Josh's spooky story
Freaky Skeleton at 39 East
One night, a boy named Walter went trick or treating. He was very happy until he came to East Place. The first house was 38. A big fast spider came out and ggave him a cup of spider stew. He murmured thank you and went out. The next house was 39 East. There was a big graveyard. Walter pressed a button and a spoooky Robot came out. He yelled "Trick or Treat." Then the Robot went down again. Then Walter rang the doorbell. Then a talking ghost, skeleton, jack-o-latern and Vampire came out. They didn't have any costums. They were plain Halloween walking, spooky, scary things. But Walter didn't know that. He screamed so loud that he became depth (deaf). His mother beat up the skeleton. She got a stone from the graveyard and smashed the jack-o-latern into 1,824 pieces. The ghost and vampire closed the door slowly so that they wouldn't be harmed. Walter learned sign language after his accident.
Happy Halloween from us!
Carma
I am so lucky to have a friend like Carma. She lives with her family in New Jersey, which is close enough to get really excited about, but far enough away that we only get to see each other several times a year.
Carma was my mission companion in Louisiana. In fact my trainer. Then we were put back together a few months later for another month. Carma was an excellent missionary.
When my dad died right before my mission was over, Carma found me a place to live at BYU when I came back. We were roommates for a time even.
She planned a great surprise party for my 23rd birthday! She was so sneaky, inviting friends from many areas of my life, mission, from California, from BYU, even invited my future husband! Little did we know then...
Carma is always up for travel and visited me in DC and in NYC before she moved close by.
The years have come and gone, but Carma has been a constant in my life, and so I pay tribute to her on my blog today. Thanks for being a wonderful friend!!
In No Particular Order
Sometimes if you haven't posted for say a week and a half, you feel a little pressured maybe to post something fabulous. With nothing fabulous "really on my mind," here are a very few points:
1) We had a great time at our Ward Halloween Party tonight. I was grateful when I woke up today and thought, "I am so glad I am not in charge of the party tonight." My darling friend Lindsey was. She and her committee did a great job. We even got an award for "cutest trunk." I basically brought all of Josh's Yankees bedding downstairs and set it up in the trunk. I had 2 pumpkin pails filled with candy, one for those who favor the Rockies and one for those who favor the Red Sox. I even wore my 2000 World Series (as you may recall the Subway Series) hat and shirt as I dressed up as a "Yankees fan from the Year 2000." The kids were adorable. Sam balked at the Dr. costume, maybe because he just woke up from a nap as we were leaving? But he did let me put on a skeleton shirt so he and Matty kind of matched.
2) Those wondering about the ticket: Went to town court on Wed. For a mere 3 hour wait, I was able to have it reduced to 0 points and have the fine reduced by $50. I am now much more careful now about making complete stops at stop signs. So grateful Mark took Wed. off as the letter said, "Be prepared to stay all day." Yikes!
3) I want to be a reader again. My 2 books are Austenland and the latest Nicholas Sparks book. Note I said reader, not a serious reader.
4) Best family moment of today: Cutting out paper bats with the kids to hang on the windows of our family room! We had a good time. They had been begging me for more Halloween decorations. What, the little display on the piano was not enough? We also put up some Halloween school projects from years past that I had saved and they drew a few pictures. Once again, no need to overthink things.
5) All those who are local who have finished all 3 Stephenie Meyer books, identify yourself! We want to have lunch next month to discuss them more! Wendy, great idea!
6) Mark is painting the kitchen as we speak. I am excited to have a better finish and better color (it was a little minty before). We are now beige. Thanks Mark!
Stay tuned for more points!
Command Central
I decided I needed a new system for organizing our family. As I have said before, i take my job as CEO of this family very seriously. But my current system of piling all papers, receipts and order forms on the dining room table wasn't working for me anymore. i love the idea of Pottery Barn's daily system, but besides being expensive, it's something I can't implement in this house at this time. Plus I started feeling that I wanted to start working on projects again. I can't remember the last time I did a project. I have been just so focused on managing the day to day, doing a project seems like a luxury.
So, I set up a card table in my bedroom. It has the first project sitting on it-- Putting prints my father-in-law sent me from this summer in our photo album.
