Quote of the day

One of my favorite Earl quotes:

This comes from my all -time favorite My Name is Earl episode called "Teacher Earl". Earl and Randy have made fun of people with accents their whole lives, and in one instance at a restraunt this happens:

Waitress with accent: You want I take your plate?
Earl: I vant to suck your blood!

Happy Halloween!

This Jason as Earl Hickey last year's Halloween. His eyes are closed on purpose as "Earl" has NEVER had his picture taken when his eyes are actually open.

Man's best friend

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." ~Groucho Marx

I just finished a great read!

My pal Stephenie Meyer recommended the book called "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. The book was awesome! It had great characters, great plot, and plenty to keep you turning pages just as fast as you can read them. If you or your teen are looking for a good book, I think you'll be happy with this one.

The only down side to the book, is that the last page reads End of Book One.

I am going to consider reading Gregor the Underland series next. It is written by her as well. And Mrs. Selman and Suzanne Collins are the two people I credit with Lexie's love of reading. Mrs. Selman introduced Lexie and the rest of the class to Gregor when she was in 5th grade. Lex can't say enough good about her and the Gregor series.

Let books be your dining table, and you shall be full of delights. Let them be your mattress, and you shall sleep restful nights. -Author Unknown

I meant to add that this book reminds me of 2 very early Stephen King / Richard Bachman books (both non-horror short stories)

The Running Man: (short synopsis taken from Amazon)The year is 2025. The Running Man is America's favorite television game show. Ben Richards is the program's latest contestant-and the Hunters' latest target in a rigged game of death...

The Long Walk: my short synopsis- It's about a boy who enters a do-or-die walking competition. Each person in the contest must keep a speed of 4 miles per hour (if I'm remembering right) and they cannot stop. Not for sleep, not to go potty, not for anything. The contestants are given 3 warnings, and then they are shot, on the spot. BUT the winner gets anything his heart desires.

If you are interested in the Hunger Games, and want something to read while you wait for it, because currently there are 300+ people waiting for it, you should give those two books a try. The Long Walk is my favorite of the two, but both are great. I'm pretty sure the Long Walk was also the first Stephen King book I read. I was very leery of his books, but my sexy smart hubby convinced me that not all King books are scary.

The Ghost of Halloween Past (TTA)

TTA (it's been awhile)

This is the one and only picture I can find of myself on Halloween. (sad ha)

I want to preface what I'm about to say with a quote from my pal Dr. Phil. He says "there is no reality, only perception", so if by some freak of nature, my mom is reading this, keep that in mind OK Mom?

When I was growing up, I always had two choices for what I could be on Halloween. A clown or a witch. I aways looked at my friends who had the cool plastic ones from the box with the freaky masks and thought I wish I had one of those costumes. I distinctly remember wanting to be Casper the Friendly Ghost and Tweedy Bird, but I was a clown or a witch instead.

Another part of Halloween that I can recall, is when my little brothers came along. We were living in my great grandma's house on 3000 W. in Clinton (Cami, you probably know where that is). When we lived there, everyone had an acre or two of land, so houses were pretty spaced out. Anyway, my mom wanted us to be able to get lots of treats, but there just wasn't much of an opportunity in our own neighborhood. Often times, she would take us to 7-11 and load us up on penny candy rather than take us somewhere else for trick or treating. Looking back, I think that was a very sweet thing of my mom to do, but at the time, I would have rather collected the candy going door-to-door all night long. We did have this really sweet neighbor though, she would give us great big, home-made "scotch-a-roos" (peanut butter rice crispy treats). It was very kind of her. On our little section of the street, there were maybe 5 kids, and she did that for all of us.

I think those are prime examples of why I want Halloween to be so fun for my own children. I want them to be able to go out trick-or-treating and get a giant thing of candy that will last till Christmas. That's part of the fun!

I want my kids to be whatever they want to be, even if that means scouring the Internet for hours and hours trying to find the perfect costume, or bidding on several on e-bay, or making the costume myself if we can't find one. I want them to have great Halloween memories.

Our family (meaning Jason and mine) is big on pumpkin carving. My kids have been carving their own pumpkins since they were about 3. Jason's work used to do carving contests, and for about 5 years in a row, Jason won first place! I remember at my elementary school, we had pumpkin contests. My mom kicked butt on those.

