Christmas morning

Merry Christmas, honey! I hope you're feeling better. Here are the boys playing with the presents you bought them.

Things Dirk has Done

Things I Have Done...

To participate just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
7. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept over night on a train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23.Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language I'm with chris, this has to include just learning a second or third language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt Been there for summer and winter eruptions.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone Deep Sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling Both
52. Kissed in the rain We'll have to fix this one honey.
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class The emphasis being on A class.
59. Visited Russia Does a foremer Soviet Republic like Khazakstan count?
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book Helped Melinda self publish her book.
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

100 Blogged while lying sick in bed in afghanistan.

Snow Day

There's about 8 inches of new snow on the ground since this morning, and it's still coming down. Thanks to neighbors with snowplows, my driveway is clear, and even the walks are shoveled.

Ben is bored. He has drawn 14 pictures, and even drawn on the windowsill (his first non-paper art project! I was so proud!). He has played in the rice. He has played with Play-Doh. He has even taken a nap (under protest). He is tired of "A Bug's Life" (after 46 viewings) and only got through half of "Chicken Run" (.5 viewings). I don't really like "Chicken Run" either. However, he loves the opening credit sequence on "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." We have sung along with the dolphins about 19 times now. If you're as bored as Ben is, you should join us!

So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish!

The Ultimate Webcam -- Almost

A few days ago, a soldier from the Guard called and asked if I was going to the Christmas sing-a-long at the Energy Solutions Arena. I said I probably wasn't going. He told me that the sing-a-long was going to link up with the soldiers overseas, and they wanted to do a spot on a few of the deployment babies, and Simon was one of four babies chosen. They'd put us up on the Jumbotron, and link Dirk in by satellite, and wow! I was still stammering something stupid about taking little kids downtown. He said to come if I could, and meet him at the ticket offices, and I didn't need to call back to RSVP if I decided to come, they'd just find me.

Well, I started picturing something like they do at Stadium of Fire, and that sounded great! Susan met me in the parking lot, and Shawn and Kris and family met us in the Arena, and I went off looking for my five minutes of Jumbotron fame with Simon.

After about 45 minutes with a very nice man trying to figure out what I was talking about, a man in uniform (unfamiliar rank insignia - just one star, which I hadn't seen before) found me and was horrified that no one had called me. Probably I wasn't on a call list because I'd been iffy about coming. There had been technical problems with the connection, and they weren't going to be able to connect with anyone in Afghanistan at all. He apologized profusely, and was concerned about how disappointed I was. I assured him I was fine, and we'd just enjoy the program.

I thumbed through a program and recognized the picture of the man who apologized about the mix-up. Brigadier General Jeff Burton was participating in the show. Holy cow, that's what one star means! So I didn't get to be on the Jumbotron with my uber-cute baby and talk to my honey by satellite, but a Brigadier General apologized to me personally for the disappointment!

The link with the soldiers turned out to be a camera that showed a room full of soldiers watching the program with us. They didn't interview anyone individually. But it was funny to watch the soldiers when they realized they were on the Jumbotron. They'd do the wave, hold up signs, and once they even got a chorus line together and did a cancan!

Anyway, the program was tons of fun. Short, free, and we all got to sing. The boys did great. I think we'll make it a family tradition. The most amusing part was that the cameras just picked people out of the audience and put them up on the Jumbotron. It was a riot to watch people realize they were up there, and then wave and point. I kept hoping they'd put us up there so I could say Simon made it to the Jumbotron after all, but it didn't happen. I did see a couple people from our ward, though!

Yes I went willingly

Well Melinda took me to see Twilight last night and we both enjoyed it. And as such I must add who I am most like.


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Not a complex story by any means, but they put enough action into it to keep it interesting. Main characters were well acted, some of the High School kids were very wooden though.

He's here!

Well, I can't get my photos to upload, and Susan did a great job of describing the welcome, so I'll refer you to Susan's blog for a description of how fun it was to meet Dirk at the airport! Welcome home!

