New Year's Party

It worked out that Jenny's family were able to come down on New Year's Eve for our party. Dana's family came over too as did Lori and Cody. We had dinner and then played games. We went old school by playing some of the old games like Prophets, Pig, and the one we played the longest - Signs. Even Brett came and played that one with us. They all had to leave around 10:30 p.m. to drive home, but then we broke out Tetris again and played it until the new year.

The night was another bittersweet experience because we found out that Lisa lost her baby. She was 20 weeks along. Her water broke and she went into labor that night. Turns out the cord was wrapped tightly around the baby's neck twice. Ryan James Hyer was born at around 4 a.m. He was six inches long and almost a pound. I woke up New Year's morning and heard the news and immediately started crying. If it was that hard on me, I can't even imagine what it is for Lisa to go through! Mom and dad left before I even got up in the morning to drive up to Idaho to help out as needed.

When I was at Jenny's two week's ago, I picked up Nate's guitar and played a few songs for the boys before we prayed together and went to bed. One of the songs I played was Tammy's in Love. TJ loved it and kept singing it to me. Turns out two weeks later he still remembers it and sang it for me again. I caught it on video and love, love, LOVED his super red lips (cherry popsicle). Makes me want to just bite them!

End of an Era

Mom and I went to one movie over the holiday. Not my usual record, but still good to get at least that one in. We saw New Year's Eve and she particularly liked to see it because it reminded us of our trip to New York last year at this same time.

When I drove home on Monday, I decided it was time to stop lugging around my big cello, so I stopped off at Summerhay's and turned it back in. It's the end of an era! At least I got to do a few performances with it. Now it's time to focus on the guitar!

The picture below is the beautiful sunrise that I saw while on my way to work. Hardly anyone is going to be around this week at work but there is NO WAY I'm going to waste any of my vacation days when I could be using them for...say...Argentina? I'm also working this week on putting my blog in book form so I can use it as my journal. I think it's going to take quite a few hours...



Merry Christmas to You

I liked that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. Besides getting Friday and Monday off from work, plus Saturday and Sunday, but then we all dressed up and went to Church. I hit the Spanish ward with mom and dad and got to model a few of my new Christmas things. Including the new earrings Amanda Felix gave me for Christmas.

Jason's in town and he stopped by twice today. The first time to chat and catch up, and the second to play Tetris with us that night. Cody has started to like Tetris more so we got to play several times over the holidays. Yes!

Matthew got new binkies for Christmas.
He used one and gave me the other.



Christmas Eve!

Jon had a Christmas party at his house on Friday. I went as mom's support for a little bit. Beau stayed by me the whole time I was there and even took pictures.

Mom had promised me that I could have my bedroom over Christmas. When I got to the house, she said, 'I lied.' Even though I'd had a conversation with Lisa about it when I visited her place in Idaho, she took over my room anyway. That meant Kevin who said he'd wanted to stay over Christmas had to find somewhere else to stay, I had to sleep in another room, and Jodie had to sleep on the floor. For our Christmas!!! It made the holiday a little bittersweet, but we made the best of the situation.

One of our fairly new traditions is to have a recital before dinner and the evening program. I brought my cello down and played with two of the boys. Jeremy and Nate are so talented! Jeremy plays the saxophone, clarinet, and piano. Nathan plays the trumpet, violin, guitar, and piano. Love it! I also played the piano during the nativity scene. We had some cute participants!

Early Out Day

Today was a work day, but I scheduled two of my appointments for the day so I could leave work early. I saw Dr. Francis first and got the final check of my teeth. Then I had a laser appointment. I hurried there so I could meet up with mom and grandma. We went to grandma's eye doctor appointment because there were worries she has degenerative eye disease. Turns out she doesn't have the wet kind, only dry which is better. Still not great, but not a fast progression. After, we went to eat at Mimi's Cafe. Mom called Kevin unexpectedly and he met us there to eat too. Grandma had a cancer spot burned off her ear and it looks charred and crispy!