So, as far as Halloween goes, the bottom line is I want my kids to remember how much fun we've had. I want them to remember the Witch Festival and taking a ride with the witch. I want them to remember our annual trips to Hee - Haws and the haunted hay ride they have. I want them to remember carving pumpkins. I want them to dress up as who they want to be. Whatever they are into. I want them to remember Jason and I dressing up. Like when Jason dressed up as Earl Hickey from "My Name is Earl". I want them to remember my crazy blue wig. I want them to remember how fun it is to be a kid, so that when they are grown-ups, they will know how to let their hair down and have fun. We ALL need to have a little fun don't we?

Please enjoy the song "Haunted" by Poe. I forgot how much I love that song! I'm going to go add it to my player a.s.a.p!

Boot camp

note:

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ "MY RANT" POST, READ THAT ONE BEFORE READING THIS POST (it will make much more sense)

I'm very glad to know that I'm not the only one who thinks it's ridiculous not to dress up for Halloween at school! What is the safety issue? I would love to know! The only thing I can come up with is that parents often dress up for the parade as well, which means you could have some creeps show up in cognito. That's the reason I think they should bag the parade, not the costumes!

Oh, at one time I also heard the excuse that it was because there wasn't enough room in the halls for all the parents and kids. Again. I say, then get rid of the parade.

But I do want to be a bit more clear about my "rant". I don't believe the PTA had anything to do with the fact that we are not doing costumes and the like at school.

Maybe we should just change the name of our school to Grin And Bear it Elementary.

..

U

My Rant!

OK, I've been keeping this in for way too long... now it's time to let the beast out!

I'm so upset that our school has chosen to ignore Halloween. It is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love everything about it! I love buying costumes for my kids. I love candy. I love the smells. I love the activities you can do. I love going to school to see the wee ones all dressed up. I love helping during the parties. I love making games for the parties. I love that the only things you have to buy are a costume and some candy. No gifts. No baked goodies. Just fun!!

At the end of the school year last year, all of the families in our school, received a note with some details about this year. Details such as back to school night, when the class lists would be posted, etc. Also included in the letter was details about Halloween. It said we would not be having a Halloween parade. The children would not be able to wear their costumes to school. Instead, they were going to have a carnival the night before in which the kids could wear their costumes. (We got a note about the carnival on Friday stating that our school gets a whopping 10% of the proceeds!) Oh goodie! But then, it reiterated no costumes on Halloween.

I took everything I had NOT to write a not-very-nice letter to the principal over the summer, to tell her she was a MURDERER OF FUN!!!! I've talked to some of the parents on PTA and the "story" is that it's a safety issue. I say, if safety is such an issue, skip the parade! Parents only really want to see their own children anyway. But let the kids wear their costumes for crying out loud. The kids are in elementary school, not BOOTCAMP!!!!

This post wouldn't be complete without a song, so... here it is: I'm So Sick by Flyleaf.

p.s. Just in case I wasn't clear, we will not be participating in the carnival. It costs 10 bucks a person for unlimited "rides" a.k.a. blow-up stuff. Instead we will be giving a check to the school for $4 (the "proceeds" for 4 tickets at $10 each)

Ok, I'm done. Next time I promise I will have something nice to say. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I feel better (sort of)

Rise and Shine!

Super loves to play school! She likes to go in my preschool room, shut the door, and pretend she is a teacher. She offen writes messages to her "class" on my board. Today's class message was:

song for this post:
Good Morning (from Singin' in the rain)

Joke of the day!

A cabbie picks up a Nun. She gets into the cab, and notices that the VERY handsome cab driver won'tstop staring at her. She asks him why he is staring. He replies: "I have a question to ask, but I don't want to offend you.

"She answers, " My son, you cannot offend me. When you're as old as I amand have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hearjust about everything. I'm sure that there's nothing you could say or askthat I would find offensive.

""Well, I've always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me.

"She responds, "Well, let's see what we can do about that: #1, you have tobe single and #2, you must be Catholic."

The cab driver is very excited and says, "Yes, I'm single and Catholic!

"OK" the nun says. "Pull into the next alley."

The nun fulfills his fantasywith a kiss that would make a hooker blush. But when they get back on theroad, the cab driver starts crying.

"My dear child," said the nun, "Why are you crying?"

"Forgive me but I've sinned. I lied and I must confess; I'm married andI'm Methodist.

"The nun says, "That's OK. My name is Kevin and I'm going to a Halloween

party."

Fooled?

I'm not going to forget cute things my children say... SO

We have this little sign hanging on our front door.

