The Awesome

September 27, 2009
Happy birthday everyone!  Its birthday season again and what a joyous
celebration it has been.  First, let me wish a happy birthday to Jesse
and Kirsti and I hope they celebrated in style.
Earlier this month we went to the beach.  It was a beautiful time
with freezing cold water and wind.  Still, it was fun to get out and
be on the sand.  We also ate at the chicken and the egg again where I
had their famous Chegg. This is all of their fried food wrapped up
into a tortilla.  It could also be called a heart attack in a wrap.
The taste was one of deliciousness mixed with grease.  I don’t think I
would get it again because I could hear my doctor screaming at me the
whole time in the back of my head.  Still, the deliciousness and
experience of eating everything imaginable at once is not to be
underestimated.  We went to the same beach as last time but the
experience was quite different.  This part of the beach was covered in
shells and had more rocks.  It was more like what you expect from the
beaches on the east coast and not at all like the California ones.
The sand wasn’t as smooth and there was a bit more people.  Lots of
people were fishing.  Still, the kids had fun chasing the waves and
burying themselves in the sand.
The next week was Amber’s birthday.  As many of you know, I got her
an iPod touch.  To conceal this fact, I told her it was a “themed”
birthday.  I first had her open Mom and Dad’s present (capital because
it’s their proper name) which was a Jig (capital because I’m terrible
at grammar).  This tricked her into thinking it was a tool themed
birthday.  She had no idea how a tool themed birthday would work since
she didn’t ask for that many tools.  I reinforced the deception with
the next present when I gave her a cabinet making book.
Unfortunately, these were the only two tool related gifts I had, so
the ruse was going to be on shaky ground from then on.
To keep the ultimate surprise going, I gave her the tea Jason and
Rachel got her.  She didn’t see how that fit into the theme, but
whatever. After the tea, I had her finally open the iPod.  She had no
idea what it was.  Her reaction was less that awesome as she just
stared at it.
However, when she finally figured out what this metal contraption she
was holding constituted, she became immediately more excited.  I then
gave her the iTunes gift cards she received.  SO she could immediately
start downloading music.  She has spent tons of time with it and has
made it well worth the money.  I had a hard time getting the iPod
since it was outside of our budget.  However, thanks to careful ebay
shopping and lots of lost bids, I scored a refurbished model just in
time.  I almost didn’t get her one since Amber had left strict
instructions that we could not go over on birth days this time.
Before giving her the presents, I decorated the house and blew up
balloons.  The kids had picked out wiener balloons so they could make
balloon shapes.  I was glad that the package included a pump so I
wouldn’t have to blow them up by mouth.  That would not have been fun.
I put up purple and pink streamers everywhere and hung up our
family’s traditional happy birthday sign.  I chose purple and pink
because I had decided it was her favorite color.  She won’t actually
choose a color so I get to chose one for her.
For breakfast, we each picked out a box of cereal.  This was different
than the ordinary single box of cereal.  We also got her flowers that
Silas picked out.
After she opened presents, I made a Brooklyn Blackout cake.  It was
really good and had no soy or milk for my little sweetie.  Even the
kids thought it was tasty.  Of course, they usually don’t have too
many problems eating cake.
For dinner, I made the best food in the world.  I BBQ’ed some ribeye
steaks and topped them with some fried bell peppers and special butter
sauce.  Amber and I agreed that it was the most deliciousness thing in
the world.  In fact, we plan on having it again soon because it was so
good.  Super tasty and super high in calories.  Mmmm.  It makes me
drool just thinking about it.
Milo’s birthday was this last week.  His birthday was similar to
Amber’s, except we changed the name on everything to “Milo” (for
obvious reasons).  He wasn’t as happy when we gave him the jig and
cabinet books as Amber was, but he was certainly please with the iPod.
Just kidding.  Not funny, but I thought I would try.  Anyway, Milo
stayed home from school on his birthday as he had a fever and puked
everywhere the night before.  Luckily, he hadn’t actually eaten
anything the whole day before so there wasn’t any mess.   Luckily, he
felt well enough in the morning to eat two giant bowls of Count
Chocula.
We kept him chained in the basement (i.e. we turned the tv on), while
we decorated, wrapped presents, and got ready for his big day.  He got
blue streamers rather than pink and purple.
After I finished working, we opened presents.  Milo is the most
gracious person I have ever seen when it came to the presents.  He
treated every single one like it was the most fragile thing in the
world.  He handled each with such delicate care that it took FOREVER
to open them all.  It didn’t hurt that his grandmas and aunts loaded
him up with gifts.  Milo was excited about each gift and opened them
as best he could without tearing the wrapper.  After each gift, he
expressed how excited he was and how it was just what he had always
wanted.   He held each up so we could all see it and told us exactly
what he was going to do to with it.