New Friendships

Karen Allred said she's missed me since our trip to England. So, when her family came to Salt Lake to go to a Voice Mail concert and to see the lights, they stopped at my place afterward. I made hot chocolate and cookies and we all sat there and chatted for an hour an a half. Karen's whole family came, plus her mom, so there were ten in total counting me. So much fun!

Christmas Caroling

We got together as a family to go Christmas caroling. There was a little drama at first as someone ran late and it caused a few problems, but we eventually got into the groove of things. We visited Brother Oliphant who lost his wife this year and sang to Aunt Barbara. We tried going to our old regular, Elwood Foote, but he is now living in a retirement home.

When I got back to my apartment, my neighbors the Fusek's had left a plate of Christmas treats for me. It was an awesome combination of fruit, nuts, and snack bar.

Performance Day

I had some super cute boys come and wake me up in the morning. They like to climb in bed for a little while before going out for breakfast. I certainly don't mind!

For this Sunday, I played two songs on the cello in two different sacrament meetings. The first was the Spanish ward and I practiced beforehand with the eight kids who would be playing the violin (all from the Spanish ward except Nathan and Mike). Jenny played the piano for it. I think it went pretty well. After, we went to the Zabel's ward to see Jeremy get the priesthood. He's really growing up on us! Then, we played two more songs in that ward's sacrament meeting. There wasn't time beforehand to do any practice with this group. There were about four times as many people at this ward and since we didn't practice, I was really nervous. Do you know how hard it is to play a stringed instrument when your hands are shaking?!! I didn't feel like this one went as well as the first meeting, but we made it through!

We ate dinner afterwards at Jenny's and Matthew was so cute! He insisted I have a place at the table...the children's miniature picnic table that is. I couldn't pass it up though with how cute he was. He also liked trying on some sunglasses.

P-P-Practice

I'm going to do a performance with my cello tomorrow, so I went to Heber to practice with Jenny. We had dinner and I played with the boys. Jer had a basketball game that night in Sandy so he and Brett left to go to that, we banished the remaining boys out of the room and Jenny and I turned on a movie and wrapped presents.

Final Act on Committee

Today was my final act on the social committee. I served on it for two and a half years, and was originally slated to be on it for another year. Thankfully, it was decided to go for all new people. Yay! This was our Christmas potluck luncheon. We had a carol sing-a-long too which I didn't feel went very well as there are really only two piano players left in the department (there are more but they refuse to play). Elder Zivic was asked to sing at the end with two others and I was asked to play on the piano impromptu for them.

Christmas Wrapping

While at work today, my gums were really bothering me and it felt like there was something loose by my teeth. I pulled out my compact mirror, grabbed a corner, and did a little tugging. This is the stitch I pulled out that the doctor missed. I put my pen next to it so you can see how long it was. And it didn't tickle coming out!

Tonight, I went to my ward activity so that we could wrap all the Christmas presents we bought last week for our Sub-4-Santa families. That place was so crowded it was crazy! We had five people crowded onto our little table wrapping presents for six kids. There were 139 other kids ward members were wrapping for (we raised over $15,000 to do Christmas for 145 children) so the place was bedlam, but we got it all done. I took the presents home with me since I won't be able to make it to next week's delivery activity since our family will be Christmas caroling then instead.



Heberite

I'm becoming a regular Heber-ite. Today was no exception. The family all met up to go to Jenny's ward in Heber for Nathan to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. We stayed for Church and then had dinner afterward at Jenny's and played games. Micah beat all of us at Guillotine, or as mom prounounces it, Gill (like on a fish)-otine. It was also Brett's birthday so we sang and had dessert. Jenny played the violin in her stake Messiah Sing-a-long which we also all went to. I love going to those, though I would be happy to only have to sit through the songs where the congregation all get to sing instead of having to listen to all the solo parts.

