The F.R.I.D.A.Y. Hooligans Just Earned Some Street Cred!

After the F.R.I.D.A.Y. hooligans ate our way through a lovely lunch buffet at Magleby's on a Thursday {gotta figure out a new name if this Thursday gig keeps up much longer--I mean, F.R.I.D.A.Y. just doesn't come on a Thursday no matter how desperately you wish for it to be so},  Mom decided she would take Aldolpho for a joy ride and give him the thrill of his life.  By the look on Aldolpho's face, I'd say he had the SCARE of his life!  At least he had the sense to pack his Samsonite suitcase (see it?) with all of his toreador essentials (they barely fit!) just in case Mom was struck by wanderlust and took the bike on the open road to far flung places like Koosharem or La Verkin or even that thriving hotspot, Panguitch!   

I know!  Can you believe it?  Ninety-four years young!  Go, Mombaby, go!

I think the prudent thing for us to do at this point is to just make sure Mom gets some leathers and a lid just in case she ever has to lay that CX500 Custom down, cuz I don't think she's ready to give up her biking days quite yet. Give her another decade, then maybe she'll hang it up.  I'd bet my bottom dollar that Aldolpho's hair will soon be the color of my mom's after a few more of those trips with her taking the bike out on "the big road," aka the interstate, at full throttle . . . .  


Hey!  Who spotted Aldolpho from our previous F.R.I.D.A.Y. fiesta?  Doesn't he look as snug as a bug in a . . . jacket?!!!

A Momentous Day!

Photo taken November, 2011

I love my mom so much that words cannot even come close to conveying my absolute adoration, affection, and respect for her.  She has accomplished so much in her life, all with a positive attitude and a cheerful countenance and faith in our Heavenly Father.  She has always put her children first and is forever expressing her love for all six of us rascally kids and her many rascally grandkids and her many rascally great grandkids.  Her family means EVERYTHING to her.  How did I ever get so lucky as to have such a lovely, loving, lively, witty, and wonderful mom, I'm sure I'll never know, but I hope that someday when I grow up, I will be just like her!

Mom (Beulah Ricks) as a student at 

Madison High School, Rexburg, Idaho

Mom on the faculty of Ricks College, Rexburg, Idaho

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!

I AM ABSOLUTELY BURSTING WITH LOVE FOR HER!!!

Extremism

My awesome friend, Lisa, asked who in the world we roped into taking our photos for our Christmas card.  Well, the fact of the matter is that we used Christian's SLR camera set on a tripod for all but the Bob Tail shots, and either Christian or Sean would set the timer and lunge into the shots just before the shutter clicked that fateful click.  I like to call it "Extreme Photography."  Sorta like "Extreme Ironing."  (See videos below.)  

I love the following quote (pronounced with a sexy British accent) from the first video:

"Extreme ironing . . . combines the thrills of an outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."

Behold:

I'm thinking that Extreme Photography is much more likely to see us successfully make it to the old folks home one day as opposed to Extreme Ironing which may succeed in seeing us to the local undertaker.  


In a hurry.  


Without passing "go."  


I'm going for the photography.  Cuz,  I'm smart that way.

Slip Slidin' Away . . .

I'm sure a bunch of you have already seen this video on Facebook, but for my Facebook-less readers (and huzzah to you guys!  I greatly admire your restraint at not kowtowing to social trends that completely SUCK UP YOUR TIME AND MAKE YOU WISH YOU HAD THOSE LAST TWO HOURS BACK!!! {And, believe me, I know whereof I speak, unfortunately}), I thought I would put this up on my blog.  Just for you guys.    


This video was shot in Bountiful, Utah, last Saturday. Be patient with the video; it ramps up as it goes along, and I gar-own-tee you'll laugh out loud, more than once, which is kinda sad but still kinda funny--sorta like when you see someone trip while going up a flight of stairs and you know you shouldn't laugh but you just can't help it so then it makes it even funnier and then you feel sadistic for having laughed in the first place and then you calm down a bit but then you replay the image in your head again and again and you start laughing harder than before even to the point of spewing your drink out of your nose and then before you know it you're writing a blasted run-on sentence with inadequate punctuation.  


