Celine Dion

One Friday in November 2007 I was listening to Christmas music on the radio and heard a commercial that Celine Dion tickets were going on sale the next morning. I was so excited I immediately called Chet and told him to check it out. He said that he was on it so I didn't think about it again until the next afternoon. I was like CRAP hurry and log on and get some tickets!!! Alas, they were sold out. I was sad but was ok because I didn't think that Chet would actually let me go because number one; he hates Celine and number two; tickets were like $150 bucks a seat! I forgot about it until one night we were watching TV and there was a commercial for a TV concert that she was going to be doing. I felt a twinge of pain because I did really want to go! (my mom always promised that she would take me and my sisters.) The night that the TV show was on I made Chet watch it with me. I started crying halfway through the show. (I didn't get to go with my mom and now I didn't get to go with Chet!) As I was sitting there crying, Chet said I have an early birthday present for you so that you will stop crying. He pulled up the email confirmation of the Celine Dion tickets that he had bought!!! I was shocked. He had heard way before I did that she was coming and signed up for the fan club so that he could get the tickets early! He was going to get them before I even told him! So 14 months later we got to go. (the pictures don't do justice to how close we were!)


She is so pretty and her voice is unbelievable! She did 5 costume changes! Each one was more beautiful than the one before!
It was a 360 degree stage. I was so cool! Different parts would move if she was standing on them and the very center of the stage would raise when she was on it!
She ended the show with "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic". Not my favorite song but still AMAZING!

Thankful

Two years ago today my mom passed away. I have had many emotions today; anger, sorrow, heartache, devastation, thoughtfulness, etc... However I don't want to focus on the negative. Although I am very sad today, I am also thankful. Yes, thankful. I am thankful for the 27 years of love and friendship and knowledge that she gave to me. She was the best mom and friend anyone could have asked for. I am grateful for the time that I did get with her. I have wonderful memories of a woman who still inspires me everyday. Thanks for everything Mom! Forever, forever!

I am also thankful for the 2 best sisters in the world! I know that I can call on them for anything and that they will be there for me no matter what! Thanks Jann and Linz! I love you guys.

I am thankful for good friends. For the good times I am able to have with them. (even if they are not a frequent as I would like.)Thanks for all the thoughts, notes and phone calls today they lifted my spirits!

I am also thankful for my loving husband, Chet. I don't know if I could have survived the last 2 years without him. He has been my rock, even when it meant putting his own grief aside. I am so blessed to have my best friend as my eternal companion. Always and forever Honnuh!

Most importantly I am thankful for the Savior. I know that through him I will get to see my mom again one day.

Draper Temple

Today we had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple open house. It was amazing. The beauty and the spirit that are inside are breathtaking! It was especially neat because we took Olivia and Harris. It was neat to walk hand-in-hand with them and explain what the different rooms were for. I was especially touched when I walked into the Bride's Room holding Olivia's hand. I had the feeling that I would be doing this again someday. (I hate to say that because she is my baby girl!) When we got to the Celestial Room I had a strange feeling come over me. I felt my moms presence. (she died almost 2 years ago from ARDS) It wasn't necessarily that she was there in that room, but that she was close and in a "similar" place. I was a bit hesitant to feel that spirit because, honestly, my faith has wavered since she died. The other feeling that I got was that she was "working". I don't know why I got that impression but I did. It made me smile.
I just want to say that I am grateful for the work that goes on in the Temple, because I know that the work that goes on there will ensure that I will get to see my mom again someday.

Bye-Bye Retainer!

In June 2007 we had a family party at our house for Harris' birthday. The party had gone from inside to outside and some of the fam, including Olivia, decided to play some baseball. It was all fun and games until someone got hurt. That someone was Olivia. She was standing a little too close to cousin Trev and got whacked in the cheek by the baseball bat. At first we thought that she just got a good bump and bruise. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that we learned the extent of what happened. At first she just complained about a toothache. I didn't pay much attention to it because the pain just came and went. I thought that it was still hurting from the bump. A couple days later she woke up one morning and the whole left side of her face was swollen. So swollen that her eye was closed. I immediately called her doctor, Dr. Knorr. When we got to the doctors office he told me that she must have an abscessed tooth and I needed to take her to the dentist. Dr. Knorr called the dentist and they fit us in. When we got to the dentist they took a whole bunch of x-rays. When the dentist came into the room he asked us if Olivia had been hit in the face. We were like "no" and Liv was like "yes I was! Remember when Trevor hit me with the baseball bat?" What had happened was the bat had hit her so hard that it broke the roots of her tooth which in turn got infected. The infection spread through her face and had gotten so bad that she had to have antibiotic shots for a week! After the infection was gone they had to remove the tooth and put a retainer in so the teeth wouldn't move together. The dentist said that it would take about 5 years for the tooth to grow in. The other day however Livvy couldn't get the piece of "food" out of her retainer. So she asked me to help. To make a long story short it was a tooth, so I called the dentist, and today she got it taken out. The dentist told me that now I need to call an orthodontist so they can get started making room for molars and braces!

First Day of School

Today Harris started preschool at Learning Dynamics. I don't know how I feel about this. You see he is my baby, my last one, and if he is going to school I must be getting old! What am I going to do?! He will be gone 3 days a week for two and a half hours! I guess it will be good. I'll be able to do something without being interrupted by Harris wanting me to play with him. ("but I like to play with him", I say to myself.) I know that it will be a good break for him. Despite my efforts, he is growing up, and needs to have some extracurricular activities. So I will suck it up and watch him go.

