Bangs McCoy

The Dark Knight

Today was Rees’ last soccer game. He did great. He really wanted to play and was disappointed when Coach Dad gave him his turns on the bench. Very cute. He got a little MVP trophy that he loves and is carrying around with him everywhere. Bryan was a great coach and all the kids loved him.

We came home to find the Gregory family helping themselves to our apricots. This is perfectly acceptable, since we have way too many to manage by ourselves. Thayne, Jakson, and Kassidy were daredevils, climbing the tree and onto the roof of the garage to get the ripest ones. Camillia was content to watch.

The boys had a sleepover tonight with the Gregorys. We took them over at about 7 and then went up to Market Street Broiler for dinner. We ordered artichoke dip with spinach and crab to start, then shared a dinner of filet mignon and a lobster tail. Yummy. We lucked out - a table on the patio opened up right when we arrived. Very nice dinner.

Then we went to Sandy to see The Dark Knight on IMAX. Unfortunately, I read the theatre map upside down when ordering tickets, so we were on the front row rather than the back! My horror was offset by all the people around us who also did the same thing. We were all able to laugh about it. The couple next to us purchased the very first tickets of the show - on the front row. Honestly, the first three of four rows of that theatre should not even exist. I was having serious flashbacks about my major hotel reservation error on our recent trip to San Diego (always save your original Expedia itinerary if you’re coming back later to buy, friends!).

I was able to mostly forget about that, which is a testament to the movie. It’s been said a million times, but Heath Ledger is off the charts - which is good, since he’s probably in it more than Batman/Bruce Wayne is. I have always liked him. He was excellent in Brokeback Mountain (I practically dragged Bryan to see it, and I think he may have ended up liking it even more than I did). My favorite quote, however, was from Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman):

Let me get this straight: You think that your employer, one of the richest men in the world, is spending his nights running around the city beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands? And your plan is to blackmail him?

Good luck.

Add comment July 19th, 2008

‘Tis done

Bryan hauled me out into the yard early this morning to show me what he was doing last night while I was at work. The pergola is done! It looks great, too. Next we will make the pergola floor from flagstone. Woo-hoo!

1 comment July 15th, 2008

Dirty, dirty children

Rees played well in soccer today. He is not really kicking the ball, but he runs with the other kids and at least pays attention to where the ball is. Except during the second half, when he spent most of the time wrestling and playing “ring around the rosy” with his teammates. Rees was in charge of snacks and brought juice, pretzels, and grapes.

In the evening Jeff, Cashell, Liam, Kegan, and Quinn came over to play. Cashell brought these really good baked spinach-phyllo appetizers. The filling was spinach, some kind of cheese, garlic, and probably something else wrapped into triangles of phyllo. Really good. Bryan made his excellent Superior Hamburgers. He asked me to get some ciabatta rolls when I went to Harmon’s this morning, and when I couldn’t find any, I was concerned that divorce papers might be drawn up when I got home. However, I managed to locate the last four ciabatta rolls they had. Phew.

The five boys (ages four and under) had so much fun getting filthy in the dirt piles out back and playing on the swings and hammock. What will the kids do for entertainment when the dirt piles are gone? And speaking of dirt gone, we’ve decided to fill in the area under the apple tree with “Sof’Fall” playground wood chips and move the toy box and bikes over there. It will be a nice little area and will keep us more organized. Perhaps we’ll tackle that next weekend…

After the kids were hosed down and in bed, we watched Charlie Wilson’s War. I liked what I saw of it. I fell asleep about halfway through.

Add comment July 12th, 2008

While he’s at work

This morning Bryan got up early and picked up the rest of the wood he needs to finish the pergola. He also bought a new hammock. Our old hammock made of recycled t-shirts (purchased in Tijuana) finally bit the dust after too much abuse from the neighborhood rugrats.

Afterward we all went swimming at Murray Pool. It was nice to be there with another adult. The two kids have much different swimming preferences. Rees likes to go down the slide a lot and jump into the deep pool, which requires someone to catch him (he wears a life jacket but doesn’t swim yet). Jamie, on the other hand, prefers to stay in the very shallow water where he can just splash around. He gets cranky being held too much in deep water.

Bryan worked on the pergola the rest of the day and hung his new hammock. He teased me about the fact that I could now take naps in the hammock all afternoon (because that’s what he thinks I do while he’s at work - sleep). I then promptly fell asleep in the hammock and he made dinner for everyone. Ha-ha.

Add comment July 11th, 2008

Happy 4th

We had a low-key holiday. I spent most of the day outside in the yard planting. I finished planting the shady bed under the apricot tree in the back, and got started planting in the bed on the north side of the backyard. While I was planting in the shade, I noticed four baby birds in Diane’s back yard - it looked like they’d fallen out of their nest. Three were still alive and chirping, but much too small to survive (eyes still closed). I looked up some instructions on the internet and ended up putting some dry grass clippings in the bottom of a plastic milk jug (top cut off). I put the birds in the “nest” and attached it to the fence, near where I found them, with zip ties. They were still chirping, so I hope the mother will hear them and come take care of them. I wish I had taken pictures.

