Goodbye, October....

I think I probably took over 400 pictures during the month of October. Consider yourself lucky that you only had to view about 390 of them her on the blog.....

Today we went up to This is the Place Monument and then to one of our favorite parks in Sugarhouse for a picnic. I took a lot of nice, fall pictures.

The 3 younger kids went trick or treating, while Parker stayed home to pass out candy. They lasted about 1 full block before whining and wanting to go home, same as every year. Free candy just isn't as special as it was when I was a kid. Free candy is obtained by saying "Mom- can I have a Snickers Mom- can I have a Snickers Mom- can I have a Snickers? Mom- can I have a Snickers? Mom- can I have a Snickers?" and they don't have to wait for a holiday and stockpile the sweets.

Tomorrow, Matt and I are going away for the weekend to a bed and breakfast while the kids are so high on Halloween candy that my ex is reminded why he never sought custody,lol.

DUH

I was supposed to tag other people.....
I am officially Tagging .....

Brian and Paige
Caleb and Shell
Brianne W.
Kassie C.

Take the first part of my post yesterday and finishe them with your own answers. You will notice perhaps, there is no #17. I dont know where it went. Maybe it was holding on to a Milk Dud when I ate it.

35 things...

I was tagged.
35 things:

1. Never in my life: Have I enjoyed camping
2. When I was five: I lived about 10 miles from where I live now, 30 years later.
3. High School was: great, even though I went to 6 different High schools
4. I will never forget: Matt's smile on our first date
5. I once met: Nobody. I haven't met anyone interesting of famous.
6. There’s this girl Who is too dumb to function and I have to deal with her.
7. Once, at a bar: I had a date who was hustling pool and since I don't drink and was annoyed that he even took me there, I called a friend and ditched him. He was pretty mad, but I didn't care. He was a loser.
8. By noon, I’m usually: listening to Law and Order and starting dinner.
9. Last night: I babysat Dylan and he was NOT feeling it.
10. If I only had: finished my degree, I'd feel less concerned about the economy.
11. Next time I go to church: Matt will get set apart in his new calling
12. What worries me most: Something tragic happening to Matt or the kids. Not measuring up. Falling and not being able to get back up. I have many worries, especially for a yellow.
13. When I turn my head left, I see: my messy night table
14. When I turn my head right, I see: matt's messy night table
15. You know I’m lying when: I don't lie except to people I don't respect, then I lie to get them to leave me alone.
16. What I miss most about the eighties: the utter lack of gravity affecting my body shape.
18. A better name for me would be: I am happy with my name, but as a kid I always wished I was named "Dani"- it sounded so awesome back then. Everyone was named some version of "Chris" when I was a kid, even the boys.
19. I have a hard time understanding: how some people have no desire or ability to grow in life. How they just choose to become a link in a chain.
20. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: study a lot more than last time
21. You know I like you if: I give you a present
22. If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: Matt. Everything good in my life is because of him.
23. Take my advice, never: put bullets in a cigarette lighter. My brother and I did that once as kids and we're lucky we didn't get killed. We did explode my Uncle's Toyota Dashboard.
24. My ideal breakfast is: stuffed french toast
25. A song I love, but do not have is: I buy every song I like. I can't think of any.
26. If you visit my hometown, I suggest: letting me know what my "hometown" is. If it's Gilbert, AZ.... come in the winter. If it's Taylorsville, Utah...don't leave your ipod in an unlocked car.
27. Why won’t people: drive to accommodate my mood on any given day.
28. If you spend the night at my house: I am sorry, but we do have seven children.
29. I’d stop my wedding for: nothing. Maybe a death- but otherwise, I'm going to get my RM,lol.
30. The world could do without: long lines.
31. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: eat a salad with both fruit and chicken in it
32. My favorite blonde is: Romy
33. Paper clips are more useful than: Matt's ex wife
34. If I do anything well, it’s: If Matt tells you, he has to kill you.
35. And by the way: I am giving up Milk Duds

2 more

My cousin is doing a family project where they are doing a digi scrapbook of all the cousins and aunts and uncles and whatnot.

I am doing the layouts for our family, I have already posted two, and I finished 2 more last night.

I just need Sunnie's recent family pics and I will send them on to Shauna, my cousin. I hope the other cousins all participate, but I won't hold my breath,lol.

