enlightening moment

I had a very long weekend that included:

Wednesday night ham dinner
doing dishes after said dinner
cooking a rosemary spiced turkey
eating Thanksgiving dinner
cleaning up after the dinner
working on Friday
doing some shopping
watching Utah give the game away to The School Down South (I puked a little in my mouth just now)
putting up the Christmas tree
putting up decorations

After doing all of that, I noticed that one of the canned lights in our kitchen was out. No big deal, we already had the ladder out for the Christmas tree.

I grabbed a light bulb from the basement and went up to replace the bulb. Wendy was using the ladder for some re-arranging of the nutcrackers so I decided to use one of our tall bar stools (or as Isaak calls them, barf stools... "Daddy, why do we call them barf stools?").

So I climbed up and reached up as high as I could to get the light bulb out. I removed it and replaced it with a new light bulb. And then I had an epiphany. I was removing a light bulb that was there before we bought our house and this was a light bulb that we purchased for our house.

Why is this such a big deal, right? I mean we have been here for a year and a half.

Well, at this time of year when we all pause to give thanks, a little light bulb made me think of how thankful I am to be in a house. After 8 1/2 years of marriage, losing a job, going back to school, starting a career over, saving, wishing, hoping and praying, we got into our first home last year.

Let's eat turkey in a big brown shoe

This month is going by too fast. Veteran's day has passed. Basketball season has started. Utah Football only have 2 games left. All of the pumpkins have rotted and are in the garbage. People are putting up Christmas lights.

Ok, so I put up our Christmas lights last Saturday, November 10.

What? why so early?

I learned at a very early age to show respect for the local weatherman. I think there is a hidden shrine somewhere at my parents house for Bob Welty and Mark Eubank where my dad pays homage to the past Meteorologists from KSL. I am pretty sure that dad shed a tear last year when Mark Eubank retired from KSL.

Anyway, when Kevin Eubank said last week on the weather report that it would rain/snow on Sunday and that Saturday would be a good day to get the lights up early, I took heed to his comments and made the arrangements - especially since we never got the outdoor lights up last year on our new house.

Let me just say that hanging out over a roof, 30 feet above the ground was interesting. I think my wife was convinced I would fall. I guess that is why she kept telling the kids to get back away from the house - she didn't want me to squish them when I fell.

Sorry - no falls from the roof. But it was a nice day to be on the roof.

On Sunday we had Stake Conference and when the choir started to sing, I noticed that the same Kevin Eubank was in the choir (he lives in our LDS Stake). I think he had a slight grin on his face knowing that it was raining outside. I almost ran up to tell him that I listened to his advice and put up my Christmas lights.

Ok, so it still hasn't snowed and the weathere has been almost as nice this week as it was last week.

So back to turkey time.

We are doing a Thanksgiving luncheon tomorrow at work and I am bringing a turkey. I rubbed it down with spices last night and I will load it with rosemary and garlic tomorrow morning and put it in the roaster at work. I am sure I will be able to smell turkey all morning long. Luckily there is a great song that you can sing while getting the turkey ready:

Random update

I have been real busy with work, etc. Here are a few updated photos of the family:

Isaak can't figure out what to do with the orange slices during halftime of a soccer game.

But he does know that his team is #1.

Jonah's first birthday cake

Tillie's first Utah Football game. We stayed for the entire game! (ok, so she went to one 3 yrs ago and she got too cold so we left during the kickoff)

Tillie and Samara before dance class.

Zoobie costumes at the trunk or treat - I can't believe that some people thought that we were really cougar fans...

Wendy took some photos of the kids this week while visiting Discovery Gateway (children's museum)