If You Think Being a Ninja's Hard Work, Try Being a Mom

Happy Halloween! 

On Saturday we went to a Halloween party. They had a place for us to take pictures in our Halloween costumes. This year we are a Ninja family! Here we are using our ninja skills and posing for the picture: 

Giggle giggle. Get it? Because we're ninjas you can't see us. Actually, Ash and I went trick-or-treating at some local businesses. We went into a chocolate store (that was NOT giving away chocolate to trick-or-treaters but plain old tootsie rolls. So sad) and the girl behind the counter said "You! Ninja! I can see you! You're not being very ninja-y!"

Oh, but I suppose you really do want to see our costumes. Well, ok:

The downside of being the shutterbug in the family is you have tons of pictures of other people's costumes, but none of your own. Just take my word for it that my costume was cool. 

You Actually Go Outside in These Things? Well, What Would You Prefer? Yellow Spandex?

Have I mentioned how much I love Halloween? I LOVE Halloween. My favorite part is the costumes. I love homemade costumes the best, and I love themed costumes even more. This year so far, I've mostly loved toddler costumes, as it was a big part of my life this year. I've also noticed that here in Sunland, people dress up their dogs for Halloween. A dog in a costume is always adorable: no matter how store-bought or homemade. 

This year i made our Halloween costumes. Here we are: 

A family of ghosts!

Bawahaha. Ok, ok, these are actually homemade Halloween decorations I made for our house. They look pretty scary at dusk!

What? You didn't actually think I would unveil our costumes before Halloween, did you?

This is War, Peacock. Casualties are Inevitable. You Can Not Make an Omelet Without Breaking Eggs, Every Cook Will Tell You That. But Look What Happened to the Cook!

I do love CLUE. It's my favorite board game: it always has been. I love it so much I have four variations of the CLUE game. I read all the books when I was a twelve or thirteen and I haven't just seen the movie, I have it memorized.

I also love How To Host A Murder parties, and have been dismayed for several years that there was not a CLUE version of How To Host A Murder. So this year, I decided to write my own. This was do mostly to the fact that Rissy and I have been wanting to do another Saboteur game, but we are not in the same state, which makes things difficult. So, instead, we decided to write a How To Host a CLUE together.

At first, we tried to make it so it had the same element as How To Host A Murder; namely, enough real life, real time facts that through logical thinking and the process of elimination, you could reason the identity of the murderer, but also have it be like the board game clue; namely the murder weapon, location and murderer would change each game.

This brought be a whole new respect for the board game CLUE. It is such a perfect game. it's so simple, yet very complex. It's efficient, yet fun. It's... unrepeatable. After puzzling over it for a month, we gave up. We'll keep working on it, but I'm not sure there IS a way to merge the two.

So, we settled on a set murderer, weapon and location and went about writing the game.

I played it with a wonderful group of friends last night. The party was awesome. Not only did the game turn out rather well, but the players were just wonderful. I wish i could have given out awards: best dressed, best hair piece  best reaction, best thinking-on-your-feet, best line, best answer, best cover-up. But then I would have to think actually did those things best, and I wouldn't know.

There were some great lines. I had a hard time falling asleep last night, re-playing all of it in my mind. Everyone just did Such. A good. Job.  I had a wonderful time, I hope everyone else did too.

The Presidents of the Church Lesson 30: Preparing for an Eternal Home

Remember how I was complaining about needing a forum to help me with my Sunday School Lesson Plans? I still haven't found such a forum, but I did discover more reasons why I need one:

I came across lesson thirty in which it gives a great idea:

Activity
 Have the necessary items ready to use in the activity, including the wordstrips. You may wish to give the wordstrips to class members, and, as you name a particular “ingredient,” have the class member holding that wordstrip bring it to the table and place it in the mixing bowl.  Put on the apron and hat, if you have one, and act out the following recipe using the large bowl, mixer, spoon or spatula, and ingredients (wordstrips). As you mix, say the following: 
 These are the ingredients for a heavenly home. First, at the very beginning, invite the Holy Ghost to your home to stay. Crush Temptations and Sin and set them aside outside the bowl. Blend in one Temple Marriage, one Mother (who loves Dad), one Dad (who loves Mother). Gradually add Children. Quickly stir in Living the Gospel: Scripture Study, Prayer, and Meeting Attendance. Sprinkle liberally with Courtesy and Communication. Garnish with the Word of Wisdom: Exercise, Proper Diet, and Rest. Pour Love over everything. Serve with Unselfishness. 


When you have finished with the ingredients, uncover the cookies or other food that you prepared before class. Let each class member take one. Tell them that just as the good taste of the cookies (or candy, etc.) can last, the success in a marriage can last forever if the ingredients are all included. 

 What a delightful idea. But it's kind of sad to put wordstrips into a bowl. How about I put the wordstrips on actual ingredient containers and put real food into the bowl?! We could actually make cookies! What a wonderful lesson to keep the attention of teenagers!

So I searched the internet for an actual cookie recipe that goes along with this lesson. I needed a cookie recipe with the same amount of ingredients, two eggs, and that didn't take much time to bake.

I could not find a recipe. I cannot be the first person ever to change this lesson into an actual cookie-making session. I cannot possibly be the first person to make not-pretend cookies. I found a few blogs referring to family home evening activities where the above lesson was used but none of them actually made the cookies out of the recipe. They just read the recipe and then brought out cookies. Again I cannot be the first person to want to connect the two.

And yet I found myself making up my own cookie recipe to fit the above description and even tweaking the above description to fit my recipe. SO: For all you twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School Teachers who find this blog post because you want to make actual cookies: YOU ARE WELCOME.

