It's Christmas

Maher, 4, Sings at National Christmas Tree Lighting LoudounExtra.com The Washington Post

How Time Flies

One year ago today James was sworn into the Army. Thanksgiving time will forever be a time of being thankful for the service of so many in our military forces. James is following in the path of many family members who have also served in the military for various amounts of time. We are, and will be as proud of him as we are of those who have gone before and hope he always remembers the counsel from his grandma:

"be as good as your grandpa and come home every time!"

Stupid Teeth

They call them wisdom teeth but if they were so wise, they wouldn't cause so many problems which end up in their removal so I call them stupid teeth. Especially when they lay down. No point in that... they won't come up and be useful so they're just stupid, lazy teeth. James had all 4 of his stupid teeth taken out on Friday, two of them being lazy as well. He's done very well. He was quite loopy when he first came out of the anesthesia and wanted to go to school! They were dissecting a cow heart and he wanted to be there. Luckily he took a nap instead as the anesthesia started making him a little nauseous as it wore off more and more. Once he got some thing to eat, he was doing better and even went to a mellow concert of the Bar J Wranglers Friday night. He took it way easy over the weekend and was rarin' to go this morning for school. It's nice that he can come home for lunch and get something a little more mouth wound-friendly than chips. We're so glad to have this done.

In response to Sonia's comments, there wasn't much swelling so there was no reason to take pictures. The best tell-tale sign we have is that his cheeks have been sore enough that he hasn't shaved for 5 days. If you click on the pictures to bring them up big, you can see the stubble. Also, since James is being so goofy, you can see that the left cheek is just a little fuller than the right.

Veteran's Day 2008

For many years now I've been going to the Veteran's Day concert in the Huntsman's Center up at the University of Utah. It all started when Sonia was in Concert Choir at the high school. Every year the high schools in Granite School District put on this performance with the 23rd Army Band. It's always a fabulous concert and televised on our local channel 7 which is the university's channel.

After Sonia graduated high school, I continued to go to the concert to support the young women I worked with at church. When James got into JROTC, he began ushering at the concerts. It's fun to have him all spiffy looking as we stand for the various military branches on the medley of their songs.

"Cousin" Mike Cottam has been the conductor for the band for umpteen years and this was his last year. He's always so good to come by and talk to us. The kids in the choir have loved him too and are always eager to speak with him after each concert.

Catch-up

It's been forever since I wrote anything and I'm catching up now. On the 25th I joined Hillary, Tasha, Emma and Auntie for scrapbooking. They'd had fun with dress ups and an early Trunk or Treat at Sonia's ward. I got lots done in the scrapping area and I'm caught up with James' books.

Just before Halloween I had a couple days that I did practically nothing. I just could not get motivated. I hate that! Then I look back and think about this or that I should have done, none of which I even thought of while I vegged. I got out of it by Halloween tho and went to Sonia's for a 3 hour Killer Bunny game. And we used to think Monopoly was bad!

With the 1st of November came a ton of busyness. I used part of Saturday to write the missionaries their monthly letters cuz I knew it would get crazy. Then on Sunday I found out that we had a guest coming to the Court of Honor (COH) from the Young Men's General Board. Yikes! The COH was just two days away!! Later Sunday we had the Board of Reviews so two boys could be awarded their Varsity Denali awards on Tuesday which was the whole reason the General Authority was coming. Monday while I was downtown for work, I slipped up to the scout shop to get the awards I needed only to find out Monday night that I'd forgotten one. I went to the scout shop in Carriage Square Tuesday, made a quick stop at Barnes & Noble for a CD I wanted to play a bit of at the COH, then stopped at Harmon's for the makings for Root Beer floats and I was ready. It all went well and I'm so glad that one is done!

After the COH I drove up to Hillary's to be there when the kids woke in the morning. Marc goes to work before the butt-crack of dawn and Hillary had a way early nursing school orientation. I made sure Tash and Em got out the door on time for school... then Sami too but she doesn't go to pre-school til 12:30. Not long after that Addie fell asleep, Marc got home and I headed out. I was glad to get home between snow showers. The trip up was ok but one bridge I went over was all slushy and I couldn't see it until I was in it. Scary! Then when I got home, there was a ton of snow waiting for me to shovel.

Thursday it was up early and back to work for me. I'd gotten my payroll done at Hillary's and just had to print it out. I also had resident funds to process and once that was done I headed into work and was able to get it all done so I didn't have to do job work today. Yay!

Today dad and I took the Vibe into Kearns Auto. License and registration was due last month... oops! We knew it would need a new catalytic converter and those are spendy. We thought we were looking at $1500. Fortunately for us, Ray found a generic one that fit our car so with the inspection, emissions and headlight replacement, the bill only came to $400! That's what I love about Ray and Danny... they do what they can to help you out and not just charge you an arm & leg for stuff you really don't need. Besides, Danny is cute ;>