When Santa overrules the parents

Does anyone know who has jurisdiction in a situation like this?

It's probably a moot point now anyways. By this time, the kids would never allow us to get rid of Cringer, even if we had the authority to do it.

I don't know why Santa didn't just get the American Girl doll that Ella had asked for. Maybe Mrs. Claus had a hand in it; now that would be an ironic turn of events wouldn't it?

- C

Merry Christmas

CHEMTD wishes you all a happy Christmas and we hope to see you soon.

- C

Pierogi Sunday

Granted, it's not widely celebrated. Hallmark doesn't even make a greeting card for it. But in our house, it's a hit.

Some time ago I told you about how I had instituted the tradition of having pierogis for dinner on the first Sunday of every month (as if Fast Sunday could get any more awesome). Like most of my ideas, Heather is not only the one that actually made it happen, she improved on my plan.

My plan: Do pierogis the way I had them growing up ie, topped with cheese sauce, mushroom soup sauce, chopped bacon, and "wrigleys" (I never thought to ask dad why he called sauteed onions wrigleys, but I've decided it might be a reference to a menu item at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs).

Heather's Improvement: Making the pierogis from scratch.



This has totally elevated one of my favorite meals to a whole new level. I don't even need to conduct a taste test comparison to know they are better, the whole matter can be settled by an appeal to logic.

The question: could a mass-produced, machine-produced food ever taste as good as the same food made by hand, by a beautiful woman, for someone that she loves?

According to logic and the natural laws governing food, that's impossible.

Now, sitting through three hours of Church on an empty stomach doesn't even faze me. Go ahead, tell some lame story instead of bearing your testimony. Let that fussy kid over there keep on fussin'. Nothing bothers me today. Not on Pierogi Sunday.



- C

Snowed In & Take Out

Despite the heavy snowfall we were still planning on driving down to see family yesterday, and to be there for baby Nathan's blessing today. In the morning I spent two hours shoveling snow, and then another hour putting winter tires on the van. However, during that time we were getting frequent updates from Jewel and Tanis about how bad their driving conditions were. In the end, just prior to our planned departure time, we scrubbed the mission. The kids were really depressed by the "no-launch" decision, especially since we had been talking about the trip all week. And I felt bad that I might miss standing in the circle at one of the cousins' blessings.



We decided that the best way to boost some sad little spirits would be... yup, you guessed it, a Chinese Food Party. The trip to the restaurant also gave me an opportunity to test the new tires; the verdict: awesome. I have noticed though that I don't drive as cautiously as I did before - I'm showing off a little so other motorists can see how good my traction is. So really there's no net increase in safety for me... but I think it will be a huge benefit for Heather when she's driving the kids. We ate our supper by candlelight as we do throughout the month of December, a Christmas tradition from my side of the family.



Later in the evening we got a phone call from Tanis, informing us that their church had been cancelled and the blessing would likely be rescheduled. The news made me relieved that we had made the right choice (and it made me jealous that we don't live in a town where church gets cancelled due to weather).

So right now we're watching the skies and hoping to try again next week. Hopefully we will see you then.



- C

Weekend Summary

After considerable turmoil over whether or not we would get the H1N1 vaccine, we finally went as a family and all got the shot.



After that, I thought it would be nice to cheer the kids up by taking them to the motorcycle shop where we saw, for the first time, the balck version of Moto Guzzi's V7 Classic.



On Saturday we met Uncle Jeremy and the boys at Heritage Park for the opening day of Christmas Celebrations. We felt bad that Oscar wasn't feeling well but it was great to see them. Thanks Uncle Jeremy for the candy.



In the morning the kids go back to school and I have to write an exam at work. Already we are looking forward to next weekend!



- C

Instead of attending Stake Conference

Last weekend we went down South and, as usual, the Hardys were awesome hosts and spoiled all of us. It was nice to tag along to sacrament meeting with them as well; Heather and I were shocked to realize that, in all this time, we had never been to church with them.

Definitely the most exciting thing about the trip was meeting our new cousin Nathan. It was nice to see how proud of him his parents and siblings are. He spent most of the time sleeping, which I totally respect seeing as he is too young for video games right now anyways.



We brought Haku down, mostly because I couldn't face the prospect of being met at the door by Brooklyn and having to tell her, yet again, that I didn't bring him. All of the kids liked him so much that we had to place limits on the number of holding sessions.



It was great to see everyone. I wish that I would have used our time together better. We can't wait until Nathan's baby blessing.

- C

Deacon's Eyes

When we first brought him home, I noticed that Deacon had odd coloured eyes. It is not very drastic, but the shade and uniformity is definitely different. So far they haven't changed, so I'm thinking that he might be like this permanently. I think it's cool.

If a cat has odd eyes, it will be deaf in the ear on the blue-eye side. But Deacon will likely have some sort of extra ability rather than a deficiency. For example, maybe he will be able to hear peoples' innermost thoughts in the ear on his mottled-eye side.

At the very least, it will make for a good bit of trivia if he ever has to play one of those "guess who this is talking about" get-to-know-you games.

