What is an OmaHeck...

It is likely you have never heard of an OmaHeck. We kind of made it up. Here's a little history:

When I moved to Utah in 1990, I was introduced to a brand new phrase: "Oh my heck!" I guess it means "wow", "no way", or "that's surprising." It serves as a multi-purpose expression and possibly a swear :-0 (as in "Oh my heck, you are a jerk!)

When the family left Utah and settled in Omaha, NE (2004), we became "OmaHecks."

Saturday, December 29, 2007

"Sumo" cum laude/A girl and her dog

Dane was so excited this afternoon. He pulled out his brand new Christmas crayons, with their myriad colors and neatly manufactured tips, and started to draw a sumo wrestler. This was the end result. He just kept saying, "I am doing it! I am doing it without looking at anything!" He has this gift for art. Sumos are pretty important right now also. Dane got some Ben 10 Sumo Slammers for Christmas. I have to admit, they are pretty cool. It is a fun game to play. We have some shots of him with his hair in a topnot, wearing only his underwear (hiked up in the back, for sure, to look authentic). I have spared him the potential embarrassment (and potential liability) of posting them online, but rest assured the I have them available to use as leverage once he becomes a little more modest (or at least self aware).




A quick shot of the most beautiful member of our family... Cyndie is pretty cute, too :P
Sumner loves Cyndie and goes to her when the rest of us get too rowdy or make him uncomfortable. They are good pals.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

How Brave are You?

Cyndie came upon a broadcast of "Lord of the Rings" the other day while she was straightening up the kitchen (reminding her that we need to have a Ring Trilogy marathon over this break!)
Dane came in and asked what she was watching. She replied that this show was probably too intense for him.

Dane retorted indignantly, "It won't intense me! I am precisely chicken already!" Gotta love that little man's way with words.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas Morning






Here are a bunch of shots of the boys as they opened presents this morning:

BYU-UCLA Las Vegas Bowl

I know I already have a football-focused entry today, but I just found these and wanted to post them.

Here's a little background: a brother and sister (she does photoshop for a living) challenged each other to a little photoshop duel depicting the end of the BYU-UCLA Las Vegas Poinsettia Bowl . They posted the pics on cougarblue.com, a BYU fan site. The offerings:



Once the CougarBlue community began voting, they also came up with offerings of their own...
The first, a decidedly LDS bent. The second, going for the nostalgia vote. How many games can John Beck actually win?

The Light is Green, The Scan is Clean...

Yeah, I stole the line... Remember in "Ghostbusters" when Ray is explaining to Winston how the ecto containment unit works? He explains that "when the light is green, the trap is clean."

Cyndie had her thyroid cancer scan in December (thankfully we got all the insurance issues resolved, see the November post). We finally got the results just last week. No sign of any thyroid cells and no sign of any cancer. We are so thrilled. We know we have been blessed through the faith and prayers offered on her behalf. It gives us pause to think of the many, many souls who have petitioned our Heavenly Father countless times. We are humbled.

Some may have heard that after 2 clean scans (now completed) we'd be looking at a scan every 5 years. Well, medical protocol has changed and now the doctors can monitor any thyroid cell presence with a simple blood test. That means no more painful and expensive injections and no more scans. Heavenly Father certainly blesses us with great technology and knowledge to improve our lives. We are grateful.


December is so "nICE"

December brought the real beginning of winter in the form of Freezing Rain!

For the uninitiated, freezing rain is precipitation that likely starts out as snow, then falls through warmer air and melts, but when it hits anything that is colder than 32 degrees F, it freezes solid. It's a Midwestern thing. I was used to it, but Cyndie was pretty freaked out the first time it hit us (she's an old--but not too old--pro now!) We were prepared, though. Newscasters and community groups were warning about the impending ice storm. Fortunately, it was a Saturday and we had nowhere to go.

It truly was beautiful. Dane, Sumner and I went out to play a bit and got these cool pictures.

Chicken wire from the garden


Chicken wire, pumpkin vines and bean supports


Pumpkins that didn't get carved were in the compost... some decomposing faster than others. Tate keeps track.


Ice on the leaves and branches of our trees. It was 1/4" to 1/2" thick all over the city. In 1997 Omaha got hit with an ice storm in October... most of the trees still had most of their leaves and the extra weight caused a lot of damage. Members of the Church mobilized quickly and set about clearing fallen trees and sheds, garages, etc. so the Utility companies could get access to power and gas lines to restore electricity and heat. The effort earned plenty of goodwill and the end of the story is that goodwill helped the Church to procure the land where the Winter Quarters Temple now stands.

