TrunkOrTreat.

Some quick TrunkOrTreat Fall Festival shots:

 This was a hay THRILL ride. Not much keeping those hay bales on the trailer and a speedy driver.

 Bill's photo bomb.

 Bill and I spotted our "nerdy daughter" running around and had to grab a pic. She was such a good sport.

Some of the festivities at the festival included games (glow-in-the-dark bowling, fishing pond, balloon pop, cake walk, donut-on-a-string, etc, etc, etc.), a parking lot skate rink and pumpkin launcher (for the older youth - all outside and we couldn't have had better weather), costume parade, pie-eating contest, and dessert buffet. We got all sugared up, then headed out to the trunk or treat.

Of course it was a good time.

TrunkOrTreat Preview

I've gotten a little carried away with the fun effects on my phone camera.

This is just a preview. A glimpse. A snippet. If you can't figure out what we are, I will enlighten you once I finish compiling all the pictures from my numerous sources. (Okay, really only two, but for whatever reason, my phone photos do not want to be sent at the moment. Plus I really REALLY need a nap before the girls and I start madly cleaning for BYD because the location changed this morning to our house and it's a disaster from all the seriously-sun-up-to-sundown TrunkOrTreat preparations made yesterday.)

Friendship.

I like William Arthur Ward. I really, really like him.

Sometimes I see a quote that I really like, and when I search to find the author, it turns out to be him.

Fall Break

It was Fall Break last week.

We did not plan a fun destination getaway since we will be going to UT for Thanksgiving Break

(a whole week this year.... woot! woot!).

Instead, we made plans to sleep in.

And work on Personal Progress.

(I'm pushing Shilo along - she's almost finished - and moving Mar along in the process.)

Other than that, we didn't have much going.

Shi had swim practice every day, and Lex, Shi, and I all dutifully went to work.

Mar pretty much hung out.

On Tuesday, Mar and I were invited by our friends to go to the Celestial Seasonings factory.

I wasn't sure the hour+ drive one-way to visit a TEA factory (we don't drink tea...do we?) was worth the time (Shi, Mar and I had previously planned to go grocery shopping as part of a Personal Progress value experience), but Mar really wanted to go. We adjusted our schedule, and decided to make the trip.

It was the most beautiful, crisp fall day,
and the drive was a great time to chat and catch up with my friend Stephenie.

Mar showed me how to do some great effects with my phone camera. I am more impressed every day with the things that little device can do.

We enjoyed the beautiful fall colors, sipped all kinds of herbal infusion samples, and enjoyed a great tour (a funny tour guide was a bonus).

There were people from all over the world on the tour with us - Canada, Germany, Australia... other countries I would be guessing at because I can't remember... and the U.S. Seriously, it felt like we were the only locals in the group.

I learned a ton about TEA. For example, the kind of tea we don't drink (you can check out why here under the Word of Wisdom tab) actually contains the TEA plant, and comes in three varieties: black, green, and white. Back in the 60's (or was it the 70's), Celestial Seasonings started by making "herbal infusions" from herbs and plants found in the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, which they called "tea" only for marketing purposes. They eventually added true tea varieties as the company grew, but their top 6 bestsellers do not contain the tea plant. They purchase all kinds of herbs and plants from around the world. 

It smelled amazing as we walked through the factory.

It was interesting to know that a half-size box of Celestial Seasonings tea sells from $18 to $20 in Europe. I can't complain that a full size box around these parts sells for 2 to 3 bucks.

Mar and I selected a couple of our favorite flavors to bring home:

Country Peach Passion

Honey Vanilla Chamomile

and Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride

We were each given packets of Black Cherry Berry as our ticket for the tour, which Mar tried for the first time a few days later before declaring that it is now her new favorite.

I wish Shi and Lex had taken me up on the offer to come along - I think they would have enjoyed it.

I went to lunch on Wednesday and Thursday (and again this past Monday).

When I schedule lunch with friends, I am reminded of a talk by Julie B. Beck given at BYU Women's Conference 2010 on priorities. She listed three categories in order of importance, the first being {the essential}, the second {the necessary}, and then:
"The third category has to do with {the nice to do} things. Those are crafts and hobbies and recreational reading and movies and travel and lunches with friends... These things won't save us. They add variety to our lives, but they won't save us. When our priorities are on that list, and our time is devoted to those nice-to-do things, our priorities are out of order, and we lose power."

In my why-I-lunched-with-friends-so-much-this-week defense, Rebecca had invited me to join her and another friend who has been experiencing some family health challenges (and who I also visit teach) for lunch on Thursday. That was on the calendar. On Wednesday, my friend Jeanne came to the salon for a hair appointment, then asked if I had plans for lunch. I didn't. She is a recent empty-nester, her married daughter-and-family AND her husband had been out of town for the week, and her mother is very sick in another state. I could tell she could use someone to talk to. Afterwards, I invited her to lunch with us on Thursday. Monday was Jeanne's birthday, so we went to lunch. Again. That was a lot of lunching, and I packed on a few pounds to prove it. Honestly, my usual lunch-with-friends schedule is once a month (in conjunction with a temple session with my friend Marci), sometimes twice (usually a birthday or special occasion).

