Tag Archives: family

Hughes Family: December 10th, 2012 – December 16th, 2012

Posted on by

Sickness has overwhelmed our family these past couple of weeks. Fran almost never gets sick, and she’s had something plaguing her for nearly two weeks. I had something a few weeks ago that lasted a couple of days. I thought I was going to get off lucky, but sadly that was not to be. I woke up one night and my little girl’s nose was pressed firmly into my mouth. As I sleepily wiped the snot off my lips I recall thinking “That’s not good.” Shortly thereafter I got one of the worst colds I can remember. It’s been about ten days and I’m finally starting to feel better. And that’s about it- we have spent the last two weeks fighting off winter maladies.

CAPTION

Well, despite being overcome with various infections we did manage to do one thing last week. The built our graham cracker houses. Each house is painstakingly assembled by hand from square crackers. Only the finest royal frosting and candies are incorporated into the designs.

CAPTION

This year Fran and I worked on a church together and surrounded it by four smaller houses (one for each kid).  Not all of the candy made it onto the houses. The kids ate so much junk that an hour into our project they were compelled to rip off their clothes and start bouncing off the walls (literally).

CAPTION

We still have to add a sugar lake, but it’s a cute start. I dig our little villages. Maybe next year we will try gingerbread again. 

 

Hughes Family: December 3rd, 2012 – December 9th, 2012

Posted on by

On Monday we celebrated Mike’s Birthday again (to be fair, that was his actual birthday). He requested two chile verde burritos from Mi Ranchito (he happily ate them for several meals). Fran made a sweet potato cake but the platter it was sitting on in the oven shattered (from the heat) embedding the cake with tiny glass fragments. It was also hard to get the cake off the broken platter and it fell… a couple of time. But we popped a “9” candle on top of it and sang anyway. Then it was on to the presents. I would venture to say that Mike has very nice parents and extend family.

One funny thing that I wasn’t actually going to share: One of Mike’s presents was a Lego Batman figure (kind of like a robot). He put it together and seemed pretty pleased. I told him that I thought it was really cool. He looked at me and said, “You want to buy it?” I asked, “Why do you want to sell me your birthday present?” “Because,” he replied, “I’m all about the money.” Oh dear.

During the week Cam attended a documentary premier about the Garifuna people. It was filmed and edited by Ben Petersen, one of cam’s coworkers, while he was attending BYU.  Ben did an outstanding job and you can see a trailer of his video below.

March 3, 2013. UPDATE: Ben has made his documentary available to watch on YouTube now. This is it:

One of Mike’s birthday presents was an Xbox Kinect. Now, before certain people accuse me of getting him this because it was present at a certain party… Mike had asked for a Kinect months ago, having used one at a friend’s house. I just want to say for the record: Wow, this is a cool toy. There was just nothing like this when I was growing up. We played a bit and it’s a blast (more games incoming). As per some unspecified parental guidelines somewhere I recorded my kids using the Kinect to they could laugh at themselves twenty years down the road.

And this is the year the Hughes family will not be the shame of the neighborhood. We used SilverLeaf Landscaping for our lightning needs and unhesitatingly recommend them- we are thrilled with the results. Fran picked red, white and green for the house lights. I have no idea how to take a picture of this so you get this crappy photographic abomination. But we didn’t  stop with the house. White lights on the juniper trees…

…which have this nativity nestled between them. The pine tree in  our front yard got done up in red with larger white bulbs. And green for the peach tree (and that’s an angel sitting next to it). Yes indeed, we are going to run these things 24/7, 365 days of the year. Yahoo!
And we finally managed to finish decorating our Christmas tree!  Although it won’t really stay finished for long. I’m pretty sure there was some kind of ornament war going on this morning when I came downstairs. However, there were no survivors left to question. I look forward to the day when our tree will be left alone and we can upgrade to something nicer and decorate it with a bit more flair.

Hughes Family: November 26th, 2012 – December 2nd, 2012

Posted on by

It’s two in the morning. I need to get to bed. But I really want to bust this post out. For some reason this reminds me of college. I’d often be up late at night faced with a paper deadline. My intent was always to finish it as quickly as possible; rapid mediocrity was the goal. But I could rarely pull it off… I wanted to do my best. Luckily there are no real blog deadlines. No need to fight against the sweet siren song of my pillow. I will work on this tomorrow.

[The next morning] And just like that I’m back.

Work is getting busier. We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve, but each year we get slammed harder than we expect. Of course, we’re still light years ahead of where we were just a few years ago.  I used to sleep at work during the holidays!
A couple of months ago Fran moved out of the office we used to share. It’s taken awhile, but I have finally replaced her with a couch, two pictures, a shelf and a plant. Cumulatively they talk about as much as she did (which is to say when she was at work, she worked). No going back now.

