Thanksgiving

 Ed's going to fly to Kaua'i for Thanksgiving and stay with Erin for a month. Rough life.

Slacker Loser

That's me. I've totally ignored this blog as I've been busy doing other things. It's not quite dead.

Yet, anyway. Time will tell, I guess.

Sheer Brilliance!

These are some rules set down by a mom when her son got his first cell phone (an iPhone). I think there are some great rules here that reflect a healthy philosophy for the modern "connected" world we live in. And plenty of adults should take these to heart.

Greg Hoffman is a kid who just got an iPhone from his parents. His mom, Janell Hoffman, wrote these [slightly edited] rules for its use:

1. It is my phone. I bought it. I pay for it. I am loaning it to you. Aren't I the greatest?

2. I will always know the password.

3. If it rings, answer it. It is a phone. Say hello, use your manners. Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads "Mom" or "Dad". Not ever.

4. Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30pm every school night & every weekend night at 9:00pm. It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30am. If you would not make a call to someone's land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text. Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected.

5. It does not go to school with you. Have a conversation with the people you text in person. It's a life skill.

6. If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs.

7. Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being. Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others. Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire.

8-9. Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.

10. No porn.

11. Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public. Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being. You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.

12. Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else's private parts. Don't laugh. Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence. It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life. It is always a bad idea. Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you. And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear -- including a bad reputation.

13. Don't take a zillion pictures and videos. There is no need to document everything. Live your experiences. They will be stored in your memory for eternity.

14. Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you. Learn to live without it. Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO -- fear of missing out.

15. Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff. Your generation has access to music like never before in history. Take advantage of that gift. Expand your horizons.

16. Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then.

17. Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without googling.

18. You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You and I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together.

Fun Family Videos

I learned how to use something called animoto to make some fun family videos. Here's one from Sienna's visit this summer:



Here's one I did Sunday at Paul and Kelsey's house for baby Winter

And here's a short one from our Disneyland trip last month.

Birthday Cake

Paul and Kelsey made this fun cake for my birthday. It's the island from A Change of Plans.

Well, kinda.

Winter wearing her Bat headband

Davey helping Papa make cookies earlier.

Disneyland and Heart Attacks

Ed and I are heading to Anaheim next week to visit Disneyland. Not for ourselves but because Erin and her family will be there because Spencer's got a work conference the first part of the week. Funny how flying to L.A, staying in a hotel, and going to Disneyland for three days costs about as much as it would to fly to Kaui'i to see them.

On a scary note, Grampa Hanson had what looks like a couple of heart attacks this week. He's in the hospital right now and sure he's going to be released every day. Erin and Spencer are going to rent a car on Sunday when they get to California and go see him. Dad's always been so healthy and is such an active person that this being cooped up in the hospital is driving him crazy. I'm grateful for his friend Hilde and his church family who are keeping watch on him.

Publishing Contract

I signed a publishing contract on Monday! Check out my writing blog for details.

Sienna's Trip Winds Down

We went to Sundance today and rode the ski lift. Beautiful today after all the rain yesterday.

Sienna had a real thrill when she recognized NieNie who was there and had gotten in line. I read Ed her book, so I pointed her out to Ed and, of course, he went up and introduced himself to her. She was so gracious and very sweet to Sienna.

Last weekend we went to the Colonial Heritage Festival at Scera Park.

Sienna's Visit Continued

Sienna's been busy between playing with our neighbor Kaitlyn, visiting Zoe in Springville, and Grace in Draper. She got to meet author Elana Johnson at her book launch for Surrender. I was going to get a picture, but forgot my camera.

Today Sienna got to meet author Cindy Hogan, who signed her two books--Watched and Protected--for Sienna.

We're heading for Gardner Village tomorrow to meet up with Kelsey and baby Winter. We're picking up Grace (I think) on our way. I hope to have some pictures them. I want to get up to Sundance with Sienna, too.

Summerfest

Sienna's been having fun with Davey who stayed with us for three days last week. He likes to pretend he knows how to make the bike work while Sienna uses Adam's old scooter.

This last weekend was Summerfest. I took her over for lunch, and we checked out all the vendors. I got some tickets for the rides. Ed, who joined us after an appointment, didn't want to go. One ride for me told me I'm too old for this stuff. lol So the little girls, Kelly and Allie, from across the street who happened to be at the grandmother's house across from City Center Park, helped Sienna use the tickets.

Afterward, Sienna went to the park with my coworker Bobbie and her family--Kaitlyn, Bobbie's oldest, is 13. They were having a water balloon fight at the park. The weather turned crazy, though, with the wind really kicking up.

I was going to take Sienna back to Summerfest for the fireworks, but it had gotten really cold outside. We were watching Winter anyway. Too bad, though.

Sienna's going to spend a couple of days with her friend Zoe. Ed will take her there tonight. The timing is perfect because Ed's got the Temple for a good chunk tomorrow, and I've got a city council meeting from hell: the first of the budget public hearings. The staff is proposing the first property tax increase since 1978. As you can imagine, many people are up in arms about it. The increase comes to about the cost of a movie ticket a month. But that can be huge when you're on a fixed income. Just ask Ed. But what do you do? We're literally at the point where services will be cut if it's not approved.

