Monday, December 29, 2008

The Goblin Haz Frenched Me!

Oh my! That nasty little goblin has frenched me and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. But since it's my first award, I'll take it (see sidebar). But what to do with the great lady? I think I'll look up a cute beret to add to my knitting queue. What do you think of these? More importantly, would Marie Antoinette approve?

C'est bon!


















Sikkim by Kirsten Kapur.
















Baroness Beret
by Susan Power.


And now we must follow the rules, or the Goblin will bite our toes. Believe me, he is not kind!

1. Add the logo/button to your blog
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs
4. Put the links to those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message on their blog letting them know the honor has been bestowed upon them

I nominate:
1. Superhotmama
2. Elise
3. Jordyn
4. Colleen
5. Natalie
6. Stacy
7. Jayne

Aikido Update

December 04, 2008



The good news:
Ceres tested for and was promoted to the rank of Hachikyu (green belt). We are so proud of him.
Ceres' Uke, or testing partner, was Koski (I hope I spelled that right). He's standing in front of Sensei in the picture below. He was very helpful and willing to spend extra time to help Ceres prepare for the test. Cool kid.

The bad news:
Darrell Sensei has moved and will no longer be teaching here at the Mesa Dojo. We're glad that Ceres was able to test with him before he left. He's a great teacher and we'll miss him.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Feeling Nostalgic

I sneaked a picture of Erik in a James Dean-esque moment the other morning.











And it reminded me of this photo of mom and dad with their new car. (I love to see dad's handwriting here.)

















This picture was taken 15 or so years before I was born. Another era for sure. But I love to look at old photos of my parents, to see them in their youth and imagine their daily lives of young children, neighborhood friends and dreams for the future. Did it all turn out as they expected? Well, let's see: seven children, all grown now with their own families, a beautiful home to raise them in and plenty of fun memories. I sure hope so.

I came along later in the family and missed some of the action, but I've had a good life so far. And I owe it to these two kids.

Thanks dad and mom.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Night at the Spook Alley



When monsters breed...

They spawn a giant vampire!!!

EEK!


Happy Halloween!


Ideas for next year (spoiler alert):
  1. Turn atrium into graveyard, complete with fog and headstones
  2. Find pulley and rope for ghost
  3. Get Dave on stilts before the kiddies get here
  4. Lighting needs improvement
  5. Get Ceres into a costume! Whatup?
  6. New horn (heeheehee)
  7. Scare the **** out of the teenagers. Or not. . . .

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Some Panic-Induced Cleaning

We are in the process of buying our house. Need I say more? Let me skip to the appraisal portion of this adventure. . .

When the call came that the appraiser needed to come by and check some things out, I panicked and insisted that the office get cleaned up. It took a whole day. To our amazement, we discovered that a floor does still exist in that room.

I don't have any "before" pictures (wouldn't want the evidence circulating about), but take this mess and apply it to the whole room. Twice.


But I do have "after" pictures. I'm very proud of our new room. It's not perfect, but at least the land mines of paper and toys and sharp things and lost things and forgotten things are gone. Look, a futon! (At the bottom right of the picture.)


And I can now walk into the closet (which, by the way, is twice as big as my bedroom closet - so unfair). I actually laid down in it, just to spend a blissful moment in the space.


And the best part of the whole process. . . .No creepy critters (like roaches, or mice, or goblins) lying in wait. Phew!

And there's more. We took a huge step in completing our bedroom's transformation and got things up on the walls. We still need to paint the doors and vent cover, find some cool new bedding, and get a console table to put our sound system on for our future (distant) flat-panel TV (for which we have devoted a whole wall). And, I am working up the courage to suggest to Dave a ceiling re-paint. But we are getting really close to finally (FINALLY!) completing this room.


Candace also came by and, after making me walk 5 miles (more on that later), dusted and vacuumed. And she cleaned our kitchen cabinet doors and drawers (which have some kind of sticky paint on them and don't have any handles or knobs and are thus, grime magnets). I couldn't be more grateful or lucky. I have the best, bester, bestest sister!

And so, back to the appraiser. Yeah, I'm new at this and I didn't know what to expect and, it turns out, the panicking was unnecessary. Well, actually, not unnecessary - look what it accomplished. But all he did was get the square footage of the inside and outside of the house, ask about gas and/or electric, count bedrooms/bathroom, note shingle tiles and carport, take some pictures (of, among other things, a clean office, aka 3rd bedroom) and threaten to steal Dave's cool riding mower.

Little does he know. . .

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Something's Different . . .

I wonder. . .










What could it be. . .?









(Hint: It's not the tattoo.)


Thank you Candace!!!!


p.s. I love Stacie!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Who Nose?

I was driving home from work today and I passed a kid, probably no older than a kindergartner, walking home from school. I had noticed him from down the street because he was flinging his arm around, mouthing words to himself. As I passed him, our eyes met. Without losing that eye contact he thrust his finger up his nose and then flung a booger at me. Good thing I hadn't washed my car! My first reaction was indignation - how dare he?! - and then I started laughing. Such a bad attitude for a 5-year-old! He's a fun one, that one. His teacher must loooooove him.

I was thinking maybe he needs a lesson in being more discreet. If you would like to learn some of the finer techniques of nose picking, go here. Cheers!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Birthday Boy


Happy Birthday to my favorite son!

Today, although there have been early signs of onset, Ceres officially became a teenager [insert your condolences here]. How did it happen? Where did that little boy, the one who used to shake his booty to jazz music, with the stunning smile and sparkling eyes go? Will I ever see him again?


