December in Pictures

For the three of you that still read this blog occasionally, here are our highlights from December. 

Our washer broke down the first week of December. When we bought a new one they told us that they could not deliver until the end of the month. So Chuck and I strapped it down to our motorcycle trailer and Chuck spent the afternoon installing it himself. 

The first Saturday in December was my second time volunteering at Ignite, Encircle's yearly LGBTQ youth summit.  

Jared played in his band's Christmas concert.

I spent a Saturday with HEROIC volunteering at a Christmas party for endangered kids. This was my first trial run for Hippolyta. 

Jared turned 16!  We celebrated by having bacon pizza and then hanging around the house (that's what Jared said he wanted to do). Jared also went on several drives for Driver's Ed this month. 

We were super excited to have Kate and Ben with us over Christmas. We did so many fun things!  Here we are painting this year's Christmas ornaments. 

For this year's family ornament, I 3D printed a pokemon for each person and then we painted them. 

Some of the fun things we did is walked around Ikea, played some games, played the bells together, and we put together this gingerbread train. 

Our dramatic production this Christmas Eve was a reader's theater of The Christmas Carol. 

Every holiday includes making and eating good food. I'm not generally a traditionalist when it comes to holiday food choices but Kate wanted to bake a pie together and so we tried our hand at a new apple pie recipe.  It was the best apple pie I've ever eaten. (I'll link the recipe at the bottom of this post*). 

I didn't take any photos of Christmas day.  After opening presents, we played some games and went out Pokemon Go raiding.   The day after Christmas Kate and Ben went to spend some time with Ben's family and Ruth, Jared and I went to my family's Christmas party at my SIL's new house. 

It was so nice to visit with everyone. I got to hang out with some of my nieces and nephews that I rarely see and I got to meet two of their new babies - which was a treat. 

And a final note:  Quaid bought Ruth a video game called Red Dead Redemption 2. It's this amazing, totally immersive cowboy game.  It only took one playing session to have both Ruth and I hooked, so we've been spending every spare moment playing the game for the past 3 weeks.  We both finally finished today, new years Adam. 

*www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12682/apple-pie-by-grandma-ople/    We used Fuji apples - which were perfect. 

Note:  You may have noticed that I've been posting less often.  It's true.  After ten years of writing this blog really faithfully, my family has just shrunk to the size where I don't have as much to say.  So a bi-weekly format seems more fitting. 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We spent Thanksgiving day at my mother's house.  I had one sister and one brother there and their grown-up children and spouses, and Quaid came along with us again this year.   The food was good and the visit was nice.

That evening Kate and Ben came over and they spent the next day with us.  We went shopping and on Pokemon raids.   We cut snowflakes and chocolate dipped pretzels. It's such a fun stage for our family to have adult kids and no little ones; we are pretty free to come and go as we please.

November is here, the leaves are off the trees and the weather is getting cold.  The worst part, I think, is that it's dark so early and 5pm feels like 9pm.  Something in my primal DNA makes me want to build a pillow cacoon and sleep until spring. 

Jared and Ruth have both finished their first quarters at school. Both are doing well. Jared started driver's ed and finished his first range.  He is not super excited to drive but will drive if we ask him. Ruth went on a corporate tour she was excited about. It's fun to see her channel her passions into new things.

I've done two charity events with HEROIC, at one we were specifically asked to be Harry Potter characters,  the other was a Toys-for-Tots drive.  I've also finished most of my adjustments to Hypollita and Chuck put together some new shelves for my workshop.  Things are cleaned out there and ready for the next big project.

Riding the Hogwarts Express

It was raining and like 40 degrees so Hawkgirl's wings stayed in the car for our Toys-for-Tots drive.

New Shelves.  Always struggling to find enough room.

We had a pretty quiet Halloween.  A few days before, Chuck and I went to a trunk-or-treat & chili dinner.  We dressed like swashbucklers and while our car wasn't very decorated it did play "Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me," which people liked.

On actual Halloween, we didn't do much.  Chuck dressed as a pirate at work and Ruth had to work too.  I've been rushing for the last month to get my latest cosplay project finished by Halloween and I was able to finish by about 4pm Halloween day, but was so tired of looking at it by that point that I opted not to dress up at all.  Jared did homework and Chuck and I handed out candy and it was all good and fine.

A few days later I did put all of Hippotyla on, Wonder Woman's mother from the movie, and took some pictures.  There were some problems, as there always is with a first wearing, so I'll have a few more days of work on it.   But here are some preliminary photos:

Because Ruth's boyfriend has been pretty successful in his work for a political organization, Ruth has had the opportunity to attend several fancy functions, hobnobbing with various political and rich people.  This weekend she got to attend the Equality Utah Dinner, which was quite a fancy affair. She says she'll be glad next week when the election is over so she can get "her boyfriend back," as he has been working extra long hours.

Speaking of the election, we sat down and had an election night where we looked up info on all the candidates and filled out our ballots together.  Then we drove to drop off our ballots and play some Pokemon Go!  

Jared's first high school band concert was this week.  We had to buy a tuxedo for him and he looked really nice in it. 

This week was Jared and my fall break. We spent Friday up at my mom's farm to help paint her wrap-around deck. 

