June 1st Curse

I was sitting here at work doing my charting like a good nurse when I realized that in just a few short hours it will be June 1st and I am now a little nervous. You see, my family doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to June 1st.... you might even go as far as to say we are cursed.
Let me start at the beginning.
*June 1, 1999 -- My parents left that morning for a 7 day trip leaving us 3 kids at home with Chris in charge. Life couldn't get any better....until Brandon had to ruin it all by getting hit in the face by a line drive and breaking several bones around his eye. Mom came home and Brandon had surgery to put metal plates in his face. The doctor limited Brandon's activities for a year while the plates took root. So when the next June 1st came around Brandon had it marked on the calendar as the year mark when all restrictions would be lifted.
*June 1, 2000 -- To celebrate his new found freedom he took the stage on the trampoline at a party and was wowing the crowds with his double front flips off his knees. It was very impressive until he didn't quite make the final rotation and his mouth went crashing into his knee, knocking his two front teeth out but not until after they had bitten completely through his tongue leaving a hanging chunk. Luckily our dentist lived across the street and was summoned at midnight to save the teeth. The tongue was repaired and the teeth were put back in (no thanks to dental assistant Val sucking the teeth up the suction wand), but it has resulted in quite a few dental visits for Brandon over the years.
*June 1, 2001 -- This year Brandon decided to stay at home and play it safe, but that didn't stop me from carrying on the tradition. I was in the car with some girlfriends driving to meet up with our other friends. As we were driving down the road we saw them coming the opposite direction. Our driver swerved over to get their attention but their driver was looking down at the radio. The next few seconds is all a blur but pretty much we had an unplanned game of chicken where no one chickened and we were in a head-on collision. No one had any major injuries just some whiplash and airbag injuries which was VERY lucky. I just got bruised pretty good from my seatbelt. Three years in a row made it seem like more than just a coincidence that these things all happened on June 1.
*June 1, 2002 -- This year's accident actually began on the night of May 31. I was up in SLC hanging out with some of my friends. It was really late and I ran one of my friends home. I went in the house with him for just a few minutes leaving my car running in neutral with the parking break on. When I came back outside my car was gone. I could not figure out where it was until I walked out in the road and saw it down the hill sticking out of someone's garage....the parking break had gone out. Of course it had to be a sweet old couple's house who was asleep in bed when they heard the crash and came out. Not only did it ruin their garage but it hit the car in the garage. It wasn't until after I had gone in their house and called my mom that I realized it was 12:30am and technically June 1. What a horrible experience!!
*June 1, 2003 -- This year's accident didn't actually happen on June 1, it was 5 days earlier. I was rollerblading on 800 E. when a dog decided to attack me and I got a chunk taken out of my leg resulting in stitches, a tetnus shot, and one difficult situation with the owners. I am pretty sure my mom spent most of June 1 on the phone with the dog's owners trying to get them to pay for my ER visit (their home owners insurance wouldn't pay unless they put the dog to sleep and they didn't want to, but they didn't want to pay out of pocket either, so they made it all really difficult).
*June 1, 2004 -- This was the year we realized the true power of the curse when it reached out of our immediate family and got my boyfriend...Scott. I thought we might have made it through the day without an incident when I got a call from Scott at about 11:30 saying he might have a broken wrist (ward basketball). I went to the ER with him and sure enough it was broken and Scott got to sport a nice brace for 6 weeks. The June 1 curse pretty much sealed Scott into the family.
*June 1, 2005 -- Cannon was born 2 days earlier. Whew...dodged that bullet. Nothing eventful happened this year.
*June 1, 2006 -- Second year with no incidence.
*June 1, 2007 -- I don't remember anything specifically on June 1st, but I do know that in the week that followed Mason began having some serious constipation issues. I can't say for sure, but I think it is very likely that Mason might have stopped pooping on June 1.

It is obvious that the severity of incidents has greatly decreased the last few years and I am hoping that continues this year. But if there is one thing I have learned about the June 1st Curse it is that you can never get too comfortable. As Workers Compensation says, Be Careful Out There.