Pretty maids all in a row

Jane got a new Sunday dress this week, Matt called it her "Madeline" dress and she couldn't look cuter. Romy also got extra dolled up this Sunday for church and enjoyed getting a picture with Zane, who gave his first ever talk in church. He did an amazing job, talking about the Priesthood and the blessings he gets from it. He also mentioned the spiritual experiences he has had serving the elderly at the Golden Living Center and bore his testimony. He didn't look up once, and Matt and I worried that he would pass out, but he made it through just fine.

I took Boris to the groomers yesterday who chopped off his beautiful coat and made him look like when Parker got that buzz cut a few years ago that everyone hated. His hair will grow back, though, but for now he looks like a fox that had an accident with an angry Flowbie. A fox with no teeth that is hard of hearing.....

I did run into another "pom mom" at the groomers who also had a dog that was rescued from a bad place, like Boris. She gave me a lot of advice and support in helping out Boris, she said her dog was so scared of everything for a solid month until he knew he was safe, he still gets spooked and weirded out for a few days when he gets scared and he never took to his crate, it was too traumatic for him. Her dog was a yapper who drove them crazy barking while he was still freaked out, so I should encourage Boris to keep quiet since Poms are typically really noisy. The two dogs were very friendly with each other and it helped me feel more confident to meet someone else who had been through this. She said after a few months her dog was a normal happy dog and as long as we are consistent and kind to Boris day after day he will relax and feel better.

I love that both the dog and the cat are the exact same color of our Pergo flooring.

I am starting to get stressed about the holidays. It looks to me like every weekend until 2009 has something on the calendar already. Eek.

Party Time

Today we had our annual Halloween Party, hopefully this picture enlarges when you click on it- if not-- try and guess who all the tiny costumed people are....

The ward talent show was also tonight, most of the Olson family was there and got to see our wacky ward show off. This ward has some seriously funny people and we fit in so well here. The kids did amazing. Thanks, Moe for videotaping it, we'll force those who were unable to come to watch the video when we get it-- the kids were all singing on key and had the timing just right and we were proud- we have been working on our song for quite awhile. Last year we told lame Chuck Norris jokes because we didn't know until the last minute how many people we would have, so it was hard to really prepare something. This year we did great. I'm really proud of all the kids and appreciative of everyone who came up today for the party and for the show, I know it was a long drive and it meant a lot to us.

Dancing with the 4th graders....

Last night, after dinner Greyson informed me that I had agreed to chaperone his field trip that was....today. I had no idea and vaguely remember signing a permission slip a month ago. The timing could not have been better since I also got a note from Zane that the school gave him two weeks ago that he needed a TD booster shot by Monday or else he couldn't come to school.....also last night.

Matt took Zane for the shot and I dragged my butt to the field trip to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum and This Is The Place State Park.

I had a really cool group of kids, including one little girl who wanted to talk about the presidential race who told me that her uncle said if Obama gets elected, the world will end and it was a sign of the second coming.

Oh how I love Utah,lol.

The state park was great- I want to go back with Matt, we love this kind of stuff and it was really interesting and the scenery was gorgeous up there.

We spent time in the dance hall where all of the kids were forced to dance with each other. Grey HATED it. He tried to escape and wiggle his way out of it, but he was stuck. I was glad that his teacher snapped a picture of him holding hands with his partner. As you can see, I was stuck with the grumpy old dance caller as my partner. Matt had better watch his back and learn some stylin dance moves if he wants to keep me from dosido-ing off into the sunset with my new dance partner.


Here's a hint, honey....Moonwalk.
I'm all about the Moonwalk.

Boris

We had to wait to post this so our stalker (hi!!) didn't spoil the surprise and tell the girls before we could....we got a new dog. I've been getting lonely during the day and it isn't really the time for me to go back to work or go back to school. I am not someone who feels some sense of fulfillment having my house sparkle and shine and I have been having a hard time settling into this season of motherhood.

So....I was given the green light to get a baby:

We talked about breeds we liked and what would make me feel happiest and we had agreed on a small or toy sized dog and were looking at various breeders of Yorkies and Bichons. Because I am a person who believes you always try and get a rescue animal first- I hit all the local shelters first, but I was not going to geta dog that did not fit into what we wanted and what I needed. Every shelter has a bajillion big ugly dogs that break your heart, but are not what would fit in our family. I had one last shelter to check out before contacting local breeders and I found him.