Darn, I wanted to be Victoria

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No new roads?

We live close to a couple of upcoming massive transportation construction projects. We've got a railroad line, and a big arterial road scheduled to go in. Then I saw this news article that says Utah is putting the brakes on many road construction projects because of declining tax revenues. The article didn't say anything about Utah County's Frontrunner line.

The Mountain View Corridor is on hold. That's the west side freeway that was coming down around Bangerter to connect to I-15 at Lehi along 2100 North. Here's a map. The full list of delayed projects is at UDOT's website, and then click on the link for "projects on hold."

New Skills - Simon sits up!

New skills - Ben jumps!

Look at my boy get both feet off the floor!


Kris, doesn't he look like Jace in this picture?

Burnout

You know what I noticed? There's no one else on the planet who posts every single day. I am blog-exhausted. Ack. I'm going to be normal now. I'll see you a couple times a week.

Ben in the Bookshelf

Ben likes this little Ben-size spot. In the video clip, you can hear that Ben has an Eliza Doolittle tendency to add an extra "h" to "open".

Happy Anniversary!

We got married three years ago today! You know that life insurance commercial that says "life comes at you fast"? I feel like that. Three years, two kids, and one deployment. Yep, life came at us fast.

It's been a wonderful three years. I love my husband. He's a loving, accepting man who takes good care of us (even long distance) and is just wonderful to be with (even long distance). You were worth the wait, sweetheart! I'm looking forward to the rest of forever!

Look who's 7 months old today!

Book Review: Everything Bad is Good For You

After reading Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson, I am no longer ashamed that I loved every episode of Average Joe. (That was the reality dating show where they found a beauty queen who said personality was more important than looks and gave her 20 average-looking guys to choose from.) However, I am ashamed that I do not have the brainpower to follow Survivor. Sigh. Perhaps Ben and Simon will be smart enough.

Johnson's argument is that it takes more brainpower to enjoy current pop culture than it did to enjoy pop culture twenty or thirty years ago. He takes on the assumption that pop culture is dumbing down, and turns it on its head.

Before he gets going, he separates out the morality of current pop culture from the complexity of pop culture. This book doesn't address the increased violence, sex and profanity in entertainment.

TV is getting smarter. Really. All you have to do is watch a show from the Golden Age of television (the 60s), or from the stupidity nadir of television (the 70s), and compare it to today's shows. Today's plots have so many interlocking relationships and plot lines that missing an episode requires a visit to one of the many fan sites to find out what happened because the producers don't design shows to fit in one episode. They design shows that take entire seasons to unravel.

While a viewer could sit down in front of Starsky and Hutch, watch just one episode, and be able to follow the plot, anyone who tries to watch just one episode of ER or Lost is going to spend the entire episode wondering what's happening. Older tv shows kept the viewer interested with the mystery of how the show will end. Current tv shows keep the viewer interested with the mystery of what the heck is going on right now. TV shows are a puzzle, not just braindead entertainment.

Speaking of puzzles, the ultimate pop culture puzzles are computer games. Johnson says that saying computer games teach good hand-eye coordination is like saying reading Charles Dickens teaches good spelling. That minor skill is so incidental to what you're actually learning that it's laughable to even count it as a benefit. Today's complex computer games, as opposed to PacMan, require a player to solve an unending series of puzzles. Far from being instant gratification, they often involve a player in frustrating problems without giving the player all the rules, and require the player to figure out the rules in order to solve the problems. That's high-level thinking.

That brings us to reality shows. Know what he says reality shows are? They're not documentaries, and they're certainly not reality. Reality TV shows based on strategy (like Survivor, not Fear Factor) are structured like computer games. There's a highly artificial environment. The players don't know all the rules at the outset but learn them as they go. Players have to make frequent decisions with both short-term and long-term goals in mind. And you can get killed (voted off) no matter how well you think you're doing.