I printed out the recipe card for each student. The recipe said this:


Recipe for a Happy Home
 “It’s possible to make home a bit of heaven. Indeed, I picture heaven as a continuation of the ideal home.” David O. McKay 


First, at the very beginning, invite the Holy Ghost to your home to stay 
Mix in Scripture Study, Prayer and Meeting Attendance 
Create a temple marriage by blending together one Mother (who loves Dad) and one Dad (who loves Mother). 
Beat together the Temple marriage and unselfishness. 
Add Word of Wisdom. 
Crush Temptations and Sin, and add. 
Stir Temple Marriage mix in with dry mix.
Gradually add Children 
Sprinkle with Courtesy and Communication 
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets and bake in Love 

And on the back I had this:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour = Holy Ghost
1 teaspoon baking soda = Scripture Study
¼ teaspoon baking powder = Meeting Attendance
1 teaspoon salt= Prayer 
1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened = Unselfishness
3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar = Mom (who loves Dad) 
3/4 cup packed brown sugar = Dad (who loves Mom) 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract = Word of Wisdom 
1 teaspoon nutmeg = Courtesy 
1 teaspoon cinnamon = Communication 
2 eggs = Temptations and Sin 
2 cups Chocolate chips= Children 
1 small mixing bowl = Temple Marriage
Bake at 375-degree for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown = Love

 I did have class in the kitchen and we did actually make the cookies. Beforehand I had re-labeled the ingredients to look like this:

 At the beginning, I had each student pick out an ingredient (or two or three). I read the recipe out loud and every time we used an ingredient the student read the label out loud and then added it in. To make the labels I used what was in the manual but sometimes I thought the manual was dumb. Other times the manual didn't have anything so I made it up. Had I had more time (read: Had I not had to make everything else up on my own) I would have had a scripture or David O. McKay quote on each label. As you can see with some labels I just got lazy (Meeting Attendance is labeled: It's important)

If I had my forum where I tell other teachers how my lesson went I would say something like this: WARNING: You know how you are not supposed to use the church ovens to bake anything? I thought that was just because they didn't want you to burn the church down so I baked the cookies in the oven anyway. As it turns out you're not supposed to bake anything because the wonderful cookie smell goes through THE ENTIRE CHURCH and your whole ward will come in asking for cookies and asking if you actually baked in the ovens even though there is a sign right above them telling you not to.

But this activity really did hold the kid's attention. And they did listen and have a great discussion. And the cookies were delicious.

Trying To Make Breastfeeding Normal

A girl in my ward had her baby shower today. She kept telling me she'd send me a list of things she still "needed" for the baby, but she never did. The day of the shower I still had no gift, so I was left to my own devising. 

I devised this: 

It's a Breastfeeding Basket. I saw the idea on Lactating Girl's blog. It's a great gift for baby showers to help the mom-to-be prepare for breastfeeding. in my basket I included a water bottle (to stay hydrated) lots of protein bars (for easy snacks) Mother Love nipple cream, Mother's Milk Tea, Fenugreek pills, and these things called Booby Tubes I found that help with engorgement and mastitis. I also included a flyer for a free babywearing class in the area, and a breastfeeding support group. I wanted to include LLL's paper on breastfeeding after a C-section, but I don't own a printer. So, instead I emailed her that information and stuck in a little index card with her local LLL group's info.

I don't really think she liked it: She's not really big on breastfeeding (she is, after all  electing to have a C-section. It's already been scheduled and she's already hording the baby formula samples the hospital and her OBGYN office gives out). Usually I spend around ten or fifteen dollars on gifts, while this collection cost me almost fifty dollars.

It would be more normal for me to give her a set of baby bottles or pacifiers. But that's why I wanted to give this gift so badly. I want supporting moms to breastfeed be a normal thing in our society, instead of setting up all the booby-traps.  I would have LOVED a gift like this and I felt good giving it. And maybe it will help her to choose to breastfeed, or at least help normalize it in her mind.

One Thing is True of All Governments - Their Most Reliable Records are Tax Records

I got our first Property Tax bill yesterday. Property taxes are weird. The government sets a fixed percentage for most taxes, then sees what revenue flows in, but for property taxes the city government sets the exact revenue it wants to collect, and then works out what percentage to charge each existing property to get that revenue. It's weird.

Also weird are the odd fees added on to my bill. The actual amount I'm paying in property taxes is about a thousand dollars less than the total bill. That's because I have so many added fees: Unified School fee, Community College fee, both of which I understand, but are useless to me. Then all the charges for water: Metro water fee, not to be confused with the metro water standby fee, and different from the water availability fee. All these are separate from the sewer service fee. And keep in mind I pay the water company twenty dollars a month on top of my actual water bill, for things like "water cleaning" and "pipe maintenance cost."

But then we get to the fees I can't figure out: Mosquito surveillance fee? Vector disease control fee? Rabid Raccoon Zombies prevention fee? Ok, I made that last one up. But the other two are actually on my bill. Do I really pay some guy to sit around watching mosquitoes? Is that a good job? Does he make enough to own a house? Does he pay a Mosquito surveillance fee with his property taxes?

Transformation Central! Reformation Central! Transmogrification Central!

Remember how out house is twenty-five years old? The garage door is just as old. It's been estimated that the springs were replaced about fifteen years ago, and the bottom board of the garage door was replaced when we moved in because it had became a favorite meal of termites, but other that than, our garage door was wooden, manual, creaky, and according to some, likely to collapse at any time.

Today marks the momentous occasion of our new garage door! It was installed a few hours ago. It looks awesome. It makes our house look less... abandoned. Really, it makes the outside of our house look so much better. Now all we need is a lawn! And a new exterior, but those are minor details.

