Week 6: Flashback Friday

This week we take a look back at Days 23 through 27.

Honestly, it's hard to choose from these. They are some of my favorites (I wonder how many times I will say that over the course of these Flashback Fridays...). But really, they were starting to get fun, and funny, and Ryatt made his first cameo appearance this week. So here's what we have, and my thoughts. In a mixed up order:

Day 27: Where's the Snow? I'm starting with this one, because it's definitely not the winner. But I love the hat (yes, it's mine), and I'd like to point out how totally dated those skis are. They were mine as well. We bought them in 1988. Notice the color and design. Haha! I think Dale and I both got new skis that year (yes, he was an avid skier back in his two-legged days. And yes, he knows that he can still do it, but life if slower and more painful with one leg and he chose to focus on paintball instead of skiing. He'll get back out there someday).  The skis did get dropped off at DI this past summer (in Utah, the predominant thrift store is called DI, short for Deseret Industries it's a great non-profit organization to donate your surplus goods). I wonder if they'll ever see the slopes again.

Day 24: Have a Groovy Day This was definitely groovy. And another one of those pieced-together get-ups brought to us by more than one neighbor (the hat came from one friend, the fur coat from another). 

Day 23: Cowboy Up  Loved this one--ordinary items put together in just the right way. The jacket and work gloves are Dale's, the hat is mine, and of course, the horse is Ryatt's. This wave was even immortalized by Ripley's Believe it or Not!

Day 25: Wham! Pow! Ouch! I do believe this was Dale's first wave "in tights." Certainly not the last. It didn't take much convincing to get him to throw on shorts over the tights.

Day 26: Batman AND the Boy Wonder Ryatt is usually asleep for the morning waves. Occasionally he'd wake up and watch out the window or glass door. He was so excited when Dale wore the Robin costume, because he's a big Batman fan, and had a hand-me-down Batman costume (used to be Rain's). He LOVED being part of the action.

And the winner is...  Day 26: Batman AND the Boy Wonder  because, as his mother, I just loved seeing the "little guy" out there waving at his brother and joining in the fun!

Halloween Countdown Report 2

After a fun Halloween as the Incredibles (we even made the news! See video below), we thought it would be a fun tradition to have a Halloween costume theme for the family every year. Serious family unity here. This has the added benefit of providing us with festive Christmas cards each year.

And our 2006 Halloween:

Halloween 2006 - It's a whole family of pirates

Yes, Mele Kalikimaka is "the thing to say."

Looks a lot like our 2006 Christmas card:

Now for this week's Halloween Progress Report. My front lawn has quickly become a graveyard. Dale has added personalized tombstones, featuring many of our neighbors' names. Normally you wouldn't want to see your family's name on a tombstone, but it has actually become quite a sought after honor. I'll feature close-ups of some of those next week.

Wide Shot with Yellow Hearse

Graveyard

Days Until Halloween: 32

Week 6 - Ground Control

"The tower, the tower! Rapunzel, Rapunzel!"

-from Airplane

Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice: Over.
Captain Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?

-from Airplane

"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?..."

-Captain Oveur

Week 5: Flashback Friday

Up for review this week... Days 18 through 22. 

About this time the costumes were starting to pick up steam and creativity and the neighborly donations had begun. Which led to another sort of problem. Sometimes we weren't really sure what we had, and what the best use of various props and outfits might be. For example, Day 19 - Dressing Up for the Show was a bit of a combination of props. The hat and coat were loaned to us, but they definitely needed some bling. We don't have much in the way of bling, so Dale pulled an ornament off a paintball trophy and hung that around his neck. The cane he's holding is pretty cool, from his own collection of canes. I do believe it might be a special "sword inside" kind of a weapon cane. And those shorts? Well, yeah, I think he had those left over from the 90's.

Day 20 - Feeling Kind of Raggedy was a loaner costume, but I think he "borrowed" the sucker from a stash of Ryatt's candy. Ryatt doesn't eat much candy, so it tends to gather dust.

  

Day 21 - Go Padres! is not so much a costume but an everyday look for Dale. We both grew up going to the "Junior Seven Up Padres" games at Jack Murphy stadium. Driving there from our San Carlos neighborhood, my family would usually drive around a corner in Allied Gardens where there was this old hearse parked, full to the roof with old newspapers. Maybe images of that old hearse planted seeds for Dale. That, along with the fact that he's always thought of hearses as the ultimate surfing vehicle. And after the Padres games? Thrifty ice cream cones. At least that was my family's tradition. And on that particular day last year (September 23rd), the Padres really were in first place. Doesn't happen often.

Day 22 - Donkey Kong spawned a few discussions about the fact that we had Donkey Kong in the title, but the character was actually more of a Mario (red hat=Mario, green hat=Luigi?). But whatever. Maybe the title had less to do with the costume than the individual wearing it? I'll admit that Donkey Kong was more my era, and Mario Bros was my kids'. I was in junior high school when the first Donkey Kong arcade machine was released and in high school when my cousins (see Waving at Ozz) somehow got a full-size Donkey Kong machine at their house. So cool!

