Life is Sweet

Friday, November 12, 2010

Puff Ball Dress Sisterhood

My dear friend Rebecca brought to my attention that I needed to check out my dear friend cjane's post a few days back. Actually, I don't know cjane personally, but I have driven by her house. And, when I have a spare moment or two, I enjoy reading her excellent writings.

To my delight, there was cjane's dear baby Ever, in a lovely blue puff ball dress. Up to that point, I wasn't sure what to call them. (The dresses, that is.) The description was perfect.

And although OUR puff-ball dresses never traveled, and weren't even shared amongst sisters, there has to be some kind of sisterhood between all those who wear them.

Vintage couture, I believe cjane called it. Grandma Syddall gave them to each granddaughter as they turned a year old. They are carefully preserved and tucked away for the day I have granddaughters.

Then they will travel.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Playin' With the Big Boys Now

Yesterday was the League cheer competition for LHS.

As I have mentioned before, Legend is only in it's 3rd year of existence. Lexee will be in the first graduating class. Since things like 3A, 4A, and 5A brackets are determined by the size of your school, and once you are in a bracket, you are there for 2 years, this year Legend was placed by their forecasted enrolled student numbers in the second year of the bracket (2011-2012). So they moved from 3A competition (the last 2 years) to 5A.
The Big Boys.

That means we are competing against large, full, four-year high schools with long-standing traditions. And those schools love a victory, even if it's against a fledgling school with only juniors as upperclassmen.

So Legend went from being on top (League champs last year), to somewhere towards the bottom (but not THE bottom, it's important to note). They performed well. A couple of the biggest-of-the-big teams had major penalties, and one was even disqualified. The team with no penalties won. Even if they were not the best team. That's cheer for you. I've discovered that most competitions are not about your amazing skills, interesting choreography, and dynamic routine, but about doing the basics, without flaw.

Here are a few pics from the evening. Follow the arrows to find Lex.

Next competition: Saturday.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Famous

Today I had nothing new and exciting to post. (Although even I'll admit I am seldom exciting.)

Life is hectic. I've written about it.

I'm a nostalgia freak. I've shared.

I have lots of laundry. Nothing new.

And I haven't cooked a great meal in weeks, so I can't even toot my own aren't-I-a-good-mom horn.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something on my TOP SITES page.

Check it out HERE.

(I don't know how long they will keep it up, so look now.)

Way back on Oct. 29th, Bill took Mauri to the school's Fall Festival, while I was busy at home getting ready for my stint as an {event planner}. They had a funtastic time, and I was so grateful that Bill was willing to single-parent it so I could pack and prepare. He's a bacon-saver, that man. So it was totally awesome today to catch a glance of the school's website home page... with Mauri front and center.

Here's a couple more pics, courtesy of Bill, from that oh-so-wonderful activity.

Instead of the body paint (which we did for the ward trunk-or-treat), we cheated, and used a skeleton sock (TJ Maxx -- it's amazing what you can find there) and a skeleton-arm-stenciled long black glove (purchased from Party America, stenciled by yours truly). Mauri was just as pleased (if not more) with this solution, since it was quicker to put on, and more comfortable to wear.

So, at least for a time, Mauri's famous. In a FVE-Buffalo-Be-Part-of-the-HERD sort of way.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Son of a Gun

I don't know where it started. I think it was Kellie's fault.

During some of our more stressful moments as {event planners} during the conference, she would start singin',

"Son of a gun, we're having fun on the bayou"

Due to my amazing musical upbringing, I was quite familiar with the song... at least my version of it.

We googled the lyrics. Turns out my recollection of the words (hey, it was a long time ago) was WAY off. But I could still hear the rendition in my mind. Who sang it? I wracked my brain. Glen Campbell? Johnny Cash? Technology is fascinating...you can find ANYTHING online, right? So today I hunted for the song on itunes, where I found countless arrangements, but none of them were THE arrangement I could hear clearly replaying in my head.

I remembered that it was a duet. A male/female duet. Then it hit me. Guy and Ralna. The beautiful couple from The Lawrence Welk Show.

I found the record, and even listened to a few lines of the song. (If you're really curious, you can find it here...song 22)

Yep, that was it.

So in the spirit of reminiscing, here are a few bayou (okay, Lucky Peak) pics to accompany my musical memory. Circa 1974/75.

