Fall Into Winter

Ummm...I started this in like November! I thought I'd go ahead and post it since it was sitting there waiting. I'm not gonna reformat or see if I'm missing pictures that go with the text.

I have to start this by saying that the weather in Salt Lake has been so wonderful this year. Tons of snow at the beginning of the year, a cool spring perfect for new plantings in my yard, a warm but not too warm summer and one hell of a fantastic fall. I think this is the longest falls I’ve ever experienced her. Truly amazing. Now we have snow and I'm trying to accept that winter is finally here. Had a good run that's for sure.

We had a fun September with Robby’s birthday party. I did a good job of not cleaning up as the party was happening like I usually do, which is much more conducive to me actually being a part of the party! I still spent a lot of time in the kitchen chatting up people on their way to somewhere else. Oh, and Robby had fun too.

October was by far the most fun month of the year! We went to St. George to go hiking and visit with our family.

My Uncle Larry and Aunt Jai love to see the boys and as you can see here the boys have a great time too! We brought a bunch of garden tomatoes down and exchanged them for some real beer from Mesquite! Thanks Uncle Larry!

We also visited with Robby’s grandparents. Here’s a cute picture of Robby IV, the boys and Robby's grandad Robert Crosier Morehead II. Sometimes I think it would have been so funny if we called the boys Robert Crosier Morehead the V & VI.

The boys put a couple Spongebob Squarpants puzzles together with Grandad which was fun to watch.

And Zion. Just seeing this picture makes my heart sing. So far, of the places I’ve experienced, Zion is my favorite place and lucky for me it’s mere hours away! We went on the Observation Point hike and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it. The boys had a great time building cairns and looking for lizards. It was so thrilling trying to keep them from falling to their deaths! Okay, that part wasn’t that fun, but didn’t last too long. The hike is varied with lots of stopping points for discovery with the boys. The complete hike is 4 miles up, 4 miles back. We made it 2 miles up, 2 miles back which I thought was awesome considering the boys are still quite small for a hike of that length.

We spent a lot of time playing outside in October with the neighborhood kids. Here are the boys with Zach and Quinn in some leaves that Zach’s sister raked up. Can you believe Zach is Quinn’s uncle? I always get a kick out of that.

Eli and Charlie just love Zach and he plays really well with them, which means he tolerates their pushiness. Zach really rolls with the punches...literally!

This year is probably the best year for holiday celebration with the boys by far. They really got into Halloween and even decorated a couple aloe plants in their room. My mom likes to buy the boys bugs, animals and such which they put to many uses. I never imagined they’d decorate the house plants with them, and it turned out really cute.

Down below you can see my great-aunt Millie's dog bank. When she passed my Grandma had it in her place. When my grandma passed I was able to aquire it. It reminds me of Millie and Grandma and the boys use it regularly to save money.

And Halloween was so much fun because Jackie moved back to Salt Lake City just two days before! We had my mom over too and I made Market Street’s Clam Chowder and served it in tasty bread bowls. Now that I know I can make it I'll have a hard time ordering it! Soup and bread bowls are now a family tradition for Halloween.

The weather held out and the boys went trick-or-treating and had a great time. I sat on the porch drinking wine, hassling the kids who can’t be bothered to dress up! Good times.

At the end of October we also finally got our hands on an Obama – Biden yard sign. I think this was an exciting election and obviously historic for our country. It was great to see the nation get up off its duff and show some passion, no matter what side people were on.

Right before Thanksgiving was my mom’s birthday. I never know what to get her…or rather, I don’t know what I can afford that she’d like. She loves jewelry! So instead of jewels and gold, I thought maybe we’d send her up in a very small plane with a man she’s never met!

Actually, she loves to fly and will say “the smaller the plane the better.” Our friend Scott is a pilot and goes flying all the time so he graciously, under pressure from his wife (smile) said he could fly my mom around for a couple hours. She was really was surprised. Speechless in fact. She had a great time and said it was a dream come true to get to have that experience again.

