Category Archives: Family

Being Have

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It’s really hard for me to behave. I can’t remember which munchkin we knew that used to ask “Are you bein’have?”

Toting the in laws back to Park City and using them as indentured servants seemed totally appropriate knowing how good FIL is at this stuff. I’ve tried to help. I’ve tried to suggest fun activities. I’ve tried to help MK bond to his family. The house stuff was just a bonus. Then the project I asked for got started. But now I don’t want them to leave. And it’s not just because I’m worried we won’t ever be able to finish this project without them. Although we might not have company for a while.

It’s fun with a house full. SIL is young, as you may or may not know, and a pure PLEASURE to have around the house. I could adopt an 11 year old. MIL is teaching me how to cook. FIL laughs at all my jokes.

So I’m trying not to think about them leaving – about how life will get back to normal and we’ll stay up late and get back on the internet and not make frowny faces about other stuff we’re missing (Twitter was down? It’s amazing how you don’t notice the fail whale if you GET OUT.) or forgetting. I’m not thinking about the gym I haven’t been to in a week, the pigging out we’ve been doing. 

Because family is fun. We really fall off the grid here when family comes. I guess it’s because we’re different people. There’s normal us, ans then take it down 50 clicks family is in town us. Make sure you’re bein’have.

Stupid Sentimental Crap

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MK showed up the afternoon of the 28th with a dozen red roses. Butthead.

I went to WalMart and got him the only other card they had besides the one I got him last year, and some Orbit gum. He’d rather have money in the bank than cheesy gifts that end up in the storage room.

We both got nice new hairdos and since it was no biggie we went out to dinner with MH, who I totally missed while we were gone! It’s hard having such great friends in so many places, I’m always missing someone. We went to a bar afterward. And saw the strangest band. Of all time. Of ALL time. And I’ve seen many bands.

Quite often, if MK and I both drink, we fall back in to the old ways we have only just gotten rid of – where we bicker about each other. It started out of love and was all a big joke to us, but not to people we did it in front of, and we worked hard to knock it off.

But you know what the ass kicker was? He brought up this. My blog.

He called me a wuss.

And you know what? He was right. I am such a freaking wuss. For someone who talks so much I have so little to say. I am so scared. While I was getting my hair done, the super lovely hairdresser seemed surprised that I was terrified of karaoke and daring fashions. But what you might not know about me is that I am so worried about what people think (or maybe I wear that on my sleeve and am totally blind to how obvious it is).

Trying to be a writer made me observe everything. Since college I have become so aware of my surroundings sometimes I can’t even focus. I hear others conversations within ear shot. I have a hard time taking it all in. But I think it goes both ways. I have panic attacks if something embarrassing happens. If I say the wrong thing in front of someone I analyze it for hours afterwards. It can be impossible for me to sleep if I’m stressed about what someone I might not even know that well thought about me in passing.

 I give up too easily. I take the easy way out. As much as I love blogging, I write about how fun my day was instead of how worked up I am that my genius husband won’t take to the internet and tell everyone what really happened to the market on May 5th. Or that I hate lipstick. Or what a terrible driver my bother is.

Because I’m too worried MK might ever see this. Or that you LOVE lipstick. Or that CH won’t still love me if I tell him to not be so aggressive in CA in that BMW of his. And that you’ll think I’m stupid. That you’ll actually fail to realize that my great ideas never happen when my hands are on the keyboard. That you’ll think  this writing at odd quick moments is what my book might look like. What ever happened to that thing…?

So I’m going to give this another go. And take the wuss out of this site. But only a little bit, I’m still nervous to lose you. I have such a wide range of friends, family, and strangers here I really don’t want to fight!

:)

In case this whole entry is a little too retarded for you, check this out.

Another awesome idea (I wish I’d thought of first).

Don’t Stop

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The party continued after dropping the last of our family off at the airport. We hopped in the car after a big cheap Vegas lunch and headed to California.

I think I am still a little CA at heart. MK woke me up from my road nap – seriously, my family didn’t sleep – about 45 minutes out of San Diego. My heart swelled with all the excitement of seeing all the people and places I’d been missing.

We got all set up with the super awesome newlywed B’s. We got in just in time for Taco Tuesday with MR and my brother – seriously, he drove overnight from Vegas and went to work and still came to meet us, my family is crazy – and it was like we never left. I was beyond happy. We ran around seeing friends and eating yummy food all week.

We were there for the Hash, our running club, Red Dress Run. We also played volleyball Thursday and ran the Pink Dress Run on Friday. Down time? What’s that? Three crazy fun days and long nights later it was Red Dress time. My brother joined us, and it was so fun buying him a dress. A couple years back he might punch a guy in a dress, now he gets the funny of it all. I love him for that.

JB and I got all cancan costumed up, got the guys ready, and we headed out. The run was a riot. Smaller than the last two years but just as silly! We said some more hellos and some goodbyes at the Wavehouse on Sunday, and MK had to drag me out of there kicking and screaming.

I mean, our hosts were awesome. Awesome cooks, awesome bartenders. JB let me make soaps with her. And they have a remote with a touchscreen. I wanted to stay forever!

You Can Take A Family Trip To Vegas

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We had a resounding success this weekend! Nobody fought! Everybody partied! We couldn’t get anyone to go to bed! The only crying was during goodbyes!

We got everyone around everywhere. I’m pretty sure the first timers saw more of Vegas than I saw my first ten times – lions, sharks, one casino after another. With a sweet person who was willing to stuff herself in the trunk a bunch, having the car really came in handy. I even had a bunch of firsts too, like the roller coaster at NYNY, and a comedian. It was such a neat experience to do things a little differently. It was a little sad that our pool day was cloudy, but you can lay around anywhere. We just keep sight-seeing.