Super asked Jason a few nights ago "Do you think we've fooled anyone" then she added "Do you think anyone has gone looking for a pumpkin patch?"

Too cute.

Nope, not going to forget that!

and...this post wouldn't be complete without The Who! (Yes, I am a child of the 70's)

We won't get fooled again!

Sidenote

Just a quick note about this photo:

My cell phone is in her pocket.
Yep.
Ruined.
I was not very happy about it either.
At least we have a back up!

Play Time

We have been planning our St George trip for forever! Way back in February, we bought tickets to see Les Miserables and Big River for this past weekend. We had so much fun! We all loved both of the plays. They were both definitely very different, but Tuacahn always puts on a great show!

Upon entering Snow Canyon, the ranger gave us a pamphlet instructing us what to do if we see a tortoise. (I kid you not) We were desperately wanting to see one, but to no avail. We did see several lizards and tons of footprints. Sue and I saw some really big footprints, which I'm very thankful we didn't encounter the animal that made them. It looked like a mountain lion or something. According to our pamphlet, coyotes are common in that area, so most likely it was that, but still not an animal you want to meet up with!

We had time to do just two hikes in the canyon. One was super-short, called Pioneer Names. It took us only about 40 minutes round trip. The other was the Whiterock trail. This one wasn't very long, but Jason and I climbed to almost the tippy-top of this huge petrified sand rock. I got stage fright near the top and started to climb back down. Jason did the same. In the same little area, the girls found the "amphitheater" as it is named. Nestled within there is a giant sand hill. The girls tried running down the hill, sliding on their butts, and finally, the thing that worked best was sliding on their stomachs. We played in that area for at least an hour, before hiking back out to make way for the hotel again. (We were kicking ourselves for not bringing our sleds. The girls wanted to take them, and then we forgot to pack them in the car. Needless to say, it is impossible to find snow sleds in St. George)

Hiking up and into the amphitheater: (below)

This is the rock Jason and I climbed up. (below)

You can't tell in this picture, but to the left is the little cove where the girls where sliding down the sand.

We took this picture when we were across on the rock we hiked up.

Slip Sliding away:

As always, Loo makes a new friend. She has a knack for doing that!!

the two cast pictures are from Big River. The one directly above, has the people who played Jon Vanjon, Fonteen, and the "Master of the House". The picture above this one is of Tom Sawyer, Huck Fin, and Jim.

Plans are already under way for next year. They are doing Annie, Footloose, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Songs for this post:

On My Own and Master of the House

Uno

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to others.

1. Where is your cell phone? charging

2. Where is your significant other? couch

3. Your hair color? changed

4. Your mother? Syracuse

5. Your father? Mississippi

6. Your favorite thing? Blogger

7. Your dream last night? amusing

8. Your dream/goal? traveler

9. The room you're in? Office

10. Your hobby? writing

11. Your fear? unemployment

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? undecided

13. Where were you last night? Tuacahn

14. What you're not? wealthy

15. One of your wish-list items? laptop

16. Where you grew up? Davis

17. The last thing you did? movie

18. What are you wearing? jeans

19. Your TV? Sony

20. Your pet? 3

21. Your computer? outdated

22. Your mood? restless

23. Missing someone? no

24. Your car? Avalon

25. Something you're not wearing? thong

26. Favorite store? Costco

27. Your summer? Wet

28. Love someone? Family

29. Your favorite color? Pink

30. When is the last time you laughed? Today

31. Last time you cried? Yesterday

32. Music? cranked

I pass this on to whoever wants to do it.

Song for this post: One by U2

top 5 countdown (with one word of coarse):

#5 hotels

#4 restaurants

#3 sand

#2 plays

#1 togetherness

I'm back!

Did you miss me? Or even know I was gone? Well, we are back from our little vaca. It was great. Tomorrow or Monday, I will post more. I have some great pics!

Dem Bones

(this is Lexie's version of a dressed for success skeleton)

What I'm about to say will solidify your feelings about me being a dork...
I crack myself up! I really do.

I was sitting in my house yesterday afternoon looking at the skeleton my girls had dressed two times previously, when I had this brilliant idea! After rummaging through the Halloween crap like a kid wound up on too much candy, I found what I was looking for. Then, after careful consideration, (not really) I dressed my skeleton up in it. I stood back to admire my work. Not quite as funny as I had hoped, but still pretty good. After a trip to Walleyworld, I got the finishing touch. What do you think?

without the finishing touches:

After the finishing touches

Looks a wee li-le bit like one of Captain Barbosa's crew. Don't you think? I wish you could see the way the light shines through the costume. It's pretty eerie!

