The Week That Was

First off, we definitely need to talk about Hellga. This would be Hellga who stars on the new American Gladiators show that has been on TV lately. Lest you think otherwise, Kendra and I want to be clear that we have NOT been watching this show. But apparently there are others who have. One of these individuals is our super-awesome niece Taeya, who we think might be named "athlete of the year" at her school. She's pretty good at stuff like that. Let's rewind to a week or two ago and recap a telephone conversation that I (Jared) had with Taeya:

Jared: "Hi Taeya, how's it going?"

Taeya: "Good"

Jared: "So what are you doing right now?"

Taeya: "I'm watching American Gladiators"

Jared: "Cool"

Taeya: "Yeah"

Jared: "So do you wish that you could be on American Gladiators?"

Taeya: "I don't think I'm old enough"

Jared: "I hear that you've been tearing it up at Basketball"

Taeya: "Yeah, I'm pretty good. But mostly at dribbling and playing defense. I still need to work at shooting"

Jared: "That's okay. Did you know that Aunt Kendra like to play basketball?"

Taeya: "Really?"

Jared: "Yeah, and she is good at defense too because she is like a tall, tough girl"

Taeya: "Yeah - she's like Helga"

Jared: "Who is Helga?"

Taeya: "She's the really tall strong lady on American Gladiators"

So there you have it. Naturally, Kendra and I had to look up a picture of Helga (which we found out is actually spelled "Hellga" - to make it scarier apparently). And I can see why Taeya would compare the two. What do you think about the resemblance? Please cast your vote on the right hand side of the page.






























Okay - on to other things. For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, there is such a thing as the "Howler". If you've seen the movies, a howler is an envelope carrying a message from another person. The howler delivers this message by flying in, SCREAMING the message to the recipient - causing all sorts of commotion and embarrassment - and then self-destructing.

I mention this because we had an incident at church last Sunday that reminded me of the embarrassment Ron faced in Harry Potter when he got a howler from his mom while all of the kids at Hogwarts were eating lunch in the Great Hall. So substitue the chapel for the Great Hall, and our Ward Members for the students at Hogwarts, and hear me out.

So Kendra had been asked to give the closing prayer, which under normal circumstances should not have been a problem. Well, as she got up to leave, I put both of the twins on my knees so that I could hold them and help them be reverent during the prayer.

Kimball seems to be going through some separation anxiety right now, and apparently it hit him at maximum force when Kendra left to give the prayer. He started screaming and screaming - at the absolute top of his capacity - for his mom. So naturally, Koria started to scream too. By the time Kendra got to the pulpit and started the prayer, they were so loud, I could not hear anything Kendra was saying. So the thoughts going through my mind are, "I wonder if anyone is being bothered by this?", "How embarrassing", "I wonder if Kendra is noticing this?", etc, etc.

Kendra keeps giving the prayer, and - even though I didn't think it possible - they just get louder and louder by the second. But you know - it's the middle of the prayer, she should be done in just a few seconds - so I didn't think I should get up and take them out - because that would be more of a distraction. I wish this were captured on video camera because it's just hard to understand the whole scene if you weren't present.

Anyway, at one point in the prayer (Kendra told me this afterward), she actually fake coughed because it was the only way for her to keep from laughing. Meanwhile, I'm desperately trying to "shhh" the twins - but ofcourse they can't hear me over themselves, so that did no good. So I'm getting more embarrassed by the second, quickly realizing that within the confined space, everybody had to be noticing. I mean, a chapel isn't that big - and it kind of echoes.

Well, by the end of the prayer, I had mind-talked myself into believing that nobody had even noticed - you know, that it wasn't as bad as I was imagining. Wrong. The second Kendra said "Amen", the ENTIRE ward started busting up in laughter. It was that bad. And of course, every set of eyes went directly to me. I looked up, and the Bishopric was looking right at me, totally laughing. Everybody else was staring. I myself was laughing so much from the embarrassment and surrealism of the moment that I started laugh-crying because I guess I just didn't know how else to react. It was just an unbelievable moment in time that we will never forget. Not to mention, it was the talk of the ward for the rest of the day. Thanks twins!! - especially Kimball!!

Other noteworthy events of the last week or two:

1) Koria got her first curlers (we know our grandmothers will be so proud!)



2) The twins enjoyed playing outside in our PLENTIFUL snow





















3) Kendra was awesome - she finally broke up the two-feet thick ice chunks that have been building up on our back sidewalk.

4) We went to Richfield to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa & watch some basketball.