Too Many Cookies

I titled a post the same thing back here.  Obviously I still need to work on my cookie-overcrowding problem.

Here are a few of the treats from the past week or so:

High School swim is in full swing.  Last week Shi had a meet on Thursday, and an invite on Saturday. The above-pictured 400 Free Relay team handily qualified for State.
(This is their serious don't-mess-with-us picture.)

Shi has been trying to individually qualify in the 100 Back and the 50 Free. She is less than a second away from both.  She would like to qualify BEFORE Christmas break to relieve some of her anxiety about it, but has through the month of January to keep trying should it be necessary.

I volunteered to make the locker tags last week.  I'm posting one only for record-keeping sake, not for showing off.  (Although I think they turned out kind of cute.)

She has another meet today (v REGIS - Missy's team - the girls have already been told that Missy will NOT be swimming this meet.  Apparently she plans to only swim two dual meets this season.  There has been much ado about whether she should be competing on the high school level AT ALL, but I can say that, from my experience, Missy is a very nice girl.  All the girls on Shi's team would be excited to have her at the meet, and would enjoy the opportunity to say they swam against an Olympic gold medalist, even if it meant they had no chance in h-e-double-toothpicks of winning),
and a time-qualified Coaches Invite on Saturday.
Lots of opportunities for improvement (right in the middle of the busy holiday season).


We had several ward activities this week as well.  On Tuesday we had the YM/YW "Bishop's Bash" sans the Bishop.  All for very good reason (I'm discovering that very good reasons abound everywhere in the life of a Bishop, and that nothing is an absolute.  Like hosting your own party).  After spending the entire day preparing my home to welcome the 60-ish youth of our ward, I also had the honor of filling in as the white elephant game emcee AND the refreshment coordinator.  I seriously couldn't have done ANY of it without Lex.  She helped clean the house, taxied Mar to her activity, and distributed and arranged the boatload of goodies that the youth had brought with them.  Unfortunately, nary a picture was snapped, since the photographer was emceeing a game (cough).

I'm going to miss my Girl Friday when she heads to college in a couple of weeks.
(Lex, btw, spoke in her YSA ward on Sunday.  Her co-speakers:  the Stake President and an area seventy, Elder Hillier.  Shi, Mar and I slipped out of our ward early to go listen to her.  Despite the numerous challenges she encountered while preparing her talk AND the need to quickly edit the initial 15-minute version down to 5, she did an amazing job!)


Friday night was our ward Christmas party.

In the creation of a new ward, there are some fine lines to walk.  (Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of other members of the household, and should not be assumed as such.)

People are often attached to long-standing traditions, especially those who have been around for a long time.  Others, including newer-to-the-area members, want to share traditions from their past wards or freshen things up with new ideas.  The ward council discusses, and then determines how to proceed.  That being said, the switch from the traditional Breakfast-with-Santa party for the children and separate = tranquil Adult Christmas Dinner & Program, to the one-big-family-event ward party was a fair success.  Not a smashing success, not a great success, but fair.  A lot of people put in a darn lot of effort, but it certainly didn't go as smooth as butter.

There were definitely some highlights, though.

(Can you spot Mar with her lovely fuzzy floating halo?)

This cute nativity was awesome.  Any of the children in the Primary who wanted to participate, could.

Santa was a treat, too (if you could live through the eternal chaotic wait in line to visit with him).  This special Santa was "wired"  - parents could sneakily slip into another room and tell him via walkie-talking (or something like that) what their child(ren) wanted for Christmas.  He didn't ASK the kids what they wanted... he already knew.  Even Mar and her friends were thoroughly impressed.

Shi, Mar and I have also been on a cookie-baking spree.  Since Bill is at church for an average of 12 hours every Sunday, we have taken it upon ourselves to make cookies each week (except for Fast Sunday, of course) for him and all who spend many, MANY hours at the church each Sunday, to satiate their hunger until they can return to their homes and families.  The goal is to come up with a different cookie each week for a year.  MY goal is to train Shi and Mar to perform this service for their Dad on their own.  And to have two of my daughters become cookie queens.  I know, it's a lofty goal for all of us, but we'll give it the ol' college try.


I'd love to share about some of the other cookies crowding my plate, but it will have to wait for another day.  My time is far spent.

I just found out yesterday that Britt has started a blog.  YAY!  You can check it out here.

Thrifty Nifty

I haven't had time to post much lately.  Life keeps rolling like a stone down a mountain.  Gaining momentum, tumbling and twisting, with an occasional ricochet in some random direction.  

But I don't have time for those illustrative philosophical ramblings.

I have checked a couple of items off my to-do list.  Things that have been sitting around adding to the stress of a long, ever expanding list of simple-but-time-consuming things that have piled up.

