Friendly Hands

Every year I am required to attend 20 hours worth of interpreting workshops to maintain my certification. Last night a workshop was offered for FREE, and being the penny-pinching, thrift-loving money-miser that I am, I could not resist.

Apparently, no one else could either.

Aside from the fact that it was an interesting and informative class, it was like a reunion of sorts. (Almost) EVERYONE was there!


I'm not sure which I enjoyed more, the workshop itself or the visiting with everyone before and after.

Okay, who am I kidding? The visiting wins.

I am SO thankful for my awesome interpreter friends!

Duplication Is The Sincerest Form Of Fattery

above photo from thesweettoothfairy.com - all other photos by me

When I discover a treat that I cannot get enough of, I usually try to duplicate it. For example, Double Fudge Cake Bites from The Sweet Tooth Fairy. The first time I ventured into their shop I was offered a sample of these little morsels of heaven and my taste buds screamed with joy! I knew I had to make them on my own to appease my sweet tooth. A wonderful friend sent me a recipe discovered online and within a few days I was working at making my own little sweet treats.

Bake the cake, crumble it up, add some frosting, roll the mixture into cute little cake ballies...


And make sure you have ALL DAY to do it, because it's not as easy as it sounds. Freeze the cake balls for a while, then attempt to chocolate-coat them...


(I couldn't get the chocolate thin enough to look pretty.)


Yet, still... the end result? Delicious!

But not quite the same. (*sigh*)

I think the next time I go in I'll ask if I can borrow the Sweet Tooth Fairy's wand. (Do you think that could be her secret?)

After a few vain attempts, I have realized that my cake bites will never be like the Sweet Tooth Fairy's. And so today...

I am thankful that the bake shop which holds the magical recipe to create these sinful delights is just down the street.

Lest We Forget...

Have your local radio stations been playing Christmas music since the day after Halloween? Did you know there is another holiday between Halloween and Christmas? It's true! There is!

Want to know how to give this holiday the recognition it deserves?

I'd love to tell you all about it... come join me over at Four Perspectives.

The Big FOUR-OH!

I have been looking forward to telling you everything that I am thankful for today. This one's easy... I am thankful for this guy.


Today Allen celebrates his 40th birthday. So first off, let's give credit where credit is due: I am thankful to my sweet mother-in-law for getting him here. And for raising him the way that she did so that I could have such a great man for my husband.

I won't get into too much detail here, but let me tell you a few reasons why I am thankful for this man of mine.

I am thankful that he is service-minded. He is always going out of his way to do kind things for others, even when he doesn't always have the time to do so.

I am thankful for his ability to make or fix or build or do ANYTHING he sets his mind to. If he doesn't know how to do something, he's not afraid to learn.

I am thankful that he loves kids as much as I do.

I am thankful that he has such an amazing family which I have called my own from the start. I have the best in-laws on this planet!

I am thankful that he works hard and takes pride in a job well done.

I am thankful that he knows when to be serious... and when to be silly. It is so fun to have a spouse who laughs at my jokes and makes me laugh as well.

I am thankful he is mine.

Happy Birthday, Allen! Here's to many, many more years to celebrate together.

Creative Genius

On Sunday our family enjoyed dinner with cousins Glen and Jeannette. It is not often that our large family is invited over for dinner - and understandably so. However, Glen and Allen were born less than a week apart from each other and grew up more as brothers than cousins, so we were invited over and enjoyed celebrating their birthdays together.

Cousin Glen (pronounced Guh-Len, in case you wanted to know) was thoughtful enough to get Allen a gift in celebration of his upcoming big 4-0. The difficult part of wrapping a gift from one manly-man to another is that whole cutesy factor. I mean, they don't exactly make gift bags and tissue paper with ATVs and mud and guns plastered all over them. Well, with a little tape and creative genius, cousin Glen solved that problem.


One word: Awesome.



p.s. Today I am thankful for cold cereal and warm socks... and cousin Glen's creative genius.

Autumn Leaves

Today I am thankful for kids who love autumn as much as I do.

In Utah autumn is just a blink between summer and winter so we try to enjoy it fully while it's here. We play in the leaves, bake up pumpkin-infused treats and eat them until we almost turn orange, and marvel over the brilliance of the changing colors on the mountains that surround us.

The photo above is by Thumbelina, taken a couple of weeks ago just down the road from where we live. It is our favorite local tree, towering over a vacant field. In the autumn it transforms from green to the brightest of yellows and then slowly creates a blanket of leaves at its base until the winter winds have blown every last one away. The day Thumbelina took this picture she was admiring the sunset and suggested we see how it looked behind this tree. The word breathtaking comes to mind.

