Utah, I'd like to introduce...

you to my favorite things I can only get while in Virginia (or other Southeastern states). Here they are in no particular order:

1. Wise Cheez Doodles--love, love, love them. Sorry, Chester Cheeto, you don't even come close to the puffiness of Wise.
2. Cindy's Homemade 18 layer Cake--Bet you didn't know a cake could have this many layers. And, here's a hint, don't try to make your own, just go to the random gas station near the Outer Banks and BUY one!
3. Pickled Okra--I happen to love ANYTHING pickled, but okra, mmmm buddy it is good, good, good. I know my Utah friends are thinking I'm speaking in some kind of foreign dialect. Well, I am. It's called red neck. I will settle for the store bought kind or Ray's homemade version which is very delicious. Pictured below is me and Jon pickling okra last summer...
4. Cheerwine! This is a yummy soda that everyone should have the chance to taste. It falls on the Dr. Pepper/Mr. Pibb spectrum, but this one's the best! As I was looking for a picture of it on the internet, I discovered that there's an entire BLOG devoted to this cherry flavored "pop." http://randomactsofsampling.blogspot.com/
5. Panera Bread Company. This sandwich/bread shop is one of my favorite places for lunch when I'm home. Sadly, I didn't have time to eat there, but there's always next time.

BLOG ADDENDUM:::Tyler's favorite place to eat while in Hickville--the Waffle House. It just doesn't get any greaser, uh I mean, better than that!

The Jackson 5 Hit the Beach!

We had an awesome time in Virginia with my family. I'm going to try to cover our whole trip if the kids sleep long enough, but who knows!

First and foremost, I would like to give a little love to Tyler. He seems to believe that my blog is centered around poking fun at him. Erroneous! So, in an attempt to right this outrageous claim, I would like to sincerely say the following:

Tyler is a wonderful hubbie and dad. He helps me so much with the kids and I love and appreciate him! (I promised myself I wasn't going to cry...) On our plane ride to VA, he was the lone ranger with Trace and Sydney while I hung out in my own row with sleeping Nash...I definitely got the better end of that deal! But, Tyler never complained and took great care of his troops. He's amazing! He put the kids to bed most nights we were in VA Beach and played with them at the beach and pool. He even took them on all the kiddie rides while I rode the good stuff! Thanks for all you do Tyler, and I hope you had as much fun on our trip as I did! Ok, on with the blog.

Here is one way to sum up our trip to the beach: Trace is truly a Mechling and Sydney is all Jackson!

Trace:

• Loves the beach--Our first day there, Trace spent 8 hours soaking up the sand and sun! He never once came inside until forced to for dinner. We took shifts to supervise him. And, lunch, snacks, and drinks were brought to him so his fun would not be interrupted.
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• Loves the pool--After beach time was over the second day, he wanted to hit the pool where he was caught doing belly flops into the chilly water.
• Loves exciting rides--At Busch Gardens, Trace was tall enough to ride one of the roller coasters, The Big Bad Wolf. He rode it 3 times, and people in line were impressed with this brave little four-year old. Now I know who will ride with me when he's tall enough!
  

Sydney:

• Loves to eat! She probably ate her weight in "brownie bites" and cheese puff balls. Who can really blame her.
• Loves to talk...enough said!
• Prefers naps to beach time. On Monday before we left for the Lodge, we took the kids to the beach. Sydney was there for all of 10 minutes before she was done. So, I threatened the nap. Sadly, she opted for the nap.
• Knows what she wants! While we were at the Great Wolf Lodge and Busch Gardens, Syd knew what she wanted to ride and what she didn't. There was no changing her mind. The Scrambler (middle picture) was her FAVORITE. We rode it 3 times, before I couldn't take it no mo'.
  
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Nash: A pleasant mixture of Mechling and Jackson. He enjoyed eating, napping, strolling around Busch Gardens as well as the water slide park and just about everything else he was forced to do. And he did it all with a smile on his face (that comes from the Mechling side).

Before I end this portion of my ramblings about our trip, I would like to give some love to my wonderful parents. There's nothing like coming home and being taken care of by Mom and Dad. They do EVERYTHING for us! My mom makes us yummy suppers and entertains the kids--she even folds our laundry (when I'm not looking)! Daddy Ray absorbs the chaos like a champion grandpa. He also makes sure that there's enough cheese balls and brownie bites to last a lifetime. Somehow, they didn't last that long! Thanks Mom and Dad for an amazing week--we had a blast and we love you! OK, kids are awake, I'll finish up later!

Buh Bye!

