Hannah vs. The Outbreak Monkey

Over the past month or so, everybody in the family has been battling one form of illness or another.  It all started with everyone suffering from bad stomach cramping.  It then evolved into a mutant virus that might be confused with the stomach flu.

Emma was the first to begin exhibiting flu-like symptoms.  She ended up missing two days of school and, even now, is still not functioning at 100%.  Holly also got hit by this bug causing her to miss three days of work.  I think that she is now finally over it after a week of suffering.  I’ve been experiencing some symptoms including stomach discomfort and a fever but, so far, I’ve managed to avoid too much downtime. Alex has been able to avoid the majority of the contagions very effectively.  Hannah, on the other hand, has not.

Halloween 2008: The Aftermath

So Halloween this year was pretty good.  We started our festivities early in the week with some pumpkin carving.  We had five huge pumpkins but a lack of time so only three of them ended up getting carved.  Holly decided that it would be fun to do Shrek and I unleashed my inner geek (what’s new?) and did Mario of Super Mario Bros. fame.  Emma decided to do an original creation which turned out pretty good.  Like every other year, there were lots of dads commenting on how cool our pumpkins were as their kids took our candy.

This year will be known in my mind as the year of the recycled costume idea.  Emma decided that she wanted to be a devil, Alex wanted to be a tiger, and Hannah wanted to be a clown.  Whether it is dumb luck or just coincidence, we have each of these costumes in the appropriate sizes in our costume box.  Everybody was happy and we saved money.  You can’t ask for more than that - especially if said costumes yield free candy.

What A Week…

I know that it’s been a while since I posted anything.  I actually have good reasons for not doing so.  Last week was complete chaos in the Zohner home.  Let me try and catch everyone up.

Last Friday, my sister Chelsea got married.  Because of this, my mom came into town from Denver.  The last time she was here, she made a comment about how the basement looked just as it had months earlier when she last saw it.  I wasn’t about to let that happen again so I spent 35 hours over the weekend painting and installing the home theater speakers.  I started on Friday afternoon and finally finished Sunday evening.  Lucky for me, Chelsea and Nick came over and helped a bit which actually ended up helping a lot because without them, I wouldn’t have been ready on Monday when we had the flooring installed.  Now I just have a few things left and then the basement will be complete.  YAY!

Curse You Will Wright

I’ve always been a big fan of games created by Will Wright.  For those who are unfamiliar with who he is, he’s the mastermind behind games like SimCity and The Sims.  If you have ever played one of those games, then you know how addictive they can be.  You also know that they are so engrossing that it’s possible to sit down with the intent to play for twenty minutes and get up fourteen hours later wondering where the time went.  It’s almost like time travel.

Will Wright’s most recent game is called Spore.  It is a combination of every other one of his sim games and then some.  You basically start off as a cell, eating either small plants or meat chunks.  Eventually you grow and evolve into a space faring civilization.  The fun part about it is that you get to choose how your creature evolves.  Will it have multiple eyes and spit poison?  Maybe it will be aggressive and eat other creatures?

The Pinks Of Their Eyes

This morning, Alex woke up screaming.  Holly went in to see what the problem was and found him standing in the middle of the room with his eyes closed.  Holly asked him what was wrong and he told her that he couldn’t open his eyes.  She asked if they were glued shut and he said that they were.  He also said that Emma did it.  (Emma can be so mean. )  She took him into the bathroom and cleaned the excessive amounts of eye boogers out so that he could once again see.

It was at this point that Holly was convinced that she, Alex, Emma, Chelsea, and maybe Hannah all have pink eye.  She took the kids to the doctor where her thoughts were confirmed.  Chelsea got lucky and just has allergies.  For now.

Another Weekend In The Mountains

Last Friday we loaded up the van and headed back up into the mountains to do some more camping.  We liked where we camped a few weeks ago so much that we decided to go a few miles up the road.  Actually, the campgrounds were all reserved months ago.  We just happened to get lucky in the fact that they were great places to pitch a tent.  But I digress…

Camping with friends is always more fun so we went with our friends, John and Dana Rimington and their three daughters.  For additional fun points, we also brought along Chelsea and her soon to be husband, Nick.  We tried to get my brother, Ryan, to come too but he had to work.  Maybe next time…  It was really nice spending time with everybody.  The kids enjoyed playing with John and Dana’s girls and they loved having Nick and Chelsea along.  I know though that if Ryan had been able to make it, he would have been the star of the weekend.  The kids love playing with him so much.

I Need To Do Better

UNOFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

For those who have not heard yet, my sister, Chelsea, is engaged.  Since it’s not my wedding, I’ve been spared from having to do too many things.  One thing that I did volunteer for though is making a DVD slideshow of Chelsea and her love interest, Nick.  I get to choose what pictures and music are used.  Can you say “bathtub pictures”?  It’s going to be fun.

On Sunday, I started going through stacks of old pictures deciding which ones I was going to use.  As I was looking through Chelsea’s scrapbook, I found pictures of my graduation, when I went on my mission, our mom at an Amway convention, and my first Christmas with Holly.  It was like taking a trip down memory lane.

The Great Outdoors

Over the weekend we took the kids and once again went camping.  This time, we decided to avoid Logan Canyon and headed up to the Uintah mountains.  We had a great campsite and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  We didn’t do much except sit around camp and eat marshmallows but it was nice to relax and enjoy nature.

Holly’s sister, Jen, and her family came with us.  it was nice to be able to spend some time with them.  Her brother, Lynn, also brought up his kids for dinner.  We were sad that they weren’t able to spend the night but it was nice that they could come up for a few hours.

While we were there, I managed to get in a little bit of fishing on the Duschene River.  The fish were jumping like crazy but I didn’t even get a bite.  We’re heading back up for a two-day trip in a few weeks.  I better check the fishing reports before we go so that I can have better luck.

For The Birds

Last week, Holly was surfing some internet classifieds and came across a listing for a free parakeet with two cages.  She immedately asked if we could get it, making sure to let me know how much Emma would like to have a bird.  Me, being the nice guy that I am, told her to go ahead and call to see if the bird was still available.  She told me that she would and I didn’t give it much more thought.

Later that night, Holly had a study group for school so she was gone for the evening.  When she came home, I was in the front yard with the kids.  As Holly pulled up into the driveway, I noticed a bird cage on the passenger seat in the van.  Sure enough, Holly had gone and picked up the bird.  I could tell that she was excited since there was huge grin on her face as she opened the car door.

Happy Fourth Of July!

As a kid, whenever anybody would ask me what my favorite holiday was, the answer was obviously Christmas.  After all, what kid doesn’t like Christmas?  Free toys, lots of candy stuffed into clothing designed for feet, and did I mention free toys?

Now that I’m a bit older, I still love Christmas (I think it’s the free toys thing), but I’ve developed a deep appreciation for other holidays.  Thanksgiving is awesome but the Fourth of July holds a special place in my heart.  There’s something about seeing an American flag flying as a wing of F-16s fly overhead that makes me extremely grateful to live in this wonderful country.  Add to the the fact that we’ve developed some really fun family traditions, and you have a day that we all look forward to each year.