Ok now I get it. Nope still don't

Northern Utah has some different weather. Take our Seattle like conditions that we’ve been experiencing the last two days. Earlier in the week we had some pretty wicked wind storms. My car looked like the Thing from the Fantastic Four after that wind/mud storm from Wednesday. With all of the crazy weather this week, I had to get Connor’s input and as usual he put his unique perspective on things.

Here is a picture of his unique perspective. 

Connor usually does not like the weird weather. Thunder and lightning storms used to freak him out. We could never find out why but they always have. Extreme rain downpours still wig him out. There was a freak storm last year that he and Mandy were caught in and since then he has not like torrential rains we sometimes get. The wind really has never bothered him. Maybe it’s because of where we live and the almost daily occurrence of the winds, so he is used to them. It also could be because he likes to put his face in the wind and let it blow his hair straight back. Who really know (the latter definitely the latter)? After school Tuesday I asked him how school was, “Great Papa.” Did the wind bother you today? “Not really but is was windier than a cow on the moon.” Oh okay. Wait. What? “Papa, you know. Cow. Wind. Moon.” Ummm, hmmm, what? I am still not sure what to make of this one. Can the moon have wind storms? If they can are they severe? I know cows can survive on the moon; Phineas and Ferb showed us they can, so the wind is really what has me stumped on this one.

Oh no! Not again.

This week’s laundry picture comes courtesy of Alex. While this may look like an innocent little Nerf Rocket, it about made my heart stop.

I know it is only a Nerf projectile, what is the harm? Well, when I pulled out Alex’s school clothes, this fell to the bottom of the dryer. If you glance at it quickly, it sort of looks like a tube of Chapstick. However, when I glimpsed that Nerf part I was taken back to the winter of 2000.

I have told you of my reasons for doing my own laundry. What I didn’t tell you about was the beginning of Mandy and I’s marriage. I let her know that I was a laundry savant. Stains, I got em covered. Shrinkage, (clothes not a Seinfeld reference) no problem doesn’t happen. When you are first married, guys will say about anything to impress their new brides. Guys if you are shaking your head disagreeing with me, you’re in denial, get over it, you know you did. Well, she thought that this was a great idea (I think?), so she let me do laundry for the both of us. She didn’t have to lug her clothes down the hall, down a small flight of stairs and into a laundry room that came from central casting in a horror movie. The first year of our marriage we lived in an apartment building in downtown SLC that was built in 1911. No AC, steam pipes, beautiful hardwood floors and a basement storage that reminded you of the final scene in the Blair Witch Project (that I don’t over exaggerate). The hall getting to the laundry room again was creepy. Think the elevator blood scene in the Shining. I swear Kubrick filmed part of this movie in this building. Anyway, there was laundry to be done. So I packed up every pair of pants we both owned and braved the hallway, praying that I didn’t see a pair of blond haired, pony tailed, little girls (Shining reference for those you haven’t seen the movie or read the novel. I’ll stop I promise). The washing went off without a hitch, the dryer was in the heart of this little tale and reason that Nerf missile about killed me.

I traipsed back down this little expecting to see a boy on a Big Wheel (sorry last one) to get our clothes out of the dryer, when I smelled the distinct odor of wintergreen. “Smells nice,” I thought. “Someone must be burning some incense.” Walked into the laundry room, “Why would they burn incense in the laundry room?” Open the dryer and down plops any empty tube of Wintergreen Chapstick. Someone had left their Chapstick in their jeans pocket. Damn it Mandy….oh wait she keeps hers in her purse. For those who are wondering, Chapstick leaves a nice greasy stain when melted in a clothes dryer. Did I mention it was every pair of pants we owned? Did I mention we were newlyweds? I inspected every article of clothing and sure enough. Every stinking pair had stains. The walk back to our apartment was not fun. I wanted to meet Jack with an ax (ok now the last reference). Alas, she took it well and we were able to laugh about it later (say about 2008).

When that Nerf thing hit the bottom of dryer all of this went through my head, until I realized there was no odor and really this was Alex’s school pants. Who would notice grease stains through the grass stains?