Isn’t this pic so cool. It’s Annalyn (the aforementioned wife of Scott) holding Charlie, with my mom and then me taking a picture in the background.

Over the past week the sky here has been overcast quite a bit. The other day I was in the kitchen and as the sun was setting it was able to break through the clouds and created quite the dramatic scene outside. I ran out and snapped this shot of my neighbor Libbey’s house. I love the golden sunlight on the trees up against the dark clouds.

And finally, the boys in a rare moment sleeping together on the sofa. And Eli up to his favorite pastime.

Obsessed

I've had an account on Facebook for some time now, but much like MySpace, I just wasn't that interested for a long time.  Didn't get it, didn't want to.  I don't know what exactly happened, but suddenly I'm on that damn Facebook all the time.  Wondering what everyone's up to, who's got a status update, who's commenting on photos.  Good grief.  I ask myself why do I care if someone's going to dinner or why do I feel like sharing that I'm fixin to go to the gym.  Dunno, but it sure has been fun and I feel a tad obsessed.

So that's where I've been.  Over there on Facebook updating my status.  Even Robby is Facebooking, but his privacy is super strength so good luck finding him!

Tonsils A Go Go

I thought I’d post the full story on Robby’s surgery to get his tonsils out since it was such a big event for us this month. Background: Robby had been suffering from regular sore throats and it was getting annoying. He went to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor who took one look at his tonsils and said ‘those are some of the ugliest tonsils I’ve ever seen!’ The surgery was scheduled.

Of course we were both nervous about it…the anesthesia, the sore throat that WILL be coming, etc. My mom came over to watch the boys for the day and we headed up to the hospital. Without the camera, of course! I’m still annoyed with myself for that. The check-in process was smooth and no delays. Next it was surgery prep which I knew would involve an IV and me and needles are arch enemies…let alone needles that stay for a visit and don’t leave immediately! I couldn’t watch. Off to surgery he went and off to the waiting area I went. Got caught with the most fabulous vacation spots on earth thanks to National Geographic Adventurer magazine.

The doctor came in and said everything went great! I was so happy. About an hour later Robby came out of recovery talking…words…coming out of his mouth. I was shocked. He then made phone calls to his folks. Again with the talking thing. I thought he wouldn't be able to talk for a while. I went and got some prescriptions filled, which included a large amount of Percocet and we both thought there was NO WAY he would get through it (silly us.) We left the hospital and Robby wants to get Crown Burger. First talking, now Crown Burger? I’m confused. This is going way better than expected! My mom said it was the shot of Demerol…the affects of surgery haven’t hit him yet. Robby even told me that maybe I didn’t need to take full days off work!

After a day or so of semi-normal behavior he started acting sick and tired. It’s a good thing I didn’t go back to work. The Percoset made him loopy. He would have moments where he wanted to do something crazy like mow the lawn and then he’d be down for the count. Perfect timing for watching the Olympics. Next thing you know his uvula (dangly thing in the back of your throat) grew to a very abnormal size. It was practically choking him and thus began the sleepless nights. The back of his throat was also covered in a white film…maybe you can just imagine it since I don’t have pics.

I had to go to Charleston, so I left him to fend for himself with the boys for a few days. Our good friends Susan and Koji brought dinner over one night, my mom brought it the next night. Thanks so much! Now I can’t remember what they did the third night I was gone. Anyway, they all survived and I got home just in time for Robby to return to work. The next two weeks were difficult for Robby due to side effects of the pain pills and gigantic uvula induced insomnia and being back to work. No sleep + work + kids = crabby Robby.

He's finally feeling good and is sleeping again. It’s such a relief. And thus ends the tonsil story. Sorry no pics.

I do, however, have some cute pics of our friends from the Philippines, A and Josh, during their visit to Salt Lake City in June. The boys LOVED them and loved the combo pizza Josh got at Costco and loved visiting them at their hotel room! I’m throwing in a bonus pic of myself and A in the office for fun.

