Thursday, October 29, 2009
Chili nights and cozy hearts
You know you're loved when you come home to find the pot of chili you needed to make for the night's activity, already brimming with bubbles and aroma out of the crockpot when your spouse is every bit as busy as you are!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The memory of almost getting the dog
Tonight was our ward's "Trunk or Treat." First we had a chili and cornbread dinner for the children before they were to be overwhelmed with candy. They were all so cute in their costumes. Brenna invited her friends Kate and Faith to come "ghouling" with her. People lined their trunks in our church parking lot; their cars were decorated with lights, ghosts, and goblins. It was a sight to behold. Brenna and her friends were so excited to go from trunk to trunk in our parking lot. They tried to "trick" me into giving them candy multiple times; Brenna got such a tickle out of it.
And she couldn't stop laughing when she and her friends Kate and Faith came back sans her full candy bag, holding the cutest white dog you have ever seen. Her name was Gracie and Bre proudly announced that she was now the Gracie's owner. Here's the story: When Brenna and her friends walked up to my friend's trunk, they saw her dog and went crazy for this little dog, hugging and kissing all over it. Bre's friend, Faith was dressed as a vetenarian and declared she should inspect the dog to make sure it was healthy. Bre went right for the kill and said, "I'll trade my candy bag for the dog." My friend, ever up for the mischief of little girls told Bre she would take her up on her offer.
The story picks back up at my car. They were so excited and I could Brenna truly see she thought she was going to take Gracie home with us. When I went to see my friend, Natalie, who owned Gracie, I told her how excited Brenna was, she told me, "Let them live in their dream for a moment. Let them enjoy it." As I walked back to my car, loving exactly where I was on that night and in that moment, I thought that my friend had given me such great advice--let Bre be excited for herself to have this dog. That was until I walked back up and heard Kate, Faith, and Brenna talking about sharing Gracie one night here, one night there, and so on. My heart sank as I knew I was going to have to be the one who brought them back to reality.
Brenna took it pretty well, but I made my friend help me. I'm no dummy. She explained how Gracie was a part of her family, but that Gracie liked to visit other families. Brenna gave her back gracefully. But not before Brenna, Kate, and Faith kissed and hugged her. As we walked back to our car, someone said, and I'm not sure who, "This will be a night to remember. It will be a memory of almost getting the dog." Sigh...
My friend with the girls. Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
My terrible horrible no good very bad weekend, part 11
We had Noah's birthday party on Saturday night. Noah really wanted to go paintballing, but we just couldn't find a weekend where we could donate 5 to 6 hours to a birthday party. And now here is is over a month later and we are just celebrating it now! We had too many games and practices going on. So, we finally decided on a movie party. When I looked at upcoming movies, I thought "Where the Wild Things Are" would be great!! So, it was settled.
I sent out the evite a little over two weeks ago and promplty forgot about it really until Friday!! Then I realized I needed to get the updated evite out with the correct party times (darn movie theaters don't put out their movie times until Friday around here!), I needed to get the decorations and themetic party plates, order the cake, figure out some games to play since Noah's friends were coming back to my house, get dinner taken care of, and a myriad of other things.
So, Friday night happened. And if you've read my blog backwards you know what a fiasco Friday night was. And when it was still raining on Friday night, all I wanted to do was go home and get in my pjs (which is all I ever want to do on a Friday night after a long, stressful week of work--BTW, on this particular Friday--I had 7 classes to work with for all 7 periods and a student meeting at lunch, so I had absolutely not a minute to myself on Friday!!!!). Which means....
I woke with a feeling of panic on Saturday to realize I hadn't ordered the cake or gotten the party plates. I hopped out of bed, threw clothes on and ran to the store. Luckily, my grocery store earned my loyalty and I was able to purchase on that came the closest to "Wild Things" which is to say, the cake was decorated to look outdoorsy, with a volcano, a stream and a desert! I'll take it. Done.
Later that evening, having realized it would take a lot of stress away to eat the ever recurring b-day dinner of pizza and do the cake there, we went to a local pizza joint. But before I could enjoy that part of Noah's birthday party/fiasco, I realized several things: I had left off the invite several of Noah's closest friends--how could I have done that!!!! And the camera whose batteries I had charged on Friday for the Pom event, was left in the car during the movie. So, I missed part of the movie and ran to get the camera. I was soooo happy until I tried to take a picture of the boys under the movie poster and it wouldn't turn on. I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell, I wanted to be like Max and bite somebody!! Andy, trying to be helpful, had taken the battery out to charge it and he put my camera next to the charger so I would "know" that I needed to get the battery and put it back in the camera before we left. Doesn't Andy know that I am not a detail person? And when I am stresesd and trying not to forget things like candles and knives to cut the cake, that knowing I had put the battery in my camera just the day before fully charged would not make me think to look for the camera battery, even if the camera is sitting right on top of it!? Ugghhh!! I know where my Wild Things are!!
