Couple of "Tommyisms"

Nanuk, our Giant Alaskan Malamute, has been soooo naughty lately. On Friday night he tore apart our bathroom, there was stuff everywhere. He completely destroyed the garbage can in there, strung garbage all over the place, chewed on my sparkly girl stuff, chewed the hair brush; then he busted out of the bedroom and ransacked Tommy's room... needless to say, he spent Saturday out on the chain in the backyard while we were at the U/Y game. Then yesterday morning, with Eric asleep right there, he proceeded to chew my hair pick and tried to eat our bottle of Tums. Unfortunately although he wasn't able to retrieve any of the yummy contents, it did render it unsuitable for human consumption... So I got to thinking.... maybe he could use some extra attention or something. We took him to PetSmart so everyone would go, "OH!! What a big dog you have!" He loves that stuff, eats up every minute of it.. Here is a pic of him howling to go, literally.

We got him a HUGE rawhide so he has something to chew on and will hopefully leave everything else alone.

The whole inspiration for this blog was a couple of things Tommy said to me on the phone. He was talking about how great it is that I am his mom and that he is my son, then he had this to say, "Having children is great because they do kind things for you; it's kind of like having slaves.... But that's not the great part."

Also, here was this nugget of wisdom, "I am glad I am a male because it would be uncomfortable for females to be pregnant, having the baby would be like pooping out a boulder."

They both had me laughing so hard it was difficult to continue the conversation.

Headlines should read: "Eric Price Gives Utes Birthday Luck"

We had another fun-filled weekend. On Friday night we went over to Secelia's place - her apartments have a super sweet kick-ass theater room they can use. It's huge with big comfy couches, way cool. We watched "Across the Universe" It was a musical that used only Beatles songs, really good movie. It starts out kinda wack and you're thinking, "Crap, I gotta sit through 2 hours of this?!" But then it gets really good and you're lovin' it.

Unfortunately, Eric was sick over the weekend, definitely stemming from a lack of sleep. On Saturday we went to the BIG game between the U of U and BYU. It was an even bigger game than usual because the U was undefeated and if they won they would get to go to a BCS Bowl game and it would mean over $400,000.00 for each school in the division. If the Y won it would mean no Bowl game for anyone and only around $100,000.00 for each team.... Eric brought along his birthday luck (we figured it worked out well bringing Syrena's birthday luck to the Oregon State game) and with it the Utes pulled off an amazing victory, 48-24. Of course, you had to know the fans would definitely storm the field on this game, but it was funny because people started piling on the field before the game was even over. The announcer (Mike Runge from Fox13) had to yell at all the people to get off the field so that they could finish the game.

Sunday was my big boy's bday... I got him an outdoor wood rack (his request), comes with tarp to keep it dry; 2 South Park season DVDs (seasons 6 & 7 - has Eric's favorite episode, "All About Mormons."); Bruce Campbell's book on CD - "Make Love, The Bruce Campbell Way" narrated by him; and a new "do-rag." (The thing he's wearing on his head in the below picture).

Here he is at his momma's... his brother (Andy) got him a new extension cord... May seem like a weird present, but there's a good story behind it. I almost burned down our house and the neighbor's with our Christmas lights. I had an extension cord running out to the bushes that apparently caused a short in the system and the electricity was grounding out on the metal shed and running into the chain link fence. The fence was welding itself into the pipe that runs along just outside our property, sparks were flying everywhere.... After the fire department came out and figured out what was going on, Andy came out and discovered where the problem was- gee, I can't believe it was the extension cord with about 10-15 cuts in it (Eric used it for the weed wacker and the chain saw) covered with electrical tape. Who knew?

Hopefully my baby starts feeling better soon, breaks my heart to see him down and not doing well; especially when there's not a whole lot I can do. I've been pumping him full of vitamins, not allowing him to do any physical activity and forcing him to get extra sleep. Get well soon sweetie! We are getting excited for our trip to Vegas!!!!!

Heaven and Hell?! They're One and the Same....

Oh yeah, that's one of Eric's favorite GWAR lyrics. There are so many classics to choose from... anyway, so last night Eric, Katie (his niece) and I went to see GWAR. This is around my 14th GWAR show now, and I love them more and more each time. Here are a couple of "before" pictures....