Jasmine has been living in the garage for a few months now, and last month Drek was awesome enough to clean and organize the entire garage, so Jasmine had a very comfortable home. Now it has the much-desired accessibility feature: we can open and close the garage door with the touch of a button. I could not be more thrilled.

Don't you just love when you've been saving and looking forward to something for months, and then it happens and it's even better than you expected? Hooray!

You Know How it is When You Get Those Manly Urges and You Just Gotta Kill Somethin'... Fix Things, Cook Outdoors...

Last Sunday in Relief Society we had the Elder's Quorum secretary come in to make an announcement:
"Yes, so...the Elder's Quorum is having a camp-out this week, Friday night to Saturday morning. We leave at four so if your husbands come rushing home at three thirty yelling for a sleeping bag and claiming they have a ward thing, it's legit. You might want so set out their sleeping bag for them. Maybe even remind them."

A woman raised her hand and asked if they would be taking the kids. The Secretary cringed and said something along the lines of "Elders only. There are absolutely no  children allowed. We'll be shooting guns and driving around cars and have fires." He hinted at things exploding.

So Drek left yesterday for the camp-out. I stayed home with Ash and fixed my clothesline and re arranged the furniture. I got to babysit my little niece for a few hours. She is only four months younger than Ash and they are good friends. I packed them in the bike trailer and went for a ride. One of them would laugh because the bike trailer is a fun ride and then the other one would laugh because the first one was laughing, and then the first one would laugh because the second one was laughing. It was a wonderful and very giggly bike ride.

After putting the babies to bed I stayed up way too late watching stand-up comedian routines. It's wasn't things exploding, but I still had fun.

Drek came back this morning with all his digits intact. He said they picked up a car and turned it to face a different direction. He also said part of his sock turned to powder. Hmmm...

It's Been Momentarily Misplaced...

I found my keys; they were in my apron. They must have been there since the last yard sale. I also found ten dollars and a bunch of coins. Hooray! 

Today I went to the zoo. I took a backpack filled with snacks and water. We saw a few animals: 

I took my phone out to check the time. I rearranged a few things and we headed off again. While Ash was occupied at the playground, I searched for my phone once again. I could not find it. I searched through every pocket, dumped out all contents and repacked it, but there was no sign of my phone. I sighed, thinking it had to be by the gorillas. I was too lazy to walk back there, so we just came home.

During lunch I heard my phone ring. It was coming from my backpack. I quickly dumped everything out to find it. As it turns out my phone had buried itself in my bag of chips.

Mmmmm, cell chips.

And I Just Can't Wait Until Next Halloween Cause I've Got Some New Ideas That Will Really Make Them Scream

Oh, how I love October! I love Halloween, I love Halloween parties, music, movies, books, decorations, food, costumes and especially traditions! One of my (many) favorite Halloween traditions is painting pumpkins together as a family! We did it early this year because I'm SO excited for Halloween! Drek brought home pumpkins a few days ago and I went out and got some new paint supplies yesterday. Last night we listened to A Nightmare Before Christmas and sat around the table painting our pumpkins!

Here is Drek's: 

Mine:

 And Ash's:

They Pitched their Tents Round About the Temple, Every Man Having his Tent With the Door Thereof Towards the Temple

We just finished a wonderful General Conference weekend! True to the form of King Benjamin, we set up our tent facing the prophet. 

It was set up inside out living room, and by facing the prophet I mean facing the computer, but it worked out quite nicely: 

I had a grand idea to live off of nothing but our 72-hour kits during the 48 hours of General Conference, but after the first two meals I discovered something starteling: MRE's are gross. Which is good to know. I now have a shopping list of what we need in our kits (things like forks) and what we need to replace (MRE's with edible food). Not that the MRE's aren't fantastic food storage, I just think if we are ever in need of our 72-hour kits, we'll want comfort food, not survival food.

I thought Conference was especially amazing this year, and the announcement of a second temple in Provo is particularly exciting! I can't wait for the talks to be uploaded to LDS.org so I can listen to them again!

Take it From an Old Spectator. Life's Not a Spectator Sport. If Watchin' is All You're Gonna Do, Then You're Gonna Watch Your Life Go By Without Ya

Last night Drek took me to to live performance of Stephen Schwartz songs (isn't he the best?!). We've been on several live-theater dates before, but this one was definitively the most...odd.

Their performances were about what we expected; not professional, but fun and the variety of singers made it better. The songs were a little surprising: They sung almost every single song from Wicked (including As Long As Your Mine. I'm not going to lie, I love listening to that song, but watching it performed is...awkward. I had a hard time watching that scene when we went to go see the professionals perform Wicked. I had an ever harder time watching this performance. Why would you chose THAT song?) and had a huge chuck left over for Children of Eden. One song from Pippin, One song from Pocahontas, one song from Prince of Egypt, one song from Godspell, one song from Rags and one song from Hunchback of Notre Dame (Stephen Schwartz did Hunchback?!). So why did Schwartz do so many religious-themed musicals? Anyone know the history there?

But that wasn't the odd part. The odd part was the audience. It was clearly comprised of friends and family of the performers. There was a surprising number of cheers when certain people were on stage and even a few catcalls. When one girl finished a solo someone in the audience started selling her autograph.

During intermission, the theater sold plastic cups of wine and raffle tickets for an enormous bottle of vodka. The winner of the raffle and he broke open the bottle during the second half of the performance. Since most of the audience had those plastic cups left over, it was easy to share. Needless to say the audience during second half was a bit more rowdy than the first. I didn't realize an audience could be that vocal.

I think the audience cheered up the performers a bit: they were a lot more energetic during the second half than in the first. But really, I thought they did a good job in both. I highly enjoyed the night and liked all the performances.

