Flashbacks

It has been awhile since I've experienced my heart issues to the extent that I did today. I had to go lie down in the bathroom again in the morning for over a half an hour trying to get my heart to stop hurting. After an episode like that, I just feel unwell for quite some time, so I ended up going home early for the day. Sure wish the doctors could diagnose this problem!

Shoplifting Disruption

MaryAnn, my friend and co-worker, and I headed over to City Creek for lunch today. We enjoyed some Kneaders and then stopped at the Tricked Out Accessories store to get protective covers put on a couple of iPhones. There was a group of teenage boys in the store when we entered and the salesman left them to come over and help us. As he installed the covers, I was aimlessly looking around the store and happened to notice one of the kids acting oddly by fiddling with his shirt and then smoothing it down carefully before turning around and walking extra slowly toward the door. He glanced up and saw me staring at him and so he did a slow turn again, went back to his original place by the display case and lifted his shirt back up to replace the earphones back on the wall that he'd had stuffed up his shirt. He acted like he was browsing again, and once again, our watching him stopped him from stealing an iPhone case when he reached to take one and glanced back to see us watching him. We mentioned the groups behavior to the salesperson and he went to where the kids had been before they left and believes that they did get away with an iPhone case, but we managed to keep them from getting anything else! So crazy!

Zabelicious

I do love me some Zabel boy cuddles in the morning. They are so sweet! Brett makes a mean breakfast burrito and we got plenty of exercise to burn those calories off when we went to play basketball at the Church. We couldn't play racquetball because family pictures were scheduled for the evening and Jenny didn't want any bumps, bruises, or scrapes on their faces beforehand. As it was, I pulled out my makeup beforehand and helped touch up their existing marks and blemishes. Yes, three of the boys (including Brett), got touch ups. =D

 

To celebrate Jeremy and Nate's birthdays, I took them out to the Yo Bar for some frozen yogurt which we then took to the park to enjoy. They are growing up so fast! And are great boys. We brainstormed about gifts that they wanted to get their parents and I was able to help them locate the present they want to give Brett. Thanks Nate for letting me be there for your steak birthday dinner!

 

The picture in white was...an experience. It was at the high school gym so there were A LOT of people who got to see them all walk inside in white. Jenny was a bit embarrassed. I was there to help get the kids to smile, but the photographer made me stand away from everyone because all the kids were looking at me instead of him. What can I say? They like me better than him! It meant though that I couldn't snap a picture when they were all sitting there so I tried to catch one when we got back to their house.

 

Nathan got a few BYU gifts: earphones, hat, and chair!

Waiting an hour in the bleachers for our turn.

Apparently Brett and Jer have been arguing a bit more than usual
lately. So glad I was able to catch one of the times on camera!

TJ and Chris were the HARDEST to get to give real smiles!



Friday Night Fun

Traditionally in our family, the day after Thanksgiving is spent putting up the Christmas decorations. Mom wasn't home in the morning so I decided I would start without her and at least put up the nativity sets. She still wasn't home so I did the living room Christmas tree. She still wasn't home so I did the banisters. When she still wasn't home, I did the family room nativity as well, the Christmas tree in there and hung up all the wall decorations. I had time to vacuum and sweep and then headed in to shower. Which is when she got home, and then turned around and headed out again for Tucano's and a movie with Kevin. I have since decided that on my next work holiday, I'm going to be checking out what is going on before spending the day on my own.

 

Fortunately, most of the rest of the family met up in the evening to go to the Jazz basketball game together. We had the highest nose bleed seats you can get, but as the game was against Sacramento so we got to see Jimmer AND there was a come from behind win in the last two minutes of the game, it was all worth it! I hitched a ride with the Zabel's back to Heber to spend the night so we could celebrate Nathan's birthday tomorrow a week early.

 

We enjoyed some cotton candy at the game if you can't tell.
That and making crazy faces at the camera.

 

Thanksgiving Improvement

This year was not as bad as past years have been for our Thanksgiving celebration. I even baked for it and made Oreo truffles and Crack bars. The division of labor was better and people seemed a bit happier than usual. That's success right there! We had the monthly family birthday party afterward to celebrate Nate, Brett, and Jeremy.

 

Black Friday started early with what is now called Gray Thursday. Lori and Cody went and hit the sales and left a sleeping Ari at home...sleeping for 20 min that is. She decided she wanted to get up after that and pulled some pretty sad faces during the course of the evening. I did not get the TV I wanted. :-(  I need to pull some Ari faces now.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma Backlund's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. She went and ate at Sherry's, but when she got back to our house, I pulled out my cello and played In the Garden for her. She sang along for the two verses I played. I thought it turned out nice!

Shaken, Not Stirred

The couple missionaries in my parents ward were asked to put on the Thanksgiving dinner for their Spanish ward. As my parents are the diligent ones for that, they begged me to come down and help them do this dinner. Taylor and Kevin were also recruited and Lori even came with Ari. The sister missionaries were a huge help too. It was A LOT of setup and cleanup and was probably the first time in that ward that I felt used instead of appreciated. It didn't help that when one of the ward members spoke to me, I was called the 'grandota', meaning the big, huge girl. I may be taking a break from this ward for awhile now.

 

Saturday, my friend Melissa came over and cut and straightened my hair before I headed to the movies with mom, dad, Cody, Lori, and Ari (who doesn't make a peep when she has her noise-cancelling headphones on!). We saw the new James Bond movie which I thought was really good...except for an uncomfortable moment when Javier Bardem's bad guy character made a partial pass at Bond. That was just weird. I had to send Jodie a picture of me after the movie and told her in my text that I'd just caught dad ogling my chest. Her response? "Hahahhaha-was gonna say ew. But that's hilarious." I do love this sweatshirt. French Connection United Kingdom, baby!

 

 

Today I got a new calling at Church. I am now Relief Society 4's pianist. There are five Relief Society's and 3 Elder's Quorums in my ward.

Twilight Ends at Last

My brother, Dana, won a bunch of tickets to go see the final movie in the Twilight saga at it's pre-showing before it's released tonight at midnight. I battled the rush-hour traffic to make it to PG and had dinner with my mom before heading to the Thanksgiving Point Theatre. While eating dinner, mom and I heard a funny noise. She said that she didn't know where most of the noises in her house come from anymore. I insisted that it was the garage door latching. She denied this claim. To prove I was right, I got up and opened the door into the garage...at the exact same moment that my brother-in-law, Brett, was reaching for the door to come in from the darkened garage. Needless to say...it may have scared me just a little. Okay, maybe more than a little. In fact, I may have sprayed the cracker that I was in the process of eating all over the kitchen. Mom laughed so hard there were tears. And at the end of it, what does she say? 'NOW how do you feel about being right?!' It was pretty humorous.

 

The whole evening was a success in my book. It was a free movie, we got gift bags entering the theatre which had $5 gift cards in each one that you could use in any Megaplex theatre, my number was drawn in the pre-showing raffle and I won a camouflage hat (not as cool as Dana's $15 iTunes gift card, but Micah is going to seriously love this hat!), Ari sported her noise-cancelling headphones and was quiet the entire show, and it was a good movie! What more can you ask for?