Bryan repaired the automatic door lock on the Mazda today (the driver’s side auto lock broke while I was in Arizona earlier this year). After being quoted $225 and $150 by two mechanics, Bryan decided to install the $70 part himself. He did a great job and was done in about an hour. He says it only took him that long because he spent about 20 minutes trying to put it in backward.

Add comment July 4th, 2008

Joy

I spent all afternoon working in the backyard today. I don’t know why it makes me so happy, but it just does.

Our next-door neighbor Diane is having her yard completely re-landscaped. New sprinklers, flowerbeds, grass, paths, etc. There has been a crew here for nearly a week putting it all together, and I think it will look very nice. The amount of dust they are generating is amazing. We won’t be washing cars until they’re done.

Add comment July 1st, 2008

It was bound to happen

Rees had soccer this morning with the Blue Beavers (he’s still struggling, but we’re hoping for a turnaround). They also had team pictures today.

In the afternoon we worked in the yard. Bryan went on an errand to Best Buy and ended up calling me, asking me to “talk him down” from buying a new flatscreen TV. Long story short, I didn’t talk him down, so we have a new TV. It will be mounted above the fireplace upstairs, and the ancient bigscreen in the basement will go.

In the evening we went to visit Sarah in the hospital in Orem after the exciting birth yesterday. Michael, Allie, and my mom were there as well. We dropped off flowers and a birthday gift for Michael, held the new baby girl (no name yet) and visited for a while.

At home we enjoyed our first movie on the new TV - a Berrett family favorite.

1 comment June 14th, 2008

Red wrigglers

I finally did it. After months of thinking and wondering, I finally ordered some worms. I’ll let you know how it goes. If anybody out there wants to do the same thing, I should have enough worms to share in the next three or four months!

I will be starting this project when the worms arrive next week. I seriously can’t wait. I know, I’m weird.

1 comment May 16th, 2008

The big four

Today is Rees’s fourth birthday. He spent the morning out with Bryan doing fun stuff - they went to Discovery Gateway and some other spots. Later in the afternoon, Bryan, Rees and I drove up to Bear Lake to spend some time with the Young Men in the ward. Also riding in the car with us was our young friend Cory. This morning Rees received his ‘big’ birthday present - a Leapster. This gift came to be because my parents gave him some Leapster games last weekend, thinking he had the little system, which he didn’t. He is pretty enamored with it, it kept him busy through the entire car ride. And Cory helped him out from time to time if he got confused.

We stayed at a nice home right on the edge of the lake, which is owned by the family of our Young Men’s president. A few weeks ago when we found out that this particular activity happened to be planned on Rees’ birthday, we agreed that bringing him along would be fun - the Young Men in the ward are like big brothers to him. They sang Happy Birthday to him and helped him eat his donut cake and open some presents.

Meanwhile, Jamie stayed with Bryan’s parents in NSL. Jamie experienced a breath-holding spell (BHS) and passed out in Bob’s arms just as I was leaving. I am trying to do a better job of recording Jamie’s BHS, so I added a new category on the blog for it. Today’s spell came after a tantrum, rather than a head-bump - this is somewhat of a concern. He may be learning to control the spells, which could lead to trouble in the future.

Add comment February 22nd, 2008

I need a new ‘coonskin cap

Tonight as Bryan and I were putting away some garden implements (I had been working on the front flowerbed) at around 9:00, we heard some rustling in the apricot tree. We have known for a long time that raccoons enjoy that tree. As soon as the fruit starts to ripen each summer, there is quite a mess on the grass back there every morning. Not just fruit. Half-eaten fruit, bare pits, leaf clusters, sometimes entire broken branches. Bryan spotted a raccoon in the crook of the tree a week or so ago at about 11:00 (pm). However, we never expected to see them out this early in the evening. We also didn’t expect to see a whole raccoon family. There were at least four babies, plus a mother somewhere (we didn’t spot her but there was plenty of rustling up there). At one point, all four babies were perched one one branch next to each other. I didn’t capture that photo op, but you can see two siblings in the pictures below. They were about the size of a small cat, and not the least bit concerned about us.

 

Of course I had to go get Camillia to check them out. Two of our YW, Nicole and Julie, were visiting her, so they came to see them too - then they wanted to keep the raccoon babies as pets.

Oh, and special thanks to my mom for letting me borrow her new Bissell carpet cleaner today. Rees and Jamie thank you for their nice clean carpet.

Add comment July 10th, 2007