Walking back to our car we saw a raccoon scamper across the street. Yeah, a raccoon. A real one. That was possibly my favorite performance.

Did You Make All These Things Yourself?

It seems fixing up our house comes in waves. We'll do a lot, then nothing, then a lot, then nothing, then a lot. Or so it seems, anyway.

Drek had Friday off of work and was anxious to get some projects done around the house. I took Ash out for our normal Friday-morning activities. By the time we came back for Ash's nap, Drek had built shelves for his office and cleaned and organized his entire office. Ash took a nap while Drek went out to the garage and when Ash woke up I took her to the park. When we got back, a few hours later, Drek had built a table for the garage, installed a shelf in the garage, and organized and swept the entire garage. He also built me an actual clothesline.

I think the moral of this story is that next time, Ash and I will go to Vegas for three days and when we come home, Drek will have built a new house

Would You Like Some? Wait, Before You Answer That, Are You a Fan of Delicious Flavor?

We met my parents in Vegas so we could celebrate birthdays! Once again, for my Dad's birthday, I attempted to make a Tunnel Of Fudge cake. I'm sure you all remember last year's debacle.  This was my fourth year attempting to make this cake. I hoped to get it perfect. 

I set up all the ingredients: 

I read and re-read the recipe. I checked it several times while making the cake and even set the used ingredients to one side to make sure I added all of them (especially flour).  I put the batter in the oven, crossed my fingers and...

 Look! It looks like a cake! That was a very good sign. 

Alas, I did not grease the inside circle of the bunt pan properly, so the cake didn't slide out as hoped. The outer circle slid out, but the inside circle stayed in. So the presentation of the cake was not perfect.  I tried to hide that as best I could: 

We sung "Happy Birthday' and cut the cake. To my delight, inside was a tunnel of fudge. It worked! I made a Tunnel of Fudge with an actual tunnel of fudge! Hooray! 

It was delicious. Also, as a note, it is even better the day after, and even more delicious the day after that. Which is good, because this cake is so rich you can only eat a little bit at a time. So unless you have twenty people eating the cake, there will be leftovers. Delicious leftovers. 

And next year I'm sure I'll get the presentation perfect. There's always next year...

Ten Oughta Do It, Don't You Think? You Think We Need One More? You Think We Need One More. All Right, We'll Get One More

Just got back from a wonderful vacation! While there we had an adventure I thought I'd share:

Thursday night my parents were wonderful enough to put Ash to bed and stay with her while Drek and I had a night out on the town. And what better town than Las Vegas?! Out hotel was only a few miles away from the strip, so we took the hotel shuttle. It dropped us off at the Caesar's Palace and Drek and I walked next door to pay a visit to one of my favorite places in the world: in front of the Belagio at night, watching the fountains dance (To frank Sinatra's "Luck Be A Lady Tonight", but that part just makes it perfect, it's not critical).

This time, the song playing was "Proud To Be an American" and the fountains danced with power and height and oomph. What a grand sight.

We then decided that more than anything else in Vegas, we really wanted to see the Body World exhibit at the Luxor. So we walked all the way to the other end of the strip. The exhibit was amazing. I can't tell you how much I loved it. The first thing I looked at was a leg bone with a few muscles attached and had the word "tensor fascia lata" written on it. I was delighted. I haven't heard that word since school. I was immediately flooded with memories of my awesome anatomy class taught by my awesome anatomy teacher. Flooded with happy memories, I skipped over to the next display: the actual bones of the inner ear. I think I actually squealed.  They are the smallest bones in the body and the first ones I memorized. I don't think I had ever seen them before. They are so tiny! And it just got better from there. Really, it was a magnificent experience. So worth it.

After we left the exhibit we walked all the way back down the strip. Once again we stopped in front of the Belagio and watched the fountains. This time they danced to Clare De Lune with grace and delicacy. It was beautiful. And so appropriate, since Drek and I had just watched Oceans 11 the night before. It's one of our favorites.

We rushed back to the shuttle stop with just a few minutes to spare. We boarded and to our surprise the shuttle was a lot more full than when we rode it before. Every seat was taken and almost everyone had someone on their lap. There were a few places where six people were crammed into two seats and there were even people sitting in the aisle. We sat in the aisle and then a couple got on behind us. The shuttle was packed.

Luckily, everyone was either in a very good mood, or drunk. People were laughing and making jokes, shouting out to each other and to the shuttle driver. It was a very lively ride back to the hotel. A perfect end to a wonderful date, and to a wonderful vacation.

And Called Us With an Holy Calling, Not According to Our Works, but According to His Own Purpose and Grace, Which was Given Us in Christ Jesus Before the World Began

I like my calling. I teach the twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School Class. There are a few fourteen year olds in there as well. Usually I have fourteen people in my class, but if we have visitors it can be more. That is a lot of teenagers to have in one room, and I am not the best at keeping order. In fact, I'm really bad at discipline. But I'm working on it.

Here's the thing: As of December 31, 2010, there are 28,660 LDS wards and branches in the world. I have no idea how many of those wards and branches are English-speaking, but it is not a small number. Now, take into account that not all of those English-speaking wards have a twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School Class (because they are singles wards or just don't have the youth) and you are left with, what? It's got to be around 10,000 English-speaking teachers called to serve as their ward's twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School Class teacher.

One of the amazing things about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is how universal it is: Every twelve and thirteen year old Sunday school class teacher teaches from the same manual: The Presidents of the Church. There is even a lesson schedule, so all wards are on the same lesson, give or take a ward conference. Most teachers are called for more than one year, so they teach the same lessons multiple times, depending on how many years they have this calling. So, on any given Sunday, I'm guessing that there are around ten thousand people teaching the same lesson I am teaching, to the same age group I am teaching. Some with more experience than me.