Just watch the video.  (Make sure your audio is up; the sound effects are necessary in order for you to immerse yourself in the full, laughing-at-others'-expense-but-feeling-sorta-bad-about-laughing experience.) 


Yup, this is why we choose to live in Utah.  I'm bustin' a gut here, people . . . .

Anything For a Buck

I had to drive around the block and come up on this sign a second time so I could snap this pic.  Too good to pass by. 

Honestly people, should we really be encouraging this type of behavior?

Your Smile Could Go Further Than a Toaster Oven!

We've all heard over and over that one of the best gifts we can give to strangers is our smile.  You've heard that, right?  Of course you have, you killjoy.  

In the video below, it is fascinating to watch how the demeanor of most of these mall shoppers suddenly shifts from a ticked-off look because the small appliances department didn't happen to have the Breville Stainless Steel Toaster Oven Item No. BOV800XL that they had a hankerin' for, to a genuine grin of mirth and pleasure, all due to one little Cindy Lou Who who looks no more than two.  To me.  I'm not sure.  She could be three.  But, whatev.  Take a look:


   

(If the imbedded video doesn't work for you, copy and paste this to your browser:  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/adorable-girl-waves-goodbye/1jr0xl1ac.)


If her little pocket-sized smile and wave could blast through the hardened hearts of most of those wasted shoppers, imagine what a smile from us giant people could do.  I'm going to try it out on Old Man Geezer in my neighborhood.  (Name has been changed to protect . . . ME!)  I'm going to get him to crack a grin or else die trying!  Who's with me?! Yeah! I'm pumped!  

Addendum to Our 2011 Christmas Card or How To Dash a Dream

Oooh, sorry to break it to you, Dave, but this is just not gonna happen.  It just isn't.  So sorry.  But not really that sorry.


But!!! I'll be happy to make an 8x10 glossy of this impressive and striking photo for you to hang on your office wall at work.  You'll be the envy of exactly, uh, nobody, I'm guessing.  But, on a brighter note, you'll certainly be the talk of the town!


I.   This van's back nameplate reads "Gladiator."  I'm still not sold.


II.  Oho!  Now that this van is super famous (by virtue of my extremely popular blog, yada yada, blah blah), my adorable friend, Melissa, has "kopped" (whoo boy, bet she never got that as a kid) to owning this spectacle!  (See her comment on my previous post.)  Sorry, but even if the van is owned by someone with such impeccable taste as Melissa (she's lying, people), I'm still not giving in to Dave's begging, no matter how many Aston Martins he offers me this time around.  

What Fun It Is To Ride and Sing a Sleighing Song Tonight!

Behind the Scenes of Our 2011 Christmas Card

Part V:

While cruising along State Street of a neighboring town one day, this "VANSTROSITY" caught my eye (how could it not?), and I just couldn't shake it out of my head.  My first thought was, "Oh. No.  Dave's going to be all over this like a van is all over a snow tread."  Which doesn't make a whit of sense, but neither does this: 

What the whaaaaa?  Hands down, this . . . this . . . this THING (I don't even know what to call it) reigns supreme out of all of Dave's vehicular cravings.  

(Okay, everybody.  Now, when you saw this in our Christmas card, you didn't really think this was our, er, vehicle, did you?  Um, no.  {And, I thank my lucky stars for tender mercies such as this.  And, that's a huge understatement.})

If you don't mind, let's take a moment to reflect on the transportation purchases Dave has previously considered.  Remember this, and this, and this?  Well?  Well?  Did I call it, or did I call it?  This vanstrosity definitely takes the air out of all of those other cars' tires, does it not?!  The train of thought going on here simply escapes me.  

 But, whatev!  It made for a great backdrop for our final pic for our Christmas card, so I'm chalking this one up as one of those gurus of the power of positive thinking win-win dealies! 

Even though I was directing the whole affair, somehow I missed the memo that said we should all pretend to be singing the exact lyrics to Glória in excélsis Deo, instead of grinning from ear to ear as I did.  Oh, bother.

