A few days ago we, being my friends and I, went on a hike to a nearby cave and filmed our experience. We like to call it our Cloverfield wanna-be movie. So I was documenting a lot of the trip. I now know why the camera in Cloverfield is so shaky. It’s hard to hold a camera still and hike, let alone walk, at the same time. Jordan and Kurtis decided that they were going to spelunking into this thing. I didn’t find the idea very smart, though I did go inside a small crawl-space to get some footage of the inside…
Dallen recently finished the play Tom, Dick and Harry, a British Comedy by Ray and Michael Cooney, at Mt. Ridge Junior High. His character was Constable Downs. Dallen made the cast of nine from about 120 people that attended try-outs. His British accent was very helpful in securing the part.
In a nutshell, the scenario of the play is as follows: Tom and his lovely young wife Linda are expecting. Expecting a baby? Not quite. They are expecting a visit from a social worker, the draconian Mrs Potter to assess their suitability as adoptive parents. Linda has carefully stage managed the home and learnt by heart the health and safety leaflet but Tom’s brothers will cause mayhem and rampage with the help of two stowaway Kosovan asylum seekers, a dismembered corpse and a policeman (source).
Our movie highlights Dallen’s parts in the play. For a Provo Daily Herald review, click here.
Dallen celebrated his 15th Birthday at our house with friends. Everyone ate pizza (no vegetables were consumed), watched Dallen open presents, and played Rock Band, as well as a contraband Halo brought by one of the guests (hmmm…rules were broken that night!). More snacks, treats and soda were consumed throughout the night.
Mom took video throughout the night, but Dallen took all the footage and edited it into a movie that you can view here. Mom’s goal is to get all of her children to eventually make their own movies. Her goal is to have a household of computer geeks!
Whether Global Warming is real or not, this video makes a very good argument. It would hurt more to not act, than it would to act. And by acting, we could make some changes in our world and in the economy that would, in the end, benefit everyone. Who can argue with that?
Below are some simple ways that you can help (source):
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Install a programmable thermostat
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
Use less hot water
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible Continue reading »
It’s amazing to watch early video of your child after fifteen years of life. Although Dallen has grown considerably, he has not changed in disposition or personality. My psychiatrist brother once told me that we would never have major disciplinary problems with Dallen due to his natural disposition as a baby and young child. So far, it has held true.
Dallen’s first babysitter used to constantly tell us that we didn’t know how lucky we were to have Dallen as our first child. He was such a joy, all the time. He was very pleasant, very adaptable, very social. And he was doted upon, by everyone–especially Mom and Dad.
When Dallen was born Brad and I did not have a video camera (I know, “Gasp!”). So my brother, Barry, and his wife, Lisa, gave us a VHS tape and let us borrow their video camera every few months to record Dallen’s growth, until we finally got one of our own in late 1994. Hence, Barry and Lisa are in a lot of the video because we were using their camera.
Dallen and his friends had a great time playing with the new Rock Band game today. It’s a hoot to watch the guys sing, play guitar, play bass, and pound on the drums. The guitars seem to be a bit easier — or there’s enough hours from playing Guitar Hero II to make them experts. Drums are tough from what everyone says. Singing…well, anyone can sing, but hitting the notes is really optional in this setting.
Well, the time has come once again to write up my lengthy report of what I have done this year! Whoopee for you guys! To make this easier for myself I am going to just go month by month and if I forget something, then just let me know in a comment — then everyone can remember it as well.
January, I can’t remember much about January other than just going snowboarding all the time and Mom’s birthday… I would still be a little eighth grader… and I would be halfway through the year so.
February! Yay for February! This is the month of my birth which makes it special. I turned the tender age of 14 which alowed me to go to stake dances! The problem was that our stake likes to do dances every — maybe if we are lucky — three months…so I was in for a while so I went to the Cedar Hills stake dances instead, which are much better than ours. On my real birthday I went up to Brighton with my father to go and shred some sickly, powder.
March…I have no idea what happened in March…
April! Yes, April was the fun month for me! Spring break was coming up and I was going to go to San Fransisco with the family. And, the night before I was going to Wolfmother at the Venue in SLC. So my Spring Break was going to be pretty tight if you ask me. Wolfmother was almost a let-down, but the opening bands were cool…San Fransisco was amayzing!!! I would go back in a heart-beat!
Dallen is becoming quite an accomplished electric guitar player. He has been playing for 1 1/2 years now. He can play along to many songs and is able to pick up the notes, by ear, of many others. To progress he really needs to find kids with other instruments to play along with. That is the biggest challenge.
I just made the play Tom Dick and Harry! Actually I made it on Monday, but that’s aside from the point. I made the part of Constable Downs…so I get to be a copper. I wanted to be the main character Tom, but now that I have seen that he only spends a total of one minute off stage, I decided that I love my character. The play is in Feb., sometime in the middle…but it is funny; really, really funny, and I think anyone who comes will get a kick out of it!