Weekend Thoughts

Another weekend come and gone and here are just some random quick thoughts from the past three days:
Twigs Bistro at Station Park has great atmosphere, overpriced martinis and food was ok. At said dinner, I should have apologized for me having a migraine instead of trying to pass it off as being tired. I was not a very good dinner mate, so sorry Mandy, Gary and Suzanne. I was horrible company Friday night. I thought my $9 Manhattan would have improved my mood but alas I was wrong. Of course, my mood may have been influenced by the $8.50 sweet tea, lemonade and champagne martini mixture also. Good but again, $8.50? Oh well, we had fun even if I was not much for conversation.

I am one of those sick people who enjoy yard work. Sick I know but I love it. It is an excuse to get outside, get some exercise and take pride in a job well done. It’s also an opportunity to get ticked off at the dandelions, reacquaint myself with allergies, and of course step in a doggie bomb that somehow got missed. I do however; love my sawzall and what it can do to a choke cherry tree. Insert, Tool Time grunt here. Hate that I have to take out said choke cherry trees because of a fungus that can spread to the other fruit trees in the yard.

I mentioned it on Facebook the other day but turning on the secondary water in the spring really is like walking up on a firecracker that you lit but never exploded. Fortunately, no sprinklers were harmed this year.

If you are not a soccer fan, I know most of you aren’t but you should be, and have not checked out a Real Salt Lake game you really need go. Real does a fantastic job of putting on an event. The atmosphere is always charged. Food is not too overpriced. If you’re not chanting by the end of the game, something is wrong with you. However, if you want to get home at a decent hour, leave with 20minutes left in the game and you may miss traffic going out of there. Next time we go, one word: Frontrunner.

Easter is always a great time to reflect on new beginnings. The boys had a great Easter. Three Easter egg hunts, one public, two with family.  The public one went off without a hitch. There were no tears, “no can we go home yet”, “no it’s too cold to be here”, and the boys didn’t complain either.

Easter morning was a joy. I learned to enjoy these last moments of Alex still “believing” because I think the end is close. They got way too much chocolate, jelly beans and junk but hey, they enjoyed it so it was worth it.

I am way out of shape. A little three mile bike ride with the whole family and I was winded (severely) by the end of it. Boys and Mandy did great, I was gassed. Costco mountain bike, you get what you pay for, my pedal fell off with a ¼ mile left on the ride. Fortunately, Connor helped me walk the last little bit back. Even in April when it’s semi-cloudy and 60 degrees you can sunburn (on my knee of all places).

Father in law makes a great ham. Mandy makes great funeral potatoes. I can eat both extremely well. Yup, that was our weekend.

Swimming lessons

Swimming lessons are something new to this family. Well, not entirely new, we tried with Alex maybe three years ago and he just wasn’t ready for them yet. We decided to try again. From vacations to pool parties, we have plenty of water events this year, so it was time to try this again. We took the boys up to Weber State for some private lessons to catch them up to where they need to be. I was hesitant for Weber State because that was one of the reasons the lessons didn’t stick with Alex. The water was always a nice temperature of just above freezing and the A/C in the building was always just below freezing. To a six year old, this was just short of traumatic. Mandy signed them up for lessons up there and assured me the polar bears had moved out and the seals that thought the water was too cold, had been removed also. So last Saturday, we headed up to the pool for lessons. To my, and to a greater extent Alex’s relief, the pool water was warm and the building was muggy. Perfect swimming conditions. The boys were introduced to their instructor and now it was time for the Connor show to begin.

Going into these lessons, we were fully prepared for a meltdown from Connor. New situations and new people are really not his thing of late. When I have tried to teach him on my own in the pool, it has never gone well. Ok, by not well, I mean full blown grade 5 meltdowns almost every time. I learned never try to teach your child how to swim in a public/hotel pool. However, this day he was all over this, like Nemo in a fish tank. (Sorry best analogy I could come up with. It’s early and I’m only one cup of coffee into the day).  Mandy and I both relaxed once we knew there would be no meltdowns. Well, he did try to swallow most of the pool but past that it went well. At least we thought it was. We came to notice the instructor laughing almost every time Connor and he went off on their own. Then Alex started laughing along with them when all three of them were together. We started to pay more attention to what was being said instead of the actual swimming.

