Uptown girl goes downtown.

When I was in college a couple of friends and I got tickets to see Billy Joel in Salt Lake.  Of course, all we could afford were nosebleed seats, but we were fine with that.  We fully intended to have a great time.

Way up in the air, we were singing and dancing along to all the great Billy Joel songs.  We were loving it.  Not loving the fact that we were standing up were the old fuddy-duddies seated around us.  The geriatric set was not in the mood for our enthusiasm, telling us to settle down, and even grabbing my friend and pulling her in from the aisle (where she had gone in an attempt to stand without obstructing anyone's view).  Now keep in mind that this was Billy Joel, and really, you can't get THAT out of control.  We really were not wild, just trying to have a good time.

Someone behind us went down the steps and soon came back with an usher.  Oh no, I thought, we are NOT going to get kicked out of here.  We have done NOTHING wrong!  I was prepared to stand my ground, but you know what that usher said when he approached us?

"See those seats down there?" he said, pointing to the floor of the arena.  "How about I take you guys down there?"

How about OK!!

So we were escorted to the elevator and descended what seemed like 10 stories.  Our usher walked us out onto the floor, and there, right straight ahead of us, was Billy, his piano, and hundreds of dancing, screaming fans who actually wanted to have some fun that night.  Sure we were in the very back, but who cares?  The energy and excitement was through the roof, and the difference from top to bottom was astronomical.  Turning to look up to the heavens we waved our thanks to the grumpy sticks in the mud for complaining about a couple of college girls trying just to get their Billy Joel groove on.

A couple of weeks ago I had another opportunity to experience what life was like on the floor.  The mother of one of the boys on Andrew's basketball team works for the Cavs and gave us 4 tickets to the Cavs vs. the Mavs game.  She gave us good seats, right in the middle in the corner, and we were very happy to be there.

Right after the first quarter she came up to say hi, and to tell us that she was going to upgrade us to floor seats.  Like fourth row from the edge of the court.  

It's a whole other world down there.  You can order food from your seat and have it brought to you.  You can hear, for better or worse, what the players are saying to each other and the refs.  You can see Varejao's curls bobbing up and down as he flops in an attempt to draw a foul.  You can see the sweat dripping off the players.  You can shout something to Alonso Gee (Andrew's current favorite) and he will probably hear you.  You can see the expression on Kyrie Irving's face as he runs up the sideline (right in front of us!) after nailing an awesome shot.

You can crane your neck upwards to see the Jumbotron declaring that the Cavs have beaten the world champs.  And you can cheer like nuts (even if you're Brooke and you HATE basketball) because everyone around you is too.

Maybe for most people sitting at floor level is a common occurrence.  But for me, it has been a rarity.  And whether I have gotten to experience those floor seats because people have been cantankerous or generous, I'll always like them just the way they are.

What gets Glenn up in the morning.

Saturday mornings, that is.  Andrew joined the "Dribbling Demons" this year.  It is a little Globetrotter type group that started up this year.  And they practice at 8:30 on - yep, you guessed it! - Saturday morning.  Good ol' Glenn.  He willingly (?) gets up bright and early on my only day to sleep in and takes the boy to the high school.

So far the group has performed twice during halftime at the varsity basketball game.  The first night Andrew's rec team played a mini game during halftime of the JV game, so we got to spend the whole night in the gym.  Andrew had a great showing scoring most (if not all) of the team's points.  It sure was hard running up and down a full-sized court, though!

The boys all sat together on the other side of the gym and had fun cheering on the team.

They started out with one ball...

...and by the next performance had added in another ball!

I was pretty impressed. Andrew didn't see the point at first, but he has now acknowledged that participating in this group has really helped with his ball-handling skills. His Saturday games have been really exciting to watch.

The Dribbling Demons have one more performance this week, and we are glad that Grandma Brooks happens to be in town so that she can check out all the action!

A family obsessed.

Here are the things certain people can't get enough of around here:

Harry Potter.  Still.  According to the girls, Andrew can't finish the series fast enough so that they can watch Deathly Hallows Part 2 again. 

Just Dance 2.  Best Christmas present ever.  Totally worth getting "Crocodile Rock" stuck in your head for days on end.

Matched.  A new book series by LDS author Ally Condie.  Go find it and read it.

The Muppets.  The movie.  The songs.  Especially the songs.  Songs that also get stuck in your head for days on end.  But totally worth it to have my kids get excited about something I loved as a child.

Titanic.  The HIGHLY edited version of the movie.  Mostly the soundtrack.  Kate Winslet.  (NOT Leo.)

and of course...

The Hunger Games.  The books.  The trailer.  The movie.  The Katniss braid.

Ok so maybe this list is slightly skewed towards the females in the household.  Oh well.  Majority rules.

iHope you had a merry Christmas.

The holidays began with a new Christmas Eve tradition: International Night. We began with Asia. Jake made three wonderful kinds of meat, Nate made California rolls, I made minute rice and heated up some egg rolls. What can I say. Everyone was adventurous and we pretty much devoured everything.