And this week's Flashback Friday award goes to.... Day 18 - Cleaning Up.

Not because it was the best costume (many people suggested he looked like Moses from a distance), but because having your dad wave at you in a bathrobe and shower cap is so much more embarrassing than the Chargers helmet could ever be.

Halloween Countdown Report 1

Halloween is a really big deal in our neighborhood, thanks to my husband. 

I used to think it was a "no big deal" and an "eat a bunch of candy" kind of a holiday. Then Dale bought a hearse. And parked it on our front lawn. And in a visionary "build it and they will come" sort of way... he built it and sure enough, they came.

So we dressed up for the occasion. And yes, I realize how lame my costume was that year. I was still getting used this "over the top" concept for Halloween:

Halloween 2004 - Pirates and Chargers

Pirates 2004

And who could resist a baby pirate?

Baby Ryatt- Post Trick or Treating and still smiling

Halloween 2005

I got on board a little more the next year. How could I resist? Our kids were the perfect ages and genders for this one:

The Incredibles 2005

And then it became a tradition. And our Christmas card photos. I'll dig up more pics for next week. 

As for Dale's 2011 Halloween plans, here's this week's progress report. The rickety fence is up, and the hearses have taken their rightful places as lawn ornaments:

Step One - Hearses and Fence

39 Days until Halloween.

Week 5 - Family Business

 "Okay boys. Let's go make a withdrawal."

-John Dillenger

Week 4: Flashback Friday

Up for review this week... Days 13 through 17.

By way of reminder, Day 13 was the Referee (Life's Not Always Fair). A possible tribute to Dale's dad, as Dale spent much of his childhood playing in the bleachers with his brothers while his dad refereed basketball games.

Day 14 was the first paintball gun day. Dale in his gear. If you zoom in on the back shot, you'll see his team name on the back of his jersey: Paraplegic Turtles. This one made it little tough to find something to say. What is there to say about waving at a bus with a gun in hand? "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" ??

Day 15 was our first (indirect) Village People reference. I really just felt like breaking out in a chorus of Y-M-C-A when I saw him out there. If only a few of the neighbors could have joined in as band members...

Day 16 was something of a nod to Rain's younger years. The dress-up cape and crown were simply child-sized. When our kids were younger and Legoland California was new, we "invested" quite a bit in their swords and shields and other costumes (like the pink princess on Day 10). Ryatt and his friends still use these props almost daily.

Day 17 came from Dale's motorcycle days. He likes to share the story that those fine leather gloves he's wearing still have dried blood on them from his own car versus truck collision. And that is the same helmet he was wearing on the fateful day, May 10th, 1992. He's obviously good at hanging on to the sentimental things in his life. But really? Wash the gloves already.

And this week's Flashback Friday winner is... Day Fifteen - Building Memories

Why? I just like the realistic look of the set up, down to the circular saw in his hand and the ladder in the background. Why else? Well at this time in "the waves" we had no idea of the impact this blog would have, on our lives or the lives of others. We kind of half expected that we'd do it for a month and be done. Or maybe just until Halloween... 

Thanks for Building BIG Memories, Dale!

"Before" Pictures

This is not the post where I tell about losing 80 pounds and running a marathon. Another day. However, this post does include "before" pictures! Before meaning before Halloween 2011.

It feels like Fall around here and our neighbors are beginning to wonder if Halloween is really right around the corner. Usually Dale starts decorating right after Labor Day (if not before). As of this morning, though, our yard shows no signs. Stay tuned for the progress, as I'll be posting weekly updates right here.

Soon. Very soon. There goes the lawn...

Before - Halloween 2011

And, as a bit of a spoiler... here's a glimpse of where it's headed. Halloween Night is a party in our neck of the woods:

Week 4 - Dragon Training

"My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe that a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that."

-Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon

 

Week 3: Flashback Friday

This week's Flashback Friday includes Day 9 through Day 12. A funny thing about this week is that this is when we got our first little bit of publicity. My sister, Suzanne, sent a note to her good friend Rebecca Cressman, who had gone to Patrick Henry High School with Dale (my alma mater as well). Suzanne told Rebecca about the daily waves, saying "Hey Rebecca... having teenage boys AND having gone to Patrick Henry with Dale Price, I know you'll appreciate what he is doing to make his son feel loved in the morning! Yes, Dale married my sister Rochelle and they live in AF." Along with a link to the blog. The next morning Suzanne sent me a note saying that Rebecca was going to mention Dale "on the air" on FM100, a local radio station. Here's how that "mention" went:

And of course, being the technological wizard that I think I am, I recorded the streaming audio from the FM100 Internet stream and, after getting permission from Rebecca, I posted that audio to YouTube and subsequently shared the "mention" on my facebook page. Here's a glimpse of the response we got from  facebook friends (click on pic to view original size):

Now, I'd like to point out that right there, on September 9th, 2010, my friend Marianne "called it." We laughed at the suggestion she made, but she actually said, "He's going to end up on Good Morning America. . . :o)"  Who knew? Well, apparently Marianne did.

