MAY as Well Blog

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I keep putting off writing a blog, partially because I’ve been busy, and partially because I’ve been waiting until I have something fun or interesting to write about. I keep hoping some exciting event will happen in our life that will be worthy of putting into writing. Unfortunately, when your life consists of failed attempts to find work, your condo going into foreclosure, and your wife not getting accepted to her Master’s Program, it’s hard to feel like writing about what’s going on in your life.

But let’s press forward and focus on the positive side of things.


Let’s start off with Joel, since, as the middle child, he rarely gets to be first for anything. He’s still the video-game-obsessed, tender-hearted, insane child.



A couple weeks ago, his music class did a talent show during the school day. For his talent, he and his best friend Kenneth asked me to record them singing an original song of theirs into the microphone, then I burned a CD of it for them to play at school. The song, called “Secret Agent Barney,” went something like this:

He’s Secret Agent Barney
And he’s in
Disguise.
He’s on a special assignment
To poke out some kids’ eyes!

He’s jumping through the lasers
To get the golden eye!

When he’s heading to the door
He’ll set off the alarm
And the guards will bash right in
And Barney will hit them
with his bellyyyyy!

I think they ended up changing some of the lyrics, since they couldn’t come up with a tune for the last part of it.

Abe is really doing well learning his letters and numbers, and has recently learned how to use the TV remote, which has given him a new sense of freedom. He’s also REALLY excited for the new “Iron Man” movie. Here he is in his makeshift Iron Man Suit (made with Amanda’s help):



And in the Iron Man shirt we bought him in preparation for the movie:



But that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about Spider-Man—here’s Abe’s Play-doh version of the web-slinger:



Maddy has been busy with the school’s choir program, which was last week. They sang a wide variety of Disney songs, including stuff from “Newsies,” “Mary Poppins,” and “The Little Mermaid.” Seems like she had a lot of fun doing that, and it was good for her to do something else besides sitting in her room watching TV all afternoon. OK, to be fair, she isn’t always watching TV—sometimes, she’s creating new alphabets, writing stories, drawing pictures, or inventing new planets.



Elliott is still a baby:



He smiles and laughs all the time:



Here he is dressed for his baby blessing:




He’s started grabbing stuff all the time:



However, he does NOT like to lay down most of the time (even his bouncy chair is too horizontal for him). Hopefully he’ll learn to sit up on his own soon, so we don’t have to always hold him when he wants to sit. Sometimes he even falls asleep sitting up:



As you all know, I spent some of my free time (of which I have a lot lately) entering another animation contest—this time, for Sesame Street. Even though I don’t have much luck with the Aniboom contests, I am really proud of this one—I think the artwork and animation turned out great; I think the idea is clever and ideal for recurring episode segments, and it even has good potential for online kids games, toys, etc.

Here it is, in case you want to watch it again:



Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

I also applied for a job at the Church Office Building a couple weeks ago. The job is for an E-learning Course Developer, creating online courses for various church departments (Custodial, Family History, Human Resources, etc.). Going for the interview was quite an adventure.

First of all, they said I’m supposed to wear a suit and tie. The last time I had a suit was after my mission, and I outgrew those suits long ago. So we had to drop the kids off at grandma’s a couple days before the interview and head down to JC Penney to buy me a suit. We found an inexpensive suit coat and pants that mostly matched each other, and a dress shirt that mostly fits (I can either have a shirt with the proper neck size or proper chest fit, but not both).

Monday morning, I headed up to Salt Lake. I was used to driving to that area from my time working at McCann, but I’d never driven myself to the Conference Center parking lot (where they asked me to park). I did know that I was supposed to just drive north on West Temple and the parking garage entrance was in the middle of the road. However, I mistook the brand new City Center parking lot for the Conference Center lot and had to make a U-turn out of there, then another U-turn to continue north to the CORRECT parking lot.

Once I got to the parking area, I was supposed to give my name to the ticket booth operator an he’d give me a parking token. Well, there was no one there, so I just parked—I later found out that on some days, it’s just open parking and no token is needed.

I got to the Church Office Building and gave my info to the ladies at the reception desk—they asked for my driver’s license and all sorts of things, making it all very official, and gave me a lanyard with my picture and info on a little card. I had to show it to the security guard, who let me through the turnstile to the elevators. I took the elevator up to the 21st floor (of 27)—there were some serious G-forces going in that elevator.

The interview seemed to go pretty well, but after 2 weeks, I still haven’t heard back regarding the position. I tried emailing and calling last week, but have gotten no response. It seems to be my lot in life at the moment, that I apply for jobs and either hear NOTHING, or I find out that I ALMOST got the job, but they decided to pick someone else. But I still keep sending out resumes, hoping that eventually I’ll be the right pick for SOMETHING.

Amanda un-quit her job at the Disney Store, so she’s now working part-time there and part-time at a local Senior Care facility. The job at the old folks home requires her to do graveyard shifts—usually 6pm-6am or 10pm to 6am, so she doesn’t get much sleep those days. I let her sleep in as much as much as I can the next day, and MOST of the nights, Elliott has been pretty good about sleeping and taking a bottle in the night.

Oh, and Amanda cooks chicken that looks like a T-Rex:



Of course we cancelled the Disneyland Trip—actually, we re-booked it for the middle of October, in the hope that we’ll be in a better financial position for the trip then. It actually works out better that way, since Elliott will be older, the weather will be nicer, and we’ll be able to see the Halloween decorations at the parks (and take the kids to the special Trick-or-Treat Party at Disney’s California Adventure).