As Connor was about to jump back in the pool, “Just so you know my eyes get red.” Great information. While, the instructor was trying to teach them to float on their backs, “I need to get back to the surface to swim.” Hmmmm. As he was trying to demonstrate the backstroke motion, “Hold on I have a joke to tell you.” (Couldn’t hear the joke but Alex and the instructor thought it was funny).  There was one moment when Connor was floating on his back and had a mini-panic attack, the reason; “The natural resource of water is getting in my eyes. Get it out.” The poor instructor had to compose himself more than once. At this point other instructors were listening in and getting a good chuckle.

Lessons went awesome. Both of them were natural fish in the water. The instructor wanted to make sure when we signed up for more private lessons to ask for him. I think he enjoyed it more than the boys did. On the way home I asked both of them how they like swimming lessons. Alex, “Awesome! When do we go back?” Connor, “Awesome! It was a little bit wet though.”

Sigh.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The world has ended. The end has happened. What you are experiencing right now is the waiting for the afterlife. I am truly sorry if you missed the end but I was told the world met its sudden demise around 405PM this afternoon. Apparently, the epicenter was at the Hedrick home. Further investigation has concluded that was entirely MY FAULT and for once it is half justifiable (just this once so write it down because it I will not admit it again.)

We are a subscriber to Netflix, hell, who isn’t anymore. We use Netflix a lot because we have no cable or satellite, so we rely on it to keep up on our pop culture and me on my nerdness (i.e. Game of Thrones).  Mandy and I sat down to finish the second disc from The Pacific last night. We finished it and started discussing the episode. We were deep in discussion about the horrors of war and how much our men suffered in the Pacific Theatre in World War II, pretty heavy topic. So I grab the disc, seal the envelope and proceed to drop it off in the mailbox. Pretty mundane lifestyle I have I know. Everything is copacetic in life. Until roughly 405PM April 15^th, 2014, when I mentioned the world abruptly ended.

The boy’s afternoon routine is homework, cello, reading and the free time. Usually, free time is video games until I get home then dinner, then outside. Again, life is following this routine until I get a phone call at work indicating there is an epic (yes I used epic again in a post. Again get over it), epic problem. Apparently, when I put the disc in the Netflix envelope and mailed it off, I mailed off our Disney Infinity game in place of The Pacific. Oh my goodness! There was crying, yelling and gnashing of teeth, and that was just Mandy towards me for causing this problem.

Actual photo of both boy's eyes when I got home

I was safely, (safe being a very relative term in this instance), hidden away at work while she was left to deal with my horrible mistake. She had to have a discussion about that the PlayStation games being able to store the game data on the system and not on the disc. This is a huge deal because of all the work that they have put into the game. Well, because she is Mandy, she was able to calm them down.  I called Netflix, explained my parental faux pas, and they were able to send a message to the local center to be on the lookout for our game. It is not a 100% but I feel confident that we will get our game back. That last sentence really was typed while I was on my knees begging the universe and another higher power, to get that blasted game back.

In other news, my world ended at 645PM this evening when I discovered that all my spiced jelly beans were gone. Well played Mandy. Well played.

Weekend Fun

Another weekend has come and gone. Utah weather again is messing with me. Gorgeous yesterday, cold and windy today. On the bright side we (again by we, I mean Mandy) have the garden we wanted for a while now.

It doesn’t look like much now, apparently it takes time for the seeds we planted to grow food. For all you Wall-E fans out there, turns out there is no such thing as a pizza plant, bummer. We had to do above ground because of the trees in our backyard. No kidding here, that we cannot dig any hole bigger than a 3" diameter without hitting a rock or root of some sort. Seriously, this a picture of the backyard from our kitchen, it is our own personal forest and we love it. In the summer we can relax in the backyard and it is a good 10 degrees cooler in the back than in the front. Downside, leaves in the fall. Last year it filled the back of a 15x6x6 trailer, just of leaves.