I had to share.  Pat myself on the back.  Give myself a little self-affirmation that I am productive, thrifty, and creative.  (Okay, maybe not creative.  But definitely thrifty.)

Case Study #1 - Redo, reuse, recycle

Mauri had some dresses that we had purchased a few years back (on sale, of course).  She had pretty much grown out of them (they were getting much too short on her), but she STILL wore them a few times with leggings.  I was ready to put them in the Goodwill pile, all the while lamenting that she really needed some more Sunday dresses/skirts since she was down to a denim skirt, a white skirt, and a few summery dresses.  AND she's almost in Young Women's.  Meaning that wearing her favorite 2 or 3 year old velvet/satin embossed Costco holiday dress is almost out of the question.
Not that she has a problem with it, just that her mama does.

Then Mauri (deserving of the creative credit) said, "Why don't we make these dresses into skirts?"

Brilliant idea.

So I did.

Ta-da!  Three "new" skirts.  She wore the silvery one last Sunday and it was long and beautiful and awesome.
Totally YW worthy.

Case Study #2 - Use what you have

I purchased this Nativity set back in the fat days.  Not that I've ever really been conscious of those once-upon-a-time fat days, but in hindsight, I can see more clearly.  Let's just say that the lean days have increased my awareness.

When I purchased this, I had every intention of painting it darker.  I loved the figures themselves AND their large-ish size, but definitely had more of a bronze-y look in mind.  That was a good 4 years ago.  My intentions were so good at the time that I purchased a can of bronze spray paint within a week or two; the SAME bronze spray paint I dug out of our crawlspace the other day to set about finally completing the job.

Ta-da!

I am very happy with the results.  I used some metallic gold acrylic paint for accents, which was hanging out looking for purpose in the large stash of craft paint left over from my formative Homemaking years (I think I may have slightly overdone, but I can always redo years down the road if I find I can't live with it.  And considering I spent all of 20 minutes to do it, I think it's a mighty fine job).

Like I said, "Thrifty."

I have so much more to post about, but it will have to wait for another day.

Aye Aye, Captain

Congratulations to Shilo for being selected as one of the four Captains on her high school swim team!

She worked on her speech today after school, practicing several times for Lex and I.

Makes me think of this fun(ny) clip that I would love to share:

I'm going to watch it whenever I need a kick in the pants boost of encouragement.

"Everybody, I know you can believe in yourself!"

Last week Mauri and her friends participated in their middle school Talent Show.  This wasn't just any ol' participate-if-you-want-to kind of a deal; this was a bona fide try-out show.

The girls would practice after school, but I had never seen their performance until the evening of the show.
I'll admit, I was a little nervous for them.

They sang One Thing by One Direction.

I was surprised to discover that they all had SOLO parts, and Mar started it off.

I was thrilled to discover that they are ALL great singers, these girls that live only a stone's throw away from each other.

The curtain call:

And the last hurrah:

NOTE:  Mrs. Tarbell is the principal.  She has been the principal for all all 5 of my children.  We met for the first time the week we moved to CO as I was trying to open enroll Taylor in Sierra Middle School (we were technically in another middle school boundary, but it would be changing the following year and I did NOT want to manage two different high schools down the road).  I swear she hasn't changed a bit.  I'm sad that she is retiring after this year... couldn't she just wait for two more years until Mar is finished??

Mar is so much more gutsy than I ever was.  Or am.

Nice job, girls!

Attitudes and Gratitudes

Mar made this for me yesterday during some free time at school:

That girl is awesome.  She knows how to help a momma keep on keeping on.
How to lift spirits.  How to share a smile.  Thanks, Mar!

I attended a Relief Society meeting on Wednesday.  The evening was focused on others as we participated in several service activities for our community.  There was also the opportunity for a "service exchange" - you could write a service you would do for another sister in the ward on a paper ornament, then hang it on a small tree set on a table in the room.  You could then read through the services other sisters had offered and select one you could use.  (A simple but brilliant idea.)  In conversation at the table where I was sitting, I mentioned how one of my sisters I visit teach had told me of a book she was reading about positive affirmations, and how I would like to read it to rid myself of Satan's negativity that regularly encroaches on my thoughts (maybe I didn't quite state it as bluntly in that group setting, but you know what I mean).  Another sister at the table had another {simple} but {brilliant} idea for a great service exchange:  a positive affirmation every day until the end of the year via text or email message.  I jumped on it and decided I would give that as my service (along with an eyebrow wax... for good measure), and another sister did the same (along with brownies... for good measure), and we exchanged with each other.  Two days down and I'm thinking everybody needs to do this.  It has given me the opportunity to think about the talents and gifts of someone else, but it has also helped to encourage me about my own positive attributes.