So, not only did Noah not have all of his favorite friends there, I hardly have any pictures to remember his most momentous birthday to date! Thank goodness for the advent of technology, with my cell I was able to get a few pics. Here is what I have! Happy Birthday Noah.
I sent out the evite a little over two weeks ago and promplty forgot about it really until Friday!! Then I realized I needed to get the updated evite out with the correct party times (darn movie theaters don't put out their movie times until Friday around here!), I needed to get the decorations and themetic party plates, order the cake, figure out some games to play since Noah's friends were coming back to my house, get dinner taken care of, and a myriad of other things.
So, Friday night happened. And if you've read my blog backwards you know what a fiasco Friday night was. And when it was still raining on Friday night, all I wanted to do was go home and get in my pjs (which is all I ever want to do on a Friday night after a long, stressful week of work--BTW, on this particular Friday--I had 7 classes to work with for all 7 periods and a student meeting at lunch, so I had absolutely not a minute to myself on Friday!!!!). Which means....
I woke with a feeling of panic on Saturday to realize I hadn't ordered the cake or gotten the party plates. I hopped out of bed, threw clothes on and ran to the store. Luckily, my grocery store earned my loyalty and I was able to purchase on that came the closest to "Wild Things" which is to say, the cake was decorated to look outdoorsy, with a volcano, a stream and a desert! I'll take it. Done.
Later that evening, having realized it would take a lot of stress away to eat the ever recurring b-day dinner of pizza and do the cake there, we went to a local pizza joint. But before I could enjoy that part of Noah's birthday party/fiasco, I realized several things: I had left off the invite several of Noah's closest friends--how could I have done that!!!! And the camera whose batteries I had charged on Friday for the Pom event, was left in the car during the movie. So, I missed part of the movie and ran to get the camera. I was soooo happy until I tried to take a picture of the boys under the movie poster and it wouldn't turn on. I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell, I wanted to be like Max and bite somebody!! Andy, trying to be helpful, had taken the battery out to charge it and he put my camera next to the charger so I would "know" that I needed to get the battery and put it back in the camera before we left. Doesn't Andy know that I am not a detail person? And when I am stresesd and trying not to forget things like candles and knives to cut the cake, that knowing I had put the battery in my camera just the day before fully charged would not make me think to look for the camera battery, even if the camera is sitting right on top of it!? Ugghhh!! I know where my Wild Things are!!
So, not only did Noah not have all of his favorite friends there, I hardly have any pictures to remember his most momentous birthday to date! Thank goodness for the advent of technology, with my cell I was able to get a few pics. Here is what I have! Happy Birthday Noah.
My terrible horrible no good very bad weekend, Part 1
Friday night and it's a "Party in the USA." Or it should have been...Brenna practiced all week long with the high school poms. She was a jr. pom for the week and she was going to perform a 3 minute routine during halftime at the football game. I was excited and she was excited to do this.
On Monday, during the first practice, she was assigned a Pom "big sister" for the week. When they weren't in one large group learning the routine, Brenna was with her "big sister." They played games, learned specific parts of the routine, learned chants and talked. It was fun to watch and we realized that Brenna's "big sister" was one of her cousin's best friends and also that one of Tobin's friends was her real-life little sister; so there was an instant connection between Brenna and Sarah.
There were two other Poms, Lauren and Kirby who also knew Brenna from outside sources. Lauren had even babysat her with Brenna's cousin Ali once, when she was little about 3/4 years ago. Lauren was really good with her as well and when Brenna wasn't sure about her shoulder shimmy, Lauren helped her.
On Friday night they had a pizza dinner with all of the Poms and Cheerleaders. She had a great time. They also practiced the routine a few times which is where my pictures are from.
My excitement was crazy high when I walked out into the sopping, dripping wet, metal bleachers to watch Brenna perform as a Junior Pom. I checked my camera to make sure it was working and worked a little bit to get the best angle. And then she came out; well, all 100 of them came out!
I put my video camera on and started filming. It took a little while to find Brenna on the field. And then it was over, Brenna's 3 minutes of dancing, and I looked down at my camera to stop recording only to find that my thumb had hit the stop button and it hadn't recorded her dance at all!! Seriously, I wanted to cry. I really wanted to videotape her. Darn it!!
Brenna is the little blonde girl with the red bow in the 2nd row.
