Sam's Day Out

Our family had a very scary day on Tuesday. I (Christy) was at work on my lunch break when I got a text message from my sister, Melissa, that said, "You know Samuel (our nephew) is missing, right?"
Let me tell you a little bit about Sam. He is 4 years old, the son of Ben and Heidi Dimick and first Dimick grandchild. He has had some developmental problems, which mostly affect his speech so far. He started talking later than he should have and when he did, it sure was not in English. We're still trying to decide if it's German or Vietnamese. For example, he calls his aunt Christy and uncle Scott "Pussys" and "Bot". I don't know exactly where he gets that first one from. He is just the most adorable little thing and we would all do anything for him. Another one of his problems is that he is very OCD. When he goes to my parents' house he goes straight to his trains (his favorite thing in the world) and sets them all up. If you even think of moving anything out of its place he completely loses it. He has had some testing done and they have gone back and forth between blaming his speech problems on autism and chronic ear infections. He has been having speech therapy for a year or so now and is doing well. At this stage we don't know exactly what is going on with him but we do know that we wouldn't have him any other way!

This is his school photo from last year. Cute, huh?
Another of his quirks is that as soon as he walks into someone's house he promptly removes all of his clothes. The first time he came to mine and Scott's new home he didn't even think about it, just ripped everything off. He also really loves the kitties and likes to talk to them. Here's some awesome shots of both of these things.


So back to text messaging on my lunch break. I said, "WHAT? No, I did not know this." Melissa went on to tell me that he had been missing for about an hour and that he came home from school and disappeared shortly after, that the whole family was at their house looking for him and freaking out, that the police were looking for him and that they were about to call in some blood hounds. I started to freak out when my sister texted me again and told me they found him. Apparently the bus driver took Sam home and he ran inside and said hi to his daddy. The bus driver came to the door to make sure his parents were there and didn't see Ben, who had gone back into the back room and couldn't hear the bus driver, and upon seeing that Samuel was apparently home alone, told him to go back on the bus. So while everyone was going out of their minds and all of Orange County was looking for him, Samuel was having a nice ride on the bus taking all the other kids home.
The bus driver did the right thing since he is supposed to see the parents in order to drop the kids off, and I keep thinking about what that poor guy thought when he pulled up to the house and saw all that mayhem.
Now, the best part of this story is how our other sister, Katie, found out. If you think that it's bad that I found out an hour later through a text message, wait til you hear this. Katie arrived home and saw that there were no cars in front of the Dimick house, which was weird because there are 7 cars that live there and SOMEONE is always home. But, the door was unlocked and the TV was on, so she figured someone was home in some part of the house. What really had happened was that they had gotten the call and everyone ran out of the house so fast that they left the TV on and the front door totally unlocked. The phone rang a few minutes later and Katie answered it, noticing that the caller ID said Westminster PD. It was a recording that went something like this:
"Attention Westminster residents, there is a 4 year old boy missing...
That is slightly autistic...
And can't carry on a conversation...
Wearing a train t-shirt..."
Hmmm, wonder who that could be?

All that matters now, is our Samuel is safe and he doesn't even know anything happened! When he got off the bus he kept saying, "Why you sad mommy? Don't cry."
It just makes you remember to appreciate your family a little more. And maybe update each other on important stuff.

Restless Youth of Today

Pumpkin carving is fun, you find the perfect pumpkin, plan a design, and then execute it. This is usually what happens...but nothing can prepare a person for a mutant pumpkin! Christy and I were invited to our friends Michael & Allie's apartment for a triple date pumpkin carving extravaganza. All was going really well, we were all having such a great time. Until Christy let out a blood-curdling scream! I quickly rushed to her side to see see what was ailing her, only to discover, we were the unfortunate hosts of a mutant pumpkin! The insides were tainted with a brownish slime! It was truly disturbing to the psyche.
There was only one course of action that we could take, smash it before the plague could spread! And that's just what we did, we all marched out into the alleyway and prepared for the proper disposal of the bane of pumpkin-kind!




The world can rest easy once again, the nightmare is over...for now...

Who Directed These Videos?

You may or may not be familiar with this, but our new favorite thing is literal music videos. We all know how music videos are not always representative of what is happening in the song. These vidoes take the original music video and dubb new words over the old ones and some of them are really funny! Here's a few of our favorites, and if you don't like them at first, keep watching, because a lot of them keep getting better. If you have any favorites, send them our way!

My Super Creative Husband

For those who don't know, I (Christy) am a veterinary technician, which involves getting pretty dirty everyday. Whether it is snot, fecal matter, urine, blood, dirt or whatever, it doesn't matter much because I always have my trusty scrubs on. Well recently we had a small emergency which involved me getting a bit of blood on the front of my scrubs. For this purpose I prefer darker scrubs but that day I happened to be wearing light blue ones. I washed them in cold and forgot all about it until I pulled them out of the drawer one day and put them on. I thought, it's just a small spot, no one will really notice, and finished getting ready. When I was all ready and had about 5 minutes until I had to leave, I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time that morning and realized that everyone would notice. I could have just changed and forgot all about it but then what would I do? Throw out the scrubs? That's when I remembered what a creative husband I have. I said, "Scott, can you draw something on here to cover the blood? You have 4 minutes." He got out his sharpie and went to work, and 2 minutes later, exactly 2 minutes later, I was out the door.