Tomorrow we are off to VA Beach and I am sooooo excited. We haven't been on a vacation WITH Tyler to the beach in 2 years. He's been working so hard; this is a well deserved break for him (even though I'm sure he'll be working while we're there!). The weather is supposed to be good so we can enjoy hanging out at the beach. We're also going to hit Busch Gardens and stay at a lodge that boasts an indoor water park!!! Waaahoooo. I haven't been on a roller coaster in 3 years, so I'm well overdue. Since Tyler's a scare-D-cat, I'll be riding with my bros while he keeps the kids. Nice! We shall have fun....pictures and more bragging to come! Meanwhile, I better get back to packing!

One Team Dead Dream

On May 16th at approximately 11:20 p.m. a dream died. We are all saddened by this event, however, the outpouring of support has be overwhelming. Words cannot express how much we appreciate the calls, emails, text messages and personal visits to comfort us in our time of need. This is a hard time in our lives, but we will get past this. That's what Jackson's do. Maybe we'll just eat our way through it.

Our jerseys will be retired until next year.

Now we'll never know what our lives could have been like.

"I feel like a piece of my heart was ripped out and crushed right in front of my very eyes."

No, that's not a Tyler quote, it's from me, the Jazz's newest and most devout fan.

Until next year, I'd like to send out one last somber, yet heartfelt cheer:

Go, Jazz Go.

the end.

One Girl's Enough!

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. Where do I begin with this cute 28 lbs. of pure estrogen. I have to first start with a little video clip of her when she was about 5 months old. This is a TRUE representation of what she was like for a good 15 months of her life. I had to hold her while STANDING UP all the time, otherwise she was SCREAMING! She hated the swing, she hated the bouncy seat, she hated the exersaucer; she hated LIFE!!!

Then, when she was around 18 months old, things started to change. Now, she's not screaming all the time, it's more like whining all the time. She can also be very dramatic on occasionally. Take tonight for example...

I was trying to get her to eat her dinner by hand feeding it to her. This is typically the easiest, most effective way to get her to eat supper (I really wanted to use the word "supper" because it's a tragedy that Utahans don't say it). She was ignoring me, so I finally offered the only thing that will get her to eat--chocolate (she's no dummy). So, I am trying to feed her like an 8 month- old, but she won't stop telling me what to do. Alas, I said her name, "SYDNEY!", rather loudly to grab her attention. She gave me her best 2 year-old disgusted look and proceeded to leave the table. As she DRAMATICALLY began the 42 steps to her room, she made sure to turn back every 10 steps to give me the royal stink eye. Once she was out of sight, I started laughing.

About 3 minutes later, a sniffling Sydney reappeared, tenderly hugging this picture...

All I can say is Thesbians, LOOK OUT!

Team Spirit...

Any guesses as to which member of our family was NOT wearing their Jazz jersey yesterday? I'll give you one hint...it wasn't me! I sincerely believe that's why they lost, Tyler. Where is your sense of team spirit? Yes siree, I had mine on (well, it wasn't on ALL day, but I did have it on at Costco and got quite a few looks and some shout outs!) I did all I could. But, still no "W"

We've still got tomorrow's home game. Which, who knows, maybe I'll be surprised with tickets again. I think it's more likely that I'll be surprised with a five o'clock call Friday afternoon. On the other end, after some small talk, I'll hear,
"So, what are we doing tonight?"
Me: "Ummm, I haven't made any plans"
Caller: "Umhm."
Silence
Caller: "Oh, Will has tickets to the game tonight. Do you care if I go? I mean, I don't have to go if you want to get a babysitter and go do something else. I'd really like to go, but I don't have to. It's no big deal."
Deafening Silence
Disgruntled me: "Whatever. It doesn't matter to me."
Caller: "Ok, I'll be home after the game."
Disgruntled me "Fine." (profanity muttered under my breath as I hang up the phone)

And that's how it usually goes down.

I will say though, out of sheer love for my husband that I am now routing for the Jazz because I know how much it means to him. I mean, who knows what Tyler's life will be like if they win the championship. I'll leave it at that and let your mind imagine the possibilities.

one team one dream

As I went to bed Saturday night, visions of a most amazing Mother's Day danced in my head. Some of you know I was secretly hoping that some how, some way, I would be surprised with tickets to game four of the Jazz playoffs. Tyler had been teasing me about going all week, so I was certain he would come through. My lucky day began with a phone call from our friends, Chad and Kim at 10:30 am Mother's Day morn. At first I was taken off guard with a cordial "Happy Mother's Day" from Chad. Then the good news proceeded: not only was it going to be amazing for me, but an early HAPPY Father's Day for Tyler. I handed the phone to Tyler and the news that came was GOOD! TWO-13th row seats to the game!!! But it didn't end there--the tickets also included a delicious pregame meal, half time snacks & sodas, AND Mother's Day memories to last a lifetime (for a nominal fee). We were in!!!

