Sunday, August 14, 2011

Our new vehicle!



Check out my new vehicle!! The suburban - also referred to as the beast or the monster, at least by me - literally blew up coming down the canyon on State Road 6 at 2:30 in the morning!
I was driving home a sick young woman from girl's camp - which is unusual for me. I would normally just make them wait it out until morning, especially with all the rain we had on the day before. The dirt road up to camp was a mess!! But, I put her in the burb and off we went. Two hours later, right in the middle of the canyon, KABLOOEY!! Smoke everywhere. No movement in the steering wheel. No engine.
We made it to the side of the road and waited. And waited. And waited. Even with smoke hurling out of our engine, no one dared to stop to offer assistance. What does that say about the state of our world when everyone is too scared of the monster that might be lurking in the disabled vehicle on the side of the road? We didn't even have phone service. We said a prayer, and I knew I would know when to flag someone down. So we waited again. When the prompting hit me, I got out of the burb with my flashlight and waved someone down. They passed us at first, but turned around to help. It was a young man with two young women. I gave them our home phone number and asked them to please call Mike as soon as they got phone service. They did and my knight in shining armor arrived later. Actually, when they called they said, "We just ran into your wife...." which of course he took as meaning, "We just plowed into your vehicle with your wife in it." Once they cleared up the real meaning, Mike got my mom to come sit with Alex at our house and he borrowed her car and came to get us. In the meantime, me and the young woman slept. Quite comfortably, actually! Which is weird in and of itself, because I am scared of the dark. I am SCARED to DEATH of the dark!! But felt very comfortable and calm, so took a little snooze. We went home, Mike let me sleep in then returned to camp with me the next day.
All in all a nice little adventure, and another testament of the power of prayer.

Al's rite of passage. Braces!

First, not only be allowed to make funny faces, but given utensils to help in the process while you get xrays taken as well as 'before' pictures...


Next, have pretty lady put goop in your mouth to make an impression...
...now open wide!!!



The end results are bea-u-ti-ful!!...

...and exhausting!! We will keep you posted.

Hollywood, Baby!!

My sister has a really cool job. She is the media director (I think that's the official name) for advertisement with Sorensen Communication. (They make communication possible for the Deaf community, such as video phones in the community) Anyway, she used my parent's home for one of their most recent ads. I ventured out with all the kids, and we scoped things out.

Nothing REALLY exciting, but it was weird to see this big light in the backyard.

The catering! Yeah. They really cater to the crew.

This is my parent's living room. Well, most of it is. The guy, the sheet on the window and the big movie light aren't usually in there.

I got to have my picture taken with THE star!! Anthony! The kids weren't impressed, they just wanted out of the stroller at this point.

And here's my parent's poor, dejected dogs - Goliath and Tinker. They got ostracized to my house for the few days of filming, and they actually enjoyed it, but I got this picture where they look so mournful, I had to use it! That was my donation to the filming... dog sitting!!
http://www.sorensonvrs.com/ntouch go to this link to see their house in 'action'. The living room is theirs, and the kitchen is theirs. My dad wishes the office was his!
http://www.sorensonvrs.com/ntouchvp_product ... that's my dad's workshop!! My dad is much better looking, though. And a little secret of the trade; that man didn't really make that doll house. Actually one of the producers did (a girl did it!)
Anyway, cool stuff. My parent's house is famous!!!
I grew up around people who are Deaf - yes, my sister is profoundly Deaf - and it is different, but I don't know it's different until it's pointed out to me. We grew up signing, and sometimes it feels like it's my first language; I think in sign. But my mom is the only one in the whole family that is a skilled signer. My sister lived out of state for 10 years, and we weren't vigilant at using sign language while she was gone, and you know what they say, "Use it or lose it!" But I love my sister very much and am very proud of her talents and compassion for others.

Summer fun

Here are some fun things we did this summer!


Attended a fundraiser for Alex's special needs hockey team. Go Grizzlies!!!


We had a ward summer activity and my dad (AKA Papa GG) got attacked by young women with face paint!

Nothing better than a summer rainstorm and playing in the warm gutter water! We had a BLAST!!




And what the hail?!? Another summer storm.

We also played in the water any chance we got! Squirt bottles were a necessity and made for a lot of fun, warm days.
Now Alex and B are back in school (9th grade and kindergarten respectively), Mo and Oak are in preschool, Hey-hey hangs out with us still and we have a new friend that comes once in a while. We shall call her Nev on the blog. I will add pics of her later.
Good times, good times!