Brenna with "sisters" Lauren and Kirby.
Brenna's friend, Kaitlin also was a jr. pom for the week.
Brenna with her big sister, Sarah.
On Monday, during the first practice, she was assigned a Pom "big sister" for the week. When they weren't in one large group learning the routine, Brenna was with her "big sister." They played games, learned specific parts of the routine, learned chants and talked. It was fun to watch and we realized that Brenna's "big sister" was one of her cousin's best friends and also that one of Tobin's friends was her real-life little sister; so there was an instant connection between Brenna and Sarah.
There were two other Poms, Lauren and Kirby who also knew Brenna from outside sources. Lauren had even babysat her with Brenna's cousin Ali once, when she was little about 3/4 years ago. Lauren was really good with her as well and when Brenna wasn't sure about her shoulder shimmy, Lauren helped her.
On Friday night they had a pizza dinner with all of the Poms and Cheerleaders. She had a great time. They also practiced the routine a few times which is where my pictures are from.
My excitement was crazy high when I walked out into the sopping, dripping wet, metal bleachers to watch Brenna perform as a Junior Pom. I checked my camera to make sure it was working and worked a little bit to get the best angle. And then she came out; well, all 100 of them came out!
I put my video camera on and started filming. It took a little while to find Brenna on the field. And then it was over, Brenna's 3 minutes of dancing, and I looked down at my camera to stop recording only to find that my thumb had hit the stop button and it hadn't recorded her dance at all!! Seriously, I wanted to cry. I really wanted to videotape her. Darn it!!
Brenna is the little blonde girl with the red bow in the 2nd row.
Brenna with "sisters" Lauren and Kirby.
Brenna's friend, Kaitlin also was a jr. pom for the week.
Brenna with her big sister, Sarah.
A Picture Must Be Worth a Thousand Words
Hanging out with Tiercy and Family 
Hanging out with cousins >
Tobin on the high dive
Hanging out with cousins >Tobin on the high dive
Mom's 70th birthday at the Lake
I watched my uncle turn 70. I watched my aunt turn 70 and I always wondered how I could do anything as creative as my cousins who prepared their birthdays. Trying to get input from 4 siblings was crazy hard. But my mom's birthday celebration all came together in the most amazing way. It made me want to sing songs out loud for how perfect it all turned out.
Prep before the party:
Send out invitations (I forgot to take a picture) Siblings, anyone have one?
Send my mom clues about where we were taking her. On a sheet of paper I put spaces for the number of letters that spelled out Deep Creek Lake where were taking my mom for the weekend. Every couple of days, I sent my mom some letters that were part of the words and as she got them she had to figure out the location.
She's a pretty smart lady and started sending me clues back by email. Her clues were: you live closer than me, We've been there before and the number 2 figures prominently in our folklore of the place. I was tickled that she was emailing me these clues b/c I knew she was excited about it!!
Our celebration:
Friday night:
All arrive at the lake as soon as they could.
I would make lasagna, salad and bread for dinner for those arriving in time!
Movie night: We were going to watch "Because I Said So"! This was the perfect movie as it is about the relationships she has with her daughters while she is about to celebrate a momentous birthday!! There is no more perfect movie.
Hang out and talk to the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday:
10:30-1:00 Lunch hike at Swallow Falls
1:00 5:00 Free time (our house had a pool and we thought the kids would like to play in it during the day)
5:00 Adult dinner at Unos. We could have done something a little fancier, but we figured the point was to be together as a family and this was our budget friendly choice.
8:00 Candle celebration for Mom and the Boys' (Andy, Buff, Todd, and Steve) tribute to Mom
What really ended up happening was this: We all woke up to a rainy Saturday which made everyone want to stay in pjs with warm cups of cocoa. We cozied up in the living room, near the fireplace, and hunkered down for story telling. :). The girls went around 3:00ish to Schoolhouse Earth to shop (except Tierc stayed behind to make the cake). At 5:00 we went out to dinner and continued our plans.
Hanging Out
Dinner
The Celebration:
After dinner we returned home to the house and found all was well. We prepared to get ready for the grand celebration of Mom. It went like this:
We had 7 candles. First, all of the grandchildren came up and said what they loved about Mom-Mom. After Torin, the oldest grandchild, said something to/about her, he lit a candle. Then each one of us (Mom's 5 children) came up in birth order and said what we wanted to to/about Mom. After we were done, we each lit a candle for her. And finally, we had Al come up and say what he wanted to Mom. So, in all, we had 7 candles lit to celebrate the "light" Mom is in our lives.
