Hillbilly

OK, here is my Hillbilly mouth. I am not adjusting well to being a hick. Without thinking, I grabbed a Frito chip from Ken and chomped on it only to have it go right up into my pit! Yeah, blood and such. Lots of fun.
And sorry about the beautiful nostril shot!

Some Christmas Shots

So my lovely wife finally downloaded pictures off the camera. I have some from Christmas. I threw the house shot on from Christmas Morning before anyone was awake, well, except our cats- they had to follow me to see what I was doing.
This is the only shot of me on Christmas. I guess that's what I will look like when I'm dead.

New Year and Such

So it's 6 degrees outside right now! Holy cow!
Anyway, for Christmas Eve we went to Carl's house. Ivette made lovely yummy pulled pork and we had sandwiches and other foods. It was a blast. It is fun to hang out with the Snyder's. Of course we played Sequence. Man the women cheat when we play! Carl put on some home movies from quite a few years ago. Wow! I love the color of the clothes. We also looked at some old pictures, too. We made it home and got Christmas all ready to go, well, Teresa did; I went to bed at 11:30. I just couldn't take it anymore. I was up early in the morning mainly because 6 am is a huge sleep-in for me. The girls all got up by 8 and we opened gifts. We scaled it back this year, but it was fine. The main thing was hanging out together and thinking about the Savior. I am going through Christmas music with drawl! I love it. Oh well.
It has been pretty wild with all the snow this year! November didn't have anything and you start to wonder if it ever will snow, but holy cow we got a lot.
New Years Eve day I woke with a huge pustule thing sticking out of my gum above a tooth that I have had problems with- I had a root canal done on it a couple years ago. Well, back in October it started hurting. How does a tooth with no nerves hurt?! I go to the dentist, he takes x-rays and then tells me I need to go to the endodontist. He tells me the root is cracked all the way up and that I have infection all around it. Swell. And I need to have it extracted! So, I took some antibiotics and let it be, until last week. I poked the thing on my gum and let it drain, then called the dentist where Chantel had her wisdom teeth taken out. They had me come right over and yanked it out. Man, I feel like a hobo.
The Wakefield's had New Years Eve plans, so we went with them, the Clegg's, and Hatch's out to eat, which I really couldn't do, then we went back to the Wakefield's to play games. The Grover's and Christensen's came over, too. We laughed real hard that night about the jockstrap that I got for a white elephant gift. (I want to hot glue some bobble eyes on it and make a puppet out of it.)
You know, I hate staying up late.
And Dick Clark, bless his heart, just shouldn't be on TV anymore. I had a little vomit come up in my mouth when he was kissing some lady at midnight. Oye.
I managed a 42:03 for 6 miles on the treadmill. If only I could get that outside! Jayton and I ran around the outside track at the baseball fields. It wasn't too bad, but I prefer not to run over the ice and slush.
Abby turned 14. That is really weird, but it is amazing seeing her not looking like a little girl anymore; she is looking older and more younger woman looking.
Jayton took me over to the mall to look for some jeans. We must have looked very gay; two guys talking about pants, and no one should ever hear another man say, "I want to see you in these."
So, I will try and stay updated more often. December is always hectic with all the concerts, parties, and church stuffs.
I will get some pictures up soon, too.
Oh, since last January I am down almost 20 pounds! It's amazing!

One In, 4 Out

I went to the orthopedist last week to look at my shoulder. He said he wanted to give me a shot of cortisone. The only cortisone I ever had was back 26 years ago when I had poison oak so bad I was a huge puff of itchy rashness. He had a student with him so I was on stage. He marked the spot then poked the needle in, moved till he found the spot he wanted, then sunk it in. Man, I was really hurting for a few days. It's not so bad today. I have to wait 4-6 weeks and if it's not better he wants to scope it and clean it out! Ugh.
Chantel got her 4 wisdom teeth pulled out on Friday. It is so hilarious to see the patients in the back recovery area, wasted and dazed. Chelsea sat back there sobbing, Chantel was just wasted and rubbery. It was classic trying to get her coat on and then walking her to the car! She repeated 50 times that she counted to 15 or 5 or 10. She was funny.
I had to almost carry her to the door. She was freaking out about so many things, but remembers nothing.
I should have videotaped her! I could always use a little blackmail material.

