It's out

Some of you may or may not know that I love music. I've done a lot with it over the years.

Well, I've reached a monumental step in my love of music--I submitted a demo tape. These are the three songs I put on it--let me know what you think in the comments. These were for a demo, and aren't professional quality recordings. I did my best with them, but there are still some noticeable deficiencies. These are free to download for the time being--hope you enjoy :)

This one is called "Disappear" I wrote it in highschool while suffering from insomnia late at night in my room on my keyboard.

This is called "Numb." It's about my battle with depression. I wrote this one two weeks ago.

This last one is my favorite--and many of you have heard it already. One More Night. It's the first love song I wrote for Dani when we were 17. She dumped me shortly after hearing this.

Recent N-isms

1: I like to play with my kids and I'm very playful with them. So, when I was making N some Chocolate Milk, it was in her sippy and I was shaking it up. I made it into a little bit of a dance in front of N and started saying in rhythm, "shake shake shake."

N gave me a funny look, held her hand out in front of her in the "stop" position and said, "no no no, I don't shake."

2: N loves being a big sister. The newest development in this matter is that she's started trying to carry V around. She gets her in a full nelson lock and then squats until V's legs are just barely off the ground. It's very funny to see a near 3-year-old carry around a near 1-year-old

3: Again, when playing with N, we were doing the "superman" game, where I grab her arms, roll onto my back and then lift her into the air. Well, while she was in the air, she accidently let out a toot. Not a big deal, but she turned bright red, grabbed her bottom and said, "whoops."

Family

I always wished I had come from a big family, but I didn't, so I developed this habit years ago of adopting people into my family.

This cute runaway is Missy. She's been my best friend since I started college. Ever since N learned her name it's, "Where's Aunt Missy?", "We go see Aunt Missy?", "Aunt MISSY!!!!!" all day long. Don't know what I'd do without my Missy.

This is Karen and Sid, my adopted parents in Idaho. I showed up for college in a state I had never been to, where I knew no one and they took me in :D I'm awful at calling, I'm like the son on a mission who never writes, but I love them and miss them terribly.

I worked with Jill in high school at the Tempe Public Library. She is such a sweet spirit, someone who you find yourself comfortable with right off the bat and someone you want to get a hug from because it makes you feel safe and special. Her and her husband, Jiggs, we're two people I would call while away at school to get advice about guys, to talk through problems I was having and to share exciting news. They are the Aunt and Uncle I was blessed with to find later in life.

Richard was Todd's first real friend. They met when they were six when Richard shared a piece of gum with him. Even after loosing contact with moves to others states and eventually another country they met back up in college and picked up right where they left off. With me and Kristine being added to the mix things are just more interesting. N instantly loved them and they've always been there for us. They also have excellent taste in board games!

And the most recent additions to the family, whether they know it or not are the girls new uncles. Uncle Garrett and Uncle Spencer. Todd worked with Garrett on campus and when Todd started Game Night, when we still lived in the apartment, Spencer showed up with his brother and joined the group. The girls love them and I love watching how they interact with the girls. When Garrett is here, it's his lap and and no one else's N want's to be on, not even mommy's.

We love having all of you as "extended" family and to have your influences on our children. You're always welcomed here and you always have a place to stay if you find yourself in the area.

The house

I know many of you (mom) have been waiting for pictures of the house improvements (mostly painting) we've done, and I was going to post some pictures but the window guy just called and he's going to be over here tomorrow and Monday installing some new windows, so I decided to wait till those windows are in and retake the pictures. So wait just a few more days and then they will be up!

In other news there's a wasps nests on our deck and I think a gopher just made it's home under our carport. Great.

-Dani

Farmville

So, Dani and I have taken to facebook games. I play one called castle age, and we both play farmville now. If you've ever played harvest moon, then farmville is just like that--only you play it with all your friends, and it has a lot more bugs.

Normally, this wouldn't be the kind of news that would make it to the blog--but there haven't been any recent posts, and farmville has been one of the most interesting things happening to us recently. The biggest draw-back to it is that you can't do everything in these games until you have a certain number of friends who play it with you. Dani is perfectly fine with this, for the most part--because she has a ton of friends who play it on facebook. I've added her friends as mine to kinda bum off on her popularity, but in the end I had to utilize my programming skills to manufacture a half-dozen facebook friends for me.

Anyway, if you want a relaxing and fun way to spend 10 minutes each day, check out farmville. If you like Lord of the Rings style games better, check out castle age and feel free to join us.

Another N prayer

N: "Mommy can I have some water?"

Mommy: "After the prayer N."

Daddy: "Do you want to say the prayer N?"

N: "Yes. Dear Heavenly Father, can I please have some water?....."

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

Sorry I haven't been around, but I know Todd's been taking good care of you.

I've been rather busy lately and still haven't managed to juggle and balance the work load this new house requires. Don't get me wrong, I'm so very, very happy N has more room to run around, but that also means her toys are EVERY. WHERE. Oh well, not too much longer before she's more responsible at containing her messes and then returning each room to it's proper condition...right...?

Any who. My mom comes in 2 weeks! 2 weeks! and then my dad will show up for the 4th of July weekend.

:D BIG smiles :D

Mom says she's going to help me paint and hang pictures, plus there is plenty of gardening work to be done. Needless to say I'm going to be so grateful for her help. She's awesome! They both are. When my dad was here, he hung a ceiling light/fan in our top living room and it saved our butts when the A/C didn't come on. And he helped with yard work and some electrical too. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Todd and I are so thankful for the help they've given and are planning, and N loves the playground Papa built. She's plays on it more when he's around and she can "summon" him to push her.

Ex. 1) "Papa, papa!

" Yes ma'am."

Ex. 2) "Papa, papa!"

Me) "N, I can push you."

N) "Um..." (looks at papa then me then papa again.) "PAPA!"

Love it.

I also confess I've been wrapped up in reading. A LOT of reading... So far I've read 47 books this year. Most are YA Fiction, some classics, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy (LOVE IT!) and a little of this and that. I've already got some books waiting for me at the library and more on my hold list just inching their way to my hold number in the queue. When I get my sewing/craft corner up I'll have to learn how to balance these two loves of mine. I'll worry about that in about 4 months...

Todd's been busy with work and house projects, and Summer term is about to start next week. He's starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of his release from BYU. I just have to do what I can to keep him going. He's doing great and he'll feel so much better when he graduates. Then we'll see what happens. He's got some great ideas for some projects he wants to start and I know having the time to work on them will be a blessing for him, for us.

Well, I've got some other events to catch you up on so I'll be back soon.

Hugs!

Dani