Luck Had Nothing To Do With It....

Today is the three year anniversary of the first time we - The Family - hung out.  Back then we were just friends - maybe even acquaintances.

It's crazy how much things can change in just a year, let alone three. It is so strange to picture a time before we all knew each other - before we depended on each other to be there when we need them, or just to accept us for who we are on our days where we don't want to act - and stranger still to think that it's pretty much over now.

However, though I believe that the past is behind us and that we shouldn't dwell on the things we regret or wish we had done. I believe that your past makes you the person you are and that it should be regarded with respect.

I know, without a doubt in my mind, that these stories - treasured memories of our past - are a huge part of the person I am today. The mirrors, lights, and smoke have cleared, and I actually like the person I turned out to be.

That confidence used to be so far out of my reach and because of these stories - mostly the people in them - I will not ever lose it.

As the most frequent writer on this blog, I am going to take the liberty of signing off - permanently - with a simple dedication to the people that made me who I am today - to how cavalier we used to be and the beautiful insanity. 

I will never forget it.

The Epic Ending of the Great Prank War

If you all would just take a minute and look through the Blog Archives, you will find that the last move made in the Prank War was by the girls. You will also notice that it was posted on May 28th of LAST FREAKIN YEAR. The rules clearly state that a white flag of surrender must be hung from the losing party's base house. Katie and I - and Ryan's parents - agreed that, since it had been almost a WHOLE year without any kind of retaliation, the boys had pretty much surrendered, without actually doing it. Being the great friends that we are, Katie and I were more than willing to help them out.

To hang a flag of shame you only really need two things: a flag, and some trusty old duct tape. Katie and I embellished the flag with a huge marker so that it read "We, Ryan and Tanner, succumb to the superiority of Paige and Katie. SHAME SHAME SHAME on us :(" According to the rules, we had to hang it from their base house - Ryan's - for them, so we headed on over, not knowing where Tanner was, and knowing that Ryan would be stuck at a choir festival for the next four hours - unable to interrupt us like he did on the last one.

We arrived at the Ditty household, sheet and tape in hand. Mama saw the sheet in my hands, the tape in Katie's, that look in our eye, and clapped and laughed like a giddy schoolgirl, saying, "Oh, you guys are FINALLY going to do it! YES YES YES YES!!!"

Naturally, we asked if it was alright if we used duct tape on her roof, to which she said, "Oh, of course!"

Kate and I took to the roof, and Grace took the camera. In a matter on minutes, their banner of shame was hung, for the entire neighborhood to see. Kate had plans for later in the night, so, after we sent the tell-tale text, we left. While we were out and about, we received a text from Mama Ditty which said the following:

"It fell down. . .so Andrew (Papa Ditty) just nailed it to the roof :D I WILL get a picture with the boys by it before the night is over. . .!"

To sum the rest of the story up, after Kate left me, I returned to the Ditty house because I just couldn't resist the opportunity to see Ryan's first hand reaction. By the time he got home, it was much to dark to see the banner, but Mama had Papa go out and hook up a flood light so he would be able to see. How much cooler could those guys get, honestly? Needless to say, the boys were not happy, but they had their chance. The Great Prank War has come to a close without a white flag of shame. . . um, I mean, surrender, hanging from our base. Boys, you told us to bring it, and, apparently, it looks like we brought a little too much! I think we all knew the girls would come out on top ;D This is just our proof!

Moments Like These

One HUGE post!!!

So. . . we haven't posted in ages. Seriously. The last post was in February, before Tanner's birthday, but after our Family Christmas. So, in all reality we just suck at posting. To be honest, I can't really remember too much about Christmas, so most of this is coming from Kate's personal blog, because apparently THAT one is important enough to update, but this one isn't. Haha, just kidding, Kate :D.

We gathered at Katie's house with our gifts for one another, and the mandatory bubbly with which to toast to another wonderful year - which is funny because as Ryan said, "We were in the same spot last year and we all hated each other!" You guys would be surprised at how true that is. Anywho, we all love each other now, thank heaven. We poured the bubbly, and exchanged gifts.

I got Ryan the leather bound collection of Ray Bradbury books, Tanner the button key from his FAVORITE movie - Coraline - and the guys and I chipped in to get Kate a Dogeared necklace.

Ryan and Tanner chipped in and got me a star - which has been named Amity. They both have a rather odd obsession with rings, so they each just bought each other a ring that they knew the other wanted.

Kate gave Tanner an Express shirt, because we ALL agree that Tanner+Express= HOTTNESS. It's just a fact. She gave Ryan a 'Never Shout Never' shirt, and she gave me an awesome apron - in honor of the culinary field that has eaten my life - and a leather bound edition of Treasure Island. Pictures follow, but first, an explanation. See, when it's just the four of us, it's super hard to get all four of us in the picture. Ryan tried his hand at the whole camera thing, and we mocked him relentlessly because, well . . . he and the camera didn't get along. So Kate took a lot of pictures. She was there though :D

Ok, so after this all happened, we went back to our busy lives. Tanner is a full-time supervisor at the Megaplex at Thanksgiving Point and his major in Deaf Studies at UVU, Kate with her driver job at Jimmy John's and her, FINALLY ended, hunt for her extern, Ryan with his dedication - or lack thereof - to school, and me to my management job at Jimmy John's and the Mountainland Grill at the MATC. Tanner's life hasn't changed much, Kate's still at Jimmy John's and is now working at a hospital for her extern so that she can finally be done with her MA training. Ry has everything in order, and is busting his butt at a daily rehearsal for Pippin - his senior play. I've since quit Jimmy John's because the GM I started with got fired, and was replaced by someone who really didn't - and still doesn't - know what's going on. We didn't get along very well, so I left for a better job at Applebee's. I'm a chef on the line in the back, I get paid a dollar more than my MANAGEMENT job, and it's a FULL TIME job. Again, as Ryan so eloquently said, "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SUCK IT BENJAMIN SUCK IT!!"

