Happy 35th Birthday—to me!

So, it was my 35th birthday this week, and it was nice and pleasant—I’m pretty casual about celebrations—I mean, just look at my cake:



We had pizza for dinner from Barro’s (not to be confused with S’barro’s—my favorite authentic pizza place in New York City) which was pretty good, but not my favorite. We had cake and Cherry Bordeaux Chocolate ice cream.

Amanda made me some new pajama pants, which I didn’t take a picture of, and she got me the 2-disc set of the “Back to the Future” soundtrack, as well as some new computer speakers (with a subwoofer, for when we listen to “Music and the Spoken Word.”…”And the spoken word by Lloyd NEWELLLLL [RUMBLE-RUMBLE]!!!!”)

Then on Saturday, we went to Amanda’s favorite place: Goodwill (on their 50% off Saturday!) and I got some CDs for $1.50 a piece (4 CD’s of waltzes and polkas by Strauss, as well as a Wagner CD.)

In non-birthday news, Joel started cub scouts, and Amanda’s been working with him to hurry and get him caught up on things. Here he is all dressed up:



In a couple months, the 6th Graders have a chance to go to Nerd Camp…Uh, I mean “Science Camp.” (So, why do schools come up with all these fancy activities for the kids then charge a fortune for the kids to go to them??!?! It’s a racket, I tell ya!) Maddy’s pretty excited.

Maddy’s been learning the clarinet this year, and has also been having to purge out all the “new math” she was forced to learn in Utah so she could use the tried-and-true traditional math here in AZ.

Abe’s been helping Amanda around the house while the kids are at school. He even gives Elliott his pacifier when he’s upset, though he keeps his distance:



Elliott has discovered the stairs, and can climb them really quickly…needless to say, we have them blocked off with a large tote most of the time. He also enjoys taking rides with Joel:



The kids are in the process of figuring out what to be for Halloween. We know Elliott will be Dumbo, since we’ve already had the costume for a few years. Abe’s thinking of being Iron Man, so he might be getting a costume for his birthday. Joel can’t decide between Spider-man, Luigi for Mario Brothers, and Captain EO.

This year is a little annoying, because Halloween is on a Sunday. Plus, the elementary school thinks the 6th graders are too old to dress up, so Maddy can’t wear a costume to school. Hopefully the ward has some sort of Halloween party/trunk-or-treat. At one point, we were considering doing the Trick-or-Treat Party at Disneyland in place of normal Halloween festivities, but at $54 bucks per person for 5 of us, it just isn’t in the budget this time around. I hate Halloween anyway, so if it were up to me, I’d just buy the kids each a bag of candy and let them chow down.

A week or so ago, Amanda took the 3 older kids to the Tempe Historical Museum, while I stayed home with Elliott and watched “Shutter Island" (which had some fun melodramatic elements in the filmmaking, but was ultimately pretty uninteresting). They thought the museum would be pretty lame, but they actually had a lot of fun. They got to harvest fruits and vegetables and put them on a truck (child labor is awesome!), they got to play in a football stadium, got to see themselves on a TV camera, and got to put their faces on a mosaic. They also got to email themselves e-postcards:





So that’s about it for now. We feel like we have to trudge through September, which will hopefully go as quickly as August did, then once we hit October, the rest of the year will be a breeze:

October will be filled with General Conference, Science Camp, Amanda and Abe’s birthdays, Amanda’s mom visiting (probably), Fall break, our Disneyland trip, and Halloween.

November will bring Joel’s Birthday and Thanksgiving and "Harry Potter 7 part 1."

December is all about Christmas (including paid time off from Christmas to New Years!) and “Tron: Legacy” and “Tangled”.

Let’s end with a picture of one of our healthier desserts: Fruit Pizza!

Aug-Blog: We love Arizona!!

Before we get into the main topic of today’s blog, let’s show you the Muppets that Amanda and the kids created (remember like a year ago when they started making them?):







Amanda and kids also decided that instead of going out to a Chinese Buffet, we’d just make our own, so last Monday, they created the “Peterson House of Noodles,” complete with authentic décor:




And several dishes to choose from:

Elliott has learned to crawl and pull himself up onto furniture, which has given us mixed emotions.



The boys “spider-webbed” their room, which is actually something Kevin and I did when we were around that age. But we kept ours out of the walking path—saying goodnight to the kids is just plain dangerous.



Speaking of danger, one drawback of having such high ceilings is that things like A/C vents and smoke alarms are up REALLY high. This week we had to replace our A/C filter and the battery in the front room smoke detector. As you know from the pictures in the last post, those items are both up about 12 feet or so off the ground. Our 30-inch step ladder just wouldn’t cut it, so for the filter, we put the step ladder on top of our kitchen benches. The smoke alarm was even higher, though, so we had to put the stepladder on top of the kitchen table, with Amanda there to hold me steady [Yes, I am currently without health insurance]. Then to top it off, the old 9-volt battery BROKE OFF, leaving one of the battery contacts attached to the alarm piece. So I spent several stressful minutes trying to pry off the piece of battery from the smoke alarm while on the top step of the stepstool, which was on top of the rickety kitchen table. Yes, we’re currently in the market for a cheap 10-foot ladder.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the things we love about living here in Arizona:

--Arizona sunsets really are the best sunsets in the world.
--We’re 2 miles from a 12-screen movie theatre (including IMAX), which is in the same shopping area as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, and tons of other shops and restaurants.
--I’ve got a steady job with a steady paycheck.
--It’s hot right now, but our fall/winter/spring are gonna be FAB-U-LOUS!
--We finally have a house that has enough room for us.
--We live near one airport and I work near another airport, so we always get to see planes flying by (Maybe I could FLY to work!).
--We’re only 6 hours from Disneyland!
--School starts early this year (August 11th)
--The library!
--Goodwill—especially every other Saturday, when everything is half price!
--That the boys get the master bedroom (Abe put that part in!)
--Our ward is awesome—everyone’s so friendly and we really feel part of the ward family.
--The elementary school is just down the street.
--The Mexican restaurants are just BETTER.
--Arizona thunderstorms!
--The stairs!! (Abe put that in, too!)
--You can get tortillas at the store that are wrapped in shrinkwrap and were probably patted out on a senorita’s thigh—just guessing on that last part, though.
--There are so many museums, zoos, water parks, malls, etc. that it’ll take YEARS to see them all!
--Tucson is just a hop, skip and a jump away—we just need a van to transport all 6 of us!