- C

Remembrance Day

This morning the boys and I walked down to the cenotaph for the town's remembrance day ceremonies. Ella was already there because she and some girls from church had been invited to participate along with the local cadet corp.



The kids did a great job and even Tyson was able to maintain the two minute's of silence (first time I have seen that). As we were walking home, the chilly wind drove us into a restaurant for some hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.

After supper we all went in and visited mom and dad's grave.





I mostly wanted to share the poem that was read at the ceremony:


IT IS THE SOLDIER

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

©Copyright 1970, 2005 by Charles M. Province





- C

Nathan Randall Hardy - Welcome To The World!

CHEMTD would like to officially welcome you as our newest cousin - it's not very often that we get a new member in the family. We can't wait for the chance to meet you, and are positive that we will be best of friends. Born November 1st eh? 11-1; I like your style.

On this date in 1952, nuclear fusion occurred on Earth for the very first time with the detonation of a hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific. I guess now, nuclear fusion will have to share the day with something of even greater power and awesomeness. We would have loved you regardless, but the fact that you're another Lone Wolf makes it even more special.

Unfortunately, we couldn't be down there right now so I don't have a photo of you to include with this post. But here is one that I took of Deacon a couple of days ago; he is the closest to you in age and, hopefully, will prove to be a worthy conspirator in the pursuit of "tomfoolery":



We hope your mom is doing well and we are so happy for her and your dad. You are lucky to have such a good brother and sisters to look up to.

We look forward to meeting you soon. Until then, love,

- CHEMTD

A Quick Post (you can skip this one if you want)

Seeing as it's almost been a month since our last post, I thought I should put up a quick note. I worked the last four days, and am back to work tomorrow afternoon, but today was a nice lazy day. We started out this morning with me YouTube'ing the theme song for Beverly Hills Cop and, somehow, that led to a search for old techno songs ("Sandstorm" ring a bell for anyone?). All of our kitchen-dancing worked up a good appetite for the pumpkin pancakes that heather was making. After breakfast I watched Ironman with the kids - since which, Tyson has been walking around quoting, "the truth is, I am Ironman".

In the afternoon, between bouts of snow and rain, we ventured outside and took some family pictures. We finished the day by dining on rib eye steaks, garlic toast, and salad, while sipping grape juice from fancy glasses. The kids are now splashing in the tub getting ready for church tomorrow. In short, it was a pretty good day off; and like all the good ones, it went by much too quickly.

As an attempt to make up for lost time, here a few photos from our thanksgiving trip:

Deacon - He's a-growin'




Jeremy - Awesome; full-on




Kendall and Jewel - A great couple (Kendall's so patient too)




Well, that was a quick post but I think the important thing is that I managed to get something up before a full month had gone by. Hopefully, I will be posting soon about auntie Tanis and her new baby, good luck you guys!

- C

Three Pizzas in Three Days

To say that we relied heavily on our GPS during the trip to Spokane would be an understatement, but despite my geographical ignorance, I had fully researched different restaurants to sample while we were there. The debate on "Best Pizza" seemed to center around Bennidito's or David's, so both places were definitely on the itinerary. But how did that plan become three pizzas? Well, as we were passing through Coeur d'Alene Idaho we were surprised to spot a MacKenzie River Pizza company, and within the distance of one block, made the decision to go back.

According to the writing on my glass, this is the only MRPC located outside of Montana but we were pleased to find that it was just as tasty as those found in the home state. We ordered a half and half Good Ol' Boy (Pepperoni for the kids) and Hot Hawaiian (Sweet & smoky BBQ sauce, roasted chicken, bacon, pineapple & jalapeño peppers for us). Our server was first rate, she gushed over Deacon, had cups with lids for the children to prevent spills, and then gave them free ice cream for desert. In a show of appreciation, Heather and I also ordered a slice of cheesecake.





The next night we tried Bennidito's where we ordered their Meat Primo (mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, salami, italian sausage, prosciutto ham, panchetta bacon, meatballs & canadian bacon). This pizza justified the trip down. Simply amazing. The meal was even more special due to the fact that we ate it on the patio in the warm sun. The trip to Bennidito's also took us to the South part of town and I don't think I have ever seen such beautiful streets or such stately homes as those found in the neighborhood surrounding Manito Park.







At supper time on the third day we found ourselves in the parking lot of David's Pizza, debating whether or not we really wanted to have pizza again. My vote was for the dinghy looking Vietnamese place across the street but we finally decided to try David's just so we would know for ourselves which was better. The restaurant had kind of a pub-feel to it and I'm sure it is a regular haunt of Gonzaga students. The Garlic Chicken and Mushroom pizza we had was a New York Style thin crust that was purportedly hand tossed (although we couldn't see it made from where we sat in our giant booth behind a basketball-court-hardwood table). The pizza was very good and if it had been our first stop instead of our third I may have been more excited about it, but on the other hand, it was a little pricey compared to what we had received at Bennidito's and our server tried to short me $5 when I got change for the table-top Pac-Man machine.