Occasionally, that boy emerges from its generally happy, but sarcastic and sometimes moody host and reveals his chatty, charming self . Examples of these moments include the trip to Best Buy a couple of days ago to purchase an Xbox 360 Elite for his birthday (I was totally and completely outnumbered on this decision, not to mention not even considered a reliable source of reasoning), the day school started late and his piano lesson was canceled, the drive to a sleepover where there would be much Xbox playing and very little sleep, and finally getting that long-procrastinated book report done. I love those moments.

Somehow, I've got to come to terms with the fact that my son is an ever-changing being progressing through this life at (to me) an alarming speed. My sincerest hope is that he will always find joy, expansive or minute, throughout his life and that his family (well, selfishly, me in particular) will be a major source of that joy to him.

He is my baby, my boy, my teenager, my missionary, my grand children's father, my son. I love him, all.



*Although his birthday was on a Monday, we bought his Xbox the Saturday before. We teased him that, even though he had gone with us to purchase it and that it was in his hot little hands and he could set it up, he wasn't allowed to play it until his birthday. We thought he understood that we were teasing, but he was unsure. It was late when we got home, so he set it up and then went to bed. Sunday morning, I woke up and found him in the family room watching TV. I asked why he wasn't playing Xbox and he replied that he thought he wasn't supposed to play it until Monday. I told him we were only joking. He then jumped up off the couch, said, "See ya!", and zoomed out of the room. We haven't seen him since.

Monday, September 15, 2008

They Weren't Looking at Her Shoes

My sister, Toni, and her husband came down from Utah this last weekend for my nephew's missionary farewell. While she was here, she and I and mom took a little trip to Dillard's. We stopped in the shoe department to observe a pair of shoes. I liked their greenish color, but the design of the shoe was odd. We had decided we didn't like the shoes when I looked to see what brand they were (you know how, when you're on the fence about a pair of shoes, the brand name can make all the difference of whether they are "worthy" of your feet or not?). Well. . .

They were Jessica Simpson shoes.

As my mom reached to touch them, I exclaimed, "Don't touch those, they have cooties!"

Startled, she drew back her hand and asked, "Huh?"

I first had to tell her who Jessica Simpson was, and then explain to her that my (other) sister and I have boycotted Jessica Simpson's shoe collection because her public image (a little bit dumb, a little bit trashy, a whole lot of fake blonde hair) gives us Roly-Eye-and-Gag Syndrome (yeah, I just made that up. Do I need to explain?).

So we moved on. We had a great weekend with nary another thought of the celebrity. Jake's farewell was awesome; his talk really good (and as Grandma Honey said to me, the most we'd ever heard him talk at once).

Last night, after Toni had flown home, I received a text message from her. Our texting conversation went like this:

Toni: You just missed Jessica Simpson! SLC airport.

He (Randy, her husband) had one of the guys forward a picture so we could send it to you but it didn't come. Sorry.

All these guys are congratulating themselves for getting pictures of her. Oh, now Randy's best friends with them!

Me: That is too funny. Did she have cute shoes on?

Toni: Um, I wasn't that interested so I didn't look. How dumb is that?

Actually I don't think any of the guys were looking at her feet either.

Me: Really??? I thought that would be the first place they'd look. Silly me.

Toni: Fw: here it is.














Me: Oh, cool. Yeah, definitely not looking at her shoes.

Friday, September 12, 2008

I Like Him


A few nights ago I woke up from a dream. As I shifted my position in bed, Dave murmured something in my ear and settled his arm over me.

"Are you awake?" I asked. "I want to tell you about my dream."

He mumbled yes. I knew he wouldn't remember what I told him, but I wanted to remember the dream. So I proceeded to tell him:

In my dream, my life is pretty much the same as it is now, except that somewhere along life's path, Dave and I had gone our separate ways and I am now married to another man, a nameless, faceless person. I know that, as part of my dream, I love this other man and that he is the father of my son (my same son, who looks just like Dave). However, after all these years, Dave and I meet again. And as we are talking we realize that we were never supposed to have been apart. Without a moment's hesitation I decide that it doesn't matter what it takes, it's time to leave my husband, take my child and be with Dave. It's the right thing to do.

I awake from this dream with the realization that this is affirmation that I have chosen the right person, my real husband, to be my partner through life's journey.

I have often wondered what my life would be like without Dave. Early in our relationship, on more than one occasion, we tried to break up. But we couldn't ever stay apart. And while our relationship was rocky in the beginning, as soon as we got married we settled into happiness and comfort.

I am incredibly lucky to be loved (unconditionally) by this man. And everyday he gives me reasons to love him back.

But we don't say it too often - I love you - because it's more important to us that we like each other. So we say "I like you". And it makes us happy.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Sockology II

I have managed to post twice in one day. While most of you may die of shock (I'm barely clinging to life myself), I know some of my fellow bloggers will be very proud of me. Savor the moment. This will only happen once.

Maybe I should spread out the bounty and save this for tomorrow, but I just couldn't put off this UPDATE on my socks.

My last sock knitting class was Aug. 23rd, during which time I finished the first sock. Here is a picture of it.














Four days later I had the second sock finished as well. What do you think of the contrasting color on the heel and toe? I received a lot of compliments from my classmates on my color choices. I was pretty pleased.


Tendu


Releve


(Look who stopped by for a sneak peek.)

Knitting these socks was surprisingly easy to do. Amazing! No wonder so many knitters do it. Anyway, I've already stocked up on some sock yarn and am eager to learn some more complex patterns. In the meantime, I've started a second pair of socks with a lighter weight yarn and smaller needles. More to come on that.

Also, during this time I finished another cabled hat. Just in time for our Labor Day camping trip. Voila!