I went to staples. I bought some posterboard. I folded each piece in half making a portfolio for each child to put their school projects in. A happy afternoon was spent decorating these with stickers.
Also at staples, I found letter size zip top folders. I have one for each child for their papers, registration forms, schedules for activites, etc. The zippers are even color coded--pink for Caro, green for Matty and blue for Josh. I have 3 zipper folders for me, and some smaller ones too, one for receipts and one for coupons. They are clear and I love them!
I decided the side of the fridge is really where all the important things need to be. I don't have a bulletin board. Magnets with a clip hold school newsletter, cafeteria menu, invitations, etc. Then in an act of pure genius, I bought 10 small white boards at the closeout store. 5 are lined in a row for the days of the week, and the various activites that might happen M-F, like cub scouts, soccer, bring in library books, etc. Then 5 for family members. Each child has one that has what we are working on (Josh--practice trumpet and piano, Matthew--wear underwear and be happy going places) and then their jobs. The jobs are simple and with a wipe of the white board can be modified for what we need to have done that day. One has my goals: eat healthy, exercise, read scriptures. We have one for what we are working on as a family, too.
So I am hoping this works. The dining room table is still a mess tonight.
Again, without computer
Our Mac is at the Mac Doctor. It has a kernel panic. It's been since Friday that it hasn't been working. Mark brings home a laptop so I can check email (well, he also works from home on it). But, I feel like I am saving a lot of time or doing other things instead of being on the computer. Sorry for being a non-commenter on your blogs.
Six habits/facts, I was tagged by Lindsey:
1) I am an information gatherer. I love information. I love to know things. Except I don't really love knowing really knowledgeable things (like literature or science). I love the backpacks brimming with flyers, I love a stuffed mailbox, I love my USA Today, I love email.
2) I probably made my bed 3 or 4 times growing up. Now it's the first thing I like to do in the morning,
3) I really love Cranberry Almond Crunch for breakfast. I know it's all sugar, but it's so good. I had a mission companion once who said she could get excited about waking up in the morning if she had a good cereal to look forward to. I also like oatmeal with walnuts and golden raisins as a second choice. I also don't have milk with cereal--the sog factor. Can't stand anything soggy, causes lots of gagging. Even seeing a piece of bread all soggy in the sink, makes me gag!
4) I get really excited about Halloween early in the month, then I get really burned out by the end of the month and can't wait for it to be over. I tried to pace myself this year. We have 3 of 4 costumes now, and the decorations and books came out on Columbus Day. That was only 2 days early of my intended date to pull everything out--Oct. 10 (which I guess is today.)
5) As we've gotten busier with school activities and such, I mentally go through the day several times each day trying to anticipate what's next and how I can best prepare for it.
6) I really can't stand the transition each fall to long pants and socks. I am a girl who loves capris and flip flops and sandals. Tomorrow though it's back to the long pants and shoes and socks.
I tag Sara in Colorado, Natalie, Chrissie, and Karen--can't wait to read your interesting habits/facts, too!
Plans for FHE
Mark is so good at Family Home Evening. I am still getting over my memories of being a bratty teenager and having to sing preschool songs for my younger siblings. But that was half a lifetime ago.
A while back, we had decided to alternate months in planning FHE. And of course, I work best when there are themes. So I decided the theme for October would be "Our Family's Month of Service." I also did this because my parents were excellent examples of helping us learn to serve, and maybe if I teach my children to love serving then I might get some help with the dishwasher and the little boys on occassion (and for other reasons too!)
There are 5 weeks in Oct. Last night, we did "The Joy of Serving Friends." They each picked a friend they wanted to serve. They wrote them a note and we baked cookies in the afternoon. I have to say it was one of the best afternoons we had since school started. We even had a family baseball game before we left to pick up dad and deliver the cookies.
The other weeks--in no particular order--will be The Joy of Serving the Community (I was getting stressed about this one, but I think we will donate some of our books to benefit our library's book sale), The Joy of Secret Service, The Joy of Serving our Family and the grand finale The Joy of Serving Others in the World (I think we will make hygiene kits for LDS Humanitarian Services--maybe 5-10 of them or something manageable like that.)
I have high hopes for this month--and thanks to Mark I am a convert to FHE. It takes some planning, but we really look forward to it each week. We do pretty simple things, but hopefully it's making a difference.
