Our Weekend

Recently no matter how much I do during my weekend I feel that I have not accomplished anything. I want to work in the yard, clean up both the garage and the shed, empty out closets and reorganize them; I have big, big, BIG plans and only a little bit of energy and time.

It is hard when you have these big goals and you’re the only one in the house that will be doing them. Oh I know I have “teenagers” that can help, but let’s be realistic… they are teenage girls… they could care less what that garage looks like! So on the weekends I have the kids around I push my big dreams aside and I do other things.

When I returned to work Monday morning the typical “what did you do this weekend?” was exchanged between me and my coworkers. It wasn’t until then that I realize how much we actually did over the weekend, sure not a single leaf was moved in my yard or a shelf cleaned off in my closet, but we did a lot.

On Saturday Alexis went to the Holi Festival Of Colors at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, believe me, I would have loved to have gone; it is on my to do list for next year!

Cameron spent some time reminding his brother who the REAL boss in the house actually is! We had Mexican food Fight Night and watch UFC 111 with our friends and family. Brittany was sick Sunday morning; she spent the rest of the weekend with her dad. The rest of us went to church. (ok this is not our building, but they all look the same-ish)

After church we went to see “How to Train Your Dragon” in 3D at Thanksgiving Point Theaters. We all loved it, and could see it again.

After the movie the weather was so wonderful I had to take a few pictures.

Kyle is so freaking cute!

He loves his 3D glasses. He wore them to school Monday. Ya, Umm…, I am so not sure what these two are doing… and I don’t think I want to know. Squirrel!

3 Year Old Fashion Sense

Kyle has his own sense of style, I mean he is just 3, and to a 3 year old Mickey Mouse underwear is equivalent to Gucci.

For the past week he has been determine to dress himself. Every day he has dressed himself in a pair of sweat pants and a mostly coordinating t-shirt. On Friday Kyle went high fashion, he pulled out all the stops, and nothing was going to hold him back! When he was done putting together his outfit he looked like a hillbilly going to a job interview! The funny thing was that when I took him to daycare I actually had someone tell me “He is kind of like the Brad Pitt of 3 year olds... he looks great because he is so cute, I bet all the boys will want to wear that outfit tomorrow!” I replied, “Ya, but their mom’s won’t let them leave the house.”

My boys... can you tell which one I dressed?

The brown Gap hunter hat is a must have for the spring season!

Paired with the navy blue Gap Thermal-T, the red polka-dot tie is the perfect accent. It is more masculine than the popular man-scarf, it demands respect, and yet the combination shows that he has a comfortable easy going side!

The casual style of a sweat pant screams “Lazy Sunday Afternoon” but when anchored with a worn-in look of the pull on sneaker the combination is bound to be seen on runways in New York during fashion week!

Devil's Midnight

For weeks Cameron has been waking up at 3:00 in the morning. He sits up; either cries a little or calls “maa-meee.” I have tried letting him cry for a bit, but typically I end up going into his room and patting him on the back for a minute and he falls right back to sleep. I have had those occasional nights where he refuses to fall back to sleep and I end up taking him into my room and holding him… until we both fall asleep.

The key thing here is that he is always waking up at 3am. I thought it was interesting and since his dad now has him one night every other week I thought I would ask him if it happens at his house. Courtney was standing next to me while I was asking and instantly got a shocked look and said “Mom that is Devils Midnight!” She looked a little worried and told me how her girlfriend wakes up every night at that time and how her friends joke that she cannot sleep over because of it. This intrigued me and so I looked into it a little more.

It turns out that Wikipedia refers to the ‘Devil’s Hour’ as the time around 3am. Apparently, the Devil’s Hour is the exact opposite of the time Christ supposedly died at 3pm. According to Christian belief, Christ died in the “ninth hour” (after sunrise), 3pm. The inverse (or corruption) of 3pm is, 3am.

The time around 3am is also known in European folklore as ‘the Witching Hour.’ This is the time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective. This hour is typically referring to the period from midnight to 3am.

Coincidentally 3am is also “The Dead of Night” because that's when the least amount of light is present. 3am is distance enough from sunset/dusk to morning’s dawn. Sun Light, even in small traces of UV and infrared from the sun can still be seen for well over an hour after sunset. But at 3am for example, during a ‘new moon’ dark sky can leave a full cover of darkness.