The Internet is a wonderful thing. It connects all sorts of people. I'm thinking the Internet should connect me to those ten thousand people. Seriously, how is there not already a forum for us to be like: "I had a great idea for lesson 33!" or "I tried this with my class, but they did not take it well. I would suggest going with out the..." or "For this last class I did this and the kids responded so well!"

Is there something like out there? Please say yes. I so desperately need some help with my lesson plans.

Happy Birthday to You!

Two years ago today, the best thing ever happened. 

It changed my life completely, and made it so much better.

For two years now my life has revolved not around me, but around my little one.

And I wouldn't want to live life any other way. 

Happy Birthday, my little princess!

I am so glad you are my daughter

and I am your mama.

As Advertised, Lots of Needles and Cold Exam Tables. I Heard You Had Some Excitement

I got suckered into getting a tetanus shot this week. That was no fun.

I went to the doctor to get a prescription for an infection I have (unsuccessfully) tried to fight for an entire month. She was really nice, gave me the prescription and then asked when I had last been tested for TB.

"Never? Because I do not live in the eighteen hundreds?"

"Not even when you were pregnant?"

"No...does pregnancy give you TB?"

It was odd. She asked if I wanted to be tested. Again, what an odd question. Who answers yes?

And then she asked when I last had a tetanus shot.

"...Um, when I was ten? Maybe seven?' I thought about getting one when I was eighteen, does that count?"

She said that me getting a shot would help protect Ash. Grrr. I hate when herd immunity works against me.

So I let her give me the shot. And I was trying to be all cheerful about it because Ash was watching.

"Look! How fun! The nice nurse is going to give mama a shot! Hooray!"  While whispering to the nurse: "Hey, so, I'm deathly afraid of needles so please don't let me see it, or I might pass out."

Good times.

The nurse warned me that my arm would hurt the day after. She was not kidding. I was also so very tired all of yesterday. That might have been because of the antibiotics, but last night I dreamed it was because my tetanus shot actually gave me tetanus. Luckily, that does not seem to be the case as I am back to normal energy levels today. Maybe It was TB.

It's Not Enough to Survive. One Must be Worthy of Survival

Yesterday afternoon the power went out. I didn't know how widespread the blackout was, so I thought I would hop in the car and drive over to Drek's work. Maybe we could hang out in his air-conditioned office for an hour, or maybe his power was out and he could come home early! 

His work is only five miles away. It usually takes ten minutes to drive there. Traffic was much worse than normal (all the traffic lights were out) so when I got to Drek's office, thirty minutes later, and discovered his power was out and he had gotten a ride home, I was a little upset. It then took me forty minutes to make it back home. That was when I learned the blackout was widespread, and there was no timeline given to when power would be restored. 

 We realized we don't really have a functioning radio. Luckily, our awesome neighbors next door had their radio on outside and had the volume turned up really loud. We just opened out windows and could hear the news updates. but still, we might need to get our own radio. And also maybe a generator. 

We ate a small dinner, went on a small bike ride, called my dad instead of Skyping him to wish him a happy birthday, and then looked around at each other. "What do we do now?" We couldn't watch another episode of my new obsession: Battlestar Gallactica, and our dinner plans were obviously cancelled. So how to keep ourselves entertained?

The blackout must have had an impact on our psyche, because it got a little barbaric: We went Caterpillar hunting. 

These horned cattipilars were munching on our tomato plants without authorization. So we brutally tracked down seven of them, including what we hope was the ringleader, and made an example out of them to all the other catipillars still in hiding; we fed them to the chickens. I know it was extreme, but we couldn't be lenient; Desperate times and all that. 

I celebrated Labor Day by getting up early to go to the gym for a two hour Zumba class. I've only done Zumba once before. It was fun, so I thought signing up for another class would be fun!

It was only when I got there that I realized going from nothing to a two hour Master Zumba class might be a bad idea. Maybe.

But I had fun. Zumba is a lot of fun, and the teacher was hilarious. It was a great class. My knee did not have fun. The last time it hurt like that was the final three miles in my half marathon. My knee was angry.

But not as angry as my muscles are today. Three days later, I am mostly unable to walk. Ouch.

And yet, I'm hoping for another two hour master Zumba class.

Do You Realize What This Means? It Means Bankruptcy and Scandal and Prison! That's What It Means! One of Us is Going to Jail... Well, It's Not Gonna be Me!

I lose things all the time. I lost my keys back in April. I still haven't found them. It actually worked out great because it was after I gave the apartment keys back to the landlord and before Drek gave me the keys to the new house. So I only lost my car keys. Actually, Drek still hasn't given me a key to the new house. He thinks I will lose it.

I love those front doors that have keypads on it, so you don't have to carry a key around. It's great, but not ideal. My dream home would have a voice recognition lock for the front door, so I don't have to have a key or fiddle with a code.  I would come home and say "open." And the door would unlock and swing wide open for me. And the house would say "Welcome home, K La. You left your phone in the kitchen. You have three missed calls. Shall I call them back for you?" 

That house would rock. 

But that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is savings; In January Drek and I sat down to do some major budgeting. We decided get rid of all credit cards, only use debit cards for emergencies, and switch to a cash-in-envelopes system. I love this system. It has worked out well for us. The point was to make money a real, tangible thing; If you have the bills sitting in your hand you can spend them, but when it's gone, it's gone. At the start of each month I take the envelopes to the bank and withdraw cash to put in the envelopes and use the cash for the rest of the month. Our envelopes are labeled "Gas Money", "Groceries", "Water Bill" and such. My favorite envelope says "Cruise Fund" and it works like this: At the end of the month, if I have extra money in any of the envelopes, say because I was so good on my grocery budget, or we went under on our water bill, I take the extra money and put it into the "Cruise Fund" envelope. If I go over in any area, I have to take money out of the "Cruise Fund" envelope. The point being that at the end of the year, if Drek and I have saved enough money in our "Cruise Fund" envelope, we get to go on a cruise! It's a great incentive to stay within the budget and keeps me optimistic about future vacation plans. 