On Tuesday Mike got his Wolf award! Fran is his Den Mother and I know she works hard to keep all the cubs on track. It’s possible Mike might actually enjoy the scouting program though. I wanted to attend the meeting, but I had made plans to see Skyfall with my Dad and brother (before I knew about the meeting). Overall I thought Skyfall was excellent (8/10).

Friday was the Sabin’s Christmas party (SCP). Everyone who’s anyone attends the SCP. Here’s a shot of our lovely hosts, Jason and Rachel… Jason is kind of holding her, I guess. I’m not sure really sure what’s going on. And here’s me and some of the boys. Fran isn’t going to like the picture of her I posted. I have no idea what hanging out of her mouth, but I love her.

Party goers played games, ate delicious food from Rubios and the evening culminated with the white elephant gift exchange. The gifts ranged from slightly thoughtful to comically obscene. I’m sure the full scoop will be provided by Rachel later this week. I don’t know why they do it, but a big thanks to the Sabins for another fun party.

Saturday brought another party- Mike’s ninth birthday. We rounded up a few of his friends and headed over to the Lehi Jack & Jill’s. First up: Bowling. Kids love bowling. I think for them it’s like a chance to break something over and over without getting in trouble. The kids turned out to be better bowlers than the adults (excuse: kids had bumpers).  I think Fran will be okay with this picture of her. She was an excellent party coordinator.

After pizza and cake it was time for Laser Tag. I really like the Jack and Jill’s setup and it’s nice to see what you are shooting (visible beams). Once again the kids the kids beat the adults (excuse: gun issues and uneven teams). After laser tag we opened presents and returned home exhausted.

On Sunday we ate at my parent’s house (sandwiches… I love sandwiches!) and reveled in their cool nativity (I used to play with pieces from this same set when I was little). When we got home we were able to get the tree up, but the only thing that got decorated was Mike. Maybe next week…  if we have any energy left.

Hughes Family: November 12th, 2012 – November 25th, 2012

Posted on by

Whew! A blog post that encapsulates two weeks of the Hughes Family madness. Impossible you say? Consider this: We didn’t too much! Every year, around this same time, something called the “holidays” start. Many people spend time with their families and others relax and participate in the ritualistic festivities of the season. But here, in the retail world, we feel the need to capitalize on the frenzied deal seeker’s shopping rampage. We work day and night to bring sales to the hungry masses. We take the cash from their outstretched arms and give them “deals” and the “hot” items. There is no rest for us during the holidays. No, there is only tireless effort and piles of cash… (tiny piles, but we make them look bigger by putting larger denominations on the top). In all seriousness though, it’s quite exhausting.

This was the guys last get together of the year (ha ha… Tom will pull another one out of this magical last minute hat). We ate at Leatherby’s up in West Valley. The most memorable part of the evening was when we decided it just might be possible to win the iPad dangling in the Fancy Cutter II machine. Sadly we weren’t fancy enough.

A few days later it was off to Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 with the Sabins. I’m pretty sure Jason and I were the only guys present. The theater was packed from to to bottom with swooning women of all ages. The Estrogen was so thick that I could barely see the screen.  I just want to publicly thank Fran for going to see it with me (yeah, part of the estrogen was mine, what of it?). I thought the movie was a good conclusion to a fun series.

Anyone ever heard of Jillian Jiggs? Jillian, Jillian, Jillian jigs, it looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!” Jillian is an adorable little girl with a hyperactive imagination that leads to chaotic adventures. She loves boxes.  “I’m mad about boxes, boxes are fun! No one will guess who we are when we’re done.” And our kids love boxes too. Normally around this time of year our church has a drive in movie (the kids decorate boxes like cars and sit in them while they watch something). This year there was no drive in so the boxes we had set aside became tiny houses,  bobsleds (down the stairs), battle armor and eventually ended up as part of a giant fort. And, incidentally, our house sometimes looks like it’s been lived in by pigs.

My sister suggested seeing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in SLC on Wednesday. We decided that would be a fun date and opted to bring Mike along.  More on that in a second. On the way to the Energy Solutions Arena (the event location) we stopped to eat at one of Fran’s favorite places, Hong Kong Tea House. I think this restaurant has actually made the blog before.While I have enjoyed other meals there immensely I felt like the food was only okay this time. Perhaps I was simply preoccupied by the fact that I had parked the minivan with three feet of the vehicle’s front extending past the actual parking zone. A few cars behind us another ride was enjoying it’s new boot for the same crime. However, we were able to escape unscathed.