If 12 of my family members can have that successful of a trip, anyone can. A little planning, a little research, and everyone putting on their party pants made it a trip I’ll never forget. And not just because I am better at blackjack than my Dad, Mom, brother, and Uncle.

Cinco de Mayo, 2010

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At around three, after painting the living room ceiling (oh yeah, we’re still working on the house if you were wondering) I went over to the B’s and babysat SB while TB and BB packed up and shipped off to the hospital, for T’s full term and ‘maybe baby’ appointment.

The lil man wasn’t ready yet, so they came home to chill, and MK and I got to play pretend house with SB. We took her out bowling, and like the pro that she is, she beat my score. They should have let me use the bumpers. We made a pit stop at the grocery store since we are totally unprepared for children – like, it was surreal having a car seat in my rear view mirror – and got some mac and cheese.

Dinner party at my house was fun. We played in the snow, played on the Wii, ate our macaroni, and had yummy cake-like bakery cookies for dessert. Meanwhile (it’s a shame she isn’t writing this blog post with her side of the story) TB did in fact go into labor, the super rad kind where you drive to the hospital and you’re  in such a hurry and the baby is ready and you leave the car IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING… she had RLB about 10 minutes later. I took SB home and readied her for bed, BB tucked her in, went back to the hospital, and relieved me a few hours later.

All our congrats and lots of love to a family I love as much as my own, the lil man is super handsome, and everyone is doing great. Yay! Can’t wait for the now-a-family-of-four to share many amazing and thrilling moments with us as they settle in.

No Matter What

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So help me, we are going to have fun on this Vegas trip. The 12 of us that are for sure are going to go out, see sights, eat food, have fun.

I’m assuming if I just continue to repeat this mantra over and over, it will happen. HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE FUN IF YOU’RE WITH ME? RIGHT??

Wanna do yoga at 5am? In a dress and sneakers? On the way BACK from the club? Done.

Wanna sleep until noon, lounge by the pool, eat 7 meals in 7 hours? Done!

If I’m the girl that won’t say no, will make it fun no matter what IT is, then you should be just as determined as me to make the best of anything. You’re my family, you must have a little bit of that in you!

I talked to my cousin and got excited. She’s really looking forward to her first trip to Vegas. And she said, with us, it’ll be fun. Awww. What she doesn’t know is I was about to just show up. Now I’m back in the trying to plan the best trip ever saddle.

As a reminder, if you’ve ever been to Vegas with someone that doesn’t drink, or gamble, or sightsee, let me know what you did…

Momm! Brother! Here!

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FYI - even after those caps, there are many, many more.

MY Momm’s coming! AND my brother! To visit. UTAH.

Unfortunately, half the house is still up to the sills in snow. And it might snow AGAIN. And CH will be all, “It’s sunny in San Diego” and I’ll be all “Dude, YOU’RE WELCOME, I TOLD YOU TO MOVE THERE. BUT STOP TELLING ME HOW AWESOME IT IS, I KNOW”, and Momm’ll be all “KIDS!”

So that should be FUN.

MK prolly needs a drink. I better get on that.

But anyway. So, we’re all growed up. And that’s been on my mind a lot lately. If I pretended my Momm didn’t read my blog, I’d tell you all these thoughts I’ve been having about that. But since she does, I’ll just give her a taste:

I can’t wait to ask Momm some questions. Like, really. Not “Hey, how are you?” but like “DO YOU LIKE US?!?!?!”

No one has three kids and expects them all to be hilarious, right?

With TB on the verge of NUMBER TWO all I can think about is, what if they are so opposite they don’t get along? What if we don’t like him? SB has the bar set pretty high, what if he JUMPS OVER IT? What if he HATES ME? I’ll stop, since those aren’t my kids, but you get my point right?

Kids are weird. We haven’t been around each other and Momm a lot. It will be interesting. One third of the H’s reuniting. In my silly ski town. I hope they do that thing where they think, “not for me, but whatever floats your boat, wherein boat = SKIS OVER FRESH POWDER”.

:)

Side Tracked

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Nothing is better than my company! It has been too far and in between this year. We’ve talked to people that handle resort bookings and say it’s picked up this year from last year. I happily correct them and let them know we’ve never waited in line at our ski resort and our guest room has not been used nearly as much as I imagined.

Last year we had over 30 people come stay with us in under 6 months. This winter, less than 10. Maybe everyone knew the house was new and not as fancy as the rental, but I would think we could have hit maybe 20. Maybe they got the word we were having a weenie snow year.

Whatever the cause, MB and JB were probably our last ski guests this past weekend. I cried when they left, since they are the total awesomest, and since I knew I’d be back to house work. We skied The Canyons, had a girly shopping day while the boys did The Canyons again, then trekked out to my new favorite totally amazing place, Solitude.

We ate well, ran around town, and played some Wii. SB came over and beat us all, of course. I love a full house. I love having company. I don’t even know if I’ve gotten any better at it after all these guests (80+ and I lost count after trying to add up Seattle, San Diego, and Park City…). I try to let my company lead, and I follow. You fall asleep, I do. You say you’re hungry, I cook. You say it’s gross, we get take out. I’m not too pushy, not too overwhelming. Your trip is as jam-packed or calm and slow as you’d like it to be.

Each time someone leaves, I get sad. I clean the bathroom, wash the sheets, notice how my best friends leave the place cleaner than they probably found it, and pour myself a glass of wine they brought me as a gift.

It makes me ready to work on the house again after a day or two. It has a ways to go, but remembering that I’m happy if my guests are happy, I’m willing to strive to make this place as cozy as it can be. For us and them.