Luckily, we were all able to find time to gather for Tanner's birthday. It was quite the eventful day. We bowled at Jack and Jill's in Lehi - I think there is a picture of the scores, I'm telling you now that I lost. Bowling and me don't get along - I love it, but I'm known as Queen of the Gutterballs for a reason. After we were done there, we stopped by Zupa's to pick up some food - as is the tradition for Tanner's birthday - and headed to my house where we ate - and toasted with the mandatory bubbly - and tie-dyed shirts. Then we did the presents. Katie got him a green shirt from J-Crew (if I remember correctly), I gave him a book by Edward Gorey - the guy who inspired Tim Burton - called the Gashlycrumb Tinnies - it's pretty much the alphabet of death - and Ryan took the cake with this one by getting him the ridiculously huge Coraline collection. It has a name that escapes me, I'm sure Tanner will be able to tell you. . .

Anyway, that's what the Family was up to for the long space of time where the blog was ignored. There are still. . . .

Moments Like These

Trying to think. . .

I've spent the last month trying to think of a post for this woefully ignored blog. I assure you we're all as good of friends as ever, we've just moved on - if that makes any sense. Our crazy days are behind us, though we're all still crazy enough to have fun. We've all changed so much that the earlier days of this blog seem like a funny dream. Marianas Trench's Acadia describes it perfectly.

In the house I grew up in
My room in the basement the hours turning to years we spent
Remember Chris in the backyard
Laughing so damn hard and no one knew why
But the rest is forgotten behind me
Sometimes it reminds me of when we, we used to belong here

Every memory comes on when I hear that old song
That we used to sing with the words all wrong
I remember the faces and familiar places
And I sing along but Acadia is gone

Ran out of gas on the highway, we walked there
And I gave drunken speeches on the sobriety
Now we've all moved away and somehow became men
But I remember where it began
Left behind me
Sometimes it reminds me of when we, we used to belong here

Every memory comes on when I hear that old song
That we used to sing with the words all wrong
I remember the faces and familiar places
And I sing along but Acadia is gone

Remember when 1712 Acadia Road fell
And they tore the house down

Every memory comes on when I hear that old song
That we used to sing with the words all wrong
I remember the faces and familiar places
And I sing along but Acadia is gone

Dear Family,

I miss you all so freaking much!! :(

Much Love,

-Katie Marie

Well, It Has Fulfilled It's Purpose. . .

"Moments like these just can't be forgotten."

I'm writing this post because I miss my family. We haven't had any adventures lately - actually, we've BARELY seen each other lately. I don't know about you guys, but I'm going through some serious withdrawals. I've missed our times together so much that all I could think to do was go back to post one (which is where my quote at the top came from) and read about all of our good times to hold me over until this upcoming Thursday - our family Temple Square night.

I found myself laughing out loud in surprise as I read about things that I - regrettably - had forgotten. My heart literally smiled while I relived our schemes and good times, and I think I'm even more excited for Thursday than I was when we first planned it. I love you guys!

Moments Like These

Man Points

Katie was withholding the man points list, but Tanner and I used our manly cunning to snatch it from her car.

On the last day of our Summer cabin trip, Paige and Katie decided to see who was more manly; me, or Tanner.
These were the results.

We each started out with one hundred points.

Tanner:                                                                 
Start: 100
Bacon: 50
Burning hand: 5
Feet off floor: -20
Boredom: 5
Noticing girl hair: 10
Seductive grape: 50
Condescending glare: 10
Tongues: 20
Dirty water: 25
ADD: 20
Blow dry face: 15
Aggression towards Paige: -25
Kneeling to Paige: 10
Cleaning up: 20
Glade scented candle: -10
Stutter: 10
Entertainment: 10
Kitchen affection: -25
Singing: 10
Admitting he doesn't like a burger joint: 10
Being "awesome": 10
Not helping Beverly Hills (Cassidy): -10
Constantly checking list: -10
Wandering confusedly: 15
Not showering for ride home: 20
Not complaining: 10
Changing clothes: 10
Not shaving: 10
Not listening to female counterpart (Paige) : -10
New page: 10
Packing up: 15
Man hair: 10
Full facial hair: 25

Grand total: 435




Ryan:


Start: 100
No girls: 10
Complaining: -10
Breakfast: 25
Sitting like a man: 25
Chewing dead pig: 10
Hair comment: -25
Cocky: 50
Looking lost: 50
Thinking: -10
Argumentative: -5
Complaining: -10
Cigar comment: 60
Man laugh: 10
ADD: 20
Mario pants: 10
Bring up wrestling: 10
Cleaning up: 20
Maroon 5 favorite band: 5
Complained: -10
Death threat: 15
Kitchen affection: -25
Singing: 10
Kitchen affection refusal: -25
Admitting he didn't like a burger joint: 10
Confidence in manhood: 10
Checking the list: -10
Smelling amazing: 25
"I love you": 10
Cunning: 5
Little boyish demeanor: 5
Knowing how to spell: 5
New page: 10
Packing up: 15
Man hair: 10
Singing/dancing: 20
Not shaving: 10

Grand total: 465




I won. Because obviously I am more manly than Tanner. As if that wasn't already shockingly apparent.