Fantasy Football and Fox

It is now a little after midnight and I have just checked my fantasy football team. My good cousin Tod invited me to join a league and so for the first time I have entered into the fray. I spent about 10 minutes this morning pouring over scouting reports, fasting, seeking inspiration and rubbing my lucky rabbits foot. All this to find out that we aren't keeping track of scores until week 2. It might end up being good because I only have a 14 point lead over my match up and all of my guys have played and he still has one on MNF. If this doesn't make sense to you don't worry it didn't to me either about 24 hours ago. For those of you anxiously awaiting the final tally I will let you know how the game tomorrow night turns out.

The second part of what is on my mind is as I do most nights now about this time I flip through several family blogs and try to read what people are up to and it has been awesome to get to know some of our family better. However tonight I read a rather disturbing yet hilarious post from Ryan Miller regarding a soap opera Passions and his heartache over its recent cancellation. If you haven't read it I would encourage you to click on my favorites to the right and enjoy. As I read his post I started to reflect on my life and the guilty pleasures I have indulged in and a few came to mind.

For several summers I would work on the Ferry Farm in Corinne Utah, generally with my cousins Johnny and Joel. Things could get a little slow during the summer especially on TV and at the ranch you only had local channels. Now some of you might be saying wait we have so many reality TV shows to choose from, but alas back in the ninety's these edgy, purely genius gems hadn't come along. Instead we had the latest creation from Aaron Spelling comprising a perfected formula of beautiful women, california, and a bunch of gorgeous hunks some of whom were bad boys, good guys and misfits. You through them in a common living/working environment, watch them grow together/apart/together/apart etc. and you have cinema gold! You have to love Fox for the shows they produced were admitidly a little edgy and slightly risque (I would put them in the same league as Passions.) These shows were generally so well written they were able to cover the whole plot for the season in one summer so there wasn't a need to bring them back for more, but a similar show would always surface. I am curious if these titles bring back any memories for anyone else: Summer 1994 "Models Inc." (the title says it all!) This show was so well written it had 29 episodes and lasted until March 1995 when they finally exhausted all the possible angles and drama surrounding a modeling agency as a spinoff from 90210. Summer 1996 "Malibu Shores" Summer 1997 "Pacific Palisades" Sadly this well written theatrical masterpiece only lasted for 13 episodes but they were each very action packed and dynamic. Of course during this time you also had melrose place and Beverly Hills 90210 (another fun fact I graduated with Kelly, Brandon, Dylan and the gang in 1993). I must say Aaron Spelling had a simple formula and he kept using it time and again. Anyone else out there want to come clean? Ryan I feel your pain, I had filled the hole in my life with the TV show Las Vegas but sadly it has been canceled. I now hope another brilliant script will be picked up this fall. Maybe Night Rider or Lipstick Jungle (J/K the previews on that one make me blush)!

Vader has left the Building

12 Bags filled with party favors ..... $25

4 Pizzas from Little Caesars .........$20

1 Pinata stuffed with candy ..........$18

12 five year old boys for an hour and a half ....... Priceless? Hell No!
(Apologies to Mastercard)

As you may have guessed David had his birthday party today.  Wow! Last year I was unable to be at his friend party and I think I may be occupied next year.  Talk about total chaos.  The other thing I learned is next time (if I have a serious case of amnesia) I am going to get the pizza.  The party started at 1 pm and at 12:59 Brandi decided she needed to get the pizza (veteran move I must say).  I finished feeding Jack and laid him down and the doorbell rang for the first of 11 times.  To set the stage for you it was a scene like in Chevy Chase, Christmas Vacation when the in-laws come to the house and they ring the doorbell and it rings in slow motion through the house and each family member has the look of total fear and anxiousness.  As I open the door I can faintly hear a mother roar down the driveway in her SUV with a chant of freedom that would rival Mel Gibson in Braveheart.(Yes I like movies, I wish I could make comparisons to Shakespeare or classic novels but I is what I is)

It is now 1:10 and there are now 12 five and six year olds in my house running from the main level up to the playroom and David's room.  It is a constant tornado roaming the house.  In fact for the first time Katherine isn't sure what to do and looks a little scared.  You know it is serious if Katherine is nervous to mix it up.  I now have several sets of skid marks from SUV's leaving my driveway.  Unfortunately for one mother, who is a friend of Brandi's whom we will be eternally grateful to, Brandi staged a sit-in in front of her car until she promised to stay and help referee the savages. Brandi had envisioned that she and I could handle the festivities, she must be taking something strong after giving childbirth to be that delusional. After getting over the deer in headlights I was able to convince her to also call her sister and beg and plead for help. To sweeten the pot I offered up Brandi to help with Maddy's (our niece) next party. I know I am generous but remember she left me to get pizza.