I had to share one of the 20 pictures I took of Rebecca at our lunch on Thursday.
I was surrounded by 4 ladies with their i-phones, chatting up emoticons, and I had to show them how awesome my glorious-but-not-as-fashionable Galaxy was. (Seriously, people, SWIPE.) I showed them the trick Mar had taught me just a few days earlier: The burst shot. In 5 seconds my phone took 20 pictures. Could their i-phones do that? Nope. And during that same lunch, I enabled emoticons on my phone. See? It can do that, too. 
Rebecca is moving soon. I am so sad. There's nothing like having some of the best neighbors EVER up and leave after nearly 12 years. Another reason to lunch a lot in the next month or two.


It snowed on Friday. Mar and Cass made a snowman to celebrate.

Here's what he looked like this morning:

Face down, in the grass.

Here's a quick snippet of Shi, working away on one of her final value projects:

She started this project about a year and a half ago. She didn't quite finish on Friday, so we plan to git 'er done this week. My Her goal: Personal Progress completed by November 3rd.

We finished off the week with the first club swim meet of the season on Saturday.

Shilo swam well, with her biggest improvement in the 200Free. 10+ seconds. Nice.
The high school swim season is right around the corner.
Shilo has decided NOT to pursue a college swimming career, so we are encouraging her to "leave it all in the pool" each and every event. Go out with a bang. She hopes to qualify for State in at least 2 individual events this year and be a team captain. She will have a new coach, so our fingers are crossed that the season will be good.

This week we are getting back to the routine. It takes me a while to adjust.

Sing... Sing a Song

Mar had her first choir concert of the year last week.

For starters, I'll give you a brief glimpse of her duet part:

Nice job, Mar!

We did not have the best seat in the house (which would pretty much be only the front row), so after some camera juggling, we were at least able to catch a snippet of her (I painstakingly figured out how to remove the lengthy piece of video showing the back of people's heads as we passed the camera the length of our row trying to get it).

I think it's kind of cute how she was so concerned that the other singers be where they needed to be, when they needed to be there - so much like her mamita.

For every other piece, she was standing on the top row, left side.

A bit more conducive to parental enjoyment. However, not much. This was our view:

On the program:
Aya Ngena (Zulu Folk Song)
Fair Phyllis (Mar's fave)
How Can I Keep From Singing?
Ain't No Mountain High Enough

It made me think of my choir concert days in middle school Jr. High. 

I couldn't help but show a couple of comparisons. For fun.

Note: I'm going to be perfectly honest. During those crazy Jr. High trying-to-fit-in years, some of my friends and I often sometimes occasionally wrote {not very nice} words about people in our yearbooks (thus the added doodle hearts). I don't know if it was the "thing to do" at the time (likely), but as an adult, I find it offensive and embarrassing to admit. I have oft encouraged my children to be careful of what they write, and what they let others write in their yearbooks. It could come back to haunt you! The funny thing is, those not-so-nice words were usually written about either the boys we were infatuated with, or the girls we were dying to be friends with.  The vernacular wasn't nearly as blatantly vulgar as much of the language used today - pretty much words like freak, scum, and stoner (on anyone who had their eyes half-closed). However, still defamatory and disrespectful, which I regret. The word above my head was written by someone else, but I think I crossed out my own face. Such a 7th grade thing to do.

I usually accompanied the choir for one musical selection at each concert. I remember that I never-not-once made it through an entire number without a mess-up, but to this day appreciate my choir teacher who showed such great confidence in my so-extremely-limited-you-would-be-shocked piano skills.

When I think about teachers that made a difference in my life, she is at the top of the list. I would love to find Mrs. Schmidt someday and thank her.
Mauri's cute choir teacher, Mrs. Alexander, reminds me so much of her.
I didn't snap a picture of Mrs. A, so it's on my to-do list for the Christmas Concert.

I also participated in the 7th grade Swing Choir.

I DID write the not-so-nice words on my own face on this picture. What was I thinking?

Back to Mar's concert. Here was part of her cheering section:

It was so fun to have her sisters there to support her.

You SING, girl. Sing a song.

Volleying

I love middle school sports.

Around here, anyone can participate.

Taylor played football; Lex did cross country, basketball, and track; Shi ran cross country.

(I didn't forget Britt - she was more of a choir and poms girl in middle school)

Mar decided to try volleyball this year.

I was a little nervous for her, since she's never really played before (except at our family reunion this summer), and I personally never had great experiences in all my years of church volleyball as a youth (I recall jammed fingers and balls-in-the-face more than actual play time - although I had a mean underhand serve). Even Lex - I would say the most adventurous athletically of my children - mentioned how awful she was at volleyball.

The Monday night before tryout week we headed to the church for FHE to practice up a bit.

I talked up the benefits of the C team.