 

Eventually, the holes in the blocks will be filled with dirt, planted with garlic and marigolds, to keep out the local wildlife. There will be squash (yum), tomatoes (yek), peas (yum), cucumbers (yum), peppers (pepper jelly, YAY!), and carrots (double yum). After, finishing the garden I discovered a cool new feature in one of our scrub oak trees:

We have birds making a home in our tree. Mandy and I were so excited to tell the boys, until Alex spoiled it. "Oh yeah, that bird has been there for weeks Papa." Yup, burst my bubble.

Today, we were invited to a community event that some friends of ours were putting on. He is the lead pastor and Elevation Community Church in Clearfield. They were able to book the Classic Fun Center in Layton and invited their church and community to participate. They had an Easter Egg hunt in the laser tag room.

Bounce houses

Connor makes himself comfortable anywhere he wants. 

and of course Pirate Cove play area.

Editors note: There was supposed to be a picture of Alex in this area, with him in the Pirates Cove but since he wouldn't stand still long enough for a picture, we're left with that blank space. Trust me, he had fun. He had the sweaty hair and brusised face to prove it. Oh wait here's the bruise:

He was introduced to a padded bar, on the slide. It was not a nice meeting.
Thank you to the Millers for the invite, the boys, Mandy and I really enjoyed it.

Well, that wraps up another exitment filled weekend with our clan. Oh there was swimming lessons but that will be a Wednesday Connorism post. When the instructor is laughing so hard and cannot teach the boys, it deserves it's own spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music can change people

"Music can change the world, because music can change people."

-Bono

If you know me at all, you definitely know about my borderline obsession with U2 (ok it's not borderline, it’s a full out obsession). They, in my mind, changed Christian music and made it main stream and did it in a way that most people don’t know they are listening to Christian music. I know because I was in my late 20's before I realized it. However, that is another discussion for another day. I started with this quote from Bono, because it applies to what we were able to witness as a family last night.

Alex has been playing the cello for a little over a year now. Mandy and I wanted our boys to be well rounded. We encouraged both of them to want to play an instrument. We let them choose and thanks to The Piano Guys and "Cello Wars," Alex chose the cello (if you don't know what Cello Wars is, really get out from under your rock and You Tube it). We lucked out by having a neighbor who teaches cello and was willing to start teaching to an 8 year old. Alex is like his mother, that usually when he starts something, he can pick it up right away and run with it. If he doesn't get it right, right away, he gets frustrated and shuts down. The cello was no exception to that. I think he fully expected to start playing Piano Guys type music right away. When he wasn't able to, he became despondent and didn't want to play anymore. It was a struggle. He would get good at one song, and then struggle again when he had to move on to something new. The repetitive practicing was a grind on him. He would refuse to practice most days and then it was a battle with us. Most of that changed when he was asked to play in front of his 3rd grade class a couple of months ago. He was able to gain some confidence in himself by playing in front of others. It changed him. He was more confident in his abilities. He saw the value of what hard work can do. Alex is a very competitive person (I have no clue where he got that trait from), but he is also very hard on himself. He wants do the best at everything he tries but he beats himself up if he doesn't succeed. The cello has become an outlet for him. He can see the daily benefits now.

All of these emotions culminated last night at his recital. His music teacher, along with two other teachers, combines their students for a recital in a church in Ogden. He was going to play in front of close to 75 people. My little man was nervous as soon as soon as we got in the car (didn't help I was just as nervous for him. Mandy as always is the rock and didn't doubt what he was capable of).

He played in front of his family and both grandmas and he nailed it. This was the best he has played to this point. The joy and relief on his face when he was finished was worth the past year of struggles for him. It clicked for him that hard work can pay off. We couldn't be more proud of him and not because he played well, because he rocked it (I know rocked doesn't usually describe a French Folk song but it does here). I am proud of him because he took a struggle for him and learned and improved himself.