Thanksgiving lessons learned

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone and with it has come some extra lessons learned. Lesson #1: You can never have too many pies. Mom had ten pies this year, along with a couple from Cindy, all of which were wonderful. Tracey made one as well for later that night that was wonderful as well. Which brings us to lesson #2: The human body can consume approximately 10 slices of pie before going into convulsions and vomiting (I didn't reach that point, but one more slice and I was there). Lesson #3: If you leave two boys 3 or under together alone for longer than 5 minutes, there will be an unfortunate disaster that you will have to clean up (i.e. all the bathtub toys, towels, etc. stuffed into Grandma's toilet). By the way Cindy's boy Ben was the ring leader on that one, which I found out after an intense closed door interrogation of the two on the couch. Just look at Ty's face, there is no mischief there at all (: Lesson #4: If you get 4 boys age 3 and under together, life tends to be nothing more than a blur. Just ask Terry and Ronda, they had the grandkids sleep over thanksgiving night. Hopefully the two girls will be a calming influence on the four boys, but I kind of doubt it. Lesson #5: We have a lot to be grateful for! It is great to get together with family and take time to realize just how blessed we are. So there you go a few little nuggets of wisdom learned firsthand. Oh and Mom don't worry, we rinsed the towels in the sink before we hung them back up. Just Kidding!

Mom's famous pies! Marie Callendar doesn't hold a candle to Mom!

Nothing heals a broken heart like......

After the BYU debacle Saturday night (I still suspect sabotage, the wrong person wore red underwear or something), I needed something to get me through the next 24 hrs. and heal my broken heart (I know Dad, it's just a game and life does go on thankfully). What better than a little Wii time. We broke out the Wii and played a little sports package where I could take advantage of the kids ( I took out some aggression by knocking Tristyn out in boxing, I feel tough now). We followed that up the next day with some family guitar hero time. It may take a few more sessions of this type of therapy to get back to normal (I plan on beating Ty in tennis today), but hey whatever it takes right.

Detmer fever

So I get this picture text message on my phone the other day and when I open it up it's a picture of my Mom and Dad's neighbor Marlisa with who else but Ty Detmer. I've always admired Ty, to the point that we named our son Ty. We have a signed Heisman trophy poster hanging in Ty's room, along with a miniature BYU helmet that Ty signed as well. Anyway Marlisa knew how much I admired him and was at a conference in Hawaii where she was able to meet him. She found out my phone number from my Mom and sent me the picture. In the text she said he is one of the nicest guys she's ever met, and she couldn't think of a better guy to look up to. I thought that was pretty cool, but it got even cooler. My folks came over the other night with some gifts that she had brought home for us. The first was a hat that Ty had signed for little Ty. The second was a football for me that he and some other players had signed. That was such a nice gesture, I still can't believe that she was so thoughtful to think about us. So now we will add the memorabilia to our Detmer shrine (also kown as Ty's room). I frequently ask little Ty "who was the greatest college quarterback of all time?" He quickly responds, "Ty Detmer." I'm hoping the timing of this has some significance as this is rivalry week. GO Cougars! Thanks again Marlisa, we love the gifts!

The hat says "To little Ty, best of luck".

T

The football is signed by Chad Lewis, Vai Sikahaema, Todd Shell, and Ty Detmer.

Ox in the mire

Sunday turned out to be kind of a strange day. Getting ready for church in the morning, I heard this big bang against our window. When I looked out on the deck to see what had just hit our window, there was this ginormous owl sitting on our deck. It was mostly white in color and looked like either a barn owl or a long-eared owl. It sat there for a moment while I was scrambling to get the camera out, then when I was ready it flew away. You know when you have an owl fly into your window it has a chance to be an odd day. Well after church I walked downstairs and stepped into a puddle at the bottom. My first thought was that Ty had relieved himself on the carpet. I started looking around and opened the furnace room door and discovered water everywhere. Turns out a sensor on our water heater had gone out and the pressure release valve on the side had spewed water all over. I kept looking and found that it had seeped under the walls in the basement and flooded a storage closet, as well as some other carpeted areas. So now we officially had an Ox in the mire. We spent a good part of the rest of the day vacuuming up water, etc. Tracey's grandparents loaned us some fans and Mom and Dad brought over some space heaters so we just have to wait for it to dry now. Experiences like this help you appreciate when everything is going good a little more. So next time an owl flies into your house, you may want to go check the basement!