costumes, after 27 years of handing out Halloween candy, my Halloween enthusiasm has dimmed.

So this year, my husband and I decided to go a movie and dinner.  Kyle loved it because there weren’t the normal Saturday night crowds to fight.  The movie theatre was only 1/3 full even though it was the movie, “This is It”, a culmination of film clips that shows the behind scenes as MJ prepares for his world tour. We really enjoyed it, and highly recommend seeing it.

When we walked into Chili’s, there was no line and we were seated immediately. They had this great deal, two dinners for $20 just like Applebee’s.  We were happy about that because we like Chili’s better.  We shared an appetizer of chips and salsa.  I had ½ rack of ribs with loaded mashed potatoes (both were excellent); Kyle had a smoked turkey sandwich with fries.  We shared a “sweet shots” dessert of key lime pie, hot cinnamon roll, and red velvet cake, the cinnamon roll was our favorite.  A great deal for $20! 

It was a nice change after handing out Halloween candy for 27 years!

This past weekend Shawn really wanted to go to a drive-in movie.  I explained to him that ”not the best of crowds” are attracted to that type of place.  He told me he was 18-years old and that he really wanted to experience a drive-in movie.  I didn’t want to let him go, but I decided he was old enough to make his own decision. 

After he left, I had a little prayer asking God to keep him safe.  When he returned I asked him how he liked the drive-in.  He said he felt sick all evening inhaling second-hand marijuana smoke and exhaust from the cars.  He couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to smoke marijuana.  I felt thankful he was not only kept safe, but that he learned first hand marijuana stinks and makes you sick!

Today I called to check on my 77-year old mother to see how she was feeling since she fell flat on her face last Sunday when she caught her high heel in the church rug as she was leaving the church building.  Luckily she didn’t have a concussion or break anything, but she does have a lot of bruising on her left side, but it appears she will be fine.  

My 82-year old father must have thought things weren’t interesting enough so he coughed and accidentally swallowed his crown as the dentist was putting it on his tooth yesterday.  They immediately had him go to the emergency room for X-rays to make sure it didn’t go into one of his lungs.  Thankfully it went to his stomach otherwise they would have had to do surgery to remove it from the lung.  Hopefully nothing else will happen!  Getting old stinks!

Last week, my husband and I enjoyed a 4-day restful, and totally free vacation.  My niece who just got married was gifted an eight night stay at a fabulous hotel, but they were unable to stay the whole time due to school and work obligations.  Lucky for us!

The first day we  laid by the pool and soaked in the sun, but the weather turned cold and snowy so we stayed inside and  watched (and thoroughly enjoyed) laughing at the pranks and jokes in season 3, 4, and 5 of  The Office for the last three days.   My favorite characters are Jim and Pam because they have a cute romantic relationship.

We also had a couple of laughs because one morning we woke up to the hotel alarm and a loud voice on a speaker above our bed repeating, “Attention!  There is an emergency, please exit quickly at the nearest stairway.  Do not use the elevators!  We repeat, do not use the elevators!”  As we scrambled around looking for our clothes, my paranoid mind automatically envisioned a hidden biological bomb or a chemical explosion.  After about a 1/2 hour, we learned that it was a false alarm due to a glitch in their computer system.  Even though we weren’t in real danger, our hearts were beating fast and we were pretty frightened.

Another day, I took our kitchen garbage out into the hallway and noticed the maid working in a nearby room so without thinking I stepped out into the hallway to ask her for some more shampoo.  When I turned to go back into the room, I realized I had locked myself out.  I knocked as loud as I dared, but Kyle did not hear me.  Thank goodness I was dressed- wouldn’t that be a sight!   I went down to the lobby and explained my predicament to the young man at the reception desk.  He chuckled as he handed me another key card to open our door. 

When I returned to our room, I asked my husband, “Couldn’t you hear me knocking?”  He said, “I heard knocking, but I thought it was our neighbors.”  When my man is watching TV, he basically zones out!

My daughter attends a lot of meetings because she is the Relief Society president of her ward.  The good news  is a guy she hopes to get to know attends many of the same meetings as she does. Yesterday she was lucky enough to sit by him.  At the end of their first meeting, another group joined them so they had to slide closer together.  He apologized for squishing her and she quickly assured him that it was no problem!