Because this envelope gets the extra from all the other envelopes, it has a lot of one and five dollar bills in it. The envelope was getting quite fat because of this, so yesterday I decided to take it, along with all the other envelopes, with me to the bank, where I could get the smaller bills turned into bigger bills. 

Mornings are always hectic and after throwing everything in the car and dropping Drek off at work, I went to the grocery store with our bank located inside. I grabbed all the envelopes and took them inside with me. The bank didn't open for another ten minutes, but I couldn't wait because I had to meet people at the park in ten minutes. I threw the envelopes back in the car and drove to the park. I was early, so I thought that I better sort the envelopes. It was then that I realized I was missing the "Cruise Fund" envelope, with all the cash that I had scrimped and saved over the last nine months still inside. I panicked. 

I searched through the whole car. I drove back to the bank and looked around the parking lot and under cars. I went back inside and talked to the guy. I talked to the teller (the bank was now open). My envelope was nowhere to be seen and there was nothing I could do to reclaim the lost money. I described the envelope to the teller and explained what the money represented. She was very sympathetic and said she'd keep an eye out for it (or anyone depositing money from an envelope with with pink writing on it) but there was really  nothing she could do. 

I got back in my car and tried to calm myself down. After thinking things through, I decided to drive back to my house to see if the envelope had fallen out in the garage or on the way to the car. I went home and looked all over; no envelope. I then looked up where we keep all the envelopes and there it was: I had never taken it out of its spot. 

I sighed a huge sigh of relief and very carefully took the envelope to the car. I drove back to the bank and took it up to the teller.

 "You found it!" she cheered, when I showed it to her. 

"Yes, Thankfully." I said. "Can I turn these into bigger bills?" 

The teller looked at me and with a shy smile asked "Do you want to deposit it into a savings account? I'll keep it safe for you until the end of the year." 

So that's what I did. It isn't keeping the Cruise Fund tangible, but it does keep me from losing it, and that's a bit more important right now.  We'll still budget the exact same way, the only difference being that now I'm taking money out of the envelopes and handing it to a teller. 

This Was My First Bus Ride

This city needs to work on it's public transportation. Time to drive to a museum: Nineteen minutes. Time taking public transportation to museum: Three hours and twelve minutes.

Yikes. 

We live on a dead-end dirt road. We are the second-to-last house on this dead-end road. The only cars that drive passed our house are the cars belonging to our neighbor. There aren't even any lost drivers, because it's much easier to turn around before you get to our house than after. I love this about our road. It's not a great location for yard sales, but it's fantastic for a quiet neighborhood. 

Our neighborhood is also far from bus stops. It is highly impractical to ride the bus because of where we live. So i stared dreaming of biking everywhere we needed to go. Drek has a bike, and Ash has a tricycle, but I don't have a bike and Ash can't really ride her trike down the driveway, let alone down the road. 

Last week my brilliant sister-in-law gave me a bike trailer. We hooked it up to Drek's bike and it worked wonderfully. Ash loves to ride in it, stays quiet no matter how long the trip is, and begs to go for more rides. The next day I looked up women's bikes on Craig's list. The day after that Drek and I were driving down our road and were surprised to see our neighbor had a bike in their front yard with a big "For Sale" sign stuck to it. We stopped the car, glanced over the bike and then asked "do they really think they are going to sell that bike? It's not like there is a lot of through traffic." And indeed, the only through traffic would be us and our neighbors. but apparently that was all they needed because we bought the bike. It works great, it looks awesome, and this week I hooked it up to the trailer, packed Ash inside and biked to the grocery store and back. 

I'm so excited for our new mode of transportation. It is way better than a car and way better than walking. I got so excited about it that I've started planning on biking to the nearest bus station and taking the bus to places that are too far to bike. It's still not a great system, the buses really are a joke, but it does open up a few more possibilities. 

I Think It's Brilliant! I Think It's Stellar! Uh, Apart From the One, Obvious, Tiny, Little Baby Little Hiccup... That I Don't Play a Musical Instrument. Yessir. A Tiny, Insignificant Detail

When I was little, I thought the concept of a piano was so odd. Who came up with the idea of a piano? How did we go from banging on drums, to playing something as complex as a piano? Or a violin for that matter. I understand harps, but how did we get a guitar? Or a trombone? 

I wondered if I got stuck in an alternate universe at the start of civilization, would I be able to reproduce any musical instruments? I don't play any. I've never studied music; Could I even make a basic drum? Would my drawings of the instruments I know inspire odd, hybrid types of instruments? Who invents instruments anyway? Why does music change every year, but the instruments stay the same? 

Today I learned that there already are odd, hybrid types if instruments. For instance, here is something called a harp guitar: 

And this is a Sousaphone:

I also saw an electric ukulele and got to play a keytar (The keytar I already knew existed as I got to see one played live a few years ago at a rock concert by Mutemath).

I learned that inventing musical instruments was a popular thing to do a hundred years ago and actually, still is a popular thing to do.

I think I should learn to play a harp guitar. I wonder if I can find a local teacher.

If Those are to be the First of Many Injuries to Come, it Would be Wise to Find a Suitable Excuse. Polo, for Instance. I'm Not Learning Polo, Alfred

I have not attended many sporting events during my life. The ones I have attended have been... forgettable. I'm a fan of playing sports, just not watching strangers play sports. 

But this sport was a lot of fun to attend. A truly unforgettable experience: 

Polo.

