Pidge Scout Johnson

I have always wanted to buy a parrot.  I had a parrot when I was a kid.  It was a mean cuss.  It loved my brother, but hated everyone else.  Amazon parrots can be very cool, but they are one-person birds - meaning that they really only want to be with one person.

For years, I have dropped hints to Brodi about getting a bird - not an Amazon parrot, but a nicer parrot.  She always says No.  She had no interest.  But then a little trip to San Diego where she got to see some cool birds at the San Diego Zoo Safari, and she became interested.  To make a long story short, we got ourselves a parrot.  We wanted a bird that could eventually talk some, but was a nice friendly family bird.  We found her.  A female Eclectus Parrot.  She is beautiful and the kids have loved her.  She eats all kinds of fruits and vegetables and beans.  She makes some awesome noises and is happy to be around us.  Brodi named her Pidgeon Scout.  Don't ask.  But Pidge is now a family member.  We just need to teach her to lift up the seat on the toilet.

Entertainment Weekly and Brodi

Among our magazines at home, we get the Economist, Sports Illustrated and Consumer Reports.  We also get Entertainment Weekly and we love it.  TV, Movies, Books, etc...it fills our pop culture needs.  So, today has been pretty cool, because Entertainment Weekly is featuring Brodi's book.  They get the exclusive of revealing Brodi's book trailer.  If you go here: http://shelf-life.ew.com/2012/11/08/watch-the-exclusive-trailer-for-brodi-ashtons-everbound-video/#disqus_thread

I captured the web page and it was the main page of their book section.  So, check out the book trailer video.    

I am not cut out for 4th grade homework.  One of Carter's assignments was to make a cake of the state of Utah.  Anytime that a 4th grader gets an assignment to make a cake and start labeling it with candy pieces to represent mountains and rivers...well, I end up having to do a bunch of that work.  I am not good with cooking things.  We did not burn it even though I unnecessarily doubled the recipe.   But, we somehow pulled it off and I am pleased...and Carter ended up learning the geography of Utah as well as being full after eating the cake.  He got his 'A.'










We also got his spelling list for the week and I looked at 'homophone' and I had NO idea what that word was...I knew it looked familiar but I couldn't think of the definition.  I looked up homophone: is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning."  Yeah, I was a Communication major in college and I could not remember that word.  Oh well.  4th Graders are really smarter than adults.

You are sick...but not sick sick

I am going to try to post more regularly again.  Or, I can just post every month or two and apologize and then say 'I am going to try to post more regularly again.'

Not sick, a few days earlier

I got the phone call the other day that every parent dreads.  Your kid is sick at school and needs to come home.  Yeah, that phone call.  So I talked with Carter and asked how he was feeling because he was just fine when he went to school.  He said that he felt sick to his stomach and his head hurt.  He then explained that he was playing a game with his friends at recess on who could run the most number of circles.  He did 50.  50 circles.  In a row.  I explained to him that he was motion sick/car sick/dumb game sick and I told him to sit on the couch in the office and I would call back in 10 minutes to check on him.

Now, this is a fine line.  You don't want to be THAT parent that doesn't pick up his poor sick kid.  But I am not going to be THAT parent that runs to get my kid when he is not sick sick...just dumb sick.  15 minutes later, he was still sick.  I left work to pick him up.  I took him home and miraculously, about 10 minutes later, he was feeling great.  Carter 1  Sam  0.

Carter playing Pro Soccer

A couple of weeks ago, my lovely sister in law Erin hosted a street soccer event.  It was a party with a taco truck as well as a bunch of 9-15 year old kids playing street soccer on the street in front of her house.  Each team had 6 or 7 players and Carter got to play on a team with professional soccer player, Real Salt Laker, Luis Gil.  It was crazy to see his footwork, his passing, etc.  The ball was a yo-yo to him and Carter had a great time.  Here is the not so good pic (it was getting dark) of the two of them after their games.  Go Luis and Go Real Salt Lake.

Is that a brick in your pocket?

We were cleaning out old boxes and I came across an old cell phone of ours.  Yeah, technology has improved for the better, hasn't it?

Taco truck catering rocks the party

Once again, sorry for the long delay in posting again.  I will try and do better.  Every 24th of July in our neighborhood, we have a party.  It is fun to get everyone together, have some food and shoot off some lame fireworks (usually a collection of pops, sparklers and smoke bombs).  In the past, we have done pot luck, grilling up meats, just doing snacks...but this year, we went all out.  We hired out a Taco truck and the fun began.  Our guy showed up an hour and a half before we were to start so that he could get cooking.  We had a tasty selection of spicy pork, chicken and steak.

We had a good turnout and had a lot of fun.  We even had a friend, Friend M, bring awesome fireworks so everyone could enjoy instead of just 2 year olds.  We ended up going through 350 tacos among us all.  I won't admit to how many I ate.

Now, we are trying to figure out what to do next year to beat that.  Anyone know how I can contact the circus?