Oakland Temple in December

Scout Outing

Our scout master arranged to have the scout visit the news studio of KCRA. They had a chance to watch a broadcast, get a tour of the studio, and sit and talk about the profession of a metorologist with Dirk Verdorn. We had a great time. Stopped by Leatherby's on the way home and ate an obscence amount of ice cream.

Air Temp of 48F

I believe it started with "Uncle Sean, I brought my swim trunks, can I jump off your roof?"
"Kurt, it's freezing outside and it's raining..... You must have asked your Dad this question what did he say?" Kurt "He said it's fine." Me "What? Really?" Gerry "I don't care, I'm tired of trying to talk him out of doing it." Me (I kind of sound like a Mom here) "You understand if you get hurt, or the water is so cold you inhale underwater, your Dad and I aren't coming in after you right? And if you hurt yourself, you have to wait until after Christmas eve dinner to walk yourself to the ER, because you're not goofing up dinner right?" Kurt "Yeah, sure." Me "Well great, let me go get my camera then!"

The Christmas Card That Wasn't

This was almost the card that was sent out. It's a nice photo, everyone looks nice. We shot about 20 that day. We ordered this picture, and finally I said, "listen, I don't really care that much, if you want to send it fine.....but the top of my head is missing. I know this is the photo that all the kids look good, you like you, I like you too, but again... not that I'm picky... the tippy top of my head... it's gone. If we can send the cards out a little late, I'll shoot a picture after church or something."

Suzi was kind enough to agree, so we did. However, I still like this photo alot.

It's just not right! Where is the loyalty?

Suzi and I came home from shopping and I realized that the boys are out and about. For the first time since Christmas morning they aren't glued to the carpet in front of the TV from morning until midnight either playing new games, or watching a movie. I said to Suzi:

Me- You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go in there play their dumb games and delete all their data while they're out. 

Suz- Why? 

Me- Because anytime I touch that PS3, that's what they do with my stuff. And you know what I'll just say? The same stupid thing they say, I didn't know what I was doing! It was an accident, I swear. Sorry. Watch, they are going to trip! 

Hannah walks by both of us, apparently she was behind me the whole time, I didn't see the little beautiful rat, and she says:

Hannah: Just so you know...... (finger pointing at me, with dramatic pause), I heard the whole thing...... yes I did...... just so you know mister.

Me- What? What's that suppose to mean? (As I'm speaking to her, she continue to walk past me, raises her finger in the air, turns her back to me completely and continues into the house.)

Me- You know those two would never defend you! Why are you sticking up for them?!

She didn't even respond.  Just kept on walking. 

Ugh...10 year old girls, who do they think they are with their whole perfect world ideals? Trying to stop me from creating madness in my own home. 

Ugh! I give up....

Shooting a Christmas card photo in our family is quite an event. A couple of words come to mind to summarise the event: madness, tears, side splitting laughter, anger, persistence, threats, compromise, and good enough.

What a girl wants!

Mom-Hannah Shea what do want for Christmas?
Hannah-Oh, I'd like a starbucks card for hot chocolate.
Mom-Thats it?
Hannah- Yep.

You got what!?

So let me try to paint this picture for you so you can enjoy this, or not enjoy this as much as possible. 

I came home from work, and sat down at the kitchen table where everyone hangs around from the moment they get home, until we eat dinner. It's always noisy with the six of us doing six different things, and all of us trying to talk over the top of one and other. 

The kids and I were sitting/ standing around the table when Suz came into the room and announced "I got the kids grades today." And I responded "oh, good. How did they all do?Everything turn out well?" Suzi does a great job with the kids, they all are brilliant kids, and they all get fantastic grades. 

Suzi say's "yeah, everyone did well." Here's where sometimes it's a little funny to be a member of our family. We tend to talk about everything in front of everybody. Accidentally, we know better, but we do. Suzi continues with kind of a tone of suspect, squinted eyes looking at Hannah, "yeah, everyone did great. However, Hannah got a 2 on "shows respect for others" and a 2 on "using time wisely." 

Two things: First 2 is a baaadd grade on a scale of 1-4. Not good. Second Hannah is beloved by every teacher she's every had, and kind to every living creature. There are times where we are reminded she is human, but generally she's truly an angelic girl. She inspires me. Teachers always comment on how kind she is to everyone. If you can't get along with Hannah, and she's run out of patience with you....... well, my experience has been....... well... you must be a....... let me stop myself and take a page from Hannah's book and just say again that Hannah is just, very nice. 

That is what make me so sad about how the rest of this story plays out. 

