The past 3 weeks

OK SO I'm a slacker. Here's the past 3 weeks


Monday the 4th we had a lesson on apostolic succession for FHE (our Sunday school teacher had suggested we talk about this as families). I think Mariah may have grasped the concept. Tuesday, Meridith went and helped out in Mariah's class. Afterwards when she went to pick up the two boys from the babysitter she took them over to a different park then usual and they had fun playing there. Wednesday, Jayden went to get his immunizations for kindergarten. He was very brave as he endured his battery of four shots. He didn't cry until the third one (I think they save the least pleasant ones till last). Afterwards, Meridith went and registered him for kindergarten so he should be all set for the fall. Thursday, I had round table in the evening. I attended an informative presentation on what to do and what not to do in Board of Reviews. This involved a very entertaining role play (on what not to do). Sadly it was based on a true story. Fortunately, the scout who endured it went on to achieve his Eagle rank in spite of the wayward leaders. Later in the evening, Meridith and I enjoyed watching Lost. Friday, Mariah got to participate in the Jogathon (a school fundraiser). She made it 11 times around the track (220m/lap) in the half hour allotted. While, this may have worn her out physically it seemed to have served to warm up the chatterbox within because later in the day she had to call home for excessive talking. Her defense was that "at least she made it this far into the school year without having to do it before..." Given her tendency to talk this is probably a fair assessment. Hopefully, she has learned her lesson. In the evening, we started watching The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Saturday, Meridith and Jayden enjoyed shopping with Meridith's mom. They got some nice Easter clothes for the kids. In the afternoon, Meridith attended the Worldwide Church broadcast. In the evening we went to a nearby neighborhood where a co-worker of mine was throwing a party to celebrate selling their previous house. Their new house was very nice. The kids had fun playing with the dogs in the backyard and the other children who were present. I enjoyed visiting with my co-workers. There was tons of good food to eat. Later in the evening, Meridith and I watched Live Free or Die Hard. I had got this movie for Christmas and had opted for the Unrated version because it came in widescreen. ClearPlay had a filter for the PG-13 fullscreen version, but when I checked with them before I bought it they said they were having technical difficulties making one for the unrated version, but said they were confident they would have one soon. So in faith I had gone out and bought the widescreen version, but two months later there was still no filter. When I called them they said they weren't able to overcome the technical difficulties and had moved on to other movies. They did say if I submitted another request it would bump it up in their queue and they might revisit it. When I was looking at the back of the case to get some information for the filter request I realized that the original PG-13 theatrical version was included on the disc as well. So basically I've been waiting weeks for nothing. Meridith and I enjoyed watching the movie.







On Monday, Jan 28th I took the day off work so Meridith could accompany Mariah on her class field trip. They went to the Orpheum Theater and watched Bodyology. Rainy weather made it so they couldn't eat lunch at a park as they had originally planned. So instead they had to eat lunch at 9:40 in their classroom before they left. Other than that snag they had a wonderful time and Mariah gave me the low down on the esophagus when she got home. In the evening, we had a nice lesson on baptism for FHE (and I'm not just saying that because I gave it). We also watched the first half of the 3rd Harry Potter movie. Tuesday, Mariah enjoyed her art class after school which just started back up. Later in the evening, we watched the exciting conclusion to Harry Potter 3. Now Mariah has to wait 5 more years till she will be old enough to watch Harry Potter 4. Marshall got a new car seat. The little Houdini was becoming too adept at unbuckling the top part of his old one and technically the car seat had "expired". Wednesday we finally got the silverware rack that belonged to our dishwasher. Somehow they lost it when they put in our appliances. They raided one of the model homes for one that we've been using for the past 6 months, but it wasn't really designed for our model of dishwasher and consequently was wasting valuable real estate. Now that we've gotten past this riveting midweek development... Thursday, Meridith and I enjoyed watching the Season Premiere of Lost and then an all new episode of Smallville. With the writers strike going on you have to take these TV highlights when they come (although I read a rumor on the Internet that the strike might be resolved soon). Friday, not much exciting happened. Saturday, Meridith and Mariah enjoyed shopping for a baptismal dress. They also enjoyed shopping vicariously for Easter dresses for Meridith's sister Megann's two daughters. Later, Meridith and Mariah enjoyed going to a benefit concert with Meridith's parents. The boys and I had fun hanging out at home.



Monday, Jan 21st for MLK day Meridith took the kids to Freestone park. They had a great time riding the train, carousel, Ferris wheel, and the boats there. They also enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and feeding the ducks. The kids described it as the "best day ever". Later in the afternoon, Mariah had a friend from her school class over to play. In the evening, Meridith gave a nice lesson on baptism for FHE. Tuesday was the 100th day of school and so Mariah got to do a lot of fun activities involving the number 100. Everyone had to bring 100 of some sort of item. Mariah brought 100 colored squares of paper. It was Meridith's day to help out at the school and she helped the kids work on 100 piece puzzles. In the evening, Meridith's friend CJ came over for dinner. She brought her highly trained dog Jasmine who put on quite a show. This dog can jump through hoops, identify toys, walk around on two legs, in addition to obediently sitting still and lying down. The kids enjoyed racing her in the back yard. I think Jasmine would spot them a yard or so and still manage to win. Meridith made some nice tacos for dinner and it was fun visiting with CJ. Wednesday, Meridith took the kids to the library. Thursday, I had a humbling experience in basketball. I think the Fairness in Reporting act requires me to document this event after all the moments of glory I've bored you with. At any rate there was a new guy at basketball this week. I had what I thought was a wide open 16 footer on the baseline. This guy had to be at least 10 feet away when I released the ball. I swear the ball was three feet out of my hand when he swatted it into the next time zone. Fortunately, my teammates had better luck and we still managed to win. I later overheard that this guy who rejected me has a 38" vertical. Looks like I need to break out the jump rope again, but I think adding a foot to my vertical at my age is going to be impossible (it probably would have been impossible 10 years ago as well). Friday, I drove down to Tucson to participate in our old wards annual EQ game night. They had called earlier in the week asking if they could use our house to host the event since other arraignments had fallen through. I figured since we're still paying for it it might as well be doing some good. There were 9 people that ended up showing up (usually for the annual event we'd get 20+, but I guess it made for less mess to clean up after). I enjoyed playing some multiplayer Halo 3. I was able to start restoring some of the self esteem I lost at basketball the previous day. Saturday, I drove back up to Queen Creek. We enjoyed a nice relaxing day at home. Today we enjoyed our church meetings. Meridith went to a missionary homecoming (even though we don't call them that anymore) at her families old ward. She enjoyed visiting with quite a few old friends and acquaintances. Later she enjoyed going to choir practice. I did some home teaching in the morning and then we waited for 2:40 to roll around so we could finally attend our block. Meridith sang a solo in RS and did a great job.