The Mur-Wii-s

We are the new and very excited owners of a Nintendo Wii. I have never understood all the hype about the Wii, but let me officially say that I now understand!! We have had a blast this weekend staying up way too late playing games. Friday night we tried out all the sports games with Jeremy and Janessa, who are in town for Memorial Day Weekend. I was informed I am too spastic when I play tennis, causing my player to twirl around and fall everytime I swing. In the boxing ring, however, my spasticness seems to pay off.....I knocked Scott out and went undefeated. Scott showing off his mean forearm against Jeremy. Rachel and Scott battling it out in tennis. Boxing.

By the end of the night I was experiencing the beginning stages of Wii-elbow (comparable to tennis elbow). That was nothing compared to what I felt after our marathon gaming with the Dastrups and Carliles on Saturday. We played Wii and Rockband (Jeff's early Father's Day gift) for 8 straight hours at the Dastrup's. You might be asking, "Don't you all have kids?" and yes we do. The kids had a blast playing with each other and whichever adults weren't playing the game were on kiddo duty making sure no toddlers wandered onto the tennis court or boxing ring. This started out as just an afternoon activity, but before we knew it dinner time had come and gone. We ordered some pizza for us and made Mac and Cheese for the kids and continued the gaming. When bedtime rolled around Mason borrowed jammies and a bottle from Jackson. Once the kids were asleep that's when things got serious. We played Rock Band until the blisters on our fingers were popping, we couldn't lift our arms, our eyes were blurry, and our voices were cracking (oh wait, that was just because we are all horrible singers). This was somewhere around 12:30 AM. The last song we attempted and were determined to pass was Metallica's Enter Sandman which for those of you unfamilar with the song is incredibly long and very difficult on Rock Band, especially when we were so exausted. That day/night was one of the funnest days Scott and I have ever had. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera so I don't have any pictures. We are looking forward to one more day off before we have to return to real life and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Scott's New Job

Scott has been working at Nu Skin Enterprises since he returned from his mission 4 years ago. He started out in the call center using his Korean language, but after doing that for a while he decided to use his leadership skills and start on the management path. He has held various titles and had many different responsibilities, but no matter where he is, Scott always works very hard and excells at what he does. In the past month Scott has been recognized several times for his hard work. About a month ago he received the Summit Award after being nominated by his boss for exceeding the expectations of his job. Last week he was one of three people named Employee of the Half. Both of these awards came with a nice cash gift which we used to buy a Nintendo Wii... more on that later. Just when we were celebrating our exciting new purchase plans, even better news came along. Scott was offered the position of Sales Manager over the Midwest Region. I won't bother with all the nitty-gritty details of his new job, but I will say that it is a big step for him at Nu Skin and I am so proud of him.

Attention UCCU members!

This message is for all of you who are Utah Community Credit Union members. My dad, Val Hale, is running for the UCCU Board of Directors. He is the only person running against the 4 incumbants so he could use your support. If you know me than most likely you know my dad and know what a great person he is and how he would do such a great job in this position. You can go into the bank to vote and get a prize (UCCU flashlight, pen, or icecream scoop) or you can just go here and take 30 seconds to vote online. Tell your family and friends to vote too. You can only vote until this Friday! I posted his bio below. Thanks!

Val Hale has lived in Utah County for nearly 40 years and has been a UCCU member for 30 years. He is Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Utah Valley University, where he oversees all external activities for the institution (fund raising, alumni, marketing, etc.). Prior to joining UVU, he worked for 22 years at BYU-including five years as Director of Men's Athletics. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from BYU in public relations. At both BYU and UVU, Val worked with UCCU to create and implement successful awareness campaigns and visibility in the community. Val believes his role as a board member would be "to listen carefully to other members and help propel UCCU to even greater success during these challenging financial times."