Goodbye, Joe, he gotta go, me oh my oh

He gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou

His Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh

Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo

For tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher a mi-o

Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o (hey, is this a drinkin' song?)

Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

Theme song, RMS Consulting.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Weekend Ketchup

Over the weekend I tried to catch up. Not to be confused with ketchup. Or even catsup.

In between the laundry, dishes, and the boatloads of stuff I had to sort, organize, and put away, I attended Lexee's last football game of the season, and Shilo's swim meet.

The football game was kind of a big deal, at least for me. Lex has assured us that she will not be cheering next year. That means Bill and I may not be attending a high school football game for a long time. Bummer. So we had to do all the embarrassing picture-taking and cheer-yelling possible, so as to ingrain the memory into the deepest recesses of our minds.

Which was totally unappreciated by our awesome daughter.

Okay, I'll admit it. We're embarrassing. But we definitely add the element of fun to the hum-drum crowd shivering in the cold, silently watching as our team gets throttled. I think the others girls are secretly jealous. The football players probably even wish their parents were so exuberantly cheering them in their efforts, no matter how futile.

There's always basketball season. Enclosed space and larger crowds. Perfect.

Saturday was Shi's swim meet and another opportunity to improve her results. This time, there were nerves and tears involved.

Emotional daughter: "Can I just swim at practice, and not go to the meets?"

Unmoved mother: "Uh, NO."

Being a mom is just plain hard and cruel sometimes. Like when Mauri kept passing me notes in our Stake Conference yesterday. We were late (my fault), and sitting in the very back of the wood-floored cultural hall in what I lovingly term "the nursery," a few rows in front of the stage. Towards the latter half of the conference, Mauri decided that she would rather be sitting on the stage. She could see the screen so much better from that vantage point. She started the note passing... I was sitting on the row in front of her, since, when you are late, you can never find 6 seats together.

"Mom I can't see can we move up on that one thing the stage"

"No. :-( We are staying where we are. You can still hear just fine. :-)"

"then I want you to close your eyes the hool (whole) time or maybe I can go sit on the stage, on the end."

"I would like you to take notes! So you can share what you learned today at church."

"Can I take notes up there? You could see me. I will write a lot up there!"

"No."

"Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! I will be on the edge!"

"No."

"Lexee said it is almost over so for the end of it can I sit up there?"

Then Shilo got into the action:

"Mauri, Mom has said no and she is reading scriptures so we should not disturb her."

Then Lexee:

"Mauri, we only have like 15 minutes left... just stay here... I will scratch your back."

"No I want to go up there."

"But you can't."

"But I want to."

"Maybe next year :-)"

"NO!"

"YES! Now listen because Mom and Dad are going to ask what you learned! Only ten more minutes!"

"I did not learn anything, I could not SEE!"

"You do not need to see to listen! AMEN! I love you Mar-Mar!"

I have the whole conversation written out in Mauri's notebook. She never got to sit on the stage. I'm such a mean mom.

Back to the meet:

Shilo improved her times in every event, even if she threw-up in her mouth and had to swallow it at the beginning of this race. I know, disgusting. But it only goes to show how sometimes you have to:

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim...

So there's the weekend. In a big, discombobulated blob of ketchup. Or is that catsup?

Friday, November 5, 2010

The Best/Worst of Times

In case you were wondering, I'm back.

I've been working. Up to 18 hours in one day. Surviving on a fraction of the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of sleep. And not a fraction like 3/4. More like 1/8.

I've spent my days in a fancy hotel and conference center, hob-nobbing with big wigs from all over the world. I got up every morning and dressed up. Someone else made my bed and washed my towels. I ate lots of fine food that I didn't prepare myself. (Maybe even a little too much -- I've gained 5 pounds.) Oh, it sounds glamorous. I was livin' the dream most weary, worn-out, stay-at-home moms have every now and then.

Was it fun? Often.

Was it H-E-double-hockey-sticks? Occasionally.

Am I glad it's over? Oh, yes!

Since I didn't even have my camera most of the time, and when I did have my camera I was super busy, I don't have many pics. Just enough to remind me someday, in the distant future, "Oh, yes. I used to be an event planner." It will be a great story for my posterity.