On a similar note, last week we had a comment on the Flashback Friday post that went something like this:

The Reverse-Dad said... When you got on TV I heard some comments that I didn't agree with saying you were intentionally embarrassing your son to teach him a lesson, did you feel they were valid at all? Were you trying to teach him something? I read your story and the vibe I got was "Fun Dad wants to engage his son and doesn't care what anyone else thinks!" 

Well, actually, since I copied and pasted that, the question went exactly like that. Since this is a common question, I thought I'd say something about it here: We weren't trying to teach any lessons. I think lessons were learned (like how to laugh at your dad and appreciate his love without being ashamed of him), but the lessons were the bonus, and Rain pretty much knew that stuff already. We were mostly just laughing with our son, putting a smile on his face. There weren't a lot of kids on the bus, and many of them knew us already anyway. I had one friend tell me (after the first three days) "Tell Dale THANKS! My daughter refused to ride the bus until she learned what Dale was doing. It's so great!" We like to laugh and we like to laugh with our kids. Waving at Rain was simply a way of laughing and smiling with him each morning. The costumes were not so much costumes (in the beginning) as they were just silly props and kids dress-ups from the toy box. We didn't know how long the waves would continue. We kind of thought we'd go until we ran out of toys, making sure we got a curlers one in there and a shaving cream one, and then quit before it got too cold and dark to stand outside and take pictures. We definitely didn't think we'd be doing it all year. And so that's how it began, along with the deep thoughts and planning (or lack thereof) that went into it.

With all that said, our Flashback Friday award goes to "The Pink Princess!!" aka "Day Ten - Have a Princess Perfect Day" This was the first girly outfit, generating a lot of smiles and laughter.

Uncle Alejandro

This one takes a bit of explaining. The setup: Rikki is a Lady Gaga fan (see Day 117). We'll start with that. Not Rikki's typical genre of music, but she loves her talent. Last summer (2010) we drove to San Diego for a family reunion. Having grown up in San Diego, we often joke about Dale being mistaken for being Mexican instead of Hawaiian. Rikki put Lady Gaga's Alejandro song on, and we all sang along. We then joked about calling Dale by the name Alejandro.

Our Norton Family Reunion was a pretty big gathering. My parents had five children (and a Native American foster sister for many years, but that's yet another story). We were all there with our spouses and our children (with the exception and a shout-out to my niece Emily who had already left for college at BYU Hawaii). So, two grandparents, five children, five children in-law, and seventeen grandchildren. Yup, 29 out of 30 of us. And we spent all week together. It was awesome.

Dale told the nieces and nephews that he was no longer "Uncle Dale," but they should now call him "Uncle Alejandro." And so they did. Laughing at him and with him the entire week. At the end of the week I put together a slideshow of some of the festivities and included a special little segment just for Uncle Alejandro. It's silly, but so are we. Here's a link to that segment:

So... when Dale dressed up in a Mexican poncho on Day Five, we had to give a little shout out, chuckle, and tip of the sombrero to Alejandro.

And as long as I'm tipping sombreros, I'll give a big booyah to the best Spanish teacher I know. My little brother, Senor Norton, teaches high school Spanish for Mesa Public Schools in Arizona. Check out his podcasts here or search for Norton Spanish in iTunes.

Week 3 - It's a Habit

"Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun. Auf Wiedersehen, darling!"

-The Baroness in The Sound of Music

Week 2: Flashback Friday

For this week's Flashback Friday, I'm choosing from Day 4 through Day 8. The first week of school was a short week, so our numbering is a bit off. Keep in mind that everything was still in the very early stages here. This whole Wave At The Bus thing was not premeditated. It just evolved. We weren't even really in full blown "costume" mode, just random objects and toys from around the house. Which is why I give the Flashback Friday award to Day Eight - You Light Up My Life. 

 

Maybe I liked this one because I was out of town, so it was the first (and only?) photo I didn't take (our neighbor Mark filled in for me on the camera). When Mark emailed me the photo I laughed out loud at the silliness and the simplicity of it. And sometimes it's the little details that really make these good--Dale is wearing a shirt that Rain once gave him for Father's Day. His shirt says "World's Greatest Dad."

And, by way of honorable mention, this week's runner-up is: Day Five - Adiós mi querido hijo. I loved this one because we have an ongoing "Alejandro" joke in our family. I'll spill the beans on that in a future post.

Believe It Or Not!

Last week we spotlighted Dale's appearance in the pages of the National Enquirer, with Arnold and Anthony. This week we found his caricature on the same page as slugs and roundworms. Much more respectable.

I love the great job the artist did on Dale's prosthesis and slipper. Ryatt was thrilled that his stick horse "Dusty" was represented.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not Daily Cartoon

http://www.ripleys.com/weird/videos-and-oddities/cartoon-09012011/