They had Sleazy P. Martini back this time, he's supposed to be GWAR's shady manager. It was cool because the last time he was with the band was the show before I started going. There was a song that has him in it, Slaughterama, that I've never seen live before because he wasn't there. They killed a hippy (How do you hide money from Hippy? Put it under the soap!), an "art fag" and a Nazi Skinhead. Very cool. They also did Rock and Roll Never Felt So Good, which is another song I'd never seen live. Always been one of my all time favorites and I had given up on ever seeing them play it, it was awesome when they busted that out. I'd like to share some of the lyrics with you, but then I'd have to rate my blog with "Adults Only" content... Here's a picture of Sleazy.

The whole band, Oderus Urungus (lead singer, my favorite over all character); Ballsac the Jaws of Death (lead guitar, my favorite costume), Beefcake the Mighty (bass player), Flattus Maximus (rhythm guitar), and Jizmak Da Gusha (drums).

Here is Balsac the Jaws of Death, I love this guy's costume so much.

Eric and Katie after the show... I was disappointed because usually you are so soaked with "blood" after the show you can literally wring your shirt out and have it dripping out. This time they didn't kill as many people and we were only slightly damaged.

Until next time... I love you GWAR!!!! Keep killing!

Happy 8th Birthday Tommy!

We hosted Tommy's birthday party on Saturday and had lots of family over. Eric's parents came over early because they were on their way to Manti and brought their dog, Max. When Max came in the house Eric's cat, Dutch, wigged out. We put Dutch in Syrena's room but didn't tell her why... well when she went in there and tried to pet Dutch, this is what happened:

He just went crazy on her! Her whole head was covered with scratches, you'd move her hair around to look at her scalp and they were just everywhere. There was so much blood, poor little thing! I have got to start saving towards a "Declaw Dutch" account or something because this was bad, not to mention the fact that he gleefully claws all the furniture in the house multiple times a day.

After Tommy's party (unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures.... all the usual suspects were there and he had a great time.) Sasha, my cousin, cut Eric's hair - he looks so very extra handsome now.

On Sunday we put up all the Christmas stuff.... and Eric and I got into a fight. Over what you ask? Well, what else? The Bears and Broncos were playing at the same time.....

Here's our little mini tree in the entry way....

Then I found two stray dogs wandering the neighborhood. I thought that after all the millions of times Peanut got loose and strangers were kind enough to pick her up and call us, it would only be right to do it for someone else. Well the one dog came easily enough, but the lab was scared to death... of course the lab was the only one with any kind of tag on its collar too. I finally got close enough to check it out, but it was just a spay/neuter tag with the vet's number on it. We called the vet, left a message and waited to hear back. He called us and looked up the number from the tag, but the dog was taken in by No More Homeless Pets so he gave us that number. We tried calling them, but they were closed. So we took to just wandering aimlessly about the neighborhood asking if people recognized the dogs. Bit by bit we got closer and closer, people pointing us this way and that... finally we got to the next door neighbor's house. We went to the right house and our task was complete. I'm glad we have accurate phone numbers and everything on our dogs because that was a pain in the butt and I'm sure most people wouldn't have gone through all of that. And the lady said that they get loose from time to time and has already had to pay $400 to get them out of the pound... duh!! Go spend $10 to get them tags and that won't happen anymore! Anyway....

So I have a busy rest of the month ahead of me... We are going to GWAR tonight (so freakin' excited), Wednesday we have the kids, Friday we are going to the "theater room" at Secelia's apartments to watch "Across the Universe," Saturday we are going to the U of U vs. BYU game, Sunday is Eric's birthday and then super crazy early next Thursday morning, we are leaving for Vegas..... yay!

Here is the Christmas version of "Where's Waldo?" except it's "Where's Kitten?"

Om

This last weekend was spent mostly laying around and doing housework, but on Sunday we did something pretty cool.... we went to a Tibetan Buddhist Gonpa. It was so different from anything I've ever done, but it was really neat. They chant a lot in Tibetan, so for the most part I have no idea what was said. It was beautiful on the inside, nothing like what you'd expect from the outside.

The reason we went was because Eric is in a health class at the University of Utah, and though this class pretty much has nothing to do with his major (Parks and Recreation), he has to do a paper on Tibetan refugee health disparities... pretty hard subject to search for on the Internet so he thought it would be easiest to just speak with a Tibetan refugee. Unfortunately, there weren't any worshipping that day... but the Llama Thupten (pictured below) gave him some names of people to talk to.