Well, that’s all the positive news I can think of at the moment—but here’s hoping I have some even better news to write about soon!

Time MARCHES on

Let's start off with Abe in his home-made airplane:



And Elliott dressed for his first day of church:



Now some of Elliott’s smiles (These are all ACTUAL smiles, not gas-induced smiles):






Abe’s grill, on the other hand, I’m not so sure about:



Speaking of Abe’s Grill, that’d be a good name for a restaurant. And speaking of restaurants, whenever I go up to Salt Lake City to do freelance work at McCann, I am obsessed with the smells of all the different eateries in the neighborhood. One of the days I was up there, I walked around the block and saw nearly a dozen restaurants that all looked interesting--everything from fresh-made burgers and sandwiches to exotic places like “Himalayan Kitchen” and “Star of India.” If I go up there more frequently, I’ll have to try them all out. The one time I did eat there, I went the safe road and got a burger and fries at a little shop that advertised “world-famous burgers” or “best burgers in town” or something. The burgers were good, the fries were GREAT, but not as good as the Carl’s Jr. Grilled Cheese bacon Burger, which is FREAKIN’ AWESOME.

Moving on…

All our babies liked to spit up a lot, but Elliott’s spit up bugs me most of all. All night long, I hear him spitting up (or grunting), and I swear he likes to spit up on me AS SOON AS I get dressed for the day. We have plenty of spit rags handy, though it always seems like they’re at the other side of whatever room we’re in.



Elliott is also the only child of ours who doesn’t like the NUK-brand pacifiers. He will only use the soft green “Soothie” pacifier we got at the hospital. Even the other Soothies we bought at the store don’t work for him (they’re too firm, apparently). More proof that he’s the child that’s going to be the death of us.

OK, so the other day I saw an article about some Christian preacher in Oregon that was ranting about how “Avatar” was the most satanic film ever, and that it promoted paganism and the worship of created things (like plants and animals) rather than a worship of the creator himself. Now, clearly, he’s a zealot, and hopefully most sensible people know better than to think this. The same thing goes for people who say Harry Potter endorses Witchcraft.

The real problem here is that these people that supposedly are so righteous and spiritual feel like everything has to be seen literally. Do these same people read the Parables of the New Testament and think they’re stories of sheep, coins, seeds, and fig trees?

If I was going to make a rant about “Avatar,” it would be to point out that people have spent over a billion dollars making and viewing a movie rather than using that money to do some good in the world—cleaning up neighborhoods, funding education, or helping Toyota make cars that aren’t possessed by demons.

OK, enough of my rant. Let’s end with a picture of Maddy as some sort of forest elf/fairy/magical princess:

February Petersons Update

Alright, so apparently I haven’t updated the blog in a month. So, here’s what’s been happening since then:

As expected, Elliott had Jaundice, and spent a few days in the Bili Lights box:




But now he’s a lot better. He’s been growing like crazy, and after a month, he’s grown to over 12 pounds. Here’s Elliott looking either really full or really tired:



The kids love their new brother:




They even like going shopping with him:



Elliott hasn’t been a TERRIBLE sleeper, but he’s been an annoying one. He spends the night grunting and spitting up. We have to keep moving him out of the wet spots, so he’s not sleeping in baby barf. Fun…
Truthfully, he’s pretty boring. That’s why Abe has to entertain himself by creating his own version of “Singin’ in the Rain”:



Or maybe dig a rotten orange and old juice can out of the trash to play “singin’ in the microphone”:



OTHER NEWS
Maddy was in the Spelling Bee again this year. She lasted a lot longer than last year, but misspelled “accomplice” (she ended it –iss).
Joel’s just been Joel: playing video games, making up songs, being his crazy-but-loveable self. He’re a picture of him playing in the snow:




The other day, I was working on the computer, and Joel came in and told me that Abe had cut his pajama shirt with scissors. I asked Abe about it, and he showed me the shirt, which he’s cut several huge, long chunks out of. Apparently, he wanted to make it look “battle-damaged,” as if he’d been fighting villains while pretending to be Spider-man. Amanda (who was at work at the time) later told me that this was the SECOND shirt he’d cut in the past week. Scissor privileges REVOKED.
Amanda’s back at the Disney Store a few hours a week, and she’s been working hard studying for her anatomy class. She’s doing great in it, but will be glad when it’s over.
I’m almost done with the bikes animation project—I’m done with all the animation, and am now coloring it and drawing/coloring the backgrounds. Should be finished in a couple weeks. My other job in Salt Lake City hasn’t had the steady work for me I’d been expecting, but they’ve said there’s more work coming, they’re just not sure when…
We finally booked our Disneyland trip (the prize-winnings from the HoJo contest last year, REMEMBER?!?!?) with the hope that we’ll be able to make the trip when the time comes! We’re heading out there May 15-19th. The hope is that we’ll be there AFTER the Spring Break crowds, but BEFORE the Summer crowds. The trip is still a few months away (not the countdown clock at the top of my blog), but as usual, we made a countdown chain for the house:



In case it’s not clear in the picture, the chain extends down the length of the hall, around the corner above my bedroom door, and hangs down on the left, by the family pictures. When this picture was taken, we were at 109 days, but now we’re in the 90’s!
Well, that’s a month’s worth of family info for you all to digest—see ya in March!