In my heart I have always wanted a "Sharon Osbourne" dog. Her dog was so cute and such a girl dog, but Pomeranians are expensive and furrier than what we were looking for...BUT with this guy having been saved from a puppy mill and needing a home---it was too hard to resist. Poms are my favorite dogs. I had Grey with me at the shelter because he tends to freak animals out because he gets scared and I needed a dog that would not scare him- and he would not scare it back. This little guy was friendly and curious, but not the least bit aggressive. The shelter had cats everywhere roaming free and the dog was very comfortable around them.

So, that's the story of how "Boris Grishenkov" or Bobo came into our family. He is adorable but dumb as a bag of wet bread because he lived his whole life ina 6X6 pen. I bought him a crate yesterday and put him in and he freaked out. I guess he spent a lot of time in a small cage as well. He also was very flinchy at first, he has clearly been abused, but now he is doing fine. He hasn't barked yet and knows none of the normal dog things, like what toys are for, how to walk on a leash and if he doesn't go #2 by tomorrow I need to get him to a vet, but he is going #1 outside now. He's very calm and happy and just a sweet sweet dog. Just not too bright.

I need to keep him away from patch. If they got together and had babies, the babies would be too dumb to walk and what a freaky looking puppy they would make together. The love Puppy between Bobo and Patch must never happen,lol.

Anyway- here is an example of just how dumb this cute little dog is. He slept with the blanket the first night. The second night I put the blanket in his bed and he slept like this........

Attack of the clones....

Matt is going to be Stuart Smalley for Halloween, I picked up his wig yesterday and Greyson looked at it and asked "Is Dad going to be Parker for Halloween?"

You be the judge.......

10 things

Ten things I love about this man in no particular order....

1. He knows the difference between "nice" and "good." Not only is he incredibly nice, but on every level he is good. I value good. I have always appreciated this quality in him.

2. He's masculine. I like a man who doesn't have a feminine side, and therefore appreciates our differences. I love that he yells at the TV during football games and he wrestles with the kids. He takes out the trash and he inspects the house for intruders when I hear bumps in the night. He can fix anything and he always offers to drive. I love that I have a man I can count on and I feel safe with.

3. He's smart. The guy is not only the smartest person I know, but when he doesn't know something...he reads the directions.

4. He's hilarious. When we dated I actually felt intimidated by how funny he was and wondered if for the first time in my life, I was out of my league. One evening I had him laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his face and I knew--I was worthy,lol. Nobody cracks me up the way Matt does and nobody shares my evil sense of humor quite the way Matt does.

5. He is humble. When something is going wrong, Matt is the first person to scrap all of his ideas and see if we can start from scratch. he does not become overly attached to who is right and wrong, he just wants us to be doing something that works. His ego isn't involved in how he is as a husband or a parent.

6. He is seriously the most handsome guy I have ever met. I have always found tall guys to be the best looking and that was one of the initial attractions to Matt, but now that he seems normal height to me, I look at him and every day I cannot believe I am with someone as good looking as he is.

7. He is hilarious with babies. I see him around our nieces and nephews and he cannot help but talk in a silly voice and quickly gets the little one hypnotized by his silly voices and faces he makes. I stand back and watch this giant man turn into a cartoon character and it cracks me up and warms my heart.

8. He has a strong testimony. Matt knows what is right and what is wrong and does his very best to always follow the straight and narrow path. He knows that choosing the right is more than just checking a series of items of one's spiritual to do list and it's far more than just passing for righteous and convincing others. None of it means anything if he knows in his heart, something isn't right. He does not cut corners or attempt to fast track things of the spirit. he could care less if others think he is a spiritual giant and does not equate his relationship with God by the status and number of his callings. He is the proverbial acorn tree and has been such an example to me and to the kids.

9. He's sincere. If Matt says something to you- he means it. He does not offer empty platitudes to others, fake compliments and he does not kiss up to people. But he is often there with a sincere and genuine compliment, one he truly believes. When Matt says he likes something you have done or that he appreciates you, or that he is sorry about something- he means it.