And then this morning I found a little orange booklet on the table, a Halloween book which All-a-Boy has been working on in his class at school, containing the following poem which he authored:

Leaves jump from the trees,
Diving into a suicidal fall,
Autumn has arrived.
Autumn brought its cold winds,
Autumn has brought its gray skies.
I hear the wind knocking at my door,
Like an anonymous guest,
Waiting to be let in.
Clouds hang overhead,
Threatening me with their ice and snow.
I smile.
Autumn is amazing.

Amazing, indeed.

Giving Thanks

I'm jumping on the bandwagon and posting every day for the month of November. I will post about something I am thankful for everyday until Thanksgiving... but for the days after Thanksgiving, it's free game.

Actually, the whole month is free game, but I promise to try. If I post everyday, I am going to give myself some sort of award or something because frankly, I'll deserve it.

Today I want to tell you how thankful I am for unintended humor. It's something that happens a lot in our home, and today was no exception.

I went downstairs to get the kids up from their Sunday nap so we could head over to dinner with some cousins. All-a-Boy was wearing shorts so I reminded him that it was no longer summer and told him that he needed to get some pants on. He grumbled and griped because his one pair of favorite jeans without holes were grass-stained. I pulled out a brand new, never worn pair of khakis from his drawer and told him to wear those. He grumbled and groaned and pulled them on to just below his buttocks and proclaimed that they were too big. I made him pull them up... a perfect fit! He then admitted that he hated khakis and would never have let me buy them when we were school shopping except that he just wanted to make me happy. I told him that if he just wanted to make me happy then he needed to wear the pants to dinner.

In true All-a-Boy fashion he rolled his eyes, gave an exasperated sigh, and asked, "What, am I going to see the President of the United States or something?"

"Yeah, All-a-Boy," I answered. "All 10-year-old boys in their t-shirts and khakis are ready for a formal evening with the president." Then I could no longer contain my laughter over his remark... and he rolled his eyes and tried to hide that he realized how silly it was, too.

In the end, he wore the khaki pants to dinner. If the President decided to show up, I'm sure he would have been pleased.

Spooky

(And that's all I'm going to say about that...)

Happy Halloween, everyone!

cartoon from inkygirl.com

These Are The Moments

Do you remember some of the defining moments in your life?

Come over to Four Perspectives and read about one of mine.

The Spooky Side of Halloween

This is how we usually decorate our house for Halloween each year.


But for this year... nothing.

We decided to use the time required for set-up towards installing a fence instead - something we've wanted for 12 years. So to make it up to our kids we've done a few other things to keep the Halloween spirit alive this year; one of these things was promising the 4 oldest kids a trip to the Haunted Forest. Allen and the 3 oldest kids had gone last year and came back with stories using the phrases 'totally freaked me out' and 'scared me half to death' which pretty much cemented in my brain that I would never have any desire to see it for myself. I mean, seriously, who PAYS for fear? Not me.

Until this year.

After numerous pleadings that I HAD to come and how it would be SO much more fun to go with someone who had never been, I caved. I live to please.

I had been to Knott's Scary Farm in California enough times as a teenager to know that the spooks and creepers can see fear in your face and that's when they target you. So my plan was to never look them in the eye.

Plan: FAILED.

Every creeper in that blasted Haunted Forest swarmed around me like I was the last piece of chocolate in a bowl of Halloween candy. And I didn't have to look at them... they would just breathe on the back of my head and I'd get the shivers and then they'd smell the fear oozing out of every inch of my body and follow me around relentlessly.

Can you say FREAKED. ME. OUT?!

Did it matter that I knew it was just a bunch of teenage boys for hire under those masks and cloaks? No. There is something about the whole atmosphere of a place that can dispel any words I had used to convince myself I could handle this.

Big 9 foot tall masked oxen? Gave me goosebumps. (made me scream) Freaky cloaked ax-bearer? Stalked me. Twice. (made me scream) Creepy clowns? Made me jump. (made me scream) White-masked chainsaw-wielders? MADE. ME. SCREAM. And that's the embarrassing part. I could not stop screaming! I would tell myself how ridiculous it was for a 37-year-old woman to be screaming at every turn in this blasted forest and to STOP IT RIGHT NOW but I couldn't listen to myself! Those stupid creepers made every last bit of common sense just disappear from my brain and I could not help being petrified.

When we finally escaped the maze I was exhausted. Every inch of my frame had been tensed up for the better part of an hour and I just needed to sleep. The next day I was aching as if I had done some strenuous sort of exercise the night before. But I will admit - in a strange way, it was a great time. Because who pays for fear? Me. And everything that was endured at night always looks better when you analyze it in the light of day.