Songs for this post:
Pirates Life for Me: From the Ride
Hoist the Colours: From Pirates: At World's End

Today's top 5 countdown:
#5 cracking myself up when I'm doing a post
#4 showing my larboard side
#3 Not needing to say this to my preschoolers: Pipe down you bloomin' cockroaches! (hee hee. I'm cracking myself up again. Why am I so d*mn funny?)
#2 Talking like a pirate, even when it's NOT International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
#1 Coke. Drink up me harties!

Breakfast Casserole

A few weeks ago a couple of different people asked me for this recipe. I thought I would just put it on my blog.

(The recipe comes from my Aunt Cherie. She used to make it every year for Christmas Breakfasts, but it is also great as a dinner)

2 lbs Jimmy Dean Sausage
1 C. chopped onion
1 1/2 c cooked rice
4 C. Rice Krispies
2 cans Cream of Celery Soup
2 C. Sharp Cheddar cheese shredded and divided

Brown Sausage with onion, drain. In a separate bowl, combine, rice, rice krispies, soup and 1 1/2 cups cheese. Add sausage and onions. Put in a glass baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until middle is hot and mixture is starting to bubble slightly.
***NOTE: the Jimmy Dean Sausage and sharp cheddar cheese are a must. I have tried it with other sausages and med or mild cheddar, and it doesn't taste very good.
***This has become my Christmas breakfast tradition as well. I put it all together the night before, then put it in the oven in the morning. BUT if the casserole is cold (which it will be after it sits in the fridge all night) you need to increase the baking time by about 10 minutes.

NOTE TO MY FAITHFUL BLOG READERS: my normal song for each post will return the next time I post. I just really wanted my photo songs to be on for right now, since my main post for this session is about the fact that I went away for the weekend and did some much needed girl bonding and scrapbooking. Plus I can't think of a sausage song. Well, Maybe Breakfast at Tiffany's. You can sing that one in your head for this one.

I'm a Little Red Corvette

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Athletic? Do you think so? Everything else sounds like me though!

Please sing Little Red Corvette with this post (Prince)

Sacajawea aka Alice

I've been meaning to do this post for quite a while now, so today is FINALLY the day:

I have mentioned before that we have recently acquired a rabbit named Alice. Well, she is the sweetest bunny!

She loves to be held...like a baby. We take her with us when we go to school to pick up Ashley. We have also taken her to Lowes twice! She is a trooper! The girls have dressed her up in a "jacket" that Loo made out of an old pair of pjs, they have put a hat on her, they have even put a harness on her to take her for a walk. It is so cute!

This weekend, Loo and Super made her Sacajawea. They are funny! I don't know how they decided that's what they were, but anyway, here are some pictures of little AliceAlice, looking like a stuffed animal
Alice in her "jacket"
Alice in her pen
Alice, like a baby
And Finally, Sacajawea Alice: Notice she is in a bunting...made from a sheet. And Super is dressed in a neat sheet with a head band holding it on around her neck)

Freeze Frame!

I had the opportunity to get away this past weekend with some friends in our old and new wards. It was lots of fun! We ate lots of treats, drank lots of coke, and got lots of pages done. The only thing I didn't do lots of was sleeping...I had a grand total of 8 hours for Friday and Saturday. Needless to say, I was bushed! I had the hardest time getting up for church on Sunday. But it was worth every hour of lost sleep! I got 13 pages done at our little scrap-away this weekend! I was super excited to get so much done. Now, I'm totally jonesing to sit at home and scrap some more. I just love doing it. Here are some of my favorite pages from the weekend:

3 of my friends each got 30 pages done!!!! Holy Cow! (and one of those came up Friday in the early evening and left early Saturday)

Some songs about Photos or Photography to keep you company today:

Freeze Frame (J. Giles Band) (loved that song as a kid)

Photograph (Def Leppard)

Pictures of you (the Cure)

Kodachrome (Paul Simon)

Take a Picture (Filter)

Thanks for organizing everything Cindy!! Thanks to everyone who came, brought food, movies, treats, etc. I had so much fun!!

Have a Coke and a Smile :)

For Your Info:

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago you would have $49.00 left.

With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer (or coke) one year ago, drank all of the beer (or coke), then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214.00 cash.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. It's called the 401-Keg

A recent study found the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found Americans drink, on the average, 22 gallons of alcohol (or coke) a year. That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.