10. He's appreciative of the things he has in life. While we do wish we had a little more money to finish the house, Matt is grateful for the blessings he has. He and I both have been in relationships where we were treated poorly. When I do loving things for Matt, he notices and appreciates it, even the small things. It makes me want to do more for him. When someone at work goes the extra mile to help him with a project, he comes home and asks what we can do to thank that person, when the kids do their jobs without having to be beaten within an inch of their lives, he notices and takes that child aside and tells them he is thankful for them. When he prays he expresses gratitude to his Father in Heaven for the blessings he has and for our family and our marriage. He helps remind me that even in our hard times, we are very blessed.

Love Love Love

Apparently, we're all feeling the love here at home.

Romy enjoyed playing with my new stamp set I earned from hosting the monthly get together for the Stampin' Up group in our ward. I went a little nuts with the Modge Podge this weekend and my final project was this plaque I made that Matt swiped.

The primary program was today, it was pretty cute. I am sure the presidency is glad to have that major project behind them, it was a ton of work. We have a good sized Junior Primary, but a really sparse Senior Primary. Grey Kate and Zane are all in the same Sunday School class.

Saturday Dad Olson came over with his kick-butt paint gun and the house is now 80% painted gray. He did in 3 hours what would have taken us 30, we still need to paint the gables and do the edges, but you really saved us a ton of time. Everyone in the ward noticed and said it looked great. Thank you so much. We love you to bits!!!!

Happy Birthday this week to my Brother-in-Law Aaron and best of luck to you on your new job!

More Elsie paper projects

I have turned into a Modge Podge beast. Still using the same kit, I made 2 frames.

I also used the rest of my supplies to decorate the new window seat for Roe's bedroom, but it's still wet and gunky.

I picked up this chunk of wood at the DI yesterday, I think it was a cutting board in another life, but I decided I have not had glue underneath my fingernails in too long and it was time to be crafty.
So, I gathered up some recent Elsie products I had lying around and made this decoupaged plaque. The picture turned out a little blurry but it has ribbon on it and the rainbow is plastic and cute as can be. It reads "I love my creation" and this family is kind of a creation of Matt and I.
Not sure where I will hang it, it doesn't really go with my decor but I love it and it's cute as a button to me.

Next week Matt and I are going to the theater. Into The Woods is playing, it's a play I have seen about 3 times already and I am looking forward to matt seeing it. It's probably my favorite play. It follows the stories of a few well known fairy tale characters and what they learn and experience as they venture out "into the woods" to get the things they want. As they all venture out into the unknown they make choices and those choices have consequences and each one of them is affected differently by the consequences of their choices. Some lose their way, some find strength they never knew they had, some find that chosing and growing up is just too hard and they refuse to do it.

I absolutely love this play and it has some parts that move me to tears. The character of the Baker, has an absent father who pops in and gives weird advice and disappears right when it matters most. The baker and his father enjoy a final song, where the baker has decided it's just too hard, he's running away, too. His father says It's a great idea..just think of the consequences...

Running away- let's do it,

Free from the ties that bind.

No more despair

Or burdens to bear

Out there in the yonder.

Running away- go to it.

Where did you have in mind?

Have to take care:

Unless there's a "where,

"You'll only be wandering blind.

Just more questions.

Different kind.

Where are we to go?

Where are we ever to go?

Running away- we'll do it

.Why sit around, resigned?

Trouble is, son,

The farther you run,

The more you feel undefined

For what you've left undone

And, more, what you've left behind.

The baker hears this and, overwhelmed by the weight of everything wonders aloud why one cannot break the curses of the past and just go forward and be happy with their families, why the children are left to clean up the messes of the generation before. He cries:

No more curses you can't undo

Left by fathers you never knew

No more quests

I did not know my father until I was an adult, until I had Parker. I did not have the typical child/parent experiences that shape a relationship and I came to know him through the eyes of a jaded adult who-- at 20-- knew everything, and to realizing around age 30-- I didn't know all that much. That being a parent is so much more complicated, no matter how old your children are. That everything we say, everything we do as parents, our children remember, our children absorb and it has an impact on them in some way. Every choice, every word, every give and every take, impacts them. It's not always what we hope and there are things our children will forgive us for that maybe they shouldn't and things they won't forgive for, that they should. Once we act, we cannot control how it impacts our children. We cannot stop acting and making choices, but we must be aware that everything we say and do-- has an impact on our children- for a long time.