Yup. Big hats, champagne, and duvet-stomps. It was so much fun.

Did you know each polo player has twelve horses? He switches them out during the game. I learned all sorts of fun things like that.

As fun as the game was to watch, the best part was that there was a bounce house for the kids. Nothing is more entertaining than watching toddlers bounce around it a cage. I need one of those for my backyard.

Yea, is this Another One of Your Little 'Projects'?

When Drek and I were first married, we were given a card table and four folding chairs as a present. That table and chairs saw a lot of use. They became our kitchen table and chairs for almost two years. When I inherited an old table and several old chairs from my aunt and uncle, the folding table became our main game table. 

The Table I inherited was awesome, but the chairs showed their age a bit more, I'm afraid. I tried to sand them and refinish them, but I was pregnant and then I had a newborn and then I couldn't do it outside because  I would have frozen...blah blah blah. Drek said if I didn't finish the chairs by the time we moved out of Burgville, the chairs were not coming with us. I managed to finish two and a half chairs. They moved with us, the rest of the chairs did not. 

A few months ago I found a dining table with eight chairs for sale on Craigs list. It was a great deal. I snatched it up because the table and chairs were in great condition, even if the chairs looked a bit...

 Grandma-y. They looked like old people chairs. After quizzing my friends on the chairs, I finally decided to re-upholster them. I've never re-upholstered chairs before, and the last chair project turned out to be such a disaster that I was very hesitant. But I gathered advice, talked to my all knowing sister-in-law who has experience with such things, and decided to give it a try. I waited until we got a couch, so I could match the kitchen chairs to the couch, since there is no wall dividing them in our house. I picked out the fabric and after several days of procrastinating, I began my project. I striped off the chairs:

cut the fabric, attached the fabric (after Drek gave me a quick lesson on staple guns) then cut the plastic and attached the plastic. The last step was to re-attach the cushion to the chair: 

 old chair: 

 new chair:

I finished the whole thing in four hours. 

 This just may be the best project I have ever done. It turned out way better than expected. It turned out so well, I made a cake:

(ok, so the cake was a birthday cake for a friend, not for the chairs, but it was still a delicious cake)

I think this dining room set will last us quite a while. At least the next five years. And if we change the couched, now I know I can change the chairs to match!

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Yesterday I went to the beach with a Kayak and snorkeling equipment and the rumor that sometimes during this time of year you can see leopard sharks in certain areas.

Alas, I forgot the kayak paddle, so our ability to get to those "certain areas" was greatly impeded. We tried using raft paddles, but it was slightly ridiculous. So, after a bit we put on the fins and tried to swim the kayak. That didn't work out too well.  Finally we gave up and tried to paddle back to the shore. When we got far enough in, I jumped out of the kayak so I could walk. It was just faster that way.

Unexpectedly, I jumped out and realized I was surrounded by half a dozen leopard sharks. And not the small ones I thought I would see, these ones were about two or three feet long! It was amazing. I couldn't touch one, but I was about a foot away. They were so beautiful! It was absolutely amazing.

They didn't stay very long, and it was hard to find them after that, but it was so worth the trip!

I Haven’t Seen One of those Since I Was a Webelos. What’s a Webelos? It’s Half Way Between a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout. And What Does a Webelos Do? Gets Badges, Mostly

Two weeks I was given a calling in my ward: to teach the twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School Class. The man who offered me the calling said there were "only a few" kids in the class now, but there would be more in January. I paused. "Will I have this calling January?" I asked. He laughed and said I could count on being in this calling for a while.

Which is odd, considering for the last several callings I've accepted and then asked "Do you realize I am moving in four months?" But now we are not moving for several years. It was an odd sense of... permanence.

Anyway, I emailed the Sunday School President and asked the details of my class; how many kids, what were their names, when and where did we meet...

He emailed back that he had no idea I'd been called. He was glad, but surprised. He said I had eight kids in my class.

EIGHT? Eight is a lot.

So today was my first day teaching. I found the room and walked in. There were three boys inside, playing with a Rubik's cube. Then two girls came in. Then two more boys. Then another girl. Then three more girls.

Eleven. There are eleven kids in my class.

Actually, it went well. I think. You'd have to ask them. They like to talk, but once I started the lesson, they were very good at listening. They are fun, polite, and funny. I think the lesson went well.

I need to keep in mind that while the lesson is supposed to be an hour long, these kids socialize so much that I only have about fifteen minutes to teach them. Which is fine. I just need to simplify:  get to the point and make it memorable. Period.

Meanwhile, Drek got called to scouts. He is a Webelo leader.

She Swallowed the Goat to Catch the Dog. She Swallowed the Dog to Catch the Cat. She Swallowed the Cat to Catch the Bird. She Swallowed the Bird to Catch the Spider that Wiggled and Wiggled and Tickled Inside Her

For some much-needed family time, we decided to take a trip to the zoo in the middle of the week for no real reason. Just so we could be together. We walked down a delightful trail I had never seen before, and after an hour decided to stop for some dinner. I unpacked our food from my backpack and picked a table next to an animal enclosure. In the enclosure we could see a Forest Buffalo, happily munching on his own dinner:

We started eating. Ash dropped a crumb on the ground and a very small bird immediately flew down to grab it. Drek began tearing off small pieces of food and throwing it to the bird. Soon we had four birds eating on the ground next to our table.
"A mouse!" Drek cried in surprise, and sure enough, a tiny mouse had joined in the dinner party.
"A monkey!" I shouted, seeing a Swamp Monkey swoop over the enclosure and sit in the tree right above us. Drek thought I was kidding, until he saw it himself.
"A rabbit!" Drek laughed. This time, I thought Drek was kidding, but indeed a tiny bunny had come out of the bushes to eat with the birds and the mouse.
I tried to get a video of all of them, but the bunny was a bit shy:

After dinner was over, we walked around the enclosure and discovered that we were two otters eating on the other side of the fence from where we ate.

