More Thanksgiving Photos

Martha Stewart, a bowling meet and The Toilet Paper that Caused a Heart Attack

Martha Stewart, a bowling meet and The Toilet Paper that Caused a Heart Attack

The TP that almost killed me

Apparently I watch too many crime shows, but I really love them! CSI, NCIS, CSI Miami, CSI NY, NCIS-LA, Law and Order, Bones, Castle, etc. They are my favorite movies too. I find them “fascinating”. So, one night this week, when Bob and the kids weren’t home, it was late at night and someone started knocking at the door. Scared me to death since it was late and dark and the knocking was creepy. I heard voices and the doorknob was jiggling. A few seconds later, I heard the voices in the backyard and that’s when I went into survival mode. I didn’t even made a sound and crept like the peptobismol pink ninja that I was down the hall. I heard the door jiggle again and my heart was pounding out of my chest. Then it dawned on me that I am the Queen of all idiots. In my survival-mode-stealthy-ninja-crawl I had forgotten both cell phones on the table. So, now what? I’m proud to say there are no weapons in the Marisa’s room, but that didn’t HELP me. My mind is swirling with “who would want to kill me?” “Oh my heck- is it a student?” and “Dangit, why didn’t I ever take a self defense class?”

I got brave enough to peek out the window, but you must understand I was beyond terrified because the voices were right out the window. You know that scripture that says “Behold, a flying roll”? Well, that’s what I saw, lots and lots of toilet paper going into my tree, the bushes, on the potted plants. There were about 8 or so of Kayla and Marisa’s friends who were “decorating” our yard. Once they left (after taking a bazillion pictures) I got brave enough to look outside. They had tied a bag and toilet paper on the doorknob- Oh so THAT’s what the jiggling was for.

Now that I have my dignity back, I can say it was funny. But it’s a good thing those poor kids didn’t get “in” the actual door or they would have found out how much damage a stuffed panda bear could do!

Marisa’s date

Marisa had another fun date night with a boy from our ward named Kyler. He took her out to dinner and then they went to see “Unstoppable”.

Bowling meet

Kayla had her 1^st bowling meet this week and she did a great job! I loved watching her play and I’m glad she has found something else she enjoys doing. I tried to get some pics at home, but this year she hasn’t really been in the mood for posing for any pictures. She has a cool new jersey and an awesome sweatshirt that say “Linn Mar Bowling Team”. I also took a pic of her in their new French t-shirt because I think its hilarious.

Pilgrim day

Alayna’s 3^rd grade class had a special Thanksgiving feast and she got to wear her pilgrim outfit and everything.

Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving was full of going to see Harry Potter (which Marisa says she has been waiting her whole life for), playing games and celebrating Bob’s 42^nd birthday! Happy Birthday Bob! We framed his BYU poster signed by Max Hall (who, by the way, used to come to our house for dinner when he served here as a missionary-small world!)

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving.
(My sister posted this hilarious article and I just had to share. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!)
I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes:Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries.
After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make.
Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.
The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china, or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and everyone will get a fork.
Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration hand-crafted from the finest construction paper.
The artist assures me it is a turkey.
We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline.
Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them.
They are lying.
We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method.
We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table and sit where you like.
Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers.This will not be happening at our dinner.
For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: do not, under any circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check on my progress. I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed.
It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that "passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request to bean your sister in the head with warm, tasty bread.
Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce. If a young diner questions you regarding the origins or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance.
Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice among 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints.
You will still have a choice, though: take it or leave it. Thought you might all enjoy.
Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. She probably won't come next year either.
I am thankful.

Cinnamon Rolls for YW

I have been meaning to post this for a while.  At the YWIE program, the leaders made cinnamon rolls for the girls and this handout was attached.  I just loved it.  I havent found out yet who wrote it, but I did want to share.

Cinnamon Rolls for Young Women

The secret to successfully baking cinnamon rolls begins with using the finest ingredients. Successful YW are born with ingredients of FAITH and DIVINE NATURE. It’s important to bake in a nurturing and warm environment. Our Young Women “Kneed” KNOWLEDGE of their INDIVIDUAL WORTH. Good yeast allows the dough to rise. YW use their CHOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY to bring about GOOD WORKS and enlarget heir testimonies. The dough is punched down to expel gas and yield a tenderer product. YW who fall to their knees in prayer are more receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Baking for the proper amount of time spreads the aroma of a delicious treat throughout the house. Living the gospel with INTEGRITY spreads a good example that others can emulate. Spreading icing on a warm cinnamon roll allows it to seep into all the seams. VIRTUE is not just a “surface” covering; it is the covering that protects the most remarkable gift that Heavenly Father bestows upon his children.