While looking into the 3am thing even more it is believe by some that more people die at this time of night, and that more emergency calls are made at that time of day than any other, but I could not find any proof of this. It was also stated on another site that perhaps our senses are more acute at this time of night and allow us to be more open to activity on "the other side". What I did find interesting is that 3am is a VERY common time for people to wake up all over the place.

So with all this information I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen on March 14th, Daylight Saving Time. Would demons adhere to the time change? And if Christ died on the other side of the world, wouldn’t that be in a different time zone too… so how can the Devils Hour be the same everywhere?

Well, that night at 2am Cameron woke up… awhhh a new pattern was going to develop; he would be waking at 2 each night.

NOPE I was wrong, the very next day, back to 3am and almost every night since. It is a good thing he is getting better at falling back to sleep without me coming in and patting him on the back, because even though I know better.. it is still a little freaky.

Technical Difficulties

I love technology (yes, I know the song from Napoleon Dynamite is coming to mind), I love gadgets and the newest and latest thing, love them… from HD flat screen TVs to my IPod Touch. But recently I have two major technical issues; one with my computer and the other with my camera- I’m so not happy about it!

I purchased a new desktop computer in November. Apparently Dell and my massive terabyte external hard drive hate each other! At least that is what I am hoping is the root of all the PC issues I have had. That dang Dell has not been nice to me lately. It is a god thing my best friend Melanie is a Dell guru! Her IT background and Dell tech knowledge has been tested to the max this past week! She knows more diagnostic tricks than I even knew existed. The only bonus to this mess is that I get to spend time hanging out with Mel; that part I do like.

The other technological failure in the house right now is my new Canon G11- Oh no, no, this is not a case of a bad photographer, no matter what you think! This camera is having major issues. I bought it to have a little guy (vs. the Canon SLR that I use for “good” pictures) with video capability for my cruise. It worked great, but the skin tone color was a bit on the orange side. I started seeing major issues when I got home and would shoot inside; out of focus, grain, bad color… the list goes on. It is going back to Canon this weekend. I sure will miss the little guy, but it needs help! For some reason I did not want to believe it was having problems and I kept using it… as you can see by the pictures below…

Pirate Island

These are from last weekend when the kids and I dressed up like pirates and went to Pirate Island in Orem. We had a good time. Kyle was extremely excited and had a great time!

Night of Murder and Mystery Party

Alexis and her friend Emily threw a Night of Murder and Mystery Party with a Mobster Wedding theme. The party was for Alexis’s 17th birthday which was interesting considering SHE played the character that was KILLED half way through the night. Not only did she die, but near the end of the evening someone loaded the air soft gun he was “packing” and started shooting, hitting Alexis in the temple (turns out it was also the kid who played the actual character that killed her… ironic I know!). Oh, and Emily, the other host ended up in the emergency room for getting shot with just "air" in the eye. (She is doing better now.)

Apparently the party was a huge hit and EVERYONE had a great time!

I struggled with that dang camera all night, I wanted these pictures to be awesome, I was almost in tears with disappointment that they did not turn out. Why did I not switch cameras you ask? 1. I did not have my favorite lens, and 2. I am stubborn and thought I could “fix” the problem!

Pleasant Grove High School’s Sweet Heart Dance

Aaawwhh.. Alexis went on her first “date” dance. I was not happy about doing the pictures, partly because my sister had my lens, it was late, and extremely overcast… ok fine, I do not do well under pressure and with the stress of her “first” dance too, I was nervous, I admit it!
I was even more bummed when her date, Tucker took us to a place I have wanted to shoot at for over a year! Seriously!!! I wish they would have turned out better. Tucker is a good sport and even suggested doing them again another time when the weather was better… what a great kid, I like him.

The Melting Pot

I went to the Melting Pot in SLC a few weeks ago with Randy and Tracy, it was awesome! Here is a tip if you think about going… STARVE YOURSELF… and don’t drop the potatoes!!! There was so much food! Ugh! I felt like I needed to be rolled out afterwards!
We had way to much fun that night. I am not sure if that is because they mixed up my Blackberry Lemonade with Randy’s Blackberry Lemonade, or if it was the sheer volume of food, but we had a good time. As we were leaving Tracy stepped into a puddle outside the bathroom door and claimed that my water broke and I was having my food baby*, which sent us into a fit of laughter, we were a bunch of giggling goons as we walked out of there.
*Refer to prior post about the Food Baby for background.

Going forward, no more orange faces and better quality... I hope!