So I snap around (possibly a little tired from the day), and say "You got a what!? Are you kidding me Hannah? Is this something new this year? Are you and you're friends trying on some kind of new attitude? A 2? What the heck is that all about?"  I wasn't loud, I wasn't attacking. Well maybe a re-reading that line of questioning, one after another. I guess that can come across as a little attacking. I was baffled, and in my tone probably sounded a bit disappointed. 

(Oh geez , just remembering how this all played out is making me sick to my stomach.) 

Hannah responds, "I don't know?" In a bit of a sheepish tone, with a little disbelief. However, to me, where I'm sitting I'm thinking, how do you get a 2 and not know what's up? And the answer "I don't know" rarely  is a satisfactory answer for a parent. It just isn't an answer that we dig, right? However, in this case, it probably was the right answer. I just didn't like it. 

So I say something along the line of "we need to get this figured out. I need to talk to your teacher, little sister." She's got a little look of being beat down, rightfully so. 

THEN SUZI SAYS........ "well... it could be a typo." Silence..... 

We get a call later that night from a friend who is teacher at the school, who has a daughter in the class, and good friends with Hannah, and said "Hey did Hannah get some 2's?" And Suz said "Ohhhh yeah, I'm talking to Ms. Daniels tomorrow." And the friend responded "Those are typo's, I already talked to the teacher."

Ugh.... Oh so many lessons for me in there. Don't know where to begin. 

Patrick & Sam?

Patrick and Sam walk around the house quoting these  two guys constantly. Driving me a bit nutty.

Armstrong & Getty

Suzi, and I love a certain morning radio show, Armstrong and Getty.LOVE IT. Every morning we listen to it wherever we are, and if I miss it I can pick it up on a pod cast and listen to it on a run. Their humor is fantastic, and the topics for the show are always great. National news, California news, local news. Intelligent topics usually. When I'm running, at times I have to stop and laugh because it hurts too much to try and run and laugh. I must look insane. 

So this is our morning routine: The alarm on our radio goes off in the morning and the radio is tuned to the show. As we lay in bed listening, without yet saying good morning, one of the two on the radio always starts us laughing. Without fail every morning we lay in bed until we start to laugh. It's our favorite way to wake up! I love that often the first sound thing I hear from Suz is her laugh. We love it, it gets the day started on the right side of the bed. 

You can listen to it over the Internet as well, that how Suzi listens in the kitchen every morning. Give it a try regardless of what part of the country you live in. Listen for a week, if you don't enjoy it I'll be surprised. They are live 6am to 10am Monday- Friday PST. 

Ding Dong!

Suzi and I got home from getting something to eat tonight. Went and grabbed a late lunch/ very early dinner. 

As we walked up to the door, Suz was four steps in front of me. I had the keys to get back into the house. She reaches up and rings the door bell, but rings it 7 times quickly. I say "Suzi! Don't do that, I yell at the kids when they do that."

Georgia then opened the door "DAD!! Don't do that! You yell at us every time we do that!!"

Me- "I didn't do it. Mom did."

Georgia- "Well tell her not to do it then."

Hmmph

What does "10" look like?

Off to school!

Lodi Christmas Tree Run

3 out of the 6 Kelly's did the 5k Christmas run. We were all over NorCal as a family that day (Suzi and Sam= soccer, Hannah @ a friend's house). This was Georgia's first big run. She was the only 7 year old to run it. Most of the kids ran the "one miler", she's tough!!! The next oldest to run it was a teenager. Wow! If you ask her she'll tell you her legs are sore, and that she didn't have any fun at all. But when you remind her of the early morning doughnut, the run with the friends, all the people cheering for her, and the Thai food afterward, and then you ask her if she'd do it again, then she might say "mmmm yeah, maybe. I had a great time." Patrick, and I have done two runs together and I look forward to getting my butt kicked regularly by the young whipper snapper. Families represented in the bottom photo: Hazelhofer, Robison, Kelly, Brink, Judd, Gonzalez, and La Viola. Great times!

New Tool

I have a new application on my iphone that I love! The website version is www.livestrong.com  .

The application on my phone is awesome. I set my goal of where I want to be in terms of weight gain, loss, or neutral. From there I add my exercise through out the day, and the food I eat through out the day. The calories I can eat goes up and down according to what I do with my exercise. It tracks thousands and thousands of foods, and exercises. Totally cool, and it syncs with the website automatically. Lots of charts and graphs to track my progress. 

Run To Feed The Hungry

Patrick, Sam, and I went for a 10k run Thanksgiving day morning with 30,000 other people. We had a great time with the Durnall family, and think this will be a fun family tradition going forward. Gerry's family has done this for the past several years, and it really was a fun way to start the day.  I think they said it was something like 800k dollars raised to feed the hungry from this event.