For dinner, Milo wanted a shrimp platter with the sauce in the middle
and shrimp arranged around in a circle.  An odd request since he
doesn’t like cocktail sauce.
For dessert, Milo wanted a wedding cake with the tiers.  Except he
didn’t want white – he wanted a multi-layer cake with multiple colors.
Amber made him a yellow cake with three tiers.  Each had a different
color of frosting – yellow, red and blue.  It’s kind of funny to want
wedding cake on your birthday, but whatever.  After dinner, we sat
around playing “Up” the video game on the PS2 until bedtime.  It was a
relaxing day and full of fun.
Milo’s birthday party was yesterday.  We held it at McDonald’s because
1) we didn’t have to plan anything and 2) it was cheap.  They only
charge $10 a kid and we invited 10 kids.  We even paid for the adults
that stayed.  It was great!
This actual b-day part was weird – a complete change from the other
parties I have been to.  I think I mentioned earlier that usually the
adults all stay for the party.  However, at this party half of the
kids were dropped off by the parents and half stayed.  This was weird
because 1) it was McDonalds and 2) we were complete strangers.  The
ones that left were all of the kids’ parents that were not in Milo’s
class last year.  I guess it was just his kindergarten class that had
the attitude that they had to be there.  We didn’t mind at all though
and the kids had a blast playing on the playground and chasing each
other.
Also unlike all of the other parties, Milo invited girls. Two came.
One is named Kelssie and she is Milo’s chaser.  I guess when you are
young you always have a chaser and a chasee – a girl who chases you
and a girl you chase.  Milo chases a girl named Sarina.  Kelssie
chases him. Anyway, it’s totally cute cause she tells him that she
loves him all the time.  Like, she said it at least three times at the
party.  Of course, he won’t give her the time of day, but he’ll learn.
He will definitely learn.
The staff at McDonalds was totally disorganized.  They had nothing
together and the party was stressful.  However, all of the kids had a
good time, so I would say it was a success.  The cake was disgusting
though.  I couldn’t even stomach a bite of that putrid abomination.
The bags were also lame as they had McDonalds’ crafts in them along
with crayons and fork.  Who puts a fork in a surprise bag?!  At least
the party is s over and done.  For that we are grateful.
Milo and Silas are both sweet kids.  Milo’s back in school and
complains about it every day.  He loves going, but I think cartoons
have conditioned him to complain about it non-stop.  His class is
about half the same and half different.  Unfortunately, his good
friend Kevin is now in a different class.  However, the neighbor kid
is in his class.  I’m sure he’ll have a fine year and a good time with
all of his new comrades.  His class is about 15 people or so and his
teacher is great.
While Milo is at school, Amber is teaching Silas how to read.  She has
been going through the same reading program she did with Milo.  He is
super excited about it and even tries to do the lessons himself.  He
is so cute and such a good little student.  On days when the kids
don’t have homework, we’ve been having them do worksheets.  Milo
groans and complains, but he is by far the smartest kid in his class
so it is totally worth it.  Silas loves doing them and will do as many
as he can before we get sick of helping them.
In addition, Amber has been giving them life lessons as a special
training program.  One day she decided to teach them about finance.
She showed them how to deal with money and about how everyone has
jobs.  She explained that my job is to bring in the money, her job is
to take care of them and improve our house, and their job is to work
hard and help out.  We all have jobs to do.  She also showed them how
money can come and go very quickly and that we all need to do our part
to conserve.
The kids are growing up quite fast and I try to offer Milo tidbits
about life.  Hopefully they help.  Its been really nice having him so
mature.  He can now participate in family scripture study, he helps
tidy the house, and he usually will make the syrup for the waffles.
All around he is a great kid and I couldn’t be more pleased.
The same goes for Silas.  He’s such a sporty little guy who loves to
rough-house and is so interested in life and learning.  He’s my loud
kid that will chase the girls and be friends with everyone.
And of course, my lovely wife is perfect in every way.   She makes
such good food and is so nice to everyone.  She works so hard on
keeping our house together that everyone loves her.  Everyone in the
ward has asked her to help them make drapes.  She has become quite
popular.  She is also the talk of the town because of her awesome
handy skills.  I swear she comes up every Sunday, and everyone wants
her start teaching classes.  Life is grand.
Jeremy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Jeremy's Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.