Since I was in the area, I decided to try and find the 2012 HGTV Dream Home. They bill it as being in Park City, but after seeing a picture of it with the Provo River in the backyard, I decided it had to be in Midway. Sure enough! I found it on my first try. I think I made all the security people a little nervous driving back and forth in front of the house.

 

My cute winking cowboy.

 

Sarah JOY and Clan

Sarah Joy, Brittany, Beau, Lori, and Cody were coming up to have dinner at my place, then for us to go to Temple Square and enjoy the lights. Jodie called an hour beforehand so I invited her to come join us as well. Sarah made her enchiladas, tortillas, and black beans. Lori brought my favorite salsa from Los Hermanos and I supplied some ice cream.

I have never been on Temple Square before where it was standing room only on every sidewalk there. It made it a little difficult to manoeuver around. All the street traffic was that busy too. It took Jodie an hour to get to my place from the freeway exit. So crowded! Bleh!

We stopped to watch the nativity scene.



Appreciation Luncheon

Yesterday we had the First Presidency Appreciation Luncheon. I had to sing as part of the program along with seven others. We were told it went really well, but you know how it is when your part of a musical number...you can't hear yourselves so you don't know how it really is...

Elder Claudio D. Zivic also sang a musical number. Afterward, Elder David A. Bednar, who was attending and was our speaker, said that Elder Zivic is our own Argentine Bing Crosby. He really did sound so great!  I sat at his table for lunch after the program and spoke quite a bit with he and his wife. They are a very sweet couple.

Today, Christian went in for surgery to correct his trigger thumbs. Brett sent photos of him in the hospital. He's so cute in his hospital gown!

The before photo.

The after photo.

I sure wish I couldn't have uploaded the entire video!

But, here's a taste of Elder Zivic's smooth voice.

Update

Tithing Settlement - Check
Shepherd's Meeting (Sub-4-Santa) - Check
Sleep at mom's for Dr's Appt - Check
Mouth Stitches removed - CHECK!
Shopping for Sub-4-Santa - Check

What my teeth and gums look like with all the medicine on them.

The GROUCH Who Stole Christmas

Lori picked up Jeremy and Nate and brought them to my place for a pizza and cookie dinner (those cookies went fast!), then we went and saw the lights on Temple Square before heading to a play at the Off Broadway Theatre here in Salt Lake - the Grouch Who Stole Christmas. We couldn't talk the boys into going up to be recognized for their birthdays, and when Nate found out after that they would have gotten free tickets to return, he wanted to go talk to the box office afterward to see if they would still let him have tickets.  They spent the night and I made them a big breakfast, with meat, before they headed down to Pleasant Grove with Lori. I was supposed to head down too, but ended up feeling heart-sick, so I've remained prone for the rest of the day.

Waiting for the play to start with Jer.

Singing Practice

I was asked to organize the music for our upcoming First Presidency Appreciation Luncheon at work. For one of the numbers, I put together a group of eight singers. One of the altos had to cancel due to a work project she is taking care of so I am now going to be performing with the group. We had our third practice today and it doesn't sound too bad! The other alto wasn't able to make it to this practice which meant I had to do a solo. Multiple times. And two co-workers came in to listen to the singing which made me quite self-conscious. We'll see how it goes next week for the luncheon!

Matthew, who is 1 1/2 yrs old, learned the sounds of the alphabet from a toy that their next door neighbor lent them for only one week. I recorded the whole alphabet when they were in town last week, but for some reason could only download through the letter T. Fitting if you ask me. T.

Our Little (Big) Eagle Scout

At 13 years of age, Jeremy has become an Eagle Scout. We went to Heber for his Court of Honor and it was a big production! I'm a sympathetic cry-er, so Brett up on the stand with his watery eyes the whole time was killing me! I can't believe how grown-up Jer looks and acts now. He's taller than his mom and has a deep voice (and a few armpit hairs that he'll proudly show you). He spoke without a problem in the chapel to everyone in attendance and stood up multiple times to put pins on different people who were also honored. It was a very proud evening for all of us watching him. I went up a little early and had dinner with the family too. Those boys are so cute! Christian is a particular crack-up right now.