Then it was on to the show! Quick Tip – if you’re going to anything at the Energy Solution Arena grab the six or seven dollar parking (just suck it up). It’s right across from the building and you will avoid almost all the traffic when you leave.
So anyway, in we went. The first few songs were fantastic and the accompanying light show was awesome. And then the show turned into a rock opera. Singing? I had no idea. I’m one of those guys who’s heard “Christmas / Sarajevo 12/24 (Instrumental)” and thought the whole show was going to be just like that. Ha. No. Personally I felt like most of the singing was mediocre, but the story was entertaining. And at the end they busted out a whole series of truly epic songs and all was well. My ears rang for a whole day.

Here’s a scene from the show. No one has ever filmed it before, so don’t bother looking on YouTube for something better (if you think I’m serious then my heart bleeds for you).

On Thursday we went to my family’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Erin and her part of her family had come down for the Orchestra but they stayed for the food (and possibly for some of the company… though that seems unlikely).

There was a ton of delicious food. Turkey, ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, corn, stuffing and abut four pies. Dinner at the Hughes house doesn’t end when you’re full, it ends when your esophagus fills up.
After dinner everyone who could still move played a round of “Beyond Balderdash”. A great game and a good time for all. Maybe we’ll do it again next year. Maybe.

Later that night I ventured out with Mike to watch some of the Pre-Black Friday chaos. I had been down to the Provo Best Buy earlier in the week and snapped a picture of people who had already been camped there for days (silly nuts).  Our AF Best Buy had  a line that nearly wrapped around the whole building. Mike asked me what kind of deal could be so good that people would stand out in the cold for hours and hours. I didn’t know. I was one of these people last year. I didn’t buy anything. Awkward.
Black Friday creep pushed Walmart’s sale to eight and Target’s to nine.  Mike and I didn’t make it out until around ten. There was still a good deal of chaos but we had missed most of the great deals and maiden adrenaline fueled frenzy. We returned home empty handed. The highlight of my night: The line in front of Shoe Carnival.

Come to think of it I didn’t end up buying anything over the weekend. I was probably too tired from selling things. Ah well, I’ll get to my shopping sooner or later. There’s still plenty of time to Procrastinate.

Hughes Family: November 5th, 2012 – November 11th, 2012

Posted on by

Some text here… a bit here, and voila!  A blog post.

Mike’s bike is in a perpetual state of disrepair from constant abuse & neglect. It seems like every month we have to repair a flat or make some of kind adjustment. We used to drop his bike off at a repair shop, but that got expensive so we started doing repairs ourselves. This last time I had Michael help me (I think Fran told me this fulfilled a scouting requirement). He was a pretty good helper.

And then we voted. The line was excessively long- I waited almost two hours- but I didn’t mind (thank you iPhone!). I would have gone later in the evening, when it turned out there was no line, but had other plans.

I have a few thoughts on the election. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I’m not particularly pleased with the outcome (though not surprised). I don’t feel like we accomplished much as a country in the last four years. Obviously I don’t put the blame completely on our president, but I think he shares some of the responsibility.

What really worries me for the time being are taxes. I don’t mind if the Bush-era tax cuts expire, or if some deductions are eliminated here and there, but I do mind a tax increase. President Obama has made it clear that he intends to raise taxes on the rich. Maybe that, in and of itself, isn’t a bad idea. But to Mr. Obama I look like a very wealthy citizen instead of a business. My company is a pass though S-corp which mean that on paper my income is the same as my company’s income. So, to clarify further, on paper I appear very wealthy.

I’m already in the highest tax bracket. Paying more taxes would simply hurt my company’s ability to grow. If we don’t grow then we don’t employ. It is the small businesses that drive the US economy. I feel like treating small business income like personal income is a mistake. In the next year I expect to pay nearly $100,000 of additional taxes. That’s money I could have used to increase inventory, expand, add employees or stimulate the economy.

I also worry about health care issues. This coming year companies with over fifty employees will be required to provide health care coverage to their full time employees. We already do this and it’s very expensive. Premiums keep rising. I worry that a mandatory health care program will drive prices up even more and eventually become a financial liability for us.

In the meantime many companies are hard at work cutting hours of full time employees so that they don’t have to provide insurance coverage to them. The net effect is that many of these workers end up with less money and they will now be required to purchase their own heath care (that’s a double whammy). Sometimes I feel like the laws that have been created to help have unintended harmful consequences.

Sure, I’m oversimplifying some things and the thoughts I’m sharing are comprised of a limited issue scope, but my point is that I’m worried. When a county reaches the point where the takers outnumber the givers there is an unsettling imbalance and the future seems bleak.