P.S. Saturday night is the night we add in all the random things to make it even more funny…
Brad and I were talking about how funny it is that we don’t mind listening to Dallen and Jed’s electric guitar lessons or their practicing. Right now I’m listening to Dallen and Brick Williams (his teacher) playing Pink Floyd’s “Time” from the Dark Side of the Moon album. One of my all-time favorite songs. I love “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton, and I am just becoming a fan of Muse. Okay, so AC/DC is not a band I would personally listen to, but I can handle their music. I’m familiar with it.
I think that our generation of parents are more tolerant of guitar and drum and other “rock” instrument playing by our children because we know a lot of the music and already like it. We grew up with it. In a similar situation, my Dad would have come into the room with hands over ears, body rocking back and forth and moaning sounds coming from his mouth. Times have certainly changed.
I went to an Arcade Fire concert on Wednesday night and it was awesome! I went with Nate, Christian, Sean, Andrew Stott and Paul Stott and Christian’s parents were just there. I loved the show, they sound much better live than they do on album. The balance on the system was great and you could hear all the instuments, even though they had like ten insruments going at once. The funniest part of the night is when he forgot the lyrics for Neighborhood 3 (power out) and then went back to sing the chourus, it was great. I got a shirt so if you see me with an Arcade Fire shirt you’ll know where I got it. They had an opening band that sounded like great Stake Dance music called LCD Sound System…they were pretty cool in my opinion. I want to thank Nate for getting my ticket when he did because if he didn’t I wouldn’t have gone to this concert. I also have some pictures on my phone if you want to see them…
Well-unless I told you already-I have finally broke the 100 barrier that was so hard to brake in the past, I did it in a tournament which is totally awesome! I shot a 99 at hoble creek, when I origionally thought that i shot a 100 but as i scrutinized my score card i noticed that my partner-who was a sophomore-added the scores up wrong and I actually shot a 99! I had the second best score in my group and was beat by a kid on PG who got third place in a long drive contest in St. George, he pretty much drove a green… I was disappointed though because my score didn’t count for the team and we took last again. The good news is that we are in fourth in Varsity which means that we can go to state! And if they do go to state, we all get to go follow them up to the course and that is going to awesome! I can’t wait for next week’s tourny so I can skip school again!
Dallen qualified for the American Fork High School Golf Team as a Freshman. Man was I a proud Daddy.
Excited for all the experience he’ll get in tournament settings. Glad he will find others to play with that he can learn from and compete against. Golf is a great builder of character. Fun to see him get excited about being part of a team.
Results: 09/05/07 :: Fox Hollow Golf Club = 103 [DQed for scoring error]
09/11/07 :: Hobble Creek Golf Club = 99
Dallen made the American Fork High School Golf Team. He had to attend two try-outs, one week apart at Tri-City Golf Course. The coaches took the average of the two days’ scores and made their decisions. Dallen found out last Wednesday. Today they played at the Ranches Golf Course to determine who will be on the JV and the Varsity teams. We’re assuming that Dallen will be on the JV team since he is only a freshman, still attending Mountain Ridge Junior High. He is one of three freshman who made the team. Now we just have to change around his schedule so that he can practice with the team on B4 days. We are very proud of Dallen and this accomplishment.
Last night we attended a Rush Concert, their Snakes and Arrows Tour. It was held at the Usana Ampitheatre in West Valley. We took Dallen and Jed, and Dallen invited his golfing buddy, Nathan Bray. All of Jed’s friends were at Scout Camp, where we had picked him up earlier, so we invited the ultimate Rush fan along, Shawn Graff. Shawn had already attended the concert in Concord, CA just last weekend. He gave us the lowdown on what to expect.
The crowd was actually quite tame. There definitely wasn’t any slam dancing (although Dallen spied a young man in a kilt doing interpretive dance during the songs). There were youngsters there, mostly children of fans, but the average age was probably above 25. I even saw some grandpas and grandmas shuffling along after the concert. The weather was great, the music was great, and the show was great. I haven’t been to a Rush concert since 1992 when I was pregnant with Dallen. That must be why he is such a huge fan himself.
The funniest thing I noticed was that, along with raising lighters in the air during the encore, people raised their lighted cell phones. My has our society changed. What a bunch of geeks! Also, even though there were signs banning cameras and video cameras, it couldn’t stop everyone from taking pics and videos with their cell phones. I took pics with my iPhone, and Brad took video with our little Panasonic Lumex camera.
I also noticed that I am, once again, definitely getting older. The bass beat was opposite my body rhythm. At times the insides of my body actually hurt from the bass, or the amps, or whatever it was that was coming at me like a freight train. Plus, my earplugs didn’t work so well. The music was still quite loud. I am now in the mom category. I’m actually a mom of a teenage boy. Am I really that old?
Well, the time has come once again to write up my lengthy report of what I have done this year! Whoopee for you guys! To make this easier for myself I am going to just go month by month and if I forget something, then just let me know in a comment — then everyone can remember it as well.