Sienna's Visit

Sienna arrived last Wednesday after a little adventure (like idiot airport people). Erin sounded really  stressed when Sienna missed her flight. Hmmm . . . I wonder why. But they finally straightened everything out and got her on another flight--and even put her in first class.

She's been helping Ed and playing with the little girls across the street. One of my clerks at work has a daughter (Kaitlyn) who's Sienna's age and has been really nice to invite her over to play.

Sienna's friend Grace (moved from Hawaii to Utah earlier this year) invited Sienna to come to a horse show Grace was involved in (she took 2nd place). Sienna not only got to be around horses, she got to ride one.

She's anxious to read the book I've been editing--the one where she's the main characters. Yes, both of them. I was hoping to be able to get through the first edit, but now I'm working on a revise and resubmit edit from a small publisher on another book. *sigh*

Kinslayer

Have I mentioned that Paul and Adam have a band? They're into Metal--not the screachy Death Metal stuff but the epic Symphonic/Melodic Metal. Adam writes most of the music and does the mixing, and Paul's the lyricist, and they have an really talented keyboardest who helps with the music. You can hear some of their music at their website kinslayerband.com.

Paul and Adam have been working on this for a few years now, with Paul being the driving force behind it. Well, they had their first concert last night. It was in bar, so their underaged drummer couldn't go. They built Robby the Robot to fill in (and had to use a computer to play the drum). Their next performance is on the 26th of this month and there's no age restriction. Ed and I plan to go.

Here's a picture from the concert last night. If Paul's wife Kelsey can get me some of the video I'll try and post it here.

Don't even ask me why Adam's wearing shorts.

Davey and Winter

My dang phone jiggles when I take pictures.

Isn't Winter getting big?

And look at Davey!

And Life Goes On . . .

We're still (kinda) doing the reboot. We've had a couple of challenges get in the way of the healthy eating, and Ed was bragging last night that he hadn't really had much of a salad in two weeks. Ugh!

He's working to get the yard squared away. It's a slow process for him, since anything physical really takes it out of him. I remind him--but he disregards me--that if you don't do anything, you hurt even more when you finally do. But he's been blowing me off for years about health issues, so why should this be any different?

We got to see Winter on Saturday. She's getting so big and giggles awesomely when you blow on her belly. Kelsey always dresses her so cutely, too. We'll have Davey this week while his mom is at a work conference. And then next week I've got the LDS Storymaker writing conference. Can't wait!.

Ed and the Reboot

I'm a little bummed because I didn't lose any weight this week. I'm doing P90X, so I can excuse it and say I'm really picking up more muscle which weighs more than fat. It's always so much easier to behave when it shows up on the scales.

We had a yummy Easter dinner (I weighed in the morning) of deviled tomatoes, carrot ginger soup, pralined sweet potatoes, and asparagus pasta. Oh, and dessert was a lemon poppy zing cake, made from white whole wheat flour and sweetened with agave. Very yummy.

The doctor was concerned that Ed's breathing issues might be more blood clots in his lungs, so he went to the hospital for an emergency CT scan. His longs look good, so they're thinking he's got something going on with his heart that's making it so hard for him to get his breath. He's got a special kind of stress test he's going in for tomorrow.

Easter and the Reboot

Whether you are into this kind of Easter

or

this kind of Easter

I hope you have a lovely day.

I've been accumulating a number of recipes I want to use for our Easter dinner. I may even make a soup. That'll be a first for this particular holiday.

I'm really glad we've been doing this although Ed's not been sticking to it 100%. But I think he is eating better. He always has a hard time breathing this time of year because he has so many severe allergies. He went to the doctor yesterday to see about maybe getting a different kind of inhaler. The PA said his lungs were clear, so they did an EKG. There might be some problems there, so he's going to be seen again today and could be making a visit to the cardiologist.

Religious Bigotry

This really troubles me:

http://nation.foxnews.com/nbc-news/2012/04/04/nbc-news-ridicules-mormons

If you have Mormon friends and you hear garbage like this, talk to them about it. Get the facts.

Reboot Update 4

I feel great! I lost another two pounds, so I'm now where I was in June 2010. I'll be able to wear that dress on Easter. 'Cited!

I made a smoothy today that was SO yummy! I was supposed to use a young coconut, but I didn't have one, so I use some cocoanut water and a little light coconut milk. It had fresh pineapple, a lime, a little agave, a touch of vanilla, and spinach. Seriously tasty!

My regular black skirt is getting baggy whereas in January I wasn't sure I could wear it. I also started P90X again. Man but those make me feel good!

Ed continues to eat more veggies and fruit, and he's not eating nearly as much bread as he used to. But he's got such a sweet tooth I don't know how much longer he'll go. At least his weight is steady.

Reboot Update 3

Ed's sneaking more and more things, but he says he's committed to eating better still. As he said this morning, he needs to get back on the wagon.

Time will tell.

I lost nearly 2 pounds. I was disappointed, but what can I say? I'm feeling great, and I'm liking what I'm eating and drinking. I'm not hungry, and my blood sugar level is steady enough. That's good, right? And I fit into a smaller size than I was able to wear two weeks ago. That's definitely good.

My goal is to be able to wear a dress I got two years ago for Easter in two weeks.

Cross your fingers!

Reboot Editorial

Um, yes. I told you so! 

What did Ed have for dinner last night? 

I'll let you guess.