A Manly Man

The testosterone level in our house has been overflowing since the addition of two new members of our family. It all started 2 weeks ago when the 15+ year old lawn mower we inherited from my parents died. Scott didn't seem too torn up over the idea of having to buy a new lawn mower. He did his research and found the best product (self-propeled of course) within our price range and then off to home depot he went. That's when "Terrance" the lawn mower joined our family. Scott is so excited about his new purchase he won't even let me mow the lawn (I hope this excitement lasts all summer). With the extra testosterone the lawn mower sent coarsing through Scott's body, his pleas for a grill grew even stronger than before. When he informed me he was getting a nice bonus this week I finally gave in and Stan the grill was added to the Murray household. Now all Scott needs is a big truck to replace the Yota (my parents 1986 blue pickup) to haul all of his toys around in and he will truly be the manliest man around.

Monkey see, Monkey do

Of all the times for me to slack off on my updates, this was a bad one. Mason is at a very fun time in his development and it seems he changes so much each day. Tonight, while Scott and I were watching him in amazement of how adorable he is, I felt a sense of urgency to document everything about him so I don't forget how fun this time in our lives is. So hold tight because here I go.
As many of you know, I love monkeys!! They have the funniest little facial expressions and their curious ways make them so adorable. It has brought me great joy to watch Mason become my own little Curious George. I have told Scott I could write a story about Mason's daily adventures, (I would call it "The adventures of Mason and Ducky" - Ducky is Mason's stuffed duck) but Scott is skeptical of its potential. Anyway, now that Mason has completely given up crawling and is a walking maniac, it's as if a whole new world has opened up to him. Mason walks all around the house, yard, or store pointing and saying, "Wassat, wassat?". He not only wants to know the names of things he wants to experience first hand what they are used for. It has been amazing to me how quickly he picks up on how to do things! Kid's learning curves are unbelievable! I could go on for a year talking about all the things Mason has learned how to do this past month, but I will spare you all and just list some of my favorites.

• Mason has been learning his animal noises. It all started while Scott was in Arizona and Mason started doing a sheep noise, only this wasn't just any sheep noise, it was an angry sheep. I taught him that was what a sheep says and now when you ask him, "what does a sheep say?" he will tell you. He has learned another animal noise about every week since. He now does in addition to the sheep, a pig: wrinkles his nose and snifs really hard (see walking video for example), a cow: mmmmmm, and we're working on a lion: ra ra ra ra in his growly voice. Unfortunately he is often times bashful about doing it for a lot of people, but at home and with my parents he loves showing off his skills. Here is a video of him when he first started the sheep noise.

• Whenever Scott and I call each other on the phone, whoever has Mason will hold the phone up to his ear and ask him to "Say Hello". Up until now he always just stared at the phone and would be silent, but now the phone has become one of his favorite toys. He picks it up (even when no one is on the phone) and holds it over his shoulder and says "wowo" in a soft, nice, high voice. He will then walk around 'talking' in his high phone voice with the phone held to his ear. When a phone isn't available a remote or the baby monitor works just as well. I can't help but smile every time he does it.

• Scott really wanted to get Mason a little basketball hoop for his birthday. I told him he would probably like it more for Christmas or next year's birthday, but Scott insisted. So we got him the basketball hoop. The day after his birthday Scott kept trying to help Mason hold the ball and put it in the basket, but Mason didn't seem interested. Scott was a little disappointed that I was right. Later we were at my mom's house where she has the same hoop in her toy room. Mason was busy playing with some other toys when he saw a ball. He grabbed the cloth ball in one hand and started walking toward the hoop with the ball in an outstretched hand. He walked right up to the hoop and dunked the ball. It turns out he just wasn't interested in having help. Since then he has started saying, "Baw" for ball and loves to play b-ball with his Dad.
• My dad wears reading glasses and it really interests Mason when he is wearing them. So the other day he put them on Mason, which he thought was really neat. Later that day while playing with Mr. Potato Head he found the little glasses and knew exactly what to do with them. He nearly poked out his eyes trying to put the little, hard, plastic glasses on, but he tried nonetheless. Now that it's sunglasses season he thinks he's entitled to wear everyone's sunglasses. When he puts them on he always flashes a big grin like he knows he looks cool.

Okay, I could go on and on, but it's getting late. I have loved every day of Mason's life, but I must say 1 has definitely been my favorite age so far. I often feel like there is no way tomorrow could be better than today, but I am always surprised at how it really does get better and better. I love this little boy!!