Since my Vette has been gone I have parked the Camaro in the garage. I ended up reorganizing things again so it could fit. The kids are getting older so I pulled out one of the shelves in front of the car and pushed the remaining shelf back a few feet. I know this will seem like a funny thing to say about a garage, but it really opened up the place. I had to do a lot of shifting though.

All the garden stuff and the tools had to go in the shed ( I put a shelf in there- it makes me so happy). So then I had to take some of the shed stuff that we don’t use often to a storage unit (we actually don’t have any storage room in our house so I caved and got this unit… I am sort of ashamed, but mostly happy).
And here’s a glimpse of my super secret project. But it’s not really super secret. We’re giving the home office a makeover. We’re in a month in at this point. Slow and steady.

A quick update on Fran’s foot (toe, technically): The healing is going slower that we had hoped. Apparently all the walking around she was doing made exacerbated the wound’s bad mood. No more walking! On Wednesday we finally picked up some crutches. Thanks to those of you who have wished her well and sent money (which is, of course, appropriate in this situation).

On Saturday night I took the kids to see Wreck-It Ralph while Fran took it easy at home. What a cool movie! Visually appealing, good plot and right up my alley (8/10). All the kiddos made it way though without falling asleep or using the bathroom (that I know of).

On Sunday we went to the Lott’s new home for dinner. Despite not having a kitchen it went smoothly. Fran made pecan pie and pumpkin crème brûlée. Hopefully there will be more of those in the future. When we got back I was secretly planning to have a giant pile of pecan pumpkin crème brûlée covered pie, but alas it was gone.

“But he has two sports cars! Surly he can pay more taxes!” You know what? If I really thought the government would take additional tax revenue and use it to to pay down the deficit then I might not feel so unhappy.

Hughes Family: October 29th 2012 – November 4th, 2012

Posted on by

Yeesh… I have fallen behind this past week. Too much going on. Maybe I should write a post about that. Yes, take some time to write up a nice post about how little time I have because so much is going on.

I am a big fan of Chinese food. I don’t think fried  shrimp qualifies as Chinese food but I love them nonetheless. If you’re ever looking for some good buffet shrimp check out Asian Buffet in American Fork. You have to hit up the dinner (more expensive than lunch) but it’s well worth the cost. And their main courses are good  too. Anyway, that was my point- we went to dinner and I ate a lot of shrimp. That was a good day.

Halloween rolled around and Fran took the kids out while I manned the door. Well, to be more specific the kids took off and Fran spent an hour looking for them. The crowds didn’t seem as thick this year. I would guesstimate we had between 150-200 trick or treaters (last year I think we had about 300). I always find it awkward when parents yell stuff at me from the side walk. I usually have no idea who it is or what they are saying. So if it’s you then stop it.  
I had some fluid build up in my ears this week and I was experiencing pronounced ringing which was aggravated by loud sounds (especially voices). At one point during the night I heard a lot of murmuring outside before the bell rang. When I opened the door about twenty kids screamed “TRICK OR TREAT!” and I felt like someone kicked me in my ear drums. I tried to smile and as I handed out candy to my tiny costumed attackers.

The kids all had a fabulous time (how can you not have fun on Halloween?). They came back with their pumpkins filled to the brim. Michael typically sorts out his candy in preparation to trade, sell or eat.

Gabe tends to dig in right away and eat until he gets sick. Claire is usually pretty good about rationing, although this year Fran made a discovery in her bed. This will probably seem totally anti-Halloween, but we always offer to buy the candy from our kids. The amount of treats they end up with on Halloween is staggering (school parties have them on a sugar high long before they even go Trick or Treating). Only Gabe took us up on our offer this year. We pay well, so don’t feel too bad for the kids.

We like to play games, but it can be hard with Gabe and Chloe. The other night the two youngest went to bed early and so we played a few rounds of Jenga. For some reason that night I felt particularly impressed that we had made little people who could now play games with us. I don’t want our kids to grow up too fast, but it will be nice when all six of us can settle into a game together.

I hope one day my kids read these posts and go “They had fried shrimp?”

Hughes Family: October 26th 2012 – October 28th 2012

Posted on by

This past week we had an outdoor pack meeting for Scouts. Mike had fulfilled all the requirements to get his Wolf and we were all going to attend.  Fran offered to provide the hot chocolate, but after mixing the one can we had bought she realized that it wasn’t going to be enough. We were already a bit late and there was no time to get more. Fran suggested we mix Ovaltine with hot water and condensed milk. It was actually really good.
Once we got on our way it was apparent we were in for a “treat”. Snow was falling.

