James' 1st Day of Preschool

James is loving preschool. Here are some pics from his first day:


We rode bikes to school on the first day. He loved it!




James in his element: dirt. Or at least sand, in this instance.



He called this a painting of a waterfall...hmm...




Wow. All our kids are in school. Cool.

We'll miss you, Dottie...

Last Thursday evening, Dottie threw up right around bedtime. She threw up a bunch of grapes. Apparently while she was over at our neighbor's house (where her little brother Pixel lives), she helped herself to some of the grapes growing in the back yard.

We didn't know grapes could be toxic to dogs.

Over the course of the last few days, she stopped eating. She was lethargic and losing weight. She mostly slept. We took her to a vet who gave us some hope. So, we tried feeding her chicken broth with one of those syringe-like medicine droppers, which worked for a while but she wasn't getting enough and then yesterday she just stopped swallowing. We gave her Pepto Bismol (that vet's suggestion) a couple of times, but that just seemed like animal cruelty. She would drink some water, but by Monday her urine would come out pretty clear, a sign of kidney failure.

This morning the vet ran some tests, and sure enough she had super-elevated levels of things a little puppy like her shouldn't have.

We decided to euthanize.

We decided to be present, to be able to give her one last hug before we released her. Rebecca and the two older kids had a tough time. I stayed stoic (I know, typical guy), though I did get sniffly. Angela was very positive, reminding us that Dottie was going to be happy now, no more pain. And James was...well, James.

The vet was awesome (thanks for referring us, Jen). Very personable but very professional. They gave us a nice little cardboard coffin for her.

We took her to Grandma and Grandpa O'Neal's house in Payson. They've got a big backyard. We had a little funeral for Dottie, just our family. The three older kids wrote letters that we buried with her. Here are some excerpts:

From Isaac:

I'm so sorry for letting you get grapes will you forgive me?

From Maile:

I hope to see you in heaven someday Dottie, you deserve the best place a dog could ever have.

From Angela:

I hop that you will hav a grat time up in Hevin. I hope you will make noo frends.

Some of the positives we were able to identify from this experience:

- The kids learned about being responsible (they actually all helped a lot with feeding, cleaning up, etc.)

- ALL our friends who knew about Dottie who have dogs of their own now know about grapes

- The kids get to learn about dealing with loss

- We have great memories of a fun, cute dog that surely brought happiness into our home.

We'll miss you Dottie!

Agwe, god of water (and other sundry parts)

So a few weeks ago, our good friends Charles and Julee Hamilton came by to drop off our new puppy, Dottie. Rebecca had just gotten home from Girls' Camp, preceeded by a full 2 weeks of Kodaly certification.

Ah, I just realized I can blame this whole thing on the Kodaly certification course.

Anyhow, Rebecca got home from girls' camp and was excited about getting our puppy from Charles and Julee, who had called me earlier that day offering to drive down to Provo to drop off the puppy. We invited them to have dinner with us and the Powells, who were also recovering from girls' camp.

After dinner, we were hanging out, and out of the blue Charles says, "Hey, you could play Agwe!"

Me: huh?

Julee obviously knew what he was talking about and got kinda excited about the idea, sending Charles out to the car to get a CD with music.

Okayyyy...

Charles then tells me how the musical he's in has been rehearsing for a month or so and somebody had to drop out due to work schedule changes or something. He and Julee figured I could handle the part easy. "There's just this one solo, and maybe a couple of dance numbers, but you'd be great!"

Hmph.

I agree to go sing for the director and the musical director at the next rehearsal.

Thumbs up.

Cool.

So now I'm Agwe, god of water, in the musical "Once on This Island."

And I'm a rich snob that waltzes (grumble grumble) and then jungle dances.

And I'm a rubbernecker at a car accident scene who happens to help carry the hurt guy to a hut.

And I'm a frog.

And then I'm a rock.

Oh, and I'm part of a tree, too.

Come see the play. Here's the Facebook page for it.

introducing Dottie

So, the car we had when we first got married was an old brown Datsun 210. Rebecca bought it for $300, and it got us through the first bit of our marriage (snow in that car was pretty nuts; I-15 to Jen & Mar's in Canada was crazy I heard). We affectionately named her "Dottie" and we still kick ourselves for not following through with our idea to take her engine out and make a dune buggy or something.

3 weeks or so ago, Rebecca was doing a Kodaly certification class and lo and behold, there was Holly, friend from Ricks! We got in touch with Charles and Julee Hamilton to have a mini-reunion.

The Hamiltons had just had a litter of puppies. Chi-weenies (sp?). Rebecca fell in love with one in particular, a female with a little black spot on her right haunch.

Thus the name Dottie.

Now we have a dog.

Facebook album here.

Here's a cute pic of her with James napping:

Catching up (with some pics)

Sigh...

End of school year gets pretty crazy.