I love my father a great deal. He is a complicated man. He lives a complicated life. I will never know what it is like to be "daddy's girl." I did not grasp that fathers mattered until I met Matt and saw what a loving father he is to all of our children. I am not angry at my father, I know he did what he had to do, what he felt was right and best. It just left me--different than it would have if other choices had been made. This play helps me examine that and see where my role in all of it is now. It helps me pay attention to the things I teach my children and the choices I make.

Anyway- this wins the award for longest blog post ever, but my life isn't only about cooking and gluing crap on paper. That's just what my blog is about.

I'm famous

Yes....I am famous. Okay, I'm not-- but the back of my head and sweater made the evening news last night. That was kind of funny to look up and see news5 covering the BBBS event and they scanned the group and for a split second....my green sweater.

Here is yesterday's Creative Challenge layout.

On another note I have come to realize Romy's funny Halloween costume idea is turning out to be a pain in the rear. Anyone have a giant set of boxing gloves we can borrow? I've looked everywhere.

Insert clever title here...or any title

I can't think of a title to tie these two pictures together. Suggestions?
Today we attended the BBBS luncheon downtown. I got to meet some of Matt's co-workers that I hadn't met before and we enjoyed some great speakers and food. What a wonderful bunch of people. Matt sure loves being on the board. They do a lot of good in the community and are just some of the most inspiring people I have ever come across.

Now for this holy mess......This is Parker's science project. This is a plant cell made of cake and candy.

He told me he probably won't need lunch money tomorrow,lol.

Gag......

Creative challenege is done for today

Today's creative challenge layout. Apparently everyone has stopped doing it though, and I'm feeling lilke a tard for still doing my daily layouts.

I got roped into a christmas card swap. I don't make Christmas cards, I mail them and I think that's a big enough accomplishment as it is. Last year I mailed over 100. No way could I hand make all of my cards but I applaud the dedicated women who do.

I'm itching to paper scrap again, it's been too long, but I need to find the time. I think I may start with a mini album. We'll see. I''m taking the kids to Frghtmares over UEA weekend, and we have a big party to prepare for in a few weeks.

Creative challenges- weekend edition

The Great Pumpkin Adventures

Wow, I'm getting really desperate with the titles, aren't I?

Anyway- after cleaning up we took the kids to go pick out pumpkins and carved them. We ended up with a few that don't even have anything that resembles a face, but with each year we get significantly less whining that "pumpkin guts are messy!" Oh, don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of whining, but it does manage to decreas each year. The duct tape helps a lot.

We enjoyed hot apple cider and then made carmel apples that were not so easy for the three in braces to eat. We'll do family movie night soon and call it a wrap.

Lori, Brent-- we are thinking of you and we love you so much.

"Show Your Biggest Smile, Grey"

-Matt

Duh

What do you see in this picture? A chunk of bark? Crap that doesn't belong in my house?

You are wrong, so wrong. Today Romy brought this home from school, as she got in the truck I said to her "why are you bringing that piece of bark home? Did you get that at the nature center?"
Romy: "Ugh! It's a habitat, Mom. Duh."

Duh.

------------------

Also:

Here are my creative challenge layouts from the past 2 days. Click to englarge, if you care.

Stick a fork in us

We are done.

The roof is finished, but not without making sure it gave Matt something to remember it by (Besides a winter without leaks.) Those who have spent time in our yard know that we have a deathtrap of a patio. Today, Matt fell prey to it's evil intentions we have avoided for the past 2+ years. While climbing up the stairs to do the final 10 minutes of sealing on the roof, one of the 2X4's snapped, and Matt went through the stair and hurt his leg really bad.

He's wiped out.

I also finished canning the applesauce. I still have about 8 more jars of pears to do, but applesauce is way messier and labor intensive than just straight up fruit. I made a healthy, delicious dinner tonight and went to scouts where we played "Marco Polo" in the dark gym until, as usual, our youngest scout got hurt and started to bawl.

Anyway, I'm also wiped out.

So yeah....we're done.

Creative challenges day 7

Susie Homemaker....eat my shorts

She's got nothing on me today.

Apples and pears went on sale for 39 cents a pound at a local farmer's market store and I stocked up. I've done applesauce before and will start that after the kids get home from school. I canned pears this afternoon and also made 4 loaves of zucchini bread.