30 Days Later...

I realize it's been a month since I posted last and it's been a busy one. My M.I.L. Jackie was here (wish she was always here), followed closely by Robby having surgery to remove his tonsils (glad it's over), I took a business trip to Charleston, SC for a few days (lovely place) and then recovering from all that (we were damn tired!) And the boys are oblivious to all of this so they keep on plugging away at being 4 which adds to the aforementioned tiredness. 

Just when we thought the fun would never end, we invited an expensive, but prompt plumber over to our house Saturday afternoon.  Then we went with Robby's work group to a baseball game on Saturday night. All was going well until my boys knocked the lady in front of us with the stadium provided and sanctioned thunder sticks one too many times.  She became hateful towards my boys, me, our friend Jemma and her son Ryan. The 4yr olds were having fun and that pissed her off! That lady is lucky I didn't open a can of whoop-ass on her. She said a few choice words including fat and bitches. She was asking for a girl brawl, but I kept my cool, suppressed my stadium rage and simply called her an idiot and left it at that. 

On a less aggressive note, we wrapped up the tiring month with a pretty great block party last night. We did a dual hosting with our across-the-street neighbor Libbey and her husband Erick. We ended up barricading the ends of the street to general traffic which gave everyone freedom to wander around and visit. Which was great considering there was probably 50-60 people (including kids) in attendance. Everyone lingered and all in all I'd say it was a success. We've got FANTASTIC neighbors and everyone was willing to pitch in and help which was best at clean up time.

Anyhoo, we're looking forward to getting back to our normal levels of craziness. School starts again here in a couple weeks. Robby and the boys are going to need to adjust their leisurely mornings a bit. For me it's same old, same old with work, the gym, keeping up my end of house hold chores, etc. Yep, regular old craziness.

So I thought I'd share some pics of things about the house the last few weeks. Most of them are from the garden, which has been our place of peace during the difficult days of the last month. Some of the pics don't have great focus, but you'll get the idea.

This picture is for our friend Laura, who recently moved with her husband to Guam. Something about poisonous sea snails. They're scientists so there's no telling what they're up to with our tax money! :)  Turns out this beautiful blue pot weighed too much to ship to Guam so it's ours now. I just love it with the hot pink petunias! Thanks Laura!

Here's our window well of sweet basil. It's total bumper crop this year. The window well is the PERFECT place for just the right amount of sun and shade in this here desert climate. Want some pesto? We got your pesto. Really, let me know if you want some pesto. It's not dairy free, but we can make it dairy free upon request. It's actually less effort that way.

And here's my man.  He's growing his beard til his throat feels 'normal' again. I told him this would be a great Facebook profile pic.  He's all 'what's Facebook?'  And I'm all 'what, do you stay home with kids all day or somethin?' 

Here's a couple pics of my most glamorous plant arrangement to date.  It's dramatic and a great focal point in the back yard. It makes me think of Hawaii. I just love it and I'm crazy for the blue pot. I got it at Costco a couple years ago. Costco knows just what I want.  Ooooh them!

Me with the maroon hibiscus in the front yard. I used think I had a moon shaped face, but as you can see my round face is perfectly matched to the hibiscus plant!

Charlie pulling a face with the hibiscus. The flower looks good next to all types of faces.

Our garden bounty on our new little mini buffet in the kitchen. Found it at a place on the western edge of downtown SLC called CJ Sparks. They claim to sell furniture with soul. Which means it was expensive, slightly broken and dirty, but it was the EXACT dimensions we needed for this space so SOLD! Also it has sliding doors which helps us maximize the space.

Eli and Charlie with a couple of cukes each. We've got so many we can spare a few to be used for toys, huh Lisa? Okay that's an inside joke, but I'm sure you can figure out the innuendo. 

A shout out to Aunt Melissa! We love giving her props. Not sure if the White Sox are still in the running or what, but last time I heard both the Sox and the Cubbies were doing great. Go Chicago!