Then we gave Mom the gift of a Canon Rebel digital (SLR) camera. She was so excited about it. Al is taking her to Australia for her birthday so this was a great gift in anticipation of her visit.
Then the Boys went on. They did a skit for Mom and then did a "Dancing through the Decades" skit. Andy, Steve, Todd and Buff all took turns dancing through the ages. IT was great. We had Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Justin Timberlake songs to dance to. What I loved most about the skit was that it inspired mom's grandchildren to get up and dance. Al asked Mom to dance and before you knew it, most of the grandchildren (not the post teenage ones) were dancing with Mom-Mom and Al.
It was a great celebration!! We love you so much Mom! Happy Birthday.
Sunday
We had a lovely breakfast of Steve's scones, eggs, bread and orange juice. It was delicious. And then we all headed home.
Oh, and one picture of Mom with her 13 grandchildren.
It was a great weekend.
Most memorable quote: Buff to my mom, "You know, Ann, when I used to think about this day way back when, I used to think of you being an old maid....and know....you're not a maid anymore, but you certainly are old!"
Prep before the party:
Send out invitations (I forgot to take a picture) Siblings, anyone have one?
Send my mom clues about where we were taking her. On a sheet of paper I put spaces for the number of letters that spelled out Deep Creek Lake where were taking my mom for the weekend. Every couple of days, I sent my mom some letters that were part of the words and as she got them she had to figure out the location.
She's a pretty smart lady and started sending me clues back by email. Her clues were: you live closer than me, We've been there before and the number 2 figures prominently in our folklore of the place. I was tickled that she was emailing me these clues b/c I knew she was excited about it!!
Our celebration:
Friday night:
All arrive at the lake as soon as they could.
I would make lasagna, salad and bread for dinner for those arriving in time!
Movie night: We were going to watch "Because I Said So"! This was the perfect movie as it is about the relationships she has with her daughters while she is about to celebrate a momentous birthday!! There is no more perfect movie.
Hang out and talk to the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday:
10:30-1:00 Lunch hike at Swallow Falls
1:00 5:00 Free time (our house had a pool and we thought the kids would like to play in it during the day)
5:00 Adult dinner at Unos. We could have done something a little fancier, but we figured the point was to be together as a family and this was our budget friendly choice.
8:00 Candle celebration for Mom and the Boys' (Andy, Buff, Todd, and Steve) tribute to Mom
What really ended up happening was this: We all woke up to a rainy Saturday which made everyone want to stay in pjs with warm cups of cocoa. We cozied up in the living room, near the fireplace, and hunkered down for story telling. :). The girls went around 3:00ish to Schoolhouse Earth to shop (except Tierc stayed behind to make the cake). At 5:00 we went out to dinner and continued our plans.
Hanging Out
Dinner
The Celebration:
After dinner we returned home to the house and found all was well. We prepared to get ready for the grand celebration of Mom. It went like this:
We had 7 candles. First, all of the grandchildren came up and said what they loved about Mom-Mom. After Torin, the oldest grandchild, said something to/about her, he lit a candle. Then each one of us (Mom's 5 children) came up in birth order and said what we wanted to to/about Mom. After we were done, we each lit a candle for her. And finally, we had Al come up and say what he wanted to Mom. So, in all, we had 7 candles lit to celebrate the "light" Mom is in our lives.
Then we gave Mom the gift of a Canon Rebel digital (SLR) camera. She was so excited about it. Al is taking her to Australia for her birthday so this was a great gift in anticipation of her visit.
Then the Boys went on. They did a skit for Mom and then did a "Dancing through the Decades" skit. Andy, Steve, Todd and Buff all took turns dancing through the ages. IT was great. We had Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Justin Timberlake songs to dance to. What I loved most about the skit was that it inspired mom's grandchildren to get up and dance. Al asked Mom to dance and before you knew it, most of the grandchildren (not the post teenage ones) were dancing with Mom-Mom and Al.
It was a great celebration!! We love you so much Mom! Happy Birthday.
Sunday
We had a lovely breakfast of Steve's scones, eggs, bread and orange juice. It was delicious. And then we all headed home.
Oh, and one picture of Mom with her 13 grandchildren.
It was a great weekend.
Most memorable quote: Buff to my mom, "You know, Ann, when I used to think about this day way back when, I used to think of you being an old maid....and know....you're not a maid anymore, but you certainly are old!"
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Football--Noah and Tobin
Noah did a great job playing Friday night!! He caught the ball (sorry, the pic. is blurry) and was so excited! He caught it another time as well. He had a great night.
Tobin's game.....
Tobin had a great game. He had some great plays and threw some great passes.
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