November Challenges and Celebrations

Insurance Schmin-surance!
Have you ever had the joy of dealing with your insurance company when you don't agree, and each of you is convinced that you are correct, each with data to prove out your case? Let me tell you, it is pure joy (can you read the sarcasm in my prose?)!

Due to the nature and cost of her treatments for thyroid cancer, Cyndie maxed out her deductible in January. Subsequent treatments were billed as such. Then, mysteriously, in about May or June, her deductible was reset, unbeknown to us. Prepping for the end-of-the-year treatments became a delight as we were fortunate to spend hours on the phone with service reps who simply did not know why the deductible had been reset. Promises of both time lines for resolution and supervisory call-backs to explain exactly what had happened were repeatedly unfulfilled. Then, miraculously, one day it was all better. No calls, no explanation. Had we not been looking at files, we wouldn't have been any the wiser. Fortunately, it did get taken care of in time to release the pre-scan drugs required for Cyndie's treatment (whew!) and though delayed, our hard-stop of December 2007 was once again in the cards.

With help like this from insurance companies, it is no wonder that so many are talking about a centralized, government-controlled health insurance program. Despite the problems we had, I can't imagine what the challenges would have been like with a government bureaucracy in addition to the insurance company's. Yikes!

The Rest of November...
Mostly brought fun times. Aunt Buggy came to visit and meet Sumner.



Divine Intervention?
BYU beat the UofU in Football... on a last second play... again! Here's a shot from the winning TD. MWC Freshman of the Year Harvey Unga (pronounced OON-guh) just ran over the Ute defense and into the endzone. Note the cool B&W/Color contrast in the pic... also note that 2 guys are MWC smocks are clearly elated that BYU has scored.

You'll recall that last year John Beck completed a 11 yard pass to a wide-open Jonny Harline with no time remaining. Signs popped up all over Cougardom stating "Harline is still open!" This year, Utah took their first lead with just about 1:30 left in the game. They had the Cougars backed up facing a 4th and 18 from inside their own 20. The Ute defense once again broke down and Max Hall completed a 65 yard pass to Austin Collie. That pass kept the game-winning drive alive, culminating with Unga's TD. Quick flash forward: Some enterprising Cougar fan rented a plane to fly over the Utah-Navy Poinsettia Bowl pulling a banner that read "Harline is still open... and so is Austin Collie!" I am not a bitter person or a bad winner, but it warms my heart to know that someone spent $$$ to rub salt in those wounds... Also, my dad told me that you can buy shirts in Orem/Provo that read "Enter to Learn, Go 4th and 18." Rivalries are beautiful... especially when you are victorious!

Give Thanks!
We got to spend Thanksgiving with our dear friends (and technically, fellow OmaHecks), the Robinsons. We are so glad to have good friends here in Omaha.

You Say its Your Birthday...
We'll its Cyndie's birthday too! We had a rockin' party, the four of us. Ended up at HuHot, our favorite local Mongolian Grill. Mmmmmm Delicious! Cyndie is 29 and holding firm. And boy do we mean firm. Her regular workout schedule and nutritious/delicious cooking have turned her into a lean, mean grammar machine (she still enjoys freelance writing and editing).

Halloween!

Always a fan favorite in the OmaHeck household, Halloween is the annual introduction to fall. We love to decorate our house and ourselves... This year's celebration began way back in May when Cyndie and I plopped some pumpkin seeds in a corner of the garden. Mother Nature and Nebraska soil rewarded our efforts (apparently not much is required) and we got some pretty decent pumpkins.

We lost a few along the way. They boys know that if you knock the pumpkin off its vine in August or September, no matter how big it is, it will get mushy. Tate loved to tell me that "another pumpkin is rotting" and to ask when it will be completely decomposed. But our harvest ended well and we had some pretty good sized ones.

Now looking at this picture, you might think that Dane has had some kind of unfortunate accident and lost his leg. Let me assure you that he is completely intact, and the missing leg may have been his way of channeling his 2007 costume (see below).















Carving the pumpkins with Dad is an annual tradition. We got it in under the wire, and were pretty excited to let our friends know that from seed to harvest to design to carving (and pulling out the guts first!) these bad boys were 100% home-grown.













The take this year was as bountiful as ever, and we had lots of fun running the neighborhood with friends and seeing the decorated houses that seem to get better each year.

Here are a few more shots of the boys' costumes... These hams can really play it up!

Catching Up...

Clearly, I haven't been as good at updating this blog as I had hoped. I won't go into all the gory details... but what follows is an attempt to catch up on significant events this fall.