"Lipping Lizzards"

Annie, Sandy, and Mr. Warbucks (PTC Production)

We were able to go on a field trip this week and see Annie at the Pioneer Theater Company.  We completely enjoyed the play.  The actors did an amazing job.  I was so impressed with how well they all did and especially with how well all the children did.  I grew up watching the movie version of Annie with Carroll Burrnett. I love that movie.  I love the music.  As a child I don't remember some of the songs that were in the play being in the movie but I loved the songs that were in the play and they added so much to the story.  I also never thought anything about the movie other than it being about an orphan who is always positive.  As I waited for the play to start I read the background about Annie and had a much better idea about the messages that were in the comic strip and later the radio show.  Watching the play I realized how political the message is. I also realized how similar 1933 is to today.  This was the perfect time to perform this play.  

I want to congratulate everyone for doing such a wonderful job in the play and for singing all those songs just how I remember them from my childhood.  I'm glad we had the opportunity to see this play and have it remind us that even though our economy is bad this Christmas season that we are still so blessed.

Lights on Temple Square

I had this wonderful thought the other night, lets go as a family and walk around downtown and look at the lights.  If any of you watch the Middle, you have an idea how as to how our family night out went.  It all started out by there be no parking anywhere near Temple Square.  I mean No Where!!  None of us can walk very far but we started out by walking a couple blocks just to get to our destination. As we headed toward the lights I realized that we may have just chose the worst night to see the lights.  I'm pretty sure every Young Woman's and Men's group in the Salt Lake Valley was there with us.

While we were surrounded by beauty, we were also surrounded by youth groups that were loud and running wild.  What has happened to the youth today?  I wish I could exclude my own children from that thought but they were soon included.  Before too long, I would have to include myself.  It was so crowded by the manger scene that we were all squished together. Squished together with loud talking and singing youth. After I took my first picture (the Temple above) the batteries died in my camera.  I had forgot to pack extra batteries.  Now all I had was my cell phone, yay.  While trying to get the camera safely tucked away with the lens still stuck out, Kenny accidentally elbowed Taylor in the  mouth.

None of us do well with crowds.  That simple statement could even be an understatement.  As we were walking we had a couple walking right behind us (like, right behind us) and next to Taylor.  This couple was having a conversation about someone they knew and before I knew what was happening I could hear Taylor behind me saying things that went along with their conversation only in his best sarcastic tone.  They would say something and then I could hear Taylor respond with "Reallllly" or "Oh thaat is soooo greeaaat."  I quickly moved us over out of the way and let this other couple get by us and then just gave Taylor that REALLY look.  We were off again.

We headed toward the South part of the Square and Kelton was busy telling us how cool the display is in the visitor's center. It is about the Temple and he was so excited to show us and tell us all about it.  I had said that we would go in there on our way back through so he could show us.  I think we were starting to enjoy and settle down a little while we were in a less crowded area.  It was so pretty looking at all the lights and the Temple and was fun seeing all the families and tourists taking in all the beauty.  For a few moments I was excited to think that we had saved our family outing and was going to enjoy the rest of our night. Haaa haaa haaa, that is really how naive I am.

As we made our way onto the Main Street Plaza I could hear a little comment from behind me (It would be nice if we could just have one normal family outing.  When are we going back to the car?)  That was it!! All that peace, love, and anything else nice crap went out the window.  There were no lights before me anymore, the night was done.  I was done!  I was able to take a few more pictures with my phone and then when Taylor asked me where we were going I quickly let him know that we were heading back to the car.

We slowly made it back to our car safely even though  we timed our leaving with half of the youth groups. More yelling, singing, and general ughhh. My next wonderful thought was to stop and get us all Peppermint Hot Chocolate from McDonald's.  Big mistake. Huge mistake.  We sat for over 15 minutes waiting for our drinks while we watched (not kidding) 10 cars leave behind us with their food.  Kenny finally went in and got us our drinks. I told him we should have got our money back but he just wanted to leave.

In the end, we made it through as a family and enjoyed some very weak hot chocolate as we made our way home.  We did enjoy many beautiful images and some priceless moments together.  No matter what, we are a forever family and it may take that long to figure out how to put together a family night that we can all enjoy :).  I do know that we love each other and can now look back at our night out and laugh hysterically about what happened and talk about all the beautiful things we saw.  I guess that makes this a success.

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This really did take a few twists and completely threw me for a loop at the end.  I am still slightly bewildered as to why this book is under the horror section.  I think I have read more suspenseful books in the Juvenal section.  Not to say that this was bad, I just don't feel that it should have been considered horror.  It was more suspenseful than anything and it did a wonderful job of keeping me guessing. In the end it was a good quick read that did keep me on my toes.


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Triage by Taylor

I was laying in bed yesterday reading while I was waiting for the boys to wake up.  Taylor woke up first and joined me in bed and was petting Maggie.  After a few minutes Taylor went to get up and we heard a joint pop.  He looked at me and then said, "who was that?" I wasn't sure but told him that it wasn't me (I hadn't moved, in fact I hadn't moved for a very long time).  He started to check Maggie over and was gently rubbing a few of her joints on her legs where he had been petting her.  Then he moved to her face and checked her eyes. Taylor then announced, "her pupils are reactive, she is fine!"

It took everything I had to not laugh.  Instead I told him that I was glad that she was okay.  What an absolutely priceless moment!

X-Wings in the morning

While driving Kenny to work the other morning (Monday) I told him to have a good day.  Kenny's reply was that he would try.  Before I go any further you need to know that he has successfully turned me into a Star Wars geek.  So, my reply was, "do or do not, there is no try."  Ya, I know, but give me some credit...it was 6:30 in the morning and I was in horrible pain from my stupid back.  Kenny didn't even miss a beat. He quickly replied that he "would drop an x-wing on me."

It is a really good thing that x-wings aren't real.  It is also a really good thing that we don't have any at home, my boys quickly reminded me that all of their x-wings are in storage.

I'm still trying to decide which was funnier...the boys taking the whole x-wing part so literal or that Kenny said he wanted to drop one on me.  The scary part is that most of our morning drives are that random :)

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Disturbing, that was my first thought when I started reading The Hunger Games.  How could anyone come up with the idea of having children fight to the death.  By the time I was done reading the first book I was not going to keep reading but everyone was so in love with these books that after some constant nagging I finally picked up the second and third books.  I can't believe how good they ended up being, still disturbing, but good.

I can't even begin to understand how someone can have the imagination to come up with such a story and then to make it into three books.  They built on each other so well that you have to finish all of them and find out how it ends.  I am still in shock at how each character developed and how much I fell in love with each of them.  I knew who I wanted to win and by the end I knew who I wanted to spend their life with Katniss.  I was not disappointed!

Now that I have finally listened to my son and cousin, I am glad that I read all of the books and was able to visit this other amazing Country that could treat their citizens so cruelly.  I am purposely not saying much about the story because I don't want to give anything away.  These stories are too good to let anything slip. It would be to easy to say one little thing and then it would give everything away.  If anyone wants a really good story to read I would highly recommend these books.