The arcade game was a nice touch by the way - it brought back fond memories of a similar machine that used to be at the used-to-be-Tops restaurant in Claresholm where I would sit and watch dad get the kind of play/$ mileage from of one quarter that would blow the mind of any modern arcade gamer. David's also has a "Pizza Response Team" emergency vehicle that would be the envy of any small town fire department, and which is reportedly capable of catering for up to 3000 people. If I was throwing a party, or was a college kid (with more pizza-money than the average college kid), I would pick David's. Otherwise, Bennedito's was our family favorite.



On the fourth day we actually made it back to that dinghy Vietnamese place (I never did catch the name). Despite the appearance, it turned out to be pure gold. The "Bun" vermicelli was the best that we have had - handily beating our local standby. We also ordered some Western-Chinese sweet-and-sour breaded chicken and almond breaded chicken (covered in plain old gravy if you can believe it) with sides of chow mien and fried rice. It was a feast and we still had enough leftover to fill a takeout container. We had a good laugh reading each member's Chinese Zodiac from our place mats (Dad and Ella - Snake, Mom - Horse, Mason - Sheep, Tyson - Rooster, and Deacon - Ox).





But the best part about the unnamed Vietnamese restaurant...?






... It wasn't pizza!!


- C

The Land of Apples and Tigers

This past week we were able to take a family trip to Spokane. Chad was asked to go to a conference down there for work. It's not a place we had ever thought about going to. It was so unexpected and last minute and the kids wound up missing almost a week of school, but I'm so glad we decided to all go. It turned out to be a blast. It was one of the prettiest places I've been. The drive was mostly through the mountains in BC and then through a really pretty area of Idaho. We were in Salt Lake a couple years ago and the drive through Idaho to get there is nothing spectacular, in my opinion. Just some weird brush in the ditches. Here there were beautiful golden fields with huge trees lining the road. Huge lakes with cool bridges and Spokane was even better. We stayed downtown at the Red Lion Hotel. It was probably the most amazing hotel we've ever stayed in and the kids were so sad to leave it. They had two swimming pools. An outdoor one and an indoor one.



It just seemed so amazing that we were actually able to still use the outdoor one at this time of year. I guess we had nice weather here while we were gone, but that usually is not the case. Anyways, all we had to do was walk out the back of the hotel and cross a bridge and we were at this huge park with walking trails leading to various spots in the downtown--shopping, a huge wagon made into a slide, a 100-year-old carousel and a gondola ride. The gondola ride was a bit disappointing, but the kids loved the wagon and the carousel. There was also a fountain that they played in a couple times.







We decided to stay an extra night and that was awesome as it allowed us the time to find some of the orchards down there that allow you to come and pick your own fruit. We wound up going to only one, but I loved it. The kids went through a little corn maze there, then we shopped at a little store that had some really fun stuff and then we picked some apples.



We didn't get too many as we weren't sure what we could bring back over the border, but it turned out that they didn't ask, so I guess we should have found some peaches and other stuff. Oh well, we'll sure enjoy these delicious apples. The kids have decided they will not eat any other apple! I think it would be so awesome to live there and have some of this beautiful land. I don't know that I would want all the work that comes with such a huge orchard, but I figure if we had a couple apple, peach, pear and cherry trees we could eat all we wanted fresh and then put away enough to enjoy all winter too! Oh, of course we would need some raspberries and strawberries, but seriously we'd be all set.

On our way back from the orchard we found this zoo called Cat Tales. It wasn't very big, but it was very neat. They had a couple bears and cougars, a lion and a baby lynx and tigers. We seriously were so close. It was so cool. Ella even fed a tiger. That was definitely a highlight!





It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad we were given the opportunity to go! There will be a future post reviewing all the delicious pizza we ate there. Maybe I will make Chad do that though.



- H

Mace's Snakes

Ever since we visited KJAMBD, our kids (and one of us parents) have really wanted to get a pet lizard or snake. I had been speaking to a couple people on kijiji about buying their corn snakes and back on the 9'sth we tried to find a bearded dragon at the pet store. Heather and I ended up resolving to just stc (stay the course), and that was the plan, at least until this past Friday.

I had just walked the kids home from school. After checking the mail box with Ella, we returned to our side of the road and found Mason standing almost in a trance, staring down at the neighbors' lawn. He told us that he had seen a snake sitting right there only a moment ago. I was pretty skeptical until I heard a rustling in the bush. I had began combing through the leaves with my fingers when Ella suddenly exclaimed, "I see it". Sure enough, a little garter snake had popped out onto the grass on the other side. I managed to catch it and learned in the processes that sometimes scared snakes spray. It was a stinky musky smell and it reminded me that I had never caught a snake before. We named him Haku after a character that takes the form of a serpentine wingless dragon in Miazaki's excellent movie, Spirited Away.



This evening I got home from a training conference and Mason met me at the door with a lunch box and a challenge to guess its contents in under three tries. I got "another snake" on the first guess and Mason introduced me to... Floppy (that's what happens when I'm not around to help out with name suggestions).

Here is Mason with his second, larger snake just before releasing it:



I was so proud to hear how he'd caught it all by himself. I mean, he is only six years old and already he catches snakes, wears a Masters of G wristwatch, and has beat Super Mario Brothers on his own. So much ahead of where I was at his age...



- C