It's too bad they didn't poke their nose through the bushes to join the party. That would have been quite a sight. 

No. I thought You Were Swans

I got beaten up by a goose. No, really. A goose. A gander. An African fowl. It's true.

My awesome neighbor owned three geese. He is, sadly, moving, so he needed to sell his geese. When a guy came to buy them, my neighbor asked if I would catch the geese and put them in the boxes the buyer had brought so they could move to their new home. Of course I said yes. Who would turn down the opportunity to wrangle some geese?

And wrangle I did. I went after the male first. I cornered him fairly easily and grabbed him by the neck (the only advice I got from my neighbor). I then tried to pick him up in a sort of modified football hold, but in doing so he kicked my with his webbed foot. You wouldn't think a webbed foot would do much damage, but take it from me; don't underestimate the webbed foot. I did finally get him in the box and the two female geese were quicker, but once I caught them they were easy to put in their boxes. The buyer took them home, happy to have a birthday present for his daughter and my neighbor was thrilled to have the geese go to a good home. I'm thrilled to have them gone. Yes, I will miss the goose eggs (delicious and huge!) but it's nice to be able to carry on a conversation in the backyard. It's so much more peaceful now!

At first I had three giant claw marks on my arm from where the goose scratched me. The next day, I had three huge black and purple bruises appear, each surrounding the three scrapes. After a few days, the bruises turned yellow. They are finally vanishing, and the scrapes have healed, but for a while there it looked like I had been attacked by a tiger.

So next time you get in a fight with a goose, remember the thing to fear is not the beak, but the dreaded webbed foot.

Who's that? Who Else Would it Be? It's Me! Are... Are You My Conscience?

I am very hard on me cell phones: I drop them all the time, I sit on them, I drop them in water... This results in me needing a new phone more often than normal people. This also results in an ever-changing contact list. Every time I get a new phone I lose phone numbers. Normal people would solve this by posting that they got a new phone and would everyone please text them so they can make sure they have every one's number, but since this is a regular occurrence for me, I just don't bother to tell anyone I've lost their number. Again.

I deal with it like this: I get a text from a number I don't have in my current contact list. The text is friendly and personable, so I know that the person texting knows me and thinks I know them. I just don't know who they are because I've lost their number. I love it when this happens. It has become a game: Can I figure out who they are without them knowing that I am trying to figure it out? So I'll send back a text, trying to get them to text me again, hopefully with clues about the person's identity. It looks something like this:

Them: "I'm visiting my mom for the weekend, are you free for lunch?"

Me: "Oh! How is your mom? When works for you?"

Them: "She's better than last time. Anytime works for me, I don't have a child to worry about."

Me: "Glad to hear she's better. And how are you? Anything new?"

Them: "Same old Same old."

Me: "Ha! Me too. Where do you want to go to lunch?"

Them: "We should go to that Indian place we went Freshman year"

Me: (Now that I finally have a hint I can be more specific in my questioning) "I thought you said that Indian Food always looks like it is going to crawl off your plate and eat you."

Them: "Ha! Kate said that, not me! I LOVE Indian food!"

Me: "Oh, yes. That was Kate. Well, I always have time for you, Liz, So call me the first day you are here and we will go out."

Them "Great! Can't wait to see you!"

Me (bwhahaha. I win) "you too!"

But sometimes I just never figure it out. Last week I got a text that said "Hey! I saw that there is a huge sand sculpture event going on in your state. I just wanted to let you and your family know in case you wanted to go!"

So, obviously the person knows me, and knows where I live. I texted back something like "That does sound like a lot of fun! Thanks so much!" And then they texted back something entirely generic. Alas, I had misplaced my phone before I could find out more about them, so I never did discover who they were. But, I did, in fact, go to the sand sculpture event. It WAS a lot of fun. So thank you, whoever you are. I'm sorry I've lost your number, you seem to know just what I think is a great way to spend an afternoon.

Has Anyone In This Family Actually Seen a Chicken?

Having chickens has turned out to be thoroughly entertaining. We let them free range and they have been so good about staying in our yard and going back into their coop as soon as the sun sets. Drek feeds them leftovers from dinner, so now during dinner the chickens line up outside the sliding glass door and tap on the glass in an attempt to beg for food.

But the best was a few days ago: We had a four year old over at our house to play. I was around the corner with Ash when I heard a ear-shattering scream. It was as if he had just came face to face with the Grim (That's a symbol of Death that will eat your face off, for the Non-Harry Potter fans). I dashed around the corner and saw him pointing in terror. "Look!" he gasped "A Chicken!" and there, three feet away, was indeed, Juliette; happily pecking the grass.

I giggled. "Takes one to know one, kid."  Alas, my quick wit was lost on him. But I'm sure Juliette thought it was funny.

Looks to Me Like an Illegal Salvage Operation. It Does? That's Discouraging

Ok, This project actually turned out kind of well...

Behold: 

Really comfy, very old and beat-up patio chairs.  

When Rissy came to visit, we figured out how to remove the old fabric and theoretically install new fabric. She also became chief spray paint advisor and executive spray painter. Thanks to her, the painting went great. After that I was left with this: 

Which I turned into this:

 which became this:

It turned out so well, this evening my family sat out on our porch, enjoying our new patio set and eating homemade chocolate ice cream with the best homemade fudge sauce you have ever tasted. Ever.

Ok, so I didn't actually make the fudge sauce, but I did make the ice cream! Which is something I've never done before. And it was very delicious.