Lady of Leisure

I think I could handle being a lady of leisure. Thanks to the holiday, I got to try it out. Yesterday, I did not brave the Black Friday lines, but mom and I did go to the movies and see the new Footloose. Cody spent some time with a friend in the evening so Lori came over and we played Clue with mom. Dad joined us afterward and we played Rook. Mom and I didn't stand a chance.

Houseguests at moms this week.

Tonight, Cody and Lori invited me over for dinner and a movie. They wanted me to try Cody's favorite cheese - Raclette. They even have a Raclette machine that melts your cheese on the lower burner while you are able to grill vegetables on the top rack. So good! Which it should be for $21 a pound! And yes, we may have played a little more Tetris afterward...

The Raclette machine

Happy Thanksgiving!

I woke up this morning to a tennis ball sized cheek. Note to self, when you read in the after surgery care instructions that you can ice the area every twenty minutes if desired, that means you should ice the area as there will be swelling. Also of note, when people make you laugh and smile, it pulls the muscles in your face which hurts. In a family gathering of 30 people, there will be some hilarity. Ouch!

I'm leaning against an ice pack...now that I know about the swelling.

Brett diligently stirring his pot.

Dad and I did all the meal setup and preparations. I caught him and mom on camera dancing during a rest break. They are pretty cute together and he tends to be very romantic. He counts wanting to goose her for the camera as romantic. Mom says at the end of the video that he gave her goosebumps.

We also did all the November and December birthdays after the Thanksgiving meal. Something I was not aware of ahead of time but it turned out okay. Kevin is out of town which is very liberating for me in using my bedroom and the downstairs once again. It also means we can use the big screen downstairs. Tetris anyone?

Gum Surgery

I decided that since I have several days off for the Thanksgiving holiday, it would be a good idea to have the surgery to rebuild my gums that my dentist and periodontist have been recommending for years. So, I went in. The day before Thanksgiving. They promised I'd be able to eat soft food, and what's softer than mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie (no crust)?

Apparently I worried the doctor and his assistant when I came in wearing a white shirt. Who would have thought there would be a lot of bleeding? There was. When I sat up in the chair afterward, they gave me a mirror and moist towel to wash my face. My cheeks were covered with blood which the assistant said came from dragging the tools across my face, but seemed a bit much for that.

Breaking Dawn Part One

Lori and I went to see Breaking Dawn. It was actually decent. But, I think I'm still a fan of the books rather than the movies.

After, we met up with mom and dad at Olive Garden. They've been up in Salt Lake this weekend for a getaway since the temple is having its maintenance closure and dad didn't have to go. Mom is already wearing her Christmas present. It's a wig. She is going to have surgery on her knee next week to fix a torn meniscus and she has been worried about how she was going to get up and fix her hair each day. It looks nice but very different. It's going to take some getting used to.

Where's Cody?

Lori wants to go see the new Twilight movie tomorrow - Breaking Dawn. She came up to spend the night for it and brought us Winger's for dinner to eat and watch our show. We'll see if the movie lives up to the book. None of the others have.

Good Ol' Days

Laralynn and I went to the SL Temple cafeteria for lunch with Ryan. When you go there, others join you if you're all there at the same time. It was fun catching up.

For dinner, the Area Director division, Bob and his wife, and me all went out to dinner together to bid a fond farewell to Bob as he leaves for his new position at the SL Temple. It was at the Olive Garden. The servers were pretty brutal about how people were paying their cheques. I was brought up multiple times as the only single person there being on a single check. Nice.

Day of Play

We went bowling and played around the house today. Matthew has started to speak a bit and sounds very cute. He had to carry his own bowling ball everytime it was his turn and tottered out to the lane with it.

After the kids went to bed, Lisa, Steven, and I played games. Picture Lisa and I being competitive while playing Clue and racing each other to the winning room, only to discover that Steven had made a mistake earlier in the game and really had that room so Lisa and I competed for nothing. It was pretty funny.