(equal playing time, the girls are distributed on the 4 C teams evenly so each team has some girls with more skills and some with less, the opportunity to make new friends, etc.)

(This is the entire C team - the girls are divided up into 4 smaller teams for playing)
Note: Upon further study of these photos, I have concluded that the A/B team is probably pictured as well. All three coaches are in the pic, so my guess is that this is everybody.

So far, Mar has loved it.

I've tried to figure out the scoring and rotation (so far it's been different at every game).

Three opponents down, it's been fun to see the improvement the girls have made.

At Monday's game, there was actually more volleying going on vs. the which-team-can-get-the-most-serves-over-the-net scoring of the first games.

Mar's team played 4 games (many of the schools they play have 6 C teams, so our 4 teams have the opportunity to play more - bonus!), and they were all good, close, fun-to-watch games.

(It's also kind of fun to note how much smaller Mar is than most the girls her age... reminds me of when Shi was younger... I had to include a couple pics to illustrate my point):

Shilo's VB commentary lately: "If I would have known I would be this tall, I would have played volleyball... maybe then I'd be more coordinated!"  I think swimming takes coordination, too, don't you think? She played one Rec season of VB back in 5th grade, along with the girl on the left in the CC photo with Shi at the top of this post. Kennedy continued playing on club teams after that season and is now a varsity player for LHS.

I'm looking forward to the rest of Mar's season (with a nice long Fall Break in the middle of it).
Keep up the good work, girl!

Uplifted and Inspired

I love General Conference.

With so much to digest, I look forward to listening to and reading the inspired talks again and again.

*We have FHE material for the next 6 months (starting tonight).

*I have a plethora of topics to discuss (if only in brief moments here and there) with my husband.

*I have lots and lots (and lots) of things to work on as I strive to improve.

Today I'm thinking about gratitude and contentment.

Feeling refreshed.

{Fall}ing All Around

This morning it looked like this out my front door:

Which is funny because just a day-and-a-half ago our cute missionaries stopped by (around 4:30pm) after a bike-ride up the hill in near 90 degree weather. They were sweating buckets, so I offered them each a towel and a cold bottle of water. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen two sweatier guys in my life. Today Winter Fall is in the air (I'm hoping the snow is temporary - just give me brisk!).

I've been putting up Halloween decorations the past few days. Not that I have so much it takes me that long, but just because I've taken a piecemeal approach. I think I'm done. I've made a couple of additions this year, thanks to my favorite idea source.

Please don't look at the dirty mirror - I cleaned it after I had taken the pic.

 I found the raven printable here, and managed to eek out enough black ink from my printer (it's almost OUT) to git 'er done. I printed it on some burlap-looking scrapbook paper I've had laying around for years, and put it in an old frame I had painted black a good decade ago (after removing the ancient family picture it had held for all that time). I love the way it turned out.

 While chatting to my sister as I was running around one day, I mentioned I was looking for ravens. With real feathers. (For cheap.) I could tell she thought I was a little crazy. I had already been to Hobby Lobby and Big Lots, and was feeling pretty hopeless that I would find any.Then I walked into Michaels. Yes, they had them. They were on sale, eliminating the need for me to make several trips to redeem their one-per-customer-per-day coupons. I initially only purchased two, but then returned a couple of days later for three more. Mauri, of course, loves them. I wouldn't be surprised if she asks to keep them in her room once Halloween is over.

 I was also in the mood to make a banner for my mantle. I found this one here. I had finally purchased a yellow printer ink refill (couldn't print color for over two weeks, people), but was still squeezing every last ounce out of the black, and was thrilled that they turned out just dandy. I had some extra glitter and shimmer paper from Britt's wedding for backing. Simple and awesome.

 This scarecrow/pumpkin guy has been MIA for the past few years due to being inadvertently decapitated. Billy-my-hero helped me wood glue and nail him back together (really, a super simple fix). He brings back good memories of days-gone-by crafting and Super Saturday-ing with my seester. We call those our "Craft Days," when we couldn't wait to get together, and, while the children all entertained each other, we would sand-and-paint-and-paint-and-sand, all while laughing our guts out about the silliest things.
  Those were good times.

So maybe I put the grapevines back on his hat a little crazy. I might need my seester to come help me fix it (wink)... she has a much better eye for that stuff than I.

I know I just posted about my hallway pics... I've done a little updating:

(idea here)

Here's my creepiest addition:

I bought the skull at Michaels ($3 with my coupon), and already had the moss and the hurricane vase. (Idea from here.) I just hope I don't scare the bajeebers out of the kids that will attending our Semi-annual General Conference Luncheon this Sunday. I may have to turn him to face the wall. Or take him upstairs.

Remember my styro heads from last year? I decided to distribute them around this year.

And these cute letters were made by my ultra-crafty-and-talented MIL and FIL. Those two never cease to amaze me with the fun things they create. Adorbs.

Of course I have reused my paper bats from last year, and Mr. Freaky is hanging in his usual spot.
I'm calling it good.