I am still drowning in the stuff, but I think the Zucchini Fairy will visit some more of our unsuspecting neighbors (Thanks Aunt Lynnae for the idea.)

I have more pears to can- peeling them was a royal pain, but I am excited at how they turned out. I think I have another set of 8 jars, and I probably have 10-12 jars worth of apples.

Creative challenges

Days 5 & 6......

yeah, new rules are going to come into play for the Olson family. Mom and Dad are a little tired. The kids need to help out and do some chores. We wrote out a detailed list of what each chore entails so as to prevent kids from washing only the cups and calling the kitchen clean, from putting laundry in the fridge, and from stuffing all the junk on the floor under the beds so high that the legs do not touch the floor any longer.

And now for something completely different....

Not only do I love blogging, but I love reading blogs. I love being able to click a key and see how my friends and family are doing, without having to actually get up off my butt and socialize. I am not the social butterfly type, more like a social woodpecker. I just make a lot of noise.

I have a select few blogs mentioned here that I frequent but on any given day, there are a dozen other that i enjoy as well. Today, the author of this blog started to follow me on Twitter (make a general conference post and you suddenly get a million new friends,lol) and I checked out his "service" blog.
http://serviceafol.blogspot.com/
What a great idea.
It's filled with challenges to serve others.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

And back to the same boring stuff- Romy went to the doctor today for her follow up- she's healing well, but still in enough pain that he refilled her prescription. She's getting headaches and he said it's just harder on you the older you are, so she is home again today and possible tomorrow. He said most kids miss a full week of school, so she is doing just fine.

digi crap

I'm just screwing around with brushes and overlays. The colors here are painfully loud, but then....I know these kids pretty well and they can be painfully loud as well. It looks a little too "digital" for my liking but I'm trying to get better at creating my own background papers.

I'm probably going to post a few more digital designs today as I watch conference.

Elder Eyring's talk was great this morning, wasn't it? So was the talk after that- the one where they mentioned not engaging in conflict does not mean you are weak. It's something Matt and I have really tried to do in the past year-- to not back into that cholla cactus and to not even engage in the conflict others would bait us into and wish us to engage in. There are those in our lives that no matter what- any interaction brings contention and conflict and pain, and we made the choice earlier in the year to simply walk away from it and ignore it. It has brought a tremendous amount of peace to our home and to our relationship. That's not to say we have come anywhere close to perfecting this concept- but it was nice to hear that the choices we felt were the right ones, were those that our father in heaven truly advised us to take. We have made our choices for the right reasons. It doesn't always work out how we would hope and we have stumbled and stumbled, but it was good to hear counsel that said to us "You're on the right path--just learn how to steer better."

From the Mean Mom files

Yesterday we had to pick Zane up in American Fork at 10pm, so we decided to stop by and visit Abbie and then hang out at Mom and Dad Olson's until it was time to go. We brought Abbie this little piano and she was so freaking cute with it. At first she just banged on it and when it made noise it startled her a little and after awhile she discovered hitting the keys with one-- just one- finger to make the music. It still startled her a little, but she would get very pleased with herself and look up and we'd all cheer. She's such a cutie bug, I wish we lived closer.

At Mom and Dad's we just visited and I got to hear the story of when Matt got the great idea to sneak out of the house and Mom called the cops. My husband, the rebel of Santaquin, Utah. It was a little late for Roe to be up and so she was feeling very "makey outie" and was hanging on everyone, especially Grandpa.

For anyone who wonders how band practice went for Parker.....it would have gone much better if he had not chosen to hide the fact that he and his buddies planned to cross town and hang out at a house with no adults and then respond when Mom reminded him of the rule that you don't go to houses with no adults with "I'm 15, not 8!"

Yeah.......That didn't work out so well for him. His future as an angry teenage bass player may be derailed forever.

Eh-- cry me a river.

Creative Challenge Day 4

Here is today's layout.

I am thankful for the priesthood power not only in the gospel, but in our home as well. It brings me such comfort and joy to have such a wonderful husband who can bring healing, comfort, and inspiration into my life through the power of the priesthood. How I love this man.

On another note--Parker is off with friends forming his first garage band. We'll see if all those hours playing bass in his bedroom and Guitar Hero will turn him into a superstar.