Although it was a bit uncomfortable, just because I didn't know what was expected of me, I really enjoyed it. I really want to go back and learn more .... here's their website if you're interested in learning more: http://www.urgyensamtenling.org/

Go Utes and Broncos!

Eric and I went to the University of Utah game against TCU last night. It was an exciting game and they barely came away with a victory (13-10) in the last seconds... TCU's kicker missed two fairly close field goal attempts late in the 4th quarter. With barely 2 minutes left and the score at 6-10, the Utes had an amazing drive. It ended in the much needed touchdown, but it left TCU 47 seconds to give their kicker one last try to tie the game and send it into overtime. TCU was driving and making first downs.... at about their 35 yard line it was 3rd down and only 4 seconds to go. They went for it (probably because the kicker had missed the other field goals) with a long bomb. We intercepted and the game was over!!! Everyone rushed the field, I soooo love it when they do that.

Once again, sadly enough, this is the best picture of us.

I also found out that the Broncos won, coming back from a 13 point deficit behind the Browns. Cutler threw for 447 yards and 3 touchdowns! That sounds like an amazing game as well.

It's a Good Day!

Winter has arrived... here is the scene from my office window as captured on my cell phone....

Today has been an awesome day though, actually this whole week has been good for me. I got to see the kids Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and I'll have them again tonight and for a bit in the morning while I take them to school - it's so great! That's what I am wanting every week, I love it.

Obama won, and I think really great things are going to come out of that - I understand it's going to take some time to pull the country through, not an overnight fix, but hopefully things turn quickly so my company will be busy again....

As I already mentioned, Ashlee got hired back!

And to top it all off, I won two day passes to the Canyon's Ski Resort from the radio this morning. They asked if anyone knew the name of the person who ran against Mark Shurtleff for Attorney General and I knew it was Jean Welch (I voted for her). So I called in and won! Ashlee and I went down there earlier today and picked them up. While we were there, she had to go potty but the only place with an open restroom (the others required a PIN number to get in) only let paying customers use them. So I bought a thing of bread sticks.. they took forever and they were $10! They were tasty, but over priced.

So I am just in a positive circle of joy right now and I'm going to keep it going. I need to continually practice all that I have learned - being grateful, having true faith, keep asking for good things to happen and allow them to happen.

One last thing, totally off the subject but I wanted to get it in writing before I forget the whole incident. This happened like two weeks ago, on the night we were carving pumpkins with Ashlee. We were going to the store to pick out our pumpkins and Tommy didn't want to go... he was throwing a fit and saying some not so nice things when he called me "Stephen." I let it go and continued getting ready, but when I had my shoes on and I saw that he still didn't, I told him to get his shoes on or I was going to call him "Stephen." Well he got so furious! He yelled, "Don't ever call me that mean name!" and stomped off. Once he had settled down, I asked why it was so bad to be called Stephen. He looked at me and explained "It's just a very mean name." Still makes me laugh and yes, I am certainly tempted to call him Stephen each time he's difficult. Eric and I have taken to calling each other that naughty name in mock fights.... thanks for another memorable moment Tommy!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year... we went to Eric's brother's neighborhood to Trick-or-Treat, but there weren't many people home or giving out candy so we went to the neighborhood across the street from my dad's. It was a bit of a drive, but I think it was worth it. It is an awesome neighborhood, almost everyone is home and giving out candy. Andy (Eric's brother) didn't seem to thrilled about it. Afterward we went to Ashley's party... It was a way long drive and Tommy fell asleep.

Here is Syrena taking a quick sneak in her candy bag on the way there.

Ashley and I at the party. Too bad I didn't think to have Eric take a picture of me in full costume, it was cute.

On Saturday Eric and I raked leaves and did other yard work. Here we are burying Nanuk in the leaves. We tried to do it to Peanut, but she wouldn't have it, she just kept taking off. I guess that's one benefit to a lazy dog, you can make them pose for funny pictures.

I love this picture, he looks so sad. He's like "Someone, please help me! They just won't stop, enough is enough!"

I got some awesome news. ITS hired my Ashlee back!!!! She starts again tomorrow, I am so excited and happy. Yay!