Rebecca is taking a Kodaly certification class right now, so we've only really had barely a week of "summer vacation."

Isaac and Maile are going to Hawaii this Thursday. For a month. Yes, we're not going with them. Just those two. Grampa Chock is footing the bill. Sigh.

Isaac's going for Explorations this summer. Maile's going to keep him company on the plane rides to and from. Thanks to Uncle Mark for being willing to put up with them during the month stay. Grampa stays up late and sleeps in late, so it'll probably be a lot of hanging out with Uncle Mark.

Posted pics of some recent events in the Chock family on Facebook.

Angela's Kindergarten Graduation

Skate/scooter night at Freedom Academy

James' 4th Birthday

April Fool (continued)

Rebecca sent me an email yesterday after I posted the first part of the story, asking to see the PSS on the back. Here it is:





Please notice the handwriting on the actual "April Fool's" note:



That's right. NOT Maile's handwriting.

OK, so back to Maile's solar system paper. Pluto. Yeah.

Here's the first page of what I had Maile take to school to turn in. I started the paper by quoting the dialogue from the movie "Stand By Me," the part where the boys are discussing Pluto and Goofy:



To turn the paper in, Maile had to stand in front of the class and read her report.

PERFECT.

Here's part of the text of what Maile read:

PLUTO DESERVES MORE AIR TIME

As one of Disney’s classic characters, Pluto’s appearances nowadays are mostly made by someone in a Pluto costume at Disneyland. This is unfortunate because one of the primary purposes served by cartoon canines has been the creation of an American culture that is very dog friendly. Examples abound, but all we need to do is look back to the derailed professional football career of one Michael Vick and we can see how the lack of Pluto cartoons very likely created a lack of perspective on the ultimate goodness of dogs in general. If Pluto would be returned to his rightful place, that is, on the screen in front of children paying rapt attention, it is doubtful that such atrocities committed against dogs would ever be perpetrated again.

CONCLUSION

Pluto is truly one of Disney’s best characters. His loyalty, courage, and particularly his HONESTY make him worthy of the title “man’s best friend.”
It goes without saying (so why are we saying it?) then, that notes sent home to a parent on April Fool’s Day signed by a child’s 3rd grade teacher are examples of what this great dog would NOT do, and thusly require a measure of getting back at said teacher. Pluto’s character would never allow him to stoop so low as to cause anger and suspicion “just for the fun of it.”
Bad teacher, baaaaaad teacher…

From what I gather, it had the desired effect of getting giggles out of the classroom.

And yes, Maile turned in a LEGIT Pluto report.

I'm really glad Maile's teacher has a great sense of humor. It may be the only time in my life I enjoyed writing a research paper so much.

April Fool

So, back on April 1st (was I paying attention to what day it was? No. I did however remember to call my mom, it's her birthday...), Maile came home from school and handed me the following note:



First of all, I realize I really SHOULD have been paying closer attention. It was April Fool's Day, after all. But I think I was doing some work stuff, maybe editing video or something when Maile brought me the note.

I was pretty angry at Maile. And impressed that she pulled it off without her typical giggle fit, not even a smile. Maybe I shouldn't be impressed with her acting ability...

Anyhow, the thing that I'd like to point out is this:



Yes. She had HELP. AND encouragement.

So, fast forward a coupla weeks. Maile comes home with news that she has to write a report on a planet in the solar system. She was chosen to do Pluto.

Light bulb.

"Of COURSE I'll help you, Maile. And you're gonna help me, too..."

5 Minutes of Fame(?)

So...

IF you happened to own a Nintendo Wii...

and IF you happened to purchase the recently released Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Grooves video game (comes with 2 dance pads right now)...

and IF you happened to just check out the Credits....

and IF you happened to actually watch ALL the Credits...

and IF you happened to pay special attention to the credits on the song "He Mele No Lilo" ...

you might see the name of the guy who sang that track, and you might say "Hey, I know that guy!"

Un-Birthday

So, apparently there was some kind of clerical error at Rebecca's school and everyone, kids and teachers alike, thinks it's Rebecca's birthday today. Balloons, doughnuts, the whole shebang.

In honor of that, enjoy this song to celebrate with us.

Happy Friday!

Week 5

P90X.

We made it through Phase I.

Now we are in the midst of week 5.

I think it's working.

Just push play.

The Latest Church Calling

Heh heh, I just realized I made a punny...

Ok, so about two Sundays ago I was called and sustained to my new calling (one of the four I now have, ahem): Building Security.

Basically I head over to our chapel at (or anytime after, I'm guessing) 10:30pm to secure the building. Make sure doors are locked, windows locked, etc.

After tonight I think I know why I'm supposed to have this calling: too many scary movies growing up.

Here's the routine:

1) Pull up and park right next to the sidewalk leading to the door-which I always want to do on Sundays, but it's not really a parking space.