Grinning . . .

Grinning . . . 

 

 Gri . . . oh, never mind.

Yes!  I know, still grinning . . . 

Christian was the man with the fleet feet who set the timer on the camera and literally flew into the shot.  You'd never guess that he helped himself to a burger and some fries along the way.  That kid is a gazelle!

And now, I'd like to offer up a ginormo "thank you" to my long-suffering fam for indulging me in yet another one of my shenanigans featuring the Sagers clan.  I bow at their feet with much respect for their restraint in not completely throttling me at my every whim.  I love my family!

(I'm also hoping to curry a little favor with Dave for my next post coming down the pike.  Just wait.  It's a beauty.)

Bells on Bob Tail Ring, Making Spirits Bright!

Behind the Scenes of Our 2011 Christmas Card

Part IV:

Grandpa Richard was beyond patient with us while we dilly-dallied behind his back.  Bless his heart, his Ph.D. and former university associate dean status brought a decided bit of dignity and decorum to this bunch of nonsense.  We're forever in his debt.  And we promise to never call him "Bob."

Grandma Pauline manned the camera for these particular shots and deserves a boatload of applause and a plate of cookies for her spectacular photo skillz!

Ehhh, not quite right.

Take three!

Take four!

We'll get it right, just be patient with us!

Ooh, so close.  So close!

Ding, ding, ding!  

Thank you, Professor Sagers and Grandma Pauline, for making us look better than we have a right to!

But, what about Bob?  


Love that movie :D

O'er the Hills Fields We Go, Laughing All the Way!!

Behind the Scenes of Our 2011 Christmas Card 

Part III:

In my quickly scribbled down outline for our 2011 Christmas card, I had written "o'er the hills we go" as opposed to "o'er the fields we go."  Did ya catch that?  Give yourself a gold star if you did because not one of us did.  Not once.  During this whole ordeal.  Not one of us scratched our noggins and said, "Hey!  I think the song says o'er the fields we go, not o'er the hills we go.  We're looking at you, Mooooooommmm!"   Oopsie.  

Not until after the pictures were shot and we were adding the text did I finally slap my forehead with the realization.  Ah, well.  Hills.  Fields.  They both look kinda the same in photos, don't they?  For our purposes here (and so you don't hurt my feelings), the correct answer would be YES.  

We were originally gunning for a hill here.  It subs as a field, no?

Testing, testing . . . 

Bingo!  O'er the hills fields we go!

While we're on the subject of "o'er the hill," does this hold a strange appeal for you too?

In a One-Horse Open Sleigh!

Behind the Scenes of Our 2011 Christmas Card

Part II:

See that good old Radio Flyer sled attached to our handsome Dobbin?  That sled has been in my parents' garage long enough to have seen decades filled with Richard Nixon, Laugh-In, Led Zepplin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, mullets, macho 'staches, big shoulder pads, stretch-stirrup pants, yuppies, Sun-In, "The Rachel" haircut, popped collars, Crocs, Harry Potter, Uggs with short shorts, Facebook and (shudder) Twitter.  I think this mighty little sled could be rightly deemed a precious museum piece for having out-lived all of that mess of good and bad, don't you?

And now, that sturdy little sled has successfully survived this particular humiliation honor!

Poor little Dobbin has no clue what's awaiting him.

Testing out the lighting as well as Dobbin's patience level.

Uh, yeah, it was just a touch bright!

In this shot, I'm just trying to concentrate on my driving skills as I ignore Dave's constant reprimanding of the boys while he threatens "to turn this sled right around if they don't stop bugging each other!"  jk.

We eventually had to ask Sean to sacrifice his knees being scraped along the ground as we sailed onward, but we finally managed to snag the shot, and Sean's knees seemed no worse for the wear.

And, speaking of mullets (and we were, and you'd know it if you were paying any attention at ALL), there's this:

If you are not able to play this video straight from my blog, just click where it says, "Watch on Youtube."  It'll give you your mullet fix for the day, so you're going to want to be sure to click that extra click, dude.  Dude.