Eggplant. These have been great plants this year.  They are beautiful and shiny deep purple.  I can't decide how the plants can manage such large eggplant without breaking or leaning over. Beautiful and strong.

Lots of cukes this year.  This is actually a spare plant our neighbors Bryan and Marianne gave us. It's producing well and I'm eating a cucumber a day...no lie! 

And a sprawling plant called Aunt Molly's ground cherry.  Google it.  I think it's Brazilian.  It's got a crazy pineapple/strawberry/something-from-Brazil flavor.  It's berries look like tomatillos in the husk.  The boys like to rummage around in it for a snack. I ordered a bunch of tomatoes plants and this plant from Seed Savers Exchange. Hey I figured out how to make a hyper link or whatever it's called!

A HUGE gold medal tomato (heirloom from Seed Savers) that finally turned from green to yellow a couple days ago.  It was a easily 2-3 pounds, I swear. I told Annalyn I could hurt her with it. She said 'you wouldn't do that' and I said you never know what I might do (see note above about baseball game.)

My beloved okra.  Grow okra, grow! We're stowing each little pod in the fridge. Saving them up so I can make some curry to serve over a fraction of the 2 thousand pound bag of Jasmine rice Robby thought we should buy at Costco. Want some Jasmine rice? After the curry I'll only have 1.9999 thousand pounds left. 

This is a pink Dahlia.  It's a dinner plate variety, or something like that.  They really are large and stunning.  Especially in the same corner of the yard with the pink hibiscus...pictured below. Imagine my big head next to this flower. I just know it would look great!

Finally, I would like to invite all you Salt Lakers to the Dowtown Farmer's Market at Historic Pioneer Park this Saturday. It's official, I'll be volunteering for the Local First organization. We should be up towards the northeast corner of the park. I'm excited to join my friend of many years and Local First's director, Alison, for the day in support of our local businesses and farmers. Maybe we'll see you there!

And I think that's a wrap. I'm tired again. Hopefully I won't be away another month, but who knows what I might do...

Summertime Pics

Here's a few random pics.

Charlie, BFF Zach and Eli.

Charlie and Eli starring in Gogglemania!

Charlie showing off his 4th of July obsession.

Eli and Robby at the 4th of July party.

Robby and Regina hanging out on July 4th.

Debbie and her husband hosted the party!

Regina and Robby with our Filipina friend Natz!

I'm like a freakin' Amazon compared to her.

Annalyn on a tricycle. Not a bad fit actually.

Luck Be a Lady

A note from the star of the show at the Big Fat Greek and Armenian Wedding, the bride:

Soooo you will never guess what I found..?!?!?! I found your glasses (YAY) they are sitting on my desk so if you have a chance to come over you know where they are =)

I'm thinking I should seriously consider that Fun Bus to Wendover next Friday. Either I really am golden, or I should quit while I'm ahead. Whadya think?

A Big Fat Greek and Armenian Wedding

A day or so after the following story happened Robby asked me about blogging it. I told him I felt too dumb about it. That was true, but it also shook me up pretty good and my nerves were still settling. A couple weeks out and I’m back to my normal levels of feeling dumb and ready to share. I'm being really bad about getting pics, but I'll really try.

At the end of June, we attended the wedding of our friends Levon and Rashelle. We were so excited to attend because it was going to be at the Greek Orthodox Church downtown and the reception was going to be a real party. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and traditional.

After the ceremony we headed down to the reception at the Greek Market. Upon arrival the tables were set with bottles of wine and lots of appetizers including hummus, pita, yogurt dip, tasty phyllo pastry squares, dolmades and more. It was awesome and I didn’t hold back because my mistake is always not eating enough when I’m getting my drink on. And drinking was my plan.