These are a few of my associates. Julie and Kellie (hi, girls -- are you checking out my blog?), Marge, and Andrea. Marge is our financier's wife, and was frequently the source of anxiety for all of us. She enjoyed the busy work, though, and was, in the end, helpful. Andrea was one of our Portuguese translators.

Our snack of choice? SmartPop white cheddar. We would raid the snack stations and stash it away.

Taylor also worked with us as a Spanish translator, and general overall RMS presence. Which basically means he sat at the check-in table or stood at the doors of the conference checking name badges. He worked with Mark, another RM (not to be confused with RMS -- the consulting company I work for), with whom he formed a great friendship. He juggled multiple jobs too (three!), which added to his stress levels, but in the end, he felt it was a beneficial experience.

Here's a useful tip: after pricing centerpieces for one of the dinners, I discovered that Costco does floral arrangements for banquets and weddings. Very inexpensively (in floral arrangement terms). By divine guidance, I ran into Dola Mae while grabbing something in a mad dash through Costco. I had stopped briefly at the floral end cap to debate if I could possibly, in a million years, make the floral centerpieces myself. There she was, a sweet, beige-haired, elderly woman, attending to the flowers. She handed me a business card. The next day I placed my order, fingers crossed that they would be decent.

A week later, when I went to pick them up (the only downfall to ordering through Costco -- no delivery), I was delighted to find that the arrangements were beautiful. I'm keeping that tidbit of info in my memory file. Oh, I don't have one. That's why I blog.

This is our Bob's Angels pic. Obviously I didn't get the white top/khaki bottom memo (and I look a little peeved about it, don't ya think?).

Yesterday, on the final day of our insane conference week, we went on a bus tour. This isn't the greatest pic, but I love how Taylor and the gentleman he was sitting with (from Chihuahua, Mexico) got into the action. Taylor gave him the first discussion in between our tour commentator's frequent commentating.

How cool is that?

So now I'm happy to be back home. Yes, I still ran to the school to do my other job, in between the madness. Last Friday I went straight from this

and this

to the hotel.

It was the first time I have ever been IN the school Halloween parade. I like watching better. And I had to remember to remove my large ghost headband before heading to the meeting with the hotel staff.

It's been a whirlwind.

I have laughed my guts out.

I have cried my eyes out.

I have missed my family.

I have enjoyed the solitude.

I didn't watch TV.

I didn't read or write blog posts.

My husband came to my rescue more than once (my hero).

I barely kept up on urgent / important items at home.

I missed Lexee's first not-a-school-dance date.

I forgot about Mauri's piano lesson (which means she didn't go).

I missed Halloween, and my family didn't carve pumpkins.

I didn't do laundry.

I didn't do dishes.

I didn't buy milk.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
I'm ready to relish the work of being home.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

After

Another Trunk-or-Treat has come and gone.

As promised, here are the "after" pictures of Mar's costume:

I tried the painted-on-bones technique, and was surprised at how uncomplicated it was. Uncomplicated does not mean quick, however. It was time consuming, but in the end, we were both satisfied with the result.

I wasn't quite as satisfied with the eyebrows. They should have been more noticeably curvy. Instead, Mar looked sad. But wouldn't you be sad if you were a corpse bride?

We're still trying to decide what to do for the class party on Friday. You can't wear face make-up (but I don't think they said anything about body art), and have to immediately remove your costume as soon as the parade concludes, so as not to interfere with a learning environment. Maybe we'll paint, but most likely we will substitute a skeleton sock and glove.

Four scary girls and a banana.

Shi and Chey handed out candy. Please excuse the poorly decorated trunk. We were lucky to be there, chili, cookies, and candy in hand. The glowing skull adds ambience, though, don't you think?
(And the blurry picture is purely for creepy effect. Not.)

Lex and Hailey handed out the leftover cookies from the YW's cookie walk.

I went in my sweats. Not necessarily intentional, as they were what I threw on after work (and a few errands), prior to chili making, cookie baking, chauffeuring, musical-cars playing, phone calling, costume finishing, body painting, and make-up artist-ing. (I have to give a shout-out to my assistant-in-all-things Shilo. She baked cookies, stirred chili, and ran upstairs and downstairs at my every request. Without complaining. I couldn't have done it without her.) I wore them only because by the time I was finished with the aforementioned list of busy-ness, we were already late.

What was I?

Exhausted.