The dating reality shows are like high school social networks. Ick. I didn't like high school, and much of the reason for that was because I couldn't read social network cues. I didn't know who liked who, or why, and what I was supposed to do about it. But thriving in a complex social network like high school is actually a real-life skill because work environments and families are also complex social networks. A person's emotional IQ is as important for success and happiness as a strictly cognitive IQ.

Johnson does briefly address several counter-arguments. The most important one is the social interaction question. It is all too easy to spend time developing cognitive skills and ignore emotional skills that are necessary when you turn the screen off. As with everything else, pop culture should be enjoyed in moderation. He also talked about why, if we are getting smarter, kids test lower in school.

But the book did give a whole new way to look at what tv and computer games are really doing to our minds. And I didn't even get to his thoughts about the Internet. It's pretty obvious the Internet demands more thinking from us, though, so that section was the least revolutionary for me.

The book is highly readable. This is the same author who wrote The Ghost Map. It was a fast and interesting read.

I made cute things!

Now that Halloween is over, let me be the first to brag about my stunningly adorable Christmas decorations! I made our Christmas stockings!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Simon dressed up as a baby this year, and was as cute as ever. Ben, however, has never been a happy boy in a costume, and this year is no exception. A neighbor gave us a cute chicken costume, and this is as close as he got to wearing it.

Wearing the flag

Dirk had a couple extra service flags. Ben thinks they make great necklaces.

Handsome Simon

Handsome Ben

The Movie Theater

Check out the custom seating in our downstairs movie theater!

Not song time

Ben does the cutest rendition of "The Wheels On The Bus" that you've ever seen. He does all the actions, and finishes up every verse by yelling "TOWN!" Watching him is just an instant giggle. Sadly, he does not sing his cute song on camera. So here are two videos in which he does NOT sing The Wheels On The Bus.

Simon's new chair

Simon's new favorite activity is sitting up. He's gotten pretty good at it. It now takes him a couple of seconds to fall over, instead of falling over immediately. To celebrate his hardwon coordination, we pulled out the booster seat.



Here he chases puffs around his tray. They would get stuck in his hands and then he couldn't find them until they fell off again.



He never managed to get a puff into his mouth (or at least, not in the first three minutes of being in his booster seat), so I helped him out. He pulled the funniest faces.



And of course, Ben had to take a turn in Simon's new seat too.

Cleaning out the garden

We pulled the tomato plants out of our garden spot. They were almost all green. We only got about two dozen tomatoes that changed color before the frost. Ben was thrilled with all the "apples" to play with.

Notice the yellow flags on the left in these pictures. They all say "caution, buried gas line." The railroad construction crews marked the gas lines in the yards where the new train tracks are going to be put in. (One house in our cul-de-sac is getting completely taken out by Frontrunner, and another house is losing most of their yard. It's very sad.) Ben was fascinated by the yellow flags, and brought them all home for our yard. (The homeowner had already taken all the flags out to mow his lawn, and we picked them up. We weren't the ones who originally pulled them out.)

Ben's art project

I had a cute idea for an art project. I cut out several shapes, and showed Ben how to stick them to a piece of paper. My boy's first work of modern art! But he decided he wanted every piece of paper we could find cut into shapes, so I obliged. Then it was more fun to blow them around than to stick them to a piece of paper.

Produce II

And here is the rest of the work crew that produced all that lovely canned food you saw yesterday on my blog. Kecia came in the morning to help with the grape juice. Emma, as you can see, got to play next to the garbage can with a few random kitchen items. Wow, no one can say I don't spoil my nieces!

Then, for a total change from what anyone who reads my blog is used to, I actually appear in a picture!

Produce

Susan came down and we bottled tomatoes and grape juice! It was much easier than I ever thought it would be. Of course, Susan did most of the work while I chased after munchkins and threw an occasional tomato in the bottle. Maybe that's why I thought it was so easy.

I didn't get a beautiful shot of carefully posed bottles, though. Instead, we got Simon being cute with bottles of produce in the background. It's just amazing how a kid ends up in every single picture.