Stake Activity-Kayla

PS. Kayla got 100% on that Dr. Seuss book she did.  Whoohoo!!

Alayna, All-state, and A very long day!

November 21, 2010

Revenge of the Alayna

For those of you who have been reading our newsletters since Alayna was 2, you will remember the, um, “adventures” we experienced with her on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. I think THAT Alayna came back this week. First, she decorated her entire face with my bright red lipstick (I should have taken a picture!) When I asked her why she did it, she said she just wanted to see what she would look like as a clown. Awesome (note the sarcasm). Then, I had Kayla check on her in the bath and Kayla said I better go in there. She was bawling and I asked what happened. Apparently, she had decided that her arms are too hairy and so she took my new razor and tried to remove them. In the process she cut her arm. She was crying not because the superficial wound hurt, but because she knew she had disobeyed and she figured with the amount of blood lost (again very minimal) she thought she was dying. I did give her soaking wet body a giant hug to reassure her she was fine- but it was super hard not to break out in hysterical laughter. A good lesson learned in obeying your parents! That evening she dropped a bowl and it shattered on the kitchen floor. When I ran in to see what happened she said, “This just isn’t my day!”

A very long all state day

Yesterday was a VERY long day. Marisa spent all Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Ames, Iowa for All-state. Bob, Alayna, and I headed to Ames at noon yesterday. Kayla stayed here for the big stake youth activity and Tyler stayed for his 1^st beehive/deacon activity. We had to be there to pick up Marisa by 2:30, but her call for the concert wasn’t until 7. So, we decided to make the most of it. First, we went to Kmart to do some Christmas shopping any buy poor Alayna some pants (since all of her are high-waters, ripped, or too tight she can’t breathe.) Then, we went to see Megamind in 3D! Alayna was purely fascinated the entire movie since this was the 1^st time she has ever seen something in 3D and I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie in 3D (must have been when I was really little and they used the blue and red paper glasses.) Anyway, we absolutely loved the movie. It was hilarious and very entertaining.

Then we went to subway to grab a fast dinner before dropping Marisa off at the coliseum. We had a tough time finding a parking spot because not only was all-state being held, but there was also a football game at the university. Talk about traffic!

The coliseum looks exactly like the Marriott center in Provo. Alayna entertained herself by running around the top area until the concert started. Warning: Mom bragging ahead!

Ok, so over 5,000 high school kids auditioned in October for all-state. Only 200 made it into the orchestra, about 300 into the band and 600 into the choir. 177 Iowa high schools were represented. Only 80 violinists were chosen for that orchestra and Marisa was one of them! They represented the top 1.7% of high school musicians. Now how cool is that?? I took some pictures, but I couldn’t get in very close. For those of you in Iowa that are interested, it will be broadcast on Iowa Public Television (Nov. 25 at 7PM and Nov. 28 at 5:30PM.) I will try and tape it for grandparents. The orchestra played the “Patrie Overture” by Georges Bizet and Tchaikovsky’s Final from Symphony #4 (which was my favorite!!) By the time they did the final number (Battle Hymn of the Republic), poor Alayna was in tears. It wasn’t because she was touched by the music, the concert was 2 ½ hours long and she couldn’t take it anymore. She even brought a book with her but she finished the whole book in one hour. Anyway, we topped off the evening with Frosty’s at Wendy’s and made the long 2 ½ hour trip home. We hit our pillows by 1:00. A very long day.

(Orchestra on the bottom, choir to the left, band on top, whole right side of coliseum packed with people)

(Can you tell she is tired?)

Misc:

Tyler’s team won their game again this week.

I discovered a cute way to make a cheap teacher gift.

We are watching the dogs again. They are becoming part of our family.

Alayna's Musical

Kayla's Band Concert

Marisa' Concert #3

Marisa's Concert #2

Marisa's Orchestra Concert #1

Tyler's Choir Concert

Aviation Badge

Murphy’s Law and how we proved it this week!

Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". I started out this week with a bang:

And Kris came tumbling after

After choir on Sunday, as we headed to the car, I took a trip. A trip into a hole, down a hill, and ended in a not so graceful face plant! It’s been years since I tripped like that. Thank goodness only Tyler saw me. It would have been worse if other choir members had seen me or if I had broken something. The only thing that was damaged was my pride.

ER

On Sunday, Alayna started complaining that her ear really hurt. I figured it was part of a cold she seemed to have and that it would be ok. She kept complaining and by dinner she was tears. We couldn’t get her to stop crying, so I chose to take her to the ER and I’m glad we did. We were there for quite a while Sunday evening and they said she had a really bad ear infection. They gave her some ear drops that numbed her ear and finally relieved the pain and gave her antibiotics. Why can’t we keep this kid well?