It was dark when I took this picture.
We were putting the kids to bed.

Long, Long, Long Drive

I drove up to see Lisa at her new home in Mountain Home, Idaho. This wasn't planned, but I found it very fitting that I stayed on an Airforce Base for Veteran's Day. That is a long drive of nothing. Thank goodness for audiobooks! The boys were very cute to see again.



Out to Celebrate

I went out to lunch with the Felix's for Amanda's belated birthday present. We hit Olive Garden and then watched Easy A together. They're going to Ireland in the near future. Too bad I can't go with them!

Mom called afterward to say tonight was the night Nola was going to be singing with her traveling group at the Assembly Hall and invited me to come along. So, I joined mom and dad, Marcel and Edna, Doyle and Linda, and Joe and Nola to listen to the music and then go out to dinner afterward at PF Changs. There wasn't a lot of talking during the actual dinner, but everyone loosened up by the end and sat around the table to talk for quite some time. They laughed at the U.K. trip stories I shared. It may have had something to do with the breathalizer...

Group Lunch

I met up with two girls from my ward for lunch today at work. One of them works in the Meetinghouse Facilities Department, and the other came in special for the lunch. The are both Polynesian and a lot of fun.

Flashback to Park City

I decided to download one of the funny videos I filmed while staying in Park City. TJ wasn't able to act out his charades without Jenny's help. When he had to do a Can-Can dance, Jenny hid around the corner and gave him his cues. She said she wouldn't do it though if she were filmed. I had to be tricky and not look, just stick the camera out there and hope I got her in the shot...

Wedding Shower

To finish up the girls' night, Lori curled Brittany and Bailey's hair, I put a little eye makeup on them, and they were good to go. Lori took pictures of them once we made it back down to Pleasant Grove.

We went down for Mollie Johnson's wedding shower. The shower went well (lots of games, which I thought people didn't do anymore), but grandma Backlund had some problems while I was driving us back home. She slurred her words a lot and was saying strange random sentences. Combine that with her falling again earlier that morning and her health was really bad. Her medications are going to be micromanaged to see if she is overmedicating, or to give a better idea of if she had a small stroke.



Girls Night!

Lori brought Bailey and Brittany up tonight for a Girls' Night. I thought it would be a good idea as I don't see or spend very much time with Brittany anymore. I made dinner, we played Don't Eat Frank (the Halloween version of Don't Eat Pete), and then watched a movie. They even got their nails painted - a true girls activity!

Bday Number 61

Happy birthday mom! I joined in the festivities down in Pleasant Grove. Dinner, cake, and family! Even Jon and posse came.

Dad had himself a piece of cake...before the bday girl got any!



Wheeeeee!!!

Turns out, the Alpine Coaster in Park City is alot of fun! Lori, Cody, and I had gotten our own hotel room last night and then met up with Jenny and the boys for a ride on the coaster. It has tracks on the mountain kind of like the Alpine Slide, but your buckled into a seat which is secured to the track so you won't fall off. When you're going full speed down the mountain, it feels like you're going to tip off the tracks on the curves, but once you breathe through that, the corners are so fun! Chris rode with me and never complained about how fast we were going. Micah had Jenny slow it way down and Brett caught up behind them. Fun day!

Getting on the coaster.

Jenny and Micah...with Brett and TJ coming up behind.



Park City

Brett won some time at a condo in Park City as an appreciation at work. Lori, Cody, and I joined them there for some play time. Brett grilled us steaks for dinner and then we played a charade type game where we pretty much all acted like idiots, but funny idiots! The boys had been dying all day to go outside into the hot tub. Jenny had told them they had to wait until I got there before they could. They were so cute out in it!

Chris wanted to show his muscles,
then saw the picture of himself
and said, 'look at my guns!'

Jer is very proud of his underarm hair.
He's gotten so tall and thin!