1:15 Brandi finally shows up with pizza, personally I think she did a little joy riding but she denies it.  We get everyone together and inhale 3 of the 4 pizzas.  Now it is game time.  We have a couple of games that don't take nearly long enough.  We are anxiously watching the clock and things are going way to fast. 1:40 we now have cake and ice cream. Brandi's
sister makes a homemade cake and it is quickly devoured. It is now 1:50 and we are opening presents.  It is hilarious to watch as each present is opened a scrum closes tighter and tighter around David.  He now has about 20 hands grabbing and ripping paper and ribbons.  You can faintly hear Brandi tell David to thank so and so and then a mumbled thanks and your welcome.

It is now 2:05 and a few of the boys have left for soccer games and other commitments.  We then head out to the driveway for a pirate pinata.  After witnessing the scrum around the presents and games I decided for liability purposes to create a perimeter that everyone has to stay behind.  I then walked up and down the line swinging the bat muttering threats if anyone crossed the line they would regret it.  Each boy took their turn with the bat and the pirate quickly surrendered its head and candy was everywhere.  With bags overflowing with candy we send everyone on their way and begin the cleanup. All in all we survived. Brandi's sister points out, as she is laughing, in future years we will have three successive weekends with parties for each child. I am one step ahead of her. I think we will have a one big party and a lottery to decide who gets to invite friends. I am not sure if it will fly but we will see.

Happy Birthday Katherine!

On Tuesday our little Katherine turned 3 years old. She informed David that she is now older than he is. A great argument ensued and David finally told her when he had his birthday on Saturday he would be older than her. She of course had to have a princess party. We had both our families over for what was originally supposed to be cake and ice cream. Brandi then decided if people were coming over for cake we could order some pizza as well. I didn't really feel like pizza and so as usual things evolved from cake and ice cream to pizza to BBQ. (For those of you who have kids this is beginning to sound like the two kids books , "If you give a pig a pancake" and "if you give a mouse a cookie" for those of you not familiar with these literature classics this joke is lost on you) I told Brandi I would handle everything and she could just rest. Keep in mind it was her idea to have everyone over in the first place. Things of course got a little crazy with 14 adults and 9 children under the age of 8, but hey i grew up with crazy. Of course for our BBQ we couldn't just have one meat because some people don't like fish or beef or whatever. That combined with the fact that my brother Justin and I went to Costco and we were a little bit hungry. We came home with salmon, tri-tip and Brats, salad, cucumbers, corn (from a stand), artichoke dip and I think that is it. I did my best to keep Brandi out of the kitchen but she kept getting asked questions and ended up doing more than she should have, but it was a lot of fun and Katherine was thrilled.

Sorry back to the Birthday. Growing up in my family birthdays tended to be shall we say on the mild to non-existent side. In Brandi's family it is the Prom, New Years Day Parade, Cinco de Mayo all rolled into one! First we have Balloons, princess cups, plates, napkins, table cloth streamers, and a pinata among several other things. This is for our 3 year old it gets crazier when you have friend parties like David will have this Saturday which we sent out Star Wars invitations to. Don't worry those of you asking will he blog on the David Birthday, I will unless I am precluded by an exclusive arrangement with one of Brandi's smut magazines US and In Touch who are vying for the rights.

Sorry I keep getting off point. The festivities started with the aforementioned BBQ. Then we went outside and the kids took turns at whacking a princess crown Pinata. Following the pinata we had everyone inside for cake and ice cream a presents. Pictures are below! For those of you who haven't seen the slide show thing below before (myself included until about 20 minutes ago) if you want to see the pictures with out the border and hearts click on the link underneath that says "View All Images" and you can see them more clearly.

First Day of Pre-skool

Katherine had her first day of Pre-school today which also happened to be her Birthday. She was pretty excited and Brandi was excited because she could pick out her outfit and make sure it was up to the occasion.


Katherine is no longer our baby as you can well see in the two pictures below. These are the two outfits she had on before her mother got a hold of her and made sure hers was cute enough. She likes to pick her clothes and generally does a decent job matching. Her one weakness is Pink on Pink.