The music and dancing began. The drinking continued which means I started dancing. There was some traditional Greek and/or Armenian music being played so there was lots of dances where the women held hands and kicked their legs. I was feeling all full of myself in my cute new dress (I'm sure someone has pictures...I'm brilliant and didn't bring a camera) and strappy sandals and cute earrings (thanks Brianne!) dancing the night away. Our friend Julie and I really got into a couple traditional dances with a lot of clapping each others hands and doing turns and such. It was super fun. And it was super fun until I sat down to take a rest and ran finger across my ring, looked down because something didn’t feel right and saw two black holes where diamonds used to be. The fun abruptly came to a crashing halt. This is the ring my Grandmother wore probably every day for 60 years. This is the ring my family gave to me when my Grandmother passed in January. This is my Grandmother’s wedding ring.

Panic rapidly set in and partly because I didn’t want to cause a stink at someone’s wedding, but I desperately needed to look for them. It was dark and the carpet is casino-like. Not good conditions. Needless to say Robby and I started searching the floor around our table. He quickly found the smaller of the two stones and I ran to the bathroom because I had just washed my hands. Nothing. I looked around the edge of the dance floor and luckily found the larger stone. Whew, I was so relieved. We ended the night and headed home. Disaster averted. How lucky am I? I’m golden.

When we got home I told my mom what happened and showed her the ring and stones. She said she didn’t think the smaller stone looked large enough. I poo-pooed her because that’s what I do and went to bed. The next day I took out the ring and tried to set the stones in the ring. The larger stone sat perfectly in place. The smaller stone fell straight through the setting. Not even close. It was clearly not the right stone. And on closer inspection I’m thinking this is a decorative rhinestone off someone’s dress. What are the chances of needing to find a diamond and finding something that looks just like a diamond under your dinner table? Not so golden anymore.

I call the reception hall knowing they would be closed on Sunday, but I had to try. The message said they’d be closed from June 30th to July 21st for renovation and in case of emergency to call such and such number. My heart sank. I called the emergency number and left my plea for help on voicemail. I called the groom and he said the owner actually left to go to Canada for a month! Seriously Canada and a renovation? Oh hell.

I FINALLY got in touch with the owner on the emergency line and he said I could meet his wife at the store the next day when she was letting the carpet cleaners in. I thought Canada was bad news, but carpet cleaners are really bad news. Waiting for the next day was one of the worst 24 hours of my life! I restlessly slept and dreamt about how I would search, going through strategies and wondering if I’d lost the diamond forever. I was beating myself up for wearing the ring in the first place. What was I thinking?

We got to the market as the cleaners were setting up. They were walking all through the area, dragging hoses, cords and equipment. Exactly what you don’t want to see when you’re on hands and knees hunting with flashlights for a diamond. I was searching in the area where I found the first diamond, but wasn’t having any luck until I found another one of those damn rhinestones! Who the hell wore the rhinestones?! Robby was looking where we were first seated, but nothing. He walked over to me and looked down and there behind me, between the vacuum hose and extension cords running across the floor he spotted the second stone. I was so panicked about finding it that I just couldn’t believe it. Not after finding another of those rhinestones. I needed verification. So I went to get the ring out of my purse to verify this was the real deal and place it in the setting. I can’t find the ring. Where’s the ring? I JUST HAD THE F-ING RING!! I cannot believe I've lost the entire ring! Robby says “ummmm…it’s on your finger.” Oh for Christ’s sake. I dropped the diamond into the hole and it fit. To say I was relieved is an understatement. I know this will sound dramatic, but try to imagine me being dramatic, okay? I really felt like I could now have my life back. It was being held hostage in the Greek Market on 33rd South and State.

Turns out I was all about losing things the night of Levon and Rashelle’s wedding. I also lost my prescription sunglasses that night. When we were at the market I asked the owner if she’d seen them. She said she hadn’t. I didn’t press the issue or even really look around because I felt my luck had run it’s course. I went to Costco this weekend and ordered some new sunglasses. It’s been hell the last couple weeks without them and it cost me $100 to replace them, but it’s a price I happily paid for being one lucky, lucky girl.