We quickly called Big Steve as our only option for a Sunday babysitter, and after some unmentionable name calling out of jealousy, he agreed to watch our eldest two yea-hoos. We got the family dressed and ready in record speed and were off to the game! It was a great game and the seats were spectacular. We were sitting amongst many of the girlfriends/mistresses of the players, so we were in good company. Kim and I didn't get the memo that it was "come half-naked day" though. WE settled for our Korver jerseys which was our little mom's day BONUS!

I must admit, that, I thoroughly enjoyed myself despite the fact that poor Nash was being subjected to insanely loud noise and losing hearing by the second (after some mild training in the field of audiology, I pictured the tiny cilia in his cochlea melting as they tried to combat the intense decibel levels. He can blame me when he's in his 60's for his noise-induced hearing loss) But, believe it or not after Nash's initial shock of the noise level, he feel asleep and slept for the ENTIRE game! He was voted MVP by those in Portal "F" section 6.



Sadly, I did not get a priceless quote from Tyler during this game, mainly because I really couldn't hear anything ANYone was saying. I still have ringing in my ears, but it was all worth it.

one team one dream

***Correction from previous blog: the last time I actually watched the Jazz was many years ago when they were good. Their colors then were purple and teal. Apparently they have since realized the atrocity and changed it to baby and navy blue. much, much better.

Side note: please take a look at Sydney's new hula performance down there. i got a much better taping of it last night. She's goin' places I tell ya.

Twins!

Nash had his 2 month check-up at the doctor's office yesterday...and what'd ya know? He and Trace are/were the exact same size at this age. Apparently, I have difficulty making their 2 month appointments on time because when I looked back at Trace's records, his said 2 months, 2 weeks which is exactly what Nash was. So, here are the stats for this BIG BOY!

Nash 14.1 lbs. (82%ile) 25.6" (97%ile)



Trace 14 lbs. (80%ile) 25" (95%ile)

A Slow Painful Death

Let's face it. Until the Jazz are out of the playoffs, (looks like 2 more games to go) I'm going to be dedicating some more posts to it. Last night was especially painful for a certain Jazz fan. He had a rough day at work, coupled with a crazy night with the kids, then his favorite Idol was kicked off (sorry Jason dude...go smoke away your sorrows and some more brain cells). And, to top it all off the Jazz lost game #2 to the Lakers. There was some screaming at the TV last night, mostly pertaining to the refs and not calling of the fouls, but the one worth mentioning made me personally chuckle. This is when the Jazz were down 10 in the 4th quarter...

"I don't even know why I'm watching this...it's like watching your best friend bleed to death."

Will, if you're reading this in heaven, I'm sorry you had to go down like that.


At least Tyler still has his family...

A Star is Born

Two weeks ago at Sunday dinner, Sydney got a hold of the hula hoop at JuJu's house...and I've been trying to prep her for The Ellen Show ever since. With a little hard work and some dedicated practice, she truly could be amazing on the hula.

So, last Sunday I brought the video camera in hopes to catch this amazing wonder, but after not practicing for a whole week, Syd was a little rusty. She did her best, I just couldn't get a great video of it. I'm going to post it anyway, but I will try to get a better representation of it at a later date (maybe after some more intense training).

P.S. I'm probably going to be one of those moms who lives vicariously through their child. She has some sweet hip action going on that I could NEVER hope to achieve.

I Love the Jazz

I have been instructed to take back any unkind words about the Jazz that I may have said out of anger/frustration. Brace yourselves because I am going to go above and beyond. I LOVE the Jazz!!! I love everything about the Jazz. I love all the players (I think I can name one or two). I love the Jazz colors, purple and teal . What a brilliant combination! I especially love play-off season and the many, many, many games that are played. I love the coach, Jerry Sloan and the team owner, Larry H. Miller--men who exude greatness. I also love the arena and great city of Salt Lake where they play 50% of all the many, many, many, many games. I love how much money it costs to be a fan. I know that all 4 of my children currently own Jazz jerseys. (pictures to come of course). But most of all, I love being the wife of a HUGE Jazz fan because it brings him great happiness!!!



"I wonder what my life would be like if the Jazz won the championship!"

--Tyler S. Jackson

I personally believe our lives would be blessed forever if this great accomplishment were to take place. So, I leave you with this heartfelt cheer,
"Go JAZZ, Go!!!"