"What Are You Having?"

I seem to be asked that more these days than the usual "How are you?"
Ben never misses an opportunity to jump on his stock answer, "A baby."
Maybe a kitten, a little puppy perhaps, but we're thinking baby.
I don't have any inclinations, one way or the other. We don't care either. Well, I do care that it's a baby.

People I barely even know seem to know what I'm having, I wish I was as "in tune" as they were:

"It's a boy, I'm sure of it."
"You'll have another girl. Just trust me, you will."

. . .and your name was???
We get our first real look at this little tot tomorrow.
If it's a boy, we will be thrilled. Something new. . .and less emotional, so I hear.
If it's a girl, we will be thrilled. I get to pull out all of my favorite baby things I'm all nostalgic about and Rocco-Dog won't have to feel threatened.

A Life in Hiding

Poor Aves.
Santa got Téa a Nintendo DS for Christmas. The novelty has not worn off yet and so Avery is not allowed to touch that thing. So when Téa goes to school, Avery jumps at the chance.
I found Avery on the couch, hiding under blankets, playing the game the other day. Eventhough Tay was at school, Avery was scared she might walk in any minute.
She always says, "Téa will totally freak-out on me. And scream."
Avery has already told me that she is asking Santa for one next year. Wise choice.

Yearly Trevi Date

Some people get excited about The Sundance Film Festival because the films are great and the people-watching is even better. But for me, it is neither. It's Trevi. For the past few years I have been able to see one of my favorite people every January. We were friends in high school in California. Her husband, Steve, is a producer and they come up to Park City for the festival. It is always fun to catch-up and sheepishly turn-down her yearly pleads for me to move back "home." She even offered me 1/2 of her husband's birthday cake. . . all in one slice. What a hostess. . .

We went out to dinner with her husband and friends, Natiya and Kevin. Kevin seems to know a thing or two about these so-called "blogs" and wasn't sure how he wanted to be represented on mine. So, we shot a few different options and will let you choose your favorite "Kevin."

Oh How I Love Traffic School

Getting up at the crack on a Saturday morning sucks. Sitting for 4 hours in a flourescent-lit classroom sucks. Listening to Stopping Distances at Different Speeds for hours sucks.
But the People Watching is absolutely phenomenal.
Where else do you get a 70-year-old drunk, a 21-year-old lesbian whom the instructor refers to as "sir" more than once, a 30-year-old pregnant woman, four 25-year-old chain smokers, 2 sister missionaries, a 40-year-old Japanese woman who speaks zero English and frantically copies "the notes" from my manual, a man with a belly so round that every time he stretches the folding table almost tips, a middle-aged man who won't stop loudly clipping his finger nails with pieces hitting the guy in front of him (true) forcing "the victim" to angrily (understandably) get up and slam his book down in a new seat . . .incidently next to the guy in the bright blue parka with his feather-trimmed hood up - of which, as hard as I tried, I never did get a glimpse of his face -, a little guy who kept has hood over his eyes and slept until the instructor asked people to hit his desk until he woke up (it took 3 or 4 pounds), a man - my personal favorite - who claimed he wasn't speeding and wrongfully ticketed - the whole room erupted into laughter - (I thought that defense was reserved for robbery, arson, and murder. please), a girl who had her dad drop her off (apparently she drives, right?), a girl who takes every phone call she receives. . .she is such a VIP, and an instructor who is retired, wearing shorts, socks and sandals, and thinks he is way wittier than he is. . .ALL IN THE SAME ROOM, for four hours! I mean really, it's priceless. Oh, and so is the reminder to slow down and wear a seatbelt.
I can't wait for next year.
I also love how when I google photos of getting pulled over the first thing up is Britney Spears. Perfect.

A fellow artist, Dallas Graham, does mini-bios about his subjects.
Today it is Ben.

Well, Now You Know. . .

Téa said the funniest thing right before Christmas.
It was a blizzard on Christmas Eve and Ben and Téa were out somewhere. He said,
"Wow. It's pretty dark out here with all of this snow. I wonder how Santa is going to get around. How do you think he is going to find our house?"
Obviously leading her to Rudolph.
And she said,
"Dad, that whole Rudolph thing is just an HERBAL MYTH. Santa can find his way on his own."
We had no idea she was so "Herbal Myth" savvy.

New Years

The Hillmans out-did themselves once again and threw a great party. We spent the evening with them and the Hackworths and ended up spending the night. I started to lose all personality around 11pm. The lights were on, but I'm telling you right now, nobody was home. I was a light-weight and the kids (and the Hillmans, Hackworths, and Ben - well- everyone but me) were going strong. The kids finally went down at 2am, which means we went to bed at 2am also.
We had like a 14-course breakfast prepared by Beth and Gheen followed by a "family-knockout" when we got home at 1pm the next day. So so great. Thank you to the HIllmans!





Above you can see Téa getting her first roadside "talking to" after having a major meltdown on the way home. She had every reason to blame this one on exhaustion.