And as it fell, the snow began to blow. And it blew harder and harder until they called off the award presentation portion of the meeting. Everyone stuck around and drank hot chocolate (we had made just enough). It was cold!

A few days later we all got ready to hit the Sabin’s Halloween party. Mike and Gabe were Ninjas, Claire was Cleopatra, Fran dressed as a leaf, Chloe was a lady bug (Fran and Chloe were a pair) and I dressed as a rapper…. or something. I don’t even know if people realized I dressed up.

The Sabin’s party was delightful, as always. Spooky decorations, crazy costumes, festive food, a Halloween pinata, and tons of crafts and games for the kids! Fran and Chloe won the “Most Creative” award this year and scored a sweet Halloween movie.  Many thank to the Sabins for their exceptional parties.

Here are a few quick pictures of some of the outrageous Halloween decor. You’ll get to see a lot more on Rachel’s blog once she puts up her party post.

And then it was time to carve pumpkins! The cool thing about these pumpkins is that they were all grown in Fran’s garden! And some of the kids even did their own carving this year, which was nice.

From left to right: Gabe, Cam, Claire, Chloe, Fran and Mike. These are the pumpkins in the light…

…and in the dark. How positively terrifying!

Next week is Halloween and the kids are already hard at work building a candy immunity. Will they survive? Stay tuned!

Hughes Family: October 15th 2012 – October 25th 2012

Posted on by

I don’t have time for this, but here’s another Hughes Family Update (HFU, for those of you who are obsessed with turning everything into an acronym). I think I might stop referring to myself in the third person since I moved all the HFUs over to this blog.

Fran and (some of) the kids pruned, pulled and plucked this past week. Winter is coming and now is the best time to batten down the hatches. Mike is a destruction expert so Fran had him rip everything out of the garden boxes. Too bad the kids doesn’t find the same pleasure in pulling weeds as he does ripping out vegetable plants. We will miss the green as winter takes a hold.

Fran started a new laundry initiative. The kids now have to do their own! Maybe this seems cruel, but they have to learn at some point. So far it’s been a struggle. The typical laundry pattern is demonstrated here by Mike. 1) Wait until there are absolutely no clothes left. 2) Beg mom to do your laundry, try to cut a “deal” and  complain about the injustice of life. 3) Finally wash your own clothes. 4) Remove them from the dryer while they are still wet. 5) Take them halfway to their final destination. 6) When there is no other option cram all the clothes into one drawer, wrinkles be damned. Yeah for chores!

Each year we hit up Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point. This year they had a crazy amount of stuff to do and the corn maze was election-themed.

Mom and the kids (along w/ a few other groups) went to Cornbelly’s in the afternoon. The weather was extremely cooperative given the time of year. They rode 55 gallon drum trains, played in corn…

…rekindled old friendships, rode the zip lines, flew down giant slides and had a blast. Fran said there was literally too much to do this year.

That same night the adults met up for a corn filled romp. The temperature was so nice you almost didn’t need a jacket. That made for some big crowds though. Here I am with my yearly corn cob cigar (I pop it in my mouth and turn into an Arnold-Sylvester-esque tough guy who always seems to say the wrong thing at the wrong time).

Despite the crowds there was still a lot to do. We trekked our way though the four foot high corn maze (probably a result of the lack of rain this year). We threw corn at each other and spouted off a bevy of bad corn related jokes (corny jokes, if you will). We shot the corn and pumpkin cannons, worked our way through several mazes, played some volley ball, took a frightening (and bumpy) hay ride, admired the carved pumpkins and conquered the three story slide (I got injured, per my Cornbelly’s tradition). Fran rode the zip line and the mechanical bull too (videos below for your enjoyment).

A grand time was had by all. Each year I think we’re getting too old for Cornbelly’s and each year I remember that I’m wrong.

A few weeks ago I told the kids about how I used to make “guys” out of cardboard when I was their age. Sometimes they’d be ninjas, sometimes robots, but their fate was always the same – I beat them up (in retrospect I probably had some aggression issues). I don’t know if that’s why the kids made these paper people, but they were cute. I think some of them did get beaten up.
And then there was crazy hair day. Claire and Gabe got into it, but Mike was apparently too cool for crazy hair. I wish I had crazy hair.

Fall is a fun time. The leaves drop off the trees and you run outside in your underwear to rake them up the instant you notice. No time to spare when a leaf pile is at stake. I have incredibly fond memories of playing in leaves; I wish my kids had more than one tree for their adventures.
Chloe’s teeth are in full swing now. Two bottom are in and four are working their way out on the top. Babies without teeth are cut. But babies with teeth are cute too.