Christian got blogged!

Two weeks ago we had some old friends we knew in Germany come for a visit. It was a lot of fun to get reacquainted with them and make some new memories. One of the new memories involved taking them to our ward Christmas party. It was about as memorable an event as can be expected of your typical Christmas dinner with the ward family, but there was at least one thing that gave it a little something more. http://jake.roeckerfam.com/?p=512 Gotta love it!!

Santa, PLEASE give them a lump of coal!!!

Yesterday was the longest day and unfortunately it's only going to get worse on the Santa set. My asst. manager tried to commit suicide on Saturday night and her daughter knew nothing about it until she was at work and understandably had a huge meltdown on the set. Austin and I left church early to take over. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with what the line for Santa is like, let me enlighten you. People start lining up about 30 minutes before we open and the line is usually about 1 1/2 to 2 hours longs. We only have one Santa that works all day with a couple of hour long breaks. How do we take care of Santa? We close the line early once we judge how long it takes from a certain point. If a customer is in line prior to us closing it, they get seen. If not, we have to turn them away or tell them to line up for the next session. That makes for ANGRY customers who seem to not care whether Santa ever gets a break. He's an old man, not a magical elf!! So, yesterday, we had the grandmother from *&*&%$ bring her grandson at 5:45pm. We still had a 25 minute line to get through prior to Santa getting a break before we began Pet Night @ 7pm. She created a HUGE scene. I called security for back up. Security was a woos (sp) and after talking to her for about 10 minutes, gave in instead of backing me. I might have gotten past that but the grandmother from *&^%$$ proceeded to tell everyone else that came up to the rope that they should insist as well. Security gave in second time. I told security that I didn't need their help anymore. No one else got past! We tried really hard to take a bad picture for the grandmother from %$*@*^, but unfortunately, her grandson was really cute and took a great picture on the 1st try.....dang it! Pet night started on time with a million dogs and two cats. It lasted past the 9pm close. I'm beat. Santa's beat. I'd like to know if a customer put my asst. manager over the edge...maybe I can blame her attempted suicide on the grandmother from #$%^@!!! Sorry for the rant.....

Texting & Driving do NOT Mix!!!

Teenagers (and some adults) really need to get a clue... texting while driving is beyond stupid. Don't worry, Ashley and I are okay, but as you can see by the pictures our car didn't fare so well. According to the insurance adjuster, it's a total loss. Any advice on what kind of car to purchase next???

I imagine the teenage boy driving the truck that plowed into us won't be driving for a while. Poor kid just got his license to drive and BAM....his truck didn't look too good either. As for the lady that I was pushed into...minor bumper damage to her explorer.

Things to be grateful for: that no one was seriously injured, insurance, friendly police officers, apologetic fathers (the kid's dad was sooo nice), awesome EQ pres who stopped to help and took Ashley and me home, cell phones (not to text while driving, but to call 911 in an emergency!), undamaged Christmas presents that were in the trunk, awesome neighbors who checked on the kids.....this is the short list in addition to the many, many things I'm always grateful for!!

Cub Scout Beginnings!

Christian is officially a Bobcat and on his way to earning his Bear in cubscouts. This was taken at Pack meeting a couple of weeks ago. I got to paint his face with different colors that represented different qualities that a cubscout has. He only got to put a little line of white down my nose. I don't remember what it signified, just that he thought it was great to put paint on my face!!