This month our family is focusing on gratitude.  (Of course.)
We really should do this exercise on a regular basis, as it elevates our attitudes.
Counting your blessings can do nothing less.

I got this idea from you-know-where (who got it from here), but of course it is much simplified.

(I was going to tie some twine around my tall vases to dress them up a bit, but have yet to git 'er done.  At this point, I think I'll let it ride.  Can you see how my candle burned a hole in it's side and leaked wax all over my amber glass marbles?  That's going to be fun to chisel out!)

Something we are grateful for EVERY DAY.  No personal repeats.  We plan to read them together on Thanksgiving.  {Simple}.  {Brilliant}.

My gratitude for the day:
25 years ago today Bill asked me to marry him.
I am so thankful he did.

Happy Friday!

My New Mantra

After a slightly rough week, I have a new mantra:

Be a duck.

Let that water roll right off.

Let's see if I can put it into practice!

Disappointment and Success

Yes, I was disappointed at the outcome of the Presidential election.  So disappointed, in fact, that I turned off the telly and climbed in bed around 10pm Tuesday evening.  I didn't even turn on the TV the next day.  The Romney sign is still in my front yard (think I'll be taking it down today).  I was also disappointed that CO voted to legalize marijuana.  Just what we need: a hotbed of potheads.

 If you remember, I was also having a refrigerator delivered on Tuesday.  I was excited when it arrived, especially because I could not find a scratch, A- or otherwise, anywhere on the front of it.  It was carefully carried into the house, hooked up (water through the door again... functional ice-maker...) and signed off on.  Then I set about the tedious task of pulling off all the packing tape and foam on the inside, wiping it down, and arranging our displaced food items neatly on it's shelves.

Then I peeled the protective plastic film from the doors.

There appeared to be some residue that I chalked up to grimy hand smears (some of the protective film had been torn so there were several large holes in it when it arrived), so I set to the task of wiping it down.  The residue didn't come off.  Upon further inspection, it looked to me like it was a flaw in the finish - like the film had stuck to some areas while the paint was wet.  I had Bill inspect it when he got home, however, in the dark of short winter days, neither he or my girls could really see any BIG problem.  I swore to them that it was blatantly obvious in the bright sunlight of midday.  The next day Bill confirmed that the flaw was obvious, at least a C or C- (we are professional appliance graders... cough, cough), and we should call the salesman to see what he could do.

The salesman wanted pictures, which I assured him would most likely NOT adequately show the problem, especially since, again, the evening darkness had fallen.  He told me take them anyway.  The warehouse needed them to determine the extent of the flaw.

Since this is all I could capture on camera (which, btw, looks like some surface buffing had been performed previously),

I did a little photo-editing to show the areas in question.

I've yet to hear back if we will be getting a different slightly-but-much-less flawed refrigerator as a replacement.  I'm disappointed that I spent a good 2 hours unpacking the interior of this baby.  On the other hand, I'm happy to have a refrigerator that doesn't smell funny because it's contents are only slightly above room temp.

Enough with the disappointments and on to some successes.

Last Saturday, Mar and Shi had a swim meet.  Mar's age group competed mid-morning, then Shi competed early-to-mid afternoon.  Bill timed for Mar's session, so I needed to attend to make sure she was where she needed to be, when she needed to be there.  Bill and Mar headed home afterwards, and I stayed to cheer on Shi.  A full day at that same lovely pool mentioned back here.

Mar took 3 seconds off her 50 Free, and stayed within nanoseconds of her 50 Breast time.

Nice job, Mar!

Shilo improved her times in all three events she competed in, placing 8th overall in her 50 Back, and scoring team points in the other two (50 Free and 200 Back).  She and I were both impressed at this accomplishment -- I'm not sure if she has ever been in the point-scoring category on the club team before -- especially since also attending the meet were the Colorado Stars (Missy Franklin's team, which has become the elite team around these parts) and DSA (Denver Swim Academy), both of which are known for their FAST times.

(I still can't believe that people want to walk in front of your camera when you are literally next to the edge of a pool OBVIOUSLY filming.)

Way to go, Shi!


And my house was repainted the actual color I chose a year-and-a-half ago (you can read the long story here).

Instead of this color (no wonder I had anxiety about it... refresher here),

Good-bye Snapping Turtle

it is now this color:

Hello, Grass Clippings

It wasn't the best time of day to take a pic, with the sun going down on me, but you can see it, right?  The difference?  Ahhhhhh.... so much better.

It's so much nicer to focus on the successes than the disappointments.

Working on staying sunny side up,