Stuff

So here is some stuff that has been going on-
Chelsea had a dance concert at the high school. She does ballroom and has a fun time. What we hate having to sit through is all the modern dancing stuff. I swear every one of their numbers they start on the floor, do a lot of rolling around on the floor, smack the floor, and the end of every dance they fall to the floor. And every song that they dance to is some emo song. It is funny how when they are done with each number there is clapping, but at the end of each ballroom dance the crowd roars. Chelsea was cracking us up because she kept having these funny faces during their numbers. She is in California right now with the whole dance group. I guess one of our kids has to make it to Disneyland!
Chantel is finishing up her first real semester of BYU and is realizing how bad Physical Science really sucks! Finals next week and then she comes home for a couple weeks. Should be loads of fun.
I have been struggling to find the Christmas Spirit, even with a month and 1/2 of Christmas music! Abby, Madalyn and I went out this morning in the freezing snowstorm to go do a wee bit of shopping. It was fun and actually added a feeling of the season. I guess with work being so stressful (we are reeeeeealy struggling with the economy) I am freaking out and pretty much just worry about taking care of my family. I need to exercise more faith.
We as the Bishopric had a small get together at the Wakefield's last night to say thanks for all they do. All I know is that Bradley (Marc Anthony) Frandsen is one big hoot. Fun stories, great comments, he loves to bake, heck, I wanted to take him home! It is weird that I have been the Bishop for over 5 years. Anyway, they all rock for all the time and effort they put in to make the ward run as well as it does. And thanks to their WONDERFUL wives for putting up with all the junk and time away.
The hard part has begun- Holiday goodies have started to be dropped off at the house. I have little willpower! Mmmmm, cake & cookies. I guess I will be running even more.

Thanksgiving

Well, we started Thanksgiving with a bang, or should I say with a BARF! At 2 AM Madalyn was vomiting, and of course she threw up a couple times in the hallway and then got to the bathroom. Nothing like the upchucking sound in the wee hours of the morning! So, Teresa and I were cleaning barf out of the carpet for a while. Teresa already suffers from Vomit Phobia, so once she was done cleaning she was off to go shower. Anyway, Madalyn made it through the night with no further barfies and hasn't had a problem since.
I got up and ready for my Turkey Trot Run. It was raining, but it held up right before the race began. I'll tell you what, this years shirts are the dumbest ever! I really want to design one and ask for them to please use it! I met up with Carl and his friend Brad, and 3 of my nieces, they were there to take pictures and cheer us on. I forgot to bring my gloves, but it didn't matter. Anyway, we got to the starting line and waited, as always, then finally after 10 minutes were off. I started with a pretty good pace. In fact my first mile was around 6:20-ish. I fell in behind some high school girl and kept pace up until about the last 3/4 mile and then she pulled away. Well crap, I'm 42 and she is 15! I tried to kick it on home and was shocked to see that I was under the 28 minute mark! I finished at 27:56. In my age bracket, 40-44, I was 5th and 69th overall. Carl came in at 35:57, so I missed my goal of beating him by 10 minutes. His girls missed him finishing so he popped back on the course and had them snap a picture. I told him he would make a great Democrat the way he was re-writing history! I am very satisfied and a bit shocked at my time.
We went to Carl's house for Dinner. I picked up my mother en route. She hasn't been out like that for a long time and she did real good. My brother David, his son Hayden, and his two daughters, Miranda and Carly, were down from Idaho. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. We ate and got bloated, played games and reminisced about our childhoods and such. It was very fun. When we got home I was so stinkin' tired that I don't remember laying down in my bed at 10 PM! I was out like a light. So, it was a great and fun day, and no one barfed at night!

Pre-Thanksgiving Misgivings

Here's a couple Thanksgiving memories-
Of course we always had the Turkey Bowl football games. One year, probably late '70's, I get the ball in the open field and there is nothing but green and goal post in front of me. I ran as fast as my wee legs will let me. I'm jubilant as I picture scoring a touchdown when I see fingers coming into my vision from above. I feel a sharp scalp pain then see my feet in the air! My brother David chased me down, reached out and grabbed my hair and pulled me back causing a complete horizontal flop to the ground. But I held onto the ball!
Another rousing story from T-Day is when Carl ate so much he thought he was going to die. So, Carl, our friend Lance and I head over to Kaiser Hospital. While waiting Carl suddenly exclaims, "I need to barf!" So he grabs one of those kidney shaped plastic dish things, heads into the stairwell and proceeds to vomit about 3 times the amount that that poor little dish could hold. Lance and I lean through the door to see orange (with lots of black olives) barf everywhere and that little dish filled to rim and Carl saying, "I feel better... let's go." So we walk away leaving all the vomit in the stairway! Man, we suck! And why didn't he just find a bathroom?!?!
My Grandma Snyder, who was born in 1895, couldn't hear a thing and talking with her on the phone was BRUTAL. I recall a Thanksgiving in the early '80's when David answered the phone, said a couple words, then told me the phone was for me. I say Hello, only to hear my Grandma talking. David was beat red from laughing at me having to deal with her. The sad thing is I see myself acting too many times the way my dad did with his mother. I gotta be nicer or I am off to hell. (I've thrown in a couple pictures of Grandma, probably circa 1920 and then 1960) I do love my Grandma and she made the BEST coleslaw EVER! Too bad she took that recipe to the grave.
So with the Turkey Trot (who came up with that name? Sounds like what happens after eating too much then running) it is supposed to be wet and cool. Carl said the other day he would like to run one day in a blizzard. Well, last year was horribly cold and the wind was blowing from the east. Egads it wasn't fun. But I have learned that running with sweats isn't fun, and keeping a big sweatshirt leads to chaffing of the chest.