Song for this post:

Click #7 (Coca Cola Secret) on my Coke Playlist...Do you remember that little jingle. I do. I remember the great big Christmas tree with everyone standing around it singing and drinking my favorite beverage... COKE. For kicks, you can also click on other jingles, but the REAL song for this post is #7!!

Don't worry guys, my playlist will return in a day or 2, or the next time I post at least! "Playlist just didn't have the song I needed this time, but Google did! Yeah Google!!

Faves of today:

#5 Coke in a can, #4 2-Liter of Coke, #3 Coke at Holiday oil, #2 Coke from the freezer (30 minutes is usually about right) and the #1 item on my list...my favorite Coke of all...Coke from the Mayan Express at Jordan Commons. They have the machine that lets you select your flavor add-in to your coke. So spiffy! And, none of the other MegaPlex theaters have it. Thank you Larry Miller!! I love your Coke machines!!!

p.s. I cannot take full credit for this post (as funny as it is). The majority of it came from an email that Jason sent me. I only added parintheses and the words "or coke" to each of the little facts. BUT I did search for coke songs on Google, and I added the Coke playlist. I also added my 5 faves.

We will, we will, rock you!

Friday, I got a very exciting call...

It was my friend Dani (one of my "moms" from last year and the year before). She invited me to go to her house to play rock band with her and her friends. I was so excited. You all know how I. LOVE. ROCKBAND!

Anyway, it was so much fun! I was able to meet 2 other ladies. I didn't realize that the third friend was going to be someone I already knew. (she's one of this years "moms"). We laughed, and joked, and sang and danced, and drummed, and played the geeetar (you have to say it like that). We also had delicious caramel apples! MMM!

Here are a couple of the pics from that night.

New friends: Angie in the striped shirt, Jenn in the purple shirt
my "moms" Des in the plain black shirt, Dani in the short sleeved black shirt.

Thanks so much girls for letting me crash your party. Thanks so much Dani for thinking of little old me!

Here are some of our favorite songs of the night
Joker and the Thief
My Sharona
We will Rock You - Queen...coming through for me yet again! We didn't play this one though, but it sums up the post. Don't you think?

An Evening In Roma

My 4th and 4th:

A couple of my peeps did 4th and 4th posts, I really liked the idea, so I thought when in Rome?

So, if you want to do it, all you do is go to your photo file on your computer, select the 4th folder and use your 4th picture. Then write about the picture.

This picture is from when we were finishing our basement. We had to bring this desk up from downstairs and put it at the end of the hall so that we could have more room. Super just loved playing under it. But, not alone! She would say all in one word "come-ere-and-sit-by-me Loo" and pat the floor to show her where she wanted her.

Aah! Those were the days. The kids didn't fight. Everything was calm. Super was nice. Loo wasn't a teen.

Songs for this post:

When in Rome: by Nickle Creek (great Bluegrass band if you are ever in the market to hear something new and they are VERY clean)

An Evening In Roma: Dean Martin This is one of my favorite "standards" I don't know why. I just love it.

Today's 5 faves:

1. It was Jason's day off today!

2. I got to go to Gardner Village again (field trip) which means more fudge!!

3. I got to take a nap today. An un-interrupted nap!

4. Holding Alice (our bunny) for the 2nd time (I can't remember if I mentioned this previously, but I'm kind of afraid of small animals, so it was a BIG deal for me to hold her) Plus she's so sweet, soft and cuddly!

5. Heading out to do my favorite vertical pass time...Rockband!

hee hee!

Hare today...Goon tomorrow

As I mentioned in the Tortoice and the Hare post, we have a bunny now!
The kids love her! They can't put her down! We have been busy busy busy making her some new accommodations!

So now, Super has decided she doesn't want to be Claire Bennet for Halloween any more. You know who she wants to be? Alice in Wonderland! I told her she probably won't get to cart Alice (that's our bunny's name) around all day on Halloween. She claims she doesn't care. . . We'll see about that.

Well, I guess the good news is that now I can just buy the costume from Disney rather than making it!


And...it's been awhile since I put my five faves on, so here goes:
1. Playing Rock Band with my BFF Alissa
2. Not having to make dinner
3. Messing around on the computer all night (I'm a GREAT wife)
4. I already have 7 friends ... Make that 8 friends on Facebook (just got another)- Wow guess what? People love me!
5. It's been an all around good day!