You had a what?

Tyler had a band concert on Monday night. I decided to stay home with Alayna since we had spent the night before at the ER. I received a text from Bob shortly after they left saying that Tyler had 2 solos!! We had no idea and even forgot the video camera. He did a great job! When I asked him why he didn’t tell me he had solos, he said that he knew I needed to be home with Alayna since she was sick and he didn’t want me to feel bad about missing it. Bless his heart!

(Alayna’s playdough caterpillar that she made at activity days)

Squishy Fingers

At basketball practice this week, Tyler totally jammed his finger. It was very swollen and turned black and blue. We had to wrap it up for several days and he had to play a game with it all bruised. His team lost one game this week and won one.

Again?

The night of the band concert Tyler wasn’t feeling well and ended up staying home sick the next two days. He is doing much better.

(Tyler with his new glasses)

Accident

On Wednesday, the girls had Young Women In Excellence. We picked up their friend, Justine, on the way so we went a different way to church. We saw an accident that looked like it had just happened (with no police yet). As we passed it, I noticed that one of the cars had Jessica and Lauren (girls from our ward) in it. So, we stopped to make sure they were ok. I was shocked they weren’t injured because the entire front of their car was bashed in. I think they were scared more than anything. I was so happy they were ok!

The YWIE was beautiful. The talks were great, the décor was beautiful, and the dessert topped it all off.

Great way to spend a day off

So, we didn’t have school Friday for a teacher comp day (But the high school did haha) Anyway, I took Tyler and Alayna to go Christmas shopping and have lunch with Bob. Tyler used some of his birthday money to buy a new tennis racquet, balls, grips, and wristbands. He was so excited! Then I spent the most of the afternoon at the walk-in clinic for me. Oh joy!

Whose idea was that anyway?

So, Kayla was given a huge project this week. They were assigned a battle during WWII, had to make it into an allegory, then create a book by making the story into Dr. Suess rhyme. It had to be at least 16 pages long. She started at noon Saturday and by 8:00 she was in tears because she was so frustrated and tired. I sat down with her at 8:00 and we worked our butts off and finally finished the book at 1AM. I need to have a chat with that teacher who assigned it…

To top it all off

We woke up to snow flurries this morning. I guess winter is officially here  AND this newsletter is late because my computer crashed…

Events that defied Murphy’s law

●Alayna did such a fantastic job at her musical!! She had two speaking parts and memorized them and did a wonderful job on them. She even got an acting part in the school “food fight”. Bob taped the program if anyone wants to see it.

●So Kayla has started “accompanying” our lives with the clarinet. She plays whatever you are doing or the mood. I swear she plays “Jaws” for me….

●Kayla ran the mile run in 7:58 at school. I realized that we must have been holding her back at the Growl Prowl, because she could have easily run it in ½ the time Marisa and I did. I think next year she will leave us in the dust.

●Tyler passed the sacrament for the 1^st time today. He was so nervous but he did great!

●Bob got a new calling today! He is the Teacher’s Quorum Advisor in the YM. I think he will be awesome.

●We opened an email for Alayna. She was feeling left out because she wasn’t getting email. So, in case anyone would like to say hi her new email is: cattygirl@mediacombb.net

●The best part of the week was that the boys in my family must have known it has been a bad week, so yesterday, while I was asleep, they went and bought me flowers and chocolate. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever!

I guess the lesson learned this week for me is to have gratitude for those things in our lives that we sometimes take for granted.

PS- The flour game

Top Ten Cool Happenings This Week

Top Ten Cool Happenings This Week

10. This is more like an “interesting” detail than a cool happening but one of my students asked me a question this week which I have never been asked. “Would you rather be chewed to death by a crocodile or eaten by a kangaroo?”

9. Marisa got contacts this week! She likes them but is still trying to get used to putting them in.

8. Tyler had 2 basketball games this week AND he made a basket!! Whoo hoo!

7. Kayla made the high school bowling team! Go Kayla! Go Kayla! Practices and meets begin this coming week.

6. Tyler began showchoir this week! He is very excited about it because showchoir is very big here and he is just dramatic enough to be awesome at it!

4. Alayna auditioned for and got two speaking parts in her upcoming musical!!

3. Tyler gets new glasses this week. I will take a picture when they arrive.

2. The girls sang in the youth choir for stake conference today!

1. Tyler got to fly a real plane yesterday!!! His scout group went to the Marion airport to work on their aviation badge. A guy from our ward is a pilot and he took them up in the air. Tyler was in the front seat and he let Tyler steer the plane left, right, up, and down. He thought that was incredibly awesome!