2) Walk swiftly to the door, making sure not to look into the dark hallway because maybe, just maybe, I'll see...something.

3) As soon as the door is unlocked, reach as quickly as possible for light switch to illuminate the hall...ahhh, sigh of relief.

4) Open door to cultural hall and prop it open. The light from the hall is less uncomfortable than the eerie green glow from the Exit sign on the far side of the cultural hall. Yeah I know there's also a safety light over there, but hey...

5) Walk over to double doors: check.

6) Check kitchen door, reminding self that the noise coming from the kitchen is probably just an automatic fan kicking on somewhere.

7) Walk back over to the door I left propped open. Crossing the darkened cultural hall with the eerie green light was not possible tonight because the other ward had left things set up for some kind of community yard sale, I think.

8) Head towards the south side of the building. Check doors facing west: check.

9) Turn on south hallway lights.

10) Open nursery door, check windows.

11) Other classroom windows on south side.

12) South doors checked.

13) Turn off south hallway light and (gulp) head towards the chapel.

14) Open doors to chapel. Very dark. Only light I can see (or choose to see) is another eerily green Exit sign. Notice strong smell of...old man smell? What is that smell?

15) Whew, made it through the dark chapel to the north side of the building.

16) Walk quickly to light switch: switch on.

17) Head up stairs towards Primary wing of building. Another hallway light switch turned on.

18) Check all the windows. I make sure to drag my feet all the way so as to make noise that I recognize.

19) I usually decide to start whistling a tune on this side of the chapel.

20) The Primary room is all secure.

21) I pause in the room with the CTR shields up on the wall, reminding myself what the building is for and checking to see if any of my kids' names are on there. Nope.

22) The upstairs bathroom, boys bathroom. Motion sensor light switch. I hate that the one stall door is closed, and try not to think about it because that's not my job to check the stall, right?

23) Turn off upstairs hallway light.

24) Downstairs to the Relief Society part of the building.

25) More windows to check. Try not to see faces in the windows looking in.

26) Relief Society room. Why do I suddenly think of Night of the Living Dead? Pshaw...and then I hurriedly walk AWAY from the curtained door and windows.

27) Downstairs bathroom, ladies room. Another motion sensor light. Only go in far enough to see that window is locked.

28) Off with that hallway light.

29) Around the corner to the outside doors facing north that go right into the parking lot. I don't linger here because the, um, darkness that emanates from the stage.

30) Head back over to the west facing doors on this side of the chapel. Turn off the lights, try to ignore what sounds like a door shutting somewhere else in the building, and curse the hydraulic thingamajiggy that doesn't let the door shut fast enough.

31) Eyes on the door that goes into the chapel right by the sacrament table. Eyes ONLY on the door. Check.

32) Turn and walk around the north side of the chapel, double checking doors along the way. Again, avoiding any possible eye contact with...um...the inside of the chapel.

33) Up the outside stairs to the Primary room. No eye contact.

34) Back around the chapel towards the East side, where I started.

35) Check the kitchen door. Check the double doors to the cultural hall.

36) Head on back to the first door I entered. Key into lock, open door, reach in to turn off the light, bound down the steps to, uh, get back home quickly.

37) Get into car, check back seats. You never know.

38) Drive around south side, stop car. Leave it running. Double check south facing doors and the west facing doors on this side of building. DO NOT LOOK INTO CHAPEL.

39) Speedwalk back to car because it's, um, so cold outside.

40) Drive away back to the safety of my own home.

Giggles at the Temple

Rebecca and I went to the temple today, haven't been for a while (what, like 8 months?)

I definitely walked away smiling, not just because of the good spirit in there, but things that I giggled about...okay, not literally, but at least inside.

1) The name of the person I was doing work for. Nothing beats the "Batman" episode with Rebecca, but for me personally, today's name made me do a double take. If anyone who reads this remembers the Street Fighter franchise of video games, there was a character you could choose who had long arms, long legs, and blew fire. The guy's name I was doing work for was very similar...and he was from India, too.

2) One of Buddy O'Neal's favorite reasons to stay away from the Provo Temple: the temple busybody. I kept thinking that dad would be totally giggling at this old lady as we sat in the chapel waiting our turn, 'cuz she got so flabbergasted at another temple worker who was trying to offer a solution that just didn't work for her. Seriously, it was about where people should be sitting in the chapel. Seriously. I can totally see dad giggling about it.

3) The doily thingy on the altar. I kept smiling because I kept thinking of Mary O'Neal. She'd totally want to straighten the doily thingy. I thought about it enough that I actually tried to straighten it (we were the witness couple), and then I smiled at myself for trying. Kinda funny...

OK, so maybe not so funny. Guess maybe you just had to be there.

Twas a good visit to the temple.

And yes, the Provo Temple celestial room has a new chandelier. I even asked a worker.