For those of you who enjoy our home each Halloween, don't despair... next year we're going all out with some new features you haven't seen before - as well as a full-blown spook alley. And the best thing? At our house, no one pays for fear.

We give it to you for FREE.

Pick The Winner

(Note: To protect the children in the following story, I will give them non-gender names. They are referred to as Kid 1 and Kid 2.)

Yesterday was our church's Primary Program, which is the day when all of the kids pretty much take over the main meeting (under the direction of a few adults) with songs and talks. Needless to say, it's pretty much my favorite day at church of the entire year.

My cute class had seats right smack in the front of the congregation so that everyone could enjoy their 5-year-old antics, but I don't think anyone enjoyed them as much as I did.

As the whole group began to sing the first song, I sang along with exaggerated mouth movements in an attempt to help my class remember the words. This only resulted in their making exaggerated mouth movements as well, which made me laugh. And then they laughed. So I stopped doing it, because I am the mature adult here.

During one of the longer talks that was given, one of my little students began to pick their nose. I would shake my head and give Kid 1 disapproving looks and Kid 1 would simply avoid eye contact and continue to dig. One of my other students noticed my expression and looked over to see what was happening just as Kid 1 examined the treasure on the end of his/her finger, deemed it good enough and inserted it into his/her mouth. "Gwoss!" Kid 2 said, chastising Kid 1. The nose-picker simply shrugged, unfazed.

At one point, Kid 2 began to grow restless. Kid 2 tried sitting on his/her hands and playing with his/her neighbor's clothing before settling on feeling around beneath his/her chair. I saw what was happening but could do nothing about it. Kid 2 began to pull some gum off of the bottom of the chair. I looked at Kid 2 and mouthed, "YUCK" and "NO" but he/she had already worked the gum free and was showing it to me. "This was un-doe my chay-o!" he/she whispered, showing me a sticky greenish-blue blob. "Put it back," I responded quietly, and then turned my attention to the song being sung. When I looked at Kid 2 again, he/she was happily chewing something. Something sticky. Something greenish-blue.

Who is the 'gwoss' one now? I wondered silently, smiling.

So besides the uplift I received from the musical numbers and words spoken, my class had provided me with an unexpected bit of comic relief as well.

And really, does it get any better?

photo from parentsconnect.com

Signs

I spotted this sign in W-Mart this week:


...and I couldn't help but think, really? Is that sign seriously necessary?

I mean, I'll be the first to admit that we live in a conservative state. And I know that I live in a city where the local university is constantly recognized for their squeaky clean image.

But, really?

I tried to imagine what would necessitate posting such a sign, and here is the story that grew in my head...

Two roommates from the local squeaky-clean university have been asked to bring something to drink to a dorm party. The theme for the party is: Autumn. The roommates run into W-Mart and peruse the drink aisle for something autumnish, to no avail. And then, behold! At the end of the carbonated beverages aisle there is an end-cap filled with pretty yellow drinks called: C0r0na Extra.

One roomie says to the other: "Oh, my heck! These drinks are so perfect! The yellow color of them totally makes me think of autumn stuff! And bottles are so much cooler than cans! What do you think?" Then roomie number two says: "Heck-to-the-yes! We are so totally buying these pretty yellow drinks with the name C0r0na Extra! It sounds way exotic and plus it says Extra and that is my favorite kind of gum!"

So the roommates show up at the dorm party and arrange their pretty autumn-yellow colored drinks in a huge tub full of ice and everyone says, "NO WAY! How did you find drinks that are totally the color of yellow autumn leaves?! On a scale of 1 to 10 these drinks rank like a 34 for our autumn theme!"

And then the Dorm Mom walks in and says, "OH MY GOSH WHO BROUGHT ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES TO THE DORM PARTY?!" And the room is suddenly silent.

When Dorm Mom finds out where the drinks were purchased she calls W-Mart to give them the what-for and she is convincing enough that they post a sign.

But you know what? I would LOVE to hear what you think happened.

What's your take on the sign?

Just ...Wow

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Do you remember this post?

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(you didn't think I would make it that easy, did you?)

CLICK HERE to jump over to Four Perspectives and read about what is consuming my thoughts today.

In Retrospect

(Me & pal Debi, all gussied up for a trip to the mall. We liked to draw attention to ourselves.)

Have you ever wished you could write your past self a letter? Perhaps offered some much-needed advice?

I have. And I did.

Come see what I had to say to myself over at Four Perspectives!