Harris, however, was fine. He was a little shy, but his teacher took his hand and shooed us out the door. You should have seen his face when we got there to pick him up! It was priceless! Total relief that we were back. He said to us "my school is a long time, huh mommy?". I hope that he loves school like Olivia does. Loving to learn now will help him all through out his school years.

By-the-way, there aren't any pictures because Chet said it was weird to take pictures because he started school in the middle of the year. So I posted one of my favorite baby pictures of him.

Yule Blog

Christmas came to me and Chet at 3:30 this morning! Our poor son was whimpering in the hallway with a temperature of 104.2! We did all the standards to help bring the fever down,(Motrin, cooler jammies, blessing) but nothing helped. I finally made Chet call his doctor after an hour of no change. Dr. Knorr reassured us (mostly me) that everything was ok and that it was probably his ears again. (Harris is notorious for ear infections) I finally let Chet go sleep in Harris' room and put Harris in bed with me so I could monitor him. I eventually fell back to sleep around 6. At 7:01 Livvy came in and said "Let's go, let's go!" I sent her back to her room until Harris woke up. (poor girl) She was very understanding though and patiently waited until Harris went and got her at about 8. Harris was kind of a bump though. He sat on my lap most of the morning and only played with his toys for a minute. :( After the opening of gifts at home, we headed to the Robinson's. About 5 minutes after we got there Harris started throwing up. Lucky me caught most of it in my hands. We stayed for a bit and enjoyed watching them open the gifts we got for them, and their gifts to the kids. Before we left, Chet and Chet Sr. gave Harris a blessing to feel better and to be able to enjoy the rest of the day. We then headed to my sister Jann's house for prime rib. (It was an amazing dinner by they way. Thanks, Jann!) Harris sat for a while and then felt well enough to play. He even ate a little. Yay! All in all we had a great day! Great presents, great food, amazing family! Thanks everyone! Merry Christmas!


We thought we would share a short video of when the kids came down the stairs on Christmas morning, enjoy!
Note: at 1:43 in the video you have GOT to check out Harris' reaction to his toy dinosaur, it is hilarious!

2 in a row, Happy Birthday J-mo!

Well, well, 2 blog posts in a row for Chet...hot dog!

Anyway, I just wanted to post a short blog entry to wish my dear wife and friend, Jaime, a very happy birthday. I can't believe you are 29, I am sure this will be the first of many happy 29th birthdays!

I have seen this done in other blogs and thought I would copy. On Jaime's 29th birthday I thought I would share 29 things about my dear wife that you may (or may not) know.

Here it goes:

1. She is hilarious, especially when she doesn't mean to be. This one time she was trying to do her Severus Snape impression from the last Harry Potter movie. He says, "Obviously..." when it was mentioned that he didn't get the post of Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts, well Jaime was trying to do her impression of that voice and it came out unnaturally high-pitched. I thought it was hilarious, but reading this it doesn't sound quite so funny...

2. Sometimes she laughs so hard and uncontrollably that she starts bawling. Now, THAT is hilarious.

3. She has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. Some may even call them, "stumbling"...

4. She is a natural blonde...that has to have her hair colored to look it's natural color...

5. When we met she had a scrapbook of Keanu Reeves.

6. She also had a scrapbook of the Mazda Miata.

7. She is obsessed with Disneyland (most of you probably knew that one)

8. She loves Christmas (not too original, I know, but she really really does.)

9. She is an "animal person", meaning that she sometimes relates to animals easier than people.

10. She can be painfully shy.

11. She is an amazing homemaker.

12. She is a fantastic chef and cook. Almost every new recipe she has tried out on the family has been a success (the only real misfire would be the Polenta from last week...)

13. She is a big fan of high fashion and has greatly expanded my vocabulary with strange french and Italian designer names (Louboutin, Dior, Ferragamo etc.)

14. Her favorite Christmas movie is "Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas", look it up it is awesome.

15. Her favorite Halloween movie is "The Great Bear Scare", look it up it is soooooo lame.

16. She is most scared of Michael Myers, not Mike Myers from SNL but the scary mask-dude from the Halloween movies. Every year I threaten to purchase a Michael Meyers costume and wake her in the middle of the night while wearing the costume and brandishing a knife and every year she threatens to leave me if I do that...

17. She has an awesome talent where she can somehow lift a cup of ice cream by biting the side of the cup and raising her head...ask her about it some time, it is quite impressive.

18. She loves socks and slippers.

19. She would wear pajamas all day if it were socially acceptable.

20. She does not sleep well at night.

21. She is addicted to Pepsi, not to caffeine, mind you, but to Pepsi. (I know this because I used to substitute her regular fountain Pepsi with the caffeine-free version and she would never notice and it would seem to satisfy whatever weird cola craving she would be having)

22. She is soooo accident prone. I now have to supervise her when she uses sharp objects in the kitchen.

23. She is an expert gift-wrapper. It is probably hereditary.

24. She used to think that being a bastard meant that you didn't have a mom.

25. She also used to think that the Calvin Klein cologne, CK One, was a "bi-sexual" cologne. (She meant unisex, but in reality she probably wasn't that far off...)

26. She is a great gift-giver. She cares more than anyone I know about what gifts she gives to others at birthdays and Christmas.

27. She thinks that Pittsburgh is a state.

28. She sometimes suffers from "short-term memory". I think that is just when she remembers things that just recently happened...

29. She is the most intelligent, caring and beautiful person I have every met and I am honored and privileged to call her my trophy wife.

Happy Birthday Jaime, I love you always and forever.

Chet M.