Who knows where next year will take us.  Mexico?  France?  Ethiopia?

After dinner we opened presents from another new tradition: cousin gift exchange.  All the kids drew names and got to shop for each other.  It was so much fun to see the kids thinking about what their cousins would really like.  Everyone was very happy with the choices!  It was a really nice evening at Jill's.

Me and my favorite kindergartener.

Me and my favorite.

The boys sporting their new head lights from Grandma and Grandpa.  Melissa and I might have to borrow these when we resume our early morning running.

Christmas morning was calm and quiet.  And once again, over in 15 minutes.  And I was worried that we'd have to get up super early so that we could open presents and get ready for church.  We could have slept in another half hour!

The biggest hit of the day across the entire family was the iPod.  Emma and Leah got theirs last year, but this year, with Brooke, Sydney, and Becca all receiving them it was iPod central all Christmas long.  From Christmas morning...

...to Christmas day at Grandma and Grandpa Franklin's...

...to New Year's Eve...

...everyone was iPod crazy.  The Franklin and Ryan cousins even made up some sort of hide-n-seek game using Facetime.  Kids these days!

New Year's Eve was of course the lovely spread of hors d'oeuvres.  Mmmm-mmm!  I think the cranberry salsa Jill made takes the top prize.  If there were one.  Everything was delish.

Most of the evening was spent playing Just Dance.  Very fun game!  I did a "15 minute non-stop shuffle," and I might have even started to sweat.  In my defense I don't usually exercise in a sweater, but still--it was a good workout after all that food. 

We were all prepared to do the chocolate fountain, but I kind of wasn't into cleaning up the mess it makes.  So Jill and I quickly melted some chocolate and did some dipping so as not to disappoint the littles.

And at midnight as the ball was dropping, the kids all whipped the iPods back out (were they ever really put away?) and recorded the countdown and the cheering and the "Happy New Year!"  Andrew recorded his on the flip cam he got for his birthday and I think has watched the video every day since.

The rest of Christmas break was low-key, with lots of time spent with Grandma and Grandpa Brooks. There was shopping, the new Muppet movie, the traditional trip to Wendy's for a frosty, games, and puzzles, and more Just Dance. And it mustn't have been that crazy, because Grandma ended up extending her stay! It was nice to have everyone together for so long. We ended one year and started another in the best possible way...with lots and lots of family!

And oh yeah, we probably should get the Christmas tree up at some point.

Big and juicy.

That's how the ENT described Andrew's tonsils and adenoids after he took them out.  Lovely.

A month earlier, when the ENT took one look at Andrew's tonsils and said, "Oh yeah" I knew surgery was around the corner. And that was the easy part. The surgery went just fine. And then we had to deal with the aftermath. Four days of vomiting everything except Gatorade, being startled out of sleep by a cowbell beckoning us to Andrew's side, a lethargic boy with barely enough energy to lay and the couch watch ESPN, communicating through writing notes and a crude form of sign language that strangely enough I could understand, and the loss of 8 pounds (on Andrew's part, not mine).

These pictures are from the day after.  Andrew still had rosy cheeks, enough energy to sit up and play some PS3, unsunken eyes free from dark circles, and a smile.  Milli came over to snuggle and watch over him and give him some kisses.  (And clean my kitchen floor for me.)  The day after wasn't so bad.

The next three days, however, were pretty brutal on the poor kid.  He was wasting away to practically nothing.  I threatened to take him in to the ER, which horrified him.  He was terrified at the thought of having another IV in his hand.  My threats didn't do much good though, as he refused everything for fear of throwing it all back up.

While toying with the idea of becoming extremely freaked out with my son's condition, Sunday I talked to a resident friend of mine and realized that anything they did in the hospital would pretty much be the same thing I would be doing at home.  So with great hope that we could avoid another bruise to the back of Andrew's hand, we picked up some Pedialyte (nasty stuff), mixed it with some soda, and voila!  It stayed down.  Not only did it stay down, but so did some applesauce and toast at dinner.  And some appetizer's at Sister Jones' open house.  And he has slept all night for two nights in a row.  I hate to be so bold, but I dare say we have turned a corner.

Poor Andrew has been such a trooper through all this.  No complaining (was that just because he can't talk???), only a couple times crying (which I was grateful for because he had tears--not fully dehydrated!), and being willing to sleep during the day, which normally is like his worst nightmare.

I know that in the long run this was a good thing for him, and that someday his wife will thank me.  Because now, when he's sleeping, he is SILENT.  I know, because I tried to sleep next to him in my bed one night.  Yeah, that didn't work out so much.  But it wasn't due to any snoring, that's for sure.

Hold on to your horses.

It's hard to believe, but this little butterball...

...is now ten years old!

With burritos and nachos for dinner, cherry cheesecake (courtesy of Daryl!) as his cake of choice, and the whole family to help celebrate, Andrew has officially entered our family into a whole new category. 

Happy Birthday, Andrew!