Pretty good for 2 minutes, huh? Could you even tell it was blood? And I got compliments from all my coworkers. So those of you who know Scott know that I may not have the neatest husband, or the cleanest, or the most handy, but you do have to agree that I have the most creative husband.

The Long Haul

Last weekend we had one of many firsts together: going to General Conference. We drove with Melissa and Mike Waller to Utah and it was a verrrry long drive. We somehow turned a 10 hour drive into 12 hours. It could have had something to do with stopping in Barstow to go to Del Taco for BREAKFAST, stopping in Vegas to go to the Luxor, stopping in Mesquite for gas and lunch and pulling off somewhere in Utah at a Burger King for drinks. The drive was actually quite fun though- Fact or Crap??

We finally got to our destination and then on Sunday we went to the afternoon session of Conference.

It was a really great session and Elder Holland's talk was so awesome! We were all so excited about it and of course he's our favorite guy anyway.

After the session was over we decided to walk around a bit, but since Temple Square was closed and we could only view the temple from just outside, it didn't last long.




It was freezing cold and raining off and on so we went back to our car which was parked across the street from the Conference Center- we were lucky enough to get a parking permit for the Church Offices parking structure. This is the coolest parking structure: it has a full car wash and a mechanic's, which we assume is for the general authorities and the mission cars. We pulled out into this line of cars that was not moving at all. After sitting in it for 10 minutes or so we decided to look for a different exit, which required driving past the mechanics. As we did so, Scott said, "That was President Monson in there!"
"No, it wasn't."
"Yes it was! I swear!"
"Are you sure?"
"YES!"
So we park the car and everyone gets out and runs back to the mechanic. Of course it wasn't President Monson. It was ELDER HOLLAND! We all went in and shook his hand, he asked where we were from and he said that that was a great place to be from. He also said we were all very sweet for coming and patted Christy and Melissa's cheeks (which their husbands are not allowed to kiss anymore), and then we were on our way.

Overall it was a really fun weekend with some good testimony-building experiences. But man, we are so not gonna make that drive again anytime soon.

It's about time!

Hey, everybody! It's time for an update! So here's the deal: I'm still working at the law firm scanning and doing all sorts of things. It's really interesting and I learn a lot about the world of law and the beings who inhabit it. In more important, more romantic news, Christy and I were married on June 6th! We are loving the married life! I tell people it's kinda like culture shock in that I come from one tribe and she comes from another and when our customs mix, it's very interesting. I'm learning a lot of new ways to do things though. I love living with my buddy, she is so sweet to me. We're very good for each other in that she kicks my rear in gear and I downshift the gear that her rear is in when she's speeding and has no breaks in life. We're also learning a lot about insects. Our apartment is a haven for ants and spiders of all shapes and sizes. We're just grateful to have a home though. Life is going very very well and we are enjoying every minute of it.

"Take The Stairs"

So, I work at a law firm. I work full-time at said law firm, I work sitting down for seven and a half hours and I'm afraid that I'm going to get pneumonia from all this sitting down. I try to get up now and then and walk to the bathroom or to the kitchen for some exercise, but it just doesn't seem to cut it. I expressed my concern to one of my co-workers and she told me I should take the stairs when going between floors. Now, mind you, the firm I work for has two floors and sometimes it is necessary to go to the other floor to get or drop off a document. I usually do this by using the elevator because the stairs are just so out of the way. But with my new resolve to not get pneumonia, I decided I would take the stairs. So, as I walk out the door to the stairwell and it closes behind me, I forget that it is locked by a passcode. Luckily they told me the passcode on my first day...right? Right? Let me see here....Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...move the handle...nope...no good. Maybe it was the other way around? Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...come on, handle! Blasted handle! Maybe the code works on the other floor! So I go down the stairs to the other floor and try my hand at the keypad. Beep, beep, beep, beep...NOOOOOOO! Wait! Maaaaybe if I called my friend Jennifer and asked her what the passcode is, all my problems would be solved! Brilliant! I pull out my phone only to realize that no phone is going to get reception in between 20 feet of brick and mortar! So, I have two options: 1.) Stand outside the door and hope and pray that someone shares my fear of either gaining weight or getting pneumonia and they come outside the door to find the creepy new guy standing out there waiting for them or 2.) Walk all the way down to the first floor and take the elevator all the way back up. Well, I figure my second option would be the best in the way of exercise and so, I walked down every flight of stairs until, finally I reached the bottom floor. I then marched into the elevator and back into the office as if nothing happened. But I can't say I didn't get what I wanted.