On Saturday an orienteering club set up a course in a canyon not far from our house so Chuck and I decided to check it out.  For $10 you got a map, a hint sheet, and a punch card.  We, along with about 15 other groups, tackled the beginner's course.  While we learned that our "good" compass is not that good we were able to finish the course in the required time.  We were maybe the last team to finish, but we finished.

On Saturday afternoon we went to a pumpkin regatta.  This is where people in Halloween costumes race across a lake in hollowed out jumbo pumpkins.  It was a pretty fun event and the weather was really nice for it.

Happy Birthday, Ruth

We didn't get to see much of Ruth on her actual birthday. She spent the day going to classes and the evening with her boyfriend.  But a few days later we were able to have a family party. She requested chicken broccoli casserole for her birthday dinner and then we played xBox together.


MRI

I met with my spine surgeon this week who reviewed my MRI with me.  I do have a herniated disc. No surprise there.   Since I don't want to go on opiates (they make me sick) and I don't want to get another steroid shot (also makes me sick), I took the option of suffering.  I will suffer and hope it gets better.  If I suffer long enough or if it gets worse then I'll have to get the disc replaced.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Ruth spent part of the week in Dallas with her Business Scholars group. They took tours of a few companies including Pizza Hut headquarters.  Ruth had some exciting and educational experiences and made a lot of new friends. 

Since the weather has been so nice and things are slow mid-month, Chuck took a day off work this

week to take a 150-mile motorcycle trip down south to see the new fall colors and enjoy the open road.  I haven't been able to ride with him because of my bad back.  I got my MRI done this week and am waiting for the results.  

This weekend we celebrated the end of summer by spending a day at our local fun center.  Jared liked the go-carts and Ruth liked the 3d ride. We pooled our tickets from the arcade and got a Magic 8 Ball.  

My cosplay adventures didn't end with FanX last weekend. I had two HEROIC events this week, one for a PTA fundraiser and then on Saturday we marched in the Brazilian Festival Parade (pictured).

I also got to the Orthopedic doctor this week, who after taking xrays, thinks I have a herniated disk in my neck.  I'm now waiting to get in for an MRI to confirm that.

Fan X 2018

All year I've been volunteering with the FanX Street Team, and I've also done a few cosplay events for them, and I was asked to speak on a panel.  They pay me for each event with one ticket to comic-con so by the time we got to FanX this year I had seven 3-day passes, enough for the whole family to go.  Horray!!!

On Thursday I spent half of the day working at the HEROIC booth.  We were taking pictures with kids and taking donations for a women and children's shelter. 

Later on Thursday Ruth joined me and we went to some panels. Ruth was dressed as Tracer from Overwatch. I road Trax home dressed as Batgirl and only got a few strange looks. 

Friday will be one of those days that will be remembered as one of my best days.  Kate and Ben came down and we spent the day at con dressed as Star Wars characters. 

On Friday afternoon I was an official panelist where I talked about the technology I used in some of my cosplay pieces.  We had over 100 people attend - I was blown away. 

We sat in on some celebrity panels that day, including David Tennant of Doctor Who fame and some dude that was on The Office.

We were stopped often for pictures, and we had a blast visiting the Star Wars costuming club booths and taking advantage of their photo opportunities.  

Some of the Star Wars club people were really excited to see our cosplays and asked to take pictures with US!

Kate's magic moment happened when we approached the Droid Builder's booth and an R2D2 came speeding towards her, whistling and shaking with excitement.  

Ben we pretty excited to have a blaster battle with Boba Fett.

Quaid joined us on Saturday and was a good sport dressing up.

Kate and Ben made their own cosplay by hand sewing, buying stuff at thrift stores and generally being really resourceful and clever. Ben was the only Hercules we saw during all 3 days of con. 

Chuck doesn't mind getting dressed up if everyone else is. He looked handsome in his steam-punk tails. 

I wore my Hawkgirl all day on Saturday.  The wings are amazingly light and comfortable. Even with my bad back they were not a problem. 

Jared also came with us on Saturday. He doesn't like to dress up, and he doesn't like to get his picture taken, but he did consent to this picture so I could prove to the world that he was with us.  Thank Jared!

We spent Saturday walking the vendor floor and going to a few more panels.  I stood in line and asked Caity Lotz a question about her charity, which was super fun for me. Our official photos from Saturday haven't been released yet.  I'll post them next time.

Happy Birthday, Chuck!

We celebrated Chuck's birthday this week by going out to dinner, walking around the Halloween store trying out all the displays, playing Overwatch, and eating peach crisp.  In addition to a few gifts, Chuck also bought us a new/used motorcycle trailer (we had sold the first one we bought). 

So it looks like I'm going back to the orthopedic surgeon.  Chuck calls it my "year of pain".  I woke up with intense pinching pain in my upper spine three weeks ago that is not relieved no matter what I do.  A visit to the chiropractor was not helpful.  Last week I went to my family doctor who put me on steroids for a week.  That did nothing, so he is sure that it is something skeletal. He wonders if it is related somehow to my frozen shoulder (on the opposite side).  So on Tuesday, I'll be making an appointment with orthopedics to get some scans done.  At least I've paid off my deductible already.